Sizzling real estate market

There has been a sustained boom in the Manitoba real estate market three years now, without signs of abatement, states Winnipeg Real Estate Board (WREB) spokesman Peter Squire. The WREB’s sales through its Multiple Listing Service (MLS) have been breaking records every month of this year, passing the $1 billion level early August, the first time it has reached that level so early in the year in the board’s 100-year history.

“There have been double-digit price increases during the last three years,” continues Squire: “But I don’t know if we’ve ever had as strong a year as this one. It is said that interest rates may go up in the fall, but we’ve heard that before. We expect the boom to be sustained well into 2006.

The market’s strength, and the heightened exposure afforded by the MLS website, may be attested to by two indices: the average days on the market fell to 21 this year, from 40-50 in previous years; also, the sales price to list price ratio is reaching 100 per cent, up from say 95 per cent in previous years, according to Squire.

The market is booming across the country but, due to having the lowest built-up inventory among Canadian cities, Winnipeg is right up there at the top. This is having a considerable multiplier effect on building, renovations, furniture sales and the economy in general.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation predicts that Manitoba will be the only province to increase housing construction this year and the next. Population growth is still ahead of growth in housing stock, generating pent-up demand. Other factors favouring home purchases in Manitoba include relatively low interest rates and unemployment, consumer confidence and a strong economy.

The luxury home segment is outselling low-cost houses for the first time.

Rochelle Blumenthal, a retired library technician, sold her family cottage to her daughter and son-in-law last year. “The deal took about six months to crystallize and, during that time, the cottage appreciated in value 20 per cent more than the price I had agreed to sell it for,” she recalls.

Manitoba’s net population inflow of 5000 during the last year is primarily due to immigration. Many an immigrant makes immediate contributions to the economy via purchases of a car and home. Population growth leads, in turn, to growth in retail sales as well as tax revenues.

This has led to a construction boom as well. Private investors Joe Paletta of the Paletta Group and Joe Bova of Man-Shield Construction are planning to turn the abandoned Canada Packers site at St. Boniface into a $70 billion recreation complex, the biggest in the country. They say things are progressing slowly in the right direction, but are reluctant to comment at this preliminary stage.

The athletic park would include indoor pitches, 18 outdoor soccer fields, bike paths, a skateboarding park, golf links, rock-climbing walls, speed-skating ovals and hockey rinks.

A local landscape architecture firm has made concept drawings, and federal funding for the 171 acres may be in the offing in the fall.

Ron Evans, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, has expressed, meanwhile, an interest in building an aboriginal legislative assembly and training centre on the urban reserve he would like to see on part of the site.

[An edited version of this article appeared in Business Edge on September 29 2005.]

Total Quality Management

Consumers drive quality control demand

'New mindset needed' for whole company

By Ashoke Dasgupta - Business Edge
Published: 09/15/2005 - Vol. 1, No. 1

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Quality control is moving out of the manufacturing department and into every aspect of business, delegates at the 10th annual World Congress for Total Quality Management (TQM) in Winnipeg were told recently.

"The preoccupation with quality has shifted from production to all other areas, including customer service," said Armand Feigenbaum, president of General Systems Co. in Massachusetts and keynote speaker.

"One of the greatest challenges facing TQM is the enormous rise in consumers' expectations, partly due to widespread Internet use," said Feigenbaum, author of Total Quality Management and The Power of Management Capital, and holder of a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Quality used to refer to the product or service, but the concept applies to management as well now. It only used to refer to manufacturing, but now applies to fields like medicine and biotechnology. It's no longer a technological matter. The consumer researches data on the Internet and expects superlative quality."

The congress at the University of Manitoba attracted about 300 decision-makers, including executives, engineers and scientists from 22 countries.

Masaaki Imai, founder-chairman of the Kaizen Institute of Tokyo, said: "Though many academic and professional tools like statistical quality control and probability theory have been developed, there is too much emphasis on technical, academic approaches to quality, resulting in less practical day-to-day approaches.

"A new mindset needs to be developed to render quality a way of life involving everyone, not only production personnel as in the past, when shop-floor people dealt with problems after they occurred, often at a horrendous cost."

Imai says the best way to deal with quality problems is, to identify the kinds of problems that may occur at the time of the design process - both the design of the product and the design of the production method. Only at that stage can problems be solved by the stroke of a pencil. Anticipating problems is called "kaizen" in Japan, or "upstream management."

