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01/07/2010So, here's my Canada story for Canada Day.
I spent part of last night in the hospital. First time in many years. It was nothing serious. My toe hurt like hell and I could barely walk, but I figured it would get better soon enough. Still, we have this thing out here called HealthLink BC which is like a triage system we use to determine if you should go to the hospital. You can use it online or talk to a registered nurse. I tried the online system and it said some variant on "omg go to the emergency room right now!!!". I thought that was a bit dramatic so I called the RN who clearly used the same system I had just used to tell me the same thing the computer just had, but she also threatened me in that matronly RN way with losing my toe if I didn't. As much as I dislike being nagged, it worked. My toes aren't particularly beautiful but they're the only ones I have, so I dragged my butt over to the emergency room at Surrey Memorial Hospital expecting to spend most of the night there.
The hospital itself is quite old, but the emergency building is newly renovated and beautiful. It's a peaceful green with glass block walls to the outside which let in a lot of sunlight. A sign in about 5 languages said to proceed to the red window which I did, presented my government health care card to the front-counter girl, and got a little band put around my wrist.
About 10 minutes later, a pleasant triage nurse came out, asked me what was wrong right there in the waiting room, poked at my toe causing me untold agony, and said I'd be seen shortly. I looked at her a bit surprised and asked, "Shortly?". "Mmm hmm," she said and smiled. I went back to watching one of the TVs they had in the waiting room set to closed-captioning. It's nice to be reminded how stupid TV is now and then.
A bit of time passed, some foul mouthed young guy who looked a bit like Elvis got told to watch his language or leave (he chose to watch his language), and then after about 10 minutes, another pleasant nurse (about 50 but with the body of a 25 year old model, at least when clothed) came by, asked me the same questions, poked at my toe like the first nurse causing me the same untold agony, and told me to go sit at a window and confirm my address and other details. I did that and went back to the waiting area and chatted with a nice older couple. She had sprained her wrist gardening and was in some pain, although she bore it well.
Ten minutes later, the hot 50-something nurse came back and took me to the treatment area where I sat in another waiting area right in the middle of a bunch of curtained treatment rooms with beds. A young trashy looking girl sitting next to me asked to use my phone and, after a moment's reflection on whether I could get a disease from a cell phone, I let her. I passed about 10 minutes there watching other people getting treated, although the doctors were careful to speak quietly enough not to be heard by anyone other than the patients.
At this point, a nice young Chinese chap came by, introduced himself in perfect English as Dr. Wu or Hu or something like that, asked me the same questions the first two nurses had, and poked at my toe just like they had, thereby causing me the same agony they had. He told me I had gout in my toe, gave me some anti-inflammatory meds and told me to take prednisone if it didn't clear up in a day or two. He assured me I wouldn't lose my toe and sent me on my way.
Total time elapsed: under an hour. Quality of care: at least as good as any in the world. Nobody asked me for money. Nobody will. I will get no bills in the mail.
I love Canada. :) 05/06/2010
 You know, this BP oil spill is going to be good for the environment. Seriously.
It's going to be the worst spill in history by the time it's over, the entire Gulf of Mexico is going to smell like a truck stop, and all those pretty beaches are going to be fouled. Thousands of people will be thrown out of work and entire industries and ecosystems in the area will be destroyed.
The thing that many people haven't thought through, though, is that this is going to kill US offshore oil production. My guess is that no new permits will be granted for a decade. Maybe two. Arnold has already announced that California won't go there, anymore. My guess is that most areas will agree with him.
This is going to force the US to electric cars more quickly than they would otherwise have been adopted. People who hate nuclear energy are going to think of the BP spill and accept more power plants because the fossil fuel alternative is so repugnant.
Development of better battery technology will become an urgent matter as governments move aggressively to phase out gasoline and diesel fueled vehicles.
The switch to electric vehicles that would have taken many decades will now probably take much less time.
And the Gulf of Mexico will recover. It'll take a long time, but it will.
25/04/2010
 The Sunday Times published its annual list of the super rich in the UK the other day. Normally I don't read those lists, other than noting who is on top, but one fact jumped out at me this time.
