Harper is in hiding.  Maybe not reclusively but, for a prime minister just three months from an election, he is surprisingly a constant no-show.  Christy Clark?  The same.  These folks are our so-called leaders and they have simply exited stage right.  Oh, they will show up eventually but I have noticed that many politicians are increasingly ‘hiding’ these days. They are not doing the exposure-thing that politicians used to do.  They basically keep a lower profile and the more unpopular they get, the lower their profile is.   Harper is, by historic standards, a recluse.

I think we like to think of that parody on leadership as simply their shame and humiliation but, after thinking about it, I don’t think so anymore.  I think it is more Machiavellian. Politicians know that the voter’s memory is incredibly short.  Better put, we all seem to have political dementia.  We can’t remember anything from even the last few months.  Last year is erased.  So they lay low for months before the election, come out smiling with newly whitened teeth and making promises and they think we don’t recognize them for who they were and are.  We are so stupid, they think, that we forget how much destruction and havoc they have previously wreaked.

And they’d be right.

Remember Harper’s jet fighter debacle?  The length of time it took to get helicopters?  The Coast Guard cuts?  The submarines that don’t work?  The 100% false job creation programs?  The proroguing of parliament?  The mis-telling of random acts of madness as terrorism?  The silencing of scientists?  The scandals?  The falseness surrounding Northern Gateway?  The secret trade deals?  The secret deals with  China?  The list goes on so long that even I can’t remember it all.  It is just evil, ugly, stupid long.

And Christy Clark and her Liberals are just as bad.  See the 100 reasons Laila Yuile compiled several years ago.  I think she must have another 100 by now: http://lailayuile.com/100-reasons-the-bc-liberals-must-go/.  Mt. Polley.  Yoga-on-the-bridge.  Transit.  Fire the conservation guy for saving bear cubs.  Suicides from working in government health!  There may be 500 reasons for getting rid of the Liberals by now.

We are governed by fools, crooks, incompetents and liars.  The real question, tho, is this: does it matter?

Increasingly, big nation-states and BIG money are calling the shots. For all of us. Including Harper and Clark.  Even a somewhat-first-world country like Greece can’t make it’s own way.  They are not independent.  They are not even truly sovereign.  Little countries must be puppets on strings. Hell, Canada clearly is!  We do as we are told.  If we don’t, NAFTA slaps us back into line.  We may have some influence in Jamaica but we step-and-fetch-it for a lot of bigger entities and that includes major corporations. And, lately, China.

Hell, the big guys even sell us our own oil for more than they charge others!  How is that even possible?

Bottom line: I think it is changing.  I can feel it.  I can’t describe it but I can feel it.  All the petition-groups are having an influence.  Bloggers are, too.  The mainstream media?  Not so much. The people are NOT borrowing and spending either (lack of confidence) and it is showing up in the until-now invisible recession that is just emerging like a hippo surfacing. We will be in recession officially by the next quarter if they tell the truth and we have been in one for several years if you just open your eyes.  Your basic ‘citizen’ is gently and quietly withdrawing from the system.  They are shutting it down.  They are saying ‘no mas’.

“Oh, that’s silly!  How can they?  They gotta work to pay bills.   The economy will chug along and the politicians will still control it.  Give your head a shake!” 

Yeah.  For awhile.  You are right.  This AIN’T a revolution, merely a blurry, amorphous blob of passive resistance of sorts.  Still unconscious, probably.  But think about it – the next generation behind us are less consumer oriented and the computer culture is more into sharing.  Anonymous is hacking like they were led by Robin Hood.  Uber is a sharing-based company, 3-D printing may replace some corporations.  Recycling is BIG.  Going simple and small is even BIGGER.  Solar panels are proliferating.  The list of counter-establishment efforts is long and growing.  Watch Elon Musk.  Even the 100-mile diet and yoga is a statement against the Type-A personality sociopath-run, mega-corp route to the future we have been on – the one exemplified by Northern Gateway and Keystone and Petronas.  If the people aren’t revolting, they are certainly walking towards carbon Hell dragging their feet.

Maybe the Harpers and the Clarks simply won’t count for much anymore.  Maybe we are moving away from that lead/follow model.  There ARE some signs.  I really hope so.  Keep your fingers crossed.

….but I am inclined to suggest that we all raise some honeybees (I know!  How weird is that?).  I am pretty sure I am going to do it.  Here is the rationale:  aside from ‘recycling and composting’, we don’t actually do much to save the planet.  Well, a few friends cycle to work and, OK, we buy ‘hemp’ products and protest Monsanto but, really, how many of us plant trees, hatch salmon, keep streams or raise Vancouver Island Marmots or Spotted owls as a hobby?  I suppose raising honeybees is just about as weird but they, more than marmots or spotted owls, are critical to the survival of the planet and they are verging on the brink of annihilation. Maybe we should all put a hive in the back yard?

