There are close to nine pages, mostly pictures, of the Prince of Wales and Camilla.
There's another full page of pictures, supposedly of people enjoying Victoria day - two people on bicycles, a man fishing another cutting grass - and a lobster boat lying on its side. Wow! Talk about gutsy journalism, and the news you need to know.
In this one day, there was more space devoted to pictures and gush about trivia than I have seen for reporting on shale gas in the whole time I've lived here. Why, there wasn't even room for the standard page of minimum wage employees holding up giant cheques for charity and smiling.
There was more space devoted to that one picture of a lobster boat lying on its side than has been devoted to reporting on the Quebec student strike - though the student strike has made serious news in papers around the world.
This is not by accident. Harper, Alward, and the corporations who rule us want us to think trivial, to let them run things. It's not new. Kings and emperors and dictators have done this throughout history. That's what the shows at the Coliseum were all about - to keep the Roman people entertained, trivial, ignorant of what their rulers were doing, ignorant of how they were being ripped off, ignorant even of their own poverty.
And we still have the War of 1812 celebrations to go.
There was news, rather good news in NewsToday. Harper is pulling out of Afghanistan completely in 2014. He didn't even claim that all those years of fighting and all those deaths had achieved anything at all. Nor could he mention what the war was about because we've never heard a plausible reason for it in the first place.
Nor did he mention the damage Obama has done. It was Obama who ordered a bigger war, when he called a troop surge, to end it quickly. In fact, all it did was to increase the butcher's bill, especially for Afghan civilians.
Oh, and be prepared cut unnecessary luxuries like health care and environmental research. Harper has promised to pay $330 million to the government of Afghanistan - the world's most corrupt government - to help cover its defence budget. Right. A nice retirement fund for Karzai.
But didn't the prince and Camilla look lovely? And wow!..that photo of a lobster boat on its side.
Not imporant enough to make today's paper were the Quebec student strike, the Oscar winning documentary Inside Job, the phone call between Blair and Bush just before the invasion of Iraq, and the extraordinary numbers of innocent people behind bars in the US. Very quickly....
1.The Quebec student strike has come to look very much like a general revolt against corrupt government, the growing wealth and power of business leaders while other suffer, the decline of democracy -all those problems we know so well in New Brunswick.
2. Inside Job is a look at the stunning levels of corruption in the American university world - espccially among top academics at the most pretigious institutions. Corrupted by, in particular, large corporations like drug companies, oil producers, major banks, they happily produce false studies, and lie to the news media.
Having spent much of my life in universities, I was not surprised to read that this happens. I've seen enough of it - even in New Brunswick where I'm pretty sure I've seen the Times and Transcript taking advantage of it. What did suprise me is the scale of rot and corruption in Americn universities, particularly in fields like economics, political science, commerce (Alas! Nobody even bothers to corrupt historians.).
The documentary is for sale. Just google Guardian bookshop. Look for Charles Ferguson, Inside Job.
Oh, yes. The documentary also showed that a high proportion of think tanks (you know, organizations like Fraser Insitute, AIMS, that sort of thing) are simply fronts for propaganda.
3. A British court has ordered that the Foreign office must release a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Blair and George Bush shortly before their invasion of Iraq. Apparently, they were trying to start the invasion before UN inspectors could verify their story that Saddam had stocked "weapons of mass destruction". They succeeded, of course. And, to this day, no such weapons have ever been found.
BTW - what is a weapon of mass destruction? The British and Americans killed anywhere from a quarter million to a more likely million and a half, mostly civilians. In either case, that is surely mass destruction.Did they do it using weapons of minimum destruction?
4. A US study has determined that, since 1989, at least 2000 innocent Americans have been found guilty of crimes ranging all the way to murder - usually because of faulty court practices, false confessions, and illegal behaviour by prosecutors. And this just counts the ones who were cleared on appeals. Before they were cleared, most spent years in prison, and at least two were executed.
Gee! You'd never know that from watching Law and Order.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
May 21:
Special note - The Moncton Times and Transcript has still not said a word about the Quebec student strike, though it has now, as was predictable, gone international. Very few of the news media in Canada have shown any grasp of what this is all really about, and how serious it is. The Irving press, once again, stands out. It has not misread the student strike. It doesn't even seem to know it's on.
The Chronicle Herald feels they should sit down with the Quebec government should chat reasonably with Charest. This is the Jean Charest who is up to his ears in corruption in the construction business, and in connections with the mafia that almost every Quebec premier has had.
Make no mistake about it. This student strike is going to continue to spread. As I said several days ago, this is a spark in an explosive world. It's not about spoiled brats. It's about a spoiled rotten government - not unlike the one in New Brunswick.
NewsToday devotes four (plus) pages to the visit of a man whose only distinction in life was being born into a royal family. There is also a picture of his wife smiling. Yes. It's true. It says so right under the picture...Duchess...smiles.... I was so thrilled to read that. Will his visit to New Brunswick cost us much? You bet. Will it change the life of anybody in the province (or anywhere else in this world?) No. Of course not. But we still get four pages of pictures and gush.
So why are we, who need medical equipment, money for the elderly, for schools, for housing. spending millions to see pictures of two nonentities smiling? Because, like the War of 1812 celebration, it's good press for Harper. He's playing the patriot card for the type of person who is a major factor in his electoral base. This goes with put 'em in jail and throw away the key, dismantle environment regulations, cut government service just when we need them and, now, God bless the empire. It all appeals to that hard core of "differently advantaged" voters that Harper depends on to hold power with only two-thirds of the voting population won't vote for him.
In lesser news, Canada is being urged to stay on in Afghanistan past 2014 to train troops. We may well be asked to help out, too, with Obama's promise to pay Afghanistan's military budget for years to come. And what has all this achieved?
In over a decade of war, the US government is broke, the US economy in tatters, at least tens of thousands of civlians murdered, thousands of our troops killed. There is no democracy; and the government is so corrupt and hated that it doesn't even control the capital city.
Canada won't run for the exits? Then Canada is a damn fool. Why should we squander more lives and money for a war that never made sense in the first place?
Oh, yes. There is a reason. We have to pretend we succeeded in ----whatever. )Get ready for the speeches about how this war preserved freedom in Canada. We have to do that to save the faces of war criminals, murderers and torturers from Dick Cheney to Obama. We have to pretend we kill people to bring them democracy. Besides, we need to transfer combat troops Syria, Iran. possibly Yemen, along with other parts of Africa. We're also going to need them for Latin America and Asia. In fact, those moves are already happening.
Oh, don't miss page B 6. That's today's regular page of photos of strangers, holding cheques for a worthy cause and smiling.
Then there is an unfortunate letter to the editor. (Not surprisingly, it was selected as letter of the day.) Its expresses anger over the protests at moving Moncton High to Royal Oaks. Its main points are -
1. writer ----We have to set priorities in provincial spending. The government has spent 1.475 to buy land for a
new school. Documents have been signed. If we block the school now, that money will be wasted.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Me----(Well, yes. We do have to set priorities. But we didn't. The government simply chose that location - and has refused to tell us why Our first priority is that a government damn well tells us why it makes the choices it does. Our first priority is to make t his a democracy. And you don't make a democracy by telling government it can do what it wants to without telling us why.
Another priority is to plan locations of major buildings which will last at least fifty years so that they will make sense for all those years. Royal Oaks almost certainly won't. That means you don't have to worry about the 1.475 million being wasted. It already has been. And just wait till you see the sweetheart deals for the "public/private" partnership that will build it.)
______________________________________________________________________________
2. writer----The opposing group can't even agree on whether it wants a new school or a restoration of the existing one.
__________________________________________________________________________
me ----(And your point is? The argument is not about exaactly what the solution should be. The argument is that there has been no public discussion of what should be done, no information in the press about alternatives; and the government refuses to say why it made the decision it did. Straighten out democracy in this province. Then you can work out the details.
