Sunday, September 28, 2014

Sunday musings

So some nutcase in America gets fired and returns to the workplace and murders a former co-worker. And in this day and age where people seems so desperate to be "somebody" and will mimic/adopt anything that seems trendy on the Web and various forms of social media, he also beheaded the poor person.  And the media jumps on the reports that he was a recent convert to Islam and draws a direct connection to terrorism.
Ah, really?
As sad as the "link" some influential American politician made to an abandoned sports jersey on the USA/Mexico border by proclaiming it to be a Mexican/Muslim terrorist prayer rug.
Ah, really?
A sports shirt?
Come on.
And the specter of a porous border re-emerges from USA politicos - conveniently twisting the reality that it is the USA that leaks into its next door countries and not the other way around.
And yes - really.
India spent some 73 odd million dollars to place a satellite around Mars - compare that to the $100 million spent by Hollywood to produce the sci-fi flick Gravity.
Ah, really?
Something really strange about that isn't it?
So, the United Nations had a PR event this week about climate change where some of the leaders of the biggest industrial countries spoke. The Americans prodded the world to act. Canada sent a junior minister to yap and promised to follow the lead of the Yanks. Thereby casting to the garbage bin of history its' so called solemn commitment to reduce emissions made with a straight face a few years ago.
China said - no - no to the world about reducing its' dependence on coal fired power plants with their incredibly toxic emissions.
And - you guessed it - the rest of the pious,pompous, hypocritical world approved of that by its total and complete silence.
Not a peep.
Not a damn word.
Instead, why not skewer countries that in the big total picture do a lot less but actually respond to criticism?
Like Germany or Ireland.
Not ones like the aforementioned China, India, take your pick in Africa, far East or South America.
Oh no, not them.
How do these leaders and so many "professional" greenies look themselves in the mirror anyway?
And, showing the the United Nations is truly blessed with corruption acceptance reports come out this week that the beloved world body  has given around $130m in financial aid to Somalia. The decision came despite corruption allegations against Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his ministers.
Ah, really?
Doing wrong does seem to pay doesn't it?
The cursed Ebola virus continues its march in Africa and the outlook continues to darken. Residents of the Guinean capital Conakry, hit hard by Ebola, say they are afraid to seek treatment at hospitals for fear of being poisoned by doctors, as the death toll across West Africa passed the 3,000 mark.
 Will an extreme reaction occur if the world community decides to embargo Africa until the plaque dies out?
And rest assured, this could happen.
Did you know that 75 years ago the movie Gone with the Wind was released?
Still a powerful movie after all those decades. And yes, some parts reflect the attitude of the times in depictions of life in the American South of the Civil War era but still, pretty good. Can you name a recent film that would rate this well after 75 years?
Star Wars?
The Muppets movie?
Case closed.
Your Hawaiian word for the day - back again by popular demand - Noho kamoe.
For all the so called armchair quaterbacks in the world - it means your "recliner" chair!
Cool.
Sadly on the fabled Sandwich Islands, vandalism also flourishes under the guise of social activism in this instance. In Lahaina residents were greeted with graffiti in various locations. The most prominent being on the side of the Lahaina Burger King with the letters GMO-symbol(Assuming the symbol means- Anarchy) sprayed on the windows.In the upcoming elections a referendum on banning GMO crops is to be voted on but there is no thinking from whomever did this stupid act by defacing property. If folks are that involved in any cause - hey deface your own property for a change eh?
This weekend sees the annual Falsetto competition on Maui, to be held in the resort area of Wailea, in the town of Kihei.
And...on October 10th there will be a free ukulele workshop at the MACC in Wailuku town and that defines the word cool - just ask Elvis!
Here on my Island, well the slow advance of Fall continues. Leaves are starting to change colour and indeed some are falling early due to the drought we had for over three months this summer season. Without water (indeed this Island is considered a rainforest region) the stress causes the leaves to drop early - almost like being back on the Prairie Flatlands!
My better half has removed all the summer flowers and is in the process of planting fall/winter ones, still hard to believe that flowers continue to flourish in the winter months here.
 take care out there,
flatlander52

