It is a little more than a month that I have been using this blog site as a platform to express my views, share some experiences, and tell a few stories. In the last week, I heard some feedback, that the Canadian Prime Minister’s image would appear along side my blog entries on people’s screens, promoting some form of debt relief.
Now that was hard to take. A Quaker’s writing in which he is trying to uphold the principle of and write from a point of integrity being visually associated with the leader of a government culture and structure that has earned very little credibility in that department.
For me, that was a dilemma. The second dilemma was the simple fact that I do not support consumerism and therefore the ubiquitous use of space for advertising. Although I was aware of the advertising policy of WordPress.com when I chose the platform for my blog site, I have not expected or anticipated the emotional impact until the advertisements started to appear together with my writings.
So, in the end, there was an easy solution to make Stephen Harper disappear for good: Pay up for the privilege of renting ad-free space on the Internet! In my opinion, it cannot be the will of God to compromise my values and my integrity in order to benefit from strategically placed advertising together with my blog and to save a few dollars.
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Here are a some of my earlier blog posts that touch on the subject of integrity, governance, and government rule:
A sorry state – the loss of democracy
Experiments in living – To govern or not to govern
Leadership and power – not authoritarian rule and legalized force
OFRADIX 
Thank you Othmar for another breath of fresh air. I can’t remember the last time I read something about integrity. It’s as if it was a 19th century concept that somehow went out of fashion.
Thank you, Malcolm. I sometimes feel exactly as old fashioned as you describe the concept “integrity” in this postmodern culture with it hedonistic preferences.
Maybe I missed something you said, but Harper is NOT gone and is still the PM, I’m curious why on earth you would think this. If you meant that his popularity is gone then say that instead because otherwise it sounds misleading.
David, thank you for sharing your concern.
As I wrote in the blog entry (forth paragraph), I made the advertisements with Stephen Harper’s face showing disappear from my blog. I am still aware that Mr. Harper is PM in Canada and I am still in agreement with his and his party’s politics and governmental style. As a Quaker, I stand for Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Sustainability. People in Canada and elsewhere in the world deserve governments that serve their needs and not the greeds of corporations.