Small World Big Choices

Stop Talking

2010-02-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

Its been nearly a year since I made my last blog entry. How fast the time goes! It hasn't been for lack of things to say, nor thoughts about everything from education to politics to business to travels. No, I probably have plenty to say and I think that is the problem.

There are too many people talking - hundreds of channels on TV, newspapers, magazines, and probably millions of blogs - the sound is deafening. And is anyone really listening? With all that is available I didn't think I could add any real value. Yes, about my opinions there will be some agreement, some disagreement too, and inevitably it could open the issue for discussion. However, I believe, to a large extent our minds are already made up. Your glass is half full or it's half empty and trying to change that isn't easy.

Should we even try to change it really? Isn't it up to an individual to get self educated? The schools really don't provide for that. I think most of us believe they are broken. But everyone that has a passion can learn about a subject with the brilliance of a Gallileo. We have all seen this. The kid that can't do math can instantly figure batting averages or the one struggling with history can learn the entire history of Ferrari including every model and every race driver.

So I don't think learning is the issue. Is it then convincing one another of values? There are certainly issues with values yet we live in a world that is far more tolerant that just a few decades ago and still not tolerant at all. The Who just played the Super Bowl and they were great, yet in the world where those guys first came together things were very different (I won't do any sport analogies). At the time The Who first formed interracial marriage wasn't accepted, most gay people were still in the closet, and women didn't have the rights they do now. Of course more work is needed but the point is that collective values have evolved over time yet we seem more divided than ever.

If we look to other countries, they survive with quite different values. In a time where our President was denying sex with another woman, the French Prime Minister's funeral was attended by both his wife and his mistress. Please don't misunderstand me here. I am not making judgements for or against - I am just stating facts.

The reality is all the little judgements that can be made serve only to seperate us, not have us come together. Attitudes of some being better than others drive further wedges and hatred. For some reason these are things that get fed.

I want to start feeding something else. I want to start feeding understanding. I know that most people are burdened with many things from childhood, race, economic situation, religion and much more. Again these are all dividers. Understanding and compassion for one another is the only way to move forward. Respect is also key. We don't always need to agree but if we can have respect there can be understanding.

Love - love is an overused word with some perhaps negative connotations associated with it. However we do need to love one another. Love is the culmination of respect, understanding, and compassion and its the only way we can move peacefully forward.

And we do need to find God again. It doesn't matter what you call Him or where you live on the planet. I know all paths ultimately lead to the same place. I can't believe anyone can go through a day and not feel the wonder of God all around us. I think it would take a pretty closed off mind not to see it. It is interesting that many nurses - who are often around more than anyone else at the time of death - tell stories of the dying person looking up and speaking to people that seem to be visible near the ceiling (angels perhaps?) - and this is true across differences of age, race, religion, money, family or alone. The vision at death is always the same and this certainly points to a common place and a common God too.

So I am going to sign off this blog for a while - I have said enough. I apologize for being too talkative, too opinionated, too judgemental. I apologize to anyone I have hurt physically or through my words or even in my inaction.

I want to go out and listen to what the wind tells me and what the smell of the sea says. I want to hear the sunrise in the silence of the mountains and experience the color that abounds. I want to do what is worthy and good and talking has lost its place in that. I will go quietly in understanding, respect, compassion and love and I will follow my God as this is really the only worthwhile endeavor.

(and don't forget the global population of Bees is in decline)

Fisherman Past

2009-03-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

I have always had an obsession with boats. I think its part of my DNA. One summer I found myself in Maine as the captain of a beautiful, brightly painted, and fast former racing catamaran converted for day charter trade and tourists.

Even after the conversion from steed to cattle wagon, the cat was still fast. The word got out and soon I was busily making two trips a day from our berth along the working waterfront of Portland. The cat would be filled with tourists wanting to experience the beauty of the many islands sprinkled throughout Casco Bay.

In the evening, after the cat was put safely to bed, I would often walk up the cobblestone streets of the town to have some dinner and wash down the salt spray with a few beers. Some nights I'd run into other friends and the few beers sometimes turned into a few too many. On those nights I’d walk back down to the dock and crawl aboard the cat for a peaceful night’s sleep swaying with the tug of the tide and hearing the wonderful sound of the stretch of dock lines. It sometimes made me think the cat was alive, tugging at her leash, just waiting to run again – perhaps for warmer water and sunnier climes south.

One, "too late night", I slowly wondered back to the boat. Sitting on a bench right in front of the cat was what appeared to be another drunken sailor. When he saw me it gave him the opportunity to launch into a diatribe about what is wrong with the world. Everything that he was spewing about was embodied in the brightly colored cat taking tourists out to his old fishing grounds that had now been fished out and the world was in ruin.

This man’s name was Fawny Dowdy. He had more wrinkles in his face than I had ever seen and that one distinction, I learned later, earned him the cover of National Fisherman Magazine. His hands were like leather and although he must have been well into his 80s he still had the appearance of a very strong man. I listened carefully to his rant and even though I had too much to drink too, I was alert and the chill of a Maine summer evening was reviving me. He carried on for what must have been an hour and when he realized I was the captain of this evil machine, the hatred was now directed to me personally. I continued to listen until he finally had to come up for air. I took that pause to say that I understood what he was talking about.

Portland had a wonderful working waterfront that was being taken over by pleasure boat marinas and condo developers. We were sitting on one of the last two working piers. Fishing grounds had been decimated by new techniques, GPS, factory ships, and the greed of distant ship owners supplying an ever increasing and demanding market with no consideration of the finite limits of a fishery. The population grew along the waterfront and the houses men of the sea like Fawny lived in were no longer affordable.

I think when I said I understood, he had a realization that perhaps he and I were closer than he first thought. He loved boats, knew them all, all the designs, he knew how they all sailed. He loved the big schooners he went off to fish on and he loved little dinghies to play around the harbor in when he was home. He loved rowing a good peapod and he loved the look and feel of a good lobster boat. I actually was cut from the same cloth.

As we discussed our mutual love for boats in general and special appreciation of the right curve of a bow or the sweet shape of tumblehome we developed a friendship. I explained to him that I respected all that he knew and helped to develop to get us to this point where I could now still work in boats. My boat was a crazy colored cat meant to catch tourists but there were more similarities than differences. He explained to me how in days past they would sail big schooners right onto an island beach at high tide. Then at low they would scrape, repair, and paint the bottoms before the tide filled back in, then on the next tide they would let her layover on her other side. Then I would shoot back excitedly with a story of how we hit 18 knots on a broad reach. He was interested and excited too at that number never having gone that fast.

It ended up a beautiful night and by the time the sun was brightening the eastern sky, we had sobered up and were just having fun talking story. It was time for Fawny to go off to wherever he actually lived and I needed a few hours sleep before the first group of tourists came aboard. I invited Fawny to come sailing on the cat with me and while he said I will one day, I knew it wouldn’t happen.

The world of Fawny Dowdy had passed. It was a different day when a wooden schooner could lie on her side at low tide for some maintenance. Today, you would need permission from the waterfront landowner who lived in New York and would then need to get a permit and that would only be after an environmental impact study was done by a certified company specializing in waterfront studies. When that study was reviewed, instructions would then be given as to what tides it were allowed to happen, the most extreme angle the schooner was allowed to lay over, the number of people required to guide her down all wearing lifejackets and hard hats of course. Then a floating boom would surround the area so as to not let any debris escape and a certified hazardous waste crew would need to be standing by in case some fuel from any of the cabin lamps spilled into the water. This would need to be applied for approximately two years before the attempted grounding because of the backlog of paperwork in the different agencies offices. In addition fish counts had to be checked to see if this schooner was in compliance with limits set by an expert in Washington while the Japanese factory ship sits out 12 ¼ miles off the coast basically stealing everything this schooner was meant to work in.

That night with Fawny was over 20 years ago and he no longer knew how to handle the crazy bureaucratic mess we built. Now more than 20 years on and its only become worse. Email, video games, Facebook, Myspace, social networking, cell phones that can search the internet and play movies and more, lets us avoid any personal contact. There is only a desire to get more for me, not to know how our neighbor is doing, no community support for older folks that can’t go for a walk any longer because the city’s sidewalks are so broken up. I think the world has now passed me by too and now I understand where Fawny was coming from even more.