Jus’ sayin’….

On to other things.  Greece, first – (for a paragraph).  The drama that is Greece is fascinating to me. More than any other story it illustrates the decay of the nation state as a force to be reckoned with in this new world of globalization.  Fuggedabout (for a minute) Greece’s own role in bringing itself to it’s economic knees, the reality is being made clear: they were not in control of their country the minute they joined the EU.  Without your own currency (and it has to be one that other countries respect and accept), you got nuthin’.  In fact, you have less-than-nothing.  You have given over virtual subservience to whoever operates the currency you use. See Puerto Rico and El Salvador – nation-slaves to the US.  It is one of the main reasons the US is so powerful – everyone uses their currency as the global go-to ‘common’ currency.  And, of course, they can ‘print’ as much of it as they like.  We all know that but Greece is the one proving the concept right before our eyes. Greece is just the first in the line of obvious, high-profile sacrifices to globalization by international and US corporations.

The IMF may as well start to issue passports.

“Is Canada exempt because we have our own dollar?”

No.  Our dollar is tied to the US dollar so that is a compromise. Plus we have NAFTA and that is a further compromise.  And we rely on them for defense.  Worse, we have an economy that is largely reliant on the US one, anyway….not to mention almost all US corporations having a major presence in our country and their constant exploiting and mining of our resources while selling us back their products at higher prices than they charge 100 miles south.  Like fuel. We are a nation-state in name only.

We are simply just Greeks who obey the rules as established by our overseers.  They didn’t.  We do.  So, we may NOT have lost our sovereignty ‘brand’ completely because we still have Tim Hortons and Hockey Night in Canada but pretty much everything else that might have been ours is now theirs.  Even the national railroad (that seemed to define us for so long) is owned by Bill Gates.

“So, what does it mean to be a Canadian?”  I dunno…..ask someone from Minnesota.

But let us get away from that for a minute and talk about beauty.  It is gorgeous up here right now.  The heat wave is gone, the sun is out.  It rained for two days – lightly – but it rained.  And, like everyone in BC, we needed that.  Desperately.  Everything is like the Garden of Eden right now only better (no snakes).  When I was away for three days, Sally had only a few visitors and they were all whales and otters, eagles and seals.  I was actually an intrusion when I came home.

OK, I am an intrusion wherever I go but you’d think it would be otherwise at my own home!

So, anyway, we are back ‘on the job’ of not having a job and being retired.  I’ll cut some logs today.  Work on the non-functioning fire-pump carburetor.  May get to some railings that need installing…probably not…..then a glass of wine later in the day.  Geez, it is great. REALLY GREAT.

Maybe we could use a few more bees…….

T’was pretty hot up here for the last three weeks but, for the most part, we were kept comfortable by a cool breeze. There was a five day ‘heat wave’ that drove off the breeze but we managed.  It was OK.  The hard part – for me – was that for three days in the middle of the smokiest (wildfires), hottest time, I was obliged to be in Vancouver doing ‘friend’ stuff. And much of that required driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an un-airconditioned vehicle.  I found that somewhat taxing.

Poor me.  I was uncomfortably hot for a few days.  Woe and alas.  In Pakistan, over 1000 people died from 40+ temperatures.  It can get worse and it has gotten worse at different times in different places.  We are seeing 45+ degree weather in a lot of places. The world is going to Hell in a handbasket is a common refrain that seems to actually apply more somehow these days.

Of course, a season does not a changed climate make.  But this is more than just a season – this is just the hottest and driest year in a decade long string of record-breaking weather anomalies.  If we aren’t being baked or shaked, we are being drowned and flooded while, in the background, many many species are dying off rapidly.  Seems 70% of the world’s sea-bird population have gone missing compared to the 1950’s.  Even I notice that.

And the science guys have finally linked the massive honey-bee die-off to climate change, too. It’s not getting any better out there on Gaia, it seems.  We’re in for it.

But – again – that is not news.  Most people know this.  End of Days is nigh!  We’re toast (literally). Whachagonnado, bad boys, bad boys?

So, I looked at the city-scape more critically while in town this time – not easy to get objective as I tend to be critical most of the time about the city now.  What options do they have? How will they all cope?  I saw no answers.  I just saw trapped and vulnerable masses herded like sheep.  I didn’t even see any actual awareness of anything.  To 99.999% of the people, it was just another hot day and tourist business was booming. Outdoor cafe’s were full.  What’s not to like?

