Category Archives: The Issues

Caveat emptor, Consider

Thoughts on the Vancouver Riots.

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As Ye sow so shall Ye reap.

There are those who point to the size of the crowd as the reason for the riots in Vancouver following game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

I suspect that even if you only had 50,000 (or just 25,000) people downtown you would have had a riot.

The problem did (does) not lie in the size of the crowd but in the people who make up the crowd.

The images that have allowed, and are continuing to allow, the identification of the rioters, arsonists and looters have made it clear that the common factor the participants share is youth.

Among the first people identified turned out to be: a member of the Canadian junior water polo team with a scholarship to the U of Calgary, a UBC student athlete, someone employed with a good work record….. They were not Anarchists as first claimed by authorities they were……. just youth, many of whom would have been labelled ‘good kids’ or even ‘accomplished kids’.

Which raises the question – what is going on with youth today that ‘good kids’ are rioting, setting cars on fire and looting?

I could talk about how my parents instilled a sense of honour, integrity and ethics where that kind of behaviour was and remains unacceptable. I could talk about how manners and responsible behaviour were drilled into me by actions such as having to sit down and hand write thank you notes for Christmas gifts or the requirement to use please and thank you when asking for something. Or how….

Some would argue that it is the pace of life, the fact both parents often are working, how stressful life is today……

And there is some validity in those points.

Still…….consider the following….

People complain about the failure to respect others property demonstrated by the rioters. But how can we expect young Canadians to have any respect for anything when Canada has a prime minister who, on the very day of the riot, refused to ban the export of slow painful death to developing nations.

You cannot sell or use asbestos in Canada and if you disturb asbestos you must call in removal specialists to remove the asbestos and it has to be disposed of in special disposal sites. That is how hazardous and deadly asbestos is considered in Canada.

Yet the prime minister not only refused to ban the sale of asbestos – which causes asbestosis, cancer and death – to the developing world, the prime minister was having Canada oppose a UN motion that would require the export of asbestos to be accompanied by a warning on the deadly health affect of asbestos.

When it was revealed that prime minister Harper sees nothing wrong with the export of asbestos for profit because it can perhaps win his party a seat in parliament, what were Canadian’s reactions to the news Canada was in the business of exporting death?

Yawn.

When the Chinese where found to have been shipping goods made with lead paint to Canada there were demands the government stop the import of items from China with lead paint – and indignation that China would ship dangerous materials to Canada.

Yet apparently the Canadian public and their elected officials see nothing wrong in exporting asbestos, a far more hazardous material that causes asbestosis, cancer and death.

It is not acceptable for other countries to export hazardous materials to Canada, yet it acceptable for Canada to export hazardous, cancerous and death causing materials to other countries.

How can we expect young people to have respect for people, their possessions or anything when our country and society accepts the export of asbestos and death as business as usual?

Some complain that in their angry frenzy the mob of youth running riot in downtown Vancouver gave no thought to the costs and consequences of their actions, inflicting millions of dollars of damage.

I wonder where they could have learned that behaviour?

Perhaps from the anti-HST leadership? Who in a fit of pique and/or making public mischief have set out to extinguish the HST without giving any thought to the costs and consequences. Or extinguish the HST while in wilful denial of the costs and consequences. Or worst of all extinguish the HST while ignoring the negative, multi-billion dollar consequences and costs to BC’s budget, healthcare and education of extinguishing the HST.

How many have said that those young people had failed to consider the far reaching, long term negative consequences would have on the brightness of their futures?

What bright futures?

I know that most of those among the ‘older or preceding generations’ are in strong, wilful denial but the reality is that we, those older and preceding generations, have – in self centered thoughtlessness – consumed the future of the youth of today.

Most politicians and Canadians are in a state of wilful and strong denial of this reality but, from the Tao of James: reality does not care what you believe is, reality does not care what you want to be, reality simply IS.

