2012 in Review PT 5: “Harsh attitudes crushed the less-fortunate in the past”

Do you have a library card? If so, I recommend you borrow a book by Bill Bryson entitled At Home: A Short History of Private Life.

As I’ve been writing and thinking about the demise of good jobs in this decade (particularly in 2012), I’ve noticed that Bryson’s book occasionally provides evidence of several harsh attitudes that crushed not only the spirits but the bodies of the poor and less-fortunate. (As mentioned in an earlier post, the poor made up the majority of citizens for many centuries).

For example, I recently wrote that the consideration of even the most basic human rights in the mid-1800s was hindered by cruel attitudes from unexpected quarters. Reverend T. R. Malthus (1766 - 1834), for some reason, blamed the poor for their own hardships and opposed the idea of relief for the masses on the grounds that it simply increased their tendency to idleness.

And regarding Ireland’s Great Famine in 1845 - 46, I came across the following lines in Bryson’s book:

From the moment of the potato’s introduction to Europe, failed harvests became regular... Three hundred thousand people died in a single failure in 1739. But that appalling total was made to seem insignificant by the scale of death and suffering in 1845 - 46... It wasn’t just in Ireland that the crop failed - in fact, it failed across Europe - but the Irish were especially dependent on the potato.

Relief was infamously slow to come. Months after the starving had started, Sir Robert Peel, the British prime minister, was still urging caution.

“There is such a tendency to exaggeration and inaccuracy in Irish reports that delay in acting on them is always desirable,” he wrote.


[Monument beside Lake Ontario near downtown Kingston, Ontario]

Lest we say that it was only misguided or uninformed public servants that opposed the idea of relief and delayed any meaningful action on behalf of the less-fortunate, we must hear the following about big business interests of the day:

In the worst year of the potato famine, London’s fish market, Billingsgate, sold 500 million oysters, 1 billion fresh herrings, almost 100 million soles, 498 million shrimps, 304 million periwinkles, 33 million plaice, 23 million mackerel, and other similarly massive amounts - and not one morsel of any of it made its way to Ireland to relieve the starving people there. (pg. 84, At Home)


[Enlargement of monument script: Photos by G. Harrison, 2006]

By now some readers are likely wondering, “What do these harsh attitudes of the past, whether demonstrated by public or business leaders, have to do with the decline of good, secure jobs in the modern era?”

To be sure, I think that’s a very good question as well.

More to follow.

FYI - periwinkles are any small marine snail belonging to the family Littorinidae (class Gastropoda, phylum Mollusca)

- plaice is the common name used for a group of flatfish. There are four species in the group, the European, American, Alaskan and scale-eye plaice.

So now you know!

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Please click here to read 2012 in Review PT 4: “Grandparents will recall the worst of times”

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2012 in Review PT 4: “Great - grandfathers will recall the worst of times”

The erosion of good jobs is one of the key issues that will dominate 2012, a year that has lurched into the room in soiled pants and pushed final thoughts about 2011 aside.

Discussion about why good jobs are disappearing will, I’m sure, provide many challenges this year. Hopefully, some positive answers will be addressed.

I will say here, honestly, I have never faced the hardships workers face today in the public and private sector. As far as good, secure, well-paid jobs are concerned, I lived in or went through the best of times (interesting, entertaining, meaningful part-time or full-time work seemed available wherever I looked in the 1950s and ‘60s). So, I’m not well-practiced in facing or overcoming low or no employment.

However, I do know we don’t have to look back too many centuries, even mere decades, before my time to see that good jobs were almost non-existent for the majority of workers and that even tiny improvements in wages, benefits and working conditions were only won through blood, sweat and tears.

Long before you and I were born the dominant consideration in life for both children and adults was inescapably economic. Daily bread was hard to come by in order to simply survive and every person, almost from birth, was considered a unit of production. When John Locke (1697) suggested to England’s Board of Trade that children of the poor - about everyone in the phone book - should be sent to work from the age of three, no one thought it unrealistic or unkind.

One hundred years later, hundreds of thousands of slaves toiled in the cotton fields in the southern states (of the U.S.) and child labour filled the floors of booming cotton mills in England.


