[Oe List ...] Jaime for Tuesday

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Yah Hoo, Tally Hoo


 
The spelling of the words on our title is intentional,focusing on the phonetic effect more than the proper literary spelling andstandard usage.  On Calgary Stampede thispast weekend, variations of the same were heard all over as a city uses one ofits former economic functions to drum up participation in the visitors’industry that obviously attracts a crowd this time of the year.
 
Geared to the visitors’ sector, the city by the confluenceof Bow and Elbow rivers relived the region’s history of being the cattlemarketing and meatpacking center of Canada. In 1912, four wealthy families who received the dominion’s grazingrights to attract farmers from the east to the Northwest established the“greatest outdoor show on earth.”  I woreblue jeans, a wide-belt, with a wildly colored cowhand shirt, a wide-brimcowboy hat and a neck pendant (bolo tie), draped a red bandanna, but my feetskipped the cowboy boots.  
 
I visited Calgary in the 70s while living in easternneighbor Saskatchewan province.  Calgarysprawled of agricultural spreads and ranches but the cowboy hats weredefinitely fashion mainstay among the populace. It was also a center of anemerging energy industry, and many in the parish church where I attend Mass areemployed in corporations reaping the short financial gain on a long-termecological challenge.
 
The energy industry defined Calgary and Alberta’s relationshipto its neighbors.  I remember when therewere more flights from Calgary to Denver and Houston than there were forToronto and Ottawa.  That was very telling.  
 
Last Sunday, my pew seatmate introduced himself as anemployee of Husky Oil.  Our conversationturned to his views on Russia’s signing of a long-term contract with China onthe national gas from the Russian Far East to Manchuria where I reside.  A pipeline from the fields to Qiqihar inHeilongjiang is already in place.  Whenmy Husky Oil acquaintance bid goodbye at Church, he revealed that Canada discovereda bounty supply of natural gas, timely for EU, so I said that, perhaps, theircompany can go easy on the tar sands of Alberta slated for pipeline shipping tothe Gulf of Mexico.  He justchuckled.  More than 80 percent of thoseI shared coffee with at the Parish were dependent on the energy industryincluding Suncor that’s developing the tar sands’ fuel supply and Enbridgethat’s building the Keystone XL pipeline.
 
But it is the Rodeo and Exhibition events that drew thecrowd during this year’s Stampede.  Theparade on July 4th in the downtown area, marshaled by no other thanWilliam Shatner of Star Trek fame early in the morning launched the 10 days ofmusic, food, excitement, education, friendship, and community. 
 
Functionally, the Stampede began the day before La Fete duCanada, Canada Day on the First of July. Media did not foist a theme.  Itwas participatory, asking everyone, “What is your Canada?”  (Google CBC’s coverage of Canada Day in theCapital.)
 
The world’s richest (by prize) tournament-style rodeoheadlined the events July 4-6.  Theevents caliber came down to the skill of the competitors and the qualities of wildand untamed horses, bulls and steers.  AStampede original is the chuckwagon race at the Rangeland Derby, whichscheduled nine evening heats of pounding hooves and trembling grounds.
 
The nightly Grandstand Show entertained with amazingtechnology, music, stunts, pyrotechnics and stunning sets to captivate anenthralled audience.  A 4-H parade, andgathering occurred early where projects were displayed and rodeo riding wasyouthfully performed.  Team penning racedagainst the clock as the athleticism and skills of horse and rider competed,followed by the blacksmiths’ ability tested.
 
Showcases and displays saw miniature donkeys, stock dogs,cattle trail of the beef industry, equine aristocrats and cowboy challenges, cuttingand cow horses with provincial local breeds, miniature horse, draft horse,heavy horse pull, wooly sheep shearing, sheep breeds, agrium ag-tivity, tractors,livestock auction, youth livestock and scholarships.
 
The Stampede Parade affirmed the excitement mirrored inthe Adrenaline Ranch presentations of sky high, gravity defying, and worldrecord stunts at the middle of the Stampede Park.  The world-renown Peking Acrobatics performedat the corral show to demonstrate that indeed, the friendly but exciting natureof mosaic Canada can no longer be denied. 
 
It still came as a surprise that Asians predominate over theCaucasians in Canada’s Calgary streets, though not on the Stampedestaffing.  In a conversation, I mentionedthat we should not be too threatened by the “yellow” fever since of five folksin the planet, one is Chinese.  I wastold that of five people in Calgary, only one now is a Caucasian.
 
We need not draw the obvious.  Saipan’s diversity is a rich mosaic, a givenreality. Will we ever get the reality humming the same tune, dancing the samebeat and lolling under the sun in a canopy of a big story enough to contain usall?  Yah Hoo, Tally Hoo!


j'aime la vie
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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