The human face of bureaucracy

My family and I are about to become Canadian citizens, the final stage of which involves a ceremony where we take the oath of citizenship later this week. This is exciting for us, because the whole process has taken nearly two years, lots of paperwork, and a test last month.

Today I got a phone call at work. 

Immigration Canada.

My immediate reaction was a sinking feeling...something wrong with our paperwork...ceremony postponed...maybe the reply we'd sent to the invitation had got lost in the mail and missed the deadline...

But no, nothing like that. The official was simply asking if we were planning to stay for the reception after the ceremony, and if our children would like to take part in a cake-cutting ceremony.

What a lovely touch.

Although much bureaucracy here seems to work at a slow pace, it does get the job done, and every once in a while we get surprised by a very human touch to remind us that we are dealing with people who also recognize us as people. This isn't something I usually associate with government officials, but I'm happy to be living somewhere where I can be surprised like this.

Citizens first

I'll probably question the wisdom of this later, because after an afternoon in the sun, a barbecue, and a bottle of wine, this post is likely to be rather more random than the subject matter deserves.

But, here goes...

After my last post, I thought about some of the comments. There's a lot more meat to be picked from this particular bone in future posts, but right now I decided to ramble a bit about what I mean by "Citizens first" - what it is, and what it isn't.

First off, a few things it's not.

This is not a rant against the evils of money. I actually think money is a great invention, and essential to getting us beyond simple bartering. It is a sophisticated way of allowing us individuals to specialize in what we're good at, and to exchange what we can offer for what we need. Without it, we would not have access to the bewildering range of products and services that we have come to enjoy.

This is not a rant against greed and corruption. They will always be with us. It is part of human nature. No. This is a rant against the social, political, and economic structures that allow greed and corruption to flourish. That is a very different prospect. You have little chance of stopping people from acting selfishly, but I think you have a very real chance of arranging things so that self interest aligns with the public good.

Finally, I saw the word "politics" in the comments, and thought to myself "this is not political". However, I have to retract that somewhat. Sure, this is not about conventional politics. It is not promoting socialism or decrying capitalism. Forget the "isms". However, as this touches on government and power, I guess that does make it political.

So what do I mean by "Citizens first"?

This is a dream. A dream that we can escape from the self-serving madness that the world has become. Where we are driven to exploit the planet at unsustainable levels, not because it makes any sense, but because it yields the biggest profits. Where things are produced deliberately to degrade and need replacing because that helps sell new products, whether they are needed or not. Where our leaders are not necessarily those who will make the best choices for us, but those with the best funding, connections, and sheer ambition to win the election race.

This is a dream, but more specifically this is about some concrete and - I think - achievable ways forward. This is about manipulating our web of interactions so that the ordinary citizen is considered the most important player. This is about devising new sets of rules and rewards to incent beneficial, rather than harmful, behavior.

Back to the "Nots"...this is not wishy-washy idealism, as in - if we can all just agree to get along, then everything will be hunky dory. I don't believe that. And that is not cynicism, it's realism.

This is a call for people to take concrete action, beginning with research and understanding of how people and organizations function. It is a call to find ways to motivate people so that their actions serve themselves by helping others, rather than at the expense of others.

I don't pretend that these thoughts will have universal appeal. Not everyone will agree.

Putting the ordinary person back front and centre of society is a choice, not a given.

If you are greedy or uncaring then you will not like this direction. But if you have half a heart for your friends, your neighbors, and your children, then you might agree that enough is enough.

The question is...are there enough of you out there to wrest your world from the hands of the greedy and corrupt few?

Let's put citizens back in the frame

A few days ago, I read a heartfelt post by Katie at Creepy Query Girl, about the results of the elections in France, and worries about what this might mean for the future.

It got me to thinking. Whoops! Dangerous!

Now, I'm not going to start pitting one political ideology against another, nor am I proposing capitalism over socialism or any other "ism", and I'm certainly not qualified to talk about the prospects for France sinking into the self-destructive turmoil that's consuming Greece.

