The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Where The Poppyseed Falls

Episode Date: November 4, 2021

Today's episode begins with a story about the wind and the power it can have to move memories.  That and the return of the potpourri, an episode that touches on stories that don't often make the top of the news but carry an importance and an interest all their own.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's the return of the long-awaited, long-missed, long-asked-for, potpourri day. Our podcast is brought to you by Questrade, Canada's fastest-growing and award-winning online broker. Tired of getting dinged with fees every time you buy or sell U.S. stocks? Well, good news. With Questrade, you don't have to. You can hold U.S. dollars in your trading account and avoid expensive, forced conversion fees every time you trade U.S. stocks. Switch today and get up to $50 worth of free trades. Visit Questrade.com to open an account and use promo code QUEST.

Conditions apply. code quest conditions apply so when we live in stratford ontario that's our main home when we live in stratford the wind almost always comes from the northwest. Right? That's the tradition. And you can almost bet on it that it's going to be a northwest wind of some kind. When wind is noticeable. It's not noticeable every day. But when it is noticeable, it usually comes from the northwest. How every once in a while, however, it comes from the east. And it's not usually a very pleasant day in Stratford when the wind's coming from the east.

And the reason why is there are a number of pig farms east of Stratford. It is the hog capital of Canada, or at least the hog capital of Ontario. Maybe just the hog capital of southwestern Ontario. Anyway, the hog producers are a major part of the economy in that part of the country. But if you know anything about pig farms, you know, they're not that pleasant to smell. And when the wind comes from the east,

that smell kind of moves into Stratford. It's not a nice time. But as I said, it doesn't happen often. But you like to be forewarned before you go outside. So one of the millions of apps out there, and I love this app, is called Windy. Okay, W-I-N-D-Y. Windy. And it gives you the current wind direction anywhere in the world.

It's like a big global map. You just kind of push into where you are, and it tells you. You can see the patterns around the earth of the wind direction. So that was a great little thing to have in Stratford, and I use it every once in a while. Now here in Dornick, Scotland, if you know anything about Scotland, if you're a golfer in Scotland,

you know the wind's very unpredictable, and usually it's a big wind. You can be on a golf course where one day, and I've done this on a par three, but I think it was about 185, 190 yards. On one day, you could almost use a pitching wedge. The wind was so strong in your favor. And the next day, the wind would turn around

and be against you and you could use a driver and still not get to the green those are on the big wind days so in scotland of course this is a great app to have i mean here in dornick you, the wind can be from almost any direction any given day. There's swirls all over the place. And it's often strong. So I'm looking at the little app right now. And I'm looking at Dornick and Ambo and Goldsby and Brora and Helmsvale looking up the coast. And the wind is in a, well, guess what?

It's coming from the northwest. Now, yesterday, it was coming from the northeast. And tomorrow, it could be coming from the south. Literally, it's all over the place, very unpredictable. So why am I talking about wind? Well, here's my story to start things off today. The spot we have, this beautiful little spot in Scotland, overlooks the North Sea.

And over the last couple of years, there's had to be a fair amount of work done on the little property that we bought because it was basically in ruins. And so we had to, you know, it was a 250-year-old stone barn, actually. A steading, as they call them here. And so a lot of work was done on it. And when all the work was done, we landscaped around the property. Landscaped in the sense of just kind of flattened things out and then seeded it, and bingo, within 10 days, the grass was up.

I mean, it's spectacular. I mean, it's the kind of climate here where things grow well. Anyway, when we got here a couple of weeks ago, got up one morning, looked out on the grass. And at the edge, sort of the property line, there was a lone flower. And as it turned out, on closer examination, it was a poppy. All by itself. All alone. And I had no idea how it got there.

As I said, there hadn't been any planting done. So it had come somehow by the wind, right? It had been brought here, blown away from another area of poppies. The seeds also just caught the wind, and this is where it landed. And so here we go this week. Look out the window. What do I see? Another one.

