10:41 p.m. - 2004-03-11
Steam
Whoa was I crabby this morning. There is nothing I hate more than all the end paperwork for Elections Canada assignments.The assignments fine - I even enjoy doing a lot of them - but to have to write a book where one just gets to fill in a few blank spaces in a text written by someone else with less understanding of the subject than you? Oh well. Half the time I can't even convince myself the joint authorship produces a product that makes sense to either party. By rigidly standardizing the formula it often distorts the information completely. Maybe they take their lessons from news editors.
I think what really set me off was a call I got from number four son just before I sat down to work. One of his friends was in a car accident late last night. He went through the windshield. His girlfriend said his face was all broken and his eyes were swollen shut. The doctors weren't certain if he would lose the sight in one eye or not. I asked which hospital he was in. The response? They discharged him last night. Excuse me?
So now, not only does the provincial government dictate that women delivering babies, whether naturally or by c-section, and those having mastectomies be discharged the same day as their "procedures", but young adults and children are being treated the same way. There have been three enquiries in the past years into unnecessary deaths of children because of similar circumstances to the ones my son's friend finds himself in - traumatic injury or illness. Our federal government provides, in legislation and funding, for universal health care access. It appears that the province translates that so some people are more equal than others. Worse yet is that our esteemed Premier has just appointed one his old hatchet men who had to step down in disgrace to revamp - aka completely privatize - health care. Well if he is as "successful" as he was when he deregulated our electricity infrastructure we should see services decrease exponentially and costs soar at an equivalent level. But then again we must put profit ahead of citizens, eh Ralph. Remember the Honeymooners? When Ralph Kramden commented on how the world would be if he ruled it? It was a comedy because the storyline always showed the real outcome of the character's boasting, and the lengths his friends and family had to go to to bail him out of the trouble he caused himself. Well we've got a real time Ralph, only he's writing the press releases so that the reality isn't being exposed and instead friends and families of his victims are trying to salvage the lives of those he has hurt. Unlike TV it doesn't always come out ok in the end. Ask the families of the dead children.
On a more positive note, The Arab News reported recewntly that it appears that women over 21 will be allowed to vote in municipal elections in the autumn. It isn't that an affirmative enabling legislation has been enacted it is just that the prohibition against any woman voting has been removed. Apparently, one of the reasons that women have been disenfranchised so long in the kingdom was the belief among mullahs that menstruation clouds a woman's judgement. Actually they have it backwards of course - it is ovulation that clouds our judgement. Lucky for them though. As Mark Twain once observed "What would men be without women - scarce, sir...... mighty scarce." VotesforWomen
I really enjoyed reading the transcript of an on-line chat J K Rowling had with her young readers on World Book Day last week Magic. I appreciated her open, direct and respectful responses to the children's questions and her sense of humour. When one child asked what she would do if she could transform into the person of her choice for one hour, as two of the characters had done, she responded she would become Tony Blair and hold a press conference announcing her new policies for Britain. Good on her. Another question asked her how she had created the new high action game of Quidditch (cross of football, polo, and basketball played in the air) for her stories. The response was refreshingly honest. It's nice when an author you enjoy reading also is someone you can respect and like in real life.
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