At one time, there was a very good operating system called CPM that was crushed by a late arriver MS DOS. Commodore once had a future in personal computing until it went head-to-head with the PC (IBM Personal Computer). Atari had a superior computer for a long time but was eliminated in an “early round” by the fashionably late PC clone. Xerox produced the feature-rich, Venture Publisher, that was “marketed” out of the business by Adobe Page Maker for Macintosh – a far inferior product.

Almost none of the original players are around today to enjoy the fruit of their ground breaking labour. The forerunners who dream and challenge new horizons don’t always make the best managers. Steve Jobs may appear to be an exception – he stayed close to his function as “Head-Dreamer” of the company and it worked for him and Apple.

Being second or third into a big market has proven to have its advantages. Research In Motion conceived and birthed an idea which required a tremendous amount of creative and technological resources, only to have others build on and innovate the idea. It is much easier to refine a good idea than it is to make it a reality. RIM’s competitors have made a place for themselves “frilling up” a monumental technology with a user friendly interface (Iphone) and a fortune of supplementary applications which appeal to anyone and everyone’s personal interests. Some of these apps are “software froth” and some are well conceived and designed add-on functions to the main and original idea of mobile e-mail, internet and phone service.

RIM still has a unique market advantage in spite of the press that is determined to destroy them. Their networks are secure because they operate them. That one advantage for an intelligent and informed consumer is worth trading all the “frills” any marketing manager on steroids can come up with. It seems that RIM’s superior security has irritated more than one government. Saudi Arabia wanted a “backdoor” into the Blackberry system in order to spy on their people. Somehow, Blackberry was “responsible” for the riots in London in August. Their networks were secure and for that reason rioters used them to organize. The British didn’t like that and called in the Blackberry folks to give an account for themselves. The social unrest and religious persecution of Christians in countries such as Egypt have made RIM the secure and obvious choice of many. For that reason, RIM has gone from being heros to zeros, at least in the press. It would appear for being just too darn good. There are a lot of people who would like them to give up their secure networks so they can  “trap data” and spy on whomever they please. In some cases, that is good and in others it is bad, but who gets to decide which is which?
RIM has a lot of enemies, but the founders are used to fighting for what they believe. They were around long before Blackberry and learned their “tuffs” over years of struggling in order to arrive where they are today. They may have made some mistakes and become mesmerized by their tremendous success for a season, but the next battle is for the survival of the company. My money is on RIM. They have the leadership to make the adjustments that need to be made. They are “forerunners” who can lead the industry again. They have been there and know what it takes to create and pioneer. They just need to remember who they are! As with most forerunners, they don’t mind taking some heat for doing things their way.

I am optimistic about RIM’s future in spite of the media’s intentional attacks and pessimistic predictions. As a team, they are more than what the “barking dogs” (the press) say they are. They have proven their character and good will in the market place and to our community whenever there was a need. This battle is not primarily about stock prices, or shareholder value, or marketing, or PR. It is about control and who is going to get it.

The first line of defense in this battle is character….“character” that says: “I will not let ‘them’ destroy me or this company.” This attitude must start at the top and trickle down through the ranks and infect those not intimidated by a good fight with courage and determination. I’ve seen that from the senior RIM team in the midst of a volley of personal attacks. They stood firm when their leadership was challenged and when “analysts” wanted to break up the company. Their courage and strength tell me they are not finished fighting, and it gives me courage and the conviction that RIM will not only survive, but will flourish.

Mark’s work was his purpose and without purpose he knew life would be missing something important. He came to one of our seminars and was able to turn his feelings into a focused objective. He discovered that he was better suited to a new purpose and was needed more now than ever before.

Statistics show that people with purpose live an additional 10 years. That could be attributed to the satisfaction and intentionality they develop when they are engaged in something that is important and significant. It really doesn’t matter if you are retiring or if you are in mid-life or if you are just graduating and starting a career, keeping a place in your life for giving to others pays many rewards. Giving “yourself” to others is a gift that benefits the giver as much or more than the receiver.

You may have thought about purpose and giving before and wondered how you could add another activity to your list of things to do. Other people may respond with: “I don’t have anything to give”. I have heard all the reasons “why not”, but there are far more reasons to find a way to make it work, than to declare it impossible.

People of all ages have talents and strengths which others don’t have. They have wisdom and character which will help a person in a dark moment find some light. You, by your very existence, are valuable to those around you – they need you. Parents need parenting, too. Fathers need fathering and mothers need mothering at any age. Young people just starting out have problems that others have never faced, yet knowing someone is with them helps a lot.
Everyone needs a purpose. They need a place to give what they are, and have, and have learned in life to someone else.

