Cuba And Private Enterprise

Since we first visited the island in 2010, my wife and I have developed a deep respect and affection for Cuba and its people. As I have indicated in previous posts, those feelings were formed not just in the vacations spots we have enjoyed, but also by getting to know the 'real' Cuba through friends that we made off of the resorts.

On our last visit there, the people I talked to looked forward, guardedly, to the gradual normalization with Cuba's historical nemesis, the United States. While some North Americans have suggested that the nation will become little more than a colony of the U.S. once again, as you will see in this report from Democracy Now, new opportunities may well arise out of this meeting of socialism and capitalism.

I couldn't help but wonder, as you may too, whether the emerging Cuba might have a thing or two to teach inveterate capitalists, especially with regard to the benefits of treating one's employees well. A restaurateur who is featured in the video seems particularly possessed of a common sense that is sadly disappearing in North America:

A Sanctimonious Dick

People sometimes wonder why I am so hard on right-wing evangelicals. Perhaps the sanctimonious dick in the following video will clarify why:

FOX Carolina 21

On The Sinister Implications of Bill C-51

One of the biggest threats posed by Bill C-51, the anti-terrorism legislation so loved of the Harper cabal, is that it could be used to criminalize dissent.

Jesse Brown, over at CanadaLand, offers an anonymously uploaded YouTube video, shot during Saturday's "Stop C-51" Rally on Parliament Hill, that would seem to confirm our biggest fears:

Peter MacKay In Farewell Profile

Happy trails to you, Peter.


H/t Greg Perry

For Those Of You Who Missed Sunday Services Today ....

You can derive some inspiration from the always risible but earnest Pat Robertson, about whom I like to periodically post for the benefit of everyone's spiritual renewal. BYW, this moment is brought to you by The Mound of Sound, who obviously sensed my recent spiritual dryness when he alerted me to this.

Watch as Pastor Pat suggests a solution to an elderly acolyte's financial problems, a solution which, curiously, does not involve ending her tithing to the church:

A Precarious Existence

The Toronto Star last week concluded an excellent series on the plight of the precariously employed. If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it for the insights and possible solutions offered into what is becoming far too common an employment situation for far too many: irregular hours, absence of security, absence of benefits and perpetual temporary worker classification. The impact of such conditions goes far beyond economic insecurity and includes being forced to put one's life on hold, delaying marriage, having children or, as we used to call it, settling down.

As usual, Star letter-writers offer their perspicacious perspectives on the issue.

Here they are:

Making bad jobs better, Editorial May 25

Congratulations to the Star and reporters Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Laurie Monsebraaten for the series highlighting the plight of the “precariously employed.” For too long have these employees been taken advantage of while they and their families have borne too much of the pain of today’s economic climate.

Businesses are in the business of maximizing profits and while some see the benefits of a stable and happy workforce, too many don’t. Since businesses are unwilling to act, it is clear that the solutions put forth by the Precarity Penalty report can only be attained through government intervention and stronger unions.

Right-wing conservatives have undermined unions such that fewer workers enjoy the security of decent working conditions, fair remuneration, benefits and a pension that will see an individual through his or her golden years in comfort and with dignity.

Conservatives have also convinced those without union support that since they don’t have the benefits secured through collective bargaining, unionized workers shouldn’t have them either, rather than expecting those benefits be extended to all workers. People need to remember that many of the standards that are in place today are thanks to unions and collective bargaining in the past.

As well, over the past 40 years, we’ve been brainwashed to believe that taxes are bad rather than seeing the huge benefit those tax dollars bring to all of our society.
We need bold governments (federal and provincial) that recognize a new and different world from the last generation’s but who are willing to serve the interests of the people in establishing and providing basic standards of living: decent wages and working conditions, affordable housing, medicare, pharmacare, education, affordable daycare, reasonable pensions, and safe communities.

Norah Downey, Midland

I have a solution for “precarious work.” It is to the employers’ advantage to have workers on a temporary or part-time basis, therefore there should be a substantially higher minimum wage than for full time work. This would make up for the loss of benefits and security.

