Frosty's tragic end

Please don't tell the girls, but Frosty has come to a tragic end. The details are too gruesome to put up on a public blog. Let's just say he suffered a dissociative disorder caused by El Niño involving his head and body. I suppose he lost his mind, you could say.

Frosty and friends in happier times
(c) 2015 Terry McCann

A Crisis of Junk Science

When the noble science of Science degenerates into junk science the ripples of scepticism resulting from feelings of betrayal and anger have the potential to become a tsunami.

"In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted last April that hair identification testimony from its forensic scientists was flawed in 95 per cent of the 268 cases before 2000 it has reviewed so far. In 32 of those cases, the defendant was sentenced to death."

The above is from an op-ed by criminal defence lawyer, Daniel Brown, in today's Toronto Star.

Before Canadians feel too smug here's another snippet:

"Bad science is an alarming thread that runs through almost two dozen Canadian wrongful murder convictions exposed in recent years by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC). The roll call of errors in these cases includes clothing fibres mistakenly believed to match one another; experts who incorrectly concluded that dog bites on a dead child were knife wounds inflicted by her mother; inept autopsies that misinterpreted the cause of death; biology samples contaminated by a government lab technician; and hair samples that anchored a murder conviction, yet later turned out to be worthless."

The only consolation for Canadians is that Canada does not have a death penalty. Innocent people have not been killed; they have simply languished in jail while their children were removed and placed in group homes, foster care or adoption.

In his piece, Brown observes,

"Wealthy defendants are able to afford top lawyers and expert witnesses, but indigent accused or those from marginalized communities frequently bear the brunt of bad science evidence. They cannot match cases assembled by well-funded police and prosecutors, sometimes pleading guilty to obtain a reduced sentence in the face of superficially overwhelming evidence."

The Alchemist by Pieter Bruegel

Brown makes some conclusions that I think are predictable and precisely to my first point about scepticism:

At precisely the time we ought to be exercising heightened skepticism, a mistaken belief is developing that wrongful convictions are a thing of the past.

And again…

Judges must be better trained to weed out junk science and unwarranted opinions offered by experts. And they must warn juries about the perils of placing too much reliance on science or picking sides in a battle of experts.

This reminds me of manufacturers relying on inspectors to 'inspect in' quality. As W. Edwards Deming pointed out decades ago, that is far too late in the production cycle and way too susceptible to error. Would we fly to our vacation spots knowing the plane we are on did not have adequate requirements and design review, risk and failure modes analysis, verification and validation prior to 'inspection'? Heck, let alone fly, we don't even allow cars on the road that have not been built according to this process, and yet we trust that our 'scientists' all use correct scientific methods and design of experiment even though they often do not bother with peer review. Hello?


Read the entire op-ed here: Junk science is undermining our justice system

(Republished from my professional blog article of the same title at tcmc Quality Management Services)

Photo credit: http://www.wikiart.org/en/pieter-bruegel-the-elder/the-alchemist

Children without a voice

Writing his regular column for the Toronto Star Martin Regg Cohn's piece today is about the failure of Ontario's children's aid societies to properly protect some of the most vulnerable and needy children.

He concludes, "Unlike the grown-ups who get all the attention, kids can’t vote, and lack a voice. But they still need politicians in power to hear them."

True as this is about the children Cohn is explicitly writing about, I believe this to be even more cogently true about kids in the womb. Kids 'in utero' do not even exist as humans in Canadian law. They suddenly appear, Voila!, and enter into the ambience of law with human rights and freedoms when they pass through the magical birth canal, or, like rabbits from a hat, are yanked out by C-section 'deliverers'. Until that moment, these are the most voiceless kids on the planet.

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch

You can read Cohn's column online here: Premier ponders blowing up our CAS mess. It's an excellent piece and I recommend it to Canadians living in Ontario. For non-Canadians, CAS is an acronym for Children's Aid Societies.

