Victoria Spring 2011 - Canadian Gas Prices · Saturday May 14, 2011 by colin newell
I have spoken on this issue in the past – about gas price fixing in Canadian markets.
Which I am now preparing to reject. No, not preparing… It’s done.
Let me clarify: I do not believe that the markets are fixed in Canada.
For Gas. Or Coffee. Or Chocolate. Or anything for that matter.
And you’re wondering… “Who are you? Who took our Colin away?”
Here is the thing – 1st year University economics at work. We live in a free market system. That means that the markets set themselves. There are no wage and price controls at work in Canada or the U.S.
As a result, the market moves around to suit the vendors, the suppliers, the executives, shareholders etc. It is the system we have embraced.
And we vote for governments that support the open market agenda.
Actually, all the governments that are available to be elected are all for open markets – there are no socialist parties or active communist parties in Canada (or America). And the ones that are professing to be socialist are dreaming – or digging for votes.
We live in an open market society. Everything is up for grabs. Everything is for sale. And this includes petrol, oil, gas, coffee, water, pork bellies, all manner of food stuffs – anything that can be bought and solid for a profit.
Our governments negotiate and sign trade agreements with other countries that are not as developed as our own – that gives manufacturers the upper hand in maximizing profit for executives, owners, shareholders, etc. It is in the best interest of the free market system to get products made as cheaply as possible to get the most payback for the vested interests.
Gas is no different. The raw materials come out of the ground and are processed and distributed for profit. Yes, I know the raw materials are free – it comes out of the ground after all. But there needs to be an infrastructure for it to end up in your tank as high octane gasoline. That costs money.
And sure, oil companies like banks make obscene amounts of profit – so what. It is a free market system. Is this profit wrong? No. It is a free market system. We live in this system, support it and vote for governments that have a pro-business agenda.
We totally get what we pay for folks.
Coffee (a subject that I know a little bit about) is one of those highly traded commodities.
Imagine every coffee bean produced in a year – Got that picture? Good.
Well, that mountain of coffee changes hands anywhere from 50 to 100 times a year. And most of those folks that profit from coffee, big time, have never even seen a coffee bean or a coffee farmer. Is this wrong? Technically no – I mean, coffee brokers are not in the business of knowing how Juan Valdez is doing with his family in Nicaragua – or whether he and his family have education or health care. Brokers and traders are in the business of flipping product for profit.
Back to gas. Any government that says they are going to “look into high gas prices” are being utterly cynical. This has been happening in the U.S. lately. Obama has stated that high fuel prices need to be looked into. Additionally, one of the most stupid men in America, Donald Trump, uttered some shallow platitudes about taking Saudi by the short and curly and giving them what-for. Actually, considering that Trump is playing a joke on all of us with his Presidential run, he is actually being more honest than Obama.
When we consider that the fuel that goes into our cars comes from a finite supply, and that it is considerably more expensive in Europe – it is likely that the price in Canada and the U.S. is too low. I know, I hate paying $50 to fill my Honda Civic with this stuff – but I am not alone. And if I was in Holland it would be twice that much.
Summary: We live in a free market system where anything goes. Our new Conservative government in Canada plans on throwing Foreign ownership rules to the wind (which I strongly disagree with – but who am I.) Which means that more Canadian stuff is going to be on the vending block – which will increase the cost of living to average Canadian.
And as much as I would love to live in socialist utopia where I did not have to worry about food security, the integrity and safety of my water supply and the roof over my head… I am now ready to face the facts… that this is the society in which we live: A society where everything is for sale and speculation. It is what the majority of Canadian’s appear to want – so we get the results.
Victoria Spring 2011 - Our Work Place Glee Music Therapy · Tuesday April 19, 2011 by colin newell
For most people, music in the work place comes out of a back ground music system or off of someones bleeding iPod. It’s not like anyone has a radio playing at their work station anymore – So it may come as something of a surprise to find a lab in a local University that has its own built in jam space for lunch time guitar and bass throw downs.
Seems odd to me – even though I got the ball rolling – And I am sure this is more common than I think it is – or perhaps it is a well kept secret elsewhere.
Because for some reason, my employer (a local University) seems to be a hot bed of musical talent… and trust me folks, I am not self identifying here or anything – any money I have ever made in the music biz has gone directly to charity. Not talented. At all. But I can pretend. Sometimes quite effectively.
But I do plays the guitar a bit. A bit. A bit of guitar. A bit of bass. A bit of voice and a bit of piano. All in good fun. And for whatever reason, it all feels good.
Yours truly has been playing on and off since a long time ago – first Piano since the age of 6 and guitar since I was 13. And although I am no prodigy (too old), I can read a chart or two and turn a page of lyrics into something that passes as entertainment and vaguely familiar.
Imagine the delight to realize the amount of raw talent all around me.
