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This page provides an Index to my columns for 2010 published in the Kamloops Daily News
EYE VIEW 
2010
The 'war on
terror' is a meaningless term The "war on
terror" is a clever little phase. Canadian David Frum says the war on
terror is "a useful term" because it's vague enough to justify a variety of
reactions. Frum is a former advisor to President Bush and originator of another
useful term, "axis of evil." He admits that it's useful because it's vague.
"Calling it a war is imprecise in relation to the great World Wars," he told CBC
radio. The term is not just imprecise, it's meaningless. My Oxford
Canadian Dictionary defines war as "armed hostilities between nations." And
terror is a state of mind; defined as extreme fear or dread.
January 14, 2010
Warnings
ignored, too late now to burn beetle-killed forests for energy
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Four years
ago in this column I suggested that the burning of pine-beetle killed wood to
produce electricity would be a good idea. That was before the wood began to
decompose. Now the dead wood is rotting faster than anticipated and the
opportunity has passed. Burning of clean wood in an unburdened air shed might
have been a good idea at one time but the burning of dirty creosote coated rail
ties is an idea whose time never was, never should be. January 28,
2010
Time to move to Plan Bee Food on
our tables depends on honeybees. They pollinate 80 per cent of all flowering
crops which amounts to one-third of all we that we eat. Without indentured
honeybees, we wouldn’t have the variety of food we now enjoy. That’s why Sam
Comfort was so worried when he opened up his hives one day to find them gone.
Sam wasn’t alone. The mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD)
was affecting the world’s bees. There were many suspects: viral, mite and
bacterial infections, pesticide poisonings, lack of genetic diversity.
Pollinators, especially bees, are what environmentalist Rachel Carson called a
keystone species. Remove the keystone and the whole edifice collapses.
February 18,
2010
Tories need to
clean up messy business of patronage There's a little unfinished business
that needs to be tidied up before the Conservatives move on to their new agenda.
The PM's influence is everywhere: he has made about 1,500 appointments to
various committees and agencies. The bias of appointees ensures partiality. For
example, when it comes to immigration and discrimination panels or the parole
board, decisions can be highly influenced by ideology. Infighting by Harper's
appointees has been especially devastating to the Rights and Democracy
committee. Until now, this agency has been quietly promoting human rights around
the world for 22 years. March 4,
2010
Recruiting difficult when military is out of sight
Canadian soldiers on the streets of Vancouver during the Winter Olympics gave a
positive impression of the military and encouragement for youths who are looking
for a career in Canada's armed forces.
Lack of visibility is just one difficulty in recruiting for our military says
Douglas Bland, chairman of Queen's University's defence studies program: Out of
sight, out of the thoughts of possible recruits.
"In downtown Toronto, where you don't see anybody in uniform, there is no
connection" laments Bland, a retired army lieutenant colonel. Soldiers in
uniform are walking reminders of a career in Canada's armed forces.
March 18,
2010
City should welcome more local TV coverage The new TV channel proposed for Kamloops looks interesting. Corus Entertainment wants to televise local events and activities, as well as detailed weather reports, traffic and road reports. Although cable companies have a superior business model now, that could change with new technology. CFJC could provide the kind of local TV that Corus finds commercially viable through digital multiplexing which allows for six channels to be broadcast from one transmitter. Such a cluster of channels would replace their old transmitter and CFJC could broadcast multiple channels from one source. Control of channel allocation would belong to CFJC, not cable. April 1, 2010
Common sense, discretion useful in cancer tests Early detection of cancer improves chances of survival, right? Then why is there any doubt that PSA tests for prostate cancer and mammograms for breast cancer are useful? The answer may be distinctly Canadian. Women were surprised at the results of a study published in the British medical journal Lancet that concluded, contrary to common sense, mammograms did not save lives. Canadian and American Cancer agencies said the opposite. They reviewed the same evidence and concluded that indeed mammograms do save lives. PSA tests are even more imprecise than mammograms. That's why men have to pay PSA tests in Canada unless specified by a doctor. Like mammograms, tests for prostate-specific antigens never were intended to be a stand-alone diagnosis. April 15, 2010
U.S right wing: too much anger, too little focus Progressive conservatives in Canada will have to look outside North America if they want to form a majority government. The conservative movement in the U.S. is in shambles. There's no lack of anger on talk-radio or Fox TV but the rant has created more heat than light. David Frum, speechwriter for past President G.W. Bush, despairs at the direction that his Republican Party is going. Britain is bubbling with new right-wing ideas. Phillip Blond is making waves in Britain's Conservative Party. Blond uses left-wing rhetoric but his roots are Tory blue. "Free-market neoliberalism has created a tiny elite and turned the working class into losers with no power to control their lives. Monopoly capitalism has atomized us into a society of lonely consumers isolated from a big, monolithic, uncaring state." April 29, 2010
