Lest we forget.

Every November 11th here in Canada (and around the world) we commemorate Rememberance Day. It's the one day each year we are asked to remember those who sacrificed their youth and their lives so that most of us would never need to know the horrors of war. We asked to remember and face the reality that there is evil in the world and that we must fight it, even if it costs us our lives. Today is another day which we need stop and remember. On a cold January day, sixty years ago Russian soldiers entered one of the most horrific places man had ever devised: the Auschwitz death camp. This was a place of unconsciounable horror and pain. Close to two million people were put to death at this camp because of the deranged ideas of a madman.

I am very tired.

A friend tells me that Ernest Hemingway said that all writing should begin with one honest statement. Ok, here goes.

I am really tired. It's now 2:45am and I have another 7 hours of work to look forward to. I wish that I could just lay down for a while but that is a no-no. I'm already into the coffee, but it's not helping much. I hate nights like this. I didn't sleep well today or for very long and with little to do I find it hard to stay awake at times. I could finish a story that I've been working on called 'Hope'. It's almost done and I'd like to finish it but I don't want to start it too early and leave nothing to do later. Well I guess I should try and find something to do but yawn and listen to Rod Stewart on the radio. Why was he ever popular? Well this took a whopping 8 minutes to write. Eight minutes closer to being able to go to sleep. Oh I can't wait.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Fight in the night of the mind - chapter 2.

2.

Seimole awoke with a start, brought out of a seeming nightmare by something she couldn't quite see or understand. She looked around her darkened room, comforted to a small extent by the familiar belongings and the quiet warmth of her room. She sat in bed for a long time, the feeling of confusion and dread would not leave her. Her mind was racing trying to retrace its steps, trying to think back into her dreams, trying to remember what it was that had frightened her so. She sat wrapped in her bed for what seemed an eternity, the holo-clock on her bedside table displaying the passing minutes. What had I seen? What was so frightening? However after a few hours had passed all that she could remember was looking in a darkened room, lit only by a cool blue light, running and then waking up in her bed. She also could not figure out why it seemed so urgent for her to unravel this dream, but there was a nagging voice in the back of her mind that kept prompting her to continue searching whenever she thought of stopping. This time however she ignored the insistent voice, gracefully left her bed and headed to her private bath. The holo-clock displayed 5:12am.

Fight in the night of the mind - chapter 1

1.

BANG!

Seimole once again fought back the urge to look behind her. She had to keep running, she had to escape. She could feel her pursuers gaining on her. She could feel them getting closer. She could also feel the pain in her legs and the burning in her lungs. She had to keep running, she had to fight her body's overwhelming desire to collapse, she had to live, she had to tell her story.

As she rounded a corner, hope welled up within her as she caught sight of a fully lit gas station a few hundred metres ahead. Surely those chasing her wouldn't attack her there, surely she would be safe there. Wouldn't she? Would she ever be safe? She ran on fighting the pain in her chest and her legs, gasping for air and hoping for freedom. She ran towards the blazing lights as tears streamed from her eyes down her windblown and muddy face.

"HELP ME! PLEASE, HELP ME!" She screamed as she neared the gas station. She could see two people standing inside. She ran headlong towards the store, towards the people, she ran towards hope and safety. Her heart felt like it was going to pound its way of her chest. She was so tired and sore. She just wanted to stop, to give up, to lay down and sleep. Instead she raced on, only a few metres more. "HELP ME, PLEASE!"

Relief washed over Seimole as she saw two men emerge from the gas station's convenience store and head for her at a quickened pace. She risked looking behind her, to see how close were her pursuers but they had stopped at the edge of the flood of light cast by the many lights of the gas station. She was safe, she had made it, she managed to escape after so many had not. She swung her head around again to look towards her saviours and collapsed on the spot. She could finally stop running. Immediately her legs began to cramp up painfully, but she did not care. She had made it. What was that? What are they holding? Seimole found it hard to focus on her new found protectors, the exhaustion and panic finally having taken its toll on her mind. Why had they stopped? She longed for them to come to her, to comfort her, to tell her she was safe and that they would protect her. She looked behind her once again. Her pursuers were slowly walking into the light, slowly advancing. She tried to talk, but nothing came out of her parched throat. She looked again at the two men who were now standing in front of her. Why had they stopped? What were they holding? Why was he raising his arm like that?

BANG!

Everything went black for Seimole.

The man lowered his arm and with it the gun that he was carrying. Smoke curled out from the barrell as the casing bounced off the pavement below. He turned to his partner who was scanning the surrounding area to see if the sound of the gun shot had attracted any curious onlookers. Once he was satisfied that no one was lurking about, he waved to the three men who had been chasing the woman, urging them to come over. "This is the last of them right?" The second man asked the group that had now assembled around the prone body in front of them.