For my space it started as innocently as showing up at work with an acoustic guitar. Strapping it on over coffee break and busking around the lab. Before you know it, people are joining in or watching appreciatively. From there, another guitar was added… and a bass… and another vocalist or two… and more music.
We are not the cast of Glee by any stretch. But we are having an amount of fun that was completely unanticipated. Additionally, there are several other similar groups on campus doing exactly the same thing – and ironically, we all may have an offer on the table to play our music at a Summer Festival… which, for me, makes no sense at all. I am not deaf, but I cannot hear Journey or Celine Dion in much of what we are doing… at least from the regular line up. We do have a student who sits in from time to time that sings like an angel… but she is leaving town.
A bunch of geezer music players worthy of entertaining a crowd? Don’t know. Who am I to judge modern music? Stay tuned.
In the meantime, in the corner of one of our labs is a 300 Watt P.A. system, microphones and a rack of musical instruments. If you listen real closely over lunch at the University, you might just hear our noise.
Victoria Spring 2011 - Canada Post why do you hate us so much · Wednesday April 6, 2011 by colin newell
Ordered some parts from EspressoTec.com in Vancouver a few weeks ago – good people – they have everything and they have an inventory of parts that goes back… way back.
Unfortunately, little more than the envelope above showed up – along with a plastic pouch, barely sealed, and one of the plastic pieces that I ordered.
Surprised? A little.
What angers me are the numbers of calls I have made to Canada Post the last few years for utterly crappy service.
We go to Hawaii every year for a month. We get “Mail hold” – we pay for that. On one occasion only has the mail hold gone even remotely well – generally the mail keeps coming.
Both times I have appealed to Canada Post – asking for my $35 dollars back.
Their reply: “Your postal carrier insists that your mail was held…”
Actually, some of it was – because there was a brick of mail that was held and a shit load of other mail that was not held. Oddly, in the “held mail” was mail destined for neighbors – Can you imagine being a senior waiting on your pension cheque – and they do not get it because it is in my mailbox.
What is wrong with Canada Post anyway? I once considered doing a gig there back when I was a teenager – Christmas overflow or something – visited the depot out in Royal Oak – the atmosphere was so oppressive that I could not imagine working there – so I started my own gardening business that turned out to be hugely successful…
Anyway – Canada Post? What is wrong with you? And how can we fix it?
Victoria Spring 2011 Getting Funky with Rick May · Tuesday April 5, 2011 by colin newell
Local Bass player and session musician, Rick May featured on this DB Clifford snippet.
If you do not find yourself shaking something within seconds of this track starting, you had better spot yourself for a pulse!
Rick May, locally known for his involvement in The Superior Cafe is a past partner in “Java on Johnson”, The Old Town Cafe and La Boheme Restaurant in the eighties.
Rick has played bass guitar with Michael Jackson (on the hit song “Beat It”), members of DEVO, Mae Moore (touring this summer), Marc Almond (Soft Cell), Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix experience, Ricki Lee Jones, Roger Taylor of Duran Duran, etc etc.
Rick can often be found, when in town, sampling the great coffee at Habit Coffee & Culture on Yates Street in the Atrium (at Blanshard).
You can check out his thing on his website – RickMay.ca
Fall Fun Food and Follies 5 Things to do while you are alive · Monday November 8, 2010 by colin newell
Yesterday my wife and I set aside some time to meet with a neighbor.
A new neighbor in fact. A lady who has located to Victoria after her husband had retired.
They had lived and worked around Canada… in places as far flung as Halifax, Ottawa, Saskatoon and Regina.
She grew up in Germany and was a young child as Hitler was beginning his reign of terror on Europe.
She is actually an amalgam of German and Danish. A handsome and studied woman, she had seen a lot of stuff in the mid-forties – and although just a child at the time (she) formed a solid impression of what Nazism and Fascism truly represented. And how we need to be watchful even today.
And here she was in 2010 telling us about what life was like for a young girl in Nazi Germany and then for a young woman starting a new life in the West.
Her story has an interesting and tragic twist. Her husband and she had just started to settle in Victoria (in their late seventies and in perfect health) looked forward to the golden years pursuing their mutual passion of sailing and travel.
A freak accident however took her husbands life a few months ago – and now she has to carry on the journey alone. Sad.
In just under 3 hours we covered a stimulating chunk of Western history, from life in Germany in the War to new beginnings in Canada in the late 50’s – The magic of Canada in the 60’s – the evolution of the Canadian identity in the early 70’s and so on.
She has over 30 years on me, with a correspondingly more encompassing sense of the big picture and an acute sense of the absurd in how some aspects of Western society have remained virtually unchanged since the last Great War.
Sobering stuff indeed.
I learned a bunch of stuff from this gal. One of them is: Tomorrow really never comes. Every day really is your last until proven otherwise. Care for those around you. Love your friends. Leave your mind entirely open for new ideas. Embrace strangers because, hey, you never know.
Keeping doors open. It is what we all need to do.
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