TRUTH BE TOLD

AU REVOIR. UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.

“So, as I sign-off with palms together and say so-long to our many-faceted, dedicated and gifted readers, may your lives be the fruition of all that you have strived for and may your journeys be peace-filled,” writes Dr Vicki Bismilla.

By DR VICKI BISMILLA

I have been writing for Desi News magazine for fifteen years. I started in 2011 while I was Vice-President Academic and Chief Learning Officer at the first college established in Ontario 40 years before I got there.

My first two years of articles concentrated on education and understanding human rights statutes in Ontario. After my retirement in 2012 the gifted editor of this magazine, the inimitable Shagorika Easwar, offered me the flexibility to write on any issue that I considered worth exploring.

And that has been such a profound privilege. I researched topics that I thought would be of interest to our amazing readers whose letters to the editor showed their commitment to reading this unique magazine that Shagorika and Easwar created.

My professional life as an elementary school teacher and principal, then as an elementary and secondary superintendent and equity guide for the school board and then my culminating role as Vice-President Academic at the college level, gave me the unique full-spectrum educational perspective from kindergarten to post secondary.

Assisting children and youth to learn in the K-12 system and then facilitating the learning of young men and women at the college level and also at the university level in our partnerships with universities, gave me a comprehensive, sweeping and breathtaking view of the momentous impact that education has across all ages in Ontario.

It has convinced me, in no uncertain terms, to know implicitly that the two most critical government portfolios in Ontario and indeed all of Canada, are education and healthcare.

They are integral to every person from birth to old age.

So, as I leave my column for the next writer to take the baton, may I appeal to you, our readers, please hold your politicians’ feet to the fire on both those files.

All education from pre-school to post graduate and all healthcare from the birthing room to the operating room and all their thousands of intricate facets are literally life and death matters.

Do not let politicians mess with education and healthcare.

Introduce yourselves to your MPPs, let them know you, tell them what you consider important when you vote and remind them of the schools that taught them and the doctors, nurses, paramedics and medical teams who are standing by to save their lives.

Desi News magazine’s rare lens on all things desi provides a rich tapestry of insights into our own unique desi culture.

Let’s not lose that.

While our children and grandchildren may not find the deep traditions of our homelands easy to follow, we can instil in them the intrinsic values of good character and respect that our thousands of years of scriptures teach us.

In our family, prayer is important to me as an individual and there are a few Hindu cultural highlights, like the quiet spiritual aspect of Diwali lamplighting, that we have immersed our children and grandchildren into.

When they ask for the stories behind those serene processes then we tell them.

The same with Eid, especially when our kids’ beautiful-soul grandmother, Ayesha was alive. She embodied the essence of prayer, kind-hearted honesty, respect, love, unmitigated caring and quiet serenity and was a role-model for all of us.

Many Canadian indigenous First Nations immerse their children in their cultural and spiritual processes like carving totem poles, their specialized arts, respect for nature and the stories of their ancestors and the children learn to respect their thousands-year-old traditions. It’s what sets up our children to live lives of serenity, spirituality, respect and civility.

So, as I sign-off with palms together and say so-long to our many-faceted, dedicated and gifted readers, may your lives be the fruition of all that you have strived for and may your journeys be peace-filled.

Au revoir.

Dr Vicki Bismilla is a retired Superintendent of Schools and retired college Vice-President, Academic, and Chief Learning Officer. She has authored two books.