Brave New World

Another one of those moments that you do not know whether to laugh or cry, the Conservative's claim they have created 800,000 new jobs. 

First I think Canadians have to determine what constitutes a JOB, because in my mind there are jobs and there is meaningful employment, two totally different animals. 

One example would be the 1100 new jobs the Conservatives created at one of Canada’s former premium Canadian employers Air Canada, how about this 20 to 32 hours a week at $10.80 an hour works our to $216 a week for 20 hours and $345 for a 32 hour week or at most $16,560 a year, is this one of the JOBS that the Conservatives are so proud of. You don’t suppose included in those statistics are the tens of thousands of foreign national chinese workers that have been brought into Canada for substandard wages to do Canadian jobs do you, YA right.

Harper is taking Canada on a wild race to the bottom and his glorious vision of Canada appears to look a lot like a poor, dirty, polluted, corrupt third world country.

So the next time you see a homeless person don’t just assume that they are just lazy layabouts, quite possibly they are in fact products of Harpers 800,000 new jobs that the workers have to decide whether they want a roof over their heads or they want to eat, brave new world, but not much in it for the 99 percent.

Atrocities in our own back yard

I read the letters and web and it seems quite clear the native population does not have a lot of fans, it is claimed Idle no more are not being realistic, I admit that after hundreds of years of accumulated injustices any attempt to rectify the situation is bound to look a might convoluted, the popular myth says they are lazy parasites living off the hard work of all the rest of us upstanding citizens and they want to steal my house. 

Many Canadians just can’t fathom why after hundreds of years of genocide, residential schools, racial discrimination, Herculean attempts by the Canadian government to wipe out their languages and culture, customs, stamp acts, potlatch laws, theft and destruction of their lands and children and no serious attempts to live up to or sign treaties with the original Stewart's of this country. Why can’t they just be happy with what we give them? 

Well let’s look at that, we have taken away most of their land and in doing so their customs and way of life and given them nothing but a bag of beads if you will,  the first nations people are by far the poorest demographic in Canada with the average reserve wage of less than $12,000 dollars a year and due to the 2% cap on core services that has been in place since 1996 it only gets worse every year, not to mention all the other horrible statistics that comes out of the reserves, see suicide rates for one. 

If this situation is to change I am afraid the first nations will have to go outside of Canada for any justice as the Canadian government and yes many Canadian people are as far as first nations go extremely racially prejudice, maybe you think that is to strong a statement to make because after all it wasn’t you who did all those horrible things to the natives, that was those guys back hundreds of years ago wasn’t it? 

I have news for you in 2002 in BC which is hardly ancient history, Gordon Campbell held a first Nation referendum that was was little more than an immoral, racist mockery of democracy that was a blatant attempt to take away ceded native rights or more simply to break another treaty and 80% of the people that voted, voted to extinguish those native rights, and don’t think that Robert Pickton got away with killing 33-49 mostly native girls because he was a mastermind serial killer, no he got away with it because they were just First Nation girls, people that have been systematically dehumanized to the point that they do not even count anymore, tell me you really believe Pickton would have got away with this slaughter if the girls had been white. The latest update to this is that in a resent poll most people in BC would vote for the Federal Conservatives so it would appear that the voters of BC are quite comfortable with the Harper dictatorship and the direction it is headed.

No I don’t see justice being served with this sad Canadian reality, First nations will have to go over our heads to the UN, International criminal court and Amnesty International and generate serious international pressure, to change this entrenched racist behaviour and the sad plight of our First Nation people.

They will need the support of all Canadians of good heart to bring this ongoing tragedy to an end. 

Port Mann Fiasco

Who  would have thought in 1964 when I helped build the most expensive piece of highway in Canada at the time, the Port Mann bridge that it would be torn down in my lifetime 45 years later, especially considering the fact that it was only 2006 that the bridge was totally refurbished and another lane added. The reality is that this is what this government stands for ideological dogma, short term thinking and quite literally no planning ahead, all the way from the NEW ERA in the hospitals and health care to the tearing down of a newly refurbished, upgraded bridge 45 years into it’s life, it’s a sad fact that the taxpayers of BC will be paying for the old Port Mann bridge upgrades decades after it has been torn down. Is this financial expertise, is this good Conservative money management or is this just another example of reckless short term incompetence with no planning to speak of at all, is this how responsible governments should conduct themselves. 

No wonder there is no money for social programs with the multi-millions this government has squandered on pretty much everything they have touched, the Golden Ears Bridge will be lucky if it lasts 30 years as it was pulling apart within months of being built and the new 3.3 billion dollar Port Mann bridge appears to be doing not much better and apparently has an expected life span of 35 years. 

