FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR CONTAMINATION OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN

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http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/08/04/Fukushima-plant-leaking-toxic-water-into-Pacific/UPI-25971375627085/ Translating into 100 times more radioactive fallout than normal, that eventually can leak into the groundwater. What about the fish we eat ? Contaminated food imports from Japan ?

Vancouver Island on the Pacific Coast of Canada. What do those two have in common ? I live on Vancouver Island, moved here September 2002. This morning I hear on the radio the following again: the amount of radioactive materials that have been washed into the Pacific Ocean not only after the nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, but apparently for years before. In the belief that radioactive fallout will be absorbed into the ocean. But this is not true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDYvsbRnVeQ

So, I am drinking my daily water, from the tap. It is supposed to be clean and clear. Where does it come from: From the Sooke Regional reservoir, which is connected to the Sooke Lake Basin, Juan de Fuca Strait (Southern border of Vancouver Island), [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Juan_de_Fuca ] and the latter connected West to the Pacific Ocean. But as usual, everything is always HUSH, HUSH by the authorities. Can we have some explanations ?>

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/09/radiation-detected-in-drinking-water-in-13-more-us-cities-cesium-137-in-vermont-milk/

FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR FALLOUT

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http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/08/04/Fukushima-plant-leaking-toxic-water-into-Pacific/UPI-25971375627085/ Translating into 100 times more radioactive fallout than normal, that eventually can leak into the groundwater. What about the fish we eat ? Contaminated food imports from Japan ?

Vancouver Island on the Pacific Coast of Canada. What do those two have in common ? I live on Vancouver Island, moved here September 2002. This morning I hear on the radio the following again: the amount of radioactive materials that have been washed into the Pacific Ocean not only after the nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, but apparently for years before. In the belief that radioactive fallout will be absorbed into the ocean. This is not true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDYvsbRnVeQ

And can you believe, that real estate on Vancouver Island sells in the millions of dollars, some properties 3 or more million dollars ? To not even have clean water supply ?

TIME TO GET OUT OF DODGE ! (meaning for me, to get the heck out of here)

CONDOMINIUM OWNERSHIP cont’d.

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Continuation of my discussion on Condo Ownership. It always amazes me that so few owners of this type of real estate understand the consequences of owning it. And that so few of real estate agents who are selling potential buyers into this kind of property explain the implications of owning a condominium. [Living in British Columbia, this type of residence or home is referred to as “strata” [ A strata usually is a geological entity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratum ]

Then why do realtors sell this type of property as a “suite” instead of referring to it as a unit in a shared building (shared by more than at least two owners who are responsible for the maintenance, upkeep, financial assets, insurance and other sundries) which – the bigger the building and the older it gets – could amount to millions of dollars for repairs and maintenance to the entire building structure. Hence “an albatross around my neck” expression.

What makes it much worse is the loss of control each unit holder has on the operation of such a building, worse the larger it is. And those who are running the day to day whatever is needed, or even worse, an external management company, otherwise also referred to as “mismanagement company”. It is common human nature that people enjoy controlling others. Unfortunately those are mostly the ones who are incompetent or know the least of construction, finance control. In several condo’s I owned I didn’t have a big problem. But once in a while one is hung up in a situation that becomes the background for a NIGHTMARE CONDO story. Especially if one sees one’s investment going down the drain – literally in a ‘waterfall of busted pipes and other regularly occurring floodings’.

Having lived so many years in Alberta, Canada, in my own homes, on my own land, not sharing any common property, or other buildings hanging around my neck and making my life more miserable, trying to get out is not an option anymore, but has become a necessity.

 

CONDO NIGHTMARE

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That’s all I see when I Google for “condo nightmares” – thousands upon thousands of horror stories. Of course,  owning a condo means living or residing in the same building as many others sharing the building.  Worst situation is owning on the main floor, because water flows down, never up. That would be nice. In four years twice flooding, once from above me, now from below spraying up via a broken water pipe. Get out of here ! s.a.  https://renataveritasopinion.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/nightmare-condo/

TALKERS vs DOERS

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Talkers – politicians, bureaucrats, managers giving orders, committees (“committees are notoriously known for not accomplishing anything”). Generally speaking, people on power trips who shy from being held responsible. Or, who enjoy ‘talking’ about all the impossibly difficult chores they have done – although it was others who worked hard and have done them, with their own two hands. Like: “I built a house, or a road or a bridge”.

When I say: “I renovated buildings including roofing, drywall, framing, flooring, tiles, and also grading roads and building wall for my own buildings, or building miles of fences for my horses”. That means, I did this using my own two hands and ‘elbow grease’, and if needed my trusted old 4-wheel drive truck. That also means that I did my own hunting in winter. Alone, or going out with my horse.

During my twenty six year in Alberta doing town and country construction for myself, I met a number of very impressive ladies. They worked hard. Ranching women. I never forget the lady to whom I had rented my land for grazing their cows, heifers and some young bulls. She arrived with a large truck/trailer which incidentally broke down in my yard upon arrival. Her partner, an Alberta cowboy, stood by while the lady went under her truck fixing it. As a women I find that rather impressive. I am like wise impressed by anything I can not do, such as using a big chainsaw, climbing up a big tree and start cutting from the top. That guy can impress me. And of course the many friends helping me with any technical construction work that I cannot do or are qualified to do.

