Kuldalegar móttökur

Gat ekki stillt mig um þennan "fimmaura" brandara.  Hverju eiga menn von á ef ekki kuldalegum móttökum þegar þeir reyna "hostile" yfirtöku á frystifyrirtæki? 

En það verður fróðlegt að fylgjast með þessu máli og hvernig það endar.  Markaðurinn virðist reikna með að hærra verð fáist fyrir fyrirtækið en Avion er að bjóða.

Tengi hér á grein úr Globe and Mail.

Stjórn Atlas Cold Storage reynir að tefja mögulega yfirtöku Eimskips

Erum við (kanadabúar) í stríði? - Frjálslyndir múslimar

Eins og eðlilegt getur talist er mikið rætt um átökin í Ísrael og Líbanon hér í Kanada.  Ásamt veru kanadíska hersins í Afghanistan, en þó nokkuð mannfall hefur orðið þar, eru líklega ekkert meira í umærðunni.

Það er ekki óeðlilegt, mikið af innflytjendum frá svæðinu búa hér, og auðvitað sýnist sitt hverjum.  Kanadíska ríkistjórnin hefur tekið nokkuð einarða afstöðu, í þá veru að Ísrael hafi fullan rétt á að verja sig, þó að þeir hafi að sjálfsögðu harmað þjáningar og dauða óbreyttra borgara.

Sömuleiðis hefur ríkisstjórnin verið ákveðin í afstöðu sinni til Afghanistan og veru kanadísks herliðs þar.  Stjórnarandstaðan hefur hins vegar tekið annan pól í hæðina, segir afstöðu ríkisstjórnar alltof afdráttarlausa. 

Meintir hryðjuverkamenn sem voru handteknir hér fyrir nokkrum vikum, blandast svo inn í umræðuna þó með óbeinum hætti sé og í pólítíkinni gerist margt skrýtið.  Þannig hafa gyðingar sem hafa verið "innstu koppar í búri" stjórnarandstöðu flutt stuðning sinn til ríkisstjórnarflokksins og Frjálslyndi (Liberal Party) flokkurinn segir að múslimir gangi í flokkinn í miklum mæli.

Christie Blatchford skrifaði pistil um baráttuna í Afghanistan í Globe and Mail í gær, þar má m.a. lesa eftirfarandi:

"On the day of Canada's most appalling losses yet in Afghanistan -- four soldiers killed in three separate but linked attacks and 10 injured -- it took but an hour for the open-line radio talk shows in Toronto to fill up with the cries of those who would pull the plug on the mission there, yank the troops home immediately, have the nation revert to its mythical, if cherished, peacekeeping role and go back to that sterling foreign policy of keeping fingers crossed.

I thought of what Lieutenant-Colonel John Conrad, the boss of the combat logistics arm of the Canadian battle group, said not so long ago in Kandahar.

We were talking about the Canadian mission when Col. Conrad said, "Each man and woman has asked, 'Why am I here? Why did I volunteer?' " but most, he guessed, had come to the same conclusion he had. "For all that we're here to help Afghans," he said, "we're also here to protect our country.""

"If it is a thought that might offer some comfort to the families of the dead -- that their sons did not die only in service of a Biblical-era faraway foreign land where violence is as reflexive as breathing, but also in service to our own -- it might also stand as a reminder that notwithstanding the absence of a formal declaration, Canada is at war.

So are the other seven nations of the now-NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, and so are the Americans and British in Iraq, and so is Israel in Lebanon.

So are the Western democracies which do not have troops in any of these hot spots, but which also prize freedom, opportunity, education, tolerance and diversity."

"And so in his way was Tarek Fatah, the moderate Canadian Muslim who this week resigned from the Muslim Canadian Congress, citing threats and a climate of intimidation that led him to fear for his safety and the safety of his wife and children."

"The rocket-propelled grenade attack that yesterday left three Canadians dead, for instance, was launched from a school. In most civilized parts of the planet, schools are places of learning, places for children, places of peace; to the Taliban, and to all those who would keep their fellow Muslims in perpetual poverty and ignorance so that they might be made into martyrs, schools are buildings to be burned down, trashed, defiled and turned into launch pads by those who, if they understand nothing else about the West, understand that Western soldiers, with their regard for education and soft spot for children, must struggle on some level to seriously regard the school as a likely spot to set up an ambush.

