Blogger Books

This is a bit of a departure from the usual focus of this blog but I found this and thought it was a really interesting development for the blogging world.  A company called Blurb sells software that enables you to reformat your blog as a book and then publishes it for you.  I have seen some great bolgs and this company has hit on an incedible way to satisfy the writer who dreams of seeing his or her words in print.  Well done Blurb.  

Uranium Update

Premier Shawn Graham will host the other Atlantic Premiers in Fredericton to discuss how the Atlantic provinces should approach the future of energy in the Maritimes.  Oh how I wish I could be a fly on the wall in that meeting.  You might hear Nova Scotia Premier, Rodney MacDonald, muttering over a protruding lower lip about the moratorium he has to shake before his province can jump on board the uranium train.  If you’re perceptive, you might also see the honorable Graham barely disguising a smugly victorious glow.  Graham faces no such moratorium.  In fact, last month his party voted against such a moratorium claiming that the economic benefits to the province were too great to be ignored.  After careful consideration, I must say I agree with Mr. Graham.  Not only are is there money to be made through leasing mining rights to companies, and the prolific job creation inherent to digging big holes in the ground, but think of the future.  Nurses to care for cancer patients, truck drivers to bring in drinkable water.  Trulythe ‘economic benefits’ will continue to echo for generations to come (Uranium tailings have a half-life of 80,000 years).

To help ignorant New Brunswickers get out from under their rocks to bask in the shimmering green glow of the nuclear sunrise, Graham’s liberals have arranged for an indoctrination (sorry information) session, under the auspices of Natural Resource Minister Donald Arseneault.  The honourable Arse. has thoughtfully brought mining industry representatives and their scientists to enlighten doom criers about the totally not disastrous reality of mining for radioactive material.  Skeptics are assured that these scientists are not at all like the vapid cheerleaders that President George Bush enlisted to fight the war on reason.

My hope is that they will at last unveil the new treatment for Uranium Tailings.  Rumor has it that the industry has found a way to dispose of the millions of tons of radon emitting powdered ore left behind after uranium extraction (which contains 85% of the toxic nastiness).  In the past this flour like substance has been left to blow with the wind, contaminating soil, plant, animal and water without impunity.  Now, however, millions of flitting fairies have been equipped with miniature dust devils and hired to collect the harmful waste and convert it into magic dust for use in Disney theme parks.   Oh the splendid miracle that is the free market. 

We should count ourselves fortunate here in N.B. since in Ottawa and Wakefield they have to put up with the likes of Jim Harding, the former director of research in the School of Human Justice at the University of Regina, who is trying to raise awareness of his new book Canada’s Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System.

 

If you plan on attending one of the two information sessions and would like to get a sense of the hippie horseshit that Sean Graham’s Monkeys (sorry Ministers) will be inoculating you against then you can visit the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium. 

 

House on a Hill

My wife and I are just concluding the purchase of our first home.  Despite some sever frustration, and a fair share of anxiety, this is a really exciting time for both of us.  The world is not with out its sense of balance however.  Just as we are looking forward to moving into our first home, many others in the province are trying to keep their heads above water, literally.

This weekend past we received a call from friends of ours who live in a little spot at the mouth of the Saint John river called Dominion Park.  Their house had flooded, they told us.  Wanting to be good friends we drove down, but I don’t think either of us was prepared for what we saw.  Their backyard was under three feet of water when we arrived at eleven that morning.  Throughout the day the water level continued to rise.  The same three feet was sloshing about in their basement.  We spent hours wading in that ice cold water, trying to recover whatever we could.  As is often the case with such things there are layers to the despair.  The defeat of watching a brand new washing machine grow increasingly waterlogged is different in kind from the loss you experience when you fish inter-generational heirlooms, soggy and smeared, out of the oily water.

Our friends have lived in this house for thirteen years.  You can imagine how much can accumulate in that time.  Not all of it was lost, but enough damage was done for this to rank as one of the great tragedies of their lives.

Driving throught the Kingston Peninsula you get a sense of how many others are being effected by this disassterous event.  Before the water had crested we saw homes where the river was seeping in through the first floor windows.  I have read some Canadians remarks in online forums, saying that because these people chose to live on the flood plain they should deal with the consequences and not expect any help from the government.  I am sorry for the person whose heart is so empty that he can look on the suffering of his neighbors with such callous indifference.  Although the Canadian government doesn’t seem to share this ignorant view, the difference is one of degree not kind.  In order to receive government compensation a person will have to come up with a one thousand dollar deductible.  Maybe if Stephen Harper had actually been on the ground of the emergency, not flying above it, he might have seen that many of the people who have been worst hit by the flood, are those who can least afford it.