There was a lot of hype around Malcolm Gladwell last year when I was in the MBA program. People were talking about how insightful his writing was. I never really bought into the hype then, but with all the driving I was doing over the Christmas break, I decided to listen to audio books instead of music. I loaded "Outliers" in my mp3 player and started listening.
The premise the book is to examine the reasons behind the seemingly anomalous success behind the likes of Bill Gates, the Korean Air safety record turnaround, and the success of some Jewish New York lawyers. His argument is that these success are not simply the result of the tenacity, determination, and talent of the individual, but rather the result of environmental, cultural, and time factors that put the individual in the perfect place at the perfect time.
The book's been out for a while and I think anyone can find plenty of reviews about it with a simple internet search so I won't go into great detail here.
I found two parts of the book really interesting. The first was the reason why most top level hockey players have birthdays in January through April. It turns out that the cut off date for kids hockey is January 1st. Kids born earlier in the year tend to be more physically developed than their later-born peers, especially at the age when they start to jump to higher level hockey programs. The most physically developed and talented then go on to receive better coaching, more ice time, play with higher skilled players, and thus get a better chance for elite level success. It's an interesting observation, but Gladwell doesn't offer any suggestion to even out the odds a little more to group hockey players according to physical maturity rather than strictly age.
Another interesting point was in his discussion of the Korean Air disasters. There was a time when Korean Air had the worst airline safety record in the world and airports were starting to refuse landing for Korean Air flights. Gladwell argues that the major reason behind these crashes was cultural. He talked about the Korean culture being very hierarchical leading to a great reliance on the captains. Junior pilots were afraid to challenge both their captains and the air traffic controllers that they were talking to. Gladwell introduces Hofstede's Power Distance Index study to explain the effect of cultural differences on the airline's safety record.
The discussion about the airline itself didn't interest me very much, but Hofstede's study did. I'm a mix of two high power distance cultures: filipino and arab. Over the past 20 years now, I've been living in a very low power distance North American culture. I started thinking about previous interviews, jobs, negotiations, relationships, and friendships and how that cultural difference affected me in terms of how I behaved and what I expected out of the behaviour of my superiors and peers. It was eye opening and explained a few things about my past. I now notice it in my behaviour, how I talk, and how I think. I don't feel the need to change my viewpoint or values, but at least now I can understand the communication modes better. I recommend that any new immigrant or foreign student to have a look at Hofstede's study and to try to be conscious of it when coming to North America. It will help a lot in interviews.
I found the rest of Gladwell's book unremarkable. He talks about the minimum 10,000 hours required to be an expert in anything. This idea isn't new. There are a few documentaries that talk about the brain and how it grows with repeated practice at a given skill. Susan Polger's father was a psychologist in Hungary and had the idea that any child can be trained to be a master in anything as long as the child had an affinity for the skilled practice. There's a whole documentary about it called "My Brilliant Brain", you can watch it here. The CBC also had a documentary along the same lines as part of David Suzuki's show "The Nature of Things" called The Brain that Changes Itself. It's based on a book by Toronto psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Norman Doidge.
Gladwell also spends a great deal of time developing the idea of environmental factors that contribute to the success or demise of the individuals that he talks about. This is nothing new to anyone who has an avid interest in entrepreneurship. Almost every success story has an element of fortuitous random convergence of outside factors that place the entrepreneur at the right place at the right time. In most cases, it's a type of lucky meeting between people that leads to success.
Gladwell's writing style is very wordy for my taste. I got the impression that he over belays some points and gets repetitive at times. Maybe it's because I prefer a direct approach to communication and don't need to hear a lot of verbiage to understand a given argument. Overall, I think "Outliers" is a worthy read. Maybe his other books are a little better and more insightful. I've got another audio book and hardback book of his to get to this year.
Showing posts with label book reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book reviews. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Review: Tim Flannery in Toronto
Since I posted an ad about it here, I went to the Tim Flannery's lecture here in Toronto with a couple of friends. I read his book a while ago so I was looking forward to hearing him speak in person.
Bridget Stutchbury spoke first about how pesticides in South American countries affect the birds that migrate between North and South America. I have to admit that I didn't find her lecture all that interesting. It seemed like she wasn't used to speaking in public and was a little nervous. Focusing on such a small aspect of the overall environmental problem seems a little short-sighted to me. Helping South American farmers produce healthy and profitable crops without the use of costly pesticides is a solution that will save the birds as well as help poorer people prosper. Ms. Stutchbury didn't touch on that aspect other than saying that people should drink shade-grown coffee. It's a good idea, but it seems a little shallow to me.
The after effects of dinner and this first part of the lecture got me a little drowsy. By the time Mr. Flannery actually got up to speak I was ready for nap. I did get a little shut eye at the beginning of his lecture but kept listening to what he was saying. I woke up from my little power nap when he got to the pithy part of his lecture. He touched on a few interesting ideas:
Electric Cars
He noted an interesting project in Denmark regarding electric cars. It's something to keep an eye on to see if it really works or not. The cars being used seem to be production cars retrofitted with batteries and an electric motor. He mentioned the idea of a removable battery pack to work around the long charging time of the batteries and tax holidays for electric vehicles (no tax for a certain amount of time).
