Sunday, May 13, 2007

Celebrate Mothers Day For Peace

Before Hallmark Cards and Fin de siecle 19th century capitalism commercialized Mothers Day it was originally a celebration of Peace and a call to End War.
History of Mother's Day: Julia Ward Howe
The idea of official celebration of Mothers day in US was first suggested by Julia Ward Howe in 1872. An activist, writer and poet Julia shot to fame with her famous Civil War song, "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Julia Ward Howe suggested that June 2 be annually celebrated as Mothers Day and should be dedicated to peace. She wrote a passionate appeal to women and urged them to rise against war in her famous Mothers Day Proclamation, written in Boston in 1870. She also initiated a Mothers' Peace Day observance on the second Sunday in June in Boston and held the meeting for a number of years. Julia tirelessly championed the cause of official celebration of Mothers Day and declaration of official holiday on the day. Her idea spread but was later replaced by the Mothers' Day holiday now celebrated in May.

History of Mother's Day: Anna Jarvis
Mothers Day OriginAnna Jarvis is recognised as the Founder of Mothers Day in US. Though Anna Jarvis never married and never had kids, she is also known as the Mother of Mothers Day, an apt title for the lady who worked hard to bestow honor on all mothers.

Anna Jarvis got the inspiration of celebrating Mothers Day from her own mother Mrs Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis in her childhood. An activist and social worker, Mrs Jarvis used to express her desire that someday someone must honor all mothers, living and dead, and pay tribute to the contributions made by them.

A loving daughter, Anna never forgot her mothers word and when her mother died in 1905, she resolved to fulfill her mothers desire of having a mothers day. Growing negligent attitude of adult Americans towards their mothers and a desire to honor her mothers soared her ambitions.

To begin with Anna, send Carnations in the church service in Grafton, West Virginia to honor her mother. Carnations were her mothers favorite flower and Anna felt that they symbolised a mothers pure love. Later Anna along with her supporters wrote letters to people in positions of power lobbying for the official declaration of Mothers Day holiday. The hard work paid off. By 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state in the Union and on May 8, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

“...each war carried within itself, the war which will answer it. Each war is answered by another war, until everything is destroyed...That is why I’m so wholeheartedly for a radical end to the madness...Pacifism simply is not a matter of calm looking on; it is work, hard work...those lovely small apples out there...everything could be so beautiful if it were not for the insanity of war...one day, a new idea will arise and there will be an end of all wars...People will have to work hard for that new state of things, but they will achieve it.”


A Mother’s Grief: Kathe Kollwitz Descends into the Marginalized

Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945) was a progressive artist who used art as a cathartic means to live through the death of her son in WWI and grandson in WWII.

Trapped in the sexist generation of early 20th century Germany, K¨athe defied
the society in which she lived to create art that served as an empathetic
mouthpiece for society’s marginalized. She created thousands of lithographs and
hundreds of sculptures depicting war, death, and poverty. K¨athe found beauty
in the struggle of the working class and constantly used her physician husband’s
patients as subjects of her work. As she continued into the socialist realm, she
made enemies with German leaders, including Adolph Hitler. Her work fiercely
rejected Germany’s involvement in World War I and condemned Hitler’s Third
Reich near the onset of World War II. K"athe’s use of bleak colors and disturbing
subject matter penetrates the viewer’s comfort zone. The viewer is unable to
turn away from her work without feeling guilt, and is forever haunted by her
prudent recognition of truth.

Compassionate Witnessing and the Transformation of Societal
Violence: How Individuals Can Make a Difference


As I understand it, my mother named me “Kaethe” after the German graphic artist
Kaethe Kollwitz, whose work greatly moved her.(Kollwitz & Kollwitz, 1988) Kollwitz primarily depicted workers, and mothers and children. She combined her professional work with devotion to family, a life choice that was especially meaningful to my mother. Apparently, when my father came to the hospital and she told him that she had chosen “Kaethe” for my name, he asked her to re-consider this choice, telling her that he feared it would be unwise for a post-Holocaust Jewish child to have a German first name.

Persuaded, my mother and he decided to call me “Kathy.” So, I had informed my South
African audience, even a name can bear the imprint of macro-societal traumas. I looked down, searching my notes for the example I had intended to provide.

From the back of the room, a woman shouted at me: “But you are Kaethe.” I remember freezing. This woman’s father had been a leader in the South African Defense
Forces during the Apartheid years. She had chosen a different path, working with
dedication to improve the lives of all South Africans, and working to dismantle her own racism. Her comment stunned me, pointing out something that was obvious to her but hidden to me. I had tried to construct a life that was consistent with the values expressed in the life and work of this fine human being my mother so admired.


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I coulda been A Contender

Duceppe decides against PQ leadership bid

Duceppe's 48 hour run for leader of the PQ and his abandonment of the BQ; From contender to dropout in a day: Duceppe announces withdrawal ... reminded me of a couple of classic lines from On The Waterfront:

Terry: You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.