While we may not want to face the unpalatable reality that not only are we the first generation that is handing the next generation less than we were handed by preceding generations, but in our insatiable thirst for more, more, more….. we have consumed the future and stuck the kids with the bill for our excesses.

So before we go pointing fingers or shaking our heads or lamenting the actions of the mob and wondering ‘how could or why would they do that?” we had better consider the lessons we have taught and the society we have built with our choices and behaviours.

A society where profit and political advantage are more valuable/important that human life (exporting asbestosis, cancer and death); where childish temper tantrums where the consequences are ignored – or worse, to H*ll with the consequences is raging (HST) and the older generations have sold the future of youth to pay for their own life style and excesses

All our posturing, denial, excuse making and high sounding words really are meaningless, other than to highlight the hypocrisy of our society, when you look at the actions of our society.

It is not simply a matter of ” Actions speak louder than words” but also of “Every society should be considered as having a right to the character which it deserves; that is, to be spoken of according to its actions.”.

Perhaps, in light of our own actions, behaviours and the society that has resulted from those actions and behaviours, we should not be surprised that it happened, but that it does not happen more often.

Perhaps the question we should be asking is not “how could they” but rather what changes in our behaviours do we need to make to set a good example for young Canadians.

behaviour, Consider, Federal, Issues, Media, Municipal, Provincial

Canada’s Trade in Death

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Concordat:

I hereby attest and aver that as a Canadian of honour, integrity and ethics it is depraved, and therefore categorically unacceptable, for Canada to be exporting death (slow, painful death) and industrial disease – in any form and for reasons as perverted as jobs, profits and electoral advantage. I demand that the federal government make this trading in death illegal – immediately.

I call upon all Canadians of integrity and ethics to join in condemning this depraved export of death and industrial disease and demand the federal government make this trading in death illegal – immediately.

I call upon all Provincial, Territorial and Municipal politicians and governments of integrity and ethics to pass motions condemning this depraved export of death and industrial disease and demand the federal government make this trading in death illegal – immediately.

I call upon all Members of Parliament of integrity and ethics to come together, regardless of political affiliation, and make it a priority to immediately introduce and adopt legislation making the export of death and industrial disease illegal – immediately.

In stating that he won’t allow cancer causing asbestos to be reintroduced in Canadian homes or schools but he’s firmly behind allowing Quebec’s asbestos industry to export the death and disease that its product causes to willing buyers abroad, hoping that it will enable the Tories to win a seat in the area; in ignoring the fact Conservative MP Chuck Strahl did not seek re-election because he has been diagnosed with incurable lung cancer – mesothelioma – believed to be triggered by breathing asbestos when he was younger; Mr Harper has demonstrated a level of ethical and spiritual corruption and turpitude such that he is unfit to be involved in any manner with the governing of Canada and such that his presence in Ottawa defiles Parliament, the Government of Canada and the Citizens of Canada.

Mr Harper and any members of his caucus, indeed any Members of Parliament, Provincial, Territorial or Municipal politicians supporting this trade in death on the grounds of profit, jobs and/or political advantage are unfit to be associated in any manner with the Government of Canada, any Province, Territory or Municipality and must resign.

Should Mr Harper refuse to resign, a high probability outcome given the level of depravity his statements, actions and non-actions on the prostitution of Canada by trading in death, it is the moral duty of the Conservative caucus to remove Mr Harper from the caucus and any association with the Conservative Party.

Should the Conservative caucus choose to join Mr Harper and descend to his level of ethical and spiritual corruption and turpitude, any members of the Conservative caucus with integrity and ethics must resign the caucus and serve Canadian citizens by sitting as independents and working with other Members of Parliament possessing integrity and ethics to stop Canada and Canadian business from exporting death.

All Members of Parliament with integrity and ethics must not only wrest control of Parliament from those so depraved as to see nothing wrong with trading in death and put an end to this trading in death, but must also do all within their power to end any connection between Parliament and any members of parliament with a level of ethical and spiritual corruption and turpitude as to refuse to ban the export of a cancer causing death material.

