Blogs, Canucks, Eagles and Le français

The gracious folks at http://www.beyondrobson.com/ have added Observations from the Island to their list of Vancouver blogs! Beyond Robson is the Vancouver FreshDaily website headed up by Ariadna Peretz, it’s about the obscure and obvious of Vancouver. You'll find information on everything that affects the citizens of this city, be it the next demonstration, the last fashion event or the least comfortable park bench. They also have sites for Montreal and Toronto. Check it out.

While we are on the subject of the west coast – how about those Vancouver canucks? I find Vancouver to be a very interesting sports town in that it is difficult to keep people interested in professional sports. Remember the Grizzlies? Maybe this is a good thing, as Vancouver seems to lead the country and many parts of the world in staying fit and healthy. At the beginning of the hockey season many critics predicted Vancouver prime for a Stanley Cup and now we are hanging by a thin piece of hockey tape just to make the playoffs. A couple of weeks ago at the height of their miserable performance I watched in disbelief as the local news spent the first twenty-five minutes dogging the entire team and organization. It was like the news anchors took it on themselves to inform the team that the city had had enough. Is there nothing else to report about? I guess we’ll know soon enough if local businesses will lose out again since there was no hockey last year and possibly the season finale just around the corner. Regardless, I stand firm – GO HABS GO!

Moving farther west onto Denman Island is an amazing website I came across this week. There is an eagle’s nest located on Hornby Island in the Gulf Island area of British Columbia. The pair of eagles has been nesting there for about 19 years usually producing two young per year. In September of 2004 Doug Carrick organized that a video camera be placed in the nest. Doug is a considerably dedicated conservationist, a retired schoolteacher and still an educator and eagle lover with the pair of bald eagles nesting just behind his house. Check this site out it is now getting about a million hits a day. http://www.infotecbusinesssystems.com/wildlife/default.asp

It was with mixed emotions that I read the heading this week that “bowing to protests, Chirac will replace controversial youth labour law” in France. The contentious "first job contract" law would have made it possible for employers to fire workers under the age of 26 within two years without cause. Crazy. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin stood by the nutty law despite weeks of protests and anger. In a televised address on Monday, Villepin shared his regret over the strikes and street protests. "The necessary conditions of confidence and calm are not there, either among young people, or companies, to allow the application of the First Job Contract," Villepin said.

In March of 2003 we headed to Thailand for a trip after attending many of the peace rallies that were taking place all over the world in record numbers to oppose any war in Iraq. I remember that we left Canada feeling very positive that so many people around the world were on the same page and understood that this type of war mentality was not in line with millions of citizens. Unfortunately as our trip came near it’s end so had our hope as the U.S. led coalition forces began their air strike. So I congratulate the millions in France who spoke up and held their ground giving renewed hope that we all can make a difference in changing the world.

Peace,

This has been another Observation from the Island.

p.s. Thanks for the visit cousin Mikey! Have a safe trip back to Ontario.