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Panic Is for the Birds

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:24:44 -0500

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The recent flu flap may be Chicken Little for some, a golden goose for others

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by ALICIA PRIEST

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It will bolster U.S. President George W. Bush’s fading popularity, leave much of East Asia’s tourist economy in tatters, make billions of dollars for drug companies, politicians, media owners, and certain academics, and needlessly condemn countless innocent and healthy animals to death.

It is flu porn—the titillating and tantalizing terror now winging its way through the land. At least in government offices and in the media. No one knows just how genuinely flapped the average Canadian is.

As you read this, I could be eating crow. But I doubt it. The deadly scourge predicted to kill millions around the globe—but especially in the U.S. and Canada because, tribally speaking, that’s what counts—is as real as Henny Penny.

In an era of unprecedented good health and hygiene, the drum roll sounds for the next Horseman of the Apocalypse. Remember Marburg, Ebola, Lasa fever, West Nile, swine flu, and SARS? None of these diseases killed the massive numbers of people experts predicted. This year West Nile, for instance, killed a total of 12 Canadians out of more than 32 million, none of them west of Saskatchewan. The greatest impact of SARS, which killed 44 Canadians, was fear, panic, and a damaged economy.

The exception, of course, is the 1918 flu. Many scientists believe it acquired its extreme lethality in the terrible conditions of First World War trenches.

Now we have bird flu. The influenza virus has existed in wild birds forever. But healthy birds, just like healthy humans, rarely die from it. We’ve known about the H5N1 sub-strain since 1997, when it appeared in Asian chicken farms. The strain is particularly deadly to domesticated birds, especially chickens raised in crowded and feces-laden coops. It is no coincidence that those who have died from H5N1 were Southeast Asian bird handlers exposed to massive doses of chicken virus. At the beginning of November, the death count was 62. That’s 62 out of a population of two billion or more. Even the number 62 is meaningless unless compared to the total number of people infected, not just the sickest of the sick. No one knows how many are infected and experience mild or moderate symptoms. Yet public-health officials state that bird flu has a mortality rate in humans of 50 per cent and could kill millions. Of course it could. Also possible is a meteor strike on Moose Jaw, a terrorist attack on Iceland, and a plague of locusts in the Fraser Valley.

So why all the fuss? Money makes the world go ’round, and just like real pornography, flu porn is turning out to be a golden goose. In this case, four groups stand to benefit, either politically or monetarily. The first is the media. Fear, like sex, sells.

The second is politicians. Not only does pontificating on bird flu divert attention from more serious issues, it makes leaders look like they have the public’s best interests at heart.

The third party to gain big-time is the pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines and anti-viral drugs. Bush wants $7.1 billion to prepare the United States for avian flu. That includes $4 billion for vaccines and $1 billion to stockpile anti-viral drugs. In the space of a few short months, the anti-viral drug Tamiflu has gone from lacklustre to blockbuster. It is now the most sought-after drug in the world.

Here’s where politics and business mix. The prospect of bird flu is good news for U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. According to a recent report in Fortune magazine, Rumsfeld is an investor in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu. While the drug is manufactured and marketed by Swiss company Roche, Gilead receives a 10 per cent royalty from Roche. Rumsfeld, who served as Gilead’s chairman from 1997 until 2001, still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million.

Academics, research---ers, and public-health experts are the last group who benefit from flu porn. That’s be-cause they’re always looking for funding, and what research could be more worthy than investigating some aspect of an imminent pandemic?

My advice for fighting the human flu—no connection to H5N1—is to eat right, exercise regularly, get enough sleep, and reduce stress. During flu season, take extra care by washing your hands often, staying home when sick, and not spending many hours indoors with lots of people. Oh yeah, and take news reports with a grain of salt.

Meanwhile, in another corner of the universe, one billion people lack access to safe water and 2.6 billion lack access to sanitation. Every year, this results in four billion cases of diarrhea, which cause almost two million deaths, mostly among children under five.

Life would be a lot easier to take if leaders tackled real health problems. Just don’t expect that to happen anytime soon—you could end up with egg on your face.

Alicia Priest is a Victoria-based writer and former registered nurse who plans to install chickens in her backyard someday.

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Crowded conditions raise the danger of avian flu—for the chickens.

Hard Lessons, Gently Learned

admin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:38:54 -0600

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A child’s love affair with nature begins

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by Diane Selkirk

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My two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Maia gazed through the glass, awed by a gorilla family at play. She asked me to tell her about them. I launched into an honest, no-holds-barred tale of the status of the gorilla: endangered. My tiny daughter asked a few mystified questions then turned back to the gorillas. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I would have taken care of you.”

I instantly realized I had done it wrong. My child didn’t need to be introduced to a wounded planet before her third birthday. She needs to be shown its joy and beauty. Then, if I have taught her well, she may care enough—and know enough—to make a difference.

I had planned to save the world before having children. I failed to follow through, however. In Canada, 23 species have gone extinct, 77 are on the brink, and more than 100 others are at risk. Somehow, as a parent, I’m supposed to navigate my child through this tragedy. Yet instinctively, after my blunder at the zoo, I wanted to back away from even telling my child the truth. I began to avoid anything that could damage Maia’s trust in our planet, from those beautiful picture books and videos that talk about endangered animals to conversations with friends, where a well-meaning comment could end up frightening her.

Even Maia’s much-loved organic Panda Puffs troubled me. I worried about the presence of this politically correct breakfast cereal on our table each morning. Would today be the day Maia asked about the status of the panda? If she did, I would tell her what a beautiful animal it is but not mention that they are endangered. It felt dishonest, but the memory of her small, slumped shoulders was so fresh.

In bypassing the tragedy and focusing on the beauty, I was unknowingly following the lead of environmentalists such as Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, and David Sobel. “If we want children to flourish, to really feel empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it.” Those words, by Sobel in Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education, were the first to support my protective instincts.

I was immersed in nature as a child. I was small when I learned to distinguish between the footprints of deer, cougars, wolves, raccoons, and bears. I remember holding my breath, in anticipation and fear, when tracks led me to the base of a cliff where a cougar was sleeping on a ledge.

With my mother at my side, I marvelled at our formerly sleepy stream, now boiling with red-backed salmon. I questioned nature, stood in awe of nature, and with my entire soul, I learned to love nature. I don’t remember ever being asked to doubt the vitality of an ecosystem.

But I do remember the moment I became an environmentalist. I saw Paul Watson and Bob Hunter on the evening news, standing shoulder-to-shoulder on a Newfoundland ice floe protecting seal pups. At age 10, it was my first exposure to environmental activism. An early childhood of simply loving nature rendered me ready to act.

My daughter needs to find her own catalyst. I cannot teach her to save the world. I can only give her the opportunity to love it. I can hold her hand while she explores the woods. I can help her lift logs and inspect the bugs and grubs underneath. I can take her places where the grandeur of a mountain peak might cause her to catch her breath. I can show her the nest of baby birds we see from our bedroom window.

As a city dweller, I now look for nature classes and opportunities that emphasize exploration, immersion, and fun and de-emphasize doom and gloom. At Vancouver’s Stanley Park Ecology Society, I laughed as Maia pretended to be a bug in the garden, wiggling through imagined moist dirt and leaves. At the aquarium, I watched her weigh and measure toy baby seals. Speaking gently, she picked up each seal and carefully performed a veterinary check-up before lovingly tucking it back into bed.

Mostly, I lead my daughter through the natural world by falling back in love with it myself. With her at my side, I shake off the fatigue that comes from fighting an eco-battle that may never be won. Seeing things through her eyes gives me hope. I realize that Maia’s education about nature needs nothing from me but my presence.

A year after a gorilla taught me about children, my family was on our boat in the Gulf Islands. I finally let go of the lessons about pollution and conservation and simply gave Maia a bucket and net.

