PART  I BETTY WHITE, dead at 99, just 17 days shy of 100. As of July of 2021, there are 12 822 centenarians in Canada; 80% are women. So one might ask, what’s the big deal then? Betty White was a working actor until the day she died.  And not just a bit player either. She did stand-ups,… Read More »

IT’S WORSE THAN YOU THINK Part II Since the publication of part I, THE CLIMATE CRISIS, in the last month’s BALITA, more intense weather events have been experienced unseen in the recent past. Extreme and historical are the buzzwords—colder, more typhoons/hurricanes in the latter part of the year. On a record-setting scale, typhoon Odette’s toll had reached 407… Read More »

IT’S  WORSE THAN YOU THINK PART 1 “Parade of Storms,” “Atmospheric Rivers,” “Swarms of Tornadoes“: These are headlining in all of 2021, terms that have never been used before.  Just what is a “PARADE OF STORMS”? There is nothing technical about the phrase, only that a storm does not come in one after another, not a day apart anyway.  A typhoon,… Read More »

“The only constant is change.” But, unfortunately, this innocuous phrase has a pace in the homeland that leaves a lot to be desired. I can’t think of a better metaphor than  Rip Van Winkle’s 20-year slumber but waking up to see nothing had changed.   This article will chronicle my own experiences to show how cultural impediments can obfuscate changes and retard… Read More »

“Having the choice at the end of my life has become incredibly important. It has given me a sense of peace during a time that otherwise would be dominated by fear, uncertainty, and pain.” –Brittany Maynard The debate is over.  MAID or Medical Assistance In Dying has been the law in Canada since Bill C-14 was passed in June… Read More »

I take this opportunity to share my feelings on today’s concerns and the many developments in recent memory. The COVID pandemic has focused many life issues front and centre.  It broke open people’s feelings about Science, Politics, and Religion.  It is as if the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, work-at-home arrangements, school disruptions, and a general curtailment of normalcy brought… Read More »

PART III,  The Final Chapter I arrived in Newfoundland with little skill outside of my chosen profession. I did not have the savvy and skillfulness that allows you to get into projects that ordinarily require a pro.  And yet, by the time I left, 25 years later,  I learned skills that would otherwise be left unlearned had I stayed in an… Read More »

PART II BY: EDWIN DE LEON Newfoundland was far from the consciousness of the world community until John Cabot, in the late 1400s, declared: “fish ( cod ) was thick by the shore that we hardly have been able to row a boat through them.”  Thus began the waves of Southern Europeans, chiefly migratory fishers from Spain and Portugal took… Read More »

PART I That sound, that jabbing, reverberating buzz of a chainsaw; not very often, you hear it around Mississauga.  It was distant but distinct to me, one that I can identify from miles away.  A flood of memories when I hear that sound. Why? Am I a lumberjack in the off-season?  Close!  There isn’t a hint of it in my resume—forty… Read More »

Evolution is a term that does not endear to a significant number of peoples. It is controversial because people of faith see it as an affront to their beliefs as it postulates that humans are just another member of the animal kingdom. In contrast, they see us as God’s unique creation with a body and “soul.”  On the other… Read More »