METANOIA WILL JOHN CUMMINS BE ABLE TO CHANGE BC’S POLITICAL LANDSCAPE? The Rant
Vancouver Is Burning June 2011
CAND Health Fusion Issue
An Interview with
George P. Shultz
cont. METANOIA
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METANOIA 5 6 7 8 12 14 16 22 24 26 27 30 32 34
CONTENTS
Letter from the Executive The Answer The Source of Inspiration An Interview with George Shultz We Want Better, Not Just Less Bad Government John Cummins Convention Speech Picture of the Presidents of the BC Conservatives Constituency Associations Speech to Students of Boucher Transformation Through Meditation Poetry—Troublingly Honest Vices Thoughts on Freedom by Donald Boudreaux The Rant Raw Foods Introductory Workshop An Inconvenient Horoscope METANOIA 3
METANOIA EXECUTIVE AND STAFF
PUBLISHERS
Allison Patton and Salme Leis
COPY CHIEF
Caleb Ng
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS
JR Leis and Heino (Hank) Leis
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Dal Fleischer
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Dan Denis METANOIA MAGAZINE is a publication of METANOIA CONCEPTS INC. For questions, comments, or advertising contact by Phone: 604-538-8837, Email: metanoiamagazine@gmail.com, Mail: 3566 King George Blvd, Surrey, BC, Canada, V4P 1B5
www.mountainviewwellnesscentre.ca 4 METANOIA
3566 King George Blvd Surrey, BC, V4P 1B5 office@mvwc.ca Phone 604.538.8837
Letter from the Executive
O
ur attention at Metanoia Magazine is constantly drawn to issues raised by our readership. And so it should be. In the last while we have been inundated with opinions and comments in regards to one of our publishers, Dr. Allison Patton, becoming an integral part of developing an idea base for the new British Columbia Conservatives particularly in the Surrey-White Rock riding. We at Metanoia support her decision. Metanoia means a new way of thinking. ―New‖ means that some, perhaps many, of our old ways of processing information need to change. When we speak of old and traditional ways, we mean that we cannot escape our past fixed ways of framing thoughts and influencing people. People who enter the arena of political debate no matter their political stripe, philosophy or party name, believe that their efforts will achieve some common good. While tradition has it that political opponents lash out at each other to gain points, we here at Metanoia do not believe that any political party has a monopoly on virtue. We believe that often times solutions proposed by politicians to the problems we all face, overlap or are identical; the delivery, the framing and the presentations merely different in style. Doctor Wilder Penfield, the noted Montreal Neurosurgeon, became aware of the three different zones in the human brain that responded in three different ways to touch while under anesthetic. They were parent, child, and adult in nature. The parent functions were both critical and nurturing and the child was both adaptive and rebellious in nature. Much more has been learned about the brain since Dr. Wilder‘s
study. Most importantly, what we have learned is that it is capable of change and that in order to respond to the crises we must face, the changes are urgent. We at Metanoia believe that understanding is different than knowing. Understanding is a fluid phenomenon allowing us to change our mind which allows the magic of creativity to work on behalf of humanity. Knowing reduces our ability to develop as humans because it is stagnant, limiting, and fails to give us the flexibility to move forward. Understanding allows us to escape untruths we have believed in and develop new truths that we can exploit. Representing NDP, Liberal, Green or Conservative political views means nothing without the integrity of being able to move forward from the misunderstanding of the past absent of the shame that would keep us where we were – defending propositions that we now know, did not and could not work. We hope our readership will learn and not assume anything about Dr. Patton‘s political views no matter the political party she has chosen to present them. Moreover Metanoia plans to publish the writings of those from all political parties in B.C. with their particular political points of view and without censor. With this offer, it is our aim to create a political arena, where the constant is that we are emerging into a province where evolution is more important than revolution. To think, we must be free of our old ways which encumbered us in so many ways. We welcome you on our journey in our third year of publication, so that you can partner with us in this great story we call life. METANOIA 5
THE ANSWER By Dr. Allison Lee Patton
I
‘ve been asked
by a number of my patients why I would sacrifice my business career, family and sometimes friendships for the glory of politics.
Photograph by Dan Denis
Firstly, from what I have experienced so far – there is little glory in politics. But as to the reason why I‘m doing it, the answer sounds like a cliché but nevertheless true. “I’m doing it all for you”. Some of you may doubt my sincerity – but please let me explain. I‘ve spent eleven years in University and have practiced Naturopathic Medicine for over ten years now. But most of what I have learned has come from you, our patients. I have learned that so many of our illnesses come from stress – and the kinds of stresses we live with each day ultimately have consequences. Yes, most of us live longer than our grandparents – but not necessarily more happily. We have constant concerns and reminders that we need to keep busy. Some people try to excuse this angst and say ―that‘s just life‖. I say ―No‖ to that. I say there is a better way. And a better way is a less stressful way.
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What we have, in our democracy is institutionalized stress. To test your stress level read the following: ―Are your taxes done yet?‖ The feeling you have after reading this sentence is just one example of the type of stress induced by institutionalized systems. Each and every day we are faced with dozens of such stressors that impact our fragile minds and bodies. It is the systems that we once developed to make life easier and less stressful that now have become our horror. They are each small, subtle and difficult to identify, but the accumulative effect is devastating, each day creating more malice on our bodies. To be explicit, we are overwhelmed! And, we are overwhelmed by the meaningless deadlines and requirements imposed on us by bureaucracies, once created for our benefit but now stress us out. What once served as a solution has now become a problem. Everyday I see it in my practice; People hurting, anxious, finding it difficult to function, because of the pressures put on them by what we call life. Anxiety is prevalent in epidemic proportions. But the great news is that we have a political system that we can use to change past mistakes. It is this democratic system which gives you and I, control of our destinies. I am not here asking for your support now – but your understanding. I hope this answers the question you have been asking, and if any of you have any comments regarding my sincerity or suspect my reasoning, write me and I will with your permission post your comments in our office for all to read without censor. Sincerely, ALLISON LEE PATTON
The Source of Inspiration By Hank Leis
For anything to matter, it must first occupy our interest. What suddenly inspires us into looking into something is mysterious. It seems like the mind becomes at least temporarily focused on a trivial occurrence and some insight causes it to expand it into a larger phenomenon. At least that‘s how scientific discovery seems to work. The great ideas come from little ones. For businessmen, who have the freedom to be creative, the process is very similar. Insights come from random events, which get expanded into new visionary strategies that amplify the business reach into new markets. Often times these ideas come during periods of boredom, the mind being the powerhouse it is reacts to boredom, trying quickly to fill the vacuum that has been created. It fills the vacuum with irrelevant busyness or profound contemplations about its own relevance in terms of cosmic events. The cosmos makes man, his busy and focused activities, irrelevant and man cannot stand his own insignificance. He must therefore create a bridge between the feeling of irrelevance with that of the cosmos which is virtually everything. Man after all is the only witness, and absent his witnessing, even the cosmos would not exist. So the two are inextricably linked.
