Sept. 24: Letters to the editor

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Seat for Palestine

Re A Seat At The Table Is Too Much To Ask? – Sept. 23: If Prince El Hassan Bin Talal really wants peace, he and his family could give Jordan to the Palestinian majority in their country.

Ken Wagner, Thornhill, Ont.

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Imagine an island nation isolated in the Pacific Ocean. Let's say it's about 20 square kilometres in size, with a population of slightly more than 9,000, and until recently, an economy based on the harvesting of seabird guano. We'll make it a republic and even give it a national airline.

Sounds like a fictional setting for a Hollywood farce? It's real, and you can locate it on a detailed world atlas. The country is the Republic of Nauru, and it has been a full-fledged member of the United Nations since 1999.

And when five million-plus Palestinians come knocking on the same door, they are told to get lost?

John Lawrence Reynolds, Burlington, Ont.

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The real roadblock to peace, reconciliation and a Palestinian state is the belief of many Jews and conservative Christians that way back when, the Almighty gave perpetual title to a certain wretched corner of the universe to the Jewish people.

When Gaza was evacuated by Jewish settlers some years ago TV coverage showed numerous persons, young and old, protesting "God gave us this land." That is the mindset that blocks any intelligent discussion of the issue, not to mention any just settlement.

Politicians change and adapt their manifestos all the time, but don't mess with what many regard as Holy Writ – even if one suspects the Almighty has reason to regret some of it.

Colin Proudman, Toronto

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Topp untested

It's early, but so far the favourite to win the federal NDP leadership seems to be the electorally untried and untested Brian Topp (Topp Lands New Support In NDP Leadership Race – Sept. 23). Mr. Topp apparently expects a sufficient number of NDP members to vault him all the way from never having been elected to any public office to the leadership of Canada's Official Opposition.

When he announced his intention to run, he invoked the memory of another Brian (Mulroney) as an unelected Quebecker who won his party's leadership nearly 30 years ago. Mr. Topp should remember that the other Brian's first run, in 1976, resulted in his not exceeding 18 per cent of delegate support over three ballots in a contest won by Joe Clark.

For the sake of both Mr. Topp and the NDP, a similar result should prevail on March 24, 2012. Then he could start planning his entry into elected office and a future leadership campaign from the bottom up rather than the Topp down.

Murray Randall, Ottawa

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Road to rejuvenation

Re Harper, Cameron Step Together – Sept. 23: The huge debt that European governments carry is primarily because their revenues have plunged, only marginally due to increases in social services. With accelerated globalization, the wealthy and large transnational corporations are able to avoid taxes almost completely as well as shipping jobs offshore.

As U.S. President Barack Obama keeps saying – we can't just cut our way out of this crisis. It will further slow the economy and deepen the recession, just as it did in the '30s when governments took a laissez-faire approach. It was only due to war bonds, war taxes and the enormous infrastructure investment required by the Second World War that the Western economy was rejuvenated.

History is unfortunately repeating itself.

D. Scott Barclay, Georgetown, Ont.

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School, not prison

Re Tories Unveil Tough-On-Crime Legislation – Sept. 21: We can't ignore the realities of what the Conservative government is doing to Canadian families with their tough on crime agenda. Their path to prison approach for pot growers is akin to a zero tolerance mentality creating a school to jail pipeline.

Young people need a government that creates schools of learning, not prisons for failure. There is no better time in the history of Canadian politics than to embrace the youth of today with effective drug policies that ensure success rather than ones that promote resentment and alienation through punitive sentencing. Mandatory minimums for drug offences have been a disaster south of the border. Why would anyone think it would turn out differently here?

Judith Renaud, executive director, Educators for Sensible Drug Policy, Gibsons, B.C.

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Down with the wheat board

I wonder what Patricia Dawn Robertson (Mighty Grudges, Long Memories – Sept. 23) thinks is the purpose of the big orange Pioneer Grain elevator in the village of Wakaw, Sask., which she can probably see out her front door, and whether she really believes that wheat farmers will have to sell their crops door to door a few bushels at a time when the Canadian Wheat Board loses its monopoly.

The board confiscates farmers' crops in the sense that there is no other legal buyer, sells them by finding the lowest price and cutting it, deducts whatever expenses it feels like incurring, and returns the remainder to farmers in dribs over a period of 17 months. This is a cost-minus system used by no other grain exporting country. The board is not owned by farmers. It is owned by the federal government and taxpayers are on the hook for 100 per cent of its liabilities.

When the monopoly ends, companies such as Pioneer and Viterra will compete to buy as much grain from farmers as they can, since volume is the key to profits. They will have to compete aggressively and pay the highest prices they can.

Morris W. Dorosh, publisher, Agriweek, Winnipeg

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Vocabulary!

Of all the words to describe the Ford waterfront proposal, The Globe And Mail chose "flamboyant." A few days later, "flashy" (From Wresting Control To 'Kumbaya' – Sept. 21).

Not ill-conceived, arrogant, destructive, undemocratic, secretive or any number of other less misleading adjectives?

Dennis Wheeler, Toronto

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Fish tale

In Liam Lacey's review (Life Lessons, Off The Back Of A Dolphin – Sept. 23), the following excerpt, "Based on the true case of a juvenile female dolphin who had her tale amputated….," makes me think that the movie must be based on a very short "fish story."

J anet M. Kennish, Toronto

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E and MC2

Scientists, using evidence, are calling into question Einstein's theory of relativity (Fast Particle Defies Einstein – Sept. 23).

Can you see how ridiculous this real science makes the idea that "the science is settled" on climate change?

Greg Hills, Toronto

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The subatomic particle, and its speed, that CERN scientists observed was the new size of my retirement portfolio and its recent rate of decline. It now appears that:

E (Early Retirement) = MC2 (Market Crash Scared)

What we apparently lack is an economic Einstein to fix the mess.

Jim Young, Burlington, Ont.