Correlations

Free Trade ... In Our Jobs, That Is.

2012-02-03T13:52:00.001-08:00

I take exception to the mistaken comment in today's Globe and Mail: "No country, in the entire history of humanity, has ever improved their quality of life by reducing trade." When I was a boy, in the 1950's Ontario had lots of branch plants of U.S. and British companies, and lots of Canadian companies making things in Canada because there were import tariffs on foreign goods that competed with Canadian goods. All that is gone now, including the jobs, thanks to NAFTA, which was a huge and foreseeable (by John Turner, at least, but we wouldn't listen to him) evisceration of the Canadian manufacturing base.

Bear in mind that the primary cause of the American Revolution was to resist the British mercantile system, which discouraged making things in the 13 colonies that could be imported from Britain. The Americans took exception to that, and they were right. The fact that they have since thrown away most of that great victory does not nullify it.

In Canada, we have let tariffs melt away, and the lights are going out on our own manufacturing plants, one by one, as corporations buy them up and then trash them to better control the market. The federal and provincial governments seem to be asleep, or worse, conniving at this result. Actions like this are very close to treason, in my book. When will there be a reckoning on this? How about right now.

Letter to my MP re the F35 Fighter Purchase

2012-01-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Schellenberger:

I am writing to express my opposition to the purchase of the F-35 aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force. From what we know about this aircraft it seems unsuited to any meaningful role in Canada's military, has only a single engine, which deeply compromises its usefulness in our vast territories and harsh climate, is extremely costly, and has revealed serious flaws in in-service testing in the US, including weak points and hot spots in the airframe.

The sole-source procurement process is also a poor practice, unjustified and at least partly to blame for the odd and unsuitable selection of this aircraft that was made.

I request that you send this procurement back to those responsible for recommending it with the recommendation that they seek alternatives that would be free of these serious flaws, and be guided by economy and by a more enlightened sense of what our military, and our country requires.

I am firmly opposed to the purchase this unsuitable, hideoulsy over-priced and deeply flawed aircraft, particularly at a time when there are many more compelling uses to which these resources should be devoted - namely the creation of employment opportunities and the improvement of health care and education outcomes.

I am looking for improved stewardship from this government both of defence procurement and of employment, health care and education.

Sincerely,

Charles Fitzsimmons

The Occupy Movement Is Not Going To Go Away

2011-11-06T06:23:00.000-08:00

It is infuriating when someone looks at the Occupy movement and points out that some of the people involved might mainly be motivated by a disappointed sense of entitlement and may have dug themselves into a hole through poor choices and bad decisions. Does it belittle a protest movement to say that some of the people involved in it are mere mortals who have on occasion guessed wrong, fallen for empty promises, were tired of being lonely, and perhaps yielded to temptation? Not to me it doesn't. I have done all these things.

People who have the capacity to protest the present disastrous state of the economy, society and politics are mainly people who are suffering, people whose personal circumstances are difficult and painful. Does this nullify their indignation at injustice, lying, manipulation, sociopathic disregard for the general good? To me it makes it all the more poignant and compelling. The people who are preoccupied playing with their toys are not on the street protesting. This is not surprising. I like the ones who are out there doing something. They're not perfect. So what?

As for the assessment of this young woman, an analytical view of another person is never really fair, because we can never know all of the circumstances, motivations, intentions and other factors that would enable us to fully comprehend. We are not intended to analyze each other, to break each other down like a rock sample, but rather to build each other up, to help put the broken ones back together. In short, to love each other, part of that love being the ability to forgive and to overlook faults (which we all have, too).

It is often said in the press that the Occupy movement comes down to ne'er-do-wells whining about life. There is far more to it than that. The main support that keeps society up, like the ridge-pole of a tent, is justice. Justice is to choose for others what you would choose for yourself - the maxim enshrined in the teachings of every Faith. The Occupy movement is about resistance to injustice, about rage and indignation that our system causes so much suffering for what, in the end, is no good reason.

Our duty is to be kind and forgiving to each other, and to be just and principled in our own conduct. The Occupy movement is a valid response to the massive failure of justice, to say nothing of kindness in our economy, politics and society. No one knows where the Occupy movement is going, but its core draws energy from injustice, the way the sun draws energy from the internal reaction buried deep within it. It is not going to go away until the process of reckoning plays out and justice is done.

On the education of women and girls

2011-11-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

I believe that experience shows that the most effective avenue to reducing family size is to pursue the education of girls and women with determination and effort. This strategy also has many other significant corollary benefits beside reducing the birth rate, and in fact is important in its own right for its own intrinsic value. The educated mother immediately passes on the benefits of her knowledge and skills to her children in their important early years. Educated women tend to have fewer children. It's as simple as that.

Failure to properly educate women and girls disadvantages them economically, disempowers them, and perpetuates the imbalance in society in which women are prevented from fully participating and exerting their highly necessary influence in all spheres of human activity. In large part the gross distortions, ineptitude, misplaced priorities and deplorable behaviour of governments and the rest of the prevailing order are the result of the failure to emancipate women and allow them to occupy their proper and proportionate place in society, politics, the law, and all walks of life.

It is often suggested that family planning clinics and initiatives help promote the education of women and girls by letting them stay in school longer. This has it backward. It is the education of women and girls that promotes family planning. Until women are equal partners with men, lasting peace is impossible

Resolving the Current World Economic Crisis

2011-10-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

Resolving theCurrent World Economic Crisis

A Brilliant Economist’s Recommendations for Resolving the Current World Economic Crisis

Theseinsightful and to my mind correct and compelling recommendations, from Prof.Dipak Basu of Nagasaki University, commend themselves to the attention of allpeople of good will who can free their thinking from the constraints of the ‘wayit is’ to consider dispassionately ‘the way it should be’.

In my opinion these measures are inescapable. They must be implemented sooner or later,and I hope, sooner, because they have the power to heal the dreadful and morbidsituation of today that is causing so much suffering to so many people. I havelightly edited them for clarity.

These appear in an article in the web magazine EcomicVoice. To readmore: http://www.economicvoice.com/occupy-wall-street-the-world-economic-crisis-greek-debt-and-its-solutions/50024916#ixzz1bi3Bn2bS

Nationalization of the banks, including the Federal ReserveSystem of USA, which is a private enterprise, will help countries to regulatethe financial market for the benefit of the economy and the people.

Abolition of speculative activities in the secondary stockmarketwill protect the genuine investors.

Abolition of derivative market and the credit-debt swapmarket and their reinsurance, which has caused the debt crisis in Greece and otherEuropean countries by enticing them to borrow more than their ability to pay,will help cool down the financial madness and help the banking system tosurvive.

A managed trading system will rule out economic exploitationof one country by another by destroying economy of one country by another withcheap export items manufactured by slave labourers and an artificially lowexchange rate, as China is doing now. Debt crises in Greece, Ireland, Spain,Italy were caused by the investment banks like Goldman Sachs who enticedcountries and companies to take loans, and then created derivatives that theywill fail to pay off. As a result, the debtor country suffers along with itscompanies and … people but the investment banks make gigantic profits.

A Dramatic reduction in US defence spending The debt crisis in the USA was caused by excessive defence spending tofinance the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and possibly now Syria, andby the same speculative lending by these same investment banks to the Americanpoor who could not afford to buy houses.

The crises of unemployment in USA, UK,and Japan are caused by a trading system where China has managed to ruin theirmanufacturing industries through its cheap exports. In India as well, about 26percent of the manufacturing industry is now taken over by the Chinese exportscausing serious unemployment.

These solutions cannot be achieved within the given economic system. Thus anoutside-of-the-box solution is needed. This is the real demand of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.

Re the Occupy Wall Street Protests

2011-10-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

I posted the following comment today in the Globe and Mail:

It is easy to underestimate the importance of these grass-roots protests, and also easy to cite inane comments by some of the participants to belittle them. To me these protests are a foretaste of what is to come; the protesters, despite their small numbers, represent a significant segment of the population: people who feel disenfranchised within their own society, and who are frustrated by the fact that politicians and the media rarely, if ever, address the problems that affect the very fabric of their, and their children's lives and futures.

To protest in this way is to perform an act for the good of society. It is to make a statement that the existing political and economic structure exacts a very large toll on ordinary people while securing for them a derisory amount of benefit in relation to its human cost.

There is a simple principle at the root of these protests that gives them their power and will cause them to re-occur with ever-increasing severity until it is addressed. It is justice. Justice means to choose for your neighbour what you would choose for yourself. The quest for political or economic dominance over others requires that this simple principle be set aside. How can you achieve power over others unless you choose something better for yourself that what you choose for them?

