Author Archives: brunhub

One Year Down

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Camp is away this week so I get to whistle in the dark on my own. From all the subjects I could choose I keep coming back to the one that affects us all. 

Just a year ago the US elected Donald Trump as their president and both houses of Congress went to the Republicans. What I still fail to understand to this day are the 70+ million people who thought that these guys would make their lives better, improve healthcare, education, fairer taxes and solve the immigration and assimilation problems. 

Fast forward. We have troops deployed in Portland, Chicago, Washington DC, New Orleans and promises of National Guard deployment to several other Democratic run states and cities. We have ICE roaming the country, harassing and profiling, arresting and deporting anybody they (don’t) like. Just like the Gestapo and the SS. Not much different. Convicted criminals are being pardoned while judges and prosecutors who ruled against Trump are indicted and charged. 

The world trade system is upended, international agreements and agencies like the Climate Change Agreement or the International Criminal Court, scuttled and cancelled. The wars in Gaza and Ukraine reduced to Nobel Peace Prize aspirations. Border security now includes anyone who enters the US being photographed and for longer than 30 days fingerprinted. 

Trump betrayed friends and allies like Canada and Mexico, imposed punishing tariffs on anybody that doesn’t want to dance with him and instead cozied up to autocrats like Victor Orban, Recep Erdogan as well as the convicted ex-president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro and El Salvador’s crypto king and jailer, Nayib Bukele. Not to mention Putin and Saudis ruler MbS, Mohammed bin Salman, Trump’s new best friend. 

Trump (with the approval of Congress) has appointed extremely unfit people like Peter Hegseth, a former FOX newscaster, to the head of the pentagon, renamed by him as the Ministry of War; Kristi Noem as head of Homeland Security, a climate change, abortion and vaccine denier and like her boss she has claimed to be divinely called to office.Robert F. Kennedy J. who believes autism is caused by Tylenol during pregnancy and childhood vaccines should not be mandatory. He wants to Make America Healthy Again.  All of these people are not only incompetent, they lack a moral compass altogether.

Trump always hated the media which reported the facts. Like the lost election, the attack on the Capitol, the Epstein friendship etc. but now he has created a ‘Hall of Shame’ in his latest effort to pillory the media and journalists that are critical of him or his administration. He’s always been a petulant, childish loser so this is just another attention grabber to take the spotlight off the increasingly fractured and beleaguered country he is supposed to lead. Anybody should be honoured to be on his ‘offender of the week’ roll. 

What a difference a year makes.

I still think Kamala Harris would have made a decent president. She seemed honest, smart, joyful and knew the ins and outs of the beltway. She was an advocate for minorities; as a former prosecutor she could tell the good from the bad guys and she had human qualities that are completely missing in Trump like compassion, common sense and empathy for the less privileged. We would be living in a different world now. Instead, we’ve gone the opposite way, toward a darker place where neighbours are suspicious of each other, long-time residents are hiding because they are afraid of being harassed and deported and the rich get richer while the poor have no chance to get out of their predicament. 

While ordinary citizen will pay the tariffs on all the imports; the health subsidies for millions will expire in January and tax cuts for the top 1% will be enshrined. Fear and mistrust have replaced decency and facts while conspiracies abound and misinformation comes right from the highest office in the land. The ascendant Christian militancy, sanctioned by the almighty both in the White House and in Heaven, embraces an extreme and exclusive philosophy, not the tolerant, turn-the-other-cheek forgiving kind but one which fundamentally believes in biblical metaphors like hell and heaven and Armageddon which apparently is just around the corner. Maybe we’re already in it.

The only chance for a better world is in the hands of today’s youth. Will they realize that it takes a community to ensure a safe environment for all, not a gun totting individualism that fosters only division and mistrust because that philosophy has only winners and losers. Do the young understand that the world is theirs to shape and that they have inherited the best and the worst from their parents and grandparents’ generation. In youth I must trust because they are the only future we have.

Your God hates me

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(To Danielle Smith)

I know I’m different and I know who I am 

But I don’t know what you like me to be

And how you like to see me

All I know is that your God hates me 

Because I’m not made in his image

I’m not Eve and I’m not Adam  

But I am human like you 

Who does not accept me as I am

All I know is that your God hates me

Because I’m not in your congregation

Notwithstanding your clause

I still am in the body that I was born in

with a life that I should own 

All I know is that your God hates me

Because I’m different but still the same

I’m perturbed that governments (Alberta, USA) are dictating who we can and should be. We’re all different and some of us more that others. I know these legislators are basing their rulings on a fundamental Christian doctrine that is neither forgiving nor inclusive.

