Talkin’ Shit

We humans are clever animals.  We have figured out all kinds of ways to make our lives convenient and pleasant.  Cars, electricity, space travel, information and communication technologies… so many advances and innovative feathers in our brain caps related to the wondrous applications of human knowledge and intellectual superiority.

There is one particular issue that humanity has been grappling with since we began to organize ourselves in various civilizations.  That is, what do we do with our waste.

Human waste as it exists today is significantly more complex than the waste they had to deal with in other eras of history.  Back then, most human waste was shit, piss, vomit and blood… Not a very pleasant topic, I know… but a very important one.

I have read that in Rome, public urine vases were commonplace, and tanners would use in leather and fabric preparation.  One Emperor (Vespasian 9-79 AD) recognized a serious buck to be made from the industry and introduced a urine tax.

Paris, circa 1200’s… where legislators had to explicitly forbid people for throwing their feces out the window.  And when that didn’t work, they compromised and asked people at least shout ‘gare a l’eau’ when showering your urine from an upper story window.

In 1590’s the model for the modern flush toilet was created by a fellow named Sir John Harington, and readily adopted in France and most of Europe. However, in Britain the design did not suit Queen Elizabeth I, as the smell that remained in the pipes was as unbearable as the shit that caused it. By the 1700’s Britain was still the only major European nation without their shit in relative order.  A few more tweaks of the technology, and a few 100 years later… most of the modern world can happily report that the only thing they have to do with their waste, is flush.

But as HRM’s recent sewage disaster has taught us, we still have a long way to go before we have solved the problem with what to do with our waste.  And, as Jocelyne Rankin and Jennifer Graham from the EAC, remind us in the most recent issue of Halifax Magazine, our waste sure ain’t what it used to be.  Chemicals, cleaners, plastics, pharmaceuticals… we really abuse our toilets with the amount of stuff that isn’t either shit or piss or vomit or blood we flush down it.

But beyond human waste, we share our sewer lines with industry… with hospitals and dry-cleaning businesses and research facilities and breweries and gas stations… all these industries creating their own forms of waste which are mixing with the domestic waste creating a superformula of the most unpleasant byproducts of modern human existence.

Now, in Halifax, we are very concerned about all this waste getting dumped into our Harbour… but… there is something else, which is perhaps even more disturbing than the “glitch” we seem to have encountered with our waste management plan.  That is, what we are doing with the sludge left once our sewage is processed through the technology we have chosen to “fix” our sewage problem.  Our sewage system takes care of 70% of the particulate matter in our sewage… but what do we do with it once we’ve filtered it out?

Currently, as I understang it, the city lets a corporation called N-Viro Systems take that leftover human and industrial waste sludge away.  Which is then mixed with cement kiln dust (a liming agent which is another industrial waste product containing heavy metals) at a 50:50 ratio.  The resulting product is something they call Bio-solids.

N-Viro Systems trucks bio-solids to various farms in the province, where it is dug into the land and used as fertilizer.

Now, it appears as though HRM has plans to get into the Bio-solids game by building its own facility to process it… and, it appears as though bio-solids are being touted as a “Green” Solution to our shitty problems… However, I seriously question the ecological wisdom in giving such a process the green stamp of approval… As I learned last night, acceptable evidence on the safety of the land use of bio-solids in agriculture is sketchy at best, given the methods of testing for acceptable levels of certain toxins available to us here in NS.

I mean, we are talking about our food here… our food and our land.  We are digging this shit directly into our soil and calling it fertilizer.

Bio-solids are on the agenda of some, like Dr. Marilyn Cameron and other members from the NS Environmental Network.  Dr. Cameron gave the keynotes speech at this weekend’s GPNS AGM… she has our attention, and now she needs yours.

Dr. Cameron has been attempting to have this issue addressed by the current government, however she is unable to get any satisfactory response.  She is unable to get a list of the farms using bio-solids, and the province is unwilling to legislate labeling laws.

She would like to see the NDP adhere to the “Precautionary Principle” on this issue (From Wiki: The precautionary principle is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action).

When we’re talking biosolids, we’re not talking about simply those natural excrements of humanity… but all the unnatural and chemical ones too… It seems to me that I have a right to know, as a consumer of local foods, if my produce is being grown in this sludge.

