Singapore Schools

Mr. Kristof does it again!

Great little piece about effectiveness in Education. Singapore seems a little more focussed on job preparation than I think might be healthy. Critical thinking is critically important in life and liberal arts is central to that as far as I'm concerned.

Still a great read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/opinion/30friedman.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Welcome to Harper's Mushroom Farm

Welcome to Harper's Mushroom Farm

We have an alarming trend in Canada clearly illustrated when our “Big Man” showed off his population control strengths to his colleagues on the world stage.

Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star always illuminates clearly on whatever she writes, but never more so as when she nurtures democracy by writing about an individual's place in the world. Her latest article with the uninspiring title “DiManno: As new allegations of G20 brutality surface, police raise their shields”, Toronto Star, January 12, 2011, (http://www.thestar.com/news/article/920218—dimanno-as-new-allegations-of-g20-brutality-surface-police-raise-their-shields), deals with the accountability our public servants must have to the citizens they serve.

How can it be that our police can become anonymous law breakers just because the neighbours have come to visit? It's a ridiculous proposal, yet here it is.

If this were simply limited to Toronto, or even Ontario, I would be tempted to look for leadership in this trend in City Hall or Queen's Park. However, the leadership for this surely must rest with the executive part of our national government acting in an international events of G8 and G20, namely the Harper cabinet in Ottawa or more likely, the Prime Minister's Office itself.

We have a government that has prorogued parliament to avoid discussions on an issue that it might find embarrassing. We have a government that hides non-budgetary legislation in omnibus budget bills to avoid public discussion about them. We have a government that responds with ill-concealed reluctance to access to information requests and then blacks out critical items like names, places and dates. We have a government that has parliament sitting in session for among the fewest days per year in the last 30 years. We have a government wherein the cabinet ministers are not allowed to communicate the business of their respective departments to the Canadian public without having their message edited or completely cancelled by the Prime Minister's Office.

The decisions triggering all organizations' activities can be understood within the framework of the leadership. The leadership will ultimately have been responsible for these actions either by direct order or simply by the tone or organizational culture it spawns.

It's no wonder then that the Provincial Parliament of Ontario, its Cabinet and its Premier created an empowering law that was in fact not lawful to encourage just the sort of police behaviour Ms. DiManno so eloquently describes. It's no wonder all the police forces and rent-a-cops behaved as they did when given the corrupting power of carte blanche.

To add insult to injury, many of our national political commentators and Canada's Loyal Opposition spout the nonsense that there is no clear issue on which to bring this government down in a vote of non-confidence. When a government works as hard as this one does to disable Canadians' democratic foundations, no Member of Parliament or Canadian citizen can have confidence in this government's ability to honestly and accountably carry out the business of government we have charged it with.

Thank you Rosie DiManno for pointing out that the disabling of democratic institutions really does trickle down to the everyday lives of Canadians by threatening their most basic freedoms and rights as rulers of their individual and their society's destinies.

Intestinal Fortitude or How're Things in Texas North?

How're Things in Texas North?

I guess we're going to hear about tough decisions being made in Canada and Alberta in the coming budgets.

Paul Krugman points to Texas as evidence of dominant righty fiscal ideology. Evidence makes things kind of awkward.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/opinion/07krugman.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

In any case, we have a living breathing example of a tough decision mentality that makes Texas what it is today. Is that what's going to make Canada and Alberta great as well?

Why do tough decisions always involve others' lives? How tough does one have to be to make life miserable for others in order to protect life for yourself and your friends?

A truly tough decision would be one where the decider and the decider's friends and family sacrifice their own wealth and circumstance to make all of society work better.

However, it seems our tough economic leaders and their tough political associates can measure their toughness in percentage of soft butter and marshmallow in their constitutions.

What if our sports heroes, war heroes and other icons of courage would have led by saying, “You first.”

The first signs of trouble requiring true unselfish leadership works like bran washed down with prune juice. Their intestinal fortitude seems to leave them and there they sit quivering behind locked doors.