High Park, Toronto

Toronto's huge, protected tract of parkland called High Park is well worth the respect it is due. It has a long and storied history. And as a parkland within the greater confines of a large and growing metropolis, it represents a natural escape existing within a concrete jungle.

As a natural resource located close to the waterfront of Lake Ontario, extending upward from there, and readily accessible by anyone who lives in the city who might wish to touch with nature from time to time it is an invaluable treasure.

So, that a group of Mohawk Warriors have set up a protest camp in a section of High Park is explicable only because they oppose the ravaging after-effects of off-road cyclists using the natural resource of a huge inner-city park as a social gathering point for avid outdoor enthusiasts. Enthusiasts who do not really respect nature for what it has to offer. Theirs is not a vision of nature to be admired and to serve as inspiration.

Rather the young people who use the park as a venue for riding their machines on inclines and jumps to contest their agility and abilities as stunt riders disparages nature. For in the end the use to which they put the park is one that destroys the natural lay of the land, and it despoils the beauty to be seen there.

The BMX tracks that have been built in the park as a venue for bored inner-city youth looking for thrills corrupts the original purpose of a natural parkland.

This is not, of course, the reason that the Mohawk Warriors have set up a protest within the park. Their outrage is manifested by what they claim to be an insult to a cemetery. To the memory of ancient aboriginals who once roamed the terrain and whose bones may have been laid to rest within the park confines.

For them it is a matter of respecting an ancient burial site. That may have resonance with certain sensibilities, but it should not necessarily be the entire reason for protesting the misuse of High Park's auspices.

The trails within the park should be left for the recreational use of walkers, runners, those who enjoy the opportunity to be within a natural forested setting. To witness the beauty of nature. To take advantage of the opportunities given them to see mature trees and forest plants in various seasons.

It could be used perhaps for casual bicycling as well. But certainly not for the destructive use of altering the terrain for the purpose of giving adventurous thrills to those who have no appreciation whatever of nature's heritage to the people who live within the city.

Flood Watch

Trying to conceive of the concern and misery of people desperately attempting to fend off the ravages of floodwaters ruining their fields, their homes, vast acreages of farmland, threatening the safe security of farm animals, is not quite possible. We tend to divorce ourselves from the reality of the details, the anguish being suffered by people who see their homes and their dreams being destroyed by a force of nature that human ingenuity cannot possibly control.

Of course it is well known that it is a risky concern, building on a flood plain. Municipalities are logically supposed to deny permits to those seeking to build on flood plains for the very good reason that there is always a danger of flooding; this is why those low-lying areas in river basins are called flood plains. But there is something inordinately attractive to people about living in close proximity to running water; to lakes and rivers.

The view is irresistible, the recreational opportunities magnificently compelling. And people habitually think of the positive, the pleasures involved in building where it seems attractive to do so, rather than lingering on thoughts of the negative and potentials for dismal disaster. Nature may never, we reason, threaten the land we will build upon, and if it does, it will be manageable. Human ingenuity will provide.

But then the catastrophic occurs, and no amount of human ingenuity quite manages to challenge nature's indomitable will to do as she will with the climate, with the environment, with the puny lives and plans of mere humankind. Having said which, the richest soil is often alluvial, and planting agricultural crops on that rich soil, and having a close source of water for irrigation makes good, practical sense.

With farmland comes farmhouses, and if the farms are established there, then why not small towns as well, where the watershed can also provide potable water for the use of the nearby residents? Let's face it; human beings have always chosen to build their settlements along the banks of lakes and rivers; it made for easy availability of a water source, and for transportation.

It is a tragedy that once in a while, flooding occurs that transcends what people normally anticipate year-over-year in a tradition of manageable, nuisance flooding. When minimal risk becomes maximum liability and everyone rushes to try to manage as best they can, hoping that somehow, a miracle will occur, and the worst possible scenario will not, after all, result.

The agonizing suspense of watching and waiting and hoping and praying is a dreadful way for people to have to live.

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  Members of 2nd battalion Princess Patricia's Light Infantry help load sandbags onto helicopter slings to be transported to weak sections of the dike running along the Assiniboine River some 25km from Portage La Prairie, Man. Thursday, May 12, 2011.(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)

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  Brandon Sun Civic employees wait to deliver sandbags on a dike set up on John Avenue, Thursday afternoon. May 12, 2011(Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun)

Jack's Boundless Energy

Like the frustrated bridesmaid determined to finally become a bride, after having worked so hard to attain bridesmaid status following a very long period when she was merely a guest, here is Jack Layton bringing the New Democratic Party into the home stretch of either the official opposition or, unbelievably, the new government of Canada. He's sounding breezily confident of late, although perhaps slightly more guarded in his statements to the press since suddenly what he commits to may come back to bite him.

They will certainly - all of his promises, should he ever attain power, either through himself attaining a minority government, or finagling one by finessing a coalition-that-isn't-a-coalition with himself at the helm - come back to bite the voting public. Who may themselves take to biting their fingernails in frustration at the sudden flight of foreign investment, the moans of corporations stung with higher business taxes, and the agony of resulting higher unemployment figures, as fall-out leading to the economy staggering back into enfeebled recession.

Let alone all the expensive new commitments to the Province of Quebec which will call in all of its suddenly-discovered needs which Jack expansively guaranteed his government would be only too privileged to pay for, to keep Quebec happy. Because Jack believes in asymmetrical federalism, in the unique nationalism of Quebec, in the entitlements of Quebec to be its unqualified deserving self with little-to-no-interference from the federal government.

There are, after all, in the grandly-released, and little-focused-on election platform 205 policy promises as a starter as 'first steps' recognizing the needs of Canadian families in the process putting Canada on the highway to a soaring debt that will make the current one look attractive by comparison. A lovely new green plan will be unveiled to finally do justice to all the deserving environmental programs that have been ignored.

A new publication just released has some nifty little details the public can cue into for future prospects in that department. Little tidbits like the conclusion that Spain's efforts to be green resulted in "2.2 jobs (destroyed) for every job created", coming to us courtesy of Kenneth Green and Ben Eisen, writing for the Frontier Centre, explaining "while the capital needed for one green job in Italy could create five new jobs in the general economy". And that researchers at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos released data that the cost of each "green job" in 2009 Spain costed in at $791,597.

Green is a lovely colour, but it's an excessively expensive one to paint the economy with. Spanish researcher Gabriel Calzada Alvarez and company discovered that each "green" megawatt of energy installed "destroys 5.28 jobs on average elsewhere in the economy". Leading Spain finally to the conclusion that its bold new environmental venture into sustainable renewable energy alternatives were simply economically unsustainable.

In Italy and Germany, as in Spain, rampant corruption spread through the exciting new green corporate world of sustainable energy. Everyone eager to take advantage of this splendid new direction in business opportunities. "In Italy, however, rather than having numerous individuals defrauding the government, the Mafia is involved", while in Germany utilities are required by law to purchase solar energy at 59 cents per kWh, whereas conventional sources range from 20 cents to 3 cents.

