Cool air and a warm blanket

If I stand on tiptoes this week I can see August. That makes me happy because I’ve never been a fan of July. Too much heat. Too many people.

August is a much better month, with thinning summer crowds and the first hints of cool fall air. And, of course, the further August progresses, the cooler the temperatures become.

My Northwestern Ontario blood likes coolness, which gets me thinking about pulling out the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) point blanket. That blanket on my bed is a sign that the hot, muggy nights of summer are being pushed aside by temperatures more to my liking.

This year, however, I’ll pull out the HBC blanket with some discomfort. These blankets are a significant part of history, and history and the objects that it reflects, are under attack.

Monuments, statues and other memorials are being torn down or defaced in many parts of the world. It all seems to have started with the U.S. Confederacy and slavery, but has spread to other historical issues and historically prominent persons.

The HBC blanket could be easily identified as an item with some history that no one should glorify.

The Hudson’s Bay Company introduced the wool point blanket with its coloured stripes and points (black markers) in 1779. It got the idea for the blanket from French weavers who developed a point system as a way to specify a blanket’s finished size.

The points were simple black lines on a corner of the blanket. One black line or point indicated a small blanket; five indicated a large one.
Blankets became a currency during the fur trade, with merchants pricing them according to their number of points.

Point blankets were taken in trade by Indigenous people for furs. They became valuable household items used as sleeping covers, robes and for gift giving. But for some Indigenous people the HBC point blanket represents colonialization and the dispossession of their land and culture.

The British infected trade blankets with smallpox as a chemical warfare means to eradicate Indigenous populations. Jeffery Amherst, commander of British forces in North America, suggested this during the 1763 Pontiac Uprising in Pennsylvania.

“You will Do well to try to Innoculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race,” Amherst wrote in a letter to a subordinate.
Amherst is considered the architect of the British campaign to take what is now Canada from the French.

His name is honoured in Canadian streets and towns – Amherst, Nova Scotia, Amherstburg, Ontario – but those namings are being reconsidered. The city of Montreal last year renamed Amherst Street Rue Atatekan, a Mohawk word denoting equality among people.

Although Amherst was prominent in military campaigns in Canada, there is no evidence of infecting blankets, or of even suggesting the idea, in Canada. Some writers have said there was but that is pure speculation based on what happened in Pennsylvania.

Such a monstrous action certainly would not have benefitted the Hudson’s Bay Company. Killing customers is not smart business.

Wanting to topple historic monuments and cancel tributes given to some prominent historic figures is understandable, especially when you consider cruel racists like Amherst. 

However, despite knowing the history of trade blankets, I plan to keep and cherish my HBC point blanket. To me it is an important reminder of past wrongs and the racism that continues today against Indigenous peoples.

It is a reminder that the times and the people were different back then, and many thought and acted in ways that most of us now find repulsive.
I wrote “most of us” because it is evident that despite the passage of time allowing us to create a more diverse and better educated society, intolerance and racism remain a problem.

The Bolsonaro administration in Brazil and the U.S. Trump administration both are attacking Indigenous lands and rights in favour of special interests. Here’s one Bolsonaro quote from the past:

“It’s a shame that the Brazilian cavalry hasn’t been as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated the Indians.”

Closer to home we have Prime Minister Trudeau and RCMP Commissioners Brenda Lucki both admitting systemic racism exists in the national police force. 

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The Riddle and the Madness

The riddle and the madness

 

From Shaman’s Rock

By Jim Poling Sr.

 

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

 

That’s the question the Mad Hatter asks Alice in Lewis Carroll’s fantasy Alice in Wonderland.

 

Alice ponders the question but does not have the answer.

 

“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter prods.

 

“No, I give up,” Alice replies. “What’s the answer?”

 

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” says the Mad Hatter.

 

That scene from the Hatter’s tea party is today’s reality. Our world has become a whacko tea party with characters just as nutty as the Hatter, the March Hare and the Cheshire cat. 

Too many people don’t have the slightest idea of how to conduct themselves during this awful Covid pandemic. We are living in a world of Mad Hatter mania with crazy behaviour increasing everywhere.

