minorityforminority

So with the Canadian election only 3 weeks away, what exactly is going to happen?
Will Paul Martin's Liberals receive another chance in office? Stephen Harper or Jack Leighton?

More importantly, is this Liberal minority government going to be replaced with another minority government?
And if that happens, who is to say that another motion of no confidence will be put before parliament 6 months down the road? And again after that?

From where I'm standing it doesn't look like there will be a stable government in office for some time unless whoever gets in makes some serious concessions in forming a coalition government.
And then are the voters going to be happy with the policies?
It certainly doesn't look like there is going to be a major swing in any direction towards any of the major parties as it stands right now.

hockeystandings

I have been pondering a lot lately, although nothing I want to get my teeth into at the moment.
What I really want to do right now is pat myself on the back.

I really started getting into Canada's national past time Hockey (or Ice Hockey as we would call it back home) back in the autumn of 2002.
Once you figure out all of the bajillions of rules (and there are alot of them) it's actually a brilliant game to get into.

We have had a fantasy hockey pool going at the office since september, and after a rough first month I slowly started to climb the pile. Last night I made it to my highest ranking: no.4!!!
My ambition is to finish the season as the top non-canadian in the league.
One of the reasons Fantasy Hockey is so compelling is because the league is scheduled for teams to play every night - there is always someone playing and the league gets updated everday.
(Disclaimer: Fantasy Hockey is a seriously addictive activity and will suck you in like there's no tomorrow).

espionage

I'm personally fascinated with tales of international espionage and diplomatic wrangles; this story caught my eye this afternoon.

festiveleftovers

Still enjoying the festive period.
Avoiding the busy areas like the plague for the moment.
Turkey sandwhiches and christmas leftovers are the best, aren't they?

merrychristmas

I'd like to offer my warmest greetings and also wish everyone a happy new year.

Christmas dinner yesterday was one of the best I had parteken of; and also a first in that I made my own trifle desert. Nobody ended up choking on their own vomit, which is the meausre I use to deem whether my culinery foray was successful or not.

My excellent roomate the great P Wade this year created the most incredible meal that involved stuffing a turckey with a duck, and in turn stuffing the duck with a chicken. (I'll try and post pictures later).
In the morning we hung out and opened presents with an excited Soph, and I watched a sobering documentary on the orphans of North Korea.

I think it's worth spending a few moments at this time of year to think about the millions around the world that would willingly swop their problems for mine in a heartbeat.

Information is the key to change in North Korea, so please take the time to watch this video.
(Warning, there is graphic depiction in this video, although nothing that betrays reality for millions of koreans).

theyearinreview

The Larph's are set to recognise everything that was half-decent about 2005, and will not hear another word.

Best half-decent movies: Millions; Maria Full of Grace (after 2nd go)
"Danny Boyle finds his feet again with the brilliant "Millions". MFG weren't bad either..."

Best half-decent audio: Bloc Party; Idlewild; Blindside; U2
"East Enders Bloc partyknocked me over in Hong Kong with stormig single "Helicopter". Special mentions to Idlewild, Blindside (Im not into hardcore, but this is brilliant) and U2 who seem to have forgotten how to write a bad song recently."

Best half-decent text: Mao (Jung Chang); Better Than Life (Grant Naylor); The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe (Douglas Adams)
"Still not one for scifi rubbish, but Douglas Adams is a genius, and Grant and Naylor aren't too bad as it goes. Jung Chang's epic biography is by far the most comprehensive and compelling account available that I've seen."

Best half-decent websites: BBC News; Wikipedia; One Free Korea
"What can you say? You can't beat information, and impartial info is the best. The guy blogging OFK must be buiser that a one legged man at an arse kicking convention. Killer blog."

Best half-decent tv: Extras
"Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are in a league of their own. No doubt about it."

Best half-decent footballer: Frank Lampard Jr
"A good East End lad, the boy done good. The best midfielder in tje world last year by a long shot. Ask Ronaldhino if you don't believe me."

Best half-decent "Always-there-for-me-in-2005": Dr Pepper
"I dont care if it's glorified prune juice. Dr Pepper kicks bum, and it's South Korean appearance this summer saved me."

Best half-decent "People-with-balls-of-steel": Londoners
"There probably only is one place in the world where you are in danger of being stabbed at the opening of an Ikea Store, but after the horrific tube bombings in July my kinsmen showed this year they are not only courageous, they are also posess an abundance in compassionate."

