Entries Tagged 'philosophy' ↓

Evening Folks,

Life has become very busy, all of the sudden.  Some exciting things are happening with the project, but nothing I can share just yet.  But I did want to share a couple of interesting finds:

Are you being as green as possible with your toilet paper?  Thankfully, I have.  I’m happy to report that brilliant minds have studied the issue of roll placement to best reduce paper waste.  I see a Nobel Prize coming…

Perhaps more seriously, Michael Valpy had a great series on Canada’s role on the world stage, in last weeks Globe and Mail.  His thoughts certainly echo some of mine.  Canada has some work to do.  Have a read.

I’ll be back soon with more, promise!

Cheers,
Brendan

I’m getting more than a few emails these days. Every time someone donates by Paypal I get an email notification. This is great, because it lets me reply and thank the donor (I’m a couple days behind, so if you’ve donated recently - have patience!).

My inbox is flooded even more because many people reply to that thank you, or send a note along with their donation. This is a good thing, please don’t stop! Such was the case with Martha Cass a few days ago:

” Hi Brendan - Thanks for the note. I wanted to let you know that $3 of our donation was from my six-year old son Ben. We saw the story in the National Post and he asked me what you were doing with the children in the picture. When I read him the story, he decided he wanted to dig into his piggy bank to send you the money. His father and I agreed to match his donation.

You talk a bit about how your generation can make a difference in the world. Remember that a big part of that is setting an example for the generation that follows yours. Thank you for setting a good example for our son.”

After getting a message like this, it’s hard to know what to say, or how to respond. So I took the easy route - explaining what was in the photo:

“We were working on promoting water pumps for irrigation and drinking water in Senegal. To do this, we’d install a pump in a village, show everyone how to use it, and then leave it for a month for them to try out. The idea was, if people perceived there to be a benefit, then they’d buy one from their neighbours, who we had trained to build the pumps. The pumps weren’t too expensive, and the overall philosophy was that if everyone along the chain sees a benefit, they will keep making, selling and using the pumps after the project ends.

When we set up pumps in a village, and the first water comes out, kids explode in excitement over to where the water is emerging from the pipes. Sometimes it’s hard not to join them, so that’s what I was doing.”

But a proper answer to Martha’s note would have continued:

I remember being a couple years older than Ben’s age, and seeing my mother walk into my school class with a milk carton around her leg and egg carton on her head. She had volunteered to do a session on recycling, part of a larger program to teach schoolkids to recycle. I remember being 90% mortified that my mom was wearing garbage on her head in front of my friends. But I was also 10% proud that my mom was, well, wearing garbage on her head in front of my friends.

Fast forward about twenty years. Local recycling participation rates hover around 90% in Vancouver. The programs that taught us recycling as kids are now seen as a success. What am I getting at? It’s not about the recycling. It’s about generational change. It’s about recognising the fact that systematic change takes time, and we need to anticipate this. It was nice for Ben to remind me that as hard as my generation works to fix some of our problems, it’s his generation that’s probably going to have to finish the job.

Brendan

This site is deep on inspiration, and a little light on explaining what my philosophy is on what, exactly needs to change.  This is mostly due to available time and resources so far.  But maybe I can help by sharing some thoughts I’ve already laid down on paper.

To Be a Canadian Abroad is about 3 pages of love and frustration about Canada that I wrote in response to our involvement in Bali.  It’s a little long for a blog post, but here’s an excerpt (and the complete piece can be found here):

“Sitting in a library in England on a late December night seems like an unlikely place to be able to change anything in Canada. Distance hinders direct action, but does provide the benefit of perspective: once I am outside Canada, I can see our country more clearly for what it is. Only when I leave Canada and compare it with the other places I have lived, be it Australia, Senegal or the UK in my case, can I truly see the extent of my country’s precarious, still-innocent and naïve beauty, and fret at its subversive, emerging ugliness.

“To a degree, we still have the respect of the world. But we must continue to earn it, not simply inherit it from the last generation’s courage and integrity. Although I have lost the bulk of my faith in our politicians, I still believe in the power of average Canadians to make a difference, both within our borders and abroad. I still believe that, in spite of the vast distance that separates us from most of the world, we share a connection with it that has not been extinguished. I still believe that passion can triumph over indifference, that collective good trumps self interest, and that Canada has an important and positive role to play in the world. And if it is ordinary Canadians that stand up and seize that role, then so much the better.”