Category: International

Canada’s dangerous neighbour

American companies own more than half of foreign-controlled corporate assets in Canada. How long before Donald Trump decides to “protect” his country’s interests and security? The Trump administration may blame Canada for allowing drugs and migrants into the USA. Parts of the USA have coveted Canada’s fresh water, and American companies dislike this country’s tax system and public spending, which favours climate action, environmental protection, public healthcare and other “leftist” schemes…

Theo Moudakis!!

A century ago, an American advertising executive popularized the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Toronto Star cartoonist Theo Moudakis proves that a few pictures are worth much more than a thousand words.

A bad neighbor

In fewer than 365 days after taking office Donald Trump would threaten to invade Panama and Greenland, launch a global trade war, bomb five countries, and invade South America — all while griping about being denied the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wag the dog

The movie  “Wag the Dog” takes the stance that American public policy may be founded on fraud in high places, and that there is no public outpouring too spontaneous-looking to be manipulated by political puppeteers.

U.S. violates U.N. Charter

On January 3, the United States launched a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela, captured President Nicolás Maduro, and flew him to a military base in New York. The American President says his country now runs Venezuela, holder of the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Above and beyond the rule of law

Gordon Wilson should have been Premier of British Columbia. Instead, Vancouver power brokers of the 1990s wanted a more tractable person waiting to be Premier. Gordon Campbell replaced Wilson as Leader of the Official Opposition, David McLean and Jack Poole were among the money men who shaped the future of BC politics. Despite that setback, Wilson has lived an interesting life.

Patrimonialism

Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at Brooking’s Center for Effective Public Managment wrote in the Atlantic about the USA’s regime change. Rauch says that even those who expected the worst from Trump’s reelection expected more rationality. Instead, they got an administration that operates like a crime family, “divvying up the spoils, sometimes quarreling, but helping each other when needed.”

All politics is about real estate

All politics is about real estate. Postmodern politics is essentially a matter of land grabs, on a local as well as a global scale. Whether you think of the question of Palestine, the settlements and the camps, or of the politics of raw materials and extraction; whether you think of ecology (and the rainforests) or the problems of federalism, citizenship, and immigration, or whether it is a question of gentrification in the great cities as well as in the shanty towns and the townships and of course the movement of the landless today everything is about land…

Not everything is broken in our world

World Central Kitchen, founded by Spanish-American chef Jose Andres, is an example of humanitarianism at work. WCK has become one of the world’s leading relief organizations since its 2010 launch following a devastating earthquake in Haiti. Food is essential to life and is vitally important in a crisis. Access to healthy meals during a disaster is a reminder that someone cares. But, of course, not everyone cares. Pierre Poilievre said a Conservative government would cut foreign aid funding. That mimics Trump’s policy of eliminating almost all development and humanitarian help abroad.

The current world situation

This is a guest post by Chris Merrick, a school friend who has serious concerns with the state of the world. Most of us can say that in our lifetimes, Canada has never experienced such a direct threat to its continued existence. It is vital to build country-to-country relationships in other parts of the world. The U.S. President is not our only problem because a large number of American politicians and plutocrats are Trump’s fellow travellers.

Our World in Data

Training in accountancy encourages my reliance on data to improve understanding of various issues. One valuable source of information is Our World in Data. It was founded by Max Roser, Professor of Practice in Global Data Analytics at the University of Oxford. Dr. Roser’s research has focused on large global problems, including poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, existential risks, and war.

“You won’t have to vote anymore”

Dan Rather was a star of the news business for years before he left CBS. From the 1980s to the mid-2000s, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather were the “Big Three” of TV news in the USA. At the peak, about one in five Americans watched them. Today, about one in twenty Americans see flagship news shows of the legacy networks…

Immoral or amoral?

Rutger University professor Wenwen Zhang, wrote a 2018 dissertation that said conceptions of amorality in business literature are diverse and ambiguous. Belief that morality is irrelevant and inapplicable in business results in unethical behaviors, done for the benefit of individuals, organizations and nations. Discarding or downplaying morality is a shortcoming of business education….