Category Archives: National

Reflections after a trip back home

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I just came back to Argentina, where I live, after a month and a half trip to Quebec, where I’m from. Every time I have to opportunity to go back home, enjoy friends and family, speak my language and feel my culture, all of this fills me with renew energy. Thus, on a personal level, it was a great trip. On the other hand, every visit up north makes me feel uneasy about Quebec and Canada cultural evolution. In Argentina, I pride myself in explaining how Canada and Quebec are different from the US, stretching our collective desire to build a lesser unequal society and protect our cultural distinctiveness. I now feel uneasy defending theses ideas and perceptions about my own country. Obviously, these are merely personal impressions, but I would like to share a few observations/feelings I got while visiting friends and family in Quebec.

First and most striking, politics have made a huge shift on the right. I am not only referring to Harper’s conservative, 19th century governing, but even more so to our collective incapacity to reject and denounce it. I will spare you my list of grievances against his government, let’s only mention his great symbolic gesture of reintroducing the “royal” appellation in the army and Canadian Embassies’ obligation to have a portrait of the Queen. Maybe we should also replace our dollar with the pound and sing God Save the Queen before hockey games… Talking with friends, I was shocked to see how right wing’s arguments/myths have now been integrated and interiorized as to become something banal. A few examples of things I heard/read as if they were simple truths we ought to accept: we pay too many taxes, we are broke, collective transportation is too expensive, we have to create more wealth if one day we want to distribute it (I’m guessing 2075…). The same shift is observable in the Media. Both the Journal de Montreal and Journal de Quebec have always been populist newspapers, however, together with the other main media controlled by Quebecor, TVA (the most watched television network), they now defend a clearly right wing agenda. All of this gave me the impression that left wing individuals do not even define themselves as such and seem to try to temper right wing politics instead of confronting it. Of course, this shift might seem dramatic to me, while other applause it. However, I think our very moderate social-democrat political culture has played an important role in defining both Quebec and Canadian identities, its actual disintegration might have great political and cultural impacts.

The other thing that has upset me while in Quebec concerns the quality of the French language. My parents’ generation has fought to defend and preserve it. Politically, by implementing controversial laws such as Bill 101, but also in their day to day lives. For example, they have “franciser” English words and resist the temptation to incorporate more and more words from the language spoken by 300 millions in North America. Every time I visit, this collective will seems to weaken. I got the impression that we are back to my grand-parents’ time when English words were used to qualify new things or as is happening in France, anything that is cool. For example, since I left “week-end” has replaced “fin de semaine” or “fucking” has appeared in French sentences to design something extreme. The biggest symbolic and linguistic aberration for me resides in the movement created to bring back an NHL team to Quebec City. They call themselves “Nordiques Nation”, nation being pronounced in English… A French name should be something like “la nation Nordiques”. This is breathtaking to me since the Nordiques used to take advantage of all of Quebec nationalist heritage to sell hockey: blue colors, fleur de lys etc. Basically, I feel that Quebec culture shows signs of falling apart, not because of foreign oppression, as it was the case under British rule, but for our incapacity to preserve our own language and culture. Injustices can always be fought and denounced, but what can you do against apathy and insouciance?

One might think I am being overreacting here. It might be the case that these impressions of fast Americanization of my culture say more about my own transformation living abroad or about my idealization of my collective “home”. Anyhow, just as it is depressing to observe a growing cultural uniformity all over the world, it makes me uneasy to see my own little culture getting slowly swept away from within.