In other words, in the blink of an eye-if the observer disappears-so does the observed. And when death eliminates an observer-that which is being observed by him disappears as well. But that is what provides the survivors the evidence as to their importance-that is they still remain the seers, therefore having within their mind the ability to be both the creator and the created simultaneously. The importance of what exists is not in that it exists at all but that it can be sensed to exist and each new discovery brings about the release of anxious energy-a kind of relief, that something that was a mystery has now been explained. That excitement is brought about by another u n d e r s t an d i n g or explanation that relieves incrementally the anxiety that is within, which is the knowledge that we do not know enough to achieve a hypothetical state we call freedom. We are proceeding to that unknown place, in incremental steps. We approach it with the caution of a virgin and celebrate our achievement with the excitement of a whore. The phenomenon is a kind of existential physics. METANOIA 7
Former Secretary of State, George P. Shultz, sits down with Metanoia Magazine and answers questions on working with Gorbachev, how to deal with suicide bombers, and the art of negotiation. In the first part of An Interview with George P. Shultz, Dr. Shultz gave his recollection on the understanding of his Soviet counterparts and on the power of finding respect for others. In part II we sit down again at the office of George P. Shultz at Stanford University to learn more from the former Secretary of State about negotiating in the world of foreign affairs. Interviewers Salme Leis & Hank Leis
An Interview with
George P. Shultz Part II Metanoia: If the Russians threw something out there that seemed a little bit odd or different did you have to go back and recalculate the whole proposal or were you able to actually deal with it right then and there? Shultz: How we deal with it is (that) you are well versed and you have your needed expertise present. Metanoia: So you can just go right back to them. Shultz: Yes. And you have to remember as the US negotiator I was really negotiating on behalf of the NATO Alliance. So you have the Canadians, and you have the Germans and the French and Belgians and so on and so on. And at the end of the day they want to feel consulted and you have to bring them along even if it (the proposal) looks attractive. Even if it is
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something completely out of the box. I remember once Gorbachev suggested something that I thought was attractive and I told him that this is very positive and he said ―well, you can agree to it‖ and I said ―I can‘t because we‘re part of an alliance and I‘m not here by myself.‖ So I need to go back and consult and he couldn‘t understand that because the Warsaw Pact said that he didn‘t have to go back and consult. But with the NATO Alliance, the cohesion that we developed in this period, I think was all much in part because everybody was kept informed and had the chance to have their say and knew what was going on. Metanoia: It seems to me that Gorbachev was very bold, particularly with his proposals in Iceland. First of all he must have had authority to be so bold
and it wasn’t just a spur of the moment thing, but secondly I think that it caught the US by surprise a little bit, with some of the proposals asking for eliminating all the weaponry that were on the table at the time. Shultz: That‘s correct and it was supposedly a kind of preliminary meeting to get set for the coming meeting in Washington. So we didn‘t know what they were going to propose but we took a big delegation and of course we knew all of our proposals very well and had a big delegation so we could have people there who were very knowledgeable. So Gorbachev on the first morning basically agreed to all our proposals. It was breathtaking! All the proposals we had on the table in negotiations; Zero (Option), INF (Treaty), cutting strategic arms in half and he laid all this out. It was all coming our way. At one point President Reagan was going to interject and I said, ―Let him talk. It‘s all coming our way.‖ That was the first morning and then we reported that to our group and our group had talking points and then of course it led to more sweeping things like an agreement to get rid of nuclear weapons entirely which was something President Reagan had advocated publicly for a long time. It was a very fruitful meeting. It was so fruitful on the The “Zero Option” was the name of the American proposal for the withdrawal of all nuclear missiles by both the Soviet Union and the United States from Europe. US President Ronald Reagan proposed this option in 1981. Anti-nuclear activists criticized the proposal as intentionally being designed to fail so the US could be justified in deployment of nuclear arms in Europe. When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, nuclear arms reductions negotiations resumed and the “Zero Option” became the beginning of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty or the INF Treaty. The INF Treaty was signed on December 8, 1987 and resulted in the elimination of a combined 2,692 intermediate and short range nuclear missiles between the Soviet Union and the United States which essentially signalled the end of the Cold War era. Source: Wikipedia
first day that we suggested and they agreed that we should set up working groups that would try to get things pinned down more that had been agreed in general terms. So there was an arms control working group and a working group on other things. Paul Nitze was chairman of our all nighter as well as Roz (Rozanne) Ridgway, who was Assistant Secretary of State and was working with me and was our person and they negotiated out the details of what later became the START Treaty and the INF treaty and so on. And also
at Roz‘s meetings, they agreed for the first time in a formal way that human rights would be a legitimate regular subject in our agenda. That was something of a breakthrough, so in the end they made everything contingent on confining our research on strategic defence to the laboratory which we interpreted as being killed and I think the President would likely agree to that but never the less in a negotiation like that once positions are out there you‘ve seen your bottom line and you can‘t get it back again. So eventually it all came to pass. Metanoia: Did you know what the reason was for this sudden turnaround? Did it have something to do with the collapsing economy in the Soviet Union or were there other pressures on them? Shultz: I think the pressures were great. Gorbachev was a realist about the Soviet economy. You have to remember all of his predecessors never lived in the Soviet Union. They lived in a little cocoon. Their wives shopped in special stores. They really didn‘t have an idea of what life was like in their country. On the other hand Gorbachev had grown up in post World War II and so had Shevardnadze and they knew perfectly well what it was like. And Gorbachev came to see Canada. So all of a sudden he sees Canada and he thinks it‘s heaven on earth. So he had a different perspective and background than his predecessors did. We had a conference here at Hoover on the 20th anniversary of Reykjavik and one of the people doing researcher dug into the Hoover archives which are quite remarkable and he found a copy of the instructions that the Politburo had given to Gorbachev for the Reykjavik meeting and as you say he didn‘t just go there and do this he had instructions. They thought it through. So we see all of this in the instructions and if we had had this beforehand I don‘t know it if would have helped us particularly other than realizing what was happening. I think they saw the price oil was nothing. The Saudis
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signing the INF Treaty in the East Room at the White House in 1987.
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were flooding the market and I think the price was probably below their cost of producing oil so they were totally out of foreign exchange. Metanoia: Was this part of the US strategy or did it just happen to be the case that the oil prices were down at the time. Shultz: No, we had talked to the Saudis and had tried to get them to put out as much output as possible. Metanoia: So it was more of a strategic move to lower the prices than it was an economic move in a sense. Shultz: Well, that was part of a strategy I‘d say. Not a big deal, but part of it. Major difference. Metanoia: I just want to bring some of these discussions forward a little bit. When you were negotiating with the Soviet Union there was sense that the leaders were really representing their people in a way that they wanted them to do well, wanted their people to do well, and survive. Just as an aside how do you negotiate with people who don’t have those values. Today we’re in the world where people are sending their children out to virtually kill themselves and other people. When you don’t have any kind of leverage in terms of human rights how do you approach negotiations? How would you do that today? Shultz: Well I think you have to be secure in your own values and don‘t back up on them. I think there are obviously people who have some sort of notion that allows you to kill yourself with all these suicide bombers. We saw it first in WWII. Remember the Japanese? Kamikaze flyers were flying their planes into battleships and so forth. So there is that mentality. I think it‘s fair to say it‘s not very wide spread, but it doesn‘t take very many people who blow themselves up to cause a lot of damage and to be an unpredictable force which is what they‘re trying to do to be disruptive. But at any rate, I think you push for your values, but you also protect yourself. Metanoia: I’m just thinking that one of the things you emphasized in one of your negotiations was human rights and at some point the Soviet Union bought into it. That they were willing to negotiate human rights issues. I’m not sure that today the same kind of human rights issues can even be raised given the attitudes of the enemies of the US right now. Shultz: Well, I think with China it‘s worth keeping some assurances on it. Earlier this week I was in Washington for the visit of Hu Jintao and he said something that got a lot of attention. He said ―China has a lot of work to do in the field of human rights.‖ That‘s the first time any top notch Chinese leader has ever said anything quite like that. But you watch China. I‘ve had the privilege of going there periodically now for quite a long time and people say ―Will China change?‖ and I say ―Come on. China has changed dramatically!‖ It‘s very different not only in economic
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terms, but in social terms and sense of being terms and human rights terms and political terms. It‘s a very different place. Still authoritarian at the top, but still it‘s very open and alive. The first time I went, there were just bicycles and everybody was dressed exactly the same way. You go today, it‘s a traffic jam. And everyone has different things on and the women are dressed colourfully and it‘s a totally different atmosphere. And yes I think China didn‘t handle the Nobel incident well. They called attention to it which is like a big advertisement that they‘re stupid about this subject. But maybe they‘re learning something. So you keep after it. But I think the key in this and I say this in the book, Shevardnadze said to me one time while we were discussing human rights, ―George we might do some of these things that you‘re talking about but not to please you. (We will do it) only if it seems to be in our interest.‖ So I thought about that remark a lot and I worked out a presentation to him and to Gorbachev. We go to Gorbachev, ―We always get together and argue about this new thing. But there‘s something going on the world that‘s going to affect you, it‘s going to affect me it‘s going to affect everything in a major way. I mean everything we talk about. It‘s the information revolution. It‘s big. It‘s changing things and if you insist on having a closed compartmented system you‘re going to get left behind because the information age is an internet open age and if you‘re not open, you‘re not there so it‘s different. And in your interest, you need to get on board.‖
Interview to be continued in the next Metanoia.
