Blog Archives - Northern Overexposure

Harper Government Global Leader in Gay Rights

1/30/2012

Great article on Canada's leadership on gay rights internationally.

Harper Gov't Comes Out as (Surprise!) Global Leader in Gay Rights

Canada's voice on this issue was first heard in 2009, in response to the now-infamous Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill. In his first public comments on the bill, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told members of his ruling party, "The prime minister of Canada came to see me and what was he talking about? Gays." Largely owing to foreign pressure, the bill is currently shelved.

In March 2011, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced a pilot program to assist refugees fleeing persecution for reasons of sexual orientation. In November, when a Nigerian bill sought to expand that country's punitive measures against gays, Foreign Minister John Baird released a statement demanding, "The Government of Nigeria must protect all Nigerians, regardless of sexual orientation."

Coffee and Cigarettes

1/30/2012

I like this offbeat movie. I also find this scene funny and cool at the same time.

"Coffee is good though down at I-Hop....I drink the coffee down at I-HOP. Classy brew."

Just too funny.

Tom Waits _ Iggy Pop - Coffee and Cigarettes by mugu_77

Interview with John Coltrane

1/29/2012

I admire Coltrane's spiritual and religious commitment. I don't always understand his music but I admire him as a spiritual force. I have listened to A Love Supreme quite a bit and it still eludes me. Still, he is a very interesting man. He discusses music and on the point of musicians (and anybody) understanding, Coltrane says, "The person who doesn't understand, will understand in time upon repeated listening, or also he never will understand. And, that's the way it is. There are many things in life we don't understand and we go on anyway."

Gene Simmons shows Romney some love

1/29/2012

Gene Simmons appears to be sympathetic to Romney. He voted for Obama in the last cycle. He doesn't endorse but is open, as he says, to listening to the dialogue.

Simmons does say something I disagree with. He says that you should be taxed at 15% because if you invest you could lose. This is not what happened in the USA. The bailout of companies that engaged in risky practices was supported by the American taxapayer when they lost money. The whole "too big to fail" attitude had an effect.

It is not quite true that you could lose everything. In the US version of capitalism, companies get to privatize their profits and socialize their losses.

Modern Slavery

1/28/2012

A sobering book from Corban Addison, A Walk Across the Sun. From the review in the Huffington Post (Canda)

Reality check: There are more slaves in the world today than were taken from Africa in the four centuries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade--over 27 million. Of those, two million are children exploited in the commercial sex trade.

While prostitution is the oldest profession, the proliferation of the trade surely must be connected to the consumerization of our globalized capitalist culture. In such a framework, people become commodified and any sense of ethical imperatives seem to be lost.

Postmodern authors such as Foucault have argued that discussions around ethics and rules of governmanetality (how he refers to the exercise of government power) are going to figure prominently in the years ahead. Clearly the future is now!

Hans Kung, the Roman Catholic theologian has been working on a universal ethical process that would fit the modern world. Kung, along with a variety of activists and scholars, have joined together to form the Center for Global Ethics.

Certainly the philosophy of Kant deserves to be mined further. His ethical imperative which was essentially the view that human beings cannot be viewed as instrumental but must have an intrinsic value deserves further elaboration.

Sex education, should also be less focused on hygiene and practices and more on how intimate relationships play a integral role in the formation of identity. Critical theory could be deployed as a pedagogy to assist students to reject the commodification of their bodies in a consumeristic culture.

There are many ways to be part of the change and each in our own small way should find ways to change the commodification and exploitation of human beings.

The Dogs of War succed on Iran

1/27/2012

The latest neo-con drumbeats are being beat for Iran. The US Republicans candidates are all sounding hawkish and the Obama administration too is hand wringing over Iran as well.

It is a good idea to start getting educated now on the facts before being awash in propaganda, political agendas, and more boogeymen.

This article, "Avoiding a Dumb War with Iran" is a good one for background and context

Ron Paul is a breath of sane, fresh air in the debates and I hope that his perspective figures prominently at the convention as he now hovers consistently around 20 - 25% in the US primaries which is a significant number. Below are some good clips with Paul exhibiting courage and leadership in this regard. Listen to his excellent comments against Sanctorum and Bachman.

Frauds in our Midst

1/27/2012

The linked article below is from Joseph Komonchak of Commonweal, one of the online magazines and blogs I like to read. It was originally entitled "Frauds in the Church" and is a translation from one of St. Augustine's homilies. Komonchak is a theologian and frequently posts on the thought of Augustine who pioneered the ethnographic autobiographical form. Deeply psychological, in his now classic book "Confessions" Augustine frames his theology on the troubled consciousness of the human psyche. He famously wrote that our hearts are restless O Lord an will never rest until they rest in thee.

In this homily, ever ancient and ever new, Augustine takes up the theme of the desire for ideological or spiritual purity which will never be found in any community There is no safe haven, no pure land uncontaminated by dysfunction or otherness.

