Notes on Tribal basketball, underfunded education, the World Cup, impossible things and Nora Bateson’s work.

I cant’t wait to see this film. Basketball is an essential part of the culture of the Indigenous northwest coast of British Columbia. Along with the Tribal Journeys events it is one of the most significant modern day gatherings of coastal tribal peoples and has been responsible in no small way for the resurgence in power and connection among these Nations. This documentary, Saints and Warriors, looks to be amazing. It tells the story of what basketball means to these communities. It is set against the backdrop of the Haida Aboriginal Title struggle becasue everything is political.

You cannot get to a creative, innovative, incredible society without investing in education. You just can’t. You can’t cut funding and hope for better outcomes. Don’t let the ideologues gas light this conversation.

The opposite can also be true, I guess: it is possible to overfund something to death, especially if by doing so you are trying to be as extractive as possible. For example, let too many countries into the World Cup of Football and you risk diluting the competition, putting players at risk and sending them game into boring cycle of circus acts for big bucks. The 2026 World Cup, partially hosted here in Vancouver, might be fun to be a part of but, according to Neil Fredrick Jensen, this is probably the beginning of the end for the men’s game at the highest level. Big changes need to be made to the men’s game at the elite level.

Lots to dig in here with this interview of Nora Bateson who discusses her father’s work and legacy, and her own work and legacy of working with Warm Data in the service of complex systems and the needs of our planet.

And speaking of our planet, which we should be, constantly, here is a list of five things that aren’t going to happen anytime soon including going to Mars.