As I can see into the near future, sometime before February, I forecast that the winter will be cold and dreary and that for this year, it will be a leap year. However, I tend to think that looking back is a lot easier than trying to forecast anything, even for the coming weekend. I know for a fact that in the last year that many a good man and woman struggled with their laundry and contemplated the eternal question: Just exactly where that lost sock is now?
I know that the struggle of the so called “free” world (never heard of anything for free in a capitalist country) to rid themselves of terrorism only made the world a more dangerous place to live, fueling more and more terrorist activity. The capture of Saddam Hussein made it to the record books as one of the most expensive manhunts in history and the gloating over the rebuilding of Iraq seems to have left out Canada as a potential contractor, so I guess that means that Cree Construction is out of the picture as a benefactor for those lucrative contracts. We could always say that we are our own Nation and vie for those deals outside of Canada’s jurisdiction as a country that opposed the war against Iraq. If George Sr. had any brains, he should have finished off the job in the first place and rid the world of that infidel.
Not that I have anything against Iraq or other countries who are fighting for their own identity and culture and ideals, but hey, how many people have to die before someone wins or loses? I say that the idea of a one world government is starting to look better and better; how do they say it? No boundaries?
Closer to home, Nemaska and Eastmain are having a major change to the countryside, kind of like a marriage, for better or for worse. I can only say in hindsight, that the world seemed a little more dangerous and that risks were everywhere you looked, again, perhaps paranoia fueled by 24/7/365 and a quarter news flashes from around the world might be doing the trick. In Cree country, our population grew statistically and faithfully so since 75, by 3.1%. Must be the milk and all those growth hormones that they feed the livestock being re-ingested by the human species.
Trade and commerce seemed to have grown dramatically with millions of yen being poured into the local market by hungry consumers aching for new jobs and fast cash, now steadily employed at EM-1. As the communities grew like french fry stands and burger joints around every bend, enterprises boomed like wild fires burning out of control. I suppose that once the flames settle down a bit on the economic range, some sturdy companies will survive the onslaught of fresh money. Remarkably so, many Whapmagoostuiians have yet to taste their share of the EM-1 pie.
As for the weather, incredible as it may seem, the north is warming up slowly every year, and my assumption is that the north is still thawing out from the last ice age and it will be another 100,000 years before it returns, so everyone, start practicing on how to apply sunscreen and suntan lotion, ’cause things are gonna get hot!
Many moons ago, about six of them, it was summer time and when mosquitoes were having a fine time being associated with the West Nile virus, I came upon a small pond that was teeming with trout big enough to fit my frying pan. As I cast from the shore, I thought of how good the world would be if everyone would take up fishing and just take time off from the bustle of the world and the madness of modern day life to catch their own pan fry. And then I thought of the silence and solitude pierced only by the buzz bombing of flies and the splashing of a succulent struggling trout would sadly be interrupted and drowned out by the chatter of humankind, and I thought, why bother?
Happy New Year!
(to those who wish to enjoy it!)
