Chilean mining accident happy ending

What an exciting piece of good news! The breaking news of all 33 miners saved from the collapsed mine is the major broadcast of yesterday.

When the miner gets out of the chute, the whole world rejoice. The miners survive the initial despair and battle the hardship for 2 months. Thank goodness to their politicians that they are willing to spend the millions to save them.

Mining accidents happen frequently worldwide, many of the mining accidents can be prevented. Most of these incidents are due to poor maintenance, poor management, and poor safety knowledge.

Let us hope the world wide politicians monitor the mining working conditions, ensure their mining owners accept safety as top priority management requirement.

Property Monopoly

Walking in the streets of Vancouver,I find empty street front store every corner. Yet, the unit rent is incredibly high. From Gastown to Point Gray, triple net ranges from $55 to $80. No wonder a latte in Yaletown costs $6, I wonder how many cups be sold to recover the operating costs.

Funny as it appears, many empty stores stay empty for year. Financially, one would cut loss by renting the unit out at a lower rate. No sir, those income trust managers can afford to hold the rate high. There are plenty of innocent investors putting their savings into these trusts...

Across the nation, I can name a few property income trust holding a vast majority of property. Deal or not, their option not yours.

Culture - a collective mind set

Lately, I listen to a few business management audio books, many focus the listeners on a particular skill set or a social media phenomenon. Every year there will be new observation and new techniques to test out.

One of the audio book Delivering Happiness from Tony Hsieh captures my attention. The book is about Zappos, an eCommerce retail enterprise. There are indeed many valuable learnings throughout and in particularly building a Zappos culture. These days I keep hearing about culture building in many companies, except a lot of these talks are just talks.

Corporate Culture means changing individual behavior to the company's predefined mind set. In the past, there were many successful examples be it good or bad. The bad examples I mostly read are the corruption culture...so easy to adopt.

Stephen Covey in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has provided the fundamental elements to build a responsible culture. In the 80's the book was so popular in the corporate environment that workshops after workshops were held to improve employees behavior. Yet, corporate after corporate has failed to provide the basic responsibility to their stakeholders. In 2009, 90% stakeholders globally were left without means to live.

Needless to say I am very impressed with Hsieh and associates to build a culture of "delivering happiness" to all stakeholders. I hope this culture will continue and being adopted globally.

The Manila Hijacking incident

The Hong Kong tour group in the Manila hijacking incident lost 7 members. In addition, there are 7 members suffered gunshot wounds. RTHK reports that a 5 member family lost 3 in the conflict. How can a lone hijacker cause so much damages?

Comments from the administration are equally harsh as the general public. Apparently, the inefficient police force is the prime target. Questions remains just how many victims are hurt or killed by the police? We will see when the Manila investigation is over, how much a cover up it is.

The hijacker is a former policeman, with full knowledge of the corruption scheme, taking such risk to ask for fair compensation. It is obvious the force has a particular interest to deal swiftly. Nonetheless, the dealing is poorly executed causing death to innocent foreign visitors.

With so much corruption in the world, tourism may be just another adventure for the risk seekers.

Natural Disasters - a tale of 2 countries.

Since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, large scale of disasters happen every year, thousands of fatalities pile up the record book.

Currently, the news media is watching like a hawk in the latest Pakistan flood crisis.

Why is Pakistan struggling so much to deliver aids to the victims? Where is the army? Where is the air force? Where is the government? Root cause investigation clearly points to corruption. CTV news reports Canadian government initially offers a mere 2 million dollars and under UN pressure changes to $30 million. According to the latest report, the donation is still 3/4 short.

In the last few years, China suffered as many natural disasters as any other countries combined. From the Sichuan earth quake to the ZhouChu mudslides last week, thousands vanished and millions homeless. I have not seen media coverage nor I see Canadian government pledge. Instead, I watch hundreds of Chinese tourists landed in Vancouver bringing Canadian tourism industry great hope.

What is the magic formula that separate Pakistan and China?

More or less corruption?

