January 19, 2005

Letters

Opinion Page 8

Think of the Earth’s Future

What will it take for our civiliza-
tion to take notice? There has been
a significant report published on
climate change and it’s effects by
renowned international scientists.
Large fish stocks have declined cat-
astrophically. The pine beetle epi-
demic, exacerbated by global
warming, is destroying our forests.
The BC

Government is still proposing
offshore oil exploration. Prince
George City Council has sold
recreation place to a developer for
shopping facilities to further pro-
mote consumerism. I’m amazed
that the same page didn’t also have
an article lamenting the demise of
the downtown and need for revital-
isation. Don’t people get the con-
nection?

This type of urban planning, if it
has been planned, promotes urban
sprawl, increases use of fossil fuels,
breaks down any concept of com-
munity at the same time as destroy-
ing récreational facilities that pro-
mote health in our community. Are
we going to buy all our products
made in China from companies
that send all their profits out of the
community or are we going to sup-
port local businesses that have
invested in the community because
‘they and their families have lived
here for generations? If we buy
locally, we not only support local
families but we also reduce the
need for long distance shipping and
the ensuing use of fossil fuels. We
are still burning tons.of oil and

spewing all the emissions into the
atmosphere.

Everyone is clamouring for more
health care spending instead of
addressing the causes of disease.
When are we going to take respon-
sibility for our own health and for
the health of our air and water?
Civic leaders should make it easier
for everyone, who is physically able,
to access their needs within their
own community without having to
drive. .

Cycle paths and walking trails
and sensible urban planning can go
a long way to improving health. It is
ironic that while we are having an
obesity epidemic,-the majority of
the World are suffering from mal-
nutrition. It is up to us to reduce
this inequality. We need Green
voices at all levels of Government
to bring common sense to decision
making. I look forward to our youth
taking the helm.

However, I regret that they are
inheriting a much-diminished envi-
ronment compared to the pure
water, abundant fish, forests and
wildlife that we took for granted.
Who would have thought a few
years ago that we would now be
buying bottled water? I ask young
dynamic people to please consider
running for office at any level of
government and hopefully through.
you we can promote a culture of
sustainability.

Hitary CROWLEY
GREEN PARTY

The most powerful
earthquake in nearly
40 years

and resulting tsunamis have left more than

od,

water, tents. and bla

our help is needed. Here and now.

aA

Canadian Red Cross

1-

800-418-1111

www.redcross.ca

Editorial

iN ew Year’ Re aa $2) ULions,

On December 3 lst, a political car-
toon ran in the Victoria Times Colonist
that deeply affected me. The illustra-
tion was of two men, sitting and watch-
ing a television. The announcer on the
newscast was reading out the current
tsunami death tolls, then escalating into
the hundred thousands. The caption
read: This New Year’s Countdown.

I wish J had cut out that cartoon, but
we recycled it the next day. Despite not
having a physical copy, that image will
stay with me for a very long period of
time.

The tragic stories are starting to be
relayed on the news: children without
families, people dying without water,

searching for missing relatives. | am
deeply affected by human interest sto-
ries. I-am absolutely devastated over
this disaster.

Large scale global tragedy has a way
of putting life in perspective. Shallow

“aspects of my life, which I have the ten-

dency to dwell upon, no longer seem to
matter. My values have shifted and new
things have come to matter in a way
they never did before.

What things do matter? The answers
are quite simple. Love matters. Family
matters. Friends matter. Doing the
right thing matters.

Life can be so simple and yet so
essentially complex at times. My New
Years resolution this year is relatively
minimal and unadorned, and yet has
affected me so profoundly.

Essentially, instead of agonizing over
what I don’t have, I want to be more

appreciative of what I do have: my life,
my health, my family, and my friends.

There is no way to make light of a
disaster of this magnitude. It is tragic
and horrible and I am deeply saddened
by this occurrence.

I will, however, continue to be opti-
mistic about the world in 2005. If any-
thing good can come out of a tragedy,
it is people reevaluating their own lives
and making positive changes. The gen-
erosity of governments, corporations,
and individual citizens has been very
commendable. Hopefully some good
will come out of this heartrending
event.

Over the Edge will be offering free
advertising to ahy. event held to raise
money for tsunami or relief aid. We
will also have information about where
personal donations can be sent. Happy
New Year.

Post-Christmas Let Down Retail Therapy

As far as I know, the concept of the
post-Christmas let down was first
expressed in a Peanuts cartoon when
someone asked Lucy why she was so
miserable after Christmas.

