It will take experts in mass manipulation to analyze this one. |
Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Soundings," "Gleanings," "Positive Community" and "Jamaica Journal." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
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Israel is a nation state, but at the cost of displacing hundreds of thousands of inhabitants.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
May 11, 2024
We are transfixed these days by the suffering in Palestine. How is a westerner to take a position, except to beg for a ceasefire? But we owe it to the deep tragedy that continues to scar that region to learn the history of two peoples, before we speak.
And to take as our guide an Israeli-American, Linda Dittmar, who has moved from ardent Zionism to being an advocate for Palestinians. It is recorded in her beautiful, recent book “Tracing Homelands.”
When I saw the cold hatred in the eyes of the Hamas attackers on October 7, I sensed this was deeper than other conflicts. It had been 75 painful years in its gestation. And even longer.
I knew about the Balfour Declaration of 1917, whereby the British Empire, then in charge of Palestine, issued an order that declared two things: the Jews had a right to a “natural home,” and Palestinian Arab rights had to be “protected.”
One goal has been achieved; Israel is a nation state, but at the cost of displacing hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. The resulting deadly impasse is called by many “the world’s most intractable conflict.”
In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, there was massive worldwide sympathy for the Jewish people coming out of their unimaginable suffering in Europe — the Holocaust — inflicted by the Nazis. Thousands of survivors came to Israel. Most of the world applauded.
The Zionists among them, calling for such a homeland, have been passionate, and in many ways, justified. But what about the people already living there? For them, it was the horrific Nakba.
Into my quandary about justice and injustice has come Dittmar’s book, published in 2023, before the Hamas attack. Age 85 now, Dittmar grew up in Tel Aviv in a middle-class family in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and was a loyal Israeli girl, ignorant of the Nakba in 1948 when Israel forces depopulated 450 Palestinian villages, and forced 750,000 men, women and children into exile.
She was never taught about it. There was a policy of ignoring this grievous displacement, a kind of conspiracy of silence. She was unknowing and uncritical of the ways by which her people had acquired their land, believing it had been willed by God to a special people.
Her years as a student in the U.S., starting when she was 21 in 1961, opened her eyes. She experienced turbulent times there: the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. And access to information about the unjust origin story of her young country.
Years later, Dittmar went on an awareness trip organized by an Israeli non-government organization called Zochrot (We Remember). It further opened her eyes to the catastrophe that had befallen the Palestinians.
Her unease grew. Her personal change, the conversion of her Zionist views, happened over a 12-year period. It makes for a riveting read. Dittmar now lives in Boston, and has a doctoral degree from Stanford University.
Her book is a timely, dramatic first-person account of a Jewish woman who attended patriotic Jewish youth camps, and even spent two years in the IDF, who seeks to know, and, with anguish, to write about her awakening. She bravely publishes at a time of great polarization resulting from a raging and unequal war.
But rather than encountering hatred from Jews, she has been flooded with invitations to speak about her experience to all kinds of audiences.
There is an aura of deep sadness and nostalgia, as Dittmar recalls her childhood among Palestinians. But she is convinced that without the painful facing of its past among Israelis, the resentment and grievance among Palestinians will endure from generation to generation in the Middle East.
Linda Dittmar is a brave and righteous Jew. One hopes the words of Jesus, “the truth shall set you free” will prove true.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner May 4, 2024 >LINK<
And to take as our guide an Israeli-American, Linda Dittmar, who has moved from ardent Zionism to being an advocate for Palestinians. It is recorded in her beautiful, recent book “Tracing Homelands.”
When I saw the cold hatred in the eyes of the Hamas attackers on October 7, I sensed this was deeper than other conflicts. It had been 75 painful years in its gestation. And even longer.
I knew about the Balfour Declaration of 1917, whereby the British Empire, then in charge of Palestine, issued an order that declared two things: the Jews had a right to a “natural home,” and Palestinian Arab rights had to be “protected.”
One goal has been achieved; Israel is a nation state, but at the cost of displacing hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. The resulting deadly impasse is called by many “the world’s most intractable conflict.”
In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, there was massive worldwide sympathy for the Jewish people coming out of their unimaginable suffering in Europe — the Holocaust — inflicted by the Nazis. Thousands of survivors came to Israel. Most of the world applauded.
The Zionists among them, calling for such a homeland, have been passionate, and in many ways, justified. But what about the people already living there? For them, it was the horrific Nakba.
Into my quandary about justice and injustice has come Dittmar’s book, published in 2023, before the Hamas attack. Age 85 now, Dittmar grew up in Tel Aviv in a middle-class family in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and was a loyal Israeli girl, ignorant of the Nakba in 1948 when Israel forces depopulated 450 Palestinian villages, and forced 750,000 men, women and children into exile.
She was never taught about it. There was a policy of ignoring this grievous displacement, a kind of conspiracy of silence. She was unknowing and uncritical of the ways by which her people had acquired their land, believing it had been willed by God to a special people.
Her years as a student in the U.S., starting when she was 21 in 1961, opened her eyes. She experienced turbulent times there: the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. And access to information about the unjust origin story of her young country.
Years later, Dittmar went on an awareness trip organized by an Israeli non-government organization called Zochrot (We Remember). It further opened her eyes to the catastrophe that had befallen the Palestinians.
Her unease grew. Her personal change, the conversion of her Zionist views, happened over a 12-year period. It makes for a riveting read. Dittmar now lives in Boston, and has a doctoral degree from Stanford University.
Her book is a timely, dramatic first-person account of a Jewish woman who attended patriotic Jewish youth camps, and even spent two years in the IDF, who seeks to know, and, with anguish, to write about her awakening. She bravely publishes at a time of great polarization resulting from a raging and unequal war.
But rather than encountering hatred from Jews, she has been flooded with invitations to speak about her experience to all kinds of audiences.
There is an aura of deep sadness and nostalgia, as Dittmar recalls her childhood among Palestinians. But she is convinced that without the painful facing of its past among Israelis, the resentment and grievance among Palestinians will endure from generation to generation in the Middle East.
Linda Dittmar is a brave and righteous Jew. One hopes the words of Jesus, “the truth shall set you free” will prove true.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner May 4, 2024 >LINK<
Book titles by Rosemary Ganley include "Soundings," "Gleanings," "Positive Community" and "Jamaica Journal." Access the Yellow Dragonfly Press "Books" page >here< for purchasing information. |
Rosemary Ganley retreats to the past to gather strength for the present.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
May 4, 2024
My mind has lately been on Tanzania, and our three memorable years there in the early 1980's. The book I promised to write on those years has yet to be done, even though my mother kept all the aerogram letters I sent home to Kirkland Lake, and returned them to me.
Communication, if you can imagine it, was limited to posted letters. Living without television and internet was, in hindsight, a great relief. We borrowed videos from the Canadian High Commission, and played board games. RISK was popular.
Tanzania, a Commonwealth partner, had asked Canada for an accountant with teaching experience to teach at the Chuo Cha Usimamize wa Fedha (Institute for Finance Management). John fit the bill.
