Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Sun is splitting the rocks

but I’m in a funky uncomfortable mood. The back is killing me, whole upper body is all tense. I was hoping to put off a visit to the chiropractor until our trip in July, but all my efforts caved yesterday. I was doing a few things around the outside of the house, mainly needed things that spring brings, climbing ladders etc [darh].
Soon after I was on the phone and booked the chiro, plane, place to stay. Having to pay over 700 bucks, plus incidentals, just to get there is a bummer, but has to be done.

Some things that are not making my mood any better are; with all the things that go on in the North Coast communities CBC HV-GB covered this one, pisses me off no end. If they covered other issues to the same consistency I would not be so riled, but they don’t.
Then there is the fact three or four people arbitrarily making these proposed rule changes, it is not the way to deal with the problem. You have to get to the core if it and spend time, money, compassion, understanding, hard love, what ever. Just pounding away thinking that cutting back on hours at the bar, or access at the retail outlet will solve this large problem seems absurd to me. It is a legal substance, not like some of the other illegal substances that are freely available in town, nor like the bootlegging that goes on, no big outcry about that, makes one wonder why?

Then there is this story. The ex commissioner is either the Mother Theresa of ex commissioners or he is lying through his straight ridged teeth. At first I did not have much compassion for the officers who were blowing the whistle; it seemed that it was all over the pension fund corruption, it looked like all were self serving. But as time goes by things look different, it is a deep rooted discontent that needs to bubble to the surface and be heard.
In time maybe my confidence in the RCMP will return, I hope so.

Then there is this horrible mass shooting down in gun owner’s heaven, but I guess it is not as horrible as the millions who have been/are massacred in Darfur.

There, I feel a little better already, by Friday I should be floating on air.

2 comments:

Old Brooktrout said...

Maybe CBC stands for Crime, Booze, and Corruption: those seem to be the only stories that interest them when it comes to Up There.

Regarding the management of alcohol, those underlying issues you speak of are a hard nut to crack. But if you take a flexible approach to managing alcohol (and all communities have to manage it; the southern Canada I grew up in was heavily regulated along Christian lines, though it's not so much now) it's possible that some helpful solutions might emerge. When I say flexible I mean almost experimental: put them in place, see how the community likes them, ask hard questions about whether they accomplish anything, and if they're not, try something else. Too often, we create policies with the intention of making a permanent change, when we should be looking at them as being tools. When the hoe don't work, try the shovel.

In case any Canadians feel smug about these kinds of things, I should add that I didn't know how damaging to a society alcohol could be until I moved to Britain. The violence here is unspeakable; I watch it out my window every night. There seems to be a growing acceptance now that the Labour Gov's changes to alcohol serving hours has contributed to the problem, and that the justification popular at the time (limited hours were contributing to binge drinking) may not have been true. It's a tough issue. But generally, this committee might have a right idea in thinking about the spaces where we buy and drink alcohol, and how open or separate they should be. Some pub owners in Britain claim that there is a more relaxed atmosphere where food and drink are now served together and smoking is only allowed outside.

Re. backs: I've lived with debilitating lower back problems for about ten years now, a "sports" injury, and the chiropractor helps. Just as I was reading your entry, I realized that I haven't had a problem in about a year: the only thing I can think of to explain this is that I've been biking 5 kilometres everyday and dropped about fifteen pounds of McFat (TM) as a result.

Brian said...

You are spot on about flexibility and more relaxed atmosphere, alas that is not what the committee here as about, it is about limiting and control, the old neo colonialist thingy. I will post more on this later.

My bike is ready to go, just need about 3 feet of snow to melt, then the water dry up. Zoom zoom, I’m going to buzz those arse hole snow mobile speeders all summer baby.