Musing

today’s Musing written and published from south Calgary, near Fish Creek Park

walk report: -1C/31F, light clouds, generous sunshine, nippy air sharp contrast with last evening’s balmy – Gusta found too many squirrels, too many magpies, too many robins and a duck on a roof collectively too distracting for woofs/barks

governments of the world virtually ignore the Darfurs yet endorse live-aid concerts, send troops to hunt down terror when food would go further, support despots only to have those dogs bite back with the very teeth they’ve been given; people riot in 3rd world countries because food costs leapt 75% in 2 months; outrage is too mild a word

I cannot imagine the outrage of starving people who work hard for a pittance sewing the goods we buy whose pittance no longer buys enough rice to sustain a meager existence; it would be such a breath of fresh air, billions blown daily, if keepers of our collective purse who shore up Wall Street or Bay Street or who are so often telling us they’ll fix it (subprime crisis, recession, healthcare costs, crisis du jour) would admit ‘the system’s beyond fixing so lets invent a new system’

while steps for saving banks, corporations and industries may have widespread implications I’d be loath to be without, I can’t help wondering about the other day - when those IMF and World Bank leaders met with G-7 finance ministers to address the economy and the price of rice – I wonder what they ate, if they all had dessert, about the price and who paid?

as a teen I was neither activist or anarchist, in my twenties neither fascist or socialist – but I wondered about so many angry people who were – they believed that leaders lie as they lead , that we want it that way, that we’d rather hear promises of a fix for a problem that won’t fix than to hear realistic dialogue about why this or that gets this or that

as youngster I was told, ‘you’ll understand better when you grow up’; as a student, told some things were very complicated, I should get an education in ways of the world and experience before criticizing; as novice politico I was told to work hard, gain experience and learn how things are done, how shakers shake and movers move

whichever way wind blows, governments tout consolidating or restructuring or de-centralizing as key to better service delivery, economy for tax payers and better democracy for all; this equates to that which exits the north end of southbound male cattle as my provincial government goes back into session today; their role and my cynicism are local, my mood is not; leaders who won votes tell us that what is wrong with our health care service delivery system is administrative in nature and can be solved by streamlining authority and moving money around - shell-game decisions made by people without first clue experience on giving or receiving care in its various watered down forms – I thought we elected these people for wisdom and judgment; why didn’t we elect smarter people?

at a meeting last week a question of ‘most admired leader’ produced answers around the table like Mother Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King and sport heroes; oddly, no one mentioned a President, Prime Minister, corporate icon, great writer or restaurant chain; icons long dead, few glimpses of their mantle on the horizon; little wonder Obama causes such a stir - the notion of an inspired leadership/charisma combo is so exciting

my best learning, over dinner one night with someone who had Policy in their job description, taught me nothing in the world happens unless there is a policy (often not written anywhere) that permits it, nothing changes unless there is a change in policy and everything bad in the world happens because there is a policy permitting it

I’m grown up, I get it and I’m outraged that we citizens of the world cannot set aside greed for money, territory and power to safely feed our hungry, care for our sick; it seems we have not been able to do it with socialism, fascism, communism, democracy or anarchy – maybe it is time someone sat on a hillside somewhere to devise something that works for everyone; now, go have a good week and think about what you can do about it

Mark Kolke
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... with your voice, teach in order to learn


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