Author: andrasthehun

Rambling and Random Thoughts on Covid and Cannabis

April 14, 2022

The two-year pandemic took its toll on people. There were lockdowns. The Canada/US border was closed. Even the Ontario and Quebec border was closed for a while. My community center where I play cards and my gym was closed on and off. People got cabin fever. When our border opened and Covid mandates lifted, people felt like they gained the freedom to get back to life. And jumped for joy.

Joy for Kathy and me comprised taking a quick trip to see grandchildren in Durham, NC. Crossing the border into the US was a pleasure; as in the old days, the US border guard asked where we were going and for how long. That was it. There was no masking required and nobody asked for a vaccine passport.

And Durham was great with the grandson going to a UNC and Virginia Tech ball game where masks were scarce. And they sold beer and popcorn. Refreshing. In the grocery stores, many people wore masks, and nobody paid attention to unmasked people. It was up to you if you wanted to be more cautious and wear a mask.

When talking with people, I found the American attitude towards the virus relaxed. In contrast, my friends at home drop comments about having to be careful: “the current sixth wave is serious”. In the US, people believe they have to live with the virus and take responsibility for their actions.

Coming from Ottawa, the lack of cannabis stores in Durham was a total surprise. It is illegal to sell cannabis in NC. By the last count, there were one hundred and eight cannabis stores in Ottawa, with another forty being considered for licensing by the Ontario authorities. Along the “green mile” on Wellington Street in Ottawa, I heard there are nine cannabis stores. (We should compare this number to the thirty-six liquor stores in Ottawa).

Do we have too many cannabis stores in Ottawa? Will there be an amalgamation of ownership of these stores? I do not know. Are there disadvantages to having so many stores? Some of the BIAs claim cannabis stores on the street can negatively affect other stores coming to the area.

I have not visited cannabis stores, but perhaps, will. For now, I find their storefronts and fancy names outlandish, garish, and suggestive, like: “Dutch Love” and “Spiritleaf”. But obviously, there is a growing market for them.

Coming back to Canada reminded us that Canada still considers the virus a threat: we had to fill out an “arrivecan” form. My Samsung phone stored my data from previous returns to Canada and it took me literally two minutes to fill out the form. Kathy used her iPhone that brought up an outdated “arrivecan” form that demanded proof of an antigen test. She tried to get the most up-to-date form with no success. Do you think the government could get its IT group organized? After a while, I filled out the form for her on my Samsung phone that worked. At the border, the Canadian border official was pleasant, and we crossed the border in a couple of minutes, having our “arrivecan” approved in advance.

On the second day at home, I received an email from Public Health Canada reminding us to quarantine:

“IF YOU:

Were NOT randomly selected to complete COVID-19 molecular testing

THEN, YOU MUST:

for the 14 days after you entered Canada, monitor yourself for symptoms of COVID-19; and maintain a list of the names and contact information of every person you have come into close contact with during the 14 days AND all of the places you have been”.

It was not clear why this requirement exists: I thought with our three vaccinations we were safe, and quarantining was unnecessary. The email explained that people arriving from outside Canada need to quarantine, but it was blurry if coming back is from the US or elsewhere. I wish the government people could write clearly.

Solid Waste Plan Focus Groups. Ottawa

Woke focus groups

April 1, 2022

Have you heard of the solid waste planning process in Ottawa? Probably not. But it is an extensive and expensive project to serve Ottawa for the next thirty years. It may cost upwards of a hundred million dollars and it will affect your daily activities. 

As a typical person, you want to get rid of your garbage at the least cost in an environmentally suitable manner (for example, do not throw your garbage onto the street).

Do you really care what technology the City uses? Is it aerobic or anaerobic? Do you know the difference?

Garbage collection and disposal are not like movies where you may like romantic, warlike, adventure, or science fiction movies. Your choices with garbage disposal shrink primarily to cost and the environment.

And the cost is a small part of your total living costs that includes property taxes, electricity, and utilities. I never thought much about garbage collection and disposal in my spare time. 