Johnny: Where you guys going? Wait a minute! I'll remember this! I'll remember every one of you! I'll be back! Don't you forget that! I'll be back!

Marlon Brando in

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Saturday, May 12, 2007

Queen Of EuroVision


Not since Dame Edna have we had a Queen worthy of her name......And if these creeps are protesting I say go Verka go....

Ukrainian nationalists are protesting the nation's official entry in the Eurovision Song Contest - a single by drag queen Verka Serdyuchka.

After all it's not like she is really imitating the real Queen of the Ukraine; Evita Tymoshenko.....


Ukraine aims for Eurovision glory

Verka Serdyuchka
Ukraine is tipped to win with Dancing Lasha Tumbai
Twenty-four nations will compete in Helsinki on Saturday to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Eastern European states dominate the finals after they scored a near clean sweep in Thursday's semi-finals.

Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serdyuchka is the bookies' favourite, just ahead of Marija Serifovic from Serbia.


UKRAINE
Verka Serdyuchka

Artist: Verka Serdyuchka
Title: Dancing Lasha Tumbai

Hello everybody!
My name is Verka Serdyuchka
Me English don't understand!
Let's speak DANCE!

Seven, seven, ai lyu lyu
Seven, seven, one, two
Seven, seven, ai lyu lyu
One, two, three!

And the Ukrainian entrant was accused of slipping in a reference to the 2005 Orange Revolution by using the phrase: "Russia goodbye".

It later transpired the artist, a drag queen called Verka Serdyuchka, was singing "condensed milk" in Mongolian.

Eurovision’s got American Idol beat

Russian slam or reference to Mongolian ‘churned butter’?
But that spat pales in comparison to the current controversy surrounding Ukraine’s cross-dressing entry, Verka Serdyuchka (real name: Andrei Danilko).

VIDEO: Verka Serdyuchka's performance of "Dancing Lasha Tumbai"

The controversy surrounds one phrase of Serdyuchka’s song, where it sounded like the singer was saying "I want to see/ Russia goodbye."

Serdyuchka’s management has since denied any anti-Russian sentiment in the song and has said that the phrase is actually "I want to see/ Lasha tumbai," in reference to the Mongolian for "churned butter." Mongolian speakers have debunked this translation, though, and the real meaning of lasha tumbai is still a mystery.

This could be costly for Ukraine in a contest where friendly relations count for a lot of points (I guarantee you that Greece and Cyprus give each other top votes). Not to mention that Serdyuchka could be out-dragged by Peter Andersen, a famous drag queen who is representing Denmark.

Ukraine's extravagant drag queen vows to bring smiles to European song contestions.

On stage, Verka Serdyuchka portrays herself as a simple village girl living her dream. Not all her countrymen are beguiled by her charms.

Serdyuchka, a drag queen whose real name is Andriy Danilko, takes her extravagant costumes and ribald song-and-dance routine to Helsinki next week to compete for Ukraine in the annual Eurovision song contest.

When she gets there, a busload of Ukrainian protesters plan to confront her: Serdyuchka, they complain, makes this former Soviet republic look like a nation of philistines, tasteless peasants shaped like sacks of potatoes - not sleek, chic Europeans.

"Guys, let's not quarrel," said an exasperated Danilko, a comedian who dresses like a man when he's not in character, adding he was "sick" of all the criticism.

The 33-year-old performer, whom Ukrainians chose to represent them at Eurovision in a popular vote in March, said some Ukrainians are taking the annual pop song extravaganza - and the fun-loving Serdyuchka - too seriously.

"Let's dance," he said. "That's the message Serdyuchka is sending to Europe."

Danilko dreamed up his stage character more than 10 years ago, following a long Soviet tradition of male comedians impersonating over-the-top females for big laughs. He got them, and Serdyuchka became a hit across the former Soviet Union.

Audiences loved her risque humor, her bouncing dance routines and her colorful costumes - she appears onstage laden with gaudy costume jewelry, heavy makeup and elaborate headgear, including rhinestone-studded berets.

Serdyuchka won hearts by making good-natured fun of her homely looks and large size, and singing about the single woman's yearning for love. In one song, Serdyuchka sings: "Beauties have it good, everybody likes them ... But I am ugly. They ride in a car but I ride in the subway."

"She is a Ukrainian Cinderella," Danilko said. And the way he sees it, this is her chance to go to the ball.

Olexander Lirchuk, a disc jockey in Kyiv, fumes. His Europa-FM radio station is leading the protest against Serdyuchka's appearance at Eurovision, arguing that Ukraine should send a band that can showcase the country's hip, young talent.

Lirchuk rallied about a dozen protesters and burned the performer in effigy. Now he and some other Serdyuchka critics plan to continue their protests in Helsinki.