Added Madhav Sinha, chief engineer and head of quality programs for the Manitoba government: "Though the improvement of quality has preoccupied the managerial mind since the industrial revolution, it has undergone some conceptual shifts. It used to be done instinctively until the world wars, when production parts needed to be identical, and every country's defence departments began to pay quality serious attention.

"Top management obviously realizes the importance of TQM in its search for excellence. It's not a flavour-of-the-month program," Sinha said. "We're a little behind in this country, because we're the only industrially developed nation that lacks a quality platform or network. Though their numbers are increasing, we haven't an organization to connect all the people involved in TQM here."

Sinha said he is developing a non-profit association, the Total Quality Research Foundation, to serve as an umbrella for TQM proponents.

As well, he's working with professors nationwide to launch a publication called the Canadian Journal for Quality by February 2006.

"Though Canada isn't a manufacturing giant, a TQM movement is needed, so we'll initiate an annual Canadian TQM Congress as well," he said.

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copyright 2004 Business Edge - Privacy Policy / Delivery Policy / Refund Policy

Port of Churchill casts eye toward Russia

Murmansk sea route touted by proponents
By Ashoke Dasgupta - Business Edge
Published: 09/15/2005 - Vol. 1, No. 1
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Global warming has been described by the British prime minister's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, as a greater threat than international terrorism - but it could mean business opportunities for the Port of Churchill.

Warmer temperatures may melt enough Arctic ice to open a new sea route between the ports of Churchill and Murmansk in Russia. The route may also remain open more months every year due to global warming.

"The rising costs of, and demand for, all forms of energy have put an extra emphasis on dollar-saving routes," says Manitoba MLA Jon Gerrard.

"Combining shipping and railway, the Churchill route is known to be cheaper and quicker. Since the combination of global warming and new ice-breaking technology will likely extend the shipping season, there's a real opportunity here."


Bill Drew, executive director of the Churchill Gateway Development Corp., is looking to diversify the port's productivity.

In June, the Churchill Gateway Development Corp. (CGDC) - a non-profit organization funded by port owners OmniTRAX, Inc. and the federal and provincial governments - appointed Bill Drew as executive director, with a mandate "to explore and increase the list of products that can be handled by Churchill," says Mike Ogborn, corporation president.

Wind power and agricultural equipment, petroleum products, steel and fertilizers are being considered.

"The port is currently shipping 500,000 to 700,000 tonnes of agricultural produce annually," says Drew. "There was a poor harvest last year, so that figure may fall for now.

"We're looking at diversifying the basic commodities passing through Churchill both ways, especially wood pellets to Europe and phosphates coming into Canada. We've commissioned feasibility studies on provisions for containerized business as well," he says.

"Churchill also does a tremendous amount of the resupplying of northern communities, and we'll be working extensively with marine transport companies ... We haven't set any tonnage targets yet, because we're in the early stages."

The findings of 250 scientists, presented at a four-day conference in Iceland in 2003, were that the northern sea route along the Russian coast may be navigable for 120 days a year in 2100, as opposed to 30 in 2000.

Russia has expressed the hope that Manitoba may emerge as a transportation hub for funnelling its plentiful natural resources to North America.

Churchill - 1,000 kilometres north of Winnipeg and with a population of 900 - could also be an alternative to shipping goods from the Far East to Europe. Shipping from Japan to the Netherlands via Churchill could save 14 of the 45 days needed for a voyage through the Panama or Suez Canals, reducing shipping costs by $300,000.

North American exporters could also use Churchill to gain access to China and India, the world's fastest-growing markets.

Lloyd Axworthy, chair of the CGDC, says Russia's economy is now stable, fuelled by oil prices and a $1 billion investment by the Russian government in preparations at the Murmansk end. Though the crystallization of the project into reality is subject to negotiations and resources available, he believes it could take place in five years.

Axworthy says he has been a proponent of the Churchill port since the 1970s. "Hard factual analysis shows this shipping route (to Murmansk) will be about 1,000 nautical miles shorter than (Thunder Bay to Murmansk), resulting in substantial reductions in freight costs."

It will be an essential link to Manitoba, a vital link to 80 million consumers, he points out. With oil reserves waiting to be tapped in northern Canada, the port's development may trigger further exploration, he says.

Churchill's aging equipment, some of it dating back to the construction of the port in 1929, suffered from maintenance problems.

