Citizens For Good Governance in Lambton Shores

If you wish to learn more about the Citizens For Good Governance, CFGG, then follow the link below:
http://www.cfgg-ls.ca/

I cannot here speak for others. My support of the CFGG reduces down to Canadians for good governance. Lambton Shores is a residence or vacation home, temporary or permanent for people of many nationalities with the majority being Canadian and then Americans closely second.

Being a concerned citizen is what we should all be whether in Canada or the United States. Thus, CFGG will accept support for it's principles whatever nationality bearing in mind that the political processes in Canada make a finer distinction.

Why would such an organization be deemed necessary?

Good question and a focus of people concerned about how the political processes are conducted. As a rather poor scientist of such processes, I am keen that diversity, inclusiveness, transparency and honesty be more generally supported. As a rather poor artist, I am aware of how attitudes shape acceptance and change in nature and society. As a rather poor writer, I am sympathetic to biases that I have accumulated over the years of fair dealing, honesty, courage, faith, opposition to negative addictions, and creativity.

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.

Interview with American Lawyer Favouring Septic Systems Generally

Good morning,

May I ask you why you are passionate about septic systems as compared to gravity flow or pump and grind systems.

Answer:

It has to do with the environment. There is no septic system these days that cannot be installed where there is an engineered sewerage system and yet do a better job with waste water and sludge. In short, septic systems have been given a rough ride by engineers wishing to install large scale systems.

Question:

Why is it that we are bombarded with the misinformation that large scale systems are better?

Answer:

Yes, we are indeed! In fact in some states it is written into the constitution that all households have a stake in some large scale system or other.

In my experience, with what you have in Grand Bend, where you have a sandy soil base, the use of a septic system is optimal. One has to know how much sand is needed and other things if you go with a cheaper system, but still they should be adequate. A well designed septic system that goes the next step, and you have the perfect ecological system for people and communities, but that seems to escape the sewerage engineers.

Question:

You have spent over forty years battling against a pump and grind system, why do you think the consulting engineers suggest such a system when a septic system would be more environmentally friendly and an improvement on the large scale system, which after all introduces other problems and environmental issues, not the least being that people are encouraged to waste water and produce more sewerage.

Answer:

Well, there is the fact that there is less competition with large scale systems. It is possible for engineers to work with property developers that can borrow large amounts to control the building of homes within an area that has a particular type of large scale sewerage system. If you design the sewerage system, you, in essence, have designed the density of homes going into that area. This gives developers enormous control over the households going into an area. With a population of septic systems, they would not have nearly as much control.

In addition, there is a tendency for sewer engineers, developers and local government authorities to plan out their own future incomes through regional designs that suit their profit ambitions.

Sewerage systems have a hidden agenda or effect which is inescapable, and that is to control the housing of an area to the benefit of government revenue streams. Thus, it is that sewerage engineers can shape the political landscape of the households of a community they create.

Government people are given by sewerage consultants long and badly written engineering studies that always seem to narrow down to the system that they can make money from themselves without doing proper work. It's easy to take off the shelf information of previous projects, dress it up, and present it as an original study without doing the work properly. Often the consultants will present a system and have done no work at all on alternatives. The so called study may not even cost the consultants much money because it is off their shelf and dressed up to look good.

Specialization, in particular systems is a consequence of this pattern of advice giving. It is assumed that because others have adopted a particular system that is best for another area. Thus, almost no real environmental assessment is done. The engineering consultants receive disproportionate payments for work that is poor and in the worst cases off the shelf. The consideration of alternatives is some times minimal.

Moreover, if you fight these people, you are made to feel you are being antisocial. People will vilify you saying you have destroyed potential property values in their development.

This all works to support a bad solution for the environment. It is often very difficult to resist because house owners are most often not part of the infrastructure creation process.

Question:

So you would say that the deterioration in quality of the environment begins with the putting in of an infrastructure that is not really friendly to the environment, but is presented by engineers not trained in ecology or environmental arts as being friendly.

