tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69305053582925214682024-02-20T13:23:27.063-08:00Breaking NewsBreaking News Around The World And Career Highlightsneshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.comBlogger873125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-77326922212260128502019-11-11T08:19:00.000-08:002019-11-11T08:19:17.549-08:00HAPPY VETERANS DAY<b>HAPPY VETERANS DAY</b><br />
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Triump is only for those who are not afraid and those who never quits,<br />
With great pride and honor, we salute our heroes of past and presents the veterans,<br />
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Veterans Day is a federal holiday held in the United States annually on November 11, in honor of military veterans, who have served in the United States Armed Forces. Veterans' day coincides with other holidays including Armistice and Remembrance Day celebrated in other countries marking the end of World War I. The main protests of World War I officially ended at 11 o'clock on the 11th day of the month, 11 1918, when the ceasefire with Germany came into force. At the urging of the veteran U.S. organization majorly, the Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.<br />
Veterans Day is not the same as Memorial Day, a U.S. public holiday. in May. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day honors those who have died in military service.<br />
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To commemorate veterans day, here are 8 ways to do this in honor of Veterans Day<br />
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The show<br />
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Attend a Veterans Day event in your area - not just for picnics with friends but a great turnout for veteran services. Roy Rogers said, "We can't be heroes, somebody has to sit by the road and clap as they go." Veterans Day is a great opportunity to do so.<br />
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Donation<br />
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There are many great organizations that offer all kinds of support, services and appreciation to our service members.<br />
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Fly the flag - correctly<br />
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Veterans Day is a great opportunity to fly a flag! Make sure you observe the appropriate rules for the display.<br />
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Ask someone about their service<br />
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It seems like we all know someone who has served and Veterans Day is a good time to ask them about their service. Some questions to get started are: What are you doing in the military? How long have you been serving? What are your favorite moments of all time in the service? Do others in your family serve? Why did you choose to go to the service branch you do? Do not ask if they have killed anyone and your veterans are veterinarians who do not want to share or state clearly what they are up to, support without interruption. Sometimes you don't have to say anything, just listen and pay attention.<br />
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Write it down<br />
If you know a veteran, write a simple postcard or e-card to recognize them on Veterans Day. If you don't know a veteran, find the nearest military installation and ship there. The small act of recognizing one's service, even anonymously, is appreciated.<br />
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Don't compare Veterans Day with Memorial Day<br />
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Veterans Day is a time to thank those who serve or are with us. Memorial Day is to reflect and remember those who lost their lives in service to their country. Confuse the two or combine the two disadvantages of both.<br />
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Visit VA Hospital<br />
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Find out what policy at the nearest VA hospital to interact with patients or volunteers, and spend the day with a veteran. Many VA facilities will have Veterans Day events or special lunches that you can help prepare. Even if you've never interacted with a veteran, helping out at a facility is a way to give back.<br />
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Outdoors Activities with a Veteran<br />
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Invite a veteran or military family to explore the national park - admission is free for all visitors on Veterans Day. Outside helps improve physical and mental health, improves emotional well-being, and is a great way to celebrate today with a veteran.<br />
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Thank you veterans. Best wishes for veterans Days<br />
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<b>HAPPY VETERANS DAY</b>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-2477431058983339742019-08-25T20:03:00.001-07:002019-08-25T20:03:33.332-07:00Lagenda Budak Hostel Full Movie | Youtube Trending<b>Youtube Trending | Lagenda Budak Hostel Full Movie</b><br />
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Haikal Son aka Kodan and Ahmad Danial aka Put are form sixth and senior students in a boarding school hostel. Kodan and Put are most feared by other students for their bullying behavior but their naughty activities have never been detected by hostel warden, Ms. Rahim. Check it out..<br />
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neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-45519213443856338732014-07-17T11:57:00.000-07:002014-07-17T11:57:03.914-07:00Pesawat MAS MH17 Terhempas di UkrainePesawat MAS MH17 Terhempas di Ukraine<br />
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KIEV: Seramai 280 penumpang, 15 kru maut selepas pesawat ditembak jatuh di Ukraine, kata Penasihat Menteri Dalam Negeri Ukraine yang dipetik Interfax, agensi berita negara itu.<br />
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Menurut sumber lain, pesawat itu ialah jenis Boeing 777 yang terbang dari Amsterdam ke Kuala Lumpur terhempas dekat bandar Donetsk, kubu kuat pemisah pro Russia, Anton Gerashchenko.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zps801Rz46k" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Setakat ini belum dapat disahkan sama ada terhempas atas sebab teknikal atau terhempas kerana ditembak..! namun berita yang dikeluarkan diseluruh dunia ialah pesawat MH17 yang membawa 295 orang penumpang dan anak kapal itu terhempas…!<br />
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Pesawat penerbangan dari Amsterdam menuju ke Kuala Lumpur dilaporkan telah terhempas di sempadan Ukraine & Russia, menurut agensi berita Interfax yang melaporkan hari ini.<br />
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Gerashchenko dipetik sebagai berkata: "Sebuah pesawat awam yang terbang dari Amsterdam ke Kuala Lumpur ditembak jatuh oleh sistem anti-pesawat Buk....280 penumpang dan 15 kru terbunuh." - Reutersneshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-9997083863305024922014-07-17T11:36:00.000-07:002014-07-17T11:38:06.706-07:00Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 CrashesMalaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Crashes<br />
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A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet carrying 295 individuals from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed in an area of eastern Ukraine where separatist rebels have been partaking Ukrainian military forces in recent weeks.<br />
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Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, said the jet could are shot down.<br />
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"We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine soldiers didn't fireplace at any targets within the sky," Poroshenko said in a statement.<br />
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Dozens of bodies were scattered round the smouldering wreckage of the plane, close to the village of Grabovo, regarding twenty five miles from the Russian border, per reporters at the scene.<br />
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Emergency workers said at least one hundred bodies had been found thus way, and wreckage was scattered across an space nine miles in diameter.<br />
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"I was operating in the sphere on my tractor after I heard the sound of a plane and then a bang and shots. Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two. There was thick black smoke," a witness, who gave his name only as Vladimir, told Reuters.<br />
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In an exceedingly statement, Malaysia Airlines said Ukraine's air traffic management lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 (GMT) , approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.<br />
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"Flight MH17 operated on a Boeing 777 departed Amsterdam at twelve.15pm (Amsterdam time) and was estimated to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at half dozen.10am (Malaysia time) the following day. The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew onboard." The flight also had a Dutch airline flight variety from KLM, KL4103.<br />
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Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, wrote on his Facebook page that the plane had crashed in Ukrainian territory once being hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher. Associated Press said one in every of its journalists had seen a similar launcher near the city of Snizhne earlier on Thursday.<br />
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Leaders of the self-declared Donetsk individuals's republic denied any involvement, per Interfax news agency. A member of the republic's security council said rebel weapons solely had the capacity to shoot down a plane at three,00zero metres and blamed Ukrainian military forces for the attack.<br />
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Poroshenko known as for a commission to be set up to research the crash. "This is that the third tragic incident in recent days once Ukrainian military An-26 and Su-25 jets were shot down from Russian territory. We tend to don't rule out that this plane was additionally shot down, and we tend to stress that the Ukrainian military didn't take any actions to destroy targets within the air," he said.<br />
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In recent days the Ukrainian air force has lost planes in the area after they need been shot down by rebels. Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine accused Russia of downing one of its fighter jets inside Ukrainian territory. Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, rejected the allegation, telling reporters: "We tend to didn't do it."<br />
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The White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama had told his team to remain in shut touch with senior Ukrainian officers. "We're awake to reports of a downed passenger jet near the Russian-Ukraine border. The president has been briefed on these reports," Earnest said.<br />
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Earlier, Obama and therefore the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, spoke on the phone regarding new US sanctions imposed on Moscow over its alleged failure to halt the flow of weapons and fighters to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.<br />
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The White House didn't say whether the call occurred before or when reports of the crash emerged. However the Kremlin said Putin informed the US president of the reports on the call.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmGQcxEuNsNxpcA8VJepfCQqtFpCjVRVNLiVlc7ndNDUfTnd1qwii9vClFqmncJ_9W6Gk-1qx5OLSBGrAdS3UXuehUrprHQ2tDwxMi_kOV6mgyI985CEXoVXPss41k_NCVoZatCA5J_LQN/s1600/breaking+news+MH17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmGQcxEuNsNxpcA8VJepfCQqtFpCjVRVNLiVlc7ndNDUfTnd1qwii9vClFqmncJ_9W6Gk-1qx5OLSBGrAdS3UXuehUrprHQ2tDwxMi_kOV6mgyI985CEXoVXPss41k_NCVoZatCA5J_LQN/s1600/breaking+news+MH17.jpg" /></a></div>
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Many airlines, including British Airways, Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines and Russia's Transaereo announced they'd avoid Ukrainian airspace with immediate effect. Lufthansa said it'd steer clear of airspace over japanese Ukraine.<br />
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At least thirty Dutch-speaking passengers were on the plane, in step with 2 travel agencies which sold tickets for the flight. Consistent with Dutch newspaper websites, many Dutch passports were found near the scene of the crash.<br />
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The Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, said via Twitter: "I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We tend to are launching an immediate investigation."<br />
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The country's defence minister tweeted that he was "monitoring closely" claims that MH17 had crashed, saying: "No comfirmation [sic] it was shot down! Our military are instructed 2 get on it!"<br />
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The crash comes four months when Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, 2-thirds of them Chinese citizens. It has nevertheless situated despite a huge international search, that is still ongoing, but Malaysia Airlines has said it believes everyone on board died when the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.<br />
