Syria...

Suddenly after my lunch, I am no longer hungry for Christ-crackers. Instead, I'd like to start the afternoon with a more serious note - and bring attention to Syria. It's not that we don't read terrible, horrible, unimaginable things about this region everyday - I read/hear about it all the time and go on relatively unphased. Maybe it's that there's so many terrible stories that it's become normalized.

After all, things are looking grand (and safe) from where I'm sitting. My attention was first drawn to the absolute horrific acts towards protesters in late December (I know, I'm a little bit late to the party). Before this time I was very aware of the travesties... but I didn't feel connected. It's a bit embarrassing to write and see my words on the screen, however maybe I'm not the only one??

Late December, in Egypt a woman now commonly referred to as the "blue bra girl" was dragged, stomped on, and had her shirt basically torn off her body exposing her bright blue bra. There are videos of this girl being literally dragged skin to the pavement and being thrown around/kicked by guards or whatever you want to call them. Maybe it's because whenever you see protesters they are dressed in black and usually men. It's not that it makes it any better, but it's a lot more faceless. When you see this woman getting stripped/beaten it becomes so much more apparent - umm... this is a human being. This is someone's daughter/sister/mother etc. Thousands of women in Egypt took out into the street in response to the video. At this moment my eyes were (finally) opened.

Back to Syria... In Homs (the 3rd largest Syrian city, which is very religiously diverse (Mostly Arabic speaking Sunni Muslims, and Alawite and Christian minorities)), a kidnapping trade has become quite prominent. For those who haven't been following the previous 10 months of protests in Syria - President Bashar al-Assad has been cracking down on protesters, and cracking down hard. President al-Assad has gone so far to appear on Barbara Walters and deny that he has anything to do with it, and only a 'crazy' person would kill their own people. Hmm... a lot of portraits come to mind.

The kidnapping trade has emerged in a seemingly lawless city. People go missing daily, and are targeted by their religion. Captors kidnap and beat the victims - the Alawis kidnap the Sunnis and vice-versa (the President belongs to the Alawis minority). One man that was kidnapped for 5 days said that "There is no one to complain to. There is no law. You either sit and wait for God's mercy, or you kidnap too."

The country's poorest are being choked off by the sanctions etc. and therefore result to kidnapping in exchange for money or for other prisoners. There is less of a violent intention as kidnapping has become a currency (many victims are returned alive), but this makes it no better. A 30-year old woman was kidnapped off of a public bus. She was screaming saying "Why kidnap me? Kidnap Bashar, I don't have anything to do with this!". No one said anything as she was dragged off the bus by a group of men.

Women hostages are of greater value than men. With male victims it is a man-for-a-man trade. The brother of the 30-year-old woman who was kidnapped joked "We've created a first in Islamic history; inheritance laws in the Koran say a man is worth two women. In Homs, a girl is worth five guys."

The brutality of human currency is incomprehensible to me. In some ways I don't want to understand, but it's reality - and now that women are being seen as valuable prospects scares the living bejesus out of me (I guess I should eat a few of those crackers)...

I wonder if they are discussing any of this in Davos... hmm...

No Crumbs with Christ

Hello friends-
My postings haven't been so frequent, so I thought today might be nice (since it's sunny outside after countless days of rain).

I stumbled across this article - don't be alarmed by the URL "killingthebuddha.com", or by the title "Buying the Body of Christ"... or alternatively you can be alarmed but still continue to read my thoughts on what 'cracked me up' - it's an article about crackers, get it?.

Rarely do I ever think "I wish I knew where this came from" - even my love for the food network never compelled me to watch "How this is made" or something like that (it's about how things are made/manufactured and they take you for a tour of the plant, interview people blah, blah, blah). I didn't even think I cared where/how things were made.

Enter the holy communion cracker. I am utterly fascinated by the production of the holy communion cracker. Why? It's the freaking Body of Christ as a cracker. Duh! Have I taken holy communion even though I am not Catholic? Absolutely! Why? Because I don't want to be that person left in the pew feeling self conscious that people are judging me and jealous that I don't have a cracker.