We are no longer free and the greed and corruption in big business and politics have finally run the course and run our liberty into the dirt. The regulations, deregulations, hidden payoffs, taxes, permits are out in the public eye and no one really seems to care. Known thieves hide out in million dollar penthouses in full public view while devastated elders that had their saving stolen have no recourse and struggle with poverty. How can this be?

Well, I guess one good use of my cell phone will be that it automatically alerts me when my permit is finally ready so I can lay my schooner over on a an island beach at high tide.

Change and Hope

2009-01-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

We have elected change and hope and how could anyone disagree with the promise of those two words. I am completely independent (apolitical) so I didn't support Obama (that doesn't mean I supported anyone else either for those of you quick to catagorize) and now that he is President, I wish him well and I truly hope he lives up to some of his promises.

What I fear however, and something I am sure of, is that there are forces far greater than the Presidency at work to shape our future. If you are not sure what this means just follow the money. Even under Obama the rich will get richer and the have nots may slightly improve their position but the group will grow as a whole.

Why would I say this - first it is not the government's job to bail anyone out - Wall St., banks, auto companies or even you! That's right - you either. The minute we let the government bail us out we will be controlled by it even more and then guess what? The rich get richer and there are more ways to keep us in our place. The racial divide won't be among color lines but along net worth lines.

All the conviences we are sold today from cell phones, to Hi-Def TVs, to health care is about controlling us and allowing the rich to get richer (oh and for them to stay that way they need to be able to watch us too). Cell phones today can pinpoint your position on the globe within feet - big brother is watching. What about all the mini video cameras? I recently heard that Manhattan is 80% under camera - big brother is watching. How about the cameras at the stop lights that can send you a ticket and you get nice photos of your license plate and your face - big brother is watching. I don't know how I survived all these years without hi-def and broadband but now it is mandated by the government if you want to watch TV - why? What was wrong with TV before? And health care, who knows what dispicable plans will come forward when the government knows the details of everyone's health history.

Yes, its all sold as convience. You'll be able to get a better picture for the ball game, you will know where your kid is through his cell phone, the cameras make it safer, etc. How many have already agreed to chip implants because it is "easier"? This is taking us down a road of huge big brother government acting as if they are providing social programs for the poor. It looks good to have the government watching your back right?

The nice look of government watching out for us will quickly turn into the sour taste of a government controlling us with even fewer personal and civil rights. The good look of socialism is not the government's domain. We need to let the churches and literally millions of non-profits out there service the poor, etc. In fact there are more programs from non-profits that could be for just about any of us. As the government has encroached into education it has failed and yet more money is thrown at education as if that is the answer. A real stimulus for America should be from a great education with independent thinkers developing creative solutions for the future (and this has nothing to do with grand architecture- while nice, learning can happen anywhere). Government is mandating green programs and many are jumping on that band wagon too but as it is all so new, we don't have accurate measurable ways to determine success.

Government should be small and stay out of our personal business and the government hasn't demostrated its ability to do really anything well except conduct a war - and why is that? War is good for business and so the rich get richer...If you want the government to bail you or anyone or any company out, in fact if you allow this to happen, I say watch your back because it won't be long before the beast is completely out of the cage and when that happens the words change and hope may have drastically different meanings.

What a Wacky World

2008-10-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

A billion dollar company gets bailed out by Joe sixpack but the CEO walks with millions while Joe can't make the rent. What is wrong with this picture. These CEOs should all be indicted!

I just heard the head of Lehman, when asked if the loans that were made for more than the value of a property and then repackaged was a bit like stealing if the buyer of that reapckaged security wasn't informed. Huh? HELL YES!!! it was stealing at the least, fraudulent for sure, and the fact that the Lehman exec said he didn't realize that was happening is lying under oath in front of congress and he should go immediately to jail without the possibility of parole.

There were national ads advertisng for 125% mortages - how could he not know! Yet the exec got millions for playing dumb. How did he ever get to be a CEO if he were truly that stupid and how can he sleep at night blatantly lying like that?

I recently read a wonderful book by William S. Coperthwaite called "A Handmade Life". It was fantastic and spoke about a simple way of living with respect for the land and one another. In one sense it made me want to homestead in rural Maine.

I have a problem though. I love art and photography and architecture and women's shoes from Paris and style and beauty and grace - and all of this, dear reader, in the most natural sense. I have no tolerance for silcone in the body or chemicals on one's hair. There is such grace in a woman getting older with gray and yet still oozing with her natural beauty. Growing older like this is a way of letting God's grace shine through.

But this problem of mine keeps me in a more urban setting. Stealing away to the occassional tropical place, going for a sail, or a quiet retreat is a good thing but I don't think I can live fully in this setting. I am unfortunately stuck with one foot in each place. And I appreciate and respect both for what they are.

Back to the current day wolves that parade around as Masters of the Universe...where did we go wrong? Was it after WWII when war still carried on with so little respect for life? Was it after the war when it became fashionable to own a home in the suburbs with poor quality and no architectural value just so we could say we owned a piece of the American dream and the developers learned to line their pockets? Or was it in the 60's when we all learned of the truly scary possibility of nuclear war but kept stock piling these deadly weapons anyway? Perhaps it was the 70's when we learned nothing from the first oil shortage about renewable energy or sustainability. The 80's came along and taught us all that "Greed is Good" and we all fought for our piece with little regard for who got hurt in the process. Disrespect for people reached new heights in the 90's when our President goes on national TV and says, "I did not have sex with that woman!", which was wrong in so many ways but this guy is still so popular today - we wouldn't put up with this behavior from our own spouse or children yet he still is shown on TV as such a great leader - WTF&*#$!!!

We had a glimmer of hope at the end of '01 and it took a tragic event to bring us all back together, but that only lasted mere seconds in the span of time. We are now more divided than ever. We are a country of right and left, have and have not, and our choice for the future is between twins sons of different mothers. It's laughable - but not really.

When will someone really have the strength to stand up and tell it like it is? An internet piece goes around putting Bill Cosby up for President and we all laugh but secretly wish some of his agenda was real. Today we are all being treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and living on bullshit.

The congressional hearings are themselves a joke! How can the congress take a hard line when most if not all do the same things - maybe with one or two less zeros at the end of the number but the same nonetheless. The only difference really is they haven't yet had the opportunity the others have.

It is such a wacky world that it would be easy to want to escape or check out for good but I'm not going to do that. No, I have two beautiful daughters that I hope will have the chance to see the beauty and majesty I have, plus I love Paris shoes....

Free Health Care and Economic Stimulus

2008-04-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

Here is how to get free health care!

Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go, etc.. Free Medical, Mental and Dental care for the duration of your stay. Transplants included.

The state of California is spending $7 billion toward existing and new facilities for the healthcare and mental hospitals for the more than 170,000 state inmates that use them. The math will show that is more $41,000 per inmate! Like me, I bet you're feeling a bit queasy just reading that.

Spent otherwise, $7 billion split amongst the state residents could go a long way.

While we are at it, lets reapportion the Iraq war money: Cancel the war and divvy up all the funds that would have been used and disburse the money to ...well, you do your own math. $1 - $3 trillion (likely more) can go a long way - no matter how it's divided.

Altogether, that would be quite an economic stimulus package - without wasting resources.

As to the convicts, I say, put the criminals to work picking crops, providing public services such as forestry/brush management for fire minimization or just hook 'em up to the power grid with a watt generating exercycle and let 'em get their workouts that way. Plus they'll be healthier for the exercise.

Think From The Perspective of our Grandchildren

2008-04-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

This is an essay from Jim Gilbert, author, entrepreneur, sailor, surfer, fisherman... he says it clearly and better than I.

We waited until late morning, after the fog and mist had begun to lift, to enter a narrow, braided section of the King Salmon River. “It’s full of grizzly,” our fishing guide had explained. “The last thing we want to do is turn a corner in the fog and startle one!”

