Paying For The Privilege

Canadian universities are restive. At least some of the student populations within those universities are, markedly so. Led there by many of those who teach there, and by trade-union examples. Carleton University appears to be vying with the University of Western Ontario and York University as presenting as the most volatile, institution-defying, socially-rejecting, intellectually biased Israel-bashers.

The academe-and-student-body-related 'international-social-conscience' imperatives revolving around the unquestioning support of the Palestinian 'cause' by the simple expedient of slandering and isolating Israel through calls for investment-divestment and boycotting of Israeli scholars and merchandise production has been adopted with remarkable gusto.

The lib-left have lost some of their otherwise-directed campaigns in support of gay rights and farm workers rights in Latin America, so they have turned their activist righteousness and sanctimony on Israel. It helps tremendously that Israel is a nation which, while not comprised exclusively of Jews, is meant as a haven for Jews.

It is the Jewish-element of Israel that abrades the ethics-challenged social consciences of the highly hysterical left who find it fits very well with their world view of Jews in general and Israel in particular as piranhas feasting on the flesh of poor Arabs who want nothing more than what every other national group has achieved; a homeland of their own.

Which they historically slammed when it was offered as the UN passed a historic 1948 resolution to partition the geography, giving Israel its tiny island of heritage in a sea of Muslim nations who wasted no time in marching in a bellicose war of annihilation that failed. That failure with one war after another where Israel remained resolutely ensconced, did not result in accommodation to her presence.

The Palestinians have attempted to resort to any and every method conceivable to dislodge Israel and regain the territory they once, and continue, to consider theirs and theirs alone. And there the stalemate rests, with the Palestinians vowing to oppose their aggressor, the Israelis vowing to surmount their existential threat, and young intellectuals of Western orientation linked solidly with the perceived underdog.

To which an invited honoured guest speaker at Carleton University, addressing the student body, rests on his own celebrated laurels as a renowned intellectual and speaker, one whose distaste for Israel and for his own country the United States is legendary. Noam Chomsky gave his virulent critique of Israel a rest this time around, made no mention of having launched the original boycott actions against Israel.

But did go to great pains to remind the fervently-adoring student body that they have the right to be anarcho-intellectuals. That it is a shame that people such as they - seeking to fill their minds with scholarly ideas while disseminating their rigid ideas on social morality - must be forced to pay for the privilege. "When you trap people in a system of debt ... they can't afford the time to think", he advised them.

Which goes a long way to explaining how it is that reason and reasonableness is absent from their particular debate; their minds have become too fatigued by the intolerable burden of having to pay their share for their already-subsidized educations.

The Issues, Gentlemen, and Lady

So what's gnu with the electioneering gaffes and lavish and costly promises with the leaders of the major Canadian political parties, during the 2011 election campaign? Well, a lot of people, viewing and hearing the election advertisements have got really turned off by their content. As though they weren't more than sufficiently irritated by the unneeded election, to begin with.

Let's see, Jack Layton is popping up here and there, hobbling with his trusty cane while recovering from hip repair surgery, even as he recovers from prostate cancer therapy. Going on about the critical inadequacies of Canada's universal health care system.

He, on the other hand, was fortunate enough to receive sterling care for his two maladies. Which is why he is up and about, here and there, hither and yon, castigating the Liberals, the Conservatives, their platforms and promises, while recuperating, thanks to the quality of care he received.

Michael Ignatieff is enjoying himself blasting the Conservatives for their corporate tax reduction which the Liberals first started, and for the looming acquisition of F-36 stealth warplanes and the prison and judicial-reform program they have launched. Which the Liberals also signed off on.

But one issue that the Conservatives refused to touch, at real risk of alienating Quebec voters and losing important votes, the Liberals promise to fund: Quebec City's professional-league sport arena. Along with a whole slew - in excess of $8-billion tax dollars - of other promises, all guaranteed to paint Canadian families' futures pink.

Canada's shame in supporting, or at least not wishing to upset Quebec on another issue, by passing legislation to disallow asbestos mining on Canadian soil - which still includes Quebec - has been addressed by Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe. All asbestos, even chrysotile which Quebec's industry lobbyists claim is 'safe' is carcinogenic.

But Mr. Duceppe duplicitously claims that asbestos can be produced and used safely within Quebec. "If (asbestos production) is done in a responsible way, then it's safe", he insists.

One must, then, assume, that even in Quebec the extraction process and installation is not done safely. For a new report has been issued suggesting that many construction sites in Quebec contain asbestos levels at or above provincial norms. This study was released by Quebec's Public Health Department.

Yet Quebec insists its asbestos industry is safe, despite air samples felt to be sufficiently elevated to present as an elevated risk for asbestos exposure. And this is the asbestos that is routinely exported to countries like India where workers there are exposed to cancer risks in a country far less concerned with workplace safety than Quebec.

And, it would appear, Conservative campaign workers have been going out of their way to produce situations certain to be of embarrassment to their leader. While Stephen Harper unveils one benefit after another for the Canadian electorate, highlighting the modest-but-appreciated goodies contained in the rejected budget, heavy-handed vetting by campaign workers, outing and ousting campaign-event attendees with connections to the Liberals in a show of undemocratic nastiness erupts.

As for Elizabeth May, long may she stew. She may not have the opportunity this time around to be present during the televised major party leaders' debate. Evidently it was largely felt last time around she added nothing of value to the debate; rather that her presence was detrimental in the exchange of ideas and information-values.

Her hubris in running against the Conservative-safe seat of Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia last time is only relatively reflected by her insistence that she is prepared to win the Saanich-Gulf Islands seat, and finally take her place in the House of Commons, from where it will be a short leap to the PMO.

What a collective performance. Yawn.

Discover Canada, Do

The opposition parties, desperate to unseat a Conservative-led government in Canada that has proven themselves time and again exemplary stewards of Canadian values and imperatives, will stoop to anything to try to convince the electorate that the Cabinet is filled with Members of Parliament who are unworthy of their posts. Yet Ministers under the direction of Prime Minister Stephen Harper have acquitted themselves outstandingly well through their ministerial performances.

And a star candidate for especial notice has always been Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney. He alone of his predecessors in that portfolio has recognized the dire necessity to inform would-be citizens and immigrants that Canada does not only proffer asylum for migrants seeking a better life for themselves and their families in a land of equality, liberty and opportunity, but that they also have an obligation to their new country.

He has familiarized himself with the various ethnic, religious and cultural groups that have assembled in this country, and made himself known to them. He has supported and encouraged those groups to become knowledgeable about their new country. He has spoken forthrightly and with conviction that citizenship is a mutually beneficial and mutually respecting affair.

The scandal that the opposition has been attempting desperately to unseat him with soiled the former Liberal governing parties, whose Cabinet Ministers blithely attended cultural and social affairs and parades of various ethnic groups who clearly had brought ancient enmities with them, playing them out on Canadian soil. Those Members of Parliament who attended those events heedless of their meaning, but intent on cultivating bloc votes were Liberals.

That scandalous set of affairs, although publicized and commented upon from time to time never resulted in the firing or resignation of any of the ministers involved. That Jason Kenney authorized his aides to communicate a request for funding to seek out and pursue the potential to enroll ethnic votes in the Conservative cause without resorting to such scurrilous tactics simply illustrates the ethical behaviour behind the Conservatives' values.

