As some of our residents are aware, the Provincial Government’s cut backs have resulted in the total cancellation of the Library’s annual grant.  We have depended on this grant of $3500.00 per year to allow us to buy our books and supplies.  This means that we will have to find other methods of raising this short fall, be it through other grant applications, raising annual fees, donations etc, in order to keep the Library functioning. 

The Library has been part of Lions Bay for the last 28 years and while we have seen a drop in readership the past few years we sincerely hope that we can, by working to-gether, keep the doors open. We have a group of loyal members of all ages who experience the benefits of using the Library.                                                                                                          

We have also approached our Council to see if they would be able to assist with this problem as well but we all know that monies everywhere are in short supply.

We have been able to purchase some books for our new book section and suggest that we also look at reading some of our best known writers like McCall Smith, James Patterson, and Wilbur Smith. Also in non-fiction there are some wonderful real adventure stories available.  So come, visit us and go home with some of our books.

LETS TALK PREVENTION
Often once we get sick or are told we have [enter condition here], we then go about figuring out how to fix it. Wouldn’t it be easier and less stressful to prevent a problem before it starts? Well that is the goal of identifying the METABOLIC SYNDROME. Read on to find out what metabolic syndrome is, what the risk factors are, and what to do to reduce the risks - because after all, the best form of prevention is knowledge.

Metabolic syndrome, according to the American Heart Association, encompasses a group of conditions that together put people at a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other diseases related to plaque buildup in arteries (1).

Being in politics at any level isn’t easy whether it’s in your curling club, a council meeting or a cabinet. The hardest part is turning people down, especially if they’re your supporters.
I think that of the three levels of “government” I’ve served in my terms as president of a golf course (Quilchena in Richmond and the Kamloops GC in Kamloops) were in many ways the most difficult because you were so close to your constituents so often. Let me illustrate.

Back in the 60s at Quilchena the Board was alarmed – at least some of them were – to find that we had approved a man for membership whose name was Lee, only to find he was Chinese. The golf club had, since its inceptions back in the 20s, had an unwritten but enforced rule that white Christians were the only proper club mates to have. I didn’t share those views so called an extraordinary meeting of the membership to deal with this issue.

The evening before I had received a phone call from a lady who informed me if we allowed all those Japs and Chinks (she had a nifty turn of phrase) into the club she was quitting and taking 40 members with her. I’d hardly put the phone down when another lady called and said that if her Japanese friends in Steveston couldn’t join the club she was quitting and – yes, you guessed right – she would take 40 members with her!

When I took my place at the meeting, in the front row was a crusty old Scot, Bill Campbell, who had spent 5 years as a prisoner of war enduring the horrors of a Japanese prison camp. Oh, oh – I was in for it.

I gave my speech and called upon people to live and let live in the new cosmopolitan world we were in. I ended the speech and it seemed forever but Bill put up his hand. This, I thought, will be trouble, big time.

Swine flu or H1N1 has been hyped in the media and by the medical profession as a modern day plague - a plague that has failed to materialize. The ‘fear’ that has been generated has resulted in a mass hysteria with line-ups for vaccinations; vaccinations that in themselves have created health problems. Therefore, a ‘safer’ variation on the Swine flu vaccine was developed but only available to pregnant women.

The present pandemic is due to a novel H1N1 viral strain that was first identified in Mexico in March, 2009. By the end of July, 177,699 lab-confirmed cases of swine flu had been reported with 1,126 deaths reported world wide. It is interesting to note that all “reported” deaths have actually not been confirmed but the numbers being used in the media and presented to the public are actually based on estimates. In a recent newspaper release, the headline stated “500 deaths from Swine flu in the US”. Yet in the body of the article it stated that the actual documented deaths were less than one-half that number; the headline number was based on an estimate; fiction rather than fact. In Canada, our number of deaths from swine flu has been 58. In virtually all of these cases the patients were either elderly or were immuno-compromised such as children with asthma.

With the Christmas season just around the corner we felt the need to pause briefly and reflect back on the month that was.

