Think positive tria.

I positively will not buy frozen pork hocks at $11.99 a Kg. The hocks have been tempting me since my return from GB.
I was almost going to try some when I was told by some one that they had bought some back with them from St.John’s NL, they only paid about $3.00 for what would cost about $10.00 here.
Of course there is the air fare to consider, but when you get free travel and expenses you can afford to fill up bloody great coolers and bring a whack of stuff back.
The hocks are not racing from the freezer either, a good sign they are just way too expensive, or people don’t know what to do with them.

Lobster, frozen mussels, shelled shrimp go like magic.
OK I must be a hypocrite; I paid $6.15 for 0.410 Kg of peeled shrimp this morning, that’s $14.99 a Kg. The shrimp are a good size and will go well with some home made hot sauce on top of lettuce.

Three stores here have fast depleting stock on their shelves. One store in particular has been flying goods in all winter; it gets more and more expensive for goods that should have been shipped in the summer.
The NL government is supposed to be having some people go along the coast soon to give and gather information on the two food subsidy programs. I’m sure many are looking forward to that, if it does happen.

Just a small sample of prices:

2L of vanilla ice cream $11.99.
Spanish onions; $5.98 a Kg. two onions $4.58.
397grams of Purity salt fish; $7.89, but boy was the fish n brew’s some good.

Any way, I have long been of the opinion that the little guy up here is suffering more than necessary because the powers that be, in their lack of wisdome over the years, refused to entertain the idea of Co-0ps in the communities.

Talks between the Union and companies are still on going in GB I hear.

It’s stopped snowing and it’s all mushy but should dry up soon, positive positive positive.

Think positive, dyo.

First thing I do every morning on walking into the living room is look out the window.






Then I went to the front porch door just to check for sure.


Proof positive that I’m in Canada.






Looks like all the strikers who were out on the ice are back in town safely. So now we will see if the boat is really stuck in heavy ice or what.

Hacks, Flacks and Super Stacks.


Not related to above: Nice to hear that Paul Pigott is back at CBC HV-GB. Positive news for coastal radio listeners, wonder if he is a cricket fan?

This guy will be missed. Karl has been around a long time and was like a fine wine. One of the less positive moves by CBC TV was to can the segment where Karl traveled to different regions of the province to do the weather and cover local events and just “be there”. It was a great window into life outside in rural NL. Karl has his own wed site that is cool.

Think positive.

I am going to be more on the positive side for awhile.

I find the situation with the mv Umiak positively bizzar.

First up the vessel was delayed due to wind. Now it is delayed due to heavy ice.

Why is this bizzar? Well it’s the end of May for one. For two, there have been ships coming into Edwards Cove all winter, four actually. For three, the ships track is still there, straight as an arrow between change of course points. For four, the ice would not be as thick in the track as surrounding ice.

So is VBNC doing the right thing, by holding the Umiak back there by avoiding any confrontation with striking workers, or is it something else afoot?
The recorded message on the shipping hot line is saying that the delay is due to heavy ice, they need to upgrade the quality of the message too, very poor quality this morning.

With this weather the ice will be unsafe for travel by ski doo soon, if not already in places. Then it will be an unknown time before small boats can get out.
The spring ice conditions will not be a problem for the Umiak or other ice class vessels.

Interesting indeed.

To Dogbait: Thanks for the positive feed back and your increased support.
I am not down really, the words you reference were a tad on the facetious side.
I got in trouble with that bloke in paradise too for my tardy update of links; actually I thought I had done yours, there ya go.

Monday morning coming down.

I normally do not comment on the number of hits I get here, I check it out but leave it at that.
I have a small eclectic regular visitor list, some more casual and then the usual passers by. This is fine as my posts are usually for the more refined adventurous folk.
But yesterday was completely bananas, the page loads, unique and new visitors was way beyond any single day since starting the blog. It continues on early this morning.
I had no idea so many were hungering for white [haricot] bean soup recipes!!!!

I other news, I notice that the folks over at local 9508 who are on strike have mentioned my blog.

Then there is the sun, it is back after the weekend, color me surprised.

Then there is the smell of fresh paint permeating the house. I started painting one of the spare bed rooms yesterday, slow at times painful work the back not being what it was.

