Sausage making more fun than you think

  

“Do you enjoy what you do?” my teenage daughter asked me the other day. Seeing the confused look on my face, she explained, “The only reason I ask is because you never hear of anyone wanting to be a government worker.” 

That made me laugh. I could just imagine going to my daughter’s Kindergarten class ten years ago to tell the kids what I do every day. “Um, well, I go to meetings. I research, I consult... I develop policy! That’s right kids, I help create government P-O-L-I-C-Y.”  

I can see little Johnny scratching his head. “But what do you really do?” 

And in a moment of frank honesty, I might say: “Johnny, I'm actually part of an elaborate sausage-making factory. It’s messy. Even the end product is not always pretty.” 

Poor little Johnny would think I grind meat for a living. 

But as bureaucrats, we do grind something and at times it’s hard to predict what will come out. Without getting into too many details, let’s just say there is a give and take in government. What we as government workers might think is appropriate, our political masters may not. 

There are some projects I’ve worked on for months that don’t see the light of day. This is inevitable when something that seems like a great idea at the time is no longer deemed viable. Maybe circumstances change... or a politician’s gut feeling. Sometimes we will never know. We don’t make the final decisions and we don’t create the budget. We simply divvy up the spoils (i.e. taxes) that fund your health care, education and highways. 

We also exist in a hierarchical structure that doesn’t allow things to move very quickly. The general public likes to point out that government is slow and unresponsive. Why does it take so long for the government to do stuff? Well, there’s a reason. 

Let me try to explain this metaphorically. Government is a big ship with many moving parts. It’s steered by a few elected people who rarely change course drastically because there be icebergs in these waters. Every political leader is all too aware that even the Titanic can sink, and when it does, they go down with the ship. It’s called an election. 

An astute politician will understand when a change in direction is warranted. Even then, it carries risk. For example, one would have thought most Americans would have supported Obamacare for uninsured Americans, yet Barrack Obama paid a political price initially for implementing this new program. 

Good politicians tend to know what the public “feels” about a certain issue. They tend to know what’s worth fighting for. Sometimes they favour one group over another – namely that portion of the population that got them elected – but that’s to be expected if they hope to be elected again. 

The main thing is they’re transparent in their decision-making. Fortunately, in our modern democracy, we have independent agencies, the press, and political opposition to hold governments to account. 

And we have government workers. Yes, believe it or not, government workers do make a difference! The bureaucracy itself is an institution of stability that ensures our elected leaders cannot simply do whatever they please.   

When a decision is made that goes against current policy, we may be forced to speak truth to power. That’s when things get interesting. For some reason, those at the top don’t like to be told they’re not following the rules. 

And even though politicians have the final say, government workers still have influence. We like to joke about the options we sometimes present to our leaders, forcing them to pick the lesser of extremes. One might, just as a hypothetical, provide three options to decision makers, knowing they will likely pick the one in the middle. 

Most importantly, bureaucrats are the ones with an understanding of the costs, the benefits and the risks of a new policy. Ideally, we should present policies that provide the greatest benefit to the most people at the lowest cost. If our elected should choose the policy with the least benefit to the least amount of people, that’s their business. We might call that decision “political.” 

It’s all part of the fun when you work in a sausage-making factory. 

War in Ukraine still unfathomable

  

As someone with family and friends from Ukraine, I have many connections to the conflict. I am emotionally involved, which can affect my perspective. I want to stay positive, but I’ll be honest – this winter has taken a toll. 

As we approach the one-year mark since the Russian invasion began, I still can’t believe the destruction wrought by one man’s imperial ambitions. 

Who would have thought the city where my wife grew up would one day be bombed by Russia? Zaporizhzhia is a Russian-speaking city that once had stronger ties to Russia than to Europe. While proud Ukrainians, their relationship was similar to that between the US and Canada, bound to Russia economically and culturally. Now, mortal enemies. 

Who would have thought the tiny city of Nikopol, where my sister-in-law lives, would became international news when attacked almost daily? Their town is across the reservoir from the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia power plant from which Russians fire freely, knowing they can’t be shot back at without risk of a nuclear accident. Some of her apartment building’s windows were blown out a few months ago by a nearby explosion. 

