Madoff

Hopefully, some people will remember that the saying that if it looks too good to be true it probably is. Certainly, the people who were duped by Bernie Madoff made several mistakes and one of them was that it was too good to be true. How could Bernie Madoff be making those returns when no one else was? Another rule, do not put all your eggs in one basket. Always diversify where you keep your holdings.
Bernie Madoff who received a 150 year term which he obviously never serve out is on his way to a much different life style. When he arrives at his detention facility he will be issued a tiny bar of soap, a tooth brush, a comb and a razor.
"This bar of soap is like the size of a matchbook," said Larry Levine, the founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants, who spent 10 years in federal prison. (No that's an interesting concept- Levine is catering to people from Wall Street who face prison. )What kind of consulting does he do for these people? There are obviously enough persons in this situation that Levine has clientele who will keep him employed.
Madoff's wife feels betrayed by her husband. Ruth stated:"From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed an enormous fraud, I have had two thoughts,-first, that so many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally, and second, that my life with the man I have known for over 50 years was over.
"My husband was the one we (and I include myself) respected and trusted with our lives and our livelihoods ... who was respected in the securities industry as well. Then there is the other man who stunned us all with his confession and is responsible for this terrible situation.
A touching statement but she worked in Madooff's office for many years. How could she not know what was going on? http://www.canada.com/business/fp/Questions+linger+about+Ruth+Madoff+role+scheme/1744655/story.html
My goodness, these are interesting times!

Winning Text Messages!

I have not fully embraced the electronic age: I refuse to use banking machines (I worked on the first banking machines-helped fix people's problems- it was you against the bank and it was hard to prove that you were a victim), I do not have call waiting on my phone- why interrupt a call while you are talking to someone else. If you have a very important call that you are waiting for do not take other calls- I have call display. I have a cell phone but it is very old and simple: yes Ma Bell has a credit for me because I did not get a new phone last time they were offered, mine does the job. I have the phone for emergencies not for general conversations. Must admit having a cell phone when we were trying to deal with important issues in another province after the death of my in-laws was very helpful but unfortunately expensive. Not sure how we would handled the problems as efficiently.

It seems that a generation of younger people is being encouraged to text on their phones and it has become a sport. You can win extraordinary amounts of money for being able to text rapidly. Yesterday, Kathy Spence of Scarborough won $25,000 after she won the LG Texting Championships. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/06/29/scarborough-teen-wins-texting-competition.aspxWho would think that this would be a competitive sport! What have I missed! What is the point in being able to text rapidly?
Wonder what the next contest will be?

Charities and Analysis

Kate Bahen and her friends entered the non-profit services sector and discovered that donating wisely is not easy.
"The traditional method of giving is spray and pray; it's passive," says Ms. Bahen, a retired equity analyst. "You make your decision based on your social network and who is sitting on which board.
Ms. Bahen and her friends saw significant problems in that approach. "There was no way for us to find about organizations doing phenomenal work on the front lines. " So, they turned the table and made giving an active endeavour.
In 2006, they launched Charity Intelligence, which itself became a registered charity in 2008, and began applying their investment training into attacking Canada's most pressing social issues. Charity Intelligence researches and analyzes Canada's charities in order to provide givers with the information they need to give to charities with proven results. It provides its finding free of charge on its website: http://www.charityintelligence.ca/.
What a wonderful idea in theory but there are 82,000 registered charities according to one of the statistics. How is this group going to evaluate them and how does it choose which one to examine. A worthy objective but how will the group do it's job effectively? Will be interesting to examine again in a year's time.

Holocaust and artworks

Recently, Holocaust survivors, Jewish Groups and experts gathered in Prague to assess efforts to return property and possessions stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners or heirs.

The five-day conference, which brings together delegates from 49 countries, is a follow-up to a 1998 meeting in Washington that led to agreements on recovering art looted by the Nazis.

Stuart Eizenstat, head of the U. S. delegation, called it the most ambitious international meeting ever on the recovery of such stolen possession or compensation for their loss.

One goal is to produce international guidelines on this, but they would not be compulsory for the governments involved.

"There's no political will to have a binding treaty," Eizenstat said.

During the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler and his followers killed 6 millions Jews and seized billions of dollars of gold, art and private and communal property across Europe. But while countries such as Austria have stepped up restitution in recent years, critics claim some Central and Eastern European states still have a long way to go.