But the City is developing a long-range plan that will take three years to finish. A consultant did background work in identifying quantities of garbage the city accumulates annually by type: recyclable, organic, bulk garbage (construction materials), etc, and projected trends for thirty years.

To provide input for the plan, the city started a series of public consultations to find out what people think about the way garbage is collected and disposed of.

I took part in a zoom meeting organized by the city to discuss options for garbage reuse. There were thirty people in attendance, with five people from the city. If you broke the meeting down by time, city officials provided information most of the time, leaving precious little time for public input that was scant and needed prodding from the city officials. 

The city researched and developed the proposals, but the consultation process is difficult: if it is a highrise going up behind your house, it has a direct impact on you and you express your views strongly. Here, the consultation relates to something decades in the future, and people’s interest wanes. 

After the options were presented, they asked the audience to prioritize the various proposals. In one chart, “repair cafes”; “sharing libraries”; “community events” and “community strategies” were the options. These options propose venues exchanging or using goods surplus to you but usable to others.

Although the audience expressed their priorities in the ensuing discussion; I wondered if they had experience with them. I had never heard of “repair cafes” and “sharing libraries”. My surplus stuff that is still useful, ends up with charities or is sold. 

 I understood that the previous two zoom meetings had about fifteen people each in attendance. The population of the city is a million people. A few dozen people per consultation do not give you confidence that public opinion is fully collected.

The city arranged for seven zoom meetings on various aspects of the solid waste plan, and five focus groups for specific target populations. 

The focus groups are:

older people (not defined for age), young people (not defined for age), immigrants, BIPOC, and 2SLGBTQQIA+; do you know what the last two terms mean? I did not. I had to look them up on the internet.

Do young and old people have different ideas from middle-aged people regarding garbage? And immigrants? Could these people not join the other zoom meetings? By having focus groups concentrating on these people, do we assume their views on garbage collection and disposal differ from the rest of us? Is that likely? I have a sense of wokeness arranging these focus groups. 

I admire the amount of effort the city puts into the consultation process versus the payoff; the city’s intention to get public feedback and, ultimately, acceptance of its solid waste management plan is desirable. But the consultation should be more specific. For example, do not just ask if you would use the city depots for hazardous waste disposal but ask how far would you drive to drop off your paint cans. And do not separate special groups for the consultations. Just my opinion.

Ottawa City Builder Award

March 25, 2022

Do you remember the truck convoy occupying downtown Ottawa for a few weeks from the end of January 2022? The convoy that gained international attention and inspired copycats? Me neither. But it was a big deal, according to the papers. The papers said the convoy “tortured” the community with their constant honking, boisterous behavior, and the diesel fumes spewed by the trucks. They said Ottawa was under “siege”. The convoy triggered invocations of a “state of emergency” by the City of Ottawa, the Province of Ontario, and last, by the federal government. And a class-action lawsuit started against the organizers of the convoy.

From my perspective, life went on as usual. Like most in the City of Ottawa, I did not experience any inconvenience. I saw the activities taking place on TV; all limited to the small Parliamentary Precinct, downtown Ottawa. There were no break-ins, no damage to property. And the police peacefully moved the convoy out of the area on the weekend of February 18. A couple of people who complained about police brutality are being investigated (out of the 5 to 10,000 people who showed up on the weekends).

I had trouble hearing expressions like the city was under “siege” and the noise “tortured” people. If they referred to Ukraine or Syria, I would have understood. But in Ottawa? Surely those were flights of imagination.

The convoy started in Vancouver and gathered hundreds of followers along the way to Ottawa. The original purpose of the organizers was to demonstrate against covid mandates; spawned by federal regulations to have all truckers vaccinated when coming into Canada from the United States. By the time the convoy reached Ottawa, however, the purpose of the convoy was hijacked by right-wing activists who morphed the original purpose into much bigger unreasonable demands. My view is that the entire episode could have been avoided by the federal government talking with the convoy organizers before it grew into a kind of vaporous monster. But it did not happen.

