CBC's QUANDRY

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

TheStar.com | Opinion | Feeling the pain of CBC cutbacks

Feeling the pain of CBC cutbacks

Mar 29, 2009 04:30 AM

Re: Reruns on tap as CBC cuts, March 26

A better and more permanent way of saving money for the CBC would be to change its focus and to concentrate on what it does best by "harmonizing" its two TV channels. Eliminate the Newsworld channel and fold it back into the regular CBC News. There is little need for two public news channels.

CBC does an outstanding job with its regional programming and the Canadian-produced content that might otherwise not see the light of day. However, I would rather see my tax dollars go to pay for Canadian news programming, Canadian stories and culture, and to service remote areas that might not be profitable for the private sector. Let private broadcasters chase mass-media shows and the advertising revenue they bring.

CBC Radio also, though it provides good service to Canadians, has many duplications and redundancies. Why, for example, do we need two CBC FM stations? One station, I am sure, will suffice.

Sigmund Roseth, Mississauga

Deja vu

“Liberals take axe to business taxes” –Star, Mar 27/09

It was just one year ago, March 25th, that the Star wrote about “Endless Ontario Bashing” in reference to Jim Flaherty’s criticism of Ontario’s business - unfriendly tax regime, and suggested we reduce corporate taxes and harmonize the sales tax. His suggestions were not well taken by McGuinty and his government, or by yours truly, who wrote a Letter to your Editor about the matter (March 26/08).

Yet, lo and behold, this budget does exactly what McGuinty rejected. What a difference a year makes! Flaherty must surely be gloating over this one, and McGuinty should be blushing.

As to harmonizing the PST with the GST, I can accept the arguments for this –except the way it has been done is convoluted, complex and confusing; with rebates etc., –typically a political rather than practical solution. A much better way would be to reduce the PST from 8% to, say, 6%. This would achieve the same goals, but in a simpler fashion, since by reducing the percentage of the tax, while still the government would be collecting new taxes (on goods & services not now taxed), the consumer would gain on other items now taxes at a lower rate.

ITEM:

Is this the end of the free market, as we know it? In testimony before Congress this morning, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will propose a sweeping expansion of government regulation over the financial system, ending the Bush era of decontrol. The Washington Post reports the Obama administration's plan would "extend federal regulation for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives and to companies including large hedge funds and major insurers such as American International Group." It also would impose uniform standards on all financial firms, including banks, to curb their risk-taking. Obama won't seek to reshape the government's structure at first, but instead will focus on setting standards, many of which will require legislation.

First, let me state that I am an Obama-fan; the man has an incredible intellect, self-control and poise. He plays the audiences like a fine violin.

If anything, he has been underestimated. I have this strange feeling that what we see is only the tip of the iceberg, and risking ridicule, I posit the following:

The Obama administration has long-term plans for a major overhaul, nay revolution, of the American society. Obama is an idealist, but he is also a realist. The recession has given him the opening and opportunity to make radical systemic changes in the economy, and to introduce difficult but overdue programs such as public medical insurance. The American private health insurance system is broken. In addition to being discriminatory and unfair to the many who cannot afford insurance; it is also major impediment to labour mobility, something even more important in a major recession like now.

The laissez faire approach to the economy and corporations is ending, especially as concerns the banking and investment community. Government involvement and control will become a permanent fixture.

To this end, I suspect that Obama’s anger and ire over the AIG bonus payments were carefully orchestrated to stoke the public ire; and gather support and to lay the grounds for greater government intrusion in the markets, and public welfare in general.

It takes great tribulations to shock public lethargy enough produce major structural changes in a society. War, of course, is some such trauma producing lasting effects and upheavals; severe economic distress, such as the Great Depression are others; and arguably, the present tribulations, can force major changes in the social fabric. Samuel Johnson once said “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Obama is all ready into his “fortnight”, and believe me, his mind is wonderfully concentrated.

The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page: Mortality Quotes

The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page: Mortality Quotes: "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.'"

CBC's QUANDRY

RERUNS ON TAP AS CBC CUTS… Star Mar.26/09

So now the CBC is going to do reruns –old “soap opera” shows and such; to save money. Isn’t that terrible! Most of those shows are rather Philistine anyhow, and readily available on private networks.