Living in Harmony

Many self help books identify the causes of fear and pain and provide the readers ways to live in peace. Many of these are devoted to the individual readers or the family.

How can countries live in harmony? Seems like an unsustainable goal.
Is country the sum of all evils? Only the ruthless, power, greed are in the equation.

American is the democratic superpower since WW2, however, the administration keep throwing their young people to battles, be it Korean war, Vietnam war, Kuwait war, Iraq and Afghanistan.
For what actual benefits these wars bring to the people of United States?
Is this realistic to use force to bring harmony?

What if everyone read "the 7 habits of highly effective people" to begin the journey. A long long journey for sure.

Local Weather

In the first week of July, Edmonton is wet and cold. So much rain that we hardly turn on the sprinkler. Relative to last July, this summer is less welcome. However, if I compare Edmonton to the rest of the world cities, Edmonton is the best. With temperature in the high 30C and humidity in the high 80s, what else can you do except hiding inside air conditioning rooms.

The climate is changing, the climate lobbyists are active. Their suggestions of clean energy are heard everywhere in the world. Let me see how many global meetings they will have for sheer discussions, the good old wine and dance sessions.

The world is spinning towards destruction not because of natural disasters. The world is spinning towards destruction because of government mismanagement. Corruption in all levels of government, in all levels of financial institutions, in all levels of NGO. Quality of living decreases for ordinary Joe like you and me, our savings, our pensions are disappearing at an exponential rate. What recourse do we have when some one abscond our funds? The answer is zippo.

What about the lives of the South Korean sailors???

Today, United Nations Security Council did not condemn the administration of North Korea for the sinking of the South Korean submarine. Apparently, the 46 sailors died in a mindless attack. Apparently, the world is convinced whom is the attacker. Yet, the world politicians are happy to leave the families of the dead sailors suffer for the rest of their lives.

The statement is clearly a compromise of the council members. Why would the UN Security Council accept such irresponsibility? Their excuse is to keep peace in the Korean Peninsula. The scene reminds me so much of Chamberlain's unwillingness to address Hitler's aggression which eventually leads to World War II.

Wars are inevitable...imperialism, superiority, capitalism, communism. These are just a few reasons why fighting has not stopped since WWII. Why do we put our youngsters in Afghanistan, not Korea. What is justice???

Oil pollution in Nigeria

Yesterday, the news media bring my attention to Nigeria's major pollution. The oil exploration along the coast of Nigeria has created serious problem for the fishermen. The oil leaked out from the pipeline clogs up the shoreline causing death to many sea creatures. Living condition is getting worse every day for the villagers. The wealth generated by the oil industry is shared only by a few. The fact is the poor gets poorer.

In the other end of the world, Alberta is an oil rich province where the wealth is shared relatively by the countrymen. At least, the provincial administration is trying their best to create a diversified province. The fact is the poor gets richer.

Oil companies, especially global companies like Exxon-Mobile, BP, Total, Shell, who enjoy government and financial support. The massive infrastructure required to process and transport these products is capital intensive. Return on investment is a major yard stick for many oil industry executives. Investors are more aggressive in the last decade when funds managers take over the investment role.

Is it a vicious cycle of creating victims of wealth building? Small investor joins as a group to look for better wealth distribution. The simple objective for these investors is to retire on a decent pension. Most of them find not only their oil dividends dwindle, their other investment shrinks as pollution can create irreparable damage.

Football and Politics

The Nigeria government suspended the National team from participation in soccer events after their miserable performance. Soon after, FIFA issued a warning to the Nigerian President that they will boot Nigeria off if such suspension is to be carried out.

Talk about politics these days...but then politics has never been excluded from athletic events. Olympics is a typical example.

What about Mello, the Brazilian player, who successfully denied Brazil from advancing to the quarter-final. Is there a conspiracy in such blatant effort to undermine the team? What is the odds that Brazil does not make it to quarter final?

Do you lose your shirt yet?

The Ball is round...

