New Media

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.

Vancouver blogger and social media maven Darren Barefoot offers a few more questions to ponder about whether social media survives its creator.

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.

Sweet dreams.

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.

One Vancouver-based UBC researcher equates less-than-robust support for this with what’s going on over here. (Full report at CBCNews).

Another example of the continuing debasement of the English language.