A better and more permanent way of saving money for the CBC would be to change their focus and to concentrate on what they do best, by collapsing, or “harmonizing” their two TV channels; eliminating the Newsworld channel by folding it back into the regular CBC News. There is little need for two public news channels, and this change can be easily managed by eliminating some of the other fluff they are broadcasting in competition with private broadcasters.

CBC does an outstanding job with their regional programming and the Canadian-produced content which might otherwise not see the light of day. I would rather see my tax dollars go to pay for Canadian news programming, Canadian stories and culture, and to service remote areas that might not be profitable for the private sector. Let private broadcasters chase mass-media shows and the advertising revenue it brings.

We do need a public broadcaster, considering the remote areas that must be serviced; but even in a large metropolis like Toronto, where choices are many, I’d much prefer to support the CBC with my taxes than having to listen to the endless supplications for funds that intersperse programming on the US Public Broadcasting System emanating from Buffalo.

CBC Radio also, though it provides good service to Canadians, has many duplications and redundancies. Why, for example, do we need two CBC FM stations? One station, I am sure, will suffice, especially if they cut down on some of the rather trite and obscure music emanating from both of their stations.

If the CBC ever got their act together and focused on what they do well, perhaps the perennial budget quandary will be history.

BUT NOT YET, LORD.

FROM THE ECONOMIST, Mar 19th 2009

Religious people seem curiously reluctant to meet their maker. How do a person's religious beliefs influence his attitude to terminal illness? The answer is surprising. You might expect the religious to accept death as God's will and, while not hurrying towards it, not to seek to prolong their lives using heroic and often traumatic medical procedures. Atheists, by contrast, have nothing to look forward to after death, so they might be expected to cling to life. In fact, it is the other way round--at least according to a study published in the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION by Andrea Phelps and her colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Religious people seem to use their faith to cope with the pain and degradation that "aggressive" medical treatment entails, even though such treatment rarely makes much odds. Dr Phelps and her team followed the last months of 345 cancer patients. The participants were not asked directly how religious they were but, rather, about how they used any religious belief they had to cope with difficult situations by, for example, "seeking God's love and care". The score from this questionnaire was compared with their requests for such things as the use of mechanical ventilation to keep them alive and resuscitation to bring them back from the dead. The correlation was strong. More than 11% of those with the highest scores underwent mechanical ventilation; less than 4% of those with the lowest did so. For resuscitation the figures were 7% and 2% Explaining the unpleasantness and futility of the procedures does not seem to make much difference, either. Holly Prigerson, one of Dr Phelps's co-authors, was involved in another study at Dana-Farber which was published earlier this month in the ARCHIVES OF INTERNAL MEDICINE. This showed that when doctors had frank conversations about the end of life with terminally ill cancer patients, the patients typically chose not to request very intensive medical interventions. According to Dr Prigerson, though, such end-of-life chats had little impact on "religious copers", most of whom still wanted doctors to make every effort to keep them alive. Saint Augustine of Hippo, one of Christianity's most revered figures, famously asked God to help him achieve "chastity and continence, but not yet". When it comes to meeting their maker, many religious people seem to have a similar attitude.

See this article with graphics and related items at http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13315834

POX NEWS

I see Fox News has apologized for the vulgar piece they passed off as “satire.” It was crude and ignorant, but one must consider where it came from: a TV version, Enquirer - like tabloid; watched mainly by Republican rednecks and reactionary fanatics (RRR as opposed to KKK). They are an embarrassment to intelligent Americans, and we should just take the high road and ignore them.

CRAVEN BUS PASSENGERS

“The silence of the Canadian lambs” –Mark Steyn, Maclean’s March 23^rd.