Salme Leis with George Shultz at his office at the Stanford University Hoover Institute, in Stanford California.
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We Want Better, Not Just Less Bad Government
Photograph by Dan Denis
Allison Patton talks with Maureen Bader at the 2011 BC Conservatives Leadership Convention in Surrey.
Fewer and fewer voters head to the voting booth these days and one reason might be they have no real choice. British Columbia has two parties competing to deliver more, to more people, but people know big spending leaves the province with a legacy of deficits and debt, which translates into higher taxes later, no matter which party does the spending. The B.C. Liberal government goes on and on about how they are different from the NDP, but how? Are they better or simply less bad? A comparison of the NDP-dominated decade of the 1990s to the Liberal-dominated decade of 2000s tells the tale. How about the increase in the size and cost of government? Well, according to Statistics Canada, the NDP increased the number of government employees by 19 per cent, the total government employee wage cost by 87 per cent and average government-sector wage rate by 58 per cent. The Liberals increased the number of government employees by eight per cent, the total government wage cost by 64 per cent, and the average bureaucratic salary by 51 per cent. When it came to the size and cost of government, the Liberals were simply less bad than the NDP. 12 METANOIA
How about spending? Total government spending under the NDP went up by 80 per cent and under the Liberals by 48 per cent. This too was less bad. B.C. had eight consecutive years of deficit spending under the NDP, but between 2001 and 2011, under the Liberals, B.C. had six years of deficit spending. If deficits carry on until 2013, as predicted by the Liberal government, it will be four consecutive years of deficit spending. Less bad, at least for now. Was there any good news at all during the Liberal dominated decade of the 2000s? Yes, there was. The average wage rate for the average Joe, the person not working in government, actually dropped under the NDP by two per cent, but went up by 27 per cent under the Liberals. So yes, that was good, but not as good as the increase the government worker got. Liberal performance on the debt was different at first. Debt under the NDP went up by 100 per cent. Under the Liberals, the debt actually fell, and that was good, but it didn't last. The Liberals caught the secondterm spending disease, the disease that seems to infect parties looking to buy their way to election victory, and all the good work reducing the debt was lost. If we look at where the debt fell to in 2006 and compare that to where the government itself expects the debt to go to by 2013, the debt goes up by 82 per cent. Less bad too. How is it that something is bad when the NDP does it but better when the Liberals do? It's not. Many people aren't voting and maybe that's because no party delivers on people's real concerns. Big government, big spending, deficits and debt are bad, no matter which party does the delivering. Right now we have a non-partisan rush to see which party can spend more, do more and be all things to all people. To prevent a legacy debt, what B.C. needs is a small-government, common-sense choice. Reprinted with permission from Maureen Bader Maureen Bader is an Economic Analyst and Commentator at Global TV and has been published in the Vancouver Sun and the Province. You can visit Maureen’s blog at : www.maureenbader.blogspot.com
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Photograph by Dan Denis
John Cummins Convention Speech May 28th, 2011
John Cummins’s address to the BC Conservative Leadership Convention – May 28, 2011
A new era in BC politics begins today. I am honoured to have been elected the leader of the new BC Conservatives. I want to thank everyone who encouraged me to run, and helped over the past few months. I want to thank my wife Sue and my family for being so supportive. I want to thank the party‘s growing membership for placing their trust in me. I will never forget that trust and promise as your leader always fight for an honest, open and conservative British Columbia. We are all here today because we want to build a real choice for the voters of this province. Instead of a government of insiders and narrow special
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interests we need a government dedicated to reflecting the will, the values and priorities of the people of BC. Instead of a revolving door of self-serving Liberal and NDP governments, where all that is replaced is which set of insiders is getting rich, we need a real choice. A choice between common sense and politically correct nonsense. A choice between openness and closed doors. A choice between the people being in charge, and the people being ignored and deceived. Christy Clark‘s Liberal government has already shown us of why that choice is so badly needed. We hear a lot from the press about how smart Christy Clark is by stealing NDP ideas. In 2009 the NDP promised to hike the minimum wage to $10 per hour – the Liberals attacked them saying it would cost over
50,000 jobs. In 2011 Christy Clark raised the minimum wage to $10.25 per hour. She was praised for moving to the left, and taking an NDP idea. This week she announced her plan to ―fix the HST.‖
NDP. And yet what to do we find? Christy Clark and Adrian Dix singing from the same song sheet. And Clark has only been Premier for three months. She‘s just getting started.
Instead of making things simpler, she made them more uncertain.
Never mind vote splitting on the right, now we‘ve got unity on the left!
Instead of making BC more competitive she attacked small business.
This is why we need the new BC Conservatives.
