A Ship without a Captain

A second wave of COVID-19 is growing internationally, nationally and provincially. Regionally cases are on the rise as well, which stands to reason. No one is immune to this virus or its insidious impact on day-to-day living but some are experiencing its consequence far more severely than others, so far.

 As with most storms, until folks are actually in the eye of it and experiencing its full force and impact, they do not respect it, even if they do fear it. Some will mock and jeer it. Some will cower and be crippled by it. Some will defy it and run out to confront it. Human responses to conflict are pretty predictable in that respect; they’re not all the same, unless and until uniformity and conformity is encouraged, enforced and sustained by the majority of those folks in any given society.

 That’s where Law arises as a tool to make as many as possible decide that being as much the same and behaving as much the same as possible is in everyone’s best interests. Those would be the Group Rights that have increasingly been challenged and minimized by the birth of Individual Rights in the past several decades and their expansion.

 Those Individual Rights are now challenged once more by the need for conformity to Group Rights interests and the clash between them is the David & Goliath struggle of our Age; precipitated in large part by a pandemic that can kill millions of folks indiscriminately if not checked and make both sets of ‘Rights’ completely mute.

 I won’t be here in 50 years but I would like to know how it all turns out. At a time when new cases and deaths are rising internationally, nationally and provincially as a second wave begins to unfold and gain momentum, political leadership is encouraging re-opening the economy, sending folks back to work and children into classrooms within the next couple of months.

 I see a perfect storm brewing and a lot of imperfect leaders putting on their blinders. Will they be held accountable for crimes against humanity if they are, by these choices now, sending the masses to slaughter? How will those masses cope if the health care system, the education system and the supply chains collapse just as the summer ends and we all start heading into the fall and winter seasons again? I certainly hope the Harvest is a good one this year!

 There is a large gap in the messaging between what I am seeing and reading from international bodies like the WHO and what my federal and provincial government leaders are messaging, and I am not okay with that. The interests of the Greater Good deserve better!

 If the economy needs shutting down and basic incomes distributed for 2 years, so be it. IMO that will still be far less costly for the rich and far less divesting for the masses of poor in the long-run than losing a significant percentage of the total work-force in coming months and all of the knowledge, skills and experience they possess with them for coming decades.

 It feels today like I’m on a ship with no Captain tacking into a very imperfect storm.

A Rant Against 'Affluenza'

It is now pretty apparent one of the icons of wholesomeness during my youth and young adulthood, Bill Cosby, was actually all the while a sexually abusive monster; Bill Clinton really did inhale, and used the Oval Office to prey on a young lady for his sexual gratification as well; and Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of my country for the past nine years, appears to have lied and deceived Canadians so often over the term he has held the reigns of power that it's actually somehow come to seem normal to get screwed by the government he leads. I think it's sadly well beyond the point that such unethical and abusive conduct seems expected by the masses from the leadership We get from our elected politicians and societal role models nowadays; mass cynicism attests to it.

Have humans really always been so corrupt and deceitful in intents or is this a phenomenon of contemporary times? Sadly, history makes it evident it is a perpetuation of abhorrence, rather than the birth of it, in "civilized" society. History does indeed repeat itself, time and time again, and I suspect it will continue to do so for so long as human beings the world over focus on the differences between us, be those race, colour, religion, age, sex, or sexual orientation, rather than on the similarities and commonalities we share together as Homo Sapiens.

Donald Trump wants to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, and undoubtedly it won't be long before the xenophobia he proselytizes turns its attention North. Renewed calls for "Manifest Destiny" are certainly not beyond the possible with men of his ilk. The Republican campaign is even targeting "Anchor children" within it's own borders now; sending chills down my spin from the nauseatingly recognizable similarities in the divisive discourse and arrogant sense of superiority that has been echoed in every genocidal agenda pursued through the annals of mankind.
In Europe walls and fences are already being erected in an effort to stem the tide of "illegal" migrants swarming into Europe from war-torn states like Syria and drought ravaged countries across Africa. More than 350,000 people have made the harrowing journey toward freedom and a better, safer life this year alone, and no small number have perished trying along the way as well. Today there are more than 50,000,000 people living in Refugee Camps around the globe; displaced by warfare, religious persecution, droughts and famines.

Let those seven zeros sink in for a moment, as you imagine yourself as but one person amongst them. Don't be deceived by delusions of gene pools and birthrights, nor so arrogant and ignorant as to believe that life and your experience of living it could not be turned on its head in an instant. Life and its circumstances are ever-changing and you could well find yourself one amongst the marginalized and disenfranchised were the political system and/or economic system to fail, both for you personally and for society as a whole as well. Both are not only likely, but inevitable too - it's only a matter of when, not if, as demonstrated by the waxing and waning of peoples and nations throughout all past millenniums and during the one we live now as well.

Affluenza not only breeds contempt for those poorer off it seems, but also a delusional sense of inflated self-worth and invincibility. Time and again it is evidenced by historical record that when wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few the vast majority of human beings suffer hardships portionately beyond all possible measure. Sooner or later those masses rise up and cut the heads off the snakes in their midst. Generosity of spirit in words and deeds is the only antidote that can stave off the executioners, but typically arrives too meek and mild, not to mention too late.

The world We live in is not in a good place today. Millions of souls are suffering unspeakable burdens because of the greed, detachment and denial of the "Haves" and their lack of compassion and appreciation for the gravity of the depravity that millions upon millions of "Have-nots" experience every day. The tide of the marginalized and disenfranchised will not be stemmed without a corresponding expansion of atrocities to address it. Those inhumane actions in turn will serve only to motivate with increased resolve those who feel they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking from those who chose not to give and share from the good fortune evident within their plenty.

I am appalled and enraged that I live at a time when it is apparent more and more with each passing day that "Christians" of all stripes are failing miserably in demonstrating they are any good at all at practicing what their Scriptures" preach; Some "Muslims" are bastardizing their religion for extremist political ends by lopping off heads; and racism, unemployment and disenfranchisement of tens of millions of people shines renewed light on unresolved systematic and systemic discrimination in the "free" nations of the West that shatter all illusions of their egalitarian and democratic designs and intents.

The time is nigh for serious leadership and unbridled altruism and integrity in the words and deeds of leaders representing political communities everywhere on the globe. It is achievable because it is imaginable. From great minds can come an abundance of good for all if that is the aim. "High expectations equal high results and low expectations equal no results". It is long past time that our "leaders" start getting that, and are held to account when it's obvious that they don't.

It is indeed time for change! It does not matter which party comes to power next in this country or any other. What does matter is that they must lead with truth, transparency, compassion and humble servitude. That goes for all of them! Achieve that and in doing so it will prove you are worthy of being entrusted to lead the people toward their good governance and welfare. Any less and you may as well put your neck on the chopping block and await the falling of the axe. We deserve far better than We have been getting from our leaders on any given day.

