Posts from — April 2008

This summer Cathy and I were in Ottawa for the Ottawa folk Festival. We got to hear Kris Kristofferson and Buffy St. Marie on the same stage together. A real treat for a guy who has fond memories of the 60’s. Buffy sang her song A Universal Soldier. You know the one. It goes

He’s five feet two and he’s six feet four

He fights with missiles and with spears

He’s all of 31 and he’s only 17

He’s been a soldier for a thousand years

 

He’s a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,

a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew

and he knows he shouldn’t kill

and he knows he always will

kill you for me my friend and me for you

Etc.

It goes on to lay a pretty heavy responsibility on individuals who join the forces saying that if no one joined up how could there ever be wars and killing.

It gave me pause this summer and I thought about it a lot. While it’s true it’s pretty unrealistic.

Last week I went to hear Valdy at the Finlandia club and he sang it again. It stayed with me again and while I couldn’t see how it would ever become a reality it did get me thinking. This is going to be a stretch but stay with me. What if Canada decided that the most important thing we could do to further peace in the world was to eliminate our forces. What if we were to set an example as a country by saying we believe it is time in our evolution as a world to get rid of our armed forces rather then build them. Costa Rica doesn’t have an armed forces so it is possible.

We know that war and violence, imperialism and aggression don’t work. As weapons and technology get more and more sophisticated we in the west are going to become more and more vulnerable. It seems to me that at some point it will become impossible to stop attacks in Canada and North America.

Maybe it is time for a change. As much as we would like to think our military would be missed on the international war front I don’t think it would be. Oh there would be the initial protests and objections but so many countries are in the business of war someone would fill the gap. None seem to willing to take the risk of doing something as very different as eliminating their armies. Is it suicide? Maybe. But as I see it, it is only a matter of time before the Al Qaeda’s of the world develop the where withal to inflict serious damage on North America. So do we have so much to lose? And just think of how great it would be if it worked. I can’t see any terrorist group targeting Canada if we weren’t targeting them. What would be the point?

I can hear the protests now. How would we defend ourselves? Would we get rid of the police as well? There are violent people in this world! Like I said this is a real stretch and I certainly don’t have the answers but I can’t help but think that we really need a major shift in how things are done if we are to make it through the next 100 years. Maybe Canada could be a leader in a more peaceful alternative. Seems to me something needs to be done.

 

Thursday, April 17, 2008
Where to start!! Clara and Francisco Chavez live with Granddaughter Monica and their grandson’s girl friend Amy. So including myself there are five of us for breakfast each morning at 7:15 sharp.
I chuckle when I say this because Clara and Francisco are very strict but in a gentle grand parent way.
As my teacher Matilde said to me so often. For example: Meals were scheduled for 7:15, 12:30 and 6:30. I could miss them if I gave them notice but other than that the meal was on the table. I actually liked the scheduling because it was easy to make plans around them. (Other students were given approximate times.) I got in trouble for not putting my chair under the table after eating and had this feeling that I was being watched more than normal.
The meals usually consisted of a meat, rice or potatoes, beans and lots of fruit. At breakfast I would get an omelette with veggies in it, or scrambled eggs, beans and 4 different kinds of fruit; usually pineapple, a melon, an orange, a banana, or a cooked platano. All fresh of course.

Francisco was insistent that I turn out lights. I was not allowed to have two lights on in my room at the same time and the first week he would check to see if I had turned out the lights when I came for meals. I can understand the concern because I too check all the lights in the house once my family has left in the morning but I thought this was too much until…Matilde (my teacher) explained what inflation had done to their electric bill. She said that she as a teacher and her husband together earn about 2400 Quetzales (about $350 Canadian) a month and that they pay 450 Quetzales ($65) a month for electricity. It is by far their most expensive cost. (I now turn off the lights.)
My room has a skylight in the roof, which helps to reduce the use of lights. All rooms that don’t have large windows have skylights and even some with windows. The room itself is fine and I feel lucky to have it given that it is only costing me $75 a week including meals.
The showerhead is electrified and involves one turning the tap on slowly until there is water in the head and allowing it some few seconds to heat the water. My fear of mixing electricity and water made my first few showers tense. Partly because I didn’t understand the workings of the shower and so had cold showers and partly because I didn’t want to electrocute myself. I got over this quickly and am here to tell the story so I now assume them to be safe.

