lakwords

Cold Gold

2011-11-15T15:12:00.002-05:00

Welcome to this world, temporarily mine. It's Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. This image is from some weeks ago and much has changed. The dominant beast of winter has emerged triumphant which is no bad thing. That river below is a white wilderness of twisted ice floes and the town and hills gleam white in rare bouts of sunshine. The days get shorter and darkness is our external state most of the time. But only on the outside. Within, this is a welcoming, lively, fascinating, occasionally provocative place. It seethes with art and ideas. Men and some women still scoop gold from ancient creek beds in those folded hills behind me. Indigenous communities develop their lives and culture in relative harmony with incomers, like me. Yes, it's cold, very cold, and getting colder. The cold is almost alive, a presence to be considered, respected. Warmth is more valuable than gold and friendship better than diamonds. We are lucky people.

Back

2010-10-04T10:46:00.002-04:00

Here we sit. Post summer of severe challenge and roller-coaster emotions, we contemplate trauma. Post trauma, we wonder what lies ahead. What test or surprise or challenge to complacency. Sometimes you think you've been through what you've been through. Much of the time you just go through it. Or so it seems on the far side of a potentially vicious curve, a pass between the Vale of Despond and the Great Unknown. Take that world. You don't lose us yet. We just be scum in the multitudinous surface film coating this rock in space, but we cling. What else could we do?

The truth about money

2009-03-30T01:20:00.003-04:00

This is not from the left. Nor the paranoid right. But it is the truth. Money has taken over everything. And its current bout of flu is infecting us all. The correctives applied in Washington, London, Ottawa and elsewhere are aimed at propping up money. They are not meant to make things right. To correct the vast imbalances of the past decades will take more than public funds pumped into private coffers. In fact that's entirely the wrong way to go about it. The coming shakedown will affect the changes but our governments and money managers will be behind the curve. We don't matter all that much. Read this and see what I mean. But don't stop there. Read more and blog, share, post and think. It's got to come from us, our ilk, the mobs and masses and wise crowds who know, truly know, that everything being done now to stave off an already arrived disaster is wrong. Disastrous in itself because it bankrupts the future. Stop. Enough.

Isn't it time?

2009-03-30T01:11:00.002-04:00

For countries like Canada to get rid of the notion of foreign heads of state? See Rick Mercer's take.

I mean, I thought we (and Australia and New Zealand) were sovereign independent states. Turns out we're not. We make our new citizens swear allegiance to a German-Greek-vaguely north European British family that mostly lives in London and Scotland. Why?

Money. No Money.

2009-03-03T09:37:00.002-05:00

For the take, for the ideas expressed simply and in ways we all can understand. May I suggest this blog. As we go down the tubes, it will make the swirling maelstrom more manageable.

Ghostly dampness at year's end

2008-12-28T13:38:00.003-05:00

Yes, it's that time. Again. And we wonder, and we shiver, and we worry. Rightly so. There's much to worry about. The near, middle and medium-long terms are all payback for the scoundrel times we've already endured. With, of course, scoundrels getting off scot-free. Yet there are those who believe otherwise. May they be right. I don't think so but what do I know?

The Nut

2008-11-28T01:29:00.002-05:00

Let's get one thing straight right away. They won. They almost always do. What happened in Mumbai could happen almost anywhere. Murderous, suicidal, young male rage with weapons and ammo -- nothing can stop it without an extraordinary measure of foreknowledge or luck. India had neither so carnage and fear metastisized. Ugly, tragic, inevitable. So much blood and loss, so little wisdom or real determination to change things. For one thing, why did no one see this coming? Not this specifically but the likelihood of such a thing? Details are superfluous but evil intent is a known known. To point quivering fingers of blame beyond India's borders is to guarantee it will happen again. To behave like the Bush Administration post 9-11 is to speed up that inevitability. Preventing, heading off, combatting terror isn't about crackdowns or hard vs. soft response. It isn't about other countries or governments. It's about planning, homework, painstaking research, open minds, outside-the-box thinking. I'm positive that none of these things will happen in India or anywhere else. This beast has legs and it's picking up speed.

