Words, words, words Wanted Words, Jane Farrow 2000)

 

   Jane Farrow, ed. Wanted Words (2000) The CBC ran a delightful short program about words for those things, events, and (usually) annoyances that we labour to describe. It was almost entirely listener-driven. Listeners supplied the wants and the words, and many anecdotes, some even about the event that caused the coinages.This eponymous book collects some of the best, along with short lists of alternative suggestions. None of the listed words has entered the general lexicon.
     For example, Motorola-mouth for those annoying people who not only answer their cellphones in public, but ensure that we hear their side of the conversation. An alternative suggestion: Cell-droids, which would do very well for people incapable of surviving more than a couple of minutes without checking their screens. Now that texting has superseded voice, we may be entertained by demonstrations of the perils of texting while walking, and terrified of becoming a participant in a demonstration of the perils of texting while driving.
     Aneurythm was proposed for “a song that sticks in your head”, but earworm appeared later and became the fairly common term for this annoying brain-glitch.
     A pleasant read. **½

Austria: A Nice Place to Visit (1952 photo album)

     H. Breidenstein et al, eds. Österreich: Landschaft, Menschen, Kultur (1952) (Austria: Landscape, People, Culture) A photo album, with an introduction by K. H. Waggerl and a preface by Dr. Eduard Widmoser, an academic. Heavy on landscape (especially mountains covered in snow), light on people and culture. I suspect that many of the photos are prewar, since the city and town images show no war damage, which in 1952 was still extensive. It took Austria a long time to rebuild. The selection creates the impression that Austria is a country of wilderness and farmland. In fact it’s one of the most urbanised nations on the planet.
     Which raises the question, who is the intended audience? The photo captions, in German, English, and French, suggest the book was aimed at tourists. The hard cover, and the excellent printing on very good paper imply a high price, higher than most Austrians could afford at the time. The book aims to make Austria out to be a very nice place inhabited by very nice people creating very nice cultural artifacts.
     An interesting socio-political document, I think it’s part of the campaign to deny Austria’s complicity in the rise of Naziism. **

A corpse disguised: Dressed for Death by Donna Leon.

     Donna Leon. Dressed For Death (1994) The dead man seems to be a transvestite whore. But he’s really a bank manager, very respectable. Brunetti and his team uncover subtle inconsistencies which show that the dead man was not what he dressed up to be. But corruption at the highest levels of Venetian society prevent a simple arrest. Additional murders almost obscure the trail completely, until a random accidental witness undoes the protective charade the criminals have devised.
Well plotted, nicely done ambience, and a believable because flawed cop make for a good entertainment. I like the Brunetti books and am happy whenever I find one in a 2nd-hand book store. There are fewer and fewer of those, unfortunately. Recommended. ***

Alberta and Oil, or Subsidies Forever!

On April 9th of this year [2019], the Toronto Star reported on the estimated future costs of cleaning up decommissioned and abandoned oil and gas wells in Alberta. The Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project estimated between $40 and $70 billion, based on data supplied by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). The AER’s official public estimate is about $30 billion. But internal (leaked) documents suggest including the oils sands cleanup costs could boost the bill to $260 billion.

There is very little incentive or pressure on the oil industry to clean up after themselves, In fact, a couple of loopholes encourage well-owners to abandon them. So far, the Alberta government has collected about $1.6 billion from the oil and gas industry to be applied to the clean-up.

Big Question #1: How much is that in real money? In other words, how much will it cost me, the average Canadian?

Let’s start with the $40 billion figure. There are about 33,000,000 of us. So that comes to about $1,200 per person in Canada. There are about 140,000 direct jobs in oil and natural gas extraction in Alberta. That means the clean-up cost per job is about $285,000. If the $260 billion is more realistic as a total clean-up cost figure, the cost per person is about $7,150, and the cost per job is $1,850,000. [1]

Big Question #2: Who will pay this cost?
The Alberta NDP and Liberals want to put timelines in place to force timely clean-up by the industry. The United Conservatives want Ottawa to provide tax incentives and financial support.

Of course in  the end we will all pay the total cost, one way or another. It will be paid in direct and indirect subsidies, and in the cost of everything we buy. [2] [3]

So should we pay up front, in the price of gas and oil? Or should it be back-end expense, after the oil and gas are consumed?

