Righting a Wrong

Righting a Wrong

We ought to be sensitive to world opinion about some of the shortcomings in our own country’s machinations and be able to take a signal from the rest of the world. Being taken to task by the Saudi royal family for our inattention to the problems in Canada, supported by the other Arab nations and a muted silence from the European nations as well as the United Nations should give us the impetus to fix the whole problem once and for all.

Given this world opinion, we could easily be excused from any foreign aid, either financially or in manpower to fix our own problems before resuming our present course. We could then suspend all financial aid to countries other than Canada as well as military personnel and bring it all home while we get our own house in order.

The five billion dollars we spend per year in foreign aid PLUS our military commitments would certainly go a long way to resolving our Indigenous issues, our gas and oil security, our northern security, our violence problems and so on. Five years on in such a program should elevate Canada to a higher level of respect from the critical world we see today and give us some deserved respect.

We have to admit that the Saudis are right in putting our own house in order before criticizing others. I’m sure they would agree for us to become self sufficient in our own oil and gas refineries so they can sell it to someone else (or keep it).

I’m of the opinion that we should take immediate action on this without waiting for long consultations and other red tape to get it started. I say to the Federal Government: just shut up and do it.

Another excerpt from the Square Bear

The sun was rising further and further and it was getting warm out. At least Epp could see what he was doing. It took a full three weeks before he was done with this long building, having ten different roof openings and being sturdy enough to withstand the winds and any other disturbances.  Now he could speak to Aleka.

“Now maybe I can find my little brother,” she exclaimed excitedly. “I will bring the bears and they will all come. They have been waiting a long time.”

And the bears came one by one or multiples of one, bowing down to Epp’s greeting. Soon the Longhouse was almost filled with the steaming bears, each emitting a flow of steam straight up through the flue above. They all lay there unmoving, four under each of the roof openings, seemingly relieved at the evaporation of frost from their bodies.

Outside you could see the steam streaming profusely from each of the openings in the roof. They were heavy billows of moisture, soon caught up in the wind and dissipated over the land. Epp casually thought about the four hundred year old steam wafting over present day Greenland. How strange it seemed for moisture from the last Ice Age to be released into contemporary air. It rose straight up until the wind caught it and sent it scattering throughout the east in a dense fog.

Epp was a little concerned at what this might do to the climate here. It was a little late to do anything about it so he let it go out of his mind. One thing was certain. This would take a very long time to complete. Gorilja had, as Epp had seen, tried to take a shortcut with his powerful glue. It hadn’t worked of course, as evidenced by the pile of broken body parts on the floor in the corner. No, it seemed this must take its natural course, however long that might take and there was nothing to do but wait.

Waiting was not something that Epp did well. He was wandering around the area trying to figure out what else he might do that was productive. About the only thing he could manage was to dig up the roots of the trees he had cut down. It would certainly provide an outlet for the tension he felt by sitting there waiting and would keep him occupied. Anything was better than just sitting on his hands. Unfortunately it was all done too soon and he was again without an activity. He would go back to the lab to see if he could find some seeds to plant. That was familiar enough and who knows what Gorilja might have left behind.

On the walk back to the lab Epp observed the wind coming off the ocean. It was a stiff breeze that blew over the huts he had built and straight to the east. The steam coming from the buildings was as strong as ever, blowing up into the wind and being carried away in a rolling cloud. It seemed a little darker, hazier than it had been. That, thought Epp, was due to the clouds of steam generated by the Square Bears. Strangely enough, it was a little cooler too. That probably had something to do with the clouds masking the sun. Epp walked on, paying little attention to the weather. But as he got closer to the lab, he noticed the tremendous amount of steam still emanating from the huts. He’d have to go in and check the bears before anything else.

It was amazing what Gorilja had brought with him in his venture to Greenland. In a corner of the lab Epp found some various seeds of grain, each marked as to its kind. Packages of wheat, barley, oats, were all marked in the German language. This was good. Now he’d have something to do that he was familiar with, provided that the weather would allow.

