10 Steps We Can Take to Never Have a Year Like 2020: # 2 Better Protect health workers on the front line

Again the Quebec magazine L’actualitê has an interesting feature article in its April edition dealing with COVID-19 and translated it means what are the steps we can take to ensure we don’t have a year like 2020?

The second step is to better protect health care workers on the front line.

In Quebec in the first wave of COVID-19 36% of the infected in the health care sector were personal health care workers, 22% nurses, 12% nursing assistants and 3% physicians.

There is a need to ensure these workers have appropriate PPE. Quebec had no reserves of PPE which permitted a less aggressive attack on the first wave.

44% of the health care workers infected in the springtime of 2020 received no training on the prevention and control of infections or only received written information and when instructions were given they were often incoherent and confusing due to a constant changing of directives.

The shortage of health care workers forced personal care workers and nurses to work in different institutions which only increased the transmission of the virus. Each institution functioned differently and there often was no general manager in charge of long-term care so employees did the best they could do to survive. In the spring of 2020 30-40% of infected health care workers worked in more than one institution. Dr. Geoffroy Denis speaks of the mental suffering of front-line workers, many underpaid and sent to different institutions making coherent team development difficult.

Personal health care workers in the public sector are earning $22.35 per hour while a chambermaid in a prominent Montreal hotel would make $22.67.  This hardly makes sense for the personal health care workers taking care of the elderly. The Quebec government is willing to offer $26 in upcoming union negotiations for the personal health care workers

John Kabat-Zinn’s “Full Catastrophe Living”: The beginner’s mind

“To see the richness of the present moment, we need to cultivate what has been called “beginner’s mind”. Whatever particular practices we might be using, whether it is the body scan, the sitting meditation, or the yoga, we can resolve to bring our beginner’s mind with us each time we practice, so that we can be free of our expectations based on past experiences. An open “beginner’s mind” allows us to be receptive to new possibilities and prevents us from getting stuck in the rut of our own expertise, which often thinks it knows more than it does. No moment is the same as any other. Each is unique and contains unique possibilities. Beginner’s mind reminds us of this simple truth.”

“Amber’s Descent”: Psychological Thriller from Canada’s Okanagan

I am more familiar with reviewing wines from British Columbia’s Okanagan than reviewing a film shot there.

As a viewer you are comfortably contemplating this is a horror movie. A classical pianist and composer Amber (Kayla Stanton) decides to buy a house in a quiet location in the Okanagan. Here she hopes to find the peace and quiet to finish her latest composition. The real estate agent refers her to handyman Jim (Michael Mitton) to help with some minor repairs to the beautiful home.

Amber at the piano

Then the typical horror moments build such as radios laughing, doors opening and shutting, strange sounds and bad dreams.

It seems poor Amber was slashed by her lover Mark and is under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Pearl. She has a troubled past and her present is looking bleaker and spookier. The compassionate and caring Jim becomes a nasty stalker. A 911 call by Amber has the responder laughing at her. Matters are worsening until it would appear a breakdown is in the offing. Even her psychiatrist Dr. Pearl says she has always been “fucking crazy” in a call she makes to him. This may be a conversation you’ll remember as pivotal.

Then in the last few minutes of the film you, poor viewer, will be called on to make a decision that turns this horror movie into something you most likely had not thought of and that might be that mental illness can be a horror movie. Be patient dear viewer and enjoy the standard horror genre but be ready to think  this is a descent into madness.

Stanton does a good job and Mitton is a chameleon.

Directed by Micheal Bafaro the film is 93 minutes in length.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ1GT9Wldf4&t=8s

The film will be released on VOD and DVD on March 23rd and you can access here https://www.bgpics.com/movies/ambers-descent-2/

Port Attack! More Port Flowing into The Liquor Control Board of Ontario!

It seems that this cold weather in Ontario has had some effect in increasing the flow of Port into the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. It has some attraction as a cold weather drink but I say it is fallacious to say it is a cold weather drink. It is an all-season drink just as rosé has been pigeonholed as the ultimate summer wine. Well be carried away by your preconceived notion of Port as whatever works with you that’s what counts.

But back to the matter at hand with a Dow’s 2013 Late Bottled Vintage Port or “LBV” as they say. LBV’s are affordable and may I be so bold as to say they rival the Vintage Ports that are at prices so many of us simply can’t afford unless you are a CEO of a corporation where in Canada you make by noon on the first day of the year more than an employee in your corporation makes ALL YEAR.

Being forthcoming I have a dozen bottles of Vintage Port in my cellar I will not drink in my lifetime. They have been earmarked for my children and perhaps even for their grandchildren.

I am a pensioner this year so my Port budget has been slashed but with LBV’s you can certainly attain a high level of Port excellence at a modest price.

