Since When is Politics Boring?

December 2nd, 2011 Thomasso

I have always been interested in politics, and my need to know more about it peaked when I took my first Political Science course way back in 2004. I really believe that the first steps in understanding politics is having a really good base of knowledge. I never got any good learning experiences when I was in high school, they never taught it then adequately, and sitting in an armchair would have never gotten me close to what I needed in terms of knowledge (of fully appreciating) all the facets of politics since my University days. I think too, the need to want to learn it plays a huge part in appreciating it?

Here is how I break it down: You have your mainstream politics, and your local politics, but then you have your the in between politics that kind that only deals with the special interest of the clique that you are associated with, and no one else cares about. In my little clique, the Students and Institution of the university that I once belonged to, has had an explosion of activity in the last three days. Student politics has hit the local news media and syberspace like a mid summer grass fire.

The Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) has hit the news feeds with a flurry of activity. On November 30th, 2011, a rally to impeach the current board members from power took place, as over 400 students, whose numbers could form a quorum, voted to oust nearly three quarters of the KSA’s board members. This is politics at its best in my opinion becuase it engaged hundreds of otherwise busy students to take a stand, and hopefully putting a stop to the mountains of negative publicity that Kwantlen Polytechnic University has been getting over this.

Here is the geniuses of the whole movement of the Special General Meeting (SGM) to oust the then KSA on video, thanks the student paper The Runner:

The SGM had its hiccups too on Nov 30, 2011. The fire alarm was pulled twice, and someone sprayed pepper-spry in the hallway leading to the conference room where students had to reregister before the vote took place. Yes, the police and fire department were on the scene.

In the end, the vote took place and the KSA was replaced with about 12 new temporary board members, and changes to the by-laws governing the KSA, and a motion to issue a new election for the new KSA.

With allegations of corruption, criminal and civil wrong doing, out of control spending, and actions that does not benefit the students as a whole, who says student politics is boring?

When I was a student, I missed a golden opportunity right in front of me.

Posted in Diatribe, Events, General, Law, Law and Order, Socail Media, University classes, Video | Comments Off

What Has Tom Been Up To?

November 22nd, 2011 Thomasso

So much has gone on with me in the last four days, that even I cannot laugh it off, and I still have so much more to do. Right now I am living off of just a couple of hours of sleep as the wind storm from last night kept me up. The power outage from the storm, with the pounding rain and tree branches hitting my roof, sleep was just not going to happen so I stayed up. But I was tired before that too. Perhaps I should just start at Friday, and finish off my post with today’s events. You, reader, should be clear once I have itemised my last few days.

(pay no attention to the mistakes in this post – I’m exhausted and will clean them up tomorrow)

Friday was dedicated to the last day of a week from Hell. Both in terms of work, and my personal life, Friday was a painful one. Personally, I was just getting over a harsh flu. Compounded to the pain and suffering of the flu was an equally hard work week of tedious issues and problem solving. It was not the amount of work that created the harshness, but the quality of it. I learned that some players in the business really “kicked the can” as it were, with our forth quarter budget, and made some really bad calls. This translated into an extremely chaotic round of finger pointing at the retails side of it, but fortunately in my department, I only received the stress of working with these people.

On my personal side, I had made preparation to volunteer for the civic elections in Langley Township. I helped a candidate out. I only helped out becuase of my friendship connections and ties to this person in the neighbourhood, not my political colours. Only the ignorant and weak minded would accuse me of playing partisan politics at this level – you know who you are! So I volunteered, helping out a friend in need. I did enjoy myself.

Going into Saturday, the day of the civic election, my commitment to volunteering kept on going. The only difference, was I planned on taking it easy, but I was asked to continue to help out with my friend’s campaign. There was the striking of the political ads signs – which under law each candidate has but a couple of days to pull all the signs from the streets and road, or fine would be given out. So I helped pull signs.