Response:

In America, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA has a program under the National Small Flows Clearinghouse to help small communities design appropriate waste water systems. This is still inadequate to meet the challenge here in America, but it represents a wonderful departure from the past.

The fact is that using the terminologies of infrastructure and development intimidate communities who are prey to engineering and business sharks flogging a bad design for the environment. Once they have the infrastructure in place it is easy for these people to take over whole communities with the government's assistance. They will even work to crate the type of government structure that suit their goals. It can become insidious. Since they make disproportionate profits relative to their actual contributions, they end up as the powerful. Small scale efforts are treated rather shoddily even though those systems may be vastly superior and maintain forests, natural life and cleaner water for the environment.

Summing up:

Thank you for spending time to explain these issues. It would seem that what is best for the natural environment and waste water treatment will involve a battle against government, vested sewerage business interests, and developers, and those that developers pay. What an awesome challenge for the average community.

Governments unthinking about the environment encourage bad development of community systems because they want to spend money to be popular as jobs and business support.

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.

Small Flows Clearing House

Read about small septic systems that work. There is almost no case where a septic system cannot be devised for any soil. Sandy soils may be best for septic systems. Do NOT instantly believe the hype of sewerage system engineers. Research for yourself.

Franklin Michigan people fought the pump and grind sewer system and got a hybrid system. Very acrimonious battle.

Developers tried to force the wrong system on people and use sewers as a way to get development areas that they can pack houses into and maximize their profit.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=small+flows+clearing+house&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=

No one in government listens to anyone but the big developers with engineering hype money and influence because of a history of working with government engineers!

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.

Morning Colours in Petoskey

What a symphony of colours this morning as we awoke in Petoskey, Michigan. That's my wife to the right of the armour enjoying the light show of breezes off Lake Michigan. Winds a blowing, sure.

Drive here was long.

Plenty to debate with my cousins. I was told that my imagination occasionally got the better of me. True, I am sure. I also assume a lofty position and talk down to people and they don't like that. I made the mistake of using the word fermions. It's a word I love and honestly I wish it did not get people rattled.

That's the problem with different schools of thought and abstraction. So much to get rattled about. My wife says. One word out of your mouth and wars occur. So keep it to yourself, eh!

The Potential Liability of New System Proposals for Zone 3 and Possibly Elsewhere

I am particularly sensitive to any changes affecting energy or water use on my property. It only takes a small valve disfunction and one sees major damage, believe me. This is, especially, as hazard in the cold winter when people are away from their properties on occasion as snow birds.

Far be it for me to take on the experts and consultants in sewerage system design and the impact of implementation. In a very cold forest environment. I really do not have any quality quantification of the risks, and what follows is just local opinion and not to be taken as God's truth.

We are trying to establish verity here, but what we might say is not to be taken as fact in any way, just opinion by people trying to arrive at a sensible conclusion in face of conflicting commentaries. We accept no responsibility for your personal actions as a result of reading our material.

You must verify everything we say for yourself in all the read that I write. I am albeit an author of fiction trying to decide on what is credible. My blog is trying to get you to think?

I am a software engineer and computer graphics artist and not a another type of engineer.

Bob Merkley sent out his opinion and you may read it as an opinion of an engineer and not fact.

Personal Analysis of 'Low Pressure Grinder Pump' sewage collection system proposed by Lambton Shores for Zone 3

August 2010

From: Roy Merkley, 10341 Maplewood Ave. Southcott Pines
​ Grand Bend, Ontario N0M 1T0

After submitting my previous analysis of the Zone 3 proposed sewer project by Lambton Shores I was asked to explain specifically what I thought was involved with the 'grinder pump' design for handling our residential waste effluent. My opinion is based on my general knowledge of equipment design and in no way am I experienced in the specific application of this type of system. However basic principals must apply.

1-What is required at each individual residence?

