Small Dog Fetches Big Stick

I shot this video the other day but had some technical problems converting it into a format that I could upload. But here it is now:

CKNW Orphans Fund Pledge Day

Friday, December 7th is the Annual Pledge Day for the Orphans Fund. Held at the Hotel Vancouver, it's a wonderful day of good will, singing, and generally a profound start to the Christmas Season. I've signed up to work the phones beginning at 5:30am. They need more people for this early shift so if you'd like to join in then please drop me a line (or comment) and I'll get you in touch with the right people.

The Rain of Vancouver

Vancouver is like a beautiful woman
decorated in all her majesty.
When the sun is shining, the city shows
off its gloriously seductive smile.

But when it's rainin' it's like watching the tears
stream down that beautiful woman's face.
You want to reach out, wrap your arms
around her and assure her that all is okay.

While the tears may go away for awhile,
they're certain to come back before too long.
This, my friends, is the dilemma faced by
all of us who love being close to things of beauty.

In the case of Vancouver, there's not much one
can do except embrace the rain.
As for the woman, we can only stand back and hope
that she finds the inner happiness on her own.

I Don't Speak English, Please Don't Kill Me!

That subject title may be a necessary T-shirt slogan for all foreigners arriving at Vancouver's International Airport to wear.

I've long been a supporter of the police in our society. While I've never been naive enough to think that any officer is perfect, I've always believed that each of them tries their best each & every day. My faith in this has been badly shaken after watching this video of Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, being killed (2nd Degree Murder?) via a taser, used by 4 RCMP officers at YVR:

The video speaks for itself. No negotiations were attempted. How difficult would it have been to hand the man a phone to a translation service? In fact, it's clearly heard on the video that the decision to use a taser was decided upon before the police even reached the man. They surrounded him the way a bunch of young thugs would do to a helpless animal in a pen. And then they killed him. After they realized he had stopped breathing, they did absolutely nothing to revive him. Aren't all police officers trained in basic CPR?

Equally appalling was what happened after the fact. The RCMP lied about what really went on there. Then they told the videographer that he wouldn't be getting his footage back for 1 or 2 years. He had to threaten to sue them in order to recover it. After that, the damage control spinsters of the RCMP reminded us that what we saw "was only from one man's perspective". Is their opinion of the public's intelligence really that low?

I lived in Mexico City for a year. From that experience I know first-hand what corrupt police are like and the effects that such corruption have had throughout the entire fabric of Mexican society.

It is thus absolutely imperative to Canadian society that these 4 officers be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Failure to do so will forever destroy the faith that the Canadian public has in our police forces. Police are not given a badge and various weapons with blanket permission to do whatever they want, in a very similar way that BC Ferries workers are not given control of a ship to do with it whatever they want.

This is a pivotal litmus test in the history of our country as to whether people in power will be held accountable for the responsibility they hold. Sadly, I strongly suspect that nothing of consequence will happen and our society will slip deeper into the abyss of incompetence and lack of accountability that we've been heading toward for decades.

Update: An abridged version of this was kindly read by Jon McComb on his show (56:35).

Vancouver Can Learn From Downtown L.A.

When coincidences occur, I pay special attention to them. One happened this morning that I could just not ignore. First, I heard this segment (8:10) on Bill Good's show on CKNW. It featured a discussion of a new film, Tears For April, produced by Odd Squad Productions centering around the tragic misery of the drug infested Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Then I learned about this article via a comment on David Berner's blog. It's about the similarly tragic situation that has been downtown Los Angeles for many decades. Finally some good things are happening to help the drug addicts lead better lives. And the source? No other than the frequently maligned L.A.P.D. Yet, fighting them every step of the way are the usual suspects:

• Homeless advocates
• The A.C.L.U.
• Liberal leaning judges & lawyers
• The Hollywood glitterati

The article is long. It'll take you about 30 minutes to get through it. But it's a worthy read. The similarities between L.A. and Vancouver are incredible. Though the actors are different, the screenplays seem nearly identical. Most importantly, the path forward for Vancouver seems abundantly clear. In order to happen, those in power need to agree to and stick to a logical vision and ignore all the misery advocates who will only detract any progress.

The Vancouver Sun or The Province should definitely print this L.A. article in full!

Bus Stories

Yesterday I took the bus downtown. Just as the bus driver was about to close the doors, a 30-something fellow jumped on and said, "Can I get a ride across the bridge this one time only?" The bus driver (and everyone else within earshot) knew it was complete B.S. but let him on anyhow.