My own personal candidacy was on Monday, so I had to focus on that. The magic balance was now lost, between helping a friend versus getting myself ready for my big moment. I was running for a seat on the Board of Directors for the Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s (KPU) Alumni Association, and I had planned spending most of Saturday working on that. Instead, my time ran out on Saturday–and I got to bed around 11:30pm that night.

I almost slept in Monday morning for work. Right from the start of the day I was chasing time. I ignored the other departments as much as I could, fearing that the spill over from last week’s “meltdown” could erupt again. This was the last thing I needed, more stress. While at work, I start sending out tweets to people that I knew who were alumni from the university. Regrettably, getting people to come down to vote on a Monday night was not going to happen. I was too new and had very little exposure to the alumni to get the confidence of voters from the student body. So I tried to conjure up any support I could before I headed down to the Surrey campus. However, not before my work would throw one final hard ball at me.

A crises started brewing in my department becuase one of my co-workers made some errors, and then refused to clear them up before the end of the day. We have a policy that of you make a mistake, you clean it up, even if that means staying some extra time in the day to clean it up. My co-worker refused, and left. I was responsible, and I made some quick patchwork fixes so that I could leave it until Tuesday. My time had already lapsed into my preparation time for the election, which, I had to be there for 6:00pm–less than one hour’s time. Leaving work, late, getting home, I had to forego the fancy clothing, and settle for just changing into a sweater and grabbing my laptop and bag. Yes, still wearing my jeans and street shoes.

The election was held after an hour of formalities with the KPU Board of Directors of the Alumni Association. Each candidate was given two minutes to make a speech, and then had to field only two questions from the room.  I spoke, and was never asked any questions. Sadly, out of the seven of us vying for the six seats, I came in last. I only received 12 votes out of the possible 19. Defeated.

However, I took with pride becuase this was my first time, and this was a learning experience, and learned from it I did. I was offered to join various committees in light of my interests in volunteering with the Alumni Association, but I made myself not make any promises until I had a clear head.

Monday night when I got home, there were weather warning posted on the net. I went straight to bed as it was past 10:00pm, and I was dead tired. Not even 30 minutes into my sleep I was awaken by the sounds of flying branches hitting my window, and the wind pounding my roof. It was brutal. Widows rattled, the walls shook and I could feel the cold air in the room. Then like clockwork, the power went out, just after the second gust of wind started dumping branches on my roof. No sleep.

The power came back on around 5:00am this morning, and soon after my alarm clock went off. I got dressed and headed off to work. Trees were down everywhere. Because of the darkness, my lack of sleep, and the slippery roads, I hit one of the wooden road barricades, as the main road was closed due to a tree down across it. I backed up, and took another route. I spent today being as quiet as I could. The only real interesting thing that happened that gave me contact with the outside world was the grounds keepers accidentally set off the fire alarm late in the work day. But I continued to lay low until I left for home. Now I am fighting to stay up without napping so that i can get my bio-clock back in sync.

Posted in Bitching about weather, Bitching about work, Diatribe, Events, General, Graduation, Socail Media, Story Telling, Twitter, University classes | 1 Comment »

Civic Election Day and Hard Water

November 19th, 2011 Thomasso

In the freezing air this morning I marched down to the Fort Langley Elementary School, which is the polling station for Fort Langley in the Langley Township, and I cast my ballot. I was happy to see so many out voting with me. There was a line-up! Perhaps a good sign that people are out taking action for their community, rather than sitting at home complaining about their government. It will be interesting to see how the voter turnout numbers are this year?

Cold. Freezing fricking cold out this morning. We have been pampered over the last few years with warmer than average winters, but today it felt like a mid January day, not the Novembers that I am used to.  My neighbour’s water froze last night, and it really did not get warm enough to thaw out the water lines until late in the afternoon. It is days like this that you really appreciate liquid water instead of that cold hard stuff we have outside right now.

My walk to and from the polling station this morning was a good one. I brought the camera with me becuase it was an awesome sunny day, despite the cold it was a completely clear sky. I took several shots around the town, and I really got some good shots too. I have posted them in my photo gallery, which you can see along the right column of this page, or you can go to the “Pages” link and view all the galleries from there – which I recommend.