The existing sewer pipe to your septic tank would be modified and rerouted to a new tank assembly that contains a grinder pump, motor, level switches and some sort of screening filter to prevent bad things like bottle caps, children's toys and the myriad of items that can be flushed unknowingly down the drain from jamming up the pump mechanism. A visible ground level access hatch is required on the tank for service and cleanout.

Piping is then installed from wherever the tank is located to the edge of your property for hook up to the collection system.

Shut off valves would be required on each side of this unit to isolate it for service or repair. A check valve would be required to prevent reverse flow or back up into your tank from your neighbours' systems when they operate to empty theireffluent into the collection piping network.

Power for operating the pump must come from the homeowner's power supply and would include at least a 30 amp ground fault circuit feeding a separate panel likely mounted on the outside of your house. This would contain the necessary controls for the motor including overload protection and whatever monitoring system is required to indicate a breakdown in performance. Apparently warning lights or whatever would be part of this panel assembly. Control and power wiring must run from this panel to the pump and tank assembly.

2-What is required beyond your property line?

Each individual residence connects into a network of piping that interlaces throughout all of zone 3 funneling into the sewage treatment plant. This system must be designed for maximum flow conditions along with a suitable safety factor, thus pipe sizing will generally increase the further downstream you go.

To move the effluent in larger volumes and in many cases uphill, a series of lift stations will be required to collect and pump it along the way with larger pumps.

Again control stations are required with associated valving, electrics, monitoring etc. I would also suspect that inspection ports would be required in the pipe lines at intervals for flushing and maintenance.

3-What problems can be encountered with this system?

Most pumps like the oil and water pumps in your car handle a clean consistent fluid to be pushed down the pipe under some pressure. The effluent from the drains and toilets is pretty nasty stuff to handle since you never know what has mistakenly fallen into the outflow. Also this system requires that the effluent be ground up to produce a liquid slurry that can be forced across country to the treatment facility. Thus the pump is the most vulnerable item in the system in my opinion. It is subject to wear and misuse as well as operating on an intermittent cycle and in some cases when homes are not occupied it can be months between cycles.

Electric motors although very reliable can occasionally fail and have a certain life expectancy.

The thousands of valves and fittings again should be very reliable but are a source of leakage and failure when ground shifting and forces are applied to them from unforeseen circumstances.

There is the possibility of freeze ups in the pump and tank assembly in severe winter months when systems are inoperative for extended periods of time.
A major concern is extended power outages and the possible requirements of resetting the system even on short outages.

The level control switches in the tank can be problematic and cause serious trouble.

Since the only way of emptying the tank is with the pump, there must be ahigher risk of sewage back up into the residence when clogs occur and the system fails. This has the potential for increased insurance costs.

During installation both on individual lots and throughout the entire area care must be given to interference with all of the other utility lines that are underground.

In the winter months the municipality would have to keep deep snow cover cleared from each access cover on the tanks to allow for instant service when units fail.

4-My personal conclusion.

In today's world where energy conservation and the environment seem to be so important, this system which employs so many electric motors does not get high marks. However the most negative aspect to it is the high risk of pump failures and clogging or 'jam ups' in the tank and the distribution system.

Monitoring the alarm devices and providing service throughout the entire network requires significant resources and ultimately adds to the cost to the taxpayers. No accurate figures have been provided on costs for this system but if quality components are used it will not be cheap. Bear in my mind every single component must be made of non corrosive material.

In general there seems to be no evidence of grinder pumps being successful on such a large scale anywhere. This alone should preclude it from being considered.

We would welcome anyone with a more positive stance on this equipment. Please let us know if you do not agree with the above comments or wish to add anything. I am prepared to publish all and sundry, except silly stuff.

AW Lake

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.

Using Your Brain to Forecast the Economy

One of several career directions I have enjoyed is that of economic forecasting. I at one point was forecasting interest rates in a large financial institution in London, UK and then influencing money markets as to the direction interest rates should move. There were times when interest rates exceeded 300 percent. I remember persuading my colleagues to do the opposite of what every other bank was doing. That brought in huge profits in the millions for getting a single event correct when everyone else got in wrong.