Instead of trusting the people, she asked them to trust a government famous for breaking promises. By putting off the HST cuts until after the next election Christy Clark wants people to trust her. Vote for the HST now, and trust us, we‘ll cut it down the road. What people have to ask themselves is whether they trust the Liberal government, who lied about bringing in the HST, whether they trust them to keep their promises to reduce it years from now. Instead of a referendum on the merits of the HST, the decision people will have to make is whether or not they trust Liberal promises on the HST. She is wasting $200 million on ―Vote for Christy‖ Cheques. $200 million that could have been invested in schools, hospitals or roads. $200 million for a publicity stunt – remember how the NDP was crucified for overspending $240 million on the fast ferries. The damage that all this uncertainty has caused to our economy is significant. Economic growth is down 36% since the HST was announced. The Liberals have bungled the situation from start to finish, but all of BC pays the price as investors stay away, scared by uncertainty. Liberal incompetence costs jobs in BC. To top it off Premier Clark is raising corporate tax rates, which has been an NDP promise in every election that I can remember. Small businesses are hurting in this province, at the hands of this so-called free enterprise government, that is supposed to be a friend of entrepreneurs and job creators. A Liberal government that wins votes by claiming to be more economically responsible than the
The Liberals last remaining leg to stand on as been economic credibility – and in three short months Premier Clark has kicked that out from under them. I spent 18 years in Ottawa fighting Liberals, and I‘ve watched the Liberals in Victoria pretty closely as well. This is not a party that keeps its promises. Remember Jean Chretien promising to abolish the GST in order to win votes? I know Christy Clark does. I‘ve always bel ieved you should be honest and up front with people on the taxes you are going to ask them to pay. It‘s only fair. I campaigned with Stephen Harper to lower the GST from 7% to 5%, and we kept our word on this. Too bad the same cannot be said about Christy Clark and the Liberals. The record of the Liberals, first under Gordon Campbell, and now Christy Clark, has been a litany of broken promises, arrogance and deceit. Consider how this government operates. In the 2009 election they assured us the HST wasn‘t even under consideration, while at the same time they were holding meetings on how to implement it. The largest change in BC‘s tax structure in decades, all planned in secret, and denied in the middle of an election campaign. I‘m sorry – but that‘s not what I call open and honest government. And this wasn‘t the first time. Nowhere in their 2005 platform was there a single mention of a carbon tax. But once safely in power they imposed an illogical tax grab of epic proportions. There‘s more. In the 2001 election Liberals promised not to sell BC Rail, not only did they break their promise but the process was so corrupt that law enforcement officials had no option other than to raid the legislature. A raid that ended up with the truth METANOIA 15
Photograph by Dan Denis
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Vive La Différence! METANOIA 17
buried, and the taxpayers holding a $6 million bill for a plea bargain with the guilty. The Liberals say one thing and do the opposite – and the people of BC always end up having to pay the tab. As secretive and dishonest as this government has been, they have also been wholly negligent when it comes to public safety. Under the Liberals violent and gang related crime has dominated the headlines. And this is not just the case in the lower mainland, but across the province. We need more police. The police need more resources. The province needs more prosecutors. There aren‘t enough judges to handle the backlog of cases. Charges are being thrown out because we don‘t even have enough sheriffs to secure the court rooms. In the middle of the gang war that gripped the province in early 2009 – the government actually cut the number of prosecutors. No money for prosecutors in 2009. But apparently there‘s no shortage of funds to blow millions and millions of dollars on lucrative severance packages for senior staff and political appointees. These are the priorities of the BC Liberals. All over the province I speak to parents who have recently taken their children out of the public education system, or are planning to do that. Parents who aren‘t necessarily well off or even religious, are lining up to enroll their children in private schools. They are fed up with being ignored by a system that prioritizes the teachers‘ union and not the real clients of the system – parents and children. It is crystal clear that the Liberal government must be replaced. In BC, that traditionally means voters turn to the NDP. But we all remember the 1990‘s and the devastating wreckage the NDP left behind. Two terms of NDP is one double feature horror show no one should have to sit through a second time.
damage. This is why the new BC Conservatives are so important. We offer a real choice – a choice of a principled common-sense government that will keep our economy strong, keep our streets safe, listen to the people, and let them get on with their lives. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the very reason a poll last week had us at 18%. Imagine that, 18% simply because we are offering relief from this choice. It‘s a long way to go and a lot of hard to get into government, but it‘s a hell of a start. 18% is higher than any third party has been in the polls in BC since the Liberals emerged from the wilderness and replaced the Socreds as the free-enterprise party. Ever since I announced I was running for the Leadership of the new BC Conservatives, all the Liberals say is that by voting Conservative the freemarket vote will be split and the NDP will win. The fact of the matter is, the Liberals have been quite busy damaging the province and their own reputation enough to hand the next election to the NDP all on their own. What we provide is a new option; a real choice and an alternative to the NDP for the free-market voters who are ready to flee the Liberals. It is extremely telling that the only line the Liberals use is the so-called splitting of the vote. They don‘t brag about their own record – no, their only argument is: Vote for me, I‘m not NDP. Although after this week it is getting pretty hard to tell the difference any more. In fact the Liberals are so ashamed of their past, they are planning to change the name of the party. Is this the action of a government proud of what it has
What is remarkable is that while both the Liberals and NDP had a great opportunity to turn the page and chart a bold, new course for the province with fresh, new leaders, but instead they have both reached into their past. Christy Clark is the ultimate insider, having been Campbell‘s deputy Premier, and as the last few months have shown us, is completely devoid of new ideas – except raising the minimum wage, which was lifted directly from the NDP‘s last platform. And the NDP now have Adrian Dix, who served as the Chief of Staff to Glen Clark and was at the very heart of the last NDP government – an incompetent and fiscally irresponsible administration that did so much
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Photograph by Dan Denis From left to right: Salme Leis, secretary for the Surrey-White Rock BC Conservatives Constituency Association, Hon. Rita Johnson, first female premier in Canada, and Dr. Allison Patton, president of the Surrey-White Rock CA at the 2011 BC Conservatives Leadership Convention in Surrey.
accomplished? No, they are hoping they can fool the people of BC into believing they are somehow different because they have a new name and logo. There are many people in this room who held their noses in the last election and voted Liberal. But when I look at that 18%, I know that we aren‘t simply attracting voters from the BC Liberals. Many people who voted for the NDP in the last election are not dyed in the wool left-wingers. In fact, one in five federal conservative voters, supported Carole James and the provincial NDP in 2009. One in five people who voted for Stephen Harper in 2008, voted NDP a few months later. One in five. That‘s 150,000 votes – people from Port Coquilam to Cranbrook, from Surrey to Campbell River.
proud federal Liberal – a party that has long ignored BC, and British Columbians have now turned their back on. In our province voters crushed Michael Ignatieff‘s Liberals giving them only 13% of the vote – and Michael Ignatieff never imposed an unfair HST. Michael Ignatieff never raised our gas prices with a carbon tax. Michael Ignatieff never spent our children into debt. Michael Ignatieff never promised one thing and did the opposite in power. Only Christy Clark Liberals taxed and spent BC families into debt, raised the price of gas and broke their promises. Only the Liberals in Victoria have delivered four deficit budgets in the last ten years. But soon voters will have their chance to cast their verdict on this Liberal party.
Voters who believe in common sense, but saw so little of what they wanted in the Liberals they voted for the only alternative: the NDP. I have met these voters as I have toured around the province in the last month. Conservatives who proudly voted for their local Conservative MP‘s just a few weeks ago, who have been so repulsed by the Liberal government they voted for NDP MLA‘s. Where ever I have gone I have met voters like this, voters who are excited that the new BC Conservatives gives them a real choice. No wonder the last provincial election saw one of the poorest voter turnouts ever. How tragic that tens of thousands of British Columbians were so turned off by the only two choices that they just couldn‘t bring themselves to visit the polling station. It‘s not us who will be splitting the vote – it‘s the Liberal government who is driving their voters away. They can try to blame us for the results of their arrogance, their incompetence, their legacy of one scandal after another…but those claims don‘t hold water. After a decade in power they have become selfserving, dishonest and hopelessly inept. We are putting together a great team – I was honoured to be introduced by Dennis Mackay, who was a Liberal MLA until the last election. Dennis and countless others are turning their backs on a government that has turned its back on the reasons people voted for them. And we‘re not done yet. With every passing day this Liberal government reminds me more and more of their Liberal cousins in Ottawa, who I fought against the last twenty years.
Photograph by Dan Denis From left to right: Dr. Allison Patton, Kulraj Gurm, president of the Surrey-Cloverdale CA, and Salme Leis at the 2011 BC Conservatives Leadership Convention in Surrey.
We already have an example of what happens when conservative-minded people join together and decide to stand up to the Liberals. In my own backyard in Delta South, Vicki Huntington ran a campaign of listening to local people, standing up for the community and conservative values – I was pleased to endorse her – and she defeated Wally Oppal, one of the Liberals‘ so called ‗star candidates‖. She didn‘t split the vote, she won the vote – and that‘s what the new BC Conservatives will do in the next provincial election. I want to tell you why I am running for the leadership of the new BC Conservatives. After nearly 18 years as an MP in Ottawa, I wanted to focus on my home. Like many British Columbians, I wasn‘t born here, but chose to make it my home. I moved here from Ontario as a young man. I worked on the construction of the Bennett Dam on the Peace River.
