now is everywhere

Is That True?

The truth doesn’t play hide and seek with us as much as we seem to find ways to obscure it. My point here is that the truth, like everything else, wants to be free so external forces must go out of their way to hide it. The fact is – we regular folks frequently and deliberately hide the truth but we do it for mostly benign reasons. Lying for not-so-benign reasons seems to be a tool used by people in power.

John Meishiemer, an American professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, writes and speaks about how global leaders often lie out of necessity. If you haven’t heard his talk about the methods and motivations for lying to a public, you should watch the YouTube link I provide at the bottom of this post. I have come to the realization that the truth like a sound wave has peaks, troughs and a frequency. Somewhere in the middle of the wave is the baseline truth that we have to listen for very carefully.

Competing agendas, opposing ideologies, and lies cause an amplification of a message. The more sides to a story the more we hear about it. The more the debate, the more the message gets amplified and the higher the frequency. So where is the truth in all this? Finding the truth in loud, high pitched debates is difficult but at least there is noise to analyse. The more important security awareness message is to listen for the quiet truths. Silence on a topic can mean there’s nothing to talk about, but it can also mean that we are not listening to the right people.

So who do I listen to? Comedians. They consistently turn up the volume on topics that need to be debated. They are the only ones that can sugar coat the bitter truth in a way that is palatable. This is true everywhere and there are countless examples around the globe of political satirists shedding light on the quiet truths. They point out the absurd and obvious truths that no one else will discuss. Steven Colbert’s quest for “truthiness” is a great American example of what I am talking about. Irony and satire seem to be the only way we can mask the flavour of the really distasteful perversions of the truth that are out there.

Here in Canada, we have a rich history of poking fun at our public officials. But political satire is more than just fun when done well. Political satire is about holding our officials to task on their promises and mandates. One of my favourites is Marg Delahunty. Delahunty, like Colbert, is not afraid of herself and doesn’t tell us the news but helps us feel it. Terry Mosher (Aislin) has this knack as well. Aislin’s drawings force us to see the peaks and troughs of every truth. There are so many other Canadians willing to stick their neck out to draw attention to the absurd and unjust.

What about elsewhere? The Daily Show and Colbert Report have given rise to a new form of news which should be sad to us but at least there are people interested in investigating the truth. Take Dr. Bassem Youssef in Egypt. Youssef’s show mimics not just the format of the Daily Show but he is just as committed to talking about things that usually go untested in that part of the world. Youssef has of course faced police charges and threats because he is willing to stand up and amplify the important, but otherwise quiet, truths pressing on Egypt and Islam.

In India, the cultural divide, the growing middle class and the pressures of globalization create instability in one of the world’s most important economies. This instability should worry us but fortunately India, unlike many countries in that part of the world, has remained mostly democratic since gaining its independence in ’47. Whatever stability and growth India has seen is on the backs of its growing middle class. A middle class that is educated, healthy and employed. But this true in China. The truth is - middle classes can flourish in both democracies and autocracies. Middle classes can also be made to starve in both democracies and autocracies. What’s interesting is that it is not hard to find Indian political satire but it was impossible for me to find any Chinese political commentary. I am of course limited to Google and English in my searches.

Russian political satire is abundant. As a music fan and closet feminist, I have followed the Pussy Riot story. Musicians are another source of alternate truth. Musicians have always been willing to expose the ugly and honour the brave in ways that make it easy for us to sing along. While Pussy Riot’s performances are musically based, their treatment of the important stories they tell are filled with a playfulness that make you smile even though you know it is wrong to do so.

As a child growing up in north central Nigeria in the late ‘60’s, my father had one main source of truth. The BBC World Service was a daily event in our home during afternoon tea. The dial, left fixed on the appropriate shortwave frequency, always needed a little adjustment. Shortwave radio was of course the Internet of its time. This was a time when investigative reporters were not bound to the agenda of their sponsors, board of directors, corporate owners or governments. The news was told to us impartially and was mostly limited to the facts and void of commentary. There was little comedy about it. Occasionally we balanced the message with the Voice of America but usually because the winds weren’t blowing in the right direction for the BBC to reach us.

