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.