On this day, one week from Remembrance Day. A poppy in the field. Now, we're a lot closer to Flanders here than we are in Canada and in Stratford, but we're still a long way. So I doubt whether it was the wind brought that seed all the way over from Flanders Fields. But I like to think maybe it did. Just as a reminder, we are now just one week away from Remembrance Day.

And Remembrance Day is a day they take pretty seriously here, just like we take it pretty seriously in Canada. Some of the traditions are a little different, starting with the poppy. You've seen over time how the Brits in some cases, especially politicians, have had huge poppies. Now they're, or at least the one I'm holding in my hand right now that I picked up in Dornick, is more like the size that we have in Canada.

But other than that, it's very different. It's a different material. They don't have the little you know black felt in the middle of it they have a plastic kind of button that pushes through the little piece of red material that is a cut out of a poppy it pushes through that into a plastic pin-like thing on the other side, and it slips in a lapel. So there's no pin as such. You don't use a pin here, or you don't need to use a pin here.

You just use what's at the back of the poppy. It's a piece of plastic, and it slips, as I said, into a lapel on your jacket or a buttonhole on your shirt or blouse. So that's your poppy. And I'll be wearing my British-made poppy when I return to Ontario over the weekend and into next week. But I did want to use this remarkable little story about the poppy and the grass as a reminder that next week on Monday,

I'm going to do a special edition of The Bridge on Monday. In fact, I'm going to record it here in Scotland before I leave because it's about something in Scotland. And I think in many ways it will help launch the actual week next week. Remembrance Day is a week today, next Thursday. So on Monday, a special program with a special story. It's kind of personal. And I'll release that on Monday.

The week next week will unfold as it normally does, except on the Thursday on Remembrance Day, there won't be a Remembrance Day edition, so to speak, of the bridge because it comes on after the various ceremonies take place on Thursday. But it is a special program, once again done from here, and I've mentioned it a couple of times in the last few weeks, about libraries.

Now, if you're a reader, if you grew up with a library being an important part of your routine, and perhaps still is, you might enjoy this program because it's by the two authors of a new book on kind of the history of libraries and where libraries are positioned right now. And I really enjoyed talking to them. They're from St. Andrews University here in Scotland. St. Andrews is where Will and Kate met.

St. Andrews, of course, is if you get bored of the classes, you go out to the golf course, the old course at St. Andrews, of course, is if you get bored of the classes, you go out to the golf course, the old course at St. Andrews. Anyway, that's next Thursday. So two special programs next week that I hope you're able to listen to. All right. As I said in the kickoff to today's podcast, remember way back then, we haven't done a potpourri program in, oh, I don't know, a couple of letters from those of you who said, you know, you really enjoyed the potpourri shows because it gave you a glimpse into the stories that don't really make the news. Certainly hadn't made the discussion points here on, uh, on the bridge,

but nevertheless were interesting and, and, uh, and important. And so I, you know, I saved these up over time. They, you you know I got a stack of them and I'm going to I'm going to read some of them uh today and uh we'll leave letters probably for uh for next week when things get organized when I'm back in back in Canada so these come in no particular order all right they're not ranked by importance they're just like stuff and stuff that is interesting maybe not to everybody but some of them will be interesting to somebody and over time i don't know i i think i got nine or ten of them here i'm sure we'll uh we'll find it interesting But what are we going to do first? We're going to take a quick break,

then we'll be back with the potpourri. Our Black Product sponsor is The Economist. If you don't already know, its expertise lies in making sense of the world's most important developments. It offers completely independent opinion and analysis, giving you a balanced global view of an issue instead of a biased

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want. This is The Bridge, Peter Mansbridge. You are listening to The Bridge. You're listening either on SiriusXM Canada, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or you are listening on one of the many podcast platforms where you can find The Bridge. All right, potpourri stuff. Let's get started. There was a lot of attention. You know, I don't know whether you're COP26 out or not,

but I am for the most part. And we've talked about it a lot on this program. But one of the fears of those who are great proponents of the discussions, debates, and potential solutions that were raised at COP26, one of the concerns has been that climate deniers would push their agenda and harm any advances

that might have been taking place in Glasgow. And when they point their finger, they point their feeding gear at social media as the big, you know, either rightly or wrongly, either directly or indirectly, they point the finger at social media as, hey, you guys advance the denier's agenda. You allow it out there.