Special mention for the "You-make-Genghis Khan-look-like-a-social-worker" Award: Kim Jong Il
"With yet another famine about to rear his ugly head, The Dear Leader decides to remove all humanitarian aid from the country in order to save face. Words do not suffice."

Thus concludes The Larphs.

festivities

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make when they go past."

I did my first bout of christmas shopping this afternoon, leaving me just one more outing to get it all done.
I really can't stand the crowds, the shops and all the hassle, to be honest. But most of all, I cant stand getting on the bus.
I almost always walk down the drive over using my transit card. There's just something about being crammed into a metal tin on wheels and having to stand in someone else's armpit that I just cannot do.

If you're interested in a hilarious report that accidentally sneaked onto the BBC News website (although unfortunately is fake), click here.
Just to warn you, it does involve 42 Cambodian midgets, an African Lion and an Amphitheatre.

Couple of questions: Who did I quote at the top of this post, and did anyone see MSNBC host Tucker Carlson's Canada rant the other day? *puke*

tokyosubway

federalelection:suffrage

I thought I would step away from the scrutiny of recent events and make an observation on the actual system.

If you are lucky enough to be someone who lives in a society as tolerant as Canada, please be careful to not take your freedoms for granted.
More specifically, I am talking about suffrage and universal suffrage.
The right to vote.

Most westernised democrasies have introduced universal suffrage into society, Iraq being the most recent (this year, no less).
Canada was a bit of a forerunner in this sense over here introducing it fully in 1960, with The States following suit a couple of years later.
I've been told that my great grandmother was a member of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the UK who finally secured universal suffrage in 1928.
Whether she actually chained herself to parliament like many others, I do not know; what I am convinced of is of it's importance to us in society now.

There are many, many environments around the world right now where even if "democratic" elections are held, many are not allowed to vote on grounds of ethnicity, gender, religion, status - the list goes on.
Unfortunately, many of the disenfranchised also happen to dwell under the most obscenely corrupted governments (see Mugabe).

Even today, the heavily developed and progressive territory of Hong Kong has it's voting rights suspended in the balance.
Pro-democracy campaigners have faced an uphill battle against a heavy handed and controlling Beijing government since 1997, and universal suffrage again appears to be the major issue.

federalelection:motions

So in a previous post, I was trying to explain that Paul Martin's government went under after Stephen Harper's motion of no confidence.

Motions of no confidence are fairly typical within a parliament that's governing party is in minority or coalition with another party.
Usually if somone tables a motion of no confidence against the government , the government will table a motion of confidence which takes a presidence over the previous motion.
(I know, I know, why?! Don't ask me...)
But in this case, that did not happen.

So as I understand it, the motion (or vote) goes before parliament and as you would expect is alot easier to win if you have a majority parliament.
However, as this was not the case The Liberals lost and Paul Martin made an appointment with the Governor General in which she agreed to dissolve the government and call a general election for January.

faithlessvideo

Found another incredibly cool piece of NK media.
This is a music video by a UK trance group called Faithless (Dido's brother is in the group for the anorak-like amongst you).
The video entirely consists of footage from a British company (Very Much So Productions) that documented a young korean dancer preparing for her performance in the Arirang Festival that I mentioned in an earlier post.

newsroundup

It's been a busy week, but my favourite story by far has to be another example of housewives' favourite Junichiro Koizumi's knack for flare.
Apparently, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi turned up for work on a Segway this week after presumably spending time working on manouveres in his Tokyo backgarden.

In Europe it has been a torid year for the major EU players with the rejection of the European Constitution earlier this year, but they did manage to hash out a budget deal for the next 7 years.
However, most critcs at home would view the deal as a pretty hefty failure on the UK's part, giving up a sizeable chunk of it's rebate in return for no guarantees on the Common Agricultural Policy (of which France is a huge beneficiary). Big disappointment.

Beaches in the Sydney area will be closed down this weekend, as police erect roadblocks and enforce searches in order to prevent another weekend of racial violence between "ethnic lebanese and mediterraneans" and "white austalians".

federalelection:presently

"Why do we need to have another election six months after the last one?"

Great question.
The ins and outs are fairly complicated, but it sort of goes like this: (again, feel free to chip in and correct/expand).
After the Sponsorship Scandal went public, the governing Liberal Party were rocked by criticism from both inside the party and outside.
In June's Federal Election, Paul Martin's Liberals were returned to government by Canadians, but this time in the form of a minority government.