But the thing is, no one is interested in boringly irrelevant details. The interest lies in the attractiveness of 'doing the right thing' since, after all, there is an environmental crisis at hand; the world is using up non-renewable energy sources at an astounding rate, and in the process adding further to the degradation of the environment. Add to that the fact that as the world's population rises and more people are demanding the privileges seen in the industrialized wealthy world, depletion becomes more assured.

There will certainly have to be some manner of functional address to be realized to this very real problem, simply not necessarily one reflective of proven failures, administered by rookie governments with no past experience in all the areas that the NDP is so eager to dip its fingers into as a purely social-welfare dedication to solving difficult problems. Layton has promised $20-billion for new green initiatives to be paid for by a cap-and-trade system yet to be devised.

But that amount represents only a fraction of the entire projected new spending commitments which come in at about $69-billion, in an economy which is still struggling to fully compensate for the downturn before full confidence can be assumed, and with it new jobs. Higher taxes can be assured with a newly-installed NDP government, but taxes alone won't be sufficient to pay for all the promises, let alone address the deficit and debt.

Canada will become more indebted, over and above the already burdensome amount that resulted from addressing the emergency of the downturn. And this is what Canadians are getting set to vote for? Reason appears to have floated into the upper stratosphere, beyond recall, as people are mesmerized by the picture of a courageous, scrappy populist, who faced down cancer surgery followed by a hip fracture, and still hobbles about tirelessly, and pugnaciously out there, capturing admiration.

Should the impossible come to fruition, we will begin to live in interesting times.

BP's Compensatory Responsibilities

Isn't that just like human nature? Tucking the conscience and ethics away in a corner - as high up as possible, so it's a real stretch to reach them and pluck them down for later use - in favour of diligently taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Something like the sudden loss of law and order when disaster strikes and people begin looting, not to waste unexpected opportunities.

In this instance it is the opportunities that presented themselves in the chaos and rush of a presidential order to begin compensating townsfolk living directly in the wake of an unprecedented Gulf Coast oil spill a year ago when BP was desperately attempting to contain the Gulf of Mexico disaster in the wake of a rented oil rig being stricken and eleven men working on it drowning, with the following runaway oil gusher.

The U.S. government negotiated (furiously strong-armed) a $20-billion claims compensation and clean-up package for Gulf Coast residents from BP. And then of course there was the billions consumed in various other initiatives to try to control the oil spillage. The company is preparing to sell off assets to the value of $30-billion to help pay their bills. It is, needless to say, their responsibility.

On the good news side of the equation are stories coming out of the area that in most instances the ocean itself appears to have helped considerably in the clean-up by pushing the grease and oil away from land, and absorbing what it could. That beaches and wetlands are no longer impacted, with oil contamination nowhere to be seen. Aquatic life is returning to normal, and birds normally seen in the area are also returning. Nature coming to its own rescue.

And then there are other stories, describing the "BP rich", the new "spillionaries"; Gulf towns and their residents who have taken what some might consider to be excessive advantage of spectacular opportunities to do well by themselves. Such as cleanup companies submitting bills for payment not bothering to complicate matters by itemizing things, and by submitting documentation with their invoices. Stamped paid.

A subcontractor billing BP $15,400 monthly for rental of a generator that it usually rents out for $1,500 a month. A company charging BP over $1-million a month for land that it had formerly rented out for less than $1,700 a month. "This parish raped BP. At the end of the day, it really just frustrates me. I'm an elected official. I have guilt by association", confessed the chairman of the St.Bernard Parish Council.

People living in areas that hadn't recovered from the depredations of Hurricane Katrina, where almost every home was flooded, made compensation claims to BP for payback following the spill. Money flowed generously to people claiming their lives, their properties, their livelihoods had been deleteriously impacted by the oil spill crisis.

People who vituperatively blasted BP, a foreign enterprise that degraded the U.S. coastline and created a disaster for the environment and for thousands of people who depended on the marshes and the oceans to supply them with their livelihood, went out of their way to take BP to the cleaners. It was clear to many that businesses that had been hit by the recession, not the spill, were receiving BP compensation.

"I don't understand how BP is just giving its money out like this. Give it to the people who deserve it", said the manager at St.Bernard's off-track betting parlour, noting the increase in customers gambling claims money, increasing her business to the extent that employees had to work overtime to accommodate all the new business.

Just Who Rules Here?

Indigenous people everywhere believe they are far more in touch with nature than the cosmopolitan, urban, European-influenced types that conventionally hold them in minor contempt for their naivete. It makes sense that those who are indigenous to a country live attuned to nature, for by and large they haven't managed to transcend their dependence on nature, they are less technologically and socially advantaged, as it were.

And, seeking to find some message to convey the idea that they are more authentic in their very nature than those whose imperialist sophistication find the simplicity of thought and action of the indigenous people unworthy of notice, the idea of capitalizing on respect for nature arises. So, under an nature-enlightened president who is proudly indigenous, Bolivia has raised its naturalist credentials.

Censuring all those who seek to "dominate and exploit" nature. Not simply nature, but "Mother Earth". And to that end, Bolivia has written up a constitution for Mother Earth, introducing it into the United Nations to mirror Bolivia's own Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, courtesy of President Evo Morales.

The country has established a Ministry of Mother Earth. That ministry recognizes the rights of the planet through the interlocutory skills of an ombudsman to sympathetically hear out nature's complaints brought forward by eco-activists and those representing the state itself.
"If you want to have balance, and you think that the only (entities) who have rights are humans or companies, then how can you reach balance?"

A circuitous but well-meaning argument one supposes, posed by Bolivia's ambassador to the UN. "But if you recognize that nature too has rights and (if you provide) legal forms to protect and preserve those rights, then you can achieve balance." In other words, taking a unique but not all that different perspective from most countries' established and responsible environmental protection programs.

Bolivia under its Evo Morales has gone a little further in its commitment to preserving and encouraging natural progression, setting out the need to "save the planet", starting with recognizing the need "to end capitalism". The manifesto that is being introduced as a draft United Nations treaty asserts that "Mother Earth has the right to exist, to persist and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes that sustain all human beings."

It seems we, or rather Bolivia, doth protest too much. Mother Earth, after all, is engrossed in her business, sidelined by no one, no force unequal to her own capacity to dominate the planet and the beings upon it. She flicks aside with imperious disdain human endeavours to make an impression upon her mantle. When she feels she has been insulted, she revokes calm and invokes chaos.

The template that we all know and love suddenly shudders and shatters. From tectonic plates brushing against one another and the Earth's crust rumbling and all upon it trembling and shattering, to oceanic responses washing away all of humankind's puny constructions. Hurricane-force winds, monsoon rains, dreadful droughts, firestorms and misery she rains down upon her creature to remind them just who rules.

The Issues, Gentlemen, and Lady

So what's gnu with the electioneering gaffes and lavish and costly promises with the leaders of the major Canadian political parties, during the 2011 election campaign? Well, a lot of people, viewing and hearing the election advertisements have got really turned off by their content. As though they weren't more than sufficiently irritated by the unneeded election, to begin with.

Let's see, Jack Layton is popping up here and there, hobbling with his trusty cane while recovering from hip repair surgery, even as he recovers from prostate cancer therapy. Going on about the critical inadequacies of Canada's universal health care system.