Carbon Sequestration via Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is basically the process for making charcoal where organic matter is heated with the absence of oxygen. The particular application that Mr. Flannery talked about was regarding biochar. You can read more about it here and here. This is how I understand the process:
A Canadian company, Dynamotive, is involved in this process; although the focus seems to be the production of biofuels where the biochar is a waste product. I should also point out that hydrogen is one of the gases produced in the pyrolysis of organic matter. It could be siphoned off and used in a fuel cell to generate electricity for use in the pyrolysis process or for feeding the electricity grid.
Political Leadership
Mr. Flannery didn't have much good to say about the environmental policies of our current government. He criticized their approach in promoting emission intensity caps rather than overall emission caps (see here for a brief description of the difference). He mentioned that he was at the Bali conference but was more critical of the American efforts and didn't really touch on the performance of our current government. He went on to explain the political change in Australia and how the environment was a central theme to the election and played a part in defeating the government lead by John Howard (see here or here).
He also mentioned the political leadership in China where the government is starting to see the economic benefits of a more sustainable energy system using cleaner energy sources. He highlighted that China is on its way to developing auto emission standards that were stricter than the US CAFE standards. The potential implication is that cars made in China could be sold here in North America, but North American cars could not be sold in China simply because they wouldn't meet the Chinese emission standards. He also pointed out that the different levels of government there are starting to be measured by their societal and environmental performance along with their economic performance.
It's rare to hear praise for China these days, but as I mentioned in my review of the PBS E-squared series, once the Chinese political leadership decides to do something, they don't take very long to go about doing it.
not so great ideas...
Mr. Flannery briefly talked about a concept where some villagers in the Amazon belt could be paid for not developing their land as part of some sort of carbon credit trading system. I just don't see it happening. Basically, those villagers would end up getting paid for doing nothing...can't see many people agreeing to that.
Alberta Tar Sands
He confessed that he didn't know much about the topic. He did say that it didn't make much sense that we only pay around $1.10/litre for gasoline when it gets extracted from Alberta, trucked down to Texas, refined there, and then trucked back up here. He just said that if a free market approach was taken and subsidies for oil companies were removed, renewable energy sources would provide a very real and competitive alternative to fossil fuels.
The question period at the end of the lecture was interesting as well. Some of the members of the audience mentioned switching to Bullfrog Power for the electricity. Incidentally, my buddy Alex was there with me and he works for Bullfrog in business development.
Overall, the lecture was pretty good, well worth the $25 ticket price. Mr. Flannery's passion for the subject is easy to see. From my engineering perspective, the ideas he presented were intriguing and I started thinking about how they could be successfully implemented in practice. It'll be interesting how some of technologies develop and if they actually get adopted by governments and industries.
Bridget Stutchbury spoke first about how pesticides in South American countries affect the birds that migrate between North and South America. I have to admit that I didn't find her lecture all that interesting. It seemed like she wasn't used to speaking in public and was a little nervous. Focusing on such a small aspect of the overall environmental problem seems a little short-sighted to me. Helping South American farmers produce healthy and profitable crops without the use of costly pesticides is a solution that will save the birds as well as help poorer people prosper. Ms. Stutchbury didn't touch on that aspect other than saying that people should drink shade-grown coffee. It's a good idea, but it seems a little shallow to me.
The after effects of dinner and this first part of the lecture got me a little drowsy. By the time Mr. Flannery actually got up to speak I was ready for nap. I did get a little shut eye at the beginning of his lecture but kept listening to what he was saying. I woke up from my little power nap when he got to the pithy part of his lecture. He touched on a few interesting ideas:
Electric Cars
He noted an interesting project in Denmark regarding electric cars. It's something to keep an eye on to see if it really works or not. The cars being used seem to be production cars retrofitted with batteries and an electric motor. He mentioned the idea of a removable battery pack to work around the long charging time of the batteries and tax holidays for electric vehicles (no tax for a certain amount of time).
Carbon Sequestration via Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is basically the process for making charcoal where organic matter is heated with the absence of oxygen. The particular application that Mr. Flannery talked about was regarding biochar. You can read more about it here and here. This is how I understand the process:
- Plants (agricultural crops) absorb carbon dioxide as they grow.
- The carbon is used up in the plants cells.
- Waste plant matter is then collected and put through pyrolysis.
- The resultant charcoal is then buried in the agricultural soil to help retain moisture and nutrients.
- The net result is that carbon is taken out of the atmosphere and put into the ground.
A Canadian company, Dynamotive, is involved in this process; although the focus seems to be the production of biofuels where the biochar is a waste product. I should also point out that hydrogen is one of the gases produced in the pyrolysis of organic matter. It could be siphoned off and used in a fuel cell to generate electricity for use in the pyrolysis process or for feeding the electricity grid.