Dr. Cameron has yet to get an audience with HRM City Council, but she has an application in to do so.  If she manages to get the floor, it will be interesting to hear how Halifax responds to her, an environmental activist from rural NS in response to a problem they believe they’ve come close to solving… I predict it will fall on deaf ears.  I mean, the city is pretty pleased with itself, and this so-called Green solution… to the extent that they are pumping more of our tax dollars into a processing plant, which will allow them to cut out the middle man, collecting, processing, selling and delivering the sludge themselves.

I will be pointing my city councilor, my MLA, the Minister of the Environment, and the Minister of Agriculture to this issue… I will also be asking the local farmers who sell their bounty at the numerous farmers markets in the area, whether their food was grown with bio-solids… I have already started talking with my friends and family about the issues… and I (with other GPNS members) am resolved to assist Dr. Cameron in her public education campaign.

Why would the province and the city take such a risk with an already fragile agriculture industry. And what about the local grassroots economy which has sprung up as a result of successful farmer’s markets across the province… what about the health of the residents of the province who actively make the local choice.  It all just seems reckless and wrong.

At least let me know if my food is grown in the shit… so that I can make an informed choice as a socially responsible consumer who is weary of the impact of all these chemicals in our environment.

Why I am voting Green

I have a very dear friend named Greg. Greg has lived with schizophrenia for his whole adult life.  After many struggles, psychotic breaks,  pills, poverty, addictions and therapies, he has arrived at a very good place in his life.  He has found a nice balance between the meds, his art, his friends and living.  He has been on Income Assistance because of his schizophrenia for a while now.  But recently, he has expressed a desire to get off I.A. and try to find a job.  He’s in a stable housing situation, and starting to get involved in a few community and advocacy organizations around Mental Health.  Greg will need his meds to be able to maintain a job though, and if he goes off of I.A. he loses coverage for his meds… you see the problem.

I jokingly said to him the other night that his situation now was a good symbol for everything that was wrong with the Departments of Health and Community Services.  It is really not right.

So what does Greg have to do with why I’m voting Green?  Well Green is not simply about the environment.  It is actually about the approach.  You see, approaching things in a Green way means looking at them holistically (David doesn’t like it when I use that word, because it’s flaky, and we are really trying hard to reduce the stereotype that the Green Party seems to still face in Canada and especially in Nova Scotia).  Viewing something holistically means that you do your absolute best to look at it from all angles, and see exactly where it overlaps and intersects with other issues.

The reason why it’s Green, is because it is the physical environment first.

When David, Ryan (Watson) and I went to Dartmouth High last week, one of the kids there said, “so I’m going to die in 80 years and I don’t plan on having any kids, why should I care so much about the environment (he later admitted he was playing devil’s advocate).  But I said to him… if our physical environment keeps going the way that it’s going, it might not be 80 years, but 40… and David asked if he wanted to go take a dip in the Harbour.

The reason why it’s Green is because environment means more than just saving the trees and putting up windmills… it’s about our social environment to.  For too long our governments have been disconnected our selves from our environments, physical and social, for the sake of profit margins and powerful lobby groups.

Our physical environments and our social environments are intimately intertwined.  We need clean air, clean food, clean water and protection from the elements absolutely first.  Our survival depends on it.  Yet, it seems as though it is too much to demand these things living in our democratic and abundant society.  You may question the word abundant in these times of economic crisis, but we still have many resources at our disposal, despite the minuscule drops in our GDP.

Last night on CTV Atlantic, Ryan Watson was interviewed by Steve Murphy and he was asked, what do you mean by seeing opportunity in this global economic crisis?  Ryan responded that when a crisis emerges, it is the perfect time to take a step back and examine why we have arrived at a crisis situation.  It’s not about a few emergency room beds here and a few “green” jobs there… it’s about looking at the whole structure.  It’s about taking a step back and examining whether or not we are delivering services in the most effective and efficient ways, it’s about throwing away the perspectives that got us in this mess in the first place… it’s about moving into the 21st century with 21st century ideas using 21st century technology and organizing our government in 21st century ways…

The Green Party is the only party suggesting that it’s time to move away from the GDP as a measure of our progress and province well-being, and instead adopt the GPI, Geniune Progress Index.  The fundamental difference between the GDP and the GPI is social accounting.  Social accounting is a difficult task because really, what price tag can you put on a human life?  How to do calculate the human experience in economics?  The current trend is to simply discount it as a part of the equation.  The GDP calculates the value of the person as a consumer, and nothing more.  The GPI considers the value of a person as a person, participating and communicating with their community.