The house itself is long and narrow with most rooms opening to the outside courtyard which has trees, parrots and a big old bloodhound. I really like the courtyard concept and only wish our climate allowed for such a concept. All of this is of course hidden from sight by a wall that runs from one corner of the street to the other and hides many homes from view.
Tomorrow is my last day of classes and then I am heading home. Gustavo will drive me to the airport at 5:30 am on Saturday.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience in Guatemala however I looking forward to seeing Cathy, Lindsay and Mike.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Yesterday after class Stephanie and Lauren asked me if I would like to go to a few clubs with them and their friends. I had been living the life of a hermit for a couple of days and jumped at the opportunity.
The first bar we went to was called La Pena de Sol Latino. It is owned by a very nice couple from Memphis. He had been a drummer in Nashville for forty years when he retired and decided to study Spanish in Antigua four years ago. He quickly met up with a well established group of musicians called Sol Latino and started jamming with them.
He liked it so much that when the group mentioned they would really like a permanent place to play he and his wife bought a building and with lots of volunteer labour turned it into a restaurant and home for the band. He now continues to play drums, while supporting the band and other groups.
They were a wonderful couple and the place was hopping so I expect they will do well. It is a big step to move permanently to another country however on this trip I met many who have.
 The young men, attracted by the two blondes I was with, arrived at the bar and we left for a bar where they could all dance. They chose a bar that had as entertainment the group that was playing at the Panza Verde the night we went there for dinner. They are a great group, Buena Vista Social Club style music. Unfortunately the place was packed and there was no room for dancing or for sitting so we went across the road to a third bar. We were searched at this one (which was weird) before entering and I found it too loud to stay around long. I left, leaving the young people to continue on to a couple more bars before heading home.
In the middle of the night I woke up worrying that the girls had not made it home all right. I had this concern that they were in the middle of a strange town, dating guys they didn’t know. What if something happened. Stephanie is 19, my daughter Lindsay’s age and I think I had a moments panic because of that. As much as I like going out my ’scene’ is a bit quieter than theirs.

I experienced my first earthquake yesterday. I had heard that they were not uncommon in Antigua so just laid back on my bed and enjoyed the tremor. I didn’t realize until today that it was a big one and the talk of the town. 6.2 on the Rictor (sp) scale. It was quite odd feeling having the whole biulding shake.

 I thought some of the details of my how I ended up in Guatemala might be of interest, so here goes. A couple of years ago I thought it would be fun to have a father/ daughter get away. Lindsay, then almost 17 was really into animals and so I looked for a volunteer vacation experience we could both enjoy. In my search on the Internet one adventure in particular intrigued me. It was an animal reserve where for $100 a week you could help look after the animals and get your room and board. As luck would have it Lindsay didn’t want to be away from friends that long and so it didn’t happen. In my searching I found out that Antigua in Guatemala was a center for teaching Spanish. In fact nearly every street has two or three schools.
Over the past year or so I had started studying Spanish on my own. I have always admired people who speak more then one language. I was under no illusions about my ability as I had been a terrible language student in school however the challenge intrigued me and still does. (After two weeks of intensive schooling, I am still under no illusions about my ability.)
I asked Cathy if she would be OK with me taking this two-week holiday/ learning experience on my own. She was very supportive and so I booked myself into Academia de Espanol, Guatemala, Antigua.

For roughly $210 a week I get 4 hours of one on one Spanish lessons plus board and room (which includes 3 meals a day living with a non English speaking Guatemalan family.)
There are few places one can have a holiday for that amount of money let alone study another language. Just for added value, each day an optional excursion is planned which may cost a little extra.
I was picked up at the Guatemalan City airport by Gustavo (the owner of the School) and driven the ½ hour drive to Antigua. There I met my family, the Chavez family and got my room. I will leave my experience with the Chavez family for another entry as it warrants special attention.

The school itself is quite nice. We start at 8 am every morning and go until noon. We study in the out of doors in small cubicles surrounded by birds and flowers (There is a picture in an earlier post.) My instructor, Matilde, is very structured and I have learned a lot of grammar. We usually start the day off with her talking about her family or Antigua or something of interest so I can start to get a handle on the sounds of Spanish. She speaks some English but rarely uses it, as the school believes it is best if as little English as possible is used.
The students do speak English during the break and at lunch. A couple of students have been here for 4 to 5 months and they would prefer to speak Spanish only, but give in easily to English as the conversations get going about what to do at night. Because I live alone (no other students) it is important for me to keep my ears open in order not to miss an opportunity that may arise.
I’ll see if I can post the family scene tomorrow.

