Building bridges
It has been said that, unless we move quickly to provide relief in Pakistan, the Taliban and others will do so first and so win the hearts and minds of the locals (Pakistan Bracing For Disease After Floods - online edition, Aug. 24). Too bad. This humanitarian catastrophe can only be exacerbated by competitiveness. If one group can provide supplies and another group has the means to deliver those supplies, this is surely the time when cautious co-operation can enhance the chances of saving lives and bringing relief. Where roads are washed out and helicopters cannot fly, people and pack animals are often the only means of reaching those cut off by the waters.
Together, military provincial reconstruction teams, Taliban relief workers, NGOs, and the Afghan and Pakistani governments have a chance to pierce the fog of war with a ray of hope. Now is the time when bridge-building in Pakistan can be undertaken in all manner of ways.
Peter Scott, Elora, Ont.
Military brief
The article Ottawa Maps A New Mission (Aug. 24) on the federal government's plans for a non-combat mission in Afghanistan, stamped "Secret, Canadian Eyes Only," outlines how nearly $600-million would be spent over three years. The information, contained in a PowerPoint presentation, runs for a mere seven pages. Seven pages on how we're going to spend more than half-a-billion dollars in three years? Surely that doesn't include the index.
Dave Careless, Halifax
Facts, not feelings
I was disappointed to read about the results of a poll conducted for the Canadian Medical Association on how Canadians feel about the health-care system (Most Fear Boomers Will Cripple Health System - Aug. 23). The average Canadian is not in a position to comment intelligently on this issue. It is a complicated situation, and the only opinion on the matter that I am interested in hearing is that of an expert.
What is the benefit of knowing what Canadians are fearing? I would suggest that the media have a responsibility to ask how these results are useful in addressing our health-care issues.
R.N. Grainger, Ottawa
A trip back in time
Re Scathing TTC Service Report Fails To Derail Museum Plan (Aug. 24): The Toronto Transit Commission, with its impressive fare collection know-how of tokens and paper transfers from the 1950s, its screeching public-address system that seems to predate Second World War sound technology, and its antique subway stations clad in beautiful public washroom tiles is itself a fabulous living transit museum. No need to build another one.
Matthias Schlaepfer, Toronto
The high cost of living
Is the Neil Reynolds praising the value of human life the same Neil Reynolds who shrugged off the human suffering caused by climate change by saying we should just turn up our air conditioners, and that heat stroke merely kills people who will eventually die anyway (Defending The Faith, From Infanticide To Genocide - Aug. 23)? Who said that the first priority, given a glimmer of good economic news, should be tax cuts and not, for example, aid for children with disabilities?
It's too easy to claim moral virtue by being against genocide and infanticide but to conveniently ignore the suffering of others as soon as it might cost us money. Reverence for life demands a greater stewardship of the Earth and compassion for each other than Mr. Reynolds seems ready to advocate.
Christopher Gibbins, Vancouver
Politics, down under
Your editorial Labour Shoots Self In Foot (Aug. 24) on the Australian election disapproves of Labour Leader Julia Gillard's "leadership coup," contrasting it with Liberal Leader Tony Abbott's "more usual" rise. In fact, Mr. Abbott also came to the leadership as a result of an internal revolt against his predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull. More generally, you imply that such revolts are problematic in principle, but what's so undemocratic about replacing an unpopular leader with one believed to be more likely to appeal to voters in an election?
Ian Lee, Toronto
Seeds of doubt
We are confused. If BHP Billiton Ltd. were to be successful and buy out Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan at $130 a share - or more if Potash is able to assemble a number of "white knights" - exactly what new wealth or enterprise would be created that would encourage the development of expensive potash mines and, through increased competition, reduce the cost of an essential ingredient of crop fertilizers in a world that is becoming more and more hungry (Potash Corp. Spurns BHP, Seeks White Knight - Business, Aug. 24)?
With recent developments, my wife and I have prospered by doubling the value of our investment in Potash Corp. With the realistic prospect of reduced competition and increased prices, we regard our good fortune as nothing less than blood money. Until such time as our greed-driven and capitalist economy produces more benefits to mankind as a whole and less to corporate executives and wealthy individuals such as my wife and myself, we will continue to prosper and rest uneasily.
Keith Oliver and Bonnie Symons, Cobourg, Ont.
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I was surprised to read in Jeffrey Simpson's column Potash: Another Sell-Off, Another Sellout (Aug. 24) that he sees no problem with Canpotex, the marketing organization for the Canadian potash industry, an international price- and supply-rigging cartel. Only an exemption in the Canadian Competition Act for foreign sales makes this cartel legal (and with conditions).
Most observers of global economic forces decry the very existence of such cartels. We need only think back to Teddy Roosevelt and his "trust-busting" efforts more than a century ago, and the European ones, which, prior to EU law reform, were rampant. Modern cartels for oil, uranium, tin and other commodities hurt consumer interests around the world, in both wealthy and developing countries. (The uranium cartel was hounded out of existence by the U.S. Justice Department, where there is no legal loophole for exports, and the tin one collapsed under its own weight.)
In Canada, we operate domestic price- and supply-rigging arrangements for dairy products and poultry. These hugely increase consumer prices in Canada. Governments call them "marketing boards" and exempt them from both domestic law and Canada's international trade commitments at the World Trade Organization. The reason to retain those marketing boards is political and very difficult to defend in economic/consumer terms.
Mr. Simpson might want to reconsider his lament for the probable demise of the potash cartel, which he seems to see as a tragic loss simply because a Canadian company now runs it.
Michael Robinson, Toronto
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If I invest in a company, I expect to be able to sell the shares to the highest bidder. If I manufacture a product, I expect to sell it at what the market will bear. Would you make an investment if you knew the sale of it would be restricted by some naval-gazing, insecure Canadian regulation that does not understand basic economics and that Canada is part of a global marketplace? When a Canadian company buys a foreign company, we never seem to hear that we have undermined that country's psyche.
David Rose, Toronto
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Jodie Parmar's question over why Canada has not developed such world-class mining companies as Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton has a straightforward explanation (Potash Rivals - letters, Aug. 21). The Canadian inferiority complex displays its fullest flower in our corporate and political leadership.
Dan Cameron, Regina
The (capitalist) income gap
It's fine to criticize Venezuela, but what about countries closer to home (Socialist Inequality - editorial, Aug. 24)? The Conference Board of Canada reports that income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, and that in the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, Canada experienced a "significant increase in income inequality." Is it really glaring wealth disparities that upset The Globe, or could it be Hugo Chavez's socialist policies?
Larry Kazdan, Vancouver
Getting creative
While I fully agree that some children are not ready for or do not require junior kindergarten, I am aghast at one of the reasons presented in the article Why He Isn't Starting School This Fall (Life - Aug 23). The article says "reality hit" for a parent when the child became distressed about her poor scissor skills in cutting and pasting. Cutting and pasting?
As a primary-school teacher, I would suggest the probable reason a young child feels distressed about cutting and pasting is because a teacher or parent (or any other adult she looks to for reassurance) has made her feel distressed by their reaction. Why not display the child's unique cutting creation on the classroom bulletin board (or the family fridge) and tell the child she is the "star of the day" for creativity and original thought?
Maybe you'll find the youngster is ready for kindergarten when she doesn't feel like she has to be just like everyone else.
Sandi Bisset, Orillia, Ont.
Man about the house
Re I'm A Necessity, Not A Luxury (Aug. 23): I don't know what troubles me more: that a magazine like Marie Claire denigrates househusbands as "status symbols" or that columnist Kevin McKeever actually reads it.
Werner Patels, Calgary