Well it's Sunday but I took a few days off from blogging so here's today's idea. Aquaponics.
There's been a lot of uproar about the open pen salmon farms that the NS govt has subsidized, and the potential environmental consequences, as well as the problem that people aren't so game on eating sick fish. Personally having grown up on the west coast where wild pacific salmon was easy to get, I'm not a big fan of farmed Atlantic salmon. My guess is the feed the fish get don't mimic their wild diet well enough. Plus there's the issue of environmental impact.
Here's a site I found that lists off some of the hazards of open pen fish farms. I was actually an at-sea fish observer on trawl boats on BC's west coast, from 1996 - 97, and have seen for myself that penned salmon do escape. The fact in my short career as a fish observer I've seen escaped Atlantic salmon appear in trawl nets leads me to suspect that the potential for escapees is large.
http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/salmon-farming-problems/
Closed containment systems have been mentioned as an option, but my understanding is that these are much more expensive than open pen farms, as the fish are raised in pens on land. What if, however, the money that went to open pen farms was used to develop aquaponics systems for Nova Scotia, to maximize profit off of moving tanks up on land?
Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, using plants to filter the fish water. Thus a crop of vegetables, usually lettuce in current systems, can be harvested along with fish. Here is a link I found to a commercial operation in Quebec that grows trout and lettuce:
http://www.cultures-aquaponiques.com/index.htm
With respect to the feed the fish get, there is so much potential here to produce 'wild feed' by attempting to cultivate the fish's natural food rather than feeding them GMO soy or corn. I won't eat GMO soy or corn myself, so why would I eat fish that was raised eating it. I think there's a good opportunity here to pair aquaponics with vermiculture (the rearing of worms). The worm castings make an excellent compost for vegetable production and could be sold as such, and the worms could be incorporated into fish feed.
Setting up a worm bin is easy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFCW2X9OZ8
here's a link to a video about a large scale vermicomposting operation, you could have something like this beside an aquaponics set up for fish feed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U27Aizi64Wg I think the trick would be to make sure the worms are getting organic healthy food and bedding. I think with all the aquaculture happening, and the growing concern over GMO corn and soy and even over fish-based feed that depletes ocean stocks, the person who invents a cost effective worm-based-fish-feed will be on to something big.
According to this article cold water species like trout and salmon do better on a high protein diet than on plant (corn) based feed. We have a worm bin in our kitchen for scraps and its excellent, the worms seem happy and are reproducing regularly, and we have this handy source of high quality compost. I'd love to try scaling up our worm bin in order to have extra worms to feed fish.
Currently Tilapia is a favourite fish for aquaponics, but unfortunately the ratio of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in this fish mean it isn't as healthy as people would assume. According to this article tilapia may actually be more inflammatory than hamburger, pork and doughnuts. The other issue with raising a warm water fish is how to keep the water temperature sufficiently high. That's why I think development of aquaponics in NS should focus on our native, cold water species, coupled with some plants that are relatively easy to grow.
I was very inspired by this video, although the fish in the system aren't being grown to eat:
We're planning on experiment with our own small scale aquaponics system in the next year or two. We're going to 'borrow' a few trout from the river, and I'd like to grow these fish some delicious worms to eat. I feel excited about developing our land into a permaculture system. It seems timely, given the need for safe food. In googling around about aquaponics I found this article about a very unsustainable aquaculture fishery in Vietnam that has been affected Europe. It is from 2008, so I'm not sure how widespread this fish currently is
http://www.dietmindspirit.org/2008/01/30/why-you-shouldnt-eat-this-fish-pangas-pangasius-vietnamese-river-cobbler-white-catfish-gray-sole/
Speaking of Safe Food, back to the fracking epidemic, there is now evidence that animals grazed in fracked area may be contaminated:
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1784382/livestock_falling_ill_in_fracking_regions_raising_concerns_about_food.html
If I were the premier of Nova Scotia I think instead of giving a bag of money to Cooke Aquaculture, to produce a pile of fish that people are hesitant to eat, I might have instead invested it in NS universities and govt to develop sustainable aquaponics infrastructure for the province. Imagine. Instead of giving dough for some uncreative, environmentally insensitive jobs which in the end create more profit for a single corporation, to invest money in the creativity and ingenuity of some Nova Scotians with a long term vision of creating sustainable food and employment. As the rest of the planet fracks up their fresh water thus contaminating their food supply, by rejecting fracking Nova Scotia would be poised to become an exporter of "safe organic food". In doing so the province could become a haven of healthy, wealthy, sustainable living for all involved. But that's just my opinion.
