Two Perspectives

This week, I finished reading Bob Bent’s ‘Broken Hearts and Longing for Home’. Each short story begins with a classic country song. From Jane Baskwill’s review:

‘These are stories that remind us why we read in the first place – because the right story teller can make us feel at home in someone else’s life and maybe even see our own a little more clearly’.

For myself, there is a real pleasure in the ‘sense of place’. In the words of Mariana Fedyshyn:

‘The narrative is rich with emotional depth and a keen sense of place, with vivid description that brought familiar Nova Scotia settings to life for me .‘

This week, I was listening to CBC Listen. Matt Galloway interviewed Jim Balsillie on his Prescription for Canadian Business. He established RIM in Waterloo, Ontario. This gave me serious ‘food for thought’ about the creative rural economy. In particular, the relationship between the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) and the GIS industry in Canada and the United States. It takes me back to Roger Tomlinson, John Wightman and the geostrategic nature of the global economy. e.g. ESRI and ESRI Canada.

If you receive my blog posts, I would appreciate any feedback on these two perspectives. It can be lonely out here, trying to understand education in a rural setting.

Edward’s comment,”we need a mindset to unearth and support our home grown talent.”. Something like the Local Prosperity Institute is trying to promote.

Finally, Edward sent me a link to the ESRI Canada GIS Day presentation.

Here it is:

https://www.esri.ca/en-ca/news-events/events/seminars/past-proceedings/s2025/gis-day

Hope this works for you !

Through inter-library loan, I received Manchan Magan ‘Thirty-two Words for Field. Lost Words of the Irish Landscape’. Next week’s reading.

In the words of Jim Balsillie, who describes himself as an ‘economic nationalist’

“carry the load you can handle”.