At Your Age

I've made it from surfer to vagabond sailor to responsible adult. The last part might still be in question. I got married, had two amazing daughters, got divorced, met a fantastic woman that puts up with me and my boat addiction and I'm still here.

I've managed to get through all this intact health wise. I have always been very active but without a real work out program. I eat mostly healthy but am not a fanatic of any type of diet. I drink occasionally and over do it sometimes but not very often and really don't drink too much or even daily. I have never broken a bone that's needed a cast, I've never had a surgery or any type of hospital stay and I rarely even get sick.

A while back I was stopped in traffic on the freeway, a common occurrence here in Southern California, and while sitting at a dead stop a car plowed into my backside at speed and then another plowed into him and hit me a second time. I was definitely shaken up a bit and I just sat there in my car.

Soon the police and ambulance arrived. The two guys behind me were hurt far worse than I. I was really ok apart from being a little dizzy. The EMT finally came up to my door and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and I said no thank you and thought I was really ok. He then said I could leave if my car still worked. It did so I went home and took the rest of the day off. The next day I went to a repair place for the car. It was totaled and the insurance quickly paid it off. 

A couple of months later I tripped when visiting my daughter. When I fell it was unexpected and I landed on my face and scraped my nose up too. I never trip and when it looked like I might I would always recover and say it was because I was a surfer. However, I started getting cramps in my legs and I felt my right foot was dragging a bit.

I really never went to doctors at all. I didn't like hospitals and I hate needles, even hate seeing them in a movie. I had Kaiser insurance through work so I made an appointment. They said I needed to select a primary doctor so I picked one nearby and went to see him. He asked a few questions and sent me off for blood tests. I mentioned I was rear ended on the freeway and he dismissed that and said it was probably just my age. He said in his visit report it could be neuropathy. I hated the idea of needles and giving blood but did so and ended up going back 4 more times all for different tests. All my tests came back right in the middle of healthy range. My blood pressure was great. I had an EKG, urine analysis, etc. and all came back normal. The doctors final thoughts were that I was very healthy and was quite boring as a patient. He could not see anything wrong except that but I was having more issues with my legs as time went on.

The doctor recommended a Neurologist and I went to see her. She did nerve conduction studies and more blood tests. My nerves seemed to be ok down to my ankles and then things shut down. I mentioned the accident and she said no it was probably neuropathy due to diabetes. When more blood test came back and showed I was not even pre-diabetic she said I had idiosyncratic neuropathy. I asked what that is and she said I have neuropathy but she had no clue why and suggested that at my age I should just get fitted for leg braces. Of course, as a good patient I said "Leg Braces? No F..ing way!" So now what? I had no answers and no suggestions from Kaiser.

Later, I was down at my boat and ran across a friend I have sailed with many times. He asked what was wrong and I explained what was happening. He said his son was a chiropractor and I should go see him. Since I had nothing from Kaiser I decided to go see my friend's son. I walked in and he asked me what was going on. After I told him and took a few steps for him he said it's your L4, L5, and S1. You need x-rays and an MRI right away.

I went back to Kaiser and asked for x-rays. Reluctantly they said ok and I got a series of x-rays. They would not approve an MRI. A couple weeks later the doctor report said my L3, L4, and L5 were bone on bone. Then they said I needed to see a back specialist. I had that appointment about a week later. She looked at my x-rays and said this isn't unusual for someone my age. She would not approve an MRI and suggest leg braces. Once again I said "Leg braces are you F..ing kidding me? No way!"

I thought, now what? I had recently signed up for Medicare and I already hated dealing with the medial bureaucracy. Luckily a friend recommend an insurance specialist to wade through changing plans and what I really needed. Now with that finally done, I have a new primary doctor and a new back specialist that ordered X-rays and MRIs immediately and not just for my lower back but upper back and neck too.

Hopefully now I will have a better recommendation than leg braces. But at my age...who knows! 

The Real World

It was a hot and busy Friday afternoon of the Memorial Day weekend. I was in from San Diego and had completed some work in Newport, Rhode Island and was driving to visit relatives in Stony Point, NY. After a 3 ½ hour drive and now about to go across to the Tappan Zee Bridge, I hit stopped traffic – brutal even for a southern Californian.

The last few miles before the bridge are beautiful rolling green hills with trees in full bloom but no one was noticing the scenery in the stopped traffic, road construction, and the push to get the long weekend started. For me, I was just about out of gas and no clear place to get off the 287 nor how to get back on. I hoped I could make it across the bridge to Nyack.

The traffic actually started to move a bit as I approached the bridge. I was going to make it. I made it up over the highest part and on the downhill glide, the dreaded happened. I ran out of gas on the Tappan Zee Bridge at about 5:30 PM on a Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend. @&*!

I thought this is going to be bad. I was going to have the wrath of the entire traffic jam on me. I put on my flashers, glided along in my rental car until I came to a stop about 400 yards short of the end of the bridge. I pulled tight against the right side guard rail but I was thinking I might fare better by jumping into the Hudson than dealing with irate New Yorkers.

I called AAA immediately and found they didn’t come onto the bridge – now what? As I sat in the car while the traffic eased around me, I was amazed that there were no horns blaring nor yelled expletives at my predicament and within a few minutes a highway patrol officer rolled up.

Based on all the recent negative news stories about cops, I thought he’d draw his gun, shoot me in the car and then just push the whole mess into the river with the huge push bars on the front of his cruiser. No trouble any longer.

Instead he walked up to the window and asked what was wrong. I told him I was an idiot and just ran out of gas and that I called AAA. He could not have been nicer. He confirmed that AAA would not come out to the bridge and I told him I would call a relative. He told me they couldn’t come on to the bridge either. Then he said he would call the highway service guys. I asked how that worked and he just said they would bring out some gas. When I asked how much all this was going to cost, he said he didn’t know and walked back to his patrol car to make the call.

