Gojira

Likening the humanitarian crisis to a natural disaster, like a tsunami or a flood or a huge forest fire, Wynne said public officials “have to go above and beyond” because exceptional circumstances demand it.

If you read this blog at all, you'll know why this framing by the premier makes me smile.

Reporting Change

Any Opposition MP or MPP or MLA will tell you: if the media aren't there to shine a light on government's misdeeds or misspending, very few people are going to end up knowing about it.

- Warren Kinsella

Kinsella makes a valid point about the world we know.  News isn't just information - it's information that gets presented.  From Parliament down to service providers and over to everything from accountants to yoga instructors, we outsource the substance of our lives so that we can focus on more specific things more intently.

To a degree - and especially where it comes to big decisions and the news that informs them - we have given agency to others on our behalf.  

I've written at length about why this has been necessary; Parliament was created in an age cars and the internet, so we needed someone to carry collective voices to places of decision making.  Every day citizens didn't have the tools, or skills, or the time to do investigative journalism.  It was someone else's job, just as farming or keeping the trains running or the sidewalks paved was someone else's job.

There's a big change afoot, however, that is revisiting this dynamic.

It's early days, and the future is far from clear, but there's been a whiff of investigative reporting and real-world reportage happening out their in the social Zeitgeist.  Even when the media was shut out in Ferguson, we got real-time stories and images via social media.  At a recent Civic Tech TO, there's a project that essentially is doing what reporters do - it has recognized that some Orders in Council went missing and is exploring why, and developing mechanisms to flag future such absences for the general public.

Not to say that everyone in the general public will care, much less be interested in engaging directly, but that was the case before, too.

Beyond just reportage, we have civic groups popping up to do things like collect clothes for refugees, source and provide blankets for the homeless and even tackle wicked policy programs.  These aren't funded groups with defined roles, so their sustainability is in question, not do they have agency in that someone has given them permission to do what they're doing.

But it's all happening anyway.

The emerging picture isn't clear, but there are definitely big changes in our social dynamic under way.

Community, Refugees and the Future of Good Will

Piles of donations began to collect outside Goodwill locations throughout the GTA Sunday.  Employees told CBC News they were blindsided by the lockout.

A crudely printed sign in the Richmond Street east storefront in Toronto said simply that the store was closed "due to unforeseen circumstances."

I don't know enough about Goodwill's situation to know exactly why they are in the position they are in.  What I do know is that across the board, there has been increased pressure on non-profit and charitable ventures to become financially self-sustaining on their own right - ie, to stop relying on handouts and spend more time and effort on revenue generation.

Which, really, defeats the purpose.  

Organizations like Goodwill tend to serve clientèle without the means to be self-sustaining on their own; if they were, they wouldn't need organizations like Goodwill, and there would be no need for organizations like Goodwill.

In the past, organizations like this would get lump sums to spend, and do drives, and the simple fact that they were community-benefit organizations was enough to justify the money they got.  As funding has gotten tight, however, more attention has been paid towards "impact investing" - ie, making sure that money that goes to organizations like Goodwill demonstrably make a difference.

There's also been a shift in focus from funding organizations to funding projects, and even narrower down to specific outcomes.  Funders want to see the needle move on specific KPI (key performance indicators), and they want to know in advance that they money they spend will deliver short-term ROI (return on investment).

Of course, that's what's on paper.  In the real world, people remain people and connections, marketing and hustle matter more than direct results.  A well-written report carefully promoted through a targeted outreach/media campaign can nurture the impression that magic has been worked, when in reality, the truth is more like a bit of water has been shovelled from here to there.

It all paints an interesting picture.  

True, the previous model of community good tended to take a white saviour complex approach, providing stuff for marginalized communities in perpetuity, without a real concrete plan of how forced obsolescence (by empowering communities to be self-sustaining on their own).  Partially, this stemmed from a belief that "they" would always be dependent.  The nature of the model encourages this approach to a large degree from the service employee side - if you get into a service agency, you can have a stable career doing for others what they can't do for themselves, 

Now, as the wells of funding are drying up, organizations that theoretically want the same outcomes - support for the communities they serve - are competing for funding and often spending a lot of capital and energy on positioning themselves for success more than the end-user.  You might thing, from a free-market perspective, that this is a good thing; services compete for resources and the best provider wins, meaning the best service gets offered.

This isn't a systematic thing, though, and not enough attention is being given to the big picture.

When small, disorganized not-for-profits compete for funding or apply for whatever funding they can get, they stray from their original mandates.  Or, they fold, and the people they serve are left without the service they once relied upon.  Meanwhile, the successful ones get more money and perhaps expand their offerings in specific, fund-getting ways, but too many services and people fall through the cracks.