To wjm in the centre of the universe: Not sure Huh? Constitutes a question, there for cant compute :-}}
Then again there is no such river as the Churchill in the area. Amazing what acute pain and aging does to ones memory processes.

Rmour has it

that some strikers from local 996 have gone into the area around Edwards Cove, the docking area for the VBNC vessels.
Oh my!!!! What will come of this?

Oh my, silly me, it's local 9508 here in Labrador,996 is in Hawaii, not much need for an ice breaking ore carrier there eh?

Also an update on ETA of Umiak, some time tommow, are they hoping the ice will melt or what?

Hope the ice is safe and no bad stuff comes out of this, but it looks like the lads and ladies are galvanised.

From a good source I'm told that protest and action for Inuit rights and self respect was common many decades ago. Looks like it is only last 20 or so years that the controlling status quo has perpetuated the myth that it is the "Inuit way" to act like goody little milktoast.

Just hope the frustrations are directed at where it should be, not amongst the proletariat.

Times are a changing maybe, not before time IMA.

It’s ego stroking time, and other tit bits.

Well maybe just a little pat on me old degenerating back.

I have received some feed back on the blog via e mail that I will throw out; if I receive negative comments I will share those too as long as they are in the sprite of exchange of ideas and information.
As you can see one is from afar and one local, I have withheld the names because I want to.

“Your Blog is good Brian and I am really impressed by the number of hits that you get from China in particular. I have especially enjoyed the pictures of Nain but I must say that I do not recognize too much of it now!”

“ Great Blog Brian, I found the site and couldn't stop reading. Makes me laugh out loud and especially loved the slight divergence pics of the two {ladies} (my favorite). I have added it to my bookmarks. It's such a fresh point of view and the irony is it's my hometown. Great work will check often.”
Note: I have substituted the word {ladies}. BW

I do not delude myself in thinking that I am such a hot blogger, my hits are small compared to some, but they are eclectic and from many parts of the world. My writing skills are not well honed and my intellectual bent is wanting, though I do tend to tone down that aspect. Not that I’m any heavy weight, I just don’t see the need for it that often.

The striking union and the companies are scheduled to get back to the bargaining table on Tuesday. This has mixed reactions. One of the comments in the forums section of the strikers web site states: "the boat is going in on monday, we go back to the table tuesday, come on people, they are winning. i certainly will not stand for this. the offer is a tactic to let the boat in and out without incident. in solidarity we stand".
This has sparked some debate. It has also reminded me of something profound I read not long ago, to wit; “A mining play, is after all, a liar standing over a hole in the ground”. So true, so bloody true.

The mv Umiak 1 is still due in today.

This not quite warm, calm, dry weather has put me in the home made soup mood. I came across a simple white bean recipe in “Delicious”. I had to substitute dry beans for caned, bacon for pancetta [who knows pancetta up here?] and leek for 1 onion, but it turned out quite good, and it’s so simple.
In a medium pot I added two table spoons butter and same of olive oil.
Added 1 chopped opinion and half a leek chopped and 2 bay leaves. Stirred until softened.
To that I added 4 cups chicken stock, 3 cups already soaked and cooked dried white beans.
Brought it to boil, simmered for 10 minutes.
Fried till crisp 8 strips bacon.
Removed the bay leaves, pureed with a hand blender until smooth.
Served with fresh crisp multi grain bread and lots of fresh ground pepper.

Paging all old trouts.

Nice and brisk ridding home in the snow and sleet yesterday arvo. Then it rained, cool night but up to + 5 now, time to wax up the old board eh?

I have a message for old brook trout over the water [dont have any contact info old trout].

I have happened on the whereabouts of a this: 'Eskimo Grammer' by the Revd Bill Peacock in 1966/67. It is typed on 255 single sided pages on what looks like cheap paper, in a cardboard folder. In the forward Rev Peacock says that it was compiled by 'a Theodor Bourquin over 20 years and published in German in 1891'. It was translated by Walter Whatley Perrett and 'only four typed copies of this translation were made'. I have no idea whether or not this is one of the copies but it is not done on carbon paper and it would be a brave person who re-typed it all !!

So old trout, is this of any intrinsic value? The bloke who has it said he would ship it to OK if it's wanted. It is over your side at the moment, if any interest let me know asap.

TGIF, or not.

