Are we like 1,000 per cent sure this is a good idea?

By Paul Wells - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 4:58 PM - 57 Comments

New York Times:

WASHINGTON — President Obama pressured the heads of the nation’s biggest banks on Monday to take “extraordinary” steps to revive lending for small businesses and homeowners, drawing a firm commitment from one large bank to make more loans and vaguer assurances from others.

Instead of a year-end list of my own

By Colby Cosh - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 3:16 PM - 54 Comments

Tasteless, Ignorant Dismissals of the National Board of Review’s Top Ten Movies of 2009, None of Which I Have Seen

500 Days of Summer: This is the one with that anime-eyed chick who has the indie-pop duo, right? And the whole movie is pretty much just her being super mean to some guy for a year and a half? And the title comes from the character being named “Summer”, which should have been a dead giveaway to her boyfriend that she was a narcissist raised by obnoxious people?

An Education: I’m guessing the working title was A Pedo-cation. The “-cation” is short for “hour-and-a-half vacation in a movie theatre that’s probably not gonna be crowded at all”.

The Hurt Locker: Whoa, wait, I actually saw this one! Protip: it’s the same old buddy-cop movie, only in Iraq. [NOTE: REVIEW IS NOT IRONIC]

Inglourious Basterds: I was going to make the standard cheap joke about how Quentin found a way to make Hogan’s Heroes look relatively tasteful, but then I remembered that nobody under 80 really has any business questioning the tastefulness of Hogan’s Heroes (several of those cast members ran from the Nazis or risked death fighting them or both; the guy who played LeBeau was in Buchenwald). I find myself wondering if maybe QT did us a favour by bringing WW2 back within range of a purely artistic treatment. I’m actually going to watch this later today, so pretty soon I’ll be entitled to an opinion!

Invictus: Am I the only one who literally couldn’t believe this is the first time Morgan Freeman has played Mandela in a movie?

The Messenger: Outstanding year for Woody Harrelson, with Zombieland, Defendor, and now this. It’s not even a comeback—he’s always popping up in cool stuff, even though he’s got that Skoal-stuffed Kallikak face and gives every indication away from the set that he started life with an IQ of 80 and gave away about a sawbuck of that smoking the chronic. This is a guy who spoke the following words about making this very movie: “It made me care about the soldiers. Prior to that it wasn’t that I didn’t care about them, I just thought of them and the war as all the same thing.” And yet here we are, legitimately wondering: great American actor, or greatEST American actor?

A Serious Man: Do you figure the Coen Brothers realize we’ve all figured out which ones to skip and which ones to go see? Given the pattern of their career, you can actually catch yourself thinking “God, it’s almost like they’re two different people.” Just fire the Hudsucker Proxy one and keep the Fargo one already!

Star Trek: My hypothesis about the Disney-Marvel deal was that comic books don’t need to be profitable because they’ve become storytelling R&D labs for the movies. This is confirmed here by the use of the time-honoured “retcon” strategy as a means of breathing life into an effed-out bunch of characters we could otherwise hardly stand the sight of.

Up: Let you in on a secret: I’ve never really liked, as in really really really liked, a Pixar movie. I find even the good ones a little bit sterile and contrived. Which, obviously, they are, but that doesn’t stop other people from flipping out about how deep the philosophy of The Incredibles was or how Ratatouille was pretty well the equal of anything Kubrick ever did. The emperor has no clothes, guys! Most celebrities are terrible at voice acting, most of these movies have Kricfalusi’s Cal Arts disease in the worst way, and we should be way past having “Ooh, cool” reactions to nerdy little touches in CGI animation! Plus, shame on anybody who fell for the 3-D thing. You’re, what, the fifth or sixth generation of audiences to fall for this crap?

Where the Wild Things Are: I didn’t think it was possible for any literary work to attain a higher exegesis-to-original-text ratio than either the New Testament or Shakespeare, but Sendak proved us all wrong.