Anyway, the article traces that for an economical $13 you can get 500 whole wheat discs (Jesus is healthy for us). The particular company that the wafers were purchased at produces 80% of the "alter breads" consumed in the US. I never cease to amaze myself with industries that I never knew existed, but then again it would make all logical sense.

The ingredients come from mega-suppliers and even the Christ stamp equipment is used by other companies to imprint trademarks etc. on their crackers. It almost seems unholy. Let me take this further. If I were a baker, and I baked tons of different breads using the same recipe (sometimes I add some chocolate or cinnamon and icing for example to make them different) - would you be at all offended if I stamped one with a cross and marketed it as the Body of Christ?

No joke, this bread right here, baked it this morning is the embodiment of Christ. I get it - that it's a symbol. If it's just a symbol, then why don't we use normal crackers? For example - Triscuits are good, more filling, and they even have those new flavors (the olive oil and rosemary one is fantastic!). Instead, the ones purchased are baked using a patent-protected process to ensure no crumbs. When you look at the bag, no crumblies at the bottom - that wouldn't bode well with God.

With a witty ending line by the author of the blog, I will leave you to comment.

"Maybe the not-yet realized body of Christ is not so different from that box of "Jesus Is My Homeboy T-shirts riding next to it." - in the context of freight shipping.

Thoughts on Natural Gas

Natural gas has hit the lowest price in 10 years!

Listening to the news this morning, I heard natural gas futures slipped another 5 cents. Checking the quotes now on Bloomberg, the spot rate is down over 15 cents. With spot prices hovering around $2.81 spot and $2.73 for futures, what does this mean? Should we even care that prices are down more than 10% this week alone?

Since yesterday, the decline in futures has been 1.5% and decline in the spot rate 5.7%. This is after an almost 6% decline the day previous. Despite the fact that natural gas rates tend to rise in the winter (heating bills for households etc), supplies have been greater than anticipated. Further with all the shale finds... well we all have gas (we as a lot of the countries in the world), and we have a lot of it.

Chinese, French and Japanese energy explorers committed more than $8B in acquisitions to shale-rock formations in the US at record prices within the last three weeks. The supply side is a rockin', however producers are weary not to produce too much and a lot of times sit on their natural gas reserves in order to not drive down gas prices too far. M&A activity is anticipated to continue as certain companies find shale a good opportunity to secure resources for the future.

Here in Canada, we are heavily energy based (think oil, think Alberta... they have a lot of gas too). Canada is the third-largest producer and exporter of natural gas. Canadian Natural Resources lost 2.6% off its share price as natural gas declined on Wednesday. Further, TransCanada Corp., the owner of the country's largest pipeline decrease almost a percent. Trilogy Energy Corp., a western Canadian gas and oil producer shaved 8.1% off its share price yesterday. Our largest gas producer, Enbridge is down 1.7% today.

Producers since 2005 have been steadily increasing production (up 50% since 2005 in the US alone). The ramp up of production means that they're basically giving away the commodity.

We have significant businesses that will profit from using cheaper natural gas inputs (fertilizers etc), however gas pipeline companies, natural gas exporters and producers, as well as in the LNG space may face hardships if the natural gas price continues to plummet - where is the bottom? So our dearest TSX that dropped 11% in 2011, may continue to face hardships as the current concerns in the US, Euro and especially China puts commodity prices under pressure. This affects our companies and our dollar.

"Demographic Tsunami"

Good morning, Saturday.

It's pretty rare that I can wake up and do whatever I want. The world is endless! I obviously choose to eat smoked gorgonzola tortellini drenched in some kind of cheese sauce (yes, that would make it cheese-on-cheese), and then wander over to my computer to write a blog post due to my weeks of negligence.

I choose today to tribute to the aging population in China. Most recently, I visited my great aunt in the hospital - she had no children. It was a stomach twisting sight. She had a few visitors, but it made me realize that it was a lonely road for our aging population. If I visit once every few weeks, or if my parents visit every week, she still has to live out every other minute of those weeks less the one hour visit alone. Well, not alone - she shares a hospital room with 2 other people - there is no privacy.

