The Winnipeg Statesman

Sizzling real estate market

2005-10-12T03:55:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

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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Port of Churchill casts eye toward Russia

2005-09-20T03:48:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

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.

Hyphenated Identities

2005-07-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

As the baby-boomers retire, Canada faces a labour shortage that can only be remedied by immigration. Without immigration, the national population growth is less than 0.5 per cent annually so, at current rates, population growth could become negative by 2008 if not for immigrants.

Every immigrant arrives with some baggage, not all of it in a suitcase. What sort of a person, after all, could forget a land he or she lived in for say a quarter of a century, as well as friends and relatives left behind, merely because of personal security or a higher standard of living? An immigrant who could easily say goodbye to all that may not even be desirable as a Canadian.

Be that as it may, most immigrants retain cultural and psychological ties to the nations they came from, leading to their being not just Canadians, but Chinese-Canadians, German-Canadians, and so on. This has its advantages and disadvantages.

"The adoption of a hyphenated identity has a lot to do with the environment in which one is raised in this country," declares Sonnet L’Abbe, poet and News Services Officer, University of Toronto: "I was raised in an environment where I was the only brown girl in francophone Ile-des-Chenes, rural Manitoba. My mother was Guyanese and my dad Franco-Ontarian. "Friendly" Manitoba proved quite hostile, what with verbal and physical attacks. For a long time, I rejected and disavowed my Guyanese side wanting just to be a Canadian only. The more rural the town, the less the people know how to deal with people of colour."

Behind positive mental attitudes, the offspring of some non-traditional majority immigrants experience occasional difficulties with the English language, their new identities and peers at school, unfamiliar games and activities there, and the effects of immigration stress on their parents. At a certain stage during their first decade in this country they may feel ashamed of their parents, and vice versa.

The Immigrant Women’s Association of Manitoba (IWAM) has a mentor program to ameliorate the effects of such stress, which may otherwise lead to the offspring leaving a dysfunctional home, and even the parents’ divorce. The mentors give talks at schools, reaching other immigrant youth there.

"We talk about our experiences," explains Program Coordinator Priya Sharma: "We teach coping skills, pointing out how wonderful it can be to partake of two or more cultures. Being multicultural gives us options; we can choose Canadian values while retaining others from our earlier ethnic underpinnings. We stress that immigrants chose to come to Canada, knowing full well that it was a different culture."

Though Priya was born in Winnipeg, her father was from India and mother from Trinidad. She is doing a Master’s in Social Work at the University of Manitoba. Though her parents met to fall in love here in the Western cultural tradition, a marriage has been arranged for Priya’s brother and another may be fixed for her with an educated, professionally stable Indian. "I’m not ready yet," she says.

Need for support systems

Visible-minority immigrants have numerous stresses to deal with, having no Canadian experience, not knowing English very well, working as taxi drivers and the like despite high educational qualifications. All this basically stems from racism, affecting their health and marriages.

This is borne out by Asian and African call centre agents getting a higher rate of refusals to speak to them from the people they phone, or who phone into inbound call centres. If actions speak louder than words, the very sound of a non-white Anglo-saxon Protestant (WASP) accent is disconcerting to many North Americans.

One Asian immigrant says that, in his six-plus years here, he’s applied to help-wanted ads run by bookstores and hotels saying, "apply in person," only to be asked to leave his resume at the reception when he did so. Never hearing from them after that despite relevant experience, nor ever seeing non-white personnel working there, he infers that applying in person may be requested in order to weed the coloured out. In one case, he remembers saying to the hotel front desk clerk who’d just asked him to hand his resume over, “But the ad said to apply in person," to which she retorted, “You just did."

Experiences like these drive many closer to their communities for psychological support, reinforcing their Afro- or Asian-Canadian identities.

The hyphenated identity is, in fact, a strategic element encouraging the immigration volume needed by the country, since it has been found that the single most encouraging factor for prospective immigrants is the existence of a strong community from their country at their destination of choice in Canada, since the new arrivals immediately feel they're part of a community.

Winnipeg, for example, is trying to grow its population from about 600,000 to 750,000. The latter figure is the magic number for cities to take off economically, say economists. As Manitoba tries to attract immigrants, community organizations are promoting this province as an immigration destination in their old countries.

The Chinese, German, Argentinean, Jewish, and Francophone communities have organized efforts to attract people to Manitoba. Consequently it is to be expected that fresh arrivals will be hyphenated in identity, owing much to the support system provided by their communities even before arrival.

A major factor in feeling at home is to find one’s traditional language and culture alive and well in the new country. That may be because, as Aldous Huxley once said, "We are born alone and we die alone and, in between, we spend our lives in an effort to mitigate that loneliness."

"Our system encourages hyphenated identities by its policy of multiculturalism" states Prof. John Anchan of the University of Winnipeg: "Some WASP cultural capital has to be internalized by every citizen for successful integration. We should be Canadian first before anything else, or we create psychological ghettos preventing social cohesiveness. The archetypal Canadian may once have been a WASP, but not any more."

"Ethnicity and culture are but two components of our social identity," declares Rana Bose, Vice President-Engineering of Velan, Montreal: "A lot depends on one’s cultural upbringing in the home country. A certain existential alienation had already taken place before I left the dusty heat of India, so I never felt Canadian or Indo-Canadian. My sense of being had no geographical limitations. I only react as an "other" (non Judaeo-Christian) when I feel attacked as such."

Since colonial times, India has had a sizable Anglo-Indian community which especially distinguished itself in music and sport. "Born in Elliott Road, Kolkata, an Anglo-Indian neighbourhood, I married an Anglo-Indian," continues Bose. "In Montreal, I founded Montreal Serai (www.montrealserai.com), a theatre group with a magazine. We did political theatre within the Indian community, producing plays by Badal Sircar, doyen of Indian theatre. After the mid-80s, we started doing mainstream English theatre because it had a wider audience in Canada. Now in our fifties, we don’t do theatre any more and only publish the magazine.

John Mitchell, Sales Manager of the George Kelk Corporation in Toronto, has a lot of experience with hyphenated identity. He immigrated from India, where he was an Anglo-Indian all-round athlete and sportsman at an Anglo-Indian school called La Martiniere, in the 1960s.

"There is a human need to identify ourselves with someone or somewhere," says the affable Mitchell taking a walk on his lunch break: "But it’s time to drop the hyphens since, when we decided to leave our homes, we adopted a new country. My daughter, a Civil Engineer, is curious about India, but my son isn’t; neither of them has been there, and all of us consider ourselves Canadians, period."

Identity and group psychology

Cross-cultural research indicates that Mitchell is right in observing that there is a profound human drive to attach oneself to one or more groups, the exact number depending on individual psychology. Understanding this drive is as essential to understanding the functions group formation and identification serve, as it is to understanding the origins of discrimination.

We usually derive our identities from the world we find ourselves in. As infants, our first task is to develop a coherent personality which pulls our fragmented confusion together. Then, as children, we find some things in the world appeal to us more than others. These things appeal to us because they seem to fill a gap in our lives. From all the appealing things, we create an image for ourselves, be it that of a hippie, executive or whatever.

Psychologists say that, though we may go to great expense to project an image to the world, all the images we create are fraudulent, since much of our lives spring from our unconscious.