"Serdyuchka is in poor taste," he said, motioning toward his svelte co-DJ, Yuliya Vladina: "Look, that's a real Ukrainian woman."

Many Ukrainians, though, embrace the performer and his character, homely and awkward as she may be. Some say Serdyuchka even has the best chance to win the Eurovision contest, which is judged by television viewers from all 42 countries that participate.

"Serdyuchka fits Eurovision 100 percent," said lawmaker Dmytro Vydrin.

The annual Eurovision contest is no stranger to outlandish acts. The Finnish band Lordi, which performs in monster masks, was the shock winner of the competition last year with "Hard Rock Hallelujah." Israeli diva Dana International - who was a man until a sex-change operation - won the contest in 1998, triggering a bitter rift between Israel's secular majority and its ultra-religious minority.

Ukraine was thrilled to win in 2004, just a year after its debut in the contest; a singer called Ruslana - known for her leather-and-fur outfits - triumphed with an energetic piece called Wild Dances. As the winner, Ukraine got to host the event the following year, and as a measure of its importance in this nation of 47 million, President Viktor Yushchenko attended and presented the prize. Ruslana later won a seat in parliament.

Some accuse Danilko of dabbling in politics as well. He caused an uproar with the song he plans on performing. Many listeners say the lyrics include a veiled insult to Russia, with whom Ukraine has had tense relations since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Some hear the words "Russia, Goodbye," - but Danilko insists the phrase actually is "Lasha Tumbai," which is Mongolian for "Whipping Cream."

Danilko insists that he and his alter ego just want to have fun.

As he prepared for the contest, he filmed a daring video in which Serdyuchka and her mother - who wears a headscarf and goes by the name Mutter - visit a disco where they take turns playing with special glasses that reveal the crowd of young dancers in their underwear.

"I wanted to show that Ukrainians have the best bodies in the world," said Danilko.


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Worse Than Ambrose


It's hard to believe but you can go from the frying pan into the fire according to the latest poll.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet in January, naming Baird to the environment portfolio to replace Rona Ambrose who had received disastrous reviews and criticism after tabling the government's clean air legislation in the fall. Wright said the latest poll numbers suggest Baird has made matters worse for the government.

"I think that this is seen as a greater disappointment for the simple reason that the environment has been ratcheted up so much in the last six months," he said. "It's taken on a sense of priority and a sense of mission which hasn't been reflected in what the public expected the government to do."

He said it's clear that the public is willing to go farther than the politicians on the issue, and it believes the Conservative government is delivering policies that are designed to protect industries such as the oilsands in their Alberta base.
SEE

Harpers Alberta Green Plan

Economist Trashes Made In Alberta Green Plan

Environment Minister MIA

Baird

Ambrose


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Tories Leaky Ship of State

The Conservative governments embrace of the hard right statism of Law and Order, Militarism and an autocratic PMO is okay with their base.

What has p.o. some of their more vocal and organized social conservative supporters, in Alberta and Southern Ontario, is their embracing the dillitante green liberalism of Ottawa.

Can you say R E F O R M.

Somewhere in Kingston Saturday, a small group of disaffected Conservatives will meet to discuss what would have been unfathomable in the heady days that followed the last federal election: refounding the Reform Party.

Organizers say they have room for just 30 people, but that this weekend's event is a mere prelude to a much larger meeting later this month.

“It's now or never,” the online invitation says. “This new party will never be infiltrated by Red Tories, special interest groups or Quebec again.”

In another part of the country, Link Byfield is writing columns for his Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy that criticize the policies of the federal Conservatives.

“Has Stephen Harper been ‘Otta-washed?'” Mr. Byfield, a strong voice for small-c conservative Alberta, wrote on April 5. He went on to decry the March budget as a “massive spending splurge two or three times the rate of inflation [that] clomps big Liberal boots into all kinds of provincial responsibilities.”

When the Conservatives were elected in January, 2006, the former Reformers were jubilant at the thought of finally having a voice in Ottawa. But after a series of centrist decisions by Mr. Harper, they are again lamenting their disenfranchisement.



Thousands of supporters of Danny Williams hold rally to attack Harper

CanWest News Service

Published: Saturday, May 12, 2007

Several thousand angry Newfoundlanders massed on the steps of their legislature yesterday to attack Prime Minister Stephen Harper over changes to the equalization formula. Rally participants -- estimated at 3,000 -- vowed to stand behind Premier Danny Williams, pictured, in his public feud with Ottawa over a decision that could cost the provincial treasury $11-billion. Judy Hurley, who was at the rally, said she felt betrayed by the Prime Minister's decision to exclude all non-renewable resource revenue from the equalization formula. "I trusted Harper. Even when people said he couldn't be trusted, I gave him a chance," she said. "I'm disgusted."





H/T to Liberal Catnip

See:

Harpers Fascism

Leo Strauss and the Calgary School

Post Modern Conservatives.