Yet, we've been hearing the bells ring for sometime - a "Demographic Tsunami" - coined by Joseph J. Christian at the Harvard Kennedy School, is hitting China. The one child policy, and lack of government support/funding is making spending time in a hospital room shared with 2 other people look like fun.

Families hold the primary burden of elderly care in China, the elderly social support systems are not yet fully developed. With the one child policy, this doubles the burden of parental elderly care (and quadruples if grandparents are living). According to the World Bank, China has 38,000 institutions serving the elderly which is only enough for 1.6% of the population over 60 (8% compared in developed countries) - and these are only in the cities.

Jing Jun, Professor of Anthropology in Tsinghua University states that if you cannot find help in Beijing, there will be no help. There is little to no care for aging seniors in urban communities. In the eastern city of Nanjing, it was found that less that 1/3 of the homes had a hired a qualified nurse/doctor and that most of the staff were rural migrant workers with little to no training. "The goal of these homes is subsistence for residents whose children cannot take care of them" - is a brutal yet realistic statement.

The next question is when will the Chinese government react? The aging population is estimated to rise from 178M in 2009 to 437M by 2050 - ONE THIRD OF THE POPULATION! As my heart aches for my great aunt taken care of in the hospital here in Canada, I don't even want to think about the alternative of a 20m x 20m apartment rampant with cockroaches, no indoor toilet or heating/cooling system, and medical care from those not professionally trained.

Good morning, Saturday - I am thankful today.

Barb's Post

Barb's google account wasn't working, so I'll post this on her behalf:

The misappropriate of funds flowing into the country and ultimately ending up to finance the country’s military program has led to the starvation of the country’s people. I agree with you, Gloria. Everyone deserves an opportunity to fight for their lives and loved ones. The people should not suffer in a country of self imposed isolation and poverty, because of the actions of its ruling military regime.

However, I do believe the biggest hurdle at the moment is understanding where the balance of power in North Korea stands. According to daily North Korea reports, the country has since closed its border with China, closed all markets, imposed a near-curfew, and filled the streets of at least one city with armed soldiers. Presently, we have a 27 year old that no one seems to have a grasp of his mysterious background, that has somehow manifested into a “diety” according to the presses. I assume this is the result of the regime understanding how volatile this present moment is. He is allegedly a replica of his father, which is extremely concerning, but has not had the decades of grooming and securing of a power base that Jong-il enjoyed before assuming control from his father.

It seems unlikely the country will drop it’s nuclear ambitions given the new successor had recently launched attacks to secure his position in the regime. However, we can all hope that the voice of the people will be heard and a new and united Korea will become a reality.

December 19, 2011. Happy Birthday Grandma- your gift? The Korea you knew as a child...

Gloria Kim:
one korea? Let's pray for change !
Like Unlike · · Yesterday at 10:31pm via BlackBerry

Comments:
"Idealistically a united korea would be great, realistically south korea would suffer so much economically if they were to unite."
"North Korea has a lot more natural resources that can, in fact, benefit South Korea's economy."
"That may be true but there's so much poverty in the north that trying to help them all would hurt the south"
"I think there are a lot of South Koreans who would prefer not to go through the economic consequences of integrating an entire nation of millions who are living in sub-human conditions. Look at what happened when the wall fell in Germany. Human nature is selfish. Just look to the homeless and destitute in our own streets of Toronto. Sad but true. "

Above are a few comments that were left on my Facebook status momentarily after posting what I hope to see in the future. One Korea. The Korea my grandparents grew up in and subsequently watched as it was torn apart.

What I posted was written out of sheer hope to see change in the land my grandparents left for the future generation of our family. What caught my attention and quite honestly left me feeling quite upset was how quick people commented on the economics of Kim Jong-Il's death.

Yes, North Korea is an impoverished nation that has uncertainty written all over it's future. Yes, there is speculation that Kim Jong-Un could be more radical than his father. Yes, their economy is in complete and utter shambles. Yes, the people of North Korea are severely brainwashed.

But you know what, the world is filled with problems like these and there are proponents to see change. Whole nations are starving just like North Korea, but North Korea's never been able to have a loud audible voice to fight for them because of their leaders.

