December's arctic cold has slipped into the Ottawa Valley; with Parliament in full Christmas recess, the Government has seemingly succeeded in freezing-out any efforts of substance to cleanse the air on Afghan torture.
The Gomery Inquiry into the Liberal sponsorship scandals that followed the near defeat of the anti-separatist forces in the 1995 Quebec Referendum plagued successive Liberal Governments in its wake, ultimately costing Paul Martin the election of January 2006. Prime Minister Stephen Harper learned the lesson well, and he isn't about to allow an inquiry commission to pick through the entrails of whichever errors of judgement and mistakes were made by his then Minister of Defence, Gordon O'Connor, or for that matter the current Minister, Peter MacKay.
As I have noted before: Reality is that any unresolved issues about the treatment of Taliban detainees quite simply count amongst the costs associated with waging war. While it may be scandalizing for Canadians more accustomed to "waging peace"...and it may have driven the media into a frenzied orgy of whistleblower headlines fed by the revelations of diplomat Richard Colvin; that dye was cast the day Canada entered into the War in Afghanistan - That too being, as it turns out, a decision made by Mr. Chretien. Lest we forget!
Arguably Mr. Harper's government has been duped twice before by ill conceived decisions of its own making without the subsequent clamour for Royal Commissions and/or special inquiries. In the spring of 2006 the "new" Conservative Government was sent into a panic and then Foreign Affairs Minister, Peter MacKay, committed millions of tax payer dollars in a frenzy to evacuate thousands of Lebanese/Canadians (most of whom had never lived in Canada) from the shores of a skirmish in Beirut, only to have them return to the middle east weeks later. Much more recently the panic invaded our shores as the wild-eyed neophyte Health Minister, Leona Aglukkag and her ministerial officials, over-managed and overspent a mild outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus into a crisis of such proportions that the media and the nation were spun into a frenzy of long miserable, endless line-ups; vaccine shortages and countless other costly abuses.
If the country hasn't yet clamoured for inquiries into both those affairs: Then why should Mr. Harper be compelled to agree to a commission on detainees...an affair not of his own making which comes (Chretien's lesson teaches), at the potential cost of the next election? Let's not be silly.
Showing posts with label Swine Flu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swine Flu. Show all posts
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
ADJUVANT THIS!
In the wake of media stories over the weekend that hundreds of doses of the H1N1 vaccine have been dumped for being passed their "best before" date, Federal health officials are sheepishly admitting...Ho-Hum, it isn't much of a pandemic after all. Qu'elle surprise!
The country's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, says the rate of infection across Canada is about 8% in this second wave; mild even when compared to the annual "seasonal flu" outbreaks. Not anywhere near the pandemic "to end all pandemics" predicted, anticipated, perhaps even wished for by some authorities anxious to test their skills and preparedness. Sheesh! At the cost of terrifying; Nay! Scaring to death an entire country, and then having the gall to tell everyone to wait in line...No! Don't bother - We've run-out: Go home!
Interesting that fully a month into this manufactured crisis the Canadian media has begun to wake-up and do precisely the investigative leg work it should have been doing all along, instead of buying into the panic created by a rookie, inexperienced, clearly out-of-her-depths Federal Minister of Health and her Ottawa and Winnipeg based officials. If this was meant to be Minister Leona Aglukkaq's shinning hour, she has clearly missed this boat looking more often like a frightened deer caught in twin headlamps, than an accomplished federal official. What is it with those eye glasses anyway? - Hire her an image consultant please. (I digress!) Little wonder that recently it's been mostly other Ministers of the Crown rising in the House of Commons to deal with the difficult questions over this alleged pandemic.
Is it any wonder that Canadians and the public-at-large grow increasingly cynical of those they elect, the bureaucracy they hire, and the media pledged to uncovering the truth? In this case there is plenty of blame to go around. Starting with the World Health Organization anxious to press the panic button in the flame-out of the bogus Avian Flu predictions a couple of year's back. - Federal and provincial politicians and institutions eager to demonstrate preparedness after being caught with their proverbial "pants-down" over the SARS outbreak in 2003. - And, the media who failed miserably in their crucial role in a democracy to debunk the fabricated "crap" of politicians without any vision beyond their next run for re-election.
If the Auditor-General Sheila Fraser is right? (As she frequently is) Then God help us the day a real crisis erupts. Although countless millions have no doubt been spent, our Federal bureaucracy still has not managed to get a grip on the National Emergency Preparedness Plan it vowed to create in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 tragedies more than eight years ago. Amen!
The country's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, says the rate of infection across Canada is about 8% in this second wave; mild even when compared to the annual "seasonal flu" outbreaks. Not anywhere near the pandemic "to end all pandemics" predicted, anticipated, perhaps even wished for by some authorities anxious to test their skills and preparedness. Sheesh! At the cost of terrifying; Nay! Scaring to death an entire country, and then having the gall to tell everyone to wait in line...No! Don't bother - We've run-out: Go home!
Interesting that fully a month into this manufactured crisis the Canadian media has begun to wake-up and do precisely the investigative leg work it should have been doing all along, instead of buying into the panic created by a rookie, inexperienced, clearly out-of-her-depths Federal Minister of Health and her Ottawa and Winnipeg based officials. If this was meant to be Minister Leona Aglukkaq's shinning hour, she has clearly missed this boat looking more often like a frightened deer caught in twin headlamps, than an accomplished federal official. What is it with those eye glasses anyway? - Hire her an image consultant please. (I digress!) Little wonder that recently it's been mostly other Ministers of the Crown rising in the House of Commons to deal with the difficult questions over this alleged pandemic.
