politics – Page 3

Mocking the big O

The multi-national corporate agenda has gotten so blatant, so shameless, and so desperate to assert itself in one last dying gasp (now that its anti-human machinations are so apparent to we the people of these supposed democracies), that it has moved firmly onto the caricature stage.

Canada’s prime example of this is the tar sands/Enbridge pipeline fiasco, which our oil-owned “majority” governing Conservative party has openly decided to push through, despite all inconvenient scientific or democratic arguments against it. Continue reading “Mocking the big O”

Attack of the Arts Administrators

This post is prompted by the District of Tofino’s Request for Proposals for a “cultural scan” (on tofino.ca, the 3-page PDF downloads from this link). Scanning the document itself, i am struck by how little it has to do with actual art. In fact, the thing is pure 200-proof bureaucracy in its wording and its thought process, and as such is 180 degrees opposed to art. I suppose i’m not saying it shouldn’t be done; presumably the district’s bureaucratic mill needs it. I am saying nobody should even begin to confuse it with making or advancing art. Continue reading “Attack of the Arts Administrators”

An open letter back atcha, Minister

It’s nearly 1 a.m. but i could not resist a short diatribe in response to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver‘s open letter recently published in the Globe & Mail. Give it a read; it’s short, but it’s a remarkable document both in the lines and between them. Ridiculous, unsubstantiated accusations, a transparent wish for concerned citizenry to just get out of the way and let the oil-soaked Conservatives do what they want to do … it boggles the mind. And this is one of our leaders? Heaven help us.

Joe’s email, in case you want to write, is: joe.oliver@parl.gc.ca. For added spice, i cc’d the message below to my MP James Lunney (Lunney.J@parl.gc.ca) — a medical man, and thus one who clearly must care more about the future of humanity at large than he does about oil companies’ bottom lines. Right?

My rant:

Wow, Minister Oliver. Your recent “open letter” to the people of Canada was, hands down, the most insulting thing i’ve ever read from an elected MP. Your sweeping characterization of me as a helpless dupe being manipulated by shadowy “foreign funders” was truly breathtaking. And here i thought i was a concerned citizen, trying to keep up with many issues, and making my best judgement on each of them, with one eye on legitimate science and another on the sustainable future world i would like to live in and leave for the children around me.

If you want to see someone being manipulated by foreign funders, i daresay you need only look in the mirror each morning when you shave, before heading out to Parliament Hill for another day of mortaging — nay, selling out wholesale — our children’s future to a world laid waste by climate change and the bottomless greed of Big Oil and its blinkered, shameless patsies. Of which it is now abundantly clear that you, sir, are one, in company with your hallowed leader.

In over 20 years, i’ve never written an insulting letter to an MP. But now you, Minister Oliver, have taken the cake. With all due respect — and in my opinion, markedly less is due this week than last — you ought to be stepping down. Your attitude toward public process is clearly warped beyond the bounds of participatory democracy.

Dr. Lunney, you are my MP, and as a constituent i strongly urge you to call for Minister Oliver’s immediate resignation.

Your very truly,
greg blanchette

Youth followship

So i was waiting in line at Capers, on Robson Street in Vancouver, grabbing a porridge breakfast en route to the Wild Salmon rally and an hour at the Cohen Commission (“into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River”) last Monday. There was a bulletin board, and among the for-sales and event announcements there was one that struck me: an announcement for a “youth leadership” program. It struck me i’ve seen many similar ads in recent years — youth leadership has become something of a trend among social progressives (apparently unsatisfied with the current state of “elder leadership”). Not having custody of any youths myself, i never paid them much attention before. But now i wondered how many young leaders there might be out there, fostered by all these youth leadership programs.

Then i thought, a leader is nothing without her/his followers. And suddenly i was wondering how many more wanna-be leaders we really need. It seemed to me that, given the necessary numbers split between leaders and followers, what we need is more is educated, thoughtful followers. Too many leaders is like too many cooks; everybody visioning and bossing, nobody actually doing anything. In a nutshell, isn’t that the trouble with the political left these days? Every “leader” with a cause in their bonnet these days gathers three like-minded friends, registers a nonprofit, throws up a website, applies for a grant, and by dint of furious effort, proceeds to make little or no difference in the world.

There are some giant-sized problems wracking our world right now, problems big enough that ten thousand fractious, scattered, isolated little groups can’t begin to grapple with them. Humanity needs a huge pulling-together if we are going to have a hope of making a dent. So a solid course in youth followship might be more desirable than yet another on leadership. Off the top of my head, such a course might address:

detecting duplicity, hypocrisy, dysfunction, dishonesty in leaders
detecting “big man syndrome” — ego-driven leaders, versus those who serve a cause and the people
how to tell when leaders are working for your interests, versus theirs (or their funders’)
distinguishing a movement from a cult
seeing through sound-bite politics and spin
telling short-term thinking from long-term

The program might also begin correcting the cultural bias that casts leaders as great/important/famous/sexy, whereas followers are seen as mere sheep.

Many say the world is crying out for leadership. Yet so many of us are following the leaders we have — into wars, climate disaster, social decay and economic decline. I’m thinking the world needs a few million smart, discerning followers. Then, in the way of things, the right leaders will spring forth when the conditions are ripe.