Rafe Mair Online

Motorbike metropolis: Ho Chi Minh City.

Notes from a quick, guided visit to Saigon, er, Ho Chi Minh City.

My mandate, I think, is to a write a political column for these pages, which I’m about to do, so don’t confuse this with a travelogue.

Wendy and I have just returned from the trip of a lifetime, a 37-day cruise which took us to Auckland, Tauranga, Christchurch, Invercargill (all in New Zealand), Hobart (twice), Melbourne (twice), Sydney, Adelaide, Perth/Fremantle (all in Australia), Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Cambodia and Bangkok.

Here’s a bit of market information for those who follow these things — baseball caps sold from a high of $23.50 at Raffles in Singapore to $1 in Ho Chi Minh City. I save them, sort of.

Comic book fantasies

Since I was a boy I’ve always been interested in what was once called French Indochina. This fascination was whetted by a comic strip/radio show called “Terry and the Pirates,” featuring such characters as Big Stoop, the Dragon Lady and the young adventurer, Terry. In my mind’s eye, I saw boisterous cities full of smells, noises and mysterious back alleys replete with the mystery of West meets East. While I had been to Singapore and Bangkok, I only had my imaginary vision of Saigon.

(First, though, my minimal journalistic ethics force me to advise that when you reach the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore you may, as your guide tells you, get an original Singapore Sling. However, you sure as hell won’t get in at the famous Long Bar (where I first did) but will be admitted to a fake Long Bar on the third floor. But I digress.) Continue Reading »

Stop me before I lash out in self-defense.

Each new wave of digital device takes an extreme disliking to me.

It seems to be axiomatic that the older people get, the harder it is for them to make changes. The old ways were better. This newfangled stuff will ruin civilization, or at least the part which isn’t already ruined. I try to avoid this — not in an attempt to end the aging process, but in order to keep my brain active so I can continue to work.

Some of the inventions of the last 25 years or so I enjoy, including the personal computer — although there I have my grievances. You see, I’m one of those people that only has to touch an electronic gadget to have it stop its inner workings immediately. When I touch a button on, say, the entertainment centre on a plane, it packs in — often taking other passengers nearby with it. I have a lifetime aversion to electric instruments. In fact, they frighten me because I’m sure they will either electrocute or nuke me. The machine in question feels my trepidation and retaliates accordingly.

Era before ‘automatic save’

My early encounters with a PC were nightmarish. I would finish an editorial and before I could save it (there was no automatic save in 1981) the computer would “lock,” and after frantic calls to experts, I would have to crash it and lose everything. Or I would have slippery fingers, accidentally telling it to print 100 copies instead of 10 — and then I would fail to stop the damned printer. David Chalk and Mike Agerbo (two people who I got started in radio, incidentally) would be like the doctors on call, and I would insist they did house calls.

Eventually as PCs and I matured, we became tentative friends.

When the fax came along, despite the fact that I felt the need for a lead jockstrap to prevent that area from being nuked, I adjusted. Continue Reading »

My critics are wrong to say I ‘support’ nuclear power. Plus: Steve Fonyo’s fall.

Today a potpourri.

First, to correct a misimpression making the email circuit, I have never pronounced support for nuclear power. Here’s what I said in The Tyee:

“I do not, repeat not, say we should adopt a nuclear power program in B.C., only that we stand back and look at nuclear with a jaundiced eye but still look. We are, under the Campbell Liberals, bound and determined to destroy our rivers. Campbell, nose growing all the time, says we need the power and that’s why our rivers must be sacrificed. His nose stretches because we do not need the power and even if we did, private river projects won’t help because they only produce power when BC Hydro doesn’t need it. But if there’s a valid alternative, shouldn’t we look at it?

“There are, as I see it, these concerns to be dealt with, any one of which would negate the arguments for nuclear energy.

“1. Is it, under 2009 conditions and knowledge, safe? Even if it’s safe under everyday circumstances, could terrorists use it to create an atom bomb-like disaster?

“2. How do we dispose of the waste? It’s been this problem that has for many people made the issue a non starter.

“3. Is it cost effective? We know that they haven’t been but are the numbers better now?

“4. Is it really green, considering what it takes to build and maintain a facility?

“We would be damned fools to rush into a pro-nuclear policy but also damned fools not to consider it.” Continue Reading »