Wherever the winds take me

On race

2011-02-26T06:22:00.003-06:00

I reread the book, Black Berry Sweet Juice over the last few days
and it was a nice reminder of the issues surrounding being both "black" and "white" in this country It's a look into the issue of race from those who are of "mixed" race having a black and a white parent.

These conversations can be difficult, even more so in Canada, where we try desperately not to label people. This is often a strength, but in many ways makes certain conversations about issues such as race more difficult. In fact at a recent talk I was at by Adrian Harewood, a black news anchor from the BCC, he spoke of going to a school classroom and saying the word "black" and having some kids recoil in shock that he even uttered the word.

It's been particularly interesting to re-engage with this book and topic as I finally got around to listening to a series of podcasts from the Agenda where they examined immigration and often ethnicity or race was discussed. In fact the way that certain communities are labeled had an impact of their sense of identity and how they engage with the dominant culture. In fact the one thing that seems to link the disparate black communities is that they are seen by others as black. It's an odd thing in many ways to think that the thing that links them, may not have anything to do with their own shared history, but with the reaction of others to them. At the lecture, that seemed to be a question that was struggled with, as Adrian was asked about what links the changing black community together. For me it was interesting to learn about the fact that in the past it was largely immigrants from the Caribbean , who have been increasingly been supplanted by French speaking Africans and Haitians and also Somalians.

In both the book and one of the podcasts it was interesting to note the comparison with the United States, particularly hearing from one of the U.S. guests who pointed to something that isn't often remarked about and that was how racial groups in the U.S. are labeled. In other words difference is much more noticed and labelled. This is where I see the advantage in Canada, or our more open and fluid sense of identity. I will always remember the comments made by Alberto Manguel in his comments following his 2007 Massey Lectures about how he had always wanted to choose his citizenship, and found it odd that it was simply granted depending on where you were born. He remarked that he was astonished at how easy it was for him to be able to contribute and participate in Canadian society, without being labeled or judged. Despite now living in France and being from Argentina and having lived in United States, he felt that being Canadian had meaning and therefore it was important for him to assert that he was Canadian.

What I am increasingly afraid of is that we are losing that openness and that reluctance that we often have here to label people. Increasingly we are told and often (perhaps exclusively?) by those on the right who feel the danger in not defining what it means to be Canadian. This open identity seems to scare them, I'm not quite sure why. In fact I saw a title in a bookstore recently which captures the obvious fear quite clearly it read " Mayday. Mayday: Curb immigration. Stop multiculturalism or it's the end of the Canada we know."

I seem to keep coming back to those Massey lecture often in my thinking about identity, but I found them so interesting and inspiring and relevant. They remind us that cultures change, and there is no such thing as a living culture which is static. If it remains static it will die.

On identity and tolerance

2010-07-22T02:37:00.003-05:00

I've been listening over the course of the last few days to the 2007 Massey Lecture The City of Words this week and every time I listen to the podcast I get something out of it.

I've been thinking lately about the fact lately about the inability of some people to put themselves in someone else's shoes. The inability to empathize or recognize "the other". This is something that has recently crystallized for me, in understanding the way some people see the word. Some people have difficulty imagining the plight of the other, the see everyone else as a poor reflection of themselves and fail to understand how or why others think differently. In political language this kind of rhetoric is disguised by the language of "rationality". I have recognize that there are certain things about myself and experiences that I have had that allow me to better understand and empathize with the other.

First, I am a visible minority. As someone who has one white parent however this puts you in a somewhat awkward position, particularly in a country that for many reasons refuses to engage in conversations about race. This fact in some ways put you automatically in a position of being forced to recognize that there is a sense in which you will always be on the 'outside'. This is simple something that white Canadians, particularly those of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc generations often have trouble understanding. I would imagine that this would be even more true in parts of Canada where there are few visible minorities. I think that being a visible minority in Canada (which I believe is a Canadian invention, It is defined as "persons, other than Aboriginal people, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." See here.

The other experience I have had that also leads me in the same direction is the fact that I as in the French immersion program. I've heard annecdotaly that many of the participants in the program come from immigrant families, more than you would expect given their numbers anyways. One of the things that it teaches me, and I've seen whenever I've seen people struggle to learn a new language is how "things can be different" in language, how language structures thought. No one who has really learned another language well can pretend that language is just a vessel for ideas. It affects what we can communicate and in what way.

The example given by Alberto Manguel in the 2007 Massey lecture is a good one. He explains how Don Quixote opens with a line that would be literally (roughly ) translated as "In a certain place of La Mancha whose name I don't want to remember..." this construction is required because of the construction of the language,whereas Melville in Mobdy dick uses the same literary device saying "Call me Ishmael". In Spanish this is an impossibility because Melville can embrace all of humanity in those three words, whereas in Spanish you have to define your relationship to your reader. Listen to the lecture for a much much better description, I tried to simplify it here, but used the basic point from the comments in his lecture.

I owe my participation in the French immersion program to my father's strong belief in this country and how important understanding French was. I inherited from him a love of Canada. I think is something that those who simply are Canadian because they were born here, often fail to recognize. Immigrants choose Canada, and this choice has an impact on their perception of the country. Some make this choice without information, or with little thought, but many who choose this country do so because of what it stands for, what opportunities exist, because of what the country "is". I was often amazed at how deep my fathers attachment to this country became. One of my earliest memories and I'm sure one of his best moments was the day of my father's citizenship ceremony. He was surely among the proudest Canadians I have ever met, and it is in large measure because he chose this country.

World Cup fever

2010-06-05T15:17:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd post about soccer since it's right before the world cup of soccer, which starts next week in South Africa.

I've been thinking about soccer quite a bit lately, as I have been playing soccer video games, playing soccer myself (well rec 6 on 6 soccer..) and reading about soccer.

I recently bought John Doyle's new book The world is a ball , after hearing him interviewed on CBC about it. So far it's a pretty good tale of his experience in following the game of soccer worldwide. He's not a sports columnist so it definitely has a different flavour to it. He's the regular TV columnist and I actually quite enjoyed his previous book on how TV changed things in Ireland when it arrived.

I'm looking forward to watching the world cup games. For whatever reason (maybe because they wear my favorite colour orange), I cheer for the Dutch soccer team. I've cheered for them since the mid 1990s. Don't really know how I ended up being a fan of theirs. But I've been loyal to them.

I've been lucky also since the last world cup to have enjoyed watching games with two of my Canadian-born Dutch friends.

I'm hoping they can win it all this year. I think that because it`s the first time the competition is being held in Africa, like the first time it was in Asia it`ll be chock full of surprises.

I just hope it is well organized and everything runs smoothly. The soccer will be beautiful regardless.

Enviromental Cancer risk

2010-05-29T01:41:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about this recently, as I discovered (courtesy of Mindful Merchant) that the shampoo I use is potentially toxic and has negative environmental impacts.

Being a new home owner as well, has meant looking at ways of boosting the look and feel of our lawn (our backyard is pretty pathetic and weed covered at the moment). The province has a ban on pesticides, but that doesn't mean that it's being respected necessarily (I remember seeing a CBC report about how pesticides were still available).

In the United States the President's panel on cancer (It's well-established body, not specific to any president) mentioned that there needs to be more research into environmental cancer risk, and that not a lot is known about some of these risks.

The fact that there are so many chemicals that are essentially unregulated, simply because there are no resources and way too many of them is quite scary. There of course is also the fact that the chemicals of course interact with each other and so may be benign in one situation but not when mixed with other chemicals or a different situation.

I read silent spring last year as part of an environmental book club and it was really interesting to see how little thought was given to the consequences or just spraying new chemicals every which way. Of course it was easier to do back then, with no environmental movement, no environmental agencies in government and the whole thing feels as if it couldn't happen again, because it was such a different time.

However the chemical industry has both expanded and learned some lessons in terms of its approach to dealing with these issues. I'm most concerned about the U.S. as their regulatory system seems to succumb more easily to pressure and they are a lot more media savvy so it ma be more difficult to oversee and understand what they are really up to.

I'll close this this:

One of the things I remember from the movie I am Legend even though I didn't really like the movie was the fact that they cured cancer but caused something much worse as an unintended consequence of it, and killed lots of people.

Kind of a scary thought.

Public Service Renewal

2010-05-23T19:26:00.002-05:00

Well for the first time in a while I thought I'd write a post about my work. Now this post is slighlty dated as I had hoped to post it last week when this was fresher but it's still very relevant.

I work for the federal government and one of the things we have heard a lot about is Public Service renewal, meaning the attempt to start hiring so that they will actually have the capacity to replace all the boomers that wll be retiring over the next several years.

I along with some colleagues decided to organize a group discussion on the topic recently and thought it didn;t go quite as I expected it to go, it went really well.

It felt really good to have a forum for discussing these issues and I hope that we can keep the energy going and momentum and keep things moving along. It was really encouraging to see the response in terms of turnout and the energy in the room as well.

It turns out that there is a lot of interest in changing things and adapting to the new forces in the world.

Two things that struck me, the first was how much focus was on management and more particularly the generational divide. I haven't seen as much of this recently in my own work situation, I suppose because I have had bosseson the younger end of things.

The second was the need to really engage on the issue of technology and the impact on how we do things. I was struck by the lack of enthusiasm expressed by some particularly when coupled with the seeming techno-optimism of others.

Anyways it was an interesting event and the first of many in this necessary conversation about renewal.

Lisbeth Salander

2010-05-08T04:57:00.003-05:00

Like many others it seems I've been reading the Millenium series. It's a Swedish mystery series that's generating a lot of attention. I've enjoy it for the most part but I think in some way the most interesting part is the character of Lisbeth Salander. It's too bad that he won't be writing any more books as he died just before it was actually published.

In part this is because she apepars to have Asperegers. She has a photographic memory, extremely bright and yet has serious issues with authority and didn't even finish school. One funny moment I enjoyed is where the teacher gets mad at her because she gives the 'wrong' answer to a problem when in fact it's the texbook that has a mistake in it. That made me laugh.

The book is interesting and you can tell it's a critique of Swedish society, I imagine that some of it is lost in the translation, as well as some of the language obviously.

Interesting book, interesting characters and a good read.

A few snippets

2010-04-25T21:11:00.003-05:00

I was feeling a bit glum in a public place this past weekend. I went alone to see a few events at the Ottawa writers festival.

I as encouraged by the turnout however, and by the fact that you got a couple of hundred people to come and talk and engage with ideas on a sunny afternoon in Ottawa in April.

I attended the presentation by Andrew Potter of his new book, The Authenticity Hoax which was interesting. I was a bit disappointed though in that he didn't rally answer any of the questions asked of him.

Actually the star of the show in my view in some ways Dan Gardiner, who writes in the Ottawa Citizen. I had actually ever heard of him before, ok probably not never , but not enough to know who he was, but he came off well and was quite good in his questioning.

One interesting moment was when a little boy of 11 asked a particularly well framed and intelligent question, the audience clapped. That surprised me as I didn't really understand why at first. I guess he impressed people. It was likely the best question of the night, and Potter dogged and ignored it, then talked about his love of video games (which was I'll admit slightly related to the question).

Tonight was Terry O'Reilly and Mike Tennant discussion The Age of Persuasion. I'm actually surprised that I like their radio show as it's about advertising and often I'm not even really aware of the ads they are talking about as I don't watch much TV, but still it's super interesting. I guess it's true that a god teacher can make you want to learn about anything.

One interesting thing was how many of the same people I saw from the night before, some of them even asked questions again. I wish one guy in particular had not.

One funny moment was whan a guy basically got up there to pitch himself for school trustee and then asked a dumb question, and muttered wish I hadn't asked that as he walked away from the mic.

My reading list.

2010-04-18T20:46:00.004-05:00

So it looks like it's been a few weeks since my last post unfortunately. My in-laws came up last weekend, and I guess the week before that was Easter, though I did actually have the time to post.

Anyways on to today's post.

I heard an interesting interview with Yann Martel, about his new book Beatrice and Virgil. It was a bit of a strange interview; I think they were trying hard not to give anything away.

It reminded me of the website What is Stephen Harper Reading, which provides a series of suggestions for the Prime Minister to read.

I've actually pulled a few things of that list for my own reading list. I'm not much of a fiction reader though. Generally I read non-fiction, though I do occasionally like to spice things up and read some fiction. I used to read some science fiction, but haven't lately.

Here's my current (expanding) reading list in addition to Beatrice and Virgil of course..

The new Extraordinary Canadian biographies ( Marshall McLuhan, Louis Riel and Lafontaine & Baldwin)

The structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (I've had this for a while.. about time I should read it.)

The End of Energy Obesity: Breaking Today's Energy Addiction for a Prosperous and Secure Tomorrow by Peter Tertzakian

and The year of the flood when it comes out in paperback this summer.

Time sure flies

2010-03-27T05:27:00.003-05:00

It's been four years since I went to New Zealand and Australia which was initially the reason to start this blog. It enabled me to share the pictures I took on that trip. Go back and look, they are fantastic.

It also means it's been almost four years since my dad passed away.

I find I miss his advice in my current job, he worked in the same field as a public servant, and of course the big life events are always times when I miss him as well. He wasn't at my wedding, he won't see my kids (when I have them), etc.

It's tough, knowing that he won't be around to see all those events.

Can't believe it's been four years already.

DST

2010-03-20T04:44:00.002-05:00

Being from Saskatchewan i never participated i the ritual of daylight savings time until I moved here. I still find it odd even though I'd been doing it now for 10 years or so.

It's even weirder now that the Americans have started playing around with the dates that the clocks change.

I don't really understand the point. You're just shifting clocks around, not really adding or subtracting actual daylight hours. Apparently the opposition to the move came from farmers in Saskatchewan, not sure why though.

The real reason at least as far as I can tell that Saskatchewan doesn't change it's clocks is that if they did, the two main cities would fall on different sides of the time zone line. As it stands Saskatchewan just simple jumps from one time zone while everyone else is on standard time, and another when everyone else is on daylight savings time.

All I know is that when I was in school is was great, because during DST I could call my parents at a more convenient time, as they were two hours behind meaning that even though I was up later it was still early enough to chat with them.

It was kinda of amusing one year when we went to Florida as the time change fell the weekend of our trip, the rest of my family was even more confused about the change than I was.

Still, I don't really understand it, but I guess it's one of those things. It does highlight the fact that time is really somewhat arbitrary often it matches poltiical boundaries regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

Given that Canadian (or was he considered Scottish?) Sir Stanford Fleming had such a role in standard time, I think it's a bit amusing that we have one of the world's few 30 minute time zones. But that's a whole other story.

New Formula 1 season

2010-03-14T20:00:00.003-05:00

This is probably the first season I have been so excited for the beginning of a Formula 1 season.

And no it`s not because Michael Schumacher is back. It`s because of that and everything else, whether it`s Jenson button`s move to Mclaren, the move of Fernando Alonso to Ferrari, or my hopes to see Sebastien Vettel win a world championship.

If you have no idea who i`m talking about, you`re not alone, and I`m not that surprised. Even though it mostly consists of the same people going around in circles, there is something interesting about it, with all the personalities involved, and the occasional incredible pass. Doing anything at 160 km/h adds some drama.

I think in part because the only North American GrandPrix is in Montreal (thank god they brought it back this year), I`ve noticed that Quebeckers and maybe even Montrealers more specifically are big F1 fans. Outside there, they can be hard to find, though recently I`ve met two others who are fans which was quite exciting.

I was thinking of going to Montreal for the Grand Prix this year, but it doesn't look possible. I am hoping to be there next year!

Anyways I hope the season gets better, because the race today was boring, so much for all the drama of the new pit stop system. It sucks for fans, so hopefully they'll figure out how to make it more interesting.

On sleep

2010-03-07T15:56:00.003-06:00

Since I move into this new place, my sleeping habits have been affected.

In part because I now have to wake up slightly earlier to get to work, but also just the change if environment appears to have affected. We also got a new bed, which is an obvious culprit.

Unlike most people I would assume however, my problem is that i can't seem to wake up as easily on Saturday mornings. I mean this seriously. I find one of the big impacts has been on this blog, I was pretty good for a while at writing ever Saturday morning, alas I have been less diligent in the last 6 weeks or so.

Perhaps this will correct itself, but we shall have to see.

I've become quite curious about the nature of habit formation, and so instead of making grand New Year's resolutions, I tried to identify a few good habits I wanted to start keeping. I probably started too many at the same time, I think there were five of them.

It's been difficult for me to adjust in some ways to not having a regular position though as well, I'm in a development program in which I change jobs every 6 months. I keep telling people i don't see very often, that "the next time you see me I'll probably have a new job" and it's true. Even in the world of the public service where people change jobs seemingly all the time, it's a bit much for me.

I am getting better at adjusting and fitting in though, but still it wears on you and can be quite stressful, as I find it takes a month or so before you even know who people are, let alone what they do.

Over and out.

Calvin and Hobbes

2010-02-20T05:13:00.002-06:00

I've been a Calvin and Hobbes fan for a long time. Actually it all started after a friend gave my dad a copy of one of the books which contained some of the strips. I grabbed it from my dad (who i don't think ever actually read it) and never looked back.

