Friday and We Are On Shaky Ground |
FTLComm - Tisdale - December 8, 2000 |
This is how my world looked at eight this morning, the sky almost completely covered and the temperature at -20 C, not a bad situation. Tisdale is a busy place this morning and that is true of it almost every morning but today it seemed like there was more traffic a sense of urgency and deliberate intent. The municipality is moving gravel to the storage site just behind Petro Canada's bulk station as trucks stream in there one after another depositing gravel. Schapansky is getting ready for an auction sale this weekend and the heavy |
trucks just keep up a steady |
pace with
loggers and grain "B" trains drumming along one after another. Out at John Bob they have decorated up a swather with a fancy blower attachment in a very nice display and Northern Steel keeps up the pace of innovation with a newly designed oil-field tank with what looks like some unusual features. But while all seems well in Tisdale the rest of the world seems a bit confused. The stock market continues to be a shambles as the American Presidential election continues to flounder. There will be court decisions in Florida today and the will be met with additional challenges and appeals even if a decision is reached by December 12 the whole mess will be difficult as there will be no clear winner or loser and the American level of certainty in its government and the world's reliance upon it will continue to be uneasy. Meanwhile our Canadian Dollar seems destine to continue its decline. It would seem that Free Trade is not just devaluing our standard of living but the dollar continues to devalue despite wholesome productivity and economic stability from sea to sea. The evidence is on this page as you can see our economy and our people are doing their part in being financially responsible and busy yet unseen forces strangle our financial world. Have you been paying attention to the world situation lately. The news media hasn't and why the American news gathering system focuses on its navel things are happening. On Wednesday a Russian court sentenced an American to twenty years in a prison camp for spying, the US promptly has cut of all aid to Russia. Thursday Russian military forces began a series of serious military exercises in the Arctic forcing Canadian fighter squadrons to take up positions in the arctic. Today the Russian Duma passed a measure returned the Soviet national anthem with new lyrics to replace the forgettable Russian one that no one accepts. (If you don't remember the hockey version of the anthem just think of "The Hunt for Red October" as the sailors burst into song) A nations symbols are a nation and the Russians look to have taken a sharp turn in where they want to go and it is not toward continued devolution of their economy and acceptance of crime as a way of life. And, while you are contemplating that little story consider this, in our most recent history three heads of major countries began their carriers as head of their country's military intelligence agency and all three changed the course of history. President Gorbachev (head of the KGB) of the Soviet Union moved his nation from the "cold war" to perestroika, George Bush (head of the CIA) united the Western nations in a conflict with an Arab state and Vladimir Puton (head of the current version of the KGB) looks like he is about to transform Russia into a viable country once more. Stability and order are good for business but anxiety and disorder lead to rash and perhaps unwise decisions. We are not in a time of stability. A peak at the stock market will tell you that the traders and brokers are all acting like they are twenty minutes past the time they should have taken a bathroom break. On Wednesday Apple Computers announced that for the first time in three years it will show a loss due to a decline in demand for home computers. With over $600 million in cash reserves and a loss of just over $100 million expected this sent NASDAQ into a tale spin with every company taking a hit. This jumpiness has been going on for months and makes no common sense whatever. But the need to dash off to the bathroom or where ever seems to be the mentality and these tremors have enormous consequences far beyond the dreary gray streets in downtown New York. But to get some perspective on things just consider the summary of the US presidential election mess. I received this list from Edwin Wallace as he knew I would appreciate the odd humour in all this. |
IMAGINE AN ELECTION
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At nine this morning this is how the world looked, a little brighter but not that much different. |