is this life?

July 23, 2009

Another Another Significant Coincidence

Another Another Significant Coincidence

I can't help but feel sometimes that I am setting myself up for failure. Total, epic, and complete. Yet at the same time, I don't see how I can process incoming information any different (i.e. with a more open mind) than I am already doing. Time after time, things in my life seem to happen. Strategically random. Seemingly significant. But then maybe to someone else, they wouldn't be symbolic or substantial in any way at all. Tonight it happened again only 3 times. Once while watching TV, the other time: attempting to buy concert tickets for social distortion, and once again when I was roaming churchill square on the search for good eats. In the past week, I've been hit with a pretty decent sized whack of similar weird things that just happen to resonate with me. Am I just being ridiculous? Am I seeing stuff when there is really nothing there to see? Who knows. All I know is that Momentary Relapse by Choke just happened to come on as I start to wrap up this blog. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. I hope there is a difference in believing in fate and having endless (in)significant? coincidences go on throughout my 25 years on this planet. I hope there's not more that I should be doing that could reinforce my fate (there most likely is), rather than just watching my life piss away from not reacting more drastically, significantly to any of these weird little moments that just keep happening to me.

Gears turning inside

Turn over and over

And I ponder for hours

Everything means more these days

Good friends remain

Fuel the will to recover

Tears that slowly dissipate

I'll bear this weight no more

July 16, 2009

Paris, Apparently

Ch. 66

I finished school just a little while back now & thought to myself "what the hell: Since noone's hiring, I might as well just go spend money I don't really have. I thought a quick trip to new york would be fun since I loved it so much last time (yankees, late show, central park, times square, broadway, battery park, etc). But then I was going to have to justify my spending on things which I have already seen and doing things I have already done semi-recently. So I looked @ Europe. London was atrocious. I don't quite understand how the hell it could be soo much more to go to London compared to other parts of Europe. Scotland would've been kinda nice, but as Beavis and Butthead put it when they were making fun of a Proclaimers video: "Scotland - isn't that the place where everything sucks?!, hehe". Spain? Hot. I like heat. Hot, hot heat. But in summer? I dunno...wasn't totally appealing. Eastern Europe? Let's face it - I'm just not that quite adventurous. I am pretty safe and conservative in more ways than I care to admit. Places like Croatia, Turkey, Lebanon, Yugoslavia might be just fine to go check out, but I didn't really even have the time to do any more research. I just had to get away from everything here and I had to do it now.

A deal showed up where 10 nights in Paris was actually going to be about as expensive as spending that much time in New York. I was set. I even convinced myself I still knew some French. This was really very pretty short notice for a consciously cautious & conservative boy like myself. (That must be the Scottish blood in me). But then. Less than a week before my plane was to take flight, mom says to me that she's got holidays & doesn't quite know what to do with them aside from painting the fence. A few grand later, it turns out that I wasn't going to be taking this trip alone after all.

There's nothing wrong with taking trips alone. You can cover a lot of ground and have no other people to account to but yourself. But being the reasonable person that I am, I said to Mom, "sure, pack your bags, let's go!" I am also the kind of person that thinks that some of the "big" stuff a person does in his or her life is certainly more fun when they can do it with someone else. And if I have such an effing hard time trying to convince the significant people in my life coming to Warped Tours or Virgin Festivals in Calgary, for example, I didn't think spending any time trying to convince someone to spend a whack o' cash in Europe was really all that worth it .

So we were off. In 10 days you can see a lot. That's how long I stayed in NYC last time, so I kinda had some idea of the pace I would have to set for myself. I really got to get involved with the french culture. Everything from the skinny smokes and 2' long baguettes to the tiny bathrooms, cheap wine, psychotic traffic, and crowded subway cars. I immersed myself. Mom kept up. I had set a pretty rigorous schedule for the 10 days and there's not much that was left out!

Here are some of the more significant differences in Parisien culture and Edmontonian culture that weren't at all difficult to pick up on:

Everyone's skinny. Super skinny. Every body smokes. Skinny smokes. The kind you roll yourself. But not pot. I didn't see any drug culture at all actually! I guess that's gotta be saved for when I go to Amsterdam with... Marnie? I suppose that all the smoking is likely related to how everyone is so skinny. Not to mention that noone eats beef. How does an Albertan survive?

Vespas, motorbikes, mopeds and bicycles dominate the roads as they weave through the rest of the miniature compact cars that are all mildly flawed from sideswipes. They leave less than a half inch when parking these little cars along the streets. I did see one hummer though. Otherwise No Trucks. How nice! They have roundabouts (without any form of lane control) instead of intersections. This cuts down on idling/global warming/accidents/traffic gridlock.You can also jaywalk through traffic pretty reasonably. Cars stop and let hoards of people cross all the time. Even if your a little late making it through before the light changes. Here? You would die. The underground network is incredible. There are almost as many people walking through tunnels between train stops as there are people walking above ground between Brasseries and Boulangeries. The metro has a train that goes bye every 7 minutes. There's clocks on the platforms that regulate this and are never late. The trains are crowded but uber-highspeed and can get from one end of the city to the other in 10 minutes or less.

