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Let's Face It, B.C. Headlines Are Sad - How Can We Be Happy During Such Dark 
Times?

Experts Say Finding Meaning In A Situation Can Help Alleviate Sadness

Keeping up with what's going on in B.C., can be overwhelming, but experts say 
finding meaning in the sadness can help lift your spirits.

There is no denying the past 3 years have been a challenge for British 
Columbians, what with wildfires devastating entire communities, floods 
destroying homes and lives, First Nations taking on the difficult work of 
searching for the unmarked grave sites of their own people and family members 
and an ongoing, ever-changing, global pandemic.

It's all a little overwhelming to say the least.

Now more than ever, it's important to take care of ourselves and each other and 
find ways to see the good in the world as we muddle our way through so much 
that is bad.

The links between psychological well-being and physical health are well 
documented, and studies have shown chronic health issues can arise as a result 
of poor mental health but how does one find a way to be less depressed in the 
face of so much bad news.  

Eric Kim, an assistant professor of psychology at UBC, says it's important to 
acknowledge what's going on in the world and in your province or even your 
neighbourhood, rather than ignoring it.

He said once he's acknowledged and accepted what's going on around him, he 
looks for meaning in the situation, or a way he can use his skills to help 
better the world.

"When we look back upon times of social upheaval, wars and pandemics and all 
kinds of disasters, people do find solace in finding some type of meaning in a 
situation," he said. 

There's a link between being kind to others and happiness, UBC researcher says

He said finding meaning in these circumstances can make pain and suffering less 
relevant.

For many, it comes in the form of building community.

Kim referenced a heat wave in Chicago during the summer of 1995, which killed 
hundreds of people. Two neighbouring communities had very different rates of 
survival, and the one that fared better was the one that had better social 
infrastructure.

John Threlfall is a community organizer in Victoria, B.C., and said for him, 
focusing on progress at a hyper-local level helps him see the light during dark 
days.

"It's building community where you can, with what you've got and sharing things 
with other people," he said. 

Meaning for others comes in the form of spending time outside and reflecting on 
nature and our connection to what's going on around us.

Gardener Valerie Murray went into the garden following heavy rainfall in 
November to begin the clean up.

"The perennials were all knocked down and we started cutting them back," she 
said. "As soon as we cleared back the old muck, there was brand new growth and 
it sort of just lifts your heart."

"Nature is forgiving and that's always reassuring."

https://twitter.com/dicksoncourtney/status/1466137749170257925

Vancouver psychologist Dr. Carla Fry, known on social media as one half of 
@clinicallyhappy, agrees that community building helps with muddling through 
the sadness. 

"Within peoples' normal reach in their lives, it helps their own mood and helps 
community to do small things for each other," she said.

She shared her top three tips for those trying to stay happy while taking in 
disheartening information: 

Control What You Can

With flooding, we can't stop the rain, save animals or crops. With the 
pandemic, we can't control restrictions or new strains. 

However, people can control the kindness they put into the world - through 
community building - even in simple ways, such as opening the door for someone 
else or posting something positive on social media.

"If it's talking to somebody else who's having a hard time and helping them 
have hope, that counts. If you have time on your hands and you can volunteer 
... that counts," she said.

Mental Health Math

Fry said that for every negative thought we have, we need up to nine positive 
thoughts to balance things out. 

Those positive things can be on a micro level, such as appreciating soft, fuzzy 
socks or paying attention to the happiness you feel when petting a dog. 

"Paying attention to anything that is good will help outweigh the negative," 
Fry said. "It won't wipe it out, but it's something that we can all do."
Mindful information consumption

It can be easy to scroll through social media for hours on end, but Fry said 
it's important to understand how long it really takes to be up to date on need-
to-know information and how many sources an individual needs to get their news 
from. 

This is different for everyone, but she said being mindful of what your 
boundaries and needs are is key.

