Another Comment that Warrants a Posting of its Own

I can't remember whether I made this comment on this blog before, but in case I haven't I will repeat it.

I was in a Palliative Care workshop where we were learning about the worldwide epidemic of HIV/AIDS. We were shown a map of the world and the incidence of HIV/AIDS shown, per capita, in varying colours, darker colours meaning higher reported cases.

I was curious as to why certain countries had higher incidents, even though they shared similar cultures, religions, behavioral morals, etc. I asked the facilitator.

She advised that this question had been asked a lot. All variables were considered and one thing remained constant...

The countries with the larger gap between the rich and the poor had higher incidences of HIV/AIDS.

The US has more cases than Canada. Canada has more cases than most North European countries.

Gordon Campbell's policies of keeping education in the realm of the wealthier members of society is not just a matter of education .... extrapolated, it becomes of matter of public health.

The same argument applied to his short sighted, cruel minimum wage of $8.00 per hour.

These laws and policies continue to widen the gap between rich and poor. The poor will continue to become more vulnerable - even to the point of their health.

These are sick, sick policies.

Linda Yuill

The High Cost of Exercise

John Young is a Victoria school trustee.

He has successfully sued his own school board and the Ministry of Education over the charging of extra fees in the public-school system.

Now Young is plotting a Charter of Rights challenge that he hopes will lead to a country-wide ban on supplemental school fees, from kindergarten through Grade 12.

"I can prove that the requirement of a fee to take a course is discriminatory against children who don't have the money to pay," said the 87-year-old former high-school principal, who began his crusade to abolish school fees more than a decade ago.

Twice in the past year, I have praised him lavishly in these pages. I think he is a great role model for citizenship. (I cannot seem to find a "search" function on my blog, so I cannot quickly reference these posts for you.) NOTE: One of our commenters has magically figured out that my previous postings on Mr. Young can be found here and here. Many thanks!

Let me praise Mr. Young again.

What he is saying repeatedly and successfully in these law suits is that children should not have to pay for art supplies,banjos, and soccer balls at public schools. And he is right.

The only problem is that the provincial government's reaction to Young's successful rulings is to change the law!

The province amended its legislation to allow for surcharges on things such as band instruments, trades programs and specialty sports and arts "academies."

"The result is fees of more than $100 a month are being charged for soccer and hockey programs," said Mr. Young, now in his sixth term as a school trustee.

"It's true these academies are permitted under the act, but they violate the principle that all educational programs must be provided free of charge."

Frustrated by the province's "end-around" response to the first two decisions, Mr. Young has decided to launch a third challenge based on non-discrimination provisions contained in Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"If it proves to be discrimination, this could apply all across Canada," he said.

Let's look at this struggle from another angle.

The Premier of the Province of British Columbia is Gordon Campbell.

Mr. Campbell is investing billions in roads, condos, security, advertising (Don't get me started on using Donald Sutherland for 2010 ads! They couldn't choose any one of thousands of great voices for one tenth the price?) and lord knows what else to celebrate athleticism. Or so the official, teary-eyed, patriotic story goes.

But the same Campbell who will move mountains to provide a place for 10 days of skiing, will change the law so that he doesn't have to pay for kids' sports equipment in schools.

Question: Are all young boys and girls who are gifted at sports also rich? Do they all come from families for whom extra fees are no hardship?

We are prepared, or we are getting prepared, as a society to invest in high octane training schools for tennis players and swimmers and skiers (provided of course that they fall in the politically significant jurisdictions and we can be there for the ribbon cutting foto op).

But we not only will not provide the $30 or $180 dollars for school kids to be involved in sports (and the arts and cooking), but we are so loathe to do so, that when the courts order us to, we change the law!

Aside from fitting snugly in to the category of penny-wise, pound-foolish, this shows us once again the cheesy priorities of the Premier.

Insight in Gaza

Several friends sent this along and I thought it deserved posting.

General Lewis MacKenzie on Gaza

I first served in the Gaza Strip in 1963, seven years after Lester Pearson's diplomatic stick-handling led to the creation of the United Nations Emergency Force, the UN's first peacekeeping force. I served there for two years, living with more than 1,000 other Canadian soldiers in Camp Rafah, just inside Gaza. I returned to the region eight years later, this time to Cairo and Ismailia as part of Canadian support for UN ceasefire protocols after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. I have returned to the region many times during the past decade.

