India Deals with Terrorism from the World, Not Just Pakistani

After watching the news, and taking in all the possible outcomes, I realized the Indian Government has dealt with groups from within it’s own borders as well as those from the neighbouring countries. There are so many factions, so many outlets for frustration and desperation, it makes me wonder if the Indian government is, perhaps, more busy than most of us realize, including our own government leaders.

One example is present in Canada, of all places. There is a Sikh faction here, active and connected world-wide that has been connected to the Air India bombing. They often have “glorified” the ” martyrs” in parades here, much to the consternation of our own civic, provincial and federal governments. Actually,  make that two factions, both working and funding a drive for an independent Sikh country or area, I am not sure what they plan for. What I do know is that the leader of one of these was about to be charged with the deaths of several people and fled to India. He was shot by the Indian police. The co-leader is still here, and from all I can gather, the group is very militant, trying to organize the younger members of the community to join in. Sound familiar? It should, after all, this is what the Indian government seemed to be dealing with this week.

What I do know is that the local Sikh community have some practices that I have real trouble with. If a family wants to build a home here, they will NOT hire anyone other than Indo-Canadian workers, suppliers, and often use their own community to supply the money, going outside the commercial banks and lenders. The practice of hiring based on their religion or ethnicity, here, is called discrimination, period. I have been living long enough here to see other practices that are, otherwise, breaking laws. No hard hats, no protective footwear, no security or tethers for anyone working on the roofing, high walls, and there is often few journeyman level workers on site.

The Sikh community behaves much like the Jewish community did in Europe before world war 2, keeping within their own enclave, buying from their own stores, working within the Sikh-owned businesses, and running their own schools. This is not objectionable to me at all, but when it comes to raising funds for groups within that are named internationally as known terrorist organizations, then I do have trouble with that!

When the news mentioned the possibility of foreign gunmen, I thought for a moment, then realized it would be entirely possible for a Canadian to become part of the same type of amoral event. The last few years here, there have been increasing incidents of violence involving Indo-Canadians, most of them younger, and using guns. I am NOT saying these people are directly involved in terrorism, but the attitude of using violence, particularly guns, and the general dismissal of the value of human life is worrying. Add in the known membership in the organizations designated as terrorist based and it becomes unsettling.

I do not want any person, no matter what ethnicity or race to use my country for fund raising, organization and especially recruiting to be allowed to continue. I do not want or need anyone from Canada to make the lives in India, Pakistan, Europe, or anywhere else “collateral damage”. I have no time for anyone who wants to use airplanes, guns, or anything else to kill people from any place on this earth.

There is a temple here that is known to be a gathering place for the Sikh movements, and I have to speak out against any member of that temple who want to abuse their own country to kill someone in India or anywhere else.

If you have a problem with India, talk, not shoot. If you want to have a “homeland” then negotiate, not shoot or bomb. If you want to recruit, raise funds etc. to enable the deaths of anyone else, then realize something. You are not welcome to do it here.

Yes, I know you are connected internationally with your organizations, and I also know you are quite willing to send money overseas to other countries too. It is about time you understand that your activities are NOT the Canadian way.

Members of the International Sikh Youth Federation have worn shirts proclaiming their goal of having a Sikh “homeland” or country, Khalistan. If you want that, then negotiate, not shoot. Recuiting should go elselwhere because the information I have is that you want to have this end gained by violent means.

Parmar and Reyat were not peaceful men, they put bombs on a plane and in an air terminal and caused the deaths of 329 people. It was Khalistan separatists that planned this and carried it out. Parmar is not a martyr, legallly, he was a murderer and terrorist who was shot in India.

Talwinder Parmar was the founder of the Babbar Khalsa, internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.

I know the Indo-Canadian community has some very fine people, and I also know there are some within the community that have not understood that old grievances, old grudges, are to be left behind when you become a member of another country. I don’t want to see my country become a breeding ground for trouble for anyone else.

Unfortunately the Indo-Canadian community is often put under the ugly black cloud that these few have created, and this leads to suspicion, mistrust and a general attitude of uncertainty among the people living as the neighbours in Canada. What is also tragic is that a lot of very good, very decent people in the Indo-Canadian community are faced with dealing with the suspicions and mistrust.

Yes, I know this is partly cultural, but regardless, it is time the Indo-Canadian and general Canadian community start to talk about this, expose it, and get these people to either stop or face some pretty strong questions.