And since no one is looking for cracks to fill when they're focused on low-hanging fruit, the structural challenges only come to light when they come to light in big ways - like the Danzig shooting, for instance.

There are a series of emerging structural issues that are being ignored by many, because no one is thinking systematically.  Objectivism is creeping into the system, and the consequences of this narrow frame of thinking are becoming clear.

That's the negative.  It's not all negative, though.

Truth be told, a lot of service providers haven't been as efficient as they could be - not with their internal management, not with their outcomes.  There is an absolute and dire need for public good service providers to be more strategic, more organized and more creative - and to work harder at putting themselves out of work by fostering sustainable communities.

It'll never happen - there will always be the need for charitable, community-good support - but we can definitely do better than we have been doing.

This is where social innovation, community benefit planning and incredible pop-up initiatives like The Clothing Drive come in.  What we've seen emerge in Canada as a response to the Syrian refugee crisis has been amazing - self-organizing groups are creating (and often re-creating) cool initiatives that at their best fill gaps and create wholly new models of support.  

Free retail stores for refugees?  Professional qualification assistance for transitioning new Canadians to be economic contributors in their fields?  Building bridges between existent communities and new neighbours through art and music?  It's incredible.  Best of all, a lot of it is being organized independent of older models and the challenges they face, meaning that these new groups are creating new models that are more reflective of the world at this moment in time, not 50 or 60 years ago.

Not all of these initiatives will stick, nor should they - but as some of them build partnerships with the private sector and start cooperating with government, I feel like we're witnessing the emergence of a new public good sector that will work in an entirely different way than the old one.  

Imagine corporations giving a bit of space for community benefit, and getting tax write-offs for it.  Or employees being given hours of paid work to volunteer for organizations like this, or offering professional services like management or legal aid or media/marketing.  The groups themselves can keep their overhead low and spend more time focused on the service they provide rather than keeping themselves afloat.

There's structural change afoot - it will be painful for some, and there will be structural challenges with some serious repercussions, but there are promising new ideas and models emerging that might just readjust the system to tackle some of these structural/cultural flaws in the long run.

Interesting times, indeed...

Perchance to Dream...

The official said Mr. MacNaughton will be aided by his spouse and business partner, Leslie Noble, an influential figure within the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, who can reach out to the Republican-controlled Congress.

“Regardless of who wins the presidency, Congress will be run by the Republicans, and Leslie will be able to help in making the case for Canada on Capitol Hill,” the official said.

MacNaughton is an old-school Liberal, well-respected within backroom circles.  He's pretty tight with Trudeau's Chief of Staff, too.

As is his wife, Leslie Noble.  It might seem funny, but while I learned a good deal about how the system functions (and doesn't function) from David, Leslie was far more of a mentor - I learned a good deal about how to work the system from her.

One's tight with the Liberals.  The other is tight with the Conservatives.  Both know how to speak to elites on either side of the spectrum.  And both are tight with key folk in the PMO.

Think about the back-channel potentials in this for a second.  Think about the influence the PMO theoretically could have for nudging domestic partisans and for building bridges or at least framing issues in a positive way south of the border.

Then, throw Open Government into the mix.  The people behind that on both sides of the border are collegial, too.

Interest dynamic, is all.  And one worth paying attention to.

What are we holding on to?

"We think they hold on for their families," he said.

This line is going to haunt me for a while.

Periodically, people ask me how it is I stay positive, how I stay focused on what can be instead of wallowing in what isn't, how I keep going when it can often feel like I'm shovelling water.

The most honest answer would be "I don't."  I have my dark moments, just like everyone, and probably darker than most on rare occasions.  To steal a quote - my doubts are for myself.  I know that people aren't asking to find some magic tip or strategy - ultimately, what they want to know is that there truly is something worth fighting for.

Which, ultimately, is what hope is.  

That is what so many people are looking for.  When they think they've found it, they throw it against the wall, put it under the microscope and sometimes just walk away because they are afraid that it might not be real.  It can be really hard to believe that hope can be anything more than a delusion.  

The notion of putting your faith in and being vulnerable, completely vulnerable to an idea that's about as tangible as a thin ray of sunlight on a cloudy day is frightening.  We don't want to take the risk of hoping that things can be better because the disappointment of finding out we were wrong, silly, naive to do so is terrifying.

I live in the same world as everyone else does.  I see the same realities, hold the same conversations, read the same headlines.  

And I don't just hope that things will be better - I know they will be better.  100%.  In fact, there are countless amazing, inspiring stories out there right now that show hope is always, always present. Yes, there is war, strife, bigotry, famine, genocide, injustice and all the rest of it in the world.  Yes, there are some truly frightening scenarios emerging out there - everything from the frictions between global communities as the world becomes a more integrated place to climate change.  The world of 2067 will look a lot different than the one we recognize today.

