Thank You Mr. Trudeau Senior by Dave Jaffe. Part Two.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau's time as Canada's prime minister had its tough times. All governments do bad things and/or make mistakes and Trudeau's governments was no different. In the fall of 1970 Trudeau proclaimed a War Measures Act during the time when the terrorist Front de Liberation de Quebec kidnapped a British diplomat and murdered a Quebec cabinet minister.
"Just watch me," Trudeau said when asked how far he would go in suspending civil liberties. Hundreds of people in Quebec had their homes searched by police and dozens were arrested. Yet Trudeau crushed the FLQ and it never reappeared. Trudeau also did a complete U-turn on wage and price controls.In 1974 he ran against the Conservative leader Bob Stanfield who was proposing a ninety day or three month freeze on wages and prices. The Liberals easily won the 1974 election as millions of unionized Canadians deserted the N.D.P. and voted Liberal.
Then in late 1975 Trudeau's Liberal government brought in not a three month freeze on wage and price controls but a three year freeze on wages and prices. "Our members lost millions of dollars in wages," Len Guy, then head of the B.C. Federation of Labour said in 1977. Also Trudeau's National Energy Program blew up in his face when the oil rich province of Alberta saw many of its oil rigs close down as the Liberal government of Canada tried to grab part of Alberta's share of oil royalties .
When his time in power ended in the early 1980's, Trudeau appointed many of his Liberal allies to cushy patronage jobs. "This is an orgy of patronage," one outraged observer said at the time. "What happened to the Trudeau who in 1968 called for 'A Just Society'?"
Still, for someone like me Trudeau's time in power was very good. I moved into a housing co-op where I still live to-day. This co-op was develop during Trudeau's time in power. I also benefitted from the more generous unemployment insurance scheme that Trudeau brought in in the early 1970's. And the Quebec sovereigntist party the Parti Quebecois didn't win any sovereigntist referendums. Still, many Quebeckers benefitted from its time in power too. The first PQ government headed by Rene Levesque did many progressive things. It immediately let the abortion provider Dr. Henry Morgentaler out of prison.
It also banned businesses and unions from making any contributions to elections. Soon the federal government and other provinces, except for B.C. followed suit. The first PQ government also banned scabs in all management -labour disputes This ended a terrible practice in Quebec labour history. It also brought in no-fault auto insurance and passed laws to preserve farm land. It also did many other progressive things. Its language law led to over 125,000 English-speaking people leaving Quebec. Yet Quebec's population did increase in the long run.
Overall Trudeau's time in power benefitted Quebec and Canada. I'm glad he came along. "Quebec" people in Quebec said in the 1950's, "c'est ne pas un province comme les autres" Translation? Quebec isn't a province like the other ones. This is true and Pierre Elliott Trudeau wasn't a prime minister like many other ones. I'm glad he wasn't.
Thursday 26 October 2017
Saturday 21 October 2017
Thank You, Mr. Pierre Elliott Trudeau - Part One by Dave Jaffe. Chapter Two of Odds and Ends
Thank You Mr. Pierre Elliott Trdeau by Dave Jaffe. Part One.
Suppose the Quebec sovereignty movement hadn't ever some along. Then Pierre Elliott Trudeau would probably never have become Canada's Prime Minister. As far as I'm concerned that would have been too bad.
"Trudeau in the early 1960's," Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall Newman point out, "was in danger of becoming a rebel without a purpose." A middle aged law professor at the Universite de Montreal, Trudeau suddenly came up against young students who were sovereigntists. They wanted Quebec to leave Canada and form a separate country. The provincial Liberals under Quebec's premier Jean Lesage, were also listening to this separatist tune. So was the opposition party the Union Nationale that would soon be extinct. Trudeau loathed this type of thinking. To combat this strain of thought he joined the federal Liberal party that in the past he had brutally put down. Soon Trudeau was in parliament. Then he became Minister of Justice and in 1968, three years after joining the Liberals, he became Prime Minister.
"The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation," Trudeau said as Justice Minster. In this position he legalized homosexuality and for the first time birth control methods were openly allowed to be sold in pharmacies. Trudeau as Canada's prime minister promoted French Canadians and Jews to some of the highest offices in the civil service and the federal Liberals. He also guaranteed that all Canadians should be served in French or English at all federal offices in Canada. These acts and laws were one big step forward for French Canadians in Canada.