The moral legitimacy of any and all institutions of society has been destroyed by their self-serving and manipulative behaviour. 'Maybe people won't notice if we out-source their jobs to China?' 'Maybe they won't notice if we collude with our competitors to control and manipulate the marketplace, and buy the favours of politicians to make sure we can keep our hammer-lock on the markets?' 'Hey, we'll just give them beer and circuses to distract them while we loot society, ruin their pensions, destroy their jobs, and pollute the planet. Maybe they won't get it?' 'How's this - we tax the peons working at fast-food chains to fund gold-plated salaries and pensions for all of us. Then we tell them they're a burden on society because they're poor, and to sit down and shut up? Brilliant!'

Well, some have noticed and they do get it. The people in the public squares are the first of us, maybe the best of us. They are the tip of the iceberg. The foundation on which their protests are based is injustice, and that's not going away any time soon. We'll be seeing more of them, and when we do, I hope that the media will not seek out the least able spokespersons and entrap them in foolish questions so that they can be held up to ridicule. I hope that reporters will try to understand what's going on, and have the courage to be objective, as some do. Because misleading the public about the root cause of these protests is a dis-service to all of us.

Counsels that are past due

2011-08-02T17:29:00.001-07:00

Baha'u'llah, the 19th Century Persian educator and nobleman, uttered three pieces of advice to the leaders of the world which have so far gone almost entirely unheeded, to humanity's great cost. They were, not to increase their outlay every year and place the burden on their subjects, to be reconciled among themselves and reduce their armaments, and to hold a comprehensive peace conference.

The consequences of the collective and individual failure of national leaders and leaders of thought to follow this advice are the cataract of horrible conflicts visible across the world today, pandemic economic ruin, and the almost irretrievable destruction of the Earth's environment. Since humanity has tried and fully exhausted just about every conceivable alternative, I have good hope that we will, one day perhaps soon, try these counsels out. If we don't like the results, we can always go back to endless extravagance, brutal fratricidal wars, total anarchy and reckless, thoughtless exploitation of everything and everyone. They are easily achieved.

He said, "We have learned that you are increasing your outlay every year, and are laying the burden thereof on your subjects. This, verily, is more than they can bear, and is a grievous injustice."

The crushing burden of debt under which most nations are staggering, brought on by decades of wars and extravagance is now a plain and inescapable fact. The wonder is that few commentators ever mention it. In the current debt ceiling imbroglio in the United States, has anyone said:

"We can't have our government continually spend more, and borrow to do so. This has to stop.", or

"We can't afford to be the world's policeman, and neither do we want to live in peril. Why don't we establish an effective system of collective security that really works, so we can stop spending more than the rest of the world combined does on weapons and soldiers." or,

"We can't allow corporations who profit from war to control our lawmakers and executive through political contributions and bribes. Their interests are not the general interest - they only make money when we are killing people and breaking things. We have to stop their stranglehold on politics and government."

Such words are seldom if ever heard, yet they are absolutely true.

Ponder these words of Baha'u'llah uttered when he was prisoner and exile, and consider whether they are likely to solve the world's problems, or make them worse. All of us have the responsibility for helping to design the future for our children and grandchildren. We cannot delegate this obligation to our leaders, because they are not looking after it properly. I say we need to do what Baha'u'llah has said, and the sooner the better. I see no other way out.

Words of Baha'u'llah:

"Compose your differences, and reduce your armaments, that the burden of your expenditures may be lightened, and that your minds and hearts may be tranquillized. Heal the dissensions that divide you, and ye will no longer be in need of any armaments except what the protection of your cities and territories demands. Fear ye God, and take heed not to outstrip the bounds of moderation, and be numbered among the extravagant. Be united, O kings of the earth, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find rest.... Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice.

"The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world's Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace demands that the Great Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquillity of the peoples of the earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves. Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories. This will ensure the peace and composure of every people, government and nation. We fain would hope that the kings and rulers of the earth, the mirrors of the gracious and almighty name of God, may attain unto this station, and shield mankind from the onslaught of tyranny."

Baha'ullah also proposed an international language and script. "The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world will have adopted one universal language and one common script. When this is achieved, to whatsoever city a man may journey, it shall be as if he were entering his own home. These things are obligatory and absolutely essential. It is incumbent upon every man of insight and understanding to strive to translate that which hath been written into reality and action...."

"That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. In another passage He hath proclaimed: It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah)

Universal Participation in Our Political Life

2011-03-08T05:58:00.000-08:00

I observe widespread dissatisfaction and frustration with the processes of our political life, and it makes me wonder where to find improvement. Let's start by agreeing that dissatisfaction, which is to want something more or better, is a good thing. It drives progress, and will help us find ways to build a better society.

Many people are disenchanted with the quality of our political process, with the absence of meaningful public discussion on the merits of issues of fundamental importance, the atmosphere of antagonism and conflict that has invaded public and civic life and which always seems to distract attention away from the substance of the matter under discussion and toward the personalities involved and their motives.

Any and every issue, no matter how important, becomes a meaningless token to be fought over in the endless competition for power between different factions. Nothing is or can be examined knowledgeably and dispassionately on its merits. No person can make any mistake without being ragged and humiliated, and publicly tormented. Yet the din and furor are empty. They are a distraction to mask the reality that those in power are accountable only to themselves. There is no real public accountability. People who commit obvious crimes and inflict major damage go uncorrected and unpunished.

The cynical attitude that everything in public life can and should be expropriated from the body politic and exploited for personal or group advantage, to the detriment of everyone else is like an acid that has washed away broader vision and higher motives. It contributes in no small measure to the scornful turning away from idealism, humanity, public spiritedness, generosity and decency. The impertinent personal attacks, the profligate and irresponsible waste of time and energy in pointless and unresolvable disputes about who is best, who is wisest, who is most worthy - in the end these devalue everyone involved, and lead to coolness and alienation.

All of these things, to the extent that they dominate and characterize our civic and political processes make us ashamed of them and of our leaders, and this at the time when we are sending military people to die to defend our 'way of life' and encourage others adopt it.

In brief, we are becoming painfully aware that those who have successfully pursued power in our society do not sudden transform themselves into seers and statesmen when they scramble to the top of the heap, but rather continue the testosterone-soaked gamesmanship - and worse - by which they achieved power. None of this advances the public interest in any way.

In this bleak and disheartening landscape, the vision the beckons on the horizon is of a tomorrow when individuals, the rank and file of communities and civil society, will arise to take responsibility for the design of their own and their children's future - the conduct of public affairs, the quality of community life, and the moral tone of our nation. These have been usurped by ambitious people willing to serve as the tools of money, power and corporate greed. But they have been usurped because we allowed it to happen. It is time, and more than time, for the self-appointed stewards of our society - political party militants elected to public office, and the shadowy figures who fund their endless jockeying for power, to be called to account for the deplorable state into which they have allowed society to sink while they disport themselves with their insatiable quest to achieve precedence and advancement over other human beings.

In the end it is very simple. The purpose of justice is to enable unity amongst human beings. The criterion of just behaviour is to choose for another what you would choose for yourself. The pursuit of power and precedence make it impossible to satisfy this criterion. The fundamental logic of political parties is to struggle to achieve power over others. One day this will be recognized for what it is and for the horrendous toll it exacts on society. One day the principles and the processes to attract universal participation by the governed in the governance of society will be achieved. The constitution of Nunavut, which disallows political parties, is a way-point along the path to the liberation of our political life from this scourge.

Principles and processes for healing our sad world

2011-02-28T08:20:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from a letter to a friend:

The conviction that human diversity is a source of strength and vitality is very important to the future of our currently melancholy world. To see each person as a reflection of the divine, with the potential to reflect all of the divine qualities and attributes seems to me to be the basic requirement of healing the world. The highest expression of this recognition is service to others. The opposite is to seek power over others. Most of the torments afflicting the present day arise from power-seeking and related forms of selfishness.

I am currently involved in processes that seek to strengthen the individual’s capacity to serve others. These spiritualizing and learning processes are based on the Bahá’í teachings but are universal in scope, rather than yet another attempt to advance one group or one way of thinking over another.

Two examples of these are the devotional gathering in Friday evenings, and the study sessions on Saturday evenings, both of them are in Stratford.

These are of course open to everyone, and if you would be interested in attending one or the other, please let me know. Each, in its own way, is to empower people who want to play a part in building a better world.

As for advising the government on various matters, I think it is a good idea to encourage them to do two things:

1) To conduct public affairs from the vantage point that Canada is a citizen of the world-wide family of nations, and that the advantage of any part is best achieved through the advantage of the whole, and

2) To approach any matter on the level of principle – that is, identify the basic principles involved, and strive to apply them to the requirements of the situation. These two counsels are fundamental to the Bahá’í way of life, and will in time come to be regarded as indispensable to reducing and eventually eliminating the anarchy of the present day.

Yet another principle is to consult experts and be guided by what they say. It often seems to me that people wrongly infer from simply having been elected to a position of responsibility that they can dispense with dispassionate advice from knowledgeable people. Ignorance however is never equal to knowledge.

From the above, you may have concluded that Baha’is seek to establish good processes in the individual, the community at large, in government and between nations. This requires a sustained effort at education, which is what these devotional meetings and study sessions are for.

