There is a guy up here.  Been here for a long time.  Lives on another island.  He’s a hero.

Seems G noticed that the salmon in his area were suffering and he decided to do something about it.  So, he cobbled up a hatchery and increased the spawning rate up in his neck o’ the woods.  That was some decades ago.  Did it all on his own till he got a bit older and then volunteers stepped up to assist and he made the program even bigger and more successful.

He paid for everything from his earnings as a fishing guide.

As the years went by, some rich guys on a nearby island decided to help him out.  They built a better hatchery, provided a small operating budget and created a board of advisors.  They even went so far as to pay the guy a few bucks so that he could concentrate on his hatchery.  The local salmon thrived.

It also seems some of the other coastal fisheries are doing OK.  Turns out they are being managed by the fishermen.  Fishermen who care.  Commonly held belief: whatever DFO manages, dies.  So the people involved in the fishing industry just quietly went about managing it themselves.  Reports indicate that they are doing a good job.

Gives me hope, it does.

Just a short addendum:

Paying off debt doesn’t seem to make sense when the interest rate is practically zero.  I know that.  Especially if you have cashflow.  And minimizing your credit exposure is contrary to what this country needs.  It wants us to spend.  So, if I was being a ‘booster’,  I would say, borrow big, buy big and hold till inflation catches up.  Cash in then and roll in dough.  The old recipe.

But I can’t.  There are too many other ‘soft’ factors at play here as well.  First off, those who read this are close to my age.  I’d guess the average reader (not counting my kids) is 50+.  Waddya gonna do with more stuff, more worries and more debt load to service?  I mean, really?  Even Gretzky got out of the game.  We should, too.  And many are.  Face it, folks!  We are getting out one way or the other (pushed, shoved, retiring, dying, losing our energy and health, diminishing desires for stuff)…………we are getting out.

Also…..there are a few wild cards at play here.  Our Western economy/society is on a gradual but steady downslope.  We just don’t have the young consumer in any great numbers.  Not in Canada, anyway.  And the ones we have are poor.  They are either immigrants or the Masters degree-holders-driving-cab generation.  Undergraduate degree-holders who plant trees in the summer and go to Costa Rica for the winter.  We are not nation-building much these days.

And our government is abysmal.  But you know that.

The point: I am not trying to solve the problem.  I am trying to survive the problem.  We have a long ways to go down yet.  And that is what I am talking about.  Dismal Economics.  Not growth.  Not solutions.  Not winning strategies.  I am talking basic survival in an increasingly Orwellian world.

No, we will not likely see gangs-in-the-street anymore than we already see gangs-in-the-street.  And cars will run, phones will work, schools will open.  But unemployment will increase, prices will rise, assets will remain flat, cash will get tight and we will, as a nation go through continual episodic belt-tightening (higher taxes).  We will be priced out of a lot of commodities (oil and gas) and government services won’t cope (hospital waiting lists will grow longer and use ever-increasingly depreciated resources). And unemployment will rise.  Canada is NOT dynamic.  It may be corrupt.  It is definitely incompetent and we are run by Fascists but whatever the reason, we are not on the ascendancy as a nation.

I just think it will get worse before it gets better and it behooves you to know in advance.

But that is enough on politics for awhile.  I do try to limit it.

I am going to write about something else…………….but I’ll ‘switch’ posts so as not to taint one with the other.

Disclaimer: the author knows nothing, has no insider knowledge and has done no research to speak of.  The opinion is shallow, ignorant and likely very very wrong.  Following the advice contained herein is insane.  Even reading this long ramble is pretty silly.  I just had to do it………….sorry…….ravens tomorrow.

Been reading about Complexity theory.  Offspring of Diminishing Returns Principles.  Kind of a cousin to Chaos Theory.  Basically it states that things get more and more complex and at the same time become less and less effective and more and more inefficient. Duh!  Did you not read about my Honda’s electronics?

All these recent authors, however, are basically talkin’ politics or politics-related topics.  Not Honda motors.  But, to me, the principles still apply.  When the governing gets complex, the results eventually get disappointing.  In the latest iteration of this concept, James Rickards is talking about the complexity of currencies (Currency Wars).  My last blog was about Honda electronics.  Same thing.

