The Rememberence Day weekend approaches. Here in Canada November 11th is a public holiday. I suspect the traditional silence is slightly more often observed here than in the United Kingdom. The Silence I thoroughly approve of. Some of the Rememberence Day parades, not so much. There is a painfully thin line between commemoration and celebration. The Silence is purely about the folk who didn't make it back. Though perhaps it should also also be about considering those who did come back but were  never the same again. 

A wise man once said that was a lot of money in poverty. I think he meant that there are a lot of people who make a good living from supposedly helping the poor. Here in Canada a lot of people make some money from collecting up bottles and cans and claiming the deposit money at the Bottle Depot. The depots are commercial operations and make a profit. Our Wise Man set up a bottle collectors co- operative and that way they got the deposit and a share of the profit. But the money in poverty notion also includes those who get their pay from charities and agencies which are involved in helping the poor. No poor, no job. I think the same is true when it comes to supposedly fighting racism. No racism, no job. It must be tempting to torque up the issue.

I've  heard a couple of reports of people pretending to be something they are not, often a member of a "minority" group,  in order to get a job. These were jobs that were awarded on the basis of skin tone or some other kind of form discrimination. I had to laugh. Though sometimes well intentioned, this supposed “poHsitive discrimination” is misguided. Fighting discrimination with more discrimination is wrong. The job should go to the person who will do it best. In many cases that might involve being a member of the group the organisation concerned serves. I’m left wondering how come the interviewers failed to see through the deceptions and lies perpetrated by these bogus claimants. But then those involved in discrimination are seldom the best, or smartest,  of people.

OK. I'm getting fed up with Canadian so-called "historians" , many of them for some reason taken seriously, informing me that Canada fielded the largest volunteer armed force during the Second World War at 250,000 men. Canadians are the first to claim that their part in the conflict is too often minimized or ignored by British and American writers and film makers. So you would think that they would be the last people to display such ignorance. The Indian Army was by a massive stretch the largest all volunteer force during the conflict; 2.5 million men. Full stop. No dispute. The 21st Army group in Northwest Europe was made up of the 2nd British Army and the 1st Canadian Army. Somehow many of the same "historians" ignore the fact that until the very last few weeks of the war about half of the 1st Canadian Army was made up of British soldiers on loan from the 2nd Army. Canadians are left with a very distorted view of what they achieved and what the British troops under 1st Canadian Army command achieved. As I said, you would think Canadians would be amongst the last to indulge in this sort of puffery.

A couple of years ago I tried to get a Christmas job with a major chain bookshop. The interview brought together in one room about 20 people, a surprising number of them with some amazing qualifications, of a branch on the southern outskirts of the city. There were a number of tests and challenges, including playing something called Pictionary. I didn't get the job. I suspect in an effort to standout I came across as an obnoxious know- it-all. That's just a guess because after jumping through so many hoops the guy conducting the recruitment didn't respond to my request for "lessons to be learned" feedback. The thing is that the whole process was probably unnecessary. We were all gathered in a corner of the shop floor before things kicked off. All the guy really had to do was hide around the corner and watch how the job seekers interacted with each other. No silly Pictionary required.