True Not-Quite-Far-Enough North

Whenever it snows here in Greater Vancouver, I would feel so unworthy as a Canadian. It is not because I am an immigrant, most Canadians are, but because we in this area just cannot drive with the smallest hint of snow on the road. It snows so seldom here that no one has snow tires or slide awareness. Schools close, people worry and cars resting in medians. I sat at home looking at the documents I promised to send today and decide one day late is not going to kill anyone. True North strong and free, eh? Just don’t let it snow in the southwest of True North!

The Sky Has Fallen

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Only if...

Sometimes it is sad to read a reasonable piece in newspapers, because it reminds me how exceptionally intelligent people can be blinder to the world than the dumbest. David C. Kang’s article “A Better Korean Strategy” in Monday’s Washington Post is just such a piece. Everything Kang suggested is reasonable and noble. If they were all done, we would have a safer, more prosperous and just world. What he did not take into consideration is the global political and military ambitions of the US. If indeed with genuine help from the US the two Koreas successfully reunite, there will be no need for the 35,000 or so US soldiers stationed in South Korea. With projecting military power the guiding principle of long term US military strategy, they would not want to lose their largest and most well armed ground presence in East Asia. So, militarily it is to the US’s interest to keep Korea divided. Also, Kang correctly stated the increasing resentment for the US’s influence in South Korea. It seems unlikely if the Koreas reunite, the new country will move closer to the US politically, militarily and economically. The country that would reap these benefits would most likely be China to whom, for geographical and economic reason, South Korea has move closer in the past decade. Without the existence and continuing irritation of North Korea, there would be no real reason for any country in East Asia, other than Taiwan perhaps, to prioritise their relationship with the US over others. Kang has clearly mistaken what is good for Korea with the desire of the US.

Season of Eating

As we approach this season of massive over eating in North America, I would like to inform all the moms, aunts and great hostess that small people are actually better eater than big people. The proof is clear from eating contests. A woman of barely over 100 pounds just won the turkey eating contest in New York; and, of course, the greatest eater of all time, Kobayashi Takeru weights in at around 135. The reason I make this suggestion is that at 6’1’’ and 210 pounds, I am usually one of the biggest guy at the festive table. As I gained in age, I also, like so many, gained in weight. Consequently, I can no long eat nearly as much as I once did. Problem is that people think I lie and get insulted when I claim to be full. Before long, an enjoyable dinner becomes a forced feeding. What they should really do is to push the food towards the 90-pound niece down the table. No not can she eat it, she also desperately needs it. Meanwhile, let me have a nice cup of coffee and a little rest before the cakes and pies. Otherwise, I will just have to find some huge friends to bring to dinner parties as decoys.

Poor Conrad

Lord Black of Crossharbour wants to be Canadian again! After calling his Canadian citizenship an "impediment to my progress in another, more amenable jurisdiction," he renounced his Canadian citizenship to become a peer in the British House of Lords. Now that he is charged by the US government for fraud, he wants to be Canada again because that is the only way he can served his terms in a Canadian prison if convicted. I think his request should be granted. It is always a good thing to welcome back a lost son, particularly if the welcome home party is held in a prison. General population in maximum security would certainly be a great place for His Lordship to reacclimatize himself to Canada. Let’s just hope that the US attorneys assigned to the case do their job well. His Lordship will need a ride home.

My City is Sailing Away

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W for China

The US media’s view on Dubya’s recent visit to China has been pretty negative, ranging from complete failure to accomplishing nothing. Many have criticized Bush for not pushing China on human rights, trade imbalance and a host of other issues. They speak as if Bush was in any way in position to push China on anything. The situation is quite the opposite. The Bush government has to stay on the good side of the Chinese government if they do not want their international strategy to be resisted in every turn. All the problems that the US government is worrying about right now, the Middle East, Pakistan, North Korea and national debt, need the help of China. At the moment, the US needs China far more than China needs the US, and everybody knows it. Bush is therefore happy to be a publicity stunt for the Chinese leaders in exchange for China’s, if not support, at least silence on international issues. This certainly is an example of wars, even after declared victory, do not necessarily make a country more influential internationally.

