6 - North Shore News

Aili

— Wednesday, December 29, 1999

VIEW POINT.

ae

EALTH care continues to be

under the weather on the

North Shore and elsewhere
around B.C.

Consider the following symptoms.

A health care worker at Lions Gate
recently raised concerns over how
nursing resources are allocated at the
North Shore hospital.

She complained that registered
‘nurses, whose services we're told arc
increasingly in short supply because
of government mismanagement, are
overworked in the hospital’s acute
care unit but underworked in its long
‘térm care Eve House facility.

°Add to that the claim that nurses
decline to perform such tasks as
change bed pans or feed patients even

“when they have nothing else to do.
Also consider: that News. stories

recently revealed Lions Gate facing a.

$2-million budget deficit. Additional
funding of $500,000 from the
Ministry of Health was subsequently
announced.

But one of the pieces of equipment
purchased the past year by the hospi-
tal was a new liposuction machine.
Surely there are more pressing uses
for hospital resources than a machine
used for cosmetic surgery.

And further consider recent hospi-
tal administrators’ claims that the
B.C. Nurses Union is actively work-
ing to discourage the hiricg of for-
eign nurses, who could help reduce
the current nursing shortfall in the
province.

The total at the end of all that
addition equals an ailing health care
system whose own worst enemy is the
political infighting ingrained in the

tials, the No 2 PacifiCat finally. entered.
22: Noi two days’ " Gf naling» | for Nov,

‘Servi
4124-0 256 rere already being’ nixed

Me ‘No.1: PactfiCat;
inthe: trade

ety PY

behi 3 skittishly d ‘now: pads into

| for: major ¥ Weterinary surgery with éxtended care.

from one

public. wil

two years with: ..
ferries need

Ferrari pit

ally see. the amazing:
the:

a
ast ferries once a air or. trio of the §

_s‘cAfter several hours research on the |

- either way with

. system itself,

IRONICALLY, it’s Christianity
‘— Or, more precisely, the

7 Christian calendar.

—~ that’s caused all
the high-tech .
- problems and

2 “Doomsday scenaz-
“ios promised for |
“this coming
Saturday. Ye.

If the world’s domi. !
“pant culture had been

¢ Jewish, Mustim or
- Chinese, Saturday

would be of no signifi-.. vs
ance whatsoever, not even the start ‘of:

. a new year, let alone a new millennium.” .

There'd be no Y2K headaches — the

ae nearest “00” date being still some 40 to :
80 years away by when all computers.

: meh have far more than enough memory «:
multicultural land, can’t T double

by Y picking up.a "Jewish, Islamic-o

handle four-digit dates anyway.

Web I may yet be an odd year or so out
‘non-Christian datés,
but hopefully ‘ciase’cnough for you to:
gras what we're talking about.
¢ Jewish people started their cal:
nds. in 3761 BC. since Rosh ~

‘Hashanah, the Jewish: New Year, fell cn
Sept: , 1999, F

guess that puts nex!
curday somewhere between the Jewish

years 5760 and 576)..In any case, just.

with never a Y2K:

se who got into:
the calendar business about eight cen-:

- turies later than the Jews,‘around 2953
- BC.’ Moreover; thé:Chinese year, one

ar cycles, consist

pene ‘Of approximately two vig.

- According to my faithful pocker ¢ cal-
culator.that means next Saturday would.”’

fall in 5366 Chinese (or something fair-
ly close). In any case,” -
ever lied to. you?

again no Y2K worries |
* and I’m sure my’
friends in the Chinese
ia will set me sight
if Pm aut by the add.
century or so. .

“:: Johnnies-come- “lately ia. a

'~ the calendar ¢ are
. Mohammed’s faithful.
. The Islamic. calend:
~~ again purely lunar.

. started in.622'AD, has.
“Bix 29-day and six "39-

s day rionths, and is thus nf days shorter

than the Christian year.

That wold seem to have this.

Saturday fall in the Islamic year 1420 or

1421; or is my math fal gain?
‘And incidentally, why in

calendar at Shoppers 01

: Toad n Drugs?

But I digres
“It isn’t even as if the Christian alen-

dar itself is Y2K compliant. Scholars

: place the actual ‘date of Christ’s birth’
“soniewhere between 8 and 4. BC —"
‘making next Saturday the first da ay
2004, 5005, 2006. 2007 or 200:

(take
ick), with all our’ aK troubles
ong behind us.
: Finally, of co

um actually’ starts on the first day: of its

2001

VAC AFEECT

THE OPERATION

OF OUR THILITARY
EQUIPMENT.

eee

‘From jan. 2 onward your guess

_ every bit as good as minc: But:
Saturday, Jan::1, 2000, to wind 'u
the biggest non-event jn history/H

“Friday,.
“birthday boy; talk she

who Figutly refuses ele

neh fe