Mumbai Death and Disaster Totals Rise

Another Canadian has been confirmed dead in Mumbai, which makes two families here grieve along with the staff at a Montreal medical center. There are other families who lost family relations there, and they are grieving too.

The loss of life is often seen with road accidents, murders, and natural causes, but when there is a huge sense of hopelessness attached to deaths by gunmen in a foreign country the questions of “why them? why Canadians when the gunmen were looking for British and American citizens? who would do this?” all seem to ring louder.

The Doctor from Montreal was originally from Great Britain, but lived and worked here to heal, to help, to make other lives just a bit better. The same goes for the Jewish family all killed in the Chabad. When people who chose to make our lives better are killed, it takes more from all of us than just a name or personality, it takes a tiny bit of the goodness and humanity too.

There are hundreds of people who worked in the two hotels, the train station, the Chabad area, and in the restaurant that worked with skill and grace, making lives just that much better too. There are some of the people in the hotels, the Chabad, and the train station that performed well beyond their ordinary roles in life, blocking bullets, taking others out of harm then being shot themselves, and making the situation just a bit more tolerable during the very long waits.

I hope the hotels, the employers of all these marvelous people remember this. Maybe we can send funds to help out families who now have the breadwinners gone, maybe we can just think of them as more than just numbers in a death tally.

The political blame game is about to start in ernest, and with all that grandstanding, maybe we all should make a point of reminding those who want to make political points that those points just may come from deaths. Phooey, I have no tolerance for anyone trying to make political hay from disasterous situations when those points are based on the deaths of people who went well beyond any expectations of humanity and service.

The international terrorist blame game is started, too. Some desperately want to make even the most tenuous connections to groups like Al Quaida, etc. Get a grip! Just because someone is Muslim and is from that area does NOT mean they are even remotely connected with Al Quaida! Yes, the gunmen were cold, calculating, definitely capable of making some gruesome choices, but this means that there is more to this story. This action to me is far more than some petty political statement, far more than just a gruesome joy ride, but there is an underlying reason why these gunmen did this, something that motivated them very strongly, otherwise they would have given over after 12 hours, maybe less. THAT is what international specialists need to find out, the motivation that kept these gunmen going, and as of this hour, still going. It must be something very powerful!

The Pakistani Government is trying to work with the Indian Government, so this time, let them. Work this out without all the petty political crap. Unless there is some kind of communication, some kind of working together to find out WHY this happened, we all lose. We lose lives, we lose trust, we lose international friends, we learn hopeless and a sense of powerlessness.

Governments and people who have a sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, and inferiority often are the very ones who go to war, make far more misery for everyone. This is the time to stop that path and make a bridge, an international bridge!

Power Savings Over the Holidays and Beyond

There are new lights out there that are huge savings in electricity use, and especially when people are trying to save money and still enjoy the season, these lights are a good way to do both.

The technology is called light emitting diode (LED for short), and until four or five years ago, just about the only place you’d see them was on VCR screens, microwaves and the occasional ancient calculator from the 1970s.

The first high-profile breakout from traditional LED applications appeared in Christmas lights in 2002. Nowadays an entire string of colourful LED holiday lights uses less energy than did a single old incandescent holiday bulb.

The working life of LED lights is measured in tens of thousands of hours, not just thousands. So, how long before LED bulbs become available for serious, interior lighting applications in lamps and overhead fixtures?

LED bulbs are particularly efficient and long-lasting because they produce light in an entirely different way from other kinds of bulbs. Instead of using electricity to heat up a metal filament or excite a conductive gas, LEDs produce light by channelling electric current through a semiconductor. In the most efficient examples, this approach converts almost 100 per cent of the electricity into light, with virtually no waste heat produced.

It’s now possible to buy LED equivalents for retrofitting various types of household and specialty light fixtures that were originally designed for incandescent bulbs. You won’t see many of these on hardware store shelves yet, but leading Canadian specialty suppliers are beginning to offer a growing line of LED bulbs. The only problem is cost, though that’s changing.

The price of an MR16 LED to replace traditional halogen designs runs from $35 to $60 for a single bulb. That’s about five to eight times more money than a regular halogen bulb, but the LED lasts 20 to 25 times longer while using 90 per cent less energy.

That’s why LEDs make especially good sense in applications where lights stay on a lot, where the heat buildup of traditional bulbs is a problem, or where it’s difficult to change bulbs after they burn out. These include commercial and high-rise residential applications, where lights are burning 24/7 — here I am thinking of hallways, stairwells and elevators.