Good bandwagons

2008-11-10T00:30:00.005-05:00

Yeah. This is a good one.

And you know what? We need to be aboard to make sure it steers well and to our advantages, our joint advantages. Bring him on, and more importantly, bring on the agenda that counts. Broad agreement folks, no whining about center-this or centrist-that. Go for good outcomes, however long it takes and let's brace ourselves for a world that maybe peoples' descendants don't have to pay and suffer for, forever. A planet without civilians being constantly bombed as a sick video game becomes a substitute for statesmanship. A globe of striving to resolve conflict and challenge, not exacerbate them. A joint commons that is enhanced not plundered. Not that one fellow - however exceptional - should have that weight on those admittedly broad shoulders. But if it doesn't even begin to work this time, then I'm joining the Maoists. Okay? You listening DC?

India Express rocks India!!

2008-10-11T02:24:00.002-04:00

The book hit Indian shelves on September 30th and is getting excellent reviews, not least on the New Delhi cocktail circuit. Here's what Zee News had to say.
India Abroad News Service had some interesting views. Businessworld talks to the author and asks some tough questions!! And here's a piece from the Sakaal Times. My friend and admired fellow writer, Pavan K. Varma, was very kind in India's best newsmagazine, Outlook. And finally, my hometown paper, the Toronto Star, liked the book. Why not check it out for yourself!!

2008-10-11T02:05:00.000-04:00

The United States edition. Get it here. Read what
Bloomberg’s Jim Pressley had to say. Kirkus Reviews said
that India Express "makes a convincing and thoroughly readable case for India’s claims to be “the next liberal superpower."

India Express: the future!

2008-04-01T21:39:00.000-04:00

It's a book. Published by Penguin Canada. You can get it here. And here too. It's just out. I like it, but I have to -- I wrote it. Stay tuned. More to come. Honest reviews welcome and will be posted. Life's like this. Ya know????

Easing up

2008-02-03T22:03:00.000-05:00

A year creeps in, a personal best of aging as ever. Time's march has no reference point save time itself. Winter's grip tightens, flexes, quivers a bit. It's supposed to be change's turn. We wait and watch and bait our breath. Perhaps the end of night is nigh, perhaps the letter "t". We may find out. We may not. I sit and ponder shenpa. Hooked. Attached. And loving it. Maybe, just maybe chance breeds change. But maybe too it doesn't. We find out by finding out. I bluster and blather and treasure every moment of laughter. Such as they are. Change. Please. Soon.
Please.

Carlin's ever relevant take

2007-10-31T17:14:00.000-04:00

2007-10-23T14:35:00.000-04:00

History. Why war seldom produces intended outcomes but almost always enriches various people along the way. The British defeat at Gandamack, 1842. Canada, Blair and Brown's Britain, NATO, USA...pay heed.

Issue

2007-10-19T17:51:00.000-04:00

Slipshod. That's the only word for it. Okay, not the only one, but it applies at the moment. The ego game looms again and hard won changes slip, as if not shod....well, anyway. So yeah, ever partially aware, we muddle through yet refuse to acknowledge same. As it's said. No, no, we're masters (mistresses?) of the universe. Astride it. Towering. In charge and in control. Never mind the illusory nature that we know about, that we have at least been told about. Illusions are illusory. It's as plain as pudding, which itself doesn't exist. But okay...let it ride and go quietly into that good night. Good night.

2007-09-16T09:33:00.001-04:00

Do it!!

What we must

2007-09-16T09:08:00.001-04:00

What we can

2007-05-11T11:59:00.001-04:00

Thanks to my friend and colleague, CBC.CA photo editor Robin Rowland for supporting our rally and taking this and other fantastic photos.
Check out Robin's blog
The Garret Tree

Let him go!!

2007-05-03T15:40:00.000-04:00

Esperanto

2007-04-16T22:14:00.000-04:00

Anyone caught speaking it is crazy or ready for jail. So says my guru of song, Mr J Fararr. Me, I marvel at its juxtaposition and indeed, at sychronicity itself. Not much amazes. Much distresses. A few please. Then otherwise? Drab. Why? And why now? It could be climate, or climate change. Perhaps burden of company or location. Otherwse wastrelism. Yadda, yadda, yadda. It's hard to say, hard to tell, hard to listen. For now. Watch for change. Change for watch.

egad

2007-04-16T22:10:00.000-04:00

bogged. but here was the last one. you know what? More to come.