Augustine begins with this interpretation from the Song of Songs:

As the lily in the midst of thorns, so is my love in the midst of the daughters” (Song 2:2). It does not say, “in the midst of foreign women,” but “in the midst of the daughters.” O Lord, how do you console, how do you comfort, how do you frighten? What are you saying? “Like a lily”in the midst of what thorns? “So is my love” in the midst of which daughters? Are the ones you call “thorns” the daughters themselves? He replies: “‘Thorns’ because of their habits, ‘daughters’ because of my sacraments.” Would that he were groaning in the midst of foreign women; he would groan less. This is the greater groaning: “If an enemy had reviled me, I would indeed have borne with it. And if he who hated me had spoken great things against me, I would indeed have hidden myself from him. … But you, a man of one mind, my guide and my familiar, who took sweet foods with me” (Ps 54(55):13-15).

Read the rest here: Frauds in the Midst of the Church

If Live, Stones Hear

1/26/2012

Work today has been marked by personal tragedy for at least two staff who received troubling news concerning their loved ones; one was a death and the other a serious illness. Plus, there appear to be setbacks and blocks to the rhythm and flow of work with delay in filling of vacancies which will increase the workload of staff and other experiencing serious sicknesses.

All of this put me in mind of the poem. If Live, Stones Hear by Marie Ponsot in her collections of poems entitled "Easy".

Where there are two
choose more than one.

In the longing of silence
for sound
the longing of sound for
silence

makes waves. Are the winds
of outer space
an utterance
or simply the rush of change

are rivers under our ground
audible to stones and to moles.
or is their wet self-storage
self-contained

Between silence and sound
we are balancing darkness,
making light of it,
like the barren pear
that used to bloom

in front of Elaine's uplifting
Second Avenue,
like the acacia trees
perfuming the rue d'Alesia.

Ponsot's line "between silence and sound we are balancing darkness, making light of it" is a beautiful image of finding meaning in the surprises and setbacks, the tragedies and triumphs of life. Each of these, "silence and sound" long for each other. It is interesting that Ponsot does not frame these in a Manichean duality of light and darkness but of only darkness. Much of life is balancing degrees of suffering but, in so doing, we make light of that very darkness.

It is a powerful image speaking of our ability to be co-Creators with God who creates ex nihilo (out of nothing). By analogy, we too, create, while not ex nihilo - out of the void that exists between "silence and sound".

The gap between silence and sound is where we, as interpreters, stand and ultimately create life's elan.

This balance between the longing of silence for sound and sound for silence requires a finally attuned and attentive ear to locate that slight gap that science has not even developed a word for. It also requires that we participate in the relationship and desire that each of these (silence and sound) have for the other. It is in that very space that life emerges.

How Will Keystone Play in the US election

1/25/2012

The issue of energy independence is something that people across the ideological spectrum of have long supported. Many progressive politicians and activists in the US have suggested that the best way to address national security is to lessen our addiction to foreign oil.

Certainly reducing consumption and enhancing investment in alternative forms of energy is part of that agenda but so is, at times. mining oil domestically.

Given the US governments delay with approving the project, Canada, for its part has made a business decision to enter into discussion with China on exporting oil to them. This should not be seen as a rebuff to an ally but a response to Canada's economic interest. Here is CBC's story:

China considers Canada's energy export win-win.

There are important environmental considerations that I am hoping to learn more about. In the meantime, I can't help wondering how the decision to delay the Keystone project will play in the US election.

Below is an interview back in November of 2011 on Global TV with Stephen Harper on Keystone.

First Nation Leaders and Prime Minister Meet at Summit

1/24/2012

Assembly of First Nation Chief Shawn Atleo and Prime Minister Stephen Harper met today to discuss issues facing First Nation communities. Certainly, the controversy surrounding Attawapaskat served at least in part as part of the catalyst.

In a kind of back to the future moment, the issue of the status of the I ndian Act which established the reservation system in Canada and led to the debacle of the White Paper is now circulating in Ottawa and among aboriginal activists. Earlier in the week, I discussed the historical backdrop of agitation concerning the Indian Act with a video of Saul Alinsky visiting Rama First Nation where young First Nation activists gave Alinsky a quick overview of the Indian Act. This was in the early 1960's and the issue remain currents 40 years later! The abolishment of the Indian Act is something many, but not all, First Nation activists and leaders have been calling for.

Atleo provided some important historical context in his prepared remarks. He discussed the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which established land rights for indigenous people and which pledged that the Crown would ensure that those rights were secured for generations. He criticized the Indian Act although did not go so far as to publicly advocate for its repeal.

For his part, Stephen Harper has offered to reform the Indian Act.

I think that since its inception in 1863 the Indian Act has created a cycle of government dependency, ghettoized native people and has slowly eroded any sense of well being and self determination. While I am not in favour of sudden lurches in policy, the repeal of the Indian Act should be a goal of the government and First Nation people. It was eloquently advocated by the activists in the story I posted a few days ago.

Read speeches here:

Governor General Johnston, Prime Minister Stephan Harper, Assembly of First Nation Chief Shawn Atleo.

My Pensées

The title of this blog is an allusion to the famous work of Blaise Pascal. This blog represents the variety of my interests and thoughts on any given day and are strung together, like Pascal's Pensees, in no particular order. I work in the field of mental health, education, and human rights. I write and am a human rights advocate. I enjoy poetry, jazz, spirituality, politics and a potpourri of other interests that you will see reflected in this blog.

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