Fort Langley is growing and changing. Today was a fitting time to ponder what is in store for this little village, with the civic election taking place. Many long time residence are unhappy that the town is growing with new development, but at the same time, their property value are going up, making retirements plans gleam with options. Sadly, with higher property values, come higher property taxes. Voting has never being more critical than today!

One week after Remembrance Day, the poppies still lay at the War Memorial in Fort Langley along Glover Road. I believe that more people have placed their poppies at the Memorial since the ceremony back on the 11th? I saw a young woman walk by the wreaths, and she bowed her head for a moment as she stopped, then walked on. Very touching.

The IGA is coming back! Normally something this big should have its own post on the blog, but I am in a hurry to get this post done, so I am throwing a shot of this afternoons photo-shoot of the vacant IGA lot right now. I will write about this news soon thought, as it has really effect my life, and many others her.Soon, we will have our market back in town. Heck, we will be a town once again! Welcome back IGA! We missed you!

The IGA lot at the corner of Mavis and Glover Road.

Posted in Around Town, Bitching about weather, Diatribe, Events, General, Photographs, Social economics | Comments Off

Testing the New $100 Bill Out

November 15th, 2011 Thomasso

Yes, I got one. A band-new crisp – plastic – One hundred dollar bill, fresh from the Canadian Mint. My first thought when I held it for the first time was, “this is weird.”

When I heard that the mint was going to be releasing a plastic One hundred dollar bill, I was sceptical. Actully, I laughed, becuase I always cracked jokes that sooner or later the Banks are only give out credit cards instead of cash to Canadians. The joke goes on to say  that we would have no choice but to use their curacy instead of legal tender. I thought that time had finally come when I heard this news of plastic money coming out. I had visions of plastic card being issued to every Canadian, and you got one for life – you just keep loading it up with credit every time you got paid from work. Perhaps a plot for a good story of Canada in the future?

It was last month that I seen the new looking bills for the first time on CBC News Television. CBC interviewed some of the people on the street to see if they could see some of the “sexual” images that people claimed to have seen from the mint’s focus group. I can say, you need a pritty good imagination to come up with that.

The bills feels weird. It is, with out any doubt, plastic. The texture, the transparent – see through – parts, are cool looking, and the anti-counterfeiting features are also pretty cool too. The little 3D holograms, and texts that appears when you hold the bill up to the light, also looks freakishly cool.

I like it. I am looking forward to seeing the other bills come out.

Posted in Events, General, Photographs, Social economics | Comments Off

The Electric Lazy Boy

November 7th, 2011 Thomasso

People and electricity have one very common attribute: both will always travel the path of least resistance. Sometimes this path of least resistance may not mean taking the shortest route. In some cases, this behaviour takes on the most illogical behaviour that baffle even the most brilliant minds who study human behaviour; but once the data are added up, then this behaviour makes sense, or takes on a pattern that can be replicated, then we can learn from it. An example that I am looking at are people who work, and are performing a tasked that they simply do not wish to undertake. I use the task of taking out the garbage as my case example.

Now, the dumping of garbage, or waste, has some rules, or parameters that must be kept. Imagine if in your neighbourhood someone just dumped a bag of trash in the middle of your street – you would be upset. There are rules, like using a bag, and putting that bag into a sturdy container. Once the container is ready for dumping, it is then taken to the dumpster (if your neighbourhood has one). You would never dream of just letting the bag of trash sit in the middle of your driveway, or be placed along the farthest edge of your property line hoping that some small rodent will carry it the rest of the way for you to the dumpster.