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Sunday musings

The sad saga of the American Professional Football League (NFL) and its mishandling of a case involving a player committing violence towards a woman continues with the bizarre late Friday news conference done by its commissioner and the media.
It took a week for him to emerge from seclusion to explain the incredible inept handling of the so called Ray Rice affair.
A week.
Total silence.
Then a news conference on a late Friday - just the same kind of hiding in plain view that modern politicians do all the time when issuing bad news to the taxpayer.
A week.
But... he only came out to talk after a number of big money paying sponsors (indeed, one brewery spends over 1 billion - yes, with a B!) complained and vaguely talked of doing "something" with their money.
Then he showed up.
A week.
Never did address the issue did he?
Nope.
A week.
What a hero eh?
Then about a half hour after the end of this farce, a report hit the airwaves that said the team employing the player - well officials actually saw the video of the player hitting his fiance. And that the billionaire owner helped devise a plan to only suspend the player for 2 games, enter an abuse program thereby hiding the video forever from the public and that the commissioner went along with this.
And you know what?
One suspects absolutely zero will come out of this tragedy.
Ordinary folks will still fill the coffers of the team owners to overflowing.
They will still attend the games.
Nothing will change.
Most likely.
You hope not but one doubts it.
After all, society (and not just North American by the way) worships athletes - indeed they can do no wrong and it is difficult to see this obsession ever changing.
And there are the 2 victims in this and they will be the only ones to pay a horrendous price.
The woman who was punched in the face and ended up marrying the man.
And the man himself - put into obscurity, never to earn more mega millions - probably never to understand what was wrong with what he did.
An American tragedy all around.
In Scotland this week, a vote to separate from the United Kingdom was defeated. Avid separatists from the Canadian Province of Quebec ( home of 2 failed votes to get out of that union) vowed that they were re-invigorated and have new energy to start the drums a beating in that part of the world.
OK - but this time, let the country take a lesson from the details of the Scottish action.
Leave Canada - pay your portion of the debt that you incurred.
Leave Canada - get your own currency, not the Canadian dollar thank you.
Leave Canada - no access to Canadian Pension plans - they are for Canadians only.
Leave Canada - form and supply your own military.
Leave Canada - you deal with the First Nations people who have their own ideas of Nationhood.
Get the picture?
Times and attitudes change, evolve and in some cases - harden.
Sierra Leone has enforced a 3 day lock down of the entire country in order to find, isolate, hospitalize (and also educate the populace) people infected with the Ebola virus. A desperate step in the fight against an ever spreading disease that is claiming more and more every day.
Will this work?
One hopes so but based on the way humanity has acted through the ages, probably not.
A cruel irony is that there are so many medicines available these days compared to the zero amount centuries ago and scourges like this continue to exist.
Sometimes it seems the world goes 3 steps forward, 1 step sideways and 4 steps back doesn't it?
On the plus side, reports issue that say there might be a reliable blood test available for the diagnosis of depression. Instead of solely relying on the words of the afflicted, medicine might be able to spot this insidious disease via a simple style blood test.
And what a great thing that would be.
I think we all have known folks that have endured this demon.
Sometimes successfully.
Sometimes losing to it.
And never just a single victim, no, entire groups of people are impacted by this disease.
As said, sometimes a step forward.
In a sure sign of fall - the first sighting of a humpback whale comes from the Sandwich Islands.
More reliable than the first frost or leaves falling, that's for sure.
It is a truly awesome sight when one breaches the water, takes your breath away in fact.
We have had the pleasure of this viewing a number of times over the years and never grow tired of it. And as hinted, once again in the New Year, we are off to the Isles to spend a short time there.
Here on my Island, Fall is truly underway as the Province wide teachers strike is finally settled and parents can now send their kids back to subsidized day care...oops.. school again.
Also the main deluge of tourist traffic is slowing to a trickle and one can venture out on the local "autobahn" and not endure the dreaded 15 minute traffic jam!
We are in the process of bidding farewell to "member" of our household.
She came into our lives about 2 months ago.
Tiny little thing yet able to melt my heart with just one look.
Next week, she will be moving to a new place across our small "dorf".
Never thought I would have another kitten in my life after saying farewell to the "old guy" as he passed on just a couple of weeks before we moved from the Prairie Flatlands to this Island.
Never again I said.
I will miss her.
Darn.

