Happy New Year

That's it, it's the last day of 2009, and I'm not that sorry to see it go. It was the year of my father's death, which certainly occupied most of my mental and emotional energy for quite some time. I remember last New Year's being a pretty gloomy time. And then while my Dad crashed and burned, so did the financial markets in the world. It was something to see, and I must say it made clear to me what they mean when they talk about risk in the stock market. Risk is great when things go up, but watching stuff go into freefall, well that's not so much fun.

This year things look brighter, though cancer still seems to be catching. The markets have come back (for now) and we're heading into, oh yeah, the Olympics. I have to admit to having lost my enthusiasm for the Olympics. It's nice to watch on TV, and well, being as I live in the host city, that's just what I'll be doing, watching it on TV. I can just about see the Olympic village from my place though.

I'm sorry, but this is just getting to me. The "Olympic family" gets tickets, the extremely rich or extremely foolish buy the over-priced few tickets left over in the nosebleeds, and the rest of us are told to be proud. Oh, and could we please close our schools, and our courts so the police can provide 'security'. Could we get our cars off the road, stay off transit, don't go to work. Oh, and just watch those grants for arts go into freefall, and any funding for sports for anyone who might isn't in the elite. Chuck out the animals from the Children's Zoo. Get those pesky homeless off the street. Reduce hours at the library. Postpone repairs on the schools. Smile for the new HST, an Olympic change in policy for our "Liberal" provincial government and let-them-eat-cake-Campbell. It will arrive along with a boost in the carbon tax next July (we're so green).

I flipped around through several newscasts last night and the top stories were five Canadians dead in Afghanistan, one of them a journalist, the proroguing of Parliament, and wait for it, The Team Members were picked. Only CTV had the decency to mention that they were announcing the men's hockey team. But it's not just sexism that's got me going, it's class war. On the morning after let-them-eat-cake-Harper prorogued Parliament for the second time in order to avoid running an honest government, the front page of the Vancouver Sun carried nothing but photos of Canada's warriors. Not the ones that died in Afghanistan, or the journalist who died with them. No, the pictures are of a bunch of wealthy hockey players, the gladiators for the ruling classes.Our chance for Gold. Gotta have our priorities straight here.

Okay, so I'm losing it.

There is some good news at least, on the labour front: Yesterday MVT (the evil bosses) finally agreed to binding arbitration, which the union asked for at least a month ago, and MVT swore they would never agree to. Upshot is the strike is over, picket lines came down at 9 this morning, and once the buses are up and running (any that have had problems have been tucked behind the picket line so haven't been serviced) my sweetie gets to go back to work, and any sick, disabled, fragile or elderly folks still alive after their two+ months sitting at home, will get to ride the buses again. It'll likely be a while before the labour contract gets sorted, but at least the system will be started up again next week.

Happy New Year!