I like having my friends come to stay. Not that I have much room but it's amazing what you can do with a little space when you put your mind to it. I have an imaginary future guest room that I hope will one day come to be. In it my guests have a bed, desk, big window and an armchair, lots of books, a choc on the pillow and flowers, a la Martha Stewart - similar to a hotel but with much more personality and quirkiness. Any space in my house would have to be a little quirky. I would cook for them and make them feel welcome. I like having someone to cook for.
To change the subject slightly, the weirdness in the world continues unabated. Today I watched the Americans bale out their financial institutions, as though they were asking someone to pass the sugar. Both parties, and the so-called watchdogs, all seem to be saying, "Well, of course we have to bale them out. It's the responsible thing to do. Otherwise, there would be panic. Can't have that, now can we, otherwise we could have a repeat of the crash of '29."
What I want to know is, where were all these people when these companies were over-extending themselves, when they were breaking the laws, when they were mismanaging the public's money and trust? Who went to sleep, in the least horrendous case, or who deliberately turned a blind eye, or even orchestrated it, in the worst case?
Not only is it hard for me to swallow the bale-out that I'm seeing, but I'm stunned by how seamlessly it's being accepted. It's like the invasion of Iraq all over again. Then I remind myself that maybe the financial scene has to get THAT bad before everyone is forced to wake up. If I'm right, in the immediate future there are going to be a whole bunch of revelations of global, domestic and local malfeasance. I hope they come before the US election.
We also have a federal election here in Canada this fall. I'm finding the whole process insulting. It seems to be business as usual and all three major parties are trotting out all the same old, tired tactics and expecting the public to swallow them. Nothing seems to have changed. I had hoped that the change that seems possible (and, heaven help me, I could be wrong) in the US, might be possible on a smaller scale here. I had hoped for the effects of a Zeitgeist. I haven't given up but it isn't looking promising.
We have much shorter run-ups to our elections in Canada - no 18-month national tour - and so we don't tend to get the same amount of scrutiny in the campaigning process. What I'm hearing in the media is a whole lot of sound bites and not much substance. They're currently trying to make Harper out as a 'family man' with 'family values'. I don't think that means anything meaningful and he's a terrible actor to boot. And the Liberal leader is saying the opposite of what the PM is saying in terms of how the economy is doing overall. They can't even agree on how it's doing, never mind what they think should be done about it!
And the UK process doesn't sound much better! But I rant. We'll have to wait and see what unfolds, day by day.
In the meantime, my friend is here and tomorrow we're going to investigate the fish ladders on the two dams on the North Shore rivers. Janet is responsible for the visitor's centre for the fish ladder on the Yukon river in Whitehorse. She's looking for ideas to update it and I've never seen ours before. I'm getting to be somewhat knowledgeable on this topic! So, off we go tomorrow. I hope the promised rain holds off. The pics above are of the Capilano River and the dam.
I'll bring back a fishy report!
