robert dziekanski’s death: excessive force or excited delirium?

police officer mo cho used to hope paramedics arrived at some scenes before he did. those were the “M-1s,” the calls involving mentally ill people. “i had no idea what to do,” cho said. that’s the beginning of an article by deedee correll “training helps cops deal with mentally ill“. did the RCMP at vancouver… Continue reading robert dziekanski’s death: excessive force or excited delirium?

the last remembrance day song for 2007: canto libre by victor jara

yesterday i promised you a translation of victor jara’s canto libre. here it is (and here is the MP3 version). my verse is a dove looking for a place to nest. and with a roar it opens its wings to fly, to fly.   my song is free and wants to give itself to whoever… Continue reading the last remembrance day song for 2007: canto libre by victor jara

remembrance day songs for a different kind of soldier

don’t know why remembrance day fascinates me so – at any rate, here’s another post about it, following the one last week and this and this last year. today i’d like to honour some soldiers for peace and democracy who died upholding their convictions. ephialtes, a fighter for democracy 400 BCE martin luther king, fighter… Continue reading remembrance day songs for a different kind of soldier

remembrance day songs for 2007

a few days from now is remembrance day – november 11 here in canada, when we remember our soldiers in the war. and when we imagine a future without war. i know, it sounds crazy. just this morning i was reading about paul tibbets, the man who threw the atomic bomb on hiroshima and who… Continue reading remembrance day songs for 2007

guilt, cheney and guantanamo bay

junebugkitty, one of my stumbleupon friends, had some interesting comments on the topic of guilt that we started discussing here a few days ago. he mentioned the famous milgram experiment, where subjects in a psychological experiment were required to administer electrical shocks to their fellows when told so by an authority. over 50% followed those… Continue reading guilt, cheney and guantanamo bay

13 encouraging questions

“never mind the answers – just ask the right questions!” this is so true. last sunday i participated in a conference, dream vancouver, intended to encourage citizens to articulate their visions and hopes for an even better vancouver. the main process of the conference was organized around appreciative inquiry. appreciative inquiry is a philosophy and… Continue reading 13 encouraging questions

hungry, thirsty, confused – and dead

last sunday, a man was killed at the vancouver airport. robert dziekanski died after he was tasered by police at vancouver international airport. police say he was agitated, screaming, shaking and throwing things. he had been at the airport for 10 hours. i have no idea what exactly happened in this situation but it is… Continue reading hungry, thirsty, confused – and dead

blog action day: interdependence with the environment

today is blog action day, a day on which bloggers worldwide post on topics concerning the environment. what is “the environment”? here is a merriam-webster definition the circumstances, objects or conditions by which one is surrounded; the complex of climatic, edaphic and biotic factors that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately… Continue reading blog action day: interdependence with the environment

thanksgiving all over the place

in my post yesterday i referred to the thanksgiving weekend. some of you readers in the US might have thought that i ought to take the confucius on confusion course i talked about the day before.  thanksgiving isn’t until late in november! but, actually, this time i’m not confused. i could have pointed out, of… Continue reading thanksgiving all over the place