He, on the other hand, was fortunate enough to receive sterling care for his two maladies. Which is why he is up and about, here and there, hither and yon, castigating the Liberals, the Conservatives, their platforms and promises, while recuperating, thanks to the quality of care he received.

Michael Ignatieff is enjoying himself blasting the Conservatives for their corporate tax reduction which the Liberals first started, and for the looming acquisition of F-36 stealth warplanes and the prison and judicial-reform program they have launched. Which the Liberals also signed off on.

But one issue that the Conservatives refused to touch, at real risk of alienating Quebec voters and losing important votes, the Liberals promise to fund: Quebec City's professional-league sport arena. Along with a whole slew - in excess of $8-billion tax dollars - of other promises, all guaranteed to paint Canadian families' futures pink.

Canada's shame in supporting, or at least not wishing to upset Quebec on another issue, by passing legislation to disallow asbestos mining on Canadian soil - which still includes Quebec - has been addressed by Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe. All asbestos, even chrysotile which Quebec's industry lobbyists claim is 'safe' is carcinogenic.

But Mr. Duceppe duplicitously claims that asbestos can be produced and used safely within Quebec. "If (asbestos production) is done in a responsible way, then it's safe", he insists.

One must, then, assume, that even in Quebec the extraction process and installation is not done safely. For a new report has been issued suggesting that many construction sites in Quebec contain asbestos levels at or above provincial norms. This study was released by Quebec's Public Health Department.

Yet Quebec insists its asbestos industry is safe, despite air samples felt to be sufficiently elevated to present as an elevated risk for asbestos exposure. And this is the asbestos that is routinely exported to countries like India where workers there are exposed to cancer risks in a country far less concerned with workplace safety than Quebec.

And, it would appear, Conservative campaign workers have been going out of their way to produce situations certain to be of embarrassment to their leader. While Stephen Harper unveils one benefit after another for the Canadian electorate, highlighting the modest-but-appreciated goodies contained in the rejected budget, heavy-handed vetting by campaign workers, outing and ousting campaign-event attendees with connections to the Liberals in a show of undemocratic nastiness erupts.

As for Elizabeth May, long may she stew. She may not have the opportunity this time around to be present during the televised major party leaders' debate. Evidently it was largely felt last time around she added nothing of value to the debate; rather that her presence was detrimental in the exchange of ideas and information-values.

Her hubris in running against the Conservative-safe seat of Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia last time is only relatively reflected by her insistence that she is prepared to win the Saanich-Gulf Islands seat, and finally take her place in the House of Commons, from where it will be a short leap to the PMO.

What a collective performance. Yawn.

Power To Power

Quebec is pathetic. It signed a historical energy deal with Newfoundland decades ago that proved to be costly to Newfoundland, while ensuring that Quebec reaped the benefits. It refused to re-negotiate the pricing that Newfoundland signed on to with Joey Smallwood thinking the was doing something positive for his province, not realizing the shark instincts of Quebec's entitlements.

And there the matter stood, with resentment emanating from Newfoundland over the unfairness of it all, and Quebec feeling complacently entitled to its profits. And then Newfoundland found its own provincial energy source and became a "have" province, much to Quebec's chagrin. And discovered with its own bold determination it was capable of surmounting Quebec's claims to pre-eminence in hydro energy.

"This is a day of great historic significance to Newfoundland and Labrador as we move forward with development of the Lower Churchill project, on our own terms and free of the geographic stranglehold of Quebec which has for too long determined the fate of the most attractive clean energy project in North America," said Premier Williams. "The benefits of this project for our province will be enormous, including thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity. From day one, our government has taken a long-term, strategic approach to developing this project. Our priorities have remained steadfast; that is to achieve maximum benefits for our people, and to secure stable rates and markets with a good return for the people of this province. This agreement achieves these goals and also solidifies a mutually beneficial partnership with Emera Inc. and the Province of Nova Scotia. Today marks the beginning of a new era of Atlantic Canadian cooperation and together we are telling the marketplace both in Canada and the United States that badly needed competition in the hydroelectric marketplace is on the way."

The Lower Churchill hydroelectric project, an agreement between Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia for a new energy consortium that would benefit the Atlantic Provinces and cut into Quebec's revenue source quickly became a source of belligerent irritation between the provinces. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia sought backing from the federal government for loan guarantees for the $6.2-billion project, against Quebec's protests.

And finally, on the re-election campaign trail, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has given his support for the project, promising loan guarantees to the Newfoundland government in support of the Lower Churchill. "We will consider financial support to projects that are of national or regional importance, have economic and financial merit and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will do this in a way that is equitable across every region of Canada."

Well, hurrah!

But this doesn't suit Quebec, its nose is definitely out of joint, anticipating lost revenues from its customers who now have alternate energy-source options. The government of Quebec has issued warning it will impact on the federal election campaign should the federal government dare offer funding for the Lower Churchill. "Our government has always been clear we will not let the federal government interfere to offer financial support for the construction of transmission lines", Premier Jean Charest addressed his legislature.

But it's set to go. The project will, on completion, send power from Labrador's Lower Churchill River to Newfoundland, then on to Nova Scotia through underwater cables across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And Quebec can go gnash its teeth in frustration. Its attitude is an affront to Confederation.

Where Has The Future Gone?

The Tokyo I knew when I lived there and thrived with the thrill of living in such a dynamic, exotic, historical and culturally intriguing city of huge spread and quaint custom is in dramatic suspension. Suddenly and horribly, the city that hosted millions of residents whose disposition to one another was quietly orderly and proudly confident has lost its self-confidence and is awash with insecurity.

The city where everything was available for the discriminating purchaser, where the food was always fresh and wonderfully appealing to meet the discriminating demands of a population that appreciated the importance of living well and healthfully now finds itself in need of the most basic consumables; potable water and food. The shelves of food shops are yawning empty, and people have frightening concerns about where they will find the necessities of life to sustain them.

Winston Churchill, during the Second World War and Britain's heroic battle with Nazi Germany, spoke to his people to give them confidence in themselves and their future. Japan's prime minister has been doing the very same thing, recalling them to their tradition of forbearance and determination, patience and endurance. The Japanese people have responded with trust in their government and in the future, for they are resilient and hopeful.

But hope and trust fade measurably when opportunities for survival seem to diminish, when aid becomes difficult to offer, when shelter from the winter elements, the cold, the unavailability of food and water, medical attention and rescue from dire circumstances become complicated by forces beyond the control of mere humanity. And the dread potential of a nuclear meltdown looming on the near horizon.

This is not the well-operated, confident city that I knew and lived so comfortably within. This is a dread place of fear and insecurity, where the future looks dim and shaded in dark bruised colours of desperation. And a wonder how all of this could possibly have occurred to a people that have already suffered more than its share of misery.

On The Richter Scale

A small country, but a dynamic and powerful one, with the world's third-most-important economy. Still struggling to emerge from a decade of financial weakness, and beginning to see the light of day on its economy. A country comprised of three islands; a large central one, a northern and a southern island. Geographically close to countries that resent it mightily because of past indiscretions as a once-martial nation.