The time is drawing closer and the cooking pots are coming to a boil once again. Will it be snake stew on the menu once more, or will the affluent decide to generously take from what excess they possess to offer up to the benefit of the less fortunate other menu choices instead? Either way the appetite will be quenched. For the affluent the question is simple: would you like the future served up with or without your heads attached?

Donald Trump's "Mein Kampf" - Reincarnation of an Imbecile!

Screw political correctness; far too many innocent people have died because of silence in dealing with bigots, isolationists and war mongers! Bomb the hell out of the oilfields in the middle east to stop ISIS; cast aspersions on "illegal" Mexicans - all they do is bring drugs into America, ..."they're thieves and rapists, and I suppose some of them are good people too." (particularly the ones who have toiled with their blood, sweat and tears to make Trump a billionaire); Immigration Policy is too weak, etc., etc. Undoubtedly many native Americans feel the same way about Donald and his immigrant heritage in America as well, and more justly and rightly hold that view than he does!

These divisive and disruptive rhetorical political tactics are pathetic strategies with historical roots deservedly associated with a very evil man, and by employing them Donald Trump is demonstrating that he is not one ounce better! I cannot see that he is running to earn the Republican nomination for President with altruistic intentions to serve his fellow citizens in their best interests, by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, his sole motivation to my mind is based on an egocentric desire to hold what he and some others consider to be the most powerful public office in the free world. Accordingly he is really and very seriously dangerous to us all, Americans or not. He is not to be laughed at and dismissed as stupid. He is indeed to my mind an imbecile, but not one lacking intelligence. Rather, to me, he is an example of an intelligent man who is negligently applying his brains to employ despicable means toward detestable ends.

How many American (along with British and Canadian) soldiers died in the quest to rid the world of a man the likes of Adolf Hitler, and have died since protecting human rights and international covenants, treaties and conventions from men of a similarly evil ilk and with like malign intents? Most Republicans, at least from what I see and read in news media looking from the outside in, have an American flag hanging from their house or hanging somewhere in their yard, at least in part to demonstrate their patriotism and to honour the legacy of defending against political tyranny and racial injustice. Yet, somehow Donald Trump is running #2 out of the possible Republican candidates in poles to date?! Are you kidding me? Give your heads a shake people!!! It seems to me some Americans are taking a symbol of the racist nature of their nation's history down (the Confederate flag) and at the very same time are building up and giving legitimacy to bombastic absurdity and destructive discourse from a "potential" President for the nation. Is that supposed to be some kind of progress? From the outside looking in, it appears to me that Trump's supporters must surely be the ones on drugs, and apparently they're the really psychedelic kind that enable idiocy to somehow seem logical, just and right.

Donald Trump is to my mind an arrogant prick with a Napoleon-like Emperor's woody on. He is being extremely irresponsible and horrifically short-sighted in the pursuit of his personal ambitions, and it is Americans, not Mexicans and Chinese, who will pay for that the most in the fullness of time if this man gets the public office he seeks. I don't care if you live in the back hills of Kentucky or on a main street in a major city in Kansas or Virginia (or any other state), it is way past time for all Americans to get their heads out of the sand and see the evil in this man for what it is! In the contemporary era, particularly with the history of Nazi Germany to draw from in memory banks and history texts, it is inconceivable to me that good, God-fearing and otherwise, loyal Americans cannot see through the charade that Donald Trump is proselytizing and the sham that he embodies with such views. It is past time for the lot of his supporters to undergo detoxification, so America, and the world, can be rid once again of a vile man who would so shamelessly and so arrogantly presume a right to orate such out-right crap for public consumption and indoctrination.

Monetarily I am not worth $9 billion, as I have read Trump is "worth", and in fact monetarily I am not worth much at all. Fortunately, monetary wealth and accumulation of financial assets has never been the measure of a good man, nor will it ever be so. No, a good man speaks truth, honours his Mother & Father, and respects his friends and neighbours. A good man works for the betterment of life for all in his community (locally and globally), not just for those that meet his measure of their worthiness to live their life in liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A good man uses his public podium to build people up, he does not use it to cast aspersions and tear them down.

As for Donald Trump, based on what I have seen and read, I wouldn't pay a penny for his thoughts on anything, and Americans would be wise to recognize that the vision and reality this moron is attempting to create is philosophically bankrupt and a horrendous future investment in the free world for all Americans, and their friends and allies. Donald Trump to my mind has not got a clue what "struggle" really is, but it would most certainly be poetic justice if some day not so far from now that is exactly the Karma he earns for himself with all this nonsense. He needs to go back to building hotels and golf courses and leave political 'leadership' to those who are bright enough to get that with the power of public office also comes the responsibility to serve one's fellow citizens and the global community well with it. That seems well out of his reach, and there is absolutely not one single Mexican he can blame for that - he must just go ahead and own that all by himself!

Canada - An Insensate Society

There is no question that on the whole Canada, for all the proselytizing to the contrary, is a brutal society that far too frequently proves to be lacking in good sense and humane decency. From all indications in the state's propaganda and media there are few, if any, other nations that are any better, but there is no solace in being at the top of a putrid pile. The fact is that be it in the municipal, provincial or federal spheres, Good Governance is not being achieved and altruistic leadership is dismal. Cynicism festers wherever it has not been replaced with disdain and outright contempt within its citizenry. Now in its 150th year of nationhood, the country and its culture are in desperate need of a major overhaul if there is to be any possibility for it to thrive in the future. 

Affluence abounds, and with it proportional ignorance and callousness as the gap between the haves and have-nots grows steadily from a fissure to a canyon. In Vancouver there has been an increase in homelessness of 30% in the past year, with some 3,500 people now living in tents or sleeping on the streets. I suspect that number is under-estimated and also only captures the dire circumstances reported for one municipality. It is a growing population from coast-to-coast-to-coast. It is estimated that 3 million households live precariously on meagre means and C.T.V. reported that in 2016 there were an estimated 235,000 homeless Canadians, and another 50,000 who rely on family or friends to provide them with shelter. I am one of them. In the face of such staggering numbers of fellow human beings enduring such hardship is the reality that there are no shortage of livable spaces that could house them. On any given day I would wager there are at least ten times as many Motorhomes and 5th wheel trailers sitting empty, with their owners paying to store them in gated lots so they can use them on vacations for a couple or a few weeks each summer. The majority will be worn out while sitting idle through the passing of seasons more than they will be from wear and tear through utilization. It is resource wastefulness and absurdity on the grandest of scales! 

On April 12th, 2017 the Parliament of Canada bestowed honorary citizenship upon Nobel Peace Prize co-winner, Malala Yousafzai with much pomp and ceremony, not to mention tax dollars spent. I wish to take nothing away from Malala's human rights activism and her championing of girls education. There is no question that globally it is a pressing need for millions and she is a wonderful soul doing what she can to encourage positive change. That said, the theatre on display in Parliament and the ovations from M.P.s during her speech reeks of hypocrisy, to say the least. 