“Children were malleable, worked cheap, and were generally quicker at darting about among machinery and dealing with snags, breakages, and the like. Even the most enlightened mill owners used children freely. They couldn’t afford not to,” writes Bill Bryson. (At Home: A short history of private life)

Thank goodness for the wise intervention of far-sighted politicians and their 1844 Factory Act. It reduced the workday for children, most of whom were working 12- to 14-hour days, six days per week. Some worked even longer, particularly during busy periods to meet large orders, likely at Christmas (with no time-and-a-half).

Improvements in conditions, at least in England, came very slowly. Many children were sent onto the streets to survive on their own at age seven or eight and by the 1860s London had 100,000 “street Arabs” who had no education, no skills, no purpose, and no future. The consideration of even the most basic human rights (a very modern term, it seems) was hindered by harsh attitudes from unexpected quarters. Reverend T. R. Malthus (1766 - 1834) blamed the poor for their own hardships and opposed the idea of relief for the masses on the grounds that it simply increased their tendency to idleness.

“And there can be few more telling facts about life in nineteenth century Britain than that the founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals preceded by sixty years the founding of a similar organization for the protection of children.” (pg. 415, At Home, B. Bryson)

To learn about the inexorably slow improvements to the poor wages, benefits and working conditions closer to our home and to the modern era in which we live, we need only ask our aged parents (who may recall the Dirty Thirties, Great Depression and longer work days), and grandparents and great-grandparents who worked the mines, mills, forests, farms and factories for very meager benefits in many cases - if they’re still alive.

Though many of these people and their stories are likely gone, I’m sure they would agree that boomers like myself lived during the best of times and the younger generations alive today are seeing the decline of our good, secure jobs.

More to follow.

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Please click here to read 2012 in Review PT 3: “For jobs, I grew up in the best of times”

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Welcome to Harperville PT 5: “Smoke and fire down your pants”

[“At no other time in my short and eventful life have I sensed there’s been a greater need for cooperation between Canadian political parties than now.” By Gord Harrison, posted 2 years ago, Cold Lake Sun, Alberta]

I said it two years ago (and in The Londoner on Dec. 10, 2008), I’ll say it again. Cooperation between political parties is essential. Challenges facing our country are immense.


["I said it two years ago, I'll say it again": photo GH]

But is PM Harper capable of cooperating with other political parties? In a word, no. He doesn’t build bridges. He seems only capable of slinging mud along with bridge-building materials.

This from Doug Finley, Harper’s national campaign director:

“I believe we’re ready for a majority. Certainly the seats are there. Will the tactics change? No, not considerably.” (Feb. 7, 2011, Maclean’s magazine)

In other words, get ready for more smoke and fire down your pants. Prepare for tactics and language that will lead to further divisions within Canada, and not unity.


How could it be any different with an Alberta-style separatist at Canada’s helm?

That said, I now provide a past column to illustrate my point.

Can an Alberta separatist cooperate with the other parties?

At no other time in my short and eventful life have I sensed there’s been a greater need for cooperation between Canadian political parties than now.

I believe that just as one garage cannot manage to put snow tires on all cars in the Deforest City, one school system cannot educate all children or one local church handle the needs of all church-goers, one political party – no matter how many seats it has won – cannot alone solve the many pressing social, environmental and economic problems facing our country.

But is cooperation possible between our federal political parties?

Though recent events in Ottawa suggest otherwise, two things I learned recently make me think, yes.

Gordon McBean, professor of geography and political science at the University of Western Ontario, in last Saturday’s London Free Press said: “Lester Pearson, one of our great prime ministers, gave Canada a legacy of bilingualism, the Canada Pension Plan, universal medicare, a flag and the first U.S. - Canada Autopact, while not having a majority government. He did it by working thoughtfully with the other parties.”

And during a conversation with local federal Liberal MP Glen Pearson two Saturdays ago I was told he is working with Mary Ann Hodge from the Green Party and Steve Holmes of the NDP to develop ideas for environmental projects.

“They were the candidates that squared off against me in the last election,” he said. “But now that it's over, I've asked them to continue working with me to help Londoners come up with clear ideas on the environment. They have graciously accepted and I'm thrilled at the non-partisan attitude that characterizes our meetings. This is the way politics is supposed to work.”