Finding a place to connect with others isn’t hard – there are needs everywhere. All you have to do it start looking for them. There are also some really amazing things that are being done by new groups with great visions and who really need help. The smaller the group, the bigger the role you can play. It is very satisfying to use and give away the wisdom that you paid so high a price to gain.

Winston Churchill said these wise words about giving: “You make a living by what you get, but a life by what you give”. Everyone needs a vision and purpose for making this community and the world better. We can’t really “live” without purpose. If you’re not giving, then you’re not living. The purposed life is one of pleasure, significance and happiness. Find a place to give the most precious thing you have – you! It will make you, others, and the world a better place.

“Never before has the global financial system been so interlinked and integrated, which means that problems in one part of the world are capable of causing severe stress almost everywhere else. ”

That’s globalism for you, folks. That’s what the globalists have forced upon us during the course of the last fifty years. That’s what they insisted would be good for us.

If ever you feel like blaming someone, blame them. And then, when you’re all done blaming the international financiers, the multinational corporation owners, the media barons and their bought politicians, blame yourselves as well.

Blame yourselves for ever having been foolish enough to believe the lies that the most greedy, self-serving, power-mad and brutish among us told you.

Recently a friend from San Diego sent me a similar quote about the state of Rome in the era of Cicero. A little research revealed that the original quote (as shown above) had been altered significantly to suit the political views of the plagiarist and his/her view of the solutions to the problems in America. In pointing out the flaws of the “system” and the failing lack of integrity on the part of many of our public officials, the author didn’t see the irony of using deception to get his point across.

The Internet has enabled a new level of everyday “slight of hand”. No one will ever know who altered the quote and the “good” is better than the “evil”, or so they believe. In some ways, big cities, big business, and politics, provide the same anonymity for people. In this state of “disconnect” from the people they serve, those who lead can only feign caring and sincerity.

With the election coming in a few days, politicians are touting campaign promises which will win votes for them. Most of those promises are not so subtle attempts to buy our votes with ‘our’ money. The promises and strategies of all the campaigns are extremely vague. It is political campaign strategy to NOT tell the public what they intend to do in the future because that would divide the voters for-and-against, which does not accomplish their end. That is why there is so much deception, avoidance, and outright lying in most of the campaigns. All of that in the name of “caring, visionary leadership”.

The classic quote from the movie “A Few Good Men” may be the politicians’ self-justification: “You can’t handle the truth!” In the film, the court-marshaled soldier eloquently defends his right to break the law for the greater good because he knows things that others don’t know. That theory may be acceptable in the military, but not in a true democracy. But the problem may not only be that we, the voter, can’t handle or know the truth, but that we just don’t care enough to listen to it. Ontarians, like the rest of the western world, are living at twice the pace of their fore-fathers. We don’t have time to think about things that we don’t have to think about. When we have a moment to consider things beyond our personal lives, we choose to take a much needed break rather than ponder the collective good.

As the ancient philosopher said, “The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled….”. 2066 years later, humanity is faced with the same problems, requiring the same solutions. The founders of democracy quickly realized that the freedom and the responsibility to make our leaders work for us reside with us. We get the government we deserve.

The advertisement falls on closed minds: “On October 6th vote!”. Citizen cynicism is a symptom of a process which neither includes them, informs them or provides accountability. Our election campaigns have the hard content of an hour with the “National Enquirer”. For that reason, “officialdom” has become arrogant – they rarely have to give an account for their actions.

If democracy is going to work for “us”, it is not enough just to participate in the process by voting. The very nature of our freedom is to be informed, to vote, and to then hold our “officialdom” to account for their responsibilities, promises, and actions. That is the only way democracy will work for the common good. On October 6th be an informed voter and an active participant in making our politicians work for us.

One of the best things about Canada is that we honour a person’s culture and native language. We have two official languages and hundreds of unofficial languages. We have proven with our actions, laws, and financial support that we value and even celebrate traditions of every country and people group. This is to our credit and benefit. We also have created laws and rights which focus on preventing discrimination against sexual orientation, colour of skin, race, creed and culture – all in the name of protecting a person from injustice and abuse. We not only protect these rights, we actually bring them into the public square and celebrate them in a variety of ways. All levels of governments have funded gay pride parades, cultural events, and every imaginable form of celebration of Canadians’ ethnic origins.