Just to disclose: J. Richards is a gold freak.  He believes in gold, sells and trades in gold and basically shares a Henny-Penny view of the world with gold as the answer.

But let’s focus on the bigger picture for a bit:  When money was simply nickels and dimes used to make exchanges between neighbours, the money system worked well.  And people cooperated with it.  The system seemed to treat everyone fairly if not necessarily equally.  But as money became more complex (Federal Reserve, Bretton Woods, on-and-off the gold standard, the advent of financial instruments of mass destruction, M1, M2, and M3, Sovereign Wealth Funds and Special Drawing Rights (SWFs and SDRs) well, things got complicated and, consequently, more prone to abuse and, perhaps, collapse.

Worst of all, people didn’t feel the system treated them fairly anymore.  I.e.: disparity in incomes, unemployment and underemployment, having to bailout Goldman Sachs!?

Except, perhaps, in a bad way.  The additional trend towards globalization meant that any one structural (national) collapse would likely be shared amongst a number of others.  When Japan suffered a Tsunami, their currency was affected and their economy was assaulted.  All the G7 countries responded to put Japan back on it’s feet financially speaking. In that sense, ‘globalization to the rescue’.  Japan was treated somewhat fairly (out of self-interest on the part of the other ‘G’ countries).

The lesson:  The US dollar is the current backbone of the entire world’s currency system.  It’s health and our health are inextricably linked.  For better or worse.  But it is also an unequal burden/privilege on the American economy.  In a sense this unequal monetary burden manifested again (in Japan’s favour) but it was at too high an operational level for the American taxpayer to understand.

The sub-prime mortgage failure and financial instruments debacle made Americans more aware of the primary role of the US dollar but not by much.  Normal people don’t generally understand the financial system in which their lives are so dependent. Neither do we Canadians.

The real point of bringing all this up  – right now – is to question whether the Euro can withstand the assault on it’s currency structure.  Iceland, Ireland and Greece are in the toilet and almost flushed down.  Spain and Italy are standing just outside the cubicle awaiting their turn.  The worry: the Euro is too complex, too interelated, to interdependent and too poorly managed to survive. Plus there is simply too much inequality for them all to share the same currency.

The solution?  More US dollars?  Not really.  The US is already ‘tapped out’ in so many ways.  More Euros?  From whom?  Will the creation of SDRs (basically IOUs) be a solution or just buy time?

And if the euro fails, it is the Euro-peons who will not be treated fairly.  Not in their eyes, anyway.

The G7 (sometimes G8) and the G20 are working diligently to make it all work.  But the house of cards is several stories high and the wind is picking up.  In other words: THE STRUCTURE IS TOO COMPLICATED.

Worse, they seem to be following recipes that aren’t working.  Low interest rates didn’t help Japan over the last decade or so.  Not helping anyone now, either.  Government incentive programs aren’t helping the US.  Loans, subsidies and grants aren’t helping the ‘southern’ European community.  For the most part, all the twiddling of the knobs is not getting a different result.  And the economists are worried.

The REAL problem (I think) is psychological.  We all have a dearth of confidence.  We have lost faith in the larger system and that includes the smaller ones, too.  From currency systems to defense, health, education and even justice.  We just don’t have the confidence.  And that shows up everywhere.

‘Aging’ doesn’t help.  Older people are more cynical.  They don’t believe their politicians.  Nor do they have the hope or ambition that comes from that confidence.  Old people don’t ‘buy in’ nearly as much as they once did.  It’s an aging thing.  And lots of the G7/8 are aging.  It is psychological and demographical. 

“Geez, Dave, what the Hell do you know?  And why are you not writing about ravens?  You promised!”

I’ll get back to the ravens.  But, in the meantime, you should all know that when things start to show up like they are (and they call this kind of out-of-balance-thing a currency war and it has, in fact, shown up in history many times) things go awry.

Truth is, the only times financial systems were stable was when they were on a gold standard.  It was simple. But being on a gold standard no longer makes any real sense.  Still, money being based on something tangible, real and confidence-inspiring does make sense.  No one seems to trust credit default swaps anymore – that is for sure.

The challenge: to simplify that which is complicated without suffering complete destruction in the process.