It is as though he hath brought up a son of Mine...

2011-02-11T05:52:00.000-08:00

I have several friends who are raising someone else's child as their own. This a a tremendous act of service, and I thought it would be well to ponder what Bahá'u'lláh has said about it:

"He that bringeth up his son or the son of another, it is as though he hath brought up a son of Mine; upon him rest My Glory, My Loving-Kindness, My Mercy, that have compassed the world."[1]

This is not a personal observation, but rather a principle which forms part of the message which He has been commissioned to present to humanity on God's behalf. From it one gets a very clear idea of what the Creator thinks of such a beautiful and sacrificial action.

A child is a trust from God. Too often the biological conditions for bringing one into the world are met well in advance of the couple having achieved the capabilities of providing this new soul with a stable, loving and safe environment. In many cases, the notion of founding a family and building a life together is absent, even though a human child is utterly dependent on the parents for many years before achieving independence.

It is therefore very important to raise children and youth to be aware of the how their capacities for love, and their reproductive powers must be directed in order for their own lives and the life of society to go forward in a wholesome and satisfactory way.

It is also necessary to call to account the worldly wise people, who denigrate marriage, urge people to seek pleasure and self-indulgence as a right, and who seek to gain, either directly or indirectly from promoting immorality and sexual irresponsibility. Their counsels and example result in misery and wretchedness in millions of lives, including not only innocent children cast adrift in the wreckage of superficial and unstable relationships, but also the parents, who are living human tragedies of despair, broken hearts and broken dreams. Imagine for a moment what must be occurring in the heart of a mother whose child is taken away from her. This is an agony that no one would wish upon anyone else.

In our culture, you can earn several million dollars by making a pop video that encourages girls to act like drunken harlots, and boys to take advantage of them. There is not much recognition of any kind for 'salt of the earth' values of decency, chastity, respect and self-sacrificing love that result in happy lives and joyful children.

The immaturity and ignorance so widespread in our society in matters relating to love, marriage and morality are the cause of enormous human suffering, as is the willful shallowness in attitudes about the use of drugs and alcohol, the abuse of which is often the cause of these shattered families - in many cases families that never even had a chance to get started.

Who among us is prepared to rise up, and like these friends of mine who have rescued children in danger, commit themselves to rescuing society from its waywardness? Who is unafraid to swim against the current of power and money that bears our youth to the cataract of ruined lives, and rescue them by teaching, through precept and example, what it is to be a true human being.

It was for this cause that Bahá'u'lláh devoted His life, and endured 40 years of exile and imprisonment. He set an example of courage and determination in delivering His message to humanity that we would do well to emulate.

It is not only babies that are the children Bahá'u'lláh is referring to, but youth, most of whom are very ill-served by the abysmal lack of moral education and poor example set by their parents. They need us, and if we are to face God deserving even a shred of His approval, we need to serve them.

[1 "Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas", rev. ed. (Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1982

What I learned on Sunday February 6 2011

2011-02-07T06:40:00.000-08:00

This was a great Sunday. At the Stratford Baha'i Adult Class, we learned:

- That the Bab stated that He declared his mission on May 23 1844 because there was a soul capable of receiving it at that time. Had such a soul been in existence earlier, He would have declared His mission earlier. That soul was Mulla Husayn, who had been studying the return of the Promised One of all religions, and had been actively seeking the Promised One by travelling throughout Iran for two years. It was on that evening, May 23, 1844, that He met the Bab, Who was waiting for him as he approached the gates of Shiraz.

- The process of preparing that soul had begun 40 years earlier with the teachings of Shaykh Ahmad, and later, of Siyyid Kazim.

- That the ministry of the Bab, from 1844 to 1850, when He was martyred, was in itself a preparation for the coming of Baha'u'llah. The Bab was an independent manifestation of God in His own right, complete with an independent dispensation, a Book of Laws, and a revelation of enormous volume and range, which comprises some of the most touching and beautiful writings in all of religious history, many of them revealed in a language and style strikingly similar to that of the Quoran. This, even though the Bab was a merchant by profession, with very little formal education, and from a culture (Persian) in which mastery of Arabic, which is an extremely difficult language, was exceedingly rare even among the most erudite scholars.

- Although Baha'u'llah received His annunciation in 1853, while suffering under horrible conditions in the Siyah Chal Prison in Tehran, as a disciple of the Bab, He did not reveal His identity as the One promised by the Bab, until April 21, 1863, on the occasion of His further banishment from Baghdad to Constantinople.

- It is noteworthy in this connection that almost immediately after His annunciation in 1853, Baha'u'llah's eldest son, 'Abdu'l-Baha, at the age of 9, recognized His Father's station, and begged to offer His life in Baha'u'llah's service. 'Abdu'l-Baha was the soul capable of receiving Baha'u'llah revelation.

- In view of the enormous commotion and perturbation which has agitated the world since the appearance of Baha'u'llah, many have wondered why it is that these earth-shaking and apocalyptic happenings (World Wars I and II, the destruction of so many monarchies, even dynasties, and the contraction of the world into a neighbourhood, with the attendant close communication, exchange, and conflicts between peoples, the rise of nation-building, etc.) - why these 'End of Days' happenings have occured after Baha'u'llah's appearance, when they have been announced in all the sacred scriptures as premonitory signs announcing the coming of 'the Lord of Hosts', the 'Return of the Father', etc.

- The Guardian of the Baha'i Faith responded to this question, posed by a Baha'i of Christian background, by saying that the coming of Baha'u'llah is not only His physical appearance in this world, and His eartly Mission, but also the coming of His Revelation and its apprehension by the vast majority of humanity. These two processes together constitute Baha'u'llah coming. This second part of His coming is underway, but is a lengthy process which will in due course be completed.

- What this means is that we are now living in the midst of that second process. Every action we take to propagate the knowledge of Baha'u'llah, His Cause and His teachings contributes to His coming. In our time, actively participating in the institute process and all the attendant core activities, our involvement in infusing the society around us with the transforming spirit and principles of Baha'u'llah peerless Revelation are actions which hasten the completion of the second process of Baha'u'llah's coming, which is identical to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth, the day of One Fold and One Shepherd, the Day which shall not be followed by night, and so forth.

- From the foregoing it can well be imagined how significant is each and every action we take in this direction, no matter how seemingly small and humble. It can likewise be realized how great is the blessing and happiness we confer upon others when we invite them to 'the Banquet-table of the Lord'.

The Human Being as the Supreme Value in all of Creation

2011-02-05T06:29:00.000-08:00

One of the most striking and remarkable of Baha'u'llah's teachings is that the human being is the supreme value in creation. It is therefore inappropriate, wrong and forbidden to sacrifice a human being to an idea or any other non-human existence. The appalling nightmares of the endless wars of the 20th Century were possible because those who were in authority were ready, willing and able to sacrifice human beings to an ideology, an ambition, or an appetite. 105,000,000 of us died in the wars instigated by our leaders. Most of those millions were civilians.

The human being is the supreme value, Baha'u'llah says, for a very simple reason. The entire creation reflects the qualities and attributes of the Creator, each creature according to it's capacity. Although every being can reflect some of the divine attributes, only human beings are capable of reflecting them all. This is the mystery of the human being - the gem-like reality of the soul. It is capable of reflecting all of the qualities and attributes of God. This is a potential all of us have, whether we cultivate it and develop it or not. Therefore the most degraded and disgraceful drunken derelict human being is more valuable than the loftiest most shining ideal.

It is therefore a key litmus test of any value system, any indeed any person, to know what value they place upon a human being. To what and for what are they willing to sacrifice a human life? Are people a resource to be manipulated, or a divine trust to be protected, developed, cherished and nurtured. Most mothers understand this concept perfectly, perhaps instinctively. A mother knows the value of her child's life - it is priceless, and she is ready at every moment to subordinate her own needs to the needs of her child. One reason why the world is in such an appalling mess today is the gross under-representation of women in the decision-making and direction-setting of society - any society.

The Universal House of Justice, the head of the Baha'i world community, has made it clear that the full participation of women in the life of society is one of the prerequisites for establishing peace in the world. It is therefore not to be wondered at that it has been demonstrated over and over again that the most effective strategy for advancing any society is to promote the education of girls and women.

Nunavut - a pattern for future society

2011-02-01T08:35:00.001-08:00

From a comment posted in the Globe and Mail February 1, 2011

It is said that if you see anything, however bad, long enough, you become used to it. So it is that we have come to think that democracy and the political party system are permanently linked. They are not, except by tradition. But tradition is not more important than people and the country, both of which are ill-served by political parties.

The whole foundation of a healthy society is justice. Justice means choosing for another what you would chose for yourself. But if your goal is to achieve power over another person or group, you cannot choose for them what you would choose for yourself. For this reason, political parties, which are by definition factions competing for power, cannot, and do not put the public interest first. We have now reached the point where this is obvious, as has been pointed out by many of the people posting on this topic.