Once chastened by the election results of the 1972 federal election, Trudeau formed a temporary alliance with the small left leaning New Democratic Party. After this, Trudeau did many progressive things. He abolished the death penalty. He brought in the Guaranteed Annual Income Supplement that rescued many senior citizens from dire poverty.
At the end of the 1968 election campaign, Trudeau insisted that Canada would have to change. "I have insisted" he said, "that we must reform and adapt in many ways - in parliament, in our constitution and in many of our laws." Trudeau kept many of his promises. He brought in a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that once amended with pressure from political activists expanded the freedoms of many Canadians. At the same time Trudeau repatriated the country's constitution from London. Canadian governments would no longer have to trek to the British in London to get a judgement on whether any of their laws violated the Canadian constitution.
Trudeau oversaw the building of over 600,000 units of social housing during his time of power. This was an unprecedented expansion of social housing. Never before or since had so many units of government housing been built. Trudeau also led the federal government in 1980 when he defeated the Parti Quebecois government of Rene Levesque in a referendum on Quebec sovereignty. When he stepped down as Prime Minister of Canada in the early 1980's, Quebec remained a part of Canada. Trudeau also amended the country's Unemployment Insurance act, making it more generous and accessible to the unemployed.
Of course like any government, the Liberals made mistakes.
Suppose the Quebec sovereignty movement hadn't ever some along. Then Pierre Elliott Trudeau would probably never have become Canada's Prime Minister. As far as I'm concerned that would have been too bad.
"Trudeau in the early 1960's," Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall Newman point out, "was in danger of becoming a rebel without a purpose." A middle aged law professor at the Universite de Montreal, Trudeau suddenly came up against young students who were sovereigntists. They wanted Quebec to leave Canada and form a separate country. The provincial Liberals under Quebec's premier Jean Lesage, were also listening to this separatist tune. So was the opposition party the Union Nationale that would soon be extinct. Trudeau loathed this type of thinking. To combat this strain of thought he joined the federal Liberal party that in the past he had brutally put down. Soon Trudeau was in parliament. Then he became Minister of Justice and in 1968, three years after joining the Liberals, he became Prime Minister.
"The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation," Trudeau said as Justice Minster. In this position he legalized homosexuality and for the first time birth control methods were openly allowed to be sold in pharmacies. Trudeau as Canada's prime minister promoted French Canadians and Jews to some of the highest offices in the civil service and the federal Liberals. He also guaranteed that all Canadians should be served in French or English at all federal offices in Canada. These acts and laws were one big step forward for French Canadians in Canada.
Once chastened by the election results of the 1972 federal election, Trudeau formed a temporary alliance with the small left leaning New Democratic Party. After this, Trudeau did many progressive things. He abolished the death penalty. He brought in the Guaranteed Annual Income Supplement that rescued many senior citizens from dire poverty.
At the end of the 1968 election campaign, Trudeau insisted that Canada would have to change. "I have insisted" he said, "that we must reform and adapt in many ways - in parliament, in our constitution and in many of our laws." Trudeau kept many of his promises. He brought in a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that once amended with pressure from political activists expanded the freedoms of many Canadians. At the same time Trudeau repatriated the country's constitution from London. Canadian governments would no longer have to trek to the British in London to get a judgement on whether any of their laws violated the Canadian constitution.
Trudeau oversaw the building of over 600,000 units of social housing during his time of power. This was an unprecedented expansion of social housing. Never before or since had so many units of government housing been built. Trudeau also led the federal government in 1980 when he defeated the Parti Quebecois government of Rene Levesque in a referendum on Quebec sovereignty. When he stepped down as Prime Minister of Canada in the early 1980's, Quebec remained a part of Canada. Trudeau also amended the country's Unemployment Insurance act, making it more generous and accessible to the unemployed.
Of course like any government, the Liberals made mistakes.
Saturday 14 October 2017
Ends and Odds: The Ravings Of An Old Man by Dave Jaffe. Chapter One, part one
One Hopeless Athlete. Part One
With one exception I was nearly hopeless at playing sports. As a very young boy I went to soccer games and cheered on my favourite teams. They happened to be the local Barnet soccer team and the north London based Tottenham Hotspurs. Yet I couldn't play soccer for beans. I missed kicks, squandered chances to score a goal and often fell down when I should have run past a defender.