Confrontations over wearing protective masks have become numerous and ugly. They have led to racist rants and violent scenes resulting in injuries and deaths.

Last week’s police shootings of disturbed elderly men here in Haliburton County and outside Detroit, Michigan are examples. Both began with arguments about wearing masks.

 

There is Mad Hatter-style frenzy on the roads and highways. The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) says 59 per cent of Canadians polled reported having seen an increase in dangerous driving since the Covid crisis began.

 

Speeding topped the list of observed bad driving behaviours. Forty-four percent of those polled by CAA said they saw drivers speeding in the last few months.

 

Speeding has not been in the top five of CAA’s observed unsafe driving behaviours since 2013.

 

Aggressive behaviour is being seen more often while shopping. Racist rants are being reported more frequently.

 

Clerks have lost some of their previous pleasantness, and you can’t blame them. Despite precautions, they are exposing themselves every day to customers who might be carrying the virus.

 

Customers also have become more unpleasant. A Home Hardware in Vancouver has seen enough bad customer behaviour to post a sign telling customers that disrespecting and abusing staff is unacceptable.

 

The sign reads:

 

“If you think you will be unable to behave in a calm, respectful manner and accept our current situation with empathy and an expectation of compromise, we kindly ask you to shop elsewhere.” 

 

Businesses, on top of suffering huge financial losses, are seeing an increase in crime. Commercial break-ins in Vancouver between March 18 and April 15 were up 147 per cent compared with the same period last year. Residential break and enters were up 51 per cent.

 

Police forces in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, and York Region also are reporting increases in business break-ins

 

There are various theories about why folks go bonkers during stressful times. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the Russian author whose novels often delved into madness, believed that madness is a manifestation of moral or spiritual crisis.

 

I believe our current craziness comes from the many stresses of modern living finally reaching the boiling point. We live with worries about the environment, changing climate, overpopulation, out-of-control drug addiction and an unstable economic situation. Then, along comes Covid-19.

 

Social media is aiding the madness. Anyone can pull out a smartphone and rant and rave and spew misinformation and other nonsense to an audience of millions.

 

Atop all that is a disheartening lack of strong leadership. Here in Canada, government responses seem to be to keep writing cheques. That’s helpful in some ways but it would be nice to have regular assessments of the impact on the national debt and how it will get paid down. Therein lies another potential future crisis.

 

What’s happening in the United States, which has Covid-19 problems worse than many banana republics, makes the Mad Hatter’s tea party look calm, reasonable and sane. Watching TV reports of the U.S. governments’ responses to the crisis is like walking through an 1800s madhouse.

 

There are many difficult riddles about how to kill this terrible pandemic, how to open schools safely, how to get economy back on track while keeping people safe. So many riddles and so many leaders who haven’t the slightest idea.

 

Meanwhile, the Mad Hatter’s riddle remains: Why is a raven like a writing desk?

 

The answer is obvious to me: Because Edgar Allan Poe, the American writer of stories dark and macabre, wrote on both.

 

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The water lily’s lesson

The pleasures of summer are numerous, but one of the best is passing a pond or lake edge where water lilies have made their home.

These plants, with their large, flat floating leaves, are in bloom. Their dazzling white star-shaped flowers with golden centres provide a snowy coolness on summer days that have become far too hot.

It’s not just the beauty of the water lily blooms that catches our attention. There is no shortage of blooms at this time of year. Roadside daisies, thistle, milkweed and many others have blooms that brighten the summer landscape.

Water lilies are extra special because they offer a lesson about living. It’s an important lesson in these times of pandemic and the changes it is bringing to our lives.

These plants have developed what scientists call evolved adaptations; special characteristics or traits that allow them to live in abnormal environments.

Their broad floating leaves, and the stems that support them, have wide air spaces to hold the carbon dioxide and oxygen needed to make the plant’s food through photosynthesis. Those unusually large air spaces provide buoyancy that holds the flowers and leaf pads on top of the water where they can collect sunlight and allow pollination by insects and wind.

The lily pads are like solar panels that capture the sunlight needed to provide energy to the plant.

The flowers open into a bowl shape when touched by the sun, and close when it begins to disappear. The petals fold over themselves when they close, making them watertight, another neat adaptation.