I was thinking that some of my copies were pretty ratty, and maybe I should look into getting the complete series, which I recently discovered was available. This week was my birthday and so instead of actually going out and purchasing it my wife bought it for me as a birthday present.

I'm sure it will bring back a lot of memories. I think the strip had particular appeal to me as I was growing up, and in my adolsecent years at the time. The idea of an irascible, annoying but snarky child held some appeal then. It was around for only 10 years, from 1985 - 1995. It's been a long time since there have been any new strips, so I'm sure when I start going through them some will feel dated, but they seemed so timely then.

I'm sure as I keep rereading them, some of the strips with the parents will become even more relevant.

Apparently there is also a new book that's come out about the whole story of how Bill Watterson ended up creating the strip. I'm looking forward to finding that and reading it.

Flexitarianism

2010-02-16T06:35:00.002-06:00

Quick post today, unfortunately I've been getting out of the habit of posting on Saturday mornings.

This terms is something I came across after I bought Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, a cookbook I am thoroughly enjoying.

It's a great cookbook, because it gives you basic ideas of how cook all sorts of vegetables, but also includes information on cooking techniques, which potatoes to use for what and all sorts of handy information.

Flexeterianism is about consciously choosing to eat less meat on a regular basis. My wife and I have certainly done that. Mostly for me it's about exploring what other kind of meals are out there, and also for environmental reasons. It's astonishing how much energy and time goes into producing meat, and how especially with industrial farming how unsafe it is.

The hard part for me has been trying to make the change, I read Fast Food Nation a while back, and was appalled at the meat packing plant parts in a chapter he calls "The Worst Job in the World" , and how Mexican immigrants were exploited and shipped into Tyson plants. The sad fact that "European Union" days when they prepared thing for the European market were much safer, as they require a much slower speed and more rules.

Then there's the continuing stories about E-coli including this one, which make me question whether to ever buy pre-packaged hamburger again.

So it's taken me a while to get to this point, and I still feel pretty awful about eating fish, which I try to do every week, given the exploitation of the ocean and declining fish stocks. I don't eat much shrimp even though I like it, even less since I heard about all the destruction they cause in East Asia.

But it's difficult to deny yourself things, and I totally understand those who continue to eat a lot of meat. This includes myself on some weeks, but I have chosen to noticeably reduce my meat consumption.

It's been fun to discover the wonders of eggplant, bok choy, and last week, brown lentils. I made a few dishes and they were great! So I expect that I will continue down this path, though it may be difficult this spring after I buy a BBQ.

I'm sure there are some pretty good vegetarian options for the grill though. I am looking forward to grilling eggplant for sure.

Productivity

2010-02-06T05:29:00.002-06:00

I started a new job and it involves working with a lot of economic researchers.

It's been interesting to see their focus on Canada's weak productivity performance.

We've shown weaker productivity than the Americans for most of the last 40 years.

One of the things I find really interesting though is the need for dialogue with departments like HRSDC that are concerned with the labour market.

There are so many interesting that come up, but that really have to deal more with labour market dynamics and potential impacts on it than my department can handle alone.

The biggest challenge facing the Canadian economy I really think if going to be demographics. It's in some ways the elephant in the room even on an issue like productivity.

It will be quite interesting to see whether this presents a positive shock (in other words business will be forced to invest in capital which will improve productivity) or negative (i.e. lost opportunities because they can't find workers.

Video game nostalgia

2010-01-23T15:39:00.002-06:00

Thanks to an Xmas present from my brother I was able to have some good nostalgic memories about playing SNES games.

It came out between 1990 and 1993 (....ok I checked wikipedia..) I would've been about 10 years old or so when we got one. It was great, and it was the only system for a period of about 5 years, so they made tons of games for it.

Our ended up being stolen in the end, but I always remember SuperMario World. It's amusing to think how much time I must've spend playing that game, as I swear I know all the ins and out and secrets of the entire game.

I don't watch a ton of TV now, but I think back, I must've spent hours and hours watching TV as a kid, and also played a lot of video games. I remember how angry i got at my parents because my mom decided that she was going to use the TV as a babybsitter for my youngest brother, I was appalled that he was just sat in front of the TV so often. Although the rest of us have glasses, I'm pretty sure the fact that he sat 1 foot in front of the TV contributed to him needing glasses as well.

I wonder what it will be like for any children we may have, heck I still remember life before the internet. Any kids I have will be post-google kids, and will never have known a time before wireless internet everywhere and cell phones for everyone! Crazy to think of how much things have changed...

However despite my opposition, I guess we're all influenced by TV and video games to a certain extent regardless of how much we watched or how often we played.

SuperMario certainly brings back good memories for me

Furniture!

2010-01-16T14:29:00.002-06:00

Man is it expensive, my wife and I were out shopping for a bedroom set. We paid a ridiculous amount, and then had to pay again a huge was of cash for the mattress!

I just hope they last as long and are as comfy as advertised.

We also finally managed to put a desk together today. Easy to assemble it said... well unlike IKEA stuff which is easy to assemble (and just as easy to fall apart,)this one was in 27 steps! It took quite a while, but I just thought it was a bit suspicious at 27 steps to completed. A lot of the pictures weren't all that clear either.

However it does look quite good, and will serve it's purpose well.

Ah the joys of moving into a new house,I suppose at some point in the near future I'll feel settled in. I'll then be able to talk about something else.

Back from the holidays

2010-01-10T06:19:00.002-06:00

What a crazy December! We bought a house in November, and made the slightly crazy decision for a closing date only a month later. It worked out very well, but it meant a very busy time.

Adjusting to a new house is always interesting, dealing with "new house noises ", and for us it's our first house, meaning we are also adjusting to new home ownership.

Some things are great, like not having to walk a kilometere (ok a bit less) from the car to the apartment door, having a dishwasher, being able to have a BBQ ( a big plus for me!!!). This is also in addition to benefit of having extra space.

The downsides at least so far are shoveling snow and the additional maintenance (though we haven't had to really do anything yet).

So far things are going well, adn we're settling in. It's fun now because we're buying a lot of furniture and getting everything sorted out. Imm looking forward to having nice solid book shelves.

I need some place to put all the boxes of booksI have lying around the house after all...

On coming home

2009-12-24T03:50:00.003-06:00

It is always interesting to realize how much you have changed. Sometimes this only happens when you visit with old friends, you haven't seen for a while, or when you return home for the holidays for the first time in a few years.

As I prepare to become a homeowner, I've been reflecting a bit about the meaning of home. They say home is where the heart is, andin some respects it's true, but for me having a home of my (well really "our") own, is the culmination of a process that started long ago.

I haven't lived at home at all since 2002, where I spent the summer after my second year of university so it's been a while, and I haven't spent a Christmas here for several years.

It's funny though how some things don't change, my brothers are still mostly the same though I can't get over how much the youngest one has grown. Since I'm the only one that's fully left home and in another city, I can see how the remaining members of my family have adapted and gotten used to each other, and adapted.

I often find it a bit weird coming back home, as any of the established patterns I remember, are broken or changed, or adapted or ignored, while others have taken their place. This is especially true since my dad died. He seemed to impose a certain kind of order on the household and it has been interesting to see how everyone adapted to the vacuum he left. For me, my routines were established somewhere else, and I didn't see him all that often, though we talked fairly regularly until the last few years.

Anyways it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few years as I establish my own home, and make memories in it.

Scroogenomics

2009-12-12T05:41:00.003-06:00

I was thinking today about a book that's getting some attention, about how Christmas is the most wasteful time of the year. It reflects in some ways what is interesting about economists and how they think. They talk about efficiency, and allocations, and equity as if these were black and white comments. They claim to be objetive and then use the get out of free card "other things being equal" which usually means if my assumptions are correct.

However sometimes (many times) their assumptions are implausible or required to make the math in their elegantly complicated models work. Anyone who knows me, should know I'm not a big fan of economists. But sometimes as in this article they do provoke thought and provide a different perspective on things.

One of the interesting things about the book Nudge by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler is their description of the problem I just identified above. Early in the book, they talk about the difference betweens the "Econs" who represent the ideal of economist and basically work as cost benefit analysis machines, and the "Humans" who are sometimes able to make rational decisions but need help and are driven by emotions.

The key point that they highlight is that there are systemic cognitive biases inherent in our humanness. We make systemic mistakes in the same direction. Given this you cannot assume that humans are "rational". It will take some time for this to filter down to all economists but it seems interesting and may point the way for economists to get closer to real world predicitions. Their key assumption of course is that humans are "rational" and so it does represent a challenge to their discipline.

Video Games

2009-12-05T05:57:00.004-06:00

It's been interesting to have another crack at Simicyt 4 recently. I'm amazed that the game is 6 years old, having been released in 2003. I've essentially had one set of cities going for year, and every time I have a look at it, it feels different.

Simcity is one of those games with no end point, which essentially continues until you're sick of playing. I've stopped playing for long periods of time and always been able to come back and rethink things and do something different.

One thing that's struck me though recently is how little the game reflects some of the latest urban thinking in terms of an ability to create walkable / sustinable / livable spaces. This is not that surprising, but I do think it's interesting how difficult it is to really have super dense spaces. (This may just be my experience however).

The other thing is that i recently went through my video games box. This is the box that has all the boxes of software that I've purchasd over the years. Man are there a lot! It's been interesting to see how my interests have changed, and also how many games I have that I will likely never play again. I also realized how the sports titles that are released every year encourage you to buy more than you normally would. Small changes is rosters in the NHL do not deserve an entire update, you only get a good update every 3 year,s problem is it's never clear which years will be good, and which ones not.

I've been surprised to a certain extent how the video game market has seemed to move beyond the PC. I guess with all the HD TVs and increased capabilities of the gaming systems it's not that surprising, but a lot of the hottest games don't seem to be released for PC anymore. It's a shame, as I don't really want to buy a PS3 or a Wii particularly.

Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at noon

2009-11-28T06:48:00.002-06:00

That's the title of a book I bought, just on a whim recently.

It's an interesting book and I first heard about a few months while ago on an On Point podcast.

The idea is simple, it's a book on the best time to do things.

From the best time of day to see your dentist to the best day of the year to make an offer on a house(which surprisingly is Christmas day), the book provides all sorts of weird and wacky advice.

It doesn't claim to be authoritative and it's very American focused but I've found it interesting nonetheless.

I think the best advice is on times to buy things, from paint, to video games, to lawnmower and even wedding and prom dresses. The book provides some good advice on buying things, mostly it's when its out of season, towards the end of the season when retailers are trying to make room for different products and also just before the new products come out.

That's all for today

Remembrance Day

2009-11-14T06:17:00.003-06:00

One of the things I continually find a bit stranger here in Ottawa is how little people seem to pay attention to Remembrance day. The kids don't get off school, almost all stores are open (though apparently they have to open at 12:30, as this store found out)

People seem to go to the ceremonies on Parliament Hill, then proceed to go shopping at the Rideau centre.

In Saskatchewan we always had the day off in elementary and high school(though it appears not at university).

I'm quite surprised that it's not a holiday here, that the kids go to school on the day. It's one of those things that still surprises me here, and reminds me of those small differences between Saskatchewan and here. The other big one is dalight savings time, but that's a whole other story.

Some of the other things include:
The use of salt in the winter (They use sand back home.. much less pant damage!)
All the snow in the winter (I love how people complain about it here, it's so much colder at home!)
I'm sure there are other things, but I can't seem to think of them this morning.

I also don't understand why the western Canadian windchill factor was replace with the crappy one used here. I.e How cold it "feels" . 1800 windchiil factor anyone?

Some old stories

2009-11-07T05:32:00.005-06:00

So I was inspired by XUP's post this past week. It reminded me of some of the hilarious tourist stories that i experience during the 16 months I worked at the NCC's info-centre across from Parliament Hill. It was a lot of fun, got to brush up on my spoken French which has really served me well, and I got to deal with tourists, which is fun until that effect wears off.

So here is a small sampling of stories.

The time I was called a racist

So this guy comes in and i greet him. He asks about tours of Parliament. Well, it turns out they are done for the day (it is like 6pm on a weekend). I give him the times for the next day, provide one or two options, and then send him to the counter where he can get a map and more details. He's quite upset because he's leaving tomorrow and now won't have a chance to see Parliament. (My thought... well uh should've planned better)

Anyways he walks to the counter and I proceed to talk to some other tourists. I'm showing one woman where she can go on our map model, and pointing out a few things. The man comes up to me and says "Is it because she's blond?" I stare at him in disbelief for a few seconds. After I recover I say "excuse me?" and he proceeds to gets really upset, claims I didn't help him at all, etc. I tell him he can write comments in our comment box if he wants, and then he ask for my supervisor who comes out, and has to deal with him.

After a brief conversation with my supervisor the guy storms off, starts yelling at his kids and leaves. Turns out he accused me of being racist while speaking to my supervisors. I thought it was kind of ironic as I was the only non-white person on our entire team that summer.

Is that building across the street a church?

This was a very common question. But one woman was so frustrating to deal with. I explained to her that no, those were the parliament buildings. She didn't know what that meant. Anwyays, after 3 or 4 tries, she leaves saying, what a nice church.

How do I get to Toronto?

This happened so many times, it was hilarious. I never figured out how people could drive from Toronto, and never know how they got there.

When ask about concealed weapons..

So another time, I was working late one night, and this guys comes in from New Zealand. Nice guy, asking away and then he says, so I have a concealed weapon, what documents do I need within Canada? My colleague and I looked at each other and then as we were about to look into, it he laughed and said he was joking.

Anyways that's a small sampling. I actually have some notes about the funny stories. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Orange Pants!?!?

2009-10-31T05:30:00.002-05:00

Well first of all here's the question I should've asked on Tuesday night:

What have you learned about the form of biography in writing your books? I have found it fascinating as a reader to see how each of the authors in the series has interpreted not only their subject, but also the form of biography, so I'd be curious on what you have learned as an author.

Now that that's out of the way, it's funny because that question was floating around in my head before, and only crystallized after. Wish I would've had the chance to ask it.

Other than attending one event at the writer's festival this week, nothing much is going on. Work is going ok, though I'm not sure what I'll be working on for the next few months.

On Fire alarms

2009-10-18T07:54:00.003-05:00

How annoying fire alarms can be!

We were woken up last night by a fire alarm at 5:00 a.m. For the first time in a while my wife and I debated whether to go downstairs. We had a rash of them a while back, and they were always in the morning.

I always remember University too, where particularly at the end of my second year in residence there was a whole whack of then, and one time we ended up outside in the fresh snow in April because of a fire alarm.

Actually come to think of it, my very last day in residence ever, we had a fire alarm at 7 a.m. That brings up a related funny story, at the end of the year, there's always a rush to get everything packed up and get yourself checked out. My roommate that year waited until the very last minute, and was scared about being kicked out. He lost a lot of time that morning because of the fire alarm, but being who he is, he went back to bed instead of finishing packing! he ended up having to store his stuff with someone and figure out the details later...

Anyways it's always annoying! I guess when I move to a house it will be the end of those problems, at least then, it's either your own fault, or a real fire!

Thinking about cities

2009-10-10T09:58:00.002-05:00

This is a bit of a disjointed post. I just finisehd reading teh very dense book Concrete Reveries by Mark Kingwell.

He's also the author chosen to write the Glenn Gould biography in the Extraordinary Canadians series. This is definitely a more accesible work, but still a challenging one. POrobably the least accessible of the series I have read so far. This may not be surprising given a) it's written by a philosopher and b) the subject, Gould who seems to be a difficult and inaccessible subject.

The book Concrete reveries got me thinking again about the nature of the "City" and urbanism more generally. It follows my reading of Jeb Brugmann's book Urban Revolution.

I also listened to an impressive mayor, Cory Booker on the podcast of On Point. I don't think I have heard such a positive elected official before. He was smart, (he's a Rhodes Scholar) and committed and charismatic, and relentlessly positive.

It was refreshing, and a reminder of what can be done by being positive regardless of the situation.

I wonder sometimes what could be done in Ottawa with some inspired leadership. Instead we get stupid "zero means zero" campaigns and a council dominated by developers and anti-transit suburban councilors.

It seems like any move to actually do something is whittled down and dimished, and ultimately becomes less ambitious through the debate at city hall.

I think it comes back to not having people who believe in government in power, and also not having a mayor who had any idea why he wanted to be there at all.

I was astonished recently to hear Stephen Harper's remarks about being against all taxes. What a crackpot statement. This goes back to something I really don't understand about a lot of modern conservatives and I think is at heart a contradiction. You have people funded by taxpayers decrying government. WHo do they think pays their bills?

Some interesting discussions

2009-10-03T06:22:00.003-05:00

So I went on Monday night to an event put on by the Information Commissioner, for Right to Know Week.

It was really interesting, particularly to see the journalist's perspective on these issues. They talked mostly process, which was disappointing. David Akin, tried talk about his issues with DFAIT regarding some kind of fee for his ATIP request. This was very much about being annoyed about process and less about the broader question, but was quite interesting in seeing how journalists use ATIP.