 

Valentine’s Day in Kenya (in September)

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Courtesy of Demosh and the Flickr Creative Commons

Perhaps they are right when they say that love makes the world go around and truly it must be at the peak of all emotions.  Why else does it make you feel like you can move mountains? Why does it give you an adrenalin rush and make you smile when you know you cannot and you should not?  All those songs sung about it. All those poems composed about it. The warm fuzzy feelings you get when you are in love and the way your heart literally turns over when you see someone you really love – it does make the world go round!.  Love goes beyond the feeling that a man feels for a woman, or a parent feels for a child or a child for his mother; and simply is. It makes you feel content and worried, full of strength and weak, ready and unsure. And each of us loves the feeling of love.  So why wait for one single day to show those we love just how much we love them? Couldn’t we recreate the anticipation and excitement we get on the ‘day of love’ so as to have it every other week or every other day?  Think about it, why not have Valentine’s Day on any common day, like September 14!

Each of us wants to be loved and some of us need and know how to give and show it. But how often do we take time to celebrate it especially with those we love the most?  Celebrating a highly emotive, totally illogical emotion like love should not just be done on a single day that has been conventionally named the ‘day of love.’ It means putting this incomprehensible and intense feeling in a box and how could it ever fit? Any day should be a day to celebrate love and you should always be ready to celebrate love with your loved ones. Just be sure to make that the celebration count this time by showing it in the way that counts most to your loved one.  It could be as simple as holding hands or as elaborate as a trip to an exotic land or as romantic as a candle lit dinner and a moonlight walk – make it count!  Because you know that loving that person has made you a better person, a freer spirit and everyday you wake up, they choose to love you and that makes your life a little richer.

So this September let love take you over, make you a little crazy, a tad foolish and celebrate it with a loved one in a thoughtful, no-pressure and thrilling rendition of this year’s Valentine’s Day!

Check out how others (Kenyans) will be celebrating love https://www.facebook.com/valentinereloaded

Martin Muli

Vacations and Canada’s Work Ethic

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Courtesy of Vinay Shivakumar and Flickr's Creative Commons

Congratulations, Canada! Your people take fewer holidays than folks in any other nation on Earth. Even China. That’s right, we here in the Great White North work more hours than people in a country that is in possession of a socio-political ideology that fuses hyper-capitalism and neo-communism.

Wow. Just writing that paragraph made me tired. I need a vacation.

Recently in up-and-coming “newspaper” the The Globe and Mail, John Ibbitson wrote a piece called “We work hard, they enjoy life” – the columnist not only showcases how far behind Canadians are from the global average of vacation days (which is just under 30), but Ibbitson also outlines that, according to a 2010 Ipsos/Reuters poll, less than 60% of Canadians actually make full use of our paltry number of vacation days. A study by the human capital consulting firm Mercer found that, on average, Canadian employers offer a meager minimum of 10 vacation days and just nine statutory holidays. China offers up two more holidays, the Americans are given about 15 days of vacation, and nearly 90% of the French use up all of their 40 days of vacation per year.

Unreal.

This got me thinking about productivity. There are quite literally millions of opinions and thousands of articles and blog posts on the subject and, as a hopefully productive leader of Canada’s experiential learning community, I felt it was important to explore this topic further.

Courtesy of Woodleywonderworks and Flickr's Creative Commons

I love the rumour/fact that the French are in possession of the most productive economy on the planet. The argument that the French get the most done while spending the least amount of time at work was recently put forward by Business Insider‘s John Carney and Vincent Fernando. The Wall Street Journal and MSNBC, however, counter with some solid arguments about American productivity – not only do Americans spend more time at work, but they also produce more wealth-per-person than anywhere else.

Look.

Whether true productivity comes from France or America it is pretty darn clear that it does not come from Canada. In fact, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canada has been on a bit of a productivity slide lately. This idea has been more recently affirmed by the The Star. We collectively contribute to billions of dollars in lost productivity each year because of illness (coming to work when we’re sick and/or hurting ourselves by working too much), mental health (burning out from the stress of what we do for a living), and not being able to clone Kurt Heinrich.

The logic of Spock is not needed to determine that our vacation days – or lack thereof – have something to do with our could-be-a-heckuvalot-better levels of productivity.