Exercise doesn’t help period pain

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 3:08 PM - 1 Comment

Despite the commonly held belief that exercise helps alleviate period symptoms, it doesn’t seem to be the case, according to a new study from Birmingham University researchers. In the report, more than 650 university students aged 18 to 25 were given a questionnaire to determine at what age they started their period; how often they had one; what birth control they used; whether they had children; and any medical conditions. Questions on exercise and lifestyle were also asked. In the survey, 72 per cent had very little or no period pain, but 28 per cent had moderate to severe pain. The study found no link between pain and the amount of exercise participants did, the BBC reports, although they insisted there are other important reasons to exercise.

BBC

Berlusconi saw it coming

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 3:06 PM - 2 Comments

While driving to the rally where he was attacked with a souvenir statue, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told his spokesperson that he was afraid “something might happen” because of the “climate of hate” against him, The Times reports. The impact of the statue knocked the Prime Minister to the ground, breaking his nose and several teeth. He’s been in hospital since Sunday and doctors say he will remain there at least until tomorrow. Berlusconi’s attacker, a mentally-ill electronics engineer, is believed to have acted alone and has no known political affiliations. But the incident is splitting Italian politicians, with Berlusconi’s right-wing supporters claiming the left had indeed encouraged a campaign of hate against the prime minister. Some left-wing politicians responded by saying the premier brought the attack on himself. They say he stirred the ire of Italians when he tried to use his political influence to avoid corruption charges and then criticized the president and judiciary for their attempts to stop him.

The Times

The students who cried swine flu

By Emma Teitel - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 3:00 PM - 14 Comments

Thanks to H1N1, Section 16.8 of Dalhousie University’s Academic Regulations, regarding medical certificates in the case of illness  (required to miss classes and assignments with no penalty incurred) has been modified. Since September, anyone with “flu-like symptoms” has been encouraged to stay far, far away from campus, no questions asked. It seems for now swine flu has killed the sick note at Dal. And other universities across the country have put similar policies into effect.

At first it seemed like a pure Godsend. Free to sign their own notes, students quickly expanded the definition of flu-like symptoms to include smoker’s cough, hangovers and an insatiable appetite for TLC’s Cake Boss. One Dal philosophy major has had the virus twice—once in Logic and once in Deduction—and is planning to contract it again before her Epistemology exam. “It’s supposed to come in waves,” she says.

Or not.  Recently the University of Western Ontario started requiring infected students to enter their names into an online database, which could possibly red-flag multiple bouts of the flu.  For students a new question loomed:  how many times could they cry swine flu; and if they did malinger, what happened if they got the real thing?

Strangely, not much. John Doersken, vice provost in academic programs and students at UWO, maintains detecting fakes was never the reason for the database. “The system is in place so that we can provide our public health unit with data on how serious the pandemic is. We can tell on any given day how many students are away on influenza like illnesses.” Or at least, how many claim to be. There’s no telling, admits Doersken, how many students enter their names under false pretences.

And despite acknowledging that some students are likely using the pandemic for their own benefit, Susan Spence Wach, associate vice-president of academic programs at Dal, says their revised no-sick-note policy will remain in effect for now.  “Our main concern is with flu prevention and the care of our student population.” In other words, having some people take advantage of the revised policy is better than what would occur if the policy were left unchanged.  “People with flu-like symptoms,” says Spence Wach, “should not be going out to get sick notes. They should be at home.”
Though no official system is in place, data is also being collected at Dal, says Spence Wach: “On a weekly basis I get reports on student illness; only numbers, never names.”

So while it looks like students jumping on the H1N1 wagon won’t be facing any thorny disciplinary problems, they’re probably the contributing factors in some erroneous public health research—just another chapter in the swine flu fiasco. “For the most part, students aren’t abusing it,” says one Western undergrad, who prefers to remain anonymous.  “However, I have heard of some students who are.  Namely, myself and my roommates.”

Compromise or confrontation

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 2:58 PM - 8 Comments

Last week, Susan Delacourt suggested some sort of compromise might get us past Parliament’s demand for Afghan detainee documentation and the government’s subsequent refusal to comply. Alas, it’s unclear if the privy council offers a satisfactory option.

