I'm not sure if you've ever watched the show "Restaurant Makeover", but I saw one of the show's Chefs David Adjey last night standing outside a bar located beside my work building. This morning I peeked in the bar and saw the Restaurant Makeover team ripping the guts out of the it. The bar is called "Waterfall Lounge"; it has appeared very run-down since I started working here a year ago, so it looks like it's getting a well-deserved makeover.

If you haven't seen the show, the premise is that they have one week to renovate, revamp and re-launch local restaurants. When I walked by today at lunch it looked like they had 30 people working in there. I guess you would need a lot of people to completely rebuild a restaurant in only a week.

A quick search on Google revealed that the Restaurant Makeover team is turning it into an “Upscale, New York style Martini Lounge and Restaurant”.

If the crowd is good, it might become our new after-work bar to replace Alice Fazooli's.

Labels: david adjey, hgtv, restaurant makeover

The U.S. Housing market in many cities across the United States has blown into an overinflated bubble, and we've recently seen indications that the bubble has in fact burst. According to RealtyTrac Inc., foreclosures in the U.S. have risen 62% in April compared with last year. The states that topped the list in foreclosures were Nevada, Colorado, Connecticut, California and Ohio. Some are blaming the brokers for issuing high-risk loans without doing the proper background checks simply so that they would get their commission and profit from the boom (See Toronto Star Article).

A lot of prospective home owners in Canada are questioning whether they should buy now; many are worried that the same crash that happened in the US will happen here. I'm very confident that this will not happen here; signs indicate that the housing market in Toronto is cooling. But the cooling simply means the values of homes will increase at a slower pace than the last few years. The value of Toronto property is still significantly lower than other large cities in North America and around the world. Vancouver's median house resale value is significantly higher than Toronto by almost $200,000. I find the banks in Canada are less inclined to give out mortgages to risky customers. In the U.S., it's much easier to get a mortgage when in fact you are incapable of paying it back. I read a New York Times article today about a lady whom in my opinion made a very poor choice of purchasing a $515,000 home when her annual salary is a mere $40,000. She apparently was expecting her parents to live in the basement and help with the $3,699 monthly mortgage. Am I supposed to feel sorry for this lady?

This summer I'm taking an economics course for school. The economics textbook describes business cycles as alternating rises and declines in the level of economic activity, sometime over several years. The 4 phases it describes are: Peak, Recession, Trough and Expansion. Before the dot com bubble burst in 2000, people were blindly investing their money into startup companies with the expectation of high returns. The same thing has happened with the US housing market. People were blindly purchasing houses without ever planning on living in them. They planned to flip them as soon as they were built at an obviously higher price than they purchased it for. But when everybody is doing the same thing, there is nobody left to actually buy the houses after they were built. The investments were being made faster than the demand could keep up. Now it has crashed in several cities and investors are trying to get their down payments back. I've read about many people who have forfeited their down payment because if they keep the house they will end up losing more than their down payment. The other day I read about a man who had walked away from a $350,000 down payment on a 1.1 million dollar condo in Miami simply to cut his losses.

Here is a neat article entitled "International Housing Affordability Survey: 2007" that rates the most unaffordable cities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States. They take the median house resale price and divide it by the median income to determine how affordable the city is. The general rule of thumb when acquiring a mortgage is that a property isn't affordable if it's more than 3 times your gross salary. The city that topped the list is Los Angeles-Orange County, where the average home value is 11.4 times the average salary. San Diego is a close second at a multiplier of 10.5. Vancouver rolls in at number 13 with a Median multiplier of 7.7. Interestingly enough, some of the cities on that list are also in the list of cities whose bubble has burst.

I keep asking myself if the Vancouver real estate bubble will burst, but having visited Vancouver recently, I don't believe this will happen. I think it will cool down like Toronto; it might possibly become even more stagnate than Toronto, but I don't think it will burst. I honestly think people are buying properties in Vancouver because it's a beautiful city to live in and they are actually living in their houses rather than flipping them. Vancouver property value was significantly driven up from foreign investment; mostly Asian investors. There still seems to be a lot of demand to live in Vancouver, so I think it will survive this little 'hump'.

Labels: boom and bust, US housing market, Vancouver

Last week I returned from a trip to Las Vegas where we stayed at the Hooters Hotel and Casino for my buddy Mike's stag party. Las Vegas has grown considerably since I was there back in 1999, and construction is under-way all over the city where they are building new grandiose casinos everywhere.

