For complete text see: http://www.wednesday-night.com/Wed1209page2.asp

Labour, education, arts and science
In labour negotiations, Québec and more particularly, Montreal keeps shooting itself in the foot. Following closely the difficult period of selecting a new Conductor, a strike by Montreal Symphony Orchestra musicians has been called for next week.
In addition to the excitement of living in a great multicultural city, one must surely ponder the problems caused by the superimposition of western world values that seem to cause conflict between tradition and the pursuit of physical over emotional enrichment.
Our educational system places higher value on science than it does on arts, including the fine arts and logic, yet there is no lack of students capable of both, but whose choice of career appears to be motivated mainly by the prospect of monetary enrichment. It is also very difficult to persuade students at the [Junior College] level to do the enormous amount of work that is required to succeed in physics, chemistry, math compared to the other disciplines.
It is pointed out that the relative lack of logical skills is demonstrated in the frequent evidence of illogical decision-making on the part of our elected representatives as well as the apparent difficulty for students to make logical use of the thirty words, four or five concepts to develop the commands required to write computer programs.

Income Trusts http://www.caif.ca/
A Canadian investing innovation is the income trust, where a relatively high proportion of cash flow is passed on to certificate holders to be taxed at full rate at that level. It is noted that the income trust formula is most suited to a mature company with a fairly stable cash flow over a long period of time. It tends to avoid the pitfall of favouring the expenditure of money to minimize tax liability, returning it instead to the investor to be taxed at the higher personal tax rate of the individual, and thus stimulating the economy through individual spending. Although, curiously, a totally Canadian concept - unique to this country, it is far more popular with Americans when they have access to the process than it is to Canadians. It is assumed that the reason for this anomaly includes the difference in the tax structure in the two countries and the fact that Americans love oil and gas income trusts, which they assume will maintain the cash flow.

Star wars and geopolitics
Wednesday Nighters still appear divided on the virtue of the star wars project and of the necessity of supporting the United States in this venture, with some pointing out the presumed nuclear threat from North Korea, while others see the threat coming more from within a suitcase than from the sky, witness Warren Buffet's preoccupation with biochemical technology. With the devastation of 9/11 slowly fading from the minds, other Wednesday Nighters see the human misery and devastation resulting from events in the Darfur region of Sudan, where government and terrorist forces team up to terrorize innocent civilians as a disaster of even greater proportion. This constitutes ethnic cleansing on an almost unimaginable scale, although happening farther from home.
Is the Canadian reluctance to consider the North Korean threat a reflection of their tendency avoid issues that do not (in their eyes) directly involve them? Possibly in the hope that they will sort themselves out if we don't become involved? For someone in India, nuclear threat is a very, very serious and relevant concern. Another view might suggest that because of the numerous groups of immigrants to Canada from all parts of the world, Canadians hesitate to stir the pot, whether by labelling a minority or religious group (other than Christians!). Do Canadians attempt to preserve their privileged existence by political correctness, which makes them guilt-free?

Organ donation
A donor from India has generously donated a kidney to someone unrelated and unknown to him in Canada. The government has not permitted the designated recipient to receive the kidney because of the belief that there had, or would have, been a surreptitious exchange of money. On the surface, it would appear that the proposed recipient was thus deprived of the end to disruption and possible devastation of regular dialysis, presumably a more serious consequence than the possible exchange of money.
[It is suggested that the recipient in question might join the steady trickle of westerners who go to India for what is termed 'medical tourism'.]
On the other hand, the same donor might possibly not have hesitated to pressure his children to donate kidneys, or other organs, in order to provide temporary relief from the family poverty,- not a great solution. China is reputed to be executing prisoners in order to profit from the sale of their organs.
At least one Wednesday Nighter insists, however, that money or the exchange of money is but a red herring. When blood is donated, there is no direct exchange of money, but costs are incurred by hiring paid staff and the procurement of equipment and supplies. The key issue is the fair distribution of a rare resource. In Canada, the main criterion would normally be expected to be need rather than greed.
The unfortunate aspect of this debate is that there would be no shortage of organs here, were more Canadians to sign donation cards. Age is not the constraint it once was considered to be, because the age of the recipient is frequently greater than that of the donor whose donated organ is usually in better condition than that of the recipient. The obvious solution would be the requirement that the deceased be deemed to have consented to the donation if he or she has not signed a card or statement of non-consent.

QUOTES of the EVENING

[list:58f2b1d8e2]We should try to imagine a world 20 years from now if the rate of consumption continues to increase, where the rest of the world cannot participate at all, where deaths from AIDS in Africa continue at the same rate – what could possibly make that world stable? How can we possibly live in that world?
In American universities, Russian teachers teach Chinese Students
It’s a shame that the same logic not taught in political science (as is taught in computer science)
The rest of the world is buying up [American] assets at the rate of almost 2 billion dollars a day – this cannot continue without consequences
Extremism comes from educated people who have learned to use the disaffection of millions of people
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