March | April 2017
Rock Star, Fighter, Yogi THE RANT
Politics . Art . Health . Economics . Entertainment
METANOIA EXECUTIVE AND STAFF
A NEW WAY OF THINKING
PUBLISHERS
SALME JOHANNES LEIS & ALLISON PATTON
COPY CHIEF
CALEB NG
Assistant copy chief
Jillian Currie
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS
JR LEIS AND HEINO LEIS
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING PHOTO ARCHIVIST
DAL FLEISCHER GALINA BOGATCH
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR
SUZETTE LAQUA
INTERVIEWER/PHOTOGRAPHER
BRITANY SNIDER
VIDEOGRAPHER
ATTILA KOVARCSIK
CONTRIBUTORS Gerald Auger Maureen Bader Alex Barberis Andy Belanger Hamish Blakely Donald J. Boudreaux Dr Tim Brown Andreas C Chrysafis Kamala Coughlan Brian Croft Miki Dawson Cheryl Gauld Len Giles Kulraj Gurm Carly Hilliard
Dr. Gordon Hogg Marilyn Hurst Dr Arthur Janov Randolph Jordan Richard King IV Peter and Maria Kingsley Mark Kingwell Rod LAmirand Suzette Laqua Marilyn Lawrie Hank Leis Salme Leis Chris MacClure Dunstan Massey Seth Meltzer
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
Thomas Mets Dr Caleb Ng Janice Oleandros Stefan Pabst Dr Allison Patton Luis Reyes Cara Roth Dr Bernard Schissel Pepe Serna Lisa Stocks Mohamed Taher Dr Jack Wadsworth Chris Walker Dan Walker Harvey White
METANOIA CONTENTS
A NEW WAY OF THINKING
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BIF NAKED VANCOUVER WEBFEST NOMINEES
BY BRITANY SNIDER AND DR CALEB NG
BALLERINAS OF CAIRO
BY MOHAMED TAHER
PROLOZONE FOR LOW BACK SPASMS
BY DR CALEB NG
JUNGIAN PHILOSOPHY
BY CHRIS WALKER
“IT’S THE GAS PIPELINES, STUPID!”
BY ANDREAS CHRYSAFIS
RANT
BY HANK LEIS
POLITICAL DEBATE AND CONFIRMATION BIAS
BY DR GORDON HOGG
DAN WALKER CHRONICLES
BY DAN WALKER
WHAT A RIDE
BY LEN GILES
CANADIAN EDUCATION
BY DR JACK WADSWORTH
MISSIVES
BY DONALD BOUDREAUX
Digital Edition Available
Access Metanoia anywhere instantly Subscribe at metanoiamagazine.com Or scan this QR code →
4 6 16 19 26 28 33 36 37 38 40 44 46
The human condition is that they want to be like everyone else, yet distinguishable from others. So we want to be the same and different, an interesting contradiction. We all want to escape the huge hell hole called normal. In this issue Dr. Caleb Ng and Britany Snider interview the talented and extraordinary Bif Naked. She is unique, and has thousands of followers who appreciate everything about her. Jungian Philosophy is about the duality of man. It is about exposing that mysterious side that rarely gets discussed, but still provides most of the magic in the world, where banal humans have on the whole become slaves to systems with survival as their defining object. Hank Leis interviews the enigmatic Jungian Psychologist, Chris Walker. It is really two friends sparring, based on the ability to thrust and parry in order to enhance the understanding and confusion of Jungian Psychology. Andreas Chrysafis from Cyprus discusses the pipeline issues in the region. As well as being a writer and novelist, he is also a talented artist. He lives an extraordinary life on an extraordinarily beautiful island. Mohamed Taher presents his story about the beautiful dancers from the Dance Company of Cairo with his amazing “on the street� photographs. Our annual report on the Vancouver Web Fest nominees is included in this edition. The RANT in this month’s issue, is more like a soulful plea for understanding, than the usual angry diatribes the writer is known for. His meanderings are of course made in segments over a three month recovery period from his heart attack. And there is more. Laugh, learn, weep and criticize!
Since the founding of Metanoia Magazine by three Naturopathic Doctors and the Leis family in 2008, we have produced over ninety issues. We have had over one thousand articles written, including interviews of over 100 actors, 100 artists, dozens of politicians, philosophers, psychologists, and experts in other fields. A majority of the writers have post-graduate degrees or have expertise or knowledge of a special nature.
Healthy Brain Amino Acid Therapy Treating Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia and Brain Fog
A talk by Dr. Caleb Ng
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017 7pm-8pm RSVP Today at 604-538-8837
Mountainview WELLNESS CENTRE 3566 King George Blvd
www.mountainviewwellnesscentre.ca
An Interview With
BIF NAKED
By Britany Snider and Dr. Caleb Ng
How did your memoir I, Bificus come about? Peter, my manager had basically badgered me into writing a book. I first thought it was extremely cheesy, I didn't want to write a book. I guess I kind of saw the appeal in it for people, as far as the public goes, your fan base, why a book may be intereresting for them. I mean, I didn't croak from cancer, I didn't croak from my heart surgery. Also, I wanted to honor my parents within the book. If I was forced to do something that was chronological, I really wanted to start with them. I thought that they are a huge part of who I am, and I could talk for hours about environment verses genetics, because I had the benefit of meeting my birth mom too. With my parents, I just know, with conviction, that I am so their daughter. I'm absolutely equal parts both of my parents, and their influence. I was able to talk about their life, and their missionary work, their work with the civil rights movement. My dad was in palliative care when I was finishing my manuscript, so I was able to interview him extensively, and to really get the facts straight about India, and how it came to be that they were there, and just some of the funny stories I had never heard before. He had a mango allergy, and suffered so much on their trans-Atlantic journey they took on the boat. It was so funny. It was just an amazing experience to be able to interview both of them, and gain a lot of insight into
their upbringings. That gave me a lot of clues into their personalities.
I want to go back to the late nineties, when you opened for The Cult, and other big headliners, playing for the Warped Tour, Lilith Fair, Edge Fest, and you were, one of the only female acts at these major music festivals. What was it like playing at the shows? Well, I think that I've always been a tomboy, just enough of a tomboy. I didn't have too many peers in my immediate circle, so it was a little isolating in many ways, but just because of my, I guess need to overcompensate, I found that worked to my advantage when it came to having to be in situations where it was really just all guys, all the time. Male crew, male promoters, male band members, males always, and always trying to overcompensate. Really, I didn't want to be hyper- sexualized, but that's a little bit impossible, just based on the world. You can't fight that. I think, as a result of my really careful ways, I think that I was able to kind of emerge from those early days a little more respected than I would have been if I was just putting in very little effort to really be careful about my own behaviors, be careful about what I said, and my behavior specifically towards my peers, and try to always shake hands with people, always greet people, always be direct. Never be shy, never be looking at my shoes, no matter how anxious I would be, and no matter what was thrown at me, as far as just, you know, what I called normal sexism, which just kind of exists in our society. It's much more evident in the entertainment business. Plus, the fashion of the day back then, the late nineties, there was Gwen Stephani, and all the other girls running around
in half tops. For us in punk rock, the shows are disgusting, they are sweaty, there's blood, snot, sweat. It's disgusting. So, wearing a half-top really was the look of the day anyway, and to try to balance that with not being totally hyper-sexualized, what could I do to control how that was perceived? I could ensure that I was very, very fit, and very much like one of the guys. I wanted to be very strong looking. I didn't want to be too curvy, I was very desperate to not be sexualized.
Was there a transition period into the straight edge, or did you make a decision one day, and realize, okay, I'm done. I remember discovering this wine called Rosemount Shiraz with my friend Lola. We didn't usually drink wine, we normally drank beer like every other self-respecting prairie girl, but we had gone out around the holidays, when we were 22 or 23, and decided to try some wine. We had felt very grown up, got very dressed up, and went to a nice restaurant, where we had two or three bottles of Rosemount Shiraz during dinner. I don't think we ate our dinner. Then, we went to a place where she worked, which was a peeler bar, and proceeded to have shooters with her coworkers. I had a phone interview that night, and it was some year end wrap up on a radio station. I had to call in from a pay phone. I called in, I was so drunk that I fell. I couldn't keep on the phone, and the cord was swinging, she was laughing so hard, we were laughing so hard, and they hung up on me, and I never touched alcohol again after that. I woke up in the morning, and said to myself, “I can't do my job and do this, so I'm done.� I think, looking back as a person in my twenties, people didn't understand that I just didn't want to drink alcohol. Either you had to be in rehab, and you know, be court-ordered,
7.
or you are a drug addict, or something else. There was no other way they could really understand why wouldn't you drink, without judging them, because they are having beer after the show. It was just a short while after that I met Gail Greenwood, best friend, and greatest mentor. I had never met a girl who was straight edge. She had never in her life had a cigarette, or a drink, or anything. For me, I thought that's an amazing way to be. I thought it was coolest thing I've ever heard, I aspired to be like her. She inspired me.
Do you think if you didn't make the decision to become straight edge, that your career would've progressed the way it did, being on tour all the time? I can't say. You know, I really can't say, but I know for sure that I probably would have found a lot of misadventure. I mean, I was lucky enough to already have my manager at that time. He was extremely strict. My father was a bit of an absentee parent, because his work always took him out of town, and my mother, who's so shy and softspoken was left with us three teenagers, so I didn't really have that discipline instilled in me, per se, by my parents. But then Peter was so extremely strict. He was a martial artist, and there was no gray area. You failed, or you didn't fail, and that was it. If it was a fail, you'd either do push-ups, or ... He was so militant, and I lived in fear of that.
Part of the straight edge philosophy I guess is also maintaining a positive mental attitude as well? Oh, sure. I think that that's something that I had anyway, from my parents.
How do you maintain that positive mental attitude?
It's the easiest thing anyone can do. I don't know. I don't know how people can’t be positive all the time. I had a guitar player before, and we made fun of him, because he complained every day about something, and became endearing, because now, we look at him like Archie Bunker, or something, or Grumpy Cat. I think that everyone ultimately has a happy heart. I think it's really natural for people to be positive, no matter what their circumstances are. We had met a man once on tour, a young man, who sat in the bar with the band, and no one knew that he had survived polio, and couldn't actually walk without the aid of these crutches. Because we were all seated, and we spent a couple hours with this table of Italian guys. It was in Frankfurt Germany, and he was the funniest guy at the table, laughing. He was such a positive, great guy. We had a wonderful time, we bonded. When he stood up, and walked out of the room, I am telling you, it was like
the biggest learning moment collectively for a table that I've ever been a part of, just watching it dawn on everyone that this person is the most positive, eloquent, funny, wonderful person at the table, and I think that it was life-changing. Very transformational for people to realize that their little complaints, and little habits of being negative are inconsequential, and stupid, and they should just let them go.