I grew up learning that you have to find a trust worthy voice in the silence. Today, you must keep tuning the dial because the story has many sides. Listen to everyone, trust none of it and contribute to the noise yourself. But remember, if there’s a laugh track or your new reporter is laughing - they are probably telling you the truth.

Two Hours of Links to Keep You Busy

Two Music Vids to Entertain You

What's My Name?

For any of you that thought this might be commentary on the Rihanna/Drake single, follow this link. For those of you that were expecting a security awareness PSA about the dangers of identity theft, keep reading.

So I was at a “function” (I know – pretty grown up of me to go to one) and an old acquaintance came up to me and said, “Hi Ray.” I cringed and corrected her. I hate being called Ray. I hate it because I have this image of who a Ray is and he’s not me. I hate that anyone would think of me as that Ray character because I am not that person. When you call me Ray, you not only rob me of my real identity, you assign me a new one that I despise. This is all in my head of course. But it got me thinking about my identity and its potential to be stolen or reassigned.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) in partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have formed a Criminal Intelligence Analytical Unit (CIAU) that publishes an Annual Statistical Report (ASR). This document (I like to call the CAFC/RCMP/OPP-CIAU-ASR 2012) can be found here. If you could see my face, you would see my amusement with the title of this report. That amusement aside, I am glad the Canadian Government is keeping an eye on these trends.

Here are some highlights. Mail fraud is on the decline. The number of complaints are on the decline which I assume is an indicator of how many scams exist. The number of victims are on the decline. That may be a testimony to better protections, but the bottom line is that mail fraud is on the decline. The report compares Canadian and U.S. data which share similar trends. Also notable is that Quebec experiences a proportionally lower rate of mass marketing fraud (MMF). Apparently spammers don’t speak French. As for identity theft, well it is on the rise. Both in number of victims and the dollar loss associated with the fraud. So what do we do about this? How should we react? My recommendation is - get happy! These are first world problems.

The more serious global identify theft concern is multi-generational, systemic poverty. Here in North America, having an online identity is our responsibility and privilege. Having a wallet or purse with a bunch of good stuff in it is a clear indicator that you are closer to the top of the dog pile. Having an identity that is worth stealing should make you happy. Knowing that you live in a country where identity theft is on the rise is a clear indicator that you are part of the knowledge economy. I would bet identify theft trends will be a predictor of improved GDP. Be proud of your rising identify theft trend. Keep encouraging everyone to establish an online identity. Go buy yourself something on Amazon.

Here’s a Wikipedia page showing global Internet usage and access. If you don’t trust Wikipedia, find your own stats. I think my point will be the same. Online identity theft only happens in countries that have access to the Internet. Where’s the real crime? In countries where people don’t have identities, online or otherwise. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that 90% of U.S. adults have a bank account which can be contrasted with the stat that only half of the world’s population has a bank account. The cause for this disparity is obvious.

Here’s a link to some CIA World Factbook stats on women. The school life expectancy for women in Somalia is two years. The average number of children born to a Somali woman is six. Her life expectancy is 53 years. The female literacy rate is 25%. Here in Canada, women live until they are 81. They have an average of 1.59 children. Virtually all of them can read (99%) and they are in school for 17 years. We all know which one of these women will gets their identity stolen after popping out her payment card at the corner Sushi place?

The real identity theft question is whether you were granted the opportunity to have identity. If anything should be concerning us, it’s that we seem as a race to be unable to ensure that every person on this globe gets an identity to start with. If there was ever a security awareness message to spread, it is that if we don’t change this at some point, we will all lose our identities. Maybe not in our lifetime but it is inevitable. I don’t have an answer as to how. I am just making you aware.

Note: As always I invite your comments. I have been pleased by my steady and growing readership. Many thanks to those of you that have sent me feedback or have shared “Now is Everywhere” with others. I leave you with an ironic and iconic ghetto affirmation of identity mixed with misogyny.

Can I Say Something?

I wonder which check-box orange selects when asked if it is of two or more races. Does orange consider itself a mix? If orange reads the dictionary it would have no choice but to think of itself as a mix. If you don’t get what I’m talking about, here’s the official Free Dictionary definition:
“The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between red and yellow, evoked in the human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 590 to 630 nanometres; any of a group of colours between red and yellow in hue, of medium lightness and moderate saturation.”’

