Read About W-N NP story on W-N Contact W-N and Map Invite to Wed1339 Wednesday Night Salon #1339 31 Oct Page 2 Kimon Valaskakis photo imgs David Kilgour imgs Introduction The Report by Catherine Gilbert David Kilgour was welcomed back and congratulated on the easy-flowing style and good editing of his latest book Canada, The USA and the Dynamics of State, Industry and Culture which he co-wrote with Wednesday Nighter David Jones. [As the publisher does not believe in book launches, the authors have been restricted to giving a number of interviews only]. He emphasized that David Jones was a pleasure to work with despite his firm (immovable) opinions. Twelve subjects - emerging issues - including multilateralism versus unilateralism, education, resources, economy, are compared, and how the two countries approach these issues is discussed. David K. said that as a result of this work he is even prouder of this country which he found superior to the US on more than half the topics considered. We should be extremely proud of this country, but too many Canadians have this wretched inferiority complex - only people who are new to the country appreciate it One overt sign of the inferiority complex is the constant bashing of the United States which is a great country It did leave him wondering why we do not give our first nations more autonomy, at least as much as we give Québec. It was generally agreed that one Canadian weakness is not taking care of infrastructure. It would be a wise investment to spend on health care and education The publisher of David K’s next book, Bloody Harvest on China and the pillaging of organs from the members of the Falun Gong, which he co-wrote with David Matas, has decided against publication for fear of liability. The Chinese Medical Association has just stated that no more organs will be available to foreigners - an implicit recognition of the truth of David’s contentions. The report is available on the Web in 19 languages. China David Kilgour mentioned the recent book by Peter Navarro The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won (who has also written extensively on investment strategy). The author points out that as China undergoes transition from Communism to capitalist imperialism, government and industry have forged strong bonds that allow them to exploit slave labor to produce goods of questionable quality and ignore environmental and economic constraints that hamper other nations. www.flickr.com More of davidnicholson's photos tagged with Wed1339 Wed 1339 slide show Should the West boycott travel to China to protest the human rights abuses? The government is waging war on its own people - terrible air quality in the cities, polluted water that cannot be used for agriculture, stories of corruption everywhere. The dominant Han are being moved to all outlying regions in an attempt to keep things under control. In addition, there is the international role of China in aiding and abetting repressive regimes (probably every monk shot in Burma last week was shot by a Chinese bullet from a Chinese rifle) including Sudan and Darfur. The past week’s triumphal visit of the Dalai Lama to Ottawa also reminds us of the little-understood, shameful role of China in Tibet in 1959. Discussion of China’s role in Darfur was further stimulated by a video clip of an interview with Professor Eric Reeves on prospects for the Sudan peace talks Canadians do not know what to do about China. They consume cheap goods while decrying the human rights abuses that allow the cheap goods to be produced. Many felt that we should stand up and publicly state our position on China’s human rights and boycott all products produced there. It was also suggested that the Export Development Corporation should stop investing in companies that are moving jobs to China. China’s attitude to the West is that we are spoilt stupid people and they are going to keep on doing exactly what they want to. Their problem is 800 million country people who have not benefited from the economic growth. There have been many demonstrations and many people have been gaoled. One lake supplies water to 300 chemical plants and the water is too polluted to treat to use for drinking or agriculture. There is no public healthcare system now as there was under Communism. The top few stocks in China, e.g. PetroChina (with virtually the largest market cap in the world), are performing well. On a macro level, China is sucking up businesses from all over the world (67,000 textile jobs lost to China by South Africa) and becoming self-sufficient. Eventually, China’s growth will be less dependent on the outside world and more driven by internal consumption; as this goal is approaching, the lot of the average (urban) Chinese is improving. At some point, will the poor quality of Chinese goods stop further jobs going there? Rwanda Opinions are very mixed on Romeo D’Allaire: hero or tragic figure? To some, his ability to save many hundreds of Tutsis despite no resources was heroic, to others his breakdown was caused by his own sense of failure. Being a witness does not make one a hero. He never went to the Prime Minister or the Secretary-General of the UN to ask for help, always sticking to the proper channels. He could have stuck his neck out. Despite complaining about the Liberals lack of action on Darfur, he was happy to accept a Senate seat from Prime Minister Martin. When General D’Allaire was trying to convince the world of the seriousness of the problems in Rwanda, he was ‘competing’ with the O.J. Simpson trial in the news. Nobody was paying attention to Rwanda. Afghanistan While Prime Minister Harper has the right instincts about Canada’s international military role, he and his government are not good about getting the message out, and should be honest about how long it will take to bring democracy to Afghanistan. The Russians killed 1 million Afghanis, lost 54, 000 men and still failed to effect regime change. The coalition managed to do that in 90 days. Do Canadians have the stomach for such a war? Do we have the moral responsibility to fight a righteous war? If so, then where is our moral responsibility to support emerging economies, fight against climate change which will not affect Canada particularly adversely, but will have a terrible impact on the countries who can least afford it (and had