A suitable pattern for future society would be one in which parties are banned. People would be elected to public office based on their loyalty and devotion to the common good, recognized ability, well-trained mind and mature experience. Nominations and discussions of personalities would be abandonned in favour of a system where people vote for the person who best combines the necessary qualities for public office. The person with the highest number of votes would be elected, and would be expected to serve in the public interest. Politics would no longer be a career. Election to office would be a sacrifical public service rather than a vehicle for personal ambition.

If you think this is just an impractical Utopian dream, consider that this is essentially the system that has been put in place in the federal territory of Nunavut. The insights of the people who framed that constitution were brilliant. This is a pattern that should adopted throughout Canada. It is high time for such a discussion to take place. It is not enough to deplore the evils of our current political system. Change is needed, and the sooner the better.

Support for the CBC

2011-01-31T06:08:00.000-08:00

Open letter to Gary Schellenberger, MP

As a voter in Perth-Wellington, I'm writing out of my firm conviction that support for the CBC is one of the most important things that the federal government does.

Because of this, I was shocked and saddened when I learned that a senior colleague of yours – Dean Del Mastro – mused recently about the federal government “getting out of the broadcasting business”. In fact, on November 23rd, Mr. Del Mastro told the Commons Heritage Committee that perhaps the federal government should give the CBC’s entire parliamentary grant to the private sector.

Surveying the 'vast wasteland' of commercial radio and television in our county and in the US, it becomes very clear how much Canada needs a strong and vibrant CBC to be the voice of Canadians, to inform about important trends and discoveries, and to uplift our spirits by reflecting back to us the best in Canadian music, theatre, comedy, storytelling and the other arts.

The CBC is a jewel which deserves to be polished and cherished, not discarded or transformed into some kind of dull and brittle 'industrial diamond'.

I urge you to be a builder of the CBC who makes his mark by making it even better by, for example, helping CBC television to adopt the commercial-free broadcasting model of CBC Radio.

Please get back to let me know what you will do to champion the CBC and the essential role it plays.

Vaccination and Oppression

2011-01-30T06:19:00.001-08:00

What greater oppression could there be than that someone seeking the truth should not know where to find it?

Most people, including me, are not experts on medical science. We are aware that vaccines have been of enormous value to human health and have rendered great service to humanity. We are likewise aware that some vaccines, by the admission of their manufacturers, contain mercury, which is known to be very bad for people, especially children, and which causes damage that is not reversible.

We are also aware that vaccines are produced by enormous corporations which, by reason of being owned by investors whose sole goal is to maximize gain, cannot be trusted not to sacrifice human well-being in order to make a buck. These corporations have been at times self-serving in the misuse of science to support high-profit products of questionable benefit and significant risk of harm - cooked trial results, suppressed side-effects evidence, etc. These very wealthy corporations also seem to be able to influence government agencies paid for by the people, to issue rules and guidance that are in the corporate, but not the public interest. Our political system makes people have to raise money to run for office. Companies who pay politicians expect something in return. The current 'breakthrough' in Canadian government is to make everything a political issue - even the duty of public servants to act in the public interest and tell the truth.

Television and newspapers are owned by corporations and depend on advertising. Therefore in a hard choice about telling the truth and compromising the owner or a sponsor, we do not assume that truth will be upheld, because in the past it has not been upheld when such choices had to be made.

Therefore pity the person who is faced with a decision about vaccinating a small child, or any other really important decision when it sure as hell would be nice to establish what's true and what is not, and avoid being conned by charlatans and fools.

The decline in absolute moral values, such as that it would be better to have one's tongue cut out than to tell a lie, and the infusion of the logic of power-seeking and selfishness into every sphere of activity means that it is impossible to find out the truth even about important and relatively straightforward matters. Every issue, no matter how subtle and complex, is reduced by the press and politicians, corporations, advertisers, self-appointed religious pundits and others to some asinine tug of war between competing factions. Any question can be reduced to A or B as the answer. Just ask them.

That is the oppressive plight of today - you may be seeking the truth, but where in the world will you find it? Vaccination is only one small issue. Until now, society has greatly underestimated the harmfulness of immorality. Now we are forced to live immersed in it, we begin to realize that it actually makes life impossible.

About Stolen Aid Money

2011-01-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

When in Haiti in the 1970's I observed that the US Government channelled aid by way of US universities who were funded set up project offices there. This provided a layer of insulation between Uncle Sam and corrupt local officials who wanted to milk the US Government. Also, the universities recruited project staff who were capable and motivated, not just some local official's out-of-work uncle. It seemed like a smart idea to me to put a buffering layer between the source of funds and the project that is being funded. I don't know whether Canada does this or not, but if not we ought to consider it.

Apart from that, aid programs are in a way like our own social programs - if you make access too tight, they are not effective in reaching the intended recipients. In corrupt systems there is always going to be shrinkage, especially in places when life is a struggle for existence and the moral niceties get shoved aside. Think of what you might be prepared to do if your own child was dying from hunger.

The long term answers - emancipation of women, values-based education, qualifications for membership in the UN which exclude corrupt dictator-states, suppression of corporate-driven pillaging and state-rape - are going to take a while to work. In the meantime it comes down to accepting some 'shrinkage', trying to keep it to a minimum, but not neglecting the long-term strategies to improve moral capabilities and put an end to the struggle for existence, which dehumanizes people because it makes them unable to act on their moral values.

By the way, aid recipient countries sure don't have a monopoly on sordid and disgraceful conduct. How about the despoiling of our financial system by casino capitalists, and the draining away of tens of thousands of our jobs thanks to rigged 'Free Trade'?

The Way Out of Hell Part 1

2011-01-14T07:22:00.000-08:00

Hell is a metaphor for remoteness from God. Remoteness from God is itself a metaphor for the absence of the qualities and attributes of God. God is a metaphor for the unknowable essence whose act of creation resulted in the universe. Of that creation there are human beings, and there are also special links between us and God - the divine educators who appear in every age and carry forward our knowledge about God, ourselves and how to behave so as to draw nearer to God. Every one of these divine educators is the path to God. They are like the links in the chain of human development. Each one links to the ones who came before, and refers to one who will come after. These great ones are referred to as Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, the Bab, Baha'ullah. There are countless others whose traces have been lost, but they are all inwardly one and the same. They are our links with God.

Although God could have created us in such a way that we would not need an educator, but would instead have direct access to authoritative knowledge of ourselves, our world and even of Him, this is obviously not what He chose to do. We are born in complete ignorance, and need an educator for everything we are to learn, beginning with our mother, who is our first educator. The divine educators bring that element of our education that only God can bring, of which the most important is unconditional love for us - a love more perfect even than mother-love, which is the most perfect human love.

Likewise, He did not create us perfect. On the contrary, He gave us a needful material body, which is mortal. Some of the needs of that body such as air, food and water, cannot be deferred indefinitely. We have to act; we cannot be passive, because we have needs that have to be satisfied in order for our bodies to survive.

He also endowed us with the power to choose. A woman might be starving during a famine, see a child eating a piece of bread, and choose to ignore her own hunger and allow the child to continue eating. This is a choice which is noble, and contrary to the satisfaction of her own urgent physical needs. The agent which makes this choice is obviously not the woman's body, but her inner reality - her 'soul'.

Edgar Varese said, "Saty built a theatre for dogs. The curtain rises. The set consists of a bone." This amusing remark speaks to the warp and weft of human existence. We are spiritual creatures who in this world, during this mortal life, are in possession of and responsible for a physical body, with its beauty, its needs and drives, its power to express what is in our soul in situations that challenge our spirit to rule our body.

The divine educators share our life conditions, but not our nature. Since their purpose is to show us what is possible for a human being to achieve through spirituality and submission to the will of God, they always choose as God would have them choose. The rest of us sometimes do and sometimes do not. Their will is a perfect reflection of the will of God. Ours is a reflection, and may improve, but will never be perfect. The divine teachers, as God's representatives on earth, shower love upon us, and unlock our capacity to love and to serve others, which is the highest expression of love for God.

As the human race matures, each one of this series of educators builds on the foundation which was laid by the one before, and carried forward by the efforts of devoted souls in the intervening years. This progress equips us to hear and understand more fully than our fore-bearers, and like a child progressing to a higher grade, we receive a more advanced level of teaching, our assignments are more difficult, and our performance is held to a higher standard. So it is that humanity progresses by the progressive revelation of the knowledge and will of God. The teachers present to us not according to their own capacity, but to ours. An junior grade teacher might have a PhD, but shows her qualification by teaching at the right level for the students. So all the divine educators are equal. The intensity of their teaching is adapted to our receptivity, not theirs.

If a child refuses all learning and knowledge, and forgoes an education out of choice, he or she will never be equal to the ones who have received an education. So it is with nearness to God. If we consciously choose not to acquire the knowledge of God, spirituality, and the God-given principles of morality and behaviour, then we have turned away from God's love, chosen remoteness over nearness, deviation over likeness, hell over heaven. The choice is ours; no one can make it for us. God will never oblige us to love Him.