In googling about this topic, I found I'm not the first person to wonder if vegetables + worms + fish might be a solution.
Check out Food Abundance International
and the selection of videos they posted on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FoodAbundance?feature=watch
Come on, Premier Dexter, in the words of young Iyanla Vanzant, "We can do this":
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Revolutionary Ideas Part 13 - Let's Print Our Own Money
Today's idea isn't actually as crazy as it sounds. Lincoln did it. Iceland is currently on target to be one of the only countries in the world that is refusing to use debt-backed money, as they assert that no bank is "too big to fail, let them fail". I watched this film, "The Secret of Oz" (2010) which is #5 on this list of the top 10 films that explain why the Occupy movement exists. Everyone should watch this. Perhaps it'll be inspiration to form the "Real Bank of Nova Scotia". Get with it, Premier Dexter, grab that copper from Part 12 and mint your own "Dexter Dubloons" I'll even let you use my kiln! Then we can fund that mass transit system.
Please watch this!!! For the love of Canada! and then make all your friends watch it, and then let's pressure the govt to get rid of the big-bank-controlled debt-based money system which is at the root of our economic problems. Really, we don't need to frack, we can invest our own money into refining renewable energy technology. I don't even need to write about this topic any more, it's all in this film, with glorious solutions...
"The Secret of Oz" - 2010. Such a lovely example of the importance of the arts as social commentary, the film discusses L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", published in 1900, which was actually full of references to the problems of the money system which we still face today.
Please watch this!!! For the love of Canada! and then make all your friends watch it, and then let's pressure the govt to get rid of the big-bank-controlled debt-based money system which is at the root of our economic problems. Really, we don't need to frack, we can invest our own money into refining renewable energy technology. I don't even need to write about this topic any more, it's all in this film, with glorious solutions...
"The Secret of Oz" - 2010. Such a lovely example of the importance of the arts as social commentary, the film discusses L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", published in 1900, which was actually full of references to the problems of the money system which we still face today.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Revolutionary Ideas Part 12 - Saving Pennies
Just a short one today, and maybe this would have been more useful last year. The Canadian penny is being withdrawn from service. As a quick money making investment idea, for anyone, I find it curious that the media hasn't reported on the fact that pre-1997 pennies are mostly copper, and therefore worth 2 - 2.6 cents currently. From what I read about copper values, this is likely to increase, so maybe the NS govt should act now to cull these pennies, instead of returning them to the mint! If they're worth 2 - 2.6 cents now, who knows what that value might be in a few years. Then it'd be time to pull the pennies out and use them for something awesome, like a mass transit system.
melt values of Canadian coins:
http://www.coinflation.com/canada/
Forbes article about copper hoarding in China, making me wonder if this is where our melted down pennies are headed:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2012/02/12/china-is-hoarding-copper-why/
And while I'm at it, article I read recently making me wonder why Canadian jobs in Canada are going to China
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/02/03/can-bc-mining-temporary-workers.html
melt values of Canadian coins:
http://www.coinflation.com/canada/
Forbes article about copper hoarding in China, making me wonder if this is where our melted down pennies are headed:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2012/02/12/china-is-hoarding-copper-why/
And while I'm at it, article I read recently making me wonder why Canadian jobs in Canada are going to China
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/02/03/can-bc-mining-temporary-workers.html
Monday, February 4, 2013
Revolutionary Ideas Part 11 - A Way to Keep Keji Open In The Winter
One of the best things Nova Scotia has going for it is Kejimkujik National Park. That's why it was a suprise when Stephen Harper and the conservatives decided to close Keji for the winter this year, as of Thanksgiving Day weekend. Keji is a beautiful place to take in fall colours, and fall was relatively late this year. A week or two after Thanksgiving my husband and I went for a hike there, to find, as predicted the smaller access roads were blocked adding an extra few kilometers to our hike. The colours were at its peak and the entire park was beautiful. Seems bizarre to me to shut the park for this period, and sad that it is shut for winter camping. The area that Keji is in doesn't have a lot going for it economically so it seems like a cruel jab to business owners in this area.
The weekend of Jan 18 - 19 some active winter sports folks held an 'occupy Keji' protest, I didn't take the photo above (pinched it off the internet, thanks photographer) but saw the Harper snow statue with crossed arms as I drove by the park on the 19th.
It is sad that at a time when we're wholesaling our resources to China and there is a need for healthy lifestyles that the government would do this. I get the whole cost-cutting thing, but Canada's national parks are part of what makes this country great, and they give residents and tourists a chance to connect with nature.