One of the more interesting characters, was a journalist from the UK whose access to information request led (after 4 years) to the UK expense scandal. What was interesting was that the reason for this being possible was their Freedom of Information Act applies to Parliament. In the federal parliament expenses are controlled by a small cabal in the Board of internal economy. They won't even let the auditor general have a look at their expenses. Can't say I blame them, if spending a few dollars on items the public doesn't like, causes careers to end.

Apparently something like 50 MPs are going down because of this, and not all of it justified.

The other interesting was by an unassuming young woman name Jennifer Bell who works for an NGO called Visible Government. They are using some interesting tools to get information out there. I really saw the possibilities of what you can do with searchable tools and some information. It was really interesting and I think some of this could be used even within government to shed light on things. It was clear to me why this kind of available and searchable information databases have so much potential. She also pointed out what the Obama administration has been able to do in the U.S.

There were also two interesting chats and debates this week. Macleans and CPAC, held a roundtable discussion between a whole cast of characters, that included Ed Broadbent and Eddie Goldenberg as well as Paul Wells, Andrew COyne and John Ralston Saul.

They discussed our 'broken' democracy. You really do get the sense that Andrew Coyne hates politics and politicians, which is why I find it kind of ironic that he comments on them, though perhaps that is why he is a journalist, and not that involved in te actual day to day business of government.

Overall i thought there was some good discussion, more and more I find myself agreeing with Paul Wells on a lot of things, I'm becoming a bigger fan, and have seen him 2 or 3 times on Sparks street in the past 10 days. Maybe next time I'll go say hello.

The other event was hosted by CBC's Michael Enright. They had Jane Taber. She is annoying, though had some interesting things to say. This discussion got sidetracked a lot and was not that interesting. They had some guy from Democracy watch who kept saying politicians are liars and that we need a truth in politics law to keep them honest. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! For two reasons, the public won't stand a politcian who actually tells the truth in many situations. Imagine what would happen to the party right now who said, we need higher taxes and lower spending. Second, circumstances change but we still want out politicians to act tough and strong and as if they know all the answers.

I though that both events brought up interesting issues, but they are always difficult ones. I really think that there are some changes to the institutions of government that are possible. However being in a minority, particularly with a federal government led by a party with no natural allies make these kinds of changes difficult or imposisble. I wonder if there will be this clamour for change, when we have a majority government.

Speaking of which there may be a conservative one soon.

Not sure if it's worth reading...

2009-09-26T07:03:00.003-05:00

The Ottawa writer's festival is coming up this month, so I thought I'd write a little bit about books. I've started reading another of the extraordinary Canadians series, this time on Glenn Gould. It's been interesting to read the whole series, not as much because it gives a good overview of some important Canadians, though it does, but more as a meditation on the biography as a form. There is much in the Gould biography that speaks to the more philosophical and intellectual challenges the biography produces. This is not perhaps particularly surprising as the author is Mark Kingwell a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto.

The biographies themselves are relatively short, but interesting and the series is really about giving you a quick, taste of this particular cast of characters.

The other book that I guess has made quite a splash in some circles is Fearful Symmetry by Brian Crowley.The premise seems interesting if misguided. It's all Quebec's fault because Canada started engaging in trying to buy Quebec nationalists in the 1960s, and so we moved from a nation of 'makers' to a nation of 'takers', and the various regions of Canada now engage is trying to capture their fair share of national wealth.

This kind of claim, and book could only be written by an economist. Fittingly Crowley is President on the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) [think Fraser institute for Atlantic Canada].

The reason I say that it could only be written by an economist, is because of its lack of historical understanding and nuance. Now to be fair I haven't read the book. I was seriously thinking about it, but having read the review in the LRC, I'm not sure I want to.

The premise is based on the idea that we had strong work Anglo protestant values before the 1960s and now we don't. Or some variant of this idea.

According to the review he refuses to engage in a debate about how society has changed since the 1960s. He doesn't engage with the fact that the development the welfare state is actually a Western phenomenon. He doesn't talk about multiculturalism and how this has impacted our ability to have a 'cohesive' national 'character'. These are important factors!

Canada in 2009 cannot go back to the old boy's club that it was earlier in the 20th century.

That being said I think that he may be on to something interesting in terms of the idea of buying off the nationalists. But to ignore the cultural impacts of the quiet revolution, to ignore the international context in which these things occur, to pretend that the huge amounts of immigration from outside Europe we have experienced have not changed our ability to have a 'national character' seem to me to be pretty serious omissions.

Not sure if it's worth my time reading the book, but we'll see.

I've got quite a few other books on my shelf for the moment.

What I'm reading

2009-09-19T07:07:00.003-05:00

I just ordered another three books from the Great Canadian series. They are great biographies because they give you a taste, but are short enough to read in a day or two if you want. It's also almost a project that feels like a meditation on the idea of a biography as you get a sense of what the biography can offer as your run through the many authors with their different styles and ideas.

I'm currently reading concrete reveries by Mark Kingwell, who I read quite a bit a few years back but haven't paid as much attention to since.

I just finished two books, one from the aforementioned Extraordinary Canadians series on Mordecai Richler, and though an interesting one, it wasn't one of my favourites. I guess it seemed to go more into his soul, than the others. His supposed arrogance and rudeness disappeared in this telling. Though it might have made it more human you felt like something was missing, that some things were glossed over. Interesting to learn about his story though, for example though attached and known as being all about Montreal, I was surprised to learn that he spent much of his life overseas.

The other book I read was by Tyler Cowen who's site marginal revolution has made it's way into my RSS reader. It's an interesting thesis, that the internet and modern technology now privileges those who can be more like autistics. In that they order information different and have other characteristics that so called 'normal' people should pay attention to.

Now it's an intriguing thesis and he sort of pulls it off, but aside from exploring some aspects of autism and labelling certain of their characteristics, the links he is able to make with them I find difficult to follow and not that useful. For example in a chapter about diplomacy, he suggests that we can learn from autistics to be more objective. I'm not sure how useful a lesson that is. Overall it was a disappointment, but it doesn't mean it wasn't interesting

Confronting difficult situations is never easy

2009-09-12T08:24:00.003-05:00

There have been few occasions where I have felt so mad at myself for biting my tongue as two separate occasions where comments I would deem racist have been uttered and I remained silent.

These events occurred over the past year or so and I think they are always a bit of a difficult issue. Even more so in a country, which proclaims its colour-blindness and refuses to acknowledge race as an issue, or when it does simply claims " Things are better here than in the United States" rather than dealing with the substance of the issue. I think the best description of this is in the book Black Berry Sweet Juice by Lawrence Hill. Though there were some parts I couldn't relate to, the experience he tells, of being a mixed-race person, half-black half white, like I am in Canada resonates with me.

In each situation, I was the only non-white person in the room, and the person's comments clearly made me feel uncomfortable. How do you reproach someone for such comments though? It isn't easy, especially in a social situation, where there are others around, and raising your voice and yelling and screaming at someone clearly isn't appropriate. How do you even broach the topic without making everyone involved feel uncomfortable.

Now there are those who claim that making the person uncomfortable is the point, and that such comments need to be held up to scrutiny and shouldn't be allowed to pass unchallenged, and while that's easy in theory in practice it's much more difficult.

I will try to be more assertive in the future. After the second of these situations, and how angry it made me, I hope I can rise to the challenge, of confronting these kind of racist statements.

What would Harper actually do?

2009-09-05T07:03:00.004-05:00

So I started a conversation with a friend this week, if you take the premise that Harper won a majority in the next election, what exactly would his platform be?

It's a hard question, given that he's been so focused on keeping his minorities alive. He seemingly hasn't had enough time to think through what he would do if given time and license.

The other difficulty is that he like many conservatives, is "against government". Now I've always had a problem understanding why someone who dislikes 'government' would want to run one, but that's another issue. The point being that he seems to be mroe interested in dismantling (destroying?) programs and also not all that interested in doing things that would involve more government.

So in the end there isn't much left. As far as I can see, there are a few things they feel strongly about. The big two are:

A national securities regulator
Dismantling the wheat board

Other than that, I'm not too sure what they really want to do, lower taxes of course. They seem to want to lower spending, but haven't to date.

I'm kind of curious to see what a Harper majority would do. One thing I think that would happen is is some kind of machinery of government changes. It's been a long time since there were any MOG changes, so it's a possibility. The last major changes were in 1993 and things have certainly changed since then.

Update

I forgot, they also want to get rid of the gun registry and stop financing poltiical parties and maybe stack the senate with more partisans to then "reform" it...

Maybe they should run on those 5 priorities and see what happens

Ah, the Senate

2009-08-29T04:59:00.004-05:00

Well it's an interesting week in terms of the senate.

One of the most interesting appointments, at least in Quebec, is the appointment of Jacques Demers to the senate. Famous now for admiting his illiteracy there's been a fair amount of commentary on this choice. (Which I think was the point)

What also piqued my interest this week was the following comment by Matthew Yglesias

— It’s also important to have in place systems for effective monitoring of elected officials. A Canadian voter elects one federal official—a Member of Parliament. An American elects four—a President, two Senators, and one Representative. Americans don’t have four times as much time as Canadians to pay attention to what politicians are doing or to learn the issues; our politicians are just being monitored less. When you consider the proliferation of things like independently elected school boards, district attorneys, sherrifs, etc. keep in mind that this diffusion of responsibility is a good way for the egomaniacal to evade
responsibility.

This is actually one of the best arguments against Senate reform. I've never really understood who the Senators would represent. It would complicate Federal-provincial relations. Ultimately I kind of like the idea of undercutting the provinces by having an elected Senate that can represent regional (or provincial) interests in federal legislation. However the possibility of gridlock is there. Also of course on paper is one thing, but in reality I can imagine elected senators trying to expand their power.

One of the reasons the Senate actually works is because of its illegitimacy. It has a high amount of power, but it is checked by the fact that they are not elected.

Generally, I think it works ok, and I think there are a lot of problems with having elected senators.

What to write about?

2009-08-22T14:15:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately I had a great idea for this post, and even started writing it out in my head, but then went to sleep and promptly forgot not only the wonderful lines I had written, but also the topic.

So, I guess this one will be short.

I'm having trouble finding dress pants. I think partly it's because I dont' really enjoy shopping, but I'm surprised how difficult it is to find pants. I have a really nice lightweight pair of summer dress pants that need to be replaced but I can't find out where to go.

Partly this is because Ottawa, despite having so many bureaucrats is not a very good place to shop for men's clothes. Montreal would be much easier (and probably cheaper). It's surprisingly difficult here.

Oh well...I guess that's it for this week.

Information overload!

2009-08-15T06:45:00.003-05:00

One of my recent discoveries was the google reader. This allows you to gather RSS feeds from different websites.

I used to check out probably 10-15 websites daily, sometimes a few times a day. Using RSS feeds I've been able to increase the number of sites I follow, as I don't waste time surfing sites which haven't been updated. It also allows me to keep track of sites that aren't updated very often, and I might overlook.

However it really changes the nature of the process. You can see how many unread articles there are. I think that's a big part of the feeling of information overload.

For me it's the same with itunes. I haven't had my number of un listened to podcasts dip below 20 for quite some time! I end up deleting interesting material simply because I don't think I'll have time to get for it. It's actually not too bad during the summer because some of the podcasts don't get updated.

I guess this is the problem of the internet age, too much information.

Urban Revolution

2009-08-08T07:30:00.003-05:00

I just finished an interesting book called the Urban Revolution, it's an interesting book that focuses on what the author Jeb Brugmann calls urbanisms, which are urban capacities and style and way of doing things unique to a given city.

What was interesting was how he put Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver in the category of opportunity cities. These are cities which have a hard time getting everyone organized to take advantage of their strategic advantages, to create a really amazing urbanism. Part of this is due to way our cities are organized politically, they are seen are the poor cousin of provinces and lack revenue raising tools that would allow them to be more flexible and create in their development policies.

One of the most interesting parts of the book for me, was related to his description of Chicago, and the importance of community organizers and community organizations in revitalizing and create the civic space, which has helped reclaim neighbourhoods in that city. It made me want to go and visit Chicago, and also reminded me of the few times I'd been there, only to the downtown core. I'm always struck by how important a city it is, and how little I know about it's importance and not only because a Chicagoan is now in the White House.

It has one of the busiest airports in the U.S, Chicago is a big city as well. It has an important University and a well known Symphony Orchestra. There is such a thing as Chicago style Jazz, and also Chicago style Pizza, which speak to a sort of cultural influence as well.

I haven't been there in quite a while but after the description in the book, of the renaissance of Chicago it makes me want to explore it again.

Web 2.0

2009-07-25T06:36:00.003-05:00

I've been starting to read a few blogs about Public Service Renewal. I guess because these are new and relatively young public servants they have tended to focus on the emergence of new technologies.

I also participated in a conference about this issue as well and so I've started exploring these technologies a bit more. I will never be a technofile, and I'm usually a bit conservative about trying new things, though I would say I'm open to at least trying things.

I started using google reader and it's been interesting. I think overall it's a positive way to organize all the blogs you follow. I miss the surfing and checking out pages, without knowing that it's been updated, and looking at articles through the reader isn't quite the same experience.

I think overall it'll allow me to follow more blogs, and also to track more issues and follow them more easily. Especially if there are blogs that aren't updated all the time, you can keep track through the RSS feed, and make sure you don't miss a new article.

I also tried two other social media, and I don't think they work nearly as well for me. One was Digg, which links up with facebook, and lets you highlight an interesting site or article. I don't really get much out of participating, but I suppose collectively it gives you a sense of what people are reading.

The other interesting possibility was yahoo! pipes. Lets you throw feeds and filter them to try and limit how many articles actually get through. Interesting idea, but I'm not a programmer and it gets pretty complicated. Interesting idea, but I'm not too sure how to use it yet.

I enjoy reading all my feeds, and so to a certain extent I don't need that kind of throttling system.

Intuition

2009-07-18T03:32:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking this week quite a a bit about intuition. More and more I've come to realize that I'm an intuitive person. I've know this for some time, being identified as an "N" as part of the Myyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

I think I've always known though, that I have a knack for figuring things out, relatively easily without thinking about them much. I also really enjoy puzzles, particularly word puzzles.

One of the moments that's burned in my memory of seemingly pure intuition on my part happened when I was 13 years old. I was sleeping and woke up suddenly after hearing a sound I couldn't immediately identify. After about 3 seconds, the thought popped in my brain battery acid!. It was was one of those moments of intuition where everything all of a sudden makes sense.

So I jumped out of bed, realizing that the batteries in the back of my stereo on my nightside table had busted. I grabbed some towels and started cleaning it up.

For me it was incredible how quickly I was able to identify the problem, simply by the sound. I must have been able to sort through the possible causes of that in a flash.

Since then I've always had a keen sense that I am a highly intuitive person. It sounds arrogant but I that's a misunderstanding of what that means. For me, it means I like to try and figure things out by reasoning myself, and that my thinking is not linear. Often flashes of insight, which have been built up through acquired knowledge appear to me.

It means I also enjoy puzzles and figuring out what acronyms are without needing them explained.I would guess that many intelligent people would have this ability to see shapes and patterns where others simply see data.

In fact, John Ralston Saul in his book On Equilibrium speaks about Intuition as one of the key qualities that makes us human. The others include, Common Sense, Ethics, Imagination, Memory and Reason.

Currently Reading:

Filthy Lucre by Joseph Heath
Welcome to the Urban Revolution by Jeb Brugmann
Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Book of Negroes

2009-05-23T05:49:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading the Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill.

I was an intersting one, and really makes one think about the historical legacy of slavery. I was thinking as well about the actual globalization that this involved. It was really about the movement of people physically across oceans.

It also made me think about the role of education in emancipating people. That seems to be the subtext to the book, as the protagonist, is able to escape from her situation in part because of her education and her ability to read.

It reminded me of an recent article on another blog about the importance of the Public Broadcasting in terms of education here . It was a really interesting one and made me think even more about how the CBC has made me feel Canadian. I think it's been one secret ingredient in the successful integration of immigrants as well. This important function of public broadcasting, particularly in my experience CBC is underrated.

Ottawa International Writer's Festival

2009-05-02T08:22:00.003-05:00

So I've been volunteering and enjoying the Ottawa International Writer's Festival over the past few weeks.

It's been a blast and it ends today, so I thought I'd post about some of my highlights. (I have a feeling that the two sessions I'm going to today, will be fantastic as well.)

One of my favorite sessions actually came unexpectedly, it was a session on "Our Urban Future" with Alan Broadbent and Jeb Brugmann.

Now I read Alan Broadbent's recent book and wasn't too impressed and I found the same thing about his presentation. It made me think about the importance of presentation skills. It wasn't that his ideas weren't good (though everything he said was extremely Toronto centric) , it was that he wasn't a very good speaker.

It was even more evident because the first presentation was so good. I'd never heard of Jeb Brugmann before, but I will keep an eye on him in the future. He was fantatsic, read from his new book. Being a writer's festival of course the authors are there to sell their book, and he really sold me on his. He has a conception of "ubranisms" and the global city which were new to me and seem quite exciting.

