Refugees and Veterans

Image credit: www.macleans.ca

As must be the case with many of you reading this, my father and grandfathers fought in the two world wars of the twentieth century. They, and our family, were fortunate that they survived, although my wife has an uncle in her ancestry who lost his life when his ship sank in a naval engagement, and my dad came out of the war minus one lung. Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand were not under direct attack or threat in the same way as were the countries of Europe and Britain. Their armies were fighting not so much for their own motherland as helping defend and liberate their allies and for the values and principles of world liberty and freedom from tyranny.

I find it disappointing, therefore, when I read so often in the social media that people are advancing an anti-refugee position by bemoaning how "our government" can find money to assist refugees but cannot properly assist "our vets". Please, let's keep the two issues separate. By all means, let us lobby for a better deal for our war veterans, but not on the backs of the most vulnerable. This is disingenuous and an insult to the very ones who died in the wars, who died for something far nobler than keeping "our country" free from refugees.

Raw Sewage in Canadian Rivers

So, here is my question: Are there or are there not provincial or federal laws or regulations prohibiting the release of  commercial and industrial waste and, especially, raw sewage into the rivers of Canada or, at least, the rivers and aquifers of Ontario?

If not, why not? If yes, how are they enforced?

I ask after being shocked to read the following article in Global News:

From https://globalnews.ca/news/6215303/oneida-london-safe-water/

Oneida Nation of the Thames tap water different than neighbouring non-Indigenous communities

Particularly disturbing are the following three paragraphs:

"18 years of water quality testing across Oneida First Nation sometimes shows striking levels of dangerous pathogens such as E. coli flowing from residential taps. Upstream, the nearby city of London dumps millions of litres of raw sewage into the Thames River that serves as the community’s water source…"

"The Thames River, which replenishes Oneida’s aquifer, is a dumping ground for waste, raw sewage and pollution. To avoid basement flooding during heavy rains, London’s wastewater system dumps rainwater and raw sewage into the river. In 2018, 266 million litres of raw sewage was released and flowed downstream through several First Nations communities, including Oneida.

"So far this year, more than 5.7 million litres of London’s raw, untreated sewage — including commercial and industrial waste — has been dumped into the river, according to city data.

London didn’t start notifying Oneida of sewage dumps until mid-2018, say Oneida leaders, including Chief Hill. Even then, Oneida is only notified after the dump has occurred, sometimes hours or days later."

Here, again, is my question: Are there or are there not provincial or federal laws or regulations prohibiting the release of  commercial and industrial waste and, especially, raw sewage into the rivers of Canada or, at least, the rivers and aquifers of Ontario?

If not, why not? If yes, how are they enforced?

I realise that the question is rhetorical. Doing just 2 minutes of searching on the Internet I found that:

• raw sewage overflowed into southern Ontario waterways 1,327 times in the 12 months ending March, 2018;
• the city of Toronto releases more than 1-billion litres of raw sewage into Lake Ontario in a single day;
• when excessive stormwater has nowhere to escape, it funnels into sewers causing them to overflow and spill untreated contents into lakes or rivers;
• there are provincial regulations but they are full of loopholes circumventing enforcement.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ont-enviro-report-1.4903327

I have been following a Facebook group focusing on drinking water and other water availability issues in South Africa. They regularly bemoan the fact that, due to aging infrastructure, neglect and poor accountability, raw sewage is spilling into some of the dams sourced for drinking water. I have been feeling lucky to be living in Canada - a First World country after all. How presumptuous and arrogant of me.

A day in the life of a 'retired' missionary

Fr. Casimir

I have an eighty-something year old American priest friend who is a 'retired' missionary living in the Mariannhill Monastery Retirement Home for priests and religious in South Africa, Fr. Casimir (Cas) Paulsen c.m.m. He has zillions of friends and fans for whom he publishes a monthly blog. I snipped an extract which you might find interesting.

