The City of Lambton Shores, well a Municipality at Least

Now I know that Lambton Shores City has a Council, it is all very confusing because the city apparently has zones and people are squared or rectangled into those zones. Very Romanesque and a good way to get rectangles onto what is a curve. Yes, the Grand Bend is a curved lakeshore.

Have you ever wondered why you can't get from one end of town to the other, well it is all down to the curve making the shore road the shortest distance between two points? Just imagine the one place in Ontario that can't be made into a rectangle or straight line.

Even if the village wanted a bypass, it is not ever ever feasible. Grand Bend should be called Grand Bottleneck because the road hugs the shoreline and there is sometimes no way to get through town without a very long wait. That is why people avoid the village like the plague unless they are aimed directly at the beach, which has another monster bottleneck. Bottlenecks in two directions are why Grand Bend is a not even a village, but is an imaginary location with a name. It's been reduced to a shoreline with a bottleneck without ever having anynchance of economic development or growth because is is the grand bottleneck of Ontario being located on a curve that is the shortest distance around a lake. Get it! Well it took me some time to figure out that putting a city on a shore line is just about the craziest thing that I ever heard.

Why? Why?

I am not yet informed as to why it has to have a name like Lambton Shores, and no one that I have known up until now has ever talked about about Lambton Shores, the City. Yes, there is a population sign at the North edge of Grand Bend that shows how many people there are living in Lambton Shores, but as a newbee, buzz buzz, to the city, I had no idea what that implied. It's a real learning experience.

You can read all about our Sewerage meeting if you wish and about the CFGG group. It is also a learning experience for me. I am for citizenship, goodness, and good governance so the name appeals. It also appeals because it suggests what my former employer and organization tried to establish worldwide.

So in the interest of openness I point you to reading material of people who should be better informed than myself, for at least the know people's names and have made many friends and I guess faced competitors. Here is some reporting by a local writer with a better imagination than my own it seems to me....

The meeting about the new sewerage system project:
http://lakeshoreadvance.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2708065

Another different city writer describes the CFGG ....

The information about Citizens for Good Governance:
http://www.lakeshoreadvance.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2668140

I found another city writer, and this time a blog by John DeHondt, who must be a well informed individual since he is in apposition to answer questions about the volleyball controversy...

http://johndehondt.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/

So much controversy going on in this small city. Wow! I am indeed impressed.

Everyone that I have met in Grand Bend is so very nice. A few are shy, and a few probably think that I am very strange, even before they start talking to me, saying hi, or how do you do. That's Canadians for you, very friendly, very honest, and very caring.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The Missing Notice of Completion for Proposed Sewerage Development of Lambton Shores City

Am I missing something or should residents in Zone 3 have received a copy of the Notice of Completion for this project. As it is mssing will I now receive a Notice of Incompletion or a Notice of Cancelation of the Notice of Completion process.

I am totally confused as to what I am to receive according to the Ministry's letter as set out below:

http://www.lambtonshores.ca/Docs/lttrtopropsgrandbend.pdf

In any event I have not been able to read the Notice of Completion and was not contacted. I did receive a Zone 3 wastewater Newsletter that I read carefully and found contained an enormous number of inaccuracies to the point of being misleading.

I understand from the Newsletter that the village of Grand Bend does not now exist. That would explain a lot about why consultation is so poor.

You think you belong to a village but find the village is imaginary. I see now that Lambton Shore exists as a city and I am living in that city. Why then is my address, Grand Bend, or would that be too upsetting for a person that hates cities.

I really do hate cities so why in the hell am I living here.

I guess it's time it's time to disinvest and move to a real village.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Food Allergies, Allergic Reactions and Food Sensitivities

You may think that food allergies don't affect you. There is, however, a strong probability that your health is compromised because of food allergies that you are not aware of. Science defines food allergies very specifically, but the science of allergies, and food allergies, is critically incomplete. You may appear perfectly healthy and experience symptoms of an allergic reaction without being aware.

You body may be fighting a food or food ingredient such as green pepper or MSG or salt and you may feel fine. As you get older the strength of your immune response, or the consequence to your body of the bad ingredient, for example, salt, will, however, probably increase. Your allergic reaction or negative bodily response will gradually become apparent and if you do not take action you probably will experience health issues that you could have avoided. You may die prematurely from a disease, you never knew you could get. Yes, it is frightening, and yes, you need to be aware of the very real risks that your life is being exposed to daily, without protections of being aware of the danger. Very very bad!

