New Poem

As I typed this it started to take a shape, so I've uploaded it is an image to preserve the spacing of the original. It will probably be easier to read if you click on the picture to get a bigger image.

Get the Greens into the debate

Today I received this link from a friend. It is from the national wing of the Green Party of Canada encouraging citizens to sign a petition in favour of allowing the Greens to participate in the next round of televised pre-election debates. If you agree that the Greens ought to be invited click here to sign the petition.

The Ethics of Meat

I’ve flirted with vegetarianism in my past. At the time I stopped eating meat it was an issue of economy more so than ethics. It was just cheaper to buy beans and tofu than chicken and beef.

I have since re-embraced my inner meat-lover, even though I am barely better off now than I was in my starving post-post-secondary years. But the more I read about how animals are farmed, the less likely I am to eat certain kinds of meat.

An editorial in Sunday’s Winnipeg Free Press opined that those who call for the ethical treatment of livestock are really just acting as a front for those who wish to end all livestock production. But this seems like a ridiculous argument in light of the fact that most humans continue to eat meat, and will continue wanting to no matter what strategies fringe animal rights groups bring to bear on public opinion.

It is possible for meat eating consumers to embrace the concept of free-range eggs and open hog barns without siding with the maniacs at PETA. It is in fact a highly logical and ethical stance to take. No one should begrudge farmers their living, but at the same time everyone should concern themselves with farming practices that seem cruel and poorly conceived.

I am not a wealthy person, but I won’t blink an eye when I spend an additional eighty cents to buy eggs that are “free run.” I have this idea that an animal who is raised in a suffocating and stressful environment is in someway unhealthy, and to eat the flesh or offspring of such an animal is unhealthy too. I have no way to prove my concerns scientifically, but intuitively it makes sense to me. I’m not sure to what degree an animal is aware of it’s being, but I am certain that no living thing, especially one destined to end up in my gullet, benefits from a life in a steel cage without any chance to roam and forage.

Like all sectors of our economy the agriculture business has become obsessed with the ideas of cheaper, faster and more. But while the widget factory may benefit from a streamlined production cycle, cutting corners in food production is illogical. Developing genetically similar pigs to better suit mechanized slaughter houses and then stuffing them with antibiotics because they have no natural resistance to disease seems like a really bad idea. Likewise farmed salmon aside from being less tasty than the wild version also threaten local populations with sea lice and competition for habitat when they escape their pens. That seems like too steep a price to pay for a slightly cheaper salmon steak.

Farming advocates can dream up all the conspiracy theories they want as to who is questioning their production methods and why, but the truth is that these methods do require scrutiny. In the end it is consumers who will decide what processes are ethical enough to support, and which need to be amended or abandoned altogether. However in order to make these decisions we must know how our food is being produced, and the real price we are paying for cheaper meat products.

An opinion on racial profiling

Today I sent a letter to the editors of the Free Press with respect to one they had published.

Original letter:

Life in the 21st century

Re. Humiliation in the name of public safety, Feb. 4.

Perhaps Janine LeGal missed Sept. 11 a few years back. Yes, racism is ugly. Death is uglier. Once again someone is crying foul because we have the audacity to attempt to protect ourselves from "marginalized groups from certain countries" that simply want us destroyed.

It is extremely unfortunate that her friend and others are subject to this scrutiny, but how do we protect ourselves against a cult of death that has brainwashed some Muslims into thinking that we of the West are not worthy of life? It is a fact that immigration is a positive for this country, but we still have to be aware that the world is not safe or fair. I believe that LeGal's friend's inconvenience is a small price to pay so that his/her fellow fliers can get on a plane with some sense of security that they will actually get to their destination without becoming collateral damage in a senseless war of ideology.

This is life in the 21st century. Deal with it. It's not going to get easier.

My response:

Far more disturbing than the remote possibility of another 9/11 is the idea that every North American who is dark and Muslim should be subject to degradation and suspicion every time they pass airport security.

Letter writer Gary Billson opines that in the 21st century racial profiling is in the interest of public safety, however I would argue that air travel is already significantly safer, and the odds of someone commandeering a commercial aircraft for an act of terror in this post 9/11 world are as slim as they are for getting a bomb in the cargo hold after Air India.

