We Canadians

Mick, from Dublin , appeared on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire‘ and towards
the end of the program had already won 500,000 pounds.

‘Sure,’ said Mick. ‘I’ll have a go!’

‘Which of the following birds does NOT build its own nest?’

I haven’t got a clue,’ said Mick, ’so I’ll use me last lifeline and
phone me friend Paddy back home in Dublin ‘. Mick called up his mate and
told him the circumstances and repeated the question to him.

‘Because he lives in a  clock!’*

Contributed by: Yuvraj Bahadur

Buddha was in deep thought about  worldly activities and the ways of instilling goodness in human beings. One of his disciples approached him and said humbly, “Oh my teacher ! While you are so much concerned about the world and others, why don’t you look into the welfare and needs of your own disciples also.”
 
Buddha : “OK.. Tell me how I can help you?”

Disciple : “Master! My attire is worn out and it is beyond decency to wear the same. Can I get a new one, please?”

Buddha saw the robe  was indeed in a bad condition.  He asked the store keeper to give the disciple  a new robe.  The disciple thanked Buddha and retired to his room.  A while later, Buddha went to his disciple’s place and asked “Is your new attire comfortable? Do you need anything more ?”

Disciple : “Thank you my Master.  The attire is indeed very comfortable.  I need nothing more.”

Buddha : “Having got the new one, what did you do with your old attire?”

Disciple : “I am using it as my bed spread.”

Buddha : “Good.  I hope you have disposed off your old bed spread”

Disciple : “No master.  I am using my old bedspread as a window curtain.”

Buddha : “What about your old curtain?”

Disciple : “It is being used to handle hot utensils in the kitchen.”

Buddha : “Oh.. I see.. Can you tell me what did they do with the old cloth they used in the kitchen?”

Disciple : “It is being used to wash the floor.”

Buddha :  ”What happened to the old rug being used to wash the floor…?”

Disciple: “Master, since it was torn off so much, we could not find any better use, but to use it as a  twig in the oil lamp, which is right now lit in your study room….”

Buddha smiled in contentment and left for his room.

If  we cannot reach this degree of utilization, can we at least attempt to find the best use of all our resources at home and in office?

We need to handle wisely, all the resources earth has bestowed us with  so that they can be saved for the generations to come.

Contributed by: Asha Mehta

 By Subhas Puri

So you want to be an author and publish a book?

Why?

Because, you have many good thoughts in your mind, you want to put them on paper, you want to share them with others.

Ok, I am convinced.

Now what is your subject area: fiction? Non-fiction?Children books?Biography?History?Or even politics? First, realize some areas sell well and some dont. This is where the internal fight starts. You have to write what the readers want – and that is not what you want to do. You are stubborn. So, you  chose to write non-fiction – on “relationships”, for example.

Writing a book is neither  easy nor difficult. So, you decide to write on relationships. Why?  Because you think that the present approach is  deficient and you have a groundbreaking idea that will change the face of “togetherness.

So you work hard and Voila! You have a produced a manuscript that looks great.

The next step is to put it into print? That’s  easy, just take it to any printer and for a couple of thousand dollars, you can have five thousand copies of the book that you can now stack in your basement.

So, you see  writing and printing are both  simple tasks – it is the selling that is  hard. So, you have essentially two options: find a publisher and let him do the rest,  or, to self-publish the book. Now the fun begins.

A publisher is a business person  whose sole aim is to make money. The person  publishes whatever sells. He doesnt want ot  help the human race – he simply wants to make money. If the publisher accepts your manuscript, you are on cloud “9” and you think you have found God. But you do realize you would only get 5% to 15% royalty on book sales.

However, it doesn’t work that way. I’m sorry to tell you that you would find it hard to get a publisher to accept your manuscript on relationships because it will not sell so easily.

The next  option is to self-publish? Remember what I said; it’s easy to get it printed selling is much harder.So, here comes the biggest challenge of all – “how to sell”?

Selling needs effort and money. The money part is catch 22 – if you don’t spend, you don’t make  money  and if you  spend, you may be  bankrupt before you make any. Spending means giving away free copies of the book, putting out ads, contacting all sorts of companies, talking to the media and the public. Let me put it this way – it is very strenuous, but it can be done. So,are you willing to make this effort? 

What do I suggest?

• Better to go with a publisher – try hard to find one. For this, you have to have a product to sell and convince the publisher that it will be a market success. And if you are  sure about its value, tell the publisher that you will buy back all the unsold books at production cost.
• If, you can’t find a publisher to accept your book, try the other option of self-publishing. But, it takes a  lot of preparation and effort.

Editor’s Note: Subhash Puri is an accomplished writer with over a dozen published books to his credit. He knows what he is talking about and he writes from personal experience. Please check out his personal website shown in the Links section.