Why The Conservatives Are Not Libertarians

Liberals The New PC's

Trotsky on Harper


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Ice Age Continues

Let's see how quick the flat earth society of climate change deniers are to grab onto this news item to once again claim that climate change is not the creation of capitalism.

The satellites found that the Earth's crust over Canada has not completed what scientists call the "post-glacial rebound." Now, it's clear that the ice age is still affecting the planet.

GRACE satellites have detected changes in the gravitational field over regions of Canada that can be attributed to the crust bouncing back after the melting of a glacier 20,000 years ago (Illustration: Science/ M Tamisiea)

CO2 burps from ocean to atmosphere at end of last ice age



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Dodge Defends Defined Benefit Pension Plans


And why would Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge say such nice things about Defined Benefit Pension Plans? After years of the right wing attacking these plans in favour of defined contribution plans; RRSP's. Because they are the real source of capital investment for P3's

Because they generate more capital, faster, and thus can be used for investment purposes. In other words because OMERS, Ontario Teachers Pension Fund, CPP, the new Alberta AIM fund, all of them are now major contributors to the economy as investment funds, which are creating a new form of P3; public pension partnerships.

Once these public sector pension funds were freed from state restrictions in investing they have created a trillion dollar investment market. Further this has allowed the state to benefit by not paying its share. Thus giving the government of Canada more surpluses, along with their looting of EI.

While the private sector imitated the Government in failing to invest their required amount in their defined pension funds, leading them to funding crisis much as the Alberta Government faced a decade ago with its public sector pension funds. Which it attempted to privatize (put it under self governance) but once they discovered that allowing them to invest in the market made them profitable and they paid off their debt they gave that idea up. Today a decade later they finally discover what OMERS and the Ontario Teachers Fund have been so successful doing, becoming private venture capital funds, and created the new AIM Fund.

In the private sector we have seen the same Peter Pocklington style use of workers pension funds to bail out the corporation. Pocklington purchased Gainers in Edmonton to access not only the business capital but the unionized workers pension funds to bail out his other businesses, like the Oilers, in a barely legal ponzi scheme that saw him bankrupt both and leave the city in disgrace.

When pension fund bail outs have been successful in the private sector it has been because the company was Canadian, unionized, and formerly a crown corporation like Air Canada.

Where they have failed has been in the U.S. such as in the case of Delphi, where the unionized workers pension funds are looted when the company uses their failure to invest in them as an excuse to declare bankruptcy and hand over their pension responsibilities to the U.S. government in a perverse appeal to state capitalism to bail them out.

This is the reason that both the Canadian and American governments want workers to work longer, so as to have more liquidity in the CPP in Canada and Social Security in the U.S.
Conservatives Want You To Work Longer

I am reproducing these articles because they are the most informative and because they will eventually disappear behind locked subscription walls.

And while Dodge says nice things about Defined Benefit Plans he also wants to deregulate them, including allowing employers to retain their surpluses, which shortchanges worker, something a former Liberal PM benefited from.

Making private pensions stronger

Dodge says defined-benefit plans way to go, with changes to improve them

By JULIAN BELTRAME The Canadian Press

OTTAWA— Bank of Canada governor David Dodge is calling for changes to Canada’s private pension plan system, and a swing back to defined-benefit plans, to ensure it produces the best results for employees and the economy.

Private plans have been under pressure in Canada for several years, with many company pensions running huge shortfalls because of future liabilities.

A survey of chief financial officers, released Thursday by the Conference Board of Canada, found that two-thirds believe there is still a pension crisis in Canada. But the number who feel the crisis will be long-lasting has declined to 48 per cent from 61 per cent last year, the survey of 141 corporate executives found.

In a speech Thursday at a Toronto pension summit, Dodge proposed six changes he said would give employers more incentives to offer workers the most desirable form of pension — those that pay predictable, defined benefits on retirement.

Private pensions are important both to the employee who receives them and the employer hoping to attract and retain the best available staff, he said. They are also important for the economy as a whole, he added.

"As a central banker, I know that a sound pension system is important from the perspective of economic and financial market efficiency," Dodge said.

But while he mostly praised Canada’s legal and regulatory framework governing private pensions, Dodge said there are several shortcomings that should be addressed to strengthen the system.

Those shortcomings are increasing the risks to employees and preventing the plans from functioning at maximum capacity, he said.

As a result, Dodge said employers "have been scaling back or restricting new entries into these types of plans, largely because they do not have the right incentives to maintain and operate defined-benefit plans."

Many have been converting to defined-contribution plans instead as they are usually easier to budget for.

One drawback to the current system is that when pension plans run a surplus, federal and provincial laws increasingly have given employees the right to those surpluses even though it is the employer that bears the risk of default.

He added that tax regulations perversely discourage pension managers from building a surplus above 10 per cent, even though such surpluses are desirable and useful in offsetting periods of deficits.