"So what exactly is a minority government?"

Canada is broken up into constituencies. You basically vote for someone to represent your constituency in Ottawa in parliament. Commercial Drive went NDP and Libby Davies is our MP.
In the last election, The Liberals went from enjoying an absolute majority of seats (MPs) in parliament to having only the largest plurality.
(172 to 135 seats!)
This meant that in order to pass legislation and get anything done in Canada, Paul Martin was constantly bargaining for support from the other parties.
Kind of a bummer situation to be in considering it used to be so much easier for him.

Eventually, the inevitable happened and Stephen Harper (leader of the main opposition) saw his opportunity and tabled a motion of no confidence in The Liberal government.

More tomorrow.

federalelection:backitup

I thought I would endeavour to cover the upcoming Canadian Federal Elction as best as possible (feel free to chip in on my mistakes and omitances).

So to understand the upcoming election you sort of have to know what has been happening in the last year.
In Canada, there are three main political parties: The Conservatives (right), The Liberals (central-left?) and The NDP (lefty-left-but-definetely-not-communist). *Disclaimer* These are my own observations.

Last year a scandal erupted know as "Adscam" and "Sponsorgate" involving the ruling Liberal party.
Certain Liberal Party members alledgedly including former Prime Minister Jean Chretien had been involved in the embezzlement of public funds in the province of Quebec.

Without going into the details, it sort of involved The Liberal Party paying large amounts of cash to advertising firms that were politically allied to them with little to no services rendered in return for the public money. (And subsequent kickbacks).

Prime Minister Paul Martin ordered an inquiry into the scandal earlier this year (and has thus far been absolved of any wrongdoing - sort of ironic considering that he was the Finance Minister at the time of the alleged laundering) that was carried out by a guy called Mr Gomery.

And thus we have the Gomery Report.

More to come.

canadianelection

Found some interesting NK photos on the BBC News website taken by a western "businessman" (whatever that means).
The Canadian election campaign is starting to heat up here (I still think they are rather too polite in their policy critique compared to us Brits) but this one appears to be a more heated contest as The Liberals are coming off the back of a financial scandal and damaged US ties as well.
I shall make a concious decision to follow this one more closely than the other 3 (!) that have occured here since I have been resident.

picturespicturespictures

Thanks to anyone who bought a picture today; they managed to raise over $100 since this morning (fantastic news).
For the record, all proceeds will be donated towards the 5 or 6 dts students and staff at ywam vancouver (who still need cash) and will be particpating in missions trips for the next two months in either N Africa, SE Asia or Russia.
From my own experience (dts outreach to Winnipeg and Mexico in 2001), this will be an invaluable way to experience ministry in different cultures, witness the kingdom of God extended through alternative expressions and provide an opportunity to learn to relate to God in difficult circumstances!!
(Sorry I don't have a proper "portfolio" to display; you just have to sort of sift through the archives on this blog. 4 x 6 prints are $3, 5 x 7 are $5. Further enlargements and frames available on request. Ralph_Venton@yahoo.com)

outreachfees

I'm selling photos in order to try and raise cash for dts students who still need to pay off their outreach fees.
If you've seen anything you like, I can print it off for you and either do it in a frame or sans frame. Let me know.

more amazing nk stuff

Found some stunning footage on the net of Chinese president Hu Jin Tao's recent visit to Pyongyang North Korea.
The footage almost certainly comes from the state's main broadcasting channel (note the Juche flame logo in the top corner).
Interesting things to note: Hu Jin Tao appears to be the first Chinese leader to have his wife accompany him on official visits; Hu's offer of a handshake to the first girl; the deep and extended bowing and of course the extaordinary mobilisation of pretty much everyone in the city for the occasion.
Oh and the extended boulevards are apparently designed to manouvre tanks around the city in war time.


Just as exciting for myself (although perhaps not for other readers of this blog) is the update from these pictures that surfaced on the internet about a year ago (North Korean refugees in Beijing trying to gain asylum at the Japanese embassy and escape forced [illegal] repatriation back to North Korea).

sportssportssports

The draw for the world's biggest and most important sporting event has taken place, and I am pretty satisfied with the results.
Obviously, you have to be prepared to play anybody if you want to win the World Cup, but England's group is pretty sweet, and we've missed a couple of "sleepers" in Holland and the Czech Republic.
I think we will waste Trinidad and Paraguay, but Sweden will be a little harder; we haven't beaten them in 37 years but hey, records are there to be broken, aren't they?

