Canadian Dental Professionals Making The World A Better Place for a Few Hundred Orphans in Colombia!

What did Kindness in Action look like?  Thanks to my good friends at Kindness in Action for sending me some photos!  Kindness in Action is an awesome group of Canadians!  They are a service society made up of incredible people from the Dental professions who are motivated by a belief in the dignity of all people and their right to basic human needs.  They are a non-partisan and entirely volunteer group whose primary focus is dental health.  OK - so the last couple of sentences are pretty much right off their website.

But here's what I think.  My own unedited opinion.  I think they represent the best in all of us, no matter what country we come from!  They're the kind of people who enjoy life and enjoy making somebody else's life a little bit better when and where they can.  It's really amazing to know such fine people! 

How did I come to know them?  Yeah, you guessed it, my dentist & hygienist are part of the group.  They ran into some visa hassles at the last minute, and being the shy, introverted kind of guy I am... I sent an email to the President of Colombia asking for help!  My friends will tell you I'm not exactly shy in that regard. 

Other people got in the game - there was a Senator in Colombia, the Canadian Ambassador in Colombia, the Colombian Consul in Ottawa... everybody pitched in.  And yes, believe it or not, the President's personal secretary answered my email and offered to assist too.  We had it happening from every which way - and it all worked out.  And guess who it worked out for - a few hundred orphans in Colombia.  Excellent!

For my part, I just wanted to do what I could to help.  It was very little of course, I can't provide dental care, that's for sure.  But I do know enough to believe that sometimes, when you write the leader of a country, they will actually answer.  Perhaps not personally, how could they... they've got millions and millions of constituents.  But when people know you are trying to do something for the right reasons, in this case, to help provide dental care to a cool group of Colombian orphans, you know what... people will step up to the plate and help out. 

Somewhere in the President's office, somebody read that e-mail and sent it on to the President's personal secretary who, I'm guessing, mentioned it to the President himself and within a couple of days, we had help from the top!  Everything seemed to start clicking along and it all came together.  And make no mistake about it, I wasn't a key player in any of this.  It's always a group of people who come together to do something fun, something to help our fellow humans.  This is as real as it gets!  I was just a little tiny cog with the audacity of hope and a belief in the good heart of the Colombian people, no matter what their position or station, I love them.  And I want you to know how cool they really are, that's why I'm writing this post.  I also want you to know how cool your fellow Canadians are... the Kindness in Action dental professionals represent the best in all of us.

And here's the best part... anybody can do what I did.  When you're trying to do something to make the World a better place, people can sense that.  They can tell when the feelings are genuine.  Yes, even politicians can be cool!  So this just goes to show that when we take off our partisan colors and act as humans interested in helping our fellow humans - good things do happen.

So I thought I'd post a few photos thanks to these awesome Canadians who were kind enough to share them with me.  For my part, I'm just repeating the wonderful stories, like the little boy who was terrified and cried because he didn't want to get a shot (in the mouth no less).  Now let's face it, none of us like that experience either!  But the little boy made his way through the treatment.  Seeing that it was not so bad, he went around the clinic for the rest of the day holding the hands of the other orphans and reassuring them that it was going to be OK and that it really wouldn't hurt (at least not much).

In a World full of bad news... as they say in the press "if it bleeds it leads" - I thought it would be cool to share a good story.  One that should make us all feel proud to be Canadians... and guess what, even more, one that should make us all proud of our fellow humans who are ambassadors of goodwill.

Thank you Kindness in Action - for all you do.  And thanks to everybody who played a part in making this all a reality.  So many dedicated volunteers, so much work, and guess what, even a little help from a few people who would otherwise have been dealing with the fuss and muss of politics and bureaucracy.  Well guess what, everybody got to feel good about this!

And a special heartfelt thanks to all my friends and family in Colombia for being who you are... the kindest, happiest, and most wonderful people you could ever want to meet anywhere in the World.  And of course, I pay my deepest respect to the personal secretary to President Santos and, yes, to President Santos himself.  I believe he is a good and decent man who is trying to do what is right.  Every politician takes a kicking (don't I know it and I'm only a municipal politician in a small town in Alberta).  But no matter how big or how small we are (and I'm about as small as they get) we are really just as human as anybody else.  We love, we laugh, we hurt, we cry... we are you and you are us.  We are all in this together.

God Bless Kindness in Action!  

God Bless Canada!  

Viva Colombia!  

