NORAD Resurrected

Just who the heck are we supposed to be protecting ourselves from? I think that Canadians need to think about this question rationally given that our new government is about to recommit to a beefed up NORAD agreement. But rationality seems to have nothing to do with it. Once again people fail to think for themselves and let others do it for them. Weren't we born with our own minds? What are we so afraid of?

So who is it? China, Russia, Al Qaida, Iran, North Korea. This is a joke. None of those states would ever dream of attacking us. China, as I've previously mentioned, is our best friend. They provide us with all the plastic crap that we can't get enough of. Thank the Chinese for that talking doll your kids love. The Chinese certainly thank you for the $50 you spent on it. The Russians are making a mint out of our SUV addiction and associated terrible fuel efficiency. It's not only the tar sands and the Gulf that keeps all these millions of cars running. Iran and North Korea know that they would be smoking holes in the earth if they ever spat on American and to a lesser extent Canadian soil. Even "rogue states" have the ability to think rationally.

That Al Qaida could threaten the way of life of North Americans, as we are always told, is another joke. Do you think that Al Qaida wants to impose an Islamic state in Canada? If you do you're pretty thick. And even if they did crash a plane into another building (if you believe the official story) once every few years, how does that really affect all of us? We'll still be stuck in traffic the next day and still be saving for our imaginary retirements. For almost all of us, life goes on.

So right now there's really no need to spend billions to protect ourselves from the monsters in the closet. But you had better believe that the military is thinking ahead. Business thinks short-term, the military long-term. So what's on the horizon? Climate change. Peak oil. These two realities are proven and will have a dramatic impact on our lives, not to mention our retirement savings. The potential for violence is real unless we start building bridges with our enemies. But with NORAD we are clearly setting up a wall around our continent and declaring our intention to fight to the bitter end. Is that SUV worth it?

I keep seeing television ads from banks that tell me that "life is an investment with great returns". Death unfortunately seems to be a much better investment.

Endangered Species

A little story with big implications has almost snuck under the radar. The trial of failed Iraqi suicide bomber Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi began in Jordan today. This young lady, that's right lady, joined Al Qaeda in Iraq and traveled to Annan, Jordan with the intention of detonating her suicide belt in a Western-owned hotel there. Three others "succeeded", she failed when her belt did.

This woman is the rarest of creatures, the female "terrorist". Like other endangered species, she will no doubt be studied by many observers (I suppose myself included). We in the West are always told that women in the Middle East are treated as no better than property. They are controlled by their men and ordered to wear veils and birqas; these demonstrate their submission to patriarchy. What women would choose that life we think, reasonably given our cultural norms?

Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi, beyond the label of suicide bomber, is already becoming the subject of criticism because of her choices. Jordanian authorities claim she even got married just to become a suicide bomber. How dare she be so brazen? Marriage is sacred, isn't it? You don't just use people to get what you want; men might behave thus but not women. So what if her brothers were killed by the Americans in Iraq. That doesn't give her the right to forget her place. Suicide bombing and all those sweet virgins are for men; women need not apply.

But increasingly it seems they are.

Ironically given imperial America's supposed goals of dragging the Middle East into the modern world, "terrorist" organizations are more egalitarian than the corrupt governments they aim to replace. Hamas, Al Qaeda in Iraq and other "terrorist" groups it could be argued are extremely progressive in some areas. Like the women of the armament factories in World War Two, women are being drafted to help combat the "Great Satan", many making the ultimate sacrifice. After World War Two, in the West women had proved themselves and slowly began to claim more and more rights over the years. Will this happen in the Middle East? Perhaps history will judge Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi a pioneer.

Being alive and on trial, however truncated, she can become a symbol. If the state kills her, which is likely given Jordan's record, what does this say about the agency of women? If she is released or jailed she remains a living symbol of women choosing another path other than marriage and motherhood.