Conversely, the CBC’s Neil Morrison looks to New South Wales, where a similar standoff resulted in the cabinet minister in question being tossed out of Parliament and a ruling from the court.

Community > Modern Family

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 2:20 PM - 3 Comments

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.4201271&w=560&h=340&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

Partly because my own viewing habits are oriented toward comedy, and partly because good comedies tend to get better as they go along (some dramas are at their best in the first season; half-hour comedies almost never are unless they’re badly re-tooled), I’m always conscious of the way some comedies get better or worse than they appear to be in the pilot.

The big news this season is the massive improvement in Parks and Recreation over its six-episode first season, which was kind of an extended pilot. However, while the improvement has been wonderful to see, I can’t say it surprised me much; I went into the season basically expecting it to get good, because it’s Greg Daniels and his shows always improve exponentially in the first full season. (King of the Hill, The Office and now Parks are all shows that seemed like tough propositions, and they all got good. It’s just inadvisable to bet against a Daniels show.) So the improvement that took me by surprise was that of Community, a show I was lukewarm about based on the pilot and the first few episodes. That lukewarmness — lukewarmitude? — still stands, but the show has gotten good, to the point that I consider it the best new comedy of the season.

My problem with the show at the beginning was that, like many single-camera comedies, the characters were collections of over-the-top eccentricities posing as people. But the show has successfully worked to humanize the crazy characters, and, maybe even more importantly, to get comedy value out of the characters who aren’t over-the-top wacky, like Annie and Troy. This has allowed them to actually create scenes where characters interact and play off each other, and the show is getting closer to becoming a true ensemble comedy, where putting any two characters together produces a different kind of humour. This is the essential thing for any sitcom; they’re built on relationships, and if you have a good set of relationships and character combinations to build on, you’ve got something. They’re still working stuff out, but I’d expect an even bigger improvement if the show gets picked up for a second season. It just seems to have clicked at some point, and that’s always a good thing to see.

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.4201256&w=560&h=340&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

(My favourite part of any season is — when it happens, I mean — watching a comedy start slow and then find a way to make its characters into people with funny relationships. We saw it happen a couple of years ago with Big Bang Theory, when we realized that Sheldon was funny and that he and Penny were funny together, and suddenly a show with a weakish, much-revised pilot became a durable hit.)

On the other end, I don’t think Modern Family has ever completely lived up to its pilot. And even that pilot was maybe a little over-praised as being the Greatest Pilot Ever. It’s a good show with good actors, yes. There’s no element of the show that I could point to as being particularly weak. But there’s nothing about it that makes me anxious to come back, either. Part of my problem may be that the multi-house, multi-family format is limiting the number of effective character combinations they can do. (Ed O’Neill and Sofia Vergara spend most of their time interacting with each other or with the kid, and none of them are very interesting together. Same with Cameron and Mitchell; their interactions at this point are getting a little old because they’re always the same.) But ultimately it comes down to two almost intangible factors. One is that the characters still haven’t really emerged as people for me, rather than types, and at this point I don’t think they’re going to. They are all recognizable as well-drawn, well-defined types whose traits can all be summed up in a single logline. They don’t surprise me much.

The other, related factor is something that plagues a lot of the shows created — jointly or apart — by Chris Lloyd and Steve Levitan. That’s what strikes me as somewhat over-polished joke writing that calls attention to its own craftsmanship. I feel like, whether the show is theatre-style or documentary-style, the jokes are the kind that always leave me conscious that they are jokes, combinations of words assembled and massaged by pro writers. The lesser episodes of Frasier or M*A*S*H have that problem for me too, but those shows have quirky characters who can surprise you even with a joke that’s a little bit too pat. So it all comes back to that ill-conceived, ill-defined question of whether the characters have something more to offer than their basic, stereotypical definition would suggest. Personally, I don’t find that with Modern Family. I don’t argue with those who feel differently, but for me, everyone is still in their neat little sitcom character boxes.

