E I E I Oh

Trudeau's daily "briefings" are a joke.  He says nothing and answers nothing.  As far as getting all that money announced out to those who need it, forget about it.  All talk about EI might just as well be "E I E I Oh".  Joe Blow can't walk into a local office, stick his hand out and say, "Please give me some of the money the prime minister promised yesterday."  Bureaucracy doesn't work like that.  A lot of paper has to be filled out, forms approved, stamped and moved around and around and around before any money appears.

As I said, it's all a joke and anyone who knows anything about Ottawa knows it.  They didn't call us "paper pushers" for nothing.   

But I wanted to talk about a friend in Italy, who has not been outside her home since Feb. 20th.  With two young children, she and I are in touch via fb and email and my heart goes out to her.  Two of her close neighbours and her aunt have died, several more are in intensive care, she can't see her sister, who lives in the same city (Milan) and her parents are far away and isolated.  Unfortunately, Italy didn't act quickly enough and the whole country is a ghost. 

Our local grocery store announced that the store would be given over to seniors from eight to nine each morning.  Stupidly, I went.  What a disaster!  Shelves empty, long check-out lines and the place filled with much younger people swarming us.  Won't be doing that again! 

Civility is dead among any culture other than the middle-aged, white one.  Waiting in line, I said to the middle-aged, white woman behind me, "Sorry, I have forgotten something.  If the line moves, just go ahead of me, please."  Off I ran, but when I returned, she had pushed my cart along without taking my place.  I cannot say the same for other cultures in that store.  For them, it was every shopper for him/herself. 

Very sad to see.  Puts me in mind of 'Lord of the Flies'.