Think about this. The Premier of British Columbia is a METANOIA 19
I taught grade 1, and math in senior high, and I owned and operated two fishing boats. In the late 1980‘s I responded to the Reform Party‘s message of straight talking and common sense policies. I was fortunate to have the people of Delta and Richmond elect me as their MP six times. In Ottawa I earned a reputation for speaking my mind, and standing up for my constituents, even against the leadership of my own party at times. BC is my home – and we need another option. I want to provide that choice so that in the next election voters aren‘t forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. We are building the new BC Conservatives, and we need your help. Join me in building a new party and a new government. We will do politics differently. We will listen to the people, not the special interests. I have already announced that a BC Conservative government would change the law to ban union and corporate donations to political parties – it‘s take the big money out of politics. Let me explain the reason why we are doing that. Because unlike the other parties we think politics is about people and not vested interests. Political parties should be funded by their voters, not be lobbyists, corporations and unions. We take the view that the people are the boss, and their influence can never be bought. That‘s why as an MP I always believed my job was to stand up for my constituents, even if it meant clashing with my own party. I criticized the government when it made decisions that were bad for my riding – it didn‘t matter to me if the government was Liberal or Conservative. And that‘s what I want our Conservative MLA‘s to do. Their first responsibility will be to their ridings. As a leader I will never punish an MLA for disagreeing with a party position in a respectful and responsible manner. We will balance the budget, and get the crown corporations under control. I can promise you that no CEO of BC Ferries will be making a million dollars a year on my watch.
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I have spent the last month travelling around the province listening to people. From Port Hardy to Victoria, from Smithers to Penticton and from Campbell River to Kamloops. Every where I go I hear about the price of gas and how it makes everything more expensive… When gas prices are high we pay more for food, clothing, furniture, in fact pretty much everything. The biggest component of the price of gas is taxes. And in BC we have a special tax, a tax that no one else in North America has. A carbon tax. On July 1st the carbon tax will go up again. We will all pay more at the pump than we do right now. We were told that it would be revenue neutral, we were told that it would cut carbon emissions in BC. Nothing could be further from the truth. The government‘s own budget documents show that the amount of carbon emitted in BC has increased since the carbon tax came and will keep increasing for at least four more years. So we pay more at the pump, the price of groceries rise, there‘s more carbon in the air, the government rakes in more money. Money that is used to send out ―Vote for Christy‖ cheques or pay for the carbon bureaucracy. That‘s what makes this whole carbon tax even crazier. They make every school and hospital pay for it when they heat their buildings. Every school and hospital in the province must send money to a crown corporation called the Pacific Carbon Trust. This year it adds up to $25 million. That‘s $25 million less for patients and students. The government sends hospitals and schools money to operate – and then by law compels them to send $25 million back. A couple of weeks ago the Vancouver School Board laid off about 180 teachers. How many good teachers were let go because the school board has to cut carbon tax cheques to the Pacific Carbon Trust? Christy Clark is committed to the carbon tax. She even issued a flyer during the recent by-election in Point Grey, re-affirming how much she believed this unfair expensive tax was good and necessary. I am pleased to announce today that a new BC
Conservative government will scrap the carbon tax. Gas will be cheaper. It will cost less to drive you kids to school, that school will have more resources because they won‘t be paying carbon tax, it will cost less to buy food because shipping costs will drop. For the millions of British Columbians who live outside of urban areas, where public transit is not an option, who disproportionately pay this unfair tax, they will find relief. But we won‘t stop there. We won‘t just scrap the carbon tax, we will abolish the whole carbon bureaucracy that goes with it. No more Pacific Carbon Trust, no more complicated trading schemes that sees British Columbians pay 500 times the international price of carbon. We will build an education system that puts children and parents first, not the teachers‘ union. Parents must have a greater say in the education of their children. The health care system cannot simply be fixed by throwing more money at it. We need to be smarter about how we spend precious resources and cut back on the waste that comes with any large bureaucracy. We will take the position in any treaty negotiations that all British Columbians are equal – that no one will be deprived of voting for their local government based on their ethnic origin, and that private property should not be expropriated. We will invest in police and crown prosecutors to make sure that our communities are safe; to ensure our courts are efficient and victims get justice. Justice delayed is justice denied and the status quo just isn‘t good enough anymore.
who want a common sense choice on the ballot. Join me and we can build this alternative together. I cannot do this alone. I need your help. I want to challenge you to do something this week. Go out and tell someone you know, it could be a friend, a family member, a colleague at work or a neighbour, about what you saw here today. Tell them we are building a new choice, tell them we will listen to the people, tell them we respect their values and priorities. Tell them why they need to join the new BC Conservatives. This week get one more person to join our party. More if you can. But even if you get one, that‘s a victory. That‘s how we are going to build this party, one person at a time. We‘ve built an organization in 50 constituencies now. We need all 85. We will to be ready for the next election, whenever Premier Clark decides to call it, we will run a BC Conservative candidate in every riding in this province. Every British Columbian deserves a choice in the next provincial election. A choice for families and seniors. A choice for free enterprise. A choice for honest government. Mark my words, we will elect MLA‘s. And we cannot do it without you.
We are building a new choice, a new option for those common sense British Columbians who are tired of the false choice between the Tweedle Dee NDP and the Tweedle Dum Liberals.
I spent 18 years in Ottawa fighting for common sense and the people of BC. But I have chosen to fight for a better government for BC. I have chosen to get in my truck and drive around the province to hear your concerns, and to give voice to all those people who have been ignored by the old line parties. I am more excited to lead the new BC Conservatives into the next election, more excited than anything else I have ever done in politics.
We have a huge task ahead of us. We are the underdogs against two very powerful, very rich established political machines.
Join me. Help us build a new choice for British Columbia. Help us return common sense to the Legislature. Help us form BC‘s next government.
But this is no cause for discouragement. Because wherever I go across this great province I meet people
Thank you. METANOIA 21
Speech to the Students at the Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine Ladies and Gentlemen,
practiced what I now preach.
I‘ve taken it upon myself to address you at this time because I‘ve become aware of issues, misunderstandings and conflicting expectations that new naturopathic doctors have, as they leave the college and begin their new careers. As the director of media relations, I‘ve had to handle public relations for the BCNA, and part of my role was to gain an understanding of the issues facing naturopathic doctors and make our concerns known to the Ministers of the B.C government and moreover negotiate a resolution with them. Moreover, I coordinated events representing B.C
Remember that line in the movie ―Build it and they will come‖ Well let me tell you that there is a hell of a lot that needs to happen before they come. And because often they don‘t come, many of you will not be able to make a career in your chosen field of being a doctor.
Dr. Caleb Ng with Hon. Mike De Jong, Minister of Health, at Inspire Health where the provincial government announced a $5 million commitment to see 5 more Inspire Health locations in BC including an online clinic for complementary cancer care.
So you must not only seem better, but be better than the medical doctors Dr. Caleb Ng and Hon. Kevin Falcon at who are Minister Falcon’s office in Cloverdale. guaranteed payment by the government. You are entrepreneurs and should not pretend to be anything else.
on the CAND Naturopathic Week committee. I am one of the founders of Mountainview Wellness Centre, and I‘m proud to say that after ten years of practice, we have created what we think is the penultimate practice in our field, so I have the experience having
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One of the first things you need to know is that being a Naturopathic Doctor means you are an entrepreneur. This means that you have opportunities that exceed those of Medical Doctors, but it also means that you will have to work harder, longer and smarter than them. You are not an employee of the government. Your patients will be those who chose Naturopathy over ―free‖ health care because they believe conventional medicine is inadequate. Mostly your patients will pay you with hard cold cash-while still paying the government premiums without benefit to them.