President Juan Manuel Santos

Kindness in Action in Colombia

When Kindness in Action invited me to their Annual General Meeting I was thrilled to meet and come to know a great bunch of wonderful Albertans.  Kindness in Action Service Society of Alberta is a group of concerned individuals, motivated by a belief in the dignity of all people and their right to basic human needs.  They are non-partisan and entirely volunteer based group whose primary focus is oral health.

"Researchers are discovering that out-of-control inflammation [gum disease] may prove to be the engine that drives an ever-growing list of greatly feared, chronic illnesses from clogged arteries and heart attacks to arthritis and cancer" -- and even low birth weight babies!  The health-related quality of life approach has provided greater opportunity for investigation of the interrelations among oral health, health, and related outcomes (Helen C. Gift PhD, 1995).  In addition to physical well being, some researchers have linked oral health to psychological (Salovey, Rothman, Detweiler, & Steward, 2000) well being.

Through their work in a variety of nations including Cambodia, Nicaragua, Uganda, Bolivia, and recently in Colombia, these dedicated individuals have created bridges of goodwill between Canada and all of these countries.  On each weekly project, Kindness in Action can help approximately 500 people, performing examinations, extractions, restorations, cleanings and fabricating dentures. The guiding principle for their treatment programs is the relief of pain for the greatest number of people. This is balanced with prevention, dispensing toothbrushes and individual and school hygiene instruction.

Comprehensive community based prevention programs are being developed and implemented. These include the training of local people as dental health promoters. In addition, they have been able to support many small education, agricultural and health initiatives including new initiatives to assist communities to develop a 100 mile radius food security environment (Smith A., 2005).  While the intention is to create more sustainable living environments, especially in locations where there is limited population and great abundance of various food resources, another important aspect of food regional food security is related to climate change.  While the countries where Kindness in Action focuses their efforts are likely not contributing substantial amounts of CO₂ to the environment, other nations, such as the US, Canada, or the UK contribute substantial amounts of CO₂ to the environment through the food cycle.

In the case of the UK, it is estimated that food transport is equal to about 3.4% of the UK’s annual CO₂ emissions (including both exports and imports) and about 3.6% of its final energy consumption (Smith A., 2005).  In the United States, transport of raw and processed food products (excluding exports) accounts for about 1.4% of total energy consumption (Heller, 2000) (Heller, 2003).  In short, what Kindness in Action is undertaking is proactive leadership that both enhances food security and sustainability while having the added benefit of minimizing negative impact of CO_2, and reducing fuel consumption while engaging in proactive beneficial services that join together various nongovernmental resources that can help sustain and benefit areas of developing nations.  Seems to me, they’re on to something!

Sometimes one wonders why this kind of work is not more prolific.  As for myself, I would likely not have even heard about this wonderful organization had my dentist not mentioned to my wife that they were having visa difficulties for Colombia that might result in their having to just stay a day in Bogota and then fly to a different country where special visas were not required.  In fairness, Colombia was enduring tremendous flood damage due to La Niña, and there was an overload of visa requests from nongovernmental agencies attempting to access the country in order to provide assistance.  The flooding was characterized as the worst natural disaster in the history of Colombia (Kimball, 2011).  

In the case of Kindness in Action, they had arranged to have orphans bussed in from outlying regions so they could be treated in Bogota.  Because of the overwhelming number of visa requests from around the World, theirs had been delayed somewhat and the holiday season was upon us.  They had already bought their plane tickets and had packed their dental equipment; they were just waiting for a green light on their visas.

Knowing it would be difficult to accelerate visa issues and given the proximity to the Kindness in Action departure date, there would need to be assistance in order to expedite the visas for these great volunteers.   

Numerous people stepped up to help including the ongoing and heroic efforts of the First Secretary in charge of Consular Affairs in Ottawa, Ms. Mónica Beltrán Espitia.  The personal secretary to President Santos of the Republic of Colombia provided timely assistance.  The effort to assist these hundreds of Colombian orphans also came to the attention of Senator Juan Fernando Cristo Bustos and the Canadian Ambassador, Ms. Geneviève des Rivères also provided assistance to the Kindness in Action volunteers.