Much of human familiarity with, preference for and attachment to the insiders of groups we belong to is motivated by preferential treatment of the insiders, which does not necessarily entail hostility to outsiders. Love for a group’s insiders has been found compatible with positivity, indifference, disdain or hatred of outsiders.

Some members of a group may consider their own ethnic heritage worth preserving while deprecating similar efforts by other communities.

Joan Turner, for example, president of the Robert Burns Association of North America (RBANA), has lived in Canada 45 years. RBANA is an association of the famous Scottish poet’s aficionados. Since most of its members are of Scottish descent it focuses on Scottish culture, of which Burns is an icon.

Turner says, "When I came to Canada I embraced the culture and heritage of this country, but do not deny my original culture or roots. If someone wants to be identified as being from a particular culture, that is their right and privilege. One of my biggest complaints about some immigrant cultures is that they are not prepared to leave the trappings of the ‘old country’ and assimilate with the new country of their choice."

Her comments seem curiously paradoxical since, under the aegis of RBANA and other organizations, Scots seem in no hurry to leave the trappings of their old country in the forms of dress, cuisine, songs and poems, regardless of having been here for generations. Despite the passage of 45 years, Turner herself is president of RBANA, an organization honouring a poet who was never in Canada.

Nevertheless, all RBANA members may not echo her sentiments, which may be her personal opinions, and non-Scottish members of Burns Clubs feel enriched by their glimpses of Scottish heritage.

Born in Glasgow, Winnipegger Jim Carrigan is vice president of RBANA, and has lived in Canada 44 years. "I still call Scotland ‘home,’" he says: "The older one gets, the more one feels a psychological need to hark back to one’s roots. Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, patriot and icon, crosses cultures. Due to many invasions, Scots have often been underdogs and Burns represents the voice of the downtrodden. Who else would have composed poems to a flea or a mouse?"

Insiders and outsiders

Thousands of years ago, the human race abandoned most of the instincts and characteristics that made survival as isolated individuals possible in favour of interdependent cooperation.

Ever since group living became the survival strategy characterizing the human species, the demarcations between a group’s insiders and outsiders defined its social landscape to shape opportunities for interdependence, cooperation and imitation.

Group membership is a form of contingent altruism, limiting aid to mutually acknowledged insiders. The group becomes a bounded community of depersonalized obligation and mutual trust, extended to any insider, whether personally related or not.

Expectations of security and cooperation promote attraction to the other insiders and motivate adherence to norms of behaviour and appearance that assure one’s recognition as a legitimate insider, and entitle one to benefits.

Paradoxically, opposing needs for inclusion and differentiation cause identification with a group. The drive for inclusion is activated when one is detached from a large social collection; however, immersion in a huge collective like Canadian society triggers a search for distinctiveness and differentiation.

Equilibrium is attained when inclusion needs are satisfied by the acceptance of a group while differentiation needs are satisfied by intergroup distinctions.

In 1954, G W Allport pointed out the existence of concentric loyalties including the human race, nation, gender, religion, profession and family in "The Nature of Prejudice."

Insider favouritism and outsider antagonism may be directly related in societies differentiated along a single dimension such as religion or ethnicity.

In complex structures like Canadian society characterized by multiple identities, an individual may belong to one group by ethnic heritage, another by religion, and yet others by occupation, regional grouping and so on.

This profusion of social identities reduces the intensity of the individual’s dependence on a particular group for meeting psychosocial needs, reducing the potential for polarizing group loyalties and increasing tolerance for other groups. Anthropologists say such complex patterns and overlapping group memberships increase tolerance and social stability.

Multiple conflicts criss-cross, preventing cleavages along a particular axis. Multiple group affiliations cause individuals to participate in various group conflicts, so their total personalities aren’t involved in any single one of them, constituting a balancing mechanism within the social structure.

Indo-Canadians find it nice to relax, speak in Indian languages, eat Indian food and do things they used to do in India. Some of them feel a sense of loss after acquiring Canadian citizenship similar to that experienced by women who change their names after marriage. This has led to demands from the Government of India for dual citizenship from the Indian diaspora. India approved it in principle a few years ago, as long as those with dual nationalities are not allowed to vote or hold civil or military jobs.

Marriage alone has taken 20 million Indians to over 100 countries abroad in the last few decades. Many experienced cultural conflict outside India, so their need for hyphenated citizenship may be psychologically understandable.

Future shock

Canadians’ need for hyphenated identities may also be understood from the perspective of future shock, which the dictionary defines as a condition of distress and disorientation brought on by the inability to cope with rapid societal and technological change.

The term originates from the book of the same name, written by futurologist Alvin Toffler around 1970. As relevant today as it was then, the book describes what happens to people and groups overwhelmed by change. "Future Shock" describes how change affects organizations, communities, products, even our patterns of love and friendship. It describes the emerging global civilization: family life, the rise of new businesses, lifestyles, subcultures, and relationships–all temporary or intermittent.

Subjected to too much change in too short a time, people seek "enclaves of the past," the book says. They recreate, as far as possible, some parts of the vanished worlds they once inhabited by, say, commissioning an architect to design a replica of their church in the old country; German-Canadians organize an Oktoberfest every year, Scottish-Canadians a Burns Night, and Irish-Canadians St. Patrick’s Day.

"And what else should Canada be, but a product of its multi-cultural citizenship?" asks Dr. Vivian Ligo, author of "Singing the Lord’s Song in a Foreign Land: Reclaiming Faith in a New Culture," which looks at religious challenges facing new Canadians. "Canada is a new country, a result of 17th-century immigration from Europe. Before that, this was a vast land peopled by Aboriginal tribes who could not collectively call themselves a nation. Consequently, the Canadian psyche is immigrant at its roots."

Until we have a better way of defining our multicultural identity, our hyphenated identities will stay, continues Ligo, who lives in Ontario: "They are a way of honouring the givens of one's identity. Canada is a grand experiment of ethnic mixing, blending, co-existing, interrelating and communicating, which are far better than ethnic cleansing, suppressing and annihilating.

"The process of enculturation or acculturation is a complex one. For an immigrant like myself, being Filipino is in the marrow of my bones. It cannot be extracted because culture becomes second nature. At the same time, my present reality of being in Canada cannot be denied. That is a reality one adapts to, responds to, accommodates, imbibes, avoids, deflects, or absorbs as one is able to by one’s choices. "

Canadians have always been from someplace else, explains Dr. Terry Fay, SJ, a faculty member at the University of Toronto’s School of Theology: "Even the Aboriginals, who were here first, apparently came across a land bridge in the Northwest, perhaps from Mongolia. Not stopping at Canada, they migrated South all the way to what is now known as the USA."

Theological issues run deep, says Fr. Fay, who came to this country from Syracuse, NY, through the university system 50 years ago. People will relinquish nationality before religion. The French came to this country thinking France the greatest country in the world. Then the British, who suffered from a similar conceit, but the Irish didn’t want to be part of the French or British. Neither did Germans, so various communities should be encouraged to keep their original identities along with their new ones, explains Fay.

Fay, an American-Canadian, thought we were all North Americans on arrival but quickly realized Canadians are proud of their separate identity.