We live in a time when you just cannot throw everything into the dumpster. We now have rules, or by-laws, that prohibit some materials from going into the mean-stream landfill. One such item is the material known as cardboard. Cardboard is the material that makes cardboard boxes. Cardboard can be recycled, and is therefore kept separate from the rest of the garbage that we throw out. Cardboard boxes generally come in the form of a cube shape, when consumers purchases their goods that are packaged by these cube like structures. The endgame with cardboard boxes that are going to be disposed of, is to change them from a cube, into a shape that will take up the least amount of physical space possible – usually we call this process, flattening. Flattening does require some labour, depending on the size and strength of the cardboard.

So, as per garbage etiquette, we separate different materials that go into the waste collection bins, and also, we need to do some processing to help facilitate our obligations to this waste separation process, such as flattening of cardboard. Failure to this leads to inefficiencies in the system as a whole, and adds more costs to the program which is felt by all who are in directly responsible for it. As for the human who acts like electricity, and is caught up in the whole physics of taking the path of least resistance, his laziness now burdens the added costs onto to the rest of the community. By not flattening his cardboard boxes, he has now taken up space inside the bin that could normally hold three times that amount, and now has added a cost to the rest of the community who wish to add  their cardboard to the bin.

Sadly in our punitive style system of public works, we all have to pay for this one individual. Added to this sadness, there is no way of enforcing the waste separation rule. We cannot “arrest” him, or prohibit him from using the waste bins. All we can do is watch this electrical thinking individual continue to travel the path of least resistance. Perhaps shamming is the only tool we have left of helping our community without violating our higher laws that govern our society?

Just throwing this out there.

Posted in Criminology, Diatribe, General, Humour, Social economics, Social Justice, Story Telling | Comments Off

Going to the Polls – Civic Election Langley

November 3rd, 2011 Thomasso

One would think that there is an election going on with the sudden crop of election signs that just popped up along every roadway and field throughout town. According to my sources on Twitter, and verified on the various webpages that I read, we have one coming up on November 19, 2011, a Saturday. If that was not enough, I have being approached by two friends who have friends of their own who asked if I would help out planting election signs with them. I had to decline becuase of my super busy schedule, but they gave me the “dirt” based on their perspectives and ideologies about the upcoming election, and why it is so important to get the word out and get people to vote.

You need the information about this civic election?

Well, here is a good place to start: Township of Langley Elections.

I am not going to go into a big long spew about why it is so important to vote, and why those who do not vote are saying that democracy has failed us, and that your vote does not matter. Nor am I going to go into the whole morel and ethical reasoning of why living in a democracy is better than living under a dictatorship, or regime. The choice is really yours to make. However, I do encourage everyone who can vote, get out and vote, especially for a civic election.

Why is voting in a civic election so important?

Of all major levels of government, your municipality is going to effect you the most. Everything from business to property tax, your schools, fire departments, policing, street cleaning, (to name but a few) these are huge areas of costs and services, and they effect you directly. Yes, even those who rent are directly effected by how your municipality runs and operates!

So on November 19, 2011, get off your butt, out from your arm chair, and head down to the polling stations to cast your vote(s). Do some research on who you want to run. You will be faced with a number of choices, unlike provincial and federal elections where you pick “one of the above;” civic election you will be choosing a number of candidates to run for a number of seats and boards at once.

Vote!

By the way, I do not represent any of the candidates, or political parties that are running in this civic election for Langley Township.

Posted in Around Town, Events, General, Photographs, Socail Media, Social economics, Social Justice | Comments Off

Social Apathy, or a Psychological Problem

October 29th, 2011 Thomasso

I have been desensitized over the years with news stories of human suffering and tragedy. In my academic studies in criminology, I have read, encountered, and studied both the purely bad and truly evil acts that humans have done, and through this, I have built up a resistance from these deviants, and often criminal cases. However, once in a while, a case pops up that adds a new level to this playing field that supersedes my definition of sick and twisted. The news story of two year old Wang Yueyue who was run over twice on October 13th, 2011, and then eight passers-by walked by her as she lay in the back alley injured from the first vehicle impact (CBCnews, ABC news & BBC news Television, October 14th to October 21, 2011). All of this was captured on a security video camera.