They’re also useful for exterior residential applications, especially when changing a bulb involves climbing up a ladder. LEDs last for years and function well where it’s cold. They don’t emit UV rays, either, so they won’t cause fading of fabrics and surfaces.

I have bought some of these lights as emergency light sources at the local dollar store, and I found they are excellent to use when the power goes out. The small, round disks are lit by 3 LED bulbs, each connected to a AAA battery.

The market for these is growing, so if you have a bit of extra money to spend on lighting, there are some fixtures and lights available for everything from solar path lights to flood lights.

Considering these will last up to 20 years (yes I did say years) and use a great deal less electricity, they will likely pay for themselves at least twice over.

If you can find a good instruction book at your local library, you can also build home-made solar panels, and then you may well end up either breaking even or making money off the local power company if you can make enough of the panels and use LED and those wonderful new induction cooking tops.

Mumbai in Chaos, Canadian and 17 others escape!

There is a woman, a Canadian, who is now safe (hopefully it will stay that way) along with 17 others who fled from the restaurant in the Trident Oberoi Hotel, just as the gunmen opened fire.

Way to go Mauela T.! I am not going to fully disclose her name right now, because she had to leave her purse, phone, and likely her identification behind as she and many others fled, with the gunmen following, shooting. Manuela and others did have rooms at the Taj, so she cannot even go to her rooms. The Taj Mahal Palace, at this time, still is under siege with hostages reported to be there, along with at least 2 gunmen.

The Trident is also facing a huge armed force as the army and other forces try to get the hostages there out.

But, back to those who had their wits about them and ran. Well done! Manuela is supposed to fly home today, on a flight just after noon today, Mumbai time. Why am I posting this? Her family may just find this blogging and be relieved to know she is well, alive, and safe for now. Talk about guts! She called out to a news service and sounded calm, collected, and definitely tired, but very composed too.

For those with her, my own wishes for your safety are flowing right now. Hang in there!

Manuela, when you get home, you have at least one person who is so very proud of you!

There are some foreigners who have been killed, by accounts, and I wish to send my condolences to those families.

Australians want out, now!

BBC coverage as of 4 PM Pacific Time with video clips Taj and Oberoi

Late update, there are 7 British Citizens injured, some hostages still understood to be held, and over 100 people killed, including one woman who was a manager at one of the hotels with relatives living close to where I live.

Consternation is evident from the way this all happened because this is a massive attack. There appears to be at least 20 young men, aged between 18 and 20 who were the ones who used guns, grenades, and some very proficient planning to carry this out. Experts have speculated on almost every possible gang, terrorist organization, etc., but with no real knowledge yet, there is no complete understanding of who this particular organization is, or if they are backed.

What is known is that the ones who entered the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel were speaking a language that was not understood by people there, so that does rule out some of the most commonly known languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, English, German, French and a few others, as well as local dialects.

For now, Mumbai is basically in a state of shock and schools, colleges and business is being put off until there is some semblance of stability.

Until all the people who had rooms booked in the hotels are accounted for, and those who were killed and injured identified, the total devastation will not be clear.

India is one country that has had a complicated history, a complicated society, and several factions who try for power. Leaders in that country have been assassinated, deposed and threatened, as well as various groups, such as the Sikh community, trying to create a separate state for each of them.

I hope peace will return to Mumbai, India, and those families who are worried. I send my thoughts to those, like my neighbours here, my thoughts as they grieve.

Update:

This is the Manuela above, I could not reveal any information until I heard she is safe.

Manuela Testolini, the ex-wife of the musician Prince, was in Mumbai for business and said she was eating dinner at the Trident-Oberoi Hotel when she heard gunshots.

Good news amid chaos is always welcome!

Corporations, Banks, Others Way Too Big Now?

This may sound like a simple question, but with all the bailouts and over 7.7 TRILLION dollars spent in the US alone, which amounts to $24,000 dollars per adult and child, I am really wondering if international linkages and businesses have gone beyond reasonable limits.  The reasoning for bailing out AIG was that “it is too big, too involved, to allow to go under” and now Citibank and subsidiaries along with the Big 3, Ford, Chrysler, General Motors are all in that same basket, all “too big, to much an integral part of the economy” to be allowed to fail too.

Maybe one of the plans or regulations or restrictions of some kind should be put on corporations that get to the point where the failure will create a massive disaster. I don’t know, but one thing I do know is the old saying, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall“. I suppose the corollary to that is the deeper the hole they create when they do fall.