Saturday, the 21st. was a very interesting day. I was to take a funeral at 11am at the mother church from our branch at Savannah Park. I like to be a bit early just to make sure. I was there by 10:20. I found ladies cleaning the church who knew nothing about a funeral. Hmmmm. The sacristy was open but I couldn’t find any books or hosts or wine or whatever. Eventually I found a chalice and one big host  but there was not water or wine or small host. By this time it was almost 10:45. So I told them I was going back to the Monastery to fetch my things (always have some water and wine and hosts and chalice, etc.) realizing that I should have done that in the first place. By the time I got back it was 5 past eleven and the casket had already been taken into the church. But then, lo and behold, another hearse pitches up and disgorges another casket. Now what. Two funerals. I use my wine and water and holy water because there isn’t any at the parish but, thank God, the catechist is there. So we go to plan B. He know who is in the one casket and I know who is in the other so we just forge ahead. I was proud of our small but powerful choir from Savannah Park. There can never be a service without singing. 

After the Mass, we go to the cemetery. There is no road near the graveside, so the old men have to carry the coffin on a very rough hilly and pot-holey ground for about a football field away.  Some day I will describe how an African is buried, but I will jump over that for now. 

After the filling in of the grave we all go to the house for a meal and to meet some of the family of the deceased. I finally came home late in the afternoon and I am beat.

If you want to read the whole post, here is the link to Fr. Cas. Blog

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.

Lest We Forget

My dad

Denis & Patsy McCann (nee Howard)

We have built a lot of romance around Remembrance Days. Perhaps too much. My dad was not considered a war hero, not by my young school friends, nor by me. This even though he lost a lung in the Second World War as a sailor in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He didn't lose his lung by getting 'wounded' like real heroes. He wasn't even a gunner or anything that would impress my seven-year old friends who sometimes boasted about what their dads did "in the war." He had just been one of the stokers in the engine room. It was very hot, he said. You had to drink lime juice all the time.

Sometime in the early days of the war his ship was in Durban harbour where they were stationed. I don't even know what ship he was assigned to, HMSAS Something-or-Another. Most of the crew had some hours of shore leave including all the stokers except my dad. Then a U-boat was sighted off-shore of the Durban beaches. My dad was ordered to start getting up a head of steam while the men on shore were rounded up. The returning stokers found a ship with a full head of steam and my dad unconscious with a collapsed lung. How non-glorious. They didn't even catch the U-boat.

After my dad recovered he declined discharge and did guard duty at the Bluff Battery.

When I was in my early teens we could afford to buy a used car and on two or three occasions my dad took my step-mom and me for a drive out to the Bluff and he would park for five minutes in a spot close to the Battery and just sit quietly looking out, not saying a word.

It has taken some years, but with the passage of time my dad has become my hero.

Remembrance Day

John McCrae's wonderful poem , In Flanders Fields, is generally the poem of choice for Remembrance Day. My only reservation is that it presents just one side of a valuable coin. I think the other side needs to be looked at too, which is why I am posting
"Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfrid Owen (1917). 
(Five-Nines refers to German artillery fire.

"Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori" is Latin for, "Sweet and fitting it is to die for one's fatherland.)

Bent double, like of old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind:
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in sonic smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not talk with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Climate Change

Climate change is a moral, human rights issue as was apartheid! Climate change deniers are not merely on the same, wrong side of history as flat earth proponents, they are also morally culpable and must be held to account for the damage and suffering they are causing.

This culpability and need for accountability is even greater for those who acknowledge climate change but continue to invest for profit in industry that is exacerbating the problem.

 We desperately need research to find more economical ways to store wind and solar energy. If one-fifth of the money spent on oil exploration had gone into this research imagine where we could be today!

What stops a bad guy with a gun?

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

Oh dear. What has happened to logic? Why is the above statement from LaPierre true and the following statement false: The only thing that stops a good guy with a gun is a bad guy with a gun?

The fact is, neither of the statements are true in and of themselves. Whether the guy with a gun is good or bad is no predictor of the outcome of a gun duel. I am no gun expert but I would expect that, all things being equal with fire-power, aim, expertise, etc., the guy who gets in the first shot will stop the other guy most of the time, regardless of who is good and who is bad. Of course, all things being equal seldom applies, anyway.

About twenty years ago or more my wife and I were discussing a South African statistic that went along the lines that the most likely victims of gun violence were the owner of the gun or close family members of the gun owner, and that gun owners or their families were more likely to be killed or receive gunshot wounds than the general population. That confirmed our decision never to own a gun or to have one in our home. My impression from stories of gun violence here in Canada and elsewhere is that this still seems to hold true.

