COPING WITH THE COVID-19 SHUTDOWN

Only retired a few months and trying to establish a routine it all came to a screeching halt in late March.  My awareness about this new disruption started with distant news reports from China, then Europe and then parts of North America and even my home town of Hamilton, Ontario.  Restrictions started.   First I had to answer some questions at the local gym, take a squirt of sanitizer before being allowed to enter.  The next day cut off.  The library where hours most days had been spent was shut down.  Rapidly stores were closed our local shopping store instituted some restrictions and soon offered a special senior hour.  The Farmer's Market although open had many vendors vacant and traffic greatly reduced and I was urged not to visit.  Our bank tellers were closed off and I had been resisting their machines to ensure human employment, but that is the future.  The LCBO was considered essential, but a long line up (with spacing guidance enforced by security guards) made it take much longer than usual.  After a lull I had got back to volunteering at the Newcomer Centre at the library and that was soon cut out.

Already adjusting my routine from retirement many of the normal options were rapidly reduced.  Fall backs were blogging, watching Netflix, checking the news, playing with the cats, ranting about Donald Trump on social media, getting back to a long neglected jigsaw puzzle (which I won in a contest, but no picture to guide).  Walks were recommended and I decided to check out my neighborhood while avoiding getting too close to anyone.

Near the beginning I did go down to our Farmer's Market which is about a 1 kilometre walk.  Lots of restaurants were closed, some offering take out and/or delivery.  Most other businesses were closed with a note to protect employees and customers.  At the Farmer's Market many stalls were closed, but my regular ones were open and I bought my regular.  These people stand to lose a lot and I would rather support them than the big chains.  On my way home I decided to buy a box lunch (in reality 5 boxes) at Bul and Goggi which seemed a good deal.  I have been binging on a number of Korean tv series.

A popular life size statue in front of Liuna Station (often shown on tv shows).  Leonardo Sciassa was a famous Italian writer from the Sicilian town of Racamulto that has sent literally thousands of immigrants to Hamilton. 


My wife was on a long planned Florida vacation with her 83 year old friend visiting her daughter and hoping to see spring training games.  Although Florida had a casual attitude towards Covid-19 my wife's group avoided crowds and eventually came home early and told she must abide by a 14 day self isolation.

That meant I was given some shopping and told to be careful.  On my most recent trip took advantage of senior hour starting at 7:00 am.  I heard announcements regarding distance and noticed there were plastic partitions for the cashiers.

This crisis coincides with spring and although we have had a mild winter  spring raises our hopes, but it is still a long way to the warmth of summer.  Two projects were of interest.  One is what I call a peace garden a few blocks away.  It has all been flattened with nothing yet planted.  What makes it unique is that it was started by a Chinese community group that allocated sections to different ethnic groups that all provided embedded ground stone  with a message in their original language.  The other project at Harbourfront Park is a corridor of Japanese cherry trees that were gifted to the city more than a decade ago.  Last year I watched the blooms, but anticipate they will be much better this year.

Two days later took a different route.  First to check on senior hours at our local shopping centre.  Went over to Beasley Park and noted there were no children at the swings.  Over on the skateboard section saw a man in an electric wheelchair going up and down and enjoying himself, sounding like his first time as there were no actual skateboarders.

Hamilton Strip Club, before it was Hanrahan's has finally closed and I was surprised to learn that it started as a hotel and is considered historic.  It is due for renovations, but no dates settled.

Donald Trump is continuing to screw things up while he tries to manipulate events.  His ego is such that he doesn't realize that the best chance to revive the economy and possibly boost his election chances would be to solve the medical crisis.  As people die there are fewer consumers.  Voting in the U.S. (elsewhere I am sure) is an issue in itself as people will be reluctant to get in lines and poll workers will be fearful to serve them.  The Republicans realize that if mail voting is allowed the Democrats are more likely to win and so are resistant to any proposals to make voting easier.

