A Letter that I sent to the anchor-person of the CBC's programme SPARK.

Hello Norah,

I have never heard Spark before, but I have just caught part of your show.

Where did you find the wonderful Penelope? What a joy to hear a female talking common sense about females. At last we have someone on the radio who isn’t sniveling and whining about the fact that there aren’t exactly the same number of females as males in every occupation on God’s earth. At last we have someone who can actually recognize the differences between males and females. Personally I love to see, chat with, socialize with and any other ‘with’ a glorious female who wants to be feminine and be recognized as a beautiful woman.

Why can women not accept the fact that they are female, glory in the idea, enjoy doing whatever it is that they want to do and just get on with life? What is the point of so many of you wanting to give the impression of having a massive inferiority complex?

During my many years as a management consultant, I’ve met many highly competent women in management and I have also met many highly competent women who couldn’t care less about being in management.

Of course there aren’t the same number of women in Venture capital companies as men for all the reasons that Penelope gave you. I am also darn glad that there aren’t the same number of men in nursing as there are women; having been in hospital a number of times, I cannot tell you what a joy it is to wake up after an operation to see a pretty young face smiling down at you and to hear a charming, gentle, female voice instead of several days’ growth of beard and a gruff word or two.

As for your next guest, the Indian professor, as with most research scientists, he relies heavily on statistics. Let me remind you of two things about statistics:

First. We are all humans but of two very different genders, with different ideas and different ideals. You simply cannot group individuals by ‘type’.

Second. When the breathalyser first came out in the late 60’s in England, the first statistical report on its usage said that 10% of all fatal accidents were caused by drunk drivers and this was an unacceptably high percentage. So a friend of mine and I wrote to the Times of London, pointing out the fact that these statistics showed clearly that 90% of all fatal accidents were caused by sober people; so who should be taken off the roads?

Thank goodness for people like Penelope, talking about real people in real situations on the ground and actually experiencing the facts of the case.

Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest, you producers and anchor-people at the CBC. Some of us are getting very bored with all these so called ‘experts’ with their theories (no matter how many professorships they hold) and ‘world renowned’ interviewees. Let’s have more interviewees like Penelope, and those like her but with the opposite view, but let them be real people who are involved in the topic of the show. Talk to the people on the ground, and take the ones who produce statistics from within the protection of their ivory towers with a truck load of salt.

Believe me when I say, Norah, that no statistics, no matter from where you get them, are going to enable you to prove this crazy notion that every board room in the world should be populated by 50% women and 50% men. Oh, and don’t forget parliament and local government and all other institutions! Some of them will be, and some already are, populated by more women than men.

All the best,

Jeremy Moray

Federal Cabinet investments?

Here we go again. Why do these people continue to wonder why so few people bother to vote?

Two weeks before the Cabinet announced to the public that they had decided to not allow the Prosperity mine owned byTaseko Mines Limited to go ahead for environmental reasons, they were in a secret huddle, and it was at this meeting, apparently, that they decided not to allow this CAD 3 billion (NPV) mine to go ahead.

However, the very next day after their secret meeting, and therefore two weeks before the announcement to the public, over 13 million shares were traded in one day, well over 10 times the normal number for this stock to be traded in one day on the TSX, and at one point, 2.7 million shares were sold in less than a minute. Yet when the opposition asked questions of the Government as to whether or not they thought there had been a leak, all they got back was the cabinet individuals saying that they had done the right thing by the Canadian public and that was to stop the mine for environmental reasons. What was really interesting about this part of the saga was that the opposition never insisted on the Government answering the question: Was there, or was there not a leak?

Maybe some members of the opposition were also in on the racket of shorting a falling stock and making a fortune; after all, as I understand it, they all drink in the same pub after work, if you can call yelling at each other in the name of discussion, work. Remember that this was all done before the average shareholder even had time to instruct their broker to sell and so they lost large sums of money as a direct result of somebody leaking (secret, at the time) information.

Interestingly we now have a Class Action Suit going ahead on behalf of those who lost money on this nose diving stock. Taseko lost some 40% of its value in that one day of trading.

I can hardly wait for all the denials and cover-ups that will come our way in the, hopefully, near future. I am afraid that I will still be looking for the 'None of the Above' box on my voting paper next time round.

The Potash Mine Takeover

Let's get one thing straight right from the start, this is not a Canadian mine. It is an American mine situated in Canada.

I do not think that the political reasons for the refusal to allow the takeover which are being touted by 'the experts' on the CBC, are the real ones. Of course people wil say that the decision was made based on the fact that there is a minority government that does not want to get into trouble with the opposition for selling Canadian resources down the road; but I am sure the real reason has more to do with the vast investments made by the Americans in the Oil Sands than anything else.