Sensible, one might say hyper-vigilant, controls have been put in place, and every new perceived threat is met with even harsher restrictions (witness the ban on liquids). In fact it is probably more likely that one will be killed in a school shooting or a Picktonesque act of serial murder than in an air terror incident. The practice of isolating and interrogating Muslim Canadians is far more of a threat to our nation then the possibility that one of them may be planning—let alone capable of—carrying out an act of terror on a domestic flight.

9/11 was a tragedy, but it was also an anomaly. It should never be used as a justification for turning fellow citizens with a different skin colours and/or religious background into assumed enemies of the state without a lick of due process.

Rick Mercer Photo Challenge Entry

Here is an image I created for Rick Mercer's Photo Challenge today. The original picture is here. Not sure who the political figure is--perhaps someone who watches TV might inform me--but the body of the picture belongs to Iron Maiden's lead singer Bruce Dickinson.

NDP vs. ATM

The NDP has taken aim at ATM fees charged by Canadian banks. At issue is whether or not it is fair for Canadians to have to pay additional fees for accessing an ATM. In the case of using an ATM associated with their home bank there is no question that consumers should be exempt. The problem of whether banks should charge non-clients is more contentious, however a blanket no-charge policy would create a level playing field because all bank card users would benefit equally.

A majority of Canadians pay some form of service fees for the privilege of doing business with their bank, those service fees should include unlimited ATM access for all. Wealthier Canadians already enjoy immunity to many of the charges associated with ATM and debit card use by virtue of minimum balance accounts and other strategies that allow them to avoid user fees. It is only fair that banks extend some of these same privileges to all of their customers, regardless of income.

The banks contend that it costs money to maintain the machinery and network used to provide the instant teller system. Interestingly though, private ATM providers—which now control over 70% of the instant cash machine market in Canada—often charge the same $1.50 “convenience fee” as the banks and yet manage to make a handsome profit in the process.

The banks continue to cling to this justification however, insisting that the charges protect the interests of their own clients who would otherwise bare the costs for outsiders to use their bank’s machines. This argument is clever but misleading; if there were no charges then the customer of one particular bank would be free to use any other bank’s machine at will and therefore the costs and benefits would more-or-less offset.

The banks have also cited the unprecedented growth of the private ATM industry to demonstrate that Canadians are willing to pay additional fees to access cash. This may be so, but it is also possible that the explosion of private ATMs is a response the shutting down of so many local bank branches across Canada. Just as instant loan shops have flourished in places where traditional banking is no longer available, so too do private ATMs fill a service gap for people who’s communities are effected by closures.

It is no longer possible to exist in this country without somewhere to at least deposit and access money. Employers don’t often pay in cash, and the coffee can is just not a safe enough place to store one’s life-blood. However, as we are all aware, banks are businesses first, and their primary directive is to improve the bottom line.

The affordability and fairness of service fees is not a consideration for most banks, other than with respect to how these features translate into their ability to compete with other institutions. This open-market struggle can be a good thing for the ordinary consumer, but if all the banks agree that a fee should be imposed universally there is no evading it.

The NDP’s proposed policies on service fees may well smack of populist political posturing, but at the same time they do address the frustration and entrapment many Canadians feel toward banking fees in general, and ATM “convenience fees” in particular. These small measures will have no effect on the systematic complexities imposed by the public necessity for banking vs. the banks’ desire to remain preposterously profitable in perpetuity, but they do at least tackle a noteworthy consumer issue that can be amended through legislation.

Can Paranoia Save the World?

For the second year in a row, President Bush’s State of the Union address proposed a highly rational reason to reduce America’s dependency on oil without acknowledging the global warming argument. While Bush’s continuing denial with respect to climate change may be seen as ignorant or downright idiotic to a growing number of citizens world-wide who see the environment as the key issue of our century, one need not chide Bush too harshly for his stance.

According to the president the best reason to treat America’s addiction to oil is to stem it’s reliance on foreign sources, primarily in the Middle East, which pose a grave security and economic threat. Xenophobic as this argument appears it is nonetheless a useable one. Any guiding principle that will lead to a reduction of reliance on fossil fuels must be embraced.

