The Last Ocean.

I'se the bye that builds the boat and I'se the bye that sails her.
I'se the bye that catches the fish and takes 'em home to Liza. 

[Up, Down]

'The Last Ocean' is a recent film - and a very good one. The makers keep a website where you can find more about it. The copy I watch comes from the library - there are no torrent copies on-line anywhere that I can find (which makes me wish I knew how to make one). I do now have a copy of the library's copy and if anyone asks I will pass it on to them. [Adherence to copyright regimes works against film makers and their films (it seems to me). Surely the number of viewings trumps revenue. Whatever.] Meanwhile in the news: Fishing quotas defy scientists’ advice as the EU increases their take and relaxes regulations around dumping bycatch.

I did a few shifts as a Newfie cod choker in days gone by: took ~150 kentles one year or 15 tons heavy-salted; ate an occasional spawning lobster (delicious!); chopped boatfulls of dogfish to a bloody pulp on beaches when they fouled our traps; also ate the odd 'puffin pig' (dolphin) killed unintentionally, maybe once a year and canned the leftovers for the winter. Dolphins don't survive any time in a cod trap - their skins are surprisingly delicate and they beat themselves to death against the twine. Still and all - that was an inshore fishery and if every fisherman (the women I know who are fishermen tell me they prefer that term) were inshore ... well, we used to say (as we watched the draggers and factory ships on the horizon - this was the late 60s in Placentia Bay and they were Russians, but it didn't take the Canadians long to catch up and get 'efficient': long-liners, gill nets, trawlers, draggers) ... what we used to say was: "You could cover the water with byes jiggin' from dorys and never jig 'em all and no one go hungry."

The impetus, the 'real reason', I took time to make this post is abhorrence, a visceral repugnance to the smug & smarmy attitude of the woman in the first row above, Carolyn Schwalger, and her lobbyist chum Peter Bodeker who curls his lip so aptly, and the imbecile lies they believe and repeat. The two guys in this row - a politician & a merchant - are no more than generic fellow travellers at the trough. Saving the best for last ... now come the banal bureaucrats & craven consultants. (And thanks to the OED for 'pusillanimous'.)

A handsome & personable young consultant equipped with a bogus standard and a certain reserved & diplomatic politesse and the cutest dimple in his ... chiny-chin-chin. It's about entirely symmetrical with the UNFCCC fiasco, particularly in the perfectly pious prose of such as Denzil Miller and in the proliferation of baffling and meaningless acronyms, but most especially in bringing minimal improvement beyond the regular cashing of salary cheques.

Seriously well-educated people engaged in annihilation for their personal profit and prosperity. Layers upon layers of well-connected and well-fed administrators and consultants - like yellow-jackets at a picnic ... T'OUSANDS of 'em: CCAMLR and MSC and ISEAL and INTERTEK (a huge international consultancy with a more-or-less separate arm for fishes, IFC, formerly Intertek Moody Marine (IMM), formerly Moody Marine Ltd., working - it appears - only for MSC, and ASI, and a holy host of others (you can find a list on ASI's website). Horse Cock! Bollocks! and a load of old   Cobblers! (Cobbler's awls is balls.)   Oh?! You think I am being too hard on them? Consider some science then:         Seafood stewardship in crisis, and related Correspondence. The only thing 'sustainable' in all of this here is the fricken' multitude, the legion if you will, of high-priced 'stewards' - and that (of course) only in the short term because when this 'resource' is drained and exhausted (which won't be long) there really are no more to move on to and the time-servers time will be past (which is cold comfort eh?). There have been moments - when Iceland went to war with the UK (three times: 1958, 1972-73, & 1975-76; see Wikipedia) to save their cod, and won! Alas, these moments are too few.

For that 450 kentles (there were three of us) we got 3¢/pound, with a share for the boat and Harry Wareham paid off it made us ~$600 each - and that was enough to live and enjoy living. Soon after that they began bringing packers around with refrigeration on board and the boys got 9¢/pound 'in the round' and figgured they had it made. I was gone by then, headed off for Mexico (which I never got to): "That must be somewhere up there on t'other side of Montre(h)al," said Old Pius. There was no bycatch - we took home what we caught, all but the whore's eggs (sea urchins) and dogfish. [Truth be told I don't remember the financial details very well anymore. Was it 3¢ or 13¢? Was it quarter shares or sixth? It was half a lifetime ago and I've been away.]

Two Pius (as they were sometimes known) are honoured here today.