Minister Kenney has now rolled out an updated citizenship guide, Discover Canada, to emphasize new citizens' responsibilities to take up and honour Canadian democratic principles; that gay and lesbian Canadians have a constitutional right to the full protection of equality under the law; that forced marriages are not tolerated in Canada; that violent, extreme or hateful prejudices so not belong in this country, among other instances of Canadian values.

Do not Canadians have a right to expect that their Parliamentarians recognize that they have an obligation as elected lawmakers to set aside partisan political differences for the greater good of the country, rather than focus constantly on overturning the government? Seems not; they appear to far prefer the antics of unsocialized primates to civilized adults.

BORDERLAND : EDUCATION LAGGING

Ironic. That's the right word to describe the condition of our education in remote areas. Imagine, inequality of education quality in the city with the region have occurred in such a way that the story of school collapsed in a remote or a story about a teacher who fled to neighboring countries, not just a myth. Furthermore, to gain a deeper understanding, can we review this issue from the standpoint of the rights and obligations of citizens.

Read more »

What the Republican budget cuts propose

Top 10 Worst Things about the Republicans' Immoral Budget

At the national level the Republican budget would:

1. Destroy 700,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis.

2. Zero out federal funding for National Public Radio and public television.

3. Cut $1.3 billion from community health centers—which will deprive more than 3 million low-income people of health care over the next few months.

4. Cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.

5. Kick more than 200,000 children out of pre-school by cutting funds for Head Start.

6. Force states to fire 65,000 teachers and aides, dramatically increasing class sizes, thanks to education cuts.

7. Cut some or all financial aid for 9.4 million low- and middle-income college students.

8. Slash $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, a cut that experts say would "send shockwaves" through cancer research, likely result in cuts to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, and cause job losses.

9. End the only federal family planning program, including cutting all federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood to support cancer screenings and other women's health care.

10. Send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year.

We've got to get the word out about this awful budget—right away. Please, share this with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, or by forwarding this email, today.

Sources:

1. "GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new report says," The Washington Post, February 28, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206357&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=6

2. "GOP budget would cut funding for public broadcasting," The Washington Independent, February 14, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206513&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=7

3. "NACHC Statement in Response to the Budget from the House Appropriations Committee," National Association of Community Health Centers website, accessed March 4, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206514&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=8

4."Bye Bye, Big Bird. Hello, E. Coli.," The New Republic, February 12, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206104&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=9

House Republican Spending Cuts Target Programs For Children And Pregnant Women 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206566&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=10

5. "Obama and the GOP's Spending Cuts: Where's the Outrage?" Mother Jones, February 18, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206569&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=11

6. Ibid.

7. "Deficit Reduction on the Backs of the Most Vulnerable," Center for American Progress, March 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206518&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=12 (PDF)

8. "The GOP Budget and Cancer—Why New Research Is at Risk," Politics Daily, February 27, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206515&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=13

"Republican Budget Cuts at Heart of Medical Research: Albert Hunt," Bloomberg, February 20, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206516&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=14

"Durbin: Cuts to NIH put research jobs at risk," Business Week, February 28, 2011 
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LLSCB00.htm

9. "GOP Spending Plan: X-ing Out Title X Family Planning Funds," Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206105&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=15

10. "House GOP Spending Cuts Would Prevent 10,000 Low-Income Veterans From Receiving Housing Assistance," Think Progress, March 1, 2011 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206517&id=26412-2956400-6Ty4_mx&t=16

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Elementary Diagnosis

Omani police fired rubber bullets at stone-throwing protesters demanding political reform on Sunday, killing two people, and demonstrators set government buildings and cars ablaze, witnesses said. Hours after the violence, Oman's ruler, Sultan Qaboos, gave an order to create 50,000 jobs for citizens in the Gulf Arab state of 2.7 million people. Witnesses said more than 2,000 protesters had gathered for a second day in a square in Sohar demanding political reforms, more jobs and better pay before police tried to disperse them, first with tear gas and batons and then rubber bullets. Reuters

The monumental struggle for regimes in the Middle East and North Africa to contain their citizens' unrest has emerged front-and-center as the single most momentous, precedent-shattering series of events in modern Islamic history. Islam, which exerts such an especial covenant with its worshippers, exhorting them to submit in prayer five times daily, and which delineates every aspect of the lives of the faithful, has failed to teach its political leaders due respect for their populations.

While the mullahs, the clerics, the ayatollahs pound the lessons of the Koran into the malleable minds of Islam's faithful, further influencing them to obey and to submit to the prevailing order in each of their countries governed by dictators, theocratic despots, benevolent monarchs, oil-rich sheiks, and monstrous tyrants, the fundamental needs of those vast numbers who are unschooled, indigent and yet produce new mouths to feed year upon year, go ignored.

From Algeria to Yemen, Bahrain to Sudan, Qatar to Morocco, the average of each of those regimes' appearance on the human development index as judged by all civil, health, education and income indices are miserably low. On the consumer price index, the availability to these people of basic consumer goods, gives a result on average reflecting another failure. On the corruption score, most of these countries with rare exceptions have an unfortunately dismal rating.

On the index of freedoms for the people inhabiting countries like Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, among others, the result is intolerably low. But modern technology has impinged on all of these countries, from use of the Internet enabling access to social network sites, to cellphone use. As a result, it has become impossible for autocratic rulers to keep their populations ignorant of the freedoms available to people elsewhere in the world.

Freedom to vote in fair elections, freedom to join political parties other than the dominant one, freedom to dress as they wish, to consume music, to dance; freedom to purchase goods and services because they are available in societies where trade is seen as a positive element in the growth of a country's GDP. They also become aware that other countries' populations live under far fewer religious and political strictures.

Above all, they see that although unemployment exists universally, it does not exist to the degree that it does in Africa and the Middle East where the economy is far more stagnant and resistant to positive change, than elsewhere. The unemployment rate among educated and lesser-educated rural youth in Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, among others, is staggeringly high. And young people become restless.

They begin to agitate for their rights, not seeming to understand that their rights are totally dependent upon the whims of those who govern, and happenstance of their countries' economic performance. And there is just so many government jobs to go around in any country, before it begins to collapse in upon itself through the weight of poorly-functioning, non-producing jobs that do nothing to further the financial security of the country.

If there is a lack of enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit and opportunity, if industry and investment in production other than the extraction of naturally-endowed fossil fuels are not present nor encouraged, there is a limit to the number of jobs that can be made available. If people are not employed they cannot purchase even those foods that are available. And when there is a global food shortage bringing up the price of basic food and energy, it is highly concerning.

The very elemental formula for dissent and complaint, for protest and insurrection, for demands and resorting to violent rhetoric, descending into violent action is there: a bulging unemployed youth demographic, food scarcity, lack of fundamental civil freedoms.

The New Generation of Revolutionaries

Saudi Arabia has known for a very long time that it has a problem on its hands. One it shares with all its neighbours, for the most part. Too many shiftless young people. It is not the women, who are strictured not to be seen in public unless clad in all-encasing garments and even then escorted by male family members who are of concern. It is the young men with too much idle time on their hands because there are not enough jobs to employ them gainfully.