Picture credit: "The Scream" by Edvard Munch - WebMuseum at ibiblioPage URL: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/munch.scream.jpg. 
Licensed under Public Domain via Commons

Abstract musing on favourite colours

Credit: www.allaboutbirds.org

Grey, brown, black and white
are not my favourite colouring colours
drab, boring, cold, depressing

yet on a chickadee delighting,
even playing.

A zebra...
magnificent, flaunting,
shy, demure, seducing.

Credit i.livescience.com/

Touching, hearing, seeing
creatures foraging, flying,
living, breathing, laughing, crying
dispel the abstract musing
on favourite colours
as dawn's awaking
dispels the sleeping dreaming.

Indonesia is burning. Who cares?

Fires in Indonesia are currently producing more carbon dioxide than the US economy. And in three weeks the fires have released more CO2 than the annual emissions of Germany.

Photo: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images via www.theguardian.com.

Starbucks, PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz and Unilever are complicit in both cause and inaction.

The cost in human lives and misery is colossal as is the destruction of species. ‘Children are being prepared for evacuation in warships; already some have choked to death. Species are going up in smoke at an untold rate.’

This article was written October 30 and revised November 16. The fires continue unabated.

Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?

by George Monbiot in The Guardian.

Call for an independent, public review of the costs of nuclear stations in Ontario

No nuclear project has delivered on time or on budget in Ontario’s history. Ontario still does not have a plan for storing radioactive nuclear waste, nor does it have an public emergency plan to deal with a Fukushima-scale nuclear accident. And taxpayers are on the hook for the costs of a nuclear disaster because no private company will fully insure high risk nuclear stations.

Darlington on Lake Ontario

Ontario’s residential electricity rates rose by 3.4% on November 1, 2015. According to an Ontario Energy Board report, 45% of the rise in Ontario’s electricity generation costs is due to subsidies for Ontario’s aging nuclear reactors. The 2012 restart of the Bruce A Units 1 and 2 reactors came in $2 billion over budget and over 2 years behind schedule. Rebuilding the Bruce B Nuclear Station will cost Ontario’s consumers between $60 and $111 billion over 30 years. Rebuilding the Darlington Nuclear Station will cost Ontarians between $8 and $32 billion.

Studies show that Ontario could reduce its debt by $12.9 billion, save ratepayers over $750 million per year ($15 billion over 20 years) and secure a higher return on equity for publicly owned Ontario Power Generation if Ontario replaces high cost electricity from Darlington with lower cost water power from Quebec.

Yet, Ontario has never conducted an independent public review of nuclear costs or alternatives.

It’s irresponsible for the Liberals to spend billions on rebuilding nuclear plants without conducting an independent public review of costs and alternatives.

I therefore join the call on the Government of Ontario to conduct an independent public review of the costs of and alternatives to rebuilding the Bruce B Nuclear Station and the Darlington Nuclear Station.

SIGN THE PETITION

(Picture credit http://www.powermag.com/opg-proposes-new-nuclear-construction-at-darlington/)

November 11 - Lest We Forget

We pause to remember.

Wilfred Owen is the writer of war poetry whose works speak to me more than any other - and there are many other good war poets. Owen was killed in action one week before the end of the First World War.

On this Remembrance Day I found this poem, The Sentry, very sobering. For Owen there was nothing glorious about war even as we remember with gratitude those who died for the freedoms we take for granted.

(Whizz-bangs was the term used widely in WWI by British and Commonwealth servicemen to describe any form of German field artillery shells. The term was originally attributed to the noise made by shells from German 77mm field guns where the whizz of the shell, travelling faster than sound, was heard before the bang of the gun.)