Some of the fighters in Afghanistan are hardline Taliban ideologues, and some are drugs bosses and tribal warlords who align themselves out of convenience.

But some are from other countries, fighting for a pan-Islamic cause. The first time I was in Kandahar, last spring, two would-be suicide bombers blew themselves up prematurely in a graveyard: They were from Pakistan, as documents and cellphones retrieved from their bodies proved. When I was in Kandahar last month, in what has become known as the Battle of Pashmul and was also the site of yesterday's attacks, one of the arrested fighters was a Chechen man.

What business does a Chechen have trying to kill Canadians in Afghanistan? Oh yes, I forgot: The glory of Islam."

"Mr. Fatah's sin was to be an outspoken liberal in a religion that has increasingly little stomach for it, even in Canada."

"My point is, the war is on. Canada did not declare it, but it has come to our shores as surely as it came to Manhattan's five years ago. Our soldiers are dying for it, in Afghanistan, but they are also fighting for Canadians.

The least we can do -- and we do, in this country, prefer to do the least -- is stiffen our collective resolve, face up to the truth, and recognize that the soldiers' terrible sacrifice is in our name."

Greinin í heild er hér.

Músliminn sem hér er nefndur á nafn, Tarek Fatah, hefur einmitt verið nokkuð í fréttum vegna úrsagnar sinnar sem hér er nefnd, stutt um hann, birtist  í Globe and Mail fyrir nokkrum dögum, þar segir m.a.:

"Tarek Fatah, the outspoken, controversial communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, has resigned, citing concerns for his safety and that of his family.

Mr. Fatah said he will also resign from the MCC's board, severing all official ties with the organization he helped found.

"It's not just for me. It's for my wife and my daughters," he said in an interview.

"Part of it is also to get out of the limelight."

Mr. Fatah's socially liberal views have always been controversial within the Muslim community, and in the past month he has been the subject of an e-mail campaign aimed at the Canadian news media.

In his resignation letter to the board, Mr. Fatah wrote that he wanted to step down because of "an increasing heavy load of work." He said he will stay on in his current capacity until the MCC finds a replacement.

Along with his resignation, Mr. Fatah has filed a report with Toronto Police detailing what he says are a number of threats he has received since 2003. A police investigation is under way.

"This has been a particularly stressful three months and I have tried to do my best and times I have succeeded and at other times messed up," Mr. Fatah wrote in his resignation letter.

Mr. Fatah has always carried a high profile, both with the Muslim Canadian Congress -- known for its liberal interpretations of Islam, including its support of homosexuality -- and as the host of Muslim Chronicle, a CTS TV current-affairs show that focuses on the Muslim community.

But in recent months, he said, he has been coming under increasing fire. There was the e-mail campaign and he is more worried than ever about threats after the arrests of 17 terrorism suspects in Toronto in early June.

Mr. Fatah's unpopularity among conservative segments of the Muslim community is not surprising. He is a strong advocate of gay rights for Muslims and the inclusion of secular voices in the Muslim community. He publicly and vehemently opposed the adoption of sharia law in Canada."

"On June 30, Mr. Fatah was identified by the Canadian Islamic Congress as one of four people who are anti-Islam in an article in the CIC's weekly Friday Magazine, which is sent to e-mail subscribers. The article, "Smearing Islam and Bashing Muslims, Who and Why," was penned by Mohamed Elmasry, the CIC's director and an adjunct professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Waterloo.

The list, which also included Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente, was led by Mr. Fatah, whom Dr. Elmasry wrote "is well known in Canada for smearing Islam and bashing Muslims."

Dr. Elmasry levelled similar accusations against the Muslim Canadian Congress last October.

Mr. Fatah said he is concerned because he understands the implication of statements such as "anti-Islam" and "smearing Islam."

