Jim Poling Sr.'s Blog, page 43
July 23, 2015
Whither the Birds?
Delicious little wild strawberries grow in a sandy patch of soil in the woods where I walk. The birds usually snatch them before I get a chance, but this year they are all mine.
Across the lake a friend notes that the red currents on her bushes have ripened but have yet to attract any birds.
The woods seem quieter this year. The gulls, whose numbers grow each year, continue to complain as they circle the lake. But within the trees there is less flickering of wings and only occasional bird song.
Where are all the birds?
We once were visited by squadrons of birds, either locals or transients just passing through. Almost daily we were amused by the antics of the nuthatches as they walked the trunks of trees upside down. Grosbeaks and finches added colour to our dull days.
There was always noise in the trees around us. Scolding from the blue jays. The dee, dee, dee calls of the chickadees. The morning and evening moaning of the doves. And, of course, the non-stop warbling of the vireo that decided that the best place to sing at dawn was outside my bedroom window.
We don’t feed the birds like we used to and perhaps that’s why I don’t see or hear as many. Rampaging bears smashed most of our birdfeeders a couple of years back and I haven’t got around to replacing them.
However, there is little doubt that bird populations everywhere have declined and continue to decline. Birds are among the most studied critters on earth and any of the many reports about them do not make for happy reading. Losses over the last 40 years are in the billions.
Our birds are dying off for many reasons. Habitat loss is the main one. When we cut down a patch of woods to put up a shopping mall, we eliminate the homes of thousands of birds. When we slash and burn tropical forests for plantations we eliminate the habitat of many of the migratory birds that spend summers with us.
New reports show that the increasing number of wind turbines are killing hundreds of thousands of birds. There are many other obstructions, however. Millions of birds in North America die each year after crashing into communications towers, the plate glass on high-rise buildings, power lines and guy wires.
Now there are studies claiming that cats kill billions of birds. The U.S. 2014 State of the Birds report claims that domestic cats kill 2.4 billion birds every year in the United States and 196 million in Canada.
Yes, cats do indeed kill birds but by the billions?
It’s difficult to put much faith in many of the statistics now tossed around about bird losses. We have to suspect everything we read because we live in a marketing society drifting into the Donald Trump School of Communication.
But exact numbers do not really matter. Throughout the world our birds are disappearing. Martha, the world’s last known passenger pigeon, died 101 years ago. She was one of 100 species of birds that have become extinct in the last 400 years.
The watch list of birds nearing extinction continues to grow. About 1,200 bird species, roughly 12 per cent of all bird species, are endangered, threatened or vulnerable, says the environmental group Endangered Species International.
When birds disappear so do other things. Some birds are important pollinators. Some are seed dispersers important to plant reproduction. Woodpeckers, for instance, pound at trees and create cavities that are important to insects and other living things.
When birds disappear so do some flowers and plants and insects. It’s a chain that when broken changes our world, sometimes in tiny ways, sometimes in large, critical ways.
But for all the studies and reports on what is making the birds disappear, one thing is definite. Almost everything that is killing the birds is created by human beings.
When we walk into the woods and notice fewer flickering wings and less birdsong, we have to ask ourselves if there are ways that we can be living differently.
(From my Minden Times column July 23, 2015)
Across the lake a friend notes that the red currents on her bushes have ripened but have yet to attract any birds.
The woods seem quieter this year. The gulls, whose numbers grow each year, continue to complain as they circle the lake. But within the trees there is less flickering of wings and only occasional bird song.
Where are all the birds?
We once were visited by squadrons of birds, either locals or transients just passing through. Almost daily we were amused by the antics of the nuthatches as they walked the trunks of trees upside down. Grosbeaks and finches added colour to our dull days.
There was always noise in the trees around us. Scolding from the blue jays. The dee, dee, dee calls of the chickadees. The morning and evening moaning of the doves. And, of course, the non-stop warbling of the vireo that decided that the best place to sing at dawn was outside my bedroom window.
We don’t feed the birds like we used to and perhaps that’s why I don’t see or hear as many. Rampaging bears smashed most of our birdfeeders a couple of years back and I haven’t got around to replacing them.
However, there is little doubt that bird populations everywhere have declined and continue to decline. Birds are among the most studied critters on earth and any of the many reports about them do not make for happy reading. Losses over the last 40 years are in the billions.
Our birds are dying off for many reasons. Habitat loss is the main one. When we cut down a patch of woods to put up a shopping mall, we eliminate the homes of thousands of birds. When we slash and burn tropical forests for plantations we eliminate the habitat of many of the migratory birds that spend summers with us.
New reports show that the increasing number of wind turbines are killing hundreds of thousands of birds. There are many other obstructions, however. Millions of birds in North America die each year after crashing into communications towers, the plate glass on high-rise buildings, power lines and guy wires.
Now there are studies claiming that cats kill billions of birds. The U.S. 2014 State of the Birds report claims that domestic cats kill 2.4 billion birds every year in the United States and 196 million in Canada.
Yes, cats do indeed kill birds but by the billions?
It’s difficult to put much faith in many of the statistics now tossed around about bird losses. We have to suspect everything we read because we live in a marketing society drifting into the Donald Trump School of Communication.
But exact numbers do not really matter. Throughout the world our birds are disappearing. Martha, the world’s last known passenger pigeon, died 101 years ago. She was one of 100 species of birds that have become extinct in the last 400 years.
The watch list of birds nearing extinction continues to grow. About 1,200 bird species, roughly 12 per cent of all bird species, are endangered, threatened or vulnerable, says the environmental group Endangered Species International.
When birds disappear so do other things. Some birds are important pollinators. Some are seed dispersers important to plant reproduction. Woodpeckers, for instance, pound at trees and create cavities that are important to insects and other living things.
When birds disappear so do some flowers and plants and insects. It’s a chain that when broken changes our world, sometimes in tiny ways, sometimes in large, critical ways.
But for all the studies and reports on what is making the birds disappear, one thing is definite. Almost everything that is killing the birds is created by human beings.
When we walk into the woods and notice fewer flickering wings and less birdsong, we have to ask ourselves if there are ways that we can be living differently.
