Check out this funny video from Christmas Day where my brother Tom had a deck of cards sprayed in his face.

In my first 48 hours on vacation, I read the book entitled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man", where author John Perkins describes "Corporatocracy" as the collaboration of large corporations, international banks and governments in their greedy quest for global supremacy.

In his role as an "Economic Hit man" (EHM), Mr. Perkins' job was provide inflated forecasts for economic growth for developing countries with the goal of landing huge construction and engineering contracts for U.S. firms. These countries would receive large loans from The World Bank or the International Monetary Fund for the proposed projects with the expectation that they would be unable to meet the payments of their loans. This would in effect hold these countries hostage and U.S. corporations would be free to ravage their natural resources or sway government policy in U.S. favour. He notes that if the EHM fails, the "jackals" are released to do their part. He references the jackals role in several U.S. assisted coup d'etat's and the plane explosion assinations of Ecquadorian president Jaime Roldos Aguilera and Panama's Omar Torrijos. When the jackals fail, Perkins notes that the American troops are then sent to die for their country; by far the most costly of the 2 alternative options.

He compares the exploitation of cheap labour by large corporations to the pre-Civil war South slave owners. The corporations (and slave owners) see themselves as helping the third world countries by providing them jobs (where the slave owners saw themselves doing a good deed by providing slaves a roof over their head and a better life than they saw in Africa). The U.S. economy depends on access to oil and to cheap labour in the same way that the economy in the pre-war south depended on the slaves. It's something that corporations have become used to. The last things shareholders want to hear is that their dividends are going to decrease because a product can no longer be manufactured in Indonesia, or a construction company's profit will dwindle because their illegal Mexican workers are being deported.

What's also noted in the book and is very interesting is the fact that Mr. Perkins was employed by a privately owned company. There was no congressional oversight in any of the activities the corporation took part in. His company could meet the goals of the U.S. government without being held accountable by the people. It's interesting when you look at how intertwined the corporations are with the government. Many high-level elected government officials previously held high positions in the private corporations that play a huge role in rebuilding developing countries.

After hundreds of years of imperialism by the Brits, the French, the Dutch, etc, these countries have learned their lessons. With the United States and its form of imperialism since World War 2, it has yet to learn its lesson. The costly war in Iraq might get the picture across, while memories of the Americans fighting to oust the British in the 18th century seemed to have been forgotten. Bush has very recently announced he plans to send more troops to Iraq to fight "terrorism" and to win peace. It's not that simple. The enemies and terrorism were a creation of the U.S. military and corporate greed. More fighting will create more enemies. Where's Jimmy Carter when you need him? Islamic militants cannot be defeated by an army. It can only be defeated by dialogue and compassion.

Editor's note: In an article recently posted on TIME.com, sources have revealed that the U.S. is funding and supporting covert operations to oust Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad. Perkins would say this is the "jackals" doing their work.

Labels: bush, corporations, corporatocracy, economy, greed

Quebec City pictures

Some people have requested that I post some pictures. So I've included some pictures in this post. Here are a few things I've noticed about Quebec City so far:

1) 50% of the people we've encountered have spoken very little or no English (and they all work in the service industry).

2) I've yet to see any immigrants. Everyone is white here. Even the people serving Chinese food and Japanese food at the mall are all white. It's quite the culture shock from living in Toronto for over 4 years.

3) When I went to the largest mall, Gap and R&W were the ONLY clothing stores I could find. When I inquired where all the clothing stores were, the girl I asked deferred me to her co-worker who spoke a little bit of English. She didn't seem to have any information for me on where I could find a Banana Republic, H&M, Club Monaco, Parasuco, American Eagle or Hollister store. Maybe it was my English accent. After getting back to the hotel and doing a search, there didn't seem to be any of these stores in the Quebec City area. The big stores were only available in Montreal. Everything in this city seems European except it's missing the fashion part of the European culture.

