My friend Leslie Anthony's rant on Panda/Pander Bear Diplomacy and his admiration of Steve Jobs, Reality Distortion Field, (Pique All Smoke, No Mirrors Feb. 23) overlooks the growing and glaring fact that Apple's huge fortune and our I-touch Everythings are reliant on sweatshop labour in the People's Republic of China. It's hard to reconcile that the $400 or so we pay for a 4G is more than the yearly wage of the 16-year-old girls in China who assemble them. There is a lot of distortion to go around East and West.
With my now eight visits to meet Chinese leaders, officials and activists over the last five years I have begun, like Apple engineers, to "Think Different." I am still no lover of neo cons or state capitalists. Unfortunately, they are not endangered species.
But instead of selective arguments and biased rants, I'm thinking we need to build on complementary values, forces of legitimacy and capacity-building systems of equity to forestall the extinction of us all.
Check out World Wildlife Fund China and see this at work http://en.wwfchina.org. And Leslie, I know, would like my friend Yiting Sun who works for WWF Beijing on China's Green Credit Policies.
The icon of course for WWF is the Panda and we just can't have this icon and the work of WWF gone. Despite Panda Diplomacy or Panda Moneyum, we need to work together more than ever to design human systems so impossible and achievable that even Steve Jobs would be proud.
And PS — perhaps some executor from the multi-billion dollar Steve Jobs Estate could send a few million to WWF. It would sure help in building this capacity and reducing the distortion of these reality bytes.
William Roberts, President, The Whistler Forum
Whistler
Stop Wasting Our Tax Dollars
I have now lived in Cheakamus Crossing for over one year and can honestly say I barely notice the asphalt plant.
It has never affected our quality of life while living here, despite what Tim Koshul might say. $600,000 of the taxpayers' money has been wasted on trying to move the plant. I don't know about the rest of Whistler but I don´t want any more of my tax money thrown away trying to fight this. Is everyone forgetting about the legal documents we signed when we bought our homes stating that we knew about the asphalt plant, and knew it was operating next door to us and the fact that it was there long before the neighbourhood was built?
No one held a gun to your head when you signed those papers. If it bothered you so much you could have walked away. Here's an idea — everyone that wants the plant moved can call the municipality with their credit card numbers and they can pay for any future costs of fighting the plant. Tim and everyone else still complaining about the plant, if it bothers you so much, MOVE!
Cheryl Erickson
Whistler
Plaza needs to be 'authentic'
I have seen a few requests via various means asking people to vote for the Olympic Plaza in the "Great Places in Canada" online contest.
If the Plaza wants my vote, it would have to be a true "public" square where people can freely interact, in terms of both speech and commerce.
I'm not sure how long the local bylaw or RCMP would allow someone to set up a display of their handmade art or crafts, or for a musician to belt out their best tunes. My optimism tells me nothing would happen; yet the suspicion of my intuition suggests an alternative outcome.
Why do we not have this in Whistler? In my opinion it provides the best of both worlds. Tourists would have an easy and direct link to the highest concentration of artistically talented locals I have ever seen. People could buy handmade souvenirs that will tell a story to their friends and family back home. It would be good for locals in that we could have a direct link to the 10-figure Whistler tourism economy.
As the bus-window and cruise ship tourism generation continues to age and eventually die off, we are going to have to offer the next generation what they want: authenticity. It drives room nights, keeps people returning, and feeling like they received a good value for their hard earned vacation money. A public square that encourages free commerce, unregulated performance art, music, and interaction, deserves the distinction of a "great place". Hopefully our council sees the value as well. With the support of the community and our visitors, we can make a step towards an authentic plaza that literally exists everywhere else on Earth outside Canada and the U.S..
Steve Andrews
Whistler
Think about grooming as you XC ski at night
This is a shout out to all the night skiers — grooming cross-country trails is about creating a surface that is fast and uniform. Ideally, you groom in the evening and then the snow has time to set up overnight. The result is a surface that will offer the best skiing for the next day and evening. Even in our warm valley temperatures the surface will stand up.
If you ski the fresh grooming at night then your tracks will last as well. Skiers the next day will not be able to ski to their full potential. If you're skiing at night please keep this in mind, this is most important in the spring.