__________________________________________________________________________
3. writer----Opposition leaders are using this issue to blemish the government.
________________________________________________________________________
me----(Again, in a democracy, oppositioin leaders are supposed to oppose. That's why they are called opposition leaders. In any case, this is a government which can do a bang-up job of blemishing itself without help. And when you reveal that sort of thing in a government it benefits everybody. You seem to be hazy on the concept of democracy.)
__________________________________________________________________
4. writer-----Only a small minority are opposed to moving the school to Royal Oaks. And this issue affects only a minute percentage of the Moncton population.
________________________________________________________________
me----(Oh? How do you know how many are opposed? Did you read it in the Truthful Times and Transcript? My own guess is that you are half right. Only a minority of the total population is opposed. But, as well, only a tiny minority are for. Perhaps bitten too many times in the past, perhaps cowed by the oppressive control exercised over the province, most people in Moncton seem to prefer to have no opinons about anything. Remember the turnouts at the provincial and municipal elections?
As for the percentage affected, are you sure you understand the meaning of the word minute? In fact, it affects a large proportion directly -and all of us indirectly since we have to pay for it in money as well as in the fiture development of our city. As well, we pay for it whenever democracy is ignored - as this government so frequently does.)
_________________________________________________________________________
5.writer ----Most Monctonians are tired of hearing about MHS.
__________________________________________________________________
(Ah, I must have missed the report on that in the Truthful Times. Or do you have special abilities, and can see around corners?)
________________________________________________________________________
6.writer----We must live within our means and focus on our priorites.
__________________________________________________________________________
me----(Yes. But how do you decide either means or priorities unless you discuss them?)
_______________________________________________________________________
7.writer----- "My priorities are health care, job creation....which will happen wherever the school is built."
________________________________________________________________________
me----(Impressive but, again, shaky on the concept of democracy. In a democracy, we are all allowed to have our own priorities - just like you. My first one is getting a handle on what the future is going to be like, and how to prepare for it so that we can make rational plans for health care, educaton, etc.
Actually, no, there's a priority before that - to establish a real democracy in New Brunswick. Until we do, all the rest is just blowing bubbles.
On the question of job creation, am I correct in assuming you are a Conservative? Now, it's no secret that both the Conservatives and the Liberals have a close relationship with large corporations in this province.Now, close your eyes and think really, really hard.
Why would large corporations want job creation (or prosperity at all) in New Brunswick. This is only a small part of their market. But it is a major part of their labour force and of their resources. Is there a picture forming in your mind?
Of course. Our major corporations don't want full employment and prosperity in New Brusnwick. they don't want those any more than they want an honest newspaper.
They want cheap labour, kept cheap by fears of unemployment. They want cheap resources from people too scared to refuse them. They want low costs for health care and serniors so they can pay even lower taxes. Not only are they not interested in your priorities; they have every intention of making sure they don't ever happen. This province has a long, long history of what big business wants. Read it some day.)
_________________________________________________________________________
back to just me.....
And why did the TandT publish this as "Letter of the Day"?
Gee. I'll have to think about that.
Readers should look over this letter carefully. The wording suggests it was written by a person with political ambitions. The language is in a very "politician" style. Notice that she says the opposition is trying to "blemish" the government. Blemish is a loaded word. It suggests that not only is it attacking the government, but it is doing so in an improper, even immoral, way to a government that's as pure as the driven snow.
You can just tell she thinks Liberals and Conservatives are different. That's cute.
The Chronicle Herald feels they should sit down with the Quebec government should chat reasonably with Charest. This is the Jean Charest who is up to his ears in corruption in the construction business, and in connections with the mafia that almost every Quebec premier has had.
Make no mistake about it. This student strike is going to continue to spread. As I said several days ago, this is a spark in an explosive world. It's not about spoiled brats. It's about a spoiled rotten government - not unlike the one in New Brunswick.
NewsToday devotes four (plus) pages to the visit of a man whose only distinction in life was being born into a royal family. There is also a picture of his wife smiling. Yes. It's true. It says so right under the picture...Duchess...smiles.... I was so thrilled to read that. Will his visit to New Brunswick cost us much? You bet. Will it change the life of anybody in the province (or anywhere else in this world?) No. Of course not. But we still get four pages of pictures and gush.
So why are we, who need medical equipment, money for the elderly, for schools, for housing. spending millions to see pictures of two nonentities smiling? Because, like the War of 1812 celebration, it's good press for Harper. He's playing the patriot card for the type of person who is a major factor in his electoral base. This goes with put 'em in jail and throw away the key, dismantle environment regulations, cut government service just when we need them and, now, God bless the empire. It all appeals to that hard core of "differently advantaged" voters that Harper depends on to hold power with only two-thirds of the voting population won't vote for him.
In lesser news, Canada is being urged to stay on in Afghanistan past 2014 to train troops. We may well be asked to help out, too, with Obama's promise to pay Afghanistan's military budget for years to come. And what has all this achieved?
In over a decade of war, the US government is broke, the US economy in tatters, at least tens of thousands of civlians murdered, thousands of our troops killed. There is no democracy; and the government is so corrupt and hated that it doesn't even control the capital city.
Canada won't run for the exits? Then Canada is a damn fool. Why should we squander more lives and money for a war that never made sense in the first place?
Oh, yes. There is a reason. We have to pretend we succeeded in ----whatever. )Get ready for the speeches about how this war preserved freedom in Canada. We have to do that to save the faces of war criminals, murderers and torturers from Dick Cheney to Obama. We have to pretend we kill people to bring them democracy. Besides, we need to transfer combat troops Syria, Iran. possibly Yemen, along with other parts of Africa. We're also going to need them for Latin America and Asia. In fact, those moves are already happening.
Oh, don't miss page B 6. That's today's regular page of photos of strangers, holding cheques for a worthy cause and smiling.
Then there is an unfortunate letter to the editor. (Not surprisingly, it was selected as letter of the day.) Its expresses anger over the protests at moving Moncton High to Royal Oaks. Its main points are -
1. writer ----We have to set priorities in provincial spending. The government has spent 1.475 to buy land for a
new school. Documents have been signed. If we block the school now, that money will be wasted.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Me----(Well, yes. We do have to set priorities. But we didn't. The government simply chose that location - and has refused to tell us why Our first priority is that a government damn well tells us why it makes the choices it does. Our first priority is to make t his a democracy. And you don't make a democracy by telling government it can do what it wants to without telling us why.
Another priority is to plan locations of major buildings which will last at least fifty years so that they will make sense for all those years. Royal Oaks almost certainly won't. That means you don't have to worry about the 1.475 million being wasted. It already has been. And just wait till you see the sweetheart deals for the "public/private" partnership that will build it.)
______________________________________________________________________________
2. writer----The opposing group can't even agree on whether it wants a new school or a restoration of the existing one.
__________________________________________________________________________
me ----(And your point is? The argument is not about exaactly what the solution should be. The argument is that there has been no public discussion of what should be done, no information in the press about alternatives; and the government refuses to say why it made the decision it did. Straighten out democracy in this province. Then you can work out the details.
__________________________________________________________________________
3. writer----Opposition leaders are using this issue to blemish the government.
________________________________________________________________________
me----(Again, in a democracy, oppositioin leaders are supposed to oppose. That's why they are called opposition leaders. In any case, this is a government which can do a bang-up job of blemishing itself without help. And when you reveal that sort of thing in a government it benefits everybody. You seem to be hazy on the concept of democracy.)
__________________________________________________________________
4. writer-----Only a small minority are opposed to moving the school to Royal Oaks. And this issue affects only a minute percentage of the Moncton population.
________________________________________________________________
me----(Oh? How do you know how many are opposed? Did you read it in the Truthful Times and Transcript? My own guess is that you are half right. Only a minority of the total population is opposed. But, as well, only a tiny minority are for. Perhaps bitten too many times in the past, perhaps cowed by the oppressive control exercised over the province, most people in Moncton seem to prefer to have no opinons about anything. Remember the turnouts at the provincial and municipal elections?