Wal Mart is another part of the huge economic downturn. How on earth can I say this? Well, if most remember, when Wal Mart moved into communities, small shops, business, suppliers all died off. What most people want are lower costs, true, but at what detriment to their own communities. Each small business in town paid separate taxes, school, road, etc. as well as creating jobs for the owners and the employees in that small business. When a store like Wal Mart appears, the tax base goes down, not up. The wages for businesses who supply smaller stores are usually better than those paid by the big box stores, and most owners try to provide benefits for themselves and their employees. Wal Mart is well known to buy goods produced overseas, sending the money to foreign suppliers along with jobs.

Yep, people may get some things cheaper, but overall the economy loses. Businesses that worked in tandem with their neighbours often worked more efficiently, and became an integral part of the community, with problems dealt with on site. Again, is this type of business “too big to be barred”?

If people want to have work, decent work, then maybe it is time for the small business owner to be allowed to thrive without dealing with the big box stores. Each of the big box stores hire fewer employees and pay them as little as possible. Employment goes down, not up. Imagine trying to get a foothold in business when you have to deal with those who have the funds to undercut you at every turn. Tough to make a decent living with that going on, yet people want work!

Some of the Wal Mart stores have been unionized. Yep, they have been. Yet, Wal Mart tried to make a case for closing the first store to become unionized by closing it and opening another close by. Hmm not a good way to be a decent employer or neighbour, or one that I would, personally, want to have nearby.

Yes, I do shop at one of the big box stores here, but I will never work or buy from Wal Mart. The way the company treats the general public, employees, and especially their suppliers is a methodology I cannot support. So, I speak with my dollars. I will shop at other stores that compete with Wal Mart instead.

Big banks, with many arms into all kinds of financial realms, can make a very shakey structure if one part is weakened. Citibank is one of those, with a multiplicity of arms. GM even got into mortgages, instead of maintaining the focus on automotive innovation.  AIG got into some financial areas it should never have, so when it got into trouble, out goes the tax man to pay up. AIG was supposed to be an insurance company, backing mortgages. See a theme here? Corporations did not keep their focus, did not keep their area of expertise intact, and others, like Wal Mart, have removed small businesses all over the country, even internationally. The effects are now being seen as people are either worried about jobs, or out of the workforce, maybe for a long time now.

Bigger is defninitely NOT better, when bigger can crater economies.

Deflationary Opportunities for Legislators

There are some interesting opportunities for legislators in deflationary times. One of these, especially with the lowering of the values in property, is to obtain subsidized housing stock. Especially when there are so many families diving straight into povery, this is one way to ensure stable homes for kids who would otherwise be moving around because of rental increases. Giving those who NEED stability the most, the vulnerable, is one of the benefits here. When parents have a stable housing situation, it is a hell of a lot easier to plan out the future. It also benefits the schooling systems, keeping students in a steady path, allowing opportunity for the children to develop social skills, friendships, and giving the entire family a support system within the neighbourhood.

New Orleans is perhaps one of the most dramatic examples. Before the hurricanes hit, yes, there was crime, yes, there was poverty, but people lived in neighbourhoods, knew who was the best person to talk to, who was the person to avoid. Now, the entire city of New Orleans is becoming one of the strongest examples of what not to do. Instead of rebuilding the city, with improvements and better chances for people returning to some semblance of neighbourhoods, money designated for that has disappeared. Crime rates in New Orleans have risen, mostly because of desperation, poverty, instability, poor schooling, and definitely because those who were supposed to help just flat-out did not give a damn!

The one thing I would avoid when buying subsidized housing stock is creating ghettos or making entire neighbourhoods into pockets of poverty. The better choice is to buy up stock in various places, so that children and families are exposed to the opportunities, greater information on how to make a living, and certainly not straining schools with problems all in one area. Mixing those who are working with those who are not will often make connections for those looking for work. We all know that as networking, so why not do it within communities?

Another possibility here is to find materials at cheaper cost for repairing buildings, putting into those buildings that are currently plagued with cockroaches, rats, and mold, repairs that otherwise would be far more costly. Toronto is one of the cities that desperately needs this cost saving. The housing authority there has been so lax in repairing their buildings, some of them resemble third world housing.

