Category Archives: Writing

Society, Writing

NYT Says Rage Has Poisoned Public Life in Canada

Yes, there is rage, but we can never condone violence or threats of violence.

Take the rage, and make something of it, instead of tearing things down.

Volunteer, contribute to society. Don’t like how things are? Help make them better.

It’s easy to be angry. It’s hard work to improve society.

Don’t like politicians? Why don’t you run, and see if you can do a better job?

Don’t like journalists? It’s hard work to discern the truth and to report on it. The job often entails writing about things people don’t want exposed, that people don’t want to hear.

But without searching, and striving for accuracy and truth, how can we improve our lot?

Business, Editing, Photography, Writing

New Blog Page on Writing, Editing & Photography Services

You may notice a new page tab at the top right of this blog: Writing, Editing, Photography Services.

I’ll be adding information on services I provide.

I have decades of experience as an editor and writer, and have been an avid nature and wildlife photographer since I was  a teen. I also do event photography, and have fulfilled contracts with municipalities, NGOs, and associations.

Business, Society, Writing

Rampant Consumerism & $250 Sunglasses for Kids

I was flabbergasted to get a flyer in the mail today from a major sporting goods chain with $200 – $250 sunglasses for kids so they can look “cool” going back to school.

What the hell?

When so many families can barely afford a standard set of school supplies?

When schools in a relatively affluent area like the BC lower mainland need lunch programs so kids don’t go hungry?

The mind boggles. . .
Pets, Writing

Sniffing the Night Air With Sora the Cat

Oh my, that was fun!

Holding Sora the Cat at the front door for about 10 minutes as the rain began to lightly fall not long before we go to bed in south  Burnaby, BC.

Sniff the air, sweetie. Enjoy the smells, the sounds of the pattering droplets.

Sharing the fresh air with an animal with senses seeking is such a joy. Her body tense in anticipation, eyes panning the darkness. . .

She’s happy being a totally indoor cat — better for her and for the wee beasties out there. . .

But that takes a lot of play and interaction.

Hiking, Nature, Society, Sustainability, Writing

Feeling Blessed to Live in SuperNatural Burnaby, BC

For several years now, a popular topic has been pondering “what brings you joy?”

And I don’t mean socks neatly rolled and arranged in drawers in color-coded series 🙂.

The answer for me is simple — being outdoors in nature.

Increasingly arthritic knees and hips be damned (I have good days and not so good ones in that department), within a minute of being out the front door and on my way down a Byrne Creek trail in SE Burnaby, BC, my spirits soar.

Rain or shine.

Let me see a salmon spawning, an eagle soaring, an owl silently staring, and my aches melt away.

It’s that endorphin surge of excercise and the primal heightening of the senses.

We are blessed here in Burnaby, with many salmon-bearing streams and a variety of parks with varied ecosystems.

Forests? Yup. Meadows? Uh-huh. Rivers and streams? Check. Lakes? Roger. Saltwater inlets? Sure.

I walk at least an hour a day, sometimes two or three, as work and other committments allow.

I feel fortunate to live in such an amazing place.
Business, Society, Writing

Putin is Losing the War He Started, But the Cost. .

It increasingly appears that Putin has lost the war he started. Nothing has gone as he thought it would.

Far from welcoming Russian forces with open arms, Ukrainian men and women have fought back with dedication, tenacity, and furiousness beyond anything he anticipated.

It is clear that Russian forces are not into the fight, abandoning tanks and equipment, and crying on camera when captured.

It is only those who do not see what’s happening on the ground who are still firing cruise missiles, rockets, and long-range artillery.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have picked up arms to defend their homeland. More thousands of diaspora Ukrainians are trying to get back to the “old country” to fight.

With bombing and missile attacks on Ukrainian schools and hospitals, even maternity wards, Putin has committed war crimes.

Putin is apparently now taking his frustrations out upon the FSB, the decendants of the KGB where Putin put his psychopathic talents to use in his younger years.

Unfortunately, thousands more will die and be injured in this madman’s quest — for what?

For a renewed empire?

He will lose.
Business, Society, Writing

Putin’s Treachery Inspires Ukrainians, Democracy Defenders, Worldwide

Audio

Putin is waking up people all over the world who have Ukrainian roots, those who support them, and those who cherish freedom and democracy.

I was a “Super-Uke” in my youth and early adulthood.

