Where the locals are appreciated
I would like to nominate Nesters Market for “Community Business
of the Year”.
Time and time again Bruce, Sean and staff go out of their way
to help support our community’s non-profit organizations. By their unstinting
donations, they allow our organizations to make our kids into great young
people who love and cherish Whistler.
From last spring’s B-B-Q to say good-bye to the senior players
of the Whistler Youth Soccer Club, to this autumn’s donation to the 7 and
8 year olds’ soccer tournament, Nesters puts the “icing on the cake” for
rewarding their participation.
Bruce, I would like to thank you and your staff from the bottom
of my heart, for continually contributing year after year in helping the
community to raise our kids.
Bob Calladine
Whistler Youth Soccer Club
Horn of plenty thanks
I wanted to thank the entire Whistler community for helping to
make the 10th anniversary of Cornucopia such a great success. This year’s
festival was marked by numerous highlights including a 45 per cent increase in
package sales (accommodations and tickets), more program choices for visitors,
a record number of media with more than 100 travel writers and journalists, and
27 sold-out events — the most ever for Cornucopia. Thanks to:
• Participating restaurant partners — for serving up incredible
culinary delights;
• After party organizers — for heightening our senses
with amazing entertainment;
• Accommodation partners — for showing each guest a truly
unique Whistler experience and ensuring the event’s viability by providing much
needed room support;
• Sponsors — for continued generosity in supporting
Cornucopia and other initiatives that animate the resort and attract visitors;
• RCMP — for making sure that all the events ran without
incident.
And a special thank you goes out to the Whistler Arts Council
and their many volunteers who made our guests feel so very special.
We can't wait to start programming for year 11!
Oliver Flaser
Director of Partnerships, Promotions and Events
Tourism Whistler
All the elements summed up
In "Reconfiguring the Value Equation: Giving People
Reasons to Stay and Excuses to Return" (Pique cover story, Nov 16), Lisa
Richardson clearly and comprehensively sums up the elements of adding real
value to people's experience of Whistler. She achieves a supple balance that
recognizes the perspectives of residents young and old, seasonal workers, and
visitors.
It was great to get the back story on Jill Ackhurst's
outstanding contribution to the ever-growing Whistler Welcome Week, and that of
other volunteers like Marnie Simon and the seniors who show a proper welcome to
our valuable seasonal staff. Dennis Marriott gives other concrete examples of
what really works: this article isn't full of empty talk about value, but
practical examples of it in diverse forms.
I also want to echo her remarks about the importance of public
spaces: we need more places where people can linger in comfort without having
to spend money. I hope that is borne in mind when designing our Olympic Plaza.
After the Games have gone, perhaps we could consider having part of the area
provided with another playground for the kids, and a covered seating area where
people can sit comfortably on our drizzly days — or something like that,
anyways.
Lisa's article is simply the best statement I've read on the
most pressing issues that face us as we look ahead, and I hope that planners,
executives and other decision makers keep a copy on hand to help remind them of
the essentials when things start to get bogged down in market-speak or
beaurocratese.
Claire Johnson
Whistler
Now hear this
In your editorial in the November 9th Pique Newsmagazine,
titled " A Moment for Unconditional Support" (which I wholeheartedly
agree with), you stated that "There are lots of opinions about Canada's
new role in Afghanistan. Those opinions should be heard...that debate should
continue".
Well, Mr. Barnett, I find your statement incredulous, because
during the summer you refused to print my views about Afghanistan in your
newsmagazine. However, the week before you published the "pro-Canadian
involvement in Afghanistan" views of Jessica Kronis. I simply wrote a
letter in response to her condescending and arrogant letter and you refused to
publish it. Perhaps you'll "refrain from publishing" this one too.
That's your prerogative. But just remember, Mr. Barnett, that you have a
responsibility, as the editor of a paper in a free and democratic society and
as an unbiased journalist, to cover different points of views on various
issues. Voltaire once stated, "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll
defend to the death your right to say it."
So please publish this opinion on continuing Canadian
involvement in Afghanistan that many, if not the majority, of Canadians share:
Support our troops — unconditionally — and bring them home!
There is no reason why we should still be over there. Young men
and women sacrifice their lives so that U.S. and Canadian corporations can
build their Trans-Afghan pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to
Pakistan. You should check out the facts for yourself on the Canadian Peace
Alliance website at www.acp-cpa.ca and click on "Troops Out of
Afghanistan".
The corporate mainstream media doesn't ever mention this
pipeline.
Instead, the media
reports that we have to provide security for the Afghani people and rebuild the
country. Don't believe it. We're only there, surely, to provide security
— so the war profiteers can have their pipeline built. Michael Moore also
mentions the pipeline in his documentary
Farenheit 9/11.
In closing, Mr. Barnett, I truly hope you publish my letter
this time for the sake of objective and unbiased journalism. As you stated in
your editorial, differing opinions on Canada's role in Afghanistan should be
heard.
Anything less may be
construed as hypocrisy and censorship.
David Lord
Supporter of the Canadian Peace Alliance
It’s nuts out there
There are stories coming out of the Callaghan Valley of ravens performing a strange dance no one has seen before and of squirrels confronting the excavators in a rage. While the image of a squirrel railing at a working excavator appeals to our Homerian (Simpson) sense of humour, our challenge, as an educated and privileged people, is also to reason that the squirrel has a point.
Witness: The chemical spill in the river, the oil spill in the estuary, the gas spill in Horseshoe Bay, “development” in the Callaghan Valley, Garibaldi at Squamish and on the west bank of the Squamish River, IPPs to the nth degree, a baited bear trapped beside a bear trail and “missing whales”, the oil-rainbowed water that washes from road to river and the concrete barrier along the new highway that cannot be negotiated by any creature smaller than a coyote.
There is a theory that if, in a tribe of monkeys, enough monkeys learn a new trick, the whole tribe experiences a leap in consciousness and “know” the new trick. Especially now with the Olympic attention, we have an opportunity to be the critical mass that sparks a leap in consciousness in our tribe. So let’s endeavour to be conscious primates and, if you go to the Callaghan Valley this winter, bring nuts.
Julie Malcolm
Brackendale
Compromises keep world turning
The recent “scum landlord” debate in your paper begs a question in my mind: if charging profit (excessive or modest) is an action of a scum, aren’t we all scums in some respect?
We live in a capitalistic world and being a capitalist we charge profit in everything we do. Whether we work for somebody or work for ourselves, I bet profit will always be part of the equation and fairness is not always easy to define in a capitalistic world. Sometimes just being the customer of certain products, we perpetuate the unfair business transactions that are not so apparent around us.
People in Indonesia or other developing countries have been making our clothes for less than $1/hour or growing our coffee for less than 10 cents/lb. We all know how much the retailers here charge us for these products.
Don’t get me wrong; Indonesians actually expect more clothing factories or coffee plantations in their country to keep their populations working. They probably just wish that we gave them their fair share for the fruits of their labours, that is all.
As humans we tend to overplay our role when we are the victim, but downplay it when the position is reversed. Living in Whistler sometimes makes us forget that we, too are intricately connected to the rest of the world. We can’t live in a vacuum, so we have to keep our world turning by making compromises to each other, not by forcing our idealistic view in this imperfect world.
Jay Wahono
Whistler