Ideeahs

During the last two days of the year I, like many millions, grab onto that most amazing human construct called Time, specifically the unit we call Year, and look forward in the space of time. I have always been someone who enjoys throwing stuff out. Decluttering brings me joy. Simplification removes weight from my shoulders. At this time of year I like to take the piece of paper that has all of the past's stories written on it, crumble and pitch it across the room straight into the bin. This human construct called Year allows me to bin the past and start afresh. The past has passed and the future awaits. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

A recurring thought recently found its way into my consciousness. The subject of this familiar thought is how the measurement of time has impacted society. Those of you who have read my book, " Avoiding the Blues ", know some of my thoughts on this subject and how time has had an impact on my life. Time management has become an ever more important skill for human beings. The slice of time we use to measure it has diminished from from years and months, through days and hours, on to minutes and seconds and, finally today, to nano and pico seconds. As a result we now have potentially more and more items that need to be managed in a day. More and more bits of data compete for these ever smaller slices and, because we are now able to measure and schedule time in smaller units, we allow more of these disparate items to enter our days. We feel a need to manage more and more into the finite number of twenty-four hours. To do this, successfully, we need to all become good ma

Why is it that it is always John Doe that gets shot dead and murdered, beat up or harassed, or just goes missing? Why can't it be Joe Blow - that unknown, generic man that makes no difference in anyone's life - that goes missing sometimes? Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I spent the afternoon constructing high-rise buildings, driving various cars and piloting planes with my son. It could have been the 1970s.....even the dust from that decade was with us. One of my most memorable Christmas gifts as a child was the Girder and Panel building set that I received one year sometime in the mid-70s. It was a building set that allowed me to construct skyscrapers by using plastic posts and girders. These girders allowed me to build towers that extended well into the sky - well at least three feet into it (measured from the wooden parquet floor of the living room of that apartment in Saint-Laurent). Part of my collection of toys were also cars and airplanes. The cars are long gone but the planes are toys that my son now plays with...along with that Girder and Panel set. So today we constructed, we drove and we flew. As we unboxed the building set my eyes noticed the dust that was sitting on some of the roof panels that make up part of the toy. The cor

The idea for this entry came during my walk to the train station this morning. Near the railroad tracks there are two single-family homes surrounded by apartment buildings and town homes. These houses just don't fit in and look very much misplaced. I started imagining that they must have been built when the area looked a little different. Rather than apartment building or town homes there might have been fields. I caught myself saying that they must have been built when there was "nothing here". I immediately realized that I might have made a mistake. Not in saying that the houses might have been built when there were only fields around them but in saying there was "nothing here". The statement implies that today there is something here. That somehow there is more today than there was back then - whenever "then" happened to be. I indeed made an error. Yes there may be more human beings living in this place today than there were in the p

I am writing part of this entry while riding the train home. In my lap is the book "Ryoju - The Hunting Gun" by Yasushi Inoue. I am unable to zone in and concentrate on my reading. There are too many distractions which are disturbing my peace. Clearly I am unable to meditate and ignore the happenings around me. I have work to do with my self. There are many times in my daily life that I think back to my trip to Japan in the autumn of 2008 . This is one of them. Specifically I am remembering how lovely it was to ride the train in Tokyo. I was struck by the silence. Standing on the platform looking in at the car one could have imagined that it would be a painful ride. People were packed into a sardine can only able to stay standing during the ebb and flow of the ride due to the fact that they were supported by their fellow commuter standing centimetres away. One might also imagine that so many people would create a cacophony of various noises in addition to a stin

In " Avoiding the Blues " I touch upon the importance of time management. It is a skill that is becoming more and more important to master as more and more items become so readily able to take a slice of our fixed twenty-four hour day. It is too easy to let our days slip by without much of a thought to what the real important things, to ourselves, are. I am now back in the ranks of the employed. So far it has been great. I am enjoying learning new products, new businesses, new processes, new organizations and working with new people. It is all very exciting. I can, however, see how my time is being eaten away. An example is this blog. Writing continues to be something I like doing yet, unfortunately, it is something that I am finding I am not doing much of. The last time I posted this blog was July 18 - close to one month ago. Time management is important. One needs to keep his priorities straight and ensure that the day-to-day does not rearrange them. As wit