On my own I can’t change Canada’s number of statutory holidays. Only you writing to the most powerful man in the country, Steve Nash, can begin to solve this problem. What I can offer are some peer-reviewed and experientially proven strategies for making people happy. Because happy workers are productive workers. Here are some options to explore.

Let the record show that any idea must jive with the values, mission and service standards of the company (e.g. if your clients are on site at nine o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock at night for seven days a week then it doesn’t make sense to arrive at eleven o’clock in the morning and work until six o’clock, right?) and the fairness of any decision should apply across all units. And, let’s face it, ideas like these are way more applicable for nimble organizations, as the scalability of “dogs in the office” at, say, the University of British Columbia is pretty darn unrealistic and, if poorly rolled out, could quite possibly result in over 12,000 canines on campus at the same time. Such a thing could take the adorableness of puppies at work down a few notches.

So there it is. Simple ideas can make people happy. And if people are happy we’ll be more productive. And if we’re more productive then maybe – just maybe – Canada will earn one or two more vacation days!

Youth Literacy Day!

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There are few organizations that I like more than 826 National (and all of their regional affiliates, for that matter). The organization combines writing, community and pirates. Few places/people/things/nouns have established such an utterly perfect Venn Diagram.

In honor of National Youth Literacy Day on August 26, 2011, 826 National invites you to try your hand at writing projects like those offered to students at 826 centers nationwide. Founded in 2002 by award-winning author Dave Eggers and educator Ninive Calegari, 826 centers provide under-resourced students, ages 6-18, with opportunities to explore their creativity and improve their writing skills. The organization marks National Youth Literacy Day on August 26 as a way to celebrate the power of reading, writing, and self-expression.

826 National will be publishing entries beginning August 22, 2011 in their online Writing Gallery. Authors of the organization’s favorite entries will receive a gift bag full of 826 National merchandise. Projects include writing a haiku with 8-2-6 syllable lines, a short comprised of 82.6 words, and an 826 character news story.

For more information and to submit your poem or story, please visit  http://www.826on826.org/
ABOUT 826 NATIONAL

826 National is a nonprofit organization that provides strategic leadership, administration, and other resources to ensure the success of its network of eight writing and tutoring centers whose goal is to assist students ages six to eighteen with their writing skills. Our work is rooted in the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. Last year, with the help of 5,000 dedicated volunteers, our centers—which are located in Ann Arbor, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.— served 24,000 students.

And if you’re interested in the 826 Vancouver movement please let me know, as powerful people are doing powerful things as you read this. It’s time to get inspired, folks!

Remembering Jack Layton

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[Editor's Note: in 2006 I hosted an event that was playfully called "Mervillemania" - in a nutshell, a few dozen friends camped-out on my parents' estate/compound in Merville, British Columbia during the August Long Weekend. One of my friends brought an orange tent to the celebration. He borrowed it from, as he called them, "Jack and Olivia" - they were his neighbours at the time - who happily offered up the shelter for their, and my, very urban friend. This simple, thoughtful and necessary gesture provides, I think, a wonderful window into Mr. Layton's sense of community. Speaking of community, his letter below offers some prompts and encouragement regarding how we can work together to make Canada's better].

August 20, 2011
Toronto, Ontario

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton.

Jack Layton

The Magical US Budget

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We’ve all heard a lot about it these days. It really is doom and gloom as critics point out that the cuts just won’t go deep enough to avert an economic Apocalypse. Raise taxes some say. Cut spending others say. Don’t raise the debt ceiling, said a few angry and hardcore Tea Partiers.

But where is all the money going? What’s being spent and how much can really be cut? Is there a gravy train that requires Washington to dial up the “Brothers Ford” . Well, the New York Times, in their clever and innovative way, have sought to break it all down with this amazing interactive graphic.

