August 28, 2010 – 8:58 am
I read in last month’s edition of the Economist that the European progress toward creating better conditions for workers has recently been brought into question. This doubt which the author wrote about has to do with the sovereign debt crisis and other deficit problems underway in Europe. The sovereign debt crisis unfolded in Greece where the country neared bankruptcy earlier this summer. A different debt issue in France is also to blame for their pension reforms which, in a reversal of historical trends, forced the raising of the retirement age. The progress toward better working conditions which the magazine refers to is the mandatory five weeks of paid vacation, the mandatory thirty-five hour work week, and a retirement age of sixty, all of which are associated with lenient European labour policies. The magazine said that the recent crisis in Greece and the reform in France are both sharp wake-up calls for their dream of progress. He further states that this “progress” in labour is an illusion and that these lenient policies are in fact suffocating industry and innovation in European business. It appears that his overall conclusion is that wherever such “progress” exists, economies will always run towards an unsustainable point.
The author of that article certainly may have been expressing an underlying ideological bias against socialism or forms of it. I do see his point, however, that lenient policy towards workers can be stretched too far with predictable negative consequences. I cannot accept all his rhetoric against worker’s rights/benefits though. Perhaps this has to do with my witnessing of an issue related to this discussion in North American business which I think is morally unacceptable.
This issue I refer to involves companies all across industrial heartlands of this continent using temporary agencies to reduce their labour costs and improve their flexibility. The people who are the subjects of these cost-cutting methods are usually immigrants, the working poor, high school drop-outs, addicts, alcoholics, and other lower class individuals for whom there is no other suitable option for full-time employment. When I see these people working minimum wage for years (literally) and never getting “hired-on” with the company, and having a third of their potential wage garnished by some idle temp agency somewhere, it infuriates me. There has to be solutions that incorporate what Europe has sought in worker’s rights and benefits, albeit founded on conditions which make current business ventures viable and new business attractive.
Being in Europe and learning about the two World Wars and their development has sparked a new thought in my mind. Most of us live fairly swayed by popular points of view all the time. To steal T.H. White’s analogy from The Sword in The Stone, we are like ants in a mindless collective, always led and often in irrational directions. Times impending war are like that. Somehow we all seem to get caught up in the hysterics, the anger, the visions that are spouted by the “wise” leaders and media outlets. It happened in the First World War and it happened in the 2003 American War on Iraq. It may be surprising to find out that just about 70% of Americans favoured going into Iraq in 2003. This invasion happened amidst the anti-terrorist pandemonium created by 9/11. The war became hugely unpopular once the supposed weapons of mass destruction were never found (from what I understand, the pre-war evidence for these WMDs in Iraq was largely hypothetical). What happened in the First World War was in a way similar. Essentially, the times were just so that European nations and people just got pumped up for a “glorious” war. As the years passed and millions of Europe’s finest young men fell dead in the mud of the trenches, support for the war waned on all sides.
What it seems like to me, in times preceding war we don’t think very much. We mostly feel, and not feel in a way that discerns maturely, but we feel all the wrong things. When we hear of a nation or ethnicity fearfully spoken of, or we hear of threats of terrorism, these are times in which to think deeply! Lets not run to violent responses readily. What is the enemy’s (a.k.a. “perpetrators”) point of view? How can we try to diffuse this situation? Try to discuss the alternatives. Dismiss any haughty politicians.
I am really interested in enhancing living spaces! Like anyone I enjoy a great city street, park or country side. Bad use of land, either poor planning or environmental degradation means less vitality and less health. When it comes to the environment, how we use the land makes all the difference. A sense of tranquility and beauty comes from how we create and preserve art in our human landscapes. These are concerns not just for backroom politicians and civic-minded committees, but for everyone who is currently alive.
Europe has many differences to Canada in the way it uses its land. Almost obvious to everyone is that European land use is more compact because there is little excess land. What is surprising, however, is just how well they often use that little space. Land which is almost always left to the grass in Canada–such as the space between a highway overpass and onramp– is often intensely cultivated in Europe, or is made into a garden of some sort. The sound barriers along highways can often be works of art, instead of dull-grey blocks. I often see factory parking lots here paved with cobblestone and divided by rows of small trees, flowers and hedges. Of course this is not the rule, and some places are ugly and the land is used poorly, but it seems overall that Europe does better than Canada. Perhaps Canada has so much land that we slightly neglect our built-up human spaces?