Political Leadership
Mr. Flannery didn't have much good to say about the environmental policies of our current government. He criticized their approach in promoting emission intensity caps rather than overall emission caps (see here for a brief description of the difference). He mentioned that he was at the Bali conference but was more critical of the American efforts and didn't really touch on the performance of our current government. He went on to explain the political change in Australia and how the environment was a central theme to the election and played a part in defeating the government lead by John Howard (see here or here).
He also mentioned the political leadership in China where the government is starting to see the economic benefits of a more sustainable energy system using cleaner energy sources. He highlighted that China is on its way to developing auto emission standards that were stricter than the US CAFE standards. The potential implication is that cars made in China could be sold here in North America, but North American cars could not be sold in China simply because they wouldn't meet the Chinese emission standards. He also pointed out that the different levels of government there are starting to be measured by their societal and environmental performance along with their economic performance.
It's rare to hear praise for China these days, but as I mentioned in my review of the PBS E-squared series, once the Chinese political leadership decides to do something, they don't take very long to go about doing it.
not so great ideas...
Mr. Flannery briefly talked about a concept where some villagers in the Amazon belt could be paid for not developing their land as part of some sort of carbon credit trading system. I just don't see it happening. Basically, those villagers would end up getting paid for doing nothing...can't see many people agreeing to that.
Alberta Tar Sands
He confessed that he didn't know much about the topic. He did say that it didn't make much sense that we only pay around $1.10/litre for gasoline when it gets extracted from Alberta, trucked down to Texas, refined there, and then trucked back up here. He just said that if a free market approach was taken and subsidies for oil companies were removed, renewable energy sources would provide a very real and competitive alternative to fossil fuels.
The question period at the end of the lecture was interesting as well. Some of the members of the audience mentioned switching to Bullfrog Power for the electricity. Incidentally, my buddy Alex was there with me and he works for Bullfrog in business development.
Overall, the lecture was pretty good, well worth the $25 ticket price. Mr. Flannery's passion for the subject is easy to see. From my engineering perspective, the ideas he presented were intriguing and I started thinking about how they could be successfully implemented in practice. It'll be interesting how some of technologies develop and if they actually get adopted by governments and industries.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tim Flannery in Toronto
Tim Flannery is the author of The Weather Makers. I read his book and wrote about it in an earlier post.
I got an email the about a lecture that he'll be doing here in Toronto next week at the Bloor Cinema (April 3rd, 7pm). I'll be checking it out with a couple of friends. Here are the details:
RSGC Guild Sponsored Speakers Series
A Focus on the Environment
Tim Flannery and Bridget Stutchbury
The Weathermakers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change
NSW AOTY Tim Flannery.jpg
Speaking at the Bloor Cinema ~ 506 Bloor Street
April 3rd, 2008
Doors open at 6:30 pm ~ Lecture begins at 7:00 pm
Followed by book signing ~ Books available for purchase
Tickets are $25
General Admission
Purchase tickets online at www.rsgc.on.ca
https://www.netdirectories.com/~rsgc/oler2.cgi?1054
World renown explorer, conservationist and writer-scientist, Tim Flannery has written many bestselling books, including The Future Eaters, The Eternal Frontier and of course the #1 international bestseller The Weather Makers. Tim Flannery was director of the South Australia Museum and professor at Harvard and the University of Adelaide. He was voted Australian of the year in 2006 and is now professor at Maquarie Universty. His new book, An Explorer's Notebook, Essays on Life, History and Climate, will publish in Canada Spring 2008.
Short-listed for the 2007 Governor General's award for non-fiction, Silence of the Songbirds follows birds on their 10,000-kilometer journey from Canada to South America, and charts the threats. Tim Flannery claims, "this book is a must-read for anyone whose heart has thrilled to the song of a bird." Author Bridget Stutchbury completed her PhD at Yale , was a fellow and research associate at the Smithsonian and is now an Associate Professor of Biology at York University.
I got an email the about a lecture that he'll be doing here in Toronto next week at the Bloor Cinema (April 3rd, 7pm). I'll be checking it out with a couple of friends. Here are the details:
RSGC Guild Sponsored Speakers Series
A Focus on the Environment
Tim Flannery and Bridget Stutchbury
The Weathermakers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change
NSW AOTY Tim Flannery.jpg
Speaking at the Bloor Cinema ~ 506 Bloor Street
April 3rd, 2008
Doors open at 6:30 pm ~ Lecture begins at 7:00 pm
Followed by book signing ~ Books available for purchase
Tickets are $25
General Admission
Purchase tickets online at www.rsgc.on.ca
https://www.netdirectories.com/~rsgc/oler2.cgi?1054
World renown explorer, conservationist and writer-scientist, Tim Flannery has written many bestselling books, including The Future Eaters, The Eternal Frontier and of course the #1 international bestseller The Weather Makers. Tim Flannery was director of the South Australia Museum and professor at Harvard and the University of Adelaide. He was voted Australian of the year in 2006 and is now professor at Maquarie Universty. His new book, An Explorer's Notebook, Essays on Life, History and Climate, will publish in Canada Spring 2008.
