If there is any doubt about Irish women being indomitable and mad, then reading this endearing tale of Dervia hiking through the highlands of Ethiopia in the 60’s. Born in the 30’s she bicycled from London to India first then headed out to Ethiopia.
What a tale of generous kindly hospitable impoverished peasants inviting her nightly to their compounds because the hyeanas and tigers threatened her mule at night. Robberies, attacks by baboons, sliding down cliffs, the best of beurocrats and marvellous royalty. She meets all sorts and describes the people, churches and the land beautifully. She is scathing in her description of some she meets like a nasty robber posing as a priest. She makes it clear her encounters with the bad or downright evil were utterly rare especially given the wonderful care and welcome the country extended to her.
She seemed never to fear rape, murder yes, but she was most incensed to lose her sleeping bag and so thankful that the police found and returned it.
Jock the mule is a delightful character. A bit of a Steinbeck’sTravels with Charlie without hardly any amenities. No truck, no camper, not even a tent, but jock carried her books and fountain pen, an compass and maps she’d later lose.
She definitely liked the local beer, safer than water. She didn’t like the bugs so often sleeping on the ground amidst animals and children.
What a tale! What a great Irish lady and storyteller.
I want even more to visit Ethiopia especially the churches of Lalibela which she described as moving her. Wonderful scenery and people.Thank you for your heroic tale.
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Fire and Fury, Michael Wolf - the fog of war and old men talking at MacDonalds
Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolf is an amazing read. What a truly creative writer. A great novel. Whether there’s truth, who can tell. It’s mostly a smattering of facts and a whole bunch of impression but written like a Tom Clancy or Harlen Coban blockbuster. Truly a great drama.
One of the great compliments of the Trump Clinton campaign was that it was the first time in years that Americans and the rest of the world actually paid attention to American politics sometimes even switching off the NFL games to watch the debate. After years of closed doors and back room dealings, corruption and cover up with both the Democrat and Republican administrations of late here was definitely something new. The press debate/roast with Donald and Hillary will remain for me one of the best entertainments I’ve seen in years, quite a contrast to the posed regular debates which nonetheless had more appeal than anything happening in Canada and elsewhere in the world. European politics has long become snooze fests and politics in dictatorships and communists countries and Muslim religious fiats are simply ‘fixed’. America remains the free world.
Fire and Fury reads like the beach scene of Saving Private Ryan. It’s all action reaction and happening in real time. I really think Michael Wolf, like the Private Ryan directors and photographers, has transcended the genre of the day to truly capture in his style of writing the reality of politics. Competing personalities, last minute decisions, reversals, left fielders and end runs, it’s all the fog of war. Who could have guessed the media would be so ‘fake’, or the security agencies so entrenched. No one, including Donald Trump saw himself as winning. And Michael Wolf captures this well. The true novelty of the occasion. It’s Churchill and Kennedy and Breznev. It’s Mao and Stalin, Napoleon, Disraeli, all great leaders of the world , not necessarily admired, nor ones we would choose, but still, there’s that magnificence. History if full of eccentricity and character. Rivalries and personality. There’s the eccentric and the individual. It’s an amazing romp.
What I believe is true, is that all the presidents who have gone before have had much more of the chaos and personality that Michael Wolf captures so well, than the decorum and spin doctoring the Bush /Obama years and before demanded. Prior to Saving Private Ryan’s beach scene, veterans felt that most depiction of war were ‘staged’ and often ‘sanitized and white washed’. In the actual conflict there’s body parts and bits of brains flying about, utter horror and a cacophony of noise and general chaos. It's been dubbed, ‘the fog of war’ because no one knows what is going on literally. Further whatever plans one had are lost the moment they encounter the reality of conflicts. It's messy. Elections are the psychological equivalents.
I’ve sat in meetings of doctors where all were equal, more or less, and the arguments took on the flavour of the kitchen table home discussions between parents and teen agers. Lots of emotion and lots of talking over each other. The contrived 'Robert's Rules of Order' were developed like the regimental parades of 19th century war fare but have no place in the modern day world of ambush and subterfuge.
I’ve also gone to government meetings where everyone has known before what the outcome will be. We’re only invited to confirm the decisions that were made behind closed doors. Watching the Canadian parliament is so much like this. Justin Trudeau poses for a selfie. Then comes he out and says his ‘script’ of ‘platitudes’ and meaningless self aggrandizing jabber. Occasionally the leader of the opposition Andrew Scheer jousts with him like a schoolboy in a debating club. There’s something terribly lame about the whole thing. It’s posed. Polite. The one reality hit was when a hung over or stoned Justin Trudeau shouted 'get the fuck out of my way in parliament' then titted a pretty NDP lady with his elbow imitating his father's famous 'staged' outrages of 'fuddle duck'. All rather Canadian soft ball compared to American hard ball politics.
In 1965 Johnson grabbed Liberal Canadian leader by the lapels and shouted, "Don't you come into my living room and piss on my rug!" American politics has always been 'dancing with the big boys' something that Putin and Xi Jinping know if others forget.
Politics is normally not at all authentic like the ‘plain speatk’ ‘twitter account’ which is obvious ‘post rational’. The genius of Mr. Trump the politician is that he is fighting the political war in the emotional moment by moment reality of a digital age. Trump was on the right side of history to the shock of all the 'losers' who were caught with their pants and skirts down.
