Commando attack on peace activists and aid workers, on the high seas, once again demonstrates Israel's brutish and unlawful actions, and the woeful response and double standard of most of its "friends and apologists" in the West, especially Canada and the United States. Iran gets threats and sanctions over its nuclear programme. North Korea is punished (rightly so), for its alleged attack on a South Korean ship. Brazil and Turkey are condemned for trying to get Iran to moderate its position, but Israel forges passport of "friends" and uses them to carryout actions against "enemies", carries on with its barbarous treatment of Palestinians, denying them food, medicine and other services, launching attacks against "targets" in Gaza, defies U.N. resolutions and thumbs its nose at the world and the response is a meek tap on the wrist. Go figure!!! 
     In Canada, Harper and his merry-band of Ref-Cons, continue on their secret way, denying access to information, shielding ministerial aides and severely limiting parliamentary oversight and accountability. Parliament through its various committees, must be able, not only to summon ministers but their political staff to answer questions, explain actions and clarify issues. This is crucial, if government is to  function democratically and not arbitrarily. Some secrecy is necessary for security reasons but more and more, more and more are given blanket protection.....this breeds incompetence and corruption and convey the very real impression that government are afraid of disclosure and thus hide from scrutiny. Parliament must have power of disclosure/accountability.  Ministers are answerable to the prime minister, as the head of government who has charged them with their responsibilitioes, but ministers and, by extension, their staff(who are on the public payroll), have a primAry duty to parliament and the people of the country.There is a fine line between the interests of the state and of security and the interests of the people and good governance.
     Democracy requires accountability and as such openness and accessibility are paramount. More and more political staff carry out the dictates of ministers. More and more they are responsible for important decisions and play an increasingly influential role, advising and executing policies. They are an extension of ministers and therefore they must be held responsible and thus accountable. Parliament and its committees must have access to them and must be able to summon them to appear and answer questions. To not do so is a serious threat to good governance and to democracy.         

     49% of Americans, in a poll conducted last fall, want the United States to "mind its own business internationally" and 54% think that torture is "sometimes" or "often" justified to gain information from terror suspects ( torture may make someone talk, but usually it is a response to the pain and is not usually useful, according to experts).
     45%of non-Muslim American know a Muslim (ignorance breeds fear and insecurity, but familiarity breeds knowledge and confidence).
     63% of public grade- school teachers say they buy food for hungry students every month ....this is criminal in the any country but more so in the richest country , that United States claim to be, but wait....24 university presidents earn more than $1 million a year, this is up from 0 of them in 2002.   46% of public schools are to be closed before the next school year begins in Kansas City, Missouri.   40% of U.S. public schools serve neither fresh fruits or raw vegetables daily but, 97% of them have vending machines. 
     60% of all jobs lost during the recession are due to cuts from small businesses.....men who are unemployed watch 74 minutes more TV each day but performs -3 minutes in child care, but during recession years the average bust of a Playboy Playmate is larger by 3%.
     400,000 Americans pay for DNA tests each year to determine their child's paternity and 18% 0f American men between the age of 18 to 29 believe that standing up during sex is an effective form of contraception.......India's health minister says 80% of population growth "can be reduced though TV", because watchers "fall asleep".
     79% of obese Americans say they respond to weight discrimination by eating more....
     23% of Republicans, in a January survey believed that their state should secede from the Union and 24% of them said that President Obama "wants terrorists to win" However defense spending will rise next year by $30,569,000,000. Obama calls this a "spending   freeze" and the number of drone attacks in Pakistan has gone up to 78, since Obama's inauguration, while there were only 45 during the entire Bush tenure....that's wanting terrorists to win?   
     Health-care spending in the United States that is private is 54%, as opposed to 75% in India and 59% in China.
     23% of U.S. seniors favor legalising marijuana for private use but 69% favor legislating it for medical use.
     Over 16% of U.S. household is multigenerational and the number of homeless people in the U.S. is 5 per 1,000 residents ( in France it is 2 per 1,000).
     Finally, it is estimated that the cost to locate, process, and deport all illegal immigrants in the United States is $285,000,000,000, according to study done by the Center for American Progress (Washington). This does not include the labor shotages in the kitchens of restaurants, the fields of fruits and vegetables, the sweat-shops and the nannies of the rich and famous......the under-paid, the over-worked, the overly exploited and vilified and the billions of dollars they pay into social security but from which they are excluded. 

