Editorial by: Straight Goods Publisher, Ish Theilheimer
It's been a busy busy week on my terminal. Posting and routing the terrific response to the Social Democracy conference has required a lot of keyboarding, and a great collection of stories has kept us hopping.
Phony e-mail virus warnings
So who needs phony e-mail virus warnings? This week's time-wasting culprit was a warning about a supposed virus that would go into effect on June 1 if you didn't delete a file from your system called something like SULFNBK.EXE. Turns out it's a real Windows installation file. Some say it damages the computer to remove it. I did and it didn't. But if it had... it would have been like getting the "Amish virus" which comes with the message "You have just received the Amish virus. Because we don't have any computers or programming experience, this virus works on the honour system. Please manually forward this message to everyone in your address book and then delete all the files from your hard drive..."
Please. Before you forward one of these blasted things, use some common sense. Also, consider checking out sites such as F-Secure Corp. (formerly Data Fellows).
Labour piece?
It appears a truce has been called in the crippling internal warfare within the Canadian labour movement. A deal has apparently been reached between CAW and SEIU to enable the two unions to put the raiding/worker democracy issue behind them and "go forward in solidarity" as the movement likes to say. The deal was a classic labour compromise, with both sides getting something and both sides going away grumbling. The essence is that a process has been agreed upon whereby the disputed SEIU locals will be permitted to vote on which union they prefer IF enough signatures are gathered on a petition. Presumably, each side feels they can will enough of these campaigns to risk the accord. Or at the very least, both sides have calculated that the risk of losing some of these local battles is less than the risk of continuing the war. For these small mercies, the many Canadians who support the labour movement and its goals will be glad.
On-line waste
How much you wanna bet your kid isn't frittering away his hard-earned money - or yours - gambling in an on-line casino? Lanny Boutin lays out how simple it is to run one of these casinos or to place bets. These casinos - registered in flag-of-convenience-type nations and often owned and run by Canadians - are raking in the chips, often from young punters. It would be easy to stop if anyone cared, either by putting direct pressure on the credit card companies - all of them - that services these pirates or by having governments do the same. It doesn't make headline news when someone gambles away their home. How many families will lose theirs before someone takes action?
Cafeteria consumers' victory on private prisons
For skeptics about the impact of the consumers movement look at Ariel Toster's breaking news about cafeteria giant Sodexho Alliance has divested itself of private prison holdings, as Canadian and US cafeteria users - mostly university students - have been demanding. There is some question as to how thoroughly they've divested, but regardless, this is a real victory. We may be dubious of the impact of e-mail petition and chain letter campaigns, but there can be no doubt that direct consumer pressure on companies is a highly effective tool.
Greetings to new friends who may have heard last week's interviews with me on CBC radio affiliates from Halifax to Victoria to Whitehorse. I told many of the interviewers about Pat Daley's story last month in which she exposed the scam spam about soaring gas prices. "How can you tell if something you get on the Web is reliable?" the interviewers asked in various ways.
"How can you tell if anything's reliable, whether it's Web, print or broadcast?" I answered. You have to judge for yourself over time. Use critical judgement. And please refrain from passing along alarming e-mails unless you're SURE they're for real.
Thanks
Ish Theilheimer lives on a farm near Killaloe in Eastern Ontario and is Publisher of Straight Goods.
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
- June 04, 2001
- ish@straightgoods.com
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