Nose near the water, small hand shimmering beneath the surface, Maia moved quickly. The ability to catch bullheads with your bare hands seems to be a skill only small children have. Maia added the bullhead to a container that already contained a chitin, several crab, a purple starfish, and whelks collected from a tidal pool. With the tide rising, we got in the dinghy and rowed back to our boat. On deck, she showed her grandparents her treasures. I stood back as she explained what she’d found, confusing some facts, and getting a few names wrong.

“I need to put them back in the ocean now,” she told us.

I could hear her whisper to each one as she slid them back into the water. “Thank you beautiful creature. Grow big and strong.”

FOOTNOTES presents personal essays set in and around Vancouver. Submissions welcome. Tighten your tale to 900 words and e-mail to [click to e-mail] with “footnotes” in the subject line.

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Quick: who’s the student and who’s the teacher?

Post Traumatic

admin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:37:22 -0600

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A look inside a doctor's mailbox

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Most of us are familiar with what was once a doctor’s constant companion —that little black bag packed with mysterious tools of the trade. But what about the contents of a typical doctor’s mailbox? That material, I contend, reveals more about modern medical practices than anything found in any MD’s carryall.

Recently, I examined two separate stacks of mail, gathered over two months by Dr. Warren Bell, a Salmon Arm, B.C., family physician. One stack contains a collection of plain, understated, and professionally penned letters, brochures, and notices. The material includes invitations to medical education courses sponsored by drug companies; and offers on how to make money by learning vanity procedures such as skin tightening, cellulite reduction, and hair removal.

Bell, however, is not a typical doctor so there’s a lot that’s not in this pile. Absent are the reams of pseudo-medical journals, drug “information,” and other advertising mailed free and unsolicited to almost every doctor in the country.

Bell estimates he gets about 10 per cent of the mail a conventional doctor does. That’s because 30 years ago, soon after graduating from medical school, he wrote a firm but polite take-my-name-off-your-list-or-else letter to the Canadian Direct Marketing Agency, the company hired by the drug industry and others to mail material to doctors.

“I was astonished and amazed at how much of it there was,” Bell recalls. “I was inherently suspicious of it . . . If you’re not careful, your mail will be full of enormous amounts of public relations bumpf from the drug industry.”

University of Victoria drug policy researcher, author, and former letter carrier Alan Cassels agrees. He recalls delivering mail 12 years ago on a route that included a building housing about 10 doctors’ offices. “Each doctor,” Cassels says, “received a six-inch stack of mail. Every day.”

Of course, no doctor can read all the material that comes through their door, let alone keep up with the frenetic pace of medical science research. Consider: From the mid-1960s to mid-1990s, the number of published randomized clinical trials increased from 100 to 10,000 articles; in fact, nearly half of all medical literature ever published has appeared in the past five years.

But, says Bell, reading is not the point. “The idea is not to read the articles, necessarily. It’s to thumb through them and get the images from the advertisements for various drugs into your subconscious mind.”

Before delving into the second stack of mail, it helps to know a bit more about Bell. While still in training, he began to learn about the intimate relationship between medicine and the drug industry. Unlike the majority of his colleagues, he refused to see pharmaceutical company reps in his office or have any drug company logos on things such as pens, notepads, chart organizers, or calendars in his possession.

Bell has a keen interest in what he calls “non-pharmaceutical approaches” to healing. He is currently president of the Association of Complementary and Integrative Physicians of B.C. That explains the contents of the second stack—a colourful collection of generously illustrated material from sellers of herbal, mineral, vitamin, and other biological remedies. They feature hysterical headlines in colossal type that scream such things as: “Deadly Cancers Vaporized by Harmless Natural Enzymes” and “Fight Diabetes with Three Teaspoons of Red Wine Vinegar.” Also included are several tracts trashing conventional drug therapies.

Bell admits that much of the alternative bumpf is hard to take. Yet he is relatively tolerant of what he calls their “strenuous language.” Why? Are outlandish claims and snake-oil tactics easier to swallow than the calm and ostensibly reasonable material from pharmaceutical companies?

Bell says there is a crucial difference between the two.

“The biological remedies are being sold into the ‘real’ market—like a bazaar in Marrakech,” he says. “So it’s messy, hyperbolic, and loud. Big Pharma, on the other hand, plays a smoothly deceptive game of pseudo-obeisance to doctors, all the while using every trick in the book to persuade us to prescribe: false data, exceptional and unfailingly non-confrontational behaviour, bribes, gifts, you name it. All that I find far more irritating because it is so utterly false.”

Ponder that next time your doctor’s postman cometh.

Alicia Priest is a Victoria-based writer who loves her family doctor despite the contents of his mailbox.

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Back to the Good Old Days

admin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:35:55 -0600

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Milk and beef producers defy “progress”

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by André LaRivière

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I clearly recall, as a young Winnipeg lad in the mid-1960s, going for long Saturday-morning drives with my father to a dairy farm (now a residential subdivision well within city limits) to refill the family glass milk jugs from a self-serve tank. My jobs included switching on the paddle to mix some top cream back in to the milk, depositing an envelope in a wooden box (yes, this transaction was on the honour system) and, on the way out, waving our thanks to the cows grazing peacefully in the pasture.

Misty-eyed nostalgia? Perhaps. But I can also remember how tasty that milk was.

And it’s a reminder of the kind of regular connection and, more significantly, the level of trust families once shared with local farmers and their cows.

Cheeseburgers and leather sofas aside, few urbanites get anywhere near cattle. Given the kind of bad press cows have been getting in recent years, due to incidences of E.coli and BSE, many people prefer to keep their distance. That’s unfortunate, because Bessie isn’t to blame for either of these problems.

Today’s industrial-scale production system, supported by bovine drugs and modern feed formulations, receives the brunt of suspicion and criticism on these issues, and it’s not altogether unjustified. That said, the overall quality and safety of Canadian dairy and beef produced by these now-conventional methods remains second-to-none. However, some local cow-based businesses believe they have a tastier, healthier, and better way.

Every city or region once had at least one local family-owned or farmers’ co-op dairy, but the vast majority have been bought up and merged under the banners of multinational agri-food corporations such as Parmalat, Saputo, and Natrel. Very few truly independent operations remain, and Vancouver is fortunate to be home to one of the finest, Avalon Dairy, which has been filling and delivering classic glass milk bottles from its historic Wales Street operation for 99 years.

In October 1999, the company added “B.C.’s first certified organic milk” to its letterhead, a move inspired, says Avalon Dairy’s CEO Gay Hahn, by a visit two years earlier to the East Van Farmers’ Market at Trout Lake. “I was surprised to discover so many people shopping for organic foods and noticed, of course, there was no organic milk available,” she says. “So the family owners and I decided to go for it.”

Avalon’s first and only farmer/partner is Rob Donaldson of Bradner Organic Farms in Aldergrove, whose starter herd numbered 25 happy cows. Avalon’s organic barns are now home to a total of 1,200 cows, most of them grazing across the dairy’s own 20- hectare farm on Barnston Island. “Our cows love it there,” says Hahn. “They eat outside as much as possible, have big roomy stalls in the barns, and a holistic veterinarian on stand-by.” The dairy also leases another 120 hectares on the island to grow and store certified organic grass and hay, which can often be difficult to find in adequate supply.

Because Avalon still handles conventional milk, the Wales Street processing plant must regularly shut down and ready everything for the organic line. With customer demand increasing steadily, the dairy runs organically three out of five days every week. That’s zero-to-60 per cent of the company’s total sales in only six years.

“Organic is going to take over here,” says Hahn. “We got into this to offer consumers an honest choice in milk. They’ve shown us they want it and are asking for more.” Meeting requests for organic cottage cheese and more ice cream will be easier when Avalon opens a new 3,700-square-metre plant in Burnaby next year.

Some things may change down on Wales Street, notes Hahn, whose office is in the parlour of the original farmhouse, but they’ll always keep the glass bottles, home delivery, and other traditions that give Avalon’s milk its local flavour.

WHEN IT COMES TO DETERMINING the taste of the meatier elements of modern cattle production, there are basically two options: grass or grain. Grain is the staple of the feedlot diet. Prime Canadian AAA cattle typically bulk up on rye or barley, while their American cousins get corn in their trough to produce the sweet, yellow-tinged USDA Prime favoured by steakhouses.