I like what Republican Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said in response to the suggestion from LaPierre that armed guards should be put in schools. “It’s fixing the wrong problem, because the problem is cultural,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Even that is decidedly simplistic but it is heading in the right direction. Mental health has to be another huge factor in the equation. I don't know what the answer is but anybody who fastens on just one, simplistic solution is surely being simple-minded.

Jonty, Bok Supporter

Mark sent me this photo of Jonty today by email. I think it was taken Saturday. We all got together to (1) watch SA beat England after they gave us a big scare in the first 20 minutes of the second half and (2) to log and bale a tree that toppled over in our back yard the previous week.

Manitoba Maple

Jonty, Claire, Ingrid

Jonty and Claire had a great time entertaining each other as usual. (Geoff in the background)

Caitlyn

Caitlyn spent a lot of time getting to know Aunty Judith.

The UN's De Schutte: an academic or ill-informed (but not both without contradiction)

In 1966 Senator Robert Kennedy visited South Africa at the invitation of the then National Union of South African Students (NUSAS.) When Senator Kennedy was criticized in the government- controlled media for daring to comment on South Africa's problems when he had only been in the country a short time, Alan Paton responded with a parable where he compared South Africa to "a room full of people with all the doors and windows closed, and all the people smoking and drinking and talking. And a stranger from outside opens the door and exclaims- Phew What a fug in here ! And they shout at him: How do you know ? You only just came in." (In: Peter Alexander. Alan Paton: A Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 343.) - quoted in http://www.rfksafilm.org/html/back.php
Of course, the apartheid regime in South Africa (and their lackey media supporters) was not the first government in the world to get prickly in response to criticism from *outsiders*, nor the only one. Hitler didn't like it either. George Bush hardly welcomed outside criticism and more recently one thinks immediately of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Gaddafi in Libya, and the governments of China, Cuba, North Korea, Egypt, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.
Sadly, the present Canadian Government in the persons of Immigration Minister Jason (the UN is out of line) Kenney and Health Minister Leona (He's an ill-informed and patronizing academic) Aglukkaq has shown itself to be just as prickly toward the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter who recently blasted Canada for tolerating inequality and lack of access to nutritious diets among its poor and First Nation citizens.
Olivier De Schutter, whose damning report is based on an 11-day visit to Canada, says the country's rate of food insecurity is "unacceptable" and called on the federal government to adopt a national right-to-food strategy.
"What I've seen in Canada is a system that presents barriers for the poor to access nutritious diets and that tolerates increased inequalities between rich and poor, and aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples," De Schutter told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday.
See CTV News:: http://m.ctv.ca/winnipeg/20120516/UN-Right-to-Food-monitor-De-Schutter-120516.html
The funny thing about truth is that it stands on its own through the shifting sands of time even though some powerful people think it can be decreed or established (or not) by majority vote. The judgement of history has never been kind to such as these.
I cannot help thinking that De Schutter is about as ill-informed about the subject of his speciality as was Bobby Kennedy or as the scientists whose jobs have been cut by a government finding its ideology at odds with the evidence from their research.
Sent from my BlackBerry

Phil, Christine and Georgina have fun in the Canadian Winter

An old colleague and friend from South Africa and his wife and daughter visited us over New Year. Actually they are Australians who have been in South Africa a number of years. They were keen to get a Canadian winter experience. We took them to visit Mark, Luisa and Jonty in Peterborough where they had an enjoyable time on the toboggan hill at the Rube Brady Memorial Park.

I made 5 videos on the toboggan hill plus a cute one of the two kids (Gina and Jonathan) being pulled to the toboggan hill.

Finally there is a video of Gina working out how to shovel snow off my driveway. Just head over to my YouTube Channel.

Pre-Christmas December update

Sinterklaas 2011

Sam, Geoff, Claire

We had our annual visit from Sinterklaas and his helpers on the first weekend of December.  As in previous years, young Sam (now 5) and his parents, Vikki and Peter joined us. Sam is a True Believer. He tried hard to sing the songs because he understands that this is how Sinterklaas knows which house to visit as he rides past on his white horse, Schimmel. Sam couldn't wait for the moment when Sinterklaas would come and throw sweets and candy everywhere - right up until the moment Sinterklaas knocked on the front door, at which point young Sam leaped from his mother's side and dove under the legs of the people sitting on the couch!