I'm not all that interested in urban theory and having recently bought the "Canadian" edition of Richard Florida's new book Who's Your City, and that has just about filled up my desire for urban books, but this one is a welcome exception.

Another session that i enjoyed was with Andrew Cohen and Nino Ricci about leadership. It was a bit disappointing to hear how dismal they thought our current political leadership is. It was interesting because they are both authors of biographies in the current Extraordinary Canadian series. ANdrew Cohen wrote a biography of Lester B. Pearson, while Ricci did a biography on Pierre Trudeau. Both were great.

Finally I was lucky enough to get the last question to Michael Ignatieff after his presentation about his new book. I asked about how he feels about the fact that his call for national unity goes over better in some parts of the country than others. While I disagreed with his answer I was surprised that he wouldn't repeat his comment about I think "it's ok for "Quebecois" to be Quebecers first and Canadians second, or Canadians first and Quebecers second" in English, and only said it in French.

I enjoyed the festival and I'm hoping that there's some good sessions left. Joseph Heath is presenting today on his nwe book Filthy Lucre, and a former professor of mine Heather Menzies is promoting her new book, about dealing with her mother's dementia.

Harper: Not a leader

2008-12-03T20:10:00.003-06:00

Constitutional crisis

Canada is in serious danger of becoming a banana republic.

I am fearful for my country. Stephen Harper may stay in power, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory.

The negative forces he has unleashed will reverberate for year. I'm disgusted with his behaviour.

His use of the word 'separatist' every second word, his ABSOLUTELY FALSE claim that the three leaders refused to have the Canadian flag behind them at their press
conference.

His constant Quebec bashing is not only going to cost him and the conservatives in Quebec, it may well empower the separatists he despises so much.

He should know better than to claim that the opposition parties do not have the 'democratic right' to form a coalition government. What a load of crap, it doesn't even withstand even the slightest bit of scrutiny. It's as if he made it up on the back of a napkin and now is trying to use that as an argument.

We for better or for worse, live in a parliamentary system. We elect MPs, not governments.

I have to admit I feel a bit like I'm in the twilight zone, I can't believe it's come to this.

I am truly truly disgusted with the actions of Stephen Harper.

Interesting times..

2008-11-29T06:41:00.000-06:00

It has been a surreal two days in Ottawa and it looks like another week of this, before it's resolved.

It appear Stephen Harper in a fit of arrogance, is trying to screw the other political parties by eliminating the subsidy parties get of 1.95$ per vote.

I'm not sure why that should be a matter of confidence regardless of one's position on it.

I think in a fit of stupidity, they also provided cover for the other opposition parties by refusing to do anything on the economic front.

So it looks like we may have Stéphane Dion as Prime Minister after all.

If there's anyone the tories have to blame it's Stephen Harper.

The new "Bond"

2008-11-16T19:55:00.002-06:00

So i just saw the latest Bond movei and I thought it was pretty good, it's much darker.

I seem to agree with most critics that the plot was pretty thing, but I think it's normal for that to be the case in bond movies.

I think there was a lot of stuff to get rid of from the last movie so that they can move on to a new one. It'll be interesting to see the next one, as it'll be one of the first stand alone bond film that isn't based on the novels.

I'm looking forward to it.

For those who have seen the movie:

I thought the Canadian spy agent thing was hilarious and a bit over the top, especially as Canada doesn't have a foreign spy network.. so what the hell was one doing is Russia?

Ottawa International Writer's Festival

2008-10-19T19:59:00.006-05:00

I really enjoyed 3 sessions at the Ottawa Writer's fest today. Luckily for me, Carleton University offered 500 free tickets to the festival, and I took full advantage.

There were 3 sessions:

The first , John Ralston Saul speaking about his new book A Fair Country. which is fantastic, and the presentation was just as good. This is a great book, though in many ways I like Reflections of a Siamese Twin better. Maybe because it was my first experience in reading Saul. What I like best about Saul is that he always challenges and provokes thought. I've never read anyone who confused and delighted me as much.

The second, was a bit more of a discussion between Tarek Fatah and Michael Adams on mutliculturalism. This was a bit of a disappointment because there was little dicussion and a air amount of hyperbole. The defence of multiculturalism was also pretty weak I though.

He actually summed it up saying that it was about creating "mixed race babies".

The third was a presentation by Major Gen. (ret.) Lewis Mackenzie.

I found it interesting to look at someone who i fundamentally disagree with in the eyes, and realize that they have reason behind what they say and they have charisma and intelligence and passion. This is important, and I find more and more that there seems to be less room for intelligent well informed debate and now you see more about style. More debate on form than content. This is no doubt important but it reminded me that it is possible to debate ideas.

The writer's festival which I attended for the first time in several years is an enjoyable experience for me, and I'm glad Carleton decided to purchase 500 tickets and distribute them for free to students. The intellectual stimulation will be with me for a long time, I always find my own ideas, challenged supported, and sometimes confirmed. It's always fascinating to see the authors of some of my favorite books, defend them in public and speak about them. I remember how fascinating it was to hear Yann Martel talk about his book the life of Pi, and how much more depth and understanding his presentation added to my appreciation of his book.

I hope I can keep attending, as this really is a wonderful festival.

Ah.. Quebec

2008-10-04T17:02:00.002-05:00

It's been interesting redaing Chantal Hébert's book French Kiss during this period in the election.

Although slightly dated (and you can tell when she talks about the NDP in Quebec), it's a fascinating read.

I find that the opening section, where she deals with more current events better than the 2nd half of the book,where she delves into more history. Although interesting, I don't find it as well written, or the insights as piercing.

What I found most interesting, was not that the Liberal party was in trouble because they had nowhere to grow. I've been thinking that for quite some time, but the fact that the Chrétien and Martin governments were so dominated by Ontario.

To me the way she is able to reveal the structural weakness of the Liberals behind the scenes, makes this book worth reading.

I think this election campaign we have seen Stephen Harper make his first mistake in relation to dealing with Quebec. It's the culture issue, and I don't think it's really about the substance of the issue. I really believe is is the way he handled it, and his comments about 'the rich gala', which he refused to say in French made it a bigger story than otherwise necessary. It didn't help that Minister Verneer was pretty incompetent and ridiculous in her defence of it.

The one thing that has to be said about Stephen Harper is that he seems to be willing to learn from his mistakes, so hopefully he won't repeat this one. It's given the Bloc a second wind in this campaign. He seems to take a longer view, and this mistake is relatively minor.

Election post

2008-09-21T06:19:00.005-05:00

So I dreamed up a fantastic post, and now can't seem to remember what I was going to say.

I guess I'm a bit torn about who to vote for this election, though I know it won't be conservative.

It's been interesting watching the campaign and so far no one has really convinced me that they really and truly have anything interesting to say.

I think the problem is that Stephen Harper's success has convinced everyone to run a small campaign, no big ideas, nothing interesting no vision, etc.

Actually Jeffrey Simpson wrote an interesting article about how these techniques have been imported from Australia and the United States.

The idea seems to me to be "death by a thousand cuts" to the public sector. Stupid tax cuts, no real policies and hope for the best. Actually what Stephen Harper touts as tax cuts (like the transit credit, the 705$ to defray my house closing costs) are actually subsidies to people who are already doing these things.

Does anyone really imagine that 750$ is going to make the difference between spending 300,000$ on a house or not. Ridiculous! Same thing with the transit pass, find me one Canadian that actually decided to take transit because he gets 20$ back on his taxes.

To call these things incentives, is quite the stretch, they are really subsidies to the voters that the Conservatives are targeting. Not only that, they increase the difficulty and opaqueness of the tax system. Real Conservatives would call for a simpler fairer tax system or even a flat tax, but the Conservatives we have here, just want to give out money in stupid tax cuts (read subsidies) that have no policy objective and don't really make any sense at all.

I wish we had a party that would provide a bigger vision and treat us like adults, however it seems increasingly unlikely. Maybe after the Liberals have spent some time in the wilderness they can come back with some real ideas..

Exciting times this fall

2008-09-06T09:31:00.003-05:00

So it looks like we'll be heading into an election soon. That's pretty exciting at least for a political junkie like me. There's also the US election of course, which everyone here seems to be following, some a lot more closely than the Canadian election that's coming up.

There's also the fact that I'll be heavily involved with my school's student society, while working and taking a course.

Boy it sure sounds busy.

I think it'll be alright though. I feel like I'm better organized that I have been in a while.

It's been fun to meet the new incoming MA students, I'm fairly impressed so far, and times will tell how they fare. A lot of intriguing interests, and reasons for studying public policy. Some had a really clear idea, while others it seemed like they hadn't thought of it at all.

I'm looking forward to all the busyness this fall.

As for the election, I'm thinking it could be a conservative majority. If that happens, i have a feeling we might be back to deficit territory given their penchant for irresponsible tax cuts. Should that happen, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I find it absolutely hilarious that the Conservatives are trusted to manage the economy, given that they reduced us from surplus to near deficit ( not that I think the huge surpluses weren't too high). Irresponsible tax cutting, basically wasting what could have been significant productivity enhancing income tax cuts with populism.

Talk to any economist and they'll tell you it was stupid. GST cuts encourage consumption and do nothing for productivity. Some economists feel that GST are the most neutral taxes because they don't distort people's decisions to work and invest.

But hey, I guess to a populist conservative, economists are just liberal elitists. Then again isn't Stephen Harper an economist?

Note to Conservatives: We already have and have always had fixed election dates

2008-08-23T14:30:00.006-05:00

See the story here by Andrew Potter, he tells it better than I could.

Since that post I've never really understood the fetish for this whole 4 year thing, fixed election date thing. I don't think it's a systemic problem, but a problem with the politicians.

I also think the point about having elections on serious issues a la 1988 is a useful aspect of the current system as Potter describes.

Link

Quebec as a "nation"

2008-06-14T01:45:00.004-05:00

So I had an interesting debate with some colleagues at work, one of whom happens to be from Quebec.

It all started because of comments Gilles Duceppe had made about recognizing the first nations as nations, and talking about the importance of the nation to nation relationship.

One of my colleagues then started talking about how Quebec was much further ahead in terms of its relationship with First Nations, in part because of their similar fears about assimilation.

The misunderstandings about the term nation were pretty clear from the outset however.Especially when it came to the so called nation resolution passed by the house of commons.

The statement was made "It is clear that Quebec is a nation"

This statement is patently false as anybody who actually reads the motion should understand this. If anyone doubts that listen to Lawrence Cannon trying to explain it to journalists. It was one of the most excruciating and inadvertently hilarious sessions I've ever seen an MP subjected to. [you can see one bloggers coverage of the period here ]

First of all, the motion in the house of commons declares that 'the Quebecois' form a nation within a united Canada. Why use the French term rather than its English translation Quebecker?

Therefore to say that the house of commons recognized 'Quebec' as a nation is false, they recognized the Quebecois. This is code language for the fact that they are talking about French speaking Quebeckers only and that the rest of Quebec is excluded.

Nationalism seems to me to be largely about defining us and them. This is why the frustration Parizeau felt in 1995, became crystallized in his famous "we got beat by the moneyed [ie the Jews] and the ethnic vote". They were clearly not part of the nation that he dreamed of.

My point is simply this, it is clear that most nationalist /sovereigntist politicians hide the fact that the nation they talk about, is the French speaking mostly pure laine Quebeckers.

when they talk about being "maîtres chez nous", it is important to understand who is included in the "nous". Does it include the Haitian immigrant who arrived in the past six months? Does it include the child of Korean immigrants who grew up in Atlantic Canada and ended up in Montreal? Does it include a 3rd generation Montrealer who doesn't speak a word of French?

Fundamentally if we want to boil it down to sociological terms, French speaking quebeckers, maybe you could even call them Quebecois are a nation.

However to translate that into either Quebec is a nation, or to the more difficult and dangerous notion that Quebec is a country is going too far.

The world is moving in the opposite direction, most nation-states are increasingly multi-ethnic states like Canada and the United States. The days of the [imaginarily] pure ethnic nation state is fading.

P.S if anyone has a transcript of the Lawrence Cannon debacle I'd appreciate you send me the link

Making "globalization" work

2008-05-22T17:26:00.003-05:00

After one reads a book like The Collapse of Globalism by John Ralston Saul, one is forced to look at globalization in a different light.

I just finished reading Making Globalization Workby Joseph Stiglitz, and for all its good intentions and its good analysis, particularly on the trade front as well as interesting insight into the reserve system, the author refuses to make that break from using the term globalization.

I find it fascinating that the two books will make the same point, but Saul is willing to point out that the word "globalization" used in the early 1990s at least popularly, is not used in the same way today.

We have in fact moved into a post globalization era. I think that once we recognize this and start using new language, we can begin to truly change things. Language is important and I think the more we hang on to the terminology of globalization which has been captured largely by the economist and right wingers the longer it will take for real change to occur.

I really think the book by Stiglitz really demonstrates the point that Saul makes, that the term has become so broad as to be meaningless. It can mean one thing and it's opposite, the use of the term economic globalization and other such terms merely serve to obscure the fundamental point that when one uses the term globalization it has no meaning at all anymore.

Obama on race

2008-03-22T07:09:00.004-05:00

Having listened to and read Obama's speech on race this past week, I have become even more impressed with his intelligence and poise.

As a friend remarked it seems to be a generational thing, to admit there's a problem and then say we need to deal with it.

It would nice if this were politics as usual!

Obama dealt with the issue and really challenged America to look beyond the stereotypes on both sides and really as John Stewart said, he talked to us about race as if we were adults.

I have read his first book dreams of my father and he deals with the race issue there. When I first read it, the thing I kept remarking about was how different his experience of race was from mine. Even though we are both the product of a black father and a white mother, my experience in Canada was different. He adopted the black side of his experience and worked in a black neighbourhood in Chicago. I feel a much stronger attachment to the more general immigrant experience, and although black do not necessarily identify with a larger black culture.

The other book which I found fascinating was my Lawrence Hill, on growing up mixed race in Canada. I found some of his descriptions outside of my experience, while others were bang on. A hilarious one, was how he began playing badminton in Canada, and when he went to the U.S he was told that badminton was a white man's sport [despite of course that Asians are dominant]. Now I am a badminton player, but have never seen that reaction, though to be honest I can picture it easily.

One of the interesting things for me, is the difference between how blacks are seen in Canada and the United States. Here we don't talk about race, or if we do it doesn't easily include black, it sits beneath the surface and is in some ways overshadowed by a debate about multiculturalism. However it can flare up, as in the debate in Toronto over an Afro centric school.

I'll always remember the fact that most people I know, never really remark on my race. On occasion when people are trying to identify me they will mention my race, but it's rare.

Now the one exception which made me strongly aware of my identity was an old roommate who was from the U.S. I was always very clearly identified as his black friend. It was a bit discomforting, but it also made me realize how no one else really referred to me that way, though perhaps it was beneath the surface. There were a few occasions when I remarked about being black, and was greeted with a shocked or surprised look, followed by "you're black?"

Obama speech was a reminder of the difference between race relations here and in the United States. It was a call to dialogue and discussion, and I leave even more impressed than before.

The city of words

2008-02-08T21:53:00.000-06:00

I recommend that people should listen or read the latest Massey Lecture by Alberto Manguel. What a special lecture series, it's something that I have often enjoyed and it's been nice to hear them the last few times.

I enjoyed hearing Stephen Lewis when he did it a few years ago. He is an amazing speaker, and the words can't really do justice to the passion of his voice. My university, Carleton hosted one of the Massey Lectures by Ronald Wright a few years ago and I think I missed out, even though that series wasn't as interesting to me as the last one.

I have to say that the 2007 iteration was and is fantastic. I find Alberto Manguel and engaging and interesting speaker, on a fascinating topic. He is obviously someone who is well read and he makes literature relevant for me in a way I think few others have.

I find it interesting that I could engage with what he was saying and yet I used to hate and dread English class in high school. It wasn't until I took a course in grade 12 that I even realized how interesting that class could be. I think he was the only male English teacher I had in high school and he introduced me to John Ralston Saul. I think that was a brave act, especially as the material was over the head of many of the other grade 12 students. It wasn't all perfect, I think I read the worst piece of Canadian fiction they could drag up at my school, it wasn't fifth business of anything by Margaret Lawrence. I don't even remember who the author was.

I think it's a shame that so many boys in particular become alienated from reading through the horrors of English class.

Simcity fun

2008-01-03T09:04:00.000-06:00

So I've been playing Simicity 4 a bit more recently. I connected one of my cities to a bigger city through a subway line. I returned to my bigger city to play around and start building it up. Then all of a sudden I noticed this:

I was suddenly making 10,000$ a month! and my transit revenue was 10,000$ a month. I have never hit this high before. So I decided to look around and see what was happening. Lo an behold I ran into this!

That's all for today folks.

Oh and I expect to have more time (hopefully/maybe) to start updating more regularly. I'm taking one less course this semester, and have 2 days off a week. The other thing I am hoping to do is some serious reading. I have 2 main classic sort of books to hit this semester. Adam Smith's Wealth on nations, and On the road to serfdom by Hayek. We'll see how that goes. I'm thinking I should maybe read Smith's Theory of Moral sentiments first, but I'm not sure. The next big classic book will be by Keynes.