The water was so shallow it forced us out of our aluminum skiff. Banging on the sides as we went, we slowly pushed the boat downstream, staring at the hundreds of fresh bear tracks pressed deeply into the nearby sandy banks.

After a quarter of a mile, the stream became wider and straighter and the water grew smooth and still except for the swirls and splashes of thousands upon thousands of fish. Under the brightening mid-August Alaskan sky, the river turned crimson with sockeye salmon, their teeming, spawning bodies pressed together as far as we could see over the gently rolling gravel bars. “Welcome to the Red Sea,” our guide said reverently. “This is a sight few people see.”
My fly-fishing pal Jeff and I were in Alaska searching for trophy-sized wild trout that follow the salmon up the many rivers and creeks of the Bristol Bay drainage. We flew by float plane into a tiny, six-tent camp at the very edge of the tundra more than 100 miles from the nearest settlement. The drainage is a land of grizzly bears, caribou, moose and eagles living much as they have since the last ice age. It is a fragile place of short, intense summers and long, dark, numbing winters, where every living thing -- from the simplest lichens and insects of the tundra, to the largest carnivore in North America -- owes its existence to the salmon. Starting in early summer, successive runs of salmon – first chums, then kings, then sockeye and finally coho – make their way into every navigable creek and lake to lay their eggs and then die. All together, more 30-60 million fish return each year to spawn, making the Bristol Bay drainage one of the largest, most sustainable and best-managed fisheries in a world that is quickly running out of fish. More than 30 percent of the world’s salmon harvest comes from the waters of Bristol Bay, providing a livelihood for tens of thousands and a healthy, renewable source of food for millions of people around the world.

As we walked through the sockeye wonderland, casting our flies to the large trout darting in and out of the salmon redds, or nests, we passed hundreds of decaying carcasses, some more than three feet long, slowly depositing nutrients carried up from the far-off Bering Sea into the hungry, spongy soil of the tundra. It was odd to be in a place of so much life utterly dependent on so much death.

If there was wonder for us in the Red Sea, there was also sadness in the pall cast over this remote and fragile wilderness by the proposed Pebble Mine. Projected to be one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, Pebble Mine will be located in the fertile Bristol Bay drainage headwaters, which also contains some of the world’s largest gold and copper deposits. The project will build enormous dams across several salmon and trout streams to create vast settling lakes for the acidic mine run-off that, thanks to gravity, the forces of nature and the law of probability, will inevitably wreak havoc with spawning areas farther downstream. Roads will be cut through the pristine wilderness on the shores of Lake Iliamna, Alaska’s largest fresh water lake, which is now traversable only in winter when the frozen tundra permits travel by snowmobile or dogsled.

Walking past the seemingly endless schools of sockeye, following the same call to gather and multiply as their species has obeyed for more than 40 million years, I was struck by the thought that we all suffer from a blindness borne of our own self-interest, judging the acceptability of decline of a reef, river or forest based on the limitations of our own personal experiences and aspirations. Thus we are able to entertain the truly horrendous prospect of losing the world’s largest sustainable fishery as acceptable solely in terms of short-term economic benefits. By their own reports, Pebble Mine’s 3.75-square-mile open pit mine will be played out in 50-80 years. So the math is simple: a potential windfall of $150 billion versus the existing $400 million-a-year revenues from the existing resource. What doesn’t show up in this equation is that few, if any, of us will be around to clean up the 2.5 billion tons of toxic waste choking the bottoms of 1800-foot-deep lakes held in place by massive, 740-foot-tall earthquake-prone earthen dams. Managed properly, the salmon will provide food and jobs for hundreds of generations.
Every generation plays its own cost-benefit analysis at the expense of future generations, which enjoy none of the profit but get stuck with 100% of the negative consequences. This same mentality allows us to continue over-harvesting the sea, killing coral reefs, polluting our shores and filling wetlands. Our tendency to this sort of unenlightened self interest is perhaps our single most diminishing trait as a species and a perpetual challenge for those of us promoting the importance of sustainable marine ecosystems. I felt a moment of sadness in the Red Sea that, knowing what we know now, a project such as Pebble Mine would even be seriously entertained. I thought, if only we could see the world through the eyes of our great-grandchildren, what different decisions we would make.

While I feel blessed to have been able to see this part of the world, we don’t actually have to visit a place to know it’s worth saving. We humans are blessed with an extraordinary capacity to accumulate knowledge and experience to make sensible decisions. For instance, we know from history that all resources are ultimately finite. We know from business that we must calculate all the risks and benefits, both short- and long-term, to create accurate profit-and-loss projections. We also experience things with our heart that we have never seen with our eyes. If nothing else, just knowing that fragile wildernesses like the Nushagak and King Salmon Rivers still thrive in a world threatened by rapid global change and human development offers profound reassurance that we are heeding the lessons of the past and that we are, indeed, capable of sustaining the beautiful, bountiful paradise God has given us.

I Want The Truth!

2008-02-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

The Navy is about to shoot a so called "spy" satellite out of the sky. According to a recent article, this missle will attempt to destroy a 5000 lb satellite, 1000 lbs of which is the fuel tank with Hydrazine. The experts say that the missle may not even destroy the fuel tank but would allow the fuel into the atmosphere.

In case you are not familiar with Hydrazine, according to Wikipedia Hydrazine is highly toxic and dangerously unstable. The liquid is corrosive and may produce dermatitis from skin contact in humans and animals. Effects to the lungs, liver, spleen, and thyroid have been reported in animals chronically exposed to hydrazine via inhalation. Increased incidences of lung, nasal cavity, and liver tumors have been observed.

In addition, the cost of the missle shot is estimated at $40 million! Unbelievable!

Then there is this headline below which leaves me wondering what the real truth is...

Satellite Shot Offers Navy Key Space Defense Trial: How It Works

Free and Fair Elections

2008-02-19T11:23:00.000-08:00

While I have received many great comments on my "voting" piece, I failed to get the real intent across. Most focused on giving up the right to vote however my intent was to focus on our choices. From all I've heard back, together with media info, Obama seems to have a lot of momentum yet just as many people said they would vote for Obama as a vote against McCain or Hillary - this is the real point.

When our vote becomes a "lesser of two evils" vote or even an "against" vote, we are still not choosing greatness. Why are we short of great leaders? Obama might be ok but what scares me as much as anything is when people get on the "kool aid". Right now I believe many people are on the Obama kool aid and don't really know much about him. Most likely most people will never take the time to find out. Kool aid tastes so good!

Anyway in the midst of this a friend sends me the article below regarding voting so now I'm really confused...

A vote against voting in Pakistan

By Imran Khan
February 17, 2008
ISLAMABAD

As Pakistan gears up for its parliamentary election tomorrow, many observers hope that the vote will usher in a period of stability and calm by lending popular legitimacy to the government.
But sometimes democracy is best served by refusing to participate. Tomorrow's election, to be held under the illegal Provisional Constitutional Order implemented following President Pervez Musharraf's state of emergency declaration on Nov. 3, 2007, is such a case, which is why my party and its coalition partners are boycotting the vote….

….So it is a shock to us that the U.S. State Department keeps talking about free and fair elections and abolishing the state of emergency, but without mentioning the reinstatement of the judges – including the chief justice of the Supreme Court – that Musharraf illegally dismissed. If the judges are not reinstated, how can there be free and fair elections? Who decides what is free and fair? Musharraf? …

….Unfortunately, most of the political parties have failed to stand up for the democratic process. Major parties such as the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) have decided to participate, following the lead of the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. And, of all the major parties that are contesting the election, only the Nawaz is demanding reinstatement of the judges. …

….The solution to dysfunctional democracy is not military dictatorship, but more democracy. Pakistanis understand democracy, because we have a democratic culture. Our founder was a great constitutionalist, and Pakistan came into being through the vote. The problem has been that because we have lacked an independent judiciary, we have not had an independent election commission, so all our elections, except for one in 1970, have been rigged.

India, with which Pakistan shares a similar background, went through 40 years of dysfunctional democracy with a one-party system. But in the last 16 years, it has begun to reap the fruits of genuine democratic competition, because an independent judiciary and electoral commission give people confidence that their votes can make a difference. Until we have the same in Pakistan, no election can be free and fair. …….

