Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 88

Trio of Shame II: New Citizenship Guide Has More Monarchy, Less History

This isn't entirely a new story, because it seems that the official Canadian Citizenship Guide was published last fall, but I'd not heard much about it until Le Devoir 's Marie Vastel published a comparison of the old and the new versions today.

The upshot: lots more about the Queen and Canada's relation to the Empire, and not very much at all about some interesting aspects of the country's history, like the Rebellions of 1837-38.  All part of the Harperites reinventing the country.  

And there are very few faces of visible minorities in the guide.  You'd think there would be more, given the countries from which most new Canadians are coming.

Trio of Shame I: Clark Says Canada is Losing Its Influence Abroad

It's always interesting when a former Prime Minister comments on what is going on at the moment, but it's especially so when the ex-PM criticizes his political descendants.  While Joe Clark was a Progressive Conversative (which always seemed to be an oxymoron, but seems to be less so day by day) so far he's mostly kept his mouth shut when it comes to the current Conservative government.

Yet today L e Devoir reports Clark has taken on the Harperites for pulling out of the UN the UN Convention on Desertification.  "You can't withdraw from organizations as important as this because, sometimes, they don't agree with you," Clark said in a telephone interview with the newspaper.  "In fact, on the contrary, the bst thing to do is when there is disagreement is to stay and to defend your point of view in order ot convince them that you are right." (My translation of: "Vous ne pouvez pas rester à l’écart d’organisations aussi précieuses parce que, parfois, elles sont en désaccord avec vous. En fait, au contraire, la meilleure chose à faire lorsqu’il y a des désaccords c’est de défendre votre point de vue auprès de ceux qui ont à être convaincus."

Clark's statement appear  not to have been picked up elsewhere, which is a shame.  It is a bit of a consolation, though, that there are others speaking out about the Harper government's action on this matter.
 

First Siting: Another Sign of Spring!

Well, actually the bikes aren't there yet (the photo was taken just before they were warehoused for the winter), but over the weekend, Bixi workers began putting out stands for the rental bikes.  The first ones in the 'hood are the corner of Avenue du Parc and St-Viateur and Laurier and Jeanne-Mance.

Almost as encouraging as the two skeins of geese that flew over Saturday morning!

North Korea Sabre Rattling: Flash from the Past...and the Future?

Over the Easter weekend my head has been elsewhere, so it is only this morning that I caught up on the back-and-forth going on in the two Koreas.  Will the apparently completely off the wall North Korean leader really send missiles and nuclear bombs soaring toward South Korea?  Why the hell did hte US and the South Koreans go ahead with their planned manoeuvres?  This can't be an April Fool, can it?

No, unfortunately: it seems that everybody is playing Chicken, and nobody plans on blinking.  I am reminded of the first International Crisis I followed. That was in the  summer of 1950, when the North pushed South, the UN intervened and the the US began sending troops.  We were living in a small town in Washington State then, and the local radio station did what has come to be called a "streeter"--clips of ordinary folk giving their opinion.  Should we go in?  Sure, said those interviewed.  Got to show those folks who's boss.

That scared me, stirring up memories of uncertainty born during WWII when I was only old enough to know that very bad things happen in war.  Since then I've spent far more time than I like to have done marching in anti-war, pro-peace events.  Indeed, one of the things I'm most proud of is having been among the 200,000 who marched in Montreal on February 15, 2003 against involvement in the Second Iraq War.  Those protests turned the tide, and Canada, while involved in Afghanistan, stayed out of Iraq.

So are we headed in that direction again?  I doubt it.  But remember that North Korea is not the only "Third World" nation that has nuclear weapons.  So do India and Pakistan, and quite likely Israel  As we used to say: The Only Shelter is Peace.

Saturday Photo Reprise: Easter Eggs with Natural Dyes

Jeanne and I dyed Easter eggs this year with dyes made from beets, red cabbage, spinach, tumeric and blueberries.

The best however were the ones coloured by being wrapped in onions skins and then boiled from about an hour. Really lovely. This photo, though, is of the ones I did last year, as I forgot to take a picture before everybody left, bearing with them their Easter goodies. Still rather nice, I think.


