Monday, June 12, 2006

A Rich Man Goes To Heaven

Billionaire Kenneth Thomson, Canada's richest man, dead at 82

Ken Thomson: Canada's wealthiest man never shook Depression-era

Media mogul Kenneth Thomson dies at 82

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24)

Eye of a needle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But he might make it before Lord Black who is defintely going to the other place.

Also See:

CEO Watch: Canadas Richest Man


Criminal Capitalism:

Lord Black Fugitive

Black & Radler,Thick as Thieves

Black Lord Dodges Tax Man

From Black to Iraq and Back

Rescuing Lord Black






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Big Brother IS Watching You At Work


You have been warned. Especially if you are reading this at work, or working on your blog at work.....Or if you surfing the web at work, etc. Remember to use an anonymizer and clean those files.

Electronic Evidence: Catch The Rogue Employee

By Adrian Miedema

The explosion of e-mail communication presents risks and opportunities for employers. Electronic files can be a goldmine of evidence against rogue employees – particularly when the employee believes the file to have been permanently deleted.

Deleted Files: The New "Smoking Gun" Evidence?
Just as e-mails and electronic files present risks, they present great opportunities for lawyers and human resources professionals. It is commonly understood that a "deleted" e-mail or file is gone forever. This is not true. By "deleting" a file, one deletes only the file name and path to the file; the contents of the file actually remain. Often it is only when the hard drive or disc fills up, and the computer needs the disc space, that the "deleted file" will be overwritten. Because most people use far less than 100% of their hard drive space, many deleted files are never overwritten.

The "deleted" files may be recovered with the assistance of a forensic information technology professional who can obtain an "image" of the hard drive, which is an exact copy of the drive, including deleted files. The professional can then find and restore deleted documents including e-mails. It is almost always advisable to use an external forensic IT professional because the person who obtains the "image" may be called as a witness in court. Without formal training in forensics, an inhouse technology professional may see his or her evidence destroyed in cross-examination – and may also be accused of bias.

Because most employees believe that "deleted" really means "deleted", they are often very free with what they say in e-mails – some of which are sent and then promptly deleted. As a result, in employment litigation matters, deleted e-mails can often become critical evidence, if not a source of amusement.

Unbeknownst to most people, personal e-mails sent from work using an employee’s web-based e-mail account such as "Hotmail" will often reside on the work computer. An employee, believing that these e-mails could not be seen by the employer, will often be free with what she says in – or what documents she sends along with – such e-mails. Privacy implications and systems use policies should be considered and consulted before using any such "personal" e-mails as evidence.

Recovered e-mails are particularly useful evidence where an employee steals intellectual property or takes steps – while still employed – to compete against the employer. For instance, an employee might send a customer list by e-mail to his personal e-mail address and then delete the e-mail. That e-mail will usually remain on the hard drive and will be "smoking gun" evidence in legal proceedings against the former employee, such as injunction proceedings to prevent the employee from competing or soliciting clients.

But employers must think beyond computers. Other devices such as cell phones, Blackberries and Palm Pilot-type devices all have memory that can be "imaged" and preserved by the forensic IT professional. The employer should take steps to preserve the potential goldmine of electronic evidence on a departed employee’s hard drive. Don’t shut the computer down, but do ensure that it is safeguarded. In particular, where key salespersons or other key employees depart, the employer should consider obtaining a forensic image of the employee’s hard drive. If litigation arises, the employer may then analyze the forensic image and determine whether, for instance, the employee stole customer lists. The forensic image of the hard drive may be stored and used later if necessary.

Similarly, before dismissing a key employee, the employer should secure the employee’s laptop, cell phone, Blackberry or Palm Pilot to ensure that the employee cannot, after the dismissal, permanently delete or "scrub" files from those devices.

Knowledge is Advantage
Since many employees are not familiar with the recovery of "deleted" files, employers who understand these concepts have a real advantage, particularly where emloyees have engaged in nefarious activities. Employers should take steps to preserve "deleted" e-mails and files that may become key evidence in litigation.