The oil industry and rogue environmental scientists (many who probably receive “research grants” from these giants) have done a world class job of marketing the idea that perhaps this global warming thing is not happening at all. Conservative economists too have done their part to ensure that the public is aware that a massive change in our energy policies—as proposed for example by the Kyoto accord—would devastate our economy and send millions to the poorhouse.

While it is true that Canada’s New Government has had to seriously rethink it’s policy of “we’ll tackle the environment problem with a 50-year reduction scheme,” and in the process replaced a lapdog minister with one of the government’s biggest stars, it is equally true that many politicians, industry leaders and citizens continue to take a wait and see approach.

For example: how many fewer cars are we seeing on the streets of Winnipeg these days? Did the mayor and council who killed rapid transit pay for it at the polls? Are there any new houses being built in this city that weigh in at less than 2000 square feet? Has the provincial government any intention of encouraging the abandonment of livestock production? Are there plans to institute an environmental levy on domestic and international flights?

On paper the issue of climate change appears to be the most serious challenge of our young century. And yet, despite the posturing of many Western governments and individuals there has been little in the way of making the kind of monumental sacrifices that are required to curtail the problem.

Bush’s reasoning may seem specious to many outside of the United States, and the fact that it comes from someone who is so broadly abhorred probably doesn’t help the situation. But the major point is that Bush has found a marketable justification on which to pin the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption. True, it plays on the terrornoia and isolationism that seem to be taking over twenty-first century America, but we do tend to live in a Machiavellian world where calculated deception is a far more powerful and fast acting tool than international accord.

The cynical, self-serving policies of a Bush have a far better chance of seeing the light of day than consensus driven, morally based initiatives such as Kyoto. Much as we admire activists like David Suzuki everyday people respond to men like Bush. Weighing the arguments and making decisive moral sacrifices is too much to ask of ordinary people today. What is needed is a man of action with pragmatic and concrete answers that bear little or no scrutiny. While the prospects of climate change may still be debated, and what to do about it may be harder still to comprehend, the idea that foreign oil is a threat to America is a relatively easy sell.

So while Bush’s legacy is in serious jeopardy it has much more to do with some bad choices, or what his sympathetic biographer might label as over-ambitious schemes, than his style. I think it is almost commendable that Bush has found a way to address one of the world’s major concerns without admitting being wrong about anything, a gesture he—like his equally unpopular predecessor Nixon—would be utterly incapable of in any event.

Dr. Nehu Responds

Here is what my African con artist friends had to say in response to my email (posted yesterday):

Dear R. W. McWilliams

A very happy and prosperious 2007 to you.

I want to make it very clear to you that you are dealing with a responsible man who has the fear of God,therefore you should not see my involvement in this transaction as an evil act rather it is a perfect act of God.

Infact I am very glad for your response and also many thanks for your concern towards the actualisation of this transaction I encourage you not to relent your effort in this business because this is not something that took me unaware, rather it is what I have studied properly, I will direct you in every proceedures till you confirm the fund in your position.

I found my self in a society that has no value for any individual that is the Government of my country after rendering them your sincere service for many years on your retirement there will be no adequate compensation, rather they will frustrate you to an extent that you will almost be a nuisance in the same society which you previously served sincerely.

Please my dear, I do not want to take you so far but I want you to know that a strong force compelled me to take this decision to execute this deal because I have seen that the situation of things in my society is not conducive enough for me to stay further and watch my good talent wasted.

These are the reasons when I discovered this opportunity during my auditing I saw it as a gift/compensation from our merciful God and I quickly went into fasting and prayers for many weeks seeking for the support of Almighty God and a sincere fellow who will assist me honestly to realise this goal.

So all I need from you now for the actulization of this transaction is for you to fill the below text of application and submit it immediately to the department e-mail address to enable them start the process of approving the fund.I promise that all this process will take us about 10 working days depending when you submitted the application.

May the ALMIGHTY God continue to guide and protect us in all our doings, I
demand that, truth, honesty,sincererity and confidentiality should be our CODE WORD in this transaction as you can see that I confined much in you as my confident/the reciepiant of this fund till I arrive in your country.