With people losing jobs, and others trying to subsist on no work, this may well be the time to get those living on the welfare rolls into the job market by allowing recipients to keep a portion of the money they make. Yep, start at the bottom, the real bottom. Give those who have been so severely disadvantaged the hope, the opportunity, the idea that they actually matter in our society. This means getting over the attitude so common in the game of “poor bashing”.  Currently a lot of those receiving welfare find a job, then find out that, not only are their wages taken back, but that the costs of clothing, transportation, and day-care are coming out of the money left over. Basically those living on welfare (known as assistance in some places) end up in a deeper financial hole! Some incentive that is, NOT! If you think this is not true, think again.This is where the legislation needs to change, to provide a basic honouring of the worth of that work too.

Fleet purchases for some jurisdictions can be done now at a far better price. No, I am not talking about companies like Translink or the Toronto Transit Authority, who run mass transit companies and  provide cars for employees, I am talking about power authorities etc. who use vehicles to keep our power on, our roads in repair.

Computers can now be bought with fewer dollars too, and if you really want to save on money, use LInux, Ubuntu systems that are free, open for anyone, and have systems that do work with virtually all applications. Forget paying for your operating systems and put the money into better operating supervision and technical support. Computers can be made now for less than $200, and with a free operating system, that is good savings, along with basic monitors. Schools can do this, as can agencies who have to keep their systems running 24 hours a day.

These are but a few, but with some intelligence, some planning, and with a much more open mind, it is possible to put a lot into the neighbourhoods, the cities, the states and provinces, with a hell of a lot less cost.

Financial Crisis is Now a Long-Term Planning Situation

Well, from looking down the road filled with rocks ahead, I do honestly think it is entirely possible that this so-called “recession” is going to get a hell of a lot worse, and dive into a depression. Barack Obama is one of the most intelligent people I have seen elected as a leader in a very, very long time. But even with his ability, his sphere of influence, this has gone way past crisis stage and into a long-term butt-ugly situation that is not easily resolved. Thankfully, this time the US does have a leader with some intelligence, considerable ability to listen, watch, and take a good look before jumping into the quick-sands of panic. But he certainly cannot turn this wreck around by himself, which means all of us, including me, need to start planning for a long-term, tough and rocky ride.

Finally Paulson put the truth out, the toxic sludge that became the reason for so much of the “hedge” funds and the credit default swaps taking out Lehman Brothers and crippling the banks in the US and world-wide are NOT going to be bought out. Finally, someone figured out that this maze of stupidity is not worth paying a wooden nickel for. But, that means that those goofs that did get into this whole “funny money pyramid scheme” are now going to have to write down all those losses, if they can even figure out what the losses are. Good grief!

The ripple here is going to continue to hit the mortgages, the loans for cars, and maybe even student loans. Just this last while, another 18 banks went “POOF”!  People are taking their savings out of the banks, mostly because they have no idea whether the banks will even exist later. Treasury bonds are selling more than they have for a long time, even with paltry interest.

The APEC summit just finished, and the leaders figure it will take at least a year and a half to get this whole mess turned. Frankly, with the rate of business bankruptcy just starting to hit, the shaky ground that some of the major industries starting to move like a slow-motion earthquake, I don’t think eighteen months is even close to accurate.

Planning to endure the time ahead is the one thing I can do. Remember when someone asked you at a job interview, “Where do you expect to be in a year from now, with this company?” Well, the question now is, ” Where do I figure on being in two years from now?” Tough to call in some ways because there has NEVER been such a mess, NEVER has been such a phenomenal meltdown involving more than one or two countries. Yep, this lesson is that no country is an island, nor is any person able to do something stupid without the ripple effect going out well beyond known parameters. Congratulations you bunch of greedy jackasses, you sent one massive torpedo and blew a huge hole in all our lives! Don’t darken my door with any of your “innovative” ideas, or you may find that I DO have a pair of steel-toed boots and WILL use those on your butt!

Yep, it means I have to change my plans, work out a plan that takes into account changes in how I deal with money, and definitely how I manage my own income. Fortunately I am one of the few around with no debts to speak of, as I owe less than five hundred bucks right now.  One thing I will not do, though, is take on any credit cards. The banks are raising the interest on the cards to thirty-two percent either December first, or January first. Phooey! The only reason any bank want me to have their credit card is to make sure I go into debt. That is the only reason the cards are offered in the first place. Phooey! Keep them!

At least now I know that those who would make others the pawns in a very greedy, stupid, and ugly money game now are going to have to deal with it, not my tax dollars, not my hard-earned income. That is one relief, and from watching all the posts, I am definitely not alone in my wrath here.

Normal changes with each generation, so what WAS normal, is not normal now. Watch how the rules and normalcy change and learn to move with it. Barking about “how things used to be” is a total waste of time, energy and robs anyone doing that of the means or opportunity to be effective now.