Tanzania, a largely rural country with 40 million Swahili-speaking people (now 65 million), about half Christian and half Muslim, then had an “African socialist,” one-party government. When I saw the efforts of President Julius Nyerere to unite the 124 tribes of the country, and win independence from Britain, I developed new and positive thoughts about one-party states. Other African countries, such as Zimbabwe, did not have the advantage of a good and honest leader. Nyerere fought corruption by modelling integrity, and by a few rules. His members could not own two properties, but had to live in their ridings and come as needed to the legislature in the capital, Dar es Salaam.
What is bringing my admiring thoughts of Tanzania to mind is threefold. I had a recent visit with an American feminist friend of 40 years whom I met there, and who continues to research and publish on women farmers in Senegal. Second, I read about the dislocation in Tanzania today of the world- famous Maasai people, with their cows, whose blood they let in order to live, and whose clothes, spears and headdresses are wonderfully colourful. They are losing their ancestral land to make way for tourism.
Tanzania is indeed a Garden of Eden for animals. We went on several safaris in our Volkswagen van, often with Peterborough friends such as the Mackenzie family. We saw the big five of African animals - the lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant. And our favorite, the giraffe. There’s a travel trick we learned: when you run out of brake fluid on the savannah, fill ‘er up with dishwasher detergent.
Three of our family members tried climbing Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. No one made it to the 19,000 foot summit. Mountain sickness. How we admired the Tanzanian runners on the mountain: Chagga people in flip flops, whose “ambulance” was a hammock on two bicycle wheels.
Our new country went to war too. My mother wrote, “Wherever you go, trouble breaks out.” That had happened when we lived in Jamaica too. Idi Amin, the dreadful Ugandan strongman, invaded the northern border. Our students were called up to defend Tanzania in its first ever national war. We pushed Amin back to Kampala, and he fled to Saudi Arabia.
I had the opportunity through the British Council to teach one night a week inside the Chinese compound. The students were sufficiently good in English that we could read TIME magazine together. “Teacher,” they said, “what does it mean 'Jimmy Carter has his back against the wall?' ”
I had the idea to recruit English speakers from around the Yacht Club to come with me and let my Chinese students have a one-on-one evening. The students jumped at the chance but were very shy about name tags: one doesn’t usually go around with one’s name stuck to one’s chest.
The third impulse for indulging in these memories is the fatigue and sadness I feel around the conflict in the Middle East, and the gloomy news about climate sickness and closed minds. And the nonsense of certain trials.
I remember the Serengeti: standing in the back of a jeep to savor the crater and the creation. I retreat to the past to gather strength for the present.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner May 4, 2024 >LINK<
Communication, if you can imagine it, was limited to posted letters. Living without television and internet was, in hindsight, a great relief. We borrowed videos from the Canadian High Commission, and played board games. RISK was popular.
Tanzania, a Commonwealth partner, had asked Canada for an accountant with teaching experience to teach at the Chuo Cha Usimamize wa Fedha (Institute for Finance Management). John fit the bill.
Tanzania, a largely rural country with 40 million Swahili-speaking people (now 65 million), about half Christian and half Muslim, then had an “African socialist,” one-party government. When I saw the efforts of President Julius Nyerere to unite the 124 tribes of the country, and win independence from Britain, I developed new and positive thoughts about one-party states. Other African countries, such as Zimbabwe, did not have the advantage of a good and honest leader. Nyerere fought corruption by modelling integrity, and by a few rules. His members could not own two properties, but had to live in their ridings and come as needed to the legislature in the capital, Dar es Salaam.
What is bringing my admiring thoughts of Tanzania to mind is threefold. I had a recent visit with an American feminist friend of 40 years whom I met there, and who continues to research and publish on women farmers in Senegal. Second, I read about the dislocation in Tanzania today of the world- famous Maasai people, with their cows, whose blood they let in order to live, and whose clothes, spears and headdresses are wonderfully colourful. They are losing their ancestral land to make way for tourism.
Tanzania is indeed a Garden of Eden for animals. We went on several safaris in our Volkswagen van, often with Peterborough friends such as the Mackenzie family. We saw the big five of African animals - the lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant. And our favorite, the giraffe. There’s a travel trick we learned: when you run out of brake fluid on the savannah, fill ‘er up with dishwasher detergent.
Three of our family members tried climbing Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. No one made it to the 19,000 foot summit. Mountain sickness. How we admired the Tanzanian runners on the mountain: Chagga people in flip flops, whose “ambulance” was a hammock on two bicycle wheels.
Our new country went to war too. My mother wrote, “Wherever you go, trouble breaks out.” That had happened when we lived in Jamaica too. Idi Amin, the dreadful Ugandan strongman, invaded the northern border. Our students were called up to defend Tanzania in its first ever national war. We pushed Amin back to Kampala, and he fled to Saudi Arabia.
I had the opportunity through the British Council to teach one night a week inside the Chinese compound. The students were sufficiently good in English that we could read TIME magazine together. “Teacher,” they said, “what does it mean 'Jimmy Carter has his back against the wall?' ”
I had the idea to recruit English speakers from around the Yacht Club to come with me and let my Chinese students have a one-on-one evening. The students jumped at the chance but were very shy about name tags: one doesn’t usually go around with one’s name stuck to one’s chest.
The third impulse for indulging in these memories is the fatigue and sadness I feel around the conflict in the Middle East, and the gloomy news about climate sickness and closed minds. And the nonsense of certain trials.
I remember the Serengeti: standing in the back of a jeep to savor the crater and the creation. I retreat to the past to gather strength for the present.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner May 4, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
Dignitas Infinita takes several steps backwards.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
April 27, 2024
I sometimes wonder if I’m the only person in Peterborough who goes to the website www.vatican.va and reads the latest papal message.
So in need are we of good leaders who are smart as well as honest, I seek to absorb what each thinks, and get as much inspiration as possible.
I was born and baptized into this church, and I feel some responsibility to account for my membership. I owe it to my ancestors and to the people I’ve met around the world who have had no access to education, let alone theological education, but live generous, humble, and faith-filled lives. I also owe it to succeeding generations, my eight grandchildren and their colleagues, who earnestly try to make the world a little more hospitable.
Plus, I, too, have nagging questions about the institutional church’s relevance, its perceptiveness, its long dark episodes and deep continuing flaws.
And I, too, as every human being does, wonder about life’s ultimate meaning.
Perhaps some priests, theologians, and teachers do track down these writings. Surely, Peterborough Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Miehm does. Sometimes, often, really, these messages to the world give me pleasure, as this Pope, who is a Jesuit — formed and from the global south, tries hard and with a good mind and soul, to bring the vast institution of one billion members, along with him into the postmodern age.
His writing on the climate crisis six years ago, Laudato Si (the messages always have Latin names) was hailed by scientists and environmentalists around the world. His pleading for peace in Ukraine and Gaza/Israel has been powerful and has shown sharp geopolitical understanding and a deep attachment to New Testament values. Pastorally, he has washed the feet of women in prison, and described the church he hopes for as a “field hospital.” Always mercy, always forgiveness.
