The Hell of Technology

We have to really examine this. Does technology cause more harm than good? Do guns cause more harm than good? Do cars cause more harm than good? My answer – as you may have guessed is – “yes”. Technology’s toll on human life - its ability  to create and increase emotional angst, air pollution, sedentary-related disease and so much more - is related to all this. I still claim 9/11 would not have happened without computers.

 

IT Terror : No why , no how, no help!

Within the last 2 days, my life has been shortened because of  computer technology. My card would not work to book my jungle/snorkeling trip to Costa Rica in January. I tried 7 times, and  the marvelous Costa Rica company  was on the phone telling me (after 2 months of designing my custom-made itinerary) that hotels can’t be held over for each site. I was not able to book my expedition or the flight because of that bloody credit card not going through!   I kept pressing the Book Now icon, but it was telling me it could not be processed. Poppy cock! Finally, after the 8^th attempt it worked. But I had to keep going back and re-entering my dates, and I missed the earlier flight that I wanted. Too much time had gone by.

There it was; there it wasn’t!

 

I also had my sending from Gmail cut off just like that two days later after the booking fiasco. No reason given, and the credit card office was closed on Sunday. On Monday, I was asking anyone on the street to help me get it back. Talking to Google Playschool about it, even read every article I could on suspension and reasons. I was literally pulling my hair out. Just chuck the dam machine!

Ok, I know that technology can cause super anxiety for me when things go wrong, but because it owns us, because jobs, relationships, money, everything, your identity, confidence, mood,  self-worth, serious instructions, letters etc are so embedded into this impersonal way of life, I just do not agree with it.

 How about you?

 I find most people do not even know how to look you in the eye today, but their cell phone – ohh, they clutch it in their hand as if it were a tiny piece of gold.

 Do you find that kids today have an attention span of zero? Is your kid going to have confidence without holding technology in front of his/her eyes. Did you know schools no longer teach script (writing)?

 The brain lives inside us. It is flexible, but it must work with us for us without all kinds of bells and whistles to replace it. 

Well, maybe one day, we will turn into a piece of metal, and actually forget how to open our mouth to eat! If you can answer this question without using any form of technology, you are a winner: 9 X 7 + 8 =?

 If you can, you're in the minority.

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Never Stand Still Except When You’re Traveling

I was born with a biting need to get out of my hometown in Ontario and seek excitement elsewhere. I yearned for the unpredictable. By immersing myself in different lands, my peripatetic nature, along with my lust for getting lost in sometimes dangerous terrain, fulfilled me. Leaving home at the age of 17, I realized traveling is a type of addiction: I soon was hooked. I confess that I am an incurable travel junkie.

For me, settling down in one place – home – grass to cut and house repairs, or battling landlords who never fix anything – especially in Montreal (where I now live) – just isn’t for me.

 

Truth is, there’s a paradox in staying in one place. Stress beings to seep in. People begin to irritate you. The same old urban landscape burrows into your belly like an unwelcome hunk of bacteria. So, I discovered if you keep moving, you never suffer from monotony or acute stress. Fatique… maybe, but then there’s nothing to tie you down or force you into a routine that demands all kinds of automatic responses that are soul numbing.

 

 I’ve rambled into remote regions. Here’s a peek: I’ve endured two robberies in Mexico, been car kidnapped by a maniac in Manchester (my first day in the city as a university student), wandered the mountains of northern Spain, and gotten tangled up in a jungle in Columbia (my guide took off like a cheeta when he spotted a huge yellow snake, screaming “la amarilla”. True, it was a pretty sickeningly thick long creature that slowly slithered in front of us, but being abandoned by him was even scarier. Still, I made to make my way to the top of a mountain, found a bus stop to stand at, until a taxi driver yelled at me, “Get in”. You’re being approached by bandits.”

 While hiking  with my brother in a gorge in Crete with my borhter, we emt a woman who invited us for tea at her home: a cave!!!