"Yeah. Do you think she knew?" The man who had fired the fatal shot asked as he holstered his gun and knelt down and cradled the woman in his arms. He found her oddly beautiful. He didn't know exactly why. Was it the strangely serene expression that had come over her face now that she was dead? Her eyes were a little too wide, her cheek bones a little too high, he thought. Yet that seemed to provide her with some sort of exotic aura about her. Her ice blue eyes stared up at him, now empty. He began to stroke her hair as his companions watched silently. He gently placed his hand upon her cheek and ran his fingers down towards the nape of her neck. It became obvious that he was searching for something. He felt around the back of her neck and up towards her hair line. There was a faint click, and then her a thin black line formed around the edge of her face. He waited another second and then pulled off her face revealing the racing lines of light beneath which formed the circuits of the replicant.

"I doubt it. These nex-gens were quite advanced, with their mem-sim implants and emotive generating processors. She probably truly believed that she was Seimole Dayle." The second man answered. There was a hint of sympathy in his voice as he looked down upon the exposed circuits of the machine.

"No I don't think so," said the man holding Seimole Dayle's double.

When are we allowed to step in?

It's impossible to escape coverage of the disaster in southern Asia. It's somewhat heartbreaking to know that many of the over 150 000 people who have died in the region did not need to if the time, effort and money had been spent to construct an early warning system. However it is also heartwarming to see so many nations from around the world step up and help those in need either through providing money, manpower or both. But I find the world's response to this disaster both troubling and necessary.

I find it troubling because so much attention is being put upon this particular disaster that we seemed to have blocked out the need and suffering of hundreds of thousands if not millions of others world wide which no one is stepping up to help. There are a number of prime examples: first is Darfur in the Sudan. There has been a lot of talk concerning

Back to socialism for a second.

Over the past little while I've been thinking about my previous post concerning socialism and the example that I used, namely oil. I found that once I really began to think about the numbers I was blown away. 16 TRILLION DOLLARS!!!!! I find it hard to imagine what that much money would mean. I know I said that it was equivalent to $533 333.33 for every man, woman and child in Canada but what could we do with it?

According to the

Personal Recommendations

Thought I'd go a little lighter today, subject wise, and toss out some personal recommendations.

Movies:

1. Fight Club - great social commentary
2. Suicide Kings - great ending (besides you just have to love Christopher Walken)
3. Brotherhood of the Wolf - enjoyable period french film
4. 28 Days Later - best zombie flick I've ever seen
5. Ghost in the Shell - best anime I've ever seen

Other movies deserving mention: Love Actually, Matrix trilogy, LOTR trilogy (extended editions), Something About Mary, Star Wars trilogy (original), From Russia With Love, The Incredibles, Donny Darko, Dark City

Books:

1. Bible - give it a read and make up your own mind
2. 1984 - must read
3. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - sooooo many layers
4. Fight Club - the ending is great
5. Running With the Demon - a great fantasy book

Other books deserving mention: The Man in the High Castle, Neuromancer, Animal Farm, Harry Potter (series), Archangel, The Odysey, Frankenstein, Narnia (series)

Music:

1. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon - an absolute classic
2. Jet: Get Born - a great new album
3. The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds - another absolute classic
4. The Darkness: Permission to Land - a lot of fun
5. Bob Marley: Exodus - again a classic

More music derserving mention: Led Zepellin, The Who, The Police, The White Stripes, Cake, Nick Drake, The Killers, Collective Soul, W. A. Mozart, U2

Also I would encourage everyone to check out Gustave Klimt (painter).

How about sports?

I was recently watching the TSN year in review show. The number two story of the year was the Todd Bertuzi attack on Steve Moore. While players everywhere whined that the courts should let the NHL handle the issue the world watched the NHL dish out a slap on the wrist to Bertuzi. First off I know that it was perhaps the harshest suspension that the NHL has ever handed out but that does not mean that in comparison to the act it wasn't a slap on the wrist. Second, Moore may never play again due to the actions of Bertuzi. Meanwhile Bertuzi is petitioning the league for reinstatement. Here is what I think ...

Todd Bertuzi deserved to be charged criminally. I have mixed emotions concerning the plea bargin. On the one side I'm glad the Crown did not try and grandstand for the media and seek some ludicrous penalty but on the other I am confident that if I had attacked a person on the street and put them in the hospital with two cracked vertibrae, a concussion and the possibility that that person may lose their livelyhood, I would have received far more than eighty hours community service and NO criminal record after pleading GUILTY. So in the end I think the Canadian justice system dropped the ball because he is a star player in Vancouver.

