Category Archives: Commentary

Stephen Harper

A burned out, hollow tree in the Watershed Park.I’m not much of a fan of Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada. I think he’s far too right wing for my tastes. I’m not exactly a raving liberal, but I do think that religious ideology has too much control over his thought processes.

That being said, I do have to give him credit for doing some things right. I received an email with a number of short bon mots which I suspect are not really true. Funny, witty, and interesting, but most likely apocryphal. I think this one is worth relating, because even if it is not true, I do think it is a powerful statement.

In France, at a fairly large conference, Steven Harper was asked by a French cabinet minister if Canadian involvement in Afghanistan was just an example of “empire building”.

He answered by saying, ‘Over the years, Canada has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.’

I suspect this is not true, since Canadian soldiers these days are brought home for burial, but hey, pretty cool anyway.

(Max is doing fine.)

EDITED OCTOBER 02

Ok, I’m going to take myself to task for furthering this incorrect email attribution to Stephen Harper.

I SHOULD HAVE LOOKED IT UP! Would it have been so tough?? I think not. I ALWAYS tell people to go to www.snopes.com before they forward these things. I didn’t. Mea Culpa.

I apologize to everyone.

The quote is NOT ACCURATE and demeans the real intent and spirit in which the answer is given.

The question was posed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury at a World Economic Forum held  in England, and does not contain any mention of empire building, but rather the use of hard and soft force. It was posed to Colin Powell. His answer is much more complex, and involves discussions on WWII too. There is a more complete response here.

His more meaningful answer:

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.

Frankly I’m surprised at the answer, since Powell knows that fallen soldiers are returned to America, and have since Vietnam. However, a little hyperbole is forgivable, since the sentiment is so heartfelt.

So don’t believe everything you read on the internet – that’s how the war in Iraq started!

Long time, no post

It’s been a long time since I have sat down and wrote a post, and for that I apologize. Life goes on, walking the dog, going for dinner, not much new. (I did get poisoned at work, and I’m recovering slowly but still feel very out of sorts, and I’m not able to think for long periods of time.)

Saturday night we felt like trying someplace new for dinner. It was around 8 pm and we went by the 120 Bar and Grill on 120th street. The establishment is large, with two generous rooms. As you enter, to the right is “The Grill” which was empty, so we went left into the bar.  There was no one serving as a hostess, so we kinda looked around a bit. We got a few strange stares so we sat ourselves in a booth.

A waitress with a LOT of makeup asked us for an order, and I requested Sleeman Honey Brown. They don’t have it, but have Rickard’s Honey, so I take that. It comes flat. I order the “pork special” but she doesn’t know what that is, and I say, “on the board, the pork special.” “Oh, the pork wellington,” she says. Uh…. ok….

The bar is quite dirty. It really needs a good scrub. It feels like it has not been properly cleaned since they banned smoking, which was what? 3 years ago? 4? The tables are still horribly scarred with burn marks from cigarettes.

We were watching the football game, but the bartender turned all the televisions to the Cartoon network. When we queried him on it, he said they wanted to turn the bar into a club at night, so putting on kiddie shows seems to be the way to attract their desired clientele.

Wonderful. We’re looking for a nice adult evening out, and we get cartoons blasting at us from 15 televisions, all tuned to the same program. Needless to say, five minutes after the switch, the bar, which had 10 tables, emptied. There were three tables left. Yes, the joint emptied.

Dinner arrived. What a joke that was. The “pork Wellington” was a piled high mess of stuff, that came in a bowl. When dinner arrives in a bowl it’s never a good thing, unless you’ve ordered soup of course. There was something on the bottom of the plate, then a pile of mashed potatotes, then some pile of something, then something piled on top that, that made it look a little like a Mickey Mouse doll head. The two “ears” were “roasted peppers”, which fell off the pile when the waitress set it down. She was embarrassed and apologized, but really the chef should apologize for that stupid stack of food.

The pork was NOT wellington (Wellington means it’s wrapped in pastry – there was no pastry in this dish). It was a piece of POORLY cooked meat, that was SOOOoooooo rare, it was bleeding on the mashed potatoes. When I called the waitress over and told her the pork was not cooked, she asked how I’d like it cooked! I said, well how about cooking it so I don’t die when you serve it??