Monday, April 14,2008
On Friday eight of us went to the hotel Panza Verde to have supper. It was a send off for two of our friends who were heading home the next day. A mother and son combo, Patty and Riley (centre in the picture) had joined us on many adventures over the last week and we were sorry to see them go.

The Panza Verde, as I mentioned, in a previous posting was a spectacular environment. Besides being in this very old room with amazing character we had a Cuban band playing for us that could have been straight out of Buena Vista Social Club.
After supper, one of the girls, Stephanie, suggested we get doggie bags for our leftovers and take them to the main square to see if someone there would like it. The heart of the young traveler works in wondrous ways. So a group of us headed to the park to find a poor person. We must have made quite a site. We did find a young man whom, after having part of our giving’s, followed us around asking us for it all. We gave in and he was a very happy man.

This past weekend I went to Lake Atitlan. It was a two-hour ride through the mountains of Guatemala and on one heck of a road. The road was the curviest I have ever been on. A restaurant owner I struck up a conversation with, said that people were known to be held up on the road especially at night. I can see why. Every corner was a potential hold up spot. If there hadn’t been  a young girl talking about all her adventures sitting  beside me I  would have really been in trouble with my stomach. I am truely amazed at how adventuresome these young people are. Especially the girls. It is as if Central America is the new Europe because it is still so cheap. Many kids are down here for 4 to 6 months.
The bonus of the weekend was my hotel. When I had tried to book a hotel I had been told that all the more expensive hotels were full and asked if I would be willing to stay in a cheaper place. My preference has always been two or three star places (probably because that is all we can usually afford) so I was happy at the opportunity to stay in a place I presumed would be closer to real Guatemalan life. The hotel was a small, all ground level paradise with hot showers and lots of water pressure. Surprising how a shower can make such an impression. The garden was just beautiful. I took advantage of it by reading outside.

As soon as I arrived I headed down to the lake to catch the first boat available going to one of the villages. The lake has some 5 or 6 pueblos on it with small 24 seat boats running pretty much all day between them. There is no schedule. They simply wait until the boat is full or near full before they leave. As luck would have it I caught the boat for Santiago. I was not impressed with the town and got stuck with a guide I didn’t want but decided to take because I thought he might show me some stuff I would other wise miss. He did that, but just barely.

Some of you may remember back in the early nineteen eighties when there were a number of massacures in Santiago. 10 men in fields in 1980, a Franciscan Father, Stanely Rother and his Deacon in 1981 and 13 peaceful protesters in 1990. The Guatemalan civil war lasted for 30 years (1966 to 1993). I mention it because being there somehow made it more real for me and I know it is happening in other areas of our world today.
Because I was coming down with a cold and because I didn’t like Santiago, I decided to stay in Panajachel and not go across the lake to another Pueblo. I decided to enjoy the hotel and local flavour. I was glad I did. I got to read Orwell’s Animal Farm for the second time and go to the beach on Sunday to watch the locals. There were church services along the beach with lots of singing and praying.

As it moved from morning to afternoon, more and more people came to the beach. The kids swam and families took boat rides and had picnics. During this time, Mayan women walked around selling various crafts to whom ever would buy.
I was very happy I had decided to stay in Panajachel. I’m just not sure I would hurry back.

Friday April 10, 2008
Before I talk about the best and scariest tour so far I want to tell you about my trip back to the hotel Santa Domingo.
The main entrance was, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, just a door off the street. However behind that door was the most amazing hotel I have ever seen. Naturally, the whole area of the hotel is walled as are all the buildings in Antigua. When it was a monastery/convent in the 1500 to1700s it seems both priests and nuns lived there. The renovations are extensive and ongoing. Any relatively new construction has been designed to fit into the convent theme and they do have baroque church music piped into the museums and older area of the grounds and church. The church is still operational today although it doesn’t look like a church but more like an open area in the middle of the ruins.

The real question is “Are there ghosts lurking in the hallways?” In my opinion, of course there are. It could not be helped. They have the skeletons of people long gone on display and the rock caskets are in plain view for one to look at.
I had every right to be scared finding my way around there in the dead of night. No?
Yesterday we went to the volcano. It involved a two-hour van ride and a one and a half hour hike up the side of the volcano to the top and then a treacherous climb down into the volcano where we roasted marshmallows over the flowing lava. No kidding! You can see Stephony getting ready to roast one here.