Dodge said many employees miss out on the opportunity to be protected by private pension plans because they work for companies that are too small to afford them.

"But risks can be mitigated by sponsors forming multi-employer plans, thus pooling risks across a number of plan sponsors," he argued.

"If structures such as large multi-employer pension plans could be created, this would help them to pool both costs and risks, making it easier for smaller employers to sponsor defined-benefit plans."

He noted that municipalities in Ontario have done exactly that in forming OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, so there should be away to explore that avenue for private-sector employers.

Among other concerns noted by the central banker were increasing flexibility to deal with actuarial deficits and making sure accounting rules don’t introduce unnecessary volatility to employers’ balance sheets.

"Ultimately, Canada can have a better-managed system that is good for members, good for employers, good for the economy and good for Canadian society," he said.

Bank of Canada calls for private pension plan reforms

Governor Dodge wants clarity. Suggests giving plan sponsors more flexibility to cover pension fund shortfalls

ERIC BEAUCHESNE,

CanWest News Service

Published: Friday, May 11, 2007

Bank of Canada governor David Dodge is calling for widespread reforms to deal with the country's private pension fund crisis, including the elimination of tax penalties and other rules that discourage employers from building up pension fund surpluses, as well as a greater awareness among employees of the risks and costs of enriching their retirement benefits.

"First, we should reduce the disincentives for sponsors to run actuarial surpluses in good times that will offset actuarial deficits in other periods," Dodge told a pension conference in Toronto yesterday. "More clarity regarding legal ownership of surpluses is needed, so that the sponsor that owns the risks also owns the benefits from taking those risks."

Dodge focused on measures that would make defined benefit plans - seen as superior to defined contribution plans but which employers have been abandoning as too risky - more viable.

Generally, in defined benefit plans, employers guarantee employees a pre-set level of benefits, while in defined contribution plans the employees bear the risk as the level of their benefits is based on the investment returns the plan earns.

"An effective defined benefit pension system is a tremendous asset for individuals, for employers and for our society as a whole," Dodge said. "Putting these plans on a sustainable footing involves strengthening the legal, regulatory, accounting, actuarial and economic frameworks."

Dodge suggested that defined benefit fund surpluses should belong to employers because they face the risk of having to cover any shortfall, and that existing tax penalties on fund surpluses should be eased.

"Given the significance of our pension system, policymakers in Canada need to keep working on improving its operation," Dodge told the pension conference.

His comments follow reports that the worst of the recent pension crisis has eased, thanks to healthy returns in the stock market and extra payments by employers to cover pension fund shortfalls.

Dodge suggested giving plan sponsors more flexibility to cover pension fund shortfalls, and letting smaller companies pool costs and risks to form multi-employer defined benefit pension plans.

The governor also called for greater sharing between employers and employees of the costs to pension funds from increases in longevity, and that the costs and risks of any enriching of plan benefits be made clear to both corporate shareholders and workers.

"These changes would give sponsors the appropriate degree of flexibility needed to manage risk effectively," Dodge said. "Ultimately, Canada can have a better-managed pension system that is good for members, good for employers, good for the economy and good for Canadian society."

While Dodge noted that the benefits of pension plans to workers are obvious, he said they also are good for employers and society.

FULL TEXT-Speech by Bank of Canada Governor

TORONTO, May 10 (Reuters) - The following is the prepared text of a speech by Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge to be delivered on Thursday to the Conference Board of Canada's 2007 Pensions Summit.