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Life Long Learning

Everybody in Canada agrees Life Long Learning is important for production, GDP, competitiveness, changing working conditions, skills upgrading.

Politicians, business and labour all talk about Life Long Learning. Education and skills upgrading is the pancea for business when they layoff workers for increased profits. Education and skills upgrading is what will make us competitive they say as they ship jobs offshore.
Canada lags in global trade race: Emerson

Yep Education and skills are important for the working class. But the reality is, well far less impressive.

Canada is a world leader at giving its residents a first chance to get a high school diploma. But when it comes to second chances, we tumble down the rankings.Our adult education system is spotty, riddled with barriers and unresponsive to the needs of Canadians who lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, say the authors of a new study entitled Too Many Left Behind: Canada's Adult Education and Training System. What is even more troubling, they contend, is that the gap between the winners and losers is widening.Adult education spotty at best

Almost six million Canadians aged 25 and over do not have a high school diploma or higher credentials, says a new report from the Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN).
And a staggering nine million people aged 16 to 65 - 42% of Canadians - have literacy skills below the level considered necessary to function in society.Poor literacy skills hinder too many

Lifelong learning eludes those who need it the most: report


Karen Myers
image
download Download

Too Many Left Behind: Canada's Adult Education and Training System. Karen Myers and Patrice de Broucker. CPRN Research Report W|34, June 2006, 109 pages.

A new study from CPRN provides answers and makes recommendations to improve the effectiveness of Canada's adult education systems. Too Many Left Behind: Canada's Adult Education and Training System, by Karen Myers and Patrice de Broucker, documents the availability of formal adult learning opportunities in Canada and the factors influencing the participation of less educated/less skilled workers. The authors pinpoint gaps and suggest ways to overcome them.



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Sunday, June 11, 2006

Sex At The World Cup

I knew that would get your attention.

Pagan traditions include a positive attitude towards sexuality. Unlike prudish monotheists. And the Ukraine is full of pagan traditions. So here comes another one.

Most bizarre World Cup incentive


Blokhin: Like it or not, you're going to have sex

'Like it or not, you're going to have sex'


Ukraine are playing in their first ever World Cup finals and, unsurprisingly, hope to do very well. While everything has been done to prepare players like Andrei Schevchenko and Sergei Rebrov for the big stage, coach Oleg Blokhin has added an extra incentive to his coaching arsenal in a bid to get the very best out of his stars. If winning the World Cup was not incentive enough, the Ukrainian coach has promised that he will waive the squad's rule on celibacy if the team get to the semi-final and allow the players to have sex with their wives and girlfriends. Not only will he allow this, but Blokhin has assured his players that there will be no choice in the matter: "Those who don't feel like it, I'll just drag to their wives."

This may be counter-productive in a couple of ways. Firstly, the sight of a reluctant partner being dragged to the marital bed by the imposing former Soviet Union striker is unlikely to promote harmony between the couples. Secondly, if Ukraine reaches the semi-finals on a no-sex diet, will getting the team off really increase their chances? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I am really enjoying this World Cup.

Ole Украины Ole Ole


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The Magick of Cats

I have cats. Have had for over thirty years. My cat Khan passed on at the fine old age of 25. Now we have two Japanese bob-tails, and two dogs; Schipperke's.
Of them I will blog about later.

For now we are discussing cats. I came across these two interesting tales of cats, witches and politics.

First to Saudi Arabia, again.

Arrest That Cat! Man’s Cruelty to Animals!
Roger Harrison, Arab News

JEDDAH, 4 June 2006 — It took five police cars, a limousine and a man pretending to have a firearm to arrest Ms. Eva — who was suspected of witchcraft — and the cat. Ms. Eva was released six hours later after questioning; the cat was detained overnight for inquiries.

It reads like an April 1 article in one of the more lurid European tabloids. It is true, however, and it happened in Jeddah. Only the name has been changed.