Is it any wonder that Canadians and the public-at-large grow increasingly cynical of those they elect, the bureaucracy they hire, and the media pledged to uncovering the truth? In this case there is plenty of blame to go around. Starting with the World Health Organization anxious to press the panic button in the flame-out of the bogus Avian Flu predictions a couple of year's back. - Federal and provincial politicians and institutions eager to demonstrate preparedness after being caught with their proverbial "pants-down" over the SARS outbreak in 2003. - And, the media who failed miserably in their crucial role in a democracy to debunk the fabricated "crap" of politicians without any vision beyond their next run for re-election.
If the Auditor-General Sheila Fraser is right? (As she frequently is) Then God help us the day a real crisis erupts. Although countless millions have no doubt been spent, our Federal bureaucracy still has not managed to get a grip on the National Emergency Preparedness Plan it vowed to create in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 tragedies more than eight years ago. Amen!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
CHILL-AX!
The "Great Depression" of 2009 having run the course and now sputtering to its merciful end; public authorities have conspired with the media to yet again panic most of us: Over flu-shots.
What's going on here? Why has the collective psyche become so programmed, gullible and craved for prophets of doom? Canadians have been imbibed with a dose of scepticism over the pronouncements of our politicians. It seems though we may be sadly lacking in a healthy outbreak of scepticism over a bureaucracy assisted by the media's insatiable thirst for the morbid, and a pharmaceutical industry motivated by greed.
There is much anecdotal evidence to suggest that the 2009 outbreak of the flu virus is not essentially different than most. Figures from the Atlanta, Georgia based American Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which is generally considered the world's foremost authority on communicable disease, show that each year 200-thousand Americans are hospitalised with the "seasonal" flu...of those 36,000 die. Yes! People die of the flu each year and frequently for no good or apparent reasons. The CDC describes the current swine flu outbreak in these terms - "For most healthy individuals H1N1 can be mild but (it) can be serious for those with underlying medical conditions."
Here in Ottawa though, as in many other communities across Canada, residents are being panicked into lining-up for hours at mass immunization clinics that, were it not for the seriousness of the silly situation, might be worthy of a "Keystone Cop" movie scenario orchestrated by our public health officials.
Whoa, stand back a minute! SARS a few years back. The panic and planning over the Avian Flu. And, now this. One would like to think they would get it right. Ottawa's half-dozen or so clinics are averaging about 5000 people per day. In a city of one-million, if (as predicted) half of the population shows-up...it will take over 100 days (one third of a year) to deal with everyone who wants protection from H1N1. A long time after the outbreak has passed-on and, I suspect after the front-line personnel handling the flow have been in full retreat, if not already manning picket-lines. Yet the brain trust behind the plan have not allowed family physicians to immunize their own patients in their offices. In fact so ludicrous is the plan that doctors themselves are lined-up with the rest for hours at the public "cattle-call" clinics.
Let's smarten-up and switch-off the panic mode. In reality in 2009 as in most every year, flu related illnesses will claim Canadian lives. The H1N1 outbreak may be more virulent than some past seasonal flu strains. Yes: By all means everyone wishing to be immunized should have access to a doctor, a clinic, a health practitioner and whoever else can administer the dosage. But, let's just chill and relax. Although it is already too late for this year - From current appearance, Public Health Officials; the bureaucrats to whom they report; and our overheated media need to learn to better handle these matters. If practice makes efficient - if not perfect - We've got some way to go.
What's going on here? Why has the collective psyche become so programmed, gullible and craved for prophets of doom? Canadians have been imbibed with a dose of scepticism over the pronouncements of our politicians. It seems though we may be sadly lacking in a healthy outbreak of scepticism over a bureaucracy assisted by the media's insatiable thirst for the morbid, and a pharmaceutical industry motivated by greed.
There is much anecdotal evidence to suggest that the 2009 outbreak of the flu virus is not essentially different than most. Figures from the Atlanta, Georgia based American Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which is generally considered the world's foremost authority on communicable disease, show that each year 200-thousand Americans are hospitalised with the "seasonal" flu...of those 36,000 die. Yes! People die of the flu each year and frequently for no good or apparent reasons. The CDC describes the current swine flu outbreak in these terms - "For most healthy individuals H1N1 can be mild but (it) can be serious for those with underlying medical conditions."
Here in Ottawa though, as in many other communities across Canada, residents are being panicked into lining-up for hours at mass immunization clinics that, were it not for the seriousness of the silly situation, might be worthy of a "Keystone Cop" movie scenario orchestrated by our public health officials.
Whoa, stand back a minute! SARS a few years back. The panic and planning over the Avian Flu. And, now this. One would like to think they would get it right. Ottawa's half-dozen or so clinics are averaging about 5000 people per day. In a city of one-million, if (as predicted) half of the population shows-up...it will take over 100 days (one third of a year) to deal with everyone who wants protection from H1N1. A long time after the outbreak has passed-on and, I suspect after the front-line personnel handling the flow have been in full retreat, if not already manning picket-lines. Yet the brain trust behind the plan have not allowed family physicians to immunize their own patients in their offices. In fact so ludicrous is the plan that doctors themselves are lined-up with the rest for hours at the public "cattle-call" clinics.
Let's smarten-up and switch-off the panic mode. In reality in 2009 as in most every year, flu related illnesses will claim Canadian lives. The H1N1 outbreak may be more virulent than some past seasonal flu strains. Yes: By all means everyone wishing to be immunized should have access to a doctor, a clinic, a health practitioner and whoever else can administer the dosage. But, let's just chill and relax. Although it is already too late for this year - From current appearance, Public Health Officials; the bureaucrats to whom they report; and our overheated media need to learn to better handle these matters. If practice makes efficient - if not perfect - We've got some way to go.
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