Pieter opens his gift

Mark and Judith

For the same event we also had a visit from an old family friend, Pieter Grootes. Piet, Mark and Sean were in cubs and scouts together, so that goes back a few years. We really enjoyed having Pieter visit us and bring us up to date with all the goings-on oorsee in Madibaland, or should that now be Zumaland?  For his part, Piet seemed to enjoy getting the warm, leather gloves that Sinterklaas brought him after he helped us sing the Sinterklaas liedjes so nicely.

Claire encounters Santa Claus

Claire and Santa Claus

The day before that, Miriam took Claire to get her picture taken with a certain Santa Claus - all very confusing. No wonder Claire regarded this guy with a great deal of suspicion. This picture shows the very closest she was prepared to get to him.

December Birthdays - Jonty Turns One

Jonty getting ready for Sinsterklaas

The following weekend we all trooped out to Peterborough to celebrate three birthdays: Heather (Stephen's fiancée), Mark Dankowych (Judith's boyfriend), and Jonty - his First Birthday!  Yep, it's been a whole year since Jonathan Tiago arrived three week early - and all that went with that.  If and when his dad shares some pictures with us I will put them up on the blog. Meanwhile, have a look at the December page of their Christmas letter - shared on my last blog entry.

30 Bottles of Wine

Ingrid and I decided to give each other a Christmas gift of 30 bottles of Cheeky Monkey Pinot Noir assisted by a local wine making shop. We bottled, corked and labelled them two weeks ago. One night last week Mark was here for supper and he prevailed on us to open one and then had the audacity to tell us it was "obviously" still quite young !

Aunty Bessie and Telkom

Penny, Dick and Joan with Aunty Bessie

Last Saturday we phoned Aunty Bessie in South Africa and found her quite upset - which is most unusual for someone who is normally sparkling and full of laughter - even at the age of 95. She had been having phone problems for nearly two weeks and from the noise and other dialling tones on the line as we spoke she was clearly still having phone problems. Judith had tried phoning a few days before and Aunty Bessie could hardly hear a thing and told Judith to try again another day. Her neighbour phoned the telephone service (presumably Telkom) and was told it would cost R200.00 to send a technician and another R200.00 for a phone replacement! What? Hello? He was told to forget it and Aunty Bessie burst into tears. She is blind to all practical purposes and the telephone is her only communication with the outside world if her neighbours aren't around - which will be the case over Christmas. Thankfully, a friend of a friend has invited Aunty Bessie to have Christmas dinner with them so she will get to go out on Christmas Day.

Aunty Bessie

Here is one of the best recent photos of Aunty Bessie that I have seen, and another of Aunty Bessie with her wonderful neighbours who show her such love and caring friendship: Penny, Dick and Joan. Photos courtesy of Ken, Penny's son.

On Holiday

My good news is that I am officially on vacation as from this afternoon. Judith is already home from Chiropractic College. Ingrid starts her holidays on Thursday. I'm already in the holiday mood.

O come, Emmanuel

Happy Chanukah

Uncomfortable reading and viewing - Apartheid in Canada?

Susan Delacourt tweeted: If you can only read one column today, http://bit.ly/s8iB9J by @ChantalHbert, on Jekyll&Hyde government. Hyde side isn't pretty. #cdnpoli

I read the column and am grateful for the recommendation from Delacourt. I agree. This is a must read: Hébert: Expanded Parliament, better governance? Not likely

Canada: Apartheid Nation?
I also came across a few YouTube videos on the subject of Attawapiskat and First Nations living conditions. Coming from South Africa and having lived through apartheid days, albeit as a White Umlungu, it hits a raw nerve for me when people equate what is happening here in Canada with apartheid in South Africa. There was lots of inequality in the world in the days of apartheid. What made apartheid so repulsive and odious was the fact that the inequality was enshrined in the laws of the land. If the law cannot protect a statistically significant proportion of the general population identified, in the case of Canada, as First Nation then one could make a case for apartheid. I don't know enough about it to make a judgement, but watching these videos it seems one could make a case for calling this apartheid.

