Summer fun food and drink - Heading home to Papua New Guinea · Monday July 21, 2008 by colin newell
A Papua New Guinea politician is threatening retaliation against Canadian companies after eight young dancers were denied entry to Canada, apparently because border officials didn’t believe they were on a cultural exchange.
The dancers arrived in Vancouver on July 4, expecting to spend four weeks in the British Columbia Interior, sharing traditional storytelling, dance and music at the invitation of the Little Shushwap Indian band.
Instead, they got four hours of interrogation by the Canada Border Services Agency… and then sent home. Bloody brilliant.
(Today)I had coffee with Papua New Guinea expert, Brendan Holden (retired University professor) at one of my cafe haunts – The Finnerty Express, underneath the UVic bookstore.
I know a little bit about PNG Culture (over 20 years experience observing PNG media) and Brendan Holden knows a lot about PNG culture, having lived and worked in Fiji for almost 3 years, having worked in Vanuatu and having visited a wide variety of Micronesian and Melanesian Islands.
Let’s just put it this way: The Canada Border Services Agency have just fuddled up big time… again. PNG Culture is entirely different than Canada’s – and when dealing with unique cultures like PNG, we need agencies and officers with a modicum of training and some sensitivity to cultural differences.
The Canadian Border Agency has no diplomatic training. They are about as culturally sensitive as a hungry wolf in a sheep paddock full of expectant ewes.
So, you wonder: What on Earth can PNG do to Canada, Canadians or Canadian businesses doing business in PNG?
Actually, I am not so concerned about Canadian businesses in PNG.
I am concerned about Canadian travelers and missionaries on the job in PNG.
Word travels fast in that part of the World – believe it or not.
And revenge or retribution is usually swift and painful.
Hopefully, next time, the CBSA will grab a brain and use a little reason, show a little compassion and exercise a little restraint.
On the up-side, the dancers got away before the RCMP airport detachment could put a taser cap in their asses…
Tok wantaim Yumi wantok (Say it with me friend…) – We live in interesting times!
Summer fun food and drink - flowers and travel · Tuesday July 8, 2008 by colin newell
If you are like me, and living in the month of July… ah, like me. You are probably wondering what you would like to do this summer. Better get on it now. Because summer… for some of us… is here.
And let me just say this: Summer in Victoria B.C. Canada is a pretty subtle thing. It arrives… gradually. Sometimes by surprise. And it is a curious thing… because Victoria B.C. Canada does not actually experience seasons. I would hard pressed to explain how there is much difference between night and day.
Photo above – Took this (last night) with my Canon EOS-30D dSLR and a F2.5 55MM Macro Lens at Government House, Rockland, Victoria B.C. Canada
Seasons (and summer) is a funny thing here. On any given day in June, July and August, it might average 22 degrees © for 70 something (F). It is a rare thing indeed when the temperature rises to 30 – and when it does, it too arrives in a subtle way – like overnight. One day it is 22… and then it is 30 for a couple of days… then it is cool again. Anyway. I am getting off track.
If you live here you are busy planning your get-away. If you are a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, (for example) where the average temperature during the day is about 325 (F) then you have your sights on Victoria as a destination. Because Victoria (compared to Arizona) is the equivalent of stepping from a blast furnace into a mountain stream.
And as you can see from the top photo above, the flowers are insane here. This was one of dozens of different kinds of roses that were fully in bloom. I think I saw every color of rose except for Green and dark blue. I saw every other web safe color in the Government House garden. Click on the photos above for a mind-blowing enlargement. Mind blowing. Hmm. Showing my age with expressions like that. Let’s try this. The green in Victoria is dope and if you stay in Phoenix this summer you are, like, whack. There. Better.
Hey. Quick piece of travel advice if you are flying from anywhere in the U.S. into Canada – particularly Victoria B.C. Canada… and you are wearing a T-Shirt. Many people wear T-Shirts right? Make sure there is a pleasant and non-violent message on your T-Shirt. Examples:
-Anything with Kittens, Puppies, Flowers (like the ones above), American flags and pictures of Jesus are good.
-Things like guns, rifles, grenades, and Peace signs are definitely a no-no. Go figure. Cartoon characters like Transformers: Bad! Especially if they are holding ray-guns. Ray-guns bring down airplanes you know! Here is the T-Shirt in question.
Also. Avoid words on your T-Shirt like Boom, Bang, Attack, Peace or any script in any language other than English… because if it ain`t English it looks like Arabic to the TSA.