We need to accept each other and cannot legislate gender and sexual orientation. Governments do not have a mandate to legislate morality or how we fit into the world. They should concern themselves with cheaters, liars and thieves, healthcare, education the judiciary and road maintenance. Transgender and gender-diverse people are not evil and pose no threat to society. We need to treat them with kindness, as equals, not punitive legislation and judgements.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has invoked the notwithstanding clause for three sweeping bills affecting transgender and gender-diverse youth that were passed last year in a bid to prevent courts from weighing in on the legislation.
 
The three pieces of legislation respectively limit gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth, ban transgender participation in womens’ and girls’ sports divisions, and require parental consent for name and pronoun changes in schoolwhile also requiring parents to opt their child into sexual education. 19th November 2025

Fiji Impressions

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After 12 hours of flying over a dark ocean, past the dateline and the equator we dove through the scattered white clouds over a lush green, hilly island, ringed by white beaches and with scattered small building amongst the dense foliage. There were no tall buildings, no downtown clusters, just scattered resorts, recognizable because of their pools, along the leeward coast. As soon as we left the plane at Nandi Airport on the main island of Viti Levu, the humidity and heat engulfed us like a sauna. We were still dressed in Vancouver garb: slacks, socks, sneakers, sweaters and we immediately headed for the air-conditioned terminal building. 

Customs and check-in were pretty standard and we moved through quickly, collected our luggage and met our pre-ordered driver who deposited us at our Airbnb, listed as a ‘Quaint Rooftop Apartment.’ It was quaint, meaning small and was on the top floor (roof-top) of a two-storey house with a view of the tin-roof of the lower storey, in a residential neighbourhood, not too far from the airport. It is clean and fully equipped including a large TV with Netflix. There is a rickety back-porch right under an enormous mango tree full of noisy myna birds. Nowhere near the water but 5 minutes walking distance from a mall. Our host Filo is a super nice woman who took care of us and even served us up a traditional Fiji breakfast: homemade doughnuts with strawberry jam and lemon-grass tea. 

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Do the Right Thing

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‘What do you think of Doug Ford’s commercial featuring Reagon 40 years ago dissing tariffs. The ad used footage from the former president decrying American protectionism, saying such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. Ford used the ad to criticize U.S. tariffs, angering Trump who called it a fraud and a hostile act and vowed to end trade talks with Canada and increase tariffs by 10%.’

Camp didn’t hesitate and said without any cynicism. ‘The ad worked and reached over 50 million people during the world series games between the Blue Jays and the Dodgers. Not only that, the ad is justified. If anybody is hostile and a fraud then you know who I’m talking about.’

‘But isn’t poking the bear a bit risky. We all know the bear could lash out as he did,’ I said. You think this was a smart play?’ 

‘Smarter than defecating on your own people while wearing a crown. I always knew he couldn’t hold his shit together.’

‘What are we supposed to do? Just roll over and play dead? He is intent on crippling Canada’s economy because we didn’t like his imperial brainfart of adding Canada to the US. He also doesn’t seem to care that many businesses in border-towns from Upstate New York to Washington are hurting because of the lack of Canadians travelling south. Most of those affected live in democratic states and counties so he is gleefully punishing them. He’d much rather help out his autocratic buddy Miley in Argentina who he is propping up with $ 20 billion dollars.’

‘Our car industry is collapsing, our steel, aluminium and lumber industries are reeling in the heavy crosswind the tariffs are creating and since we’re so reliant on our integrated economies, with the US being ten times the size of Canada, we have to take it all and do nothing?’

‘Are you saying we should impose counter-tariffs on anything that we import from the US? We stopped most of the booze and wine coming north and maybe we can do the same with fruit and produce, entertainment and cars. Right now, I would probably buy a Chinese electric car before I’d buy an American model.’

‘We are at a moral, financial and economic crossroad and maybe we need to take the hard road and cancel subscriptions, sell off equities and boycott anything coming from the US. Not as a government policy. That would backfire but as a movement, a grassroots effort, the people’s choice,’ I said.

‘You mean sort of like a silent revolution? A quiet uprising of the masses?’

