In the 1987 the Dutch auteur film maker Paul Verhoeven created a movie unlike any other. He called it Robocop and I’m old enough to remember watching this dark comedy sci-fi masterpiece when it was brand spanking new.
This film and its sequel (humbly titled: Robocop 2) continue to resonate and influence today’s art and culture. Sometime this year or perhaps next, in the real-world city of Detroit a ten-foot tall Officer Murphy (aka Robocop himself) statue will be unveiled- 26 years after Verhoeven chose Detroit as the setting for a near future city on the brink of disaster due to the privatization of that city’s police force and its resulting corporate mismanagement.
It seems OCP, Detroit’s police force, have no choice but to create a half-man half-machine cyborg in hopes of not only a public relations coup but with an eye on a bright future of profitable policing. Enter the complicated messages stitched into Robocop.
Film like all media, has been used as a political statement before but perhaps Robocop did this unintentionally. It’s a sci-fi movie first and foremost but the personal message exists too: THIS MIGHT HAPPEN. “Dead or alive….you’re coming with me.” CP
Supplemental- The Rocky Balboa statue in Philadelphia http://www.pophistorydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/1982-rocky-rear-90.jpg
“Oh what the hell, frieda chicken”
We must hit the brakes before we become Detroit!
I think all of us were quite shaken when we saw Detroit file for bankruptcy. We now
see firsthand what’s in jeopardy if our province continues down the current path.
In Detroit, you have to wait 58 minutes for police to respond to a crime and people
are driving down streets where four out of 10 streetlights are broken. And then
there are the government retirees who are counting on that good pension. Now,
they’ll only get 10 cents for every dollar they were promised – a $40,000 pension,
only worth $4,000. I know we’re not there yet, but that’s where we’re headed.
We need to rein in government spending and get it refocused on the core tasks. We
need to hit the brakes before we head further down this road to Detroit.
Right now over half the provincial budget is being spent on salaries, wages,
benefits and pensions for government workers. That’s why we must start out with a
legislated pay freeze for all government employees – from firefighters to MPPs – and
then make the fundamental reforms required Ontario’s systems of public sector
compensation.
It’s time to fix the broken arbitration system that forces unaffordable settlements
on municipal councils and taxpayers. When taxpayers in Scugog open the paper to see
that local firefighters were awarded a 27 per cent wage increase, they’re left
wondering – “how are we going to pay for this?”
Every day, these types of wage increases are forcing municipalities to choose
between raising taxes or taking fire trucks and police cruisers off the road
It means ending the underlying assumption that property taxpayers have infinitely
deep pockets. You and I both know those pockets are now empty. Councils can’t keep
raising taxes. It also means no more Toronto settlements becoming the benchmarks for
towns on the other side of the province. Decisions must reflect municipal budgets
and their local economy.
As Opposition, we thank the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) board and
executive staff for helping us and endorsing our arbitration bill. It was an honour
to receive an endorsement from this organization arising from consultations on the
Capacity to Pay Act.
We also thank AMO and the Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO) for
endorsing our open tendering legislation put forward by MPP Michael Harris. This
bill would allow municipalities to tender their construction work in a free and
competitive environment, and not be locked into one union. If you need to fix your
deck or buy some new furniture, you shop around and get the best deal. It should be
the same way for our municipal construction projects. It is time to put an end to
the closed tendering laws that do nothing but drive up the costs for taxpayers.
Another area that we need to take on is the ticking time bomb of government
pensions. Estimates put the pension shortfall for government workers as high as $100
billion. Left unaddressed, taxpayers – most of whom are without a pension – will be
on the hook to make up the difference between what has been promised and what little
has been put aside to fund pensions for public servants.
The simple truth is we cannot keep spending the way we have in the past.
By MPP Toby Barrett