They may be right.  I may be a Henny Penny.  But, if the sky was not falling, it was definitely smoke-filled and the particulate level was the highest it has ever been – and comparable to Beijing.  That says something.

Vancouver/Raincity is on water rationing.  You can only water your garden and lawn one day a week and that day depends on your address (even or odd).  People ignored that rule initially and used water anyway.  Now the by-law people are all over them.  “Oh, goody!  Enforce those rules on my neighbour!”  The system is working, they think.

But consider this: the Mt. Polley mining disaster which massively polluted the Quesnel lake and the Cariboo Creek less than a year ago has been granted provincial approval for re-opening.

Wildfires are burning out of control, water is on rationing and ordinary people are being fined for watering their flowers and one of the largest polluters in BC’s history can re-open it’s water-using and abusing facilities within a year of screwing up the near environment royally.  Bad optics at the very least.

Bad priorities, too.  How in hell did Mt Polley get back-in-business so fast?** There are mom and pop restaurants that get closed for longer than that for minor health infractions. How is it that Bill Bennet is leading the way for the Mt. Polley mine to re-open?  He seems to be their champion when, in fact, he is the minister overseeing the operation and the one who failed so miserably at it.  Bear in mind that DFO and the Ministry of the Environment had to investigate and sign off, too.

Amazing how fast the government can move when they want to, eh?

Mind you, they are quick to fine you for watering your flowers so maybe they are just being darn efficient all ’round…hard to say.  But, in another example: Nestle pays $2.25 for a million liters of fresh water that gets bottled and sold to the public for considerably more.  They pay up to $1400 for a million liters elsewhere in Canada for other plants.  So, on that minor score, our government has dropped the ball yet again.

BC is the cheapest water in the world. For corporations.  Mt Polley can ruin it.  Nestle can re-sell it.  But you can’t do much of anything.  You can’t even water your plants but for once a week.  Do you really think the system is working?

Some things change.  Some things remain the same.  And some things are just plain hotter and dirtier – like politics and the climate.  Sadly, neither of them are working very well these days.

Thankfully, I got out of that large urban Fool’s Paradise as fast as I could.

But, really………?  Where ya gonna go?

** Wikipedia: The controlling shareholder of Imperial Metals is billionaire N. Murray Edwards. He donated half a million dollars in campaign contributions to the B.C. Liberal party since 2005 and helped organize a $1-million fundraiser for B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s re-election.^[20] 

In any negotiation, one party usually holds a bit more (or a lot more) power.  Try arguing with the police or a judge if you doubt that statement.  The key to achieving agreement with a more powerful side is not to bluff or threat but to offer assistance to them in achieving their goals in exchange for you achieving yours. If both parties achieve their goals, then the negotiation was NOT adversarial but interest-based.  Win-win is a theoretical possibility.

In reality, it is rarely win-win.  Typically, it is lose-a lot-less-than-I-feared, gained-some and kept-a relationship-intact situation.  But, win-win is still quite possible so long as there is a relationship of sorts on which to found it.  The parties to an interest based negotiation have to have an ongoing need or want to interact with each other for at least as long as the term of the agreement being negotiated.

Relationship, in this sense, does not mean warm or close or even friendly.  It just means functional and positive.  A divorcing couple often has such a relationship forced on them if there are children and feelings warm and fuzzy are not likely to be experienced in their new, more business-like arrangement, for instance.  But they have a relationship, nevertheless.

Greece is the less powerful of the parties at the recent negotiations regarding their escalating debt to the IMF and the EU.  The negotiations engaged by the EU were simply because of relationships, strained as they may have been.  The EU holds the debt and that put them in the cat-bird seat but only so long as the other side wanted to stay in the game and be ‘part of the family’.  The EU assumed that was a given.  The referendum indicated otherwise.  Greece stated that they were prepared to quit and take their ball and bat and walk.  On the surface, that looks like a shift in the power base and, in an adversarial negotiation where one party wins and the other loses, it just may be that.

I think it was stupid.

Regardless of the EU’s real and immediate financial losses to be suffered if Greece exits the union, the losses to Greece will be relatively greater and only exponentially increase over the short and medium time.  In the long run, their defiance may come to be seen as brilliant and heroic but there is little doubt that exiting the EU will cause them great inconvenience for a long time first.