My topic is about why there is such fear underlying so many aspects of our lives. Why, for example, do so many Americans live in such fear of anything that smacks of socialism? Why do we, the "little people", feel so threatened by governments, by multinational corporations, by religions, by all these out-of-control organizations that are, when all is said and done, nothing more than collections of other individuals?

And what prompted the Wall Street Protests last year?

This is back to a line of thought I've ranted about before, but not explored in any systematic way.

My premise is simple: Early human societies developed to benefit their members. Our institutions have grown so complex that they have lost touch with this purpose. Nowadays, they seem to serve practically everyone and everything but the ordinary citizen.

Politicians and governments live to gain and stay in power. Political parties also put ideology ahead of welfare. This is dangerous, no matter what the ideology. Unthinking dogmatic socialism is just as dangerous and discredited as unfettered capitalism.

Companies exist to push their products and make profits, and to hell with the man in the street.

Even organizations we look to to safeguard our welfare are pressed by ulterior motives. Healthcare, for example, tends to be more interested in pushing drugs and procedures and cutting waiting lists than in actual, ummm, health.

The solution is equally simple to state: Put citizen's back in the frame as majority beneficiaries in our own society.

Simple to state. Finding a workable path to that goal is less so.

More rays of sunshine

I talked here and here about winning some lovely prints over on Jenny Pearson's blog in the lead-up to the A to Z Challenge, and taking them in to be framed. It's been a while, but I finally collected them today.

Rather than arm-wrestle Ali over whose office they will go in (she'd win, anyway) we decided they needed to go somewhere more accessible, so here they are, hung in the kitchen.

Also, this week we heard that we've passed out citizenship test and have been invited to take the oath of citizenship later this month. Yay!

Z is for Zzz...zzzz...zzzz (time for a rest)

Holy Moley...that was one heck of a month!

This final post feels a bit like cheating because I don't have a real "Z" post on my theme, but the last one felt like a fitting conclusion anyway, so I decided it was time for reflection.

Posting each day for a month (with Sundays off)...way more than I usually do. Throw in the alphabet and it gets harder. And I chose to stick to a theme, upping the ante.

In the end, the posts themselves were the least of it. I started preparing back in February. Ghosts of Innocence turned out to be a rich seam of inspiration, and I had little trouble finding topics for the alphabet. OK, a few letters were a bit weak, but others suffered an embarrassment of choice, and I had to turn down many other posts that I would have loved to have written. Maybe another day.

No. The biggest effort in the end was simply keeping up with all the activity going on during April.

On my own blog here, I like to acknowledge comments individually, usually by adding one comment containing a bundle of responses. A few times, especially in the early days, I resorted to a more blanket approach. I don't like doing that, but time was pressing and I wanted to get on with...

Keeping up with people I follow, especially those I started following during the Challenge. I gave you folks priority, at least visiting as much as possible, even if I didn't always leave comments.

That alone was a marathon effort some days, as I scrolled down my Blogger dashboard thinking How many posts to read???

And then there's all the other blogs in the Challenge. No, I didn't get to visit even a respectable fraction. Probably about 200 out of the 1700+ signed up.

All this. meant that blogging practically took over my life for the month of April. Writing, revising, and critiquing have been pretty much on hiatus so I'm looking forward to a return to normality.

Before I forget, I'd like to say a big "Hello" to new followers this month. It may take me a while to track you down, if I haven't already. You can help yourselves hugely here by leaving comments. The "Followers" gadget isn't always very good at showing links to your blogs. It seems to show some weird variation on people's profiles, and I've often been frustrated in the past when someone has followed but not left a comment, and I find I have no way to seek them out.

So, commenting saves a lot of hassle and gets you firmly on my radar.

Meanwhile, The Bald Patch is returning to a more normal pace of life.

Y is for Your Next Adventure, Shayla

Most of these posts have talked about the world setting for Ghosts of Innocence, some backstory, some world-building, and a bit about the story itself.