Still respectful of its monarchy though no longer regarding it as divine, and now a staunch democracy, Japan has gone through many changes over the last century. It has faced many challenges during that period of change and surmounted them all. The Japanese are a resilient, compliant people, tending to obey authority. How else could so many people live in harmony on those tight little islands?

Compliant but not complacent. The security that most people once held dear in employment for life, and loyalty to the employer and a small-town-life attitude even while living in a huge metropolis, faded, imposing great pain as the economy waned. A nation of powerful corporations and small shopkeepers representing a huge proportion of the country's wealth.

A country now heavily in debt. And suddenly all those problems on reflection seem to have been far more preferable than what the country looks like one day on from the one before. On Tuesday there was a relatively modest tremblor, on Wednesday another, and then on Thursday a viciously brutal earthquake that has transformed Japan's major island.

The Japanese are accustomed to earthquakes, they occur continually throughout the course of a year. This is an earthquake-prone area, sitting within the notorious 'ring of fire'. Every household has a prepared earthquake kit, to grab as they exit their homes. Of course, tremblors do not occur only when people are at home.

They happen when they're at work, when they're out shopping, out and about engaged in recreational events, or touring, or attending a temple, or gardening. An earthquake that engages you when you're sitting within the confines of your home is vastly different than one that occurs when you're on the 20th floor of an office tower, or when you're out of doors.

Wherever it occurs it engenders in you a feeling of disbelief, of helplessness, of awe and fear. But this was not the ordinary garden-variety kind of trembling of the earth that people have long been accustomed to. This one was 8.9 on the Richter scale, and fearsome in its tremendous earth-shaking, destructive power.

And ... and the tsunamis that followed, and the inundation and the washing away of homes, vehicles, boats, trains, the mudslides that followed, the collapses, the ruination of human habitation, the perishing of too many helpless human beings.

Egypt, Tomorrow

The Egyptian armed forces now securely back in control have given their pledge that theirs is a temporary authority, awaiting the re-writing of the country's constitution and the free and fair election of a new civilian governing body. And then they will obligingly melt into the background. Always on the alert, however, to do their duty to their country. Above all, to save it from itself.

And the Western media, being onside, is a really nice bonus.

Of course, having President Obama finally making up his mind is not a bad thing, either. His tenuously insipid pronouncements, announcements and grandiose glimmerings of control at a time when the U.S. had clearly no influence, spelled confusion in the minds of onlookers only; Barack Obama was in firm control, knew all along what he was conveying; the mangled message was an illusion.

The reality is, according to the jubilant Western media, that the democratic way of life and governance is proving irresistible. It's that 'didn't we tell ya so!?" syndrome. But sometimes a rose is a rose is a rose doesn't work, and this is one of those times when the democracy that is known and loved in the West will be transformed beyond recognition.

It already has been, and will continue to be further disfigured beyond recall.

Bearing in mind that the ruling military council does not want to be seen as controlling the country and has admonished those tasked (including a Muslim Brotherhood representative) to remake the constitution for which they've been given ten days to come up with a miracle of acceptance. After which a leisurely six months will pass to offer competing political parties ample time to organize themselves and mount an election campaign.

A formality that will, in effect, leave two entities standing; the current National Democratic Party, now seen to have been disgraced by their years of corrupt autocratic rule, though in fact they performed for Egypt quite a fine job of administering the affairs of the country with some notable human rights exceptions. And, of course, the waiting-on-tenterhooks-and-finally-opportunity-has-materialized, Muslim Brotherhood.

Take your pick, energized and triumphant Egyptians. Whatever the choice, it will have brought democracy to modern Egypt born from the ashes of ancient Egypt. With the change in the constitution and a change in leadership in style and substance, all will be well. Violent criminals will be plucked off the streets and returned to the jails; police stations will be re-built, as will government buildings that were torched in the peaceful protests.

The historical, irreplaceable and priceless heritage objects of antiquity that were handily heisted will be missed, but that loss too was part of the peaceful protest. In due time foreign investment will return, foreign- and Egyptian-owned manufacturing will get up to speed once again, the stock market will recapture all it lost, and tourism will once again boom.

The price of food will continue to grow, and imported wheat, more costly than ever, will be used for subsidized bread for the poor.

Under a new government something will have to be done about the 40% of Egyptians living well under the poverty line. And while that is being bruited about, jobs for all those unemployed young men must also be achieved. Just incidentally, those who have employment insist it is past time for raises in their livelihood to lift them out of the mire of the employed poor, still better off than the utterly destitute.

And then there's the matter of a monumental deficit and that miserable debt that keeps ballooning. Imagine, if Egypt were on a war footing with its neighbour, Israel, how much of its stretched treasury would be wasted on prosecuting war after war - just like old times. Wait; isn't that just what the Muslim Brotherhood is demanding, that Egypt abrogate its legendarily-despised peace treaty with Israel?

With Shariah law imposed on the country how will that impact on tourism, on relations between foreigners visiting the country, given to understand that casual Western-style clothing is no longer permissible at those overheated vacation spots? And relations between Egyptian Copts and the majority Muslim population under the Muslim Brotherhood's rule, possibly a formula for a new round of persecution?

The possibilities that democracy brings to Egypt seem boundless, fascinating, quite unrecognizable. Just as well that Hosni Mubarak will likely not be around to witness the tumult, the downward-spiralling changes that would surely break his heart.

Ontario's Eco-Energy

The best laid plans of mice and men do often go astray. Particularly when they're half-cocked, haven't done the due diligence of basic background checks, too busy with an eye on the next election and appearing to be up to date on environmental issues. Worse, if a government feels it has free rein to use and misuse the treasury because its a renewable resource; more coming in on an annual basis, as one of the two things most assured in life: taxes first, then death.

Taxes, it seems to many people, will be the death of them. The death, at the very least, of their dreams of balancing their personal budgets. Of hoping to be able, at some time, to live in comfort, with enough of an income to pay for all the necessities of life, and with luck, a little left over. Not, however, if the current Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty has anything to say about it.

And he and his government have been prattling off about green power and their handle on it.

Ontarians must be prepared to pay the full cost of energy in a responsible society, Dalton McGuinty announced. And in every home 'smart meters' were installed, at a whopping price that would be more than returned once the program went into effect. Where time-of-energy-use whomped the energy user with higher wattage fees to 'teach' us to use off-hours energy.

And costs keep rising, creating real pain in the pocketbooks of Ontarians. One of his pre-election promises was that Ontario would get rid of its coal-burning plants. We're still using them, because they're needed, since massive infrastructure and plant remediative costs relating to our nuclear installations still haven't resulted in trouble-free, reliable energy.

Ontario's energy production is so well managed that when we are stuck with huge amounts of excess energy the taxpayer doesn't get a break, but other provinces and adjoining states do, with energy costs so cheap, it's being given away.

And now the provincial Energy Minister, Brad Duguid, has announced that the plans so celebrated by his government amounting to a massive outlay of a $7-billion energy deal for wind power contracted through the Korean company Samsung with Ontario Hydro may not represent such a great idea after all.

"There isn't a lot of science in freshwater offshore wind. We need some time to review the science and we don't have it today."