The way out of Hell, therefore, begins by accepting our own need of a divine educator, and submitting to his teachings. By doing so we create the conditions for love to appear in our heart - something that we cannot directly cause to happen. We can create the conditions for love, mainly by exercising justice in our judgement and actions. When we do so, love appears. Hell is the absence of this love and service, and like Heaven, is not a place or a future condition. We have it now, and will take it with us when we die.

The debate over the Tuscon Shootings

2011-01-13T07:13:00.000-08:00

To my mind, the parameters of the discussion are too narrow, and should be widened. Many features of the system we and Americans live in are inherited relics from earlier times. In a world where change is an immutable constant, why should these be immune to critical re-examination and abandonment where necessary?

First, let's look at party politics. In a world, and a nation characterized by so much diversity, is not the concept of factions and divisions struggling to obtain and retain power entirely outmoded, an anachronism which we have inherited from simpler times, but which we can no longer afford? What of the need for unity and of respect for the rights of the individual? These are early casualties in the unbridled competition for power we see everywhere in party-based political systems. The most effective strategy to win a competition, in the absence of moral restraints, is sabotage. Denigrating others, name-calling, vilification, demagoguery that whips up passions and hatred - is this not what we see day in and day out? Political parties add no value to political life in the 21st Century, and in fact make our countries ungovernable. We must find a way to get along without them and get rid of them.

Second, let's look at the way in which our leaders are selected, and the damage that the seeking of power inflicts on society. Under our current system, our leaders are people who pursue power and manage to rise to the top. Should effectiveness in pursuing power be the main qualification in a leader? I do not believe so, but this is what we get. We need a different way to do things, and we badly need a discourse at the community level, about such things.

The fallacy of much of the post-Tuscon debate is in the implicit assumption that 'we have the greatest system in the world, and we just have to make some adjustments to get it to work right'. 'We need more guns, fewer guns, more gentlemanly conduct, more effective destruction of the vile opponent' - these and many other lame and discredited 'solutions' are brought forward.

The discussion has to become a lot wider, deeper and realistic than this. You cannot have a healthy and peaceful society without unity. You cannot achieve unity without justice. You cannot achieve justice unless you are prepared to choose for the other person what you choose for yourself. You can't do that if you are trying to advance yourself over everyone else in the quest for your own personal satisfaction. You cannot become a moral person unless and until you renounce the pursuit of power over other people. To my mind this explains the hell we are living in, and suggests where the debate ought to be focused so that we can get out of it.

Charles Fitzsimmons

Study of God's Plan for Re-constructing the World - Part 1

2011-01-12T06:05:00.000-08:00

Impressions of a session to study the December 28, 2010 message of the Universal House of Justice

It was in the mid 1960's that the First Baha'i World Congress was held in London, the first Universal House of Justice was elected, and photos taken by astronauts and cosmonauts revealed the Earth as one planet, one home. As Bahá’u’lláh has said, "This Earth, this handful of dust, is one home. Let it be in unity".

These captivating images, of great beauty, showed the enormous conjoined continents of Europe and Asia. To the west, the continents of the Americas were surrounded by immense oceans on every side. Canada is in the midmost heart of those oceans. Because we began this study session with prayers for the members of the Yaran, the leaders of the Iranian Baha'i Community persecuted and jailed for being Baha'is, two of whom are very ill and receiving no medical care in a filthy prison, we were reminded of Bahá’u’lláh ‘s words, "Should they attempt to conceal His light on the continent, He will assuredly rear His head in the midmost heart of the ocean and, raising His voice, proclaim: "I am the lifegiver of the world!" So it is that we are able to meet freely in this wonderful land, and try to understand God's plan for humankind as explained in the December 28 message of the Universal House of Justice.

We began by asking ourselves some simple questions. What is the Universal House of Justice? Who created it? Why do we study its messages so carefully? The Universal House of Justice is the head of the Baha'i world community. It was Bahá’u’lláh Himself who created the Universal House of Justice as an institution in His book of laws, the Kitab-i-Aqdas. He promised that it would be under the shelter of Himself and of the Báb, His Herald, directed that everything not specifically revealed by Him should be referred to it, and said that He would protect it from error. It was 'Abdu’l-Bahá who explained how it was to be elected, and called it 'the source of all good, and freed from all error'.

We study its messages carefully because they guide the Baha'is of the world and their friends as to how the Message of Bahá’u’lláh can be taught to all the peoples of the world so that they can re-generate themselves and their societies by working in harmony to apply its principles. The Baha'i Faith is a lay-person's religion, without clergy. The traditional roles of teaching, inspiring and protecting the unity of the community belong to all. Certain community members are elected to terms governing bodies. Certain others are appointed through the House of Justice as Counsellors. They and their auxiliaries take a leading role for a five-year term in teaching the Faith and protecting the Baha'i movement (the Cause of God). The message we are studying was addressed to the Counsellors of the entire world collectively at their recent meeting in December 2010.

The Universal House of Justice teaches us to think in terms of processes rather than events. The transformation of individual human beings and of human society is a process by which human beings acquire the capacity to direct their inner lives and outward conduct along the guidelines given to us by Bahá’u’lláh. Key features of these guidelines are an active devotional life, unity, and service to all people. This is a vast education and training program. One feature of it is the cycle of action, reflection and consultation, by which we continually learn how to bring about this transformation of humanity - a transformation which depends on individual people understanding what it is and what it means, choosing to participate in it, and then learning continuously through their lifetimes how to become more and more capable actors in this magnificent and very far-reaching process.

The current stage we are in, which runs until 2021, is characterized as advancing the process of the entry of people by troops into the Cause. A key part of this is that people who are attracted to Bahá’u’lláh and His teachings enter into a process of lifelong learning and service by which they are nurtured to acquire capacity and skills. The entire world is organized into small geographic areas called clusters. Every cluster begins its development when a nucleus of people embark on a process that unites study of the creative words of Bahá’u’lláh with actions that put them into practice. One of the earliest phases is the study in small groups of a course on the life of the spirit, prayer and life after death, joined with the activity of starting a prayer meeting to which any and all people in one's neighbourhood are invited. The next phase is the study of service itself, in a second study course which is paired with the service action of visiting people in their homes to discuss spiritual themes and the actions by which they can be put into practice. The third phase is to study the principles of spiritual education for children in a third study course. The service action for this course is to start or support a children's class. And so it goes. Successive courses create capacities to guide and support junior youth, serve selflessly and effectively on elected bodies and committees, and so on.

Every cluster where this process of study paired with service is underway is considered to have a Program of Growth. As this program progresses, activities multiply and new people are attracted and begin the first course of study and hold devotional meetings. Eventually, there are enough people with this training and practical service experience to begin to organize this process at a higher level. At this stage, the cluster can support an Intensive Program of Growth, for which certain organizational features are needed: people who organize study courses, or children's classes; people who stay informed about what is happening in various parts of the cluster, and can suggest where newly trained people could direct their activities. At this stage, a three month rhythm is found to be helpful. People come together very three months to share their experiences and what they have learned, consult about what is happening in the cluster, and plan activities for the next three months. By 2016, the Universal House of Justice wants the number of cluster with an Intensive Program of Growth to be increased from 1,600 to 5,000.

There are two other stages a cluster attains as its development proceeds. Those two stages are what we will be studying in the next session. I will be writing more about this in future updates.

On Chris Hedges' views on 'American Psychosis'

2011-01-10T13:09:00.000-08:00

Chris Hedges, as quoted in the Globe and Mail January 10, 2011:

American Psychosis

What happens to a society that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion?

Chris Hedges

When a culture lives within an illusion it perpetuates a state of permanent infantilism or childishness. As the gap widens between the illusion and reality, as we suddenly grasp that it is our home being foreclosed or our job that is not coming back, we react like children. We scream and yell for a savior, someone who promises us revenge, moral renewal and new glory. It is not a new story.

A furious and sustained backlash by a betrayed and angry populace, one unprepared intellectually, emotionally and psychologically for collapse, will sweep aside the Democrats and most of the Republicans and will usher America into a new dark age. It was the economic collapse in Yugoslavia that gave us Slobodan Milosevic. It was the Weimar Republic that vomited up Adolf Hitler. And it was the breakdown in Tsarist Russia that opened the door for Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

A cabal of proto-fascist misfits, from Christian demagogues to loudmouth talk show hosts, whom we naïvely dismiss as buffoons, will find a following with promises of revenge and moral renewal. And as in all totalitarian societies, those who do not pay fealty to the illusions imposed by the state become the outcasts, the persecuted.