Let me tell you that I love being an N.D. But I also love
the challenges of being an entrepreneur. I love being able to read and analyze financial statements, I love planning and the P.R work I need to do to expand my
Dr. Caleb Ng and his patients with Hon. Gordon Campbell, former premier of BC with Hon. Kevin Falcon in the background at Minister Falcon’s , Beans and Jeans fundraiser.
business. Being an entrepreneur I believe is the most exciting part of being an N.D. Because of this belief, what I am currently doing is preparing a suggested course outline from N.D entrepreneurs. It will not be the usual boring recitation of business algorithms, marketing techniques and other tools that you can learn in any college. What I want to introduce to you is conceptual thinking, strategy, tactics and implementation. What I hope we will be able to do for you is take the boredom out of business and entrepreneurship. For you to be successful you will need to be as excited by the process of creating and maintaining your business as the practice of being an N.D. What helps build a business is being able to handle the challenges in creative and exciting ways, which means the process and the evolution of your undertaking maintains your interest and has the visible effect of becoming successful, resulting in the rewarding career that you deserve. Thank you
Photograph by Dan Denis
Pictured above from L to R is Chizue Lister of the Yucca Tree Restaurant, animal lover and fundraiser, Dr. Caleb Ng, Vice President of the BCNA, and Sharan Dhillon, Fund Development/Community Engagement & Events Coordinator of Canadian Red Cross for BC.
This year for Naturopathic Medicine Week, naturopathic doctors in BC participated in Consults for a Cause, a BCNA initiative to promote the profession and raise money for those in need. On Thursday, May 12, 2011, participating clinics donated the proceeds from their consultations to this charity. This year Consults for a Cause benefitted the Canadian Red Cross Japanese Tsunami Relief Fund. In total, the BCNA raised $3,864 to help those affected by the catastrophe that happened earlier this year in Japan. A special mention goes to Dr. Dierdre O ’ Neill, Dr. Victor Chan, Dr. Melissa Bradwell, Dr. Caleb Ng, Dr. Allison Patton, Dr. Galina Bogatch, Dr. Sanjay Mohan Ram, Dr. Sharon Gurm, and Dr. Megan Kimberly for their effort and support. To find out about upcoming BCNA events visit www.bcna.ca.
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TRANSFORMATION THROUGH MEDITATION Sometimes when writing for magazines or newspapers and I'm not sure what I want to write about, the trick seems to be finding a glimmer of an idea and then just running with it. A thread of an idea can unravel into a full blown article without much effort, but having said that lots of ideas can float around and not amount to much. This technique is a playing with a stream of consciousness kind of thing and one example of what I want to explore more in this particular article. Let's call it change and it's ramifications for our own transformation. As human beings and creators it is in our best interest to know more about how and why we manifest what we do. Of course awareness is the key and knowing is the result of such exploration. We are curious beings and it's our natural function to explore our awareness, to see and feel the results and to know how to effect changes for our benefit. If we look outside ourselves for answers we'll get them, ―pressed down and running over‖ and more so than at any other time in our human history, for our
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lives are intrinsically connected to the Internet and electronic media. Experts abound on just about any topic dealing with anything we can think or dream about. Great inspirational writings of history are instantaneously available as are the great teachers of esoteric wisdom which appear on your screen with a touch of the finger. Courses in human development and betterment, how-to's on everything from boosting self esteem to over-coming addictions can be accessed by self-help gurus who are available to us on-line 24/7. Despite all this accessibility, we still flounder about and sometimes the mass of information only serves to confuse rather than enlighten us. We jump from one idea, teaching or another hoping to find ―the definitive answer‖ that will end our questioning and give us some kind of respite. Somehow we have picked up the belief that there is some great plan, idea or solution, that if only we can grasp it; some perfect way of being that if only we can be it, that will ease the suffering for ourselves and humanity as a whole. Even a cursory think on this idea would prove that this
is quite an insurmountable endeavor. The universe and even our own planet is a constantly changing, ever in flux, idea, concept and imagining thing that is unknowable, despite our attempts at conquering and exploring it. Physicists study it and come away equally perplexed. Scientists are at a loss to understand it, but that doesn't stop them from examining, studying, testing, exploring and coming up with ever more inventive and elaborate theories to explain the unexplainable. The average human is subjected to ever more concepts which do little to ease the pain of the unanswerable question of ―why we are here and what am I supposed to do with this life?‖ View points, events, situations, concepts, ideas, relationships, feelings in fact everything in life is in constant change, flashing in and out of our awareness. The nature of change is change and maybe we just have to learn to deal with it and accept it as part of life's mystery. So how do we deal with this morphing world of ours? If we contemplate this so called problem and look closely, we can see that although things, people, events, nature, ideologies, nations, everything in fact does change, it's really our reaction or response to these changes that determine our state of happiness and well being. Each person is a self-contained barometer of his own making and the thoughts and images that whirl about can be looked at and examined to see if they in fact are meaningful, or if they are ―world thoughts‖ or other peoples' ideas and not applicable to his life. Plug into the T.V. or Internet and you are instantly at one with everyone and event going on anywhere in our world. Our minds process this information consciously and subliminally and since it's major function is to inform us of our environment through awareness, often we find that our immediate reaction to what we view might not be nurturing, giving us a sense of well-being, but may evoke a negative reaction in our emotional system making us feel ill at ease, fearful, stressed and uncomfortable. Thought follows thought in predictable patterns and if we are not conscious and alert, these thoughts can lead us down a path, not of our immediate choosing, but down the road we've paved over years of habitual unconscious, unexamined thought taking. Breaking negative thought patterns is no easy task and most people are not even unaware that they are being taken for a ride by their own thinking. The ancient wisdom sages have likened the human mind to a wild horse. It's up to the individual to discipline their own mind in order to gain some modicum of awareness , otherwise events, people, their own bodies and lives are like a runaway horse; you're in the saddle but you have no control over anything.
Slowing everything down is a good start. Taking time out to sit in nature or quietly by ourselves can give us some necessary space to check in and see ―how we are‖. Most of us are not even aware of how noisy and busy our lives are what with cell phones, blackberries, t.v.'s, blaring music, traffic, wailing sirens and our hectic schedules filling up our time and senses day to day. Early morning and before bed are good times to sit and take inventory with ourselves. Much of our day to day thought taking is idle banter and commentary however this is time wasting and counterproductive to a creative, fulfilled life. If we were to watch our mind we'd be amazed at how judgmental we are of ourselves or others and likewise how critical. Most of the time we're not even conscious that we have this running dialog going on and there is no one on the planet who is 100% free of this internal taskmaster. Sitting quietly for even a few minutes a day, watching our thoughts will prove this to ourselves. This simple practice could herald the breakthrough we need to start our own transformation. In my opinion, taking personal responsibility for our own head space is the first major step in maturity. When we've exhausted every avenue for laying the blame for our misfortunes, bad luck and bad choices on ourselves, our others or the world, then perhaps we can take a long, deep and quiet look inside ourselves. When we can watch the thought patterns that habitually have led us to make decisions over and over that harm rather than nurture us, or calcified ideas from our childhood that limit our potential, we are then in a position of power and dominion. I had a high school art teacher that informed me I had no talent and should give up any thought of going into the arts for a profession. At 41, I began painting and discovered I had a whole well spring of creativity in my soul. Breaking out of the conditioned thinking from my childhood imposed by parents, teachers, friends and experiences took time, but success eventually came and for the past 15 years I have lived my life as an artist. Through meditation I learned that nothing is impossible to the human spirit. We can move past our negative conditioning and explore new vistas and bring creativity, peace and harmlessness into our lives and by extension, the lives of those around us. It's never too early or too late to begin this introspection. We can't even begin to solve the problems of this world until we solve the problems of our own personal lives. Taking control of our inner world is the solution to our own personal well beingness and the world of our own creating, the one we live, move and have our being in. by Marilyn Hurst www.marilynhurst.com METANOIA 25
Troublingly Honest Vices By Alisha Shaffer
Young fingers run through hair, Tugging decrepitly at dark roots. I need a fix, But no narcotics can kill this emptiness Inside My lungs – breath goes, but rarely returns. I don’t dare venture beyond my confinement; Bed. Couch. Chair. Desk. Floor. A pentagon of fear That if I fall, I won’t get back up. And you can’t be there to catch me. I know I often say the wrong things; Believe me, I don’t enjoy being A prisoner of my own intelligence. I’m too clever to leave my addictions, Because they are the only friends I have. Truly, You will not think to leave me Just the same. Words hitch, Whispering their poisonous contents, Spilling out from my careless lips. Too weak to stand, Too strong to recognize The familiar tears running down my cheek That I had briefly forgotten. Next timeNext time I won’t recall a thing Apart from my blood-spattered hands; Next time I’ll forget that I need to stop coughing. No longer me, Is it possible to know too much? I’ll ponder If I have but the time. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick… Nothing. No last words before I plunge Into the extent of my brilliance. Genius? Hand me the gun. I won’t shoot myself, But I know that wall has it coming. Boredom takes its toll, Cracking my already damaged skin, Piercing my nonchalant mind with afflictions.