WWI - wounded soldiers

Wilfred Owen

The Sentry 

We'd found an old Boche dug-out, and he knew,
And gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell
Hammered on top, but never quite burst through.
Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime
Kept slush waist high, that rising hour by hour,
Choked up the steps too thick with clay to climb.
What murk of air remained stank old, and sour
With fumes of whizz-bangs, and the smell of men
Who'd lived there years, and left their curse in the den,
If not their corpses. . . .
                        There we herded from the blast
Of whizz-bangs, but one found our door at last.
Buffeting eyes and breath, snuffing the candles.
And thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping
And splashing in the flood, deluging muck —
The sentry's body; then his rifle, handles
Of old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck.
We dredged him up, for killed, until he whined
"O sir, my eyes — I'm blind — I'm blind, I'm blind!"
Coaxing, I held a flame against his lids
And said if he could see the least blurred light
He was not blind; in time he'd get all right.
"I can't," he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids
Watch my dreams still; but I forgot him there
In posting next for duty, and sending a scout
To beg a stretcher somewhere, and floundering about
To other posts under the shrieking air.
Those other wretches, how they bled and spewed,
And one who would have drowned himself for good, —
I try not to remember these things now.
Let dread hark back for one word only: how
Half-listening to that sentry's moans and jumps,
And the wild chattering of his broken teeth,
Renewed most horribly whenever crumps
Pummelled the roof and slogged the air beneath —
Through the dense din, I say, we heard him shout
"I see your lights!" But ours had long died out.

Movember - Mo Stashed Hairiers: The Call Is Out

It's that time of year again. Go, the Mo Stashed Hairiers !



Movember - Mo Stashed Hairiers: The Call Is Out

Happy Thanksgiving!

Should we be forced to wear a burqa or niqab?

Number of people in Canada killed by Muslim women wearing a burqa or niqab = zero.

Number killed by people not wearing burqa or niqab = more than I care to count.

Heck, with stats like that I propose we should all be forced to wear niqabs and burqas. Don't you think?

Photo credit: http://bloggfiler.no/detflerkulturellenorge.blogg.no/images/1846628-8-1392290303437.jpg

Niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies panders to intolerance - Susan Delacourt

This is a probing piece by Susan Delacourt that asks the excellent question, why do minorities who have themselves been victims of intolerance then show intolerance towards other minorities? There are some votes that you simply do not want.

Niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies panders to intolerance: Delacourt

If most Canadians were allowed to choose which language should be spoken exclusively at citizenship ceremonies, let’s be frank: it would be English. Fortunately for the French-language minority in Canada, this isn't how we've historically settled matters of rights and citizenship in this country.

Which makes it all the more strange how Quebec has become the epicentre of an entirely unnecessary, toxic debate in this federal election about what can be worn at citizenship ceremonies. What is going on there?

Read the full article here...

Bishops of Canada urge national political leaders and Catholics throughout the country to take action on refugee sponsorship

Bishops of Canada urge national political leaders and Catholics throughout the country to take action on refugee sponsorship

(CCCB – Ottawa)... In a letter to the country's national political leaders, the Most Reverend Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, asks them to collaborate in better assisting refugees.

Canadian Bishops Plenary Assembly

The President cites the resolution by the recent 2015 CCCB Plenary Assembly which "calls on the Government of Canada to expand, accelerate, and facilitate the private sponsorship of refugees during this time of urgent need." Bishop Crosby explains that "Our discussion made it clear that this resolution is intended not only to encourage the present government in its ongoing efforts, but also to urge that such measures be continued and expanded by the next government with the collaboration of all the parties represented in the House of Commons."

CCCB Media Department

Can Pope Francis' visit to the US influence Canadian election?

For many 'traditional' Catholics, abortion and the right to life have been far and away the largest and most important moral issue for consideration when voting for a candidate in an election - whether Federal, Provincial or, even, municipal. For some, it is the only issue. (Disclaimer: I am pro-life and believe in the sacredness of human life from the moment of conception.)

I have had Catholic friends urging me to vote for a particular candidate because he or she is the only 'pro-lifer' in the field of candidates, never mind that the political party leader has made it abundantly clear that  "We are not going to reopen the abortion debate."

