I believe I wrote a post a year or so ago with the title "Canada is Heaven" My
point was not that Canada is perfect -- far from it -- but
relatively speaking most of us Canadians have it awfully good compared
to the other 8 billion human beings on this earth.
Here's a story that struck me much the same way.
a bus hijacking (?) in Hamilton, Ontario, that went right (?).
The incident raises a number of questions and reflections.
Is hijack the right word ?
Is the cop's use of term "mental illness" at the press conference approriate?
Finally, it seems awfully clear that it is preferable to be at a bus stop in Hamilton than to be a school girl in the state of Niger, Nigeria, where you and your teachers might be kidnapped by gunmen with unclear motivations.
My various projects, including this blog, are progressing only slowly. I am undergoing medical treatment at the Hamilton General Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. It's nothing to be alarmed about, but being away from home does make it difficult to work on my translations.
A couple of years ago another health problem gave me the opportunity to see London, Ontario, a place known to me only as the location of bad winter weather. Now I am seeing more of the city of Hamilton than I have seen before. It has the reputation of being a dirty industrial city, but as is the case in many another place in the Great Lakes region, a lot of the old factories have closed. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem that Hamilton's economy is suffering all that much. (Ditto for Canada as a whole, surprisingly. Unemployment is dropping significantly EVEN IN ALBERTA!)
One of the wonders of Hamilton is a bar/restaurant on James St. called Mezcal Tacos Tequila, which features a large number of tequilas and an amazing style of what might be called Mexican fusion. It is some of the best restaurant food I have ever eaten. And it is relatively cheap. If you live close to Hamilton, run don't walk to Mezcal.
I am also passing the time by listening, through You Tube, to my classic music, music on either side of 1970. In particular I am playing the Jefferson Airplane's amazing early-morning set at Woodstock. It has long been fashionable to make fun of Woodstock but it was the site of an amazing effloresence of music. Perhaps equally astonishing is the high quality of audio and video recording that was accomplished in what was a weather disaster. Here's to the sound engineers, cinematographers and all the other hardworking people who preserved this wonderful music.
