What I Do Not Miss about Canadian Politics

I've been living in the US now since 2002 and, that that time, haven't really keep up to speed on the nitty gritty of politics in Canada. I know the basics - like, that we still have a prime minister. But several people have been speaking to me lately about Reasonable Accommodation which is an issue of debate, particularly in Ontario and Quebec.

This article showed up today on a site that check frequently (aka daily), Digg.com. It's a socially driving news site -that generally features tech news, but has a lot of other categories as well. The article represents a very extreme case, but does illustrate some of the issues that governments across Canada are dealing with: How far should a country bend to accommodate customs of other countries that may not be acceptable here?

January 31, 2007 10:02am
By David Ljunggren in Ottawa

IMMIGRANTS who want to live in the small Canadian town of Herouxville, Quebec, must not stone women to death in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules released by the local council.

The declaration, published on the town's website, has deepened tensions in the predominantly French-speaking province over how tolerant Quebecers should be toward the customs and traditions of immigrants.

"We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here," said the declaration, which makes clear women are allowed to drive, vote, dance, write cheques, dress how they want, work and own property.

"Therefore we consider it completely outside these norms to ... kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc."

Herouxville, which has 1300 inhabitants, is about 160km northeast of Montreal.

Andre Drouin, the councilor who devised the declaration, told the National Post newspaper the town was not racist.

"We invite people from all nationalities, all languages, all sexual orientations, whatever, to come live with us, but we want them to know ahead of time how we live," he said.

The declaration is part of a wider debate over "reasonable accommodation", or how far Quebecers should be prepared to change their customs so as not to offend immigrants.

The Herouxville regulations say girls and boys can exercise together and people should only be allowed to cover their faces at Halloween.

Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, said the declaration had "set the clock back for decades" as far as race relations were concerned.

"I was shocked and insulted to see these kinds of false stereotypes and ignorance about Islam and our religion ... in a public document written by people in authority who discriminate openly," he said.

Get Joost

I've been lucky enough to be invited to a new beta test of a great new program. It's from the makers of the Kazaa and Skype - both of which were fairly revolutionary. Joost (formerly "The Venice Project") will likely be similarly revolutionary.

It's a program designed to share high quality video feeds among peers. But it's not crappy user-generated video (a la people sitting in front of a webcam lip syncing to some pop tune). Instead it's got some neat way of distributing video from sources like TV channels, bands, etc and delivering really good video.

It's really pretty amazing. I've been impressed so far.

You can sign up for a beta (windows only at the moment, I'm sorry to say) at http://www.joost.com. If it takes off, it could be a really sweet platform.

Grace,

Des

Death to CDs

In one of the podcasts that I've been listening too lately I heard the following prediction: That 2007 will be the year that the CD (Compact Disc) dies (The podcast was This Week in Media - and the prediction came from this article: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2007/01/18/the-end/, if you're interested). It's really interesting to think about. I remember moving from cassettes to CDs and how much cooler I felt.

Then along came my first MP3 player - a Rio 500. It was amazing - I had 64 MB of memory and could stick a couple hours of tunes in my pocket. And then, several years later, I got an iPod. Apple has sold just about 90 million iPods now. This past quarter, according to wikipedia.org, Apple sold 21,066,000 iPods. And, yes, there are still some other companies out there too that are selling MP3 players.

So, is this the year the CD dies?


HERE'S A FUN GAME:

Do you remember what you're first CD was?
Mine was Gordon by the Barenaked Ladies. I remember sitting in my room playing bass for hours along with that thing.

Brody Shows Off

The New Addition

Yesterday was a very long day, but a very fun day. We were driving for SEVERAL hours to the little town of Ocilla, GA.

But look what we brought back.



THIS guy is a cutie. Man. And, so far, he has been as good as gold. I'm sure it's different. He's basically leaving a pack of dogs for a pack of humans. But he has been AMAZING.

I'm SURE there are more pics to come.

Grace,

Des

Now on my Wishlist

This is the newest product from Apple, Inc. It's coming in June. Incredible. It's definitely on the list. Check it out at http://www.apple.com.

Des

Another Shot of Home

Sorry for all of the shots from home, but they're pretty neat shots. This is a photo that my father had taken this summer showing the little community that I grew up in from a different angle than what I have posted here before. And the picture is pretty much it. There isn't a whole lot more to my little town than this - maybe a half-mile or so on either direction.

I miss it. It's quite peaceful and I think I always took that for granted. Of course, after just being home I'm much more homesick than normal. But, it's something that I didn't appreciate while I was there. And, I DO appreciate my life here in Asheville as well. There are lots of things that I would like to change, and loads of things that I could complain about, but be those things as they may, there is purpose in my being here, and my wife's being here. There are a lot of great people here.

But . . . I mean, just look at this. It's so small and peaceful and secluded. It's great.

Grace,

Des

Shots from Home

It seems as though this is becoming somewhat of a tradition. These are shots from home, from the water down in front of my parents house in Newfoundland. You may remember a great sunset here from earlier this summer. Now, as you can see, it's snowing.

It's still great to be home.

Grace,

Des 

I Wonder What THIS Means?

I'm excited about Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 - and all of the projected Apple announcements for MacWorld 2007.

This is on Apple.com today. I wonder what it means?

Des