I say that you may be able to avoid premature death, but I am not sure because of the weaknesses in national and international food policies. You may be deaded without ever knowing you were ill.

Wikipedia distinguishes food allergies from food sensitivities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_allergy

This allergy food sensitivity thing is largely a question of degree and how your body responds to something it does not like. Normally, an allergy response occurs when the body can actually respond to a protein it wants to fight and the consequence could be death. Bodies can end up fighting themselves because of foods that trigger immune responses. Meats can be containers for such ingredients without you being told.

Our food now contains many proteins that were much rarer only a few years ago. The protein in Aspartame the sweetener phenylalanine is an example. This is not to say that your body will fight phenylalanine, but this sweetener might present a health issue for you.

http://www.sweetpoison.com/phenylalanine.html

I only sight Aspartame as an example, but what if what is poisoning you is a protein found in wheat. Lots a new wheats are being created by corporations and the proteins or molecules in the wheat may cause you an allergic reaction or sensitivity. This is very serious because you think you are eating ordinary wheat when you are eating something that could potentially kill you, or at the very leapt shorten your life.

Because food policies are being dictated by the huge amounts of money spent by large corporations to influence government policies, you may live in a country that is unprotected. In Canada, certain wheats were banned because the scientists there were concerned about the health of consumers of those wheats. The same wheats are grown in other countries and exported worldwide. How do you know you are not being poisoned today by the wheat you get in your cereal?

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Is Your Food Poisoning You?

The quick answer is yes, it is? The problem is that you don't necessarily agree with the quick answer.

Normally, people eat food based on what they like, but mostly by copycatting what other people they admire or associate with are eating. Bad eating habits and bad foods affect all of us, and a consequence is that we are likely to die prematurely because we don't know it is a problem and we don't know what to do about it, and we are powerless to do anything constructive about it.

A bad food is one that your body thinks is bad. Your body tells you it is bad, but you ignore what your body is telling you, or you are not aware that your body is telling you that your food is bad. Sometimes, we look in the mirror and see that our body is not functioning so well as it should. That is probably your body telling you that the food you are eating is causing you sickness, and you better figure it out. The problem is that your family and best friends may all look the same way you do and so you don't get the message. Or, you get the message but you don't, or can't act on it effectively.

This is a serious issue because without help you will probably die sooner, younger, than you should. Eating bad food is the surest way to kill yourself!

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The Horrible Food Problem! Is the US FDA Doing It's Job? Can it?

Anyone reading the title of this piece might think it is about horrible food. They would only be partially right. It is about the failure of government agencies and the public consumption of food.

Whether we like it or not, the retailers of food and the giant corporations that manufacture and package food have the upper hand when it comes to food policy in most countries. Giant corporations dictate food policy and we really suffer because they do.

About 35 years ago the OECD's Science and Technology Division as it then was did substantial studies of key technology industries and the influence of giant international companies on countries hosting such companies. The key industries were electronics, food, and pharmaceuticals. The studies for electronics and pharmaceuticals were done smoothly and effectively. The study for the food industry was a shambles.

In an article in July reporting on the American food industry, the New Scientist pointed to evidence showing how much food is wasted annually by the United States. since food waste is also water and energy waste, this amounts to an additional crisis situation for our energy and water problems. The fact is that the US FDA, Federal Drug Administration, is not and never was up to the task of devising food policies for the United States. That the US NSF, National Science Foundation, as well was not up to task of directing research into food policies is also very evident. The crisis in the United States is huge and many people die prematurely from inappropriate food policies. as this is also the case elsewhere in the world, I seriously ask the question of you? Will you die prematurely because of bad or deficient food policies worldwide and in your country.

Indeed, it is very possible that you yourself saw the billions in medical expenses pored into creating a flu vaccine that was probably due to poor food policies worldwide. Possibly, the swine flu might never have appeared had the farms producing swine been appropriately designed.

The main issue is that the large food corporations are defining food policies that impact negatively on health and may lead to everyone's premature death including the employees and officers of those very same large corporations.

What can we do?

Bad food policies exist worldwide at every stage of the food invention, innovation, production, marketing and distribution chain. We are sold bad food because, we, worldwide, don't get organized enough to distinguish good policies from bad policies. Many people die every day because of bad policies. Almost all people die prematurely because of bad policies.