No dewy-eyed animal rights campaigner, Ms. Eva is the soul of practicality. “Cats breed prolifically,” she says. “Neuter them and return them to the streets and, because they are very territorial, the population in that area will quickly come down to controllable levels.”

On the night in question, she was trundling her trolley, laden with cat food and water, along one of north Jeddah’s busy main streets.

Not only were feline eyes upon her. A Saudi man, pointing what looked like a pistol at her, approached her and demanded to know what she was doing. Not accepting her simple explanation that she was feeding cats, he summoned the police and accused Eva of witchcraft. He had spotted that the cat had been recently sutured after spaying and contended that, “She had opened the cat and taken things out for witchcraft.”

Eva is not alone in her passion. There is a group of remarkable women whose passion is animal welfare and who devote a good deal of time and money to healing the discarded and cruelly-treated animals they find in the streets or, if the animals are in extremis, having them humanely put down. The women’s stories are many and harrowing.



And this tail errr tale may be of some import to our Mr. Harper who also is a cat lover and an internationalist.Perhaps he should send his Minister of Foreign Affairs to Jeddah to look into this cat injustice.

Fostering pets

8 June 2006
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Harper with two foster cats at 24 Sussex Drive.
All too often, family pets such as dogs and cats find themselves in shelters as a result of being abandoned or rescued. The Harpers are proud to support and participate in the Ottawa Humane Society’s Foster Program, which provides temporary homes for pets in the community who are not yet ready for adoption.

And some clever blogger has posted this very funny article on Harper and his cats


Advice to Harper: Beware of cats!


Still there are other more serious aspects to cat symbolism that may be more detrimental to Harper's strategy.

Yep cats represent anarchists and witches points out our friendly blogger Furgaia.

Montague Summers in his turgid tome The History of Witchcraft entitles the first chapter in his book; The Witch Heretic and Anarchist. I know that had an influence on me. So beware of the spell of the cat Mr. Harper.


And lets not forget cats are bravehearted, unlike the Kings who named themselves that and the politician who hides out in the PMO.
N.J. cat chases a bear up a tree


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Witches Play Mullahs To A Draw

I found this interesting, Iran vs Mexican Witches The Iranians brought out the Koran and the Mullahs still......it came to a 1-1 draw....after the initial half Mexico won 3-1 I found out later in the day. Ha! Witches 1 Mullahs 0.

Black magic

Meanwhile, fans in Mexico have been praying for the success of their team as Mexico plays Iran in their first match of the World Cup.

As crowds follow the matches on giant screens in Mexico City's central square, Zocalo – the witchcraft master - has set up a shrine of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death.

The witchcraft master believes Santa Muerte will help Mexico to a win as a 12th player.

The sprit, representing death, is widely worshipped in Mexico, and has in the past received many unusual gifts, including shots of tequila and burning cigarettes.

Of course the Iranians should have been prepared for this since many African teams also use shamans and witch doctors in the course of their play.

“If you are a goalkeeper, maybe you put an elephant tooth in your boot to make you big and strong.”

Unfortunately Saudi Arabia is probably not anymore prepared for dealing with any pagan charms the Ukrainian Soccer team and their fans may use against them in the Group H playoffs at the World Cup.. In Saudi Arabia they kill witches.

Status of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia
Magic is widely believed in and sometimes practiced, often in the form of fortune-telling and swindles; however, under Shari’a, the practice of magic is regarded as the worst form of polytheism, an offense for which no repentance is accepted and which is punishable by death. There are an unknown number of detainees held in prison on the charge of "sorcery," including the practice of "black magic" or "witchcraft." In a few cases, self-proclaimed "miracle workers" have been executed for sorcery involving physical harm or apostasy.

If the Saudi soccer team hopes to win they might want to free their sorcerors to help out. Since the Iranian Mullahs could only make it a draw against the Mexican Sorcerors.

Of course no one believes in magic, ahem, until their favorite sports team makes the playoffs.