Short-listed for the 2007 Governor General's award for non-fiction, Silence of the Songbirds follows birds on their 10,000-kilometer journey from Canada to South America, and charts the threats. Tim Flannery claims, "this book is a must-read for anyone whose heart has thrilled to the song of a bird." Author Bridget Stutchbury completed her PhD at Yale , was a fellow and research associate at the Smithsonian and is now an Associate Professor of Biology at York University.
Book Review: The Assault On Reason, Al Gore
I initially found out about this book last year by reading an excerpt of the book on commondreams.org. The excerpt talked about a lot of issues that I was interested in regarding society and democracy. I even posted an entry here about it.
I got the book as a present this past Christmas and only got around to reading last week. Here's a list of the contents:
i. Introduction
1. The Politics of Fear
2. Blinding the Faithful
3. The Politics of Wealth
4. Convenient Untruths
5. The Assault on the Individual
6. National Insecurity
7. The Carbon Crisis
8. Democracy in the Balance
9. A Well-Connected Citizenry
10. The Rebirth of Democracy
The book starts out fairly well. In his introduction, Mr. Gore talks about different areas of the brain that are activated while one is reading versus the areas that are activated while one is watching tv. The main idea is that reading is an active process where the reader processes symbols on a page and mentally creates images and abstract concepts. Watching tv, on the other hand is a more passive activity and the brain activity is mostly focused around the visual centres. He doesn't get too technical, but manages to convey the message fairly well.
There are some unexpected nuggets of information here and there like how to hypnotize a chicken, but overall a lot of the content dealt with stuff that I already knew about. He mentions Edward Bernays and the BBC documentary "Why We Fight", topics that I wrote about in my previous post.
I found the middle sections of the book tiresome to read. It seemed like he was blaming everything that went wrong with America on Bush, Cheney, and their cohorts. I agree that it seems a little surreal that so many Americans were duped into agreeing to the Iraq war, but the blame doesn't entirely rest on Bush and company. In a democracy, the people rule. It's up to the citizenry to stay well informed and hold their elected officials accountable. The American citizens have to shoulder some of the blame for being so apathetic to what's happening to their government and country and buying into all the false information that was thrown at them (e.g. Saddam Hussein/ Al Qaeda link, Saddam Hussein playing a part in WTC bombings, WMDs in Iraq, unexpected levy collapse in New Orleans with hurricane Katrina, etc.). We have the same problem here in Canada, but the repercussions of the apathy of Canadian citizens don't have such a massive global effect.
In any case, Mr. Gore's book was long on blame and short on solutions. He tries to explain that the internet will be key in re-activating the populations' interest in their government, but doesn't really offer up any ideas on how exactly that could happen. He draws a parallel between the advent of the printing press and the current development of the internet in that almost anyone can publish something online at very little cost without having to pay huge sums of money for a national newspaper ad or a 30 second commercial. I understand that logic, but people surfing on the internet have to be interested in a topic before they can search for information about it. I think most people will be just as disinterested as they were before the internet, but instead of watching tv, they'll spend their time on facebook, youtube, and albinoblacksheep, among other places. (By the way, Mr. Gore sits on Apple's board of directors and is a senior advisor to Google).
I was hoping that Al Gore would have some brilliant insights into how people can combat the massive marketing and propaganda type campaigns being thrown at them, but the book didn't offer much in that area. So while I'm fairly disappointed with the book, I still recommend reading it. There are a lot of lessons to be drawn from it and if Canadians are aware of how the current situation in Iraq came about, maybe that will help us gain some clarity on what exactly we are doing in Afghanistan.
I got the book as a present this past Christmas and only got around to reading last week. Here's a list of the contents:
i. Introduction
1. The Politics of Fear
2. Blinding the Faithful
3. The Politics of Wealth
4. Convenient Untruths
5. The Assault on the Individual
6. National Insecurity
7. The Carbon Crisis
8. Democracy in the Balance
9. A Well-Connected Citizenry
10. The Rebirth of Democracy
The book starts out fairly well. In his introduction, Mr. Gore talks about different areas of the brain that are activated while one is reading versus the areas that are activated while one is watching tv. The main idea is that reading is an active process where the reader processes symbols on a page and mentally creates images and abstract concepts. Watching tv, on the other hand is a more passive activity and the brain activity is mostly focused around the visual centres. He doesn't get too technical, but manages to convey the message fairly well.
There are some unexpected nuggets of information here and there like how to hypnotize a chicken, but overall a lot of the content dealt with stuff that I already knew about. He mentions Edward Bernays and the BBC documentary "Why We Fight", topics that I wrote about in my previous post.
I found the middle sections of the book tiresome to read. It seemed like he was blaming everything that went wrong with America on Bush, Cheney, and their cohorts. I agree that it seems a little surreal that so many Americans were duped into agreeing to the Iraq war, but the blame doesn't entirely rest on Bush and company. In a democracy, the people rule. It's up to the citizenry to stay well informed and hold their elected officials accountable. The American citizens have to shoulder some of the blame for being so apathetic to what's happening to their government and country and buying into all the false information that was thrown at them (e.g. Saddam Hussein/ Al Qaeda link, Saddam Hussein playing a part in WTC bombings, WMDs in Iraq, unexpected levy collapse in New Orleans with hurricane Katrina, etc.). We have the same problem here in Canada, but the repercussions of the apathy of Canadian citizens don't have such a massive global effect.
