Remembrance Day has come and gone, with the usual discussions about whether it would be better remembered as a holiday and what it really means.  A recent poll showed that about 50% of the population was able to direct their remembrance towards a specific individual, whether it be a grandparent, relative, friend, neighbour... 
     I stopped to observe the obligatory minute of silence, but it felt a little hollow, especially since I’m a member of the other 50%.  What I cherish is that I’ve been lucky enough to be born in a period of time with no world conflict that would force me into a combat role.  There have been plenty of wars in the world, from Korea and Viet Nam to Afghanistan, but they have not sucked my generation into the madness, -at least not here in Canada.
What can I remember?  One of the slogans for Remembrance Day is “Lest we forget.”  Forget what?  Certainly the sacrifices that were made by those warriors who have had to defend our way of life, and still do.  Regardless of whether we agree with the particular wars, regardless of the accused atrocities that are the collateral damage of war, I don’t have anything but respect for those that are willing to serve their country.  If there is a blame for the atrocities or pointlessness of war, it is with the politicians and powerful military industries and high ranking officers who manipulate young men and women into situations where there are no right choices.  Placing young, often naive soldiers in situations where they have to make life and death situations and where there are temptations/pressures to act in abominable ways is NOT their fault.  Most of the time, I can honour their courage.
       But the other slogan, popular after WW1, was “Never Again”.  Later it was used primarily for the Holocaust, but originally it was meant as an anti-war statement after WW1.  It was supposed to be the war that ended all wars.  “Never Again” was the world supposed to consume itself in a madness that would extinguish so many young, innocent lives and mangle others.  To remember is to remember that these soldiers sacrificed themselves so that peace would prevail and so that freedom can be enjoyed.  I therefore choose to remember my commitment to peace and to practice my freedom as my way of honouring their sacrifices. 
Remembrance Day should in no way glorify war or glamorize battle.  War is an atrocity, -a social madness.  Battle is hell.  Rather, it should glorify and promote the things that the soldiers fought for, peace and freedom.  We should remember the horrors with the aim of making sure that no more should have to endure it.  This is not always possible to accomplish, which is why we have Peace Keeping Forces, but we should never lose sight of the fact that must be the ultimate goal. 

     Recently, some people have revived the old custom of wearing white poppies for peace rather than the blood red poppies of death and war.  It was originally done by widows after WW1.  It is ironic that those promoting and controlling red poppies are complaining about copyright infringement and threatening to take action.  Maybe they need to "remember" what the real purpose of this day is.

     There's been a lot of exposure given to the case of Russell Williams.  Neighbours and friends are stunned that the polite and dignified commander of Canada's largest military base could hide the fact that he was or turned into a depraved monster.  It's the kind of thing that can't help but breed a type of paranoia, where people contemplate that they can never take things at face value.  And yet, let us not forget that all the experts claim that this is a new and unique breed of monster.  We need not fear all of our neighbours.

     And yet the story is one where one might almost entertain the idea of demonic possession to explain the incongurence of this person's character.

     When reading the reports, I cannot help but notice one glaring coincidence.  There is no doubt that Williams harboured a long present fetish involving fantasies and women's underwear.  Many of the psychologists chiming in on this story have said that this hidden fetish alone is not that uncommon.  What, then, caused this man to abandon all morality and take a gigantic leap into aggressive activity?

     Not meaning to trivialize the situation, or to suggest that Williams does not bear full responsibility for his actions, I can't help but notice William's fondness for his cat.  In fact, it seems that Williams' first steps at breaking and entering into his neighbour's house coincide exactly with the arrival of the new kitten.

     I wonder if anyone thought to test him for Toxoplasm gondii.

     About 20 years ago I was camping in the States with one of my youth groups and had the opportunity to share an evening of conversation with other youth from cities in Texas, Florida and California.  One of the things that came up was how amazed they were that our boys felt comfortable going downtown in Toronto on a Friday or Saturday night.  They protested that they would never be able to feel safe doing that in their respective cities.  Having visited a few of them myself, and notably San Francisco a  few years ago, I can easily see why they felt that way.  We were very wary and uncomfortable navigating our way just a block and a half from the only downtown shopping mall to where we were parked, sometimes crossing the street or taking detours to avoid loud groups. 

     In the past few weeks I've spent a lot of time in downtown Toronto.  Often, as was the case last night, this has been in the dead of night.  Now, admittedly, last night's Nuit Blanche was well attended by other people, providing a sense of security.  But this says something in itself, -that upwards of a million people felt at home in this city even in the dead of night and the wee hours of the morning.  This, however, was not the only time I'd been in the city so late.  During my TIFF adventure, there were several occasions which saw me making my way to Union Station around midnight, never once fearing for my safety. 