Guardian Unlimited | Weekend | Hostages to fortune

Science has taught us that superstition is just a load of mumbo jumbo. Even so, we carry on with an irrational array of rituals and practices to keep a step ahead of fate. Touch wood? Why bother when we know it makes no difference? By David Newnham.


And all sports are rituals and metaphors. The fans will their teams to win, using rabbits feet, face painting, favorite clothing, etc. This is the meaning of magick; the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will


Chapter 3: The Rendering of Meaning: Ritual, Magic, Myth and Humor

The compelling nature of football ritual is a result of a successful demonstration of the success model. But football not only provides a working demonstration of the traditional success model, it also provides the viewer with ways of monitoring the model. In the real world of the corporation, the actor, who cannot comprehend the structure of the business world, or even the company where he competes for success, cannot directly verify how the system works. In fact he is probably not as successful as he thinks he ought to be, and is confronted with experiences to suggest the system doesn't work. Football, on the other hand, resolves those doubts, and perhaps suggests to those not as successful as they think they should be, that they are not as dedicated, and hardworking as they ought to be. However in football, the accomplishments of individuals are carefully monitored and expressed in the statistics popular with newspaper writers and television commentators:

Football, like chess, laboratory experiments, and the Balinese cockfight, is a dramatic rendition of a metaphor or set of metaphors that represent one way Americans (or at least some Americans) give meaning to portions of their lives. And the ritual validates the truth of that meaning.

There is another aspect of ritual that is not as clear to us in our rituals as it may be when we look at rituals that appear strange to us. Rituals have results that confirm to the participants that the world of ritual and the "real" world are one. That is the rituals "work"; the rituals have real effects.

As I have said before sports is metaphor for war. Especially team sports like soccer, rugy, football (especially in the US where it influences the White House and Pentagon, how many Presidents played football...and generals) and hockey.
And magickal thinking is all about the 'will to win' and that is no more apparent than in sports.

If we Americans have “optimized” rugby according to our notions of progress, there are still things many team owners might like to import from Trobriand cricket. While in football, the home team wins most of the time, in the Trobriand Island sport the home team always wins. There is still consolation for the visitors though, since the home team throws a feast in their honor. Huge differences remain, however. While football, with its fighter plane flyovers and other militaristic trappings often seems to celebrate war, cricket was introduced to the Trobriands in 1903 to replace war. How primitive!The Anthropology of the Super Bowl

Also See:

Magick


Sports

Ukraine

Football



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Suicide A Terrorist Act

Thanks to Blastfurnace for this;

"We're learning tonight that three detainees at Gitmo have committed suicide. Naturally, a military official has already spun this saying it wasn't an act of desperation but an act of terrorism.

Yeah they were trying to make the Americans look bad by committing suicide.

This reminds me of the Rote Army Fraction in Germany in the Seventies,
aka Baader-Meinhof Group, an armed struggle group (terrorists) that were busted and then the leaders ended up mysteriously dead in jail. At the time the State ruled it was suicide, but it appeared to everyone else as murder.

When you are declared an Enemy of the State they lock you up and throw away the key. And then you die. If they don't execute you then you mysteriously commit 'suicide'.


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Carnival Of Socialism #4


Comrades;

Welcome to the Carnival of Socialism #4.

We seem to be well on a roll here with four full carnivals of wholesome socialism for the masses. And some interesting arguments as well.

For a blogsphere that appears at times to be full of self righteous right wingers, this is your chance to fling open the window's of your mind.

Take yourself by the hair and turn your self inside out to look at the world with fresh eyes.

Thanks to the insights provided by the following fine folks and their contributions.

Andrew Barttlet posted at the Sharpener, a collective blog of political discussion, the following;
Work ethics: efficiency.

He says; "
In the age of Homo economicus, of atomised economic units standing in the stead of thinking, civilised men and women, to be an efficient worker from the position and interests of the worker means to maximise the wages received while minimising the amount of labour input. As, in most employing organisations, wages are fixed according to rank, and as promotion hierarchies narrow as one rises through the ranks, the surest way that the majority of workers can maximise individual efficiency is to contribute as little labour as possible while remaining in employment. In other words, to skive and to slack."