The continental approach to energy and the environment

By Paul Wells - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 1:49 PM - 105 Comments

It’s going well.

Shouldn't There Be a List of the Top 10 Top 10 Lists?

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 1:09 PM - 2 Comments

If so, I’m not sure the American Film Institute’s top 10 TV shows of 2009 would make that list, but it’s still worth a look. Here are the choices, in alphabetical order:

• The Big Bang Theory
• Big Love
• Friday Night Lights
• Glee
• Mad Men
• Modern Family
• The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
• Nurse Jackie
• Party Down
• True Blood

The jury that picked the shows includes some interesting names, too:

The TV jury was chaired by writer-producer Neal Baer and included producer Stanley Brooks, Arizona State’s Bambi Haggins, UC Santa Cruz’s L.S. Kim, Variety’s Brian Lowry, writer-producer David Milch, UC Santa Barbara’s Lisa Parks, actor C.C.H. Pounder, journalists Matt Roush and Maureen Ryan, USC’s Ellen Seiter, TV Academy president John Shaffner and Syracuse University’s Robert Thompson.

The list is sort of a helpful snapshot of what shows are “in” at the moment, either in terms of critical acclaim or industry cred, or both. True Blood, while kind of trashy, is obviously one of the in things right now (it has everything: vampires, ratings, and a lot of buzz at a time when HBO shows are buzz-deficient). And Modern Family and Big Bang Theory are in their own different ways the “in” comedies; critics are wild over both of them — Ryan and Roush, who were on the jury, are both huge fans — and they’re well respected by their industry peers.

Warnings then and now (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 1:05 PM - 24 Comments

Peter MacKay acknowledges the demoralizing effect of detainee mismanagement, dismisses the suggestion his government didn’t do enough to deal with a notorious Afghan governor, declines to tender his resignation. CTV wraps the day’s developments together.

What is the best way for Tiger Woods to recover from the fallout over his extra-marital affairs?

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:49 PM - 39 Comments

We need to talk

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:45 PM - 21 Comments

UPDATE: LIVE CHAT WITH AARON WHERRY IS LIVE

You can now post your questions at the following link.

http://www2.macleans.ca/live-chat-with-aaron-wherry/

The House is on break and my afternoons for the next week will be relatively quieter. To fill the void, I’m doing a chat on Wednesday. Sort of like Andrew did, only with less discussion of tax policy reform. Also, Andrew chatted for about an hour. I don’t see why we couldn’t do two.

We’ll make it a Year in Parliament chat, but questions of a tangential nature—what should you get your spouse for Christmas, how often do I weep openly while watching proceedings in the House, why do I love Stephane Dion so much, etc.—will be welcome.

So. Wednesday. Let’s say 1pm. Watch this space for further details.

'I gotta change the story'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:32 PM - 29 Comments

Canada may be back. But we’re having a hard time getting a picture taken to prove it.

The Republican “purity” test

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:31 PM - 0 Comments

Few had heard of Anthony Adams until the Republican politician in California broke with his party and voted to approve Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget, which included tax increases. Soon the loyal Republican—he voted with his party 95 per cent of the time—was facing a recall by, as he called them, “Taliban purist elements” of the conservative movement. The fight over Anthony Adams has become, as Michael Leahy of the the Washington Post writes, an “unlikely proxy in a broadening war for the heart of the Republican Party’s, one engulfing Republicans nationwide.”

Washington Post

Hoax emails detail Canada's "new" climate policy

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:28 PM - 14 Comments

Apparently, pretending that Canada is committing to drastic greenhouse gas emissions cuts is not the way to strong-arm the Harper government into doing so. The Prime Minister’s Office is furious over several fake press releases announcing Canada has promised emissions cuts that are significantly lower than what the country has agreed to. The first of three hoax emails, claiming to have been sent from Environment Canada, announced that Canada had committed to lower emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels. (In truth, Canada has pledged to cut emissions by 20 per cent below 2006 levels.) A spokesman for the PMO decried the emails as “childish pranks.”