Pope Francis calls for help for refugees

Now, along comes Pope Francis to visit the United States primarily to  attend the World Meeting of Families, though he did not shy away from speaking to American and World politicians when the opportunity arose. While in the States he reiterates repeatedly (tautology intended) the moral imperatives regarding the environment, refugees, the poor, the lowest in society. He hardly ever mentions abortion and when he does, from what I have read, compassion or a synonym is never more than a breath away.

It seems clear to me that any Catholic who is in tune with the Pope and who wants to know where a political party stands on abortion needs also to be asking where that political party stands on the environment, refugees and the poor. An answer in platitudes will just not cut it. What are the numbers, the  dates and the dollars? Dates after 2015 also do not cut it. The need is now, in the next weeks and months.

Go. I urge you. Ask your political parties what they think about Pope Francis' ideas on the environment and refugees. Compare their answers.

Photo credit: Express

How does Stephen Harper's response to the Syrian refugee crisis stack up?

In words that could apply equally to Canadian outgoing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, newspaper columnist, Paddy Ashdown, has ridiculed British Prime Minister David Cameron’s offer for Britain to take 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years saying, "Nothing shows the prime minister’s tone deafness to the urgency of this situation better than this pathetic plan." In The Guardian of Monday, September 7th, Ashdown writes:

"Not only is this response calibrated more by political expediency than compassion, he has also indicated he believes the answer to the problem is more bombing. If the best part of two years of bombing with more than enough high explosive hasn't solved this problem, how would Britain’s widow’s mite of a few extra bombs help? Military strikes against Isis are failing, not because we do not have enough high explosive, but because we do not have a diplomatic strategy on Syria that would make sense of the military action."

I should point out that most of these refugees are not fleeing from ISIS but from the Assad regime! They were in refugee camps before ISIS hit the world news.

To date, the Harper Conservative government has accepted 2,300 Syrian refugees, and Stephen Harper, assuring us that the government is 'seized' with this issue,  has pledged to bring 10,000 more from the Middle East over the next four years if re-elected - just half the number promised by Cameron. The shortfall is in orders of magnitude even for the more 'generous' proposals of Mulcair and Trudeau. Compare against the 1.5 million in Turkey, or the 800,000 who will be accepted by Germany, or the 68,500 who settled in France last year.

Not In My Back Yard

Now here's a thought: The numbers we see fleeing the Syrian conflict will be tiny compared with the population movements we will soon be seeing as global warming compels more and more family crop farmers and cattle and goat herding farmers and nomads to leave their traditional lands and become migrant refugees. These people will not fit the current definition of refugees, let alone have paperwork to help them qualify for immigration anywhere; but Pope Francis is already saying that they are, indeed, environmental refugees.

What we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg. Clinging to miserly NIMBY-ism will carry a huge cost. Are there any white, 3rd or 4th generation Canadians who are not here because their forefathers (and mothers) immigrated here in search of a better life? Do we not justifiably hold them in grateful awe for the hardships they endured so that their descendants could have a better life?

Pope Francis on Environmental Refugees

The following is an excerpt from paragraph #25 of the recent encyclical letter, Laudato Si, of Pope Francis (emphasis mine):

...changes in climate, to which animals and plants cannot adapt, lead them to migrate; this in turn affects the livelihood of the poor, who are then forced to leave their homes, with great uncertainty for their future and that of their children. There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation. They are not recognized by international conventions as refugees; they bear the loss of the lives they have left behind, without enjoying any legal protection whatsoever. Sadly, there is widespread indifference to such suffering, which is even now taking place throughout our world. Our lack of response to these tragedies involving our brothers and sisters points to the loss of that sense of responsibility for our fellow men and women upon which all civil society is founded.

Dadaab Refugee Camp

This is food for thought when choosing the next government and prime minister of Canada this coming October.
Picture credit: The Telegraph

Poverty in Canada

Just in time for the election campaign, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has published a new resource document titled,  A Church Seeking Justice: The Challenge of Pope Francis to the Church in Canada.