The number one and two positions are held by an Indian-born man and a Russian-born man, respectively. 9 out of the top 12 (a full 75%) are immigrants. About half of the people on the Rich List (24 out of 53) were born outside the UK. Immigrants make up just 9% of the UK population.
The world is changing so fast. 20/04/2010I just read that NATO troops killed a bunch of teenagers returning from a volleyball game. Don't worry, though, they're expected to release a statement saying they're sorry and calling the incident a tragic mistake, so it will all be ok. Fears are now heightened that the insane Muslim terrorists may again target western civilians because they hate our freedom.
31/03/2010
 A guy I know just spent some time pondering the purpose of life. Guys my age do that now and then. Mortality gets a bit more real after you hit 40 and you start to wonder why you're in this game.
You know what the purpose of my life is?
I live alone and every now and then, like now, I hate it. I really wish I had a girl living with me right now. It's spring and the weather is getting nice (albeit a bit cool still) and I'd like to spend it with some pretty girl hanging on to my arm.
Then, almost like clockwork, some girl will smile at me and I'll smile back and before you know it, she's spending most of her free time with me. Also like clockwork, within a month, I can't stand it. I won't let it show externally, but she'll drive me crazy in no time.
Then, I'll spend endless hours locked up in my little computer room wishing I was alone again, and she'll lie in my bed alone wondering why I don't find her attractive.
Strive for things, achieve them, and then wish you hadn't.
That's the purpose of my life. 24/03/2010 I like where I live. Things are good up here. Our cities are safe and beautiful (as is our countryside), our economy is under control even in the midst of a world downturn and, very importantly, our men's and women's hockey teams have won 5 out of the last 6 Olympic gold medals. This being said, no place is perfect, and it's worth taking a moment or two to remind ourselves what could be improved up here. I won't bother with those things, like the weather, that can't be improved.
In no particular order:
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The monarchy is stupid. I actually have nothing aginst them personally, but the simple fact is that nobody I know up here thinks of Queen Elizabeth as "our" queen. She's the Queen of England. It's high time for Canada to become a republic. I realize that this can't happen while Liz is alive but when she favours us by departing this world, I hope the government of the day will have the good sense to depart in turn from the Windsors.
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Our debt is too high. At about 60% of GDP, it's not disastrous but it's about the same as the US debt to GDP ratio and we all know how healthy their debt situation is. A least we're not increasing our debt as quickly as they are. This debt we've managed to accumulate is entirely due to the idiotic deficit spending and tax cutting of the conservative Mulroney government two decades ago. A subsequent decade of Liberal governments with budget surpluses paid off a huge amount of that debt, but our current conservatives are deficit spending like crazy again (as conservatives generally do, while talking tough on spending). Hopefully they'll be turfed out soon and we'll go back to Liberal governments with balanced budgets and resumed debt paydown.
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Celine, Avril, Nelly, Shania, Bryan.
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Free speech isn't adequately protected here. It's a bit better than Western Europe overall, but not as good as the US. Stay away from the sacred cows and you're fine, generally, but that's a small comfort to those of us who value freedom of expression. Kick one of the sacred cows (like Zundel did) and end up in jail. Watch what you say. Or better yet, say nothing at all. Welcome to the new world.
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Our governments are all lame ducks. Until a few years ago, minority governments (where no party has more than half the seats and can therefore be voted out by the opposition) were extremely rare in Canada. We had a few in the 70s. Trudeau had one, lost a confidence vote to Joe Clark, who almost immediately then lost one back to Trudeau. Trudeau then won a majority, and we've had majorities since...until a few years ago, that is. Suddenly the Conservatives and the Reformers joined forces and united the right, and now we can't seem to decide anymore. We haven't had a majority since Chretien and neither party is showing any signs of winning one in the near future. We seem doomed to middle of the road, visionless, caretaker leadership for the time being.
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We still have God in our schools. Our Supreme Court isn't very smart, sometimes.
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The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (the CRTC) has to be the most obnoxious institution in the country. Most countries have some regulator trying to make sure that their citizens don't only watch US movies, but ours is stupider than most. I suppose there's some entertainment value in a regulatory body getting every major decision wrong for a couple of decades, but it's less funny when you live here. This group has decided that we're all subject to Canadian content laws, forcing us to watch what appears to be the worst television programming in the western world including such shows as Little Mosque on the Prairie. I'm not making that up. Thankfully the net lets us easily circumvent these stupid rules. I solved the problem by throwing away my TV years ago.
