A Fundraiser's Dream



Michael Douglas


The foundation at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal definitely has something to celebrate. They are holding a gala that has Michael Douglas as a keynote guest and speaker.  How many hospitals will be able to tout this epic tale?  I can just imagine the awe in the air in the halls of Jewish General Hospital. Douglas will be attending with his star struck wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. 

Douglas is so grateful to the Montreal hospital staff for detecting his throat cancer and he wants to give back by volunteering to be a headliner at their upcoming gala.  Douglas has agreed to also participate in a pre-gala meet and greet that will give donors an opportunity to rub shoulder to shoulder with the Hollywood couple.

I will be waiting to hear how much money is raised through this high profile event.  One of the auction items up for bid - a round of golf with Douglas and Zeta-Jones at a club near their vacation home in Montreal. 

Having Douglas and Zeta-Jones attend this event is a blessing and Jewish General Hospital is very fortunate. Opportunities like this are rare and almost never come free.  This is truly a fundraiser's dream and I'm sure will be a hot topic in the health care community in Montreal for a long time to come.

Kudos to the staff of Jewish General Hospital for diligently detecting the cancer in Douglas' throat that many health care professionals had previously missed and to Douglas and Zeta-Jones for giving back. 

I wish I could attend this prestigious event. Or better yet, be able to add this event to my event management list on my resume.

Japan Then and Now

White Water Rafting on the Tone River
(Nancy, Chris, Alistair and me)

In 2002, I had the absolute pleasure of making a journey to Japan.  My destina-tion was Gunma in a town called Mae-bashi and my main reason for the visit was my niece who was teaching English for the JET program.

It was June 2, 2002 when my plane was set to leave Toronto, Ontario and would fly me direct to Narita airport in Tokyo.  My journey would take me to the next day and would last a total of approximately 28 hours.

I spent two and a half weeks in Japan and was fortunate to visit many different areas including: Tokyo Disneyland, white water rafting in Gunma's mountainous region on the Tone River, Takasaki and a mini vacation to Okinawa.

Karaoke was one the most enjoyable experiences of my trip. In Japan you can pay a flat rate to rent a karaoke room with just your friends.  Also included in the flat rate was all the alcohol you could drink.  In the room you have retro type couches, tables, TV, karaoke machine, microphone, tambourine, song listings book, a remote to type in the code for the song and a telephone handy to call up your bartender to order another round.  Who couldn't find fun with that list of goodies?  The group I went with sure enjoyed the goodies to their full extent.

When in Okinawa, I heard someone say it was Japan's Hawaii.  The weather was parallel and the fresh fruit was any person's dream.  I became a lover of pineapple while there.  The hotel we stayed at was right on the beach.  I swam in the Pacific ocean for the first time in my life.  I bought Shisha's while I was there.  These are lion like creatures that will protect your house from evil spirits.  You are supposed to place them close and face them toward the door of your house.

Disneyland Tokyo was exactly like Disney World in Fort Lauderdale Florida.  I've been to both now and feel that Tokyo is more scenic with the unique trees and plants.  The rides were the same with the exception that everything was spoken in Japanese because most of the people there were in fact Japanese. 

White water rafting on the Tone River was a first experience for me and what a first experience it was.  While jumping off a cliff, my niece's husband lost his grip on the guides life rope.  Moving quickly into rescue mode, we all jumped into the Tone River to chase him down the river.  The current was so strong in that river, but we were all able to catch him and the raft.  I never knew I could swim like that.  We all high-fived with our paddles when we knew we were all safe and sound inside the raft again.  That is a day I will never forget.

Dickens Pub was the place to watch World Cup Soccer and eat English style fish and chips.  That was a place we frequented along with a place called TKO.  I believe that stood for Total Knock Out - the guy was a boxing fan.  His name was Sho and he was a gracious soul.

Getting lost in Japan was also an unforgettable experience.  Not knowing enough Japanese to get me further than to the taxi place to get to the train station was quite a challenge.  When I realized I had spent all my taxi fare the night before, walking home was even better.  Many people tried to help me but our language barrier was too great.  I ended up trying to play charades with a Japanese couple in an effort to find a land mark that happened to be a bird symbol.  It was funny when the Japanese couple came back to tell me I was close to the bird.  They were pointing and flapping their arms as a bird its wings to covey to me that I was near my destination.  Just a really hilarious moment that I remember.  I instinctently followed the train tracks and once I found the train station, I was able to find my way to the apartment just fine.  I made it safely and it only took about an hour and a half.  Another experience I won't forget.

The bullet train was just like the name suggests.  The regular train was fast enough but the bullet train made it seem slow.  The bullet train travels at about 185 miles per hour.  It was impossible to take a picture out of the window.