Done and done!

2007-12-08T11:06:00.000-06:00

First semester of my Master's finished. Boy does it feel good!

I and many of my fellow students spent an entire day from 9:00-7:00 in a case study competition. What a long day!!!

In the end I thought everything went well and my presentation went well.

Boy am i glad that case competition is over...

Here was my opening slide. I enjoyed it very much.

Stressed out grad students... they're everywhere

2007-12-03T20:24:00.000-06:00

So it's been quite some time since my last post, maybe I'll add "attempt to blog more frequently" to my forthcoming (at some point in the future) new year's resolutions.

Anyways I am currently struggling to finish a 20 page paper due tomorrow, and figured it would be a perfect time to blog. Anything to pass the time, and procrastinate a little longer...

I've noticed that a lot of my fellow grad students are quite stressed out, and to be honest I am too, but I don't think i could live like they do. Maybe it's a woman thing (I don't have to be politically correct on here, and all the anecdotal evidence I have collect comes from women, and besides they make up a large substantial majority of the students in my program...)

Maybe these students are taking things more seriously than I am, maybe they cope in different ways. I just find that a lot of my fellow students are busy "freaking out" and I just don't get it. I'm enjoying the ride, and trying hard, and keeping my cool as much as I can.

I can't be bothered to get all worked up, I did that in my undergrad and it didn't end well. Perhaps, It's that sense of perspective I gained through those trying times..

Anyways I'm off now to get that paper done, wish me luck

A world without us

2007-10-27T17:49:00.000-05:00

Well I've been busy with school and haven't had much of an opportunity to post on this blog.

However I am compelled to post because I have just finished an interesting book called the world without us by Alan Wiesman. It's an interesting premise, the idea being to explore what would be the legacy of the human race, if everyone disappeared tomorrow. Not through war or through a catastrophic event, but simple vanished.

The scariest chapters for me had to be the one on nuclear reactors, and also the one which describes the inability of nature to break down and biodegrade plastic. Every piece of plastic created by us since the 1950s is still with us. This coupled with the fact that much of it ends up in the oceans is quite disturbing.

Another chapter highlights the chemical complex that produces many of our everyday household products, the oil refinery complex in Houston. This chapter was just plain interesting, the way that different types of fuels and inputs for plastic making are separated and how the refineries are so connected and linked together.

It's definitely worth reading, although towards the end it gets a bit odd, and sticks less to its main theme.

Vote for MMP

2007-09-29T11:11:00.000-05:00

There are clear advantages to a proportional system. I think the one proposed by the Ontario citizens group that we here in Ontario are voting on, in a few weeks is one I think it better than the current system. They are proposing Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation.

It stops the practice of strategic voting and stops the wasted votes. It is it truly democratic to have someone who received 35% of the vote receiving 100% of the representation? If you have a 4 way race it may even be less than that.

Now I don't think anyone would suggest removing the directly elected MPs and system that are the hallmark of the First past the post system(FPTP). The MMP system merely tops this number up with MPs who come off party lists, in order to make the end result more equal to how voters actually voted.

Now you can vote for your local MP and vote his party, or even vote for the green party and have that vote count and matter.

Now you don't have to worry that voting for the NDP will lead to a conservative government. The system is designed to fix some elements of the FPTP that lead to small changes in voting leading to huge impacts on the results.

In the current system a small change of say 5% in the vote can lead to ridiculous swings in results.

Under MMP you also would be able to have representation from MPs you might not get under the current system. For example even though the Liberals have a stronghold in Toronto, under MMP you might be able to elect a conservative from TO. Or if taken federally, an NDP MP from Alberta (ok maybe it's a long shot).

Anyways I think putting together a new system is worth it. The entrance of new parties would have a refreshing impact on the political system, and hopefully on voter turnout.

Oh and that canard about having more MPs is wasteful, we're talking about making important decisions that affect all of us here, we shouldn't base our decision on how many MPs there are, but on which produces the best decisions.

More Naomi Klein

2007-09-09T11:16:00.000-05:00

What an interesting book, it makes the explicit link between economic violence and actual violence, mostly at least to start in Latin America. It's well researched and I think shows that she has matured as a writer and as a critic of corporate power and modern capitalism (or as she and others have pointed out it's closer to corporatism.

Anyways it was with an eye to the her explosion of the idea that there is a direct and simple link between economic freedom and democracy, or the free market and democracy.

There are many many people who have taken issue with this tautology. It's funny how deep it seems to run in American discourse over the last 25 years. Anyways I saw another blatant example taken from Thomas Friedman's column today in the NYtimes.

"One way a country develops the software of liberty, Mr. Mandelbaum says, is by nurturing a free market. Kurdistan has one. The economy in the rest of Iraq remains a mess. “A market economy,” he argues, “gives people a stake in peace, as well as a constructive way of dealing with people who are strangers. Free markets teach the basic democratic practices of compromise and trust.”

What a bunch of crap. I can't believe anyone would actually believe this. The big elephant in the room of course is the example of China. Political repression exists and continues to exist, while the economic free market has taken hold since it's opening up in the 1970s.

I am shocked that anyone would continue to assert those kind of things in the face of such obvious evidence. There seem to be people who often complain about human rights in China and also speak about the economic miracle and the threat of Chinese growth, who cannot recognize the incompatibility of saying these things while mouthing the platitude "Free markets teach the basic democratic principles of compromise and trust".

This is what Naomi Klein explicitly links her in new book The Shock Doctrine. The anti-democratic nature (despite the rhetoric) of many of the interventions supported and promoted by the proponents of Friedmanism and Reganomics. I really do believe that this is the best contribution her thoroughly researched book provides.

Now I haven't finished the book but I am impressed, it's a pretty gruesome and disturbing portrait she paints. I am also curious to see what the reaction will be by her opponents. If it's anything like what i heard on the radio earlier this week, she has nothing to worry about.

Shock Doctrine

2007-09-07T14:56:00.000-05:00

I can't wait to get into more of The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

I've listened to her interview on the CBC by the radio program the current (which can be found in two parts here.) She is quite articulate and I think a lot of her arguments have merit. She also recognizes the limits of some parts of her argument. When asked directly whether for example torture is required to implement the economic program her response was not directly. She did note however that in many of these countries violence was used to suppress dissent of the policies and that in many of the examples torture did occur. I think that gives credence and marks her out and somehow who has actually taken the time to really think through these issues. Now I may not end up agreeing with her, but it was in marked contrast to the tone of her critic (who was on the show. I'm sure there are more intelligent critiques of her book that will surface, I will also grant that she was given more time and that the expert brought in to criticize actually didn't have the same amount of time)

It was interesting also to note the criticisms of her critic on the show. He merely said she was a "conspiracy theorist " that her analysis lacked depth and that she conflated different arguments. He never really attacked the substance of her argument. He also jumped into random tangents and sidestepped the issues often. He ended up talking about random things about Iraq which didn't address really the question or Naomi Klein's argument.I thought that was the most fascinating part of the response part of the segment.

I have a feeling she will be attacked and dismissed, I just truly hope that people will actually take the time to read it rather than dismissing it out of hand. The connections she brings out are not necessarily new, but do provide a new platform and highlight the connections that remain between the economic fundamentalists of today and their predecessors and the impact they have had.

Being a grad student

2007-09-06T14:53:00.000-05:00

So far it's pretty fun. I am really looking forward to starting my classes, so far they have been fun but I'm ready to get into the program and start meeting people and generating ideas for projects and getting together all the readings..

One of the strangest things it that 4 classes is considered normal, that's what's expected. Which I have a feeling means each one of those will exert its toll because I'm sure the level of reading is going to be quite high.

Anyways so far so good.. I've met a few interesting people and I also met an old friend I hadn't seen for quite some time.

Things are looking good now that classes have started

Well here's an old post

2007-09-01T09:05:00.000-05:00

I just deleted my other blog. I hadn't written there in quite some time, the last post was September of last year. I was trying to find a place for some more political posts, but I think the best thing to do is concentrate on one blog and work on that. I should have more time to do this as I am returning to my student roots (heh heh).

Yesterday was my last day of work for the time being as I return to Carleton to pursue my MPA full-time. I have kept some of the old posts and I thought i'd repost one of my favorite and best written pieces here. So here goes, This was first posted in September of 2006.

About GM.

After watching the movie Who killed the electric car, I went and had a discussion with a friend of mine about the movie; in particular it was about the role of GM as a political actor.

Now my friend criticized me for my lack of understanding of business. But I still strongly believe that you have to understand the modern corporation as a political actor.

A few days ago about a week after my debate I was reading a biography of John Kenneth Galbraith. In his book A new Industrial State, he talks about how the modern corporation has moved beyond the profit maximizing entity described in the economics textbook.

Now JKG was an economist, but it seems to me that he was one of the few who realized the impact of power on economic relations. Economists still to this day largely ignore the social context in which their theories apply.

Anyways the main thing that my friend kept repeating (which seems to be to be a conservative mantra) is that GM is a profit maximizing entity, if it doesn't make business sense they won't do it. While this is true in the long run, is GM doesn't make a profit it will cease to exist, modern corporations are political actors.

Galbraith seems to understand this implicitly in his work. He suggests that the corporation as an entity can have other goals that the maximization of profit. It might be a steady return on investment (i.e. they do not take risks that might endanger a steady level of profit) or it might be the return to shareholders , or it might even be that the CEO wants the largest pay possible with stock options this has become a more common problem).

Companies as large as GM also have a lot at stake, and thus become risk averse as well. They might simply decide that because of their weight in the market, they can prevent competition and keep making profits out of what they are already doing.

This is the profound failure examined in Who killed the electric car. As mentioned in the film, GM had a 2-3 year lead on its competitors in terms of it work on the electric car. Largely because they deemed the stakes too high, they fought tooth and nail against the imposition of the Zero emission vehicle regulations that were in place in California rather than exploiting its edge in R&D and product development of the electric car. In other words they chose steady profit doing what they were doing, rather than disrupt their other product lines and face real competition.

In other words they chose certainty over the uncertainty of developing a new product.
This is the problem with the large corporations, they are no longer innovators.

While it is true that companies need to be a certain size in order to attract capital and create interesting products there becomes a certain point where they are too big and too unwieldy to compete and they start becoming defensive.

The most interesting example in modern times is the degree to which Apple even though it is a small company makes Microsoft shake in its boots. Apple has become the leader through its innovation, and creativity while its competitors defend their positions and copy what Apple does. Microsoft has for years depended on its ability to buy upstart competitors in order to actually acquire and create new products. Microsoft because of its size doesn't seem to need to innovate; it simply buys the innovations of others and repackages them as if they created it themselves. This is why a truly innovative company like Apple scares Microsoft silly.

Imagine a competitive market of small and medium sized companies; this is truly what we should be aiming for rather than the oligopolies and cartels we are busy constructing now.

Go Riders Go!

2007-08-26T20:13:00.000-05:00

Green is the colour
football is the game
We're all together
and winning is our aim
So cheer us on in the sun and rain
Saskatchewan Roughrider is our name

Well as I have just finished my first season of summer flag football, I thought I'd put in my two cents on how awsome it is that the Roughriders are 6-2 this season.

It's nice that in the first season on Kent Austin back with the riders (He was their quarterback the last time they won the Grey Cup) that they are having some success. What a move it was to get Kerry Joseph. I was a long suffering fan of the team for 12 years, it's nice to have one that looks as good as they do now.

My dad bought season tickets the year after they won the Grey Cup in 1989. I went to almost every game over the next 10 years, and the occasional game after I moved to Ottawa in 2000. I have never seen fans like the Rider fans, they eat bleed and sweat green! A lot of them have to come in from several hours away just to see the games. I remember one guy telling me that because he had inherited the tickets from his dad, he's been considered a season ticket holder since before he was born! (he has been going to games since he was 3 years old!)

I miss the sense of community that comes with the sort of communal emotional experience that is being a football fan. 10 years of 9 games a season. They are not what you would call friend but the feeling of cameraderie is there. I mean how many people can share the ins and outs of a CFL team with you, given that so many players switch teams so often these days.

I really hope for all those long-suffering fans that we may be at the beginning of something good, hell we might even have a home playoff game! (There hasn't been a home playoff game since like the mid 80s if not earlier..)

Interesting debate

2007-08-08T19:59:00.000-05:00

I just read a post on my friend Pat's blog and it got me thinking. I also managed to stumble upon a particular series in the " Great Debates Series which highlighted again some of the same issues. Now I am not one to necessarily agree with Ignatieff on everything, particularly since his support of the Iraq war (which he sort of maybe recants here and his somewhat failed entry into Canadian politics, but he has a good point in this instance.

Igantieff simply asks the question "Whose history are we talking about?" in response to Jack Granatstein's contention that we don't teach enough history to Canadian and that Canadians do not know their history. Now the larger point they both agree with but Granatstein seem to imagine that there is this central "Canadian" history that emerges, and needs to be taught, and dismisses to large degree the movement towards social history.

Now I am a person who focuses mostly on economics and politics and so even though I think these are important there needs to be a role for social history. For what is history but the story of a people? The move towards social history also adds colour and diversity to the understanding of Canada. We need to appreciate that the history of Canada is not only the history of the white Canadians.

My issue with Pat's posting is that he falls into a similar as many who in general tend towards the Conservative side of the political spectrum. He suggests that the reverence Americans have for the office of their Presidency is something to which Canada should aspire. I profoundly disagree. We have never had the temerity to imagine that we have a manifest destiny, that somehow we are a chosen people, like our friendly (most of the time) neighbours to the South. Pat is right however to link his ideas to imperialism. I would imagine that most Canadians would shrink away from any attempt at overt Canadian imperialism. Canada as a country with Colonies? How is that compatible with democracy is the first question one must ask. (whether Canada fits into the American imperialism or is itself an imperial power today I leave to the Marxists)

As John Ralston Saul writes in Reflections of a Siamese Twin" The United states ... is the natural prolongation of the European idea. It is the European state personified. It has become what France, Germany, England and Spain dreamt they might become if only they had had the space", this is compared and contrasted with the Canadian nation state. In fact the central argument of his entire book, or at least a large portion of it, is that we have to understand that Canada is not in the European model. It is not, and cannot and has never been an example of a tradition European based nation state. He argues that this is our central strength. And while I certainly do see things that can be improved upon and things that are done better outside our borders, to ignore that central reality is to betray our Canadian identity.

Conservatives still have to follow the law

2007-08-01T06:20:00.001-05:00

Thank god someone had the good sense to stand up to the conservatives on the issue of the wheat board monopoly. They were told today that they have to get a vote in parliament in order to remove (or destroy) the wheat board's monopoly in the Western Canadian trade in barley.

Now I personally disagree with this policy for a number of reasons but most troubling for me, has been the totally disrespectful and irresponsible way they have been trying to implement this policy. They started by not allowing any debate on the issue and censuring the head of the wheat board with a gag order. Then they held a plebiscite on the issue in which they muddied the waters with unclear questions, they did not receive majority support for the option they are promoting and called it a success! You can see the questions here

Anyways at least there was a judge willing to stand up the bullying of the Conservatives!!

I think they really need to remember their roots and their supposed democratic credentials. They seem intent on doing everything in the dark and not having public debates. I suppose they've taken some lessons from the Liberals.

I think the real question is whether the conservatives actually have any of the feigned outrage left after they have basically become the new Liberals. They deserve all the criticism they have received. I wonder if they can come up with any ideas that aren't stolen from the Liberal playbook this fall.

Sicko!

2007-07-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

I just realized it has been months and months since my last post. Wow. I have thought a few times about posting some random comments on here but I guess I haven't gotten around to it recently.

I just got back from seeing the movie Sicko! by Michael Moore. Interesting movie! I also found it interesting in that he seemed to step back from being such a big presence in this film. I enjoyed that, because it meant that he could focus on the stories themselves. I suppose one should throw out the usual caveats, in that he focuses very much on individual cases which don't easily paint the broader picture.

However in the case of healthcare I found that the cases speak for themselves. The fact of the matter is that it is those extreme cases that illustrate the problems with the US healthcare system. The main problem is that it is not universal. The actual method and way of getting towards a universal system matter less than the fact that it is not universal. He is merely presenting some examples of where the health care system breaks down. In fact it is a classic caes of market failure.

Now I happen to be reading an excellent book on efficiency by Joseph Heath called The efficient Society and in it he explains the two problems with your typical insurance market which includes the market for healthcare. The first problem is Adverse selection, and the other is moral hazard. They are both important aspects to consider in an insurance market.

Adverse selection is created when there is imperfect information. So for example in most cases without the huge questionnaires and forms the insurance company has no way of knowing how sick you really are. Because of that sick people will want insurance and will be willing to pay more for insurance than those that are healthy. Healthy people will not want insurance at the same price as those who are sick.

The company will essentially end up with high costs and high premiums because those who are healthy will not be willing to pay high prices and those that have high costs will choose to have insurance and be willing to pay more.

The fact that the insurance company will in general all things being equal attract more sick people than healthy people is called adverse selection.