Perhaps a 30 to 50 per cent higher minimum for precarious work would eliminate the unfair advantage to employers.

I have not experienced precarious employment myself, but have friends that have suffered from an employer’s deliberate firing and rehiring and short notice scheduling.

Jim Pike, Brampton

It is highly unlikely that conditions in employment will improve very soon if the issue of poverty can remain unresolved after so much has been written and studied over the years.

Nevertheless, one suggestion that might help to address both issues would be a guaranteed annual income. Employers would have to improve working conditions to entice people to do their jobs to earn profits for their companies.

While much thought and study would be needed to bring this to pass, I believe that capable politicians with the will could implement such an idea.

John Cousins, Bowmanville

How can you build a strong workforce on unpaid internships and volunteers? You can’t.

Your story reported on the stress caused by “precarious employment” and the obscene number of employees who will never know what job security is. Two pages later was a story about the Pan Am Games looking for more “volunteers.” This time the heavily funded games, with a reputation for the “excess of its highly paid executives,” was searching for highly trained medical professionals to work for free.

How did we go from slave labour, to the necessity of unions, to debt-ridden desperate students lined up to volunteer beside desperate parents, and desperate retired seniors?

Our leaders, both in government and the private sector, have failed to meet their duty to society. And yes, I was not paid to write this letter.

Jeff Green, Toronto

He Won't Be Missed

H/t Michael de Adder

Anyone who regularly reads this blog will know that I (along with guest posters The Salamander and The Mound of Sound) regard Peter MacKay as just one of far too many blights on the political landscape, perhaps distinguished only by his less-than-pedestrian intellect and very public absence of integrity. The most egregious example of the latter occurred during a very public soul-selling transaction (most such deals, I assume, go on behind closed political doors). After promising David Orchard during what turned out to be the final leadership convention of the federal Progressive Conservatives that he would never merge the party with Alliance/Reform if he backed him for the leadership, a scant few weeks later MacKay showed the stuff of which he is made and did just that.

And with no apparent shame.

Undoubtedly, as occurs when a politician leaves the stage, a certain hagiography will develop around the departing MacKay. Happily, Andrew Coyne has no intention of joining in such an disingenuous charade. The title of his National Post piece says it all:

Peter MacKay was a politician of many titles, but little achievement

Harper made him his first foreign affairs minister, an appointment that caused great puzzlement in Ottawa, though not nearly as much as in other capitals, where the notion that the foreign minister should be something other than a placeholder for the prime minister still holds.

After 18 unmemorable months at Foreign Affairs, he replaced Gordon O’Connor at National Defence, where he oversaw a string of procurement bungles culminating in the F-35, whose costs the government understated by a factor of five, staving off Parliament’s demands for the real figures just long enough to win re-election.

Yet McKay's incompetence seemed to propel him to even greater heights of imeptitude within the Harper cabinet:

Then it was off to Justice, where he was responsible for shepherding a number of bills through Parliament that seemed almost designed to be found unconstitutional, even as Justice department lawyers were losing case after case at the Supreme Court.

Other than that, he is best remembered for his commandeering a military helicopter as personal transportation back from a fishing lodge, plus his broken romance with Belinda Stronach, after which he posed in a photo-op with with a borrowed dog as he 'licked' his romantic wounds.

Oh yes, according to Coyne, he also likes to play rugby.

What does MacKay's 'peter principle' rise ultimately tell us? Here is Coyne's uncompromising take:

His career at the top of Canadian politics tells us more about the state of Canadian politics than anything else. That such a palpable cipher could have remained in high office for nearly a decade is a testament to many things: the thinness of the Tory front bench, the decline of cabinet, the prime minister’s cynicism, the media’s readiness to go along with the joke. The one thing it does not signify is his importance. He had all of the titles, but little influence, and less achievement.

For me a cathartic article and post and a very welcome but overdue political departure.