Appeared in the North Shore News – January 17, 2014 Olga Kotelko is weird, just plain weird — in the nicest, most incredible, let’s pull out all the stops and say phenomenal way. This is not just mediaspeak phenomenal. We throw such words around. But Olga intrigues and puzzles medical science. She puzzles herself. Olga,…
Month: January 2014
Objective journalism takes another hit with VBOT protest coverage
Appeared in Business in Vancouver – January 14, 2014 Hello, business persons (I’ll ask other citizens some other time): Do you sometimes get mad at the media? Me too. But in my case the annoyance is as complex as love and as fat with conflict of interest as a Montreal mayor or two. At this…
Nursing more interprovincial business barriers in Canada
Appeared in Business in Vancouver – January 7, 2014 Poverty is relative. You knew that. In Canada we debate the definition – low-income cut off (LICO), absolute poverty and such. This puts things in perspective. Linda Barrett – not her real name – is a registered nurse and an adventurous Canadian. We met in Ontario…
A year for proving pundits wrong
Appeared in the North Shore News – January 3, 2014 Try to excuse a personal item, but as a column-provider I’ll remember 2013 as the year of my most embarrassing success. It has become a howling nightmare. I speak of accurately predicting in this space – “You Read It Here First,” the headline trumpeted, inviting…
The second revelation of Scrooge
Appeared in the North Shore News – December 20, 2013 No sooner had Ebenezer Scrooge’s amazing revelation and conversion occurred than he discovered the belief that no good deed goes unpunished. Scrooge’s widely reported initial conjecture that the apparition of his dead partner Jacob Marley was attributable to “an undigested bit of beef, a blot…
Mandela’s legacy: A wise combination of capitalism and common sense
Appeared in Business in Vancouver – December 17, 2013 Nowhere in the tsunami of adulation have I seen acknowledged this about Nelson Mandela’s great accomplishment: he did it allied with capitalism. Also with the church, notably Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu. Not to overlook South Africa’s last white president, F.W. de Klerk. “It,” of course, was…
Will they, won’t they run again?
Appeared in the North Shore News – December 6, 2013 But enough of my opinions. For now. Municipal elections are less than a year away. Read on. I asked West Vancouver councillors two questions: “1. At this point do you intend to run for re-election next November? 2. Are you considering running for mayor?” I…
Debating the deconstruction of the putative pope of the environment
Appeared in Business in Vancouver – December 3, 2013 There is a distinct meanness attending reports of the aging and disillusionment – the two frequently are chums – of David Suzuki. A smirking triumphalism, as if over annoying, profit-averse environmentalism itself. Like a deathbed conversion, it cheers somebody. The obvious rejoicers include some business people…
Gratuitous violence, egomania eroding saleability of pro sports in Canada
Appeared in Business in Vancouver – November 19, 2013 Hail, Canadian Football League fans, and the plague take you if you pay a pigskin’s worth of attention to the inferior product south of the border. I leave to double-domed football experts the stats and strategies preceding the Grey Cup game next Sunday, and host city…