What Saudi Arabia has been aware of is that without gainful employment for all these young men, marriage is not quite possible. Marriage softens the rough edges of virile young men, it keeps them out of trouble. The responsibilities that come with marriage, and raising a family ensures that young men will not become restless, will not agitate for change, will not become likely recruits for Islamism and jihad.

Which is paradoxical given that Saudi Arabia's very fundamentalist style of Islam, Wahhabi-style, has been responsible throughout other parts of the world in training young men who become susceptible to the allure of wild adventure in religiously-motivated, violent jihad, through their investment in madrassas. But then, it is one thing to export fundamentalist Islam, and another to welcome a threatening variant of it into one's homeland.

The aging royalty of the House of Saud recognizes its problem. But it has hundreds of billions of dollars in profit from its kingdom's fossil fuel extraction, and in that country money really is no problem. King Abdullah can return home from recovery from surgery and in celebration magnanimously hand out tens of billions of dollars to continue to buy the loyalty of his subjects. Which subjects, with rare exceptions, it seems, are more than happy to continue living under his rule.

Not for King Abdullah the migraine-inducing pain suffered by Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, and the unspeakable Libya. All government employees will be enjoying a 15% pay raise. Social welfare programs, housing and education will receive stiff infusions of cash. There will be financial aid for an entire year for the unemployed, including presumably, those steaming youth who cannot find employment thus cannot purchase a home and a car, and go looking for a wife.

Of the 19 million citizens populating Saudi Arabia, 47% are age 18 or younger. And roughly 40% of all Saudis who are between 20 and 24 years of age are unemployed. So oops! There are activists in the country calling for economic reform and the creation of more jobs. They're also assuming that their combined voices may be instrumental in leading to freedom for women, free elections and political reforms.

But Saudi Arabia is a quietly efficient place where dissent is not brooked nor anticipated. And people really are fond of their benevolent monarchy. So it would be a real eye-opener if the social activists hoping for a better future for themselves and their youthful countrymen could amass enough support even from within their own demographic to mount a meaningful campaign.

Still, as one Middle East expert mused: "The new generation of revolution is surrounding them from everywhere."

Egypt, Tomorrow

The Egyptian armed forces now securely back in control have given their pledge that theirs is a temporary authority, awaiting the re-writing of the country's constitution and the free and fair election of a new civilian governing body. And then they will obligingly melt into the background. Always on the alert, however, to do their duty to their country. Above all, to save it from itself.

And the Western media, being onside, is a really nice bonus.

Of course, having President Obama finally making up his mind is not a bad thing, either. His tenuously insipid pronouncements, announcements and grandiose glimmerings of control at a time when the U.S. had clearly no influence, spelled confusion in the minds of onlookers only; Barack Obama was in firm control, knew all along what he was conveying; the mangled message was an illusion.

The reality is, according to the jubilant Western media, that the democratic way of life and governance is proving irresistible. It's that 'didn't we tell ya so!?" syndrome. But sometimes a rose is a rose is a rose doesn't work, and this is one of those times when the democracy that is known and loved in the West will be transformed beyond recognition.

It already has been, and will continue to be further disfigured beyond recall.

Bearing in mind that the ruling military council does not want to be seen as controlling the country and has admonished those tasked (including a Muslim Brotherhood representative) to remake the constitution for which they've been given ten days to come up with a miracle of acceptance. After which a leisurely six months will pass to offer competing political parties ample time to organize themselves and mount an election campaign.

A formality that will, in effect, leave two entities standing; the current National Democratic Party, now seen to have been disgraced by their years of corrupt autocratic rule, though in fact they performed for Egypt quite a fine job of administering the affairs of the country with some notable human rights exceptions. And, of course, the waiting-on-tenterhooks-and-finally-opportunity-has-materialized, Muslim Brotherhood.

Take your pick, energized and triumphant Egyptians. Whatever the choice, it will have brought democracy to modern Egypt born from the ashes of ancient Egypt. With the change in the constitution and a change in leadership in style and substance, all will be well. Violent criminals will be plucked off the streets and returned to the jails; police stations will be re-built, as will government buildings that were torched in the peaceful protests.

The historical, irreplaceable and priceless heritage objects of antiquity that were handily heisted will be missed, but that loss too was part of the peaceful protest. In due time foreign investment will return, foreign- and Egyptian-owned manufacturing will get up to speed once again, the stock market will recapture all it lost, and tourism will once again boom.

The price of food will continue to grow, and imported wheat, more costly than ever, will be used for subsidized bread for the poor.

Under a new government something will have to be done about the 40% of Egyptians living well under the poverty line. And while that is being bruited about, jobs for all those unemployed young men must also be achieved. Just incidentally, those who have employment insist it is past time for raises in their livelihood to lift them out of the mire of the employed poor, still better off than the utterly destitute.

And then there's the matter of a monumental deficit and that miserable debt that keeps ballooning. Imagine, if Egypt were on a war footing with its neighbour, Israel, how much of its stretched treasury would be wasted on prosecuting war after war - just like old times. Wait; isn't that just what the Muslim Brotherhood is demanding, that Egypt abrogate its legendarily-despised peace treaty with Israel?

With Shariah law imposed on the country how will that impact on tourism, on relations between foreigners visiting the country, given to understand that casual Western-style clothing is no longer permissible at those overheated vacation spots? And relations between Egyptian Copts and the majority Muslim population under the Muslim Brotherhood's rule, possibly a formula for a new round of persecution?

The possibilities that democracy brings to Egypt seem boundless, fascinating, quite unrecognizable. Just as well that Hosni Mubarak will likely not be around to witness the tumult, the downward-spiralling changes that would surely break his heart.

Struggling Appearances

Barack Obama hardly knew where to turn. Desert a political friend to whom much was owed by the United States, as a pivotal actor in the Middle East, aiding to control the rise of Islamist extremism? Or give absence to the fervent belief in the democratic ideal that every president before him has cleaved to?

Particularly in view of his own speech in Cairo in his first year in office, travelling internationally to give inspirational speeches to the Muslim world, and to university students lauding democracy and urging those students to visualize such a future for themselves in a new kind of Egypt.

Did the eloquence and passionate speaking style of this new American president motivate and inspire the young Egyptian men to take their resolute action? Did they foresee the potential consequences? They, after all, know Egypt far more intimately than an American president.

Are we to believe that since they were university students their political outlook was secular in nature? That none subscribed to the ideology say, of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Time will most certainly tell. Meanwhile, President Obama's Secretary of State has lauded the Muslim Brotherhood for agreeing to participate in talks with the purpose of arriving at a general agreement for the near future of Egypt. And James Clapper, chief of the U.S. National Intelligence Agency spoke in glowing terms of the Muslim Brotherhood, as moderate and "largely secular" in nature, posing no threat to Egypt, let alone the Middle East for they have "eschewed violence".

With loyal and knowledgeable advisers like these, President Obama found the direction he was looking for. Yes, he could, after all, throw Hosni Mubarak into the trash bin of history; his initial hesitation to do so did not reflect the firm assurance of a President of the United States who, like the Almighty, is omniscient and omnipotent.