Not a lot of science? Didn't check on available data before committing? Problem with windless days, and an inability to store wind power? Problem with protests, because people hate the sight of those massive wind towers and their sound? Problem with rumblings of health impacts with proximity of wind towers?

And what's this? After concentrating on assuring people that the province would buy from them their stored solar power generated through solar panels, encouraging commitment by farmers and enterprising urban self-starters to generate their own power by trust and investment, it's suddenly come up against a roadblock?

Hadn't considered the difficulties inherent in connecting all those rooftop solar panels to the power grid? Um, that is a problem.

It works in Germany, old sod, where thousands of home-owners have invested in solar panels for their roofs, and they seem to be able to add to the community's energy grid. Why there, not here? Have you enquired, looked into things from the angle of pursuing the matter in a country and within communities that have experimented with the issue to great acclaim?

So it's a no-go? Good work, Dalton, old boy. Can we expect more of the same before you troll for the polls?

Looted Antiquities

Greece would love Britain to return to them, as the rightful heritage owners, the Elgin Marbles. Italy would very much appreciate the 'return' to them of a prized sculpture by Bernini, which Canadians have ensconced at the National Gallery. And Egypt would far prefer to be in possession of its marvellous ancient treasures than to have them in the possession of foreign countries which themselves treasure what they have.

Egypt and its treasures; the fabulous Sphinx which suffered the indignity of being shot at by Napoleon's invading forces.

And adventurers-cum-archaeologists like Giovanni Belzoni, a former circus strongman who became fascinated with adventure and thought of himself as an archaeologist, who adventured into Egypt and took it upon himself to dig and destroy and loot and sell to international buyers eager to obtain the fabulous historical treasures of ancient Egypt from him, as the then-compliant Egyptian government stood by.

Belzoni and others like him even used explosives to blast apart immense structures to obtain the pieces they wanted.

And when it came to tomb-robbing, there was no one as courageous, audacious and adventurous as ancient tomb robbers, Egyptians themselves, who, despite the belief in curses that would destroy the lives of those who disturbed the fabulous treasures buried with noblemen and noblewomen and wealthy dynastic Egyptians and their Pharaohs, did just that. Looting the ancient tombs of all they could see of value.

In some instances that looting took place soon after the burials, and for centuries after, up to the present time. Ancient architects of tombs tried their utmost to confound the thieves by clever distracting devices, hidden areas, and mysterious tunnels blocked by great stones no human enterprise could budge. Despite all the subterfuges and clever hidden entrances, most tombs were ransacked of their valuables.

The tomb of Akhenaten was destroyed by vandals who had the blessing of the ruling dynasty that followed Akhenaten. Who was despised by most of the ruling class for the unorthodoxy of his rule, adhering to his belief in one single god, rejecting the classic mythology of a panoply of gods, a belief sacred to Egypt. Reverence for the god Aten, the life-giving sun, died with the death of Akhenaten.

A rare exception was the tomb of the boy-king, Tutankhamen. Whose tomb, uncovered and entered by Howard Carter in 1922, was the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found. Even though it was suspected to have been broken into twice previously, in antiquity.

The Egyptian Museum, which prides itself on its national heritage and the treasures it has amassed, has released information that its inventory count of treasures have been found to be missing some key and critical treasures. Priceless antiquities dating from the 13th Century BC have been looted. When, it was assumed, dedicated and knowledgeable thieves entered the museum through a skylight in the confusion surrounding the anti-regime protesters assembled on Tahrir Square, adjacent the Museum.

"An investigation has begun to search for the people who have taken these objects, and the police and the army plan to follow up with the criminals already in custody", stated Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. "I have said if the Egyptian Museum is safe, then Egypt is safe. However, I am now concerned Egypt is not safe", he stated on his official web site. The pride of the country's past has been once again looted.

Eighteen priceless antiquities, two statues of Tutankhamen included, taken, among other wonderful ancient objects of art and antiquity. Aside from those missing objects, around 70 are said to have been damaged. International art collectors whose greed and zest to take possession of rare and beautiful heritage objects will be approached by dealers in the illicit who know their potential customers.

The ancient trade of grave robbers is still alive and doing very well for itself in the very grey market of rare and outstanding works of art and antiquities for those who will pay, and not enquire as to provenance and legality.

Egypt is not safe.

Global Obesity

Can anything be more repulsive than a 300-lb man or woman? Well, possibly. How about a man or woman weighing 500 pounds? Sounds impossible, but it isn't, at all. Somehow, lifestyles develop and a kind of psychological lethargy sets in where people may realize that they are gaining weight,and tell themselves they'll get around sooner or later to doing something about it, but that intention just doesn't materialize.

Eating can be such a comfort. When we're frustrated, bored, trying to cope with life, it can seem like a pleasurable break just to push all those irritations and fears temporary out of thought and relax. What could be more relaxing than indulging in the pleasure of consuming food. Not just any kind of food, since it's not necessarily sound nutrition that people crave, but comfort food. Comfort food tends to be food laden with fats, and fat begets fat.

Foods that whet our appetite smell good, taste good. We become accustomed to sweet and sour and fat. Lots of salt, plenty of sugar, not necessarily together, but not necessarily not. Hamburgers, fries, breaded fried chicken, ice cream, whipped cream, milk shakes, sundaes - when we want to give ourselves a taste treat. Tastes good to our discriminating taste buds. Easy to obtain, as near as any of the ubiquitous fast-food outlets.

Poorer countries are becoming more in touch with what pleases the palate of richer countries. In populous India and China the middle class is slowly growing, and they're demanding what they see as better food; more meat and more fat. Obesity, a new study in The Lancet has observed, has become a worldwide phenomenon, it has doubled since 1980.

Why would a world-respected medical journal report that? Well, because obesity becomes a direct lead to highly increased risks of serious health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, asthma. And how about heart disease, and various types of cancer, and increased risk of stroke?

Even children are now not immune to the growing obesity epidemic. It's a familial thing partially; fat parents raise fat children because of patterning into sedentary lifestyles, because of over-eating and poor food choices and the easy availability of fast foods with the wrong type of calories. Calorie-dense, nutritionally absent.

We're not even supposed to think this way, since it abrades the feminist agenda, but working mothers buy a whole lot of convenience foods. And convenience foods are just that; convenient, but not necessarily food, as in whole food, nutritional food, real food, just processed stuff claiming to be food. Which kids eat, because it's there and even they can just haul it out of the freezer, pop the stuff into the microwave and feed themselves.

In Canada in 2009, 73% of women with children under age 16 living at home were employed outside the home. It's tough to be a working mother, with time for not a whole lot, let alone to think about and to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals from primary food products. Kids' health suffers; 17% of children in Canada are overweight; 8% fall into the obese category.

Canadians are by no means the most highly representative population for obesity; that dubious honour goes to the United States, with New Zealand hot in second place, but Canada's right up there. The Lancet looked at 199 countries and territories for their study in global BMIs.

Japan, to their credit had the lowest average BMI in their population; 22 for women, 23 for men, and then Singapore with 24 for men and 23 for women. Whereas the U.S. had a BMI of 28 for both men and women, and New Zealand 27 for both genders. The average BMI for Canadian women rose to 26.7 in 2008, and for men it was 27.5 in 2008.

