The Global Wealth Pyramid

Read Article HERE.

Of the world's ADULT population, 0.5% own 8.5% of the world's wealth while 91.2% of the adult population own 17.8%. Time for a realignment of wealth.  Unregulated capitalism works only for the wealthy and not for the poor. Even Adam Smith realized that and worried many times throughout his famous book that without government keeping a firm grip on things, the results would be what we see today.

If businesses the world over market products or services that fill a need (the purpose of business) and make their owners rich, that is good; PROVIDED the business does not destroy the environment, treats its employees fairly and equitably and puts back into the community.  IF the business/owners use their money and power to monopolize, to beat down their employees, to co-opt governments into passing regulations that favour them and not passing those that would hold them to account, it is called in economic terms "rent-seeking".  (That also includes the activities of the powerful at the tops of planned economies too). Rent-Seeking is the chief cause of the disproportionate distribution of wealth and the seething discontent of the 99%.

Simple Fare for Simple Folk GiST #22

1. Bread, cheese and tea for supper last night. Tanya knows exactly what to serve.
2. My new $30 canvas computer bag; not the $300 fine soft black leather one that we looked at in Krivii Rih.
3. Our little purple Kia Carens, standard transmission, few bells and no whistles but dependable and not too expensive to repair.
4. Our little village, bad roads and all, but peaceful and with open country just across the road.
5.  Just general contentment.  Few needs and fewer wants. 

Fools and Children

Yesterday was one of those 24 hour trips to Kyiv.  I was applying for my Kazakhstan visa and hoping to get the Canadian Embassy to certify some true copies of documents I need to take with me.

Either I am getting old or the berths on that night train are getting harder.  Not much sleep on the trip.  McDonald's at the train station at 7:00 am is packed 12 deep at 12 tills. It took less than 10 minutes to get my breakfast. No complaints there. It is not a good place for s sudden onset of dysentery, though, as the wait for the men's bathroom was 20 minutes.  Single stall.  Obviously McDonald's adheres to local standards (none) as opposed to setting their own intelligent ones. We did let one guy jump queue as he appeared in a bad way.

Wanted to be at the Canadian Embassy at 9:00 but the line up at the can plus finding a bank machine plus rush hour on the Metro meant it was 9:30.  They were able to handle three of my six documents, the others will have to go through the Ukrainian notarizing system.  For some reason Kazakhstan want my diplomas to prove I have gone to university.  At my age what difference does it make?  Further more, I could find a few hundred people who never darkened the hallowed halls who could do a better job than I of describing Canadian beef cattle production in 10 to 15 minutes. So the embassy will do what I told the Kazakhs to do and that is contact the Registrar's Office.  The paper diploma is only for decoration.  But not in the FSU, I guess, where documents with STAMPS are sacred as the original scrolls of the Pentateuch.

It was 10:30 when I finally headed for the Kazakh Embassy to apply for my visa.  I got off the Metro and looked for a place to change 400 Hrivna for $50 USD, the cost of the Visa.  No luck.  ALL the money changing booths in the area were closed up tight.  I found a bank finally and was told that because I was a foreigner they couldn't change money for me.  Some new currency law I didn't know about.  Panic city.  The Kazakhstan Embassy takes Visa applications until 12:00 noon.  It is now 11:00 and I am running out of time.  Call Tanya (who else??).  She said try another bank. Some days I wonder about me.

I headed for the Kazakhstan Embassy and looked for a bank along the way.  None.  I was hoping I could talk Ivan (the guy at the Embassy who speaks English) into letting me pay in Hrivna or waiting to pay until I picked it up next week.  I see a bank a few doors past the entrance to the Embassy.  A very small branch.  One desk, one teller, one security.  In my bad Russian and the desk lady's bad English, I explained the problem well enough she understood and was instantly sympathetic.  She said one magic word "resident" but I didn't have my Ukrainian Residency Card.

