Au Cochonnet Marin

I lived in the San Francisco Marina district for about twenty years.
In those days I commonly rode my bike on what is now known as the Golden Gate Promenade, or the Chrissy Field Trail.

Since I moved to Marin County I rarely venture to the City by the Bay, but once in a while I get the urge and I drive to San Francisco for a walk in the fog.
And I just did this yesterday.

Upon arriving on the Chrissy Field trail, I could not help but notice the extraordinary large amount of mutts (and mutt walkers) populating the path leading to the Golden Gate Bridge.
There were dogs galore by the seashore!
Dog walkers were out in force, often handling 5 or 6 dogs at a time. The pooches were on a leash, but further up the trail, they were leash-free and enjoying spirited tag games.

There were also lots of bikes.
Sixty years ago, pundits everywhere predicted the demise of the bicycle.
With everybody itching to drive, la Petite Reine (the little queen) was surely going to vanish.
Mais nenni mon ami! It seems that there are more bikes on the road today than a century ago.
On the Chrissy Field Trail, I observed a large contingent of (French) helmeted tourists riding rental bikes.They came in droves and almost outnumbered the dog population.

And talking about bikes… in the old days rich people were riding cars and poor folks were riding bicycles.
Today paradoxically low-income people drive cars while rich folks ride bicycles.

But back to dogs.
If I had known, instead of pursuing a technical career, I would have chosen to be a dog walker.
Unlike my old job it is a stress-free occupation, and for animal lovers it is an occupation made in heaven.
It is a line of work that keeps you fat (I meant fit) and sassy and off unemployment lines.
And the money is not bad either.

From what I could gather on the Internet, dog walkers charge between $22.00 and $30.00 an hour, and half that price for an additional dog.
For three hours of dog walking in the morning you could easily make two hundred bucks, and round up your income by running a software company in the afternoon.

After getting our fill of fog, dogs and Frogs, we drove to Sausalito for lunch.
We had heard about a local eating-place called Fish, and we wanted to check it out.
In spite of the glowing reports that I had heard about this place, I was not impressed.

Fish is nothing but a glorified fast-food fish joint.
And it is rather pricy. A crab sandwich set me back $25.00. It was copious but bland, and horror of horrors, it was served hot (yuck).

At Fish, you stand in line to place your order and you can only pay in cash.
You can eat on a deck facing the harbor, but you have to keep a watchful eye on your plates. If you don’t, kamikaze pigeons will dive on your food and snatch it.
It happened to us!

To sum it up, sixty dollars for a tuna salad, an ill-conceived crab sandwich, a beer and some java don’t leave a pleasant aftertaste in your mouth.
In spite of a large number of people flocking to it, Fish does not get my seal of approval.

Nice escapade to the city though.

Alain

PS: To look at photos of this event and listen to accompanying background music, turn the sound on, and click on the link “My Photos” located on the right side of this page.

 

July 28, 2014 marked the one hundred year anniversary of the beginning of World War One.
The Great War yielded 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded, for a grand total of 37 millions casualties.

Those who fought that war thought (hoped) that it would be what the French called “la Der des Ders”, roughly meaning “ the war to end all wars”.
Never again they said.

One hundred years later, instead of the universal peace dreamed by the veterans of that horrendous conflict, there are at least 30 major wars or civil unrests taking place around the world and people dying by the thousands.

Contrarily to what many people think, wars are not the result of conflicting ideologies. They are caused mainly by envy and the widening gap between the Haves and Have Nots.

Envy is defined in The Merriam-Webster dictionary as:

“A feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, or quality of life”.

One hundred years ago, people living in underdeveloped countries had not the faintest idea of what life in industrialized nations was like.
Today thanks to television and the Internet, the poorest people on this planet know what’s going on in rich countries and they long for the same lifestyle.

This longing is exploited by a few extremists who take advantage of the resentment of their people to preach a Holy War against western culture that will bring about peace, justice and prosperity.
Fat chance!

Disaffected youth living under inept and corrupt regimes are easy prey to a rhetoric that promises heaven on earth, and since the world is awash in weapons and idle young people, it is relatively easy to start a conflict.

Unfortunately, the aftermaths of conflicts are often worse than the conflicts themselves.
The common people find themselves often worst off under new regimes than under the regimes they brought down.

The French Revolution gave birth to “La Terreur” (the Terror) where tens of thousands of (often innocent) people were sent to the guillotine.
After this slaughter, the fate of the commoners was not significantly improved.

The Russian Revolution produced the Red Terror that was a thousand times worse than the excesses of the French Revolution.
Bolshevik extremists, under Lenin’s directions, executed hundred of thousands of “enemies of the people”.
The commoners fell under the yoke of the Communist party, a fate probably worse than living under the Romanovs.

The Chinese Revolution was not any better.

Then there was the Iranian Revolution.
Are the Iranians living under a barbarous theocracy happier today than under the Shah?

And then we have the never-ending Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The people of the Gaza strip undoubtedly look with envy at the prosperity of Israel.
That’s what we want they surely think, but are afraid to say so.
They are coerced to believe that only the destruction of Israel will give them what they yearn for: peace, justice and prosperity.

But judging by what’s happening in neighboring countries, even if Israel were eradicated from the Middle East, peace would not flourish in that region.
There are too many enmities and ancient tribal and religious conflicts in this part of the world to attain a lasting peace.

Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia are in a state of war or undeclared war.
Their past histories should be a lesson for the Arab world but the Arabs are too busy killing themselves to pay attention to those minor details.

Israel is a convenient scapegoat for their resentment and if it did not exist it would have to be invented.

The first thing to do to stop this bloody non-sense would be for Hamas to unequivocally recognize Israel’s right to exist and abjure violence.
But Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal ensconced in Qatar (far away from violence and destruction) won’t have any of it.
In a recent interview with CBS news, he reiterated his refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
There cannot be peace as long as Israel exists!

What do you do with a neighbor who swore to kill you and would rather see his entire family annihilated rather than to negotiate?
Isn’t it what loony bins are for?

France and Germany managed to become friends after three bloody wars and millions of casualties.
There is absolutely no reason why the Arab world and Israel cannot achieve the same results.
All it takes are courageous men on both sides, but unfortunately they seem to be in short supply in this part of the world where vendettas and human sacrifices still endure.

Alain