The electorate and media have attention spans less than minutes on average. Obama’s speeches, wonderful for future lawyers and grad students to read, for writing academic dissertations, to be read only by their advisors and families, are seriously ‘boring’ . They were ‘tedious’ and truly ‘contrived’.
There’s authenticity here in the Trump home that really reminds me of all the gatherings of old men I’ve known sitting about MacDonald’s restaurants. They're there early in the morning or late in the day, discussing politics, poking fun at each other, knowing each other’s stories, knowing where each other is coming from, yet having coffee together and meeting and talking together. I have the sense that there’s a lot of women meeting in the kitchens too with Ivanka and Conway. Out of all this there’s the groups getting together and working together. It's a time of barn raising. It's what's attractive about retirement conversations. Yet that's how the real world works too. Michael Wolf captures that quality of relationships, the harmonies and disharmonies, the compromises.
Somehow it works. It’s an amazing dance. Dictatorships, especially the pseudo committee dictatorships of socialism look so much more ‘professional’ on the outside. With their back door dealing before the public presentations. There's the illusion of consent and agreement. Everyone is together in a dictatorship. The opposition is removed as often as not by assassination.
In the US the opposition is right there in every party, in the family, in the media. It’s a ‘free for all’ fight to the finish. Michael Wolf, probably better than anyone before him, has captured just how downright human democracies are with all their personality, ego, emotionality and insanity. The humor too is this administration with Kushner and Trump and family and friends like Guiliano and Murdock is so reminiscent of the Kennedy family and friends in power. What a riot a Michael Wolf writer of that era of scandals and bed jumping brothers and wheeler dealer father would have made. All the same dynamics of dysfunction and function.
President Trump's Washington is definitely a new Camelot. However Trump is both King Lear and King Arthur. There are Quinvere’s galore though. Melania and Ivanka are incomparable beauties while Conway and Haley are brilliant stars. So far thankfully there are no dead ladies.
I like that Michael Wolf has given me some back grounds on the individual players. There are cheat notes on characters like one would want for a Tolstoy novel. It helps. The action and events certainly transcend the characters. Everything in Trump Tower and Washington is bigger than life.
The reformer is the enemy of anyone who benefits from the status quo. Whereas Obama was teflon , Trump is the master of dodge and duck. Every sniper in the world is taking pot shots at him. The bets were on that he wouldn't literally survive the first hundred days in office before being assassinated. It's no wonder he’s eating at MacDonald’s afraid of being poisoned. This really is too rich. There was a time when no one wanted to be Czar in Russia because of the hostility against leadership. Japan went through such a horrible time too. These are the days of terrorism, drug epidemics and general anti social and anti authoritarianism. Mr. Trump is amazing.
He reminds me of my grandfather and the other cattlemen who sat about arguing cattle prices, wheeling dealing in farms and real estate, complaining about harvests and regulations. Michael Wolf has caught America in a way that no other government in the world could be portrayed. Only in America today is there still such ‘freedom of speech" and 'freedom of press".
This is a story of a man, his family and friends, a nation, that truly is great, and the immensity of forces of envy and jealousy that circle the presidency likes sharks in a feeding frenzy. It’s amazing anyone survives. I'm amazed anyone would dare or want the job. You have to give American presidents credit, despite the excellence of the Secret Service, they are truly courageous men. Anyone who stands up makes themselves a target! It's obvious Mr. Trump is very brave like Mr. Obama before him.
A great novel. Whether true or not. Who knows? I do think it’s probably more true in it's way than all the ‘scholarship’ that has been ‘concocted" before. This is the first 'You Tube Take" of a digital presidency. This is a post rational world. This is an ultra modern time. A multi ethnic world seeking a new culture. This is competing realities. This is what Conway called ‘alternative facts’. Hollywood versus New York. Beijing versus London. Truth is somewhere in the mix.
There’s a succulent dish being made. It has a great flavour. The smells are tantalizing. But who knows yet if it’s a soup, a curry or a chilli It’s certainly spicy. There’s equally great substance. America is great.
Michael Wolf has done well to capture the dynamism and fluidity that is so far removed from the heavy handed entrenched power of insufferable pompous European and Asian politics. No such great writer or great book could survive in the middle east where ignorance is the norm and slavery reigns.
As usual, even America's old men and old women are still full of the youth of this still young nation. It is vibrant and full of surprises. It is has such vast potential and the flexibility to capitalize on it..
Thank you Michael Wolf for showing us some insight into the fog of war. The beach that is Washington looks like a beach scene, Saving Private America. I believe veterans will thank you for getting some of it right. No doubt like Mr. Trump you're get as much flack on every side. Which will also mean in some same sense you got it right.
One of the great compliments of the Trump Clinton campaign was that it was the first time in years that Americans and the rest of the world actually paid attention to American politics sometimes even switching off the NFL games to watch the debate. After years of closed doors and back room dealings, corruption and cover up with both the Democrat and Republican administrations of late here was definitely something new. The press debate/roast with Donald and Hillary will remain for me one of the best entertainments I’ve seen in years, quite a contrast to the posed regular debates which nonetheless had more appeal than anything happening in Canada and elsewhere in the world. European politics has long become snooze fests and politics in dictatorships and communists countries and Muslim religious fiats are simply ‘fixed’. America remains the free world.
