STEVEN FRIEDMAN: Judges are people with beliefs and values too. KEEPING the courts independent in a divided country is far too important a problem to be dismissed with a self-satisfied sneer.
There is something depressingly familiar about President Jacob Zuma's stated interest in reviewing the powers of the Constitutional Court and the reaction to it. Again, the government shows misgivings about a check on its power. Again, media are filled with righteous diatribes against a power-hungry state determined to destroy our freedoms. And again we show how incapable we are of having the conversations that would make democracy work. The government's irritation at being told what to do by judges is, of course, self-serving. But more is at stake than grubby power-holders trying to prevent high-minded courts from protecting the constitution. There is, ironically, no better way of understanding this than reading those who rush to the courts' defence. Really? The idea that interpreting the law is a purely technical matter is equally absurd. . The Glass of Life is Half Empty.
Linda McQuaig, Luxury for the rich, but 'realism' for the rest of us. “Greed is good and I love money.”
There was a time when such a lip-smacking declaration of personal gluttony would have been dismissed as boorish and anti-social. Yet today this bombastic declaration by wealthy arch-capitalist Kevin O’Leary is treated as reasonable, even given copious air time by our public broadcaster. (O’Leary currently figures prominently in two CBC TV programs and is soon to add another.) Presumably, the purpose of a public broadcaster is to offer something not provided by profit-driven private broadcasters — perhaps an expression of national purpose or a defence of the public interest. Do CBC executives consider O’Leary’s homage to greed — constantly aired in CBC advertising — contains some profound message for Canadians? For that matter, why is greed and love of money considered good in the case of a wealthy investor, while the wider desire for simply a decent living standard is increasingly considered an expectation that may have to be curbed in ordinary citizens?
Maine Librarian's Pointed Budget Message Hits the Mark ... Some might have looked at the long lines of people waiting to testify on Gov.
Paul LePage's proposed budget and decided it wasn't worth it. After all, you can wait hours for your turn to speak. And when they finally do invite you up to the microphone, you get only three minutes. Kelley McDaniel, who got the attention of lawmakers during a budget hearing Wednesday, is an award-winning librarian who also connects with students at Portland’s King Middle School. And while there may be strength in numbers, it's easy to wonder after a while whether those weary legislators on the Appropriations Committee -- or any of us, for that matter -- are truly capable of absorbing all that testimony over one full day, then another, then another ... I got that feeling Wednesday afternoon as I sat at my desk with headphones on, listening online as a seemingly endless procession of Maine citizens decried all that's wrong with the governor's $6.1 billion spending package for the next two years.
A teacher voice. JOSEPH STIGLITZ: The world can learn from the ... SUPPOSE someone were to describe a small country that provided free education through university for all of its citizens, transport for school children, and free healthcare - including heart surgery - for all.
You might suspect such a country is either phenomenally rich or on the fast track to fiscal crisis. After all, rich countries in Europe have increasingly found they cannot pay for university education, and are asking young people and their families to bear the costs. For its part, the US has never attempted to give free college for all, and it took a battle just to ensure that America's poor get access to healthcare - a guarantee the Republican Party is now working hard to repeal, claiming that the country cannot afford it.
But Mauritius is neither rich nor on its way to budgetary ruin. Yet it has spent the past decades building a diverse economy, a democratic political system and a strong social safety net. This is not to say Mauritius has no problems.