Wonderland

Alice asked, "Is I mean what I say the same as I say what I mean?"

Lewis Carrol might have been dreaming into the future and imagining British Columbia where on any given street corner you can always buy a bite of mushroom where 'one side will make you tall, one side will make you small.'

We have, after all, a Premier who speaks out of both sides of his square head.

Well, judos to the Se't A'newey Performance Choir who have said, "Fuggetit, man."

Believing they were invited by Head Honcho Numero Uno to sing in the Opening Ceremonies, then de-invited, then offered a consolation prize, these kids unanimously opted for goin' fishin'.

Good on them.

To add insult to grievous injury, the little so-and-sos want an apology.

Why am I seeing a striped cat with a grin wider than his face?

Karzai Kapers

Here was Tuesday's little explosion in the N.Y. Times:

"KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials."

Translation: SNAFU

The brother of the Afghan president is both a major drug dealer and a paid CIA informant.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regularly refers to the embattled country as a "narco-state."

The Taliban is happily blowing up everything and everybody it can in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I don't know what we or anyone else is doing there.

I also don't know how we can sit back and watch the region collapse.

I'm stymied. This is a full-blown disaster and no one has shown me that they are less confused than I am.

Appointments

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto has published in this morning's papers an appointment announcement.

Dr. Catherine Zahn is the new CAMH President and CEO.

I don't know Dr. Zahn and I am sure she is a smart and accomplished and lovely person.

The CAMH is another cookie altogether.

It is a monolith formed some years back by the amalgamation of the Clarke Institute and the Addiction Research Foundation.

Here is how they describe themselves:

"Canada's leading mental health and addiction teaching hospita and research centre...committed to transforming lives..."

I cannot speak about their track record with people suffering from mental problems.

But I can tell you loud and clear that I know of NOT ONE addict who has walked away from CAMH as a clean and sober citizen.

Now, if one tenth of this vulnerable institution's multi-multi-multi-million dollar budget was passed on to the handful of real treatment programs scattered across the Canadian wilderness, we might be doing something useful.

But this is the way of the world, isn't it?

Governments, politicians, bureaucrats, doctors build big bold buildings and put stuff in them. They huff and puff and congratulate themselves silly.

Meanwhile on the other side of town, real people with real understanding of the issues work under strained conditions begging always for money.