Tax the [other] Rich

Archbishop Rowan Williams has called for new taxes on financial transactions as part of his support for the objectives of the "Occupy Movement". 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8863794/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-Rowan-Williams-calls-for-new-tax-on-bankers.html

Since before the Pharaohs and their priests convinced the population to bring in their grain so that the "leaders" could protect "the people" from possible future famine, there has been a symbiotic relationship between political and religious rulers.  The religious elite have helped the political rulers maintain power by diverting public indignation over harsh conditions (say, a famine) by promising a better life in "the next world". [The "pie in the sky" argument, to quote Joe Hill's famous 1911 song.]

 

Long-haired preachers come out every night,

Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;

But when asked how 'bout something to eat

They will answer in voices so sweet

Chorus

You will eat, bye and bye,

In that glorious land above the sky;

Work and pray, live on hay,

You'll get pie in the sky when you die

Rowan Williams is risking departing from that mutually beneficial grift by "advising" the political leaders to introduce new taxes on the sale of shares, bonds and foreign currency.  Now most people know that any new taxes are immediately passed on to the less powerful - in this case by the "bankers" to ordinary folk who are either direct or indirect investors.  [Indirect via pension funds, mutual funds, etc. who would recover the taxes by charging higher fees and thus delivering smaller returns to those investors.]

More interesting perhaps is whether Williams will suggest that his and other churches should start paying their own fair share of taxes. There is still a lot of untaxed church land around, churches get other generous tax exemptions, and are secretive about their own financial statements.  One wonders, for example, what Williams income is, how much tax does he pay, how many untaxed benefits does he enjoy.  [For example, who paid for Williams recent tour of Africa where, among other things, he had a "meeting" with notorious Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe.]

As "churches" increasingly become proxies for political positions, and societies in most countries become increasingly secular, perhaps it's time to end the anachronistic "religious" exemptions and have everyone, including Williams, pay their share.



Try Putting Them Behind You

Years ago, I attended quite a few Edmonoton Eskimo football games. It seemed that at every game I had the misfortune to have some loud people sitting right behind me with the loudest explaining the rules of Canadian football to his dizzy, although loud, girlfriend. The frustrating part was that as likely as not what loudmouth explained to his vicinity was WRONG. For lack of accurate knowledge of the rules, he substituted volume and exuberance. Eventually I stopped going to football games and the loudmouth and WRONG explantions retreated into a distant, although still uncomfortable memory. I thought that experience had all been confined to the distant past until the other evening when our family attended an evening of performances by Canada's National Ballet. Since the Ballet was celebrating their 60th Anniversary, they staged four mini-performances. The first and last were quite modern and experimental, the second was quite traditional ballet danced to some studies by Chopin. The third was another non-traditional - with four dancers in western costume, including cowboy boots, dancing to a medley of late recordings by Johnny Cash (including the Alberta favourite - Ian Tyson's, Four Strong Winds). By the time we were into the first of the four performances - the immoderately loud voices of a couple seated right behind us were intruding on my enjoyment and bringing back memories of those painful old football games. The husband of the couple was taking the attitude of being the expert and explaining to his wife (I assume) that the second performance would be The Man in Black (i.e. Johnny Cash), even though the program clearly showed differently. When the curtain rose and a man in black tie and tails was seated at the grand piano ready to play the Chopin etudes, the "expert" decided to bluff his way through and assured his wife "There's the man in black!". When, in due course, the third performance took place, the actual Man in Black piece - four energetic dancers, three male and one female, responded to several recordings of Johnny Cash singing a range of well known songs popularized by others - covers as they are called. One male dancer was particularly energetic in leaping and prancing. When the dance ended and the performers were taking their bows, the "expert" opined loudly that the most energetic male dancer was especially good. The "wife" quizzed in a loud voice, "Was he the one that was singing the whole time?". I will never be able to enjoy ballet again without thinking of her. At least, though, they didn't jump up and spill their beer on me, although, maybe next time.

Learning Photo Restoration

We had this photo in the Leech family papers. (top)  I tinkered with it in Corel Paintshop Photo ProX3 and was rather pleased with the effect I achieved. (bottom)

Pelicans

Each summer we are pleased to see some white pelicans making use of our little lake here in Sherwood Park.  Summer 2011 (if we can use the term "summer" liberally) has been especially rewarding.  We have seen up to 15 pelicans at one time, and seeing them swooping in on their huge wings, and then floating across the lake like so many paddle boats, is a real pleasure. 



Still a hewer of wood

I once was introduced to Arthur Lower, one of the more prominent Canadian historians of the first half of the 20th Century.  He was long retired but meeting him was a moment akin to today's junior hockey player being introduced to, say, Bobby Orr - someone you knew of as a big name but never imagined encountering directly.
One Lower work I admired was Great Britain's Woodyard, which I found an engrossing explication of how the British North American colonies failed to benefit from the sudden emergence of a new major industry - forestry.  The boom was precipitated largely by the French Revolutionary, and more particularly, the Napoleonic Wars, in Europe.  Britain at the time, still largely in the thrall of mercantilist economic theory, insisted that BNA export only primary product, squared timber for the most part.  Proto-Canadians had seasonal jobs in the bush, but capital accumulation occurred in the United Kingdom and the United States. [Americans owned some of the forestry companies.]
So it was a sobering deja vu when I read a recent article about increasing Canadian lumber sales to China.  A full two centuries later, and there they were - squared timber and rough logs arriving in China. 

How little we have learned.  How colonial we remain.

