Today's word is: Remediation

Remediation. That’s a word which has been thrown around quite a bit lately, in the media. It kind of reminds me of synergy and synergies, the buzz words of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The two words, synergy and remediation are nothing alike, obviously, but it is the frequency with which the words have been used, that is familiar to me.

Synergy: increased effectiveness, achievement etc., produced by combined action, co-operation etc. (from the Canadian Oxford Dictionary pp 1471, 1998 edition)

Yet I cannot find an actual definition of remediation in this same dictionary. I’ve got remedy, and remedial . . . but no remediation. The definition which seems to best meet the most frequent use of the word is this: means of counteracting or removing anything undesirable.

One can see, given the state of the world’s economies, governments, etc., why remediation seems to becoming this decade’s newest buzzword.

I hate buzzwords, with a passion. Every time a new one surfaces, you know there is always a better, simpler, less convoluted word, or words, which can be used in it’s place.

Take for example, the site where the Fort Hotel once stood. Following the fire which destroyed the building, it became an even greater eyesore, than when it was simply an old, dilapidated building. Did the owners care? No. As all Fort St. John residents know, he merely slapped up a butt-ugly fence in a token gesture to public safety, and called it good. The City forked over a sizeable chunk of money to put up a better fence. I’ve heard figures between $10,000 and $40,000 for this fence. It’s a very pretty fence. But it doesn’t change the fact, that what lies behind it, is a disgrace.

So, the owner fails to clean up the property. He refuses to pay his property taxes, and claimed to be “donating” the property to the City. What a big-hearted, community-minded individual he is. Horseshit. The Fort has been nothing but a farce since the day that guy bought and said he was going to turn it into a pub and sushi bar.

Now that it belongs to the City, the property is going to be remediated to the tune of $200,000+. Really. They are going to “counteract or remove anything undesirable”?

Don’t they really mean, clean it up? Hey, yeah! Why don’t they do that?? Just clean it up! I bet it costs taxpayers a heck of a lot less than remediation. After-all, I seem to remember that using synergies cost us a lot of money.

Just say what you mean. It’s not like it’s gonna kill you.

That’s it for today. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’m going to go remediate the lunch dishes now, and perhaps remediate the laundry pile as well, before the kids come home from school. Then I’ll get them to put some synergies to work to remediate their bedrooms . . . after they’ve done their homework.