     The last three months I have become more of an urban explorer that any time since I was a university student.  What I've found is a vibrant, exciting and cultural city.  Ethnic, food and cultural events have peppered the past months, with everything from Caribanna to TIFF to Buskerfest to Word on the Street, to Taste of the Danforth, to Nuit Blanche, -just to name the few.  Unlike the American cities that surround us, -Buffalo, Detroit, Rochester-, the centre of our city is not dead and abandon.  It is alive with a population which is heartily participatory. 

     For those willing to go out an find it, Toronto is definitely a world class city.  (As such it has some world-class-city-problems, but they're minor compared to most other cities I've experienced.)  When I visited Buskerfest in late August, I went down by cycling along Toronto's bike trail system from the Finch subway system, -a total distance of 34 kilometres.  I know that when we cycled down, we only sampled a fraction of the cities routes, and spent very little time on actual roads.  (This doesn't mean the bike lanes are unnecessary.  They would be an excellent addition and compliment to these other existing recreational trails.) 

     Torontonians and those living in surrounding areas are luckier than many realize.  The city is alive and successful, not strangle it by thinking of it purely as a functional organism where garbage is collected and streets are paved.  Like a person, if you ignore the city's spirit and don't give it a purpose for being, no matter how well you feed and clothe it, the result will be hollow.  A city's spirit needs to be nurtured or, like so many examples around us, it dies. 

     Two cities??  Well I have to give a thumbs up to the satellite community of Newmarket, where I've also spent a lot of time these past months.  It has been careful in its planning to include a lot of green space throughout its development, and has a vibrant town centre of its own, Fairy Lake.  Good planning creates healthy communities.  But we must be ever vigilent that our politicians respect what's been accomplished and continue the work.

     That, I believe, is what municipal elections are about. 

     That being said, I have to give a thumbs down to last night's Nuit Blanche art extravaganza in downtown Toronto.  For those not familiar with it, this is an evening where major Toronto streets are closed (Yonge, Bloor, Queen, Bay) from dusk to dawn for the installation of major art exhibits and projects.  it is all billed as being very contemporary and interactive.

     I want to commend the endeavour on its scale and organization.  Having an evening of partying in the main streets of Toronto is very ambitious.  As such, it was a great success.  If anything, it seemed that the Frosh starved university students from U of T and Ryerson got their chance to cut loose in a big way.  Frosh activities on campuses in Ontario have been curtailed this year, with many of the more extreme events being sidelined.  I suppose that explained the thousands of drunk, loud and often vulgar people partying in the area of Yonge and Dundas, though I'm not sure that was the intended goal.  I have to say that I've never heard so much loud public profanity in the street, on subway cars and buses...  It seems that civil public behaviour is about as dead as dead can be.  But I suppose that may be a topic for another entry...

     Ya, so where was the art??  I was fully armed with maps and even the i-phone app (which was annoyingly unhelpful). 

     I started my evening around midnight at Nathan Philips square for the presentation by Daniel Lanois.  This initial experience, was, unfortunately, the highlight of my evening.  It was a 12 hour concert by Lanois accompanying film clips that were projected all over the square onto giant screens. 

     As I said, unfortunately it was downhill from there.  I must have hit at least a dozen exhibits.  Several were videos projected onto screens which were noteworthy in neither content nor quality.  I think other things were supposed to be happening around them, but I didn't see anything and it would have had to be pretty spectacular to make up for the lacklustre videos.  I spent 20 minutes in Ryerson Theatre watching what I think was a chess game being played on stage, waiting for the other multi-media extensions that were supposed to accompany this exhibit.  Nothing.  Eventually I left along with a lot of other confused people.  The huge campfire in the middle of Dundas Square was ... a huge bonfire in the middle of Dundas Square.  I suppose that it was a little odd to see this fire surrounded by people dressed as if they are in the backwoods, sitting in camp chairs, but are urban people really so unfamiliar with this that it counts as art??

     (CONTINUED BELOW DUE TO LACK OF SPACE.  ...STUPID BLOG PROGRAM...)

     I really don't t want this to turn into a blog about religion, but some of the juiciest stories lately have been religion related.

     Yesterday a survey conducted by The Pew Forum on Religions and Public Life was released with some eye opening results.  The study, conducted by a religious organization, presented a set of questions about Christianity and other religions to a large survey population of Americans.  The survey and analysis look statistically sound and can be found here. 