"Do it on purpose, in a way that meets your goals to be informed, to be 
reassured. Whatever it is, do it on purpose."

She recommends taking in the news when you have the energy and supports to help 
build you back up afer reading or hearing sad things.

===============================================================================

Canada:

'Worst In The World': Here Are All The Rankings In Which Canada Is Now Last

Most Unaffordable Housing, Highest Cell phone Bills And Worst Rate of Acute 
Care Beds, To Name A Few

If you spend any time on social media, it's likely that you've seen this 
graphic compiled by columnist Stephen Lautens that assembles 11 international 
indices which feature Canada near the top spot. "Canada is broken? I don't 
think so. Neither does the world," reads a caption.

Next time someone rants on how about how "broken" Canada is; or how badly we 
are doing on the international stage... share some facts.

Numbers don't lie, Felicia.

https://archive.is/o/LnFRL/https://twitter.com/DIGuideBradley/status/1554545079
314010112

Naturally, it only tells a partial picture. While Canada may dominate abstract 
indices such as "quality of life" and "peace," there are plenty of far more 
empirical indicators in which we measurably rank as among the worst in the 
developed world.

There's plenty to like about Canada, but below is a not-at-all comprehensive 
list of all the ways in which we are indeed very broken.

WE HAVE THE MOST UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is essentially a 
club of the world's 38 most developed countries. And when these 38 are ranked 
against each other for housing unaffordability, Canada emerges as the clear 
champion. OECD analysts rank affordability by comparing average home prices to 
average incomes, and according to their latest quarterly rankings Canada was 
No. 1 for salaries that were most out of whack with the cost of a home.

Housing by price to income ratio for the second quarter of 2022. That's Canada 
on the extreme right.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/840da40d6fa3b7fef6fcccdfc1637d24e0786760.webp

WE HAVE THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE WIRELESS COSTS

Every year, the Finnish telecom analyst Rewheel ranks the world's most 
expensive countries for wireless services. And last year, Canada once again 
dominated. Across several metrics, Canada was found to be the most expensive 
place in the world for mobile data. Analysts found that it would cost the 
average Canadian the equivalent of at least 100 Euros to obtain a cell phone 
plan with at least 100 gigabytes of mobile data. Across much of the EU, that 
kind of cell phone plan could be had for less than 40 Euros.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/822bcfe750687b1ef6288ee7df5606fd15629289.webp

Canadian telecoms charge more than 10 times as much for 100 gigabytes of mobile 
data as companies in France or Ireland.

Canadian telecoms charge more than 10 times as much for 100 gigabytes of mobile 
data as companies in France or Ireland. Photo by Rewheel

WE HAVE THE LOWEST RATE OF ACUTE CARE BEDS AMONG PEER COUNTRIES

Canada's health system was particularly walloped by COVID-19 due to the simple 
fact that most of our hospitals are at the breaking point even in good times. 
Multiple times during the pandemic, provinces were forced into shutdown by 
rates of COVID that had barely been noticed in better-prepared countries. A 
ranking by the Canadian Institute for Health Information provides one clue as 
to why. When ranked against peer countries, Canada's rate of per-capita acute 
care beds was in last place, albeit tied with Sweden. Canada has two acute care 
beds for every 1,000 people, against 3.1 in France and six in Germany.

TWO OF THE PLANET'S "BUBBLIEST" REAL ESTATE MARKETS ARE IN CANADA

For at least 15 years now, Canada has been a regular contender on rankings of 
overheated housing markets. And the latest UBS index of world cities with 
"bubbly" real estate markets is no exception. In their 2021 index, Toronto was 
second only to Frankfurt in terms of bubble risk, while Vancouver ranked sixth. 
Aside from Germany, Canada was the only country that saw two of its cities in 
the top ten.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/1961e904e18e8cb533ff42c2eae7beb611827bd4.webp

Only two cities in the entire Western Hemisphere qualified as likely "bubble 
risks," and they're both in Canada.