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The reason for MH370's disappearance remains a mystery, with investigators suggesting the plane was deliberately diverted from its course, but there was no approach of knowing whether the pilots were responding to an emergency or whether or not there was malicious intent.<br />
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That aircraft was a Boeing-777 – the identical kind of plane as flight MH17.neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-84831387281079696182014-04-10T12:35:00.000-07:002014-04-10T19:18:10.178-07:00How much longer does Postmedia have?<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I�m rooting for Postmedia. But the latest quarterly results released Thursday don�t offer much hope for the future of the corporation.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since the company took over the assets of Canwest in 2010, it has gone from weakness to weakness. The problems aren�t unique to Postmedia, of course. Newspapers and other traditional media are being hammered by a loss of audience and advertising revenues.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Postmedia was slow to accept that reality. And its response has been inadequate.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEd-FrbmUfM_QVzDazfgMyGpCMHiNFfYLJ-cbG_muPoBjhT2Zt8ZLN4USfWVH130uqH-7LNoLvsYG-2DOEVZGK_bI4KrawC8z3HKmxGR3wzHO9n5HrDS6XXO0XTPCfh5Whau8iRxSowJg/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEd-FrbmUfM_QVzDazfgMyGpCMHiNFfYLJ-cbG_muPoBjhT2Zt8ZLN4USfWVH130uqH-7LNoLvsYG-2DOEVZGK_bI4KrawC8z3HKmxGR3wzHO9n5HrDS6XXO0XTPCfh5Whau8iRxSowJg/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" height="133" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Basically, the corporate strategy is to cut costs, increase digital revenue and try to get readers to pay more for content, whether its delivered by print, online or through mobile devices.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But it�s not working.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the latest report, revenues are down 9.1 per cent for the quarter. That follows declines of 9.6 per cent for the 2013 fiscal year and 7.4 per cent for 2012. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since Dec. 1, 2011, revenue has fallen by $181 million.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The company launched a three-year cost-cutting program in July 2012, and reports it has found $98 million in annualized savings. That�s not nearly enough given the revenue drop. But deeper cuts will reduce quality and service and lead to more revenue losses, a vicious cycle that usually ends badly.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The plan to boost digital revenue has flopped. Digital revenue was down in the quarter.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The effort to get people to pay more for content is likewise stalled. Circulation is down more than 11 per cent compared to a year earlier, and price increases have not been enough to increase revenue.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And people have proved reluctant to pay for online content, despite the introduction of paywalls. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Postmedia claims 140,000 registered online users, but won�t say how many are paying customers and how many are print subscribers who registered for free access.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In any case, only 5,000 new people signed on in the last quarter, or about 500 per paper over the three-month period. That�s not enough.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Postmedia is hoping that a planned relaunch of the print products and new tablet and smartphone subscription options will turn things around, or at least give management some breathing room. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If they don�t, the corporation�s future is grim. Based on the current trends, Postmedia is a year or two away from facing major problems in coming up with the cash flow to make the required interest and principal payments on its debt. Asset sales might buy a little more time, but they don't change the fundamentals.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-1101281662292225682014-04-09T08:04:00.000-07:002014-04-10T19:18:10.219-07:00Three numbers that will tell the tale for Postmedia<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;">Postmedia will releases its latest quarterly results Thursday.</div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;">Here are three numbers that will tell if the company is making any progress toward a viable future.<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrOEt8LQTcHJ5BNx28FXePt-rspa3DB8831vsuCfRB2q1dYhGk56u3eYJsNU9tj2j9Ia39-vqMPNS-97CRRiBy0k8WZAXS9Fqk28KPPszIDjU9IuwS4wnEG7T3Qbcd3XfVEOf5N2uRhL4/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrOEt8LQTcHJ5BNx28FXePt-rspa3DB8831vsuCfRB2q1dYhGk56u3eYJsNU9tj2j9Ia39-vqMPNS-97CRRiBy0k8WZAXS9Fqk28KPPszIDjU9IuwS4wnEG7T3Qbcd3XfVEOf5N2uRhL4/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" height="175" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Revenue</b>: The amount of money the company takes in has been plunging since Paul Godfrey and hedge funds bought Canwest�s assets. Nothing can save the company unless the freefall is arrested. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Revenue will still be lower than the previous year, but unless the rate of decline slows to <b>five per cent</b> or lower, there is little hope.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Digital revenue</b>: Postmedia�s digital strategies have fizzled, and managers have come and gone. The company needs to show some sort of digital revenue growth - at least <b>four per cent</b>.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Digital subscribers</b>: A key element of the corporation�s strategy is getting readers to pay more for the content. It hopes tablet editions will help, but the current indicator is digital subscribers. Last quarter, Postmedia said 135,000 people have registered for access to newspaper websites. But it refuses to say how many are paying customers, and how many are subscribers registering for free access.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If the strategy is working, that number should increase to at least <b>150,000</b>.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The quarterly will present information on cost-cutting and restructuring. But revenue losses - 17 per cent in the last two fiscal years - have far outstripped expense reductions. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Unless the company can find a way at least to slow the loss of revenue, its future is bleak.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-26825497121910791502014-03-30T07:34:00.000-07:002014-04-10T19:18:10.233-07:00BC Liberal's executive director refuse to answer questions in Ontario police investigation<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">No one has to co-operate with the police when they�re investigating a possible crime. You�re free to tell the officers that you have no interest in helping them and won't say a word.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But not if you�re a politician or political operative who hopes to be credible and trusted.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Laura Miller, the executive director of the BC Liberal Party, has refused to meet with police officers from Ontario�s anti-racket squad to answer questions. Police believe she could help with their investigation of breach of trust in an alleged high-level illegal coverup in the office of former premier Dalton McGuinty, where she was deputy chief of staff.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The investigation is focused on David Livingstone, Miller�s boss. Police believe Miller�s partner was enlisted to go through the computers of everyone in the premier�s office and illegally delete documents relating to the Liberal�s pre-election decision to kill two gas-powered power plants - one partially built - that might have cost it swing seats. The decision cost Ontario taxpayers more than $1 billion in sunk costs and compensation for the companies involved. (The story is complex - a good summary is <a href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Police+allege+criminal+breach+trust+against+McGuinty+chief+staff/9668285/story.html">here</a>.) </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Serious stuff. If the truth had been known before the 2011 election, the outcome might have been different. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">McGuinty resigned, Miller moved on to help with Christy Clark�s election campaign and was then hired to run the BC Liberal Party.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And now, according to Gary Dimmock�s excellent coverage in the Ottawa Citizen, Miller is refusing to be interviewed by police.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s a citizen�s right. But politicians and political parties make a big deal about believing in the justice system, supporting and police and helping them keep communities safer by co-operating in crime investigations.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When the most senior party staffer refuses to sit down answer questions, that all is revealed to be hypocritical rubbish. We want you ordinary people to co-operate wth police, Clark and company are saying. We�ll act in our own self-interest.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And it raises serious questions. Why, exactly, is Miller refusing to answer questions about what she knows? What does Christy Clark think about the party executive director�s refusal to co-operate with an extremely serious police investigation?</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And what does that say about Miller�s attitude toward accountability and the law in her B.C. job?</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Norman Spector has been asking why Miller�s refusal hasn�t been covered in B.C. media. It�s a good question.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-22696873252244206132014-03-29T17:01:00.000-07:002014-04-10T19:18:10.292-07:00So long, Copan Ruinas, and thanks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNcPByVrYaDuWuGVCyoOjGM7ZyKrnn-BAdyukJcyxuk7OUN8BxP4V2QNsu0LNC4Zisp3GVkMKGeKGNpU0ed0KMMTVikCE5HPE6md7Vt0SRqvWFIVDezvxX7B6YDqi8KKbP2aT-_rKV8mI/s1600/IMG_0528.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNcPByVrYaDuWuGVCyoOjGM7ZyKrnn-BAdyukJcyxuk7OUN8BxP4V2QNsu0LNC4Zisp3GVkMKGeKGNpU0ed0KMMTVikCE5HPE6md7Vt0SRqvWFIVDezvxX7B6YDqi8KKbP2aT-_rKV8mI/s1600/IMG_0528.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We�ve been counting down the lasts for a while now. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The last four-hour bus trip home from San Pedro Sula a week ago. Last trip to the pool with the kids from Angelitos, the care home/orphanage we�ve been helping out, on Sunday. Last concept note for Cuso International. Last trip up the hill for a $1.25 haircut yesterday. Last boiling up of three pounds of chicken menudo for the dogs. (The slogan should be �now with more chicken feet.�)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s not much fun. Partly, it�s just stressful trying to pack up life in Copan Ruinas after more than two years, cram our stuff into two backpacks and big suitcase and head off to who-knows-what in Canada. (Lugging along an accordion and a dog.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And partly there is a sense of unfinished business. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My partner Jody and I have been Cuso International volunteers here, placed with local development agencies and tasked with �building capacity� in communications. I�ve spent a lot of time on interesting projects for the Cuso Honduran office as well.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It is a great experience. We�re living in Honduras, experiencing life in an entirely different culture, discovering the challenges of life in a poor, unequal and largely dysfunctional country. It�s year-round summer, and life is lived - loudly - on the street. Or it might as well be, as every house in our neighbourhood is built right to the street and windows are always open. I can pretty much sing along with one neighbours music choices by now. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And it�s not like visiting. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We know the neighbours and the people in the market stalls. We�ve been through the afternoon rains, and the April heat, and had a chance to see how people live in a poor country. We ride the buses and cope with the power failures and, as we�re paid stipends equivalent to Hondurans doing similar work, pay attention to what things cost. I�ve been touched by how genuinely sad some people are to learn we are leaving.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which, I suppose, is one reason I have a sense of unfinished business. It takes time to become more than a visitor, and to be an effective contributor in the important work Cuso International and its partners are doing. After two years, I�m much more useful and understand much more. And as a result I wonder how much more could be done with more time.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And any time of leaving is, for me, a time of regrets. I was walking White Dog, who is going to Canada, and Crazy Pup, who is not, today and noticed a path heading up into the hills east of town that I hadn�t seen before. There are a lot of paths not walked.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I�ll be glad to tick off some of the lasts. Sometime before Monday morning at 7 a.m. we will have the last power failure, and the last resulting loss of Internet service. And at some point, I will utter a last frustrated complaint about the creeping pace of web access when it does work.