Once in Canada, my athletic skills shrivelled even more. I didn't learn to catch or throw a football until I was in my early 20's. Even then I always felt awkward on the football field. "You throw the ball like a girl," one of my friends said to me. In the early 1960's this was the ultimate insult that one adolescent could hurl at another.
On the baseball diamond I was as hopeless as I was on the football field. I missed easy grounders, dropped simple fly balls and rarely hit the softballs thrown at me by canny pitchers. "Hockey is the Canadian game," my father once said. Yet I only learned to skate in my mid-teens and couldn't stick handle the puck or even make a decent pass on the ice, let alone fire a slap shot.
I loved to shoot baskets on the basketball court. Yet as a team player I wasn't worth a damn. "We can't have you on our team," one player on a community team told me after I'd played a game or two with this group. "You're not just good enough." I quickly vanished from this team and after that only played in pickup games. Even then I was usually the last player to be chosen.
In short I was a classic teenage nerd, hopeless in sports, but a reader of so-called "intellectual" books by authors like Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell and George Orwell. Many years later I came across the life of one of Canada's famous prime ministers, namely Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Trudeau, as his biographers Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall Newman point out, "turned his back on populist sports his father had reveled in such as baseball, hockey, lacrosse and boxing." I did the same. The teenage Trudeau boasted that he would only take part in diving, skiing and canoeing. Yet Trudeau was a skilled athlete. I was no athlete at all.
Yet even back in grade school I would swim in local pools. I loved swimming in these pools as a teenager too and sometimes swam up to an hour or more. Here no one bothered me or expected anything from me. "I did things alone," I told a woman who once headed up the human resources department of the Vancouver Public Library. I told her that I loved swimming because I did it alone.
"It sounds to me that you were scared of competition," she replied. Once I thought about what she'd said I concluded that she was probably right.
Yet to-day at the age of 75 I'm still swimming. I became partly disabled at the age of 32. I can walk a bare six or seven blocks a day. Yet in a swimming pool, I'm the equal of many able bodied people. The athletes of my youth have long since vanished. Even great athletes retire or hang up their cleats in their 30's or even their 20's. I on the other hand, will go on churning through the local swimming pools for as long as I can. In the end, a heart attack, a stroke or terminal cancer will bring my swimming to a halt. Until then I'll pursue the only sport that I was ever competent in. Long live swimming. It's saved me from complete desperation in the athletic arena.
With one exception I was nearly hopeless at playing sports. As a very young boy I went to soccer games and cheered on my favourite teams. They happened to be the local Barnet soccer team and the north London based Tottenham Hotspurs. Yet I couldn't play soccer for beans. I missed kicks, squandered chances to score a goal and often fell down when I should have run past a defender.
Once in Canada, my athletic skills shrivelled even more. I didn't learn to catch or throw a football until I was in my early 20's. Even then I always felt awkward on the football field. "You throw the ball like a girl," one of my friends said to me. In the early 1960's this was the ultimate insult that one adolescent could hurl at another.
On the baseball diamond I was as hopeless as I was on the football field. I missed easy grounders, dropped simple fly balls and rarely hit the softballs thrown at me by canny pitchers. "Hockey is the Canadian game," my father once said. Yet I only learned to skate in my mid-teens and couldn't stick handle the puck or even make a decent pass on the ice, let alone fire a slap shot.
I loved to shoot baskets on the basketball court. Yet as a team player I wasn't worth a damn. "We can't have you on our team," one player on a community team told me after I'd played a game or two with this group. "You're not just good enough." I quickly vanished from this team and after that only played in pickup games. Even then I was usually the last player to be chosen.
In short I was a classic teenage nerd, hopeless in sports, but a reader of so-called "intellectual" books by authors like Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell and George Orwell. Many years later I came across the life of one of Canada's famous prime ministers, namely Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Trudeau, as his biographers Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall Newman point out, "turned his back on populist sports his father had reveled in such as baseball, hockey, lacrosse and boxing." I did the same. The teenage Trudeau boasted that he would only take part in diving, skiing and canoeing. Yet Trudeau was a skilled athlete. I was no athlete at all.
