Pavco’s convention centre and stadium deals fascinate me. People residing beyond BC’s lower mainland are probably more pissed-off than fascinated. These deals clearly demonstrate the disaster potential when public and private enterprises work together …
Continue readingAuthor: Norman Farrell
Blogging regularly since April 2009 on public affairs with focus on BC politics, journalism, the environment and ethical matters in the public arena.
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: To every action, expect an opposite reaction
The most brazen disdain for democracy in modern times, Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, January 12, 2010
“There will be a tidal wave of rage. Over the next two weeks the executives of the leading British and American banks will announce that some £50bn i…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: What is Coke doing with Koch
From the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch
What is Coca-Cola doing behind closed doors with Koch Industries at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)? The Center for Media and Democracy has uncovered that smoke-filled back room wher…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Drawing lines
One of the items in my Mirth and Meditation Archive is this:
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
Chesterton’s expression is wonderfully concise but, in the real world, determining where lines should be d…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Negotiation, a fruitless process in education
Almost six years ago, Vince Ready, in an interim report to the BC Liberal government about relations with teachers, commented:
“…the parties have not concluded meaningful negotiations in the decade since the Public Education Labour Relations Act es…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Open letter to DFO by Alexandra Morton
To: Dr. Laura Richards, Director General, Science, Pacific Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
I am writing to ask for your progress report on the thousands of silver-bright sockeye and now Coho that are floating dead down the Fraser River tributari…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Dogs know best what to do with (anonymous) polls
Stephen Smart’s report from Victoria caught my attention during Tuesday’s CBC News Vancouver. The Legislative reporter has apparently written off the NDP opposition; his focus was on the party that finished fourth in the last election with 2% of the po…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Today’s built-to-loot enterprises show their style
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good (www.inequality.org). Chuck is also a co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, high-inc…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Important victory for democracy and freedom
New York, NY. Monday, October 3, 2011—Today, award-winning journalist Amy Goodman announced that a final settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit brought by Goodman and Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar again…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: "He didn’t know when staff training began"
Lots of fingers pointing in BC Place service debacle, CKWX News, October 2, 2011
The accusations are flying over Friday night’s debacle at BC Place…
Fans complained of long line-ups, overflowing toilets, not enough staff members, and food and bever…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Truth has been a casualty at PavCo
Harvey Oberfeld recently called professional sports teams:
“… the worst corporate welfare bums … trying to get working class British Columbians, through our taxes to subsidize various aspects of their operations.
“And they amazingly get it … ev…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: It’s the union’s fault
BC Place opened to CFL fans Friday but the facility was troubled with inadequate concessions and services. Early Saturday, CKWX News reported:
“The line-ups were too long, the toilets overflowed and some of the concessions ran out of food and beer…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Taking action when business is slow…
“The FBI has received substantial criticism over the past decade — much of it valid — but nobody can deny its record of excellence in thwarting its own Terrorist plots.
“Time and again, the FBI concocts a Terrorist attack, infiltrates Muslim com…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Killing machines have no conscience
In there irony in America’s rush to deploy drones and remote controlled weaponry around the world?
From Joseph Nevins at the Boston Review, Robocop:
In September 2010 the House Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Caucus held a technology fair. In the …
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: A shout may begin with whispers
“Wall Street’s fear is understandable. If the public is ever given a voice to express its outrage, their party train will have to stop and some people will pay for their crimes. But when Americans can only express their right to free speech after they’…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: "You can talk at your own town hall meeting"
Terrance Heath produces an excellent piece on the American ‘Tea Party’ movement brought to life by the Koch brothers and other plutocrats and apparatchiks. Is The Tea Party Over? Maybe. – published by The Campaign for America’s Future :
“It’s always s…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: And when do they bell the cats?
Rod’s Mickleburgh’s B.C. NOTEBOOK in the Globe and Mail, After his one bright insight, Bloy gets left in the dark:
“After nine years languishing on the government’s dusty backbenches, the former Boy Scout leader had the remarkable wisdom – alone a…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: BC Municipalities already audited
News item, September 29, 2011
“Municipal politicians voted overwhelmingly Thursday to tell the provincial government they don’t want a Municipal Auditor-General’s office…
“The local politicians said they’re already prohibited from running deficits…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Finding tax sources that fit today’s economy
Financial Transaction Tax: Making the financial sector pay its fair share
Brussels, 28 September 2011 – Today the Commission has presented a proposal for a financial transaction tax in the 27 Member States of the European Union. The tax would be levi…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Union guy stealing my cookie
From BNET,
Today’s CEOs think Henry Ford was a chump. Case in point: Larry Young, the CEO of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. In 2009, DPS made $555 million in profit and has never been in better financial shape. Young’s strategy going forward: c…