Oh! There's another thing: NOBODY SPEAKS ENGLISH. Well, I guess not "nobody" but it's not one of those things where you can just expect any given person to speak at least a little bit of English. It really is a common tongue, afterall; and if I was a French Nationalist I would probably not reduce myself to knowing English either! The "rude" attitude attributed to the French is largely due to their unwillingness to cater to anglophones which would require more work from them to understand what the hell we are trying to say.

The French are each given they're daily bread. They eat it like North Americans eat pizza! That means constantly. Anywhere you go, someone will be walking down the street carrying a long skinny baguette. If they aren't getting their bread from a boulangerie, they are in one of the hundreds of specialized market stores for their fruit, cheese, or meat. No Wal-Marts. Or Superstores.The coffee. So different! It requires a blog of its own! The cafe's are everywhere and all of them are chalk full of people eating bread/croissants and drinking coffee. But there were signs throughout the city from Starbuck's thanking the City of Paris for 5 Wonderful Years. The Starbuck's looks the same, but the "regular coffee" is still not what you would get from a North American Starbucks. (Don't do that, anyways). There are no other American restaurant chains aside from McDonald's. There were a few Subways, I saw 1 KFC and 2 Pizza Huts. They also have an IKEA and a Ritchie & Sons Machine Auction House. Wine is cheap in the corner shop, expensive in the wine shops and even more expensive in the restaurants. But it all tastes good. A 25cl (250mL) "pint" of beer can expect to cost you 4.50 euros or 7 bucks! There's also coke. No pepsi. The coke is sold in 2.50 euro 50cl (500mL) bottles or 2 euro cans 33cl (330mL) cans. Note: These are smaller than North America's FAT sizes (355mL cans, 591mL bottles). Since food is soooo expensive in restaurants, every park anywhere will have hundreds of people sitting on their blanket with a basket and a bottle of wine. Note: baskets - not plastic bags. They are somewhat uncommon.

There's no tall buildings and the entire city is pretty flat. Biking made easy. Except for that church on that hill. To see anything historical, you will be walking up a stone spiral staircase with at least 250 steps. And then down again and then most likely over one of 20 or 30 bridges that are all along the (brown) Seine River. They have no ugly concrete infrastructure. Here, everything's concrete everywhere. There is really hardly any road or building construction going on anywhere. Here, it's everywhere. The infrastructure services like power or street lights or stop lights are all very modest and don't stick out like soar thumbs as they do here. The Louvre is huge. It's stupid, really. But I saw some Rembrandt's in there which are actually pretty sweet, and of course the Mona Lisa and Venus of Milo and a couple other "famous" pieces of art. They also have a Picasso and Dali museum. And about a million others. I am a classy world citizen now.

There's no drought. When it rains in France - it pours. This is called "raining robes". I got wet once. But at least it's green everywhere instead of brown.
Police are everywhere. Like New York. Except with roller blades.
Birds are everywhere. Including in restaurants, airports. Stupid pigeons.
Tourists are everywhere. And from everywhere. I think I met 2 Canadian girls the whole time.
Everything is old - ancient.
Musicians play for tips. This includes cello chamber music outside the Louvre, flute playing in front of the church, organ grinders in the markets, accordian music on the subway platforms, saxophone, guitar, and violin playing on the trains.
Graffiti is everywhere. Thank god Stephen Mandel isn't their mayor.
Gas stations are underground.
People are everywhere.
Canadian girls are hotter.
Bikes are everywhere. No one wears helmets though. Including the motorized ones.
The public bathrooms have shared sinks between the sexes. Good times.
Nobody wears ball caps. Anywhere.
Everybody smokes. Everywhere!
I saw a girl down her wine and smoke her ciggy at the exact same time using the same hand.
The touristy/classy subway stations by where the rich roam have a sweet-smelling potpourri injected into the HVAC system while the ones by my hotel reek of stale urine.
They actually have phone booths.
60 year old eastern european ladies beg with paper espresso cups, with their heads bowed low to the ground and their arms reached out for pocket change.
They don't recycle, although there are strategically placed wine bottle collection bins.
The water is soft. People's hair shines.
There's a high population density. And there's people. Everywhere.

...

All I can say for sure is that after being there for that long, I really got my head around what I love and hate about both Canada (or North America) and France (or Europe). These industrialized first world nations both have soooo much to offer its people and are yet still the roots of sooo many problems in the world today. Environmental problems and unfair trade are the 2 problems that stick out to me, but I am sure there are hundreds more. This was made especially apparent after the trip when the on-flight movie for the way home was "Earth" which details the many ways our planet's species are succumbing to our negligence and closed-mindedness. What a world we live in!

