A man leaves the Central Bank of Ireland, DublinPETER MUHLY
Weeping for Ireland
Re Ireland Concedes; Europe Swoops In - Nov. 19: The Irish economy was done in by pure greed; the greed of Irish banks and the country's elites and the government policies that enabled them, and the greed of foreign banks and bond markets that invested in preposterously risky property development and mortgage schemes, knowing that if and when the whole thing came crashing down, they could simply force the Irish people to pay them back in full all the money they lost.
So for the greed and folly of the few, who will never be brought to book for their actions, the entire country has been left a burden of debt it will labour under for generations. It is to weep.
John Reardon, Toronto
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Tainted image
I have just returned from Abu Dhabi. As a musician I was there to talk to the leaders of the blossoming cultural world to see if I could interest them in some Canadian musical ensembles. Not a chance! Canada is a laughing stock there now. (MacKay Out Of Sync With Harper On UAE Dispute - Nov. 19) I am so ashamed of our government and its inability to negotiate with the United Arab Emirates - a major player in world trade. The effects are immediate - Canadians now need visas and, more importantly, Canada will have to relocate its military base outside of Dubai, which will cost taxpayers $300-million! But the reaction on the ground is even more striking. Our credibility is broken and our image tainted.
Kevin Mallon, Toronto
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What we eat
I have long been disappointed with the Canadian government for allowing nebulous phrases such as "prepared for" or "produced for" or "imported by" on food labels when all I really want to know is what was the country of origin. (Consider This - Nov. 19)
I have a great desire to support locally produced goods and when I read one of those foggy labels I return the goods to the shelves with the distinct feeling that they are trying to hide something from me.
Nancy Campbell, Vancouver
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Stop the pain
Politicians, although never admitting it, always welcome a "good war" - one that can be presented to the country as a defence against evil, terror, and any other manner of bad mojo on the move, and as a handy slur against those opposition types allegedly too weak to stand up for their country.
But remember that during all his cant of "drawback/pull-out/mission/behind the wire," etc., Prime Minister Stephen Harper has never gotten into his mind the truth of what any veteran of it would tell him: War is hell. In this case, the kind that blows your brave son or daughter to smithereens in the name of a place you'll never visit and wish you'd never heard of.
He is deciding that Canadians will continue to die in Afghanistan, and come home maimed and damaged in a hundred ways, and he is deciding for how long this will go on. I ask him to stop the pain he is bringing upon so many of this nation for so little.
Roderick G. MacGregor, Red Deer, Alta
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Medicare and the rich
In his article Why Do We Still Pay For The Well-to-do? (Nov. 19) Michael Bliss makes a good argument - as far as it goes. However, it's not fair to cut the rich out of the benefits of medicare. There is also the problem and the cost of administering a mixed system.
A simple resolution is to increase income taxes a nominal amount, say 2% for taxable income over $250,000 and possibly an additional increase of 3% for taxable income over $1-million, with the increased money devoted entirely to medicare financing.
Frank O'Hara, Toronto
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"Why should the taxpayer foot the bills for the banker's coronary bypass, the retired hockey player's hip replacement and elbow reconstructions for the ladies who lunch?"
Here's why, Mr. Bliss: Because the well-to-do already subsidize the health-care system to a huge extent, many times that of Joe Average. They pay for their own health care and that of several others with their taxes.
And as for the ladies who lunch, perhaps you should check into their activities when they are not lunching. One year a small group of my friends, whom you might put into that category, figured they had raised more than $7-million for charitable health organizations. And none of them has had an elbow reconstruction.
M. Hope Smith, Calgary
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Professional athletes and the typically well-educated bankers and "ladies who lunch" probably cost our health-care system less than other taxpayers in the long run, by maintaining their health through well-informed decisions about eating right and exercising and choosing not to smoke.
Victoria Brown, Toronto
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Keep right
Finally, a venue for a pressing question I've had for several years: When did the practice of walking into a building on the right side change? (Lane-storming, Nov. 18) I regularly crash into folks going in and out of my university building, and have thought of conducting a poll: Cellphone use? Immigration from New Zealand? Collapse of social mores? Other?
Elizabeth Ready, Winnipeg
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End the charade
I am finding it difficult deciding how to express my disappointment with the Harper government when considering the defeat of the Climate Accountability Bill by the Senate. I call on the Prime Minister to at least end the charade and not send a Canadian delegation to the upcoming UN climate change conference in Cancun. Our government has nothing worth sharing with the world when it comes to protecting the environment.
Derek Allerton, Wolfville, N.S.
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How we decide
Melanie Reyes (My Dream Of A Perfect Wedding Fell Apart - Life, Nov 18. ) reminds me how few major decisions we make to choose direction in our lives.
Many of our decisions are simply to enact some next logical or feel-good step. Maximize growth, fly/drive through bad weather to get home, approve the new strip mine, upgrader, or shopping mall, plan the perfect wedding.
A couple who once asked me to preside at their wedding also cancelled just over a week before the planned date. I have always felt they were the most courageous people in the world. They listened to something or someone, and they made a huge turn.
Grief? Yes, but Ms. Reyes and her one-time partner can also say that they chose life.
Reverend Lloyd Lovatt, Edmonton
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Leashing the Senate
I am baffled by our apparently never-ending conversation about reforming that anti-democratic, counter-productive, expensive anachronism that is the Canadian Senate. Your editorial suggests that it is time to find A Leash For The Poodle (Nov. 19) Wouldn't it be far better just to put the poor old dog down?
Gary Draper, Kitchener, Ont.