CBC

Where Dan Brown meets Khaled Hosseini

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments

Four Dan Brown titles made the top five, bracketing the top British novel (and No. 3 overall), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Mark Haddon’s book about an autistic teenager has sold more than 2 million copies, and was beaten in sales only by Dan Brown’s mega-selling The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, which sold 5.2 million and 3.17 million copies respectively. Two other Brown titles, Deception Point (1.97 million) and Digital Fortress (1.85 million), became bestsellers in the wake of the Code, and took fourth and fifth places in the list compiled by Bookseller Magazine. The only other writer with multiple spots is Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini, whose The Kite Runner (1.51 million) and A Thousand Splendid Sons (1.43 million) took eighth and ninth places. There was, of course, only room on the list for those who weren’t Dan Brown, by virtue of the fact that Bookseller made a separate children’s list, where J.K. Rowling’s seven Harry Potter novels took the first seven places.

The Telegraph

Watch video, lose appetite

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:16 PM - 0 Comments

In an attempt to dissuade people from drinking sugary, calorific beverages, the New York City health department has released a nauseating video in which a man opens what appears to be a can of pop and then pours goopy fat into a glass. His attempt to drink it leaves him with fat globules all over his face. The message: Drinking just one can of soda a day can add up to 10 pounds of weight in a year.

New York Post

YouTube

This Week: Good news/Bad news

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:16 PM - 0 Comments

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF GRAEME McDOWELL
The tabloids aren’t the only ones profiting from the Tiger Woods scandal. When the planet’s best golfer (and allegedly worst husband) dropped out of the Chevron World Challenge, McDowell was offered his spot as a last-minute replacement. The Irishman, who was in China when the phone call came in, jumped on a plane to California—and proceeded to play some inspiring golf. He finished second, pocketed the fattest cheque of his career, and shot up to 38th in the world rankings.

GOOD NEWS

The correct verdict
The family of the late Robert Dziekanski can take some solace in a scathing report from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, which concluded that the Mounties who Tasered him, leading to his death, acted inappropriately. “I found that the conduct of the responding members fell short of that expected . . . of the

RCMP,” wrote commission
head Paul Kennedy. We are still left wondering why it took two years to reach a conclusion that most Canadians understood the first time they saw the infamous amateur video of the Oct. 14, 2007, incident at Vancouver International Airport: the four RCMP officers involved acted with cruelty and brutality, leading to the death of an innocent man.

What swine flu?
Finally, some reassuring news about the swine flu pandemic. The number of confirmed cases in Canada appears to have peaked, and demand for the H1N1 flu shot is so low that some cities, including Toronto and Winnipeg, are shutting down public clinics. After a shaky start to Canada’s mass vaccination program—and countless horror stories about day-long lineups and flu shot shortages—it looks like our inoculation efforts may have been effective. Then again, maybe we just got lucky. A new U.S. study has found that the H1N1 strain is much less severe than originally thought.

A coffee a day …
Great news for all you coffee lovers—male and female. A new U.S. study found that a cup of joe may cut a man’s risk of prostate cancer by up to 60 per cent, while a separate study concluded that moderate coffee consumption (up to four cups a day) reduces the risk of coronary heart disease in women. In other coffee news, yet another study suggests that, contrary to popular thinking, drinking coffee will not help sober you up after a night of heavy drinking. In fact, it might actually make you feel more drunk. Of course, blurry vision seems a small price to pay for a healthy prostate or a strong heart.

Cellphone service
Welcome to the digital world, New Denver, B.C. The tiny village (pop. 600) has lost its battle to ban cellphone provider Telus from servicing its community. Some residents tried to paint the company as a “corporate bully” and complained that installing a phone transmitter would damage New Denver’s bucolic way of life. Industry Canada disagreed and gave Telus the go-ahead—which is good news for all New Denverites who do want cell service. As for the town’s rustics, well, no one’s forcing them to sign up for a three-year plan.

