Bamboo has been a fundamental Chinese commonality for about 7000 years - representing resilience, modesty and loyalty to centuries of philosophers, poets, painters and musicians.
On a more hands-on level - the first books - period - were strung-together slats of bamboo forming a scroll - with characters written vertically by necessity. These scrolls eventually are of paper - another Chinese invention - made from bamboo-pulp.
Bamboo provided shelter - is still seen as scaffolding on construction-sites, even in big, modern cities - furnishings, household utensils, musical instruments, clothing, food and drink.
Today as always - nothing wasted!
All still more pronounced in far-flung villages: using what the environment offers - keeps offering as a quickly-renewing resource and free of charge.
It is said that young bamboo-shoots - a once-a-year delicacy in China - had/have to be taken earth-fresh from bamboo-groves in the countryside to palaces/high-end restaurants - often at some distance - within one day after being dug-up.
Prized, praised and very expensive when that fresh.
While the skyscraper pictured was built in Shenzhen - a tech/financial metropolis - it quickly came to be adopted affectionately, owned - even by young tech/financial urbanites - as the Spring Bamboo.
To Chinese - earth people: a bamboo-shoot forcefully breaking upward through the ground in spring-time.
To supercilious Westerners: a bullet- or penis-shape.
(No surprise there!)
Spring Festival (Chun Jie), also Lunar New Year, Feb 5 - 19.
Not Chinese New Year: this label is a careless Western convenience.
For accuracy and perspective: the West's actually is Solar New Year.
Moon and Sun.
Yin Yang!
Xin Nian Kuai Le!!!
Image Credit:
KPF China - Dezeen
Pam Mierau, Mgr. Development Services
pmierau@nelson.ca
City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca
John Dooley, Mayor
jdooley@ nelson.ca
Nelson Star
With the Star usually running efficient bread 'n butter pieces: comments on their reporting and what they report-or-not to me often were more entertaining than the articles.
I say were.
Sometimes thoughtful, sometimes not so much - no matter: the public coming alive, responding, engaging!
Even 0 comments making a statement.
Until some years ago I could post/read comments online.
And then I couldn't.
After contacting the Star and people within my circle - the Star feigning incomprehension, and none around me having this problem - I found that Facebook was behind this.
Having taken over the whole commenting-thing, not only for the Star but all other publications of Black Press, the Star's parental whip.
Facebook wiring this in such a way that subscribers would be immediately identified when just clicking on anything Star - while I - as non-subscriber - was just as immediately excluded completely from the commenting-process. As such not under their control!
An attempt to have me sign-up: bring me into the fold - convert!
Which I wouldn't and won't!
Willingly!
With some digging it became clear that a Facebooklet, just by clicking on any item - article, ad, letter, column, commentary, comment - is factored as a certain kind of person with certain tendencies. These markers channelled into an individualization Facebook has been molding and constantly adding to since the Booklet's day one, in the wonderful world of algorithms. Kept in a jar by the door, and sold - as a whole or in extracts - over and over again to any corporate entity seeing commercial, political or whatever potential in this particular Booklet's gestalt.
Frankenblip!
So - while at the time ostensibly Facebook's function within the Black Empire was - and still is today! - solely that of gate-keeper to keep nasty language out of commenting - it actually has been in control of the employee/reader-psyche: potentially prepared to move - and allowing others to move for financial gain groups, crowds, masses - in a particular direction - by manipulating their most personal soft-spots via smartish-phones.
Therefore - the total of Black Press employees/readers - most probably Booklets - represent a business-opportunity of significant mutual benefit for Black Press and Facebook. And from there between Facebook and any number of personal-info merchants.
It would be naive to assume that the only benefit in this to Black Press - with its about 150 publications today! - is occasional raw language in comments/letters caught for them by a very basic Facebook algorithm.
Black Press paying for that!?
The Booklet mechanism - you click/you're identified - applies to City Hall's relationship with Facebook - as well that with any subscribing organization of any size in Nelson and all over the map - literally!
Nelson's sci-fi kinda life - today!
About gate-keeping. It's not known to outsiders how many times Facebook has here interfered in the commenting-process with stopping comments - but the Star has several times deleted whole strands of commenting thoughts - done its own censoring - after initially having posted them, leaving them up for days.
It has also - for no apparent reasons - closed commenting and disallowed comments - period - on particular write-ups.
So it can be argued who is doing what in this comment-thingie.
Anyway - after much emailing with the Star's bewildered publisher and contacting the Black Press president: comments reappeared but as reading-only for this uncontrollable non-believer. Whether I had a part in that is doubtful.
Big-time for me: the (comment-)funnies were back in the online Star.
BUT!