Here is an excerpt from paragraph 25.

Canada is a wealthy country, yet has an ever widening gap between rich and poor. 4.8 million Canadians live in poverty, including 1 million children. In 1989, all parliamentarians committed to ending child poverty in Canada. Today, 1 in 7 children lives this reality, with 4 in 10 Indigenous children living in poverty. Current levels of poverty cost us billions of dollars in terms of increased health and social services costs and severely damage the fabric of our society as a whole. Why does a wealthy country like Canada not dedicate more of its resources to reducing poverty? Provinces like Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have adopted poverty reduction plans; should we not have a national poverty reduction strategy?

 An important point here is that there is a cost to poverty. You pay to eliminate it or you pay not to!

A Church Seeking Justice: The Challenge of Pope Francis to the Church in Canada. The Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2015. Para. 25.

Sssh! Single Issue Voting Not Encouraged By Canadian Catholic Bishops

One of the problems bedevilling many elections is the phenomenon of 'single issue' voters. The issue is usually a very worthy one such as 'healthcare' or 'care for seniors' or 'right to life for the unborn' or 'education' or 'immigration' or 'jobs' or 'the environment' or 'higher/lower taxes' or 'crime and punishment' or 'national security' or (your pet issue here). The trouble is that real life is never about one single issue even if that appears to be front and centre at a point in time for you and me.

It seems to me that voting on the basis of a single issue is very much like choosing a particular expensive gourmet restaurant over other candidate restaurants based purely on the fact that the restaurant of your choice is the only one that offers Pacific Blue Fin Tuna in its third course, and without regard to what is in the other courses at that or any other competing restaurant. Don't you care that your Valentine partner will have ethical issues with Confit Foie Gras? It seems silly, doesn't it? But isn't that what single issue voters do? I've had emails from well-meaning friends urging me to join this or that political party and then vote for this or that person to be leader of that party because he/she is the 'only one' taking a stand on a pet, controversial issue.

Contrary to what many people might presume, the Canadian Catholic bishops are not single issue voters. I know this because I have read their Guide for the 2015 Federal Election. As with previous federal elections the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued an 'Election Guide' for Catholics. I get the impression that it is meant to be kept a secret as I never hear anybody talk about it and no priest of my experience has ever mentioned it, privately or publicly, in my hearing. If it was not for the fact that I have an email subscription for new publications from the bishops' conference I myself would have no idea of its existence.


The email begins: (CCCB – Ottawa)... With the federal election campaign underway, the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has issued a guide inviting Catholics to vote with discernment. In its "2015 Federal Election Guide", the Commission lists some basic principles from Catholic moral and social teaching to help voters analyze and evaluate public policies and programs.

It then provides this link to their web page titled Guide for the 2015 Federal Election.
http://www.cccb.ca/site/eng/media-room/4243-guide-for-2015-federal-election

How incredibly circumspect, inviting Catholics to vote with discernment, Obviously the bishops do not want to alienate anybody by being forceful in any kind of way about Catholic moral and social teaching! The web page in turn provides three more links which I reproduce below for your convenience and invite my family and friends to read with discernment - and anybody else who cares to. I expect you will find, like me, that none of our political parties measures up. Sometimes the way to find the best is find the least worst.
Link to the Guide of the CCCB (PDF)
Link to the Guide of Development and Peace
Link to the Guide of The Canadian Council of Churches

Seduced by Mrs Cardinal

Looking out of my kitchen window earlier today I saw Mrs Cardinal. She is such a tart. I am totally seduced by her bright orange lipstick, orange top-knot and two-toned mascara'd eyes. I used to prefer Mr Cardinal, dressed all in bright scarlet with his darker cape and black masquerade mask but have come to be totally enchanted by Mrs Cardinal's more subtle body colouring. For me, if not for you, making love dressed like that would be decidedly kinky, but I guess kinky sex is the norm for this couple starting with how, every now and then, he puts food in her mouth during mating season. I feel a tinge of jealousy every time I see him do that. Little wonder they are monogamous for life and Mr Cardinal spends a good part of each day proclaiming his territory with melodious love songs to keep other Bimbo Cardinals away from his beautiful wife.

