Pahik Abhou

Should Canadian colleges be more tolerant of Islamic fundamentalism than Cairo's universities?

That's the question being asked by Lysiane Gagnon in her Globe column today about the niqab and the burka.

The top Islamic cleric in Egypt said students and teachers at Cairo's Al-Azhar University would not be allowed to wear face veils in classrooms and dorms on the grounds they had “nothing to do with Islam.”

So why is it OK in Canadian Universities?

A woman in a French-language class for immigrants is fighting her expulsion from class.

Read the details of what really went on in that classroom...

Then, tell me about the limts, if any, of cultural and religious accomodation.

And now, the Other News

Justine Hunter, writing from Victoria in the Globe this morning, points out the gritty specifics of how the provincial government will slowly release the various bits of bad news about its current budget.

You have diabetes and you are on income assistance.

Tough.

No more blood-glucose meters for you.

"We felt these were frankly add-ons that weren't necessary to healthy living of folks on social assistance."

That's a quote from Rich Coleman, our hosing...uh, Housing and Social Development Minister.

Food banks and arts groups will get less money.

Your hydro bill will go up almost 10% in the coming days, and the huge surplus at ICBC that could have and should have been returned to drivers with good records, has instead been swiped by the government for general revenues.

Yes, the Olympics has changed us all.

Profoundly.

SUNDAY BOOK REVIEWS

Health Care Shock!

B.C. doctors prepared to fund nurses' pay

Hahahahaha...

Doctors at a cash-strapped hospital in the Kootenays are proposing to pay nurses out of their own pockets to keep operating rooms running.

And why not?

If the nurses don't work, neither do the doctors, so their intentions are both self-serving and helpful to others, including the forgotten person in the equation - the famous patient.

Of course, this kind of magnanimityfariousnosity is so unprecedented that a health care administrator was heard mumbling, “I haven't heard of any precedent like this. In terms of the implications, the Interior Health Authority has to do some research."

Hahahaha...

Will they be doing that research on the weekend?

Victor Seizes the Day (Glo)

Hi david:

Hope it was a great holiday.

This summer in BC, the HST will come in, the MSP will increase, and
that lunatic carbon tax on gas will increase. Additionally, we will
see the beginning of a 30 per cent increase in hydro rates over the
next three years. You and I are in the backstretch of life so most of
our race has been run. But I really feel for the young generation
entering adulthood. They will be stuck under a government , regardless
of party, that believes there's an unlimited amount of juice in the
lemon.

The Vanier Institute issued its report on families while you were
away. It is a supremely credible annual report on quality of life in
Canadian families. It found that 70 per cent of working people ages 18
to 34 would be "severely stretched" if their paycheque were delayed by
one week. This cohort is not going to magically become upper middle
class. Our governments continue to spend as though that will happen.

O CAN - IT

Stealing Your Health

Yesterday, we spoke in this space about the high costs of health care in this province.

Today, we focus on one of the hidden costs, one of the little over-runs that politicians will not be rushing to discuss in public.

"e-health" is all the rage.

Every jurisdiction in the land is pouring millions of tax dollars into the belief that all of your health care info should be in cyberspace and available at a mouse click to anyone who needs it asap.

Fair enough.

Trouble is, kids, corruption abounds.

"e-health" and e-anything is the new cement.

Used to be that when a new highway was being built somewhere, all you had to do is ask, "Whose cousin got the cement contract?"

Now, the game is the same, only the players and the sticky stuff have changed.

Charges laid against three linked to e-health project

Former top bureaucrat, MD consultant among those accused of corruption

In BC, the e-health caper is worth $259 million.

We Three Little Pigs have been hit with 16 charges of influence peddling, fraud and such.

In Ontario, the Auditor-General concluded $1-billion of taxpayer money had been mismanaged on that province’s e-health system. David Caplan resigned as health minister on the day the review was released last October.

Will The Falcon resign?

Not on your stethoscope.

Mr. Falcon stressed that the allegations stem from events that took place long before he took over the Health portfolio.

But they did take place on somebody's watch? Could we have that sucker up front and centre for an axplanation, please?

Not likely.

So...

In addition to all of the inefficiencies in the sytem, we now know that one of the reasons that our health care eats up so much of the budget is plain old-fashioned theft.

Yes, that's very healthy, thanks.

And has the Premier demanded answers on this misuse and abuse of public funds?