My culinary creative juices seem to be rejuvenated since my trip to HV-GB. Or it could be the foody magazine that my little sister ordered for me, it’s from Oz called ‘delicious’.
Any way one dish was for lamb chops with white beans, so I did up my stylized version yesterday.

The lamb is just braised neck chops and other cheaper cuts. I browned meat in fry pan, onions and garlic same way, add to roman pot with chicken stock and some drained tin tomatoes, slow cooked for about 3 hours total.
I soaked the beans overnight, drained. Then covered them in lage pot with water,added pinch baking soda, few bay leaves, cooked for 45 minutes, drained but kept about a cup of the water.

Sautéed about ½ cup diced salt pork till well browned, added the beans and cooked on low till heated, added some of the liquid from the lamb, served with broccoli and baked sweet potatoes, I did it again, not too shabby at all.

In at the VBNC site things seem far from normalized. CBC radio interviewed a union rep on site this morning. Four of the VBNC mill operators have reported to work, another four have not. Still no one sitting at negotiating table.
The mv Umiak is due in to Edwards Cove this Sunday to load concentrate. If I read correctly elsewhere the company delayed the arrival for a week or more. A cynic could speculate that this was an attempt to avoid any potential blockade of the ship like what happed the first strike. The longer we get into May the more chance the ice will be unsafe for travel on.

Strike situation update.

It’s starting to get more attention in the regional media.

Union leader just on with Randy Simms, fairly lengthy discussion on anti scab legislation. Other subjects raised by Simms “is scab an outdated term? one of the owners of one of the companies have some hard questions to answer, trying to get hold of William Andersen for interview, what do you call WA? President?”.

Hope he has more luck getting anything pro active than the Nunatsiavut strikers have.

Food and lifestyle section.

A little while ago I purchased a packed of frozen garlic flavored fajita wrappers. Not such a great idea as Fran is not keen on Mexican food and the one I made up for myself [accompanied by guacamole] was extremely filling.

So what to do with the 20 odd more wrappers?? My sister suggested making pizza with them, so last night I did.
Turned out not too shabby if I do say so myself.

I sautéed up some onion, leek and garlic, I love garlic. Spread that out on two wrappers. Topped one off with ham, broccoli, Swiss and mozzarella cheeses. The other with salami, black olives, mozza. In hot oven for 10 minutes, served with some spicy oven baked fries.
Looks like more thin pizza in near future.

So sister finely captured some reasonable front head shots of brother [Matthew], persistence pays off.

Photos by Aimee M.

Strike at VBNC heats up.

I have been hearing rumors for about a week of things getting down and dirty between scab labor and the unionized workers at the Voisey’s Bay mine/mill but have not posted anything until confirmed.

Some of the rumors are of special security people harassing VBNC workers with cameras and constant vigilance.
Other rumors were of severe tensions between scabs and other union workers.

Well confirmation is in; tensions are near breaking point, incidents of verbal abuse leading to rock throwing by scabs to one scab blockading 5 VBNC union people in a sea can [container] until their release by another staff person.
The scab has since been removed from the site. None the less the night shift at the mill walked off the job and the next day shift refused to work. CBC reports that the mill is shut down until the issue of scabs, and possibly the strikers issues are dealt with.

The striker’s web site has a lot of information, much of it good intelligence once checked out.

I have permission to point out this post by Sean Lyall, very poignant, I do not agree with his entire hypothesis, but it is a good overview of many people’s feelings.

Sean also got it spot on, confirmed by CKOK Nain, on the severe cut back in employment opportunities in Nain this summer.

Not only Nainimuks will be affected as the Ten Mile Bay quarry employs people from all the North Coast and Lake Melville. The fish plant workers and support mechanisms will fell it hard.

On the meeting of the Northern Strategic Plan people in Nain on Tuesday.

I was not invited despite me being in attendance at the first public consultation.
I was informed yesterday by the WST ministers Special Assistant that he phoned the house lunch time Tuesday to invite me, I was not home and he was dialing the wrong number anyway.
To be fair to the SA, he was the one who got me in to the first hearing.
Ironic that I was one of the few who tried to stick to the true agenda. Ironic that there was only two people from Nain at the Tuesday meeting, one being a reporter/council member.

