Watching the news tonight and both CBC and CTV are talking about “Anger in the West” with lots of video of conservative talk show hosts in Calgary and folks in diners in Lethbridge mad as hell and not willing to take it any more. So let me just say something, as a Westerner. The West is not a seething homogenous conservative backwater. It is not united on this issue and it not any more angry than it usually is. Callers to Dave Rutherford’s show in Calgary are always angry, because Dave Rutherford is always angry. People …
I can’t speak for Mexico, but this fall has had a transformative effective on the other 2 countries in North America. First, Barack Obama. And now here in Canada, the prospect of a progressive coalition unseating the newly elected Conservative minority seems like a more and more likely possibility. So what gives? First of all, the general mood of both countries has shifted to the progressive side of things, although in Canada, a weak Liberal leader and a screwy representational system left the Conservative party with 37% of the vote and the majority of seats and thus the …
Prince George, BC Four years ago less a month I was running a huge Open Space event here in Prince George, in fact in the building that right outside my hotel room window. Called “Seeds of Change” the event was a kick off for the urban Aboriginal Strategy, a community driven and led process intended to begin and seed projects that would make a difference in the lives of the urban Aboriginal community in this northern city of 80,000 people. One of the participants at that event was Ben Berland, who was at the time working with the Prince …
This week in the feedreader: Alison on why the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement makes us complicit in human rights crimes. Lovely little non-verbal film on hope and traditional teachings. Doug Germann on why he is a lawyer. George Nemeth on doing small things Matthew Baldwin reviews great board games for 2008 Ravi Tangri’s blog, an Art of Hosting friend. Otto Scharmer on awakening the giant. Dave Pollard on what you can do to help Obama.
Jack Ricchiuto was writing about narrative the other day: We need to start reviving the narrative aesthetic where stories are more fields of countless possibilities than linear in nature, where the possibilities of meaning are more infinite than finite. We need to stop calling sound bites stories, which they’re not. We need to call stories the narratives that evoke a sense of wonderment more than conclusion. Stories are dear to my heart and storytelling is a practice that seems more and more about who I am. I think one way to help people become story tellers is to practice …