He said they are akin to fatwas, pronouncing blasphemy, a crime that under sharia law is punishable by death. "

"Wahida Valiante, vice-chair and national vice-president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said there are "different versions and different ideologies" when asked whether the assertion amounted to a fatwa.

"We're not into fatwas," she said. "We are not a religious body. We are looking into issues. If someone is misrepresenting facts, we simply address that."

Mrs. Valiante said she had not read the article and could not refer to it directly. But she said that through her intimate exposure to the Muslim community, she felt confident that many people believe Mr. Fatah is smearing and misrepresenting Islam.

"Tarek Fatah's views are diametrically opposed to most Muslims. There is a tremendous amount of discussion in the community. His point of view contradicts the fundamentals of Islam," she said, refusing to elaborate on what she meant."

Greinina má finna hér.

Það má því segja að kanadabúar standi í baráttu bæðin innanlands og utan, en ef til vill er full sterkt til orða tekið að það sé stríð, en ef til vill ekki? Fyrir þá sem eru beinir þátttakendur er þetta þó dauðans alvara.

Mi van haladó -ra?

Það virðist vera svo að það megi ekki missa af nokkurri stund hvað varðar Formúluna þessa dagana.

Vaknaði örlítið seint í morgun í tímatökuna, kem inn í hana miðja eða svo, og viti menn, þulurinn byrjar að tala um að "Skósmiðurinn" sé líka búinn að fá tímavíti, allir tímar færðir aftur um 2 sec.

Ef marka má fréttir er þessi refsing engan vegin óeðlileg.  Aksturshegðan hans bauð ekki upp á annað en honum yrði refsað.  En það er verulega skrýtið að þessi reynslubolti skuli hegða sér svona.

Það er rétt eins og hann hafi viljað sýna Alonso að hann myndi vinna hann, hvernig sem allt væri, hann þyrfti ekki neina "forgjöf".  En slíkt er ábyggilega ekki raunin, enda veit Schumacher að það eru stigin sem telja, ekkert annað skiptir máli.

En kappaksturinn á morgun verður vonandi skemmtilegur, það verður tilbreyting að sjá "aðra" ökumenn í forystunni.  Raikkonen kemur sterkur inn og Massa fær tækifæri til að vinna keppni.  Barrichello hungrar einnig í sigur.  Svo verður að sjálfsögðu skemmtilegt að fylgjast með hvernig þeim "félögum" Schumacher og Alonso gengur að krafla sig upp í stigasæti.  Brautin býður ekki upp á auðvelda framúrakstra, en þetta eru jú toppökumenn.

Räikkönen á ráspól í Búdapest

Eru taugarnar að bila?

Venjulega hef ég ekki gefið mikinn gaum að því sem gerist á föstudagsæfingunum, enda ökumenn og lið að prufa hitt og þetta og safna upplýsingum.

En nú ber nýrra við, Alonso virðist hafa misst stjórn á skapi sínu og fær tímavíti fyrir vikið.  Ég bíð spenntur eftir frekari upplýsingum um þetta atvik, svo og tímatökunni í fyrramálið og ekki síður keppninni á sunnudag.

Það er engu líkara en Alonso þoli ekki mótlætið, skapið sé farið að hlaupa með hann í gönur.  Líkurnur á að Ferrari og Schumacher hampi titlunum báðum, aukast með hverjum deginum.

Það leiðist mér ekki.

Sjá hér aðeins ítarlegri frásögn af þessum atburði á ruv.is

P.S. Bæti hér við smá útskýringu, frétt mbl.is, var svo stutt þegar ég las hana fyrst, en nú hefur verið bætt verulega við hana, sem er auðvitað til mikilla bóta, enda hún öll ítarlegri.

Alonso refsað með tímavíti

Hinn kanadíski "kóngur" Wikipedia

Flestir þeir sem þvælast um netið ættu að kannast við alfræðiorðasíðuna www.wikipedia.org .  Þar er allt unnið í sjálfboðavinnu (í það minnsta eftir minni bestu vitneskju).

