New Orleans and Haiti share an obvious connection; they are both relatively poor regions that have been recently wiped out by a natural disaster. What’s yet to be found out is if they share the same future. Let’s hope not.
The rebuilding of New Orleans has been a mess due to a number of problems. It’s population is half that of pre-flood levels. Jobs evaporated like the water that flooded its streets. Fighting between rich and poor citizens prevented a clear plan from taking hold. Even with the best of intentions, significant resources and goodwill at the outset, rebuilding New Orleans has been a failure. Given all of this, what optimism is there for Haiti? Not much.
But there is hope.
Haiti has some advantages that New Orleans didn’t. Ironically, Haiti’s poverty is now its strength. Where New Orleans may have been a problem left to the United States, Haiti is clearly a global challenge. This should help to shine a bright, global light on the challenges of Haiti and hopefully ensure that a diverse and deep range of funding is directed squarely at the small nation. Further, for all that was lost in the quake, much more can be gained with even the most modest efforts. Modern infrastructure can replace the patchwork of resources that existed before. Schools, hospitals and other critical institutions can be built much stronger – both physically and culturally – than before.
Secondly, a great opportunity exists now to radically redefine the culture of Haiti. In all such events there is a very real chance to clean house; to forget the past and mov in a whole new direction. The financial mess was a similar opportunity for the United States (a wasted one, it now appears) and the quake is just such an opportunity. Strong leadership and reaching out to their neighbors could move Haiti towards prosperity. Previously, such opportunities were unthinkable.
The chance of failure is of course massive. The situation could easily – if it hasn’t already – totally self destruct into uncontrolled street violence. Gang mentality could take over forcing whatever businesses and opportunities may still be in Haiti to flee. Population contraction like that seen in New Orleans would be devastating to the country.To prevent this, international support needs to be swift and aggressive. Respect for the people of Haiti needs to be shown but not much for its governments and system of organization. In fact, international support should be intrusive and insist on preventing old divisions of class and power from affecting the rebuilding of the city and country. A long term focus of all effort must be in building a new society – not rebuilding the old one.
The quake has taken the lives of countless people. It has kicked in the teeth of those that have few teeth left to kick. Here it would seem that when it rains, it pours. It has, however, made Haiti an international priority. Ensuring that this opportunity isn’t wasted, may well prove to be one of life’s cruelest blessings.
There’s been a lot of concern in Canada about the recent prorogation of parliament by the Conservative government and there’s been no lack of attention in the Canadian media. Almost exclusively – with the exception of a few lost souls – has it been negative. The government shouldn’t just shut down the operations of government and run into a fox hole at the slightest sign of trouble.
True.
But there’s also been a bunch of writing that would lead you to believe that the Canadian Constitution is in jeopardy and the sky is falling – that Harper has essentially declared himself the state and shut the doors to democracy. He’s violated a sacred oath of some kind in the halls of Canadian Politics (as if that hasn’t been done enough, before). Heck, even the philosophy professors are getting in on the action. Something serious must be afoot.
This is too much.
Sure, Harper has shut down the government. Sure, it looks cowardly and foolish. No one believes the stated reasons for shutting it down and what’s worse, they’re increasingly believing their worse suspicions and fears; that the Conservatives are nasty beasts and that were likely aware of the torture being done on their detainees.
For this, it appears, Harper will pay dearly. Where once he looked strong and in control -images his opponents could only dream of projecting in the past few years -he now appears weak and cowardly. A shaking, shell shocked man, hiding from his own shadow.
I admit, the Canadian system could go for a lot of improvements. The Senate clearly needs reform. Independent councils need more funding and independence.
But Stephen Harper is not a direct threat to our constitution. He is not stealing our democracy. The Canadian people will someday soon have a vote and when they do, they will do so knowing that when push came to shove, Harper turned tail and ran. That’s not the kind of person they’ll want to vote for. And in that vote, Canadians will affirm their democracy and put to rest all the hand wringing and chicken littles for whom the Canadian Democracy sky is falling.
Relax. The system isn’t great. It’s broken in some parts. But it’s working in its own way and i’ll take our democracy over the dysfunctional mess they call the United States of America any day.
I’ve had my Western Digital Live TV appliance for a while now ever since my ASROCK 330 totally failed within the first 15 days of ownership. The results of the WD TV LIVE has been much more promising.
First off, the device is small. I mean, palm of your hand small. It fits nicely in my tv cabinet and is currently wired up to my Time Capsule (1TB) router. It’s makes no noise (a common complaint of putting a full pc in front of the tv) and is soft on the eyes (black with a simple on light indicator). All of its interface points are on the back of the box which is fine for me. Support for both component and HDMI is there which is great since I didn’t have an HDMI input on my monitor at first. On all the basic hardware front, this box is a winner.
