Twenty years ago, I thought I was pretty smart keeping up with technology. I previously put this in the Osoyoos Times.
The love of the fax machine, people ask me how I can afford a fax machine; mine cost me $648. You can get them in the dumpster now. It cost me 49 cents to fax Thompson, Manitoba, from B.C and 37 cents to Moose Jaw.
Excuse me then, Canada Post and B.C Tel for sharing this with everybody – what is our postal, then 46 cents plus G.S.T and how long does it take for our mail to get from A to B, if it gets there? Now it is $1. Every time the postal goes on strike, they are striking them right out of a job, now that we have email, texting, and all the rest of the ways of communication.
I was sitting at our Friendship Center in Prince George looking for my G.S.T. Now I am playing telephone tag: press one for English, two for French, then I get to listen to Whitney Houston screaming in my ear for five minutes. I thought why am I sitting at the Friendship Center, I will just walk down to Revenue Canada and talk to a real person, wrong. Fred the security guard, sends me to the telephone. I said I just listened to that song at the friendship center, and I still don’t like Whitney Houston.
Now Revenue Canada has closed the doors altogether. We are told to go online. Again, more people jobs. In the near future there will no longer be Service Canada.
When you go to Service Canada, there is a big sign that says, “Why stand in line, when you can go online.” Again, more people jobs.
We like people contact, not everyone is a computer genius. Online banking, automatic deposits are very convenient, but will this mean less bank tellers? I seen this on the funniest videos, a lady texting, and walks right into a manhole. I seen it in Prince George, another one texting across a red light, damn near got run over. I myself damn near got run over when a lady was yapping on her cell phone while she was driving.
We had a job fair at the Coast Hotel, it was great, People contact. The military had a booth, R.C.M.P had a booth, tourism, Prince George Correctional Service, security companies with all the work that is going on there, Tim Horton’s had a booth, Canfor, there were two young men at the Canfor booth, they handed in their resume.
Can you fellows start on Monday, you bet we can. People contact. Do not email your resume or fax it, I myself have owned two businesses. I kind of like to see the person. I owned a small newspaper, these jobs will also be gone from the paste-up department to the printers to the paper boys. Some people like to pick up and read a newspaper.
I see the younger generation who graduate and don’t know math without a calculator, they don’t know how to spell without the spell check. Let’s get our face out of all this technology and smell the coffee once in a while. I wonder everyday if all the computers went down, IPod didn’t work or cell phones, would the world come to an end?
We need backup to today’s system. I would like my reader to give their experiences with this issue. Let’s have a family reunion without all cell phones, IPods and laptops. This would be great.
Crystal Clear, Oliver
