LOG SCULPTURE AT POINT ROBERTS

LOG SCULPTURE AT POINT ROBERTS

Once regal trees,
Now sodden bodies,
Rudderless they sailed
Drifting on placid Pacific tides,
Then propelled by storming seas
To this deposit high on shore
To lie a tangled twist of wood,
Each log a wooden story.
Dry and bleached in view of Baker.
Cradled in sand they watch the sun
As it rises, passes, sets.
Soft to touch, to climb and sit on
They call the child and hiker to their joy,
And sometimes the artist to paint on canvas
Their complexity as a sculpture
A natural work of art.

© Ron Unruh
Back Story: We make annual cross border visits to Point Roberts, a small seaside peninsula. Inviting paintable scenes are everywhere. 16x20” oil

WILL WE EXPERIENCE WORLD WAR III?

Will we see WORLD WAR III.

Wasn’t Obama the questionable recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after inauguration, having done nothing for peace but to talk about negotiation and discussion being the preferred means by which to end the greatest and deepest conflicts. Well he didn’t close down Guantanamo Bay detention camp. And he did authorize the bullets that took down Saddam Hussein. Now, Britain and USA are in geographical and philosophical positions at Syria’s doorstep to launch an attack, ostensibly to punish Bashar Hafez al-Assad for using chemical attacks on innocents in his own country. UN inspectors have been allowed to conduct an investigation but it has not been completed. The UN wants more time.

RU Disappointed?

A NEW LEARNING
I am RU and yes I am - disappointed. I am bugged. To understand this, you must know that I liked Harper’s values. I liked the man himself. Candidly, given the alternatives before Christmas between NDP and Liberal, and the possibility that Larry, Curly and Moe would form a coalition, is there any question why I would side with Harper? But now I am irritated. My feelings are exacerbated by my comparison of Harper with the American President which I expressed yesterday.

It’s the fact that Obama and Harper are doing this economic recovery thing so differently from one another. No, it’s more than that. Their governing styles are so different and I appreciate Obama’s approach much more. Here is what is lacking in Harper’s practice in my view. I am not discounting Harper’s work ethic. He is an active politician but at this time in the life of this nation shouldn’t he be speaking to its people about the economy and what we can expect him and his administration to do to fix it. Well he isn’t speaking to us. In fact he isn’t even speaking to the news media. His last press conference on Parliament Hill was held on November 8. Oh, he did talk pithily to news journalists at the conclusion of his January meetings with the premiers. But he is not exactly exuding hope and confidence and the ‘Yes we can’ realism we hear to the south. In the House of Commons as the formal budget debate occurs Harper has not participated except in predictable question period responses. When he ventures outside the House and home, he is doing photo ops, vaguely related to the budget’s provisions for infrastructure spending. He has attended the Quebec Carnival opening and Toronto Chinese New year dinner and New Brunswick hockey tournament. He is shaking hands but not calming shaken spirits of the jobless.

Now if you think I have assessed him unfairly consider this. Obama fired up Air Force One and keeps it on the launch pad for an unprecedented series of public relations campaign in various cities in which he carries on heart to heart and personal conversations with Americans. He does ‘sit down’ interviews with all the TV networks. His recent press conferences were nationally broadcast. He knows how to use the media and be available to the media. His rhetoric is hard-hitting and direct and you can’t miss that he is in this American crisis together with everyone and specially those most affected. His White House website is informative and encouraging. Now his stimulus package has been passed and he is not stepping back an inch from the public forum and therefore no wonder he has a 76% approval rating. You get the feeling with him that this is not merely freshman fervor but a deep commitment he will carry until he has expired his two terms.

Of course the differences between the two national leaders relates to personality and style. One appears approachable and the other appears distant. What I have come to believe is that with Obama it is about power to affect the sweeping changes in the way government works for its people. With Harper now, it may unconsciously be about power to affect his survival in the event of another vote of confidence. What we don’t know is hurting us. Okay I am dismounting this hobby horse and will stay off for a while.