I will not want you to seat on the fund when it is finally in your position. I am Looking forward for your urgent response and make sure you give me your international passport or national/working identity card . Do your best to call me on my direct line when you send the application,to enable me monitor things right here in the bank and be given you feed back,I need your private phone number for easy communication and emergency.

My First Nigerian Scam

The Nigerian Scam is an infamous con that has been running around the Internet pretty much since day one. I'm actually surprised that it is still effective, because it's a bit of a pop culture phenomenon you'd think everyone would be onto. Nonetheless, I suppose it's always worth it for a criminal mastermind to throw out the bait. You never know what will come back. Here is the letter I received:

BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO,
WEST AFRICA.
BANK WEB SITE:www.bkofafrica.net

Dear friend,
I am Dr.Samailla Nuhu. the Director in charge of Auditing section Bank OF AFRICA(BOA Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso in West Africa. Forgive My indignation if this message comes to you as a
surprise.As it may interest you to know,I got your contacts through burkina online internet research.

I have decided to contact you on a project that will be very beneficial to both of us.During our auditing in this Bank,I came across some amount of money belonging to a deceased foreigner Mr.Sheu Yuan-dong who died with his wife and their only daughter on February16,1998 in a plane
crash.The fund has been dormant in his account with this Bank without any claim of the fund in our custody from his relation before my discovery to this development.

He was the Governor of Taiwan Central(Reserve)Bank.The said amount is U.S$25.600,000.00 dollars(twenty five Million, Six Hundred Thousand US Dollars).I want you to know that I never master minded the death of the deceased fellow.

Their death was occured Naturally.Please View thiswebsite: http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/16/taiwan.crash.update2/

For your information,your nationality will not pose any problem for the sucessful transafer of this fund
to you as bonafide next of kin.

I look forward to receive your urgent reply,more details will be given to you immediately you indicate
your willingness to assist me in this transaction.Urgent respond needed.

Yours truely,
Dr.Samuel Nuhu.

Obviously this is too good an opportunity to pass up. So I've created an email alias and sent a response. It reads:

Hello Dr. Nuhu,

I was very interested in the email you sent today, this is just the kind of opportunity I
have been waiting for. I am very excited at the possibility of making a lot of money! I
would prefer it if you send the information you promised to this email from now on since
my wife is very nosy about the email accounts she knows about.

Sincerely,
R. W. McWilliams

Successful conclusion to the parking lot escapade

Today I received a bank draft from the TD Canada Trust in Osborne Village for $61. Justice was served in the case of my unwarranted tow (see the previous "Missing Sign" posts below), reminding me once again what a powerful tool a well written letter/e-mail can be. I had no notion going into this little dust-up that I would be successful in getting anything other than another classic Disclaimer blog episode out of the whole affair, but as it turns out words can be worth small amounts of cash sometimes.

The Missing Sign, Part II

Legalities prevent me from publishing the response of the bank manager at TD Osborne Village (to the letter posted in "The Missing Sign" below). I will summarize his letter by saying he was fairly sympathetic in his tone but inferred that these spots were meant for ATM use and over-night deposits. He mentions that the signs do say "appointments only." He was conciliatory enough to offer to pay for half the tow, but upon advice from The Disclaimer's un-official legal department I opted to send another letter politely, but firmly, requesting the towing fee be paid in full. It reads as follows:

Dear Mr. Young,

Thank you for taking the time to address my concerns. I appreciate your taking interest in this matter as well as your willingness to compensate me for my trouble. I do believe however, given the circumstances, that a full reimbursement for the towing would be in order.

As you mentioned, the five signs in your portion of the lot do indicate that the stalls are reserved for "appointments only," but logically speaking appointments within the bank can only be made during banking hours. The use of ATM's and night deposit boxes, while valid reasons in themselves for maintaining 24-hour parking spaces, are not generally understood, at least in my vocabulary, to be an appointment. Had the sign said "for appointments, ATM users and after-hours deposits" it would have spelled out the restriction more clearly.

I hope you do not take me to be disrespectful. I am simply pointing out that when I parked my car in one of your stalls your bank had been closed for several hours, and it was my assumption that all appointments would have been done for the day. (Just as other merchants who reserve customer parking in that lot do so only up until the end of the business day.) Perhaps the missing towing signs indicate "no parking anytime," but again sir, it is within the responsibilities of yourself and/or your leasers to maintain these signs. It is unfair that I should have to bear any cost for the negligence of your landlords.