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And I�ll read the last story in a Honduran newspaper that leaves me baffled at how things could be so messed up. (The current contender is a La Prensa piece yesterday on a public school in La Moskitia that offers its 610 students one diploma program, in technology and computer skills. The area has no reliable electricity and almost no opportunities in computer work. And in any case, the school hasn�t had any actual working computers for students since it opened seven years ago. Miraculously, hopeful students keep showing up.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Leavings always seem to come in a rush of farewells and hurried preparations, with too little time to think much about all that�s left behind. I�m writing this perched one of two plastic chairs that are our remaining furniture, with clothes spilling out of the half-packed bags on the floor. We�ve got a couple of steaks to fry up for dinner, two plates and two knives and forks. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Maybe the rush is a good thing. There will be time to figure out what all this lasts mean when we�re settled, for a while, in Canada.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-59766634586137953352014-02-17T11:00:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.306-07:00Five questions about the Leslie moving expense furor<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Former Canadian Forces lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie - and federal Liberal advisor and prospective star candidate - is being attacked by the Harper Conservatives for claiming $72,000 in retirement moving expenses under a policy that applies to RCMP officers and the military.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Intended Place of Residence policy covers retiring Mounties and military personnel for one last move after they retire. </span>The idea is that if you end your career in Newfoundland, but want to move back to be closer to your grandkids in Saskatoon, the government will pick up the cost. It�s a reward for accepting a series of transfers over the course of a career.</div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But the Leslie case raises some questions.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1) Was the information about Leslie�s expenses a political smear engineered by the Conservatives? CTV News broke the story, saying it had �obtained� documents on the moving expenses. But the TV network did not say how it got the documents, or from whom. That should be part of the story.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">2) Is the Conservative government suggesting its policy should be changed, and the costs of a last move should not be covered by taxpayers? If so, why has the change not been made over the eight years the Conservatives have governed?</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3) What was Leslie thinking? Just because the benefit is in place doesn�t mean you need to claim it. Leslie was highly paid, over $250,000 a year, and retiring on a pension that most Canadians could only dream about. He decided he wanted a different house in Ottawa. Why did he choose to have taxpayers pick up the costs - moving fees, real estate commissions, property transfer taxes - for what was a personal choice?</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4) How much is the policy costing taxpayers? About 3,500 Mounties and Canadian Forces employees are retiring each year.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">5) And given that volume, why hasn�t the federal government negotiated a better deal? The largest chunk of Leslie�s expenses were real estate fees. Surely the government, with thousands of moves a year, could get a better deal on real estate commissions.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-84225330216624178382014-02-11T05:06:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.365-07:00Honduras seizes 'crime zoo,' animals go hungry<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Back in September the Honduran government started seizing the assets of <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/us-treasury-names-names-sort-of-in-honduras-case">Los Cachiros</a>, an alleged drug and crime organization. The $500 million in seizures included a zoo and resort business the organization had established between San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. We had meant to go; the TripAdvisor reviews were pretty good.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9d9rQZr0u5WtRMRzUAnq_ddvU4LWTN7X6tyKatxil_E-vjT61RUnqY-Wrg3kyuXQSWOueo82qhtWUnITOVgz7Mar1ZsjTqIg1JZJZx9d2XQZAk9CWY0nZLQnRRbml04LMpZ7jJrujs-w/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9d9rQZr0u5WtRMRzUAnq_ddvU4LWTN7X6tyKatxil_E-vjT61RUnqY-Wrg3kyuXQSWOueo82qhtWUnITOVgz7Mar1ZsjTqIg1JZJZx9d2XQZAk9CWY0nZLQnRRbml04LMpZ7jJrujs-w/s1600/images.jpeg" height="147" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Uh-oh, I thought, when news of the seizure broke. Those animals were a lot better off in a zoo owned by narcos than one run by the Honduran government, which has demonstrated a consistent lack of competence in almost everything it touches.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sadly, that seems to be true. La Tribuna reports today that the government agency responsible for seizures has fumbled around with the zoo, with no one consistently responsible. (A Google translate version of the story is <a href="http://translate.google.hn/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=es&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.latribuna.hn%2F">here</a>.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The only money available to feed the animals and maintain the zoo comes from park revenues, which have fallen because there is no advertising or promotion, many people think it was closed after the seizure and it is not being maintained.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The current revenue isn�t enough to cover food and vet care for the animals - tigers, giraffes, zebras and a collection of animals native to Central America.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc06rUpvfjlHZMRl3oPNTx29yU1hw5-Gqc_MSEcKe9kcoS6sgdH1NJqgrGbik61D1hDXjGtXzgfH6lDTPQ0x5gO1WEhx7qjCz_QdN9O8spAQHxaFABuaeEPcw-5HlDkVFeLmbKVJGojhM/s1600/Zoolo%CC%81gico-Joya-Grande-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc06rUpvfjlHZMRl3oPNTx29yU1hw5-Gqc_MSEcKe9kcoS6sgdH1NJqgrGbik61D1hDXjGtXzgfH6lDTPQ0x5gO1WEhx7qjCz_QdN9O8spAQHxaFABuaeEPcw-5HlDkVFeLmbKVJGojhM/s1600/Zoolo%CC%81gico-Joya-Grande-5.jpg" height="163" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The government could have put in a trustee to manage the zoo, with a budget to run the business and look after the animals. Or it could have hired a competent management company on contract. Instead there has been a succession of people within government responsible. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s not just bad for the animals. The zoo and resort provided jobs and economic activity in the region. As the government bungles its management, those will be lost.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The seizures from Los Cachiros were co-ordinated with the U.S. government, which had targeted the family-based group under the �Kingpin Act� aimed at foreign crime groups.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The zoo�s struggles raise questions about government management of other assets on the U.S. hit list and apparently seized, like African palm plantations, cattle ranches, hotels and mining and roadbuilding companies.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-15836915017448890382014-01-28T08:28:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.378-07:00Grimmer news for League Investors - some $355 million of their money gone<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The news keep getting worse for investors in Victoria-based League Assets. And the financial disaster is still not getting adequate media coverage.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Back in November, I predicted <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/11/league-investment-collapse-likely-to.html">massive losses</a> for the investors League, which promised investors security and great returns through real estate investments.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Based on the latest filings from PWC, the news is even worse than I expected.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">League Assets, the creation of Adam Gant and Emanuel Arruda, is broke and filed for protection under the Companies� Creditors Arrangement Act. PWC is being paid to manage the mess.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The best estimate, in November, was that League�s properties could be sold off and net $227 million.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But there are $186 million in mortgages, PWC reported in its <a href="http://www.pwc.com/en_CA/CA/car/leagueassets/assets/leagueassets-192_012114.pdf">latest filing</a>, and $6.3 million owed on outstanding property taxes and liens. They get paid first.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Some 460 trade creditors are owed $19.5 million. They get paid next.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which leaves about $15 million for League�s investors, who entrusted the fund with $370 million of their money - retirement savings, money set aside for children�s education and the like.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are 4,280 investment accounts, which means an average investment of about $86,000. Blogger Rachel Berube has</span> shared<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://landlordrescue.ca/league-misleading-advertising/" style="color: #bb3300;">case studies</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;">from the company�s sales material, which include investors who talk about mortgaging their homes to invest in League and counting on the investments for their retirements. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Based on the PWC reports, those investors will be lucky to get back four cents on the dollar. A typical $86,000 investment entrusted to League will be reduced to about $3,400.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s extraordinary. Investors put $370 million into League based on promises, and now $15 million is left. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Money doesn�t disappear, and many creditors are asking where the missing $355 million has ended up.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-72891526481775192942014-01-26T09:03:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.437-07:00Honduras: The new president gets a lavish swearing-in<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There�s a certain over-the-top, bread and circuses aspect to tomorrow�s ceremonies for the swearing in of the new president of Honduras.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Especially for a country that is, effectively, broke, with desperate unmet needs.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3j4yrcaFBPOvsndLBpgi0mjMto8B-etA49YI7hNSkCH8xfORxCf8pDpZtnlNxlIynrKQtqatmhkcG-zMjq5VGlL-EGg2Eb5dXZhCUDHaXHtGeMJpF4MJ8sJXI0NbrgFxHoEIKccbq0fA/s1600/estadio11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3j4yrcaFBPOvsndLBpgi0mjMto8B-etA49YI7hNSkCH8xfORxCf8pDpZtnlNxlIynrKQtqatmhkcG-zMjq5VGlL-EGg2Eb5dXZhCUDHaXHtGeMJpF4MJ8sJXI0NbrgFxHoEIKccbq0fA/s1600/estadio11.jpg" height="147" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The government has given all employees a half day off, in case they want to attend the ceremony or watch it on TV. A fleet of 450 buses has also been lined up to bring people from around the country.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The national stadium in Tegicugalpa, the venue for the big event, is being repainted, and beginning Sunday night the roads in a wide area around the stadium will be closed to traffic.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And 8,000 police - 4,000 of the new military police and 4,000 regular officers - were pulled from duty beginning Saturday to prepare security for Monday�s event. They will set up a series of security cordons and guard the hotels where representatives from some 60 countries will be staying (including Canada).</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s a far cry from the Canadian process where the new prime minister and his cabinet are sworn in, there are some photo-ops and a cocktail party for party supporters, and everyone gets back to work.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You could argue, I suppose, that all the spending and pomp and pageantry are a legitimate celebration of democracy in a country still scarred by the 2009 coup. The November elections, while flawed, where the second since the widely criticized post-coup elections.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Or alternately you could argue that the giant public event is in effect a victory celebration for the National party, which succeeded in capturing the presidency and a plurality of congressional seats, designed in part to reinforce the power of President Juan Orlando Hernandez.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mostly though, you have to wonder about the lavish spending on a spectacle at a time when hospitals go without medicine and the government has claimed an urgent need to cut spending.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-54496678946482361962014-01-10T12:13:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.451-07:00The strange obsession with school uniforms in Honduras<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I�ve come up with a clever, no-cost way to reduce poverty and increase school attendance in Honduras.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Get rid of school uniforms.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The uniforms - white dress shirts, navy blue pants or skirt, black shoes and white socks - are mandatory in public schools. Teachers are quite crabby about it, to the point of telling kids to stay home if they aren�t dressed in the right kit.