Private power projects a failed experiment The B.C. Liberals' plan to develop Site C is an admission that their privatization plans are not working. When elected in 2001 Premier Campbell's actions didn't match his words . Despite pledges to protect the "jewel" in the province's Crown corporations he began to hack and hobble BC Hydro. One-third of BC Hydro's workers were transferred to the private firm Accenture. Electric transmission lines were removed from BC Hydro's authority to the newly-created BC Transmission Corporation. Instead of being rewarded for providing the cheapest and greenest electricity in North America, BC Hydro was punished with a 50 per cent staff reduction and prohibited from what they do best: building new generating plants. May 13, 2010
Extraterrestrial visits reported centuries ago I believe Arthur I. Barrett of Kamloops when he says that he saw a flying saucer. I just don't know what it means. In his letter to the Daily News, Mr. Barrett describes seeing the space ship hovering above his car as he returned from Ashcroft. After trying to outrun it, the saucer "turned red with sparks flying off its outer shell." He realizes how incredible his experience sounds but he is willing to undergo tests to verify his account. I wrestle with the meaning of alien encounters and the inexplicable supernatural world. Do we share our world with angels, elves, aliens and demons? Is the curtain of everyday existence occasionally pulled aside so that a chosen few catch a glimpse of other beings who are all around us? I wish I knew. May 27,2010
An inconvenient, sweet truth "When you give people more liquid calories before a meal, they don't compensate by eating less at meal time, the same way they do for calories from solid food," warns Rachel Johnson, professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont. In one study, young adults were given 450 calories of soft drinks a day for a month and they actually ended up eating slightly more calories in solid food. In order to eat a nutritious diet within a limited calorie intake, you quickly find that you have spent most of your calories on vegetables, fruits, lean protein, dairy foods and whole grains and that there are only a few hundred discretionary calories left. That doesn't go far when most goodies contain both sugar and fat in abundance. And if you want a glass of wine, forget about the goodies. "It's been shocking to some people," says Professor Johnson "because if you're consuming alcohol regularly, you should be having even less added sugar." June 10, 2010
Humour best weapon for crowd control What enemy threatens Canada to the extent that we need to spend $1 billion on security at the G8/20 summits? As Pogo famously noted, it turns out that the enemy is us. Government agents have been following citizens as they go about their daily lives; citizens whose greatest threat is belief in social justice and concern about the environment. Agents have been spying on them on the streets, knocking at their doors at home, scrutinizing meetings they attend, and harassing them at work. I like the pharmacological solution for diffusing tension. The Raging Grannies should hand out hash brownies to everyone; protestors and guards alike. The police could then hand over riot gear for protestors to wear and the protestors could give rally signs to police and everyone would have a good laugh. Humour is the most disarming device of all. June 24, 2010
Harper TV won't be answer to 'irrelevant' news coverage Sun TV hopes to become Canada's first right-wing news channel but first it has to find an audience. That's going to be a problem if they hope to run the channel from their over-the-air station. Their only hope is to trade their station for the wider coverage on cable. I would prefer a properly funded public broadcaster like the CBC but declining revenues from the Harper government make that unlikely. And the prospect of Harper TV as carried by Sun doesn't turn me on. Perhaps Al Jazeera can open a window on the world that has remained in the dark for too long. July 9, 2010
Can we outlaw war between countries? What if they made war illegal? That's what the International Criminal Court did on June 11. It's been hailed as the most significant reform of international law since 1945. Now world leaders who recklessly invade other countries will be nervously looking over their shoulders. The world is understandably baffled at Canada's contradictory position: defender of the ICC yet accomplices in the illegal invasion of Afghanistan. Our macho General Hillier took Canada into one of the most dangerous provinces of Afghanistan to show the world that we can kick butt. His bravado has left our soldiers with one of the highest casualty rates of NATO forces. July 22, 2010
First people had a big role in the History of Canada Shawn Atleo wants the government to stop treating his people like clients. The charismatic young National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations told the annual meeting of the assembly in Winnipeg that it was time to dismantle the oppressive Indian bureaucracy. The Indian Act is a product of counterfeit history. Canadian writer and thinker John Ralston Saul outlined that pseudo-history in a lecture introduced by Atleo at the University of British Columbia. "We as aboriginal people are looking to thinkers such as John Ralston Saul to share his thoughts and expand the conversation so that we might revisit our relationship with one another," Atleo told the enthusiastic crowd. August 5,2010
Clean water should be no brainer Canadians support clean water as a human right. Too bad our government doesn't. The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favour of a resolution to recognize clean drinking water as a human right recently; but not Canada along with a minority of others who lamely abstained. Support of clean water seems like a no-brainer in terms of health alone. In the time it takes to read this sentence, a child somewhere in the world will die from drinking dirty water. I search for some reason why we should drag our feet on such an important issue. Would global Canadian businesses be negatively affected? While we have giant mining corporations digging up the globe, none are affected by making water a human right. August 19, 2010