1 in 7 Canadians - nearly 5 million people - live in poverty today. An estimated 2 million seniors live on less that $17,000 per year, while the most basic standard of living is calculated at $18,000 per year for a single person. 3 million children live in poverty and fully 40% of indigenous children in the country are living in poverty. Precarious employment has risen by 50% in the past two decades. In the past 25 years the population in the country has risen by 30% while national investment in housing has declined by 46%. It has been reported that the average earnings of the least wealthy Canadians has declined by more than 20% in that same period. A staggering 8 out of 10 provinces saw an increase in food bank usage in 2016, and 1 in 10 Canadians cannot afford to fill their medical prescriptions. 

Unless and until Canadian politicians effectively address the deficiencies in their own homeland the pretentiousness of their leadership will remain the reality of optics on display. Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assemblies and municipal Councils need to stop patting themselves on the back for achieving such horrific leadership results. They need to pull up their socks, and get busy working to solve the very serious and life-threatening socio-economic challenges faced every hour of every day by millions of their fellow Canadians. There has been far too much political grandstanding and far too little progress achieved. There is no longer reason for pride in Canada. There is ample evidence for reasons to feel shame though, and that needs to change. We do not need flowery speeches and the bestowing of honorary citizenships. We need citizens and politicians with honour and integrity, who see and feel the urgency in the lives of those they serve and work diligently and tirelessly to produce a more compassionate and successful nation worthy of celebration. 

The Misnomer Nature Of Neutrality

Silence can be deadly, and so too can be sitting on the fence; two of the primary characteristics of folks who claim they are adopting a position of neutrality in conflicts between people and/or states. Achieving genuine objectivity and neutrality is an impossibility for a subjective being's brain, and that point seems lost on far too many human intellects today. 

Neutrality more often than not does nothing more than convince its observers of the untrustworthiness and unreliability of its adherents. It can be even more insidious if the neutrality brings allegiances into doubt. A facade of neutrality employed as a tactic aimed at achieving avoidance of conflict is far more offensive than disagreement. It is also of poor utility in the process of achieving any actual resolution of disputes. It often serves only to perpetuate resentments that further alienate otherwise allied souls through a continuation of strained relations. The parties in conflict see within it the lack of logic it demonstrates and the void in resolutions for anyone it results in accomplishing. It's akin to putting duct tape on a frozen pipe and then walking away ignoring the fact that the glue doesn't adhere to a sub-zero surface. It's a waste of tape and there can be little surprise that as soon as the climate changes the tape falls off and the fluid starts gushing out again. 

If the genuine aim is a resolution of disputes in any given family, group, community or society, parties within it who choose the path of avoidance and neutrality are pursuing a lose/lose course that benefits no individual member of the group in the long run, and much less the group as a whole. Conflicts, particularly protracted ones spanning many seasons, aren't going to get resolved through silence. It may serve to defuse tension within the inter-personal and/or inter-state dynamics in the present but does nothing to solve the causes of disharmony that everyone is impacted negatively by. Doing nothing is worth exactly that and will produce exactly that. In fact, it is more often than not likely that it will generate more negative consequences in the long term by masking over and ignoring the tumour that continues to grow within. 

"The forming–storming–norming–performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965,^[1] who identified that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for a team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results." Tuckman also points out that there is no guarantee any given group will emerge from the storming stage unless all members of the group are committed to the success of the group. Further, these stages are not milestones that once achieved never recur again. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Whenever there is a change in the composition of the group or in the priorities and objectives of the group these stages recur. 

The worth of an anchor is tested in a storm. If the decision is to do nothing when the storm clouds kick up not only has the opportunity to put down an anchor been lost, but possibly also the ship along with it. That is the absurdity of neutrality in a nut shell; its like playing Russian Roulette with the group's success. Eventually a bullet fires and all are shocked and dismayed even though they all willingly acquiesced in the game and were aware of it's predictable outcome. 

Neutrality is a misnomer in genuine conflict resolution. If that is indeed the aim doing nothing, just like Russian Roulette, is a fool's game. When neutrality is employed as anything more than a tension reducing tactic for brief interim periods in the conflict resolution process, it only ensures that the decay and the disintegration of the family, group, community or society will be the eventual outcome. All group development requires action from all of its members that serve the common purpose and success of the group. Doing anything less is not in the whole group's best interests. It is disingenuous to the success of the group and is a disservice to all of its members. 

Conflict resolution allows for multiple approaches. Neutrality is one of them, but if any group thinks that tactic utilized alone will successfully resolve any conflict, from my experience in life I say, good luck with that. I'm not liking your odds and I won't be taking a chair for that game, but go ahead and keep pulling that trigger.

All groups have the potential to wax or wane at any given time, just as people, nations and cultures have since the beginning of humanity's history. It's entirely up to the will and actions of its members collectively that determines whether any given family, group, community or society achieves its potential for success or ensures its eventual disintegration. 

Change

The one reliable fact of life is that change is constant. Whether for better or worse, whether sooner or later, change always comes. 

Humans have an innate desire to control and manage change for personal advantage and do their utmost in a myriad of ways to try and achieve desired aims. Sometimes plans and their corresponding actions achieve the intended outcomes and sometimes they don't. We call it "success" when plans work, and "failure" when they don't. Sometimes change arrives out of our efforts and actions that we didn't plan for or even see coming. We call that "lucky" when it's for the better, and "unlucky" when it proves to be for the worse. 

Sometimes, indeed often from my perspective, change in life arises from circumstances beyond our personal control. Akin to an avalanche, environmental factors grander than our personal creation are set in motion and we are simply caught up in their momentum. We can do little other than try to keep our heads above the fray, hoping to find solid ground again beyond the chaos to stand upon and re-establish our footing once more. Those environmental influences can be caused by natural forces or by human ones, but either way all we can do is try and manage what transpires in a manner that serves our personal well-being and interests while in the eye of the storm and until the dust settles. When such things occurring are good we call it "fortunate", and when bad we call it "misfortune" or "unfortunate".

The pace of change beyond my control and capacity to influence around the world, in my country, in my province of residence, in my local community, in my extended family, as well as in the affairs of my professional and personal lives has been staggering over the past few years. It has also been and continues to be, for the most part, bewildering, dismaying, disappointing, exasperating, frustrating and downright annoying in many respects as well. 

It seems from the external inputs and the experiences of my daily existence at every strata that I walked through a Stargate a while back and into a cyclonic atmosphere characterized by cruelty, callousness, maliciousness and contemptuous absurdity. The corrosive nature of discourses and the toxic character of inter-relations experienced and witnessed on a daily basis is rampant to the point of being rabid. I recall drunken dizziness and delirium following a few Cabarets in my College years that today pale in comparison to the sense of disorder and disorientation that exists for me in the Now, and evidently for many others as well. I am an intelligent being, pretty well-educated, decently well-read too, and I think for the most part I am pretty level-headed and lack no sanity. For the life of me, I am no less dumbfounded in understanding and making sense of any of it. It is as though genuine madness has afflicted the vast majority of souls in what used to be my social network and throughout the rest of the globe as well. 

