Press freedom

Some people are happy that CNN's satellite transmission license to broadcast live had expired and that it was not renewed by relevant officials (stops live reporting from the scene) :(

OTOH, quite a bad situation for India's media freedom reputation that the world's largest democracy suspended CNN's live transmission license. What broke the camel's neck?

According to Reporters Without Borders, India is still at a lowly #118, so next year the number might be lower, but who knows...

PÖFF: Films to Watch

I looked around the PÖFF schedule and found some very interesting stuff to take a look at and watch, too:

Canada: "Ce qu'il faut pour vivre" (French and Inuit languages)
"Winner of the Grand Prix des Ameriques as Best Film at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival and Canada's official entry in the Best Foreign Language Oscar race..."

There are actually six films from Canada, but the site's search function is not designed to be very gracious and does not let the user copy the search results.

Estonia:
• "The Kings of the Time" centers on Estonia's puppet animation, Estonia's film animation in general and the people who laid the base for it
• "I was here" — Keywords: Drugs, sex, violence and loud music

Latvia: "The Soviet Story"
Lithuania: "When I Was A Partizan"
Germany: "The Wave"

Two points: World's soundest banks and how forward-looking Estonians are

In July, a family member in Canada wondered if another depression is going to happen in the U.S. and how it will affect Canada.

Well, it may be somewhat early to think of a depression yet (I'm trying to be an optimist, or maybe is it, that my worrylessness may actually be complacency), but it's always best to be careful. "Better safe than sorry" sounds perhaps a bit too cliché. At least right now, people are bracing for the impact that this negative growth is (also called a recession, mostly after the fact).

I do have to add that Canada has soundest banking system in the world, with Sweden at #2 and most large Estonian banks belong to Nordic banking companies.

Of course, the latest Time article about Estonia is not so bloomy anymore about Estonia. After all, if you're exemplified all around the world for being great when times are good, remember to expect being reported on at difficult times (and how you're faring).

This Time piece by Andrew Purvis reflects on Estonians' reputation for "being practical, down-to-earth, and forward-looking." The latter notion being rather telling, because in "The Baltic Mourning After", the same author has noticed "Black banners for a lecture series [...] in Tallinn asking: IS THERE LIFE AFTER CAPITALISM?"

The lecture series happened in October (with the end of the month culminating with the screening of "The Corporation", a Canadian documentary) and still continues to happen in November.

Links and comments

• 21.10.: Canada rated world's soundest bank system
  You just have to love those oddball news sites that still keep their articles :-)
  
  Op-Eds:
• 31.10.: Strong, safe and open for business
• 03.11.: Mel Watkins . Still strong and free
• 10.11.: Why Canada's Banks Don't Need Help
  — With a link to a somewhat sardonic gallery of Top Ten Scared Traders at the end of the article. || I guess the guys and gals there will be remembered as really-really brave for having had the guts to yo-yo, swing and zigzag through the precarious financial mêlée that befell in their midst.
  
  Doubt has also been creeping in:
• 13.11.: Experts not sold on bank strength
  I'd say rather that a sound banking system allows a country to tough it out through the rough times with less pain than those rated to be in their forties. I remember a piece in The Economist which mentioned that wealthy countries will have it harder than poor countries, because the latter have a difficult life anyway.