I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this cartoon this morning. I've pretty much had it with the whining of the rescued Canadians from Lebanon. A little gratitude would go a long way.
Also saw the demonstrations agains the American Consulate and Canadian Government on the tube last evening with Hezbollah flags waving. I thought Hezbollah was deemed a terrorist organization? Am I mistaken here, why are these people allowed to carry these flags. Does that mean Hez is in Canada and what does that mean for us?

Watching the news today I saw footage of the demonstration against the invasion of Lebanon in Montreal and Toronto. Now I have no problem with people demonstrating against something, especially war but what I find problematic is this; using small children and teaching them hate. These small children were taught by their parents to chant things like "death to Israel" and carrry signs showing burning babies! Some were also carrying the Hezbollah flag.
I am not ever going to make excuses for the innocent loss of life, I know better. My Mom escaped Dresden during the worst bombing and have heard about it time and time again. But during all the telling of it I was not taught to hate as these children are. Read the story and you will see that there probably were lots of reasons I could have been taught to hate.
To read the whole story check out WWII Dresden Holocaust
My parents immigrated to Canada for a new start and didn't bring their hate with them. Now some you will say they were on the wrong side and therefore deserved to suffer. Does that then mean the Lebanese who support Hezbollah are on the wrong side and also deserve to suffer? Not all Germans voted for Hitler and not all Lebanese support Hezbollah but unfortunately as with the Germans, all will suffer.
Hate in all forms must be stopped and it can only come from the parents. It is they who teach the children and if they continue to teach the destruction of Israel then there will never be peace and the day will come when humankind will wipe itself out. The choice is clear.

"If I knew that it was going to be like this, I would have stayed in Lebanon under the bombs," said Roula Karbash. "It would be easier."

I would like to offer this lady a one way ticket back to Lebanon.
I, like most Canadians have been watching the unfolding drama of the rescue of up to 30 thousand registered Canadians out of Lebanon and am profoundly disturbed by the lack of gratitude. Instead they are complaining about vomiting (seasickness), lack of air conditioning and lack of food. What's up here, they are alive, be happy you have been rescued. I am hoping that this is post traumatic stress and when they settle down and come to realize that the lack of disorganization they complain about is endemic to that part of the world and is not something that Canada can control they will be more grateful.
Even those who haven't lived in Canada in years or paid taxes here will be given accommodation, food and health care when they arrive here. What other country in the world is that generous.
On the positive side, there have been a number of people who have expressed gratitude while acknowledging it was not an easy process. I'm sure it was a bitch and I for one would not have wanted to go thru it either. I get profoundly seasick and couldn't even be on a whale watching cruise in Nova Scotia without being desperately ill.
When this is all over, this country needs to have a serious conversation about the rights and obligations of Citizenship. If we think it is only Lebanon we are fooling ourselves. There are thousands of Canadian citizens all over the world who live in countries like Greece, Mexico, Thailand and more who when trouble strikes expect to be bailed out, for free. Our government needs to change the rules, that's the bottom line, in my opinion and we all know how opinionated I am.

There are two kinds of people, the grateful and the complainers. Having been glued to 24 hour news programs for the last couple of days I have discovered that there are either a lot of complainers or the news stations don't really want to show the grateful ones. Surely to God anyone who is being rescued ought to be grateful in my opinion.
Reading this mornings papers there are Lebanese with Canadian citizenship that are stuck in the south (Hez Territory) who are complaining that no one comes to their rescue!! What exactly are they expecting I wonder. Do they actually expect the Canadian Army to go down there and get them? Do they expect the embassy staff to maybe do that? I don't know, what are our expectations and what are our rights as Canadian citizens in a foreign land? The roads are closed, there are only 27 Embassy staff to deal with what I hear is 30 to 50 thousand Canadians (the number changes depending on which station you watch) and I wonder how much they can actually do. I mean when do you stop answering the phone and take care of your own families? They after all are only humans too.
I have a son who travels to lots of foreign lands every summer and some of the countries he visits aren't the safest to be in, but he is always aware of what's happening and makes his travel decisions based on the news of the day. I am reasonably certain had he been in that part of the world, the moment Hezbollah fired it's first rocket he'd have been out of there like a bat out of hell and not waited to be "rescued". It's called taking personal responsibility for your safety. When you travel always have an exit plan.
My personal opinion is that the "Canadians" who live in Lebanon and don't have a residence in Canada any longer are being extremely arrogant to demand to be rescued. Legitimate tourists must always be helped whenever possible without risking the lives of the rescuers. The disorganization that is happening, well that's endemic of that part of the world, and the numbers are just too huge for the small number of staff available. I understand the frustration of having to wait hours to get a ship must be hell, but when people show up that weren't called just adds to the mess. After all, documents must be checked to make certain that only legitimate Canadians get on board. The ones that actually made it on to a boat last night should be grateful instead of complaining. I acknowledge that it probably wasn't a cruise, but what the heck you got out and your safe. Quit your bitchin.