A Sound Pension System - Handling Risk Appropriately Good afternoon. I'm happy to be here to talk about the importance of Canada's pension system. It goes without saying that a sound system of private pensions is important from the perspective of pensioners who rely on a given plan for their retirement income. For firms, a pension plan can help to attract and retain staff, and so the business community also counts on a sound pension system. And as a central banker, I know that a sound pension system is important from the perspective of economic and financial market efficiency. Given the significance of our pension system, policy-makers in Canada need to keep working on improving its operation. Ultimately, it is crucial for all Canadians that our pension system function as well as possible. But what is it that makes a system of private pensions function well, or not? As I see it, a key to answering this question is understanding how pension plans deal with risk, in all of its many forms. So today, I want to spend some time discussing private pensions and risk, and suggest what needs to be done to make sure that those who have to bear risk also have the right incentives to deal with it in the most appropriate manner. I will focus on who is best placed to bear risk, and on how risk management can be better supported. Risks and Challenges Let me start with a fundamental question: Why do people save for their old age? Essentially, people save during their working years so they can retire at some point and not suffer a precipitous drop in income and living standards. Economists might put it somewhat less elegantly, saying that people save in order to smooth their lifetime consumption. In the absence of any kind of pension system, individuals, businesses, and society as a whole would all face a number of challenges and risks. I want to spend a few minutes talking about the challenges and risks from these three perspectives, beginning with individuals. First, individuals without a pension plan would have their personal savings as their only source of retirement income, aside from income from the publicly funded Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan and the Old Age Security/Guaranteed Income Supplement. And so, individuals would naturally be exceedingly cautious with their investments, particularly as they approached retirement age. In short, individuals without pensions would likely be too risk-averse with their savings to generate a sufficient rate of investment return. Second, individuals can recognize that they lack the expertise to handle their investments in the most effective way, and so will try to acquire this expertise. This could come by way of an investment adviser, or by investing their savings in managed, diversified retail investment vehicles such as mutual funds. The challenge posed by this approach is that it can be costly, since individuals outside a pension plan have to purchase investment advice and ongoing funds management retail, not wholesale. Third, individuals without a pension plan face market risk in a couple of ways. Market conditions could be such that at the time of retirement, the value of their assets could be abnormally low. Or interest rates could be abnormally low at the time of retirement. In either case, the person would need to spend a much greater amount to purchase an annuity or other guaranteed stream of income compared with a period when market conditions were more favourable. The fourth point is related to the third. Sellers of annuities have to deal with the risk that those individuals who expect to live much longer than actuarial tables would suggest are the ones who buy annuities. To deal with this adverse selection problem, sellers compensate for the risk by charging significantly more for the annuity. In other words, the cost of an annuity is much greater for an individual than it is for members of a group. Both of these last two points demonstrate that without a pension system, individuals would need significantly higher levels of savings to ensure adequate funding for their retirement. And all of these points I raised demonstrate that pensions generate enormous benefits by making it much simpler for individuals to successfully save for retirement. But while the benefits of pension plans are obvious for individuals, let's not lose sight of the benefits for businesses and for society as a whole. From the perspective of business, pension plans are typically thought of as a recruitment and retention tool. But historically, pensions were also the way that good employers helped workers to save so that they could avoid penury in old age. And with a pension plan, older workers had the ability to retire, and thus did not need to keep working well beyond the point of their greatest productivity. As for society as a whole, pensions provide a couple of important benefits. First, no society wants to see large numbers of its senior citizens relying entirely on government transfers, although there is fairly universal agreement across most countries that it is desirable to have some degree of public income support for people in their old age. Beyond that, however, a well-functioning pension system is an important source of the long-term risk capital that is essential to finance growth. Mitigating Risks: Defined-Contribution Plans Most of the challenges and risks I've mentioned can be mitigated, to a greater or lesser extent, through the pooling effect that a pension plan provides. Of course, different kinds of pension plans deal with risks in different ways. First, let me briefly discuss defined-contribution plans and the way they deal with risks. A defined-contribution plan mitigates, at least partially, many of the challenges and risks I mentioned for individuals. For example, the costs of funds management and investment advice are pooled. Further, pooling helps to mitigate the risk that individuals will not have saved enough to purchase an appropriate annuity.

Most execs see a pension crisis

Fewer fear it will be long lasting

ERIC BEAUCHESNE, CanWest News Service

Published: Thursday, May 10, 2007

Nearly two-thirds of senior executives believe Canada still has a corporate pension funding crisis but a lot fewer fear it will be long-lasting, according to a survey to be released Thursday at a pension conference in Toronto.

The percentage of chief financial officers who feel the pension crisis will be long-lasting has slipped below half to 48 per cent this year from 61 per cent last year, and the proportion of senior human resource executives who see it as long-lasting has fallen to 40 per cent from 67 per cent, the survey found.

The results are being released at a Conference Board of Canada pensions summit in Toronto at which Bank of Canada governor David Dodge will give his perspective of how to manage pension risks.

"Compared to one year ago, the sense of crisis appears to be abating, but chief financial officers are still concerned about both the volatility and the current level of pension expense," said Gilles Rheaume, the board's vice-president public policy. "In an environment of labour shortages, pensions ... are considered a very valuable recruitment and retention tool." The lower level of concern likely reflects better investment returns and shrinking funding deficits, added Ian Markham, a pension specialist with Watson Wyatt, which conducted the survey of 141 employers.

However, he noted that employers are still pursuing reforms in both pension fund investment strategies and the design of pension plans.

Forty-one per cent of employers with a defined benefit plan, seen as the most attractive plan for attracting and retaining employees, indicated that they had made some reforms over the last two years or were planning to do so over the coming year.

Among private sector employers, the most common reform has been to convert to a defined contribution plan, under which the level of pension payments is determined by investment returns, from a defined benefit plan, under which an employer must make up any shortfall in a fund to cover the cost of paying an agreed upon level of benefits.

That's despite the fact that employers strongly agree that a defined benefit plan is more attractive when trying to recruit or keep employees, the report noted.

Firms jettison defined-benefit pension plans

Shift means many will work longer

May 10, 2007 04:30 AM

Traditional pensions continue to slip from workers' grasps.