take care out there,
flatlander52

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Sunday musings

It seems like American President Obama has reluctantly decided to commit America to some form of armed response to the ISIS criminals.
Reaction in the States ranges from condemnation to lukewarm support.
He can't win for losing can he?
Dammed if he does and the same if he doesn't.
Faceless critics that have so much vitriol and courage - wonder how tough these people would be if they had to be doing their spewing in public, on camera with name being shown?
Yah, they would run for the hills.
One wonders how the rest of the world leaders that matter, will react and what if any support will they offer.
Or is yet once again, the Yanks trying to stem the hordes of insanity and barbarism by themselves, bleeding lives and money so the rest of us can sit on our fat behinds and do nothing?
You tell me OK?
So the African "Blade Runner" is not guilty of murdering his female partner but guilty of killing her.
What the heck is the difference except for a twisting of some semantics?
Dead is dead - right?
Violence against people is wrong right?
Well....there is a professional football league in the United States that sure seems to think that this concept takes a back seat to profit and its selfish view of the world apparently.
Now this league has special status as a non profit organization from the US government.
Super rich team owners that force cities and state governments to bankroll extravagant new facilities and generates gazillion of dollars in revenues ranging from tickets to the games, TV broadcast rights, memorabilia and the like.
Cool right?
So this rich persons state supported professional league has a curious response to violence and drug abuse.
To wit, a player can be suspended for drug (marijuana) use for 6 games.
OK.
A player beats the living crap out of a woman - 2 games.
What????
A video showing this, well, the league never asked to see it and after a tabloid TV show asked for it and then showed it - well,  the head honcho said - oops, no one ever gave it to us but now, he is suspended indefinitely.
The same league has a proud history of allowing players accused of being involved in murders to continue to play. Indeed, a statue to one has been erected in front of one stadium.
And now reports emerge that a star running back from one team has been indicted for child abuse and he is suspend with pay for one game?
Gee whiz, what is wrong with these people?
And America, how can you let this continue?
A piece of long lost Canadian history has been found in the high Arctic this week. One of the 2 hips from the fabled Franklin Expedition that was lost while searching for the North West Passage has been found, partially intact in shallow waters in the North. After decades and decades this piece of Canadiana is now found and interestingly enough, many maritime experts state that this should further bolster Canadian claims to its sovereignty on the high Arctic over those of Russia, China and the Americans who want the newly opened waters declared international waters.
Why international waters?
That is all about money sadly.
Anybody going to stick up for the fragile ecosystem that is soon to be real peril once tankers and exploration takes off?
Thought so.
Well, I guess the world has to perish one day - right?
Might as well be on our watch one supposes.
And on the Home Front....
Now there are none.
The list of folks coming to visit us on our Island this summer is complete.
We ferried our last visitor back to the mainland airport this last Friday after a week filled with sightseeing, good food and, dare I say - interesting conversations?
The summer fest has allowed us to share our part of the world with these folks and show them what we consider a tiny part of Paradise. We know that some may never journey this far west again, either due to cost, distance, other life matters - whatever, but now they know part of the reason for our planting roots on this Island we call home and are so pleased to be here.
Now we just have to work on one last person - my better halfs' brother, who while having a distaste for flying, is a pretty cool dude and I think might have fun here.
Time will tell.

take care out there,
flatlander52

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Sunday musings

No world commentary this week, we all have had just about enough of the constant Cassandra type bleatings of the media for now.
Middle East - been there, done that.
Global warming/climate change - been there, done that.
Obama - good or incompetent? Been there, done that.
Mankind exterminating itself via pollution, etc by 20... you pick the year - been there, done that.
No rain, too much rain - been there, done that.
Drought, famine, pestilence - been there, done that.
Enough already.
OK?
This week, just for something different, sit in a chair, read a good book, go for a nice walk, talk nicely to someone.
Be young again and like life for a few precious days.
OK?
Here on my Island, as stated before, Summer is fading and Fall is sneaking about. And in a funny way, now that I live in a part of the country where snow and cold is a possibly one day event, well, the seasons seems shorter even as they stretch out longer.
Go figure.
Yup, the year is really starting to zip by now.
On local TV this week was a report about the first snowfall of the season in Canmore, Alberta.
Really?
REALLY?
Snow already.
Yup.
Halloween ads appear on the TV as well.
Really?
Yup.
First couple of leaves swirl down from trees and weather news talk about possible frost next week on the Canadian Flatlands.
FROST?
Really?
Yup.
I swear I saw my first Canadian Tire ad on the tube for blasted winter tires!
Winter tires!
Really?
Yup.
I even looked into different nooks and crannies here to see where I left my winter mitts for crying out loud.
You know what this means don't you?
Yup.
Pretty soon the old guy will be mourning...err...celebrating yet another birthday.
There soon will not be a cake big enough to support the groaning mass of fire hazard inducing candles will there?
Is it not amazing how the first 2 decades of your life are soooooooo long?
Then the next two are a blur as you settle into society, learn the cost of paying bills and become one of "them".
Then the following pair are another blur in the frantic race to establish parameters, plan for the future and survive in the cruel corporate world.
But then after the somnolence of the fifth decade, the sixth explodes in your face.
60 - gone.
61 - what happened?
See a pattern emerging?
Oh the cruel irony of it all as your biological age increases, time accelerates correspondingly.
And it continues into warp speed it seems.
Rats indeed.
And it really does seem like yesterday I was planning the soon to happen long road trip to the Prairie Flatlands in June and now it is a dim (and hazy!) memory.
And even in the months before, after returning from my beloved Sandwich Islands, we were wistfully wondering if and when we might have yet such another adventure on the horizon.
Now in the waning warmth of the shorter and shorter (daylight only though) hours of September, my Google calendar reminds me of the days left before our next voyage of discovery starts in the New Year.
Hey, I had a list of things to see and do when the summer hit - and now - it is FALL?
Really?
Yup.

take care out there,
flatlander52