BAD NEWS

Great gall of China
As public scoldings go, it was harsh. Standing in the same room as Stephen Harper, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao snidely remarked that it had been five years since a Canadian prime minister visited Beijing—“too long a time,” in his opinion. Harper, of course, has been frosty with China since taking office, refusing to ignore human rights abuses in the name of trade. But Jiabao’s rebuke was both petty and counterproductive. Harper travelled to China to mend fences, not to be lectured by a Communist dictator.

Osama bin hiding
An additional 30,000 U.S. troops are preparing to touch down in Afghanistan, all part of Barack Obama’s “surge” strategy. Here’s hoping one of those soldiers stumbles across Osama bin Laden. Eight years after 9/11, the search for the world’s most wanted man is ice cold. U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones said this week what the White House has been saying for years: bin Laden is probably hiding in the lawless outskirts of western Pakistan, and may be slipping periodically into Afghanistan. But Defense Secretary Bill Gates was less certain, saying the U.S. has lacked reliable intelligence on bin Laden for a long time. (“I think it has been years,” he said.) Too bad Osama wasn’t fooling around with Tiger Woods. The paparazzi would have found him by now.

No cameras, please
Speaking of ruthless photographers, Queen Elizabeth has written a stern note to Britain’s tabloids, threatening legal action if they continue to snap shots of the royal family while they’re “off duty.” According to Buckingham Palace, “the letter was sent to editors in response to many years of the royal family being hounded by photographers on the Queen’s private property.” The actual content of the letter is unknown (it was marked “private and not for publication”), but no matter what it says, don’t expect Fleet Street to stand down. They may be merciless, but the paparazzi are right about one thing: when you’re royalty, there is no such thing as “off duty.”

Say it ain’t so, Roy
At press time, Roy Halladay was still a Toronto Blue Jay. But as trade rumours continue to swirl, it now seems certain that the face of Canada’s baseball franchise—and arguably the best pitcher in the game today—has played his last game in a Toronto uniform. If that proves true, we wish Doc nothing but the best. During his 12 seasons as a Blue Jay, he collected 146 wins, six all-star game nods, and one Cy Young award. What he wants now is a chance to pitch in the playoffs, and he deserves it. But please, Roy, grant your fans one last favour: don’t sign with the Yankees.

FACE OF THE WEEK

CASUALTY OF WAR: Victoria Chant, 9, at the funeral of her father, Darren Chant, a British warrant officer killed in Afghanistan

Amazon vs. publishers

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:14 PM - 0 Comments

Amazon has responded to a joint decision by three of New York’s large multinational publishers to delay e-book release of their big titles. In a move described by publishing insiders as “thuggish,” Amazon announced it was discounting those very titles still further to customers who pre-order them now— to $7.99. The dispute seems no longer to be about pricing but who will control the future book trade. Publishers “don’t want Amazon to be the only game in town,” says Jim Milliot, senior editor at Publishers Weekly. “They view e-books and e-book readers as inevitable, but they don’t really know how it’s going to shake out.” And they don’t want Amazon setting the prices.

Melville House Publishing

Saliva diplomacy

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:08 PM - 1 Comment

A Canadian diplomat who spat at a Tanzanian police officer is being shipped home. According to a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Jean Touchette will—“in the best interest of all involved parties”—board a plane back to Canada “at the earliest possible time.” The First Secretary (Co-operation) at the Canadian high commission in Tanzania, Touchette reportedly got into a heated argument with a policeman last Wednesday in Dar es Salaam—and was arrested for allegedly spitting in the officer’s face. At the police station, an angry Touchette also spat at a journalist who tried to take his picture. The Tanzanian government lodged a formal complaint about the incident yesterday, accusing Touchette of “humiliating” the entire nation. The Canadian government is pretty humiliated, too. “We regret the incident that took place on Wednesday, Dec. 9, involving one of our officials,” said Robert Orr, the Canadian high commissioner in Dar es Salaam. “It is important to reiterate that Canadian employees posted abroad are held to a high standard of professional conduct in all their relations with officials in their host country.”