Snacks on the regular train were funny: teeny shrimp, slivers of almonds, tiny fish with eyes and odorless garlic and sweet potato.  Some other things I noticed were: the carrots were gigantic, tomatoes were small and the bread was delicious.  They had the most humongous roses ever and can preserve them to be as perfect as the day they bloomed.

I found the people in Japan friendly, hard working and honest; and the energy I felt while there was incredible.  I believe that because of the high level of energy I felt, my jet lag wasn't so severe.  The sun came up at four in the morning.

I am sad over the recent events in Japan with the earthquake and tsunami along with the nuclear disaster that happened March 11, 2011.  The area that I visited didn't receive the extreme tragic events that northern regions like Sendai has.  My heart and prayers are with the people of Japan for both their human and physical loss. The Japanese people should be given accolades for handling such a horrible situation with such grace.

Farmer's and their Green Thumb



"MOMENTS OF REFLECTION"
FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY - ELLIOT TESKEY


I grew up as a farm kid and worked many years on the land.  I'm not going to say it was an easy life because it was hard work, but at the end of the day when the crops were harvested, it was a time for celebration and rest.  County living is spectacular and views are breathtaking and invokes peace.  This is soon to become a distant memory.  Good things rarely grow in Ontario anymore.

Government has taken the farm life away simply by not supporting it.  They have ruined farming in Ontario.  It is a shame that our once diverse market has turned to virtually non-existent.  Our premier does not believe in rural Ontario.  He has proven this time and time again.  His green initiative is the icing on the cake.  Soon our beautiful land will be covered with solar panels and wind turbines.  Our breathtaking views will be scathed and gone forever.

I have a problem with prime farm land being used for wind and solar projects. Any farmer who allows his land to be ruined by these projects should give up the right to be called a farmer. A true farmer grows product that feeds mouths not transmission lines. It sickens me that there are people who are starving in this world and we are using prime land for this experimental, trendy green initiative.

When these solar panels and wind turbines are worn out and the developers are long gone, who will de-comission them?  The farmer better not be crying when the responsibility falls upon him.  He better not cry because his land is no longer fit for growing crops.  I don't want to hear about it.  In my mind, the day he allowed these monstrous turbines and panels to be installed on his land, he lost the right to be called a farmer.

Can someone tell me why our Ontario government is forging into this initiative without even thinking about the economic repercussions?  Ratepayers are strapped month to month and the worst of the costs have not even begun to hit their peak.  Jobs are scarce and government continues to dictate what is good for us.  They manipulate information and increasingly take more and more of our livelihood.  The goal is to be a leader in green energy initiatives.  This will be a burden that will sit on the taxpayers backs for years to come.

Everywhere I turn, I hear about green energy.  Green energy is viral, it doesn't matter what website I click on, what paper I pick up to read or what news program I choose to watch, I cannot escape green energy.  Anything that has to have such hard sell to it, makes me want to run away.  There is something seriously wrong here.

On Guard - Enjoying the Proverbial Pie

Picture captured from:
http://www.johnbrent.ca/2010/09/27/the-way-things-should-be/

Being on guard is becoming such a necessary action in this day and age. If you follow media closely and think about it, you will discover that there are red flags popping up everywhere. If you were to look at life as a proverbial pie, you would quickly be able to put in perspective that most of that pie is not yours. Where do you see most of that pie being enjoyed? I would have to take it a step further. Look at the times. I’ve talked about big business before and how they are choking society as a whole. The government is guilty of taking more and more from taxpayers. We are recovering from a mini economic meltdown in Canada more notably in the US and other parts of the world and it is true that most are feeling the need to scale back. Problem is – recovery from debt is difficult for many. The rising costs of living and trying to pay off existing debt is stressful and is almost impossible to achieve.  Governments continue to spend money when they too should be scaling back.

The world is full of pie takers. If you are a taxpayer and hard working individual, how could you not notice how the organizations and companies that you invest your monthly salary in are trying to take more and more of it? Contracts that are being negotiated between management and unions are becoming more and more difficult. As necessary items for life become more expensive, the companies we work for are trying very hard not to increase our means to pay for these necessaries.  People who are highly educated are working for minimum to medium wage because the high paying jobs are few and far between.  It is sad that a nation deeply committed to diplomacy doesn't support the jobs to go with it.

The battle will continue on and undoubtedly the backs of average citizens will become more broken. We have to stand up for what is rightfully ours - freedom to live life without oppression and sacrifice. Truthfully, if you compared Canada and US to other parts of the world, we would fare out much better and could almost feel guilty for complaining because we really truly don’t know what it is to be poor. We do however, know how it is to crave and give in to the impulses to gather material items. This is what gets so much of us in trouble. There are necessaries and there are luxuries.