So, while praising Hosni Mubarak for his past service to his country, allied with U.S. interests, he sternly urged his timely departure.

The comfort and assurances he failed to extend to Iranians protesting their fanatically tyrannical theistic state, he sincerely offered to the youthful protesters in Cairo. Leaving heads of state in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait a trifle shaken at the unanticipated manner in which the U.S. president, aided and abetted by the European Union, was able to shed his close alliance with a former ally in favour of being "on the right side of history".

A nice contrast was the calm statement of the Prime Minister of Canada, that he and his country respected Mr. Mubarak's 'decision' to step down "in order to promote peace and stability". That Canada "encourages all parties to move forward with a peaceful, meaningful, credible and orderly democratic reform process toward new leadership". Not forgetting the need for regional "stability", identifying the peace treaty with Israel.

Of course all of this is wishful thinking on the part of governments outside the Middle East. Mournful regret at seeing a benevolent dictator of a police state summarily removed from office, and at the same time, knowing the unstable and tyranny-prone nature of the Middle East, never devoted to the concept of human rights, could just as easily turn into yet another Islamist Republic.

It could do that, despite the oversight of the politically restrained, secular-outlook national armed forces; a half-million-strong, now in control of a substantial portion of the Arab world. Because, simply put, a large proportion of Egyptians, about 80%, would like to see the return of Shariah law. Unless the armed forces intend to rule in perpetuity, rather than to hand the administration to a civilian authority in due time.

Which should give all the onlookers something to think about.

And because youthful Egyptians so utterly enthralled with their success have not thought deeply about the future of their country they no doubt feel jobs will instantly appear, along with more reasonable prices for imported wheat and fuel.

If they have given any thought at all to the devastating blow their 'revolution' has cost the country, the ameliorative steps that will need to be taken to bring it back to economic security, it might indicate some maturity of thought beyond the buoyant ebullience of belligerent youth acting out their grievances.

In the minds of democratic countries' leaders looking in on the disruptive influence that their example has caused, should be some lingering doubts; that a change to democracy does not result overnight. Rather a long, arduous process of re-orientation for a society that has long been mired in its social, religious and political structure geared to their history and culture, will have to be undertaken, and this will take years to achieve.

In the interim, with no miraculous appearance of more job openings for the restless young and the poor, with no levelling off of the rise of the cost of fundamental foods and energy sources, it is not too likely that the complaints that originally occasioned protests will be addressed. It will be instructive to see how long the state of jubilation will last.

Shaming a Child

The schools we send our children to have a vital mission to fulfill. Teachers at the elementary school level introduce malleable young minds eager to learn, to be exposed to interesting and valuable knowledge, how to make sense of the world they live in. It is also a profoundly socializing experience, throughout the course of a child's early education, to mingle with peers, to take lessons from a qualified instructor, to learn to imbibe knowledge and seek out answers.

For the most part our schools do a fairly acceptable job of it. For the most part, unfortunately, too many teachers - and school administrators - behave as though they have a mundane job, not an elevated professional avocation. Men and women should, in a perfect world, enter the teaching profession only if they have a passion for exciting young minds, enticing them to learn how to learn for themselves, exposing them to fascinating things they had no previous knowledge of, encouraging them to love learning.

It's a demanding vocation, energy-draining and mind-numbing, engaging with eager and sometimes not-so-eager-to-learn young minds. The responsibility inherent in the profession is staggering. That is, if teachers and administrators took their jobs as seriously as they should. For far too many who may have started out as idealists it soon becomes a means to a well-earned pay cheque and little else.

It's tough to constantly entertain and intrigue and enthuse boisterous young children more given to physical expression than intellectual dimensions. For some who excel at the profession, their success at imparting knowledge to their students, and witnessing young minds opening up is its own reward, supplemented by that very nice salary. For most others it is a headache-inducing interplay fraught with frustration.

Those are not the instructors and teachers that most students will recall in their later years with anything approximating gratitude. Which brings us to the unfortunate reality that some schools are going out of their way to play another kind of game; to instill their idea of environmental responsibility in their young charges. As has done a school in Quebec, which teaches its kindergarten children that school lunches should be packed in reusable containers, not plastic baggies.

If schools commit themselves to teaching their charges about nature and the environment and our place within both, they should focus solely on imparting to the children an appreciation of nature in all its forms and manifestations. Teaching respect and an admiration of nature. Most definitely not manipulating a child to feel shame if that child's parents somehow fail the test of responsible environmentalism by packing a sandwich in a disposable plastic baggie.

When a child is made to feel ashamed of his parents' lack of commitment to what his teachers inform him is a stern obligation, by failing to wrap his lunch sandwiches in a washable/reusable plastic container, rather than a disposable plastic bag, this represents a gross interference in a family's right of private choice. Exploiting the feelings of a vulnerable child does no credit to the school system.

The child is punished multiple times by his parents' unforgivable environmental transgression in the mind of the school. It is made public that his parents' lack of commitment to the environment reflects on him personally. He is humiliated by this unwanted attention, and made to feel ashamed, and by extension he is ashamed of his parents' unwitting carelessness in the eyes of the school.

And then he is punished again by being forbidden as a result of this failure, to take part in a draw for a free toy.

What the Laval kindergarten teachers are doing is teaching their young students the misery of humiliation and the value of societal-approved bullying.

Inchoate Rage

Without for one moment dismissing the very real reasons for people to be fed up with their state of existence whose state owns entirely to the geographic, social and political conditions in which they live, there are times when mass hysteria spreads like a malignant virus, causing people to mass in dense howling crowds to demand change, without fully comprehending the potential outcome of what it is they demand.

The current president of Egypt has been exercising his role as sole and supreme leader for three decades. In that time the population has almost doubled, and so has the average, albeit inadequate income level, still leaving fully 40% of the population living in dire poverty. The government is undeniably politically repressive; there are no acknowledged legitimate political challengers; human rights are not recognized and protected.

At the same time, it should be recognized that nowhere in the Middle East has anything approximating democracy been established. All of the Arab countries and the sole non-Arab Muslim country in the geography are governed by autocratic rulers, sheiks, monarchs, theocracies, and now, in Lebanon, an Islamist, terror group matching its sponsor in Iran.

It is the young people of Egypt, mostly between 20 and 30, the educated, those who know how differently the country could be governed, through their contacts with the outside world by means of technological devices, by visiting other countries, by completing their educations elsewhere, who are restive and demanding change from the repression they have long lived with.

The wealthy and the older middle class are not out in the streets demonstrating. Nor are the poor. The young unemployed are, but there is no central organization and the prevailing atmosphere is anarchic in response to what they feel is their time to erupt in anger over their condition. The police, always despised for their brutal presence and response, have been deployed to deal with the protests.

They have been dispatched to vulnerable places in protection of government buildings, tourist spots and to the areas deemed most likely to be vulnerable to the crowds of protesters. Among the protesters are those who just enjoy a rousing opportunity to vent their frustration over life, and those whose aspirations are no more complicated than pillaging and looting where police are absent.