The fellow sat down and then promptly pulled out a cel phone and started text messaging. So he has enough money to own and use a cel phone but has no problem ripping off the public.

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My mom told me about taking the B-Line (a long accordion bus) from downtown. When it reached the middle of the Granville Bridge it deliberately stopped. A fare inspector walked through the bus, fining anyone who was cheating on their fare. He told my mom that there were 40 such people on that bus. That would be a minimum of 25% of the people.

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Is it any wonder why Translink is consistently short of revenues. Has Vancouver become a community of cheats?

Ever wonder how much money is spent holding each meeting?

I'll never forget the time I was a consultant, helping to reorganize the graphical document management system of a large company. We held a meeting to finalize a number of issues. One topic that came up was what colour a line representing a certain kind of object should be. The choice was between Red and Green. There were about 10 highly paid individuals there, all employees at this company. What I thought might take 60 seconds to decide ended up going back and forth for at least 30 minutes. It was simply ridiculous and I later started calculating how much money was being spent in salaries to make that one decision.

One of my new favourite blogs to read is the "Bits" section of the NY Times. It could aptly be described as "Technology meets Culture". An hilarious story today was about a little piece of software called "Meeting Miser" that allows one to calculate how much money is wasted ... errr "spent" at each meeting.

Internet Browser Trick

With the Mozilla Firefox browser, you can put folders on your Bookmarks toolbar. Each folder can contain any number of bookmarks. When you click on a folder it opens up much like a traditional pulldown menu. At the bottom of each list of bookmarks is an item called "Open All in Tabs". With just 2 clicks you can then open a bunch of websites at once. This is a very handy feature that I use every morning for viewing the 9 blogs that I currently browse.

Vancouver in November

I've taken several miscellaneous photos in the past few days and am posting the best of them here:

John Les: Top Cop-Out

Vaughn Palmer has just written a subtle, but telling article about another Peter Principle candidate, BC's Solicitor General, John Les. I heard him on the radio today and it was nothing short of embarrassing.

One thing is crystal clear: We have Major League Organized Crime vs. Disorganized Double-A Politicians. It's no surprise who's winning, no surprise at all. :-(

The Wild, Wild West! (Revision)

An anonymous commenter informed me that the quote from Sam Sullivan, which I heard on CKNW, was never actually said. So I contacted The World Today program on CKNW and received a call back. The commenter was correct. But here is the precise quote from our mayor: "We're not as bad as other American cities."

So in the interest of accuracy, I have amended and resubmitted my letter to the Vancouver Sun:

Over the past 3 weeks there have been 10 very public gang related murders in Metro Vancouver. At least 2 of the victims were innocent members of the public, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. After the shocking execution of two people in a car in Marpole we received this gem from Mayor Sam Sullivan: "We're not as bad as other American cities." Wow, I'm sure that'll bring great comfort to school kids and senior citizens standing at a bus stop, the next time bullets are whizzing past them.

Since our mayor is making geographic comparisons, let me do the same. Imagine the Canucks losing 10 straight games and coach Alain Vigneault being asked how he felt. Do you think if he responded with, "Well, at least we're not as bad as the Blackhawks or Red Wings", that he'd be employed much longer?

I voted for the NPA in the last election and the one before that. And goodness know that I would be hard pressed to ever vote for Vision or COPE, but abstinence may be the theme of the day for many voters if Sam Sullivan is once again on the NPA ticket. Every week, our very own Mr. Dithers is providing textbook proof that the Peter Principle is alive and well.

The Wild, Wild West!

Here's the letter I just submitted to the Vancouver Sun:

Over the past 3 weeks there have been 10 very public gang related murders in Metro Vancouver. At least 2 of the victims were innocent members of the public simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. After the shocking execution of two people in a car in Marpole we received this gem from Mayor Sam Sullivan: "Well, the crime rate in Vancouver is still not as bad as in Chicago." Wow, I'm sure that'll bring great comfort to school kids and senior citizens standing at a bus stop, the next time bullets are whizzing past them.

Since our mayor is making geographic comparisons, let me do the same. Imagine the Canucks losing 10 straight games and coach Alain Vigneault being asked how he felt. Do you think if he responded with, "Well, at least we're not as bad as the Blackhawks", that he'd be employed much longer?

I voted for the NPA in the last election and the one before that. And goodness know that I would be hard pressed to ever vote for Vision or COPE, but abstinence may be the theme of the day for many voters if Sam Sullivan is once again on the NPA ticket. Every week, our very own Mr. Dithers is providing textbook proof that the Peter Principle is alive and well.