I also think that the NHL dropped the ball because Bertuzi is a star player. He visciously attacked another player on the ice with the most likely result being that Moore's career is over. Here is what I would have given Bertuzi, an indefinate suspension plus fifteen games. What I mean by this is that Bertuzi would sit out as long as Moore was unable to play hockey at the NHL level. Once Moore returned then Bertuzi would sit out an additional fifteen games due to the violent and heinous nature of his attack. Therefore if Moore was out a year, so would Bertuzi, if Moore was never able to play again due to the actions of Bertuzi then Bertuzi would never play again. To me that is only fair.

Hockey is to the point that I can't bring myself to watch it, unless its the World Junior tournament which is currently taking place, Go CANADA! Half of any given team is filled with thugs who have no real ability other than their ability to fight. Last I checked fighting was as illegal in hockey as was slashing and tripping. Why treat it any differently? There is no sense to the argument that players are able to police themselves through fighting because 90% of the fights in hockey have nothing to do with infractions. Moore's hit was legal for that he lost his career. That makes sense. Also last I looked, the player that he hit - Naslund - finished out the year on the ice unlike Moore.

Now this atmosphere of violence which reigns on the ice has infected those off the ice. To those who defend Bertuzi and his right to be reinstated, I can't fathom your logic, especially when I attend a minor league hockey game. My cousin has a 13 year old son who began playing hockey when he was 4. While I have not attended anything near even half of his games, those that I was at sickened me. Not so much the players (who at the age of 8 are swinging their sticks like baseball bats and picking fights which is wrong on so many levels) but with the parents in the stands who are ordering their kids to take cheap shots at other kids or verbally assaulting and threatening the referees. The atmosphere surrounding hockey today is so toxic that when I do have kids, I will not let them play hockey like I did as a kid for 12 years.

No, Bertuzi should not be allowed to play until Moore hits the ice in an NHL game. Not only for the fact that he perpetrated a violent act but also because of the tragically negative message it sends to the worlds children who play hockey: Act like an animal while your on the ice because humanity no longer exists there. The worst that will happen is that you end one persons career and dream while you can continue on your own.

What a great message to send to our children.

Sincerely;
Vespasian

Time for the trifecta

As I stated in my previous post, there are three topics which we are generally told to avoid when conversing with others: religion, politics and money. I figured it was time to complete the trifecta and discuss money or I guess more accurately economics.

First off I again wish to state that I am a historian and not an economist, however that should never stop anyone from positing an opinion. Of course some opinions are more informed than others, I guess you can be the judge concerning mine.

Sorry but I begin with a bit of a digression. When I first told a friend of mine that I was going to go to university, he was at first encouraging and then hesitant. He observed that I was somewhat rigid in my views concerning the world and especially concerning religion. He believed that university could be a good experience but often people with my disposition either gave up or had a meltdown as we are unable to deal with challenges to our world view, more specifically our religious views. I am happy to announce that I believe that my experience in university has strengthened and deepened my religious experience, however it did trully shake my view of the world in many other ways.

I was the type of person who George W. Bush would have loved. Swallowed what ever shit was put in front of me, never questioned where it came from or why it was there and always gave the powers that be (human institutions) the benefit of the doubt. Prime example: I remember clearly sitting with a friend discussing the potential of the U.S. invading Iraq. I said that there is no way that they would do it without good cause. Boy, was I proved wrong! Studying history has taught me to search for information, to ask questions and to seek answers. Once I began doing this in my life in addition to my school work things really began to change for me.

Okay, here goes. If I was to claim affinity with any given economic system that system would be SOCIALISM. Now I do not mean Communism, Stalinism or Leninism, but socialism. Now of course I don't think that socialism has all the answers but I think it would be better for humanity than the capitalist system that we are presently ruled by.

As the world spirals towards the innevitablity that is globalization, I would like to point out a few things. First is the fact that (especially in the western world) huge multi-national corporations are able to dictate to sovereign nations when their profitability is infringed upon. For instance, if Canada passed a law for the betterment of its citizens which hurt the business practices (and therefore their profitability) of a particular foreign coporation, the corporation in question can take the sovereign government of Canada to court to get the law repealed, regardless of what the citizens of Canada might think or wish. This is only going to get worse. We are racing to put the worlds finite wealth in the hands of a relatively few corporations who will then have control over the masses.

