Freedom, Mafia, Gaming Etc.

Graphic demonstration of the gulf for women between freedom and its opposite National Post, Mar. 21, 06 -- perfect--says it all--also maybe why we should support the National Post.


I have too many commitments and too little time. There will probably be little or nothing posted for a while -- only as the spirit moves me. NJC


One of the posts which has drawn much interest is News Junkie Canada, Sept. 2, 2004, if anyone is interested.

http://newsjunkiecanada.blogspot.com/
2004_09_02_newsjunkiecanada_archive.html





Issues, Films, Passionate Eye Program

William Gairdner: "Baby Love and Murder"

Re: Tsotsi - Best Foreign Film at Academy Awards -- re: "Man-made-by-society" vs "Man-made-by-himself" -- Rousseau vs Hobbes

Films: Others worth watching -- probably old. What I watch usually is old, but it allows the dregs to sink before I get around to ones I'll really like.

Film on television tomorrow night: "My House in Umbria" -- The setting is superb; I often gauge films as being good based on whether the next day I can remember what I saw -- so, forewarned. I am no film critic but I keep thinking about this film. If you haven't seen it, see what you think. Wed. 9pm Channel 50 TV in the Maritimes.

The Emperor's Club: re: a private school -- cheating -- honour -- years later -- same student

The Scott Joplin Story -- try to find it. I love the music.

For Love or Country -- Cuban jazz trumpeter who wants to defect to the US

Paul Bowles: The Sheltering Sky -- set in Morocco -- Debra Winger and John Malkovich (whom I cannot stand, though I'm not sure why -- I think he plays John Malkovich in everything. I had read the book and I like the setting.) The film is good.

Million Dollar Baby -- Clint Eastwood -- a female boxer

Salaam Bombay

The Talented Mr. Ripley


Films & The Passionate Eye: on drugs and corruption

Rush -- drugs -- narcotics cops -- Greg Allman, Jennifer Jason Lee (?), Jason Patric, Sam Elliott

Traffic -- drugs -- Michael Douglas, Zeta Jones, etc. heartbreaking for parents

Maria Full of Grace -- young Colombian women, drug mules -- I've watched it twice and I cannot forget these women.

Television: CBC, The Passionate Eye--two webpages EXCELLENT CADAVERS: THE MAFIA, THE JUDGE & THE PROSECUTORS -- or here

It was shown Sunday March 19, 2006 at 10pm ET/PT. If it is shown again, don't miss it.

Through the eyes of Alexander Stille, author of the groundbreaking book Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, comes the heroic story of the Italian prosecutors and judges who dare to take on and defy the Mafia. In Italy, these men and women are known as "excellent cadavers."

Unfolding like a tragic whodunit, Stille intoduces us to two of the doomed heroes - the Sicilian anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, whose longstanding battle with the Italian Mafia resulted in some huge victories. Their spectacular assassinations in 1992 are still an open wound in Sicily and throughout Italy. In Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia, the Judge and the Prosecutors, Stille investigates the relationship between the Mafia and Italian politics, and questions who ultimately is responsible for so many "Excellent Cadavers".

According to Stille, "Today the mafia is as strong as ever. Eighty per cent of Sicilian businesses pay protection money and the mafia is believed to control most public contracts, infiltrating Italy's economic life like a cancer."

[....] questions why so much of anti-Mafia legislation they fought and died for has since been undone by the Italian government.

[....] written by Alexander Stille, produced by Vania Del Borgo and directed by Marco Turco for DOCLAB. It was co-produced by Artline Films.

It reminds me of something closer to home.




Memory Lane: 1994, Hansard, "Initiatives" and "Investments"

Note: A bit of reading before the House opens. Think about government "initiatives" -- funnelling $$$ from Peter to pay Paul -- who usually turns out to be a friend or a political friend ... Need I say more?

Search: ACOA grants, Spielo, gambling or gaming, grant or assistance

I had thought Spielo was a Maritimes VLT (video lottery terminals)company but there is mention of Spielo in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, PQ -- receiving government money (just below). There is more.

Thursday, June 2, 1994 -- GOVERNMENT ORDERS (077)
[Google's cache]
In fact, given its success in creating permanent jobs, ACOA is this government's prime ... Spielo, in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, got $1 million, which is not an ...
www.parl.gc.ca/35/1/parlbus/chambus/ house/debates/077_94-06-02/077GO2E.html

4796 [....]

Mr. Leon E. Benoit (Vegreville): Madam Speaker, the hon. member who just presented gave a quote from the red book. I would like to give a quote from the red book that I gave earlier:

A reliance on ``granterpreneurship'', as opposed to entrepreneurship, has fostered artificial local competition and created distortions in local markets.

[....] This family business as a sausage plant has had to compete with a sausage plant down the road that has received western diversification money. This is unfair competition with his tax dollars that he has paid to the government to help support the competition.

[....] I would like to ask the hon. member what about those businesses and what about Albertans who have paid $100 billion to $165 billion more in tax dollars through the national energy program and through transfer payments to the federal government than they received over the past 25 years. Is it fair to those Alberta taxpayers to be funding these programs in other provinces? [....]

Mr. Patrick Gagnon (Parliamentary Secretary to Solicitor General): [....] Let me tell you this: Since 1974, the Federal Office of Regional Development has invested over $1.6 billion. All kinds of agreements were concluded, including on tourism, forestry, fisheries and job stimulation. [....]

As regards the environment, the hon. member for Malpeque and myself did not wait. We looked after the Irving Whale issue. [....]

Why did taxpayers have to pay for cleaning up this oil spill (as I recall) anyway? It was an environmental problem created by a private business, the Irvings, and it should have been cleaned up by private business. Is it a good use of taxpayers' $$$ to help some taxpayers and not others, creating unfair competition for businesses? Didn't KC Irving manage to move his $$$ to Bermuda at the same time as another wealthy Canadian family ... before changes took place that would have negatively impacted? Check further.

We can also talk about the Cod-Fisher Assistance Program. It is true that cod-fishers, not only in Quebec, but throughout Atlantic Canada, are going through a rough time. We have invested $1.9 billion, including $100 million in Quebec. [....]

(1705)

[Unemployment or Employment Insurance] The weekly benefits these people receive have gone from $171 to $219. We are ready to invest significant amounts of money in the Gaspé Peninsula for job creation and economic recovery, [....]

[There] is a Federal Office of Regional Development in Rimouski. As a resident of the Gaspé area, I can tell you that Rimouski has received more than its share, compared to other regions in Eastern Quebec. The time has come to do something about this.

You know, we have invested in more than 1,000 small businesses in Eastern Quebec. Of course, we have invested in corporations which have become, with the help of the Government of Canada, multinational companies, like Canadair and de Havilland, and also Bombardier , a world-renowned Quebec company. We have invested in Noranda and in the mining industry.

The Government of Canada takes its responsibilities seriously. I can give you some more examples. I see here that the Corporation of the mining community of Bourlamaque, in Val-d'Or, has recently received $3 million in subsidies. Spielo, in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, got $1 million, which is not an insignificant investment for a region hard hit by unemployment. [....]

Search: Université du Québec , job creation and protection

Why would taxpayers' money go to any gambling/gaming concern?

What has been the outcome of all the "investment" detailed above, just as an example?

There are more links if you search Google. Some close readily. I wonder why.