     The results indicate that on average people with a Christian religious leaning have the least knowledge not only of religions in general, but also of their own Bible.  Atheists, Agnostics, Jews and Mormons scored the highest overall, and proved to be more knowledgeable about the Bible and Christianity than all Christian groups except White Evangelists.  Those same White Evangelist, though, scored near the bottom of the list when it came to questions involving any other religion except their own and even on questions involving the role of religion in public life (such as the teaching of religion in public schools).  Fewer than half of those surveyed knew who Martin Luther was or could identify the four main Gospels of the Bible.  Almost half believed that the Golden Rule was one of the Ten Commandments. 

     There are all kinds of conclusions which might be drawn from this, which are going to be contentious and controversial.  One might look at the relationship between religious belief and intelligence.  One might ask questions about "true believers" not really being informed in their beliefs.  One might point to the importance of wide religious education being necessary in school systems in order to foster more understanding an fewer misconceptions.

     Certainly this reflects on Christian zealots who criticize and pass judgement on other religious, when it seems that only a minority of them know what they're talking about.

     Read the survey. It's American, but, like most survey information, it has relevance in Canada, if only to warn us what we need to avoid in our own cultural evolution.  The stats are clearly presented and are broken down for quick analysis.  I think it raises an awful lot of questions and issues, and probably has a lot of fundamentalist groups squirming a little.

     (There are copies of the questions available on the web site (in an Appendix) if you want to test your own knowledge, but you should take it before reading the spoilers in the results.) 

     Just so I don't get accused of bashing any particular religion, I couldn't help drawing your attention to this brief article.
"Let's get married - for an hour" describes an Islamic practice in Iran. 
     "The penalty for having sex outside of marriage in Iran is 100 lashes.  So men wanting a dalliance or young unmarried couples craving a getaway turn to the legal loophole of 'temporary marriages': contracts of a specific duration - anywhere from 60 minutes to 99 years - and for a specified amount of money..."
     I'm not sure I oppose the basic idea.  I've always thought contractual marriage might be a good thing, and have written about it in previous blogs.  However, in this case, it is clearly a case of religious double standards.  The way it is being used, it amounts to little more than legal, Shia-approved prostitution. -Or, at best, a hypocritical approach to their religious morals.  I wonder if you can get temporary divorces to go with your temporary marriages. 

     I want to highlight a couple of great articles from Maclean’s magazine (Sept. 20 issue). 
The first is called “Third World America”, which outlines in frightening detail the collapse and decline of the American economy.  It outlines the disintegration of municipal services all over the country, including police, education, and infrastructure.  One report describes how many states are ripping up and crushing paved roads in order to replace them with maintenance cheap dirt roads.  Collapsing bridges, over-crowded schools, exploding pipes in New York, all demonstrate a dire and serious situation. 

     Rather than blaming this on the Obama Democratic government, people have to realize that 90% of this problem was inherited by the current U.S. administration and the crisis has been building for at least a decade.  If there is any responsibility, it should be borne by the previous administration, not the current one.  And yet, it is the philosophy of that previous administration, the Republican conservatives, who are the most vocal critics of the problems, hoping that the average semi-conscious voter will respond with a knee-jerk reaction of blaming the current administration. 

     Compare their situation to Canada, who has survived the economic crisis of the past few years relatively unscathed.  Why is this?  It is generally felt that we owe our good fortune to the built in regulation our system of government placed on banking and financial institutions.  Yes, regulation; that ugly word that American conservatives despise.  Our government is willing to step in and establish criteria and standards for the economic community which tries to guarantee the well being of our society.  Your average American conservative will say that they don’t trust the government to take care of the well being of society.  Well, I would ask why they feel they can trust the motives of big business any better.  The economic institutions of America have demonstrated without question the putrid core of their ethics.  Their greed and complete disregard for the well being of society was the principle cause of the recent depression, which in turn has accelerated the general demise of the American way of life. 

     We, in Canada, are in much better shape, but we have to be careful not to fall into the same trap.  How do we avoid ending up in the same boat as the U.S.?  Well, I would say the best way would be to not travel down the same road.  –the road of conservative deregulation of the economic system.  –the road of conservative policies that depend on economic institutions and big business regulating themselves in favour of the best interests of society rather than greedy self-interest.  –the road where a system does not support medical care for all people because of some irrational fear of abuse (as if the insurance companies never abuse the mandate they have to care for their customers!).  –and the road of knee-jerk, reactionary politics that promise short term, hard line, miracle cures instead of real long term solutions. 

     It’s not time to get tough.  It’s time to get smart. 

I just had to share this.  Stolen from Scalzi's Whatever Blog.  (If you check out the source, scroll down and don't miss the mewing chior boys!!)