The Red Baron tackles the current hot topic of Immigration, Migration and Amnesty from his outpost in the UK. Most folks in North America don't realize that this has been a major issue in Europe and the UK as long as it has in the USA.
A topic I have blogged on as well.

He challenges the contractions of the liberal/social democratic argument for letting some folks stay but restricting others from entering their countries.

"No-one doubts the need for immigration controls, but it would be immoral to deport those already here that our economy depends on" -Jack Dromey Deputy General Secretary T&GWU

The second point of order to Mr Drobey's comment is the economic premise that were there to be an amnesty (which is not going to happen but it is a point of debate) that the illegal workers currently employed within these borders would continue to be as much an asset to our economy as they currently are. This, I'm afraid is romantic idealism. The very reason illegal workers are employed here, just as there are so many Mexicans and other illegal aliens in the US is that these workers are not subject to the same legal protection offered to legitimate employees. They are not subject to the minimum wage standards nor national insurance or pension provision. This is clearly not the choice of the workers but that of the employers who can circumvent a great deal of red tape and save themselves a great deal of money both in the payment of paltry wages and the avoidance of insurance payments for every worker. Furthermore they are able to exploit worker productivity as workers can be sacked easily or threatened with being reported to the authorities if they do not tow the line.

Is there a connection between the current Imperialist agenda in Iraq and Genetically Modified foods (GMO's)? Red Aspire thinks so. In Two beads on a string RA compares the War in Iraq with the continuing efforts to impose GMO, the new Green Revolution, on the developing countries of the world. RA points out; "Aid agencies and NGOs across the globe have been reacting with horror to the
news that new legislation in Iraq was carefully put in place last year by the
United States that will effectively bring the whole of the country’s
agricultural sector under the control of trans-national corporations. This
spells disaster for the Iraqi government and the country’s farmers, paving the
way for companies like Monsanto and Syngenta to control the entire food chain
from planted seed to packaged food products."

Louis Proyect The Unrepentant Marxist takes issue with liberals and right wingers over the issue of Sweat Shop labour in the era of Imperialism. He correctly points out that American defenders of capitalism from the liberal and right wing, and the editorial board at the NYTimes, see no choice but sweat shop labour for Africa.

The opening sentence of Kristof's op-ed piece is meant to startle the reader:

"Africa desperately needs Western help in the form of schools, clinics and sweatshops."

The infatuation with sweatshops on the NY Times op-ed page even extends to Paul Krugman, the liberal icon who really differs little from Thomas Friedman when it comes to a belief in the benefits of low-wage coolie labor. Basically, Krugman wrote a column identical to Kristof's on April 22, 2001

But one wonders in light of Kristof's hymn to sweatshops whether there might be a connection to Friedman's more openly mercenary understanding of how the dollar and the bullet intersect. Could this insufferable moralizing prig be possibly be more interested in corporate profits than he is in missionary-style rescues?

For an answer to this, I'd recommend John Bellamy Foster's article in the current Monthly Review, which does a really good job of describing the emerging strategic interests of US imperialism in Africa–especially in regions that are the focus of Cruise Missile liberals like Kristof.

Always a great turn of phrase in Proyect's writings. I like that 'curise missle liberals'.