And now you're starting to get back into rock? We're making a new record right now, and we've been doing that for about six months. Soon, we're going to go to Toronto, to do more recording. Last two summers, all we were asked to do was rock festivals, so that's been incredible. I really didn't think I would really want to do that again. There was some part of me, I think, that felt like I should be exempt from having to run around and scream onstage. I think the first rock show I did after I came
through my cancer treatments, my last tour was 2007, and then I did chemo for a year. It was 2009 when “The Promise” came out, and we went on tour. Suddenly, things had changed, audience wise. The audience was still a huge audience, but they watched through their phone, and that drastically changed within that time frame. I felt so self-conscious anyway. My hair was short, you know, I looked different, I thought I looked lopsided. Then, to have the entire audience, literally all of them watching through their phones, I was done. I was thinking, this is so embarrassing, I just feel embarrassed, I just can't stand this, it's terrible. After that, I didn't want to perform anymore. So, we made an acoustic record, because I was asked to keep doing acoustic performances, and I did a lot of speaking for cancer agencies, and cancer organizations. It made sense, it was so immediate, it was a good fit for me. I started doing more public speaking. I thought, okay, this will be the direction of my life now. Then, they kept asking when I did speaking, if I could also play some songs, and so we made an acoustic record, and started touring acoustically.
Is your new album going to be acoustic, or is it rock? It's very loud. It's very rock. It's very, very, very heavy rock. It's just great. It's amazing. It's so much fun.
I saw you’re doing motivational speaking now. What are some
of your favorite things to talk about? Ultimately, I think that most people just want to know how to get through something. You know, life is hard for people, regardless of what they're going through, whether it's cancer, rehabilitation, whether they're just going through regular life, with marriage, whether they're going through a job change, change of life, whatever it is. People really want to know, what the tools that will help them are, or empower them to have a better experience at it, whatever it is.
What are some of those tools? Positivity.
You talk about so many, what people consider very traumatic situations that you've been in. Specifically, I just wanted to talk about, in the book, when you wrote about losing your virginity. I thought, when I was reading, that it's very powerful, because a lot of victims of rape, or sexual abuse actually don't come out and talk about it. I just wanted to know, is there a message to young girls reading it, or is there a message to your younger self, when you're reflecting back on something like that? And how have your experiences with your drug overdose, your battling cancer, things that could have had very bad outcomes, how do you bounce back from that? Well, I also think the era that a lot of these things occurred to me in is very different from today. For us, and I can include some of my peers in this, because it was a different era, for us in a small town in Manitoba, often, being gang banged is a common term. Which is not correct. When you think about it, it's against the law, but at the time, it was not against the law.
Really? I mean, was it really? Did anyone know that? Did anyone pursue that legally? Not
“The path to freedom and loving kindness is paved with affection for all people, and a determination to encourage and empower others and fill them with hope, happiness, and serenity.”
9.
at all. It was a rite of passage for that school system. Really, it was. The teachers would hear about it, they wouldn't say anything. The teachers would see the bullying from the students, but that wasn't anything you talked about, it just happened in grade eight, the grade nine girls are going to pick on you. If a grade nine girl goes to a high school party, the grade 12 boys are all going to get her in a room. Even if they're not having sexual intercourse with that girl, they're still going to assault that girl in some manner. That's against the law. Back in the eighties and seventies, was that against the law? Probably. Was it thought of the same way? No, it was not framed that way at all. Our culture is different. It's very different. Girls were forced to get through it, and to get through high school, somehow. Even though they have to carry this scarlet letter along with their books in the hall, you just got through it. You just had to soldier on. I think there's thousands of girls who are my age
that had to soldier on, and they're all now working, their kids are probably teenagers, and it never occurred to them that what happened was illegal, or traumatic. Many of the girls that I know my age did not take it on as a trauma, and I think that's something that's very different. Once it is suggested to them, hey, wait a minute, that's against the law, that's something that was against you, against your person, that was a trauma, one a lot of women that I know say, “I never thought about it like that.� Then, that brings up their whole last 20 years of what they found acceptable for themselves. That can be a huge thing for them to sit and contemplate. Suddenly contemplate, suddenly all these wounds come to the surface, it's amazing. How did they get through that, really? For me, I think that, because I have my peers, who also went through the same things, we can discuss it for hours and hours. I have a lot of friends who were sexually assaulted by strangers. Their experience is very different than being
sexually assaulted by a boyfriend. Mine is very different from girls that we know, who are survivors of incest. How do all of these very different experiences, all these traumas, how do they manifest? Our generation of women is so creative. Often, with the women I know anyway, it comes out in their writing. They became slam poets, writing moving, powerful pieces about their childhood. I think that it's isolating for a lot of women who aren't slam poets, or who don't have friends that they know of, that they talked with about it. My only hope is that in my sharing of this story, they can recognize themselves in it, and relate to it in some way. I did feel that I ran the risk in my biography, that because I didn't experience it as a trauma, I didn't write it as a trauma. Although it was unfortunate, and sad, the way it was written was just one of the stories that had nothing, really nothing at all almost, to do with some of my other stories, or the rest of my life. Did I replicate that trauma? I don't know. Did I replicate it in my first marriage that didn't work out? Definitely. Not because it was a trauma, because of that disillusionment that people get emotionally, and then they unwittingly replicate, and replicate, and replicate. Some women I think, or men, replicate their traumas in their relationships. I think, really, it is a different time today. If I would be a young person growing up today, I don't know that I would have survived the same way. Would it have been harder for me to be a positive person? I think so, to be honest with you. Part of it is the whole ignorance is bliss thing. The power of suggestion is so strong.
10.
I wonder, if I was a young person today, and I experienced the same thing, society would also jump on it, and share my experience with me. In a way, just like people are outed in our society, women aren't really allowed
to just suffer in silence in many ways. There is a pressure, a societal pressure for them to really rise up, and rally with the team, and some women aren't built that way. So I wonder. This morning, I was reading about the girl just around the corner, who was attacked in her home. I was reading and thinking, oh my God, I would die. I can't even imagine. Just think, now, you know, as a woman in my forties, there's no way I could survive anything like that, but you do. Just like chemotherapy. Girls say I couldn't do chemo. Yes you can, and you do, because when you're in it, you just soldier on. Yeah, it was just so interesting, and I'm so happy that I went through it, because now, just the work that I do with girls that I meet, I can speak of going through chemo myself, and I think that's so beneficial. I know so many women who experience cancer, and many of them choose not to do chemotherapy. They want all holistic medications. I know a guy right now who, with prostate cancer, went to Germany for some experimental treatment. God bless. I mean, there's no right or wrong way, and sometimes, it's hard to say. It seems like the cancer cells are just so hard to predict.We can't know sometimes, in each person, what treatment is going to work for them. I think it's fascinating, I love it, I could talk about it forever, and ever, and ever. I never get tired of it. I never get tired of meeting people, and hearing what they're doing, listen to what they are experiencing as side effects. I know a girl who was given tamoxifen, which a lot of, probably 100 girls I know on tamoxifen, all have the same complaints about. Are those complaints not the same complaints that could be happening because they're suddenly in menopause? How do you differentiate? As a patient, you can't really say what's from what. It's so interesting. It's just very fascinating. I love it. I wish I could be a surrogate for girls who
“I start each day calm, quiet, and with peace in my heart. The deliberate work is to hold this feeling all day, no matter what happens.” don't want to do chemo. If there is a way to do it, I could do it. Yeah, it's easy for me, because also, having done it once I know I can get through it and plus, I get out of work. Only vacation I ever had was in chemo.
How have you been able to keep that sense of caring, that sensitivity? I don't know. I think everybody naturally has that. I don't think that it's a unique quality at all. I think everyone has that quality in them. It's just a matter of people being busy. It's easier to just walk by panhandlers for
example, rather than talk to them or give them food. Many people aren't panhandling. The panhandlers are at the intersections now, because they are desperate, they have to be. They have to do something that's going to be effective, and it is more effective. But do I keep money in my car? No, I have my debit card half the time. So what do I do? I started bringing water bottles with me in the summer, and handing out water bottles. And then again, my husband says, “You can't spend all your money on water bottles.” But it's just little things like this, how can we not? I mean, it's natural for people.
11.
You can learn different things, and I think that traumas like that manifest in other areas of our life, and we don't realize it. For me, I think that I always chose badly in my relationships. Basically, I think that for people who jump into relationships, or for me anyway, it was a relief. You're actually relieved that someone is interested in you after your break up with an individual. If somebody is verbally abusive, you think, well, they're not hitting me, so that's okay. I mean, that's literally the way people think. We will justify things, and I'm a great justifier of things.
that we can move on with our day, because we're busy. We have to put it over there, because we're too busy. I think, for many years, I just kept myself busy.
It took me until I was forty two to say no, and I'm still trying to learn it. I'm still failing at standing up for myself, because the easy way is to do things the other’s way. I don't think that's just women, even though it tends to be women who seem to always relent more. I don't think that's because it's a patriarchal society, or a patriarchal relationship, I just think that, instinctively, maybe it's our primary role model, maybe we saw our mothers do that, but maybe it is also easier. It's easier for us to lie on our backs, and get it over with.
a relationship. You know, when one partner is vindictive, and I see this a lot, we read about it in the papers, I just think, “How can adults behave that way?”
I remember that the thing used to be to make grocery lists in your head. The thought was that we should just be waiting for the act to end, we're not going to enjoy it anyway, it's something we have to get through. That was my mother's generation, and the generation before. We still do it, you know, yet we're going to shame girls who are enjoying it, or shame girls who are working, who are sex workers. I mean, there's just, there is a million hypocrisies surrounding how we compartmentalize things in our mind. Also, we are a very judgmental society. We judge ourselves, and our behaviors. Our coping techniques, we know when we are coping with something, or when we've done something that we have to deal with. We don't want to, we admonish ourselves for it. We have our negative self talk, so
When I went through my divorce, after cancer, that was traumatic. That was more traumatic than anything else that I've been through, and that was because, I think that I was mature enough to realize the injustices. I couldn't get past it, and I felt like I harbored this, it was real anger, and I was just so frusterated. Partly, it's for disappointment, and dissolution, all the things that go with dissolving of
I know people who are so deliberately hurtful to their partner, utilizing negative talk abut their partner to their children, and it's just remarkable. You think, “How do you ever get to a place where you can look at that partner, who is so fucked up, that they are behaving like that, how do you get to a place where you can look at them, and hold them in compassion? How?” You can. It's hard, and it takes work every day to do it, to reverse your self talk. I mean, it took me so long to get over my last marriage, I didn't date anyone for five years, and I felt done, I was good. I had good girlfriends, I had a sick dog, I had a busy career, I didn't care. I was done. I've done it all in life. I was like, I'm good. It's never going to happen anyway, it's not a big deal. The day I met Snake, it was like the sky opened up. I can't explain it, but I was just, everything fell away, but not until my dog passed away, and not until I had let go of all of that past just hurt, and ... Just thinking of him doing well made me upset. It was unjust, there's no justice in that. How dare that person be dishonest, they lie, they do all these things?
