Making It Up As I Go Along #442

In the News
You know when society is crazed with material goods when Canadian newscasters biggest story is of America’s biggest shopping day of the year... the infamous... Black Friday.

We see a woman on the TV... dressed up in fancy coat, with a purse under her arm... she talks about being out, lined up in the middle of the night, so she can be there for sales. She’s looking for... more fancy coats... more purses. And shoes, of course shoes.

And funny enough, none of the people you see on TV make any mention of buying Christmas presents on Black Friday. This is all Me Shopping. And all rationality is lost.

One woman is talked to in Mississauga. She sits on a bus, awaiting the ride to Buffalo. Daylight is hours away and the reporter asks her what she’s going to Buffalo to try to buy.

“An HD TV” she responds... and then the glint fades from her eyes as she follows that up with “But I probably won’t be able to come back to Canada with it.”

The woman realizes the duty that she’d be charged, getting a large TV on a day trip to the States. Yet she’s going anyway. She knows well enough that the goal can’t be met, yet is so caught up in the frenzy that she must go anyway... she must try. My thought... Canada would be a smarter nation if that bus leaves Buffalo minus one TV shopper. Plus she’d be happy... no worry of paying the duty if she never comes back.

Also recently in the news, Danny Williams and his leaving Newfoundland politics.

People on the mainland have very little understanding of Williams. Even smart people who follow politics don’t get it. Case in point, Peter Mansbridge... CBC’s biggest news man... seriously asked the question of the At Issue political panel... “Is Newfoundland better off with or without Danny Williams?” And the panel seemed to consider both sides of the matter.

Even if you don’t believe in Danny Williams, witnessing what has happened to Newfoundland in the last ten years should be enough to know, without any thought, Newfoundland has been a better place with him.

Yet one of the panelists somewhat smugly states that Newfoundland’s fortunes have changed, not because of Danny Williams, but because of the price of oil and nickel on the world market.

This argument completely ignores several things. It ignores history for one. When Newfoundland, thanks to poor leadership, gave away billions of dollars in revenue to Quebec. The Churchill Falls blunder continues to haunt the province generations after the fact. The rising price of oil is meaningless if you don’t have a leader in place who’s ready to look out for the best deal in processing it.

And they also question the idea that Danny Williams was able to raise the self esteem of Newfoundlanders. The panel’s argument being “Haven’t Newfoundlanders always had a good self esteem?” Even Rex Murphy... a Newfoundlander... misses the point. He speaks of the individual self esteem being fine, but collectively, Newfoundland has had issues in this matter.

The collective lack of self esteem may be true. It could be argued so. But the point that was missed by all is that what Williams has done is less about the people of Newfoundland... and more about everybody else in Canada. His goal wasn’t so much to raise our self esteem but to tell those ignorant to Newfoundland that they’ve got it all wrong.

The general attitude of much of Canada... especially in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta... is that Newfoundland is a land of unsophisticated hicks. I’ve seen this attitude first hand... even from friends who don’t seem to know that they’re being prejudice. Newfie jokes still fill e-mail in boxes. Many of these jokes taking the form of funny pictures of the aftermath of stupid people. If a car was driven off a cliff and was stuck in a tree, the caption would be “Newfie do-it-yourself hydraulic lift”. The picture could be of a car in a tree in California... but it’ll still be tagged “Newfie”. I’ve heard people joke about Newfoundland drinking and obesity with the never clever “What else would you do there but eat or drink?”

Many Canadians believe that Newfoundlanders are mostly unemployed and looking for a handout and Danny Williams has been fighting to end this type of idea. The benefit to Newfoundlander self esteem is more of a bi-product. If you make ignorant people see that you are not a lesser person... and they stop treating you as lesser... well of course you’d feel better about yourself.

The At Issue panel sees Danny Williams as a man who has looked for fights. They don’t see that maybe he was looking to fight that which needed to be fought.





FRIDAY...
— Work. Goes okay. Alone at lunch as I draw the short straw as far as going to a retirement luncheon. Someone must stay behind... it’s me. Some snacks and TV after I get home.

SATURDAY...
— Fairly quiet day at work. I talk some with Tucson Arizona... that’s the biggest thing.
— You know (a) that the pope is out of touch with reality, and (b) that people are desperate to cling to any fact from the pope as a positive. Today, the pope decides it’s okay to use a condom as long as you’re a male prostitute who is looking to stop the spread of HIV. Anyone else... you’re a sinner. With retarded thinking like this, how long will it take for the world to wake up and ignore the pope?

SUNDAY...
— Some TV and naps until ball. We win again... 6-0-1 now... and I’m starting to hit again, finally.
— Work is pretty quiet. With freezing rain outside making the Monday morning drive home a touch iffy.

MONDAY/TUESDAY...
— Work Monday night is alright. Once I get home though, I find my smoke alarm beeping every 30 seconds. Not ideal for sleep. I check online (tired) and find this means the alarm needs to be replaced. The Carbon Monoxide/fire alarms give out after seven years. So I disconnect and get to bed.
— Up before noon. So not a lot of sleep. Some TV... and go get a new alarm... then an evening of video games. Baseball followed by hockey. The thumb feels it by the end... too marathon on the controller.

WEDNESDAY...
— Some TV, some groceries, some sleep. Endured the two hours, forty-five minutes that is the movie Bridge on the River Kwai. Some of it is dated now... I’d rather the officers of my military unit take part in the work of a prison camp... I wouldn’t be admiring them holding out and strong arming the Japanese so they don’t get their hands dirty. But I understand the feeling of that notion. And the movie has several amazing scenes of cinematography. Plus now with that, and Lawrence of Arabia, I can better understand why Alec Guinness wasn’t totally thrilled with being primarily known as Obi Wan Kenobi.

THURSDAY...
— Video games and a little TV. Danny Williams is leaving political life. Too bad for Newfoundland... he’s the best they had.