End of year thoughts from our readers: Rick Carroll
- December 31, 2009 4:44 PM |
- By Your Voice
Interviewed by Takara Small
Our second interview was with Rick Carroll - a frequent photo contributor to CBCnews.ca. We asked Rick to tell us a bit about himself:
"First and foremost I am a Canadian and I carry that label with an incredible amount of pride.
I love this country, its people and all of its diversity. In every sense of the words, I am your Average Joe.
For years I worked as a technician in Ottawa, my hometown, while constantly tinkering in photography. Eventually, photography and my passion for it ... became a priority. I am a self-taught photographer with over two decades of learning, yet there's still so much to learn.
In recent months I've been focusing on poverty and people on the streets. It's a daunting task that is often not well-received.
At 51, the clock is ticking. Ideally, I'd love to be able to live off my photography but
I'm not certain if that's possible. My hope is that, at some point, people realize that what
I do has little to do with me and that they have at least some understanding of my love and passion for life."
Q: What would you consider to be the biggest news story of the year/decade?
Year: "Obama has had a tremendous impact on everyone. His election was an incredible indicator of hope for the year.
Decade: "It has to be 9/11. Watching the two towers fall on live television was outrageous -- you just sink inside when you think about it. I think everyone was crushed that day."
Q: Who would you consider to be the biggest newsmaker of the year/decade?
"Obama. I still think that story is a winner for the year and decade. I can't think of anyone more important in the world right now. I think he has charisma, which doesn't necessarily make him a good politician but does make him a good newsmaker."
Q: What would you say is the most interesting or strangest trend of the year/decade?
Decade: "Cellphones have to be the worst trend of the decade. I hate cellphones with a passion. I remember you used to be able to hop on a bus and communicate with people and now that doesn't happen at all.
"Cellphones may have made things more efficient but it's closed off people from those around them. People seem so concerned with smartphones that they forget to enjoy the world around them.
"I don't think its an advancement as far as society goes, I think it's a step back. If someone calls me and I'm not home they'll leave me a message and I'll call them back when I can."
Q: If you could use one word to describe the past year/decade what would that word be?
"Average."
Q: What moment of the year/decade was your favourite?
"Obama winning the election is my favourite moment. I don't remember where I was when it happened but I remember the feeling I got when I heard the news. It was in total awe.
"Obama means so many things on so many levels."
Q: What news story or event of the past decade had the biggest impact on your life?
"I think Stephen Harper's election was the biggest news story of the decade. I think he's a good man and I trust him more than I would any other politician.
"I was happy that he was elected and still happy that he's our prime minister."
Q: How do you think the next decade will differ from this one?
"Canada's presence in Afghanistan will continue into the next decade because this is a country that doesn't have any stability and, as peacekeepers, our job is to stay until the job is finished.
"I think people in Canada and the U.S. will have to get used to the idea that this will last for decades."
Q: Weirdest event (pop culture moment)?
"I was surprised that Michael Jackson died. He was a very strange character and a tragic type but I grew up listening to him and surprised that he died so young."
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Comments (6)
Steven Harper - the man who put "mock" in democracy.
I'm thinking that the cbc has been as left leaning as ever in this past year .
I'm hoping that the fact that it is my tax dollars that fund the cbc ( which I would not fund if I had a choice) will possibly result in a little balance and less political correctness from the cbc this coming year .
( fat chance! )
The cbc is so left leaning that it makes me sick at times .
It must sicken the cbc employees as well to have to kowtow to the lefty agenda ( that is the non-liberally-retarded employees which I am sure there are very few )
Harper is a neo-con puppet and no conservative .
If the liberals were in power they would do as they are told as well -> i.e. the obama
I'm thinking that this last year and the last decade were the times of mass media produced fear.
This fear has produced wars and calls for global control by the money power .
The media barons ( at the request of the international money power ) are at work producing terror in the populations . I believe they want to gain ever increasing control over our lives and they will use any tactic possible .
The two main terror producers have been global warming and international terrorism . Both of these issues are welcomed and even produced by the globalists as being a method of producing the fear necessary for people to hand them the power to rule .
Soon we will be subjected to being "scanned" in an electronic skin search at our airports.
This is , so obviously an unecessary invasion of freedom , since a terrorist ( if real ) would not attack a heavily secured airline flight where the terrorist would perish along with the victims , the terrorist would attack a mall or an office building or busy street , etcetera.
The global warming thing is just too phoney and ridiculous to make it float , and I expect it will fizzle out , but I'm sure the globalists will have something else to come along .
Get a grip in the new year people , you are being duped again and again and again .
["I love this country, its people and all of its diversity. In every sense of the words, I am your Average Joe.]
Please speak for yourself . Although , sadly , you are pretty mouch a status quo average joe .
I love this country too , but , I don't care for the "diversity " I don't "love" being replaced against my better judgement.
I'm a white guy and I'm proud of my race . I think that whites have been guilted into allowing themselves to be made to be second class citizens in their own countries .
I believe that whites are slated to become a minority and to be displaced and replaced with a more easily "socialised" population and there is little that whites can do about it . Socialists said that if the people won't elect socialism then they will elect a new people . This si what is happening . .
I think this is a plan for the new socialist global order made by the money power to control .
This is the short and simplified version , for a better understanding you should read prof Kevin MacDonald . That is if you can read anything that is otuside of the "liberal" box.
The thousands of people and hundreds of national dignitaries meeting in Copenhagen made climate a global event of last year.
Many people have stopped talking about Global Warming. Many people talk about Climate Change, instead.
Once Global Warming becomes Climate Change, there can be no talk of Global Warming without making the two terms synonymous. If they are synonymous, changing the expression is intent to manipulate response by reloading the words.
Once Global warming is replaced by Climate Change, warming is no longer the matter, and warming by carbon dioxide is not pertinent. Carbon dioxide cannot be blamed for changing the climate without knowing how. If Climate Change does not mean Global Warming, then how does carbon dioxide change climate without warming?
It is obvious that the climate is changing. It is not obvious that the Globe is Warming, especially this winter, the coldest over the entire Northern Hemisphere since Doctor Suzuki became a crusader.
TP
I am always astounded that someone who is focused on poverty and people on the street can believe in Harper and his ideology.
Harper does not care for the people on the street or poverty or we would NOT rank 25th out of 30 developed countries in child poverty. And with him working on CETA, he will destroy our health care system. He is already on record saying "He hates the Canada Healthy Act" He wants to privatize it and destroy OUR health care system.
How can any Canadian vote for this??