Is Voting the Best Solution

2008-02-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

In the current broken political arena, here are some new ideas. You may not agree with them all but perhaps this can be a starting point for a new discussion. While many people feel not voting is apathetic, I disagree. This is not about one man not voting, it is trying get a large collective of people not voting as a national demonstration against a system that is no longer representing us - the people of the United States...

We, the United States of America, are the greatest nation on Earth. We are compassionate, inclusive, and safe. Yet over the past few decades we have begun the fall from this position. We are a nation with a government of the people, by the people, and for the people and it is this government – not the people – that is failing.

Our current two party system has divided the country like never before. Even though it may seem like we have so much choice, this choice is just an illusion. It becomes difficult to support a candidate we know can't be elected. The favored candidates are always the ones with the most money and can therefore "market" themselves better than the others.

Personal, party, and corporate money supplies these "marketing" efforts. Even the "Get Out the Vote" campaigns are financed by the same sources. Therefore we end up with candidates that, although we don't believe in, become a "lesser of two evils".

I don't want to vote for a "lesser of two evils" candidate, I want to choose greatness! Our current money driven system doesn't allow for greatness to break through because true greatness in a candidate would have the nation's people as the main agenda rather than corporate policy or international interests. I know we are in an irreversible global economy and I am not speaking about protectionism. A candidate that truly puts the American people first won't get the needed monetary support. We need to start doing things differently.

I say to you all, the people of our great nation, that it is time to show our discontent and be civilly disobedient, which was a founding tool of this country, and not participate any longer. Don't participate in a system driven by money and where our choice doesn't include a choice for greatness.

If enough of us decide not to play this game any longer, real change can begin to occur. Perhaps a system that is open to other parties or where other voices get equal time to be heard will result in better candidates. Any businessman knows that competition makes the product better. There is so much negative propaganda being thrown around between all the current candidates that if it were even half true, why would we want these people as our leaders.

A law degree and time in congress doesn't guarantee a great candidate and neither does being a preacher or a CEO. Candidates should be required to have certain skills and character traits that I believe we could collectively agree, contribute to making a potentially great candidate. We talk about athletes or actors being role models, how about our leaders being great role models first and again recognizing that that alone will not make a great candidtae either.

I also realize that greatness varies from county to country and we need to select a greatness based on what we are as a nation. We need to recognize certain inalienable rights as the founders of this country stated and that we are "endowed by our Creator".. This does not exclude anyone. An atheist can participate but should also recognize this foundation, his views may vary but the foundation exists.

We also need to understand our freedom, which is of highest priority but that doesn't mean changing rules or laws to favor one group over another. It does mean that everyone is free to choose how they want to live within our system of laws and be able to do so without persecution.
As with anyone that complains, the question will come…what would you do? I am not a lawyer, a preacher, or a CEO. I am an average American citizen that knows we need a change. I don't have all the answers nor the experience, perhaps, to even ask the right questions but I do know our system is broken. So as not to be a coward and refrain from answering or dodging the question, the following ideas are suggestions from my humble place that, I believe, would have some merit.

1) Education: Education should be at the top of our priority list by far. Excellent education will help solve some of our problems on its own and can take care of parts of other issues along the way. While we should not leave anyone behind, "No Child Left Behind" is only teaching to a lower common denominator and we deserve better. The current of idea of adding 100,000 new teachers is simply a start. We need to go much farther than that and there are many small successful programs that we can take pieces from to have a positive effect on a larger scale.
2) War: The war needs to stop or at least be minimized immediately. There is no reason to lose life and waste resources the way it is currently happening. Pointing fingers at guys like Musharraf for wasting billions, and that is billions with a "b", is ridiculous. Where is the accountability on our side that gave him the money in the first place? The 100,000 new teachers is already causing budget concerns but if the war machine was in check, the 5-10 billion dollars needed annually for the teacher program is not an issue at all. We are spending that much for a month in Iraq.
3) Taxes: The average person pays more than enough taxes. I believe we should have an entertainment tax. This would be for athletes, actors, musicians, celebrities, etc. that make above $5 million per year. Above $5 million, there would be a 50% tax that would be paid directly into the communities where the person lives or works to pay for education, the homeless, healthcare, or other social programs. CEOs would also fall under this tax too, unless the total annual compensation didn't exceed some reasonable multiple of the lowest paid worker. People would still be free to make as much money as they can, but when athletes are making $10-15 million a year, actors are making $20 million a picture, or a CEO that does a poor job walks with a compensation package of $40 million, something is out of whack!
4) Health Care: Health care must be available to everyone. Perhaps some of the entertainment tax would help in this area. Mostly though the legal and insurance systems must be revised regarding health care. Costs skyrocket because of insurance and litigation.
5) The Environment: We are at a critical time here. Maybe you believe in global warming, maybe you don't. If we do something about it and it happens that global warming is not true, we simply end up with a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable planet. If we do nothing and global warming isn't true, then no big deal. But if we do nothing and global warming is true, then we have a catastrophic situation for the planet and a questionable future for our children. Doing something seems like the only reasonable option. Steps such as mandating 35 mpg vehicles by 2020 are a joke. We have the technology to do this tomorrow if we want!
6) Our Sovereignty: As our nation developed, did we make mistakes? Sure we did but we can't look back. We will never not have slavery as a part of our history. It's important to understand it, learn from it, and make sure it never happens again and think about a current context "...of all men created equal with certain inalienable rights..." Now we are the United States of America. We are an English speaking sovereign nation. Why is it so hard to say we want to have English as our national language? We have our own borders and our own laws and we do welcome everyone here. Yet, if you need a picture for your driver's license, you can't wear a burkha. If you need a social security card for a job, you must register in this country properly. This is not discrimination; it's our country's laws. We all must abide by them without distinction. We don't require anyone to speak English or take off your burkha but we shouldn't change our laws to serve the few and we shouldn't be forced to do things in other languages.

Finally, these issues seem like common sense and I know many people in my circle feel as I do. They really shouldn't offend anyone either but somehow they always do. I believe the reason is because our government has failed us. It is no longer of the people, by the people, and for the people. We have given our country over to career politicians and corporate interests that have self serving agendas and not the agenda of the American people first. I believe this has happened because our current system forces us to choose our leaders based on "the lesser of two evils" idea and not on a selection for greatness. Until I have a choice for greatness, I won't vote!

Thoughts on Sustainability

2007-07-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Our company is taking the first steps in making surfboards a more sustainable product. After all we play in the sea and travel around the world to experience perfect waves and wonderful new cultures yet when we surf we do it on a pretty toxic, non green platform. These are just the first steps and I think it is important to look at the bigger picture lifecycle as manufacturing has moved farther from the source of use and consider the real costs. The real costs don't get paid by the consumer but by society as a whole. As I study and think about sustainablilty in my own world, I have come across a few things I thought I should pass on...

Freedom, autonomy and equality are paramount. If cars are meant to expand freedom and you end up sitting in traffic, then the original objective has failed. And if the cars can only be manufactured in large scale systems that create large concentrations of economic power then it is inequality. In an agreeable and equitable society, the guitar is more valuable than the CD player, the library more valuable than the classroom, the vegetable garden more valuable than the supermarket and creative work more valuable than working for a wage. Achievements for the common good, not the production of consumer goods, are the most important.
Ivan Illich

Gather your friends, go to the farmer's market and collect the gifts nutured by the heroes of our land, create a magnificent meal, invite people you don't know, take a long time to eat and truly taste every morsel. Make sure there is at least one song between every course. Revel in the mystery and what you are experiencing. Know that taste is how we know the land, change the world, and transform ourselves. If we did this everyday there is no need for hope, we are the world we imagine.
Paul Hawken

Back to the Future

2007-05-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

It's Memorial Day. I haven't felt like blogging for a while. But as today is a day of reflection and honor for those that have died, I took some time and did some reading. One passage says it perfectly and it's quoted here.