I am hopeful that you will see my side of things and offer me (perhaps in conjunction with the owners of the lot from whom you lease the spaces) a complete refund, at least for the towing portion of my misadventure.

I thank you for your reconsideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

Ryan C. Kinrade

My First YouTube Video

Actually someone else made this video with my camera, but it's from a party at my house, and I posted it, so technically it's mine.

The Missing Sign

Well my first post of 2007 is on a familiar theme, for any regular readers that I may have left (as my posts have been entirely sporadic for the last few months.) This post deals with having had my car towed from Osborne Village on Friday night. Being the vigilant, fine-hating soul that I am I would never willingly park in a spot that even modestly threatened a tow. I would rather park blocks away and walk. So when I had my car towed Friday it was a great shock to the system and sent a spasm of indignation through me. I decided to write the branch manager of the bank who's spot I parked on, to see if he would agree to refund the towing fee. Here is how the letter reads:

Dear Mr. Young,

I wanted to inform you of an unfortunate circumstance involving my vehicle and the parking in behind your branch. On Friday night I parked my car in the parking lot directly behind the Osborne Freehouse. Most of the spots in this lot are reserved only during business hours, and there was no signage present to indicate that the policy was different with regards to your particular area of the lot.

When I returned to my spot later that evening I noticed my car was no longer there. I was confused, because there was no sign to indicate if it had been towed or by whom--I even wondered if it had been stolen. I took a cab home and decided to investigate further the following day. When I returned the next morning I noticed the parking stalls you maintain against the back of your branch, which do have a sign indicating that they are patrolled by Tartan Towing. I called Tartan, and sure enough they had my car. It was then that I noticed that there was a sign post next to the spot where I had parked which probably would have stated (had it not been removed by vandals) that parking in these spaces is prohibited.

According to the City of Winnipeg Private Parking By-Law 6549/95 Section 3. (1):

Any owner, occupant, or person in charge or control of private property who wishes to take advantage of the provisions of this by-law for the purpose of keeping unauthorized persons from leaving vehicles on private property shall erect and maintain thereon signs indicating the identity and telephone number of the person or firm in charge or control of the private property who can be contacted in the event of impoundment...

In short it is your responsibility to maintain appropriate signage indicating that those spots are restricted, and that they are patrolled by Tartan Towing. Of course the towing fee, cab fare, brief moment of terror I felt when I thought my car had been stolen, along with the inconvenience of retrieving the vehicle are hardly worth a law suit, however I would encourage you to refund the small sum of 61 dollars (which is a significant amount to a person in my current financial situation) plus cab fare ($20) as a matter of principle and to act swiftly in the commissioning of a sign to replace the one that has been removed.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Ryan C. Kinrade

A Vicious Rebuke

Well, maybe not vicious, but that's a good title, non? It's been a bit since my last post so I need to "bring some zing" with a tantalizing headline. However the real meat of this post can be found by clicking this link. Sorry for keeping you hanging, dear Disclaimians, hope this nerdy little cyber-encounter is to your liking.

(BACKGROUND: Macintosh Garden is a web site where people upload old Mac games from the eighties and nineties. A person needs an old Mac, a newer Mac with Classic, or an emulator to play the games. I urge you to look up the Brownie camera here if you are unsure as to it's origins, because it was a phenomenon of popular technology in its time.)

My First Flat Tire

I changed my first flat tire on a in probably ten years today. Yesterday when I was returning home with my little Toyota there was a Cherokee that had knocked down the fence along the entrance alley to the back lane and plowed into the side of the house. The fence was laying across the lane with nails sticking up, and I'm pretty certain I must have caught one there.

I'm not sure how the Cherokee ended up crashing into the house. The ground was wet, but not frozen, the house was on the left-hand side of the lane (the truck, if it were entering the lane, should have been on the right). My guess is the person was either trying to avoid a squirrel or a cat, or they were right ripped. However, it was the middle of the afternoon, so it is slightly less probable that the incident had to do with being intoxicated. What is indisputable is that they were going far too fast: the fence is destroyed and the side of the house looks pretty nasty.