One last thing. I think it is really interesting in how we find it necessary to share with people our "adventures". Personally, I don't care one way or another whether anyone knows I have been anywhere or has read any of the past thousand or so words. It is really more of a way for me to document my own thoughts and feelings and help to process some of the overload of information of what I brought in over the past 10 days. I will be posting more pictures on facebook, but it's not in order to be "show-y" or anything like that. I am doing it just for the few people out there that might be semi-interested in the goings-on of my life, or that have nothing better to do with their time. So your welcome for that!

so tired. sorry for the chaos, the rambling, and the endless words & phrases, but i am calling this done.

June 22, 2009

My Angel

What can I even say? Besides the fact that I am now absolutely positive that there is only one person on this side of the earth who absolutely melts my heart. My knees shake and my voice trembles whenever I am within six feet of her. It's been this way for as long as I can remember. It's been this way with no other woman that I have been the least bit close to. The air becomes drier than air in the sahara when the sun's at its highest. I feel chills but my temple beads with sweat droplets and I know in the back of my mind that every single one of my flaws has become a million times worse. But I can't even think of wiping the booger that is hanging from the tip of my nose or even trying to suppress the alfalfa-style cowlick at the back of my head, as I am too busy being absolutley mezmerized by her. Luckily, I didn't fall down when tripping over my own shoelaces that don't seem to ever stay done up. Or maybe I did, but I was just in such an oblivious stuporous state, that I didn't even notice. Her smile is so warm and genuine that I can't help to believe that she's actually even enjoying the random retarded nothingness of sentences stringed together that I'm pitching to her. She listens and tries soo incredibly hard to comprehend what I might be trying to say. But her angel eyes look into mine and my heart is in my throat and it's all I can do to not look down at my un-tied shoes. Those penetrating yet soft blue eyes remind me of the southern carribean sea. I don't know if it's because of their endless depth, of their beautiful colour, or the way they sparkle even when the sun's not there. They seem to look deep past mine as if trying to find something deeper and more substantial than my semi-dirty blue jeans and my somewhat wrinkled t-shirt. Her long brown hair dangles modestly in a windless evening but still shines - even when the sun's not there. It smells like something sweeter than roses and fresher than rain. I can smell it from a mile away. But the distance between us usually more like 2 miles - what might as well be 20 thousand.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about her is her spirit. Her soul, passion, and heart. It radiates from her and energizes me. It makes me feel like I can conquer the world and the universe, too. Her drive & focus to become the change we need in this world today inspires me to want to become the man who can stand by her side and change this world together.

So I work at it. Little by little, bit by bit. I talk a lot about priorities and time and what a person should be doing with their life. I try to act on those, with getting as undistracted or disheartened as possible. It's hard though. Knowing that there is truly an angel on earth but being soooo far removed from anything this absolutely perfect is somewhat hard to take. I will not give up though. I will try my damndest to be her lobster. If only I don't get eaten up first.

June 14, 2009

maybe it's all just a lot a bullshit

if you have read any noam chomsky or gwynne dyer maybe you think you are kinda cool.

if you have ever heard stephen lewis or archbishop tutu speak about AIDS in africa you might think (the enlightened privelged elite that you are) "wow, what the hell is going on in the world and why aren't our elected officials doing more to make things better?".

if you even slightly recognize the names thomas homer-dixon, jeffery sachs, naomi klein, henry thoreau, ronald wright, paul polak, john perkins, or even maybe our boy joseph stiglitz, you might be one of those people that even likes the idea of a better world, since this one here, now, is not meeting your standards/expectations. if any of these names stick out to you at all, then at the very least, you might just think: "wow, im pretty up to date with the pop-culture world of non-fiction and the worldly devastating situations" or else: "who cares about stupid reading by stupid know-it-all authors when there's so much work to be done & money to be made & beer to be drunk?" ... hang on, that reminds me, my beer's in the other room...

...canadian was 8 cans for $13 incl tax & dep. good deal. even if it's just canadian. (which is american).

with this whole recent "green" propaganda you are hearing about in the media, maybe you have heard of george monbiot, maude barlowe, andrew nikiforuk, tony clarke, tim flannery, marq devilliers, eric schlosser...

who cares?

maybe you put your energy into realizing the classics like catcher in the rye or great expectations or wuthering heights or stone angel or pride & prejudice or crime & punishment or gulliver's travels or 1984. those, after all, are the stories that inspire us to use our creative minds. and where would we be without creative minds?

and not to mention:

it takes a lot more investment and dedication to get through a >250p book, in comparison to giggling through an 87 minute will ferrell movie or watching the ever-repetitive evening news.

but this is your life. and your time here is running out minute at a time. i hope you are really having the time of your life. i hope you are getting everything accomplished that you ever dreamed you would, whether that be completing your Adam Sandler DVD collection, watching all of the X-Men movies on their first day in theaters, spending your days "gaming" - whatever that is, golfing - like the rich white men, or any other vice that gives you that feeling of fulfillment.

me? i'm just waiting. biding my time. barely breathing. doing what I can. dreaming of doing more. action without knowledge if futile, but sometimes knowledge can only be gained through action. the books are endless, after all. and aren't all these realms of writers i just mentioned nothing more than capitalists who are getting rich off of our inability to actually close their book, get off our ass and just start DOING SOMETHING?

especially when the weather's this damn' good.

i'm going to the driving range.

and having some more american canadian.

