Good Morning!

This morning, I woke up and got dressed for work. Like most of you probably did. But that may be where the similarities end.

Here's what I put on:

-a pair of smartwool leggings
-a pair of mountain khaki work pants
-a pair of wool socks
-a short sleeve shirt
-a long sleeve shirt
-a fleece
-a pair of waterproof sailing bibs
-a waterproof puffy winter coat (the warmest thing I own)
-a pair of rubber boots
-a beanie (they call them 'toques' (too-ks) here)
-a pair of very thick diving gloves

And I was cold. It's not so much the temperature, but the constant biting wind and the perpetual precipitation falling from the sky.

But then the sun peaks out, and the stunning beauty makes it easy to forget how cold and wet you are.

And to help you experience that beauty:
Coming soon to a blog near you: a photo blog by John!

Shearwater

I recognize this post is a bit...late. But I never remember to take my camera when we go to town!

"Town" is generally Shearwater. Which, you will see in this post, is not much of a town at all. The "big city", on the other hand, is Bella Bella.

Now first, it seems many of you still don't really know where we are. For shame! Google maps is your friend. But to help you out, click on this link. Zoom in, zoom out, click on markers, go crazy!

http://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=283792&x=-128.1196&y=52.1583&z=6

Now that you know what part of the world we live in, here's some Shearwater details. But first, I can't let a post slip by without mention of the weather! So notice the beautiful sky in all of these pictures, and how everyone is out and about, enjoying this lovely Saturday afternoon.

The town:

The restaurant/bar/only place to eat out:

The shopping strip- includes laundromat, showers, toy store, and coffee/boutique/hair dresser:

The grocery store and post office in foreground, the hardware store/marine store/boat yard/engine repair in the background:

The hardware store/marine store (boat yard/engine repair in background):

Main Street:

The "sporty lodge", where all the sport fishermen stay in the summer. This lodge came in on a barge, and is still on a barge. They simply filled in gravel behind it. You can still see the rubber barge edges as you walk in the front door. This way you have a waterfront view and if (when) the fish all bugger off from this coast because there is a -ok, I said no more political blogging- They can simply move the resort to the new great fishing spot - which hopefully someone discovers soon on an as-of-yet undiscovered perfectly habituated planet in a new solar system...

The dock. Filled with fishing boats this day because of a gale coming in (it blew 50 knots that night). In the summer- packed with cruisers. In the winter- completely and eerily empty:

And there you have it. Your Shearwater tour is complete. Now COME VISIT and see it for yourself.

Occupy the Media

I don't usually post political things, I try to stay out of all that mumbo jumbo....and this article is distinctly Canadian, which most of you are not....BUT I like what he has to say, and I think this is a good one to get out to the masses. So I ask you to read it, think about it, and maybe pass it along if you think it's a message more people should hear.

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Don't let the corporate media define 'Occupy' ...   

Media focuses on camps, ignores issues - as usual   

The Corporate Media is the propaganda arm of Corporate Canada. Right now the media is trying to 'define' the Occupy movement in a negative way. And all of the rest of us 99% must remember that The Media is the mouthpiece of the 1%; it is not our friend, it cannot be trusted, and we must always watch the corporate media with an eagle's eye because it never stops trying to lie to us and mislead us about everything of importance.

Since the big 'Occupy Protests' of a few weeks ago, the media has focused all of its attention on 'the camps' that have been set up across Canada. Here in Victoria, the focus is on the camps around Victoria City Hall and in Vancouver. It is relatively easy for the media to make the camps 'look bad', and now someone has died in Vancouver and the officials are saying that the camps have to go. There may be trouble and it will all end with anger which is what Corporate Canada wants.

But the camps are not the Occupy Movement, only a small part of it. The media is focusing on the camps because that is where they want the focus to be. They DON'T want the focus to be on what the movement is really all about, and that's because they want us to forget about that. Occupy is about the lack of democracy in Canada, but there is little mention of that in the corporate media. Occupy is about the corruption of our governments by the billionaires and the elites, and how those people are bankrupting entire nations and destroying our planet. Occupy is about the 'free trade deals' the 1% have imposed on us; deals that have cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs and led to record corporate profits and record homelessness and record food bank use. Occupy is about the nuclear disaster in Japan that is going to kill millions of us, and about how all the Big Media is corporate and how it lies to us and misleads us every day of the year. All of that is what Occupy is about, and The Media's job is to make us forget it - if they can.

The media could be leading us in a discussion about how to improve our democracy and make it work better for us, but they aren't. The media could be giving us information about how we can fix up our tax system, but they aren't. The media could be telling us about climate change and fracking and how we can move towards a sane environmental policy, but they aren't. Instead the media are focusing on a few dozen people living in tents. Why are they doing this? Because that is where they want the focus to be. And until the rest of us come to grips with how corrupt and manipulative the Canadian media is, we are going to keep losing. We've got to keep our eyes focused on our real enemies; and the real enemies are the corporations, their politicians, and their media. And we have to keep some real solutions in mind, and in my opinion two of the best solutions are more democracy and a free press. Let's Occupy That.

jack etkin

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