Dear Reader

Now that winter has arrived in all its Canadian arctic glory, some of us have taken our much-loved furs out of storage. --- (NO! We do not wear endangered species or anything of the wild variety, we wear "ranchable" furs that keep us warm, please us aesthetically and are - most important - bio degradable, unlike their faux cousins!) --- We gather around the fireplace at a friend’s house, watch movies, drink hot mulled wine and reminisce about the good old times.

Well, let it be known that some of those good old times were not so good, other good old times should never be forgotten, and some of the good old times, like the glory days of German film, can now be experienced in present time, right now, right here in Canada. We are not speaking of Old UFA films; we are talking about the red-hot entries of German movies onto the world stage, as has happened for a few years now and as is very apparent again.

Please read the report on The Lives of Others and Dr. Arpad Soelter’s (Director of the Goethe Institute Toronto) report on the subject and go to the Goethe Institute’s website to learn more of what this cultural vanguard has to offer. (www.goethe.de/ins/ca/tor/enindex.htm)

Other then that I have not been around much because other projects kept us busy and you will hear about them soon. However I have just been seeing some government commercials today that made me believe that another election is imminent. Why else would the Conservative Party take snippets from the leadership convention, cut and slice them together to make both the leader and deputy leader look bad. This sort of treatment is usually reserved for the times one hopes not to loose more votes, but gain some. One could, and some do already, speculate about the NDP’s efforts to strengthen the conservative environment agenda. And all this flies into the face of the Environmental Summit in France, where the bad news was let loose for the entire world to hear. There is no more time for experiments and study. The facts have been available for quite a while and now they are verified. We do have to change a lot in our way of living and fast, a lot faster then any of us would like. Al Gores "Inconvenient Truth" comes just in time to educate the masses on this vital data. I am just afraid that without massive legislation no one anywhere on the planet will volunteer to give up his or her conveniences for the purpose of saving of the planet.

But perhaps we can persuade the big oil giants to get all the alternative technologies out of their vaults, the ones they bought up as they were invented, so they could not come to fruition as long as there was oil to be pumped.

Scary stuff, this! But I am afraid that the time for trading pollution credits is over! It is time to listen to all the voices of reason and act responsibly.

This is not exactly a fun subject to discuss when folks want to enjoy Mardi Gras season.

Nevertheless, have a fun winter, dress warmly; stay cool in the head and passionate in the heart, and not just on Valentines Day.

Until Next time

Sybille Forster-Rentmeister