On the software interface, the system is equally simple. It supports basic use cases; watching pictures, listening to music and watching movies. It supports other cases like watching YouTube and listening to Live365 music which is more novelty than anything else for me. Moving between menu systems is easy, smooth but not fun. Any basic setop box software like Boxee, Media Portal or FrontRow will have a much snappier, more pleasant experience. Improving the UI would go a long way to making the everyday experience with the product more fun. That said, there’s nothing particularly offending about the interface. It’s just the most basic one you’ll find on the market.
The WD TV LIVE’s real strength lies in it’s movies. I’ve played a wide range of video formats on the box and have never had a problem. In fact, it’s just a great viewing experience. Fast, full 1080p support. It takes it all and dishes it out without a single stutter. For such a small box, it’s figured out video presentation flawlessly. Hats off for designing such a powerful, compact box.
Where I have a real trouble is with my TC. At first the WD TV LIVE couldn’t find the TC on its network. Reading some blog posts explained that the WD TV LIVE looked for shares on workgroups called “WORKGROUP” so I changed it and got the TC to show up. For a while. I’ve found out that the WD TV LIVE will not always find the TC on startup. This is frustrating and is my single biggest frustration with the device. After 10 or so minutes, it will eventually find it but making the auto detection of shared drives on the network faster is my number one issue with the device.
Overall, i think the price (125$ USD) is fantastic and a great value for what you get. Note that you’re not getting a jack of all trades appliance here. But what you are getting is a simple experience that, despite its flaws, is worth the price.
The western world – at least the images i see on the internet and those I make up from the people I talk to – isn’t exactly a happy place these days. The bankers have taken all the money, pollution is something we love to talk about but nothing more, and jobs are vanishing. I couldn’t really name anyone that I’ve met recently who is genuinely excited about the future. They may not be upset now, but excited? That’s a bit out of reach.
This last week saw another massive confirmation; the failure of the climate talks to provide anything meaningful – or maybe anything at all.
The rich developed world has moved away from the spirit that propelled the baby boomers to reach for the moon to a much more moderate “let’s just try and keep our jobs until we retire” mindset. Long gone are the big aspirations replaced instead with dreams of simply “just getting back to where I was 2 years ago”. The few that actually seem to have a lot to lose – the wealthy – are desperately trying to hold onto whatever status quo they can. The Republican party is a great example of this. It doesn’t put forward any new ideas about improving the future since mostly it can’t see anything wrong with the present. Why fix what ain’t broke.
Back here in Canada, we’ve got a federal government that must know in its heart of hearts that climate change is a danger and menace to its people. It’s impossible to send troops to the frozen north to defend the opening of seaways due to melting ice and not be aware of the effects of climate change. And yet, despite the obvious contradictions, they just can not imagine a world without the oil sands. They can’t see any hope for the future. And so they cling to the present and provide no guidance.
Just reading an article in the star that reminded me about the role of unemployment when the bank of Canada sets interest rates.
When I was younger, I first read about the concept of NAIRU (Non accelerating rate of unemployment) and it got me upset for obvious reasons. If you don’t know NAIRU basically means that when the rate of unemployment falls “too far”, interest rates need to be increased for fear of inflation creeping in. Basically, the bank of Canada tries it’s best to avoid unemployment falling below 6.5 to 7 percent. That’s right kids, the bank of Canada is actively trying to keep a 7% rate of unemployment in Canada. Pretty insidious,no?
But then I watched what the Federal reserve has been able to accomplish (remember the federal reserve still targets full employment) by letting interest rates basically fall to zero. We got insanity. And one hell of a bill at the end for a bunch of banker bonus pay. Now that’s retarded.
So reading over the concept of NAIRU again, I still get that angry feeling in my stomach but somehow feel that atleast they are being honest in what they are up to.
But I’m still a fan of getting rid of all of them and dropping this Fiat currency concept all together.
The public option in the US healthcare debate appears to be in critical care right now and unlike grandma, everyone seems ready to pull the plug.
This is unforetunate. A public option – god forbid a Canadian style single payer – makes a great deal of sense both financially and healthwise.
Financially, private insurance companies would rather have nothing to do with sick people. They cost a great deal more money than they are worth. Asking insurance companies to ignore previous illness history also makes no sense so getting insurance to someone that is already sick cannot be done after the fact. The only option appears to be a mandatory insurance requirement. Or to let them die. Which doesn’t appear to be working in practice: sick uninsured people just go to the hospital.