(From my Minden Times column July 23, 2015)
July 16, 2015
The Turtle and the Transport Truck
A turtle is crossing the highway and if it doesn’t change direction, that 18-wheeler coming around the corner is going to make it part of the asphalt.
Turtles are taciturn critters. Very stubborn. They wish to be left alone and don’t like to communicate. When you try to communicate with them they withdraw into their shells.
They are not like the loons that sing information about what is happening on the lake. Or the wolves that communicate with their night howls. Or, the cheeky red squirrels and audacious crows who never hesitate to offer their thoughts.
Not turtles. They keep what they know to themselves. They dislike sharing information, perhaps operating on the fusty thinking that what you don’t know won’t hurt you.
We Canadians are governed by turtles. Our governments are notoriously unforthcoming. Maybe they feel we citizens are not smart enough to handle a lot of information. Maybe they just want to shield us from facts that might upset us. Whatever, they don’t want us to know too much.
The result is that we live in a country that ranks very low in providing its citizens with the information they need to make intelligent decisions. All levels of our government – municipal, provincial and federal – are overly secretive.
We point fingers and sneer at the often dysfunctional American political system. In terms of freedom of information it is light years ahead of ours.
Americans are willing to share information. Canadians are not.
We have 17 laws in Canada aimed at giving citizens access to government information. Governments, however, have found ways around those laws to delay or withhold information they don’t want the public to see. Usually the information blocked has the potential to hurt a government politically.
A common tool governments use to block the release of information is fees. If a government department does not want to meet an access to information request, it simply places an exorbitant charge on providing the information.
Fees assessed for providing information have tripled in the past couple of years.
Chad Ingram wrote recently about The Times’ efforts obtain a copy of the contract between the Ontario government and Carillion, the company that provides highway maintenance in our region. The Times applied to see the contract under the Freedom of Information Act more than six months ago and has encountered one roadblock after another.
Many people are not happy with Carillion’s highway maintenance, especially in winter. Without seeing the contract, taxpayers can’t determine whether Carillion is properly performing the work it is being paid to do.
Federally we have one of the most tight-lipped governments in history. And that’s saying something considering that governments in Ottawa – no matter what their political stripes – are famous for hiding their lights under bushel baskets.
The current government takes its cue from Prime Minister Harper, a diligent man focused on his own view of the country, and very turtle-like when it comes to sharing information. He has read too much by Cardinal Richelieu, who directed much of the development of French Canada, and famously said: “Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.”
Newspapers Canada, an advocacy group representing more than 800 newspapers, does an annual audit on government performance under access to information laws. The results often are discouraging.
Fred Vallance-Jones, an associate journalism professor at the University of King’s College in Halifax, helps Newspapers Canada conduct the audit.
“Sadly, some (governments/public institutions) are getting worse,” Vallance-Jones said following release of last year’s audit. “And particularly troublesome is the worsening performance by the federal government.”
John Hinds, Newspapers Canada president, says the 2015 audit is being compiled and he expects it will be made public in September, or early October. The public likely will have the results before the October federal election.
That election is the 18-wheeler. The Harper government is the turtle. If the turtle gets squashed by the 18-wheeler, and that is a distinct possibility, it will be partly because of its unwillingness or inability to share information with the citizens it serves.
Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Writer’s Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y
Turtles are taciturn critters. Very stubborn. They wish to be left alone and don’t like to communicate. When you try to communicate with them they withdraw into their shells.
They are not like the loons that sing information about what is happening on the lake. Or the wolves that communicate with their night howls. Or, the cheeky red squirrels and audacious crows who never hesitate to offer their thoughts.
Not turtles. They keep what they know to themselves. They dislike sharing information, perhaps operating on the fusty thinking that what you don’t know won’t hurt you.
We Canadians are governed by turtles. Our governments are notoriously unforthcoming. Maybe they feel we citizens are not smart enough to handle a lot of information. Maybe they just want to shield us from facts that might upset us. Whatever, they don’t want us to know too much.
The result is that we live in a country that ranks very low in providing its citizens with the information they need to make intelligent decisions. All levels of our government – municipal, provincial and federal – are overly secretive.
We point fingers and sneer at the often dysfunctional American political system. In terms of freedom of information it is light years ahead of ours.
Americans are willing to share information. Canadians are not.
We have 17 laws in Canada aimed at giving citizens access to government information. Governments, however, have found ways around those laws to delay or withhold information they don’t want the public to see. Usually the information blocked has the potential to hurt a government politically.
A common tool governments use to block the release of information is fees. If a government department does not want to meet an access to information request, it simply places an exorbitant charge on providing the information.
Fees assessed for providing information have tripled in the past couple of years.
Chad Ingram wrote recently about The Times’ efforts obtain a copy of the contract between the Ontario government and Carillion, the company that provides highway maintenance in our region. The Times applied to see the contract under the Freedom of Information Act more than six months ago and has encountered one roadblock after another.
Many people are not happy with Carillion’s highway maintenance, especially in winter. Without seeing the contract, taxpayers can’t determine whether Carillion is properly performing the work it is being paid to do.
Federally we have one of the most tight-lipped governments in history. And that’s saying something considering that governments in Ottawa – no matter what their political stripes – are famous for hiding their lights under bushel baskets.
The current government takes its cue from Prime Minister Harper, a diligent man focused on his own view of the country, and very turtle-like when it comes to sharing information. He has read too much by Cardinal Richelieu, who directed much of the development of French Canada, and famously said: “Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.”
Newspapers Canada, an advocacy group representing more than 800 newspapers, does an annual audit on government performance under access to information laws. The results often are discouraging.
Fred Vallance-Jones, an associate journalism professor at the University of King’s College in Halifax, helps Newspapers Canada conduct the audit.
“Sadly, some (governments/public institutions) are getting worse,” Vallance-Jones said following release of last year’s audit. “And particularly troublesome is the worsening performance by the federal government.”
John Hinds, Newspapers Canada president, says the 2015 audit is being compiled and he expects it will be made public in September, or early October. The public likely will have the results before the October federal election.