I.e.  If a Greek merchant wanted to buy your Canadian/US product, would you accept payment in Greek Drachmas?  Of course not.  You’d say, “Pay me in Eurodollars or US dollars but I am afraid I can’t do business using your drachmas. Maybe I can’t sell to you?” Conversely, the Greeks, needing a negotiable currency will be fire-sale-ing whatever they can to get US dollars or Euros.  The country will become a target for bottom feeders.  And, of course, Greeks with any means, will leave the country in droves.  Such a scenario for the common Greek man/woman/family would be bleak and painful to say the least.

On the face of it, the Greek referendum may seem simply an opinion poll and, if Tsiparis is being strategic, he will regard it as that only.  And fuggedabout it.  In fact, he should apologize for it.  That referendum actually took away what little power he had.  In effect, it blew his feet off.  He has to backpeddle now and fast.  And he has to be good at it despite his feet being just shot off.  Here’s why:  Any negotiator on the other side now has the ultimate tough position fully justified.  Relationship has just been removed from the equation.  No quarter need be given or offered.  Merkel could legitimately say, “Well, we still kinda love you and all.  We’d like you stay in the family.  But the problem is, you now have an easy out.  A get-out-of-Europe-free-card, as it were.  You can walk anytime you want to.  Any promises you give are made weak by the permission the people have given you to quit and go it alone.  If we help you out now, throwing good money after bad, it looks like you’ll just take it and then leave the family a bit later on when things get tough again. Put bluntly, that referendum was an act of bad faith and we don’t trust you any more.  It may be in our best interests to simply quit on you rather than wait for the inevitable.”

Now Tsiparis has to grovel.  Stupid.

Negotiations are tricky business.  Those who enter them trying to win will either lose or win depending on power.  Those who enter negotiations on the basis of  building or keeping long term relationship a priority and first assisting the other side to get as much of what they want as possible are more likely to get a deal they can live with, too.  It may not be a 100% WIN but it will be a deal and a partial win.

Greece opted for the power deal instead and, they simply don’t have enough.  If I were working for them, I would be mending fences as fast as I could.  And I would hope like hell that there was still some kind of relationship upon which to build.

It doesn’t look like much relationship is left from where I sit.  Let’s hope they can hug and make up.  And they better be quick about it.

Metro Vancouver’s transit referendum resulted in a resounding rejection from those who voted.  And a  lot did.  They just said ‘NO’ to a .05% sales tax increase that, presumably, would have funded the Sky-train Plus expansion plans of the transit administration and mayors. So, did they say NO to transit?  Did they say NO to the admin/political consortium?  Or did the say NO to more taxes?

Probably all three.  And therein lies a lesson in drafting referendum questions; the more questions that can be implied, the more irrelevant the response.  I know a large contingent voted NO because they thought management was not doing a good job and a series of stoppages and a dysfunctional load-and-pay card-system (that works everywhere else) pretty much proved their point.  But they had plenty of other evidence.

Then there are others who simply can’t see paying more tax in any scenario.  They can’t make ends meet as it is.  So, for them, it was a NO to government in all it’s forms from senators to transit, from taxes to fees, from lies to yoga-on-the-bridge.  That group is just fed up with what passes for leadership these days.  I concur.

There are also those who don’t believe in transit and that group would also include me.  I think transit sucks.  And, further, they can’t make it work in Vancouver for anything less than 50 times what their plans call for.  Vancouver is ill-suited to a good system.  It is not world-class enough in so many other ways necessary.

I’ve lived in London and Hong Kong.  I have visited a half dozen other cities with ‘transit’ from New York to Montreal, from Paris to Tokyo.  Transit works best in downtown cores and with a gazillion stops.  The best was Hong Kong and San Francisco was a close second.  Why?  Because you could jump on and jump off at your discretion, cheaply and efficiently.  SF was more efficient in a slow kinda way but, in dealing with hills, it was great. Hong Kong was just plain uber efficient – moving more people in one afternoon than Metro Vancouver does in a week.

Why is this?  Simple.  We don’t live in the kind of density that makes transit work.  We will someday.  But we don’t now.

Further, we have developed a lifestyle that doesn’t mesh or work with transit.  In HK I could get off at my station and within a block pick up the evening meal and be able to choose from dozens of outlets.  In the other direction, my work was a block away.  But Canadians don’t have that kind of support/work infrastructure except, ironically enough, at Lonsdale Quay which, unsurprisingly, is only connected to the system by a slow boat across the inlet and buses.

We don’t have the little ‘support services’ stalls all along the street that most transit-using cities have.  Most of us shop at Save-On and such and just their parking lots are an effort to get across carrying groceries, dry-cleaning and that bloody briefcase.