These adaptations, evolved over centuries, have allowed the water lily to live productive lives in an unusual environment.

Water lilies are not just pretty. They can be useful to humans and some other animals.

Parts of the water lily are edible. Their raw leaves can be chopped and added to soups. The flower buds can be cooked or pickled. Seeds from the flowers contain protein and oil and can be ground into flour.

Various societies have found medicinal uses for water lilies. The plants contain gallic and tannic acids, often used in the pharmaceutical industries. Parts of the water lily have been used in poultices, eyewashes, gargles and for a variety of minor ailments such as upset stomach.

Moose are regular users of water lilies and other aquatic plants and can be seen at this time of year standing in ponds, slurping water lily pads. They are an important part of a moose diet because they have sodium content higher than woody vegetation and moose require sodium.

Moose will dive to get at parts of plants growing beneath the water surface. Their large nostrils act as valves that keep water out when they go underwater. Moose are believed to be able to dive as deep as six metres.

The lesson of the water lily is that to have a productive life that helps others you need to be able to adapt to changing conditions.

We can’t quickly change the physical aspects of our bodies. That’s an evolutionary process that takes centuries.

We can, however, change our thinking and our ways to adapt to a world being altered by a changing climate, increased population densities and more new diseases.

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The inconvenience of Covid: Just suck it up

Look deep inside the pandemic and you’ll see other sicknesses. Not simply sicknesses, but full-blown epidemics. An epidemic of selfishness, plus an epidemic of misinformation. 

Both are making it more difficult to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic that has infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands. 

Despite the rising tolls, people are having a hard time accepting - or are refusing to accept – restrictions and procedures that take away some of their pleasurable pastimes and cause inconveniences. 

There’s much whining about what we can’t do. Can’t have parties. Can’t go to the bars to have fun with friends. Can’t have those fabulous beach parties. Can’t go to a baseball game. Can’t go to the movies. 

If all the energy going into what we can’t do was directed to what we can do, it might help us to return to some semblance of normal. 

Those who won’t wear a face covering can’t seem to understand that wearing a mask helps to protect other people and creates confidence and trust. 

What would you prefer: to walk into a store in which no one is wearing a face covering, or into a store where everyone has their mouth and nose covered? I’ll take the latter choice, and I’ll bet many others would as well. 

Wearing a mask provides some protection, and creates the confidence that shoppers need to spend time in stores. More people less fearful about entering a store, means more spending and help for a devastated economy. 

Some say wearing a mask infringes on their personal freedoms. Crises sometime require that personal freedoms give way for the common good. 

Yes, wearing face coverings and physical distancing is inconvenient. The medical experts, however, say that without a vaccine and effective medications those two things are the best defences against spreading Covid-19. 

Too many of us are focussed on the individual inconveniences. That’s selfishness, when this cruel pandemic demands thinking in terms of community, not individuals. 

Selfishness is a harsh term and perhaps not totally fair in a time of crisis. Selfishness and self-preservation are close relatives and when a person senses danger, self-preservation can turn quickly into selfishness. 

Some of what appears to be selfishness actually is ignorance by people who have underestimated the seriousness of the virus, or imagine that anything they might do could never exacerbate it. 

These are people who have not absorbed what is happening in hospitals. If they viewed the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients coughing up foamy blood, or being zippered up in body bags, they might accept that not wearing a mask when appropriate or attending crowded gatherings can spread the disease.

Complicating all this is an epidemic of misinformation. Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general has said the world is fighting a “growing surge of misinformation."

"Harmful health advice and snake-oil solutions are proliferating," he has said. "Wild conspiracy theories are infecting the Internet.” 

This bad information often spreads faster than truthful, fact-based information. It causes confusion and drives the gullible and the poorly-informed to become Covidiots who do dumb things. Like the person who put $50 bills in a microwave to sterilize them. Or, the apartment dweller who covered the elevator buttons with plastic wrap to prevent spread of the virus. 

I hate to keep harping about the SARS experience of almost 20 years ago, but it gave us important advice on getting through a pandemic – communicate clear and truthful information and keep politics out of conversations and decisions. 