Basically that was the main example that we kept seeing in the movie. The fact that insurance companies spend an inordinate amount of time trying to deny claims and trying to gather more information on which to asses their policies. They are trying to overcome the adverse selection involved in the health insurance market.

I was also glad in away that Moore did not go into too much detail because I think that would have detracted from his more general point. Americans get poor outcomes for the money they spend. Also for all the money they spend they fail to have universal coverage. This is unlike in any other western country!!

Now when it comes to Canada, I hope that they will begin to realize that there are many other models we can emulate. I find in this country we tend to end up in a situation where it is either the status quo or the American system. Nothing could be further from the truth. The French get better outcomes and do include some aspects of the private system.

The structure of our system does have all sorts of inefficiencies. The fact that private insurance is not allowed in Quebec has been ruled illegal in the Chaoulli decision. The impact of this decision is still rumbling through Quebec and will soon have effects in the rest of the country. We need to have a more honest debate and sooner rather than later.

Why Mexicans don't drink Molson

2007-05-19T08:22:00.001-05:00

I have finished reading the book Why Canadians don't drink Molsons by Andrea-Mandel Campbell. I first heard of it on the radio program the Sunday Edition. I had high hopes for it, but unfortunately I found it lacking, not necessarily with its message but I found the way it was presented lacking.

Now I found the second part of the book more impressive than the first half. I suppose because I heard the radio interview the first part lacked anything new, because all her examples on the radio and the stories were from the first half of the book. I found the book chock full of anecdotes and smaller examples but I found that the author had problems painting the bigger picture. She does a better job in the second half of the book, but I found the larger context missing a bit.

Now this isn't to say that she doesn't try, she constantly worries about the challenge posed by China as of course many business people are becoming increasingly interested. I found it hard to figure out who her audience was. I found the book itself in the business section, but it seems in some sections to be aimed towards a larger audience.

I guess my biggest complaint was that it really didn' take aim at any specific myths or problems. Its central thesis has been examined by other claiming the Canadian business sector has failed. Including George Grant's lament for a nation (although of course this was from what we would now consider the 'left') It had the opportunity to go beyond that, and I don't think that it did. Of course being a largely pro-market commentary it blamed government for pretty much everything even while showing that it did have potential. I think this paragraph is a good example and deserves to be quoted here

“If Canadians don’t believe in themselves, it’s largely because government is sending them signals that it shouldn’t. If Canadians think big business is bad, it’s because government is confirming their suspicions. If Canadians glorify the middle of the road it’s because that’s what government espouses. If Canadians are indecisive and risk averse, it’s because that’s how they see the government behave. If Canadians don’t know their place in the world, it’s because their government is lost” (page 311)

For someone who largely sees government intervention in a negative light, she sure ascribes a lot of power there to government.

I will be posting a longer review in the future my other
blog

Spiderman 3

2007-05-06T19:51:00.000-05:00

Well i went to go see it, and I was pretty impressed with the story line, but I hope they don't make a 4th! To be honest I think they were a bit out of gas, and I liked the 2nd one the best. At least i think I do. I may have to go see Spiderman 3 again.

The fight scenes were amazing, and I thought the idea of having two bad guys team up, was a pretty good idea. Venom was cool!!

I haven't been doing a good job of posting here over the last little while, but I'm hoping to get back at it. I still have a lot to say. I'm hoping actually to do a few books reviews over the next couple of months, to practice writing and I think it'll be a good experience to do it. I'll post them on here of course, and criticism is welcome. I'll decide on a book sometime in the next 2 weeks.

Virginia

2007-04-18T19:04:00.000-05:00

Well I think this whole Virginia event is overblown to the utmost degree. I can't fathom why an event which though tragic, suddenly becomes a national tragedy. I truly find it ridiculous how every event in which something bad happens becomes a tragedy. The word tragedy should be reserved for events which are truly sad, not for any event where someone dies. Yes it is tragic, yes it is sad, but something like 38 people, are killed very day in the US by gun violence.

I think that was it going on in Iraq is truly a tragedy, a country is being destroyed by its own people because of the actions of the United States. That is something that was preventable, has led to enormous suffering and really has had only negative consequences.

However I find it puzzling that an event like today's killing of 171 people in Iraq gets way way way less coverage than the murders of 33 people in Virginia. Both were senseless , both were random acts of terror, and i do understand that the one is in the US and thus strikes closer to home, but I still find it hard to believe.

I also find it truly disturbing how the media sends out streams of meaningless information just to fill time. I mean how important is it to know every single detail of the last hours of this boys life? There is an entire network(CNN) devoted to finding out every detail. Finding out that the person who did this wore brown shoes today is not worth a live update!

It is a good example of losing the forest for the trees. The real job of the media would be to look at the larger picture and ask the tough questions. Why do these shootings happen in our country at all? What can be done to prevent this from happening? These are uncomfortable questions and I find that too often it becomes all about the victim in an attempt to avoid asking the larger questions. It comes out in a predictable manner that the victim was a 'loner'. Well golly gee that took some analysis!! It's the same line in every case!

Maybe I'm just cynical but I find the blanket media coverage of the events in Virginia over the last few days excessive.

Service Industry Jobs

2007-03-28T19:57:00.000-05:00

Well I've started reading a book by Richard Sennett called the corrosion of Character and it's interesting in its criticism of the "new capitalism". I was also thinking about how we talked in one of my Canadian studies classes about "telework" and the call centre experience.

Now that I'm living it I can understand why everyone is so critical about it. I hate it, I find it ridiculous and to be honest I feel like I'm being de-skilled as I work. The lack of control is embedded in the very network idea that we are part of. The constant attempt to fit the normal human behaviour into our patterns and packages of information that are useful to us, is frustrating for us and it must be for the callers as well.

The lack of security and benefits is also an issue. I count myself among the lucky ones, I work for a government call centre though of course I'm not actually employed by the government itself. I can only imagine the hell that would be an outbound call centre.

The thing I'm really scared about it ending up being stuck there for any serious length of time. I already see a lot of people there who are talented smart people stuck in a call centre. It seems to be an employer (not of choice) but of last resort for many young (and not so young people) people. I am afraid of ending up like those people. Unfortunately especially in a "service" industry town like Ottawa the only jobs being created are in call centres, some high tech and financial services.

I tried the financial services angle and it sucked, I actually my time at the bank i worked at was the worst work experience I've ever had. I haven't had a whole lot but it was dismal. What a joke, i can't believe they really expect the bank tellers who have no input into anything, and have to deal with all the stupid mistakes that they make from up top, would actually buy into the system. What a joke!

In reading Sennett's book i realize the horrible language they use to describe what they are doing. Why the hell would my boss be "coaching" me? She's my boss not a coach. I think that's what bothered me the most about the job, they expected loyalty from me for nothing in return. That's the problem with work these days they are trying to extract the old values where people cared about their job without the commensurate responsibility on the employer side.

I've never worked in any other workplace so dominated by the measurement of every single type of activity and the focus on productivity. Being paid the12$ an hour I was making doesn't encourage loyalty especially when the job itself requires little or no skill and you are unable to take any sort of initiative. The attempts to force us into "volunteering" also put me off. I worked in another bank and there was none of that attempt to control everything we were doing.

The bank that I worked at in the past focused on simple customer service. That was all, and that's what people got.

One thing that really bothers me both as a customer and as a employee is the attempt made by companies to make you fit into their mold. "You have to do it this way", why? Because it's easier for us[the company]. If the customer is always right and these companies were serious about customer service we wouldn't have these problems.

A new project

2007-03-22T07:19:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about this particular project for quite some time.

I'd like to examine the ideological shift that took place in the 1980s in the economic and political thinking of countries like the US (with Reagonomics), the UK (Thatcherism) and New Zealand (Rogernomics) . Although the first two experiences are better known the last example, New Zealand is probably the best example of what the revolution brought on by this thinking could produce. In fact it is a shame that it is not better known.

I also would like to contrast that experience with the backlash that took place throughout the latter part of the 1990s and John Ralston Saul has characterized as the 'End of Globalization'. I think that enough time has passed now that it is possible to examine this period with a bit more dispassion. As someone who "came of age" politically at the end of the 1990s, going back to the 1980s presents a pretty interesting story.

A lot of the groundwork of the globalization ideology that had protesters up in arms in the late 1990s in Seattle came about in the 1980s. In large respect the internationalization of this movement was an attempt to 'lock in' the reforms done at the national level during the 1980s.

Canada also played a role in this, especially contentious for us was the GST but the same was done in most countries (notably excluding the US). Slashing income tax rates and increasing reliance on consumption taxes (which are regressive) was a key plank of the neo-conservative revolutionaries. Canada was to some degree protected by its federal structure which meant that the federal government could never have gone as far as the government of New Zealand could have gone, and thank god! What is interesting is the fact that New Zealand changed its electoral system as a result of the aggressive use of the powers conferred by its first past the post system, and the result was a moderating of the impulse to radically change things.

I see the possibility of using the New Zealand, US and UK possibly also Canada and Australia examples as case studies in the large trend of economic policy making during the period.

These countries are close enough in terms of culture and form part of the English speaking world or English speaking block.

Anyways it should be a huge project but one that I feel is worth exploring.

Budget Time

2007-03-20T06:42:00.000-05:00

Well no a very exciting budget. Not that I expected much.

I wonder if the provinces will actually shut up now about the "fiscal imbalance" somehow I doubt it. Maybe they'll come up with a different term for the exact same thing. that's what they usually do. It seems to me that everytime the federal government decentralizes or gives the provinces money no strings attached (just the way they like it) they just cut taxes.

I think the real fiscal imbalance is between provinces and cities. Unlike provinces cities do not have access to very many tax options and the taxes they do have mostly the property tax is inelastic and regressive. Cities need the help way more than the provinces do.

The real problem I have with it though is that the provinces just want money without having to raise it themselves. It's irresponsible and it lacks transparency. If you want to spend the money, raise the money. When the Conservatives formed a government, one of the strategies that I though was most likely to end this debate, was to actually lower federal taxes, so as to stop generating surpluses. Then challenge the provinces to take up that room, it would've been interesting to see if that had worked. I have a feeling the conservatives were too timid to actually try it, but if they ever form a majority we'll have to see if that strategy comes back.

Although I think the so called fiscal imbalance is non-existent, I think that if the provinces at least transferred that money to the cities it wouldn't be too bad. The cities are especially hard hit in Ontario (I know that people don't like to hear that), because Mike Harris downloaded tons of services to cities without any money to fund them.

Overall I think my feelings about this budget is the same as feeling about the government, they are accomplishing little, no big ideas but they are not pushing us in a negative direction either. I'm hoping that maybe if they continue to govern for a bit they might become more ambitious. Then again Conservatives don't tend to like government (or so they say) so my hopes aren't that high.

Sarko

2007-03-13T07:26:00.000-05:00

So I know it's been over a month since I last posted, but I've been busy and I haven't had a lot to say (hard to believe I know!)

Anyways I caught some of a show on France's TV3 with Nicolas Sarkozy. I have to say the man had some interesting things to say. I've heard a fair about about in him in the media, although we hear a lot more about his opponent Royale.

He seems to be a pretty committed candidate and the one article referred to him being the 'Thatcher' of Britain, and he does seem to want to challenge the state to move in a more minimalist direction. He attacked the fact that France has such a huge public service, and like I think we will end up doing in Canada, he wants to use attrition to shrink the public service.

It's actually interesting to try and understand how France is organized, I did take a course on European politics and we were supposed to deal with France but the class was not that well taught and we ended up skipping a whole lot of stuff.

The other thing I am reading is A History of Postwar Europe. It's pretty interesting and I have for a while been interested in European politics, though that interest has been fading lately. It's an interesting book and tries to put the entire Postwar European experience into a narrative. I'm only about 2/5th of the way through but his focus on Eastern Europe I find particularly interesting and of course he does provide a huge reading list at the end, so maybe i'll do mroe reading about Europe.

One of the books I have had to set aside for the moment but that i think should be extremely interesting is A history of the English speaking peoples since 1900 (which in his case means the Uk, the US and the white dominions) . The thesis itself should prove to be fascinating, in that he argues the war on terror like the second world war as well as the cold war bring together the English speaking peoples in their particular project, which he hasn't quite defined yet.

I assume it is something like promoting peace and democracy for non-English speaking peoples everywhere. Should be fascinating read!

Brier Curling

2007-03-13T07:19:00.000-05:00

Three missed shots!! As far as i am concerned Jeff Stoughton had one of the best teams in the Brier, and he could have won it all had it not been for 3 shots. Now in curling it always does come down to a shot or two in each game, and to be honest the Howard rink was the best during the week. I just hope he can keep that team together and win the right to represent Canada at the Olympics in 2010. As for those 3 shots, they are as follows

#1 He was light on a draw for one to beat Ontario
#2 He should have taken a single point in end #8 against Alberta, he would have been up by 3 and had the hammer in 10
#3 The decision to try that super difficult raise in end 4 (I think against Ontario)

All in all we saw some great curling despite the ice conditions, and of course it's very easy for me to say things watching from TV and not having curled more than once in my life, but hey thats what blogging is for, to express my opinions.

I have followed Jeff Stoughton for several years now at least in the Brier, and I really like him as a curler, and he seems like a pretty funny guy too.

Simcity 4

2007-02-11T12:22:00.000-06:00

Well there seems to be a lot of my friends playing simcity 4 so in deference to them i am posting my coolest building. This building is like 3 or 4 times the height of the hospital in the game and it just plain looks cool. This is not from a mod or anything, but from the game itself.

Immigration

2007-02-10T08:28:00.000-06:00

Well after seeing an article in the G&M that talks about the problems that immigrants seem to be having these days i'd offer a few thoughts.

One thing I learned was that our ridiculous and stupid insistence on accepting only well educated immigrants was actually a fairly recent decision, apparently this changed a lot in 1993. The focus became trying to attract more skilled workers and highly educated people.

The real shame in this country is the lack of will to try and get these workers credentials recognized. We bring in PHd engineers and they can only work as taxi drivers. We cannot continue to do this. These people are realizing that in some cases they can make more money and have more opportunities in India and China now rather than coming to Canada an washing dishes.

The stories are pretty ridiculous, but nobody seems to pay much attention to them. The credential recognizing bodies (which are provincial) are shockingly bad at accepting foreign credentials.

A while ago i heard the story of a woman from Afghanistan who was told she needed original documents in order to qualify as a teacher, only problem was her school was blown to bits in Afghanistan. Was she given any other options, nay other way to get her credentials recognized, no, original documents only. Many others are refugees who have flown the country because of persecution. These people cannot contact their governments for fear their families will be hurt, or in many cases the governments will do everything to stop these people from getting what they need.

This country has a shortage of doctors and yet there are many many capable doctors working below their capacity not as doctors, but working for minimum wage somewhere at a tim hortons.

In essence I think our policy makes absolutely no sense. We should bring in people who are willing to work lower paying jobs. We should not be stealing the elites of poor countries and then they waste their talent here.

It's no wonder that these highly educated people get discouraged. It seems like it's reaching a point where the whole thing needs to be reexamined.

Alright here goes!

2007-01-28T12:59:00.000-06:00

Well I was talking to my friend Pat last night about why I have a hatred of economics. Now first of all this is not only because I failed a few higher level economics courses in university. The reason I abandoned the discipline (because after all I started out in university wanting to be an economist), goes deeper than that.

I think at a fundamental level any attempt to reduce human behaviour to a few variables and equations will inevitably fail. The increasing sophistication of mathematical modeling still cannot accurately predict human behaviour.

The first thing any economist will do when they develop a model is make assumptions. Fair enough, you can't make a model without eliminating some variables and simplifying things. However an increasing number of the assumptions made by economist are made to make the math fit. Now in my economics classes I didn't have the guts to suggest that some of these assumptions were leading to false conclusions, but I think this is often the case.

A perfect example of this is from the book freakonomics, a book touted to show the amazing power of economic analysis and the way that it can be used on non-traditional subjects and still have value. I suppose one could argue that taking economics out of its traditional domain is part of the reason that it fails to carry as much weight, but it still highlights some of the shortcomings of economic reasoning.

The author uses the example of falling crime rates in NYC and he links them to abortion rates. Now this seems to be to be problematic. He claims that the link between rising abortion and lower crime exceeds the impact of crime prevention strategies implement under then mayor Rudolph Juliani. Now I don't doubt that there might be a link, but the claims he makes are way out of proportion to the evidence presented. (He ended up making an error in his calculations which damaged the credibility of his argument further).

In many of the other examples of the book he also uses proximate measures. He will take something he can measure, for example test scores and through regression analysis link it to something else say marital status of the parents and then make claims based on this research. However he makes claims that exceed his limited view. In almost every case because he cannot measure the social factor directly, he takes approximations to back his claim.

Again I see the same problem in economics ore generally, the attempt to be value neutral when in fact economics and economists present an analysis full of values. The sacredness of individuality for example permeates everything economics does, because it is an analysis based in western values about individuality. Try even getting an economist to even admit that there may be values hidden in their analysis.

Back after a short holiday break!