My heart breaks for that nation because at the end of the day, we are the same people. Economics matter--trust, I'm all for capitalism; bschool education will do that to you--but humanity shouldn't be compromised. It's a terrible notion to think that we shouldn't want a nation to be united because of the potential negative economic impact. What about the human condition? What happens if we don't do anything? Our economy stays the same and grows, but millions of people continue to starve. People who never had a choice to live on the other side of the DMZ.

For a long time today I was contemplating how I was going to write this blog post...As a second generation Korean-Canadian, the emotional impact of what happened in my country is hard to identify with. Until recently, the Japanese occupation and the whole mystery of North Korea, South Korea didn't mean much to me. In fact, I grew up vehemently stating that I was a Canadian. Being Korean was irrelevant.

How ignorant and foolish- my family's history has everything to do with who I am today. My grandmother's life was so intertwined with the happenings of the North and South split, it literally wrecked me when we the 2nd generation learned about her past.
Ironically, today was my grandmother's birthday. The day after Kim Jong-Il passed away, we celebrated her life and never mentioned his. This is her story and why I feel strongly about a united Korea.

Kim Myung-Soon (nee Chang Myung-Soon) was born into Korea's high society. Imagine Gossip Girl, but back in the olden days of Asia.
My grandmother was raised just outside of Seoul on her father's tobacco estate. In fact, he was well-known in Korea as the first individual to graduate with an English degree from Yonsei University (one of Korea's top 3 universities) and a gifted violinist. In their city he financed the development of the first school and to this day it still educates hundreds of students each year.
Being the eldest daughter of one of high-societies wealthiest and well-educated families, her birthright was a blessing and a curse. It sounds cliche, but it is true because of the Asian ancestry. She wasn't a boy therefore the family name could not continue.

She was born and raised with the expectation to be married off to a family of equal or greater status. In fact, because of those unwritten rules, the highest form of education she received was some grade in jr.high. The exact grade? I'm not sure... she's never told me. Come to think of it, my grandmother's never told us much about her past...everything we know is from our great aunts and her kids. My great aunts told us that she was the gem of society. An absolute doll and she use to have servants who would piggy back her to and from school everyday. She never had to worry about anything and was content with her role.
As our great-aunt was telling us all this, I peeked over at our halmoni (grandma in korean) and she had her hand resting against her face and she looked a bit lost in the moment. Almost as though she was thinking back to the times when she was a child. She caught me looking and just grinned at me. I didn't understand how she could laugh about the situation. From having everything, she went to having nothing...

Prior to the occupation and full-out war, my grandmother was formally engaged to a Ph.d scientist who came from a very wealthy family. On paper, her fairytale was about to come true. Her purpose in life was about to be fulfilled.All of that changed quite suddenly when the war came around. As soon as the war began, the North literally dragged all of the well-known educated people to work for them. As you can imagine, my grandmother's fiance was taken. I never got to ask her about him. How she felt, if she got the silly butterflies when she met him, or how long they knew each other before they were engaged. The facts behind her mystery man are only in her memory which she hasn't shared with us. After he was taken away, her high-society life took a turn for the worse and she would only experience hardship until recent years.

The Korean community is ruthless- even though they were never married, my grandmother was considered 'tainted' [for lack of a better word...]. Once society's darling, she was officially ruined. It was by sheer luck that she married my grandfather who came from a wealthy family. I love him to pieces, but he was no ph.d scientist. In fact, he brought with him three children, one with a severe disability and she raised all three as her own along with the other three children they had together. Again, I love my halaboji (korean for grandpa) to pieces, but he did not make life easy for her. He quite successfully ruined their wealth and moved to Canada.

She knew no english, had no education and was raised to be a socialite. She was no broke, raising 6 kids in a foreign country and working in a sewing assembly line in the ghettos of toronto.

She worked endlessly for years and years and lived out of a crappy apartment in a shitty area and never complained. She NEVER complained. I will argue that she has had the hardest life but she doesn't complain about any of it. She watched us, her grandkids, grow up and sacrificed her own happiness to see us succeed.