As for the percentage affected, are you sure you understand the meaning of the word minute? In fact, it affects a large proportion directly -and all of us indirectly since we have to pay for it in money as well as in the fiture development of our city. As well, we pay for it whenever democracy is ignored - as this government so frequently does.)
_________________________________________________________________________
5.writer ----Most Monctonians are tired of hearing about MHS.
__________________________________________________________________
(Ah, I must have missed the report on that in the Truthful Times. Or do you have special abilities, and can see around corners?)
________________________________________________________________________
6.writer----We must live within our means and focus on our priorites.
__________________________________________________________________________
me----(Yes. But how do you decide either means or priorities unless you discuss them?)
_______________________________________________________________________
7.writer----- "My priorities are health care, job creation....which will happen wherever the school is built."
________________________________________________________________________
me----(Impressive but, again, shaky on the concept of democracy. In a democracy, we are all allowed to have our own priorities - just like you. My first one is getting a handle on what the future is going to be like, and how to prepare for it so that we can make rational plans for health care, educaton, etc.
Actually, no, there's a priority before that - to establish a real democracy in New Brunswick. Until we do, all the rest is just blowing bubbles.
On the question of job creation, am I correct in assuming you are a Conservative? Now, it's no secret that both the Conservatives and the Liberals have a close relationship with large corporations in this province.Now, close your eyes and think really, really hard.
Why would large corporations want job creation (or prosperity at all) in New Brunswick. This is only a small part of their market. But it is a major part of their labour force and of their resources. Is there a picture forming in your mind?
Of course. Our major corporations don't want full employment and prosperity in New Brusnwick. they don't want those any more than they want an honest newspaper.
They want cheap labour, kept cheap by fears of unemployment. They want cheap resources from people too scared to refuse them. They want low costs for health care and serniors so they can pay even lower taxes. Not only are they not interested in your priorities; they have every intention of making sure they don't ever happen. This province has a long, long history of what big business wants. Read it some day.)
_________________________________________________________________________
back to just me.....
And why did the TandT publish this as "Letter of the Day"?
Gee. I'll have to think about that.
Readers should look over this letter carefully. The wording suggests it was written by a person with political ambitions. The language is in a very "politician" style. Notice that she says the opposition is trying to "blemish" the government. Blemish is a loaded word. It suggests that not only is it attacking the government, but it is doing so in an improper, even immoral, way to a government that's as pure as the driven snow.
You can just tell she thinks Liberals and Conservatives are different. That's cute.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
May 19:Will Montreal come to Moncton?
First, just a quick look at the Times and Transcript.
1. Four pages of pictures and story about Prince Charles and Duchess Whatever. And they aren't even here yet.
2. A two page spread of identical photos of various companies getting awards for energy efficiency. This is, presumably, an ad paid for by New Brunswick Energy Efficiency whose new CEO is a fervent advocate of shale gas. What do these awards mean? Who knows? All we know is it's a great ad for our government's concern for preserving our environment, and for nice people like Mr. Irving who want to keep New Brunswick green no matter what it costs him.
3. A full page ad with the mandatory photo of eight people holding up a giant cheque, this one for $57,000 dollars for Moncton Hospital. Wow! That's 3 cents for each and every person in greater Moncton. It also prominently displays the logos of all their sponsors so we'll know to bank at Royal Bank and drink Molson's.Let's see - big ceremony, expensive ad...Wouldn't it be better if they sent alll the spending to the hospital - and cut down on the self-praise?
4. The letters to the editor are a storm of protest against the de Adder editorial cartoon about Miramichi and E Coli. And rightly so. But de Adder was not the one who decided to run that cartoon. No editorial cartoonist makes such a decision. That is decided by the editorial page editor. The person who should be apologizing is that editor. So who was it? The paper does not seem to have someone with that title. But Rod Allen's name appears in the usual title slot.
And now back to the real meaning - and consequences - of the Quebec student strike.
Part of the big problem begins with the Quebec universities - because they are just like univeristies across Canada and the US.
Our universities are obsessed with status and intellectual snobbery. All of this is made worse by the grossly misleading ratings by MacLean's magazine. Indeed, the rating are so influential that the hopelessly unqualified editors of MacLeans' Magazine actually run our universities much as the hopelessly unqualified "thinkers' of AIMS have been trying to run our public schools.
We need universities built around the idea of producing a thinking public - also a skilled one, of course - but thinking above all. And they aren't doing it.
That's because univesity teachers are the only teachers who have no training in teaching whatever - and very little respect for it combined with almost no understanding of even what it means. They are good at training people to - oh, to become professors just like them, to train people in certain skills.
But they do not, except by accident, teaching reason, judgement, communication or even reading comprehension to any degree in most of their students. Their general method seems to rest in a belief that if they lecture their students for an hour at a time on the facts and theories that they are so clever as to know, and if the students memorize those for an exam, they will become thinkers.
But that's not, in their view, the main purpose of being a professor. They exist to do research. Research is the path to status, self-esteem, promotion.Often, it is quite useless research but, oh, it is expensive. Research demands a high proportion of those millions of books that cost over $25 dollars a year just to keep them on the shelves. Research means professors can teach only nine hours a week (usually less) for only an eight month year. That leaves all those hours they aren't teaching to be paid for by somebody.
That someobody is the student they hardly teach at all - and then do it badly. Nor do most show any desire to learn how to teach. There's no status in it.
Ignorance, status-seeking and now a weak economy are pricing univerities out of the market, not only for the poor who have always been frozen out, but now for the middle class, too.
The wonder is not that Quebec students are striking but that students across Canada are not striking.
Oh, I know. If you're serious, you can work while going to school; you can borrow. Been there. Done that. It was always a close thing - and I never did make up financially for those lost years. (I left public school teaching to get a doctorate in history. When I at last landed my first university job, it paid exactly what I would have received if I had stayed in public school teaching. The only difference was that now I had a large debt and five years of lost salary.
Is free tuition an unreasonable, spoiled brat demand? Other countries don't think so. Finland, no economic giant, readily offers free university tuition. They do so because private education discriminates against the poor, and that causes us to lose a vast pool of talent. (People who have money do not necessrily have brains.)
Our news media have largely ignored the other issues the strike is about - things like governments that don't give a damn what the voters want. They do only what their wealthier donors tell them to do. (New Brunswick has never had that problem, of course.) It's about a greedy assault on the environment that they will suffer for in their lifetimes. It's about the rapid disappearance of democracy as corporations take over reall power. It's about the demonstrated incompetence of corporations to run socieites. Despite the opinions of nutbars and professional liars, the poor did not cause the economic collapse we are living through. It was caused by the greedy and sometimes illegal behaviour of large corporations. Now the rest of us are paying for their greed, while the corporations continue to get even richer at our expense.
The students are on strike not because of language or nationalism or spoiled bratism. They are on strike because of the rapid disappearance of the world of the future we thought we were building.
Here in New Brunswick, for example, gas companies don't give a damn what we think of the dangers of shale gas. Nor does our government. (Nor will the Liberals if we are foolish enough to elect them again.) If we object, we are trouble makers. And if our objections are sufficiently annoying to the corporations, the police will be called out to "maintain law and order".
The future of Canada is being played out in the streets of Montreal.
The future is that we will increasingly, especially under the pressures of recession, oppose our governments, many of which are profoundly corrupt. (Charest's Quebec is certainly an obvious place to start.)
Governments will refuse to listen.
People will, in desperation, turn to demonstrating. At that point, government will become repressive - in stages - police, riot squads, army, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.
