By: Ish Theilheimer, Publisher, Straight Goods
We had a bad computer week on the farm. Continuing problems with my new Dell computer and Microsoft system brought all work to a standstill for several hours on Wednesday when software from the MS download site intended to erase conflicting programs actually crashed my e-mail program, Eudora, which still isn't functioning properly days later. The upshot after hours of trouble shooting and waiting on hold for tech support is that I'm now running Windows 98, Office 97, and Word 2.0 (1992 edition) on my brand-new system and everything (but Eudora 5.0 - which now features ads you can't get rid of!) is finally working fine. I've found moving backwards is the only way to make Microsoft products work: get the oldest software that will do what you need done and don't upgrade. Ever. All this stirred so much user resentment that I'm ready to go to the wall. Hence:
Save Napster and music on the Net. Make Microsoft pay. As a writer, I'm no fan of copyright piracy. The problem my friend Robert Labossiere and I have with the Napster business is the question of who should pay. You don't pay when you listen to the radio or watch TV (yes, you pay for cable delivery, but it's mostly the ads that pay for content). So Robert argues that computer users are already paying through the nose to support their habits. (What's the cost of your yearly habit? Take our poll and let us know please.) The hardware and software makers and the Internet hosts and service providers have all the cash flow. They should pay into a royalty pool. Of course Napster should pay too, but they're not alone in owing the artists.
Want to make a statement about it? Join the M3P Campaign. You've heard of MP3, which plays music over the Net. M3P means Make Mighty Microsoft Pay. Check out the cartoon by my friend Jim Kempkes - The Day the Music Died - and send the link (http://www.straightgoods.com/Comics/Cartoon32.shtml) to a friend. Ask your friend to send it to a friend. If thousands of computer users spread the message, maybe we can build a groundswell and an M3P movement.
Unspinning the news. There's so much spin one hardly knows where to start. Take the recent report of the federal government's expert panel on genetically modified (GM) foods. The report criticized the government for allowing production of these foods without prior testing and research. Environmental researcher and writer Stephen Leahy reports that no sooner was the report out than the spin cycle began. Health Canada officials told reporters that the panelists didn't understand biotechnology regulation, even though panel members are some of Canada's top scientists. The National Post offered up researchers from the University of Guelph - which receives substantial funding from the biotech industry - declaring that panel members, of all people, were biased. Consumers will have to keep a watchful eye on developments and on what they eat.
Spin away child poverty. Provincial and federal politicians don't like to hear that their constituents include poor kids nor that the number of poor kids may be growing. So HRDC invented the Market Basket Measure, as anti-poverty activist and policy analyst Richard Shillington reports. This measure is actually more generous to the poor than the Fraser Institute's poverty measurement, but it does serve to minimize the extent of poverty in Canada. And it's considerably less generous StatsCan's Low Income Cut-Off (LICO), which always used to considered the "poverty line" in Canada. I'm glad the policy wonks have created more work for themselves. It would be nice if it helped poor kids.
Then there's the deregulation spin. You know the line: Deregulation gives consumers more choice and saves money. Sometimes it may, but as media veteran Larry Solway reports, deregulation has also clogged Canada's highways with big speeding rigs engaged in a desperate fight for survival in a climate of just-in-time delivery and high fuel prices. A lot of independent truckers are left as road kill and our highways have become overburdened and dangerous as a result. One day Canadians may remember that regulations came in because people didn't feel safe without them. We may re-invent this wheel yet.
Need a break from computers and spin? Check out the fair-trade coffee campaign being run by farmers from the proud Mexican state of Chiapas. They want their government to support organic farming, traditional medicine, and a return to constitutional protection for communal ownership of rural lands - all removed at the insistence of the U.S. and Canadian governments as a condition of NAFTA.
It's now wonder the Zapatistas were first in the world to take up arms against pro-corporate global trade deals. They've given us a spin break. You owe yourself an HONEST cup of Joe.
The Straight Goods Report is a new weekly column being distributed to newspapers, web 'zines and portals, and radio stations all over Canada. You need not ask permission to reproduce it in your print or web publication, but please include our URL and let us know where you are posting it.
- Ish Theilheimer
- Killaloe, Ontario
- March 05, 2001
- ish@straightgoods.com
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