Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Victor Scours the Streets, Searching in Vain for a Politician with Character and Substance
We have 2 high profile politicians in BC who gained elected office on the guilt vote. Both are hopelessly over their heads. I'm sorry, we have to confront this.
The first is outgoing Vancouver Mayor, Sam Sullivan. Let's face it. Sam was elected because Vancouverites, under the illusion that the entire world monitors Vancouver politics, wanted to make a statement to the world by electing a silly man in a wheelchair. The world doesn't care.
The other, is of course, Wally Oppal. This is a man who was born here, who was favoured with a wonderful education all the way to law school, but still pimps himself out as an Indo-Canadian, as though he arrived from the Punjab and picked cranberries. The man is as dumb as a sack of hammers. I know a number of real Indo-Canadian people who don't rely on ethnic leverage to succeed.
We have a Merritt Festival in Merritt BC.We need a merit festival in politics.
Not a disease
A commentor has asked me to explain how drug addiction is a disease.
Let's be clear.
Drug addiction and alcoholism are not diseases.
To call addictons diseases is a comforting convenience for liberal do-gooders, whp don't really understand or want to understand the issues and the mechanics of addictions. They feel that the stigma is thus removed and that doctors can help.
Drug addiction is a condition brought on by repeatedly bad choices. The reasons for these consistently bad choices are complex and, in time, need to be addressed and understood if the addict has any hope of living dope-free.
But it is the addict and other recovering addicts who can help. Medical science has the smallest possible role in recovery.
Dope fiends are stupid and they make lousy choices.
Work with them to help them begin making better choices.
Doctors and nurses will just give them stuff - pills, substitutes, needles, places to shoot up or drink sips.
Addictions are not diseases. They are self-imposed behavior choices.
Par for the Course
It will be interesting to see how the good elected offcials of Rossland, BC handle the situation.
Someone wants to build a gold course on Red Mountain. Good.
Right next to the water resevoir. Not so good.
Three thousand citizens have petitioned against it. Interesting.
Stay tuned.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
More on Harm Seduction
See also Robert's post on his blog re: Harm Seduction.
Slowly the army of informed and reasonable and truly caring people are speaking up about the NEED FOR TREATMENT.
Join the groundswell. Speak out.
Shameful Government
The Basi Virk trial is one of the greatest shams and miscarriages of justice this sorry jurisdiction has ever witnessed.
Now, to add to the injury, the BC government wants to ban the publication of 90 e-mails that have some relevance to the proceedings.
Does Wally Opaque have his sticky hand in this obscenity?
Whoever is involved might be reminded of the old adage that, "not only does justice need to be done, it needs to be seen to be done."
Transparency has not been a long suit for the BC Liberals.
The face of (highly mistaken, do-gooding) Evil
The photo shown below with the Margaret Wente piece is of Bethany Jeal, a nurse with the Downtown East Side Clinical Housing Team, whatever that is.
I believe that the sickest person in the DTES is this young woman and her colleagues.
They are so sincere, so caring, so sure that they are helping.
Let's be very, very clear.
I spent 10 years of my life working with addicts.
Not only would it never have occurred to me to don rubber gloves and hand out killing machines, we never even for one second discussed drugs!
We talked a lot.
We talked about sadness, anger, disappointment, work, accomplishment, love, friendship, parents, children, art, music, sport, food, LIFE.
Result? Literally hundreds and hundreds of clean and sober non-using former addicts.
When I see the likes of Bethany, I don't know if I want to cry or grab an axe.
Quite Simply the Best Editorial on Harm Reduction Ever - Magaret Wente in Saturday's Globe
Sergeant Mark Steinkampf knows every back alley in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He greets the regulars by name and doesn't miss much. On street patrol one balmy evening, he spots a new face – a young, attractive woman on a bicycle. He motions her to stop.
“I can see that crack pipe in your bra there,” he says. He pulls it out and dangles it in the air. “You're under arrest. Let me read you your rights.” He drops the crack pipe and crushes it beneath his shoe.
The woman doesn't have drugs on her. If she's smart, she'll get out of here fast and he'll never see her again. If she's not, her prospects aren't good. A year from now, she'll likely be ravaged by drugs and infections, turning tricks to get the money for a fix. If she's very unlucky, she'll wind up like another girl, whose body was found by a dumpster, stuffed into a plastic bag like so much garbage.