Mindful

2006-10-27T14:22:00.000-04:00

Ease into present tense amid past horror and deep uncertainty. Let it be. Yet we live in the media's endless present already. Breaking news. Live. Exclusive. You heard it hear first. The past on your platter, served by us and us only. How then to be there, just be there as teachers teach. Don't know yet, not me. Any suggestions? Any conspiracy theories. Any timelines?

ha-bitz

2006-10-12T15:13:00.000-04:00

It drags, this. Not in general but specifically at the moment. It's a world thing. Ruts abound and our tendency is to steer for them. Habitual behaviors. We play up confrontation and emphasize drama, even where they don't really exist. Most of the time these are tools to ramp up the ante, or the sense of it, not substance in and of themselves. But in our lives, when tensions arise, that's how we react. Will she? Won't they? Does something matter or not? I guess anyway. On the way to the border(see below), I read poetry and sip whiskey. Bring 'em on.

north dakota

2006-09-13T21:47:00.000-04:00

Across that border, whisky? The ways of love? Dreams of being a cowboy? All of them probably. Damn I'm ready to ride across the border. I am. It's a journey all this. Whether it ends or continues or just fizzles, you can't take away the travel. If you love me, say I love you. Damn straight. It's like that, it really is. At the end of the day, night, but also reassessment, hope that dawn brings change...or that night brings dawn. Both are good. This week's quote is from another of those universal voyagers of inner space. "chaos should be regarded as extremely good news". Yes. Well then....

grace under pressure

2006-08-16T16:59:00.000-04:00

It's all about courage really, all about confidence and motion. Hesitate and be as good as dead. Take action Arjuna. Fish or cut bait. Or so they say. Is there such a thing? Watch this space. On second thought, don't.

Time spent Kipling

2006-07-31T13:54:00.000-04:00

Sestina of the Tramp-Royal
By Rudyard Kipling

Speakin' in general, I 'ave tried 'em all,
The 'appy roads that take you o'er the world.
Speakin' in general, I 'ave found them good
For such as cannot use one bed too long,
But must get 'ence, the same as I 'ave done,
An' go observin' matters till they die.

What do it matter where or 'ow we die,
So long as we've our 'ealth to watch it all --
The different ways that different things are done,
An' men an' women lovin' in this world --
Takin' our chances as they come along,
An' when they ain't, pretendin' they are good?

In cash or credit -- no, it aren't no good;
You 'ave to 'ave the 'abit or you'd die,
Unless you lived your life but one day long,
Nor didn't prophesy nor fret at all,
But drew your tucker some'ow from the world,
An' never bothered what you might ha' done.

But, Gawd, what things are they I 'aven't done?
I've turned my 'and to most, an' turned it good,
In various situations round the world --
For 'im that doth not work must surely die;
But that's no reason man should labour all
'Is life on one same shift; life's none so long.

Therefore, from job to job I've moved along.
Pay couldn't 'old me when my time was done,
For something in my 'ead upset me all,
Till I 'ad dropped whatever 'twas for good,
An', out at sea, be'eld the dock-lights die,
An' met my mate -- the wind that tramps the world!

It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world,
Which you can read and care for just so long,
But presently you feel that you will die
Unless you get the page you're readin' done,
An' turn another -- likely not so good;
But what you're after is to turn 'em all.