Shops, businesses, private homes left unattended, or left in the care of the helpless and the unarmed are now vulnerable to being entered and robbed, because the police whose presence is normally a deterrent are displaced otherwise. And because they have had to abandon their normal activities there have been jail riots and break-outs. Violent criminals have accessed their freedom and now roam freely.

Members of arrested Islamist groups imprisoned for security reasons, are now enjoying their freedom, some of them having crossed through the Egyptian border into Gaza. Armed terrorists are reported to have torched a police station at the Rafiah border. And Bedouin tribes hostile to the Egyptian government have used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles to attempt a takeover of the border area in the absence of Egyptian police and army forces, called to duty elsewhere, to help quell rioting protesters.

The Muslim Brotherhood had announced they had given assent to their youth members to join the protesters, but they are themselves not actively involved, it seems. Even though should the government of President Mubarak fall, they might seem to be the logical inheritors given their cohesion and long-standing organization. Former IAEA head Mohamed al-Baradei seems to have given them a clean bill of health, denying them to be fanatics.

He has no established organization himself, and lacks credibility as a potential replacement for Mr. Mubarak, but he could represent as a possible figurehead for the Muslim Brotherhood, thus fulfilling both his and their agenda to take over the reigns of government; an unsavoury and potentially worrying scenario.

But in light of the fact that President Mubarak elevated his top intelligence chief and staunch ally, highly respected in international circles as well as with the Egyptian public, as an esteemed public figure who has the support of the country's still-respected armed forces, it is entirely possible that
the newly-appointed Omar Suleiman may leap from vice-president to President with current President Mubarak stepping down for the good of the country.

The reforms that President Mubarak promised could be implemented under a new president. Which would encourage the return to Egypt of its wealthy citizens and the middle-class and professionals who have hastily departed in fear of the revolutionary zeal of the demonstrators who refuse to adhere to the government's appeals for withdrawal from the streets.

On the other hand, President Mubarak, despite his age, is determined for now not to step down from office. Should he remain, and begin to speedily put in force the changes he has suggested to turn Egypt into a more democratic country that offers its people the dignity of their human rights, the country would still have to contend with the problems of rising food prices, unemployment, and the incessant, destabilizing threats of fundamentalism.

The West Fiddles, Egypt Burns

Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press

President Hosni Mubarak's curfew does not appear to be making much of an impression on Egyptians determined to hold their government to account for its unrelenting stranglehold on the country's social and political progress. They do have the government to thank for keeping the Muslim Brotherhood in a state of suspended animation, although that has not resulted in a more quiescent Islamist group, but rather a more careful, yet still bold one.

One that has successfully established ties throughout the world, including Europe and North America. Where they have stealthily and successfully presented themselves as reasonable alternatives to the prevailing political (and religious/secular-oriented) governments historically and currently in place in the Middle East. Familiarity breeds acceptance in many quarters, quieting suspicion, proving that patience is a great virtue.

And whose sibling-organization in Gaza, is carrying on the fundamentalist message of Sharia and strengthening the region's ever-expanding net of Islamism whose first target is Israel. Sectarian differences may separate Shiite from Sunni, but Hamas and Hezbollah recognize certain indivisible loyalties and aspirations more achievable in a state of convenient concert than discordant divisiveness. Once the goal of destroying Israel is achieved, and Sharia more accepted, the sheathed knives of dissent can be once more drawn.

For the moment, all can bask in the happenstance of collective pan-Arab-populations' discontent with their status quo as socially backward, politically constrained, religiously restive resulting in poverty, inequality and ignorance. The Arab Street, sharing much of the fundamental message of the Islamists have, independent of that fact, awakened from their slumber of acquiescent bondage to tyrannical regimes.

Riot police walk past burning tires placed to form a barricade during clashes with protesters in Cairo.Photograph by: Goran Tomasev, REUTERS

The first-responder police, hated by the public, representing the government's implacable will that they will implement at the cost of lives and injuries, are doing their utmost to ensure the protests become becalmed, before they break out another day on the rough seas of fiercely renewed determination. The patrician former head of the UN's IAEA, Mohamed el Baradei, a long-time critic of President Mubarak, is joining with the youthful protesters, portraying himself as a potential, (albeit another elderly), compromise candidate for president.

But the estimable Dr. el Baradei, Nobel prize aside, has no political network working on his behalf. He may be esteemed for his former work as head of the IAEA, but he has been absent from Egypt for far too long to be recognized as a politician, rather than a diplomat. It remains the precinct of the Muslim Brotherhood to present as an alternative to the current government, as the single most organized and longest-existing challenge to the governing NDP party of President Mubarak.

There's a balancing act evident on the part of the United States, Egypt's generous financial supporter to the tune of one and a half billion yearly, most of which supports the country's armed forces. The status quo, while crushing the aspirations of ordinary Egyptians to overcome their desperate state of poverty and ignorance, has been one of stability. Egypt, traditionally the elder statesman of the Middle East, has supported the West's struggle to contain fundamentalist political Islam, and its peace accord with Israel is vital.

President Mubarak has the grudging respect of those who know him as a political ally, while his coercive use of the police and the army on dissidents within the country - his mock-democratic display of elections where conventionally his ruling party is elected by acclaim, and he by a margin excluding any challengers, who may post-election find themselves incarcerated on trumped-up charges - greatly perturb his Western allies.

Which, inconveniently for those who wish to uphold universal freedoms and human rights, leads to the paradox of urging democratic reforms on the country; honouring peoples' rights to free and fair and open elections which may, as was done with Hamas, end up elevating the Muslim Brotherhood to the status of elected majority and administrative rule of the country.
Yet change is manifestly in the charred air of an Egypt rent with anger at the status quo.

What and how that change will result in is a worrisome matter of much speculation. Tunisia's future is far more predictable than is Egypt's; one a small country of more educated and urbane people more given to secularity than the religious fixation of the far more populous, socially downtrodden, uneducated Egyptians. As goes Egypt will eventually go other Arab and Muslim countries teetering on the brink of social/political revolution.

The world can only wait with bated breath.

Tainted Funding

Nothing inspires the righteously hysterical indignation of the lib-left like the presence of big money, corporate funding, anything smacking of associated conservative ideology. And most certainly Big Money and entitled CEOs with their immensely disgusting financial emoluments seeking to have their way by interfering in matters relating to their own sphere of influence.

And what could be more relevant to the sphere of influence of the left than academia? Unless we throw in trade unions as well. Both appear to have become morbidly infected with the virus of anti-anything perceived to be illiberal in intent, character or purpose.

Academic entities, however, like other public institutions such as hospitals, are always on the lookout for generosity on the part of their alumni or the philanthropic public, particularly those of economic means.

And isn't it past time for Canada and Canadians of means to begin to divest themselves of all those unneeded earnings? After all, how rich does someone have to be before he/she decides excess baggage - or bank accounts - are capable of doing far more good dedicated to the public weal?

So when that finally happens and more and more Canadians of means decide to spread around the largess of their generosity, we should be celebrating the charitable impulse and consider our good fortunes.

Academic and health-delivery institutions are always in need of additional funding, and they remain the measure of our existence as a favoured, forward-aspiring society offering educational opportunities and medical-health assistance to a steadily-growing and aging society.