I got Tanya on the phone and she and the lady are having a conversation when I remembered THE STAMP.  I had a permanent residency stamp in the back of my passport.  Problem solved.  The lady smiled and lit up like it was Christmas, took a quick copy of my passport and the stamp and the teller lady gave me my $50 along with two documents to sign for it.  It was 11:35 when I got to the Kazakhstan Embassy.

Six people in front of me.  I know the routine too well.  Every one of them takes TIME and the clock is ticking. The lady at the counter finished as I found a chair.  French lady and two of the people in line were her kids.  She had driven from France through Europe to Ukraine and was planning on DRIVING through Russia, Kazakhstan, China (Xinjiang and Tibet) to Nepal where she was opening a restaurant ("the food in Nepal is terrible").  I learned all this while the second person in line was finishing at the counter.  The other two people were still filling out documents so I was next.

Ivan had a good laugh at my currency adventures and promised my visa would be ready Monday even though I was coming Thursday.  Finished at 11:50.  Wringing wet, heart pounding and looking and feeling like the wrath of God.  Found a Coffee House and had three cups of hot black bitter mud and a wild berry cheesecake to celebrate.  This was after I went back and bought a small bouquet of flowers for the folks at that bank.

Winter is coming GiST #21

1. Every day is a day closer to April and spring
2. Getting the dogs winter lean-to house all warm and snuggle BEFORE the weather got cold.  And remembering to shut of the water to the outside hose before the tap froze.
3. Kuchma has decided he is going to become a house cat in his old age.  He sleeps in the house at night but wakes Tanya up every morning at 7:00 to be let outside to do his 'blutions then comes back in for milk and cat food. Tanya has to wake me to take my turn at getting up early as I don't hear him at all.
4. Watching the dogs munching walnuts and spitting out (most of) the shells.  They were helping Tanya rake and burn leaves under the walnut trees and discovered walnuts were edible.  They are not as clever as the ravens at opening them but since they can crunch the nut, they don't have to be.
5. The doves are so pretty; light brown or light grey. This must have been a good season for them as there are many of them roosting n the walnut trees.

Depends on how you look at it.

My thanks to Sandy L for this.

"O would some Power the giftie gie us, tae see ourselves as others see us"  - Robert Burns

Deadlock in Kazakhstan as oil workers strike

For five months, hundreds of workers from the oil fields of western Kazakhstan have been on strike demanding better pay and working conditions. Now the country's longest-running industrial dispute, it has led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue, reports the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie.

 Kazakhstan is a rich country.  Oil and minerals bring in billions in royalties and profits to the government.  Astana is gleaming with new buildings.  Out in the harsh desert where the oil is being drilled for and pumped out, it is not as obvious.  The oil workers are striking for danger pay they are provided for under law.  the courts (government) has declared the strike illegal.  Thousands have been fired.  Demonstrations have been broken up by police.  Activists have been arrested and jailed and one murdered.

Miscellaneous Gratefulness GiST #20

1. Air ticket to Kazakhstan arrived today.  Must mean I am going, though my gut feeling and Tanya's, too, is not good.  The whole episode has been SNAFU to date but money is money so one takes the risks.

2. Bought three return trip train tickets to Kyiv for under $100.  Two round trips to get my visa and one to catch the plane to Astana.  We'll buy train tickets to Moscow and to catch the plane to Canada in  November.

3. The hounds have been behaving quite well lately.  Either the 6 weeks in lock-up while they healed or the fact that it is late in fall and no females are running loose or both but they re remarkable playful and head into their pen when it is time.  Even Volk.

4. Tanya's cold seems to be getting better.  She still has a lot of congestion and coughs up a lung once in a while but less often than it was.  She says it is because our friend Ryya has it now.

5. Got word today of the sudden death of a colleague from Saskatchewan Agriculture days.  Not grateful for his death but certainly for his life.  He was a good man and made a solid contribution the the industry.  Wild Rice Specialist at La Ronge, Ag Rep at Hudson Bay and Forage Specialist at Prince Albert over the years.