That election is the 18-wheeler. The Harper government is the turtle. If the turtle gets squashed by the 18-wheeler, and that is a distinct possibility, it will be partly because of its unwillingness or inability to share information with the citizens it serves.
Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Writer’s Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y
July 9, 2015
Ghost Canoe
This is the week for sitting on the shoreline of a northern lake and staring into the evening mists that creep across dark waters at sunset.
You never know what will emerge from the mists. Perhaps a dove grey cedar strip and canvass canoe paddled by a lone man wearing a yellow bush shirt. If you do see him and call to him, he will not answer and the canoe will dissolve into the mists as if it had never been there.
Ninety-eight years ago this week Tom Thomson, landscape artist, drowned in Canoe Lake. He was last seen alive July 8, 1917 and his decomposing body was found in the lake more than a week later, on July 16.
Some people believe Thomson’s ghost still paddles through the mists on Algonquin Park lakes. There have been reports of sightings, none in recent history.
The most famous sighting report came back in 1931 from a Mrs. Northway, a summer resident on Smoke Lake. She and her guide were paddling the lake one evening when a man in a canoe appeared. As the guide steered their canoe toward the man to exchange greetings, the canoe vanished.
One of Mrs. Northway’s guests that summer was Lawren Harris, Thomson’s friend and a member of the Group of Seven artists. He believed her story because, he said, persons taken unexpectedly continue to haunt the places they loved.
Jimmy Stringer, long-time Canoe Lake resident who met Thomson when he first arrived in the Park in 1913, told of two encounters with Thomson’s ghost.
He said he saw it once while paddling in the Park alone. Another time he was guiding an American who was part of a group. Their canoe fell behind the rest, and somewhere along the route the American began yelling from the bow.
Stringer asked what was wrong and the American said he had seen a ghostly canoe with a lone man up ahead. The man in the ghost canoe shouted that someone had drowned, then disappeared. When they reached their destination, Stringer learned that one of the lead canoes, carrying the American’s brother, had tipped and the brother had drowned.
Stringer himself drowned in Canoe Lake. He was pulling a toboggan on the lake when the spring ice gave way – in almost the same spot where Thomson’s body was found.
Mystery shrouds much of the Thomson story. His body was buried in a tiny bush-choked cemetery at the north end of Canoe Lake. The burial was hurried because the body was decomposing.
However, Thomson’s brother George send a telegram to the lake saying the family wanted the body reburied in Leith, near Owen Sound, where Thomson’s parents lived. He hired an undertaker to travel to the lake, exhume the body and bring it home to Leith.
The undertaker arrived with a coffin on an evening train and went to the isolated cemetery about midnight. He left with the coffin on the next train. Rumours circulated that the undertaker did not exhume the body and brought an empty coffin to Leith.
Thus the Great Canadian Mystery: Do Tom Thomson’s bones lie under his headstone at Leith, or in the dark tree-shrouded soil at Canoe Lake?
The other part of the mystery is how did Thomson die? Some people say it is impossible that the wandering woodsman-artist who spent so much time in his canoe could simply fall out of it and drown. There are theories that he was murdered. There was much speculation about fishing line wrapped around his ankle.
What is known is that on the night of July 7 there was a drinking party at one of the cabins on Canoe Lake. Thomson was there. Arguments, no doubt fuelled by too much booze, broke out.
Thomson was last seen the next day paddling his canoe away from the Canoe Lake shore and letting out copper fishing line as he went. He disappeared behind Little Wapomeo Island and his canoe was found overturned the next day.
The mysteries remain, elusive as the evening mists. Elusive as the ghost canoe that some people say still glides through them.
From my Minden Times column @ http://mindentimes.ca/?p=7202More on Tom Thomson at: http://www.amazon.ca/Tom-Thomson-Myst...
You never know what will emerge from the mists. Perhaps a dove grey cedar strip and canvass canoe paddled by a lone man wearing a yellow bush shirt. If you do see him and call to him, he will not answer and the canoe will dissolve into the mists as if it had never been there.
Ninety-eight years ago this week Tom Thomson, landscape artist, drowned in Canoe Lake. He was last seen alive July 8, 1917 and his decomposing body was found in the lake more than a week later, on July 16.
Some people believe Thomson’s ghost still paddles through the mists on Algonquin Park lakes. There have been reports of sightings, none in recent history.
The most famous sighting report came back in 1931 from a Mrs. Northway, a summer resident on Smoke Lake. She and her guide were paddling the lake one evening when a man in a canoe appeared. As the guide steered their canoe toward the man to exchange greetings, the canoe vanished.
One of Mrs. Northway’s guests that summer was Lawren Harris, Thomson’s friend and a member of the Group of Seven artists. He believed her story because, he said, persons taken unexpectedly continue to haunt the places they loved.
Jimmy Stringer, long-time Canoe Lake resident who met Thomson when he first arrived in the Park in 1913, told of two encounters with Thomson’s ghost.
He said he saw it once while paddling in the Park alone. Another time he was guiding an American who was part of a group. Their canoe fell behind the rest, and somewhere along the route the American began yelling from the bow.
Stringer asked what was wrong and the American said he had seen a ghostly canoe with a lone man up ahead. The man in the ghost canoe shouted that someone had drowned, then disappeared. When they reached their destination, Stringer learned that one of the lead canoes, carrying the American’s brother, had tipped and the brother had drowned.
Stringer himself drowned in Canoe Lake. He was pulling a toboggan on the lake when the spring ice gave way – in almost the same spot where Thomson’s body was found.
Mystery shrouds much of the Thomson story. His body was buried in a tiny bush-choked cemetery at the north end of Canoe Lake. The burial was hurried because the body was decomposing.
However, Thomson’s brother George send a telegram to the lake saying the family wanted the body reburied in Leith, near Owen Sound, where Thomson’s parents lived. He hired an undertaker to travel to the lake, exhume the body and bring it home to Leith.
The undertaker arrived with a coffin on an evening train and went to the isolated cemetery about midnight. He left with the coffin on the next train. Rumours circulated that the undertaker did not exhume the body and brought an empty coffin to Leith.