But! shriek some within the community of the cerebrally elevated: It's indecent, unacceptable and disgusting that a wealthy alumnus of the University of Toronto has decided to further divest himself of some of his riches. And to convey their disgust a protest 'event' was scheduled by academics and political-social-affairs writer Linda McQuaig, with help from Judy Rebick, Canadian Auto workers Sam Gindin Chair in social Justice and Democracy, Ryerson University.

Oops, there's that academic-union link...!

A 7-hour-long "anti Corporitization teach-in" has been scheduled to protest the generous gesture of Peter Munk of Barrick Gold fame-and-success. Filthy lucre is fairly gross at any time, but when it's connected to Barrick Gold and its stockholder-minions, we're talking serious filth.

Which cannot be allowed to corrupt and degrade the pure and perfect hallowed halls of academe. Even if that funding is scheduled to enrich an already-existing enterprise previously funded by that same deleterious source.

The University of Toronto's Munk School for Global Affairs, in fact. Which has managed, somehow, miraculously, to earn a reputation for balanced, interpretive politics and studies in international affairs whose advisory board is chaired by John Manley, a former Liberal Cabinet Minister in the Chretien government.

Besmirched by a "corporate agenda". Intolerable.

Haiti's Salvation Revealed

Who might have begun to imagine that the solution to Haiti's dreadful history of instability along with its current collapse after the January 2010 earthquake followed by a complete break-down of government institutions, and a cholera epidemic topped off by a corrupt-plagued election, Haiti would receive such incredible news.

Baby Doc Duvalier has decided it is incumbent upon him as a loyal Haitian with a family tradition of service to his country, to return.

In their hour of need, Haitians can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Baby Doc Duvalier has returned to help them restore order and good government, the health and education system, the economy and opportunities for advancement in every sphere of public and private enterprise. He has pledged himself to do this, out of a sense of charity, honour and duty.

All of these beneficent qualities representing the sterling genetic gifts he inherited from his father, Papa Doc Duvalier.

He is no longer a callow youth of 19, famously recognized as a playboy; hardly material to present as president of an aspiring nation. "I was waiting for this moment for a long time. When I first set foot on the ground, I felt great joy", said Baby Doc, responding to the hundreds of enthusiastic supporters waiting outside Haiti's airport, chanting "long live Duvalier!"

He is now a mature man of 59 years, with a new, French wife. Quite prepared to take up where he left off when the interfering United States sparked a popular uprising that ended with his peremptorily leaving his island kingdom. He has not yet revealed much in the way of details.

Whether or not, for example, the corruption, human rights abuses and Tonton Macoutes he and his father became famous for, will mark his new reign.

He has assured Haitians, however, that their plight strikes at his heart. His return was prompted, he assured them, "because I know the people are suffering. I wanted to show them my solidarity, to tell them that I am here, I am well disposed and determined to participate in the rebirth of Haiti."

How utterly marvellous.

Assaultive, Insulting Censorial Insensitivity

"Celeste heard about the runaway Elias as she was eating the last of her ash cakes. She did not like Elias but she, too, was happy for him. What she herself could not have she always wished for someone else, so her food went down well that morning. After he got the word, after he ate his breakfast, Moses went up and told Henry, "Master, that new nigger's in the wind."

Moses had just told Henry that Elias was gone when they heard Robbins's voice and they both went around the side of the house to the front. Robbins had awakened that morning and not remembered the encounter with Elias the night before, that he had taken Elias back to his plantation and chained him to the back porch. His cook came in and reminded him at the breakfast table.

Robbins now said to Henry, "Good mornin. Sweet good mornin. Are you and Caldonia well?" Elias, chained, stood next to Robbins, only inches from his booted foot in the stirrup.

"Yessir, Mr. Robbins, we well enough," Henry said.

"I have something of yours," Robbins said, and he kicked Elias and the slave fell to the ground. "Picked him up on the road home last night. He has a wound somewhere in his leg, but it won't kill him and it won't amount to anything if you decide to sell him off one day. Less he had a very noticeable limp." He laughed, a little joke between them, because Robbins was even less inclined those days to sell a slave and that was what he always advised Henry. He had said once, "Niggers appreciate in value, so appreciate them."

Yes, that "N" word, prominent in the narrative of a compelling novel. A new novel, relatively speaking, published in 2004. By a black author, Edward P. Jones, whose "The Known World", from which the above has been extracted for the purpose of this blog entry was a New York Times 'bestseller' and acclaimed Book of the Year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Booklist, the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, People, Publishers Weekly, San Antonio Express News and USA Today.

Furthermore described as one of the New York Times Top 25 books of the last 25 years. This is the story of slave-owning Manchester County, Virginia in the mid-1800s. This is the story of a black man who was a slave and whose father bought him from his master, after he had previously bought his own freedom, that of his wife, and finally his son. The son, grown to maturity, dismayed his parents by himself becoming a slave-owner. Under the influence of his former master, he felt owning slaves, black men, women and children just like himself, was good business.

Where is the outcry from the black community, from the oh-so-politically correct white literary and academic community? There is none. There is praise for a book consummately well imagined and written. In language congruent with its times. Although it does, intriguingly, shift on occasion to the present time when discussing historical matters of concern and note. There is no one to censor what this remarkable book portrays, what its skilled author tells us in the language of 1840 slavery.

But censors have been busy-bodying about the legendary brilliance of a writer no longer among us and thus unable to protest that one of his most remarkable books has been tampered with. Samuel Clemens wrote another amazing book, titled The Misanthrope, a book that revealed his apprehensions about human integrity, intelligence and compulsion. As Mark Twain, the incomparable author of his time, his wry observational humour and cleverly capable genius as a writer paved the way for those who followed him.

Surely he deserves better than to have one of his most familiar books, Huckleberry Finn, expurgated of its 'offensive' nomenclature of Negroes in the slave-owning American South? His admiring public, the readers who valued his description of time, place and human activity certainly deserve better. What arrogance, academic and publishing, to mar his legacy by this underhanded manipulation. An apology is due and the insult to the integrity of Mark Twain's original work overturned.

Representing a rare instance when specific and very particular copies of a book might be considered to be destined for a blazing fireplace.

Charitable Enterprise versus Independent Initiative

How many humanitarian aid groups should it take to jump-start a country from hopelessly failed to haplessly struggling?

There are those who have witnessed the generations-long struggles of countries to overcome their state of endemic poverty and government inaction with the aid of the international community whose conscience will not permit them to sit idly by while those unfortunate misery-plagued countries fester in government graft and corruption, their populations left to fend for themselves.

The Palestinians have UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which committed away back in 1948 to support and provide for displaced Palestinians, with the formation of the State of Israel. From 1948 to the present, without outside assistance Israel has managed to make of itself a technologically, scientifically, academically, socially, politically, agriculturally modern state.

From 1948 to the present, the Palestinian refugees who originally numbered 726,000 became entirely dependent on UNRWA to provide for them in special refugee camps where welfare entitlements like cash, housing, health care, education, credit, public works and social services were provided free, by the United Nations and the international community. The welfare syndrome, as anyone knows, deprives people of the will to provide for themselves.