We are lucky enough to live in democracy. Although, there is always cause to be on guard as this can turn opposite over time. Much in the way the government spends our money and tells us how to live. There is a little bit of that existing here in our country. We are taxed to the max and seem to just take it. The wages aren’t going up as much as the prices of everything. We are led to believe that it is good for us and it is necessary.

The revolution in Egypt that has been happening for the last 12 days is something to draw attention to. This is a heavily populated Arab county that has been under oppressive conditions for at least 30 years.  Generations young and old is becoming more and more aware of the possibilities of living a free life and are standing up and saying – ENOUGH! It is wonderful. Not wonderful that some have to die in the process; but that the outcome will be liberating and will unleash the souls of these people who have lived in a coerced environment for so long. They want their ruler to surrender his post and take his hand off of Egypt and its people.  President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak is struggling with that decision and does not want to let go.  In 1989, the Chinese Tiananmen Square protests did not end well.  They wanted a democracy and instead the army slaughtered thousands of protesters.

Burt Bacharach composed a song in 1965 called "What the World Needs Now" describing what is missing in the world.  “What the world needs now is love sweet love. It’s the only thing, that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now is love sweet love. Not just for some, but for everyone.”

If the outcome in Egypt is indeed liberation (and we are all hoping for that), I can see this becoming a trend in all nations. There will be more uprising that won't come easy, but the final outcome will be a peaceful one. I vote for a reprieve and a chance for everyone to afford to eat, stay warm, have a roof overhead, clothes to wear, access to health care and have some left over to spoil themselves with, for whatever makes them happy.

The fact that we all need to stay on guard remains true. The key is to prevent government and corporation from taking too much of our proverbial pie. People grow tired of getting nothing but the crumbs.  Keep your eyes, mind and heart open. There are going to constantly be those living among us who aren’t able to achieve this. The sad part is - most of them are living the high life.  Somehow that doesn't seem fair does it?  Maybe we can all learn from this historic event happening in Egypt and put an end to control and oppression once and for all.

"The secret of happiness is freedom.  The secret of freedom is courage." - Thucydides (Ancient Greek historian and author, 460-404 BC).

Poverty becoming the majority?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Is it just me or is most of the population facing a ton of debt in their lives? I recently read an article that explains that the average person owes about $47K in outstanding debt. I assume this number is not including good debt like mortgages or education loans. Recently, the federal government has changed some policy in order to deal with household debt. 

When I researched debt, there seemed to be a difference between good debt and bad debt. An example of bad debt would be credit card payments or a car loan. In order to figure out your bad debt to income ratio, add up your monthly payments on bad debt and divide it by your monthly income. Take that number and times it by 100 to get a percentage. This percentage will help you define whether you are carrying a huge bad debt load. We all have good debt load so it is important to keep bad debt under control.

Even though it is common and acceptable to carry education debt, I and many others can’t help but question whether or not the stress of it all is really worth it in the end. Yes a lot of people do work at lucrative jobs that are correlated with their educational accomplishments; however on the flip side, there are more people who have one and two degree designations and are receiving less monetary gain a year than their outstanding accumulated student loans.
We do live in a time where it is absolutely normal and expected to go to college or university, or both, in order to land a job let alone a lucrative one. Twenty years ago and beyond, the job market didn’t seem so segregated, competitive and exhausting. People didn’t need the same credentials that they do now to receive opportunity in the working world. More people hired to companies were given the opportunity to learn and grow with the business and step into other career paths within. Things have changed so much and because of this, we have a huge divide between the classes. We all can’t be lawyers, bankers and doctors and CEOs. It takes us all and many different roles to make the world go around. The average cardiologist makes about 600K/yr and the average merger banker makes about $2M/yr. It seems that big business and life are grossly out of balance. Does this comparison seem fair? I have some real moral red flags going up for me here.

Yes, money makes the world go around but don’t people do a better job of that than money? Near proverty, in poverty and below poverty seem to be rearing its head and is jockeying for position as a top of mind issue for humanitarian and the media. More and more, you see articles in the media stating that the middle class as we know it is in fact disappearing.  I know opinion will differ between the corporate minded and for the humanitarians. If poverty isn’t a hot topic, it surely should be. Seemingly, we care less and less about humanity and more and more about money, business and the huge corporations. 

Life is hard, plain and simple. Big business is closing in on us all. They are buying more and more small to large businesses resulting in a big business acquisitioning all areas of business. I’m not sure this is the smartest thing for the rest of us. We are led to believe that the more powerful a corporation is the more they will create economic stimulus. I question this claim and more rather believe the opposite. The more they get, the more they want. This in turn makes them hang onto what they have more tightly and makes it more expensive for their product or service falling on the shoulder of the average person.