‘Exactly. I for one am done with the US and do not understand how 70 million people cannot mount an opposition to the current regime that rules with impunity and according to Steve Bannon with divine providence. Trump is now also a cult leader as well as an autocrat and kleptocrat. It’s no secret. He is proud of it.’

‘Maybe there will be a new wave of Trump-dodgers, sort of like the draft-dodgers of the sixties and seventies who fled a nation at war in Indochina. I hear that there are already nurses and doctors heading north. Let’s receive them with open arms.’

‘The relationship between our two nations will never be the same as it was before Covid when cross-border traffic was almost effortless. A driver’s license was sufficient. Now they require photos and fingerprints, practically visas for anybody staying longer than 30 days. It’s easier to enter Mexico or any country in Europe than the USA.’

‘Let me swap your empties but just keep talking,’ Vicky said, dressed in a Blue Jay’s jersey and hat. 

‘What about those Jays,’ Camp said. ‘Made me into baseball fan overnight.’

Crime and Punishment

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‘Did you know Camp that 80% of the people in jail in Ontario haven’t been charged, much less convicted of any crime? In Canada the number of pre-trial detentions is around 50%. Whatever happened to the notion of innocent until proven guilty?’ As of March 31, 2023, the average number of people in Canadian jails was about 35’000 which includes about 500 of them under 18.’

‘You must be watching Carney who proposes to overhaul the bail system and asks for longer sentences for organized theft and repeat offenders. In addition, he offers the RCMP an additional thousand personnel and $ 1.8-billion in new funding.’

‘Yes, and not one word said about the thousands of innocent people in detention awaiting trial or bail hearings, the clogged-up courts and understaffed legal system,’ I said. 

‘Yes, the legal and judicial system is in dire need of fixing. The liberals are offering a watered-down version of the conservatives’ proposal who would love nothing more than to put jay walkers and civil demonstrators in jail.’

‘Nobody mentions that there has been a sharp drop in Canada’s crime rate over the past three decades – from a peak of 10’000 per 100’000 population in 1991 to about half, 5’000 in 2021, according to Stats Canada.’

‘Meanwhile the big thieves like the banks and insurance companies, crypto kings and politicians keep stealing from you and me with impunity while thousands of poor people linger in pre-trial hell just because they are too poor to raise bail. There are even cases in which the original charge is dropped but the accused still faces prosecution for bail violations related to an offence they were never convicted of.’

‘Do we know how much it costs to keep somebody in jail?’ Camp asked

‘I looked it up,’ I said. ‘The average annual cost of incarcerating a person in a Canadian federal prison is about $ 150’000. For maximum security prisoners the cost is about $ 175’000 while community supervision costs are much lower, around $35,000 annually. Those costs don’t include the prosecution, nor the jail infrastructure.’

‘What would you do if you were in charge?’ Camp asked, putting me on the spot.

‘I don’t have a simple answer. Of course, it’s complicated but it just doesn’t seem right that over half of all people in jail are neither convicted nor charged with any crime. It doesn’t help that all jails are overcrowded, up to 150% over capacity which leads to negative consequences such as increased violence, double-bunking, stress on staff, and a higher use of force. The issue is worsened by the fact that many inmates are still awaiting trial.’

‘In the US, only the president can pardon convicted criminals as he just did with George Santos, a liar and thief extraordinaire but here in Canada the prime minister has no such powers.  Good thing too. Instead of offering clemency to convicted criminals we should find a way to fast track those languishing in jail and waiting for due process.’

‘Hear, hear,’ Camp said emptying his pint. I followed suit. Vicky of course was at the ready with two refills. ‘Keeping out of trouble,’ she said with a wink at me.

‘Keeping out of jail at all cost,’ Camp replied.

The World and The Earth

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We’re enjoying the perfect fall weather with sunny days and cool nights. It’s the time of year when you have to lock your car otherwise people will put zucchinis in them. It’s the season of plenty if you have a garden or friends who have one. Nature at its best. I want to rejoice but this fleeting moment passes when my friend Camp leans back in his chair with a pint in one hand and his silly phone in the other. 

            ‘I’ve just got a book in by David van Reybrouk called The World and the Earth. It deals with climate change and the wrong focus of the world’s nations. The climate and laws of nature – the earth – doesn’t care if we humans care but the world is currently run by a group of old, ruthless men.’

            ‘I presume you’re talking about Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping, Modi, Erdogan and Netanyahu, to name a few that come to mind.’

