On October 25th, Mayor Peter Kelly of Halifax gave eviction notice to the Occupy Halifax protesters by November 6th so the Grand Parade public space they occupy could be prepared for use to mark Dignity Day Ceremony by the Atlantic Jewish Council on November 9 and a Remembrance Day event on November 11. For those not familiar with Halifax, Grand Parade is the pre-eminent place for many official public ceremonies in Halifax, not just some park somewhere like Occupy Protests in other cities are located. Well, I hope all the public relations professionals and students in the province, and beyond, are watching, because this is real life public relations strategy they could seriously learn from for their careers.
halifax
$25 Billion Shipbuilding Contract Goes to Irving Shipyards in Nova Scotia!
The Federal Government of Canada just announced that the $25 shipbuilding contract to build the next generation of Canadian Navy ships will go to Irving Shipyards in Halifax, Nova Scotia!
Bring Your Own Bags and Containers to the Farmers’ Market
Why are farmers’ market goers shopping like they were at the supermarkets in the 80s when it comes to bringing their own bags and containers?
People who shop at the farmers’ markets tend be more health and environmentally conscious than the average person. They go there for the fresh food that’s better for their health. They go there for less processed food than is available at the groceries store or other places, that is also better for their health. They go there to buy local and support local farming. They go there to buy local and minimize GHG emissions from less food miles, which is a green myth but they deserve points for trying to be environmentally conscious.
So why are they still insisting on getting a bag for everything they buy instead of bringing their own, even when grocery stores are offering rewards for bringing your own bag?
Halifax Skating Oval Could Be Kept for 50 Cents to $2 per Use (A Cost-Benefit Analysis)
Halifax Skating Oval
For about $1 of tax per person per year, or a $2 (toonie) charge per use, the Halifax Skating Oval can be sustained, at the highest cost estimates. It could be as low as 50 cents per use. I’m not encouraging this, but if paying for use of the Oval were a last resort, it could be very affordable and definitely worth its value!
There’s a big debate on whether or not to keep the Canada Winter Games Skating Oval on the Halifax Commons (CBC, Jan 4 2011). A lot of the public is enjoying the facility, but the worry is the cost of maintaining the Oval after the Canada Games are over. The hope is that business support can be found to pay the costs, rather than increasing taxes or having to charge skaters. However, that’s a political solution. This analysis looks at the business case of keeping the oval if the public had to pay for it.
The Real Shit on Biosolids
There’s a lot of shit going down in Halifax these days in the fight over the safety of biosolids, or human sewage used for fertilizers.
One side is claiming they can get all the bad shit out of the people’s shit so it’s safe to use. The other is claiming there’s no way that shit can be clean and appealing to people’s feelings on eating food grown in shit. I’m not going to advocate for either side because I don’t know shit about the shit data, but I don’t need to. What I will do is point out some interesting shit people who don’t know shit seem to be neglecting that makes this whole shit spit irrelevant. There are some healthy food that’s not subject to this, but most people don’t eat that shit when you look at the big picture.
First, would you rather eat food grown in your shit or someone else’s shit?
A lot of food in the grocery stores are grown in other places, fertilized by other people’s shit. California, Mexico, China and other places all allow shit to be used as fertilizers, and a lot of shit, too! (Halifax Herald story, with research from the Nova Scotia Environmental Network, via the Organic Consumers Association)
So are you telling me you’d rather eat food grown in their shit rather than food grown in your shit?
Hey, lots of people have prejudices against Chinese and Mexicans. They make lots of jokes about them, too. Ironically, the last laugh may be on those people cause they’re probably eating food grown from Chinese and Mexican shit. Ewwhahaha!
You and I are probably eating food grown from foreign shit, too. Maybe not fresh food as you may get your fresh food locally, but think about the processed food. Do you know where all of it comes from?
To be honest, though, if I had to eat food grown from people’s shit, I might well eat those grown from other people’s shit. Part of the fear about eating food grown in our own shit is all the chemicals we ingest that can’t get filtered out, especially drugs we take for illnesses or lifestyle, like birth control pills. The boomer generation is by far the most drugged up generation ever. In poorer parts of the world, those people don’t have access to such “luxuries”. I’d be willing to bet their shit is a lot cleaner than ours and would take the risk to eat food grown from their shit rather than ours. It’s just that they have pesticides and other chemicals that probably make them more harmful overall.
Second, would you rather eat food grown from animal shit than your own shit?
Have you seen or heard about the shit that’s been going into animal feed lately? There’s everything from growth hormones to genetically modified crops to low quality reject foods, and very possibly more of that shit than real food! Those animals are, well, animals! What did you think they were, people, to be worth feeding better shit to? And the shit they get fed is nasty shit, even in the world of shit! Birth control pills and medications are like organically grown peanuts compared to that shit. Watch Food Inc. on this site to get a little taste, though the superb documentary covers a lot more shit than that and is real good shit for anybody to know about the nature of the food they eat.
Animal shit has been used as nature’s fertilizer over the millennia. However, that was when animals ate stuff Mother Nature fed them, not the shit we’re feeding them today. If you know all the shit the animals you eat are fed, whose shit fertilizes fields other food you eat are grown in, I’d be willing to bet you’d take food grown from your own shit any day!
Finally, why are you concerned about fresh food grown in shit compared to all that processed shit you’re eating?
Seriously, few people these days don’t eat processed food, whether frozen dinners or fast food, not to mention drinking pop. Obesity is an epidemic for a reason, you know, not to mention a lot of other health conditions stemming from shitty diets. A little shit here or there that gets through from food grown in shit, or food fed shit in the case of animals, is nothing compared to all that bad shit out there people are eating. Even the good shit, if frozen or processed to much like frozen organic entrees, isn’t all that good shit to be eating.
Conclusions
All in all, worrying about a little shit that might get through after Mother Nature, and possibly filtration plants, have filtered your shit in which you grow your food is misplacing your concerns. There’s a whole lot of other shit out there you ought to be raising shit about.
All right. Enough of this shit.
I hope I won’t get in trouble for talking about this shit…
Oh, shit.
Digital Citizen 