The video footage was grainy, and CBC News censored the image of the child, capturing from the time that she was impacted by the first vehicle, all the people that walked passed her body a she struggled for help, then a second vehicle hitting her, to finally a woman who grabbed her and took her to safety. Even with the child’s body blurred out, the image still shocked me. I had to turn off the television and retreat from what my eyes had just seen.

I knew right away. I knew what had happened as to why so many people walked by as I remembered my lessons in psychology on topics such as “Group Think” and “Passers By” conditions. Could this be prevented, say training people to stop and care?

China is by no means the only place where this has happened. It has happened in Canada, the U.S., Europe, just about anywhere around the world. Some argue that laws and cases where the victim has litigated by the rescuer for causing further injury, is a reason for not getting involved (CBC news, “Was the law at fault in Chinese toddler tragedy?” Oct 22, 2011). Others say that they just do not want to get involved and bare the responsibility and the time that it would take and to deal with the repercussions afterwards (CBC News).

There are people who just do not want to get involved. Simply put, most people in large groups will not even look directly at a victim of need because this would mean taking time, diverting from one’s course, and blending in, following the flow of the crowd. So hiding in numbers makes it easier not to look.

In Canada, we have the right not to rescue in some circumstances. This means that if I see a person drowning in the ocean, and I cannot swim, the Criminal Code protects me from not rescuing the drowning victim because I would then be also putting myself in the same danger as the drowning victim. In Canada, according to the Supreme Court of Canada:

According to the trial judge of a modern case, later affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada, “the law is clear that there is no general duty to come to the rescue of another person … the law leaves the remedy to a person’s conscience.” (“Duty to Rescue,” PSW Law Website: 2009)

However, there are some circumstance that would tie a duty to rescue under statutory law, such as a parent, a person of trust, a life guard, and so on (PSW Law: 2009 Website).

My point to this post is why so many people walked by while the little girl lay on the road at the point of death. Perhaps, as many have said on the media, we must change our values and take action. Some have gone further and saying that laws need to be rewritten to reflect a high moral standard, while others are saying that the law is not the answer, but teaching people to be proactive rather than being nonactive.

I also need to add a legal disclaimer here too: This post is not to be used as information for legal advice, and I encourage you all to do further research on this topic if you need to find a specific legal issue about this. Also, these laws vary from country to country. According to the media, several people were charged in China who injured the little girl while driving their vehicles, so the law enforcement authorities did enforce the law in accordance to that country’s penal code (CBC news, Oct 24, 2011).

This post was originally written on October 24, 2011

Source

ABC News, 2011: “Chinese Toddler Ignored After Hit-and-Run Dies” Oct 21, 2011: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chinese-toddler-left-bloody-hit-run-dies-14784046

BBC World News, 2011: “Anger and debate over hit-and-run toddler Wang Yue,” Oct 21 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15401055

CBC News, 2011: “Chinese toddler run over twice dies,” Oct 21, 2011: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/21/toddler-china.html

CBC News, 2011: “Was the law at fault in Chinese toddler tragedy?” Oct 22, 2011: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/22/f-china-yue.html

PSW Law, 2009: http://pswlaw.ca/2009/06/duty-to-rescue/

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Socail Media, Social Justice | Comments Off

The Rightness of Wrongness: The Canadian Right

October 25th, 2011 Thomasso

Earlier today I sat in on a gathering of people who talked about the changing evolution of corrections (prisons) that Canadian society was moving towards. A lot of what was said falls into the category of classical social fear; crime is getting out of control and safety for property and person were at the top of the list from almost every speaker who lead the discussion. The dynamics of the meeting was subtle, but from person to person who gave their input, I could see that each changed to fit the “group think” attitudes that prevailed until everyone just agreed.

Am I surprised?

No.

Categorically, the meeting ended with each speaker making a statement that issued an appeal to the government, law enforcement, and to their fellow citizen to pull together and help clamp down on the crime menace. None of the speakers would, however, answer the one key question that hung over the entire meeting, “have you ever been a victim of a crime within the last twelve months”?

