Why aren't we rioting in the streets?

Look at the situation in both Canada and the U.S.

Governments are giving billions to companies that continue to pay unrealistic salaries to executives (I love the notion of "retention pay" to those who have created these incredible messes), that promise to lay off more workers to become efficient (and for this we give them money?), and don't really want to make the big changes that are clearly needed.

And this is all taxpayer money that we will likely never see back.

So why don't we riot in the streets?

We don't care.
We'd rather hide our heads in the sand and hope that through magical thinking it all works out.
We're too worried about our own jobs or lack thereof.
We're Canadian - we don't do street rioting very well.
As asinine as it seems, we think the governments are doing the right thing, given the circumstances.
We don't want to go to jail.
We don't think it would make any difference anyway.
We know the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, so at most, there's only 3 years left of this.
We'd rather watch the hockey game.
We don't give a flying fuck - stop asking all these questions and making us feel bad.

Why isn't public transit "free"?

Or to pose the opposing question, why don't roads have a special fee or tax on them? Why doesn't the total cost of public transit come out of general taxes? That would certainly encourage more usage which has numerous associated benefits.

Here in Toronto, we apparently have among the highest "user pays" vs government funded transit systems in the world. It wasn't always that way. While various governments pay for special projects, most of the money comes from the City of Toronto, and just a small amount comes from the provincial government. The amount the province contributes to day-to-day operations was decreased dramatically during Mike Harris' reign.

What does this mean? Well, the cost of a transit token does not cover the cost of the ride. Hence the contribution from the city. Where does the city get the money? From taxes on those who live here. What does that mean? City residents subsidize part of the costs of suburbanites, out of towners and tourists who use our transit system.

Toronto could take a giant step towards fulfilling its oft-stated desire for being a "world-class" environmentally-progressive city by putting transit on the same footing as roadways - paid for out of the general coffers.

If we can't afford that, then add a levy for car owners in the city with tolls for those who drive into the city.

Will we finally stop exporting our garbage?

I read in the NY Times that with the global economic downturn, China no longer has a market for our garbage for recycling. Over the last number of years, all those containers that brought us cheap consumer goods from China, went back full of newspapers, plastics, electronics etc for recycling.

A couple of thoughts. Maybe, just maybe, this will be an incentive for us to look at how much garbage we create. Hello packaging industry, hello products made for early obsolescence. Has it ever made sense to ship our garbage half way around the world? No. It's time to deal with our own mess. We might need a few new laws to "encourage" a change in behavior.

Hypocrisy part 2

Let's talk about manufacturing in China. Let's remember that it wasn't too long ago that China was a closed off communist country that the Western world supported with shipments of wheat and other food.

It's still a communist country that has adopted its own brand of capitalism, fueled by the Western world's desire for cheap goods. So, courtesy of China we have $29 DVD players at Walmart and a totally decimated manufacturing sector in North America.

Over the years we in the west have made up rules for the types of working conditions that we find acceptable for Chinese factories. Every now and again, there's a hue and cry about child labour, but that doesn't stay on the front pages too long. There are tortured arguments suggesting that a factory worker making virtually starvation wages in a factory is better off than if they'd stayed as a subsistence farmer in a little village.

So, in general, we're OK with that. We look the other way. Not that we would tolerate that over here.... or would we? Do a Google search on prison labor statistics. Happy reading. Are we all OK with that?

How much hypocrisy can we live with?

Cut to the chase: I still have a difficult time understanding why no one in the U.S. government seriously entertains prosecuting George Bush for war crimes. The record is quite clear that everyone was deliberately mislead about the reason for the Iraq invasion. Any armchair prosecutor can see all the facts on this one. Of course the rich irony is that the U.S. invaded Iraq because Hussein was a war criminal. He was tried and executed as such.

And yet, for the Americans and the rest of the Western world it's completely history, yesterday's news. No one wants to look at it. This isn't a matter of Democrat or Republican. It's a basic question of whether we uphold some of the most serious laws we have.

Until the U.S. and indeed Europe faces this and deals with it, I don't think they'll ever have credibility with the rest of the world. The blatant double standard is just too much and too obvious.

First Question - Why is Ontario insistent on building its own nuclear power plants?

I live in Toronto, province of Ontario. For the last 20 years or more our provincial governments have known that we need to add to the electrical generating capacity so that we can have reliable electricity and so that the province can continue to grow and attract business. Corporations tend to want reliable sources of reasonably-priced power.

But, in all that time, no one has done anything. Governments have come and gone, all of them have acknowledged that something needs to be done, but nada. Building power plants is messy, there's lots of consulting, it's expensive and most of all, it's politically unpopular because no one wants a power plant in their backyard. So, behind the scenes, things have been held together by scotch tape. On hot summer days, we buy expensive, dirty coal-generated power on the open market to keep the lights on. For the last few summers, we've been lucky because of the relatively mild weather. Now, the current Liberal government is getting ready to do something. First, they're encouraging the electrical utilities to come up with programs that promote conservation. Good idea.

Then, they are going to legislate that small independent power producers can generate their own power for their own use (mostly solar and wind), and sell the rest back to the grid at preferred rates. Another good idea, but expensive to implement (power system was designed as a one-way system from the big generator to you - it will take some work to get it to smoothly accept power into the grid from many small providers). They are also encouraging, hopefully with some financial incentives, the building of commercial wind farms and other "green" sources of energy.

But at the same time, they are getting ready to announce that to do the real heavy lifting, we will have to build one or more nuclear stations. Although this is not popular with the environmentalists, they will grudgingly acknowledge that conservation and wind farms alone won't deliver the MW we need.

So here comes my question.....

Our neighouring province, Quebec has an excess of water-generated hydro-electric power for sale. In fact, the north eastern States are set to sign long-term (25 or 30 year) contracts with Quebec for power. For them, it's green (no smokestacks, no nuclear waste to contend with), it's dependable, a long-term contract makes cost predictable, and a reliable supplier is delivering.

So why the heck doesn't Ontario do the same? It never comes up in discussions. I've never seen it mentioned in the media. We would likely have to build some transmission lines to carry the power, and no they're not cheap, but we'll likely need those for our own power stations too.

So what's the deal? Do we feel better building it ourselves? Don't trust Quebec? Why are we not talking to Quebec to enter into a predictable contract for power coming from stations that are already built? Why do we want to go through a painful, unpredictable process of building our own? Anyone?