Canadians have recognized that a significant part of a human being is connected to his/her past culture and background. Another equally important part of a person’s world-view, values, and objectives is formed in their perceptions of the origin of humanity and the planet. This perception is at the core of the person’s views about what it means to be human and to live a meaningful and “successful” life. In other words, these beliefs are every bit as important to a person as their sexual orientation, race, language, culture, or gender, yet they are being treated quite differently.

More than 90% of the world’s population believe in a superior being who has created humanity and the earth. Yet the few remaining people who have chosen to believe otherwise have pushed all of the people of faith into a corner and required them to be silent in public about one of the most important parts of who they are. People of faith are regularly mocked by arrogant atheists claiming the higher intellectual ground. Science has not, nor ever will be able to prove the origin of the species – it is impossible to do so – it still is only a theory. Therefore, belief in evolution is acquired by faith. We teach evolution as if were a fact when it has no more substance than a religion. The “some” have claimed, by the slight of intellectual hand, control over the “many” because no one is fighting for justice.

If we define freedom and equality for some of our rights in a certain way but exclude a person’s “origin orientation” (faith), it clearly constitutes an inequality. Our government doesn’t fund religious events; furthermore, because of a very vocal few who are hostile to faith, faith has been attacked with attempts to banish it completely from having any public expression. A person may bring their culture, race, sexual orientation, or gender etc., etc. freely into the public square but not their faith – and that is religious bigotry. Faith is the only protected right that is openly and publicly being treated with indignation by a small group of people who believe, in their misguided ignorance, that forbidding any expression of faith in our public intuitions is required by law.

I am always dismayed by those who ignorantly cite “separation of church and state” as justification for bigotry. First of all, that is part of the American Constitution and it does not exist in Canadian law. Furthermore, the founding fathers of the United States were not intending to restrict faith in any way, but rather to create equality for all faiths by prohibiting the institutionalizing of one denomination as the official religion of the nation. They were particularly sensitive to this issue since they were people of faith who had come to America to escape this inequality. It’s rather ironic that the profoundly ignorant justify religious bigotry using a law intended to prevent it.

I can expect that for writing this article in defence of all people of faith that I will be belittled, mocked, and marginalised. People of faith regularly endure attacks on the internet and in print that if directed at homosexuals, Jews, blacks, or East Indians, for example, it would create social outrage. Attack a person of faith, or faith in general, and there is silence. If we believe in equality it must be for everyone.

Is there religious freedom in Canada? An inquiry would reveal that there are vast inequalities for people of faith when compared with the other rights and freedoms protected by our Charter of Rights and that faith is ridiculed and marginalised in ways that others who also are protected by the Charter are not. That is the sad truth even though it is not what most Canadians believe or want for Canada.

Since Bell Media owns roughly half of the newspapers, local television and radio stations in this country, plus a number of specialty channels, some of which are news oriented, I was certain that most of the media would not be covering this story. But it is important news for those of us who have been “baited with a low price” and then “switched to a higher price”. Though $10,000,000 is a significant fine, in the “big picture”, it is not a deterrent. Over the course of 7 years, $10,000,000 is nothing more than a “cost of doing business” for a company that has made millions from this deceptive practice. If it takes 7 years to prosecute a company, what is the deterrent? Furthermore, it is only one issue among a myriad of complaints Canadians have had with Bell’s business practices that have yet to be scrutinized. Although the decision is welcome news, it does little for the millions of customers who were taken advantage of by Bell.

In the US, fleecing the consumer has reached new heights with a practice called “cramming”. Wireless phone companies such as Verizon and AT&T have been fined for unauthorized billing “discrepancies”. The practice of billing for services often never received is blatant “fraud”, yet little is being done to stop the practice. Verizon has issued statements denouncing the billing practice and the FCC has fined them $50,000,000 but cramming is still alive and well in the US and also in Canada.

In Canada, the scam is configured differently but the result is the same. Companies offer you a “special” deal but then bill you the regular price for the service. A simple mistake they say, but its frequency defies a reasonable person’s ability to believe in mistakes. Other forms of cramming are billing for items that were included in your contracted service and for services never ordered. One wireless provider has already been slammed for their high number of “billing mistakes”.

If you think the problems you are having with your provider are unique to you, then you may be encouraged and angered to learn that you are not alone. Your situation may be just another example of being “crammed”.

We live in a world of information overload where “perception becomes reality” and where those perceptions can be manipulated to create an illusion of being ethical. Some corporations believe they can have the rewards of being ethical and unethical at the same time, but invariably, people perceive the illusion is false.