It is already well under way.Harper has already declared environmenalists to be radicals and even terrorists. Charest is proposing legislation so repressive that it has lawyers worried. The US, within months, will pass legistaion giving the army the right to arrest and imprison people without charge or trial. It already has the biggest domestic espionage system in history - and don't kid yourself that it's just watching Moslems. Watch for Canada to follow suit. We have already given American police the right to act freely in Canada. (They act freely in Honduras, too, where they recently shot half a dozen innocent people, two of them pregnant women.)
The age of big brother has arrived. The students in the streets of Montreal are not spoiled brats. They are simply reacting to the destruction of all the democratic values we once had.
If you want to find the real spoiled brats, look for the ones who are not rioting, the sleek and comfortable - and greedy and indifferent- occupants of executive offices. They never riot. Spoiled brats don't have to riot to get what they want.
1. Four pages of pictures and story about Prince Charles and Duchess Whatever. And they aren't even here yet.
2. A two page spread of identical photos of various companies getting awards for energy efficiency. This is, presumably, an ad paid for by New Brunswick Energy Efficiency whose new CEO is a fervent advocate of shale gas. What do these awards mean? Who knows? All we know is it's a great ad for our government's concern for preserving our environment, and for nice people like Mr. Irving who want to keep New Brunswick green no matter what it costs him.
3. A full page ad with the mandatory photo of eight people holding up a giant cheque, this one for $57,000 dollars for Moncton Hospital. Wow! That's 3 cents for each and every person in greater Moncton. It also prominently displays the logos of all their sponsors so we'll know to bank at Royal Bank and drink Molson's.Let's see - big ceremony, expensive ad...Wouldn't it be better if they sent alll the spending to the hospital - and cut down on the self-praise?
4. The letters to the editor are a storm of protest against the de Adder editorial cartoon about Miramichi and E Coli. And rightly so. But de Adder was not the one who decided to run that cartoon. No editorial cartoonist makes such a decision. That is decided by the editorial page editor. The person who should be apologizing is that editor. So who was it? The paper does not seem to have someone with that title. But Rod Allen's name appears in the usual title slot.
And now back to the real meaning - and consequences - of the Quebec student strike.
Part of the big problem begins with the Quebec universities - because they are just like univeristies across Canada and the US.
Our universities are obsessed with status and intellectual snobbery. All of this is made worse by the grossly misleading ratings by MacLean's magazine. Indeed, the rating are so influential that the hopelessly unqualified editors of MacLeans' Magazine actually run our universities much as the hopelessly unqualified "thinkers' of AIMS have been trying to run our public schools.
We need universities built around the idea of producing a thinking public - also a skilled one, of course - but thinking above all. And they aren't doing it.
That's because univesity teachers are the only teachers who have no training in teaching whatever - and very little respect for it combined with almost no understanding of even what it means. They are good at training people to - oh, to become professors just like them, to train people in certain skills.
But they do not, except by accident, teaching reason, judgement, communication or even reading comprehension to any degree in most of their students. Their general method seems to rest in a belief that if they lecture their students for an hour at a time on the facts and theories that they are so clever as to know, and if the students memorize those for an exam, they will become thinkers.
But that's not, in their view, the main purpose of being a professor. They exist to do research. Research is the path to status, self-esteem, promotion.Often, it is quite useless research but, oh, it is expensive. Research demands a high proportion of those millions of books that cost over $25 dollars a year just to keep them on the shelves. Research means professors can teach only nine hours a week (usually less) for only an eight month year. That leaves all those hours they aren't teaching to be paid for by somebody.
That someobody is the student they hardly teach at all - and then do it badly. Nor do most show any desire to learn how to teach. There's no status in it.
Ignorance, status-seeking and now a weak economy are pricing univerities out of the market, not only for the poor who have always been frozen out, but now for the middle class, too.
The wonder is not that Quebec students are striking but that students across Canada are not striking.
Oh, I know. If you're serious, you can work while going to school; you can borrow. Been there. Done that. It was always a close thing - and I never did make up financially for those lost years. (I left public school teaching to get a doctorate in history. When I at last landed my first university job, it paid exactly what I would have received if I had stayed in public school teaching. The only difference was that now I had a large debt and five years of lost salary.
Is free tuition an unreasonable, spoiled brat demand? Other countries don't think so. Finland, no economic giant, readily offers free university tuition. They do so because private education discriminates against the poor, and that causes us to lose a vast pool of talent. (People who have money do not necessrily have brains.)
Our news media have largely ignored the other issues the strike is about - things like governments that don't give a damn what the voters want. They do only what their wealthier donors tell them to do. (New Brunswick has never had that problem, of course.) It's about a greedy assault on the environment that they will suffer for in their lifetimes. It's about the rapid disappearance of democracy as corporations take over reall power. It's about the demonstrated incompetence of corporations to run socieites. Despite the opinions of nutbars and professional liars, the poor did not cause the economic collapse we are living through. It was caused by the greedy and sometimes illegal behaviour of large corporations. Now the rest of us are paying for their greed, while the corporations continue to get even richer at our expense.
The students are on strike not because of language or nationalism or spoiled bratism. They are on strike because of the rapid disappearance of the world of the future we thought we were building.
Here in New Brunswick, for example, gas companies don't give a damn what we think of the dangers of shale gas. Nor does our government. (Nor will the Liberals if we are foolish enough to elect them again.) If we object, we are trouble makers. And if our objections are sufficiently annoying to the corporations, the police will be called out to "maintain law and order".
The future of Canada is being played out in the streets of Montreal.
The future is that we will increasingly, especially under the pressures of recession, oppose our governments, many of which are profoundly corrupt. (Charest's Quebec is certainly an obvious place to start.)
Governments will refuse to listen.
People will, in desperation, turn to demonstrating. At that point, government will become repressive - in stages - police, riot squads, army, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.
It is already well under way.Harper has already declared environmenalists to be radicals and even terrorists. Charest is proposing legislation so repressive that it has lawyers worried. The US, within months, will pass legistaion giving the army the right to arrest and imprison people without charge or trial. It already has the biggest domestic espionage system in history - and don't kid yourself that it's just watching Moslems. Watch for Canada to follow suit. We have already given American police the right to act freely in Canada. (They act freely in Honduras, too, where they recently shot half a dozen innocent people, two of them pregnant women.)
The age of big brother has arrived. The students in the streets of Montreal are not spoiled brats. They are simply reacting to the destruction of all the democratic values we once had.
If you want to find the real spoiled brats, look for the ones who are not rioting, the sleek and comfortable - and greedy and indifferent- occupants of executive offices. They never riot. Spoiled brats don't have to riot to get what they want.
Friday, May 18, 2012
May 18: Quebec and spoiled brats
Okay - The Moncton Times and Transcript quickly.
What is in the TandT?
1. Brilliant column by Alec Bruce.
2. disturbing column by David Suzuki.
3. Phony action on shale gas by the NB government.
What's not in the TandT?
1. Ford and Geneal Motors linked to illegal destruction of Brazil rain forest - and to slavery.
(who would have guessed?)
2. Harper, as part of bill to speed up exploitation of oil and gas regions is going to close down the National Roundtable for the Environment and the Economy. (But don't worry. Alward will watch out to protect us from environmental problems.)
Now to Quebec.
Reaction to the Quebec student strike in the Canadian news media has commonly been what is technically called the "old fart" school of commentary, describing the students as spoiled brats. The Chronicle Herald, in a variation of that theme, says that the law must be upheld. (I don't believe it has ever made such a comment when corporations have broken the law.) Of course, billionaires don't riot in the streets. At least, I can't recall the last time I saw one. That could mean that billionaires are not spoiled brats. Or it could mean something else.....
Maybe the students are spoiled brats. But that tells us nothing about anything, and has no bearing whatever on what we are facing, and why. People have reasons for the way they behave. Even spoiled brats have reasons. If we want to solve the problem, we have to understand what those reasons are. Harrumphing about spoiled brats and enforcing the law will have no effect on what the Quebec student strike is really about - and the effect such thinking is soon going to have well beyond the borders of Quebec..