What I think would be best would be a combination of the European attitude towards space with Canada’s abundant/beautiful landscape. That way we could live better in our improved lot while conserving a greater amount of natural landscape.
Alex
It is really ironic that students in Canada learn so much about Europe but might never see it. Europe might even have a mythological element in our minds – as if it was not just another slice of geography. I think it is because most of us hear stories about our ancestors coming over from Europe, see posters of the imposing Eiffel tower, hear about our grandparents involvement in the two world wars, watch movies based on Europe in the medieval times, etc. We have these timeless connotations of “Europe” which help it seem like this mythical place across the ocean. That is until, maybe, when we start to hear about current issues happening in Europe. I guess in today’s interconnected world, Europe might be prone to lose its dreamlike quality.
Europe is very special, nonetheless, for me because my ancestors and my culture were imported from there long ago. Not that I will ever see the actual turnip farm Abraham Jebidiah Henderson the IV built, dwelt in, and sold for a nickel, before joining a movement to settle British North America. I will get see places my ancestors might have seen in their lifetimes, or at least the buildings and art from their era. It’s a way for me to connect with my family’s and culture’s past.
April 25, 2009 – 10:49 am
We are all back home from Asia. Though we only had rice twice in our SSU meal-plan diet! Yet it is obviously the most superior food on the face of the planet. In Asia we had rice with every meal, and this helps prove my superior-food point! They even made their desserts out of rice. They also had special rice dances, and even members of our team were moved to do our own rice-dancing.
Did you know that the USA Rice Federation on www.usarice.com says this about rice:
“[Rice] is nutrient dense and contributes over 15 vitamins and minerals including folate and other B-vitamins, iron and zinc”, “[Rice] is an energy food, supplying carbohydrates that fuel the body’s physical activity ” and, “Triggers the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain that helps regulate and improve mood”
I’d be impressed if I weren’t already.
Since we’ve been home in North America we have had wheat grains with almost every meal. Did you know this about wheat grains. According to youtube.com in a video titled “The FDA Conspiracy & Bleached Flour, Austin Nutrition” (here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg5x-zUS5N8): “various chemicals are used in the bleaching process, one of which is floride dioxide…”
Floride dioxide you say? That seems like a hastle! Why bother bleaching our food my North American friends when rice is already white.
The conspiracy video also says bleached flour: “spikes your blood sugar” among other undesirble things. Needless to say wheat flour is an evil in North American culture.
March 24, 2009 – 10:32 pm
It seems to me that it is a very popular thing to travel to Thailand. Out of the three countries we visited (the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand), Thailand had by far more tourists.
So what is it about Thailand? Is it really hyped up or something? Then again why isn’t “the Philippines” as exotic sounding as “Thailand?” They are in South East Asia too.
I believe Thailand is unique because it is proud of its history, arts, culture and national monuments (namely temples). The citizens of Thailand then have this clear and distinguishable identity that they esteem as good. This was very evident in my home-stay family who kept asking for my opinion of Thailand. They were extremely pleased to hear that I loved the food here. They also displayed great pride for their Buddhism and temples. This, I believe is one of the main reasons why Thailand is such a cool place -those good things which make up the identity of the country and its people.
I think the attractiveness of identity has some deep truths to it. As people we want to experience and be near to that which we describe as good. When we understand a nation’s identity or a person’s to be good it means we would either like to draw on aspects of it for ourselves or stand back and appreciate it and value its worth. When people think Thailand’s culture is cool they may be doing this. For example, they may really want to replicate or buy some of its traditional art, or they may just stand back and appreciate aspects of family values in Thailand. Perhaps some of the attractiveness of identity comes from pure God-given curiosity. For example, I personally may be interested in Thailand because the country’s myths all sound just plain strange to me. So attraction to identity can have different dimensions.
There’s another level to this topic too. Attraction to identity as people of God. How are we attractive to others or not in our identity? What exactly makes up our identity as a people and as an individual Christian? Do our history, culture, art, family values, myths and monuments make us attractive in the same ways Thailand is attractive or not? Another question is whether or not we should be attractive like Thailand is attractive. I mean as Christians we are not out there to attract tourist dollars. We are out there in the world to attract God seekers.. or make people want to be God seekers.