Seacrh me. I've been out of town for a few weeks.

Was that right between the Crosby goal and the closing ceremonies?

Old Movie

The fact that abortion is the hot-button issue that may scuttle President Barack Obama's attempt to bring home health care reform in America is appalling - and frightening.

God, guns and glory...our good neighbours are tetched.

The fact that 50 million of their fellow citizens are a cough away from a catastrophic health issue because they have no money or insurance just doesn't seem to be important to most Americans, who would rather scream hysterically about SOCIALISM or COMMUNISM or the evils of abortion.

The USA is the most backwoods, backward regime among all the so-called Western Democracies, an imperialist nation hunkered around false, comforting pieties.

It is beautiful and it is exciting and it is flat nuts.

Smudgit

There's nothing particularly wrong or offensive about the latest Jim Flaherty/Stephen Harper fiscal game plan.

The only problem is...can you believe this kind of starry-eyed optimism?

Cut the federal deficit from today's $54 Billion to less than $2 Billion in 4 years?

What are these guys smoking?

Why It's Still Difficult to Trust Politicians

Darrel Dexter is the Premier of Nova Scotia.

To maintain his standing in the province as a practising lawyer, he must pay $3,119 annually.

That's his choice.

The only problem is that the Nova Scotia/Canadian taxpayer - that's you - has been paying Dexter's fees for several years.

Dex has the gall to insist that that's O.K.

No, baby, it's not O.K.

Did you have a mother?

Did she teach you Right and Wrong?

Lessons from Italy

He is a crook.

He is a womanizer...favoring 18 year olds by the boat load.

He is richer than God.

And in some circles, more powerful.

He has had more plastic surgery than Joan Rivers and even his hair plugs are dyed.

Perhaps, most impressive - he has a pizza named after him. (I have a Crepe David at a little neighbourhood cafe, but a Pizza! Oh, the pure jealousy!)

He is Silvio Berlusconi and he is the Prime Minister of Italy.

Again.

In spite of being indicted half a dozen times on a very democratic broad range of charges, he manages to sweep the popular vote and dash into office at will.

For the casual observer, the inevitable question is, "Why?"

Are these people mad? Have they no good common sense? Has he promised them all a free bottle of Prosecco once a week?

No.

It is much simpler than that.

And here's where Carole James and Iggy Pop and Jack the 'Stache come into the picture.

Berlusconi - love him or move to Malta - keeps getting elected and re-elected because:

a) He is tremendously organized, and

b) The other guys aren't.

"The other guys" constitute about 94 other parties, each one dumber than the last and all clawing away at each other over the fine print, while Silvio skates across the finish line again.

Travel is refreshing and instructive.

I recommend it for certain other also-rans.

You see different buildings. You eat different foods.

And you get a glimpse of how some people have figured out the basics, while others gab, gab, gab...

To Your Health

It's not often that you'll find me in agreement with something coming from the fountain of wisdom known as B.C. Health Minister, Kevin Falcon.

But in this case, "Right on, Kev."

Speaking of the need to hold the line or better on inevitable increases in health care spending, Falcon warns, “Because if we don't do this, our system will implode under the weight of its own excess and inefficiency.”

The only problem with that statement is that it doesn't answer the question, "Oh, yah? Then what are you doing about it?"

Take the mandarins who head up the regional Health Boards, for example...please.

Salaries in the $300,000 range.

And every time one of them is sacked or decides to go fishing, the buy-out is in the half million dollar range.

These folks must calibrate, before taking on the job, the exact best pay-off moment to head into the sunset.

And the endless bureaucracies that support them.

And the top-heavy hospital management teams.

And the refusal to tally up the real cost of any surgery and position oneself to take remedial action in buying habits for supplies and equipment.

The province has consistently reduced services for mental health, addictions and seniors.

How has that helped the bottom line?

Almost no money goes for treatment in addictions, yet millions go to giving users more of their favorite free drugs and clean places to use.

In short, if Falcon is right - and for once, he is - that we must stop the mounting health costs, where is the Plan?

Is he the Man with the Plan?

Doesn't look like it.

The same government has announced a $50 Million commitment to a new Vancouver Art Gallery, when anyone with an abacus handy knows that such an animal will cost at last 10 times that number.

Planning is not Victoria's long suit.

And never forget that there always has been and always will be one single villain who drives the machinery of health care costs.