The reason I wanted to write about this amazing group is simple.  I have never met such a fine group of dedicated professional who are acting based on the rare concept of altruism.  In short, they are taking their time and investing their own money and efforts to try and make the World a better place.  These are the very kind of Canadians who make us all so proud.  In doing their service, they also bring a kinder and better image to the World as people think about Canadians with fondness in their hearts.  This is the kind of benefit that brings the World together and makes it a better place for everybody.  I think the great Dental Professionals from Kindness in Action represent the very best of everything that makes me and so many of us proud to be Canadians.

Bibliography

Helen C. Gift PhD, K. A. (1995). Oral Health, Health, and Health-Related Quality of Life. Medical Care , 33 (11), 57-77.

Heller, M. K. (2003). Assesing the sustainability of the U.S. food system: a life cycle perspective. Agricultural Systems (76), 1007-1041.

Heller, M. K. (2000). Life cycle-based sustainability indicators for assesment of the US food system. University of Michigan, Center for Sustainable Systems, Ann Arbor.

Kimball, J. (2011, January 01). Weather on MSNBC.com. Retrieved May 16, 2011, from MSNBC.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41254237/ns/weather/t/colombia-counts-heavy-cost-rains-floods/

Salovey, P., Rothman, A. J., Detweiler, J. B., & Steward, W. T. (2000). Emotional states and physical health. American Psychologist , 55 (1), 101-121.

Smith A., W. P. (2005). The validity of food miles as an indicator of sustainable development: Final Report. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, AEA Technology Environment, Didcot.

Osama bin Laden visits Davy Jones Locker

The special operations group that liquidated Osama bin Laden have performed their assigned duties with professionalism and expertise.  Are there questions?  Certainly there will be numerous questions; some of those questions shall never be answered.

But the big questions I have heard in the last few days revolve around the Government of Pakistan and could they have possibly been aware of Osama bin Laden's presence in their country.  Let us consider a few items of information that may help facilitate the pathway of inductive reasoning.

Pakistan, as we all know, is a nuclear power with a military that measures in excess of a million, probably close to 1.5 million when counting an active force, reserves, and paramilitary forces.  Pakistan is also a nuclear power, it maintains a military designed to withstand an attack from India, the country they see as their primary threat.  This, of course, makes sense when one considers the wars they have already fought and the state of high tension that constantly remains between the two countries.

The bulletin of Atomic Scientists estimated that Pakistan has between 70 and 90 nuclear warheads and this seems in balance with public estimates of Indian nuclear warheads in the range of 60-100.  These warheads are both low and high yield designs, in other words, some are designed to be delivered on short or intermediate range rockets while others are designed for aircraft delivery.  What isn't stated very often is that Indian nuclear facilities exempt from IAEA safeguards have the capacity to produce approximately 280 nuclear weapons annually.  One must presume Pakistan is interested in maintaining similar capacity.  To that extent, Pakistan has acquired nuclear research facility designs from China and have developed multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV) designs. 

Numerous agencies concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons have repeatedly provided unclassified information from various government sources relative to Pakistan's substantial nuclear abilities and their complex relationships with numerous governments to arrange for all the components required to attain first strike nuclear capability and supplement that with a second retaliatory strike capacity.

By now you should be gathering the picture of a country that has invested heavily in military infrastructure, nuclear weaponry, advanced weapons technologies, and a capacity to conduct, if required, a conventional or nuclear war with another country.  Presumably India would be at the top of their list.  Needless to say, Pakistan has a substantial air defense capability in order to protect all of their infrastructure. 

In short, there is simply no way multiple helicopters (or even one for that matter) could fly into Pakistan, within striking distance of the capital and then proceed to land a few blocks from the Kakul Military Officers School.  This would be roughly the equivalent of flying across Quebec and Ontario to land down the street from the Royal Military College in Kingston without being detected, execute a raid, and quietly leave without Ottawa knowing.  Not even the most illogical person could possibly fathom how such a raid could take place without the knowledge and consent of top military officials of Pakistan.

Many people have expressed concerns that the war on terror has been complicated by the apparance that Pakistan has been willing to allow Taliban and other insurgent groups to slip in and out of Afghanistan, seeking refuge in Pakistan after conducting military raids.  Even Hillary Clinton, when speaking about Pakistan, expressed her frustration one year ago stating, "I believe that somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda is, where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban is".

Coincidentally, just last month, Central Intelligence Agency Chief Leon Panetta and Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) recently met at the CIA headquarters, just outside of Washington in the lovely quasi rural setting of Langley, Virginia.  At some point during the tour, there was even the opportunity to have a chat with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen aboard an aircraft carrier.

