Canada’s Debate

I’ve seen this sort of talk quite a bit, and I don’t understand it. Is Iraq engaged in a Civil War? Perhaps. Is the Middle East? Of course not. Time magazine goes so far as to ask on its latest cover what is driving the Civil War in the Middle East.

Correct me wrong, but the last time I checked there is no Middle East society. It is not a country or a nation, it is a loosely defined region. How foolish would I look if I called the Counter-Reformation a Civil War? Start talking about the War of the Rose and you have a case, but that was an internal conflict that played out as a result of a larger conflagration, and the same is true of Iraq and the Middle East.

The truth of the matter is that this sort of dialogue is just more of the same screwy orientalism that isolates (at least intellectually) and quantifies Islam in ways that legitimate the current “War on Terror,” and it’s numerous tertiary endeavours in the Middle East.

David Miller is spearheading a new initiative to convince the Federal government to cough up… I mean transfer… one cent of the GST to municipalities. The campaign, called ONE CENT NOW, is being promoted by a handful of mayors from across the country and is designed to continue pressure on provincial and federal leadership during a time when elections loom in for a majority of all Canadians provincially, and with a federal one in sight.

Speaking at the Toronto City Summit Alliance, Miller said the campaign for a penny of the GST would provide Canada’s municipal governments with more than $5 billion per year.

Toronto would get more than $400 million this year, while other GTA municipalities, including Ajax, Aurora and Oshawa, would get $437 million.

Normally I love to stump for Toronto, but the fact remains that the federal government can’t lose $5 billion in revenue and do any of the things that I would like it to, such as fixing the “fiscal imbalance”, restoring the Kelowna Accords, making an investment in climate change, etc. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this initiative.

Well I am once again on the open job market, as apparently teaching in Japan isn’t going to happen. I am basically left in the same in a position I was in three weeks ago, only now the gap in my employment history is larger. Hurray!

Anyways, I’ve taken to finally writing some science-fiction in my spare time (as well as resurrecting an earlier enterprise) in order to stave off the boredom between rejection letters. Let me tell you, writing fiction is no cake walk… Anyways, here’s a little sample.

He stirred. Reality washed over him the way a cement truck washes over sightless rodent. “And in our leading story this morning, engineers at the Jet Propulsion laboratory are reporting that…”

“Shit.” He turned off the alarm clock and pulled himself out of bed, stopping only to look at the time. He was late.

Breakfast; a banana and a dry bagel. As he chewed hurriedly he mused that he would kill for a proper bagel. Too bad there were none to be found in Florida. He bypassed his usual shower to save time. Being late is fine when you work with a collection of sun-starved scientists, but it looks bad when you’ve got an appointment with the press. He dressed with the same attention to detail that a homeless man would show his morning shave; which he also skipped.

I’m curious what people think. Obviously I expect no appraisal of my creative skills from such a small sample, but rather how it reads. In the past I’ve always found myself unconsciously becoming extremely derivative of whomever it is I’ve read recently. However, since the only book I’ve touched in the last month is Moby Dick, I’m kind of curious which author I end up accidentally parroting. Anything sound familiar?

So, someone at the Globe and Mail got a sneak peak at a draft of the Tories’ new environmental plan… how does it stack up? Well, by the look of things, pretty poorly, and exactly how everyone expected it to.

Basically they’ve written the rather unambitious Liberal plan from 2005 and added some medium-term goals which represent the same “business as usual” benchmarking as the short-term ones: intensity based reductions based on flawed baselines.

The government documents set a target for the oil sands of reducing the intensity of emissions by 40 per cent by 2020. If all oil sands projects go ahead, Mr. Bramley said, industry could meet that target while allowing total greenhouse-gas emissions to rise 248 per cent higher than 2000 emission levels. The documents also appear to acknowledge this, he said.

Slapping clean clothes on a panhandler does not solve the homeless problem, it just makes it a bit easier to ignore it for a few more weeks. If this is how the government plans to go about fighting climate change, we’re in trouble.

I’ve spent fifteen minutes trying to come up with a title for this post, and I’ve got nothing.