And then what?  In the pouring rain, carrying your stuff you then trek for blocks if not miles to your house or condo?  Throw in a demanding schedule and or some heavier items and transit simply does not work for most people living and working  or even attending university in the Greater Vancouver area.

Transit would work if they stuck to downtown, the north shore, the west end and super high density residential centres like Metro-town and the new Oakridge (when they pull that off).  But trying to tie in Coquitlam is dumb. Those people have to drive to get to the nearest station.  Who’s gonna be happy paying extra to drive to the park-and-ride and then pay for the last leg of the journey that never seems to quite get there?

Here’s the real reason I oppose transit.  We’re trying to re-invent the wheel.  Cars work. We’ve built a massive infrastructure for cars.  We expect and plan for cars and have for decades.  The ‘car’ system works very, very well.  It is true that Vancouver is super-congested but that just really speaks as a rolling referendum that people prefer cars.

They want to keep rolling, of course, so traffic management should be enhanced.  Hugely.  But the real reason for anyone not liking cars anymore is that they pollute.  And they take up so much room.

Duh!  Go small.  Go electric.  If 90% of the commuters drove Smart Cars or Prius types, 40% of the problem disappears.  Maybe more.  Give parking priority to such ‘clean and small’ vehicles (like handicapped parking stickers do) and people would flock to the change.  How much tax dollars required?  Few.  In fact, govt. could well afford to subsidize part of the purchase of switching to electric and small.  It would be cheaper than building Sky trains and tunnels.

More to the point, the little buggies can drive door-to-door.

“Dave!  Where did that rant come from?”

Well, I guess it is silly but I am working hard to get my incredible old bulk up the hill as well as carry really heavy stuff at the same time.  Ironically, I value point-to-point transportation more than most. Even if it is only 150 or so feet.  I am managing to do what I need to do out here by being logical and simple.  But I can’t get around well enough in the city using transit.  So – it is clearly not logical and simple.  I think it should be.

Weird, eh?

(Readership?  It is all in the title……………..)

I have the fun cart on the lower tracks.  It is almost complete.  I still need to put on a reinforcing cross-strut that had to be measured in situ but it is all largely done and strong – almost ready to work.  And it is as heavy as an engine block.  OMG!  Thankfully, it also rolls as easily as a champion soap-box.  So far, it is working out. I am pleased.

‘Course, I am premature in that feeling of pleasure.  The difficult part is done (’cause I had to cobble the thing together using ‘found’ steel and apply beginner’s lesson #2 of my welding course – self taught). So, I am definitely happy about that.

LOWER FUNICULAR CART FABRICATED ON THE BACK DECK

But now comes the impossible part.  And that means it is even harder.

I have to wire that puppy up to the motor controller and the stop and go system.  It would be easier for me to re-wire a rat’s brain (since I don’t really care about the rat but I care about my funicular and the expensive parts that need to be employed) – even though neither are likely to ever work properly again once I have gotten involved.

CART DISASSEMBLED FOR TRANSPORTING DOWN TO THE LOWER DECK ON THE UPPERFUNICULAR

I’ve got a gazillion electronic wires going from one box to another and wiring diagrams are a complete mystery to me.  I have wiring cognitive disorder (WCD).  OK, basic, old-guy, cognitive disorder, if you must.  But I am also extra challenged in all things electrical, our working house and funicular notwithstanding.

Direct current, I almost get…almost.  But Alternating current?  That’s complete magic to me.  Conceptually, just-plain-whacked.  Total confusion reigns just thinking about it.  It results in complete ignorance for me at anything above the light switch stage and even that is taken on faith alone.  Shaky faith, I must confess.

It’s a miracle can blog about it.  (Sob.  It’really shouldn’t be such an emotional thing, ya know?)

REASSEMBLING CART IN SITU

As I have mentioned before; all printed wiring diagrams show wires going in straight lines and turning nicely rounded right-angled turns to go to hieroglyphic-like symbols instead of what is really there.  In reality, there is a jumble of wires (none straight and going in all different directions with a rainbow of colours and thicknesses).  They are going to weird looking plastic boxes most of them with a lightning bolt decal on the side.  Some have a decal image of a guy flying backwards through the air in one of those red circles with a line through it.  They are saying: “Do not touch this or you will die!”

ALMOST DONE

So, this is beyond difficult for me.  This is scary.  This is geek territory.  And given that geekdom is only for the young, I have to find a young twenty-something skinny guy with a pocket protector who writes software for fun and has a degree from MIT.  Or BCIT at least.  And who likes camping.

You will be surprised to learn that I have found two, maybe three of them.  But, like all geeks, they are busy wiring stuff together somewhere else and taking their smartphones apart in front of young women to impress them.  I am just not a priority.  Even with the allure of camping in a rustic cabin thrown in, I cannot compete with a smartphone.