It consumed me, and I thought, “One day it's not going to consume me.” It happens every time. When you go through something where someone has been unjust, whether it's a plumber, or whatever, you're harboring, there is a day that will come some day for people, when you wake up, and it's gone. Literally, and it's just like that. So, the practice of trying to hold that person in compassion is very hard, but it's a deliberation that works. I found, for me, think “poor baby” always works. That was from my manager's wife's mom, who's Tehrani. She fled Iran with her children, You know, during the revolution. She's an amazing artist, and she’s seen so much in her life. Whenever she sees someone suffering, she always says that, “poor baby,” and I thought, that's exactly how I need to always think. It became a habit for me, to just, even to myself, to say those words. It totally changed everything. I mean, I didn't run around harboring all the injustice from the driver that cut me off, but it was particularly difficult not to from my last divorce. It was very hard for me to walk away, and feel like I was light as a feather. I felt badly for a long time, that took a lot of work.
After that, do you think you look at relationships differently, now that you're very much married now, and happy, compared to your relationships in the past, 20 years ago? Well, I think it's also, I can speak for my husband too, he's also been married before, and he and I were really on parallel paths, which is so funny, because our backgrounds are so different. He was also in a relationship where an individual was very much living a double life. Just the deceit, you know, it makes it hard to not be embittered about it. Men and women kind of take on those very bad circumstances very differently. I also feel, and you might feel this too, that we hold the negative emotions in the body, almost on a cellular level. Whether it's depression, or rage, feeling enraged for a long period of time about something, it’s a weight. For me, I just thought, I can't live like this. I mean, always in anticipation of something negative happening again. You have to really just have to move on. It's very freeing to let it go, and I think that, looking back on my relationships before my current one, I think that I was still harboring all the things from what came, even before them.
13.
So, these layers that people have like onions, I don't even think I realized it really before. Until you're in a healthy relationship, where you really deliberately try and have good communication skills with your partner, it's glaringly obvious when you look back at your old relationships, and it is for him too. I've never been in a healthy relationship, so I didn't know what it looked like. That's another problem, people can't envision how a couple can communicate. It's like not even normal. How's that possible? But for whatever reason, with this partner, he and I both feel like we finally got it right. And, we laugh every night. I fall asleep holding hands with him every day. I don't know why. It's the weirdest thing.
What inspires you to live the life that you lead? Oh gosh, so many. I have so many inspirations. People inspire me every day. From the stranger that I meet at the bus stop, to, I don't know, to my mom, just everybody inspires me. There's something inspirational about everybody's story. Mostly our parents. You know, I think this
is an aging population, and they are so many seniors who are abandoned by their adult children. They are isolated, and they don't have anyone to converse with half the time, and their stories are so interesting. They inspire me. I know people who have lived countless lives in one lifetime. I just think they're so inspiring.
Besides your record, what's next for you? Are you going to write more? I would love to. I think that I would like to do a book that's really targeted towards cancer patients. I don't yet know what it looks like, but just I think that the way that I think that I like to write is very funny. In reality, for sure, but to always have a positive spin on things, so I think that I would like to do a specific book. Besides that, we're totally immersed in the new record, and touring it for the summer.
In your crop top. Exactly. Maybe a miniskirt, but yeah, it's really inspiring.
Tired of Hair Loss?
t t h o e g s e o v l ’ u e t io n W
Hair Rejuvenation with Concentrated Growth Factors (CGF) Call today to book this restorative treatment 604.538.8837
Beauty From Within Mountainview WELLNESS CENTRE
3566 King George Blvd www.mountainviewwellnesscentre.ca
VWF would like to thank all of the outstanding submissions from around the world. This year we received submissions from 27 countries. The content was remarkable, and we sincerely enjoyed every submission. However, coming down to the final list of Official Selections seems to become more difficult every year. After an incredibly difficult selection process, the Vancouver Web Fest 2017 Official Selections are:
GENRE NOMINEES ANA - Buenos Aires, Argentina BRUTAL – Puteaux, France Divine Shadow – Burien, United States Surf Therapy - France TO BELIEVE OR NOT – Buenos Aires, Argentina
All About the Britos - Brazil BERTRAND – Paris, France Craigslist Therapist - Valley Village, United States Dropping the Soap – North Hollywood, United States Fools For Hire– Vancouver, Canada Mimosas with #Millie – California, United States Single and Dating in Vancouver – Vancouver, Canada Sublets – New York , United States The Room Actors: Where Are They Now? – Los Angeles, United States This Is That – Vancouver, Canada
JLT's The Other Love Story – London, United Kingdom Mom and Me (and everyone online) – Vancouver, Canada Nasty Habits - Los Angeles, United States SCOUT – Brisbane, Australia Starting From Now – Sydney, Australia Teenagers – Mississauga, Canada That's My DJ - Toronto, Canada
JourneyQuest – Seattle, United States Mina Murray's Journal – London, United Kingdom The Spell Tutor – Toronto, Canada The Wizards of Aus – Collingwood, Australia
CUMBIA NENA - Buenos Aires, Argentina Roo-ining Christmas – Hawthorne, United States The Plateaus – Toronto, Canada
Late Bloomer - Pacific Palisades, United States Untourage – Eindhoven, Netherlands Verde Noir – Washington, United States
Hidden - Ustica, Italy Kill Skills – Magenta, France Madame Hollywood – France ONYROS - Carmignano di Brenta, Italy
Meet the Ladybugs – North Bergen, United States Life Sucks! But at least I've got elbows – Tallinn, Estonia THE ADVENTURES OF BROKEN HEART - Buenos Aires, Argentina
INVANCITY – Vancouver, Canada No Strings Attached – Australia Seasonal Life - Maisonnette, Canada The Forgotten Salmon – Ontario, Canada Theater So Good – Rome, Italy
Fluffy Marky – Quebec, Canada Growing Up Guide Pup – Hayward, United States Stay At Home Mom – Calabasas, United States
Discocalypse - Germany Don't Do It - United States Ghost Cam – Viterbo, Italy Or So the Story Goes - United States
Gold Mountain – San Francisco, United States Petrol – Mississauga, Canada Tea Time – Lyon, France TELEGRAPH COVE – Vancouver, Canada Thornbrook - Kingston, United States
Conversations from the Afterlife – Maplewood, United States JULIE – Paris, France Soldiers of Earth – Vancouver, Canada The League of S.T.E.A.M. - United States The Partitioned - United States
CATEGORY NOMINEES BERTRAND - Bertrand Usclat – Paris, France Craigslist Therapist - Dean Cates - Valley Village, United States Dropping the Soap – Paul Witten - North Hollywood, United States Fluffy Marky - Étienne Galloy – Quebec, Canada JULIE - Sébastien Robert – Paris, France ONYROS – Diego De Francesco - Carmignano di Brenta, Italy Petrol - Kane Mahon – Mississauga, Canada SCOUT – Tony Nixon - Brisbane, Australia Soldiers of Earth – Richard Meen – Vancouver, Canada The Wizards of Aus – Michael Shanks - Collingwood, Australia
Dropping the Soap – Jane Lynch - North Hollywood, United States Fluffy Marky – Marguerite Bouchard - Quebec, Canada JULIE – Marion Plantier - Paris, France Madame Hollywood - Dre Davis - France Mimosas with #Millie - Kristi Lauren – California, United States Nasty Habits - Hope Lauren – Los Angeles, United States Starting From Now – Rosie Lourde – Sydney, Australia Tea Time - Pascale Rousseau – Lyon, France TELEGRAPH COVE – Savonna Spracklin - Vancouver, Canada The Spell Tutor - Lawrene Denkers – Toronto, Ontario
Dropping the Soap - Ellie Kanner – North Hollywood, United States Fluffy Marky - Benoit Lach – Quebec, Canada JULIE – Camille Chastrusse - Paris, France SCOUT - Tom Francis - Brisbane, Australia TELEGRAPH COVE - Darren Borrowman – Vancouver, Canada That's My DJ - D. W. Waterson - Toronto, Canada This Is That - Christopher Kelly - Vancouver, Canada The Wizards of Aus – Michael Shanks - Collingwood, Australia
BERTRAND – Paris, France Conversations from the Afterlife - Maplewood, United States Tea Time – Lyon, France The Forgotten Salmon - Canada This Is That – Vancouver, Canada
CUMBIA NENA - Buenos Aires, Argentina Fools For Hire – Vancouver, Canada INVANCITY – Vancouver, Canada SCOUT – Brisbane, Australia Soldiers of Earth – Vancouver, Canada Starting From Now – Sydney, Australia Tea Time – Lyon, France Thornbrook – Kingston, United States The Wizards of Aus – Collingwood, Australia
INVANCITY - Vancouver, Canada Kill Skills - France Seasonal Life – Maisonnette, Canada TELEGRAPH COVE – Vancouver, Canada That's My DJ - Toronto, Canada Thornbrook – Kingston, United States The Wizards of Aus – Collingwood, Australia
Discocalypse – Germany ONYROS – Carmignano di Brenta, Italy Soldiers of Earth – Vancouver, Canada TELEGRAPH COVE – Vancouver, Canada
INVANCITY – Vancouver, Canada Starting From Now – Sydney, Australia Tea Time – Lyon, France TELEGRAPH COVE – Vancouver, Canada The Wizards of Aus – Brisbane, Australia
INVANCITY – Vancouver, Canada Tea Time – Lyon, France TELEGRAPH COVE – Vancouver, Canada This Is That – Vancouver, Canada The Wizards of Aus – Collingwood, Australia
17.
WilliamAinscough.com
ToddTalbot.ca Love or List It Vancouver TV
Viv Leacock
nicoleoliver.com
Jaimecallica.com
Alisonwandzura.com Van Helsing
A Highlight of Clients Represented by The Promotion People
thepromotionpeople.ca
DANCE Ballerina: Mireille Azer Photo by: Mahamed Taher (@mohamedtaher) Ballerina: Meray Iskander (@merayiskander) . Photo by: Mahamed Taher (@mohamedtaher). Ballerina: Passant Ahmed (@passant.abobasha) Photo by: @mida_fathy Ballerina: Roshan Hisham (@roshanhesham) Photo by: Mahamed Taher (@mohamedtaher) Ballerina: Yasmine Shahir ( @yasmineshahir) Photo by: Mahamed Taher (@ mohamedtaher) Ballerina: Passant Ahmed (@passant.abobasha) Photo by: @mida_fathy Dancers: Cast of CentreStage: On Point
Mireille Azer
19.
Cast of CentreStage On Point Meray Iskander
The Ballerinas of Cairo “The main aim of the project is to see the city we live in from different perspective. Adding a ballerina in the city still makes a contrast between the roughness of Cairo and the smoothness of ballerinas. However, the project has different layers (which we added later) and one of them is showing new places of the city and giving a glimpse of happiness to the community.