Have correction to make on the number of Nainimuks at the meeting. My informant screwed me royally, and they were there.
Turns out 4 from community plus one from RCMP detachment, justice was on agenda.

Heat wave warning

relatively speaking that is. Up to +13 at the house, tropical like after what we have had.

So it was a good day to do a shanks’ pony recon of my biking route. All fairly smooth after the grader did a run, surface is moist with all the run off and moist air.
Still blocked at the circular run around the chopper pad and on the steeper part of the road up to Anainuks pond, but the dozer is up there and that should be cleared by today.














People are still going off fishing, these photos show there is still plenty of ice, but more and more it is becoming only for those that know of what they are doing.

On the base2.

The two high schools sit boarded up and the day I took the photos the playground across the road was ominously devoid of happy playing children. There were kids there other days I must add.

Ironically there is a housing shortage in the rest of town with a 2 bedroom apartment renting for 600 or more a month.

On the base.

Some of the empty accommodations at 5 Wing CFB GB.





The older buildings are the lighter colors, except the officer’s homes that are a cedar color. There are 7 of these homes and only 2 are occupied.
The other detached, semi detached, 6 -8 unit buildings are too numerous to count, and I do not know the percentage of occupancy, it would be low for sure.
Newer buildings are dark blue with the German, Dutch, Italian, English all having some, the large bulk of these are all empty now.

Back to the grind.

I used the walking trails in HV-GB a lot this trip, more than usual. The pain and stiffness in the old back made it somewhat of a necessity, and I was trying to loosen up things in between getting Chiropractic treatment.

Actually I think it would be a good idea for me to purchase a bicycle and leave it with friends for my use when there. I bit of a turn around on what many people from coast do, like have a motorized vehicle there for visits.

Any way the trails are very extensive and in good condition once the snow is gone. They go all over the American side of base, down to Hamilton River Rd, turn left and right there. Right takes you to the trail that runs mainly through woods down to Tims [Tim Horton’s] and the hospital, then left down into the Valley.

Some rather large homes back up or are close to the trail in the woods, one new ‘estate’ was not there the last time I did the full walk about 3-4 years ago, progress eh?
The Mealy Mountain Collegiate has been there for some years, but it is still a nice peaceful stroll, unless some arse holes decide to zoom up the side on their trail bikes, progress again eh?

The strike by about 120 workers at Voisey's Bay mine/mill is in its fifth week. Support workers for two contractors are finding out what it’s like to deal with the corporate world and their minions, lying politicians.
Here is a striker’s web site to see what’s up at the moment.

Nice day here, just creeping above 0 now, breeze picking up though. South of here had some crappy weather for the long weekend, storm damage on the Norther Peninsular and GB had some snow and stuff.

Forecasters not always right.

My flight home from Goose Bay yesterday was in perfect conditions; apart from the overheated plane [it is better than a non heated plane though] there was bright sun, very little wind. We had a perfect view of the inland and coastal scene. Still a lot of snow on the ground, the rivers and ponds still not ice free and the sea ice is tied to the shore and very little sign of any leads, especially further north. There were some open holes and the ice did look very blue in parts, but the reports on the ground are that the ice is very hard, up to 21/2 feet thick in places out near the sina [ice edge].

The forecast for Sunday did not look all that good and given the previous 5 days I was a little concerned about getting home. Friday in GB it was up to 20c, I was staying at a friends home on the base, sitting out back sunning, warm wind picked up to a mini gale in the evening, almost tropical like making BBQing very smoky. The forecast for Saturday was for snow beginning at noon and temperatures dropping to -1. Low n behold they were spot on, quite a lot of adjustment, especially for those walking around in shorts.

So here are two shots of same scene at +20 and -1 with some snow the next day.

The day previous the dogs were digging, the cats playing and us sunning.

The Churchill [Goose] River is ice free in parts, this shot from near the senior officers homes on the base.

On the Goose

Goose Bay is fun???!!!!!!!!!!*%%%
Blowing sand to blowing snow to bloody cold for this time of year. Supposed to namalize from today for a few days.
Lot of itinerant air traffic, Germans, Americans, other, all stopping off for a night or two and heading out after food fuel fun. Well maybe not the fun.
A section of the main runway here is being torn up and re done, traffic is diverted to secondary runway. It is also diverting some traffic for re fuel to other airports because the one being torn up is the only IRF or whatever it's called. But still a lot of air traffic, lot of action on the home building front too, some one has confidence.