Gawd bless this world! Whatever she 'ath done --
Excep' when awful long -- I've found it good.
So write, before I die, "'E liked it all!"

ebbs, flows

2006-07-24T19:55:00.000-04:00

There's a tide in the affairs of us all. it may be that tipping moment, that point of points. Or perhaps it is illusory, a matter of perception only. But it comes up, down, upon, into, whatever. There's no denying it, even when it's not obvious at all. The weight of fate, inertia momentus, irresistible strikes immovable, call it what you will. That has arrived for me. Not that I think there are moments in common all around here. Not at all. But looking back and thinking forward, perhaps wisdom does exist. If only as an informative force. Here abide wise monsters. Take the high road out of low circumstance. I don't know really but tides answer a call beyond nature. Is space nature? Is the moon part of "our environment"? What about gamma rays and black holes and the solar wind? Digression alert. but something is ebbing, something is flowing, waxing and waning. I feel an urge to swim.

que sera sera

2006-07-19T00:07:00.000-04:00

indeed. what is is, what isn't isn't. Truth, if it exists at all. Fraudulence, flatulence, fibrllating, fornicating, for real. You know? I don't. Please tell me more.

impermanence and change

2006-06-29T22:09:00.000-04:00

Nothing is permanent but change. And change is intangible. Is intangibility permanent? Probably not. It's intangible. Where does that leave anything? Well, I'm not sure. Sages differ on this one. Does it really matter anyway? What does matter mean? Is matter permanent? Of course it isn't. It's compact energy and energy is just warped space. Okay, all this is inadequate, the words, the thoughts. But it's all I have, the only way of working through any of this. Words and thoughts. Self originated and from outside me, both cascade into visionary reality and twist what's there into something tangible yet illusory. Is there anything else? A sense of the real...
In short, I define the possibilities and they are as they are. Nothing is permanent, not life, not loss, not joy, not triumph, notthing. that includes this moment which is changing as I breath.

out

2006-06-05T20:43:00.000-04:00

done. finished. over. it's all. there's a certain time when this is clear. and this is it. all things must pass and it has. but why oh why does pain remain?

how it really is

2006-05-03T14:12:00.000-04:00

whoever said "love conquers all" was lying. or talking about a different sort of love, the kind we need more of. love for each other and our works, respect, compassion and taking joy in simple things. soon the person to person possession dynamic will wither and we'll find our spark in doing good for as many possible. what's going on now seems part of the neverending individuation game that leaves us prey for the worst forces and instincts. buy a car. shop online. live in the bush with your own kind. stay off my land. it's all fear and loathing out there. but it's not. it's not. can't you see that that this pavlovian slobbering is making some people rich and most of us bereft? let's catch outselves now. slow down. reject almost anything that's servied as a nostrum by our political, media and corporate dog trainers and at least start talking about it.

lurking

2006-04-27T08:16:00.000-04:00

a poem

2006-03-01T11:13:00.000-05:00

The Continuous Life
by Mark Strand

What of the neighborhood homes awash
In a silver light, of children crouched in the bushes,
Watching the grown-ups for signs of surrender,
Signs that the irregular pleasures of moving
From day to day, of being adrift on the swell of duty,
Have run their course? Oh parents, confess
To your little ones the night is a long way off
And your taste for the mundane grows; tell them
Your worship of household chores has barely begun;
Describe the beauty of shovels and rakes, brooms and mops;
Say there will always be cooking and cleaning to do,
That one thing leads to another, which leads to another;
Explain that you live between two great darks , the first
With an ending, the second without one, that the luckiest
Thing is having been born, that you live in a blur
Of hours and days, months and years, and believe
It has meaning, despite the occasional fear
You are slipping away with nothing completed, nothing
To prove you existed. Tell the children to come inside,
That your search goes on for something you lost--a name,
A family album that fell from its own small matter
Into another, a piece of the dark that might have been yours,
You don't really know. Say that each of you tries
To keep busy, learning to lean down close and hear
The careless breathing of earth and feel its available
Languor come over you, wave after wave, sending
Small tremors of love through your brief,
Undeniable selves, into your days, and beyond.

