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Welcome to Wednesday Night #1332 Sept 12 12, 2007
PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU CAN BE WITH US - IT MAKES THE CHAIRMAN'S JOB EASIER
the account of the Wednesday Night #1331 . It is a good read!
Wednesday Night #1332
We are very happy to introduce this week two heretofore-unknown cousins of Diana’s from Louisville, Kentucky, Laura Thébaud Gibb and her husband Gary. Neither has ever been to Montreal and this unfortunately will be a 24-hour flying visit. Laura was the director of a Kentucky county public library near Louisville. Gary, a native Louisvillian, was a submariner for the first part of his career. After he separated from the service, he finished his engineering degree, and now works for Raytheon Missile Systems making launchers for the navies of several countries. We are very much looking forward to having them with us.
Meanwhile, with the exception of Canada’s prorogued parliamentarians (we liked the Gazette’s editorial on this) our world seems to have returned to work, having shed that subtle sense of relaxation that comes with the warm weather and sunshine of summer months.
As work places return to their full complements, no-one has the excuse that nothing can be done because everyone is away on holidays. After Labour Day, there seems to be a collective puzzlement that little seems to have changed over the past few months, accompanied by a renewed sense of purpose, a feeling that this is the true beginning of the new year, a time to make resolutions, reaffirm goals and renew efforts to change the world. Perhaps this is the remnant of our academic experience, but it is mirrored in the timing of the meeting of the UN General Assembly.
This is also, apparently, a good time to launch new serious books, possibly in the hope that everyone has tired of beach reading. So last week ,we had Naomi Klein’s articulate attack on capitalist Shock Doctrine for disaster economies, and Dead Certain the none-too flattering new biography of George W. Bush by Robert Draper, and now this week, dominating air waves and headlines, Brian Mulroney’s “Memoirs”, sure to be a controversial subject, even among the many who will not read any or all of its 1100 pages.
Do not turn to the print media for lighter topics. The same items that were there in the spring are still on the agenda.
At home, as the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences (CCAPRCD) starts its hearings , and on the eve of the three Québec by-elections, Elections Canada has chosen to throw a pebble into already muddied waters with a decision (that nobody seems to have asked for) that Muslim women may wear the burka or niqab in the voting stations., kicking off reactions from politicians and Muslims alike
The much-anticipated Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Sydney, limped to a close Sunday, with a heavily compromised agreement on tackling climate change based on ‘aspirational’ goals , few answers on how to push the global trade agenda forward.
American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and America’s ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker are appearing before Congress. Early bulletins indicate that General Petraeus, having stated that the troop “surge” is meeting military objectives and “delivered a report that mixed descriptions of slow, modest progress in pacifying Iraq with a prediction that many tough days lies ahead”. Before the end of the week the administration is due to issue a written report on Iraq’s progress towards a set of 18 military and political “benchmarks” which, if met, would signify that the country is ready to stand on its own feet.
The UN Secretary-General’s trip to meet one-on-one with African leaders to try to find an end to the crisis in Darfur gives some hope, but in our start-of-the-new-year impatience, we remain dismayed by the slow progress
The very public instantaneous arrest and deportation of ex-PM Nawaz Sharif from Pakistan is not an encouraging sign in a country that is beset with serious problems that have their roots in its creation sixty years ago.
Given the generally discouraging items above, what about the economy? No relief in the view of the Economist: “WHATEVER your opinion of the health of America’s economy was a couple of days ago, it should now be a lot gloomier” Nor does Bloomberg offer much joy: ” Global economic growth looks likely to slow markedly in the months ahead as further weakness in the U.S. infects Asia and Europe. That would represent a shift from the last 18 months, when the world economy proved immune to a U.S. slowdown.”
Editor
dtnicholson@wednesdaynight.net
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Comments/Links
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BBC
Robert Galbraith
Stephen S. Poloz
Wed1331 Invite
Wed1333 invite
George Bush at it again
… verbal gaffes in a speech by Bush [at the APEC meeting in Sydney, Australia], who referred to the summit as a meeting of OPEC and called his hosts Austrians instead of Australians.
From a Gazette update