Roshan Hisham
We were afraid at the beginning but that was only from my side as the ballerinas were really courageous to do the shoots, they pushed me to shoot in busy areas and at busy time of the day. People’s reaction was really amazing, I'm personally was amazed how pleased they were to see ballerinas in their tutus dancing in the streets. Sometimes they took pictures with the ballerinas, and sometimes I asked to have the onlookers to be in pictures with them as part of the storytelling. As for the ballerinas, they added another layer for the project which is women empowerment. They were so bold to shoot whenever I wanted to, wherever I asked them and they felt free as they took the streets as if it was their stage.�
Yasmine Shahir
-Mohamed Taher, Ballerinas of Cairo Passant Ahmed
21.
THE Ballerinas OF CAIRO
@Ballerinas of Cairo
Meray Iskander
HAMISH
BLAKELY
Contemporary Realist
 "I am steadfast in believing that Art is at its best when simply emotional. You see something and you are moved."
www.hamishblakely.com
The Dancers of CentreStage: On Point
25.
Prolozone For Lower Back Spasms By Dr. Caleb Ng
In my 15 years of practicing as a naturopathic physician, I have yet to come across a therapy as effective as prolozone for lower back spasms. Often I see patients who have debilitating back spasms caused by lifting heavy loads, some sort of repetitive strain injury or simply just twisting and lifting at just the right angle (or wrong angle, depending on how you see it). There are a few reasons why lower back strains can be considerably persistent injuries. The first is that any type of muscle strain involves torn muscle fibres which will signal pain resulting in the remaining and surrounding muscle fibres to activate in a compensatory contraction. Although, this “guarding” occurs to prevent further injury to the area, it also leads to further lactic acid production which contributes to more discomfort and further contraction creating a feedback loop of muscle spasm and pain.
you are reclined or lying down, is used just about every waking hour. Prolozone utilizes the healing power of ozone, which can be thought of as highly energized oxygen, as well as medicalgrade oxygen as well. A freezing solution of a short-acting local anesthetic is first injected along with an anti-inflammatory as well as specific vitamins and minerals that are useful to repair cells. This is followed by ozone and oxygen. The anesthetic and antiinflammatory agent can immediately relax a spasmed muscle and allow more blood flow to the area resulting in immediate pain-relief and the ozone stimulates local repair and the oxygen allows repair cells to do their job.
As one patient put it after a treatment, “Last time my back went out I was in so much pain I went to the Emergency Room and waited four hours to get a Secondly, the resulting muscle muscle relaxant that didn’t do spasm leads to reduced blood flow anything. When I got prolozone resulting in less vital repair cells it worked right away! From now and nutrients accessing the area on, if my back goes out this is and a compromise of essential where I’m coming.” detoxification of the accumulating Prolozone is a safe and effective lactic acid. treatment for immediate relief
26.
Anatomically, the muscles of the of lower back spasms. If you or lower back are not only there for someone you know find yourself allowing us to pick things up from in this condition give us a call. the ground, but instead are there Mountainview Wellness Centre for structural support and allowing 604.538.8837 an upright posture which, unless
When the sky is no longer your limit
cirrusav.com • 24/7 Private Jet Charter • 702.472.9714
Jungian Philosophy Chris Walker, M.A, Canadian Certified Counsellor Available Thursdays At Mountainview Wellness Centre
Interview by Hank Leis
H.L. You are the third generation of your family into Jungian psychology. Could you, without writing a book on the subject, explain why it is so fascinating and how it is used to help patients? C.W. I suppose that aside from fascinating, it is a way of looking at ourselves from the inside out. In a sense, it is a way of perceiving our inner world in a very metaphysical way. In this model, we take the “abstraction” of our inner selves and apply a highly humanistic lens to it. A perfect way to express this is through fairy tales. The fairy tale is a myth, which is in many respects not much different from our personal myth. The Jungian perspective examines the myth as a psychological reality. Which when we really look closely has a certain ring of truth about it. In fairy tales, there is often a shadow element, an evil sorcerer, witch or monster, we would be hard put to deny that we all carry some of this type of shadow. The same is true of the hero, the mystic, the joker, etc. It is these
28.
elements within a personal framework that the Jungian model is based. The crux of working in the Jungian model is to work with the unconscious form of our myth in the form of dreams. It is as though we take the substance and relationships of our daily lives, run it through the unconscious and voila the output is dreaming, which is the unadulterated synthesis of our psyche. However, since the unconscious human mind is not based on Newtonian logic, the developed western mind tends to dismiss the irrationality of the dream and associated symbols. To dismiss this element of ourselves is to be at the mercy of those internal elements. As a therapist, I may utilize this modality to help the client become more conscious of those internal elements so that they may become a part of personal growth rather than destruction.
H.L. You and I have had numerous in depth discussions about Jungian psychology and these discussions, I think for “normal” people would seem bizarre. But we seem to take comfort in it. Why is that? Why does it seem the only “normal” way to go?
C.W. It’s an interesting notion “normal” what the heck is normal. We are all unique. As a millwork buddy once said, “everyone’s normal till you get to know them.” As for the idea of C.G. Jung’s approach to psychology being bizarre, you bet. It’s as bizarre as the totality of our human condition, which is why it’s an ideal fit with most people. I love this psychological model because it is one that we as a species have been developing over many thousands of years. People may not like this model, but it certainly holds the full spectrum of the good the bad and the ugly of our humanity. I mean really, how many people like rooting around in their own psyche knowing it is full of crap, knickknacks and gems. Most can stand the good stuff but both the ugly or wounded elements are not pleasant to poke around in. As for why you and I find comfort in this approach, I suppose you and I like discussing and delving into this material because we are a little like sewer rats, highly adaptable to the nasty and or uncomfortable side of the inner world. Another possible reason we might be open to this type of discussion, is that we have both have had near death experiences. I would suggest that if you have come very close to death, you are changed, and that fears of the irrational become less problematic. This is just a best guess. A quote that really speaks to me with respect to my appreciation of the human condition comes from C.S. Lewis in his book “Prince Caspian”. In it he speaks of our human lineage, “...you come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve, ... and that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.”
H.L. When you do counseling well, often the process is energy draining. Can you describe the process and how it affects you? C.W. I must admit that not all counselling is draining. It really is a person by person issue. I generally find that I have a greater burden, which can be draining, when the client shares their potentially destructive or wounded elements. To understand this “transference” it is important to recognize that in every relationship that we have with other living things, both are changed. It is simply not possible to do otherwise, for better or for worse. One might then ask why I am not stark raving mad after years of this work. The answer is that I am forced to operate consciously in the greater part of my life and be aware of all the warning bells and whistles that go off in my psyche when I am functionally affected. And then work on my inner elements that have been affected.
H.L. Most people seem to feel the need for help in handling the 'usual' problems of every day life. Yet it is the overview and the under-view
that free you from what seems to be frustration of coping. Could you discuss that? C.W. You’ve asked how the overview and the under view of life can help in dealing with usual problems of everyday life. Usual, what is that, usual for whom? This question alone is highly subjective. If you mean whether or not to take out the garbage, I don’t know that probing the overview or under view of anything helps much. However, if you mean relationally usual problems then what I believe you are speaking to is an absence is a presence or absence of consciousness. And yes, I believe our perspective is very important in handling the usual problems of living. This begs the question, what is consciousness. The short answer is that it is a deliberate awareness of relationships. The more relationships we are aware of, the more choice we have in how we would like to interact in them. This means not only the exterior relationships socially, familially, occupationally, physically etc., but also the internal relationships to conscious and unconscious values, beliefs, and spirituality in whatever forms they may take. For many people the unconscious is completely unknown let alone having the ability to relate to it. This lack of awareness is what often leads people to make the same mistakes and suffer the same issues throughout their lives. In many ways, it’s like walking through life blind and not knowing you’re blind. In my own progression in life and to this day I also find I have many inner and outer blind spots. It’s not that we can eliminate the blind spots but that we acknowledge our blindness and through awareness or consciousness and try to become a little less so. This limited awareness is the nature of the human condition. I feel that it’s not all about clearly seeing, but the attempt to see, the process, the striving that sets us free. It is inevitable that we eventually run into discomfort, pain and or suffering in our lives call them problems if you will. To the degree of the individual’s nature, the more aware we are, we may be better able to accept our own humanity. I would be lying if I said that being more aware eliminates life’s problems but as C.G. Jung stated, it is the pain and suffering that exposes our blindness and encourages us to open our eyes both literally and figuratively and thereby promote personal growth. I’ll be honest with you; this type of question gets me going six ways from Sunday.
H.L. Please amplify on your "six ways from Sunday" comment. C.W. You have asked me to elaborate on why this type of question is so complicated for me. I suppose it is strongly related to the “chasing the sheep” principle. The paradox is this; if you try to chase a herd of sheep directly, head on, the sheep know you’re up to something and so
29.
they scatter. To chase sheep effectively, you must come at them from the tangential, whistling in a nonchalant way, thinking and behaving in a way which indicates that you are doing anything but chasing sheep. Are you with me so far? As you move closer to the sheep, the sheep have changed their position relative to you, indeed they may begin to move away from the original spot. Thus, do we chase sheep, likewise our blindness. Working on our blindness is an experiential journey in which we are both the observer and the subject of an experiment. This concept is a foundational principle in quantum mechanics, and described as “the blind watchmaker” by Rupert Sheldrake in his book Morphogenesis. The only way we know we are blind is though experiential discomfort. If we try to eliminate that discomfort directly, we have an illusion that we can see clearly, but the sheep are on the move. If I’ve lost you, great, that makes two of us. Ultimately, I believe it is not about solving a specific problem any more than you could define yourself as a problem, rather, it is about the experiencing the fullness of every part of living that you are capable of and pondering and embracing the discomfort as well as the joy so that we can move our herd to richer pastures. In short, it is the process of chasing the sheep that is so important not that you get them to go where you want, you can’t, only sheepdogs can do that. As you can see, the trouble with being a farmer as well as a clinical counsellor is that the metaphors become quite enmeshed and separating the sheep from the unconscious ether is a hell of a challenge. Good luck.
unconscious patterned programming so that they don’t have to keep running so blindly into the walls in the walk of life.
H.L. What are the signs from people who you have helped that indicate to you that they are on their way to recovery? Do you know specifically or generally how you have helped in this process? C.W. Signs of recovery vary from person to person. For most people, there is a sense of relief. For some it has been expressed as “carrying the heaviest weight you are capable of, carrying it for months or years and then finally dropping the load.” It can be a bit like banging your head against a brick wall, it feels good when you stop. Conversely the process may be slower and less dramatic, but the overall benefit is that the client may be able to function better in their life. As a generality, this work of psychotherapy is directed at improving the client’s relationships across all aspects of life, which is often the key to living a more meaningful life.
H.L. How do you help people to get unstuck from the obsessions that unglue them?