I am so sick of being referred to as a consumer.  I am a person damnit.  I have a family and a community.  My life is more meaningful than being part of the bottom line in some trans-national corporations year-end profit margins.  Greg is not a mental health consumer, he is a person who requires a little more support in his community because his brain works a little differently than most.

I love my province.  Nova Scotia is a gem.  We have a perfect-sized population, a wealth of natural resources, and a creative class with great ideas. I believe in the 6 priniciples that the Green Party embraces: Ecological wisdom, social justice, participatory democracy, nonviolence, sustainability, and respect for diversity.

I am voting Green because I want to see structural change which reflects their holisitic approach to the issues.  I am voting Green because I believe the citizens need an opportunity to participate in the dialogue.

Fringe Fancies of the Loonie Left

There’s a running joke at work now, they are calling me “the politician’s wife.”  My friends are calling me Michelle Obama.  Well, some of them are.  Others are asking how we got involved with with The Green Party.  Except they are phrasing it, “how did you get hooked up with these flaky loonies anyway.”  To that I got defensive (as any good partisan and politician’s wife would).

“Have you even looked at any of the Green Party’s stuff?  I mean, before you start calling them loonies, you should probably read their strategy ideas.  Remember it’s the Green Party, not the Pinko party.”

To which he responded he would read the strategy document when it was released tomorrow.

Seriously, we understand the Green Party of Nova Scotia is not in a position to take power on June 9.  This is, after all, only our second provincial election.  Even David has a realistic goal set for the day.  500 votes.  That’s the goal.  We’re asking people in our riding (Dartmouth South – Portland Valley) to be 1 of 500 who place an X in the box by David’s name.  1 of 500 who place an X in the box for an alternative approach to political representation.  1 of 500 who place an X in the box to say, I agree that the envrionment, social justice, community sustainability and participatory democracy are important issues that need to be brought to the table.

Of course, if he gets more than 500 votes, we’ll be giddy, since this riding saw 308 votes for the Greens in the last (and their first) provincial election (the third highest riding in the province). But like the tagline in the Green Party brochure, we are approaching David’s participation in this election with “clear-eyed realism.”

David would be a fabulous MLA.  Although I am obviously biassed, you will probably not find a person who knows David who would disagree with this statement.  Someone with a better grasp of political theatre you will never meet.  And he would certainly make the scrum an interesting and entertaining event.

Even our former MLA from Eastern Passage, Kevin Deveaux, understood David’s grasp of politics during the 2007 by-election in the area (that David was voting in and blogging about).  He commented “Articulate, intelligent and balanced… glad to see there are thoughtful voters who are able to see through the political bullshit and make decisions based on facts.“

David would indeed be a fabulous MLA, because he gets it…

And because he gets it, I have been able to get it.  I credit all that I understand about the political process to David.  I also credit my ability to logically attack complex problems to the late night debates and intellectual sparring which often occur in this household.  Likewise, I think David would credit me with his understanding of human behaviour and social theory, two areas which were beyond his expertise, but thoroughly entrenched in mine.  David and I make a kick ass team when we combine our strengths and mask each others deficits.

In fact if David does, by miracle, manage to get elected, Nova Scotians will be getting a good deal… two brains for the price of one.

We get that there are a myriad of issues facing Nova Scotians today.  We get that these issues are complex and interconnected with our economies and our environments.  From health care to education to the increasing cost of living, we get that Nova Scotians are struggling to cope with the uncertainty of the future, because we are struggling to cope with the uncertainty of our future.

The relationships that exist between our physical environment, our economy, our culture, and our daily existence in rural and urban Nova Scotia need to be disentangled. While our current government claims to “get it”, years of mismanaged policy and finances, coupled with a ‘wait and see’ approach to the effects of the global economic crisis on Nova Scotia, proves they just don’t get it.  While our opposition parties also claim to get it, the platforms released in this current election reveal them to be clinging to 20^th century perspectives in the face of 21^st century complexity.