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTfoTxaUOq1JBgTpymJ98FQQ39itGMmU788ZB72_Y45DcpLXAo1q60WM_Y4Veh3M579od52HiwFeIIbLiHbgC-R7t1MmunSPXhnXIh84hvkb77Z0BWoQCrwCMkOyVRYKQ8KpXiivOG9Mw/s1600/1-Claman-por-pupitres-ya-no-mas-bloques_noticia_full.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTfoTxaUOq1JBgTpymJ98FQQ39itGMmU788ZB72_Y45DcpLXAo1q60WM_Y4Veh3M579od52HiwFeIIbLiHbgC-R7t1MmunSPXhnXIh84hvkb77Z0BWoQCrwCMkOyVRYKQ8KpXiivOG9Mw/s1600/1-Claman-por-pupitres-ya-no-mas-bloques_noticia_full.jpg" height="128" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No desks, but kids better have uniforms</span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For many parents, the costs are huge. Some children don�t go to school because they don�t have the right clothes.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s getting worse. The government�s latest tax increases took the sales tax from 12 per cent to 15 per cent. It also applied the tax to items that had been exempt - including school uniforms.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">La Prensa reported on the issue this week, and quoted typical prices for school uniforms - $6.50 for pants, $7 for shirts, $12 for leather shoes. (Which, based on the experience outfitting the Angelitos kids, will last about as long as you would expect a pair of $12 shoes to last.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So, figuring two sets of clothes (one to wash) and three school-age kids, estimate $120 for the uniforms. That�s before backpacks, notebooks and all the other things on the mandatory supply list that teachers send home.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s a lot of money in a country where 74 per cent of the population lives in poverty and 47 per cent in extreme poverty. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We�re acquainted with a woman with two school-age children, and little steady employment. She worked for 12 hours cleaning and plucking chickens one day this week, and was paid $5. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s not atypical. For her, school uniforms and supplies and the fees levied through the year are a huge challenge.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Get rid of the uniforms, and poor families have more money to spend on things they need and one less reason to keep children home from school.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I can�t think of any good argument for the uniforms. It�s not as if poor children will be singled out for having bad clothes. Almost everyone is poor. (And people with any money send their children to private schools.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And blurring individual differences isn�t necessarily such a great idea. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In fact, Honduran schools would do well to put a lot more emphasis on individuality and creativity and a lot less on rote learning. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Schools are generally dismal. An international test of math and science knowledge in 45 countries found Honduran students ranked at the bottom, with South Africa and Botswana.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Children here aren�t less intelligent. But they don�t learn much, for a variety of reasons. In the U.S., 68 per cent of students performed at the intermediate level in the math tests; in Chile, 23 per cent. In Honduras, four per cent. When one in 25 students is doing OK in math, a country has a bleak future.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I admit to a strong anti-uniform bias. I went to public schools, but did my final year in a Quebec public high school where grey flannels, white shirt, tie and blazer were required. The pants itched. The costume had nothing to do with our education. It seemed mostly like a chance for those with power to demonstrate it by telling other people what they must wear. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Letting Honduran kids come to school in whatever they have to wear simply makes sense. Any barrier to education hurts kids, families and the country. And uniforms are a barrier.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The other interesting aspect is that Honduran parents put up with all this. They don�t, generally, show up at the school and insist that their children be allowed to attend in flip flops instead of leather shoes. They don�t demand better from the schools. The failure rate is extremely high, but parents don�t demand to know why their children didn�t learn enough to advance to the next grade. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My hope is that Paul�s Law will abolish school uniforms in Honduras. My best guess is that parents would save more than $40 million a year, with most of the benefits going to poor families. More children would be in school.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And a small blow would be struck to the culture of conformismo.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-87820014430566172172014-01-09T12:02:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.510-07:00Another bad quarter for Postmedia, and a plan that's not working<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The latest grim <a href="http://www.postmedia.com/2014/01/09/postmedia-network-reports-first-quarter-results-4/">quarterly report</a> from Postmedia sharpens questions about the company�s future.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Continuing declines in revenue and circulation are too great to be solved by the company�s current approach.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The corporate strategy is straightforward. Cut costs, find ways to get readers to pay more, in part through innovations like tablet editions, and convince advertisers that they should pay more for more effective ads.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It might work, if revenue was not continuing to vanish at such an amazing rate. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Revenue fell 8.4 per cent compared to the same quarter a year earlier, or $17.7 million. Print revenue - the largest category - was down 12.2 per cent.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Revenues have been eroding for two years - down 7.4 per cent in the 2012 fiscal year and 9.6 per cent in the 2013 year. Print revenues were down 10.3 per cent and 13.4 per cent in the same two years.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Based on the first quarter results of this fiscal year, which ended last Nov. 30, the decline isn�t slowing in any significant way.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That highlights the problems with Postmedia�s strategy.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Cost-cutting can only work if revenues, at some point, stabilize. Otherwise, it�s an endless process of cuts that weaken the quality of the products and services and lead to more revenue losses and more cuts.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the quarter, Postmedia revenue dropped $17.7 million, but its operating expenses, despite the major cost-cutting initiative and falling circulation, were only reduced by $13.7 million.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The corporation launched its cost-cutting �Transformation Program� in July 2012, with a target of $102 million to $135 million in annualized savings within three years.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But since Dec. 1, 2011, revenue has fallen by $165 million. The expense-reduction program goals are far short of what�s needed. And the gap looks to keep growing.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">New revenue generation initiatives haven�t worked either. Postmedia was enthusiastic about increasing digital revenues for a while, but they actually fell 5.1 per cent in the quarter.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And the plans to increase the number of people reading and paying for digital products have been slow to show results. Postmedia said 135,000 people have registered to access the newspaper websites, now paywall protected. But it won�t say how many are paying customers and how many receive free access as subscribers. Digital circulation revenue is up only $300,000 over a year earlier, a suggestion that few new paying customers are signing up.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And at the same time, print circulation was down 13.4 per cent over the previous year. Price increases offset the loss in customers, but prices can�t keep rising indefinitely.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s another grim quarter. Postmedia needed to show that the revenue declines were at least slowing significantly. That would have given hope.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As it is, unless the corporation comes up with a more effective, bolder strategy, and a much faster rollout, the future looks bleak.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">(For earlier posts on Postmedia, see <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-i-killed-newspapers-part-three-bad.html">here</a> and <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/10/another-grisly-year-for-postmedia-and.html">here</a>.)</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-73122297180342248802014-01-08T13:25:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.523-07:00Tax increases in Honduras, and linking aid to fair, effective tax policies<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Taxes are big news in Honduras, as the outgoing Congress pushes through a bunch of last-minute increases.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Congress is controlled by the National party, which won the November election. The increases are a way to get the unpopular deeds done before the new president takes over in two weeks.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It doesn�t look much like good governance, mostly because there are apparently no studies of the impact of the increases, or whether they are the best way to raise more revenue.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQkdQafcNX-WRjZ08nnn6v2c7jl2-MHfuZl5CvlDZYhc3cWC5nNuQ2NZy369kaSdhyPYBWqtPRDS-smseiJKL3fnwMiDvvIyyvy0PNoBAURQ1zTIxlZ5DzlrP3IqQFt6skykC8cqjUybE/s1600/BASURA-DANLI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQkdQafcNX-WRjZ08nnn6v2c7jl2-MHfuZl5CvlDZYhc3cWC5nNuQ2NZy369kaSdhyPYBWqtPRDS-smseiJKL3fnwMiDvvIyyvy0PNoBAURQ1zTIxlZ5DzlrP3IqQFt6skykC8cqjUybE/s1600/BASURA-DANLI.jpg" height="165" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taxed into poverty?</td></tr></tbody></table></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was going to write about the increases anyway, but a Guardian <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/apr/18/uk-aid-pakistan-tax-reform">blog post</a> this week added an interesting element by arguing that donor countries should cut aid to at least some countries with lousy tax policies. (I�ve become a bit of a development geek, after two years as a Cuso International volunteer. The issues are complex, interesting and important.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The blog post, by Kieran Holmes, is based on a British Commons committee report that recommended chopping aid to Pakistan unless the government started collecting more in taxes from its own people. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Why should British taxpayers subsidize the government if Pakistan�s citizens - especially the rich - won�t pay up?</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s an easier argument to make in the case of Pakistan, which is a middle-income country able to find money for a giant military budget, but seeks foreign aid for education and basic services. In poorer countries - like Honduras - an end to aid would mean disaster.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But the principle is interesting.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Honduras collects about 16 per cent of GDP in tax revenue, more than Pakistan but not enough to cover expenses. Government debt is up to 42 per cent of GDP, at high interest rates because there�s a lack of confidence in future repayments. The accepted ceiling seems to be about 35 per cent.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;">Holmes argues in his blog post that big donors - organizations and governments - should also consider how the tax revenues are raised and whether the system is equitable and supports poverty reduction and development.</div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The latest round of Honduran increases would not likely meet that test.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The government is already much more dependent on consumption taxes - sales taxes - then taxes on income. Sales taxes were expected to bring in about $1.1 billion last year. Income taxes about $865 million.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s out of whack with many countries. In Canada, the government takes in $3.50 in income taxes for every $1 in sales taxes.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And most economists would agree that the dependence on sales taxes serves the interests of the rich. Income taxes are generally progressive - the more an individual or business earns, the more paid in taxes.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Consumption taxes - sales taxes - are at best flat, and often regressive. Low-income people see a higher proportion of their income taken in taxes than the much more affluent. (The Honduran sales tax regime includes exemptions for some necessities - the �canasta basica,� or basket of necessary goods. That theoretically reduces burden on the poor.