My part in a client’s mental health is very clear, both specifically and generally, I act as a catalyst for growth if the client chooses to move in that direction. On a quantum level, it is a case of entanglement. I am open to change and therefore I inherently transfer this state to others. As in any relationship, I am also affected by the client’s state of being and am burdened with that energy. If the client does not want to change, then my job is over and they have chosen a different path. Truly I can’t know anyone’s path but my own, but I can often help those negotiate the difficult pieces of theirs.
C.W. As for getting people unstuck from their obsession or other issue of the psyche, I believe the work is primarily about bringing people to a conscious state of themselves. By this I mean both the inner world of the psyche, emotions, and thoughts and the outer world of our behaviours. This working toward consciousness and clarity is essential. In short who are you and what are you built out of in a psychic sense. Once we become somewhat more aware of our patterns we then have an ability to choose a direction. Do we want to follow the habitual default psyche programming within us, some do, some don’t? If a person’s psyche programming is destructive, it will very likely cause emotional pain to the owner of that pattern and to others around them. If they choose to ignore the pattern it will very likely figuratively kick them in the teeth at some point down the road. If they choose to work with the program, which is really a relationship to the self, it is possible to avoid or reduce running into some of those painful emotional walls in life. In some cases, we can not avoid suffering in which case we may learn to suffer more graciously. My job is to help people work with their
Successful living, I believe is a highly subjective and intensely personal issue. Not only that, but I would also say that within one’s life, an individual may change their views dramatically on their perception of success. I have met people in developing countries in which success is simply having a roof over their head, and food on the plate. Clearly the option of not having these at least the second of these two elemental necessities is death. In western countries, I have met people who have a million-dollar house, a stable job all the basic necessities and feel that they are not yet entirely successful. There are also those who have felt highly unsuccessful, had a severe trauma or near death experience, and found their perceptions shift immediately to that of immense peace and satisfaction. In short, our perception is our reality. My own belief is that if we are living a “meaningful life” to whatever standard we set, we are apt to have a successful life. If you find meaning in lots of money and you make lots of it. I would suggest you would deem yourself successful. The key is to be very conscious of your own internal state of being. Generally speaking, the psyche tends not to lie. In this example, if you make lots of money, but feel as if your life is hollow and meaningless, then your reality is that money is not the end all be all. I think it’s
30.
important to separate your internal values from the values of the collective society. The phrase that best encapsulates this issue is, “Know thyself.” If you really know yourself, and follow those values that are intrinsically yours, then I would surmise that you would feel that you are living a successful life. This would also be true within the dynamic process of living, so that as you experience life and are changed by those experiences, you would observe changes in your concepts of success.
H.L. Since “money" is a conceptual illusion, but on the whole perceived as a thing or an achievement, how does a psychologist who often believes the same help reframe this mindset for the patient? Is this belief system, that money is tangible, not the neurosis of our times that compounds the difficulty of making sense or coherence out of life? C.W. Hopefully, the psychologist or therapist doesn’t bring his agenda into the ring, although we all do to some degree. If he or she does, one hopes that the therapist is aware of it and doesn’t foist it onto the client. As with the earlier question pertaining to being drained as a counsellor, it is a given that both the therapist and the client change in an exchange. This work is really about experiencing a client’s issues through discussion and trying to get a sense of their world, their limitations, their values, beliefs etc. From this, we play with ideas and perceptions, much like walking into the house of mirrors at the fair. We know there is going to be distortion of reality, both the therapists, and the client’s, the trick is to find the right lens that illuminates the client’s unconscious blindness so that they can move through life with less pain or at least be able to tolerate the discomfort of personal growth. As Poseidon told Odysseus at the commencement of his journey, “YOU WILL SUFFER.” And yes by golly he was right. I suppose you could say money is a neurosis of our time, but I would choose to reframe this as, “we have lost our relational meaning to our numinous life.” It appears that in our loss of personal spiritual meaning, we have transferred this need to the abstraction of money. The underlying values of being seem to have been submerged in this superficial abstraction, which most of the world is chasing with a vengeance. The counterpoint is that “Sure, money’s not everything, but it sucks if you don’t have enough to keep you alive.” We, as the construct between the quantum or energy states and the Newtonian solid world are faced with the balance of values. We need both, as exemplified by the Hopi First Nations this in the symbiosis of man’s need for the intervention of the god for rain etc. and the gods needs for man to produce the sustenance for both man and themselves. Indeed, these people always leave a
little food on the plate for their gods. In the western system, there seems to have been a loss of the vital relationship to that which is spiritual and the interdependence of the two. This loss on our part generates a profound meaninglessness for our existence. In the void of this state, we try desperately to fill it with things that money ca n afford us. The underlying value of money seems to have been forgotten in the collective sense. In my practice, I often utilize the ideas of values across the spectrum of the human condition with the hope that the client may find or renew a deeper relationship with the numinous nature of man.
H.L. The relatively new findings in the neurosciences suggests that our minds and bodies are hard wired for primitive survival purposes and that this hardwiring is becoming less relevant in what we are learning and understanding about ourselves and even our sense of our consciousness. Microorganisms determine the feelings of love, our destinies, and that in fact “we” do not make choices, our consciousness is an illusory belief based on the functions of a biological feedback loop and that when "things go bad" it is merely a malfunction of circuitry (i.e. nothing personal because there is no person). Please discuss. C.W. Good question: I’ll be quite pragmatic about this one, Yes, we have a body, yes in many ways it is primitive, relevant or not. We don’t have a choice about relevance or not, no body, no mind. As for microorganisms, sure, they are a part of us, not separate from us. We are a composite symbiont of flesh, blood, microorganisms, and electrochemical charge, sure, these are the components of what we are but not the totality. We need microorganisms, they need us. This again speaks of the relationship between parts of the whole in the Hopi world. We need the spirit; the spirit needs us. CS Lewis offered in one of his books when the character Eustace speaks with an old man. Who reveals that he is a star. Eustace: “In our world, a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” Ramandu: “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of…” This is not just semantics, it is more about a state of being rather than a components list. For myself, and in the counselling profession. I am primarily
31.
concerned with what a person is as a relational being. It appears that neuroscience would suggest that we achieve a higher consciousness without having to work through our primitiveness. This is just plain laziness, lets let science find a way to become more conscious without lifting a finger. Makes my blood boil just thinking about it. As for attaining a higher consciousness, if you want a higher consciousness, just wait a little in cosmic terms and your wish will be granted, death comes to us all sooner or later. Why rush it?
that the whole is greater than the parts. Science loves to take us apart and work on all the little pieces, the difficulty is that we are not just pieces, we are fundamentally built of relationships, and for me, it is the relational part of the equation that provides us with our humanity. It is this piece that in general western man has neglected both inside and out.
As philosophies go we tend to be lumpers or splitters, the Western or “modern science” tends to be a splitter. Take a look at the breakdown of the atom into particles. However, as Gandalf replied to Saruman in his transformed cloak of many colors in the Lord of the Rings trilogy:
the totality of who and what we are. You want to be a simplified microorganism, sit and watch the shopping channel all day and you will have achieved this. To become something more than a slug you must want or be forced to be more than being a slug. Not that slugs are inferior in any way as a species, but for a human to take on the attributes of a slug tends to lower the bar for our potential. The human species is full of people who have and are working at achieving more consciousness in their living. Poets, mystics, religious leaders, shamans, etc. These people did not attain their depth of understanding by taking a pill. They experience life in ways that caused growth.
Saruman: “White!” he sneered. “It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.” Gandalf: “In which case it is no longer white,” said I. “And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.” As a philosopher, counsellor, and lumper, I do not mind looking at the parts of a system and indeed it has provided us a very beautiful look into this world, but from a spiritual sense I believe
Chris Walker, M.A, Canadian Certified Counsellor Available Thursdays At Mountainview Wellness Centre
The idea that we don’t make choices and that this is just a biological feedback loop is true if we don’t become aware of
I would also like to clarify the “things go bad” idea. “Bad” to whom and in what circumstance? How would we ever learn if things didn’t go “bad”? One driving reason we grow in our consciousness is when thing go “bad.” I have faced enough hardship both physically, cognitively, emotionally and spiritually to see that I could not have become who I am today without it, and believe you me, I would not change one iota of my life looking back. “Bad” things in life tend to be the opportunities to grow outside your old shell. I pretty much guarantee that at the time of the “bad thing” in life you wonder what you did to deserve such a hammering, but if you can look beyond the bitterness, anger and fear, it is likely that you will have been transformed. To be human is to suffer and I don’t know anyone who would choose to do so, but we will suffer at some time in our lives. Part of my work is to develop ways to help myself and others find the ability to do it graciously.
Interview By Hank Leis, author of The Leadership Phenomenon: A Multidimensional Model
“IT’S THE GAS PIPELINES, STUPID!” Revolution of the Mind Series
By Andreas C Chrysafis
January 4, 2017 Glorious cities once full of life are now razed to the ground crumbled and desolate. They remain as a reminder of the atrocities of wars by extremist groups and religious fanatics, but also by failed governments meddling as masters of conflict and deceit. The dehumanizing living conditions of millions of civilians in Syria and Iraq confirm the carnage of the five-year war, maiming, enslavement and human trafficking in the hands of madmen. Over seven million children were affected with thousands massacred as war-victims or “collateral damage” as the US likes to name them. While the rest of the world watches the mayhem on their televisions screens, the plight of the innocent simply confirms that it is “out of sight out of mind!” Like in the Ukraine, the conflict in those two countries has never been a conflict of civil war but the result of international players positioning themselves on a geopolitical chessboard
in the fight over gas and oil, fuelling the world’s bloodiest conflict. The scenario becomes clearer once the chess players are placed in their boxes for their next line of attack in a deadly game of dominance. Governments protecting their geopolitical interests in conflict regions, such as in the Ukraine, Syria and Iraq but also in Yemen have to accept a share of blame for those atrocities. Their aim has always been the same; the one that controls the flow of oil and gas, controls the rest! There is no other logical explanation to justify the obliteration of Syria and Iraq other than to say: “It’s the gas pipelines, stupid!” Putting the scenario in its right perspective one has to see the wider chessboard and not to fall victim to propaganda by spin-doctors of the mass media demonizing heads of states as in the case of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President. His only crime has been to defend his country from take over by enemies from within and from abroad. Any other country would have done the
same; just like the UK did declaring war against Argentina to defend its god-forsaken Falklands islands! But wars today are not only about politics and territorial gain! It’s much more than that! It’s about energy. Without it everything grinds to a stop! Hungry for fuel advanced nations will do anything to protect their interests. In its desperate attempt to secure alternative suppliers of energy, the EU and western powers have set out to break ranks from relying on Russian fuel, even if it means applying clandestine methods. The EU/US did so with the Ukraine and have shamefully destabilized that country and in the process, triggered an ugly civil war. The country is now partitioned and serves their interests well! The other major player on the chessboard is Turkey. A wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing, Turkey is ready to pounce on anyone that threatens its advantage
33.