His concern is shown in passionate economic writing. He constantly urges less wealth for the few, and a huge increase in poverty alleviation. He critiques rampant capitalism, racism, and war. His personal courage is remarkable, as he struggles, age 87, with physical frailty, and yet travels to all parts of the world. Next up, Belgium, and a trip to his homeland, Argentina, the first trip home in 11 years.
He came to northern Canada in 2023 on a pilgrimage to apologize to Indigenous people for the suffering and displacement brought about by centuries of colonial tactics and the damaging Residential School System of the 19th and 20th centuries run by the church.
Francis has recently initiated a process of consulting the people of the church via a two-year program, including meetings in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024. Some 450 people, mostly bishops, but about 70 lay people, including some women, met daily in groups of 10 at round tables to pray and listen to one another.
Yet, with all of that, this man has serious blind spots in the crucial matters of women in leadership, democracy in the church, and sexuality. Or perhaps it is the celibate clergy, the vast bureaucracy, the resistance to change, the inertia, the threat of losing power among the men, all combine to frustrate change.
But the latest letter sounded promising: Dignitas Infinita, issued this month and running to 17 pages. I printed it off.
It contained references to a marvelous document in 1948 from the United Nations: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But (and here’s the rub), it also referred over and over to itself: other papal statements, including those from Popes John Paul and Benedict.
I found it good on war, trafficking, sexual abuse, migrants and violence. But poor on abortion (the longest section), gender theory, surrogacy, sex change, digital violence and euthanasia. No mention at all of contraception, though its condemnation in 1968 still appears on the books. No mention of LGBT2S people.
Taken all together, Dignitas Infinita takes several steps backwards. That is sad.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner April 6, 2024 >LINK<
So in need are we of good leaders who are smart as well as honest, I seek to absorb what each thinks, and get as much inspiration as possible.
I was born and baptized into this church, and I feel some responsibility to account for my membership. I owe it to my ancestors and to the people I’ve met around the world who have had no access to education, let alone theological education, but live generous, humble, and faith-filled lives. I also owe it to succeeding generations, my eight grandchildren and their colleagues, who earnestly try to make the world a little more hospitable.
Plus, I, too, have nagging questions about the institutional church’s relevance, its perceptiveness, its long dark episodes and deep continuing flaws.
And I, too, as every human being does, wonder about life’s ultimate meaning.
Perhaps some priests, theologians, and teachers do track down these writings. Surely, Peterborough Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Miehm does. Sometimes, often, really, these messages to the world give me pleasure, as this Pope, who is a Jesuit — formed and from the global south, tries hard and with a good mind and soul, to bring the vast institution of one billion members, along with him into the postmodern age.
His writing on the climate crisis six years ago, Laudato Si (the messages always have Latin names) was hailed by scientists and environmentalists around the world. His pleading for peace in Ukraine and Gaza/Israel has been powerful and has shown sharp geopolitical understanding and a deep attachment to New Testament values. Pastorally, he has washed the feet of women in prison, and described the church he hopes for as a “field hospital.” Always mercy, always forgiveness.
His concern is shown in passionate economic writing. He constantly urges less wealth for the few, and a huge increase in poverty alleviation. He critiques rampant capitalism, racism, and war. His personal courage is remarkable, as he struggles, age 87, with physical frailty, and yet travels to all parts of the world. Next up, Belgium, and a trip to his homeland, Argentina, the first trip home in 11 years.
He came to northern Canada in 2023 on a pilgrimage to apologize to Indigenous people for the suffering and displacement brought about by centuries of colonial tactics and the damaging Residential School System of the 19th and 20th centuries run by the church.
Francis has recently initiated a process of consulting the people of the church via a two-year program, including meetings in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024. Some 450 people, mostly bishops, but about 70 lay people, including some women, met daily in groups of 10 at round tables to pray and listen to one another.
Yet, with all of that, this man has serious blind spots in the crucial matters of women in leadership, democracy in the church, and sexuality. Or perhaps it is the celibate clergy, the vast bureaucracy, the resistance to change, the inertia, the threat of losing power among the men, all combine to frustrate change.
But the latest letter sounded promising: Dignitas Infinita, issued this month and running to 17 pages. I printed it off.
It contained references to a marvelous document in 1948 from the United Nations: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But (and here’s the rub), it also referred over and over to itself: other papal statements, including those from Popes John Paul and Benedict.
I found it good on war, trafficking, sexual abuse, migrants and violence. But poor on abortion (the longest section), gender theory, surrogacy, sex change, digital violence and euthanasia. No mention at all of contraception, though its condemnation in 1968 still appears on the books. No mention of LGBT2S people.
Taken all together, Dignitas Infinita takes several steps backwards. That is sad.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner April 6, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
We have to alter our habits and pay more to save the Earth.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
April 13, 2024
Canadians, let’s get a grip, look at facts, and reject the fear-mongering and false claims we have been hearing via the near-hysterical utterances from Conservatives lately.
Unfortunately, we also have seven Conservative premiers in this federation who don’t get the size of the threat either, and are afraid of bold action even when the fate of the Earth is in the balance.
The attacks come loudest from the federal party leader, Pierre Poilievre, and our scrappy local member, Michelle Ferreri. They seem pathologically focused on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The opposition party manufactures outrage at every step. This contributes to the national spread of pessimism and anger.
Canadians, in spite of a majority doing quite well, seem to be in a funk. One psychologist has said we didn’t process our COVID grief. Certainly, the high number of deaths in long-term care homes has not been addressed.
Our Peterborough-Kawartha MP is adept at a negative kind of political discourse, shown in her frequent video clips on Facebook, standing and scolding the House of Commons, while hectoring the actual problem-solvers about the cost of living.
A National Post columnist, Stuart Thomson said, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Conservatives blame every traffic jam, mosquito bite, and stubbed toe on the machinations of the Liberal government.”
It has gotten tiresome, this blaming of every incident of human woe in Canada on the Prime Minister. I suppose that gains some votes. Scapegoating works for a while. But it never leads to positive change. These politicians might do well to rewatch the remarks at the funeral of former P.M. Brian Mulroney, whose politics, while spirited, never resorted to personal contempt.
The Opposition Party denies the proven value of taxes put on emissions of greenhouse gases, ignores the facts of the rebates, and casts scorn on the NDP/Liberal alliance, while voting against forms of social assistance. Not one creative idea emerges from this party - it is all attack.
So, let’s look at the data, develop a considered opinion, and then adopt a voting intention for the next election. Our newspaper The Examiner offers facts. A column by Susan Koswan on March 28 stated, “Market-based policies targeting industrial emissions are having the biggest impact,” and “The amount of carbon tax you pay is based on the amount you drive, heat your home and power your appliances.” Behaviour modification is what is sought here.
Importantly, the Bank of Canada estimates that only 0.15 percent of inflation can be attributed to the carbon tax. “Four times a year you receive a federal rebate to ease the increased cost of paying to burn oil and gas.” Koswan concludes that, “The cost of inaction compared to the incremental expenses is a world of hurt.” That hurt we are seeing and feeling.
I joined other protesters at the Royal Bank on Chemong Road on April 6, marking “Fossil Fools Day.” The bank is the largest in Canada investing in fossil fuels.