But it can be hard to figure exactly what people's reasons are. We humans are funny creatures. We often (maybe usually) act without knowing exactly why we're doing whatever we're doing. But if we stand back and forget our urge to make thrunderiing denunciations, we can make some pretty good guesses.
1. Remember the turnout in New Brunswick's municipal elections? In the last federal election? Our democracy is in trouble. Voter participation has been dropping steadily for over fifty years. Canada is led by a paryt that only one-third of us voted for. And that's quite common in the "democratic" world.
Did people suddenly became lazy in the last fifty years? Is there a virus? Possibly. But more likely it's been a loss of trust in politicians and in democracy, itself. Here in New Brunswick, our elected government (which was supposed to listen to us) quite openly listens to corporations instead -and gives them whatever they want. The same is true of the Charest government in Quebec and the Harperites in Ottawa.
Trust in the democratic process is just about dead. And, as it dies, we can expect to see lots more "spoiled brats" across Canada and, indeed, all of North America.
2. Separatism? Not likely. Separatist leaders, too, have lost a good deal of trust. The separatist movement was based on two, historical myths believed by both French and English. One myth was that the French of Quebec were poor. The other was that the English of Quebec were rich.
In fact, the French working class was generally better off than the English working class, since it had a higher proportion of skilled workers. And there were rich French. (The name Parizeau springs to mind.) The wealthy French dominated the professions. As for the English, some were very rich, indeed. But the majority, by far, were working class, and at the lowest levels.
But that started to change in the 1950s.
3. The change was caused by schooling. To understand that, you have to understand that French Quebec has a social structure of something resembling aristocracy and peasantry. The aristocracy were (and still are) the wealthy French. Every premier (and most cabinet ministers) in the history of Quebec have been graduates of a handful of private schools. (Levesque, who didn't graduate from his private school, might be counted the one, partial exception among premiers.)
The French private schools offered excellent and expensive education with oustanding records of producing bilingual graduates. Thanks to the influence of the students' daddies, they also might receive government grants.
Those same daddies also sat on the boards for public schools, the ones for the peasantry. Rich daddies saw no reason to waste their tax money on peasant children. So the French public schools were badly and cheaply run to keep taxes down. They normally did not qualify students to attend university. Indeed, few would stay past grade nine.
English public schools were based on the Scottish system - with the same programmes for all children, rich and poor. As well, most of the rich English sent their own children to the public schools, so they had a stake in making sure they were good. Across Quebec, Protestant (English) school tax rates were consistently higher than Catholic (French) ones. Few English children would get past grade nine, either - but the system that could do it was in place.
For over a century, that made no great difference at all. Then, in the fifties and sixties there was an explosion of office jobs that required more schooling. The English schools only had to build more classrooms. The French public schools were hopelessly inadequate. The result, by the 1960s, was the rise of an English middle class. The French certainly fell behind in that period. But the ones who did the damage were their own, upper class leaders.
The separatist movement glossed over that. What it talked about was how it would bring social justice to the French poor. And the earlier separatists may have intended to. But the Jacques Parizeau's soon changed that. They changed it to a movement to push the English wealthy aside in favour of the French wealthy. And the rich French still use the private school system to retain their advantage.
The Quebec student strike, for all the attempts of the Parti Quebecois to cuddle up to it, is not likely to be taken in. Indeed, the Parti Quebecois is part of the reason for their disillusionment with government in the first place.
And, oh, this is running too long for a single blog - so I'll finish it tomorrow with a look at how Canadian universities are destroying themselves out of pure snobbery, how university for the poor has become simply become a way to spend a lifetime in debt, how Canada is throwing away potential leaders by the million,a look at the consequences for all of us. And then a brief look at how sensible countries are dealing with this.
What is in the TandT?
1. Brilliant column by Alec Bruce.
2. disturbing column by David Suzuki.
3. Phony action on shale gas by the NB government.
What's not in the TandT?
1. Ford and Geneal Motors linked to illegal destruction of Brazil rain forest - and to slavery.
(who would have guessed?)
2. Harper, as part of bill to speed up exploitation of oil and gas regions is going to close down the National Roundtable for the Environment and the Economy. (But don't worry. Alward will watch out to protect us from environmental problems.)
Now to Quebec.
Reaction to the Quebec student strike in the Canadian news media has commonly been what is technically called the "old fart" school of commentary, describing the students as spoiled brats. The Chronicle Herald, in a variation of that theme, says that the law must be upheld. (I don't believe it has ever made such a comment when corporations have broken the law.) Of course, billionaires don't riot in the streets. At least, I can't recall the last time I saw one. That could mean that billionaires are not spoiled brats. Or it could mean something else.....
Maybe the students are spoiled brats. But that tells us nothing about anything, and has no bearing whatever on what we are facing, and why. People have reasons for the way they behave. Even spoiled brats have reasons. If we want to solve the problem, we have to understand what those reasons are. Harrumphing about spoiled brats and enforcing the law will have no effect on what the Quebec student strike is really about - and the effect such thinking is soon going to have well beyond the borders of Quebec..
But it can be hard to figure exactly what people's reasons are. We humans are funny creatures. We often (maybe usually) act without knowing exactly why we're doing whatever we're doing. But if we stand back and forget our urge to make thrunderiing denunciations, we can make some pretty good guesses.
1. Remember the turnout in New Brunswick's municipal elections? In the last federal election? Our democracy is in trouble. Voter participation has been dropping steadily for over fifty years. Canada is led by a paryt that only one-third of us voted for. And that's quite common in the "democratic" world.
Did people suddenly became lazy in the last fifty years? Is there a virus? Possibly. But more likely it's been a loss of trust in politicians and in democracy, itself. Here in New Brunswick, our elected government (which was supposed to listen to us) quite openly listens to corporations instead -and gives them whatever they want. The same is true of the Charest government in Quebec and the Harperites in Ottawa.
Trust in the democratic process is just about dead. And, as it dies, we can expect to see lots more "spoiled brats" across Canada and, indeed, all of North America.
2. Separatism? Not likely. Separatist leaders, too, have lost a good deal of trust. The separatist movement was based on two, historical myths believed by both French and English. One myth was that the French of Quebec were poor. The other was that the English of Quebec were rich.
In fact, the French working class was generally better off than the English working class, since it had a higher proportion of skilled workers. And there were rich French. (The name Parizeau springs to mind.) The wealthy French dominated the professions. As for the English, some were very rich, indeed. But the majority, by far, were working class, and at the lowest levels.
But that started to change in the 1950s.
3. The change was caused by schooling. To understand that, you have to understand that French Quebec has a social structure of something resembling aristocracy and peasantry. The aristocracy were (and still are) the wealthy French. Every premier (and most cabinet ministers) in the history of Quebec have been graduates of a handful of private schools. (Levesque, who didn't graduate from his private school, might be counted the one, partial exception among premiers.)
The French private schools offered excellent and expensive education with oustanding records of producing bilingual graduates. Thanks to the influence of the students' daddies, they also might receive government grants.
Those same daddies also sat on the boards for public schools, the ones for the peasantry. Rich daddies saw no reason to waste their tax money on peasant children. So the French public schools were badly and cheaply run to keep taxes down. They normally did not qualify students to attend university. Indeed, few would stay past grade nine.
English public schools were based on the Scottish system - with the same programmes for all children, rich and poor. As well, most of the rich English sent their own children to the public schools, so they had a stake in making sure they were good. Across Quebec, Protestant (English) school tax rates were consistently higher than Catholic (French) ones. Few English children would get past grade nine, either - but the system that could do it was in place.
For over a century, that made no great difference at all. Then, in the fifties and sixties there was an explosion of office jobs that required more schooling. The English schools only had to build more classrooms. The French public schools were hopelessly inadequate. The result, by the 1960s, was the rise of an English middle class. The French certainly fell behind in that period. But the ones who did the damage were their own, upper class leaders.