Seventeen Years in Canada

Toronto Jan 1999

This past July marked my 17th anniversary of landing in Canada. Ingrid, Judith and Stephen, who arrived five weeks after me, mark the date this August. Miriam, Mark and Sean came five months later in the winter that Mayor Mel Lastman called in the army because of the record breaking cold and snowfall.

On the one hand, it is difficult to believe how time has flown. What happened to the years? On the other hand, it is amazing how many life events got packed into what feels like such a short span of time.

We've done the Canadian thing and cut down our own Christmas trees, and made snow angels. We've been through the rigmarole and frustrations of all the applications and registrations for official documents and schooling, the pain of unemployment and the joys of finding jobs, had high school and university  graduations and professional certifications, had people accuse us of 'putting on' our accents and other people 'loving' our accents. I've waited at bus stops when the temperature was 19C below before the wind-chill, and minus 38 degrees after, reminding myself that I did not come to Canada for the weather. I've tried driving after an ice storm and learnt that a car with all-season tyres doesn't go where you want it to go or stop when or where you want it to stop.

Actually, those first winters were a special joy for me, not because I'm a masochist, but because they reminded me that I and my family had really come to Canada against so many odds. That thought made me feel very warm inside. Canada has been very good for us as a family.

We have made many new acquaintances and some lasting friendships, notably three marriages which have brought other entire families into our own family sphere and vice versa. And, of course, Ingrid and I now have grandchildren - three girls and two boys - all of them the delight of our eyes.

We have also had sickness and ill health. Many Canadians complain about Canadian healthcare. Most of those who do have had bad experiences as patients, or know somebody else who has. Or they work in the healthcare establishment as nurses, personal support workers or other frontline staff. The story of healthcare in Canada is really the story of healthcare as administered by the various provinces making up the Federation. However, speaking for the McCann clan's experiences of the Ontario healthcare system thus far, it would be ungrateful for us to complain considering the wonderful treatment we have received for cancers, hip replacements and surgeries, not to mention countless trips to the ER, walk-in clinics and family doctors for 'lesser' problems and regular check-ups.

Right now it is summer for us. Many places in the world are experiencing first hand the extreme and nasty effects of global warming, especially in poorer nations. It is almost with a tinge of guilt that I have to say that this first-world place in Ontario, Canada where we live is like a little bit of heaven.

A little bit of heaven

Perhaps it is to assuage that guilt somewhat that I try to raise awareness of the twin, related issues of global poverty and the global environmental crises. Pope Francis and Bishop Desmond Tutu are my inspirational champions for the moral imperative imposed by these inseparably joined twins which are poverty and the environment.

Lachlan comes for a visit

Lachlan driving his car

Playing with Oma

We had Stephen and Lachlan over on Saturday through Sunday. I was slow getting out of bed on Sunday morning. Ingrid, Stephen and Lachlan were already at the breakfast table. Lachlan (21 months) points to the empty chair and says to Ingrid: Grampa Mac, come here right now, sit here.

Please, information about Jobs in Toronto for Quality Engineers

Somebody on one of the professional forums (fora?) that I subscribe to asked this question. Here is my slightly edited version of the question:

I am thinking seriously about moving to Canada in order to find a job as a quality engineer or quality manager or supervisor. I have broad experience in the automotive and railway industries for both positions.

A few days ago I read an article which said Toronto is a primary centre of industry and that the city and its surrounding area produces more than half of Canada's manufactured goods. On the other hand, someone told me that there were no jobs over there and that the unemployment rate is very high.

What is the real truth?. 
Are there real possibilities for me to find a job in that city and country?