at the game. A secular state, Turkey however shows sign that it may be the next country in the region to face the ravages of social instability and a break up. But in the complex game of energy Turkey has become a hub of pipelines crisscrossing its territories and benefits greatly from transit fees and other energy-generated revenues. She does not want to lose her strategic position at any cost and would lash out at anyone that poses a threat; even if imaginary! As the war for oil continues, super powers and terrorist radical groups are vying for a regime change and territorial control. At the throats of one another those players in Syria are inching forward in a game of deceit and brutality that has reached labyrinthenian proportions. But it’s not over yet; the cherries on the cake are two massive pipelines! They both serve opposing strategic interests: (a) The proposed Iran-Iraq-Syria Pipeline running from Iran’s South Pars gas fields cuts through Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to reach the Syrian coast and supply European customers directly from Syria’s terminals. It bypasses Turkey altogether! This route has the support and protection of Russia, who also has a naval military base at Syria’s Tartus; (b) The proposed Qatar-Turkey Pipeline starts at Iranian-Qatari gas fields and cuts across Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria towards Turkey to connect with the Nabucco pipeline in Turkey to supply the Turkish and European markets. The EU and the USA prefer and support this route but to everyone’s dismay, President Assad refuses to allow the pipeline to pass through Syrian territory to Turkey. Under that scenario, it has become critical to remove Assad and replace him with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood as a new “friendly” government. Meanwhile, w e s t e r n powers provide m i l i t a r y support to w a r r i n g
34.
factions, while the media continues to demonize Assad – just like they did with Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi! The results of those failed policies are in plain view for everyone to see and decide. The failed Qatar-Turkey Pipeline bidder Qatar, in collusion with the Saudis and Turkey, put in action a plan to destroy Assad through military might. It is believed they have funded anti-Assad rebel groups with a more than 3 billion dollar fund that gave birth to ISIS and other radical groups. With limitless financial backing, the various terrorist factions have set out to destroy Syria by killing millions so savagely the world has never seen before but especially public beheadings of prisoners. With the help of Russia and Iran, Assad did not capitulate but resisted the onslaught in defence of his country! Among the ashes of chaos, a tiny minnow has surfaced in the region to add to the complexity of that chaos. That is the island of Cyprus! The Republic of Cyprus has been blessed with massive hydrocarbon reserves and the discovery has wetted the appetite of those same global protagonists. Like a hound that has sniffed the scent of its prey, they have also turned their eyes on Cyprus and planned their next line of attack; they are calling for a solution to be signed in 2017 before they would seriously consider investing on the island! This is a strategic blackmailing tactic that has influenced the current government to play ball. But, the discovery of gas has also triggered Turkey to openly provoke Cyprus militarily claiming that Ankara is entitled to a large share of the discovery and using the Turkish Cypriot community to justify those bully demands. The energy chess game in the Eastern Mediterranean has changed the entire geological spectrum in the region. It not only involves Cyprus’ Aphrodite gas field but also Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan gas fields, as well as Egypt’s Zohr gas field. Rich in hydrocarbon the region is believed to be the world’s
largest offshore gas finds of the past decade. The three agreed to cooperate on transporting the gas on establishing an Israel-Cyprus-Egypt Pipeline for the European markets. However, before that can happen the Cyprus issue has to be resolved; hence the urgency to resolve the issue this year. The scheduled talks in Geneva on January 11th would probably see a new parthenogenesis and replace the Republic of Cyprus with a New EU-Cyprus. If successful, it would suffice and put everyone’s mind at rest. The IMF/EU Troika would move in big time this time to provide billions upon billions of poisoned loans for the reunification costs, reconstruction and gas exploitation. The interest on those IMF/Troika loans would certainly cripple the economy and devour a massive portion of any future gas revenues and one has to decide, if this is a blessing or a curse? Everyone is gambling that Greek Cypriots would vote in favour of the dissolution of their country! If the fragmentation of Cyprus succeeds, it would be done not through war (like in Syria and Iraq) but with the sharp point of a pen to sign the death of the Republic by dirty fingers in white gloves to hide the stains.
Andreas C Chrysafis was born at Ayios Ambrosios, Kerynia, Cyprus. He studied and lived in the UK and Vancouver, Canada for most of his life where he practiced his profession as an architectural designer. He is a prolific writer of books, press articles including the Vanishing Cyprus Series and the Revolution of the Mind Series both published worldwide. Today, he lives between London and Cyprus devoting most of his time writing and painting works of art. info@evandia.com www.facebook.com/ACChrysafisAuthor www.facebook.com/ACChrysafisArtGallery/
Girl In Red
Moonlight
Artwork by Andreas C Chrysafis Pomegranate Picking
Tobacco
Red Poppies
Mystic Muses
Aphrodite Urania
Donkeys
Lips on Black (Triptych)
Rant Rant
THE END
I don’t know if anyone’s memory goes back to the beginning. Mine does. I can remember the haziness in the beginnings of my life. Everything appeared as a kind of puzzle, even the sense of being puzzled. It was as if I were gazing from the outside into a vague undefined space, trying to figure it all out but not even knowing that I was. I was floating, moving from one scene to another, memorizing the experience even though there was nothing to relate it to except the previous disconnected scene.
Later, sadly things started to make sense, when they shouldn’t have. There started to be a continuity, but I did not know that I was merely filling in the blank spots with illusions I myself created. I kept them until they blanketed whatever reality there might have otherwise been, in order to be part of the social contract, which I had signed onto with alacrity. I knew nothing else then and as I think about it, know little beyond that now. But after more than seven decades of life, I am back to the beginning. For years the illusory fog of what had become reality is slowly dissipating. It is a strange phenomenon, the proximity to where I started, is a constant feeling. They tell me the feeling of death approaching is terrifying. But I see it as the illusion fading into what was there before; nothing. And nothing is the empty space left when you no longer exist. I fade in and out, trying to hang onto that sense of just
being. The thought of not existing in the next moment is surreal, but now so is everything. They tell me that I have had more near death experiences than an expired cat that once had nine lives. That is the kind of life I have lead. Each time going to that edge, recovering has taken its toll physically. I am tired, lacking ambition, bored and a little scared that I will never have any sense of purpose again. I am in a state of torpor. Mentally, I seem to be almost in the right place, but escaping what I so willingly once regrettably bought into has downsides as well. One is simply not wanting to share the experience with anyone. It is a place where I am alone submerged in this, what seems to be, the latest perhaps last, catastrophe. Now that I have little or no skin in the game, I find the future easier to predict. I get that conversations are really not everyday happenstances. They are constant affirmations of who we are; and who we are is imbedded in how we talk; with our jealousies, sarcasms, impossibilities, hopes, dreams and deemed priorities that compete with our future, our virtues that nullify our successes, and our fears and hatreds that like a thermostat, set the limits on what is possible and what is not. Our futures are carved in stone, as was and is mine.
If there is anything to take away from the recent U.S. Presidential elections, it is that both candidates in the race could take the abuse and verbal assaults they handed out to each other. Most of us haven’t the fortitude to handle the slightest slight. That is why we don’t want success of any kind. We can’t
handle the pressure of family life, let alone anything that requires just a little bit more. Yet we covet those who can and do. We accept that our destiny was confirmed long ago by the repeated admonishments by scared friends and frightened family members. And we have repeated them to those who have followed. The beat goes on. Inevitability, is a difficult concept to swallow. The past is all we ever contend with. The present and the future are all illusions created by the sequential meanderings of the mind as it formulates possible courses of action to safeguard itself. There is a duality in what the mind conceives and what actions it directs to ensure success. They rarely if ever coincide and sometimes the disparity between the two is significantly dissimilar. The brain is dysfunctional and intent on undermining itself. Disappointment and failure are bizarrely, the reward; success morally repugnant. The thermostat shuts down when the loss of love is inversely proportional to the reward of success. It is more clear now, but sharing this idea has no value. Knowing it changes nothing. All are hard wired, for either determinism or free-will; mostly the illusion of free-will.
By Hank Leis, author of The Leadership Phenomenon: A Multidimensional Model
POLITICAL DEBATE AND CONFIRMATION BIAS By Dr. Gordon Hogg, MLA, PhD
It seems that our phrases and our rhetoric often ignore the facts and thus push potential agreement further away. Aldous Huxley said that facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored. I suspect that we don't as much ignore them as interpret them in ways that will bolster our pre-established beliefs. "It is an undeniable fact ..." "The truth is..." and "The evidence shows..." are three of the more popular preface phrases that we have used in this House to support our positions and our arguments. They're intended to help us to win a debate, to help uncover an elusive truth.
DISCOVER
•
EXPERIENCE
•
Andrew Coyne stated that it just "doesn't matter what you say or write, or how many times you say or write it; the screen of prior assumption is impermeable." That screen may be our way of protecting our beliefs from attack. We use confirmation bias as a shield to ensure that we can hold onto and protect what we want to believe.
PARTICIPATE
Isaac Asimov believed that there is a cult of ignorance winding its way through political life, "nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."' Imagine that: "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." It seems that with increased politicization of debate, there comes increased public cynicism. Perhaps that's why polling has shown that four out of five Canadians believe that when politicians make public statements, they tell the truth less than fifty percent of the time. Of course, it is an undeniable fact that polling does not apply to us, thank goodness.
SAVE
the DATE!!!!
Having good times with great people!
MARCH 17-19, 2017 at
PERFORMANCE WORKS Granville Island
1218 Cartwright St.
n
Vancouver, BC
...A few of the people and companies participating in VWF2017!
RETURNING TO GRANVILLE ISLAND IN VANCOUVER
MARCH 17-19,2017 CANADA’S PREMIER INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL MEDIA FESTIVAL
va n c ouv e rw e bfe s t. c om
METANOIA MAGAZINE
DISCOVER
•
EXPERIENCE
•
PARTICIPATE
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GO TO:
www.vancouverwebfest.com @VanWebFest VancouverWebFest VanWebFest Printing courtesy of Metanoia Magazine and metanoiamagazine.com
The Dan Walker Chronicles Beijing & Back
Bamboo Garden Hotel
The 1,145 km (712 mi) flight from Qiqihar to Beijing arrived ahead of schedule. Friend Lifeng Liu met us and took us to the beautiful Bamboo Garden Hotel, located in the old section of the city. The hotel grounds were the estate of an important minister of the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th and early 20th century. Once settled we walked through the old section to the lake that stretches through Beijing to the Imperial Palace. Here the road is lined with expensive residences and a number of restaurants. Lunch was Middle Eastern food with a Chinese twist. The old city is not like the ones in the south - it is a largely residential area in the old style, with each doorway opening onto six or so small residences crammed together. It is a protected area where no
high rise buildings are permitted. Later in the afternoon we took a taxi to the embassy district, where I had read there was a lively bar street and a village for shopping. In Beijing it is not possible to call a taxi, only to flag them down on the street, a process that took half an hour. The village is a collection of tall buildings with outlets from every top designer known. It is a place to spend thousands of dollars on dresses and hundreds per pair of shoes. The bar street was a letdown - the map showed a pedestrian street but it was actually half a dozen seedy looking bars on a traffic clogged street facing the upscale shopping district. We had a beer and retreated to the hotel for a few more. The hotel bar is handily located at the foot of the stairs to our room.