Yet even back in grade school I would swim in local pools. I loved swimming in these pools as a teenager too and sometimes swam up to an hour or more. Here no one bothered me or expected anything from me. "I did things alone," I told a woman who once headed up the human resources department of the Vancouver Public Library. I told her that I loved swimming because I did it alone.
"It sounds to me that you were scared of competition," she replied. Once I thought about what she'd said I concluded that she was probably right.
Yet to-day at the age of 75 I'm still swimming. I became partly disabled at the age of 32. I can walk a bare six or seven blocks a day. Yet in a swimming pool, I'm the equal of many able bodied people. The athletes of my youth have long since vanished. Even great athletes retire or hang up their cleats in their 30's or even their 20's. I on the other hand, will go on churning through the local swimming pools for as long as I can. In the end, a heart attack, a stroke or terminal cancer will bring my swimming to a halt. Until then I'll pursue the only sport that I was ever competent in. Long live swimming. It's saved me from complete desperation in the athletic arena.
Thursday 5 October 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Poltics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 45. Part Three.
The Life and Death of A Canadian Mystic. Part Three.
Don Graves went to India to deepen his spiritual knowledge. He succeeded. He meditated at Hindu shrines. He met gurus and holy men and women. He also exchanged information with fellow spiritual travelers from the western world. Then he left India and journeyed west to Pakistan. To him Pakistan seemed more dangerous than India. One reporter called Pakistan "India's arch enemy". Pakistan was much smaller than India. Yet its growing population stood at close to 180 million people, and many of them were poor.
The country's people were divided into different ethnic groups. They spoke languages like Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto or Baluchi. Nearly all Pakistanis are Moslems. Yet the county is racked by conflict, violence and corruption. It is usually ruled by military dictators though sometimes its leaders are chosen by elections. By contrast, India for all of tits faults remains a democracy.
Graves didn't stay long in Pakistan. He moved north to the small county of Nepal. Here too he found another country in upheaval. He left Nepal after two weeks. Still his six month journey to South Asia had been fruitful. His religious beliefs had deepened. Now he openly told people "I'm a Buddhist." Yet in India where he had spent most of his time hadn't too many Buddhists. Buddhism was born in India. Yet most Buddhists now live in east Asia not India.
Don Graves came back to India a changed man. He seemed now to be "blissed out" as devotees of eastern religions used to say. He was always smiling. His eyes were now often narrowed but in joy not in fear. On his Indian journey he'd met Isabel MacRae, a woman in her 40's from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. They moved in together to share an apartment in Port Coquitlam, a growing suburb to the east of Vancouver. Dan went to see his former wife and growing daughter Stacy. His former wife had met another man and the former couple parted on good terms.
In their Port Coquitlam apartment Isabel and Dan set up a Buddhist shrine. They burned incense, bought a carpet that was made in the Middle East and sat on the carpet meditating for hours on end. Dan read Buddhist texts and to make money he drove a truck for a small trucking firm. "That man's not on drugs, is he?" his boss asked one of Dan's co-workers. "He seems far out." The co-worker assured the boss that as far as he knew, Dan didn't smoke, drank or took any drugs at all.
At night time, after work and then sessions of meditations, Don would walk alone in the dark along quiet suburban streets, past houses, strip malls and apartment buildings. Some of these streets had no sidewalks and were poorly lit. Don was taking his life in his hands now since many drivers only saw him at the last moment.
In March 2002, a driver in a late model car drove into Dan and killed him. Ironically, Dan Graves had journeyed through supposedly dangerous areas of the world and had emerged unscathed. It was in Canada, a land that was thought to be one of the safest in the world that he met his end. "Far more Canadians die in traffic accidents every year," says one criminologists, "than get murdered. About 600 people did every year from some violent act. Yet over 2000 Canadians die on the roads and in traffic accidents."
In 2002 Dan Graves was one of those 2000 people. His death at the age of 54 was a tragedy. His search for truth ended in death on a suburban highway outside Vancouver.