A shocking upset today as Brazil lost to the Netherlands in quarter final world cup soccer. Team work is everything in these games. Players not only play their role diligently, they play with their team mates in attack as well as defense. The Portugal multi million dollar super star Cristian Ronaldo only plays half court. His team cannot withstand the constant onslaught of Spain. The Brazilian plays for half time and Mello is a shame when he maliciously steps onto the Dutch player.

As the commentator laments the referee judgement in many games. I wonder aloud as to the FIFA itself, is the organization playing havoc by excluding technology in the field? Is it more than old fashion or tradition? Is it the betting behind over rule a proper game?

I see how the corrupt officials in the Olympic organization ruin so many careers...

Father's Day...

Here in Edmonton, we have a sunny Father's Day. Families are sharing this special day outdoor, in the trail, in the park and in the golf course.

However, for some of our Canadian men, they are working under the constant danger of roadside bombs in Afghanistan. I always wonder why Canada involves in other countries' civil war? What kind of pressure our politicians are under that they are so willing to spend billions of our hard earned money in destruction?

I understand our dependence on our neighbor is so much that we do not want to draw their wrath. For so long we complain the unjust treatment we receive from the Americans like the fish and lumber penalties. For so long we dare not do anything to diversify from this one way trade. For so long we talk instead of walk...

Travel Alert is issued against Toronto...

Is Toronto the victim of G20?

For the whole day, the media focus on the travel alert issued by the States against Toronto. The media interviews farmers, university students, small business owners and cab drivers. Their conclusions, as you guess it, are unfavorable. If the summit brings downtown access to a halt, shutdown farmer market, discourages visitors...Is Toronto pressured into hosting it?

Hosting a cartel meeting is definitely not for the benefits of the world. China has already warned the group that currency exchange is out of the agenda. Canada is resisting the set up of the Bank fund. However, the worst is the closed door meeting, the world is in the dark. In addition to the CAD 1.1 billion spent on security, Torontonians have to be prepared for disruptions, destructions and disillusions.

Personally, I do not believe these meetings can accomplish anything at all. These wine and dance meetings do not even benefit the host city. Why do we host them???

Corruption or Mindless Spending

There are many Canadians talking about the G20 summit these days. From the CTV news today, I learn that Fake Lake and Fake Pagoda built for the summit will not be on the show...So why are we building them?

The summit expenditure is estimated in the billions which logically make taxpayers question the value of these summits. One asks project like this, is there a budget? Is there report of the actual costs? Do we need the Auditor General to plow through the piles of expense claims?

Question is why do we spend so recklessly, is there benefits transferred in the process? Who approves these unrelated projects? Anyone accountable???

Where do you find corruption?

Many in the western democratic countries imagine corruption only happens in dictatorship countries. We believe the stories readily when our media reports how countries like Russian, China, India, Iraq, Iran, Burma and many others will do business only when the bureaucrats are bribed.

When Envron failed, questions raised, but just that. When the Tsunami put American economy into limbo, questions raised against the finance monitoring agencies. Inquiries are held in the congress yet the American public is still in the dark of how the economy collapsed.

Now that BP is the chief polluter in the world, congress is holding more inquires, the public only learns the monitoring agency is again in sleep mode.

One asks how these monitoring agencies fail to do their job? Is there anything to do with the financial and oil and gas lobbying effort? Is there anything to do with the congress intervention? How much is corruption involved?

How much public service is for sale?

Corruption is found everywhere in the world, democratic countries are no exception. We don't need to look far, just look at the Airbus scandal, the UK MP expense claims scandal, you have it.

Is the world in turmoil?

BP oil leaks takes Americans by shock, from Louisiana to Florida, living for people and wildlife is changed forever.

Ethnic violence is rising, hatred among neighbors results in death and destruction.

Corruption is the biggest factor in the various financial disasters causing millions of people to live below poverty.

We have many non-profitable organizations spending millions to work for the weak and the poor, yet the situation gets worse.

As I see it, the world is in turmoil because of corruption, eradicate the root problem, the world can narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. Act now instead of talk...