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The latest round of tax increases in Honduras increases the burden on the poor and middle class. The basic sales tax rate jumps from 12 per cent to 15 per cent. That�s pushed up the cost of almost all goods and services by about 2.6 per cent. The list of tax exemptions designed to protect low-income consumers was dramatically - and apparently incompetently - trimmed.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The inflation rate was about five per cent before the tax increase. Price increases - including for the buses that people need every day - will make life harder for the poor. (That is to say, for Hondurans. About 74 per cent of the population live in poverty, and 47 per cent in extreme poverty.) </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The leading social watchdog group predicts the tax increases will push another 100,000 people into poverty over the next four years. A spokesman for the government says it�s impossible to predict what will happen as a result of the increases, which serves to show the lack of research on the impact on the economy and families.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s all made more confusing because the tax system is a total mess. Tax evasion of all kinds is the norm, with estimates of 20 to 40 per cent of taxes owed going uncollected. There are a huge number of exemptions - fast food restaurants pay no taxes under a tourist-promotion tax break. The tax collection agency doesn�t work, according to the incoming director.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Holmes says funders have a right to push governments toward fair, effective tax systems in return for aid, and the ability to help them achieve those goals.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Based on the tax chaos and unfairness in Honduras, he might have a point.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-78622938729081712462013-12-17T09:10:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.582-07:00Gildan, maquillas, model cities and simplistic responses to complex problems<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It�s amazing how simple the problems of Honduras seem to some people a few thousand kilometres away.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A handful of slogans, some recycled rhetoric and unsupported claims, and presto, a theory.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A fine example has been the blind libertarian enthusiasm for a plan to create �<a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2012/09/model-cities-plan-long-on-questions.html">model cities</a>� in Honduras, effectively independent fiefdoms, run, at least initially, by the investors.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqpmxFf1i94aRjyPt7dk2nUrvRex3bqLPnBJfO2EqkCSXjauW9P639m3_8_fkj2WPPuyHi0iiFsMkOH0JcFmgBgbXYMAxuxBP0ZosmqZVhCiQ5AZHmzNA0h7Ww_AJ6V8jKVkz93Rbppk0/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqpmxFf1i94aRjyPt7dk2nUrvRex3bqLPnBJfO2EqkCSXjauW9P639m3_8_fkj2WPPuyHi0iiFsMkOH0JcFmgBgbXYMAxuxBP0ZosmqZVhCiQ5AZHmzNA0h7Ww_AJ6V8jKVkz93Rbppk0/s1600/images.jpeg" style="cursor: move;" /></a></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Another was offered in a recent Internet opinion piece on Canadian textile company Gildan�s manufacturing centres in Honduras.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The 20,000 employees, the piece said, �are basically slaves, and their status will likely remain unchanged, or get worse.�</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">�With a growing number of U.S. military bases of occupation, and the murderous dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernandez solidified, profits are basically guaranteed for transnational sweatshops in what is essentially a state-sanctioned Slaver's paradise,� the writer maintains.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It�s a good example of a failure to look seriously and critically at a challenging issue.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There are legitimate concerns about working conditions and the barriers to effective union representation at Gildan and other employers in Hondura�s maquilla sector, where tax-free status and other incentives have lured foreign workers.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There is also recognition that the 130,000 jobs are desperately needed and that labour standards and pay both good by Hondurans standards.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The minimum wage for maquilla workers is about $270 a month. That�s not rich, but by comparison, agriculture workers are paid $120 to $180 a month, and work six days a week.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">And Gildan employees actually get the minimum wage. Between 70 and 85 per cent of Honduran workers don�t receive the legislated minimum wages. Many, including public sector workers, frequently don�t get paid at all. It�s common for employers to say sorry, not enough money this week.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The article paints a grim and unsupported picture of working conditions, too.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">�By age 25, chronic work injuries, coupled with poor medical treatment, often prevent workers from performing their fast-paced tasks,� it reports. �Worse still, once a worker leaves Gildan, she is likely to have irreversible health problems which preclude her from finding alternate employment. Some women need crutches to walk; others can't hold their babies or do housework.�</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It would be helpful to let readers know what �often� means in the first sentence, and what the source is for the information. (Hopefully not 'someone from Honduras told me.') </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">And is there evidence to show that workers who leave Gildan are all �likely� to be permanently disabled, as the Internet piece claims? </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Workplace improvements are needed. Last year, <a href="http://codemuh.net/">CODEMUH</a>, a leading women�s rights groups, filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because the Honduran government had failed to respond to health and safety issues, citing the cases of 47 women who had received disabling injuries. But there is zero evidence that all workers are �likely� to end up disabled.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I haven�t toured the Gildan plants. Those who have suggest that some improvements could be made and piecework incentives can lead to a focus on production over workplace safety. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But that, on balance, they are not bad workplaces.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The article also states categorically �Unions are not allowed, collective bargaining is not allowed and human rights are not a concern.�</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">That�s false. The Gildan operations are unionized and there is <a href="http://en.maquilasolidarity.org/sites/maquilasolidarity.org/files/Competitiveness-and-Decent-Work-June-2012.pdf">bargaining</a>. There are serious problems, including documented examples of intimidation and efforts to thwart union activities by managers. Throughout Honduras, exercising labour rights is an enormous challenge, sometimes met with violence. Those points all needed to be made.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But there have also been tripartite negotiations between the three largest national labour confederations, government and industry on wages and other issues for the entire maquilla sector and there are unions.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Maquillas aren�t an unmixed blessing.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The companies were lured by big tax breaks, including a 10-year total tax holiday. It�s hard to run a government without tax revenues. (Though tax exemptions here are out-of-control. American fast food franchises, owned by rich Hondurans, got a 10-year tax break because they supposedly encourage tourism. Teachers have, inexplicably, a permanent exemption from paying income taxes.)</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">And there is always the risk that some other country will come up with a better deal and the industry will collapse.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But the issues are complex and deserve serious discussion, not hyperbole.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Calling the workers� �slaves� is inaccurate and insulting. Hondurans make choices about their futures. From a more limited range of options than many - but not all - North Americans enjoy, perhaps, but they are not slaves. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Calling Juan Orlando a �murderous dictator� is inaccurate. Last month�s elections were flawed, but the consensus of international observers was that the results - at least at the presidential level - were representative. (Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was one of the first to congratulate Orlando.)</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">And the �murderous� allegation is silly. There is violence and impunity in Honduras. In a six-month period before the elections, 18 candidates or organizers from Libre, the left-wing opposition party, <a href="http://rightsaction.org/sites/default/files/Honduras-Violence-Political-Campaign.pdf">were murdered</a>. But in the same period, 11 candidates or organizers from Orlando�s party were murdered. But there is no basis to call the incoming president murderous.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Honduras is a mess. The government is virtually broke, inequality is staggering and 74 per cent of the population live in poverty, with 47 per cent in extreme poverty. The murder rate is the highest in the world and almost all institutions - schools, courts, police, government - don�t really function. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But Hondurans, ultimately, are going to have to create their own solutions, with international help.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Superficial prescriptions from North America and Europe, of all political stripes, are contributing nothing to the discussion and look much like another form of imperialism.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-63018919921933967852013-11-26T10:46:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.742-07:00Update: Shaky Honduran election process adds to challenges for winner Juan Orlando<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It appears Juan Orlando Hernandez has won the Honduran presidential election for his National Party. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Libre is challenging the results and alleging fraud. There probably was some, but the reports from election observers suggest it wasn�t massive. (Probably not a good sign for a democracy when the takeaway headline is �No massive fraud,� but still....)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Suspicions have rightly been aroused by the inept way the vote counting is proceeding. The polls closed Sunday at 5 p.m. Right now, noon Tuesday, a little more than two-thirds of the presidential ballots have been counted. Less than half the mayoral ballots in our town, Copan Ruinas, have been reported. And less than half the ballots for the congressional deputy election from our department have been counted and reported.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Worse, there has been no explanation for the delays and lots of reasons to wonder what has been going on.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">By midnight Sunday, in the seven hours after the polls closed, 54 per cent of the presidential votes had been counted or reported.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since then - another 36 hours - only an additional 14 per cent have been counted. Results from a large number of ballot boxes from the two cites still haven�t been reported, so it�s not a question of remote communities.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s bound to raise doubts about the process.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It was also odd, with National having 34 per cent of the votes and Libre 29 per cent, to have the election authorities declare Juan Orlando the winner with almost one-third of the votes uncounted.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s likely Juan Orlando captured the largest share of the votes. But the shaky electoral process will make his job even more difficult. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Honduras is broke. There isn�t enough money to pay salaries or bills for the rest of this year. The government can borrow, but interest rates on the international bond market would be eight to 10 per cent, because of the risk.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The budget for next year has been prepared, then sealed in an envelope to avoid affecting the election campaign. (The proposed budget should have been a central issue in the election campaign, with all parties offering their plans. Instead it�s a secret, with weeks before the new budget year begins.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The National Party has been in power for the last four years and has been unwilling or unable to increase tax revenues, by reducing evasion, eliminating exemptions or increasing rates. Tax revenue has actually fallen as a share of GNP. It has likewise shown no ability to reduce waste or corruption or slow spending.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So unless Juan Orlando can take the government in a new direction, the problems will just increase. And his challenges will be grow if congress is divided, as expected. (Again, it is bizarre that the composition of congress isn�t known almost two days after the polls closed.