FORD FOCUS - Chapter 2

Rob Ford follows in Hitler's footsteps

In what is becoming a common theme on my blog, here's another way Rob Ford poses a threat to Toronto.

Similarity between Rob Ford and Hitler:

After being democratically elected, he aggressively seeks to dismantle democratic structures and processes to reduce opposition to his agenda.

Exhibit A: Rob Ford declares Transit City dead before a council vote is even scheduled http://www.thestar.com/news/transportation/article/900774--not-so-fast-province-warns-ford-on-killing-transit-plan

Exhibit B: Proposal to downsize council from 44 to 22 councillors, citing "more productivity, less waste" http://www.robfordformayor.ca/issues/

Exhibit C: Announces "surprise" tax freeze that was not in his campaign, a tax decrease in real terms that would deliver greatest benefit to wealthy property owners (e.g. him and his brothers).
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/12/01/16389921.html

CBC offers a more sympathetic perspective, citing Rob's recognition of the need for council support http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/12/01/toronto-ford.html

Some of you will I'm sure consider such a parallel alarmist, but this is my blog, and I see no harm in calling out Rob's potentially egregious mistakes. Rob, as he likes to be called (Toronto Sun, 2010), is in my opinion worse than a disgrace to Toronto's mayoral office, he's a danger to our city's democracy.

While reports on the conflict in Korea dominate the news, I was just reading about this sea mammal, the "cow of the sea", that lives off the coast of Okinawa Island. Its existence is threatened by a proposed relocation of a US Air Forces base. Thinking about how vulnerable this creature is to destructive forces beyond its control, I can't help but feel the same sense of vulnerability for our own species as a whole.

We are so oblivious, so wrapped up in our immediate circumstances... Imagine if instead of fighting over territorial control, we set ourselves to the rather more important challenges of ensuring our long-term survival as a species, and understanding our place in the universe.

It is at least encouraging to read about China taking a diplomatic role in moderating the conflict over this disputed Korean territory. One wonders what can be done to bring the peoples and nations of the world together to tackle humanity's overarching challenges.

Getting past Pyotr the Great(ly Annoying) ...and his buddies

Everywhere I look in Toronto, I see male chauvinism. From the CN Tower, to sexist ads on the TTC, to government spending on war machines, to biographies of "great men" at the TPL, there! to the ubiquitous acronyms and other military-derived idioms like "changing of the guard" (referring to Toronto's mayoral transition), "top brass", "fight", "charge", "power", "control", even an innocuous little word like "uniform". It's everywhere.

I hate this aspect of our culture, honestly. I really hate it. I'd rather be a pawn in a world shaped by female influence than a successful man in a man's world. Take Col. Russell Williams for instance, until recently the commander of Canada's largest Armed Forces base in Trenton, Ontario. Here was a man with immense confidence in the power he had acquired "rising" through the ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces--power "vested" in him by the military and by the state. A man with a fetish for "girly" pink panties, an avid golfer, photographer, and athlete, apparently aroused by violence. His father was a metallurgist at Chalk River Laboratories, Canada's premier nuclear research laboratory (Wikipedia, 2010). This man is no "freak". He is an entirely predictable product of the implicit norms around gender division. Last year, Col. Russell Williams was a quintessential successful man. In reality, he was also a shell.*

After confessing, he expressed a desire to shield his wife from as much of the fallout of his crimes as possible, repeatedly referencing "my wife" in a pathetic attempt to sound normal. "My only concern," he said, "is how upset my life is right now. I am concerned that they are tearing up my wife's brand new house." Col. Russell Williams defends himself as a materialist, mostly concerned for himself and his family. Indeed, what could be more normal?

The peculiarity and absurdity of male-dominated culture was highlighted again for me recently watching an episode of A&E Biography about Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov, aka Peter "The Great". A man hailed as the founder of modern Russia, Pyotr is remembered mainly because his boyhood fascination with war games was allowed to develop unchecked, giving him the military strength as an adult to wage war against various neighbouring politically entities, including Sweden and his half-sister, Sophia. Little reason is given in the documentary for his war mongering, beyond a fascination with materialism and conquest for their own sakes.