Sadly, neither can she.

THE CART WILL BE PULLED UP THE TRACKS BY AN ELECTRIC MOTOR AND WINCH AND STOP LEVEL WITH THE DECK (ALL GOING WELL)

Maybe all three ingredients…?

And, even tho I found them, they have not necessarily found me.  We have yet to make a deal.  Part of the problem with geeks is that they assume that I have all the necessary parts and further, that there are geek-oriented instructions included.  The truth is that I don’t know what parts are necessary (if I did, would I need a geek?) and further, I am marrying odd things together and cobbling all from bits and pieces so there really is no overall instruction or plan.  There is only a goal to be wished for, a system to be imagined. I bring that and a beer and a sandwich to the equation.  Inventing and assembling is for the geeks.

They don’t seem to get that right from the get-go.  They process old doofus-speak slowly, it seems.  I have to allow a bit of time for the ‘cobble’ part of the geek brain to kick in.

So we currently have a gap in the geek-project continuum and I am the one who has to try to fill it. Then, and only then, will the geek deign to dive into the rat’s nest of wires in which to weave his evil magic. I need all the parts.  I need diagrams or at least exploded schematics of the insides of the black boxes and I need all the tools and wires and connectors whatever they may be.

Then he has to want to come to play.

To me, it is a classic Catch-22 that will probably electrocute me while driving me crazy. Ergo:F-U-N cart.    .

There will be some good news on the mini-local front next blog.  I am progressing with my funicular cart.

But, for today………………:

According to an open letter from the Haida Nation to Northern Gateway (Enbridge) the oil guys are now playing a little more dirty than before.  Frankly, I am shocked to hear that is even possible? The Haida Nation alleges that Northern Gateway representatives have been going door-to-door offering the older hereditary chiefs monetary incentives to submit written support letters intended for public distribution that would contradict the Haida’s official position of opposition to Northern Gateway. The band is, to say the least, not happy about this back-door approach to getting approval for an oil pipeline.  It DOES appear (from here) as if Enbridge is attempting to drive a wedge in the community.  I could be wrong. They may just being generous and kind to those who are in need but who coincidentally live in the place Enbridge wants to be.  Or not.  Regardless, it smells.

I am sure it is legal.  People getting money from corporations to sell out the local environment is not news.  Not anywhere.  And no one ever seems to go to jail.  So, it must be legal. Right?  Don’t our own politicians do that all the time?

The BC government recently allocated timber rights in Haida Gwaii as well.  Seems Weyerhauser is allowed to cut down a great chunk of forest.  A lot of first growth Cedar from what I understand.   Maybe a few guys will get some jobs, eh?  Oooh, oooh, oooh!

The Haida said no.  It’s before the courts.

And lumber prices are low.  So, who could benefit from that?  Well, government gets stumpage fees.  Weyerhauser sells to China.  I dunno…is that 1%?

Interesting, don’t you think?  Canada has just surpassed Brazil as the #1 deforesting violator-nation in the battle against climate change in the world.  We are well into the criminal rape and raze of Mother Nature now.  And then we give Weyerhauser a blank cheque on one of the most pristine environments in the world!?

Whose your premier?

Speaking of business, get this?  There is so much demand at this writing that BC Ferries is putting on extra runs.  But BC Ferries spokesperson, Deborah Marshall says, “There is a good chance the extra sailings will not break even.”  Think about that….they can’t make money when there are too few customers and they can’t make money when they have so many that they put on extra sailings. There may be something wrong with your business model when management can’t do well in either of those scenarios.  When people are lined up out the door, it is usually a sign that the popular business is doing well.  NOT so with BC Ferries.

Maybe they aren’t paying Mike Corrigan enough. What about a bonus to motivate him?

Business….the economy….what…..?  Greece?  Canada…?  Here’s the bottom line: The bank of Canada interest rate is at .75%.  They dropped it from 1% last January.  They don’t have much room to play with…3/4’s of one percent (and they tend to move the rate in 1/4 jumps).  The economy is not going anywhere.  It is stalled.  It may dip into recession. We are simply NOT doing much despite record low interest rates.  And Greece just may be the first of a few more dominoes.  Economic growth is so low, it feels like recession.

What will another recession feel like?

Record numbers of Canadian seniors are declaring bankruptcy and there has not yet been a recession since 2008/2009.  BC has Canada’s worst child poverty rates.  Food banks already proliferate.  Thousands are homeless.  No one but rich immigrants an afford to buy a home in Vancouver.  And this in one of the best ranked economies in the world!

