Photos) &
Holly Jonas from their sojourn in Australia.
As Australia is not often at the top of our list of topics, we look forward to having the Jonases share some of their recent experience, along with their knowledge of the amazing country/continent down-under (would 1313 be 3131 in Oz?), which has many similarities with Canada.
One (actually, the only) prominent member of Wednesday Night who dwells in the lands of computer-less troglodytes, protests that not much about Australia appears in print locally, however, the rest of us have access to considerable information, although we may not always profit from having Australia's national broadcaster abc.net.au/ at the tip of our fingers. [Perhaps we could also mention that at 5:05 am on CBC Radio One, there is a daily broadcast from ABC of Australian news] When we do travel to ABC, we may be as bewildered by the national news as they by ours, but there also appears to be a similarity of prevailing political stories. We note that Prime Minister John Howard is accused of turning next week's budget into a pre-election pork-fest as a counter-punch to the surging popularity (well, not that similar!) of the opposition Labor Party.
howard-warned-on-spendfest and is having his problems on environmental policies pm-wont-revise-tasmania-forest-pact
We know that Australia has led the pack to reject Kyoto
and that
John Howard ranks with our well-known North American climate change skeptics -
while his government
, like John Baird, has discovered the joys of the fluorescent bulb
Australia's economy is booming and predictions are for continued growth, even though shifts in the tectonic plates of the U.S. economy cause trembling in the marketplace Australian companies feeling the global chills
CBC radio's Quirks & Quarks and ABC's The Science Show have just completed a splendid exchange effort on scientific research in their respective countries, delightfully advertised as "The moose goes walkabout with the wombat, and the beaver goes camping with the kangaroo" cbc.ca/quirks/
We have learned that there are serious debates on immigration issues, but do not know if Australia shares Canada's problems regarding the ability of foreign qualified professionals to practice and the ongoing squabbles over whose fault is the dearth of physicians
Do see Quebec medical board denies blocking foreign doctors
What we do know, thanks to Janet Bagnall of the Gazette, is that Australia has been far more innovative in attracting medical practitioners to rural areas without resorting to the drastic - and largely unsuccessful - policies espoused by Québec.
With that item, we come back to the northern hemisphere with proposed topics ranging from
The final round of the French presidential election http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6611539.stm and what the outcome means for France's international relations. With Le Pen calls on voters to abstain
Turkey's crisis over, as the Independent puts it, "... a wife's headscarf. The prospect of the country's next president being married to someone who chooses to wear the veil has plunged the country into the most serious political and economic crisis for years, even prompting fears of a military coup." Calls for unity as Turkey awaits fate of 'Islamic' poll candidate
Iraq - what is to be said? While George Bush, as expected, has vetoed the Iraq bill, there is no lack of dismal reports about failures at every level, not only military failures, but most disturbing for the future economic outlook, degenerating infrastructure Iraq rebuilding 'is failing'
Paul Wolfowitz's ongoing and to some observers, demeaning, fight to hang on at the World Bank [here's a different viewpoint: Why Wolfowitz should stay - of course it comes from that bastion of democracy and governance, Nigeria]
Venezuela's nationalization of the last 4 oil refineries controlled by European or American interests
We are sure that everyone will be delighted that the Bush administration has found a great way to compensate for the pesky problems in Venezuela and Iraq by proposing to "[lease] out millions of acres along the coasts of Alaska and Virginia to oil and gas drillers, a move that would end a longstanding ban on drilling in those environmentally sensitive areas
And what about Canada's flap over the ecofraud? We loved the confrontation between David Suzuki and John Baird; for once Dr. Suzuki struck the perfect tone of disappointed mentor confronting his student's total failure to understand the subject. Climate change will again be on the menu, given the report from the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research that Arctic ice is melting much faster than previously predicted see Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Forecast
Our final contribution to stimulate your thoughts has to be the delicious scandal coming out of Washington about Deborah Jeane Palfrey's Black Book, reported to include a Bush administration economics official and the head of a conservative research group. If you like sex
We look forward to having you join us for a wide-ranging evening and the Chairman promises that despite one of major topics, there will be no Kangaroo Court.
Thursday 2 May 2007 To day NYT Podcast | Menu
Tuesday 01 May 2007 Stephen Jarislowsky founder, chairman and CEO, Duration:57m 34s
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