The Dow’s 2013 LBV has an extreme black cherry colour and on the nose we reach a level of Port Nirvana with dense and deep aromas of concentrated black fruit mostly blackberry, vanilla and blueberry. A heady and rich aroma followed by a huge wallop of blueberry pie with sophisticated tannins that are so deeply and seamlessly intertwined with rich black fruit. You hardly notice them. A huge Port steeped in memories for some of the grapes in this Port were from Quinta do Bomfim where I stayed overnight after an incredible walk in the vineyards and a huge dinner where I was treated like royalty as a media rep. To stay overnight at that Quinta only huge buyers and prominent media types were admitted to this sacred place of Port.

You might say as a Port Newbie at the time here I experienced my Port baptism. The spirit has been with me ever since.

(Dow’s 2013 Late Bottled Vintage Port, Symington Family Estates, Villa Nova de Gaia, Portugal, $ 24.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario #53364, 750 mL,20%, Robert K. Stephen a little birdie told me so Rating 92/100).

“A Concerto is a Conversation”: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject at 93rd Academy Awards

As Kris Bowers explains to his grandfather the concerto he has written (“For a Younger Self”) is a soloist performing along with an orchestra with both of them conversing with each other through their music.

Kris Bowers is a virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer. At 29 he scored the Oscar winning film “Green Book”. He has been playing the piano since a young boy.

Despite his success he feels as a black man whether he should be where he is today which emphasizes the psychological effects of racism.

In this short Kris is having a conversation with his grandfather Horace as he knows his grandfather has cancer and he wants to know more about his life.

Horace relates a story that rattles him to this day growing up in a small community in Florida he goes to a white owned grocery store where a 7-year-old asks his father, “What can I get you boy?” At that point he vowed to get out as soon as he reached the age of maturity and off he did finally making it to Los Angeles noting the segregated lunch counters in the bus station restaurant.

Horace lands a job at dry cleaners and he buys the store two years later. When he applied to the bank in person they refused him a loan but he was approved when he sent in his application by mail.

One senses a short with Kris and Horace deserves a full-length documentary. The short is a reminder of the racism of old and of new particularly in the dying days of former President Trump. That Kris Bowers has self doubts about his success shows a subtler form of racism than what his grandfather experienced.

The short was directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers. You can see the short here https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000007461606/a-concerto-is-a-conversation.html

Susan Cain’s “Quiet”: Introverts and Extroverts

“Introverts often work more slowly and deliberately. They like to focus on one task at a time and can have mighty powers of concentration. They’re relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame.

Extroverts are the people that will add life to your dinner party and laugh generously at your jokes. They tend to be assertive, dominant and in great need of company. Extroverts think out loud and on their feet they prefer talking to listening, rarely find themselves at a loss for words, and occasionally blurt out things they never meant to say. They’re comfortable with conflict but not solitude.

Introverts, in contrast, may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while they wish they were at home in their pajamas. They prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues and family. They listen more than they talk, think before they speak and often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation. They tend to dislike conflict. Many have a horror of small talk but enjoy deep discussions.”

“Mutantism on the March”: Chapter 21 “Rufus Moonhead Exposed.”

One chilly fall day it was announced a special committee of the House of Representatives was being formed to study the issue of granting tax incentives to churches engaged in business activities. With amazing speed, so uncommon to the American government, it had prepared the legislation for a reading on the floor. If it passed through the Senate and was not vetoed by the American President it would be law. Garth was alarmed by the smoothness of the operation almost as if the whole legislative process was pre-planned.

In the legislative process several Moonheadies had revealed specific cases of brutality and exploitation.  Parents of these healthy middle class American children revealed concern about the flocking of their children to the Moonies. They had testified when they visited their children they appeared to be in some catatonic state. This behaviour had characterized the behaviour of the early Opposite Party members in Zorollia.

Reseudo had completed his own investigation and concluded that Moonhead was not to be trusted with the youth and apple pie of America. Garth discovered that Moonhead had no formal religious training. Moonhead had been a member of the Romanian Workers Party and had been suspended for hawking bootleg vodka. Garth relayed the information to Arf Needer and his army of eager volunteer law students expanded the investigation which resulted in the exposure and humiliation of Moonhead. Moonhead owned several Cayman Island and Jersey bank accounts and safety deposit boxes. It would be logical to conclude there was a huge financial bilking of the members of the Moonhead Church of International Love.

How disturbing it was perceived when Moonhead’s secret contracts with the Bulgarian and Polish governments revealed they had hired Moonhead to raise capital for the construction of dachas on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast which were going to be used as summer retreats for prominent government officials and high ranking communist party officials. The money raised was easy money as to become a member of the Church you had to “donate” all your worldly goods and then work in Moonhead’s business enterprises for free. As a result Moonhead was literally swimming in capital to be used to build the dachas and funnel some proceeds to Warsaw and Sofia. Moonhead would receive “incentive payments” for the construction of the dachas.

