Not much time to blog today, as the goodbye continues.
We're spending the day at the reopened MOMA. I'm as excited to see the new building as I am to see some of the art I love best - classic Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Brancusi, Rodin, etc. MOMA highlights here, sculpture and painting highlights here.
I still object to the $20 entrance fee - the highest for any Museum in the country. In MOMA's defense, they've secured corporate funding for free Friday nights, there are good discounts for seniors and students, and the cost of membership, which wasn't raised, is now a really good deal. Still, $20 is certainly prohibitive for many people, and must prevent people from experiencing art they wouldn't normally see. But despite this, I haven't been to MOMA in many years, and I absolutely must go before I leave the city. Making a full day of it turns the $20 ticket into a bargain.
Last time I went to MOMA, I saw Woody Allen and Mia Farrow taking in an exhibit together. That's how long ago it was, and that was a true New York Celebrity Sighting.
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Our interview with the Japanese journalist was fun! He asked good questions and seemed very sympathetic to our position. He told us that the Japanese people strongly oppose the war in Iraq, and that the Japanese Prime Minister is referred to as an Asian Poodle for kissing Bush's ass. I had never heard that expression. Nice!
Unfortunately the story will run only in Japanese, but I'll show you a copy anyway. Maybe there's a wmtc reader who can translate it for us.
7 comments:
We, too, had a lovely time being interviewed. Thank you for pointing them in our direction! And it would be so great to read a translation of the article... I wonder if Yoriko might be able to at least paraphrase it for us.
Good Morning L-Girl
Some Canadian policital musings this morning...
ALPF
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1113473601176&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795
Good morning ALPF! I've been reading about all this. I feel completely unqualified to blog about it, but it's very interesting.
"We, too, had a lovely time being interviewed."
Mollie?
That article sums it up pretty well. Canada's political landscape has never been more fragmented. As much as I despise the Liberals right now, I would rather the Conservatives didn't bring them down. The likely result next time around will be nothing short of anarchy and anarchy is bad for business.
Bigger worry right now is the CPC deal with the Bloc. Hard to understand, being the CPC has always been against the idea of Quebec Separatism. There is no way Gilles Duceppe participates in taking the Liberals down unless he gets a referendum out of it, and with the Liberals' plummetting popularity in Quebec, along with the CPC's virtual nonexistance as an option in the minds of the Quebec majority (sorry, Rob, it's true), Duceppe would almost certainly win the referendum. Harper has to know this ... so why work to take down the Liberals and open the door to Quebec splitting off? The result, at the end of the day, is the following:
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1/ Maritimes. Consider them sunk if separation occurs. Any and all transport would have to pass through another country to get there. Trade (of which there is plenty across Canada) would be international and thus have tariffs attached. Population in Maritimes (50% French-speaking) will be divided culturally and politically. Economy in the east will crash.
2/ Quebec. Consider them sunk as well. They will not have the population or the industry to support their own economy. How will they handle the current Federal tasks on top of their existing Provincial ones? They have to come up with their own currency and find a way to keep it valuable, Ottawa will call them to repay debt, and questions will loom about just how much English Canada wants to trade with them, or loan to them, in the wake of their leaving.
3/ Rest of Canada. More money will be available to help out the Maritimes, but Quebec contribution to national economy (substantial, especially taxpayer) will be lost. After the Maritimes, Ontario and its largely Northern francophone communities will feel the hit most.
4/ International. What will the foreign view be of a country that can't keep itself together? Will we lose much of what we have gained politcally (in foreign eyes) the past few decades? Most importantly, will US relations suffer for the rest of Canada, as they certainly will for Quebec (which currently has no real relationship with the White House)?
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A CPC-Bloc alliance could cause us more harm than good down the road. Regardless of who has been in power in the past, the CPCs and Liberals have always needed each other to keep the country balanced and together, and will need to be able to work with each other down the road moreso than ever if we are to keep the country together in the near future.
First of all, there is no BQ-CPC alliance. If the Bloc wanted to help the Conservatives bring down the government, their help would be accepted, but there would no backroom deal on a referendum. If anything, the BQ is more anxious to vote out the Liberals than are the Conservatives. After all, Quebecers are far more pissed off about the sponsorship scandal than anyone else.
As for separation, yes it would hurt the Maritimes and would certainly hurt Quebec, but the rest of Canada would win big time. No more consitutional wrangling, no more subsidizing the ridiculously generous social programs of Quebec (and I lived there for years, I know of what I speak). Most of all, no more threats and blackmail, the problem would be solved once and for all. I don't want Quebec to leave, but if they vote to do so, we should respect their wishes and let them go.
Being a maritimer at heart, I'm not overly afraid of a seperate Quebec.
It wouldn't really be that bad. Quebec essentially wants "soveriengty light". The want an E.U. like partnership with Canada if they seperate. That means the same currency, no border guards at the 401/A-40 changeover, etc, free trade, etc.
To be honest, I think we should give them what they want. It would be a lot cheaper than trying to keep them happy with the status quo. It would also probably be the catalyst for causing other provinces to ask for the same thing. Canada would become a looser federation of independent states, which is not such a bad thing. I used to think it was scary, but now I realize that its really the municipal governments that are the most relevant to your life. The current "power pyramid" should be upside down with the municipalities on the top and the federal at the bottom. Ottawa really had no idea what's going on in say, Vernon BC, so it shouldn't have so much leeway.
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