Instead of focusing themselves on their own social, political, civic and economic development, the 726,000 refugees have lived on welfare. And in that perpetual state they have managed to increase their numbers to 4.8 million, all of them living on that same UNRWA welfare, effectively disincentivizing that 4.8 million from independence, from building their own working state.

What that 4.8 million have been free to do, unencumbered by the need to account for themselves and to make a living for themselves, is to brood and to mourn and to see themselves as unfortunate victims, a deranged, corrupted society whose values have been bereft of initiative and pride. They have instead taken the initiative to become bitterly and viciously aggrieved, devoting energy to violence against the country they see as their oppressor.

That's a particular misery in the Middle East, with a festering society cared for by a specially designed and delegated UN mission that has maintained them as permanent refugees unlike any other situation of refugees elsewhere, world-wide. These refugees are adamant that they will no longer be refugees only when they re-occupy the geography that the State of Israel now sits on, and UNRWA's actions are not those to disabuse them of this attitudinal certainty.

And then there's another geography, in the Americas, where no fewer than twelve thousand aid groups work tirelessly in Haiti to provide compassion, care and charity to a miserable population which has never experienced a government dedicated to their material and existential well-being. Each successive government has dabbled in corruption, free to do nothing since humanitarian groups strive mightily to provide the civic necessities that a government should for its population.

Haiti suffers through one crisis after another; from government collapse and failure to environmental and geological crises that each time brings the country to its faltering knees in collapse and despair. Haiti is yet another country that has succumbed to a culture of dependence. Potable drinking water is delivered daily to refugee camps where over a million internally displaced refugees live squalid lives a full year after a devastating earthquake hit.

Billions of dollars have been spent over the years, courtesy of the international community, attempting to manoeuvre Haiti into some semblance of responsive, responsible governance. There is no public sanitation as such in the country, hygiene is difficult to maintain, many people have little option but to drink water infected with fecal matter, and endemic illness is all too common. A class system ensures that the poor remain unemployed and poor.

The cynical claim that aid delivery is a business, nothing more nothing less. That this is a business determined to perpetuate itself, while delivering humanitarian aid. It is a business that is well funded through charitable impulse, the guilt feelings of those who have the great good fortune to live normal, comfortable lives with employment that is well remunerated, to enable the aid groups to get on with their business of alleviating poverty.

Almost all contracts for reconstruction are awarded to foreign companies, not indigenous ones. Aid groups often work in cross-purpose to one another, redundantly and wastefully. Above all, without a focus on education, health care and employment that is self-generating no country, no aspiring nation can succeed to fulfill its potential.

OUR LEFTIST-PERVADED EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

A musical presentation satirizing the tripe our children are being taught (found at Conservative Hideout 2.0):

"White Privilege"

Is there anyone more stridently anti-Jewish and anti-Israel than a Jew who dislikes his birthright and takes exception to the exceptionality of Jewish history, as a memorial to suffering and indiscriminate hounding of a people because they are different, chosen to represent the world's scapegoat incarnate?

From such establishment figures as the famed linguist Noam Chomsky whose antipathy to Israel is legendary, to secular Jewish groups that establish themselves within the Liberal-left atmosphere of 'blame the Jews', and to a young woman descended from Holocaust survivors who, to curry her leftist chops as an unequivocal Jew-hater, writes a thesis on the Jewish narrative.

A rather different one, from the perspective of someone who loathes everything representative of Jewish experience, history and lamentation. A student at University of Toronto whose thesis is titled "The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education". Which sets out to detail Israel as an apartheid state.

Hamas and Hezbollah would most surely, if they had knowledge of her scholarship, urge her to forward copies of her thesis for their delectation. They could then wrap one of her gifts and send it along to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who could carry it with him to the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Tribunal session as proof positive of all that he has claimed, representing sufficient reason for the Islamic Republic of Iran to proceed with its mission to destroy the pernicious Zionist entity.

Another copy could be presented to Mahmoud Abbas for his library, to complement his own doctoral thesis debunking the real, living, historical occurrence of the Holocaust as a useful Zionist myth to support the Jewish insistence that they're a people deserving of a state of their own, for only such a state, reserved primarily for those of Jewish origin, could represent a haven for Jews, safe there from pogroms and genocidal plans of extinction.

Some members of the Ontario legislature have taken umbrage at the scholarly work represented by Jenny Peto's thesis. And it has been condemned in the Ontario legislature as a "shockingly anti-Semitic" tract. Which, assuredly, it was meant to represent. But as it also represents freedom of expression, however hateful, the academic freedom is not to be questioned or stilled.

"I never could have imagined an MA thesis getting this much attention", claimed Ms. Peto, disarmingly. "But given my reputation as a vocal critic of Israel ... I am never surprised to be attacked by pro-Israel groups or pro-Israel politicians, for that matter. Students and researchers should be able to research and publish on controversial matters without the fear of attacks from the government."

This deliberately disingenuously smug Jew-baiter is feeling fairly self-important. And it helps her self-assurance that her left-liberal-credentialed stance has such support from the academic community. Little surprising, given that OISE is involved, and where a 'panel of experts' grill each Masters' candidate to defend their thesis to meet their high institutional standards.

"That's what freedom of expression is, that's how it ought to unfold. Condemnation is not really how expression is done", according to University of Toronto provost Cheryl Misak, not at all condescendingly.

And that's how bigots and anti-Semites gain credibility.

Equal Opportunities

Although statistics gathered in an annual exercise in determining international rankings of education systems in 70 countries of the world, rank Canada tenth from the top, representing a rank slippage from its previous seventh place standing, the country's record remains one to be proud of. The top performing countries were, with one exception (Finland), Asian countries where a culture of great respect for learning has resulted in Shanghai-China taking top place, South Korea, Hong Kong-China and Singapore right behind.

"We are living in a knowledge society, and a knowledge society means the best production factor is human capital, and human capital means education and education means you have to check what your competitors are doing." Bernard Hugonnier, deputy-director of education with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. "The 2009 performance of Canada is a little bit disappointing. At the same time, you are still much above the OECD average."

Thinking not in terms of economic advantage resulting from a better grade of education and higher numbers of literate and numerate and technological human skill sets, but in terms of the entire social contract of each country, its investment in the democratic ideal with everything that flows from that, including the freedoms we all hold so dear, the question should also be asked, while acknowledging Canada's academic performance, "how're we doing in instilling respect for Canadian values"?

Given that Canada is given top marks in one particular area, that of narrowing the education gap between native-born students and those who have migrated to Canada as immigrants or refugees, this alone represents a significant undertaking, a socially valuable investment in the future of the country and its introduced landed immigrants and citizens. As compared with the OECD average indicating an 18-point difference, Canada's mitigation efforts resulted in a 7-point difference.

"You are facing a difficult situation because you are a vast country with scattered settlements and you have a lot of migrants - one of the highest percentages in your population - and yet you are doing very well. You have a lot of migrants not speaking English, and yet the difference in performance of natives and immigrants is quite small, so you are doing extremely well in terms of equity." Bernard Hugonnier, OECD deputy director of education.

Well and good, an accolade quite acceptable, but one that stands out in marked contrast to another think-tank study prepared by Britain-based Demos. Which found what has been generally accepted, that Western Muslims appear to be attracted to jihadist violence. So the smoothing out of the educational differential between this demographic and native-born youth belies the average immigrant experience.