The greatest challenge in times such as these is not to become jaded and hardened by the onslaught of negativity, animosities, antagonisms and rejections. It is easier said than done, with good days and bad along the journey, but at least so far I remain optimistic that the storm will pass and better days still lay ahead for me and for humanity as well. Without that daily dose of faith I would have thrown in the towel already several rounds ago. I am either too stupid or too stubborn, or perhaps a combination of both, to accept that good times and brighter days will never come around again. The nature of life from my experiences and observations of it is a cyclical waxing and waning of all circumstances, whether they are good or bad, happy or sad. Sooner or later, change will come.

 A Chinese proverb says that, "the gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials", and Heraclitus is said to have observed, "it is in changing that things find purpose". Like a bird that feels the light and sings to greet the dawn before the sun has risen for a new day, belief and confidence must be the guides along the way. 

Uniquely Illuminant

I was not born into this life to emulate, and neither was anyone else. The uniqueness of each individual and their cumulative life experiences enhances the beauty of our world and the Universe it is a miniscule part of. Like stars in the night sky, each astoundingly reflects and contributes to the majesty of the whole. Wondrous virtue is inherent in all beings and is not subject to the capacity of any given viewer to appreciate any particular luminance.

Shine on in your own special way, regardless of how others choose to judge; that is their burden to bear, not yours. For as long as the Sun rises, mountains stand, waters flow, trees grow and birds soar tranquility and self-worth will be found by those who know they have a mystical pertinence to Life that is irrepressible and irrevocable by any other soul.

Rumours - The Bastion Of Ignorance

“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please”

                                                                Mark Twain

It is a perpetual paradox that in an Age of abundance in knowledge and communication means to attain it there seem to be so many who prefer not to acquire its genuine insights in the formation of their opinions and judgements. "Facts" are far too frequently dispersed from the mouths of folks who are least in the know with respect to first-hand accounts and experience, yet the roots of such diseased discourse permeate an air of legitimacy in impressionable intellects that can be staggering in their propagation. "Hey, did you hear....", perks the ears with titillating pronouncements that all too often are born from malice and ill intents, or sometimes simply the misguided proliferation of misinformation. It is a truism of life that one should always be cautious in casting stones, lest boulders boomerang back to crush the caster.

In an era of cynicism and distrust and a world that seems governed more by passion and prejudice than by genuine reason I am reminded of a poem I came upon in University more than a quarter century ago that reeks with pungent poignancy and prophetic wisdom for contemporary times:

                                         “God give us men. The time demands

Strong minds, great hearts,

Truth, faith and willing hands;

Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honor; men who will not lie;

Men who can stand before a demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking;

Tall men, sun-crowned men, who live above the fog

In public duty and in private thinking.”

John G. Holland

A New Dawn Is Stoking

Traversing fairways and greens is about to take on a whole new meaning for recreational users in Canada, and the golf industry needs to start rolling with that budding reality. The pace of play will be marshalled best by strategic thinking that sparks up discussion now about how to cultivate the growth of the game with a new menu of products and services offerings that will tee up an abundant stash of cash for those who are ready to grip it and rip it! It is time to get off the couch and embrace the appetite of a new Age. No stone must be ignored and go unturned if the #1 recreational sport in Canada is to benefit optimally from the new buzz about the land that is certain to see eagles and birdies pursued ever-the-more-so with a spliff in hands.  

There is no shortage of irony apparent in the prognosis that the game of golf and by extension the Club industry in Canada, as well as increasingly across all of the Americas, stands poised to benefit from enhanced opportunities to increase food (read, munchies) and beverage sales through the eradication of the prohibition against a weed. Less than a hundred years ago Clubs embraced the opportunity to grow in popularity across North America as venues where their patrons could satisfy their interests and desires for contraband alcohol during its era of prohibition. Now the game and its industry stands posed yet again in contemporary times to sprout anew from the elimination of a prohibition on toking dried leaves. The stagnation in the appeal and growth of the game, as well as the Club industry, will only be capitalized on proactively if the conservative stewards of tired traditions and under-informed thinking shed the inclination to boggart on the budding cultural dynamic that is destined to alter far more than just the states of mind of its current users, as well as its potential patrons. 

A recent poll conducted by The Globe and Mail underscores the potential in the winds billowing on the horizon. It was reported that 1 in 5 Canadians already choose to partake in the herb for its medicinal benefits as well as for their recreational desires, and 3 of 10 Canadians will avail themselves of this choice as soon as cannabis is legalized and regulated for sale from coast to coast, to coast. Its utilization is already multigenerational as well as multi-cultural and this poll makes it clear its user-ship is poised for a significant growth spurt. A recent poll in the United States found that 59% of Americans support legalization and in Canada a Liberal majority Federal government was elected at least in part on a platform promise to legalize and regulate the sale of cannabis for recreational as well as medicinal use. The Ministerial Mandate letters of the Justice Minister and Public Safety Minister in the Federal Cabinet clearly instructs them in no uncertain terms to work with Federal departments and provincial governments and their respective bureaucracies toward the implementation of this agenda. Legislation has already passed through Parliament, with a legalization date of July 1^st, 2018, now emerging from the haze.  

It has been estimated that Federal revenues from the sale of legalized and regulated cannabis in Canada could be in the range of $5 billion annually. Even the most conservative estimates suggest the revenues generated will exceed $1 billion annually. Ignoring this reality and failing to proactively prepare for its increased legal prevalence throughout our Society in months and years to come is not just a recipe for allowing new opportunity to go up in smoke. It is also potentially hazardous to the ability of the industry's stewards to provide informed and proactive leadership that can serve to positively influence and manage its impact on the game and on the culture within the game, as well as within the communal cultures of individual Clubs throughout the country. This is no longer a matter to snicker about and dismiss as a fringe thing. The time is now for the golf industry's professional stewards and its volunteer Boards and memberships to begin a serious dialogue in respect to how best to prepare for, manage and capitalize on Mary-Jane's increasing prevalence on the daily tee sheet as well as the impact it will have on the policies and operating procedures that govern the players who participate in and employee cadres who provide their services to the game. 

There is little question, to my mind at least, that the industry's stewards floundered and failed to provide informed and timely leadership ahead of the current when it came to the changing trends in personal preferences for more casual golf attire and corresponding amendments to traditional Dress Code policies, as well as with the emergence and mushrooming use of cell phones and other equipment and technology advancements that have swept across the country and affected all courses and clubs in their wake over the past two decades. A lot of hours in policy debate and drafting in committees and Boards across the country occurred trying to catch up from behind the wave. No shortage of discontent festered in the interim void in proactive leadership that served to negatively impact the daily outings and experiences of patrons and Club members, not to mention the workplace environments of their management and employee cadres. Eventually the industry's leadership were forced to shed their entrenched affinity for grasping on to dying traditions and embrace the emerging realities and desires for change within their communities and the will of their majority of members and patrons. 