What will her sisters that follow in her wake achieve? Perhaps legal abortion will come to the Middle East; maybe divorce will become even more common and, gasp, maybe all Arab and Muslim women will win the right to vote. But maybe they'll embrace violence as she has done. Does it take the end of a war to begin the real fight?

Of course the counter argument could be made and it could be said that in choosing (whatever that means) to be a suicide bomber Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi was being manipulated by men all along. This is a compelling argument as well.

What cannot be argued is that this important trial and its impact on its society will be just as compelling and perhaps revolutionary.

How to Kill a Zombie

Traffic in and around big cities is a nightmare. The major cause of this traffic is getting people to and from work. Most of these commuters choose the private car over transit, trains or carpooling; it's simply the easiest and most convenient choice.

However when you consider that you may spend up to 2 hours a day commuting to and from work the reality is shocking. If you commute one hour to work and one hour home over the year that's the equivalent of 13 forty hour work weeks! That's crazy and what's even crazier is that people think it's normal!

To me this is clearly an undesirable and unsustainable situation. People who commute these long distances spend less time relaxing or with their families. And let's not forget all that pollution and wasted fuel.

So today I was thinking: what if your employer was responsible for your commute? They had to pay you for the time you commute to and from work or your eight hour work day would include the two hours spent on the road. What effect would this have?

Most companies would hate to pay out the extra cash for essentially dead time. Looking at it strategically, shortening the commute would be ideal. If an employee just had to walk a city block to get to work then that would only be 5 or 10 minutes that the employer would have to cover. Companies might also be inclined to move closer to rapid transit links such as train stations and LRT lines. Moving employees to remote locations closer to home and telework would become more desirable. I could imagine a wealthy company locating to a small town relatively far away from cities and sprawl and supporting their employees to relocate to the town; they might provide lower mortgage rates or other incentives. Given cheap telecommunications and the Internet this would not be an unreasonable move. The downside would probably be that some towns would change their names to reflect their new dominant resident: Welcome to Nortelville.

There probably wouldn't need to be as much highway construction or expansion which would save us all a lot of money. Pollution would be lessened and therefore there would be a decrease in hospital visits and smog blanketing our cities. People would have more time to live as opposed to being commuter zombies. For businesses, productivity would increase as people would be less drained by their commute.

What's the downside to this scenario? Employees that chose to live in the middle of nowhere would probably be let go if they wouldn't move closer to work. The suburbs would have to change their primarily residential orientation. Living in Hamilton, I doubt many industrial workers would want to live in proximity to their warehouses and factories. On a positive note, this may encourage businesses to be less polluting and more supportive of their surrounding communities. If they didn't then their employees would move away and they'd have to pay out more.

Of course, don't expect our reactive as opposed to proactive governments to study let alone enact this progressive move. Still it sounds pretty good and revolutionary to me. Comments?

Purple Monkey Dishwasher

Do you want to travel back in time? Well then, join the US armed forces.

How did I come to this bizarre conclusion you may be asking. Well I was pondering the name of the group that kidnapped four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq. The Swords of Righteousness Brigade claimed responsibility for the extended kidnapping; ultimately three of the hostages were released by the British military aided by Iraqi soldiers several weeks ago. The Swords of Righteousness Brigade must have realized just how stupid the kidnapping was since they didn't put up a fight. These people were there to help and act as witnesses; foolishly they killed one of the activists probably to show just how tough they were.

How ridiculous a name that the Swords of Righteousness Brigade is, I thought to myself. Obviously something is lost in translation, but if you think you're righteous, you probably aren't. That's a good life lesson if I ever heard one.

Of course it's not just insurgent groups that are using ridiculous labels, the US military is just as guilty. A came across a list of the US military operations in Iraq that somebody had been diligently compiling. Reading through the list I had the feeling that I had heard these names before. Operation Red Dawn for instance, wasn't that a cheesy movie in the 1980s when a bunch of kids take on the Soviet Army? Operation Iron Grip made me think of the Iron Sheik and his patented Boston Crab from the WWF in the 1980s. Operation Tombstone Piledriver comes directly from a wrestling move perfected by the Undertaker in the early 1990s; ditto Operation Rock Bottom. Operation Cobra Sweep similarly made me think of G.I. Joe (though I was more of a Transformers fan). Of course who could forget Wolverine, the Canadian X-Man from our favourite comic; not the US military who named an operation after him in August 2004. Then the pinnacle of this trip down memory lane was Operation Thunder Cat.