Of course, the average person is not trading in credit default swaps or enjoying special drawing rights (SDR) or managing a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), they are just trying to get their Honda fixed.  But make no mistake – the average person is already ‘sensing’ something is a bit stinky in the monetary system and they are already – subconsciously – taking steps.

“What does that mean?”

You are asking me!!!???

Well, I think you want to pay cash when you can. Having your money in ether space is not such a good idea.  Hell, in Greece and in Spain, having your money in the bank is not such a good idea and people have been making small runs-on-banks to get it out for months. And nowadays money in the bank is the same as money in ether.

Plus the Russians and the Chinese are taking more and more payments in gold or by direct swaps of commodities (skipping the dollar as a transaction medium).  That does not bode well.

And at a local level, people are shopping more local.  The hundred mile diet is an indirect way to keep wealth in the community (it may not be the primary purpose of the movement but it satisfies in more ways than one).  And local people are bartering for goods and services more all the time.  Everyone – governments and people are looking more to the tangible.  

“Are you saying the sky is falling?”

Rickards is.  And he cites a few scary stories.  To kickstart the US economy during the great depression, FDR did a number of drastic things.  One of them was to declare hoarding gold illegal.  Everyone was obliged to sell their gold to the government.

Government, it seems, can still do those drastic things but they are more subtle now.  They have to be.  No one trusts them.  We in the western world are already 80% invested in non-tangible money.  We have mortgages, use credit cards and automatic debit, etc.  We are actually more vulnerable to wealth confiscation than ever.  It is much easier to control the wealth of a nation when it is all recorded digitally.  The sky may not be falling but the ceiling has already definitely being lowered.

“What should I do?”

The doomsday financial guys say ‘buy gold’.  But I don’t think that is realistic.  The price is too high for most people, the means of using it in exchange too cumbersome, the use of it as a commodity too limiting.  I am not a gold person but billions are.  So, I don’t know.  Not really.  Strangely, I am more of a silver person – simply because the commodity is more easily purchased and, though cumbersome, not so much as gold.  And silver has a lot more practical uses as well. Or so they say………

But I am not really a silver person, either.

Frankly, I think it boils down to this: get rid of securitized debt (like mortgages).  Pay them off.  You can hold unsecured debt – the stuff that has virtually no ramifications if you can’t pay.  Remember: for decades the banks have not sued anyone for less than $50,000.  Costs too much.  They write it off.  So, day-to-day credit is OK.  But keep it low.  For ethical reasons – YOUR ethics.  Put bluntly: expect more volatile currency and price fluctuations.  Soon.  They are inevitable and overdue.  But, I am sure you knew that.

Just sayin’……………..

I am no mechanic.  Don’t really want to be.  But, if there is a downside out here it is engines and our reliance on them.  I rely on engines to do work, generate power, run appliances and to inflict regular episodes of pain and trauma in an otherwise idyllic life.  And I rely on my Honda 50 to push my boat.  Sadly, it is failing me.  Being a mechanic – even a poor one – is mandatory.

Damn!

Of course, most mechanical problems are simple.  If it ain’t broke in an obvious way, then it is likely just fuel or spark.  So, one checks fuel supply in all it’s various permutations and then, if you are still having trouble, you do the same for spark.  I always do fuel first because the logic of fuel running down pipes and through filters and into a mixing bowl makes sense to me.

Electronics, especially the kind that comes out of little black boxes that have myriad wires attached, makes no sense.  I can check the final endpiece – the sparkplug – but almost everything in between there and the battery is a mystery.

But do not allow me to mislead you in this.  Just because the one system (fuel) makes sense, it does not follow that the manufacturer has put that system together in a sensible way.  In fact, one can count on the manufacturer to put it together in a manner that requires the dexterity of a surgeon, the flexibility of a monkey and the strength of pneumatic tools to disassemble.  I spent two hours attempting to undo the bottom bolt on the air cleaner.  Access was limited to the equivalent of trying to take out your own prostate by way of your own anus with one arm tied behind your back.  Wearing clumsy work gloves.

Given that I skinned my knuckles several times in the tight confines of the engine compartment, it may be easier to remove one’s own prostate.