Websites - I am Voting for the Bloc

A NEW LEARNING
Compare them yourself. Here is the new Government of USA website entitled ‘Welcome to the White House”, and here is the existing Canadian Parliament Website. Which impresses you? makes you want to read further and to explore? Now here is the official Government of Canada site, a very comprehensive information vehicle. So kudos for content on this one.

I would describe the Canadian Parliament site as unimpressive. But it is more than that. It gives the appearance of an early entrance into the internet website era, even a reluctant admission that this is the most comprehensive form of communication today. In contrast the USA government site was newly installed on January 20 2009, Inauguration Day and carries the same look and colours of Barak Obama’s presidential campaign site. It is designed to engage people in government and to increase the information flow in both directions. Our Canadian site currently is configured with small font, jammed with information on presenting pages and not at all stimulating to explore unless in serious need of information. (Did you notice how my visual images contrast the scale of my impressions of each?)

So I decided to write to the Canadian Parliament website at their invitation to say the following:
“This is not a criticism but a suggestion. Having just viewed comparatively the new web site of the USA government and our own Canadian government site, perhaps a refreshment of our Canadian site design with use-friendliness, colour, and larger font would increase user volume and ease of use. Since timing of USA's new site was January 20th 2009 might it not be timely to affect this redesign for January 26 2009 start of the next session? Thanks for reading.
http://ronunruhgallery.webs.com/ Ron”

Yes you can see that I even threw my art website at them in a brazen self promotion.



I would love to see a Canadian government website of which I can be as proud as I am of my country.

1. Conservative Party website is attractive, easily navigable, informative but not current and still contains the old fighting anti NDP and Liberal rhetoric.
2. The Liberal Party site is cast in red & white, plainly and simply, easily navigated but disappointingly uninformative about major issues and policies and agenda.
3. The NDP site is shockingly and tastelessly orange as in construction coveralls, but it's well designed and provides good visuals.
4. The Bloc Quebecois Party website has the mandatory English option, good visuals and colours and is very informative.
5. The Rhinocerus Party is designed in simple red and white with the goofy rhino logo, looks like a cartoon and does not work well.
5. The Green Party site is... green, well laid out, is easily understood, has very good issues and solutions lists. I am impressed.

Of the Canadian collection in terms of design and useful information I would shortlist the Conservative, Green and Bloc sites and my vote goes to the Bloc.

Meltdown Monday and Where do We Go From Here?

A NEW LEARNING
How many sports heroes have retired and later come out of retirement? We hear about this all the time. I am not announcing 'my coming out' - of retirement that is, quite yet.

The USA is experiencing the greatest regulatory failure in modern history. There is no consensus as to whether a federal bailout will cure things or make matters worse. President Bush, Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have said the credit crunch is dire and that without a bailout the country’s economy will plummet into a deep recession or worse. But Congress rejected the bailout bill this week. One of the main obstacles is the enormous $700 billion price tag that U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson asked Congress to approve. That money is earmarked to buy bad credits from lending institutions. In theory, cleaner balance sheets will allow those lenders to start providing credit again to commercial and retail customers, giving the economy a lift. Now all the bad debt will be placed on the taxpayer and the federal government in order to stop the bleeding of not only large companies, but the bleeding of pensioners, house owners, and small businesspeople.

Commentators are agreeing that it is the end of the world as Americans have known it. I heard an economist say that the effects of this crisis will not be over until 2015. Another says that everyone must immediately adjust to the reality that you cannot pay for things with money you do not have, which is to say, we can no longer live on credit. The credit bubble has burst. It inflated obscenely over many years. Gigantic losses have been realized all over the world. Some people know no other way to live than by credit. Plastic cards are the way we transact business from breakfast to the purchase of a car. I know that we Canadians feel that we are still sitting on the hill looking down at this unfolding crisis in America and believing that we are safe on high ground. I don’t know whether we are or we aren’t safe. I suspect that as connected as the markets of the world are, we will not be immune. So, someone like me who has for a lifetime worked within a non profit work world, receiving wages commensurate with limited institutional financing and with no pension other than what I have set aside myself. If I lose my RRSPs as some pensioners may lose their 410K’s in the States, retirement may be over for me and I will be looking for work. There are all kinds of jobs available right now. I could serve coffee and donuts at Tim Horton’s. I might have to.