Think about it. With the price of Potash at around $340 a ton, and the American owners making a tidy profit at the moment, why would they want to see their profitable asset taken over before the mine becomes un profitable again in a few years. Why unprofitable? Because the Chinese have an equally large mine coming on stream in 2015 and the Argentinians have another one coming on stream even sooner, and when these two are up and working, the rarity value of the product is bound to come down and hence the price.

As we do nothing but bow to the American's every whim as we live under the Harper (US) dictatorship, this seems to make a lot more sense than most of the arguments I have heard or read so far.

What should have been done is to allow the takeover on the condition that the shares are traded on the TSE, and that way we can all enjoy the profitable ride for the moment and let's see if the Americans try and block it, instead of instructing the Canadians to do it.

In closing, let me say that I was involved with both the Oil Sands and the Potash mine when I was a Management Consultant, a few years ago.

RECENT TOASTMASTER'S WIT

                                                                    

The following was sent to me to-day by a friend and I had to spread these perfect descriptions. This was the wit given at last week's Toastmaster's Meeting. 

Political Philosophies Explained in Simple Two-Cow Terms

SOCIALISM You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor.
COMMUNISM You have two cows. The government takes them both and provides you with milk.
FASCISM You have two cows. The government takes them and sells you the milk.
BUREAUCRACY You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours it down the drain.
CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
CORPORATE You have two cows. You sell one, force the other to produce the milk of four cows, then act surprised when it drops dead.
DEMOCRACY You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point that you must sell them both in order to pay the taxes to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow which was a gift from your government.
 How's that for being politicaly correct.

“BIG CHANGES COULD BE COMING TO THE BC FINANCE ACT,” SAYS MINISTER.

Over the past several months there have been tripartite talks going on in Ottawa between the Finance Ministries of Canada, BC and the Esquimalt Indian band who are the owners of a large part of the downtown Victoria area on Vancouver Island. Being the Indigenous Peoples of this area, it is the Esquimalt Indian Band who originally granted a lease to the BC government to allow them to build the Legislature on Indian land.

For many years, members of the government have been going backwards and forwards on a daily basis to Vancouver to attend meetings and generally administer government matters. After much discussion it has been agreed in principle that the Legislature should move into the seven empty floors of Vancouver Town Hall which building will become the official Legislature of British Columbia as the remaining floors are vacated by the Town Hall personnel. The Legislature in Victoria will be handed back to the Indigenous Peoples for a nominal payment of $1.00, and the existing lease to BC will be cancelled by the Band once the Lege is finally vacated by the government on an on going basis.

 “This is where the big changes come in,” said the Minister at a recent press conference in Vancouver. “We all know that the BC economy needs a good boost and it has been decided to make the Greater Victoria area a Tax Free Haven in the same fashion as Hong Kong. The proposed area concerned is everything south of McKenzie Avenue from where it joins Beach Drive at Cadboro Bay, round to Admirals Road in Esquimalt. Please remember, folks, that this is still in the planning stages and, as yet, nothing is set in concrete, going forward, from this point in time.”

Naturally, the Minister faced many questions after this announcement and during the course of these, it was disclosed that the Esquimalt Band has already hired an architect from the United States to plan the conversion of the Lege into a five star hotel and casino complex. This news has delighted those in the tourist industry, particularly the hotel owners in Victoria, as it surely means that there will be a large upsurge in people visiting our beautiful city by land, sea and air, even if they only sit indoors all day and gamble.

The government representative at the press conference did point out that there would be a benefit to the rest of Canada as they, the Federal Government, had proposed a joint venture agreement which would mean that, despite the Indigenous Peoples' ownership of the complex, ….“there will still be a Federal tax liability on the operating profits, going forward, from this point in time, or as soon as the plans are materialized.”

As the press conference broke up, there was much mumbling to be heard from some of the owners of the Ogden Point development who had hoped to stir the pot with the Minister regarding an increase in the number of cruise ships carrying gamblers, going forward (or backwards, come to that. Ed.), which would pollute the waterfront, conveniently forgetting that they have already ruined it by building their development on it.

Canadian Law?

What on earth is going on in Ontario?
Wittig has heard that a Chinese fellow who owns a store in Ontario was arrested when he caught and held onto a shoplifter who was stealing from his store. The store owner held the thief until the police arrived and then the police promptly arrested the owner for kidnapping the shoplifter!!!.

I can remember many years ago when muy father did his jury service in England, how he was on the jury when a case came up about a burglar who had been hit over the head by the owner of a house when the owner found the burglar filling a sack with his silver collection, having broken a window to get into the dining room. When the police arrived they arrested the burglar and took a statment from the ownner.

In court, the burglar was sentenced to imprisonment and the owner was congratulated by the judge, but warned that if it happened again, he was to be sure that he did not accidently, or otherwise, kill the burglar.

When are the police over here going to start treating innocent people, let alone people who help them, as being innocent until proven guilty?