It was starting to snow. That seemed strange at this time of year. It should be warming, not cooling. The only thing Epp could think of was the cooling effect of the escaping steam from the bears that was still strong as ever. Of course with one or two bears it wouldn’t have made a difference but with nearly a hundred, it was another story. Epp walked over to the first hut he had built. Aleka was still sitting there, calling for her brother. The Square Bear was lying there, emitting a strong amount of steam, probably stronger than before. When Epp went over to touch the bear’s head, the fur was somewhat softer. He felt for the division in the bodies and noticed some softening there too, though not much. He put his hand up into the steam and it was cold, ice cold. This wasn’t steam at all. It was cold air – four hundred year old cold air embodied within the bears and now being expelled. That explained the snow. What in heaven’s name had he started?  By huddling together the bears had trapped the ice-age cold air within their bodies and by some great miracle, held it there. Well, the expulsion of it had begun now and there was no stopping it other than removing them from the huts. But Epp wasn’t willing to do that just yet. He’d wait and see what developed.

Going outside, he didn’t have long to wait. Snow was swirling all around. There was so much cold air emanating from the bears it was causing a change in the climate. As soon as it hit the free air it turned into snow which came down around them. As the wind picked up it was turning into a storm. The weather cooled as the sky darkened as the snow began whipping around, especially toward the east. Looking toward the ocean in the west it was relatively bright but very windy. The whole storm was blowing eastward into the mainland.

Random Excerpt from Sidney Square Bear

This is another random sample from the book for your interest:

A sudden chilling thought came into Epp’s mind. Was this old hag really there? Was she an apparition? She must be real. She was holding the large fish in her hand. But she hadn’t moved since he got there. She just only sat quietly at the corner of the stoop without moving and she wouldn’t go inside the building. And the dogs who were ravenously chewing on their fish never took any notice of her.

“Here, let me help you up. We’ll go inside where it is warm,” said Epp and he reached out to take her hand. She and the fish in her hands vanished into thin air. What the . . . . That the old woman could vanish was one thing, but that the fish too would disappear was quite another. Epp had a few Mennonite exclamations that wouldn’t mean anything in English and sat on the stoop, staring at the place where the apparition had been.

Slowly, out of a mist the old woman reappeared holding the fish in her hands. “You are not real” Epp muttered, unable to think of anything else to say.

“Oh, I’m real alright, only from a different time. There are things that happen here in Greenland with the indigenous people that the Europeans don’t understand. I guess I’m one of them.”

“Then you must be very old”, said Epp, not sure of what he should begin to ask.

“Do you have a name?”

“It is Aleka. Means older sister,” she said matter of factly.

“How long have you been here in this place?”

“I’ve been in this place since after the last ice age affected Greenland.” She replied.

“That must be a long time,” mused Epp.

“Yes, it was a long time ago. I remember the terrible cold. It was so cold it was hard to survive outside. My young brother went outside after me telling him not to. After a while I went out to find him and all I saw was little pieces of his mitts lying in the snow. That’s when I first saw the giant Square Bears. It looked as though they had eaten my young brother.  I called and called, but he would not answer. He must be inside them somewhere.

“Well of course, they had to eat too or they would starve so I had no choice but to forgive them. I asked them to eat me too so I could be together with my brother but they would not. They said I must help them to survive until this cold went away and then they could separate and become ordinary bears again. When that happened my brother would be released. “

“I don’t understand what you mean by the bears separating,” said Epp.

“When the ice age descended on us, the bears, which were ordinary bears at the time, huddled together to keep each other warm. They stayed together so close and so long that they fused into giant Square Bears which are the bears you see today. They could not separate anymore.”

“Why not?” Epp was puzzled.

“It seems they were fused so tightly together their fur intertwined and became brittle. It was impossible to get them apart. As time went on, they grew into one body to be the giant Square Bear seen around here these days with no possibility of seperation.” 

“So these are then more than one ordinary bear?” Epp asked.

“Yes, at least two, sometimes even more. There could be whole families.”

“That must have been awkward for them to be able to eat then. What did you do?”

“In those days I was still young and strong enough to be able to fish for them so that’s what I did. It was awkward for them to eat out of each side of their mouth but at least they managed it. They could not hunt for themselves and thus would have starved unless I had been able to fish for them. This I did gladly in the hope of seeing my little brother again.”

“Then how did you end up here?” Epp asked curiously.

“There was a man who came up here a long time ago. He said he had studied apothecary medicine at the university in Prague. I don’t know where that is, but that’s what he said. He has a picture of himself on the wall inside with some sort of writing on it. You’ll see when you go in.”

Epp pondered, “You say he built this place?”

“Yes he did. It’s a very strange building. Something like white men would build. Not very warm I think, but it keeps the flies away in summer.”