When you consider BCs other bridges this is inexcusable folly, the Lions gate bridge is 76 years old and counting the Patella bridge is 75 years old and the Iron workers bridge is 52 years old and counting, Golden gate bridge 75 years and counting, this government is all about show, flash and propaganda, pretty well everything this government touched will be gone long before it is paid for. 

I am sure when the citizens of BC finally see the uncooked books in other words the real financial disaster that is the BC Liberals legacy, they will be shocked and forced to put to rest once and for all the myth of Conservative (BC Liberal) financial competence, the fact is outside the bubble these clowns would be hard pressed to run a popcorn stand.

DARK AGES

There was a time not so long ago that Canada was the envy of the world we had natural resources a highly educated people, we built things the rest of the world were in awe off. 
Those were the days that Canada had a government that believed in Canada and Canadians, they built things like the Avro-Arrow, that was a time when the whole aviation world’s eyes were on Canada the, Arrow was designed and built specifically for Canadian military reqirements and was the most advanced aircraft in the world, as such the Arrow didn’t have a lot of buyers but with Canada’s proven expertise in the aircraft industry Canada should have been a leader in aircraft and areo-space design today, unfortunately Canada elected a Conservative government under John Diefenbaker who did not believe in Canadian ingenuity and place in the world and canceled the Avro-Arrow and the Iroquois engine program. The tragedy for Canadians was though we demonstrated phenomenal success we were never able to reap the benefits thanks to a CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT. 
So instead of a boom in  the aerospace industry Canada suffered the biggest brain drain in it’s history with 50,000 highly skilled workers leaving the country with one going to NASA and helping get them to the moon and another going to Europe and designing the Concord jet to name a couple, subsequently setting Canada’s aero-space and aircraft industry back decades, and costing Canada multi-billions of dollars and thousands of high paying jobs. 

The sad conclusion to this debacle was that Canada ended up buying the Bomarc-B missile which were nothing more than giant paperweights and because we were now totally dependent on America for our military aircraft we ended up with F-101 Voodoos that not only cost more than the Arrow but were a Mack1 aircraft as opposed to the Mack 2 Arrow.

Sadly this whole scenario is playing itself out again with not surprisingly another Conservative Prime Minister only this time it is with the whole scientific field, Canada’s Prime Minister simply does not believe in science and has chosen to fire scientists and cut back funding in every in field of science. Scientists are the very people that the world needs to find the answers to pull us out of this downward spiral mankind finds itself in. What will Canada do after all the scientists have left for greener pastures, do you really think they are just going to take a job flipping hamburgers at MacDonald’s until Canada elects a sane government?
In May 8 2008 the Conservative government thought it would once again deliver a gut shot to the Canadian areo-space industry and let the Americans take over MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates a Richmond BC Canadian aero-space company employing over 3000 people, MDA are the people that built the Canada space arm and the Radar-sat satellite and I would imagine have thousands of important patents not to mention highly skilled workers, it was only after a major public outcry that Commissar Harper grudgingly nixed the sale thus stopping another major brain, technology drain. These people are only interested in exploiting Canadas raw resources and then not even interested in doing any Canadian value adding to these un-renewable resources.  

Canada’s government consistently instead of using the massive brain power this county is blessed with and being on the cutting edge of green technology has thrown all it’s eggs in the dirty oil basket, to the detriment of every other job and occupation in Canada, and just sell the whole country outright. 

Canada’s government has decided to take Canada back to the dark ages.

Corporate Domination

I seems to me the left wing of 2012 have more in  common with the likes of Dwight D.Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan than Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin, I get so tired of these asinine labels. I would agree that Corporations are not necessarily evil but only what you allow them to be, they have their place in the scheme off things in as much as they are controlled and are not allowed to be in control as is the case now. If certain mega corporations had their way in 1942 we would all be speaking german and doing the goosestep. Corporations are about one thing and one thing only, money and power and they do not care how they get it or who they have to get into bed with to get it. 

Left to their own devices they can be truly evil, as money has no conscience and greed has no limit, and as Richard Gecko preached greed is good for Capitalism. 

The reality is that Corporations have to be controlled by rational strict legislation that takes into consideration not only the people that work for them, but the well being of all a countries citizens and especially the environment that sustains all the beings on this planet anything else is shortsighted folly and the road to ruin. In the present context I could even agree that socialism is the problem in the world today but it is Corporate socialism with the extreme right and greedy, corrupt Corporations and mega banks bringing the world to it’s financial knees and then Corporate controlled governments bailing the Corporations, banks, stock markets out with public tax dollars that is the problem. 