4) Every store seems to close down at 5:00 or 5:30. Even this close to Christmas.

It's been one hell of a week. Saturday/Sunday/Monday I studied for exams. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I wrote my exams after working all day, getting very little sleep. Thursday night we had our work Christmas party, and Friday I drove 8 hours after a full day of work with a modest hangover to come to Quebec City with Han, arriving at 2:30AM. For the last 2.5 hours of the drive (From Montreal to Quebec City), we endured such dense fog that I had to navigate solely on instruments.

I had the best sleep of my entire life last night, and I feel like a new person today. We came to Quebec for a week for the purpose of a) relaxing and taking a break b) To do all our Christmas shopping, c) To work out and swim lots and c) Enjoy the sites and history

Our hotel is located in downtown Quebec City and only a 10 minute walk from "Old Quebec". The city is celebrating its 400th birthday in 2008. I managed to get another great deal through Priceline on the hotel ($50 U.S. dollars a night). The same 3 star hotel is listed at $110CAD/night on Expedia. Believe it or not it's actually warmer in Quebec City right now than Toronto (5 degrees celsius).

An interesting debate came up at a family dinner the other week. The question arose when I made a tongue in cheek comment about Pentecostal churches where the worshipers put their hands in the air and pray out loud. I once attended a Pentecostal church with my Opa and let's just say I was a bit freaked out by the "outspoken" nature of the worshipping. People were expressing emotions physically to the point where some of them were actually dripping with sweat from clenching their fists and holding their hands in the air and yelling to the heavens as if their bodies are being overcome.

Anyway, that sort of expression really scares me. The question that came up is why is it okay for people to put their hands in the air to cheer for a sports team and get into a hockey game or a baseball game, but it's not okay to do it at Church.

After this question came up there were so many things going through my head. The first thing that came to mind was that when I'm at a hockey game, and I'm cheering for the visiting team, I might get some beer spilled on me, but I'm not fearing for my life. If I was in that church, and if I was a Jew or a Muslim or a stripper or anything other than a devoted Christian, I'd be very scared of what somebody might do to me because their beliefs may differ from my beliefs.

Sports promote comradery, friendship, teamwork, quick thinking, physical fitness, and many other things. I have never seen sports create a division the way religion has. It it appalling to me that people can have so much resentment towards another person simply because of their religion. I'm not a Montreal Canadien's fan, but I don't have hatred for people who cheer for the Montreal Canadiens.

So to be fair, religion does promote ethical behaviour; sports, possibly not so much. But when kids are growing up, sports keeps them out of trouble and out of gangs and keeps them healthy. Most the kids that were ultra religious in elementary school went on to do some crazy crazy illicit things in high school and college. Don't raise your kids in a closet, because some day they won't be able to handle the real world.

Labels: ethics, religion, sports

One lesson that we can honestly say has been learned from the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan is that democracy cannot easily be forced upon a people; especially a country such as Iraq that is composed of 3 major religious groups. This neo-Conservative tactic is fairly new to United States foreign policy and largely a result of the emotions spurred from the attacks on the morning of September 11th.

In the past, the United States used various measures to control rogue countries in the Middle East including setting up Coup d'etats, supplying heavy military and economic assistance to balance power and using armies as proxies. The cheapest way to maintain peace and control is to provide economic assistance to keep the peace. This tactic has succeeded by the United States in many instances.

With Afghanistan and Iraq's "Presidents" only governing over a fraction of the countries, it is very unlikely that these U.S. supported leaders will succeed in running these countries and ongoing war will determine the fate of these countries.

In the U.S. Gulf war in 1990, the purpose of the U.S. invasion was to contain the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to the strategic oil fields of Kuwait. In this instance, the American government achieved its objective and withdrew when the job was done. The current conflict is extremely complicated compared to the original gulf war, and the path to achieving the goal is beyond the strength of any superpower.

