For complete text see: http://www.wednesday-night.com/Wed1209page2.asp, 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/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 [/list:u:58f2b1d8e2]