Apr 26, 2009

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young WHEN I was in Maui recently, I watched a mother whale and her calf cavorting in the ocean. She was teaching her baby how to slap the water with its pectoral fin while some distance away, a male rested lazily near the top of the water, keeping pace with the mom and calf. I was told that a male – not the father...

WRITING ON THE WALL by Paul Rogat Loeb A few years ago, I heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at a Los Angeles benefit for a South African project. He’d been fighting prostate cancer, was tired that evening and had taken a nap before his talk. But when Tutu addressed the audience he became animated, expressing amazement that his long-oppressed country had...

by Nick Loenen IN BC’S CURRENT electoral system, the political parties – and increasingly only the party leaders – control which names will appear on the ballot. Voters are given a list of candidates from which they may choose one name only. The public is forced to express absolute support for a local candidate, a party leader, a party and a...

THIRTY SOMETHING by Ishi Dinim MY STORY isn’t finished yet. Sometimes, I get so caught up in it that I find it hard to see out of it, to separate myself from watching the ink dry. Today, I crawled up on a ladder and cleaned my windows from the outside for the first time in several years. I had been living with filthy dirt between the world and me and it...

Apr 25, 2009

INDEPENDENT MEDIA by Steve Anderson SINCE MY last column, in which I wrote about the decline of journalism, the bleeding of jobs and the threat of local news outlets going “black” continue. Along with a slew of recent layoffs, Canwest is attempting to sell off parts of its media empire. Journalists have now become active in reporting the...

Apr 25, 2009

NUTRISPEAK by Vesanto Melina IS YOUR lifestyle such that you often find yourself grabbing something to eat as you rush out the door, eating it on the run or  when you’ve reached your destination? Does a commute to work replace a leisurely time at the breakfast table? Do you attend school and find that your best time to eat something nourishing is...

Apr 25, 2009

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot RENOWNED FOR its lakes, rivers and streams, Canada has nine percent of the world’s available supply of fresh water so it’s hard to believe that Canadians should be concerned about fresh water shortages. You might think commercial and industrial demands put the most strain on the water supply, but Canadian...

Apr 25, 2009

THE POWER OF NOW by Eckhart Tolle THERE ARE many accounts of people who say they have found God through their deep suffering, and there is the Christian expression “the way of the cross,” which I suppose points to the same thing. We are concerned with nothing else here. Strictly speaking, they did not find God through their suffering because...

Apr 25, 2009

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young Let go of your attachment to being right and suddenly your mind is more open. You’re able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment. –Ralph Marston BUDDHIST philosophy teaches about the pain and suffering that come from attachment. We may become attached to...

Apr 25, 2009

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead APRIL 22 is Earth Day, and has been since 1970, when a bunch of Harvard graduates organized a grass roots teach-in on the environment. The history of Earth Day is the subject of Earth Days, the closing film at the second Projecting Change Film Festival (www.projectingchange.ca). The film fest, which saw 2,200...

Apr 25, 2009

EARTHFUTURE by Guy Dauncey ON MAY 12, we are being invited to choose a new system of voting in BC. In place of the old “First Past the Post” system, we’ll have a chance to choose a more democratic method. This is an enormous opportunity, but it is one we could easily lose if we are not well organized. Under the present system, most BC...

Apr 25, 2009

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki with Faisal Moola WE KNOW that global warming is a reality and that we humans are its primary cause. And we know that carbon dioxide emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels, are a major contributor to global warming. But we still have much to learn about the Earth’s mechanisms when it comes to regulating emissions and...

  Democracy is an ideal, a fragile state that requires our ongoing attention in order to be preserved. It is a gift passed to us by our parents and grandparents, paid for by their blood and tears. Democracy has finally arrived after millennia of serfdom, dictatorship and slavery. Finally, we hold the privilege of voting for someone to represent us in...