            ‘Yes, they are currently building a new world order that is not focused on the future because they don’t have one themselves. They are bullies who colonize the future and rob and exploit the next generations even before they are born.’

            ‘Wasn’t the world always ruled by old men? I seem to have had the same complaint when I was young.’

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Tune Out

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         Fall has arrived with cool mornings and dropping leaves. It has been a good summer. Not too hot, not smoky and with the occasional rainy day. All is well in paradise. Until I read or watch the news.

         ‘Remember Tim O’Leary’s mantra from the 60ies?’ I asked Camp who was already nursing his first pint.

         ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out?’

         ‘Yes, that’s it. What different times we live in. Just last week, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox pleaded with people to log off, turn off, touch grass, go hug a family member, go out and do good in the community and not to view videos on social media showing the moment Charlie Kirk was shot. “This is not good for us, this is not good to consume,” he said and then doubled down. “Social media is a cancer in our society right now.”

         ‘The current generation was in diapers when the towers were brought down,’ Camp pointed out. They have no memory or point of reference to the Woodstock generation, to the civil rights movement, never mind to holocaust or the 2nd or even 1st world war. Did they learn anything in school about the the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Spartaor the Roman wars? Does history mean anything to the present generation who get their information from sound bites and influencers on social media?’

         ‘I don’t know but there are no social protests, no sit-ins, no demonstrations, no organized opposition against the current administration. Part of this is fear of retribution but there seems to be a large portion of lethargy mixed in with defeatism and helplessness.’

         ‘All marinating in a toxic stew of misinformation, militant Christianity and racism.’

         ‘Add to all that the cancellation of cancer and environmental research and health policies, the firing of scores of scientists, the deployment of federal military to cities governed by democratic mayors and legislatures, all sanctioned by the supreme court and you have the making of a totalitarian state.’

         ‘You can add media censorship and control to that.’

         ‘Hard to feel positive about the future when the current ‘regime’ is promoting end-times and convinced that Armageddon is just around the corner.’     

         ‘My hope lies in the children of tomorrow who will inherit this world with all the tools to fix it. Our generation had its day and while we’re bitching and complaining, we’re not willing to sacrifice our comfy pensions, investments and life styles.’

          ‘We’re sounding like a classic rock station reduced to elevator music. Where are the anthem songs of today, the poets of the masses, the chroniclers of the truth? We built a world of successes over nature, a web of instant communication and have unraveled many mysteries, answered many questions and found many cures but to what end? Just to smash it all on the altar of righteousness and religious superstition?’

         ‘No point fretting about what was and could be. We’re still living in the best place at the right time and as long as we can watch and observe from the side lines and drink our beer in peace, we’re happy and content.’

         ‘I heard that last part, gentlemen,’ Vicky said while serving us up a new round. 

Executive Order

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            Summer is almost over and I have yet to see a day without Trump at the forefront of any news outlet, newspaper, social media and TV alike. No day goes by without the latest executive order or presidential decree or policy changing Truth Social post. He is bulldozing the political, social and economic landscape at a dizzying pace. None of it is friendly or rewarding, encouraging or supportive. They are all restrictions, cancellations and firings; casting thousands of people and organisations adrift. 

I couldn’t help myself and quoted this outtake to Camp. ‘There is one thing that is not a puzzle as Trump continues to govern by executive order: the failure of the Supreme Court to seriously address the constitutionality of Trump’s actions. The court’s decision to lift the restraining orders of lower courts and to put off conclusive decisions has the effect of allowing Trump to inflict irreparable harm. The victims include the people Trump accuses of criminality, universities going without funds, medical researchers and their patients suffering from vanished grants, law firms unwilling to take on controversial pro bono cases, not to mention the tens of thousands of federal employees thrown out of work and the billions of dollars cut in foreign aid. Trump’s use of the government to condemn adversaries and reward allies will leave an ugly scar, even in the unlikely event that sometime in the future the court reverses course and recognizes the depredation that Trump has left in his wake.’

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The End of History

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            “Is there a day we don’t have to read about Trump’s latest brainfart, his comic book world view or his most recent firing of a neutral bureaucrat or elimination of a scientific agency that caught his ire because of numbers he doesn’t like or points of view that go against his he-man, world dominion fantasy. He has been given the power by the people, a lockstep congress and the supreme court to throw the whole world into chaos which will have long lasting, negative effects on future generations,” I said rather bothered by it all. I only was able to relax when I had a fresh brew in my hand.