Mark Steyn’s column makes a trenchant and sobering point regarding Canadian “manhood”, and I must rethink my earlier animadversion of his “gunslinger” writing. I have wondered why there were no real criticisms of the passive –dare I say cowardly – behaviour displayed by the passengers; either by the court, the press nor even the victim’s family. There is a rather important difference between this incident and the one depicted in Politechnique. Marc Lepine had a gun –a semi-automatic rifle –rather more lethal than the knife used by Vincent Li. You can fight a knife up close, but not a bullet from a rifle shooter several feet away. Yes, New York City also comes to mind, where a whole neighbourhood ignored the screams of a woman being stabbed to death. Yet, even there, the situation was not as immediate, near or as easily evaluated by the neighbours. The bus passengers knew exactly what was happening, but chose to run away. Unfortunately for Tim McLean, there was no Liviu Librescu or a Lee Gordon Brown to take charge; rather than a “let’s roll!” it was “let’s run!”

I don’t know how many “men” there were out of the three dozen passengers on the bus, and the bus driver, but I find the impuissance of the passengers difficult to comprehend. The sheep mentality of the bus crowd running for the exit while a madman was steadily butchering Tim McLean does not reflect positively on anyone there; and that includes the stalwart RCMP constables who spent 4.5 hours navel-gazing and watching the butchery and cannibalism proceeding inside the bus. It’s hard to square this behaviour with the no-nonsense, proactive action taken by their brothers in arms at the Vancouver airport when a crazed and confused immigrant did nothing worse than swing a stapler over his head.

I sincerely hope that the timidity of the Greyhound passengers is not a reflection of a society where pacifism has gone mad –where “mind your own business” has become a mantra for all –but I am at a loss to understand the craven behaviour of Tim McLean’s fellow passengers on that fateful journey on the Greyhound bus.

PONZI DINNER

The prison cell, apparently, isn't quite what Bernard Madoff is accustomed to: The New York Post reports, with typical élan, that "he will have to tweak his taste for prime rib and cognac amid conditions that are decidedly less refined." The admitted Ponzi schemer spent his first night at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in isolation, after a savoring a meal of frozen chicken patties and canned string beans served on the finest Styrofoam. "Think of the worst school lunch you ever had," said a source. And one veteran defense attorney quipped: "Le Cirque it ain't."

Race and class in primary schools

Link http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/598015

The Battle of The Plains of Abraham --- con't.

‘Facts.’ Such a quaint notion now. Mark Steyn, Maclean’s.

Your literary “gunslinger” Mark Steyn has returned after a much appreciated hiatus –at least, by yours truly. Now it’s Iggy’s turn in the barrel –patches and all. Obviously, he is being led down the garden path by Obama; another left-wing scoundrel. The eye patch analogy is too cute. At least, a patch can be removed; it’s not permanent like Harper’s myopia.

As to his argument against cancelling the battle enactment, I offer this:

The enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham project was a half-baked and stupid idea in the first place, akin to waving a red flag before a bull, with predictable results. We have enough strife between the French and English factions of this country, without actively looking for trouble.

Until the Québécoise “revolution” in the sixties, English-speaking Canadians did, to a degree, “lord” it over the French-Canadians; controlling to a large extent the Quebec economy, and making Quebeckers feel like second-class citizens in their own Province –a conquered people, if you will.

Quebeckers, however, until the battle of Plains of Abraham, were French. They lost to the English, and had no say about becoming British subjects. Fortunately for them, the British, in their wisdom, magnanimously allowed the conquered to keep their language and (Catholic) religion, as well as control over education; thus perpetuating and protecting the separateness inherent in a different language and culture. The tension between two “solitudes” was, for better or for worse, set in motion. However, as they say, that’s history, and we are what we are, and it’s not so bad. As long as we remember to respect our differences and not throw sand in each others eyes.

I have a suggestion for Maclean’s editors: Make Steyn and Amiel a two-some. Put them side by side in you Magazine. You could even bring in Conrad –making it a three-some. He could then expound, pontificate and generally wax eloquently about his days as a budding pianist, lecturer and general good fellow in his little cocoon at the Federal Penitentiary in Florida. Preferably put them on perforated pages, so they can be easily expunged from your otherwise esteemed Magazine. In that way, I won’t run a risk should I forget to take my hypertension pills.

CAMPUS RADICALS

“Professors strangely absent when militants stifle debate” –

Gil Troy, Star Mar.5th.