In any case, Mr. Gore's book was long on blame and short on solutions. He tries to explain that the internet will be key in re-activating the populations' interest in their government, but doesn't really offer up any ideas on how exactly that could happen. He draws a parallel between the advent of the printing press and the current development of the internet in that almost anyone can publish something online at very little cost without having to pay huge sums of money for a national newspaper ad or a 30 second commercial. I understand that logic, but people surfing on the internet have to be interested in a topic before they can search for information about it. I think most people will be just as disinterested as they were before the internet, but instead of watching tv, they'll spend their time on facebook, youtube, and albinoblacksheep, among other places. (By the way, Mr. Gore sits on Apple's board of directors and is a senior advisor to Google).
I was hoping that Al Gore would have some brilliant insights into how people can combat the massive marketing and propaganda type campaigns being thrown at them, but the book didn't offer much in that area. So while I'm fairly disappointed with the book, I still recommend reading it. There are a lot of lessons to be drawn from it and if Canadians are aware of how the current situation in Iraq came about, maybe that will help us gain some clarity on what exactly we are doing in Afghanistan.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Book Review: The Unexpected War, Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang
In the fall, I read "The Unexpected War, Canada in Afghanistan", written by Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang. I'm not sure but I think Mr. Lang is a journalist who writes for the Globe and Mail. Ms. Stein regularly appears on tvo on The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Mr. Painkin's show is excellent and really worth watching if you want to know more about the world and the major events that happen in it).
When this book was published, it got a lot of coverage on the news. It got a lot of fanfare and some good reviews. The authors were interviewed on the different news networks. I'd been following the news about Afghanistan and its effect on our Canadian politics so I was curious about the book and decided to read it.
The book is a story on how Canada got involved in Afghanistan. The authors interviewed the principal people involved in the decision to go there from the politicians to the military personnel and even former prime minister Paul Martin. .
The story has some surprises. In 2003, when the US was getting ready to invade Iraq, a lot of Canadians (including me) were proud that our government made the decision not to go along and be part of the invasion force. It turns out that the American military didn't really want or need us to help in a military way, but rather was looking more for public moral support and help in convincing other countries to join. Apparently they didn't think our military capability was sufficient enough be much good to them. Other surprises in the story regard the way the decisions regarding Canada's presence in Afghanistan were made.
When Jean Chretien did not play along and declared that Canada would not be joining the invasion force, there was a lot hand wringing in the military and political circles around Ottawa that relations with the US were being damaged and we would suffer economic and political consequences. The book argues, with some interesting quotes, that our presence in Afghanistan was primarily a way to placate the US and show that we support them in their response to the airplane attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
The big surprise to me was that, according to the authors, the decision was made to go to Afghanistan without knowing anything about the country or it's people, an idea of the exact role that we would play, nor the real military capability to be effective in that area.
The initial strategy was "early in, early out"; meaning that Canada would be part of the initial push to set up in Afghanistan but would rotate out after a year or two. A fairly short term commitment, but politically beneficial for relations with the US. This is very far from the current idea of a brave noble mission to bring peace and democracy to a people ravaged by 30 years of war and oppression by a militant group of fundamentalist muslims. The book paints a picture of an exclusively European effort in a more peaceful region in northern Afghanistan telling the Canadian group to find their own mission somewhere else. It seems that there were no plans at the time for the Kandahar region so that's where our military and political people decided that Canada would play a lead role. That decision was made before anyone from the government or military had even visited Afghanistan !
An interesting chapter in the book is titled "We Don't Know Anything About This Country" in which the authors briefly explain the history of Afghanistan and describe some of the tribal relationships in the area. They also used this chapter to illustrate that the decision to go to Afghanistan had more to do with make people in Washington happy than helping poor impoverished Afghanis.
There are some interesting side stories. I've always thought highly of Bill Graham and the book shows that he was an excellent foreign minister. You wouldn't know it by watching news clips of him, but the story also describes John McCallum as an excellent defense minister. General Rick Hillier also gets a good mention.
Overall, I found the book to be a good read. It helps that I'm interested in the topic anyway, but I think that anyone with the slightest interest in Canada's role in Afghanistan would find the book interesting. I also think that the topic of Afghanistan will play a major part in the looming federal election. Given that, I think that the general Canadian public should be aware of how we got to Afghanistan, what exactly we went there to do, and how that differs from what we are doing there now. Reading this book is one way of gaining this awareness.
Highly recommended reading.
When this book was published, it got a lot of coverage on the news. It got a lot of fanfare and some good reviews. The authors were interviewed on the different news networks. I'd been following the news about Afghanistan and its effect on our Canadian politics so I was curious about the book and decided to read it.
The book is a story on how Canada got involved in Afghanistan. The authors interviewed the principal people involved in the decision to go there from the politicians to the military personnel and even former prime minister Paul Martin. .