Again, its 5:30 on Friday afternoon. I thought, ok, if they do come, it will be at least two hours before anyone makes it out here so I just sat back and tried to relax for the wait. I sat there thinking there were no horns or screaming. People were politely making it around my nuisance. Then the cop, he really was very nice – maybe he was more used to idiots running out of gas on the bridge than I realized - came back up to my car to tell me that they should be on their way. As he was explaining this, a big truck with flashing lights was pulling up behind the patrol car. I said this looks like them. He said, “Yup and have a nice weekend”, got in his car and took off.

Then two burly men in the truck jumped out. Ok, here it comes, at least a verbal beating is all I’ll get since they couldn’t very well do much more to me in front of all the traffic. However, they just said, “Out of gas?” “Yea, sorry” I pleaded. They took control, grabbed the gas can and a funnel from the back of their truck. When I tried to grab the funnel to show that I wasn’t completely incompetent, they just said they would do it so I didn’t get any gas on me. 

They put a couple of gallons in the tank, said the first gas station was exit 11 and have a nice weekend. I said, “Wait, that’s it, how much?” They said again that’s it, have a nice weekend. I asked if they could stop at exit 11 and I could at least give them a tip or buy them a 6-pack for their weekend but they said, “No, you’re good to go.”

I got back in the car, started her up and fell back in line with the traffic. I drove the rest of the way to my relative’s house not quite believing what just happened. A San Diegan runs out of gas on the Tappan Zee Bridge at the height of rush hour on a Friday of a three day weekend. Anyone would think that is one of the worst possible things to happen in NY but instead the whole thing took about 20 minutes and everyone was pleasant, polite, and friendly. Then I realized this is what our country is really all about. I really appreciate the officer, the two highway workers, and all the drivers on the bridge that day for reminding me.

Value?

Seems to me there are two serious contradictions going on the world and until we get these straight we may have a harder time understanding real economics. Both stemmed from a recent trip to SF as I helped my daughter get settled into an apartment for her next year at SFSU - cost and labor vs. value.

She needed some things for the apartment - basics - a chair, a room divider, etc. We checked out some things on Craigslist and garage sales but in my limited time couldn't find everything we needed so we took a trip to Target. 

Target has been held up as an example of good business. We went to find a chair. We found a lovely little chair with a metal frame and a sewn blue fabric seat and back. It was $5.15. Great deal right! Right? I can't see how it possible the chair was $5. Yes, it was on sale for 50% off but lets look at it at full price of $10.30.

First there are raw materials the need to be sourced - metal and fabric. They then have to be fabricated. For the metal - extruded into a tube, then cut and bent to shape, then finished with a color and a clear coat finish. The fabric had to be died, cut and sewn to fit. Not only are there the costs of the raw materials but then you add the cost of a human's labor. Then it gets packaged with some plastic wrap, a few tags are attached, probably boxed in bulk, put into a container, shipped across the ocean to a distribution center, put on a truck, delivered to the store, unpacked for display. All these steps have either more materials or more human labor along the way. Then Target has overhead and needs to sell the product at a profit.

So how is it possible that this chair is only worth $10 at full price. Somehow I feel the raw material side of the picture is also more valuable than the human contribution in getting the chair to its ultimate consumer - me. And I bought it thinking I got a good deal but later thinking how the process might have caused pain for many along the way.

So what is "value"? Where does it come from? How is it determined?

Later we went to Ikea - another company held up as a good business and I have to believe the organizational skills needed to make a company like Ikea work have to be amazing. Anyone that has been to Ikea sees all the great stuff and cool design at inexpensive pricing. I wonder if the same process happens as it does with the $10 chair. 

Further, Ikea was crowded with college students like my daughter picking out beds, shelves, desks, chairs, lamps, etc. And what happens with these things after a year or maybe two of use? It all ends up in landfills which then add to the real cost of that product which rarely, if ever, is considered.

To be sustainable, we have to provide a sustainable way of life to the humans that are on this lowest wrung of the labor force. We need to plan for the real end of life of the product and consider it part of the real cost. Finally, we need to really look hard at recycling in a different way.

A nice solid wood chair from a garage sale at $10 is a far better deal. Recycled, built to last, real value, will get passed on again, etc. That is value.

Everything is Fukushima'd Up

28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima

1. Polar bears, seals and walruses along the Alaska coastline are suffering from fur loss and open sores…

Wildlife experts are studying whether fur loss and open sores detected in nine polar bears in recent weeks is widespread and related to similar incidents among seals and walruses.
The bears were among 33 spotted near Barrow, Alaska, during routine survey work along the Arctic coastline. Tests showed they had “alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement.

2. There is an epidemic of sea lion deaths along the California coastline…

At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 percent of the pups born in June have died, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die.   It’s gotten so bad in the past two weeks that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event.”

3. Along the Pacific coast of Canada and the Alaska coastline, the population of sockeye salmon is at a historic low.  Many are blaming Fukushima.

4. Something is causing fish all along the west coast of Canada to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs.

5. A vast field of radioactive debris from Fukushima that is approximately the size of California has crossed the Pacific Ocean and is starting to collide with the west coast.

6. It is being projected that the radioactivity of coastal waters off the U.S. west coast could double over the next five to six years.

7. Experts have found very high levels of cesium-137 in plankton living in the waters of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the west coast.

8. One test in California found that 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna were contaminated with radiation from Fukushima.

9. Back in 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada…

• 73 percent of mackerel tested

• 91 percent of the halibut

• 92 percent of the sardines

• 93 percent of the tuna and eel

• 94 percent of the cod and anchovies

• 100 percent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish

10. Canadian authorities are finding extremely high levels of nuclear radiation in certain fish samples…

Some fish samples tested to date have had very high levels of radiation: one sea bass sample collected in July, for example, had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.

11. Some experts believe that we could see very high levels of cancer along the west coast just from people eating contaminated fish…

“Look at what’s going on now: They’re dumping huge amounts of radioactivity into the ocean — no one expected that in 2011,” Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California-Santa Cruz, told Global Security Newswire. “We could have large numbers of cancer from ingestion of fish.”