Everything in Las Vegas is big. There are 12-lane highways going right through downtown; pedestrians aren't even allowed to cross the road on major intersections because of the enormous width of the roads, so you typically have to cross the roads over walkway bridges with escalators. Every girl in Vegas has a big chest. I've deduced that they measure girl's chests at the airport and send them home if they don't meet the minimum requirement. The food portions are also very large; I gained at least 10 pounds last week and it all seems to be in my belly (A few of these pounds can probably be attributed to beer as well though mind you).

Some of the laws in Vegas are absurd to me and sometimes contradicts the image that Vegas normally portrays. Most laws are very relaxed in Vegas, such as the fact that you can walk down the sidewalk or in a shopping mall with an open bottle of beer in your hand at 8 in the morning. They never stop serving alcohol, and the gambling never ends. Instead of selling newspapers, the news stands are dedicated to prostitution/escort services. The girls in the pictures are almost nude except for a cute little black star covering their nipples. While these types of laws seem very lax, there are other laws that to me are completely ridiculous. One example is the law that states that there can't be more than 5 passengers in a taxi at any given time, and this even applies to vans that contain 6 seatbelts! Another interesting law is that strip clubs that serve alcohol only allow girls to be topless. That doesn't sound like a laid back city at all!

The funny thing about the gambling age in Vegas is that it's supposed to be 21. But I found out when I was in Vegas when I was 19 that you can gamble until the sun comes up and nobody will check your id until you cash in your chips. The Casinos don't care if you're 16 years old. They'll swindle you for everything you've got but damned if they let you walk out of that casino with any of their money.

We bumped into a few somewhat famous people. The first was a casual Jaromir Jagr who was by himself in the MGM wagering some cash on something (Mud wrestling maybe?). When I asked him if he was betting on horses, he said no he wasn't, but he didn't tell me what it was that he was betting on. I doubt he's allowed to bet on NHL games, so maybe it was Baseball. Mike, the bachelor is a huge New York Rangers fan, so when Jaromir dropped a betting chip on the ground, Mike was quick to swoop it up for Mr. Jagr. I could see smoke coming out of the back of Jagr's head from Mike's burning stare. Did you know Jaromir can be scrambled to spell the words "Mario Jr."? We also chatted with a casual Alice Cooper walking through a shopping mall; we saw the hip hop artist Method Man outside of the Hard Rock Cafe and a couple guys ran into Foo Fighters Taylor Hawkins.

While browsing a music memorabilia store, Mike came across a signed Alice in Chains guitar. It was even signed by the late Lane Staley. The price tag was a mere $2,200 and Mike was determined to get it; but he knew that if he came home with that guitar he might not have a Wedding to look forward to anymore because his fiancé would probably castrate him. We had a little bit of money left over from overpaying for the hotel, so we decided to put it all on our two lucky numbers on Roulette. We laid down the first $60 on number 9 and the second $60 on number 11. Since Roulette pays 35-1, we would receive a cool $2100 if the ball lands on either number. The plan was to talk the lady down to $2000 for the guitar (Including shipping).

The ball spun around the wheel like it was going out of style. We crossed our fingers and the ball entered the wheel and landed on our lucky number 9. We were ready to throw our hands in the air and celebrate when the ball bounced out of number 9 and rolled a few numbers over to 11. Once again we prepared to meet our destiny when at the last second it popped out of number 11 and rolled beside 11 into the fatal number 32. We were mere millimeters from sending Mike home with a signed Alice in Chains guitar.

To sum it up, my lucky number 9 wasn't so lucky this time. I came home empty handed, and burned a hole through my wallet all while increasing the chances of contacting lung cancer from all the second hand smoke. Now it's back to reality and back to a healthy diet of baloney sandwiches for the next couple months. At least I was the only person in the group to experience the $12 roller coaster ride at the New York New York.

Labels: casino, gambling, las vegas, stag

With former President Jimmy Carter calling the Bush Administration the "Worst in history", I figured today's topic should relate to the war in Iraq. A lot of my readers credit me for complaining about the U.S. involvement in Iraq, but like many other people covering Iraq, I haven't provided any alternative solution to the war that the neocons have instigated. On a related topic, we've seen the famous neo-conservative Paul Wolfowitz crash and burn at his post as the head of the perfidious World Bank.