Where do I figure on being? If I plan reasonably well, I should have a roof over my head, a change of job, certainly, and food to eat. Other than these things, the rest is negotiable, subject to change. My own sinking feeling is that this “crisis” is going to carry on well past two years, perhaps as long as five years. THAT does not make me happy, to say the very least.  I will do what I know how, what I can, and do it as well as I can, then let the rest go.

What do you think? Will this go downhill like the world did in the Great Depression or not? I sure as hell hope not.

Tax Money, Whose Is It?

Town council, city council, state, province, federal, even tax for schools and roads, all depend on someone having to pay up. Lately I have noticed a laissez-faire attitude toward the spending, the use of those tax dollars, as if the supply will always be endless and plentiful. Bad attitude!

Whose dollars are those? Whose pounds, yens, pesos, are those? Often they come from the pockets of the poor, the fastest growing segment of most societies. This means children are often eating poorly, going without new shoes, clothing, so the taxes can be paid. Those taxes are coming from families with single parents working part-time, paying for daycare, rent and all those other daily expenses. Tax dollars come from the people who work in minimum-wage stores with no health plan. Tax dollars come from the small shops who make or sell things. Tax dollars come from welfare payments, retirement income, the small trust funds of children who have lost a grandparent. Tax dollars are seldom gained from those who live in the high-income brackets, because there are write-offs, tax deductions for stock losses, and other means to avoid paying taxes. For every 100 tax dollars, less than half of 1 % is from those who make the most.

Poverty bashing has been a growing game, with those who are forced to live on food stamps, unemployment payments, and welfare the people targeted for derision, scorn.  “Get a job!” “Come on, get off your butt and get out there, earn your own way!” “Stand on your own two feet, I am tired of you sitting there and collecting money, tax money, from my hard earnings!” Take a look at almost every industrialized country statistics and you will find a very ugly trend. Poverty is growing. One in ten children now live in poverty in countries that have huge wealth, why? Wages for single parents are usually low, college, university, even health care courses are all well out of the range for any children of single parents. Costs have risen consistently at all those higher education sites, putting the squeeze on money. How could any of those children even consider getting out of the poverty black hole? Food banks are a common sight now, when once, food banks were only seen in cities with huge populations.

This is where Barack Obama had it right, START AT THE BOTTOM! The real bottom. The middle class has virtually disappeared because of the huge gap between those earning the high wages and income and the lower. The middle class is quickly becoming part of the poverty class, the lowest rung on the ladder.

When the 3 auto makers showed up in Washington, for example, there was a severe public relations gaff they made. People were aghast that those CEO’s showed up via private jets to ask for the tax money. Hmm not a good plan, guys! This showed a complete lack of understanding and even comprehension about tax funds, where the money comes from.

This current shakeup is, in a way, ironic. Those who “invested” in CDS, who played funny-money with others hard-earned money, have lost a huge chunk of their own income from the stock market collapse, the losses in the real-estate speculations, the property bought as “investment” for rental. So, no longer are those people walking around looking like they “own” the world. But, those people are the very ones who distained the ordinary working person, the money and taxes from the growing poverty class, and spent like a lottery winner. CRUNCH!  Now maybe some people will realize that every person who is going hungry, who lives in misery, is directly connected to all of us, and in ways we don’t see, we are the ones who are hungry and miserable too.

The bottom line here is respect. We need to relearn respect for ourselves, to do what we know as well as we can. We need to have those who want to have our tax money learn to respect the work required.  Maybe, just maybe, we can then learn to respect those who live with the hardest struggles, those who have been scorned and derided, the Vietnam veteran, the father, the mom, the sister, the son or daughter who live on the cold streets.  Yes, they deserve respect too.

Most of all, we all need to respect our own lives, to realize that we do all have unique abilities, skills, and underneath, we all are sacred, no matter what religion or belief system we use. We also have to respect our world, making sure that we don’t create such a mess that animals starve or get sick and die from poisons we add to the world.

Every being alive looks for a better future, wants to create a better world, and every one of us is capable of doing that. What the definition of “better” is, is where we have to put respect, honour and care into choosing what we do.

Child and Family Poverty Growing in Canada

Little Change For 20 Years in Poverty Rates

Welsh Children and Families living in poverty

National Center on Child Poverty, Letting Poverty Remain Costs All Of Us

State by State Cost Of Child Poverty in the U.S.

