Yet another descent down the rabbit’s hole for Canada’s political leaders. While the global economy tanks, very possibly taking us innocent Canucks down with it, the Grits’ Stephan Dion is blasting the Tories over a few lines PM Stephen Harper spoke a few elections back, while he was leader of a party that no longer exists (Canwest), presumably to show that the Conservatives are taking orders from Australia (?!?!?!?)… and the rest of the opposition parties seem quite happy to follow Dion’s, ah, um… lead?
How about focusing on real issues, like ensuring Canadians are safe to walk around our urban centres without worrying about hate-motivated violence like the tragic attack in Vancouver this week (as commented on by Vancouver uber-blogger Hummingbird604).
Or another issue, like taking steps to put the lid on deadlier violence by extremists hatching plots to make our country into a warzone (New York Times).
If our politicians really want to waste their time tut-tutting each other over plagiarism this election, then I’m not happy with what that says about our overall political culture.
Given that security-conscious email providers and social media sites will not voluntarily give third parties access to your email, even after you’ve kicked the bucket, what will happen to your online presence after you die? How about all those thousands of photos in your Flickr album? Your blog?
Could be a value-added business opportunity for social media marketers and professional organizers. Hmmm.
Let’s face it, if the US economy goes down in flames, Canada is screwed (and if you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe this guy). The Wall Street crisis looks to be impacting Main Street like a giant radioactive meteor.
I’m increasingly sympathetic to the idea of the FBI arresting all the heads and chief executives of the banks that helped get the US into this mess and confiscating the 2007 income of people like Kenneth Griffin, the head of Citadel Investment Group, who made $1.5 billion in 2007. Nobody is worth $1.5 billion a year. Hell, some countries aren’t worth that much a year. I’m not saying take ALL their money — just what all these egregiously overpaid execs made last year. Most of them could probably live off the interest from their previous earnings until about the year 4008, so they probably wouldn’t miss it. Then bail out the US economy with the money that these CEOs took out of it at a time when their companies, and their nation, could least afford it.
Of course, such a move would result in a catastrophic flight of capital out of North America. The US would be shooting itself in the foot — and the heart — and likely taking us down with it, if it ever took such steps. So it ain’t going to happen, and it shouldn’t… Damn.
But it is awfully nice to daydream about such options when you recognize that some of the people who helped create this economic nightmare make more money in the first 15 minutes of the year than most people make ALL year.
Who says that waiting times in hospitals are out of control? Oh, wait. A homeless guy sits in a waiting room for a day and a half without getting any attention and expires… and no one notices for three more hours (Winnipeg Free Press).
Maybe health care really ought to be an Canadian election issue for our politicians in 2008? You think? Sure beats talking about pooping poppins.
Canada’s battlegroup in Afghanistan has handed over command to a new group of Canadian soldiers (CTV.ca). There’s still much work to be done before the troops can come home.
Yes, Conservative PM Stephen Harper has already announced that the larger portion of our military involvement in central Asia is likely to end in 2011 (which the Taliban and their allies are likely hailing as a strategic victory a la the Madrid bombings). But it’s not fast enough for at least one foreign policy lightweight, who happens to be the leader of a mainstream political party. Says mustachioed moron Jack Layton, “We’ve got to construct a comprehensive peace process using all the various tools and elements that are available in the UN toolbox — and they are many — in order to work towards the accomplishment of ceasefires, piece by piece, working towards negotiations in as many locations as possible” (The Star).
“The NDP’s ideas have already been tried, and they have already failed catastrophically. This is why UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon describes the ground that the NDP has staked out as ‘a misjudgement of historic proportions.’ It’s because the position demands “the repetition of a mistake that has already had terrible consequences.
“Quite apart from the earth-rattling mistake the “international community” made when it abandoned the Afghan people to the Taliban in the first place, Canada has already tried withdrawing its troops. We already did that once. After joining with NATO in driving out the Taliban, we joined an exodus of foreign troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2002. Canada withdrew its troops, our meagre successes were slammed into reverse, and the whole country started sliding back into barbarism again.”
Is Afghanistan really neutralized as an election issue for 2008? Perhaps. But we’re still going to need clear thinking about our involvement in Afghanistan and the endgame we desire for a long time to come.
The web we’re building just ain’t secure. Odd, since virtually so many organizations from tech startups to a tire factories to your municipal government are so plugged into interactive websites and business web apps. You’d think we’d all take better care of it.
For more info on how to protect your business site or personal blog from hackers, check out my latest post on Techvibes here. Wordpress bloggers may want to check out a post on how to protect themselves courtesy of Vancouver Techie blogger Jan Karlsbjerg.
Why should you care? As Thomas Friedman would point out, one thing that keeps North Americans from a race to the bottom in competition with places like China and India is our ability to produce dynamic knowledge workers who can utilize technology for maximum efficiency. I’m not talking about our programmers being more talented than foreign programmers (Ours already AREN’T more talented). I’m talking about our artists being able to produce unique art, market it and distribute it better than a Photoshop hack somewhere in Lithuania. Or small business owners utilizing optimal supply chain management and improved work processes to beat out the competition anywhere in the world.
If our web infrastructure remains at the mercy of the cyber mafia and pimply-faced script kiddies, that hurts our nation’s efficiency at a time when we are already having trouble maintaining our edge. Our livelihoods are at stake.
Nice to see that politicians are engaging their constituents with social media apps to connect on the issues in this Canadian federal election season. Even nicer to see NDP boss Jack Layton getting slammed on his own Facebook site (CTV.ca). One angry voter writes on his wall:
Vancouver residents are a compassionate bunch who care mostly about social issues. Well, that’s one take from NPA mayoral candidate Peter Ladner (as reported in the Hook) following an Ipsos Reid poll that looked like this:
In response to the question, “What is the most important local issue facing the City of Vancouver, that is the one issue you feel should receive the greatest attention for Vancouver’s city council?” Vancouverites replied:
Is it really that we’re compassionate, or simply that the other issues seem to be taken care of, or that people generally recognize that the city can’t do much about some of these issues on its own, anyway? For instance, Vancouver is on a number of metrics the most environmentally friendly large city in North America, so action on the environment may not really be required. Taxes have been going up for years, but sale of areas like the False Creek lands have kept rises at a reasonable level. As for crime, the average resident may not even be aware that the city has its own police force separate from the RCMP.
Thus, transporation and social issues become the default election issues, because these are the obvious, in-your-face issues that affect us every day (ie. morning traffic, or the poor homeless guy sleeping next to the entrance to the office building where you work).
Nice to see we actually do care about the real issues. So far, no mention of lipstick or pigs in this fight.
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