My response is as follows:

I don't know what family ties and responsibilities you have but as an immigrant Canadian myself I would say, Don't come to Canada in order to find a job. 

Certainly, come to Canada because you like Canada, you like it's cosmopolitan make-up, you like its people, life-style, standard of living, geography, cold winters and hot summers, vacation opportunities, having the USA as your back yard, but don't come just in order to find a job. The immigration process is very arduous and you will not be allowed to work without a work permit (difficult to get) or landed immigrant status (even more difficult). 

Winter in Toronto

Come for a look-see. Do your Internet research on the immigration process. The Ontario unemployment rate is just under 7%. A LinkedIn job search will show that there are QA/QE jobs available in the greater Toronto area but there are typically a few dozen applicants for any one job so you will face competition. 

However, your basic question should be: do you really want to come to Canada or do you just want to find a job? There have to be easier ways to find a job.

Photo credit: CBC.ca

Xenophobia in South Africa. Does 'Mississippi Burning' Help Us Understand?

Earlier this week Daily Maverick published an op-ed by Stephen Grootes covering the horrific xenophobic violence currently hitting South Africa under the title, When the economy suffers, xenophobia thrives. I agree with everything Stephen Grootes has written there, most especially what he says about impunity, poverty and feelings of hopelessness in bad economic times. I strongly recommend that you link to and read that op-ed before reading this blog any further.

Insightful and enlightening as the piece is, I can't help getting the feeling that Grootes is holding back, perhaps understandably. It's as if he has set the stage for an explanation; all the props and actors are there and even some historical context, but the dialogue is missing.

Perhaps the missing dialogue can be found in the following dialogue from the movie Mississippi Burning.

Ward: Where does it come from, all this hatred?

Anderson: You know, when I was a little boy, there was an old Negro farmer lived down the road from us, name of Monroe. And he was, uh, - well, I guess he was just a little luckier than my Daddy was. He bought himself a mule. That was a big deal around that town. Now, my Daddy hated that mule, 'cause his friends were always kiddin' him about oh, they saw Monroe out plowin' with his new mule, and Monroe was gonna rent another field now they had a mule. And one morning that mule just showed up dead. They poisoned the water. And after that there was never any mention about that mule around my Daddy. It just never came up. So one time, we were drivin' down the road and we passed Monroe's place and we saw it was empty. He'd just packed up and left, I guess. Gone up North, or somethin'. I looked over at my Daddy's face - and I knew he'd done it. And he saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and he said: 'If you ain't better than a n****r, son, who are you better than?'...He was an old man just so full of hate that he didn't know that bein' poor was what was killin' him.

Quality Management: Corrections, Corrective Actions and Preventive Actions

Corrections, corrective actions and preventive actions: What is the difference between them? When should you do which?

In under 10 minutes this light-hearted presentation addresses these questions with examples from the auto industry and a long-term care nursing home.

Are we betraying the true Charlie Hebdo legacy?

What has happened in Paris with Charlie Hebdo is horrendous.

It is unfortunate that news outlets have allowed coverage of that shocking event to eclipse reporting of other happenings that we really ought to be told about. In particular there has been a second attack in a week on the town of Baga, Nigeria.

Soldiers walking in the street in the town of Baga, Nigeria in 2013.
Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

The death toll from both attacks is thought to be around 2,000. Nearly 600 others have been stranded on an island on Lake Chad without food, water or shelter. There are countless refugees on a hopeless march to nowhere: women seperated from their husbands and children, not knowing whether they be dead or alive; bewildered children severely traumatised by the unspeakable savagery upon their loved ones that they have witnessed.

It is understandable that we Western Europeans and Americo-Canadians will be transfixed by an event in Europe or the Americas such as the Charlie Hebdo attack but if we allow our world to shrink to one view of the globe what will we become? That would not be the true Charlie Hebdo legacy but the legacy of our fears.

(With material from The Guardian, 10-Jan-2015)