At a certain point, the reasonable person gives up and transfers the problem along with dollops of cash to someone else.  And, of course, I delayed that decision until it was the only one left to me.  I called the hungriest and most ambitious of the outboard mechanics in the area – the one who is always looking for business.  “Hey, J, got a Honda 50 here.  Running rough.  Can I bring it in?”

“Yeah, sure.  I’ve been turning people away but I know you folks out there really need your motors.  I cannot get to it for a week at the very least. Sorry.  And, just so you know, the problem you are describing is one I have fixed but only by doing everything.  I have no idea what causes that so I just start at square one and keep replacing parts til something works.  The hard part is taking it out on the water to test it all the time.  Need two guys to do that.  Your engine issue will just ‘eat gobs o’ time’.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll keep at it for a bit longer.  Maybe I quit too soon.  I’ll get back to you.”  Sheesh!  That was ‘mechanic speak’ for: I have no idea and I will charge you a lot to learn.

I tried another.  “Yeah, well, could be anything, ya know?  We been havin’ a lot of carb rebuilds this spring ’cause of the ethanol fuel, ya know?  That stuff’s just playin’ havoc with carbs, ya know?”  That is mechanic speak for: whatever it is, we are going to start by rebuilding your carbs!  Get ready.”

But, it is the way of all things.  Sometimes you just have to bend over and have your prostate removed.  Then you can go about your business.  Me and my Honda………….getting old together, losing parts – but still running.  Kinda.

Well, the best I can report on without my editor erasing…………..

The thing about ravens is that, despite their reputation for being ‘tricksters’ or ‘naughty birds’, there is precious little information about them to titillate.  Sorry.  Ravens are pretty private, actually.  They will come and engage with you on a raven-human basis for the purposes of food-getting or entertainment but their real lives, their family lives, their intimate lives are kept very private.  We never discuss anything personal beween us and we don’t even know where their nest is.

I dunno…….we’re close but distant.……ya know?

I can report that Jack and Liz seem to be pretty monogamous.  ‘Course, I don’t cover the distances they do and nor would I know the ‘signs’ if one was making out with someone other than their own spouse.  But Jack is almost always ‘around here’ and Liz just doesn’t seem the type, ya know?  She’s a bit nervous, a bit fearful and quite a homebody.  She stays pretty close to the nest.  Not the type to step out.

And ol’ Jack is a smidgen on the macho side.  He keeps other ravens out of the picture.  Ol’ Jack has carved out his domain and he does not tolerate incursions.  Not even by the eagle.  Not by a flock of gulls.  Not by anyone.  No bird messes with Jack.  I am reminded of the old 70’s song by Jim Croce, ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, meanest bird in the whole damn town.’

Plus they have been together for as long as we have been here.  That’s pushing eight years.  That has to tell you something about their relationship, eh?  And I am not even counting the offspring!  These guys may be very private but they evidently do get it on.  At least around February or March.  By the middle of the summer we have little Liz and Jacks all over.  Every year.  And, just for the record: all the babies look like Jack and/or Liz.  So, one could conclude from that that no other species, anyway, was involved.

No, I think Jack and Liz are pretty straight.

Seals, on the other hand?  Don’t get me started!  Firstly, I have never seen a greater percentage of deadbeat dads than those in the seal population.  Every pup is with their mother.  Even on the weekends!  Every mother is a single mother.  Not only that, they seem to be itinerant.  They never settle down.  in effect, seals couch surf.  Family-wise, seals do not impress.

River otters have a whole other weird and different issue going on.  They have scatological problems.  It must be some kind of psychological thing.  But they seem to have a lot of their own poop playing a major role in their lives.  And the lives of others.

Our dogs, for instance.

Megan and lately Fiddich, like nothing better than to splash on a little eau d’otter after having a bath.  They think they smell nice.  They are wrong!  I have no idea what is going on in their heads……..how could the excrement of another animal seem appealing?  Mind you, most of the best perfumes made around the world have a base of ambergris – part of the expelled contents of a whales stomach – so maybe it is just me.

I just don’t seem to get everything that goes on out here.  This is just another mystery, I guess.

But at least I kept my promise…………..

I suppress myself.  I have to.  If I didn’t, I would have no readers.  And I want readers.  I like the fame, ya know?

But sometimes, I have to vent.  I have to speak my mind.  I just have to.

It is who I am.  And I am not sorry.