"...I think the world of USA is a world of crass, blind, overstimulated, phony, lying stupidity. The war in Asia slowly gets worse - and almost inane. The temper of the country is one of blindness, fat, self-satisfied, ruthless, mindless corruption. A lot of people feel uneasy about it but helpless to do anything against it. The rest are perfectly content with the rat race as it is, and with its competitive, acquisitive, hurtling, souped-up drive into nowhere. A massively aimless, baseless, shrewd cockiness that simply exalts itself without purpose. The mindless orgasm in which there is no satisfaction, only spasm."
Thomas Merton May 27, 1967

I think Asia could be replaced by Iraq and its ditto 40 years later. Have we learned nothing?

The Real Inconveinent Truth

2007-04-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

This is an essay that I think says some important truths...

http://www.seashepherd.org/editorials/editorial_070420_1.html

The Stress Cure

2007-04-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

I have a friend, Koji, in Japan. We’ve never met. I originally contacted him about some business which didn’t work out. Somehow we have stayed in touch and I know we share a kindred spirit.

I have been to Japan several times, always on business. When I do these trips I always take time to see the countryside and get to know the people and culture. I, like many I believe, don’t always see what is in front of me – the proverbial “missing the forest for the trees”.

Recently Koji sent me an email about spring in Japan and the cherry blossoms once again coming to life. In the few words he used to describe it, I could see them and smell them and hear the sound of the wind rustling through the branches. It was beautiful.

My friend is in Paris now. She is exploring and photographing the sights and sounds of that wonderful city. I recently received an email from her too one morning.

She spoke about looking out the window in the early morning and seeing “the shadow of the flowering balcony painting its pattern along the hem of the bedding”. This while “listening with her Buddhist ears to the church bells down the street mixing with those of Sacre Coeur off in the distance”. I think she is seeing the most beautiful sights of Paris and these are not listed in any tourist guide.

This past week has been very stressful. From the demands of a young company to those of a 17 year old daughter, life was taking its toll on me. I hadn’t been in the water nor had I even taken time to look at the sea this past week even though I live within blocks of the beach.

On Tuesday I had a 9am appointment in an area of town I was not too familiar with so I went early. I knew if I was too early I could go by a marina that was close by and have a look at the boats. I got there much easier than I thought and therefore much early than needed so I went out to the marina. I parked and started walking along the waterfront.

It was still early and there wasn’t much movement yet. As I slowly walked around I began to take deeper and slower breaths. It was peaceful. I began to hear clearly the clanging of the halyards against the aluminum masts. I could hear sound from several different kinds of birds including the longer shrill of the gulls. As I walked past blossoming flowers, I could even hear the hum of the bees wings light from one flower to the next.

It was very peaceful. My walk lasted only about 25 minutes but in those 25 minutes the stress of the week vanished. I left with a contented smile on my face and a new attitude to go back to work with.

Things are hectic, the traffic is bad, work is stressful and kids can be too, but everywhere there is a special little place where one can take a slow deep breath and really see what is front of them. The sun’s sparkle on the water, the bead of dew on a flower petal, the sound of a birds call, these are the things to pay a little attention to each day. If we simply open our eyes and really look – even for just a few minutes - our days will be less stressful and more peaceful and collectively this too will have global implications.

A New Political Strategy

2007-03-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

The political scene is in full swing and the political machines are churning away with still well over a year before the election. Why do we often hear our choices are between the lesser of two evils? I want to be led by a good!

With certainty, one man has shown us a path to remove the burdens of a government that does not serve its people and that is Ghandi. With the combined will and action of others the greatest power of the day met its match. In actuality it was through non participation that these wonderful feats were accomplished. That time is without a doubt upon us again in this great nation of ours and we must regain control of our democracy.

Though the paths to this are many, one obvious fact shines through. You can not continue to fuel the very system that has been hijacked by an elite that hides behind corporate veils. Most of us believe that sticking with it or waiting for the democrats to be in office again will make a difference. But these are not real changes, they are only two lovers taking turns riding on top, placating their closest allies first.

Both parties regardless of who is on top serve themselves and each other first. Both are owned - the Republicans and the Democrats - entirely and completely by the wealth that puts them in front of us to begin with. The owners put candidates in front of us and believe it doesn’t matter which of these we choose as they are all controlled by the owners.

Many of you actually care a great deal about this kind of thing but perhaps now feel powerless to change the system. If we all stopped believing ourselves to be powerless maybe we could change things and reclaim our power. I believe change of this kind must be done without participating. The “get out the vote” campaigns are financed by those that own the politicians. I say it is time to make a change and we need to do so by no longer participating in this absurd dance.

Water is Life

2007-03-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

Our company is participating in a "Water For Life" benefit. Water is so important to the growth here in Southern California but we are an insignificant drop compared to real world life and death issues. As in other areas of consumption, The US uses an extraordinary amount of water compared to other nations so here are a few fact and tips provided by "Water For Life" that I think are important. Once again it is our individual small steps that add to something significant - think about that the next time you brush your teeth.

World Water Wise

Quick Facts:
* 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water.
* Every week an estimated 42,000 people die from water related diseases.
* Over 1 million people die from malaria every year.
* The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day. The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day.
* While 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, 97.5% of it is salt water and 2.5% fresh water. Only 1% of the total water on earth is available for human use.
* 50% of the world's wetlands have been lost since 1900.
* Every day, 2 million tons of human waste is disposed of in water courses.
* 40% of water bodies assessed in 1998 in the United States were not deemed fit for hydro power recreational use due to nutrient, metal and agricultural pollution.

Things You Can Do:

* Participate in Beach Clean-Ups.
* Turn the faucet off while brushing your teeth, shaving, rinsing vegetables, etc.
* Wash the car with water from a bucket.
* Use water/energy conservation appliances.
* Repair dripping faucets by replacing washers. If your faucet is dripping at the rate of one drop per second, you can expect to waste 2,700 gallons per year.
* Check for toilet tank leaks.
* Water lawns during the early morning hours when temperatures and wind speed are the lowest. This reduces losses from evaporation.
* Plant native grasses, ground covers, shrubs and trees.
* Refrigerate a bottle of drinking water instead of letting a faucet flow until the water is cold.
* When washing dishes by hand, fill one sink or basin with soapy water. Quickly rinse under a slow-moving stream from the faucet.

Ah, Capitalism

2007-03-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

As a sailor/surfer and the GM of a manufacturing facility producing the foam cores used to make surfboards, environmental issues are very important to me. I know that when I research directions and issues of concern to me both personally and professionally there is much confusion and contrary opinion. I believe that environmental issues make up more than how we deal with the natural environment. They also - and perhaps more importantly - deal with the human issue.

Here is where capitalism comes into play. Any issue, environmental or otherwise, that comes to the forefront will be appropriately addressed when a profit potential is clear. This is an absolute fact in all levels of society from the young boy that may cut your lawn to the energy companies and the need to search out alternatives. If you don't think this is true, ask your gardener to cut the lawn for $2 a week - it won't happen. It readily happens when the profit meets the demand. So it is true of the energy companies on down.

There is no motivation to look for alternative energy sources when plenty of money is being made in the current conditions and the alternatives cost more and provide less profit. We then can say, ah yes, but this is short term thinking. Yes, oil is a finite supply but the short term for this issue goes beyond most of our lifetimes and certainly longer than a CEO's term as the lead sled dog. Obviously short term is a relative condition.

Once the profit potential is clear, all the needed resources to take advantage of the condition will be available. So I am not too concerned about global warming and in fact there is so much happening with this issue now that solutions will come forward - and some will make plenty of money providing those solutions.

One thing that does concern me however is that the solutions are often bandages. Take, for instance, southern California where there is no water naturally. We continue to build - in the desert with no water - more and more homes that need water. We even build golf courses in the desert - with no water - that use huge amounts of water. Instead of saying no we have exceeded the resource, we look for the water bandage initially with damming the rivers and then with a possible desalination facility.

Time has now shown us that damming the rivers was a mistake because sediment flow is important for the beaches, etc. We can't remove the dam because we still need the water and besides thousands of homes are now built where that water would flow. The jury is still out on the desalinator but what I know of it doesn't sound like the answer. Yet new homes are the money maker so that is the most important issue at the moment.