It pains every part of my being knowing a fraction of her life story. The gaps in between no one has told us about but needless to say her life was great until one domino fell over... the rest followed in rapid sequence. Too many times I catch myself saying "what if i had blah blah blah"... I wonder if or how many times my grandma thought to her self "What if they had never taken him?" "What if my life had worked out the way it was planned?"

The war changed the course of my ancestors' life. It severely impacted the one person in this world that I love the most and can rely on no matter what. So that is why I can say for a split second "Screw economics, help humanity". It's because of my grandmother's silent complaints that I choose to be vocal about hoping for change. She lived through it, the ramifications it had directly on her life and the hardships that followed. I have never in my life met a woman as strong as her and because of her hardwork and courage, my family is where it is today. Most Canadians have immigrant roots, and we all share the same drive. How could we waste everything our families gave up in order to establish a better life for future generations?

Somewhere in North Korea, her former husband-to-be could be alive. Everywhere in Korea (north and south) families were torn apart instantly. I'm sorry economics, but please take a back seat for now as hope and prayer aim to make a difference. At the moment, the economically sound thing to do would be to let N.Korea be; But great change never happened by 'letting things be'.

Today we celebrated my grandma's birthday. I looked at her 4'10 frame and could hardly hold back the tears thinking about the hardships she's been through without complaint. She never mentioned Kim Jong-Il, so that is why today I will say something for her. Korea was one country before and it can be one country again.

Black Swans

Sometimes there are events in history that are game changers. December 17, 2011 was one of these events - Kim Jong-il has died. A former chief US negotiator for North Korean nuclear talks said in an interview "If you asked experts what would be the most likely scenario for North Korea to collapse, the answer everyone would give you is 'if Kim Jong-il died today.' We're in that scenario". Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia group spoke on Bloomberg today and said "This is the worst possible scenario - the one that everyone's been concerned about - a relatively sudden and unexpected transition in one of the most consolidated, totalitarian regimes in the entire world."

Uncertainty has infected the Asian markets at close, with South Korea's Kospi down 3.4%, Japan's Nikkei down 1.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 1.18% and Taiwan down 2.24%. The uncertainty is unavoidable since there are so many questions in the air concerning the big black box we call North Korea.

It is rumoured that Kim Jong-il's 3rd son will be taking over, however he is young and inexperienced, currently estimated to be 28-29 (not even his age is known to the public). Worries revolve around the younger Kim Jong-un asserting his power by accelerating nuclear weapons programs in order to assert his newly claimed control. Kim Jong-un was educated in Switzerland, so questions remain as to how closely he will follow his father's regime for better or for worse.

Kim Jong-il has wreaked havoc on his own country; The economy measures less than 3% of South Korea's, and has relied on economic handouts since the 1990's. No shy of 2 million people died of famine during Kim Jong-il's 17-year reign. Certain talks were said to be confirmed with respect to food aid, however that's pretty much off the table until some sort of clarity comes out of the settling dust.

With an economy down the tubes, and the death of the dictator, naturally questions start to come to forefront as to whether there will be any protests (maybe unlikely citizens taking to the street - but within the communist party).

It's hard to envision - looking out the window into the distance from my 3rd floor desk in White Rock, how North Koreans in the video posted above could react so emotionally for their "Dear Leader". Without doubt there is propaganda, etc., but still - can you imagine an event like that for Harper? There is a mourning period of TWO WEEKS, as well as mandatory national silence for three minutes (or something like that). At 24.3M people, that would be hard to co-ordinate, but if anyone can do it - leave it to the dictator.

So - the questions persist - how will this Black Swan effect us - will Kim Jong-un stage war/military force to send home the message that he is not a force to be wreckoned with - will there be a protest towards freedom by the people inside the government of North Korea - will Kim Jong-un save the people of his country by moving towards better human rights practices and by co-operating to remove sanctions currently placed on the country?

There's so many what-ifs that I can't really even give you my opinion. The many secrets/unknown are almost synonymous with North Korea - there are so many things we don't know/will ever know about this country. I do know that there is the same kind of twitching fear in my stomach as when I read the news on the sanctioning of Iran. Will any of this miraculously be fixed after so many years of the status-quo? If you ask me, Kim Jong un-likely.