Will conservative-minded resisters of change and adaptation to new realities continue the trend of reactive leadership behind the wave this time as well? Time will tell. Let’s hope that wiser minds will prevail and the industry's stewards will prove to have learned their lessons from the experiences of the relatively recent past within the golf and Club industry in Canada. Let's hope that they choose instead this time around to stop snickering and put aside their snifters, wine glasses and beer steins long enough at least to be proactive in discussing and preparing for the Mary-Jane Tsunami that there is little doubt now will be landing on the shore this coming season. 

It's like dipping a pinky finger into the icing on a cake to ponder on what this could mean for dessert and liqueur sales alone. Less tongue-in-cheek, it is no joke that Clubhouse kitchens and dining rooms can potentially see increased benefits ahead in both cost reductions and improved sales from the planting and tending of herb gardens. Grounds Crews, with their agronomy and horticultural expertise, may well be able to become revenue generating Club departments, eclipsing the expense budgets of golf course maintenance and turf care management practices across the nation. Hemp fabrics and products may also serve to reduce costs and increase durability of golf fashions, along with many other products utilized on a daily bases at courses and in Clubs throughout the country. The impact on the golf and Club industry in years ahead is in an embryonic state now, but may well grow with weed into a green giant virtually overnight.  

It won't be long now before millions of Canadians will be rolling along in laughter on fairways and greens. Whether the golf and Club industry is ready to embrace that coming day and is proactively prepared for the benefits and challenges that change will bring, only time will tell. One thing is for certain, those who chose to ignore the smoke and pretend it is not already prevalent in use on courses and at Clubs throughout the country are in for a blunt awakening in months and years to come. The surest buzz-kill awaits those who bury their heads in the sand and cannot see the plant's growth in use and opportunities, nor are prepared through proactive strategic thinking to welcome and embrace it, as the new era in legal recreational use of cannabis dawns in Canada in 2018.

Anger: Humanity's Achilles' Heel

"There is a harassed, knife-edge quality to daily life. Nerves are ragged and...tempers are barely under hair-trigger control. Millions of people are terminally fed up." [Alvin Toffler -The Third Wave]

It is no revelation that life and the living of it is a journey through a kaleidoscope of emotions that are coloured from a plethora of internal and external stimuli. Anger, associated with the colour Red on the spectrum, is unquestionably the most perplexing of the bunch intra-personally and inter-personally. In both spheres of its existence it is frequently experienced and yet seldom is it rationally considered and constructively examined. Most often it is nervously avoided, dismissed as irrational, or confronted in kind. Rarely is it understood and only exceptionally is it appreciated and regarded as reasonable. Yet, it is as natural a human emotion as happiness or sadness and no less logical and predictable in the circumstances that trigger it. It is prevalent in micro and macro group dynamics in familial, communal, societal and global arenas on a daily basis and yet it is shunned as a subject of genuine discourse and on the whole treated as a taboo topic. As natural as it is to the human condition and as frequently as it transpires, it is phenomenal how often it is stratified as inappropriate, intolerable and unnatural. 

Akin to the billions of galaxies that comprise the known Universe, anger is in equivalent abundance and has comparative complexity in its representations and manifestations in the human condition and in human inter-relations. Scores of millions have prematurely met their demise through the anger inherent in the hostilities of wars globally and regionally, as well as through genocides of antiquity and contemporary times. An estimated 45 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in the Second World War alone, which wasn't really only the second global conflict; it was actually the sixth in a series of global wars dating back to 1618 and the start of the Thirty Years War.

The Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan, the War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism in the years since 1948 have added scores more to graveyards the world over. The genocide in Rwanda and numerous other racially motivated massacres along with the killing of scores more by groups like ISIS in the name of religion have added immeasurably to the astronomical body count of human beings annihilated by the anger of others.  From archeological excavations to the study of primates and throughout the annals of mankind there is ample evidence that anger has been an ever-present aspect of the human condition and the experience of life since the dawn of our kind. 

Anger is hardly the sole purview of the military arms of nation states either; indeed it festers and ferments perpetually in all societies and cultures throughout the world. It knows no borders and is shared alike by all races, cultures, political communities and socio-economic classes. It is also neither gender nor generation specific. Adversarial and penal justice systems and institutions have been invented as a means to address it; laws and policies have been written in efforts to manage and curtail it; libraries are filled with research and commentaries on its root causes and the plethora of its consequences; and professions are devoted to responding to it, counselling about it, as well as medicating to try and tame, control and overcome it. Through it all, anger demonstrates its profound resilience. If one has ever witnessed a school yard fight, a bar room brawl, a boxing match or a hockey game when the gloves drop to the ice it's apparent anger can even be socially accepted, championed and cheered on feverishly. 

In communal, workplace, familial and domestic environments anger is also abundant and routinely vented. Political discord, racial tensions and even the outcome of sporting events routinely give rise to protests, riots and mob violence toward people and the institutions and entities of their making, as well as to the destruction of personal and public property. A massive body of research and courses of study focus on conflict resolution between managers and subordinates,  between peers, as well as between patrons of businesses and the employees that serve them. Careers are created and sustained solely devoted to offering psychological elixirs for managing the disgruntled and behavioural strategies for defusing and placating ire. Families and their domiciles are no less affected by anger and its expressions than any other stratum of human existence and can be as volatile and as decimating, or even more so, to individuals within them as between nations and their populations. Spousal abuse, sibling feuds, corporal punishment, and both physical aggressions as well as psychological tormenting are common place experiences in the lives of billions of relatives generation upon generation. Animals, and especially family pets, are even highly susceptible to being the subject of the wrath of Homo Sapiens of all ages, races, creeds, religions, sexes and sexual orientations. 

As this brief summary highlights, there seem to be as many words in language to describe anger in human interactions as there are occasions of it. There can be no doubt that it is humanity's Achilles' Heel. No human being is immune from it nor to it; it is an intrinsic part of the emotional arsenal naturally existing in everyone's psyche and within the interactions shared with all others. In my own life and its plethora of experiences I have been the subject of it, the perpetrator of it, exposed to it and collaterally affected by it more times than I can possibly recount. At 54 years of age, if I multiply the number of days I have been breathing by, conservatively, a half a dozen instances of anger affecting my psyche on any given one of them, it's in the range of 120,000 instances marked by the presence of anger in my lifetime alone. It is claimed that there are 60 times the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy as there are human beings on our planet. I would wager humanity's collective experiences with anger and expressions of it would dwarf that star count by astronomical proportions. 