Phillip Pius Power:   Phillip Pius, usually called Old Pius was known for his singing. He married Maggie Hepditch and they had 6 children; Annie Francis, Mary, Clara, Kathleen, Margaret and Young Pius. Mary Margaret Hickey, now residing in Southern Harbour, also grew up in their home. Pius died in March 1993 of cancer. He is greatly missed throughout the community and the province. Pius Power Jr.:   Pius Power Jr. also known as Young Pius was a singer like his father. It was nothing unlikely to come up along side of him in the morning and hear him singing as he hauled a cod trap. Almost everyone gets sea sick at certain times - Young Pius never. He was well known and liked everywhere he went. Pius married Anita Best, a favourite Newfoundland singer and they had one daughter, Kate, who was often seen at folk festivals singing with her mom and dad. He then married Mary Ellen Wright. They had three children, John Pius (P.), William (Billy) and Ellen. All three sing and dance and Ellen can also play the violin. Pius died in May 1996, of cancer. He continued to entertain friends, family and staff at the Health Sciences Center, with his music and stories. (Text found in the liner notes of a CD I have since lost.)

Cockroaches have different personalities, scientists find. You will think I'm simply comparing these people with cockroaches. Not quite. This recent research identifies two distinct 'cockroach personalities' - basically shy & bold - which is an advantage in a Darwinian regime helping to ensure that some survive (to dance on our dead bones). The thing about this strategy - for, say, a top-of-the-food-chain mammal which has painted itself into a corner - is that it's useless against physics. Even the wily cockroach may not survive what's coming. And of course, there are also points of comparison - possibly even fair and valid ones - with career bureaucrats & (particularly) lawyers. Consider the (apparently) deciding factor in the struggle of Lafayette Colorado to stop fracking ... which has been (at least for now) given up due to excessive legal costs. See: Heavyweight Response to Local Fracking Bans in The New York Times. Longmont Colorado battles on - good on 'em! The NEB - National Energy Board: Comprising 13 lawyers & oilmen, and a few retired politicians thrown in, a-and a whole (holy) host of supporting administrators & hangers-on. What is evident is that the NEB is a place to park people who have shown some kind of loyalty (and presumably will continue to show it) in paid positions with considerable (seven years in most cases) and secure tenure. Bureaucrat / PR Man It's the 'National' Energy Board and yet, out of thirteen (board feet) of 'em there is no background in Wind? Solar? Geothermal? and minimal in Hydro Electricity? Zilch! Nadinha! How can it be? (I quote the familiar Wesley hymn intentionally.) Read this account of their CEO's current promotional tour and you will see that it's all about politics - dressed up in a transparently bogus language of concern.  Gas           Gas           Lawyer    Oil & Gas  Oil & Gas  Lawyer  Politician  Pipelines    Lawyer   Politician  Lawyer     Lawyer Not surprisingly, they support & promote the constuction of pipelines. Some details on their recent approval of Enbridge's Line 9: •   A good summary: with links to relevant documents on the East End Against Line 9 website (Thanks to Jessica Lyons, John Sharkey, and the others.);   •   The NEB Press Release: on the Canadian News Wire (CNW), and on the NEB website;   •   A loud (if inaccurate) Rah! Rah! from The Globe and Mail. Shawn McCarthy & Jeff Lewis write whatever they are told to write but my reading of the NEB order is that this approval is for construction and that "Prior to operating the pipeline, Enbridge must apply for and be granted Leave to Open.";   •   A previous press release in March of last year replete with links (and an email address for the NEB); and,   •   The description the NEB board on the NEB website from which most of the photographs and other details above were taken. Aside from stumping for Stephen Harper's re-election with bogus publicly-funded promotional tours the NEB CEO Peter Watson takes time to pretend to refute Marc Eliesen's criticisms - and pretence is as good as debate in the current k-k-k-Canadian intellectual milieu where you have only to repeat a lie once or twice for it to become the truth. The Vancouver Sun reports on Marc Eliesen's withdrawl from the farcical and fraudulent NEB review process in October last year. A letter from Marc Eliesen is linked to at the foot of this report. Here are two more links to that letter just in case: on Scribd, and on the NEB website itself. A few days later they publish Peter Watson's reply (also published on the NEB website). Crocodile tears. He says, "I can assure you we take this obligation to the people of Canada extremely seriously," and of course they do - the obligation to kiss Stephen Harper's arse and do their utmost to see that he's re-elected in the fall so they can keep their places at the trough. There's a word for Peter Watson (and for each and every member of his NEB) - sycophant: a mean, servile, cringing, or abject flatterer; a parasite, toady, lickspittle. [Gable's cartoon is ostensibly about lunches at the G20 meetings - but one can mix and match organizations (CCAMLR, MSC, NEB, UNFCCC, any meeting of any organ of the EC government) and issues (sustainability, ditto, oil pipeline approvals, a climate treaty, dirty Canadian oil) with equivalent humorous effect.] The UN and the EC can be lumped together: (they have much in common as organizations, as well as history with Connie Hedegaard)

You could say, "Miguel Arias Cañete is not a tall man." Peter Kent on the other hand is a relatively tall man (physically at least). Christiana Figueres is short; Connie Hedegaard is relatively tall; and they are both (apparently) air-heads. No help to be had in forming opinions based on height then. Maybe what they say and do is a better guide. (Heaven help us all if the bottom-line criterion turns out to be achievement.) Cañete says that missing global warming target would not be failure. How totally mind-fucked do you have to be for that to make sense? But then again, what would you expect a former oil mogul to say? He's also a right-wing Spaniard lawyer trained by Jesuits. I guess if you're going to put a fox in charge of the hen-house then you might as well make it a real fox. Two additional Guardian reports: from late last year as Connie Hedegaard wrings her hands; and recently, when Todd Stern dittoes Cañete.