The essentially white Anglo-saxon Protestant (WASP) culture or "soft power" of the USA invaded Canada long ago via music, films and media domination. Many feel that various communities from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Bosnia, Croatia, Poland and elsewhere only maintain their discrete cultures within a larger suspension of US, or WASP, culture in Canada. Waves of immigration may change all that in the future, though.

Which is not to say Canada hasn’t a distinct identity from the US. Rugged individualism, for example, is not as respected here as in the US.

The spirit of nationalism is alive and well. Canadians are proud of their citizenship and sovereignty. We place a great importance on feeling Canadian and our Canadian identity, more so since the Bush administration was sort of elected in the USA. Canadians are repelled by American militarism and the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan, proving Canada a kinder society.

Since 9-11, Islamic-Canadians pose security problems because Canadians are reluctant to offend their southern neighbour, continues Fr. Fay, and there are increasing numbers of multiracial Canadians because of intermarriage. There will be many more in the future, since Asians have only been coming here in larger numbers since the 1970s, due to racist immigration policies prior to that. "As generations mix cultures blend, and society is enriched by hybrid identities. The emergence of new races due to intermarriage may give rise to unfamiliar genetic structures."

Statistics Canada recently released a study saying 51 per cent of Vancouver and Toronto may be visible minorities by 2017. I n Toronto, the Irish St. Patrick’s Day is a two-hour multi-ethno-cultural parade, with Filipino and many other bands dressed in green.

A faculty member of St. Augustine’s seminary, Fay says half the priests ordained since 1991 have been of Asian or African origin. There are 27 Filipino Jesuit priests in Toronto and about nine in Winnipeg, so the face of the church may be changing, if only in appearance for now. "The average Toronto parish baptises 87 a year, while the Chinese Martyrs’ Church has consistently been baptising about 500 annually," continues Fay: "Asian bishops have conferences in various parts of Canada. Perhaps because their countries of origin are poor, they are more concerned with poverty. Asian Theology may rub off on Canada in the years to come."

"Canada provides a rich environment for its people to maintain their culture and express it," states Tina Edan, Project Manager of the Dominion Institute’s Passages to Canada (www.passagestocanada.com) program, whose objective is to bring the story of Canadian immigration to life.

Schools, employers, Rotarians and other community groups may contact the Dominion Institute to request up to three speakers at a time. Each of them may speak about 20 minutes, explaining why they chose Canada, when they first thought Canada may be their home, and so on.

A charitable organization, the Dominion Institute was founded in 1997. Since 2003, it has researched Canadians’ knowledge of their past, resulting in the Memory Project and others, focusing on the Canadian story in all its complexity.

In an age of cultural and cyber-tourism, we can learn about other cultures on the streets where we live, asserts Edan: "It’s great to have a Black History month or Asian Heritage month, but I’m wary of the superficial. What worries me is when heritage becomes tokenism, reduced to cultural booths. I call it the sari-samosa syndrome, reducing culture to specific icons, as opposed to the deeper knowledge our organization tries to impart by bringing people’s stories to life. Memorabilia of heritages can be submitted to us for preservation in the form of national dress, photos, currencies, recipes, documents and toys."

The newsstands reveal a plethora of ethnic periodicals including “The Scots Magazine,” “Caribbean Travel and Life,” This England,” “New African,” Scottish Life,” “BBC Focus on Africa,” “Irish America” and “Cultural Survival.”

Hence Judy Haid, a second-generation Jewish-Canadian and Marriage and Family Therapist with a Master’s in Psychology, is probably right in saying, “It is a deep-seated part of people to hold on to their roots, especially those who have been persecuted. Because it is an integral part of the psyche, it is impossible for most people to shed their identities, though a few may broaden their identities to being Canadian only.

[An edited version of this article appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of The New Canadian]

UMFM 101.5 Political Panel, June 1 2005.

2005-07-03T04:01:00.000-07:00

A rough transcript of this fortnightly program, produced and moderated by Chris Albi of the A-Channel, follows:

Chris: Welcome back to the mid-day show, everybody. We’re a little late getting started, but that won’t stop us. Today, on the political panel, we have Ian Trump, Ashoke Dasgupta, and Mary-Anne Sarely, on the line. Ian Trump is a very well read political analyst. Ashoke is a freelance journalist, and Mary-Anne Sarely was an MLA for 13 years, teaches at the University of Winnipeg, and works as a community developer. I’d like to welcome her to the program.

Crocus Fund

Chris: Like I said earlier, you would have to live in a box to not know that the Crocus fund is in trouble. Once again, the boys got caught with their hands in the cookie jar--how they expect to get away with it, I don’t know. Let’s hear from Ian, right off the top. What’s the deal with the Crocus Fund? How could they do this to us?

Ian: Well, I don’t think it’s as much a case of ‘doing this to us’ as much as of ‘getting caught’. Let’s understand what Crocus was--a long-term investment vehicle providing significant tax breaks. About 30% of the money you invested in Crocus could be written off when it was tax time. That’s a significant amount of money people could use to do various different things. It put cash into their pockets. I think that, especially in the light of Singleton’s report, that liberties were taken with expense accounts. Some of these expenses may not have been legitimate business expenses. However, I’d like to point out that there is no official governing or legislative ‘law’ regarding with regards to expenses. I think that this is where the board of Crocus Funds bears a lot of responsibility, because every time these expenses appeared, they approved them. So they are the ones to blame for what we perceive as management ‘living the high life’ at other people’s expense. I just want to point out that Crocus was, and still is, a good vehicle to invest in if you believe in Manitoba business. But, when anyone loses a large amount of money, people question whether or not there were improprieties. Any time anyone loses anything, people will clamour for an investigation, tying public resources up in investigations and actually exacerbating the problem. Over time, Crocus did some good in Manitoba, and it’s unfortunate that it’s going to go down as a giant rip-off.

Chris: Mary-Anne, I want to get your take on this. Are you thinking along the same lines as Ian?

Mary-Anne: Well, not entirely. I want to start off by saying that I haven’t read the report. I doubt that many people have, given that it has just come out. So, what I want to know is ‘what companies were invested in this, and who paid for these expenses’. Some reports are saying that some of the expenses were being paid by some of the companies that were being squired around, on these trips. That’s one issue. Another question is, what companies are a fund like this being invested in? Because if you’re going to have public money and tax breaks going into economic development, you want to make sure that there are some clear local benefits. I would support continuing some sort of venture capital fund like this, if it started out as a labour-sponsored fund to look in to how to encourage investment into local companies, but to make sure that there is going to be some sort of ethical criteria, some sort of community economic development criteria. One of the things that I wanted to point out is that some of the investments that this company was making were really questionable. One that I know about that I really wanted to highlight was the hog barn near the turtle mountain area. The Crocus fund was warned that this was a risky decision, meetings took place, and people who work in that industry ignored the advice. To look really close at who were the interests that were involved? I’m really interested in reading the report, just to see what the other companies were, so that we can decide how to put better regulations around a vehicle that will benefit Manitoban companies.

Chris: So, both you and Ian agree that it is a good institute on paper, it started off well. Ashoke, it was a slippery slope towards doom and gloom right now. Do you think it’s still a good enterprise to have going?