            1. Harper's Index......March, May, June 2010

     The deed is done. The Lib-Dem. contrary to their "principles" ( Principles be damned"...Disraeli...do what you have to , to get into power), have jumped into bed with the "Cameron feel-good Conservatives). Of course, it is beng played up as "in the national interest", but this is a lot of hogwash and it is purely ego-gratification, and this "government for five years" will not last one year.
     The Conservatives are back from the political wilderness after 13 years and the Lib-Dem are getting their first taste of power, ever. The last coalition government was the Churchill/Atlee war government of 1940, which was necessary. This one is pure opportunism. The Conservatives should be allowed to form a government and there could have bveen an "arrangrement" as we have had in Canada in the 60's with Pearson and in 1972 with Trudeau being supported by the New Democrats. These government, forced to compromise, did some good eg. adopting the New Democrat's Medicare and of course the Flag and the National Anthem. There was broad consensus eg. opposing the Vietnam war, and some stability. The Liberals got all the kudos and translated them into electoral victory in 1968 and 1072 to the detriment of the New Democrats. The same fate awaits the Lib.-Dem. They are going to be used to project the Conservatives as moderate and beyond the toxic Thatcherite extremism, and Cameron, if he is able to fend off his detractors in his party, and keep the party just right -of centre, will be elected to the majotity he was denied. He would have been tested and voter skeptism wiil be eroded.
     Britain, can learn from Germany and the 9 or so other coalition governments in Europe. Cameron should call Merkl and Sarkozy, and get some tips on how to navigate the sometimes turbulent waters of coalition. It is a tough learning curve that he and Clegg are entering and at first all will seem honky-dory, but soon the differences on Europe, taxes, immigrtation, electoral reform (this one is the Lib-Dems best chance for growth) etc. will begin to bite into this "Potemkin "government. One year for this marriage of convenience.      

     Punished, jilted and teased.......The British voters sent a message to the politiciaans, we do not trust any of you to lead the nation out its present quagmire. The Labour Party was punished for  thirteen years of dithering, an unwanted war, a crumbling economy, the venality of Tony Blair and the financial shenanigans of parliamentarians. David Cameron has de-toxified the party from Thatherite extremism, but he made enemies in the party ( the Conservatives, historically love to feed on its own entrails, and this was no exception) and thus was denied a majority, jilted by its own right-wing members and a wary electorate. Nick Clegg and the Lib- Dem. were exhilarated by the polls after the debates but, the voters were just teasing the "new kid on the block"...... maybe next time.
     The media talking heads are twittering and pontificating on the possible outcome ( the Brits are not used to hung parliament. It has happened in 1923, 1929 and in 1974, but the nature of British politics has changed with more regionalism, more new citizens clamouring for their share, less fear from I.R.A. terrorists but more fears from foreign and home -grown terrorism , an uncertain economic future and a Britain on whom the "sun has set"....Will Brown step down? Can Cameron woo the Lib-Dem, with promises of portfolios and compromises on immigration, Europe and proportional representation and, will Clegg enter into a marriage of opportunity with Cameron or, will he be part of a larger coalition with Labour and the regional parties? They are also talking about the Canadian experience of minority governments...we have had at least eight of them in the past 50 years,as is the case presently.
     The Canadian experience with minority , which seems to be the rule rather than the exception, has been a mixed bag. We have the Pearson 60's, which gave Canada its Flag and its National anthem and more importantly Medicare and our very positive international reputation in peacekeeping. The Trudeau 1972 minority, propped up by David Lewis's N.D.P. was also good, but it cost the N.D.P. dearly at the 1974 elections, where Trudeau got the praise but Lewis paid the price....Clegg should study this before he decides to enter into any agreement with either the Tories or Labour. "If you sleep with dogs, you wake up with fleas".