Three thoughts: One:   As the awful situation we are all in becomes clearer and clearer, more and more (previously) right-thinking people will shift along the number-line of activism: beyond letters to the editor & their MP, educational programs & campaigns, demonstrations of one kind and another, private and public fasting; towards non-violent confrontation - so-called civil disobedience, hunger strikes, monkeywrenching; and beyond ... to self-immolation, serious property damage, violent (desperate) outrage, sedition, revolution. We had an object lesson not so long ago in Canada with the FLQ. Note the time line: running from bank robberies & bombings in the early 60s, to the murder of Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte in 1970, and eventually (with some waiting - being an ideological struggle and therefore somewhat 'flexible') things evolved. The FLQ energy was absorbed into the PQ and they took over the government. To the point where in the late 70s and early 80s (as I remember it) the FLQ came back from Cuba and one of 'em, Paul Rose was it? got elected? (That seems a bit extreme. ... Ah! ... He was nominated and ran for the Quebec NDP but was not elected.) So. 20 years more or less. Unfortunately we don't have 20 years - physics knows nothing of ideology and will absolutely not wait. In the meantime the Stazi will not be (have not been) long catching up. Maybe you noticed already that you can't get aboard the Newfoundland ferry without photo ID. Two:   Watch and listen to Naomi Klein's speech at Powershift 2012 in Ottawa, and a more recent discussion with Owen Jones, and read at least the chapter 'Blockadia' of her book 'This Changes Everything'. Oh sure, this is at least several hours effort, more than you're prepared to invest - but it contains essential clues to the only antidote I've seen. I'm not going to say what that is - take the time to find it and see it or fuck off and die (as Job's good wife said to 'im one time). Three: Acting alone is sorry second-best but it is possible. I didn't use to think so ... Oh sure, I know, this kind of rant does no good at all. When the bottom falls out the time-servers will all scurry away and find new rocks to hide under and new pastures in which to ply other officially green-coloured nonsense - geoengineering maybe, or sustainable fracking - until ... the entire species to which they belong is gone and the rocks they are under become tombstones. I may not pass this way again so here's a Good God Damn! to Joey Smallwood and his diabolical Resettlement Program, and another Good God Damn! to John Crosbie, the sleveen Canadian Minister of Fisheries who collaborated to engineer the collapse and permanent closure of the cod fishery in 1992.

There was an old man, Ned H., living in Little Paradise (the only person left there at the time) who was being chased by the Mounties for diddling (or possibly trying to diddle, or maybe 'thinking about' diddling) his thirteen-year-old neice. The RCMP were no match for 'im - he'd hear their boat comin' miles away and go sit up on the hill till they went away again. One winter he fell through the ice on a pond and died while taking his socks off as he sat beside the hole he made. The worst his neighbours would say about him was "He were no Christian." These were the same neighbours who tossed a priest off the wharf for touting Joey's resettlement plan. (Yes! They really did!) Did he have a conscience? Integrity? He told me she led him on. I knew him and believed him then - but it's true that I wasn't there. I did raise a daughter and I have talked with other men close to me - my brothers-in-law - who also raised some daughters. Fact is, young girls do sometimes try it on at that age and it's a fine threading of the needle to deal properly with it.

The word 'probity' comes to mind. An interesting word combining conscience and integrity with uprightness, honesty, sincerity, even modesty (can be found in the Latin root). Did Ned have probity? What about Two Pius? Did they have more or less probity than the collection of shitheads presented here today? Silly question eh? And if Joey or Crosbie or, any of the others could or would respond it might very well (and quite properly) be in terms something like Beaudelaire's (coming to me via T.S. Eliot): "You! hypocrite lecteur! — mon semblable, — mon frère!"   Can we start a campaign d'you think to convince all of them (who are still living) to walk away from their so-called jobs and positions? Not in protest but as a vote-with-your-feet kind of thing in favour of human survival on this planet. More silliness eh? Here, try this: from George Monbiot; and another from Gwynne Dyer. Rwanda 1994: "It is not a genocide." (Christine Shelly, US State Dept) [The pics are screen grabs from a PBS Frontline video: Ghosts Of Rwanda. The Rwanda genocide and Christine Shelly's shameful part in it are included here lest there be any remaining doubt that this is the blog of a fruitcake nutbar. The shame really belongs to the likes of Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton but Christine earned her share. Here, her obituary has been posted in a Democratic Underground archive - a possibly sobering story for feminists, it looks like she gave her all in order to do no more than play silly buggers for Bill Clinton. And the point is: that Rwanda was a cake walk compared to what is coming unless humanity does a quick 180. That's all.]

 
[Up, Down]