THE THREADLESS BUDGET

Perhaps the BBC blunder was an auger of things to come.

The normally Perfect Broadcasting Corporation offered an hysterically funny miscue the other day.

An interviewer was quizzing someone on the upcoming Canadian budget and what we might expect.

Amazing enough that we colonials would make the Big Time Show.

But what added to the hilarity is that a title was emblazoned across the screen and stayed there for many minutes throughout the chatter.

Here's what it said:

CANDIAN BUDGET

Eh?

When are Candians know to drop an "A?"

Well, now we have our Candian budget, and I am not smart enough to comment in any deep and useful way about all the minutia of this document.

But I do think this.

This is a patchwork, a quilt of unrelated, unthemed, non-ideas.

It is a bit of this and a bit of that with no discernible guiding principles.

It is short-term stuff with no strengthening long-term vision or goals.

It is not horrible; it is just not much of an anything. What we would have called in another era "a dog's breakfast."

I thought the Globe's editorial was sound and much worth a read.

Should Ignatieff and Layton bring down the government on the basis of this document?

Absolutely not.

We have enough on our plates to deal with without the costly and pointless absurdity of yet another election and another government.

Should they harass Harper into fine tuning this budget?

Sure, by all means.

Then, go back to your corners and get on with the business of Parliament.

Such as it is.

THE SAMANDGORD ULTIMATUM

As yet another debt rating agency puts Vancouver into the dark negative column following the Olympic Village mess, I find myself wondering why two or three of the greatest culprits have been mysteriously shmeer-free.

Sam Sullivan.

Gordon Campbell.

Larry Campbell.

I didn't ask for the Olympics. I didn't go to Prague to wave the flag. I didn't blithely sign documents that would indebt the city for years to come on shaky land deals.

Did these three, for example, get some mystical-political get-out-of-jail-free card on this colossal blunder?

Of course, the current Mayor Robertson must work hand in glove with the Province and he not likely to slander or attack the Premier.

He is also a reasonably gracious man and, while he didn't shy away from scrapping with Ladner during the election, he is also unlikely to take unnecessary potshots at Sammy or Larry.

Leave that to me.

I'm just a citizen and a payer of taxes at every turn, who would ask that those responsible for truly bad decisions stand up and be counted.

Taser Testimony Continues to Disturb

DZIEKANSKI DEATH

Officers did not help tasered man, firefighter testifies

The Canadian Press

January 28, 2009

VANCOUVER -- Firefighters who rushed to Vancouver's airport in the minutes after Robert Dziekanski was stunned by an RCMP taser found a pale, unresponsive man face down in handcuffs as officers stood metres away doing nothing, a public inquiry into the man's death heard yesterday.

Richmond Fire Department Captain Kirby Graeme said when he arrived in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007, the officers weren't helping or monitoring Mr. Dziekanski, and at one point even refused to remove his handcuffs so he could be properly assessed.

Minutes earlier, the same four Mounties had confronted the Polish immigrant, who had been throwing furniture around in the airport's international arrivals area.

"To see a patient face-down, handcuffed and not being tended to in some way, shape or form, I thought, 'Something's not right here,' " said Mr. Graeme, a firefighter with more than two decades of experience.

The above are the headlines and opening paragraphs of a report in this morning's Globe. I think it tells us more of what we need to learn and raises the questions again about these four officers of the law.

Read the full story here.

IDENTIFY THIS SITE - WIN A ONE WAY TRIP TO PALOOKAVILLE

A PARAMEDIC SPEAKS OUT

As a recently retired paramedic I, of course, side with my former colleagues.

They are grossly under managed by a cadre of "old timers" or those brought up by the old timers. Their management style is still a hierarchal one with those near the top getting all the support and consideration while those at the lower levels are still looked on as "part time wannabes". Hence the governments disdain and offering only 2%. They never get to know the real side of the story.