Ashoke: Yes and No. Of course, there are organizations providing venture capital, and Crocus is one of them. Such organizations are essential to the development of the economy in any country. However, the Enron and WorldCom scandals have already revealed the seamy side of the corporate world. The top managements of various corporations have been suspect all over the world. For a long time now, such revelations have only proved yet another nail in the coffin of top management integrity around the world. I would also like to know which companies Crocus invested in, and how they selected them. I know Crocus invested in many call centres. I agree with Ian about ‘getting caught’. When I was a little boy, my father used to tell me ‘Do anything you like, but don’t get caught’. There is only one crime in this world, and that is to get caught. It is usually very difficult to prove anything, but I suspect there are many ‘Crocuses’ all over the world. The one or two that get caught are the unlucky ones. Many board members are mere puppets of the real powers behind the scenes. It would be interesting to know the personal liability of Crocus board members between 2000 and 2004. They are highly paid, which raises the question of whether or not they are overpaid. There should be a law restricting the salary of these board members to a certain multiple of the salary of the lowest-paid worker in the organization.

Chris: I see Ian…

Ian: Let’s not get confused here. A board of governors or a board of directors of a corporation are remunerated, but are to no means remunerated to the extent that the CEO is. They are already very rich, established members of the community, who usually have significant holdings in that actual company. Here is the problem, what the United States have done regarding Enron and other fiascos, they have made these boards criminally liable for things like fraud, extortion, any of those crimes, and signing off on false financial statements. In Canada, we don’t have any laws in place to make these boards responsible, criminally or civilly for acts of gross negligence. I think that Canada should move more towards the direction that the United States has gone, to get the public opinion back on track with investment vehicles in general.

Mary-Anne: I think we should look at the structure of this investment fund. Can anyone tell me how much these guys are paid?

Ian: About 10-20,000, which is pithy in comparison to other companies. However, there are some perks, for example, if you decide to be on another committee, you could get another $5000 dollars/year. If the company is successful, they could hold a vote to give all of them selves more shares. They want to do what is best for their pockets, and questioning the CEO may not be in the best interest of their pockets. We need to change this mindset, because if junior executives are convinced that blindly agreeing with the senior executives will lead to financial success, it will cause them to become lazy decision-makers.

Chris: Switching gears, Ashoke, do you think it’s fair that the NDP are taking all of the heat for this?

Ashoke: They were responsible, but not solely responsible. Ultimately, since they were in power, I suppose they are morally responsible for what happened. I think they need to tell taxpayers who paid that 30 cents for every dollar invested in Crocus funds. Public investigations are expensive but may be necessary to find out why the chief hired an executive who had been disciplined and fined twice before joining Crocus funds. When public money being used, the government can’t be lax in enforcing policies. They should pass laws requiring full-time board members…

Mary-Anne: The government had one person on the board, which was a civil servant. So presumably that person is there to report back to the government. There is also the suggestion that because of the number of labour representatives on the board, and the party in power is an NDP government, that there should be a relationship there, through either formal, or informal channels. It is because of the tax credits that the media has been covering this closely, and pointing out provincial responsibility.

Ashoke: I would also like to add that there is a fundamental problem of motivation in business. What is the motivation for a man . . .

Chris: Or woman…

Ashoke: Or a woman…

Chris: Thank you.

Ashoke: . . . To join the board of a large corporation? To make money, lots of it. Otherwise, who would want to be the chairman of the board of General Motors?

Mary-Anne: Perhaps they think that General Motors does good work? They believe in the product or service of the corporation. There are a few people who go to a job they love every day.

Ashoke: There are very few people who are in business for idealistic motives. In business, people want to make money. Their ideals and morals are on the back burner. It doesen't say anywhere that they must make money by ethical means.

Ian: If I could just make a point, here. I’d like to point out that it wasn’t the government’s responsibility to audit them, or anything. That was the board’s responsibility, now, if somebody was going to go to jail because a 10 million dollar loan was shown as a 10 million dollar equity position, then that sort of accounting mistake would have never made it into the report. We talk about stricter policies, but we’re actually much tougher on drunk drivers then we are on white-collar crimes. Considering how many Manitobans’ money was in this…

Chris: 30,000 Manitobans. Someone really needs to take the heat for this.

Ian: It’s time to open up the chequebook. Crocus…I don’t think they can recover from this, they don’t have any real trust left. Their reputation internationally has taken a huge hit. They should be liquidated, and any money that they owe should be returned. The CEO and the board members also need to be criminally indicted for their activities.

Chris: Mary-Anne, your last comment on this issue?

Mary-Anne: I agree with Ian, there should also be legislative changes and policy changes. What can we learn from this?

Chris: Ashoke?

Ashoke: I believe around 34,000 Crocus shareholders have brought a class-action suit that will be filed at the end of the week, for $85 million. Lawsuits like this can severely damage a corporation's reputation; however, under new management, Crocus could survive. Perhaps there should be legislation, some kind of securities and exchange commissions to prevent such things in the future. The managers are more responsible than the government. Mis-spending the money of trade-unionists and widows is morally very culpable.

The old arena

*Mary-Anne must leave *

Chris: Obviously there was a lot of hoo-ha about the new MTS centre, and about how MTS had laid out rules about what can happen to the old arena. Ian?

Ian: Well, it’s sold and we’re done with it. But, there have been questions as to why an 11-million dollar property was sold for 2.5 million dollars. This is because it’s a big building, and hard to get rid of it. It’s also in a prime shopping area. This is a golden opportunity to expand the Polo Park shopping centre. The problem is, we were too eager to sell it, and lowered our price to give a huge discount. I think we could have held out for more dollars. The Winnipeg arena has been a financial strain over the course of time that it was in use. The sooner they can turn the place into prime shopping real estate, the better. So, I can see the reason why it was rushed along, because with all of the incentives, that area could help build a larger tax base for the city. Everything seems to be moving very quickly through city hall these days. Are they going to think things through with the development of this property? There seems to be a lack of public dialogue on this issue.

Chris: Ashoke, do you agree that things are too concealed behind closed doors?

Ashoke: Yes, I think there should be a law stating that, when a piece of real estate is being sold for anything less than 75% of it’s market value, the public should be notified.

Chris: Commercial real estate, or any kind?

Ashoke: Any kind of real estate. Anyone willing to pay more should have 30 days to make their offer. There have been some extreme cases in the past, such as the port of Churchill that will someday be worth trillions of dollars. It was sold to an American company for $1. If I had known, I would have bid $2! In my old country, India, there is a law stating that, if a property is sold for a ridiculous amount, the government must be notified of such a transaction and can step in and buy the property for the same amount.

Chris: Do you believe that the government should intervene, Ian?

Ian: The problem is, the arena really belongs to the city of Winnipeg. The arena has never been very profitable. I just think that it’s ridiculous that it was sold for such a low price, when they already had title to it.

Chris: Ashoke?

Ashoke: Yes, that the government did have the ownership of the property, and the public should be informed. Had it been a private owner, the government should have been informed.

Chris: I think we’re all in agreement here.

Ian: We need to know the answer to the question, ‘why was this arena sold for an amount the general public perceives to be a steal of a deal’? Convince me that the right decision was made here.