Yet the basics of humanity have never, ever changed - kind deeds, shared moments, helpful neighbours, all the the good that is embodied by that most universal of directives, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.  Except it doesn't need to be prescriptive; we don't need to know there's a win for us on the other side.  We just need to be human, and the rest happens by default.

We need to believe in ourselves.  We need to recognize others as being just as human as we are, with the differences a matter of software, with most of it being helpful for our own growth just as what makes us unique can benefit them.

It's a bit like being a parent, or being a child - both are teachers, both learn from each other and help the other grow into new roles in life. Particularly at this moment in history when the individual has often been reduced to gears in the economic engine, appreciating how a child sees the world can remind us of what really matters.  And of course, parents have a wealth of experience from which children can learn and adapt from to navigate the world and make it their own.

What is the special relationship between a parent and a child, or a couple, or friends, or partners? That bond which enables us to see the health and happiness of a wholly separate person as critical to our own well-being?  It's not a transaction.  It's not a strategy.  It's a state of being.

That state of being, of course, is love.  To love someone else is to put them first; to support and relish their victories, to be heart-broken and supportive at their losses, to be grateful for their very being.  It isn't to pander, or to not challenge, but always to nurture, even when the best way to nurture is to let go.

To love another is to make a sacrifice - but only when that love exists in a vacuum.  When love is reciprocated, and shared, then balance is found.

Love if faith and faith is the cornerstone of hope.  When you love others as you would love yourself, you seen in them the best of what humanity has to offer - something that is, truly, divine.

That's when it becomes clear that hope isn't an external fantasy, but an internal manifestation of that thing that binds us all together, whether you think of it as a feeling or a force or a greater consciousness.

What do I hold onto that keeps me going?  

Family.  It's as simple as that.

And my family has no borders.  You, in fact, are family.

That's my secret.

How can I not be hopeful when I know we're in this together?

Yes, And - Settling New Syrians

These new arrivals will doubtless integrate successfully, too, just as the 380,000 Arab Canadians who came before them have. But the Trudeau government will need to ensure that language training, housing and jobs are available for the new arrivals, without letting them jump to the front of any queue.

Ibbitson rightly gives credit to the Canadian government for stepping up and doing the right thing and so far managing the tricky balancing act of doing so in a way that doesn't blow up in anyone's face.

Fortunately for them - though not surprisingly - this isn't a challenge they've had to tackle alone.

In addition to sponsoring refugees and donating time and money to service providers, community groups across Canada have mobilized in creative, powerful ways.  Professionals are donating their services. businesses are donating space.  Groups of every day citizens are banding together, organizing clothing and backpack drives and inspiring other groups to form and do similar things.

Maybe this is what's happened with previous waves of refugees, to some degree - but this is the first time the Internet, Facebook and the like have been available to support and coordinate efforts.

Which isn't to say more coordination can't be done to better harness the good will and talent that's circulating out there, to say nothing of existing services.  This is actually a problem, as well-meaning folk recreate the wheel or confuse the process with the best intentions.

Funny enough, this reality is a microcosm of what's happening at the macro level with traditionally closed governments, service sectors and the like recognizing the need to collaborate better to be properly effective.

A team of us are working on a digital solution to help coordinate and empower the grassroots efforts around new Canadian settlement.  I have no doubt that this tool will have broader applicability down the road.

The Obnoxious Bully

Being LOUD and MEAN and HATEFUL is certainly the best way to get noticed in the Internet Era, true.

 It's not just true of the Internet Era - it's an historic fact of life.  Except to speak to the obnoxious curs themselves, what they're actually being is VOCAL and ASSERTIVE and REALISTIC.  

History is written by those who wrest the pen from the person who invented it, right?  Whether it's the bully in the classroom or the bully at the State level, bullies are always at the centre of things - because they simply can't have it any other way.

The sad part is how institutionalized this is.  We encourage bullies.  The guys who demand the corner office - because they're worth it, doncha know - are the ones who get it.  The toughest, loudest, most aggressive - the alpha, in other words - is expected to be the safest bet to hand over our security and management to.

In terms of the negative, North Korea exists because it's an irrational bully.  ISIL has exceeded to the extent they have for the sole reason that they're willing to go a step further than anyone else to get what they want.  The Nazis were the same.  It can't, and won't last, but for the foreseeable future, being a bully will continue to bear fruit.

It isn't until individual agency, humility and pro-social foresight are predominant in our gene pool that the bully will be neutered.  

We're getting there - it's just taking a really damned long time.