Any way will be home soon back willing.

I'm having a few days break, clear the lungs and head so to speak.
Later.

After the Goose.

Laying out the decoys.
Hunkered down for the wait.








Kind ‘a cold wind boy!


Photos by Aimee McIntosh.

The wind was at it all night and is still today. Gusts up to 91 last night, fairly consistent from 50 to 70. Nice and sunny though.

Breezy saturday.

Strange weather indeed for May. Lot of wind, looks like we will have to get used to that Snow of all varieties and size yesterday, cleared overnight then winds from NW gusting to 99 clicks early to 65 to high 80’s rest of day.
The roads are rutted with ice and gravel all mixed, there is one cut up our road but the roads closer to ‘down town' are fairly clear.
Some geese around, depending where you go seems to depend on if you get any.
Heard that the ponds and rivers are still frozen north of here, with the winter we had most people were expecting things to open up by this. Could be with wind chills in the -18 range they could be freezing again.

The CCPA has a good little tool to see how much people are being gauged at the gas pump. Thing is this has been going on for years and people still buy the stuff, don’t down grade in size of vehicles [not overall] and no one is willing to deal with the issue in a way that it will make a difference.
I have the St. John’s price and the Goose Bay price here. The price in Nain is .04 cents a liter cheaper than GB at the moment, only due to the price freeze over winter. Big old shock when it goes up in a month, it’s usually at least 20 cents more.

I’m no bleeding heart on the sleeve lefty pinko, I do use less gas than most people, but then I like to travel. Can’t see myself dog sledding or kayaking to Goose Bay to get a bus to Montreal, no busses any way. But some hard choices will have to be made soon by government and the proletariat.

Example of how individual choices are not working. Noticed at the Northern store this morning some typed notices lying around from the NG Department of Health and Social Development. The notice was an appeal for people to cut down on the use of plastic bags, suggesting people bring there own cloth bags or back packs. So the staff are putting everything in plastic bags even before you can get to say, NO, I have my own bag. The staff at the check out are only casual so you have to give then a break, but it just goes to show that people have to pay more attention and work at this environmental change thingy. Maybe more time and education, but at moment I thing the big stick approach will move things along quicker, then you can put the big stick away.

IFF.

It’s fighting Friday.

Listened to a very informative Ideas program last evening. Mr. Wrights lecture puts a lot in perspective, have not read the book but must get hold of it. Below is from the Ideas program schedule.

Thursday, May 10AL QAEDA AND THE ROAD TO 9/11 CDLawrence Wright spent five years researching the history of the events leading to the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. His book about the subject, The Looming Tower won the 2007 Lionel Gelber Prize, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. In this public lecture, Wright analyses the forces that created Al-Qaeda, and adds to our understanding of what we must do to fight them.

One highlight of his presentation was the fact that the combined Arab countries with a total of 300 million population have a combined GDP lower than what Nokia the cell phone company has. Good nesting ground for discontent for sure.

Then there is the obvious fact that while the west is “bringing democracy” to Iraq and Afghanistan most other Arab states are just as oppressive and abuse human rights on a daily basis. These are the same states that are propped up and or supported by the west. And it’s not about the oil eh???

Via Ed I got to this story on the damage done by bottom trawling. The original article is subscription only, but I have one of the images here.

It would be interesting to get some images of trawling inside and outside the Canadian 200 mile limit would it not?

I’m coming across many photos of the tulips out down south. It’s a different pretty here with nice white snow falling covering up the yucky spring dirty snow run off stuff.

Messy situations.

The mess in the Middle East just gets messier by the hour does it not?
The absurdity of the notion that democracy and freedom for all can be forced upon the region, either by force or any other way, is highlighted daily for those who are paying any sort of attention.

One highlight of that for me was watching this sleazoid Iraqi National Security Advisor on the news Hour last evening. He made my skin crawl, mainly for his western trained PR throw away lines like this:

“ MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE: My message was to all people in Capitol Hill that, look, we are walking the last mile in here. And this is a marathon. We have reached to the end. And we can see the success. And we can feel it. Don't pull the rug from underneath us. Don't let us -- we need your helping hand. We need the U.S. support for Iraq to get there to the finishing line. And we're almost there. Don't abort. You can't have a baby in three months' time. You need that full nine months to get a mature baby. And so we need your continued support and help to get to the finishing line.”