Below I’ve clipped an image. Click on it and go to the Time’s site. There you’ll be able to interact with Obama’s 2011 budget. It’s pretty damn nifty. Couple initial observations:

1) They’re spending as much on National Defense ($738 billion) as they are on Social Security

2) Education (ie preparing the young for their bright futures – where they’ll continue to pay the elderly’s medicare, medicaid and social insurance bills) gets $122 billion – that’s like 16% of defense funding and that’s with a Democratic president.

3) They cut Space funding by 20%! What the hell – how are we ever going to accomplish George W Bush’s goal of getting to Mars now?

 

I´ve read that book!

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A few years ago, I taught history in a Cegep (for those not familiar with the concept, Cegeps are Québec educational institutions that regroup technical formations with pre-university ones, more or less the equivalent of 12th grade and first year of university put together). Even though I met very interesting and dynamic students, I perceived a few major flaws in their formation and interests that would make their university studies and their capacity to be informed citizens compromised, to say the least. One of them was their inability to read effectively and their simple lack of interest to do so. Obviously, many could and did read, however they did not represent a majority of my students. In my own modest opinion, it helps explain that their writing and critical thinking abilities were “limited”. I am not referring to writing complex dissertations about Nietzsche’s conception of God here. More in the lines of backing an opinion with clear arguments, making full sentences or conjugate properly. Many teachers tend to blame laziness and partying to explain poor student performances. Of course, that was common too, however many students were indeed trying hard to write papers or exams but could not do it. They did not possess basic abilities necessary to write a coherent text. Reading might not be the only they lacked, but it would definitely have helped. Briefly put, I am deeply convinced reading is an essential part of academic formation, but more than that, it represents a crucial mean to open our mind and broaden our culture.

That brings me to a great citizen project that was created a few years ago in Argentina and that spread to other Hispanic countries (Spain, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and others). Yo leí este libro (I have read that book) leaves books in public spaces – bus stops, parks, etc.- so random people can pick it up and read it. Each book contains directions asking to read the book o leave it there so someone else can read it. In the case a stranger wants to read it, he or she is asked to sign it on the last page and leave it again in a public space. Yo leí este libro intent is to create a solidarity chain of books. This way they hope to stimulate curiosity toward reading, give an opportunity to a person that normally does not read and make people feel part of something bigger, knowing that others want him or her to read.

The fact this initiative emerged in Argentina is not accidental. Argentineans are great readers, at least some sectors of the population. Writers are well known and presented as public figures. Buenos Aires is filled with book stores, often opened until late at night. I am not idealizing Argentina’s reading culture, since my teaching experience here did not show a much better situation than what I saw in Quebec a few years ago. However, I appreciate the idea that many Argentineans perceive reading as a social cause and want to do something about it. I never felt this urgency to preserve and promote reading when I was living in Canada, even working in education…

As for the project Yo leí este libro, I doubt it can ever have a notable impact. After all we are talking about a small project within funding, competing with playstations, internet, cable TV and the rest. Nonetheless, I am impressed with the effort…

Canoe!

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One month ago, I accidentally bought a canoe.  Jim and I only went to “look” at canoes and ended up leaving the store as owners of a green Nova Craft Prospector.  In the months leading up to that unplanned purchase we had been toying with our summer vacation plans, mainly looking at spending a couple of weeks in Europe.  We also went camping in April and May, and started to appreciate that the best way to see Ontario’s parks was not on foot but on water.

While not geographically blessed with oceans or mountains, Ontario has lakes.  Lots of them.  And the wilderness that inspired Tom Thompson.  On our May camping trip, I proposed spending our money on a canoe rather than flights, setting the wheels paddles in motion to join the community of boat owners.