Nowhere north of Mexico would we have been allowed to do what we did. We walked on the volcanic ash over flowing lava to an open pool of lava where it was so hot it left the legs of those in shorts, red. In fact, you could smell the melting rubber from some of the cheaper runners.
The only down side was the van ride there and back. It was a very old twelve-seater van with fourteen people and a driver from hell. I hate the way every van driver seems to have this wish to die with a load of foreigners in his van.

Tomorrow a number of our classmates are leaving for their homes so tonight we are fine dinning at the Hotel Panza Verde. It is the hotel I would chose to stay at if I was in Antigua (and wealthy.)
I am off to Lago Atitlan. Apparently it is a beautiful lake surrounded by volcanic peeks. There are five pueblos (villages) on the lake and it is possible to take a boat and visit two of three of them in a day. I am excited because it is the home of many Mayan people and I am sure there will be a number of great photo opportunities.
I won’t be taking my computer so until Monday, hasta luego.
Keith

 Wed April 9, 2008
This morning I realized I talk too much. This awareness comes to me every once and a while but not often enough to stop me from doing it again. I fear sometimes I am becoming one of those cartoon caricatures of a man that only talks about himself.
Yesterday we went to the coffee bean plantation. It was the best tour to date. Our young tour guide spoke Spanish slowly and I was able to pick up a few words. The Plantation had two museums in it as well as the working operation. One was all about coffee and the other was a display of Mayan musical instruments. While the coffee plantation was special, the musical instruments intrigued me. The actual music was not something I would purchase. Our guide through the musical museum played each instrument and while most were fairly common a couple were very different. The jawbone of a horse was a bit eerie. The large tortoise shell drum sounded beautiful and had it not been so big I would have bought one.
Joining us by chance were a young man and woman from France. They were traveling for a month through Central America and were your usual energetic, animated adventurers. I warmed to them right away.
When we were leaving the plantation the driver of our bus offered to pick the two of them up as they walked along the road, in our already packed 12 seater van. I have found that there is always room for more people in a vehicle in Latin America. It seems it would be rude to pass someone by if you had room for them (sometimes even if you don’t have room for them).
The young woman ended up nearly sitting in my lap. I have a soft spot in my heart for young French women so I thought this was quite alright.
During our conversation she asked why I was studying Spanish. I told her that I always envied Europeans who were fluent in three or four languages and that my goal was to try and learn 4 before I died. Not fluently but well enough to get around. She looked at me rather oddly and said that in France most people only speak one language. This is when I made my big mistake. I laughed and said that the French think the world revolves around them. Then trying to soften this exclamation I said, “Just like the Americans!”  Now in this van of fourteen people there was one Canadian, one person from Holland, two Guatemalans, the two from France and eight from the States. I felt the chill in what was otherwise a hot and humid day.
I really missed not having Cathy there to tell me I was indeed way out of line but to then cuddle me and sooth my feelings.

It is Wednesday evening and I am sitting at home after being stood up for supper. Not hard to understand as they were all from the states. A group of us, four people from one home stay and myself were going to go out for supper. I got dressed up and joined them for a little shopping before supper. I didn’t realize they had decided not to eat out but to shop and go back to their place for supper. I felt a bit awkward when they rather sheepishly let me in on this change of plans. I had that fifth wheel or third person along with a couple feeling.
As luck would have it, I ended up eating with three travel promoters at the fanciest hotel in town. The Santa Domingo is a renovated convent and church that is absolutely stunning and quite scary.
After leaving my friends I made my way to the Santa Domingo to look around. (We had talked about having supper there.) I got lost as I had never been there and ended up entering through the garage. By now it was dark outside and really a bit spooky. There was absolutely no one around and the only way I knew I was in the right hotel was the sign that said Santa Domingo Hotel Parking. It was under ground parking.
I followed a long hallway that was very much a passageway one would expect to find in a castle: incredibly quiet and ominous. When I finally met someone I asked for the lobby figuring I would be able to orient myself from there. Wrong figuring. The lobby was just a dining room size jut off the hall I was walking along. Because I wasn’t staying at the hotel I was sheepish about asking for directions so I continued through what seemed like acres of walkways through ruins. Baroque monastic music was now playing over the loud speakers. At another time I might have found the music soothing. Tonight it was unsettling. “Are there ghosts of nuns long gone lurking in these halls?” I thought to myself that this would be one great Halloween experience. The walkways were lit with candles and there were spotlights on the old ruins. Other than that it was dark and deserted.
I doubled back when I noticed a walkway that seemed to lead to a more lighted area. This is where I met the travel salesman sitting on a bench waiting for a friend to join him for supper. We struck up a conversation and he suggested I join them for dinner.
When I left the hotel the entrance was very different from what one might expect. The door was right on the street with no drop off spot for guests etc. Just a rather small sign ‘Santa Domingo Hotel.’ No wonder I had missed it.
I will go back in the daylight and check this place out.

