Food for thought

The Toronto Star (6/March/2010) asks "Who will be tomorrow's
Builders?" It goes on to list the famous men (no women!) who have "built"
the great concert halls, university colleges and other public and private
buildings of Toronto. Maybe I have missed something here. I thought
builders wore jeans and hard hats and poured the foundations, and framed
the buildings and plumbed, wired, and finished them. The former group only
wear suits and sit on their backsides. Do we really have to wait around
for these useless idlers to get anything done?

Many people have lost their homes in this recession, and been put out on
the street with nowhere to go. This is a bad thing. The US government,
however, has been able to build a whole village styled after those in
Afghanistan so the troops, American and Canadian, can practice the art of
killing other human beings more efficiently. This is supposed to be a good
thing(?).

The Ontario government and the developers are salivating over exploiting
Ontario's chromite rich Ring of Fire, located in a vast area of pristine
lakes and wilderness in the province's North Country. As usual in
capitalism, the squabble to get a piece of the action has already begun.
The native people on whose land the Ring of Fire lies are demanding their
share by occupying the landing strips and promising more action. The
government representatives have shown up to convince the native bands
that development is in their interests. They even filled the local school with
fresh fruits and vegetables, which, apparently, are not available in
winter, and presumably not available at all if you are not sitting on rich
assets! One hundred and fifty years later, the white man is still offering
to rob the native people blind with a few baubles and beads. Incredible
how the more things change… John Ayers