Thus the Great Canadian Mystery: Do Tom Thomson’s bones lie under his headstone at Leith, or in the dark tree-shrouded soil at Canoe Lake?
The other part of the mystery is how did Thomson die? Some people say it is impossible that the wandering woodsman-artist who spent so much time in his canoe could simply fall out of it and drown. There are theories that he was murdered. There was much speculation about fishing line wrapped around his ankle.
What is known is that on the night of July 7 there was a drinking party at one of the cabins on Canoe Lake. Thomson was there. Arguments, no doubt fuelled by too much booze, broke out.
Thomson was last seen the next day paddling his canoe away from the Canoe Lake shore and letting out copper fishing line as he went. He disappeared behind Little Wapomeo Island and his canoe was found overturned the next day.
The mysteries remain, elusive as the evening mists. Elusive as the ghost canoe that some people say still glides through them.
From my Minden Times column @ http://mindentimes.ca/?p=7202More on Tom Thomson at: http://www.amazon.ca/Tom-Thomson-Myst...
July 2, 2015
How To Live Without So Much Stuff
There is important new thinking out there on rescuing the environment and it comes from what some might consider an unlikely source.
It is found in Laudato Si, an encyclical from Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. That’s not breaking news. The 184-page document was released earlier this month. Many people have forgotten about it already, which is a shame.
Anyone seriously interested in our deteriorating environment should read this document. Forget that it is written by a pope. Ignore, if you wish, the religious references. Whether or not you believe in God and Creation, the earth is a shared inheritance for the benefit of everyone, Francis writes.
This encyclical needs to be read as the thoughts of a pensive, superbly educated and intelligent man. It isclear and relatively easy reading, drawing on scientific research, reports, observations and other opinions.
Its key message, in my opinion, is its call for a global dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We all need to better inform ourselves with facts so we all can participate fully in discussing how to stop the deterioration of our world.
The Pope’s message is not just about climate change and other symptoms of environmental abuse. It is about changing our attitude that the world must be respected and cared for only because it benefits us. We share the earth with all kinds of other life, and those other forms deserve our respect and our caring.
We live in an industrial system of over-production and over-consumption with woefully inadequate capacity to absorb and reuse waste and by-products. Dollar stores and other discount operations bulge with mountains of our over-produced goods. Our garbage dumps overflow despite positive advances in recycling.
Walk the edges of Highways 35, or 118 or 121 and see the piles of soda cans, beer bottles, cigarette packages and other detritus tossed from vehicle windows.
Ontario produces 12.5 billion tonnes of garbage a year, almost one tonne per person, says the Ontario Waste Management Association. We have so much garbage that we have to ship some of it to landfills in the United States.
We think we are better handling our waste, but that’s an illusion.
For example, we recycle only a fraction of the paper we produce. Most of the paper we use goes into the air through burning, or into our soils through burying. Roughly one-third of the food we produce is not eaten and is thrown out.
We keep talking about fixes but our fixes are simply bandages. Fixes like carbon credits, or other pay-to-pollute solutions, are not the answer because they do not treat the underlying causes.
The encyclical says the world needs to talk seriously about changing the culture of consumerism that prioritizes short-term gain and private interests.
“Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction,” the Pope wrote.
Much of the reporting on the encyclical focussed on climate change and eliminating fossil fuels but the papal message is much more than that. It sees environmental destruction as a symptom of a human crisis resulting from an obsession with economic growth and material accumulation.
Production means jobs and profits, which lead to a better life for many. However, our reliance on constant economic growth leaves us with a growing environmental crisis. The encyclical says that we lack the culture and leadership needed to find new paths.
It notes the positive environmental improvements made in some countries. These do not solve global environment problems but they do show we are capable of positive interventions.
We have made some positive changes. Certainly, ecological awareness and sensitivity are growing but this has done little to change our consumption habits.
People throughout the world need to begin talking seriously about how we can start changing our living style, especially our economic system of more and more production. We need to start talking about how to live happily and successfully without so much stuff.
Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y
It is found in Laudato Si, an encyclical from Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. That’s not breaking news. The 184-page document was released earlier this month. Many people have forgotten about it already, which is a shame.
Anyone seriously interested in our deteriorating environment should read this document. Forget that it is written by a pope. Ignore, if you wish, the religious references. Whether or not you believe in God and Creation, the earth is a shared inheritance for the benefit of everyone, Francis writes.
This encyclical needs to be read as the thoughts of a pensive, superbly educated and intelligent man. It isclear and relatively easy reading, drawing on scientific research, reports, observations and other opinions.
Its key message, in my opinion, is its call for a global dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We all need to better inform ourselves with facts so we all can participate fully in discussing how to stop the deterioration of our world.
The Pope’s message is not just about climate change and other symptoms of environmental abuse. It is about changing our attitude that the world must be respected and cared for only because it benefits us. We share the earth with all kinds of other life, and those other forms deserve our respect and our caring.
We live in an industrial system of over-production and over-consumption with woefully inadequate capacity to absorb and reuse waste and by-products. Dollar stores and other discount operations bulge with mountains of our over-produced goods. Our garbage dumps overflow despite positive advances in recycling.
Walk the edges of Highways 35, or 118 or 121 and see the piles of soda cans, beer bottles, cigarette packages and other detritus tossed from vehicle windows.
Ontario produces 12.5 billion tonnes of garbage a year, almost one tonne per person, says the Ontario Waste Management Association. We have so much garbage that we have to ship some of it to landfills in the United States.
We think we are better handling our waste, but that’s an illusion.
For example, we recycle only a fraction of the paper we produce. Most of the paper we use goes into the air through burning, or into our soils through burying. Roughly one-third of the food we produce is not eaten and is thrown out.
We keep talking about fixes but our fixes are simply bandages. Fixes like carbon credits, or other pay-to-pollute solutions, are not the answer because they do not treat the underlying causes.
The encyclical says the world needs to talk seriously about changing the culture of consumerism that prioritizes short-term gain and private interests.
“Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction,” the Pope wrote.