If we pay up front, the price of oil and gas will increase. That will make Alberta oil and gas more expensive and harder to sell. If we pay after the wells are dry, we will either pay higher taxes, or spend less on government services, or both. The bill would likely be financed by borrowing, so debt servicing would increase, too. Any pressure on the industry to pay a higher share will lead to more abandoned wells.

And some combination of these things will happen, along with the inevitable unintended consequences.

[1] The job numbers count people directly employed by the oil and gas industry. The median pay for Alberta oil industry workers is about $80,000/year. The average length of time worked in the oil patch is about 7 years. Thus, the average total earnings of an oil-patch worker is about $560,000. So the possible clean-up cost per job could be higher than 3 times the total average earnings per worker. So we could end up subsidising the average oil patch job at three times what the average worker actually earns.


[2] We pay directly at the pump, of course, but any tax rebate or government financial incentive for clean-up is a subsidy. We also pay in other ways, because all prices include the energy costs of the goods or services we buy. A large part of those costs are for gas and oil.

[3] Canada exports a large chunk of the oil and gas it produces. If the prices charged include the clean-up costs, one could argue that foreigners will be paying a large chunk of the total bill. This is unlikely to happen, since the higher prices would reduce exports. Besides, foreigners pay for our exports by selling us goods and services in return. Their prices would have to include the cost of the oil we sell them, else they couldn’t afford to buy the oil from us. So one way or another, we pay.

Update 1 May 2019: Jason Kenney, leader of the United Conservative Party of Alberta and its new Premier since yesterday, has already indicated where his heart lies: as promised, he loves the oil and gas industry. He's threatened to cut oil and gas shipments to B.C, since that Province has opposed the extension of the Transmountain Pipeline. IOW, he's already shown that he wants the Rest of Canada to subsidise Alberta's lifestyle. This will not end well.

Trade: As old as humankind

       Lewis Lapham, ed. Lapham’s Quarterly XII:2, TRADE (2019) The usual nicely done collection of unconsidered trifles adding up to an overview of the theme topic, with a perhaps surprisingly coherent insight made up of many bits and pieces.
     Humankind is a trading animal. Other creatures share food and prey, and some demonstrate a well-developed sense of fairness. But only humans have built systems to exchange goods and services within and between groups. Money, understood as tokens of value functioning like IOUs, appears very early, along with the confusion between ascribed and intrinsic value. The earliest examples of money are all precious objects and materials, desirable on their own account. Thus the confusion between wealth and a positive cash balance, which has skewed economic systems ever since.
     The connection and conflict between trading and politics is also very old. The earliest law-codes include rules regulating trade and (usually brutal) punishment for cheats. The desire for profit is tied up with the desire for power. Merchants, with their focus on cash instead of goods, have suffered suspicion from the earliest times. Kings have used merchants to amass wealth, all the while despising the people who did the mundane work of trading.
     Trade is of course the essence of modern economies. From about Renaissance times on, the accumulation of profit, the techniques of accurate bookkeeping, and the customs and laws of enforceable contracts have accelerated the development of technologies hard and soft, and have brought us to the present impasse: An economy built on the twin pillars of ever-increasing consumption and ever-increasing profit. Profit has ceased to be the well-earned income of the trader and has become an end in itself. As such, it’s become a tax on the economy as a whole, which can be paid only by expanding production and consumption. This will not end well. ***

Grain ships and murder: Sara Paretsky's Deadlock.

     Sara Paretsky. Deadlock (1984) Warshawski’s cousin “Boom Boom” Warshawski, erstwhile star Blackhawks player, is found dead and floating in the Chicago grain loading port. Vic doesn’t believe he slipped on wet wharf wood. Her search for the truth leads her through the Great Lakes shipping industry, dysfunctional families, and a close encounter with death. All’s well that ends well, of course.
     A nicely plotted yarn, with the now obligatory touches of real life, carefully researched and built into the story. Paretsky’s talent is a nice mix of characterisation, plotting, and ambience. I’ve enjoyed her books, and am happy when I find a new-to-me title in the used book section of the foodbank yardsale. **½

The American President: a King in All but Name

Five Royal prerogatives are assigned to the American President by the Constitution. These prerogatives were sytematically removed from the Head of State in all European and most non-European constitutional monarchies.

a) Pardoning of felons

b) Executive Order (Edict)

c) Executive Privilege

d) Veto of legislation

e) Immunity from criminal prosecution while in office