In the various employment roles I have fulfilled through the past four decades in the restaurant & hospitality, security & loss prevention, health care, and golf & recreation industries I have been exposed to and affected by anger frequently. On numerous occasions daily I have also been responsible to manage and endeavour to resolve anger and its myriad expressions within amongst patrons and employees alike, as well as within myself. I believe it fair to say that through observation and osmosis from perpetual immersion in hostile interactions and environments I have not only been a student of it but also have accumulated substantial experience and significant expertise in managing and defusing it. Through all of it I have pondered and debriefed on its occurrences, studied its impacts on individuals and societies and quested to understand how best to combat and overcome it. 

After decades of living with it, studying it and addressing it, I have arrived upon one good answer to it, and I am not lightly saying so in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The answer is simple and indeed also natural; quite seriously, everyone with anger management issues should be smoking weed. 

Before discarding my hypothesis as silly or outlandish, it is appropriate to understand how I have arrived upon it. I have one particular life experience to site as an example, but I also have dozens upon dozens of others I can recount that are similar to it. Collectively they have all convinced me over time that Cannabis is in fact nature's remedy for combating and minimizing the impact of agitations and the expressions of anger arising from within the human psyche. 

In 1992 after graduating University I took a job as Night Manager of the Edmonton Inn, a large hotel property across the street from what was then the municipal airport. Within the hotel was a large Country & Western themed night club call Esmeralda's, a sports bar, a casual lounge and a couple of restaurants, along with several large banquet rooms and meeting spaces. It was then a busy and well frequented property with many conferences and conventions held there and numerous sports teams in the city for tournaments housed there as well. Every weekend and a lot of week nights as well Esmeralda's was filled to its 200 or so patron capacity and on a lot of nights angry patrons affected by alcohol became involved in physical altercations. As I recall, there was a Bouncer staff of at least six to eight strong guys on shift every night to manage whatever conflicts arose, and on frequent occasions the police also had to be called in to deal with the most unruly and agitated of patrons.

On one particular weekend the Edmonton Folk Music Festival was being held at Gallagher Park and many of the musicians and their road crews were staying at the hotel. The banquet rooms were utilized as a 24 hour Hospitality Suite for them to come and go from as they desired. At any given point on those Friday and Saturday nights there were upwards of 800 to a 1,000 people in those banquet rooms and the air was a bluish-grey haze of Pot smoke. Over those two nights there were no less than a half dozen serious fights that spilled out of Esmeralda's and into the parking lot, four separate instances requiring the police to be called and a couple where ambulances were required as well. Conversely, in the banquet rooms where up to five times the number of patrons were socializing while passing around joints there was not one single confrontation or fight amongst those in attendance all weekend long! 

I have worked the doors and on the bars of a lot of drinking establishments as well as supervised and managed the floors of a lot of cabarets and banquet rooms for wedding parties and golf tournaments over the past four decades. Time and time again I have observed the vastly different behaviours between those who swig back alcohol and those who suck back joints instead. The verdict is an easy one; alcohol consumption encourages and magnifies anger, while Cannabis use suppresses and eliminates it. Society is gradually coming to understand its benefits as a treatment for anxiety and PTSD in more recent years and more and more people are coming to appreciate its calming and euphoric influences on the psyche of its users as well. I dare say you will never find a group of pot-heads smashing all the glass in a neighbourhood bus stop or filling up Emergency wards in hospitals because of bar and parking lot brawls on most any given weekend across the country. Instead, you are much more likely to find them laughing it up and chatting while sitting in small groups in a park or on the beach, or while playing music and dancing, alone or together, in a care-free state. 

All of this is not to suggest that everyone needs to smoke Pot to suppress and eliminate anger, but for those who are challenged by control of that emotion it is to say that Cannabis can be a positive tool in its management based on my life's experience with it and around it. Anger is humanity's Achilles' Heel and a natural remedy for its treatment should not be illegal to possess and consume in this country or any other. That fact that it is today in many places is quite simply counter-productive, absurd and unnatural. Humans are always going to medicate with one substance or another. It makes sense to allow them to do so legally with a natural plant that actually achieves positive results and lessens the negative impacts arising from  humanity's propensity toward expressing the nastier qualities of its nature.

Perplexed by the way things are done sometimes? Me too!

I admit it, I am a political junkie. It's hard not to be, since political community is an ever-present part of what it means to live in society with fellow human beings. I'm also a proud Canadian, but I must confess from the outset that I am not a fan of the Conservative party in charge of the government on behalf of our citizenry. I, like many Canadians, have lost faith in and respect for the leadership we are receiving, and have become disenchanted at least, and enraged at worst, with the judgement being employed and the decisions that are being made and not made on our behalf.

This week I have been reading John Ralston Saul's impressive work, "A Fair Country - Telling Truths about Canada". I strongly recommend it to all Canadians as a very worthy read. Some of John's observations relate to language and the utilization of words in languages, as well as in regions of the world and Canada, and their influence on culture as well as on one another within a shared culture. I have also been following a fair amount of news recently referencing the, "Stephen Harper Government". It struck a chord with me this evening that personality politics in Canada is damaging our democracy severly and needs to be altered promptly. 

Stephen Harper, as leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed as Prime Minister of Canada, on behalf of Her Majesty, Queen Elizebeth II. It is not and never has been "Stephen Harper's Government" or even the "Conservative's Government" and we need to stop allowing these individuals and the media to refer to them as such. It is the "Prime Minister's Government", and the "Government of Canada". It does not belong to Stephen Harper or the Conservative party for the duration of their majority mandate and its formal identity should never be attached to individuals or their political identities. 

These individuals were elected to represent Canadians in OUR federal government public offices and have been entrusted to serve OUR Government of Canada while they are holding those public office's in good standing, regardless of their political stripes. The only time we should be experiencing the partisan nature of Canada's political system is during the election phase. At all other times, the political stripes of the individuals and groups should be subordinated/eliminated from public discourse in respect to the actions and initiatives of the governments that are there to serve us all, regardless of partisan values and priorities. 

A mandate to govern is not the same thing as a mandate to proseltize and Canadians do not need the perpetual focus on the divisiveness inherent within the partisan nature of the current environment and practice of Canadian politics. Outside of the election phase, all Canadians want their governments focused on good judgement and management of their collective best interests. The privilege to govern is not a license to enter a perpetual sparing match with the other representatives of the People appointed to govern on behalf of the People. All MPs, MLAs and Councillors, once elected, are there to work collaboratively and cooperatively with their peers to achieve the best interests of the citizenry as a whole. Failing to keep their focus on that quest, or allowing it to be distracted by partisan politics, should be grounds for recall and/or banishment. 