So I think I might have a solution.
Now that NS Power is pro-net metering, let's take them up on it.
I stumbled across this video on youtube explaining a relatively recent addition of a microhydro system in Algonquin Park. The system in Algonquin is too far from the grid to allow for Net Metering, but I have a hunch that this could be realized in Keji at the waterfall near the visitors center. The station could be between the waterfall and the road, this minimizing any impact to habitat as there is already some infrastructure there. As explained in the video, water running through a microhydro system is diverted away from the source, in a fish-proof manner, and then returned to the waterway further down. With the pressing need to be developing more renewable energy sources in Canada, a microhydro station would generate revenue, serve as an educational tool/attraction, and hopefully supply funds and more reason to keep the park open throughout the year. I don't know what sort of power a system at this location could generate but with such expensive power rates in the province my guess it would pay for itself pretty quick.
I might be wrong about this, but hey, its just an idea! This might be one of those things that becomes more cost effective as technology is improved.
Here's the video:
The weekend of Jan 18 - 19 some active winter sports folks held an 'occupy Keji' protest, I didn't take the photo above (pinched it off the internet, thanks photographer) but saw the Harper snow statue with crossed arms as I drove by the park on the 19th.
It is sad that at a time when we're wholesaling our resources to China and there is a need for healthy lifestyles that the government would do this. I get the whole cost-cutting thing, but Canada's national parks are part of what makes this country great, and they give residents and tourists a chance to connect with nature.
So I think I might have a solution.
Now that NS Power is pro-net metering, let's take them up on it.
I stumbled across this video on youtube explaining a relatively recent addition of a microhydro system in Algonquin Park. The system in Algonquin is too far from the grid to allow for Net Metering, but I have a hunch that this could be realized in Keji at the waterfall near the visitors center. The station could be between the waterfall and the road, this minimizing any impact to habitat as there is already some infrastructure there. As explained in the video, water running through a microhydro system is diverted away from the source, in a fish-proof manner, and then returned to the waterway further down. With the pressing need to be developing more renewable energy sources in Canada, a microhydro station would generate revenue, serve as an educational tool/attraction, and hopefully supply funds and more reason to keep the park open throughout the year. I don't know what sort of power a system at this location could generate but with such expensive power rates in the province my guess it would pay for itself pretty quick.
I might be wrong about this, but hey, its just an idea! This might be one of those things that becomes more cost effective as technology is improved.
Here's the video:
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Revolutionary Ideas Part 10 - Let's Take Sunday Off
Well everyone taking Sunday off in particular might be a bit unrealistic at this point, especially for those working in essential services. But these days when everyone is plugged in all the time, and for creative/entrepreneurial types who feel compelled to work 7 days/week, it is nice to pick a day of rest. Maybe God was on to something. More ideas to come in the new week! Meanwhile this is a great TED talk I just watched, which makes a lot of sense to me. Up with positivity, creativity and happiness:
Shawn Anchor: The happy secret to better work
Shawn Anchor: The happy secret to better work
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Revolutionary Ideas Part 9 - Up With Rapid Transit
For starters today, in case anyone is still thinking fracking might save this province, here is a recent clip with David Letterman's take on the whole issue:
Hmm.
Moving along to today's idea, "Up With Rapid Transit".
In thinking about this idea I thought of the movie Field of Dreams, and the famous line:
"If you build it, he will come"
In the movie "Field of Dreams" Kevin Costner's character, Ray Kinsella, didn't just stand in his cornfield whining, begging and pleading for the ghosts of a bunch of baseball players to show up and play ball. He built them a baseball diamond. And then they showed up. They weren't going to show up to a cornfield with the promise that a baseball diamond was on the way. Kevin built it. And then they showed up.
For another example, let's look at the Voyageur Lakes subdivision in Hammonds Plains, built by Navid Saberi, who, coincidentally was in the Herald this week for being deliquent on property taxes. (He's paid them up now). Swoon is currently located in a house that is leased from Navid, as it is on the edge of the Voyageur Lakes subdivision and came with the land. I was with Swoon's owner when he was given the speech in 2010 about how the subdivision was going to be this great thing, shops, businesses, equestrian park... Well in the spirit of being truthful, this development looks like a flop to me so far. In my opinion they might have had more success if they had taken a page out of Field of Dreams and built the equestrian park FIRST. Given the community and perspective home buyers some bang for their buck, a reason to get excited.