A Moveable Feast

My friends from south of the border has started the annual ritual of fighting through departure gates, rushing home, dreading about being home, feeling depressed about not being home or salivating about mom’s turkey. I partook in this activity for most of the eighties and the nineties, although I was always going to someone else’s home as guest. One thing I never quite understand is the timing of their Thanksgiving. Sure, I understand its historical reasons but time has changed. It is only about a month before Christmas, another rush-home sort of holiday. Why not give thanks in the summer when the weather is nice? Instead of going through the same anxiety in bad weather, why not does something different in perfectly manicured yard? Plus, kids will have no excuse to go skiing for Christmas. It may have made sense years ago when families lived and died near each other and when there was nothing to do once harvest was done. Now, things have changed and may I make a humble suggestion to my American friends—give you thanks in early summer after the TV season. Plus, since advertisers have been moving the “shopping season” earlier and earlier, why not summer instead of fall?

Good Fungi, Bad Fungi

The weather in coastal British Columbia is probably the most clearly divided in the world. It rains for half a year and stay sunny for half a year. They hardly ever mingled. We are well settled into he rainy part now. It is dark, wet and foggy—stuff of Northern European myths and legends. It is also the condition for fungus. The small spices of fungi have cost apartment dwellers hundreds of millions of dollars all around the urban areas. Just outside of the cities and up the mountains, the fungi work a different kind of magic. The fungi grow bigger there and right now there are still chanterelles and matsutake out there. My friend Lewis the mushroom picker half sold half gave me a couple bag of the finest examples of them over the weekend. These are amazing little things and I feel like such a ridiculous indulgent while digging into a whole soup bowl full of sautéed chanterelle and matsutake. For a brief moment, wild fungi become a treat rather than enemy. Why don’t they come up with a new insulation on which grows edible mushrooms instead of poisonous moulds?

Liberal with Money

The BC legislature has just quietly passed a bill to increase their own salary by 15% and instituted a pension plan that Gordon Campbell, the premier, and the Liberals has called all kind of ugly names when they were campaigning as the opposition party. Once the Liberals came to power, they forced a freeze on the salary of all public sector workers, citing, of course, fiscal responsibilities as the reason. And now we know why they had to save all that money. It is not easy to find the money to pay for million-dollar pensions. It just does not make sense that the legislature, or any public servants for that matter, should be able to set their own compensations. Would it not be better if their salary floats with the public sector union contracts they negotiated? If they think nurse should get pay less, why should they not themselves be paid less. The Liberals like to talk about accountabilities, my suggestion would be right on the money. Oh, I forgot, when they talk about accountabilities, they really mean that they do not want to be accountable; it is something that applies to others. Oh, well, never mind.

If you want to fool me? Lie properly.

I just received an automated campaign phone call thinly disguised as an opinion poll. It asked two questions: if I think being in power for 18 years is too long for any government and if I think 30 some police officers should be hired to combat the increase in crime since the last election. As a policy survey, this is completely useless to any political party at this the eve of the election. Team Burnaby, for whom this phone call was made, had called half a dozen of times to ask about and for my vote in the last two weeks. I have heard their pitches and have been patient. Now comes this insincere and underhanded, not to mention impersonal, phone call, I am glad I have already decided against them. If I had decided to vote for them, this phone call would certainly turn me against them. If they are trying to get my vote by deceit, what will they do should they be in power? If they want to lie to me, at the very least they should come to my door and lie to my face. A record voice and ‘press 1 for yes, 2 for no” is all that they can do? They cannot even lie properly. I did not dislike them before, just think their plans unclear and irresponsible fiscally; now I am hoping every single last one of them loses tomorrow. They can wait another eighteen years for all I care.

City Driving

I just realize today that all the cities I enjoyed are not car friendly. Half of my friends from New York City do not have driver’s licenses and take the cross town bus instead. My Parisian friends generally take the Métro. And my friends in Hong Kong take cabs. These cities are exciting, with pack streets and interesting architecture. Vancouver is not as densely exciting; but for a city of its age in North America, it somehow was able to resist a highway through town some years ago. It is not accidental that Vancouverites eat and drink out more than anyone else in Canada. Most people still drive but it is getting increasingly difficult. I keep hearing people complain about not enough road and parking spaces downtown. I think there should be even less of both. If people have to take public transportations and walk on the street, it will just make the city more lively and exciting, not to mention less polluted.

