The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Really Peter? Albert Speer Left Us An Isolation Idea?

Episode Date: April 8, 2020

We've all been looking at new and constructive ways to pass the isolation time. Who would have thought Albert Speer could pass along something useful?And its time to thank another profession -- think #ThankASeafarer

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here with the latest episode of The Bridge Daily. And we've got something a little different for you today. I was out doing my 4,000 steps in the backyard. It was a beautiful day here in southwestern Ontario today. Gorgeous, sunny, especially this afternoon. Not overly warm once again, but nice. So I was doing my 4,000 steps, and if you've been following this podcast for a while,

you know that about a week ago, I read a piece that had been in the, I think the New York Times, saying you've got to do a minimum of 4,000 steps a day when you're in isolation. You've got to keep your certain degree of being healthy and being fit. And 4,000 steps is a minimum. It's the least you should be doing. You can do that in your house. You can do it in your backyard.

If you're in the position to be able to take walks, obviously you can do it there. I've been doing it in the backyard. Not an overly big backyard, but a space to do this, I don't know, roughly kind of 14, 15 meters by 7 or 8 meters. And I just sort of walk that rectangle over and over and over again. I mean, it gets a little monotonous at times.

But last night I was walking it after dinner, and I was listening to the audio book that I've told you about, the latest Churchill book. And there were a number of references in it to different Nazi bigwigs. And one of them was Albert Speer. You know, supposedly Hitler's, well not supposedly, but he was Hitler's architect. And he kind of was responsible for war production in the last couple of years of the war. He was surrendered at the end of the war. He was put on trial at Nuremberg. He was convicted.

He was, among other things, in crimes against humanity. But there's a split among the judges. Some of the judges wanted execution, but more said 20 years. And so he ended up serving 20 years in the famous Spandau prison in Berlin. Well, afterwards, after he got out in the late 60s, he had written a couple of books in prison, actually more than a couple,

but the two most famous ones, Inside the Third Reich, which gave this kind of glimpse of what it had been like at the higher levels of Hitler's regime, and The Spandau Diaries, his time in prison. Now, lots has been said about Speer over the years. He was kind of a darling of some of the Western media. When he got out, he was on a lot of interview programs. But the more that was looked at his actual time

in the position he held in Hitler's government, this wasn't necessarily a nice person. He was very much involved in slave labor to get some of those war productions done. And that's why he ended up being tried for crimes against humanity. That's why he spent 20 years in prison. Anyway, I remember reading the Spandau Diaries years ago, and it may well have been shortly after they came out in the late 60s or early 70s.

And one of the things I suddenly remembered last night was what Speer used to do every day when he walked in the prison garden. Because it, for him, became a monotonous walk. So what did he do? He imagined walks. He imagined walking in places that he remembered as a younger man. He imagined walking around the world. He says that he got as far as Mexico before he was released,

that he would do a different walk every day, and he would try to imagine what that walk would be like and where he would go and how he'd get there. So I was thinking about this last night as I was doing my walk, going, you know, let's leave Spear aside. The idea is a good one. Imagine something, because this little walk around the backyard is getting boring. So imagine I'm somewhere else.

So that's what I did today. Hey, I had a great round of golf at the Royal Dornick Golf Club in Scotland. It was terrific. If you know Royal Dornick, that first hole, par four, more or less straight away, heading right towards the North Sea.

Not overly long. In fact, you could be there easily on the green in a couple of good iron shots. Not that I've ever done that, but you could be. And, you know, a couple of putts, you're in with a par. The second hole, short walk over to the tee of the second hole, par three. About 190 yards, uphill green, big wind usually coming off the North Sea, straight in your face, straight at the ball.

You've got to hit the ball really well. First of all, if there was no wind, you got to hit the ball well, position it on that green because it's like hitting a plate that's on a slant. But in the wind, it's really hard. I think I've been on the green once. Third hole, par four. Don't worry, I'm not going to go through every hole with you but you get the idea this was fun I imagined how I would play

where I'd actually be aiming where I'd hope for the ball to land what I'd be considering on my next shot, it was fun. And as a golfer, well, actually, I play golf. I'm not a golfer. But as someone who plays golf and has been lucky enough to play golf in different places in many parts of the world. I can think these courses through,

including ones here in Ontario that I've played and love, including the one here in Stratford, Ontario. So that's an idea for you golfers out there. Play a round of golf in your head as you're walking, as you're staying fit. Now, if you're not a golfer, come up with some other ideas. The other one I had today, and maybe I'll try it out tomorrow, was try to imagine walks you took as a younger person. I was thinking, well, you know, I can remember where I went to grade school and the walk that I took to get there.

So I'll relive that walk. So that's what I'll do. Or you take something ambitious like you're going to walk from here to Toronto, play it out over a number of days. Anyway, in our quest to try and find different things to pass our time through isolation, that was what I came up with in the last 24 hours,

for me. And of all people, it took Albert Speer to inspire, is that the right word? Get me thinking on a way to do it. So there you go with that. I got, as you know, I keep letters for the weekend. And the specials we do with your letters because they're fabulous. And there's lots of nice ones coming in already this week.

And I encourage you to send more. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. That's where to send them. But there's one here that I wanted to read because I think it shouldn't wait a couple of days. I should do it today. You recall perhaps last week I did special podcasts on the importance of

truckers to our situation and if it wasn't for truckers we wouldn't be getting the delivery of so many things that we desperately need and the next day I did farmers and how important they are to the way we are living right now, the way we are fighting this virus by staying at home, being in isolation, shopping once a week.