It’s a curse, is what it is…..

And so I wrote some blogs that were kinda political (actually, I don’t see it as political.  I see it is ethical.  But I understand if people see it as political.  They are wrong, of course.  But I understand).

Anyway, you should see the blog stats!  When I wrote about shot-gun toting thugs in El Salvador, my numbers went to 1200!  When I wrote about drinking Rye whiskey with my hermit-like friend, I was at 800.  When I write about everyday life on a remote island, the numbers remain steady at around 300.  A smidge over.  Maybe 325.

Throw a few racy words into the mix and I can see 400.

Writing my political views – the numbers plummet.  Today was 200.  Yesterday was 238.  Speaking my political/ethical mind, it seems, is not a good thing – not for marketing purposes, anyway.

Lesson to self:  If you wanna sell a book, write about ravens having sex. If you wanna vent about politics, yell in the shower.

Dinner out last night.  Jumped in the boat and took cheesecake and wine to the other side of the channel where P&M and their crew awaited us at anchor with a full-on turkey dinner ready.  It was great fun.

P&M have Canadian Shores, an 85 foot aluminum, ocean-going, fish boat with luxurious accommodation for crew (four) and guests (up to six or so).  What a boat!  They come up every year to prawn-fish and generally enjoy the area.  But, make no mistake, it is a working boat first.  They catch fish.

P has been a fisherman all his life and this boat is the ‘ultimate’. He fell in love with it and bought it last year and is now in the process of getting to ‘know the gal’ and find it’s rightful place in the food chain.  That place is going to be near the top, that is for sure.

They can go all the way to Hawaii in it if they had to.  They can easily travel all over the BC coast.  Last year, they took a BBC television crew up the coast looking to film wolves and other wildlife.  Ya wanna see the wildest parts of BC?  Book a charter on Canadian Shores.  http://www.vancouverseatours.com/departures.html

I am tempted to join him when he goes fishing for tuna.  Sheesh!  I must be losing my mind…..

I guess the point of this blog is simply to illustrate – once again – that life is different out here.  Going for dinner by boat to another boat is something Sal and I have done numerous times.  But arriving to an 85 footer with crew to assist with dock lines is somewhat unfamiliar.  I like it.

(Hmmmmmmmmm……..I may have to cultivate a whole new crop of friends…………starting at the RVYC, I guess…………..hmmmmmmm…………I wonder if any of them vote Conservative?) 

Guess I’ll have to stick with the motley flock of friends I already have that couldn’t get into the RVYC even if they had jobs in the kitchen!

Which reminds me…………I actually have friends that vote Conservative.  They would have voted for Thatcher, Regan and likely Mussolini, too.  But they are good people.  Really.  Deep down.  Somewhere.  I think.

This is how I rationalize it:

I said to one of my ‘corporate’ executive buddies who votes Conservative when he was complaining about Harper and his encroachment on our rights and freedoms as well as the sell-out of our resources, “Well, don’t beat yourself up too much.  You voted Conservative because you are conservative, right?  You hold traditional values and mores, right?  You think that, because you are conservative in your values, you should vote for people who call themselves Conservatives, right?”

“Well, yeah.  Of course.  Is that wrong?”

“Kinda.  The name Conservative doesn’t mean that they are conservative.  It is just a brand name.  It’s marketing.  It doesn’t mean anything except that they are smart enough to take a name that resonates with you.  But, the Liberals aren’t necessarily liberal.  The Greens are probably all sorts of shades of white through brown but I doubt that any one of them is actually green.  You can’t make voting decisions based on the brand name now, can you?  Do you really think that a bunch of neo-Fascists will call themselves that?  Not if they think about it and hire some marketing folks.”

“Oh, my God!  No wonder my party always disappoints me!”

“Yeah.  If you really are a conservative, you would have to vote Green now wouldn’t you?  It is they who promote conservation.  It is the Green Party that extols sustainability.  The current Conservatives promote non-sustainable exploitation of resources, they want to limit people’s rights and freedoms and they have no interest in the same values you seem to represent.  For instance, you may be as dumb as a stick but you are honest and you care about people.  You spend prudently and you work hard to help keep your family.  And you give to others.  You don’t even have a gun!  So what is it about jet-buying, oil-exporting, lying, manipulating and inconsiderate pigs-at-the-trough that you relate to?”