The other pictures is of a dead bush on the next street over. We walked by there this morning, and they hadn't put out hte eggs. But since I don't think I posted the photo last year, here is what they had in 2012. Also rather nice.
Jeann

Great Old Dog: My Cousin Cathy's Clifford!

We just had a great four weeks babysitting (catsitting?) Chatouille, our neighbor's Maine coon cat. She's gone home now, and I'me feeling a little nostalgic. Having an animal in the house can be a lot of fun. (Lot of works too, but that's another story.) Now to go vacuum the house before our near and dear ones who are allergic to cats come over for Easter!

Krugman Says the Message about How the Deficit is a Crock Has Gotten Out, But Not Here Apparently

The Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has been talking for several years about how the fear-mongering about the deficit is nonsense.  Today he writes that maybe this message is getting through: "It’s as if someone sent out a memo saying that the Chicken Little act, with its repeated warnings of a U.S. debt crisis that keeps not happening, has outlived its usefulness"

North of the Border that idea has yet to get into the heads of the Harperites, witness the emphasis on expense control in the recent Federal budget with its downloading of retraining programs to the provinces..  The supposedly left-wing PQ has also just patted itself on the back about the way it will balance the budget in the coming fiscal year.

But, as Krugman writes, there is no real deficit crisis in North America. Instead there is a real danger that we are mortgaging our future by not repairing/improving our infrastructure, teaching our kids, healing our sick. 

"Why are we shortchanging the future so dramatically and inexcusably?," Krugman asks. "Blame the deficit scolds, who weep crocodile tears over the supposed burden of debt on the next generation, but whose constant inveighing against the risks of government borrowing, by undercutting political support for public investment and job creation, has done far more to cheat our children than deficits ever did.
"Fiscal policy is, indeed, a moral issue, and we should be ashamed of what we’re doing to the next generation’s economic prospects. But our sin involves investing too little, not borrowing too much — and the deficit scolds, for all their claims to have our children’s interests at heart, are actually the bad guys in this story."
Okay, let's hope that message gets across here and South of the Border.

Love, Restos and History: How Dinner Led to the Supreme Court

In a time when most of the young people I know are marrying for immigration, insurance or other very practical reasons, it is a pleasure to read a story of true love that has reached the US Supreme Court. Not surprisingly, the lovers are gay:  Edie Windsor and Thea Speyer met one Friday in the Portofino restaurant in New York, and the rest is history.

The facts are practical, however, because the law usually is very practical.  Edie  is challenging the US Defense of Marriage Act, charging that because her Canadian marriage to  the late Thea  is not recognized because it was between two people of the same sex, she was forced to pay inheritance taxes. That's them to the right, taken from  promotion for a documentary "Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement which will be shown tomorrow night  March 28, in at the New Parkway Theatre, 474 24th St., Oakland, CA. at 6 p.m.

Three Score Years and Ten: Life Expectancy through the Ages

It's no secret that we're all getting older, and there are days when I feel truly ancient.  Bu, as they say, 60 is the new 40, and overal life expectancy in countries like Canada continue to rise.  In 1920 it was 59 for men and 61 for women, compared to 79 for men and 83 for women in 2009,

This compares favourablly with the expectations of, say, a Swedish baby born in 1800, according to a fascinating story in The New York Times magazine. Records show that he or she could expect to live only 32 years.  My kids (partly of Swedish descent, in fact, and now 33 and 37) might be considered old in that society.

The thing is that these expectancies are only averages, and when many deaths occur in infants and children, the average  plummets.  Those same Swedish records show that, once the perilous period of childhood was survived, an individual was likely to live into his or her 50s or 60s. The big advances in longevity come with the control of childhood diseases and safer childbearing practices. 

That should be no surprise too anyone who knows the Bible:  Psalm 90 sets 70 as a goodly age and 80 as an age that might be reached with "labour and sorrow."  Another suggestion that there isn't much new under the Sun.

A Year Ago Thomas Mulcair Became NDP Leader

The picture was taken a year ago when we all were waiting for the results of the balloting during the NDP leadership convention.  Our man Tom Mulcair has done a great job since then as Leader of the Official Opposition.

Can't wait until we can elect him Prime Minister.  BTW, the flip side of the banner in the picture was "TM4PM"as was the hashtag for twitters during the convention.