The port, and the rail line serving it, were bought by OmniTRAX, a firm headquartered in Denver, for a token payment of $10 to the Canadian government in September 1997.

The purchaser promised millions of dollars' worth of port improvements. The deal was brokered by Axworthy, then Canada's transport minister.

Since then, OmniTRAX has spent at least $100 million on the port and railway in order to meet security and shippers' needs. It now has the capability to ship freight both ways through Churchill to Mexico through a road-rail network called the Monterrey-Murmansk Trade Corridor.

Churchill can accommodate up to 35 freighters in a four-month shipping season extendable by icebreakers.

The port has been upgraded and can unload at least 100 rail cars a day, thanks to an automated process installed by OmniTRAX to render the unloading of rail cars more efficient.

The port is Churchill's second-largest employer with 80 workers during peak season.

CGDC president Ogborn says two myths about Churchill need to be dispelled.

One is that the rail lines there can only handle box cars - not hopper cars, which are open at the top. "We've proved that incorrect since taking over," he says. "Hoppers are easier to load, efficient to use, have greater carrying capacity, and more of them are available."

The other myth is that the railway lines cannot be maintained due to permafrost. "We instituted best practices for maintenance and changed the type of rock used to stabilize the track. The rock is produced in Manitoba," he says.

Meanwhile, the campaign to boost business at the port is continuing.

Last month, Manitoba Premier Gary Doer hosted a party to showcase Churchill. The party, including politicians, diplomats, executives and industrialists, was intended to afford a window on the north and its potential for shipping, eco-tourism, energy and trade.

The guests included new U.S. ambassador David Wilkins, Colorado Governor Bill Owens, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord and Quebec Premier Jean Charest.

Buddhists Celebrate a Century in Canada

The 100th Anniversary of Shin Buddhism in this country was celebrated on August 28 at the Manitoba Buddhist Temple, 825 Winnipeg Avenue, built in 1946 by Japanese-Canadian Buddhists on release from internment working Manitoban beet fields.

After a solemn and colourful service attended by the temple’s 200-odd members, 14 Canadians entered the Way of the Buddha, each receiving a Buddhist name on the occasion. “Our forefathers suffered much from economic hardships and discrimination, but maintained their faith despite adversity,” pointed out Jim Hisanaga, president, Buddhist Churches of Canada.

Bishop Orai Fujikawa said, “We may not be satisfied with the way our lives go because we are creatures of illusion. However, Buddhist teachings enable us to realize the interconnectedness of all life, and the finite nature of human existence, with courage and joy. They also help us overcome violence and environmental degradation.”

Born near Buddha’s birthplace, MLA Bidhu Jha congratulated the assembly on behalf of the premier and people of Manitoba.

Shin is a sect of Buddhism started by Shinran (1173-1263) in Japan, and similar celebrations were held at Toronto, Vancouver and Lethbridge. All were attended by Gomonshu Otani, his wife and an entourage from Kyoto. Otani is a direct descendant of Shinran and related to the Japanese emperor.

The first Buddhist temple in Canada was built in 1905 near Steveston, BC. Shin Buddhism has since expanded to a total of 17 temples under the aegis of the Buddhist Churches of Canada (www.bcc.ca). The mother temple at Kyoto, Japan, oversees about 30,000 temples in that country.

There are about 40 Shin Temples in the contiguous USA, 60 in Hawaii and 40 in South America. Sensei (teacher or elder) Fredrich Ulrich reflects that many non-Asians are turning to Buddhism because of the growing influence of extreme fundamentalism in many religious communities, their heightened politicization, and the increasing violence in the name of religion in modern times.

Born of Cherokee-German lineage in Nebraska, Ulrich studied at Methodist and Buddhist seminaries. It was his hero Albert Schweitzer, who respected all life, and his First Nations spirituality that led him in the direction of Buddhism. Ulrich was the first non-Asian to be ordained into the Shin priesthood in this country at a 1984 ceremony in Calgary.

The Enlightened One
Siddhartha Gautama, later to be known as “Buddha” or “The Enlightened One,” was born a warrior prince around 563BC at Lumbini, near the Indo-Nepali border. His mother was a lifelong virgin called Maya, which may mean “love” or “illusion,” depending on the context. Gautama married Yashodhara, and they had a son, Rahula.