The Grewal tapes

Chris: What’s wrong with human beings? Didn’t anyone ever tell him that lying doesn’t work? It will catch up with you. Around the time that Belinda Stronach crossed the line, there were accusations that certain members of the opposition were…bought. Ashoke, what is your take on the Grewal tapes?

Ashoke: I feel that Canadian politics is bouncing at the bottom of the seabed right now, with nowhere to go but up. It seems to be a case of when thieves fall out, honest men come in to their own. Anyway you look at it, a person who would tape a conversation after voluntarily engaging in it, is untrustworthy. This will not raise Mr. Grewal’s stock in his own party, either. It also raises the importance of the disgruntled as information sources. Grewal apparently spilled the beans because the deal did not go through. The only good reason I can think of for not having fresh elections is that they are very expensive. Polls all over the world have indicated a lower level trust. In the olden days, or, at least when I was a student, it was common to hitchhike across the country. Today, I notice that nobody does that. This is because the hitchhikers, and the drivers don’t trust each other. The level of trust in society has greatly declined. Again, these tapes are a matter of getting caught--there are probably many more.

Chris: Ian?

Ian: This is just business as usual. This is how politics works. However, Grewal has put himself into a bad position, but in terms of Stephen Harper, he would be questioning why this guy’s ultimate loyalty for even taking the phone call in the first place. I don’t think that this was an actual attempt to ‘buy’ this guy. I think this was about exploring options about methods of recruiting people to your side. It’s pretty obscure in the transcript what they were talking about. It wasn’t as if he was offering this other guy something too grand. He just stated the advantages, and the decision was left up to this other guy. Yet, the media gets a hold of it, and people act so shocked. This was a convenient political moment.

Chris: It just seems like the behaviour of little boys, not to stereotype men...

Ian: Scared little boys, because it’s scary to think about going and getting a real job, and not participating in politics in Ottawa anymore. Not so much the higher ranks, but the ranks below them. A lost election means that they will be out of a job.

Chris: One more point, Ashoke?

Ashoke: I think there should be a law preventing crossing the floor after you are elected from a particular party's platform.

Chris: Whoa, Ashoke is all about laws today.

Ashoke: Also, you said before about how it is like little boys, and not little girls, but Belinda Stronach's may have been a similar deal.

Chris: Fair.

Ashoke: I noticed that the conversation was in code, but since the health minister was also in the conversation, and both he and Grewal are Punjabis, there may've been no reason for using code! I hope they used good translators to transcribe the tapes properly.

Chris: Ian, I see that you don’t seem to agree with Ashoke’s idea of passing laws about crossing the line.

Ian: I think that the current system we have is wrong. We shouldn’t be aligning with parties. Representatives should be elected on merit, not based on their ability to follow a leader blindly. When it comes to issues that you find morally repugnant, you shouldn’t have to vote on party lines, you should be free to make your decision. We should be doing what the public wants, not what interest groups that control the three major parties want.

Ashoke: Ideally, I agree with Ian. Unfortunately, the real-world situation is one in which anyone can cross the political line whenever they want to. Everyone has been elected from a certain party’s platform. If they want to change their party, they should do so before the election.

France rejects EU constitution

Chris: Let’s talk about the European Union constitution itself, Ashoke?

Ashoke: The European Union can continue without a constitution, based on the established guidelines. However, the credibility of the European Union itself is being called in to question, with these referendums. France has already voted ‘no’, and tonight we will know the Netherlands’ answer. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that nine other nations have already approved the constitution: Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. Others are going to have referendums, and I understand all 25 nations have to ratify it. So, with France voting ‘no’, it will be a few years before another vote is taken. For now, the EU will have to continue without a constitution, as it has in the past. France’s opposition seems to be partially against the government, especially over the economy. Many felt that the constitution would create too much of a free-market environment. Some French people believe that France is alienating itself from the EU. National identity and pride played a large part in the vote.

Chris: As well as other factors involved. Ian, what do you feel are the ramifications of France refusing the EU constitution?

Ian: The polls are predicting that the Dutch will vote ‘no’. The European Union constitution is done. It is a 300 page document that is cumbersome, contained way too many compromises. It’s very disappointing from a couple of perspectives. The people in Washington and in Russia are probably breathing a sigh of relief right now. The reality is, the European Union thought that this would be a good idea, to try and band together. Trade was one of the reasons, but another reason was to combat nationalism that led to continental wars in the past. Now, it’s not so much about physical wars, but economically. A while ago, the German Deutschbank was the power broker in Europe. As a result of EU union, the Germans are very unhappy about that situation. With France’s nationalistic vote, if there’s one thing that can be put into perspective, it’s that the Germans are much better at nationalism than the French are. We’re into a situation where Europe is in crisis. There is going to be a return to very partisan laws and restrictions of movement within Europe. This was done mainly because of the concept of allowing Turkey and other Eastern European countries into the EU. This, from France’s perspective, was a very bad thing. For the other first-world European nations, it was a bad idea, already having to deal with Islamic Fundamentalism in their own countries. Germany has been claiming that it has opened its doors to refugees and has been supplying money to them, but has refused them the right to actually work in Germany. If they were to do that, they would be in the middle of a political crisis, not giving those jobs to other Germans. Europe is very territorial, and the European Union is an unworkable document that won’t get anything solved.

Ashoke: The European Union needs to decide what it wants to be. Should it be a loose organization, or a tight one in which the nations involved would surrender their sovereignty in favour of the EU? When they answer that, they can make the constitution more on-track. They would then try their best to unite the nations on matters of trade, military, and so on. It also has to face a certain racial element. I believe one reason why some people in France voted ‘no’ is because they did not want to see an Islamic country in the EU, so they need to decide whether they want to be a European Union or a Christian Union. If it is to be a Christian Union, they can leave Turkey out. Geographically though, Turkey is a part of Europe. If that is the real reason why many people voted ‘no’ in France, it will only serve to further polarize the Christian and Islamic nations.

Chris: It’s quite evident through the Euro that not all nations have signed on to that.

Ian: Exactly. Economics is one of the reasons, I think. Ashoke made his point about race very eloquently; I think that race was a small part of it as well. I think that there are two things at work here. Europe is still concerned about Germany. They don’t trust them fully. Another factor is that the Eastern European states that were originally so excited about the opportunity to join the EU are working on the assumption that Russia is down, but not out. They are buying into the program for protection. Germany needs to make a decision about whether to be involved with NATO, or the EU. Being in NATO puts you into the American circle of influence, like it or not. Being in the EU puts you into the European circle of influence. That’s why the rest of Europe doesn’t trust them all that much.

Ashoke: The European Union also needs to face the problem of the public. The politicians seem perfectly happy with the European Union, but some sections of the public believe differently.

Chris: Why do you think that is?

Ian: It’s because the constitution is overly long, and ambiguous. At the end of the day, the Dutch consider themselves to be Dutch, not European Union members. The problem is that the constitution doesn’t serve the purpose of providing a forum for disputes between countries. It’s a rotating presidency, which some Europeans fear will reach the Germans, and then stop rotating.

Ashoke: Many European nations are proud of their cultural identity, and the Dutch are no exception. I once heard the saying, “If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much." I believe that there will be a EU summit on the 16th and 17th of June in Brussels. It’s known as the European council. They'll probably determine whether or not it is worth it to continue with these ratifications with other member states or reconsider it in a few years.