            Camp, my wise and cynical sparring partner didn’t miss his cue and quoted from his ever-present stupid phone. “This is Edward Alden’s blunt assessment of Trump’s torrent of tariffs last week. He is a trade expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘The United States has destroyed the global trade system it created and left nothing in its place but a set of ad hoc arrangements. For trade, the result will be long-term instability that will be bad for business, bad for consumers and bad for global growth.”

            “One of the worst hit is tiny Switzerland with 9 million people but a 39% tariff. Not sure what he doesn’t like about them. Watches, chocolates or maybe he hates yodeling? Laos, Myanmar and Syria are the only 3 countries with higher tariffs. My guess is he doesn’t like the liberal Swiss democracy.”

            “Who would have thought that the US is now everybody’s enemy numero uno? Except for San Salvador whose young dictator, Nayib Bukele, will gladly jail anybody the US expels. Legal or not.”

            “The reality is so bizarre that it’s hard to accept that one man can wield such power to upset the scales of justice, trade and decency. How will history judge this time?”

            “I honestly think that we have reached the end of history, my friend. We are living in a time where reality is turned upside down and inside out. Who will narrate the facts, record the truth, preserve the record? AI? Not anyone I trust anymore. Not the universities who have kissed the ring and bent the knee, not the bureaucrats who are busy rewriting and revising past history, not the politicians who dare not challenge the status quo for fear of losing the next election.”

            “That leaves people like you and me Camp who are witnessing the whole parade and circus from the sidelines.”

“But who will believe two curmudgeons like us? We are neither tiktok influencers nor historians but we can tell a falsehood from a fact, a lie from the truth and a cult from its leader. That’s what we are caught in: a nefarious cult of science deniers, democracy haters, racists, fascists and bullies.”

“It’s sad isn’t it. We grew up in the age of Aquarius with all the fun, colours and music, experiments and tolerance and now we’re living in the age of darkness where nobody laughs, everybody is cynical and the light at the end of the tunnel is indeed a train coming straight on.”

“I guess you could call it the age of Scorpio since we’re talking Zodiac signs.”

“You two are way off the path if I heard you right,” Vicky said when she swapped our empties. “Maybe you don’t need another drink.”

“We’re just goofing around, is all. We’re actually living in the best of times and in the best of places with the best server one could wish for,” Camp said, actually smiling at Vicky.

“That’s better. Think positive. You’ll notice the difference.”

Betrayal

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“It looks like our ‘buy Canadian if you can’ or anything but from the US is working,” I said to Camp after he sat down in his usual chair at our watering hole. “David Eby, the BC premier said he believes the U.S. leadership has “very little awareness” of how offensive their remarks are, in response to the U.S. ambassador to Canada saying Trump thinks Canadians are “nasty” to deal with because of U.S. boycotts.”

“What would the ambassador say if I pointed out to him that his president is a convicted felon, a suspected pedophile with his buddy Epstein, a liar, a cheat, a narcissistic real estate hustler and a bully and that his race towards a fascist autocracy will not go over well in Canada or the rest of the civilized world.”

“He would probably have you blacklisted and incarcerated at the first opportunity. Don’t go near the US, if you value your life and family.”

“A bit dramatic, aren’t you Camp. Oh, I see, you’re serious. I thought you were being facetious, pulling my leg.”

“Let me read you the first item that comes up when I Google Fascism:

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As the Wind Blows         

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‘Summertime is the best time here,’ Camp said. ‘I have tourists in the shop, the weather is perfect and the days are long.’

‘Yes, nature at its best which brings me to an interesting topic. Did you hear about those six Republican members of the US Congress who penned a public letter to Canada’s ambassador in Washington, demanding that their northern neighbours need to control the smoke emanating from the hundreds of wildfires, currently raging across Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan?”

‘Yes, I read about that. Now isn’t that the craziest idea ever that we can control the wind and the smoke, never mind the fires that cause them?’

‘Let me read to you what they wrote: We write to you today on behalf of our constituents who have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air. While we know a key driver of this issue has been a lack of active forest management, we’ve also seen things like arson as another way multiple large wildfires have ignited in Canada.’ I quoted. ‘And it goes on and on about how the Canadian smoke is ruining recreational weekends and takes away the ability to create new memories.’

‘Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew pointed out: ‘We’ve lost two Manitobans this wildfire season and we got a couple of ambulance-chasing congresspeople trying to politicize these disasters. We love our American friends but this is just childish.’