Failure to act on ending this trade in cancer death and disease by Parliament and Provincial, Territorial or Municipal governments demonstrates they are unfit to govern and any government or level of government that demonstrates its’ unfitness to govern should be treated as non-existent.

Unfit governments should be shunned until they demonstrate they are at least minimally fit to be a government.

Whatever government Canadians deserve or are, for the most part willing to accept, no Canadian of any integrity or ethics can accept a government or governments so depraved as to be willing to export asbestos materials that cause cancer and death.

The only course for Canadians of integrity and ethics is to call for the resignation of all those who support or refuse to end the Death Trade and to focus on civil disobedience until at least minimal ethical behaviour is restored to governments in Canada.

We can starve the monstrous beast by refusing to feed it what it must have to exist – citizens financial support.

Forcing the federal or other levels of government to cease to sully all Canadians with their corruption and turpitude will not be easy, but it can be done.

The question every Canadian must ask themselves is what value they place upon their own integrity, ethics, spirit and souls?

Issues, Mental Health, Poverty

Perfectly Rational, Totally Irrational

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Having been a Chartered Accountant the financial, planning, management and leadership skills and abilities, together with experience, gained over a quarter century on this career path have proven useful in a broad array of areas and ways.

It does however, come with a few drawbacks I never would have anticipated having to deal with.

My income is fixed, has been fixed at the same level for the last 5+ years; my living and working expenses are few, straight forward and over the years have been creeping or leaping upward – a reality all Canadians are having to deal with. Have you checked the prices of yachts lately?

As a matter of mental wellness I have avoided putting pen to paper to draw up a budget. This decision is not about being in denial after all:

Reality does not care what you want to be true, it does not care what you believe to be true. Reality simply is. Tao of James

It is a decision about dealing with the reality I live with – depression, anxiety, panic and a propensity as an adult child of alcoholism for self sabotage.

Unfortunately with the fixed nature of revenue (income), the few expenses left after years of paring away expenses (haircuts, clothing, food, etc) and the fixed nature of many of the remaining expenses (insurance, phone, internet) budgeting and cash flow statements/analysis are so simple I can do them in my head.

Or more accurately I cannot NOT do budgets and cash flows in my head and so the train wreck that is the financial reality of my future is a constant and unavoidable awareness in my head. The slippage for phone and internet bills already has me slipping a few days later in paying them every month, with the point in time when I reach the point the services are terminated because I am too far behind inexorably moving nearer and nearer.

I watch the numbers unwind as more expenses must be shed until the point where revenue is sufficient to pay only the rent and I become in effect a prisoner in my home, unable to go anywhere except by walking. Which as a result of physical limitations and the pain that results from these limitations, places a maximum distance on travel of 100 – 200 meters.

Of course without food or the ability to obtain food the ability to pay the rent (at least as long as it does not go up) is rather moot. You can live homeless, you do not survive long foodless.

The inability to NOT have this awareness of budget and cash flow and the approaching ‘economic collapse’ and its (without a significant change in personal financial reality) inevitability has demanded and occupied space in the continuous awareness area of my mind.

I seem, at least for now, unable to put this awareness aside and focus on getting on with life.

Instead I find myself wanting to get out from under the stress, wishing that my ‘stuff’ was in storage and I could ‘solve’ the approaching time when economic reality exerts its negative consequences on my life by moving out from under the looming crash and into my car.

Circumstances had me living in my car before so there is no fear of the unknown, I know what needs to be done to survive living in your car. Indeed services added since I was last living in my car make living in your car simpler and more doable today.

In a way living in your car simplifies your life because you have to focus on doing what you need to in order to survive.

At some point either a rent increase or the need for food will force me out of my home and either into my car or onto the street.

