Work in progress
•  A major historical novel, set not surprisingly in Canada, of which 50,000 words have been written
•  Completion of this website and doing conceptual work on another one dealing with The New Bureaucracy
•  Relaunch of Herschel Hardin Associates.
•  Helping the North Shore Branch of the B.C. Schizophrenia Society (BCSS North Shore)

Writing commentary once more
I’ve also begun writing commentary again.  Although I've done the odd article in the last few years, my intention now is to write more regularly if I can possibly find the time, which isn't easy.  I've just posted a series of three articles on this site about the BC NDP's surrender to the right-wing "frame" and how it affected the 2005 provincial election outcome.  Please see the Home page for details.  Soon to be posted is a parallel analysis of the federal NDP's recent election campaign and the party's descent into boredom.  That one can currently be read at Straight Goods (www.straightgoods.com). 

Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize speech brings to mind The New World Order
British playwright Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize lecture last December brings vividly to mind my play, The New World Order.  Pinter, the Nobel laureate for literature, dedicated most of his speech to examining the abuses and arrogance of American power.  Several of the characters in The New World Order - Salvador Allende, Mohammad Mossadegh and Jacobo Arbenz - were victims of that power and exchange stories about it.  The theme of the play: what the United States, post-Gulf-War, has in store for the world.  Maybe it's time for a revival of the play!  If anybody out there in the whole wide world of the Web is interested in launching a new production, I'll be only too glad to oblige.  I'll even volunteer for the cast (I played  Mossadegh, the Iranian oil nationalist, in the original production in Vancouver in 1999).  For a synopsis of the play and a link to the complete text, just click here.  Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize lecture is available on the Nobel Prize's own site, nobelprize.org.

Participation in the federal NDP an ironic exercise in futility
My departure as co-chair of the NDP's Committee on Media, Culture and Communications, which I was instrumental in establishing, wasn't without a reason.  It revolved around the party's failure to tackle concentration of media ownership and the power that comes with it.  Ironically, the Committee was successful in its work.  In 1991, the party in convention unanimously passed a Committee resolution requiring the party to "give the highest priority to making diverse and representative ownership of the mass media a major political and electoral issue."  The party's executive subsequently approved implementation.  Leader Jack Layton, however, despite the Committee's prodding, has simply refused to follow through - indeed, has gone out of his way to avoid talking to Canadians about the issue.  This is a major strategic omission, not to mention a disturbing caving in to power.  The leader's dismissal of his own party's policy also raises questions about how far democracy in political parties extends and whether party members' participation in policy development has any value.  Other than trying to bring Jack Layton down over the affair - something I wouldn't want to do and couldn't do anyway - there was not much point in staying.

BCSS North Shore and its Family Support Centre
I’ve been helping to get the BC Schizophrenia Society, North Shore Branch, back on its feet financially, after its health authority funding was eliminated a few years ago. I’m also doing other things for the Branch like maintaining its website, teaching its Family to Family education course, and playing Santa Claus at the annual Christmas banquet. The Branch operates the Family Support Centre on Vancouver’s North Shore. Marguerite (my wife), working on a volunteer basis since the Centre was established in 1995, has been its mainstay. Having a schizophrenic son, we are quite committed to the Centre and its programs.  For more background on the Centre, please visit its website, www.bcssnorthshore.org.