Not a fan

Rory Kenny [of local band Mishima] said some pretty weird things last week in your interview, "The brainpan and the breadbasket." He was all preachy and political with his "Indie rock to me is about bands that shun away from whatever is popular and that's bullshit. Indie rock is just eating its own shit right now." Then he's telling all us fans to "leave their politics at the door." Who is actually listening to this guy? And how did he end up on the cover?

--Aaron Fitt

It's not the heat,it's the stupidity

Regarding Naomi Bloch's "Heave a sigh of relief" [Front, Feb. 15], I would like to say that I'm all for the government handing us back a little money to help with the heating bills, but I'm a little disappointed in the implementation. For the people who receive GST refunds and actually pay their heating, it's great. Unfortunately, a lot of people who don't pay their own heating bills also got it (18-year-old CÉGEP students who live with their parents, for example). Meanwhile our heating bill went up almost $150 and we get zip because, apparently, we make way too much money (note the sarcasm).

--Bob

Give the docs a break

Don't get me wrong, I love your newspaper, but man, you guys are complacent writing your badly researched, over-generalized articles about issues of extreme social importance. If you're going to generalize about doctors, maybe you should be a little bit more wary about your sources. In "Medic Alert" [Feb. 15], Eriko Kato discusses how the clinic couldn't help her with her ovarian cyst. The poor woman probably had to have an ultrasound done. You can't go to a clinic for that information as there simply isn't the equipment to make the diagnosis--the emergency room was necessary. Although I've had my share of terrible experiences with doctors where antibiotics were way over-prescribed, I think people need to start taking them more seriously and stop expecting their doctors to play God. Though our system isn't as funded as it should be, in a global perspective, we have it pretty good. People need to remember that doctors have to deal with a lot of shit too. Try being a doctor and see how many people only care about fulfilling their prescriptions and getting an instantaneous cure for what ails them.

--Anonymous

Blame the banks

I just finished reading Kristian Gravenor's "Slumlord Confessions" [Kristian Perspective, Feb. 15] during lunch break and typed this missive on the fly. Now I am sending it to you in a free moment. Normally I do not take the side of landlords. But, yes, there are some tenants who deliberately do not pay the rent even when they can easily afford to. Some tenants on welfare also have the means to pay their rent, but choose not to and abuse the system. These tenants do not deserve too much sympathy.

But I would still say about 90-95 per cent of the tenants on welfare are good tenants and pay their rent on time most months, if not all (late payment is nowhere as bad as nonpayment, even though we do not want to encourage it as a rule). Landlords should not use the excuse of a few bad tenants to abuse all renters. Over-generalization can be a dangerous thing, and can lead to gross abuse.

There are a lot of genuinely poor people on welfare who have trouble making ends meet; there are many others who are under-employed, are struggling students or have unsteady work. They deserve our understanding.

Of course, landlords like Mr. Gravenor deserve sympathy too. But in cases like these, we must pressure the banks to be more flexible about mortgage payments. Why do our banks keep showing fatter profits and yet show no sympathy for landlords as well as others who are in a tight spot through no fault of their own? Middle-class people as well as the poor deserve better treatment from banks. Let us lobby the banks.

--Sammy Marouflin

Correction

Last week's music listings photo of Detention, which was uncredited, was taken by Sivan Noah.