     As I took my seat in the theatre I could sense the tension around me.  Nearby, two guys were talking, wondering whether the Q & A would result in fisticuffs or just a shouting match. 

     “Cool It” is a film directed by Ondi Timoner, examining the work of Bjorn Lomborg, controversial author of the book The Sceptical Environmentalist.  In his book Lomborg, a Danish professor and founder of a Nobel Laureate think tank, states that while Global Warming is a real problem, we’re over dramatizing the effects and going about dealing with it in a completely wrong way.  He states that no efforts to reduce green house gasses have been successful so far, so it is necessary to  look at alternatives.  The $250 which has been budgeted for methods to reduce CO2 emission , he says, would have a minimal effect  on global warming and we are obligated to examine alternative strategies which might yield more success, such as investment in alternative energy or even geo-engineering.  He goes on to claim that people wanting to get their hands on part of the $250 billion are interested in producing a climate of fear about climate change.  For example, we’re presented with visions of endangered, cute polar bears while, in fact, the polar bear population has increased by a factor of four since 1950.

     One of my favourite points in the film was a discussion of why cities are getting hotter.  Increasing use of black roofs and roads absorb more heat and turn sunlight into thermal energy.  Any gr. 7 student can tell you that (or at least mine had better be able to).  So Lomborg suggests that we paint the roads and roofs white.  This would be a simple, cheap solution which his think tank says would have a huge impact on ambient temperatures in cities.
 
     I found “Cool It” to be refreshing and even-handed.  I consider myself a strong environmentalist, but saw no problems with the information presented in this film.  I’ve often said that, while efforts like recycling and energy conservation are good for PR and public consciousness, we’re deluding ourselves if we think they contain any real solutions.  I’ve recently discovered that recycled cardboard is stored in huge warehouses because there is no market for it.  The real solutions will only come on a much grander scale, such as how we build communities and technology advancements designed to tackle the problems. (A good example of this is the use of drain cleaners, where millions of litres of caustic chemicals are poured down the sink every year to clear clogged drains, while a much more effective solution would be to redesign drain pipes so that they don’t clog.)  This large scale, technological approach to our problems is known as “Bright Green Environmentalism”.  The reluctance to throw science at the problems out of a fear of worsening the conditions is valid, but should not exclude the use of rational, balanced, good science in determining how $250 billion will be implemented by governments and businesses.

     This technology exists.  Alternative energy research is on the verge of major breakthroughs.  Breaking our dependence on carbon fuels will be a lot easier when we have viable alternatives.

This film gets an "A".

     Seeing David Suzuki at TIFF yesterday was a real blast.  Suzuki spoke with humble ease and confidence, but also with a profound elegance which comes from a lifetime dedicated to communicating important ideas to the layman.  He is a national treasure and I don’t know if he’s received the appropirate honors, like the Order Of Canada, but if he hasn’t it’s a crime, and lets try to find some more for him while we’re at it. 

     His film, Force Of Nature, is a documentary half based on a lecture given in Vancouver which was billed as “What I’d like to say in my last lecture,” and half on a retrospective view of his life.  It often presents an emotional side to Suzuki that we never see, especially as he reminises about the oppression suffered by his family during the relocation of Japanese Canadians during WW2. 

     The central idea is that natural laws and human ones are not the same.  Human laws are created by us and can be modified, while natural ones are unforgiving.  One of his best comments was that if the economic model used by society doesn’t value the things we consider most important, such as family, security, health, a clean and aesthetic place to live, -then there must be something wrong with that model and it needs to be adjusted.  This is a powerful idea that has crossed my mind many times.  I’ve seen banks, which have made billions in profit annually, unnecesarily cut their work force in the interest of maximizing profits, resulting in loyal, experienced employees being squeezed out of their careers.  Societies, business, government, learning institutions all should be aiming at making a successful society, -not for a select few, but for as many as is possible.  If our society is healthy as a whole, the parts are more likely to be healthy.

     And that goes a hundred fold for the health of our environment. When asked about hope for the future, he said that it will probably take more natural disasters  like Hurricane Katrina, for people to mobilize enough to make a difference, but that once that mobilization occurs, like the decade when we worked to put a man on the moon, anything will be possible.  He also harshly criticized the Harper government, stating that it is ironic that a government with such a strong "law and order" policy, totally ignores international law when it comes to the ratified Kyoto agreement.   His final comment was that we should not wait for him to do things, but find ways to take positive action ourselves.  Current environmental groups and practices are not strong enough to be effective.  ... Or in more plain terms, it's time to walk the talk.