‘He’s right,’ I said. ‘In January, Trump blamed Californians for their wildfires, suggested they need more raking. What? In the boreal forest?’ Here in Canada, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith simply faulted the federal government for last year’s wildfire that destroyed parts of Jasper.’ 

‘A most unhelpful blame game,’ Camp said. ‘Robert Gray, a B.C.-based ecologist who has spent more than 40 years managing wildland fires in the U.S., Canada and other jurisdictions, said it was notable that these Congress members did not acknowledge the effects of climate change in their letter.’

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Numbers

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‘Well Camp we’re on the eve of the 4th of July, America’s national holiday, and they are celebrating the Trump led revolution of the rich against the poor. As now enshrined in his ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, which just narrowly was passed by a divided congress. It will add trillions of dollars to the national deficit and deny millions of the poorest people basic support.’ 

‘Yes, it is a big beautiful fairy tale bill devised by the wonks and hawks in the White House fantasyland. Do you know how many zeros in a trillion? A trillion has one million million and 12 zeros.’ Camp said.

‘It’s a big beautiful number. ‘

 ‘This bill basically extends existing, lavish, deficit-financed tax cuts well into the future, as well as boosting spending on defence and immigration enforcement. It offsets some of the cost by cancelling green subsidies and cutting health care and welfare for the poor.’

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The Age of Bitumen

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‘We lived our lives in the age of bitumen Camp. Tar and it’s many derivatives makes the world go around, from asphalt to tires, various forms of refined petrol to plastics and even textile fibres. It’s everywhere and in everything even in the table top and the engineered floors, in the plastic containers and the clothes we wear.’

‘You’re right of course. Even the bible mentions tar pits in the Valley of Siddim, near the Dead Sea, the area where Sodom and Gomorrah went up in flames.

‘From Sodom and Gomorrah to the Alberta tar sands. That’s modern human life in a nutshell. And the world is burning. Almost apocalyptic.’

            ‘The irony isn’t lost on me either. We’re living in a world that’s not just burning from the deliberate scorching of the Amazon jungle and rainforests to the brushfires of the tinder dry prairies in Canada and the steppes in Russia. On the other end of the spectrum, the urban centres from Mumbai to Phoenix, from Kinshasa to Mexico City are overheating., much of it a result of climate change. We’re in for a fiery future, accelerated by the fossil fuels we’re burning, spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, from cars to air conditioners to factories and generators;.’

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The World Rearms

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We arrived at our watering hole just in time to snag two happy hour beers before the price doubled. It was hazy due to the fire in Squamish, a harbinger of the fire season yet to happen. According to forecasts it will be a bad one. Less rain, less snowpack, more drought and a long hot summer.

‘Have you noticed that every country is arming up; Europe, to reduce dependence on the US, and even Canada which just pledged to meet the NATO’s target of 2 percent of GDP, just before they suggest to up the ante to 5 percent. What gives Camp?’

‘We’re back into a global arms race, from Switzerland to Canada, Russia to China, Poland to Taiwan. And not just countries who are at war like Israel, Ukraine and Russia. Arms manufacturers are also supplying conflict zones that don’t have their own arms manufacturing but also no money but hey, credit for fighter jets or tanks is easily obtained. It keeps the arms industry humming along. India and Pakistan will spend billions more on arms and Israel just attacked Iran.’

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The Power of Money

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            It’s been a rainy and cool May here on the coast, unlike in the prairies where 200 wild fires are ravaging communities and thousands of square kilometers of forests and grasslands. To the south, economic storms are being unleashed by a possessed and unhinged president, driven by greed, disinformation, nationalism and hubris. These are challenging times and we’re lucky to live where we are.

            ‘Have you ever heard of Peter Thiel?’ I asked Camp after we settled in our usual corner on the glassed-in veranda on the harbour.

            He professed his ignorance and for a change it was I who got to lecture him.

            ‘He is a German born billionaire but unlike Bezo, Musk and Zuckerberg he is not kowtowing to Trump. He is not the figurehead of a large corporation but he is above all the most dangerous of the tech billionaires. He is the central string-puller behind Trump’s first and second terms. 

‘How come I never hear of this guy if he’s that important?’ Camp said.

            ‘When Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, nobody took him seriously but Thiel immediately donated a million dollars to his campaign. He saw in Trump the best chance for radical change but only a trailblazer and a means to an end. Thiel’s plan is to overcome democracy and he is at the core of all the upheavals in the USA.’