so it goes

2006-02-21T22:14:00.000-05:00

We eat. We procreate. We procrastinate We die. Er, that's it. Is that it? Yes. It is. But it seems self evident that a little more awareness of that could be hugely beneficial around this troubled planet. Not that we need to exclude our gods and our spirits. Oh no. In the words of the US President, bring 'em on. They will come anyway, cascading into us and making us unhappy, as is their want. But the knowledge that eating, fucking and dying are central might just help us cope with their divine arrogance. We created you. We set you up. We gave you free will. We still have power. Okay then, sort out something useful please. If not, then shut up and find a cure for HIV/AIDS or feed hungry children or whatever. Just get a life. Mortality is everything. Even the revelation that we have -- within us -- the divine doesn't afffect that basic truth. We start out as squiggly yucky bits in someone's nether regions and we end up as worm food, maggot granola. Yes there's more there. And yes, the gods enhance a few things, okay, okay, more than a few things. But for the sake of those gods people, and for your own sake, can we lose the hubris. Can we? Can we huh? Please? We might as well.....

end of the affair

2005-10-04T21:17:00.000-04:00

It's time to worry. To be very very concerned. America in decline is never a good thing. And make no mistake. America is moving groundwards right now. For the forseeable future too. From the moment they invaded Iraq, this was coming. That illegal, immoral and hugely impractical conflict is unleashing so many forces beyond the control of any of us. A war with no purpose launched by a liberal superpower that claims to be good. Enemies are salivating. Bad men in rocky defiles are priming their pistols and loosening the rhetorical purse-strings. Alienated young fellows in morally empty circumstances are finding their mettle. And some Semtex. No one holds sway over the good guys. This is no time to celebrate.

Apace

2005-08-12T12:08:00.000-04:00

Myth. It's all about myth. We think we're advanced. We think we stand at the cusp of the kind of society envisaged by the most hopeful science fiction. A few medicines, a few technologies, and the future is us. Our lives are long, happy and healthy. We endure and prosper and help each other out. A vital private sector provides for most of our needs and we communicate constantly at the speed of thought with everyone else. Oh yes. The world is flat. But no, the world is old, repetitive and creaking under the strain of bearing of us. Geology will reassert itself, along with evolution and atmospheric science. A solar flare, a melting Siberian peat bog, a crystal of protien deep within the brain of an edible snake. It's that simple. If a deity talks to you, don't listen. We're going the way of our allged lizard ancestors and it's happening more quickly than you think. No, a god didn't tell me this. I figured it out for myself. With a little help from Warren Zevon.

Live Ate

2005-07-04T08:39:00.000-04:00

So it's over. A summer's sanctimoniousness (?) expended in a day. Oversimplification met a hidden agenda and hijacked the ship of state. David Aaronovitch of the Times of London adds a soberting observation. ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-1679446,00.html )
"Two sets of people will have hated all this. Your real revolutionaries, with their zeal, pleasurable anger and contempt for ordinary folk, and your cynics, who habitually hide behind complexity to excuse their inactivity and lack of compassion." I had fun. I admit it. I doubt that it worked. But it was fun. Worth a try. Africa needs a little more than a good day out. It needs reparations for slavery, colonialism, unfair trade. It needs respect. It needs an end to arms sales. Etc. But we're all just rockin' in the free world anyway, aren't we Neil?

The disappeared

2005-06-25T16:44:00.000-04:00

Often, it's what's going on behind the camera. In Western Nepal, the army has made dozens of people disappear. Here a woman was telling me about her missing husband, taken by the security forces and simply made to vanish. His children sat on a mud hut verandah, his neighbours watched me interview his wife. I took a picture of something in his yard. He's still missing.

Daze in the haze

2005-06-25T16:24:00.000-04:00

All things must pass. Of course this is the case. It's something we all need to say over and over again. I ponder this in empty moments and know that even the best is fleeting, impermanent. So the worst must be too. Small comfort to those in dire straits for whatever reason but true nonetheless.
It's a post apocalyptic sky over Canada's largest city. A smog-tinged, climate changing haze of poison and cloud. Tempting, it is, to consider this our work, payback for SUVs and cheap air travel. But i wonder. The notion of fractals comes to mind. The pattern of the smallest is the key to under the largest picture. In river systems or the ever-bifurcating veins on a leaf. The 1 book "Ubiquity" has been inspirational in this type of thinking. Writer Mark Buchanan is looking at how predictable the catatrophic collapse of complext systems can be, but he ventures beyond physics into philosophy and what Buddhists might regard as contemplative science, the power of the human mind. anyway, that sky is provocative.
Live 8 is coming up. Africa needs much. It may not need rock musicians scolding governments and urging more aid and fairer trade. But then again, maybe it does. I wonder why we all just can't have an iota more of compassion and intelligence about these things. Why everything has to be stupid. Difficult to not to believe in the conspiracy of the illuminati at times like this. Oh please.

