Life in Cowtown

Photo by merfam on Flickr

So each year we get bombarded with free unwanted presents from the Yellow Pages phone book fairy. Each year a thick brick-like tome ends up darkening my doorstep despite the many ‘Save The Trees’ and ‘No Junk Mail’ flyers. Either the fairy can’t read or she thinks a new set of phone books surely disqualifies her from such petty concerns as our forests.

And each year I look at it, slap my forehead and go ‘Duh’.

Well no more. This year I weaseled out the magic number out of the Yellow Pages group and wanted to share it with the world. Ready?

In yet another example of government stupidity and shortsightedness the federal government announced the closure of the six farm programs operated by Correctional Services Canada, a decision that they reached without consulting anyone, least of all us, the little people that they are supposed to be answerable to. Canada’s inmate farm program has been operational since the 1800’s, costs less than four million to run (according to the numbers I’ve been able to find), and produces about six million dollars worth of food.

None of these numbers take into account peripheral benefits such as donating produce to local non-profits, composting facilities that reduce landfill use, acquisition of great work and life skills, and protection of valuable farm land. Which is really the crux of the issue. Because there is no good reason to terminate this program other than the sale of pricey farm land that can never be recouped or brought back. The government is citing safety concerns with the examples of several escape attempts, and without considering alternative solutions of which I’m sure there are dozens, they just closed the door on the whole enterprise.

To quote Tim Allen of CBC  ‘the idea of a prison farm is an elegant one. Inmates get to produce the food they eat, easing the burden on the public purse and, in the process, gaining experience that they can use when they get out and need to find a job.’ But according to our government the skills they gain surely can’t be important in our modern world and unnamed ‘contemporary’ occupations would be better. Never mind the fact that farming is daily work and hard work. Never mind the transferable skills it helps develop such as teamwork and consistency. Never mind the unquantifiable benefits of working with the unmovable force of nature which can’t be rushed and can undo your careful work in a heartbeat. Never mind the fact that food simply doesn’t grow on trees, it’s paid for by our tax dollars and the value of inmates growing their own is surely a benefit to us.

Never mind all that. You see the farm near Kingston Ontario enjoys 455 hectares of some of the country’s best farmland. It happens to feed the prison population and share with the food bank as well. And there’s likely a tidy profit to be made in selling off this prime land for development of more suburbia, because the government doesn’t care about farming as a valuable skill set. But it also doesn’t care about what we, as a community think either. Because the public opinion is rather firmly in favor of keeping the farms, seeing as it makes all sorts of economic and logical sense. If you read the comments attached to this CBC article it’s pretty clear that the citizens to whom the government is supposed to be accountable to really don’t see any reason to shut down these farms.  And it’s also just as clear that the govt don’t care.

But see, I just can’t reiterate this enough, the govt is supposed to be representative. And accountable to the people that elected it. I know it often sounds like a joke when you look at most government decisions, and JUST ONCE I’d like to see them do something that we collectively want to see happen. And before we get really angry and sick of the system, and perhaps move to overhaul it from the ground up, I’d like to give the government a fair chance (again), to perhaps, I dunno, follow our wishes. So I encourage you to write a quick letter to the public safety minister Vic Toews and your MP and share with him your opinion of the farm closures, whatever it may be. Here’s also a petition you can sign. That way we’ll be participating in our funny version of democracy, we’ll sleep better at night knowing we did something other than complain that no one cares, and if we don’t see the changes we want – hey at least we gave the government every chance to listen.

Here are some news links for more info.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/04/10/canada-to-shut-down-all-prison-farms/

http://www.agrinewsinteractive.com/fullstory.htm?ArticleID=10000&ShowSection=News

http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/070209.htm

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=1736318

I grew up on the cusp of the digital age. My foray into the vast world of computers included reading DOS for Dummies and everything. I was a user of the old school BBS boards and by the time the internets rolled around and the possibilities stretched out endless before us, people of my generation jumped in like it’s going out of style. We banged our heads against the early search engines, gleefully sent each other any semi-interesting sites, found (or founded) online communities and started blogs. Slowly sites figured out new revenue generating models and formerly paid sites like encyclopedias and major newspapers went free. The digital content exploded and information sharing came into its own. Except for it really didn’t.

Living in Canada I am often exceedingly frustrated at how much online content is not available here simply because of some arbitrary geographic restriction and outdated modes of thinking on parts of both the content providers and our very own governmental regulations. From TV shows to music files to the latest Olympic coverage I am often confronted by the screen-of-death error message that tells me I’m in the wrong part of the world to be able to watch whatever it is I was looking for. And that just pisses me off to no end. Take the latest Olympic coverage – last night I missed some event or another because I have a life occasionally and can’t be glued to the TV all day, so I optimistically thought I’d catch it online. Except for that didn’t work. Cause you see the International Olympics Committee has some sort of asshat restrictions on who is allowed rights to broadcast online in each country, so if I’m not mistaken it’s NBC in the states and CTV here. Except for CTV’s video page has all sorts of asinine clips available like someone’s workout routine and lame interviews and such, but not very many videos of the actual events where those athletes do whatever it is they do to merit an interview. I mean does anyone really go on their site to watch them light the cauldron or the opening essay, both of which are prominently featured on their sparsely populated video page? I sure don’t. I go to see actual coverage of actual events both past and present except for the content is not there. I’m sure NBC’s site has what I’m looking for (US sites in general seem to be much more on the ball about digital content), but due to asshat Canadian restrictions they can’t stream them here. See the pattern?

So in this supposedly free digital age of endless information there are oh so very many instances where people around the world are excluded from the conversation and participation by their very own governments and third party agencies that should not be allowed to have any say in who watches what when and where. It smacks of paternalism and results in mass frustration and leads users to either find the content illegally or fume silently. Perhaps once upon a time this may have made sense as many shows aired in the US much earlier than other countries and restricting online content until after the show aired was only prudent, but in this day and age of the modern media environment it seems like a throwback to the ridiculous protectionist policies that permeated earlier decades. The Olympic events already happened after all.

In my frustration I know I’m barely scratching the surface of the battle for digital freedom. Google’s skirmish with China shone a bit of a spotlight on the issue, and right now the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is being negotiated between the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan cloaked in secret negotiations and shady repercussions ranging from border searches to ISP providing information about suspected copyright infringers without a warrant. If you want to read some real scary discourse check out these posts by Michael Geist – the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-Commerce Law at the U of Ottawa, and this brief by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Perhaps it’s just my small-government (yeah I know, I live in the wrong country) and free market sensibilities but the fact that these policies are hammered out behind closed doors and seem to cater to corporations irk me if not outright scare me. The fact that anyone feels like they have the right to dictate when and where I can watch or listen to digital content strikes me as absurd. And the fact that CTV can’t get their site to join the 21 century is just pathetic.  I know that despite all the rhetoric we don’t live in anything approaching personal freedom but it sucks to be disillusioned this badly about the digital frontier.