 Product and service have less quality and choice is limited. Customer service is definitely not what it used to be or should be.  We are controlled by merchandising. Just for an example, I spent years building up a movie library and then technology changed and made my collection irrelevant. I realize innovation is important in life but, it seems more like insanity that continues to  increase. Who can keep up?  Doesn't anyone get tired?

How many people do you know that lives from paycheque to paycheque? In 2010, a poll done by The Canadian Payroll Association published by the CBC revealed close to 60 percent of people live this way. Probably more than you even realize. No wonder we are living with more stress, more illness, more suffering. How long can we all go on living like this? There is no hiding from debt for the average person.

Yes there are the people who make and come from money and those of you that do, I hope you consider yourself blessed. I do believe that many of us do need to stop and evaluate our ways and could even possibly loosen the shackles of humongous debt. It does take a budget and some big lifestyle changes, but I believe it can be wrangled back in. Now is the time to cut the spending and help the stress. Face it - living in debt does create a lot of stress.

In the 1940s, Maslow explained that all humans need  five basic things in order to survive in life.  In this material world, how much do we really need? Exactly when did we stop sticking to the basics? Is it time to go back and better yet, can we go back?

Changing the Past – Truly we are in Dire Straits

Dire Straits: http://www.lemec.net/direstraits.html

The recent announcement by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) to censor the word faggot (slang – used to describe a homosexu-al) from the 26 year old song performed by Dire Straights called “Money for Nothing” has caused quite a stir among the special interest groups.  Did you know the word faggot also refers to food (a kind of a meat-ball)?  I  remember my Welsh grandmother making faggots and peas for dinner.  Not one of my favourite dishes because the patties or meatballs are made of liver.  I am not a fan of liver.  Should we ban faggots and peas too?  The word faggot is being banned from being played in the Dire Straits song and will be deleted out when played over the radio according to the CBSC.  By doing this, they are: insulting the artist, misunderstanding the context of the song and are opening up a whole gamut of songs, books and quotes to discussion and to possible censorship in this country. Censorship and history changed.  This to me is such a slippery slope.

The lyrics of “Money for Nothing”, if really studied, are nothing more than satiric words depicting the jealous types who basically did nothing with their lives. “I want my MTV” is the first line of the song.  If you really want to go down this path, while they can ban the word faggot, they can condone the derogatory images and remarks of the women in the video.  See where I am on this?  Where does it end?  

I actually do get the context of the video and would never judge it to be intended to be racist. Satire is a way to make fun of many touchy subjects. The video characters remind me of the Archie Bunker type with the cigar hanging out of this mouth. Realistically, the video is well done and definitely delivers on the parody of the song’s meaning.

I can’t help but think about why we are changing this and changing that? The notion of changing words in books (specific to the word nigger) such as Huck Fin, another example we could examine. Do you think that history should be changed? I don’t. This is how we learn and grow. History teaches us where we have come from. Is it okay for the Afro-American people to still use the word amongst each other and it can’t be kept in a book written countless years ago (circa 1876)? I think not. It is a double standard. You can’t have it both ways. The written word is in fact art. Art is what it is - a story that is being told, heard or shown depending on what kind of art we are talking about. We are going too far and pretty soon, we will not be able to look at another person without worrying about whether or not they may claim that you looked at them the wrong way.


I’m opposed to the fact that we can just change something that has been around for a long period of time that is meant to entertain. Anyone with half a brain can figure out that satire is the now, just as much as it has always been intertwined in life. There is a difference in deliberate bigot-ism. Entertainment is always blown to proportion


I think we need stop complaining and being so sensitive to many things and just instead choose to be confident. A majority of people can look at things and rise above them. Most people are accepted on every level and diversity is a common practice. Everyone can be an equal and treat others the same.


Censorship seems to be growing more and more. The last time I looked at the constitution, freedom of speech was a part of it. This seems to be losing its momentum.


I believe both this particular incident and the Huck Fin censorship are laughable. Get real people, we have far bigger things to worry about in this world like: Family Guy, All in the Family, and The Simpsons.  The preceding statement was me using satire.

2011 Looks Prosperous - Atrologically Speaking

In my previous blog, I stated that I am glad to see 2010 go in the past and look forward to 2011 in hopes that a better year unfolds.
 
If you follow astrology, you may have already checked up on the year ahead.  My forecast was inspiring and predicts a very prosperous financial time.  There seems to be an opportunity for me to use my skills to do something that I love to do and turn it into a monetary gain. 

Imagine work becoming something I actually enjoy to do.  I really hope that this forecast is on the mark.  I have worked very hard to educate myself, work different jobs, volunteer my time and gain valuable experience.  If this year brings a bearing of the fruits of my labour, I welcome it with open arms.  Bring on the prosperity - I've been waiting for this.

Check out your own forecast by Nadiya Shah.

Cartoon from Google Images found here.