Awash

2005-06-15T19:07:00.000-04:00

A ludicrous time was had by all. Never was so much written and broadcast about a matter of so little consequence. Or rather, the trial of Michael Jackson was of great consequence to he and his fans, not a large group. And to the various other people involved in the defence and prosecution cases. Oh yes, then there was the media. We made it of great consequence because it filled time in our newspapers, and on the airwaves. In the end, Jackson's acquital was a clean ending to a dirty affair that we should really not have taken so seriously.

Ah, but what should intrude late Tuesday night as relieved blatherers poured colourful liquids down their throats at the excellent Chef Rick's restaurant in suburban Santa Maria. A tsunami warning, that's what. Debate raged over whether or not we should shift our expense account backsides from eatery to uplink and so inform a waiting world that California could be the next Aceh. Yes, said one, the first tsunami warning since the Boxing Day tragedy in Asia is worth our time. No, chorused many others, unwilling to abandon what we thought was hard-earned wine. In the end, it was decided that only wet feet would dislodge us from the groaning board. That night, the space between the toes of hacks' remained dry and decidedly not brackish.

I admit to regretting early rants about how moved I'd been by human suffering in South and South East Asia and wondering if some gods somewhere hadn't heeded by empty plea. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

watching closely

2005-06-13T20:55:00.000-04:00

lz
Originally uploaded by Daniel Lak.

Not guilty ten times over

2005-06-13T20:04:00.000-04:00

Well now. I have to admit it caught us by surprise. Not that we had judged Michael Jackson’s guilt or innocence, not we of the media. Heaven forbid. But his absolute exoneration by a jury of what appear to be serious, substantial people did sneak up on his. I thought that the charges were so serious and the allegations of misbehavior with children so persistent over time, that even a jury legally bound only to consider admissible evidence would find him guilty on at least some counts. That, I hasten to add, was not because of the evidence or the quality of the prosecution case, but because of the intense media coverage of Jackson's life and his trial. As it turns out, the jurors were more mature and thoughtful than we thought. And a good thing too. As one lawyer said early on in the deliberations, he may be guilty of something but this prosecution hasn’t proved it.
A shame really, I was coming to like California’s Central Coast with all the virtues I mentioned in earlier entry. This has been far from my favorite news story in a long career, but the backdrop to inconsequence and journalistic disdain has been pleasant living in delightful surroundings.
So farewell then Michael Jackson. I hope you take what’s happened to you as a cautionary tale, and that at very least, you stop sleeping with children. You’ve earned me a lot of money, and made your lawyer, Thomas Meseareau, an even wealthier man.
I have no intention of ever buying one of your records, and I doubt my children will ever do so. They have better taste than that.
Adieu California. Please have me back….but for a better reason.

First one

2005-06-11T19:45:00.000-04:00

Right well, here we are. I'm not quite sure why I'm doing this but it will probably be an exercise that justifies itself before long. At the moment, I await the pleasure of a jury who are pondering the fate of one Michael Jackson. In my 24 years as a journalist and reporter, I have never worked a story of such inconsequence. But there you go. Life meet art, art, life, now you two get to know each real well. You're in California now.
I am grateful to be here. The light is splendid, Levantine perhaps or some other geographical simile that I can't summon up right now. It cascades on a wonderful hillscape and illuminates the California experience perfectly. I enjoy the sights and sounds and the company of my colleagues. We just found a fascinating remaindered book store and I've purchased novels by Don DiLillo, Ron Hansen and Jim Crace. Last week, I bought books on poker, knot-tying and yoga. And there is a fantasic gym and spa here where I work off that wine and the fabulous dinners we've been having.
As for Michael Jackson, who cares? More as the case grinds on and my yoga practise improves.