The latest version of Alice In Wonderland is an enjoyable but not nearly fantastical enough movie to really capture the essence of “Alice In Wonderland”. Tim Burton does a really great job of creating a visually rich environment filled with colour and textures. The 3D version adds to the effects for example of the caterpillar blowing smoke in Alice’s face or when Cheshire disappears into thin air. Johnny Depp does a great job as the Mad Hatter in the same way that he does in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; strange, quirky and ultimately original in his own small ways.
That said, the story line tries best to follow the original plot while making it more suitable for the arc of Hollywood movies. Ultimately it feels less fantastical and more motivational than the original story. Feel good confidence building messages for women become more the story and less the wild and weird imagery of Lewis Carroll’s imagination. The worst however is reserved for the dialogue which is a real let down and lacks any of the whimsical, mathematically riddled or just plain fantastical tones of the book. Ultimately, this is the great letdown for me and really takes away from the sense of “falling down the rabbit hole”. WIth a good amount of investment in the dialogue, the movie could have respected the original plot much more authentically while adding a lot. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case and the final product falls short of what it could have been given the creative and rich imagination of its director.
The Canadian women’s Olympic hockey team beat the United states in the gold medal game recently in Vancouver. They always seem to do this and according to the IOC, this is a problem. So much so that, unless there is a balance of competition in the next few years, the IOC will possibly pull the women’s version of the sport from the Olympics.
That would be unfortunate.
There are lots of sports which are dominated by a particular country or region. Men’s hockey was a play toy of the USSR until the NHLers started to participate. The austrians are always at the top of the ski rankings. In the summer games, Table tennis hasn’t been competitive in years. Outside of the Olympics, the Tour de France saw Lance Armstrong win year after year without batting an eye. Schumacher couldn’t lose an F1 title if he tried during his time and yet the fans kept coming out.
So what’s the worry?
If indeed the olympics are about encouraging sport and its wide ranging benefits around the world, I could think of nothing worse than to pull a women’s event. Women need sport, arguably more than guys do. It provides an opportunity for women to develop life skills that they otherwise may not have a chance to work on. Sports inject confidence, a hard work ethic and co-operative attributes in all its participants. The world can only gain by having more confident women.
Despite this, women’s sports are always underfunded. It’s a real shame. Pulling women’s hockey from the Olympics will remove one more incentive of countries to fund women’s sports. If anything, the lack of competition shows that we have a lack of funding that needs to be addressed. Spending more should be the call; not pulling the plug. The IOC should be looking to increase the number of female sports at the sacrifice of the men’s. I’d rather remove the men’s hockey tournament – where the NHL and other elite leagues provide more than enough incentive for young boys to play hockey – than the women’s where there is little visible examples for young girls to follow.
If the IOC wants to be a guiding light, it will re-affirm its commitment to women’s sports with investments rather than threats of termination. Women need sports and the world needs more women to play sports.
As a last option, should the IOC continue to press, I would suggest that the US and Canadian teams agree to not compete at the Olympics. If that’s what it takes to ensure that the sport continues to receive attention and money, then we should be happy to make the sacrifice. It would be a shame but ultimately a worthwhile sacrifice.
I’ve been going through the Hitler rants lately (if you haven’t done so, go look them up). Just came across this one. Had to share it with all you software developers out there.
Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inhospitably cold, hockey is the chance of life, and an affirmation that despite the deathly chill of winter we are alive. Leacock, Stephen
“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.”– Alan Greenspan
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.
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.