The decline of American empire began long ago before the current economic meltdown or the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It began before the first Gulf War or Ronald Reagan. It began when we shifted, in the words of Harvard historian Charles Maier, from an “empire of production” to an “empire of consumption.” By the end of the Vietnam War, when the costs of the war ate away at Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and domestic oil production began its steady, inexorable decline, we saw our country transformed from one that primarily produced to one that primarily consumed. We started borrowing to maintain a level of consumption as well as an empire we could no longer afford. We began to use force, especially in the Middle East, to feed our insatiable thirst for cheap oil. We substituted the illusion of growth and prosperity for real growth and prosperity. The bill is now due.

America’s most dangerous enemies are not Islamic radicals but those who sold us the perverted ideology of free-market capitalism and globalization. They have dynamited the very foundations of our society.

In the 17th century these speculators would have been hung.

Today they run the government and consume billions in taxpayer subsidies.

I think this analysis is correct. However identifying the evils is not the same as addressing them. American society, and ours, too, which shares most of its characteristics but in less extreme form, has to be rebuilt from the neighborhood up, by all of us working together to identify the values that are central to making things better - chief among them the dignity of every human being. No more name calling. No vilifying. No divisions based one one group or race or belief being superior to others. No prejudice. As the toxic elements are removed one by one, our neighborhoods, and eventually our society will be healed. This is a big job. There are no shortcuts. On the other hand, it provides every one of us with a role to play in making the world a better place. It is not a matter of what we believe, it is a matter of what we practice.

Science is not the cruel stranger - response to an article in the Globe and Mail

2010-12-17T04:03:00.001-08:00

A good approach to science and religion is that they are each ways of finding out about reality. Science is based on investigation, and can produce a precise description of a small part of reality. Religion is the teachings revealed progressively in every age and to every people by the divine messengers. They provide a general description of the whole of reality, in terms that are comprehensible to the people for whom they were intended. They, science and religion are both valid, mutually complementary and necessary. Like the wings of a bird, both must be strong and vigorous, or flight is compromised or impossible.

The teachings of the messengers have to be renewed after a time because they become institutionalized and corrupted, and a sizable component, the social teachings, was in any case only appropriate for the time and place they were revealed, and requires updating. God takes care of this by sending a new educator about every 1,000 years. These educators are never accepted at first, save by a few. They invariably suffer all their lives. Some are put to death, as was Christ.

But some science is junk, and so is some religion: the drug company scientist who connives at concealing unwanted test results; the demagogue who appropriates religious teachings to achieve power, extort money and manipulate people. The existence, even the prevalence of falsehoods such as these does not prove that there is no truth, any more than the prevalence of weeds in an untended garden proves that there are no vegetables in it.

Received religions - the collection of traditions, misunderstandings, hypocrisies, worn out concepts of superiority and exclusivity and, yes, beautiful and sublime principles - do not like to be challenged by either science or by the appearance of the next divine messenger. Like auditors arriving at the company door, the next divine messenger is welcomed by some for the light they shed on the situation, but they are not welcomed by all.

This is a wonderful time to be alive. As scientific knowledge advances, the harmful effects of junk religion and its shibboleths and obsolete doctrines are being exposed and discarded. We are becoming free. Free also to accept the teachings of the divine messengers. This is an obligation, but also a choice we each have to make for ourselves.

Human beings are created to know and love God. There is nothing we can do to change this. Our capacity to love, our attraction to beauty and transcendent things are signs of this nature. We also have, and need, the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. Truth is truth no matter where we find it, and falsehood is falsehood no matter in what lab or from what pulpit it is proclaimed.

Science is not a cruel stranger, nor a kind stranger. It is a great human pursuit, but it is neutral. Giving it coloration or a temperature, except as the author of this article does, to make a point, is misleading. Our reasoning faculty is the all we have to protect us from being deceived by falsehood. Given the deplorable situation of our culture and our world, in which falsehood and prevarication have become institutionalized in virtually every human institution, we need this faculty very badly.

But in matters of religion, let us not suppose at the outset that we know all the answers - let's use our critical faculties (science) to weigh whatever is presented to us as religion and accept or reject it according to whether it is reasonable. This is the Baha'i approach, which I find very sensible.

This article is a very good contribution to thought. It certainly has been for me.

Paying the poor enough to nourish them properly

2010-12-08T04:45:00.000-08:00

Diabetes is indeed strongly related to poor diet. Most people on social assistance cannot afford to buy the healthy food that would make them feel better and improve their health. Jim is right about this.

There are a number of foods on the market which, as a class, are terrible for people and should be called out, even prohibited: fruit beverages and pop with high-fructose sweetener (used solely because it is cheaper than real sugar); artificially-sweetened foods and beverages; highly refined sugars and grains which have had the minerals removed that the body needs to digest them properly; many so-called 'edible oil' products including many margarines. Avoiding these time bombs in your diet means spending more on food. I have many friends whose food is making them sick, but who either cannot afford to eat better, are too ignorant about nutrition (as are most doctors) or both. This is a real and resolvable problem which, if remedied, would save a great deal of human suffering and avoid the very high costs of treating the poor for diabetes and related maladies.

Is Religion a force for good or ill - Globe and Mail November 26 2010

2010-11-26T11:41:00.001-08:00

If I might offer a thought on this subject, it would be this: there is only one reality; religion and science are two different ways of learning about it. Therefore there is no fundamental opposition between science and religion - on the contrary they are complimentary. Science, which is the use of reason, serves to purify religion of falsehoods and superstition. Religion provides direction for the human soul, a comprehensive view of human life, and insights as to how to direct the achievements of science. Both are necessary; neither is complete without the other. But by religion is meant the pure guidance of the divine messengers - those special beings who have, in succession to one another every 1,000 years or so, educated humanity in every age and setting. Their deeds accord with their words, and they in fact lay the foundation for the next advances in science by praising and encouraging learning and knowledge, and refuting falsehood.

The hypocrisy, moral confusion and deplorable conduct of many, indeed most so-called religious leaders and many of their followers have brought religion into disrepute, but to use their reprehensible acts as a reason to reject the process by which God has always educated and will always educate humanity is to fail to distinguish truth from error - a basic capability which is necessary not only for science, but for life.

The basic human yearning for transcendence, for what we could call spiritual, is universal, as is the capacity, whether exercised or not, to be selfless, to work for the happiness of others, and to delight in lofty ideals and virtues. Why, one famous architect asks, have all the most beautiful structures ever reared by any culture in any place been designed by people who were doing so in praise of God? Why, I ask, have legion upon legion of ordinary people lived beautiful lives of service to others and self-sacrifice in what they considered to be an act of love for God? Do the repellent words and deeds of religious fanatics and charlatans negate all of this? The answer to this question needs to be considered. We have an obligation to seek the truth, and not to be misled by the clamor of self-appointed spokesmen for either belief or for unbelief.
My own pondering of this question has led me to the Baha'i teachings; I commend them to people of all faiths and of no faith. I think they can teach one a great deal about reality, and they uphold the unity of science and religion.

Let's Say Good-bye to Political Parties

2010-11-21T19:36:00.000-08:00

10:31 PM on November 21, 2010

The spectacle of democracy as the endless struggle for power between warring factions undermines support for it, and cools the ardor for it among thoughtful people, particularly youth, wherever they reside, including Canada. Of the six forms of government discussed by Aristotle, democracy, defined as rule by the people in quest of self-interest, scored lower than polity, which is rule by the people in pursuit of the general interest. Parties are merely extensions of the principle of self-interest versus the general interest. They are a menace to the general interest.

Aristotle liked polity better than democracy and so would most people. Polity appeals far more to a sense of idealism.

The competition inherent in the party system inevitably leads to sabotage. The most effective strategy in any competition is to sabotage your opponent. You could try to win by improving your own performance, but your opponent might do a better job of this, so the best ploy is to attack and sabotage him or her. Under these conditions, truth-telling and moral integrity are early casualties of the fray. This is exactly what takes place. It is the strategy we see used every day, and pushed to its limits. Just watch any parliamentary debate.

All discussions of democracy assume that contending political parties must be a central feature of it, even though it is now obvious that parties, by getting people to take sides and fight about any issue in a quest for dominance, add no value to the political process, and make intelligent, truth-oriented and values-driven debate impossible. They are destroying democracy. Parties easily become and have become the tools of vested interests because they need money, and are the main vector by which corruption enters into our governments in Canada, to say nothing of the U.S. We need another model by which to elect people and conduct consultation and government.

The great challenge is to find a workable model that will enable us to get rid of political parties. One Canadian territory has actually outlawed political parties. Perhaps that's a model worth exporting.

Beyond even the need for a model is the need for citizens and officials to have the moral capability to consider the well-being of society as a whole. Helpful to this would be a system under which elections proceed without nominations or politicking and people vote for the most capable members of the community. The people with the highest number of votes are elected. All this is very challenging compared to what we are used to, but since what we have is not working very well, are we going to stick with it forever? Let's start thinking outside of the box.