Government has always looked on and used the BC Ambulance Service as a "cost over run buffer" for their screw ups in other areas of health care. Their budgets are constantly being raided by other ministries or areas within the health ministry. Their managers are very inept at getting and retaining planning and operating funds and never know what to do with what they've got because it comes at them in unplanned for dribs and drabs.

Having said that the Union Management side of the equation isn't much better. There isn't a professional manager within the organization and that's why they are asking today for such a high raise. It's to try and make up for the way they have been held back by an uncaring health ministry for the last 14 years. Unfortunately they won't get it. The unprofessional union negotiators will again be fooled by their professional negotiators and the hard working paramedics will again bear the brunt of this ineptitude.

Paramedics deserve to be paid as much as any policeman and deserve the respect that so often alludes them. This eludes then due to the fact that they are seldom seen at the "scene of the crime" so to speak. By the time the media arrives to tell the story the paramedics have already been and gone, off to the hospital and performing unsung miracles en route. Paramedics face life and death situations almost every shift where a policeman might only encounter one occasionally.

It's certainly time that they were re-reimbursed for their sacrifices and skills. 18% would be a good starting point.

PLEASE COMMENT IN DETAIL

When I reported my very favorable recent experience with the health care system to a friend the other day, he added that we couldn't as a nation continue on the current path.

He argues that, while our system is wonderful, it is unacceptably expensive, eating up roughly 50% of all government budgets and climbing.

What should we do?

Allow more private practitioners?

Cut back services?

Do serious audits on hospitals, for example, to cut away administrative costs?

Learn how to cost out surgical operations?

Pay doctors flat rates?

Allow nurses more responsibilities?

Please share your thoughts on this crucial and central issue. We are an aging population and the costs for our health care can only increase.

Can we afford what we have? Can we afford to not have what we have? What can and must we do to make it all more workable?

I encourage you on this page to a full and vigorous debate.

Thank you in advance.

PARAMEDICS STRIKE?

When you read the stories about a possible strike by paramedics here on B.C., be sure to read the fine print.

If this job action does, in fact, occur, ambulances would not be parked. Paramedics fall under the province's essential-service law.

However, the public would be effected.

The workers are asking for parity with the police, which means a 31% wage hike.

The province is offering 2%.

Clearly, they are both out of their trees.

My basic sympathies are with the paramedics. They do great work and they are, time and time again, amazing in their calm, smooth professionalism under often dreadful circumstances.

But 31% is not going to go over with a world in financial mourning. How about 18%?

And the government's 2% offering is sheer insult.

Let's hope some good old common sense and reasonableness prevail -and quickly.

WHERE TO PUT YOUR MONEY

Signs of the recession?

1) The biggest growth company around is McDonald's.

Fuelled by fear and small pockets, Americans and eaters world-wide are charging to the arches in record numbers. More than 1,000 new emporia will open around the double cheeseburger globe this year.

Conclusion? Poverty is not healthy. But we knew that, didn't we.

2) Pharma-giant Pfizer has bought almost giant Wyeth for $68 Billion.

Pfizer's biggest sellers?

Viagra, Zoloft and Lipitor.

At least, Lipitor has known recognizable medical uses. It's the number one prescribed pill to combat bad cholesterol numbers.

Viagra...well, you know. And Zoloft is one of those highly debatable psychotropic drugs which, aside from being monstrously over prescribed, are polluting our waterways after the anxious piss the residues into the sewage systems.

Wyeth's number one elixir is Effexor - an antidepressant. Only $4 Billion a year in sales. Lovely.

Conclusion?

Heart-stopping bad fat foods and questionable instant cures for daily stress are the growth industries and always have been.

Who knew?

We were busy eating salads and fish oils and riding our bikes. What ever were we thinking?

HERE IS THE BISHOP IN HIS OWN SICK WORDS

MOON

Xin yen hao!

or, Xin yen quai le!

or, Gung Hay Fat Choi!

However you say or mispronounce it the message is the same.