China’s stock market lost more ‘value’ in one day than the entire Spanish stock market is worth in total.

Is the world economy and, more to the point, the local and national economy trying to whisper something in your ear?  Could we be teetering once again?

You ready for the next one?

In a stunning statement of optimism, Just-inTrudeau expressed a desire to tax carbon.  In effect, another tax regardless of the perceived moral value of it (and I don’t see how taxing carbon does anything except make the government a willing accomplice to pollution.  Isn’t it like any ‘sin’ tax?  Doesn’t the price of ‘sinning’ simply go up?).

Is everyone stupid or am I seeing writing on the wall that is NOT there?  

Dean Del Mastro, the former close-to-Harper Conservative MP has gone to jail for electioneering violations.  He was also Harper’s Ethics secretary (which makes fitting sense, don’t you think?).  Dean Del Mastro, from all accounts was also a bully, an ambitious, take-no-prisoners, bull-headed imbecile riding a wave of power he probably never expected and certainly never deserved.  And he wielded his power without compassion or even consideration for any others but himself.  He was a political thug.  He was a man who simply was not worthy of the position he achieved.  And he kept good company in that regard.

As readers know, I am not a fan of any of the so-called Conservatives.  I think they are fascists-by-another-name.  I really should be happy about Dean’s fall from on high and, to a large extent, I am.  The Harper regime has to go and whether it goes down in pieces or all at once is not important.  It just has to go.

So why did I not take any pleasure at seeing Deano paraded in leg-irons and handcuffs? Why was that scene hard to watch?  Wasn’t his humiliation satisfying?

No.  No it was not.  Deano was his own worst enemy to be sure, a miserable, pathetic Canadian fool sacrificed up in that scene for our viewing pleasure.  We were supposed to enjoy his tragedy like the crowd at the Coliseum that watched the lions and the Christians. But, because of that, I did not.  It was ugly.  Shame and humiliation, it seems, affects the viewer almost as much as it does the subject.  It was a form of blood sport to me.  It was embarrassing to watch him duck-waddle towards the paddy wagon.  His shame diminished me.  As a viewer, I felt complicit in his humiliation.  It was not a good feeling.

Stephen Harper should feel guilt writ large when seeing that.

Because, more to the point about Harper, I was only watching the beginning of Del Mastro’s epic fail.  The jail term is just the first act in his likely life-long tragedy.  Up until the day he was sentenced, Dean Del Mastro just didn’t get it.  He didn’t see it coming.  He was a Harper stooge masquerading as a capo in the Conservative mafia.  The conviction was a shock, the sentencing a surprise and the prospect of never attaining his former heights again has yet to even be absorbed.  He’s alone.  Very, very alone.  And that is just sinking in.  A month in jail might do it.  A year in purgatory will.  Dean will probably never recover.  In effect, we are watching a slow execution where the prisoner is just beginning to feel the pain.

I predict reading about Dean Del Mastro several more times over the next decade or so. In much the same way as one reads about Steve Fonyo. It will be a serial spiral of self destruction enshrouded in a cloud of self-delusion.  It will be pathetic and sad.

Of course, we all have faults but some of them result in colossal life consequences.  And the bigger they are, the harder they fall.  Ask Jian Ghomeshi.  Being human ain’t easy and being a successful one comes with a bulls-eye on the forehead, it seems.  If you are going to rise to the top, you’d better be cleaner than clean.  It’s hard up there.  But it is also true that some of the slime still manage to rise to the surface and stay there so disgrace is not inevitable. If it was, no one would be bad.  Basically, we just catch the stupid ones.

That is why I call Del Mastro a stooge.  A sacrifice, really.  He was just another stupid one in Harper’s army. We’ll likely get Duffy too, maybe Wallin.  We’ve already had Sona and Brazeau, Harb, Ford and Redford.  I am sure the list will grow. And when they all fall………?  Will happiness reign?  I doubt it.  We’ll likely just tune in for another four year episode of As the World Turns and a new cast of clowns will stumble and fall for our viewing pleasure.

I pity us poor fools.

We are slowing down.  In fact, the only thing speeding up around here these days is the rate at which we are slowing down*.  This is not news so much as a freshened realization, yet another reminder of our own mortality.  But still, such reminders are sometimes rude in their increasingly frequent manifestation.

I am reminded of this more and more, of course, but never so poignantly as just after finishing Chris Czajkowski’s latest book on wilderness dwelling, AND THE RIVER STILL SINGS.  Chris is the real deal.  She has been off the grid in BC for the last 35 years and doing so in a much more remote and harsher environment than we ever encountered.