There are states of being orange that range from closer to red to closer to yellow. But at some point you have to declare the colour orange. Maybe I’ve thought too much about this. I should be clear that I’m not saying that orange is discriminated against because it is neither red nor yellow. Quite the opposite, I am saying that orange has a decision to make and it also gets to change its mind whenever it wants. Along the spectrum of being orange, orange gets to consider itself both red and yellow. Being a mix of primary colours has advantages and orange is filled with opportunity to live on both sides of the spectrum.

Such is the age we live in. An age of rapid change and mutation. Increasingly the things we ourselves produce are the result of a merging of disparate objects and ideas. This happens both by chance and by deliberate manipulation. We mix mountain bikes and road bikes. We mix gas combustion with electricity. We mix Korean BBQ with Tacos. We mix ginger and chilli with coleslaw to make Asian Slaw. We mix synthesizers and drum machines with cellos. We mix machine noise with rhythms. We mix lions with tigers. We mix cotton with lycra. From this all we got the hybrids, fusion cuisine, electronica, ligers and spandex. All pretty weird and amazing stuff.

I suppose my empathy with orange stems from my own hybridity. I have lived my life between two colours of medium lightness and moderate saturation. Falling between the two hues has given me the advantage of leaning towards either direction depending on my mood. Like orange, sometimes I feel red while at other times I feel yellow. The disadvantage of this ambiguity is it sometimes allows red to reject me and push me towards yellow. Vice versa as well. The place where I have felt this the least in my life is Suriname, South America. Suriname may be the ultimate hybrid place. Suriname was colonized by the British and Dutch. As a result it is inhabited by decedents of Aboriginals, Africans, Asians, South Asians and Europeans. Suriname is also in an ambiguous place geographically. It is on the South American continent but feels like the Caribbean. It's a Dutch speaking South American country! You can't get more mixed up than that.

What of Canada? Hugh MacLennan's declaration of the "two solitudes" may have personified our language isolation for a time. It is true that most Canadians are either French or English. This language alignment is independent of our race. But some Canadians have the privilege of being perfectly orange :-). Moving to the US for 5 years and coming back has helped me see that pluralism not purity makes us Canadians distinct. Yes to Quebec being distinct. Yes to Alberta being distinct. Yes to Nova Scotia being distinct. Yes to the territories being distinct. Without having to list all our distinct regions, I declare that the essence of Canadian distinctness is our sense of pluralism. We honour everyone and are not afraid of the result.

The mixing, merging, and hybridisation of everything seems unstoppable here in Canada and everywhere. Facilitated transportation, experimentation, freedom, communication, and curiosity will only lead to ever expanding diversity through hybridisation. Purity of pedigree and the notion of lineage are concerns of the past. But this is probably just my wishful thinking. If I reflect on my experience in the US, I see a growing divide - "a multitude of solitudes" if I may steal from MacLennan. The divide between left and right, poor and rich, east and west, smart and dumb, old and young all seem to be widening in spite of my belief that the middle ground is inevitable. Somehow, someway, someone needs to see both sides and its probably going to take someone in the middle. May the orange of America find their voice.

I am sorry to say - I have no answers, only questions? I can tell you that hybrid art provides me with some solace. Music and food are our best forms of planned mutation. The mixing of old and young works well with food. Take any ancient cuisine and apply new cooking techniques. Mixing eastern and western music works well. A bungra beat with some melody and lyrics is always cool. And so other smart people work on subtle answers all the time. These are the people who are not afraid of what may happen if you mix things up.

Note: As always I invite your comments. I have been pleased by my steady and growing readership. Many thanks to those of you that have sent me feedback or have shared "Now is Everywhere" with others. I leave you with some Art of Noise from 1984.

Are We There Yet?

Every journey has a story and every story has an arc. Meaning every story has a trajectory - a beginning, middle and end - not a wooden boat. Some journeys are short. A quick trip to the convenience store to grab some milk and bread. Some journeys are longer. I am thinking of the – “I decided I had done it all and started planning my accent to the top of Everest” – kind of story.

