Ideeahs

The government of the province of Quebec tabled its budget yesterday. Based on what I have read in various newspapers it seems that we have, once again, a government that seems to know only how to do one thing: increase taxes. Now I realize that the budget deficit is out of control and that the province's debt is extravagantly high. Yes something needs to be done. Basic finance tells indebted individuals that they must either spend less or find a way to earn more to get their personal finances back in order. Since earning more tends to be a harder for individuals then spending less, most of us (who actually choose to address the issue) will tend to spend less. Getting a higher paying job is not easy and can takes months or years. Salary increases are rarer today than they were in the past. So if you want immediate effect you spend less and you prioritize. So now let us look at government finances. It would seem that different rules apply. Apparently earning (hmm....bad ch...

The infinitely small and large have always amazed me. The size, vastness and space of the universe are just as incomprehensible to me as are the unimaginably small particles that make it all up. In The Times this morning I read that the Large Hadron Collider had finally swung into action. This is pretty cool physics though I must admit I don't understand much of it at all. In reading the article I found the following sentence of particular interest. Physicists from around the world watched the developments at the LHC live on the Cern website, while live weblinks to Fermilab in Chicago, Florida State University, Tehran and Zurich were beamed into the LHC control rooms. Specifically the bit about Tehran, the capital of Iran. I find it interesting that CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, would have a live weblink connecting it to Tehran. Now I know that nuclear in this sense does not mean nuclear bombs but rather the smaller bits that make up atoms, protons, qu...

No, I have no plans on streaking down a street. But I have finally finished the first draft of my first book. I have sent the draft to my first reviewer. The result is that I feel naked. For the last three months I have concentrated on writing an autobiography of my experience working for IBM and, in the second half of the book, the lessons that I have taken away from those twenty-one years in the corporate world. Now that someone else is finally going to read those words which I have held so close to my chest over the last months I wonder many things: 1) will the words resonate? 2) will they please or annoy? 3) what mental image of Olivier de Sousa will they, the readers, create in their minds? My plan is to have two or three more people review the book before I submit it. After those initial reviews I wonder how, not if, the book will change. Will the title change? Will the layout change? Will the choice of words change? Will new sections be added or redundant ones removed? S...

Last night I watched Jamie Oliver's new TV show that is airing on ABC. I have been a fan of Jamie for many years. What endears me to him is his style, the way he cooks and his flair for making conversation with just about anyone. He speaks his mind. He is opinionated and, yes, I like that! :-) Now that he is making his first entry into the masses of North America, into the heart of dumbed-down America, he has had to make modifications. He still speaks his mind but the way his message is being delivered is much more dramatic, hyped-up, shocking. This has had to happen to appeal to prime time. This is not the Food Television crowd or a European crowd. This is West Virginia. The editors of the program are having a field day I am sure sifting through all of the hours of footage they have accumulated. It is classic good vs. bad, elitism vs. populism, foreign vs. domestic. Here comes this bloke from England, with his funny accent, stating that America is killing its kids becau...

Listen to Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, explain the purpose of this conference - The State of the Planet 2010. State of the Planet 2010 from Earth Institute on Vimeo . Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

There are two interesting items making the news these days that have some parallels and that are causing certain folks to be quite hypocritical. The cancellation of Ann Coulter's talk in Ottawa due to protest has been described as a knock against free speech, expression and beliefs. I agree. People should be free to speak what is on their minds and universities, of all places, are meant to be places where free speech is enshrined. Student bodies have always been vocal, and have entrenched themselves in the ideology of the two sides of any argument. Professors are protected behind the system of tenure. All good in my view in allowing good, strong debate. If you don't agree with Coulter's beliefs you can demonstrate (your right as well) but, in Canada, we, as far as I know, allow for free speech. Personally I think Coulter is an attention seeker and find her exclusive, single-minded view of the world outdated and offensive. I can't help but think of the ongoing bur...

I recommend that you watch the four part series entitled One Ocean. The first three episodes are available here: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/The_Nature_of_Things Episode 4, the last airs today, the 25th of March and will be available soon after at the same link. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I was received a tele -marketing call today from The Montreal Gazette. They wanted me to subscribe and asked me a few questions. Do you ever read The Gazette? No. Never, not even a few times? No. Are you interested in subscribing? Uh....no. Not even for $5.99 a month? No. Two months ago they tried to give it to me for free and I told them I was not interested. Now they think I will pay money to subscribe? They should track the responses they are getting from customers so that they do not waste money paying people to call on prospects that have little chance of subscribing and becoming new customers. Focus on those that haven't said no to you already! Better yet...stop trying to increase market share in the printed paper world which is disappearing. It is not a very good long-term strategy to spend money on a disappearing market. Focus on new media and ways to make money online. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