However, as ruminants, cows will naturally choose grass over grain every time, something that all ranchers used to respect. This evolutionary idea is the foundation Marlene Friesen and Doug Goerz chose for their direct-marketing beef business, Nomad Cows. “It’s so simple, it’s almost scary,” says Friesen. “We’re just raising cattle the way they did 50 years ago.”

Although not certified organic (all organic beef is also grass-fed), Nomad Cows’ herd of premium Black Angus cattle range freely on the ranch near Aldergrove. When their wandering days are through, they’re slaughtered, dry-aged 28 days to tenderize naturally and intensify the flavour, then butchered, boxed, and personally delivered to Vancouver customers by Friesen or Goerz once or twice a month. Orders are handled on a first-come-first-served basis and requests for popular cuts, such as tenderloin and rib-eye, are often put on a waiting list. Lean ground beef and other products are always available.

The flavour of grass-fed beef, generally a bit stronger and sharper than that of grain-fed, varies with the range of pasture and the seasons. So far, Goerz has identified more than 25 varieties of grasses on their ranch. “Last summer, we discovered a two-acre patch of wild mint the cattle had happily grazed through, so it went into the flavour mix.” The only dietary supplement the Nomad cows receive is a mineral block, a modern saltlick that they can wander over to whenever they choose to, which gives them the essential minerals they need.

As novice ranchers, the simplicity of their approach suits Friesen and Goerz, although their previous business experience as importers of high-end women’s clothing comes in handy in their marketing. “We’d tell our customers it’s always worth buying a quality coat you’ll wear a lot,” says Friesen. “Our beef is certainly more expensive than supermarket brands, but we also encourage people to eat less and savour it more.”

The couple also relishes the direct feedback and support they get from customers. “It’s the best part,” says Friesen. “One gentleman who’d tried our tenderloin told me it was like eating the best candy. I’ll always remember that.”

Where to Find It

The Avalon Dairy farm is hosting a country fair on September 11, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (5808 Wales Street at E. 41st Avenue; avalondairy.com)

Delta-based Olympic Dairy Products (olympicdairy.com) built its name with organic yogourt, but has expanded its product line to include two-litre jugs of organic milk available at many local grocers. Their milk comes from the pasture-raised cows at Nature Glen Farm in Abbotsford.

Marlene Friesen or Doug Goerz of Nomad Cows will deliver a sample of their free-range, grass-fed, dry-aged beef. (1-877-478- 7832; nomadcows.ca)

The Blue Goose Cattle Company is another fine rancher-direct source of both certified-organic and premium natural B.C. beef, pasture-raised near 70 Mile House, packed in Salmon Arm, and shipped to the company’s North Vancouver retail outlet. (604-980-9106; bluegoosecattle.com.)

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Get Fresh

Crème fraîche, a traditional French concoction, is a great thing to have in the fridge right now, because it tops char-grilled potatoes as well as it does fresh raspberries.

This cultured mélange sits somewhere between whipped cream and sour cream. Commercial brands are usually expensive and rarely match the quality of homemade, which is a snap to make.

The only challenge is to fight the instinct to put it in the fridge right away.

For a generous batch, start by heating two cups of heavy (35 per cent) organic cream in a saucepan until just warm to the touch. Stir in two tablespoons of rich (not one per cent) buttermilk.

Pour into a squeaky-clean glass jar, cover with plastic wrap, and allow the mixture to stand in a warm place, like the top of the fridge. Give it a stir and a taste six to eight hours later.

After about 12 to 24 hours, the mixture will be thick but pourable, with a nutty, lightly sour taste.

Give it another good stir, put it in the fridge, and keep it there for up to two weeks.

Drizzle it over anything from fresh oysters to strawberry shortcake.

Street Eats in Lotus Land

admin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:34:10 -0600

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Hot dogs, ice cream, and, uh, hot dogs

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by Don Genova

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I’ve been trying to figure out why we don’t have a good street-food scene in Vancouver. Our leading lights like to refer to this place as a “world-class city,” but when it comes to the street-food scene, we can’t compare to real world-class cities.

Now let me see. I’ve had deep-fried octopus balls in Tokyo, fiery spiced cashews in Mumbai, tamales in Puerto Vallarta, empanadas in Santiago, Chile, crepes in Paris. Earlier this fall, I spent some time in Portland, Oregon, just a one-hour plane ride away, and saw downtown parking lots lined with little vans and trailers offering french fries, hamburgers, Thai food, crepes, vegan and vegetarian dishes, rice bowls, burritos, tacos, Philly cheese-steaks, and Hawaiian plate lunches! In Vancouver, I’ve had hot dogs, and ice cream, and, uh, hot dogs.

Portland is a city that reminds me very much of Vancouver: ethnic diversity, port city, residents who have a keen interest in food. At the Saturday farmers’ market, there was a mobile wood-burning oven where a lanky young guy was cranking out pizzas and another stall where a grey-haired, beer-bellied entrepreneur was turning a grated metal drum, roasting chili peppers over a propane flame so you could make your own Mexican dishes with less muss and fuss. There were even vendors selling bottles of wine, which would practically be considered anarchy in our fair city.

There is one exception to the dearth of street food in Vancouver and that’s at Wreck Beach, where city bylaws are not so strictly enforced, although I admit I would like the people selling me food there to have at least a scrap of fabric covering their nether regions.

I spent more than a few minutes on the Internet, navigating through the City of Vancouver’s Mobile Vending Bylaw, especially the mobile food-vending subsection. It gave me a headache. Here’s why:

• You have to get a criminal-record check every year you want to operate a mobile food-vending unit.

• You can’t operate your unit anywhere on the downtown peninsula west of Main Street.

• You can’t stop or set up unless you have customers, and once you serve all the customers in that batch, you have to move somewhere new.

• You can’t set up within 50 metres of any business that sells the same thing you do.

• Don’t even consider setting up by a beach, or a park, or a parking lot for a beach or a park.

• Forget about serving the bar crowd at closing time; you have to pack up by 11 p.m.

There are many more rules and regulations. Some of them even make sense, like not parking outside schools and not blaring music above a certain level while you’re trying to sell. Just be sure you turn off the music while you are selling. And make sure you have at least $2 million worth of liability insurance. With rules like these, no wonder we don’t have a thriving street-food scene. This is not a fun vending-food city.

Maybe I’m being a little harsh on the civic mothers and fathers entrusted with ensuring our health and well-being. But I’m not the only person who remembers an entire charitable function staffed by Vancouver’s top chefs almost being shut down because an overzealous health inspector deemed conditions weren’t meeting standards. And as a farmers’-market vendor at Trout Lake, I remember being chastised by that same inspector because I let people pick up cubes of bread to dip in my product with their bare fingers, instead of toothpicks. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to cut the bread at the market; I had to cut it all at home, as for some reason it’s not safe or sanitary to cut bread into pieces at a public market. I’m all for cleanliness, but maybe we wouldn’t get upset tummies so often these days if our guts were exposed to just a few bad bugs every now and then. Build up those immune systems!

So the rules may be responsible for the lack of a street-food scene in Vancouver, but I’m not totally against regulation. I talked to some of the vendors in Portland, who said they were fully licensed by the city, had to pass health inspections, have insurance, and so on. Maybe we need to be a little more encouraging. Maybe we need a little more imagination. It is happening right in our own backyard. Kudos to the City of Richmond for sanctioning an excellent outdoor food court at the spring and summer night markets there. (My favourites? Chicken “knees” and periwinkles in spicy black-bean sauce.) They took a chance, vendors are selling, and bellies are happy. Happy bellies mean happy people and a happy city—a “world-class” city.

Don Genova creates shows about food on CBC Radio One. His website is pacificpalate.com .

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Some cities have crepes and burritos. We get hot dogs!