Don Graves went to India to deepen his spiritual knowledge. He succeeded. He meditated at Hindu shrines. He met gurus and holy men and women. He also exchanged information with fellow spiritual travelers from the western world. Then he left India and journeyed west to Pakistan. To him Pakistan seemed more dangerous than India. One reporter called Pakistan "India's arch enemy". Pakistan was much smaller than India. Yet its growing population stood at close to 180 million people, and many of them were poor.
The country's people were divided into different ethnic groups. They spoke languages like Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto or Baluchi. Nearly all Pakistanis are Moslems. Yet the county is racked by conflict, violence and corruption. It is usually ruled by military dictators though sometimes its leaders are chosen by elections. By contrast, India for all of tits faults remains a democracy.
Graves didn't stay long in Pakistan. He moved north to the small county of Nepal. Here too he found another country in upheaval. He left Nepal after two weeks. Still his six month journey to South Asia had been fruitful. His religious beliefs had deepened. Now he openly told people "I'm a Buddhist." Yet in India where he had spent most of his time hadn't too many Buddhists. Buddhism was born in India. Yet most Buddhists now live in east Asia not India.
Don Graves came back to India a changed man. He seemed now to be "blissed out" as devotees of eastern religions used to say. He was always smiling. His eyes were now often narrowed but in joy not in fear. On his Indian journey he'd met Isabel MacRae, a woman in her 40's from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. They moved in together to share an apartment in Port Coquitlam, a growing suburb to the east of Vancouver. Dan went to see his former wife and growing daughter Stacy. His former wife had met another man and the former couple parted on good terms.
In their Port Coquitlam apartment Isabel and Dan set up a Buddhist shrine. They burned incense, bought a carpet that was made in the Middle East and sat on the carpet meditating for hours on end. Dan read Buddhist texts and to make money he drove a truck for a small trucking firm. "That man's not on drugs, is he?" his boss asked one of Dan's co-workers. "He seems far out." The co-worker assured the boss that as far as he knew, Dan didn't smoke, drank or took any drugs at all.
At night time, after work and then sessions of meditations, Don would walk alone in the dark along quiet suburban streets, past houses, strip malls and apartment buildings. Some of these streets had no sidewalks and were poorly lit. Don was taking his life in his hands now since many drivers only saw him at the last moment.
In March 2002, a driver in a late model car drove into Dan and killed him. Ironically, Dan Graves had journeyed through supposedly dangerous areas of the world and had emerged unscathed. It was in Canada, a land that was thought to be one of the safest in the world that he met his end. "Far more Canadians die in traffic accidents every year," says one criminologists, "than get murdered. About 600 people did every year from some violent act. Yet over 2000 Canadians die on the roads and in traffic accidents."
In 2002 Dan Graves was one of those 2000 people. His death at the age of 54 was a tragedy. His search for truth ended in death on a suburban highway outside Vancouver.
Tuesday 3 October 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Poltics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 45. Part Two.
The Life and Death of A Canadian Mystic by Dave Jaffe. Part Two.
Don Graves, like many other young Canadians of his generation, went to hippie enclaves, took L.S.D. and met many women. A tall, blonde, good looking youngster, Don attracted many females. Yet his parents, Matt and Lillian, weren't too happy about Don's new friends. They wanted their younger son to follow his elder brother Edward's path.
Ed was now studying at the University of Toronto, and was enrolled in mostly biology courses. Meanwhile Don kept bringing home teenage boys and girls who were as Don said, "Just far out." "I'm worried about my son," Lillian confessed to her friends. "He's really into being a hippie. And I'm sure he's taking drugs."
Yet soon Don tired of drugs. He was turned on by texts on Buddhism and Eastern religions by one of the many self-styled gurus he met in the streets of Yorkville. He read Aldous Huxley's 'The Perennial Philosophy' and books by Alan Watts about Buddhism. Drugs, he realized, weren't what he was looking for. Enlightenment was. Then he met Felicia, a more conventional woman and they had a daughter called Teresa. They got married and Don left the hippie scene. They moved to Vancouver and Don got a job in a factory that made pipes. Felicia took a job in a bank.
Overtly Don looked like he'd settled down. Yet soon he became restless. He kept on reading books on eastern religions and told one of his workmates, "I must go to India and Pakistan." At one time Don got involved with a group of people who were trying to save Kitsilano from developers. At one time he canvassed door to door for the group. Yet in the end, he said, "Politics isn't my trip."