June 11, 2009

i am here

here i am. it's hard to believe. with plans and ideas. ideals and convictions. no, not those kind of convictions. yet, anyways. but this is me. degreed. here. now. forever. and now what? hopes?dreams? always. fingers? ever-crossed. can't begin to count the first stars i've seen any night. but what more can a guy really wish for? a few things. his wildest most out-of-this-galaxy dreams to come true? doubtful. but surely, some dreamers get the chance of living their dreams? i think they do. but here? now? that's where i am. do i have to go somewhere to make them come true? possibly. and what about that time thing. running out? probably. but what if everything that could make the dream come true is right in front of my eyes but i'm just to thick to comprehend? and time? what about time??? some things will come to be, i know. the dates are set and everything. but in the mean time. and in between time! what then? patience. wears thin. is a virtue. but even so, there's so much to live for! so much to stand for!!! even from here. even if everything "good" looks like it's over there. thousands of miles away. how do you know you are compensating for something less than what your wildest most incredible dreams might be if your far-sighted scope let's you miss every happiness that you could ever wish for? here. where i am. where you are.

i will go to the ends of the earth for this happiness i seek. unless it finds me here first.

June 4, 2009

The Re-Inventing of Public Education

Chapter 45. The Re-inventing of Public Education

These blogs are way overdue. I blame my inability to pound out a few hundred words without sitting on the idea for a while of what I want to at least try to say. Not to mention that distractions are endless: hockey playoffs, my library book, facebook, and not necessarily in that order. But sometimes key current events force me into just forcing out the few semi-thought-out ideas I had scattering around in my head. This is what is happening now.

VueWeekly had an interesting article just come out in today's issue by social activist Ricardo Acuna. It clearly indicated acts of fascism and intolerance by the Albertan government, under the guise of ironically wanting to move forward and developing a long-term vision of what education in Alberta should look like in 20 years. This incoincidently happened to be an immediate follow-up to the passing of Bullshit Bill Number 44. I mean, hell! Even the slightest liberal-thinking young person would want to see this Bill fail terribly!! This could be seen with the 4756 members in the facebook group called "Students Against Bill 44" in comparison to the 61 members in the group called "Students For Bill 44". Something's up. HEY! Teacher! Leave Us Kids ALONE!!!

So. Now that we are all updated with the current events, let's go ahead and see what the hell I was thinking about regarding public education when I came up with my 45th topic of something I thought that could be turned into a blog .

#1 - Bill 44 proves we need a change in government.

Aside from the street response from the passing of this bill ("Alberta's always been seen as a bit of a redneck province"...), the vocal minorities sometimes do need to be heard. What good is a government that has no intention of letting the local gay & lesbian community have any degree of clout in the place they call home. Sheer intolerance. This is not the way to work towards a world with acceptance and peace. Even outside of this minority community, there was a whole whack of parents who agree that their kids need to be getting the entire curriculum so that they all come out with the information they need to make decisions for themselves. Education is not supposed to be limited.

So, it is important to understand that governments provide us with schools but we get the government we deserve (including strategic voting & apathetic non-voting). But more importantly we must understand that industry controls the government. Economies thrive on industry. And now since the economy is failing, we have the perfect opportunity to go all Obama-style and realize the potential in change! We can actually vote in a government with ideas on fresh technologies and genuine acceptance of all the minority groups that make Alberta interesting! We can realize the devastation of the air, water, people of oilsands production - despite how proportionately small they say it is!

#2 - Curriculum Enhancement: we can get more out of kids than just having them be able to regurgitate biology textbooks, take the derivative implicitly of a multi-variable equation, or memorize dates of wars.

This is actually a part of Engineer's Without Borders' goals once upon a time. We hoped to (and did) get more talk about "development" in the classrooms - something more than Grade 5 Social Studies, Post-War rebuilding policies in high school, or Sociology 269 @ the UofA. But the current curriculum must be re-vamped as we move farther into this 21st Century if we have a hope in hell of leading lives that will benefit all Albertans aka global citizens.

EWB focused primarily on aid dollars, water access, food subsidies, and fair trade. These 4 components have to be embedded into the Alberta curriculum at a very young age, just as RECYCLING was put into the classrooms when I was in grade 2.