A third of the 45 public companies polled in a new survey will soon have stripped benefit guarantees out of pension entitlements that new and existing employees will earn in future.

In the face of a new era of low investment returns and rising obligations, more pension providers are aiming to limit contributions to a fixed percentage of pay.

Affected employees could face having to work longer – if their health and skills allow – or deal with a lower standard of living in retirement, a senior actuary warns.

The trend that began in the early 1990s is gaining momentum, just as an Ontario commission searches for a survival and expansion plan for pension plans that have defined benefits.

Ian Markham, an adviser to the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions, says the number of workers who have lost pensions with defined benefits for each year of service may be more than official figures recognize.

Statistics Canada estimates about 83 per cent of the two million pension-plan members in Ontario still have defined benefits.

Most of the members are in the public sector.

But the agency has a great deal of difficulty dealing with private-sector employers that will pay benefits based on service up to a certain year, but in future will make a fixed level of contributions for each dollar earned.

"How do we categorize that?" asks Markham.

Results of the new survey, by the Conference Board of Canada and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, where Markham is a consulting actuary, are to be presented today at a pensions summit in Toronto.

An early release was provided to the Toronto Star.

Key findings are that about 18 per cent of the 45 public companies polled across Canada have swung in the past two years to defined-contribution plans for future service.

Another 15 per cent said they will follow in the next year, while 5 per cent have or will get rid of defined benefits entirely.

Most said they were moving away from guaranteeing a certain benefit based on years of work and salary in order to avoid fluctuations in contribution requirements and to cut costs.

More than 60 per cent of public and private companies said they are making extra payments to eliminate funding shortfalls, which are anotther type of risk for employees if their employer fails.

Few of those employers (16 per cent) pay more into their plans than the minimum legal requirement.

Two-thirds of respondents think pension funding is in crisis, but the percentage who think it will last for many years has fallen to 48 per cent from 61 in 2006.

Many companies see the move away from defined benefits as a financial necessity, but most employers with the cheaper defined-contribution plans worry retirement benefits won't be adequate.

These lesser plans may thus make it difficult to recruit and retain top talent, or to ease out unproductive workers. The national unemployment rate is down to about 6.1 per cent, and a growing number of baby boomers will soon reach the age of retirement.

Public-sector plans are moving to increase both employee and employer contributions, while private-sector companies are increasingly shifting risk to employees.

Markham said that a 30-year-old worker five years ago might earn a pension equal to 54 per cent of pay by age 65 if he or she and an employer each contributed 5 per cent of pay to a defined-contribution pension plan.

But the outlook for returns on all forms of investment is now significantly lower because interest rates on long-term bonds are low all around the world. On the flip side, the cost of life annuities is much higher.

So, the same combined level of contributions (10 per cent of pay) might replace only 38 per cent of pay at age 65 (excluding government benefits).

To get back to a 54 per cent rate of replacement, contributions might have to rise more than 40 per cent, or the person would have to work years longer.

Markham said he doubts many employers, let alone employees, realize the impact of lower interest rates on prospects for retirement. Other research suggests most employees are ill-equipped to invest their retirement savings, and the available investment options are more costly and less well managed than defined pension plans.

The commission on pensions in Ontario, headed by labour-law expert Harry Arthurs, has until next summer to report.

A discussion paper on the Web at pensionreview.on.ca asks for suggestions about a number of questions, including how to make defined-benefit plans less costly, and surplus funds or contingency reserves less a bone of contention.

Director of research Robert Brown said at a pension conference yesterday that 20 research papers have been commissioned. Public hearings are to be held in six cities, starting in Toronto Oct. 15, the deadline for making written submissions.



See

The Importance of Savings

Your Pension Dollars At Work

P3= Public Pension Partnerships

Chinese Social Security Scandal

Social Insecurity The Phony Pension Crisis

Pension Plunder

Labour Is Capital

Pension Free China

Kids Are Commodities

Workers vs Worker

Air Canada Profits From Bankruptcy

Are Income Trusts A Ponzi Scheme

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Casablanca R Rated

For smoking. There goes the classics, like the full smoking Casablanca.

Smoking is now associated on the “Silver Screen” right up there with violence, language, nudity and drug abuse in ranking criteria. The MPAA brass are quoted saying “ There is a broad awareness of smoking as a unique public health concern due to nicotine’s highly addictive nature and no parent want their child to take up the habit.”

Apparently studies prove depictions of smoking in the movies have made children more likely to try cigarettes. The Attorneys General in 32 States have publicly called on the MPAA to put “R” ratings on movies containing scenes involving smoking.


The irony is that Casablanca is an anti-fascist movie, and of course anti-smoking laws are the moralist equivalent of fascism, since they are appeals to a prohibitionist state.