Native-run correction agencies

Chris: Throughout history, looking at the prison population, there have always been a high percentage of Aboriginal and Metis people being represented. In my opinion, something needs to be done about this situation, and this is a step in the right direction. Ian, do you have any thoughts?

Ian: It’s an interesting approach, and I think that some cultural sensitivity would go a long way in the mitigation of some of the problems that our Aboriginal people face. I think that if Aboriginal people, and a correction agency that’s geared towards that direction determined their fates, I can see that this might have some positive benefits. As soon as there is a transgression on the side of an Aboriginal person, they are thrust into a very North American way of dealing with the situation. There is a lot of potential for misunderstanding. That’s not to say that hardened criminals won’t take advantage of that system. However, hardened criminals already take advantage of the current system, so I don’t think that we stand much to lose with trying something new.

Chris: Ashoke, do you think that an initiative like this would change the prison population of Aboriginal and Metis people?

Ashoke: It will make a difference, but I hope that it will make a difference for the right reasons. Opinion polls show that people generally see the RCMP as being racist in how they deal with visible minorities. Another example of racism would be the many cases of ‘stolen sisters’, a disproportionate amount of Aboriginal women among them. This has become a human rights embarrassment to Canada, as Amnesty International has pointed out. The aboriginal people deserve a hand in the justice system, but I do not want to see cases of criminals getting off lightly because they are being dealt with by the Aboriginal justice system.

Ian: I think that in order to make this a legitimate enterprise, they need to be more harsh, and articulate exactly what the penalty will be for certain transgressions. In the early stages, they can’t make it seem as an easy way out, or public support will erode quickly.

Chris: Let’s wrap it up with a few final statements. Crocus investment fund, where does the future of this corporation lie?

Ian: I think that this is a perfect education vehicle for the fact that there are some gaps in our laws. I think that this is an opportunity to encourage spending control. The good news is, nobody went to Crocus and started shredding documents in the middle of the night. That’s what happened with Enron, they just couldn’t try and hide their white-collar crimes. Ideally, business owners will learn from this. However, people in those positions are very prone to miss-appropriation of funds, and corruption.

Ashoke: I think that the auditor general’s report has indicated that there were sufficient red flags to determine that the Crocus fund was in trouble, but it did not react. There should be a change in how these boards are run, when it comes to large businesses. Perhaps the University of Manitoba’s business school could make a case study out of it, and investigate alternative methods of governance of boards, in general.

Chris: I hope they do.

Ashoke: Crocus is not quite croaking yet. With new management, it could come back and still be successful.

Chris: I’d like to thank you both, as well as Mary-Anne for being on the political panel this week. We’ll be back with a new one in two week’s time. Until then, Carpe Diem, everyone, have a good day.

Seal Hunt Protest

2005-06-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

On June 25, Animal Watch Manitoba protested the annual Canadian Seal Hunt outside the Red Lobster Restaurant on Portage Avenue across from Polo Park. From around noon, half-a-dozen protesters handed out pamphlets to all walking by, including those going into the restaurant. The activists put signs up, and passing cars occasionally honked in support. Some of them were holding miniature seals.

The protest was part of a national effort to press the Red Lobster Restaurant chain, one of the biggest seafood buyers, to use its clout within the industry to end the largest marine slaughter in half a century. There were similar protests outside Red Lobsters around Canada.

Syd Baumel, one of Animal Watch Manitoba's Founders, says 365,000 harp seals were killed for their pelts in 2004: "Three years ago, research indicated 42 per cent of the seals were skinned while conscious and alive. The meagre $15.5 million profit for the sealers, an average of $1000 per sealer during a two-month culling season, doesn't even provide an economic justification for this barbarous practice, abhorrent to thousands the world over."

Twyla Groening said that even in Newfoundland, where 90 per cent of sealers live, sealing income accounts for less than a tenth of one per cent of that province's economy.

Aaron Fehr, another of the protesters, agreed that the seafood industry doesn't even make much money out of it. "I want the government to stop the cruel and unecessary seal hunt, which gives Canada a bad name while contributing very little to its economy," stated Lesley Wise.

Considered a fishery in Canada, the seal hunt is managed, defended and promoted by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, according to Stacy Belding, another protester.

Her mother Lynne says Red Lobster has indicated that it has concerns about Canada’s seal “harvesting practices,” but its seafood purchasing policies, which allow for seafood purchases from several of Canada’s seal hunting provinces, run the risk of putting money in the pockets of the fishermen who bludgeon seals to death each spring. Red Lobster has yet to take the steps necessary to ensure that diners at its chain will not be served seafood caught by Canada’s sealers.

One Mr. H. Hughes, a visitor from the UK who was passing by, felt the seal hunt should be stopped: "There isn't much benefit in being so inhumane."

The restaurant Manager did not wish to comment.

Hindu Temple Inaugurated

2005-06-30T16:15:00.000-07:00

A two-week program inaugurating the new “Hindu Temple and Dr. Raj Pandey Hindu Centre” commenced with a blessing of the premises on June 12. The 30,000 sq. ft. temple is situated on 3.3 acres on 999 St. Anne’s Road, at its intersection with Ward Avenue, just before the Perimeter Highway. The $4.1 million project is owned and managed by the Hindu Society of Manitoba (HSM), and say 2000 Hindus were present from all over the province when the inauguration climaxed on June 26.

The new facilities were made possible by grants from the city and province as well as donations from Hindus and well-wishers. “Some Sundays, we were getting 200-400 worshippers at the old temple on Ellice, and there wasn’t adequate space for their shoes and coats,” explains octogenarian priest Atish Maniar: “So, around 1996, the HSM directors decided to buy land for a new temple, and to raise funds. Local architects were commissioned and statues have been imported from Jaipur, India.”

The Ellice Avenue temple accommodated about 250 people, while 600 will fit in the new one’s prayer hall. About 400 more may be accommodated in the new multicultural hall and sports complex.

The Hindu community was getting worried when some of their youth started attending churches to meet their spiritual needs around 1969, and one Dr. Ram Gupta came from Edmonton to suggest the formation of a Hindu society and temple, in order to have their own religious services.

Maniar, then a physician in his forties, became the founding president of the Hindu Society of Manitoba around 1970, and its first annual general meeting was held at the International Centre in April 1971.

In the early 1980s, the HSM bought the premises at 854 Ellice Avenue and converted it to a temple. Prior to that, they were holding their services privately in Hindus’ homes and, sometimes, at the International Centre.

Maniar recalls there may have been about 250 Indians in Winnipeg the 1980s, many of whom had been expelled from Uganda’s head of state, the late Gen. Idi Amin, for a robust industry and entrepreneurial spirit that resulted in what many Ugandans came to see as a stranglehold on their economy. “I estimate about 2000 Hindus in Manitoba today and 60,000 Indians in Winnipeg, over 400 of whom are HSM members,” declares Maniar.

The 2001 Census enumerated 4885 Indians in Winnipeg.

Maniar’s father and grandfather were Hindu priests in Mumbai and, when he was six years old, sent him to be trained for the priesthood as well. However, the young Maniar subsequently scored high marks on graduating from school, so he studied Medicine and became a doctor, coming to Winnipeg as a post-doctoral fellow with the Canadian National Research Council in 1964.