Much of the reporting on the encyclical focussed on climate change and eliminating fossil fuels but the papal message is much more than that. It sees environmental destruction as a symptom of a human crisis resulting from an obsession with economic growth and material accumulation.
Production means jobs and profits, which lead to a better life for many. However, our reliance on constant economic growth leaves us with a growing environmental crisis. The encyclical says that we lack the culture and leadership needed to find new paths.
It notes the positive environmental improvements made in some countries. These do not solve global environment problems but they do show we are capable of positive interventions.
We have made some positive changes. Certainly, ecological awareness and sensitivity are growing but this has done little to change our consumption habits.
People throughout the world need to begin talking seriously about how we can start changing our living style, especially our economic system of more and more production. We need to start talking about how to live happily and successfully without so much stuff.
Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y
May 27, 2015
Pulling the Plug on Hydro Brass
My Minden Times column:
So there you have it.
Hydro One sent out bad bills to 100,000 customers, lied about it and then spent $88.3 million of your money to cover up the sordid scandal.
Ontario’s ombudsman, the guy who tries to help protect us from all the incompetents and thieves in our government, revealed all that this week.
One senior citizen in Timmins was overbilled, and when he didn’t pay, Hydro One pulled $10,000 from his bank account, the ombudsman, André Marin, reported to Queen’s Park. A ski resort received a bill for $37 million.
“Trying to deal with Hydro One math is like trying to pin down a kangaroo on a trampoline,” said Mr. Marin.
Marin won’t be doing any more investigations of Hydro One, however. The Ontario government has decided to stop the ombudsman and six other independent watchdogs from investigating and reporting on Hydro One affairs.
Premier Kathy says she wants to privatize Hydro One and investors won’t be interested if the company comes with watchdogs. So if Hydro One had been privatized for the last couple of years, who would have told us about the billing scandal and the cover-up? You guessed it . . . Noooobody.
The government says there will be other controls on a privatized Hydro One, like a corporate ombudsman. That would be an ombudspal hired by Hydro One, paid by Hydro One and reporting to Hydro One.
Really Premier Kathy, I know I’m not very bright but do you believe the rest of Ontario citizens are that stupid?
The government wants to privatize Hydro One for two reasons, both aimed at improving its own situation, and not for the benefit of its citizens. It wants free of Hydro One’s mess so it can deal with its other messes. And, of course it wants the money from investors so it can delay the inevitable bankruptcy of the province.
Marin’s report, called In the Dark, is a shocking story that Hydro One customers and others should read. It can be found online at http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/Resources/Reports/In-the-Dark.aspx#executive_sumaryThe most sickening part of this scandal is the attitude of Hydro One’s bosses and its board of directors. These people, hugely paid and much pampered, blamed the entire mess on lower level workers. They said they were caught off guard by a developing crisis in which lower-level managers fed them over-optimistic reports.
The executives and directors are there to ensure they are never caught off guard. It is their job to know what’s going on. These are the people in place to create and protect the company culture. They also are there to fall on their swords when the company they oversee goes bad.
The top levels of Hydro One should be ashamed for shifting the blame.
Here’s what Marin said:
“The source of Hydro One’s mind-boggling maladministration does not lie in defective data and software programming. Rather, its fatal fault is a technocratic and inward-facing organizational culture that is completely out of step with public sector values. Even after Hydro One pledged to become more customer-centric, to do better, and to learn from its mistakes, it continued to display insensitivity and disregard for its customers. As late as February 2015, during the coldest month in Ontario’s recorded history, the company lied to and bullied customers with the threat of disconnection.”
Lower level workers do not carry out that type of dishonesty on their own. They are encouraged, or forced, to act that way by a corporate culture created by the bosses and appointed directors.
All plans to privatize Hydro One need to stop now. Nothing should be done with Hydro One until it is cleaned up, restored and properly serving its 1.3 million customers.
First in the clean-up should be the firing of Hydro One’s entire executive floor and its board of directors.
That is a minimum and a must. The people of Ontario have suffered much from the scandals of recent years. They are owed some hard-hitting action that shows that the politicians they elected in good faith are working for them.
So there you have it.
Hydro One sent out bad bills to 100,000 customers, lied about it and then spent $88.3 million of your money to cover up the sordid scandal.
Ontario’s ombudsman, the guy who tries to help protect us from all the incompetents and thieves in our government, revealed all that this week.
One senior citizen in Timmins was overbilled, and when he didn’t pay, Hydro One pulled $10,000 from his bank account, the ombudsman, André Marin, reported to Queen’s Park. A ski resort received a bill for $37 million.
“Trying to deal with Hydro One math is like trying to pin down a kangaroo on a trampoline,” said Mr. Marin.
Marin won’t be doing any more investigations of Hydro One, however. The Ontario government has decided to stop the ombudsman and six other independent watchdogs from investigating and reporting on Hydro One affairs.
Premier Kathy says she wants to privatize Hydro One and investors won’t be interested if the company comes with watchdogs. So if Hydro One had been privatized for the last couple of years, who would have told us about the billing scandal and the cover-up? You guessed it . . . Noooobody.
The government says there will be other controls on a privatized Hydro One, like a corporate ombudsman. That would be an ombudspal hired by Hydro One, paid by Hydro One and reporting to Hydro One.
Really Premier Kathy, I know I’m not very bright but do you believe the rest of Ontario citizens are that stupid?
The government wants to privatize Hydro One for two reasons, both aimed at improving its own situation, and not for the benefit of its citizens. It wants free of Hydro One’s mess so it can deal with its other messes. And, of course it wants the money from investors so it can delay the inevitable bankruptcy of the province.
Marin’s report, called In the Dark, is a shocking story that Hydro One customers and others should read. It can be found online at http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/Resources/Reports/In-the-Dark.aspx#executive_sumaryThe most sickening part of this scandal is the attitude of Hydro One’s bosses and its board of directors. These people, hugely paid and much pampered, blamed the entire mess on lower level workers. They said they were caught off guard by a developing crisis in which lower-level managers fed them over-optimistic reports.
The executives and directors are there to ensure they are never caught off guard. It is their job to know what’s going on. These are the people in place to create and protect the company culture. They also are there to fall on their swords when the company they oversee goes bad.