As long as we all believe that we MUST be compared to others, we all lose perspective. Poverty WILL grow now, with job losses, houses foreclosed, debts rising, and support systems being slashed.

Ontario, Canada Government Doing Everything to Block Green Energy!

Fifth Estate Documentary on German Ingenuity Green Energy

I am totally incensed now! Germany is working toward creating an entire country using green technology, devising ways to make the country virtually free of any hydro-carbon use in producing electricity or heat, even paying a Canadian company to move there to make solar panels. Yet, there are farmers in Ontario that have invested over 1.5 Million dollars by themselves to produce electricity and access the grid and the Ontario Power have blocked those farmers! What the hell is going on here?

Instead, the Ontario government has looked at building a highly expensive nuclear system, when there is no place that can safely store the spent rods! They are thinking of putting 30 Billion dollars into that, but not willing to pay farmers who already have power available to the grid? Insanity!

Germany has developed a huge industry with green technology, even paying companies to move there! Watch this video and see if you can figure out what possible argument Ontario has for being so damn stupid!

GM had even built an electric car, yet crushed them all and stuck the carcasses in the dessert? They have made electric cars! Where are they? Not on the market, that is for damn sure, but crushed! They chose to go back to gasoline instead, building SUV’s!

Why mention this? Well, yes, GM is now begging at the US federal doors for money! GM CHOSE to build gas-guzzling vehicles, as if the supply of oil was going to be infinite!  Tesla Motors has an electric car, there are cars made in England, for crying out loud, that run totally on electricity, but the major car makers won’t? Phooey, this is stupidity!

Oh, and the company that Germany paid to move there? It was Canadian! What in hell is wrong with this society that the small producers of heat, electricity, are being blocked by those who want to build nuclear plants that have such massive expense? I remember Three Mile Island, which damn near caused a disaster that would have made Chernobyl look small, because Three Mile was so close to cities and towns!

Please, if you agree with this opinion, email the Energy minister of Ontario, the Premier, the head of the nuclear association, and the Ontario Power.

I may not live in Ontario, but damn it, this IS my country! I cannot see others making a bigger mess of it, just because they “cannot control” the smaller producers!  The nuclear industry is trying to convince other provinces to build nuclear plants too, and I am going to do whatever I can to stop this! There are so many other choices out there. It is long past time that the governments got their heads out of the last century and looked at the world they are demanding the grandchildren will inherit.

Time to clean up their act, literally!

Ontario Power Authority

Canadian Nuclear Association

AgriEnergy Producers Of Ontario

Hermann Scheer, Green Energy Site

Some would say that using oil, coal, with carbon filtering, capturing, is just as beneficial. I happen to think this is complicating the whole process, especially when there are what I would call non-invasive forms of energy production available now.

When our world is facing energy black-outs, grey-outs, why would any form of clean energy be the ones nixed? If someone is willing to pay huge amounts of money to put energy supplies onto the grid, why block them? This does not make sense, no matter what your own belief in what constitutes clean energy.

President-Elect Obama Has A Job I Sure Would Not Want

Where, indeed, to begin, literally?

People often think of the President as a powerful post, and sometimes they are right. Barack Obama is taking on a daunting task here, and for once, I seriously would not want to be the president. It seems that there is a huge lineup at the door, all beggars, seeking monetary aid, bailouts, and all screaming over the other.

Barack Obama got it right in his campaign, putting the emphasis on the people. Without people, the government is an empty place. Government NEEDS people, people don’t NEED government.

Paulson finally woke up! All the toxic debts and CDS banks “invented” to circumvent laws are now going to stay with the banks, investment houses, and those who abused the financial system are just going to have to deal with the mess of their own making! Finally some common sense. Unfortunately, those banks “played” consumers, taking what should have been a simple contract called a mortgage and turning that into a splintered, then shattered, mess. Like I said previously, it would be worth a few hundred dollars to find out if banks et al breached those mortgage contracts. Re-selling and manipulating the housing markets by allowing “invisible” parties to endanger the entire world economy, personal mortgages, and then asking for the Fed to bail them out is ludicrous!

Obama has to deal with issues that are so complicated it takes at least 20 different people just to make the map, nevermind navigate it! Balancing the interests is tricky, at best. The two wars need to be mapped, understood, and navigated so that Iraq and Afghanistan both come out at least with some semblance of stability, otherwise the world may well end up going back in to restore them again. Not my idea of fun, trying to figure this out!