Pyotr Romanov is an extreme example of masculine ideals made manifest. Such unchecked power is thankfully unheard of in modern Western democracies (though certainly not in other parts of the world). Western men today have to negotiate at least to some degree with women about how to allocate resources, what constitutes legitimate decision-making process, appropriate decorum, and so on. But it's not enough! Male domination is crippling our culture, and our species. It already brought us once to the brink of self-annihilation through nuclear warfare. Of course, as a man, my joking admonishment for women to "take over the world" is itself a masculine perspective. What I really want is to live in a world where women are equal, heck, even more than equal with men. I'd take that over the status quo. Where are all the women who want this too?

The trouble is, I suppose, that there are reasons we've reached this equilibrium of dominant patriarchal societies becoming ubiquitous the world over. Might makes right, history is written by the victor, victor's justice, and all that. Time and again, women are beaten by their more physically powerful male counterparts, whether it's Sophia and her half-brother Pyotr, or the extinct indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin by the Spanish (more).

So how do we get around this perennial domination of women by men, and of female cultures by their patriarchal rivals?

Anyone?

*See the shallowness of letters written by Williams to the parents of the murdered women.

Do concrete and uranium grow on trees?

Nuclear may be necessary, but it sure as heck isn't "clean" or emissions-free.

Concrete: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/sarah_harmer_on.php

Uranium: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining#Health_risks_of_uranium_mining

The politicians should scrap the rhetoric and give it to us straight. A sustainable energy system IS possible, but it requires a departure from traditional Modern energy mindsets.

Conservatives' politics as dirty as their energy policy

"When you pay 80 cents for [electricity from] a wind turbine that is only operating half the time, and then have to close nuclear and coal plants to do it, you're paying twice!"
-John O'Toole, MPP for Durham, lying through his teeth to disparage Ontario's Green Energy and Green Economy Act in defense of nuclear developments in his region, Nov 23, 2010

C'mon John. We all know you're trying to protect nuclear industry jobs in your riding. But stick to the facts. Under the Green Energy Act, wind energy gets 13.5 cents (on shore), or 19 cents (off shore, OPA, 2010), plus a maximum 1 to 1.5 cent adder if the project is owned by a community or aboriginal group (OPA, 2010).

Mr. O'Toole went on to criticize the Liberals' estimate of 50,000 green jobs being created in the renewable energy sector, saying that these come at the expense of 56,000 jobs lost in other sectors, such as steel smelting and nuclear. Well, John. That's kind of the POINT. People don't want the products those companies supply! We don't want more nuclear plants. We don't want more cars and road infrastructure. We do however, want to live in a Province where people can earn a decent wage making things of value.

FORD FOCUS - Chapter 1

Ford. The name that has become synonymous with "idiot"

So let me get this straight. Mayor Ford is going to abolish the $60 vehicle registration tax, saving each taxpayer a maximum of about $60 every four years. Yet he plans to build out road infrastructure at a cost of $700 Million over 4 years.

Oh. My. God.

Seriously. Oh. My. GOD.

No.

Acoustic space and the work of Philip Beesley

One of these days, I'm going to create a "sound archive" blog, for sharing this stuff with a more targeted audience. But in the meantime, I'll post this here.

I was at the keyboard tonight, and created a sound that I could imagine using as a kind of "acoustic backdrop" in a worship setting, or perhaps for a communal prayer setting as Taizé seeks to be.

The sound quality of this sample is very good, so it's a large file. But if you have a nice sound system, and a quiet place to listen, I thought you might enjoy just putting this on in the background. It's not a "song", just something to fill the acoustic space, and hopefully has a calming effect.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8848985/Analogue%20Basic%20with%20AVerb.aif

There's an architect in Toronto whose work I've found particularly inspiring lately. I don't know how many of you will resonate with the work of Philip Beesley, but personally I'm not aware of anyone who is as conscious of the influence of environment, that is, of form, space, and atmosphere, on spiritual well being as this man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v86B9Nz_LVU