Vancouver is famous for its innovative approaches to drug treatment. Twenty years ago, it launched a bold experiment to tackle the problems of the notorious Downtown Eastside. The guiding idea was harm reduction. If you couldn't cut off the drug supply or jail all the addicts, then at least you could reduce the secondary damage – HIV, hepatitis and the like – by giving people clean needles. You would surround them with medical and social services. Addiction, all agreed, was an illness, and addicts deserved compassion and respect. Bethany Jeal a nurse with the Downtown East Side Clinical Housing Team, holds a typical tray with an injection kit that will be handed out to drug users at Insite.
Vancouver's needle exchange, the first in North America, opened in 1989. That first year, about 128,000 needles were handed out. Today, the streets are flooded with more than three million free needles each year. The sick and malnourished, many of them with open sores, freely inject drugs. Between 5,000 and 10,000 addicts live within these eight square blocks. The HIV rate hovers around 40 per cent; hepatitis-C rate is 85 per cent. There are more than 150 social services located in the area, offering everything from counselling and shelter to free lunch and art supplies. But there are virtually no treatment beds.
Mark Steinkampf, who heads the Downtown Eastside detail, has worked this beat for 18 years. He cares about the people, and wants to get a message out: Harm reduction – the philosophy that has come to dominate drug policy – doesn't work. Just the opposite. It digs the pit of addiction deeper and wider.
Insite is the supervised-injection facility that has come to symbolize harm reduction. Here, addicts can shoot up in a clean, well-lit booth under the eye of helpful nurses, who supply them with clean needles and treat them if they overdose. Its supporters say Insite is a remarkable success story that reduces infections and saves lives. But Sgt. Steinkampf just laughs. “It's like saying, ‘Hey man, you're really high. Want some treatment? Here's some more drugs!' ”
Advocates say the Insite experiment (now in its sixth year) is a progressive, compassionate approach that is supported by almost everyone. As they tell it, the only opposition comes from a few rogue cops, hard-line abstinence types and right-wing ideologues.
In fact, that is not the case. Many front-line workers, including addictions doctors, nurses and people who run successful rehab programs, believe the philosophy Insite represents has been a disaster. Some are hesitant to speak out, because harm reduction is official policy and criticizing it can be a career-killer. Others think it's time people heard their side.
“We here treating addicts see a very different world,” says Stan de Vlaming, an addictions doctor who's work-ed with the Downtown Eastside population for a dozen years. His patients are the most entrenched and addicted of all. As he sees it, they don't need more free lunch. They need entry-level recovery houses – preferably far away from here – where they can be closely supervised for months.
They also need a far more aggressive push into treatment and recovery – something they don't get from the many, many helpers who are busy finding them housing and giving them free needles. “Harm reduction without a treatment component is a failed policy,” he says.
Today, rehabilitation is the treatment of last, not first resort. “Rehabilitation” and “recovery” are terms you don't hear from advocates of harm reduction. What you do hear, over and over again, is the word “safe” – a word that many addictions doctors take issue with.
“I saw a patient the other day who's still injecting two or three times a week,” says Dr. de Vlaming. “I explained that there's no safe way of injecting drugs. He said, ‘No one's ever told me that.' ”
“Safe injection is a misnomer,” says Milan Khara, another veteran addictions doctor. “Insite is a supervised injection site. Injections inevitably lead to medical complications.”
St. Paul's Hospital is the big red-brick building where they deal with the complications. It treats addicts with life-threatening infections of the heart, brain and bone. “When you put a needle into your arm, the infection can land anywhere,” Dr. Khara explains. Bringing the infection under control with antibiotics takes weeks or months.
Despite the supervised-injection site, the number of addicts with such complications has steadily increased. Today, they make up 10 per cent of the patient population at St. Paul's, and account for nearly 20,000 hospital days a year. “Insite did not have any effect on these serious infectious complications,” says Dr. de Vlaming.
One such patient, a 32-year-old woman with a heart infection, has been hospitalized repeatedly. This time, she knows she'll die if she can't get a treatment bed. But those are scarce. This month, the government finally opened a long-awaited recovery facility in nearby Burnaby. It's a drop in the bucket.
