Monthly Archives: August 2020

Sport

Grandstanding Athletes – My Take

You’re on the wrong stage if you think that withholding your appearance at a game / match is going to solve racial injustice. Racial injustice must be resolved through democratic and legal channels. Absence from duty on a sports field for reason other than illness, vacation or bereavement is a breach of an employment contract and subject to termination. Under such circumstances, an athlete will then have full time hours to invest in lobbying for reform and racial justice. Prima Donna athletes should translate their passion for a cause into a voice for reform as opposed to conveniently withholding their services. Spineless sports franchise owners should fire those who are in breach of contract rather than crater to team group think.

My interest in the NFL ceased six years ago when on one occasion, a cast of color commentators took an occasion to obsess more about the personal problems of one player and the player’s wife as opposed to focusing on the game. You remember that player – the one who got caught beating his wife in an elevator. Then a sequence of TV ads came on and I made a decision then and there to cancel my cable TV. This was before the Kaepernick charade.

Baseball was filled with a continuum of delays and the game lost my trust when my Montreal Expos were sent to the sidelines with the best record during the 1994 season because of a work stoppage. The team was my childhood dream team and I had followed them every year. There was no World Series in 1994.

Also during my childhood, there was a hockey announcer by the name of Jim Robson who called the games for the Vancouver Canucks. He put sport in a wider context than most. You see, at every Vancouver home game that he was on the air broadcasting, he would give a “shout out” to all the “shut-ins” who couldn’t make it out to a game. Well back in the ‘70’s and ‘80s most everyone could afford a seat unlike today so it was apropos for him to acknowledge those that were prohibited through poor health.  That gesture of his is something that has always stuck with me. That is….an acknowledgment of a contribution athletes make as entertainers to those keen to digest athletic grace defined by finesse, agility, speed and biomechanical prowess yet whose own bodies have failed them.

In the new world order of naive young athletes thinking they are something they are not….they grandstand. Robson will also be scratching his head I’m sure. 

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Pandemic Repurcussions

Blog followers have come to learn that I showcase society’s shortcomings here. If I tempt readers into challenging evolving norms, then there’s value.       

In spite of modern civilization undergoing stress tests in 2020, some folks are handling challenges better than others. I’ve always been sociologically curious. Undergraduate option courses were spent investigating the human mind and formations of societies. Course work included psychology, sociology and anthropology. My enthusiasm for the subject matter was never as pronounced as my phenomenal professor of anthropology but my intrigue lingers on. Now, why is it than some folks cope better than others?

The mind requires “malleability”. It needs to be uncompromising at times and compromising at others. It requires resourcefulness based on experience and training in order to know when to exert and when to withdraw. Hyper sensitivity is a problem and can lead to obsessive compulsive behaviour. What better environment to observe obsessive compulsive disorder than in the midst of a pandemic. There is common sense, government dictums, and cooperative execution with a predisposed mind. We should be empathetic while educational helping youth along in the context of social policy in flux because they don’t have experience yet they possess acute self interest.       

As we conduct our daily lives, we do so from the standpoint of expectations and needs. Now we also throw in Covid-19 protocols. There’s something eerily deflating to the ego about wearing a mask which is obviously a triggering variable in some of these anti-masker types. Despite the inconvenience and social estrangement associated with wearing a mask, in a mysterious kind of way, I actually revel in witnessing people expressing inherent vulnerability and thoughtfulness toward others by donning a mask.     

As I go through every day during this pandemic, I think to myself….there’s something larger going on here that nobody can comprehend but identifying with meaning would be repugnant in the context of life loss. So instead while empathizing with others more directly affected, I redirect time toward hobbies while reading excerpts from scholars in the humanities like Allen Liska -“Perspectives on Deviance”.          

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Why Does Your Government Make CERB Taxable?

CERB is a social program which has helped Canadians directly affected by the economic impact of COVID-19. Why is it taxable when it is not “earned income”? It’s like taking from Peter to pay Paul, right? Here is my theory.

  1. Bankers want to see income on tax returns for the purpose of substantiating credit worthiness. The personal tax return is their universal tool along with credit bureaus.
  2. The federal government wants to keep everyone in the tax pool despite income levels and the basic personal tax exemption. Imposing a tax liability even on the most vulnerable keeps people in the system.
  3. Feeds the bureaucracy
  4. Calculations of the “Canada Child Benefit” program along with GST / carbon tax rebates are now enshrined with the reporting of “taxable income”. Your government wants to include CERB income as a calculated variable.
  5. It’s consistent with your government’s tax collection agenda given its propensity to overspend.