I think it is possible to forecast using one's brains, but the person needs to have imagination and be able to see alternatives more clearly than the average. Choosing between possibilities is an art as well as a science. I learned from a master forecaster Professor Ronald Brech of Wimbledon, UK. He developed school business games and arranged competitions between schools throughout the UK to teach kids the arts of business and forecasting. Sadly, this was in the 1980's and one has to look very hard for a modern equivalent. Brech emphasized the interrelationships between the many qualitative visions of a community, and how difficult it is to grasp how technology or sociology will impact of a business product life cycle. In any event the art and skills of forecasting are very real and can change the world.

Use your imagination to see if you can envisage where world population and per capital income will go over the next fifty years.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/reclaiming-the-imagination/?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.

What is left in the Water After sewerage Treatments?

I know that sewerage treatment takes a lot out of water, but is it just harmful bacteria? What is left after processing the water and will it contribute to the Department of the Environment's objective of keeping Ontario's water clean. What is meant by clean. Is it safe for everyone? If my water is causing me problems can I sue the community, sic city, for damages and shortening of my life?

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

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=what+is+the+water+from+sewerage+treatment+like&hl=en&client=safari&prmd=v&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=ByBoTKrFIpH-nAf3t-DCBQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDUQqwQwAw

Personally, when walking along the beach at Grand Bend, I can see algae growing from the bottom up. It is tempting to then say that this is due to man, but I notice that the algae is clustered where I see the Canadian geese land each autumn and spring. The defecation of the geese is contributing to the algae growth and it is obvious from my personal observation, I know that this is true. What should we do about it? Absolutely nothing.

I also see the false ladybugs, sometimes in great abundance.

Science suggests that being too prissy about cleanliness is causing all sorts of allergy issues. Children living on farms kicking about horse and cow manure don't have the same degree of allergy issues. The development and use of harsh chemicals such as chlorines and fluorines contribute to health issues. Showering in chlorinated water is not good, yet that is what the local community exacts from us. At least, while I am in England, I can shower in water coming from a bore hole well on the family farm that has been in existence for half a millennium. I see the difference in the peeling of my skin and possibly scalp dandruff affected possibly by chlorine. Such a problem has to be attended to by the individual. Get a dechlorinating device. Don't be prissy, Arthur, or a pain in the neck!

When I moved to Toronto as a teenager, I was exposed to pollution. It caused acne and other health issues. It is the city, vehicles pumping out toxins, the use of toxic energy sources and synthetics, and it's mores of industries that don't pay for the externalities of their effluent in the air and water that cause pollution issues worthy of note and action, not the geese and certainly not the cottagers and careful village community.

As a youth, I watched dyes flow directly into the Penetangore river from a knitting mill that made socks, day in day out for years and years. All colours!

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.

Dick Mazka's Views on Low Pressure Sewerage Systems as Proposed for Zone 3

I first met Dick when cycling through the village one afternoon last autumn. A group of men were gathered under the tall oaks discussing national politics, but it wasn't Canadian politics. Dick had strong views and his notions were well researched though not everyone's cup of tea. His statements were, nevertheless, very informative and he was passionate. Thus, when I saw Dick give his presentation at the Grand Bend local school last week, I was prepared for a good presentation, but I was not prepared for a brilliant presentation.

Well, Dick's presentation was extraordinarily well researched and factual. It had wonderful vision, was totally entertaining and full of insight and clear comprehension of the issues. In short, Dick's capturing of the essence of the sewerage controversy affecting his neighbourhood was utterly first rate. The quality of his images and the content of his discussion was superb. I was floored, amazed, dazzled and thoroughly impressed. Give this man his due. He is an artist at persuasion and his comprehension of complex issues is first rate.