Are you trying to learn a language new,
Are you trying to sing an alien tune,
Join me in my gang as I am too,
anecdotes to share, are not just one, quite a few.
 
The first day my Professor realised,
the herculean task he was upto.
Apart from the word rendezvous,
I had absolutely no clue.
 
While I tried to learn Je m’appelle Shreya
Je suis indienne,
Others in the class spoke about
parse qui, pourquoi with the ease like a canadienne.
 
I am not lying
I am just being true.
The first few days, I felt out of place,
craving to create my own little space.
Then one day during a session with a spanish friend,
I spoke about my family and she about hers.
To my surprise she gently held my hand and began to cry,
Though I wanted to comfort her, in no way did I wanted to pry.
She was missing her family
as much as I do.
And at times it’s easier to confide in a stranger
than a friend we knew.
  
I learnt a big lesson
A lesson life wanted to teach me
Everyone around the world
is actually a person just like me.
 
Everyone wants to be loved, understood and valued,
just like we all do,
All we should strive for is living in peace and harmony
and that’s the key to the happiness true.
 
I dont know when the comfort set in,
And I became a part of the crowd.
I love my french classes
I wanted to say it out aloud.
 
I am thankful for the encouragement
my husband gave me,
otherwise I would have persued it never
And now I know for sure,
the memories of my french classes
will stay in my heart forever and ever.

Contributed By: Shreya Mathur

Most of us can outsmart  Internet scammers who are always on the prowl for victims. But few can avoid the consumer rip-offs that affect our everyday lives, making us spend hundreds more  than we have to on  utilities, goods and services offered by seemingly reputed companies.  In fact,sometimes we dont even realize that we are being paid to more. Here are the top ten examples:

Rip-off 1: Residential electricity charges

Just take a  look at your hydro bill; if you are paying much more than the market rate for electricity you are being ripped off. In Ontario, the rate is 5.5 to 6.5cents/kwh with a peak rate of 8.8 cents/kwh, plus some fixed monthly charges. Just see the website below:

http://www.ontario-hydro.com/index.php?page=current_rates

 If you are paying more, you probably signed a contract with an energy reseller. Since de-regulation, these resellers have mushroomed every where. They visit homes, and get people to sign long-term contract at ‘guaranteed’ prices. This only guarantees the resellers a profit. Just think - why would these people take the time to visit you unless they could turn a profit?

Rip-off 2: Domestic gas prices

Again, check your domestic gas bill. If you are paying much more than the market price for domestic gas, you are being scammed. Currently, in Ontario, the best market rate is around 27 cents per  cubic meter,  for a one year contract. In many  cases, customers are being charged upto 45 cents per unit.

Do a little research and check out the best prices; one useful Internet site is:

http://www.energyshop.com/natural-gas-prices-Enbridge-residential.cfm

Sometimes, you may get offers in the mail for a new contract or a renewal. Never sign these contracts without checking out the market rates first.

Rip-off 3: Rental water heaters

Water heater rental costs only twelve or thirteen dollars a month but over a 15-year life span, you could end up paying two or three times the cost of the heater.

This rip off  is a little hard to spot; the rental is often disguised as a service charge on the utility bill. You have to dig deep into the second or third page to find the word ‘rental’. The utilities have  good reasons to hide this piece of information; if you dont rent any other piece of mechanical equipment,why should you rent a water heater?

In some cases, it is best to rent the heater for the first year and then buy it; this way, the utility pays for the depreciation and you are sure there are no installation problems that often surface within the first year.

Rip-off 4: Long-distance calling plans

There are so many long distance plans, with so many variations, that the customer is always confused. If you have stayed with any one provider for more than a year, the chances are that you are paying  more than you have to. One strategy is to  keep switching suppliers. Yet another  strategy may be to use calling cards. Since these are sold in the open market they are generally competitively priced.

Rip-off 5: Cell phone deals

Again, there are so many deals, with so many variations, that it is hard to choose one. I was ripped-off for years with a cell-phone plan with fixed monthly charges and a few hundred free minutes every month. As a result, I spent hundreds of dollars over the years for services that I never fully used.

For moderate cell phone users, it may be best to go for a service without  no monthly charge and with pre-paid cards that last a t least a year.

Rip-off 6: Bank charges

Banks legitimately charge money when you borrow money; however most of them charge you for keeping your money with them. There are monthly service charges on many accounts and you may have shell out  money for cheque-books. Find a bank that does not charge for these services; there are a few ‘no frills’ banks that do this. Banks also charge you for inter-bank transactions and for changing money; shop around for the best deals before spending.

For most of us, mortgage payments are a big part of our lives and banks make insane amounts of money out of this. For years, I took out fixed-rate mortgages because of the ’stability’ factor; as a result  our mortgage balance hardly declined. Most of the money went towards paying interest.