We also need to take the personalities out of all references to Federal, Provincial and Municipal publicly elected officials. When the Minister of Health speaks on a podium at a luncheon, or releases a media press release on a new law, regulation or initiative, we should not be attaching an individual personality or political party identity to the vessel fulfilling a function on behalf of all Canadians. Rona Ambrose's personality, and that of all other public servants, needs to be subordinated to the Office that she, and they, are charged to hold by not being utilized at all, period. It is my view that this can help to significantly reduce the egos that emerge and run rampant when celebrity-like status inflates an individual's or a group's persona above that of the people's Office held.    

I know, about now you are looking for something better to do because you thing I have gone wing-nuts, but please, let's play these thoughts out together. 

First off, by eliminating any individual or political personas from the Offices of our governments, we minimize the likelihood and ability of individual ego's being able to expand exponentially to put their own personalites, priorities and values ahead of the Public's best interests as a whole and the Mandate they were elected collectively to serve. 

Secondly, it would also reduce the ability of the media to turn what should be the reporting of news into a perpetual ideological struggle rampant with speculation, and at times even fabrication, being passed off as 'news'. Simply put, it will help to make reporting of the work of the government(s) that serve us more about the actual actions and inititiatives of OUR governments, and much less about the nature and political persuasions of the characters in the suits and dresses standing at the podiums explaining them. If it serves to reduce the constant competitiveness and ideological conflicts between elections that is often times created and fueled by the media, that would be a positive outcome for the on-going dialogue about the influence and impact of governments in our daily lives. 

Thirdly, it would also allow all of those elected officials to spend much less time worrying about their personal safety or about what they will read about themselves in the morning paper or find said about them in social media, and will allow them to focus instead within their relative anonymity and diminished stature with increased emphasis on their servitude to the duties they have been elected to fulfill.  

There are a plethora of changes that need to be made within the systems and processes of governance in Canada to counter the current capacity of individuals and political parties, who represent only a portion of the Canadian populace, to hijack and/or distort the Mandate they have been given the sacred privilege of fulfilling on behalf of the People they serve. An increase in individual obscurity in favour of increased prominance for the Office and its ownership by the People would be a start in a positive countering of the propensity for some to forget that they are there to serve US and are entitled to no more or less than that. 

Backwards Progress - Challenges of Contemporary Times

Reaching the half-century mark a couple of years back, I've witnessed my share of change; in the communities and societies I have grown up in, in the greater world beyond and the many nations that comprise it, and in my personal life along the journey to now as well.

"Life is about change", as someone at some time or another is undoubtedly credited with having observed along the way, and accordingly that reality is not in itself extraordinary. But if one stops to ponder for a few minutes on the historical changes in technology, lifestyle, societal values and cultural norms that have taken place over the past five decades in Canada, as well as around the world, I think one has to concede the half-century I have lived is pretty mind-boggling in comparison to most if not all earlier generations in human history. 'Survival of the fittest" has taken on a whole new meaning, literally and virtually.

I type today on a wireless keyboard to my IPad, using an App that backs up all my files to an Internet storage location, transmitted wirelessly. When I started College in 1985 we were just starting to see computer labs introduced and most all of my term papers were still done on a typewriter through Under-graduate studies in College and University. If you messed up a page half way down the text, you had to re-type it. There was no auto-correct and a Dictionary on the desk was your best friend in a slow, deliberate key-pecking process. As a child there was one phone in the house and a black and white T.V. made by Zenith. It had 3 channels as I recall. We were allowed one hour of T.V. a night and the rest was time spent on homework or playing outside with friends in the neighbourhood.

Today I have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Pinterest and Instagram accounts, to name but a few, and if it weren't for needing to walk the dogs a couple of times a day I likely wouldn't see much of the great out-of-doors at all. Even when I do, I could easily get a half dozen distracted walking tickets a day with my IPhone in hand, practically always. Pretty much all of the familial ties and friendships I have in life are now more virtually present than physically present in my experience of daily living. My 'Social Network' is global today, but my 'Social Circle' seems to have shrunken proportionately. I have a 'small' 32" colour LED flat screen T.V. with at least 30 channels to watch, and I can never find anything I want to see on them. It all seems like a backwards kind of 'progress' to me at times, and in many ways it is! These are also only some of many ways our country and our world has taken one step forward while taking more than two backwards along the journey to now.

As a Missionary's kid in Zambia in the mid to late-60's, my early years were shaped by an environment where being 'white' meant you were in the minority, with gated properties and bars on the house windows being the norm. I have childhood memories of being inside our home when burglarly attempts were in progress. I was then transplanted at the start of the 70's into Southern Alberta, where the kids in the neighbourhood were pretty much all shades of beige. We watched Westerns at Saturday Matinees and then played 'Cowboys and Indians' around the neighbourhood for "fun". The only 'Indians' I actually met in person were ones experiencing hardships, who came to the Manse we lived in looking for lodging and food stamps. The only 'Savages' I ever saw were on horses, dressed up in their war paints and feather head-dresses and riding in the summer Rodeo parades.  The only 'black' guy in the community I knew about was a homeless man I'd see around town from time to time.

I don't recall 'racism' in Africa or feelings in respect to it, perhaps because I was still too young then to understand. I also had parental guidance that respects and champions the equality of all people and the value that each has in teaching and stewarding the commonalities shared between us. I was raised to know that wherever 'racism' exists, it is most certainly wrong and must be challenged.

In contrast to my early years in Africa, I certainly saw and heard no shortage of racism in the communities I lived in on the Prairies during my childhood and in young adulthood while attending College and University. Sadly, as with the 'Cowboys and Indians' games I participated in as a kid, as a young man I even told a few disparaging jokes about 'Natives' as well. It was not until I read and studied the Rolf Inquiry Report, The Manitoba Justice Inquiry Report, and then the subsequent Royal Commission Report on the experience of First Nations peoples within Canada and it's 'majority' Anglo-European inhabitants and Institutions that I really started to appreciate, and feel pathetic about, my part in perpetuating the indoctrination such games and jokes were aimed to serve; namely the denigration and genocide of fellow human beings based solely on skin colour and being defined as a "them" distinct from and inferior to "us".

I ultimately pursued post-secondary studies for eleven years, undertaking a host of courses in law, politics, history and international affairs in respect to First Nations peoples and the Canadian state, to glean an in-depth understanding of the impact of Colonialism and European migration to North America. It is not a historical legacy that any of its ancestors should be particularly proud of in my opinion, and demonstrates hypocrisy to stand on soap boxes professing the 'barbarous' nature and tactics of ones adversaries today. The contempt is clearly well earned from any measured reading of the annals of 'Discovery', 'Settlement' and 'Conquest'.

I certainly came to appreciate through those years of post-secondary studies how naive I had been, and still am today, about the plights that many good people have faced and still face today in Canada, as well as globally, in striving to enjoy the basic needs of Maslow's Hierarchy. I read it reported recently that there are over 50 Million people on Earth today living in Refugee Camps! Are you kidding me? That is more people than live in Canada, by another third at least! In Canada the evening news regularly features stories month to month, year in and year out, decade on decade, about the third-world conditions many First Nations peoples continue to live in within their communities, with no or minimal basic services available.

