‘You’re early today,’ I said to Camp who was already in his place with a pint half full. 

‘Slow days at the store. It’s that time between the summer tourists and the Christmas shoppers. I had a pretty good summer. Apparently, people still read. I decided to close early on Thursdays. Also, we’re losing the light. We might want to do our own fall back, like meet an hour earlier.’

‘Fine by me. That way we can stay an hour later.’

Camp gave me a raised eyebrow and closed his phone which was becoming an appendix like a third hand, even to old holdouts like the two of us. We’ve become lazy in other words and rely on Google and Siri for our information. Brave new world.

‘Did you read about this TikTok influencer Linda Lutfiawati in Indonesia who got a two-year jail sentence after a video of her eating pork rinds angered the nation’s top Muslim clerics.’

I just shook my head. ‘Looks like Indonesia is moving towards the stone-age Sharia law, away from the British based common law.’

‘These fascist Muslim clerics seems to rule from Iran to Jakarta, from Yemen to Saudi Arabia, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan and pretty well all of North Africa,’ Camp said.

‘All of them nasty old men and all of them evil and I’d like to include Narendra Modi who is a nationalist Hindu.’

‘Except one woman who holds her own against these guys. Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of Bangladesh who to her credit has been able to reduce extreme poverty from 25% to 6% since her inception in 2009. And yet she rules with impunity and doesn’t suffer opposition.’

‘I read the New York Times interview with our prime minister. He sounds sane and almost normal when compared to the rest of the world’s leaders. He recognizes that Canadians as a whole are not happy with the state of things: inflation, out of reach real estate, unaffordable rents, out of date drug policies, everything going up except wages and pensions. He knows that people are mad at governments and they are worried. But what worries him – and me for that matter – is that they’re falling into the trap of populism with its simple answers that fit on a bumper sticker or a TikTok video and are driven by disinformation. When people mistrust experts and facts based on science and instead start to listen to a strongman who promises easy solutions for complex problems, then we’re in trouble.’

‘It doesn’t help that we’re inundated with negative news every day. From the insane government shutdown in the US to the incendiary fight between Trudeau and Modi to the bad weather disasters and the south-to-north migration in Europe and North America.’            ‘Most of those migrants are driven out of their countries and regions and into the hands of people smugglers by climate changes and radical politics. It’s a troubling time but then history teaches us that the present view is always a narrow lens to see the future.’

            ‘Yes, the future always looks uncertain and daunting but today we have so much information flooding in. It’s a challenge just to sort the chaff from the wheat.’

            ‘We both concentrated on our malted barley concoctions.’ 

‘What happens if the unpaid border-guards walk off the job and the military – also without a paycheck – refuses to step in? Mayhem? Civil war? The rise of militia groups of which there are many in the US just hoping for such a scenario.’

‘I suppose it’s all possible. I only hope the people know who to blame for the mess.’

‘The good news is that the rains have finally arrived with a vengeance and averted further exacerbating the dire local water situation. Plenty of water now for the spawning salmon, the farms and the people I hope.’

Which once again goes to prove that we live in a pretty special place here in the north-west corner of the country.’

We had to wait for our refills because Rosy was having a lengthy chat with a group of guys and wasn’t paying any attention to our needs. When I finally caught her eye, she said: ‘You know there is also self-serve at the bar. ‘

‘That will be the day,’ I grumbled. ‘And next thing we’ll be sitting at the bar.’

‘Like flotsam and jetsam.’