12. BBC News recently reported that radiation levels around Fukushima are “18 times higher” than previously believed.

13. An EU-funded study concluded that Fukushima released up to 210 quadrillion becquerels of cesium-137 into the atmosphere.

14. Atmospheric radiation from Fukushima reached the west coast of the United States within a few days back in 2011.

15. At this point, 300 tons of contaminated water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.

16. A senior researcher of marine chemistry at the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Meteorological Research Institute says that “30 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium and 30 billion becquerels of radioactive strontium” are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.

17. According to Tepco, a total of somewhere between 20 trillion and 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have gotten into the Pacific Ocean since the Fukushima disaster first began.

18. According to a professor at Tokyo University, 3 gigabecquerels of cesium-137 are flowing into the port at Fukushima Daiichi every single day.

19. It has been estimated that up to 100 times as much nuclear radiation has been released into the ocean from Fukushima than was released during the entire Chernobyl disaster.

20. One recent study concluded that a very large plume of cesium-137 from the Fukushima disaster will start flowing into U.S. coastal waters early next year…

Ocean simulations showed that the plume of radioactive cesium-137 released by the Fukushima disaster in 2011 could begin flowing into U.S. coastal waters starting in early 2014 and peak in 2016.

21. It is being projected that significant levels of cesium-137 will reach every corner of the Pacific Ocean by the year 2020.

22. It is being projected that the entire Pacific Ocean will soon “have cesium levels 5 to 10 times higher” than what we witnessed during the era of heavy atomic bomb testing in the Pacific many decades ago.

23. The immense amounts of nuclear radiation getting into the water in the Pacific Ocean has caused environmental activist Joe Martino to issue the following warning…

“Your days of eating Pacific Ocean fish are over.”

24. The Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 that are constantly coming from Fukushima are going to affect the health of those living the the northern hemisphere for a very, very long time.  Just consider what Harvey Wasserman had to say about this…

Iodine-131, for example, can be ingested into the thyroid, where it emits beta particles (electrons) that damage tissue. A plague of damaged thyroids has already been reported among as many as 40 percent of the children in the Fukushima area. That percentage can only go higher. In developing youngsters, it can stunt both physical and mental growth. Among adults it causes a very wide range of ancillary ailments, including cancer.
Cesium-137 from Fukushima has been found in fish caught as far away as California. It spreads throughout the body, but tends to accumulate in the muscles.
Strontium-90’s half-life is around 29 years. It mimics calcium and goes to our bones.

25. According to a recent Planet Infowars report, the California coastline is being transformed into “a dead zone”…

The California coastline is becoming like a dead zone.
If you haven’t been to a California beach lately, you probably don’t know that the rocks are unnaturally CLEAN – there’s hardly any kelp, barnacles, sea urchins, etc. anymore and the tide pools are similarly eerily devoid of crabs, snails and other scurrying signs of life… and especially as compared to 10 – 15 years ago when one was wise to wear tennis shoes on a trip to the beach in order to avoid cutting one’s feet on all the STUFF of life – broken shells, bones, glass, driftwood, etc.
There are also days when I am hard-pressed to find even a half dozen seagulls and/or terns on the county beach.
You can still find a few gulls trolling the picnic areas and some of the restaurants (with outdoor seating areas) for food, of course, but, when I think back to 10 – 15 years ago, the skies and ALL the beaches were literally filled with seagulls and the haunting sound of their cries both day and night…
NOW it’s unnaturally quiet.

26. A study conducted last year came to the conclusion that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster could negatively affect human life along the west coast of North America from Mexico to Alaska “for decades”.

27. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is being projected that the cleanup of Fukushima could take up to 40 years to complete.

28. Yale Professor Charles Perrow is warning that if the cleanup of Fukushima is not handled with 100% precision that humanity could be threatened “for thousands of years“…

“Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.”

Are you starting to understand why so many people are so deeply concerned about what is going on at Fukushima

Stop Talking

Its been nearly a year since I made my last blog entry. How fast the time goes! It hasn't been for lack of things to say, nor thoughts about everything from education to politics to business to travels. No, I probably have plenty to say and I think that is the problem.

There are too many people talking - hundreds of channels on TV, newspapers, magazines, and probably millions of blogs - the sound is deafening. And is anyone really listening? With all that is available I didn't think I could add any real value. Yes, about my opinions there will be some agreement, some disagreement too, and inevitably it could open the issue for discussion. However, I believe, to a large extent our minds are already made up. Your glass is half full or it's half empty and trying to change that isn't easy.

Should we even try to change it really? Isn't it up to an individual to get self educated? The schools really don't provide for that. I think most of us believe they are broken. But everyone that has a passion can learn about a subject with the brilliance of a Gallileo. We have all seen this. The kid that can't do math can instantly figure batting averages or the one struggling with history can learn the entire history of Ferrari including every model and every race driver.

So I don't think learning is the issue. Is it then convincing one another of values? There are certainly issues with values yet we live in a world that is far more tolerant that just a few decades ago and still not tolerant at all. The Who just played the Super Bowl and they were great, yet in the world where those guys first came together things were very different (I won't do any sport analogies). At the time The Who first formed interracial marriage wasn't accepted, most gay people were still in the closet, and women didn't have the rights they do now. Of course more work is needed but the point is that collective values have evolved over time yet we seem more divided than ever.

If we look to other countries, they survive with quite different values. In a time where our President was denying sex with another woman, the French Prime Minister's funeral was attended by both his wife and his mistress. Please don't misunderstand me here. I am not making judgements for or against - I am just stating facts.

The reality is all the little judgements that can be made serve only to seperate us, not have us come together. Attitudes of some being better than others drive further wedges and hatred. For some reason these are things that get fed.

I want to start feeding something else. I want to start feeding understanding. I know that most people are burdened with many things from childhood, race, economic situation, religion and much more. Again these are all dividers. Understanding and compassion for one another is the only way to move forward. Respect is also key. We don't always need to agree but if we can have respect there can be understanding.