The separatist movement glossed over that. What it talked about was how it would bring social justice to the French poor. And the earlier separatists may have intended to. But the Jacques Parizeau's soon changed that. They changed it to a movement to push the English wealthy aside in favour of the French wealthy. And the rich French still use the private school system to retain their advantage.
The Quebec student strike, for all the attempts of the Parti Quebecois to cuddle up to it, is not likely to be taken in. Indeed, the Parti Quebecois is part of the reason for their disillusionment with government in the first place.
And, oh, this is running too long for a single blog - so I'll finish it tomorrow with a look at how Canadian universities are destroying themselves out of pure snobbery, how university for the poor has become simply become a way to spend a lifetime in debt, how Canada is throwing away potential leaders by the million,a look at the consequences for all of us. And then a brief look at how sensible countries are dealing with this.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
May 17: Prince Charles and Camilla to walk on....
...a street in St. John.
Oh, I could die. I could just die.
That's the big story in section C. But skip through the rest (almost all ads) to p. C 8. Look hard. There's a tiny story hidden way up in the corner. (U.N. criticizes Canada"). It seems that 800,00 households in Canada suffer 'food insecurity'. That means 800,000 households have no idea where the next meal is coming from. Though the story doesn't say so, that also meaans that most of those households are dependinig heavily on foods that cause obesity and other forms of bad health. Then the story offers a misleading statistic. It places that 800,000 figure in the context of a population of 34,000,000. But a household is not a person.
A household is at least two people - either two adults or one adult and a child. It is not a poor person living alone. It could be two adults and 10 children. On a very rough and conservative guess, 800,000 households means 3,200,000 Canadian are inadequately fed. Toss in all those, young and old, living alond, and we're looking at 4,000,000 - at least.
Our federal government dismissed the UN spokesman as a "patronizing academic". Perhaps so. But such a response also sends another message - that our government is made up of people who don't give a damn about the conditions we live in.
The problem is particularly severe among native peoples, the ones most dependent on government help.
Quite apart from the suffering, malnutition is reflected in school and work performance. That means millions of Canadians are starting life without a chance.-and this in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
In local terms, this would give us over 20,000 malnourished people in a metro Moncton that "punches over its weight".
And it's even worse in the US where the government plans to cut down on food for the hungry in order to keep taxes low for millionaires and billionaires.
Think about that, Norbert. Then write a column on what this tells us about our grotesquely twisted perversion of capitalism and of government by corporation bosses.
There are only two, important pieces of news in section A. The first is a picture of a truck with superbig wheels rolling over two, wrecked cars. This is an important picture for those who like to look at pictures of trucks with superbig wheels rolling over two, wrecked cars.
The other is on p. C3. Energy Minister Blaney has resigned her seat in the legislature; and Alward has appointed her CEO of government-owned Efficiency New Brunswick. It's a long story - that still manages to miss the only two, important points in it.
1. Blaney has virtually no experience in the field of energy since she has been absent for most of her short time as Energy Minister.
2. She has been a strong supporter of shale gas development - a record that would seem to be in conflict with her new role.
It does, however, mention there was no public search for a CEO. Blaney was simply appointed by Alward.
Norbert's column shocked me. He suggested we should tell entrepreneurs that we aren't going to hand out 'development' money to them in any form. What, he asks, would happen?
Well, for openers Norbert would get fired for suggesting it in the first place. Alward would have to spend at least a week on smelling salts. Um, Norbert, would you, perhaps, be prepared to name the enterpreneurs you have in mind? Any name that start with G? I? M?
The rest of his column is just silly.
Jody Dallaire and Alec Bruce write on closely related topics; and both, as usual, are worth the read.
On op ed, Rod Allan contributes the usual staff-writer waste of space.
Letters to the Editor is a powerful reminder that the village idiots on both sides are thirsting for a language war. Don't encourage them.
The Times and Transcript has yet to report anything of substance on the student strike in Quebec - though it has implications that could be serious for Canada - and maybe beyond. As it happens, I have quite a bit of experience, both personally and professionally, of what is going on in that strike. If tomorrow's Times and Transcript is another nothing, I may devote the space to what is going on in Quebec.
Oh, I could die. I could just die.
That's the big story in section C. But skip through the rest (almost all ads) to p. C 8. Look hard. There's a tiny story hidden way up in the corner. (U.N. criticizes Canada"). It seems that 800,00 households in Canada suffer 'food insecurity'. That means 800,000 households have no idea where the next meal is coming from. Though the story doesn't say so, that also meaans that most of those households are dependinig heavily on foods that cause obesity and other forms of bad health. Then the story offers a misleading statistic. It places that 800,000 figure in the context of a population of 34,000,000. But a household is not a person.
A household is at least two people - either two adults or one adult and a child. It is not a poor person living alone. It could be two adults and 10 children. On a very rough and conservative guess, 800,000 households means 3,200,000 Canadian are inadequately fed. Toss in all those, young and old, living alond, and we're looking at 4,000,000 - at least.
Our federal government dismissed the UN spokesman as a "patronizing academic". Perhaps so. But such a response also sends another message - that our government is made up of people who don't give a damn about the conditions we live in.
The problem is particularly severe among native peoples, the ones most dependent on government help.
Quite apart from the suffering, malnutition is reflected in school and work performance. That means millions of Canadians are starting life without a chance.-and this in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
In local terms, this would give us over 20,000 malnourished people in a metro Moncton that "punches over its weight".
And it's even worse in the US where the government plans to cut down on food for the hungry in order to keep taxes low for millionaires and billionaires.
Think about that, Norbert. Then write a column on what this tells us about our grotesquely twisted perversion of capitalism and of government by corporation bosses.
There are only two, important pieces of news in section A. The first is a picture of a truck with superbig wheels rolling over two, wrecked cars. This is an important picture for those who like to look at pictures of trucks with superbig wheels rolling over two, wrecked cars.
The other is on p. C3. Energy Minister Blaney has resigned her seat in the legislature; and Alward has appointed her CEO of government-owned Efficiency New Brunswick. It's a long story - that still manages to miss the only two, important points in it.
1. Blaney has virtually no experience in the field of energy since she has been absent for most of her short time as Energy Minister.
2. She has been a strong supporter of shale gas development - a record that would seem to be in conflict with her new role.
It does, however, mention there was no public search for a CEO. Blaney was simply appointed by Alward.
Norbert's column shocked me. He suggested we should tell entrepreneurs that we aren't going to hand out 'development' money to them in any form. What, he asks, would happen?
Well, for openers Norbert would get fired for suggesting it in the first place. Alward would have to spend at least a week on smelling salts. Um, Norbert, would you, perhaps, be prepared to name the enterpreneurs you have in mind? Any name that start with G? I? M?
The rest of his column is just silly.
Jody Dallaire and Alec Bruce write on closely related topics; and both, as usual, are worth the read.
On op ed, Rod Allan contributes the usual staff-writer waste of space.
Letters to the Editor is a powerful reminder that the village idiots on both sides are thirsting for a language war. Don't encourage them.
The Times and Transcript has yet to report anything of substance on the student strike in Quebec - though it has implications that could be serious for Canada - and maybe beyond. As it happens, I have quite a bit of experience, both personally and professionally, of what is going on in that strike. If tomorrow's Times and Transcript is another nothing, I may devote the space to what is going on in Quebec.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
May 16:Lots of ads....
Not much news.
That makes it hard to talk about what's in the Moncton Times and Transcript - because almost nothing's in it. So today, we'll take a quick look at what's in it - and then a look at what isn't in it.
The risk of E. Coli infection has passed. That takes care of section A.
