Segacs’s World I Know

Canada will not take part in a major United Nations conference on racism next year because the event is likely to descend into “regrettable anti-Semitism,” a top official said on Wednesday.

Officials said they believed Canada was the first nation to announce it will not attend the conference in Durban, South Africa.

A similar meeting at the same venue in 2001 was marred when Israel and the United States walked out in protest over draft conference texts branding Israel as a racist and apartheid state — language that was later dropped.

It’s a strong statement. But an even stronger statement might have been to attend and loudly stand up for what’s right. Boycotts only go so far; if you want to make a difference, you generally have to be sitting at the table.

Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan apartment, and police said drugs may have been a factor. The Australian-born actor was 28. Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the residence in the tony SoHo neighborhood, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A housekeeper who went to let him know the massage therapist had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.

He was one of my favourite actors, and not only because of the great accent and the fact that he was, erm, easy on the eyes. Performances like Brokeback Mountain proved that he had real talent and his career was only getting started.

He was just about my age. He had a young daughter. What a waste.

A CBC reporter was caught red-handed playing favourites among federal political parties:

A Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reporter who covers Parliament will be reassigned because she inappropriately wrote questions for an opposition legislator, the public broadcaster said on Monday.

The ruling Conservative Party — no fan of the CBC — complained that television journalist Krista Erickson had given the questions to a Liberal member of a committee examining the dealings of a former Conservative prime minister.

Whatever your politics, you have to admit that this is a new low for the CBC. Our tax dollars at work.

Too busy to eat, sleep or think? That also means too busy to read about nonsense like this. And like this. Oh, and like this.

You know it’s been a slow news month whenever the media decides to whip up the language debate again. Honestly, give it a rest already! (In other words: Journal de Montréal, ferme ta gueule!)

Blogger’s FTP has been down for the past few weeks, which explains the lack of posting recently. A few of the retroactive posts should be up now. Let’s hope it stops being so tempermental and continues to allow me to post… starting with this one.

• So this whole thing is about what cut of the profits should be directed to the writers – both generally from sales, and specifically from online sales. Does that strike anyone else as odd? What ever happened to the idea that the entrepreneur takes the risk and therefore reaps the rewards? What other union has that same sense of entitlement to a share of the proceeds? The writers get their fees, right? What’s with this contingency-based profit sharing, anyway? If a show flops, do the writers have to give back their paycheques? Didn’t think so.
• What’s more, where does this stop? Does every single person who works on a TV show or a movie get a piece of the profits? Will the set designers and the casting agents start working on salary-plus-percentage arrangements? How about the caterer? The dolly grip? The guy who stands in for Tom Hanks while the lighting crew works?
• And what’s with some shows making side deals in order to get back on the air? Why can Letterman have writers but Leno can’t? And how does the WGA give a free pass to the shows it likes? That’s not a strike. That’s a kid refusing to come out of his room… except for pizza.
• If a WGA member writes his own material on a paper napkin, and nobody’s around to see it… did it really happen?

My New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Don’t make any resolutions you don’t intend to keep.
2. When considering making a resolution, see #1.

In all seriousness, I’m resolving to live more fully, embrace the little moments that make life what it is, and enjoy the present.

(And if you have resolved to quit smoking, way to go. And good timing. Especially if you live in France.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Where’s my camera when I need it? Here are just a few snapshots of a typical snowy December night in Montreal:

• A little car, entirely buried in a snowbank so that only the top of the roof is showing. Right next to it, written clearly in the snowbank in large block letters: FUCK!
• Here’s one way to avoid getting your bicycle stolen: chain it to a lamppost and allow it to get buried 90% deep in snow.
• A group of parents standing around outside Lucien-L’Allier metro station chatting, while their children stand atop a 30-foot mountain of snow and toss snowballs at one another.
• A snowplow driver, who stops in the middle of clearing the street to chat with a tow truck driver. Hi, how’s it going?
• A couple, him in a checkered keffiyah, her in a red tuque with pom-pom, walking in Carre St-Louis holding hands. I catch a snippet of conversation (hers): “But when Israel was created in 1948, the UN proposed a two-state solution!”
• A group of people standing outside one of the Greek restaurants on Prince-Arthur that all have the same name, wearing nothing heavier than a suit jacket, smoking cigarettes and conversing with each other in at least four different languages.
• A 20-something guy with a backpack, walking down Lucien-L’Allier, gets to the tunnel and suddenly takes a running start and skids, sideways, halfway down the hill in the snow. Stumbles a little but doesn’t fall. Resumes walking as though nothing happened.

They say it’s supposed to rain this weekend. Feh. I hope they’re wrong.

I haven’t really wanted to write anything about the Annapolis “peace summit” (ha!). And I didn’t really have to. Allison said it all – two weeks ago – and much more insightfully than I could have. Here’s a snippet:

The Annapolis peace conference has managed to elicit a mood not normally associated with the Israeli public: indifference.

Unlike previous “peace extravaganzas” like Camp David, the Madrid Peace Conference, the various Oslo signings, average Israeli citizens haven’t been glued to their television sets and radios following their leaders’ movement and listening to the speeches and wondering how the dramatic events overseas will affect their lives. There’s no buzz.

Of all Israelis watching television during the afternoon’s live broadcasts of Annapolis, the total ratings of all of the channels which aired the events was the same as the audiences for the daily soaps. The viewership of the evening news reporting weren’t any higher than on an average night. Appropriate for what most of the audience considers a re-run – they’ve heard the speeches and promises of peace before.

The cynicism is so established that you can’t even get a good argument going about Annapolis on the street. Bring up the subject and you are in for a lot of shrugging and eye-rolling – and a rapid change of subject.

Go read the rest.