Tanzania Daily News

What’s the catch?

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:02 PM - 0 Comments

In a surprise development, oil-rich Abu Dhabi has extended a US$10 billion lifeline to its debt-laden neighbour Dubai to help it stave off default on a US $4.1 billion Islamic bond repayment. The bail-out, expected to tide over the debt-laden city-state until April, sparked a recovery in the region’s stock markets. Still, Dubai’s financial woes are far from over: Dubai World, the government-owned conglomerate at the centre of a $26 billion debt storm, still needs creditors to agree a standstill on a massive restructuring in order to get financial support to cover working capital and interest expenses. The other unanswered question is whether the bail-out is a loan or a grant. One Dubai government spokesperson said it came with “no conditionality.” Yet it’s expected some strings are attached: Among issues on which Abu Dhabi may seek concessions are Dubai’s trade with Iran, the future of its Emirates airline, and its freewheeling nightlife in a conservative Muslim region.

Reuters

The top 1 Canadian jazz album of the decade

By Paul Wells - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 11:57 AM - 7 Comments

Over here, one of the commenters asked whether I had a vote in determining the Top 10 Canadian Albums of the Decade. I did, but elected not to use it. I’ve been listening to less jazz for the last — well, the last six or seven years, come to think of it. So I’m not sure I’m a great judge. And it seems to me, at decade’s end, that little of what I did hear sounded like it was meant for the ages. I’m tremendously fond of a lot of active Canadian jazz musicians — Richard Underhill, Christine Jensen, Robert Occhipinti, David Braid, Laila Biali, Brad Turner, Phil Dwyer, Molly Johnson, Jordan O’Connor, and I could go on and on — but nothing I heard seems to me to be as monumental in its field as, say, Arcade Fire’s Funeral was in (what I very loosely pigeonhole as) pop music.

But I’m surprised to see that one album I recall with enormous fondness actually did make it into this decade by a few weeks or months. Live at the Senator by Mike Murley, Ed Bickert and Steve Wallace, which appears to have been released in 2000, is just a titanic piece of work from all three men. Murley, of course, is the finest Canadian tenor saxophonist of his generation (i.e. roughly my generation). Before these sessions, he spent a year listening to nothing but Lester Young records, because he wasn’t satisfied with his ability to spin pure melody out the bell of his horn. After all that, he didn’t sound much like Lester Young, but he sure could spin some melody. Wallace is one of a truly bewildering number of wonderful Toronto bassists, and Bickert, of course, was a mighty, unassuming, unflappable guitarist, the kind of player the other two would automatically look up to and bring their best game for.This was one of his last recorded performances.

The set is almost all standards and ballads. There is nothing particularly innovative here. It’s all gorgeous. You can get it on iTunes too.

You go, girl

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 11:48 AM - 1 Comment

Tiger Woods’s decision to take a leave from golf was widely received this weekend as a sign he had negotiated a truce with Elin Nordegren, and the two might use his break to patch things up. Today, those hopes dimmed. Nordegren was photographed over the weekend without her wedding ring, while tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic are reporting she has hired a divorce lawyer and plans a trial separation in the New Year. She reportedly wants to keep the semblance of a family together over the holiday season, for the sake of the children.

TMZ

New York Post

The sorry state of Quebec's Inuit children

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 11:46 AM - 2 Comments

La Presse’s Agnès Gruda writes a very sobering piece about Quebec’s Inuit population, chock full of ghastly statistics: la Direction de la protection de la jeunesse (DPJ), the province’s child welfare agency, has investigated allegations of abuse in 30 per cent of Inuit children—half of which are under the age of five. The majority of the complaints are for gross negligence, and 16 percent are for sexual abuse. The problem is exacerbated, Gruda writes, by the lack of DPJ staff in the area and the reticence of Inuit leaders to place the children in foster care.

La Presse