2007-01-23T18:13:00.000-06:00

First of all, I have to say I am proud of the Indianapolis Colts and their well deserved victory last Sunday. I was quite scared that they might have been blown in the second half. I missed most of the third quarter but to my surprise they had mounted a huge comeback! I think they said it was the biggest comeback in AFC championship history!!!

We also now have two black coaches facing off in the superbowl final! Good for both of them!

In other news I am enjoying my new job, it pays better than the previous one and I like the people more. I am slowly getting used to giving information over the phone, and of course it's always nice that I am able to keep up my French language skills. I really need to work on my French writing though, even writing a quick email seems to pose problems for me.

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I bought a new racket shortly after Christmas and now I play badminton at least twice a week, I also found a new place to pay for a third time every week. I am excited and enjoying it.

That's all for now

Saddam Hussein

2006-12-30T15:00:00.000-06:00

Well he's dead.

I think the whole process has been a sham, and as I discovered when i took some ethical philosophy courses a few years ago, for me the ends never justify the means.

That course actually made me think a lot more about ethics and how to construct and ethical argument. One of my essays was actually on the death penalty and I actually found one of the most convincing arguments to be a utilitarian (in other words the ends justify the means, ie whatever makes the most people happy) argument against the death penalty.

In essence the argument was that in killing these people we are in effect letting them off the hook. It's a quick relatively painless process, as opposed to slaving away or sitting in a jail cell for 20 years.

Anyways that's all for now.

What the hell are the conservatives thinking?

2006-12-20T21:29:00.000-06:00

Why should they abolish the Wheat board?

Now this isn't a subject that a whole lot of people outside of western Canada are interested in. Heck probably nowhere near a majority of western Canadians even know what the wheat board does or how it works.

My problem is not substance but the way it is being done. By threatening people, and firing them because they don't toe the line. Because they have a process to essentially undermine the organization without due process. Even if it is stated in your electoral platform there is a process. We do after all live in under a system of laws. Even the government is bound by the law.

However the government of Canada is in the process of undermining and destroying the Wheat board. Having worked with other supply managed systems, I hope they don't undergo the same process. Of betrayal of systems which have worked well for farmers (not necessarily as well for consumer let it be noted, I DID MENTION THAT) that are particularly Canadian, that are part of a regulatory culture and regime, and that at the end of the day have been effective at achieving their stated objectives.

Why destroy that for some abstract ideology? Why crucify and destroy already struggling farmers and farm communities? (This is where the term crucifixion economics comes from, it's awful stuff)

I think the wheat board is a valuable tool in protecting the interests of Canadian farmers. The reality is that small farmers are not going to have the clout of the wheat board to negotiate prices. Anybody who imagines the opposite is doing exactly that, imagining.

Some ammunition for those who oppose market fundamentalists

2006-12-16T19:40:00.000-06:00

The CBC program IDEAS did a great series on Karl Polanyi and I heard some of it today and it reminded me that I should really recommend to anyone interested in economic issues, the book he wrote in the early 50s called the Great Transformation.

It's a great book, it destroys the claims that economists make. Specifically the idea that the market reflects natural behaviour. In fact he brings up one of my favorite criticisms, and I think one of the best deserved. The attempt by economists to use market based ideas when looking at the past.

In fact as Polanyi notes, the creates of a self- regulating market is a stark utopia.
No other civilization before the development of the industrial revolution promoted the values that the market dictates. All people have traded, but we are the first to try and base our civilization on the market, a mere mechanism, a tool.

The individualism, competitiveness, acquisitiveness and especially the divorce of economics from politics or the social order, are all things that no civilization has pushed as hard as we have. Not many societies have stressed individualism and competitiveness as values.Probably none before ours could afford to, for it would have destroyed them.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of his book, and probably on of the more cited, is his idea of the double movement. That the market and society are fundamentally at odds with each other, and if the market forces itself into an area, there is a spontaneous building up of opposition to such a move. A sort of pushing and pulling between the market and society. For as he argues, the market alone would destroy any civilization.

The fact that this work is still so accessible and feels so current speaks to its applicability in an age so dominated by the assumptions of the economists, and gives voice to those who oppose the spread of market principles to everyday life. It provides well articulated cogent and strong material to do battle with the market fundamentalists.

We seem to be in a period between ages, and at such a critical juncture we can only hope the economist lose, for if they do, we all win.

Stéphane Dion and the Liberal party

2006-12-03T00:18:00.000-06:00

Well I had been expecting to see Bob Rae as the next liberal leader tonight, but it turns out that the Liberal leadership convention really did offer up a surprise.

Stéphane Dion won the liberal leadership. It was fascinating to watch, and I watched the coverage all day doing little else, besides a bit of homework.

It was riveting to watch the spectacle of the Liberal party choose a new leader, there was little dynamism however and I truly believe that the Liberals will lose the next election.

Because of a number of things going on recently I have been thinking about finding time to commit to doing volunteer work and becoming more engaged in the community.Although not the first thing I thought of, the action this weekend made me think about joining a political party. I have never really seriously thought about this before, and my dad had often cautioned me about thinking hard before making such a big decision, but I think the time may have come for me to at least look into it.

For me it wouldn't be so much about the partisan competition, but about becoming involved in an institution that can make a difference.

Again who knows at this point if I'll actually join one or not, but all the action this weekend certainly has got me thinking about it.

Well at least he embarassed the Bloc

2006-11-26T09:37:00.000-06:00

What did Stephen Harper accomplish this week with his motion recognizing Quebec as a nation?

Well he didn't define nation. He didn't make a coherent statement on Canadian nationalism. He didn't make many inroads in Quebec except for getting some press./

He did however do two things, save Michael Ignatieff's bacon, and embarass the Bloc.

Interestingly enough you'll have something close unanimity on the conservative motion to recognize that Quebeckers form a nation. The Bloc is supporting the conservative motion, because they got embarrassed by the fact that all other parties were supporting it and they would have come out not supporting the recognition of Quebeckers as a nation.

Now first of all Quebeckers do not form a nation in nay accepted meaning of the word. Anybody with access to a dictionary can be sure of that. Nor is there much a difference in meaning between the French and the English meaning of nation.

The political class seems to be using such a false distinction to imply that there is nothing to worry about. In either French or English as Jeffrey Simpson has written is is the United Nations or Nations Unies, exactly the same title in either English or French.

The sorry thing is that Stephen Harper the man who argued that we must stand up to Quebec's demands. The one who took such a hard line before and after the 1995 referendum is in danger of moving towards the liberal position of courting soft nationalists in order to win seats in Quebec. Will his supporters support this?

It simple proves that things look different once you're in government than on the opposition benches. Something I hope the liberals will spend some time learning.

Also a quick question, why does the bloc exist in our federal parliament anyways?

Doing some reading and some research

2006-11-19T18:02:00.000-06:00

I've been reading a fair amount lately, and i just finished reading Adrienne Clarkson's Autobiography and while I wish there was a bit more stuff about the office she held I did really enjoy her comments. I enjoyed the way she wrote as well, telling anecdotes and weaving her experience as governor general into almost every chapter and every experience.

She seems to have had quite an interesting life and i thought it came across well in the book. Her barbs are pointed, but fair(I would say)

I think she definitely raised the profile of the office and made into her own. I don't think we'll see a GG of her quality again for quite some time, certainly not (at least I don't see it happening) from Michaëlle Jean.

The other book I just started reading is that of Thomas Homer Dixon. His new book is called the upside of down. While I hope it's not too much of a repetition of the material that Jared Diamond tread over in his last book, i'm optimistic about it.

I got his first book, the Ingenuity Gap from my parents who found it in the bargain bin at Chapters. A bargain it certainly was, the book won the GG's award for non-fiction and I thought was an interesting book about the limits of human ingenuity.

I went to see him talk a few years ago, and he was certainly an interesting speaker. The panel was one to remember because it was only a few days after sept 11th, 2001. The topic was supposed to be something related to globalization but after some of the speakers couldn't come it was refashioned a bit and of course all the questions were about terrorism. It was interesting nonetheless and I was actually wodnering what had happened to Homer-Dixon just before I saw the new book.

The research I refer to in the title is the research I am doing for my history class. The history of tourism in Canada. I think I have a topic although i'm starting to have doubts about whether I really want to do it. So if anybody out there has suggestions of topics for a paper on Canadian tourism history i'd welcome the suggestions.

My topic is the Olympics in Calgary in 1988. I am curious in loooking at how such 'hallmark' events as they are called in the literature impact cities. The way in which they are promoted and the differences between promoting tourism and promoting an event like the Olympics and its impacts of tourism etc.

I'm curious if anyone out there has any other suggestions so send them in.

Long time; No post

2006-11-12T22:08:00.000-06:00

Well I haven't posted in a while and it really is because not much is going on right now, well not things i'll discuss on this blog anyways.

However I will say i am excited to see the new bond movie. Even more so after seeing a rather disappointing movie with Hugh Jackman in it. It seems like he's in every new movie coming out, but the one I saw was The Prestige. The movie itself wasn't too bad but I managed to figure out the main 'surprise' about 3/4 of the way through the movie.
Well that and it didn't really make much sense to me anyways.

The other thing that i've been thinking about is Paul Wells new book, Right Side Up. I've been following Well's blog for a couple of months now and generally i have to say i am impressed.

The book goes a step beyond and really clarifies for me how Paul Martin failed. I've heard a few interview with him, and my friend Pat and I went to get our copies of the book signed. He seems like such an unassuming character, but he is at his best in the new book.

He writes well and really fits the demise of Paul Martin into a larger context. i am a pretty astute follower of politics, but I am new to the game, a lot of these battles go back further than I can remember so it's nice to see someone with a bit more perspective.

I also think it's valuable as Wells mentions to remember why everybody thought Paul Martin was going to be such a great PM. He really had everyone thinking he was going to do such wonderful things. It turns out those impressions didn't last long.

Anyways that's what i've been up to. I also picked up two other books this weekend. Heart matters by Adrienne Clarkson, and a new book by Thomas Homer Dixon, somebody I discovered by accident courtesy of the bargain bin at Chapters.

Oh and I had a lemon meringue pie tonight.. doesn't it look yummy...

Ignatieff and the quebec nation

2006-10-30T19:06:00.000-06:00

WARNING THIS IS A POLITICAL POSTING.

Quebec as a nation?

I am amazed at how quickly people have started jumping all over Michael Ignatieff recent incredibly stupid decision to try and force a resolution at the Liberal convention in Montreal to study some way of recognizing Quebec in the constitution. Rightly so I feel.

I was watching CPAC(which thanks to some new knowledge I can now listen to without the translators. Thank god for SAP technology) tonight and they had two guests, one was Jeffrey Simpson (I had no idea he could speak French so well) and William Johnston.

Jeffrey Simpson repeated mostly his argument in Saturday’s Globe and Mail that only someone who wasn’t in country during Meech and Charlottetown could come up with such a stupid suggestion as Ignatieff’s idea of recognizing the Quebec nation. William Johsnton was also talking about how silly Ignatieff’s position is. Johnston brought up two points which I thought were worth mentioning here.

As he mentions clearly in his book on Stephen Harper, the supreme court has already ruled on what would happen in the case of a successful referendum. There would have to be a constitutional amendment in order for Quebec to leave to country. This means that all the provinces would have to come to some sort of agreement on how we would move forward. There is no pretending anymore (after the supreme court reference) that Quebec can unilaterally separate from Canada. After all we live in a democracy under the rule of law. Quebec cannot unilaterally declare independence. The constitution would still apply and Quebeckers are subject the constitution as are all Canadian provinces and territories.

The second point he made, and this I didn’t know before, is that no right to secession exists under international law. Apparently Quebec hired a group of experts from the UK,US Germany and France who said as much in a report published in 1992. There was some sort of tenuous right to secession in cases of formerly colonized countries but outside of those cases, no such right exists. Quebec as a rough approximation of the French Canadian community, has language rights, education rights, the province of Quebec has many other rights guaranteed under the constitution as well and so has no right under international law to secede.

Now Quebec separatists wrongly assume that every nation must have a state. This is simply not true. Such a position creates divisions and really Canada can stand to have a strong Quebec.

The funny thing is that the Liberals are reeling from sponsorship scandal in Quebec still to this day. One of the few places the Liberals can gain in the next election is in Quebec. I think it might be the only area of the country where they can gain seats. The sense of opportunism about these appeals only makes them that much worse.

The 1995 referendum was an extremely close call because no one actually stood up for Canada during that campaign.

The Liberal party seems to be attempting to buy the allegiance of Quebeckers by putting a few symbolic words in the constitution. The general thinking of many in the Liberal party and many who were in government, is that they need to purchase the allegiance of Quebec. This kind of thinking is what led to the sponsorship program in the first place.

The idea that instead of articulating a coherent defense of Quebec and it’s place in Canada, they simply throw money at the people of Quebec. It’s an incoherent plan, it wastes money and ultimately leads to resentment. I think that was a big lesson of the sponsorship scandal, Quebec liberals were literally trying to buy the votes of the people of Quebec.

Now on another note, I think if it came down to it. I’m thinking more and more that if Bob Rae wins the liberal leadership, it wouldn’t take too much for me to vote for him and his (new) party.

Still here

2006-10-29T17:40:00.000-06:00

Well I haven't posted much recently, but life continues pretty normally here in Ottawa.

I spent some time with some old friends while I was in Regina, and then this weekend, I managed to get a hold of someone i hadn't heard from in a few years. My friend was an exchange student a few years ago, who I lost tough with and through the magic of MSN I did manage to get a hold of him again.

Other than that life continues at a normal pace. I'm in the process of applying to do my MA. I'm really hoping that something comes from that.

I've been playing quite a bit of Simcity this weekend. It's such a fun game, especially now that I have a large enough region that my cities grow like magic.

I also have managed to start my research project for my class at Carleton. It should prove to be quite interesting. It's on the promotion of the Olympics in Calgary in 1988 and Montreal in 1976(well Calgary for sure, maybe some Montreal stuff too)

That reminds me; I saw something funny on TV today . Does anyone remember that really weird 'B' movie with David Duchovny called Evolution? Well it was on TV today. I've always wondered whether that movie wasn't just a big product placement by Head & Shoulders.
(For those who haven't seen it, H&S is the thing that kills the aliens in the movie, and at the end of the movie there's an actual H&S commercial)

Anyways that movie sucked, but made me laugh(mostly at how bad it is).

Out on the prairies again

2006-10-22T21:05:00.000-05:00

I'm not too sure when i'll be out here on the Saskatchewan plains again. I'm not spending christmas here, and it looks like my mom is determined to move out of the city within the next year.

Not that there's been much to come back to, to be honest. The great majority of people that I hung out with in highschool left the city, and the ones that are still in town i've grown apart from. It's also interesting to see how the city has changed in 6 years. I find it quite different from the days I remember it. Whether that's my perspective that has changed or the city itself has changed.

It amazing the little things that you notice when you return to a place you haven't been in a while. I guess a lot of small things add up over time.

It is also a reflection of the new place that you've been. I find Regina a fairly dull and gray city, but only in comparison with a much greener city like Ottawa. I'm sure Regina has always been a dull gray city, especially in the fall light and the dust of spring, I jsut never noticed it as much before.

Oh I also want to say that I enjoyed watching RDI this morning and seeing the Quebec perspective on things. I also got to watch CBC News SUnday for the first time in a while and I have to say I appreciate them looking into harder issues than the regular news. I also like the political commentary (of course) as well.

Those are my thoughts for the day. I'm reading an interesting book right now too, called stumbling into happiness, it's quite good.

2006-10-15T19:44:00.000-05:00

So i've been thinking about what books I should buy. I'm thinking in part that I should start reading some classics, and get a more fundamental sense of what western civilization is and where it comes from. These would be both political and philosophical classics.

I feel as thought I need a better grounding for some of my discussions about modern topics and I think it would help to read some of the authors in their own words.

That list remains to be developed though, and so I have a few books here I've been thinking of getting soon.

Heart Matters by Adrienne Clarkson [given that i'm such a fan of her husband I suppose it makes sense to get her book]
Right Side Up by Paul Wells [I like his blog, and i'm curious what he has to say]
Sorry I don't speak French by Graham Fraser should be an interesting read. Language politics interest me especially living in ottawa as a fluently (relatively speaking) bilingual anglophone

French Kiss by Chantal Hebert. I like what she says most of the time on CBC's the national so her book should be interesting.

The world is Flat by Thomas friedman. I like his stuff usually, though I find it extrremely oversimplified. I have been waiting for a long time for this to come out in paperback. Hopefully it won;t be too much longer

Stumbling on happiness by Daniel Gilbert just plain looks interesting..

Thats the list for now. No surprise it's moslty non fiction with a strong emphasis on Canadian politics for the moment. I haven't seen a book on international affairs that looks promising for a while now. Maybe I just own all the good ones?

Thanks be given

2006-10-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

Well i had a fun thanksgiving weekend. The two brothers were up, one was my brother the other my girlfriend's younger brother.

It was interesting to see the two of them meet actually, not much was said between them but it was interesting nonetheless.