Caught this fetching mural on a private house on one of my walks.


My daughter was part of group offering a phone in conference service for seniors and asked me to join in to beef up the participation.  One time was trivial pursuit and I managed to get a few.  Another was name that tune were I was the only one who got one tune, but struck out on many others.


Less than two blocks from my house was the scene for a huge environmental disaster at Plastimet. on July 9, 1997.   I had watched the fire closeup with my 14 year old son at the time. Since then the area has been cleaned and turned into a park with a nature project at the adjacent Land' Inlet.  Reading the plaque learned that there used to be a stream connecting to Burlington Bay/Hamilton Harbour.

Hamilton was known primarily as a manufacturing centre and still has a lot of industrial plants.  A few blocks and easy walking distance is Burlington Street which has a number of industrial companies along with retailers/wholesalers that service them.  Now union workers have greatly declined, but Hamilton has shifted to a major medical and education centre.  My first visit to Hamilton when my father trucked a load at the other end of the street not far from the Skyway bridge.  I was not impressed.   http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2013/09/hamilton-ontario-was-not-my-first-choice.html


Also on Burlington Street at the corner of Wentworth is a film studio that I once visited during Doors Open Hamilton.  A lot of tv shows have used its facilities.

 It looks like there will be a longer period of adjustment.  I will keep learning new things and plan to share some of them with anyone willing to read my blog.

Coronavirus lessons: how one makes money

The Coronavirus pandemic is already disrupting our lives and seems likely to hurt in more unforeseen ways.  Will we learn anything?  There will be many things to learn such as how much we contribute to global warming or other ways to amuse ourselves besides the established entertainment platforms.

Many years ago I used to train newspaper carriers.  Many of them wanted to make a little extra money either for some immediate desire or for a long term savings project.  To me the core value they needed to learn was how one actually makes money.  We are now at a point where this will be of greater concern to more people as many jobs are going to disappear or be stressed as more people stay home.

A question is the best way to start a lesson.  A good one might be "How do you think you make money?"  The most common answer is to work hard.  Another is to work smart.  Another is to develop a skill or talent.  And of course another way might be luck.  Although they all can be helpful, none are the real answer.

My answer is that you have to find someone or someones who have money and want or need what you offer more than keeping the money or spending it somewhere else.  Of course society has organized our desires into patterns that we in some cases take for granted and sometimes make an effort to discover.

One of my favorite examples is a famous well paid athlete, at the time Wayne Gretzsky was a good one.  You could argue athletes work hard and smart, develop a skill, maybe have a little luck.  Individuals are always looking for ways to amuse themselves and often spend spare cash for entertainment.  Sports have an attraction and when focused on winning give motivation to those who crave being on top.  If they have money someone could organize a team to compete against other teams and to promote an audience to watch.  To attract money they need to identify players that can help the team.  How many and how much depends on resources that an individual might have or more likely today can stream from many sources such as television or inter-net audience.  If the numbers are right large numbers of athletes can make a living, some of them spectacularly.  From this, other supporting jobs can be generated.  It takes more than a wealthy individual as a paying audience is required provides the necessary leverage.  This all assumes there is money left over after the bare necessities are taken care of.

A curve thrown at me by a carrier's mother was to pay to help a severely physically disabled person.  The truth is still that someone has to convince some one else that it is worth while to help this person.  Unfortunately not everyone is successful in that effort.  But others have appealed to our conscience or fear that we might need help in the future.  Too often politicians heeding wants of taxpayers resist efforts to help those who cannot contribute to their well-being, but on the other hand they are anxious to cater to what voters are most concerned about.

What about "regular" jobs?  All jobs result from somebody willing to buy whatever product or service is available.  If for any reason less money is available there is less ability to buy anything.  This could happen as people are taken off work and also if people are not able to get out to buy.

