Fall Colors Canadian Style - among the living legends · Thursday October 16, 2008 by colin newell
It is the summer of 1943. You are in Burma. As a POW (Prisoner of War). You are being held captive by the Japanese Empire. You are working on a railway. You work in unthinkable conditions working harder than you will ever work in your life – for no salary and hardly enough food to get through the day. Your brothers in this task are Australians, Brits, Dutch, Americans, fellow Canadians, and ethnic Asians enslaved by the empire for the express purpose of building a railway. You are 19. Your name is Peter.
In 1942, Japanese forces invaded Burma from Thailand and took it from Britain rule. To maintain their forces in Burma, the Japanese had to bring supplies and troops to Burma by sea, through the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea. This route was vulnerable to attack by Allied submarines, and a different means of transport was needed. The obvious alternative was a railway. In June 1942, the empire of Japan set out to do the impossible. They needed labor and they got it from almost 300,000 slaves and POW’s. You survive because you are young and strong. Your American buddies who survive call you Pete. The Australians call you sir.
The estimated total number of civilian laborers and POWs who died during construction is about 160,000. About 25% of the POW workers died because of overwork, malnutrition, and diseases like cholera, malaria, and dysentery. You celebrate your 20th birthday with a bowl of rice in one hand and a pick axe in the other.
In the year 2008, I look at a flat-screen monitor struggling to boot Windows XP. I wonder if the OS is corrupt of whether or not the hard-drive is on its last legs. I unplug USB devices and switch off unneeded ports in BIOS to free up resources in memory. There seems to be little that I can do to unfurl this mess.
Over my shoulder, a very encouraging Peter B. gives me the odd clue as to the demise of his cherished PC. He enjoys his e-mail, his web browser and the photos of his grand-children and great-grand children. Peter and his wife are in remarkable health and embrace this modern technology. And yet I cannot wrap my mind around the visual… a teenage boy slashing his way through a tropical jungle, warding off disease and tolerating hunger while older men fall around him.
There is something about helping a veteran from another era that is sobering and humbling – when men and women fought for the very survival of freedom and democracy and paid the ultimate price.
Words escape me. They really do. On November 11, 2008 (Remembrance Day in Canada) – think about Peter, the survivors. And those that did not survive.
Comment [1]
Fall Colors Canadian Style - Giving Thanks pre-Election day · Monday October 13, 2008 by colin newell
On a recent trip to the U.S.A. I spoke with quite a few folks standing in the queue to get on the boat back to Victoria – We had just spent the weekend in Seattle, Washington – arguably one of the coolest, sweetest, hippest and politically savvy cities in the Union – perhaps in North America – and we had a productive visit to Coffee-Fest – and we were coming home.
People misunderstand Americans. Especially from a global perspective. And unless you can actually reach out and touch one, you really do not understand what they are all about. What they are, from my observations, are really hard on themselves – especially these days. Their economy is in the tank and it is effecting economies Worldwide – and their military adventures have been less than successful this decade.
And yet I like Americans – virtually every one I have ever met. And they return the favor. What I experienced, more than anything else, was their thankfulness to be living next to a peaceful country like Canada – apparently we influence them on some level – at least that is what I was told.
Well thanks.
Canadians are so different, we celebrate Thanksgiving earlier… weeks earlier – this weekend in fact.
This weekend we give thanks – for what is left of our retirement savings… if we are brave enough to look. Thanks to our government and financial institutions for being regulated enough not to find ourselves in the mess that our friends to the South are experiencing. Thanks.
Thanks that we have a roof over our head. Thanks that the people around us are reasonably healthy. We live in a city that has seen increasing issues with poverty and homelessness. I give thanks to those who work tirelessly to solve some of these challenges. To those alone in this city, living without family – on a day where one could get seriously depressed being reminded what they do not have – I offer them best wishes and hope for the future.
To fate. That gave me two strong arms and a healthy body… once again, I say thanks.
Tomorrow we have a federal election – a democratic process that I have learned to appreciate during my life. Thank you to those who fought for this.
Oh yea. In the picture above. Thanks to the Irish Times pub that let us split a burger for lunch – along with a couple of small glasses of beer. A tribute, if you would, to those that have little.
Thanks.
Comment [3]
Fall Colors Canadian Style - Last minute election attack ads · Friday October 10, 2008 by colin newell
I am not a big fan of Stephen Harper – but I am not so much against the man to think that he would make a terrible Prime Minister – fact is, he will probably do way better than anything I could come up with.
And Stéphane Dion? Same thing. Or Jack Layton… and Elizabeth May… or Gilles Duceppe… all the same.
So what is with these increasingly absurd attack ads in the last week leading up to the election?
“Vote for Stephen Harper and be prepared to lose all your money… and your hair. Are you prepared to risk it?
“A Jack Layton majority is… bad. Really bad. You know what will happen if you vote for Jack Layton? You might as well raise the Red flag over Ottawa. Your children will come home stoned and pregnant… or worse. Is that what you really want?“
“Stéphane Dion is bad for Canada. And your blood pressure. A vote for the Liberals is a lethal pill that will put to you sleep. A sleep that you will not wake up from. And while you sleep, your home will be broken into… by monkeys. Monkeys with mischief on their minds. Mischief and chaos. Is that what you want?
Alright. A vote for Elizabeth May and her Green party will cause your skin to peel off, your children will rebel and ultimately kill you… and while they are dancing on your grave they will quickly become crack addicts – but you will not care, because you will be frozen in a dozen pieces in a freezer next to 15 pounds of ribs from M&M Meats. Is that what you want?
Finally. A vote for Gilles Duceppe is a vote for New France. And that is just plain Crazy!
Anyway. Get out there and vote. For something. And someone.
Fall Colors Canadian Style - Election Time Truth Serum · Tuesday October 7, 2008 by colin newell
I had the opportunity recently to interview all the candidates in the upcoming election – and while they were in my modest studio I managed to slip some truth serum into their double-double’s – Who knew that Sodium Pentathol had uses outside of the workplace?
Anyway – this is what they said… pretty much verbatim between slurps of Tim’s and sloppy nibbles of Maple Dips:
Stephen: If I am elected, I am totally going to look after special corporate interests, my friends in high places, allow bank mergers and make cuts to social services like never before… The Canada health-care act? I wipe my BBQ with it…
Thank you Stephen… very kind.
Jack. Jack? Jack! Wake up!
Jack: If I am elected I am going to look after big labor, big labor unions, my big labor cronies, my NDP cronies… and I am going to close all the prisons. For profit health-care? I wrap my Little Red Book in it!
Nice. Stéphane?
Stéphane: Ya know. Dere was a time whan I would give ma eye teeth to be tough as nails like Jean…
Stéphane?
Oui?
Stick to the topic…
Stéphane: Ef a am elected, I will build 10 hydro-electric dams in La Belle Province, 20 new highways to Sherbrooke, 10 new sofa factories in Sept Ille’s… 15 new…
Merci Stéphane.
Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Colin, can I have another mug of that great coffee? I am, like, so feeling trippy right now… Uhm. Wow. Like. Yea. Ahh.
Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Yes Colin.
You need to actually drink the coffee that I gave you?
Elizabeth: If I am elected, I am going to make taxation greener, gas greener, the grass greener and make St. Patricks Day a national holiday… you know, like Robbie Burns Day… and
Thank you Elizabeth.
Anyone else? Last thoughts?
Stephen: If I get elected I am never, ever going to wear a sweater again… I am going to bring prayer and Windsor knots back to Kindergarten… and then…
Zzzzzzzzzzz….
Thank you Stephen. Thank you Jack. Thank you all.
