Jan. 20: Starving artists, and other letters to the editor

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Starving artists

People cherish the image of the starving artist (If The Artists Starve, We'll All Go Hungry – Jan. 19). What they don't envision is life where radio stations or pirate downloads go on continuous replay, where newspapers and magazines cease to exist, where the news goes unreported and where fashion dies.

Our lives are enriched by the artists who spend millions of hours, days and weeks perfecting their crafts. All the while, the public steals and illegally downloads, yet maligns the creators for wanting fair compensation. Publishers and distributors hold out for the next Harry Potter.

"What, he wants $20 for that record that took 200 hours to make?" "I could paint that." "How hard can it be to write a movie script?" Right.

Sally Barker, Victoria

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Elizabeth Renzetti is absolutely right to decry the sad state of artists' earnings. Not mentioned, though, are the abysmally low salaries of Canadian actors.

The average yearly income of a member of Canadian Equity is slightly over $12,000, and the average yearly income of a member of ACTRA is slightly over $11,000. Both of these numbers are about half of what any minimum-wage worker would earn in a 40-hour week. To quote Noël Coward, "Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington, don't put your daughter on the stage."

Nigel Bennett, Stratford, Ont.

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Silver tsunami

Your editorial Canada's Crisis-In-Waiting (Focus – Jan. 17) says the Canadian Medical Association is worried about seniors' medical prospects in old age. This opinion relates to a survey of seniors based more on emotion than fact. CMA president Chris Simpson says the Canadian health care system has the worst "timeliness of care" record and the second-worst overall efficiency record, as well as the longest wait times in emergency rooms. Those "facts" are dispensed by a private U.S. foundation, the Commonwealth Fund. Who are they and what is their motive?

Canada's system is hardly perfect, but compared to the excessive cost structure of our southern neighbour, we're looking good. As a senior with health issues, I visit my primary regularly and have had some occasions to visit emergency. Wait times have been more than reasonable, attentive and satisfactory.

I suspect the CMA accusations are self-serving and more related to current salary negotiations than reality. Surely a national strategy for seniors would be desirable, but what needs to be done is not uncomplicated as he suggests. "Tsunamis" are waves up to 30 feet high.

Willem Hart, Toronto

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Calls for more long-term facilities appear to be considered by some as the panacea for clearing hospital beds and reducing emergency room wait times. But it would be wrong for one to conclude that placement in nursing homes comes with assurances of proper care.

Warehousing, superbug exposure and "falling down for lack of proper supervision" are issues in long-term facilities just like in hospitals. These and a myriad of other disturbing situations, including staff shortages and failure to comply with legislated standards, occur in nursing homes with disturbing frequency.

Long-term institutionalization of seniors, while unbridled systemic problems seriously compromises their care, is a troubling response to hospital bed shortages.

Ellen Watson, Aurora, Ont.

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The provinces have been aware of Canada's changing demographics, but have chosen to ignore it while they wait for the feds to come to the rescue.

Perhaps that is as it should be, with a national strategy headed by the federal government and new money to address this coming problem. However, if new money does flow to the provinces, then it should come with a proviso that it goes directly to health care. Many of the problems the provinces now face stem from the fact that transfer payments from the feds have gone to everything but addressing the problems of an aging population.

Jeff Spooner, Mont-Tremblant, Que.

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Rockets and eggs

I agree with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat that there are many reasons to criticize Foreign Minister John Baird and his government's unbalanced policy in support of Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people (It Is John Baird Who Needs To Apologize To The Palestinian People – online, Jan. 16).

I now await a follow-up column in which he asks the leaders of Hamas to apologize for supporting terrorism, and for continuing to intermittently fire rockets at civilian targets within Israel.

Hershl Berman, Toronto

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Mr. Baird may brush off his Palestinian pelting (Protesters Hurl Eggs At Baird – Jan. 19) by stating, "I've had a lot worse," but he is missing the point: No matter how inured he may be to having objects thrown at him, Canada, the country he represents, is not.

Mike Ward, Duncan, B.C.

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It was reported that "dozens of protesters hurled eggs and shoes at the convoy … in a show of defiance toward Canada's perceived pro-Israel stance." That's so typical. A representative of the Harper government is showered in gifts of food and clothing and the liberal media make it sound like it's a bad thing.

Ross Howey, Toronto

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True balancing

First the Conservatives blew the $14-billion surplus the Liberals left them in 2006, and now they've blown the surplus they hadn't even achieved for 2015. Yet they still think we'll buy their claim to be good fiscal managers.

Is it any wonder former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page "has rarely had a kind word for this government" (In The Push To Get Back To Black, Don't Ignore The Economy – Jan. 19)?

Patricia Wilmot, Toronto

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This attempt to "balance" the budget reduces governance to a pachyderm's playhouse where the game is to see how many elephants can be stuffed into the room at once – and then ignored.

True balancing can only occur when all factors are taken into account, when necessary investments are not jeopardized and when time horizons are set appropriately.

Greg Michalenko, Waterloo, Ont.

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Tumaco, alas

I read Stephanie Nolen's piece on Tumaco, Colombia, with particular interest because I lived and worked there from 1976 to 1978 as a community health nurse (A Deal Will Be The Easy Part – Focus, Jan. 10).

It sounds like little has changed since – the tides still act as a giant flush twice a day for the slum neighbourhoods build on stilts over the mud flats. In those days, the drug trade was not the problem Ms. Nolen describes – but corruption was rampant. I always thought of the Pacific Coast as an area forgotten or ignored by the Colombian government. That hasn't changed either, alas.

Debbie Grisdale, Ottawa

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Del-icious

How delicious it is to find in a column on the subject of how technology has "de-skilled" us (Is Automation Making Us Helpless? – Jan. 17), that the computer's line breaks have twice rendered the word as "des-killed."

David Venus, Ancaster, Ont.