Here are three reasons why I’m really excited about canoes:
1. History
Canoes have a distinctive place in Canadian history.  From the invention and use by aboriginals, to the early navigation of waterways by Voyageurs, to increasing recreational use in the later 1800s, to one of our most famous canoeists, Pierre Elliott Trudeau – canoes are peppered throughout Canada’s history and identity.  I’ve only recently found out about the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough Ontario and am looking forward to visiting it.  The museum is dedicated to communicating the canoe’s enduring significance to national heritage, with over 600 canoes in its collection.
2. Nature
Canoes provide a front row seat for viewing your environment.  From the Humber River that flows through west end Toronto, to quiet small lakes of Haliburon, to the busier lake Joseph in Muskoka, I’ve already had a taste of how canoes offers a great way to see and experience places.   They offer a different perspective from land, usually at a slow and relaxing pace.  It even give you the chance to get closer to wildlife, including a mama moose and her two babies.
3.  Community
Like other recreational activities, there is a community of canoeists that we’re just starting to get to know and interact with.  From the friendly acknowledgments out on isolated lakes, to tips on how beavers changed available routes on a lake, to getting to interact with the other(s) in your boat, canoeing offers a lot of opportunities for positive interactions.  And a learning experience about interaction with powerboats that I still haven’t mastered.

 

Road Trip to Thermopylae

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Drenched in sweat and beer, we stood in a daze of fanatic euphoria. Whitecaps striker Eric Hassli had just managed to fire an absolutely spectacular shot, launched from mid-air, into the Seattle Sounder’s net. The stadium reverberated in a low moan as all 35,000 Sounders fans jammed into Q-West field (normally the home of the Seattle Seahawks) watched their 2-1 lead evaporate.

We didn’t hear much of the moan because we’d been busy chanting, singing, flag waving and generally celebrating the merits of our team. We were part of a small group of hardcore fans who’d been allowed to purchase tickets in the fan section for the historic rivalry. 500 of our white and blue clad, Bell-emblazoned, troops (200 more than the Spartans had!) stood for the past two hours attempting to beat back the chants of the Sounders’s “X-Box”-labelled fans. At first it had been easy. When we were first marshaled into the stadium by security, there was hardly a person in the seat. The drum guys set up and within no-time we were chanting our battle cries (including such delightful ditties as “We’re blue, we’re white, we’re fucking dynamite”) in a vacant stadium. We figured we’d done pretty well, though perhaps that was just the beer talking.

Ten minutes into the first half, the lower bowl of the stadium was filled to capacity. The energy in the stadium was electric. We were hoping against hope for a tie. Against a top flight team (who’d set the standard for the Whitecaps when it came to fan culture) and shortly after our team had axed their coach for the number of losses, this would be a minor miracle. Indeed, the bus ride down had been good natured revelry mixed with a healthy does of realism. There was no expectance and no one was chanting do or die (unlike the fans of another big sporting event that was coming up back home).

When we arrived in Seattle we piled out of the bus and then headed into a local pub for a pint. We had little come back for the query/chant of pub-going Sounders about how we could possibly cheer for a “1 win team”.

By 5:30 we had rallied around the Whitecaps flags. Our posse looked formidable and many of our team were already a mess (even before the game began). But it’s messy, boisterous fans that can often inspire the greatest things and we were ready to “represent”.

Once the game got underway, there was lots to cheer for. The size and scope of the stadium was humbling. The soccer played by our team was smooth and creative. When we scored on a penalty jumping ahead by one, our crowd went wild. Blue flags were wildly a flutter. The drum guys led us in chant after chant after chant. We never sat from the moment we arrived at our seats and would not throughout the game. To their credit, Seattle fans seemed equally predisposed to ignore their seats.

When the final minutes were up, our crew of revelers stood by our seats for another half hour of boisterous song and cheers. My voice by this time was starting to fade. Still jacked up on adrenaline, our crowd flocked down the empty hallways chanting for the Caps. A Sounders tie was a Whitecaps victory and our community of loyal fans was all the better for it. Next stop would be a three hour bus ride home through the darkness, past incredulous border guards and a drop off at the River Rock Casino where we’d started the trip. Amazing times and amazing community of soccer enthusiasts.