This is going to be one of those posts that people think is negative. Oh well. We spent sometime in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue this afternoon. This is a town on the southwestern tip of the Island of Montreal. It is a place where, on sunny summer days, people congregate to watch the time go by. I can only wonder why. I had been to Ste-Anne a few times in the past and always came home disappointed. No different on this summer day. I guess the reason I go back is because my brain continues to play tricks on me when it recreates the past using part memory and part imagination. I have to say thanks to Daniel Gilbert and his book Stumbling on Happiness for making me realize that I was once again duped by my grey matter. Anyhow. Back to Ste-Anne. Let us start with the food. There are no decent restaurants. At least not facing the waterfront. Being that the waterfront is the main attraction of the town it is an unfortunate reality. They are all restaurants made from the same borin

And now for the second ideeah spawned from going back to work. This time the worlds are different - unlike in the previous entry. Before going back to work I spent my days with my family. We would go through our days together and each would contribute to the ebb and flow of any particular day's events. The mood of the day would be influenced by all and, because we all shaped it on a minute by minute basis, we might not necessarily see how it had evolved. Just as one does not see trees grow in a forest without the distance of a few years, being too close to a changing event hides its evolution from our consciousness. Now the dynamics have changed. Distance has permitted differences to emerge and be seen. One quarter of the family is away for the day. As such distance is created - albeit only for ten or so hours. The result has required some adjustments. Three quarters live their day together unaware of the changing skeleton upon which the remaining quarter's day

I have not been as active writing as this was my first week back in the workforce. It has given me many ideeahs. Here is the first. I am working for a global corporation that is active in 100+ countries. My manager has employees in three countries. I deal with people in at least seven on a near-daily basis. The office I work in has Spaniards, Arabs, Finns, English and French Canadians, Americans, Chinese, Africans and Vietnamese. We speak English and French - interchangeably. I have heard Chinese and Arabic as well. On phone calls we speak English, each with our unique accents and native-tongue sentence structure. Our emails are all in English. In the office I can see my colleagues. On the phone I don't - unless we use videoconference. Some dress in suits, some business casual, some in shorts and sandals. It all doesn't matter. It is a dynamic, modern-thinking place - exciting and full of people that don't seem to have the slightest care for where you come

OK...was THAT art? "I could do that!", said my eight year old son. My family and I just got back from an amazing five days in New York City. If there is one place in the world that speaks to the strengths of pride in one's individuality it is this (major understatement) bustling city. As one walks quickly down the narrow street-valleys you are bombarded by sounds, advertising, people, cars, street vendors, restaurant owners and corporations all trying to get your attention, some of your time and your cash. If one walks those streets with little to no confidence in oneself the magnetism of the attention grabbers will be too strong. One needs to be headstrong to survive unscathed. This point, the importance of individuality, was finally struck home as I walked the expansive spaces of the MoMA. A wire pegged in place on a wall with five or six pins. A simple chair. A can of soup. A canvass painted purple - only purple. A Picasso. A Matisse. A Pollock. I h

I just finished watching Germany trounce England 4-1. A well deserved win by the Germans whose passing and ball control was precise and carried much originality. England failed to impress with the one exception of Lampard who was the only player that showed up for the English. Could it all have ended differently? Those two second-half German goals in four minutes certainly helped to silence the doubters of the result. Technology has helped the officiating of events for decades. Whether it be hundredths of seconds in 100 metre sprints, millimetres on tennis serves or reviews of the trajectory of a puck in hockey, it has helped human beings correct their errors. This technology has allowed competitors rather than officials decide games. In this case we are talking about a ball that convincingly crossed a goal line by close to a metre. One can't blame the line judge as he was too far to see. In addition it was a blistering fast pinball-type bounce that had many people wond

