Five minutes of Twisted Frosties

You go to Brampton by the 407. That's why it doesn't take you that long.
Cause they have Indian food there.
Not because your parents live there?
My parents aren't Indian.
Your parents are Canadian.
Are they?

Can I take the 407? If I found a route on how to get there? I have to ask you, because it's a toll route. Because you're the one it's registered under.
OK.
Because the bill goes to you.
So.
So, it's common courtesy to ask before you do it.
Does it matter what I say?
Yes it does.
How so?
Because ... if you tell me no, that I can't use the 407, I won't use the 407.
Oh.
If you tell me how much it is, then I can pay you back at least a portion of it.
A lot of money.

How often do they bill you?
Hmm?
How often do they bill you? Every a month, or every time you use it?
Every month.
On average, how much do you pay?
Depends.
Course, that's why I'm asking you for an average.
I don't know, I don't have all my bills. I don't know for what period you want the average.
Oh god.

July 2010.
I can't remember what the bill was. Probably because I haven't seen it yet.
For June 2010.
It was a long time ago, I don't remember.

That's nice. There's fireworks out there.
Must be somebody's birthday.

Assassination squads in Afghanistan

War is war, but this isn't war anymore. This is just plain state-sponsored terrorism. I don't understand why the Americans can't see that they will win no friends; not secure the American homeland; and not make the world a safer place.

With the release of the top secret US military documents by Wikileaks, the world is getting a little glimpse into shadowy world of special forces operations in Afghanistan. The CIA's Special Activities Division, along with the Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy Seals, and special operations groups from other countries, including Canada, are waging a covert war to find and kill, suspected terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and who knows where else.

Killing the bad guys isn't a problem for me. But killing innocent civilians along the way -- that just doesn't work. And as the History News Network reports, a lot of civilians are getting killed. How many is unknown, because for one, the records for the operations conducted by the special operations teams are secret -- and for another, the civilians that are being killed may not even matter enough to have their bodies counted. This isn't breaking a few eggs to make an omelette. This is children being murdered by rockets falling on schools; brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, being slaughtered in their homes, as they conduct their daily routines. Surely, the over 3,000 that died in the 9/11 attacks have now been avenged. Surely the tens of thousands Afghan civilians and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are enough. Surely the thousands of American soldiers are now enough.

in reference to:

"In more than 100 incident reports in the Wikileaks files, Task Force 373 is described as leading numerous “capture/kill” efforts, notably in Khost, Paktika, and Nangarhar provinces, all bordering the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of northern Pakistan. Some reportedly resulted in successful captures, while others led to the death of local police officers or even small children, causing angry villagers to protest and attack U.S.-led military forces."
- History News Network (view on Google Sidewiki)

Helping the Tanzanite Group via Kiva

My latest Kiva loan has just been given, to the Tanzanite Group of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania -- to be repaid in about 6 months or so. Specifically, my $25 will go to Patricia Mjuni, who runs a pharmacy business, though the repayment is being guaranteed by the Tanzanite Group. Group loans, as per Kiva:

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a group guarantee. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults.

Kiva does not directly manage the disbursement of funds, but rather, leverages field partners. In this case, my loan will be administered by Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd., a micro-finance company that has been in operation for 4 years now, in Tanzania. They have given out over US$1.2M in loans, and have a return on assets of 2.03% -- coming from interests and fees charged to customers. As usual, I give all my loans to women entrepreneurs -- for one, women remain depressing disadvantaged in our world, especially the developing world; and secondly, it is my firm belief that as the core of the family, investment in women represent the best chance of sustaining success and breaking the poverty cycle. Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd. loan mix is currently at 68.58% in favour of women.


Tanzania is currently ranked near the bottom of the list on the UN Human Development Index -- country 151 of 180 countries in the world. It is one of the oldest known continuously inhabited places on Earth, yet for the past couple of hundred years it has enslaved by just about everybody that has passed through. (At one point, nearly 90% of the population of Zanzibar City was enslaved.) It has been recovering from colonization since the 1960s, when the Brits decided that they had taken all they could from the place, and should leave. More on Tanzania can be found on the CIA's World Factbook.

Moral superior

The Patrician, Lord Havelock Vetinari, speaking to the Archchancellors Mustrum Ridcully of Unseen University and Henry (former Dean, UU) of Brazeneck College.

"... when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior."

(Emphasis my own.) Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals.

For the uninitiated.

Why do they come here?

Indeed. This is not a protest. This is hooliganism. And I for one have no problem with police taking the bastards wrecking havoc in my city -- taking the ones hiding their faces -- taking the locals and the foreigners who are destroying everything in their paths, and beating the shit out of them. That would be police performing their duty to protect civil society. When violence threatens a civil society, it needs an immediate and harsh response.

I'm all for protest. It is what makes a democracy function. I didn't care for the lock downs -- and still don't care for it. But soon as the violence started, I became fully supportive of an equally harsh response from authorities. The fact that these assholes -- anarchists and the like -- came here to destroy my city makes me angry.