So. Play it safe folks and silk-screen one of my flower pictures onto your travel safe T-Shirts.
And Bon Voyage!
Uhm. That means Safe Travel for those that do not understand Arabic.
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The quirky the funny the silly in Canadian living · Monday June 30, 2008 by colin newell
We get a magazine from time to time… with our daily paper. It comes along maybe once a month.
And not everyone gets it. We get it because we live in a somewhat Chi chi neighborhood… and we are renters… for now. heh-heh heh-heh heh-heh.
This magazine is a tome to conspicuous consumption, to gratuitous excess, to the joy of being all that you can be… better. It represents about 1/10 of 1% of the local population in terms of net worth.
Photo below – The magazine picture above is a spoof of the one that I am talking about. Click it for the full meal deal
So, if you are not driving a Mercedes-Benz, or a Bentley, or a Jaguar – then your are definitely not worthy of reading these gold stained pages.
But it begs the question – who the heck reads this stuff and buys all these gilded products; botox treatments, solid gold-plated bathroom fixtures, kilo-buck spa weekends and real estate listings that boggle the imagination?
Anyone?
It is Un-Canadian. Canadians are a modest lot – and we do not flaunt it… whatever it is. And yet this magazine exists. Full of ads of Real-Estate agents that only sell zillion dollar houses… and lawyers for rich people that have gotten themselves into a pickle and plastic surgeons for those occasions when the lawyer cannot get you out of the pickle and you need to change the appearance of the pickle.
Get my drift? No?
Anyway – in this, the first in a continuing series on Canadian oddities in our society, I will peck very gently at the delicate gold plated under carriage of Canuck society.
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Canadian Big Brother #1 What`s on your iPod · Thursday June 12, 2008 by colin newell
Damn. Damn. Triple damn.
I swore I was going to lighten up with my next post… but the Government of Canada will not let me.
Damn.
We posted on this issue at the CoffeeCrew blog about 3 weeks ago about the new Anti-Copyright legislation currently being cooked up by Canada’s right wing Conservative minority government under the delicate tutelage of Stephen Harper (shown at right in his most favored outfit ).
So now it is moving forward – read the CBC article for yourself and the hundreds and hundreds of angry comments that follow.
Here is the skinny.
The federal government (under the wisdom of Minister of Industry – Jim Prentice) has introduced a controversial bill it says balances the rights of copyright holders and consumers — but it opens millions of Canadians to huge lawsuits, prompting critics to warn it will create a “police state.”
To quote Jack Bauer of 24 – Hide your iPod and TIVO… Hide it now!
Bill 61 panders to a dying industry – Big Music and Rich Media like Sony Pictures and Music – and the big question is (amongst dozens of similar questions…):
When you buy a CD or DVD, is it really yours… or have you merely rented or leased it? Rip one copy of a CD to your iPod and that is sort of legal. Make 2 copies and you face fines of upwards of 20,000 dollars.
CBC reader commentary reveals: “Will warrantless searches and seizures be allowed? Of what? My kid’s music player where he carries his personal data to and from school? Media cards? My USB drive that contains my personal information? My computer? My CDR backups of my computer? My cell phone? Every piece of electronics I own?”
Here at the blog, we wrote about this very thing – how Airport security guards will soon be snooping your Ipods and laptops for illegal content.
What is next, checkpoints like they have in Uncle Sam? I hope the f*ck not.
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The Conversation series - Part two - Food on the table · Sunday May 18, 2008 by colin newell
We spoke with Mark Engels of Bubby Roses Bakery photo below about how the price of flour, oil and corn have effected his work environment – here is his report:
Talking food culture with Mark Engels of Bubby Roses Bakery
Thing is, we are in the middle of double digit inflation action. Why?
Truth is, there is no oil crisis. There is nothing wrong with the Oil supply. Our
Canadian reserves are in as good a shape as they have ever been in the history of fuel and oil exports in Canada.
Some economist in the U.S. speculated (predicted) that oil would be $200 a barrel before 200X. He did not give any reason why – he just said it.
He was making a prediction about the futures value of a barrel of oil.
So oil goes up. And we flirt with alternative fuels like Ethanol and Bio-diesel.
We take corn out of the mouths of the hungry to make fuel for our cars…
Because some econo-twit said that the price of a barrel of oil would top $200 one day.
He was probably running around in circles, waving his hands and wetting himself at the same time.
Not a pretty picture?
Neither is hunger.
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