We really wish our politicians did get it, so that we wouldn’t feel so compelled to set aside the beautiful month of May to actively engage with it like this.  Usually during elections, we snipe from the sidelines.  We ridicule these stale old policiticans and moan about these stale old policies.  We usually hold an alcohol-fuelled salon on election night… not an alcohol-fuelled victory party.

And I have a feeling it will be a victory party.  No matter how many votes David gets in the end.  Because it turns out that this is an exercise of participatory democracy.  We may not be getting proportional representation any time soon – but we are seizing this opportunity to have our voices heard, we are seizing this opportunity to have an excuse to go knock on the doors of our neighbors and chat with them about the things that they need, and we are seizing this opportunity to get our feet wet.

Because when the time comes that Nova Scotians realize that the environment, social justice, sustainability and paticipatory democracy are not just the fringe fancies of the loonie left, but the issues which are fundamental to a truly free and just democray, David, and I and the Green Party of Nova Scotia will have more than just a platform, we’ll have an implementable plan.

Web 2.0 and the Nova Scotia Election

Back during the last US Presidential Elections, I wrote a blog about the candidates utilization of the Internet in their campaigns.  It was way back in the election when it looked like John McCain didn’t have a chance in hell of getting the Republican nod, and Barack Obama had just won a legal battle to have his campaign staff take over the MySpace site which someone else started in his name.  I had no idea back then that Obama would turn his campaign into a social media blitzkrieg… picking up where Howard Dean was cut off in 2004.

Obama and his campaign staff knew how to do it… they knew how to effectively use Web 2.0 and engage a whole generation of otherwise disenfranchised voters.   By reaching out to them online, because he knew that he probably would get them to come out to the rallies… In fact, after his comment at the first ever Virtual Presidential Town Hall regarding marijuana legalization and the “type” of people he was engaging online… he probably didn’t want too many of them showing up at the rallies after all!

In any case, in that review, I gave each candidate’s website a Web 2.0/Hipness rating, on a scale of 1 to 10… ranking the sites in terms of ability to engage youth, disenfranchised cynics, connectors and netizens based on my critical understanding of all of those things…

Here in Nova Scotia, things are a little different.  The population of youth, disenfranchised cynics, connectors and netizens is substantially smaller than the population of status quo voters.  We Nova Scotians have been accused of being fearful of progressive change… and Web 2.0 has not necessarily penetrated the whole population as well as in other provinces.  Frig, not even our whole population has access to High-Speed Internet… with far too many rural communities being left in the dust.

However, in an election, sometimes it is the small populations of those who have never previously voted which can make big differences in the election outcomes… And politicians are recognizing more and more that the Internet, and the effective use of Web 2.0 platforms can make those small differences have mega impacts.  So far the candidates have been slow to take full advantage of the platforms.  Of the three mainstream leaders, only Stephen McNeil is twittering… and none have encouraged user-generated video and photo… But they are all trying to connect using their Party’s websites.

The Liberals

Yesterday I chirped “The Liberals are smoking the other parties in terms of an effective Social Networking infrastructure… #nselection” and after taking a thorough look at their site, now I know why. A company called KTUpload is powering the Liberals Website.  I worked very closely with one of the folks at KTUpload for years at the Atlantic Centre for the Study of the Information Society… and while he had little to do with the site, I know that he “gets” it.  So while the Liberals have a smokin’ website, it is more important to note that they had the foresight to hire a web development team which gets it.

First point… When you Google NS Liberals, the sponsored link at the very top of the page is Darrell Dexter’s NDP website (Brilliant Guerrilla Marketing technique from the NDP)

Second point… The site is clean and easy to navigate.  It has clear menu titles and no drop-down boxes.  The pages interlink with one another very well… so if you are interested in looking at the media, you can click through the home page… and you will find the Media link on other pages of the site.

Third point… Web 2.0 platform use.  The Liberals are using all the big ones… Facebook, Flickr, Youtube and Twitter, and thier links to these pages are prominently displayed on the home page.  You don’t have to search for the legitimate groups… you just have to click through.

Although the home page of the Liberal Website may have too many sets of Stephen McNeil’s eyes on it… there is a simple contact form which makes it easy for the voter looking to get a sign or volunteer or get on the mailing list without have to search for it.