Damon said to me: "Did you lift the car before you tried to loosen the bolts?" And we both laughed, because I totally did. Rookie mistake. I also didn't know that the big old hammer in the back was to knock off the wheel. I just yanked with all my might and fell back into traffic when it finally came flying off.

Damon took me and my sad tire to this place on Erin and they fixed it right up for $20.

Stereotheism

Sometimes I think I’d like to study religion. In fact I’ve seriously been considering going to church lately. Thankfully the church I grew up in, nominally Christian though it may be, has no stipulation as to who, if anyone, one must take as his lord and master. The Unitarian faith is about as liberal as it gets. There have always been, at least in my lifetime, female ministers, openly gay members of the congregation, and an acceptance of other religions. I can remember as a kid going to Hanukah celebrations and seeing Hindi women in church. There is no conflict of interest as long as you are open to possibility and willing to be a loving person rather than a hateful one. Even a staunch Republicans are welcome (although they will probably find little support for their pro-life, pro-gun politics.)

Anyway what interests me most right now is this whole business of Monotheism. Specifically, if there seems to be a duality to just about everything (good/evil, darkness/light, man/woman) how is it that the vast majority of believers have come to the conclusion that there is only one (most often male) God? Sure some have tried to balance off the notion of God with a Devil, but the Devil is not God’s opposite, he is a fallen angel, a creation of God gone bad.

One entity is supposed to have created all this complexity, all this variety, single-handedly. Furthermore this single being has a handle on everything, can judge instantly the morality of our actions and decide what is righteous and what is wicked.

The power structures in our world are similarly modeled. We have one leader (president, prime minister, king, supreme overlord, CEO; once again most often male) who steers the fate of our federation (be it national, corporate or otherwise). But the basis for our real lives, our families, can only come to be as the result of two people. Ideally (though not, as I know from personal experience, always) these two people, remain together and act as the guiding force for those whom they have created. Together they use their experience and accumulated wisdom to make decisions and judgments they would not have been able to make otherwise.

As we have so often seen someone who is given supreme power is liable to fuck things up royally. Which is why there are checks and balances (in a democratic system at least). But ultimately our systems give the power and the glory to one leader. Is this tendency derived from our religion, or is our Monotheism based on this system of organization? Why has it become so universal, and is it truly more accountable, efficient and socially valid than a more broadly based idea of power?

Even within the lower animals there are a variety of power structures (not saying that animals and humans are necessarily that similar in terms of social structure, just pointing out that single leader systems are not universal), so my understanding is that our social hierarchy is a construct, that while sometimes useful, is not supreme and should be challenged, because our leaders seem to have their priorities right buggered up, and one wonders if we wouldn’t benefit from a less rigid dogma on the acquisition and wielding of religious and political power.

A brief history of the Kildonans

A recent visitor to my blog, who is no doubt a proud Kildonanite, took pains to inform me as to the history of his fine neighborhood after having read my post about whether or not Kildonan was a separate entity from the city of Winnipeg. Here is his comment:

You are wrong in saying that Kildonan was not a separate area from Winnipeg. There was a municipality of Kildonan from 1875 to 1914. In 1914 this divided into East and West Kildonan in 1914, two separate municipalities. In 1922 Old Kildonan separated from West Kildonan becoming a separate municipality. In 1925 North Kildonan separated from East Kildonan becoming a municipality. In 1957 East Kildonan became a city while West Kildonan became a city in 1961. In 1972 the four Kildonan’s became part of Winnipeg along with the cities of St. Boniface, St. Vital, Transcona and St James Assinobia with the municipalities of Fort Garry and Charleswood along with the town of Tuxedo and the old city of Winnipeg. -Jim Smith

The Virtues of Ethanol

Yesterday on ALFA I posted a silly little GIF animation that was a lot of fun to make (if a bit time consuming). Today I tackled an even longer project.

Instant Loan Article

There’s a world of bad choices out there for anyone with a bit of credit. Everywhere you look someone is encouraging you to lay out your hard earned money for a bit of instant gratification. And with the explosion of loan shops and once-in-a-lifetime credit offers it’s easier than ever for consumers to get their hands on borrowed cash.