Fire and Fury reads like the beach scene of Saving Private Ryan. It’s all action reaction and happening in real time. I really think Michael Wolf, like the Private Ryan directors and photographers, has transcended the genre of the day to truly capture in his style of writing the reality of politics. Competing personalities, last minute decisions, reversals, left fielders and end runs, it’s all the fog of war. Who could have guessed the media would be so ‘fake’, or the security agencies so entrenched. No one, including Donald Trump saw himself as winning. And Michael Wolf captures this well. The true novelty of the occasion. It’s Churchill and Kennedy and Breznev. It’s Mao and Stalin, Napoleon, Disraeli, all great leaders of the world , not necessarily admired, nor ones we would choose, but still, there’s that magnificence. History if full of eccentricity and character. Rivalries and personality. There’s the eccentric and the individual. It’s an amazing romp.
What I believe is true, is that all the presidents who have gone before have had much more of the chaos and personality that Michael Wolf captures so well, than the decorum and spin doctoring the Bush /Obama years and before demanded. Prior to Saving Private Ryan’s beach scene, veterans felt that most depiction of war were ‘staged’ and often ‘sanitized and white washed’. In the actual conflict there’s body parts and bits of brains flying about, utter horror and a cacophony of noise and general chaos. It's been dubbed, ‘the fog of war’ because no one knows what is going on literally. Further whatever plans one had are lost the moment they encounter the reality of conflicts. It's messy. Elections are the psychological equivalents.
I’ve sat in meetings of doctors where all were equal, more or less, and the arguments took on the flavour of the kitchen table home discussions between parents and teen agers. Lots of emotion and lots of talking over each other. The contrived 'Robert's Rules of Order' were developed like the regimental parades of 19th century war fare but have no place in the modern day world of ambush and subterfuge.
I’ve also gone to government meetings where everyone has known before what the outcome will be. We’re only invited to confirm the decisions that were made behind closed doors. Watching the Canadian parliament is so much like this. Justin Trudeau poses for a selfie. Then comes he out and says his ‘script’ of ‘platitudes’ and meaningless self aggrandizing jabber. Occasionally the leader of the opposition Andrew Scheer jousts with him like a schoolboy in a debating club. There’s something terribly lame about the whole thing. It’s posed. Polite. The one reality hit was when a hung over or stoned Justin Trudeau shouted 'get the fuck out of my way in parliament' then titted a pretty NDP lady with his elbow imitating his father's famous 'staged' outrages of 'fuddle duck'. All rather Canadian soft ball compared to American hard ball politics.
In 1965 Johnson grabbed Liberal Canadian leader by the lapels and shouted, "Don't you come into my living room and piss on my rug!" American politics has always been 'dancing with the big boys' something that Putin and Xi Jinping know if others forget.
Politics is normally not at all authentic like the ‘plain speatk’ ‘twitter account’ which is obvious ‘post rational’. The genius of Mr. Trump the politician is that he is fighting the political war in the emotional moment by moment reality of a digital age. Trump was on the right side of history to the shock of all the 'losers' who were caught with their pants and skirts down.
The electorate and media have attention spans less than minutes on average. Obama’s speeches, wonderful for future lawyers and grad students to read, for writing academic dissertations, to be read only by their advisors and families, are seriously ‘boring’ . They were ‘tedious’ and truly ‘contrived’.
There’s authenticity here in the Trump home that really reminds me of all the gatherings of old men I’ve known sitting about MacDonald’s restaurants. They're there early in the morning or late in the day, discussing politics, poking fun at each other, knowing each other’s stories, knowing where each other is coming from, yet having coffee together and meeting and talking together. I have the sense that there’s a lot of women meeting in the kitchens too with Ivanka and Conway. Out of all this there’s the groups getting together and working together. It's a time of barn raising. It's what's attractive about retirement conversations. Yet that's how the real world works too. Michael Wolf captures that quality of relationships, the harmonies and disharmonies, the compromises.
Somehow it works. It’s an amazing dance. Dictatorships, especially the pseudo committee dictatorships of socialism look so much more ‘professional’ on the outside. With their back door dealing before the public presentations. There's the illusion of consent and agreement. Everyone is together in a dictatorship. The opposition is removed as often as not by assassination.
In the US the opposition is right there in every party, in the family, in the media. It’s a ‘free for all’ fight to the finish. Michael Wolf, probably better than anyone before him, has captured just how downright human democracies are with all their personality, ego, emotionality and insanity. The humor too is this administration with Kushner and Trump and family and friends like Guiliano and Murdock is so reminiscent of the Kennedy family and friends in power. What a riot a Michael Wolf writer of that era of scandals and bed jumping brothers and wheeler dealer father would have made. All the same dynamics of dysfunction and function.
President Trump's Washington is definitely a new Camelot. However Trump is both King Lear and King Arthur. There are Quinvere’s galore though. Melania and Ivanka are incomparable beauties while Conway and Haley are brilliant stars. So far thankfully there are no dead ladies.
I like that Michael Wolf has given me some back grounds on the individual players. There are cheat notes on characters like one would want for a Tolstoy novel. It helps. The action and events certainly transcend the characters. Everything in Trump Tower and Washington is bigger than life.
The reformer is the enemy of anyone who benefits from the status quo. Whereas Obama was teflon , Trump is the master of dodge and duck. Every sniper in the world is taking pot shots at him. The bets were on that he wouldn't literally survive the first hundred days in office before being assassinated. It's no wonder he’s eating at MacDonald’s afraid of being poisoned. This really is too rich. There was a time when no one wanted to be Czar in Russia because of the hostility against leadership. Japan went through such a horrible time too. These are the days of terrorism, drug epidemics and general anti social and anti authoritarianism. Mr. Trump is amazing.