Love - love is an overused word with some perhaps negative connotations associated with it. However we do need to love one another. Love is the culmination of respect, understanding, and compassion and its the only way we can move peacefully forward.

And we do need to find God again. It doesn't matter what you call Him or where you live on the planet. I know all paths ultimately lead to the same place. I can't believe anyone can go through a day and not feel the wonder of God all around us. I think it would take a pretty closed off mind not to see it. It is interesting that many nurses - who are often around more than anyone else at the time of death - tell stories of the dying person looking up and speaking to people that seem to be visible near the ceiling (angels perhaps?) - and this is true across differences of age, race, religion, money, family or alone. The vision at death is always the same and this certainly points to a common place and a common God too.

So I am going to sign off this blog for a while - I have said enough. I apologize for being too talkative, too opinionated, too judgemental. I apologize to anyone I have hurt physically or through my words or even in my inaction.

I want to go out and listen to what the wind tells me and what the smell of the sea says. I want to hear the sunrise in the silence of the mountains and experience the color that abounds. I want to do what is worthy and good and talking has lost its place in that. I will go quietly in understanding, respect, compassion and love and I will follow my God as this is really the only worthwhile endeavor.

(and don't forget the global population of Bees is in decline)

Fisherman Past

I have always had an obsession with boats. I think its part of my DNA. One summer I found myself in Maine as the captain of a beautiful, brightly painted, and fast former racing catamaran converted for day charter trade and tourists.

Even after the conversion from steed to cattle wagon, the cat was still fast. The word got out and soon I was busily making two trips a day from our berth along the working waterfront of Portland. The cat would be filled with tourists wanting to experience the beauty of the many islands sprinkled throughout Casco Bay.

In the evening, after the cat was put safely to bed, I would often walk up the cobblestone streets of the town to have some dinner and wash down the salt spray with a few beers. Some nights I'd run into other friends and the few beers sometimes turned into a few too many. On those nights I’d walk back down to the dock and crawl aboard the cat for a peaceful night’s sleep swaying with the tug of the tide and hearing the wonderful sound of the stretch of dock lines. It sometimes made me think the cat was alive, tugging at her leash, just waiting to run again – perhaps for warmer water and sunnier climes south.

One, "too late night", I slowly wondered back to the boat. Sitting on a bench right in front of the cat was what appeared to be another drunken sailor. When he saw me it gave him the opportunity to launch into a diatribe about what is wrong with the world. Everything that he was spewing about was embodied in the brightly colored cat taking tourists out to his old fishing grounds that had now been fished out and the world was in ruin.

This man’s name was Fawny Dowdy. He had more wrinkles in his face than I had ever seen and that one distinction, I learned later, earned him the cover of National Fisherman Magazine. His hands were like leather and although he must have been well into his 80s he still had the appearance of a very strong man. I listened carefully to his rant and even though I had too much to drink too, I was alert and the chill of a Maine summer evening was reviving me. He carried on for what must have been an hour and when he realized I was the captain of this evil machine, the hatred was now directed to me personally. I continued to listen until he finally had to come up for air. I took that pause to say that I understood what he was talking about.

Portland had a wonderful working waterfront that was being taken over by pleasure boat marinas and condo developers. We were sitting on one of the last two working piers. Fishing grounds had been decimated by new techniques, GPS, factory ships, and the greed of distant ship owners supplying an ever increasing and demanding market with no consideration of the finite limits of a fishery. The population grew along the waterfront and the houses men of the sea like Fawny lived in were no longer affordable.

I think when I said I understood, he had a realization that perhaps he and I were closer than he first thought. He loved boats, knew them all, all the designs, he knew how they all sailed. He loved the big schooners he went off to fish on and he loved little dinghies to play around the harbor in when he was home. He loved rowing a good peapod and he loved the look and feel of a good lobster boat. I actually was cut from the same cloth.

As we discussed our mutual love for boats in general and special appreciation of the right curve of a bow or the sweet shape of tumblehome we developed a friendship. I explained to him that I respected all that he knew and helped to develop to get us to this point where I could now still work in boats. My boat was a crazy colored cat meant to catch tourists but there were more similarities than differences. He explained to me how in days past they would sail big schooners right onto an island beach at high tide. Then at low they would scrape, repair, and paint the bottoms before the tide filled back in, then on the next tide they would let her layover on her other side. Then I would shoot back excitedly with a story of how we hit 18 knots on a broad reach. He was interested and excited too at that number never having gone that fast.

It ended up a beautiful night and by the time the sun was brightening the eastern sky, we had sobered up and were just having fun talking story. It was time for Fawny to go off to wherever he actually lived and I needed a few hours sleep before the first group of tourists came aboard. I invited Fawny to come sailing on the cat with me and while he said I will one day, I knew it wouldn’t happen.

The world of Fawny Dowdy had passed. It was a different day when a wooden schooner could lie on her side at low tide for some maintenance. Today, you would need permission from the waterfront landowner who lived in New York and would then need to get a permit and that would only be after an environmental impact study was done by a certified company specializing in waterfront studies. When that study was reviewed, instructions would then be given as to what tides it were allowed to happen, the most extreme angle the schooner was allowed to lay over, the number of people required to guide her down all wearing lifejackets and hard hats of course. Then a floating boom would surround the area so as to not let any debris escape and a certified hazardous waste crew would need to be standing by in case some fuel from any of the cabin lamps spilled into the water. This would need to be applied for approximately two years before the attempted grounding because of the backlog of paperwork in the different agencies offices. In addition fish counts had to be checked to see if this schooner was in compliance with limits set by an expert in Washington while the Japanese factory ship sits out 12 ¼ miles off the coast basically stealing everything this schooner was meant to work in.