The 120 Bar and Grill is a total embarassment. The staff obviously need better training. The chef is a moron, who should be charged with reckless endangerment. The management well, what can you say about management that puts cartoons on TV on a Saturday night, when people are there to watch football!!? When three quarters of your tables get up and leave, you think they’d catch on. Of the three tables that did not leave, one was us waiting for dinner, the other was eating their dinner (they left as soon as they finished), and the other was a group of Sikhs getting drunk.

Check out the 120 Bar and Grill – walk in, look around, leave – Just don’t order the beer or the food!

Flamingos in Curacao

FlamingosThe other day a friend from work mentioned that her mother just loves flamingos, and I said, well, you just have to take her to Curacao and she can see them in the wild!

The shot to the left (click the thumbnail to get bigger pictures) was taken while coming back from Playa Kenepa. They were hanging around the marshy edges of the water, stepping gingerly through the water. They were there the next day as well, when we headed back to Porto Mari.

FlamingosWe stayed in the Royal Sea Aquarium while in Curacao, and they had a bunch of flamingos hanging around the restaurant, with a bunch of turtles. They were often noisy buggers, and had certain interactions that were um – unique – to say the least. Watch the movie to see what I mean.

Here is a movie of the flamingos in the Royal Sea Aquarium enclosure. We were having lunch in the restaurant when the flamingos got rather noisy, so this is what transpired.

Good grief, Canada: Shocking and embarrassing

I’ve been trying to figure out how to write this post for some time. I’m not naive, I’m 52, been to quite a few places, but I thought I knew my country. But I feel like a stranger here now. A recent headline in our local paper spoke of three white “men” circling and stalking a lone black man, Jay Phillips, who stumbles and then is swarmed and beaten. The three attackers shouted racial insults, naturally; given their relative bravery, their intelligence needn’t be questioned. They proclaimed this to be a “white town” and they would lynch Mr. Philips and his family.

This is Canada. Courtenay BC. Vancouver Island. Small town Canada. I grew up in small town Canada. This shocks me. Stuns me. This, surely, to whatever you hold holy, is NOT Canada!

The most shocking thing about this is, there is video. You can see and hear all of it. It’s not staged. This is the real deal. Mr. Philips more than held his own against these three “hyenas stalking a lion” as Mr. Philips so eloquently put it. That he survived is a tribute to his bravery.

And it’s not an isolated incident. There are more places than just Courtenay where black people can’t feel safe here in BC. This is embarrassing; not to mention dangerous!

I’d like to be able to say that I apologize to Mr. Philips on behalf of Canadians, but I can’t. I have to apologize to him on MY BEHALF, because I can’t speak for the rest of Canada anymore. It’s shocking to me. This is a terrible, terrible, terrible stain on our country.

Mr. Philips, sir. I am truly sorry you must endure this kind of criminal behaviour. I can not express the level of outrage I feel, but it can not even come close to having to deal with what you must suffer through on a daily basis. I do hope that this video will spark change, but talking to friends and co-workers, I’m not optimistic.

Know this Mr. Philips: when I extend my hand to you, it will not be to strike you, but to shake your hand for your bravery, and for your enormous dignity and humanity that you have displayed in the aftermath of this prodigiously cowardly act.

Good grief Canada. Wake up.

Youtube for some crazy reason has flagged this and is making people sign in to see it. How utterly classless and gutless of youtube. Here is a link to the movie, but you will be redirected.

(Added Saturday – I have put the video directly accessible here. No need to sign into youtube to see something that is important for people to see.)

Final notes

Max in the MorningWell we’re home. It took a little time but we’re home! The flight home was remarkable. We flew Continental from Aruba to Houston. And they served a meal! A hot meal! It’s been years and years and years since we’ve actually got a meal on a flight less than 6 hours – I was totally amazed. The food was pretty good too – hot chicken sandwich, kettle chips, an apple, and a chocolate bar. And the flight was amazing – great take off, smooth, smooth landing.