We need to devise and implement good food policies affecting every aspect of the food chain from agriculture to recycling of food waste and waste of by products and inputs that go into the food system. It is perhaps man kinds greatest challenge because of the huge numbers of people starving and because hunger is such an avoidable bad consequence of bad food policies.

Also read:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727712.700-us-food-waste-worth-more-than-offshore-drilling.html

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

The Life of an Economy

Economics is such a difficult subject. Why when you look around you and see capability, do you also know there is severe unemployment and many people experiencing financial stress? The reason has a mathematic or accounting, as well as, a living organic basis.

It's easy to understand a household budget process. A household has incomes and spending. A household probably has a life cycle in which there are emergent children who need to get an education before they are productive and earning an income of their own. A household changes over time and is full of surprises. Members of a household may or may not have a career direction, be motivated, or know how to contribute to the benefit of the household as an entity on it's own.

Households and Businesses

Yet, a household is a complex collection of people and has a natural, financial, technical, social, and economic basis. Many things can disrupt the normal patterns of the household so that instead of thriving as it should, members break away or the main income earners are able to contribute less and less. Some changes are part of the life cycle of the household from which are formed new households when members of one household join with members of another. The effects of all these changes contribute to what we know as an economy.

Economies are massive collections of households trying to make ends meet. For simplification economists add together all the accounts of households to get numbers that describe how well the overall economy is doing.

Sustainability of an economy of households requires that the activities from which members of the households gain income are sustainable. There has also to be a balance between the economics of the households and the economics of businesses that employ members of households.

Like households, businesses have life cycles and these life cycles are driven by the competitive fitness of the technologies used by the businesses. To remain fit, businesses employ people who come from households and have acquired skills. The match between skills of members of households and the skills present in businesses needs to be maintained over the longer term. Thus it is that members of households have to maintain existing skills and acquire new ones, while businesses that wish to survive rapid changes in competitive technologies used by businesses must shed employees who have not maintained their skills and who lack the skills that are needed to meet competitive challenges.

Businesses need to strengthen the range of skills of their employees if they and the employees they employ are to survive.

The difficulty in any economy is to maintain the momentum and direction of the skill base of businesses and households so that there is a match between what is needed in businesses to remain competitive and what is available from households because members of households have selected career options that match business needs.

A general mismatch between households and businesses can occur and widen over time because households are not developing the range and volumes of skills that business needs, or because the businesses are not investing sufficiently to employ the new skills garnered by households to be used in business. Maintaining a match between the household skill base and the business skill base is fraught with difficulties and may explain why some economies fare poorly relative to others.

The main difficulty arises because both households and businesses have life cycles. Generally, the life cycles of businesses are shorter than that of household members, especially during periods of rapid improvements in technologies and increasing competition internationally. Within a life time a household member can expect to acquire new skill sets to be current with changing technologies and to keep the life cycle of a business sufficiently long as to remain employed.

Money, Budgets, Life Cycles of People and Products

Money is the basis of acquiring technologies and materials that keep households and businesses alive. Money is accounted for within budgets of households and businesses. The government is a business and has a budget. Banks are a business and have a budget.

The accounting that goes into a budget addresses the past, the present and the future flows of all that maintains the households and the businesses.

There needs to be a match between all the money flows and obligations of households and businesses. If a household has too many obligations for it's money flows then it becomes dragged into poverty and declines. Similarly, a business needs to manage it's obligations or it will go bankrupt and decline.

The life cycles within households and businesses alike define the nature, scale, and character of obligations that can be entertained. To be successful a household, a business, and an economy needs to manage it's obligations taking into account the life cycles of household members and business products. It is true to say that business products have shorter and shorter life cycles as an economy evolves, thus greater attention is needed in the career selection of households and in the product selections by business to match the availability of skills coming from households with the needs of businesses to keep products alive within product cycles.

To say that economies are complex is an understatement. To say that economics as a field of study is complex is an understatement. Nothing is more complex than an economy other than a world economy. The balance that is needed in a world economy is such that we see premature death as a result of it's failures. What we witness worldwide is a mismatch between the needs of households and business. This mismatch results in premature death because households and businesses are living organisms with life cycles.

Real Case Example - The Business of Producing Cars in Michigan

Detroit Goes From Gloom to Economic Bright Spot - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/business/14auto.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.