The Last Time I Was In Lima ...

That's me on the right, knocking on the door of the massive Cathedral of Lima , on May 10, 1997 

I've been telling this story many times this past week:

"The last time I was in Lima was about fifteen years ago (actually 17 years; in May 1997). I travelled there on my way to and from an international workshop regarding access to genetic resources and the protection of intellectual property rights.

"I was at the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy at the time. The Executive Director, Anne Mitchell, had arranged the project through her contacts in the world of international development.

"I really had no idea what was going on with the workshop. My contribution so far (which you can find here) had been to comb through the laws and statutes of the whole of Canada - including the traditional environmental knowledge of first nations - which had resulted in a resounding and definitive goose egg. So far as the laws of this land were concerned, accessing genetic resources and preserving intellectual property rights therein was not a thing at all. That is not to say that a creative reading of say, the Ontario Bees Act, could not find a right or entitlement to these things, but, you really would have to read beyond what the law intended. 

"At any rate, representatives from environmental law associations and environment ministries from the United States, Columbia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru and a couple of other countries that I forget, all gathered first in Lima, and then Cusco and finally in a small settlement one hour out of Cusco called Urubamba.

"We spent three or four days at a little resort in Urubamba mulling over the weighty issue of protecting indigenous knowledge of the properties of plants from the privations of bioprospectors, and, as a day trip on our second last day, we went to Machu Picchu. 

That's me on the right. Anne's on my right.
Details about everyone else are as fuzzy as this photo.

We flew out of Cusco the following day, and had many hours to kill before our flight to Toronto, so we hung out in Lima. We visited the main square and toured the ossuary in the catacombs below the Franciscan monastery (not my favourite part of the trip). Because we were accompanied by Spanish-speaking Lima natives, we also fearlessly hopped into a taxi cab, drove to an utterly unknown part of the city and stopped in at a very local and authentic restaurant where I tasted the first and best ceviche ever in my life."

Subscribers may be wondering why I've been telling this particular story all week. That's because next week, on December 6, I will be flying to Lima again, this time as part of  the Canadian delegation to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - or COP 20 as those familiar with these things call it.

The difference between my two trips (so far) to Lima will be that, on reflection, the 1997 trip was probably 75% down time and 25% work. This time, I'll be spending seven consecutive fifteen hour days in the climate change whirlwind. There will be main events, side events, receptions, panel discussions, briefings, protests, security checks, shuttle trips (our hotel is 9 kilometres from the COP pavilion - or about an hour in Lima traffic), announcements, gossip, rumour and media scrums. 

I may wax nostalgic for the peace and quiet of the catacombs.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Molly - Three Years On

A little more than three years ago, on November 19, 2011, we took our little Molly dog to the vet to send her on to her next reward.

This photo was taken about five years ago, in December 2009, when she should still see and play with her ball.

Some subscribers may recall that This Week's Picture was originally an e-mail series and, for many years, the featured photograph was of the dog. 

For the information of subscribers recently joined to this blog, there is a Molly the Dog blog that recounts the highlights of her career.

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People continue to ask us, as we proceed doglessly, whether or not we would have another dog.

The early answer to that question was "no." Mostly because we were not in the mood to need to eventually put another dog down.

The answer evolved over time to "not now." Because, once past the pain of Molly's passing, we could recall more clearly how much joy there is in having a dog. But there's the present problem that we both work office jobs and we would want a companion, not a prisoner in solitary confinement for most of its day.

Recently, when asked the dog question, we've been saying, "probably, but not until we retire." And, for the first time in our lives, we're not only thinking about retirement, but have turned a lot of energy toward figuring out how to do that as soon as possible.

We may be as close as three years to the day when our grey-haired colleagues will shake our hands one last time, roughly the same span of time since Molly's been gone. 

The blink of an eye, really, then, before we find ourselves another furry little friend.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

November

On November 11, the day set aside to remember those who fell in defence of the wonderful life we lead, I took pictures of sunny dying leaves on the boughs of trees preparing to live through the winter.

Plus one hydrangea.

And then I Waterlogued and Percolatered them to accentuate, even in the sad end, the beauty of the colours and patterns. 

 

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!

Karen

Security and Ritual

Clock tower: Yonge and Yorkville, Toronto, Ontario

After the tragic, criminal and deeply sad events in Ottawa on October 22 2014, the Ontario Provincial Police officers who normally maintain a lax and cheerful security presence in the granite halls of Queens Park where I work, were, for about a week, doubled up in numbers and not cheerful. 