On one side of the flank, we have the Democrats pushing for a complete withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2008. On the other side there is the "stay-the-course" attitude where Republicans are completely unwilling to set any kind of withdrawal date. The Republicans have good reason for their stance: They started the mess; they have manufactured the chaos, so they have every reason to avoid a withdrawal. A withdrawal will strengthen al Qaida and the anti-American terror groups and Iraq will fall into a full blown civil war with a possible outcome that would be unfavourable to the United States.

Look at what happened after the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989. Afghanistan battled in a civil war, the Soviet Union collapsed and al Qaida eventually used Afghanistan as a save-haven to train its fighters. Then we have September 11th, and of course the rest is history.

The Democrats don't have a solid plan either. To withdraw and let the Iraqi's deal with the chaos is a big risk for the United States. A civil war in Iraq could have a number of different outcomes; Iran would most likely be involved, and it would likely take many years or possibly several decades to re-stabilize Iraq. The United States will lose its influence in the region, oil exports and global prices would be compromised, and peace would be difficult to achieve.

Why do you think George H.W. Bush decided to withdrawal his troops in 1991 before going after Saddam? Dick Cheney sums it up in his comments to the Discovery Institute in Seattle way back in 1992 after the Gulf War (He's since then obviously flip-flopped on this topic):

"I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home."

"And the final point that I think needs to be made is this question of casualties. I don't think you could have done all of that without significant additional U.S. casualties. And while everybody was tremendously impressed with the low cost of the (1991) conflict, for the 146 Americans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war."

"And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."
Dick Cheney, 1992, (From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Back in 1992 Cheney didn't think Saddam was worth the casualties. But he seemed to grasp the consequences of ousting Saddam where he mentions not wanting to get "bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq". This is precicely what is happening now, and most neo-cons appear surprised that it happened this way. If you look at the history of these types of wars, this should have been expected.

After World War I when Britain attempted to establish a mandate in Iraq, they were met with resistance and casualties and costs were too high to sustain (Sound familiar?). The British decided instead to grant a pseudo "independence" to Iraq to govern its own territory (which was basically created out of 3 separate Ottoman provinces). Britain, in return would be granted the ability to setup a military presence in Iraq and Iraq foreign policy would favour Britain's interests. Iraq went through a lot of turmoil while establishing itself as a nation.

Now Iraq is back in turmoil again and I think a U.S. presence in Iraq is only fuelling the fire so to speak. I personally think that the U.S. needs dialogue and some sort of diplomatic relationship with Iran. I also think they need to withdrawal from Iraq within 2 years and spend more energy on dialogue with the neighbouring countries to help broker peace. Since most of the deaths happening in Iraq right now involve Iraqis killing Iraqis, the United States has an opportunity to gradually withdrawal within a couple years. The concern I have is whether a withdrawal of the United States will cause total chaos, or whether it would help to reduce the violence. I think the violence would spike after the withdrawal, but it would eventually come back down and after some time we would hope that the Iraqis would be able to maintain order while the government works to win over the hearts and minds of the people.

Here is a note I found on Wikipedia written to President Bush from Condoleeza Rice on June 28, 2004 with Bush writing "Let Freedom Reign" as a response to Condi's letter:

Labels: britain, civil war, dick cheney, Iraq, neo-conservatives, President Bush

Camp-X was a secret agent training camp in Whitby, Ontario that was established by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE); a branch of the British MI6 during World War II. The original intent of Camp-X was to secretly recruit Americans to become British spies since Americans were forbidden from becoming involved in the war. Ironically, the camp officially opened on December 6th, 1941; the day before Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese.

I found out about Camp-X around 6 years ago when I was attending College in Hamilton while conversing with World War II veterans at the Hamilton Royal Light Infantry Museum. Two years ago I posted a blog entry about one of my favourite books entitled "Almost". The author, Joe Gelleny was raised in Welland, Ontario before being recruited as a secret agent and training at Camp-X at 20 years-old! The BSC also had an office during World War II at 25 King St. West in Toronto, the same building I worked at last year before I left the bank.

