Difficult problems and interconnectivity

Apologies in advance for more questions than answers.

What can you say about the horrible shooting at Dawson College in Montreal or the hostage taking in Colorado yesterday ?

Should we focus our attention on protecting our children from the madness of the modern world or should it be with the root cause ?

It appears that the authoritative majority claim that adding extra security measures to our schools is the best solution. Rarely do we hear from those that are brave enough to suggest that something is wrong deeper in our society. And that is definitely a major intersection point with many of today's big problems: global terrorism; the religious and oil wars in the Middle-East; global warming; 3rd world poverty and AIDS.

You may be in the opinion that most of the frightening incidents in our schools today are isolated with no real connection, however I've believed for a long time in the interconnectivity of all things. Although I'm not suggesting coincidence is in play in this case, I also believe that coincidence occurs too often to be just coincidental chance. There are reasons things happen.

Do we have smart enough thinkers and people with enough influence trying to solve these problems ?

How about the problem of money, never enough and everyone wants more. Back to schools, not enough money to properly pay teachers or for adding metal detectors in our schools (if that would help). Do the school unions add too much cost to the equation (on-ramp to the troubles of GM and Ford) ? Charity ? Who needs our charity the most and who are we, and our governments the most responsible for - the homeless of our own cities, starving children of a foreign land, or the victims of the latest natural disaster ?

As you can see, this could go on and on and probably connect with 80% of the posts on this blog. My point exactly, everything's interconnected, except...

Dual Citizenship

Ok, it's been a while since I blogged, but I'm coming back with a big topic - dual citizenship.

Dual citizenship is something near and dear to my heart and family and now, it's being debated on a daily basis in the news here in Canada (and abroad - see Economist article).

I've already read a few comments that match my original thoughts on the topic - perhaps the problem isn't with allowing dual citizenship, but with how applications for Citizenship are provisioned. The closing comment of the Economist article is something new, and has quite interesting possibilities -

Canada is far from the only country to grapple with the complexities of dual citizenship. Around 90 countries, including the United States, allow it. Unlike Canada, though, the United States requires its citizens to pay American taxes no matter where they live. If Canadians did the same, they might grumble less about the cost of rescuing their embattled brethren from Lebanon.

In case you don't know me very well, I am a dual citizen. Born in England, and since 1996, a dual citizen of Canada and the UK/EU.

The questions my (Canadian) wife and I contemplate quite often these days are:

Which country do you expect to provide you safety in a crisis ? Is this different on whether you're at home or abroad ? Traveling or residing abroad ?

To which country are you most responsible ? If I was a younger man, who would have rights to enlist me in their armed forces ?

For more reading on this complex, political and emotional topic, have a look at the comments and examples in Wikipedia.

Time to get back on the F1 bandvagon ?

I haven't watched a lot of F1 over the last x years, but it appears we may have a decent race to the finish of this year's championship.

In case you're not a fan or you've been out the loop, Michael Schumacher has announced his retirement, but there's lot of speculation, rumours and controversy around the decision which should make the last few races pretty interesting.

Dad found this good article on Schumacher's career which does a good job of telling a few different sides of the story.

I've never been a big fan of Schumacher, but I've got to say he's bloody good at his job.

What does this mean ?

Warning - unedited late night comments and movie spoiler.

Just watched Fight Club. I hadn't seen it in a long time.

Always remembered that it was a great movie. Now, I'm not sure if I like it.

What the character becomes is something that he eventually hates.

Is that what the movies are doing to me ? Am I getting to a point where I need to stop watching ?

What's the point ? The value ?

Or are they teaching me something about myself ?

(no I'm not drunk)