The Unreasonable Man

It is Saturday morning and I am home, deciding how to use today’s spare time. I could pay bills or vacuum the house, but I don’t think so, today.

Like many people, I spend some of my spare time pursuing hobbies outside work. These hobbies include “technical” hobbies like amateur radio (VA3MVW) and computers (which of course do tie in to work), and more artistic hobbies such as writing and especially photography.

Photography is the ideal spare-time pursuit for me, as it combines technology, art and quite often travel: since I am on the road a lot, I get lots of opportunities to travel. I take this hobby seriously: I have good equipment, I sell some images, and as I mentioned here before, I am even doing the New York Institute of Photography course in professional photography. That course fills in some of the gaps and gives me an excuse. It takes commitment and time.

Even without a course, seriously pursuing photography in general takes a lot of time. The main difference between snapshooters and pros is that the latter take their time. Some images take me an hour or more to get right, which is why I prefer to photograph alone.

I realise that photography also meets my needs as a hunter-gatherer. I hunt for the ideal image, and I gather pictures in passing. The hunting is the best part: I know I have the perfect image somewhere, and I am just hunting, waiting for the opportunity to create it. One day I will encounter and kill that mammoth. Maybe today?

Grand Hotel, Stockholm

Digital cameras have made photography into a very popular pastime again. Since the 1970s, when photography was popular as a hobby, its popularity had waned. Film, and waiting for it to be developed, seemed a hassle in the age of the Internet. Now, digital technology, and in particular, excellent digital SLRs like the Canon 350XT, make this all very much more practical. In my travels I see no end to people carrying Digital Rebel/350XTs, 20Ds, and even the odd 5D.

If you like artistic photography, check out Sam’s photoblog: Sam is a very talented Toronto art director who shares an image a day with the world.

Now, back to Saturday. Drive the boys to the cottage, take some pictures on the way, and perhaps do another course unit. One day, perhaps after retirement, I shall make this my main business. Until that time, I pursue it at leisure and sometimes sell some imagery.

The Harper Tories do not disappoint, do they. Now Canada’s new government has decided to ban media from the homecoming of dead soldiers. Just like in the USA, it is now no longer allowed for us to see the caskets of dead soldiers when they are carried home after being killed in Afghanistan.

Not surprisingly for Christian fundamentalists, this government does not understand the media, and fears what might happen when these media speak freely. Free speech bad! As befits a right-wing government, it also honours the army (if Stephen Harper had been prime minister in 2002 we would no doubt also be in Iraq) and apparently wants to stop cold realities (such as “death is bad, sad, and horrible”) from intruding into its fantasies. It has also decided, therefore, that the flag will not fly half-mast anymore when dead soldiers are brought home.

On second thought, that may not be such a bad idea. Otherwise before long you would only see the flag fly half-mast at government buildings, Let’s face it, armies are intended to fight, kill, and be killed, so sadly, young soldiers will continue to be killed. And you cannot have a flag that flies at half mast permanently. It just wouldn’t do.

Yesterday, on the airplane back from Sweden, I read The Place at the End of the World, a book by journalist Janine di Giovanni, who was Britain’s foreign correspondent of the year in 2000. A moving book from a leading war correspondent about recent wars, and recommended reading.

Perhaps the book was so touching because I recognise so much. Having spent time in places like Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war and Nigeria in the early 1980s, I have some idea of the situations Ms di Giovanni writes about. What is harder to imagine, especially for anyone hwo has not been in the, is what wars do to the innocents who are caught up in them. War is terrible, and usually unjustified. Ask Ali, the 12-year old boy who lost both his arms in the “necessary” bombing of Iraq. Ms Giovanni did: it was she who found him in a Baghdad hospital and brought him to US forces’ attention.

That is what a war correspondent does, as Ms di Giovanni points out: tell stories on behalf of those who cannot, who are powerless, and who are the victims. Hats off to her and to her colleagues, who risk their lives on behalf of these voiceless victims.

It is perhaps not surprising that I would find this book in Stockholm, home town of Dr Hans Blix, who tried his best to avoid the US invasion of Iraq. 100,000 miserable deaths later, was that war worth it? Before you say “yes”, I would first read books like The Place at the End of the World.

I just wish there was something I could do…

How is this for cultural confusion: In the middle of Stockholm, here is a group of Peruvian Indians, in North American feather dress, using Peruvian flutes to make Spaghetti Western music, while doing a faux Indian mystery dance. In a bad area of town: watch out for pickpockets while listening.