Without revealing anything about how we reach this point, the story ends with Shayla joining forces with the Emperor to hunt down a mutual enemy: the person truly responsible for the Cleansing of Eloon.

At the end of Ghosts, the Emperor has to decide how to deal with Shayla, balancing some extraordinary crimes against the equally extraordinary services that she's performed. He comes up with a combined punishment and reward: lifelong exile to her burnt-out home world, Eloon, but in the capacity of planetary governor. She is charged with rebuilding the planet and establishing a new Freeworld as a refuge for victims of conflict from anywhere in the boundaries of civilization.

In the Emperor's own words, "This would be an ample task to keep the most dedicated and single-minded person occupied for a lifetime. And enough to keep even you out of trouble, I think."

I felt this was a fitting conclusion to the story, with no thought at the time for a sequel. But, of course, this ending is really just a beginning, and is rife with possibilities for proving the Emperor wrong!

The sequel, The Ashes of Home, is still only in rough outline. My thoughts on it are as follows:

Even for an assassin, Shayla Carver has made a lot of enemies. Never mind the two billion she almost killed in revenge for the destruction of her home planet many years ago, they hardly count. More important are the powerful people she betrayed on her journey of vengeance. People with long memories and deep pockets.

So when a pair of assassins ambush Shayla, it is nothing remarkable. Just another attempt on her life.

Attempts on her own life she can handle. She's had plenty of practice. But when Shayla was tasked with rebuilding her shattered home world in atonement for her earlier crimes, she hadn't bargained on the endless bickering, the religious uprisings, attempts to free high profile prisoners in her care ... running a planet is harder work than she'd ever imagined.

And this particular attempt turns out to be just one of a string of seemingly unconnected events which drive Shayla close to madness as she struggles to prepare a fledgling colony for an Imperial inspection.

Then members of her own guard try to kill the Imperial inspectors themselves. Or so it appears. Shayla thwarts the plot, but is summoned to explain matters to the Emperor in person.

Realizing that she is close to losing her home world for a second time, Shayla retreats to the ruins of her ancestral family home. The one place she can be alone to recover her strength. The one place she is truly vulnerable.

Waiting for her there is Cobra. Once a leading member of a terrorist organization whose plans Shayla derailed, Cobra has been stalking her ever since, watching her movements, seeking weaknesses. He's behind the recent events, turning up the pressure, driving Shayla into his clutches...

X is for Xeno-no-show

In all the planets humanity has explored in Ghosts of Innocence, there is one notable absence.

An official census at the accession of Julian Flavio Skamensis counted 523 inhabited star systems. This does not include the many tens of thousands of other systems explored but holding no self-supporting permanent population.

Note that I chose my words carefully there. I posted about the difficulties of interstellar censuses here.

OK, there were actually two notable absences.

Firstly, none of these worlds was originally fit to live on. Apart from Earth, which has long since been lost in the mists of legend, everywhere people live has had to be artificially made fit for habitation. Many worlds were terraformed - a slow and expensive process that eventually became the cause for immense conflict. Some, like Jemiyal, were simply converted into immense enclosed bases.

But there were no new Gardens of Eden, no Earthly twins. Just inhospitable balls of rock.

And that brings me to the most significant absence.

No alien life. Not even a microbe.

I chose not to populate my universe with a zoo of alien races. Yes, it's been fashionable for decades to pretend we aren't alone in our corner of the galaxy, but I suspect other intelligent life will turn out to be far spread in both time and space, and may be so removed from anything we have on Earth as to be possibly unrecognizable. This is a far cry from aliens in popular fiction, most of which, for some reason, turn out to be bipedal near-humanoids, or based on some Earthly body plan like insects or reptiles. That always makes me roll my eyes when I read it, so I decided to hold true to my beliefs.

Every person, plant, and animal in Shayla's world is ultimately of terrestrial origin.

Little green men, or large-eyed silvery men, are not part of the landscape.