The top levels of Hydro One should be ashamed for shifting the blame.
Here’s what Marin said:
“The source of Hydro One’s mind-boggling maladministration does not lie in defective data and software programming. Rather, its fatal fault is a technocratic and inward-facing organizational culture that is completely out of step with public sector values. Even after Hydro One pledged to become more customer-centric, to do better, and to learn from its mistakes, it continued to display insensitivity and disregard for its customers. As late as February 2015, during the coldest month in Ontario’s recorded history, the company lied to and bullied customers with the threat of disconnection.”
Lower level workers do not carry out that type of dishonesty on their own. They are encouraged, or forced, to act that way by a corporate culture created by the bosses and appointed directors.
All plans to privatize Hydro One need to stop now. Nothing should be done with Hydro One until it is cleaned up, restored and properly serving its 1.3 million customers.
First in the clean-up should be the firing of Hydro One’s entire executive floor and its board of directors.
That is a minimum and a must. The people of Ontario have suffered much from the scandals of recent years. They are owed some hard-hitting action that shows that the politicians they elected in good faith are working for them.
May 20, 2015
Melting Mummies
Climate change, it seems, is everywhere, changing everything. Even the North Pole is melting as the planet heats up.
Now comes the bizarre news that Chile’s famous Chinchorro mummies are melting. The mummies, around since 5000 BC, are turning to black ooze, and scientists blame climate change.
The mummies were discovered 100 years ago buried under the desert sands in northern Chile. They are considered significant because they are believed to be the world’s oldest mummies. Also, they are mysterious because they represent all classes of the Chinchorron society, including babies and fetuses. Other cultures mummified only the elite, such as pharaohs in Egypt.
The mummies have been kept in a museum and now the skins are decomposing and turning into black ooze.
How is it that a mummified body thousands of years old now starts to turn to black ooze? Experts says that humidity levels in northern Chile have been increasing, allowing common bacteria to turn into eaters of collagen, which is a main component of mummified skin.
The experts say that the melting mummies are a warning to museums of the deterioration damage that can be expected from the world’s changing climate.
Meanwhile, some positive news coming out of climate change. Some Newfoundlanders are making good money lassoing ice chunks breaking off the northern ice cap and selling them to bottled water companies and vodka producers.
Now comes the bizarre news that Chile’s famous Chinchorro mummies are melting. The mummies, around since 5000 BC, are turning to black ooze, and scientists blame climate change.
The mummies were discovered 100 years ago buried under the desert sands in northern Chile. They are considered significant because they are believed to be the world’s oldest mummies. Also, they are mysterious because they represent all classes of the Chinchorron society, including babies and fetuses. Other cultures mummified only the elite, such as pharaohs in Egypt.
The mummies have been kept in a museum and now the skins are decomposing and turning into black ooze.
How is it that a mummified body thousands of years old now starts to turn to black ooze? Experts says that humidity levels in northern Chile have been increasing, allowing common bacteria to turn into eaters of collagen, which is a main component of mummified skin.
The experts say that the melting mummies are a warning to museums of the deterioration damage that can be expected from the world’s changing climate.
Meanwhile, some positive news coming out of climate change. Some Newfoundlanders are making good money lassoing ice chunks breaking off the northern ice cap and selling them to bottled water companies and vodka producers.
April 9, 2015
Frank's Lesson for Life
I lost this week the friend who was the little brother I never had. His name was Francesco Covella and many years ago he taught me an important lesson about living. I wrote about it in Reader’s Digest and would like to share it here in his memory.
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It was, at first glance, one of life’s impossible obstacles. First, a concrete slab six inches thick had to be smashed and dragged out of the basement, one jagged piece at a time. Then would come the digging – nine feet down with long-handled spades. We would start on hands and knees, and shovel the dirt out a window a child could barely squeeze through.
“It can’t be done,” I cried with unrestrained disgust.
Frank Covella turned his calloused palms upward, shrugged his shoulders and grinned. “You’ll see.”
The object of discussion was a nine-by-12-foot crawl space beneath a back room in my aging Ottawa house. The staircase to the basement was never meant to accommodate a modern washer and dryer. Frank, my neighbor, had suggested digging the crawl space out to create a new basement room. Then a wide and study staircase would be run down to it. “Semplice!” he assured me in lively Italian.
Work began Friday evening. The digging, as I had predicted, was miserable. On my knees I told myself, Push the spade into the hard earth, try to get a full load, then aim and fire it through the small opening. Half of my throws hit the window frame and ricocheted, spraying dirt into my teeth and hair. Each of Frank’s shovelfuls flew neatly through the window.
Finally, when we had removed enough dirt so that we could stand semi-erect and put a firm foot to shovel, Frank stopped and laid a hand hardened by many years of manual labor on my soft office-worker’s shoulder.
“Compare,” he said, calling me by the special name bestowed when he had become my son’s godfather, “this is not difficult if you don’t want it to be. Let me teach you.”
The lesson was direct and simple:
Work with the shovel in one place at a time. Dig at the lowest point, allowing the dirt to fall naturally onto the shovel. Keep the shovelling area organized and clean so you always work from a flat surface. And don’t keep stopping to see how much you have done. Build a rhythm, and let your mind escape to other things.
As we shovelled we talked, Frank about helping his father harvest grapes and olives outside Bari, Italy on the Adriatic Sea; me about fishing for trout and snaring rabbits in the bush outside Thunder Bay. Time passed quickly, and the rhythm of digging and throwing began to feel good on my arms and shoulders. We talked and laughed, paying little attention to how much dirt remained.
Only when our voices began to echo in the hollow space around us did I fully realize the extent of our progress. Suddenly there was much space above our heads, and not long after that Frank had to boost me so I could fetch a ladder for getting in and out of what only hours before had been a cramped crawl space.
Later, there was a large pile of gravel to shovel into the deep hole to create a floor base. Then there was sand, gravel and cement to shovel into the concrete-mixing tub. With each task, I took Frank’s advice: Shovel from the bottom. Keep the shovelling area organized and clean. Don’t keep checking the size of the pile. One shovelful at a time.