So in addition to studying spelling, reading, the government, math, computers, christmas, the food guide, phys ed, sex ed, canadian politics, the holocaust; our curriculum needs to be more precise on taking on topics like:

the environment:
global warming, pollution, recycling, water scarcity

ethics & faith:
abortion, stem cells, evolution, islam, christianity (like, get them to read Life of Pi)

inequality & intolerance:
the apartheid, HIV/AIDS, globalization

I hadn't even touched a non-fiction book until I was well into my post-secondary. Why not get high school kids reading at least 1 fiction and 1 non-fiction book per semester through high school? That doesn't seem too hard.

#3 - Developing temperance of students is a lifelong skill we can work on developing even at school, even when the parents aren't there.

Restraint. Thinking. Patience and understanding that often less is more. Sometimes the easiest solution isn't the best. Sacrifice. I think that these things could be incorporated into day-to-day classroom stuff.

#4 - The teachers must actually want to teach (see my blog called 80 X 40)

So many times, a good government job is all that a person could really hope for in life. We need some way of paying the bills and paying into a pension so that the golden years will be all that we hoped they would be.

But I know of two people from my past. Let's call them Mr. C. and Miss B. Both are relatively new teachers. Miss C. counts her days until holidays and reaps the benefits of everything the teaching profession has to offer, with giving as little back as possible. On the other hand, Mr. C. hopes to be a principal one day, and is constantly putting in extra time with his class in sports-related activities, and also sits on committees that he doesn't get paid for to discuss item #2: Curriculum Enhancement! Kudos, Mr. C! Miss B? Why did you even bother going into teaching? Don't you realize that these kids need to see a passion in their role models - the shaper of their minds? You deserve an F. Your kids deserve better. So please, young people, don't go into teaching unless you are certain that you could convince your class that you are in fact there to create a positive influence in their lives. Maybe it's up to the government we elect, and the parents too, to ensure that we hold our teachers (with these compensating salaries) up to the standards we feel our children are entitled to!

Ricardo Acuna's article:
http://vueweekly.com/article.php?id=12135

Andrew Nikiforuk has a book: "School's Out: The Catastrophe in Public Education" available at the edmonton public library

May 7, 2009

Table of Contents

Below you will find an organized list of everything that I have ever published on blogspot, dating back chronologically nearly 2 years now. The Chapter Number is a reference to the time when I first decided to get some of these things offa my chest via a blog. That is why you still won't find a Chapter 2, 5, 8, 21 etc. They are still in my head and thoughts are still being sorted out. The ones without chapter numbers were just random postings that I used blogspot for, and typically had incorporated slightly less thought into them (well, some of them anyways)!

April 23, 2009

Clements Hilda Family

Chapter 34.

I attribute a lot of who I am today to the people that I have been around over much of my youth. A lot of kids say they don't remember anything from junior high, maybe aside from the name of their home room teacher. But for whatever reason, I remember a ridiculous amount of stuff from those days. Even Mr Pechanec's S-Car Go! joke. In addition to my high familiarity with my times spent @ St Hilda junior high a mere decade ago, I gained a very good sense of the differences in student-products formed within Holy Trinity High's other 2 main junior high feeder schools: Holy Family & St Clements, through observation of and participation with many of these people through 3 years of high school.

Alternatively, if you were a millwoods "catholic" product but didn't end up going to 1 of these 3 feeder schools, chances are you were either too white or too rich for your own good. As a result, you probably ended up going to (most likely) AOB, Louis St Laurent, or some IB/academia school like Old Scona. This, no doubt, would likely reinforce your parents stereotypes and prejudices of what would be the ultimate way for you to succeed in life.

So let's try & wrap our heads around this. 3 feeder schools, each unique in its own way. Holy Family is recently credited with playing host to the teacher who composed the new HNIC theme song. Historically though, the school had been associated with a creepy-ish young male teacher who really liked teaching his students how to dance. Sketchy. But more importantly, the student-products that came out of this school probably had the largest impact of the person that I would become through high school and onwards. Disregarding the dozen or so total douchebags who thought they were god's saving grace with respect to their: humour, athletic skillz, or supreme intellect, this school produced well-rounded good (and not-so-good) Christians that would go on to have sound values and moderate temperaments. People like Mike, Gerad, Chris, Trevor, Tyler W, and Nick were some of the results of this specific school-machine. Each of them: pretty sound, simple people. Each of them: probably stopped me from being a big pot-head in high school, while still allowing us to all enjoy the dow of the hack. It's kinda a shame I don't have any of them as friends on facebook. In addition, this school also contributed some of the most sought-after women to our high school. Good genes, I suppose.

Next we'll head west and south (yes, demographics has a lot to do with geographics) to St Clement's: Jock School, or working-class suburban stereo-type school. Basically, if you had a dual income earning family and were enrolled in some form of community league sport for more than 3 years in a row, this was the school for you. Its products included the twin boblsed brothers/ NHL failures, the most popular girl from our highschool (~700 facebook friends) (although the Valedictorian was from Family), The Sons and Daughters of Teachers, annnnnd last but not least: The Crescent People. I think this was probably a little less "white" of a school than Family. It had some real issues with crime, including sexual predators after all.

