There's a popular belief in Canada and the US that heavy drinking of alcohol actually began with the passage of prohibition. Not true.
Canadians and Americans were heavy drinkers up to 1840. Then they turned against it. By the 1870s, no respectable person would admit to even thinking of tasting alcohol. The change came as liquor sales rose from about 1900. But that was almost twenty years BEFORE prohibition in most of North America. So what happened in the years leading up to 1900?
Industrialization happened. Cities happened. In 1901, Ontario became the first province in Canada to have a majority of its people living in cities. But why would living in a city encourage a person to drink?
Because in a city, nobody knew who you were. Even people who worked with you usually saw nothing of you after working hours. You were anonymous in a great mass of strangers. You could do whatever you wanted to do . And that was very different from country life.
In a rural area, everybody knew all about you. And gossipped. To be different in any way from everybody else was a terrible thing, indeed. Even to be too smart was wrong because it made others uncomfortable with you. Schoolteachers who wished to court a member of the opposite sex often needed schoolboard approval first. And the whole process of courtship would be watched, and reported on. If a grocery store clerk was rumoured to have an occasional glass of rum, the employer would soon know about it - and the clerk would be jobless.
That infection is still with us. That's why New Brunswick has a riding that has voted Liberal for a century. Indeed, New Brunswick has been ploddingly Liberal and Conservative for as long as it has been a province. There is no other province (except PEI) which has shown such constipated political thinking.
Even as New Brunswick urbanized, the process was far behind most of Canada, and the cities were so small that anonymity remained elusive. This was reinforced by employers who maintained an old tradition of firing people whose political opinions were not bland, uninformed and mainstream. In New Brunswick - even in the cities - it is not respectable to be different.
That's why we have two political parties that are mirror-images of each other. That's why we tolerate such a trivial paper as the TandT. That's why this whole province is so easily manipulated by Irving and friends.
It's not respectable to be different.
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Front page news - "Royal Oaks sees big changes". Yes, and as the story says, this housing development project has really taken off since since the decision was taken to move Moncton High from downtown to this remote location. What a coincidence!
I mean, you have the provincial government taking it on itself to insist on where the new school would be. That is unusual. And then you have the city of Moncton being quite happy with this intrusion into its powers (and it's city plan, if it has one.)
Is it possible that the developers visited the provincial government and city hall with a bag of money? We'll never know. Because its not respectable to talk about sleaze.
And this will reduce the cost of bussing students? So how come we've never been shown evidence of that? And can anybody seriously believe it will be economic or even possible to bus students to school twenty years from now? Or even less? Much less?
Building a community in 2013 based on the world of 1950 doesn't strke me a a sensational idea.
And Royal Oaks residents can get to downtown Moncton in minutes? Yes. In a 1950s world of cars and cheap gas. But that is rapidly passing. In a very short time, Royal Oaks will be as bleak and as isolated as most of Riverview will be. And it is also likely that the day of the large high school will have passed, another victim to the cost of transportation.
Would it be possible to get a look at all these much-praised city plans to see how they are prepared for a world even ten years from now?
______________________________________________________________________________
The other big item on the front page is "Tories unveil gas development blueprint". The article mentions that the blueprint makes reference to concerns expressed by the province's chief medical officer. But referencing is all it does. In short, they have entirely ignored her advice.
Good thing we can trust Irving and friends to really, really care about our health.
What is really going on is a desperate attempt to sell all the energy fuels we can before the roof falls in. Two things are very close to happening.
1. The whole world is close to realizing that our dependence on fossil fuels cannot continue without triggering a climate disaster. (There's a reason why Harper has muzzled government scientists.) Climate change is happening; we are close to the point at which it will be irreversible; and, among other things, that will kill the market for these fuels.
2. These fuels have long since priced themselves out of the market. What you see at the pumps is bad enough - and it's going to get far, far worse very, very soon. But even the price at the pumps is only a hint of the real cost.
We are now in more wars than most people realize. They are expensive wars - a trillion for Iraq, f or example. Then there's Libya and Syria and Somalia and Yemen and Pakistan with Iran to come. And, indeed, the whole of Africa. With China, India and Russia not beyond possibility. Oh, and expect them all over South America as well.
These wars have nothing to do with Islam or terrorism or bad men or weapons of mass destruction or bringing democracy. They are about destroying whole societies - as Syria is being destroyed and as Libya was. They are about deliberately spreading death, destruction, starvation, chaos to give the business pirates of the US, Britain, France and, yes, Canada free access to plunder resources.