He reminds me of my grandfather and the other cattlemen who sat about arguing cattle prices, wheeling dealing in farms and real estate, complaining about harvests and regulations. Michael Wolf has caught America in a way that no other government in the world could be portrayed. Only in America today is there still such ‘freedom of speech" and 'freedom of press".
This is a story of a man, his family and friends, a nation, that truly is great, and the immensity of forces of envy and jealousy that circle the presidency likes sharks in a feeding frenzy. It’s amazing anyone survives. I'm amazed anyone would dare or want the job. You have to give American presidents credit, despite the excellence of the Secret Service, they are truly courageous men. Anyone who stands up makes themselves a target! It's obvious Mr. Trump is very brave like Mr. Obama before him.
A great novel. Whether true or not. Who knows? I do think it’s probably more true in it's way than all the ‘scholarship’ that has been ‘concocted" before. This is the first 'You Tube Take" of a digital presidency. This is a post rational world. This is an ultra modern time. A multi ethnic world seeking a new culture. This is competing realities. This is what Conway called ‘alternative facts’. Hollywood versus New York. Beijing versus London. Truth is somewhere in the mix.
There’s a succulent dish being made. It has a great flavour. The smells are tantalizing. But who knows yet if it’s a soup, a curry or a chilli It’s certainly spicy. There’s equally great substance. America is great.
Michael Wolf has done well to capture the dynamism and fluidity that is so far removed from the heavy handed entrenched power of insufferable pompous European and Asian politics. No such great writer or great book could survive in the middle east where ignorance is the norm and slavery reigns.
As usual, even America's old men and old women are still full of the youth of this still young nation. It is vibrant and full of surprises. It is has such vast potential and the flexibility to capitalize on it..
Thank you Michael Wolf for showing us some insight into the fog of war. The beach that is Washington looks like a beach scene, Saving Private America. I believe veterans will thank you for getting some of it right. No doubt like Mr. Trump you're get as much flack on every side. Which will also mean in some same sense you got it right.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett
I loved Bangkok Haunts. I'd read his previous novel, Bangkok Tatto and now must read his first Bangkok Eight. Thai Buddhist detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheap, is so original and such a delight. His mother is a madame in their bar, which he runs part time, while she manages the girls for the older 50 and 60 regular western clientele who like a bit of Elvis with their 60's rock and roll. Meanwhile at his main job he works with a partner, a 'katoey', holding off the full change so he can keep his detective job. His superior, Colonel Vikorn is consumed with making money, his role in the police force, only serving to bring him opportunities. Sonchai's Buddhist sensibilities come in conflict with Vikorn's capitalism who he nonetheless admires. Meanwhile, an FBI woman is brought in to help with a snuff film involving a Thai ghost. The intuitive ways of Sonchai with his supernatural tendencies run parallel to the FBI, smitten by his partner, pragmatic approach to detecting. East meets west and even more telling is the Khyber connection as the case takes them into Cambodia where AK 47's are a constant. What a wonderful read, remarkable plot and extraordinary characterization. John Burdett, Englishman, ex lawyer, is a great author in this difficult to add to genre.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Bad Monkey
Just finished reading Carl Hiaasen's Bad Monkey. Picked it up at the airport, read it on the plane, in the airport, in the cab, at home, at night, in the morning and was a little annoyed that work and need to sleep interrupted my reading the story. It's so Carl Hiaasen, crazy characters, improbable events but simply hilarious twists and turns in a glorious southern love story with lots of very serious human humour. It all begins with an arm caught by a fisherman which the police don't want in their jurisdiction for fear it will affect tourist trade. There's all the usual white collar corruption folk who get the full effects of bizarre karma in addition to the island people who think the tourists are crazier than their own celebrities. Like Hunter S. Thompson and Shakespeare, Carl Hiaasen is one of a kind. No one tells a tale as well as he does. It's Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Country Joe and the Fish with Keith Richards playing the melody line. His writing is a lateral shift in consciousness that just giggles on and on between the belly laughs. In the end it's all about diapered monkeys, roach counts and kissing in the morgue. I love Carl Hiaasen. I am so thankful I found "Sick Puppy" many years ago. I have been enjoying this unique Florida flavour ever since. Bad Monkey!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Secrets Kept Secrets Told
Ben asked me to write a review of his book. Thanks to the best of editting my review was chosen for the back cover.
"Ben Nuttall Smith's biographical novel, Secrets Kept/Secrets, is a testament to survival. Based on the author's experience of running from the buried memories and shame of horrific sexual abuse during the London Blitz, Bens'protagonist travels to French Canada and further bullying. At 17, he joins the Navy and is almost happy, for a while. Forever running into impossible situations, he meets near death attempting to help Afro Americans in the Southern US. Desperate to find acceptance and love, he seeks the spirituality of a Catholic teaching order and discovers the joys of teaching music and drama.
After thirteen years of mixed joy and frustration, he leaves the order and marries. Still the trauma of his childhood catches up, eventually destroying career and marriage.
As an artist on the Sunshine Coast, he is finally able to confront his childhood terrors and begin the road to recovery that brings him true love and the full blossoming of his creativity."
It goes on from there. I'd strongly recommend you buy the book to read the complete review on the back of the book. Obviously the book itself is great.. But consider the review a bonus.