"Many governments in Central and Eastern Europe have not found a way to implement a process to resolve outstanding real property issues that is both consistent with national law and incorporates basic principles such as nondiscrimination treatment of non-citizens and a simple, expeditious claim and restitution process," said conference delegate Christian Kennedy, the U. S. special envoy for Holocaust issues.

How frustrating for these survivors and their heirs that this still has not been resolved decades after the war. One wonders if some governments simply hope that the survivors will pass on and there will be no traceability.

Venice and Gondoliers

Giorgia Boscolo, 23 is the first female gondolier in nine centuries. She qualified for the position in June and follows her father onto the waterways.

Nice to know that women are pursuing dreams and doing the things that they want. Always amazing that there are still things that women are doing for the first time.

In this day and age, I am surprised that that women are still working hard to break through in fields like this.

Means that we still have barriers to cross.

Birdmen of Beijing

Some days, it takes time to find a topic for the blog. I have not made a point of describing the crafts that I do like knitting- I am busy knitting some scarves for next December- yes, you read correctly. Time to do some planning. December will be busy with many concerts. I am hoping to garden but it looks like today is not going to be one of those days again- it has rained nearly everyday. The plants are happy but unfortunately, so are the weeds. I am busy with music again, octet has started, the trio is thriving and orchestra has stopped for the summer. Rainy weather like we are having is good for watching Wimbledon tennis. I don't feel the same guilt as when the weather is lovely and I could be outside doing some work.

My topic for today is "The Birdmen of Beijing", http://sandbox.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102458087.

This is about the men who care for and raise birds in Beijing. These men thrive in a corner of Beijing raising, trading and loving their birds. Each morning, the aging men gather to compare birds, share gossip, tease each other a bit and catch up on the papers.

The tradition of Chinese bird keeping stems from the late Qing dynasty-in the late 19th century- a time when the Chinese emperor and other men in the royal family filled their leisure time with cricket fighting, raising goldfish and keeping birds.

Raising birds was thought to a civilizing hobby and as prosperity spread, common people took it up too. And so each morning at 7:30 Shi Shiquing sets out from his home in Cotton Flower Alley No. 7 and makes the 1.5 kilometre trek to the parkade near Hepingmen subway, vigorously swinging his blue covered bird cages as he goes.

"The Swinging excites the birds and forces them to grip their pedestal," he explains. "It's good for them."

These men love their birds and hopefully will keep up the tradition and teach it to a younger generation.

End of year

Two more days and the school year is over. Hard to believe. Must say that it is much easier working at a high school as opposed to an elementary school. Having taught at both levels, I must admit that I prefer high school. The timetables are humane there is time to think. Usually, I am on a tread mill at the elementary level and it takes two weeks after school ends to finally feel human.
Have I mentioned that summer has arrived. My goodness, it is hot outside. That means that we will be playing indoors at a seniors residence this afternoon. It will be too hot for the seniors to go outside which suits us since some of the students are playing piano and the piano will be indoors. I no longer carry a portable piano, too hard. Did it in the past but not worth the effort.
Did I mention that it is supposed to be a strawberry social? Yeah! Love the berries. Nothing more wonderful than fresh strawberries from the farm and not from California.

Thank you

Thank you-such important words. On Tuesday, I played with a band that I occasionally assist . After the concert, I could understand why some outstanding players make a point of playing concerts with the group. I have played with the group twice and each time, I am thanked formally- a card is given to me signed by a member of the board of directors and a gift certificate for Tim Horton's in this case. What a wonderful gesture to thank people helping your group! Too often we take for granted the help that people offer to us. We must try to be more like this band and thank those who make an effort to assist.
Remember those important words-thank you!

Shops at Don Mills

I wanted to think about this for a while before I decided to post my opinion about the Shops at Don Mills. In April, the Shops at Don Mills opened. So far, I have ventured into the space once. I was waiting for someone and decided to visit the space. First of all, it is still not all open and it is now June. Not sure what some of the stores are waiting for. It looks nice but I still wonder what will happen in the depths of winter. This shopping was originally open and had trees and open areas. Over time, the centre was closed in and people were able to enjoy the space 12 months of the year. I did not see stores that would draw me to the space. The bookstore is lovely but not enough to draw me to the space.
I will wait for 12 months and then see what I think. So far, I am not sure that this was the right answer for the space. It ignores the fact that a great number of seniors live in the area. People with cars can travel to any location that offers the goods that they want and accessibility.
Will keep you posted.
Here is a blog entry that has some interesting thoughts on the development. http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/05/the_shops_at_don_mills/

