Intense competition brings out the best in people. It also brings out the worst. Undeniably, cheaters often prosper. The downside is that when they get caught, they bring the whole delicate house of public relations cards tumbling to the ground. The selfish, incredibly stupid action of this year’s Women’s Soccer coaching staff has thrown a…
Category: Social Commentary
Social Commentary
Pay the Price, Canada
by renaissanceadmin • • 0 Comments
The latest attempt by NATO to persuade Canadians to contribute our fair share of the cost of the alliance gives us an objective peek at how the rest of the world views Canada. The Price of Freedom Our biggest contribution to the international situation is a charismatic Prime Minister who looks more and more like…
Social Commentary
Normandy: Take Your Children There
by renaissanceadmin • • 0 Comments
The media this week contained lot of bittersweet reaction to the images of old Canadian soldiers in wheelchairs revisiting Juno beach, where they had once arrived 80 years ago. It was pretty obvious that for most it would be the last time. They’re all around 100 years old. One potential visitor died just before he…
Social Commentary
Remote Work in Ottawa Sounds More Remote
by renaissanceadmin • • 0 Comments
The COVID truce seems to be over. Public sector unions have become used to working from home and have decided somehow that it is now their right. Civil Service employers have decided to return to the letter of their contracts. It is a summer of contract negotiations; both sides have forgotten what the cooperative method…
Social Commentary
Free Expression Isn’t Free
by renaissanceadmin • • 0 Comments
The Israeli war protests on university campuses raised a lot of discussion this week about who is in the right and who is wrong. To make that decision, it is necessary to draw a line between what is a protest and what is an illegal imposition of a group’s will upon the populace. Protesters who…
Politics, Social Commentary
Visiting a Country at War
by renaissanceadmin • • 1 Comment
When I’m travelling, one thing I never forget is that I’m in someone else’s country. I am living by their rules and, when push comes to shove, their laws are made for their people, not for me. So, I have a sliding scale of countries that I won’t go into, try to stay out of,…
Social Commentary
Another Look at Propaganda
by renaissanceadmin • • 0 Comments
Headline in a Vancouver Sun article: “This university is a hotbed of anti-Semitism.” Isn’t that just terrible. What’s wrong with the administration in that university? Well, actually, nothing. I strongly suspect that the average students at that university have other things on their minds. Picturing this institution as a hotbed of racism could even be…
Politics, Social Commentary
Carbon Tax
by renaissanceadmin • • 0 Comments
And now the next battle in the war that will absorb the next few generations. The Liberal government made a promise years ago to introduce a carbon tax to restrict the use of carbon fuels. They set out to introduce the tax slowly at a rate they thought the public would accept, and in two…
Social Commentary
What Is Mindfulness?
by renaissanceadmin • • 0 Comments
Apparently, one of the skills of good journalism is to repackage research several different ways for different readers. In pursuit of this goal, my blog today is on the topic of the book I reviewed last week: “Breaking Through, Master Your Default Mode and Thrive,” by Hosein Kouros-Mehr, MD, PhD. Except my title today is…
Social Commentary
Leap Day Salaries
by renaissanceadmin • • 0 Comments
I’ve been in the workforce for over 60 years, in jobs from the most union-oriented hourly wage to contracts where I was my own boss. While I usually take the workers’ side in employment matters, this is one where I side with fairness to the employer. This nonsense about salaried workers getting extra for working…