Because of the lack of action by all levels of government to deal with the convoy, a young woman, Zexi Li, twenty-one years old, fed up with the noise in her downtown neighborhood, called residents in her building together with a community police officer to discuss the situation and ask the police to do something about it. At the meeting, she discovered that lawyer Paul Champ was preparing a class action suit against the convoy organizers and was looking for a lead plaintiff. She volunteered to become the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. The first action of the lawsuit was a successful injunction to stop the honking. The rest of the class-action suit is ongoing.

Being the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit made her suddenly newsworthy in Ottawa and, for her initiative and determination to reduce the bothersome activities of convoy members in her community, she received the Mayor’s City Builder Award this week.

Did the Mayor choose wisely? I looked up previous recipients of the award and what I found striking was that all of them have worked on worthy causes for years, many for decades, raising thousands of dollars for good causes; providing educational and other services over long periods.

This is what the Mayor’s award is:

“The Mayor’s City Builder Award is a civic honor created to recognize an individual, group, or organization that has, through their outstanding volunteerism or exemplary action, demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to making our city a better place today and for the future. This may include lifelong service, outstanding acts of kindness, inspiring charitable work, community building, or any other exemplary achievements.”

I congratulate Ms. Li for her leadership, initiative, and guts. She assumed responsibility when others did not. But her leadership had one concrete event resolved: she triggered an injunction to stop honking. A one-time affair, not a sustaining multi-year effort, making the community a better place for the future. She brought back the community to its normal quiet existence, having been inconvenienced for a few weeks. There is no sustained effort required to keep the current status quo. The “event” is over. Her determination certainly deserved recognition by our city government. Perhaps a formal thank you? But, a City Builder Award? The class-action suit is ongoing. But I wonder if she did not rise to the occasion, someone else would have volunteered to become a “lead plaintiff”. Just my opinion.

Thank You, University of British Columbia

March 14

The current Ukrainian war reminded me of escaping from Hungary in 1956 and the unlikely admission to UBC in the following year. I am immensely grateful for the understanding and opportunity the University of British Columbia afforded me.

When I came home from school on the last day of October 1956, my mother ordered me and my brother to walk to Vienna. She did not explain why we should leave until months later: she had heard that when The Hungarian Revolution broke out in Budapest, on October 23, soldiers guarding the “iron curtain” (the border between Hungary and Austria) stood aside while the refugees crossed the border.

My brother, 18, and I, 16 years old, left with a sandwich and a name on a piece of paper that my mother told us to call when arriving in Vienna. The name on the slip of paper turned out to be a Jesuit priest, a college mate of my uncle’s at the University of Vienna. The priest picked us up from the refugee camp and settled us in Vienna. Just before the border closed, when the Russian tanks returned to occupy Hungary, my parents and younger brother also left Hungary and joined us. They thought they may never see us again.

We ended up in Vancouver in January 1957. I was 17 years old and hated the thought of going back to high school; I felt suddenly mature beyond my age because of the uprooting from Hungary to Canada via Vienna and Manchester, England. They were going to put me back a year because of my poor English language skills. That was abhorrent to me. I thought of attending university instead. But I was only in grade 10 when we escaped from Hungary; how could I apply to university?

Unbeknownst to my parents, I looked up when registration took place at UBC in the Fall and took a bus there. The admissions officer’s first question was to ask for my high school diploma, which, of course, I did not have. Actually; I had no papers to even show that I had been in high school. In my tortuous English (which I had learned in Manchester and courses at the YMCA in Vancouver) I said that I had not finished high school, but I was confident that I could do the science courses. Like maths, physics, and chemistry. But she said that I needed to have the graduation papers. I responded I would take a chance and if I could not pass the courses, I would just fail. Well, the officer went to the back office to discuss my unique request and after a half-hour; she came back and said that it was my choice and my money if I failed, but they would let me take the chance.

