Final Rite of Spring #39 - Let's attack the poor - it's fun · Monday June 21, 2010 by colin newell
In Canada we have ancient magazine pushers like Readers Digest – who prey on the elderly with their micro-font contract deceptions and postal station busting book dumping binges…
Neoconservative Liberal funded think tanks that trumpet their masters every word (for a price…) – like how good the HST is going to be for us regular folk.
(And) Seemingly reputable publicly funded media outlets, like the CBC, that re-bleat and tweet every utterance of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Photo above right – Minister of Housing and Social Development, Rich Coleman
And all of this sort of makes sense – I mean, Readers Digest is a company that profits from sort of legally manipulating our elderly and vulnerable into parting with their retirement savings – I mean, sure, the elderly can eat pet food, yea?. (And)If we paid more attention to our seniors, a lot of these abuses would not happen.
And the CBC – well, it has a symbiotic relationship with Big Banks, Conservative think tanks and professional realty pundits and so on. Everyone wins in this game.
And I am not being cynical… really. I’m not. Yet anyway.
What I do not get is the Liberals twitchy and obsessive fixation with going after the most vulnerable in British Columbia society (yes folks, even the poor are part of our society…)
In late May 2010, the minister responsible, Jabba Rich the Hut Coleman, said the ministry had filed 317 cases in small claims court seeking repayments. Some of the cases involved fraud, while others may have filed incorrect information that resulted in over payments, he said at the time.
A single employable person (on social assistance) in BC gets 235.00 a month for food…and 375.00 for shelter. In Victoria or Vancouver that will not rent you a greasy corner of a garage.) Ironic that Coleman’s first name happens to be “Rich”!
Can you imagine an over-payment for a welfare recipient? What would that be? An extra $25 a month over the period of a year? A real back breaker that, yea?
In a Province that hands out millions in visibly excessive over compensation to corporate, government and academic fat-cats – Well, it is genuinely cynical… sick… miserable. And doesn’t make me feel particularly good about the place I live, my community, my society, my leaders or my Province.
And that’s where I am coming from. And thus ends a 39 part series on Springtime in Victoria B.C. Canada. Time to move on.
Rites of Spring #36 - B.C. Mudslide - so what the heck went wrong · Friday June 18, 2010 by colin newell
A week ago today (Last Friday) an Osoyoos hiker near the Testalinden Lake, Oliver B.C. noticed the water was over spilling the earthen dam and contacted a local B.C. tourism office…
which in turn alerted the RCMP…
and then the RCMP notified the provincial government…
…two days before Sunday’s catastrophic mudslide…
And then. Nothing.
Until Sunday… then… Whoosh!
The RCMP informed the forests ministry because the hiker said the overflowing water was muddying a road beside the lake…
…which the RCMP thought would be a forestry road. And they were right.
Our honorable Minister of Public Safety, Mike de Jong, was not available for comment.
A dam gives way, wiping out five homes near Oliver causing millions of dollars of damage to homes, farms and infrastructure – and nothing from our leaders.
Grower Kathy Mercier, who raised grapes for Toronto-based wine giant Andrew Peller Limited, experienced a near total loss on her seven-acre property.
“Think of a giant lava flow, that’s exactly what it looks like. And it stops right on top of my Merlot,” said Mercier.
She also ran a popular B&B in the area – and it was crushed by a combination of mud, tree trunks, refrigerator sized boulders and random automobiles.
Mercier, whose insurance will not cover the devastation, said her neighbors recall regular inspections of the lake decades ago, but in recent times those checks dwindled and then all but stopped.
Affected residents in Oliver may be eligible for disaster assistance compensation of 80 per cent of their losses above $1,000 to a maximum of $300,000.
Good thing this didn’t happen here in Victoria – 300G would cover the loss of the garage… hardly a home or property.
Humor aside, this incident illustrates vividly the Provinces general disinterest in British Columbia residents, small business and so on. Gordon Campbell and his ilk are only concerned about making deals with huge corporations and bankrupting us all in the most creative fashion possible.
Currently Gordon and his boys are wrapped up in the B.C. Rail scandal (taking his eye off of what is obviously more important.)
Til that scandal and who-knows-how many other scandals wrap up (in the courts and beyond) – this is the kind of emergency response I guess we can expect.
This all makes living right here on the West Coast dead center in a subduction zone… kind of scary.
Good luck everyone.
Rites of Spring #33 The ups and downs of the Victoria B.C. Real Estate illusion · Tuesday June 8, 2010 by colin newell
Like Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto and other major Canadian cities, house prices go through cycles of boom and bust… up and down… near affordability and utter un-affordability.
Particularly in the Victoria and Vancouver B.C. markets.
Where a simple 2 bedroom 2 bathroom bungalow on a postage stamp sized lot can set you back 1/2 million dollars. This same house, 10 years ago, would have sat on the market for weeks or months and maybe netted 200G… a price that would have been considered obscene in any other location in Canada.
And yet there appear to be buyers eager to scope up these houses all over the lower Island and mainland… for now.
And the trend appears to indicate that a market, a mere year ago that was hotter than a stock car brake pad, seems to be cooling… a little faster than even I would have expected.
But not according to the likes of the B.C. Real Estate board, or the CMHC or our local rag, the Times-Colonist – a newspaper that seems to be little more than a trumpet for the Provincial real estate entity…
“Average home prices are anticipated to climb by six per cent this year over last, to $494,600, said Cameron Muir, B.C. Real Estate Association chief economist, said in his housing forecast released yesterday.