Lucy replied by.saying she’d had a
fine Christmas, and gotten lots of nice
foys, but was filled with the pervasive
emptiness that was left in the wake of
an orgy of feasting, celebration and
gifting. (Well, she didn’t say that, but I
can tell what Shultz was getting at.) In
short, she was having a post-Christmas
let down.

I had my own post-Christmas let
down this year, probably brought
about by spending almost my entire
break living with various people in
Vancouver and Victoria. By all
accounts I had a “wicked awesome”
Christmas vacation, so understand-
ably, when I came back, many of my
friends said I seemed a little down.

Earson Gibson’s

Esasox Giro

Compr Enrror §

With all the. crazy shite happening
around the world, it’s hard to know
where Canada stands. Let me clarify
our relations with other countries just
so everyone is on the same page.

Canada / Russia - Geographically
we are more like Russians than any-
one, but on one issue Canada and
Russia will forever be divided - we
both claim to have invented hockey.
The question is; if they invented hock-
ey, why do they suck so bad at it?

Canada / the US.- Our relations
with the US. have been touchy ever
since we duped them out of their
Manifest Destiny. Don’t kid yourself,
they still want it, but they'll have to
buy it off of us. I think Saskatchewan
will be the first to go, and their sacri-

Faced with a sense of spiritual blue-
ness, which, ironically enough was

being hastened along by a case of

physical blueness thanks to my rapidly
freezing digits, | made some totally un-
life altering’ decisions. First I went
inside. Then I went to the mall.

A pair of sunglasses, a new winter
jacket, and a humorous “Nuns Gone
Bad!” calendar later, I had used the
fleeting sense of material fulfillment to
chase away my larger emotional
emptiness. I had engaged in what
some might jokingly call retail therapy.

Now, arguably, I needed the calen-
dar, the sunglasses weren’t that expen-
sive, and while I already have a few
winter coats, I didn’t have one in the
trendy 3/4 length that is so popular
this season - just a waist length and a
full length, but the point is, I.came, I
saw, I bought, and I felt pretty damn
good about it.

Luckily for all us disaffected univer-
sity students, January is not only the
season of the post-Christmas let down,
it’s also the season of the lesser student
loan, which means that your feelings of
emptiness can be filled with discount

priced goods bought with government
money.

Shopping, or the acquisition of neat
stuff, makes us feel cooler, and being in
possession of a cool coat, and a set of
sunglasses that match not only our
scarf but our purse (not that I have
that...) gives you an irrepressible sense
of fashionable superiority over your
fellow man.

But can you really fill the emptiness
in your soul by feeling better, but not
else? Isn’t true spiritual fulfillment
gained through bettering yourself, not
just your wardrobe?

Why not use some of that “dispos-
able income” to actually make the
world a little better off, rather than
helping the nigh unstoppable capitalist
machine chug on? Why not improve
the life of someone who has nothing
by donating to the Red Cross or
Oxfam instead of buying a new skirt?

Well... you can’t wear a charity
receipt - unless you collect a lot of
them and turn them into a fashionable
sport-coat. The choice is yours.

Guide to Canada in the World

fice will pay off a huge amount of our
federal debt. Thanks in advance
Saskatchewan!

Ganada / England - Canada will
never be on even terms with England
for a very important reason; we think
their accent is sexy and seductive,
whereas they think our accent sounds
retarded. Whatever. We have better
teeth,

Canada / Australia - Same deal,
only their teeth are as good as ours.
One similarity is that both countries
have big fucking rats running wild. We
call ours the beaver and they call theirs
the kangaroo. How many beavers
would it take to kill a kangaroo?

Canada / China - We have a lot of
misconceptions about China, for
instance that it is a country of mind-
less communist automatons. They
have a lot of misconceptions about us,
like that we’re all mindless capitalist
automatons. One thing is for sure;
China is going to kick the world’s eco-
nomic ass in the coming decades, so

we'd better start being nice to them
now.

Canada / Japan - We’ve come a
long way in our relations with Japan.
since the animosity of WWII, and cul-
tural exchange has been a huge part of
that. They gave us sushi, anime and
tiny little cell phones, and in return
from our culture we gave them... noth-
ing. Never mind.

Canada / North Korea - North
Koreans don’t even know we exist
because their world maps show North
Korea as the largest and only country
in the world. Canadians are pretty
freaked out by The Great Leader Kim
Jong-Il, but he’s probably like snakes;
more afraid of us than we are of him.

Canada / Jamaica - We think
Jamaicans are some of the coolest peo-
ple in the world walking around with
in their dreadlocks with their ganga.
Conve rsely they think we’re totally
friggin’ crazy for living in such a cold
place. On days like these I feel the
same way. Jah Rule.