Ultimately capitalism will take care of the hard issues. I feel sure of that. The human issue is the real issue. From as far back as we have written history we know that human capital didn't rank as high as the dough. The pyramids were built by thousands of humans that were easily replaceable and inconsequential to the building of the Emperor's tomb. This goes true for slaves in the tobacco fields, to men and women in the world's armies, to the workers in factories around the world where safe healthy working conditions don't exist yet the managers are housed in luxury offices.

I simply don't understand how a human life became less valuable then the dollar, yen, euro, or whatever and God knows I don't have the answer to this one. I will, however, never let that attitude become part of me.

New Politics

2007-03-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

Any discussion we have about world affairs eventually involves politics. I am neither Republican nor Democrat and Independent has other connotations that I don't follow either . Frankly I don't understand how anyone can stay within party lines as the choices just are not that simple.

Here are a few things to consider...

I hate the term Christian conservative. Yes Christians are conservative in many ways but one thing always lacking in a conservative platform is social programs. Most of the leaders within organized Christian religions live in their own communist world. The mission of most Christian groups are social programs. And why is pro-life a conservative position? If I were a practicing Buddhist, by that qualifier alone, most would consider me a liberal. Yet the most important thing in a Buddhist's life is the sanctity of ALL living things. We must get rid of the pigeon holed categories and look beyond into the person for the true aim of politics to work. As for issues of war, just think about the sanctity of ALL life and you have your answer.

I think we should have another party - its time is way overdue. That party would be called "The Common Sense Party". It would be made up of men and women that are not afraid to tell it like it really is. (Yes, I got stoned in schooled, screwed around on my first wife, have been behind on my credit cards but I work hard and have real life experience to do this job. I didn't go from private high school to private college to Dad's law firm to get here) The elected officials from this party would appoint judges that are not afraid to throw out ridiculous lawsuits that, for example, may pay a worker a multimillion dollar settlement for cutting off the tip of his thumb on the job. Yes that may hurt for a couple of days but I seriously doubt that it would keep the person from working nor would it be so hideously ugly that his self esteem would fall into a downward spiral. The result would be a less crowded court system and a reduction of insurance premiums. Cases such as a person getting hurt while committing a crime would also be immediately thrown out. There are many more examples but those of you with common sense know what I mean here.

I would put in place a new tax - I know, I know but here goes. It would be the professional entertainers tax and this would be for actors, musicians, and athletes, etc. that made over $1,000,000 annually. In my view they are paid at a rate that is out of proportion to the entertainment they provide. The tax would be 20% off the top. This money would go into a fund in each city where they live or work and the money would be distributed to the teachers K-12 in that city. Obviously some areas would suffer but this would be a step in the right direction.

These are a few ideas but I'm sure those of you that have common sense have many more. Send them in and I'll start on the platform.

Consider This

2007-03-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

If the population of the Earth were reduced to that of a small town with 100 people, it would look something like this...

57% Asians
21% Europeans
14% Americans (northern and southern)
8% Africans
52% women
48% men
70% coloured-skins
30% caucasians
89% heterosexuals
11% homosexuals

6 people would own 59% of the whole world wealth and all of them will be from the United States of America
80% would have bad living conditions
70% would be uneducated 50% underfed
1 would die 2 would be born
1 would have a computer
1 would have a higher education

When you look at the world from this point of view, you can see there is a real need for solidarity, understanding, patience and education.

Done Surfing

2007-03-09T13:29:00.000-08:00

Last night as I finished up some reading and was turning out the light, I had a bit of an epiphany that all this blog nonsense was just that - nonsense. I was going to make this my last blog post but I was talked out of it by my best friend. You see to me one of the problems today is the internet (yes, its a great tool) and all the opinion and simply meaningless drivel that is out there. Where is out there anyway and is this even real?

The internet has become a place for everyone to make up their own 15 minutes of fame - if not for the world at large at least for their circle of friends or those on an extended email list. The words on the all the blogs are just that - more talk.

Well, talk is cheap! The important thing is what we DO. We need to think about how we treat one another, how we behave in front of children, and what do we do to make our world a bit better. Any small step is good. A step is a start and it certainly is doing. It is so much easier to sit behind a desk and write things about what we should do. The bottom line is I know nothing of what anyone should except to just do and stop talking about.

Oh some say there is too much to do so I can't start anything. The problems we face globally are huge and so interrelated that it is sometimes difficult to see a clear path. So I think we just take one small step, get off the porch, pick up a piece of trash in front of you. Imagine if everyone picked up one piece of trash today the world would be way cleaner.

Put a brick in your toilet tank. If everyone put a brick in the tank do you realize how much clean water we would save? Some things are so simple but we get overwhelmed by thinking about the big picture. We don't need to be 100%. We can never be 100%. Just take one step down the path though and you are one step closer. So I am off to do something and rather than abandon this blog, I will try to use it in the most practical way I can and I want to celebrate the little steps.

As a lover of wooden boats I followed Wooden Boat Magazine. Its founder, Jon Wilson, went on to start another magazine called Hope. It was a great mag that celebrated all the little unknown victories of the spirit and of the heart around the world. As a commercial endeavor unfortunately the mag didn't make it. Its spirit does live on and I now hope I can share some of those positive stories that inspire me here in my blog.

Finally, as a surfer, I hate the term "surfing the web". Surfing only occurs in one place and that is in the beautiful ocean. Surfing doesn't happen in the parking lot. Clothing companies that sell to surfers are surf companies - they are clothing companies. Surfing doesn't happen on the sidewalk and it, for sure, isn't happening when your sitting in front of a computer. So go out and surf and if you don't surf, that's OK just get out and DO.

The Simple Life

2007-03-05T05:19:00.000-08:00

An American businessman was at the pier of a small South Pacific Island village when a small outrigger with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small outrigger was a dorado several large grouper.

The American complimented the Islander on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Islander replied, "Only a little while."
The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Islander said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a late afternoon nap with my wife, Helia, stroll into the village each evening where I have adrink and play guitar with my friends, I have a full and busy life."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small fishing village and move to Australia, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The South Seas fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then?" asked the fisherman.

The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions, really? Then what?" asked the fisherman.

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a late afternoon nap with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings here you could have a drink and play your guitar with your friends."

The Magic of Surfing

2007-03-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

The surfing experience is a completely individual endeavor yet surfers are part of a global tribe that crosses all political, cultural, religious, and economic boundaries. The surfing experience causes the surfer to become tuned to the natural world of wind and tide and current and season. Even the surfboard it self is modern magic carpet that defies normal physical quantification sometimes planing, sometimes displacement, sometimes airborne with constant changes in direction and velocity.

In an age where many high school seniors in the United States can not find their own country on a globe, most surfers know about Angola, Sumatra, Madagascar, New Caledonia, and the Canaries and more mainstream places like Morocco, and Peru. When the season is right for a particular region, surfers go. Islamic Jihad in Indonesia will not deter them. The works of ETA on the Basque coast of Spain are not a concern. The military coup in Fiji doesn’t get a second thought. Yet at the beach, in any of these locations with others from around the world, there is peaceful coexistence and respect.

Local customs and cultures are embraced by this global tribe. Often the local religions are participated in without question but for the new experience it may offer. Parts of the religion, culture, and customs from often faraway lands usually stick and some of that experience is then carried forward to the next place of the tribes meeting. Again the resulting mixture is a reverent diversity and respect. In fact, at the recent tsunami disaster, surfers were the first responders – not only rescuing people but setting up camps in which to live.

In the water the surfer is not judged by his bank account, what type of car he drives, or where he lives but rather he is judged by his skills in the ocean. Riding waves and the intimate knowledge of the break is paramount and other valued skills include sailing, diving, and fishing. The better the surfer is at these skills, the more independent he becomes and therefore the economic differences become even less important.

The passage from beginner to journeyman surfer includes meteorological study. To fully benefit from the variety of waves breaking around the planet, the surfer learns about the changing of the seasons in the different hemispheres. He learns the origin or source of the waves and can predict the swell direction and time that swell will hit certain beaches. With this knowledge he will calculate the local tide, current, and wind conditions for optimal riding. When this precise time hits, the pursuit of the resulting waves becomes the all consuming focus of his being.