Tidelines

admin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:32:22 -0600

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Answers, Questions, Weirdness, News

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Janice Abbott: Stop Making Sense

Women in leadership roles have been described variously as being emotional and/or unreasonable. Instead of fighting that label, Janice Abbott has embraced it.

Abbott is the Executive Director and CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society and Atira Property Management Inc, a non-profit group that provides shelter and care for women and children affected by violence. During her tenure with Atira, Abbott has learned how to make due with dwindling government funding and is not only willing to think outside out of the box, but smash the box into tiny pieces, if need be.

Abbott will be speaking on the importance of being unreasonable as part of a conversation about women’s role as leaders at Bioneers, a three-day conference focusing on visionary and practical solutions for environmental and social change. She also answered a few unreasonable questions from us:

What is the importance of being unreasonable?

For me it’s the way one needs to be in order to get things done, particularly when you’re involved in change. The Atira Resource Society is an organization that provides programs and services for women and their children who have been impacted by violence, but we also advocate for change. I think in order to do that, particularly when you’re working with people who are marginalized, it’s not only important to be unreasonable, it’s imperative.

What’s your definition of being unreasonable?

I think that unreasonable means not taking ‘no’ for an answer. It means not accepting the way things are. It’s about making sure our voices are heard because historically women’s voices have been marginalized.

Can you think of an example where being unreasonable has worked to your benefit.

A recent example is we opened a new service, which is a transition house for elder women. We were told there would be no funding, we were told that we would get no support and we went ahead and did it anyway. We raised the money to purchase a house. We opened it without funding. We ran it on donations and volunteers and over the space of two years we ended up with the funding that we requested. Many folks thought that what we were doing was not reasonable, that we were crazy. But we saw the need and decided we were going to go ahead and do it anyway. If we waited until someone gave us the go-ahead, it may never have happened.

How have provincial funding affected women over the last few years?

Women find it harder to feed themselves and their children. They’re caught between a hard and a hard place. They have less access to childcare, less access to job training yet they’re expected to get jobs. And we end up having to support those women. They’re often angry, they’re often desperate and we see the impact of all of that.

You proudly declare yourself a feminist, yet many women have disavowed that label. How do feminists change some of the negativity that’s attached to the word ‘feminist’?

I don’t care. Maybe this is a place where someone might describe me as unreasonable, but I don’t care because there will always be critics and primarily they consist of folks who see themselves as having something to lose. The rest of the time, we do good work. We’re a group of amazing women doing really good work. That’s our response to those criticisms.

Abbott will be speaking at BC Bioneers Conference, Oct. 14-16. BCIT Downtown Campus (555 Seymour). Cost: $25-$125. Info: cypressworks.ca/bcbioneers

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Shared News

Loopholes Big Enough to Drive a Car Through

New fuel efficiency regulations in the U.S. could have an impact on an agreement between the Canadian government and the auto industry.

The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards have been re-written in an attempt to improve fuel efficiency regulations. But Sierra Club Canada’s senior policy advisor, John Bennett, says these new standards will classify cars by weight rather than size, which will create loopholes for the auto manufacturers. “Adding a bigger bumper on each end of an SUV will move it from one category to another without making any substantial difference. They’ll have met the rules but not improved fuel efficiency in any way.”

The bigger threat, however, may be that the new regulations will prevent individual states from imposing stricter fuel efficiency standards than the federal government’s. For example, this would affect a California law that is intended to limit greenhouse emissions by as much as 25 per cent, beginning in 2009. As many as nine other U.S. states are planning to join California in imposing stricter standards.

And if those U.S. states are not allowed to tighten their regulations, it could have an impact on a voluntary deal the Canadian government made with automakers to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions by 25 per cent over the next five years. At the time the deal was struck in April, it was believed that California and the other U.S. states, as well as Canada, could band together to form an integrated North American market that could force the auto industry to comply with its stricter standards. However, if U.S. states are no longer allowed to impose such standards, Canada could be left to battle the car manufacturers on its own.

Bennett believes the notion of an integrated North American car market could backfire on Canada. “This change in the States is a signal to the Big Three automakers to play the game by U.S. rules and come back to Canada and say, ‘You’re not big enough.’”

Bennett believes the Canadian government should go back to the drawing board with the automakers and insist on making new regulations that are not tied to U.S. standards.

“The argument that the car companies gave was that we are an integrated North American market and the Canadian market wasn’t sufficiently large to actually dictate vehicle standards, which is absolute nonsense. It is not a small market. Companies like Toyota make cars specifically for the Canadian market all the time,” says Bennett. (Jon Azpiri)

Garbage … Keeping it in the Neighbourhood

Say that Capers has loads of oranges that are getting over ripe and it’s time to move them out. They and other grocery stores will often give that produce to non-profit organizations such as Quest, a group that receives food from businesses and donates it to charity. The problem is that a lot of the food Quest receives can’t be passed on.

“Quest has to cull it to see what is usable,” says Muggs Sigurgeirson, on behalf of the Strathcona Gardeners Association. “If they get a tonne of oranges, they can maybe use half of them; the other half they have to pay [to take away] as garbage.”

That’s where Sigurgeirson’s group comes in. For years, Strathcona Community Gardens in Vancouver has been receiving rotting or inedible produce—up to a point. They found they were getting more compostable material than they could process and the stuff they couldn’t accept ended up in a landfill.

But thanks to a grant from EcoAction, an Environment Canada funding program, the Strathcona Gardeners were able to build one of Canada’s few mid-sized composting facilities. The compost they now efficiently crank out is used to enrich the soil on their six-acre property, which features hundreds of fruit trees and an herb garden, as well as individual and shared garden plots. This community-based composting facility processes six to seven tonnes of unwanted food from a nearby food bank.

The story gets even better. The system also reduces gas emissions. Here’s a quick science lesson: if left in a landfill, organic waste can produce methane, a particularly noxious type of greenhouse gas. If composted, however, organic waste releases carbon dioxide, which is 20 times less toxic than methane.

Over the course of the two-year trial project, the gardeners believe the composting system will have the same environmental impact as taking more than 100 cars off the road.

While most composts are in backyards or are large-scale systems such as the one at UBC, Strathcona’s facility is one of the few designed to help smaller community groups. Sigurgeirson hopes their composting system will serve as an example to other small communities.

“It would be good if we had more of these,” she says. “It’s not that complicated. There are solutions. They’re not always mega-solutions but they can be done on a small scale.” (JA)

Staying in Kiddie Land

Vancouver COPE School Board chairperson Adrienne Montani has opted not to seek re-election this November. But she still has a firm grip on issues involving kids. Montani wants to spend more time with her family, while continuing her work with First Call (B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition), a group dedicated to raising awareness of child and youth issues.

During her six years with the board, Montani says she is most proud of improving labour relations, strengthening ties with community groups, and preventing cuts to inner-city schools. (JA)

Made to Order

Elizabeth May, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour. Others invited into the Order include former B.C. premier Dave Barrett, Nanaimo-born jazz singer Diana Krall, and broadcaster Peter Jennings. (JA)

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Business News

Whistler’s Glaciers: A Slippery Slope

Last year’s ski season at Whistler Blackcomb featured historically bad skiing conditions. Operators there are hoping the upcoming season will be better—lots better. Arguably, last year’s disappointing weather may or may not have been connected to global warming. Nevertheless, Whistler officials, including Arthur DeJong, are not refuting that global warming could have a long-term impact.

“We’re certainly not indifferent or uncertain about climate change. It’s here, there’s no question,” says DeJong, Whistler Blackcomb’s Planning and Environmental Resource Manager. “We’ve witnessed that since the early ’90s, as far as accepting it as a reality. The reason I say that is that glaciers are the ecosystem most sensitive to temperature change, and we have issues in the Whistler area. The glaciers have been retreating for over a century. We’ve been addressing it for some time.”

DeJong and his team at Whistler are dedicated to trying to leave as small an environmental footprint as possible on the resort’s giant glaciers. The company has attempted to augment its glaciers by adding artificial snow and building snow fences to guard it against wind erosion.

