Arctic Oil, Port-Halifax, Banks-Mergers, Citigroup, Private Medicine, Marxist Masseys-"Skeptical Environmentalist", Language

Tim Allen, comedian, had this to say about Martha Stewart:

"Boy, I feel safer now that she's behind bars. O.J. & Kobe are walking around, but they take the one woman in America willing to cook, clean and work in the yard and haul her a** to jail."

Atlantica's rise -- "Major changes in shipping technology, and projected huge increases in shipping volumes, have now put the east coast of North America on the Pacific Rim." -- Halifax

Oil at the top of the world -- Atlantica's rise Brian Lee Crowley, National Post, Dec. 17, 04.

Is this a publicly funded think tank? The author is "president of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, a public policy think tank in Halifax (www.aims.ca). He is co-author of Port-Ability: A Private Sector Strategy for the Port of Halifax."

[. . . . ] Three trends are driving Halifax's rise. One is the stunning increase in container ship capacity. The garden variety container ship carries up to 4,200 containers. These ships are the Port of Montreal's bread and butter. . .

But the largest container ships now carry 9,500 containers. Ships with a 12,000 container capacity are not far off. These ships have a 50-foot draft and are so large that they exceed the maximum capacity of most ports and of the Panama Canal (hence their name: Post-panamax (PPM) ships). These ships cannot get up the St. Lawrence, for example. Halifax has a natural harbour with a 55-foot depth (65 in the channel), and is the only east coast port that deep north of Virginia.

[. . . . ] Port, rail and road infrastructure throughout North America is creaking under the strain. [. . . . ]

You do remember that Li Ka-Shing gained control of the ports at either end of the Panama Canal, don't you? China needs oil and steel and obviously, ships will carry these.

Mr. Martin will be off to China with a business group after his trip to Libya to meet with its leader. One plane will fly the PM; an empty one will fly along to bring back the extraneous bodies when our PM goes to Morocco on holiday afterward. Jet set.





Oil at the top of the world -- cylinders of ancient rock from a submerged mountain range hint at rich deposits near the North Pole

canada.com -- Oil at the top of the world -- cylinders of ancient rock from a submerged mountain range hint at rich deposits near the North Pole or here Andrew C. Revkin, National Post, Dec. 1, 04

I read this one but I do not have it now and it is not available with this title at the NP site. Try the following, published the day before. I think the information is substantially the same.

Under all that ice, maybe oil or here . Both link to The New York Times article by Andrew C. Revkin, Nov. 30, 04 and there is a related article here, Canada wary of Arctic oil drilling -- Drive to open national wilderness for exploration has Ottawa government and lobbyists on edge. Nov. 30, 04, Barrie McKenna / Toronto Globe and Mail in the Detroit News

WASHINGTON -- For two decades, Canada has been an uneasy bystander in the U.S. pitched battle over drilling for oil in a wild and remote patch of Alaska wilderness. But a renewed push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration soon could force Canada to take a more strident position.

President Bush's electoral win, a shift of a few votes in the narrowly divided Senate and $50-a-barrel oil prices have put the refuge in play again. And this time, the oil industry and its backers in Congress say they finally have enough votes to win, perhaps as early as April.

[. . . . ] "Canada has a stake, and I want their voice to be heard," said Melinda Pierce, the Sierra Club's top Washington lobbyist. "To the extent that he can, the Prime Minister should prevail on Bush to exercise caution."

[. . . . ] Canada has long argued that an international treaty requires both countries to protect the habitat of the 120,000-strong Porcupine caribou herd, which migrates annually from the Northwest Territories through Yukon and into Alaska.

Now, we hear talk of how the ports are inadequate at present. Would anyone like to make a guess as to what is happening or about to happen? Think about who needs oil, who has ships and who would make money.




CBC Radio's Marxist Masseys

CBC Radio's Marxist Masseys -- originally published by the Financial Post Peter Foster, National Post, Dec. 1. 04
]

[. . . . ] Mr. Wright trots out what Danish enviro-skeptic Bjorn Lomborg has called "the litany" of alleged ecological disaster caused by capitalist development. The problem is that it is simply not true, as Mr. Lomborg exhaustively demonstrated in his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. We are not running out of resources. Increased wealth under democratic markets systems leads to improved environmental performance. Climate change may well be happening but it is unlikely to be caused by anything humans are doing, and Kyoto-like plans won't make any difference.

[. . . . ] "We have," he claims, "the tools and the means to share resources, clean up pollution, dispense basic health care and birth control, set economic limits in line with natural ones."

Here speaks -- in its historical and psychological ignorance -- the "fatal conceit" that has so consistently led to repression and disaster in the past century.

[. . . . ] But for him, anybody who supports laissez-faire principles is a knave, villain or media "courtier." Anybody who questions the principles of redistribution is a public menace. [. . . . ]

Mr. Wright's images of industrialists/capitalists are demonic.

[. . . . ]Ronald Wright's mind. . . [carries]. . . emotionally based moralistic assumptions derived from the structure of his primitive ignorance about markets and economics.[. . . . ]

Banks, Mergers, Citigroup

The mention of bank mergers which would allow globalized banks has been talked about lately. We should be considering the implications for Canadians. Since more and more, it sounds as if at least some of our citizens are about to become big players in the game of getting into business with China, knowing something about international banking groups already in the game might give us food for thought. Don't forget the personal and banking information of several clients has already been faxed in error over a period of four years by one of our Canadian big banks. This is BEFORE big bank mergers.

