The Rain in Spain is Mainly in the Plain

Yesterday we finally got the rain that the forecasters have been threatening all week. Nature took a few practise runs at it Friday night but on Saturday the Heavens opened up. Rain, thundershowers and wind driven rain. Pity the poor smoos who decided to go camping. It was an excellent day to be curled up in a comfy chair with a good book.

This morning, Sunday, the air has that just-scrubbed feel about it, it's cool and there are only a few wispy clouds high in the sky. Early this morning a blue jay was raucously calling.

I seem to have entered an extended period of deep cynicism. A friend yesterday asked me if I planned to participate in a Town of Oakville sponsored focus group. I fear my immediate reaction is why waste my time. It is in the nature of such groups that there is sufficient divergence of opinion that those who actually make the decisions will receive justification for the choices they planned to make in the first place. Those who take the time to participate only serve to legitimize those decisions. For the same reason I also have distaste for surveys and their forced-answer questions. Those who hire pollsters do so because the experts are professionals at framing questions that will elicit the responses those who hired them were looking for in the first place. Put another way, to get the right answers you have to ask the right questions.

I’m not a fan of policy by poll in the first place; we have too many politicians who do what it takes to get them elected next time and too few who possess a vision of what needs to be accomplished long-term whether it is popular or not in the short term. The same leaders who cry that the economy can’t afford the measures necessary to fight global warming seem to be turning a blind eye to the long term consequences of doing nothing. Carbon taxes and green schemes may make those driving gas guzzlers sleep with a clear conscience but they do nothing to help the environment in general. Whether I burn coal to heat my home or use coal-generated electricity to do so; the only difference is in where the CO₂ is concentrated. We need government legislated insulation standards and cities planned in such a way that people can walk to the services they need rather then get into an SUV to drive there. Here in Oakville a population of c. 162,000 is about to spend a month drinking bottled water because our city fathers will not spend a million or so dollars to invest in a system to filter the swamp smell generated by the algae bloom on Lake Ontario from our drinking water. Consequently taking a bath will feel like entering a stygian swamp until Lake Ontario cools enough to suppress algal growth. Of course it is quite another issue that this algal growth is made possible by the overload of phosphorus entering the Great Lakes basin from the communities that surround it. The long-term drought and heat we’ve experience this year only serves to exacerbate the situation. Which serves to bring us back again to global warming.

As I wrote in my book blog yesterday, the trouble with the political process in general is that it contains too many lawyers. It appears that I have become guilty of total distrust of the political process in general. I’m sure that there are honest politicians out there or at least those who attempt to be despite the process they’re mired in but I wonder at how effective they can be at moulding that process. I vote, mind you, but for the lesser of the evils; not with any hope that things are likely to change.

All this comes from one who has spent his life serving on committees, often as their chairman. Don’t know who said this but I like it: “A committee is a gathering of the ignorant, elected by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary.” Also, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And Sir Winston Churchill, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” And here are a few of my own. The best foundation for having an opinion on any subject is total ignorance. In any enterprise those least willing to help will have the strongest held opinions as to how things should be done. Never start anything that you are not willing to see through totally unaided by anyone else. There are always plenty of people around to tell you how things should be done but they seem to disappear into thin air when the work begins. Finally, if you get stuck doing a task the road of least resistance is to do it the way you wanted to in the first place. Those who don’t like the result should have been around to see it done their way in the first place. Am I describing the why of how our political process got where it has?

As I head toward retirement I seem to be in the process of withdrawing. I seem to have a need to get away from it all. I’m looking at the possibility of acquiring a motor home, packing it with the CD’s and DVD’s from my collection I’ll want to enjoy, a selection of the huge library of books I plan to get around to reading, and go trekking. Before I go I suppose I’ll need to get a laptop computer with WiFi and a cell phone of some description but otherwise I’m pretty much ready to go. This raises the question of where to head. Reading the news leaves one with a feeling is dis-ease. Hurricanes plague the East Coast and the Caribbean region in particular; forest fires and their smoke plumes beset large areas world wide; cyclones and freak storms are spreading beyond the traditional tornado alley; large geographical areas are experiencing flooding; earth quakes rock many fault lines; political unrest, road blockages, civil disobedience, and riots mar the peace and quiet of even the remotest locations.

“Stop the world; I want to get off.”