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Have I told you about The current state of my heart? Oh, yes… I forgot. I don’t have one. Am I really so poor That I lack the ability To keep any relationships? No, I do socialize; The smiling image on my wall proves that. It seems to have slipped my mind that I put it there myself. Perhaps my companion needs a companion To keep him company, I took the loyalty to bring back An old friend. I don’t remember you, But I do know I’m always content when you’re around. You’re always around, somewhere… So why am I never happy? I often find I’m one to forget myself. But can you hardly blame me For trying? I need a fix, Something to get me out of this prison That I call human. Try to forget me, And I promise I won’t do it again. If not this time, then the next. …Or the next. You should know, Dear friend, That old habits are hard to break.
Alisha Shaffer is currently attending Elgin Park Secondary in Surrey. As well, she is a writer and opera singer. She won gold for Grade Ten Poetry with this particular piece.
Stop the Bad Guys Thoughts on Freedom | Donald J. Boudreaux June 2011 • Volume: 61 • Issue: 5
It‘s
not too much of a simplification to say
that modern American conservatives believe the national government to be ignorant, bumbling, and corrupt when it meddles in the U.S. economy, but sagacious, sure-footed, and righteous when it meddles in foreign-government affairs. Nor are the boundaries of acceptable simplification breached by saying that modern American ―liberals‖ believe the national government to be sagacious, sure-footed, and righteous when it meddles in the U.S. economy, but ignorant, bumbling, and corrupt when it meddles in foreign-government affairs. This striking contradiction in political viewpoints has not, of course, gone unnoticed. I was prompted to ponder this contradiction not long ago after I read an op-ed in the Washington Post by the neoconservative William Kristol calling on Uncle Sam to attempt to influence the outcomes of the recent popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. My ponderings produced a hypothesis: Modern conservatives and ―liberals‖ are obsessively fixated on bad guys (just different ones). For both conservatives and ―liberals‖ the world is full of problems caused by bad actors—greedy, heartless, power-hungry autocrats who deploy illegitimately acquired power to trample the rights and livelihoods of the masses. Ordinary men and women seek liberation from these tyrants, but—being ordinary and oppressed—the typical person cannot escape the overlords‘ predation without help. Their liberation requires forceful intervention by well-meaning and courageous outsiders. For ―liberals‖ the oppressed masses consist of workers and the poor, and the oligarchs who do the oppressing are business people and private
corporations. What encourages this oppression are free markets and their accompanying doctrine of nonintervention by government into the economy. However, contrary to the ―liberals,‖ nonintervention rests on at least three truths: First, the complexities of modern economies are so great, and hard to discern, that it is absurdly fanciful to suppose that government officials can intervene without causing more harm than good. Even the most well-meaning government is akin to a bull in a china shop: Out of its natural element, even government‘s most careful actions will be so sweeping and awkward that the net result will be unintentionally destructive. Second, even if economic intervention begins with the best of motives, it degenerates into a process of transferring wealth from the politically powerless to the politically powerful. The interventions continue to sport noble names (such as the ―Great Society programs‖ and the ―Fair Labor Standards Act‖) and to be marketed as heroic efforts to defend the weak against the strong. But these, however, are nothing more than cynical and disingenuous political marketing efforts aimed at hiding from the general public the actual, unsavory consequences of these interventions. Third, many situations that appear to wellmeaning outsiders to be so undesirable that someone simply must intervene to correct them are understood by many of the people most closely affected by these situations to be superior to likely alternatives. ―Unequal income distribution‖ is perhaps the foremost such situation. While most ―liberals‖ are obsessed with the ―distribution‖ of income and believe that people of modest means must be especially disturbed by the fact that some other people earn more than they earn, in fact the typical American of modest METANOIA 27
means is far less bothered by ―unequal‖ income ―distribution‖ than are members of the ―liberal‖ academy and punditry. This latter fact only further confirms to the ―liberal‖ mind that ordinary Americans need third-party intervention to save them from their own naiveté; ordinary Americans just don‘t know what glories they are denying themselves by acquiescing in the prevailing economic power structure. Modern ―liberals‖ dismiss these three objections to economic intervention as being fanciful excuses used by the economically powerful—and, even worse, also by the economically naive free-market faithful—to provide (flimsy) intellectual cover for predations by capitalist bad guys. The realistic assessments by modern ―liberals‖ indicate to them that economic intervention is necessary and righteous. A nearly identical debate plays out on the foreignpolicy front, but with the sides switched. For modern A m e r i c a n conservatives the oppressed masses consist of foreign peoples yearning for American-style freedom and political franchise. But these unfortunate foreigners are oppressed by oligarchs who happen to control their governments. ―Liberals‖ (and liberals) who adhere to a doctrine of U.S. government nonintervention in foreign affairs raise the same three objections that conservatives (and liberals) raise against government intervention in the economy. First, the complexities of foreign governments‘ relationships with their citizens are so great and hard to discern that it is absurdly fanciful to suppose that Uncle Sam can intervene without causing more harm than good. Even the most well-meaning intervention is akin to a bull in a china shop: Out of its natural element, even Uncle Sam‘s most careful actions will be so sweeping and awkward that the net result will be unintentionally destructive. Second, even if foreign intervention begins with the best of motives, it degenerates into a process
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of transferring wealth from the politically powerless to the politically powerful. The interventions continue to enjoy noble names (such as ―Operation Iraqi Freedom‖) and to be marketed as heroic efforts to defend the weak against the strong. But these, however, are nothing more than cynical and disingenuous political marketing efforts aimed at hiding from the general public the actual, unsavory consequences of these interventions in which corporations such as Halliburton and Blackwater rake in huge, undeserved profits at the expense of the American taxpayer and the foreign populations ostensibly being helped. Third, many situations that appear to wellmeaning outsiders to be so undesirable that someone simply must intervene are understood by many of the people most closely affected by these situations to be superior to likely alternatives. As oppressive as Saddam Hussein‘s Iraqi regime genuinely was, it‘s not at all clear that merely disposing of this particular bad guy has liberated Iraqis from oppression. Saddam‘s rule was very much a result—and certainly not the principal cause—of Iraq‘s antiliberal culture and dysfunctional social institutions, not to mention earlier U.S. intervention. Foreign countries‘ political, economic, and social institutions are too complex and too deeply rooted in unique histories to be adequately grasped by American politicians and military leaders. Therefore American intervention—which is inevitably hamfisted—adds to this mix only confusion and turmoil. The two kinds of intervention situations aren‘t analogous in all details; differences exist. But these differences are small when compared to the similarities. ―Liberals‘‖ confidence that domestic markets can be improved by battalions of bureaucrats charged with keeping bad guys in line is surprisingly similar to conservatives‘ confidence that the welfare of foreigners can be improved by battalions of U.S. military troops charged with keeping bad guys in line.