The speaker that I thought was the “most out to lunch” was actually the star of the show, so to speak. He was loud, captured the audience, and made tens of statements in less than three minutes before he sat down. His introduction was extreme, and waisted little time getting to the point. He said, “The only real experts on crime are C.O.P.s (sic), and those academics have no clue what is out their in the real world… to create a bunch of theories does not fix anything, we need action now…, and we need to do something about the issues instead of thinking like a bleeding heart Liberal (sic).”

Obviously I cannot argue with someone who has closed their mind to the openness and vastness of human society and the intricateness of human psychology. However, I can make him think further, and go beyond the single brush stroke statements, and make him see that the issues cannot be painted with just one colour. But time is the great definer of getting that message across, and time was not on my side–time ran out for me.

There were several issues that really concerned me that came out of this meeting today. Most are very serious in that they are false and misleading from the truth based on scientific facts. To discount peer reviewed studies, is like going back to the Witch Hunts of the Dark-ages, ignoring the enlightenment of human ontology. To invoke fear, well, that is in itself is a criminal act depending upon the level of unsighted accusations being made, and this gathering came close to breaking that threshold.

In terms of rhetoric, the foundation of my friend’s logos, cited the media as proof enough that crime has gone beyond what anyone organisation can manage to deal with. And with that, came the pathos of his argument, that we should fear, becuase the changing face of our country is diminishing, and we (his group) will be swept a way if we (he) sit back and do nothing. And finally, his ethos of his closing statement was based on his next door neighbour being a police officer, and confiding in him (the speaker) of the moral dilemma of why even the police are powerless in the war on crime.

What I have witnessed today is typical of a group who are trying to deal with a problem that goes beyond the scope that most care to deal with today at a complex level. The study of crime and deviance is a huge field, with many branches that stem into a vast array of specialised fields, as each field has developed into its own faculty or discipline, and few have studied under all of them. I studied Criminology, and I continue on today with that study, looking at both the social and psychological perspectives of humankind; so I try to go to these gathering in hopes that I can broaden the mind of the general public and move forward to a better society. “Baby steps” as an old friend used to say to me, “baby steps.” Not everyone is an academic.

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Socail Media, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

Looking at the Money Tree

October 7th, 2011 Thomasso

I have being giving this a lot of thought lately as our economic world falls into the abyss. Everyone is touting that Canada is doing so good in terms of economics, saying that we will weather the bad times and continue on without any devastating crashes compared to the other countries that we stand beside. But for some strange reason, I feel we are not doing as well as our elected and non-elected official are saying.

My doubt is from seeing more and more people on the streets, in and around the Langley Township area, where I live. Sure, the police and public do a great job of forcing the homeless off of the streets, from plain view, during the day, but this is a totally different story when out at night. Every now and then I like to hike the trail called the “Fort to Fort Trail” that follows the Fraser River from where Fort Langley is located.  It is a great trail to walk and run, and it is used a lot, both day and night. However, at night, in the bushes along that path, you can expect to see one or more homeless people camping out.

So, in these tough economics times, and living in a country with so much wealth, why are there homeless people, when, according to our leaders, we are doing so well? Yes, I know the answer(s), but I like asking the question.
I see two classes of homeless now. I see those with mental illnesses, who cannot manage themselves in normal circumstances, and I see people, young and old, who can work, who have education, but are unemployed. Both groups are of great concern to me.

Why do I care? I care because in a country like Canada, we seem to have lost something in our identity, in ourselves, and in our national fabric of how we see ourselves. We seem to have replaced liberalism with something dark and bitter. This started way before the economic meltdown of 2008-09. This was an escalating problem back when times were booming, and Canada was facing a labour shortage. I saw “something” thrown out with the bathwater, as the saying goes, and our good name went with it. The “haves” and “have-not” gap grew in the last decade, based on my own observations, and this really made me ask questions.