Dan Walker is an adventurer, a businessman, and raconteur. He has visited every country in the world. His trusty Rolls Royce has taken him across many continents. He includes his grandchildren in some of his travels allowing them to select the destination. Originally, he hails from Victoria, British Columbia, but now resides in Costa Rica. We are pleased to present the Dan Walker Chronicles.
Sparkling Hill Resort is the premier wellness resort spa destination in North America. Oering 149 luxury rooms and penthouses, 40,000 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art wellness facilities at KurSpa, and a breathtaking setting on Lake Okanagan, Sparkling Hill Resort oers a range of amenities and services that is unprecedented in North America. www.sparklinghill.com Okanagan BC 1-877-275-1556
and was a very thorough officer who demanded only the best performance from his subordinates. He was, as they say, straight-laced, went by the book and was a disciplinarian. Some said he was miserable, yet as far as I was concerned he managed his resources with tact and skill. I learned from him and respected his experience and authority. His example set the stage–– to a degree––for my professional demeanour for the rest of my career and in life for that matter. I have long since lost track of him and it would be nice to have thanked him.
What A Ride A book by Len Giles
Continued from previous issue
PART III
First Detachment Princeton was an excellent first detachment. It is a small town, 180 miles east of Vancouver on number 3 highway. Len Brown was the Corporal in charge of seven men stationed there; four were on town and district detail, while three were assigned to highway patrol duties. There were
40.
two highway patrol cars, with their distinctive white doors, and one detachment car. To begin my career on a detachment in the RCMP, the Corporal could not have been a better mentor. His brown serge uniform displayed an impressive array of medals indicating he had served in the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War. On leaving the military, he became a member of the British Columbia Provincial Police before that Force was amalgamated into the RCMP in the early 1950’s. He presented a commanding image, reflective of his years in the military
In Princeton I learned the basics of small community policing and the requirements of detachment management. Each day was a learning experience and I soon found I very much enjoyed the duties as one never knew what was around the next corner. Social life in Princeton was limited, so I would often stay on duty well into the next shift. I had no complaint about long hours; after all, our commitment to the Force was on a 24-7 basis and time off was a privilege not a right. My day off was either Monday or Tuesday, never on a week-end, as we usually needed the added resources then. Princeton exposed me to the reality of tragic events which are normally unseen by the public and only reported in the local newspaper. Local television was non-existent. In fact, television was in its infancy in Princeton with only one channel––CBC––broadcasting from 5 to 9 each evening. Reception was extremely poor, presenting a challenge akin to trying to see movement in a snow storm. Therefore, the local community only became aware of tragic events through word of mouth, the newspaper, or through the unfortunate circumstances of direct or indirect involvement. From a policing perspective, physically coping with those events was short lived whereas the mental and emotional imprint could remain for a lifetime. In the winter of 1960-61, I attended my first fatal accident. It occurred approximately 30 miles west of Princeton on the Hope-Princeton Highway on a clear, dark and cold winter night. The roads were treacherous. Roy LeBlond, a senior
Constable and I were on town detail that night and were called to assist with the recovery efforts. As we proceeded west to the scene we discussed how I might deal with my first fatality. He advised me not to associate a dead body with a living person. He told me the spark of life was gone and what remained was only the vehicle in which that living being had resided. I thought talking was one thing but reality was another and I still felt somewhat uneasy about what I was about to experience. The scene of the accident was a downward right-hand curve. The victim’s vehicle, proceeding west, entered the corner too fast and due to the extreme icy conditions could not make the corner. The car slid across the oncoming lane, ploughed through a three-foot snow bank and rolled down a 45-degree slope coming to rest against a large Douglas fir tree approximately 300 feet down from the road bed. Even through there was about two feet of snow covering the slope, the vehicle had sufficient momentum to go that far down, throwing some of the occupants out of the vehicle as it went. Getting down to the vehicle in the deep snow–– in the dark––was nothing compared to what we found. Seat belts were not required by law then, nor were they commonplace and all of the passengers had been brutally battered as the car rolled down the embankment. Two were in the car and two were thrown out; one of which was found another thirty feet beyond where the vehicle came to rest. It appeared death was not immediate; two had lived long enough for large bruises to form on their face and head. They succumbed to the freezing cold. We learned later the family of four had been travelling from Penticton to Vancouver to attend a wedding. Sadly, that happy occasion was to be upstaged by this horrible event where the parents and two young daughters–– aged between 10 and 14––were lost. Recovering the two young girls was particularly heart wrenching as they were at an age where they were just beginning to experience the joy of life. They were not given the opportunity to raise a family, contribute to the community, or perhaps become
outstanding citizens. It was a battle to get the bodies back up to the roadway. Even though ropes were tied to the basket stretcher for those at the road to pull, it took four of us to lift the stretchers out of the deep snow. At times, there appeared to be only about two feet of snow however, a slip off a large rock could mean a drop into snow waist deep, or more. It was an emotional and physically difficult night for all of us, including the Princeton firemen, ambulance crew and the tow truck operator. As for my reaction to what I saw I found I did not have time to let it settle in. I had work to do and concentrated on that. Nevertheless, a feeling of sorrow was constantly present. Even though it was a very cold night we were all soaked from perspiration and physically exhausted by the time all four bodies were recovered. As the summer of 1961 arrived, the Hope-Princeton Highway #3 east of town became very busy with holiday traffic. The highway followed the Similkimeen River which provided many camp grounds and swimming holes where tourists would stop to enjoy the coolness in the shade, in or near the water. This combination provided the catalyst for another tragic event in August which devastated one family who had stopped at one of those campgrounds. The family found a good spot relatively close to the river and had set up camp for an enjoyable stay. They brought toys for their four year old son, who, in their last recollection of him was happily playing with a miniature tea set. In his mind, tea required water and as it was relatively close at hand, he decided to go to the edge of the river to get some. When we arrived, despite an extensive search by fellow campers, the boy was nowhere to be found. Ominously, the tea pot from the set was missing. After speaking with the parents and others, we speculated that if the child went to the river’s edge, when he reached in with the empty tea pot, the strong current would grab the pot as it filled pull the boy––off balance––forward and into the water. This would have happened in a mere second or two as the current was very
strong. He would have been swept into the deeper water and quickly down stream. The parents were distraught and were being cared for by others in the camp site. At the same time, many others were continuing to comb the site in the hopes the boy had just wandered off. A long convoy of Canadian Army Reservists had passed through earlier in the day and we knew they were bivouacked beside the river several miles down stream. Each summer, convoys transited through the area en route from the Lower Mainland to their summer training camp in Vernon, B.C. Their assistance could be invaluable and our highway patrol car attracted many inquisitive looks from the military personnel as we approached what appeared to be the camp command centre. After explaining the circumstances and stating our belief the boy was in the water, the Officer Commanding offered his immediate cooperation. He ordered troops to be placed on the nearby bridge to scan the river and for foot patrols be made on both sides of the river until night fall. Personnel were in place by 4 in the afternoon. Despite these efforts, by dark nothing was found. We thanked the military and returned to advise the parents. They remained in a state of shock and it was difficult to give them news which diminished their hopes to—essentially––zero. We had taken all appropriate information needed to ensure we could contact them and, with our sincere condolences, left them in the care of fellow campers. Family members who resided near Penticton, B.C., under two hours drive away, had been notified and were en route. Twenty-eight days later, we received a call that a child’s body had been found eight miles down stream from the campsite where the boy was believed to have fallen in. Again, I paired up with Roy LeBlond and prepared to retrieve the body. As we left town, Roy stopped at a store and bought two cigars. With my quizzical look, he explained why we would be glad to have them. The farmer who called had a small wooden boat
41.
available for us to cross the river. It was just big enough for two. The river flowed swiftly through that area and we calculated by using the flow to reach our desired arrival point on the far side a 45-degree angle crossing would do it. A rope tied to the boat and doled out from our departure point assisted greatly to stabilize the boat and made our return journey possible. The decaying body lay partly-buried in sand, sheltered by rocks, in shallow backwater. Before approaching the body, we lit our cigars and commenced the extrication of the small, unrecognizable child from the mud and sand. The gruesome remains of the human form remained still encased in the blue overalls he was reported to have been wearing. Maggots filled the body cavity as they fulfilled their role in nature’s cycle. Our only recourse was to roll the remains in heavy plastic for the journey to the mortuary which started with the return river crossing. There was hardly room for the two of us let alone our dreadful package which was laid in the middle of the boat. We made the crossing safely, with water lapping over the gunnels and large clouds of cigar smoke swirling around our heads. Roy’s experience—again–– proved to be invaluable. On arrival at the Princeton mortuary, George Gurr, the local Coroner, advised the only recourse was to place the package––as it was––in the freezer. He looked after everything from there, while Roy and I each went home, trying to erase the images from our memory. Over 48 years later, the scenes of that day, of a four-year-old, have not left me. I wish they would. Princeton Detachment was, for me, a training detachment and was destined to fulfill that role. The experiences I was to gain were diverse. Unfortunately, most involved death in one form or another; although some events did reside on the lighter side, both in life and in death. In one case, the lighter side of death was solely due the nature of the character involve d. Generally, the only
42.
name, we at the detachment knew him by, was “Singing Jimmy.” He was a small man, likely in his late 70s or early 80s and was a hermit who lived under the Tulameen Bridge at the end of Main Street. In the winter months, the Princeton Brewery let Jimmy sleep behind the furnaces in the back of their production facility. He was known––with affection––in town as a harmless character who seemed completely content in his own world. He had a sparkle in his eye which told of a mischievous mind that, although dimming with age, was nevertheless alive. He was often seen carrying on joyful conversations with himself. He laughed at his own jokes and liked to play jokes on others. Jimmy was a ventriloquist. He could throw his voice and he loved to play games with the unsuspecting who would turn around expecting to answer to someone’s call or comment, only to find no one there. Jimmy, with a playful grin, would be hidden in a doorway a short distance away.
we entered, there was Jimmy, sitting as described, in a kitchen chair up against the wall by the door, looking like he had fallen asleep. As usual, he was wearing “grubby” clothes and likely had not shaved for about five days. He looked peaceful as he sat there with his eyes closed and mouth––void of teeth or dentures––wide-open. He was dead; so we brought in the stretcher, wrapped Jimmy in a blanket and placed him in the back of the station wagon for the journey back to Princeton. On the way back, we realized this was Jimmy’s last long ride down the old Tulameen to Princeton trail, albeit it was not a stagecoach but in one of those modern new things called a station wagon. It was truly Jimmy’s last ride for we heard no voice being thrown at us from the back, nor was Jimmy chuckling as he played one last joke. Or––unknown to us––maybe he did.