DeJong is also keeping a close eye on many resorts in Europe, where glacial melting has become a serious concern. For instance, the Andermatt resort in Switzerland has gone so far as to cover 2,500 square metres of the glacier ramp with a special tin foil that makes the glacier look like a giant baked potato.

While Whistler Blackcomb is far from taking such extreme measures, it has worked to reduce its fossil fuel consumption by using fuel-efficient snowmakers and vehicles. The park is also studying wind-generated power and is working on a run-of-river hydroelectric generating facility on Fitzsimmons Creek, between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. The project would divert a portion of water from the creek, put it through a turbine station, and then return it into the creek. The facility could generate enough electricity annually to energize 3,000 homes.

“We are very focused on energy because I really believe that, when we look at the global condition, the tumour is energy,” says DeJong. “We can keep doing a head-to-toe assessment of the global patient, if you will, but if we don’t arrest that tumour, everything else will eventually die anyway.”

DeJong sees last year’s poor conditions, which were caused by a jet stream of Gulf air that blew away much of the snow pack, as something of a mixed blessing, since it allowed his team to learn how to deal with future erratic weather that could arise due to climate change. DeJong is happy with the progress the resort has made but feels his job is far from over.

“We’re in focus with sustainability. We get it. But, at best, we are on first base and home plate is sustainability. It’s going to be a lifelong pursuit.” (Jon Azpiri)

Get a Load of This Garden Ornament

While most composters can be a rather bland part of any green space, the Quebec-based company BluePlanetSmart has created a blue globe-shaped composter that will add style to your garden while providing it with nutrients.

The composter was designed to not only look good but also to be more efficient than the traditional models. The spherical design gives it a small surface-to-volume ratio, which prevents the loss of heat that speeds decomposition. It also features an internal wheel system that aerates the compost material.

The composter costs about $250 and is available at blueplanetsmart.com. (JA)

The Body Shop’s All-Call

The Body Shop Canada successfully launched a campaign asking customers in its 112 stores across the country to donate old cell phones during the month of August. More than 6,000 phones were donated and then passed on to ReCellular—Canada’s largest recycler and reseller of used wireless phones—where they will be refurbished and resold. The campaign raised more than $18,000 for the Canadian Women’s Foundation, which will use the money for violence prevention and recovery programs. (JA)

He’s in Heaven and So Are We

A patch of green space on Granville Island has been named after Ron Basford, the late Vancouver-area MP who helped turn the waterfront development into a model of urban planning. During his nearly two decades as a member of parliament, Basford, who died in January, worked to convince the federal government to redevelop the land. Last year, Granville Island was named as North America’s best neighbourhood by the U.S.-based organization Project for Public Spaces. (JA)

We’re Not Just Recyclers!

Not that recycling isn’t a big deal, but let’s get down to earth… or something like that. The Delta Recycling Society is digging in with expanded goals and is wearing a new, more suitable name to better reflect its vision.

Welcome to the DRS Earthwise Society. As well as continuing its long-standing educational programs on recycling, the non-profit group is introducing new initiatives, such as its recent partnership with the Delta Chamber of Commerce to create a native plant garden in front of the Chamber office. (JA)

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Web Sightings

Diary of a Disaster
vancouver.ca/usar
An online diary of the Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue Team’s trip to Louisiana to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans Is Sinking
cyberjournalist.net/news/002862.php
A comprehensive collection of blogs and first-hand accounts of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

What Rhymes With Crap?
fema.gov/kids/femarap.htm
Many critics have wondered why FEMA took so long to respond to Hurricane Katrina. Perhaps it was because they were writing and performing this “FEMA Kidz Rap,” an ill-conceived rap song written for kids with lyrics including “For floods, tornadoes, or even a ‘quake/You’ve got to be ready—so your heart don’t break.”

Ecology For Kids
www.nceas.ucsb.edu/nceas-web/kids/mmp/home.htm
A site where children can learn about ecology, including an impressive learning lab.

Would you Like Fries With That?
keaggy.com/sandwich
One man’s catalogue of every sandwich he eats.

It’s All in Your Head
latrinalia.org
A collection of graffiti found in bathrooms stalls around the U.S.

StoryCorps
storycorps.net
Since 2003, thousands have taken part in this massive oral history project. The site gives advice on how to interview and record your family or friends, as well as offering a place to preserve their stories.

Why Did Mr. Bill Know More Than Mr. Bush?
www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2678951
A video of a 2004 public service announcement featuring Mr. Bill—the clay character featured on Saturday Night Live in the ’70s—about how hurricanes could destroy New Orleans’ levee system. After Hurricane Katrina, U.S. President George W. Bush stated, “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.” Clearly, a clay doll knew more than the President, the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) director, and the Director of Homeland Security. Reassuring, isn’t it?

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Don’t Just Get Mad… Get Active

Nahanni National Park Reserve, in the Northwest Territories, is Canada’s most renowned northern boreal wilderness area and protects a spectacular corridor along the South Nahanni River. Currently, parts of the South Nahanni River that are not part of the park boundaries are at risk of being mined for lead, zinc, and silver, which scientists say would cause irreparable damage to this globally significant wilderness. The federal government has made a commitment to expanding Nahanni National Park Reserve and boundaries are now being studied. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is asking for your support for the expansion of Nahanni Park and the entire South Nahanni River by writing to UNESCO and Prime Minister Paul Martin. For more information and on-line tools to help you contact government officials, go to cpaws.org/boreal/index.html.

In addition to the Red Cross and Salvation Army, there are also smaller charities that are dedicated to providing help for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Modest Needs is designed to ease the financial burden placed on people who have opened their homes to friends, family members, and others displaced by Katrina. The organization vows that 100 per cent of all donations will go to provide support for evacuees and the families that have taken them into their homes. For more information, visit modestneeds.org.

Also, the Canadian office of ACORN, an organization that advocates on behalf of the poor and working families, is asking for support for its New Orleans office, which is working to find and relocate their 9,000 New Orleans member families and provide mortgage counselling, as well as trying to give the city’s poor a voice in the rebuilding of New Orleans. To donate, visit canada.acorn.org.

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The Madness of Media

Local writer Dominic Ali recently released Media Madness, a new book targeting media literacy in kids aged 10 to 14. The 64-page book, which Ali describes as “Marshall McLuhan meets MAD magazine,” encourages children to ask basic questions about the media they consume, such as who created the message, why was it created, and who is its target audience.

“We want to show them how media is produced and what are some of the effects of it,” says Ali. “We have a tendency to strictly focus on whether shows are good or bad without thinking about some of the values that are being shown.”

Ali, who also works in the communications department of the David Suzuki Foundation, believes that media literacy is becoming increasingly important now that children are exposed to more media than ever. He points to a recent U.S. study by the Kaiser Family Foundation that concluded that American kids spend more than six hours a day consuming media and only an hour-and-a-half doing physical activity.

The book does teach children to question what they view, but Ali is also quick to point out that Media Madness is not an anti-media screed. “Ideally, this is the sort of book that will inspire kids to make their own media,” he says.

Media Madness is published by Kids Can Press and is available at various local bookstores and at amazon.ca. (Jon Azpiri)

Gambling Meets Recycling

Calgary City Councillor Ric McIver has proposed that the city consider implementing a “recycling lottery,” which consists of a prize draw using recycled products as tickets.

The idea is already in use in Norway, where people simply write their names and telephone numbers on a squashed drink carton and put it into the recycling bin to be entered into a draw for a chance to win more than $35,000 Cdn.

Norwegian government officials have been pleased with the results, claiming that the percentage of the population recycling cartons has more than doubled, from 30 per cent to 70 per cent, as a result of the contest.

The U.K.-based National Consumer Council is also hoping to start a recycling lottery in England. The NCC wants to create a lottery for batteries, stating that fewer than five per cent of them are recycled. An NCC-sponsored survey of more than 2,000 adults found that three-quarters of those questioned about a recycling lottery thought it was a good idea. (JA)

Biodiesel Is Smart

The City of Vancouver’s Community Climate Change Action Plan has organized two initiatives to help reduce car emissions throughout the city.