The deleterious health impact on these populations simply cannot be overstated. The question is, what's to be done about it? It's costly for nations to mend abused bodies, but how to prevail when trying to inform people that their self-destructive behaviour shortens their life-spans at a time when medical science has succeeded in offering us longer life spans?

Shaming a Child

The schools we send our children to have a vital mission to fulfill. Teachers at the elementary school level introduce malleable young minds eager to learn, to be exposed to interesting and valuable knowledge, how to make sense of the world they live in. It is also a profoundly socializing experience, throughout the course of a child's early education, to mingle with peers, to take lessons from a qualified instructor, to learn to imbibe knowledge and seek out answers.

For the most part our schools do a fairly acceptable job of it. For the most part, unfortunately, too many teachers - and school administrators - behave as though they have a mundane job, not an elevated professional avocation. Men and women should, in a perfect world, enter the teaching profession only if they have a passion for exciting young minds, enticing them to learn how to learn for themselves, exposing them to fascinating things they had no previous knowledge of, encouraging them to love learning.

It's a demanding vocation, energy-draining and mind-numbing, engaging with eager and sometimes not-so-eager-to-learn young minds. The responsibility inherent in the profession is staggering. That is, if teachers and administrators took their jobs as seriously as they should. For far too many who may have started out as idealists it soon becomes a means to a well-earned pay cheque and little else.

It's tough to constantly entertain and intrigue and enthuse boisterous young children more given to physical expression than intellectual dimensions. For some who excel at the profession, their success at imparting knowledge to their students, and witnessing young minds opening up is its own reward, supplemented by that very nice salary. For most others it is a headache-inducing interplay fraught with frustration.

Those are not the instructors and teachers that most students will recall in their later years with anything approximating gratitude. Which brings us to the unfortunate reality that some schools are going out of their way to play another kind of game; to instill their idea of environmental responsibility in their young charges. As has done a school in Quebec, which teaches its kindergarten children that school lunches should be packed in reusable containers, not plastic baggies.

If schools commit themselves to teaching their charges about nature and the environment and our place within both, they should focus solely on imparting to the children an appreciation of nature in all its forms and manifestations. Teaching respect and an admiration of nature. Most definitely not manipulating a child to feel shame if that child's parents somehow fail the test of responsible environmentalism by packing a sandwich in a disposable plastic baggie.

When a child is made to feel ashamed of his parents' lack of commitment to what his teachers inform him is a stern obligation, by failing to wrap his lunch sandwiches in a washable/reusable plastic container, rather than a disposable plastic bag, this represents a gross interference in a family's right of private choice. Exploiting the feelings of a vulnerable child does no credit to the school system.

The child is punished multiple times by his parents' unforgivable environmental transgression in the mind of the school. It is made public that his parents' lack of commitment to the environment reflects on him personally. He is humiliated by this unwanted attention, and made to feel ashamed, and by extension he is ashamed of his parents' unwitting carelessness in the eyes of the school.

And then he is punished again by being forbidden as a result of this failure, to take part in a draw for a free toy.

What the Laval kindergarten teachers are doing is teaching their young students the misery of humiliation and the value of societal-approved bullying.

Food Scarcity, Political Instability

Poor harvests resulting from disastrous weather conditions in various parts of the world have been contributing to certain food shortages. Russia's wheat crop has been the victim of adverse weather conditions; India and Pakistan have found themselves short of root vegetables and all three have halted exports as a result.

Australia has suffered years of drought impacting deleteriously on their agriculture. Growing middle-class wealth in China has contributed to an abnormal call on meat products. China has been renting land in Africa to grow crops for home consumption. And the West's preoccupation with biofuels production has caused a shortage of corn and other agriproducts on the food market.

Recent riots in countries like Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt have reflected those in European countries like Greece and Portugal, and African countries like Zimbabwe, Somalia and Mozambique and with people protesting scarcity and higher food prices in economies already hard pressed with people living constrained lives due to endemic poverty.

The escalating price of oil added to the equation ensures that rising production and delivery costs will also increase food prices.

The geographic and national manipulation of agricultural production by many countries from North America to the European Union and beyond also does its bit to maintain high food prices.

And while Europeans and North Americans complain at the steady rise in food prices on the grocery shelves, they can still afford those prices far better than those living impoverished lives in developing countries. In wealthy countries, capitalism and free enterprise trump everything.

The European Parliament has proposed massive stockpiling of food for the purpose of avoiding price and supply crises; making hoarding of food stockpiles a safety net for the EU, ensuring less exports to those countries whose populations are in dire need of food supplies.

Financial subsidies and regulatory interventions are to be maintained and expanded in a EU-launched we're-all-right-Jack kind of food security proactive initiative.

What is needed is the installation of initiatives that persuade producers to increase production of agricultural products, not stifle them to maintain a steady and increasing commodity issue to disrupt markets, leading to "food price shock", shortages, and an inability of people to pay for the foods that are available.

Less conversion of grains and corn to biofuels and ethanol should be another positive issue to be addressed.

"The reality is that the same speculators that caused the global economic meltdown through their illustrious trade in subprime mortgages, are betting on our food system now too." D. Doane, world Development Movement

This is a reflection on food commodities suffering inflation as a monetary phenomenon through deliberate market manipulation rather than a supply and demand problem caused by climate forces alone. The energy-intensive nature of large-scale agriculture, inclusive of the total cost of production, from fuelling farm machinery to transportation costs to fertilizer costs all relate to the rising costs of food.

A serious problem continues to be the determination to increase annual ethanol production, diverting important food grains from the food-consuming market for people, exacerbates the problem. Along with dire weather conditions now impacting major food-exporting countries across the globe, complicated by the steadily rising demand from a steadily emerging middle class from newly-emerging economies.

Rising food prices are set to continue, and they will be led also by monetary inflation with commodity prices steadily rising and various countries' currency peg policies. Unless there is a general agreement for countries to understand that full co-operation is required to ensure that steadily rising food prices do not end up pricing themselves out of the reach of the world's poor, the situation will become more desperate.

Speculators interested in rising food prices and gambling that they will continue to rise so they can continue to make a killing, and the spectre of food hoarding to help prices rise even more steeply will add to an already volatile situation world-wide. This is something the world cannot afford.

Leading inevitably to more impoverished countries, many with corrupt, inept and autocratic governments seeing their social and political stability threatened through a rising tide of hungry people and outraged sensibilities demanding their human rights.

Haiti's Salvation Revealed

Who might have begun to imagine that the solution to Haiti's dreadful history of instability along with its current collapse after the January 2010 earthquake followed by a complete break-down of government institutions, and a cholera epidemic topped off by a corrupt-plagued election, Haiti would receive such incredible news.

Baby Doc Duvalier has decided it is incumbent upon him as a loyal Haitian with a family tradition of service to his country, to return.

In their hour of need, Haitians can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Baby Doc Duvalier has returned to help them restore order and good government, the health and education system, the economy and opportunities for advancement in every sphere of public and private enterprise. He has pledged himself to do this, out of a sense of charity, honour and duty.

All of these beneficent qualities representing the sterling genetic gifts he inherited from his father, Papa Doc Duvalier.