Just Joking.

"Holy Shit! Who IS this guy?!"

The largest credit to this school would probably be The Father-Teacher, K. Whelan, who took the time to teach us kids chess and offered up Tuesday Night Ice Hockey @ the Millwoods Rec Center through July and August. Probably one of the most respected teachers out of the 3 main feeder schools. The crescent-people were a pretty tight church-faring community who all lived within 2 or 3 blocks of each other. They made a large component of the fundraising and parent council board. It was kind of weird, being non-religious going to a religion-based school, but I think for the most part, these families' hearts were in the right place - despite how much shame their sons and daughters would eventually bring to their god-fearing families. Nevertheless, Clements kids were pretty good. The hockey boys mike & paul and that little twerp matthew all had a pretty positive impact on me through my time in high school. "In This Duckpond, Leave Me Be!"

And so we come to the end. St Hilda Junior High School. What an effing gong-show. I had no regrets or sadnesses about my 3 years spent in this would-be green little cement box, although grade 8 was probably the toughest, as I had to start to re-align myself with a less judgemental, more bad-ass crew. This was the most multi-cultural school of the 3, with Tagalog becoming the unofficial 2nd language. Next to Cantonese. Just Kidding! However, in all seriousness, it was in my Grade 9 year that the Zeller's across the street finally closed its doors as it could not keep up with the thievery occurring thanks to 14 year old delinquents from across the street. Dom was even banned from the Mac's for life, but is now an engineer, so I guess he couldn't have been tooo bad a kid, hey? There were worse. This I know for sure. We have a pact and I will never say more than this. This school was lucky to have a cool young pro lacrosse captain (J. Bowen) who would teach phys. ed and sex. ed. This was probably important, cuz as far as I recall, we had some real sluts in that school too. (No names here.) We had fights. We had graffiti, theft, drug use, property damage. No sexual assault like @ Clements (as far as I know) - but we were otherwise a pretty unscrupulous bunch. No wonder I took refuge in the mild-mannered Family crew in high school. I could otherwise be in jail right now!

But right now, I'm bothered. Regardless of how well I might have turned out thanks to the decisions I have made over the past decade, I still have some pretty big issues with what's going on within Millwood's schools. Aside from curriculum even! Or extra-curriculum and the "demanding" life of teachers for that matter! Right now, a rat is running amuck. Someone is setting torch to millwoods schools. Most recently, St Elizabeth, which is adjacent to that school of mine, St Hilda, had one of its cubicles set alight. This is a year or so since the same thing happened to St Richards - my 1st school. And it pisses me off! Sure, I'm all about the anarchy & the rising up against the state! But I think a lot more ground could be made if letters were written alongside the arson attacks, detailing the many ways you are unhappy with the government's education system/curriculum. I mean, really - do we need more products like me (or any of the people that I have just finished writing about) "contributing" to society in the manner in which this "government" "educates" us to do so?! Personally, I think we can ask a lot more from our government. So I would at least like to understand the reasons behind the intentional destruction of all things (like hatred of the Alberta tories, for example), and whether this intention is even the least-bit founded or really not at all. And if it's not, then Just Freakin' Stop It Already!!! Us millwood's products are smarter at finding ways to "act out" than burning down buildings - schools included. Just be complacent, and go along with things for the time being, and when the revolution does finally come? Be ready for it.

April 22, 2009

The Necessity of Managing Our World’s Water in the 21st Century

Resource Management – An Introduction

We are living in a world in which resource exploitation and distribution exists between more than six billion people. In developing these resources and providing the greatest good for the greatest number of people, many factors must be considered by the statesmen who decide who gets what, and at what cost, for their country. Finding a balance in this resource management might prove to be incredibly difficult since one country’s wants may tend to trump another country’s essential needs in a world of globalization. This will become increasingly apparent as resources continue to be depleted and inequality around the world surges. The needs of some that may be overridden by the wants of those in authority might include the basic essential social services (including health or eldercare), or freedom of choice. Also, emerging concerns (or wants) for environmental protection and climate change may also be suspended in order to protect the economic welfare of society, ensuring that industry will be able to provide jobs and that corporations do not go bankrupt. Many public officials might suggest that investing more energy into resource management will be the easiest way to ensure that unemployment rates decline, allowing for us to climb out of the worst recession in eighty years. But investing in resource management must include an impartial and in depth investigation of all social, economical, and environmental implications. The importance of comprehending current quantities and qualities of these resources must be realized. Lastly, transparency, integrity, and public acceptance of the way in which these commons are being managed are the most crucial aspects of maintaining a sustainable planet. It is my opinion that the privatization and commoditization of our earth’s resources works against this, and that we must find a way of holding the decision-makers (in government and industry alike) accountable for the way that our commons are treated. However, it is up to us as individuals to make a start by being accountable for our own personal resource management in our day-to-day lives.