Then, she told me the fee for the semester was $250. Feeling foolish and by now totally embarrassed, I said that I had no money. But I improvised and said that the government, I heard, was paying for the tuition of Hungarian refugees. That, of course, caused another long discussion in the back room. I waited nervously with bated breath. After a substantial time, the officer came back and said that UBC would accept me with no payment. I sighed and my heartbeat came down a few notches. Although I was uptight with my heart pounding, the entire negotiation occurred in a friendly and relaxed manner.

And I did UBC proud; I excelled in all the sciences. My weakest performance was in the mandatory English language courses. I was fortunate to have Professor Woodcock for my English course, who gave me a “P” or pass mark; he was aware of my background and valued the effort I put into learning the language.

So thank you UBC. You were gracious and understanding. And you can be proud, I finished UBC with an architecture degree. I followed it up with a couple of masters’ degrees in the States. And made my career in Canada since 1973.

Without your understanding and taking a chance on a 17-year-old refugee in 1957, I could not have made a successful career, grown a happy family in, and given back in services to, Canada. Thank you!

What if the Russians Take Over Ukraine?

March 10, 2022

The Russian bully is devastating Ukraine by bombing. Atrocities abound: they bombed hospitals, with children inside. It is unfathomable in today’s world what is going on. The type of ground war going on in Ukraine belongs to the past. A hundred years ago, maybe. But today, with the technology and nuclear power that many nations possess, this old-fashioned war is an anachronism. Be it as it may, it is happening and the Ukrainians are putting up a terrific fight to keep their country.

Why? Well, first, it is their country. It is human nature to protect your house, country, your territory. Property is important globally; people fight for their piece of land. That people can deprive you of your property by crude force is wrong.

Second, the Ukrainian people know the Russians from the time they were part of the Soviet Union and their experience had not been a happy one under Soviet rule. There was the collectivization of farms; confiscation of private property; forbidding free discussion except for communist dogma.

Communism following the Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin doctrine had not materialized, as originally conceived in the Soviet Union. For example, the tiny pieces of land, minuscule vegetable gardens farmers could keep for their use, flourished, while the large collectivized farms, the “kolhozes”, suffered a failure. The lesson learned was that people should be rewarded according to their efforts and initiative. When all people are rewarded equally regardless of their effort and contribution, people do the least effort since those who produce more are rewarded the same as those who produce less.

No doubt Ukrainians are against the Russians and what they would do to their country should they take over the country. But what would happen to the average Ukrainian? Suppose you are an electrical inspector working for a small city where you live. Your job is to go out every day and inspect what people do in their homes, to their electrical circuits, and make sure their activities meet the local code. What would happen after that Russians take over? Would you not be doing the same work? The work is important and will continue to exist and therefore your job would be safe and continue. So why would you object to having a Russian-controlled government when your job would remain and your current boss may continue to be your future boss?

Because the ongoing Russian bombing has devastated homes, killed people, and created a terrifying environment. Fierce resistance and hatred have developed towards the Russians.

The only way the Russians can take over Ukraine now is by installing the military to run the country. The current Ukrainian administration will be arrested, imprisoned, sent to reeducation camps, or executed (similar to what happened in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968). And that will further increase quiet resistance and non-compliance with Russian rules.

In the near term, there will be the reconstruction of roads, of homes, destroyed. The infrastructure for utilities will have to be replaced. The quality of life will decrease because of the rubble and devastation. In Hungary, they rebuilt little of the infrastructure that was destroyed in WWII while Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain.

Over time, from the top government officials down, the administration would turn into a pro-Russian team, advocating loyalty to President Putin. And Russians would control the media and propaganda would work to turn Ukrainians anti-West.

Oligarchs would gradually take over Ukrainian industry, concentrate power and wealth in a few hands similar to what happened in Russia. Resource development would be only for the benefit of Russia, robbing the country of its natural resources similar to what happened in the satellite countries under the Soviet Union (Hungary, Czechoslovakia). Disagreement with government (i.e. Russian) policies would not be tolerated and dissidents jailed.

Since independence in 1991, Ukrainians have embraced western lifestyles. A change going back to the Soviet ways of life would be catastrophic to Ukrainians. Just my opinions.