Derek E. Silva

It’s been a while since I’ve found some really good initiatives that I thought London, Ontario and Canada at large should be adopting or plain old ripping off. After all, I’ve never seen a government agency claim intellectual property (IP) infringement if someone else began doing the same thing, so why shouldn’t we?! This type of stance has been brought forth by Shawn Adamsson very recently.

Food 2030

The UK government recently unveiled Food 2030 – a food strategy designed to ensure that Britons have access to high quality, sustainably farmed/grown, food that benefits both the farmer/grower and the consumer. At the same time Food 2030 should ensure that people have good jobs, a reduction in greenhouse emissions and food waste. (more…)

Recently I went through my inbox looking at past issues of the newsletter I receive called Project GiftED. While I don’t always find myself in agreement with everything said in the newsletter or on the blog – mostly because the blog entries aren’t always about education – I do find myself intrigued often enough to keep subscribing. I got really interested when I came across an article that was actually written by the folks at zenhabits entitled “27 Skills Your Child Need to Know That She’s Not Getting in School.”

Recognizing full well that I completed high school over 8 years ago and then entered the Computer Systems Technology program at Fanshawe College, I asked a colleague of mine, James Costa, what he thought about the list.  His response below has been edited for brevity and clarity: (more…)

Not good enough anymore

While researching innovative approaches to educating our children, I came across a pilot project that was run this past summer at a single school in New York City. It’s been dubbed “School of One,” and the approach is very similar to the types of things I mentioned as possibilities in “The Textbook of the Future?” To quote this New York Times article:

The program [...] consists mainly of students working individually or in small groups on laptop computers to complete math lessons in the form of quizzes, games and worksheets. Each student must take a quiz at the end of each day; the results are fed into a computer program to determine whether they will move on to a new topic the next day. (more…)

I was recently on vacation in the Azores (archipelago of 9 islands about 1,500km from the coast of Portugal, in the Atlantic Ocean) and late one night I got the spur to begin writing my next blog entry. Though it’s taken me this long to finally sit down and begin fleshing it out, at least I’ve finally gotten to it.

After being exposed to nothing but European news for almost 2 weeks, I began thinking about ways that Canada could improve it’s government in (probably) 12 months or less. Some of these require lengthy explanations, others don’t because others have done the explaining family. So let’s get right into it! (more…)

Seeing as we have entered construction season here in Canada (a.k.a. spring and summer), I thought it prudent to collect some things that other cities have been doing that I think we ought to be implementing here in London (in some cases especially since we’re known as the Forest City) and other Canadian cities ought to be at least contemplating.

Let’s start with a great example from Vancouver: The roof of the Vancouver Convention Centre has been turned into a green roof. What does that mean? (more…)

First people sued cigarette companies for giving them lung cancer. Then people sued fast food restaurants for making them fat. The latest fad? Suing gambling corporations for making people lose money.

I’m tired of it. I’m tired of people trying to blame a third party for their own losses and problems. With all of the evidence that goes against the bad habits, or addictions as people may refer to them now, like smoking, constantly eating out and the potential for losing money and causing problems with your friends and family if you gamble too much – not to mention all of the ads on TV and radio -  how can you still feign ignorance?! (more…)

I don’t believe that PETA, formally known as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, truly understands how to get their message across in a manner that will get the general public to care about said message. No doubt they know how to shock you and put you in awe of some of the genuine atrocities against animals that happen across the world, but for some reason they turn their attention to some very odd targets in some truly bizarre manners.

The latest example: Using Ilaanaq, the inukshuk logo being used for Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic games, in their material against the annual seal hunt. Really PETA? You want to go there? Okay, let’s. (more…)

And here we stand on the brink of oblivion, if you believe what the executives of Ford, Chrysler and GM had to say to the U.S. Congress this week.

And if you read this very well-written article at The Globe & Mail, it could very well happen. Personally, I think we all need a reality check on how we got here and the many players that have played parts in the problems that Ford, Chrysler and GM are having right now.

1) Ford, Chrylser & GM – For many years now, Detroit has succeeded in creating reputations for themselves of putting out unreliable products and pairing them with expensive and poor service. Clearly I’m generalizing, but it’s necessary in order to avoid a very long explanation of what products and services don’t fall into this trap. If you walk up to almost anyone on the street and ask them how long a Ford engine will last compared to a Toyota engine, I’m willing to be a significant amount of money that the majority of those surveyed will tell you that a Toyota engine will last roughly twice as long. When I tell people that my Chevrolet Aveo has gone 187,000km without any issues they are amazed. Unfortunately the Aveo is a poor example since it’s built in South Korea. (more…)

Although I tend to shy away from such groups simply because no one activism group really fits my opinion on topics or the extremities of where they go with their opinions and actions, I would very much like to congratulate Maude Barlow and being named the UN’s first water adviser.

Maude is the chair of the Council of Canadians which, among other things, has been looking for leadership on the issue of water and the sustainability of some of our practices for some time now. Finally someone as realized that Maude has some very important, intelligent and insightful things to say on the issue and has recognized her for it in one of the best ways possible.

So congratulations Maude, make us proud!

Thumbnail photo on homepage taken by KaterKate.

I originally posted this at another blog platform I used to use. I’m re-posting it here because I’m really glad I wrote this a little over a year ago. Originally published April 21, 2007.

As I sat in my car earlier today listening to Placebo’s “Once More With Feeling,” I got to thinking about the differences between my parents’ generation, Generation X, and the ever originally named Generation Y, of which I am a part of.

As a 23 year old male living in southwestern Ontario, the child of migrant parents and whose grandparents barely speak any English, I don’t believe I’m in a terribly unique position in my life. Many of the members of my generation who also grew up in Strathroy have a very similar background, the only real differentiation that their parents might be from a different part of Portugal or that their parents are actually of Dutch descent. (more…)