"Ben Nuttall Smith's biographical novel, Secrets Kept/Secrets, is a testament to survival. Based on the author's experience of running from the buried memories and shame of horrific sexual abuse during the London Blitz, Bens'protagonist travels to French Canada and further bullying. At 17, he joins the Navy and is almost happy, for a while. Forever running into impossible situations, he meets near death attempting to help Afro Americans in the Southern US. Desperate to find acceptance and love, he seeks the spirituality of a Catholic teaching order and discovers the joys of teaching music and drama.
After thirteen years of mixed joy and frustration, he leaves the order and marries. Still the trauma of his childhood catches up, eventually destroying career and marriage.
As an artist on the Sunshine Coast, he is finally able to confront his childhood terrors and begin the road to recovery that brings him true love and the full blossoming of his creativity."
It goes on from there. I'd strongly recommend you buy the book to read the complete review on the back of the book. Obviously the book itself is great.. But consider the review a bonus.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
The Mighty Judgement
I am reading Philip Slayton's "Mighty Judgement, How the Supreme Court of Canada Runs Your Life." I'm only a third or less into it and enjoying every 'revelation.' I was immediately taken by the first chapter beginning with a discussion of Dugald Christie. He's a BC Lawyer. He burnt his robes on the stairs of the Supreme Court in protest that the poor of Canada were no longer able to access the law. He was killed in a hit and run on his way to protest again, having said that only the rich in Canada have access to the law.
Philip Slayton's book explains how Canada changed from a democracy to what I've called a "Legal Theocracy". He uses terms like "Lawyer Aristocrats".
I wouldn't have taken any interest in the subject because my own experience with Canadian judges had been positive. I've met many. Indeed having shaken hands with three Prime Ministers and spent an afternoon with one I've been more than blessed in my access to powers that be. In the US I enjoyed lunching with judges and have been thoroughly impressed with how bright and knowledgeable judges in general were.
In contrast to most physicians I've actually learned to admired lawyers because too often I've seen or been involved in horrendous abuses of power. Indeed the only judge I'd not appreciated was the fellow whose court room, lawyer Jack Cram called "Nazi". I had met one poor fellow who was still working with early dementia and then I met a truly pompous fellow whose arrogance and self importance seemed the stuff of Dickens novels and not what we'd expect in a Post Modern scientific world.
I respect authority. As a Christian I worship a servant king. Dugald Christie and I attended church together. He convinced me to do pro bono work having established pro bono services in the BC jails. I'd ride with him to jail and go in to see prisoners who from all I gathered had been poorly served by a justice system I had come to believe in.
I recently saw a Corruption Index from the late 90's showing Canada as number 6th in the least corrupt of nations. A transparency index showed it as one of the most open of societies.
Yet Philip Slayton says that judges are not this way inclined. They tend to be private and resist media scrutiny. Yet they are very much public political figures and we know a great deal more about the obviously less elite members of Cabinet. There is an exception. The present Chief Justice of Canada, Beverly McLaughlan has made "transparency" of the courts one of her constant public themes. This is pertinent as BC courts are challenged to televise the procedings for the recent hockey riots and all manner of arguments were raised for 'closed doors". I'm not sure about the Supreme Court, only a third of the way into Slayton's book, but Beverly McLaughlan already had my vote and might certainly as well be elected were she not appointed.
A decade or more ago a lawyer told me she'd left 'corporate law' because she said "I couldn't be a woman and a lawyer'. Today the BC Law Society has revealed that 2/3's of women graduating as lawyers leave law. One might naturally think that these little women go off to have babies with big powerful rich male lawyers except that female doctors who have far more onerous training and experience seem to stay in medicine. Gender counted in the Supreme Court as Slayton explains in Mighty Judgement. These ultra powerful political figures are 'appointed', 'powerful', 'middle class', 'lawyers', and have predominantly a white male bias.
An older male friend said "I left corporate law because I couldn't be a Christian and a lawyer.....I still can be a Christian and a lawyer but I'm not sure if I'll be able to say that for much longer."
Isn't that frightening? These are not nobodys but indeed the cream of society.
I was thoroughly terrified by the judge I encountered. He acted as one truly above the law or at least as a law unto himself.
Retired law professor, Robert Martin wrote an 'incendiary book called "The Most Dangerous Branch; How the Supreme Court of Canada Has Undermined Our Law and our Democracy." I never heard of the book. So I'm thankful that a PHD Political Science student gave me Phillip Slayton's "The Mighty Judgement" after I told her I'd heard an excellent CBC review of this book. Phillip Slayton's book is superbly referenced and far easier to read than anything legally written in the last decade, despite the call for 'transparency'.
Phillp Slayton says it's time for reform. It's certainly time that Canadians wake up. Given what a great place Canada is and how I personally believe most of our judges, the Supreme Court included are a godsend, having seen the one or two bad apples in the barrell, I must admit it's time for review. Dugald Christie was one of the brightest and finest men I've ever known. He wasn't the sort to burn his robes on the Supreme Court stairs. People might expect me to douse myself with gasoline and set myself on fire for some such cause, saying oh, that's just Bill being a drama queen. No one would have said that of Dugald. He was a very serious Christian and very deep thinker. I was touched to know him.