Everbearing Strawberries

It is official, summer has arrived. I have fresh strawberries from the area. That for me is a sign that summer has arrived. I love fresh fruit and that fact that genetic engineers have managed to develop a strawberry that bears fruit until the first frost is a god send. Can you imagine ripe strawberries in September, August is a joy! I am looking forward to having fruit fresh from the bush, vine or tree where ever it grows. Once I have had my fill of strawberries alone, I will start fruit salads adding whatever fruit is ripe and luscious.
Hope that all of you are able to find fresh fruit at markets.

Automatic Door locks!

When we bought our last two cars, we made sure that the doors had manual windows. We tried for manual door locks but they were not available on the model that we chose and it is not the top of the line. We believe that cars all deteriorate and all end up in the same dump once they viable life is over. Jaguars and Corollas finally keep each other company.
Are you aware that it costs over $500 to fix a lock? What a shock and these locks can keep breaking down. We had one of the locks on our car fixed because it froze in the open position, not a good situation. Freezing in the locked position would have been awkward but we could have worked with it.
Our goal is to keep our car as simple as possible and that will keep repair costs down. At least that is the plan. Will be examining the repair plans and policies for the next car very carefully. Our latest car is just 3 years old and the repairs are already this high! Yikes! Something is wrong.
Will be watching these repairs very carefully.

Aging

The past week has brought home the fact that the people who we care about and care for are aging. I won't comment what that says about us but you can guess. Many issues come up as we examine the situations. Can they continue to live on their own? What level of independence do they crave? Who is going to make the decisions to move them and where? What say do they have in all of this. So hard to see people who have cared for us now depend on us for care and to make decisions. Are they the best decisions?
So much to think about and unfortunately so many answers. Depends on who you speak to.

Back!

What a week!
Sunday was good, had a nice dinner out and then relaxed. Monday morning told a different story: after half my usual breakfast, I soon made quick work of the food and not in a pleasant way. This meant that my appetite was down as was food consumption, in fact for the next couple days, I just slept and slept some more. (Was not able to arrange for a supply because I am a supply. This issue will be dealt with next week as part of my planning for next school year.) By the third day, a neighbour stopped by to check on me and discovered that I was home alone and sick. My goodness, she marched across the street and a neighbour who usually receives a copy of the crossword from the paper, each day was told off because she had not received the paper for three days and yet had not wondered what had happened. Finally, after a week, I am on the mend. One thought was that I had "Swine Flu". That is frightening and despite suggestions that I get blood work done, not sure that much can be done. Medical facilities are reluctant to deal with people who are ill if it can be spread. Discovered that some of the students who I work with have been ill as well. We are all on the way to recovery but it is alarming how quickly we can be struck down.
This had made me think about plans in case I am alone and ill again. Buying a cordless phone to put beside the bed with a list of phone numbers, that is one part of the plan. Will be very carefully moving around the house. Plenty to think about and I am sure that people who live alone think about these issues. No, I am not alone but Michael has been consulting which means that I do have more time on my own than expected.
Here's to health!

Summer is here!

Finally, it is here. The past few weeks, I have put on two jackets when playing Sunday morning tennis; it finally looks like I will be able to actually put on shorts and a top and not run around trying desperately to stay warm.
The change of seasons will also be marked by the end of the community orchestra season. Our last concert of the season is tonight. Hopefully, audience members will not be too hot. Some other groups have already finished for the season.
Octet started this week, another sign that summer has arrived.
After a hard fall and winter, I am ready to relax and enjoy the summer-clean a little, garden and generally take it easy.
Hope that everyone else is experiencing wonderful weather.

E-mail etc?!?

When we first got e-mail and a computer, Michael used to say that he could live without e-mail no problem. He did not care when we could not log on and there were problems. What a different tune he sings now! The past week, our computer modem was not working and we could log on for about 15 minutes a day and then we were knocked off. What a frustration! Yesterday, someone from Bell actually, 5 minutes early! He made sure that the system was working and everything was connected;we got a new modem. I could not believe the excellent service. What a relief.
I am back on-line and will be posting again.
Michael and I are both happy and posting again.