            ‘That’s thirsty talk’, Camp said.

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Fantasy World

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            ‘You know Camp, I read somewhere that we would be better off today if Trump would have won the 2020 election. It would have been his second, lame duck term and he would have been in charge during the high inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Instead, he had 4 years to hone his anger and revenge, surround himself with crypto billionaires and crackpots like Musk and Kennedy and now look what’s happening.’

            ‘You may have a point there but then we could all go back to the fantasy world where Al Gore won instead of Bush or Hillary beat Trump in 2016. We’d be living in a different world, for sure.’

            ‘I just wonder how we’re going to get through four more years of this roller coaster. In just one day Trump scuttled Ukraine and caved in to Putin and at the same time warbled on about a beautiful golden defence dome that is more fantasy than reality.’

            ‘Did you ever read anything by Aldous Huxley?’ Camp asked me. ‘Brave new World or Island? I came across a couple of quotes by him which perfectly apply to the present. This is Huxley’s message: ‘Misapplied science and soulless political machines, driven by greed and a fanatical will to power, will bring us ever closer to the destruction of civil society and meaningful human life.’ And here is another one: ‘The price of liberty, and even of common humanity, is eternal vigilance.’

            ‘True words, well written but just words. We need to be vigilant in the face of so many who think liberty means chaos and libertarian, even Darwinian laws should supplant our civilized rule of law.’

            ‘While we’re discussing philosophy and polemics, this is a quote from an unlikely quarter, from Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis: ‘All the changes in the world, for good or evil, were first brought about by words.’  

            We both drank to that. 

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Taliban Tourists

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‘Did you know Camp that Afghanistan has hosted close to 15’000 tourists in the past couple of years. Apparently, it’s a choice destination for some adventure travellers.’

‘Nothing surprises me anymore. But Afghanistan for a holiday?’

‘This photographer Khyber Khan runs an outfit ‘Uncharted Afghanistan’ that offers tours called ‘Salam Afghanistan’ or ‘Adventure Afghanistan’ that last 9 to 14 days. They lead through cities such as Kabul and Herat or into remote valleys. Turquoise blue lakes, crystal-clear rivers, green fir forests. Passes that wind around snow-capped mountains over 6000 meters high. Untouched landscapes with mystical names such as Nuristan, Shahr-i Gholghola or Dragon Valley. All for under $ 3000, without flights. Emirates flies regularly to Kabul via Dubai.’

‘Don’t tell me you’re planning a trip to Afghanistan?’ Camp said, alarmed.

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Fool on the Hill

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‘Did you see that photo that Trump posted of himself as pope, dressed in a golden tiara and glitzy papal regalia. Didn’t see the papal slippers though,’ I said as Vicky served us our first pints.

‘Unbelievable,’ Camp said, shaking his head of grey curls. ‘Only a fool would do that. Pissing off one and a half billion Catholics. I would like to be pope, he apparently said.’

‘I’m all for it. I think he should give up the presidency and become pope. He can then rule as an infallible autocrat and dress up in funny outfits every day and be adored by ten times as many devotees then he has now. He would also get to live in his own gilded palace in his very own country.’

‘It’s an interesting fantasy. He wouldn’t have to tolerate any kind of gender diversity and he would get the popemobile to parade around in.’

We both sipped our beers, looking out at the never boring harbour scene.

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Elbows Up

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‘Now that the election is over and everybody can go back to their lives, what do you think is in store for us this summer?’

‘Do you mean for the two of us or the world in general?’

‘I think they both intertwine. What’s good for the world is good for us and the same goes for the opposite. The world goes for shits, so do we.’

‘Clare is in the garden, I’m in the hammock reading my book and the sun rises every day in a predictable place. Summer is coming early which can mean many things. Fires, water shortages, holidays, swimming, sailing and generally spending more time outside. Personally, I like this time of year the best. Everything is in bloom or flowering, the birds are looking to nest, the frogs are croaking and the days are getting longer.’

‘I suppose this is a good life from your perspective. Of course, there are those in much worse shape than you and me and our little community by the water. All you have to do is turn on the telly or look at the news feeds on your phone or open a paper. Wars in Africa, the Russians crashing the European party, the Catholics looking for an old man to lead them and the idiot bully in the White House reshaping the world and making everybody, except his billionaire friends, poorer.’ 