In December 1993, my much younger family embarked on our first summer pilgrimage to Muquodoboit Harbor, Nova Scotia from Ottawa, Ontario. It is a 1,500 KM voyage that we have completed over 20 times since that first trip. Thank you to my wife and children for being such great road-trippers. On this first trip in 1993, it was just three of us along for the ride. The little one was almost three years old and we knew we were about to torture her. So with much joint effort and earnest explanation, we described what was about to be the longest drive she could ever imagine. We told her to imagine a really long time and then double it, and then double it again. She listened in her little three year old listening way.

With the car loaded and all of us set, I asked one last time – “Is everyone ready?” and then we set off. Shortly before the highway, I pulled into the bank for some road money. As I parked the car and we hopped out, we heard from the back seat. The exclamation was a three-year old sarcastic interpretation of “That was nowhere near as long as you said it was going to be.” It still makes me giggle. Expectation is everything.

Journeys don’t always require distance but journeys always require time. Some people travel in place while others move. I think I am inclined towards the moving types of journeys because they have fixed distances. Knowing the exact location of the end helps me understand the story arc. I want to know that I am at the start, or in the middle, or nearing the end. It’s nice knowing where you are in the story. Aging has this effect of elongating the story arc as you travel. As a young man I had less of an understanding of what the trip would entail. Now as I age, I hope more and more that the middle is ahead of me.

A childhood friend of mine who passed a few years back used to remind me how spoiled we were. I miss his reminders. We grew up pampered he would say. We were taught to expect the trip to be long but to expect also that the road would lead to riches and fame. Private, boy’s boarding school in Ontario, Canada will have that effect on you. For those of us in the affluent west, we are bred to believe in our own ascension. The road goes up - up, up, up as far as you can see. No one warned us there would be dotcom crashes, housing market collapses, or any other failed attempts to reach the summit. Internet memes do encourage us to keep at it because the road to success is littered with failure. But it’s easy to detach and view the message as intended for someone else.

My most recent long drive was on May 7, 2013. My Volkswagen Passat Wagon, filled with all my clothes and electronics, departed Chicago under blue skies. Chicago to Ottawa is coincidentally about 1,500 KMs. Lakeshore Drive was quiet at 9:45 and for once I was sad there wasn’t more traffic to hold me up. It was hard saying goodbye to the city and all my friends. It never gets easy, yet I secretly know that I manufacture these moments. I have said so many goodbyes that were my own doing. I want you all to know that I have never run away from a destination. I have only ever been interested in running towards the new ones. Canada feels so good right now and opportunity lays ahead.

Watching Chris Hadfield do his thing through the first half of 2013 has been inspiring. I will spare you all his travel stats but his story arc leaves the bonds of earth’s gravity, circles the earth thousands of times and then plummets back into Kazakhstan. Commander Hadfield’s return to earth has been nicely timed with the launch of media surrounding the Mars One Mission. Maybe that worked the other way. Mars One seized some of Hatdfield’s space inspiration. Just so it’s clear, this blog entry is my application for a 1-way trip to Mars. As for Hadfield, if anyone is “There yet?” He is.

This summer, the family will make the annual 15 hour pilgrimage to Nova Scotia. I look forward to seeing the beach grass blowing in the wind, snacking at the clam shack, swimming in the brackish water of the river in the backyard and chatting lazily on the sun porch. The journey always seems to come to a full stop for those few days a Nanny’s house every year. I can’t wait.

Are We the Centre of the Universe?

I was setting up a profile on an employer’s talent management site and one of the profile security questions was - “Who is your favorite historical person?” I have not previously encountered this security challenge question and didn’t have a standard response. Who IS my favorite historical person? Well it’s Copernicus. I admit to not knowing a lot about his math and science other than he challenged the church to rethink the universe. His challenging of our sensibilities was enough to spark all of the science that has ensued. That’s pretty awesome and today we know so much more as a result.

Capturing everyone’s favourite historical person is interesting. I’d like to look at that data. Who in history leads this list? What are the demographic patterns by age, geography, sex or bank balance? It would be way more interesting to look at than the data result from “What elementary school did you attend?” That data is already publically known anyway. As I researched this, I came across a Time magazine article on the hack of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account. Her challenge questions were all publically known answers. Too bad, because I do want to know who she thinks impacted our lives.

