Integrity In Life Creates More Than Is Known.

What with all the fiascos in banking, government, even personal life, there is one theme I have noticed. A serious lack of personal integrity.

There is the old story of porkbarrelling in politics, and that goes to even the city or village level. When someone in an office is more interested in buying friends and buying influence than becoming a good leader, the whole of society suffers. Add to that secrecy and you have a very volatile mix.

The most obvious examples are those of Idi Amin, George Bush, and many others who abused the office of leader. What most everyone forgets is that there are really NO secrets that will remain secret. The truth will always come out, somehow, somewhere. Perhaps it is revealed from simple, honest, and wondering curiousity, perhaps it comes from wanting to find that very truth.

There have been people who have lived openly, honestly, with few, if any secrets, and they find that integrity is easy, almost automatic. What most people who keep things secret find out is that telling someone, even a stranger, of the secret, will take away the power, the condemnation that the secret holder fears. Try it! When you reveal a secret, most of the time people will shrug, maybe be surprised, but there is also a feeling of release of the power of the secret to bind us up, make us fearful.

The contrast between two people can be very stark. We instinctively know when someone is NOT telling us the entire story, the real truth, and we become suspicious, less trusting and definitely want to know the truth. When we try to keep something secret, we develop a habit of keeping more and more of those secrets. Yes, we can do this from very good intentions, to avoid hurting someone we love, to avoid revealing the whereabouts of someone who can be killed (think of the Holocaust and Schindler) and sometimes those secrets have to be kept. BUT, unless there is a literal life and death situation, secrets can cause more problems than just being honest enough to reveal what we know.

Integrity means taking these chances, taking the risk that someone may just understand and learn a lot by us being honest enough, strong enough, to allow someone to know what we may THINK is the worst of us. Again, think of Schindler. After the war, his story was revealed, the truth did come out. So, again, the secrets do become revealed.

Now, think of someone like O.J. Simpson. The evidence, for me, gives compelling truth that he did kill. He may have been found, in a court, to be innocent, but the underlying instinct we all use makes us want to avoid him, to question every word he utters. Our instincts may be far more accurate than any jury, court, or other official institution.

Integrity is part of our human heritage. We rely on it when we go to buy a new car, find a flawed product and expect to have the product either taken back or replaced. We rely on integrity to form a basis of our personal relationships. So where do things to haywire? When we try too hard to please, perhaps our parents, or our bosses and let our own integrity fail. When it comes to things like politics and business, integrity is often ruined, denied, and the outcome is that we find out the truth and feel betrayed.

This may be the one lesson that the world needs right now. That huge, deep, painful sense of being betrayed by Wall Street hogs, presidential secrecy in several countries, and above all the betrayal of the very people we choose to stand up for us in our elections has become pandemic, or so it seems.

Leaders are rare, it seems. Leaders will be honest enough to tell what we need to know, even if it shows our own failings, or our own successes. Leaders will be the ones who LISTEN more than talk, and actually want to understand the situation from all points of view, then take the path of BEST choice, not necessarily the most expedient, the easiest, or even the most profitable.

Business needs LEADERS, people who work and demand integrity within and from those who work with them. The plumber who is known by the locals as being the best, the honest person, is often the busiest, yet we will wait. The food server who is good, honest, and works to the goals of doing the best they know how, with honesty and integrity, are the ones we ask for. The business man who stands by his company, who works to improve not only the bottom line, but the working conditions, the spirit of his company, the integrity that will be his own bottom line, we all want to work for. Why? Because THEY LISTEN! They grow and learn!

Now, to the dark side of this. Torture, no matter where or who does it, violates all of us in some way. It violates our sense of integrity, our sense of human being. When someone like Cheney or Bush or Idi Amin or anyone else chooses to use their power to try to keep things like this secret, we find out, one way or another. The ripples of this DO go out, tarnishing the countries, the people, and, like each individual in any relationship, we feel betrayed, soiled, and the instincts of others around the world become suspicious, mistrusting and the entire population of whatever country has tortured is lessened in integrity. Not fair, maybe, but that is the price of living with a democracy, with elected officials. Idi Amin being the exception here.