When finally paddling out to the break, the surfer has learned the skills of a physical oceanographer and studied the rip currents and uses these forces to his advantage and get out past the break more easily. He knows the bottom contours and the physical properties of the sea floor under the waves. Understanding the physical condition is critical – is the swell moving across a variable sandbar or breaking like clockwork over a nearly exposed coral reef. Respect is once again in order as the wave will break the way it will without regard to the surfer. The surfer knows to go with the flow and use the natural forces at work to maximize his experience.

A noted NASA scientist once said the ability of a surfer paddling a small surfboard into a wave is a mathematical impossibility. In nearly every other sport both participant and equipment can be quantified for maximum performance, there is no such quantifier in surfing. The act of riding waves is an entirely individual experience. There is no absolute in design or materials nor ideal size like a jockey of 118 pounds or a 6’9” basketball player. Both the surfboard and surfer are completely unique and therefore the experience on the wave is a completely unique experience as well. This is easily proven when two surfers are in the water both on their favorite boards getting maximum enjoyment from the conditions and they switch boards. The maximum enjoyment disappears and very quickly they want to switch back.

Surfers also become staunch environmentalists. Coastal zone management and both source and non-source pollution are well known. Public beach access rather than selling off the coastline to only the richest 1% is a critical issue and that battle rages daily in the halls of places like the California Coastal Commission where the special interests of politics are being battled by the grass roots activists of the global surfing community. A local issue such as a freeway extension that may affect a revered surfing spot near San Clemente has opposition support in England, Brazil, and Australia.

So the experience of the surfer is all encompassing with political, cultural, and religious components. Physical and natural sciences are part of the surfer’s daily experience. And the engineering of the surfboard can’t be quantified. The experience is very personal and unique while at the same time being part of a global community that lives with respect and is acutely of aware the relationship to the cycles of the natural environment. The surfer’s scorecard doesn’t have an entry for monetary success and therefore it is very easy to give back to the communities in which they participate. The world on a larger scale could learn much from a surfer. After all, it’s magic!

Being "Green" Makes Me Sick!

2007-02-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

I am not a fan of Al Gore and I do work in a company that makes sustainable cores for surfboards. Surfing, in general, is a natural pursuit that is about as pure an any.

What makes me sick about being "green" is all the talk and judgement that goes along with it. Al Gore came forward with a great movie, then wins an Academy Award for it, then has some influence to make the awards program "green". That is ALL good. Nowhere is anyone claiming that they are 100% green, 100% perfect. We are not 100% green in our company, a company that is dedicated to being green.

Ok, so Al uses more energy in his home that the national average. So what if he uses a private jet for travel. If that was his base line and he has made some improvement, it is a step in the right direction. By the way, carbon offset programs are valuable and simply not a guilt tax. It is a way to give back a little for the fact that you do use a private jet. (or an SUV for that matter)

The talking heads on both radio and TV are out of control. I saw Sean Hannity complaining "don't talk to me about my SUV if your still riding around in a private jet Al". That sounds like school kid talk where your parents would run in and say, "Now Sean two wrongs don't make a right". It's ridiculous!

I accept fully and completely believe that any small step in the right direction is still a positive step. If I drive an SUV that gets 10 miles to the gallon but can make it to work two days a week on public transportation instead of that SUV - guess what? - I still have an SUV that gets 10 miles a gallon and I have taken my first step to being more green.

Why can't these little changes be celebrated instead of everyone saying they are not enough. Imagine if everyone did one little thing, one little step in the green direction, collectively the benefits are huge. It's guys like Hannity that use his type of rhetoric that stall the whole process. Unfortunately guys like him have an audience and unfortunately too much of his audience is on the Hannity cool aid.

Please don't be afraid to take that first step no matter how small it is. You'll find it is easy and causes no hardship. Once you take one step, it will be easy to take the next. Collectively we can all, step by step, walk into a new way of doing things that will help preserve this planet and it's people for our children and generations to come.

The Real Costs

2007-02-27T08:34:00.000-08:00

These are boom times for China! For example, Shanxi province in northern China produced 25% of the country's coal in 2005 at a time when coal prices were soaring. Shanxi's economy grew by 12.5% in 2005, well ahead of even the astonishing 10% growth for China's economy as a whole.

However, the province is home to Linfen, Yangquan and Datong, the three most polluted cities in China. Life expectancy in Linfen is 10 years below the Chinese national average. The province closed 4,800 illegal mines in 2005 -- and the drilling of illegal wells for water have created a chronic water shortage and a steady loss of farmland as it subsides into underground mine shafts and drained aquifers.

If you subtract the costs of air and water pollution from Shanxi's growth rate, officials have told Deutsche Bank, the province's real economic growth rate is close to zero. It's easy to find economists who are even more pessimistic. The World Bank puts the costs of China's pollution at 8% of GDP. Some economists peg it as high as 10% of GDP. According to this accounting, China isn't growing at all.

Polluting the air or water, releasing toxic amounts of mercury, using so much water that a river runs dry -- these are all what economists call externalities. The costs of these externalities are paid by the general public, in the form of increased illness or higher death rates, and they remain external to the country's GDP accounts.

However, today's externality has a way of becoming tomorrow's on-the-books cost. Just ask any U.S., European or Japanese company about what it costs them to clean up their wastewater, scrub their emissions and safely dispose of their toxic waste today. Those were once externalities but now disposal is part of the cost of doing business.

The environmental figures out of China, even the official ones, are appalling. More than 400,000 of China's 1.3 billion people die from air-pollution-related illness each year, according to the Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning. About 300 million Chinese don't have access to clean drinking water, and 400 of the country's 668 largest cities are short of water. Acid rain falls over 30% of the country. Of the 20 most polluted cities on earth, according to the World Bank, 16 are in China.

Unfortunately, the part of the environment nearest to crisis also presents the toughest nut to crack. China is rapidly running out of water. Industries can't get enough. City dwellers can't get enough. Farmers can't get enough. Parts of the country look like they're headed into permanent drought as surging demand teams up with falling supply to produce scarcity no matter how much water the clouds bring. For the past 25 years, China has been able to feed itself, but the water shortage is bad enough to put this in doubt. According to James Kynge in his 2006 book, "China Shakes the World," China uses seven to 20 times more water per unit of GDP than the developed countries of the world.

The alternative is business as usual in China, with growth at all costs. Go far enough down that road, and the costs of paying for those environmental externalities gets big enough so that even China's booming economy can't pay it.

Is the Playing Field Level?

2007-02-26T08:51:00.000-08:00

Below are some thoughts to consider. Again I do not come from a place of protectionism but rather fair competition. Most of the statistics below come from MSN Money's Jim Jubak. Numbers are one thing but the important part here, I believe, is the costs the numbers are not showing. Too often we operate from a position of always fixing past wrongs instead of being aware and thoughtful as we move forward. I don't believe it is too late but time marches on...

China's economy grew 10.7% in 2006, the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth and the highest growth rate since the 10.9% recorded in 1995. And the Chinese economy did it last year without even breaking a sweat: Inflation came in at a core rate of just 1.5%.

While China certainly is not about to slip backward into global economic insignificance, it appears that the current growth has been built on nonrenewable human, environmental and capital resources. And when those resources have been mined for the easy gains, China's rate of growth will fall back to something like "normal."

What's more, the central government has tolerated an internal migrant worker system that assures Chinese industry of an even-larger army of even-lower-cost workers. It works like this. A peasant looking for a better life can move to a city or an industrial zone and get a job. But they can't get a "hukou," the certificate of residence required to access public services such as schools, health care and unemployment benefits. These migrant workers live crammed in company dormitories, usually earning far below the official minimum wage and sometimes as little as $1 for a 12-hour day, doing the dirtiest and most dangerous work that no worker with a certificate of residence wants. And quite often, the company refuses to pay the migrant worker even those wages. Official Chinese government figures say that more than 70% of the country's migrant workers were owed pay by their employers last December.