Violent Solution

Whenever a state senses any violence against it, it says to the people, “violence never solves anything.” Despite violence is the primary method the state uses to deal with its problem with others, that remains the line against violence against it. The French President Jacques Chirac made just this statement Monday. In the same statement, he acknowledge and promise to deal with racial discrimination. This is certainly a new thing for the French government. And it is the denial and neglect of racial discrimination that led to the riots of the past weeks. Without the riot, it is hard to see when this acknowledgement will ever be made. It is therefore safe to say that this first step in overcoming a great injustice is the direct result of the “violence” of the riot. So, in this case at least, violence may not have solved anything, it certainly move the state toward solving it a little. It may sound like advocating violence when I say there may be positive consequences from riots. Desperate situation, however, sometimes requires desperate measures. And if burning a few cars can lead toward a more equal society, I say go ahead.

A Hole in the Wall

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It Is About To Break

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Ain't That Funny

Nothing is more pointless for believer of one religion to laugh at the beliefs of another. It is fashionable these days to laugh at the promise of the supposed belief that there are virginal harems in heaven for suicide bombers. Is this such an outrageous idea when it comes to religious beliefs compares to immaculate conception or needing at least three wives to go to the best part of heaven? The very nature of religion is that it requires faith in something empirically outrageous. It also often produces amazingly perverted scenarios for heaven. Dante’s heaven, for example, has the saints sitting around gazing at the light emulated from the Virgin Mary contemplating her perfect beauty. If I had told a psychiatrist that were my fantasy, I might very well be put on some watch list somewhere. It really does not matter what the heavenly payoff is for suicide bombers or crusaders. What is important is why and for what they did it. To make fun of it only obscures these questions and prevents any real prevention from coming forth.

What a Brightly Coloured Fish!

The all time favourite First World populist is trade deficit with the developing world. This is one of the stinkiest of red herrings. I am not speaking of the historic hypocrisy of deficits going the other way. The reality is that it is impossible for the developing world to buy more goods from the developed world as the result of discrepancy in wealth and therefore purchasing power. As economists keep reminding us that this is a global consumer society, it is the power of the consumers, i.e. purchasing power, that counts. In 2003, for example, the average per capita income was just about US$1100 for China and about US$38000 for the U.S. The anti-trade deficit advocates are saying that China, and other developing world, should spend as much in buying First World goods and the other way around. This is not only unrealistic but also ridiculous. Furthermore, I do not think First World people really want it to be balanced either. I do not want to have Third World purchasing power.

One Dot, Please One Dot Only!

A company, Biolytical Laboratories, here in British Columbia has developed a HIV test kit for market. It claims to require only one to two drops of blood and one minute of wait to get a 99.6% accurate result. The cost of the kit is only $7-$10. This is very good news in controlling the spread of AIDS, particularly in poor areas. Oh, come think of it, it won’t do a lick of good with the US government continues to pressure Third World countries to apply the “abstinence-only’ “anti-AIDS” programmes. They are more worry about people having sex than dying. Well, never mind.

New France

With the riots in France going into the third week some people are suggesting that this is the fault of liberal immigration policies. What they seem to have missed is the fact that the rioters are not new immigrants but second-generation French citizens. Language barriers and foreign education are not reason for the situation in which they find themselves. They were born in France, educated in France, understand the French institutions and so forth. The failure lies not in immigration but what happens after immigration. It is the cultural and institutional racism so pervasive but largely ignored in French society that is to blame. The ghettoization of entire neighbourhoods and government neglect are just the recipe for riot, regardless of country, culture, race, and any other classifications. Instead of looking at immigration policies, the French government should look at their institutions in the riot areas. They should also look at the US cities that had recovered from urban race riots to see what measures and improvements are successful in improving the situation of people in those areas. They should also have better laws against racism in education and employment. The French must now acknowledge the fact that these people are French and not foreigners.

Next? Next? Anybody?

Despite the optimism the Conservatives show by their eagerness to go to the polls, it is hard to see how they can get enough seats to form the next government. Most Canadians may not like the Liberals that much but it is hard to see many of the liberal voters changing their votes to the Conservatives. The Conservatives are not going to get anything from Quebec. It is hard to see them getting anything more in the Maritimes. And in Ontario, they have done nothing to make people think that they are not the “anti-Ontario party.” That leaves the west where there are few seats left for them to get. Consequently, the Liberal Party may lost some here, some there, but the lost will probably too spread out to benefit any one party. I have the suspicion that the parliamentary make up after the next election will not be so different from the present one. If there is a party ready to take over government, the Liberals will likely go the way of the Progressive Conservatives after Kim Campbell. As things stand now, the Liberals remain the only ready-to-govern party. And that is not really a good thing.