Á vefsíðu Globe and Mail í dag er grein/viðtal við ungan kanadamann sem hefur helgað síðunni umtalsvert af kröftum sínum undanfarin ár.

Viðtalið má finna hér.

Datt í hug að þeir sem nota þessar síður (ég geri það töluvert) hefðu gaman af því að sjá eitthvað til fólksins á bakvið þær.

Hver skyldi nú annars hafa ritað þar inn mest um íslensk málefni?  Veit það einhver?

Hin hættulausu börn Hizbollah.

Sjálfur hef ég ritað nokkuð hér á bloggið um átökin í Líbanon, en nú ætla ég að vekja athygli á góðri grein sem ég las á www.spiegel.de  Greinin er feykilega vel skrifuð, tekur "önnur sjónarhorn" en oft heyrast og er ágætt innlegg í umræðuna.

Höfundur greinarinnar er  Henryk Broder

Nokkrar klausur úr greinninni:

"It was more than 20 years after the end of the Second World War, during the 1960s, when Germans realized that the Nazis had murdered a large number of Jews as part of their proposed "final solution of the Jewish question." The Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, which continued for two years (1963-1965) and involved 183 court sessions, resulted in an extensive documentation of what had occurred in the concentration camp near the Polish city of Oswiecim. The German public was shocked, horrified -- and most of all, surprised."

"Apparently no one had ever read Hitler's "Mein Kampf," heard Hitler's speeches, subscribed to the Nazi newspaper Stürmer or even noticed that their Jewish neighbors had "moved out" without taking the furniture.

More than a decade later, in 1978, German television aired the four-part TV series "Holocaust." Once again the Germans reacted with horror, shock, and endless surprise. The fate of the Jewish family portrayed in the film brought tears to German eyes. They asked questions for which there were no answers. "How was that possible?" And: "Why did the Jews allows themselves to be led like lambs to the slaughter? Why hadn't they defended themselves?""

"By this point in the public conversation, Berlin-based political scientist named Ekkehard Krippendorf had already contributed an original thought. He claimed that if the Jews hadn't allowed themselves to be deported -- if they had practiced passive resistance and organized sit-down strikes -- the Germans would have rallied to their cause, the Third Reich would have been shaken to the core and the worst catastrophes would have been avoided.

 

So historical blame was re-distributed. In Krippendorf's analysis, the Jews were not only to blame for anti-Semitism -- there wouldn't be any anti-Semitism if there weren't any Jews -- but for the Third Reich as well. They had the power to destabilize the system and missed out on that unique opportunity.

Today the debate has advanced by a few rounds. Every day you read and hear people saying the Israelis have done to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to the Jews. Meanwhile the Germans -- or rather the "non-Jewish Germans," as the new expression goes -- take it to be their historical duty to ensure that the Jews learn from their own history and behave decently."

"The old question "Why didn't the Jews defend themselves?" is no longer fashionable. Today the Jews are accused of defending themselves. They're blamed for concluding from the last-attempted "final solution" that it's better to defend yourself early than to let yourself be pitied afterwards. As nice as the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin may be -- it's a place "one likes to visit," according to former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder -- a day on the beach in Tel Aviv or in Nahariya beats it hands down.

Now Germany -- where even a convicted cannibal can successfully sue for violation of his constitutional rights -- is witnessing a lively debate over the means by which Israelis should be allowed to defend their basic right to lie on the beaches of Nahariya or Tel Aviv. Politicians such as Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul from the Social Democrat party SPD, researchers such as Udo Steinbach from the Orient Institute and journalists such as Heribert Prantl from the center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung are among those who argue that Israel's reaction to the rocket attacks from Lebanon is exaggerated and "disproportionate." "No one is denying Israel the right to defend its borders. But rockets fired across the border don't threaten the existence of a state," writes Claudia Kühner in the Swiss daily Zürcher Tages-Anzeiger, for example."

"Of course the question of a "proportionate response" is entirely justified -- and it's justified when asked about Israel or any other state. And: Those who ask the question have to be ready for an unexpected answer. It's a sign of reasonableness and moral maturity that Germans like to solve problems by sitting down at a round table to talk. The approach has worked for workplace conflicts and squabbles within clubs and associations, but it turned out to be ineffective in Northern Ireland and Kosovo. And it amounts to committing suicide for fear of dying when you're dealing with an enemy that loves death more than life.