That night with Fawny was over 20 years ago and he no longer knew how to handle the crazy bureaucratic mess we built. Now more than 20 years on and its only become worse. Email, video games, Facebook, Myspace, social networking, cell phones that can search the internet and play movies and more, lets us avoid any personal contact. There is only a desire to get more for me, not to know how our neighbor is doing, no community support for older folks that can’t go for a walk any longer because the city’s sidewalks are so broken up. I think the world has now passed me by too and now I understand where Fawny was coming from even more.

We are no longer free and the greed and corruption in big business and politics have finally run the course and run our liberty into the dirt. The regulations, deregulations, hidden payoffs, taxes, permits are out in the public eye and no one really seems to care. Known thieves hide out in million dollar penthouses in full public view while devastated elders that had their saving stolen have no recourse and struggle with poverty. How can this be?

Well, I guess one good use of my cell phone will be that it automatically alerts me when my permit is finally ready so I can lay my schooner over on a an island beach at high tide.

Think From The Perspective of our Grandchildren

This is an essay from Jim Gilbert, author, entrepreneur, sailor, surfer, fisherman... he says it clearly and better than I.

We waited until late morning, after the fog and mist had begun to lift, to enter a narrow, braided section of the King Salmon River. “It’s full of grizzly,” our fishing guide had explained. “The last thing we want to do is turn a corner in the fog and startle one!”

The water was so shallow it forced us out of our aluminum skiff. Banging on the sides as we went, we slowly pushed the boat downstream, staring at the hundreds of fresh bear tracks pressed deeply into the nearby sandy banks.

After a quarter of a mile, the stream became wider and straighter and the water grew smooth and still except for the swirls and splashes of thousands upon thousands of fish. Under the brightening mid-August Alaskan sky, the river turned crimson with sockeye salmon, their teeming, spawning bodies pressed together as far as we could see over the gently rolling gravel bars. “Welcome to the Red Sea,” our guide said reverently. “This is a sight few people see.”
My fly-fishing pal Jeff and I were in Alaska searching for trophy-sized wild trout that follow the salmon up the many rivers and creeks of the Bristol Bay drainage. We flew by float plane into a tiny, six-tent camp at the very edge of the tundra more than 100 miles from the nearest settlement. The drainage is a land of grizzly bears, caribou, moose and eagles living much as they have since the last ice age. It is a fragile place of short, intense summers and long, dark, numbing winters, where every living thing -- from the simplest lichens and insects of the tundra, to the largest carnivore in North America -- owes its existence to the salmon. Starting in early summer, successive runs of salmon – first chums, then kings, then sockeye and finally coho – make their way into every navigable creek and lake to lay their eggs and then die. All together, more 30-60 million fish return each year to spawn, making the Bristol Bay drainage one of the largest, most sustainable and best-managed fisheries in a world that is quickly running out of fish. More than 30 percent of the world’s salmon harvest comes from the waters of Bristol Bay, providing a livelihood for tens of thousands and a healthy, renewable source of food for millions of people around the world.

As we walked through the sockeye wonderland, casting our flies to the large trout darting in and out of the salmon redds, or nests, we passed hundreds of decaying carcasses, some more than three feet long, slowly depositing nutrients carried up from the far-off Bering Sea into the hungry, spongy soil of the tundra. It was odd to be in a place of so much life utterly dependent on so much death.

If there was wonder for us in the Red Sea, there was also sadness in the pall cast over this remote and fragile wilderness by the proposed Pebble Mine. Projected to be one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, Pebble Mine will be located in the fertile Bristol Bay drainage headwaters, which also contains some of the world’s largest gold and copper deposits. The project will build enormous dams across several salmon and trout streams to create vast settling lakes for the acidic mine run-off that, thanks to gravity, the forces of nature and the law of probability, will inevitably wreak havoc with spawning areas farther downstream. Roads will be cut through the pristine wilderness on the shores of Lake Iliamna, Alaska’s largest fresh water lake, which is now traversable only in winter when the frozen tundra permits travel by snowmobile or dogsled.

Walking past the seemingly endless schools of sockeye, following the same call to gather and multiply as their species has obeyed for more than 40 million years, I was struck by the thought that we all suffer from a blindness borne of our own self-interest, judging the acceptability of decline of a reef, river or forest based on the limitations of our own personal experiences and aspirations. Thus we are able to entertain the truly horrendous prospect of losing the world’s largest sustainable fishery as acceptable solely in terms of short-term economic benefits. By their own reports, Pebble Mine’s 3.75-square-mile open pit mine will be played out in 50-80 years. So the math is simple: a potential windfall of $150 billion versus the existing $400 million-a-year revenues from the existing resource. What doesn’t show up in this equation is that few, if any, of us will be around to clean up the 2.5 billion tons of toxic waste choking the bottoms of 1800-foot-deep lakes held in place by massive, 740-foot-tall earthquake-prone earthen dams. Managed properly, the salmon will provide food and jobs for hundreds of generations.
Every generation plays its own cost-benefit analysis at the expense of future generations, which enjoy none of the profit but get stuck with 100% of the negative consequences. This same mentality allows us to continue over-harvesting the sea, killing coral reefs, polluting our shores and filling wetlands. Our tendency to this sort of unenlightened self interest is perhaps our single most diminishing trait as a species and a perpetual challenge for those of us promoting the importance of sustainable marine ecosystems. I felt a moment of sadness in the Red Sea that, knowing what we know now, a project such as Pebble Mine would even be seriously entertained. I thought, if only we could see the world through the eyes of our great-grandchildren, what different decisions we would make.

While I feel blessed to have been able to see this part of the world, we don’t actually have to visit a place to know it’s worth saving. We humans are blessed with an extraordinary capacity to accumulate knowledge and experience to make sensible decisions. For instance, we know from history that all resources are ultimately finite. We know from business that we must calculate all the risks and benefits, both short- and long-term, to create accurate profit-and-loss projections. We also experience things with our heart that we have never seen with our eyes. If nothing else, just knowing that fragile wildernesses like the Nushagak and King Salmon Rivers still thrive in a world threatened by rapid global change and human development offers profound reassurance that we are heeding the lessons of the past and that we are, indeed, capable of sustaining the beautiful, bountiful paradise God has given us.