All these missions took me back to happy moments in my youth with references to the many media listed above. Since many of the soldiers in Iraq are around my age it stands to reason that these operations resonate with them too. The name given to a mission has little bearing on its purpose so why do they name them thus? Maybe these young men feel more enthusiastic about missions when there's a reference to their childhood; you can be like the Undertaker, take out Cobra Commander, save your Thunder Cat family. You can bet that the US military has done research on this one.

So that's how joining the military can take you back in time and down memory lane, if you're a twenty-something male from North America. Happy shooting!

Back to the Future

So Hu Jintao is in Washington. He's come to be lectured by a declining superpower about human rights, threatening moves toward Taiwan, jumping on board with US policies toward "rogue states" and, of course, economics. The big problem is that the US buys more stuff from China than vice versa so everyday its deficit is growing alongside the debt. China is criticized by Washington for causing this situation because of the low value of its currency. The Americans argue that it is kept artificially low versus the US dollar which means that it's easy to sell Chinese crap in the Walmarts of the US. They probably have something there.

But as usual, let's not focus on the splinter in their eye but the log in ours. The US's currency has its own dirty little currency secret. For the longest time, the US was top dog and its stable currency became the international unit of trade. When a South Korean wanted to sell a semi-conductor to someone in Argentina they usually did the deal in US dollars. This means that everyone is always buying US dollars which makes them desirable and keeps their value high.

Then there's oil. Oil is almost always traded in US dollars. When oil sells for $70 dollars a barrel that's a lot of US dollars being bought and traded. Americans may complain about gas prices but given their trade deficit they need the price to go higher and higher and hope that no one decides to start selling oil in any other currency.

And if they do, you take them out quickly. Did you know that Saddam Hussein had started to sell oil in euros just before he was ousted by the mighty Coalition of the Willing? All those WMDs we were so scared of came to nothing. But Saddam Hussein did present a serious threat by challenging the supremacy of the US dollar; we just never got told that one. Should people die over money? Apparently yes.

The euro is the only other global currency that has the same stability as the greenback. So oil-laden (sounds like bin Laden) "enemies" of the US are attracted to it for its ability to undermine the strong US dollar. Squarely in the sights of the sole superpower, Iran is accused of a clandestine nuclear program. However another story is sliding under the radar. Iran is planning to follow Iraq's lead and sell some of its oil in euros. So is the real threat nuclear or economic?

Either way Tehran should be a crater before long. Then we'll have $100 a barrel oil. Let the good times roll!

Guillotine Blues

I went to the Hamilton Art Gallery this weekend. I must admit to not loving art galleries but they are worthwhile to support. Sometimes they can be a bit pretentious with people looking at various pieces of art and pretending to be experts. I usually pass by portraits of old white people from the 19th century because they are just that--pictures of dead people. It's like walking past a cemetery. Desperate people want to be remembered when they die so they have themselves immortalized on granite or canvas.

There were a few interesting exhibits. One was a combination of contemporary Sami and Inuit art. Two pieces were most interesting. The first was clearly by a young person in Canada's north. It was a picture of his or her living room. Two children were playing Super Nintendo. What, you were expecting caribou? The second trio were from a Sami photographer. The photos showed a woman in a business suit with skirt and high heels walking across a tundra. The photographer had also taken a snap of a road scene full of street signs and lights. Funnily, the signs all had snowball impact marks on them; so they do that their too.