There is more there like that in the interview. I’m sure I could see Margaret Warner’s skin crawling too, especially after the abort analogy. Read or listen to the whole interview, no way these blokes in power in Iraq intend democracy or anything close to it, it’s about the west keeping them in power for reasons that do not justify the deaths on all sides.

Then we have this little revelation on Afghanistan, it’s about time some one in NATO had the guts to tell it like it is, the fact it’s the top guy should have some sway????

For local content: Our little messy road pales in comparison for sure.

The council workers are working diligently to clear the roads, ice blockages etc.; the sun is helping too, plenty of that today sure. Our road seems to hold the snow a lot better than other roads around town; it’s always about the last place to clear of snow no matter what efforts are made.

Update: The power of the blogespher, just kidding. Just minutes after I took the photo left the bulldozer did a cut up the road, got rid of those puddles, the first pickup this way is not far behind.

Gone off II.

After a hard but pleasing day on the land there is just the sunset and a quick go at the game boy to enjoy. life is hard eh?

Photos by Aimee McIntosh.

Gone off.

Aimee took Matthew out to the Flowers cabin on the outer part of Paul's island last weekend.

Lots of wildlife was spotted, three wolves, black bear and of course seals. No pictures of the wildlife but have these of the trip out and arrival at the cabin.

Photos courtesy of Aimee McIntosh.

Oh really?

CBC news is saying that; Inco has announced that their Hydro metdemonstration plant is having technical difficulties. It could slow down or even shelve the whole project.

I don’t feel any particular joy in being proven right in my predictions. More like sadness for the bloody idiots who were conned into going along with this whole scam. Not to mention the tens of millions of tax payers money that has been ill used.

Wonder how many more millions of tones of ore will be shipped out to Ontario now?

I also wonder what this news will do to the self confidence rally at 12 noon on the 11th at Confederation hill.

Liars and bulldozers.

Yesterday the council bulldozer knocked down all the snow bumps on the 3/4 of the road and leveled what was left close to the gravel surface; it’s a lot more pleasant to walk around now.

Alas right on cue it started to snow, it’s coming down moderately heavy now. It should not cause too much of a problem with the temperatures about 0, just some more slush for awhile.

In the evening I was channel surfing between Canadian politics shows and American news when something piqued my interest.
It’s about the coverage of the Conrad Black trial down in the states. The coverage is OK I guess, I only have a passing interest in the goings on. But some confusion arose on what penalties this Radler bloke will suffer from his copping a plea bargain. From the CTV story: “Radler pleaded guilty to charges connected to this alleged conspiracy. Under his deal with U.S. federal prosecutors, he will serve 29 months in prison and pay a fine of $250,000 in return for his testimony”.

Most of the media coverage to date, including CBC, has stated that Radler copped a plea and will receive a fine and lock up time as above.

But here comes the confusion; on Mike Duffy Live last evening Mike interviewed the host of some show called The Verdict. The host of this show, on Mikes prompting, said very clearly that Radler had not been sentenced yet after the plea bargain. She added that the rules are different in the states than in Canada [well color me surprised]. In the Radler case he will only be sentenced AFTER he gives his testimony and cross examination at the trial. In Canada he would have been sentenced before the trail.

Mike gave the host of the Verdict a big wrap saying that she was a lawyer as well as an excellent journalist.

So I wonder who the good journalists and who are the not so good journalist are here, because it is confusing me. Getting this fact straight is important not only for those involved in judging the evidence but for the public judgment of what is going on here.

Newfoundland and Labrador:

That’s’ the name of the province we are in.

Newfoundland and Labradorian [or it's plural]. To me that would be the way to refer to the populace of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, right? Wrong, at least for many on the Island portion of the province, especially the premier and the premiers government minions.

They insist on using the term Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. For some the and labradorians is almost an after thought, then there are some who just leave it out altogether.

This seems to me to promote divisiveness rather trying to promote unity and unanimity.