Deep breath - several weeks ago comments again disappear for me - until now staying disappeared: the Star's publisher again doesn't experience such problem, side-stepping that he is a Booklet, so why would he; promptly developing a case of reading-incomprehension; and claiming that no corporate decision has been made to drop comments for non-subscribers.
Right!
So - here I am: somewhere between disingenuous in-house denial, the Black Press head-office, and - scary! - the possibility of Facebook going this on its own.
A pity, because lately commenting had become much more incisive and polished - often relevatory!
And I do miss City Councillors letting themselves get pulled into commenting > commenting on commenting > commenting on commenting on commenting themselves frantically into a corner - stuck!
Nobody understands me!
Of late many Booklets have developed a clear distaste for Zuckerberg and his documented disregard for user-privacy - expressing this by unsubscribing: so - is this latest comment-act really the way to go, Zuck/Mr. Black!?
The Star jerking readers around like this is unacceptable - from a so-called community-newspaper yet - and at best insensitive of its suits in Vancouver.
Such poor P.R. may become reflected in advertising-dollars.
The Nelson Daily
Curiously - The Daily - also having an arrangement for commenting with Facebook - has consistently let non-believers in on readers' comments - not writing but reading them.
The recent ode to itself - submitted by the Cottonwood Lake Preservation Society on its GoFundMe campaign - generated 0 comments.
Makes you think - as comments can!
Image Credits:
google+
Marsel van Oosten
David Black, President
dblack@blackpress.ca
Eric Lawson, Publisher
eric.lawson@blackpress.ca
Todd Coyne, Editor
editor@nelsonstar.com
City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca
John Dooley, Mayor
jdooley@nelson.ca
Directly following post
"Stump(ed)
21 Dec, 2018
below
"Notice of Motion
Councillor Logtenberg is bringing forth a Notice of Motion:
THAT Council resolves to endorse the Cottonwood Preservation Society as an important community initiative to preserve the forested land above Cottonwood:
AND FURTHER THAT Council agrees to write a letter of support stating this to
e (sic) used in the society's grant applications."
Agenda
Reg. Council Meeting, 7 Jan, 2019/7:00pm
While all other items on the Agenda have miles of material substantiating their merit: Logtenberg's Notice of Motion has - nothing!
Which raises 3 questions:
How did he get on the Agenda with nothing?
How did he get on the Agenda - period - seeing that a basic Nelsonite never would have got there - with(out) that and like this!
Conflict of interests?
What with no substantiating material to allow Council to prepare for this Notice and its possible merits - before the meeting: all they can do is pick apart the item as stated in full on the Agenda above.
What's with this Society?
The idea of a group of self-declared ents was first presented, 19 Dec, 2018, to/by
"a handful of scientists and community groups" (Star).
With Xmas and New Year's celebration-distractions between then and the Council Meeting, 7 Jan, 2019, this Society has had less than 2 weeks to (be) form(ed), build-up a significant member-base, get a practicable identity with a solid manifesto.
All in all hardly a strong history to inspire possible grant-providers.
So they need City Hall big-time for an endorsement and letter of support!
a.
The manifesto is what?
b.
On the Agenda the group is referred to as the "Cottonwood Preservation Society" but also "an important community initiative".
Society and initiative are not the same.
c.
What is the structure of this group? Like - name(s)/position(s) of who's in charge; name of treasurer?
d.
What position does City-Councillor Logtenberg hold in this group?
Will he attend the Meeting as presenter, councillor or both?
e.
Is this group officially registered - if so as what?
f.
How many card-carrying members does it have?
g.
What is the group's fundraising-profile? As in - how much for what exactly? How will fundraising/spending be supervised - transparently adhering to legal norms - by whom?
h.
"An important community initiative to preserve the forested land above Cottonwood" is vague in intent and area.
Initially the MO was to buy a specific piece of property: has this changed?
If so - to what?
i.
If funds indeed are to be raised for the purchase of the Cottonwood Lake property: have the current owner's plans changed from logging it, beginning in March?
If not: what's the point?
With none of this information made available: how can Council possibly endorse this whatever-it-may-want-to-be of tree-fanatics?
Council - at this point - writing a "letter of support" for grant-applications, could make future applications difficult for the City. Particularly with one of its Councillors - an essential player in all this - surely voting Yes on both requests.
Or would he recuse himself?
Council members need to ask themselves questions like those above prior to the Meeting - and repeat them during, demanding clear answers: before endorsing anything and signing letters of (unsupportable) support.
This is about business: hug a fact!
Image Credit:
tumblr
City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca
John Dooley, Mayor
jdooley@nelson.ca
Kevin Cormack, CAO
kcormack@nelson.ca