The Balcony Rapist is going to be released this week, and as such his story (as well as the circumstances of his arrest and incarceration) are being retread in the news.

I’ve been following the story closely, not out of a personal interest, but for the way that it exposes our own attitudes about crime and punishment. While paedophilia tends to bring out the desire for vengeance in us (understandable given our instinctual need to protect the young), rape always has a different effect. Rape inspires not a knee-jerk reaction (in general) but rather hand-wringing and our own personal misgivings about various aspects of both the law and the way our society interacts.

Naturally, these reactions manifest differently for men and women. (Continue reading…)

So, did anyone else watch the 79th annual Los Angeles Dress and Jewellery show last night? I caught the bit after BSG ended, and I gotta say, it’s a actually a great time for movies. Even though I didn’t that many of the flicks this year, I was thoroughly encouraged by the variety and quality of films that are being produced in Hollywood and abroad. To my estimation everyone deserved to be there (except of course for Randy Newman.) It’s a curious thing that as television, print media and radio all slowly circle the bowl that the movies are enjoying a sort of second renaissance. Sure, there’s lots of dogs out there; but that’s an unavoidable fact of life when your average movie is an idiot. Don’t believe me? Take a look around and consider just how dumb most of the people are that you interact with on a daily basis; then consider that half of the population is dumber than that.*

The fact remains that talented, thoughtful and creative people are able to find a voice for themselves in the theatres, and that hasn’t always been the case. Movies (and a stroll in the mountains) are the one thing that really breaks through my overwhelming cynicism, and I think it’s worth mentioning that unlike many of our cultural touchstones, the cinema is no longer a lost-cause.

* Pilfered from George Carlin

Note: My server is acting kind of temperamental today. Apologies to anyone who has trouble with the blog.

The treatment and care of the mentally ill in Canada has gone through two distinct phases: the institutionalization phase (1850’s through until the 1970’s) and the de-institutionalization phase which has followed.

It is worth noting that the two phases have more in common than they differ. Both involved the infantilization and stigmatization of the mentally ill; and while social attitudes have changed as our knowledge of the brain has advanced, the prevailing notions of “illness” that we have today are still very much akin to the “retardation” conceptualization of the Victorian era… the only real difference is that we decided to start turfing the “harmless” ones in the 70’s and 80’s so that the sidewalk could ‘take care of them.’

The dilemma that has challenged mental-health activists in all this time is how to best go about improving care and treatment: do you work to end the stigmatization of the mentally ill and create a social environment which would be more tolerant of progressive treatment plans; or do you work aggressively to improve treatment and hope that as the quality of care improves the stigma is reversed? (Continue reading…)

I’ve talked about a carbon market several times in recent weeks. I’ve argued before (and I’ll say it again) that emissions trading may not immediately reduce emissions, but the long-term effect of trading is both investment and cleaner technology. I say “argued” because I of course have been challenged on every turn with these assertions.

Anyways, I just thought I’d share with you another writer’s take on the system.

Europe has done it, with the result that there are 11,500 companies that are required to meet specific emission targets. Consequently, there are 11,500 companies deciding every year whether they are going to pay a penalty for exceeding their emission limits, pay the capital costs of upgrading their operations to reduce emissions, or pay a lot less to get a one-year exemption by buying emission credits that will count toward meeting their annual cap.

The market has delivered its verdict, and buying and selling emissions is a flourishing business. In 2005, trading in Europe reached $9.6 billion. Worldwide, the value of trading in the first nine months of 2006 doubled the entire trading of 2005 ($24.6 billion compared to $12.7 billion).

Why is this trading important?

In the first nine months of last year, firms, mostly from Europe and Japan, were involved in emissions trading that was responsible for reducing Chinese emissions in an amount equal to the total emissions in Canada for generating electricity, and almost equal to the total emissions for transportation. That was a huge accomplishment, and it’s too bad Canada couldn’t participate to improve the record even more.

Pretty much dispels the “it won’t make a lick of difference as long as China and America are exempt” argument…