“Unh………I don’t relate to any of that.  But I am pro-business.  Doesn’t that make me Conservative?”

“Crooked, selfish, unethical and unsustainable business under Orwellian control?  If so, then I guess they are the ones for you.  Honest, sustainable, non-polluting, fairly-practised business…….?  Well, your guess is as good as mine.  I am not so sure I have found the good guys but I know Darth Vader when I see him.  So, now who you gonna vote for?”

“I dunno.  I guess I will just not vote next time!”

For the record (according to a reader), in the last federal election only 61% of eligible voters exercised their franchise.  Almost 40% stayed home (or were purposefully misdirected from their polling station).  Of those who did vote, only 39% voted Conservative.  That works out to 24% of the eligible voters who chose Harper.  One in four!  And at least some of them voted that way because they were led astray by the name!!

Sorry………ravens and dogs tomorrow.  I promise.

The following came in from Alex Morton, one of the few true heroes of our country in my perspective.  Hers is a voice, a real voice, a courageous one.  More than that, she gets her hands dirty and her feet wet.  And I was just writing about oppression…..

Alex wrote: In two weeks the Province of BC wants to make it illegal to talk about reportable diseases in animals destined for human consumption http://www.theprovince.com/news/information+farm+outbreaks/6657194/story.html They also seek to amend the Offence Act so that the punishment can be maximum for talking about reportable diseases in animals/fish people are going to eat. I am in shock.(you really should click on the link….dave)

(Note to readers unfamiliar with Alex: she has singlehandedly opposed the irresponsible behaviours of salmon fish farms on our coast.  Over the past few years she has taken the government to court – and won!  She has changed the way governments work.  And she has found unreported disease in farmed salmon in addition to the sea-lice problems they create for wild salmon.  To restrict reporting on diseased animals is bad enough, but this law could rightfully be called the Anti-Alex Morton Law.)

Last night Anissa and I went to observe the offloading of the OCEAN KING mort packer for Mainstream. They are moving the viral infected fish through the most productive wild salmon waters of the west coast of Vancouver Island – Alberni Inlet, avoiding every fish farm. There was no containment around the vessel as they pumped, the trucks were dripping bloodwater as they drove to the nearby Land, Earth and Sea “organic” composting facility between China Creek and Port Alberni. There is concern this will leach directly into the Inlet. People do not understand why this facility was used and not the much more secure mass mortality compost facility in Parksville. These fish should be removed before the next big rainfall.

We contacted Local First Nations who were not notified. DFO was called but they were not visible on scene, the mayor showed up but did not speak with me. The boat left and will presumably be back late today.

We have posted videos at Salmon Are Sacred facebook page and a posting on my blog alexandramorton.typepad.com

So folks this may be the last chance the people of Canada have the opportunity to be vocal about highly infectious diseases in Norwegian feedlots, leaching into BC. Christy Clark, premier of BC is taking us into Dark Ages. Mainstream is telling the world I breached quarantine at the dock, but there was none when we arrived and once there was I never stepped inside.

http://www.twitter.com/CTVNewsGord

If you want wild salmon – this is your last chance to protect them from viruses in salmon farms. I have no reason to trust that is IHN in the Dixon fsih farm owned by Cermaq which (is) largely owned by the Norwegian government. If it is IHN we don’t know what strain and IHN epidemics in Atlantic salmon is not natural to BC waters. The doors on free-speech are slamming shut if you feel like using democracy to try and stop this now would be a good time.

Alexandra Morton

Last year we had the Occupy response to ‘the Establishment’.  Before that, we had the Arab Spring and Summer.  Sometime during the Occupy movement, Greece split a few seams as well (many more to follow after their next election).  Today, we have Quebec, Montreal and the student protests.

People, it seems, are revolting.  Yech!

But, really, face it.  Revolution is long overdue when you think about it.  Putting aside any one issue – each of which was large enough to warrant protest – there is an underlying frustration almost everywhere and that frustration is just waiting for a local cause around which to coalesce.