Similarly if the government of Nova Scotia wants people to move here, stay, create businesses and pay taxes to grow the economy, how about instead of giving bags of money to already profitable companies, they should keep that money to build some awesome infrastructure so that people want to come, without having to be bribed here?
Above is the video for one of my favourite Metric songs, "Handshakes". At minute 2:00 comes the most awesome chorus:
Buy this car to drive to work
Drive to work to pay for this car
Because cars are expensive! You have to buy the thing, pay for repairs, insurance, gas... and cars are expensive in a way that we're not even fully paying for yet, air pollution, climate change. Not to mention the fact that driving can be stressful, so they're costly to one's health as well. Since I've moved to the country and have limited how many times I drive from my house, it is amazing how little I spend on vehicle related expenses.
In my opinion Halifax is an awkward size, it is sort of a teenager of a city. Too large to be the cozy town that Regina was when I moved there in 2005, but not quite large enough to have some of the bigger infrastructure like a rapid transit system like the Skytrain in Vancouver or the Metro in Montreal. And for a city as small as it is, the traffic is quite problematic with the bottlenecks created going to and from the peninsula. More people moving to town will mean more cars, more traffic, more parking problems. It doesn't surprise me that IBM is choosing to locate itself in Bedford; I imagine other large companies would similarly look at areas off the peninsula as more favourable locations.
I was a suburban 13 year old when the Skytrain was first introduced to Vancouver in time for Expo 86 - Vancouver's world fair. It started small. So small, that some, like myself, wondered what the point was. Many people were skeptical but the system has since grown into something that I think a lot of Vancouverites and British Columbians are proud of. Living in East Vancouver in my late 20's I'm sure that because of the nearby skytrain link I went downtown a lot more than I would have without it. When I lived in Halifax I lived in Fairview, and would rarely go downtown eventhough it isn't all that far and I have a car; because buses were slow, taxis expensive, and depending on the event, driving and parking would be a hassle.
Imagine if there were links between the universities, downtown, Mumford terminal and the Bayer's road terminal? There'd be so many less cars on the road, and when you would factor in the savings in vehicle maintenance, I think it would improve people's quality of life. The Hammonds Plains Road in particular has a ridiculous amount of traffic, with all the development occurring out there that a commuter train to downtown would be blissful. One of Swoon's downfalls is that due to the lack of bus service, you really can't visit it without a car. I'm sure other businesses along that strip also find that they are limited to only hiring staff who have a vehicle. And every day around rush hour you can watch the backlog of vehicles, slowly creeping along, most with just one passenger. It just seems wrong to me.
Like with the Vancouver Skytrain system I'd be inclined to start small in Halifax: maybe with just one link that would connect Bayer's Road and Mumford to downtown. And then it could be expanded outwards to deal with the most wretched bottlenecks, with 'park and ride' parking lots placed at strategic locations for long distance commuters.
Better yet, though this would be a long way off, would be to have a rail system linking Nova Scotian towns, such that getting to and from these places would be easier. And lets bring the ferry back while we're at it so that it'd be possible to travel all the way from Halifax to the states. People could visit family and friends, commute to work, tourists could get around more easily. A rapid transit system would make the city more attractive to university students. It would make Halifax and Nova scotia look progressive and smart. It would hedge against the forecasted impacts of an increasing population and a depleting supply of oil.
Okay, I realize that a rapid transit system would also cost a truckload of money and the province is already broke and poor, full of people who feel taxed to death. Fortunately I got this awesome idea today from looking on twitter. Crowdfunding! yes it sounds ridiculous but imagine if we crowdfunded part of a new rapid transit system for the province. Everyone could get on board! The example I saw today was this crowd funding campaign by the Brooklyn Warehouse.
In the write up for their campaign, they mention that Obama used crowdfunding to raise $214 million for his campaign. The Brooklyn Warehouse has used the technique successfully in the past, in this campaign they offer various rewards for different donation levels, A few examples of their many donor levels: $50 gets you lunch for 2 and 2 t-shirts, $1500 gets you a four course dinner for 2, twice a year for the life of the restaurant, $2500 gets you a bushel of amazing perks. All are great value.
So how about it, Nova Scotia, we can all get involved with this one! Everyone can sign up! And the call for donations wouldn't have to be limited to residents of the province, it could be cast out to anyone who has had to move away, or has enjoyed a visit here. Just like the 'cake walk' fundraiser that schools have, where people donate a cake and tickets are sold, this will be on a huge scale! And could include some priceless, once-in-a-lifetime experiences!