Unprecedented, Insider’s View Features fascinating Revelations Of How Forces Within The White House Competed For The Heart And Soul Of The Reagan Presidency
visit www.freetochoose.net
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The Rant
Vancouver is Burning By Hank Leis
We are fed pablum soon after we are born and we like it so much that we insist on having it fed to us for the rest of our lives. Vancouver was burning and our Barbie doll premier and Vancouver‘s Ken doll mayor strolled through the devastation that was Vancouver, telling us that Vancouver had been invaded by no more than 30 masked aliens, who had attacked innocent Vancouverites, and coerced them into cheering in support or joining in with them in the melee. And we all said, ―yeah, yeah. Damn those aliens! Yeah Christie. Let‘s get those masked raiders who infiltrated the souls of our youngsters and damaged the reputation of what we boast is the best city in the world to live in.‖ And now that many of these innocent souls have been captured, we find them blubbering on TV, ―I don‘t know what got inside of me to perform such a heinous act—the aliens made me do it.‖ Even at the sophisticated Vancouver Board of Trade Seminar the next day some executives were heard muttering ―If the police hadn‘t over reacted it would not have happened.‖ The aliens we accuse of starting all this will soon have disappeared into fuck space, and will then be forgotten. And of course while all this was taking place, and some of our more valiant citizens went into action, defending stores and cars parked in these areas,
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exposing their own vulnerable bodies to mob rule, the police were busy changing into combat outfits. So while Vancouver burned, the Police Chief fiddled—waiting to act so he would not be blamed. For what? For over-reacting. Next of course, there will be investigations and committees with members with PhD‘s who will explain it all and then make profound recommendations. And the cost of implementing these recommendations will probably exceed the cost of the damage which we have definitely seen before. And Christie and her cohorts will continue to feed us the pablum that she is the proactive premier. We will sigh ―awwww‖, as our money gets spent on digging up dead dogs and figuring out why aliens would attack our fair city and influence our young. We in Vancouver should have the courage to define ourselves with honesty and clarity. That is that we are no different from those in the rest of the world and when given the chance, we are as self-destructive as everyone else. What lies beneath this is anger, hidden by a thin veneer of social niceness which masks who we truly are. We are not nice at all. When we are free to exhibit our darker side, we do so with alacrity. We are the barbarians at our own gates. But we do love our pablum. We like it in large doses—we don‘t want the truth—because we can‘t handle the truth.
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“Food that Inspires”
Zucchini Angel Hair Pasta and Marinara Sauce Photography by Dan Denis
Mountainview Wellness Centre hosted Raw food chefs, Cara Roth and Cheryl Gauld of Vancouver Natural Gourmets (VNG) for their VNG Chef 1 Certification Class on June 11, 2011. Participants enjoyed nine courses of delicious raw food and learned the benefits of including more raw foods into the diet with quick and easy preparation techniques and recipes. The event was a success and VNG is looking forward to teaching at Mountainview Wellness Centre again in the future and also having the opportunity to teach Vegan Sports Nutrition, Eating for Beauty, and Guiltless Raw Desserts. Here is a recipe from the workshop (ingredients can be found at Choices Markets):
Coconut Crème Pie Crust: 2.5 cups shredded, unsweetened coconut 1 cup medjool dates 1/2 tsp vanilla 1/8 tsp salt Filling: 3/4 cup young Thai coconut meat
1.75 cups young Thai coconut water Heaping 3/4 cups packed dates 1 tsp vanilla Pinch salt 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp coconut butter
Garnish: Seasonal berries and coconut flakes
1) For the crust: Process all ingredients until crust sticks together when pressed. If the crust is not holding together add dates, one at a time, until it is sticky enough. Press into the bottom of a 5” spring form pan. Roll the extras into balls and flatten with the palms of your hand to create macaroons. 2) For the filling: Place alt ingredients except coconut butter in a high speed blender and blend until smooth. Add the coconut butter and continue to blend until well incorporated. 3) Pour the filling over the crust, garnish with additional coconut flakes and berries and place in freezer to set for about 2 hours. For upcoming workshops or events visit www.vancouvernaturalgourments.com or www.mountainviewwellnesscentre.ca
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Horoscope Cancer (June 21—July 22)
Capricorn (December22-January 19)
Reality is an obscure concept. Better not to indulge your brain with deep thoughts when it is only made for shallow ones. Live in your land of illusions and don‘t trust anyone who tries to set you straight. Instead use your powers of persuasion to introduce them to make-believe.
Don‘t bother looking for advances in your career. It‘s highly unlikely you‘d do better. You stand a good chance of being demoted once they recognize the you for the dud that you are and they won‘t believe how you‘ve managed to fool them all this time. Just be satisfied you‘ve gotten this far in life.
Leo (July 23—August 22)
Aquarius (January 20—February 8)
The past is always there to haunt you. Your carnal needs, imaginary and actual, always kept in the hidden recesses of your mind, may be the only excitement you‘ll ever have. Keeping busy is what you believe keeps you sane, when it actually does the opposite. Keep looking for a savior. At least it gives you hope.
The unfortunate thing is that you‘re skillful and knowledgeable. Your problem is you can‘t think on your feet without an instruction manual. You can‘t even think with one. So stay at what you‘re doing best, repetition jobs that require you to move your fingers day in and day out. Learn to play the piano, but not too many pieces.
Virgo (August 23—September 22) When you think of change, what do you really mean? Change hardly ever occurs in isolated increments. Change of any kind boils over into change of every kind. That of course is no reason to remain the same. It only means that when you take the risk, you‘ll get much more than you‘ve bargained for, and all in a good way if you see it as such.
Libra (Sept 23—Oct 22) If someone is trying to get control of everything, let them. They‘ll have as much trouble doing what you couldn‘t do as you did. Their efforts will give you profound insight into what needs doing and you will emerge as the leader.
Scorpio (October 23—November 20)
Pisces (February 9—March 20) Someone will try to strongarm you. Resist, because you are too afraid to take on what they are offering you. You know you have your rights and one of them is to stay stupid. Sure anyone who puts the least amount of pressure on you.
Aries (March 21-April 19) Keep your secrets to yourself because if you don‘t they won‘t be secrets anymore. The more secrets you have the better. Share nothing because you know there is no one out there who is good enough to know what you know. Just smile knowingly each day as you watch the rabble around you living their confused life while you know how much you could help them, and won‘t.
Get into the league where you belong and stop associating with trolls. The thoughts you have need a receptive audience and the meatheads you associate with can barely tell the time of day let alone give you advice on what you don‘t even dare discuss with them. Give yourself a break. Break off with those who consumed your meaningless life. That means everyone you know.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Sagittarius (November 23-December 21)
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Try being lazy for a change. Do nothing. Just carry on your everyday life taking direction from every silly person who has advice to give you. Do so without complaint and with fierce gratitude. Let your life that is absent of vision or hope – just be that – instead of fighting it.
Someone is letting you know that they are in love with you. Be honest with yourself. You are unlovable so whoever it is making a play for you has another agenda in mind. Play along with the game until their true intentions are revealed to you. Your own healthy heart will detect that theirs is not.
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If you feel that love is on the rise, check your adrenal glands. Anything to do with love suggests that you are vulnerable and therefore sick. The feeling of love is the ultimate betrayer of your weak constitution. Nothing is ever right again when love takes hold. Only hate can recapture your true essence.
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