We live in a consumer society that depends on economic growth to  provide jobs.  With the Covid 19 pandemic (panic) people are not spending money the way they used to which means they will not be providing money making opportunities the way they used to.  There probably will be new opportunities related to health and for the many adjustments of ordinary people.  Delivering food is one example that may have long range effects to avoid large crowds.  If money does not circulate with most people using money to meet their wants and needs then jobs will likely diminish.

The economy really spins around what masses of people do.  If they do not spend money, all jobs are precarious.  If they decide their (economic) priorities change, job opportunities will shift.  As a collective entity it is more important to encourage the people very much including those with limited resources to spend.  For that to happen they have to feel secure.  Unless large companies are willing to spend money to employ people there will not be economic activity that benefits us all.  Yes, this is a time when what the government decides to do can save the day or end up creating a jungle.

If you aren't willing to spend money then no one will benefit and no jobs will be created.  Jobs require many people spending a little or some spending a lot.  One night class instructor pointed out that everything starts with sales.

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.

Politics in the age of Coronavirus

Trump dominates everyTHING.  More people are disillusioned by Trump on a daily basis, but there is a stubborn rump supported by misleading media that projects a possible Trump repeat in 2020.

A big part of Trump's triumphant self proclamations is the stock market and job reports.  Both can be misleading.  The stock market reflects wealthy people who became more wealthy as a result of disproportionate tax cuts.  It has limited impact on most workers.  The job reports reflect the ongoing projection from the Obama administration--Trump has not had to deal with a major crisis on the scale that confronted Obama.  The tax cuts are already increasing the deficit that will affect everyone.  Most likely they will result in service cuts that will hurt almost everyone.

Trump has offended large parts of America and increasingly many are waking up to his poor decisions that range around the globe.  Women are victims of this extreme anti-Trump attitude in part because the desire to rid the country of Trump is so intense that fear forces many voters to retreat to what they feel is the most risk free strategy.  In short female presidential candidates are considered too risky.   It could be argued (such as myself) that the women candidates were more competent than their male counterparts.  I am thinking of Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar.

Coronavirus changes some details.  First the response to the crisis is a test which so far Trump's team is not performing very well.  Secondly the stock market is behaving normally in response to fear.   Fear generates emotions stronger than greed.  It was said that American workers were fearful of job security, but now feel a pandemic is not only more threatening to life, but also compounding problems already established.

Trump himself has been very transparent in his concern for political consequences as being a higher priority than dealing with the medical threat.  He had already trimmed budgets that were critical to dealing with pandemics.  He has been told to let medical people make the big decisions and to let politicians be in the supportive background, but he has great trouble in keeping his mouth shut.

We were already anticipating dirty tricks, but now that attacks have begun with a new target. It now appears Joe Biden may be Trump's opponent and Republicans are bringing back bogus facts regarding Biden and his son Hunter Biden.  Unfortunately on the surface it can look bad, but based on what we know Trump's involvement is definitely misleading and unethical.   Joe Biden is castigated for bragging about firing a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor that most people thought deserved it.  His son's hiring by a Ukrainian company is painted as nepotism, which it may well have been, but no illegal actions have been uncovered.  One can be sure rather than presenting their case for re-election the Republicans will dish out negative information (much of it false) about Biden, whoever the Vice President candidate is.

Bernie Sanders, should he overcome Biden's apparent advantage would also be sure of unfair criticism.  Labeling himself a Democratic Socialist assures he will be compared to Venezuela.  He has said some positive things about Cuba that will also be highlighted.  He is more favorable to the Palestinian cause and that will be used against him (although I think he is the only sane candidate on this issue).

It is hopeful that more legal issues are becoming public that should help Trump supporters to turn against him.  The Mueller Report had been dismissed, but a judge is demanding a full version become accessible.  Many court cases are still in progress from the Mueller Report and people will realize that it was the opposite of a Witch Hunt and needs much more coverage.

To me Trump is a huge disaster that must be cut off from further damage, but realize there is a lot of real power supporting him.  Thank you for letting me vent.