$50 would get a donor a lobster dinner for two (good profit margins on this one with the price of lobster this season).
$500 for a polo match with Navid Saberi in his own equestrian village that is Voyageur Lakes.
for $1500 Premier Darrell Dexter comes to your house and cooks lobster supper for you and your family and then cleans your house. Some conservative would pay for that I bet.
we'll get the feds involved, sure,
for $5000 Stephen Harper will come to your house cut your grass. Using a panda from his trip to China.
There's even room for celebrities in this campaign: hockey lessons from Sidney Crosby, lunch with Cathy Jones, or a sailing trip around Ethan Hawke's private island where ever that is.
With all the creative people in Nova Scotia I'm sure someone could hatch a crowdfunding campaign that would get worldwide attention.
Or, if crowdfunding is too ridiculous for a project of this magnitude, how about borrowing from that 25 billion dollars of ship money the feds have put aside; doesn't seem like much is happening with it so far.
Or finally, maybe the thing for the city and province to do would be to plan a rapid transit system, figure out where the stations will be, and before the public finds out, they could buy plenty of property around each hub to flip to developers at a later date when the system is built, to pay back the loan. Before Vancouver's real estate market started to tank, developers in Vancouver were paying outrageous sums of money for houses along the Cambie Street corridor; the latest part of the skytrain to be developed. They would buy a few houses - for around $3 million/house - to create a large enough parcel to knock the houses down for developments that were higher density. With some shrewd planning, the municipal and provincial governments could possibly use real estate investing to help fund this creation of infrastructure.
Anyways, something to think about while idling in commuter traffic.
Hmm.
Moving along to today's idea, "Up With Rapid Transit".
In thinking about this idea I thought of the movie Field of Dreams, and the famous line:
"If you build it, he will come"
In the movie "Field of Dreams" Kevin Costner's character, Ray Kinsella, didn't just stand in his cornfield whining, begging and pleading for the ghosts of a bunch of baseball players to show up and play ball. He built them a baseball diamond. And then they showed up. They weren't going to show up to a cornfield with the promise that a baseball diamond was on the way. Kevin built it. And then they showed up.
For another example, let's look at the Voyageur Lakes subdivision in Hammonds Plains, built by Navid Saberi, who, coincidentally was in the Herald this week for being deliquent on property taxes. (He's paid them up now). Swoon is currently located in a house that is leased from Navid, as it is on the edge of the Voyageur Lakes subdivision and came with the land. I was with Swoon's owner when he was given the speech in 2010 about how the subdivision was going to be this great thing, shops, businesses, equestrian park... Well in the spirit of being truthful, this development looks like a flop to me so far. In my opinion they might have had more success if they had taken a page out of Field of Dreams and built the equestrian park FIRST. Given the community and perspective home buyers some bang for their buck, a reason to get excited.
Similarly if the government of Nova Scotia wants people to move here, stay, create businesses and pay taxes to grow the economy, how about instead of giving bags of money to already profitable companies, they should keep that money to build some awesome infrastructure so that people want to come, without having to be bribed here?
Above is the video for one of my favourite Metric songs, "Handshakes". At minute 2:00 comes the most awesome chorus:
Buy this car to drive to work
Drive to work to pay for this car
Because cars are expensive! You have to buy the thing, pay for repairs, insurance, gas... and cars are expensive in a way that we're not even fully paying for yet, air pollution, climate change. Not to mention the fact that driving can be stressful, so they're costly to one's health as well. Since I've moved to the country and have limited how many times I drive from my house, it is amazing how little I spend on vehicle related expenses.
In my opinion Halifax is an awkward size, it is sort of a teenager of a city. Too large to be the cozy town that Regina was when I moved there in 2005, but not quite large enough to have some of the bigger infrastructure like a rapid transit system like the Skytrain in Vancouver or the Metro in Montreal. And for a city as small as it is, the traffic is quite problematic with the bottlenecks created going to and from the peninsula. More people moving to town will mean more cars, more traffic, more parking problems. It doesn't surprise me that IBM is choosing to locate itself in Bedford; I imagine other large companies would similarly look at areas off the peninsula as more favourable locations.
I was a suburban 13 year old when the Skytrain was first introduced to Vancouver in time for Expo 86 - Vancouver's world fair. It started small. So small, that some, like myself, wondered what the point was. Many people were skeptical but the system has since grown into something that I think a lot of Vancouverites and British Columbians are proud of. Living in East Vancouver in my late 20's I'm sure that because of the nearby skytrain link I went downtown a lot more than I would have without it. When I lived in Halifax I lived in Fairview, and would rarely go downtown eventhough it isn't all that far and I have a car; because buses were slow, taxis expensive, and depending on the event, driving and parking would be a hassle.