This was highlighted in the premier’s speech last week in the big TO. The emphasis was on ABC [anything but conservative] in the next election, plus he asked for “all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and Canadians to come together to rid us of the evil Harper government” [paraphrased]. Well I have no argument with that, but to use divisive language in trying to unite just seems fruitless to me. Of course it has occurred to me the premier’s agenda maybe not to unite, time will tell on that.

Also on uniting the province; [leave alone the country] Craig Westcott was doing a commentary this morning on CBC radio. Mr. Westcott is no friend of the premier, and he does make sense at times. But this morning Westcott was bemoaning the fact that city of St. John’s only received one million dollars in the latest budget for roads works. That would be fine, but he went on to compare the million with the multi millions promised in the budget for roads/infrastructure in Labrador.

I emphasis the word promised here, after all a lot of it is promises, some monies are contingent on matching federal funds, some of the monies was previously announced, some of the monies may be federal monies administered by the province.

So if Mr. Westcott wants to lambaste the government for allegedly short changing the city of St.John’s the that’s fine, but to throw out ill thought out and researched remarks comparing one million for that city to about thirty five million of unknown dollars for Labrador is very divisive indeed. I could get into how Labrador has been largely ignored in many many provincial budgets but wont at the moment.

There are known knows and known unknowns……OK, forgetaboutit. But when it comes to funding issues in Labrador it is best to do some serious digging before giving credit to who is doing what for and to whom.

Update.

Great idea for the big rally on the 11th.

Pink and Green Rose Bouquet with free chocolates.

No FTD is not advertising these, just the pink and cream for Mothers Day.

But I’m surprised some enterprising Newfoundlanders has/have not come up with the idea, or maybe they have/has.

Got that spring look.

In most of Australia people are hoping for rain to fill the dams and moisten the crop fields.
Over in parts of this country they have homes being lost to coastal degradation, floods in urban areas where moving ice rafts and blocks the rush of melting snow.
The worst we have here is a few flooded basements and the rest are hoping that the roads become free of snow and run off so it’s easier to walk, or people can get their tired vehicles on the go.



Funny world.


This picture is of the dam, nice and high with all the run off into it, actually it did not get too low this winter, says a lot about the mildness of it I guess.






Lot of people have taken off to cabins or camping, one of the last chances to get some fish or hunt. Most people are expecting very unsafe ice conditions early, again due to the mildness of the winter.



Here is my first crack at YouTube, basic but got's start some where

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLcK87U2-68

Suns out, yarhoo.

Took a walk, hard slogging, it's like walking on a foot of course salt soaked in vegetable oil.

The results for the chief of the Mushuau Innu are in: Pnote Poker won handily from a past chief Simon Pokue with Jim Nui third.

In totally unrelated here is a montage of the Square in Gaios Paxos from 1979. Not a lot of action, mostly locals or long staying tourists.
The young couple on there own were from San Francisco California, both were 'film' students, nice couple, help me celebrate my birthday for a whole week, now that's a story boy.
The guy in the red shirt with the happy face is Red Chars Stamarty, he is having a laugh at the young doctor extracting sea urchin spikes from the foot of a tourist.

The hotel and the beer outlet have had their licences renewed by the province. The Community Government will call for nominations for three vacant seats on the Alcohol Committee next week.

Just Saying.

The chap over here is doing a great job of informing all and sundry of Newfoundland & Labrador Blogs. I check it out regularly, and use his blog roll on side bar, thanks mate.

But the latest link to a contest has me a little perplexed. Sure people can do what they want with their sites and blogs. But it seems to me, in this age of discontent about equality, and what part of Canada is doing what to whom and what part of the Province is doing what to whom [though that part is fairly clear], including all the province in this contest would just seems logical. And how much more work would it take to tack on & Labrador.
Or am I being too finicky?

Mushuau Innu Election.

The elections for chief and four councilors in Natuashish are today. Note the fact that there are two seats set aside for females.
Natuashish is not that far away from here, relative to Labrador far.

I think it’s not unreasonable to say that the community has had more than its share of tragic incidences and some controversial actions by local leaders and outside agencies.

I think it’s rather tragic that some people have been misled or been exposed to the worst that the dominant society has to offer.
That is not to dissolve the local people from any fault in inappropriate actions, the Innu society is very clannish for sure, but actions by people and agencies beyond their control have played a major role into the situation the Innu find themselves.