Typically and historically, major protests resulting in revolution were and are rooted in economic unfairness.  From the peasants in the French Revolution to the students in Quebec, it is usually about money and how the lack of it makes everyday living too difficult. I would even posit that the riots erupting after the Rodney King beating in LA were economic at the root.  Mr. King’s brutal treatment (he was not the first peasant nor the last to be beaten by the police) was just a catalyst for ghetto frustration not just directed at the police but also at their ‘everyday living’ situation.  People riot in Watts and South Central, not Beverly Hills.

But that is not my point, really.  Poverty causes discontent.  We all know that.

My point is that it is all on track for only getting worse.  There has been a rapidly growing-larger disparity between the rich and the poor for some time now.  Economists claim two decades.  It has been noticeable to me since the turn of the century. Some disparity is normal (people are disparate).  But this recent kind of incredibly vast, completely unjustified disparity is abnormal and a major step in the wrong direction.

It indicates the system is broken.

There has also been an attendant and increasing government oppression of the people even before 9/11 when it got kicked up a notch or ten.  More and more, governments rule by dictate and oppression.  That is another major strategic government error.  It indicates that the keepers of the system can’t do the job.

I guess they just don’t get it.

And why should they?  Politicians have voted some pretty comfy benefits for themselves.  They, generally speaking, come from a privileged place even before getting elected.  They live and work and think in a gilded bubble.  They are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Do you really think that John Duncan (our MP, the one whose limousine driver made $22,000 in overtime over four months waiting for John to finish his meals at fancy restaurants?) has any idea of what it is like to live at or near the poverty level in his riding?  The man is completely clueless.

He is not alone. It would seem they all are.  Bubble-living does that to you.  See: Marie Antoinette.

I wouldn’t have thought it so before – not in these modern democratic times – but there are no leaders!  No leaders heading for resolution anyway.  There are plenty of leaders heading for the trough.

There have to be some good, sane, rooted-in-reality politicians out there…………?  Right?   Nowadays, I am not so sure.  There sure as Hell aren’t any in Canada, that is quite obvious.  Even that bright spark, Elizabeth May, seems to lack the charisma, the dazzle, the ‘star-quality’ that we seem to require in our leaders.  We need someone whose inner glow radiates brightly outwards.

We got nothing…….

Well, we have dictatorship, the dark lord Harper-types extinguishing any light like a monstrous black hole.  How else to explain the corruption of the electoral system, the increasing restrictions of rights and freedoms, the squandering of our resources and the escalation of rule by fiat?  And hardly a peep from anyone?

I hear Harper is shopping for colourful epaulets to go with the billion dollar fighter jets.

Where are our strong, creative, positive, wholesome voices of dissent?  And by ‘our’, I mean ‘adults’.

Students?!  Are Quebecois students my new leaders?

I don’t think so.  But God bless ’em for trying.

Advisory panels, investigative and review committees, local governments, popular opinion, even the rare and endangered voice of a contrary media report have not altered the dictatorial, totalitarian, Draconian responses of government oppression of the people.  Not lately, anyway.  Now the students in Quebec are giving it a shot.

It is not going to be enough.

Quebec just took this all-to-universal Orwellian-style authoritative knee-jerk response one step too far. Charest slapped the students across the face.  So it became personal.   Gordon Campbell insulted the people of BC and we revolted.  Now it is Quebec’s turn.  But we were mollified and now it is only Quebec.

Our problem: we are not united.  And student tuitions in Quebec are not going to unite us.

You can do a lot to oppress the people.  And they have.  Kill the salmon, pollute the oceans, spill oil all over the place and monitor our every move and we bend over for more of the same.  We are sheep who don’t peep.

Be careful with tuition fees or sales tax, tho.  We only seem to revolt if it costs us a buck!  Boy! Talk about getting the government you doeserve, eh?  Those pigs-at-the-trough reflect our values!!!

Quebec may or may not be reflecting the greater frustration that I believe a lot of people in many nations are feeling.  But, like the Occupy movement, the opposition to Enbridge and Kinder Morgan, the various protests against the WTO and other sociopathic entities, they have my support.

I’d like to see it gel as one, tho.  To make a real difference, it can’t be sporadic and localized.  They have to go BIG.  It has to be one voice.  One issue.  A leader would help.  It would also be nice if we could get united behind something more noble than the almighty dollar, tho.  Don’t you think?