Evincing a keen intellect and thirst for knowledge, Gautama went on three fateful journeys. On each of them he saw a sight that troubled him greatly: a frail old man, an invalid wracked with pain, and a funeral procession. Pondering age, disease and death, the universal lot of humanity, and increasingly dissatisfied with his unreal life at court, Gautama went on a fourth trip. This time he encountered a monk in orange robes who radiated happiness.

Concluding that ignorance, craving and hatred bind us to the cycles of birth and rebirth Gautama kissed his wife and son goodbye, traveling to famous gurus or spiritual masters for his edification. One night, under a Bodhi Tree, he had a flash of illumination in which the origins of evil, the cause of all suffering, and the way to overcome both, became clear to him. His first sermon was preached at Varanasi, India, and he passed away in Kushinagara at 80.

There are an estimated 500 Buddhists in India, Japan, Nepal, Tibet, Burma, Kampuchea, Sri Lanka, Korea and elsewhere, including a growing number in Europe and North America.

Friendly Manitoba
When Japanese-Canadians were rounded up in this country during World War II, about a thousand of them were brought to Manitoba with promises of jobs at fair wages, housing, and the preservation of family units. They endured racial, cultural and religious persecution. When the war ended, many Manitobans desired their departure from the province, but other voices were raised in favour of their staying, including that of the Winnipeg Free Press.

When, in 1946, it was decided that they should stay in Manitoba, the Japanese-Canadians began to build the temple at Winnipeg Avenue with their own hands.

In 1947, an advertisement was published in this newspaper announcing the Fall Obon Service, a celebration of unity with generations of the past.

[An edited version of this article appeared in the Saturday Free Press of September 3 2005]

Bless the Animals

This year, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Winnipeg, held their first “Blessing of the Animals,” an event that takes place around the time of the feast of St. Francis of Assissi, a saint remembered for his gentleness, vows of poverty and respect for animals.

Pastor Heimo Bachmeyer invoked God’s blessings on all his creatures, giving thanks for “these pets who bring us joy.” He read but a few of numerous Biblical passages about animals.

“The righteous know the needs of their animals,” (Proverbs 12:10a ) and “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food..” (Genesis 1:29)

Rev. Bachmeyer pointed out that humans were stewards of animal life, and the welcomes humans get from their pets on returning home are one of the purest forms of unconditional love.

Helga Rosenberg, who attends the German services at St. Peter’s, considered the blessing an interesting idea which may open the church up and draw more into its fold–she didn’t specify whether she meant more people, animals, or both. Her two dogs seemed to agree. “I find it distressing that non-human life is not respected much nationwide,” she continues: “Puppy mills were unearthed in Manitoba recently, while the government is reluctant to amend cruelty laws drafted around two centuries ago.”

“We purchased T-Bone when he was five weeks old,” explained Shirley and Art Brose: “We chose him because he came right up to us wagging his tail with a beautiful expression on his face.” T-bone was later diagnosed with a congenital defect known as Megaesophagus. “We love him dearly, and are doing everything we can to give him a good life. So far, we have spent around three thousand dollars on him.” They hope the blessing may help T-bone’s Megaesophagus.

Though most world religions teach that respect for the animal kingdom is a component of human moral sensitivity, there are those who criticize the expense people go to over pets, which could be spent on the poor instead. Others argue that concern for animals draws us into a larger circle of life, supplying the missing arc that closes the circle of God’s creations in a loosely-knit ecological web.

The Greeks believed animals had souls, but Thomas Aquinas did not–at least not souls that survived death. Be that as it may, shifts are taking place among Christian and Jewish thinking.

Some credit the animal rights and environmental movements for the renewed religious interest in animals; others say it is a result of the return to the roots of religious traditions, in which animals have always had a hallowed, if forgotten, place.

The symbolism of Christ’s birth in a stable, presumably in the presence of more animals than humans, is well known.

It is suggested that to be only concerned about our own species is but a step away from only being concerned about our own race.

A related question is: if animals have souls, is it acceptable to eat or hunt them?

[Published in the December 2004 Canada Lutheran under the title, 'A T-bone Blessing.']

American Evil

I admired America till the 1971 Bangladesh War, which brought the
moral bankruptcy of US governments representing a cynically
embittered, defeated white middle-class home to me.