The “Follow the Leader” feature on the home page links to a calendar of events for McNeil… but when you click on it… there are very few engagements, making it look like he’s not very active on the campaign trail… While it is a great feature, it may not be juicy enough to be a home page link, when the photo gallery (which is buried on the media page) is very juicy and may have been a better choice as being prominently displayed… either that, or display the calendar for the whole month + of the campaign to show all the places he’s been as well as where he is going on a single view (they could even integrate the photos into the calendar)

The Candidates page shows the current 29 candidates for the Liberals. You can click through to a little bio page with some of their info… the candidates pages are inconsistent in their format.  Some of the photos are way too big for a quick load of the page, which is problematic for those who get impatient with page load time (especially for all those folks in rural Nova Scotia who only have dial-up).  Also, the candidates who are on twitter, should have links to them on their individual bio pages.

All the multimedia is great on the Liberals page, but they should have the text of the videos audio as well (again for our good friends in rural Nova Scotia who are trying to access the site via dial-up)

Overall the Liberal website gets my Web 2.0/Hipness Rating of 7/10… they lost points because no matter how good their site is, it’s really hard to make Stephen McNeil hip and because of the issues listed above.  But also because there is absolutely no where on the website which indicates their platform or positions on the issues… Aesthetics should never compromise information.

The NDP

It is unclear who is behind the NDP website, which leads me to believe that someone from the party itself is maintaining it.  There are pros and cons to this approach.  On the one hand, the party will have more control of the content… on the other hand, sometimes you should just let the professionals do their thing.

I do not like the amount of blank space on the NDP’s website.  The colour scheme seems weird to me… Too much blue, and not enough orange.  The slide show is nice, but there are far too many images with text that is what I would consider ‘negative campaigning’… too much talking about the Conservatives… People are coming to the website to find out about the NDP, not what the Conservatives are doing wrong.  And why oh why do the NDP have a widget with PC on it as one of the most prominent graphics on the home page.  They are on the offensive, and the tactics leave a bad taste in my mouth.

I like the “your action centre” widget, but disagree with using the word “your” for the videos and pictures on the site… because they are very obviously campaign photos and videos… not “your” videos and photos.  If they wanted to show ‘your’ videos and photos, they would have a site upload form and allow supporters to *really* share “their” photos and videos from the campaign trail.  They are really “Your Candidates” videos and photos…

The NDP have one up on the Liberals in that they have links to “the issues.”  Though again every single stance on every single issue is preambled with where the conservatives have failed, and there is very little substance, or indication how the NDP plan to address the issues.  So while they have done their job in identifying their priorities in this campaign… they have not done much to tell the voter the strategy in addressing the issues.

Their Candidates page is nice.  I like the electoral map and the list (though rather than alphabetizing by name, it may be better to alphabetize by riding).  Their candidate table could also be bigger, with direct links to their websites, emails, etc right on that main candidate page, which would be easy to do if they widened their content page.

The NDP have their Web 2.0 links embedded in the footer of every page, which is very clever… but the blue font is hard to read and the logos are not prominent enough (and the Facebook one may actually violate the FB TOS for logo use).

Overall (and though it breaks my heart) the NDP get my web 2.0/Hipness rating of 6/10… Negative campaigning is NOT hip… and the Website is lacking in aesthetic appeal, without the content to help bump the rating up a bit.

The Progressive Conservatives

So… when I Google NS PCs, the sponsored link (again) is a link to the NDP website.  But, the first link is not the Tory site, it is the Nova Scotia Young Progressive Conservatives site… in fact, Rodney MacDonald’s site is no where on the first page of search results at all.  A readjustment of the search to NS Conservatives (still the NDP sponsored link), but there it is (immediately followed by a CTV news story about the conservatives “failing”)

The Conservatives have a very slick website.  It is extremely aesthetic and “Nova Scotian”… which is easy to do when you have access to the designers which have gotten some very nice contracts from the Tories (NSLC, and the Nova Scotian Gaming Authority to name two)… Revolve Branding 360 are big playas round these parts… and the Tories have always understood the importance of branding…

Aesthetically, the PCs score big points on the site… they do have the most visually pleasing home page for my eyes.  That said, I can’t really find many too many design “problems” with the site, except in their Web 2.0 use.