I would recommend this book to all Canadians if only for this paragraph: "Post 1982 constitutional law has had a vast effect on our country. In 1988 the Morgetanler decision invalidated Canada's abortion laws. Delagamunkus in 1997, determined the extent of Aboriginal Title. The 2004 Amselem case decided that the state cannot in any way regulate personal religious belief, however eccentric. The Same-Sex Marriage Reference, also 2004 determined that the federal government can change the definition of marriage and give gays and lesbians the legal right to marry. Chaoulli, in 2005 struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance and changed the shape of Canada's health care system. In 2005, Labay decided that group sex at a commercial club was not indecent.' p13 Mighty Judgement.
Those who know me well would know I'm in favour of some of these decisions but what I ask is whether having things the way I want them is worth jeopardizing democracy. The sad part of that 'ends justifies the means' argument is that it can easily swing the other way. There's immense power in these few individuals. These examples reflect it. What if the next batch of Supreme Court judges include a couple of bad apples?
I turn 60 this year and realized as I talked to a judge my age, with less education than I and much less broad based experience that he considered himself vastly superior to me and was extremely superior in a way I'd not encountered since grade school. What if such a man got on the Supreme Court? Would he care for the experience of majority of Canadians who Dugald Christie said were no longer of importance to the courts of Canada?
Should we not ensure that Canada remains least corrupt and most transparent of countrie?. I'm reading Phillip Slayton's book because I want the good guy judges to prevail. I think we have to pay close attention to Chief Justice Beverly Mclachlan. She wants transparency in the courts. She must have a very good reason. Phillip Slayton's book is a good start because like me Phillip Slayton respect the law , the lawyers and the judges collectively we have today.
Philip Slayton's book explains how Canada changed from a democracy to what I've called a "Legal Theocracy". He uses terms like "Lawyer Aristocrats".
I wouldn't have taken any interest in the subject because my own experience with Canadian judges had been positive. I've met many. Indeed having shaken hands with three Prime Ministers and spent an afternoon with one I've been more than blessed in my access to powers that be. In the US I enjoyed lunching with judges and have been thoroughly impressed with how bright and knowledgeable judges in general were.
In contrast to most physicians I've actually learned to admired lawyers because too often I've seen or been involved in horrendous abuses of power. Indeed the only judge I'd not appreciated was the fellow whose court room, lawyer Jack Cram called "Nazi". I had met one poor fellow who was still working with early dementia and then I met a truly pompous fellow whose arrogance and self importance seemed the stuff of Dickens novels and not what we'd expect in a Post Modern scientific world.
I respect authority. As a Christian I worship a servant king. Dugald Christie and I attended church together. He convinced me to do pro bono work having established pro bono services in the BC jails. I'd ride with him to jail and go in to see prisoners who from all I gathered had been poorly served by a justice system I had come to believe in.
I recently saw a Corruption Index from the late 90's showing Canada as number 6th in the least corrupt of nations. A transparency index showed it as one of the most open of societies.
Yet Philip Slayton says that judges are not this way inclined. They tend to be private and resist media scrutiny. Yet they are very much public political figures and we know a great deal more about the obviously less elite members of Cabinet. There is an exception. The present Chief Justice of Canada, Beverly McLaughlan has made "transparency" of the courts one of her constant public themes. This is pertinent as BC courts are challenged to televise the procedings for the recent hockey riots and all manner of arguments were raised for 'closed doors". I'm not sure about the Supreme Court, only a third of the way into Slayton's book, but Beverly McLaughlan already had my vote and might certainly as well be elected were she not appointed.
A decade or more ago a lawyer told me she'd left 'corporate law' because she said "I couldn't be a woman and a lawyer'. Today the BC Law Society has revealed that 2/3's of women graduating as lawyers leave law. One might naturally think that these little women go off to have babies with big powerful rich male lawyers except that female doctors who have far more onerous training and experience seem to stay in medicine. Gender counted in the Supreme Court as Slayton explains in Mighty Judgement. These ultra powerful political figures are 'appointed', 'powerful', 'middle class', 'lawyers', and have predominantly a white male bias.
An older male friend said "I left corporate law because I couldn't be a Christian and a lawyer.....I still can be a Christian and a lawyer but I'm not sure if I'll be able to say that for much longer."
Isn't that frightening? These are not nobodys but indeed the cream of society.
I was thoroughly terrified by the judge I encountered. He acted as one truly above the law or at least as a law unto himself.
Retired law professor, Robert Martin wrote an 'incendiary book called "The Most Dangerous Branch; How the Supreme Court of Canada Has Undermined Our Law and our Democracy." I never heard of the book. So I'm thankful that a PHD Political Science student gave me Phillip Slayton's "The Mighty Judgement" after I told her I'd heard an excellent CBC review of this book. Phillip Slayton's book is superbly referenced and far easier to read than anything legally written in the last decade, despite the call for 'transparency'.
Phillp Slayton says it's time for reform. It's certainly time that Canadians wake up. Given what a great place Canada is and how I personally believe most of our judges, the Supreme Court included are a godsend, having seen the one or two bad apples in the barrell, I must admit it's time for review. Dugald Christie was one of the brightest and finest men I've ever known. He wasn't the sort to burn his robes on the Supreme Court stairs. People might expect me to douse myself with gasoline and set myself on fire for some such cause, saying oh, that's just Bill being a drama queen. No one would have said that of Dugald. He was a very serious Christian and very deep thinker. I was touched to know him.