The current conflict makes an extremely naive assumption that a country such as Iraq will be welcoming to a democratic government setup by an occupying power. The result of this bad judgment has been surfacing this year. With such divided religious groups inhabiting Iraq, keeping all the parties happy is an extremely difficult task. Each group wants to preserve their own prestige and power and few are willing to make concessions.

At the same time, the United States is lobbying the Saudi monarchy for democratic reforms. Many citizens in Saudi Arabia resent the United States for its power and control, and a democratic election will be the voice of the people, and the voice of opposition against the superpower. Such is the case in the democratic elections where the Hamas was elected to govern the Palestinian people. The U.S. must accept that democratically elected governments may not be U.S. friendly, so the goal of a democratic Middle East is not necessarily in the best interests for the United States.

Another obvious point worthy of mention is that unfortunately a lot of the problems the United States has to deal with in the Middle East are a result of U.S. foreign policy since World War 2. Although good intentions usually play a factor in U.S. policy, sometime when you try to do too much, you dig yourself deeper.

In the late 18th Century, the Americans fought the British imperial power for its independence to create the United States of America on July 4, 1776. The British Empire didn't give America its country or its independence. It was fought for, the same way the American "Empire" can't install independent governments in the Middle East. People have too much pride to allow a superpower to occupy and install a government. This is why we are seeing bloody sectarian violence in Iraq. These groups are fighting for their freedom and their ideals.

With the U.S. appearing ready to bring Iran and Syria into the talks, I'm hopeful that some sort of ceasefire or agreement can be brokered to pause the killings while they attempt to form a government. That would also give the U.S. the opportunity to transition some power and pull out of Iraq to reduce some of the extra tension.

The government needs to have the confidence of the people, and let's just say it's a tough crowd. It's going to be a long deadly path to get back to where we started now that Pandora's Box has been opened.

A woman grounded an American Airlines flight on Monday after lighting a match to cover up her flatulence. The plane made an emergency landing in Nashville and caused a 3 hour delay because the luggage had to be searched.

The first image that came to mind is Cousin Geoff on my couch, putting his legs up in the air and lighting up his fart. The next image that came to mind was Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber. Coincidence? Geoff may concede that this is true, but he's not afraid to tell you about the time that I once cleared 20 people from the dance floor at a club. At first I denied it on account of the bystanders nearby; but I came clean later.

I think this woman should consider carrying some febreeze in her purse or possibly consider assessing her diet.

You've probably already read the story about 23-year old Sean Bell who was shot and killed by 5 NYPD officers on the day he was to be married.

One can speculate that he was shot at by police because he rammed the undercover police car and brushed an undercover officer who approached the car. There was also talk about the undercover officer overhearing a man say that he's going to "get his gun".

So I put myself in Sean Bell's position for a moment. He was apparently involved in a "scuffle" in the parking lot of the strip club with another group of men. They apparently shared some words and then walked their separate ways. The undercover officer apparently followed closely behind Bell's group to their car and when he intervened, Sean Bell's car apparently hit the officer, then rammed into the unmarked police minivan. He then backed up and hit an object and then drove forward again. I believe this is when the officers opened fire on the car.

I'm speculating that he was probably frightened by the undercover officer walking up to his car; likely thinking it was someone trying to start a fight. He was probably trying to get the hell out of there when the unmarked police minivan pulled up in front of him. That probably scared him even more. They were then showered with bullets, with one officer firing 31 rounds.

Based on the information made public so far, I don't think the officers were justified in opening fire on the car. I've seen TV shows where a car-thief rams his car into a marked police car and I've never seen the police open fire on the car except maybe to blow the tires out. So to open fire on a car that rammed an unmarked police car is definitely crossing the line. I would be pretty damn scared if someone walked up to me or a van pulled right in front of me promptly after getting into a scuffle at a strip club. I think my first instinct would be to do everything I can to get away.

I think if the police weren't undercover, the situation would have been much different and Sean Bell would probably still be alive and celebrating his 1 week anniversary right now.