Imagine if there were links between the universities, downtown, Mumford terminal and the Bayer's road terminal? There'd be so many less cars on the road, and when you would factor in the savings in vehicle maintenance, I think it would improve people's quality of life. The Hammonds Plains Road in particular has a ridiculous amount of traffic, with all the development occurring out there that a commuter train to downtown would be blissful. One of Swoon's downfalls is that due to the lack of bus service, you really can't visit it without a car. I'm sure other businesses along that strip also find that they are limited to only hiring staff who have a vehicle. And every day around rush hour you can watch the backlog of vehicles, slowly creeping along, most with just one passenger. It just seems wrong to me.
Like with the Vancouver Skytrain system I'd be inclined to start small in Halifax: maybe with just one link that would connect Bayer's Road and Mumford to downtown. And then it could be expanded outwards to deal with the most wretched bottlenecks, with 'park and ride' parking lots placed at strategic locations for long distance commuters.
Better yet, though this would be a long way off, would be to have a rail system linking Nova Scotian towns, such that getting to and from these places would be easier. And lets bring the ferry back while we're at it so that it'd be possible to travel all the way from Halifax to the states. People could visit family and friends, commute to work, tourists could get around more easily. A rapid transit system would make the city more attractive to university students. It would make Halifax and Nova scotia look progressive and smart. It would hedge against the forecasted impacts of an increasing population and a depleting supply of oil.
Okay, I realize that a rapid transit system would also cost a truckload of money and the province is already broke and poor, full of people who feel taxed to death. Fortunately I got this awesome idea today from looking on twitter. Crowdfunding! yes it sounds ridiculous but imagine if we crowdfunded part of a new rapid transit system for the province. Everyone could get on board! The example I saw today was this crowd funding campaign by the Brooklyn Warehouse.
In the write up for their campaign, they mention that Obama used crowdfunding to raise $214 million for his campaign. The Brooklyn Warehouse has used the technique successfully in the past, in this campaign they offer various rewards for different donation levels, A few examples of their many donor levels: $50 gets you lunch for 2 and 2 t-shirts, $1500 gets you a four course dinner for 2, twice a year for the life of the restaurant, $2500 gets you a bushel of amazing perks. All are great value.
So how about it, Nova Scotia, we can all get involved with this one! Everyone can sign up! And the call for donations wouldn't have to be limited to residents of the province, it could be cast out to anyone who has had to move away, or has enjoyed a visit here. Just like the 'cake walk' fundraiser that schools have, where people donate a cake and tickets are sold, this will be on a huge scale! And could include some priceless, once-in-a-lifetime experiences!
$50 would get a donor a lobster dinner for two (good profit margins on this one with the price of lobster this season).
$500 for a polo match with Navid Saberi in his own equestrian village that is Voyageur Lakes.
for $1500 Premier Darrell Dexter comes to your house and cooks lobster supper for you and your family and then cleans your house. Some conservative would pay for that I bet.
we'll get the feds involved, sure,
for $5000 Stephen Harper will come to your house cut your grass. Using a panda from his trip to China.
There's even room for celebrities in this campaign: hockey lessons from Sidney Crosby, lunch with Cathy Jones, or a sailing trip around Ethan Hawke's private island where ever that is.
With all the creative people in Nova Scotia I'm sure someone could hatch a crowdfunding campaign that would get worldwide attention.
Or, if crowdfunding is too ridiculous for a project of this magnitude, how about borrowing from that 25 billion dollars of ship money the feds have put aside; doesn't seem like much is happening with it so far.
Or finally, maybe the thing for the city and province to do would be to plan a rapid transit system, figure out where the stations will be, and before the public finds out, they could buy plenty of property around each hub to flip to developers at a later date when the system is built, to pay back the loan. Before Vancouver's real estate market started to tank, developers in Vancouver were paying outrageous sums of money for houses along the Cambie Street corridor; the latest part of the skytrain to be developed. They would buy a few houses - for around $3 million/house - to create a large enough parcel to knock the houses down for developments that were higher density. With some shrewd planning, the municipal and provincial governments could possibly use real estate investing to help fund this creation of infrastructure.