Lenins Tomb takes up the challenge of writing a lengthy, well documented essay on
Iraq: Nationalism, Communism and Islamism. Lenin has received over 198 comments on it. Showing that many are up to the challenge of reading this treatise. And this may be the reason why, he challenges and titlates his readers in his prologue;

"Someone told me once that if the United States had been serious about making the occupation of Iraq work on usable terms for the ruling class, they would have had to oblige every official to read Hanna Batatu's classic tome, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. That and a few other things besides. As it happens, those driving the policy - while by no means heterodox - went to radical lengths to avoid having to hear from people who knew what they were talking about. We who intend to occupy nowhere but our happy little ruts are faced with all the usual questions: why is the occupation in such trouble; how did Political Islam emerge as a serious force in Iraq; what was the role of the communists, and why have they colluded with the occupiers; how did the Ba'athists develop and come to power; what's the role of Iraqi and Arab nationalism? It seems to me that the main problem to start with is understanding Ba'athism - we're always propelled toward certain metaphors or proto-concepts in describing it. From the lexicon of totalitarianism, it is always either fascist or Stalinist or both, which is understandable in a sense if you're just concerned with certain superficial modes of state rule. I shall argue a fairly orthodox class-based approach. You can't understand what happened in Iraq - from its creation under British occupation to monarchy to Qasim's Free Officers to the Ba'athist dictatorship - without understanding how class structured social power, the state's hegemonic practises and eventually the methods of Ba'athist rule."


Larry Gambone at Porcupine Blog in his essay "The Myth Of Socialism As Statism". asks; "What did the original socialists envision as the owner and controller of the economy? Did they think it ought to be the state? Did they favor nationalization? Or did they want something else entirely? Let’s have a look, going right back to the late 18th Century." He then documents all the Great Socialist thinkers who said workers control and cooperation is the real aim of Socialism. Then he says;
Why The Confusion
The state did play a role in the Marxist parties of the Second International. But its role was not to nationalize industry and create a vast bureaucratic state socialist economy. Put simply, the workers parties were to be elected to the national government, and backed by the trade unions, cooperative movement and other popular organizations, would expropriate the big capitalist enterprises. Three things would then happen:
1. The expropriated enterprises handed over to the workers organizations, coops and municipalities. 2, The army and police disbanded and replaced by worker and municipal militias. 3. Political power decentralized to the cantonal and municipal level and direct democracy and federalism introduced. These three aspects are the famous “withering away of the state” that Marx and Engels talked about.

Ravenblade at Ravens Nest, which I think may be located in the river valley of fair Redmonton, takes on the humanitarian nature of the war in Afghanistan. Wait it's not a war according to the Minister of War.....err Minister of Defense.

Anyways Ravenblade was thumbing through the local papers and discovered some contradicitions.
Ignorance is bliss.

A few days later, I was reading a copy of the Edmonton SUN . Someone wrote the following article to the editorials section:

"Could all of the anti-war protesters try protesting in Iraq or Afghanistan where the war is actually going on? Or are you all too comfortable in your homes that were won throughout the hard work and effort of Canadian, American and British troops?- Al Boschman"
Edmonton Sun, March 23, 2006

What exactly does the unprovoked Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have to do with Canadians living in warm homes? In what war were these homes won, exactly? Certainly not Iraq and Afghanistan. Does this loud individual really believe that our troops are defending Canada by invading sovereign countries? Does he honestly believe that Afghanistan posed a military threat to Canada, or that Iraq posed a military threat to America?

Our final contributor is from the Green Left perspective. A local campaign blog to Save the Ribble. It's a campaign to save a river in the UK from city planners and their efforts barrage the river for increased housing and commercial development. It shows again the importance of Thinking Globally, Acting Locally.

Renowned Environmentalists Express Concerns about Barrage Proposals

One of the consequences of global warming and climate change is the likely rise in sea levels over the coming years and decades. Fragile ecosystems such as the Ribble are already vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and low lying flood plain areas will be at increased risk of flooding as sea levels rise. Building a barrage on the Ribble will exacerbate these risks at a time when we should be considering ways to protect our environment from the effects of global warming. The Environment Agency is also warning against building on floodplain as this puts ‘new development at risk from flooding or [is] likely to exacerbate flooding elsewhere’ which alone should prohibit the ‘Central Park’ housing and business building development proposal. In addition this so called ‘Central Park’ will result in the loss of a broad range of natural habitats which support diverse wildlife species. And once our Green Belt is developed and built on it will be lost forever.

