No
need of complaining at this point
by
Robert LaFrance
At the time of this writing, it has
been raining for eighty-seven straight days, and yet I’m not complaining. Now
that I’m 65, I have been reviewing the worst things that could happen in life,
and rainy weather ain’t even in the top ten. Indeed, it barely makes the top
one hundred.
So let’s leave the subject of
weather and go on to mentioning some of the other things that are going on in
the world. I would rather not talk about flooding here and there, because
that’s back to the weather. One thing I have been watching though, is how our
government spends our money.
I might be mistaken on this, but I
seem to recall someone in Horizon Health saying that closing surgery at Hotel
Dieu would save $1 million. If it was said at all, it was a lie of course, but
what has frosted my earlobes today is the news story that the government has
given a QUEBEC consulting company $6.2 million to show NB how to save $26
million in D.O.T.
I’m not sure if I can write down how
angry this makes me, and I write for a living. What was Premier Alward
thinking? Not much. At the very least he could have hired a consulting company
from New Brunswick, but Quebec, that cradle of Confederation?
He could have hired just about
anyone to do that job, because we all know they will recommend that D.O.T.
snowplough the roads half as much, lay off a bunch of workers, close garages,
and hire them (the consultants) back to administer all this. There will be no
saving; there never is.
Here’s a radical idea: instead of
Quebec consultants, how about if the government asks the people who actually do
the work where and how money can be saved? Snowplough drivers can suggest all
kinds of money-saving things to do – like getting rid of about three tiers of
administration, deporting all the spin doctors to Syria, and not wasting money
on consultants.
***********************
Okay, I’ve calmed down now.
We have a new club member. A chap
moved here from a place called Pune, which he says is somewhere east of East
Africa. Specifically, it’s south of Mumbai, India. His name is Harry Krishna
and he sells computer equipment and even repairs the little dears. If you own a
computer, you need Harry. On Thursday evening we were all at the club and
welcoming him to the Scotch Colony. You will notice that we seize on the
flimsiest excuse to have an evening at the club; last year we welcomed the
Venusian New Year until the early hours – on Venus.
Those of us who have heard
of the game soccer, or football as it’s called outside Canada and the U.S.,
were sorry to hear that David Beckham had retired. He was a great player and
also a great self-promoter. However, when he left the Real Madrid football team
about five years ago to move to the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team, he must
have often been confused. All his life he had played football, and then, in his
mid-30s, he was hired at a mere $50 million a year to play soccer. He managed
it though. As one who saves quotes of famous people, I will say my favourite
from Beckham is this: “A manager can’t give players what they haven’t got.
Their job is to make them find what they need inside themselves.”
We keep hearing about inventions that were made by New
Brunswickers and I am happy to say that one of the most useful has recently
been traced to a Victoria County man, Hiram N. Kinney (1920-1991). This is
quite a shock to those who knew Hiram and all those who attended his funeral in
Lerwick – just to make sure. It seems that when Hiram was working on the Canso
Causeway he was sitting around and groaning about an infected toe. Drinking a
glass of Newfy Screech just to ease the pain, he spilled some on that toe and
felt immediate relief. I had assumed his invention was something like
fingernail clippers, but it turned out to be Screech Owl, a sure-fire pain
reliever when applied directly. However, there are still some who apply it the
old-fashioned way – down the throat.
A committee from the club’s Board of
Directors has planned a camping trip for the last month of June when the rain
is expected to slow down a bit. They are supposed to choose some sort of
shelter for the 23 people on the board and set up the itinerary. You might say
they are making TENT-ative plans.
Sorry.
-end-
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