His interview by the Strip follows:

http://www.grandbendstrip.com/category/communities/dashwood

The question is whether Dick is right in what he says and feels. In my gut, I know he is. Intellectually, I know he makes sound arguments and has enormous vision. He is like a knight in shining armor.

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.

What is Grand Bend's Economic Future - My Personal Vision

As I have mentioned before in an earlier blog, Grand Bend is on a grand bend in the curvature of Lake Huron. Most of the village is highway 21 going north to Tobermory and south to Sarnia. At the same time, Grand Bend has a grand bend forming the mouth of the river that exits into Lake Huron. This makes Grand Bend special as a place NOT suited for development. Yet, it would seem that the village has tried and tried to attract business from a provincial park, to an airport, to a race track, to a zoo, to a fine yacht harbor, to a beach center, to a weekly market, and so on.

There is seemly no end to the people's attempts to develop the village even though topographically it is unsuited for development and growth there ends up as congestion. Why is this village wanting to grow and failing spectacularly? Does the village, town, city have an identity crisis?

The sad reason is that Grand Bend is on the curve and is the nearest sunny beach to London, Ontario. The village is mainly a fun park for London and frustrated Londoners. Other cities are too distant to make Grand Bend attractive. There is not much that village has to offer other than forest and beaches. The forest and beaches have been exploited magnificently, and yet growth in Grand Bend itself is unsustainable.

Why would you want Grand Bend to grow? This is a question, I am struggling with. Growth appears in all the election materials and publications. The sad fact is that it is not growth but a slowing down of lost investment capital. Invest in Grand Bend and lose your capital. That's not a growth center. Grand Bend's dream should be revamped to something more akin to it's neighbour, the village of Bayfield to the north. Rather than trying to be a fun park for London, Grand Bend should raise it's price of admission and become a dwelling place and village community catering to the rich and famous. That the community is unsuited for large scale development is unfortunate since many people have lost so much money trying to make their businesses succeed where reality dictates the community is flogging the wrong merchandise. Mayors of the community will come and going spreading their message of growth and prosperity to an environs better suited to deer and forestry.

The long term residents of Grand Bend who try to make money out of the fun park businesses will be spectacularly disappointed. The village is a temporary fun park that does not even have a book store. Even Bayfield, Goderich, and Kincardine have bookstores, and very good ones at that.

What Grand Bend does have is natural beauty, a clean beach if people look after the agricultural runoff, an artistic and highly intelligent community of thinking people most of the time, creative buzz, and musical talent! What it also has is a fun beachy park atmosphere, albeit not as great as that of Port Elgin, but fairly respectable, none the same.

In what directions could Grand Bend develop? It's possible that the village could be home to a university, but not a large university, and one that snuggled carefully into the background so as to maintain the many natural qualities that the village has to offer. Woods would need to be planted and forests developed to build up the collegial community, but it would be better than continued expansion of the University of Western Ontario at London, Ontario, which is rather getting rather crowded and which does not really need the money. If Grand Bend were home to an environmental or physics and arts university this would be fitting.

The village has a lovely river system that could have forest walkways and trails of oak and vine. Add a few redwoods to growth slowly over the centuries. Yes, Grand Bend needs a bypass and it needs a university. It needs even more forest and woodlands, hardwoods and cedars, expensive homes and artistic individuals plying their talents. It needs horse farms, pony treks, livery services, and riding to grow new businesses around the horse and cycling. Grand Bend needs to develop in the healthy sustainable directions that will give local people more permanent employment and perhaps attract a bookstore once again and a Starbucks cafe. Even the McDonalds could offer it's coffee range. And, the health shop could return to help people live longer lives. More yoga classes and health centers year round. Better golf courses and services for the elite of Ontario could be added. Scaling up the quality would be good for the village. Sailing systems and electric boats could be developed locally. Good restaurants would survive with a university as there would be business year round. Young people would enjoy being beside the lake and get better grades. Such development would be ideal and would build on existing natural infrastructure. The manmade infrastructures unsuited to the town and ushered in by previous mayors wanting to promote fun land could be quietly recycled.

