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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, November 15, 2012 · 6 The Oakville Beaver The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 905-631-6095 Guest Column Neil Oliver Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West David harvey Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief Daniel Baird Advertising Director ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor Riziero Vertolli Photography Director Sandy Pare Business Manager RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association MARK DILLS Director of Production Manuel garcia Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Website www.oakvillebeaver.com The OakvilleBeaver is a division of Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award O In SOLEMN REFLECTION: This photo was taken at the Cenotaph at George's Square in Oakville during a silent vigil. Here, Cadet Christien Rivard of the 1188 Lorne Scots Oakville and a recently retired Oakville Beaver carrier, bows his head in solemn reflection. Christien's grandfather served in the Royal Canadian Air Force for more than 10 years. The road less travelled SUBMITTED PHOTO PHOTO COURTESY OF G. RIVARD akville residents Melissa Snedden, a special education teacher at T.A Blakelock High School, and Carling Watson, a fourth-year media and the public interest student at Western University, took the trip of a lifetime to Canada's North -- Nunavut. In mid-September, both Snedden and Watson received a phone call from Global Vision to offer them a spot in their trade mission labelled, South Meets North -- 15 young adults from southern Canada were chosen to join Global Vision founder Terry Clifford and his daughter Amy Giroux. The purpose of the mission was to help identify what problems and issues northern Canada faces and help better educate southern Canada. In 2014, Canada will be hosting the Arctic Council conference and in order to prepare for it, Global Vision brought 15 young adults from Nunavut to Pangnirtung (a hamlet on Baffin Island) to collaborate and discuss what the North is faced with on a regular basis. During this time, the 15 young adults from southern Canada had the opportunity to experience Inuit culture by sampling bannock (water, flour, baking soda and blubber), Arctic char and even cooked seal meat. Even in their short visit, they learned some Inuktitut expressions like good morning (Ullakkut), thank you (qujannamiik) and goodnight (Unnukkut) and saw the Northern Lights. Having the opportunity to be part of Global Vision's Junior Team Canada has not only expanded Snedden and Watson's horizons in regards to Canadian culture, but it has encouraged them to travel on the less-travelled road, as Clifford likes to say. Canada's North is a mystery to most Canadians. Both Oakville residents are hopeful that soon enough people will take interest in travelling to the north and better educating themselves about the Inuit culture. Having had this experience, both Snedden and Watson look forward to continuing with Global Vision for future missions. -- Submitted by Melissa Snedden, special education teacher, T.A Blakelock High School. Of course she can hear him, but she is just not listening O ne day when our darling daughter was but a toddler, I was lecturing her about something -- picking up her toys, not picking up her nose, whatever -- when she gazed up from her crayoning and rather dismissively retorted: "I hear you, but I'm not listening." Apparently, our precocious lass was on to something (apart from ignoring her father's interminable lectures). For just this morning, I read in a New York Times article by Seth H. Horowitz, author and auditory neuroscientist at Brown University, that hearing and listening are indeed two different things: "The difference," he says, "between the sense of hearing and the skill of listening is attention." According to Horowitz, hearing is "a vastly underrated sense" -- the reaction to a new or sudden sound, for instance, is 10 times faster than visual recognition. "Hearing," he concludes, "has evolved as our alarm system." Of course, this alarm system needs filters, or what he calls "volume control," that keeps non-essential noise off our radar, otherwise we'd be on hyper-alert, all day, every day. And this is where attention comes into play. Ah, attention. You know, where you not only hear something, but you actually allow yourself to listen. Hearing is innate, natural. Listening is difficult -- it's "a skill we're in danger of losing in a world of digital distraction and information overload." This was glaringly evident in last week's U.S. presidential election wherein contender Mitt Romney was blindsided by Barack Obama. And how exactly does one go about being blindsided by the favoured incumAndy Juniper bent? Evidently, Romney was deafened by the sounds of information overload and numbers crunching. Trouble is, the numbers he was receiving, the information he chose to hear, was coming to him from within his own Republican Party. Romney wasn't listening to anyone imparting the more impartial, accurate numbers. Consequently, he was certain he was about to become the new president. Bang. Blindside. Naturally, after the election, there was all the usual hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing and finger-pointing that follows any stunning defeat with blowhards leading the way. As my father used to say about such blowhards: (a) they like to drink their own bathwater; and (b) they love to hear the sound of their own voices, but they never listen to what they're actually saying. The `hearing, but not listening' premise can be applied to many things. Take the deniers of obvious science-backed things like global warming (ah, again we're back to the Republicans). People insist they hear the arguments that the planet is becoming increasingly heated, and increasingly volatile, but because these facts don't suit their agenda (economic, or otherwise) they refuse to really listen. Speaking of not listening -- how is it that the two sides in the National Hockey League's labour lunacy have been unable to sort out this mess when I keep hearing that all both sides want is "what's best for the game?" Perhaps because, when I truly listen, I find that neither side is battling for the betterment of the game they swear they love, but, rather, for their own interests, advancement and avarice. It's a $3.1-billion pie, people: divide it and salvage the season. And to the warring factions, I simply say: I know you can hear your fans, but you're certainly not listening. Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, found on Facebook at www.facebook.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/ thesportjesters.