As if this news wasn’t damaging enough many of the “donated goods” were being smuggled out of the United Staters and were being sold in the Iron Curtain countries via the black market. Most disturbing was the fact that several American senators had received “political donations” from the shipping companies moving the soon to be black market goods out of the United States. There were possible acts of bribery of American customs officials. The American public was outraged and the Senate in shambles and Rufus Moonhead slipped out of the United States and his Cayman Island and Jersey accounts and safety deposit boxes were frozen.

Reseudo’s popularity soared. Even the American evangelist preacher Billy Grahamcracker praised Garth. Garth received many death threats from disgruntled Church members and those that were benefitting from his corrupt schemes. After being tipped off by the FBI that there were several contracts out on his life he slipped through the Canadian border from Vermont and ended up in Quebec.

COVID Poetry Corner: “A Dog’s Insight Into COVID”

A Dog’s Insight Into Covid-19

Owners in and rarely out
no place to go
except for the excitement of grocery shopping
meaning there is a ritual hour long walk
with us and our dear Westie
trundling along all around the hood
talking with strangers and their mutts
while the furry ones smell each other butts
here and there it is getting very familiar
as hundreds of pet owners are caught in this similar
but little pooch is enjoying the daily trek
with his owners
not understanding the COVID virus curse
paces with a smile on his face
crashing out exhausted due to the long pace
not realizing his big treat
is but a side effect of a nasty virus that never seems in a retreat

Robert K. Stephen

Quinta Do Crasto Finest Reserve Port

Again my favourite phrase in my travels in and about Porto was from a French PR executive who gave a presentation in Porto on International Port Day on Port being an undervalued luxury product. I have no difficulty with that as for consumers that is good news.

So we try a Quinta Do Crasto Finest Reserve Port. On the nose we are welcomed with that rich nose that Port so often gives us.  This nose has a big blast of blueberry, black cherry and milk chocolate. On the palate a strong presence of blueberry and black fruit. Big blast of blueberry pie with a very long finish. However expansive and potent this liquid is it is restrained and compact. Luxury at a discount price indeed.

I’ll mention this yet again but in Porto I was taken out by the Sogrape group to the Bolsa restaurant which is the old stock exchange. We had a huge cut of Portuguese beef with Port and it was a magical combination above and beyond the blue cheese and cigar matching of Porto perhaps overdone in British men’s clubs. Port is not a stodgy drink my friends but a rich exploration into what “red wine” can be transformed into by many years of Portuguese excellence.

While I say beef is a great accompaniment to Port you may scratch your head and say this is a dessert wine! Considering many red wines are up at 14.5% in alcohol is that much different than a Port at 20%?

As for food beef/ox may be a perfect match for Port. Sinatra of the 60’s is a perfect music match.

So many of you may be put off by Port as the drink of the eccentrics I can only hope to persuade you to bring it in the mainstream.

And in the 8 years I have be sampling Port I have yet to have a bad bottle and that included an 1867 Port.

(Quinta do Crasto Finest Reserve Port, Quinta do Crasto, Sabrosa, Portugal, $17.95, LCBO # 18284, 20%, 750 mL, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 92 /100).

10 Steps We Can Take to Never Have a Year Like 2020: # 1 Reinforce Public Health

Again the Quebec magazine L’actualitê has an interesting feature article in its April edition dealing with COVID-19 and translated it means what are the steps we can take to ensure we don’t have a year like 2020?

The first step is to reinforce public health.

In 2015 Quebec cut the health budget by 30%. And it even reached 40% in certain regions.

Jean Rochon, a former Quebec Minister of Health formed an Association For Quebec Public Health (ASPQ) which had a plan for an enhanced public health system in Quebec. It is Rochon’s current position not to point or direct guilt but to try and improve the public health system. Public health is larger than simply protecting the health by use of sanitary measures. It should have the goal of improving the population’s well-being such as for example anti-tobacco or anti-pollution campaigns.

To be efficient public health must have the power to influence the health of the population by looking at the environment we live in, our daily habits and the social determinants of health such as education, employment income, access to food and lodging which are directly attributable to cause chronic disease, cancers or mental health issues.

Dr. Alain Poirier a firmer national director of public health is calling for a Ministry of Public health to be created in Quebec. Presently there is only a deputy minister of public health under the Ministry of Health and Social Services. It normally has little influence on the other ministries.

Rochon has called for an interministerial secretariat on public health that would report directly to the premier of Quebec which has been the approach taken in Australia.

Many public health experts say that remodelling the public health system must take into account input from the population and by doing so the public will have more confidence in the public health system.