Corporations seem faceless but they are run by people who ultimately are responsible for the actions of the company. We fail to do justice when we prosecute the company instead of the individual. These people commit crimes but never suffer any consequences – they, in fact, benefit from their crime through bonuses and promotions and their reputation is never soiled. No wonder the problem is spreading.

Crimes are not committed by “legal entities” but by people who have narcissistic perceptions of life. Distorted values lead them into the deception that “more is better”, that “survival is of the fittest”, and that “winning is the only thing”. People with these values destroy community, cooperation, and common purpose. They destroy what makes a company and country great. They believe that what they have, is more important than what they are, and that happiness comes from unbridled consumption. They are sociopaths in suits for whom materialism has become their master and they have lost a sense of community or goodwill toward others. Our country and our world are in a “values crisis”. Without intervention, we can only expect things to get worse. This problem and the news story may seem small and even insignificant, but they point to a need for government at all levels to address the growing need for the defence of consumers and prosecution of the individuals who defraud them.

Cap and Trade is not a new idea. It is based on a cap for emissions and the ability to trade any unused portion of that cap amount to someone who may be over the cap – hence the term Cap and Trade. The problems with the system are not in the overall concept but in its execution. The US version of the scheme is so flawed it begs the question, “You’ve got to be kidding?” There are so many loop holes and potential money making “backdoors”, any rational person would see the scheme for what it is – another huge scam! (For more information Google: cap and trade)

The questions we should ask in this situation are:  “How did such a flawed scheme get as far as it has, and who is promoting it?” As one famous investigator said, “Follow the money and you’ll find the answers.” We know who is promoting Cap and Trade – Al Gore. He showed up in Costa Rica early this year and used local flooding as proof of climate change and as a reason for implementing C&T. He revealed his true colours, however, when he said to the Costa Rican business community that they may discover that there is a lot of money to be made in climate change and that they should “put a price on carbon”.

Gore has already made millions from the proposed scheme through his Generation Investment Management company but he is not alone in his support for the C&T tax. Goldman Sachs has been a pillar of support for the plan. You may remember their role in the housing scandal and that their former CEO, Hank Paulson (then Secretary of the Treasury) was at the helm when the US financial system hit the mountain – many people think it was a deliberate act to get the bailout funds (see the film, “Inside Job”).

I believe the planet is in desperate need of  an ecological revolution and that we must change our way of living. I am not, however, about to empower or enrich a bunch of socio-psychopaths in a misguided attempt to do so. Nor am I going to be manipulated into supporting their self-enriching plans as a panacea for real change. We have seen through all of this that greed knows no bounds. This week it was revealed that a hedge fund has been purchasing land in Africa in an effort to make food production their next big “score”. The size of the land is larger than France. If that doesn’t scare you then you don’t understand that there actually are people in this world who are prepared to starve millions of people to make huge profits.

We have become immune to the greed and inhumanity all around us and in so doing have failed to discern the times. These are perilous times that require bold, determined and radical action. In the past, we have seen the resources of the planet squandered while others starved. Today however,  95% of the wealth is in the hands of 5% of the people. Centralized industrial mass food production has the potential for propagating epidemics and famines of mass proportion. Greed empowers a system that is unsustainable and prone to famine and epidemics. Self-indulgence ignores the lives of the weak and the poor. The discerning and wise person looks at the situation and prepares himself.

If you have been frightened by the “climate change story” you need to ask: “Where will that take ME?” If you have been scared by some of the stories that appear in the everyday news, you have to ask; “What does that mean for me?”.  All of these signs of the times, whether far away, or nearby, beg of us to answer the question “What am I going to do about it!”

We are a peaceful people not given to confrontation, but just because we don’t complain or often report unfair practices, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. If we need a Charter of Rights in everyday living – and we do, then without a doubt, a Consumer Charter of Rights is needed by Canadians to protect them from unfair practices in the marketplace.

Tell us your story – leave a comment.

The National Film Board of Canada has been charged with telling “The Canadian Story” and they do a very good job of it. One of their most powerful documentary films is “Waterlife” (2009). It is the story of the Great Lakes. The film documents the flow of water from its head-water to the mouth of the St. Lawrence. It also exposes how this most important source of fresh water is being polluted to new levels by cities like Chicago, Detroit, and of course, Toronto.

Some cities do relatively little to treat their sewage and others do more, but all are far from leaving the water chemical free. Treatment plants were never designed to remove industrial chemicals and the huge amounts of therapeutic treatments which people are taking for medical reasons. For example, more and more fish are being found to be a-sexual (neither male nor female). Scientists speculate that estrogen in the urine of women taking birth control pills goes untreated into the lakes and is the cause of the problem. Heart and other medications pass through the body and end up in our water supply. There is no treatment process for medications and there are literally thousands of drugs and industrial chemicals being dumped in high concentration into our lakes.