Anyways, something to think about while idling in commuter traffic.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Revolutionary Ideas Part 8 - Let's All Take Responsibility
Okay, this is the last 'big picture' idea before moving back to some specific ideas to make Nova Scotia a more economically sustainable place (I really do have more ideas that might lead to jobs!). Today's idea is about taking responsibility both for our actions, and in-actions. What if more of us started squawking about, or even quit participating in systems that were corrupt, or harmful to other people or the planet, or ourselves? Wouldn't that be something?
It seems the news is always full of finger-pointing and blaming and buck-passing. I've thought a lot about the question of whether some people are just plain evil or if evil behaviour is something that develops. I've thought a lot about my own capacity for good and evil. I think the following TED lecture is one of the best I've ever seen, very thought-provoking and downright surprising:
Philip Zombardo, "The Psychology of Evil"
Another favourite movie on this topic that I've watched several times is Schindler's List.
A story that comes to mind is "The Emperor's New Clothes" which most people know...
To quote the story (linked to above) here's the part where the Emperor's minister noticed the Emperor's new outfit was a sham:
The Emperor's minister opened his eyes wide. "Upon my life!" he thought. "I see nothing at all, nothing." But he did not say so.
What if the Emperor's minister told the Emperor the truth? That would have taken some guts, eh? What if the Emperor listened to the kids at the end and admitted to everyone, oh crap, I'm naked, instead of going on with the charade? Wouldn't people have had more respect for him? It seems this story is an excellent one for politicians to remember, when they get swept up into things that initially look like a great idea, but part way through start to stink....
An excellent book someone gave me is "A Language Older Than Words" by Derrick Jensen who has written several books popular with environmental activists.
The book is autobiographical, the following is a quote from my favourite part where Derrick realizes that his chosen career in science isn't for him:
"I sat at the computer at work, debugging. I was bored. It was afternoon. I was twenty-two. It was June. Along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, thunderheads move in almost every afternoon between May and early July. They materialize, darken the day, spit a few drops, open the sky with lightning, then disappear like so many dreams.
Turning away from the computer I saw through my own narrow window (at least it opened) the green, the blue, the flashes. I looked to the clock, the screen, the window. An hour passed, then two. I looked again at the clock and saw it had been only twenty minutes. I willed the second hand, the minute hand, the hour hand to move faster, to deliver me to five o'clock when I would be released as from my prison term. Then suddenly I stopped, struck by the absurdity of wishing away the only thing I've got. Eight hours, eighty years, it was all too similar. Would I wish away the years until the day of my retirement, until my time was once again my own? At work I tried to keep busy to make the hours pass quickly. It was no different when watching television, socializing, moving frenetically - there are so many ways to kill time.
I remember staring at the computer screen - light green letters on dark - then at the clock, and finally at my outstretched fingers held a foot in front of my face. And then it dawned on me: selling the hours of my life was no different from selling my fingers one by one. We've only so many hours, so many fingers; when they're gone, they're gone for good.
page 110 - 111 from "A Language Older Than Words"
Ironically I was given this book by a sage young friend that I met in a community band in Vancouver. I think within a month of reading it, moved by the above quote, I had hatched my own plan to quit my full time job. I have nothing but respect and admiration for those people I've met who enjoy working a good full time office job, it just isn't a lifestyle that is for me.
Maybe instead of participating in corruption or other things that don't sit well with us, if we all woke up and started crying "foul", it would be a step towards realizing new solutions. We'd speak out against corruption, bullies and cheaters instead of looking the other way. We'd take ownership for our own actions, as well as in-actions. Maybe we'd all notice how terrible bill C-45 is for Canada and question how Harper was able to slip this bill past Canadians, much like the Emperor parading naked through his city. Fortunately the protest of this bill is at the heart of the world wide "Idle No More" campaign. I think that's why I like the "Idle No More" movement so much. I don't understand how any Canadian can sit idly by while Harper makes wholesale, sweeping changes to the detriment of our nation. Shame on you, Stephen Harper! And shame on all of us for letting it happen. Honestly, Stephen, instead of patting pandas in China how about checking out those greenhouses in Holland...