Pictures and estimates of the US-backed genocide of about 600,000
East Pakistanis by West Pakistanis may be viewed at
www.virtualbangladesh.com; Archer Blood, then US consul general in
Dacca, telegraphed Washington on April 6 1971, denouncing the US
government's complicity in the genocide: " . . . WE HAVE CHOSEN NOT
TO INTERVENE, EVEN MORALLY, ON THE GROUNDS THAT THE . . . CONFLICT,
IN WHICH THE . . . TERM GENOCIDE IS APPLICABLE, IS PURELY AN INTERNAL
MATTER OF A SOVEREIGN STATE . . ."

Consequently the recent pictures of Anglo-American atrocities,
triggered by the failure of a prevaricating leadership, did not
surprise me as much as they may otherwise have. After all, the
American government was capable of getting April Glaspi, its
Ambassador to Iraq, to advise Saddam Hussein that the US had no
objection to an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait around 1988.

When I immigrated to Canada six years ago, I was not impressed to
hear that some Americans think they ought to invade this country for
its water and other resources. Canadians of longer standing may be
willing to humour their neighbours, but the images of British and
American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners will justify Iraqi
resistance further and swell its ranks, as well as those of its
sympathizers. They are the underdogs in what has proved a grossly
illegal, unjustified and unfair fight from the start.

As yet there is no mention of a reward or promotion for the whistle-
blower, to whom the cause of truth owes much.

US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld admits he was already aware of more
shocking photos than those initially made public, and his President
has no intention of dismissing him. Since the photos in Rumsfeld's
private collection include those of rape and murder, it may be
inferred that the torture of prisoners will be an ongoing aspect of
US policy in Iraq, Guantanamo, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

It is not a one-off, as the Pentagon is saying about the Abu Ghraib
Prison abuses, though Rumsfeld may only be concerned about the cases
for which photographic evidence exists, more of which may yet come to
light.

Rumsfeld, Bush, Blair & Co. probably ordered these abuses, yet are in
the unfortunate position of presenting themselves as the forces of
decency, heroically pitted against those of evil. This position was
never tenable, and is even less so now, but they may be expected do
their best to protect each other as events unfold. Bush claiming
ignorance of all Rumsfeld knew seems analogous to Pakistan's
Musharraf claiming ignorance of all Dr. A Q Khan knew.

Since Rumsfeld did not respond to warnings from Amnesty and the Red
Cross, the perennially epic struggle of a good west versus an evil
east seems to have blown up in the propagandists' faces, although
myths like the Japanese being a cruel race die hard.

The White House would have been unlikely to expose these abuses
had "Sixty Minutes" not done so on April 28. The US government senses
money to be made in Iraq, but the beheading of an American may
indicate the resistance is determined to keep Anglo-American
carpetbaggers from cashing in–if the videotape showing it proves
authentic.

Bush has stated that the guards' treatment of prisoners did
not "reflect the nature of the American people," inadvertently
highlighting the hypocrisy of American society, the essential heroism
of which moviegoers are regularly carpet-bombed with via repeated
releases of historically inaccurate productions like "The Alamo." The
hapless Americans there held out because they were expecting to be
relieved and Mexicans, the only ones who lived to tell the tale, say
some begged for their lives before being put to the sword.

Be that as it may, the involvement of private security contractors in
the management of coalition prisons and interrogations may be
expected to increase in the hope that the US army can yet return to
its Time magazine "man of the year" image, fooling some of the
people. Private contractors are the most bullish segment of the US
military-industrial complex so far.

A Red Cross report says the abuses have been widespread and routine,
while US President "Jaws" Bush insists his Defence Secretary is doing
a superb job. That probably means the main change may be that cameras
will no longer be allowed into these torture chambers, except when
toted by hand-picked journalists who are not part of the thickening
global communist plot.

Efforts to outsource the real fighting at the ground level may also
grow more creative. Trig Guardforce, an Indian firm with a large
database of retired defence personnel, has been approached by
middlemen for a formal tie-up with a US security company active in
Iraq. Like all outsourcing, it is also good for the bottom line
because it offers Indians lower salaries than Americans, which may
not deter relatively less well-off Indians from applying.
Batches of recruits go to Kuwait in chartered flights to enter Iraq
by bus, escorted by agents of US contractors with special passes to
clear the checkposts. The operation is carried out with the full
knowledge of the Kuwaiti authorities, and another point of entry is
through Jordan.

The people of India, Canada or other countries are no holier than
citizens of the US and UK, since "the third degree" is a common
interrogation technique in police stations around the world.
The outsourcing of warfighting, as opposed to warbombing with
impunity, has colonial origins. About 8000 Indian troops died at the
Battle of Kut in Iraq around 1915, for example. They had to be
sacrificed because the British Empire had had the stuffing kicked out
of it at Gallipoli, and their War Office badly needed some favourable
propaganda.