Around 1990, while practicing Medicine and lecturing at the University of Manitoba, Maniar “started retiring” and became a part-time priest at the Ellice Avenue temple and the Manitoba Hindu Dharmik Sabha on Manitoba Avenue. The latter is another Hindu temple, under the management of Hindus from Guyana and Trinidad.

“The new temple will be great. It’s about time we had more spacious premises to service the thriving Indian community in this city,” states Priya Sharma, a University of Manitoba Social Work student: “I remember going to the Ellice Avenue temple with my parents ever since I was five. St. Anne’s is further from our Tuxedo home, but I’m looking forward to seeing the architecture and using the exercise facilities. The need to exercise should be instilled from birth as a family activity. The first thing I’m going to do is have someone show me around the place.”

The HSM found it hadn’t enough space at the Ellice Avenue temple for its cultural and Hindi language school, or its music, art and dance programs. “We’ve been using the Gen. Wolfe School premises for these activities, but the new temple will have ample space,” asserts Bhadresh Bhatt, president of the HSM.

Hindus who live closer to the Ellice Avenue temple will continue attending services there. However, most of Winnipeg’s Hindus live in the Whyteridge and St. Vital areas, so St. Anne’s may be nearer for them, continues Bhatt.

The temple at St. Anne’s is the only one in North America to be situated on a river bank, and rivers have a mystic symbolism. “Water, wind and earth are considered holy in Hinduism,” Bhatt explains.

The temple is important to the Hindu community because it provides a focal point for them to get together and practice their beliefs. It provides a religious and cultural meeting place for the Hindu diaspora from Africa, India, Mauritius, Trinidad and elsewhere who share a common faith.

“The new sports complex will have a gym and facilities for badminton, table-tennis, basketball,” explains Bhatt: “Though consumption of alcohol and meat are prohibited on the premises, they’ll be open to all. There are also three classrooms, a stage with sound and light equipment, and a suite for visiting scholars who may come to give discourses.”

According to Bhatt, the new temple has a library containing fiction and periodicals as well as religious works, and a museum featuring costumes, utensils and displays typical of the cultures of various parts of India.

“One needs support. I didn’t know anyone in town when I was a new Canadian,” reveals Bhatt: “Then I started going to the temple every Sunday and, in time, built up a network of friends and acquaintances. They asked if I needed help finding a house, job, doctor and so on. We’ll offer the same referral services to new immigrants from anywhere.”

An edited version of this article appeared in The Winnipeg Free Press of June 26 2005

Refugee Funds Inadequate

2005-06-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

The $398 million federal budget for immigrants goes mainly towards information programs, websites and settlement programs for immigrants, leaving the refugee segment underfunded.

Marty Dolin, Executive Director of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Centre [MIIC] says none of the $398 million goes into refugee sponsorship. It amounts to $20 million annually for all the provinces, anyway, most of which is spent on English and French language classes.

The minimum provincial budget should be about $800,000, allocated on the basis of the provincial percentages of the national refugee population, he suggests.

Dolin says it's a gross embarrassment to have to tell refugees they've to live on a welfare budget, rendering eating chicken, or smoking, luxuries.

The federal government used to set the rents, but now they're set by the province.

The provincial welfare budget for rent has been flatlined ten years now. The much-vaunted housing boom in the city's at the high end, not at the lower end of the real estate market, inhabited by refugees.

Some economists say a trickle-down effect may be expected in the real estate market but that, according to Dolin, is like feeding a horse and waiting behind it.

On viewing some of the apartments shown them by MIIC staff, some refugees opined that it was better in the refugee camps they came from.

Every refugee has to pay his/her own transportation to Canada. They can't sponsor their relatives till that's been paid back. We can move troops around the world, but not refugees. A family of seven finds it owes say $12,000 on arrival in this country--on a welfare budget. By the time they repay it, other relatives may have passed away in their old countries.

Ottawa wants to reduce the Canadian refugee intake on the grounds that 'these people are more difficult' than the average immigrant.

That's another way of saying, 'Let them rot and die overseas so they don't bother us here, despite our professed Christian values and ideals.'

However, Winnipeggers are essentially compassionate to refugees. The day after a recent press article about the arrival of a woman from Nairobi, several school teachers called Dolin to inform that their kids had raised $600 for her.

African-Canadian Cultural Heritage Centre on the cards

2005-06-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

In a rare display of solidarity, immigrants from over 30 African nations have agreed to create an African-Canadian Cultural Heritage Centre [ACCHC], a massive complex to cater primarily to the African-Canadian community.

According to Akim Kambamba, ACCHC president, most immigrants from Africa live downtown or in the southern part of the city, so they'd prefer a location in between. He estimates at least 15,000 people of African descent in this city.

The City has shown them a piece of land on Wilkes, and will be showing them alternative sites as well.

The three gubernatorial levels and African community will finance the project.

The Winnipeg Foundation has financed $20,000 for a feasibility study, so they've met two consultants and will interview another before choosing one of them to carry the study out.

The $ 6 million project plans to feature:

Halls for community meetings, Folklorama pavilions, cultural events and weddings

An auditorium for music/dance performances from visiting African artistes

A hall for various African church groups, very different from traditional European churches. Other African religions will also be welcome

A day care facility

African-Canadian restaurant

Wellness Centre with a doctor and dentist

Professional office space with a lawyer and accountant

Library with prominent African periodicals and History books, mostly in English but also in standard African languages like Swahili

An indoor soccer complex enabling year-round participation in this game, most popular among Africans

Facilities for basketball

A gym and a

Swimming pool

20th Anniversary of German-Canadian Congress

2005-06-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

The German Canadian Congress [GCC] celebrated its 20th anniversary by hosting its first annual ball on May 27. It was held at the Grand Ballroom, Fort Garry Place, with a dinner, dance and music from the "Gig One Big Band."

The 2001 Census counted 5400 people of German origin in Winnipeg.

Hubert Kondziela, a past president of the GCC [http://gccongressmb.tripod.com], estimates there are about 250,000 Germans in Manitoba, 200,000 of whom may be in Winnipeg today. “Though the first Germans came to Canada three centuries ago, there was a wave of immigration after WWII, when thousands of Germans immigrated here, including not only himself but also the current president, Helmut Hesse. Both of them were born in Breslau, then part of Germany, now in Poland.

The GCC is an umbrella organization of German-speaking peoples, not only of Germans. Nine organizations are affiliated to it: the Friends of Austria Club; Swiss Club of Manitoba; Manitobans for German Language Education; South Winnipeg Kinderschule; German-Canadian Heritage Foundation; German Canadian Benevolent Fund; German Canadian Cultural association; German Society of Winnipeg; and the German Canadian Business and Professional association of Manitoba.

“Organizations like ours are increasingly important at a time when the world is shrinking,” explains Hesse: “To understand something of the global village in which we find ourselves, we must start with the corner of it from which we sprang.”

The GCC’s objectives include fostering cooperation among German-Canadians and promoting a better understanding of their cultural heritage; cultivating the German language, customs and culture within the concept of multiculturalism; and establishing charitable funds.

In complex structures like Canadian society characterized by cross-identities, an individual may belong to one group by ethnic heritage, another by religion, and yet others by occupation, regional grouping and so on.