Ho Ho Ho Election

Looks like we are may have a federal election before the year is over. The Liberals want to delay it for as long as possible so they can rebuild their supports and the Conservatives and the Bloc want to have it as soon as possible so the Liberals cannot rebuild their supports. The NDP just does not know what to do. This is the fun part of parliamentary politics. If the election happens in December, the Conservatives and the Bloc will be beside themselves. The election will then likely come up with another minority government with either the Conservatives or the Liberals forming a government with around a third of the seats in parliament. By all rights, even without the scandals, the Liberals should be out of office a while back, for no other reason than being in power for too long. It is the Conservatives’ failure that they cannot take power outright from the Liberals. If a coalition government is need and the Conservatives are the one to form it, it is hard to imagine with whom the Conservatives are going to ally. No party has faced up to the fact of another minority government and given us their ideas about forming such a government. This is more important for this election than policy papers. They should make some deals between them, form a couple of alliances, so we know what to expect.

DRM

Sony is the latest media production company that gets into a big mess with their anti-piracy software. The damn thing acts like, and has been classified as, a spyware; it crashes systems; it makes systems venerable to malicious attacks; the list just go on and on. As a result, it works! No one would want to buy a Sony disc in fear of this piece of software. With no disc in computers, there is no copying. This is the problem with these companies—they do not see changes in front of them. Their problem is not with privacy but the new mode of distribution. Instead of trying to find a new business model for this new mode, they try to limit it to the old modes on which they have been working. They are destined to fail. No piece of software is uncrackable, so even if the DRM Sony uses were not such a mess, it would be cracked in months. All the pirates will then be able to copy the discs to their hearts' content. At that point, the only copy that a common user would want is the pirated one because there is no spyware on it. So, who are they trying to stop, themselves?

Why Don't They Love US?

James Taub’s article on Harold Pinter in the last New York Times Magazine is one confusing piece. Taub claims that Pinter, along with the entire European intelligentsia, hates the US. That is not news; and the way Taub deals with this reality is not new either. He simply makes a long list of examples of how they hate the US without making any argument against them. It is as if the fact that they do not like what the US makes them automatically wrong. That is a useless line of “argument.” It does nothing to disprove the other’s argument or claim the moral high ground. All it does is turn it into a hissing match. What is worse is in the end of the article Taub makes a list of things that the US can do to “help our case.” The list is a litany of US’s failures in international laws and treaties compliance and moral failures. One can easily look that this list as partial proof of Pinter’s arguments against the US. If Taub thinks the US government is failing in such serious issue, he should at least admit that Pinter is at least partially right. This is why I disagree with the “conservatives” but despise the “liberals” in the US. At least the “conservatives” are consistent in their intends and arguments; the “liberals” are just morally schizophrenic.

What? You don't say!

All of a sudden everybody is shocked and outraged by the “news” that the US is operating prisons in Eastern Europe where illegal interrogations may be taking place. Why? It is not as if this is that much of a secret. Ever since the Afghanistan War, the US government has been sending prisoners to other countries for interrogation and their spokespersons have been justifying it in interviews. The only surprise here is that a mainstream news agency is reporting it as if it were a previously unknown item. EU now wants to investigate its member countries but it is hard to believe that the EU leadership knew nothing about it all these years. The same can be said about US reporters and politicians. Even I have heard about it years ago, for crying out loud. It is all about convenience, it was convenient for them to “not know” back then but is convenient for them to “know” now. How very convenient indeed.

Time for Tradition

This is the season of turkey in North America, from our Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago to the US Thanksgiving upcoming to the Christmas/New Year week, everybody will have some turkey to eat somewhere. To most, the turkey feasts are more good memory then truly good eating. The dry, overcooked birds that can only be cut with power-assisted saws are the normal fares on most tables. As the bird flu scare is being drummed up by governments and media, these rock solid birds should become the recommended dish on all tables. The best thing about overcooking is that it kills everything, including the bird again. There is no fear of viral or bacterial contamination for the eater. Big name chefs have been telling people to somewhat undercook their birds in the oven. Now it is time to turn the table and sings in praise of hardcore tradition. Hostess everywhere can tell any complaining guest that unless they want to die like a chicken, they’d better chew hard and enjoy.