Re the current auto crisis

2009-04-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

The ingredients in the current crisis in Canadian auto manufacturing are well known. The chaos and confusion in banking and credit plus widespread job losses have reduced car sales to the point where the high-cost car makers are overwhelmed and failing. Management and administrative salaries, assembly workers' wages and benefits, underfunded pension and benefits liabilities, and huge losses in pension fund investments all combine to produce real trouble. The industry is like an overloaded and not very airworthy jetliner. Wallowing along, now ice is building up on the wings and it is going down fast.

Unless they get that ice off, a crash is coming in short order. Only swift and massive cuts in costs, and more thrust from higher sales of cars will get that ice off. If these two things are not done, there will soon be nothing to save. Ownership, management, unions, workers and others with a stake in the industry, including the government, have to come together and deal with this in a cooperative way, and they don't have the luxury of time.

If they can stave off this 'controlled flight into terrain', then these stakeholders will have the opportunity to address the airworthiness of the companies, which is the bigger threat. They must do that together, too. They cannot resolve these deep-rooted and serious weaknesses by fighting. They have to cooperate, and be ready to make big sacrifices all around.

The fact that there seems to be no sign of this happening is not encouraging. For inspiration, let them look to a Japanese model. Not Honda or Toyota, but Admiral Nagumo, who commanded the immense Japanese navy fleet at the battle of Midway. Nagumo, in the stress and confusion of battle, dithered about which type of planes to launch. The American admiral resolved his confusion by sinking him.

Last call for cooperation and maturity! Any takers? We'll see.

Need for an Industrial Tribunal

2009-03-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

The following is a comment posted today at the Globe and Mail website.

What is alarming to me is that the viability of the major industrial activity in Ontario, directly and indirectly affecting the livelihood of many thousands of people for many years to come is, seemingly, being decided by a series of jousts between professional adversaries from labour and management, with predictable results of posturing, brinkmanship and generally testosterone-soaked and futile behavior. This is two rams locking horns on the edge of a cliff, except that the futures of many thousands of others are at stake if they go over the edge, which they seem likely to do.

Where is serious and impartial discussion about how to survive a temporary 40 to 50 per cent drop in sales? Where is a strategy to keep Big 3 and parts supplier jobs in Canada, based on real sacrifices by all stakeholders? Where is working together for the good of the industry? Where is maturity and social responsibility?

These enormous stresses and strains are revealing the utter failure of current political, business and labour leadership to act in the public interest. The public senses this, and is fed up. The people of the entire province of Ontario have a stake in intelligent and sound measures to save this industry. Who speaks and acts for them? Public officials, many of whose election campaigns are funded by business and labour organizations, are silent. Very silent.

There should be an Industrial Tribunal empowered to represent the public interest in these industrial wars, and to impose, if need be, settlements that serve the common good. We need this now.

Principles about religion, science and society

2009-01-27T08:11:00.000-08:00

I posted this comment in the Globe and Mail online edition, today as a comment on the opinion piece, The Search for Shared Ethics, by Margaret Somerville:

Thanks to the Globe and Mail for printing this stimulating article. As a contribution to this discussion I offer the following principles.

Just as there is valid science and junk science, there is valid religion and there is junk religion. The standard for discriminating between them is the same - it is what is in accord with reason. Whatever is presented as religion that is in conflict with reason is mere superstition, and should be discarded. Likewise, whatever is presented as scientific truth should be susceptible of investigation and proof.

Science provides a precise description of a discrete part of reality, whereas religion provides a general description of the whole of reality, including the reality of the human being. Both perspectives are useful and necessary. In particular, true religion has always been the source of sound values which enable society to function. I believe this is what Ms Somerville is saying. A fair-minded person can accept this.

If in the past religion had not called ignorance knowledge, thoughtful people would not have called religion ignorance.
Science mobilizes the intellectual faculty; religion mobilizes the human capacity to love and to serve. A society can no more function without love and service than it can without science.
A key part of the plight of our time is the perception that science and religion are fundamentally opposed. They are not. Both are ways of understanding reality.
As a case in point, true religion, as I understand it, holds that the human being is the supreme value in creation, because any human being is capable of reflecting all of the attributes of God, whereas any object or idea can only reflect, at best, some of these. It is therefore wrong to sacrifice a person for the sake of any ideal, no matter how cherished because no thing or idea is equal in value to any human being. Now that's a universal value which is sorely needed in today's world, and which reason can accept.

* Posted 27/01/09 at 9:51 AM EST

An Inaugural That Augurs Well

2009-01-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

There has been so much that is good said about the accession to the presidency of Barack H. Obama – punctuated by some myopic grousing to make the good things stand out even better. I loved seeing the woman on CNN yesterday who could not restrain her tears of joy. She had a handsome, open, golden brown face, and was talking about what this day meant to her little boy. Now, she said, he does not have to aim to be a basketball star or a rap star to succeed.

Barack Obama delivered the best speech I have ever heard, and I mark hard. It was a matchless combination of situational awareness, poetry and appropriateness. I was utterly impressed.

And it was heart-warming to see not hundreds, or thousands or hundreds of thousands, but, by some estimates, millions of people who came out in the bitter cold and stood for hours for the inauguration, and smiled about it. I saw a seemingly infinite number of faces of every shade and shape - all smiling. No one can fail to be moved by so much happiness. This has to be a very good thing. And if I might be permitted to say it, it gives me particular pleasure to see so many people of colour happy. It is a sight that is all too rare. But happiness looks great on them.

I heard Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a heroine of the integration movement, speak well and insightfully on PBS: ‘Barack Obama had a father from Kenya, and a white mother whom I've just written about, who helped make the man the man he is. And what she emphasized was values.

And if we want to understand Barack Obama and if we want to understand the kinds of things that we need to be passing on to our young people no matter whether they're black or white, it's those values that you see coming out in Obama all the time.

Everybody talks about his confidence and so forth. Well, this was a kid who was a recalcitrant teenager, but his mother, who was poor -- although she was educated -- nevertheless, when he was goofing off in school, she said, "You are going to get up every morning at 4:30, and we're going to go over your lessons before I go to work." And she said, "You may not be enjoying this, but I'm not either, buster ."

I am very grateful to Ms Hunter-Gault. She helped me to realize what I love about this inauguration. It is not only that Mr. Obama is a man of mixed race, although that is partly it, because that means so much to so many Americans. It is that he is so excellent – a wonderful even temperament, excellent mind, highly articulate, patient, a peacemaker. The list could go on and on of the excellences of this man.

The day before the Inauguration, Mr. Obama was giving a day of service – pitching in – as he called it - to observe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He was painting a wall at a drop-in centre for youth. Later that day, he arrived at the place where his wife, Michelle, was packing gift boxes for soldiers serving overseas. The crowd there asked him to speak. He took the microphone. “I can’t say anything much just now, he said, smiling. ‘I have to save all my best lines for tomorrow”.

Some people off-camera called out, “We love you, Barack.”. He paused in what he was going to say, and responded to them. “I love you back”, said the President-elect of the United States.

Recourse to Principles to Resolve Economic Problems

2009-01-16T06:51:00.000-08:00

Recourse to Principles to Resolve Economic Problems

The primary challenge is to raise the context to the level of principle, as distinct from pure pragmatism.

In seeking to formulate advice for the Government in the preparation of its next budget, a key consideration is the identification of basic principles on which this and future budgets should be based. In scanning commentaries and position papers relating to the economy it is striking to observe that the most convincing and compelling points are those which rest upon not only a keen analysis of the problem, but a clear identification of the principles on which the recommendation is based. This is not accidental. In any general crisis, such as the current plight of the economy, the supreme need is to mobilize the willing cooperation of those who are affected, and the most powerful way this can be accomplished is to explain the basis of actions with recourse to principles. However this must be done in a meaningful and clear way so as not to arouse suspicion. For the public is very sensitive, through long and bitter experience, to attempts to manipulate its opinion by hollowly adducing great principles of public good while dissembling other motives.

Polity. Among the most fundamental principles is that of polity – which for these purposes means the recognition of the oneness and wholeness of the nation, and that any government measures should promote the interests of the nation as a whole, rather than those of a particular sub-group. The principle of polity expresses the principle of justice. It upholds that something which is not in the best interests of the whole cannot in the long run be in the best interests of any component part. The basis of all power struggles is the quest for preference and precedence. Documents bearing the imprimatur of the national government must be free of the odour of favoritism and provincialism, otherwise they will not receive general support among the population. The budget should announce in its preamble that its intention is to uphold the general interests of the people of Canada above any particular regional or factional advantage, that this in practice involves compromise, and that any proposal has been carefully evaluated as to its potential overall effect on the country.

Assistance, rights and responsibilities. Industries, sectors and populations have the right to receive assistance from the national treasury when this is needed. However, this right is accompanied and balanced by responsibilities. It would be unconscionable, for example, to propose to give, or for that matter to accept money derived from the exertions of ordinary taxpayers, most of whom are of modest means, without a firm commitment from the recipients that these funds will be used in the general interest. For example, if the automobile sector receives government assistance, it should be on the conditions that jobs will not continue to be exported to other countries, and that management and labour will ensure the long-term viability of the industry by whatever means are within their power - including the agreement to adopt without delay a compensation system whereby salaries wages and benefits of people at all levels of management and labour, including retirement benefits, will henceforth be paid with a fixed portion (say 60 per cent), and the remainder paid as a conditional portion if and when the company is profitable.