That is your friendly neighbourhood Federal Government, who many years ago covered half the costs of health care across the land.

Today, Ottawa pays 25% of the bill.

The next time, some rube posing as a politician asks for your vote in a national election, ask him or her when Ottawa will return to paying its full share of the health bill.

Rube or Ruby won't have an answer for you and will not deserve your vote.

Spin

HST = Health Care?

Huh?

It's the Health Saving tax?

This is news.

Yet this is what Colin Hansen and Gordon Campbell would have us believe.

In delivering the Provincial Budget, Mr. Hansen was determined that we come away pillowed by the comforting thought that the new tax would really be all for Health.

In the words of that famous parliamentarian, John McEnroe, "You can't be serious!""

But listen to the Good Minister's language:

“We need to find ways that can help demonstrate to average British Columbians the connection between the tax dollars they pay and the services they get.”

Translation?

"You are stupid and we have to 'splain stuff to you, You Average Donkey You.

Yup.

Thanks, Boss.

Look, revenues are down, expenditures are up and the whole world is struggling through the same identical mire. Ontario, Greece, London and no doubt the Maldives are all in the same sweaty tank.

We get it, thanks. We got it.

But you don't have to keep pulling these tired cheesy old circus tricks, guys.

Let Us Not Forget

The notorious Air India case – the bloodiest unsolved crime in Canadian history – will be back in the spotlight Wednesday with the start of jury selection for a trial on the rare charge of perjury against former Vancouver Island mechanic Inderjit Singh Reyat.

It is charged that he lied under oath 27 times.

The killers of 331 people walk free, in large measure thanks to this man's testimony.

May some measure of justice be found in this matter.

It's only been 25 years since this obscenity occurred.

Values and Opinions Department

New immigrants to Canada are being told many helpful things - thanks to our new official study guide.

Of course, they are not being told that spitting in public is a) disgusting and b) a criminal offense. Or if they are, who's listening?

In addition, the Globe has learned that a number of references to certain Canadian Rights enshrined by law have been deliberately omitted from the guide.

For example:

"Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969 and more recently, civil marriage rights to same-sex couples was legalized nationwide in 2005," the earliest draft of the guide says under the section Towards a Modern Canada.

And in the section on citizenship rights, the early draft said: "Equality Rights - Canadians are protected against discrimination based on race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or age."

Neither sentence survived the minister's red marker.

The minister is Citizenship & Immigration Minister Jason Kenney who was advised by staff to include such statements.

But Kenny has his own agenda.

For which, no doubt, many will applaud him.

Not I.

May the Beeb be Heard

The BBC is much like the CBC, only bigger, nastier and more ingrained, if such a thing can be imagined.

What a pleasure then to read in a "Telegraph" at a restaurant in Heathrow yesterday that the Beeb wants to change its tune.

More British, less Yanqui, programming.

Of course, these announcements for all we know may be annual affairs, the Home Office equivalent to the sighting of the groundhog.

Let's hope someone at CBC Control is listening.

You are publicly funded.

Stop showing The Price is Right, Jeopardy, and all other American mind rot.

Pay for News, Comedy, Drama, Children's, docs, and education.

Decide who you really are and go for it.

Techo-Geek, Part 4,398,222

Once again I 've recorded about 4 minutes and managed to upload only 2...

What I was saying about comments was...

MOSTLY, your comments are quite wonderful and well told and full of good information and excellent stories and I really appreciate very much your input.

Best wishes...

Cheers!

Ciao Baby

I'm leaving on a jet plane.

Venice, Sicily...Carnivale, Corleone...

I won't be posting on this blog again until March 3d.

But...

If you feel so inclined, check in occasionally to my other bog site,

http://laughingintheisles.blogspot.com/

which I last used during my '09 trip to Edinburgh and Dublin.

I'll endevour to get some good fotos of the masks and costumes in the Piazza, and the hillsides and Greek ruins in Sicilia.

A tough assignment, I realize, but...

Be well, Tutti!

True Crime

Cosy Cave Lane.

Respected and admired Air Force Colonel charges with multiple murders of young women.

This is the stuff of old Law and Order episodes.

Will Ben Stone come out of his drunken retirement to prosecute?

Forgive me, for this is no laughing matter to the families of these victims.

The story is horrifying and fascinating and too much like a movie.

No doubt some enterprising HBO executive has already bought the rights.