I have asked myself that question a few times over the last two weeks. It has been just about that long since my first book -- " Avoiding the Blues " -- was published. Now I am by no means famous and I have no expectation that this book will bring me any fame whatsoever. But in a minute way I am feeling the elixir of fame. Writing this book was very therapeutic for me. It had resided in my head, in words on this blog and in notebooks for at least two or three years. Writing it was at times emotional and never boring. I relived the moments detailed within the book as I typed the words. I hope that those who read it feel this as they turn the pages of my book. Now that it is published the hard work is done. My job now is to market it and spread the word and to, more importantly, have people read it and hopefully recommend it to friends and colleagues. So what is the elixir, this drug, that I am becoming addicted to? Sitting back and watching this amazing story un

This is one of the better articles I have read on the issue of technology and how it might be affecting our brains. The irony is that while I was reading it I was interrupted by the New York Times itself. Between pages 2 and 3 a request for feedback popped up and distracted me from the article on....what was it? Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html The bottom-line is that we have now learnt that our brains do not stop developing at a young age. Our grey matter continues to adapt to the stimulus it faces on a daily basis. With the ever increasing bombardment of information -- and the resulting interruptions -- a growing number seem to be concluding that our brains are indeed adapting to the influx. How? By limiting our creativity, our empathy, our memory, our concentration. As I have said before, while I was working at IBM we often had discussions about Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. We were constantly bombarded by emails, chat me

I have often commented on my blog about how worried society has become. Our creativity often needs to be explained or, even worse, stunted by a society that seems to fear people that stand out or the wrath of someone's legal team. These thoughts have again popped into my head as I watched an advert for McDonald's restaurants. The ad is one that I've seen quite a few times over the last nine days or so. You see, McDonald's is advertising heavily during World Cup broadcasts. The viewer sees a bunch of twenty-somethings sitting around a campground munching on their burgers, shakes and fries. A massive bear comes strolling into the middle of their site and the campers all remain cool as cucumbers. Still biting down on their food they turn their heads and calmly look at the bear doing its thing. Not worried for a second that their lives are in danger they continue to enjoy the junk. How is this all related to worries and lawyers? Well, if you look closely at the

My family and I watched the first episode of the BBC Earth series entitled "Life" a few days back. If the first episode is any guide of those that follow it will be a truly amazing and inspiring series. We have enjoyed the "Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth" series by BBC Earth as well and have often gone back to view them a second and, in the case of some episodes, a fifth or sixth time. This is the kind of educational television that I do not mind my children watching. They get a glimpse of the beauty, power, indifference, struggle, delicacy and variety of nature. I imagine that from the amazing video footage and narrative they get a sense of the balance that is so important and that they may also grow to appreciate that, while humans may currently be the dominant animal, we are part of a larger system that could not care less about this dominance. Tonight we saw an introduction to some of the amazing and creative ways that animals have adapted to t

The world is whining. By whining I am not referring to the b-flat that the now famous (and previously unheard of) vuvuzelas are making at the 2010 World Cup. I am referring to the racket that sport commentators, journalists and fans are making around the world. Let us put some things in perspective. Start by comparing the vuvuzelas to the various horns used at games in Latin America. Then compare vuvuzelas to the toilet paper rolls and paper bits that cover fields in Argentina delaying game starts. Compare vuvuzelas to the flares, firecrackers and smoke producing gimmicks of Spanish and Portuguese fans which put fans at risk. Compare vuvuzelas to the hooliganism of northern European teams (I am thinking England and Denmark here). Now compare a stadium filled with cheering fans blowing into vuvuzelas to playing a match to an empty stadium as has happened in the Italian league due to the behaviour of fans. Think about the most recent event, on May 29th, and compare vuvuzelas t

No....I mean salt!! It is essential to our body's proper functioning. While not essential to eating, it does bring out tastes and, for certain recipes, is a requirement to the chemical reaction that occurs in cooking. Salt can also be detrimental to our health. Various cancers are associated with it as is high-blood pressure. So we can't live without it but we need to watch our intake - just like all other food stuffs and ingredients. I tend to watch what I eat. I watch ingredients, ensure that I eat balanced (well, fairly balanced) meals. I have to admit though that eating the recommended amount of fruits and veggies proves hard on many days. But, no matter how careful you are the fact is that if you eat processed foods you will eat too much salt and sugar. What I ate for lunch yesterday is an example. It was seemingly a fairly healthy meal. One can of salmon with one tablespoon of mayonnaise mixed in. Four pitted, red pepper-stuffed green olives. About eight