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We seem to be getting a bit fatter each year.
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Anti nuclear religionists. This isn't just a point of principle. How we propose to move to electric vehicles without nuclear power seems to be something nobody has thought through. This is more a BC problem than a nationwide one, but it exists throughout the country. There's just no interest in improving our nuclear power generation capacity. This is a byproduct of the visionless leadership mentioned above. I suppose the problem will correct itself eventually -- the tree huggers will notice when their electric cars can't get charged at night.
- Our native population doesn't live as well as the rest of us, despite a ton of money having been thrown at this problem over the last half dozen decades. Money doesn't seem to cure this problem. If anything, from what I can see, it seems to make things worse. I have no solution to offer, but it's painful and embarrassing to see third world shantytowns in this wealthy nation.
- Our environmental vision seems to be "do nothing and pray".
- Quebec is still not a signatory to our constitution. I begin to think that problem will never be solved.
- People aren't hungry here. They're a bit too comfortable. They don't take huge risks because they don't want to lose what they have. The Chinese and Indians are sure to pass us by in time.
28/02/2010Team Canada has just defeated Team USA 3-2 in overtime to win the Olympic Gold Medal in men's ice hockey.
I went outside for awhile to soak it in. It's pandemonium out there. Fireworks, cars with horns blaring, thousands of people in the streets. Canadian flags everywhere. I may go outside again a bit later but I'm not sure I can handle being kissed by male strangers again.
Lots of Americans out there, too. They were easily the best team overall this tournament and their goalie, Miller, was just named the tournament MVP. No argument from me. More important to me is the classy way the American visitors conducted themselves this Olympics. Long lines, crowded conditions and the occasional organizational blunder didn't faze them...they were good about everything and fun to have here. The US also won the total medal count easily.
Canada did brilliantly, too. 14 gold medals, the highest total of any nation ever in a winter games, and both the men's and women's hockey golds. I really don't see how this could have gone better.
A wonderful games. A wonderful memory. 30/12/2009Here are some interesting facts.
- Some Nigerian tried to blow up a plane and failed. Nobody got killed. Actually, nobody even got hurt.
- Putatively because of the above point, the entire US airport system is now in effective lock down with "enhanced security", which is a euphemism for people being patted down and interrogated on their way to every flight.
- The Dutch and Nigerians are now doing body-scans on anyone travelling to the US.
- People all over the world are getting used to being body-searched. It's becoming part of normal life if you venture outside your own neighbourhood, which most people don't. When I was growing up, the idea of being searched was nothing short of shocking.
- On the weekend of the flight, several hundred people were killed in the US by drunk drivers. No enhanced security for drivers is planned.
- Four people a year die in the US by electrocution from dropping hair dryers into the water. This is more than have been killed by terrorism since 9/11, and that terrorist probably lives in Texas. Again, no emergency security measures are currently planned for hair dryers.
- I listened to a US talk radio show while driving the other day, and heard the announcer describe the incident as chilling to the bone. I wonder what he'd call it if someone had gotten hurt.
- Nobody seems to notice how absurd it all is. Nobody cares that nobody got hurt. Nobody cares that, even if the guy had succeeded, fewer people would've been killed than drunk drivers killed that weekend. People buy in to the drama and they glory in their chains. The abandonment of a few more personal freedoms is clearly justified. "Whatever it takes to be safe!" they say smiling, as they spread their arms and legs to be patted down.
- In 1947, Reichsmarschall Herman Goering wrote, "Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
24/12/2009I made my annual pilgrimmage to church, tonight. We had a really good meal before, and I managed to stay awake for much of the service. A nice time.
06/12/2009 Two years ago when I last moved, I threw out most of my books. I didn't have a huge collection but I had five or six boxes of them. I saved about 20 books that were world-changers to me and the rest got junked. Last week, after I moved again, I threw out those last 20. The dinosaur is dead. |
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Copyright 2010 Reg Natarajan. All rights
reserved.
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