From the stories told about Jimmy, it appears in the early 1900’s he was the stage coach driver between Tulameen and Princeton. In those days, Tulameen was a gold rush town about 15 miles northwest of Princeton which, even in 1961, was reached by a narrow, winding gravel road hanging on the side of the mountains. Jimmy also played the guitar and was a wellknown entertainer in the area in his early years. Not much else was known about him although he did have a few friends who had lived in the area almost as long. One night, we received a call from one of those friends in Tulameen who said he thought Jimmy might be dead. He reported Jimmy was sitting in a kitchen chair and had not spoken to him all evening; he added, “That’s not like Jimmy.”
Leonard N. Giles joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1960. When the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was proclaimed in 1984, he crossed over after twenty years in counter-espionage. In his career, Giles had assignments in the United States, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, India, Macau and the Philippines, retiring in 1991.
From questions posed to the caller, Roy concluded Jimmy was dead. Therefore, we contacted the Coroner who requested we use his station wagon to pick Jimmy up and bring him to the mortuary. He offered his station wagon for us to do so. Again, Roy was my mentor. We arrived in Tulameen at about 9 in the evening and located the cabin where we were to find Jimmy. As
To be continued in the next issue of Metanoia
Leonard Giles
A freak accident and the discovery of a Codex, takes our young protagonists Nikolas and Christina on a subterranean and intergalactic adventure. They are thrown into a world of bizarre encounters with ethereal entities, parallel dimensions, bellowing chasms, albino fish and a strange black pyramid. Assisted by angelic life forms they reach the heavens where souls are first born. There, they witness the infinite Porphyra at the Gates of Egress alongside the shores of the Forgetful River. Things however, are not what they seem to be, and their journey home takes a strange twist. Porphyra is a wonderful novel full of surprises that generate fundamental questions which have plagued the human mind forever it seems; a most stimulating novel!
The Institute is pleased to publish this exploratory approach to the analysis of Canadian educational policy. Mr. Wadsworth brings to his subject the point of view of an observer outside the organized structure of education. From this vantage point he examines policy in education from three distinct but overlapping viewpoints, which he describes as the rational, the pragmatic, and the research approaches. Such an analysis is of particular consequence today. Education costs have reached the point where the taxpaying public is questioning the entire educational structure, and at the same time, many within the structure have expressed profound discontent. The need for fresh analyses of our schools and school systems is paramount. Mr. Wadsworth’s study is being published in order that his ideas and recommendations may receive attention. R. W. B. Jackson, Director. The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Toronto, June 1971
Continued from previous issue Arrow and Capron, in their analysis of the scientist-engineer shortage in the United States of a decade or so ago, contended that it was being remedied by ordinary market forces and therefore required no overt planning solution. In their view, while the relative rigidity of supply in the short run was unpleasant (from the buyers’ standpoint), and the price rise required to restore the market to equilibrium may have seemed to be great, it was only by permitting the market to react to the rising demand that it could allocate engineer-scientists in the short run and call forth the desired increase in supply in the longer run.
44.
The functioning of the watchdog lobbying group
has been extensively discussed by Lindblom. Although Lindblom’s postulated mechanism of mutual adjustment is very convincing, its existence has only been documented in the budgetary process by Wildavsky. The evidence for its existence within the educational system is unfortunately anecdotal. Perhaps the overwhelming advantage of the do-nothing approach to education is that, in the face of our existing lack of knowledge, it adds no further intractabilities or uncertainties. Its disadvantages, of course, are associated with its utter complacency - it allows no opportunity for adding to our knowledge of the educational process; the future is completely
unanticipated, and likely to take us by surprise; and no early advantage can be taken of innovations of possible value to the educational process. Preserve The Status Quo The approach of preserving the status quo implies a descriptive-forecasting function of the demand for education. It accepts that there are two sources of demand - the consumers of education (the so-called social demand, which creates the demand for places), and the consumers of the educational product (the need for educated personnel within the work force, which is described as manpower forecasting). It should be stressed that these approaches to forecasting the demand within the educational system, which is
the profusely documented area of educational planning, are completely passive and in no way question the objectives or the effects of education. Furthermore, although educational planning is well documented, its actual practice is still limited within the educational system. In the light of the analysis with in this note, justification of the preservationof-the-status-quo approach and its concern only with demand derives from the implied objective of education, which is the satisfaction of the demand for a consumer good supported by public subsidy. Unfortunately, estimates of the social demand for places (a form of demographic accounting that can range from simple trend extrapolation up to complicated paediometric modeling) usually produce projections for demand that are impossible to satisfy. Such scaremongering projections may be typified by forecasts that point out that by the year 2000, the entire gross national product of Canada will have to be devoted to education. This tendency for the social demand for education to be impossible of satisfaction has been corroborated by Skorov. The manpower approach to forecasting demand for the product of the educational system has been ably described by Harman. Essentially, in principle, the attempt is made by extrapolation of current economic trends to derive estimates of the required educational outputs to satisfy the extrapolated required qualified personnel in the labor force. Naturally, the ease and accuracy of the forecasting depends upon the many uncertain assumptions, the degree of disaggregation employed, and the complexity of the model. The advantage of the status-quo approach, with its concomitant descriptive forecasting, is that it provides some potential for removing the surprises of the future. While the disadvantage of forecasting the social demand for education is simply that it tends to point out that this demand can never be satisfied, the disadvantages of forecasting the demand for the educated product (the manpower approach) are
many. Among the more important ones are: •
Because of the incredible complexity of the educational system, forecasting the demand for the educational product with the required degree of disaggregation is exceedingly difficult.
•
There is no assured way of translating the forecasted demand for the educational product into the supply of the educational product, since we live in a socalled free democratic society where coercion of the taught product is unsavory.
Make Assumptions Regarding The Macro Effects Of Education The predilection for associating the level of educational spending with economic growth and size of gross national product produces the most common assumption of the macro effects of education - that is, the level of education is directly the cause of economic growth and magnitude of GNP per capita. Since analogy and comparison are powerful tools for analysis, the habitual course is to search for some nation whose GNP per capita we wish to attain and simply emulate its level and type of educational system. Although it is merely a form of internationally keeping up with the Joneses, this international method of comparison is widely documented and has been widely employed, from considerations of size of defense budget to level of spending in research and development, etc. The Economic Council of Canada has widely preached that the educational gap between the United States and Canada should be
closed so that we may attain their rate of economic growth and their level of GNP per capita. It must be realized that the international method of comparison can only speak in generalities and macro effects, and therefore cannot disaggregate to any extent since means of comparison then rapidly disappear. The international method of comparison is essentially the chartists’ approach to the stock market (as compared with the security analysts’ approach). The justification for the international method of comparison is essentially the security it provides, since one is not forced into the uncertain position of being the pioneer. Harbison and Myers are responsible for an international-comparison approach to education; they assume there are stages of educational growth, roughly comparable to Rostow’s stages of economic growth, through which all countries must pass as their incomes grow. In their book, they have succeeded in ranking seventy-five countries with the aid of a weighted enrollment index that turned out to be highly correlated with GNP per head. However, their work has been severely criticized by Bowman and Sen. Sen’s criticisms are particularly severe, as he accuses Harbison and Myers of confusing the stock of human resources, which alone can influence current GNP, with the flow of human resources through the educational system, which can best affect GNP in the future. It would therefore appear, pushing Sen’s criticism to the ultimate, that Harbison and Myers have not established that education produces a rich country, but have rather provided significant justification for the view that only a rich country can afford education. To be continued in the next issue of Metanoia
Left: The late Dr. Jack Wadsworth Centre: Julie Yap Wadsworth with daughter, Jackie Wadsworth Right: Hank Leis and daughter of the late Jack Wadsworth, Jackie Wadsworth Jackie Wadsworth was born on Jack Wadsworth’s birthday, 70 days after Jack Wadsworth’s passing.
MISSIVES FROM DONALD J BOUDREAUX The surprisingly banal paving of the road to serfdom. Don http://www.cafehayek.com ...................................... 8 January 2017 Mr. Vince Vogel You allege that in this blog post* I “falter.” You say that your parents taught you that “anyone that works hard and lawfully gets to enjoy middle class prosperity” and that “it’s a duty of government to help guarantee this [outcome].” With respect, my parents taught me differently. They taught me that, while anyone who works hard and lawfully improves his or her prospects of enjoying middle-class prosperity, no one is guaranteed any such outcome and, further, that the only agent responsible for my well-being is me and not the state or anyone else. I then learned additional lessons from economics. One such lesson is that hard work is not self-justifying. Suppose that for years I work 24/7/365 to learn how to sing every Elton John song backwards. And suppose that at the end of my labors I’m unable to earn a living by selling the fruits of my hard-earned skill. Am I entitled to have government force you and others to support me simply because I worked hard and lawfully? I, for one, think not.
46.
Another lesson that I learned f r o m economics is revealed in this
next thought experiment. Suppose that you’re given a choice between two careers. In career one you’re guaranteed never to lose your job. But your real annual income will never be higher than $1,000. In career two, in contrast, you have no such guarantee as you have in career one, yet the annual income that you can reasonably expect - although not be guaranteed - is $60,000. Unlike in career one, in career two there’s a chance that you’ll be unemployed for long stretches, but also a chance that some years your income will be six, or even seven, figures. ($60,000 is merely the annual income that you can statistically expect to earn in career two.) Which career would you choose? I’m sure that the answer is career two (given that you almost certainly can now, but refuse to, find someone to employ you on the same terms that I spell out for career one). A key reason that career two pays more than career one is that careertwo workers are more productive that are career-one workers. Careertwo workers’ efforts and skills can be transferred from performing lessvalued to performing more-valued tasks. Thus, economies with lots of career-two workers are vastly more productive than are economies dominated by career-one workers. For most of human history career-one jobs have dominated - and each pays about $3.00 per day. Career-two jobs are relatively recent. They’re a product of the industrial revolution - that is, of an expansion of trade and of what Deirdre McCloskey calls “markettested innovation.” Today, typical career-two jobs pay between $100 and
$300 a day. We could, if we are unhappy not having jobs guaranteed for life, return to a society of nearly absolute job security. But the unavoidable result would be that all but a very few of us would become desperately poor serfs, although ones quite secure in our jobs and in our status. Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics and Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030 * http://cafehayek.com/2017/01/ quotation-of-the-day-1950.html
NEXT
DANCE BY PHOTOGRAPHER
RICHARD CALMES
ISSUE
Mountainview WELLNESS CENTRE
Beauty From Within Facial Rejuvenation Concentrated Growth Factors (CGF)â„¢
New Therapy which regenerates your collagen BOOK NOW 604.538.8837 3566 King George Blvd, South Surrey www.mountainviewwellnesscentre.ca