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.

What the Mayor Has Had to Say in the Past about the Sewer Project

This makes interesting reading, but you need to scroll down to the interview:

http://www.grandbendstrip.com/category/communities/grand-bend/page/4

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.

Septic System Maintenance in Grand Bend

I know very little about septic system maintenance, but I have found the following useful discussions on the web:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Septic+system+maintenance+in+grand+bend&go=&form=QBRE&filt=all&qs=

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=septic+system+maintenance+in+grand+bend&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=

Septic care:

http://homebuying.about.com/cs/septicsystems/a/septic_care.

Wikipedia:

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

Google:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=septic+system+maintenance&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

Bing:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Septic+system+maintenance&go=&form=QBLH&filt=all&qs=n&sk=&sc=1-25

It's useful to do both the google and bing searches. Bing has improved tremendously and really does offer an alternative to google my favorite search engine.

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.

Some Very Intelligent People Really Don't Seem Get It About the Environment of Southcott Pines

We all know that to really protect the environment these days you are swimming against the stream. Our habits of destroying natural habitat are so inbred that we prostitute the environment for money. Where the forests are most beautiful, we fill them with provincial parks, put up fences, clear spaces for roads, install campsites, and then drop monstrous lines for sewers and water. We do this saying we are protecting the environment, when the reality is that we are exploiting the environment and rather than use science to save it and develop it and improve upon it, we stop there and say that we have done enough.

When very intelligent people design an environmentally friendly community of living within a forest, as is the case in Southcott, Grand Bend, we should at least acknowledge the qualitative difference between their community and those outside which destroy more of the environment. After all the deer can eat the plants in the garden of Southcott homes as they did last night, but they don't eat the plants in the so called progressive communities represented by citification, bulldozing and widespread addiction to values for environmental issues that are not really sustainable over the longer term.

What amazes me, as a person, who reads the local blogs and newspapers is how many local people and those from outside the community, do not see the qualitative improvement in an approach to the environment that Southcott embodies. The reporting should have a quality about it, but unfortunately the looked for quality is sadly missing. What is even more alarming is that the Ministry of the Environment and it's people including the head man, do not appear to notice the qualitative difference. Nothing is really said about the quality of the environment in Southcott Pines. Everyone is dead against those systems for protecting the environment that Southcott represents.

I find this situation so surprising that the fact is terrifying because it means the environment in Ontario, at least, has little hope. People by and large are generally blind here to genuine progress in living within the forest habitat. Those that live in the community can have their meetings, but the reporting of the meeting is totally blind to the qualitative aspects of the discussion.

The visitors to Grand Bend need to be herded into confined spaces because they really are destructive of the environment. After they have despoiled there own habitats, the city people come to destroy other habitats. People come to provincial parks and they really don't understand their impact or the limitations of those fragile environments. Neither do the people, who run them as theaters of fun and pleasure. They don't even know how to control the human waste products from within the park. They hire consultants who don't get it. The consultants are ignorant of what it takes. So what hope is there?

Sure people can earn a living by exploiting what is beautiful, but they, at least, should learn how to sustain it and improve upon it. If I am missing something please let me know. It's not all about making money and putting in more houses and bulldozing and clearing land and laying pipe and installing ugly features all over the natural landscape.

Several aspects of this blindness amaze me:

1. The reporting mentions too little about the democratic process of people defending what they know to be progress in face of what they know to be ignorance. Of course, if ignorant persons cannot report back to the general public what they don't see because they don't even raise quality of environment aspects of the discussion then the fight begins because ignorance and bad reporting should not win out over prudence and qualitative alertness. Being ignorant may win votes and an audience with people who don't read very much and who out of lack of appreciation of quality destroy what is beautiful out of ignorance, but it is not right. It is bullying by the ignorant. Unfortunately, the history of humanity shows that those who bully out of ignorance tend to implant unworkable social environments that self destruct from within. It is quality that wins out in the end. it is science and prudence and being more aware of what is quality that wins out.