In this climate of mega-mergers and multi-national corporations no nation is safe. Recently (I believe it was the G8) a number of wealthy western nations got together and put forward a plan to help out the struggling nations of Africa. Very ultruistic right? Unfortunately not, as a clause in the agreement allows these western nations to begin controlling the economic infratructure of these countries. Sure they are gonna open their borders to increased agricultural trade from African nations, but in return they will control the money that those nations earn. All done in the name of humanity I am sure.

Here is another example why capitalism and corporations fail humanity in our societies. According to the CIA World Fact Book Canada is a net exporter of oil. While we are able to produce 2.7 million barrels of oil per day, we only consume 1.7 million barrels of oil per day (please don't get me started on the negative environmental impact that this has, I'm discussing economics). Given this it seems quite reasonable to assume that Canada does not need to import any oil, but in fact can supply enough for its citizens and still make some money. Did you know that in Iraq before the U.S. invasion that Iraqis were paying $0.02 for a litre of gas. They were able to do this because they produce enough oil for themselves, they don't need to pay the inflated OPEC costs (recently when oil prices dropped below $48U.S. per barrel OPEC stated that they were cutting production so that oil prices would rise above $50 per barrel so that they could make more money). Canada meanwhile was paying roughly $0.75 per litre. Why? Sure there are taxes here that they don't have to pay in Iraq, but the main reason is the fact that the oil that is produced here in Canada is sold by corporations (Shell for one) to foreign markets which forces people to import oil at the inflated price. Canada (and when I say Canada I mean corporations which control Canada's oil resources) exports 2 million barrels per day while importing 1 million barrels per day. The money that is made in all of this goes to foreign corporations.

Just imagine if the government controled Canada's oil resources. The 2.7 million barrels produced each day could be used in three ways. The first would be to meet the nation's oil demands. That would account for 1.7 million barrels, leaving 1 million barrels. The second way would be to put some aside for a rainy day, lets say 250 thousand barrels a day (this would put 9.125 million barrels in reserve each year). Thirdly we could sell the rest. At $45U.S. per barrel the government could produce (750 thousand times $45) $33 750 000 U.S. per day! Thats $12 318 750 000 per year! THATS OVER TWELVE TRILLION DOLLARS (U.S or 16 trillion Canadian) PER YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you say no more health care funding problems?

But no, we screw over our citizens, not only with expensive gas but in tremendous amounts of lost revenue, so that foreign corporations can make the money which will not have anywhere near the same impact upon Canada's citizens. That is one example. At $16 trillion thats $533 333.33 for every man, woman and child in the country each year!

Instead we spend money on developing better DVD players, photo capable cell phones and higher quality tv's. The U.S. spends billions of dollars each year on NASA. I am fascinated by space and its exploration but I think that in the realm of human existance it doesn't rate that high on the priority list. This is at the heart of socialism as far as I am concerned. Democraticaly elected governments could have incredible amounts of wealth at its disposal to look after its citizens first, and then begin to tackle the extraneous portions of our society, the luxuries. I work with homeless people, teenagers in fact. What society in its right mind allows a 16 year old to live on the street so that a corporation can make a few more bucks?

Personally, and I admit that this is something of a radical idea but, I think that everone in our society who had far too much wealth (Donald Trump for instance) should have to visit a cancer victim, an AIDS victim or any number of people in our society who are suffering from potentially curable diseases and thank them. They should thank them for their wealth and explain to the person dying and their family that their having a gold toilet seat is far more important than their life. Each year we are inundated with requests for money from numerous worthy charities because they need money. Money to do research into cancer, AIDS, heart disease, alzhymers disease, etc., money which our society has but would rather put in the hands of a few than in the lives of many.

Our priorities are completely screwed up. Its all about money and how to get more. Obviously not everyone operates this way but our society doesn't care because it has placed the power over its citizens in the hands of those who do, namely faceless corporations whose only goal is to stripmine humanity for as much money as they can get. In the end it will get them nothing. As I said in my previous post, I am a Christian and I have to agree with Jesus when He says that the root of all kinds of evil is money. The money is available to solve many of our society's problems and to dramatically impact people's lives for the good. Rather the few want everything for themselves so many have to die painful deaths be it in a hospital bed or a gutter.

Its all about priorities. Whats yours, your fellow man or money?

***

Just a belated note (Jan. 20, 2005). Due to the NAFTA agreement that our beloved Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed we have to export our oil to the U.S. If for some reason we chose to reduce our exports to the U.S. we have to reduce our own internal production. What this means is that we have to sell the U.S. as much oil as we keep for ourselves. Lovely thing NAFTA. Mexico of course, had the foresight and refused to sign a similar clause in their free trade agreement with the U.S. They were unwilling give over control of their natural resources to a foreign country.