I would recommend this book to all Canadians if only for this paragraph: "Post 1982 constitutional law has had a vast effect on our country. In 1988 the Morgetanler decision invalidated Canada's abortion laws. Delagamunkus in 1997, determined the extent of Aboriginal Title. The 2004 Amselem case decided that the state cannot in any way regulate personal religious belief, however eccentric. The Same-Sex Marriage Reference, also 2004 determined that the federal government can change the definition of marriage and give gays and lesbians the legal right to marry. Chaoulli, in 2005 struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance and changed the shape of Canada's health care system. In 2005, Labay decided that group sex at a commercial club was not indecent.' p13 Mighty Judgement.
Those who know me well would know I'm in favour of some of these decisions but what I ask is whether having things the way I want them is worth jeopardizing democracy. The sad part of that 'ends justifies the means' argument is that it can easily swing the other way. There's immense power in these few individuals. These examples reflect it. What if the next batch of Supreme Court judges include a couple of bad apples?
I turn 60 this year and realized as I talked to a judge my age, with less education than I and much less broad based experience that he considered himself vastly superior to me and was extremely superior in a way I'd not encountered since grade school. What if such a man got on the Supreme Court? Would he care for the experience of majority of Canadians who Dugald Christie said were no longer of importance to the courts of Canada?
Should we not ensure that Canada remains least corrupt and most transparent of countrie?. I'm reading Phillip Slayton's book because I want the good guy judges to prevail. I think we have to pay close attention to Chief Justice Beverly Mclachlan. She wants transparency in the courts. She must have a very good reason. Phillip Slayton's book is a good start because like me Phillip Slayton respect the law , the lawyers and the judges collectively we have today.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
The Ascent of Money
The Ascent of Money, A Financial History of the World, by Niall Ferguson, Penguin Books, 2008 is a truly fascinating read that turns the intrigue of history into a fast paced thriller. It really is a who dunnit detective novel for the 2007 recession as well and answer the question why governments want us to buy houses and the Chinese in contrast to the South Americans insisted you build factories in their country rather than loan them the money to do it themselves.
Niall Ferguson could well be a Hollywood script writer the way this supposedl y 'dry' subject reads. I'm 340 pages into it with the remaining 23 pages to read. The last chapter is called the "Descent of Money". I'm not sure I'm ready to read that yet. I'm going to savour it as I've raced through other sections of this extraordinary plot of economics and politics.
I have learned about the family wealth of brother Rothschild and Baring, the building of companies and interest, the insurance and sharing of risk, banks and their growth and diversificaton. I've learned of war and Bretton Woods, the depression and more recently the recessions. At times it really does seem that the world banks, money and stocks and funds are just different black jack tables in the casino of the world. Yet here and there I understand the concepts of leverage and wealth creation by careful management. In the recent recessions millions were lost in days and though there were bail outs the very wealthy took huge cuts themselves.(See my own sad song written for those poor souls, called "I'm a millionaire but I used to be a billionaire' after the Economist disclosed dozens of billionaires were demoted in the financial crisis that put others out of houses into tents). I learned too that in most of the US you may lose your house but they can't get any of your other assets so buying a house with zero down makes for sweet cheap rent for years until the interest rises and the smart tenant (or money) moves on. Then there's Soros and Buffet and now China and the Cninese American "Chimerica'.
Niall Ferguson is Professor of History at Harvard and Fellow at Oxford and Fellow at Stanford. Most of all he's a brilliant story teller. And the Ascent of Money is a tremendous story. So where is the Hollywood movie with Brad Pitt and Jack Nicholson and Charley Chan. It's clear from reading it today that in China with it's 350,000 new millionaires there would be such a movie made immediately or at very least an HBO special like the Tudors or Borgias. Americans are still reading the sports pages while the Chinese have long realized the real 'contest' is in the business section. Beijing is winning the war in the marketplace and China is now the bank of America.
How to explain 2007, the beginning of the worst financial crisis since the depression of the 30's. Here are answers. Here is what is beyond partisan politics. Here is meaning of life in the world of 'banksterism' . It's not about white hat cowboys and black hat cowboys. Both Clinton and Bush declared that their bankers had misinformed them. In the world of economics with avarice and insurance in competition and tsunamis and Russian government crashes there are butterfly wings all over globalization. The arrogance of the nobel prize winning Black-Scholes model and the whimsy of the Quantum Fund begin to make sense when hedge funds and derivatives are explained. It's really more fashion than anything else and the Devil Wears Prada. I had to read that derivative part again and again hardly believing such silliness in asset management could exist as such a disconnect from reality. This is the financial world of 'deconstructionism'. This is Humpty Dumpty in Los Vegas. It's entertainment at the highest level as well.
Thanks to Niall Ferguson I can understand the 'sound bites' and propaganda, conspiracy theories and fear mongering that the media has thrown out. There's method in the madness but even that's a bit neurotic.. Investments really do go up on sunny days. And yes, I will be able to manage my own paltry sums of cash better thanks to Niall Ferguson. This is essential reading at it's finest.
Niall Ferguson could well be a Hollywood script writer the way this supposedl y 'dry' subject reads. I'm 340 pages into it with the remaining 23 pages to read. The last chapter is called the "Descent of Money". I'm not sure I'm ready to read that yet. I'm going to savour it as I've raced through other sections of this extraordinary plot of economics and politics.