There is a great deal to be said for choosing when, rather than waiting until there is no choice (based on the experience of having reached that no choice point).

Ironically a move to the car improves cash flow as one loses the $375 rent portion of revenue but gains the cash difference between the $375 and actual rent paid.

One of the real advantages for me of having a fixed address is internet access, an access that will in the near future be lost as it is the next item on the chopping block of financial expenditure reductions necessity. Which means internet access must be obtained at the library and the major incentive for struggling to preserve having a ‘home’ ceases to exist.

When the only use made of home becomes as the place one sleeps, is the money spent on gas to drive ‘home’ and the money spend on a ‘home’ that could be available for keeping the car in shape and running or to meet emergencies, a wise use of extremely limited financial resources?

Consider as well that I have no land line phone service. My only phone is a cell phone which is not only mobile (a service seeming designed for those with non fixed address) but provides email and messaging.

There are other points one can cite in support of choosing to join the growing community of people in Abbotsford whose automobile has become, among its other attributes, their home arguably a perfectly rational choice.

Yet friends, mental health professionals and others maintain that even thinking about abandoning my home, moving into and living in my car is totally irrational thinking.

Which is what I would be telling someone else if they were thinking of surrendering and moving into their car. That they needed to keep working and plugging away at things and see what develops or happens to change their financial circumstances (employment etc).

But watching the numbers and the future unroll in my mind makes the struggle with depression, anxiety and the urge to panic an ongoing, daily battle complicated by an ongoing struggle not to give into an act of self sabotage.

Living with mental illness and the quest for mental wellness is enough of a challenge on its own.

I really don’t need the additional headaches and stress that come with constant awareness of the budget and cash flow realities and the inevitable negative consequences of this financial future.

At times the urge to panic, to escape is overwhelming – no matter how irrational those actions would be.

I really wish……but then……

Reality does not care what you want to be true, it does not care what you believe to be true. Reality simply is. Tao of James

Some days, to many days, running down the middle of the road trying to pull my hair out and screaming Arrrggggghhhhhh seems so appealing – and so rationally irrational.

Caveat emptor, Federal

G8 Musings

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It may be showing my age but I can remember when a get together like the recent G8 summit was about accomplishing something.

These days a G8 summit is a ‘success’ if the nations attending can cobble together a closing statement that does not offend any head of state’s delicate sensibilities, allowing them to issue a closing statement (hopefully a statement that avoids the embarrassment of having any of the heads of state immediately disown the closing statement) that gives the appearance that something has been accomplished, thus seeming to justify the expense.

I use the term ‘heads of state’ because, as the G8 underscores, it is clear that what nations around the globe are lacking is leaders and leadership. The world is in tough shape, a state of affairs that continues to worsen. It is not that we cannot address the issues the world faces; it is that we choose not to. That situation cannot be solely laid at the feet of the heads of state. Mush of the responsibility of the failure to address the most dangerous or pressing issues belongs to citizens who just do not want to hear it and choose to embrace wilful denial.

It was not that long ago (pre 2006) that Canada was known and recognized as a positive influence among the G8 nations and around the world. These days, should you be the Prime Minister of Israel like Benjamin Netanya and you need a negative result or outcome, ‘who you gonna call’? Stephen Harper of course.

Stephen Harper hustling to Greece after the summit to give Prime Minister George Papandreou economic and financial management advice on how to deal with the disaster that is Greece’s economy is like the Captain of the Titanic offering the Captain of the Exxon Valdez advice on sailing his ship.

Unfortunately, Mr Harper’s recent throne speech makes abundantly clear the reality Canadians must face and deal with is that with Harper as the Captain the Canadian economy is the Titanic. After all, the opposition parties were forced into defeating the government on their Budget as a result of the numerous and obvious ‘icebergs’ contained in the Budget the Conservatives introduced. Mr Harper, his finance minister and the Conservative caucus have ignored these icebergs, mostly I fear because they do not exist or are of no importance in their ideology (which puts understanding of the economic, financial and social realities of Canada beyond their grasp), setting the ship of state speeding full steam ahead into waters heavily infested with icebergs.