“I've lived down here for the best part of a decade and it's been getting crazier every day,” says Dr. Khara. “I don't see any return on our investment.” An increasing number of ordinary citizens agree. “For the life of me, having lived in that 'hood, I see no evidence of any ‘harm' being ‘reduced,' ” wrote Ruth Meta in a letter to The Vancouver Courier.
Back on the beat, Sgt. Steinkampf tries to reassure a frantic mother who's searching for her son. “Look around!” he says afterward, gesturing at the dishevelled men with their shopping carts and the ravaged women who look 60, but are 30. “And they're calling this fucking mess a success? Anyone can see it has failed utterly.”
The police – and many others – argue that well-intentioned but misguided social policies have turned this place into a vast enabling industry. Contrary to popular belief, the police have no desire to throw addicts in jail. They want to help them kick the habit and escape.
They want more drug-court diversion programs, and they want treatment to be made a part of sentencing. They're sick of watching people die.
Ten years ago, some of the police, including Sgt. Steinkampf, began documenting this world on videotape. They wanted to put a human face on the statistics. They called themselves the Odd Squad, and invested thousands of hours of their own time to bring their stories to the world. Their latest film, Tears for April, should bring shame to policy-makers. It chronicles the struggles of several addicts – including a girl named April, whom they followed from the time she first arrived on the street as a pretty teenager. It was she who was found murdered, stuffed into a plastic bag by the dumpster.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Just Slightly Ahead of his Time
Tired of the carbon tax, SUVs, Climate change, David Suzuki? How about the greatest all-round genius of all time? Try the original Leo...
Leonardo's car brought to life
Open top three-wheeler. 2004 reg. Italian design and craftsmanship. Zero mpg. No emissions. Easy parking. Programmable steering
John Hooper in Rome
Saturday April 24 2004
The Guardian
It has taken more than 500 years to get from the drawing board to the showroom, but today the first working model of the "car" conceived by Leonardo da Vinci is to go on display at an exhibition in Florence.
Eight months' work by computer designers, engineers and joiners has proved something that had been doubted for centuries: the machine sketched by history's most versatile genius in or around 1478 actually moves.
"It was - or is - the world's first self-propelled vehicle," said Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, who oversaw the project.
Perhaps sensibly, humanity waited for the invention of steam power and then the internal combustion engine. Leonardo's car, 1.68m long and 1.49m wide (5ft 6ins by 4ft 11ins), runs on clockwork. The springs are wound up by rotating the wheels in the opposite direction to the one in which it is meant to go.
"It is a very powerful machine," Professor Galluzzi said. So powerful that although they have made a full-scale "production model", they have not dared test it. "It could run into something and do serious damage," he said.
The vehicle demonstrated in Florence yesterday was a one-third scale replica.
Several attempts were made in the last century to construct the vehicle. None worked.
They were vitiated by a misunderstanding: that Leonardo powered his vehicle with the two big leaf springs, shaped like the arms of a crossbow, shown in his sketch on folio 812r of the Atlantic Codex, one of the great collections of his studies and sketches.
In 1975 Carlo Pedretti, director of the Armand Hammer Centre for Leonardo Studies in Los Angeles, published a paper showing early 15th century copies in the Uffizi archives of some early Da Vinci sketches. "Two of the drawings represent a view from above of the spring mechanism of the well-known self-propelled vehicle in the Atlantic Codex," he wrote.
Studying the copies, Prof Pedretti realised that the springs were not meant to drive the car but to regulate a drive mechanism located elsewhere. In 1996 his intuition was reported in a book by an American robotics expert, Mark Rosheim.
"He believes that motive power is provided by coiled springs inside the tambours", Mr Rosheim wrote.
The theory that the car's "engines" were sited in a couple of drum-like casings on the underside resolved many of the enigmas in Leonardo's design. But until Prof Galluzzi and his team got to work, it was still just a theory.
Their first step was to create a digital model by computer aided design.
"That took four months," Prof Galluzzi told the Guardian. "But at the end we had a machine which we knew ought to work."
To test Leonardo's genius to the limit it was decided to try to realise his vision with materials available to the craftsmen of his time. That meant mainly wood.
Florentine furniture restorers were asked which types their predecessors would have chosen for which parts of the vehicle.
"The biggest problem was to find a wood for the cogs, because that had to be hard and resistant.
The finished vehicle contains five sorts of wood and "mechanisms of extraordinary refinement".