Because, it seems, on the evidence ascertained by a cursory read of any daily newspaper, that Muslim youth appear disproportionally attracted also to illegal and criminal activities. There is a noted disconnect here between what the general public discerns as Muslim parents determined to maintain a separation between mainstream society and their own beliefs, and that their children be sheltered from the degraded values of the West, at odds with those of Islam.

And this British study recommends volunteer-abroad programs to be developed as an assist to turning impressionable, adventure-seeking young Muslims away from violent jihad. Might this not be a phenomenon that has inextricable links to their families' attitudes toward their adopted countries? And the installation of community centres and mosques with clerics espousing ideals incompatible with those of Canada's history, culture and social mores?

And with those community leaders, for example, like the respected Imam Delic of the Canadian Islamic Congress who supports the imposition of an international blasphemy law, and who has added his name to the CIC condemnation of Canada as "Islamophobic", and who has been involved in encouraging the belief of the Muslim persecution narrative that helps to radicalize Muslim youth, even while for public consumption he insists he is battling that radicalization.

The link between active Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Islamic groups in Canada, and their youth counterparts in Canadian universities supporting radical Islamism abroad, and the ongoing slander of Israel, introducing its vitriolic effects here and targeting the Canadian Jewish population and university students does no credit to the fiction of multiculturalism as a civilizing asset for Canadian cohesiveness.

What Tom Friedman got wrong about schools

What Tom Friedman got wrong [in the NY Times] about schools and why it matters

By Valerie Strauss

November 29, 2010

 

The great New York Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote in a recent piece that if he were a cub reporter today, he’d want to be “covering the epicenter of national security -- but that would be the Education Department.”

Then he goes on to quote liberally from Education Secretary Arne Duncan, taking no account of what veteran teacher Anthony Cody, in a recent piece on his blog, described as a serious mismatch between the secretary's words and actions.

If Friedman the cub reporter had turned this piece in, a veteran education editor would have sent it back, asking him to back up his contentions with research. He’d have a hard time.

Look at just a few things Friedman got wrong. He wrote:

“Duncan, with bipartisan support, has begun several initiatives to energize reform — particularly his Race to the Top competition with federal dollars going to states with the most innovative reforms to achieve the highest standards. Maybe his biggest push, though, is to raise the status of the teaching profession. Why?

“Tony Wagner, the Harvard-based education expert and author of “The Global Achievement Gap,” explains it this way. There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate.

“If you look at the countries leading the pack in the tests that measure these skills (like Finland and Denmark), one thing stands out: they insist that their teachers come from the top one-third of their college graduating classes. As Wagner put it, 'They took teaching from an assembly-line job to a knowledge-worker’s job. They have invested massively in how they recruit, train and support teachers, to attract and retain the best.' '' 

First of all, Race to the Top funding didn’t go to states with the most innovative reforms to achieve the highest standards. It went to the states that promised to make the reforms that the Education Department liked most. A comprehensive analysis of who won the money concluded that winners in the first round (and the same process was used in the second) were chosen through “arbitrary criteria” rather than through a scientific process.

Besides, the “reforms” aren’t exactly innovative. Education historian Diane Ravitch has written that merit pay schemes have been tried repeatedly since the 1920sbut never worked very well.

School choice and charter schools are hardly new concepts either. As for being innovative, some charter schools are and some aren't, and the same can be said for traditional public schools. When it comes to doing well on the measure that counts the most in today's education assessment world, standardized test scores, most charter schools do no better or worse than traditional public schools, according to the largest ever study of these schools, conducted at Stanford University.

As Friedman quotes Duncan as saying, “You can’t keep doing the same stuff and expect different results.”

The strongest, most recent research shows it is bad practice to link teacher evaluations to standardized test scores because these schemes are unreliable. The Education Department itself released a study this past summer that revealed high error rates for "value-added" measures that use test scores to evaluate teachers.

There are other, fair ways to assess a teacher’s effectiveness, but they require time and effort.

I believe Duncan when he says he wants to raise the status of the teaching profession. But, willfully or not, he effectively does the opposite by pushing bad evaluation programs, and supporting programs such as Teach for America, which takes newly minted college graduates from elite institutions, gives them five weeks of summer training and puts them in the toughest classrooms in the country to teach.

Seriously, does anybody really think that the teaching profession is elevated by a revolving corps of Ivy League gradutes with five weeks of training? Certainly not Finland and Denmark, the countries Friedman (and other commentators) writes about.

What did Finland actually do to turn its poor education system into a winning one? Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, an expert on teacher education who served as Barack Obama’s education adviser during the transition between the 2008 election and the start of his administration, wrote:
...Many people have turned to Finland for clues to educational transformation. As one analyst notes:

"Most visitors to Finland discover elegant school buildings filled with calm children and highly educated teachers. They also recognize the large autonomy that schools enjoy; little interference by the central education administration in schools’ everyday lives, systematic methods to address problems in the lives of students, and targeted professional help for those in need. (Sahlberg 2009, p. 7)

"However, less visible forces account for the more tangible evidence visitors may see. Leaders in Finland attribute these gains to their intensive investments in teacher education – all teachers receive three years of high quality graduate-level preparation, completely at state expense – plus a major overhaul of the curriculum and assessment system designed to ensure access to a “thinking curriculum” for all students. A recent analysis of the Finnish system summarized its core principles as follows (Laukkanen 2008; see also Buchberger & Buchberger 2003):

* Resources for those who need them most
* High standards and supports for special needs
* Qualified teachers
* Evaluation of education
* Balancing decentralization and centralization 

So, yes, Friedman is right; Finland did invest in its teachers. Just not the way we are. And aren’t.

Friedman never mentions the issue of poverty, which today’s education “reformers” see as an excuse for poor teaching even though the research on what living in poverty does to children and their ability to learn is overwhelming.

No, it doesn’t mean that kids living in poverty can't and don't learn. And it doesn’t mean that teachers can't and don’t make a difference.

It does mean that leaders who ignore the effects of poverty fail to see the importance of providing proper supports for these children -- meals for the hungry, glasses for the seeing-impaired, etc. And it means that teachers wind up getting blamed for conditions outside the school that greatly affect a child’s ability to progress in algebra.

Finland, it should be noted, has a poverty rate among children of under 3 percent; the United States, 21 percent.

Anybody who doesn’t think that doesn’t affect student academic performance in a big way is deluding themselves, as is anybody who thinks teachers alone can make up for the effects of hunger and violence and sleep deprivation and little early exposure to literacy.

Friedman listed the three things young people need to be able to do to thrive in a knowledge economy: "the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate."

These are not the skills that are fostered when standardized tests become education's focus, When the scores are used for high-stakes decisions on students, teachers and schools, what becomes paramount is test preparation, and, as a result, curriculum narrows while kids spend time learning how to fill in bubbles on answer sheets. We saw this happen in the No Child Left Behind era, and while Duncan often says this is no way to run a school system, his policies are doing nothing to change it.

It matters when important columnists ignore research about subjects they are writing because they have followings and their readers expect that they have done their homework. It’s too bad Tom Friedman didn’t study a little harder for this.

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