‘You sound a tad maudlin there, Camp. Maybe you should have a shot of something to soothe the ripples. How about some of that local vodka or rum. Distilled right here on the Sunshine Coast. ‘

‘You’re a funny one. You know I can’t handle hard liquor. Let me stick to beer and the odd bottle of wine Muriel procures for dinner and I’m a happy camper. ‘

‘What always bothers me is the general state of the world and the direction we’re heading in. The environment, the fascist politics, the mail-order consumer society,’ I said. ‘I’m glad that Carney won the election but he will soon find out that managing people is a lot more challenging than managing numbers. Everybody will be lining up with their hands out from the Premiers to the First Nations, from the healthcare providers to the auto-workers, from the pensioners to the military.’

‘The good news is that the wife of our newly elected prime minister, Diana Fox Carney, is a world-renowned climate change policy expert, and active in several environmental and social justice causes and think tanks. She has degrees in economics from Oxford and an MA in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania.  She was also a star hockey player on the women’s Oxford Ice Hockey Club where she met her future hubby who played goal for the men’s team. Her Wikipedia entry fills a couple of dense pages. She is definitely a major influencer on her husband. They also found time to raise four daughters, all successful individuals.’

‘Elbows Up indeed. As the saying goes: Behind every successful man there is a good woman,’ I said.

‘Actually, the whole quote is by Mark Twain and it goes on to say that behind every unsuccessful man there are two women,’ Camp said grinning, while finishing his first pint.

‘Well, our new PM has five women behind him.’

‘You two look like you’re having a good time,’ Vicky said when she brought around another round of suds. ‘You must be relieved at the election results, even though we are as divided as the Americans.’

‘We are indeed,’ Camp said, but I think we got the right man at the right time.’

‘Let’s hope that brain wins over brawn,’ Vicky quipped. 

‘I’ll drink to that,’ I said.

Almost Adults

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Camp, did you know that there are classes in ‘Adulting 101’ in the US. Apparently, a large swath of the population is absolutely clueless about adult life skills.’

            ‘Doesn’t surprise me. Look who they vote for.’

            ‘Across the country community colleges, libraries and civic centres are offering adulting classes, teaching basic life skills like threading a needle and mending a shirt or changing a tire as well as financial literary skills. Turns out that many grown-ups can barely read and are unable to follow instruction manuals, be it for vacuum cleaners or even such exalted skills like filling out tax forms.’

            ‘How do you expect people who cannot follow an IKEA instruction manual to vote for progressive policies that will favour them. Apparently, many recent high-school grads are surprised by the ‘unexpected trial of early adulthood’. These grads cannot fill out a job application, compose a CV or figure out a budget for their cost of living.’

            ‘Clueless, that’s what they are and some of the blame goes to the overworked and underpaid parents and to the educational institutions and their unenforced curriculums. If you don’t learn it, you don’t know it. Simple as all that.’

            ‘Doesn’t look good for your future customers at the book store,’ I said.

            Camp just shook his head. ‘Thank god for the readers which more often than not come from the senior and female population. Not too many GenZ-ers.’

            ‘Football, social media, pizza and porn doesn’t require a college education. This same group of people are also those who feel left out, underprivileged and under represented by the mainstream media and politicians. They are usually stuck in lower income brackets, meaning they have debts, live from paycheck to paycheck and cannot see a way out of their trapped situation.’     

            ‘Therefore, they listen to demagogues who promise salvation and retribution, revenge and release and consequently they vote – if they vote – for the ones who profess to know who is to blame for their shortcomings.’

            ‘Blame the others. We know the usual culprits. Take your pick. Jews, Muslims, Immigrants, Foreigners and the Democrats, maybe not in that order.’

            We both looked out at the tranquil harbour and the blue sky reflected in the water. Spring is definitely happening and when the weather is like this, there is no better place to be. Just as long as you have a place to live and an income of sorts.’

            ‘Advance voting for the federal election begins this weekend. More than half the electorate will vote in advance polls. This election will all be about who is best equipped to deal with Trump and international connections.’

            ‘But will it make a difference to you and me Camp?’

            ‘Newsflash: It’s not about you and me, it’s about everybody and their future.’

            ‘Will the young, the twenty-something, go out and vote. Let’s ask Vicky.’

            ‘Yes, I will vote this time because I think it’s important that we all stick together against the bullies and not elect a mini-Trump.’