Only two cities in the entire Western Hemisphere qualified as likely "bubble 
risks," and they're both in Canada. Photo by UBS Global Real Estate Bubble 
Index 2021

WE RACKED UP COVID DEBT FASTER THAN ANYONE ELSE

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in the most feverish global accumulation of debt 
in the history of human civilization. So it's rather remarkable that amidst 
this international monsoon of debt, Canada still managed to out-debt everyone 
else. Last year, analysts at Bloomberg tracked each country's rate of public 
and private debt accumulated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Canada came in with an overall debt burden equivalent to 352 per cent of GDP. 
While a handful of countries (Japan, France and Hong Kong) came out of the 
pandemic with higher overall debt burdens, Canada outranked all of them when it 
came to how quickly that debt had been accumulated.

Containers on rail cars waiting to be shipped east by rail at the Port of 
Vancouver Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by (Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG)

https://archive.is/LnFRL/5b7e25218f55d343b998db94c6748b57312dafaf.webp

THE PORT OF VANCOUVER IS (ALMOST) THE MOST INEFFICIENT IN THE WORLD

Last year - just as the global supply chain crisis got going - the World Bank 
decided to rank the performance of the world's 370 major ports. Authors weighed 
factors such as how long the ports kept ships waiting, and how long crews took 
to unload a vessel. And when everything was added together, the Port of 
Vancouver ranked 368 out of 370. The only places with worse scores were the 
Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. And it's not like our other 
ports are much better. If Vancouver is too gummed up, you can always sail north 
to Prince Rupert, which ranks 339 out of 370.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/ac861be6fb2f37d1463e7670c232b5cd548d5395.webp

Take that, Los Angeles and Long Beach. Photo by World Bank Group


Queues at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Photo by Peter J. 
Thompson/National Post

https://archive.is/LnFRL/b32f7be38081069e5e696a0029996f6f3adaa760.webp

TORONTO PEARSON IS THE WORLD'S MOST-DELAYED AIRPORT

Flight delays are another category in which basically the entire world is 
feeling the pinch. And yet, Canada still managed to outdo all of them. Last 
month, CNN used data from the website FlightAware to figure out which airports 
were seeing the highest rates of flight delays. In the number one spot was 
Toronto Pearson, with 52 per cent of all flights out of the airport 
experiencing some kind of delay. And it was a commanding lead; the second-place 
finisher, Frankfurt, only managed to see 45.4 per cent of its flights delayed. 
Toronto was also a contender in flight cancellations; with 6.9 per cent of its 
scheduled flights never getting off the ground, it ranked fourth worst in the 
world.

WE'RE ONE OF THE WORLD'S WORST ECONOMIES FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENT

A 2020 study out of the University of Calgary tracked foreign investment flows 
into a cross-section of developed countries between 2015 and 2019. Virtually 
every country on the list saw a surge in foreign cash during that period; 
Ireland topped out the ranking thanks to its foreign investment climbing by 
more than 115 per cent. Only four countries actually saw a reduction in foreign 
investment: Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Canada. A report by the Business 
Council of Canada noticed the same trend. "Canada is the second-worst in the 
OECD on openness to foreign direct investment," it concluded.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/222c5fba154990485338650dcb55e413d85e080c.webp

WE DRIVE THE MOST FUEL-INEFFICIENT VEHICLES IN THE WORLD

In 2019, the International Energy Agency examined the fuel economy of the 
world's private car fleets. On almost every measure, Canada led the pack in 
driving unnecessarily huge, gas-guzzling vehicles. Per kilometre driven, the 
average Canadian burned more fuel and emitted more carbon dioxide than anyone 
else. Canadian cars were also the largest and (second only to the U.S.) the 
heaviest. While it would be convenient to blame this on Canada being a sparse, 
cold country with lots of heavy industry, our ranking was well beyond plenty of 
other countries where that was similarly the case.