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And Juan Orlando will have to deliver on his promise to reduce crime and insecurity by using the military to police the streets.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s good news, four years after the coup, that the election process went ahead, flaws and all.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But the same problems of Honduras are looming over Honduras today, with little evidence that effective action will be coming to deal with them.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-68700375128282631232013-11-25T08:42:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.801-07:00With half Honduran votes counted, two candidates claim victory<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMC6c7WhpKMv2t2aQUN-GXa5oVaMGBafLpb-UguRTwSn1cJV9Iexf54cDM5oFRgQjhNMRFADirm7XB8CKyRKc5VPMxy7w9ldwUv-mXRfvd5TK1HpIohRMRLwH8Ou1pnCSlhLoTeFTopjg/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMC6c7WhpKMv2t2aQUN-GXa5oVaMGBafLpb-UguRTwSn1cJV9Iexf54cDM5oFRgQjhNMRFADirm7XB8CKyRKc5VPMxy7w9ldwUv-mXRfvd5TK1HpIohRMRLwH8Ou1pnCSlhLoTeFTopjg/s400/Unknown.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Juan Orlando Hernandez (centre, white shirt) leads supporters in election night prayer</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s never a great thing when two candidates claim election victory and the ballot counting stalls just past the halfway point.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s the situation in Honduras this morning, with National Party presidential candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez and Libre leader Xiomara Castro Zelaya claiming victory. (It does make you appreciate the custom in Canada of waiting for rivals to concede defeat.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When the TSE - the Honduran version of Elections Canada - quit counting at midnight, Orlando had 34 per cent of the vote and Zelaya 27 per cent. That makes him the likely winner, but only 54 per cent of the vote had been counted. Things could change.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Juan Orlando and the National Party are right of centre, Xiomara left. The National Party has been in power for the last four years, and Juan Orlando has been the head of the Congress. The government has been hopeless.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But his campaign had a lot of money and stressed law and order, especially using the army to patrol the streets. Crime is a real issue for Hondurans, with the highest murder rate in the world and gangs practising extortion on a wide scale.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Xiomara Castro and Libre are brand new. Her husband, Mel Zelaya, was ousted in a 2009 coup and the party arose from the opposition. The showing is impressive, and Libre relegated the Liberal Party - which has alternated governing with the Nationals in a two-party system - to third place (21 per cent). Another new party, the Anti-Corruption Party, headed by a TV personality, has captured 16 per cent based on the counting so far.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The elections officials are supposed to start giving new updates at noon. It�s unclear why there is such a long delay.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Partly, it�s understandable. There�s a system for transmitting results from polling stations, but about 10 per cent don�t have electricity or Internet. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And the ballots are complex. Honduras holds national and municipal elections at the same time. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The national elections include Congresssional seats. Our department, Copan, gets seven seats in the 128-seat Congress. So the ballot includes seven candidates from each of the eight parties, or 56 names. Literacy is low, so each candidate�s colour picture, with a graphic to show party affiliation, is also on the ballot, making for a giant document more than twice the size of a newspaper page.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There�s no indication who will control Congress, which is also important.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The election, it appears, went better than some people feared. There were allegations of vote-buying and fraud and intimidation, probably well-founded, but international observers generally found the process worked. (It likely helped that observers and others could share problems instantly on Twitter and blogs. It�s harder to commit fraud, at least in urban areas, when so many eyes are watching.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There was lots of unease about the aftermath. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">People feared the country�s elite would not tolerate a Libre victory. (That�s one of the problems with the coup, which ended 27 years of democracy. Once powerful forces toss out an elected president, everyone believes it could happen again.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And others fear Libre supporters will take to the streets - at least in the big cities - if they lose and suspect fraud.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So far, all is quiet. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Economist published a blog update on the elections, and suggested serious protest is unlikely. �Hondurans have a history of long-suffering passivity: when their neighbours were all caught up in civil wars in the 1980s, they were almost comatose," the writer noted.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Not necessarily a good thing, perhaps, but reassuring for those hoping for a peaceful response to the election results - whenever they finally come.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-44765467170595953502013-11-22T09:00:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.815-07:00League group collapse likely to cost investors $320 million<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The collapse of Victoria-based League Assets, unfolding in grim fashion in B.C. Supreme Court, isn�t getting nearly enough media attention.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">By the time the dust settles, this will be one of the worst investment disasters in Canadian history. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Investors will likely get back about ten cents on the dollar as the complex web of companies is wound up. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Some 3,200 investors gave League $363 million. League claimed to offer small investors a way into the commercial real estate market. The company promised security and great returns.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Those investors now face ruin. There will likely be less than $40 million for them to share at the end of the process.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">League filed</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px text-shadow: 0.0px 1.0px 1.0px #fffbfb;"> for protection under the Companies� Creditors Arrangement Act last month</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">. Essentially, that allows a company that can�t pay its bills time to try and find a solution.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But it�s clear there is no solution. League�s assets, including the commercial real estate holdings and development projects like Colwood Corners, are worth far less than the company claimed and heavily leveraged.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">CEO Adam Gant filed an affadvit last month saying the real estate had a net value of $211 million. PWC, the monitor overseeing the CCPA process, commissioned an appraisal that found the real current value is $82 million.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A lawyer for the main secured creditors summed up the situation in <a href="http://www.pwc.com/en_CA/CA/car/leagueassets/assets/leagueassets-103_111513.pdf">a letter</a> to the court this week pointing out restructuring is not an option.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">�In fact, it appears that there is no �business� to restructure in any event: League Assets depended for its short-lived success on continued growth and injections of new debt, new investment, and new acquisitions that would generate fees for the management or �head office� entities,� he writes. �When the money stopped coming in, the whole edifice appears to have quickly collapsed under its own weight.�</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The consequences are disastrous. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px text-shadow: 0.0px 1.0px 1.0px #fffbfb;">Rachelle Berube, a blogger who was being sued by League for comments on her blog that described the business as a Ponzi scheme, has tracked League for some time.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px text-shadow: 0.0px 1.0px 1.0px #fffbfb;">She shared <a href="http://landlordrescue.ca/league-misleading-advertising/">case studies</a> from the company�s sales material, which include investors who talk about mortgaging their homes to invest in League and counting on the investments for their retirements. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">PWC noted in a <a href="http://www.pwc.com/en_CA/CA/car/leagueassets/assets/leagueassets-131_111913.pdf">monitor�s report</a> that this week that investors and creditors are looking at the �significant amounts� invested in League and the low value of the assets and wondering �Where the money went.� </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s likely to become a larger question as investors confront the loss of their savings.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-2077610746478728492013-11-21T09:14:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.874-07:00Bono 10,000: Is giving poor Hondurans money creating real change?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIj6mZ16ebTJtTyflVvC4WJR5tSVPa1GhHP5ptakgZQ4RpO4P-fy3EsFAlqTIZA6AEP1r3yX2-pvaXl4bMpZRObj1btpZDkFDmhAupi7R9T6OzlwSyrRRXI4ciVdVZAbqfUrHVzq3m1nE/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIj6mZ16ebTJtTyflVvC4WJR5tSVPa1GhHP5ptakgZQ4RpO4P-fy3EsFAlqTIZA6AEP1r3yX2-pvaXl4bMpZRObj1btpZDkFDmhAupi7R9T6OzlwSyrRRXI4ciVdVZAbqfUrHVzq3m1nE/s400/Unknown.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Porfirio Lobo hands out the Bonos... and helps his party's election campaign</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Instead of all those complicated, multi-year Honduran development projects, why not just give poor people money?</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Bono 10,000 program takes that approach. Families - supposedly the poorest - get 10,000 lempiras a year, about $500. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s big money. Many people work full-time for $2,000 a year or less. When it�s Bono time, trucks full of campesinos head into Copan Ruinas and other centres, several families, moms, dads and kids, standing in the back of each pickup. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This year, smiling politicians from the governing party have been on hand to give out the money, and remind recipients who to vote for in Sunday�s elections.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Bono program is a good primer in development issues.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Start with the whole short-term, long-term challenge.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">International funders like projects that promise long-term change. Helping families grow new cash crops, or working with communities so they can hold government accountable. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Frontline workers with Honduran agencies know the people in the communities and see their immediate problems. They will sometimes settle for short-term fixes - money for a dozen bags of better corn seeds and some fertilizer.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Bono 10,000 program tries to promote long-term change. Parents have to promise to send their children to school and adopt some preventive health-care practices. Healthier children are expected do better in school. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And there is some program money to expand access to education past Grade 6. (Access to education past Grade 6 is only available in one-third of rural communities. Education quality is dismal.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Bono program has only been in place since 2010. But the Inter-American Development Bank, one of the big funders, has done an <a href="http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=37775206">evaluation</a> that seemed positive. Participating families spent more. That�s unsurprising, but it did help the local economies. Children of participating families were somewhat more likely to go to school. Also good.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But there are problems.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Like politics, corruption and inefficiency. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In a country where 74 per cent of the people live in poverty and 47 in extreme poverty, identifying the target group for the Bonos is difficult. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But there are complaints of favoritism and politicization, especially in this election year. Smiling politicians are on hand to give out the Bonos to big crowds, sometimes with <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/10/an-aid-program-crushing-crowd-dead-baby.html">tragic results</a>.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Bonos, for example, are supposed to go to 200,000 poor families this year. But the government has decreed that the families of people in the army, police and fire departments should get the payment. That could be up to 30,000 families.