When I drive though rural south western Ontario, most of what I see growing in the fields is corn. Very little of our land is being used for the production of vegetables. Most of the crops we grow are used for feed to produce meat. These crops are grown with chemical fertilizers and herbicides. The producers of these chemicals claim that they are far more efficient than organic farming and they are not a problem for our water supply; however, this is clearly untrue on several fronts. Organic farmers now claim that their yields are comparable and the costs for equivalent production are far less without the use of chemicals.

Are there answers to these difficult problems or are we doomed to self-destruction? For centuries people lived on a small patch of land, grew their own food, and ran their own sewage treatment plants (septic systems) and the water remained pure. Then we all moved to the city and became dependent on others to do for us what we had always done for ourselves and that is when the problems got out of control. Moving more people into less space only intensifies the problem. The “Places to Grow” policy grows cities which are unsustainable and prevents people from moving back to the land. We need un-intensive living and intensive farming (Google it) which are both sustainable. That takes vision and courageous leadership. It isn’t easy making monumental changes but we have no choice – we are racing down a dead end street. “Places to Grow” is a policy which has no future. It prevents people from taking control of their lives, providing for themselves, and building their future on the wisdom of the past.

In contrast, in 2001 Gordon Campbell vowed he would not sell BC Rail and won a landslide victory only to break his promise to the people. Recently, two of his cabinet ministers’ aides were convicted of selling information and it is yet to be known why BC Rail paid the head of Campbell’s election campaign in 2001, a $300,000 “consulting fee” around the time of the sale.

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney escaped jail because he broke no law but clearly broke the trust and expectations of the Canadian people as their Prime Minister. Before he left his post, he tried to sell Pearson Airport to a private firm,
with questionable value for Canadians.

Henry Paulson, the US Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of Goldman Sachs, testified to the Senate Finance Committee that he did not know where the $850 Billion bailout funds went even though it was his charge to distribute the money. Not much later, Time Magazine named him as runner-up for “Man of The Year”.

Argentina used to be the richest country in South America. In the 60′s, they had a space program and international car manufacturing but they were brought to abject poverty by political corruption. The wealth of the nation was plundered by multi-national corporations and leaders who served themselves rather than their people.

Closer to home, Ted Rogers bought the $800 Million dollar Skydome (a good portion of which was public money) for a mere $25M without open bidding, due process, or any outrage from the media or the public. For me, it will always be the Skydome!!

Some pundits insist that corruption in government is inevitable, but I emphatically disagree. If you had an employee that took $5 from the till every day, would you dismiss it as “inevitable”. Would you expect to get a “pass” on driving through a red light even if you didn’t hit anyone – No. Should a shoplifter be told by a judge that “since this is a small crime, and we only deal with serious crime, we are going to ignore this whole thing.”  All of these approaches are ridiculous and are actually very destructive to society. Crime is inevitable but always unacceptable. The law applies equally to everyone – politicians, bureaucrats, multi-national corporation CEOs, and to you and me.

Things have changed in Canada since the days of Needles and Hagey. Corruption is being fueled by our media that mocks integrity, scoffs at honesty, and makes money and power something to be obtained at all cost. We are being assaulted from within. Corruption is a very real threat to everything we know as Canadian. That threat must be met with leadership and determination, and possibly some hardships in order to overcome the challenges of corruption and turn us from the course we are on.

Corruption is lawlessness, and law is the foundation of freedom and society. Corruption is not a harmless or acceptable crime – society, you and I, and our children are the victims. It cannot be tolerated without consequence. If you care about our community and our country, corruption should be your call to action.

I challenge men and women of integrity serving locally, provincially and nationally to work to protect Canadians and Canada from unscrupulous leaders. We need new laws that protect the trust we have given our leaders. In every election the issue of corruption should be part of the discussion. When we are lied to in an election campaign, there must be remedies to protect the will of the people – or we can’t call this democracy. We need courageous, truly diversely-owned media which operates freely. We need more funding for white collar crime investigation, and we need to applaud and honour those who stand up against corruption and who fight for truth and justice.

Corruption in Canada has reached a tipping point. We ignore it to our own demise. It does matter who we elect. We need courageous leaders with aggressive strategies to protect and rebuild the public trust and to restore greatness and prosperity to Canada.