Section C. Mr Alward is impreseed by a recommendation that the NB government take more risks in extending help to provinical private business (translation - hand out more corporate welfare.) that recommendation came - surprise - from a committee led by a business leader. (Meanwhile, Canada moves to cut back EI payments from those lazy bums who lose their jobs in the recession. By the way, those lazy bums paid for EI insurance. It was deducted from their pay cheques. I have seen no evidence that corporations have paid for their welfare cheques.)
Canada is continuing to cut its forces in Afghanistan. But the news story doesn't really tell us why. So here's why. The war was a lost a long time ago. Uncountable tens of thousands of figbhers on both sides have died. The civilian dead - murdered accidentally, killed on purpose or for the fun of it, died of starvation and/or exposure, bombings, illness created by the war are uncounted and uncountable. And nobody even bothered to count the dead mercenaries.
We've known for years that this war was unwinnable. That's why France and other NATO countries are pullng out. So why are the US, Canada and Britain taking so long to leave? Because it would make our leaders look bad for having gone into Afghanistan in the first place. So, to save face for Bush and Obama and Harper and Blair,, thousands have died. And more will die.
We leave behind a legacy of destruction, death, disease, cripples, corruption - and well-deserved hatred.
The op ed page, which most newspapers reserve for serious comment, is devoted to the usual triviality by Brian Cormier and Eric Lewis . Read these only if thinking gives you a headache.
The editorial has the nerve to say that voters seem to be losing touch with politics. Of course they are. The Moncton Times and Transcript has worked for years to keep voters in ignorance and out of touch with politics. Well, the turnout for the recent elections is good news..It says that the strategy of the Irving Press has worked, and it's time to break out the champagne.
Norbert's column...the words silly, incoherent, hysterical come to mind. He rants about ideology - but clearly does not know what the word means. (He seems to think it means people who disagree with his thinking.)
What isn't in the news - though it is in other papers?
China is setting up newspapers in Africa. No big deal? Think again. China is working hard to establish itself as a force in Africa. Of course. Africa has a phenomenal wealth in minerals that we rarely hear of. That's why the western world - Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and now the US (and Canada) -has been plundering, enslaving, torturing and murdering in uncountable millions in that sad continent. China is making its play for a large piece of the action.
So is the US. That's why we bombed Libya and encouraged rebellions in Syria and Egypt, and send death squads into Iran. It has nothing to do with democracy, nothing to do with saving lives. In fact, in Libya and Syria, we h ave caused more deaths, far more, than we have prevented. Libya, under the rebels we supported, is now murdering and torturing anybody who is a black African. The rebels, using the weapons we supplied are now fighting each other, and killing large numbers of civilians in the process. In Syria, our side, supplying money, weapons, and mercenaries for the rebels (as well as special ops troops) hs made a full war of what was a manageable conflict. And there is worse to come for Africa and the Middle East, much worse.
And the TandT continues to ignore the student strike n Quebec. This is turning into something profoundly serious - with quite likely some impact nationally as well as provincially. At best, all we wil get out of this from the TandT is a grumpy rant from Norbert that they're all spoiled brats.
Maybe they are. It doesn't matter. The impact will still be there; and it will have to be dealt with.
For insight on this, turn to Acadiennouvelle. Chantal Hébert has been doing some fine commentary on this. I would only urge him to take an even closer look a the class structure of French Quebec. It bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Victorian England. This is a problem the Quiet Revolution of the 60s barely touched - though it is a problem far more serious than the language one. In fact, the language laws and Quebec nationalism were and are almost irrelevant to the future of Quebec. They were used by the leading classes to their own advantage, to make themeselves more powerful and rich - and to distract French voters from their real problem - privileges for the weatlhy few at the expense of everybody else.
That, as in the Occupy Movement, is very much what the Quebec student strike is about.
Okay, Norbert. They're spoiled brats. You wanna go there and spank them?
Incidentally, Acadiennouvelle has a total of 180 columns. But only some 40 are ads. That is such a low proportion, that it must make it difficult for the paper to operate. The Moncton Times and Transcript has double that, plus all those advertising inserts. In total, the Tand T must have at least 10 times the advertising that the Acadienncenounelle has.
Does anybody know why Acadiennouvelle doesn't get more ads? (Hey. I'm still new here.)
That makes it hard to talk about what's in the Moncton Times and Transcript - because almost nothing's in it. So today, we'll take a quick look at what's in it - and then a look at what isn't in it.
The risk of E. Coli infection has passed. That takes care of section A.
Section C. Mr Alward is impreseed by a recommendation that the NB government take more risks in extending help to provinical private business (translation - hand out more corporate welfare.) that recommendation came - surprise - from a committee led by a business leader. (Meanwhile, Canada moves to cut back EI payments from those lazy bums who lose their jobs in the recession. By the way, those lazy bums paid for EI insurance. It was deducted from their pay cheques. I have seen no evidence that corporations have paid for their welfare cheques.)
Canada is continuing to cut its forces in Afghanistan. But the news story doesn't really tell us why. So here's why. The war was a lost a long time ago. Uncountable tens of thousands of figbhers on both sides have died. The civilian dead - murdered accidentally, killed on purpose or for the fun of it, died of starvation and/or exposure, bombings, illness created by the war are uncounted and uncountable. And nobody even bothered to count the dead mercenaries.
We've known for years that this war was unwinnable. That's why France and other NATO countries are pullng out. So why are the US, Canada and Britain taking so long to leave? Because it would make our leaders look bad for having gone into Afghanistan in the first place. So, to save face for Bush and Obama and Harper and Blair,, thousands have died. And more will die.
We leave behind a legacy of destruction, death, disease, cripples, corruption - and well-deserved hatred.
The op ed page, which most newspapers reserve for serious comment, is devoted to the usual triviality by Brian Cormier and Eric Lewis . Read these only if thinking gives you a headache.
The editorial has the nerve to say that voters seem to be losing touch with politics. Of course they are. The Moncton Times and Transcript has worked for years to keep voters in ignorance and out of touch with politics. Well, the turnout for the recent elections is good news..It says that the strategy of the Irving Press has worked, and it's time to break out the champagne.
Norbert's column...the words silly, incoherent, hysterical come to mind. He rants about ideology - but clearly does not know what the word means. (He seems to think it means people who disagree with his thinking.)
What isn't in the news - though it is in other papers?
China is setting up newspapers in Africa. No big deal? Think again. China is working hard to establish itself as a force in Africa. Of course. Africa has a phenomenal wealth in minerals that we rarely hear of. That's why the western world - Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and now the US (and Canada) -has been plundering, enslaving, torturing and murdering in uncountable millions in that sad continent. China is making its play for a large piece of the action.
So is the US. That's why we bombed Libya and encouraged rebellions in Syria and Egypt, and send death squads into Iran. It has nothing to do with democracy, nothing to do with saving lives. In fact, in Libya and Syria, we h ave caused more deaths, far more, than we have prevented. Libya, under the rebels we supported, is now murdering and torturing anybody who is a black African. The rebels, using the weapons we supplied are now fighting each other, and killing large numbers of civilians in the process. In Syria, our side, supplying money, weapons, and mercenaries for the rebels (as well as special ops troops) hs made a full war of what was a manageable conflict. And there is worse to come for Africa and the Middle East, much worse.
And the TandT continues to ignore the student strike n Quebec. This is turning into something profoundly serious - with quite likely some impact nationally as well as provincially. At best, all we wil get out of this from the TandT is a grumpy rant from Norbert that they're all spoiled brats.
Maybe they are. It doesn't matter. The impact will still be there; and it will have to be dealt with.
For insight on this, turn to Acadiennouvelle. Chantal Hébert has been doing some fine commentary on this. I would only urge him to take an even closer look a the class structure of French Quebec. It bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Victorian England. This is a problem the Quiet Revolution of the 60s barely touched - though it is a problem far more serious than the language one. In fact, the language laws and Quebec nationalism were and are almost irrelevant to the future of Quebec. They were used by the leading classes to their own advantage, to make themeselves more powerful and rich - and to distract French voters from their real problem - privileges for the weatlhy few at the expense of everybody else.