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s a political gesture and a way to take money that�s supposed to be supporting social development and use it to cover government expenses. (The army, police and firefighters are poor; police are paid about $150 per month.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In another political gesture, one of the three serious contenders for the presidency has pledged to extend the program to 800,000 families.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which raises the whole question of sustainability, another big development issue.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The IDB is the main funder of the program, and almost all the money is in the form of loans, not grants. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Every year the Bono 10,000 program runs, Honduras goes deeper in debt. The program, at current levels, is adding $100 million a year that, theoretically, will have to be repaid. (Theoretically because the government is effectively broke and its capacity to repay debts highly doubtful.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The debt is fine if the program is going to bring healthier, better educated people and future economic gains. But that�s not likely without other big changes - less corruption and crime, half-decent roads, better schools. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Then there�s the related dependence issue, which features in any development discussion. Is the Bono program helping families build bettrer futures? Or is it encouraging them to count on someone else to come along and give them some money?</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are no simple answers. It�s easy to warn against the risk of dependence when you�re in a developed country talking about aid theory. It�s harder when you�re looking at a population where 31 per cent of all kids under five are malnourished. Long-term solutions alone are going to come too late for them.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Bono 10,000 program looks mostly like a useful stopgap measure, especially if its administration and equity are improved.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But Honduras needs a lot more profound structural changes - better schools, less corruption, a functioning justice system, adequate infrastructure if it�s not to be perpetually dependent on such short-term aid.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-65211591783129918212013-11-20T09:42:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.887-07:00VLTs on ferries open door to new wave of gambling expansion<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The B.C. government�s idea of putting VLTs on the ferries so people would lose money - on top of the soaring fares - looked at first like a distraction.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The government announced ferry service cuts at the same time. A few headlines about gambling might be preferable to an analysis of the damage done to coastal communities by the service cuts.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfi0w2eu8AOZZHMnskHm2Hnz5G5brVW1-NyC2oXu1Iun-uZ8cNLZh_xmNwQRx1Y8rUC1lW0UnnStEUdQdea4eNg08ZQXeNVs4fJVSvp9K_0aNW2xyPMleTfIH4-OIp5E0y9yQZwVRF6Yw/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfi0w2eu8AOZZHMnskHm2Hnz5G5brVW1-NyC2oXu1Iun-uZ8cNLZh_xmNwQRx1Y8rUC1lW0UnnStEUdQdea4eNg08ZQXeNVs4fJVSvp9K_0aNW2xyPMleTfIH4-OIp5E0y9yQZwVRF6Yw/s200/Unknown-1.jpeg" width="171" /></a></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But there might be much more going on here.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are 12,224 slots machines or VLTs in the province. (They are really the same thing.) They take an average $93,000 each from losing gamblers, or about $1.1 billion a year.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Put 80 on each of the five big ferries - the Spirits and Coastals - and at that rate the gambling machines would pull in $37 million a year, to be shared between BCLC, BC Ferries and any middlemen.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Of course, VLTs on ferries will take in a lot less. Casinos and �community gaming centres� are open up to 24 hours a day. A ferry likely allows about 10 hours of gambling time. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The government�s betting shops attract hardcore gamblers and some addicts, people who lose a lot. And they serve alcohol, which encourages people to make bad decisions and lose more.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Still, ferry VLTs could be a tidy revenue stream.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And the decision would set an important precedent in expanding VLT locations. If ferries are OK, what about BC Place? Resorts? Bars?</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Remember, the Liberals ran in 2001 with a campaign promise to halt the expansion of gambling because it would hurt families, damage local economies and create a province of losers, in Gordon Campbell�s words.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There were 2,400 slots in the province then. The government immediately set out to double the number, and then doubled it again to today�s 12,000-plus. The government�s share of gambling losses was about $565 million. Now it�s about $1.1 billion.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The government initially twisted itself in knots trying to deny gambling was being expanded, including a claim new slots would only be introduced in existing or already planned casinos.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But that wasn�t producing enough money from losers. So new casinos were opened and the government pushed �community gaming centres� - bingo halls converted into mini-casinos. There are 19 of them now, with 2,500 VLTs.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There doesn�t seem to be room for expansion.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Maybe this isn�t just about ferries.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The government has claimed keeping VLTs in casinos and gaming centres ensured some controls on the negative effects - addiction, money-laundering, loan-sharking and social damage. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But it�s apparently willing to abandon that principle to move VLTs onto ferries.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which, given its record of broken promises on gambling, should leave citizens wondering where the money-sucking and addictive VLTs will show up next.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-56839185550587993712013-11-15T12:23:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.946-07:00In Honduras and Canada, the strange political silence on inequality<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ten days left until the Honduran national elections, and I�m thinking about inequality.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s stunning in Honduras. There are the obvious signs - the contrast between the lavish malls in the cities and the squatters� shacks along any stretch of highway where there is a precarious place to cobble together some sticks and tarps and corrugated tin.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And there are the statistics.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The UN does a useful <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR2013_EN_Statistics.pdf">Human Development Report</a> each year.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This year�s HDR report shows the top 20 per cent of the Honduran population have average incomes 29.7 times greater than the bottom 20 per cent. The only countries with more inequality, based on that measure, are Angola and Micronesia. Even the failed states of Africa don�t reach that level.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfN-M0fdBOgHoWkTnug6PkdmYxzQgkQdUD_KvC3RAPRaS4gUta7d8y-l6gEGZkdr10kwv-NO-AVKcXTzXGQWUvvkLpykEpfFo5blnIyTyW65J-vuMnuSYnEOIx1djoM72KXhkiAg0lLBc/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfN-M0fdBOgHoWkTnug6PkdmYxzQgkQdUD_KvC3RAPRaS4gUta7d8y-l6gEGZkdr10kwv-NO-AVKcXTzXGQWUvvkLpykEpfFo5blnIyTyW65J-vuMnuSYnEOIx1djoM72KXhkiAg0lLBc/s200/Unknown-1.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lavish malls...</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In Canada, by contrast, the top 20 per cent have incomes 5.5 times as high as the bottom 20 per cent. Imagine how different the society would look if the richest Canada took the same share of incomes as their Honduran counterparts.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The HDR also uses another, broader measure of inequality. Based on that, Honduras still ranks as one of the most unequal countries in the world - only the Seychelles, Micronesia, Haiti and four African nations having greater inequality. (I hadn�t even heard of Comoros, one of the African countries.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The myth is that inequality just happens, a result of hidden economic forces. Kind of like gravity, except only some people get held down.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But that�s not true, in Canada or Honduras. Governments make decisions that increase or reduce inequality. Reduce public health care, as I noted <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/10/lots-of-words-in-throne-speech-but.html">here</a>, and you increase inequality. Cut taxes, and the result is the same. Raise the minimum wage, and you reduce inequality.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5p1ZxLAkn5fAhsjoGYskCgYzHZRlzTYtbH8771evPejyBC5M1lUJ2eCa9qLUoiM3z6XGbCfvO4TIC8ti3tu0OIvgGhpz-468k8Wl2awWNFqMs15g4tbFNZhPcwaSzLuByp9aBSOu_KE/s1600/Unknown-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5p1ZxLAkn5fAhsjoGYskCgYzHZRlzTYtbH8771evPejyBC5M1lUJ2eCa9qLUoiM3z6XGbCfvO4TIC8ti3tu0OIvgGhpz-468k8Wl2awWNFqMs15g4tbFNZhPcwaSzLuByp9aBSOu_KE/s200/Unknown-2.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">... and dismal shacks</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In Honduras, for example, taxing an extra two per cent of the incomes of the highest-earning 20 per cent would fund a 60-per-cent increase in the incomes of the poorest one-fifth of the population. (Those people are really poor. About 74 per cent of Hondurans live in poverty, and 47 per cent in extreme poverty.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Or the money could pay for a better education system or other measures which could reduce inequality in the long term. (Honduran schools are generally terrible.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Instead, the government has been collecting less in taxes. I don�t now if that�s policy or corruption or incompetence or a combination of all those factors and more. Tax evasion is the norm; the director of the revenue department estimates it loses 43 per cent to tax scofflaws.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The government went through a huge exercise earlier this year that was supposed to eliminate some of the many tax exemptions. Nothing came of it. A 2010 study found 69 corporate tax breaks. Fast food franchises, mostly owned by a few of the elite, got a 10-year break on all taxes and a permanent exemption from paying import duties on the dubious claim they were good for tourism. (Come to Honduras, and eat a Big Mac.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Social spending has also been cut, from 13.3 per cent of GDP in 2009 to 10.9 in 2012, according to a <a href="http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/Honduras-2013-11-final.pdf">report</a> on the Honduras post-coup economy by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The same report found that from 2010 to 2012, the top 10 per cent of Hondurans received more than 100 per cent of the benefits of economic growth. The average incomes of the other 90 per cent shrunk.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But, as in Canada, there is not much discussion of inequality.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Security, corruption, crime - they have been big issues in the election campaign.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Reducing poverty, of course, has been on the agenda, though not in an especially coherent way. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The platform of Libre, a new party challenging the established Liberal-National party duopoly, includes measures that would address inequality. But even its campaign has talked much more constitutional reform than growing inequality.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The silence on such an important issue is as puzzling here as it is in Canada.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-12652563821026244732013-11-13T17:05:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:10.959-07:00Six thoughts about the Rob Ford disaster<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I�ve resisted adding to the flood of words about Rob Ford. But no more. Here are six thoughts.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">First, this is sad. Ford, as a human being, is a mess and any compassionate person should feel empathy watching him struggle. Especially because he seems to have no one in his life to say �I care about you, and you have to stop this.�</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Second, Ford�s hypocrisy is appalling. A month ago, a photo emerged of a Toronto employee with his head on his desk, apparently asleep. Ford wanted the employee and his manager fired if he was sleeping. Not suspended, or disciplined. Fired. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But he uses illegal drugs and shows up at the workplace staggering drunk and violent, yet feels it is fine to keep his job. Ford supports tough-on-crime policies and harsh penalties for drug use - but not for himself. It is entitlement and ignorance gone mad.