On the hockey front, The Canucks are playing The Senators tonight in Vancouver so Im off to watch that one right now.
Should be a fantastic game.

More later.

mycity

doubles

australiagotdrunklastnight

You might have a hard time believing this, but apparently Australia got drunk last night and woke up in the mid-atlantic.
At least Ang and Leigh's airfare tickets back home are going to be cheaper.

cityatnight

I love the autumn.
It's my favourite time of year. The leaves fall off of the trees, rain falls often but most of all, it ges dark early.
I love the city at night. The random spaces of light spilling out of various appartment buildings into the night time atmosphere. The funny way light reacts towards sky scraping glass clad structures.
Every so often the night sky is lit in brilliant faded orange and pinks; no doubt it is the moon although it leads the imagination to wander elsewhere.
I love the city at night.

thecalmbeforethestorm

Sunday evening.
It's the perfect time to relax and take stock of the week.
Unless you're already thinking about tomorrow.
I'm crashing at a friend's place for the next couple of nights. Should be fun.
Starting to look forward to our Christmas celebrations. My roomate is going to stuff a turkey with a chicken, and stuff the chicken with a duck. And then slow roast it for ten hours. It's called turducken. I'm going to try and come up with a good English festive tradition.
I'm not sure many people would believe me if I told them we soak cake in Brandy and then set it on fire.
But it's true.

saltwater

liesandmorelies

Last week I was hanging out downtown.
This guy had parked his car next to Waterfront Station and was methodically decking his vehicle out in antiwar propaganda.
He offered me several freed dvds, and a fairly longwinded explanation towards his vehement opposition of the war.
I kept snapping away at his placards whilst he drilled me with statistics on Halliburton oil contracts.
That's where these pictures come from.
I wouldn't say that it is an untypical poitical stance for Vancouver in general.
Myself, I was just interested in snapping at his placards.

newsroundup

One of the most interesting stories of the week for me centred on North Korea's state sponsored supernote manufacturing.
In an apparent effert to disrupt the world economy, the state has been developing high quality forgeries of US $100 bills for about 15 years and has been laundering them in a partnership with the IRA, no less!
After years of alcoholism and a somewhat excessive lifestyle, George Best has been laid to rest in Belfast today to a procession infront of hundreds of thousands.
China has been further eroding the system of democracy in Hong Kong, with more negative developments, and a German youth pastor has come up with a thoroughly questionable and creepy way to entice young people back into the church.

movingmovingmoving

(I found out what was going wrong with this blog for peecee users; there was a tiny tag of code missing.
Apparently some browsers can sort through the code and figure their own way out. Unfortunately Explorer is a bit crap in that respect.
Get Firefox, thats what I say!
Anyway, let me know if it still hasn't been sorted out).

violentlyruptured

I've been thinking alot recently about what is acheivable.
Ive been on an interesting trip in the past nine months; I wouldn't ahve changed it for anything. Most of all, I've come to the conclusion that I limit myself far too much. By what I deem to be achievable.
It seems to be unmistakably clear that whenever I go for "gold", by the time it has been accomplished God has doubled or tripled my efforts without blinking.
I am begining to realise that I might have been limiting the Holy Spirit in all of it, too.
What if I just start out with bigger goals? What can be acheivable then?
If it is actually acheivable by my standards, Could it all be a load of tosh?
Too many questions.

I've been coming off of a dry skid recently. Sometimes when I feel like I can't get through to God myself, I pray for someone else.
Sometimes when I feel like I can't get through to God, I just keep ploughing through the Word. Sometimes I listen to my friends talk about Him, and I get it again.
Recently, I realised that if I started using the gifts He gave me, we would connect again.
So writing became co-writing.
Creating became co-creating.
Dreaming has become co-dreaming.
Prayer is becoming a tag-team effort.
When I think and pray about Korea, I feel like I have access to an area of God's heart that wasn't obvious to me last time I was there. When I meditate on those good things that I care about, I feel like I have a passage point to the secret place.

I've been jamming with a band called Epiphanic recently. It has reminded me just how much I love to make music.
I made a promise to God in July when I bought a cheap little Russian camera in Bangkok. I told Him that I wanted to use it to bring him credit.
Realising that He is the source of all my creativity, all limits have been violently punctured, and the possibilities with this funny little camera seem endless.
What if the same thing were to happen with my guitar? My pen? My computer?
What would our walk together look like then?