The moment I switched to variable-rate mortgage, the balance started reducing.  Over the long run, variable rate mortgages work out better for most people. To cover risks of  rising interest rates, consider a variable-rate mortgage with a cap on the maximum interest rate.

Rip-off 7:Bundled services

Many communications providers like to bundle services and offer a discount for doing so. All it does, really, is prevent competitive shopping for each item in the bundle.

Why not simply unbundle the services, and look for the best deal for each item? In most cases, you can save a bundle. And if you dont use the internet very frequently, consider using the public library where you pay zero dollars  for this service.

Rip-off 8:Fitness centre contracts

Many fitness centres want you to sign a contract for at least one year. This is a waste  for most of us, because who needs a gym during the summer months?Why not just go outdoors and get your exercise?

Go to the nearest community centre for a short-term contract. Use these services only during the winter months and you save a bundle.

Rip-off 9: Enriched white bread

This is just one example of how  the food processing industry rips-off people. The company takes perfectly wholesome wheat, pulverizes it and takes all the good stuff out, leaving only a white residue. Since this is totally devoid of nutrients, a few vitamins and such are added along with a hefty dose of  preservatives. This chemical mix is then baked and sold as ‘enriched white bread’.

Almost the same thing is done to most of the other processed foods you see in the grocery store. Sometimes it is sold at a higher price as ‘organic food’ but that is another rip-off, altogether.

Ripoff 10: Bottled water

This must surely  ranked as the ’scam of all scams’. Companies sell bottled water at well over  500 times the price of tap water. It is a more expensive fluid than gasoline once it is bottled up and suitably labelled.

Numerous studies have shown that bottled water is in no way superior to municipal drinking, which is equally safe to drink . Municipal water has to meet all kind of safety standards and in most parts of North America, it is perfectly fit for drinking.

A recent TV documentary showed how, in some cases, bottled water was nothing but municipal water run through some kind of bottling process.

Of course, this rip-off gets  worse in luxury hotels that may charge  ten times more for the same product. So you end up paying a few thousand times more than tap water for essentially the same product.

 Make no mistake. The fight against global warming is a full-fledged war, with strong armies poised for battle on either side. There are minor skirmishes and engagements, attacks and counter-attacks, strategies and counter-strategies, deceptions, victories and defeats. But above all, there is the fog of war - the cloud of disinformation that makes real success difficult for anyone.

On one side of the battle, there are large numbers of environmentalists, mainstream scientists, engineers and climatologists. They are supported by most of the media, many celebrities, some politicians, laypersons and, surprisingly, quite a few civil servants.

Opposing them are the oil producers, automakers, processing industries, and other big businesses that want to preserve the status quo for as long as they can, to maintain their profitability. This group can, rightly, be called the global warmers. They have the money and the power, and they can easily buy into the political system-or, at least they could until Mr Obama became president. But right now, the global warmers are on the run, facing a major onslaught from the environmental groups, and their tactics are getting increasingly defensive.

Their first line of defense is to deny the very fact of global warming. Generously funded “think tanks” produce reports that question the very accuracy of the statistical data that supports the notion of global warming. However, this position is getting less defensible as signs of global warming are now unmistakeable- the break-up of the polar ice caps, the melting of glaciers and the drying up of lakes and rivers throughout the world.

The second line of defense is to deny that human beings are responsible for global warming. This again is done in reports that question the science behind the climate change models. They point out that different computer models produce different results and there is no absolute proof that human activity causes global warming. But this argument, too, is wearing thin, as more people realize that environmental pollution cannot possibly be good for the planet – it will definitely have harmful effects, most probably in the form of global warming.

The next defense -indeed a very successful one - is to steal the thunder from the opposition, by using their terminology. This gives the appearance of action when there is none, or very little. Thus every business uses words like energy efficiency, or sustainability. Any new product or service that comes out is “green”. We have green power, green politics, green communities, and green meetings.

Another strategy is to provide a number of small benefits that create the illusion of meaningful action. Very often, this is done with public money, with some gentle prodding by lobby groups. Thus there are scores of incentive programs for energy savings, both for individuals and for companies, but they have very little effect. The one-time tax break for buying energy efficient cars is an example. It is limited to new cars, and the amount is so small that it is unlikely to influence people to buy a hybrid vehicle – which, in any case, are much more expensive than non-hybrids.

Yet another tactic is simple diversion- moving the focus away from the issues that matter to others that have a lesser impact. Most of the environmental damage today is caused by air and water pollution from industrial sources, industrial wastes, emissions from commercial vehicles, burning of fossil fuels, depletion of natural resources, and energy consumption in large buildings. But public attention is, instead, directed towards voluntary energy savings, mostly at the individual level. We are encouraged to re-cycle more, use energy efficient lightbulbs, and reduce our environmental footprint on the planet. All these things are, no doubt, important but I wonder how much impact they will really have in the absence of any enforcement. We need to do much more than this.