For many years I was in a Ukrainian youth chorus, was an altar boy and Sunday school teacher in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, was Saskatchewan provincial president of the Ukrainian Students’ Union of Canada, was a teacher at Ukrainian youth camps, and a teacher at Ukrainian language summer schools.

And eventually I burned out and abandoned most of my Ukrainian connections.

I went to Japan to teach English for over a decade, and then do journalism for Tokyo-based English-language news services for a few more years. That was about as far away as one could get from Ukrainian-Canadian issues 🙂.

It wasn’t until after I returned to Canada in my 40s that I started gradually returning to the Ukrainian world, assisting an aunt and my late mom in translating and editing some 20 volumes of Ukrainian literature into English.

My Ukrainian is very rusty now, after several decades of little involvement with the Ukrainian-Canadian community.

But, Putin, you’ve inspired me to be more active, to perhaps polish my weakened language skills.

Putin’s treachery, lies, and war crimes against civilians are goading  people around the world to stand, and to fight.

P.S. I don’t hate Russians, I love your resistance. I just hate Putin and the oligarachs.

You all deserve better, and I admire your protests.

Books, Society, Writing

Remembering the Soviet-Inflicted Holodomor Famine in Ukraine

In 2008, the Canadian Parliament passed an act so that throughout Canada, in each and every year, the fourth Saturday in November shall be known as “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (“Holodomor”) Memorial Day”.

In commemoration of the Soviet-inflicted Holodomor, I’m sharing part of the introduction that I wrote to Maria: A Chronicle of a LIfe, a novel of those terrible times written by Ulas Samchuk, translated by my aunt Roma Franko, and edited by me, after the passing of my Mom who edited many volumes of Language Lanterns Publications translations of Ukrainian literature into English.

“To see a world in a grain of sand…” These words by English poet William Blake are interpreted to mean that minute, apparently inconsequential events in a life can represent universal truths.

“Ulas Samchuk’s character Maria is such a grain of sand––or perhaps in the context of the novel, she is such a kernel of grain.

“The life of this uneducated peasant woman spans great upheavals in Ukrainian history from approximately the 1861 emancipation of serfs in the Russian Empire under the Tsars, to the unimaginable horror of the communist-induced mass starvation in Soviet Ukraine in the early 1930s that killed millions, and is now internationally recognized as an act of genocide.

“Samchuk dedicates his novel “to the mothers who were starved to death in Ukraine in 1932-33,” yet the story is much more than that, taking the reader through three sections: A Book about the Birth of Maria, A Book of Maria’s Days, and A Book about Grain. Each is important in its own way, as Maria grows, matures, and reacts to the changes going on around her.

“She may be just a bit of flotsam carried by a tsunami of social and political change, but her loves, her trials and her toil through her three score and ten (the author tells us that she lived for 26,258 days, or nearly 72 years) enable us to picture an often harsh existence that prompted hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian peasants to abandon their beloved villages and emigrate in search of land and freedom. . . “

Society, Streamkeeping, Writing

Sharing My Mom’s Love of Teaching

Today would have been my late Mom’s 88th birthday.

Sharing our love for teaching in a post from my old blog, 14 years ago.

April 19, 2007

Thank You South Slope Elementary

I would like to thank South Slope Elementary students in Burnaby for the package of thank you cards that I received today. It was unexpected and greatly appreciated.

They have participated in the Salmon in the Classroom program for many years. They receive chum salmon eggs from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and care for them in their classroom until they hatch as alevins. They feed them until the tiny fish reach the fry stage, and then the kids release them into Byrne Creek.

As volunteer streamkeepers, my wife Yumi and I have had the privilege of guiding the kids to the creek for several years now.

This year’s South Slope Elementary release was particularly meaningful to me, because my Mom was dying of cancer.

It was uplifting being with the kids that morning, and seeing them so full of life and wonder.

Later that day I told Mom about the fry release, and though she was heavily medicated, she indicated that she understood, and was happy.

She loved kids, she loved teaching, and she was a teacher of teachers.

She died the evening of the fish release, surrounded by love.

Today:

I am happy that the day she died, my Mom knew that Yumi and I were teaching children.

 

Nature, Society, Writing

Murmuring Rain and Underwear

As I was listening to the murmuring rain this morning in that dreamy state of gradually waking up on a weekend, I had the warm and fuzzy thought of running around outside through the gentle droplets in my underwear.

Unfortunately, life is not fair. If I were 4 years old, neighours would smile and giggle, but at my age, they would call the cops. . . 🙂