One of the strangest pieces was a giant Volkswagen van carrying signs of our modern universal culture. There were many branded toys all over the car. Smaller hotwheels-sized cars and trucks and trains tracked around the van. A skeleton was in the driver's seat. Towers near the rear of the van towered above it like skyscrapers; King Kong lived on one. A trip to the back of the van revealed a hidden reality. They looked like many towers of garbage. Other trucks and trains fed their constant growth. I wonder if the other visitors saw the garbage towers amidst all the splendor.

The most captivating piece for me was part of the Tannenbaum Collection of European "treasures". It was this amazing scene that I doubt I'll forget quickly. The large picture dominated the wall it hung on; I sat for a long while observing. In the bottom right hand corner a condemned man is being led to his death on the guillotine in what looks like a nineteenth century city centre. A priest attends to his soul. Outside in the street crowds gather to watch the brutal act. They are everywhere, on building tops and up and down streets going off in many directions from the device. The guards look toward him blankly. I wonder what he had done? Perhaps he was the French Paul Bernardo. But really I instantly thought of Zacarias Moussaoui and what will soon happen to him.

Fact of the day: the Guillotine was still being used in France in 1977!

Oprah to the Rescue

I just watched an episode of Oprah. I have occasionally flipped past her immensely successful and popular show from time to time. Ninety percent of the time the show glorifies Hollywood and celebrity, so I pass on, but occasionally it gets political; then she's got me. Do you remember when the Texas beef industry sued Oprah for dissing their "product"? How dare she associate mad cow disease with beef!

Today the hot topic was poverty and getting by on the minimum wage which I believe is $5.50/hour in the good old USA. Oprah roped in the Super Size Me guy and his lovely vegan fiancee to live for a month working minimum wage jobs. It was a complete disaster. He worked two full time jobs (that's 16 hours a day) and screwed up his wrist; she worked one and got a urinary tract infection. Without health coverage they were in the hole $1,200 at the end of their 30 days in hell.

Oprah then brought on a succession of impoverished people to talk about their lives and their struggles. These people weren't lazy welfare bums as they are often characterized. They were working full time jobs and still couldn't make ends meet. There were silver linings, smiles (with some tears) and even a standing ovation. I'm being a little sarcastic but I was moved as well to hear the stories of people that never get a chance to tell their stories. The Bible had better be right that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

However it was ironic to hear Oprah say how shocking this whole situation is and how things have to change. Now I can't imagine how much Oprah pulls in during the year but let's assume it's a little more than minimum wage. And perhaps this is the whole problem. When you're hunting for the American Dream most people are going to come up short; not everyone can be an Oprah, despite what we are led to believe. We don't all start out the hunt equally in any case.

Having said that, I bet that this episode will get a reaction in Washington and in some of the states. That's the power of Oprah. I bet that in the 2006 congressional elections politicians will point to today's Oprah show and demand a rise in the minimum wage. And Oprah's guests might even get a 20 cent raise an hour come 2007.

Universal healthcare is a major issue in the US (and in Canada as we are slowly killing our great system). Americans need it for so many reasons. As a Canadian I'm amazed that you can get a bill for going to see the doctor or be treated for an x-ray. So I'm pondering a new mission from the great white north into the heart of the US. Maybe some well meaning Canadians need to go down there and explain to them that they don't have to line up for the free clinic because they can't afford to see a doctor. If you just tax everyone (especially the successful like Oprah) fairly you can have a national system. It will even be cheaper and more efficient. Yet I already know that we'd be called communists and chased out of town.

We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident

I once was a teaching assistant for a first year Peace Studies course at my my undergraduate university. This course adopted an interesting approach inviting four professors to lecture the class on different topics related to the study of war.

One professor chose to address the expansionist wars of the Americans against the First Nations peoples of the Great Plains, specifically the Lakota. His approach was very ironic and in fact he fooled some students (perhaps he was unfair to first years). He showed how politicians, pundits and academics, even today, still paint the Lakota as a warlike people despite abundant evidence to the contrary. They revolutionized warfare on the Great Plains, we are told, by combining horses and firearms. Wait a minute! Didn't the Spanish conquistadors do that almost 400 years earlier?