Back to the Future

It's Memorial Day. I haven't felt like blogging for a while. But as today is a day of reflection and honor for those that have died, I took some time and did some reading. One passage says it perfectly and it's quoted here.

"...I think the world of USA is a world of crass, blind, overstimulated, phony, lying stupidity. The war in Asia slowly gets worse - and almost inane. The temper of the country is one of blindness, fat, self-satisfied, ruthless, mindless corruption. A lot of people feel uneasy about it but helpless to do anything against it. The rest are perfectly content with the rat race as it is, and with its competitive, acquisitive, hurtling, souped-up drive into nowhere. A massively aimless, baseless, shrewd cockiness that simply exalts itself without purpose. The mindless orgasm in which there is no satisfaction, only spasm."
Thomas Merton May 27, 1967

I think Asia could be replaced by Iraq and its ditto 40 years later. Have we learned nothing?

The Stress Cure

I have a friend, Koji, in Japan. We’ve never met. I originally contacted him about some business which didn’t work out. Somehow we have stayed in touch and I know we share a kindred spirit.

I have been to Japan several times, always on business. When I do these trips I always take time to see the countryside and get to know the people and culture. I, like many I believe, don’t always see what is in front of me – the proverbial “missing the forest for the trees”.

Recently Koji sent me an email about spring in Japan and the cherry blossoms once again coming to life. In the few words he used to describe it, I could see them and smell them and hear the sound of the wind rustling through the branches. It was beautiful.

My friend is in Paris now. She is exploring and photographing the sights and sounds of that wonderful city. I recently received an email from her too one morning.

She spoke about looking out the window in the early morning and seeing “the shadow of the flowering balcony painting its pattern along the hem of the bedding”. This while “listening with her Buddhist ears to the church bells down the street mixing with those of Sacre Coeur off in the distance”. I think she is seeing the most beautiful sights of Paris and these are not listed in any tourist guide.

This past week has been very stressful. From the demands of a young company to those of a 17 year old daughter, life was taking its toll on me. I hadn’t been in the water nor had I even taken time to look at the sea this past week even though I live within blocks of the beach.

On Tuesday I had a 9am appointment in an area of town I was not too familiar with so I went early. I knew if I was too early I could go by a marina that was close by and have a look at the boats. I got there much easier than I thought and therefore much early than needed so I went out to the marina. I parked and started walking along the waterfront.

It was still early and there wasn’t much movement yet. As I slowly walked around I began to take deeper and slower breaths. It was peaceful. I began to hear clearly the clanging of the halyards against the aluminum masts. I could hear sound from several different kinds of birds including the longer shrill of the gulls. As I walked past blossoming flowers, I could even hear the hum of the bees wings light from one flower to the next.

It was very peaceful. My walk lasted only about 25 minutes but in those 25 minutes the stress of the week vanished. I left with a contented smile on my face and a new attitude to go back to work with.

Things are hectic, the traffic is bad, work is stressful and kids can be too, but everywhere there is a special little place where one can take a slow deep breath and really see what is front of them. The sun’s sparkle on the water, the bead of dew on a flower petal, the sound of a birds call, these are the things to pay a little attention to each day. If we simply open our eyes and really look – even for just a few minutes - our days will be less stressful and more peaceful and collectively this too will have global implications.

Water is Life

Our company is participating in a "Water For Life" benefit. Water is so important to the growth here in Southern California but we are an insignificant drop compared to real world life and death issues. As in other areas of consumption, The US uses an extraordinary amount of water compared to other nations so here are a few fact and tips provided by "Water For Life" that I think are important. Once again it is our individual small steps that add to something significant - think about that the next time you brush your teeth.

World Water Wise

Quick Facts:
* 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water.
* Every week an estimated 42,000 people die from water related diseases.
* Over 1 million people die from malaria every year.
* The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day. The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day.
* While 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, 97.5% of it is salt water and 2.5% fresh water. Only 1% of the total water on earth is available for human use.
* 50% of the world's wetlands have been lost since 1900.
* Every day, 2 million tons of human waste is disposed of in water courses.
* 40% of water bodies assessed in 1998 in the United States were not deemed fit for hydro power recreational use due to nutrient, metal and agricultural pollution.

Things You Can Do:

* Participate in Beach Clean-Ups.
* Turn the faucet off while brushing your teeth, shaving, rinsing vegetables, etc.
* Wash the car with water from a bucket.
* Use water/energy conservation appliances.
* Repair dripping faucets by replacing washers. If your faucet is dripping at the rate of one drop per second, you can expect to waste 2,700 gallons per year.
* Check for toilet tank leaks.
* Water lawns during the early morning hours when temperatures and wind speed are the lowest. This reduces losses from evaporation.
* Plant native grasses, ground covers, shrubs and trees.
* Refrigerate a bottle of drinking water instead of letting a faucet flow until the water is cold.
* When washing dishes by hand, fill one sink or basin with soapy water. Quickly rinse under a slow-moving stream from the faucet.

Ah, Capitalism

As a sailor/surfer and the GM of a manufacturing facility producing the foam cores used to make surfboards, environmental issues are very important to me. I know that when I research directions and issues of concern to me both personally and professionally there is much confusion and contrary opinion. I believe that environmental issues make up more than how we deal with the natural environment. They also - and perhaps more importantly - deal with the human issue.

Here is where capitalism comes into play. Any issue, environmental or otherwise, that comes to the forefront will be appropriately addressed when a profit potential is clear. This is an absolute fact in all levels of society from the young boy that may cut your lawn to the energy companies and the need to search out alternatives. If you don't think this is true, ask your gardener to cut the lawn for $2 a week - it won't happen. It readily happens when the profit meets the demand. So it is true of the energy companies on down.

There is no motivation to look for alternative energy sources when plenty of money is being made in the current conditions and the alternatives cost more and provide less profit. We then can say, ah yes, but this is short term thinking. Yes, oil is a finite supply but the short term for this issue goes beyond most of our lifetimes and certainly longer than a CEO's term as the lead sled dog. Obviously short term is a relative condition.