I really believe that this issue must be kept up on top of our list of problems socially, so that it is not something that slips down to the bottom of the list of priorities that are of least important. I somehow wish the media would report this message ten times a day, rather than the petty crimes that get front page status all of the time.

Sadly, I believe that Canada has changed, and this change is not something that is totally pure and beneficial to all mankind. Or, maybe Canada was always like this, and I was naive in the lenses of the rose coloured glasses of liberal ideology?

Posted in Around Town, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law and Order, Social economics, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

Debt Dummies & Dr. Doom Here

September 15th, 2011 Thomasso

I just had a phone call conversion with an old friend from up in Terrace who is going through a bit of a pickle with his personal money situation. He was terrified and decided to look me up after nearly ten years of no contact. The last time we spoke, I was experiencing my own financial trouble with the then HSBC down here in Vancouver, and how I all-of-sudden awoke one day to find my life in ruins from just one bad money decision I made. He was moving back up North becuase he could not find a house that was in his price range. Even back in 1999, times in Canada were oddly rough for most wage earners. So he found me and was desperate to find anyway possible to save his home and family.

I am not a financial expert, nor am I even close to being a guru on such matters. I solved my problems through very unconventional means, but the sacrifices that I made back then are not something endorsed by the mainstream. In fact, and I can say this quite loudly, my answers and current practices are considered atrocious by the Banking community, but nonetheless, solved my problems, and freed my life substantially.

To put it simply, my friend’s days of being a home owner are numbered. He has been given his eviction notice from the Bank and mortgage company, and the house will be placed up for sale in a matter of a few weeks. His family is also going through the pains of this huge upheaval. Both him and his wife are now unemployed as the jobs that they held up in the area have since downsized and  shrivelled up. He is now doing cash jobs, scavenging metal from old equipment left out in remote logging sites from over the years and transporting it to scrap dealers in the Pacific North West.  It is very labour intensive, and his return on investment very low.

His issue that he wanted to talk to me about was how to keep his family together. His wife, who seems to be taking the eviction harshly, is so depressed that she is on medication from the stress. His son, 9 years of age, is not performing in school as well as he ought to be, thus adding to an already over boiling pot of stress that he is trying to deal with. And with the pressure to keep the kids fed, dressed and going to school, so too are his needs of finding enough money to pay for gas to work, while on top of this, looking for an affordable place to rent, thus trying to save for the damage deposit and first months rent.

He did try to apply for help with the government, but he quickly learned that there was no help to be given. He never qualified for Employment Insurance while his wife’s income from the insurance benefit only pays for the food and utilities. Government compensation is limited to scarce for most Canadians families in need in today’s economy.

The hope that I offered him was that of change. Adapting and changing in this world of evolution seems to be the key to surviving economic shifts like the double dip rescission that we are in today. Change is rough, especially up North, when everything changes so slowly and lifestyles are always a generation behind. He needs to take a page from the people of Vancouver and surrounding areas in the South. Here, rent consumes on average 80 percent of ones total income for low income wage earners–he needs to follow that up their in Terrace–living with less income.

So, therefore, a lifestyle change is needed to reflect this new era of Canadian living, and that is strictly based on being a smarter consumer. Gone are the days of impulse buying and the use of credit cards. Habits such as smoking and drinking are costs that really need to be taken in to consideration with limited income, no matter how depressed today’s social climate is, he needs to stop this. Going back to a single car, and buying in bulk from large shopping centres and big box stores is the new norm now, and is almost a necessity.

So, I thought about the tone of the words that my friend used when we talked over the phone, and it inspired me to write this post. Everywhere I look, I can see the signs of this playing out. I now think that the second wave of economic chaos is going to be more negatively stronger than the crash of 2008-9. What is different is that we are still spending like the first wave never happened, but this time, it is all credit and borrowed money, not savings and cash. I do not see very many people planning ahead, but instead willing to duck and cover, maybe using the bankruptcy card to play when the dam breaks open?

I wish my friend from up in Terrace well, and hope that his him and his family will weather this storm fairly.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Social economics | 2 Comments »