Who would have thought most of Ukraine would be in the dark this winter? Our friends near Kyiv live without power for up to nine hours a day. Their daughter, who currently lives with us, will go back home in a week to see her dad off to war. The men in their suburb, located near Bucha and Irpin, are being conscripted en masse – anyone under 60 who doesn’t work for government is eligible to fight. 

While I want to be hopeful about the ultimate outcome of this war, I can’t deny the future – certainly the immediate future – looks grim for ordinary Ukrainians. 

Ukraine has the will to win, but Russia still holds the advantage of sheer numbers, with an ironclad dictator who may have convinced the Russian majority that they are in a battle against NATO.  

The Russian “mass” we continually hear about is substantial, no matter how poorly trained. The willingness to allow over 200,000 soldiers to be killed and wounded in this first year of war would be too high for any other country to bear. Russia’s conscription of another 300,000 (most now in Ukraine) is unfathomable to the Western world, where even a fraction of that number would cause public outcries.  

Whether willing or, more likely, unwilling, Russian conscripts are fighting in Ukraine. Those who couldn’t flee to other countries must fight or face imprisonment.  

History informs us that countries who intervene on foreign soil can be stubbornly short-sighted, willing to pour resources into a losing cause for years. The US was active in Vietnam for eight years; the USSR in Afghanistan for nine years; the US in Afghanistan and Iraq for another 20. These destructive and ineffective military interventions were responsible for millions of lost lives. 

Russia will certainly lose more than it ever could hope to gain, but it’s unknown what the breaking point will be. Time will only tell for how long Russia can sustain hundreds of casualties every day.  

Ukrainians, on the other hand, suffer because they have to. Their future as a nation is at stake. 

State of the world not so bad after all

  

I get an upbeat newsletter every few weeks that only talks about the good things that are happening in the world. It’s full of good news stories that most of us never hear about. 

The 21st Century is full of good news, believe it or not. In most countries, generally, things are improving, even after a worldwide pandemic. Most of the really good news stories come from less developed countries where improved health care and new technologies are alleviating suffering and poverty like never before. Here’s a sampling from Future Crunch’s latest newsletter:  

• Eighty million fewer people worldwide required treatment for tropical diseases in 2021 compared to 2010. That’s a 25% decrease in one decade.  

• Despite significant population growth, 584 million fewer people live in extreme poverty today compared to thirty years ago. Half a billion fewer people! 

• In 2022 alone, four countries banned corporal punishment while five countries ended child marriage (unbelievably, one of those countries was England).  

• Many countries removed bans on homosexuality in 2022 and 33 governments have now legalized same-sex unions, triple the number one decade ago. 

 

The good news stories are many but I understand why we tend to skip over them. We are fundamentally attracted to bad news. I’m sure journalists would love to publish more good news every day, but the old saying, “if it bleeds, it leads” tends to hold true. Even monumental good news stories can be left unread, like the development of a new malaria vaccine. Saving thousands of children's lives in Africa every year somehow does not appeal to us like a car crash or the threat of a new covid variant. 

Even regarding the war in Ukraine, I sometimes wonder if I’m following the war simply as a means of morbid fascination. Do I really need to know everything bad that has happened? Is it helping my friends and family from Ukraine? Am I more empathetic or just more knowledgeable of the tragedy that’s occurring every single day? 

The same held true during the height of the pandemic. Was I really needing to follow the spread of the coronavirus day after day – the deaths and its spread, including every new, uniquely named variant? It created a sense of anxiety in me that eventually affected my mental state. I had to withdraw from following the news for about a month until I felt normal again. 

This is what the news can do. “Doom scrolling” as it’s been called, involves scrolling through all the horrible headlines of the day. It can make you think the world is going to hell in a handbasket.  

Is it? Not really. Only for a small percentage of people who have had a bad day. Not to diminish their suffering, but it’s always a small fraction of the total population. Those people – the ones who had a really bad day – are the ones we want to hear about. Not about the millions of people who are gradually becoming healthier, more educated, and generally wealthier.  

All that said, please, continue to read the news, but maybe only once a week? Just a suggestion! Although I still think it’s better to be informed than uninformed – or worse, misinformed – take it all in measure. 

Being aware of world events is important, but perhaps it’s better for our psychological health to dive into one single topic instead of reading only about the worst events that happened every day.  

With nearly eight billion people in the world, you’ll find no shortage of suffering.