Once the profit potential is clear, all the needed resources to take advantage of the condition will be available. So I am not too concerned about global warming and in fact there is so much happening with this issue now that solutions will come forward - and some will make plenty of money providing those solutions.

One thing that does concern me however is that the solutions are often bandages. Take, for instance, southern California where there is no water naturally. We continue to build - in the desert with no water - more and more homes that need water. We even build golf courses in the desert - with no water - that use huge amounts of water. Instead of saying no we have exceeded the resource, we look for the water bandage initially with damming the rivers and then with a possible desalination facility.

Time has now shown us that damming the rivers was a mistake because sediment flow is important for the beaches, etc. We can't remove the dam because we still need the water and besides thousands of homes are now built where that water would flow. The jury is still out on the desalinator but what I know of it doesn't sound like the answer. Yet new homes are the money maker so that is the most important issue at the moment.

Ultimately capitalism will take care of the hard issues. I feel sure of that. The human issue is the real issue. From as far back as we have written history we know that human capital didn't rank as high as the dough. The pyramids were built by thousands of humans that were easily replaceable and inconsequential to the building of the Emperor's tomb. This goes true for slaves in the tobacco fields, to men and women in the world's armies, to the workers in factories around the world where safe healthy working conditions don't exist yet the managers are housed in luxury offices.

I simply don't understand how a human life became less valuable then the dollar, yen, euro, or whatever and God knows I don't have the answer to this one. I will, however, never let that attitude become part of me.

The Simple Life

An American businessman was at the pier of a small South Pacific Island village when a small outrigger with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small outrigger was a dorado several large grouper.

The American complimented the Islander on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Islander replied, "Only a little while."
The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Islander said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a late afternoon nap with my wife, Helia, stroll into the village each evening where I have adrink and play guitar with my friends, I have a full and busy life."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small fishing village and move to Australia, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The South Seas fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then?" asked the fisherman.

The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions, really? Then what?" asked the fisherman.

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a late afternoon nap with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings here you could have a drink and play your guitar with your friends."

The Magic of Surfing

The surfing experience is a completely individual endeavor yet surfers are part of a global tribe that crosses all political, cultural, religious, and economic boundaries. The surfing experience causes the surfer to become tuned to the natural world of wind and tide and current and season. Even the surfboard it self is modern magic carpet that defies normal physical quantification sometimes planing, sometimes displacement, sometimes airborne with constant changes in direction and velocity.

In an age where many high school seniors in the United States can not find their own country on a globe, most surfers know about Angola, Sumatra, Madagascar, New Caledonia, and the Canaries and more mainstream places like Morocco, and Peru. When the season is right for a particular region, surfers go. Islamic Jihad in Indonesia will not deter them. The works of ETA on the Basque coast of Spain are not a concern. The military coup in Fiji doesn’t get a second thought. Yet at the beach, in any of these locations with others from around the world, there is peaceful coexistence and respect.

Local customs and cultures are embraced by this global tribe. Often the local religions are participated in without question but for the new experience it may offer. Parts of the religion, culture, and customs from often faraway lands usually stick and some of that experience is then carried forward to the next place of the tribes meeting. Again the resulting mixture is a reverent diversity and respect. In fact, at the recent tsunami disaster, surfers were the first responders – not only rescuing people but setting up camps in which to live.

In the water the surfer is not judged by his bank account, what type of car he drives, or where he lives but rather he is judged by his skills in the ocean. Riding waves and the intimate knowledge of the break is paramount and other valued skills include sailing, diving, and fishing. The better the surfer is at these skills, the more independent he becomes and therefore the economic differences become even less important.

The passage from beginner to journeyman surfer includes meteorological study. To fully benefit from the variety of waves breaking around the planet, the surfer learns about the changing of the seasons in the different hemispheres. He learns the origin or source of the waves and can predict the swell direction and time that swell will hit certain beaches. With this knowledge he will calculate the local tide, current, and wind conditions for optimal riding. When this precise time hits, the pursuit of the resulting waves becomes the all consuming focus of his being.

When finally paddling out to the break, the surfer has learned the skills of a physical oceanographer and studied the rip currents and uses these forces to his advantage and get out past the break more easily. He knows the bottom contours and the physical properties of the sea floor under the waves. Understanding the physical condition is critical – is the swell moving across a variable sandbar or breaking like clockwork over a nearly exposed coral reef. Respect is once again in order as the wave will break the way it will without regard to the surfer. The surfer knows to go with the flow and use the natural forces at work to maximize his experience.

A noted NASA scientist once said the ability of a surfer paddling a small surfboard into a wave is a mathematical impossibility. In nearly every other sport both participant and equipment can be quantified for maximum performance, there is no such quantifier in surfing. The act of riding waves is an entirely individual experience. There is no absolute in design or materials nor ideal size like a jockey of 118 pounds or a 6’9” basketball player. Both the surfboard and surfer are completely unique and therefore the experience on the wave is a completely unique experience as well. This is easily proven when two surfers are in the water both on their favorite boards getting maximum enjoyment from the conditions and they switch boards. The maximum enjoyment disappears and very quickly they want to switch back.

Surfers also become staunch environmentalists. Coastal zone management and both source and non-source pollution are well known. Public beach access rather than selling off the coastline to only the richest 1% is a critical issue and that battle rages daily in the halls of places like the California Coastal Commission where the special interests of politics are being battled by the grass roots activists of the global surfing community. A local issue such as a freeway extension that may affect a revered surfing spot near San Clemente has opposition support in England, Brazil, and Australia.

So the experience of the surfer is all encompassing with political, cultural, and religious components. Physical and natural sciences are part of the surfer’s daily experience. And the engineering of the surfboard can’t be quantified. The experience is very personal and unique while at the same time being part of a global community that lives with respect and is acutely of aware the relationship to the cycles of the natural environment. The surfer’s scorecard doesn’t have an entry for monetary success and therefore it is very easy to give back to the communities in which they participate. The world on a larger scale could learn much from a surfer. After all, it’s magic!