My book first book, Avoiding the Blues, is now available on Amazon.com. Other Amazon sites around the world to follow soon. Here is the link to my book on the Amazon.com site. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

In "The Long Tail" Chris Anderson describes how, in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, markets for many goods were turned on their heads. What I have been experiencing for the last seven days supports his premise. If this continues for months (or rather, and hopefully, years!) I will have proved the theory. My gut tells me I will. My readers know by now that I have published my first book - " Avoiding the Blues ". I did not know what to expect. Yes, I imagined that mostly I'd be selling to people I know. But what started happening in the last two days has suddenly awakened me to the amazing possibility of the world we live in. Strangers have started buying. In his book Chris talks about how, with the cost of inventory having dropped to zero for most media (music, video, written word), online retailers can now offer immense catalogues of media to consumers around the world. No longer are we limited to choosing from the narrow selection

You gotta love children. You gotta love them for their honesty, their inability to keep a secret and their obliviousness to political correctness. As a result of these pure character traits they sometimes come up with very poignant comments and make the listening adults most uncomfortable. This particular entry got its inspiration from an article I read on Yahoo News last week. Michelle Obama was visiting an elementary school.  One of the children asked the First Lady why her husband was taking away people who did not have the correct papers (ie. immigration papers).  Mrs. Obama responded by saying that it was important that people had the correct papers.  The little girl then went on to state that her mum did not have the correct papers. Oops! Clearly this little girl's mother would never have posed this question to the First Lady of the country that requires the papers being discussed.  There are many adults who express themselves on the issue but few who would do it in

Well it was faster than I was expecting. The paperback edition of "Avoiding the Blues" is now available for order directly from Creatspace, an Amazon.com company, for US$19.95. The link to my book's page is: https://www.createspace.com/3449045 The PDF version continues to be available for US$12 off of my personal website . It should be available from worldwide Amazon sites in a couple of weeks and for order by libraries, bookstores and other retail outlets shortly after. Thanks in advance to everyone for their support. Once you have read it please send me your comments at: olivier@olivierdesousa.com Cheers, Olivier Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Walmart is big. They have influence. Their 2009 revenues were $405 billion. They employ over two million employees. Their influence over the purchasing decisions of North Americans is large. Consequently, their corporate announcements often make the news. The positive ones around business greening have gotten good press. One that springs to mind was when they announced an initiative to reduce the amount of packaging in the goods they sell. They created a packaging scorecard for their suppliers. By sensitizing their supply chain to the issue of packaging Walmart can make a big difference. So when it decided to lower prices on soda pop in the United States it, in my opinion, used its clout in a negative way. Twenty-four cans of pop now cost $5 - though as low as $3.77 in some US markets. That is 15¢ per can. Not surprisingly pop flew off store shelves during the Memorial Day long weekend in the United States. With this action Walmart indirectly contributed to the health

blink, Chapter Six, Section 2. The Theory of Mind Reading. I enjoyed reading "blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. The book is about the processes that we all follow to make snap decisions. Whether it is deciding that a particular piece of art is one we like, or a particular person someone we just will not get along with, there are certain decision making processes that we can't control. Or can we? The book talks about the difference between the snap decisions of experts in a field vs. those of laypeople. It talks about how we can be primed to answer a question in a specific way by being shown certain images or words prior to filling out a questionnaire. It talks about how when confronted with certain emotions we tunnel (or narrow) the field of interpretation to the very basic ones required for survival. It shows that while some of what happens in the blink of an eye is not controllable, we can, if we are aware of the fact that we have automatic reactions, have some im

Hello everyone. This is an exciting day for me. My first book, "Avoiding the Blues", is now available for purchase. It is currently available only as a PDF file download . The paperback version should be available for order within one month or so. Here is the back cover blurb describing what "Avoiding the Blues" is about: Olivier de Sousa is a son of two, husband of one and father of two. He currently lives in Montreal, his hometown. His twenty-one year career in services at IBM enriched him with many experiences as a technical resource, a project manager and a personnel manager. His hope is to wake people up to the possibilities within them, to have them gain the confidence to live their dreams and to have an impact on the world. “Avoiding the Blues” is his first book and recounts how, through his own unique path through life, one regular person was taught life-changing lessons that we all are exposed to at some point. An easy to read memoir recapping

