[Craic] Here’s an article that makes sense....Government ineptitude. Most of Canada is in a punishing third wave. How did it come to this? - Macleans.ca

[Allan Baker]

Bob;

I think that your ideas ought to be shared more broadly - say in a  letter to the Editor.

You already have most of the work done on this.
Even if it is not published, someone in that suite will read it - and who knows what effect that will have on itself.

Just do it!
Allan

> On Apr 17, 2021, at 2:26 PM, Rob Anderson via craic <craic at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:
> 
> Follow up to the Mercolas missive and the recent Ford shut down. Here’s a better article about some of the poor leadership we have had on the local front.
> 
> Of course, I am concerned about the experimental vaccination formulas, the profit windfall for big pharma, the overreach of the corporate media self-interest, Wall St. hucksters, big banks, the enormous reach of mega tech, the power of large corporations and big governments from China and Russia to the USA and even Canada.  But my concern with the Mercolas thinking is that it creates a “bloated blockchain” of complex issues that all get jumbled together in one gigantic ideological pot of stew, a kind of pile on that distorts the immediate issues by resorting to an intensely overcharged perspective.  It wasn’t long into that Mercola letter before the big communist red scare theory with a twist of Ayn Rand dominated the argument with how all our freedoms are at stake as we drift toward communism.
> 
> I think it would be a far better exercise for these folks to hold off on the cluster of conspiracies and do a “put on the hat of the Premier” exercise.  Here too I think this is a necessary exercise because contrary to the Mercolas letter, Ford on the flip side of the coin wants to blame each of us as individuals for not stepping up in this crisis. The one blames with speculative assumptions about vast conspiratorial social and political agents while the other blames individuals for our mess.
> 
> In both cases, we take our eyes away from what, in this case, the Govt of Ontario should have been doing all along.  We clearly see that the major problem in 
> Ontario is the lower income population that works in more hazardous working 
> conditions.  Even Ford knows this.  Schools, while presenting a modest risk, are not the central problem and certainly parks aren’t.  Paul and others will certainly disagree with me about schools.  Nevertheless, shutting everything down isn’t the answer.  Creating more fear and then policing the general population is going to generate a major crisis in confidence with this Ford government.  
> 
> The big conspiracy analysis that focuses on partly true but often nebulous conspiratorial speculation and the “small c” analysis that places the problem squarely in the laps of individual failures allows Governments such as Ontario to blur the picture regarding their failures to play the chess game with any intelligence and certainly without any anticipatory thinking 3-4 steps ahead.
> 
> That is why my view is to hold off on the big philosophical narrative for a bit and put on the Premier’s hat.  What would I do?  Right now, today.  Not who would I blame.  At this point, right wing blaming of China, the big banks etc. doesn’t do much in the immediate circumstance.
> 
> For my part, and I wrote about it a couple of months ago, I would not have closed schools, but I would have heavily supervised factories, warehouses, meat packing plants and construction zones to ensure compliance with Covid safety regulations.  I also would have ramped up vaccinations for these workers.  Instead, the various right wing and left wing media and government fear campaigns about everything from the vaccines to playgrounds have driven groups such as many in the workaday immigrant and black communities in the GTA to fear vaccinations. And now, the very people who are most vulnerable trust no one.  
> 
> Both Mercola’s big train approach blaming a vast array of others and Ford’s it all up the individual responsibility or we will punish you approach de-energize people at a critical juncture as we try to determine the immediate way forward.
> 
> It’s not a bird or a plane...it’s actually a very weak government whose policies are all over the place instead of focusing on the actual areas where the outbreaks are clearly evident.  Let’s turn our attention to the specific issues at hand and see if we can find a sensible way forward that addresses the critical issues associated with controlling this pandemics. 
> 
> But I am afraid that more and more people are going to be joining the Mercola crowd who have decided to couple conspiracy theories with the vaccination.  
> 
> In any event, my May 1st call for a summer respite before the next wave looks like it has gone up in smoke and mirrors!
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
> Subject: Here’s an article that makes sense....Government ineptitude.              Most of Canada is in a punishing third wave. How did it come to this? - Macleans.ca
> 
> 
> https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/how-did-it-come-to-this/
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
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