In closing ,while they did not ask for it, I would like to contribute my own recommendation; the Atlantic Canadian web site Left News.

While providing a blog of news about the peoples struggles against capitalism, imperialism and all the other oppresive isms from around the world, they too never forget that all issues are local issues. And they interact with their local community by announcing actions, protests, etc. and then reporting on them.

Labour March Concludes Days of Action Against Atlantica!



Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, comrades all, this is your Carnival of Socialism #4.


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Unproductive Capital


How not to run a business or is it? Turns out that Canadian business is cash rich but still increasingly in debt. That debt is in loans for investment in more short term ways to make cash.

Canadian business has failed to invest in technological upgrades to improve its productivity, instead relying on cheap labour to improve its productivity.



Canadian businesses hold about $372-billion in deposits, which represent about 12 per cent of their assets, compared with 8 per cent in 2002, said Earl Sweet, assistant chief economist with Bank of Montreal. During the past three years, business deposits have increased at an average annual rate of 15 per cent, which is twice the historical average, according to the bank. "With cash flow growing substantially faster than operating requirements, businesses have deployed excess funds to fixed-term deposits in order to improve overall profitability," he said.

The surplus cash has increased the importance of cash management strategies, according to the bank. Small and medium-size businesses with surplus cash tend to invest in short-term debt, variable rate guaranteed investment certificates and escalating rate GICs with terms up to three years, said Julie Sheen, vice-president and head of BMO term investments.

Although corporate debt issuance during 2006 increased to $36.5-billion, up from $22-billion during the same period a year ago, the growth has largely resulted from debt issued by banks and other financial institutions, the asset-backed securities market and foreign issuers of Canadian debt
And this despite the tax breaks they got from their friends in government. And despite the subsidies,corporate welfare, they get federally and provincially on top of that.

And despite their efforts to create tax free havens like Income Trusts for all that capital. Capital that continues to circulate as money instead of being invested in company assests (variable capital); labour and technology.


Wayne Hanley, National Director, United Food and Commercial Workers

Lower paying jobs:

"My concern there is that a lot of these jobs are at the lower end of the pay scale as it relates to manufacturing jobs that we're losing. Becoming a society of service workers that work in banks and financial institutions, my concern is that one day we're going to have an economy based on the exchange of money between Canadians and we're not going to see manufacturing, building and exporting."

The dollar:

"I don't think we've felt the full impact of the 90-cent dollar as it relates to manufacturing jobs. I think it's going to get worse. I think manufacturing jobs are being affected by the global market, products being produced elsewhere in the world at significantly less costs."


The corporate bosses still gripe about wages and benefits for workers, while taking home record breaking salaries and benefits, unsure of what to do with all that wealth.

Role of company boards is piece of puzzle as scandal over stock options widens

Put CEOs' pay in escrow, former SEC head urges

Sale by Chairman of the Board (CNW, 06-09-06)


But failure to invest that cash in wages and benefits is what is creating the current labour shortage.

Like housing it's a sellers market for labour.

Prosperity's hidden toll

Productivity sags as jobs go begging in red-hot marke

The Jobs Everywhere phenomenon is creating a curious scenario, especially in the McJob sector. The work ethic in this sector appears to be collapsing, particularly among 16- to 20-year-olds, says Todd Hirsch, a labour market-shortage expert for the Canada West Foundation.

"They don't think it's necessary to show up on time, or at all," says Hirsch. "They know they can walk across the mall and get another job, and maybe be paid more." Anecdotes abound as to how younger, part-time employees understand they're holding all the cards.

Recently, a local Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant was closed indefinitely because it couldn't find enough staff to operate, posting a sign on its door saying: "Due to unavailable staff, we are unable to open doors at this time."

With four or five job offers available to young people, the feeling is: "I don't really need to work that hard," says Hirsch.

He points to the catering industry, which experiences a slow season from January to March, when most low-skilled workers are usually laid off. Instead, they are being paid $10 to $12 an hour to do pretty much nothing but be around for the start of the high season in May.