He finished by saying he’s writing a book on non-partisanship at the moment and is convinced the big problems we’re now facing will only find solutions through cooperative management.

Though in the past and present it appears political parties have managed to work together toward important common goals, I have to ask, does Stephen Harper possess an ounce of cooperative spirit in his skill set?

I think I have legitimate concerns after he revealed plans in the House of Commons several eventful days ago to reduce party funding and end the right of women to appeal to the Human Rights Commission when faced with pay equity issues.

He strikes me as a control taker, one who wants all the marbles all the time on his side of the table. Also, the louder he shouted about the coalition’s supposed deal with Quebec separatists the more he made me think he protested too much.


Especially after I discovered he actually supports his own form of separation.

In an online article by Monte Paulsen, investigative editor of The Tyee, entitled Separation, Alberta-style I read that Mr. Harper said the following eight years ago in an article he wrote for the National Post:

“Westerners, but especially Albertans, founded the Reform-Alliance to get ‘in’ to Canada. The rest of the country has responded by telling us in no uncertain terms that we do not share their ‘Canadian values’.

Fine. Let us build a society on Alberta values (i.e. as the province of Quebec has done to protect their values).”

So, can an un-cooperative and possible Alberta-style separatist change his spots, for Canada’s sake, by the time Parliament returns in late January?

I hope so. I’m holding my breath.

(By GH, posted 2 years ago, Cold Lake Sun, Alberta)

I’ve stopped holding my breath. I’m now preparing for more smoke and fire down my pants.

This concludes another exciting series of some significance. I will now go outside and hammer a political sign on my front lawn. The sign will not be in support of the Harper government.

On May 2nd, please vote for your favourite federal candidate or MP.

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Please click here to read Welcome to Harperville PT 4: “Smoke and fire down your pants”

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Local Liberal MP speaks highly of a certain type of Conservatism

In a recent post on his blog entitled The Parallel Parliament, MP Glen Pearson puts the recent loss of the UN Security Council seat by our current Conservative government in some perspective.


For example, Mr. Pearson states:

“Despite what many think of Mulroney today, Canada rarely stood higher internationally than during his years as PM.  Some in the Conservative caucus today recall those times, quietly aching for their return, and frustrated that their leader has overseen the decline of the Canadian influence.”

I would encourage readers to take a look at the entire post (The Life of Brian).

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Tea Party Politics Pt 1: Why is mistrust of government growing?

A recent column asserts that some of the chief characteristics of Tea Party politics - tax cuts and mistrust of government - are rearing their noisy heads in Canadian politics. (Tea Partyish Mistrust Gaining Steam, B. MacLeod, Oct. 13, London Free Press)

I asked myself, why is mistrust of government growing? Is it all my fault?

And if not, who is to blame? Governments? Radicals? Media? Me - in part? You? Rob Ford?

I think it’s important to think about the problem because mistrust of government affects the efficiency and forward movement of our political system.


["Why is mistrust in an important institution growing?"]

Some might immediately say, when has our government ever been efficient and moving forward?

Boy, that was quick! But for now, let’s just ask why mistrust of government is growing for now.

MacLeod writes:

“The Toronto mayor's race is ground zero. Rob Ford's populist campaign, which focuses on spending cuts and accusations of wrongdoing at city hall, has propelled him into first place...”

(Ford’s once considerable lead has now shrunk or vanished due to a recent Smitherman rally.)

But why was Ford able to rattle so many chains with his message re spending cuts or city hall wrongdoing (aka Tea Partyish tax cuts and mistrust)?

Well, isn’t his message an easy sell to people who are experiencing financial difficulties or who see more coming down the pike?

Growing household, municipal, provincial national, US, G7, OECD, and global debt is more in the news than in the past. (I write about certain aspects of debt on a regular basis. Sure, it ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings but there are singers warming up behind every curtain in town!)

Government wrongdoing, even perceived wrongdoing, has propelled thousands of people into the streets in protest in various European nations recently, and European scenes of unrest have become as much a regular feature of our local news as NHL updates.

Many people do not feel as confident as they once did in the Canadian political or economic or financial scene.

MacLeod adds, “Indeed, a Harris-Decima survey released earlier this month suggested about 19% of voters would join a Canadian Tea Party.”

A sense of mistrust is growing.

More to follow.