It's interesting to compare this treatment with modern Orientalism. Arabs are now the new Lakota. They are all violent, clannish, irrational we are told; look at Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. Politicians, pundits and academics again ape these popular statements. All the while we miss the truth: one dimensional stereotypes fail to capture the variety and complexity of a given group. And once again we fail to recognize the negative attributes we ascribe to other nationalities in our own. No, Americans and Canadians are not violent like Iraqis we say as we ponder nuclear attacks on Iran.

Like the Lakota mastery of horses and firearms, the practice of scalping is deeply associated with First Nations. There is obviously some truth to this. However having read an interesting book the other day once again I was exposed to a new level of complexity in the truths we hold dear. William Fowler's, Empires at War is the story of the first truly world war. It encompasses the British conquest of North America and the expulsion of France and arguably the birth of Canada.

Throughout the book however there are constant references to scalping by both "Indians" and whites. So we have another complex case that undermines deep seated cultural stereotypes as with the Lakota. "Indians" and scalping are not necessarily as synonymous as we have supposed. American colonists by contrast were often paid to scalp Indians. One assumes this was done to ensure the 13 colonies were devoid of their native humanity. It's hard to drag a bunch of native corpses back from the wilderness to the magistrate to collect your reward, so scalps were a quick and easy proof of death. Even more shocking given the accepted association between "Indians" and scalping, during the American Revolution, Americans even scalped British soldiers and partisans.

As much as First Nations peoples are described as warlike, savages and violent, Americans are noble and proud. Their emblems and crests are emblazoned with the images of the bald eagle, the noblest member of North America's fauna. What could be more American? The truth of this image is more complex. Notice that these images are of an eagle binding many arrows in its talon (see above). What colonist would have traded his musket for a bow and arrow? The latter are the instruments of unsophisticated savages. The eagle should be holding many muskets. It doesn't because the Americans stole and continue to steal this seal from "Indians". The Iroquois Confederacy, one of the strongest native groups to encounter the early Americans, had this eagle as its crest. The bound arrows symbolized the tying together of six nations as one. The early Americans learned a lot from the complex polity of the Iroquois in building their United States out of many antagonistic and different colonies, though I doubt they'll give the Iroquois the credit they deserve.

Disconnect

Occasionally I start blog entries and have to come back to them. You know when a good idea pops into your head but you're falling asleep or just off to work so you don't have any time to do anything with it. This is one of those times.

I had just watched Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night. For a while I've noticed that Viagara is well advertised on the boards at these games beside McDonald's and Pepsi. What's the deal? Usually companies only advertise where they know they'll get their message across. I guess the logical conclusion is that a lot of hockey fans need a little hand in the bedroom. But aren't male hockey fans all "real" men? They'd never need Viagara, right?

Hey quickly on a side note, a couple of weeks ago, I was told to "play a man's sport" by a crusty old man teaching his prodigy to punt footballs at Soccerworld here in Hamilton. I was getting warmed up for an ultimate frisbee game with some of my teammates. I guess there wasn't enough armour or hitting for him. Perhaps I was smiling and laughing too much. And worst of all, I was playing with women. Of course this old-timer would have been done in less than five seconds had he tried to keep up with us. We all knew this. If you ever want a workout (or to prove your manhood if you are so inclined), try ultimate. I regret not telling him to piss off (not my style really) but I guess he'll die soon; maybe from a Viagara overdose.
Back to the Viagara ads: Are we all so inactive that we have become impotent? We'll watch hockey long before we'd ever consider playing. Isn't this a natural outcome of sloth? What's the point of procreation when you're a lazy bastard? What do you have to offer the species? Perhaps your parallel parking ability.

I guess this is another example of humans overcoming the natural processes of evolution. You don't have to be strong to survive anymore. There's always a drug that will overcome your affliction or prolong your life. Pop some Viagara and you can pass on your rotten genes to your kids. I'm not claiming to be superior by the way. I should have died a long time ago with my faulty genes but human ingenuity saved me. I'm still deciding whether it's worthwhile to pass them on. While I'm deciding I'll catch the NHL playoffs (but don't worry, I'll still play ultimate).