Thirty years have not dimmed the memory of that day. When life’s load seems impossibly heavy, I remember the crawl space and think: Work in one place at a time. Keep the area organized and clean. Don’t think about how much is left to be done.
Instead of letting one shovelful become a thousand, make a plan and persevere. A positive attitude can shrink the largest mountain to the tiniest molehill. That was Frank’s lesson.
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Thank you, Compare. Rest in peace.
March 26, 2015
Trying to Manipulate News People Need
My, my, my. It didn’t take Kevin Crull long to become Canadianized. Got his Canadian citizenship just a couple of years ago and already has adopted the great Canadian trait: trying to suppress information he doesn’t think others should have.
Crull is an America salesman who took Canadian citizenship after becoming the big cheese at Bell Media, which owns CTV, Canada’s largest broadcaster. He and his associates have been in battle with the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (CRTC) for months.
Kevin CrullThe Commission finally has ordered cable and satellite TV companies to offer a basic $25 month package, then allow customers to pick and pay for whatever other channels might interest them. Folks in the TV business don’t like this because it will allow subscribers more choice and likely will hurt the bottom lines of companies like Bell Media.
After the CRTC decision was announced, Crull called CTV News president Wendy Freeman and told her that CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais was not to appear on CTV again that day. Ms. Freeman, according the sources, called CTV staff and told them of the directive and her fear that she could be fired if it was not followed.
Mr. Blais was booked to be on the CTV show Power Play that day, but his appearance was cancelled. Later, CTV anchor Lisa LaFlamme and Ottawa bureau chief Bob Fife felt they could not air a major CRTC decision without showing Mr. Blais, and defied the order.
Then things got really interesting. The Toronto Globe and Mail, which is partly owned by Bell, broke a story telling how Crull had tried to bully the CTV journalistic group. Crull sits on the Globe’s board of directors.
Blais, seeing that story, then issued a statement warning Bell Media, and of course Crull, that it has a statutory duty not to interfere with the work of CTV journalists.
The punch of the Blais statement forced Crull to apologize to CTV for trying to influence their decisions.
Thank you Lisa LaFlamme, Bob Fife, and the Globe journalists and others who did the right things to ensure that the sales and marketing mentality did not dictate, in this case, what Canadians get to see and hear.
Crull is an America salesman who took Canadian citizenship after becoming the big cheese at Bell Media, which owns CTV, Canada’s largest broadcaster. He and his associates have been in battle with the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (CRTC) for months.
Kevin CrullThe Commission finally has ordered cable and satellite TV companies to offer a basic $25 month package, then allow customers to pick and pay for whatever other channels might interest them. Folks in the TV business don’t like this because it will allow subscribers more choice and likely will hurt the bottom lines of companies like Bell Media.After the CRTC decision was announced, Crull called CTV News president Wendy Freeman and told her that CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais was not to appear on CTV again that day. Ms. Freeman, according the sources, called CTV staff and told them of the directive and her fear that she could be fired if it was not followed.
Mr. Blais was booked to be on the CTV show Power Play that day, but his appearance was cancelled. Later, CTV anchor Lisa LaFlamme and Ottawa bureau chief Bob Fife felt they could not air a major CRTC decision without showing Mr. Blais, and defied the order.
Then things got really interesting. The Toronto Globe and Mail, which is partly owned by Bell, broke a story telling how Crull had tried to bully the CTV journalistic group. Crull sits on the Globe’s board of directors.
Blais, seeing that story, then issued a statement warning Bell Media, and of course Crull, that it has a statutory duty not to interfere with the work of CTV journalists.
The punch of the Blais statement forced Crull to apologize to CTV for trying to influence their decisions.
Thank you Lisa LaFlamme, Bob Fife, and the Globe journalists and others who did the right things to ensure that the sales and marketing mentality did not dictate, in this case, what Canadians get to see and hear.
March 12, 2015
Reviving the Red Scare
Mr. Harper, please tear up those plans for Ottawa’s anti-Communism memorial.That’s not likely to happen, but it’s worth asking. We all should be asking, in fact demanding.The planned Memorial to Victims of Communism is a really bad idea, questioned by some very prominent people, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the mayor of Ottawa. It is destined to become a memorial to the current government’s stubbornness and an embarrassment to Canadians.
Jet Blast BafflesIt all began six years ago when a private group, championed by the Conservative government, received approval to build a memorial to victims of communism. The government then allocated a choice piece of vacant land between the National Library and Supreme Court of Canada, which are almost a part of Parliament Hill. The land is in what is known as the judicial precinct and it was assumed it would hold a new Federal Court building.Work on the memorial is supposed to begin at winter’s end with the dedication in October, around the time of the expected federal election. The estimated cost is $5 million, with federal taxpayers paying $3 million while $2 million will be raised privately.The design of the memorial is every bit as monstrous as the idea. It features six parallel concrete rows, each one higher the other and rising to a height of 14.5 metres. They look like those concrete jet blast baffles that you see at the end of some airport runways. These concrete chunks are to be covered with 100 million ‘memory squares’ each representing a life lost to Communist governments around the world. So we assume that since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 someone has kept a count of the number of people killed by communism around the world. Makes you wonder if anyone has kept count of the people killed by capitalism. Or, the number of North American Indians who died, and continue to die, because of colonialism. This memorial is not only ridiculous, it is un-Canadian. It diminishes the millions of people in China, Cuba, Vietnam and other countries that have the communist system of government. We Canadians care about people, not their system of government. In 1959 when Cuba went communist, Canada maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba and provided it foreign aid. Most importantly, Canadians have supplied money and expertise to improve Cuban agriculture, which has improved the lives of tens of thousands of Cuban country people. We didn’t allow the label of their government to stop us from helping the people.The planned Ottawa memorial follows the lead of the United States, which put up a memorial to victims of communism in 2007. It is a statue, a three-metre high bronze replica of the Goddess of Democracy, far smaller and much less hideous than what is planned for Ottawa.If this anti-communism memorial is supposed to be about human rights, it should be noted that we already have one. The Canadian Museum of Human Rights opened last fall in Winnipeg at a cost of $350 million. It is a spectacular reminder that we Canadians do our best to improve human rights without being preachy, and while remembering that our record in human rights is not without blemish.Our memorials should reflect our pride in accomplishments and inspire us to be better people. They should not be designed to provoke conflicts with people who believe in systems different from ours. The anti-communism memorial points an angry finger at communist countries, accusing them of tyranny, brutality and murder. And speaking of tyranny, how is it that a $1-million piece of prime land next to Parliament Hill in Ottawa gets turned over to a private group without any public consultation?