Chris had bear invasions, meters of snow, wildfires and bugs galore plus she built everything herself and had barely enough money to buy the minimal parts she needed to get the job done.  But she did get it done.  She set the bar pretty high for OTG’ers.  She is a real inspiration if not just a tad too hard to follow for us.  I would have expired by now had I done it like Chris.

In her latest book, CC starts to slow down her pioneering ways.  Her knees won’t do the job anymore.  She has a few health challenges.  She is getting older and without a Sally or Dave to help maintain the pace. Chris recently moved down from her aerie in Nuk Tesli, a remote wilderness mini resort in the high Chilcotins to a lower, on-the grid (barely) residence that is easier to manage.  The impression given as the book ends is that her wilding days are over. Chris is roughly my age.

Her wilding days are over at the higher level she previously achieved.  No question.  But Chris is still doing ten times what most people do at her age and she just considers it normal living. That is one of the legacy benefits of living outdoors.  Living remote. Chopping wood when you are in your nineties is nothing to write a book about when you have been doing it your whole life.

Like I said, she is an inspiration.

But she is also a prolific writer.  She has written at least ten books on living remote.  I recommend that, if you have this kind of interest, you look her up. http://wildernessdweller.ca.

As for us, well, we are playing in a lower, slo-pitch league.  The kind with happy hour now and then.  We can keep it up, as it were, at the pace we chose for another decade for sure.  Our softy wilding days still have some time to play out.  And, if Chris is anything to go by, we won’t have to leave our paradise even then; we will just have to get in a bit of help occasionally.  And, with a bit of luck, all the BIG projects will be done.

She inspired us, she reminded us of our age and she inspires us to keep at it.  And we will.  We’ll just break for tea more often is all.

*None of the above applies to quilting.  The quilting fever is still burning hot and calories are being expended prodigiously.  But, I for one, find it tiring just watching that activity and so I have taken to the occasional nap when the cloth bits start to fly.  There is an exception to every rule and quilting is NOT slowing down.  

As you know, the book was fun for us to do and continues to be.  Glad we did it.  We may even do another (feel free to suggest a topic because Sal does not want to do OTG ll). But here’s the reason for the title of the blog: books may be going the way of the Dodo.

We sell our books on Amazon.  Not from preference so much as from chintziness.  To ‘market’ a book is expensive and we are a niche market at best and are not likely to ever sell more than 1000 books or so.  Well, we may do a bit better…we have sold 500 so far this year so 1000 is do-able before the bloom goes off the rose.  Maybe.

We are marketing challenged.  Since our ‘take’ is $2.50 to $3.00, there is not much left to market with.  So, we leave it on the Amazon website (and my own) and leave it at that. Like I said, ‘fun’.

By the way, even tho we get more of the selling price if you order direct from us, you pay way, way more because of shipping.  Living remote means higher shipping charges.  If, in a moment of weakness, you are inclined to buy the book, I recommend Kindle first (cheapest) and Amazon second given the cost.  Seriously – our ‘cut’ is so small there is no real advantage for anyone (you or us) buying direct. Thanks, anyway.

But part of the fun is watching the numbers.  When we started, we sold maybe 30 books in a month.  Maybe.  We have not exceeded that number yet.  Thirty is a good month.  Do the math – that’s almost $100.00 to us.  Woohoo!  Which is fine.  No problem.  We’re good.

But here’s the punchline: month one sold maybe ten KINDLE e-books.  Month two: maybe 20.  In this, the sixth month, we will sell maybe 120 (we are at 106 on the 25th).  Every month has had more e-book sales.  By a considerable margin.  In fact, June did not even sell 30 paper books (ten, I think).

What does that say?  Who knows?

But here’s another take on the subject: there are a few independent book stores I pass in my travels (which is amazing since I hardly travel at all anymore).  And I have to go to the big smoke for a day or two in a few weeks so I’ll pass them.  I phoned ahead to see if they wanted to carry any of our books.  I make it easy.  I deliver.  Consignment.  No hard sell. “Sorry. We are closing our doors.  We have ‘going out of business’ signs on the window. We’re done.”  I called three such stores and all three said that they were closing or for sale.

From my limited, narrow point of view, hard, hold-in-your-hand books are going the way of the Dodo. Certainly the little independent book store is.  Reading is not.   But paper books on shelves in stores in little towns definitely are.

Which reminds me:  the other day I heard on the radio (of all places) that “…..some people are still rooted in the old ways of e-mail and blogging!”……………(sigh)………………..

……………I am having trouble with that, too.