So when I say that something appears to have Roman qualities, I am not saying that it is good. I am saying that it is a forced solution out of ignorance. It is a straight line solution where a curvilinear one will do better. It is an undemocratic solution where a democratic one cannot be executed because of ignorance within the democracy. It is a catch 22 situation where ignorance rules, but wisdom should have prevailed. It is a loss that nature will eventually undo because it is unsustainable over the longer term.

2. Intelligent people, who have spent their money and much of their lives learning how to live in a wilder forest with big trees and birds and wild animals, are being bullied by a city whose name people really don't remember that has big city values controlling it and has large scale development written all over it. This is where small meets large. David meets Goliath!

Who will win? Who do you think will win. My money is on ignorance bullying brilliance, low quality winning over high quality, the Roman ideals of might is right destroying those family and environmentally friendly values of the Celts and Gauls who live in the forests. It's the battle of the goose against the wolf.

There is no doubt that an ignorant Minister of the Environment will come down on the side of ignorance. That is after all progress as seen from a city such as Toronto, or should I say Hog Town.

AW Lake

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 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.

The Dreaded Notice of Completion that Changes a Town's Direction as Regards Sewers

Dear Ontario Minister of the Environment!

I was present at a well attended meeting at the Grand Bend Public School auditorium last week in which I heard a public official, and I believe an elected one state that the community need not worry about the Notice of Completion that had been sent to the Ontario Minister for the Environment. I understood the reasoning being that there was a change of heart, to be understood as a change of direction, or was it emphasis on the part of elected councilors. Beside me there were comments to the effect that the Minister would take the Notice of Completion at face value and the project would be initiated pretty soon.

It was obvious from the voices heard at the school meeting that the community had serious concerns and that these were by no means minor concerns. Since the population of the village is barely 2,000 mid week, and getting smaller, one has to think an auditorium full is fairly representative that the community by a fairly large majority has concerns. I did not hear anyone say that they did not have concerns.

These are the issues that I noted in the darkness of the hall at the time:

1. The Issue Whether There Was a Genuine Need

We understand that the provincial park to the south of the village has visitors that need to go to the loo and dispose of waste water. I have not heard of any effort by the park to develop its own system so it's genuine needs can not be so very great otherwise they would be dealt with appropriately within the park boundaries as I understand is perfectly feasible and provides an environmentally sound approach.

Surely, with all the parks administered by the province, they now have sensible sanitation system technologies for small scale needs whether placed on sandy or clay or loamy ground conditions. Rather, it seems to locals that the province wants to make use of the existing Grand Bend facilities and is thinking grander scale to get money for a massive development beyond what is required for the park. That is why the village is now involved in providing services to the park. This is hardly likely to win friends within the village as is a form of bullying. In fact so much bullying seems to be going on that people are getting fed up with the Ministry.

It was probably assumed that by combining the need of a village with that of the provincial park the bulls could pursuade rather simple minded or narrowly directed administrations in Toronto and Ottawa to fork out big money. It's not what villagers want, at least from my observations.

2. The Issue of Whether the Governments were Sufficiently Transparent

We, Grand Bend village folk are so badly informed that we did not know what was in the pipe line, and certainly did not imagine it was ****, again pun intended.

There is transparency but it is not general, and there is a small group that talks to itself and makes decisions. I am not a member of the small group and did not realize myself what was accepted as viable, otherwise I would have reviewed the matter earlier. My thoughts were in 2006 that no locality would be so stupid as to go ahead with such a ridiculous project. Villagers don't think their elected officers were sufficiently open about the project.

3. The Issue of Being Honest to the Community

My understanding here is that some people have not been as honest to their community as is desirable. Others think there is a matter of ethics to be addressed. Others would like to have an ombudsman made known to the community through which they can move forward with perceptions of legal and ethical misconduct and air grievances about a lack of honesty on the part of elected officials and others. In many ways the community in traumatized and some people are scared and frightened. Some were in tears.