I'll end this post with a video I stumbled across when I googled "How to Save The World". I found this: "How to Save The World, One Man, One Cow, One Planet". The documentary is about Peter Proctor, an elderly New Zealand gardener and proponent for biodynamic farming. What strikes me about this movie is the joy and vitality of Peter Proctor. Similar to Schindler's List it gives an example of how one person, doing what they believe is the right thing, in spite of being surrounded by harmful systems, can positively impact so many people's lives. It is such a moving antidote to that prevalent thought that goes something like "bah, I'm just one person, what can I do". And, if anyone still isn't sure that Monsanto harms people and the earth, this film is a must-see:
It seems the news is always full of finger-pointing and blaming and buck-passing. I've thought a lot about the question of whether some people are just plain evil or if evil behaviour is something that develops. I've thought a lot about my own capacity for good and evil. I think the following TED lecture is one of the best I've ever seen, very thought-provoking and downright surprising:
Philip Zombardo, "The Psychology of Evil"
Another favourite movie on this topic that I've watched several times is Schindler's List.
A story that comes to mind is "The Emperor's New Clothes" which most people know...
To quote the story (linked to above) here's the part where the Emperor's minister noticed the Emperor's new outfit was a sham:
The Emperor's minister opened his eyes wide. "Upon my life!" he thought. "I see nothing at all, nothing." But he did not say so.
What if the Emperor's minister told the Emperor the truth? That would have taken some guts, eh? What if the Emperor listened to the kids at the end and admitted to everyone, oh crap, I'm naked, instead of going on with the charade? Wouldn't people have had more respect for him? It seems this story is an excellent one for politicians to remember, when they get swept up into things that initially look like a great idea, but part way through start to stink....
An excellent book someone gave me is "A Language Older Than Words" by Derrick Jensen who has written several books popular with environmental activists.
The book is autobiographical, the following is a quote from my favourite part where Derrick realizes that his chosen career in science isn't for him:
"I sat at the computer at work, debugging. I was bored. It was afternoon. I was twenty-two. It was June. Along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, thunderheads move in almost every afternoon between May and early July. They materialize, darken the day, spit a few drops, open the sky with lightning, then disappear like so many dreams.
Turning away from the computer I saw through my own narrow window (at least it opened) the green, the blue, the flashes. I looked to the clock, the screen, the window. An hour passed, then two. I looked again at the clock and saw it had been only twenty minutes. I willed the second hand, the minute hand, the hour hand to move faster, to deliver me to five o'clock when I would be released as from my prison term. Then suddenly I stopped, struck by the absurdity of wishing away the only thing I've got. Eight hours, eighty years, it was all too similar. Would I wish away the years until the day of my retirement, until my time was once again my own? At work I tried to keep busy to make the hours pass quickly. It was no different when watching television, socializing, moving frenetically - there are so many ways to kill time.
I remember staring at the computer screen - light green letters on dark - then at the clock, and finally at my outstretched fingers held a foot in front of my face. And then it dawned on me: selling the hours of my life was no different from selling my fingers one by one. We've only so many hours, so many fingers; when they're gone, they're gone for good.
- I quit work two weeks later - having sold another eighty of my hours - and knew I could never again work a regular job."
page 110 - 111 from "A Language Older Than Words"
Ironically I was given this book by a sage young friend that I met in a community band in Vancouver. I think within a month of reading it, moved by the above quote, I had hatched my own plan to quit my full time job. I have nothing but respect and admiration for those people I've met who enjoy working a good full time office job, it just isn't a lifestyle that is for me.
Maybe instead of participating in corruption or other things that don't sit well with us, if we all woke up and started crying "foul", it would be a step towards realizing new solutions. We'd speak out against corruption, bullies and cheaters instead of looking the other way. We'd take ownership for our own actions, as well as in-actions. Maybe we'd all notice how terrible bill C-45 is for Canada and question how Harper was able to slip this bill past Canadians, much like the Emperor parading naked through his city. Fortunately the protest of this bill is at the heart of the world wide "Idle No More" campaign. I think that's why I like the "Idle No More" movement so much. I don't understand how any Canadian can sit idly by while Harper makes wholesale, sweeping changes to the detriment of our nation. Shame on you, Stephen Harper! And shame on all of us for letting it happen. Honestly, Stephen, instead of patting pandas in China how about checking out those greenhouses in Holland...
I'll end this post with a video I stumbled across when I googled "How to Save The World". I found this: "How to Save The World, One Man, One Cow, One Planet". The documentary is about Peter Proctor, an elderly New Zealand gardener and proponent for biodynamic farming. What strikes me about this movie is the joy and vitality of Peter Proctor. Similar to Schindler's List it gives an example of how one person, doing what they believe is the right thing, in spite of being surrounded by harmful systems, can positively impact so many people's lives. It is such a moving antidote to that prevalent thought that goes something like "bah, I'm just one person, what can I do". And, if anyone still isn't sure that Monsanto harms people and the earth, this film is a must-see:
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