The late King of Jordan had no qualms about using his might to put down a Palestinian uprising during "Black September" in 1970. He ordered refugee camps to be bombed. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people died. The PLO then moved its headquarters to Lebanon. Arafat moved to Cairo and later to Tunis.

Former Syrian President Hafis al-Assad, the father of Syria's present ruler, pulled no punches in fighting insurgent members of the Muslim Brotherhood. He devastated the city of Hama in February 1982, killing between 10,000 and 30,000 civilians. No one accused him of "genocide" -- and if someone had, al-Assad would have asked his critics not to meddle in the domestic affairs of his country.

When one considers what Israel is doing one has to admit that it is behaving quite moderately -- notwithstanding the bloodbath in Qana, in which dozens were killed including children. What happened in Qana just shows that the precision of high-tech wars can lead to catastrophic results. The war isn't between two regular armies, but one between an army and a guerrilla group that doesn't hesitate to use civilians as a human shield. At least the Israeli army warns the civilian population of imminent bombings by dropping leaflets, whereas Hezbollah fires Katyusha rockets without warning, in order to terrorize a civilian population."

"Everyone in Israel who had something to do with defense knew Hezbollah wasn't building holiday camps for Palestinian orphans in southern Lebanon -- it was preparing for military action. Instead of sounding the alarm because UN Resolution 1559, which calls for Hezbollah to disarm, wasn't being implemented, the choice was made to ignore the danger."

"Of course it would have been better to disarm Hezbollah when it was still possible to do so relatively easily. But such a decision would have been difficult to justify within Israel -- and it would have caused the world to brand Israel as an aggressor. And so UN Resolution 1559 vanished into the mists of history, and the Israelis -- who can only think and plan in the short term -- said to themselves: "Ichije tov" -- "It'll work out somehow."

And since they didn't commit the necessary atrocities straight away, they're now paying twice the cost. They're fighting an enemy they underestimated and they're being pilloried as aggressors. It's not just on the nationalist and radical-left fringes of German civil society where people agree that Israel is the "new center of genocide" -- similar noises can be heard from the political center. Israel should negotiate with Hezbollah instead of shooting innocents, some commentators say.

You'd think Hezbollah was a group of children who had been playing with matches in the barn -- and that the Israelis insanely stoked the fire until the whole farm burned down. That kind of view is widespread in Germany. This is a nation where people will seriously debate whether a civilian airplane hijacked by terrorists should be pre-emptively shot down. But Israel is supposed to wait for Hezbollah to fire its rockets and then go complain to Kofi Annan."

"The situation is getting uncomfortable for the Israelis. They're beginning to suspect that they can't win this war, because they're dealing with an international public that demands a "proportionate" reaction even in an "asymmetrical conflict." And the appeals to respect international law and the rules of the game are always directed at Israel, never at those who believe that all means are justified in the struggle against Israel."

Greinina í heild sinni má finna hér.

Leiðtogi Hizbollah hótar að ráðast á Tel Aviv

Hinn dægilegasti dagur - Bændamarkaður - mennonitar - "Ferskjur og rjómi"

Dagur sá er nú er að kveldi kominn hefur verið nokkuð dægilegur.  Það rigndi, þannig að þar sem fjölskyldan hafði áætlað að fara til hindberjatínslu, var planinu breytt og í staðinn haldið til Kitchener, eins og nágrannaborgunum. 

Upphaflega hét Kitchener,  Berlin, ef eitthvað má marka það sem mér hefur verið sagt, en það þótti víst ekki tilhlýðilegt á árum fyrri heimstyrjaldar og því var nafninu breytt.

