Down Town East Side, Vancouver

I had the experience of visiting the Down Town East Side on the 23rd of June. Of all the things I had heard, it was nothing like I expected. Sure there are prostitutes and drug users but I expected filthy people who would pick a fight with anyone, a narrow, nasty, dirty road; basically what you would expect of some severely run down location. This really was not the case. The people were really friendly and would come up to us (there were 3 of us there obtaining footage for a documentary) and ask what we were doing. When they were told this, they were more than helpful in telling us how it was down there. We traversed an alley, after "Elia" had asked the 'residents' if it was ok. Those in the alley were either shooting up, smoking crack or whatever they smoked or sleeping. Many dumpsters (slip bins) had been removed from the area for a couple of reasons: One) businesses where given bags to recycle their waste and a truck would come around every few hours and dispose of these bags, and two) if there was any usable 'garbage' it was a lot safer for the street people to access this instead of crawling inside the bins.
Folks down here carry around their pipes or their rigs in their hands most of the time, popping into door ways to smoke up or shoot up. You have a bad fix or too much and you end up "tweeking" out; your body moves all by itself, and you end up with your arms and legs going in all different directions. You are still able to talk and make sense though, but your muscles get all mixed up. If you haven't seen this before, it kinda freaks you out. There are people there that do not like you filming them even though you say its going 'nowhere'. They are afraid that there will be repercussions if it happens to go public, which is quite true. We were very surprised that the media was not down there as well as us. 97% of those we saw were clean and respectable. The clothes they wore didn't necesarily match or were fashionable but tidy. One native gal I talked with in Oppenheimer park had a very sad story to tell, about being a triplet and that her brother (she has a 'twin' sister now) and father committed suicide, that her mum had problems and sort of abandoned the kids. She was trying to get back into communication with them but it was not working. I am not sure what her particular brand of narcotic was, but unless you knew that that was her 'home', you would think she was just like you and I. A lot of the girls on the street would just love someone to come by and say hi, and ask how things are going and maybe give them a cup of coffee or a sandwich.
As I say, this trip was an eye opener, both good and bad, and I would love to make another trip down there.

More Gravel

Once again the gravel trucks roll down the logging road, at least on Thursday and Friday they were, from where I do not know. The gravel that was transported down to the dry land sort a month or so ago, has now been moved a few hundred feet to another location, flattened out to but 3' in height and covered with some kind of tarp. Someone mentioned that when they dig up contaminated soil, this is what they do; a chemical of some kind is sprayed on the gravel and then it is covered for a time. Supposedly this 'purifies' it and it can then be returned. These trucks are not returning it, they are adding to it. I have not explored where they are taking these loads.

Gardasil

And what was I saying last year about Gardasil? And why was it 'fast tracked' way faster than any other drug? 8000 cases of adverse side effects and how may girls have been inoculated world wide? As young as 9 and up to 26 it is MANDATORY to have this shot in the USA? Unbelievable that we have been denied the right to chose for ourselves what we inject into our bodies. What is going to happen to these children as they come of child bearing age? How many are going to die? and how many will have to fill big PHARMA's pocket with drugs that they now need to cope with after effects.
On the same note, colesterol medications are now being prescribed for children as young as 2 because of the high fat diet they are being fed!!! How ludicrous is that! What ever happened to parents being able to properly look after their children? I have always believed that we were all doing just fine until 30 years ago when it was apparent that it took two incomes to support a family. At that time, fast foods became tghe norm. We all went out for hamburgers and pizza, and then our freeers became loaded with them. Pepsi and Coke are the things to drink along with our Dorito's and chips. Children are not taught to cook anymore. Further more, children can't do much of anything these days, but boy are they experts on computers and video games!

Digital TV

It appears that we are being forced once again to comply with the System. It has been happening in the UK and now its happening in the USA. By this time next year, there will be no Analogue service, it will all be Digital, which means your TV will not receive the signals.
I don't understand this world. I need a printer cartridge. I may as well throw out my printer and buy a brand new one, complete with TWO brand new cartridges for the price of once cartridge! Our computers become obsolute and are junked. We are drowning in a sea of plastic. But getting back to digital TV's, what about digital cell phones? And the incidence of cancers? and now CANCER is another subject we will get into at a later date. Did you know that you can cook an egg between two cell phones that are turned on?