In my upcoming book, Avoiding the Blues , I speak loudly about my feeling of being but a cog in a wheel - unmotivated and with no feeling of purpose. Daniel Pink was one of the people that inspired me to make a difference. Yesterday I received an email with a link to this video. Corporations, employers and, most importantly, employees.....watch and, even more importantly, enact what Daniel is speaking about. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I went grocery shopping today at the local Loblaws supermarket. I have been going to that market since October when we moved into this neighbourhood. After eight months of visiting this store and pushing my cart up and down the aisles I noticed something that I had noticed before. I looked down at my two hands grasping the handle of the shopping cart and saw a warning label. Yep, a warning label. It said something along these lines: Customer warning. Caution, the cart you are now driving handles differently from regular carts. It is wider. Please be careful. OK then, some comments: 1) since the aisles at Loblaws are North-American sized it would seem that driving SUV sized food carts should be manageable. 2) if you can't drive a shopping cart around you should not have driven your car to Loblaws to start off with. 3) is this message meant to be cover-your-ass lawyer speak? "I will sue your behind if I so much as get nicked by some crazed cart driver." 4

As the water poured over my naked body in the shower this morning I started thinking about the amount of water that is wasted. The previous night I had turned on our sprinkler system to water our lawn and garden. The earth was cracking in some parts so I figured I could the plants a reprieve from the heat. I knew rain was in the forecast but, not knowing how much, I decided to water anyways. It is pouring outside now. Last year I wrote about how surprised I was that the previous owners of our house had consumed over 1000 litres of water a day during the previous twelve month period. As I finished my shower (quickly!!) my mind wandered a bit more and started thinking about how much of our daily life is set to automatic. By allowing our actions, reactions and thoughts to be automatically acted out and formed for us we take decisions and act in ways that are out of context. It prevents us from taking the time to look, hear, feel, smell and touch the moment. To understand its

Yesterday the city of Montreal was touched by a plume of smoke that was at least 400 km long. About that far north there were (are) many forest fires burning out of control. This smoke did not have much of an impact on the citizens of the city. People with severe asthma and respiratory issues were told that they should limit their physical exertion - but that was about it. Some of the fifty fires were started by lightning but some were caused by man. Further south, in the Gulf of Mexico, there has been talk of other plumes. These particular ones all caused by man. Two oil plumes have been discovered by scientists from various institutions. The latest, discovered on May 27, is thirty-five kilometres long and close to ten kilometres wide. Not surprisingly these have been disputed by the CEO of BP. "There aren't any plumes". Ya....OK...whatever Tony. What scientists are saying is that these underwater plumes risk getting caught up in undersea currents. The re

I awoke this past night to the smell of smoke. It may have been a coincidence or it could have some automatic instinct that awakes animals when a potential danger is lurking. Regardless, I woke up. I did not panic though and I made an assumption that this was somehow related to the fires burning four hundred kilometres north of Montreal. There are over fifty already burning in the Province of Quebec, nine of which are out of control. For the next few hours of sleep I awoke regularly - I can't tell you at what interval as the alarm clock is on my wife's side of the bed and, unless I put on my specs, I can't see the green numbers. Since I had not heard that smoke might make its way this far south I was not prepared for this and, therefore, I did not sleep well for the rest of the night. Something in the back of my mind made me wonder whether this was some other fire, closer to our home. Maybe a house in the neighbourhood? The alarm went off at 6:30 A.M. and the ne

Businesses are under pressure. Pressure, from their customers, for quality and price and pressure, from their investors, for revenue and profit. With the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico we have another example of how it is one of these two pressures that unfortunately always wins out in the end - the investors and the drive for revenue and profit. The New York Times is reporting this morning that internal BP documents show that it had been aware of problems with the Deepwater Horizon rig for at least a few months (and up to eleven months) prior to the blowout. According to one expert in the field, given the hints of a problem that were so apparent, the right thing to do would have been to shutdown the operation until one could figure out the causes or the solution. Of course that was not done. Why is that? The answer seems obvious though it is not explicitly mentioned in the article - revenue. We, the consumers and the customers of BP, do not have enough clout.  We are not