Those wars are also part of the cost of our reliance on fossil fuels. But we don't see that cost on the fuel pump. We see it in our tax bills. Gas already costs more, much more than we think it does. We pay heavily for it in taxes and in lost services.
Why the big push by Harper and the boys to sell the stuff? Because we have, maybe, twenty years more to sell this stuff - so you can make 50,000 a year and somebody else can make billions.
There'll be a terrible price in human life? Who gives a damn. We've killed hundreds of millions in Africa to steal what we want. Hundreds of millions more dying of chaos, starvation, disease, slavery, and cluster bombs is no big deal.
What we are watching is a collapsing western empire which is controlled by people devoted to greed and self-interest. They rely now entirely on military power to provide the loot they want. In the process, they will destroy us as thoroughly as they have destroyed the people of Africa. They appeal for our support in the name of bigotry, racism, and hysteria. That's what the "war on terror" really is.
However, you are free to go sit in the Irving chapel and ponder on it.
________________________________________________________________________________
editorial page?
Good one by Alec Bruce. Norbert is off on a rant that slanders everybody who doesn't agree with him. I don't it's deliberate. I think it's just ignorance.
op ed?
As always, Malloy's common sense is a pleasure.
I liked Gwynne Dyer because his topic and his take are in accord with what I wrote above. I like people who agree with me.
___________________________________________________________________________________
There is a dynamite letter to the editor "Librarians make the case for more funding".
New Brunswickers are illiterate? It's not suprising. The government of this province cares so little for libraries that it spends less person on them than any province in Canada. In the schools, the spending is only 20% of the minimum national standard. The government doesn't give a damn about education. It doesn't give a damn about literacy (check the public libraries budget). And it doesn't matter whether the Liberals or the Conservatives are in power.
And it doesn't seem to matter a damn to the people of New Brunswick. It doesn't matter a damn because it wouldn't be respectable to complain - and because it's both easy and respectable to blame the teachers.
And, of course, to give two and a half million for literacy to a rich man who publishes newspapers designed to cater to illiteracy is, well, it's respectable.
________________________________________________________________________________
Canadians and Americans were heavy drinkers up to 1840. Then they turned against it. By the 1870s, no respectable person would admit to even thinking of tasting alcohol. The change came as liquor sales rose from about 1900. But that was almost twenty years BEFORE prohibition in most of North America. So what happened in the years leading up to 1900?
Industrialization happened. Cities happened. In 1901, Ontario became the first province in Canada to have a majority of its people living in cities. But why would living in a city encourage a person to drink?
Because in a city, nobody knew who you were. Even people who worked with you usually saw nothing of you after working hours. You were anonymous in a great mass of strangers. You could do whatever you wanted to do . And that was very different from country life.
In a rural area, everybody knew all about you. And gossipped. To be different in any way from everybody else was a terrible thing, indeed. Even to be too smart was wrong because it made others uncomfortable with you. Schoolteachers who wished to court a member of the opposite sex often needed schoolboard approval first. And the whole process of courtship would be watched, and reported on. If a grocery store clerk was rumoured to have an occasional glass of rum, the employer would soon know about it - and the clerk would be jobless.
That infection is still with us. That's why New Brunswick has a riding that has voted Liberal for a century. Indeed, New Brunswick has been ploddingly Liberal and Conservative for as long as it has been a province. There is no other province (except PEI) which has shown such constipated political thinking.
Even as New Brunswick urbanized, the process was far behind most of Canada, and the cities were so small that anonymity remained elusive. This was reinforced by employers who maintained an old tradition of firing people whose political opinions were not bland, uninformed and mainstream. In New Brunswick - even in the cities - it is not respectable to be different.
That's why we have two political parties that are mirror-images of each other. That's why we tolerate such a trivial paper as the TandT. That's why this whole province is so easily manipulated by Irving and friends.
It's not respectable to be different.
________________________________________________________________________________
Front page news - "Royal Oaks sees big changes". Yes, and as the story says, this housing development project has really taken off since since the decision was taken to move Moncton High from downtown to this remote location. What a coincidence!
I mean, you have the provincial government taking it on itself to insist on where the new school would be. That is unusual. And then you have the city of Moncton being quite happy with this intrusion into its powers (and it's city plan, if it has one.)