We need to research MS by as many means as possible A number of provinces now support a national randomized clinical trial of the so-called liberation treatment for Multiple Sclerosis. It would be fantastic if the treatment worked but it's too soon to throw out decades of research which indicate that MS is an autoimmune disease: something triggers the immune system to run wild and attack our own tissues. Dr. Herve Perron has founded a biotech start-up company that hopes to create an antibody that neutralizes retroviruses associated with MS. So far, "We have terrific effects," says Perron with good results from using the antibody in lab mice with MS. A clinical trial could take place as early as next year. September 2, 2010
Fair-mined
Canadians will reject SunTV Harper TV is gaining attention but not in
the way supporters had hoped. They wanted thousands of Canadians to come to
their support. Instead, tens of thousands have signed a petition protesting "Fox
News North." Spokesman for the proposed channel, Kory Teneycke, wants to bring
Fox News' caustic commentary to Canada. The former advisor to Prime Minister
Harper has been hired by SunTV to kick off the new channel. Teneycke is
confident that Canadian viewers will enjoy the distorted world view that hate TV
can bring. Judging by the response to American style mud-raking and Teneycke's
tawdry tactics, fair-minded Canadians will reject Harper TV. September
16, 2010
Want to live the good life? Try hunter-gather lifestyle That last time we had it this good was 11,000 years ago when we were hunter-gatherers. In some respects, they had it better. For one, their work week was shorter. We work 40 to 50 hours a week to afford the luxury of sitting down to a good meal, artistic expression, and the company of friends. Hunter-gathers worked only 18 hours to achieve the same comfort. And they ate better says professor Spencer Wells, explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society. We can't turn back the clock to our hunter gatherer past but we can live more in sync with our biological design. The advice that our hunter gatherer ancestors would give us is to live simpler lives: eat the food our bodies are designed for, get out and enjoy the sunshine, and accumulate less baggage. September 30, 2010
UN rejection slap in face for Canada Canada's Conservative government has managed to do what no other has done in the history of the United Nations - - lost a seat on the UN Security Council. Canada's loss means Portugal's gain. We have squandered our reputation as an honest broker at the cost of blindly supporting U.S. misadventures. We will continue loose respect as it ties itself to U.S. hegemony. Canada will remain a passive policy-taker while Portugal becomes a policy-maker. October 14, 2010
Multicultural Canada remains a warm and welcoming nation Multiculturalism is like a marriage: nothing can be taken for granted in relationships. Germany's multiculturalism is on the rocks. German Chancellor Angela Merkel aired irreconcilable differences to a gathering of young conservative supporters. "The approach of multiculturalism, to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other, has failed, utterly failed," the chancellor explained to the rousing applause of the party faithful. The story of Canada remains one of a welcoming, multicultural society. The story must be told again and again until it's embedded into our collective consciousness. It's well worth the effort. Without it, things fall apart. October 28, 2010
Incompetence was
the victor over reason in Dieppe raid Canadian soldiers were itching
for action but not this. Under cover of darkness in the early morning of
August 19, 1942, the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division set out in landing ships for
the fortified port of Dieppe. Little they know that before noon, 907 would die
on the beaches, 586 would be wounded, and 1,946 would be captured. Things went
wrong even before they landed. The ships came across on a small German convoy
and fire was exchanged, alerting the Germans at Dieppe and removing the element
of surprise. November 11, 2010
Politicians need to protect single-payer medical system In B.C.'s lawless Wild West health care system, the B.C. Liberal government sits on its hands while money talks. Dr. Day taunts: "What is wrong with Canadians spending their own, after-tax dollars on their own health care? No politician I've ever asked has had an answer to this question." Well, Dr. Day, I'm about to answer the question that politicians won't. Canadians should be able to buy whatever they want. And governments should limit what is sold. You can buy anything you want as long as it's safe. The rich can't buy infant formulas that contain insect parts, as were recently found in the U.S., because they are hazardous to public health. November 25, 2010
Potty
jokes no laughing matter
Missed World Toilet Day? Don't worry, not much happened here in Canada.
In Hamilton, retired teacher John Smith held a hosted a "potty party" to raise
money for pit toilets in Kenya. World Toilet Day presents challenges to
developed countries as well. In Canada, it's a matter of equity or "potty
parity." For decades, women have complained about the lack equal access to
toilets. The problem is obvious when you go to a big event in the Interior
Saving Centre. Men breeze in and out of the toilet while women queue forever. December
9,2010
Parties must cope
with rise of narcissism Things are
about to get more interesting as B.C.'s political parties scramble for
votes from an ambivalent electorate; beaten down for decades yet increasingly
narcissistic. Politicians will have to find ways to appeal to an electorate
weary with wage loss but fixated on themselves: impatient, easily insulted and
aggrieved, with high expectations despite a diminished standard of living. The
seismic generational shift was identified in 1979 by historian Christopher Lasch
in his book The Culture of Narcissism. The flower-power generation, ostensibly
about love and brotherhood, had turned inward. There is a growing impatience and
confusion with the realization of an opaque world that we can't do without. The
effect is to throw up our hands in despair at circumstances which we have no
control. December 23, 2010