The dark side is less obvious when it comes to business, because we don’t elect those people, but rely on them to be honest. But the ripples STILL go out. We all mistrust a company that will pollute then keep that a secret. We feel betrayed by companies that will hide dangerous practices, such as hiding the dangerous chemicals they use on our food, our land and put into our water.

So, for each individual, no matter whether you are president, prime minister, premier, or the local farmer, truck driver, student, teacher or business owner, take the time to check on your integrity. Are we living up to the goal of being honest and open? Are we listening and learning?

We WANT to have the farmer who will NOT use hormones that screw up our health, we WANT the teacher who demands the best from themselves and us, we WANT the business owner to have a decent company that we can trust, we WANT leaders to be open with us, to LEAD, not be bought out because of some monetary rewards or status. we WANT integrity.

Obama, Slam Those Salaries, Now!

I knew at least two months ago that the CEO’s and other fat cat exec’s would find a way to circumvent the ceiling on their bonuses, their income, and get the money.  Quelle Surprise!

They made over 100 of the upper echelon in one company “partners” to get around this,in others,  they just thumbed their noses at the taxpayer, the government and took the money anyway.

I have yet to see anything to get those damned Credit Default Swaps under control, and with the serious lack of legal recourse, the fat cats are eating out on the taxpayers of the entire world. Remember, most of the banks do have international branches or connections.

President Obama, put those ceilings into law, harsh penalties if they violate, and make damn sure they do give you full disclosure on every damn cent of taxpayer monies they are spending. No excuses, no hiding, nadda.

If necessary, put a full investigation using every federal agency, including the IRS, the FBI, and the Wall Street agencies. Stop this abuse of trust now.

As for our own government here, there is an equally apalling lack of investigation, oversight, accounting, so I can gather the same is happening in Japan, Korea, the U.K., Belgium, Germany, and virtually every country tied to this disastrous mess.

Here is where diplomacy comes in, there MUST be an international cooperation, an international accounting, and definitely an international effort to kick these guys where, obviously, they need it, in the wallet.

Damn this is a mess!

New Year Gloom, A Better Tomorrow

We all wish each other “Happy New Year” and sometimes we actually mean it. Like most years in history, there is happiness, but often the new year brings in sadness, loss, and malaise. We all strive for a better tomorrow, that is as natural as breathing. How “better” is defined becomes the yardstick that is personal.

Better tomorrows are far more simplified in places where the essentials for life are scarce. Water, food, even shelter, may be the goals. Some have lived without these for a long time, and often those people are just looking for a better tomorrow in the very simplest terms.

Better tomorrows may be measured in having 3 houses instead of 2 for some, while others just believe in having at least some shelter that is affordable.

When we compare ourselves with others, we will always find someone who is better at what we do, smarter than us, or who have more than we do. It becomes a fruitless passion to compare ourselves against others. There are people who have lived through hell, and when we compare ourselves against them, we feel fortunate, but we still are engaged in a fruitless path.

There are often those who would point fingers, blame others for whatever has happened or will happen, and often our laws are invoked because of the resentment and anger.

Why am I even going through this discussion? Simple. Each of us has the ability to be excellent, even if it is as a barber, a farmer, a machinist, a mother or friend. When we use our energy, our own drive to be the best WE can be,  blame disappears, resentment often lessens or even goes away, and certainly we find far less time to blame.

Sure, work depends on someone hiring us, trusting us to do the work as well as we can, and we are, in a sense, dependent on them for our income. Losing a job can mean we feel betrayed, hopeless, powerless, and start on the path to comparing what we are, what we have, with thousands of “them”. What we forget, or just do not know, is that most companies that have to let us go, either by layoff or firing, don’t want to do that. They are feeling much the same things we are, especially when the company is depending on suppliers or buyers who have disappeared. Yes, the industrial and commercial world is built on cooperation, not competition, just as our lives are.