I have arrived!! The trip was uneventful and too long. I realized that I enjoy traveling with Cathy a lot better than on my own. I make mistakes when traveling on my own and need someone to help keep me out of trouble. Having two people to negotiate the unknown is always more likely to produce better results. It was also quite lonely sitting for four hours between flights. I can only do so many sudoku games, thanks Lindsay, and read so much. I actually found it very hard to stay awake when reading. Not sure if it was the 5 am start to the day or the reading material.
I was able to sleep on the plane which made the time in the air fly by, so to speak.
I met a nice couple from the St. Catherine area. Software sellers for funeral parlors. They were headed for Mexico and had a reasonable grasp of Spanish which the woman insisted on trying out on me leaving me feeling quite intimidated. Actually she was quite nice. I was surprised that most of the shop and service people in the Miami airport were Mexican or at least Spanish speaking.
Gustavo the owner of the school I am attending picked me up at the airport in Guatemala.

 

We arrived in Antigua quickly as he wanted to get home to his 6 week old twin boys. Actually he looked quite exhausted and I think we should have stopped for a beer so he could relax. I can only imagine how difficult it is to raise twins.
Clara and Francisco, my host family, are very nice. They are grandparents to Monica and Jose Manual. Manual doesn’t live with us but his girlfriend Amy does. I just learned that. I sit and listen at meals (Clara thinks I should speak more). I find the meals the most uncomfortable time of my day because I agree with her but just don’t have the words to string together to have a conversation. Maybe by next week.
My room is sparse with a table, chairs, single bed and dresser. I like it a lot. It feels like living in a monastary. It has a sliding board in the ceiling that opens to let in daylight. Practical and convenient; my kind of window. 
The shower is an ‘electrified at the spout’ kind of shower. You throw a fairly substantial toggle switch outside the bath to supply power to the shower head. Luckily I had heard of this way to heat water, just never seen one before. It probably wouldn’t pass inspection at home. It is my only real complaint in that the shower is cold and I have yet to manage more than a “Wow, This is cold” each morning. While the shower wakes me up, I could start smelling ripe if I don’t get to spend a little more time under the water.

My first day at “Academia de Espanola Guatemala” was a success. Luisa, the admin assistant introduced me to the rules and regs of the school and took me for a tour. It is a beautiful setting. We study in an open courtyard surrounded by birds and flowers. There is a swimming pool (that may be the answer to my shower problems). My teacher is Matilda. She is very organized and I have a feeling she can crack the whip. I think I am afraid of her!! Hopefully I will learn.
There are only 10 of us studying at the school and I met 5 today. Two older women from the states, a young man from Norway and two young women, one from Holland and one from Vermont. They are all veterans of 3 or more weeks, some as much as three months. The young Norwegian is on his second 6-week stint. You’ve got to respect those Europeans for their ability learn languages. He says the reason he is studying Spanish is that he wants to be an engineer and live in a warm climate.
Antigua is the first city I have been in where ALL the streets are cobblestone. Luisa offered me a bicycle. I laughed and said she must be nuts. She agreed although some of the teachers ride to school each day. If you think Thunder Bay’s pot holes are hard on your car you should try driving all day on cobblestones.
The main square on Sunday was just wonderful. I spent most of the day people watching. It seemed to be the place to be. Kids ran amuck. 8-year-old shoeshine boys kept wanting to shine my sandals. One woman with a young boy stood and talked or tried to talk with me (she only spoke Spanish) for about an hour. I did a lot of nodding and she spoke incessantly. 
The market in Antigua is huge. Narrow, packed and hot. Clothes, chickens, produce, trinkets, you name it they had it. At one point I got so far into it I wasn’t sure of the way out. People were very nice and not at all pushy. They would ask politely but never insisted. I still don’t feel comfortable engaging them. I feel that if I stop I will be obligated to buy. I have made up my mind to learn to stop and look and walk away. I think they prefer that to someone who just passes them by. Quite frankly, most of them look pretty bored and they are nice to try and talk with. As I progress in my language skills I will make it a practice of going to the market to haggle. Hopefully, I won’t come home with a big wooden elephant.
Oh! Just an odd observation. Other, obviously foreign people, don’t make eye contact or smile on the street. Guatemalans do. I think there is an underlying feeling that it isn’t cool to speak with English speaking people…or it may just be that we gringos don’t make eye contact very easily…or maybe they think I am a bandito.
Well I have about caught everyone up to date.
I have been having a bit of trouble connecting to the web page so I hope this works. If it does and you have any questions or insights feel free to use the comment area of this page and I will do my best to respond.

