All posts by Manuel Werner

Caring for Our Parents: It’s Unnatural

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vultures

Deeply embedded a cultural meme as it is, one still wonders whether caring for elderly parents was always the norm. In this regard we might ask why the ghost writer of the Ten Commandments felt compelled put in number four (or five, depending on the sources), “honour thy father and mother?” I should point out here that I avoid the terms “Almighty,” “God,” and other bits of hyperbole, as I’d be embarrassed attributing authorship to invisible entities. I’m supposing number four had something to do with a prevailing can’t-wait-to-see-them-croak attitude. That is, when the good, pre-commandment folk weren’t actively hastening the dying process, which may have been one of the sins that closed down the fun cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Continue reading Caring for Our Parents: It’s Unnatural →

Making Shit Look Good: Part 2: Just Say No

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leviathan

How many times have we heard the lament by individuals, businesses, large organizations and, in general, those in need of post-misdeed comfort: we are acting in the spirit, if not the letter, of the law, the regulation, the policy, ethics, etc.? So, the Canadian government has a new cell phone tower rule to replace the old guideline which seems to have been misunderstood by the companies supposed to be abiding by it. It used to be they had to consult with the locals (they read yokels) before putting up any of their attractive towers, if they were 15 meters or higher. Now they have to ask permission to go to the toilet for towers of any height. Why? Continue reading Making Shit Look Good: Part 2: Just Say No →

Making Shit Look Good: It’s all about Framing

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Here I use the word shit symbolically, a perfectly legitimate one in the English language, rather than as the vulgar form of fecal matter or to defecate. It is versatile enough to capture the flavour of lives lived at the deepest end of the socio-economic valley. The joke where an optimist says we will all soon be eating shit only to get the pessimist’s response that there won’t be enough to go around nicely, if somewhat loutishly, demonstrates how framing can alter how we view this particular form of bodily effluvia: From a waste product to a foodstuff that becomes desirable when there is not enough of it. I’m of course stretching what is basically low humour into convenient metaphor, but if it conveys how framing can change perspective then it has been a useful exercise.  Continue reading Making Shit Look Good: It’s all about Framing →

Business Über Alles: The Willfully Blind Approach

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A number of agencies and regulations have been overrun, annihilated and buried by our nice Conservative, Steven Harper led government in the noble name of saving money. Depending on how much you worry about the risk of being suddenly incinerated while sipping a cold drink, this might not be such a bad thing. Continue reading Business Über Alles: The Willfully Blind Approach →

Let’s Party like there’s No Future

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Why aren’t the people we watch and adulate – from Mad Men, from Game of Thrones, from Glee and from all the other really juicy, addictive series and albums – talking about climate change? It’s boring, boring, boring, like last year’s fashions, Nokia phones, yesterday’s heroes and orts, and anything that’s been repeated too often, like that quaint Chicken Little shtick about the sky falling. Continue reading Let’s Party like there’s No Future →