I’ve been in a forest fire in Chios, Greece, gotten lost on a mountain in Crete with no water left in my bottle, and felt terribly lonely on a journalist trip in France. Ended up with my Cuba, living in the bush on a dirt floor with a well of good water to keep me company, until I nearly died from sun stroke, and though I had better walk to some  hotel in Holguin – even if the food was a cooked bull testicle.

 Still, the incredible experiences I’ve had in so many parts of the world, the stunning vistas that have hypnotized me, and the shockingly kind and giving people I’ve met – I wouldn’t change any of this to sit bored in some room staring at TV, and counting the  few bucks I have left in the bank. No, I’d prefer to walk miles, and then stop and stare at a one-of-a kind-scene before me – such as I did in Tangiers, when a bullfighter escorted me to his mansion where I was treated to a tour of looking at decapitated bull heads hanging on his wall of fame.

 

The only time to stand still  is when you stumble upon a moment of   beauty or magical absurdity – human or otherwise – in your adventure – when you’ve found a piece of paradise that you can open your front door to it every day, and discover that what you saw yesterday is not there today; something new is there instead. And it’s another breathtaking moment to file in your memory – to pull out when old age obliges you to stand still, and hang up the backpack.

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                                 photos of Crete, Athens and Brittany taken by Nancy, except when she is in them

MONTREAL MAYHEM AND MADNESS

 Looking at this city through a one-angled lens

                                                                          My Rant

Montréal streets look like war zones. The sidewalks are blocked off, up in pieces with rubble saddling bulldozers besides huge long tubing ready to be put underground. That’s been the eyesore for years now I’ve seen this in Verdun, downtown, Ville St laurnet, Everywhere!

Try driving anywhere, and enjoy cursing trying to get there.  Consider reaching your destination a total triumph. Thjs city is not what it used ot be.

 Moreover, smokers, cyclists and angry drivers feel no gumption about riding you over. And as for the song, smoke gets in your eyes, well, Montreal is the smoker’s capital of Canada.

Language: who cares any more? Bill 101, you’ve aged beyond your contextual historical provenance.  But try to speak English to those who work for the government, including the French schools, and you can end up in jail. It is an outcase situation here. Yes, Montreal is a fabulous festival city. There are over 500 of them in the summer, but most folk just want to leave the humidity at this time.

Snobbism, freaky-looking kids who are lost in their souls, smokers, sweaers and cell phone addicts – this is the city I now know. When I moved here in 1981, it was rather pleasant. People were civil, helpful, cordial, and the joie de vivre was wonderfully infectious. Business was booming and streets were intact.

 Immigrants now claim this place but the poor souls can’t even open up a business hanging out a street sing in their own language – unless they want to get smacked with a hefty fine from L’office québécois de la langue française. Did you know it’s illegal to show English on a sign alone  inside or outside. Oh sure you can have it, but make sure it’s smaller than the French.

Look, I moved here form stone cold Toronto, and Montreal is still a unique place but its corruption goes back too many decades, and even poutine can’t smother the fact that this city has to start educating its people, being honest and giving kids a global future.Of course secondary education wasn’t compulsory here until 1969.

Rock the boat and drown us all is Montreal’s now polluted St. Lawrence River into which  government leaders agreed to dump tons of waste material this year. Now that is a truly inspiring example of environmental leadership.

 There’s only thing la belle province won’t change is its nasty let’s hold a grudge license plate: “Je me souviens” (I remember wheat the English did to us on the plains of Montcalm). Fact is the British were fairly nice conquerors. They gave Quebec thousands and thousands of more hectares, expanding the territory to make it the largest province in Canada. They also let the French keep their language, their religion and lots more.

Trouble is, when I go to Ontario anglo-land like Ottawa and Merrickville, I miss the Quebec slantiness, the chaos and the anger that allows me to write this vitriolic piece in the first place.

You may get offended by this, but I'm allowed to offend you; I'm a Montrealer!  LOL!