Dryden Votes on the “Fluoride Issue” on April 14. (Thunder Bay’s City Council is still considering Health Canada recommendations and Ministry of the Environment reviews before making their decision.)
Boy! People can get pretty worked up about additives to their drinking water. One advocate against Fluoride and a guest speaker in Dryden’s debate over this topic looked like he was out of the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Because Thunder Bay is also considering fluoridation I did a little on research to see what I could find. There is some pretty scary stuff on the web. If you were to believe what you hear and see there you would never agree to it.
I can only imagine the struggle that must have ensued when they decided that putting chlorine in municipal water would help to keep people healthy. Especially after the way it was used in World War 1. Can you imagine telling someone who was gassed in WW1 that “We are now going to put Chlorine in your water?”
I had a chance to have a beer with Peter Cooney who is an advocate of Fluoridation. He is also Chair of the International Public Health Section of World Dental Federation and Chief Dental Officer for Health Canada. How’s that for name dropping! At any rate he comes with a pretty biased opinion based on what I would call ‘sound research’. If one is critical of something it is pretty easy to say what you want and you don’t really have to have sound research behind you. If you are in Dr. Cooney’s position you need to be a little more careful because you don’t want to be wrong. You want to make sure your research is well done. Given the influence of his position he could cause very serious harm to many people.
Needless to say he has done his homework and just to keep him on his toes across the hall from his office at the University of Toronto is a Professor Limeback who speaks out strongly against Fluoridation.
I’m not big on putting chemicals in our water however our health care system doesn’t cover dental and anyone who doesn’t have a dental plan knows that it costs a lot to have the kids teeth looked after by a dentist. It is often done at the cost of going without themselves. The Thunder Bay District Health Unit gets three to four calls a week from people who can’t afford to go to the dentist. I am lucky. I have a plan but I am concerned that my kids may not once they start raising kids. Our society is moving away from employment health care plans and service industry jobs rarely offer this option. I would love to see dental care as part of our health care system however under NAFTA it isn’t allowed. It would be seen as unfair competition by the large American corporations.
A woman in Waterloo Ontario, Carole Clinch has got herself so worked up about fluoride that she has asked the Canadian Government to ban Fluoride use in Canada. If fact she composed 51 questions she wanted the Government of Canada to respond to. Now this is not a matter to be taken lightly. When someone, strongly in opposition to something, approaches the Auditor General of Canada with concerns, the ministry’s pundits are pretty much forced to do the research to find the answers. In this case because fluoridation is a debated subject it made even more sense to do the research. Four Ministries were involved in answering the 51 questions and in taking a serious look at the dangers of fluoride. They were unanimous in their findings that fluoride, managed correctly, was a safe and beneficial additive to drinking water.
Fluoride has been around for a long time. 70 % of Ontario folks have floride in their water. There have been many opportunities to study the difference in tooth decay between cities with and without fluoride and it has been shown time and again that fluoride (managed in the same way we now manage chlorine) reduces tooth decay with no negative effects.
In my opinion there aren’t many ways we can provide universal health care so effectively as adding fluoride to drinking water.

I guess I can rant in this blog. All some people do is rant in their blogs so I feel entitled. Over the last few years I have felt a sense of relief after passing through Canadian Customs  at the Pigeon River border successfully. Not that I am doing anything illegal. It  just seems that crossing borders, either way, is expected to be stressful and is. 

I have often said to Cathy, “It’s good to be back in Canada!” Then I see that bill board.

WIFE ABUSE IS ILLEGAL IN CANADA. or something like that. Boy that takes the wind out of my sails. I wonder what visitors think? “Do Canadians think that Americans are wife beaters?” or “Canada must have a real problem with wife beating. We must be in a real back water of a country now honey!” or “Nice way to welcome visitors to Canada!”

I agree that wife beating is awful and needs to be dealt with severly but do we need to welcome visitors or returning Canadians with such a negative sign? I don’t think so. Let’s change it for something like “Give your spouse a hug. He or she is special.”