The final injustice is the very victims of these criminal acts are the people that inevitably pay the ultimate price for this corruption by loosing their homes, and all the middle class and poor loosing 40 percent of their total assets, while the masterminds of this crime get to not only keep their ill gotten spoils, but even get fat bonuses of even more public tax money. 

To lay this global financial catastrophe on socialism is so far from the truth that it is not even worth discussion. 

"Fascism should more properly be called Corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power."--Benito Mussolini

A step in the RIGHT DIRECTION

Iceland certainly had the right idea in pressing charges against Prime Minister Geir Haarde the Prime Minister of Iceland and CEOs of the banks of Iceland, after being charged with 6 separate charges the PM was convicted on one count of negligence and will more than likely not do the two years in Club Fed the charge comes with, but what do you expect, the first thing these sleaze bags do upon being elected is produce legislation giving themselves a free get out of jail card just in case they get caught in their malfeasance. At the very least Icelanders tried and that was the whole point, public officials should not be able to put themselves above the law and just because Geir Haarde will not be going to jail does not mean he should not be doing time for his gross negligence that literally destroyed his countries economy, and financially ruined many Icelandic families and lives. 

There are many people mostly Conservatives that are quite content that Certain individuals or Corporations can play fast and loose with the life savings, pensions, livelihoods and families homes, by literally stealing billions of dollars and enriching their friends and families but are quite simply above and beyond the reach of the law, because it is just business nothing personal. 

Even Adam Smith would say, after all a free market is not representative of a system where the working class pays for the mistakes of the ruling class, but instead one where the mistakes you make while participating in commerce are the ones you have to live with. 

This whole exercise to exact justice was not a waste of time and money it has revealed an obvious truth and already the State of Massachusetts Attorney General has laid 60 charges on 5 major banks and recovered multi-millions of dollars and saved thousands of homes from foreclosure. I can only hope this is a long overdue wave of the future with many other jurisdictions joining in the rush to punish the guilty instead of the innocent.

I believe all the crooks and con men that masquerade as politicians and corporate CEOs should pay dearly for their crimes and breaches of trust.

In fact, tell me why should a public servant that purposely bankrupts a Crown Corporation not be charged with a crime or how about a Premier that purposely subverts democracy being charged with breaking the public trust. that they swore to uphold upon taking office.

I would bet that if Adam Smith were to see what passes for free enterprise, capitalism and democracy over the last decade or two he would roll over in his grave. 

Jail or not I would bet that the next political leader or bank CEO who thinks to pull something like this will certainly think about it long and hard, especially if their free get out of jail cards are revoked. 

Tax BOMB

So the citizens of Pitt Meadows are disgruntled about their tax increases, 
I wonder how they would feel about say a 2,500 percent tax increase which is just what Pacific Skydiving at Pitt Meadows Airport has just received 
I would call that a little more than mind-blowing I would think it borders on criminal. I have to wonder are they the only business to receive a 2,500 percent tax increase and if so how can the Airport authority justify what appears to be discrimination at best outright criminal at worst, this is a company that has been providing good service to the people of the lower mainland for 23 years and has a staff of 28 people, and as such is an important piece of the commercial tax base in Pitt Meadows.

This is all about the Pitt Meadows Airport Authority attempting to extend the runway to accommodate jets and as such is a major concern for the people of Pitt meadows, Maple ridge, Coquitlam and any other municipality that will be affected by this major change, unlike the Vancouver runway extension which went over water and even so received major opposition for noise, environmental and many other related consequences, this expansion will be going over expensive homes that have been there forever and maybe have not been affected by the smaller quieter propeller aeroplanes. We are talking about 2 acres of grass that will still be grass even if the runway is extended. 

I would imagine there will be a lot of opposition to this particular runway expansion, so with that in mind before you destroy a thriving business that will undoubtedly put a good sized hole in Pitt Meadows commercial tax base I would think Pitt Meadows council which is already under pressure about tax increases would make sure this expansion is even feasible before allowing this outrageous tax increase which is obviously a blatant attempt to evict Pacific Skydiving for no good cause, and put in jeopardy the many other businesses that supply and depend on Pacific Skydiving staying in business.

I have to even wonder if a tax increase this obscene is even legal it occurs to me that the Pitt Meadows Airport Authority has possibly exceeded it’s mandate.