I have learned about the family wealth of brother Rothschild and Baring, the building of companies and interest, the insurance and sharing of risk, banks and their growth and diversificaton. I've learned of war and Bretton Woods, the depression and more recently the recessions. At times it really does seem that the world banks, money and stocks and funds are just different black jack tables in the casino of the world. Yet here and there I understand the concepts of leverage and wealth creation by careful management. In the recent recessions millions were lost in days and though there were bail outs the very wealthy took huge cuts themselves.(See my own sad song written for those poor souls, called "I'm a millionaire but I used to be a billionaire' after the Economist disclosed dozens of billionaires were demoted in the financial crisis that put others out of houses into tents). I learned too that in most of the US you may lose your house but they can't get any of your other assets so buying a house with zero down makes for sweet cheap rent for years until the interest rises and the smart tenant (or money) moves on. Then there's Soros and Buffet and now China and the Cninese American "Chimerica'.
Niall Ferguson is Professor of History at Harvard and Fellow at Oxford and Fellow at Stanford. Most of all he's a brilliant story teller. And the Ascent of Money is a tremendous story. So where is the Hollywood movie with Brad Pitt and Jack Nicholson and Charley Chan. It's clear from reading it today that in China with it's 350,000 new millionaires there would be such a movie made immediately or at very least an HBO special like the Tudors or Borgias. Americans are still reading the sports pages while the Chinese have long realized the real 'contest' is in the business section. Beijing is winning the war in the marketplace and China is now the bank of America.
How to explain 2007, the beginning of the worst financial crisis since the depression of the 30's. Here are answers. Here is what is beyond partisan politics. Here is meaning of life in the world of 'banksterism' . It's not about white hat cowboys and black hat cowboys. Both Clinton and Bush declared that their bankers had misinformed them. In the world of economics with avarice and insurance in competition and tsunamis and Russian government crashes there are butterfly wings all over globalization. The arrogance of the nobel prize winning Black-Scholes model and the whimsy of the Quantum Fund begin to make sense when hedge funds and derivatives are explained. It's really more fashion than anything else and the Devil Wears Prada. I had to read that derivative part again and again hardly believing such silliness in asset management could exist as such a disconnect from reality. This is the financial world of 'deconstructionism'. This is Humpty Dumpty in Los Vegas. It's entertainment at the highest level as well.
Thanks to Niall Ferguson I can understand the 'sound bites' and propaganda, conspiracy theories and fear mongering that the media has thrown out. There's method in the madness but even that's a bit neurotic.. Investments really do go up on sunny days. And yes, I will be able to manage my own paltry sums of cash better thanks to Niall Ferguson. This is essential reading at it's finest.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Live Wire Book
I have been a fan of Harlan Coban since an internist recommended him to me when we were working together at the Commonwealth Health Centre in Saipan. Live Wire is Coban's latest book. I believe I 've read all his books but I love his Myron Bolitar thrillers the best. Laura pointed this hard cover 2011 Dutton one out to me at the bookstore in Ferndale. The bookstore was pet friendly. Gilbert was sniffing the floor when Laura made the remarkable discovery. She's loved Harlan Coban since I introduced him to her. The first Myron Bolitar thriller came out in 1995. I love the character Win. Laura loves Big Cindy, Pocahontas' huge wrestling partner. Pocahantas is petite and beautiful. She's now Myron's lawyer partner. Big Cindi is the receptionist. Win is the killer banker. It was too long since Coban's fans had a Myron Bolitar fix so some of us called Win and asked him to speak to Harlan Coban. Win is hard to ignore. He doesn't like it when people try to shut up Myron. Now I'm skimming through the pages. I'm lucky I made it out of Ferndale. Laura wouldn't let me open the book till I'd finished driving.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Space Doctor
Space Doctor is a novel by Lee Correy published as a Del rey book by Ballantine Books in 1981. It's the story of the first solar energy array in space done as an industrial project, no different from other industrial projects like the South American oil pipe lines. What's amazing about this story is that it begins with a country doctor, friend of the magnate entrepreneur whose privately developing the overall project. The doctor is approached as a friend to build and man the first industrial space hospital with paradmedics and nurses for the high man power site. I was fascinated as a doctor reading this book having not thought of so many of the obvious problems that can arise in 'space medicine'. In an emergency in weightlessness the doctor can't get the bubbles out of the syringe, just for an example. When he goes to intubate the patient, they fly in opposite directions. To get to an emergency industrial explosion site the paramedics have to go through each of the locks in the complex all resulting in too much time lost to save the lives of the welders. The story is written as fiction and moves like episodes of ER. It's the backdrop to the exciting reading that's fascinating and so realistic. I kept thinking that this should be on the required reading list for every medical student, nurse and paramedic today even though it was written thirty years ago. All that's somewhat outdated are the medications used. Otherwise the book is a beginner's guide to frontier medicine at it's finest. Nothing in Star Trek or Star Wars came close to addressing the essence of the industrial and occupational medicine considerations as well as this book does. Not surprisingly Lee Correy is the pseudonym for G. Harry Stine, a rocket pioneer, futurist and expert on space industrialization. Having read some of the research papers from NASA by psychiatrists and psychologists regarding colour and sound I was really impressed to read these very ideas being addressed in the 'wardroom" of this first 'space hospital'. It's a great story but it also raises all the issues doctors will have to contend with when doing surgery, deliveries, and handling emergencies in space. I enjoyed to the conflict with beaurocrats, regulators, the struggles with project finance, the problems arising from design errors. All of it was just fascinating stuff with the background of space emergencies and tight quarter romance.
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