Thailand isn’t perfect, and its family values can deal bad cards to females, history can be filled with petty political moves and fights, and its art can be sub-par (I should mention that’s the same for us Christians too). My question is how does that make sense that Thailand still has an attractive identity? There is a lot of hype to Thailand I think. But for anything to be hyped or become a fad, someone had to genuinely appreciate that thing in the first place, and maybe it just gets blown out of proportion later. Therefore, even with the shady aspects to its character Thailand remains a place many long to go to. This is something we could take courage by if we ever think “how will anyone in the world want to be saved from their sins if they know many things about Christianity?”. A simple suggestion I have to make is that we don’t have to be perfect to still be attractive.
For me the thought of climbing a mountain in Asia had many interesting imaginations attached to it.
Having now climbed Mt. Trus Madi, I feel like I have some interesting reflections to mention. As the blog’s title says, I had thorns in my hands. The thorns were embedded in my hand as a result of touching particular plants along the trail.
The trail up the the summit of Trus Madi was treacherous. Endless tree roots made our path a jungle gym. At times we would have to duck under trees to keep moving, at others climb over top trees. Sometimes the trail was very steep and beside dangerous sheer drops on a cliff face. The trail also had some pretty invasive wildlife too! In the lowlands there were leeches on the tall grasses. These would crawl on you until they found a patch of skin to suck blood from. The trail’s regular sleeping accommodations housed a family of hungry rats, who came out at night to eat what food was left on the floor inches away from our beds. The beds themselves were only plywood and sheet metal and were hardly anything more than a way to keep dry. It was a bitter-sweet arrangement. It was cold and raining and we could be dry by sleeping in the shack on these beds, but the shack was very cold. Out of all the negative things about our climb up Mt. Trus Madi, the worst was that there was no view except fog when we reached it’s summit. It was just cold and wet.
Now I it might sound like I had a terrible time, and the truth is I did have a terrible time. But I would do it again if given the chance. Why? Looking at the thorns in my hand after the climb I thought “why would people put themselves through such terrible things so willingly as I had?” The reason why anyone chooses to do anything is because they figure it’s worth it one way or another. What is worth climbing a treacherous path is the redeeming qualities along the way. Such as the spectacular views, the exhilarating challenges, and the incredible wildlife.
Mt. Trus Madi did have spectacular views (when the clouds did part if only for a moment), it had plenty of exhilarating challenges and it had incredible wildlife (I should mention we saw a wild boar sprint across the road on our way down).
What is significant about any of this? In this kind of reflection there are parallels that could be drawn. One has to do with God and the problem of evil. The problem of evil is a philosophical issue that deals with how an all powerful and all good God could exist while evil also exists in the world. What can be drawn from climbing Mt. Trus Madi and be applied to the problem of evil is how humans themselves will willingly take part in horrendous challenges because somewhere along the way they expect a few redeeming qualities will make it worth it. Perhaps that is a way to look at how God created a world with horrendous suffering. Perhaps God feels for a few things that it is all worth it even though His creation destroys itself and gets destroyed constantly. Of course that is speaking of God in a human frame of understanding, it just might be something we would do too.
February 2, 2009 – 4:28 pm
I am looking forward to Asia. Not particularly the duck fetus, but other things. I like seeing the ways cities are designed in different parts of the world because of how a building layout can affect a person’s feel and interpretation of a city. I hope Asia will have some pretty interesting aspects of this.
I am looking forward to the food too, especially Asian dishes that are not normally served in North American eateries.
The next biggest thing I am looking forward to is seeing the natural environment and animal life of South East Asia. I am bringing a camera with me for reasons like this.
One of my more serious hopes for this trip will be to shake my underlying prejudices toward Islam and Muslims. I want to see its purpose, beliefs and values without blinders. While I almost completely disagree with the tenets of Islam over God’s plan of salvation for the world, I want to see the good things of Islam.
Past experiences with Muslims have been strained because of my prejudices. In past situations, I have tried unsuccesfully to foster a dialogue with Muslim people. The problem has been that my discomfort with the faith has stopped me from getting too close to a religion that has been associated with fear and misunderstanding by individuals I have interacted with. I can only hope and pray that I will be able to learn patiently and humbly from Muslims this time around.
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