The Division Bell Originally used to signal a division, or vote, in the British House of Commons, the name was adopted as the title of Pink Floyd’s fourteenth studio album with the intent to instead find a pathway to unity. Although voting is often seen as the height of democratic process across commonwealth countries, by…
In stillness there is freedom, a state where we are no longer caught in the pain of the past or in fear of future events. Freedom is intimately connected to sovereignty, because free people are harder to control than those who live in fear. And what do we fear? That our wealth will be taken…
I don’t recall the exact age I suffered my first panic attack, but I do remember how it felt. As my chest tightened and my breathing became shallow, my oxygen level dropped, and I thought I was going to die. Breathing is fundamental to life, and when it gets restricted, for whatever reason, we fear…
I have been watching a disturbing trend gaining momentum in North American circles over the past ten years, a trend I have dubbed “Bipolarism.” I first noticed it bubbling up at dinner parties, where a guest would be chastised for not championing the social cause of the day. Intellectual rigour wasn’t embraced, in its stead,…
I don’t have many heroes, and I certainly didn’t have many growing up. My faith in the adults around me was shattered before I hit the age of reason. In the end, this was a good thing, because it allowed me to be critical of my early childhood programming, as well as my culture, in…
Ever since the end of World War II our standard of living has more or less been on the rise here in North America and the rest of the first world. We are currently living a style of life that emperors a century ago could only dream of. We are offered a plethora of choices…
I don’t have heroes; most of the people put up before us for admiration simply don’t impress me. They may be rich, beautiful, or exhibit a superb level of athletic prowess. But they cannot command my attention for possessing such superfluous traits. And so it came as a surprise to me yesterday when I met…
Like most great street sayings, this one originated in the African American neighborhoods in the late seventies and early eighties, in conjunction with the crack epidemic that swept their demographic. Nothing will ruin a neighborhood, or an individual life, faster than a cheap, hard drug. And nobody uses these drugs more than the marginalized segments…
Pink is the colour most associated with womanhood, femininity, glitz, glamour, and fun. It’s also used as a symbol for one of the deadliest diseases that kills countless women and men. I wouldn’t have a problem with this, except that the foundation in question seems to be a lot better at finding funding sources than…
There is a lot of finger pointing going on right now over the state of the economy. Governments blame the financial industry, banks blame the defaulted citizenry, and the citizens blame both. But the actual truth is that we all participated in this mess that we are now finding ourselves in. While it is true…