Leonardo scholars have long believed the car was intended to provide special effects in some kind of performance.
It has a brake that can be released at distance by an operator with a hidden rope, so it would have appeared to start by itself.
A programmable steering mechanism allows it go straight, or turn at pre-set angles. But only to the right. Good in towns like today's Florence, with a one-way system. As ever, Leonardo was centuries ahead of his time.
Grumpy Hits Pay (and other) Dirt
Just a note on the Canada Line. Due to the cost of the Canada line escalating from $1.3 billion to over $2.4 billion (How many fast-ferry fiasco's does this equal?), the stations in the subway are a mere 50 metres in length, or just enough to fit a 3 car train.
This means that for $2.4 billion (and climbing) we have the world's smallest subway system with its maximum capacity held at 15,000 pphpd (and that is crush loading) and to increase capacity, larger stations must be built!
This means that to increase capacity, we have to to the cut-and-cover thing all over again on Cambie St., to increase the subterranean stations lengths.
Anyone want to tell this to Susan Heyes?
Two things come to mind with this idiocy:
1)In the real world, subways are not even considered unless ridership on a transit route exceeds 15,000 pphpd.
2) A simple LRT operating on the 'Arbutus' at a fraction of the cost of the Canada Line, could achieve capacities exceeding 20,000 pphpd!
That's right folks, step right up and see the world's smallest and most expensive subway, brought to you by Gordo & his pals, including Malcolm (not the Light Rail Guy) Brodie; Senator Larry (30 pieces of silver) Campbell ; Ken (lets shred those memos) Dobell; Jane ($20,000 a month) Bird; and not to forget Kevin (another bird brained) Falcon.
You just can't make this stuff up!
Light Rail Guy Posts in
| From: | |
Hey David, the Light Rail Guy & the Light Rail Committee were onto the RAV/Canada line hokum in 2000. not only did the LRC predict cut-and-cover subway construction, it also predicted that ridership will be about 10% greater than the 98-B Line & Cambie St. buses.
The LRC also predicts that Translink will lose the suburban ridership because of the forced transfer of 300 & 600 series of buses from South Surrey & Delta, at Casino Junction (just a few slots away from your destination).
Already in Tsawwassen there is a large number of wee "Smart" cars and many former bus riders will switch from transit to cars.
(Maybe we can get electric cars and hook up to the new high voltage power lines?)
RAV/Canada Line shows the complete folly of building metro/subway on a route that doesn't have the ridership to support it.
For about $1.5 billion less, we could have had a LRT line from Downtown Vancouver to Steveston & YVR and possibly to Ironwood mall @ #5 and Steveston highway.
Postscript
Running just in from of the mouldy 'Speed Skating oval', is the remains of a former railway right-of-way which connected to the 'Arbutus' Line. If LRT had been built instead, we would have had a very speedy LRT service direct to the Oval's front door. But, no, Malcolm Brodie wanted a politically prestigious metro instead, so now the closest station is about 1.5 km. away. I'll just take the car instead!
I told you so!
Linda Y deserves another post
Hi David, I read the article in the Vancouver Sun before I read your blog.
I was going to sit down and pen a letter to the editor on this one.
Some of the residents of the building did not want to put a ramp in because it would make the lobby look like an "old folks home" !!!???
Hey, I work in a long term care facility (aka "old Folks Home). The building's lobby is beautiful and people walk by the front of the building (not knowing that it is an "old folks home" and ask about renting there - LOL!)
Anyways, what anti-accessibility people don't realize is that ramps are handy for EVERYONE. Ever try bringing your folding shopping cart loaded with groceries up a curb or a couple of steps? It's a lot easier with a ramp. Try negotiating a stroller up a couple of steps. As a mum with a DOUBLE stroller - I love ramps!! Ever had the unfortunate experience of having a leg cast. Ramps are great!
On of my favourite Vancouver Public Library branches is in my parents old neighbourhood. The Renfrew Branch on 22nd and Renfrew in Vancouver. This building was specifically designed to be accessible for everyone. I remember going there in my early twenties. It was spacious and comfortable to use. All people, young, elderly and people with disabilities can use this functional, esthetically pleasing library.
I am surprised that this strata council did not take the immediate and necessary steps to suppport a thirty year resident by making the lobby accessible.