Harper Ascendant

Shudder. I laughed at one of Stephen Harper's jokes today. Read one of my blog entries on Canadian politics and you'll realize that I don't agree, with the exception of one, with any of the Prime Minister's policies. So this involuntary laugh made me look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching. Accused of seducing David Emerson away from the Liberal Party to the Conservatives, Harper responded: "Mr. Speaker, I don't think I've ever been accused of seducing anyone". You had to be there. Trust me.

The robot is evolving and the sky's the limit. I expect this new Harper will enter the next election with something close to a personality. Canadian voters be warned.

It made me think of a debate I watched with friends in the last US election. Bush and Kerry were neck and neck. Then it happened. Asked about their better halves, Kerry mumbled something about his billionaire wife and was seen for what he was: patrician and superior. Bush's response on the other hand, seemed so genuine and hid his elite background so well that I knew then he had won the election. Both Mike and I did. And the rest is history.

Don't underestimate these moments. Appearance and personality count for voters. Harper's learning this and for the sake of Canada, I hope it was just a single moment of bravado. Long live our robotic leader. May he never make me laugh again.

Sucks to Be Him

If ever there was a lopsided trial truly this is it. The fitting expression "Zacarias Moussaoui versus the People" springs to mind. With his life in the balance, he is essentially squaring off against an entire nation. I have the feeling that if the prosecutors could, they would subpoena every single American to come and tell their fellows about the trauma of 9/11. And no one would even notice if the trial took 20 years.

Even the dead are testifying against him. To coincide with the trial, many tapes are finally being released of 911 calls and calls from hijacked airplanes (isn't it impossible to make a cell phone call from an airplane). How can you fight the dead? Today Rudy Giuliani testified about his experiences that fateful day and expect more of the same in the days and weeks to come. Hasn't the case against Moussaoui been made?

What's the point of this parade/charade? It must have something to do with national healing and the closely related need to find a scapegoat (and then tear him apart). I'd love to come up with a biblical quote. I probably could from the Old Testament but Jesus was pretty clear that we should turn the other cheek to those that harm us. Don't expect this message to be heard in any of the churches of the red states. Sad that . . .

Beyond national healing and the slaughter of scapegoats, the timing is suspect. Iran's D-Day is pending and it's always good to get the emotions swelling. Hey Moussaoui is a brown guy and so are the Iranians; he hurt us, let's not give them the chance to hurt us. Atom bombs to the rescue then back to the couch and prime time.

Unlike many of the witnesses, I don't think Moussaoui is the devil. He's just a screwed up guy. They'll never allow it but given his behaviour I would speculate as to his mental health and ability to comprehend what is happening to him. This might spare him a lethal injection or worse but have no doubt that the conclusion to this trial has already been set: he's a dead man.

Maybe then the real healing can begin.

Here We Go Again

Is it just me or does something stink about the coverage of Iran's new show of force? From the way Iran's new technologies are being portrayed you'd think we were dealing with the new Nazi Germany. Something makes me think I've heard this before. They have new missiles, torpedoes and, according to the Spectator, something called a "super modern flying boat". Sounds like a zeppelin to me.

I feel it's my duty to remind readers that we heard this all before in relation to the threat of Iraq back in 2003. Then it was a plain lie, now there is an element of truth to all the hype. Iran does have new toys doubtless but let's not forget the United States spends $400 billion on defense annually. That's right $400 billion. Iran's new weapons are sticks and stones compared to the power the US can project anywhere around the world. And unlike any other country on earth, the US has declared that it would use nuclear weapons preemptively at the drop of a hat.

Before we chastise Iran for militarism let’s take a good long look in the mirror and question our own priorities. That we don’t recognize this blatant hypocrisy is the greatest crime; far worst than enriching uranium.