So that was being the concern. Well, I think it's important to note this week that tech companies were cracking down on climate misinformation, both ahead of and during the summit, to get ahead of what was an expected surge in climate misinformation during the conference. Sites like Twitter began exposing people to climate facts to get ahead of the false narratives.

Google and YouTube last month announced a policy prohibiting climate deniers from being able to monetize their content. And Facebook introduced measures to counter misinformation as well. All this stuff's coming out of a piece I saw on Axios. Now, those who worry about this kind of stuff say, okay, good for you, we appreciate what you did. However, it's not enough. Because in fact, you're doing more

to counter anti-vax content than you have climate denier content. And the two should be treated at least equally. A lot of talk this week about the elections in the U.S., kind of the midterm, midterm elections. One year after the election that saw the defeat of Donald Trump, kind of a shellacking, really, of Donald Trump by Joe Biden. But here we are one year later, and man, things don't look good for Joe Biden.

He's had a tough go, especially in the last couple of months, ever since Afghanistan, really. But a lot of focus this week was on the race in Virginia, which has been a Democrat-hold state in terms of the governorship for more than 10 years. And this Republican, Glenn Youngkin, wins the Virginia governorship race. And what many people, certainly the media in the states, viewed as a possible foreshadow of later elections during the Biden years. Now, Youngkin's an interesting guy because he ran, you know,

an interesting campaign. He continually separated himself from Donald Trump and as a result was able to successfully, you know, win groups that traditionally support the GOP, such as white voters, older voters, and Trump supporters, while at the same time making inroads among some groups that tend to lean Democratic, like women. Youngkin's campaign, you can almost bet on it, there are going to be Republicans dropping into Virginia, analyzing that race and how he did it, for months to come as they get ready for the real midterms next year.

So what's kind of the consistent take on what happened on the elections this week. FiveThirtyEight.com, which is a very analytical and research-based platform that looks at U.S. politics. Here's what they're saying. Democrats don't like Sorry. Democrats don't look like they're for anything, only against Trump. That may have been an effective message in 2018 and 2020, when Trump was a presence in everyone's life, but he's not anymore.

So they were campaigning on the wrong ticket by saying it was all about Trump. Especially when you had a guy like Youngkin saying, hey, I'm not a Trump guy. I'm sort of a Trump guy, but I'm not a Trump guy. Right? He was the first one to really stake out ground outside of Trump. And clearly it worked for him. Here's a COVID story for you. The Dutch government

has decided to reintroduce safety measures, including face masks, after seeing a 40% week-on-week uptick in infections. Now, we spent some time in the last few weeks talking about how things are looking good, and they are looking good. And we can see that light at the end of the tunnel. But you know, it's not over until it's over, and it ain't over. The Dutch government will be extending a corona pass, which is proof of vaccination or proof

of a negative COVID test, to public places later this week and encouraged all those who are eligible to receive a booster shot and work from home if possible. Yeah, I got word yesterday that I'm now eligible for a booster shot because I'm over 70. This is in Ontario.

But it's got to be six months from when you had your second shot. And I had my second shot in the first week of June, I think. That means my booster I can't get until the earliest, the first week of December. But it's a date to circle on the calendar. In the Netherlands, hospital admissions are up 31% in the past week, causing strains on the health care system.

Okay, so the Dutch aren't fooling around. They're worried about those numbers ticking upwards. Here's another one on the climate debate. It's from Bloomberg. That Dutch story, by the way, was from Reuters. Bloomberg says this this week, only 12% of national environmental ministries and agencies are women, which hinders the debate on how to tackle the climate problem.

Women tend to have a lower carbon footprint than men and tend to be more affected by the impacts of climate change, especially in the developing world. Women make up fewer than 30% of climate and biodiversity scientists, 38% of national delegates, and 19% of the IMF and World Bank boards. Those are interesting numbers. Talking about a worldwide discussion on climate, and in many of the cases, many of the people, most of the people, are men.