A while ago, this article caught my attention, "Citibank Japan hauled on carpet over abuses -- Hefty compensation seen for private banking customers", David Ibison, National Post, Dec. 1, 04 -- no longer online. However, there are others.

Citigroup has been--may still be-- doing due diligence on the buyout of Noranda /Falconbridge and yet the name Citigroup has some very negative connotations in the financial world, so I have learned.

Citibank caught money laundering again

Citibank caught money laundering again Deirdre Griswold, Workers World News

[. . . . ] Citibank has been caught before courting big depositors, no matter how nefarious their operations may be. On Oct. 30, 1998, the General Accounting Office issued a report giving detailed information showing that the bank ignored the law and its own internal procedures in assisting Raul Salinas, brother of the former president of Mexico, to move between $90 million and $100 million of suspected drug money out of Mexico. [. . . . ]

[. . . . ]




Citigroup maintains its focus on Asia

Citigroup maintains its focus on Asia Financial Times, Dec. 16, 2004

Citigroup's consumer business could double the portion of profits it derives from Asia to about 20 per cent within a few years as it strives to capitalise on the region's rising wealth, according to the head of its retail bank in Asia.

[. . . . ]




German probe targets Citigroup

German probe targets Citigroup Financial Times - Dec. 14, 2004

German regulators are investigating Citigroup for possible market manipulation in the eurozone government bond futures market, people familiar with the probe said on Tuesday. [. . . . ]

Citigroup: “scandal”, “embarrassment”

Lex: Citigroup Financial Times, Dec. 15, 04

Play a game of word association and the likely links for Citigroup are “scandal”, “embarrassment” and “apologies”. It is no wonder: the group's private bank in Japan was recently closed down amid revelations of mismanagement and the London office was hit by a controversial European bond trade. While the worst of Citigroup's Japan scandal seems to be over, the European problems may be getting worse. [. . . . ]

Hopping into the Pot

Hopping into the Pot -- Jay Currie comments -- advises Conservatives




Practical Bilingualism

The other day, I wrote on bilingualism and the need for other languages to be taught. Then, I noticed today that the Ottawa Citizen / National Post has published an editorial, "practical bilingualism" .

It makes sense. For some background to what this language policy and its "promotion of French" program is costing all Canadian citizens, link to the articles below.

Think of the utility of learning other languages--Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, for example; meanwhile our Languages Commissioner has her attention on the promotion of French -- and then I suppose it will be native languages. Check some of these items detailing what this has cost Canadians already and we hear that it has not been very successful.

Canadian Taxpayer Federation on this "social engineering exercise"

The next time you hear the Federal government saying that they cannot afford to fund Medicare, Education, Defence Spending, Aid to farmers out west, anything....... just ask your MP why it is that we can keep throwing money at this policy which is divisive, discriminatory and totally unfair to the majority of Canadians!!

The Cost of Official Bilingualism -- Bruce Winchester -- "The bottom line is that since bilingualism began federal taxpayers have doled out approximately $37 billion."

$ 37 BILLION!

The government disputes this but read for yourself; use of the government's own statistics is a feature of this site. Read what the government does NOT include; the list is on this site. See if the government includes educating federal public servants, media services to the public, regulation of the private sector's use of official language(S), advocacy groups, and more. This quote is from the site and it expresses what many of us see of the government's social engineering.

“Pay your taxes and speak French!”

The Cost of Official Bilingualism

There is information from Scott Reid’s book Lament for a Notion

[. . . . There is a table which] adapts material presented in Scott Reid’s book (page 247). Using public documents and Access to Information data, Reid has generated a comprehensive estimate of federal spending on bilingualism. Reid’s calculations cover the fiscal years 1971 to 1991. [. . . . ]

Liberals refuse to audit billions spent on language --Federal auditors repeatedly urge look at $250M-a-year program

Liberals refuse to audit billions spent on language --Federal auditors repeatedly urge look at $250M-a-year program Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen, June 5, 2000

The Chretien government has ignored repeated requests from its own internal auditors to probe the spending of billions of dollars on official languages programs. [. . . . ]

Check Jackie Jura's website: Chretien -- PM unveils $751M plan to make nation bilingual. CanWest News Service, Mar 21, 2003

Has there not been $750 million announced just lately for the same thing? Is this the Chretien money or another $750 million from Paul Martin's government? Or is it now considered rude to ask?




Ottawa fines B.C. for private care

This is one of those I meant to post previously, but didn't.

Ottawa fines B.C. for private care -- alleged violation of act -- Federal government so far ignoring other provinces' clinics Tom Blackwell, National Post, Nov. 30, 04

[. . . . ] In fact, a Liberal member of the provincial legislature reportedly paid about $7,000 to have back surgery performed at a private clinic earlier this year.

[. . . . ] The Health Canada documents also note that Nova Scotia, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia allow residents to pay for MRI scans at private clinics and "thereby junp the queue by receiving quicker access."

Ontario has five private MRI and Cat-Scan services, but operators cannot charge patients for medically necessary services, one report says.