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Third, the jokes about Ford and the obsession with crack suggest a certain collective eagerness to forget that his problem is alcohol. Yes, crack is a reckless drug to use, and being in a drunken stupour is not a great defence. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But the evidence suggests Ford�s problem is alcohol. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Maybe we are in collective denial. In B.C., in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, we spent $986 per adult on alcohol, at the LDB price. That�s about 2.5 litres a week per adult of alcohol of all kinds. Many people aren�t drinking at all, of course, which means others are drinking much more.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Fourth, the political posturing was ugly. People in every walk of life struggle with substance abuse, addiction and self-destructive behaviour. It�s patently stupid to claim people of any political stripe have a monopoly on these problems. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Fifth, this has not been, overall, a great time for the media. The Toronto Star has done fine and difficult work on the story. The Globe and Mail as well. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But there has been so much rubbish written, from pieces arguing that this is what happens when you give people who live in suburbs the right to vote to columns suggesting the public doesn�t really need to know more about Rob Ford�s problems.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And sixth, this has been a worse time for political service and public life. Rob Ford is reckless, irresponsible and a liar. He has no sense of accountability, or honesty. Yet he is the mayor.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What are young people supposed to conclude from this ugly spectacle? They would be kicked out of their high schools in a flash for much smaller offences, but Ford is above such accountability, and still has his defenders. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The rules only apply to people outside the club. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which is ironic, given that Rob Ford has always portrayed himself as one of those outsiders. Until he needed to claim the privileges of power.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-47529020323655379462013-11-06T06:12:00.000-08:002014-04-10T19:18:11.018-07:00The anti-regulation crowd should visit Ciudad de Angel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mbibwBaGCn6_H8JhPqcLCDTGJlhTyUVk4iJ0kUY797kpYC_JjNvB7nF3dE3fSkfLD1BTMdqy-XB5PVxkatG-IwQmKE0-3VKOgY0OvjdztjKWmNEVN-TW61yWq3mnpRnZK6TUjp49sy0/s1600/Falla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mbibwBaGCn6_H8JhPqcLCDTGJlhTyUVk4iJ0kUY797kpYC_JjNvB7nF3dE3fSkfLD1BTMdqy-XB5PVxkatG-IwQmKE0-3VKOgY0OvjdztjKWmNEVN-TW61yWq3mnpRnZK6TUjp49sy0/s400/Falla.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Governments of a certain stripe are always complaining about red tape, those darn regulations that stop people and businesses from getting on with things. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Their supporters should come down to Honduras.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I pass <a href="http://www.ciudaddelangel.com/#/INICIO-01-00/">Ciudad de Ang</a>el, a big new housing development, on my way out of Teguicgalpa. It looks pretty nice, although perched precariously on a hillside.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Too precariously, as it turns out. The new 200-home development is falling down around the devastated homeowners, who had hoped to stake their claim to middle-class status. (Prices ranged from $60,000 to $120,000, upmarket for these kind of developments around the edge of Tegus and San Pedro Sula. It was supposed to have a community pool and, of course, security.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU687g2bJJ57cJqjy_aFJj3jxnLzwMNTQM_NUZVjICx1-LthbNfag7rZ-s_JAPGfcZluj2H63krO-DZB7ELUllm2b2CjdeHdNxb_ZZEjzYtA1IbKN3WV7WoEIGYZAOIojNm-P08ZYsg8/s1600/Falla-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU687g2bJJ57cJqjy_aFJj3jxnLzwMNTQM_NUZVjICx1-LthbNfag7rZ-s_JAPGfcZluj2H63krO-DZB7ELUllm2b2CjdeHdNxb_ZZEjzYtA1IbKN3WV7WoEIGYZAOIojNm-P08ZYsg8/s200/Falla-1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The construction was hopelessly substandard. The project was built on unstable hillsides. The developer dumped dirt and waste in several small ponds and then built on top of them.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now the homes are falling down, literally. Four collapsed yesterday. Hundreds more are damaged, the roads are cracking along the fault lines. Owners complain of cracked walls, tile floors lifting, sewage flowing into their homes.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And the Honduran emergency commission wants people to abandon their homes because the entire development is unsafe and all the houses have severe damage.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Some residents have sued the Guatemalan developer, but the courts are hopeless. The worst in a bad region according to a report today.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Canadian homebuyers haven�t always been protected by regulation or the courts, of course. The leaky condo disaster plucked some $1.5 billion to $2 billion from people who thought they could safely buy a home, a huge loss. They had no legal remedies, because the developers shut down their companies and started anew.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTCwi65cLf7ox44SjiWFpSfIfuCzzCvRQz3Rxxl_AEqafhTrqN7hcPWVBFuDOKsZLiti8jZHih2PYZt3FNGrzz947_uWNXiID52vCnXhv7U9T-gdKES6-MPLUIZ74PO3In1bhhRd5scSM/s1600/Ciudad-Angel-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTCwi65cLf7ox44SjiWFpSfIfuCzzCvRQz3Rxxl_AEqafhTrqN7hcPWVBFuDOKsZLiti8jZHih2PYZt3FNGrzz947_uWNXiID52vCnXhv7U9T-gdKES6-MPLUIZ74PO3In1bhhRd5scSM/s200/Ciudad-Angel-.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But neither do Canadians face the risk of putting their life savings into a development that falls down around them.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s easy enough to trot out examples of unnecessary regulation.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But the notion that all rules and regulation developed by government are �red tape� designed to ensnarl people who just want to get something done is destructive rubbish. As is the notion that buyers should somehow do their own geological surveys before they buy a home in what looks like a legit development.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Just ask the people in Ciudad de Angeles.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Footnote: Ian Reid has a look at another aspect of regulation <a href="http://therealstory.ca/2013-11-05/bc-politics/red-tape-more-not-less-is-sometimes-the-answer">here</a>.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6930505358292521468.post-57775697276860463762013-10-26T13:11:00.000-07:002014-04-10T19:18:11.030-07:00Another grim year for Postmedia, and what lies ahead<div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s tough to pick the biggest problem for Postmedia, Canada�s largest newspaper company. And it�s just as hard to figure out where the corporation is going.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Postmedia released its quarterly and year-end results Thursday. They were grim, and things are getting worse, not better. (The corporation's Powerpoint presentation on the <a href="http://www.postmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Q4-F13-Analyst-Deck.pdf">results</a> is here.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Print advertising, about 60 per cent of total revenue, fell 13.4 per cent in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31. That�s worse than the 10.3-per-cent drop in 2012.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For national and retail advertising, about 60 per cent of total print ad revenue, the fourth quarter was the most grisly, meaning losses are continuing to grow.</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJqiuPn6GwYymmQ47ckkUxrL2zU2CxsLiTw5M5NtTGGCKxssG0-EQVaYilfgGRZ-CPwDH38k3KAeaa9CapSWNkRZd8YF3UoFmOA-f0YMRoTO4Z1kha9533fkevBOZyZfDONSHYPJSMjF0/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJqiuPn6GwYymmQ47ckkUxrL2zU2CxsLiTw5M5NtTGGCKxssG0-EQVaYilfgGRZ-CPwDH38k3KAeaa9CapSWNkRZd8YF3UoFmOA-f0YMRoTO4Z1kha9533fkevBOZyZfDONSHYPJSMjF0/s200/Unknown-1.jpeg" width="200" /></a></span></div></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Stripped of the buzzwords, Postmedia�s strategy appears to be to cut costs, try to find ways to get readers to pay more for products on various platforms and attempt to persuade advertisers to pay more for ads that work better.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The company launched a three-year �Transformation Program� in July 2012 that aimed to cut expenses by 15 to 20 per cent - $102 million to $135 million. It�s achieved $82 million in annualized savings so far, and is on track to reach the goal, management says.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The problem is that, in the last two years, revenue has already fallen by $147 million and Postmedia predicts more revenue losses in 2014. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The cost-cutting targets sounded ambitious 15 months ago. But the corporation is not even halfway through the exercise and the targets are turning out to be much less than is needed to to offset revenue losses. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That creates a worrying prospect of endless cuts as revenue losses continue, until there is nothing left. And, in the interim, of more falling revenues caused by cuts that hurt quality and service to readers and advertisers. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The plans to find new revenue - getting readers to pay more and increasing digital revenues - haven�t worked. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since Postmedia took over Canwest�s newspaper assets in 2010, the corporation has been talking about �Digital First� strategies. But three years on, it hasn�t come up with an effective approach. (In fairness, almost no newspaper companies have.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the last two years, traditional print advertising and circulation revenues have fallen by $151 million, or 19 per cent</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Digital revenues, a priority for the company, have risen by $4.2 million, or 4.8 per cent. They are roughly keeping pace with inflation, despite starting from a small base and the corporation�s big emphasis on �Digital First.� (In a conference call for analysts on the quarterly report, Driving.ca was touted as an example of digital product development. It was launched this month after almost a year or work, the company said. There is some slick customer-targeting work going on behind the scenes, but the site doesn't look particularly innovative.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The results of paywalls, intended to get money from people to read the newspapers� websites, aren�t wildly encouraging.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It�s too early to judge, as paywalls were only introduced on a group-wide basis in May. Postmedia says it now has 120,000 people registered as website digital subscribers to its 10 dailies. But that includes print subscribers who registered for their free digital subscriptions, and the company didn�t reveal how many people are actually paying $10 a month to read the websites.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So what�s ahead? Cuts, of course, and well beyond the original �transformation� project launched last year. Real estate sales, which will give Postmedia some money to pay down its $489 million in debt.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And more of the same on the revenue side. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are changes offering some promise. The Vancouver Sun has named newsroom �champions� for tablets, mobile, web and print. The notion is apparently that they will work on deciding what content belongs on each platform, and the best way of sharing it. It might be late, and it falls short of La Presse�s <a href="http://blog.fagstein.com/2013/10/22/la-presse-plus-analysis/">$40-million bet</a> on tablets, but it�s good thinking.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But on balance, things don�t look good. If the revenue and expense lines stay on the same track they have been on for the last two years, Postmedia could have trouble coming up with the cash to pay interest on its debt by 2015 or 2106. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That�s not much time to fix things.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For now, the lenders who financed the papers� purchase appear to be happy receiving interest and required payments on the principal. About 60 per cent of the debt carries 12.5 per cent interest rates and the rest is at 8.25 per cent.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 7.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That could change quickly if the bad news keeps getting worse and those interest payments look to be at risk.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 18.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Footnote</span></b>: I wrote a four-part series of blog posts on newspapers' problems and solutions earlier this year. Find them at <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-i-killed-newspapers-part-one.html">Part One,</a> <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-i-killed-newspapers-part-2.html">Part Two</a>, <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-i-killed-newspapers-part-three-bad.html">Part Three</a> and <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-save-newspapers.html">Part Four</a>.</span></div>neshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13725498704176180491noreply@blogger.com0