We have to develop a skeptical attitude toward political ranting. “Axe the tax” is a mindless slogan, not a reasoned argument. Our high standard of living as Canadians with many benefits, is the result of the collection and redistribution of taxes. Eighty-two percent of us are deeply worried about global warming. At the very least, we expect a developed and costed program from the opposition party, not the demonization of individuals. Adopt a serious attempt to nation-build. Propose, propose!
The present Liberal government, as Tricia Clarkson showed in her Examiner column of March 20, has absorbed the troubling climate data, and has initiated many paths, programs, and incentives to a better future.
Let’s not be misled by the opposition and by the oil and gas industry, but be reasonable adults, and accept that we have to alter our habits and pay more to save the earth.
Unfortunately, we also have seven Conservative premiers in this federation who don’t get the size of the threat either, and are afraid of bold action even when the fate of the Earth is in the balance.
The attacks come loudest from the federal party leader, Pierre Poilievre, and our scrappy local member, Michelle Ferreri. They seem pathologically focused on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The opposition party manufactures outrage at every step. This contributes to the national spread of pessimism and anger.
Canadians, in spite of a majority doing quite well, seem to be in a funk. One psychologist has said we didn’t process our COVID grief. Certainly, the high number of deaths in long-term care homes has not been addressed.
Our Peterborough-Kawartha MP is adept at a negative kind of political discourse, shown in her frequent video clips on Facebook, standing and scolding the House of Commons, while hectoring the actual problem-solvers about the cost of living.
A National Post columnist, Stuart Thomson said, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Conservatives blame every traffic jam, mosquito bite, and stubbed toe on the machinations of the Liberal government.”
It has gotten tiresome, this blaming of every incident of human woe in Canada on the Prime Minister. I suppose that gains some votes. Scapegoating works for a while. But it never leads to positive change. These politicians might do well to rewatch the remarks at the funeral of former P.M. Brian Mulroney, whose politics, while spirited, never resorted to personal contempt.
The Opposition Party denies the proven value of taxes put on emissions of greenhouse gases, ignores the facts of the rebates, and casts scorn on the NDP/Liberal alliance, while voting against forms of social assistance. Not one creative idea emerges from this party - it is all attack.
So, let’s look at the data, develop a considered opinion, and then adopt a voting intention for the next election. Our newspaper The Examiner offers facts. A column by Susan Koswan on March 28 stated, “Market-based policies targeting industrial emissions are having the biggest impact,” and “The amount of carbon tax you pay is based on the amount you drive, heat your home and power your appliances.” Behaviour modification is what is sought here.
Importantly, the Bank of Canada estimates that only 0.15 percent of inflation can be attributed to the carbon tax. “Four times a year you receive a federal rebate to ease the increased cost of paying to burn oil and gas.” Koswan concludes that, “The cost of inaction compared to the incremental expenses is a world of hurt.” That hurt we are seeing and feeling.
I joined other protesters at the Royal Bank on Chemong Road on April 6, marking “Fossil Fools Day.” The bank is the largest in Canada investing in fossil fuels.
We have to develop a skeptical attitude toward political ranting. “Axe the tax” is a mindless slogan, not a reasoned argument. Our high standard of living as Canadians with many benefits, is the result of the collection and redistribution of taxes. Eighty-two percent of us are deeply worried about global warming. At the very least, we expect a developed and costed program from the opposition party, not the demonization of individuals. Adopt a serious attempt to nation-build. Propose, propose!
The present Liberal government, as Tricia Clarkson showed in her Examiner column of March 20, has absorbed the troubling climate data, and has initiated many paths, programs, and incentives to a better future.
Let’s not be misled by the opposition and by the oil and gas industry, but be reasonable adults, and accept that we have to alter our habits and pay more to save the earth.
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
We can certainly think of small gestures to bring joy in darkness.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
April 6, 2024
Our city, over the years, has developed a reputation for many good and generous people, programs, and actions. I think the reputation is well-deserved. Here are two such recent episodes — one I experienced myself, and one I was told about.
John Boyko is a leading citizen and writer in Lakefield. He is also chair of the annual literary festival which takes place every summer, a highly successful weekend which started out honoring Lakefield writer Margaret Laurence in 1995.
The festival raises funds since its philosophy is not to schedule events in large facilities, but to stay local, and make use of Lakefield places, such as the parks and the College School auditorium.
One of these fundraisers was a ticketed talk by well-known Canadian broadcaster Steve Paikin, seen on TVO’s “The Agenda.” He is an affable and knowledgeable host about all things Canadian. Steve Paikin agreed to come to Lakefield, but it was one of worst winter weather nights of the year. His car was in a multi-car pileup on the 115 highway.
Paikin was unhurt but his car was so damaged it was unusable. Calmly, he called John Boyko from the Whitby Accident Centre and related the news. Three hours till speech time. John picked Steve up and they arrived at the venue with three minutes to spare, greeted by a sellout crowd. (Lakefielders are very aware of public issues).
Paikin delivered a fine, feisty speech and then retired to the Village Inn. But how was he to get back to Toronto? In stepped John Bruce.
Bruce was in the crowd that night. He had last seen Steve Paikin in 1977. They grew up in Hamilton and were teacher and student at the same school.
Bruce is another active citizen, whose most recent success was in rallying his neighbours to protest the planned location of a second fire hall in the park at the corner of Parkhill and Water Streets. Not a good idea. With their research and pleasant lobbying, the citizens got the decision rescinded.
Bruce delivered Steve Paikin home the next day. He says, “It was a pleasure to have two hours in the company of a person who believes in social discourse as key to a healthy democratic society.”
The second incident of pure kindness was on the day of my 87th birthday. One of my friends had made a donation to the New Canadians Center as a gift, and it was someone’s lovely idea to gather the volunteers, staff and clients together to sing “Happy Birthday” in a 26-second video, which they then sent to me. That made my day, my week, my year.
The diversity and warmth of those people, most of them strangers to me, was memorable. I suspect the idea came from Marisa Kaczmarczyk, who works at NCC and managed Jamaican Self Help for 15 good years.
Such gestures are what we can do in these times to beat back anger, fear and pessimism. These, and perhaps reading the poetry of Mary Oliver, or the philosophy of joy expressed by Viktor Frankl.
If we Canadians are in a funk, it shows our sensitivity to the threats within and all around, and to the suffering in our world, but we also have to ask ourselves to what extent we have succumbed to “joyless prosperity,” as some wise person put it recently.
We can certainly think of small gestures to bring joy in darkness. I see so many examples of this in my daily life in this city, I am overwhelmed. At the hospital, at the pharmacy, at the YMCA, at FRESHCO, in the neighbourhood, at the churches, the synagogue and the mosque: doors are held, smiles are given, small talk is exchanged, drivers wave you in, interest is shown, crocus bulbs break through.
The Buddhists are offering a session on joy and peace on April 27 at the Mount. Our local life is rich.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner April 6, 2024 >LINK<
John Boyko is a leading citizen and writer in Lakefield. He is also chair of the annual literary festival which takes place every summer, a highly successful weekend which started out honoring Lakefield writer Margaret Laurence in 1995.