If it sounds desperate, that's because it is.




And like housing, labour is an investment, which is productive but does not immediately translate into $$$ like investments in the stock market which is what income trusts and other business stratgems are all about.

Bell Aliant income fund approved

Canfor Shareholders Approve Pulp Income Trust
Despite real growth in productivity in our manufacturing sector thanks to just in time production methods, multi-tasking, longer shifts, forced overtime production all due to job cuts and the resulting speed up on the job.

Our current Minister of Industry insists on the need to drive wages down by announcing the need to create further free trade deals abroad which opens the door for more outsourcing of base manufacturing.

president, CAW Local 222, Oshawa, Ont. -- Perhaps International Trade Minister David Emerson can help the 15,000 members of Canadian Auto Workers Local 222 in Oshawa, Ont., reconcile two stories in yesterday's Report on Business.

The first (GM Plant Wins Laurels, No Promises) reports that the Oshawa No. 2 car assembly plant has once again won the J. D. Power award for the highest-quality output in the Western Hemisphere. Yet, General Motors wants to close the plant. Why? Because a one-way flood of offshore imports is destroying the market share of GM and other North American producers, leaving them with too much capacity.

Which brings us to the second story, where Mr. Emerson commits to accelerating free-trade talks with South Korea and other offshore markets (Canada Lags In Global Trade Race: Emerson). He writes off opposition from the auto industry and other crucial export sectors as special interests, and promises to help them become globally competitive. But the numbers prove it: We are already super-competitive. Yet, even with the best quality and productivity, our jobs will continue to disappear so long as countries such as Korea are allowed to treat trade as a one-way street: Korea bought only 400 Canadian vehicles last year, versus 130,000 Korean vehicles sold in Canada. Their products compete directly with what we build in Oshawa.

At the very moment when we are pulling out all the stops to save Canadian auto jobs, our own trade minister wants to give Korea's burgeoning auto exports to Canada an extra boost. This is a betrayal of Canada's economic interests.



Ironically what is dragging down our productivity is not the manufacturing sector it's in the banking and financial services sector. Which is NOT unionized.

So wages and benefits are not the problem here. Its again investment in technology and labour that is lacking as the banks take huge hits on criminal activity like the Enron Scandal.

Fix the financials: Productivity growth of Canadian financial services seriously lags manufacturing

Against that lacklustre backdrop, data released yesterday offer a few surprises, including an unpleasant one from the financial services sector. Manufacturing's productivity growth since 2004 has exceeded the overall economy's performance by a remarkable quarterly average of three percentage points. However, the broad financial services sector has underperformed the economy by more than one percentage point over the same period -- a huge difference in the productivity measurement world. And the gap is not transient. Labour productivity in manufacturing has grown by 25% since 1997, while the gain was only 10% for financial services.
Again the Chamber of Commerce and other voices of business demand more handouts for business while business rolls in the dollars. Productivity gains in Canada have been made at the expense of workers, not through tax cuts to business, or state subsidies.


Job cuts make productivity a harder sell

Study says losses are necessary to keep manufacturers competitive

Well of course when workers hear 'productivity' they know what that means.

The failure here is for business to invest in technology to compliment labour, rather they are hoarding their profits to make more money. That is unproductive use of capital.

Job cuts of course is the easy way out in the short term, in the long term Canada's productivity crisis is the failure of capitalists to invest their capital in their businesses. And Income Trusts are not their businesses.


Remember those who say that business should run the state well I think they already do by this track record. Producing surpluses for their shareholders but failing to invest in infracstructure of the company. Producing surpluses for taxpayers but failing to invest in infrastructure and social services.

Also See: Boom and Bust



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Bank Theft


Here is another case of bank theft which is legal of course. No one goes to jail for ripping off customers, us, while making profits off the stolen money. Of course not that's business as usual for banks.

BMO Bank of Montreal to Reimburse Customers for Mortgage Penalty Overpayments


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