At the camp, agents were trained on the art of unarmed combat, silent killing and use of explosives. They were also trained on how to avoid detection, and they spent a considerable amount of time on how to disguise themselves. Their training also included parachute jumping, and agents were sent to Toronto and Oshawa on training missions. In the book "Almost", Joe Gelleny describes a training mission in Toronto:

"At Camp-X we were trained to live by our wits, in any circumstance. On one occasion, I was briefed and dropped off in Toronto, dressed in the uniform of a German soldier. My assignment was to take photographs of war material production factories. If picked up by the Toronto police, I was expected to be able to talk my way out, without having to resort to calling the SOE number in my wallet. I passed. A variation was to create a disturbance at a restricted site such as an arms factory and avoid being nicked by the constabulary. It was routine to be dropped in groups of six into an unfamiliar or isolated location, armed with map and compass, to find our way back to Camp at a precise time, without civilian assistance of any kind, including hitchhiking."

My blog entry 2-years ago attracted the attention of author Lynn-Philip Hodgson whom I had the fine pleasure of meeting along with his wife Marlene yesterday at the Lynn-Philip Hodgson Camp-X Collection in Port Perry. Lynn has spent half of his life researching and spreading the word to preserve the history of Camp-X. He is the author of the book "Inside Camp-X" (Also available on Amazon.com), and several other books that make up the Camp-X collection. (He's also a co-author on the book "Almost").

I asked Lynn a few short questions about Camp-X that I wanted to share:

Q: Urban Country: If you were born earlier and offered a job as a secret agent, do you think you would have accepted?
A: Lynn-Philip Hodgson: I have been asked this question many times and knowing what I know now, I can say that I don't believe that I have the right stuff to be a secret agent. Then again, I'm 61 years old now and I certainly might have had a different approach to this question when I was 20.

Q: Urban Country: Did the famous James Bond writer Ian Fleming go through training at Camp X?
A: Lynn-Philip Hodgson: Yes, it has been verified by Tommy Drew Brook, Canadian Director of the BSC and by Ian Fleming himself in his autobiography. See evidence at: http://webhome.idirect.com/~lhodgson/ianfleming.html

Q: Urban Country: What level of impact do you believe Camp X had on the outcome of World War II?
A: Lynn-Philip Hodgson: My personal opinion is that it did make a significant difference. Sir Colin Gubbins wrote to Winston Churchill after the war advising him that the efforts of the SOE, cut the duration of the war by as much as 1 year and saved over 1,000,000 lives.
See:
http://webhome.idirect.com/~lhodgson/soesuccesses.html
and : http://webhome.idirect.com/~lhodgson/french.html

Q: Urban Country: If someone is interested in learning more about Camp X, where should they begin to look?
A: Lynn-Philip Hodgson: Start with the Internet and then read all of the books that have been published on the subject.

Q: Urban Country: Out of all the people you have met who trained at Camp X, who has the most interesting story to tell?
A: Lynn-Philip Hodgson: Both Joe Gelleny (Gordon) and Andy Durovecz (Daniels) had fascinating stories as they were both trained at Camp-X and went on separate missions and both were captured by the Gestapo.

Q: Urban Country: How much interest does the general public in Canada have about Camp X?
A: Lynn-Philip Hodgson: There is a tremendous interest in Camp-X from the public as a whole. Canadians are very proud of the accomplishments of those who served there and the fact that this top secret school was right here in Canada.

Q: Urban Country: If you were trained at Camp X, what do you think your specialty would be?
A: Lynn-Philip Hodgson: No doubt my specialty would have been silent killing. If I am going to go behind enemy lines knowing that if I'm caught I'm finished, I want to excel at unarmed combat.

Q: Urban Country: What can we do to help preserve the history of Camp X so that it doesn't fade in time?
A: Lynn-Philip Hodgson: Continue with your interest in Camp-X and do not stop telling people about it. We must pass the message on to future generations about the wonderful accomplishments of those who worked and trained at Camp-X

Here are some photos I took of the Camp-X collection as well as the Camp-X site, which is now named "Intrepid Park", named after Sir William Stephenson. For more photos, see the photo gallery section on Lynn's Camp-X site. Included in Lynn's collection was a "James Bond" type gadget that appeared a normal black comb, but when broken, the agent would find a compass inside.

Labels: Camp-X, Joseph Gelleny, Lynn-Philip Hodgson, Project J, S25-1-1, STS-103