Meditation was. After work and on weekends, Don would sit in his and Felicia's bedroom and meditate for hours. He found great joy in doing this, and sometimes experienced blissful moments..
Tensions surfaced between Don and Felicia. He started to put money away in a private bank account. Then one day he told his wife, "I'm off to India. I want to leave you." His wife and he now lived in a Vancouver housing co-op. He turned his co-op shares over to his wife, along with two thousand dollars. He was on his way to south Asia.
In 1985 he flew to India. He saw before him in this huge subcontinent worlds of pain, poverty and starvation. Yet he also saw in this country of nearly 900 million people many inspiring religious shrines. He went into caves where 60 years ago, the British writer E.M. Forster had set part of his novel called 'A Passage To India'. He bathed in the Ganges River along with thousands of Indians. The Ganges river is over 2,000 kilometres long. It is sacred to many Indians who believe that it is the goddess Ganga brought down from the Milky Way.
It is also terribly polluted. "The Ganges," writes George Black, "absorbs more than a billion gallons of waste each day." Three quarters of the waste, Black points out is raw sewage and the rest is effluent from industry. "It is one of the ten most polluted rivers in the world," Black says. It also stinks to high heaven. Anyway Don bathed in the river and caught no diseases from doing this, except catching at one time a mild flu. He moved through massive crowds and ended up in north east India. He even slept in the streets of Calcutta and no one bothered him.
Don Graves, like many other young Canadians of his generation, went to hippie enclaves, took L.S.D. and met many women. A tall, blonde, good looking youngster, Don attracted many females. Yet his parents, Matt and Lillian, weren't too happy about Don's new friends. They wanted their younger son to follow his elder brother Edward's path.
Ed was now studying at the University of Toronto, and was enrolled in mostly biology courses. Meanwhile Don kept bringing home teenage boys and girls who were as Don said, "Just far out." "I'm worried about my son," Lillian confessed to her friends. "He's really into being a hippie. And I'm sure he's taking drugs."
Yet soon Don tired of drugs. He was turned on by texts on Buddhism and Eastern religions by one of the many self-styled gurus he met in the streets of Yorkville. He read Aldous Huxley's 'The Perennial Philosophy' and books by Alan Watts about Buddhism. Drugs, he realized, weren't what he was looking for. Enlightenment was. Then he met Felicia, a more conventional woman and they had a daughter called Teresa. They got married and Don left the hippie scene. They moved to Vancouver and Don got a job in a factory that made pipes. Felicia took a job in a bank.
Overtly Don looked like he'd settled down. Yet soon he became restless. He kept on reading books on eastern religions and told one of his workmates, "I must go to India and Pakistan." At one time Don got involved with a group of people who were trying to save Kitsilano from developers. At one time he canvassed door to door for the group. Yet in the end, he said, "Politics isn't my trip."
Meditation was. After work and on weekends, Don would sit in his and Felicia's bedroom and meditate for hours. He found great joy in doing this, and sometimes experienced blissful moments..
Tensions surfaced between Don and Felicia. He started to put money away in a private bank account. Then one day he told his wife, "I'm off to India. I want to leave you." His wife and he now lived in a Vancouver housing co-op. He turned his co-op shares over to his wife, along with two thousand dollars. He was on his way to south Asia.
In 1985 he flew to India. He saw before him in this huge subcontinent worlds of pain, poverty and starvation. Yet he also saw in this country of nearly 900 million people many inspiring religious shrines. He went into caves where 60 years ago, the British writer E.M. Forster had set part of his novel called 'A Passage To India'. He bathed in the Ganges River along with thousands of Indians. The Ganges river is over 2,000 kilometres long. It is sacred to many Indians who believe that it is the goddess Ganga brought down from the Milky Way.
It is also terribly polluted. "The Ganges," writes George Black, "absorbs more than a billion gallons of waste each day." Three quarters of the waste, Black points out is raw sewage and the rest is effluent from industry. "It is one of the ten most polluted rivers in the world," Black says. It also stinks to high heaven. Anyway Don bathed in the river and caught no diseases from doing this, except catching at one time a mild flu. He moved through massive crowds and ended up in north east India. He even slept in the streets of Calcutta and no one bothered him.
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