Perspective vs Truth

     A friend recently commented; "What I am learning in politics is to deal with the truth and not get sidetracked by others perspective."  However, in politics, one's perspective is one's truth.  Therefore, the politician needs to manage / shape perspectives, not avoid or ignore them.  
     Sometimes politicians seem tone deaf as to the perspectives they are enabling. For example, in the 2008 Canadian Federal Election campaign, Stephen Harper may well have lost the opportunity for a majority by an unnecessary characterization of those favouring funding for the arts: 
"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers, claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Harper said in Saskatoon, where he was campaigning for the Oct. 14 election." - quoted in Toronto Star, 24 SEP 2008
     The strong reaction to this comment fuelled a perspective that saw Harper and the Conservatives as harbouring regressive "red-neck" views. Most pundits opined that the comment was decisive to losing support in Quebec and in urban seats, both areas where the Conservatives needed to gain support. On the other hand, those who may have agreed with Harper's comments were already Conservative supporters.
     In the current 2011 campaign, Harper is again ignoring perceptions.  His limiting of questions from the media, a symptom of a generally testy attitude toward the media, and to questioning of him in general, can easily be spun to the perception of his being authoritarian and given to political gamesmanship.
     This attitude was nicely captured in a comment tweeted by political reporter Kady O'Malley
It hit me earlier today, actually: so far, Stephen Harper isn't so much campaigning as acting like a guy locked out of his office. @kady 31 MAR 2011     Such an attitude will lose Harper an obvious opportunity to finally achieve a majority.  The opportunity for such a majority was virtually guaranteed.  Canadians have tired of the uncertainties of a minority government.  The opposition parties have failed to excite Canadians as providing any fresh alternatives.  It was ripe for Harper and the Conservatives to win.  And yet, there is a perspective out there that may well deliver to Harper an unwelcome truth - an election that produces another minority.

Democracy Redefined

We need a new definition of "democracy".  Around the world today we hear of pro-democracy movements, of a democratic deficit, of promises by political parties to "restore democracy".  These uses of "democracy" are varied and tired.  However, they all resonate to some degree because of a wide spread hunger for greater respect for the inherent worth of each individual. While the demands are often framed as addressing a need for broader access into the power structures of institutions, organizations and society generally; they are all really saying that all individuals should matter, that no one should be ignored, or dismissed, or treated as though they are only an inconsequential cog in a machine manipulated for the self-satisfaction of some arrogant elite.

Therefore, let the new definition of "democracy" be: "a society which recognizes, celebrates, and protects the inherent value of each individual."  In order to achieve such a society, we need revolutionary changes to our political and societal institutions.  We need to rethink and reinvent society as a necessary means to free the human spirit and raise the level of both individual and group consciousness.

In discussion some of these themes, Professor Fouad Ajami recently compared the "Arab Revolution of 2011" with The Year of Revolutions in Europe (1848).[1] That outburst contained numerous demands from liberals of that era for greater access to the instruments of power through the adoption of written constitutions and the implementation of parliaments with a broad electorate choosing legislative assemblies that supposedly would control executive branches of government. In large measure, we are still stuck with these mid-19^th century institutions.  It must be admitted, though, that parliaments are now hollow shells, composed of what former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau termed “nobodies”, easily outmanoeuvred, when they are not simply ignored, by executives which are increasingly dominated by presidential figures wielding arbitrary power.  Examples range from United States’ presidents declaring war without reference to Congress to the vast array of dictators around the world who operate on the premise that their country is their personal fiefdom whose main purpose is to enrich them and their small inner circles.  

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[1] Fouad Ajami, “How the Arabs Turned Shame Into Liberty”, New York Times, Feb. 26, 2011.

Taxes or extra overhead

This is an odd situation that happened in 2007.  We sent a parcel from Alberta to Nova Scotia and the business we paid to ship it charged us the Nova Scotia HST.  This seemed so out of hand that I ran it by an Alberta Finance person who opined that this was not illegal, it was a choice of the business owner.  We never used this business again and I still wonder if the taxes we paid ever reached the coffers of Nova Scotia.

PS  Part of the reason for the high cost of shipping (the parcel was about the size of a loaf of bread) was that we paid extra for "2 day delivery" - the parcel was actually delivered in 5 days. 

We all need to be reminded from time to time that taxes are actually a confiscation of our personal property.  This is bad enough, but when it is compounded by the tax collector skimming a margin for himself, it helps to understand why "tax collectors" were such unpopular - not to say reviled - persons in the ancient world.  In those days, it was common to farm out tax collection.  The way this worked was that a ruler would contract with someone to collect x amount of taxes in a certain area.  The "tax farmer" was free (indeed it was expected) to collect more taxes than the amount of his contract (i.e. x + y)  The tax collector thus had the incentive to enrich himself by collecting as much (or more) than what the market might bear.  This "mark-up" is part of the same approach which irritates so many ordinary people in the world even today.  When a driver's license agent in, say, Egypt, insists that a person pay a personal bribe, in addition to the govermental fee then we have this same piggy-backing of personal greed and corruption, on top of the (questionably legitimate) taxes.  The "little people" are helpless to change this system and are thus denied justice.  However, a thousand small cuts sometimes adds up to a rage that demands the overthrow of the whole system - "tax collector" and "tax perpetrator" included.

Welcome to my Photo and Philosophy Blog

Our "Big Tour" blog became popular - partly for some not so good reasons - i.e. Dorothy's health crisis - but I wanted to leave it intact as having dealt with The Tour as a stand alone adventure.

Some folks were kind enough to indicate they enjoyed some of my photos so I decided to start a separate blog to feature some of them as time went on.  I'm also going to add some thoughts that appeal to me and some comments on this and that.  [Keeping in mind no one asked for these!]