Tag Archives: Multiculturalism

The enemy of the good

2013-12-22 enemy of the good

My former TL at Microsoft, a very personable guy from New Delhi, while we were already working for another company changed his tag line on his IM account to read: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

It described his attitude perfectly. Solving problems by working around or ignoring them, declaring them ‘out of scope’ when it was possible to get away with it. I did not like it. Neither the statement, nor the attitude behind it.
Mine would be: if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well.
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Timeout…………..

2012-12-24-timeout

When “The Source” had a segment about gypsy refugee claimants in Toronto, I decided to write about it.
When the changes in the Canadian refugee claim process were announced a week later, I sat down to do it. Not many people here can understand the problem, not many people know enough about the gypsies or their problems. I know more than most, but after writing about 3,000 words, I just gave up. There is no way that I can paint a picture, give an answer, provide an explanation. I got lost in the stories and the references, read several studies, watched hours of interviews and documentaries until I realized that I cannot do it in a format suitable for this blog.

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On the crossroads of pathologies

2012-10-05 crossroads 2

I saw a documentary the other day “My brother, the islamist” raising questions without offering answers.
It is not a remarkable documentary, but it is worth watching. It starts as a puzzle and ends as one. We can see what is happening, but we are not given much help to understand why.

I saw several short Youtube videos about Sweden, also recalling a Pat Condell commentary on it. I will not pick any video; just search Youtube for Islam in Sweden to get an idea what Muslims are doing to it.
Then I watched parts of Barack Hussein Obama’s and Mohamed Morsi’s UN speeches.

All of this (especially the documentary) left me with a number of questions:

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Islam and the Golden rule

 2012-09-28 golden rule

The Wikipedia article about the Golden rule gives a fair description of the subject as does this encyclopedia entry. The golden rule seems to be a truly universal principle. Except for what it misses, of course. Consideration for cultural goals and individual intent. The golden rule is so foundational to our culture that we do not question its basic assumptions of benevolence and positive self-gratification. The notion that we all want to feel good and want only good things happen to us. The notion that we know what a good thing is, while the Golden Rule is actually nothing more than an expressed preference for reciprocity. All the rest we read into it is just a bunch of cultural assumptions.

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The crossroads of tolerance

2012-09-27 Sauble falls

I spent the Canada day long weekend on the Bruce peninsula. Some friends have a trailer there in a park next to a nice inner lake. It advertises itself as a ‘family’ camp, a place where you can go with small children. It is indeed a very quiet, very friendly place. Since we were around, we stopped there to see them.

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