Happy Chinese New Year and welcome to the Year of the Ox.

Health, prosperity and getting along with one another, neighbours and nations.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

This genius has openly declared that Jews are "bent on world domination."

He was excommunicated, but now is being welcomed back into the Catholic fold by the Pope.

	"The historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I believe there were no gas chambers..." —Bishop Richard Williamson

Nice to see that social progress is moving steadily forward.

VANCOUVER RE-SEEN

ABBEY LINCOLN, MAX ROACH - FREEDOM DAY

HEALTH CARE

On Friday at 4 PM I walked into an Operating Room at UBC Hospital.

I was wearing the complete surgery fashion statement: long, green socks, paper shoes and hat, and two cotton nightgowns. No underwear.

Gorgeous, I know.

A few minutes later, one of the anaesthesiologists said, "O.K. Mr. Berner. We're going to add a little something to your I.V. to get you relaxed."

Of course, the next hour and a half is a complete wipe. Gone.

I had arrived at 1 PM for a scheduled 3 o'clock hernia operation.

I brought one of the current books I am reading, Ford Maddox Ford's "The Good Soldier." Wonderful book. Too bad I left my 3 pairs of glasses at home. So I snoozed and cell phoned in the waiting room.

The procedure was delayed by about an hour. That was the only hitch in an otherwise beautifully orchestrated event.

Every single person I met - and there were easily 8 or 10 - was warm and friendly and professional and re-assuring.

It can't be great fun to deal with fearful anxious goofs like me day in and day out, but bless these folks, for deal is exactly what they do and with wonderful grace and charm.

I was stirred to wake up by a lovely nurse at about 5:45. I had no idea where I was. Total disorientation. Followed, of course, by dizziness, minor panic and a terribly sore throat. Thankfully, they don't tell you about the breathing tube.

Soon the room stopped spinning.The nurse helped me get dressed. All my clothes and cash and personal goodies were there.

And, lo and behold, so was my son. Standing right there just like we planned!

Sean drove me home. We sat with a friend and had a bite to eat, Sean went off to work and my friend and I watched some Australian Open tennis and we retired about 11.

I took one Tylenol 3 before I went to bed and another one at 5:30 AM and basically slept like a baby. Wonderful.

My tummy is sore, and it looks ridiculous covered in red paint and with three distinct little entry wounds. But miracle upon miracle, I am not doing too badly at all. Here I am writing this report.

The Moral of the Story.

Oh, how we complain - myself at the top of the mob - about the iniquities in our national health care system. And yes, much still can be done and aught to be done to make it even more accessible, even more financially efficient and accountable.

BUT, having said all that...

99 times out of a hundred, when we need the system, it responds so amazingly well we must thank the gods for those men and women who have had the foresight to enact the legislation and the intricate webs of administration that keeps this mad machine running.

And we must especially thank those receptionists and nurses and doctors who take such good care of us.

Four years ago, I experienced exactly the same level of magnificent care at VGH when I was sent in suddenly for an angioplasty.

For all that America is and has been a great country, the fact that it has managed to avoid this kind of essential service for all its citizens is a shame and a mystery.

We can take great pride in our health care here in Canada.

And we can continue vigilantly to make it even better.

THE NEWSPAPER BU$INE$$

Local journalist Bill Tieleman hs obtained a memo from Dennis Skulsky, the CEO of Canwest Publishing.

How Bill managed to do this is a mystery, but are we ever glad he did it.

The headline reads like this:

Canwest Publishing internal memo details severe cost cutting measures

Canwest Publishing details severe cost cutting measures including freeze on hiring, salary increases, travel, consultants, conferences and more

Read this here.

THROWING THEIR BADGES IN THE DIRT

What the hell is going on?

A 47-year old man is trying to support his family. He is delivering newspapers at 2:30 in the morning.

Was he a surgeon is his country of origin? A physicist? Who knows?