I did find it very interesting (and somewhat amusing) that after hustling Mr Harper on his way to ‘advise’ Greece the remaining heads of state remained behind to talk to each other.

Federal, Municipal, Provincial

Financial Reality Check

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The report on the state of the hospital on Haida Gwaii contained two important reality checks.

The NDP continue to need a major reality check on financial reality. There the NDP were, once again, demanding the BC government spend millions ($60 million) on health care (new Haida Gwaii hospital) while the NDP continue to advocate the repeal of the HST.

The 2011/12 budget is already facing a revenue shortage of $475 million, the amount that was due July 1, 2011 for implementing the HST. Given that BC’s referendum on repealing the HST violates the agreement with the federal government, the feds are not going to be paying that $475 million. Unless of course reality and sanity prevail and the Voters vote to keep the HST.

So, the NDP are working to cut $475 million out of BC’s 2011/12 budget and calling for added spending of $60 million for a new hospital on Haida Gwaii.

As a public service to the citizens of BC I am willing to make the sacrifice and accept $1 million from the NDP in order to provide a salient lesson on the effect of a significant revenue reduction . I am willing to accept any additional millions from the NDP that may be necessary in order for the NDP to learn about the effects a significant reduction in revenue has on a budget and what that reduction means for spending.

Further I will accept $130,000 from the NDP to model the effect of adding a large expenditure to a budget dealing with a large revenue reduction. (13% was arrived at by dividing $60 million demanded expenditure by the $475 million revenue reduction demanded by the NDP).

I also extend this offer to Mr Vander Zalm (adjusted to remove the additional $130,000 representing the NDP’s demanded expenditure as Mr Vander Zalm has only advocated reducing revenue by the $475 million this year, hundreds of millions per year in subsequent years and by the $1.2 billion that will need to be repaid to Ottawa).

Neither the NDP or Mr Vander Zalm should have any objection to accepting this offer as this is exactly what they are advocating the citizens of BC do with their money. There is no reason to object to acting on a personal financial level in the same manner they are advocating the province of BC act, is there?

The second reality check (and of far more concern) was the statement that, while the government was committed to getting the people on Haida Gwaii a new hospital, they did not have the $60 million needed and did not know where they could find it.

Hardly surprising in light of the Finance Minister’s statement that the government did not have any extra millions to increase spending on the missing woman’s inquiry. Or in light of the report on the same newscast that the most vulnerable of our citizens, those facing mental and physical challenges are facing cutbacks because the government simply does not have the money to meet all its obligations and demands for services. This situation is not the only cannibalizing of services here to provide services there. The government has been, over time, more and more often robbing Peter to pay Paul.

 

And that is the reality before revenue is reduced by $475 million or by the hundreds of millions (year after year) that will result from a repeal of the HST.

Why do I say this is of far more concern?

Consider this scenario: the province finds the $60 million but the people of Surrey say “Wait a minute, we need more hospital beds, the money should be spent building more hospital beds in Surrey (or Vancouver). There are only 2,500 people in Haida Gwaii and hundreds of thousands in Surrey.”

We are in that scenario. If the government manages to scrape up the $60 million by (robbing it from) further reductions in support to the challenged and other programs and if the money is spent on a new hospital on Haida Gwaii there will be no money for new hospital beds in the rest of BC.

We are just beginning resource and service wars pitting Haida Gwaii against Surrey, premies against the old; those in need of heart surgery or transplants against those in need of elective surgery……

We cannot have everything, have it now and not need to pay for it.

Reality is about to give British Columbians and our government, indeed Canada as a whole, a rude awakening with a reality hip-check.

As it says in the Tao of James: ‘Realty doesn’t much care what you believe or what you want to be true, it just IS.”