Firings, resignations, and an unfathomable $40 million budget overrun may have you scratching your head and wondering how the health authorities in BC ever get anything done.

Will McMartin’s article in the Tyee will shed some light in the darkness. Just in case you didn’t know, even with the exits of Trevor Johnstone from Vancouver Coastal and of Keith Purchase from the Fraser health authorities, there are plenty of Campbell cronies in senior positions in the health bureaucracies, and almost to a man person, they have deep ties to the forestry sector.

Bill Tieleman’s post on the busy and possibly soon to be turfed Ida Goudreau, CEO of Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, sheds further light on some of the Campbell-forestry-health authority connections, as well as on how one highly placed woman makes semi-competent hay while the sun shines.

It appears Campbell likes to hire his cronies. It also appears that it doesn’t matter whether they have related experience, so long as he likes them. I’m not really sure that someone who has had executive oversight for the supply chain and throughputs of log pulping is the best candidate for a job like running a health authority. Management skills only transfer so far, while back scratching skills appear to have far more upside.

For the forseeable future, Campbell will continue to run the province the way he likes for the same reason a dog licks his nether regions…because he can. His party seems content to stick with his leadership, and the electorate doesn’t seem in the mood for a change in government. And BC continues to be the best place on earth, unless you get really sick.

Steve Nash is a great athlete and an admirable guy. Next up for him is a chain of state-of-the-art sports clubs which will bear his name and will encourage both fitness and overall wellbeing.

The first Steve Nash Sports Club will open this spring. The 38,500 square foot facility, which will be located at 610 Granville, and will be environmentally sensitive, aiming for Silver LEED certification. More locations are planned for Vancouver and Victoria

Club membership sales will begin this month at 640 Granville Street, in Vancouver, or you can register at the Steve Nash Sports Club website for more details.

Source: CNW group

For more than 8,000 years, Iraqi farmers in the Fertile Crescent have crossbred and improved their plants and crops. Before the war, Iraq was thought to be one of the most notable places of crop biodiversity in the world. Iraq was also free of genetically modified crops.

But all that has changed. Iraqi farmers are now required to grow crops that are on a list of allowed seed varieties, most of which have to be purchased from US and European companies including Monsanto, Dow, and Dupont. Some of the allowed varieties are genetically modified.

Legislation prevents Iraq’s farmers from saving and re-using seeds harvested from newly registered varieties without paying a royalty to the transnational seed companies. This is a tragedy for the farmers and the people of Iraq, and for planetary biodiversity.

Iraqi political sovereignty seems to be unattainable, at least in the near future. Iraqi food sovereignty could be gone for good. And if it can happen there, maybe, what with deep integration and all, it can happen here?

Links:

Bifurcated Carrots

Insurgent American

The Progressive Mind

Online Journal

This just landed in my email:

Environmental organization, The Alliance for the Planet, is calling on everyone to create 5 minutes of electrical rest for the planet on February 1st.

The plan is for people all over the world to turn off their lights and electrical appliances, including those on “standby” at exactly the same time:

New York, Toronto, Ottawa: 1.55 pm
London: 18.55 pm
Paris, Bruxelles, and Italy: 19.55 pm
Pacific Coast of North America: 10.55 am

This is not to save 5 minutes worth of electricity, but instead to get everyone’s attention: politicians, the media, and ourselves. It will be a demonstration that global warming needs to come first and foremost in political debate.

February 1s is the day when the new UN report on global climate change will come out in Paris.

Links:
http://www.lalliance.fr
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070119/sc_afp/unclimatefrance

New York Times writer, Christopher Mason, recently covered the devastation wreaked upon Stanley Park by winter storms. The article is entitled Its Wild Heart Broken, a City, Like Its Eagles, Rebuilds. Oddly enough, it didn’t even mention Vancouver’s bigger heartbreaks: the Missing Women/Pickton trial and homelessness.

The link to the article is here, though you may need a New York Times subscription to read it.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the video that’s been making it’s way around Vancouver blogs. It runs just under two minutes, and pretty much tells the whole story:

Source: http://one.revver.com/watch/140107

I’ve just had WordPress 2.1 installed and a few site changes made. Not everything is going fabulously though, and posts may be sporadic over the next couple of days.

Last spring, I wrote a positive review about Finch’s House of Tea and Coffee. I’d always managed to get a decent lunch there, tasty and reasonably priced, but others had different, less positive experiences. Commenters on this site, and others who spoke to me personally, said Finch’s food was all right, but the service was just too slow.

Recently, I decided to give Finch’s another shot. Had I been too easy on them when I reviewed them? Maybe it was time for the “acid test”–the single diner in a hurry. I popped in on my way to a client’s office and ordered a take out sandwich. It only took a minute to place my order, and then I stood about half way between the front door and the cash register and proceeded to wait.

It didn’t look good. The restaurant was fairly full, and there were people at tables who appeared to be waiting for their food. Meanwhile, behind the counter, a line of “sandwich artists” slowly fussed about, looking as if they had all the time in the world to make artful towers of cucumber slices. “Damn,” I thought, “I’ve made a big mistake. I’ll be here at least 20 minutes.”

Six minutes later, my sandwich was handed to me, wrapped in Finch’s trademark butcher paper tied with raffia. Ten minutes later, I took my first bite. And it was very good, plenty of roasted walnuts and avocado.

I’ve never had bad service at Finch’s, but in the past other people haven’t been as satisfied. Maybe Finch’s has pulled up its socks. Or maybe I just got lucky.

Better and maybe more timely on this recent viewing. Eugenie, played by Janet Leigh, is an odd character indeed. Who ya gonna trust, especially these days?

Former Vancouver school teacher, Tom Ellison, was sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest for sex crimes against teenage students at Prince of Wales High School in the late 70s and early 80s.

It’s too bad he didn’t get a jail sentence he could serve on weekends. Then he could have gone on dates with burly cons who would take pity on him, even though he’s old and not very good looking anymore.