On a climb a skier can sink deep into the snow then it freezes overnight. If you are on a trail that is in the process of being groomed try to stay over to the side that hasn't been groomed. The machine is about three-quarters as wide as the trail so you have some leeway there. If the trail is finished being groomed consider staying off it to allow it to set up. We are the ski tribe.
Kirk Ross, Lost Lake groomer
Pemberton
Coming to the Rescue ... and thanks
Well, I only had one ski crash this season, but it was a doozy, with my left femur breaking its way out of its hip socket. Needless to say... OUCH!
As with most adversity, it's good to reflect on lessons learned and on the goodness within people. Thanks first to angel Miriam from Germany, who rushed to my aid, sent for help and stayed by my side, and to Rob and the ski patrol team, in particular super paramedic Miles. Miles assessed me and installed an IV for painkillers before I knew it and soon had me packed up for the helicopter evacuation. The helicopter pilot was so smooth that I didn't even notice takeoff or landing.
Of course, after the five-minute flight it was 15 minutes of careful driving and transfers to get into an examination room at the Health Care Centre from the temporary helipad outside town thanks to a year of "negotiations" to update the clinic's adjacent landing pad to the exacting standards of Transport Canada's extraordinarily safety-conscious staff.
In the clinic, Dr. McMeel was again confidence-inspiring and comforting, if a bit surprised to see me back two years after a bad bike commuting crash... darned all those orange barrels littering the highway's bike lane after the Olympics! That time I was also surrounded by multiple rescuers and helpers within minutes. Both times, Dr. McMeel and the clinic's fantastic staff got me stabilized, pain-free and ready to roll to hospital with incredible efficiency and a good sense of humour.
I was dreading the ambulance transfer to VGH for hip surgery, but with smooth driving and watchful attendants, the two-hour trip was over in no time. As it turns out, I'd already decided before the ski accident to leave my position in Whistler to return to work with former colleagues in the Lower Mainland, so the next time I'm back, I'll be a day tourist instead of "a local." Before leaving, besides thanking the extraordinary Sea to Sky emergency and health teams, I wanted to thank everyone in this amazing community for your spirit and joie de vivre. Thanks for the opportunity (between those big crashes!) to share your vibrant community and live the dream. Ski and ride safe, everyone.
Mark Allison
Whistler/New Westminster
Voter fraud?
What next from our esteemed "Conservatives?"
I hope all have been following the latest voter fraud shenanigans back east and are regarding it with some well-deserved suspicion. Far be it for me to come right out and say that no doubt our noble federal government is behind it, but I wouldn't put it past them.
Now I don't particularly have anything against "Conservatism" per se, unless of course it is merely a quaint euphemism for "republican" or "right wing," which actually I suggest it is. The evidence of the "stupid on Crime" Bill, opposition to the Insite program, opposition to anything remotely mitigative regarding Global Warming, muzzling of government scientists, tacit approval of Sun Media's outrageous Fox News propaganda right-wing cheer leading ..... My God the list is long. And not least its deafening silence on the profound and statistically supported downward economic spiral of the middle class – a result of many years of the policy they promote.
...Our own Provincial Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has been one of the few government officials to address income disparity, and his take on it was nothing short of dismissive, callous, and obtuse if not downright hilarious! He may as well have said, "Let them eat cake!"
Anyway, all this may be "Conservative" I suppose, but the ideology buttressing it can be found if one merely Googles "Right Wing Authoritarian Personality Disorder," which should raise a few red flags. Sure the Harper Government has managed to paint a particularly "polite Canadian" version of their right wing vision, but I suggest this is simply because they know they couldn't possibly get away with the bizarre and outrageous ideology coming from their American cousins. ... for now.
As far as the voter fraud goes, one of the defining characteristics of the Authoritarian personality is amorality and dishonesty (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism).
For those who think I'm "going a little overboard" well that may be, but even if I'm half right, the picture isn't pretty. But don't take my word for it. Do a little research, start paying attention, and make some rational judgments —they absolutely hate it when we do that!
Bruce Kay,
Squamish