the least to do with causing it), or unsustainable agriculture in Africa? When is intervention justified? Is regime change a valid reason for intervention? Mini Budget What do we spend money on? We don’t spend money on national defense (one of Jean Chrétien’s ways of balancing the budget - or a least improving the situation - reasoning that the U.S. would defend Canada anyway). We can’t patrol an open Arctic and don’t know what’s going on there. The process of developing the budget on the basis of “we have a surplus, ratio of debt to GDP is 25%” seems illogical. Why bring down the deficits if we need to spend the money on infrastructure? The cost of everything, especially construction, is going up faster than inflation at a time when Canada can borrow money at 4-4½%; we would be much better off borrowing the money, running a deficit and spending the money on the country at a time when the cost of infrastructure is rising 10-12%. Lowering the GST is a political rather than an economic move. It is a highly inefficient but lucrative tax that turned around the national debt. While it may be the right instrument to control the economy, but you don’t lower it when the economy is booming. It should be buried in the price of goods, as in Europe, it could be increased with a concurrent lowering of income tax (to which people are much more sensitive). The markets Ron Meisels : We are on the verge of another Bull market. Oil stocks are rising, High-tech stocks in the US are breaking out, Worthington, EMC - market climbs when people are worried. But there is another shoe to drop thanks to the ABC Paper. Emerging markets: Some think these are risky, but so are developed markets. They have performed better than US equities with about the same volatility. Their growth is supported by domestic demand. These countries have young populations that are growing. In 15 years 85% of population and 50% 0f capitalization will be in the developing world. The 8 largest emerging markets contribute as much to global growth as do the G7. Saving rates are 30% in the developing world compared to 0% in U.S. Developing world countries are net creditors, while the developed world is where we find the debtor nations, which will translate into currency appreciation vis à vis the US dollar and the euro. Next year, Canada’s exports (commodities and some high-tech products) to the emerging markets will increase by 25%, while exports to the developed world will increase by 0. Athens April 2-5 2008: Kimon gave an update on the new School of Athens (NSOA) conference What makes globalization work for the benefit humanity? Eight round tables on current issues based on case studies will aim to find best practices and strategies for future development, with emphasis on feasible strategies and solutions. While the program essentially remains as before, a new topic,- management of natural disasters-, has been added. For updates and more information, please see the new NSOA website National politics Will there be a federal election soon? How long can the Liberals continue to abstain or absent themselves from votes in the House on bills that Mr. Harper will continue to designate as votes of confidence? The most recent polls, with the LPC at 19% in Québec indicate that the party might win only 8 seats in Québec. Given this outlook, it is hard to believe that Mr. Harper would not trigger an election within the next few weeks. Now that there is a fixed date for elections, in the view of many, it would be best for the country if the minority government were to reach the date in 2009. If, however, the government (whether majority or minority) falls, there is a formula whereby the next fixed election date will be four years from the date of election of the (new) government. There is a possible amendment that would provide that after 2009, if a minority government is elected, it cannot fall for four years: in other words, minority governments would be held to governing for four year. The crux of the problem is the confidence motion which, in the opinion of some has become a farce - in Canada, anything can be a confidence vote. [In other words, as it stands now, in rather typical Canadian fashion, we have a sort-of fixed election date.] The Climate 2050 Conference of last week, spearheaded by Pierre Marc Johnson was exceptionally interesting, very well organized and a showcase for much Canadian talent in the policy and practical arenas. It focused on finding feasible solutions. A particularly informative session focused on Urban Planning and Transportation. Papers will be posted shortly on the Conference website and will be of interest to many Wednesday Nighters. Diana's page Thursday 25 Apr 2007 To day NYT Podcast | Menu Radio Like the report of Mark Twain's death, reports of the death of radio –at least FM – are greatly exaggerated. Real estate Bulletin Board Canadian dollar is expected to decline against its U.S. counterpart. The economy See also JACQUES CLEMENT: Pages ON THE ECONOMY Previous Videos Notes by Herb Bercovitz OWN Editor: Diana Thébaud Nicholson OWN Radio, the long-lasting treasure intro Wed1339 | Wed1339 slide show Oil DTN OWN more Louise | DTN Diana Nicholson OWN slides | hands | all | & Louise 3-M slides | albums | all Jacques Clément OWN slides Gerald Ratzer OWN Note Wednesday-Night creates charts and follows stocks, including timely related financial news items, in which Wednesday Nighters are interested and in order to demonstrate a service that could eventually be developed and marketed. Wednesday Nighters are invited to participate and help to test the service. see Wednesday-Night.com Flip charts QUOTES of the EVENING from recent Wednesday Nights 2007 From #1339 invite It’s not a Bush problem, it’s an American problem. He is playing double or nothing. He is trying to shift the responsibility from the Coalition to the Iraqis New York City has more police officers than Iraq has troops More Quotes Short | Full List www.flickr.com This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from davidnicholson tagged with diananicholson. Make your own badge here. Diana Nicholson

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2007 Notes for #1339

Tuesday 06 November 2007
Hi all,
Good luck this week.
It was excellent being with you last week and hope to return soon.
Thanks David and Diana.
John
Curtin