The beginning of November brought with it an opportunity to attend to some important unfinished business. Prior to Halloween we asked the children to consider the desperate plight of children in Rwanda and Malawi and to take action.  After some debate a school goal of $800 was unanimously agreed to with the promise that Mr. Thorpe would shave his head if the students were successful in their fund raising efforts. They of course immediately took up the cause and by month’s end had raised almost $1300, an amazing result by anyone’s standards. As promised, an anxious Mr. Thorpe submitted to having his head shaved much to the delight of the student body and a handful of curious parents. Buoyed by the success of this year’s campaign and the promise of a warm, fitted toque, courtesy of the Knitting Club, to protect his newly shorn head from the elements, Mr. Thorpe vowed to subject himself to a similar shearing next fall should the students exceed next year’s goal. Ladies and gentlemen start your clippers.

As I attended my local Remembrance Day service, the standing-room-only audience expressed gratitude for those who had lost or risked their lives and was proud of the generation which had met the totalitarian challenge to democracy in World War II.  Tom Brokaw, the US news anchor, has written a book in praise of this age group entitled The Greatest Generation.
While members of subsequent generations have risked their lives in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and peacekeeping missions, these engagements have not always had well-defined and satisfying outcomes, and the perceived threat was not as great as that of the two world wars.

My generation is being called upon to deal with a different threat.  Beyond the global flashpoints of a military threat, we are facing an environmental crisis.  And our threat has even more at risk.  As frightening as a world dominated by fascism might have been, a world of runaway global warming could be far worse.  James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesis, predicts in his 2006 book Revenge of the Gaia that 90% of the human population will perish by the end of this century.  He foresees that our global civilizations will descend into a dark age as a result of a temperature increase of as much as 10 degrees Celsius.

The arts therapy and psychodynamic psychology communities were abuzz recently with the publication of Carl Gustav Jung's The Red Book--a facsimile of Jung's previously unpublished record of his own journey from emotional trauma and mental illness to recovery and beyond.

As a member of the triumvirate of great early twentieth century psychologists of Jung, Freud and Adler, each of whom created his own brand of depth psychology, Jung is perhaps best known today for his conception of the introvert-extrovert scale and his work on the collective unconscious.

An Inukshuk (ee-nook-shook) now graces the entrance of Lions Bay, thanks to the efforts of Chris Page for building it for us.  While at the Remembrance Day Ceremony I made the casual comment to Cheryl that someone should write a brief description of what Inukshuk means in the Lions Bay Community News and Cheryl said “Have it to me the first part of the month”.  So….

The Inuit have been building Inukshuk for thousands of years.  An Inukshuk is a stone cairn used by the Inuit people as a beacon symbolizing trust and reassurance for those who travel to mark the way.  They were used to mark high points of land, good fishing or hunting sites, provided shelters from the wind or the way home.  The Inukshuk states ‘now people will know we were here’.

The only way to go to the airport!

A lot of people are unaware that getting to the airport from Lions Bay by public transit is incredibly easy, cheap and stress free. I know that having lived in a car culture in North America there is reluctance among many people to use Transit not realizing how efficient it really is. When we have mentioned it to some people they have come up with reasons, such as having too much luggage and the inconvenience.

With the opening of the new Canada Line it couldn’t be easier and if you go onto Trans Link’s website - http://tripplanning.translink.bc.ca/  it shows you all the connections and times.
At the beginning of September my wife and I boarded the C12 with all our baggage and headed to Horseshoe Bay. Five minutes after we arrived the 257 Express bus pulled in and we took it all the way to Granville and Georgia, where we walked across the sidewalk, down the escalator and boarded the Canada Line train to the airport.

At the airport you are dropped off right at the entrance to Flight Departures and for us the trip lasted exactly one and a half hours. The thing that really impressed us was that the “Trip Planner” tool was incredibly accurate and we arrived at exactly the time it said we would. Because we now get the senior’s rates and used a discount book which you can pick up at “Someplace Special “ or a 7/11 store, the cost was $2.25 each.

On our return from our vacation we used the same way to get back home and because it was a weekend and there is no extra cost for different zones the price was only $1.60 each.

For my wife and I this is definitely the only way to go to the airport and if you would like to find out more about it give us a call at 604 922 9842.

In our day whether or not war can be justified has again become a major concern.

Early Christian statements, following the general principles of the New Testament, disapprove of participation in war. It was not until after Christianity was proclaimed the state religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine that the so-called question of ‘just war’ emerged. Augustine (9354-430), the first theologian to deal with the question of ‘just war’ believed that Christians had no right to defend themselves with violence, but concluded that, if necessary, violence could be used to defend the innocent against evil.  Despite Augustine’s emphasis on ‘defense’ what he envisioned subsequently became the basis of what we today speak of as the ‘just war theory.’