I am 37 right now and able bodied. I could have an accident and find myself needing a walker, can or wheelchair anytime. In another 10, 20, 30, 40 years ... who knows. One day, If I live long enough, I will need an accessible home too.
We all will.
Let's make them accessible now for everybody.
Linda Y
Attentione
Dear Bloggists,
Several of you have expressed problems reading yesterday's posting of The Province Column.
I've re-posted it today...way down there after all the other stuff.
Hope you can read it more clearly now.
Did You say, "Strict?"
Wally Opaque described the bail conditions of Reyat as "extremely strict."
We might describe the behaviour of our Attorney general as "extremely slick."
Reyat is free to do pretty much whatever he chooses, including cavorting with his former partners in crime...oh, excuse me, the men acquitted on all charges in the deaths of 331 people.
The geniuses at the prisons where reyat has been residing for th last 20 years say he is a low risk, and we know what a great batting average these guys have at assessing risk.
This case continues to insult any reasonable person's intelligence or sense of justice.
Ramp Up Their Values
Hail to the lovely folks in the strata council who spent $20,000 on lawyers fees arguing that they shouldn't put in a ramp for an old lady.
Talk about incivility.
The disgusting mess ca be read here.
Forgiveness may not be all it's cracked up to be
And from the Department of, I Admit I Don't Get It...
1. Mr. Wick spent 15 hours waiting outside to buy a new iPhone for himself and one for Mrs. Wick.
Write your own joke.
2. The missionary who was raped and hacked with machetes and had her face smashed in and her husband who is a mass of broken bones, they can't wait to get out of hospital after their many operations so they can get to the prison and forgive their assailants.
I appreciate this lack of comprehension makes me a lower form of life force, but so be it.
Run, Girl, Run!
One of the great Irving Berlin songs from "Annie Get Your Gun," which is now playing at TUTS, begins with the phrase, "Rumors fly and they often leave a doubt..."
Well, rumors fly these past few days that Kim Capripants wants to run for the provincial legislature.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...or should I say, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Please, run, Kim, please.
This will fell two birds with one peach pit.
First, we won't have to tolerate your silliness soaking up the air in City Council.
Second, you will bring such disgrace to Gordon Campbell's government, that you will help his Reign of Error end.
Georgia Straight Editor, Charrle Smith, Nails Translunk and Brodie
Stop the presses: Mayor Malcolm Brodie worries about transit finances |
Susan Greets the Good Doctor
To the Editor
Congratulations to Dr. Stilwell on her acclaimation to run as the Liberal
MLA for Vancouver Centre.
I would love to take her on a walk through her new riding, to see the impact
of the Canada Line construction first hand. I would like her to hear the
stories from those who still struggle to survive these 3 years, and hear how
so many of their neighbours did not.
Things are still not well, Dr. Stilwell. From one end of Cambie Street to
the other, families continue to face financial ruin after enduring financial
and personal hardship that would be difficult for most people to imagine.
This Several Billion dollar project failed to factor adequate mitigation
into the business plan - failed to ensure that those who would be impacted
the most would not lose their life's work as a result of this government
funded and driven mega-project. It is a disgrace.
The one day street parties, banners, baskets, and million dollar
self-promoting ad campaigns have obviously done nothing to stem the tide of
red ink. We require direct and immediate financial relief.
We deserve better than bancruptcy.
Kim Capri to run in Fairview? Good luck. She and her fellow NPA council
members voted as one - again and again - to oppose every motion put before
them to assist the small businesses who were dying right outside their
doors. Shame on all of them.
There is a Compensation class action proposed from the Cambie Village
Business Association, as well as my case that was filed 3 years ago and set
to proceed in court for three weeks this November. Do small businesses that
have been double crossed by their own government really have to force
justice to happen through a costly lawsuit?
The solution to this crisis requires integrity and courage from our elected
officials.
Even Henry Lee at the Board of Trade said that just 3 cents a trip on
transit would give TransLink more than enough funds to compensate us for our
demolished livelihoods.
No one has sacrificed more for public transit than the merchants all along
the Canada Line.
There is a shameful precedent now set for future government mega-projects,
that the life's work of citizens can be expropriated and destroyed with
impunity.
This is not what should happen in a democracy and must be made right with
compensation.
Regards
Susan Heyes
Hazel&Co
3190 Cambie Street
604 687-0721
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