Estimates of the number of migrant workers in China range from 110 million to 120 million. With a population of 7.5 million registered residents, a city such as Guangzhou, the export capital of southern China, couldn't run without its 3.7 million migrant workers. Whole industries would come to a halt: Migrants make up 80% of all urban construction workers and 68% of workers in manufacturing, according to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

China's migrant workers don't have access to the financial and legal systems. Workers who have filed claims for back pay have been beaten or arrested and charged legal fees so high that they couldn't pursue their claims. That's left them waiting for government action.

The situation isn't sustainable. Acts of protest are increasing: In 2004 there were 74,000 protests (not all by migrant workers) involving 3.8 million people, up from 10,000 protests in 1994. Some migrant workers are simply going home to protest bad working conditions and a lack of pay. Either the Beijing government will find some way to force local officials and employers to share the wealth more evenly or the costs to the economy -- in protests and workers who vote with their feet -- will continue to rise.

Just as important - or more so - traditional accounting doesn't consider the cost of environmental damage. MSN Money's Jim Jubak suggests that investors should be considering these off-the-balance-sheet costs, and their long-term effects on production, as global warming and pollution become bigger issues.

There is Hope

2007-02-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Under the auspices of the Global Compact initiative established by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, NGOs, international business and labor organizations as well as representatives from the world of science and politics are working closely together with the aim of forging a global economy based on the principles of sustainable development.

The Ten Principles of the Global Compact

Principle 1:
Support and respect the protection of international human rights within the sphere of influence;

Principle 2:
Make sure corporations are not complicit in human rights abuses;

Principle 3:
Freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4:
The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor;

Principle 5:
The effective abolition of child labor;

Principle 6:
The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation;

Principle 7:
Support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8:
Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility;

Principle 9:
Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies;

Principle 10:
Work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

My World

2007-02-22T09:13:00.000-08:00

I work in the surf industry. There are many things happening in my world that I believe are a microcosm of other industries here in the US. My point of view is not protectionist as I believe we need to be competitive however I do believe to be fair we need a more level playing field. Also surfing is a special. The experience can't be quantified like other industries are. It is a completely unique and personal experience. Here are some thoughts on that...

Wake Up!

I don’t know what has happened to our wonderful world of surfing. The craze for collectors to find old long boards has now moved into the 70’s era and beyond. It is a good thing that a history is now developed, understood and preserved through museums and collectors. However, as I think back on the history, one thing stands out far above board design, movies, magazines, clothing companies, etc. and that, my humble reader, is individuality.

This new wave of surfboard construction with boards being made in molds is killing individuality and is starting to look like what happened in Detroit. Just look at the beautiful cars of the ‘60s compared to today’s wedges. Any kid could stand on the side of the road and name the cars because they were each different and individual. Today it is hard to tell a Mercedes from Hyundai. Our surfboard industry is going the same way. That saddens me.

When one shaper, designer, or artist comes up with something new there seems to be a mad rush for everyone else to have their version of it right away. Rennie Yater is building some of the most beautiful surfboards on the planet working together with Kevin Ancell and the Abalone/Mother of Pearl inlays. I sincerely hope he gets to keep this to himself. Once everyone else is doing this, it devalues the entire lot.

As a kid I remember being very thoughtful in the selection of each of my new boards. Besides having a great shape by someone that I admired in the surfing world, I also wanted some special color I liked or a different design from everything else. That was so important. Today, a surfer could be caught at the beach standing next to another surfer with the exact same board! Not only same color, but same shape, decal placement, fin – everything! That is because these new boards were popped out of the same mold in an asian (or elsewhere) factory.

Yes, it is true that surfboard technology holds no secrets or special skills that can’t be learned by any reasonably talented craftsman. It is also true that the person smoothing grooves on a machined blank or laminating or sanding doesn’t have to be a surfer but I feel there is something missing without that connection. Is that the elusive “soul” that everyone speaks about? Is this connection the essence of soul? Maybe it’s not whether a shaping machine was used or not, but the degree to which the craftsman is involved with the final product. I’m not sure I have the answer but I do know something is missing.

There was a day when a surfer would only get a board from a guy that had experience with that place or size or style, etc. You wouldn’t go to a known long board shaper to get the state of the art in short board design – not because the long board shaper wasn’t capable of doing a short board but because the short board shaper would have a closer connection to the experience. Today, we have boards by the thousands coming out of factories where some of the workers haven’t even seen the sea. Where is the connection?

I was recently in a surf shop with a display of beautiful new carbon fiber boards. The boards looked great, the technology is awesome and all five of them lined up to make a beautiful presentation looked exactly the same – shiny black carbon. Where is the individuality in that? To me it’s the difference between original art and getting a digital copy printed on canvas. Yes, the image is still good, it still looks nice hanging on the wall, and it looks exactly like your neighbor’s hanging on his wall. It’s bad enough that we go to Ikea for furniture (and art?) and to Walmart for clothes and (it’s almost sacrilege) to Costco for a surfboard.

Has a surfboard just become another commodity to be manufactured, used up and tossed up on the heap of other waste we so readily produce? Many people talk about the cost and yes, Costco has been selling boards for less that I can buy the materials to make my own. Cost, however, must be considered in the broader sense. What is the cost to the shapers, laminators, pin liners, sanders, etc. that have put in a life time of dedication to something they live everyday? Look at what the cost has been to Detroit since cars have become a commodity. Surfboards, even far more than cars, should not fall into the commodity realm.

Surfing and surfboards must remain the realm of the individual and there are two key ingredients that separate surfing and surfboards from all other things that we have and do. To me one of the most beautiful things about surfing and surfboards is its purely subjective nature. The surfboard then is a purely personal experience and the ride on the wave is a purely individual interpretation of the experience.

There are no constants in surfboards. This fact is demonstrated everyday by the fact that two surfers could each have a board they love yet when they switch boards they could both feel like they are riding dogs. This fact is also true of the massed produced machine shaped and molded boards. No two ride identically and therefore personal preference becomes the quantifier of what is good and bad.

This subtle truth also differentiates surfing from everything else. Even the closest connections with a sport like snowboarding, don’t have the individual feelings from board to board. That together with the fact that in any other outdoor sport, anywhere on the fall line the rider can stop and pick his line. This changes the entire scenario. One of the surf companies nailed it when they came up with the tag line…”Only a Surfer Knows the Feeling”. This is absolutely true and true not only of surfing but of surfboard manufacturing as well.

I think it is time to wake up. Surfing is a chance to be an individual, slow down, breathe deep, appreciate life, and be a part of the natural world. Let’s keep surfing and surfboards apart from the rest of our crazy world. Let’s leave this last bit of nature’s magic to those that have experienced it and then can translate that magic through the tips of their collective fingers into something that is beyond the realm of commodity. With a respect for the individual, the commodity can’t survive. Wake up!

February 21st 2007

2007-02-21T11:57:00.000-08:00

Today is the day I start to write, and more importantly, to learn about this new way of communicating. I have always been interested in the human condition and believe that everyone deserves an opportunity to grow and learn. Ultimately they will be the ones that decide for themselves where to go with all this wonder that we have before us every day.

Forcing people to change to conform to a certain system, way of life, or even religion is ultimately impossible. For a short while, people will fold to force but only until the collective spirit rises up again. The issues are so big and so important but as they say, to get there is just a matter of one bite at a time.

A recent event got me really thinking on these issues. I read a book called The Outlaw Sea by William Langwiesche. I was originally drawn to it simply because it was another book about ships and the ocean - I just can't seem to get enough of them. One chapter had me captivated and was an example of the complexities we now face in deciding what is best.

The chapter was about the ship breaking beaches in southern India. Greenpeace, a group that I would normally feel good about supporting, was attempting to shut things down. The beaches are a toxic mess and the work is dangerous yet this work ends up providing work for thousands that end up providing for their families where other work simply isn't available. The ship does get completely taken apart and almost everything is recycled - the steel, wiring, piping, etc. Shutting this place down would put an end to the environmental mess but it would also put an end to a livelihood for thousands.

So what is right? Why should the people from Greenpeace have a say? What about local authority? Is there a better way to provide the service of shipbreaking together with making a safer, more environmentally responsible place to do this?

The choices are huge and as the planet gets smaller, these decisions begin to effect us all. Getting the discussion started is the first step or for some the first bite.