The story has some surprises. In 2003, when the US was getting ready to invade Iraq, a lot of Canadians (including me) were proud that our government made the decision not to go along and be part of the invasion force. It turns out that the American military didn't really want or need us to help in a military way, but rather was looking more for public moral support and help in convincing other countries to join. Apparently they didn't think our military capability was sufficient enough be much good to them. Other surprises in the story regard the way the decisions regarding Canada's presence in Afghanistan were made.
When Jean Chretien did not play along and declared that Canada would not be joining the invasion force, there was a lot hand wringing in the military and political circles around Ottawa that relations with the US were being damaged and we would suffer economic and political consequences. The book argues, with some interesting quotes, that our presence in Afghanistan was primarily a way to placate the US and show that we support them in their response to the airplane attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
The big surprise to me was that, according to the authors, the decision was made to go to Afghanistan without knowing anything about the country or it's people, an idea of the exact role that we would play, nor the real military capability to be effective in that area.
The initial strategy was "early in, early out"; meaning that Canada would be part of the initial push to set up in Afghanistan but would rotate out after a year or two. A fairly short term commitment, but politically beneficial for relations with the US. This is very far from the current idea of a brave noble mission to bring peace and democracy to a people ravaged by 30 years of war and oppression by a militant group of fundamentalist muslims. The book paints a picture of an exclusively European effort in a more peaceful region in northern Afghanistan telling the Canadian group to find their own mission somewhere else. It seems that there were no plans at the time for the Kandahar region so that's where our military and political people decided that Canada would play a lead role. That decision was made before anyone from the government or military had even visited Afghanistan !
An interesting chapter in the book is titled "We Don't Know Anything About This Country" in which the authors briefly explain the history of Afghanistan and describe some of the tribal relationships in the area. They also used this chapter to illustrate that the decision to go to Afghanistan had more to do with make people in Washington happy than helping poor impoverished Afghanis.
There are some interesting side stories. I've always thought highly of Bill Graham and the book shows that he was an excellent foreign minister. You wouldn't know it by watching news clips of him, but the story also describes John McCallum as an excellent defense minister. General Rick Hillier also gets a good mention.
Overall, I found the book to be a good read. It helps that I'm interested in the topic anyway, but I think that anyone with the slightest interest in Canada's role in Afghanistan would find the book interesting. I also think that the topic of Afghanistan will play a major part in the looming federal election. Given that, I think that the general Canadian public should be aware of how we got to Afghanistan, what exactly we went there to do, and how that differs from what we are doing there now. Reading this book is one way of gaining this awareness.
Highly recommended reading.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Book Review: The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery
I've been reading a lot lately. The latest book is "The Weather Makers" by Tim Flannery. I'd heard a lot about this book so I finally picked it up.
It's a really good read and Flannery's writing style is very informative and the topics are organized well. The book is divided into five parts: Gaia's Tools, One in Ten Thousand, The Science of Prediction, People in Greenhouses, and The Solution.
The first part deals with the Gaia idea brought forward by James Lovelock that our planet is one large organism that we and all other life on the planet are part of it. It's an interesting idea that has some merit. Once you start looking into the mechanisms of nature, it's easy to see how everything is interconnected and how plants, animals, and people both affect and are affected by the weather.
He goes on to an explanation of the structure of Earth's atmosphere and how greenhouse gases affect the overall temperature of the planet. A key chapter in this first part of the book deals with the carbon balance on the planet and how plants, soils, and the oceans store carbon. He also explains how coal, oil, and natural gas are a form of long term carbon storage. The rapid rate at which we are consuming these fossil fuels means that we are transferring carbon from these carbon storage media to the atmosphere through combustion and the release of CO2.
As I understand it, the major problem is not that this transfer is taking place, but rather the rate at which carbon is being transferred leads to a relatively rapid increase in the Earth's temperature resulting in a rapid change of climate systems. This rapid change means that biological systems (arboreal forests, rain forests, savannas, etc.) do not have enough time to adapt to the changing climate. Consequently, a significant portion of animal and plant life on the planet most likely face extinction. Another problem with the rapid rise of Earth's temperature is that it brings instability into the climate systems that can lead to the disruption of the Gulf Stream, changes in rainfall patterns, more extreme weather in some parts of the globe, and milder weather in others. It's too complex a topic to describe here, and in any case, Flannery does a better job at explaining it than I ever will.
The book also takes time to explain the rigorous peer review system for publishing climate change data. There are several review stages done by hundreds of scientists so any published scientific data about climate change should be taken seriously because it has the consensus of a large group of scientists. Flannery also takes the time to explain predictive methods and how they are used to get a good idea of possible outcomes of a 2 to 5 degree Celsius increase in the average temperature of the earth. The picture doesn't look good for the majority of the world, but places like Canada and Russia will likely benefit from the warmer climate in terms of increased agricultural production, milder weather, and an expansion of more hospitable land.
Other sections of the book deal with the naysayers of climate change and how propaganda is used to cast doubt on the scientific studies and findings. This issue is not new, it's a dirty method that's been sued before and will likely be used again wherever massive corporate profits and public interests diverge.