The festival raises funds since its philosophy is not to schedule events in large facilities, but to stay local, and make use of Lakefield places, such as the parks and the College School auditorium.
One of these fundraisers was a ticketed talk by well-known Canadian broadcaster Steve Paikin, seen on TVO’s “The Agenda.” He is an affable and knowledgeable host about all things Canadian. Steve Paikin agreed to come to Lakefield, but it was one of worst winter weather nights of the year. His car was in a multi-car pileup on the 115 highway.
Paikin was unhurt but his car was so damaged it was unusable. Calmly, he called John Boyko from the Whitby Accident Centre and related the news. Three hours till speech time. John picked Steve up and they arrived at the venue with three minutes to spare, greeted by a sellout crowd. (Lakefielders are very aware of public issues).
Paikin delivered a fine, feisty speech and then retired to the Village Inn. But how was he to get back to Toronto? In stepped John Bruce.
Bruce was in the crowd that night. He had last seen Steve Paikin in 1977. They grew up in Hamilton and were teacher and student at the same school.
Bruce is another active citizen, whose most recent success was in rallying his neighbours to protest the planned location of a second fire hall in the park at the corner of Parkhill and Water Streets. Not a good idea. With their research and pleasant lobbying, the citizens got the decision rescinded.
Bruce delivered Steve Paikin home the next day. He says, “It was a pleasure to have two hours in the company of a person who believes in social discourse as key to a healthy democratic society.”
The second incident of pure kindness was on the day of my 87th birthday. One of my friends had made a donation to the New Canadians Center as a gift, and it was someone’s lovely idea to gather the volunteers, staff and clients together to sing “Happy Birthday” in a 26-second video, which they then sent to me. That made my day, my week, my year.
The diversity and warmth of those people, most of them strangers to me, was memorable. I suspect the idea came from Marisa Kaczmarczyk, who works at NCC and managed Jamaican Self Help for 15 good years.
Such gestures are what we can do in these times to beat back anger, fear and pessimism. These, and perhaps reading the poetry of Mary Oliver, or the philosophy of joy expressed by Viktor Frankl.
If we Canadians are in a funk, it shows our sensitivity to the threats within and all around, and to the suffering in our world, but we also have to ask ourselves to what extent we have succumbed to “joyless prosperity,” as some wise person put it recently.
We can certainly think of small gestures to bring joy in darkness. I see so many examples of this in my daily life in this city, I am overwhelmed. At the hospital, at the pharmacy, at the YMCA, at FRESHCO, in the neighbourhood, at the churches, the synagogue and the mosque: doors are held, smiles are given, small talk is exchanged, drivers wave you in, interest is shown, crocus bulbs break through.
The Buddhists are offering a session on joy and peace on April 27 at the Mount. Our local life is rich.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner April 6, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
Urging American voters to absorb the facts, and cast their privileged vote in November for decency, democracy, and the future.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
March 30, 2024
Dear neighbours to the south:
In about seven months, your great country will have its national election.
We share the continent, as well as a long history of being on the same side in conflicts, the English language, culture, music and sports, and mutual experience with democratic governance and the rule of law. This may be the year — your 248th year of independence, our 157th — for all of us to examine our grasp of what that means, and the depth of our loyalty to it.
Now, with the rise of right-wing authoritarians around the world and your own unlovely candidate, Donald Trump, we in the west are about to be put to the test.
I’m very nervous.....for you, for the world and for us, should your “low- information” and beguiled voters go for him.
It’s set me on a bit of reading about how Adolf Hitler managed to ascend to power via his long membership in the National Socialist party (Nazi Party), and was then appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933. It was, remember, an elected government, free to pursue its racial, antisemitic theories, and lust for more territory (see invasion of Poland, 1939).
For 13 years after the First World War, Germany had a fragile democracy — the Weimar Republic. But economic conditions were bad, and Germans’ sense of humiliation drove voters to elect the Nazis.
We are an ex-colony of Britain and not an imperial power. We have one tenth of your population, a large land mass, and different electoral systems. Ours is a parliamentary government with several political parties, and two houses of assembly: one elected, one appointed. Yours is a republic with two elected houses, two contending parties and a direct vote for president. We are saying “Vive la Difference,” these days.
This is a deep and dire warning. It is indeed “election interference.”
It expresses my fears, based on the evidence, that many of your voters are hoodwinked by an evil spell cast by a man without conscience, a “wannabe” authoritarian with a miserable personality, and a long string of criminal charges related to lying, hiding, assaulting, and inciting to violence. He uses warning language like “bloodbath” and “revenge,” and he endorses unsavory leaders elsewhere. Many of you, and most of us, are baffled by the extent of Americans’ delusion.
Many Americans have set aside their critical faculties, the lessons they learned as children to run from evil and toward good. They have abandoned their critical mental powers to follow a huckster who seeks to be king.
I was in 2018, in the same room as Mr. Trump when he insulted everyone at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Charlevoix, PQ.
He made a rude, noisy, late entrance, sat down resentfully, and pushed aside the translation equipment. He ignored the two prominent women on either side of him — Christine La Garde of the IMF, and Lt. General Christine Whitecross, the senior woman in the Canadian military.
Of course, the topic under discussion, in French and English, was gender — not his thing.
He has openly threatened a purge of his enemies in the Justice Department and FBI, and a huge expulsion of immigrants. He called those convicted of offences at the January 6 uprising “hostages.” He would be able to pardon himself, and wipe out any convictions from his many trials.
A few of us have started to discuss how to immunize Canadians against this infectious wave of Trumpism.
A few Republicans — so few it is remarkable — have spoken out against the ominous possibility of a Trump second term: John Bolton, Mark Esper, Liz Cheney, Nicki Haley, General Mark Milley. It is a sad thing to watch politicians abandon conscience, the thing that makes us all human.
I realize the alternative candidate has his weaknesses and is not popular. But he is not deadly. I urge American voters to absorb the facts, and cast their privileged vote in November for decency, democracy, and the future.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner March 30, 2024 >LINK<
In about seven months, your great country will have its national election.
We share the continent, as well as a long history of being on the same side in conflicts, the English language, culture, music and sports, and mutual experience with democratic governance and the rule of law. This may be the year — your 248th year of independence, our 157th — for all of us to examine our grasp of what that means, and the depth of our loyalty to it.
Now, with the rise of right-wing authoritarians around the world and your own unlovely candidate, Donald Trump, we in the west are about to be put to the test.
I’m very nervous.....for you, for the world and for us, should your “low- information” and beguiled voters go for him.
It’s set me on a bit of reading about how Adolf Hitler managed to ascend to power via his long membership in the National Socialist party (Nazi Party), and was then appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933. It was, remember, an elected government, free to pursue its racial, antisemitic theories, and lust for more territory (see invasion of Poland, 1939).
For 13 years after the First World War, Germany had a fragile democracy — the Weimar Republic. But economic conditions were bad, and Germans’ sense of humiliation drove voters to elect the Nazis.