He is no longer a callow youth of 19, famously recognized as a playboy; hardly material to present as president of an aspiring nation. "I was waiting for this moment for a long time. When I first set foot on the ground, I felt great joy", said Baby Doc, responding to the hundreds of enthusiastic supporters waiting outside Haiti's airport, chanting "long live Duvalier!"

He is now a mature man of 59 years, with a new, French wife. Quite prepared to take up where he left off when the interfering United States sparked a popular uprising that ended with his peremptorily leaving his island kingdom. He has not yet revealed much in the way of details.

Whether or not, for example, the corruption, human rights abuses and Tonton Macoutes he and his father became famous for, will mark his new reign.

He has assured Haitians, however, that their plight strikes at his heart. His return was prompted, he assured them, "because I know the people are suffering. I wanted to show them my solidarity, to tell them that I am here, I am well disposed and determined to participate in the rebirth of Haiti."

How utterly marvellous.

High Expectations, Absent Results

Haiti's anguish of dire straits shows no evidence of changing anytime soon. After the massive amounts of international aid pledged and the eagerness of the global community to do something positive for the ruined country's infrastructure and the misery of the displaced Haitians, the situation is at a standstill. With the massive amount of rubble left yet to be dealt with the business of getting on with construction and reconstruction cannot progress beyond vague planning without first clearing the sites.

Rubble still shatters the landscape. And there are many areas where rubble remains, covering thousands of corpses, where people were buried in the aftermath of building collapses during the devastating earthquake. The entire choir of the Roman Catholic cathedral was buried within the edifice, and remains there still, entombed in the rubble awaiting removal. There are no government agencies with the will and the equipment to launch a massive rubbish and rubble removal.

Rubbish, in fact, created each and every day through normal living even in these frenetic, frantic, miserable conditions, simply piles up alongside the rubble, with garbage strewn everywhere, a cesspool of unhygienic bacteria and viruses awaiting the opportunity to wreak more horrendous damage on the populace. The refugee camps with their squalid tents and stinking latrines where children play among the ruined landscapes sober the spirit already bruised with the assault of nature consolidating the neglect of the government.

A million people remain unhoused, although thanks to the presence of thousands of humanitarian groups representing various aid agencies, medical attention is now available where it had not been pre-earthquake. Potable water is trucked in daily to the refugee camps. Food is no longer liberally distributed and although 80% of the camp residents have no employment they must eke out sufficient resources through some miraculous fashion to find sufficient food for their families on a daily basis.

At night thugs roam everywhere and prey on women and children, violently assaulting and raping them. Hardly conducive to civilized normalcy, although violence and brutality always lurked in the shadows of the country whose government has never been capable of providing security let alone other normal civil services of a viably functioning country. The wholesale suffering of Haitians, the children languishing without opportunities to attend school, and men unable to find employment hardly fulfills the promise for a brighter future.

Haitians, after all, don't want all that much. They would like what most people in most decent and reasonable societies can count on: jobs, homes, education; above all security. Their sense of hope appears intact for the most part, since they remain loyal to their faith and attend church faithfully and joyously, praying, singing, celebrating life, as dreadfully hollow as theirs has been and continues to be. In a sense, their refusal to give up hope should serve as an inspiration. In a sense, it does.

But inspiration does not feed and clothe and educate a population. Unless it is backed by a resolute and trustful cadre of public servants dedicated to the task of making a better life for those dependent upon their governing capabilities. So far, the government of Haiti and its institutions has failed miserably on all indices of government initiative and responsibility. The international community has responded as best it can, but patience and hope wears thin there.

Which is why nine million Haitians continue to survive by some miracle of stubborn instinct to surmount all the difficulties and miseries that have blighted their lives generation after generation.

Charitable Enterprise versus Independent Initiative

How many humanitarian aid groups should it take to jump-start a country from hopelessly failed to haplessly struggling?

There are those who have witnessed the generations-long struggles of countries to overcome their state of endemic poverty and government inaction with the aid of the international community whose conscience will not permit them to sit idly by while those unfortunate misery-plagued countries fester in government graft and corruption, their populations left to fend for themselves.

The Palestinians have UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which committed away back in 1948 to support and provide for displaced Palestinians, with the formation of the State of Israel. From 1948 to the present, without outside assistance Israel has managed to make of itself a technologically, scientifically, academically, socially, politically, agriculturally modern state.

From 1948 to the present, the Palestinian refugees who originally numbered 726,000 became entirely dependent on UNRWA to provide for them in special refugee camps where welfare entitlements like cash, housing, health care, education, credit, public works and social services were provided free, by the United Nations and the international community. The welfare syndrome, as anyone knows, deprives people of the will to provide for themselves.

Instead of focusing themselves on their own social, political, civic and economic development, the 726,000 refugees have lived on welfare. And in that perpetual state they have managed to increase their numbers to 4.8 million, all of them living on that same UNRWA welfare, effectively disincentivizing that 4.8 million from independence, from building their own working state.

What that 4.8 million have been free to do, unencumbered by the need to account for themselves and to make a living for themselves, is to brood and to mourn and to see themselves as unfortunate victims, a deranged, corrupted society whose values have been bereft of initiative and pride. They have instead taken the initiative to become bitterly and viciously aggrieved, devoting energy to violence against the country they see as their oppressor.

That's a particular misery in the Middle East, with a festering society cared for by a specially designed and delegated UN mission that has maintained them as permanent refugees unlike any other situation of refugees elsewhere, world-wide. These refugees are adamant that they will no longer be refugees only when they re-occupy the geography that the State of Israel now sits on, and UNRWA's actions are not those to disabuse them of this attitudinal certainty.

And then there's another geography, in the Americas, where no fewer than twelve thousand aid groups work tirelessly in Haiti to provide compassion, care and charity to a miserable population which has never experienced a government dedicated to their material and existential well-being. Each successive government has dabbled in corruption, free to do nothing since humanitarian groups strive mightily to provide the civic necessities that a government should for its population.

Haiti suffers through one crisis after another; from government collapse and failure to environmental and geological crises that each time brings the country to its faltering knees in collapse and despair. Haiti is yet another country that has succumbed to a culture of dependence. Potable drinking water is delivered daily to refugee camps where over a million internally displaced refugees live squalid lives a full year after a devastating earthquake hit.

Billions of dollars have been spent over the years, courtesy of the international community, attempting to manoeuvre Haiti into some semblance of responsive, responsible governance. There is no public sanitation as such in the country, hygiene is difficult to maintain, many people have little option but to drink water infected with fecal matter, and endemic illness is all too common. A class system ensures that the poor remain unemployed and poor.

The cynical claim that aid delivery is a business, nothing more nothing less. That this is a business determined to perpetuate itself, while delivering humanitarian aid. It is a business that is well funded through charitable impulse, the guilt feelings of those who have the great good fortune to live normal, comfortable lives with employment that is well remunerated, to enable the aid groups to get on with their business of alleviating poverty.

Almost all contracts for reconstruction are awarded to foreign companies, not indigenous ones. Aid groups often work in cross-purpose to one another, redundantly and wastefully. Above all, without a focus on education, health care and employment that is self-generating no country, no aspiring nation can succeed to fulfill its potential.