Here's where the inductive reasoning comes in.... has the war on terror taken a new shift?  Have officials in the government of Pakistan come under pressure to cooperate in the enterprise of crushing al Queda and other militant groups instead of harboring them and providing them with safe haven?

How on Earth can a logical person, given of nothing more than just a smattering of facts, believe any possible explanation for how bin Laden lived in a massive compound down the street from the very heart of Pakistan Military Officers College in a city with three Army brigades and within a two hour drive of Islamabad for months on end without the knowledge of senior military intelligence and government officials. 

In fact, the area is considered to be a secure zone.  People are not allowed to move and live in such proximity to the Pakistan Military Officers University without first undergoing security checks.  It would be a stretch to suggest that Osama bin Laden did not have the blessing of top government officials in Pakistan. 

Of this one thing I am certain, we will never know what leverage was used to arrange the liquidation of Osama bin Laden.  Obviously, it was not money alone, there has been plenty of that bestowed upon Pakistan.  I wonder if there was a deal made to protect somebody from their own errors.  Could Osama bin Laden have been traded in a high stakes poker game in the intelligence community.  If that is the case, there would probably be only about a dozen people in the chain who would ever know the details.  And I can assure you, not one of them will ever tell the story.  Like many other great stories that would make for great spy novels... this will vanish like Osama bin Laden did... all the way down to Davy Jones Locker. 

Mother Earth, Water, and All Life

The Desk and Derrick Club has provided 60 years of service to members and the energy industry.  They are a non-profit organization for almost 2,500 individuals employed in or affiliated with the petroleum, energy and allied industries, and they have 60 clubs in 7 regions throughout the United States and Canada.  It is their goal to enhance and foster a positive image to the global community by promoting the contribution of the petroleum, energy and allied industries through education by using all resources available.

I was honored to be the keynote speaker for their 60th Anniversary event at the Desk and Derrick Club of Edmonton.  What an amazing group; very well organized and run with the efficiency of a Swiss watch.  It was a thrill to represent the Leduc #1 Energy Discovery Centre at their anniversary celebration.  Having been afforded the opportunity to speak four times at club and regional meetings, I have now come to know so many of these remarkable people.  I remain honored by their gracious invitations.

Our topic was water, and the topic of fresh water conservation seems to grow in global significance each day.  The Earth and all life upon it would not exist without water.  The majority of cells in the bodies of all living creatures and plants contain water.  Equally important to all life on Earth is the fact that water reduces the fluctuation of global temperatures, allowing our planet to sustain life.  Water protects all life both aquatic and land based, it covers over 70% of the Earth.  Without it, all forms of life would forever vanish from the Earth.  To say that water is important cannot possibly be overstated.  It is the very foundation upon which all life is built, sustained, and nourished.  In fact, all fresh water on earth, if it were shaped as a sphere, would look quite small. 

Throughout history, humans have traditionally settled near sources of fresh water.  Ancient civilizations, such as the Anasazi of the desert southwest, focused great amounts of time and energy in order to construct cliff dwellings near water sources.  Their engineering feats were magnificent, their creation of aqueducts and agricultural efficiencies unparalleled as was the brilliance of their site selections which leveraged gravitational water flow to nourish their corn, squash, and other plantings.

Fast forward through the centuries and mankind, for the most part, still settles near sources of freshwater.  Yet we often take that water for granted, assuming somehow, that there will always be plenty.  I suppose mankind is lulled into the thought that water is so plentiful because the vast majority of our planet is covered in water.  We see tremendous glaciers, and mountains covered with snowpack that melts each year and fills our rivers.

A closer examination of the facts, however, clearly demonstrates a different reality.  The first fact that is somewhat startling is that of all the global water, only 2.5% is fresh water.  Of the 2.5% or global fresh water, nearly 69% is locked in glaciers and ice caps, the majority located in Antarctica and Greenland.  Groundwater accounts for about 30% of the global fresh water supply, while surface water accounts for slightly over 1% of the global supply.  The drill down on surface water reveals that about 73% comes from ice and snow, much of it running into our rivers during the Spring melt.  Lakes, such as the Great Lakes and the millions of other smaller lakes, contain about 20% of the water.  Swamps and marshes account for about 2.5% and rivers less than a half a percent.  The remainder derived from biological and atmospheric water.  In summary, the importance of protecting and managing our freshwater resources is a paramount consideration for Alberta, for Canada, and for the entire global community.