Í Kitchener ræktum við smá erindi fyrir tengdapabba, fórum í búðir og síðast en ekki síst á "bændamarkað", "Farmers Market", í St. Jacobs, litlu þorpi þar rétt hjá.  Þetta var hin fróðlegasti markaður.  Bæði var þar uppboð á lifandi nautgripum, uppboðshaldari mikill listamaður, þannig að ég skildi ekki orð af því sem hann sagði, og svo var líka hægt að kaupa í matinn, kjöt, grænmeti, ávexti og auðvitað maís. 

Það sem vekur athygli á markaðnum er hvað hátt hlutfall mennonita er þar, bæði sem gestir og sölufólk.  Það var ekki laust við að mér finndist hálf skringilegt að sjá mennonitana, alla klædda upp á gamla mátann, innan um "típískar" kanadískar unglingsstúlkir, "með naflann úti og alles", en allir virtust sáttir við lífið og tilveruna.

Við keyptum ekki mikið, keyptum þó ferskjur, pylsur, "ferskju og rjóma" maís (peaches and cream) og smá heimatilbúið sælgæti.

Síðan var meiningin að bruna heim, en það fór þó öðru vísi en ætlað var, sátum föst á hraðbrautinni í að verða 2. tíma.  Skapið var þó það gott, að ég hafði þetta af, þó að heldur væri farið að síga á ógæfuhliðina undir það síðasta.

Þegar heim var komið voru soðnir maísstönglar, pylsur hitaðar í ofninum, opnaður einn kaldur og notið lífsins.

Seinnipart kvöldsins eyddi ég svo við þá miður skemmtilegu iðja að "dýrka" upp hurðina að skrifstofunni (þar sem tölvan okkar er), en foringinn hafði læst henni og lokað á eftir sér.  Enginn lykill fylgdi hurðinni, en nú verður að drífa í því að skipta, ekki seinna en á morgun.

Íslenska útrásin kemur til Toronto

Þá er "íslenska útrásin" komin hér í næsta nágrenni við mig, það er að segja ef þessi áform þeirra Avion manna ganga eftir.

Höfuðstöðvar Atlas Cold Storage eru á Yonge Street hér í Toronto (lengsta gata í heimi, segja Kanadamenn), en frystigeymslurnar þeirra sjást víða.

Það er svolítið skondið að auðvitað man ég vel eftir bæði Baldri og Magnúsi sem Akureyringur (með stórum staf), en það er allt önnur saga.  Ef til vill rekst ég á þá félaga "down town" einhvern daginn.  En ég óska þeim alls hins besta í "útrásinni" hingað til Toronto.

Þetta blog er tengt frétt mbl.is, en Globe and Mail er líka með frétt um málið og fyrir þá sem hafa áhuga er Atlas auðvitað með heimasíðu.

Avion gerir yfirtökutilboð í kanadískt frysti- og kælifyrirtæki

Sagan endalausa, I, II og III

Verður Schumacher með að ári, hvar ekur Raikkonen, þetta er að verða eins og sagan endalausa.  Það er mikið spáð og spegulerað.

Sjálfum líst mér sem Ferrari aðdáenda ekki illa á að fá Raikkonen til liðsins.  Hann er hörkuökumaður, en hefur verið einstaklega seinheppinn.  Ef af verður verð ég að vona að hann skilji þá seinheppni eftir hjá McLaren, best auðvitað að hann skelli henni í fangið á Alonso.

Hvað Schumacher varðar fer auðvitað vel á því að hann hætti eftir að hafa unnið heimsmeistaratitilinn í haust (krosslagðir fingur).  En burtséð frá því hvort að titillinn næst, eður ei, þá er allt annað að hætta eftir gott gengi í ár, heldur en eftir hálfgert hneysutímabil í fyrra.

Annað og persónulegra sem vinnst ef að ráðningu Raikkonen verður til Ferrari, er að konan og ég förum hugsanlega að halda með sama liði, en hún hefur alltaf verið Hakkinen/Raikkonen manneskja, enda sterk tengsl á milli Finnlands og Eistlands, þau deila meira að segja þjóðsöng.

Þegar(ef) Raikkonen fer að raða inn sigrum fyrir Ferrari, kemur hún því til með að heyra eistneska þjóðsönginn reglulega.  Nema auðvitað hún fari að halda með Rosberg, svona til að móta sér sérstöðu, Keko er ennþá "þjóðhetja" hjá "úgríonum".