I'm also angry at the federal government. WTF were you thinking? You hold meetings like this in remote areas, away from easy access. Let's see the anarchists get to Iqaluit. Let's see them easily escape authorities.

in reference to: CBC News - Canada - G20 protest violence escalates in Toronto (view on Google Sidewiki)

Bribery doesn't pay

It shouldn't be surprising that corruption doesn't actually pay for companies -- yet many, do it, despite having ethical policies in place. Greasing the wheel is prevalent -- not just limited to countries where bureaucrats expect rewards to speed the flow of commerce -- not that dealing with regulatory requirements is actually a bad thing, from a public interest perspective, it might be just the right thing to have in place -- greasing the wheel is very much prevalent in developed economies. Just look at the ratio of lobbyists to elected politicians in Washington. Lobbyists provide grease, as a result, businesses get their way with less regulatory impediment.

Research however, shows that bribery simply doesn't make sense. Not only does it take a psychological toll on those involved, but it also costs companies more money -- more so in the long term -- and it breeds an environment where delays occur as bribery becomes the norm, and bureaucrats habitually give businesses the shakedown.

Knowing all that, you've got to wonder -- just why does it continue to happen?

in reference to:

"And is “grease” really all that efficient? In a paper published by the World Bank, Daniel Kaufmann and Shang-Jin Wei subjected the “efficient grease” hypothesis to careful scrutiny. They found that companies that pay bribes actually end up spending more time negotiating with bureaucrats. The prospect of a pay-off gives officials an incentive to haggle over regulations. The paper also found that borrowing is more expensive for corrupt companies, probably because of the regulatory flux."
- Schumpeter: The corruption eruption | The Economist (view on Google Sidewiki)

Additional resources:

• Transparency International's Global Corruption Report, and,
• Global Corruption Barometer

All of the above, please

Is it just me, or is this just way too obvious? It's obvious, but also amazing how many highly paid executive-types are idiots, and just don't get it. It's a balance -- and not just a focus on shareholders. Any executive that focuses entirely on shareholders, to the detriment of customers and employees, should thrown out the window -- the door would be just too polite. Focusing exclusively on the shareholders is short-term, selfish thinking -- one motivated just to please the market, generate short-term shareholder value, to the detriment of sustainable value. An executive that focuses their company solely on shareholders does a disservice to shareholders. It is customers and employees who generate shareholder value. Focusing equally on customers and employees, and in cumulative, more than shareholders, is the only way to get your employees to give more; to innovate more; to be inspired to deliver greater value -- and similarly, to get your customers to buy more from you, give you trust and forgive you the lapses that will inevitably happen.

This is obvious to me.

in reference to:

"A firm’s share price on any given day, needless to say, can be a very poor guide to long-term shareholder value. Yet bosses typically had their pay linked to short-term movements in share prices, which encouraged them to take measures to push the share price up quickly, rather than to maximise shareholder value in the long run (by when they would probably have departed)."
- Shareholders v stakeholders: A new idolatry | The Economist (view on Google Sidewiki)

The guru of the bottom of the pyramid

C.K. Prahalad died on April 16th, age 68. I didn't even know he had died, until I read it in a recent issue of the Economist. Prahalad was known for his development of the core competency concept -- but will most be remembered for his ideas of the bottom of the pyramid -- and how profit motive could help lift the world's poor from poverty. His ideas have shaped -- and will continue to shape -- the strategies of businesses the world over, and give hope to those in developing countries who aspire for more.

in reference to:

"He taught the world’s biggest companies to think of themselves anew, as a “portfolio of competencies” rather than as a “portfolio of businesses”. He taught everyone to see the developing world not as an also-ran but as a vortex of innovation and creativity. The world of management theory has more than its fair share of charlatans, but C.K. Prahalad was the genuine article."
- Schumpeter: The guru of the bottom of the pyramid | The Economist (view on Google Sidewiki)

Conficker

In November 2008, a worm quietly sounded the geek alarms as it set about to infect millions of personal computers around the internet -- to date, estimated at 6-7 million. It was christened Conficker by MS security staff. It exploited a flaw in MS Windows operating systems -- got into the computer, closed the flaw, and went about replicating itself. It communicates to its home base with an encryption level that is so powerful, it's still in the lab -- and is one of the contenders for a new security standard to be published in 2013. It is part of a powerful botnet that was used only once, in what looks to have been designed to test its viability. Ever since then, it has sat dormant. Waiting. Not much is known about it's purpose or who controls it. What is known however is scary, because there is no way to stop it, and it can be used to cause severe disruption if needed.

The good guys put up a good fight, but may have lost to the bad guys on this one -- but no one knows what the cost of losing is.

in reference to:

"The key word there is could, because so far Conficker has done none of those things. It has been activated only once, to perform a relatively mundane spamming operation—enough to demonstrate that it is not benign. No one knows who created it. No one yet fully understands how it works. No one knows how to stop it or kill it. And no one even knows for sure why it exists."
- The Enemy Within - Magazine - The Atlantic (view on Google Sidewiki)