What caught my attention the Week of January tenth?
Did you notice that this week, the US and NATO are taking the lead in Ukraine negotiations with Russia? If my memory of history serves me correctly, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain left Czechoslovakia on the sidelines while negotiating the Munich Agreement of 1938. As a result, the treaty ceded the Czech Sudetenland to Germany in exchange for “peace for our time”. World War II started September 1, 1939.
I can only hope that they remember the lessons of history. However, I think not! The US has already said that it will not take any military action should Russia invade the Ukraine. Russia is already declaring victory. Greedy, brutal dictators cannot be appeased. It is always more, more, more.
Neil Gorsuch for not wearing a mask. He sits on the bench with 83-year old Steven Breyer and diabetic Sonia Sotomayor. I will have more on her later. First, the Gorsuch refusal to wear a mask out of his respect for his colleagues displayed political and judicial bias, behaviour unbecoming of a justice. Second, it makes him a terrible human being. Clearly, not a nice man.
Sonia Sotomayor massively exaggerated the Covid-19 toll on children. I am all for vaccine mandates but selling them with lies is counter-productive.
The “Jewish” , one of Canada’s best hospitals, has a well deserved reputation for excellence. The Montreal Gazette reports that it has set up a “virtual ward” to provide at home hospital care for COVID patients. It sends carefully selected patients home with oxygen and special wearables that monitor oxygen saturation in the blood and other vital indicators. These wearables send these indicators to a central control room every five minutes. The hospital follows the home patients from this command centre. If a patient’s vital signs indicate a necessary return to hospital, the centre dispatches the ambulance service to bring the patient back to the Jewish.
Kudos to this institution for being innovative and maintaining high standards of excellence. Also to the the dedicated and generous community that supports it.
I hesitated referring to this linked article on The Alernative web site. Sometimes the hyperbolic language gets in the way of the important message. However, one excerpt in particular underlines the main theme:
We should not be able to blame livestock production for the biodiversity crisis while eating a Big Mac or blame tobacco manufacturers while taking another drag on our cigarette. In the same way, it is ethically disingenuous to shift blame for the climate crisis to those 90 carbon intensive corporations while we continue to patronize them as we always have to support our historically extravagant lifestyles.
Zhiwa Woodbury
The underlying message: Consumer behaviour drives green house gas emissions. Eat more beef, more methane! Drive a gas guzzler – more CO2! Change your wardrobe every year – contaminate more water! It is hypocritical to bitch about air pollution with four fossil-fuelled cars in the driveway.
At Florence’s Pitti Uomo, Men’s clothing manufacturers have a focus on sustainability. The success of their efforts relies on consumer behaviour.
OK! OK! Maybe I should have had this in last week’s review! The Telegraph published this article on January 8:
The Village that Broke Free. It tells the heart-warming story of Trawden, an old fabric-mill town fighting off decay. The last mills closed in the mid ’70’s. Then, its ten retailers closed one by one. In 2014 the borough council announced its intention to close the community centre. The library roof leaked. Finally, the village publican put his establishment up for sale.
The village residents took over. They acquired and renovated the community centre and library; and, developed a community shop. Then in 2021, with the assistance of the Plunkett Foundation , the community raised £450,000 to acquire the village pub.
“Well I see you have made your choice.”
An ER doctor to a 39-year old man suffering severe COVID wearing the anti-vax t-shirt emblazoned “Live Free or Die”. The man died two hours later.
Vaccines, Montréal’s Jewish General Hospital, sustainable fashion, the Plunkett Foundation campaigning to save village pubs, and the village of Trawden.
Milan Djokovic and his entire family, US Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor, Boris Johnson, the un-vaccinated, uncontrolled consumerism.
Sign off for the week of January tenth.
Before I fall completely into the trap of opposition politics, I have decided to take a break from never-ending criticism and to start suggesting solutions to the affordable housing conundrum. Do I have a plan? No, more a collection of ideas To start with, I think there are three key issues: Home ownership is not […]
I know! I am going to sound like a grumpy old man. Maybe that is because I am. I have been scratching my head in wonderment at the Taylor Swift phenomena. Is she an Incredible song writer, composer, and performer? I really don’t know! A discussion for another time? But probably not. At my age […]
Don’t build it! At least, Not In My Back Yard ! I acted as an advisor in the sale of a beautifully natural, 14-acre urban waterfront estate. Existing zoning allowed for the development of 30 to 35 single-family homes, which after road dedication would leave very little green space. I did not think that was […]
We were visiting Glasgow (literally that Dear Green Place in Gaelic) to see where my father was born, grew up, and went to University. Fortunately for me, my cousin John from Australia had just visited and had met with historians, Bruce Downie and Norry Wilson. So, we too arranged to meet them in the Govanhill […]
Vienna on top again. This week both Monocle Magazine and The Economist unveiled their quality of life / most liveable city indexes. There are differences in the way each publication sets its index. So it is even more impressive that once again, Vienna tops both lists. I am a bit lazy today so rather than […]
Many Viennese went from hot bedding to superblocks overnight. Could they even imagine an apartment complex 1000 metres long built along two streets with even more massive landscaped courtyards? Could they conceive of 1400 apartment units built to house 5000 people on 56,000 square metres or 38 acres of land. Or a vertical build-out that […]