Water as a Human Right, Not an Industrial One

I would like to focus specifically on the implications of the privatization of a resource that is often a determining factor between life and death of all living things: water. The way in which the world’s water has been managed over the past half century is alarming. And now, more than ever, are we seeing an unprecedented pull towards water privatization; despite shameless fear-mongering and substantiated scientific studies which both warn of impending extensive droughts and climate change. Water scarcity and climate change are tied very closely together; after all, as much of the industry that contributes to climate change is dependent on exorbitant quantities of water to drive industry (eg. oil sands and high-tech industries). In addition, within the these industries, water subsidies allow for companies to thrive from inexpensive process water, where in comparison the public will have to pay significantly higher rates just for their basic water needs. The emerging economies of India and China are also creating an enormous burden on their countries’ water demand as industrial growth rapidly expands. However environmental regulations in these countries may be more difficult to monitor as each country strives to generate as much wealth as it can, despite the effects on water availability to consumers, contamination of water resources, or how this rapid industrial growth is contributing to climate change. Globalization and economic agreements put in place by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have allowed the water privatization industry to largely go unchecked in developing countries. The system is arranged such that a country’s profit is maximized despite any detrimental impact to the environment.

However, the United Nations has recently appointed a Canadian to the post of Senior Advisor to Water Issues. Maude Barlow is credited with writing many important books about this important resource, including Blue Gold, in which she distinguishes between water being perceived as a right rather than a need. The difference, she claims, is in how water as a need can be marketed by companies governed by the rules of laissez-faire, whereas water perceived as a right would ensure that all people are granted access to “clean and affordable drinking water” (Blue Gold, 2002). As less than one percent of the world’s water is in fact accessible freshwater, it is all the more important to realize the challenges we face regarding equal affordable access to this clean, life-sustaining substance here on of earth (Water Consciousness, 2008).

A Responsibility to Quality Control

Between globalization, the rising industrial powers of China and India, population growth and domestic and industrial pollution, water utilities will be challenged to maintain tolerable quality, especially methods of cutting costs are utilized in this time of recession. Privatization (and private-public partnerships (P3)), are often seen as cost effective ways of doing so, such that a municipality simply places the cost of water directly on the consumer. It is widely understood that even P3 water companies are corporations that can be bought, traded, and sold. Therefore, when water resources become extremely strained, the largest multinational water corporations will have the power to purchase struggling utilities and revamp them in order to provide better service. The fear is that with this improvement to water service, consumer costs will escalate to a point beyond affordability. And then, any maintenance of the system that ensures that the water quality remains adequate is also perceived to be less transparent if run by a privately owned company rather than if owned by the municipality.

Within Canada, there is no legally enforceable drinking water standard, but rather “guidelines” offered by Health Canada. Despite these guidelines, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported that in April 2008 there were 1766 boil-water advisories currently in place in Canadian municipalities, not including First Nations communities (Council of Canadians, 2009). With this exceptionally high number of water issues for a developed country, more must be done by the government to both protect our water sources and ensure that appropriate treatment technologies are in place for its 33 million citizens. And this is happening in Canada – a developed country, which makes claim to 6.5% of the world’s accessible freshwater (Water Consciousness, 2008). Other countries have incredibly less quantities of freshwater and exponentially higher population densities.

A component of protecting Canada’s water sources is the way in which wastewater is treated and returned to rivers, lakes, or oceans. This must be protected by enforceable legislation that has stringent regulations for deleterious substances being discharged. The Fisheries Act speaks to this; yet, in a court of law, penalties or permissions for discharges may be very lenient if the greater good is realized, economically speaking. As a result, carcinogens, bacteria, and pathogens can potentially migrate into the water that Canadians drink and the food Canadians eat. In Fort Chipewyan, for example, one of the largest concerns from the First Nations people is what contaminants have been entering their surface water, as a result of tar sands activity on the Athabasca River.

As engineers, our responsibility lies in implementing the best available system which will provide people with the basic necessities to survive. This is especially true in providing water and sanitation services, but is also limited to dollar amounts granted for the specific job. Therefore, if the government is not responsible for the maintenance or upgrading of these utilities because they have been privatized, then it is at the for-profit water company’s discretion to spend the required monies such that minimal environmental regulations are met. After all, only what is measured will be managed. The private water company can then attempt to manage the quality of their streams as the affordability of the design allows them to do so.

Hopefully, with an understanding of current water scarcity, judgment will be used by the many industries that require large quantities of water, and engineers will be able to design ways to maximize the performance for the company. In addition, individuals will hopefully understand that it is not just big industry that has an impact on the environment, but rather, by using restraint and common sense, our water will be able to be managed in such a way that it will last us for centuries to come.