***

I smell a short series of some significance in my future.

Please stay tuned.

Please click here to read a recent series of some significance.

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My Point of View: Spouting off all the way to the White House

Many of you know I spout off on occasion.

(Definition: spout - verb; rant, ramble, say more than needed, yada yada)

I have good reason to now. The President of the entire USA is listening.

Maybe.

Recently I said a few words about America’s crushing debt, i.e., the US government will borrow $1.9 trillion to pay its bills, raising the so-called debt limit to $14.3 trillion - more than $45,000 for every person living in the US.

I also mentioned some of the likely consequences, i.e., the co-joined US and Canadian economies will suffer, future damages and costs of possible reparations will rise, leading our overall household debt to rise even more.

Shortly thereafter, my site meter recored a visit from Washington, District of Columbia.

I think President Obama visited, and found my ideas very useful.


["All visitors from Washington, DC are welcome": photo link]


I bet he also linked to information from a useful book I am reading that will help us all out.

[Click here for information related to a book the brings some useful ideas to the table.]

May I just say, “Welcome to Canada, Mr. President. And keep your stick on the ice.”

***

Who is visiting your site?

Can you beat a visit by The US President?

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Dog drives car thru core: Stink - didn’t have my camera

I had to visit the dentist yesterday afternoon and while driving through downtown London I spotted an accident waiting to happen.

I stopped at a red light in front of the train station and beheld the following scene:

A woman, short blonde hair, age 45 - 55 (Don’t trust these numbers. I can’t tell a person’s age to save my life anymore. A woman I chatted with at The Red Roaster the other day told me she was 73. I would have sworn she was 56... 57 tops. I was off by 15 years! Sorry, I digress), correction, maybe 30 - 70 years old, turned left out of the 217 York St. building, window down, with a white dog perched on her lap, as if driving the car and partially obscuring her view.

She made the turn. Tomorrow, maybe not.

Here’s what I’d like to say to the woman:

Put your window up so that your dog doesn’t jump out and cause a major accident.

Of course, it would be your fault

Now, pull over and strap pooch into the back seat.

Before you go, here’s your $150 ticket for endangering the public.

Notice I didn’t swear or use demeaning language. I’m such a boy scout.

***

What would you say?

(Not about the boy scout thingy... the lady).

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PM Harper lacks confidence at the piano: Time to strike?

Another election? Who knows?

(I’ve got my sharp pencil ready - X - just in case).

After a recent interview in Niagara-on-the-Lake, however, PM Harper snuck over to a piano and plinked out Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones, a sure sign that he senses trouble is around the corner.


["Gimme Shelter - and a one and a..."]

(And here I thought he was more of a Hey You, Get Offa My Cloud type of guy).

Maybe he worries that Canadians have good memories.

Maybe he is worried about Liberal gains in Ontario and Quebec.

Whatever the case, his choice of tunes suggests he smells trouble.

***

I smell something. Do you?

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My Point of View: Sean Avery deserves a second chance

I seldom write about hockey, sports figures, things of that ilk.

Especially ilk. (Just sounds so ilky).

Unless I’m asked to retell the story of my hastily conceived and brilliantly played spinnerama goal during last year’s hockey wars. [See spinnerama; comes with its own diagram. I’ll wait.]

And unless a hockey story comes along that makes me think - like ‘Sean Avery’s Second Chance.’

Does Sean - motor mouth, immature brain, unsound judgement - deserve a second chance?


In my opinion, yes.

I’ve been given more than my fair share of second, third and last chances in my lifetime (and I’m still not finished making mistakes, I bet).

He should get at least a second chance too, along with clear information about future expectations. (That sort of thing helps a lot).

Coach Tortorella said of Avery, "If he just keeps that concentration and continues to just worry about playing and not the other stuff, he can do the things he has been doing for the hockey club. He has been outstanding in trying to keep that concentration, but it has to be all of the time. We don't want any cracks."

So, no more cracks and Sean could have a banner year, based on hard work and good use of his hockey skills.

***

How many second chances have you been given?

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My Point of View: I am one of four people without a cellphone

I knew it would come to this.

That I’d be one of the last men standing without a cellphone. Or a watch. Or a GPS unit in my car. And I’d be standing in used jeans. (I could add 1,000s of other bits and pieces to the list but I can’t find a pen).