So here I am telling you that I may (again I said may) have used the "favourite figure" question and I may have responded Copernicus. But if you decide to hack my profile on some undisclosed employer talent management site, I expect you to improve my resume and increase my salary expectations. Hacking my job applications aside, I’d like you to help me hack Copernicus. Maybe he was wrong after all.

This week, I also found myself sitting at Intelligentsia staring out the window watching a Greenpeace activist canvas the sidewalk. I thought to myself, she is doing "Gods work." She would like my earth is at the centre of it all theory. This was confirmed when I left and she explained that she was fighting for the protection of the arctic ice. The Arctic is, of course, near and dear to us Canadians. I went home and drew my little diagram up above and decided to Google Copernicus. A few clicks later and I came across this.

Yikes! Now I understand what Copernicus was up against. So I am inspired by Copernicus’ courage, but determined to reclaim the argument that we sit at the center of this universe. Hopefully he's not angry with me and gets the spirit of my metaphor. We are the only life we know, we are the only custodians of this planet and the only custodians of each other. Dirty animals included. Anything else that impacts our lives other than the laws of physics are all our creation not the reverse. People have the power to rethink corporations, governments and gods. Let’s stop revolving around them and let’s get them orbiting us. Sorry Copernicus, we are the centre of the universe. And, can someone get that dude a passport and put him on a plane somewhere.

Back to password security, apparently the FCC banned the use of security challenge questions that capture biographical information in 2007! You wouldn't know it based on the number of sites that capture and store this information. If you want to check out the regulation, try Googling "Telecommunications Carriers’ Use of Customer Proprietary Network Information and Other Customer Information”. Check out the Sara Palin Time Article here.

And while we are waiting for site security to improve, for the sun to start orbiting the earth, can we make this earth and people matter. I leave you with some Floyd. Well Gilmore. Your comments are welcome.

How Soon is Now?

It’s been an interesting week. I left Chelsea last Wednesday morning around 9 ET. I tried to stop at Les Saisons for a Latte but it was closed. So I headed south to Ottawa, then the 417 and then east on the 401. I didn’t stop until after Kingston. I got gas and coffee. I listened to the CBC. I felt sick most of the time. The rest of the drive just happened. The border was friendly. I landed RunamuckB at about 9PM feeling displaced and woke up feeling even more lost.

Seven days later, things feel better. I am in a better space and glad that I got a chance to say goodbye to the people and to the city. What turned things around? Well last Thursday I discovered that Johnny Marr was playing Metro. This helped me remember why I love this city. Johnny Marr was heaven sent to me that night. I leaned into the front left speaker belting How Soon is Now. “I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar. I am the son and heir, of nothing in particular.” Then the chorus ... “I am human and I need to be loved. Just like everybody else does." Yeah – I was feeling pretty sorry for myself but it helped hearing Johnny Marr singing with me.

Netflix cheered me up as well. Re-watching Wilfred makes me giggle - every time. I watched Extract, Butter, Adventureland, and Charlie Bartlett. They all helped. Netflix just seems to understand my mood. There has been a steady drip of job board listings for roles requiring my background, experience and expertise. All very encouraging. No real bites but at least it’s encouraging to know that there are jobs in my field. I am sure I’ll land one. Somewhere during all of this I decided to rediscover my voice. It’s been a while since I read things that weren’t related to work or just transactional email.

I think being at home the week before during the Boston Marathon Bombing, while numbing, also contributed to my feeling that I have things to say. I turned up my Twitter watch and started going after more interesting people to follow. I’ve been reading, feeding my interest in technology and the Internet. I’ve been reflecting on my past 10 years of promoting learning and development for large software vendors. So what’s next? I hear you asking. Answers are developing but it may take more than one post to provide a coherent answer.

I last saw the Smiths during the summer of 1985. I guess you would expect me to say the time slipped by quickly but the reality is - it took 28 years. Twenty eight years is all of my working life. What I've learned is that Johhny Marr’s tremolo sound resonates still. Jobs have come and gone but the things that remain constant are that I remain interested in learning, I remain interested in people, I remain interested in technology, and I remain interested in media.

Sometime ideas take a while to incubate but I will find my riff. I leave you with some YouTube. Your comments are welcome.