We are an ex-colony of Britain and not an imperial power. We have one tenth of your population, a large land mass, and different electoral systems. Ours is a parliamentary government with several political parties, and two houses of assembly: one elected, one appointed. Yours is a republic with two elected houses, two contending parties and a direct vote for president. We are saying “Vive la Difference,” these days.
This is a deep and dire warning. It is indeed “election interference.”
It expresses my fears, based on the evidence, that many of your voters are hoodwinked by an evil spell cast by a man without conscience, a “wannabe” authoritarian with a miserable personality, and a long string of criminal charges related to lying, hiding, assaulting, and inciting to violence. He uses warning language like “bloodbath” and “revenge,” and he endorses unsavory leaders elsewhere. Many of you, and most of us, are baffled by the extent of Americans’ delusion.
Many Americans have set aside their critical faculties, the lessons they learned as children to run from evil and toward good. They have abandoned their critical mental powers to follow a huckster who seeks to be king.
I was in 2018, in the same room as Mr. Trump when he insulted everyone at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Charlevoix, PQ.
He made a rude, noisy, late entrance, sat down resentfully, and pushed aside the translation equipment. He ignored the two prominent women on either side of him — Christine La Garde of the IMF, and Lt. General Christine Whitecross, the senior woman in the Canadian military.
Of course, the topic under discussion, in French and English, was gender — not his thing.
He has openly threatened a purge of his enemies in the Justice Department and FBI, and a huge expulsion of immigrants. He called those convicted of offences at the January 6 uprising “hostages.” He would be able to pardon himself, and wipe out any convictions from his many trials.
A few of us have started to discuss how to immunize Canadians against this infectious wave of Trumpism.
A few Republicans — so few it is remarkable — have spoken out against the ominous possibility of a Trump second term: John Bolton, Mark Esper, Liz Cheney, Nicki Haley, General Mark Milley. It is a sad thing to watch politicians abandon conscience, the thing that makes us all human.
I realize the alternative candidate has his weaknesses and is not popular. But he is not deadly. I urge American voters to absorb the facts, and cast their privileged vote in November for decency, democracy, and the future.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner March 30, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
Funeral directors have hearts of social workers, guiding people with great kindness through the process.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
March 23, 2024
I turn 87 on March 25, and recently decided it’s time to look squarely at end-of-life matters, namely mine. I’m in good health and there’s no better time.
Over a long life, I’ve had several personal bereavements, and moreover, one cannot be a citizen of the world and not be downcast about deaths inflicted on others, so I’m not entirely inexperienced.
But this has a special flavor because it will be mine that I’m contemplating. Best, of course, to think these thoughts and lay these plans while one is feeling well and cheerful.
So on a sunny day in early March, I made my way over to the Ashburnham Funeral Home on Armour Road, which has, by the way, been recently awarded Readers’ Choice by the people in Peterborough.
It is a spacious facility with a foyer in which to display mementos of a life, an attractive reception room, a caterer ("That’s a Wrap") on site and a chapel that seats 350.
Ten years ago, when my spouse John died, we made use of this funeral home with confidence. John had made it relatively easy for our three sons and me. When he got his terminal diagnosis six months earlier, he phoned the boys and said, “Now, I haven’t got long. What do you need from me?”
Wise man, to think of leaving them at peace with no unresolved issues. Two of them said through tears, "Everything is fine, Dad."
The youngest said, "Dad, I’ve always wanted you to come to my jiu jitsu tournament." So there we were in a high school gym in Markham, watching the grappling and grunting. The photos from that day are very happy.
John Cunningham, the owner of Ashburnham, also known as the Community Alternative, has acquired a water-based facility called Kawartha Aquamation by which a body goes through a process of hydrolysis and becomes a kind of dust similar to that of cremation. It is a flameless process using water, and therefore has no emissions of greenhouse gases or mercury. A casket is not needed.
This development will appeal to many.
I met for an hour with funeral director Sarah McLaughlin, who graduated from Trent and then took a two-year course at Humber College, all regulated by a provincial group called the Bereavement Authority of Ontario.
I think funeral directors have hearts of social workers, guiding people with great kindness through the process when they are grieving.
Price lists are readily available. I would choose an urn for the aquamated remains, and over a period of about a week from the day of death, have a visitation time on site, a service open to all, conducted by friends and family, a reception on site with refreshments, and next day, interment. Danny Bronson of Highland Park would guide the preparation of the grave, as he has done for us before.
I recall that the number of copies of the death certificate that was needed was 15. We live in a bureaucracy for sure: governments, the executor, pensions, credit cards, internet services, banks, and so on.
In 1996, when retiring from teaching, we bought a plot at the beautiful, municipally-owned Little Lake cemetery, at “pre-need” prices. We needed it 17 years later. I placed a red granite bench there because “cemeteries are full of sad people with no place to sit down,” John had said.
The costs would be about $5,000 to $6,000 thousand dollars for the funeral home. Food is of course extra. I can start to set that sum aside.
End-of-life plans are intensely personal. I decided to write about the various possibilities to inform readers and to normalize conversations about what were once “hush-hush” matters. It seems a good idea to have a burial location, so that families, especially grandchildren, can visit, to encourage ritual and acceptance, and be a place to pay tribute to past lives.
I felt relieved and responsible walking home.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner March 23, 2024 >LINK<
Over a long life, I’ve had several personal bereavements, and moreover, one cannot be a citizen of the world and not be downcast about deaths inflicted on others, so I’m not entirely inexperienced.
But this has a special flavor because it will be mine that I’m contemplating. Best, of course, to think these thoughts and lay these plans while one is feeling well and cheerful.
So on a sunny day in early March, I made my way over to the Ashburnham Funeral Home on Armour Road, which has, by the way, been recently awarded Readers’ Choice by the people in Peterborough.
It is a spacious facility with a foyer in which to display mementos of a life, an attractive reception room, a caterer ("That’s a Wrap") on site and a chapel that seats 350.
Ten years ago, when my spouse John died, we made use of this funeral home with confidence. John had made it relatively easy for our three sons and me. When he got his terminal diagnosis six months earlier, he phoned the boys and said, “Now, I haven’t got long. What do you need from me?”
Wise man, to think of leaving them at peace with no unresolved issues. Two of them said through tears, "Everything is fine, Dad."
The youngest said, "Dad, I’ve always wanted you to come to my jiu jitsu tournament." So there we were in a high school gym in Markham, watching the grappling and grunting. The photos from that day are very happy.
John Cunningham, the owner of Ashburnham, also known as the Community Alternative, has acquired a water-based facility called Kawartha Aquamation by which a body goes through a process of hydrolysis and becomes a kind of dust similar to that of cremation. It is a flameless process using water, and therefore has no emissions of greenhouse gases or mercury. A casket is not needed.
This development will appeal to many.
I met for an hour with funeral director Sarah McLaughlin, who graduated from Trent and then took a two-year course at Humber College, all regulated by a provincial group called the Bereavement Authority of Ontario.
I think funeral directors have hearts of social workers, guiding people with great kindness through the process when they are grieving.
