A Happy Reunion

Ravi is getting on, in age that is. Otherwise it is all downhill, poor man. At one time he had a reputation as a brilliant engineer and then as a successful businessman. But it was then and now is very different than then. He lost his savings in foolish investments well before the minicrash of 2008 and now he lives on what little the government provides in pension and the Old Age security – a misnomer if there ever was one. Not much security in the miniscule amount but when you are scraping the bottom every crumb helps.

Last few years have taught him some lessons he wishes he had learnt in his glory days. Some humility would have helped then, as would have the idea that all a person can do in this life is to try and make those he touched feel a little better than they felt before. It was easy for him to think that – he did not come in contact with many in his normal day. His ex-colleagues had found new associates with whom they could do business, his former social buddies still had the means to play bridge and golf in elite clubs and dine in superior restaurants. They did not quite avoid him if they saw him accidentally somewhere but their furtive glances made clear that they had important people to meet with and important goals to accomplish. Sometimes Ravi was a little offended by this slight but mostly he was glad that it left him plenty of time with his music and his books.

No wonder Ravi was surprised when it was his old friend Stephen – not Steve, Stephen please - who called him one morning. Stephen was now living on a remote Greek island in the Mediterranean and was in town for a week to be with his eight grandchildren. “It is time we got together for lunch,’ he said and suggested Commoner’s, a place in the “restaurant alley” where a common pensioner’s means could stretch to, albeit only once in a blue moon.

Ravi arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early and got a nice table. He had been contemplating writing a story on an incident that was the turning point in one of his many love affairs when he was young and perhaps desirable and certainly foolish in matters of heart. He didn’t quite know how to proceed. While waiting for Stephen to arrive he thought about how to frame the story while keeping track of the time. Ten minutes passed, he ordered a drink. Twenty minutes passed he ordered a plain salad. Just when he finished the salad he noticed it was already forty five minutes after the due time. “Hope Stephen is OK, he never was a safe driver,” he mumbled to himself. Then a thought struck him. He asked the waiter “Is there another Commoner’s in this neighbourhood?” The waiter looked at him for a full minute before answering, “You are at Roxanne, sir. Commoner’s is across the street.”

Ravi was dumbfounded. Just as well he concentrated on his story rather than worry himself to death over his friend being late. He handed the waiter a twenty dollar bill and dashed off to where he should have been. Stephen was sitting all relaxed near the entrance, sipping champagne. They shook hands like two long lost friends they were and sat down. Sheepishly Ravi told the story of what he called his “stupidity.” Stephen laughed, “It has happened to me too a few times” and poured him champagne from the bottle resting in the ice bucket. He called the waiter and told him to bring two steak sandwiches, instead of one he had ordered.

They exchanged notes about their families and life in general. They mused about the different turn fate took with their ventures and compared vicissitudes of life as old men. Time went fast and soon they had to leave. Shaking hands for the one final time Ravi expressed joy at all the great things happening in Stephen’s life and Stephen wished Ravi luck in finding a publisher for his story. Thus ended a happy reunion which almost did not come to pass in spite of the best of intentions.

Some Thoughts Gone Astray

I suppose the supporters of Oil sands who were crowing "less dirty than thou" after the Gulf disaster are a little shame-faced after the Michigan oil spill from the pipeline. The fact is that oil, whatever its source, is harmful to humans at all stages - exploration, production, transportation, refining and consumption. We can gloat with our heads buried in oil sands but the stream of disasters just keeps rolling along.

**************
There is nothing in the secret papers published by WikiLeaks that was not known before, only what had been brushed under the carpet. Complicity of Intelligence Agencies of Pakistan with Taliban with or without the knowledge of their government, massive corruption in Afghanistan government, military and other security departments, infiltration of Taliban, who after all are Afghan civilians when not fighting, in all aspects of Afghan life is no surprise to any knowledgeable observer including our government. The only reason governments are upset at the leaks is that these problems have been given big publicity and there is a danger of general outcry against further involvement in a war which is not going our way and is not likely to.

**************
The title of a recent column by Neil Reynolds about global warming in the Globe and Mail (Please remain calm. The Earth will heal itself, July 19) is misleading. The panic is not about the survival of planet Earth but of the humans on it which Mr. Reynolds mentions in passing at the end. Unfortunately, all we are offered to soothe us are band aid solutions, nothing to solve the key element: balancing human population with resources available on the planet. Till we begin to tackle this imbalance I for one will make no apologies for being in panic.

**************
It makes no sense for the Alberta government to deny the nature of the beast that is the oil sands. You can’t fight the glaring truth by asking people to look the other way. You have to persuade them that you have been working hard to improve the situation and your efforts are working. Therefore, the best strategy to counter the misguided environmentalists would be to acknowledge the pollution caused by the process, then emphasize the economic benefits of production to Canada and the U.S. and describe the political and economic risks of curtailing the production. The clincher in the argument would be a graph of historical improvements in emissions from oil extraction and new research under way to improve it further.