Bill C-26 was tabled in Ottawa earlier this month to allow provinces to cap the amount payday lenders can charge for their services. It’s a measure intended to bring a bit of sanity back to the feeding frenzy creditors have made of our enjoy now, pay later consumer culture. But the proliferation of these despicable loan companies is a built on a popularity of their services, and despite any cap that may be imposed their unsavory practices will continue as long as customers demand it.

According to Statistics Canada a near majority of Canadians (47 per cent) spent more than their pre-tax income in 2001. A 2004 Industry Canada report described consumer bankruptcies as being on a “long-run upward trend” stating that there were “more than two-and-a-half times as many consumer bankruptcies in the 1990’s than during the previous decade.” This same report says that from the beginning of 1989 to the end of 2003 the debt-to-income ratio increased from 73.8 to 103.2 per cent, while the savings rate declined from 14.1 to 1.3 per cent.

In isolation any number of conclusions can be drawn from these numbers: that real earnings are down since the end of the 1980’s, that the cost of living is higher, or that taxation and economic policy have become a greater burden. For example decreases in post-secondary education funding in the early ‘90’s have seen today’s students take on a greater financial burden for the same amount of education a student in the 1980’s would face.

However one cannot simply blame government policy for this epidemic of personal debt. Equal partners in the decline of prudent and reasonable spending habits are the increasing ease of acquiring consumer credit, and a growing lack in the good judgment of the loan seeker.

In many cases the public has simply allowed savvy advertising firms and finance companies to take control of their financial decisions, forgoing an educated and balanced approach in the face of easy credit. In essence they have placed a great deal of trust in people who’s primary goal is to separate them from their money. There is no public education strategy or meaningful political action to counter the voodoo-like lure of modern marketing, and so the cycle of debt continues to grow unchecked.

There is another way. Despite having lived near the poverty-line for the balance of my adult life I have never found myself in dire financial straights. Having made a conscious decision to live within my limited means has enabled me to discover a path to living that avoids the trap of becoming a slave to creditors and the notions of class and convenience instilled by advertisers.

I am certain that my near asceticism won’t appeal to most, and I’m not advocating for a monastic life for the masses. But I do believe there is a lot more to be gained from practicing some prudence than any television commercial or payday loan agent would have you believe.

While it is true that many of my clothes were once someone else’s and that I’m not very up-to-date on the city’s finer dining establishments I do retain the freedom to make choices for myself without having to consult with my bankers, and am comfortable in the knowledge that my purpose in life has not become to my next car payment. I take the time to think, to breathe, and to be thankful for the things I have rather than run up another hill of debt when the next must-have item saunters past in a coat of shiny cellophane.

Having one’s thumbs screwed by unhappy collection agents and getting gouged at the instant loan shops is no way to get by. The true path to financial freedom is to balance what is truly needed against unnecessary wants disguised in a cloak of affordable monthly installments.

Evolution of the Middle West

The core of the continent
after a hundred years of explosive growth
when entrepreneurial Europeans
bought off the native people
with glass beads and Bay blankets
is dying-off like old star.

Where once energetic pioneers
surveyed the windswept plains
huddled near the fire
in rustic sod huts
and languished in the humidity
of their vibrant young cities
today they wander off west
to the new capitals of capital.

Oh, how we bemoan our fate!
Mystified we beat the bushes
looking for a solution
to the ennui and economic despair
that teaches our young and educated
to fly away.

“We can be great again”
the optimists opine
the right mix of policy and publicity
can recapture the spirited energy
that made our cities the envy of the world
in the year 1908
just build some bus lanes
and turn empty warehouses
into condos
all will be well again.

But wide open skies
and clean water
are not the draws they once were
prosperity depends on how much bacon
one brings home,
in today’s world
the workers are not tied to agriculture
or the modest industries of the middle-west.

The big cities capture excitement
romance and adventure
like ours once did
they have mountains, money
and movie stars
we have winter, urban decay
and entire neighborhoods
full of dismal poverty.

Let your children go
into that brave New West
ours is a land of opportunity spent
where our very existence
depends on generous payments
from the national coffers
like a once glorious sub-Saharan state
our wealth has dried up and withered
there are not enough natural reasons
to fuel future growth,
let it be so.