Price lists are readily available. I would choose an urn for the aquamated remains, and over a period of about a week from the day of death, have a visitation time on site, a service open to all, conducted by friends and family, a reception on site with refreshments, and next day, interment. Danny Bronson of Highland Park would guide the preparation of the grave, as he has done for us before.
I recall that the number of copies of the death certificate that was needed was 15. We live in a bureaucracy for sure: governments, the executor, pensions, credit cards, internet services, banks, and so on.
In 1996, when retiring from teaching, we bought a plot at the beautiful, municipally-owned Little Lake cemetery, at “pre-need” prices. We needed it 17 years later. I placed a red granite bench there because “cemeteries are full of sad people with no place to sit down,” John had said.
The costs would be about $5,000 to $6,000 thousand dollars for the funeral home. Food is of course extra. I can start to set that sum aside.
End-of-life plans are intensely personal. I decided to write about the various possibilities to inform readers and to normalize conversations about what were once “hush-hush” matters. It seems a good idea to have a burial location, so that families, especially grandchildren, can visit, to encourage ritual and acceptance, and be a place to pay tribute to past lives.
I felt relieved and responsible walking home.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner March 23, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
An inspiring account of a journey through activism and academia.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
March 16, 2024
It must have been a joy for professors Alan Slavin, Bob Paelke, David Morrison, Lynne Davis, Stephen Hill and Ray Dart to hear the impressive talk given at Trent’s Stohn Hall on March 5 by Dr. Keith Stewart, a Trent graduate from 1990.
He had been their student and mentee during his four years at the university. And a brilliant one, it is clear.
Entitled “Naming the Moment,” the lecture was a scintillating and comprehensive talk about Stewart’s adventurous life in the environmental “trenches” since graduating from International Development in 1990. It was also an inspiring account of his journeys, both in activism and the academy.
After an hour and a half, because an evening class was due to come in to the 200-seat auditorium, the dialogue continued in the foyer, Socrates-style, with Stewart up a few steps and questioners gathered below.
The joining together of study, teaching, and active participation in public politics is a combination not often accomplished by thinkers. It has been driven by Stewart’s passion for the environment, deep intelligence, and his humble commitment to keep learning.
Now 56 — a senior energy strategist for Greenpeace Canada, and a teacher at the University of Toronto — Stewart has been called by various Canadian magazines the “best green activist in the country” and “a green giant.”
He said he learned activism here in Peterborough, working with OPIRG and other community groups. He recalled a turning point in his thinking when in 1990, Linda Slavin suggested he go hear Stephen Lewis speak. Before that, his image of environmentalism had been of recycling and wilderness preservation.
His second awakening was in 2013 when he chained himself to the front gate of Kinder Morgan, the giant oil and gas pipeline company. He spent 12 hours on the damp ground, since the RCMP arresting him didn’t have proper shears to cut the chains. Oh, Canada!
In the face of the environmental crisis to which he has given his life, Stewart asks, “How did we get here? Where is the open space for forward movement?"
Here, the scholarship kicks in. Stewart quotes Antonio Gramsci, the leftist philosopher in the ‘30s in Italy, who described society as thoroughly capitalist, and was once arrested by the dictator Mussolini. Another favorite is Paulo Freire, the Brazilian popular educator.
“The present system works for oil executives: white, heterosexual men from the north.”
Stewart said he takes inspiration from novelist Ursula le Guin, who said, “Capitalism seems inescapable, but so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”
In practical politics in Canada today, Stewart said Alberta and Saskatchewan are “owned” by the fossil fuel industries. He knows Steven Guilbeault, our Minister of Climate Change and a former Greenpeace activist, well. “I am glad he is around the cabinet table. He needs our support.”
But the Liberals as a whole in his opinion are too timid. The Conservatives have no climate policies at all. “The ironic thing is that the Conservatives, as a market-loving group, should love the carbon tax.”
The speaker advised his audience to watch again Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Life, where the hero finds cracks in the system and widens them. He quoted Rebecca Solnit, an American writer who has said, “Hope is a discipline.”
Stewart referred to the 82 percent of Canadians who are worried about the warming climate. Three hundred thousand Canadians were driven from their homes last year by wildfires. Solar power is now cheaper than any other source. Heat pumps are gaining ground. Activists have forced the fossil fuel industry to engage in politics (loads of lobbyists to cope with), and to advertise its “greenness.” Demand for oil worldwide is going down.
It was an engaging talk, refreshingly frank and naming names. For example he said, “Ezra Levant, whom I used to debate, has gone bonkers.”
Thanks to Trent for arranging the stimulating session.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner March 16, 2024 >LINK<
He had been their student and mentee during his four years at the university. And a brilliant one, it is clear.
Entitled “Naming the Moment,” the lecture was a scintillating and comprehensive talk about Stewart’s adventurous life in the environmental “trenches” since graduating from International Development in 1990. It was also an inspiring account of his journeys, both in activism and the academy.
After an hour and a half, because an evening class was due to come in to the 200-seat auditorium, the dialogue continued in the foyer, Socrates-style, with Stewart up a few steps and questioners gathered below.
The joining together of study, teaching, and active participation in public politics is a combination not often accomplished by thinkers. It has been driven by Stewart’s passion for the environment, deep intelligence, and his humble commitment to keep learning.
Now 56 — a senior energy strategist for Greenpeace Canada, and a teacher at the University of Toronto — Stewart has been called by various Canadian magazines the “best green activist in the country” and “a green giant.”
He said he learned activism here in Peterborough, working with OPIRG and other community groups. He recalled a turning point in his thinking when in 1990, Linda Slavin suggested he go hear Stephen Lewis speak. Before that, his image of environmentalism had been of recycling and wilderness preservation.
His second awakening was in 2013 when he chained himself to the front gate of Kinder Morgan, the giant oil and gas pipeline company. He spent 12 hours on the damp ground, since the RCMP arresting him didn’t have proper shears to cut the chains. Oh, Canada!
In the face of the environmental crisis to which he has given his life, Stewart asks, “How did we get here? Where is the open space for forward movement?"
Here, the scholarship kicks in. Stewart quotes Antonio Gramsci, the leftist philosopher in the ‘30s in Italy, who described society as thoroughly capitalist, and was once arrested by the dictator Mussolini. Another favorite is Paulo Freire, the Brazilian popular educator.
“The present system works for oil executives: white, heterosexual men from the north.”
Stewart said he takes inspiration from novelist Ursula le Guin, who said, “Capitalism seems inescapable, but so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”
In practical politics in Canada today, Stewart said Alberta and Saskatchewan are “owned” by the fossil fuel industries. He knows Steven Guilbeault, our Minister of Climate Change and a former Greenpeace activist, well. “I am glad he is around the cabinet table. He needs our support.”
But the Liberals as a whole in his opinion are too timid. The Conservatives have no climate policies at all. “The ironic thing is that the Conservatives, as a market-loving group, should love the carbon tax.”
The speaker advised his audience to watch again Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Life, where the hero finds cracks in the system and widens them. He quoted Rebecca Solnit, an American writer who has said, “Hope is a discipline.”