4. The Issues of Economics and the Environment

Well, who would not jump at the opportunity to have have a spanking new sewerage system and there were consultants around that could argue the case in volumes of paperwork that no one in their right mind would ever read. I myself would like to speak to the economist that did the cost benefit study for the project and who evaluated the financial costs involved for the small village of Grand Bend.

Well, I exaggerate on the downside because if you count all the cars and trucks that get stuck in traffic jams crossing the local bridge and negotiating the electric traffic lights, you arrive at a much larger population figure, possibly as high as 50,000 though I don't think a count of the residences in the village using google would come that large.

It's a village less than half the size of Kincardine at the best of times, and has a much smaller population of less than 2,000. Small villages exaggerate their tourist trade just the way small villages exaggerate the number of fish and their size caught in the local streams, which can't be very many given the absence of serious fisher folk in the community. In Kincardine the fisher people sit in the harbor and are visible, but not so in booming Grand Bend, where they vanish to the Caribbean to fish or something like that. We get party goers and pleasure seekers that come and go faster than the geese.

So if the project costs $2 million and 2,000 people have to pay for it, the cost is $1,000 per person above what people are already paying. Maybe the number of households is less and the cost of the project is much higher and borrowed funds are being used. If that is the case then, the project is an unviable venture economically. It is better for the village to improve existing facilities to the tune of $1,000 each.

We heard from many experts and some told us that the option of improving existing facilities could be a better alternative to the huge capital project envisioned. It would be better for the provincial park as well.

Since I don't know the true number of village households, which seem to be small, and the true costs of the project which seem to be enormous, I am only to guess at what the per capita costs of a wasteful, pun intended, capital project might be!

Summing Up

Everyone in the village and in the surrounding area is keen that Grand Bend do it's part in keeping water clean and the environment pristine. We don't accept that the proposed capital project is the answer to genuine needs of the Provincial Park, the Village Community and the farms and businesses of the area.

It may be that because the village is divided up in some many directions by counties and authorities, we don't think as one, but this is because we do not have a community heart based on a logical political process unencumbered by artificial division based on past eras that hardly seem relevant to present day needs. Out population is transient so it is easy to fool us some of the time.

Somehow the politics, the opportunities for making money out of a failed community structure, and the lack of a community heart gave way to the ball being dropped and a ridiculous spending program being approved that does not address real needs and are more in the imaginations of consultants wanting to sell capital projects than people answering the call of nature and feeling something was due. Our administrators appear to have been marketing something that most people in the village feel that we can well do without. People have made lots of money researching the wrong issues and coming up with the wrong solutions.

In conclusion, this whole process is a waste of our time, money and future resources and should never have happened and we are surprised it ever did happen!

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 Linear Thinking in North America Destroying the Environment?

The rectilinear road system and design of land settlement in North America is wasteful and stifling the natural use of the continent's resources. The old hangover from the Roman linear thinking process of Victorian Britain and pre-Victorian America lives on to thwart conservation and natural beautification of the continent.

Give a person a headache by telling him to walk down a straight road five miles on a hot afternoon.

Because of all the straight lines in North America nothing looks natural. The roads traveling through the environment look decidedly unnatural except where the straight lines have been ignored and the benefits of curvilinear land contours and topographies maximized. Rivers mean nothing to the linear thinking planners who bull doze over them with abandon. That people dislike all the linear boxes called homes is forgotten.

At one extreme, numbering systems on this continent are absurdly complicated and overly large numbers applied to homes. In many cases, houses have five digit numbers, which is absurd in a community that is supposed to talk to each other. It's crazy to expect people to remember five digits. There is an odd detachment from what is artistic and beautiful to what is absurdly ugly and ridiculous. North America linear systems tend to be absurdly ridiculous and silly. They are out of place in what otherwise could be a pretty wonderful habitat.

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.