Is it possible that the developers visited the provincial government and city hall with a bag of money? We'll never know. Because its not respectable to talk about sleaze.
And this will reduce the cost of bussing students? So how come we've never been shown evidence of that? And can anybody seriously believe it will be economic or even possible to bus students to school twenty years from now? Or even less? Much less?
Building a community in 2013 based on the world of 1950 doesn't strke me a a sensational idea.
And Royal Oaks residents can get to downtown Moncton in minutes? Yes. In a 1950s world of cars and cheap gas. But that is rapidly passing. In a very short time, Royal Oaks will be as bleak and as isolated as most of Riverview will be. And it is also likely that the day of the large high school will have passed, another victim to the cost of transportation.
Would it be possible to get a look at all these much-praised city plans to see how they are prepared for a world even ten years from now?
______________________________________________________________________________
The other big item on the front page is "Tories unveil gas development blueprint". The article mentions that the blueprint makes reference to concerns expressed by the province's chief medical officer. But referencing is all it does. In short, they have entirely ignored her advice.
Good thing we can trust Irving and friends to really, really care about our health.
What is really going on is a desperate attempt to sell all the energy fuels we can before the roof falls in. Two things are very close to happening.
1. The whole world is close to realizing that our dependence on fossil fuels cannot continue without triggering a climate disaster. (There's a reason why Harper has muzzled government scientists.) Climate change is happening; we are close to the point at which it will be irreversible; and, among other things, that will kill the market for these fuels.
2. These fuels have long since priced themselves out of the market. What you see at the pumps is bad enough - and it's going to get far, far worse very, very soon. But even the price at the pumps is only a hint of the real cost.
We are now in more wars than most people realize. They are expensive wars - a trillion for Iraq, f or example. Then there's Libya and Syria and Somalia and Yemen and Pakistan with Iran to come. And, indeed, the whole of Africa. With China, India and Russia not beyond possibility. Oh, and expect them all over South America as well.
These wars have nothing to do with Islam or terrorism or bad men or weapons of mass destruction or bringing democracy. They are about destroying whole societies - as Syria is being destroyed and as Libya was. They are about deliberately spreading death, destruction, starvation, chaos to give the business pirates of the US, Britain, France and, yes, Canada free access to plunder resources.
Those wars are also part of the cost of our reliance on fossil fuels. But we don't see that cost on the fuel pump. We see it in our tax bills. Gas already costs more, much more than we think it does. We pay heavily for it in taxes and in lost services.
Why the big push by Harper and the boys to sell the stuff? Because we have, maybe, twenty years more to sell this stuff - so you can make 50,000 a year and somebody else can make billions.
There'll be a terrible price in human life? Who gives a damn. We've killed hundreds of millions in Africa to steal what we want. Hundreds of millions more dying of chaos, starvation, disease, slavery, and cluster bombs is no big deal.
What we are watching is a collapsing western empire which is controlled by people devoted to greed and self-interest. They rely now entirely on military power to provide the loot they want. In the process, they will destroy us as thoroughly as they have destroyed the people of Africa. They appeal for our support in the name of bigotry, racism, and hysteria. That's what the "war on terror" really is.
However, you are free to go sit in the Irving chapel and ponder on it.
________________________________________________________________________________
editorial page?
Good one by Alec Bruce. Norbert is off on a rant that slanders everybody who doesn't agree with him. I don't it's deliberate. I think it's just ignorance.
op ed?
As always, Malloy's common sense is a pleasure.
I liked Gwynne Dyer because his topic and his take are in accord with what I wrote above. I like people who agree with me.
___________________________________________________________________________________
There is a dynamite letter to the editor "Librarians make the case for more funding".
New Brunswickers are illiterate? It's not suprising. The government of this province cares so little for libraries that it spends less person on them than any province in Canada. In the schools, the spending is only 20% of the minimum national standard. The government doesn't give a damn about education. It doesn't give a damn about literacy (check the public libraries budget). And it doesn't matter whether the Liberals or the Conservatives are in power.
And it doesn't seem to matter a damn to the people of New Brunswick. It doesn't matter a damn because it wouldn't be respectable to complain - and because it's both easy and respectable to blame the teachers.
And, of course, to give two and a half million for literacy to a rich man who publishes newspapers designed to cater to illiteracy is, well, it's respectable.
________________________________________________________________________________
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