Stewart referred to the 82 percent of Canadians who are worried about the warming climate. Three hundred thousand Canadians were driven from their homes last year by wildfires. Solar power is now cheaper than any other source. Heat pumps are gaining ground. Activists have forced the fossil fuel industry to engage in politics (loads of lobbyists to cope with), and to advertise its “greenness.” Demand for oil worldwide is going down.
It was an engaging talk, refreshingly frank and naming names. For example he said, “Ezra Levant, whom I used to debate, has gone bonkers.”
Thanks to Trent for arranging the stimulating session.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner March 16, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |
The cast understood fully that it was expressing a crucial moral message for today.
Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
March 10, 2024
The divisive times we are living through call out to the arts to help us better understand painful situations and cruel people. The arts deepen our humanity and energize our compassion.
The cast and crew of talented people assembled by the Peterborough Theatre Guild, and its gifted director Jerry Allen, offered up such gifts with the recent run of Fiddler on the Roof.
Jerry Allen, who grew up here and was a teacher of the humanities for many years, has now directed 10 musicals and a number of plays for the Theatre Guild. Each takes about four months of intense work, from audition to performance, with three rehearsals each week, usually in the evenings for three hours. For the dancers and singers, their work involves more time, plus costuming and other meetings.
Even Jerry, with his experience and knowledge of the community, was amazed at the depth of musical and acting talent that the auditions turned up last fall. Some of the cast have professional training. They are drawn to Peterborough for different reasons — family, or its reputation as a supportive city, or, it must be said, a director whose vision of justice and inclusion they share.
Jerry told me he knew that Donnell Mackenzie, who played Tevye, could act from reviews from York University and Seneca College, but could he sing? Then, Donnell wowed him with his singing.
Allen and his close-knit team: producer Pat Hooper, musical director Peter Sudbury, choreographer Laura Lawson, and vocal director Janina Kraus, chose a play that would honestly portray another culture and country, and another time — 1905 — a play that seamlessly integrates heavy human suffering with wit and music.
The classic Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway in 1964. That’s 60 years ago. It lasted for 10 years, 3,000 performances, and won 10 Tony Awards. A worldwide favourite, it has been mounted many times by both professional and community companies. A popular film version in 1971, was directed by Canadian Norman Jewison.
Like all great art, it has reverberations for every age. Great storytelling is timeless. Themes, such as traditional religion and the past, family love, and then persecution based on prejudice and exile, are universal.
Tevye is a poor milkman in a Jewish village in occupied Ukraine in 1905. He is a devout believer, with a sharp-tongued but loyal wife, and five daughters, for whom he must find suitable husbands, preferably wealthy, but definitely Jewish. Modern views that are held by his daughters challenge Tevye - ideas such as marrying for love, marrying outside the Jewish faith, or marrying and moving far from family.
Enter the matchmaker Yente, a former student of mine, Nicole Grady, who absolutely inhabits the part.
Jerry Allen wisely invited Len Lifchus, former director of the United Way, to advise him on Jewish ways. The emotional backdrop of the play is the anxiety felt by a dominated people who fear a riot caused by Russian forces, a pogrom.
“Let us pray for the Czar,” says one wit.
“Yes,” answers another, “We pray the Czar be kept far from us.”
How can one forget the remarkable bottle-on-head dance performed by two men and two women, without a slip? But Russian troops disrupt the family wedding, ordering the villagers to leave. Some go to Siberia, some to America.
The play strengthens the audience in its resolve not to think or act this way in contemporary situations. The cast understood fully that it was expressing a crucial moral message for today. That made for high morale among the presenters, and profound audience appreciation.
A common theatre experience shared by 6,000 Peterborough people, built a deeper culture of welcome and kindness. I sat next to a Ukrainian refugee who told me his neighbours, eight of them, had brought him to his first theatre in Canada.
I think Jerry Allen, in giving us this play, continues to teach the humanities.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner March 10, 2024 >LINK<
The cast and crew of talented people assembled by the Peterborough Theatre Guild, and its gifted director Jerry Allen, offered up such gifts with the recent run of Fiddler on the Roof.
Jerry Allen, who grew up here and was a teacher of the humanities for many years, has now directed 10 musicals and a number of plays for the Theatre Guild. Each takes about four months of intense work, from audition to performance, with three rehearsals each week, usually in the evenings for three hours. For the dancers and singers, their work involves more time, plus costuming and other meetings.
Even Jerry, with his experience and knowledge of the community, was amazed at the depth of musical and acting talent that the auditions turned up last fall. Some of the cast have professional training. They are drawn to Peterborough for different reasons — family, or its reputation as a supportive city, or, it must be said, a director whose vision of justice and inclusion they share.
Jerry told me he knew that Donnell Mackenzie, who played Tevye, could act from reviews from York University and Seneca College, but could he sing? Then, Donnell wowed him with his singing.
Allen and his close-knit team: producer Pat Hooper, musical director Peter Sudbury, choreographer Laura Lawson, and vocal director Janina Kraus, chose a play that would honestly portray another culture and country, and another time — 1905 — a play that seamlessly integrates heavy human suffering with wit and music.
The classic Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway in 1964. That’s 60 years ago. It lasted for 10 years, 3,000 performances, and won 10 Tony Awards. A worldwide favourite, it has been mounted many times by both professional and community companies. A popular film version in 1971, was directed by Canadian Norman Jewison.
Like all great art, it has reverberations for every age. Great storytelling is timeless. Themes, such as traditional religion and the past, family love, and then persecution based on prejudice and exile, are universal.
Tevye is a poor milkman in a Jewish village in occupied Ukraine in 1905. He is a devout believer, with a sharp-tongued but loyal wife, and five daughters, for whom he must find suitable husbands, preferably wealthy, but definitely Jewish. Modern views that are held by his daughters challenge Tevye - ideas such as marrying for love, marrying outside the Jewish faith, or marrying and moving far from family.
Enter the matchmaker Yente, a former student of mine, Nicole Grady, who absolutely inhabits the part.
Jerry Allen wisely invited Len Lifchus, former director of the United Way, to advise him on Jewish ways. The emotional backdrop of the play is the anxiety felt by a dominated people who fear a riot caused by Russian forces, a pogrom.
“Let us pray for the Czar,” says one wit.
“Yes,” answers another, “We pray the Czar be kept far from us.”
How can one forget the remarkable bottle-on-head dance performed by two men and two women, without a slip? But Russian troops disrupt the family wedding, ordering the villagers to leave. Some go to Siberia, some to America.
The play strengthens the audience in its resolve not to think or act this way in contemporary situations. The cast understood fully that it was expressing a crucial moral message for today. That made for high morale among the presenters, and profound audience appreciation.
A common theatre experience shared by 6,000 Peterborough people, built a deeper culture of welcome and kindness. I sat next to a Ukrainian refugee who told me his neighbours, eight of them, had brought him to his first theatre in Canada.
I think Jerry Allen, in giving us this play, continues to teach the humanities.
Rosemary Ganley's column in the Peterborough Examiner March 10, 2024 >LINK<
"Gleanings" is Rosemary Ganley's new book. You can purchase directly from the author at [email protected] or from >Amazon< |