There are up to 50,000 "Canadians" in Lebanon who just want to come home to Canada and are screaming that the Canadian government has not moved fast enough to get them out. What's wrong with this picture? I'll tell you what. A lot of these people are not tourists stuck in Lebanon but rather Canadian citizens of convenience. They stay here long enough to get a passport and then their off to their home countries until the shit hits the fan. Then all of a sudden it's "I'm Canadian, get me out of here".
I personally know a couple who haven't set foot in Canada in years but have recently heard that one is ill and they will come back for our wonderful health care system. I know, it's not so wonderful from our perspective but for third world countries it's heaven. I have a real problem with this.
Now of course since they are Canadian by all means get them out, but shake your head people, it's not that simple when the airports are closed, communication spotty at best and we are half a world away. Did these people expect to be airlifted out immediately? That's what some their relatives here have been demanding and trashing the government of the day when it is not quite that simple. I've heard that ships can only carry about a thousand people, how many ships will we need? I'm pretty certain that any government would do the best it can to help out, lets just give them a break here.

Time for a serious subject once again. Reading today's Toronto Star a story about putting down roots jumped out at me. It was about a Korean man who came to this country 40 years ago and bought a farm. This farm is highly successful because it caters to the chinese community in terms of what is grown there. His son who was educated here is an air traffic controller and had no problems obtaining employment.
This is in stark conrast to the gentleman who works at our "corner" variety store who is/was a Physician in his native Iran. What's wrong with this picture?
Under todays immigration rules and point system the Korean farmer would not have been allowed to immigrate to Canada yet he is a productive member of our society.
Recently there have been deportations of construction workers in Toronto back to their native Portugal. Why were these workers not allowed to immigrate? In spite of having the skills needed here for our booming housing market, they didn't have sufficient points, ie. University degrees. I find this bizzare. We desperately need drywallers, painters, bricklayers, carpenters and even labourers. It is time for Canada to stop putting such huge value on a degree that in fact becomes useless once these people are actually here and start allowing people with useable skills into the country. These immigrants have proven that they can contribute to this country without feeling let down and their children generally do well here. Having someone come here with a university degree that we dont recognize is cruel in the absolute.

About 9 years or so ago, the offspring and his three offspring built this wood shed for me. Every time he has since come to visit, he would shake it a little and be surprised that it was still standing. It's not cemented into the ground and built strictly from small trees from the property so it was pretty surprising that it lasted so long. It was great to have, held two cords of wood and stored numerous rakes, shoves and stuff. This year it collapsed, gave up the ghost. Our neighbor's tells us that there were at least 10 ice storms over the past winter and that would do it. So there you go offspring, new project when you next come to visit. This summer maybe??

This post is mostly for family who are interested in seeing what the finished window looks like, so here it is guys. Maybe next year we do the other side of the house.

I never did get that photo of the Humingbird but not for lack of trying. I actually sat on the deck for a couple of hours and yes they came by numerous times to drink the syrup water, but alas every time I picked up the camera and turned it on, they were gone again. They are incredibly fast and I really had no chance. But they are very beautiful and enjoyed watching them. It was a perfect day with the odd puffy cloud in the sky and not too many mosquitos.
Now back in the big dirty city it's back to reality and dealing with pressing issues, like the cell phone problem. I did speak to head office of the large wireless provider and had a new phone last evening. Unfortunately again it would not work. Seems that SIM cards that are the memory of phones are 99% problem free. Seems I got two out of three that wouldn't work. What does that tell you? Murphy's Law maybe? This time I must commend my wireless company for having done their best to make the phone work.

Today I needed to go to small town of Haliburton to stock up on groceries and make a trip to the local dump. The town was filled with city people enjoying the wonderful atmosphere of small town Ontario with a few exceptions. As I was walking up Main Street, yup it's really called that, I was startled to hear a honking car horn. Not just honking, but the driver had her hand on the horn non stop. A quick glance at the license plate showed it to be famfun. Kind of weird I thought that someone with that plate would so easily loose their patience, I mean even in the worst traffic jam I've ever seen on that street you can get from one end to the other in 10 minutes, 2 if all is clear. The reason for this persons impatience was someone trying to cross the street on a courtesy crosswalk. I thought, they really need to go back to the big city, they don't belong here.
One of the reasons for coming to cottage country I thought, was to chill out and leave the city stressed behind and if you cant do that, hell stay home.
We are getting ready to go home also, the week has passed too quickly and I have yet to get a decent photo of my hummingbirds. But I will, I'm determine that tomorrow I will sit on the deck for however long it takes to get a good photo.
I haven't even left here yet and am already looking forward to the next time now that all problems have been solved.