We Are The Boat

As taxpayers, over the years we’ve put a lot of money into Evergreen Brickworks, the parkland/gathering place, in the Don Valley (off Bayview, north of Bloor in Toronto) -- even though it has also partnered with private funders. That’s why I was upset to learn that Evergreen is partnering with Suncor and TD on the premise that they will help make our future cities low carbon. Evergreen describes itself as “a place where the world can experience sustainable practices that enable flourishing cities of the future.”   It uses the word “sustainable,” yet it partners with Suncor Energy Foundation (among others) in the “Future Cities Canada”(FCC) organization (formed in 2018). There’s more: One of the founding partners of FCC was TD Bank Group   and is still involved under the name TD Ready Commitment.   In terms of the word, “sustainable,” TD was, in 2017, the principal broker for Kinder Morgan in 2017, helping the company to build the Trans Mountain Expansion tar sa...

The below fictitious dialogue is an important analogy. It’s based on the Oct 10, 2019 CTV article, “Singhleaves door open to support for government pipeline ownership.”  Greta: Our house is on fire! Trudeau: Our house is on fire? Well that’s just too bad because I just spent billions of Canadian taxpayer’s dollars on flame throwers in the crude wholesale market. So I need to get their money back by retailing and distributing those flame throwers to offshore markets. Greta: If anyone throws any more flames, offshore or not, the burning roof above us could reach a TIPPING POINT sooner than you think, and will fall on those Canadian taxpayer’s kids’ heads. Trudeau: Calm down, Greta! All the public proceeds from the sale of these flame throwers will be spent on fire extinguishers. You like that idea, Singh? Singh: “I need to be in government to figure that out.”* Greta: What?! * I n the Oct 10, 2019 CTV article , “Singh leaves door open to support for government...

We're now living in the era of massive struggle against climate change. The global nature of the struggle against climate change, is described well in Ubuntu philosophy: "I am because we are." It's also described in the Lorre Wyatt's song, "Somos el Barco, " which, translated into English, says, "We are the Boat.": The boat we are sailing in was built by many hands And the sea we are sailing on, it touches every land So with our hopes we set the sails And face the winds once more And with our hearts we chart the waters never sailed before Somos el barco, somos el mar, Yo navego en ti, tu navegas en mi We are the boat, we are the sea, I sail in you, you sail in me. ******* The song mentions that we do things "with our hopes" and "with our hearts." That could be interpreted to mean that even if you no longer have hope to do things with, you still have a heart to do things with. A heart is even more central than hop...