Memo to Political Parties: No Robocalls, Ever

We always knew the Conservatives were comtemptuous of democracy, and now we have even more proof with the robocall dirty tricks of May 2. Somebody up high had to okay them, because they cost a fair amount of change to set up. (And why has no one noted that this bit of electioneering took place on election day when spending limits no longer apply.)

But I think it's also time that political parties realized that robocalls with recorded messages in support of candidates or as part of polls probably are counter productive. We've had a slew of them in the last week or so from the NDP. Everybody hear just hangs up, even though we mostly pro-NDP.

Because I'm Writing the Love Story Part of River Music: "Some Enchanted Evening"

This week I'm going over the latest version of my next novel River Music. "Some Enchanted Evening" the Rogers and Hammerstein song from South Pacific, has insinuated its way into the story. So here it is from a television version of the musical with Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin. Vintage schmaltz, but who cares1

Saturday Photo: Scary Plants and the Reptilian Brain

Happy little girl that she is, Jeanne has faced the world with a smile since she was tiny. She has not been phased or frightened by much...until she started to walk with facility.

Then within a couple of weeks she manifested behavior which can only be rooted in some reflex hidden deep inside. First, she encountered a spider for the first time on the floor of the kitchen and absolutely freaked, says her Papa who witnessed it. She had never seen any adult or child react to a creepy crawly with fear, but the sight somehow immediately prompted avoidance behavior of a rather extreme nature.

Then at our house, she, who had been happily cruising the living room for months on her bum, got extremely upset at an amarylis plant that was growing a bit strangely because of its relation to the ambient light. I heard her squealing and went into the living room to find her backing away fearfully from the rather snakelike flower stock. We reassured her, but until the flower bloomed and I cut it off to put in water, she avoid getting too close to it.

This kind of almost automatic reaction would have great survival value,it seems to me. Kids who are truly mobile need to learn what to avoid, and if they're scared initially by things that might bear menace, so much the better from an evolutionary point of view.

But all is not automatic. Last weekend, despite being told not to stand up in an arm chair, she persisted in doing so, and fell foward, hitting her head on the coffee table. She wasn't hurt badly, but when she came back a few days ago, she carefully pointed to the table edge and distinctly said "bobo," the kids' French for "that hurts." What's more, to my knowledge she hasn't tried to stand on the arm chair since. Burnt child shuns fire, perhaps?

Another Defeat in the Information Wars? Alain Saulnier Gets the Ax at Radio Canada

This story is not likely to get much play in English Canada, but it ought to. Alain Saulnier, the head of information services (radio, TV, internet) at Radio Canada, was let go yesterday. No reason was given, but, according to Le Devoir, it's highly likely that political pressure from the federal government was a factor in the sudden decision. (A certain amount of internal backstabbing may also have played a role.)

Radio Canada so far has resisted the move toward dumbing down its news coverage far more successfully that the CBC has. I long ago stopped listening to local CBC Radio One content because it was just too superficial. The Radio Canada morning show, C'est bien meilleur le matin, is far more intelligent than the equivalent English language show here and (at least the times I've listened) in Toronto. What is more, its listenership is either number one or number two when the ratings are published, even though it's competing with the most agressive commercial radio. This, I've always thought, reflects the drawing power of solid, informative programing.

Now, though, the quality and orientation of programs like C'est bien are uncertain.

The Harper Conservative disinformation campaign is continual: Canadian scientists came out last week against the muzzling of scientists and their research, the efforts of Quebec to save data from the Long Gun Registry from this province are being blocked, there are questions about the reliabilty of census data due to the elimination of the requirement that people fill out the long form....The list goes on and on.

And have you listened to Type A, the program from Alberta that is Conservative to its core? I accidently caught an episode called "Productivity" which was not only amateurish in its production values, but also almost pure Con propaganda. What's it doing on the national network?

Extra Billing: Thousands of Dollars Paid by Patients at Montreal Private Clinic

Extra-billing and kick-backs to doctors in Quebec have been in the news these last couple of days. First the Quebec College of Physicians charged that at least two cardiologists have been accepting "envelopes of cash" to push patients up the waiting list for surgery. Equally as bad, the College alleges that doctors have been directing patients to the private sector by saying that the waiting lists in public facilities are too long.

Next the agency which governs the health care system in this province, the Régie des assurances maladie du Québec, has revealed the results of an investigaton of a private clinic, Rockland MD approved for performing surgery. Extra fees amounting to several hundred thousand dollars have been charged for services covered by the public system. These include charges for nurses and anethesologists present during surgery as well as "forfaits santé" or a fee for being considered for the treatment in the clinic. RAMQ will reimburse patients for these fees, and will collect them from the clinic.

This should be no surprise, really, to anyone who has been following Quebec's health system. Two years ago the protocol for certain surgeries covered by the system was modified. Previously, only three kinds of surgery were approved for private clinics, but under the changes, 56 are now allowed. In addition, doctors are now able to work both in private and public institutions.

Critics at the time of passage of the changes warned that it was an invitation to abuse on the part of greedy medical professionals who wanted to work both sides of the health system. Unfortunately, they were right.

Now it remains to be seen whether these revelations will result in a move away from giving private clinics a larger role in providing surgery. The argument always is that a mixed system will provide more options, but it's clear that the results are bad for everybody except the docs making extra money.

Identikits and Imagination: How Do You Imagine Emma Bovary and Mr. Rochester?

The Atlantic has an interesting feature about using Identikits, those visual aids used by police to figure out who might have done it, to draw portraits of characters from fiction.

Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre and Emma Bovary from Madame Bovary are two, who come out looking like nothing I ever imagined. But then it's rare that a film version shows a character as I imagine either. Certainly Mr. Rochester played by Toby Stephens is much better looking than the description: "I knew my traveller with his broad and jetty eyebrows; his square forehead, made squarer by the horizontal sweep of his black hair.


I recognised his decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty; his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler; his grim mouth, chin, and jaw–yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake. " (See here for more.)

Only Isabelle Huppert playing Emma looks both like the description and the police portrait: "She was pale all over, white as a sheet; the skin of her nose was drawn at the nostrils, her eyes looked at you vaguely. After discovering three grey hairs on her temples, she talked much of her old age…Her eyelids seemed chiseled expressly for her long amorous looks in which the pupil disappeared, while a strong inspiration expanded her delicate nostrils and raised the fleshy corner of her lips, shaded in the light by a little black down.

As for me, I've always thought Emma looked like something from a Renoir painting--maybe pale but a lot more voluptuous than Huppert. And Rochester: well, I see a dour someone from a Victorian photograph.

But that of course is part of the pleasure of reading: you fill in the gaps, you're there in a way that you can't be in a movie. Whatever you imagine is going to be a lot more alive than an Identikit portrait, too.

Let's Not Do a Europe: Krugman's Lessons for Ontario

As usual, Paul Krugman is worth reading to day. He once again points out just how counter-productive austerity measures have been in keeping Europe afloat.

What he says should be taken seriously by the government of Ontario which is, so we're told, faced with some terrible choices in order to keep financially afloat.

But austerity in the face of economic hard times is nonsense, Krugman says. What is needed is economic vigor, and to accomplish this in the US, "all the federal government needs to do to give the economy a big boost is provide aid to lower-level governments, allowing these governments to rehire the hundreds of thousands of schoolteachers they have laid off and restart the building and maintenance projects they have canceled."

So, cutting and slashing is supposed to get Ontario back on the track to better economic times? No. The answer from those who've been watching governments that have been there and done that, is clear: Don't.