And in some areas, as I just read through, there are considerably more men than women. This from CBS News. A new blood test can spot more than 50 types of cancer. A company or an association called Grail is launching a blood test that is intended to catch hard-to-detect, aggressive and often deadly cancers in high-risk groups early, with the aim of improving patient outcomes. In a study conducted on 6,600 participants, 29 signals turned into cancer diagnoses with a less than 1% false positive rate.

Currently, this is only available with a prescription and must be paid for out of pocket. Costs almost $1,000. As it is not covered by insurance or fully approved by the FDA. Okay, so there's a number of red flags there. Cost, approval. But is this one for real? We've heard enough about

promised different kinds of blood tests making it simple that haven't panned out in the future, especially one that's in front of a U.S. court right now. But here's an interesting one. A new blood test that can spot more than 50 types of cancer,

if that's for real and it's proved safe, that could be a game changer. CBS says this is intended to be complementary to and not replace the U.S. guideline recommended cancer screenings, but are hopeful this will have an overall positive impact on diagnostics and treatment. Here's another one from CBS. This is about Colin Kaepernick. Remember him?

He's the guy who kind of started the quarterback, NFL quarterback, who started the kneel, kneeling down during the U.S. anthem being played at football games, as a protest against the number of minorities, especially American blacks, who had been killed by police. Colin Kaepernick compares treatment of players at the NFL to slavery in a new Netflix series. Kaepernick drew parallels between the NFL's initial recruiting experience, known as Combine, and the control of black bodies, noting the power dynamic that is being established and the physical examination of the recruits during the process. Commenting upon his personal experience and observations, Kaepernick criticizes the lack

of boundaries and respect seen at these events. Kaepernick received some heat for the slavery comparison, as critics pointed out that the experience in his How Teams Evaluate Talent is one step towards, for many players, becoming celebrities and millionaires. So Colin Kaepernick is not just fading away. He's still at the front line of various aspects of the controversy on equality in America. The Economist. Well, The Economist has. The army's takeover in Sudan highlights a worrying trend.

This has been one of those stories. It's always hard to get up near the front of the news, but news organizations that treat the situation in Africa seriously make sure it's a part of their reporting. And here's why it matters. African coups are making a comeback. The past year has seen successful ones in Chad, Guinea, and Mali. The second in less than a year in Mali.

And failed ones in Madagascar and the Central African Republic. It is as bad as the early decades of independence when Africa endured roughly four coups a year. Two trends are making them more likely. One is the spread of jihadism. Another is the jockeying for influence in Africa by foreign powers. If Western countries condemn a coup or a rigged election or threaten sanctions, they know that they will lose influence even as Chinese and Russian ambassadors race to the presidential palace

with offers of support, aid, and loans. Much time is spent, and rightfully so, on the discussion about Indigenous rights in Canada. Well, similar debates do take place in the United States, perhaps not as vocal or as well-covered as they are in Canada. But here's an interesting story in the New York Times. Forced relocation left Native Americans more exposed to climate threats. New data published in Science, Science magazine, show tribal nations have lost 99% of their historical territory.

Where they live now is more vulnerable to extreme weather, adding to the debate over how to address racial injustice, especially in light of climate justice. To measure the effects of forced migration on climate exposure, the authors of this science piece assembled a database showing the historical land loss of 380 individual tribes spanning the period from the 1500s to the 1800s. Not only did data show that their land shrank by 98.9 percent, many were pushed on land that have less hospitable climates with higher exposure to extreme heat.