Alberta is moving forward with a strategy called Water for Life.  To understand and monitor groundwater, Alberta monitors shallow, intermediate, and deep wells across the province.  Data regarding these wells may be acquired by the public at: http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/water/gwsw/quantity/waterdata/gwdatafront.asp

In Alberta, approximately two million people get their drinking water from large municipal systems; many obtain potable water from smaller water treatment plants.  Others obtain their water from private systems such as wells, water co-ops or by hauling.  The supply of fresh water is plentiful in many places, but the southern part of Alberta already has shortage issues.  More than a half a million hectares of land are cultivated and irrigated via 13 irrigation districts which share water across municipalities and for agricultural production.  In fact, more than 40% of all fresh water use in Alberta goes toward growing the food products we consume to sustain life.  As such, the Government of Alberta began focusing resources towards the goal of water conservation precisely in the part of our province where it is most critical.

Alberta also has obligations to provide certain amounts of water to Montana and Saskatchewan due to apportionment agreements.  Essentially, the apportion agreement with Saskatchewan insures that half of the water in each of the shared, major river basins, must be allowed to flow into Saskatchewan.  A similar agreement exists with the state of Montana because some watersheds flow from Montana into Alberta and then back again to the headwaters of the Missouri and Mississippi watershed.  Few people recognize these agreements are in place.  As such, it is incumbent on all of us to conserve and protect our water supplies because they have an impact on many people across our region, and in fact, the ramifications are global.

Continental drainage is a concept unfamiliar to many as a science, but most of us know intrinsically that our water flows to certain areas.  Alberta is particularly interesting because the flow of our water reaches the Water drainage flows to several different areas due to the geographical location of Alberta.  In the far south, the Milk River Basin drains to the Missouri – Mississippi, farther north it drains to the Hudson Bay and about half of Alberta’s water drainage flows to the Mackenzie Delta and into the Arctic.

In fact, the Mackenzie Delta is such an enormous water resource that it is the 3rd largest watershed on Earth and contains approximately 1/3 of Canada’s fresh water supply.  At the Desk & Derrick Club, we discussed these topics.  Being the curious people they are, always on a quest for knowledge, I gave pause to admire the purpose of their club and the kindness of their people.  The inquisitive mind is always healthy and abundant in thought.  The pursuit of education can be summed up in many ways.  I would choose to leave you with this thought.

It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time -- for we are bound by that -- but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.
 
T.S. Eliot

Truth and Faith Resemble Chance and Art

Japan's enormous difficulties are painful... and millions suffer across our globe.  We have a no fly zone in Libya, political power vacuums, wars, and death everywhere.  Elections and intrigue in the air along with Iodine-131 and cesium-137.  Sweet 16, a drive to Calgary, dinner with a former President, Inter-American Bank, Municipal Council meetings, political meetings, finance and audit committee meetings, and private meetings.  A software project, a real estate negotiation in South America, rental property in another country... 150 to 200 emails per day.  Lions club, elementary school tours, college tours, and policy guidance.  Visits to other levels of government, family time, work time, and business time.  Taxes in two countries.  Yeah, I can deal with all that.

Even with this brush stroke of a few short days, there is still time to think about how fast the human brain can upload, assimilate, store, and retrieve data.  If we evolve, then what are the neurological ramifications of the natural process of adaptation to our surroundings, and hence, to the ever increasing requirement for data throughput?  On an anecdotal level, it sometimes seems like people can feel overloaded.  There are estimated to be some 200 billion neurons in the human brain.  An impressive number to be sure.  Beyond that, synaptic structures are measured in the hundreds of trillions.  Fascinating numbers, all of them.

We expect a child's brain contains approximately one quadrillion synapses.  With age, there is a correlating declination of synapses, decreasing to as few as 100 trillion.  So here's the rub, as each year goes by and data input resources expand at exponential rates, adults experience consistent declination of synapses.  The ramifications for adult humans to keep up with technology seems obvious, yet somehow we seem to do it.

So with all of that, my conclusion is simple.  After consulting array tomography and neurological resources, I am only sure of one thing.  Array tomography output looks like a tree.  Like a Fibonaccian structure presented in a state that resembles a mature tree in a beautiful forest.  It could be chance, but perhaps it is the scientific modus operandi of a master we can't comprehend.  Truth and faith resemble chance and art in the World of neurological science.