Eeny Meeny Miny Moe...

Here's a headline for you:

"Contestants to vie for kidney transplant on controversial Dutch reality TV show"

It just seems so wrong. People shouldn't have to compete for life-saving procedures.

A Dutch reality show that claims to be trying to draw attention to a shortage of organ donors said Tuesday it would go ahead with a program in which a terminally ill woman will choose a contestant to receive one of her kidneys.

The program, "Big Donor Show," has been attacked as unethical and tasteless. One member of the Dutch parliament suggested the government should block Friday's broadcast.

"We know that this program is super controversial and some people will think it's tasteless, but we think the reality is even more shocking and tasteless: waiting for an organ is just like playing the lottery," Laurens Drillich, chairman of the BNN network, said in a statement.

He said waiting lists in the Netherlands are more than four years long and 200 patients die annually for lack of a donor.

The network identified the donor as "Lisa," a 37-year-old woman with an inoperable brain tumour. During the show, she will hear interviews with the three candidates, their families and friends before choosing who will get her kidney.

I understand that reality shows are not all "real". There has to be some scripting to ensure controversy, or who would watch? But this is crazy! Who wants to decide who gets to live and who dies? I know I would never want to be in the position of deciding.

That said, the shows producers raise some good points in that it is raising awareness for organ donation. The Dutch Education Minister Ronald Plasterk, addressed parliament basically saying they could not censure the show, as much as they might like to. Also:

Noting the shortage of donors, he said it was a good time for a debate on the question of what incentives to donate are ethical.

He cited the example of a Dutch funeral home that is offering discounts to the families of people who were registered as donors, and an idea presented by the country's Kidney Institute to give registered donors preference on organ waiting lists.

So let's hear it. What do you think the incentives should be for organ donation?

Have a Beer!

I just want to say have a Moosehead beer:

Steven Poirier, president of New Brunswick-based Moosehead Breweries, says a huge slice of Canada's brewing industry has been swallowed by foreign interests -- mostly U.S. brewing giants.

"Close to 90% of all beer sold in Canada today is controlled by foreign brewers," Poirier says in a speech he will deliver today in Saint John, N.B.

"This is probably the highest percentage in the world."
...
Moosehead, which traces its roots to 1867, is now the largest Canadian-owned brewery. Its products account for about 5.5% of national beer sales.

Poirier says the three fastest growing beer brands in Canada are U.S. brands that have invested millions in advertising and promotional campaigns.

He says Canadian consumers have bought into the U.S. campaigns, which often use Canadian images and themes.

From the Moosehead website:

Availability of our other brands is as follows:

Moose Light – NB, NS, PEI, NL, ON, MB, SK(cans only), AB
Moosehead Pale Ale – AB, ON, NB, NS, PEI
Moosehead Premium Dry – NB, NS, PEI, NFLD
Moosehead Dry Ice – NS, PEI
Alpine Lager - NB, NS, PEI, AB
Alpine Light – NB, PEI, NS (Wine & private specialty stores and Moosehead Cold Beer Stores only)
Clancy’s Amber Ale – NB, NS, PEI, MB
Cold Filtered Light – NB, PEI, (soon to be NS)

The Future is Upon Us

I've recently been in conversations where people have suggested the next wars will be about water and food. Think about how much of your food is imported from different countries. What would you do if imported food was no longer available? Especially consider the winter.

In Canada we kind of take the water part for granted. Yes we should all work towards conserving water. It is not an infinite resource, but for the most part, Canadians are not dying from lack of clean water. This does not mean we don't have to worry about water wars, it just puts us on the defensive. And it starts now (from Alison at Creekside):

"It's no secret that the U.S. is going to need water. ...

It's no secret that Canada is going to have an overabundance of water.
At the end of the day, there may have to be arrangements."

So says Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the North American Future 2025 Project, which is wrapping up its closed-door two-day conference in Calgary today.

NAF2025 Project is the trilateral spawn of the US thinktank Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Conference Board of Canada, and CIDE, a Mexican policy institute.

Its mandate is implementing the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the deep integration deal signed by Bush, Fox, and Martin in 2005 and further expanded by Bush, Fox, and Harper in 2006.

From an outline of the conference :

"the overriding future goal of North America is to achieve joint optimum utilization of the available water."

Not bad.

'All your water are belong to us' would have been catchier.

Still, the message is unmistakable, isn't it?

Hmm, I'm all for sharing, but the US doesn't have a good track record for sharing nicely. Remember the softwood lumber dispute anyone?

CC from Canadian Cynic weighs in:

Got that? An "overabundance" of water. The implication is clear: somehow, it's just not right. It's just not fair. We have so much while others have so little, so we should work to somehow balance this out because, well, it's the right thing to do.

And if any of my American readers want to take that position, let me give them something to think about:

* Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy. (American Almanac)

* In 1997, U.S. residents consumed an average of 12,133 kilowatt-hours of electricity each, almost nine times greater than the average for the rest of the world. (Grist Magazine)

Sure, let's talk about fair and balanced, shall we? Tell you what -- we can discuss sharing all that water equally when you folks start consuming energy equally.

Whaddya think? Is that fair? Does that work for you?

But my absolute favourite quote on the issue if from commenter North of 49 at Creekside:

I think it stems from the same mindset that demands to know what all that American oil is doing under the sands of Iraq and Iran.