The precipitating event was miles away, and within hours shown to be the act of one bad crazy individual having the worst day of his life. But, security was intensified in Queen's Park because, well, we just don't know how far the threat extends....

Edgy, less friendly OPP officers is one thing, I suppose, but I personally don't see any reason to shrink the liberties of the whole population because a deranged and angry young man took a deer rifle with six bullets in it to Canada's Parliament. There are laws enough on the books to address the terrible wasting of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo's life. The young gunman certainly paid the price for his awful intentions.

But, because of the times we live in, these events create a space in the public mind where we openly contemplate making everyone less free for the sake of creating an illusion of security.   

I can say this even though I know that I am utterly ignorant of the terrible threats that surround us. 

I have enough on my mind with the threats I do know about: the annual toll on the roads from people texting while driving; the lives wasted and the costs to society due to drug abuse and an inadequate social safety net; and climate change! Plus vampires!

Anyway. 

Just the other day I performed a small ritual that proves the illusion. 

I was flying to Ottawa. 

The ritual to ward off evil before every flight is to pass through a small archway and not make it beep. To avoid the beep, people unburden themselves of anything metal: men remove their watches and belts; women their jewellery. People also often remove their footwear.

I was wearing a pair of shoes that I'd never travelled in before and, after conferring with the security guard who'd just handed me back my boarding pass, I took them off as a sign of my willingness to not make the archway beep. 

But the archway beeped.

The price of causing a beep is to be wanded by security personnel so that the offending item can be located and removed. Then you have to go back through the arch again.

While I was being wanded, I wondered what might be the offending item.

The wand found something, but, the guard waved me on without making me take anything off or go through the archway again. 

She said, sotto voce, "It's your bra."

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Calculated Risks

Two Toronto bike owners have calculated that the risk the City will come along and take away their bikes is not as great as the risk that their bikes will be stolen if they are not locked to the post that says "Do Not Lock Your Bike Here."

At the other end of the spectrum of risk calculation are great efforts that go into avoiding small risks.

For example, due to circumstances beyond my control, I recently found myself faced with the task of simultaneously recruiting four positions in my shop. Anyone familiar with the nightmare of excessively risk adverse public sector procurement knows that the only thing worse than that is even more excessively risk adverse public sector human resources recruitment.

Because these are confidential matters, I will describe fanciful circumstances to shed light on the real.

Once upon a time the ruler of small kingdom found herself short a few officials. Consulting with her advisors on how she might add to her bureaucracy, they all cautioned her of the grave danger that, among the many who could be asked to serve, one might be a witch.

"A witch?" asked the ruler. "Are you serious?"

"Very serious," all her advisors agreed, vigorously nodding their heads. "You can't be too careful about witches."

"OK then," said the ruler, "How do I guard myself against witches?"

"Easy," said her advisors. "You just plug your ears when they answer your questions at their interview."

"When you say they, are you referring to just the witches or all the candidates," asked the ruler.

"Oh," said her advisors, a bit surprised that their ruler was so stupid, "All of the candidates, because one of them might be a witch. Witches lure you with their spells you know."

"I see," said the ruler, worried that she might be appearing stupid. "But if I plug my ears, I won't be able to hear what any of the candidates say."

"That's right," said her smiling advisers, relieved that their ruler was not stupid after all.

"So let me just make sure I've got this right. Because one of the people I talk to may be a witch and lure me with spells, and, I suppose, get me to bring them into court where, again I'm speculating, they may do bad witchy things....?" The ruler trailed off to see how she was doing. 

Her advisors were enrapt. They nodded to encourage her.

"So, to avoid the chance of being lured into bad unknown witchy things, I will stop my ears and not hear any of my candidates so I won't know if they are bad or good, which will mean that I will make a decision based on no other information than how they look that day ...." The ruler stopped again.

"Yes! Yes!" Her advisors cheered. "Hooray for our wise and noble ruler!"

Distracted by the force of this extreme flattery, the ruler thanked her advisors, said goodbye and made one last observation.

"You know, if I can't hear any of the candidates, that means I still could recruit a witch, or maybe something even worse ..."

Demoralized by their ruler's sudden change in position, the advisors bowed their way backward out of the room, resolved to add blindfolds to the recruitment rules. 

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Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!