Flannery does offer up solutions to reducing CO2 emissions but the information is already well known and he doesn't offer up anything new. He mentions hybrid cars and the french compressed air car that I wrote about in an earlier post. Solar, wind, and wave power all also have a role to play in replacing fossil fuels as renewable energy sources.
Apart from the science of climate change and the politics surrounding it, there are some nuggets of information about the wonders of nature including this frog that changes it's stomach from a digestive organ to a brooding chamber for it's young.
In terms of the climate change topic, it seems to me that the forces of government and corporations will be to slow to react to the growing danger of climate change unless the public exerts pressure on both parties. There is a lot of debate still going on even in the face of volumes of scientific information dating back at least 3 decades. The poeple muddying the issue will be successful in delaying any seriuos reduction of CO2 emissions unless the worldwide public gets more informed as to the nature of the problem and what it takes to solve it. Getting more aware and informed can begin with reading this book.
It's a really good read and Flannery's writing style is very informative and the topics are organized well. The book is divided into five parts: Gaia's Tools, One in Ten Thousand, The Science of Prediction, People in Greenhouses, and The Solution.
The first part deals with the Gaia idea brought forward by James Lovelock that our planet is one large organism that we and all other life on the planet are part of it. It's an interesting idea that has some merit. Once you start looking into the mechanisms of nature, it's easy to see how everything is interconnected and how plants, animals, and people both affect and are affected by the weather.
He goes on to an explanation of the structure of Earth's atmosphere and how greenhouse gases affect the overall temperature of the planet. A key chapter in this first part of the book deals with the carbon balance on the planet and how plants, soils, and the oceans store carbon. He also explains how coal, oil, and natural gas are a form of long term carbon storage. The rapid rate at which we are consuming these fossil fuels means that we are transferring carbon from these carbon storage media to the atmosphere through combustion and the release of CO2.
As I understand it, the major problem is not that this transfer is taking place, but rather the rate at which carbon is being transferred leads to a relatively rapid increase in the Earth's temperature resulting in a rapid change of climate systems. This rapid change means that biological systems (arboreal forests, rain forests, savannas, etc.) do not have enough time to adapt to the changing climate. Consequently, a significant portion of animal and plant life on the planet most likely face extinction. Another problem with the rapid rise of Earth's temperature is that it brings instability into the climate systems that can lead to the disruption of the Gulf Stream, changes in rainfall patterns, more extreme weather in some parts of the globe, and milder weather in others. It's too complex a topic to describe here, and in any case, Flannery does a better job at explaining it than I ever will.
The book also takes time to explain the rigorous peer review system for publishing climate change data. There are several review stages done by hundreds of scientists so any published scientific data about climate change should be taken seriously because it has the consensus of a large group of scientists. Flannery also takes the time to explain predictive methods and how they are used to get a good idea of possible outcomes of a 2 to 5 degree Celsius increase in the average temperature of the earth. The picture doesn't look good for the majority of the world, but places like Canada and Russia will likely benefit from the warmer climate in terms of increased agricultural production, milder weather, and an expansion of more hospitable land.
Other sections of the book deal with the naysayers of climate change and how propaganda is used to cast doubt on the scientific studies and findings. This issue is not new, it's a dirty method that's been sued before and will likely be used again wherever massive corporate profits and public interests diverge.
Flannery does offer up solutions to reducing CO2 emissions but the information is already well known and he doesn't offer up anything new. He mentions hybrid cars and the french compressed air car that I wrote about in an earlier post. Solar, wind, and wave power all also have a role to play in replacing fossil fuels as renewable energy sources.
Apart from the science of climate change and the politics surrounding it, there are some nuggets of information about the wonders of nature including this frog that changes it's stomach from a digestive organ to a brooding chamber for it's young.
In terms of the climate change topic, it seems to me that the forces of government and corporations will be to slow to react to the growing danger of climate change unless the public exerts pressure on both parties. There is a lot of debate still going on even in the face of volumes of scientific information dating back at least 3 decades. The poeple muddying the issue will be successful in delaying any seriuos reduction of CO2 emissions unless the worldwide public gets more informed as to the nature of the problem and what it takes to solve it. Getting more aware and informed can begin with reading this book.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Book Review: It's The Crude, Dude, Linda McQuaig
Linda McQuaig is a canadian journalist who currently is a columnist for the Toronto Star. I've always found her articles interesting and usually agreed with what she had to say, but not always how she said it. I think sometimes a little less attitude can carry a message farther, but that's just me.
In any case, as the title suggests, McQuaig's book "It's the Crude, Dude" is about oil. The book, naturally, begins with the invasion of Iraq and examines the reasons that were given for the invasion. She then goes into an explanation of the oil resources in the middle east and how profitable the Iraqi oil can be given the current levels of demand for oil.
She builds a strong case that the reasons for the invasion of Iraq was more about the control of a very valuable oil resource and how that resource can be used as a weapon to control not just the middle east, but other regions of the world. The book gives a detailed picture of history of the oil industry and correlates it with the political histories of the countries involved.
