Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed

And while the tourism folks are selling sex, the city is taking aim at those who pee in public with an anti-urination education campaign.

I wonder, what kind of education, short of a PhD, could possibly convince drunken downtown bar flies to hold their water? Hard to blame the problem on women though. The late night, drunken leak against a wall in an alleyway is a uniquely male ritual, as old as beer itself. This is because, and I’m sure premier would agree with me, “all men are boars.”- Leftovers Reheated by Brennan Clarke Newsgroup

After having worked a four month stint on the Friday and Saturday night shift downtown, with my desk near the glazed window of an alcove, I can tell you with absolute certainty that urinating in public is not a male only pursuit in the downtown core.

Line-ups in night clubs are known for being much worse at the sit-down washroom than the stand-up one. This results in a requisite need to relieve, that although requires some more choice in locations to achieve privacy for the squat, does not free one set of plumbing's need for action.

This alcove near my desk acted as a full-time washroom from midnight until after 4 am. Usage was so high, that squatters seemed to get priority as a result of the slight privacy gained from the extra two walls. The only time business seemed to slow was when the alcove became shelter and was occupied with a different activity that required either a needle, sleeping bag or a rock and a lighter. Through the glazed glass, I was not privy to much detail (although way too much for comfort) but I could certainly make out the difference between a squat and a stand.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Most of the people urinating do so because of lack of access to appropriate facilities. For hundreds of years we have known that public health is linked to public sanitation. Not only should their be public washrooms accessible and available in the downtown core, but also downtown business should be required to make clean washrooms in a number appropriate to their customer base, available to their patrons, at all hours that they are open.

PS: This post made it in as a Letter to the Editor in the Victoria News.

Labels: alternatives, bcmedia, hospitality, link, opinion, unfolding

The BC Government's on-going conversation on health continues to suck. Only 5,000 people, so far are talking to the provincial government about their plans for privatization of health care. The public appears to be wise enough to realize that anything they say to the Gordon Campbell Liberals will likely be used to justify a pre-determined course of action.

A petition, against health-care privatization, I ran a few years ago received nearly 40,000 responses on a near-zero budget. When you compare this with 5,000 participants on a multi-million dollar public relations fiasco (normally not even a slightly fair comparison but...) it is clear there is a massive credibility gap on the Conversation on Health. Oh yeah, it's true I am finally and publicly admitting that Alfred Young is a pseudonym for me. Take that privatization and no longer being afraid of recriminations!

The BC Health Conversation is another matter. This excellent subvertisement sponsored by the HEU is a great way to impact future health policy. Check it out.

The HEU also had their website voted into the 2007 Top 10 Labour websites as announced today by Labourstart. The LHMU, the union I spent much of last year working for in Melbourne, also made the list. Congratulations to them and the other 2007 winners.

Labels: canada, democracy, health, historical, hospitality, human rights abuse, link, online campaign

It probably isn't their fault.. that they are so stupid. But it is their fault they aren't unionized with Local 40 anymore.

Kicking a dozen regular clients of the former establishment out for something the staff told us to do. Come on. What da hell?

It went down like this: It was a close friend and former co-workers last day. She had just gotten out after serving the hard part of her life sentence. 12 and a bit years. Parole was looking nice and we went out to celebrate and have a few drinks. Being slow and her getting off work at 9 pm we only made it to the bar at 11.

We arrived hungry so we had a simple request. Some food. But the kitchen was closed. At the suggestion of our server (who admittedly offered to make toast) we simply wandered over to Ali Baba's and achieved for ourselves some pizza pie. We came right back.

We happily ate our pizza pie and kept drinking, in the bar. So far so good.

Then something went terribly wrong.

Having been spurned on by our munching of the good stuff, more of our group went to get some pie. When they returned they were told that "the liquor law" prohibited us from eating it within the Bar. Further, a ridiculously moronic staff member (pictured on the left) emphatically stated that the reason the law prohibited such activities was because the bar would be liable for the food poisoning us.

We responded defiantly with a simple request. The staff person who told us this was asked to produce "the law" that said this. We stated clearly that we would follow any liquor laws that he could produce. We suggested several websites he could find the law on and offered to provide the phone numbers of lawyers we knew would be available for exactly this kind of a ridiculous inquiry.

Instead of simply saying, ok ok, just do it descretely, or saying alright I was steppin' it isn't the law but you just can't eat that in here, he threatened us by saying "if you eat that in here you will have to leave."

The threat was too good to be ignored.

We held a brief discussion and then chowed down. We all had a bite. I guess we figured that if the bar had already accepted any liability we mayaswell enjoy ourselves in the manner most likely to cause ourselves harm.

Straight over returns this fine example of a future union-busting manager. He immediately demands we leave.

We knew this was coming and had provoked it so we amicably agreed. Offering to leave immediately without paying our bill or allowing that he might want to invite us to stick around long enough for the dozen or so of us to settle up.. Long enough for us to finish eating our pizza. Idiot.

He realized he was beat, so we ate and paid. Then left and vowed never to return. As we were leaving he admitted it was just bar policy. Why he hadn't just started by saying, "Hi, I'm the power-tripping moron who doesn't want you dozen customers in the bar, please leave." Instead of making a total fool of himself and forcing a boycott. I just don't know.

The Old Bailey was the pub of choice for most of the 12 years of hell that my friend had survived at that old job (she wasn't really in jail). At one point her partner even worked at the Old Bailey. We spent literally thousands of dollars in a unionized, safe, convenient and welcoming environment. We experienced the highs and the lows... We got booted out for good reasons (like it was time to go home or being inebriated), we got invited in for better ones, like a safe warm environment where we could drink amongst friends.

We never were as angry as we were the other night.

The boycott is on and not just because the staff booted us out at a time when we carefully selected the location for maximum enjoyment.

This place exists as a deunionized, decertified, shell of its former self.

We won't be back and neither should you.

Labels: hospitality, includes photo, personal story, union