That, as in the Occupy Movement, is very much what the Quebec student strike is about.
Okay, Norbert. They're spoiled brats. You wanna go there and spank them?
Incidentally, Acadiennouvelle has a total of 180 columns. But only some 40 are ads. That is such a low proportion, that it must make it difficult for the paper to operate. The Moncton Times and Transcript has double that, plus all those advertising inserts. In total, the Tand T must have at least 10 times the advertising that the Acadienncenounelle has.
Does anybody know why Acadiennouvelle doesn't get more ads? (Hey. I'm still new here.)
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
May 14: Wretched...
For weeks, as municipal and institutional election campaigns were held throughout New Brunswick, The Moncton Times and Transcript told us almost nothing about the candidates or the issues. All that appeared were very brief press releases about the candidates, and written by the candidates. There was no probing, no questoning. There was no discussion of major issues - except for some newspaper lobbying for an overpriced hockey rink.
Anyone who did vote almost certainly did so in fog of ignorance about what the issues were and who the candidates were and what they stood for.That was reflected in an anaemic turnout of voters: at 39%, it was some 10% lower than the last time we went through this farce of democracy.
That was the big news for the result - that the word democracy has no meaning in New Brunswick.
But the Times and Transcript, which could not be bothered informing its readers about the elections, today devoted almost the whole paper (except, of course, for the really important stuff like sports and celebrity birthdays) to non-news about the election.
A big headline on p. 1 is "Riverview makes history". Wow! It elected its first woman mayor. Boy, we'll have to postpone the Second Coming. Nobody would even notice the tarantulas tortuing sinners, or the righteious rising naked up to Heaven when they've got the big news that Riverside elected its first woman mayor.
It was the usual New Brunswick election. The Moncton Times and Transcript muzzled any discussion, debate or probing during the campaign - except things the boss wants us to know like the terrible, terrible urgency of going into heavy debt in the midst of a recession that has no end in sight, all so we can built a hockey rink.
Result? Very few people have the information they need. All the artificial excitement gets stirred up around a triviality like a hockey rink. Voters, both uninformed and long disillusioned in this make-believe world created by the Moncton Times, just say the hell with it.
Their is nothing harmless about a press which is bad all the time, and dishonest and manipulative most of the time. Thirty-nine percent turnout. There's nothing there for even the winners to celebrate.
The editorial, even more fat-headed than normal, and written with such excitement that I should hope the editor was close to washroom, says ...the people of Moncton and New Brunswick have spoken..."
Like hell they have. over sixty percent didn't say a word. But I guess that's the way the boss likes it.
Today is the day Norbert presented his final thoughts on how wonderful the world of the future is going to be. To save time for yourself, just say geewhizgollygosh two hundred times. That will give you as much information as Norbert does in his teeny-bopper gush..
Kelly Lamrock offers an op ed column of new ideas for the Liberal Party. Well, some are new ideas - if you're a Liberal and if your name is Kelly Lamrock. And some aren't ideas at all. They're just words that sound good.
Only two things save the whole paper. One is Alec Bruce. The other - surprise! - is the staff op ed column by Alan Cochrane.
Did they miss anything important? Well, the Quebec student strike, like it or hate it - is not merely what it appears to be on the surface. It's certainly not just about lower university fees. It has implications that, probably, even most of the strikers aren't aware of - and it has the potential to erupt into a national crisis. Even now, the American embassy has issued an warning to Americans to stay away from Montreal this summer.
Mind you, we may soon hear a similar warning about visiting the US. For example, there's the case of the American government moving to cut back on the food stamps that are keeping over fifty million Americans alive. It needs to cut back so that it can spend that money on the military, and so it won't have to raise taxes on the very rich.
There will be consequences.
There is a severe risk of a war very soon on Iran and Syria. If it happens, there is a very severe chance of it turning into a world war, and maybe with nuclear weapons. That may help to explain the little-reported story that the US is redeploying tactical nuclear weapons to Europe. Gee! I hope that won't affect summer tourism in New Brunswick.
Then there's something that might seem small. New China News Agency is setting up newspapers in Africa. No big deal? If you think it isn't a big deal, then you have no idea at all what is going on in Africa.
It is quite possible we are getting close to events that will have a direct effect on us, and that will prove even more important than Riverview electing a female mayor.----maybe even more important that borrowing money for a hockey rink.
Anyone who did vote almost certainly did so in fog of ignorance about what the issues were and who the candidates were and what they stood for.That was reflected in an anaemic turnout of voters: at 39%, it was some 10% lower than the last time we went through this farce of democracy.
That was the big news for the result - that the word democracy has no meaning in New Brunswick.
But the Times and Transcript, which could not be bothered informing its readers about the elections, today devoted almost the whole paper (except, of course, for the really important stuff like sports and celebrity birthdays) to non-news about the election.
A big headline on p. 1 is "Riverview makes history". Wow! It elected its first woman mayor. Boy, we'll have to postpone the Second Coming. Nobody would even notice the tarantulas tortuing sinners, or the righteious rising naked up to Heaven when they've got the big news that Riverside elected its first woman mayor.
It was the usual New Brunswick election. The Moncton Times and Transcript muzzled any discussion, debate or probing during the campaign - except things the boss wants us to know like the terrible, terrible urgency of going into heavy debt in the midst of a recession that has no end in sight, all so we can built a hockey rink.
Result? Very few people have the information they need. All the artificial excitement gets stirred up around a triviality like a hockey rink. Voters, both uninformed and long disillusioned in this make-believe world created by the Moncton Times, just say the hell with it.
Their is nothing harmless about a press which is bad all the time, and dishonest and manipulative most of the time. Thirty-nine percent turnout. There's nothing there for even the winners to celebrate.
The editorial, even more fat-headed than normal, and written with such excitement that I should hope the editor was close to washroom, says ...the people of Moncton and New Brunswick have spoken..."
Like hell they have. over sixty percent didn't say a word. But I guess that's the way the boss likes it.
Today is the day Norbert presented his final thoughts on how wonderful the world of the future is going to be. To save time for yourself, just say geewhizgollygosh two hundred times. That will give you as much information as Norbert does in his teeny-bopper gush..
Kelly Lamrock offers an op ed column of new ideas for the Liberal Party. Well, some are new ideas - if you're a Liberal and if your name is Kelly Lamrock. And some aren't ideas at all. They're just words that sound good.
Only two things save the whole paper. One is Alec Bruce. The other - surprise! - is the staff op ed column by Alan Cochrane.
Did they miss anything important? Well, the Quebec student strike, like it or hate it - is not merely what it appears to be on the surface. It's certainly not just about lower university fees. It has implications that, probably, even most of the strikers aren't aware of - and it has the potential to erupt into a national crisis. Even now, the American embassy has issued an warning to Americans to stay away from Montreal this summer.
Mind you, we may soon hear a similar warning about visiting the US. For example, there's the case of the American government moving to cut back on the food stamps that are keeping over fifty million Americans alive. It needs to cut back so that it can spend that money on the military, and so it won't have to raise taxes on the very rich.
There will be consequences.
There is a severe risk of a war very soon on Iran and Syria. If it happens, there is a very severe chance of it turning into a world war, and maybe with nuclear weapons. That may help to explain the little-reported story that the US is redeploying tactical nuclear weapons to Europe. Gee! I hope that won't affect summer tourism in New Brunswick.
Then there's something that might seem small. New China News Agency is setting up newspapers in Africa. No big deal? If you think it isn't a big deal, then you have no idea at all what is going on in Africa.
It is quite possible we are getting close to events that will have a direct effect on us, and that will prove even more important than Riverview electing a female mayor.----maybe even more important that borrowing money for a hockey rink.
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