My great grandparents were born in Bihar, India. Another great man (likely around the same time) was born there by the name of Eric Arthur Blair. You likely know him by George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm and 1984.

I just read an essay written by him 64 years ago. Here’s an excerpt that I just had to share:

INDIFFERENCE TO REALITY. All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage–torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians–which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side.

Full text is here: http://www.george-orwell.org/Notes_on_Nationalism/0.html. It’s definitely worth reading.

For various reasons, details of which are not critical at this point, Halton is studying how to increase the population density in the region (in existing urban areas).

I’ve seen regions handle it really well and really poorly (and everything in between). For instance, Redmond severely restricts building heights (to 3 floors), and I hope Milton adopts a similar restriction. Bellevue has an amazingly well planned downtown core (not completely implemented yet). The residential areas are very walk-able, walking distance from movie theatres, restaurants, shopping, hotels etc. etc. etc. Not only that, but you get breathtaking views of the Cascades mountain ranges, as well as those of Seattle across Lake Washington. One place I don’t like is Mississauga. Specifically, I don’t like how Mississauga sometime gets tall residential buildings in the middle of otherwise low-density population areas.

Here is what I would like Milton to do :-

1. Restrict building heights outside of really high density areas (more on that later). I hate seeing stuff like this (notice some random buildings in otherwise low-density areas) :-

To my eyes they just look ugly. They are an eye sore. How can the town do it better? I offer you two places I liked like crazy :-

Medina: Every building there was exact same height (more or less) and sat at a same distance from the street. In fact, the frontage of each building was more or less same too :-

Notice how the ground level has a consistent design? Higher up each building had its own character. But due to the bottom floor design, you get something like this :-

These buildings all had stores at the ground floor, which gives walk-able shopping. Consistent layout gives a very aesthetically pleasing look. The pattern does break when it’s necessary to unblock views :-

The other place where I really enjoyed the layout was Munich, Germany. They also had walk-able streets with shopping at the ground floor :-

Notice they dont have gaps between buildings like in Medina, but buildings still have consistent heights.

If Milton does go with higher density areas, then this is what I’d like to see condos / apartments look like. I do not like single tall buildings that do not flow well with the area. Milton has an opportunity here to really define the character of its high density areas.

Texas Representative, Betty Brown, asks Asian Americans to change their names:

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?", she said
[I am ignoring the fact that she was talking about US Citizens, so what “your” citizens?]

Brown later told [Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

She did not just stop there, oh no. Instead of apologizing, her spokesman blamed Democrats saying they "want this to just be about race."

What really does she propose anyway? have a list of ‘approved’ names you have to pick your child’s name from? Do a poll to see if individuals should change their names?

Is it really that crazy to expect elected officials to use at least some common sense?

For those who do not know, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom guarantees the right of Canadians to travel to Canada.  Yet a Canadian citizen is forced to live in the lobby of Canadian embassy in Sudan for 11 months because of a blatant violation of the rights of a Canadian.

Here is the background.  A Canadian citizen, Abousfian Abdelrazik, got placed in the UN Security Council blacklist by the Bush administration.  We all know Bush administration’s record of fairness and protecting civil liberties (I am being sarcastic).  Canada did the right thing by investigating and both RCMP and CSIS cleared him of any wrongdoing.  So that should be it, right?  Not for our government.

First the Harper government refused to issue Abdelrazik a passport so he could travel home. Then they said they would issue a passport if he could get a flight home.  He booked a flight.  So the Foreign Minister insisted that he must pay for the ticket, in full, in order to get a passport.  170 Canadians donated money for the ticket, allowing him to actually pay for the ticket.  And now the Foreign Minister goes back on his word, and insists that Abdelrazik must somehow remove himself from the UN list (and impossible ask) before he can be issued a passport.  Never mind the fact that the UN blacklist contains a specific exemption for citizens to return home.  As I mentioned, Canadian charter of rights also provides all citizens with an unfettered right of return. 

NDP MPs claim racism is at play, and as much as I hate to agree with NDP, it does sound fishy.  Anyone remembers Brenda Martin?  A Canadian who got stuck in Mexico?  Our government was happy to help Branda return.  But her last name was “Martin”, not “Abdelrazik”.  Apparently that makes a difference for this government.

The scary thing is that a single person (Foreign Minister) can practically force a citizen into exile without any due process whatsoever.  In this case the government shouldn’t be able to drag its feet and appeal, the minister should instead be dragged to court instead.  Noone except a judge after due process should be able to impose such a huge punishment on someone. 

So now this individual is forced to live in the hallways of Canadian embassy, but cannot return home because his government refuses to accept his rights and liberties.

We really do live in sad times.  It’s pathetic when a minister (a public servant I might add) just decides to ignore a right guaranteed by Canadian Charter of Rights without giving any explanation whatsoever.  Isn’t this the sort of abuse the Charter was supposed to prevent?  I would hate to live in a country where people are more Canadian or less Canadian based on their names or the colour of their skins.  It’s pathetic.

Milton Council approved new ward boundaries for the 2010 election to reflect the growth the town experience. Under the new boundaries, my home will fall under ‘Ward 8′, one with no representation under the current Council. Although people can run in any ward (meaning existing councillors can choose to run in Ward 8 even though they don’t live here), I hope new faces will show up. Nothing against current councillors (who overall have done a fair job), but many of them have been around for decades. It will be nice to see some new blood :-).

More details are right here: http://www.milton.ca/townhall/projects/wardreview/wardreview.htm

A little while ago Ontario Municipal Board approved a development that some councillors at the city of Toronto did not like. What did they do? Willowdale Councillor John Filion suggested renaming the street the development was on to OMB Folly. Not surprisingly, some people who forked out $1 million to buy town homes on that street are upset at the name (original name was supposed to be Connfield Lane).

What does Filion have to say about people protesting the new name? Surprisingly (to me at least), he said he won’t support a switch. Instead, he insists that "neighbours are all completely in favour of OMB Folly."

The country is going through some real economic crises. Province of Ontario is seeing worse suffering. City of Toronto is an even worse shape. And what do these childish councillors do? Waste time on ridiculous names just to offend. Shame!  Don’t get me wrong, I do not have much respect for OMB, but this isn’t the right channel to show grievances.