What we do know is that he has claimed - and there is considerable evidence to support this claim - that three off-duty police officers with no apparent provocation attacked and beat up and robbed this man.

We are told that the three officers, each from the burbs, each with very few years under his no doubt considerable belt, each drunk, yelled racial insults at this newsy and threatened him further with the famous taser treatment ... which, given current realities, is not much different from saying, "We're going to kill you."

Nice.

Vancouver Police Chief, James Chu, thankfully breaking the usual closed-mouth protocol, has spoken publicly to assure us that some legal process is now at hand.

How many more examples of dreadful police behaviour can Canada bear these days?

Have the leaders of these teams not addressed their ranks lately and urged them to carry their tasks and their shields with pride and honor? Has no one taken charge and advised officers across the land to clean up all and every bad acts?

Last weekend, we made the mistake of trying to engage a police officer in a conversation.

We stepped off the curb at a four-way stop intersection and the police woman simultaneously and in no apparent urgent hurry looked right at us as she drove in front of us at a crosswalk.

When we saw her a few moments later, we dared ask her, "If then police don't respect the rules or regard pedestrians, how can we expect any one else to?"

She didn't apologize. She ranted on about how "no harm was done," apparently not seeing the harm in bad public relations.

Soon, one of her colleagues joined the circle and glared menacingly at us. We expected drawn tasers at any moment.

We thanked her for her time and offered the Safeway Universal, "Have a nice day."

I have been a fan and supported of the police all my life, and in theory, I continue to be so.

But loyalty is being strained daily by these shenanigans.

As if the YVR story is not sorry enough, now we have three drunk rogue cops beating up on "brown people" at Georgia and Burrard. They were stopped by the interventions of passers-by.

Do the police forces of the land really want to keep such representatives in their uniforms?

Yes, give them their due process.

But when the truth is told, show them the door and ask more of the next batch of recruits.

Ask for civility.

PHOTO: Phil Khan, father, husband, 3AM newspaper delivery man on a cold January night, and victim of random attack by 3 men who brag that they are cops

THANK GOD, THANK GOD, THANK GOD

journalism - the basics

Something very funny has happened in the Sun newspapers.

Yesterday, John Mackie wrote an article titled A view from Vancouver's new 62-storey Shangri-La

The piece, basically an interview with the architect, in on the Sun's website.

The reactions are visceral and damning.

As one reader-writer after another points out...a)this is not a news story; it is a kind of mindless advertorial...and b) What view?

Have a look at the photo that goes with the article.

Looks curiously like a view from the ground, no?

Journalism 104.

BY THE NUMBERS

Scary.

The Great Free Enterprise nation, the USA, is, in fact, one of the most government dominated sovereign territories in the world.

In the early 1900's, the US federal government consumed 2% of GDP.

It now consumes more than 20%, and that number will climb quickly to 25%.

In the first instance, a constitutional amendment allowed government to tax both personal incomes and corporate profits. That doubled the government stake to 4% before the First World War.

Oddly enough, defense spending, which seems so outrageous to many of us, has actually declined from 15% in 1952 to less than 4% in 2006.

"Social entitlements" however account for a huge amount of government, and one of Obama's most onerous challenges will be to severely cut from these spendings without harming the poor or alienating the the many hopeful who have elected him.

BACK TO THE FUTURE WON'T WORK, UNFORTUNATELY

For too many years now, the venerable old Hudon's Bay Company has been calling itself HBC.

It is taken its new American owners to recognize that alphabet soup doesn't cut it and that the good old name is the one that connects with consumers.

Henceforth, the the Hudson's Bay Company will be known oddly enough as the Hudson's Bay Company.

For those of us who grew up with The Bay as a big part of our lives - I worked there many times and my uncle Tom was the head tailor in men's clothing for many years - this welcome news.

Unfortunately, recent visits to The Bay and Sears suggest strongly that these stores' days are numbered.

Everything about them looks tired and out of synch.

And service simply does not exist.