In my opinion, the Israeli-Hamas conflict is the only one in the world where there is no hope whatsoever of the participants resolving the key issues on their own, by any means. Hamas makes no secret that, aided and abetted by Iran, it is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Any idea of a ceasefire in the current fighting leading to a change in Hamas's dedication to Israel's elimination is naive to the extreme. Any cessation of hostilities, no matter how temporary, will be used by Hamas to enhance its weapons arsenal in preparation for the next round of terrorist attacks against its neighbour.

On their own, Israel and Hamas are doomed to a perpetual state of war no matter how much international diplomatic horsepower is applied to resolving the conflict. But there is a solution that the world has been adroitly avoiding for 40 years.

Israel deserves security. Its population is prepared to live in peace with its neighbours providing they aren't dedicated to its extermination. If Israel deals with the threat from Hamas on its own, the situation will not improve over the long term - Hamas will simply resuscitate itself and carry on with its terrorist actions against Israel. The UN Security Council needs to show some rare backbone and authorize a strong UN force under the UN Charter's Chapter 7, which authorizes the use of deadly force as necessary, and deploy it within the Gaza Strip, taking on the responsibility to provide the security to which Israel is entitled. The force would need to be strong enough to interdict weapons smuggling by sea, land (including by tunnel) and air from outside sources, to eliminate rocket attacks on Israel, to stop suicide bombers through use of border controls and, most important, to be strong enough militarily to take on Hamas if need be. The oft-expressed idea of putting international monitors into the Gaza Strip to control smuggling and the firing of rockets is ludicrous: Hamas would run rings around any unarmed outsiders whose only mandate was to "observe and report." Such monitors wouldn't even qualify as yet another Band-Aid solution.

Israel would not like this solution. It is extremely suspicious of the UN, which has all too often demonstrated anti-Semitic policies and statements thanks to the fact that most member states sympathize with such attitudes. Israel did not recognize the UNEF from 1956 to its withdrawal in 1967. In fact, when we had to drive through Israel to get some of our supplies in Lebanon, we were not allowed to get out of our vehicles while inside Israel.

The UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, has been accused by Israel - with some justification - of anti-Israel bias. Nevertheless, with a UN force deployed across the border from Israel and capable of providing the security desired by its citizens, the Israelis would soon see the benefits.

The UN has maintained a peacekeeping force in Cyprus since 1964. There has been no fighting between the Greek and Turk Cypriots for the past 34 years. The peacekeepers are now popular tourist attractions. When you arrive on the south coast of Cyprus, you can sign up for a bus tour of Nicosia, where you can observe the peacekeepers executing their boring duty in sentry boxes first manned by Canadian soldiers some 38 years ago. If you are polite, they will let you have your picture taken with them.

The UN Security Council and member states should be ashamed. While UN resources are providing peacekeepers in a country safer than most of our major cities, just across the Mediterranean, scores of innocent Palestinians are being killed because a terrorist organization with the stated aim of ridding the world of Jews is permitted to sacrifice its own people without protest or intervention by the international community.

Another Heart Warming City Works Story - Thanks, Gavin

Many years ago there was a garage at 4th and Blenheim....Blenheim Motors. They also had gas pumps which augmented their business. The service station was run by two very honest guys and I had my VW serviced there for a few years. One day I was there and the access to the pumps was blocked by City road crews...I asked Andy(one of the co-owners) what was happening. "They are re-paving and improving the access. We can deal with the revenue loss, it'll take about four days for them to finish." All was done and it looked great until a week after it was repaved and 'finished' the access was torn up by City water works. Andy was miffed when he was told that it would take about two weeks to finish. He called City Hall to complain and asked for a reduction of his business license fee and was shunted around so many different 'crats at City Hall that he gave up and bit the bullet. Now it was beginning to cost the garage money. Finally the city's job was done, and the street re-paved and all was normal for about a week and a half. OK.......no! A new crew arrived and began to tear up the access again. Andy blew his stack and asked, "what the hell is going on now?" The answer was City Electrical ops. Andy was on the phone to City Hall to tell them that he was not going to pay his business license fee due to significant loss of revenue from his pumps. When he finally reached the city mandarin, Andy was told in no uncertain terms that if he refused to pay, the City would shut him down.
All of this could have been avoided and everything could have been accomplished in three days had there been some co-ordination by the city works and Andy would have been a happy camper. This was the 70's.....have things changed that much at City Hall? I doubt it very much.

Bountiful, Indeed

Any guy who fathers more than 108 children (What does "more than" even mean? 2,009? 18 trillion) should have his little weenie put on ice and made a permanent exhibit at Science World.

NOTE: by the way that Mr. Blackmore is always smiling.

You'd be smiling too if you spent most of your day shtupping teenage girls.

Whether laws against polygamy are constitutional or not, whether the practice is repugnant or odd or not, there are laws against sexual exploitation and what has taken so long for those to be enforced?

And maybe someday the full story will be told about the young boys, seen as a sexual threat to the leaders, are basically enslaved at an early age as workers in the community's primary businesses like logging.

These sects are sick little enclaves and their hiding behind religious freedoms is an obscenity.

Priorities, Part 9,462

$365 Million for a new retractable roof for BC Place.

No problem. Do it. we pay for it. No problem.

$300,000 debt for Ballet B.C.

Get outta here! You're on your own, Fairy Princesses!

The good news is that the Ballet did in fact save themselves from bankruptcy by offering debtors a few cents on every dollar owed. Which is fine.

But Glad-handing Gord could have paid the full tilt iin the stroke of a pen if he had any vision of what this province is supposed to look like outside of highways and skating rinks.

Coming Home to Roost

OLYMPIC VILLAGE SHOCK

was the headline on the front page of yesterdays' Vancouver Sun.

Our response?

Shock? Not really.

Here's what I wrote on Tuesday.

"These public-private partnerships might even work on occasion if the rubes who are in public office and who have never run so much as a Bingo game weren't creaming their jeans with the excitement of playing with the Big Boys.

The suits in the towers must be bending over in hysterics every time the phone rings from one of these municipal offices with yet another grand scheme to build a highway or a subway line or a bunch of hospitals."

Now, we are told that the tab could run close to One Billion Dollars.

Understand that any shortfall will have to be made up by raising taxes and that I and you will pay for the clownish country-bumpkin mistakes of these elected clods and that and you will pay for some idiot's right to pay $1,200/square foot to live in a concrete box and call it home.

This Comment Deserves Posting All of its Own

Not about snow removal but a true story about Vancouver's Engineering Dept.

Some years ago, my (commercial) landlord had a problem, the sewer was backing up in the newly rented store the new tenant, who was a florist.

The stores were located near Richards & Hastings St's. in the downtown core.

The local 'Mr. Rooter' came and rooted and for his troubles got nothing but gravel. He told my landlord; "The sewer line is not connected to the main sewer line and that the past tenant's 'waste' just leached into the gravel under the lane way."

When my landlord phoned city hall and complained, the head of the 'sewer dept.' came out and looked over the situation. His reply was "no-way that happened and the fault was in the building."

The florist soon left has he could not practice his trade because the sewer did not work and the store remained vacant for months.

Again my landlord contacted the 'Engineering Dept.' and complained and again they said "Not their fault."

In desperation he got his lawyer to contact city hall and the City Engineer came to view the problem. "Not our fault" was all he said. Later my landlord struck a deal with the city's Engineering Dept. - they would dig up the alley to check the connection and would pay if it was the city's fault, if not, my landlord must pay th full shot.

Well two days prior to the excavation, a massive digger was dropped, two large construction huts were left. On the day of the excavation there were no less than 15 engineering types around, not including flaggers who made sure Richards St. was closed and BC Hydro types, who were hired - 'just in case.'.

Estimated cost so far - $40,000

But wait, the massive digger finally uncovered the problem - the last time the city worked on the sewer, they failed to reconnect the line to store.

Their excuse - well it wasn't supposed to be connected to that sewer line at all, even though it was before!!

No dice said my landlord and a deal is a deal. Within 60 minutes, diggers, construction huts, engineering types, Hydro linemen, flaggers all disappeared and three men and a backhoe came and fixed the problem.

What does this have to do about snow removal? Simple, the city's Engineering Dept. can't be trusted to do a simple job cheaply and will screw the taxpayer for every dime he/she has!

Can Mayor Greg change City Hall's mind-set? I doubt it.

Quote of the Day

"THERE IS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT IN CITY SNOW-REMOVAL PLAN: MAYOR"

You think?

Clearly Gaza

Under the title,

A setback for Israel, a calamity for the Palestinians

Margus Gee has written in this morning's Globe one of the single best things I have read about the Gaza disaster in recent weeks.

His argument is simple and direct and accurate.

Read it here.

Renowned Joshua Bell PLays on $3.5 Million violin in D.C. Metro

Year in Review - Hahahahaha...

Encounter

I work at a college.

Today, at 1pm some students will hold a RALLY FOR GAZA.

Yesterday, I stopped at their table in the front hall and inquired about the event.

A tall, Anglo kid explained and handed me a little blue sheet of paper. The highlight on the handout was ISRAELI WAR CRIMES.

I asked this lad what that meant.

He said, "What would you call attacking schools with children?"

I asked, "What would you call more than 10,000 rockets fired by Hamas into Israeli towns over the past several years?"

He replied smartly, "Self defense."

I said so cleverly, and after all my years of study at Quick Quip School, "You're a fucking idiot! Your ignorance is appalling."

He smiled beatifically and offered, "Have a nice day."

I repaired to the Staff Lounge with murder in my heart.

And so it goes...

Quote of the Day

Talking about out-of-bounds skiers to Gary Mason in the Globe, Wally Opaque has given forth with another Wally classic:

"Maybe they have to add five bucks to the cost of a ticket to cover the costs of monitoring these areas, I don't know."

I especially like the avuncular, bemused "I don't know" part.

Uh, Wally?

I don't know how to break this to you, Good Buddy. But you're the Attorney-General of the Province of British Columbia.

It is your job to know.

You have battalions of lawyers billing out at $500/hour at your beck and call to study the statutes and advise you.

As always, Wally, you give us that simple shiver of confidence whenever we hear from you. Keep up the solid work...whatever it may be.

Re-Writing History - Local Edition

Frances Bula has written two very good pieces on the Olympic Village story in this morning's Globe.

One is called "Sun will shine on athletes village, builder says"

The other is "Out of Mud, Olympic Village a showcase of ecology."

The second piece is a tour through the sludge and rain to view first-hand the building progress and it's good clean messy fun.

But the first article is the one with all the real juice.

First we get the Millenium GM chronicling the entire list of hardships and challenges that he has heroically overcome. Hahahaha...It's a riot.

Then, moving on to the thorny issue of What Idiot Signed Off on this Deal, we get one mayor after another disclaiming any part of the guarantees that the City has apparently provided in case of problems.

Why hasn't CBC TV, which specializes these days in sophomoronic humor signed up Owen, Campbell and Sullivan (An Act Funnier than it's Name!!! Tonight at 8!!!) to do a song and dance number called, "I Didn't Do it, Do it, Do it, I Swear."

The photo, by the way, is of the Salt Building (1930), which has been preserved and upgraded and will become a restaurant and pub in the Mark James Group after the Olympics.

A Little Background Please

THE RESCUE SOCIETY

"B.C.'s Solicitor-General has ordered his staff to study the possibility of fining outdoor enthusiasts who enter out-of-bounds areas at ski resorts and in backcountry B.C."

Why study?

Why the possibility?

Why doesn't John van Dongen simply do what he should do?

"No new policy would be ready this winter because the idea requires a lot of discussion."

About what?

"Mr. van Dongen said he does not believe in forcing people who break the rules to pay for rescue efforts. "

Why not?

We force people to pay for traffic violations including the horrifying bad taste of parking for 62 minutes rather than the 60 you've paid for.

Of course, no one really ever pays these fines, which is why any city of any size in Canada typically has a backlog of about 300,000 unpaid traffic tickets.

Here's my idea.

The signs that say, "Ski area BOUNDARY, not patrolled," should instead say, "NO RESCUE ZONE. WANT BIG THRILLS? DIE AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE, DUMMY"

Of course,we would never do such a thing. We are a civilized caring society. We rescue almost everyone we can.

If you want to kill yourself with various narcotics, we will rescue you by giving you needles and crack pipes and mouth pieces and places to take your drugs away from the winter winds. If we can get away with it under the guise of "science" or progress or improvement or some such, we will rescue you by giving you your drug of choice or a near facsimile or a new pill or a baby lulu to suck on at the very least.

There are some rare exceptions, of course.

If you are old and cold and starving and living in a cardboard box on the street, we wouldn't want to force you to come in out of the storm. That might violate your human right to die in the cold.

But other than that we are the rescue society.

So keep schussing down those unmarked mountains in the avalanche zones, baby. Never fear, The Rescue Society is near.

It is your god given and charter blessed right to behave like a yahoo and be bailed out by taxpayer dollars and the efforts of men and women who put themselves at risk to save your sorry ass.

GAZA BY THE NUMBERS

Despite Hamas’s unrelenting rocket attacks, Israel continues to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, warning the civilian population to stay clear of terrorist sites. Said Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, "Israel has made it clear that we are fighting against terrorism, not the Gazan residents, and the extremists are the ones who are taking advantage of the concern of the humanitarian organizations and the international community as a means of pressuring Israel." [2]

Israel’s Humanitarian Aid to Gaza

396 truckloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered through Israeli crossings into Gaza since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, including basic food commodities, medication, medical supplies, blood units and donations by various governments and blood units. [3] 80 truckloads of humanitarian aid expected to arrive in Gaza on Jan. 5 [4] 20 Palestinians evacuated to Israel for medical treatment (including two children) [5] 800,000+ leaflets disseminated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to Gaza civilians instructing them to stay away from terrorist and weapons storage sites [6] 70+ times the IDF warned populated areas before conducting airstrikes [7] 10,000 tons of aid transported into Gaza at the request of international organizations, the Palestinian Authority and various governments since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead. The World Food Program informed Israel last week that that it would cease shipment of food to Gaza because warehouses are at full capacity, with enough food to last two weeks. [8] 0 wounded Palestinians allowed by Hamas to cross from Gaza into Egypt for treatment. [9]

Iran-backed Hamas Rocket, Mortar Attacks and Nuclear Developments

10,000+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001. [10] 3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [11] 6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [12] 538+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [13] 480 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since Operation Cast Lead began Dec. 27. [14] 28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire ended, Iran-backed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired rockets and mortars that killed an Israeli-Arab construction worker and a mother of four who was seeking shelter in a bus station as a rocket warning siren sounded. [15] 1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the start of Israel’s defensive operation in Gaza Dec. 27, 90 Israelis have been injured and at least 244 have been treated for shock. [16] 20,000 Hamas terrorists Israel is targeting as part of its defensive operations [17] 1,000,000 Israeli civilians Hamas is targeting and can reach. [18] 15 seconds Israelis have to get to a bomb shelter once a warning siren has sounded. [19] 8 years Israel has endured rockets and mortar fire from Gaza [20] 3 mosques in Gaza used as weapons, ammunitions and explosives depots that were struck by the Israel Defense Forces during the operation in Gaza. [21] The strikes occurred only at night and never during prayer times, to avoid civilian casualties. 4 UN Security Council resolutions passed since 2006 to try to stop Iran from enriching uranium. [22] 5,000+ number of centrifuges operating in Iran to enrich uranium, the material used to produce a nuclear weapon. [23]

What Israel Gave Up in Hopes of Peace - Gaza Withdrawal Aug. 2005

100% proportion of the Gaza Strip evacuated and handed over to the
Palestinians. [24] 300 square miles of the West Bank evacuated. [25] 21 Israeli settlements uprooted in the Gaza Strip. [26] 4 Israeli settlements uprooted in the West Bank. [27] 48 graves uprooted in Gaza’s former Gush Katif Cemetery, including six graves of area residents murdered by terrorists. [28] 9,000 approximate number of Israelis, including 1,700 families, who lived in Gaza and the northern West Bank. All of them were moved out as part of the withdrawal. [29] 38 synagogues dismantled in the Gaza Strip. [30] 5,000 school-age children who had to find new schools. [31] 42 daycare centers that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [32] 36 kindergartens that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [33] 7 elementary schools that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [34] 3 high schools that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [35] 320 mobile homes, ordered by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to serve as temporary housing for settlers. [36] 45,000 Israeli soldiers and policemen who participated in the Gaza withdrawal. [37] $1.7 billion the approximate cost to the Israeli government for the withdrawal initiative. [38] 166 Israeli farmers who were moved out of Gaza. [39] 800 cows, which comprised the second largest dairy farm in Israel, moved out of Gaza’s Gush Katif community. [40] $120 million value of flowers and produce exported annually from Gush Katif and lost following the evacuation. [41] 1 zoo, the “Katifari,” that housed hundreds of animals and was moved. [42] 10,000 people who were employed in agriculture and related industries in Gush Katif, including 5,000 Palestinians. [43] 60% proportion of Israel's cherry tomato exports that came from the Gaza Strip. Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza extinguished this economic resource. [44] 3.5 million square meters (almost 1,000 acres) of greenhouses abandoned in Gaza. [45] 70 percentage of Israel's organic produce grown in Gaza – another economic resource lost in the evacuation. [46] 60 percentage of herbs exported from Israel that came from Gush Katif. [47] 15 percentage of Israel agricultural exports that originated in Gaza – exports lost following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. [48] $360,000 expected average compensation amount Israel expected to pay to relocate each family. [49] $870 million approximate cost for Israel to facilitate the resettlement of former West Bank and Gaza residents elsewhere in the country. [50] $500 million amount of money Israel's security establishment spent to relocate Israel Defense Forces bases outside the Gaza Strip and build new border crossing facilities. [51]

After Israel’s evacuation from Gaza…

430,000 West Bank Palestinians able to move freely within and between Palestinian-controlled areas. [52] 1 Israeli remaining in Gaza. Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit was abducted from Israel on June 25, 2006 by Hamas in a bloody cross-border raid in which the terrorists also killed two IDF soldiers and wounded four others. [53] 1.2 million Arabs who remained full and legal citizens of Israel. All Israeli citizens – Christians, Muslims, and Jews – have freedom of speech, religion, press, and the right to vote. [54] 1.3 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip many of them in Palestinian Authority-controlled refugee camps, who live under their own leaders. [55] 820,000 Jewish refugees forced to flee without their belongings from Arab countries between 1947 and 1949, and who have never been compensated by Arab governments for their losses. [58] 650,000 Arab refugees who left Israel from 1947-1949 and still need Palestinian leaders who will end terrorism and the culture of hate. [57]

The News Comes Home

The Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees announced yesterday it would propose, in a meeting next month, “a ban on Israeli academics doing speaking, teaching or research work at Ontario universities,” if they do not explicitly condemn Israeli action in Gaza.

Let me see if I understand that.

CUPE, in their support of "the Palestinian cause," would ban Israeli academics.

The headline in yesterday's Globe said this:

Proposed ban on Israeli academics sparks bitter debate

How can you debate when you are rendered speechless?

You can read the article yourself and then perhaps you could tell me what country am I living in?

Richmond Development Another 'Olympic Village?'

The City of Richmond, one of my all-time favorite places for watching pea-brained politicians and their ego-centric managers fall all over their Velcro-tied loafers, has done it again.

Turns out one of their biggest projects ever may have to be scrapped.

The Sun Tech City project was one of those Gordon Campbell-inspired P3's - public private partnership. Give a developer a ton of goodies and watch him build you a Skytrain station, a small park, a couple of kiddy swings and a fountain. That's the general fantasy.

'Course, life doesn't always play into your hand.

Take that HUGE economic recession/depression. diporama now.

Read the whole gruesome story here, and then contemplate just what level of scepticism you should hold in reserve the next time you hear some gasbag going on about P3's.

These public-private partnerships might even work on occasion if the rubes who are in public office and who have never run so much as a Bingo game weren't creaming their jeans with the excitement of playing with the Big Boys.

The suits in the towers must be bending over in hysterics every time the phone rings from one of these municipal offices with yet another grand scheme to build a highway or a subway line or a bunch of hospitals.

And, by the way, you'll never guess who gets left holding various bags of debt...