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Homeless
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1690
An interesting video series contrasting the differences between homelessness in Tokyo and Japan VS homelessness in North America.
I find this interesting because - if you're North American - and Canadian especially - homelessness is generally a "lifestyle choice" whereas in Japan it's generally a matter of unfortunate circumstance. In Calgary, the last 10 years, street people have raised their visibility by tenfold easily, in no small part due to the lack of policing and the new custom (paralleling India) of wandering into traffic to solicit change. When I lived in Calgary my route to work took me through 3 intersections that were "owned" by beggars - professionals - the same people year after year feeding their addictions and mental illness off the well-intended donations of Good Samaritans. In Nelson it's much the same - not the traffic wandering, but there's a high visibility of migrant homelessness that move here to prey upon the goodwill of tourists and hippies. Their "homeless" status is generally a choice reflecting their refusal to work and conform in any remedial respect to social norms. When I visited Japan I was impressed not only by the low visibility of the homeless, but by the lack of begging - in a city where the cost of living is easily double that of Calgary and the opportunities half.
Pair of Gooseneck Lamps
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 1359
At the thrift shop, a pair of old gooseneck desk lamps, excellent condition (although I love the form, I despise the color, may need to correct...).
Colossal Review
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 2115
Which I downloaded onto my phone to pass the time, interesting, unpredictable - in a good way, and generally delightful in that "Glad this got made it proves the system isn't entirely broken" kinda way. Not great, merely good.
Links: Wiki on Colossal, Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, Trailer
The Impossibility of Staffing
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 1251
This place, area, it's a staffing nightmare. Kitchen staff, they're all imported, places in BC, Saskatchewan, Alberta, as far away as Ontario. We've only a single "local" couple, they've lived here almost a year, that's about as "local" as it gets.
The population - apart from the very few that have jobs - get by - Medical EI, Workman's Comp, EI, Welfare, Disability, Welfare, Alimony, Grow Ops, WTF, it seems everyone here has a alternative or government income of some sort...everyone but me.
We hire a local girl, she has a job, she only wants part time. She's on the schedule - once a week - can't work long weekends (the busiest weekends) - over the period of a month she calls in sick for 3 out of 4 shifts, the fifth shift she just gives up, she quits...
It's ridiculous, this, everyone is underemployed, unemployed, not working, and I'm overemployed...
We get another waiter, he's nice, calls everybody "brother", older, a proper old-school hippy, but he doesn't want to work as well, this gig, it's a lot of running around, side duties, he's got another gig lined up, bus-driver, this is his big ambition, he's forever pleading to leave early, wants to get out of the side-work, get out of here, is exact in his minutes clocking in and out, you come to loathe him, he's the classic union-guy, who wants to be a bus-driver anyways?
***
Every restaurant is hiring, the long weekend, busiest of the year, check the local paper, the restaurants up in Kaslo, all of a poor reputation, they're all hiring, can't get or keep staff, some (the Hotel) end up just offering partial service, limited or no menu....I'm getting calls from resume's I dropped off 6 months ago...
There are the people you spot on the street, weed tattoo on their forehead, and you think, "Goddamn", this is a lifetime commitment to unemployment, and you think again, we're paying for this, we pay his EI, Unemployment, Disability, just because he never wants to work again, and I'm thinking (yet again) that the system is completely fucked, that these people should be allowed to slip through the cracks, go hungry, starve to death, because, because, really, why?
Music Festivals, Crawford Bay, Shambhala, they're the death of a lot of restaurants, they hire staff on the commitment they're not going to go, then muddle through with the surviving staff the fact that they have clearly "gone", if you owned a restaurant here, - if - you'd be far better off closing the restaurant during music festivals - buying the staff tickets - then you wouldn't be firing them all after the event. It would be cheaper. Priorities here are different. It highlights my point - out here - it's impossible to get staff.
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