It is a sadly observable reality that while 'progress' may have been made in leaps and bounds in technology, when it comes to achieving a 'civilized' global community it is most definitely stunted, if there has indeed been any 'progress' in my life-time. Canada is lagging well behind the curve of where it should be for the pronouncements it makes in support of Human Rights in Canada and internationally. It is unacceptable failure and a perpetual example of hollow words and unfulfilled values to my reckoning, and based on many an official governmental inquiry report and tribunal decision rendered over the decades as well!

When I was a lad looking out at the awe-inspiring starlit nights on the Prairies I recall feeling the fear and contemplating the very real threat and the 'doom's day' propaganda of that era; namely Nuclear devastation of the Planet. I spent many a night falling to sleep, or not falling to sleep, thinking about what I would do if ever the news came, and looking and listening for planes coming in the night sky from our Russian neighbours to the North. Today that threat and the fear associated with it still exists, but it has been muted by the "War on Terror", and the more recent sensationalism and barbarism in beheadings of hostages to serve a defined 'Extremist' group's political, social and, purportedly, religious aims. In more recent months tensions in Ukraine and global tensions between Russia and the 'West' rip scabs from latent childhood fears of mass devastation. I can well imagine children today are falling asleep, or not falling asleep, the world over with one eye a bit less tightly shut than before all this nonsense took centre stage again as adversarial events and regional conflicts within the global community wax and wane, and wax again.

ALL of my life's education and experiences impress on me ever-more each day that OUR collective problem as humans is OUR propensity to focus on the differences that define a narrowly conceived and constructed 'US' rather than the commonalities that do exist and can serve to harmonize a global WE and serve aims that are in OUR common interests as fellow human beings on Earth.

There have been an enormous number of past, and present, injuries that have been and are being perpetuated in defence and defiance of states, races, ethnic or religious identities that in some way or another claim 'insult' and 'persecution' as the measure of the justness for their atrocities and to rationalize root causes for their hostilities and violent aggression. The motives in reality were and are most definitely all driven at the core by human greed and primal survival urges for 'supremacy', and by it the achievement of physical and economic security of ways and means to better ends than what people had before.

It should be clear by now that the rush to 'progress' at any cost has and is exacerbating and not marginalizing the distinctions between US and ensures that WE cannot ever get past acting out our humanity's "Grumpy Amygdala" like our cave dwelling ancestors; with a destructive and vicious reaction to each new insult and injury triggering mob insecurity and absurdity the world-over of one form or another in one group or another every day of the year!

Mass candle-light ceremonies following the most crushing atrocities affecting the collective human psyche are an example to my mind of Humanity's capacity to achieve brotherly love, tolerance and compassion the world over. I have witnessed such mass movements on nightly news casts in recent weeks that have included countries in a diversity of regions and on different continents standing up for equality, justice and the virtues of respect within our shared human community, and standing in protest of those who would try to utilize fear to achieve divisive, destructive and audacious means for political and 'Extremist' ends. The will of the masses is most certainly there to over-come the grievances of the marginalized and disenfranchised, but the leadership to date is devoid of actions that are genuinely intended to achieve mutually advantageous resolutions and outcomes.

There is a seminar being held presently in Washington, hosted by President Obama, that is addressing the very real concern of 'Extremist' movements throughout the world. I applaud the initiative if the intent is to gain greater understanding of the concerns of one's adversaries and if a genuine interest in seeking their win/win resolution is the guiding intention. Otherwise, it is akin to having a conversation while the Elephant is out of the room. It's flaw is in thinking it will arrive at possible resolutions absent of the offended parties and instead only perpetuates the opportunities for Intellectuals and military strategists to sit around agreeing with themselves about their interpretation of how others feel and why they are acting the way they are and doing the things they are doing because of it.

Lets face it, my Canada and my world are not the nice, welcoming, caring, secure and 'progressive' environments they should be for all the human knowledge and international principles and proclamations that exist in print that we and all nations are signatories to. WE need to get better at practicing what is agreed to and holding our leadership accountable to support the values and pronouncements of Human Rights, rather than think they have a mandate to amend them to their defined group's interests.

To my mind the usefulness of political parties has outgrown itself in the contemporary era. Smart Canadians need to sit down and think about how fellow Canadians can be better served than through an adversarial political system designed to perpetually stimulate conflict and confrontation and take valuable time and energy away from cooperation and collaboration in the day-to-day affairs of those elected to represent further micronized communal interests. With a business approach, we need to undertake a 'Situation Analysis' and work through a process of consensus building to achieve a renewed Mission and Vision, along with an agreed-upon direction for the country and its citizenry that can be voted upon through trust-worthy and transparent on-line election processes.

There is an opportunity existing today for Canada to renew its historical reputation as a peace-keeping nation, with an international rainbow of citizens proudly comprising its societal and cultural mosaic. WE need a process that achieves an updated 'Social Contract' and a renewed commitment to walk-the-walk on internationally agreed-upon Human Rights principles and declarations. In so doing it can provide an example of the possible and a testament to it for the rest of the global community.

WE as Canadians need to focus our collective energies with a renewed sense of urgency and priority on achieving acceptable living conditions for all Canadians in communities from coast-to-coast-to-coast; with basic services of electricity, water and sewage systems, adequate housing, schools and employment opportunities. WE need to ensure that the people of our northern regions can receive their goods and services at reasonable costs comparative to all southern regions of the country, and that they can receive their governance and justice in ways that best serves their communities as well. We need to address homelessness and addiction with compassion, to aid and nurture recovery and reintegration. Restorative justice needs greater exercise in achieving genuine resolution of some crimes and offences as well. In reality the whole Justice system needs extensive reform to achieve restorative rather than punitive Justice aims. Holistically, WE need to renew our commitment to 'Good Governance'; binding it less to 'Institutions' designed to control people and attaching it primarily instead to serving the 'Greater Good' by adapting and modifying the institutions and tools of governance to meet that objective.

WE have had enough experience with looking forward while taking steps backwards as a country and as a global community. WE need leadership that genuinely cares about the fellow human beings they serve. WE need to strive diligently to utilize tools such as the Economy to achieve the 'Greater Good' through renewed instruments of 'Good Governance', rather than the self-interests of the wealthy, political and military 'elite' that today make it quite clear they have not earned OUR trust and confidence to steer OUR course forward well, nor seem to be genuinely trying to do so with much earnest.

That is what I will be looking for from those who want my vote in coming Federal and Provincial elections. I am a champion of change after five decades of experiencing it, so long as it for the better, and not a continuation of OUR backwards 'progress' simply dressed in renewed rhetoric that is rooted in divisiveness and promotion of a 'fear' agenda.


Andrew Gilchrist B.A., C.C.M.

Member of the Canadian Society of Club Managers since 2002
Internationally accredited Certified Club Manager (C.C.M.)