The scene was beautiful this morning on our slow walk to the children's school and back. A nice dusting of pure white snow on the lawns contrasted nicely against the blacktop of the 'hood's streets. It was around zero or one degree Celsius and the air smelt fresh....mostly. In front of a few homes we breathed in the stench of exhaust. Thick, choking, sulphurous, rotten egg with, in front of a few of the older clunkers, a hint of spicy, throat tickling, smell of burning oil. There were no drivers in sight. I imagine that from the comfort of their homes they must have pushed those oh-so-convenient remote starter buttons so that, other than for the ten second walk to their car, there would be no need to submit their thin-skinned bodies to the harsh, near freezing, elements outside. My gosh how pampered we have become. I am not sure whether there is an anti-idling by-law in our adopted hometown. If there is not there should be. And if there is it would be great if, every...

Getting masses to move is not easy. Succeeding in getting politicians to agree is hard work. In both cases it takes a lot of lobbying, of meeting, of convincing, of debating. There is a lot of misinformation that is spread and many exaggerations that are made. Success means that you need to have enough people who are open-minded enough, accepting enough, to change their opinion and swallow their foolish pride to admit they may just have been wrong. Today is World Water Day. Saturday at 8:30 PM Earth Hour will be celebrated. A mere day and hour to try and convince more of the masses that they need to make a difference. Does it really matter and do these events make a difference? Of course, action for a day or an hour has no real direct impact on the issues being raised. By turning your lights off for an hour, tapping yourself on the back and then going back to having your 1000 watts of ceiling pot lights turned on at all times you are not going to make a difference. Centuries ag...

This is a link to the Lester B. Pearson School Board's Central Parent's Committee's petition to respect the Canadian Supreme Court's decision on Bill 104. If you believe in an individual's right to choose I encourage you to sign it. Thanks. Protect our rights and freedom of choice. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I am going to let Dan Barber spread his Ideeah today. All I want to say is, folks, love your food and think about where it comes from, what it tastes like (or could taste like) and what its impact on reaching your plate is. I love what Dan calls today's agribusiness model - a business in liquidation. He's absolutely right. Watch and listen please. Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish | Video on TED.com Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Walking in downtown Montréal this week I noticed two large adverts from the Government of Québec. "Merci de me servir en français", words in white on blue, printed on eight foot posters. I find it interesting how in the second largest French-speaking city in the world there is a need to say this. These adverts just do not make much sense to me at all and feel like they belong in another city, maybe, for example, geared towards French tourists walking in the streets of New Orleans as part of some campaign to attract more French speakers to vacation in the Big Easy. Obviously this is not the case. This campaign, run by the Office Québécois de la langue française, is geared to its own constituents. Many seem to think that the French speaking majority of Québec have something to worry about - at least in Montréal. I would rather say that they have something to embrace as the change that is happening simply will not be stopped. Statistics Canada has come out with a report tha...

A little over twenty years after he was freed I am finally reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography entitled Long Walk to Freedom. I strongly recommend the book. It really takes an amazing strength of character to be able to see the positive side of one's enemies especially when they directly harass you and your loved ones as well as your dearest friends for so many years. He is an inspiring man. What I want to mention in this post is a thought that popped up as I was commuting to downtown Montreal yesterday morning. I was sitting on the train reading Mandela's autobiography. In front of me a woman was reading Eat, Pray and Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. The man to my left was reading the Globe and Mail newspaper. All around me people were reading magazines, listening to podcasts, watching video, reading newspapers and books. Listening to music. Some slept. The words I was reading described a completely different world. One where a newspaper was a rare and valued item. ...

Energy usage, and more importantly, conservation of energy is something that has become much more dear to me over the last few months. It all started with my discovery that the previous owners of our house were using 1007 litres of water per day (see entry ). I found this amazing and disturbing. I am happy to report, by the way, that my family has continued to use considerably less water. We are running at about 640 litres a day though to be honest that still seems incredibly high to me. My belief is that the price I am charged for water ($1 per 1000 litres) is pathetically low and needs to be increased. Thought it will be hard to convince the average Joe of this. I was reading an article in the latest edition of The Suburban (our local newspaper) today. In it a resident of the area is quoted as being "resigned" to paying $300 a year for water. The article leaves the reader with a taste that we are paying too much for residential water. We have a way to go. Anyhow.....