I'm not going to blame the Conservatives alone although their current performance is worse than pathetic - possibly criminal. This is clearly something that has been piling up for decades. First Nations issues have been conspicuously absent from all the Federal elections since I have been eligible to vote. It's always been about the economy. Ingrid and I were listening to a talk show in the car today. The talk show host mentioned that poverty is not only in the "remote" communities and wondered aloud who was remote; is it the people on Hudson Bay, or us?

Canada: Apartheid Nation (2011 - Official Trailer)
"Canada: Apartheid Nation" is a documentary short which sheds light on the devastating situation that many Northern First Nations people in Canada are forced to live in.
Canada: Apartheid Nation





ATTAWAPISKAT HOUSING-CRISIS - Charlie Angus
Footage from November 2011 site visit by MP Charlie Angus.

The Commonwealth and South Africa's Shame

When I was a teenager, South Africa left the Commonwealth and stepped into isolation because of the 'shaming' action and condemnation undertaken by other member nations of the Commonwealth.
Once again, South Africa is 'shamed' in the eyes of all in the world who value human rights. South Africa has chosen to join with those Commonwealth countries where human rights are being trampled upon - forced marriages, laws against homosexuality, political repression - in objecting to a proposal for a rights commissioner.
A shame on you, South Africa.
I wonder if there is any moral relevance to the continued, not inexpensive existence of this no longer august body which is the Commonwealth?

Questions to ask Ontario's aspiring next premiers before going to the polls.

Tax credits for new immigrants

This whole brouhaha about the tax credit for businesses employing new foreign Ontarians (or Ontarian foreigners) is actually very unfortunate other than for the obvious reason of being xenophobic and culturally divisive. It serves Hudak right that he has gone down in the polls since he jumped on this in the hope that it would serve his purposes as a wedge issue.

However, it has served the purposes of both Hudak and McGuinty in that they can focus public attention on something relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things and not have to explain how they will deal with the big issues of the day; somewhat like a conjurer using sleight of hand to distract you while he does his trick. From what I have been reading and reflecting upon, there are three cluster issues that politicians of the day need to address at provincial and federal levels: jobs and the economy; healthcare ; power generation and the environment. Overarching all three is the issue of taxes.

Jobs and the economy

There is a mantra that I keep hearing that lowering taxes will stimulate the economy; raising taxes will kill the economy. The assumption seems to be that if you lower taxes then people will spend that money locally in a way that will benefit local business. How much money are we talking about here? Let's say $360.00 per year for a middle class family. If that $30 per month does not result in new jobs being created locally, or in Ontarian businesses being able to use that $30 to generate another $10 or $20 or $30, then all that $30 amounts to is a politician buying votes by cutting services. An extra thirty dollars a month does not automatically spell an improvement in living standards if a single mom has greater difficulty finding a daycare spot or the family of someone who is mentally ill can no longer find the care their daughter/sister/mother needs. 

McGuinty, Hudak and Company, what exactly is your strategy for job creation and please don't tell me tax cuts or ending the gravy train.

Healthcare

The median and the average ages of the population are getting older. At the same time as a large number of Ontarians start leaving the workforce, more and more of those retirees are going to need more and more acute and long-term healthcare. Put in another way, more public healthcare is going to be needed with proportionately fewer people to pay for it. Right now, Healthcare is paid for almost entirely by taxes. Our politicians are all pledging enormous amounts of money for the future of Healthcare. Some of those same politicians are pledging to reduce taxes. Hmmm. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that something's got to give, somewhere. The American model is that anything can be fixed if you throw enough money at it. Oops. We've just hit the wall on that one. No more money. Healthcare may need more money, but it also needs a new solution in terms of structuring, priorities and who can give what care and where and to whom. The present model is simply not sustainable in the medium term, let alone the long term. Not to mention the fact that many chronic illnesses have their origins in our CO2 polluted environment or exposure to other toxins in the air we breathe or the water we drink - all of which is getting worse.

McGuinty, Hudak and Company, what exactly is your strategy for ensuring the medium and long term healthcare needs for Ontarians, and please don't tell me you are going to throw money at the problem? We all know that there IS no money because you are not going to raise taxes or cut services.

Power generation and the environment

In 2007, CTV News quoted Stephen Harper as saying that Canada "must act" to curb global warming, and John Baird as saying, "We've clearly got to take action. I think Canadians don't want to hear what can't be done but they want to hear what action will be taken by their government and we hear that call."