Why am I not surprised that India was not eager to prove what a good
boy it was on being asked to help in Iraq 88 years later? It was
always part of the imperial mindset that, as long as people of other
countries (of non-European descent) are suffering or dying, it
doesn't really matter.

The photos taken in the Abu Ghraib Prison reminded me of holocaust
pictures. In both cases they were probably taken, and the atrocities
performed, because the captors did not expect any of their captives
to ever live free again.

When I consider the public abuse of the charred corpses of four
American security contractors killed in Fallujah in the light of the
images of British-American torture visited on Iraqis, I am not
surprised that quasi-military private contractors are detested by the
public–and not only in Iraq.

The Iraqi people have suffered a great deal, a million and a half
killed by sanctions sponsored by the US and UK before the latter
plucked up the courage to invade. Obviously, they would not have done
so if those countries' leaders believed that Iraq possessed weapons
of mass destruction. The US seems to have gained a Pyrrhic victory in
Iraq which bodes ill for the world and its economy, partly because of
the massive economic deficits already incurred in doing so.

Since the UN seems powerless to punish the US&K, its moral authority
and effectiveness have been irrevocably lost. Hence Iraq's only hope
seems to be the indomitable spirit once shown by Vietnamese peasants
against ruthless neo-imperialist leaders, sometimes acting in the
face of their citizens' opinions.

[Published in Montreal Serai, www.montrealserai.com, 2004]

Indian Independence Day is here again

August 14-15 1947 was a euphoric time for the people of the Indian subcontinent. Those were the days when a shattered post-war Britain departed from its former colony, a millimetre ahead of the toe of the Indian boot on its downswing. Before leaving, they created the new nation of Pakistan, ostensibly so that people of the Islamic faith may live there as peacefully as Hindus in India.

Indians were dreaming dreams that mortals never dared to dream; it is said that some immigrants cancelled their visas to fly home and be a part of the new nation. The euphoria has long since dissipated, replaced by cynicism, corruption and nepotism on epic scales. Most immigrants from that part of the world now in Canada consider themselves lucky to have left their homelands, yet their souls are not so dead as to preclude a certain identification with, and pride in, the vast progress made in India, for example, during the the last 58 years.

A possible exception may be the Anglo-Indian or Eurasian diaspora, most of whom identify with the European colonisers and take pride in their tyranny, perhaps because of a physical resemblance to them. Famous Anglo-Indians who, wisely enough, denied having Indian ancestors once in the West include Sir Cliff Richard, Merle Oberon, Juliet Prowse and Engelbert Humperdinck.

Like Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, however, grow nostalgic for their old countries on the anniversaries of their independence. This year, MLA Bidhu Jha is co-chairing a cultural afternoon at the Manitoba Legislature.

The Pakistani community observes that country's Independence Day on August 14. Masood Hussain Shah, an electrical engineer working as a telephone service representative at Archway Marketing Services, says the Pakistan Association usually gets together in a Community Centre. "The day remains significant for me because I spent 40 years in Pakistan, where I still have family. Last year, we sang national songs at the Waverley Heights Community Centre."

Freedom to live as Moslems
"My father's generation worked hard to gain the freedom to live as Moslems. Foreign rulers didn't belong there," states Kulsoom Mohammadi, a Math teacher at Red River Community College: "Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, is fondly remembered as 'Quaid-e-Azam, or 'great leader.' In the 1940s, few outside the subcontinent were aware of the freedom struggle taking place there. There may be a more widespread global awareness if a similar event were to occur today." On a 2003 trip to Khairpur and Karachi in Pakistan, she found them throbbing with life, the markets packed with goods and people. There seemed more restaurants there, with more customers in them on this visit. Increased educational opportunities have led to more job opportunities, she observes.

Around 1972, one of Pakistan's military juntas declared elections in one of its periodic hiccups of democracy. Eastern Pakistanis were easily elected the majority government, whereupon the military rulers of West Pakistan launched a US-backed genocide to reduce the East Pakistani vote bank. Indian intervention compelled a Pakistani surrender. When the surrender was imminent, Nixon and Kissinger considered a pre-emptive nuclear strike against India, eventually settling for despatching their seventh fleet; all that led to the birth of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, a new nation with yet another Independence Day. However, it continues to share August 14 with Pakistan as the day it became free of Britain.

