Saturday 31 December 2022

Hybrid Canadians - How Odd it is!


Canadians are in a unique place when it comes to measurement.  Officially metric since 1975, we still have an abundance of imperial measurements creeping into our daily lives, no doubt because we live next door to the one of only three countries that still uses the old system ("Myanmar" or "Burma" and "Liberia" are the others).

Think about it.  When we hear the weather forecast, the temperature is in Celsius and we seem to be good with that.  In fact, trips to our southern neighbour can get a bit confusing when we hear that the high for the day is going to be 61 Fahrenheit.  Should we bring a sweater or not?  But, if we know that that's 16 C, the more cold temperature-sensitive among us might just want to bundle up a bit after all.

But what about cooking?  It seem that a number of folks at least still use Fahrenheit when adjusting their oven temperature.  Afterall, we all know what 400 F does when cooking a roast don't we?  Would 204 C be just as familiar?

What about feet and inches?  Us older folks still prefer to know our height in that way.  Same when measuring the size of that new bookshelf or TV (we want a 65-inch flat screen, not a 165 centimetre one lol). Yet, on a larger scale, metric takes over.

In our travels, we use kilometres per hour (km/h) not miles per hour (MPH). A lot of modern cars will allow you to switch systems with the push of a button.  That's a welcome piece of technology! 60 km/h is obviously a lot slower than 60 MPH, which, if you forget, will find you quickly learning all the latest swear words and hand gestures on America's superfast highways.

For weights, it seem to be half and half.  We're okay buying 2.25 kilograms of sugar, and then adding a half a cup to our recipe.  Buying milk by the litre is no problem and we'll pour ourselves an 8 ounce cup to go with our lunch.  Meat and produce from the local grocery can still be tricky so a lot of them print both, although metric seems to have "won" at the deli counter.

There are other examples. Acres instead of hectares.  With lumber, we're all familiar with 2 x 4's which are supposed to be inches even though they're really not.  Or that 4 by 8 foot piece of plywood, which it actually is.

So the older folk who have learned the metric system later in life will probably stick with their hybrid measurement system for the rest of their days.  The young folk who have been brought up in metric, will probably tip the balance more in favour of that system, being aware that that won't fly when they take that trip to the States.

Yet in spite of the odd nature of how we blend the two systems, it seems to work for us. THAT is Canadian resilience and adaptability,

Happy New Year!

Thursday 18 August 2022

Nuremberg 2.0

One of the very few disadvantages of the fall of Communism in Europe in 1989 is that the true extent of the heinousness of this system was never fully revealed.  The enslavement and annihilation of people, the gulags, and the evilness of the regimes of the past were relegated to secondary status over the elation of the actual fall.

And that's too bad.

After World War II, the Nazis were put on public trial at Nuremberg to answer for their behavior.  They had to account for the suffering, killing, and destruction of Europe and take responsibility for upsetting world peace.  Many of these leaders were hanged, and aside from the acquittals of three minor participants, the rest were given prison sentences, some of them substantial.

After its collapse, Communism was never given such an airing out.

Instead of being held accountable for conditions and actions that often matched or even surpassed that of the Nazis, some communist leaders around 1989 suffered few consequences.  For example, East Germany's Erich Honegger was never arraigned, in spite of his role in the secret police, the "Stasi."  His successor, Egon Krenz, got only four years.  (Granted, some exceptions did occur, like Nicholai Ceausescu's execution in Romania.)

So what should have happened?

Nuremberg 2.0.  Communist leaders should have been forced to stand trial in front of an international tribunal.  The ruthlessness of their actions should have been on display for all the whole world to see.

So... how bad was communism?

The current estimate is that 125 million people perished under that system.  This number does not include those who survived but whose lives were shattered by poverty, abuse and the gulags.  With China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, and Laos still involved with this system, the numbers are still going up.

The lack of an international trial had another side effect. Today, Communists are still blatantly active, even in democratic countries (think of "Antifa" in the U.S.).  Somehow, being a Communist has never carried the stigma that the Nazis so rightfully have had to endure.  

Anyone who pretends that communism isn't as bad is a liar and deceiver.  

And they need to held to account for their beliefs.

Tuesday 12 April 2022

The Black Book

I am currently reading a remarkable book entitled, The Black Book of Communism which contains contributions by Stephane Courtois, Nicolas Werth and others.  The thing that makes this book so remarkable to me is one of the themes that pervades the tome. 

Communism asserts that it the state and its leader(s) are more important than anything else in the world. The state is more important than individuality, free expression, a free press, family, friends, or even God.  If you do not adhere to this, then you are "an enemy of the state," a "bandit," or even a "parasite" and you have no business living comfortably in this world.  Perhaps even a gulag awaits!

Communism is an extreme form of government and a dangerous one at that.  Perhaps the most dangerous.  To date, it has claimed in excess of 100 million lives (!).  

Diluted types of this left-wing style of government is sometimes called "social democracy" or "socialism," among others.  In the latter forms, most do not advocate imprisonment, or worse, for opposing their ideology.  

Yet is it concerning how convinced how many socialists are that they are right about just about everything.  If you're not one of them, you may be ridiculed, censored, or even harmed physically.

However, they are not right.  Placing the state over the individual is never the right thing.  

Censoring is antithetical to democracy and freedom, yet is happens all the time on social media, university campuses, and the printed medium.  And it's made all the worse when they are government-sanctioned.

Communism may be thousands of miles away from North America but its weaker sibling has already made itself known throughout much of the continent.  Beware of what it stands for.  Stand fast against the thuggery of the anti-democratic; makes sure freedom remains alive and well.