The sad thing of course is that the Swedes have no idea. Perhaps like the Germans they have this Winnetou/Old Shatterhand thing going, so anyone with a feather headdress is noble. Hand around the hat please.

I had lunch in a fairly expensive restaurant across from the Nobel Museum in Gamla Stan. The meal was OK except half the sole was raw. And it was meant to be cooked.

I complained, very politely. Too politely: the $40 ewas not taken off the bill. But I got a free coffee. On the house. Cheers.

I knew even before the meal arrived, when in the background loud rap music and voices speaking Russian emanated from the kitchen, that this restaurant was a mistake. Raw sole. Gross.

I went for a walk in Gamla Stan today. Not Afghanistan, but Gamla Stan, which is the old part of Stockholm, on the same island as the Royal Palace.

Narrow cobbled streets. Lots of tourists, from Italy, Holland, Germany, Russia, the USA, Canada, Romania, and of course from other Scandinavian countries: and those are only the ones whose language I recognised. What a pretty old town: it is almost like being in Rome. Oh and did I mention, plenty of Italian tourists?

I spent all afternoon walking, taking photos (yes, I was once again an Anorak: see some of the images here). I even found a German church, to my surprise: has been there since the 17th century and everything is in German. They were playing Bach on the organ: very beautiful.
I plan to go to Gamla Stan again tomorrow: today, I got rather too tired to go on after 4 hours of walking, so I left before the light turned good for photos. The weather was terrific all day: bright sunshine, 12 degrees, and little wind. Tomorrow is meant to be cloudy.. we will see. I shall try again, and I remain impressed by Sweden. In spite of its authoritarian old-style socialist government.

…but since I had my passport checked upon arriving in Germany, there was no passport check at all in Sweden. Off the plane, onto the train. And even in Germany, no need to fill out forms. Take that, Americam Canada, and Britain, with your incessant need for formalities. (In Europe, it is Britain that goes crazy with forms and paperwork, big brother cameras, restrictions of civil liberties, etc. The rest of Europe is easy and getting easier.)

It is interesting to see that only 20% of Americans and 50% of Canadians have a passport. The Canadian economy will be hurt very badly when in 2008, the US/Canadian border will require a passport.And why? To stop open borders; specifically, to stop terrorism.

Well, passports do not stop terrorism. All of the 9/11 hijackers had valid passports and official US-issued visas. This paperwork only causes work and annoyance, Well done, Sweden. Life can get better.

I dreamt last night that one of our cats, the fat one, announced that it liked its position: it was the “Overlord Protector” of this household. I remember thinking “how odd, that she can be Overlord Protector even though she’s fat”.

In a few hours, I am off to Sweden, where the weather is supposed to be 6 degrees C and rainy this weekend - and I have the entire weekend in Stockholm. Fortunately, the forecast changes hourly.

I am leavng for Stockholm Wednesday, for a presentation on Friday. This will be a tough presentation to an international retailer. This retailer needs a system like the one we sell. So far so good.

Unfortunately, this retailer has the IT department running it. In the absence of any experience, they have overspecified, and in entirely the wrong areas. The analogy would be somone looking for a way of transport to get from A to B putting out a request that specifies the exact composition of the steel used in the wheels, but not the deisgn of the actual mode of transport: car, train, bicycle or airplane.

So this will be a challenging trip. Instead of meeting their assignments, we will outline what we do do, and why we think they need to tell us the marketing requirements so we can suggest a solution to suit.
Since they are not expecting that, this will be a very tough trip. But I am convinced this is what they need, and simply giving them a set of 1000 answers to the wrong questions will not serve them well.

The other interesting thing is the cost. Air Canada web site, and on the phone, quoted cheapest cost $6700, for an economy ticket to Stockholm, via London. So I asked “how about via Frankfurt?”. “Oh, then it is $5700. And that is the cheapest.”. And if I return Monday instead of Saturday? “Then it is $1301″.

Pity the poor traveller who does not know what questions to ask.

Fun for the day: the Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon, by Ruben Bolling. A few examples:

Tom on terrorism

God-man almost answers prayer

He is really very funny, and thank goodness we have no prohibition on cartooning God.

A site linking to all his cartoons is here - or else just google “Tom the dancing bug”.