While they allow the option to “share” their site on a multitude of platforms… they do not offer the voter the chance to *engage* the party and the candidates by linking to their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube presence… in fact the lack of these links indicates to me (a non-Tory supporter) that they do not even have a presence on these sites… ergo, it is not their priority to engage and interact with the electorate in this way.

So rather than critique the site, I’ll point out the subliminal marketing strategies behind some of the graphics and language on the site.

They are rotating three pictures which visually sum up their whole campaign beautifully.

The first is a photoshopped picture of Rodney and his team (the photoshop is in the sign on the podium Rodney is standing at) “Proven Record Economy First”  This image wants to remind you that Rodney has a team of capable MLAs behind him… They are applauding him (some very vigorously – look at the two dudes on the exteme left in the front row).  This photo, reinforces the other prominent language on the site… “our leader” “our team” “our track record”… they are presenting a united front.  Reminding those who are uncertain of Rodney’s experience himself, that he has a solid team of experience behind him.

The second photo is a garbage can, with a white background simply stating that the Liberals (red font) and NDP (orange font) have thrown 20,000 jobs in the garbage.  This must have to do with the infrastructure contract cancelling fiasco, but in the end it doesn’t matter… the graphic doesn’t link to the whole story like the other two images do… just a simple statement of interpreted truth with a simple graphic to accompany it.

The third photo is a beauty… perhaps the most compelling of all three.  It is related to gambling, and risk… which the designer knows much about given they do design work for both ALC and the gaming corporation… It is an image of two sets of dice, one with letters (probably Boggle dice) spelling out the word “R-I-S-K-Y” and two standard orange one.  Both of the visible sides of the dice show the smallest possible numbers they could be arranged with… notice the two ones…

The PC website gets a Web 2.0/Hipness score of 7/10 as well.  If the issues around the Web 2.0 connections were resolved, along with a letting Rodney MacDonald have a Twitter account… then I would revise my earlier statement that the Liberals were smokin’ the other parties in their SNS infrastructure, to say that the Tories were.

The Green Party

The NDP don’t care much about the Green Party… not enough to pay for a sponsored link when someone Googles it… But, the NS Green Party is so unknown that Google wants to know if you really meant the “NZ Green Party”.

The Green Party of Nova Scotia uses the federal Green Website template.  Which is a good thing, because it is important for people to remember that they are another Federal party… not simply a fringe party with little support… despite the fact that it is a fringe party with very little support.

The Green Party website has no external Web 2.0 integration, however does have a little SNS embedded in it’s site called “The Green Network”.  It’s a pretty good idea, though I am beginning to question the effectiveness of trying to start up your own SNS when there is free access to popular ones like Facebook and Twitter… only the most diehard of supporters will actually take the extra step to become a member of yet another SNS… It could, however, be a VERY effective tool for coordinating their campaign provincially… for the candidates to connect and share ideas, and to create strategies which can unite the party itself.  But it needs to be integrated with the large existing and successful SNS’s to be very effective.

The Green Party site does not appear to be in election mode at all.  There is no candidate list, no campaign rhetoric. no upcoming events.  But, the one thing that The Green Party Site does have is content and ideas… Their About the Party page outlines the Green Party’s core values as a party… something that none of the other parties care to offer up to the voter.

The other thing I really like about the site, is the opportunity to really get to know the leader of the Green Party, Ryan Watson… He has a blog, he has a twitter… and if you message him, he messages back!  Ryan Watson is young, handsome, charismatic, and hip himself… which scores the Party more points in this election than it has in past elections the NS Greens have participated in.

Overall, the website is severely lacking though.  No candidate list, an online form to request a sign which doesn’t inform you if your request has been completed and a graphics which lead the viewer to believe that the Green Party is a one issue, environmental, tree-huggin’ party.  Which isn’t bad if you are into that sort of thing… but will not play very well in industrial Nova Scotia.

Unfortunately, the Nova Scotian Greens have a small operating budget, therefore they rely heavily on volunteers to carry out the campaign… so it is hard to do regular updates and high level interaction… Ryan Watson is doing well assuming the role of leader… it’s just too bad that he doesn’t have a political infrastructure to back him up… we may have heard much more buzz about him if he had.

So while I’m giving the Green Party the lowest Web 2.0/Hipness rating a 5/10… I’m giving Ryan Watson the prize for hippest leader with an 8/10.

Hope you found this deconstruction interesting…