The city has worked with five other B.C. municipalities to purchase up to 80 million litres of a cleaner-burning alternative fuel to use in fleet vehicles. Over the next five years, Vancouver, Whistler, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, and Delta will use biodiesel, a natural fuel composed of renewable resources such as used vegetable oils, animal fats, and domestically produced oilseed crops such as soy, canola, and hemp.

Vancouver City Councillor David Cadman says that switching to the alternative fuel will help create a local market for biodiesel. “We hope to get enough critical mass to produce biodiesel locally and get the price down to be virtually the same as regular diesel,” says Cadman. “Once you do that, all sorts of people will adapt their fleets, as well.”

Also, city council unanimously adopted a motion that will offer an increased parking discount for fuel-efficient hybrids or diesel “smart” cars at the city’s EasyPark garages. EasyPark had previously offered hybrid owners a 25 per cent discount at many of its lots, but Mayor Larry Campbell, who proposed the idea, hopes to increase the discount to as much as 50 per cent. City officials say the price reduction could be in place as early as next month.

The Climate Change Action Plan proposes to reduce emissions citywide to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. (JA)

Meanwhile …

The Canadian government recently signed an agreement with car manufacturers to reduce emissions from automobiles by more than 15 million tons by 2010.

The reduction will be consistent with the first phase of the California Clean Car Law. Seven other U.S. states either have, or are in the process of adopting, clean car laws. With the addition of Canada, one-third of the North American auto market will have to meet California’s tougher emissions rules.

Environmental groups hope that these stricter laws will create a domino effect across the rest of the U.S. “The automakers will find it financially impossible to make one clean set of cars for eight states and Canada and a dirty set for the rest,” says Dan Becker, Washington director of the Sierra Club’s Global Warming Program.

However, other environmentalists say the new regulations are inadequate. According to the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute, the deal is weakened by being voluntary, not mandatory. The agreement also exempts automakers from any responsibility for the trend towards larger, more inefficient vehicles and states that federal fiscal measures to encourage consumer purchase of efficient vehicles are not required. (JA)

Ads Get Rid of Complacency

For the second year in a row, AIDS Vancouver will be organizing a national HIV-prevention ad campaign targeted at gay men. The campaign, which starts June 9, will feature billboards, posters, and newspaper ads encouraging condom use among gay men. Health Canada provided $450,000 for the two-year campaign that will appear in 16 urban centres.

Last year’s campaign, entitled How Do You Know What You Know, was the first HIV public-awareness campaign directly targeting gay men. According to Phillip Banks of AIDS Vancouver, the ads were meant to jolt the gay community out of complacency. “We were looking at assumptions that some men made around the HIV-status of their partners and how those assumptions maybe led some people to taking risks that were going to transmit HIV to their partner or to themselves,” says Banks.

Several of the public service announcements featured black-and-white images of men in sexually intimate poses with the phrase “He’d tell me if he’s positive” and the tagline “How do you know what you know?” The graphic nature of the ads stirred up controversy: The Ottawa Citizen refused to run them, claiming that they were “explicit to the point of offending” and Pattison Outdoor refused to display the ads on its billboards.

This year, campaign organizers are focusing on the misperception among some people in the gay men’s community that condom use is not widespread. In fact, says Banks, 75 per cent of gay men regularly use condoms and he hopes this campaign will reach the remaining 25 per cent. “This campaign acknowledges that gay men are doing what they’re often told by the media that they aren’t doing,” says Banks. “We want to influence the men who aren’t using condoms because they believe it’s not a community norm.” (JA)

They’ve Got to Be Kidding

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has expressed outrage at the appointment of Matthew J. Hogan as acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hogan was formerly the chief lobbyist for Safari Club International (SCI), a trophy-hunting organization that advocates the killing of rare species around the world.

SCI organizes competitions and offers awards for members to shoot animals such as rare leopards, lions, and rhinos. The SCI website even offers recipes for dishes such as Cougar Steaks and Dove Marsala. SCI members have tried to circumvent federal laws to import their rare trophies from other countries. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now under Hogan’s watch, is the agency charged with granting or denying such trophy-import permits.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service should police trophy hunters and others who seek to harm wildlife,” says Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of HSUS. “They should not act as a procurement agency for people who simply wish to shoot rare animals as a means of improving their standing in the competitive world of trophy hunting.” (JA)

Save Water, Save Money

The city of Vancouver is offering Indoor Water Saver kits that could help residents use 15 to 20 per cent less water indoors and 10 to 15 per cent less energy for heating water. Each kit contains an adjustable massage-spray shower head, a dual setting touch-flow kitchen aerator, two faucet sink aerators, and other water conservation tools. The kit, which usually retails for $30, is available to Vancouver residents for $12 at Vancouver city hall in the client service centre on the main floor. For more info, visit vancouver.ca/water. (JA)

City Supports Native Youth Centre

The city of Vancouver has committed $2 million to the Native Youth Centre in East Vancouver, the first centre of its kind in Canada. The Urban Native Youth Association, which is spearheading the project, is working on raising $30 million. The result of their efforts will be a new three-level, 65,440 square-foot building at 1680 East Hastings. The centre will offer a range of services such as health care, childcare, and crisis intervention along with educational, recreational, and cultural programs. The province is contributing $1 million; various businesses have chipped in more than $1.4 million so far. (JA)

It’s Pretty, But Is It Ethical?

Some jewellers are working to get the rest of the gemstone industry to join the diamond industry in moving toward sustainable practices. Several years ago, the United Nations officially recognized the role of “conflict diamonds” in fuelling and prolonging violent conflicts in some countries, and urged the diamond industry to develop a global tracking system. In 2002, the diamond industry launched the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which requires countries exporting diamonds to ship them in tamper-proof containers along with certificates guaranteeing that the packages are free of conflict diamonds. Countries receiving shipments have to certify that they have not been tampered with.

Now, several North American jewellery companies are trying to get importers of other gems to take similar action. Some of their suggested protocols include environmental protection, fair labour practices at the cutting and jewellery factories, and a tight chain of custody. They’re recommending that consumers who want to make ethical jewellery purchases should buy secondhand, remake a piece they already own, and ask retailers about whether they are addressing concerns about gemstone production. (Co-Op America)

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Business News

Clean and Green

Easywash Inc. recently broke ground on the world’s most eco-friendly car wash, scheduled to open in North Vancouver in five or six months. The car wash, on Mountain Highway, will use non-potable water extracted from an on-site 33-metre well. Eighty-five per cent of the well water used to wash the cars will be recycled to flush toilets and water greenery on the property. The car wash will not use any drinking water, saving approximately 24 million litres of treated drinking water each year. “That water is such a commodity,” says Easywash president Geoff Baker. “We don’t feel it is appropriate to use clean drinking water to wash vehicles.”

Meanwhile, the Greater Vancouver Regional District will likely impose restrictions on the use of drinking water this summer and is considering imposing a 25 per cent surcharge for summer water. Easywash would not be affected by such water restrictions or by-laws, since it won’t be using the GVRD’s water supplies.

Other Canadian cities, such as Calgary and Toronto, are so concerned about the effect of car washing on the water supply that they do not allow people to wash their cars in their driveways. “It’s not just the water consumption they’re looking at,” says Baker. “It’s the effluent that’s produced. When you wash your car with dish soap, detergent and chemicals are washed into the storm drains, which go straight into the rivers and streams.”

The North Vancouver car wash will also be built with sustainability in mind. Hydrogen fuel cells will power the entire facility, which will also feature energy-efficient appliances and natural lighting. Seventy-five per cent of the construction waste will be recycled.

Baker and partner Laura-Lee Normandeau have put together a team of private investors who will finance the $3.6 million project. The group is also looking at the possibility of opening several locations around the Lower Mainland.