Yes. Well, that was 2007 and Canadians are still waiting to hear. Meanwhile global warming and other environmental issues are getting worse at an increasing rate and the world's accusation is that Canada is one of the worst offenders. At the same time we need to decide now and start implementing now our green power generation programs so that we are positioned to supply the energy needs that the future expanding economy, with all the new jobs, is going to need when it all starts happening. A lesson from South Africa is that you cannot wait until you need it to start building your new power generators.

McGuinty, Hudak and Company, what exactly is your strategy for new power generation, and please don't tell me energy from coal, oil, gas or nuclear fission?

Taxes

I want good, affordable healthcare, the more so as I grow older. I want good roads to drive on and reliable public transit when I need it; I want good schools for my grandchildren. I want my garbage collected. I want clean drinking water and I want health inspectors to ensure that I can go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal without spending the rest of the night suffering the bi-directional after effects of bad hygiene in the chef's kitchen. The list could go on and on. If I go to hospital I want to know that certain standards of cleanliness and hygiene are the norm and that I will be treated by properly qualified medical staff. To ensure all this and so much more I am more than happy to pay taxes. I would complain if I felt I was not getting a good bang for my tax dollar but, honestly, I cannot say that. On the contrary, I would be quite happy to pay more if I knew it would help address the issues above. I long for the day when some honest politician stands up and says, "Here's my platform. You've got to pay more taxes. Here's why this is a good thing that you should jump at: etc., etc." If nothing else, people would know they're being honest.

Stephen's South Africa Trip

Congratulations, Ishara & Sean

Stephen has just returned from two weeks in South Africa, first in Durban for the wedding of his oldest buddy, Sean McKenna to Ishara. Stephen and Sean were play group play-mates even before they started nursery school. They cannot remember a time when they did not know each other. Congratulations, Sean and Ishara. By all accounts it was a wonderful wedding.

Buddies since play group

Umhlanga

After that Sean's parents, John and Sonja, hosted Stephen at their time-share in Umhlanga.

Kloof area

Valley of a Thousand Hills

This was followed by a few days in Jo'burg, staying with old family friend Pat Prinsloo, visitng Aunty Bessie...

Stephen & Aunty Bessie - 95 years

Marj, Ethel, Bessie - sisters - Christmas 1973

...and meeting up with two other old friends, Liora - Miriam's oldest friend from play-group days, and Carissa. Unfortunately, Stephen forgot to take pictures at Carissa's place.

Liora and Stephen

Enjoy the pics that Stephen brought back.

Apartheid was propped up by first-past-the-post elections

I voted a number of times in South Africa in the aprtheid era including, and especially, the last three or four elections before the fall of apartheid. Even allowing for the fact that only whites had the vote, I was painfully aware that in the last few elections less than 50% of (white) voters were maintaining the apartheid government in power. The reason for this was a gerrymandering of electoral districts that was enabled by a first-past-the-post system of voting. Voting districts with mainly opposition voters, largely in the cities, had electorate numbers close to the upper limit allowed. Those supporting the regime, mainly in rural areas, had fewer voters, close to the lower limits required. The first-past-the-post system ensured we had "stable," majority government elected year after year by a minority of voters. It was no accident, but a very deliberate decision that was made, to conduct the first democratic elections in South Africa using a system of proportional representation.

The big fear that many Canadians have expressed over proportional representation is the "instability" of minority government or, horror of horrors, a "coalition". Quite honestly, I have to ask which is worse, minority or coalition government on the one hand or a democratically unrepresentative, winner takes all, government that often as not results in two parties with not dissimilar vote counts having a vastly different number of seats in parliament as illustrated in Canada by the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party after the last election? Why should somebody whom 63% of voters have voted against be the one to represent them because the vote was split 37-33-17-13? Why should smaller parties be made to feel guilty for "splitting" the vote on the left or on the right? Is this a democracy or isn't it? I am all for the protection of minorities but why do the democratic rights of the 37% trump the democratic rights of the 63%?