David Berner speaks out about Vancouver's Misguided Drug Policy

"The sound quality is poor but the message is crystal clear: David Berner, a well known broadcaster, writer, and actor in Canada's West Coast city of Vancouver, speaks out about the city's misguided policy on drug use and drug users. Having started SUCCESSFUL drug treatment facilities himself, he knows of what he speaks and everyone, within and without of Vancouver should be listening."

I filmed this with my little digital camera at the October 31st meeting of the Chinatown Rotary Club. It took a while to clean up the sound quality to what is now legible. I filmed as much as I could until the memory card was full.

If you have your own blog, please strongly consider posting this video as well. We need to get the message out that the current drug policy in Vancouver is NOT working. You can obtain the HTML code here. And contact David through his blog if you would like to get him speaking at one of your events on the same subject.

Crime Rampage

Last night, 2 young drug dealers were shot to death in their silver Mercedes at 70th & Granville. A few days ago a high-end mobster was shot to death in front of his home in the prestigious Shaughnessy neighbourhood. This makes 10 people murdered in some sort of ongoing war in the past 2.5 weeks.

On today's 3pm CKNW news broadcast, Mayor Sam Sullivan was quoted as saying, "At least Vancouver doesn't have crime as bad as Detroit."

Oh my, isn't that wonderful. This will make me feel sooooooo much safer when I go out for a walk and bullets are whizzing by! Now that Paul Martin has retired, the "Mr. Dithers" moniker is free and Sam Sullivan seems like a prime candidate for it!

Late Update: Sullivan's office called into CKNW to correct the quote. He didn't say Detroit, he said Chicago. Whoooh, that makes it so much better. Not!

Decadence, Simply

I was hankering for a midday snack so I made some homemade bread in my bread maker. The minute it came out I cut off some slices and applied some delicious peach freezer jam ably made by mon mama. Unfortunately the photos can not communicate the wonderful smells wafting through my home, nor the delicious taste and texture. Yum!

Vancouver on the Rick Mercer Show

BC Digital Divide on Shaw TV

BCDD and 3 other other organizations were recently featured on Vancouver's Shaw TV:

Who Is Steve Winwood?

That RIDICULOUS question was asked of me today by someone who will remain anonymous! Steve Winwood is my favourite musician of all time and an absolute genius IMHO. Here are some videos that Fiona (ooops, I was going to keep her name anonymous) might recognize:




Quick notes:

• The second song is my #1 favourite song. The first time I heard it was the very first time I drove on my own. My Dad helped me buy a 67 Buick (in 1980) and had a cheap Korean stereo installed in it. I heard "While You See A Chance" and absolutely loved it. I also heard "Morning Train" by Sheena Easton but it never stuck.
• The third song, Gimme Some Lovin', Winwood wrote and released in 1966, when he was just 18 years old.
  

Pierogi Night in Vancouver!

On the first Friday of every month the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, at 154 East 10th Avenue, offers up a fabulous pierogi and cabbage roll dinner. For between $10 - $13 you get a LARGE plate of food that will fill even the hungriest of appetites. All proceeds go toward the church.


The food was absolutely delicious. My only complaint, but it is a big one, is this: The volunteers at the church know a lot about cooking but not a thing about process! Once in the door, there's still about a 45 minute wait. Why? Because they had everyone going through one food line and the woman dispensing the pierogies was doing so one at a time with a fork. Her actions delayed every single person in the line and are cumulative. They also required her to get more trays from the kitchen when she ran out. At the same time the priest and other volunteers were just standing around doing nothing. This resulted in an enormous number of tables sitting empty for the first hour. Ridiculous! Let me be clear: I didn't mind waiting but the whole purpose of the evening was to raise money for the church. We saw many people leave, not willing to wait so long.

I'm very tempted to contact the church and say the following: "I make very good money showing companies how to improve their processes. Without one bit of technology, I could show you how to rearrange your food distribution process and you would instantly increase your revenue, likely dramatically. I would be happy to volunteer once a month for a minimum of 6 months to help you in this regard. Are you interested?"

I have little doubt that they would never get back to me. The problem with most organizations, especially public sector and volunteer ones, is that they have no interest in improving the way they do things. The result is sub-standard performance and in the case of this church, greatly diminished revenues.



Final note: Steve later posed the question: How many people there would even be thinking of ways to improve things? One of the perils of having an engineer's brain, I guess!

View from Inside An Internal Combustion Engine

Ever wonder what actually occurs inside your car's engine? Watch this: