2015-09-12

Justin Trudeau "vs." his father

I'm watching Peter Mansbridge's interviews with the political leaders and I was impressed with something Justin Trudeau did after the 13 minute mark in his interview. He found a way to oppose the current results of what his father did in concentrating power in the Prime Minister's Office without throwing his dad under the bus. Positive. Re-assuring. He still supports parts of C-51 and that and C-24 are the deal-killers for me.

2015-09-08

This isn't Karl Marx' Capital

​I just finished reading Thomas Piketty's Capital for the 21st Century and have been recommending it highly to all my acquaintances. It's not short (600 pages) but don't let that stop you. The subject is not light (economics) but don't let that scare you. It was written in French but the English translation is smooth, comprehensible, enjoyable so no need to balk there. The math is simple (two equations: β = s / g; α = r * 
β
​),​
​​
 the graphs are there to provide silhouettes not narrow percentage points of difference
​ and he keeps on quoting Balzac and Austen, and even the Aristocats.
 And then I came across this quote from M. Piketty in
adbusters:

There is a lot of ideology in the economic profession. I think that many economists have a view of markets which is not only idealistic and naive, but they are defending the views that markets are working efficiently. For ideological reasons, economists spend a lot of time doing complicated mathematical models, trying to pretend that markets are efficient - they do that also to try to impress others in other disciplines to look more scientific. I'm not sure this is working but this is certainly part of their strategy. I think we should be very modest. I view myself more as a social scientist than as an economist. I think the frontiers between economics, history, sociology, are not as clear as what economists try to pretend. Economists try to pretend sometimes that they have developed a science so sophisticated that the rest of the world cannot understand. I think this is a joke.

​If that doesn't encourage you that he thinks like ordinary people, I don't know what will.

2015-09-07

We are all refugees

67 years ago, my Mom, her folks and all but her oldest sister (who had reached the age of majority--but that's another story) came to BC by train after a sea voyage from Europe as refugees, sponsored by a cousin who came here 20 years earlier.

How many Canadians reading this have similar stories in their family background?

She spoke German, so her family was looked on after World War 2 with some suspicion (as anyone from the Middle East is now) but she grew, became a citizen, married, had three kids and continues here to this day. But if refugee laws had been then what they are now, her family would have been kept out in the name of "stream-lining" the process.

About that little Syrian boy who's picture has gone viral? We, Canadians have his blood on our hands. His aunt lives in my home town, Coquitlam, and tried to sponsor his family but failed because the "stream-lining" involved making the door so hard to open that another family like my Mom's, fleeing from their war-torn home didn't get here intact--may still not get here, even what's left of them.

And that's wrong. Their blood is on our hands, and especially on the hands of this Conservative government who have done what we ought not to have let them do in locking our doors to our neediest neighbours (yes, I know they're 10 time zones away).

Let me resort to parliamentary language: Shame, folks. Shame! Shame on us all.