Checking-In: Michael Kirby on North Korea, Obamacare, Flood Insurance & Spoilers
Our Friday host, Piya Chattopadhyay joined Anna Maria in studio to check in with what you had to say about the week that was on The Current.
US Govt Shutdown: The partial shutdown of the US government is in its third day now. Blame for the situation has been thrown around by both parties. But yesterday, we heard from Amy Kremer, Chair of the Tea Party Express - a group that supports the Tea Party movement.
And her views prompted lots of chatter on Twitter afterwards. Marcel Gagné said this:
"Amy Kremer said, 'The US not a democracy. It's a republic'. Her way of denying the will of people".
And Tom Hickson posted this:
"What democracy? Big money runs the government of the US, not the people".
Bruce Cheadle tweeted:
"Your interview illustrated the white is black, up is down logic of Tea Party politics".
And Gregory Heilman tweeted this:
"Why are people calling it a GOP Shutdown? It's a government shutdown, equally contributed to by both parties".
Why are people calling it a GOP Shutdown? It's a government shutdown, equally contributed to by both parties.
Of course its Obamacare that's at the heart of things. And Amy Kremer addressed that yesterday. To that Lindsay N tweets:
"Doesn't Amy Kremer realize only those who could afford HMOs are seeing the 'ill-effects' of ObamaCare. The majority of Americans live under the poverty line and sacrifice HMO costs to afford groceries and prescriptions".
Tale of 2 Syrians: While much of the world seems to have reduced the Syrian conflict to a question of chemical weapons, on Tuesday we heard about the struggles of daily life from two Syrians.
Hearing those interviews prompted Martina Lauer of Chesterville, Ontario to write:
Whether President Assad needs to go or not is for the Syrians to decide, not Washington. He rules Syria by virtue of being his father's son, not a democratic pedigree. Why not bring diplomacy into the forefront instead of posing demands that make a non-military solution impossible?
Robert Rogers of Smither, British Columbia sent in this:
"Your guest seems to think the best way to help her country is to invite NATO to bomb her country directly. Clearly, the only way to bring peace to Syria is to force the rebels to attend the Geneva conference".
And here's another email from Erika Kreis of Winnipeg who shares these thoughts:
"Your interview was deeply upsetting. It brought back memories of stories my grandfather would tell about the Russian Revolution. He lived near Odessa and was a teenager at the time. Men were dragged off into the woods never to return. Food was impossible to get, land was taken away".
North Korea: Regular listeners to this program won't be surprised by the findings of a United Nations commission investigating North Korea. It found what it calls shocking evidence of horrifying and large scale human rights abuse.
In fact, the chair of the commission says testimony evoked reactions similar to the discovery of concentration camps in Europe after the Second World War. And if the number of prisoners in the country's gulags has dropped in recent years -- experts say it may be because so many inmates had starved to death.
Michael Kirby is the man you hear asking questions in that clip. He is the chair of what is officially called The U.N.'s Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and joined us from Geneva.
Late last year, we spoke with Shin Dong-hyuk.... the only person ever known to have been born into and escape from one of North Korea's political prisons. He also gave testimony at the inquiry.
Alberta Flood: Last Friday marked 100 days since parts of Calgary and southern Alberta were flooded out by surging river waters. But many homeowners affected by the flood are still waiting to see any compensation from the government.
As extreme weather events become more commonplace, home owners need to look at their insurance policies a little more closely. But as we heard, policies may cover flooding caused by a sewer backup, but not what's called "overland flood damage".
Last Thursday, we heard that one of the reasons insurance is a problem, is because flood plain maps are out of date. And with all the pavement in cities, there are fewer places for the water to go.
We heard lots afterwards.
Paul Squires is a water resource engineering technologist and he writes from Edmonton:
"It may be that our abundance of water may be why you can't get flood insurance in Canada. The companies decided a long time ago it would be too costly to provide".
Maureen Matthew lives in Regina and sent this:
"How about the increase in flood damage as a result of people making stupid decisions. Everyone wants to live by the river or lake or on a cliff overlooking the sea, but they forget the reason why those spaces were never built on to begin with".
Lawrence of Arabia: It was a week ago that veteran war correspondent Scott Anderson was in with his new book on Lawrence In Arabia. The book details a period of time that still influences current Middle East tensions. He also explained how T. E. Lawrence came to understand the Middle East differently than most Brits.
Andrew Williams has authored another book on Lawrence, called The Toxic Morsel. He writes from Repentigny, Quebec:
"I disagree that Lawrence was seen as foolish by the Arabs he dealt with. I think they sympathized with his untenable position, a position which tormented him, led him to the brink of suicide, and dictated his future refusal to assume any responsibility to others in his post war career".
We also heard from Beverley Burlock of Port Mouton, Nova Scotia who wrote to remind us of another prominent Brit in the Middle East at the time. She writes:
"Don't forget about Gertrude Bell, a British woman who lived her adult life until death in the Middle East where she also worked as an archeologist. She was well known and accepted by local tribes who called her Queen of the Desert. She was also an ally of Lawrence of Arabia".
Spoiler Alerts: As Breaking Bad signed off last Sunday with its final flourish, we talked spoiler alerts the next morning. And afterwards, we heard from many of you who take your spoiler alerts pretty seriously.
But here's one more note we received from Chris O'Toole which he calls "Best Spoiler Ever". Chris writes from London, Ontario:
I was standing in line for the movie Titanic in 1997 ... and early show attendees were exiting from the theater past the people in line for the late show. A 20 year old smart ass sees his chance and yells Hey everybody - it sank!
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Last Word - O'Canada Revisions
You may have heard a group of notable Canadian women, including Margaret Atwood and former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, hope to make a slight change in the National Anthem, to make O Canada gender neutral.
Their problem is that bit with "in all thy SONS command". Senator Nancy Ruth suggests: "In all of us command!"
It's not clear how much appetite there is for change. The Prime Minister's Office sniffed at the idea years ago, and NDP leader Tom Mulcair is certainly unenthusiastic. He says, "once you start tinkering with an institution... you're looking for problems."
But the truth is, O Canada changes about as often as the leaves. The government's National Anthem website points out French Canadians sang it for about twenty years before there were English words. Many versions eventually surfaced and Colliers magazine ran a contest for lyrics in 1908. None of those entries stuck. The same year, Justice Robert Stanley Weir wrote the lyrics we recognize today. But still, there were amendments: In 1913, 1914 and 1916 and in 1980 when it was officially adopted as the national anthem.
Here's a Canadian compromise: Start singing at the third stanza. Admittedly, "stalwart sons and gentle maidens" is a little antique. But it is inclusive.
Today's Last Word is a spirited rendition of the 1908 lyrics when people really knew how to roll an "r".
A coalition of Canadian women launched RestoreOurAnthem.ca, a campaign that seeks to restore Canada's English national anthem to it's original, gender-neutral intentions.