Credentialism

Credentialism is the feeding trough of the upwardly mobile.

The Farm Manager, in her capacity as a Educational Assistant in her day job, today took a one day course that rendered her a "Behaviour Management Systems Practitioner."

What the fuck does that mean?

In practical terms, nothing.

But she gets a certificate she can hang on the wall.

When one of my mentors in the world of commercial real estate, Vic Tucciarone, got his real estate license back in the '50's, it involved a five dollar fee paid at the Government of Ontario offices, and that was that.

No courses, no nothing.

Today an aspiring realtor has to take multiple courses that take many months and cost many thousands of dollars.

Does anybody really think this has given us "better" real estate agents?

I had a college prof, Al Jeffries, who warned us about this credentialism racket. Keep your resume to one page, he told us over and over again. Anything above that reeks of credentialism.

Then somebody dug up a copy of his resume.

It ran to fourteen pages.

The takeaway?

Credentialism pays!

I remember sitting in my dear uncle Werner's office at the University of Waterloo and admiring the many certificates/degrees/diplomas festooning the walls.

Tucked in amongst them was a Province of Alberta fishing licence circa 1962.

At least he had a sense of humour...

No girls allowed

I was shocked to find, on the inside back page of section A of my Globe today, a full page advert for the University of Waterloo.

That in itself is not shocking. With the collapse of advertising rates across the newspaper universe, it's not unusual to find public universities splurging on full page ads in major papers. That full-pager in that location would have cost a small fortune ten years ago. Today... not so much. I'm guessing UW didn't pay more than a couple hundred bucks.

But that's not what's shocking.

No, what's shocking is that the photo in the ad shows six U of W students fiddling with what is allegedly a self-driving car, and all six appear to be dudes. Apparently there are no girls allowed in the disruptive and innovative self-driving-car initiative at Canada's answer to MIT.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised; it's not the first time U of Waterloo has dropped the inclusivity ball in their PR... wait a minute... I just realized something.

The caption to that photo reads "The road to discovery in automotive technology is seldom straight."

Oh... maybe they're advertising their inclusivity after all.

Paul Ryan's "white selfie" proves that America is a cesspool of racism

Well, what do you expect from a guy who has, ever so reluctantly, endorsed Donald Trump?



Yup, there's happy Paul and a whole lotta happy white folks!

Which just proves yet again that the entire edifice of GOP politics is racist to the core.

Which kinda makes you wonder about images like this one;



Ya, I know, it's hard to reconcile this photo of Reverend Al and Mr. Trump yucking it up after the Hillary camp has exposed Trump as the most racist racist of all time.

Honestly, Reverend Al, what were you thinking?...

But as a Canadian, I would caution my fellow Canadians to not get too smug. We too have allowed systemic racism to taint our smug and self-contented little universe of diversity and equality.

Take this outrage for example. Back in 2014, one of Canada's top schools dispensed honorary degrees to ten super-high achievers. Oddly enough, every one was a white male!

And let's not forget the front page feature in the Globe and Mail last year wherein we learned that the primary movers and shakers in the West Coast tech scene where all..... white males!

So maybe it's not Cruz but Ryan who is the secret Canadian?

Help wanted: women and non-whites need not apply

That's an unfortunate combination of words and letters on the front page of today's Globe and mail. Yup, there's lots of help wanted in Canada's new economy, but unless your a white male you might want to just skip the tech sector and apply at Timmy's.









"Help wanted," beside a picture of a bunch of jolly-looking middle-aged white guys. That's gotta be the most epic diversity fail since the University of Waterloo held its white-men-only honourary degree jamboree last year.


Appearances may not be everything, but they matter.