As heat pushes tribal members away from their communities, the result is the further erosion of indigenous culture and language. And one of the paper's authors told the New York Times, returning dispossessed lands is one of the best things that can be done to begin to address these inequalities. Okay, we got two more. I like this one, in forbes space mining scientists discover two asteroids whose precious metals would exceed global reserves now think about that researchers have uncovered two metal rich near-earth asteroids they call those NEAs,

that could be mined for iron, nickel, and cobalt for use on Earth or in space. They're presumed to be 85% metal and possibly contain enough reserves to exceed Earth's amounts. The composition appeared to be similar to a previous asteroid millions of miles away from Earth. It's called 16 Psyche, which is known to be the largest metal-rich body in the solar system and is thought to be a leftover core of a planet that failed during its formation. In comparison, the two asteroids are much closer to Earth and smaller,

so they might be better targets for mining. Okay. We're going to send somebody up to an asteroid to open a mine, you know, to get precious metals. Why not? Why not? Somehow, I don't think it'll be in my lifetime, but it's going to be in some future

that may need those precious metals and we'll be having this sort of commuter mining experience. Hey, Dad, when will you be back from work? I don't know. I just got to catch a special spaceship to an asteroid to get mining. Hey, if you had said that 50 years ago,

people would look at you like you were nuts. Say it today and you go, yeah, okay, so I can see that happening someday. Here's your last one. Do you like zoos? Are you a big fan of zoos? The Guardian has this story about Cuba's National Zoo. And what's the story? The story is that Cuba's National Zoo has seen a surge in pandemic baby animals.

Now, why does that matter? Well, zookeepers at Cuba's National Zoo say several species of exotic and endangered animals took advantage of the peace and quiet brought on by the coronavirus pandemic for romantic encounters. They resulted in a bumper crop of baby animals. The newborns include leopards, Bengal tigers, zebras, giraffes, antelopes, and oxen, a rarity officials attribute to the many months in the zoo where the zoo was closed because of the pandemic. and cuba hey we know cuba right canada's had a pretty good relationship with cuba when others have not it's a you know just one of many beautiful carib Caribbean islands with white sand beaches and turquoise waters.

Well, Cuba shuttered its borders for nearly two years amid the pandemic and imposed strict quarantines domestically to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Well, we know what the animals were doing. They didn't have the masks on, apparently. All right, there you go. There's your long-awaited, long-called-for, long-hoped-for potpourri. A collection of little stories, none of which has the banner of the top story of the day,

but all of which, yeah, have some impact for us. Right? Take away what you will. Tomorrow, Friday, good talk. Chantelle Hebert in Montreal, Bruce Anderson in Ottawa, and little old me here in Dornick, Scotland. Looking forward to that.

Looking forward to that discussion as we always do on Fridays. Then next week, back in Canada, although as I said, the Monday show and the Friday show, I will record from here in Scotland. And they're special. And I hope you get a chance to listen to them. Thanks for all who wrote in this week.

There have been many nice letters, many nice letters about the book, off the record, which is still doing well. I told you last week to prep for, as I did being slammed into the boards by Mark Messier's new book. Good for him. A great first week for him.

He lands on top of the, uh, uh, the book list for Canadian nonfiction and Rick Mercer, my pal Rick Mercer's book is out Canadian nonfiction. And Rick Mercer, my pal Rick Mercer's book, is out now this week, so it will be up there near the top next week. You can be sure of that. Off the record, still very good in the top five.

And looking forward to run right through it. Listen, this is a great Christmas present. All these books are. But, of course, off the record, it's like a really good Christmas gift. So if you get a chance, grab a copy. You can find it wherever you look for your books. Could be at your little local bookstore. Could be at a big box store.

It's available everywhere. And I say this seriously. I wouldn't wait too long to buy your Christmas books this year, whatever books you're looking for, because the supply chain issues affect everybody. And from what I understand, there is some impact in the book publishing business as well. I know we got kind of trapped last year with that book that Mark Boguch

and I wrote called Extraordinary Canadians. There was a problem in the supply chain in terms of one particular big box store. But those things happen, and those things certainly happen in a time like this where we're still getting through all the issues that have resulted because of the pandemic. So you might want to think about that in the next few weeks. After all, we're into November now. And let me close by the same way I started. If you're not already wearing one, good time to pick up a poppy.

All right. I peter mansbridge thanks so much for listening to the bridge on this day we'll be back in 24 hours