What Never Stops Growing?

I once had a professor who advised his impressionable students that, when you pick up a newspaper, if you want to read the real news you should turn to the business section. From my experience, again and again he has been proved correct. The first section, the "news" is the just the start. If you read that you'll know what's going on; to understand the context you have to turn to the trusty report on business.

So I did today in a newspaper I had picked up a few weeks ago. I read about corn wars and the little piggies that were on the frontlines of Canadian farmers' prosperity. There was a section on how bilateral trade is replacing its problematic and difficult cousin, multilateral trade. Then, getting more political, was the impending visit of the Chinese President, Hu Jintao to the United States. Yes, this is still the business section. The article explained that, in this congressional election year, China was a target of politicians seeking re-election because of its reluctance to deal with intellectual property rights and its weakly valued currency.

That got me thinking about national debts and deficits. Back in the early 1990s, these issues were the talk of the town. It seems that these days they take a backseat to more pressing concerns like terrorism and "freedom". But of course they are still important. The US' national debt stands at just over $8 trillion and Congress has authorized a ceiling of $9 trillion. The related US trade deficit (exports minus imports: if negative it's a deficit, if positive a surplus) in January 2006 was $68.5 billion. These numbers are mindblowing! Let's not forget that the US spends $400 billion annually on defense either. Canada has a debt of $600 billion by comparison and a misleading surplus given the plight of provinces and cities. According to the CIA, Brunei, Palau, Tokelau, Lietchtenstein and even Palestine are the only countries with no debt. Even Greenland owes somebody $25 million.

I wonder how serious we all are with getting out of debt. Things seem to be going pretty well for some even though we are carrying around all this credit. Yet all that Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and Mike Harris could ever say was that we were drowning in debt so as a result they cut as much as they could and downloaded everything onto the cities. But at the same time they cut taxes which mostly benefited the wealthy. Hmmm, could it be that all this debt-mongering was just a ploy all the time?

Still what would happen if all these debts got called in? Say when creditors need all their assets to buy steadily more expensive oil to keep their economies and businesses going. I bet you'd want to be a debt-free Palestinian then. Wait . . . no you wouldn't.

Work Less Live More

Our North American/Anglo American society has a tendency to glorify sacrifice and hard work and I for one am fed up! Someone should bury this lousy Protestant work ethic once and for all. I just watched a story on 60 Minutes about it. They interviewed a number of white collar workers at different businesses. Most put in 70 hour weeks regularly. They explained that if they did they were rewarded and if they took time for themselves they were chastised (such is the modern office--most of this pressure came from co-workers). A hardworking couple, raising a little girl, communicated by instant messenger and email when at home and considered this normal. All had Blackberries. One CEO had even set up a phone, TV, and internet station in his shower. Some of the workers were offered the flexibility to work from anywhere and have their productivity be measured by their results. They still put in 70 hour weeks. What the heck is going on?

My major problem with workaholics/lunatics is that they ruin life for the rest of us. When someone is willing to work 70 hours a week in a job, why the heck would a company or organization hire me? So my choice is to put in 70 hours a week or be unemployed. Of course it's not that simple. Not all organizations demand so much of their employees but when people are willing to surrender themselves to this gruelling work schedule do you think they're going to turn them down?

I only would want and expect to be asked to work a maximum of 40 hours a week at any job. And even that is pushing it. I don't see why people wouldn't want to work say 25 or 30 hours a week. If you did you could take a three-day weekend all the time. You'd have time to spend time with your kids, fix up your house, engage in your community, take up a hobby. Think of the possibility of all that time spent on improving oneself and one's community. You don't have to just accept working 40 hours a week because it's what everyone does (imagine that).
Right now I'm working full-time at 40 hours a week but my plan is get this down to a four day week very soon. My work thankfully is very flexible and this choice wouldn't be considered revolutionary. I'll make a bit less money but that pales in comparison to the upside. I only wish this was an option for my self-employed and workaholic father. My mother is already there thankfully.