My eyes are closed and I am seeing red. I decide to have a look outside. I can't open my eyes fully. Through a pair of slits I see that the sun is bright. Its rays are sparkling through the leaves of the branches hanging over me. I am lying on our hammock strung between and apple and an ash tree. On my belly lies the book I am reading (blink, by Malcolm Gladwell) and my iPod Nano. I am listening to Coldplay's Viva la Vida album. I need to close my eyes again and so, once again, my world becomes red. Sometimes it darkens as a cloud passes between the sun and my position. For the most part, though, all is red. I can feel the heat of the sun on my chin and on the left side of my nose. My forehead also feels the heat of that closest of the stars. Minute beads of sweat are forming below my nose. This is life. Live life. The moment. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

It may be because I am more attuned to these kinds of people now.  It may be because one tends to hang around people that share similar thoughts and experiences.  Or, it may just be that there is something fundamental going on.  Irrespective of the reason I have met yet another person this week that has taken time off of work.  I don't mean a two or three week vacation.  I mean months. This week I also came across an article on the Harvard Business Review website .  The article is about an advertising agency that asks their clients what their "Holy S#!t" number is.  By that they mean a number that truly has an impact on their world, their customers and ultimately their bottom line.  Ultimately their bottom line.  This is an important distinction.  Not directly - ultimately. Numbers that directly measure revenue are boring.  % of sales increase.  Cost of goods sold.  Profit margins.  Market penetration %.  B_O_R_I_N_G!!!   The point is that if these are the numbers dir

We are in the middle of the first heat wave of 2010 with temperatures in the 30s Celsius and humidex readings into the upper 30s.  Today's forecast calls for 38 degree weather.  It has been a long time since I felt that kind of heat. A few days ago I had a feeling that I had not felt in twenty or so years.  I went to the local park to shoot some hoops with my son.  The basketball court is newly resurfaced with black asphalt.  Consequently it absorbs just about all of the sun's energy that has made it through the atmosphere.  It is a hot place to hang out much less play a sport. Just walking onto the court meant that your armpits got moist.  It felt like I was walking into a bathroom a few minutes after someone had finished their shower.  Not quite the kind of humidity that allows you to right your name on a mirror - but close.  As we started passing the ball around and shooting some hoops the sweat beads started forming.  On my arms, on my head.  Within a few minutes they w

This has been the kind of week where society's dependence on technology has become apparent to me.  I, for one, have become addicted to technology.  I know that this is the case because over the last few weeks I have become increasingly annoyed with the internet outages I was experiencing a few times a day.  It all peaked on Wednesday when they became persistent.  Thursday I was offline all day. Coincidentally, my mother in-law also suffered an outage to her internet connectivity this week.  In her case it was a trojan that made it on to her computer system.  It slowed the performance down terribly and kept redirecting her web browser to various advert and dubious websites.  It took me most of the day Tuesday to resolve her problem. Some time ago I heard an interesting anecdote about a airline traveller who goes from bliss to pissed-off in a matter of minutes.  He discovers, upon boarding, that his airplane is equipped with in-flight internet access.  After take-off the crew a

Well, my first book, "Avoiding the Blues', is one step closer to being published.  The proof copy is on its way, the Createspace webpage is up and running.  Have a look ( link ).  I am looking forward to seeing what may come of this.  I will keep everyone posted as I make my way through the final steps.  FYI that it will also be available on all (or so I am led to believe) Amazon websites. Stay tuned! Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I do not like waiting - never have.  As I reach the final chapter, or pages, of a book I suddenly feel an urge to finish the book as soon as possible.  As a child I hated waiting for the final days before the start of vacation.  I wanted it to start here and now - still do.  These days, as I await the first printed copy of my first book - Avoiding the Blues - I am growing impatient.  When will it arrive?  Why is it taking so long?  Simultaneously I am awaiting news on a job.  Again, I wonder what is taking so long. Waiting opens up a door in my brain.  Through the door walks an interesting character that never stops talking.  This dude instills doubt, worry and angst.  This person tells me to stop being so positive, that lots can still go wrong, that the deal is not done until the deal is signed, that if I get excited and hopeful I may come crashing down when the news, or result, of the waiting is not as I had hoped. The result is that waiting is something I am not all that good a