My Favourite Moment of the Election Campaign

2008-12-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

The recent Canadian election campaign contained a fine moment, which I want to share with anyone who may have missed it. It occurred in the French-language leaders debate, and came in response to a question from a man I assume is simply an ordinary Quebecker. He asked the leaders to each say something positive about the person sitting to his or her left.

Whereupon, each of the candidates in turn, although girded for confrontation and battle, began to shed their armor and say something in praise of the leader of another party. For a few brief minutes, the atmosphere around the table changed completely as they began to speak in praise of each other. Their expressions changed - there were smiles, a bit shy, as they heard themselves recognized for some good quality they possess. And as each one spoke, I began to see it, too. Here were five people who are really very excellent and very able. I saw, through the eyes of each of them, something noble and valuable that they acknowledged in the other. I thought, 'how fortunate we are that people of this calibre and ability want to serve our country'. I became proud of them. It is true - each of those people - Gilles Duceppe, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, and Elizabeth May - are very fine people, deeply committed to the service of others.

Suddenly I had a glimpse of what it would be like to have them working together, drawing on each others' strengths, supporting each other and influencing each other. They would have differing priorities and points of view, certainly, because they are each individuals. But if they could see themselves as all on the same team, what a team that would be. Just to look at the expressions on their faces as they were praised and valued was an unforgettable experience. I felt as though I was able, for only a brief glimpse, to contemplate something of the reality of each of these people - their nobility, their capacities, and their hearts. I felt something for each of them which I did not expect to feel. I don't know what to call it - but it is what you feel when you see something you love in some other person. And each of these leaders had given me this gift by saying something they admired in one of the others. I was moved, and I was taken completely by surprise.

The moment passed, and they then had to resume their arguments and combat. But did I detect a slight softening in their words, a greater focus on values and visions that they could all share? I think I might have. Kindness is a powerful force in human relations. It is disarming.

And I realized that the environment in which these people have to work day in and day out is toxic to them. It literally makes them ill. Human beings are not really designed to live in an acid-bath of disparagement and criticism. Our politicians are required to function in continuous conflict, and are bombarded with criticism - much of it personal and very hurtful. They exist in an atmosphere that tends to highlight their vulnerabilities and shortcomings, which is in itself a frightening thing for any person, no matter how courageous. No wonder they feel defensive and lash out at one another.

So, Globe columnist Rick Salutin, among many others ask how do we explain the behaviour of the Prime Minister and other major political figures during the stresses and strains of the past week. I think we have to look for the explanation to the political system that breeds and encourages conflict and strife. If Canadians are heart-sick about the political happenings of the past week, a great part of it may well be that we feel compassion for all of the people involved, and yes, even ashamed that they are subjected, publicly, to so much disparagement and humiliation from each other, and alas, from us, too. They are, after all, our leaders. What happens to them happens to us, by extension.

In addition to all of this, of course, we are conscious that amidst all this strife, the measures needed to tend to our country are postponed, perhaps even defeated, since in the poisoned atmosphere a really good measure may be discarded simply because it is voiced by the wrong mouth.

We, as a people, need to give our political gladiators permission to stop fighting for a while, and see how that works. Let's tell them that we have seen something in them, in that fleeting moment during the Quebec debate, that we can never forget, and that we desperately want to see more. I'm not talking about 'playing nice'. It is something far deeper than that. It is showing recognition of and respect for the value of another human being. It is encouragement and gratitude for the burdens they are shouldering on our behalf. It is trying to see the other person as God sees them. If we don't like it, we can always go back to strife and discord. They are not hard to bring back.

And while we are at it, let us not forget that Quebecker who asked such a fine question of the leaders, and the moderator of the debate, who allowed it. Let's be proud of them and grateful that our country includes their province. Down deep inside we know that we really can't, and really do not want to live without each other. So why don't we just decide that from now on, we are going to act like it?

The Two Thirds Solution - An Industrial Strategy for Survival in Hard Times

2008-11-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

Companies in the manufacturing sector need to re-organize if they are to survive hard times, according to Canadian management consultant Charles Fitzsimmons. "The way most are structured now makes them fragile. They're OK in boom times - who isn't? - but when their industry enters a down turn, they have no way of protecting themselves, and things can go bad in a hurry. Orders fall off, inventories rise, fixed costs stay the same, and the largest cost of all - labour - becomes a millstone around the corporate neck. Everyone knows what happens next - production is cut back, people are laid off en masse, the fixed costs are spread over an even small base, which makes the balance sheet look even worse. The firm begins to eat into its reserves; working capital dries up, credit becomes more expensive or disappears entirely.. If the local company is part of a larger corporate empire, then it may be closed, and everyone loses their jobs. We see this more and more. Manufacturing firm these days are like infantry walking into a fire fight standing straight up, and not wearing any body armor. How about some defensive strategies? Wouldn't it at least be a good idea to duck?

"The question of how to survive hard times is highly relevant now, says Fitzsimmons, "because we're in a recession now. But strategies to survive the down part of economic cycles will probably always be needed, because ups and downs are just part of life for manufacturers - and plenty of others, too."

So where are they, these strategies for surviving hard times? "One approach I find very interesting, says Fitzsimmons, "was adopted by some large Japanese manufacturing firms about 20 years ago. The principle is very simple: employees are only paid about two thirds of their wages in their regular paycheck. The remaining third is paid twice per year, in a lump sum, but only if the company is making money. Think about it. When times are tough, these firms can reduce their salary expense - always the largest cost - by one third without making a single lay-off. And when orders pick up again, all the trained staff are still in place so that production can be ramped up again immediately, while competitors who let their trained people go during the down times, have to recruit, hire and train new people to get back up to speed. And that takes time, and time is a competitive edge. The Two Thirds companies - that's what I call them - have the competitive edge is a number of ways.

A strategy that helps you survive in hard times, and gives you a competitive edge in good times. That's what this looks like to me. First, the Two Thirds Solution guys are able to give lot more loyalty to their employees than other companies - the quick-shedders, as I call them. Because they offer greater loyalty, they get more loyalty back. They reduce staff turnover, which is in itself a cost reduction. By having a strategy in place to deal with downturns, they can offer their customers quick response, because they're always ready to go with trained staff who are very keen to see the company make money, because when the company makes money, the employees make money, too. Everyone knows that when employees have a direct stake in the profitability of their company, you get the best out of your company resources - less waste, reduced absenteeism, a company-wide ethic that, hey, we're all in this together, so let's make it work. Also, the disruption and heartache of layoffs is avoided - but at a cost - people have to be willing to accept the potential of less pay when times are bad

Sounds, good, right? says Fitzsimmons. "So why is it just about unheard-of in North America? Here are some reasons that occur to me. Unions may not like it, because they see it as their job to protect the highest seniority, highest paid workers. If that means that junior folks go out the door in hard times, well that's just the way it's always been. Employees who are at the top of the seniority and pay heap may feel secure enough, or close enough to retirement, that they don't want to see their monthly pay go down just so that there won't be lay-offs that probably won't affect them anyway. Mind you, if the whole plant closes, they are out in the cold with everyone else. Management may not like it because they have to play by the same rules - meaning their pay goes down by a third when the company isn't making money, just as it does for the workers. Also, it implies a commitment to candor - letting employees see how the company is actually doing. That's a big change for most companies. Shareholders may not like it, because it actually elevates the stability and profitability of the company in the long term ahead of short-term financial results, and for some of them the short term is what their compensation is calculated on, so that's the only term that matters."

Fitzsimmons says, "I think governments, when they are considering pleas for assistance from companies in the manufacturing and other sectors that are hurting right now, are entitled to ask whether these companies are doing anything like this to protect their own viability, as a condition for getting help. When someone asks you for a blood transfusion, it's seem a legitimate question to ask whether they are doing anything to stop the hemorrhaging."

So what's the bottom line on this? According to Fitzsimmons, "in the Two Thirds Solution, everyone involved may have to give up something. In return they get a better shot at their company weathering the economic storms, and also performing better in good times, too. But people generally don't like change, and often the people wielding the levers of power in companies, unions and the financial world measure everything with their own personal yardstick. It's like they'd rather burn the engine out and then junk the car than change the oil if they have to pay for the oil change themselves."

But is he optimistic about this idea catching on? "Well, hard times are a great teacher. Many companies are looking into the abyss right now. Winston Churchill said, 'the likelihood of imminent death concentrates the mind wonderfully'.

Final words: "When the interests of so many people and communities are at stake if firms go under, is it too much to ask people to act responsibly and consider the wider interest? After all, he says, "there are other people to consider in any situation, and there is such a thing as tomorrow."