You’ll understand if I remain somewhat distant from it all.  I think it is only going to get worse.  You reap what you sow.

Looking back on the building stage……..well, it’s not so clear, really.  The memories kinda blur.  We remember things, of course.  Our memories are still largely intact.  But a lot of the stuff of ‘small stories’ has largely been forgotten.  I don’t know why.  Age, I guess.  Perspective, most likely.

Sally got out some of the old photo albums to prompt some anecdotes and they were mostly of times when guests would drop by and we would take pictures of their visit!  Crazy, in a way.  But, really, who stops pouring concrete in the middle of the job to take a picture of it?

I recall a lot, of course.  And a lot can be made into stories.  But much of what might have made a story back then has now been integrated into ‘ordinary life’.  What I thought was wild and wonderful is now commonplace.  Well, some of it, anyway.  I guess what I am saying is this: we have a new perspective on what constitutes a story now.

Small example.  I recall a small delivery done by a local guy.  He had offered to pick up some building materials for $80.00 the next time he went to town.  When he dropped in with the goods, he had arbitrarily raised the price to $110.  I said, “No.  The deal was $80”.  He accepted that and dropped the supplies.  No rancor.  No bad feelings.  Just a little hard cheese.  And our relationship over the last eight years has been largely established by that.  It might have felt like a story at the time (neighbour vs neighbour) but it never went anywhere.  So, it’s just an odd little memory, really.  Not a story.

I also recall the time my ‘crane’ on the dock seemingly collapsed.   It was holding about 700 pounds of lumber I was loading up from the beach at the time.  And the whole bundle came up to a point and then the crane slowly slumped over, tumbling the load back to the beach.  That was a slo-mo surprise!  But the crane was intact!  I stood there trying to figure out what had happened and it finally hit me.  The support leg had been bolted to the rock and the rock had separated from the larger rock (the planet).  The crane was fine.  It was the planet that failed me.

That might have been a story had I written it up at the time.  But now, equipment failure is just part of the way it is out here.  Things break.  We have gotten used to it. Not a story.

There are dozens of stories (or non-stories) like that.  Events.  Some of them even regarded as extraordinary at the time.  They were often initially deemed extraordinary because, in fact, they were out-of-the-ordinary for us.  At the time.  But, in retrospect, they weren’t big deals.  They were ‘ordinary’.  Just little anecdotes of no particular significance, humour, tragedy or disaster.  Just ‘stuff’.

But it is that stuff of which the larger memory is made.  Mostly.  And that is the real story.  It is a big story made up of little lessons in a new way of life.  It was and still is, for the most part, just a huge learning curve for us.  If moving out here is anything, it is about learning new things.  And that includes all the little incidents as much as the big eventful stories.

Mind you, some stories are a bit larger than everyday and yet still not large enough for a whole post.

Here’s one:  I wrote a few months back about hearing on the radio of a boat sinking.  My neighbour and I grabbed a gas-powered pump and raced up channel and jumped aboard a commercial urchin-picker and set the pump to work while we assisted the captain and the crew rescue their load and equipment.  I guess we worked to save their butts for a couple of hours and then we returned home just before dark leaving them to be towed to Campbell River by the then-arrived Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard returned my neighbours pump a day or so later.

That was a story.  And I wrote it up.  So far, so good.

But not really.  It didn’t ‘end’ right.  Out here, ‘good manners’ always shows up in some sort of ‘consideration’.  You know…….the next time the urchin-pickers were in the area they might drop off a salmon or just stop by to say, “Thanks.”

But this never happened.  And I always wondered why.

Yesterday I asked my neighbour about it.  “Well, I wondered, too, Dave.  Seemed odd.  But I later found out that, while the boat was on the hard being repaired, the Department of Fisheries showed up.  Seemed the urchin-pickers had taken their catch from the nearby marine park.  Seems they took way too much as well.  They broke more than a few things that day besides the boat.  I doubt that they were fined or jailed.  I doubt that they see us in any way except as we were – good Samaritans.  But their accident was worse than just almost sinking.  They also got caught red-handed with an illegal catch.  Somehow I don’t think we are on their Christmas card list even tho they were saved from sinking and getting wet.”

I guess one person’s minor incident can be another one’s convicted felony.  Maybe it’s all in the eye of the beholder?