It is that time of year again, for holiday celebrationsof all kinds around the winter solstice and the beginningof a New Year. Christmas for the Christians, Chanukahfor those of Jewish faith, Yule or Solstice or Saturnaliaand such for those whose traditions have not beencorrupted by the Christian Church’s takeover of paganfestivals in the late Roman Era, and Consumer Christmasfor those who have been corrupted by the capitalisttakeover of all of the above.

It is also that time of year when various publicationsand other media draw up lists of important persons andevents of the year and make awards such as person of theyear. Time magazine, since 1927, has named a Person ofthe Year, and for some time it has also named a CanadianNewsmaker of the Year. This year Prime Minister StephenHarper was awarded the latter title.

Before one gets tooexcited about such an honour, however, one might want toconsider that Time has issued Person of the Year awardsto the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Ayatollah Khomeini andGeorge W. Bush.

Recently it has been revealed that the RCMP spied onTommy Douglas for over 30 years, compiling a dossier ofalmost 1200 pages. In addition to spying on Douglas, theRCMP has gathered files on over 800,000 Canadians,including more than 650 secret dossiers on Canadianpoliticians and bureaucrats.

One wonders why, in a democratic and supposedly free society such as Canada, wehave the national police spying on us as if they were inthe Soviet Union, Nazi Germany or some other repressivestate. One also wonders whether or not they have asecret dossier on Stephen Harper.

The much-spied-upon Tommy Douglas was voted the GreatestCanadian in a CBC contest a couple of years ago, anachievement that newsmaker Harper will probably never seeoutside the minds of those on the lunatic fringe.More than Douglas, however, Harper is a better fit withthose on the Time list like George Bush and some of theother more unsavoury characters who had or have littlerespect for democracy and civil rights and lots ofrespect for either the very rich or fanatical religiousfantasies, or both.

One has to hand it to Canadians forknowing what makes a great one, but on the other hand onealso has to wonder why that knowledge isn’t generallyreflected in those that they choose to govern them.

Some good news reported this year is that the issues ofenvironmental and social responsibility are gainingground in university circles. Arizona State Universityhas created a School of Sustainability and soon we may beseeing Doctorate degrees issued in that field, and it isabout time. In a world driven by a rapacious consumerculture where an axiom of the predominant business ethicis the ridiculous belief that growth is good andnecessary to survive, a healthy dose of realism has longbeen needed.

Of course, it remains to be seen howuniversities, which are dependent on funding from thosein society who benefit from the temporary rewards ofunsustainable practices, will handle facts that are boundto indicate that major changes in social and economicpatterns must be undertaken at the expense of those whosemain purpose is the accumulation of wealth.

Some bad news is that the U.S. economy is on life support,not surprising given the tax policies of the currentgovernment combined with an insane amount of spending onneedless wars. The U.S. trade deficit is at an all-timehigh, the country is billions in debt and borrowing moneyfrom foreigners at the rate of about $2 billion per day.

The major holder of U.S. debt is China whose U.S. currencyreserves are more than a trillion dollars. If theChinese decide to protect their holdings by convertingtheir dollars to gold and silver the U.S. dollar andeconomy could collapse unless other outside powersintervened, an event that would almost certainly involvea change in U.S. foreign policy to suit countries likeSaudi Arabia.

To add more fuel to this fire it was recently announcedby Iran that they will be converting their assets fromdollars to euros, and selling their oil in euros ratherthan dollars. If more countries follow suit and the euroreplaces the dollar as the international currency thevalue of the dollar could plummet.

Some interesting news this year is that the most valuablecash crop in the U.S. is not corn at $23 billion annualproduction value, or soy beans at $18 billion, butmarijuana at $36 billion. Overall, illegal drug use inthe U.S. is estimated to be about $200 billion per year.Perhaps if the oil economy collapses the U.S. may become anarco state like Afghanistan?

One wonders what the world would look like ifsustainability and not growth had been thedominant ethic, and more people like Tommy Douglas had risen to lead its nations rather than theHarpers and Bushes.