How much more pleasant it would have been had the police simply taken a statement from theChinese owner and thanked him for his help in arresting the shoplifter.

MAJOR CHANGE MAY BE COMING TO TRAFFIC ACT

Audible sighs could be heard coming from the BC provincial legislature yesterday when the government thought it had passed a major change to the Traffic Act sect 128 sub sect 24.7, by a vote of 105 to 104. No one was sure of the number of abstentions as the person responsible for counting those MLA’s was on holiday.

As a result of this possible change, from November 5th 2010 (see Wikipedia for date reference) it will be the responsibility of every driver using a parking space in the metered area of downtown Victoria to procure a bracelet from the blue meter towers that at present only take money for parking. These bracelets will work on the same principle as the prisoner ankle bracelets which constantly check on the whereabouts of a prisoner.

The driver bracelet will be worn on the wrist and will have an audible warning signal that tells the wearer when they have reached their maximum allowed distance from their car; initially this will be set at 200 metres. Once the person has reached this distance, should the wearer choose to disregard the signal they will receive an electric shock, similar to that given by the RCMP’s Taser guns which they have been using to great effect of late.

The wearer may stay within their allotted area for the one hour which comes free when they pay for the bracelet, or return to their vehicle and move it to another space at least 200 metres away, and purchase another bracelet in order to continue shopping. Anyone disregarding these rules will find that their car has been towed away to a local corral.

Bids have been received by the Municipal authority for the contract to remove the cars of offending drivers and receive the fines of a minimum of $500.00 (more if the vehicle is left overnight). In view of the fact that an official from the Ministry would neither confirm nor deny that a contract had been awarded,  Wittig did its own investigating and discovered that the contract has gone to a good friend of the Premier.

During this investigation, Wittig asked about the effect that this change might have on shopping downtown, let alone tourism. We were told by a Ministry official that, “This change in the Act is a great success for the Government of the day; and, as such, our expert advisors advise us that we can expect a steady increase in retail revenues, going forward, and in the number of tourists visiting our wonderful city in the future.” When the Minister was reminded of the fact that there was plenty of free parking at three large Malls around the edge of the city, she said, “No comment,” and smiled for the cameras before scuttling back into the Legislature.

CANADA TAKES DELIVERY OF THE LATEST ADDITION TO ITS PACIFIC FLEET

Recently, Canada took delivery of a new ship to add to its Pacific Fleet. This vessel was delivered from Sri Lanka by a somewhat circuitous route and arrived a while ago in Esquimalt harbour near Victoria, the base for the Pacific Fleet.

She was given an unusually grand welcome by an impressive array of vessels, which included two war ships and at least six other vessels variously from the RCMP and the Coast Guard.

Judging by the mail that Waggishness have received on this matter, some people seem to think that the price that we, the taxpayers, paid for this vessel, at $145 million, is too high. But you have to remember that the very generous sellers of the vessel from Sri Lanka happily threw nearly 500 extra crew members into the deal free of charge. Whilst it’s true that most of them don’t speak English, the government has assured the public that they will be given free language lessons once they have been settled in their free (to them) housing with a free (to them) living allowance. Once they are able to understand the difference between yes and no, they will be moved to the top of the waiting list of potential immigrants who would like to become full Canadian citizens.

 “There is no question of these people being queue jumpers with regard to immigration,” the Minister said. “Let us not forget that these people have suffered a very uncomfortable three month journey to get here just to become members of one of the greatest navies in the free world.”

 Ironically, the reason for Canada buying this vessel is so that we can strengthen that part of our Pacific Fleet which is responsible for defending our western coast from rogue ships which have been chartered by ‘people smugglers’ and are carrying ‘refugees’ who have paid large sums of money to be brought to our shores to claim ‘refugee status.’ She is to be fitted out with several guns and at least one bank of surface to surface missiles. It is the manning of these and other extra features which are to be added to what is at present an ordinary cargo ship, with several rust patches on its hull, that have made the government so grateful to Sri Lanka for adding the extra crew at no cost to us, apparently.

 Whilst Australia, among several other countries, would simply turn these boats away once they reached their territorial waters, the Canadian government has decided to form another committee in order to look into the legal aspects of carrying out such outrageous acts.

Hot off the Waggishness press: There is another ship on its way to us. If this continues, Canada will have one of the largest, if not the most efficient, naval fleets in the world. Ed.

GOVERNMENT DECIDES ON REPLACEMENT BRIDGE

Wittig has learned that the inhabitants of the BC Legislature have at last made up their minds about the Blue Bridge; it is to be replaced by a new bridge which has been designed by an American company who will also build and install the structure.

