[LINK] "Minister won't confirm belief in evolution"

I'd like to thank james_nicoll for helping to undermine the myth of Canadian exceptionalism in the North American continent.

Canada's science minister, the man at the centre of the controversy over federal funding cuts to researchers, won't say if he believes in evolution.

“I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate,” Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

A funding crunch, exacerbated by cuts in the January budget, has left many senior researchers across the county scrambling to find the money to continue their experiments.

Some have expressed concern that Mr. Goodyear, a chiropractor from Cambridge, Ont., is suspicious of science, perhaps because he is a creationist.

When asked about those rumours, Mr. Goodyear said such conversations are not worth having.

“Obviously, I have a background that supports the fact I have read the science on muscle physiology and neural chemistry,” said the minister, who took chemistry and physics courses as an undergraduate at the University of Waterloo.

“I do believe that just because you can't see it under a microscope doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It could mean we don't have a powerful enough microscope yet. So I'm not fussy on this business that we already know everything. … I think we need to recognize that we don't know.”

Asked to clarify if he was talking about the role of a creator, Mr. Goodyear said that the interview was getting off topic.

[LINK] "Lipstick on a Pig"

Torontoist's David Topping reports that on the rivalry shared by two neighbouring east-end Toronto businesses, drawn on their use of "Obama" in their businesses' names.

When it launched early last month, the Obama Café, at 1226 Danforth Avenue, was the city's first Obama-themed business. But it wouldn't be alone for long: just a few doors down, at 1236 Danforth, an internet shop formerly known as the United Internet Café got a new red, white, and blue sign of its own, and a new name, just in time for the American president's trip to Ottawa: Obama Cybernet Ltd. (or, if you go by their website, which advertises that "yes we can help!" with your computer needs, the Obama Cybernet Café).

[. . .]

The Obama Cybernet Café, a few dozen feet away, is run by Amveson Fitsumbrahn. Though it was created after Debass's Obama Café, Fitsbumbrahn told Torontoist that he's had the idea for nine months, and that on the Danforth his nickname is "Obama"; "no-one even knows my real name." Though he couldn't vote in the American election himself, according to Fitsumbrahn he helped coordinate some twelve hundred volunteers over the internet for the Obama campaign.

But that's not really cutting it for Debass, who thinks that Fitsumbrahn's trying to capitalize on his business' fast-found popularity. "He's bringing a lot of confusion with his name," Debass says; when he saw Fitsumbrahn changing the sign right as his own café started swarming with media, "I said, 'what's going on with this guy?!'" It's the proximity that irks Debass most: another Obama café "right beside me," he says, "is unacceptable." "He cannot do that....it doesn't work like that in Canada." Debass got his lawyer to write a letter to Fitsumbrahn, and now the whole thing is "under litigation." Even though he wants Fitsumbrahn's store name changed "by any means necessary," Debass still prefers to think that it's all a "misunderstanding"; both men reiterated to Torontoist that they're from the same community, and neither seems too interested in a fight.</blockquote.

[LINK] "State must work to save our languages"

Solani Ngobeni, letter-writer to South Africa's Times, writes about the challenges facing South Africa's languages. Under various segregationist rules, first English then Afrikaans were imposed on the wider population. Why can't it be the turn of South Africa's other languages?

Given that we are now in power, can we use this leverage to develop African languages without unleashing violence on other language groups?

I think that in this election season an opportunity has been lost since, in most instances, the electioneering is conducted in English.

Aren’t our political belligerents excluding the majority through the fact that they are communicating their messages in English?

Furthermore, the Publishers’ Association report clearly illustrates that the majority of books published in African languages are to all intents and purposes school books, of which the Department of Education is the largest purchaser.

There is very little trade or general book publishing in African languages.

Given that the Publishers’ Association survey shows that there is very little market for books in African languages beyond the school, how do publishers publish for this market and still survive ?

Are we willing to be blunt with ourselves and concede that most of us do not buy and read books written in our own languages, despite our recognition that African language publishing is facing serious challenges?

Even better, can we read in African languages or can we just speak in these languages?

This letter was written in reply to this article, also worth reading.

[BRIEF NOTE] A St. Patrick's Day Question

St. Patrick's Day, national day of the Irish and a favourite excuse for drink-fueled socialization around the world, has less than one hour left to it here in Toronto. No, I haven't partaken.

What do you think of the ways in which those two signal qualities of the feast day are intermingled? Good, bad, best not to think about, what is there to think about?