By Daan Vander Kroon
July 12, 2010
Lots going on. At least two ongoing public inquiries. Well, only one so far – an inquiry into the disappearance of 8 million Fraser River sockeye and overall decline of the run. Incredibly, there’s still talk of granting the run sustainable status. Calls for a public inquiry into police brutality and excessive use of possibly unjustified force in Toronto.
Here in BC we now have a Harmonized Sales Tax, brought in by your governing Conservative Party of Canada in close cooperation with the local BC Libs. Yeah, it’s a consumption tax which appears to be decent policy, and yeah, some claim it will increase the business sector’s competitiveness, but at the end of the day the overall tax is higher and that can’t be a good thing. You have to compliment them on the clever way in which they implemented, paying the provincial government $1.6 billion in two installments to soften the political blow. Miraculously, they have almost escaped without any blame despite enabling the tax and then rewarding those provincial governments that implemented it. Clever indeed.
Over a month ago now, I was exposed in a lot more detail to Michelle Nickerson’s Ripple Effect. Michelle did the 2009 Sustainable Living Leadership Program, as I did in 2008,This organization, still in its infancy, aims to kick-start salmon restoration projects by using repeat and widespread acts of physical endurance to raise funds for a range of projects, on a variety of levels from small local watershed, to large system watersheds, Riversheds if you will. This was to be accomplished through a multiple person length of the Fraser River swim this year by Michelle and other swimmers. The unexpected challenges of fundraising and trip organization prevented that plan from proceeding fully this year; instead we planned a length of the Fraser River cycle project; a much less capital intensive undertaking, if still a challenging physical feat. This will be the Ripple Effect kick-off for 2010 – a 3 000 to 4 000 km. cycle trip through all communities within the Fraser River Watershed, if not entirely by Michelle and I, by other riders who join the trip.
The trip will lay the groundwork for a 2011 Fraser swim, and has virtually unlimited potential to morph into various fundraising and awareness initiatives, involving acts of physical stamina such as swimming, cycling, and hiking.
Lastly, as a Dutchman I can’t help but follow the Dutch squad’s ascent to the World Cup final. Through no effort of mine, I ended up watching the game on the big screen at Sumas Mountain Coffee Roasters on George Ferguson when I stopped in there after a ride this morning. I’m disappointed at the Dutch squad’s seeming focus on brute strength and aggression – they applied force that wasn’t necessary in far too many fights for the ball, and didn’t show a great deal of offensive creativity. This incarnation of the Dutch squad isn’t really I can support…much as it pains me to say that.
Even more so however, I resent how this World Cup in Johannesburg, a display of primarily physical strength with little true importance has garnered far more headlines than the Earth Summit on Sustainable Development, a discussion on the very future of humanity by some of the world’s brightest minds. That imbalance needs to change if human behaviour is ever to change.