If there is something worse than the “radical right”, it must be the “radical left”. Students, being young and idealistic, tend to raise hell on campuses, and within limits, that’s probably a good thing. However, there is a tendency for students at some universities –especially in the humanities –to become more than protesters; to impose their own extremist views on others, and even intimidate teachers – though in some cases, the teachers themselves set the tone.

As to the students of York University et al, they should be censured for their stupidity. Not that it would do much good. I was a student at York in the early seventies, and remember being chastised by a teaching assistant in Humanities 101 for daring to refer to a Time Magazine article in one of my essays. Time, she said, was a “capitalist rag”! A professor of Political Economy was the leader of the “Waffle Group” that operated on the left fringes of the NDP.

It seems that now York University has succumbed to a group of Palestinian-supporting/Israeli-hating radicals who are using the Middle-East conflict to justify their own bigoted, anti-Semitic agenda. One can hardly blame individual professors for avoiding confrontation. There is little profit in making oneself a target of the righteous vigilantes roaming the campus.The whole university faculty and governors should take responsibility here; ensuring that free speech is truly free and not a tool to with which to beat your adversary.

Kudos to Professor Troy for taking a stand.

Student radicals at York U.

“Fanatical students don’t see racism.” –Rosie Dimanno, The Star, March 2n/09.

You tell them, Rosie!

If Palestinians have achieved one thing in their anti-Israel campaign of murder and mayhem, it is to achieve an acceptance of neo-anti-Semitic vitriol among people so inclined in other parts of the world, including Canada. The fact that Israel now can defend its people is seen as justification for bigoted and anti-Semitic behaviour. Palestinians lobbying rockets into Israeli neighbourhoods are “freedom fighters”; Jews defending themselves are racists and jackbooted Nazis! Anti-Semites and bigots of all sorts can now safely attack “Zionism” without fear of being disparaged or rejected for their extremist views.

I too, must, albeit reluctantly, applaud Prime Minister Harper for taking a stand, ahead of the US, against the travesty called Durban ll. As to the students of York University et al, they should be censured for their stupidity. Not that it would do much good. I was a student of the aforementioned institution in the early seventies, and remember being chastised by a teaching assistant in Humanities 101 for daring to refer to a Time Magazine article in one of my essays. Time, she said, was a “capitalist rag”! And a professor of Political Economy was the leader of the “Waffle Group” that operated on the lunatic fringes of the NDP left.

"WORD-POVERTY" IN TORONTO SCHOOLS

Toronto school survey…

“Race and poverty matter as early as Grade 3” – Sunday Star, Mar.1^st/09.

It is beyond doubt that financially disadvantaged children are also likely to be short changed in educational achievements and thus more likely to perpetuate the vicious circle of poverty –financially, emotionally and intellectually. The Toronto School Survey is only confirming what has been known for a long time: In homes where no books are read, and children not read to; where lack of education and ambition by their parents and their peer group is the norm; the poor children do not have a chance.

The Canadian psychologist Andrew Biemiller has studied vocabulary levels in young children, and found that those who come to kindergarten in the bottom twenty-fifth percentile of vocabulary generally remain behind other children in both vocabulary and reading comprehension, and thus puts them at a huge disadvantage in all areas of learning development right from the beginning.

Maryanne Wolf in her book Proust and the Squid gives an excellent account of this dilemma facing educators everywhere. One Californian study she cites is by Todd Risley and Betty Hart which showed that by “five years of age, some children from impoverished-language environments hear 32 million fewer words spoken to them than the average middle-class child; what she calls “word-poverty”(p.102). It’s a sobering finding. A substantial portion of our citizens are starting out in life with a huge disadvantage – near, or functional illiteracy. This is a problem that transcends money or income: it’s an intellectual and social problem rooted in the family –generally, but not always – financially disadvantaged or “poor”. There were people in the depressed thirties, poor farmers and workers, who barely had enough to feed and clothe themselves, but still found the money to buy books and the time to read to their children. I can personally vouch for the value of being read to: I grew up under rather limited circumstances in Europe, during and after the war, but every night after a Spartan meal, before bed-time, my mother read to us children. That “word-richness” followed me when I learned a new language in a new land –Canada.