Companies depend on us, they cannot live without people working for them, people buying their product, and the social recognition of their existence. Companies NEED us. This is where some of the international flaws have widened into chasms and the financial earthquake that hit in the last few months is as natural as weather. Companies that believe that dollars are the base for existence are based on fallacy. Stockholders are NOT the lifeblood of corporate health, nor are those CEO’s who “manage”, but the ordinary people who work, often out of the light of recognition, YOU and ME.

WE are the ones that companies MUST learn they NEED. The Great Depression was NOT caused by the collapse of Wall Street, or the markets, it was caused by mechanization. Instead of having people making the cars, the goods people bought, machines began to do that work. When people were put out of work, the market for the goods faded, often dying because no-one had the income to buy. There is a parallel in our modern society. We have mechanized jobs with computers. Instead of having people write out the purchase orders, package the goods, computers have moved into doing those jobs. Basically, if taken to the extreme, companies could work with a tech support team and one or two people making decisions.

Personally I am NOT surprised that economies have gone down, mostly because I have watched the computerization of work to an extreme, without any compensating change for people needing to work.

The world economies have faded and probably will continue to fade, unless WE find our way to our own solid ground. This may mean we look at our own excellent abilities which each of us DO have, and trust ourselves to find the way to make a better tomorrow.

Oddly enough, the fade, the change in thinking, may be the best thing that could happen. It forces us to focus on what WE are, what we are part of. Nature SUPPORTS us, not the other way around. Farmers know this quite well. Those who work with nature know it. Our lives depend on nature, not cars, not plastic cups to drink from, not computers.  Water, air, soil, and the interdependence of all animals, including us, is nature.  This is the focus that Barack Obama has found, and for once, I am pleased.

So, each of us can make some impact here. Grow a head of lettuce, a hill of potatoes, or plant as many tree seeds as we can. Protect the endangered animals, the environment, and we all will have a better tomorrow, because WE DEPEND ON NATURE.

We live in cooperation with each other, our neighbours, our friends, our families, our communities, and most importantly, our world. Wars may reduce populations, but they also violate life, and history proves beyond any doubt, that violence using weapons will return to those who attack.

May our new year be one of reflection, spirituality, peace, and most importantly, a year of our own possibilities. Trust in our own inner drive, our own inner desire to have that better tomorrow, with the understanding that what we do can and does ripple out to affect far more than we know, may well be the lesson for this new year. Hope, acted upon, may just make our tomorrow better.

Bush Designs Pollution, Health Hazards, Guns for America

I honestly thought this was some kind of sick joke when I got some information sent to my email account, but when I checked with several sources, it is true.

The outgoing president is using his “executive” powers to put into law a whole bunch of stupid laws that guarantee fecal matter in streams and drinking water as well as increases in lead. He is also putting into law that truckers can work more than half a day on the road, which most people know is worse than driving drunk!

This is from the Guardian in the U.K.

Paul Harris, The Observer, Guardian.co.uk

George Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America’s wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January.

With barely 60 days to go until Bush hands over to Barack Obama, his White House is working methodically to weaken or reverse an array of regulations that protect America’s wilderness from logging or mining operations, and compel factory farms to clean up dangerous waste.

In the latest such move this week, Bush opened up some 800,000 hectares (2m acres) of land in Rocky Mountain states for the development of oil shale, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. The law goes into effect on January 17, three days before Obama takes office.

The timing is crucial. Most regulations take effect 60 days after publication, and Bush wants the new rules in place before he leaves the White House on January 20. That will make it more difficult for Obama to undo them.

“There are probably going to be scores of rules that are issued between now and January 20,” said John Walke, a senior attorney at the National Resources Defence Council. “And there are at least a dozen very controversial rules that will weaken public health and environment protection that have no business being adopted and would not be acceptable to the incoming Obama administration, based on stances he has taken as a senator and during the campaign.”