“I can guarantee that, when the water restrictions are put in place, my phone will be ringing off the hook,” says Baker. (JA)

Tides + Technology = Power

Vancouver’s Clean Current Power Systems is starting a new tidal-power project that is the first of its kind in Canada. The five-year venture will provide electricity to Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific ’s educational and research centre at the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve, located between Victoria and Port Angeles, Wash.

Clean Current Power Systems will be testing its system, which uses a bi-directional ductal horizontal turbine with a direct drive variable speed magnetic generator, to convert kinetic energy from tides into electricity. Translation: “It’s like an underwater windmill,” says Glen Darou, Clean Current president and CEO. “It uses the same physics as a windmill, except that water is more than 800 times denser than wind, so there’s a lot more power in water.”

There are at least 15 other companies worldwide working to create a tidal-power technology that will eventually become the industry standard. Darou says Clean Current’s technology has better than 50 per cent “water-to-wire” efficiency, a significant improvement over competing free-stream tidal energy technologies. Clean Current hopes to refine its technology and have it available for commercial use by 2008.

Clean Current has received funding from Canada’s largest independent oil and gas producer, Calgary-based EnCana Corp., which is paying more than half of the project’s $3 million cost.

According to Darou, the predictability of tidal power makes it attractive to potential investors. “The tides are reliable,” says Darou. “They’re not affected by global warming. They’re a sun-moon gravitational system. They’re predictable on an 18- or 19-year cycle. We have people who we’re paying right now to develop a model that will tell us exactly how much energy we will be pulling out at every minute over the next 25 to 30 years.”

The Clean Current project is also benefiting Pearson College and the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. The college will replace the two diesel generators it currently uses with the tidal-turbine generator, a move that will save them $18,000 a year in power costs. The school’s 200 students from 88 countries will also study the turbine technology, with the possibility that some will promote the technology when they return to their home countries. (JA)

Goodbye Greenhouse Gas

Morrison Machine Works (MMW), a Fort St. John–based manufacturer, has developed a new environmentally friendly fuel-injection system that could help oil and gas companies conform with the recently adopted Kyoto Accord. The MCI-300 “emotive force device” is a chemical injection system that recovers the energy lost at restrictions in gas pipelines and converts it into a linear force that helps maintain gas flow. By returning all gases to the pipeline, instead of venting into the atmosphere, the system eliminates the emission of greenhouse gases. Several large international oil and gas companies have tested the prototypes, and MMW president Jim Morrison is in negotiations with an international pump manufacturer about a joint venture for manufacturing and sales. (JA)

New Grants Coming Right Up

The federal government plans to offer new grants for people converting their cars to run on natural gas.

Natural Resources Canada recently ended a pilot program that offered incentives towards EPA-certified natural-gas conversions, and will start a new program to subsidize conversions of newer, larger vehicles. According to Markus Wenzel of the Langley-based company ECO Fuel Systems, the plan is to promote a new sequential injection natural gas system similar to the technology used for gas vehicles. Eventually the new technology, with high-pressure fuel storage, dispensing, and transmission systems, will pave the way for the introduction of hydrogen-based fuels.

“We need to maintain the advantage of cleaner fuel technology to use cleaner fuels properly,” says Wenzel. “This new technology does that and Natural Resources Canada has realized it and put a grant out. Because the systems are more expensive than the old ones, they feel that the only way they can get the new technology into the marketplace is to put incentives in the good technology so the old technology will fall by the wayside.”

The majority of ECO Fuel’s customers are companies with large-fleet vehicles, although they do also work with people who want to reduce their own car’s emissions. Converting a car to the new technology costs $5,000 to $6,000, but the government subsidies for eligible vehicles should cut the cost to the customer by at least 50 per cent. See ecofuel.com. (JA)

Meeting of Minds

The third annual international conference of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) is taking place in Vancouver next month (June 2 to 5). Speakers include David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World ; Jim Hightower, former agriculture commissioner in Texas, now an author and commentator; Cliff Fregin, co-owner of Haida Bucks Café in Masset and chief operating officer of the National Aboriginal Capital Corporation Association; and David Suzuki, scientist and author. Topics to be discussed include alternative transportation, local food systems, the media, and business models for sustainability. (See ballebc.com.) (JA)

Big Boost for Stanley Theatre

Vancouver-based Industrial Al-liance Pacific Life Insurance recently donated $1.5 million to the Stanley Theatre, the largest corporate donation to a Vancouver arts organization in recent history. The money will be used to help repay the theatre’s mortgage.

This donation marks the start of a 20-year partnership among Industrial Alliance Pacific, the Arts Club Theatre Company, and the Stanley Theatre Society. The Stanley Theatre will be re-named the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

Industrial Alliance Pacific has been a long-time supporter of the arts. The company has sponsored a Stanley Theatre production every year since 2000 and is the title sponsor of the Festival Vancouver’s Industrial Alliance Pacific First Nations Longhouse Series. The company has also supported events by the Vancouver Art Gallery and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

The new sign for the theatre will be unveiled this month. (JA)

More Recognition for VanCity

VanCity Credit Union won the Ceres- ACCA North American Sustainability Reporting Award for its environmental, social, and sustainability reporting. VanCity is the first financial institution in North America to win the award, which is designed to encourage excellence in sustainability reporting and corporate transparency. The company was praised for its “triple bottom-line thinking,” which takes into account environmental, social, and financial performance. (JA)

In other news…

A Natural Perspective is the first online retailer to offer a line of Canadian-made, natural skin-care products. The Quebec-based company sells products with an emphasis on promoting each province. The product line includes glacial marine clay found only on B.C.’s northern coastline, newly discovered pristine salts from the prairies, and handcrafted goat’s milk soaps made in Quebec. See anaturalperspective.com.… The Radha Yoga & Eatery, a Downtown Eastside yoga centre, recently won a library of 50 world music CDs from CBC’s Roots & Wings radio broadcast. The centre will provide a space for the public to listen to the music collection. (JA)

Remember, They Touch Food

Waiting tables is not only a reliable money-maker, it also offers endless insights into humanity.

Restaurant staffers are now sharing these insights online at sites like bitterwaitress.com, waiterrant.blogspot.com and stainedapron.com. For insiders, the sites are a long-awaited opportunity to vent on-the-job frustrations. (And who wouldn’t rather they vent online than in the kitchen.)

But for foodies who’ve never had the tables turned, some of the sites’ contents might come as a shock.

You’ll find rants about customer conduct archived under headings like “War Stories,” “Keep Your Brats at Home!”, and bitterwaitress ’s wildly popular “Shitty Tipper Database”, where servers crunch numbers and name names.

The sites also feature crash courses in restaurant etiquette. The Stained Apron offers “Customer 101” and “How to Make Service More Efficient” classes that will remind you to be exceptionally kind to the people who touch your food.

You’re also welcome to post your counter-rants. (One non-tipper spoke out on The Stained Apron, advising servers to “stop whining and ask your manager for a raise.” (Andi McDaniel)

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Web Sightings

Fried Dough: Gotta Love It
home.comcast.net/~osoono/ethnic-doughs.htm

A strangely interesting catalogue of doughnuts, churros, gulab jamuns, fritters, and other doughy desserts. Features information on 35 different fried treats from dozens of countries.

The Way We Were
archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-1587/life_society/60s/

A collection of vintage CBC footage including interviews with Leonard Cohen and Marshall McLuhan as well as features on Expo ’67 and John and Yoko’s famous Montreal Bed-In.

They Rule
theyrule.net

A dynamic representation of the relationships between some of America’s most powerful corporate executives, who often sit on the boards of several different companies. Interlocking maps vividly illustrate which companies they are involved with and how the companies might gain from such a relationship.

Yes, It’s Pointless
blinkorama.blogspot.com

An entertaining time-waster: a series of photos of celebrities caught in mid-blink.

From Here to Moscow
vancouvertomoscow.com

An ongoing diary of two Vancouver men, Colin Angus and Tim Harvey, as they trek from Vancouver to Moscow by bicycle, foot, canoe, and rowboat to raise the profile of zero-emission transportation.

