Internet Rambling

A view of Ste. Anne de Bellevue from the Veteran's tenth floor.

You can't see much, but every room has a spectacular view of the surroundings. We were there visiting.

I just read that the Canadian Governor General David Johnston is in Malaysia, on a tour of South East Asia.

It's a business and education and trade visit, says Randolph Mank, the Canadian High Commissioner.

He should have brought me along. I'm an expert in Canadian-Malaysian relations. As my play Looking for Mrs. Peel shows.

It's about Changi Prison and the Double Tenth Incident - and just last week someone from the Canadian military landed on my story, looking up "Civilian Internees Changi Double Tenth Incident."

I hope he or she got the info he or she needed.

I met  Johnston once, at a book signing. He had published this study for the Government, around 1995 I think, saying that Canadian children should all get wired, for their education's sake. (I'm simplifying of course.)

He said it would even the playing field. Especially for rural kids.

Back then, many parents were wary of the Internet for children, thinking it might turn into one big distractions, but with illustrious educators like Johnston telling them to get on the Internet bandwagon, well, how could then resist?

And guess what? The Internet has proven to be something of a big, expensive consumer age diversion, but still necessary, for if you are not wired these days, by computer, iPod, IPAD, Smart Phone, or gadget du jour, you are a NON PERSON.

Our kids are amusing themselves to death, having their privacy compromised and having their civil liberties jeopardized for the sake of their protection...

But is the playing field being evened out? Statistics suggest quite the opposite. 

It's like we've all been caught in this Chinese finger puzzle trap.

And to top it off, the cost of all this is extremely high in Canada, more than anywhere else.

What's an unemployed or poor Canadian parent to do these days? Cut off the Wireless or Stop buying food?

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