But there are still a couple of questions to be answered:

 What happens if the earthquake hits when the bridge is open and there is no power?
Waggishness has been informed that provision has been made for this “most unlikely occurrence” in that there will be two large wheels on each side of the bridge which will be operated on the well tried and tested principle of the hamster wheel. These wheels will be operated by the first unaffected humans who are able to reach the bridge, climb into the wheels and then walk in the appropriate direction to lower it to the horizontal position. Whether the deck lines up with the remains of the road on the other shore remains to be seen, but the MLA’s seem to be relying heavily on the reassurances being given by the engineering company contracted and paid to design and build the bridge.

             What happens if the earthquake hits when the bridge is on its way down, low enough to stop emergency vessels from passing underneath but still too high for emergency traffic to drive onto it?
In view of the fact that the existing bridge opens on average 4 to 6 times daily, according to the Department of Statistics, this might well happen. However the Minister of Power said that this eventuality is covered by the fact that his Ministry is building a backup generator well away from the bridge area, but which can be brought into use, “at a moment’s notice”. Since this meeting, Wittig has discovered that the generator house is to be built exactly on the fault line.

             What happens if the earthquake hits before the new bridge is ready?
According to the Minister of Power, if this was to happen there would be no problem at all as the existing bridge will still be in use during construction of the new one.

When the Minister was then asked, “In that case, why are we bothering to build a new bridge?” He said that he had to rush back to the Lege in order to cast his vote on the decision that had already been made to replace the existing Blue Bridge.

Foreign Aid – Value for (Taxpayers’) Money?

Being a simple tax paying Canadian, there is something that has worried me for many years: Why do we never send an auditor with our foreign aid to Africa? How else can we be sure that the funds are being used for the benefit of the people and not for buying arms for the benefit of a general who wishes to lead a revolt or half of it being spent on the luxurious life led by a President, his family and their cronies while the rest of the country starves, and the remainder simply being transferred to a numbered Swiss bank account on behalf of the crooked President.

If these people want us to help them, then I for one do not wish to hear the feeble arguments of the African governments and the NGO’s telling me that it would not be politically correct to question the trustworthiness of some of the African rulers by auditing them with regard to the use to which they are putting the aid that we give them.

Remember, it is NOT Government money, it is our, the Taxpayers’, money. (If the Government has resorted to printing money other than for replacement bills, then we are in deep trouble).

Let us not forget that there is no such thing as Government money, and that includes the world bank, it is all coming from you and me the taxpayer; and if you think you are getting good value for your money when it comes to African aid, please read the following from The Wall Street Journal of March 21st:
‘………this is also the country (Kenya) where in 2004, British envoy Sir Edward Clay apologized for underestimating the scale of government corruption and failing to speak out earlier.’
‘Over the past 60 years at least $1 trillion of development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Yet real per-capita income today is lower than it was in the 1970s, and more than 50% of the population — over 350 million people — live on less than a dollar a day, a figure that has nearly doubled in two decades.’
 ‘As recently as 2002, the African Union, an organization of African nations, estimated that corruption was costing the continent $150 billion a year, as international donors were apparently turning a blind eye to the simple fact that aid money was inadvertently fueling graft. With few or no strings attached, it has been all too easy for the funds to be used for anything, save the developmental purpose for which they were intended.’
 ‘Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire’s president from 1965 to 1997, is reputed to have stolen at least $5 billion from the country. A month ago, Malawi’s former President Bakili Muluzi was charged with embezzling aid money worth $12 million. Zambia’s former President Frederick Chiluba (a development darling during his 1991 to 2001 tenure) remains embroiled in a court case that has revealed millions of dollars frittered away from health, education and infrastructure toward his personal cash dispenser.’

 I was delighted to read not so long ago about the wonderful work of the writer Philippa Gregory in Africa. Apparently Gregory and some friends put part of their royalties together and with the help of another who lives in Africa, they have started Gardens for Gambia and have been going around village schools in The Gambia drilling wells for fresh water (over 100 wells to date) and then teaching the children how to grow their own vegetables in a small market garden. Similarly, Mortenson’s building of schools in Pakistan is another example of getting things done that really help these people. Surely these are far more worthwhile ways of helping people get on their feet and working towards a democratically driven economy, than simply throwing money at the problem. This type of aid costs far less money, needs very little administration even on the ground; but the main bonus, and it is a huge one, is that this type of direct work t does not help keep corrupt governments in power.

 With some of the largest slums in the world and millions of the population starving, why is it that there are so many Range Rovers, BMW’s, and top of the line other makes of cars to be seen in the capitals of most of the African countries, along with the fact that there is plenty of smoked salmon, jewelry and some of the most expensive brands of blended and Single Malt Scotch Whiskies on sale in all these cities?

 It makes you wonder what is behind all this at the donor end as well as the recipient’s. An interesting means of money laundering and/or rewarding others for services given and decisions well made.

 And yet our government is quite happy to join with others in sending more and more of our money to Africa in the form of Foreign Aid. Aiding whom? You may well ask.