Räikkönen sagður hafa samið við Ferrari til fimm ára

Almenningssamgöngur í umræðunni - ekki bara á Íslandi - Það snjóar í ........... !!!

Mikið hefur verið rætt um almenningssamgöngur á höfuðborgarsvæðinu undanfarnar vikur.  Ekki ætla ég að blanda mér í þær umræður, enda ég ekki neytandi þar.

En umræður um almenningssamgöngur eru ekki bara í umræðunni á Íslandi, þó nokkuð mikið hefur verið rætt um almenningssamgöngur hér Toronto, raunar má segja að þau séu nokkuð stöðugt í umræðunni hér, enda mikilvægar.

Sjálfur tek ég gjarna "subway" ef ég á erindi niður í bæ, en það getur verið gott ef meiningin er að skjótast og heimsækja afmarkað svæði og ekki þurfa að hafa áhyggjur af bílastæði.

En oftast verður þó bílinn fyrir valinu, enda þægindin og oft tímasparnaðurinn mikils virði.

En Margaret Wente skrifaði ágætis pistil í Globe and Mail um daginn, þar segir m.a.:

""Hah!" said my instructor, the Pilates queen. "You know what TTC means? Take The Car." She's no fan of Toronto's public transit. That's too bad because, according to the politicians and the urban planners, public transit is the answer to all our woes. Everyone knows cars are responsible for everything from gridlock to pollution and obesity. Pry people from their cars, and the world will be a better place. (innskot frá bloggara: TTC stendur fyrir Toronto Transit Commission).

Unfortunately, most people are refusing to co-operate. In 1988, TTC ridership was 463 million, the second largest in North America. By last year, despite the Greater Toronto Area's explosive growth, ridership had shrunk to 410 million.

Transit advocates blame higher fares and service cutbacks for this decline. If only we invest more in improving public transit, more people will use it. To a limited extent, this may be true. But transit advocates ignore the overwhelming evidence from around the world: People still prefer their cars."It may not be the faster way, but public transit remains the better way," The Toronto Star argued this week. New statistics on commuting times reveal what everyone already knows: Public transit is a whole lot slower than driving. People who commute to work by car spend an average of 59 minutes on the road each day (round trip). Transit riders spend 106 minutes. The Star says the answer is massive new investments from all levels of government so public transit can "better compete against the unwholesome lure of the automobile." My own trip to work takes less than 20 minutes by car, but an hour by TTC, much of it standing up. The unwholesome lure of the automobile is darned hard to resist.

Southern Ontario is the third-fastest growing region in North America -- in the next 25 years, the population is projected to grow by a staggering four million people. So what's the plan for constructing new road systems and highways? Um, there isn't one. The province plans to re-engineer people's behaviour so they'll take public transit."

"As for Toronto, everyone agrees it should become more like Paris, where people live in higher-density apartment buildings instead of single-family houses, and walk everywhere to do their shopping. There's just one problem: Most Parisians don't live in central Paris any more. Three-quarters of them live in the suburbs, where they can find single-family houses, get around by -- mon Dieu! -- car and shop at -- quelle horreur! -- supermarchés and big-box stores."

"Public transit systems are certainly no bargain. "Transit subsidies are hugely greater than any subsidies to the automobile," says Peter Gordon, a California professor of planning and economics. And some people say the cleaner, greener virtues of public transit are vastly overstated. "Most new autos generate little or no more pollution per passenger vehicle mile than the average bus," says Robert Bruegmann, author of Sprawl: A Compact History. He argues it would require a massive increase in the use of public transportation and improvements in transit vehicles to bring about any meaningful reduction in energy use or pollution."

Svo mörg voru þau orð. Kannast einhver við umræðuna, rökin og mótrökin?

En greinina má finna hér.

Svo þegar Norður - Ameríka og stór partur af Evrópu þjáist vegna hita, snjóar í byggð í Suður Afríku, það er eins og allt sé komið á hvolf.  Sjá hér.