It gives a history of the oil business and its growth into its current massive state, includes the history of attempts at unity by the oil producing third world countries through OPEC and the Arab league, and illustrates how profitable the business can be for both parties. Along the way, though, McQuaig takes a detour and gives an account of the development of the SUV as subsidized and highly profitable product for the North American automakers in the face of the influx of Japanese cars that are more efficient on gas, more reliable, and of higher build quality.
While I liked the content of the book, I don't necessarily like McQuaig's writing style. Even the title itself seems a little juvenile for the topic. That shouldn't take away from the content though.
Here's a short list as to why I think people should read this book:
Personally, I liked this book for several reasons. There's a lot of history that I didn't know, particularly about Venezuela's leadership in the formation of OPEC and as a catalyst for the oil producing countries obtaining better trade deals from the oil companies. I now have a deeper understanding of the economics of the invasion of Iraq as well as a new appreciation for what it would mean if we did find an alternate renewable energy delivery method capable of competing with oil. (Wind and Solar energy can currently compete with oil as energy sources. Storing and then delivering the energy for transportation is still a bit of an issue).
This book is definitely worth the read. You can find it here or here...or even better, step into a library and borrow it.
Here's a more detailed review of the book.
In any case, as the title suggests, McQuaig's book "It's the Crude, Dude" is about oil. The book, naturally, begins with the invasion of Iraq and examines the reasons that were given for the invasion. She then goes into an explanation of the oil resources in the middle east and how profitable the Iraqi oil can be given the current levels of demand for oil.
She builds a strong case that the reasons for the invasion of Iraq was more about the control of a very valuable oil resource and how that resource can be used as a weapon to control not just the middle east, but other regions of the world. The book gives a detailed picture of history of the oil industry and correlates it with the political histories of the countries involved.
It gives a history of the oil business and its growth into its current massive state, includes the history of attempts at unity by the oil producing third world countries through OPEC and the Arab league, and illustrates how profitable the business can be for both parties. Along the way, though, McQuaig takes a detour and gives an account of the development of the SUV as subsidized and highly profitable product for the North American automakers in the face of the influx of Japanese cars that are more efficient on gas, more reliable, and of higher build quality.
While I liked the content of the book, I don't necessarily like McQuaig's writing style. Even the title itself seems a little juvenile for the topic. That shouldn't take away from the content though.
Here's a short list as to why I think people should read this book:
- To get a better understanding of how the invasion of Iraq came about.
- It has a good account of the history of the west "spreading democracy" in the middle east.
- It offers a good explanation of why the west, and particulary the US, is so hated in the middle east.
- It contains an insight into Hugo Chavez that you'll rarely see on mainstream news (the man is quite the character with some really good ideas).
- It tells you exactly how you are getting ripped off if you buy an SUV.
- You think you're getting ripped off at the gas pump, but not quite exactly sure how.
- Reading a book is infintely better than watching tv.
Personally, I liked this book for several reasons. There's a lot of history that I didn't know, particularly about Venezuela's leadership in the formation of OPEC and as a catalyst for the oil producing countries obtaining better trade deals from the oil companies. I now have a deeper understanding of the economics of the invasion of Iraq as well as a new appreciation for what it would mean if we did find an alternate renewable energy delivery method capable of competing with oil. (Wind and Solar energy can currently compete with oil as energy sources. Storing and then delivering the energy for transportation is still a bit of an issue).
This book is definitely worth the read. You can find it here or here...or even better, step into a library and borrow it.
Here's a more detailed review of the book.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Book Review: Buddha in your Backpack, Franz Metcalf
Pravin, one the Intrepid tour guides in India told the group about this book: "Buddha in your Backpack" by Franz Metcalf. He was trying to explain some aspects of Buddhism (he's a buddhist) and said that he came across this book and said it explains things pretty well, even though it's written for teenagers.
Being stuck at the company condo a couple of weeks ago in Markham with no internet access or tv, I wandered over to the nearby Chapters and found the book. I decided to give it a read.
Again, it's wrtten for teens so the author's style is fairly simple with the usual humour that books for teens have. He does a job, though, of explaining the essence of buddhism and some of the key concepts (at least his version/interpretation). It's all very fluid and once you start to understand the concepts invlovled, everything else flows along from there.
I found the book insightfull. Even though it was written in a simple style, there are a couple of concepts that I had a hard time following.
In any case, even if your mildly interested in the topic, I recommend the book. It's a quick and interesting read.
Being stuck at the company condo a couple of weeks ago in Markham with no internet access or tv, I wandered over to the nearby Chapters and found the book. I decided to give it a read.
Again, it's wrtten for teens so the author's style is fairly simple with the usual humour that books for teens have. He does a job, though, of explaining the essence of buddhism and some of the key concepts (at least his version/interpretation). It's all very fluid and once you start to understand the concepts invlovled, everything else flows along from there.
I found the book insightfull. Even though it was written in a simple style, there are a couple of concepts that I had a hard time following.
In any case, even if your mildly interested in the topic, I recommend the book. It's a quick and interesting read.
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