On Legislating Temperance

It is difficult to manage what cannot be measured. Aside from the United Nations and various levels of governments, there exists a number of NGOs dedicated to keeping people and companies accountable for their water-using habits. The Pacific Institute is showing that Americans are consuming less water per capita then they had in the 1970s, with consumption rates down as much as 25%. There is a new awareness about the energy and “virtual water” in the bottled water industry and how some nutrients, such as fluoride, may even be lost by opting for bottled water. Excessive water waste in instances such as elaborate Las Vegas fountains will be ridiculed as awareness is heightened, and water saving techniques from installing low-flush toilets to having shorter showers will be rewarded. People will be willing to change for the benefit of the environment. People will only make this a reality though, if a single person makes it their reality first.

The largest challenge will be finding a legal, measurable, enforceable way to ensure that water intensive companies are realizing what long-term effect they are having on out planet. Whether we consider Coca Cola wanting to increase Dasani sales , the high-tech industries in Silicon Valley requiring more cheap purified water for the next generation of iPod, Alberta’s own Syncrude, who uses anywhere between 3 to 5 barrels of water to produce 1 barrel of oil, or lastly, EPCOR water wanting to expand its water treatment business into more water-stressed areas... all of this water use must be justified. If individuals can find a way to understand the current water crisis and modify their behaviour, then nothing less should be expected from any corporation. True, an exploding population will require water for a multitude of services and products; but with this larger population, more people are available to ensure that a certain degree of temperance in the way water is being used.

95% of the World is 3rd World!

Ch. 30

Whether you believe it or not, 95% of the world is 3rd world. That's about 6.3 out of the 6.6 Billion people living on this earth. Maybe you are one of the lucky 300 Million. If 300 Million people live in America alone, then you certainly know that some of them will be having a hard time. I guess, like in anything, it just gets a little hard as to know where to draw the line. Especially when it comes to the various kinds of being poor. But I am telling you: out of all of the various forms of inequality of the world: race, gender, environmental (water, sanitation, sustenance farming through drought/deforestation), political, religious, educational, those with disabilities, those with no access to health care, animal rights...about 95% of us will be affected in a pretty significant way. It's just a matter of how we react to the things that we know that will determine one of two things:

whether you will be openly welcomed into the pearly gates of heaven, or

whether you will be sent directly to the fire depths of hell to burn for all of eternity.

Okay, maybe it's not quite like that. (maybe it is!) But this I know for sure. There is a growing number of people that actually DO give a damn' about the world! And they aren't necessarily all senior citizens or students either. Lifelong commitment of people wanting to leave behind a better world is becoming more and more popular. I am currently reading a book called "How to Change the World - Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas". It is a hopeful and inspiring book that provides specific cases of the projects that people are having success with in a world that sometimes seems very impossible.

In my life, I have seen some people take on some pretty amazing things. Thanks to Engineers Without Borders, I have seen thousands of school-aged kids get informed about water scarcity and the difficulties of governments in securing access to this precious resource. Letters to MPs and MLAs alike are being sent for issues ranging from untying Canada's Foreign Aid Dollars to quashing Stelmach's unconstitutional Bill 19 to asking the City for better access to public transit. I have seen benefit shows and bottle drives, bike rides for cancer and church groups doing development work abroad. A blog called http://attemptsatabetterworld.blogspot.com/ is probably one of my new favorite things to follow, where a man is trying to just make life better one step at a time. But with incredible inspirational people like Senator Romeo Dallaire, Doctor David Suzuki, AIDS advocate Stephen Lewis, and even grade school teacher, Mike Engel, it is not difficult to see how generations are now in fact changing the world.

I know just as much as anyone how easy it is to get very depressed, apathetic, and busy & carried away with your own life in such a fast-pace world. Especially if you are having a hard time making the rent or you recently find out that you are pregnant. Especially if you are worried about job security in the worst recession in 80 years. We have all watched the rich get richer and the poor faint away to nothing. We watch the pirates of the world continue to pillage and plunder the remaining few unhabituated areas or exploit the perpetually developing areas, slashing down trees, cutting into the earth all in order for their insatiable gluttony and greed. We watch as civil war rages on in Sudan and are sickened by the ideas of Child Soldiers or Slumdogs or for-profit companies going into countries for drug testing. We watch our own native people get displaced to the city streets as their water and land is polluted and destroyed. But we carry on. At the very least, we get informed. The hardest decision I think is deciding when you are informed enough to start contributing, or maybe when you can afford to start contributing because you aren't all busy with just surviving. From what I've seen though, a person doesn't need very much to survive.

So with sooo many inspirational and motivated people around me, I vow from this Earth Day 2009 forward, to start surviving more realistically and start contributing more appropriately. This is going to begin with writing a letter to my MLA Carl Benito and his boss Eddie, and the opposition parties too, about reversing their plans on cutting funding to the Wild Rose Foundation - a voluntary organization that offers support to a huge array of Alberta non-profits like the Sexual Abuse Center of Edmonton. After that, I am going to write out a plan of action that will help me to active goals within a certain time frame. Wish me luck.

http://www.wildrosefoundation.ca/about.aspx

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/04/21/cgy-wild-rose-foundation-alberta.html