Satyagraha
I once read a blog post by someone who was deeply affected by a video they found on YouTube. In their excitement, they showed this video to a close friend hoping to elicit a similar experience in their friend. The friend was not terribly impressed and was certainly not impacted in the same way as [ ]
Hubris fells giants. The quick definitions I pulled for the word hubris are excessive pride or self-confidence. and in Greek Tragedies, excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to retribution or nemesis. . Hubris mostly affects people who have had some level of success and luck in life, so in a sense hubris may be a positive sign, but it [ ]
As I stood at the hot dog stand at the Tokyo Disneyland theme park with my five year old son, I could not help thinking about my own childhood and my memories of America. Growing up in Montreal, we made nearly weekly trips to northern Vermont where we enjoyed the ski hills and the beautiful [ ]
Last summer I was travelling in the beautiful Beauce region of Québec, which borders Northern Maine. This rural and agricultural region has a charm that has not been overly damaged by large cottages and the accompanying high end boutiques that go with them. With three young children I am always looking for something where they [ ]
Jane Goodall visited my elementary school when I was about 10 years old. Jane Goodall was a pioneer, visionary and soft spoken powerhouse who dedicated her life to conservation and spreading environmentalism. She had a big impact on me and many of my classmates. The early 90s, when I was in elementary school, was a [ ]
I stood on the top of the Hebrew fortress of Masada wondering why families, men, women and children preferred to starve to death than surrender to the Roman army in 74 C.E. About 960 people died in their resistance to the occupation forces and the mountaintop fortress became a monumental part of Jewish and Israeli [ ]
A few years ago I stood in the small room that my wife s grandfather was occupying in a retirement home. The room was no larger than 12 feet by 12 feet in a nice building with good services and friendly staff. He had a television, a small closet, a bathroom and a bottle of rum. [ ]
The declining birth rates around the world have received growing media attention, though likely not as much attention as the topic deserves. Everywhere in the world, without exception, birth rates are declining or already at rock bottom levels. Unofficial rates in China, Korea and Japan peg the numbers at 0.7 0.9 children per woman, [ ]
As we shuffled through the Hiroshima Peace Museum alongside the throngs of tourists, I wondered what was the point. The museum was so packed that you were basically pushed along by the crowd and dared now take time to read or see much. I even got frustrated with those who stopped to observe the museum [ ]
I am currently reading the book The Curve of Time which is a journal by a widowed mother who spent her summers coasting the waters near Vancouver Island with her four children in the 1930s. The book is a lovely tribute to a bygone era of abandoned Indian villages, limited technology, soaring mountains and endless [ ]
Tribalism is deeply rooted in the human psyche. For tens of thousands of years, humans evolved and survived only thanks to their participation in a tribe. Very few people can survive without the support of others, finding food, hunting, shelter and protection from attacking tribes requires group effort and coalescence. Even today, though more and [ ]
AI is the talk of the town these days. Though the hype from OpenAI s ChatGPT has now calmed a bit, there is still a general expectation that AI will revolutionize society, take jobs and solve many of our challenges. I must admit that even I was caught up in the fervor and felt that ChatGPT [ ]
After 300 days or so since the October 7th attacks in Israel, the genocide of Gaza and the Westbank continues largely uninterrupted. Other mass killings in Sudan and elsewhere also continue along with ongoing massacres in Ukraine. None of these conflicts have much hope in sight. Coincidentally, during these conflicts I have been progressively reading [ ]
Next week I leave for a trip to China. Before COVID and before the war in Ukraine, you could fly direct from Montreal to Shanghai for less than $1,000 CAD. Today, a return trip is about $3,000 and you need to connect in another city, adding a least 10 hours or more to the trip. [ ]
Before I got married I travelled to Scotland with my brothers, uncle, cousins and father. This was a form of bachelor party where we basically travelled the the country and drank some great scotch. Like many nations, Scotland has a long history of violent conflict. While Scotland s historic conflicts with England are well publicized, what [ ]
The ongoing massacre in Gaza marks an unprecedented chapter in Palestine s tragic history. With over 11,000 civilians brutally killed, half of whom are innocent children, and tens of thousands left physically and emotionally scarred, there s no comparable violence in Palestine s past. The closest parallels lie in the horrific massacres of Rwandans in the 90s, the [ ]
I have little time to write these days. Kids, work, priorities. However, the last few days in Israel and Palestine have been shocking and that says a lot for Israel Palestine. In the past four days, every twenty minutes or so, a Palestinian child is killed by Israel. The total is currently at [ ]
As I wrote the title to this blog post, I thought to myself, “I should really read the book War and Peace”. A few years back, I did watch the excellent BBC mini-series based on Tolstoy’s famed novel and one of the most searing moments in that mini series is when the father learns that [ ]
The fight against secrecy is never ending. The most common battle with open government opponents is their argument that more transparency will reduce security and that the public will not be able to understand the data. They claim that the data will be taken out of context and the public sector s hard work will be [ ]
When you are an adult, you can find all sorts of theories to explain the way the world is, the way the world could be or the way the world should be. However, it is remarkable how much of human nature is innate and quite easily observable as humans grow up. Here are a few [ ]