Sunday, April 30, 2006
Free Trade
I read today that BC and Alberta are now going form some sort of 'Economic Alliance', the biggest outside Ontario.
I'm always surprised to hear things like this. Wasn't there an agreement already? Don't we have free trade within the country OR, maybe, doesn't NAFTA cover agreements with Alberta, or is that only for the US and Mexico.?
I guess the thing that surprises me about this is that no one questions this type of news. Do we all just sit there and say 'Hmm, that's good, probably the right thing to do? ' Even the news media doesn't question it. Perhaps it's an easy news item. Just crank it out, fill up space, don't ask too many questions.
It's funny how the public perception is blinkered by people not saying what's on the edge of their conciousness. Because no one else is saying it, so if I say it, I might appear strange.
At a party last night, I was talking with Kevin, and somehow on the topic of smog in Hamilton when he was growing up, we remarked how when the smog is bad in a city, the recommendation is to stay indoors. We both agreed: what the hell does that do? Are all houses hermetically sealed from the open air? Doesn't the air in a household eventually get exchanged with outside air, otherwise we would run out of oxygen and be overcome by CO2.
Both Kevin and I recognized this absurdity in this recommendation/reporting and also recognized that it's never seems to be questioned. We also realized that we were two of the few people who saw this, or at least, were willing to comment on it. Kevin's theory was they they had to say something and it's seems like a reasonably logical thing to say. You can't say: go ahead, go outside and breathe bad air, there's nothing you can do about it. People need more than that from their leaders.
I'm always surprised to hear things like this. Wasn't there an agreement already? Don't we have free trade within the country OR, maybe, doesn't NAFTA cover agreements with Alberta, or is that only for the US and Mexico.?
I guess the thing that surprises me about this is that no one questions this type of news. Do we all just sit there and say 'Hmm, that's good, probably the right thing to do? ' Even the news media doesn't question it. Perhaps it's an easy news item. Just crank it out, fill up space, don't ask too many questions.
It's funny how the public perception is blinkered by people not saying what's on the edge of their conciousness. Because no one else is saying it, so if I say it, I might appear strange.
At a party last night, I was talking with Kevin, and somehow on the topic of smog in Hamilton when he was growing up, we remarked how when the smog is bad in a city, the recommendation is to stay indoors. We both agreed: what the hell does that do? Are all houses hermetically sealed from the open air? Doesn't the air in a household eventually get exchanged with outside air, otherwise we would run out of oxygen and be overcome by CO2.
Both Kevin and I recognized this absurdity in this recommendation/reporting and also recognized that it's never seems to be questioned. We also realized that we were two of the few people who saw this, or at least, were willing to comment on it. Kevin's theory was they they had to say something and it's seems like a reasonably logical thing to say. You can't say: go ahead, go outside and breathe bad air, there's nothing you can do about it. People need more than that from their leaders.