According to a recently published UN report, “six in 10 people around the world have cellphone subscriptions...”

That’s leaves only four of us left. All stubborn old geezers too, I bet.


I found it astonishing that “by the end of last year, there were an estimated 4.1 subscriptions globally, compared with about one billion in 2002.”

But then, people are probably tired of dealing with fixed- or land-lines. For example, when has dealing with Ma Bell ever been a pile of fun? And, so I’ve heard, some cellphones are really cute and can do other stuff, like take a picture, vibrate in your pocket while you’re at a movie (I have to think, at my age, that would freak me out) or be there for you when you’re sitting by yourself, or not, at a coffee shop and you want to tell other people what you’re doing.

“I’m at a coffee shop. Drinking coffee. Staring out the window. You?”

If that sounds exciting, pretty soon there will just be the three of us. Then two. Then...

***

Are you one of the other three guys?

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One week’s worth of small pleasures Part 5

What small things have I mentioned so far that bring me pleasure?

A 30-minute tea break on a boulder beach (near Wiarton) that seemed to fill two hours, small bits of frozen dark chocolate, cutting my own hair and listening to music at the push of a button.

And now for the news:

Pro sports feeling pinch of downturn.

Did you know that? No?

It’s true. I read it in the newspaper a few nights ago and saved the clipping after reading the paper from front to back. (I may write a future column about the topic).


[From clippings to columns, I like a newspaper]

Anyone else out there read an entire daily paper from cover to cover, not just out of habit, not just to get your money’s worth (though in my family that aspect of life has always been very important and as a result I wear the same shirt several days in a row and not throw out old underwear until the elastic is completely dead or the pair has been used to clean paint brushes), but because it’s an integral and important part of one’s routine?

I know newspapers aren’t filled with much good news these days but they serve many important purposes in my opinion.

***

Is your nose stuck in the paper for an hour or more each day? Do tell.

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Is It Just Me? Stephen Harper gives me the willies

willies - n. pl. (sl.) nervous feeling of discomfort or fear. [19th c.; orig. unkn.]

Though I think he’s about as normal as acid rain falling in my living room he’s going about the country in a blue shirt and vest trying to come off like a Wimpy.

Wimpy - n. (colloq.) hamburger served in plain bun. [P]

I think Mr. Harper can wear a blue sweater and vest, sit down at the piano or play catch on the front lawn with his kids all he wants, but as soon as I see some of the grown ups he welcomes into his fold I realize he’s the kind of man who can strip paint off the hood of my car with one cold stare.


Like acid rain.

For example, Harper’s Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said dealing with the media and the issue of deaths related to deadly listeriosis was “like death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts.”

And when informed the latest death was in PEI Ritz said:

“Please tell me it’s Wayne Easter,” the Liberal agriculture critic. (Link to newspaper article)

That’s a good one, Gerry.

Rather than dismiss Ritz, Harper stands by him.

The willies, I say. The willies.

Howz about you?

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My Point of View: Tories a distant 2nd to the “New Green Grits” party

This morning’s headline in the Free Press [Tories take charge] was way off base.

And the first sentence made me laugh when it said:

“... Stephen Harper (is) posting stratospheric leadership scores compared with his opponents.” (according to a recent NANOS poll)

“Stratospheric?”

Not a chance.

Even the 2nd sentence agrees with me when it said:

“With one in five Canadians surveyed saying they will cast their vote based on who’s the best leader the results give the Tories an extra edge.”

“Extra edge” from 20 per cent of voters doesn’t sound so stratospheric now, does it?

I mean, 30 per cent might vote for the leader with the nicest hair. Who knows?


[It ain't stratospheric: G. Harrison]

And the actual leadership numbers don’t favour the Tories at all - a story the Free Press missed completely.

(They don’t have my unique point of view. Or calculator).

Sure, the poll shows Harper with a slim lead over Dion and a bigger lead over the other leaders but when looked at my way, 54 per cent of Canadians - a stratospheric majority - would vote for a New Green Grits party any old day.

And it’s not because of Harper’s hair colour.

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My Point of View : Summer’s over so it’s time for a fall election

I know the last one was yesterday but I don’t think a snap election is a big waste of everybody’s money.