The flurry of new rules – known as midnight regulations – is part of a broader campaign by the Bush administration to leave a lasting imprint on environmental policy. Some of the actions have provoked widespread protests such as the Bureau of Land Management’s plans to auction off 20,000 hectares of oil and gas parcels within sight of Utah’s Delicate Arch natural bridge.

The new regulations include a provision that would free industrial-scale pig and cattle farms from complying with the Clean Water Act so long as they declare they are not dumping animal waste in lakes and rivers. The rule was finalised on October 31. Mountain-top mining operations will also be exempt from the Clean Water Act, allowing them to dump debris in rivers and lakes. The rule is still under review at the OMB. Coal-fired power plants will no longer be required to install pollution controls or clean up soot and smog pollution.

Yet another of the new rules, which has generated publicity, would allow the Pentagon and other government agencies to embark on new projects without first undertaking studies on the potential dangers to wildlife.

Announcements of further rule changes are expected in the next few days including one that would weaken regulation of perchlorate, a toxin in rocket fuel that can affect brain development in children, in drinking water.
———————————————————–
Bush can pass the rules because of a loophole in US law allowing him to put last-minute regulations into the Code of Federal Regulations, rules that have the same force as law. He can carry out many of his political aims without needing to force new laws through Congress. Outgoing presidents often use the loophole in their last weeks in office, but Bush has done this far more than Bill Clinton or his father, George Bush sr. He is on track to issue more ‘midnight regulations’ than any other previous president.

Many of these are radical and appear to pay off big business allies of the Republican party. One rule will make it easier for coal companies to dump debris from strip mining into valleys and streams. The process is part of an environmentally damaging technique known as ‘mountain-top removal mining’. It involves literally removing the top of a mountain to excavate a coal seam and pouring the debris into a valley, which is then filled up with rock. The new rule will make that dumping easier.

Another midnight regulation will allow power companies to build coal-fired power stations nearer to national parks. Yet another regulation will allow coal-fired stations to increase their emissions without installing new anti-pollution equipment.

One lengthens the number of hours that truck drivers can drive without rest. Another surrenders government control of rerouting the rail transport of hazardous materials around densely populated areas and gives it to the rail companies.

One more chips away at the protection of endangered species. Gun control is also weakened by allowing loaded and concealed guns to be carried in national parks. Abortion rights are hit by allowing healthcare workers to cite religious or moral grounds for opting out of carrying out certain medical procedures.

Bush’s midnight regulations will:

• Make it easier for coal companies to dump waste from strip-mining into valleys and streams.

• Ease the building of coal-fired power stations nearer to national parks.

• Allow people to carry loaded and concealed weapons in national parks.

• Open up millions of acres to mining for oil shale.

• Allow healthcare workers to opt out of giving treatment for religious or moral reasons, thus weakening abortion rights.

• Hurt road safety by allowing truck drivers to stay at the wheel for 11 consecutive hours.

Bush says F U to the Country and All Citizens

What this looks like, to me, is Bush trying every trick in the book to sabotage the country, the new president, the endangered species act, the FDA, the Federal Environment Agency, and basically making everyone live in a garbage dump.

There is no good excuse, never mind reason, to pass this unless you want to work for one of the companies that will give you a job with them later. This is totally aimed, in my opinion, at Barack Obama, green energy and the value of the wildlife and ecology of North America, all being sabotaged by Bush.

What I cannot figure out is why on earth Bush would want to do this, other than total contempt for his own daughters and their children, the people who live in the rural areas, and above all, the families of truckers who may end up attending the funerals of either the trucker or someone that trucker killed.

Bush, you are one stupid Son Of A Bitch, and the man who threw shoes at you was insulting you, not target practicing.  That action was akin to throwing a used sanitary napkin at your head, with the blood of children, women and others killed on the napkin. Got it?

