Palin.. again..

Well, the sad truth is here. She's just not ready. Kathleen Parker, of the National Review, says it better than me.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted. 

Just read an angry essay by Margaret Atwood today in the Globe and Mail criticizing Harper's recent comments about the arts. See her essay here. Seems like Harper isn't so keen about funding the arts, because he says that ordinary people don't seem to care for it. It would be very unfortunate if his cutbacks to the arts and culture continue. In Canada, the arts (literature, film making, music, architecture) is already a small and feeble industry (compared to most other countries), and it needs to be encouraged and grown, not pulled back. Canada continues to export creative talent overseas.. and it is necessary to stop this exodus. Why would I want to move back to a place that discourages innovative architecture? Where a society as a whole doesn't want to spend an extra penny on design? Right now, Steven Holl's project- first one in Canada- for the Toronto waterfront is put on hold because of none other than budget issues. For our cities to be inspiring places that people can be proud of (and want to live in), we need to demand more from our governments.. not less.

Give the banks a break.

All this talk about the need to punish Wall Street for its mistakes.. is misguided. The i-banker isn't to blame. Sure.. he makes a six figure salary to simply move money around. Sure.. he travels the world in his private jet. But.. the real culprit, I think, is the system that fools us into thinking that there are guaranteed returns on our investments. That makes everyone think they are entitled to an acre of land and a large house. And a large car. A system buoyed up only by the rather fragile notion of market "confidence." 

I think we should rethink the idea of debt.. and start making better decisions based on real accumulation of capital. Not having a nice mortgage, or a platinum credit card, or a student loan.. can actually be a good thing. It will cause us to live according to what we can afford. Buildings will be built according our needs, and not what some developer thinks we want. Universities will no longer take for granted the number of students that walk through their gates. We will make smarter decisions about what to buy and what we cannot buy. We can live more simply...

Toxic Dairy Products, Toxic Yoghurt, and now.. Toxic White Rabbit Candy!

The dairy crisis in China has never been worse, and today, I read in the Straits Times that the popular White Rabbit Candy was found to have traces of melamine, the toxic industrial chemical blamed for sickening 53,000 children in China. I predict a real collapse of the dairy industry here. I've stopped buying milk products altogether. Here what it says:

"SINGAPORE has found traces of a toxic chemical in a third Chinese-made dairy product as a scandal over tainted milk spreads across Asia, authorities said on Sunday.

Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said samples of White Rabbit-brand Creamy Candy imported from China were contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure."

Beijing's pollution problems

At the beginning of the Olympics, the media was criticizing the government about the thick smog that was hovering over the city. I remember talking to my roommate, Kiel, and we made this analogy: China is like this big awkward kid with an odour problem that has always been picked on over the years. But now (during the Olympics), the big kid finally gets his chance at the spotlight.. and all he gets are insults from everyone else.. because even though he's cleaned up himself a fair bit, he still kind of smells.

Well, now that the Olympics and the Paralympics are over.. the factories are back up and running, and the licence plate restrictions are lifted.. and the pollution is back. I just read this funny quote.. originally from this blog.

"Like a giant kid who's been holding a fart in during a three week elevator ride, Beijing has apparently relaxed its many industrial sphincters and let a big one rip. That's the only way I can explain the lighting-fast deterioration in air quality."

The air quality is horrendous today.