What we really need to do is  to go curb global warming at its source, by tightening up the environmental regulations with better enforcement. We need to tax buildings according to their energy consumption, to force owners to conserve energy. All new buildings must be energy efficient by law. Public transit systems should be expanded in all major cities, with growing emphasis on commuter trains. Existing bus fleets should switch to biofuels, or compressed natural gas, to get rid of the pollution caused by diesel exhausts. Substantial tax breaks should be offered on a recurring basis to induce people to switch to smaller, energy efficient cars.

In the long run, the global warmers cannot be allowed to win the battle – they have to look for environmentally friendly ways of doing business in the future. Because, if they win, everybody else loses and the stakes are far too high – perhaps the very survival of our species on this earth.

Unscrupulous companies have perfected the art of ripping-off the unwary consumer. These are not just the fly-by-night operators; many large corporations practise this art and they are getting  really good at it.

The trick, apparently, is to gouge the customer for small amounts but with a large number of  transactions. This way, the individual amounts go almost unnoticed but they really add up really fast for the companies pulling the scams. Hardly anyone complains because hardly anyone notices what is going on.

A perfect example is the rental water heater rip-off that I discussed in an earlier post. With a monthly rental of as little as twelve dollars  the customer ends up paying two or three times the cost of the heater during its lifetime. 

Most consumer scams have some common features; a few are listed below and hopefully, readers will add to the list.

1.A long term contract is generally involved.

2. Customers are encouraged to “lock-in” prices to save money. Guess who benefits from this? Not the customer.

3.There  may be door-door salespersons who desperately try to get the customer’s signature on a piece of paper. This signature then becomes part of a contract.

4. There may be telemarketeers involved; the sales pitch is often disguised as a survey.

5. Complexity is used as a marketing tool by providing too much information . This simply confuses the customer who is rendered unable to make a rational decision.Classic examples are cell phone plans and long distance calling plans. Just try comparing different plans; even Einstein would be baffled.

6.Companies  issue very detailed bills,, with the really important stuff hidden away on page 3 in small type.

If you spot any of the above in a deal, it should send a “scam alert” message to your brain. Or just check out the examples below to see which one applies.

ENERGY RESELLERS

Ellen Roseman of the Toronto Star has written extensively about this topic. Check out her blog at: www.ellenroseman.com. In fact, she wants to ban door-to-door energy sales. Even if this comes to pass, the marketers will find other ways to get you.

Typically, an energy reselling company will approach the unwary customer with a five-year contract that “locks-in” the price; it could also be called a price protection plan. All it does, really, is to lock-in the customer to one company for the next five years. The company never loses money on these deals, so  it is the consumer who pays the price. If the market price for domestic gas is 35 cents/unit, the consumer may be locked in at 45 cents. The consumer doesn’t really know what the market price is; all that is known is the price charged in recent bills which may are already be well above market levels.

The customer should try  saying no to the reseller’s offer. As soon as this happens, the reseller will come back with a better  price and a five-year “lock-in”. This offer, too, is generally not worth accepting. The wary customer should  shop around for the best  deal using the internet, or by contacting other energy resellers in the area.

 The key strategy  is not to be taken in by the reseller’s offer.  Also, avoid locking in the prices in a long-term contract.

WATER HEATER RENTAL

Just check out my earlier post .

THE FIXED RATE MORTGAGE

This is not really be a scam but the example is illustrative of what can happen with long-term contracts.

For many, many years, I locked myself into fixed-interest mortgages with five year terms. Sure, they were risk-free but I didn’t really gain anything. I kept paying interest on the mortgage and the balance hardly declined. As soon as we moved to a variable-rate mortgage tied to the prime rate, the balance started reducing much faster.  Just for safety, I chose a variable-rate mortgage with a cap; this gave most of the benefits without much risk.

It is, essentially, the same principle at work-  avoid a long term contract at a fixed rate; it doesn’t really help in the long run.

LONG DISTANCE CALLING

There are dozens of companies offering long-distance calling plans. Most of the plans are so complex that it is hard to see beyond the cloud of disinformation. A close examination reveals that the calling card is probably the best long distance plan for most users. The calling card is priced competitively because it is sold in a competitive marketplace. Plus, it can be used anywhere, anytime and you know exactly how much you spend on long distance calling.

Cell phone plans are another story; I still haven’t figured them out completely. However, I suspect that a very simple plan with the lowest monthly charge and a fixed rate for calls is probably the best.

The list of scams and rip-offs is endless; this article highlights only a few of the more common ones. Please feel free to add to the list by sending in your own story.