This profusion of social identities reduces the intensity of the individual’s dependence on a particular group for meeting psychosocial needs, reducing the potential for polarizing group loyalties and increasing tolerance for other groups. Anthropologists say such complex patterns and overlapping group memberships increase tolerance and social stability.

Twenty-fifth anniversary of the Guyanese Cultural Organization

2005-06-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

The Guyanese Cultural Organization of Winnipeg Inc. [GCO] celebrated its 25th anniversary with a banquet at the Viscount Gort Hotel on May 28 2005. “My late husband Milton was one of the half-dozen or so founders of the GCO in 1980,” says Eulah Matheson, a retired nurse who served the Misericordia Hospital 29 years.

Bounded by Suriname, Brazil, Venezuela and the North Atlantic, Guyana features a dazzling rainforest filled with colourful birds, enticing waterfalls, large trees and plants, as well as myriad mammals.

The country’s potential as an ecotourism destination has been wasted, however, by economic mismanagement, political instability and ethnic tensions, which have rendered it one of the world’s poorest countries.

A third of Guyana’s population is descended from African slaves imported by the Dutch to work on sugar plantations; another half of the population is descended from indentured Indian agricultural workers imported after slavery was abolished. Tension between these two groups has destabilised politics and is evident in hostility between the two main parties, which are ethnically based.

Consequently it is hardly surprising that Milton, a mechanic, said to Eulah, a midwife, one day in 1968, “I don’t think things are going to get better in Guyana. In fact, things will deteriorate, so let’s immigrate to Canada.”

The Mathesons had a cousin who had immigrated to Canada that year, to settle in Winnipeg. “We were being told by the immigration officer to head for Calgary: ‘We need midwives and mechanics in Calgary,’ when my husband ejaculated, ‘Forget about Calgary. We have a cousin in Winnipeg and want to go there,’” explains Eulah.

Milton came to Winnipeg in May 1969. He stayed with his cousin, found an apartment, and Eulah followed him in June. There may have been 100 people from Guyana in Winnipeg at the time. Today, she estimates, about 1100 live in this city—nurses, electricians, doctors, mechanics and so on.

The late Milton Matheson was a mechanic with the Canadian Pacific trucking department, rising to occupy the position of garage manager.

Their daughter was born here and works as a customer service representative with Shaw Cable.

“In those days, we shopped for everything at the Bay, including groceries,” recalls Eulah: “There were few blacks in Winnipeg, so we were overjoyed to spot someone who looked similar to us in a bus or street. We still greet blacks even if they’re strangers, but the sight has become more common with the passing decades. The province is getting multicultural.”

“As a nurse, I had more problems with older white people. The younger whites were more accepting,” she continues: “Young people are more flexible and idealistic than their elders.”

Half the population of Guyana is of East Indian origin, about 35 percent are black, and the rest are Amerindian, white, Chinese, or of mixed descent. Half of Guyana is Christian, 35 per cent are Hindu, and 10 per cent Muslim. English, Amerindian dialects, Creole, Hindi and Urdu languages are used widely.

One day, reminisces Eulah, her daughter came home from school and asked her why someone would call her “blackie.” Apparently a white boy had called her a “blackie” in school that day. Eulah gently advised her to say, “’Blackie’ is not my name,” if it happened again.

The following day, her beaming daughter informed her that the boy had called her a “blackie” again, so she had called him “whitey.” “Now he wants to be my friend,” she told Eulah.

The GCO’s objectives are to [i] allow Guyanese to come together and [ii] assist fresh immigrants from Guyana by referring them to schools, doctors, churches and so on.

The founders wanted to organize cultural events so they didn’t lose track of where they came from. Members often sing Guyanese songs when they get together—in English. Guyana was once a British colony known as “British Guiana,” so most of Eulah’s friends and family learnt English from Kindergarten on. May 26 (1966) is Guyana’s Independence Day and, four years later, it became a republic.

The GCO has about 25 active members today, and another 20 inactive ones.

It has sent carpentry and agricultural tools to schools and hospitals in their old country. When floods afflicted Guyana’s east coast from last December to February, the GCO raised about $2000 to help.

It plans to augment the vitality of the organization and get more of its teenagers involved.

Inez Haley, a past Secretary of the GCO, came to Winnipeg with her husband in 1975. Her brother, who lived here, sponsored them. She had been a professional typist in Guyana. Since all her work had been done in English, she was flabbergasted not find work because of a lack of Canadian experience. Thirty years have passed but it still doesn’t make sense to her.

Eventually, she started sewing in a garment factory, continuing for 13 years and rising to become an industrial engineer. For the same reason, if it can be called that, her accountant husband accepted work on an assembly line making tractors. “Our four children joined us a month after our arrival, so we couldn’t afford to be choosy about jobs,” explains Inez.

Roped into the GCO by Milton Matheson, Inez’s late husband Maurice served as its treasurer; their daughter Colleen Haley, a beautician, is the president today.

The Guyanese community has done its best to make Winnipeg a better place, assert Inez and Eulah. Apart from their productivity in their various professions and the taxes they pay, most Guyanese own their homes and a vehicle. Home and vehicle ownership boost various sectors of the economy, they point out.

Colleen Haley, president of the GCO, says her community has been active in two Folklorama Pavilions, The Caribbean Pavilion and the Tropical Paradise Pavilion, the latter in collaboration with the Guyanese Association of Manitoba. Many Guyanese volunteered to help out at the 1999 Pan Am Games, at which time they even hosted a reception welcoming the Caribbean sportsmen.

The GCO lends financial support to its members as and when necessarily.

Dorothy Barrett, the Founder-secretary, left Guyana to join her husband, a machinist, in London 1963. They subsequently immigrated to Canada in 1966. “We came to Winnipeg because there were one or two families we knew in Winnipeg,” she explains: “Though there were very few immigrants of colour here in 1966, there may have been 200 Guyanese in the city. Many of them were working as domestic staff. My husband met another Guyanese in a pub one day, and connected with other Caribs through him. There were so few blacks in this city in those days, we jumped for joy to see another Carib, be they from Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados or wherever. We’d run across the street to hail other blacks even if we didn’t know them. That is no longer the case today, since the Immigration Department’s policy has since been to encourage family reunification.”

A professional secretary in Guyana, Dorothy and her husband were fortunate to find jobs in their old professions on arrival in Winnipeg. Her husband worked as a machinist for about two weeks in Thompson, but they found it too remote and moved to Winnipeg, where he was a machinist with CN Rail over 30 years until retirement. Dorothy worked as a secretary with the Fonger Construction Company.

Max Austin was the Founder-president, continues Dorothy. A Mr. Jones, the Guyanese Consul in Toronto then, happened to be a friend of hers from their days in Guyana, and he encouraged the organization to connect with Guyanese in Edmonton and Montreal.

“The culture in Guyana is a lot different from Winnipeg’s,” she declares. “In Guyana, youngsters only sleep over with aunts or uncles, not at friends’. More respected in Guyana than here, elders are never called by their first names in the old country, where grandparents hold story-telling sessions delineating the family tree to kids. A driver motioning to a pedestrian to cross the street with a finger would be considered rude in Guyana.”