The image below shows a gap in our world.  See it? There is a continent without any red dots.  Africa.  Access to Internet. Take a look at another picture now (source: www.darksky.org): There is a continent with few lights at night.  Africa.  Access to electricity.  (More here ) And yet another map  (source: www.worldmapper.org): See the red sliver?  Africa.  Proportion of worldwide wealth. Is there a link between the three? Electrical power permits access to the internet and communication links which in turn give Africa a chance to compete in global markets.  In turn Africans would gain access to knowledge, an ability to share ideas, and read stories and thoughts from around the the world.  Communication is empowering. In a few weeks billions of faces will orient themselves to the southern hemisphere and to Africa's southern-most nation.  Only South Africa had a chance at pulling of the hosting of a World Cup - and just barely at that.  Brazil was on stand-by ready to

As the days and weeks go by without a solution to the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico my opinions surrounding this latest disaster facing Earth are crystallizing.  I have read articles which have underplayed the oil spill by stating that hurricane Katrina had greater negative impact.  What a bunch of BS. Admittedly, Katrina was a terrible natural disaster.  Approximately 1850 people lost their lives and the damage estimates have been calculated at $81 billion.  But it was a natural disaster.  Of course, man made it worse by building cities in flood plains, below sea-level and not maintaining the protective dykes.  Had man not tried to control the flow of water in the area much less people would have died as the concentration of population would have been lower. The day after the hurricane passed nature was already back in equilibrium and in its more familiar calm steady-state.  For humans the calm would take months and years (and for some it likely has not yet returned).  But for na

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a thin line , one hundred kilometres thick, that permits life on earth.  Last week, sitting on seat 13A inside an Air Canada Embraer 190 jet ten kilometres up, I thought about an even thinner line. We were flying on a clear, blue-sky day.  At our cruising altitude I could see as far away as 360 kilometres.  A perfect day for flying.  From the ground the sky must have looked beautiful and appeared calm.  Much like I had thirty years prior, children might have been gazing up and seen the white condensation trail left behind by the metal bird I was in.  It all looked so effortless. Inside the cabin the illusion of calm was shattered.  The fasten seat belt sign was on (they always are these days) and cabin service had been interrupted.  We were asked to remain seated.  The winds were strong.  I could feel the plane pitching, rolling and yawing.  It is this last movement, the yawing, that I have always found particularly unsettling when in a plane.  

The good old dandelion has been on my mind over the last few weeks.  The different ways that we treat this particular flowering plant are at odds with one another. On the one hand I have spent hours pulling them out of my lawn.  I have even gone to Canadian Tire (a chain of hardware stores here in Canada) to buy a tool specifically designed to yank them - twice!   (The first one I bought broke after two dandelion-pulls.)  My wife has sprayed white vinegar on our patio tiles to ensure that they die and stop popping up in the cracks between the concrete tiles. The dandelion fight is a never ending battle and new yellow flowers are continuously popping up.  According to some, lawns have become uglier over recent years as people have struggled to keep the nasty plant out of their lawns due to the banning of those convenient herbicides (with good reason I must say). On the other hand, driving in the country-side, I have often found them beautiful.  Fields, when completely blanketed wi

It is 14:59 - nope, correction, it is 15:59. I did not adjust my MacBook's clock to the Atlantic time zone. The wind is blowing down from the west-northwest. Veil after veil of rain, pushed along by the wind, are hitting the side of the 120 year-old wood-shingled home and past the window I am looking out of. The fields are wet. If I was in Montreal I would be happy. My manicured lawn and tiny vegetable garden would have received the water they need. But I am not in a suburb of a large city. I am a fifteen minute drive from New Ross, Nova Scotia in an area that has, for all of its existence, been dependent on the weather and nature for its economic survival - not just for its pleasure. This is an area whose economic basis is farming. A great friend of mine has decided to establish himself here. Since I have been here, he and I have been wondering whether the weather would hold up long enough to allow us to prepare his four acres for planting. To ensure that it is eff