“That really represents the price increases that have already happened.” Prices reflect sales of all types of homes sold through the multiple listing service.
Say what?
My wife and I have been house shopping for quite a while – like hundreds of other folks on the lower Island and Vancouver – I have a computer listing of 100 houses in front of me – that are in our price range… and 53 of those houses have had price reductions of 20 to 60 thousand dollars. Some have been on the market for 60 days or more… gone are the 2 day price wars and sales markedly above asking price.
But don’t tell the Times Colonist or the B.C. Real Estate board that – they work hand in had in maintaining this illusory fever that lots of folks fall for.
And while the bubble may not burst, some of the air is getting out…
So take a deep breath. Save your money… for the time being.
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Gordon Campbell Hates You... No, really. · Tuesday March 16, 2010 by colin newell
I am a bit of a fan of rabble.ca as well as some other left leaning websites, like TheTyee.ca and Georgia Straight online – heck, I was an impressionable 9 or 10 years old when I first peeked at this crazy looking weekly in the late 60’s with its hippie theme, free love mantras and dope decriminalization stance.
And this google search caught my eye today… you know the one where google fills in the blanks for you?
Well this is what it spat out when I typed in “Gordon Campbell”.
Gordon Campbell Hates You
Seriously. And I hardly know the man.
But the general consensus is, if the media (left and left of center is to be believed…):
Gordon hates the poor. Gordon hates the elderly. Gordon hates the weak. Gordon hates children… well, not all children, just children of the poor, elderly or the weak.
And who can blame him? The elderly are a burden to our tax payers – Shame.
To combat the blight of the elderly, he and his car dealing right wing cronies cut where ever they can to marginalize the elderly… and yea, drive them back where they came from…
Parents who are not wealthy create an extra burden by having children that they cannot place in private schools – and as a result end up burdening the taxpayers and province shareholders by sending their little ragamuffins to public schools and demanding stuff like books! Who do these un-wealthy folks think they are?
Do not get me started on the weak. Nothing riles Gordon and I up more than people who cannot hold down one of those great lower-than-minimum wage jobs in beautiful British Columbia. I mean, look what we have done for corporate North America: We have the lowest rate of corporate tax and the lowest minimum wage.
And if you are physically or intellectually challenged in British Columbia, Gordon and I have a message for you: Shape up and pull your weight.
Reality: The Gordon Campbell Liberals have systematically, methodically and willingly targeted the most vulnerable in our “Greatest Place on Earth” with cuts to seniors, cuts to schools, cuts to support networks for women in jeopardy while boasting the highest rates of child poverty in Canada and thumbing his nose at the United Nations report on poverty in Canada.
But does Gordon hate you? No.
He fits the description of a sociopath (by the actions of his government…)
So it’s not hate…
More like indifferent contempt.
I hope that knowledge helps my readers.
My name is Colin Newell. I am a Victoria area resident who supports local business and eschews community killing machines like Walmart.
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Winter all fun, food and frolic - America and the phony war on drugs · Monday March 15, 2010 by colin newell
Just listening to the CBC report on the current crisis in Mexico…
which is more of an American fueled crisis.
The war on drugs.
Seems America is going to crack down on drug traffic between Mexico and the U.S.A
…and between Canada and the U.S.A.
…and everywhere else and the U.S.A.
Some facts. One in every 32 American adults—are either incarcerated, on parole or probation or under some other form of state or local supervision. And 1 in 100 are behind bars… largely for non-violent drug related offenses.
The U.S. is the World leader in incarceration. China is second at 4 times the population but 18% of the rate of incarceration.
Why? Why put pot dealers in prisons?
American prisons are run by private firms. Privatized. For profit. There is money to be made with full prisons. Upwards of 2 Billion dollars (US) of profit are generated annually in these private incarceration “businesses”.
No war on drugs. No labor ready folks to be put in prison.
Here is how Canada and Europe differ on its perception of drug addition… versus the U.S. of A.
In Europe and to a much lesser extent, Canada, drug addiction is treated like a disease… a sickness. Which should be treated with sympathy, caring, empathy and treatment.
In America, it is a terrible, terrible crime and a blight on society. Watch an American news hour or an episode of Dog the Bounty hunter if you doubt my word.
But are soft drugs like marijuana a hazard to society?
I have never used illicit drugs. Never smoked marijuana. No desire.
Marijuana prohibition costs U.S. taxpayers an estimated $10 billion annually and results in the arrest of more than 829,000 individuals per year—far more than the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined – including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
And although I have never been a big fan of stoners – I did grow up in the 70’s and had my fill of harassment from pot heads and L.S.D. dropping school mates, none of whom ever posed any kind of threat to me and my family…
Other than breaking into my locker and stealing my Cheetos.
In the year 2010, the big prison eagle and the U.S. administration is eying Canada to make sure it keeps toeing the line – even our own Prime minister has spoken of building bigger and better prisons and getting tough on the rampant crime in Canada.
Canada does not have rampant crime. Violent crime is on a steady decline. In the Netherlands for instance, they are closing prisons… not enough bad people it seems. Good thing the U.S.A does not influence sensible Dutch folks.
Meantime, what we do is often what the big bad bald eagle wants us to do. With little wiggle room.
But there is always public opinion… and knowledge… and social action. – The War on crime and drugs in Canada and the U.S.A.
Keep your eyes on it.