I cooked a whole chicken for the first time and I have to say it turned out pretty well. Now that that's over I guess it's time to get back to work. Not looking forward to it, the day after long weekends are always busy at the bank, and we're short one person and we'll be short 2 people later in the week, this will guarentee a busy week for me.

I must have read Ayn rand's book Atlas Shrugged about 4 or 5 times. Now I find it interesting that i enjoy her books so much because I am deeply opposed to her views on almost anything. I do however find that the sense that her characters are outsiders misunderstood by the world does appeal to my sense of self and some of my own struggles in my childhood.

I find however through reading her writing as well as starting to follow more conservatives blogs and just through changes in my own thinking I am becoming more conservative over time. Though I would consider myself a moderate in almost eveyr way, I find that the conservatives (in general and the political party) are becoming more appealing.

It also helps that i find a lot of the progressives that i know and a lot that i have read are barking up the wrong tree and are just as vitriolic and stupid as the religious right in the US. On many many issues I find myself disagreeing in fundamental ways with the NDP and many on the left.

Now this does not mean that I am going to embrace the religion of the right, ie 'the free market will solve everything' nor will I ever believe that cutting taxes is the solution to every problem, btu I do find my political stances moderating.

Now I have always been a moderate in most ways, I think in terms of economics I was on the radical side of things, if you finished my post on intellectual property rights, I have moved from the position of abolishing them, to trying to find some sort of accomodation of property rights within a more humane and just system. In the end though I may end up being in favour of abolishing them. (Some radicals call the enforcement of these rights tantamount to criminalizing sharing)

ANyways thats my two cents for the moment.

The latest member of our family

2006-10-05T18:50:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our family de-humidifier I hope you help with our windows being covered in water and that you don't break down for many years...

Been busy

2006-10-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

So I haven't really kept up my pledge to post more often. I am still trying to get my life organize and settling into a routine. There's alos been a few curveballs at work, with one person leaving and the hunt for a new person beginning.

Things are going alright around here, i'm definately enjoying playing badminton twice a week. i'm really happy i made that commitment and my Spanish lessons are going well so far.

I feel that there's so much for me to learn in Spanish (which i guess is true), I am slowly feeling like i'm beginning to stop thinking about the grammar all the time and i'm beginning to think about what it is I am trying to express.

I'm wondering whether I should take French classes too next semester. I really need to improve my French grammar skills.

Thats what i'm thinking about these days..

On a lighter note

2006-09-27T21:02:00.000-05:00

After such a lengthy post last time, i figure i'd do something a bit lighter.

I am really enjoying my ipod. To be honest I was always qutie intrigued by the idea of the ipod, but quite surprised at how quickly it became ubiquitous among young people. On buses it's no longer rare to see several people plugged into their ipods, with their distinctive headphones during my morning commute.

With my recent purchase of a sleek and shiny black ipod nano, i now understand why. Unlike my (previously)absolute distain for cell phones, (and of course I now own one )I was always curious about the appeal of the ipod.

It's small, it's intutitive and simple to use and it does exactly what it is supposed to do.

I've also discovered the podcast. I had heard about podcasting and listened to a few stories on the radio about podcasting but until I had my ipod I wasn't really plugged in to that whole universe. Well right now because I haven't yet got an FM adapter for my ipod, i'm missing out on my usual CBC radio fix. There's also the problem that because the computer is not in my bedroom and now my stereo acts as the speakers for my computer we no longer have a stereo in the bedroom.

I've been able to really easily get podcasts of some of my favorite shows easily, downloaded into bite size peices perfect for the bus or other travel.

I'm really happy with my ipod and I now understand the appeal of the podcast. I think CBC radio has done a good job of integrating this new technology into its broadcasting appartus. I really really like CBC radio, and I think this is something the CBC does really really well. I'm not much of a TV person so I don't watch a whole lot of TV anyways but I really don't get much out of CBC TV.

SO i guess my point is CBC radio is good!

Intellectual Property rights

2006-09-24T17:33:00.000-05:00

Now this post will be exactly as boring as it sounds..(it's rather long too)

However it's actually a pretty interesting issue. I first approached this in an economics class as a research project, but I found there was very little literature on the subject by economists. Most of it was not very well modeled or it was prety clealy ideological stuff without much research behind it. Now this may have reflected the poor quality of economic journals and research available at Carleton, or it may reflect the fact that a lot of economists assume by definition that property rights are an essential part of capitalism.

Now I remain to be completely convinced on the subject. Despite reading (most of) Hernan de Soto's thte mystery of capitalism, I remain sceptical that IPRs (intellectual property rights, if you haven't figured that one out already) are beneficial. One of my favorite authors, John Ralston Saul mocks the attempt to capture information that is one way of describing IPRs.

I used to think that i was in favour of abolishing intellectual property rights and in many wasy I still am, but I can also see the other side of the issue. I would never ever go as far as those at the Fraser Institute in vancouver who advocate individual(or corporate) ownership of absolutely everything including air and water etc.

Intellectual property rights are essentially an amalgam of different types of property rights. They include copyright, patents as well elements of industrial design protection. The rules on these products have been increasingly tightened over the last decade or so, to the point where they are included in the trade provisions of the WTO.

There has been a lot of talk about copyright protection in the digital age. I see the entire debate framed in terms of power and who has the right to control content. This is one the unlooked at issue when we talk about property rights. Like most questions in the modern economy, the issues do not hinge simply on economics, but are questions about power relations.

Copyright is a fair example of this. Copyrights are designed to ensure that artists get paid for their work. If an author rights a book, you cannot go around and copy it without getting a license or paying a fee to the author for the right to reproduce that material. If a recording artist makes a CD you cannot go around and distribute it for free. There already exists a fee collected by the government on purchases of blank CDs and tapes to give something back to artists whose work may be copied. However the law does not apply strictly there are some provisions for fair use. It's not as if the next time I lend someone a book i'll go to jail for it.

I was thinking about this topic because I saw Carleton's access agreement on copyright while making photocopies for a course at the university. Now Carleton as an academic institution is governed by rules about photocopying. When it makes coursepacks for students, there are very strict rules about the amount of material allowed froma single source as well the school pays a royalty fee in order to use the material. Now I think this seems to be a reasonable thing to do. Many professors use many sources and to imagine that they do not have to pay for it is a bit of a stretch even for one who doesn't approve of strict copyright laws.

However many students are against it because it raises the cost of their books.

With the recording industry's campaign for more stringent copyright laws in Canada, and its attempts to sue people in the US, it is defending the status quo model, which makes record companies lots of money, a few artists more or less rich, but leaves control largely in industry hands. Luckily the supreme court has found more or less that downloading music is legal. I don't see any lawsuits coming in Canada yet anyways.

The issue is whether the companies can get legal protection for thier existing business model. they are trying to prevent a new model which provides more risk for those companies while allowing for much more of a voice for independent music.

The final area where intellectual property is, I think, hardets to defend is when it comes to science. Scientists have for a long time relied on a model in which open debate and publication are essential to the advance of a wel regarded solid body of knowledge. The entire scientific method in which hypotheses are carried out with the intention that they be replicated to prove their strength is being undermined by a reliance on intellectual property rights. If a scientist produced some knowledge which may be useful these days it is immediately protected under some kind of intllectual property right. Universities have become hubs of such practices. Even if they use public money to fund the research, the benefits will be entirely private.

Not only does this mean that the sharing of knowledge which is such an integral part of scientific pratice is undermined, but it also means that research itself is undermined. We need more people researching the same problems to come up with a solution. If each group engaged in this research is unable to share its results with others it means a lot of wasted effort on dead ends, or perhaps breakthroughs take much longer to diffuse among the researchers.

The pharmaceutical companies are the most guilty of the practice of using intellectual property rights to defend their interests. Now they make the claim that they need the available rewards (ie protection) in order to invest the large sums required to develop new drugs. Now there is some merit to this argument. However the truth is that large parts of research that help to develop drugs come from the public sector. These companies also spend much more money on marketing than they do on R&D. If they need more money for R&D they can surely take it from the billions they spend convincing us that we are sick.

There is also the clear need for exceptions to these rules in face of a health crisis, the pandemic of AIDS in Africa in particular. These companies have fought tooth and nail any attempts to give lower cots drugs to these countries.

One last comment is that the way that most countries in the worlds have developed has been through the use of the one advantage thye have lower cost labour to start manufacturing goods and then moving up the value chain. This is what the US did, Japan and Korea did, and most countries that have been able to develop. IPRs have largely destroyed the possibility of other countries following in the footsteps of those who have led the way. It is hypocritical for a country like the US to talk about the need for patents to be protected, when its entire bookpublishing industry was built on the basis of ignoring copyright protection on british books. The US was one of the last countries to develop a more comprehensive IPR regime.

Alas this is still agenda is pushed by the strongest. Those who are at the top need protection against those who are weak. It seems that in an age where information is currency, it needs to be protected against those who would erode its value.

I'm still up in the air a bit, but mostly I just don't see how to develop an alternative set of incentives. I hope we can get there some day, when sharing isn't seen as a crime.

A nice little concert

2006-09-23T22:27:00.000-05:00

I just went to go see the Wailin' Jennys live here in Ottawa. It was a good concert and though the crowd was a bit older they were appreciative.

The concert was held at the national library and archives building a nice little venue where many of the folk festival's concerts are held during the year.

It's always nice to see a performer (or group of performers) live and see what they are like, hoe they react to each other, and in this particular case to see all the different instruments they play. Each member of the Jennys played like 3 instruments.

Anyways a good time was had by all. I even picked up some new CDs, I hope they are as good as the last Juno winning CD by the Jenny's

On being a tourist

2006-09-17T19:30:00.000-05:00

Well i am now taking a course on the history of tourism in canada. It is a cultural history and should prove pretty interesting. I don't have a topic yet for my main paper but i'm starting to get a sense of what the course is about.

Since I was also thinking a bit about what being a tourist means this weekend, I decided to write about what it means to be a tourist.

How does one become a tourist?

Well I think this is something that often came to my mind over the 12 weeks I was travelling in New Zealand and Australia. I started thinking about it a little bit in my short trip to Europe but this longer trip made me think about it a bit more.

Being a tourist even in a country that at times felt so familiar, is a bit disorienting.

I found myself trying to fit in as well as observe things for myself a lot of the time. Except for the few weeks when I was with my girlfriend and the short times I stayed with family, I was pretty much travelling alone. I was not always alone, and there were a few times when i travelled with a group but I was largely alone.

I actually found it hard to connect with people at times. Even other travellers. There were other times when connecting with other people came easily. I suppose travelling amongst hostels where ready made networks of people to help are easily available makes travelling that much easier. I was also lucky to speak the language.

The hardest thing I think about being a tourist is that the experience is ephemeral. There seems to be this need and desire to try and capture the essence of the experience. That's why people take so many photos (even more so now with digital cameras) and buy postcards and useless things they would never buy if they saw in the store at home. People also seem to try and collect stories, anything that will being the experience to life.

I suppose that is the reason people travel, is to have an experience. I guess that's why some people love to travel and others prefer not to. Some people enjoy those experiences more than others.

I find it interesting that already in the literature there seems to be an attempt to distinguish between the tourist and the more authentic 'traveller'. This is a somewhat artificial distinction, but it does seeem appliable nonetheless. But what is the difference.

I don't know if such a clear distinction can be made, but I think it hinges on the engagement with the environment. Of course anyone travelling toa foreign country by definition is forced to engage with that environment. I would argue that the tourist has largely a superficial engagement. They either aren't there long enough to engage or they have other interests. Now the question becomes whether anyone can actually escape being a tourist. Even a year is not truly long enough to engage deeply with a landscape either cultural or physical.

(On a side note: I think the really interesting thing though, was to meet people who had left one country to make another one their home. I find that decision fascinating and I met one gentleman during my travels and I just find their experiences really ineresting)

So how does one become a tourist? Simple, they leave their home town/region/country/ and go somewhere completely different. What is involved however in that decision is the interesting part, the question isn't so much how does one become a tourist (however one defines it) but why.

I think this course i'm taking will provide all sorts of interesting discussions about these questions.

Well lets try this again.

2006-09-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

I wrote a big long nice post which got deleted as i mentioned before. So here's attempt #2.

I want to try and start a specific time aside for writing every day. So let's see how this works. Now just because i'm writing eveyr day doesn't mean it will all be online but here goes..

I was just walking listening to a new dixie chicks song Lubbock or leave it and it made me think about how in the ten commandments the first one is thou shalt not kill. I know it's in there somwhere anyways, it may not be the first.

Well in my philosophy class we talked about whether such a universal law is possible. And the implications of it. For example, if you had to make a choice whether to save lives if doing so would kill one person, would violating this law be ok,. etc.

This relates to the song, because the song talks about religion in the south (of the US) and there being 'more churches than trees". In the US however many people, including many christians (i imagine) support the death penalty. Which means that they support the violation of the principle 'thou shalt not kill', in the specific cases where the death penalty has been awarded.

So there is this internal contradiction there.(I don't necessarily think that it is hypocritical, however many of the opponents of the death penalty use the same arguments ie thou shalt not kill, and the importance of forgiveness as reasons for repealing the death penalty) However I was thinking that that fact alone does not itself undermine the universal applicability of the command 'thou shalt not kill"

I don't think there is anywhere on earth that the rule does not apply.Except in very specific contexts. That is the key to remember. I imaine even in tribes which practiced cannibalism, or sacrificed people, it was only in very specific contexts.

I personally beleive that there are such universals rules such as 'thou shalt not kill'. I don't think they necessarily all belong to the christian doctrine, but I do believe such rules exist.

I think everyone could agree that as a general principle thou shalt not kill is a good one.

That's all for now

Bah

2006-09-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

ANGRY!!!

Insert post here....

Mine got deleted... maybe i'll try again tomorrow.

Not too much to say

2006-09-07T20:39:00.000-05:00

Well I am almost finished a book on John Kenneth Galbraith.

For anyone who doesn't know me, I hate economists. I distrust almost all economists and I have major problems with how they approach the world.

Anyways it appears to me that John kenneth Galbraith might be the one economist that I know of that I could support. It's funny because it appears that for most economists what he said was anathema. He actually thought that power mattered in economics and I find ti fascinating the degree to which this idea is still treated with hostility among economists.

I am fascinated by the biography and I really think I really want to read his own words to see what he says in his own words.

Go see Bon Cop Bad Cop!

2006-09-03T20:04:00.000-05:00

Enuf said! I will post my reaction to it later...

Go see it now!

A musing about the corporate world

2006-09-02T21:23:00.000-05:00

About GM.. after watching the movie Who killed the electric car, I went and had a discussion with a friend of mine about the movie, in particular it was about the role of GM as a political actor.

Now my friend criticized me for my lack of understanding of business. But I still strongly believe that you have to understand the modern corporation as a political actor.

A few days ago about a week after my debate I was reading a biography of John Kenneth Galbraith. In his book A new Industrial State, he talks about how the modern corporation has moved beyond the profit maximizing entity described in the economics textbook.

Now JKG was an economist, but it seems to me that he was one of the few who realzied the impact of power on economic relations. Economists still to this day largely ignore the social context in which their theories apply.

Anyways the main thing that my friend kept repeating (which seems to be to be a conservative mantra) is that GM is a profit maximizing entity, if it doesn't make business sense they won't do it. While this is true in the long run, is GM doesn't make a profit it will cease to exist, modern corporations are political actors.

Galbraith seems to understand this implicitly in his work. He suggests that the coporation as an entity can have other goals that the maximization of profit. It might be a steady return on investment (ie they do not take risks that might endanger a steady level of profit) or it might be the return to shareholders , or it might even be that the CEO wants the largest pay possiblewith stock options this has become a more common problem).

Companies as large as GM also have a lot at stake, and thus become risk averse as well. They might simply decide that because of their weight in the market, they can prevent competition and keep making profits out of what they are already doing.

This is the profound failure examined in Who killed the electric car. As mentioned in the film, GM had a 2-3 year lead on its competitors in terms of it work on the electric car. Largely because they deemed the stakes too high, they fought tooth and nail against the imposition of the Zero emmission vehicle regulations that were in place in California rather than exploiting its edge in R&D and product development of the electric car. In other words they chose steady profit doing what they were doing, rather than disrupt their other product lines and face real competition.

In other words they chose certainty over the uncertaitny of developing a new product.
This is the problem with the large corporations, they are no longer innovators.

While it is true that companies need to be a certain size in order to attract capital and create interesting products there becomes a certain point where they are too big and too unwiedly to compete and they start becoming defensive.

The most interesting example in modern times is the degree to which Apple even though it is a small company makes Microsoft shake in its boots. Apple has become the leader through its innovation, and creativity while its competitors defend their positions and copy what Apple does. Microsoft has for years depended on its ability to buy upsart competitors in order to actuially acquire and create new products. Microsoft becaues of its size doesn't seem to need to innovate, it simply buys the innovations of others and repackages them as if they created it themselves. This is why a truly innovative company like Apple scares Microsoft silly.

Imagine a competitve market of small and medium sized companies, this is truy what we should be aiming for rather than the oligopolies and cartels we arebusy constructing now.