Jean Charest earned his political chops as a cabinet minister in the Conservative government of Lyin' Brian Mulroney.
For almost ten years he has been the Liberal premier of Quebec.
It says something about the opportunistic nature of Canadian politicians when Conservatives can so seamlessly morph into Liberals, or in the case of Bob Rae, a "socialist" can become a Liberal, or in the case of Thomas Mulcair, a member of Charest's Liberal government remakes himself as a "socialist".
One could be forgiven for dismissing the lot of them as unprincipled money-grubbing power-mongers.
Charest now has the distinction of being the Canadian politician guilty of the most egregious misreading of the Canadian public in recent memory.
When Charest imposed tuition increases on Quebec students more than three months ago he had the universal support of the opinion-making establishment across the country.
Over three months he has managed to fan a tuition protest into a full-fledged revolt that those same opinion-makers increasingly acknowledge is now about far more than tuition.
That's leadership!
This brave new wave of political awareness will eventually sweep the political old guard into the the dustbin.
Goodbye, ye carpet-baggers left and right!
It's finally 1968 in Canada.
Showing posts with label Occupy democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Occupy democracy. Show all posts
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Economists rule the world
That's the heading of an article by Eytan Avriel on the Haaretz website today.
I found the article remarkable for a couple of reasons.
In the first instance, Avriel posits some sort of community of economists who are in agreement with an hegemonic world-view that favors the status quo in the existing global order.
One need look no further than Paul Krugman's writing in that erstwhile bastion of status quo-ery, the New York Times, to see that such is not the case.
Defenders of the status quo tend to have more access to media bully-pulpits because, after all, the owners of big media have a vested interest in exactly that. Krugman with his Nobel medal is permitted the Times platform because his name lends prestige to the paper. While Krugman is an exception, that exceptionality also destroys Avriel's argument.
Also of interest was a passing reference to the Milken Institute. What was interesting about it was that apparently sufficient time has passed that it is now permissible to refer to Milken without the once-obligatory aside to his 98 count indictiment on fraud and racketeering charges in 1989. The dirty laundry has been well aired-out and cleansed with the passage of time.
Milken was one of the architects of the "Rumpelstiltsken economy" that overtook America in the last quarter of the 20th century. Why get rich building a company from the ground up when you can get richer faster by buying one that someone else spent a lifetime building up and then gutting it?
All the straw-spinners in all the hedge funds today owe a huge debt to Michael Milken.
Finally, after a decidedly downbeat lament over our prospects under the further rule of the dismal scientists, Avriel concludes that we don't actually have to let them rule.
There's a faint shadow still lingering of something called "democracy", and while it has been everywhere co-opted and corrupted, Avriel sees hope in the broad-based social protest movements that have swept much of the world over the past year.
On that point I couldn't agree more.
Occupy democracy!
I found the article remarkable for a couple of reasons.
In the first instance, Avriel posits some sort of community of economists who are in agreement with an hegemonic world-view that favors the status quo in the existing global order.
One need look no further than Paul Krugman's writing in that erstwhile bastion of status quo-ery, the New York Times, to see that such is not the case.
Defenders of the status quo tend to have more access to media bully-pulpits because, after all, the owners of big media have a vested interest in exactly that. Krugman with his Nobel medal is permitted the Times platform because his name lends prestige to the paper. While Krugman is an exception, that exceptionality also destroys Avriel's argument.
Also of interest was a passing reference to the Milken Institute. What was interesting about it was that apparently sufficient time has passed that it is now permissible to refer to Milken without the once-obligatory aside to his 98 count indictiment on fraud and racketeering charges in 1989. The dirty laundry has been well aired-out and cleansed with the passage of time.
Milken was one of the architects of the "Rumpelstiltsken economy" that overtook America in the last quarter of the 20th century. Why get rich building a company from the ground up when you can get richer faster by buying one that someone else spent a lifetime building up and then gutting it?
All the straw-spinners in all the hedge funds today owe a huge debt to Michael Milken.
Finally, after a decidedly downbeat lament over our prospects under the further rule of the dismal scientists, Avriel concludes that we don't actually have to let them rule.
There's a faint shadow still lingering of something called "democracy", and while it has been everywhere co-opted and corrupted, Avriel sees hope in the broad-based social protest movements that have swept much of the world over the past year.
On that point I couldn't agree more.
Occupy democracy!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Occupy democracy
There's lots of good reading in today's Globe and Mail.
In fact, I may have to put off the usual Saturday chores just to get through it.
The front page screams with typical Canadian hubris that what Canada needs more than anything else is a million new immigrants.
Yup. The world's best and brightest need to be brought here.
You know, like the Nigerian doctor who saved Junior's life during a difficult opening act. While we're all hugely appreciative for what the man did for us, at the back of my mind I've always wondered, don't they need doctors in Nigeria?
There was a time when many of the world's best and brightest actually had some interest in coming here.
I think those days are long behind us.
In fact, many of the children of the best and brightest who came here a generation or two ago are now heading back to China and India.
The idea that a million of the best and brightest are coming our way is wishful thinking, and I suspect that our Globe headline writers understand that.
What will come our way are plenty of new immigrants willing to take all those jobs that the million and a half unemployed Canadians stubbornly refuse to do. Now that amendments to our "temporary" work visa program allow new immigrants to be paid 15% below the prevailing wage, employers and policy-makers will be even less inclined to solve the imaginary "labour shortage" by investing in Canada's unemployed.
Which brings me to the title of this post.
I strongly suspect that headlines around the world will on Monday morning be proclaiming that the sky is once again falling. Elections in Greece and France will have dealt a severe set-back to the prevailing world-view that a handful of corrupt bankers and ratings agencies need to be saved from themselves at any cost.
That the costs are inevitably borne by the small people, the 99%, goes without saying.
In much of the so-called developed world the 99% have for far too long been bribed, lied, and intimidated into voting against their own best interests.
If that can change in France and Greece this weekend, maybe it can eventually change in Canada and in the US.
Occupy democracy!
In fact, I may have to put off the usual Saturday chores just to get through it.
The front page screams with typical Canadian hubris that what Canada needs more than anything else is a million new immigrants.
Yup. The world's best and brightest need to be brought here.
You know, like the Nigerian doctor who saved Junior's life during a difficult opening act. While we're all hugely appreciative for what the man did for us, at the back of my mind I've always wondered, don't they need doctors in Nigeria?
There was a time when many of the world's best and brightest actually had some interest in coming here.
I think those days are long behind us.
In fact, many of the children of the best and brightest who came here a generation or two ago are now heading back to China and India.
The idea that a million of the best and brightest are coming our way is wishful thinking, and I suspect that our Globe headline writers understand that.
What will come our way are plenty of new immigrants willing to take all those jobs that the million and a half unemployed Canadians stubbornly refuse to do. Now that amendments to our "temporary" work visa program allow new immigrants to be paid 15% below the prevailing wage, employers and policy-makers will be even less inclined to solve the imaginary "labour shortage" by investing in Canada's unemployed.
Which brings me to the title of this post.
I strongly suspect that headlines around the world will on Monday morning be proclaiming that the sky is once again falling. Elections in Greece and France will have dealt a severe set-back to the prevailing world-view that a handful of corrupt bankers and ratings agencies need to be saved from themselves at any cost.
That the costs are inevitably borne by the small people, the 99%, goes without saying.
In much of the so-called developed world the 99% have for far too long been bribed, lied, and intimidated into voting against their own best interests.
If that can change in France and Greece this weekend, maybe it can eventually change in Canada and in the US.
Occupy democracy!
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