And if it wasn't for farmers, there would be nothing on those shelves. And if it wasn't for truckers, there would be nothing on those shelves. So they're obviously important. Well, here, let me read this letter, or part of it. It's from Jeffrey Oliver in St. John's, Newfoundland, Labrador. Over the past few days, you've been mentioning people we should be thanking, the truckers and farmers, as well as the many frontline health workers, grocery clerks, who are keeping us safe, fed, and healthy. I wanted to bring the light to another line of workers who really are unseen for the most part,

but play a huge role in the supply chain, seafarers. I think it's important to give a shout-out to those men and women who work at sea, often for weeks and months at a time, to bring everything from food, bulk materials, oil and gas, chemicals, and most of our everyday household items. 365, 24-7, 95% of goods are transported by sea. With today's pandemic, many of the seafarers have not been permitted a crew change and have been stuck aboard until they reach a port which will permit it. There's a long history of seafarers and merchant marine keeping the supply chains open through difficult times, especially during wartime, while constantly under threat of a lurking U-boat.

Many seafarers died during those times, Second World War, and today they are sacrificing their time away from family and friends, hoping their families are safe and hoping the virus doesn't reach them aboard ship. Jeffrey Oliver, thank you for sending that. Thank you for reminding us of yet another group of Canadians who are critical for us during this situation. Who in many cases we don't think of. But you've reminded us.

And I'm glad you did. I dug a little bit deeper as well just to get a sense of how important the fishing industry is to our country. 2016, the last year when these kind of records were kept, $6.6 billion in fish and seafood products in Canada. That's how much we exported. We employed approximately 72,000 people in the industry. Aquaculture, which is the farming of fish, shellfish, and aquatic plants in fresh or salt water,

is the fastest growing food production activity in the world and a growing sector in Canada. In 2015, aquaculture generated over a billion dollars in GDP and close to $3 billion in total economic activity. You know? I think a lot of those figures surprised a lot of Canadians and realized what a big part of the overall economic picture and the food supply picture comes from the sea.

You know, we're a big country. And look at our borders. We tend to think of we only have one border, the border with the U.S. But look at our borders. We're surrounded by ocean, three of them. You know, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Arctic, all of which we fish in. We have seafarers in.

So let's shout out a thank you to seafarers as well. All inspired by that letter from Jeffrey Oliver in St. John's. Now, I just want to mention one last thing. I'm not sure if you heard or read about the Prime Minister's comments today. He said a half a million masks got in in the last 24 hours. Came in from the U.S., from 3M. And that's great. Glad to hear that that problem has passed. But there are others coming in as well. And I had the opportunity in the last couple of days to talk to somebody involved in trying to get

masks out of China. And it's, you know, it's tricky. There's a lot of sort of maneuvering, diplomatic maneuvering, business maneuvering, and maneuvering of flights to make all these happen. They are going to happen. Some have already. And more, apparently millions more, in terms of PPE, the kind of equipment that's needed, especially on the front lines, whether it's masks or, you know, sort of the coats and gloves that are used by frontline workers, all of that.

And here's something you probably don't think about. Say you want to – say you're involved in the transportation of those from another part of the world. So obviously you've got to send a plane there, and preferably you're sending a plane that's a cargo aircraft. So you're sending a plane with, and you've got to keep in mind all the different issues that surround travel right now because of the spread of the virus.

So usually, apparently, from what I'm told, what's happening here is there'll be, you know, a major cargo aircraft will go. There'll be two pilots on it. There'll be a loadmaster, and there will be somebody who is geared up to handle any mechanical problems that may occur. So you're probably a crew of four. So you're flying, you know, to the other side of the world

to pick up this equipment. By the time you get there, the pilots have to have a rest. They can't just sort of say, load it up and we'll fly right back. They have to have a rest. So they have a rest under these, you know, quarantined conditions. The loadmaster makes sure the load that they're taking is put on the aircraft in the proper fashion and it's distributed evenly so the plane can take off, although the kind of stuff we're talking about

is like loading feathers, right? It's not overly heavy, but there's a lot of it. And the person who's concerned about mechanical issues is there to make sure there are no issues on the plane. After whatever, eight or 10 hours of crew time, crew comes back, they fly back. These are little things, right? But they're all part of this process of how we're moving equipment around the world. Some to Canada, some to other countries. Some inside Canada. You know, a lot of our Arctic communities are supplied at this time of year,

especially at this time of year, as we head into spring, by air. So that's going on in a lot of different places. And so while we tend to think there's no air travel going on anymore, all you have to do is look at some of the apps that show you aircraft in the air, and there are lots of them. Lots of them. And a lot of them are involved in moving freight equipment. Not necessarily people. People aren't flying anywhere anymore. Certainly not in the numbers they used to. Anyway, that's just a little snapshot I wanted to share with you.

So if you're going to head out and play a round of golf in your backyard, have a good round. Look forward to it. I'll challenge you. Okay. That's Wednesday done. I had mentioned yesterday we were going to have a special show today

with a special guest talking about the mood of the country and how people feel about certain things. That is going to happen tomorrow. I won't get into all the reasons why, but there's a short delay on that. It will happen tomorrow. So we're looking forward to that. So another edition of the Bridge Daily. Send me your comments.

Send me your thoughts. Send me your questions. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been the Bridge. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours. Thank you.