They’re Good for Something
bigboxreuse.com

Art student documents how communities are re-using big box stores after large franchises have abandoned them. Several photos of former Wal-Marts that have been converted into elementary schools, courthouses, and a Spam museum (luncheon “meat”, not junk e-mail).

43 Folders
wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Unsorted_life_hacks

A series of tips and tricks, loosely inspired by David Allen’s bestseller Getting Things Done, to help you get organized. Such as the forehead ticket trick: the car doesn’t move until everyone takes out their ticket and holds it to their forehead.

Bush? Fascist?
bushflash.com/14.html

A short film that’s worth checking out.

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Eavesdropping

“I’ve been a securities regulator for 20 years, and I’ve seen more money stolen in the name of God than in any other way.”

Deborah Bortner, director of securities for Washington state and past president of the North American Securities Administrators, in the B.C. Securities Commission brochure “Culture, Religion & Scams”. The investor alert gives details on how to avoid “affinity fraud”, in which a con artist joins a religious, ethnic, or other close-knit group of people, intentionally gains their trust, and then rips them off.

“Not only was I one of the top emitters in the world, because I was American, I was one of the worst Americans because I spent so much time flying to and from scientific conferences to talk about climate change. Teaching about climate change by day and emitting at night. I lived a Jekyll and Hyde kind of life.”

Jonathan Foley, climatology professor, University of Wisconsin. Plenty magazine

“Don’t eat anything bigger than your head.” Miss Piggy

“There’s a lot of hostility toward science in America right now,” Columbia University professor Peter Bearman, in a Globe and Mail article about U.S. scientists who say the American government is messing with their research for political reasons, including satisfying the religious right.

“I believe in dying of a broken heart. I think that it does happen.” Dr. Howard Dombrower of the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto. Globe and Mail

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Mother’s Day: Some Facts

Number of children in the world: 2.2 billion

Number of children living in poverty: one billion

Life expectancy of a child born in Japan in 2003: 82 years

Life expectancy of a child born in Zambia in 2003: 33 years

Number of children who have no access to safe water: 400 million; one in five

Number of children who have no access to health services: 270 million; one in seven

Daily toll of children who die before their fifth birthday: 29,158

Number of children who die each day because they lack access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation: 3,900

Estimated number of children under 14 years old in sub-Saharan Africa who are HIV-positive: 1.9 million

Number of children worldwide who died in 2003 before they were five: 10.6 million; most deaths could have been prevented

Number of primary-school-age children who are out of school: 121 million; most are girls

Estimated number of children killed in conflicts since 1990: 1.6 million

Estimated increase in the under-five mortality rate during a “typical” five-year war: 13 per cent

Total number of children younger than five living in France, Germany, Greece, and Italy: 10.6 million

Number of children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS worldwide: 15 million

Source: UNICEF

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Don’t Just Get Mad…Get Active

Oil Free Coast, an alliance of 102 groups that support the moratorium on offshore oil and gas, has voiced concern over new regulations for seismic testing drafted by the Canadian government. In trying to locate potential oil reserves beneath the ocean floor, oil companies conduct extensive acoustic surveys that risk seriously harming whales, dolphins, and other marine species that depend on sound for their survival. For more information visit oilfreecoast.org ; to send a letter of protest to the minister of fisheries and oceans, visit wildcanada.net/oilfreecoast/fax.asp.

The Sierra Club is calling on the provincial government to further increase funding for B.C.’s provincial park system. You are encouraged to write your MLA and Bill Barisoff, minister of water, land, and air protection at P.O. Box 9047, Stn. Prov. Govt., Victoria, B.C. V8W 9E2. For more info and a sample letter, go to sierraclub.ca/bc.

Lee Raymond, CEO of ExxonMobil, has a long history of denying the threat of climate change. Co-Op America has set up a website where you can write a letter to ExxonMobil shareholders asking them to question the company’s stand on climate change and to invest in renewable energy. To send a letter, visit coopamerica.org/takeaction/exxon/.

A Tricky Distinction: Death and Dying

admin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:26:53 -0600

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by Alicia Priest

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For a society that acts as if life is endless and its members immortal, it’s remarkable how much we’re hearing about dying these days. Not death, but dying. It’s a tricky distinction.

Most often what we see in popular culture is sudden, violent and brutal death: gunshots, explosions, car crashes. The other way we like to think about death—especially our death—is that fantasy where we either go to sleep and never wake up or drop dead from a massive heart attack. If only it were so simple. Anyone who works with the institutionalized elderly or who cares for an aging, ailing parent knows those two ways of exiting this world are rare.

What most people experience is a slow, steady deterioration brought on by illness or aging. Both lead to a loss of mental and/or physical abilities, increased dependency, and an often bleak, degrading, and painful final stage of life.

It’s our culture’s flagrant disconnect with this reality that makes films such as Quebec’s The Barbarian Invasions, America’s Million Dollar Baby, and Spain’s The Sea Inside so unusual. These films focus on physically incapacitated individuals who reach a rational decision to end their lives but need help doing so.

In real life, end-of-life issues have been much in the public mind with the controversy surrounding Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman at the centre of a bitter legal battle between her husband, who wanted to remove her feeding tube, and her parents, who did not. While the media frenzy that ensued triggered a torrent of right-to-die discussions, hers was not a right-to-die case. Schiavo was incapable of choosing her fate. Her circumstances revolved around complex ethical, legal, and family rights.

Nonetheless, now may be a good time to revive the complex, messy, but essential subject of legalized euthanasia. It’s a topic that won’t go away, despite our unwillingness to deal with it. Given the fanatical American political climate, the rapid aging of a huge number of baby boomers, and the non-stop barrage of medical machinery designed to sustain life at all costs, we’ll be hearing a lot more about euthanasia in the near future.

On a personal front, a close friend recently grappled with these questions when her ailing mother swallowed a cache of sleeping pills she’d been hoarding for who knows how long. A vibrant, vivacious lover of life, she’d had a stroke and wanted out of her prison-like existence. It made me wonder how many other families suffer similar or worse situations.

Most Canadians know of Sue Rodriguez, the Victoria woman with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) who, 15 years ago, fought in the Supreme Court to have a legal right to assisted suicide. She lost. Fewer people know of Russell Ogden, the former SFU criminology graduate student who, in the early 1990s, studied assisted suicide in the Vancouver AIDS community. When Ogden published his thesis, he was abandoned by the university and hounded by legal authorities who insisted he reveal his sources. He has never done so. Ogden found that unregulated euthanasia was happening without medical supervision of any kind. Under these conditions, he concludes in a recent interview in Scientific American magazine, “Euthanasia is happening in horrific circumstances, similar to back-alley abortions.” About half of the cases he studied initially failed and resulted in greater suffering.

From a health-care perspective, it is striking that so few instances of euthanasia—fact or fiction—involve those trained in the healing arts. Although physician-assisted suicide is legal in a number of places—Holland, Switzerland, and in Oregon where it’s called the Death with Dignity Act—it is viewed as murder elsewhere. That situation drives assisted suicide underground, making even communicating about it a societal no-no.

Victoria writer Anne Mullens says the lack of open discussion about how best to die benefits no one. Mullens is the author of a thoughtful and informative account of the right-to-die debate called A Timely Death: Considering our Last Rights. The book won the 1997 Edna-Staebler award for Creative Non-Fiction.

“One of the things that was said to me during the research of my book—which I really have hung on to and is one of my major beliefs—is that, when there’s no record keeping, no law, no guidelines, and everything’s done in secrecy, things can be much more problematic,” Mullens says. “That’s where the abuses can happen. That’s where the real slippery slope is.”

Doctors in Holland told Mullens the greatest value of euthanasia is not the act itself but the cultural permission to talk openly about life and death. When someone feels comfortable telling their doctor about their wish to die, explains Mullens, the doctor can ask, ‘Why now? Are you in pain? Maybe we can do something about that’.”

Nobody could pretend the conversation to follow would be easy. But, ironically, talk about dying can sometimes result in extending life a little longer.