Following that advice builds public trust, which eases fears and helps people accept individual restrictions and inconveniences. 

Politics introduced into a pandemic is as dangerous as the virus itself. That is obvious in the United States, now collapsing under the wild advance of Covid-19. 

The Ontario commission investigating SARS did not find evidence of political interference back then, but noted that many people suspected there was. 

“The mere perception of political interference, whether true or not, will sap public confidence and diminish public cooperation,” the Commission said in its reports. 

The tools for fighting Covid-19 are clear as a cloudless sky:

Wear a mask, follow physical distancing, don’t listen to political nonsense, ignore social media nonsense and other sources of misinformation. 

Restrictions and inconveniences? In the lingo of the younger folks, just suck it up.

 

Women leaders in the time of Covid

When I was growing up, any conflicts from inside or outside the home usually got resolved in Grandma’s Room.

 

For the 17 years that I knew her, Grandma was mainly bedridden and confined to her room with crippling rheumatoid arthritis. When there was a problem or a conflict you went to her room to whine about how unfair the particular situation was to you.

Grandma listened patiently to your side of the story, asked you to outline honestly the other person’s side, then advised a calm, quiet look at the entire picture as a start to resolving the dispute.

It was in Grandma’s Room that I first realized that a woman’s approach to problems and conflict was different, and frequently superior to a man’s. When tough situations arise, it is female intervention and management that often gets them resolved.

 

That view got some support recently from a New York Times article by columnist Nicholas Kristof.

Kristof wrote that he compiled coronavirus death rates from 21 countries. 13 led by men, eight by women. The male-led countries had an average 214 coronavirus deaths per million people. The women-led countries had an average of only 36 deaths per million, a huge difference.

He also found that almost every country with a coronavirus mortality rate above 150 per million people is led by a man. Canada’s Covid rate is 231 deaths per million population.

All this confirms what the daily news tells us; countries where coronavirus is a runaway disaster are led by egotistical authoritarians who shouldn’t be allowed to manage anything bigger than a peanut stand. Look at the United Kingdom, Iran, Russia, the United States and Brazil.

Then look to the countries with the most successful responses to the virus - New Zealand, Germany, Taiwan, most Nordic countries – all led by women. Their leadership through this plague has been decisive, truthful and empathetic.

 

Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen jumped on the pandemic in January, introducing 124 measures to stop the virus’ spread. Angela Merkel told Germans early on to take the virus seriously and brought in early testing. Jacinda Ardern locked down New Zealand just three weeks after the first case of the disease was reported.

Iceland, led by Katrín Jakobsdóttir, offered free virus testing for every citizen and had a thorough contact tracing system. Its death rate was an amazing 30 per million population.

These female leaders managed the crisis competently, talking to their citizens truthfully, with care and compassion. There were none of the strongman tactics used by the Johnsons and Trumps – downplaying the threat, blaming others and playing political games.

 

Much has been written over many years about how female leadership styles are different. But there has been little acknowledgement of how those styles can benefit nations or organizations.

In politics and business there remains the attitude that to really succeed, women have to learn to behave more like men. That’s 20th century thinking that is hopelessly dated and needs changing.

Women leaders tend to be less self-focused than their male counterparts. They don’t simply tell others what to do; they work with them.

They usually are more empathetic and humbler, and in my experience, are good at identifying and motivating new talent. They are good team builders.

We have seen a trend in which more women are taking up leadership positions. There’s still room for many more, in fact there’s a real need for more female leadership as the world’s problems become more numerous and more intense.

 

One area where female leadership would help immensely is our off-kilter capitalistic system. It needs reform, not replacement, and reform that creates more equality.

Our capitalistic system is designed to provide the greatest benefits to company shareholders, directors and executives. It should be promoting achievement of the greatest benefits for everyone – employees, suppliers and customers.

 

They all have vital roles, yet are not treated equally. Big gains for shareholders and executives are seldom seen by others who had a direct impact on achieving the gain.

Studies have shown that women are more inclusive and more likely to see others as equal parts of the team. They are better communicators in that they listen more and are more apt to allow others to talk and put forth their ideas.