Sarowar Miah, formerly of Bangladesh, says the community of about 300 doesn't mark August 14 with ceremonies, but has a cultural program on December 16 to mark their independence from Pakistan.

"August 15 certainly means something to me," exclaims Surekha Joshi, an Income Tax Accountant with H & R Block: "Though I've been a Canadian citizen 17 years, my heart's in India." Though the day may come and pass like the other 364 every year for younger Indians who were born here, it brings various freedom fighters to mind for their elders.

"Gandhi's name usually springs to mind, but thousands, if not millions, of heroes and heroines supported his initiatives," continues Joshi. "The strife probably began in 1857, when British Army soldiers of the Hindu and Islamic faiths rebelled, sparking the First Indian War of Independence. The struggle took many years and lives, but tyranny couldn't last forever." She also recalls Subhash Chandra Bose, a romantic who started the Indian National Army with 80,000 men to fight the British because he didn't care for non-violence. Dying in a mysterious 1945 plane crash, he didn't live to see independent India. A Bollywood blockbuster called "Netaji: The Last Hero" has been released in India. Others remember India's first prime minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru and his father; Jinnah, Pakistan's first prime minister, Lajpat Rai and Tilak.

Archetypal British dishonesty
Geeta Kaushal, a New Flyer Industries Computer Programmer and Trustee, Hindu Society of Manitoba, has lots of ties to the country of her birth. "Every year, I go to the Hindu Temple or Hindu Seniors' Centre if celebrations are being held there. Usually they take the form of a cultural program and lunch." She feels that, though Gandhi provided inspirational leadership in the 1940s, the masses' spirit rose up against the British invader-occupiers. Her father, who was in the Civil Service, told her long ago how the British set up a good educational system to ensure a steady supply of Indian clerks to assist them in running the country, spreading the canard that Indians were unfit for higher responsibilities.

The recurrence of the Day reminds her of freedom fighters Maulana Azad and Bhagat Singh, who became an icon when hanged by the British Government for throwing a bomb while the legislature was in session. Singh's pictures adorn Indian public buses to this day, and at least one park has been named after him in Kolkata. "Some Britons were also keenly aware of the injustices of those times," she points out.

One of them may have been Rolton, a British Artillery Officer who is said to have directed Indian artillery during the 1857 War, fighting alongside the "mutineers." Another was Allen Octavian Hume, under whose guidance the Indian National Congress was formed in 1885. It has since evolved into today's Congress Party. Born in London, Irishwoman Annie Besant made India her home from 1893, eventually starting the Home Rule League there.

Kaushal is happy that, despite widespread poverty and illiteracy, India is moving forward, its economic and industrial progress dwarfing that observed in Europe and N. America during the period 1947-2003. Indian culture and heritage have contributed to the world, she says, as may be observed in examples like cremation, yoga, meditation, cinema and classical music.

"Though we're Canadians now, we owe some allegiance to our motherland," declares George Thomas, an Engineer. "I'm proud that India's surviving democratically as an economic force to reckon with, despite complex diversity and conflicts. Our two children were born in Kuwait, but they like visiting India, and appreciate Indian culture. Our daughter insisted on an Indian wedding dress when she married an American from Ohio. We've deep roots and sentiments for India, enjoying the land and its beauty whenever we go there."

Two mistakes
Thomas states the British made two fateful decisions in 1947, in the apparent interests of peace in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. The UK was instrumental, directly or indirectly, in the creation of Israel and Pakistan. If peace was the objective, the wisdom of hindsight reveals both decisions to have been disastrous. Due to British meddling in India, there are now two organised armies in never-ending conflict, replete with nuclear weapons, at daggers drawn on the Indian subcontinent. If Pakistan hadn't been created, Thomas argues, there may have been sporadic Hindu-Muslim riots, but nothing remotely approaching the carnage-potential of warring armies. "I doubt it was a British error of judgement; more likely a clear example of their 'divide and rule' policy, to attain their own ends."

Dr. Atish Maniar, a retired physician who was one of the founders of the India Association in 1969, and a Hindu priest to boot, agrees with Thomas. "The creation of Pakistan was certainly a mistake on someone's part," he declares. According to Maniar, the Indian Independence Day marks an occasion for worldwide joy, since it was the first non-violent freedom struggle ever, showing another way--though usually the road not taken.