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Michael Friis Johansen
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July 4, 2006
The Longest Road Trip:
Canada faces a bumpy ride in her 140th year
Once, while hitch-hiking home to Canada through the United States (what you might call a budget vacation), I got a ride with a guy in an old beat-up sedan who was heading from Louisiana to his home in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
He didn't think his car would make it. It stank of oil and exhaust, went through spasms while it idled, and made horrible noises when it lurched over bumps. Every time we passed a less fortunate motorist broken down on the side of the road he would smile encouragingly and pat his dashboard.
"Good girl," he'd say. "You made it past another one!"
July 2, 2006
War on Drugs Targets Harmless Weed:
$Millions wasted on eradication programs
Please don't tell anyone. I don't want the police to find out about it, because I think it might be against the law. My home is usually nice and quiet these days. It would be a shame to spoil that with a fleet of helicopters taking heat readings overhead, or whatever it is they do to weed out marijuana plantations.
I realize that because of these plants I might have a stretch of prison time in my future, so I'd like to take this opportunity to disavow any responsibility for their existence, if this would do me any good. I didn't even know the plants were growing in my garden until a few weeks ago.
May 30, 2006
No More Mr. Nice Guy:
Television character gives Canada a new face
Canada has a new hero for the 21st century.
He's not, as one might think, one of our military leaders like Romeo Dallaire or Lewis Mackenzie, or even any of the thousands of troops who have been sent overseas to fight in one of America's wars. It's not a sports figure either, like (as much as they deserve it) swimmer Sylvie Frechette or curler Colleen Jones, or any of the highly paid athletes who play in one of North America's professional hockey, baseball, or football leagues.
This hero is not an environmental activist, he's not a journalist and he's certainly not a politician. Actually, Canada's new hero is not even real. He's a fictional character named Dr. Rodney McKay.
May 11, 2006
How Not to Decide Canada Foreign Policy:
Canadians are being dragged deeper into American sphere
No one should wonder any more what would happen if Canada's 100-day-old minority Conservative government wins a majority in the next federal election.
This possible future is becoming crystal clear because Prime Minister Stephen Harper, like the Liberal Paul Martin before him, seems to have no idea how to run a minority government. Instead of treating it like an opportunity to enhance Canadian democracy by reflecting the diverse will of the voter and governing through negotiation and compromise, Harper (like Martin) would rather pretend that his minority situation doesn't even exist.
May 2, 2005
U.S. Rocket Over Canada Sets Off Politician:
After urging NASA to reconsider, panic button convinces Newfoundland premier that rocket is safe
A Canadian provincial premier who tried to spark an international incident over the flight path of a Titan 4 kept out of the way as the long-delayed rocket launched successfully.
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams called on the Canadian federal government to pressure NASA to cancel the launch, which was first scheduled for early April, or to alter its flight path away from the northwest Atlantic. Williams' fears arose when he learned that the Titan's second stage booster rockets could fall into the Grand Banks.
April 28, 2005
German Unification Built on Broken Dreams:
Polls reconfirm the feelings of many that uniting the two nations was a mistake
Polls taken recently in what used to be West Germany say a quarter of the people think that unification with the formerly socialist east may have been a mistake. Many East Germans have believed this from the start.
While celebrations erupted all over the newly united Germany on a night in October 1990, a funeral took place in the back courtyard of a squatters' house in the city of Dessau, Sachsen-Anhalt. The yard was hemmed in with old high walls supported by the ivy growing up the bricks and the trees that grew alongside. A dozen men and women, most in their early twenties, many of whom squatted in abandoned buildings nearby, filled the damp space around a shallow grave that had been dug into the middle of the open ground.