Mr. Harper, tear down this bad idea. It makes Canadians look small, narrow minded and too judgmental. Canadians are bigger than that. Big enough to look forward for a better world, instead of backwards into the past.
Jet Blast BafflesIt all began six years ago when a private group, championed by the Conservative government, received approval to build a memorial to victims of communism. The government then allocated a choice piece of vacant land between the National Library and Supreme Court of Canada, which are almost a part of Parliament Hill. The land is in what is known as the judicial precinct and it was assumed it would hold a new Federal Court building.Work on the memorial is supposed to begin at winter’s end with the dedication in October, around the time of the expected federal election. The estimated cost is $5 million, with federal taxpayers paying $3 million while $2 million will be raised privately.The design of the memorial is every bit as monstrous as the idea. It features six parallel concrete rows, each one higher the other and rising to a height of 14.5 metres. They look like those concrete jet blast baffles that you see at the end of some airport runways. These concrete chunks are to be covered with 100 million ‘memory squares’ each representing a life lost to Communist governments around the world. So we assume that since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 someone has kept a count of the number of people killed by communism around the world. Makes you wonder if anyone has kept count of the people killed by capitalism. Or, the number of North American Indians who died, and continue to die, because of colonialism. This memorial is not only ridiculous, it is un-Canadian. It diminishes the millions of people in China, Cuba, Vietnam and other countries that have the communist system of government. We Canadians care about people, not their system of government. In 1959 when Cuba went communist, Canada maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba and provided it foreign aid. Most importantly, Canadians have supplied money and expertise to improve Cuban agriculture, which has improved the lives of tens of thousands of Cuban country people. We didn’t allow the label of their government to stop us from helping the people.The planned Ottawa memorial follows the lead of the United States, which put up a memorial to victims of communism in 2007. It is a statue, a three-metre high bronze replica of the Goddess of Democracy, far smaller and much less hideous than what is planned for Ottawa.If this anti-communism memorial is supposed to be about human rights, it should be noted that we already have one. The Canadian Museum of Human Rights opened last fall in Winnipeg at a cost of $350 million. It is a spectacular reminder that we Canadians do our best to improve human rights without being preachy, and while remembering that our record in human rights is not without blemish.Our memorials should reflect our pride in accomplishments and inspire us to be better people. They should not be designed to provoke conflicts with people who believe in systems different from ours. The anti-communism memorial points an angry finger at communist countries, accusing them of tyranny, brutality and murder. And speaking of tyranny, how is it that a $1-million piece of prime land next to Parliament Hill in Ottawa gets turned over to a private group without any public consultation? Mr. Harper, tear down this bad idea. It makes Canadians look small, narrow minded and too judgmental. Canadians are bigger than that. Big enough to look forward for a better world, instead of backwards into the past.
February 25, 2015
Hijacked by the Policrats
There are thousands of worthwhile and needy causes on which to spend 65 million of Canadian taxpayer dollars. One of them definitely is not using all those tax dollars to tell us what wonderful work our governments are doing for us.
The federal government has added another $11 million to the $54 million already allocated this fiscal year to telling us how it is making our lives better. Of the $11 million in estimated new spending, $3.5 million will go to the finance department to explain the government’s economic initiatives. Advertising for armed forces recruiting, Canada’s 150thbirthday celebrations and promoting services for new Canadians get the rest. All those are tied to the government’s re-election platforms.
You can’t even check the local weather without getting messages from the federal government. Environment Canada weather web sites now are Government of Canada sites with a topline banner of clickable federal services such as jobs, benefits and health. The search box at the top of the weather pages has nothing to do with searching weather: it’s yet another link to federal information and services.
Meanwhile, resources to give us real live weather observations are being cut back to save money.
Spending public money to advertise government services that will help draw votes is no longer seen as shameful by our political-bureaucrat government leaders. The current government is shameless about it, but you can be sure that any of the other parties will follow the same line if elected.
This is another example of how our growing political-bureaucrat class is hijacking our democracy. The policrats make more and more decisions based not on what is best for the people, but on retaining power. They do this because most of us never raise our voices.
Most of us are too busy with other things to take time to speak out. And, that is a growing tumour in our democracy.
Check out my Minden Times column at: http://mindentimes.ca/?p=6262
The federal government has added another $11 million to the $54 million already allocated this fiscal year to telling us how it is making our lives better. Of the $11 million in estimated new spending, $3.5 million will go to the finance department to explain the government’s economic initiatives. Advertising for armed forces recruiting, Canada’s 150thbirthday celebrations and promoting services for new Canadians get the rest. All those are tied to the government’s re-election platforms.
You can’t even check the local weather without getting messages from the federal government. Environment Canada weather web sites now are Government of Canada sites with a topline banner of clickable federal services such as jobs, benefits and health. The search box at the top of the weather pages has nothing to do with searching weather: it’s yet another link to federal information and services.
Meanwhile, resources to give us real live weather observations are being cut back to save money.
Spending public money to advertise government services that will help draw votes is no longer seen as shameful by our political-bureaucrat government leaders. The current government is shameless about it, but you can be sure that any of the other parties will follow the same line if elected.
This is another example of how our growing political-bureaucrat class is hijacking our democracy. The policrats make more and more decisions based not on what is best for the people, but on retaining power. They do this because most of us never raise our voices.
Most of us are too busy with other things to take time to speak out. And, that is a growing tumour in our democracy.
Check out my Minden Times column at: http://mindentimes.ca/?p=6262
