Highway of Heroes

In Ontario, when a Canadian soldier dies for his country in Afghanistan they touch Canadian soil at Canadian Forces Base Trenton. From there, a funeral procession leaves the base and heads to Toronto, Ontario taking our departed heroes to the Centre for Forensic Sciences. Along the 172km path of Highway 401 people fill the overpasses to show their support, waving Canadian flags and signs, in a sort of paying their respects to the fallen and their families.

The Ontario “Highway of Heroes” Petition to Ontario Ministry of Transportation was created by members of Milnet.ca and written by James Forbes (forcerecon85@hotmail.com).

On August 24, 2007 it was announced that Ontario’s provincial government consulted the federal government, municipalities along the highway and the Royal Canadian Legion and on September 7, 2007 it was official, a stretch of the 401 would be renamed ‘Highway of Heroes’. The highway will not lose its official designation as the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway, but signs would be erected designating the route as the Highway of Heroes.

The Song ‘Highway of Heroes’ was recorded as an extension of the emotion expressed when thousands of Canadians voiced their desired to honour our fallen soldiers by having a part of the 401 renamed. Hopefully, when the song is heard, it will remind everyone to take a moment and reflect on what is truly important in their lives.

What are the long term effects of the current world crisis?

 You can sense that something isn’t right.  Something is changing and not for the better.   If you look at the world today you get snippets of what is happening, but is it a trend? 

 Economic recovery will very much depend upon a positive attitude in the consumers and investors around the world.  Almost everything we hear nowadays is anything but good news.  The Financial Sector in a majority of countries is corrupted and virtually bankrupt.  The leaders of many companies have run their companies into the ground trying to maximize their personal wealth through salary, bonuses and equity.  Their remuneration is obscene and totally unwarranted.  They have not added value to their companies, they have destroyed them and now it is the taxpayers (their former clients) who are being tasked with bailing them out.  It’s too bad that we are rewarding bad performance and not allowing companies that deserve to fail to do just that.

In North America, we have an Automobile Sector that blew it and made all the wrong decisions.  They misread the trends and developments and actually reversed themselves in areas where they were being innovative and getting it right.  The best example is the GM EV1 which was revolutionary and a good start to getting off the carbon trail.  I equate it to the Avro Arrow which was the best fighter bomber of its day never to have been built.  In both cases the products were destroyed to try and move the clock back.  We had quality issues which have for the most part been addressed.  I remember my first Japanese car – it was a piece of junk but then they got it right in subsequent years to where they were tops in quality and it took the big three awhile to finally catch up but we still have the perception that the quality isn’t there.  Recent surveys have shown that many of the vehicles from the North American manufacturers are better than their Japanese counterparts.  The Big 3 screwed up and we are being forced to try and save them – the jury is still out on that front. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People are angry with having to bail out the financial institutions around the world and they don’t see any change in behaviour or method of operation.  Maybe China’s solution would smarten them up – look at the Milk crisis and the main perpetrators have gone to jail for a long time or have been sentence to death.  Sounds like a deterrent to me.

Robberies and violence seem to be on the upswing.   People are losing hope and are getting desperate and doing what they can to survive or thrive.  Can this be the start of a trend that could lead to anarchy?  A Russian scholar says “There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010,” Igor Panarin told dozens of students, professors and diplomats Tuesday at the Diplomatic Academy — a lecture the ministry pointedly invited The Associated Press and other foreign media to attend.  Will there be a lot of social unrest?  There was during the Great Depression so it is quite plausible for the same to happen in modern times.  How far it goes will depend upon the levels of hope or despair we get to in the future.

If the ones who helped create this situation don’t change their ways we can expect a push back by the investors and consumers who are needed to right the ship. 

I despair for the lack of will on the part of governments to correct the causes of the problems in concert with their efforts to reverse the effects of the downturn in the economy.  It is just going to get worse but the creators of the problems are sitting pretty with their bonuses and offshore bank accounts.  They won’t even face paying the taxes that will pay the final tab on this problem.

Words to live by in 2009

Work like you don’t need the money
dance like no one is watching
sing like no one is listening
love like you’ve never been hurt
and live life every day as if it were your last

 

I know there are a number of different versions of this quote but it’s the message that is important.

Doctor Who/Torchwood – What’s next after Series 4

So we’ve enjoyed series 4 and recovered from the excitement of the final episodes, but the question is “what’s next”?

We know that there is Christmas Special this year and likely next Christmas as well, but according to a story in the Daily Telegraph we won’t be seeing a new 13 episode series until 2010.  Not much in 2009 except a one hour special at Easter and another likely at Christmas, that leaves another one hour special that is still to be scheduled.

As for who will be the Doctor for Series 5, it is quite possible that David Tennant could return for that series depending on how the stars align.

Not much Doctor Who in the next year or so but then it might be a good thing.  Putting out episodes for the sake of getting something out could reduce the quality of the stories, this way the series could go on and on.  It’s better to have a smaller amount of quality programming then a lot of junk programming.

The next year is going to be tough without much Torchwood and Doctor Who.  Torchwood has only had 5 episodes approved for the next season and those episodes will focus on one story line and be aired over a one week period.  Hopefully they will approve more Torchwood episodes to go along with the current line up.