The Real Costs

These are boom times for China! For example, Shanxi province in northern China produced 25% of the country's coal in 2005 at a time when coal prices were soaring. Shanxi's economy grew by 12.5% in 2005, well ahead of even the astonishing 10% growth for China's economy as a whole.

However, the province is home to Linfen, Yangquan and Datong, the three most polluted cities in China. Life expectancy in Linfen is 10 years below the Chinese national average. The province closed 4,800 illegal mines in 2005 -- and the drilling of illegal wells for water have created a chronic water shortage and a steady loss of farmland as it subsides into underground mine shafts and drained aquifers.

If you subtract the costs of air and water pollution from Shanxi's growth rate, officials have told Deutsche Bank, the province's real economic growth rate is close to zero. It's easy to find economists who are even more pessimistic. The World Bank puts the costs of China's pollution at 8% of GDP. Some economists peg it as high as 10% of GDP. According to this accounting, China isn't growing at all.

Polluting the air or water, releasing toxic amounts of mercury, using so much water that a river runs dry -- these are all what economists call externalities. The costs of these externalities are paid by the general public, in the form of increased illness or higher death rates, and they remain external to the country's GDP accounts.

However, today's externality has a way of becoming tomorrow's on-the-books cost. Just ask any U.S., European or Japanese company about what it costs them to clean up their wastewater, scrub their emissions and safely dispose of their toxic waste today. Those were once externalities but now disposal is part of the cost of doing business.

The environmental figures out of China, even the official ones, are appalling. More than 400,000 of China's 1.3 billion people die from air-pollution-related illness each year, according to the Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning. About 300 million Chinese don't have access to clean drinking water, and 400 of the country's 668 largest cities are short of water. Acid rain falls over 30% of the country. Of the 20 most polluted cities on earth, according to the World Bank, 16 are in China.

Unfortunately, the part of the environment nearest to crisis also presents the toughest nut to crack. China is rapidly running out of water. Industries can't get enough. City dwellers can't get enough. Farmers can't get enough. Parts of the country look like they're headed into permanent drought as surging demand teams up with falling supply to produce scarcity no matter how much water the clouds bring. For the past 25 years, China has been able to feed itself, but the water shortage is bad enough to put this in doubt. According to James Kynge in his 2006 book, "China Shakes the World," China uses seven to 20 times more water per unit of GDP than the developed countries of the world.

The alternative is business as usual in China, with growth at all costs. Go far enough down that road, and the costs of paying for those environmental externalities gets big enough so that even China's booming economy can't pay it.

Is the Playing Field Level?

Below are some thoughts to consider. Again I do not come from a place of protectionism but rather fair competition. Most of the statistics below come from MSN Money's Jim Jubak. Numbers are one thing but the important part here, I believe, is the costs the numbers are not showing. Too often we operate from a position of always fixing past wrongs instead of being aware and thoughtful as we move forward. I don't believe it is too late but time marches on...

China's economy grew 10.7% in 2006, the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth and the highest growth rate since the 10.9% recorded in 1995. And the Chinese economy did it last year without even breaking a sweat: Inflation came in at a core rate of just 1.5%.

While China certainly is not about to slip backward into global economic insignificance, it appears that the current growth has been built on nonrenewable human, environmental and capital resources. And when those resources have been mined for the easy gains, China's rate of growth will fall back to something like "normal."

What's more, the central government has tolerated an internal migrant worker system that assures Chinese industry of an even-larger army of even-lower-cost workers. It works like this. A peasant looking for a better life can move to a city or an industrial zone and get a job. But they can't get a "hukou," the certificate of residence required to access public services such as schools, health care and unemployment benefits. These migrant workers live crammed in company dormitories, usually earning far below the official minimum wage and sometimes as little as $1 for a 12-hour day, doing the dirtiest and most dangerous work that no worker with a certificate of residence wants. And quite often, the company refuses to pay the migrant worker even those wages. Official Chinese government figures say that more than 70% of the country's migrant workers were owed pay by their employers last December.

Estimates of the number of migrant workers in China range from 110 million to 120 million. With a population of 7.5 million registered residents, a city such as Guangzhou, the export capital of southern China, couldn't run without its 3.7 million migrant workers. Whole industries would come to a halt: Migrants make up 80% of all urban construction workers and 68% of workers in manufacturing, according to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

China's migrant workers don't have access to the financial and legal systems. Workers who have filed claims for back pay have been beaten or arrested and charged legal fees so high that they couldn't pursue their claims. That's left them waiting for government action.

The situation isn't sustainable. Acts of protest are increasing: In 2004 there were 74,000 protests (not all by migrant workers) involving 3.8 million people, up from 10,000 protests in 1994. Some migrant workers are simply going home to protest bad working conditions and a lack of pay. Either the Beijing government will find some way to force local officials and employers to share the wealth more evenly or the costs to the economy -- in protests and workers who vote with their feet -- will continue to rise.

Just as important - or more so - traditional accounting doesn't consider the cost of environmental damage. MSN Money's Jim Jubak suggests that investors should be considering these off-the-balance-sheet costs, and their long-term effects on production, as global warming and pollution become bigger issues.

There is Hope

Under the auspices of the Global Compact initiative established by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, NGOs, international business and labor organizations as well as representatives from the world of science and politics are working closely together with the aim of forging a global economy based on the principles of sustainable development.

The Ten Principles of the Global Compact

Principle 1:
Support and respect the protection of international human rights within the sphere of influence;

Principle 2:
Make sure corporations are not complicit in human rights abuses;

Principle 3:
Freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4:
The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor;

Principle 5:
The effective abolition of child labor;

Principle 6:
The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation;

Principle 7:
Support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8:
Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility;

Principle 9:
Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies;

Principle 10:
Work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.