Forcing people to get health insurance will also be difficult and enforcement even more so. When would you ask for proof? At tax time I suppose. But enforcing and double checking wlll be costly.
Financially, the insurance companies have little reason to provide coverage for the sick. They recieve little more benefit if the individual gets well again except for the continued premiums which are not guaranteed since individuals would likely want to change providers after a premium increase. Besides, how can you make health insurance mandatory if it’s not affordable.
The government on the other hand has a significant interest financially in the well being of the taxpayer. Dead people don’t pay taxes. They unsettle family finances and destabalize families in general. Families that cannot afford their houses cause a drop in housing prices in the immediate area which has a side cost to their neighbours. Schools with hungry children that just lost the main breadwinners are difficult to educate and less likely to reach their potential financially.
All of this is to say that the state has a strong interest in the health of their citizens while insurance companies have only a short term perspective by their nature. A public option aligns the parties better financially speaking.
From a health perspective, the best way to keep people healthy is to help them avoid financial ruin and all the associated stresses that go with it. Getting people the most advanced doctors is fine once they’re sick but it does little to help them avoid the need for a doctor in the first place.
Any healthcare reform must involve universal coverage and affordability. Neither of these concepts align with private interests. Pretending that they do is foolish and likely to fail.
If you’ve read the booked “fooled by randomness” you’ll recognize the following joke about the stock market.
The stock market and it’s predictors are like taking a million people into a room and playing Russian roullette. At the end a dozen people will walk out of the room alive and claim they are masters of the game.
This is funny but it got me thinking about sites like “updown.com” and others where we try and find people that regularly pick winning stocks.
I realize now that we are actually ignore half of the value of these sites. That is, we are only rewarding those that regularly pick the RIGHT way. But equally I should also be interested in those that regularly pick the WRONG way as well. If you ALWAYS pick the wrong direction on a stocke, then your advice is equally good as seone that would pick the RIGHT direction. The only difference is, I have to always bet against you. Sites like the updown.com are tossing out half their value by ignore the outrageously and predictably bad stock pickers.
The goal is to be predictable remember. Right or wrong doesn’t matter. What matters is how predictable the outcome is.
It got me thinking about why investment funds are not trolling in the dumpsters of such sites as “updown.com” looking for the ABSOLUTE WORST stock pickers. To my mind their advice is equally as valuable, just for the opposite trade.
What would it be like to go to work and have your boss ask you about a trade and then always do the opposite. You could finally see a reason to reward what would normally qualify as failure.
There’s been so much talk about death panels in the media these past few weeks. You forget with all the anger that death panels already exist in the US: they’re called private insurance companies. What else do you call it when you can get insurance from a company because you’re sick.
Insurance companies, by their nature weigh the cost benefits when offering you health insurance. Sick people, especially those with costly terminal illnesses like cancer, are financially, in all likelihood, not worth saving. At least not from the insurance companies perspective.
Governments however have a much different calculation. They have to consider other costs; like welfare cheques if the family breadwinner dies. And loss of tax revenue. And so forth.
But private insurance companies don’t. In all ways they are the real death panels.
Sue and I have recently signed on for another rental unit. This one at 942 Yonge street. That will put my daily commute somewhere in the area of a 3 to 5 minute WALK. I’m finally living the dream.
On the other hand, this is devastating to everyone that hoped we would purchase a place and finally “settle down” (i.e. hire some workers for the baby factory). This is also not happening anytime soon. We’ll have to send condolence letters.
The new unit is nice; laminate flooring, large, well designed layout + parking and locker. The price was great at 1500 a month which is a step down from our last unit + saving on ttc tokens. I expect rental + ttc savings of about 150 bucks a month.
The temptation to purchase a place was present of course. Interest rates are extremely low right now. Unfortunately, that means prices are wildly high since first time buyers are rushing in with promises of fortunes and low monthly payments. First home prices seem aggressive while the upper market feels less so. In my mind, this is a bit too much activity for what the economy justifies. Interest rates are low now but cannot stay low forever. If they do then we’re in even worse shape since that would mean our economy is in the tanks and has been for some time, Japanese style. Nobody wants that. So I’m actually looking forward to interest rates rising. That puts me at odds with pretty much everyone I can think of but my reasons for higher interest rates – improved economy – are sound.
Also, I’d LOVE to flush a lot of these new riskier home buyers from the market with a crushing 10% mortgage. People aren’t risk averse and generally think they can take on anything during good times. It’s the bad times that matter and interest rates at 0.5% are VERY good times indeed.