The flight from Houston to Seattle was also on Continental. After picking up one of our bags, we heard the dreaded, “Will customer Pamela Ormon please come to the Continental desk and speak to a representative.” They’d lost one of our bags, natch. Luckily we’d taken a Park n Fly in Seattle and were going to be staying overnight. They said they could fly it to Vancouver for us, but they promised us it would arrive on the 10:15 am Sunday flight, so we went and slept. It did arrive. So all is good.

We flew four different airlines this trip, and I’d give super high marks to Continental. Usually I book the cheapest fares I can, but I will take Continental if they fly where we’re going, even at higher prices. US Air was cheaper, but wound up being more expensive because they charged a hidden $30 per checked bag fee. Outrageous. We will NOT fly US Air EVER again. I do not like hidden charges.

We picked up Max from the dog sitter –  Max let me know he wasn’t happy to be left out of the vacation! But he forgave me when I gave him a duck jerky treat! LOL And it wasn’t raining when we got home, so that was nice too!

I miss the heat already.

Dining in Curacao

Sunday night we had dinner at the Sea Side Terrace. It came highly recommended by the Royal Aquarium staff, and we’d read nice reviews on line. Well, last night must have been an exception, because I’m not sure I’ve had worse service, worse food or a worse meal.

The owner raved about his rice and beans, that his fish was wonderful and fresh, his fish soup was home made and delicious. So I ordered the fish soup, fresh fish and rice and beans. Not sure how the soup was, since we never got it… The rice and beans had zero moisture in them, were cold, and were crispy – I’m not positive, but I don’t think that’s how it should be. The “fish” was three thin strips of something, coated in rubber, then deep fried til it was so overcooked that I couldn’t cut it with a knife and fork.

And the kicker – it only took 2 hours to get it! TERRIBLE!! DO NOT GO!

View from El GauchosOn a brighter note – Monday we ate at El Gauchos Steak house. When we were in Aruba last December, we ate the best meal we’ve ever had at El Gauchos. This restaurant has a complimentary shuttle, that picked us up at the hotel, drove us to the restaurant, then returned us to the hotel after dinner. Now that’s service!

The restaurant is situated on a hill, so you have an amazing view of parts of the city, and the island. The soccer stadium was lit up, with a game just finishing up as we sat down. It’s owned by a pair of Dutch brothers, but is not associated with the El Gauchos in Aruba.

The service was impeccable. Attentive, informative, friendly. The meal was delicious, starting with home made chicken soup. Now I thought I knew what chicken soup tasted like, but this was a unique creation with wonderful flavor and aroma. A nice all you can eat salad bar was also there. It was nice, but would have just preferred they bring a salad lol.

The steaks were served on large wooden chargers, and were quite simply, amazing. Easily as good as the El Gauchos in Aruba. I had mine with the roasted vegetables. They were very tasty!

For desert I had tiramisu, and Pam had some wonderful concotion called “Pyramides” — order it – you won’t be disappointed. Not that I was in anyway disappointed with the tiramisu. All in all – WONDERFUL. The view, the service, the food, and best of all the company!

Nothing much!

Well the weather finally seems to be turning the corner into summer, but I’m not holding my breath about it! The other day i posted a picture of some tulips in our back yard garden – here is a picture of the tulips a couple days later – the color is darned glorious!

The tulips finally openAnd the cherry tree has finally bloomed, but it looks like a lot less blooms than last year. Guess we’re not going to get a bumper crop this year!

One of our friends was heading to Cancun, Mexico but has been forced to cancel due to the swine flu pandemic that threatens to envelope the globe. Is that something or what? The scale of it seems incredible, with Mexico City considering shutting down public transit! Wow – that’s an amazing reaction.

Surely, in this day and age, a flu pandemic cannot be THAT serious, can it? They say that up to a quarter of a million people die from the flu yearly, so will this drive that number up significantly? I always worry about how the media approaches these kinds of stories. Headlines from many papers are over top really, creating fear and worry among anyone with a sniffle or a cough.

SWINE FLU GROUND ZERO screams one headline; SCIENTISTS PERPLEXED BY SWINE FLU screams another; even the New York Times is adding to the hysteria with silly pictures of people with masks on… the practice of wearing a mask can actually INCREASE your chances of getting the virus, people! Here’s a link to a story if you don’t believe me.

RELAX – chill out. This too will pass….