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!

Tax the School Property, then Give 50% to Business?

It seems the plan here is to cut taxes for the wealthy and take 50% of the taxes on school property and give that away to business! Stupid idea! It will impoverish the schools, already underfunded, and do nothing to make our kids learn or be safer in crumbling buildings, teachers so over-stressed the good ones quit, and leave the money in the hands of people who are running businesses?

If this is passed here, I am going to be very very pissed off! Schools are already dealing with huge class sizes, violence from dealing with kids who need access to counselling and programs after school, and teachers dealing with a government that has absolutely no concern for families living on third world incomes. Rents are high here, probably the highest in the country, yet there is nothing here for any kind of support for low income earners at all!

As I put in another post, society grows from the bottom up! Apparently the bottom of this society starts at the line of business, not families, not children (find reports on the neglect here by the department dealing with abused and murdered children) or those who have to live in rooming houses infested with cockroaches, drugs and filth.

Does this sound like some place you would want to come to? Well, guess what? The 2010 Winter Olympics will show you homelessness that is growing by 50% each year with our government doing nothing whatsoever. Food banks are being drained faster than they get ANY food, with people coming more and more from working poor families. Sure, come, but know that you will find a place with underpinnings of misery.

Tax cuts are in the announcement, but only for those who have work that is higher paid, nothing for those who need to get a leg up and get onto solid ground. Phooey! Damn Stupid plan!

Other measures outlined in the premier’s 10-point plan include:

• Unlimited deposit insurance for deposits to credit unions in B.C.
• Rebate of 50 per cent on all school property taxes to light and heavy industry.
• Doubling the commission paid to business for collecting the provincial sales tax and hotel room tax.
• Speeding up public investments in capital infrastructure projects.
• Re-evaluating spending priorities and scaling back unbudgeted increases.

Recession, Depression, Whatever You Call It

John Kenneth Galbraith has authored a number of books, “The Crash of 1929” and others on political economics. He has been an ambassador, a writer of books and he has a solid take on the ways American influence has affected the world, good and bad. Ironically, he is a Canadian. If you want to read some enlightening books on economics and the world, find his books. They may have been written years ago, but they are certainly relevant now. If you want to cut to the relevant part here, go to around the 43 minute mark on this video. You will be astounded at how much things are almost duplicated then, and now! Bloody scary, bloody ridiculous!

There is an impression that if left alone, the government to stay out of the market that the financial markets, by some God given power, will solve the problem.

This is from the years just before the  Great Depression Do these words sound like some of the current Congressional leaders? The Senators? Even the President himself? Take a look at how Eisenhower, Roosevelt managed to deal with economics, the withdrawal of the US in unpopular war (Korea) and realize how much history has to teach the current administration and any administration to come!

Even if they manage to pass the bill facing the US right now, the economies of the world are NOT going to be in any kind of rosy state for quite a while. This bill, in whatever form it takes, will NOT solve the problems, it is just a start. Period.

The massive consumption of goods is not going to continue. I figure that this will affect all of us for at least 5 years, maybe more, so if any of us figure that we can resume spending, borrowing using credit cards and other lines of credit, we are WRONG.

There are going to be jobs lost in Asia, China, the US, and Europe, but what this bill may do is to keep those losses to a lower level, not stop them. Business will not resume as it did before the banks and  the toxic waste they devised became known. What is really mind boggling is that most of the very banking “experts”, the economists, and the ordinary people don’t even understand this. Most of us, including the banking and economics experts find this far too complicated, far too extensive, far too large in scope to figure out.

Regardless of how this comes down, I am going to see property prices drop more, although here the property prices are still way over the true level in value anyway. The foreclosures in the US will continue, they will rise and so will bank failures.

Get the idea? This bill is NOT a cure, not a way to solve the problem, just a small beginning, with pain still to come. The international news knows this, why on earth do the Americans in the administration, including Paulson and Bernanke not know it, nor the President?