I’m including my hard-earned money as well as yours and I hate frivolities.

Granted, it’s not officially official but chances are so good Canadians are facing a fall election that I’ve already made room on my rear bumper for a snappy sticker.


“Minority Governments Suck - ‘specially this one”

That said it is perfectly reasonable to ask:

Why is PM Harper sending us back to vote so soon after the last time?

Here are two reasons I’ve heard :

Our Prime Minister had “a brief and bitter 20-minute meeting” with Liberal leader Stephane Dion and snapped

[Read the local news]

No political party with its own unique agenda - e.g. the Liberal, NDP, Green Party or Bloc Quebecois - has confidence in him so he can’t lead like the leader he thinks he is

My own opinion?

He’s short sighted.

And I’m fine with an election because I’m ready for change.

Stay tuned.

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My Point of View and His: Dear Mr. Goldstein - I thought I had brilliant arguments

Thank you for your very prompt and informative reply, before I posted for the day, even before morning coffee. 

Good suggestion re reading up on NEP; when you wrote 'it would be foolish and dangerous to tear our country apart by recklessly punishing, say, Alberta', history of the NEP didn't inform me, though I'm aware of equalization payments and views about them.

That said, my own arguments stand up pretty well.

Your article seemed in two parts and "the status quo isn't an option" is still a very good conclusion to the first. And I still would have ended there. (Cold beverage still stands too.)

Who is being foolish and dangerous? Now I know, and it's not the hysterical hysterics in the first part of the article. It's the federal Liberals -  who seemed to sneak out of the woodwork in part two.

And putting wealth above health and the environment is not common sense in my book, or post.

Cheers, Gord Harrison

Mr. Goldstein responded in less than 2 hours. The man never sleeps.

Putting wealth above health and the environment?
 
You might want to talk to folks like Kenyan economist James Shikwati, who exposes such simplistic slogans for the nonsense they are.
 
As he argues, for people living in the first world like you and me, to lecture people in the third world not to use their fossil fuels to elevate their standard of living - which is what we did in the industrial revolution and which is why we live in what's called the first world today - is akin to asking Africans to commit economic suicide.
 
The reason is that the availability of electricity and energy through the use of fossil fuels, which lies at the heart of the entire debate about global warming, is the key to societal advancement.
 
As Shikwati notes, without electricity, people must stop working when the sun goes down, meaning lower productivity.
 
Without electricity, people must rely on firepits to heat and light their homes as well as to cook their food - resulting in the premature death of millions of Africans and others living throughout the third world every year, particularly children,  from the air pollution that goes into their lungs every day as a result.
 

Without electricity, a country cannot develop an industrial base and thus is doomed to perpetually high unemployment levels.
 
Without electricity, people cannot store food or medicines effectively, which usually must be stored at certain minimum or maximum temperatures, lest they spoil or themselves become sources of disease.
 
Without electricity, you can never have effective, clean hospitals or sterile environments.
 
That's why Shikwati calls it counselling suicide when smug first worlders who think they're environmentalists come to Africa lecturing it not to do what the West has done to improve its own standard of living - make use of fossil fuels to provide electricity and energy.
 
You can't just look at the theoritical risk of climate change in isolation, which is what the Al Gore Nation foolishly does.
 
You have to weigh that against the known risks, economic and social, of arbitrarily reducing the use of fossil fuels, or of pricing them so high that no one can afford them, given that renewable energy resources and carbon capturing are years away from becoming either practical or affordable.
 
Finally, whose "wealth" are you talking about in the First World?
 
Do you think everyone in Canada is rich?
 
Carbon taxes are a tax on consumption and such taxes are regressive in that they are flat taxes, unlike income tax which increase as incomes rise.
 
That's why consumption taxes disproportionately hurt the poor.
 
Finally, simple restating that in your opinion your thesis holds up isn't defending your thesis.
Any competent university professor could explain to you why it isn't.
 
If you want to debate these issues seriously, perhaps you should do a little more research.
 
Cheers,
LG

Research. That’s a big one.

Wealth vs health. Sustainable development. Where should I begin?

Be sure to read Mr. Goldstein’s point of view in the London Free Press on June 9 (A hot summer doesn’t mean we’re doomed) and my first response in the post below.

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