Diversity in employees is one of the keys to success in business. I would argue one of the most important ones. By diversity I don't just mean the ones that are typically used by corporations such as sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability. I also mean different social backgrounds and work experiences. People from different industries but having worked in similar functions. Where are you from? Country, city, rural, urban, developed or developing world? Where have you worked? What industries, roles? What have you learned? What are your ideas and views on such and such ? What are your hobbies? What do you read? What music do you enjoy? What are you handicaps? Blind? Deaf? How does this affect your being? What about your ethnicity? Do you feel that you are a minority? Do you care? If so, how has it affected your life? What new ideas do you have to solve a particular problem? What perspectives have all of these items given you? It takes a hiring manager that ...

If I had to choose one flag to fly in front of my white house which would it be? Looking at a political map of the world tends to simplify who we are. For me place is very important. Where I have lived, where my relatives herald from, make me who I am. Flying one flag would be an oversimplification and since my lawn is not big enough for a forest of flag poles I might fly this one. Which would you fly? Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Yet another food recall is in the works. This one may apparently become one of the widest in history. It involves some thing called a flavour enhancer. Specifically one made by Basic Food Flavors, Inc. and called a hydrolyzed vegetable protein (or HVP). Doesn't that sound delicious? This is an interesting recall as it involves thousands of products many of which do not even list HVP in their (long?) list of ingredients. It is also interesting because it involves processed foods. "If you can't pronounce it or spell it then it likely is not any good for you." I completely agree with that statement from the movie Food Inc. Ingredients that require an acronym to allow us to remember their names are an ominous sign of a bad brew. If your recipe requires hydrolyzed vegetable protein you need to change it or hire a better cook. Maybe the cook needs to ask his grandma what she used to enhance flavours.....hmmm. Salt? Pepper? Maybe a touch of garlic or chile. Or ...

A decade ago I swore that I would never buy another piece of IKEA furniture. I don't remember the precise details but it had something to do with a missing part or, maybe, a broken part, and having to wait at the returns and customer service desk at the Montreal IKEA store. Arrgh. Frustrating. When we moved into this house last autumn we had a lack of furniture and window furnishings. So we decided to hit IKEA again. Those first few months improved my impression of the company. The quality seemed to be improved and for the price it was good value. Well the good run started changing course around Christmas and, today, it reversed completely. We have waited for the last two and a half months for the Edland dressing table to be in stock. Finally last week it appeared in the Toronto and Ottawa stores and we thought that it would finally appear in Montreal this week. No such luck. So we decided to drive the one hour and forty-five minutes to the Ottawa store today. Yes we did...

The past week was Spring Break week for schools in Quebec - la semaine de relâche. The weather was amazing (five degrees and sunny) all week. The birds were chirping, the flies started flying. Perfect spring weather. Animals were coming out of hibernation....well most animals. Being a family that likes the outdoors we wanted to spend as much time out there as possible. So on Tuesday we headed to Oka Provincial Park (I just can't get myself to call them National Parks as they do in Quebec) for some snowshoeing. At one of the two summits there is a historical site, the Calvaire d'Oka, with three chapels built in 1742. It also has a great view looking south over the Lake of Two Mountains - still partly frozen. The sun was shining, its warmth was felt, the snow was melting, the rays reflected off the lake, we had our jackets open and we soaked in the sun. Very, very nice. Sitting up there and taking in the view my thoughts wandered to Vancouver, as they often do. I was s...

The table and chairs are from British Columbia, Canada The placemat and napkin are from India The brass napkin ring is most certainly from England The cutlery doesn't have a "made in" but it must not be from North America. I would guess China. The honey is from Quebec, Canada The bread is from Quebec, Canada The almond butter is from British Columbia, Canada The apple butter is from Michigan, USA The cheese from Denmark The coffee has no specific country of origin as it is a blend (I would guess either a South American country or Indonesia) The milk is from Canada The soy milk Quebec, Canada The chocolate malt from Thailand We take it all for granted. Lucky. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I have started borrowing books from the library rather than buying new books. For one thing it saves me money and for another it saves a few trees. I very rarely, if ever, go back to a book I have read so what is the point in buying it? I do love books though. The idea of having a room in my house called the "library" built out of dark wood, with a leather sofa, and some soft music playing is very appealing. It would be excessive and really is not necessary. So I am borrowing books and I feel good about it. But this, is not the point of this entry. The point of the entry is that borrowing books imposes, in the case of the Beaconsfield Public Library, a three week deadline on me. One that I would not have if I owned a book. So it forces me to get on with the reading, especially when I borrow a couple of books at a time. For some reason I don't want to be seen having to renew a book. I feel like it is a failure. Like I have not done my homework and that my teach...