Global Warming, That's Why

Holy Cow, what's with the weather? The warmest year on record, we've been informed. Yes, it was a warm summer, although come to think of it, was it all that unusual? Hotter than usual, just slipped our notice. But summer is past, and we're heading toward winter, officially arriving on the 21st of December, the shortest day of the year, when we welcome the Winter Equinox. Oh, we don't welcome it? We're just stuck with it as a stubborn yearly event?



Because we anticipate welcoming Christmas shortly afterward and it must be white. And then the New Year, yes, of course.



Well, despite our groans about winter weather and impossible conditions for driving safely, and horrible heating bills, and all manner of existential challenges for warm-blooded creatures in a miserable cold Northern Hemisphere atmosphere, winter truly is here. We know, because the landscape has changed so dramatically.



The winds are cruelly whipping snowstorms into a frenzy of white-out conditions making it worth your life to embark on a trip without due consideration whether or not it's worth the effort.



Decidedly, it is not. Worth the effort, that is. Unless you're one of those hardy souls that welcomes adversity. Of the kind that has you stranded in the worst weather-driving conditions you've ever encountered, challenging you to survive the ordeal. Did you remember to pack along in the trunk of your winter-ready vehicle, a shovel, blankets, matches, flares, heavy-duty flashlight, full water bottle, munchies, and your cellphone?



Well, you most certainly should have. You should have paid the bucks it takes to avail yourself of the snowbound and icy road-worthiness of winter ice tires. Surely you did that, at the very least? No? I hate to say 'I told you so', but come on folks. Snow squalls that made visibility impossible and tested your driving abilities, stranded you along with hundreds of other hardy Canadian motorists along highway 402 near Sarnia, Petrolia and Western Lambton County.

Sarnia, Ont., searching for stranded motorists, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. A state of emergency has been declared for Lambton County as snow stranded hundreds of motorists"

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  (Glenn Ogilvie/The Canadian Press) Hide caption

  A Griffin helicopter with 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron, Trenton, passes over Highway 402 near Sarnia, Ont., searching for stranded motorists, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. A state of emergency has been declared for Lambton County as snow stranded hundreds of motorists

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  (Glenn Ogilvie/The Canadian Press) Hide ca
• Tino Villarreal, of Flint, Mich., walks away from a line of trucks after being stranded for almost a day in his cube van delivery truck on London Line, East of Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010. Villarreal was given a sleeping bag and blanket by another trucker to keep warm through the night." id="image-2" width="620" height="348">
  (Glenn Ogilvie/The Canadian Press) Hide caption

  Tino Villarreal, of Flint, Mich., walks away from a line of trucks after being stranded for almost a day in his cube van delivery truck on London Line, East of Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010. Villarreal was given a sleeping bag and blanket by another trucker to keep warm through the night.

• snowmobiler check on stranded motorists on highway 402 near Sarnia, Ont. on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010, as seen from the vehicule of Colin Stewart, of Tottenham, Ont." id="image-3" width="620" height="348">
  (Colin Stewart for The Canadian Press) Hide caption

  An unidentified snowmobiler check on stranded motorists on highway 402 near Sarnia, Ont. on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010, as seen from the vehicule of Colin Stewart, of Tottenham, Ont.

• Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010. Hundreds of people have spent a cold night huddled in vehicles awaiting rescue along a snow-clogged stretch of highway in southwestern Ontario." id="image-4" width="620" height="348">
  (Glenn Ogilvie/The Canadian Press) Hide caption

  A line of trucks stranded in the snow wait for roads to reopen on London Line, a detour route for Highway 402, East of Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010. Hundreds of people have spent a cold night huddled in vehicles awaiting rescue along a snow-clogged stretch of highway in southwestern Ontario.

No one, believe me, envies your experience. Waiting it out for over 24 hours for rescue. Hungry, thirsty, cold; utterly miserable and sick of being cooped up in your vehicle. And now London, Ontario targeted by that same miserable storm system that just doesn't feel like shoving off. People living in Eastern and Northern Ontario, who think they experience more than enough rough winter weather think of the London area as the Banana Belt. And it kind of is, in the summer.



Come winter, another story. Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, they get plenty of snow too. But this time your area of the province, thanks to the proximity of Lake Huron, and this year's La Nina, or is it El Nino, demonstrated the awesome power of Global Warming.

The Rewards of Scholarship

It has been posited that with higher education increasingly available to more people than ever before, there are a growing number of people graduating with Masters' degrees and Doctorates than there are positions to absorb them. That with a weak economy and a slow job market too many university graduates are forced to absorb employment that bears little resemblance to their qualifications.

Indeed, to have even that lowly employment, they must shield their educational attainments from the scrutiny of potential employers, else they're deemed out of hand to be unsuitable for clerical or service jobs due to 'over-qualification'. It is a disheartening situation, to say the least. At one time someone with a post-secondary education was viewed with great respect; that educational achiever had many options to choose from.

Now that there are so many university graduates, all looking for that ideal job that will lead them to a life-long trajectory of elite positions reflective of their knowledge and professionalism - a dream realized - there are too many candidates for too few available positions. Not the least bit fair, but that too is reality. In fact, because there are so many highly educated job candidates, they are no longer valued unless they are truly exceptional.

One such exceptional mind was that of a child prodigy turned intellectual master of mathematics, Gabor Lukacs. He attained his doctorate at a truly early age, and became a math professor at the age of 24. He is imbued with the spirit of scholarship and high performance standards; demanding no less of others than he does of himself, and vice versa.

That kind of rigorous scholastic standard can get someone in trouble, in these days when all levels of educational achievement have been dumbed down to have compassion on those whose genetic endowment in the cerebral department has not been as generous as others. Professor Lukacs has been suspended for the sin of mounting a protest against the awarding of a doctorate to an undeserving student.

A young man who appealed to a university administrator to overrule a panel of academic experts who found him wanting, and would have denied him his doctorate. His appeal was successful and the young man was awarded a PhD despite that he failed to meet the formal requirements, claiming an anxiety disorder rendered him incapable of performing well under test conditions.

The dean of graduate studies at the University of Manitoba recommended an oral exam for the young man despite the rejection of other math professors. And despite that one math professor resigned from the granting committee over the dispute, Professor Doering decided to waive the examination altogether. And although the student hadn't completed the graduate courses, he was granted his PhD.

That might be considered totally absurd; although special assistance is often given to students with medical disorders, this situation went above and beyond that kindly protocol. The result is the campus is conflicted over the situation, with both students and staff taking opposing views. The 'winner' is the quasi-student who was granted his unearned degree.

The 'loser' might seem to be Professor Lukacs, for he has been suspended for three months without pay, for insubordination in insisting that the university's decision be overruled, and taking legal action to effect that change. On the other hand, Professor Lukacs stands on principle, one that cannot be argued away.

The 'loser' is the system of higher education which has an obligation to present itself as an trustworthy and capable learning environment, guiding students to fulfill their educational obligations so they may capably and with honour claim their rewards; due recognition and earned certification.

For this university and this department of the university, a polarizing situation has erupted and a tarnished reputation can be claimed.