The banks and investment houses created a mess so large it has foundered the world economies! You can bet that anger is definitely NOT limited to the US, as most of the world is so very angry at those “fat cat” jackasses who tried to pull these scams off. Personally I would love to put on my steel-toed boots and give at least 20 of them a very well aimed kick in the ass! Then see all those “perks” they took taken back, liquidated, and the proceeds put into welfare programs, to enable families tossed about like “collateral damage” the lifeline of some food, clothing and, wow, even shelter! I have no problem with putting every bloody “fat cat” behind bars, say in Guantanamo Bay, for a while. Maybe then they would truly appreciate being alive and find a far more human set of priorities. This should start with the woman in Merrill Lynch who designed the base for CDS etc.

Obama has to figure out how to get a far “greener” path started, which means weaning the US off of wasteful behaviour. There are kits and instructions on the net for making wind turbines, solar panels, and lighting that is LED. Time for the common person to get busy saving things, remaking what used to be discarded into products again. Recycling soda cans, glass bottles, plastics, and using cloth bags, all would be a good start. This is where Obama may be able to lead by example. Install solar panels on the White House, use low wattage bulbs, and get a composting program going for the gardens.

Obama can lead his country well, if some of the petty, stupid games quit. I am amazed at how unbelievably childish some of the “adults” in Congress and the Senate are. Wow! “Gimme!” “I Want!” “No, you can’t play with my toys!” ” You cannot change things, because ‘that is the way things have always been'” Phooey! Grow UP! This is a new world here, things have changed, and get your head out of the bloody sand! In short, Obama can do a lot, but it DOES take us to help him out, not put childish, self-serving blocks in the way, “just because”.

The auto industry may have BEEN a major industrial engine, but the technology they use is from the last century, not pertinent now. Obama can tell car makers to get with the change. Take a look at the Tesla automobile! It is totally electric, can go like greased lightening, and has a range for driving that is as good as most people will ever need. Get rid of the hydro-carbon, gas guzzling technology and devise other choices.

President-Elect Obama, if you want to see a banking system that is the best in the world, I strongly suggest you check out the Canadian system. None of the banks there are even close to being in trouble, lending is going on, and they got hit in a very minor way with any of the CDS or other “funny-money” ways the US banks did. Look at the regulations! Those banks are NOT government owned, but they are regulated in ways that have allowed them to continue to work effectively! Amazing!

Health care, it needs to be changed. No question. People are dying, kids are getting sick and dying because the costs are far too high, the paperwork is eating up a huge chunk of the cost of doing business. What the hell? Paperwork accounts for a huge part of the costs? If anyone gets into an accident, it can mean death from untreated injury, or bankruptcy if the injury is treated. Talk about living between a rock and a hard place. I agree with Obama, get the costs down.  But it can be done by those who are not sick working to demand answers, demand better service, and certainly demand the FDA get off it’s butt and realize that most of the generic drugs coming from developed countries ARE made to high standards. Help the president by joining in, not making his job harder. It means demanding generic equivalents be prescribed by the doctors, hospitals, so all of the people get a better deal. Remember the “name brand” companies make huge, fantastic profits, and they have a vested interest in YOU buying them.

Jobs, and more jobs, the necessity for people to have meaningful work, we all need them. President-Elect Obama has the correct focus, here, but there is no way in hell he can do THIS ONE ALONE! This is where the recycling and reusing all those discarded materials could make work. It takes imagination, thinking, and yes, even work to find new uses for all those discarded things once used. For example, take plastic soda bottles and turn them into automated watering devices. It is as simple as filling the bottles with water, then turning the bottle upside down and pushing them into the soil around plants.  Start making solar panels, then put them on every house in town! Wind turbines work with even small breezes if they are made with a governor on them. There are some that can be made at home, and if at least 10% of the houses have them, the power grid is boosted! There are literally millions of ways to turn garbage going to landfills into useful things again, from braided rag rugs to vehicles. Help your president and your environment all in one! If nothing else, set up a recycling depot for local things.

International relationships need attention too. Wow, this list is getting long, but with help via the internet, it can be achieved! Talk to people around the world, listen and discuss issues with them. President-Elect Obama got that one right! He did go to the internet to talk and listen. Give the US the help in returning to a better international status by being a little more concerned about others, listening to other ideas. Why? Because maybe someone elsewhere in the world has the answer you need to solve your own problems, or you have the answer they are looking for!

Yep, the President-Elect has his work cut out, but with help from all of those in the world, maybe, just maybe, we all can lighten his load just a little bit.