In the riding where I live, the outcome of an election, year after year, is a foregone conclusion. Peter Van Loan will return to Parliament as surely as night follows day. Why should I even bother voting? I know my vote won't count for anything other than to put $2 into the Green Party coffers. On the radio this evening I heard a young immigrant Canadian quoted as saying, "Dad, don't vote. A choice between bad and worse is no choice at all."

I honestly and strongly believe that our winner-takes-all style of voting coupled with our reluctance to see the political parties representing "us" trying to find middle ground with "them" is what has us mired in the point-scoring, negative politicking we have witnessed for the last seven years. It is also hugely responsible for people who do not believe that their vote counts for anything staying away from the ballot boxes.

I found the following list of 82 countries currently using some variation of proportional representation.

Here are a few references:
Wikipedia - Proportional representation

Wikipedia - First-past-the-post voting


Or do your own search: proportional representation pros and cons

Claire and Jonty - still more photos

The Holy Family. (C) Miriam Boothroyd

Claire and Sean. (C) Miriam Boothroyd

Jonty and Claire

Where's Jonty?

Theeere he is!

A Touching Story From South Africa

A beautiful, touching story from a generous South African musician.

As a bagpiper, I’ve played many gigs up in Gauteng, but not so many since recently moving to Cape Town.

Recently, I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at the municipal cemetery in Kraaifontein.

I now stay in Simonstown and was not familiar with the northern suburbs, so I got in a bit of a dwaal on my way there. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers left and they were eating lunch.

I felt badly and apologised to the men for being late.

I went to the side of the grave and looked down.

The diggers had already started filling in and not really knowing what else to do, I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.

And as I played ’Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, and we all wept together. When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.

As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "Jislaaik man, I've never seen this before...   ...an' it's now twenty blerrie years I'm putting in these septic tanks. Shiesh!"

....Apparently, I'm still lost.

I realise that, as chance would have it, the identical thing has been happening for the last 6 years or so to altruistic pipers all over the world, notably in Kentucky and Nebraska, but there is is something particularly poignant about the experience of this noble South African. Thank you, Phil, for sending me this story.

All along we thought we were South Africans

Mark has been preparing for a trip to South Africa for himself and his wife-to-be at the end of the year. Luisa's parents are from Mocambique so he and Luisa want to visit there as well. Somehow in the process of preparing for this he discovered that he lost his South African citizenship when he became a Canadian citizen. We were all under the impression that dual citizenship was automatic but we have now learnt that we had to make special application to retain our South African citizenship before becoming Canadian citizens or lose it. Sooo... since 2003 we have been Canadians, proud of our South African heritage, but not South African citizens - just Canadians with South African accents (except Judith.)  We just didn't know it.

I must say that for me, personally, I am battling to get my head and heart around this new information about my identity - or loss of part of my identity. I'm trying to understand why this is an issue for me. Nothing has changed in my personal or family history. My memories are still the same. I still have the same friends here and in South Africa. Lots of people ask me where I come from when they hear my accent, some have even told me that they love my accent, but nobody has asked if I am still a South African citizen, or a Canadian citizen for that matter. 

So what's the issue? Why do I feel like I have lost something? I have lost the right to vote in South African elections but then I have never attempted to vote from outside the country because it is my conviction that I have nothing to say if I am not prepared to live with the consequences of my vote. I have lost the right to free healthcare in RSA but then I never had free healthcare in RSA and the Canadian system is 5-star by comparison. I have lost some rights but I cannot tell you which ones that really seem to matter to me. So that doesn't seem to be the issue.

I think the feeling is more like having or not having full membership in a club.  However dubious its reputation, there is a spirit of loyalty and belonging among the paid-up members even when they argue among themselves.  They have a right to be in the club-house. Friends of club members can only be visitors. I can now only ever return to South Africa as a visitor. If the Government were so inclined they could demand visas from Canadians just as the Canadian Government requires South Africans to obtain visas for trips to Canada. That jars me - being a visitor in the country of my birth. That's like losing a hand or a foot if not an arm or a leg.

Ja, well, no, fine. My rugby team is still the Sharks even though they let me down in the last half of the Super-14 and I am now supporting the Bulls as the only SA team left and they must blerrie-well win the final. Life goes on and more is nog 'n dag and 'n boer maak 'n plan and all that. I have no regrets for the decisions I made in coming to this great country which is Canada. Maybe next season the Toronto Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup, or at least make the playoffs...