Meanwhile, we also learn about Rick’s life before he came to
Casablanca.
He grew up during the Prohibition years, when
selling alcohol was illegal in America. Powerful gangsters ruled
New York at this time, bringing alcohol in from outside the country
and supplying it to clubs. The young Rick is given a job by one of
these gangsters, Solly Horowitz. Solly likes Rick and makes him
manager of the Tootsie-Wootsie, a gambling and drinking club.
But trouble breaks out between rival gangsters. Rick’s boss is
killed. Rick has to get away fast. He and Sam, his pianist from the
Tootsie-Wootsie, escape to Europe.

However, if we look beyond the nostalgia and the sentimental theme of lost love and redemption, we see that Casablanca actually presents a complex and intricate political and social commentary on the early days of World War II. The product of a decade when studios were routinely producing “a movie a week,” Casablanca surpasses its humble origins as “just another Warner Brothers’ picture” by exploiting wartime patriotism and the traditional “American values” of freedom, liberty, and equality to shape audiences’ perception of the war. In the most basic sense, Casablanca was an anti-fascist propaganda vehicle which was designed to support U.S. participation in the Allied Forces’ struggle for global justice and democracy at a time when most Americans believed that U.S. foreign policy should have promoted isolationism and neutrality.

With the coming of the Second World War, for which the civil war was a rehearsal, things changed. In the 1943 Ealing Studio tributes to the army in the Western Desert, Nine Men, and to the firefighters of the London blitz, The Bells Go Down, heroic figures are identified as veterans of the International Brigades.

That same year in Hollywood, Paramount filmed Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, the greatest novel about the war, and Warner Brothers allowed Rick Blaine in Casablanca to include on his CV his services to the Loyalist cause.


Richard "Rick" Blaine - Played by Humphrey Bogart The owner of Rick's Café Americain and the film's protagonist. When we first meet Rick, he is a jaded bar owner in Casablanca who wears a dour expression as he drinks and plays chess alone. He constantly proclaims his freedom from all bonds, be they political or personal. After Ilsa enters the picture, he undergoes a considerable change. In a flashback, we see Rick in Paris. He is in love with Ilsa and visibly happy, and he is devastated when she doesn't show up at the train station. Rick never turns back into the lighthearted lover he was in Paris, but he does overcome his cynicism and apathy to become a self-sacrificing idealist, committed to helping the Allied cause in World War II.

Rick Blaine is a worldly American who has a hidden past. He was on the losing side during the Spanish Civil War. He moved to Paris before WW II and was a gun runner smuggling guns into Ethiopia. General Strasser, (the representative of the Vichy Government of France), heard the rumors and came to question Rick. Rick tells him that he is an alcoholic and doesn’t know a thing about the visas. He says he does not belong to either side of the combatants in WW II because he has had enough of wars and he is ’neutral’.


The capitaine tells Rick that while many exit visits are sold at Café Americain he knows that Rick has never sold them and that is why he is permitted to stay open. Rick replies that he thought it was because he lets him win at roulette. The capitaine tells Rick that Victor Lazlo, a famous resistance leader from Czechoslovakia who has escaped three times from the Nazis, will be arriving shortly but that he will not be permitted to leave Casablanca. Rick suggests a 20,000-franc bet on whether Lazlo will get out of Casablanca, but the capitaine agrees only to a 10,000-franc bet, stating that he is "only a poor corrupt official." The capitaine also tells Rick that Lazlo is travelling with a very beautiful woman and tells Rick that he suspects that "under that cynical shell" Rick is a sentimentalist as he is familiar with Rick's having supplied guns to Ethiopia when that country was invaded by Italy in 1935 and with his fighting the Loyalist government the next year in the Spanish Civil War.
I guess I take inspiration from this heroic failure, in the battle against the anti-smoking statists.

Heroic failure describes a person or group failing to accomplish their goal, but somehow gaining the moral upper hand or becoming ennobled in the attempt.

The film Casablanca mentions two heroic failures to develop the Humphrey Bogart character Rick Blaine.

"Oh, laugh if you will, but I happen to know your record. Let me point out just two items. In 1935 you ran guns to Ethiopia. In 1936, you fought in Spain on the Loyalist side.[1]

The first reference is to the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. In September 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia. Ethiopia lost, but opponents of colonialism and fascism supported their cause. The second reference describes the Spanish Civil War in which rebels led by Francisco Franco gained control of the country. "The Loyalist side" refers to supporters of the losing republic. Thus Rick has fought for the causes of freedom and democracy and earned an admirable (although losing) record.


And so inspired by the great classic of anti-fascism and anti-prohibition we say here's looking at ya kid.

We have much to learn from the characters of Casablanca: in the final scene the airport is dark, the drone of the airplane fills the air and fearless, they venture out into the fog. Into the unexpected.


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See:

Rememberance or Revisionism

Kenney is A Funny Guy

Christy Moore - Viva La Quince Brigada

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