there is a short list of people I have great admiration for - people who are living testaments on how life should be lived, who use their time wisely and are centred by compassion and love for those around them. I also appreciate honesty...the need to talk things through, and trying to look beyond ourselves to find answers.

last week, I had the opportunity to listen to one of my favourite writers speak - a woman of great intelligence, compassion, and wit...who never seems afraid of speaking her mind. she's one of the few writers that I get seriously giddy about - I felt a bit like I was still in junior high and "crazy" about the spice girls/boyz II men...it was nostalgic indeed.

naomi klein, writer of 'no logo' and now 'the shock doctrine' gave an inspiring and eloquent speech about her new book...instead of presenting on the content, she chose to talk about her road stories. this was particularly interesting because she travelled to places such as sri lanka and new orleans, places which have been subject to what is called "disaster capitalism". the thesis of her book, essentially, is that times of disaster/political instability are opportune times for right-wing economic policies to take over what had been there previously. in times of disaster, populations are vulnerable and therefore more susceptible to drastic changes in their society - ready to hand over rights for some sort of leadership, even at the cost of civil liberties and other democratic freedoms.

I'd really like to spend another blog talking about some specific stories - after all, the strength of the thesis is in historical narratives....but one thing that really stayed with me from the talk is the need for us to be people grounded in our history. in particular, the example of argentina always sticks out in my mind. for a very long time, the country was basically sold to the rest of the world - no public resources, no ownership of industry by Argentinians...and then the country quite literally went bankrupt. and strangely enough, even though the political leadership was trying to obtain further power by instilling fear and insecurity, the people rose up and cooperatives cropped up all over the country. it was a movement against political oppression, a movement towards claiming what rightfully belonged to the citizens...and when asked on how they made this possible, Argentinians responded with the same answer: "we were not going to let them do it again".

I think that we easily acknowledge the need to be self-aware, to understand who we are, but it is just as important to know who we are as a community, a province, and a country. all of our political battles are deeply rooted in histroy, and understanding what has come before helps us distinguish what should happen next.