But people who talk, talk, talk, not doing anything, just working with their mouth, no, does not fly with me. The downside is, of course, that rush decisions doing something have cost me a bundle. So, there you go: Talker vs. Doer.

NIGHTMARE CONDO

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Continuation of my discussion on Condo Ownership. It can go very well or it can backfire. Costing the unsuspecting buyers their life savings. It is totally understandable that many who buy a home/property that is classified as a condominium may not fully comprehend what they are buying into. Primarily, unlike buying one’s own home on one’s own lot or land, with a condominium one buys (a) a commonly shared building, and (b) commonly shared land. The smaller the building, the easier it is to manage, in terms of repairs, regular maintenance and operation (heating, water, sewer, other municipal expenses). Operation also includes managing contracts for gardening, cleaning the building and grounds, and garbage removal etc. All these costs are shared by a number of owners who have purchased a share and reside in their own (four walls so to say) suite, for which they are responsible, and which they may improve or renovate, or repair. All owners also pay regular monthly fees for any of those expenses that affect the common shared portion. More often than not, there exist property management companies who under contract with all owners have the responsibility to manage the building and grounds, finances and insurances and sub-contracts for repairs, maintenance and operation. One of the major components of a good financing plan is (a) receiving sufficient monthly fees from the owners to build up a good solid contingency fund for future bigger expenses; (b) to be accountable to all owners and provide regular financial statements including audits by an independent auditing company;  (c) manage a larger building responsibly, with transparency and allowing for regular information disclosure. Else, the situation arises of the NIGHTMARE CONDO. Because not only does the management of a condo corporation involve one property manager, but also a whole committee or group of people – themselves owners – who regularly meet and take decisions. Which is commendable, being volunteer positions, but can backfire when certain elements of  “being on a power trip” play into this. From the four condo homes I have owned and never had any problems, until now, a slight warning: When buying a condo, look carefully at all condo documents (‘subject to purchase’), check the contingency fund (how much money is available for future larger expenses). With older buildings, after 30 or 40 years, one could assume that there should be a healthy fund. If monthly fees were not raised for years, then there is not enough money. Also new now as a rule is the Depreciation Report which is a fairly large document showing what systems or parts of the property need larger expenses within which time frame. If future expenses – let’s say 30 years forward – exceed the assessed value of the building, a purchase of any unit in that building would not be advisable. A good rule of thumb is: Buildings depreciate when they age, while land appreciates. All in the context of rising or falling property markets, of course.

Example of 2013 flood damages caused=video

TCPL Resources / Trans Canada – a history

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TCPL Resources, 1980s subsidiary of Trans Canada Pipelines. Inside the culture. Eye witness account. During the 1980s, when Canada’s National Energy Program almost killed the oil industry in Alberta, many of us employed by those oil companies under false promises suffered. I personally was subjected to two company takeovers (Hudson’s Bay Oil & Gas Company takeover by Dome Petroleum around 1980 – HBOG does not exist anymore). I left HBOG after 4 years as a Sr. Systems Analyst/Designer shortly before its takeover. To accept a Senior IT position with Maligne Resources Ltd. (also does not exist anymore). By 1983 Maligne Resources [ http://www.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/finances/index.html?query=MALIGNE%20RESOURCES&field=org&match=exact ] was taken over by TCPL Trans Canada Pipelines Resources (Division).

Interesting, how large oil & pipeline corporations can create divisions, departments, and subsidiaries in a blink of an eye, for the sole purpose of either taking over other oil companies or divisions, or for the purpose of instigating massive layoffs (“culling”) campaigns. Mostly accompanied by a blatant disregard of human rights.

As a professional having worked for over 40 years in the IT and computer services field, in many international organizations in Europe and then – following my graduate IS program at Syracuse University, USA – many years in the Alberta oil industry. The experiences in the Alberta oil patch cannot be compared to anything I had experienced anywhere in the world, as far as professional conduct is concerned.

Hudson’s Bay Oil & Gas Co. was a good solid company. Too bad, they had to go down in history, after several takeovers. The worst experience was with – what does not exist anymore now – TCPL Resources, presumably at the time during the 1980s formed to takeover Maligne Resources Co.

[ more on this : https://renataveritasopinion.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/secondhand-smoke-tcpl-resources-ltd/ and http://renataveritashistory.com/2013/07/03/trans-canada-pipelines-tcpl-resources/ ]

SECONDHAND SMOKE – TCPL Resources Ltd.

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Innocent bystanders swallowing poisonous smoke from smokers. Basically, I don’t care if anybody smokes or how much they smoke, the more the better.What I as a non-smoker care about is, though, to be forced to inhale that poison that others blow out. In other words: Swallow it. So, that I can continue to live.

A horror story follows: While working in Alberta’s oil industry from 1977 until the beginning of the 1990s, I was exposed in the workplace, in the offices, to second hand smoke. Myself I do not smoke, but many employees – particularly in the computer systems departments – did. This kind of (socially irresponsible) behavior lacking any controls or policies for protecting their employees resulted during those years in sickness, diseases of the lung and respiratory diseases. This to employees who were innocent bystanders, so to speak. Not only did our clothing get burned by employees walking around the workplace, burning cigarette in hand, but also during the last few years in the beginning of the 1980s while employed with TCPL Resources [ http://www.transcanada.com/splash/ ] this situation defied all descriptions. Arriving before 8 am for work, by 12 noon the air in the offices and corridors could be cut with a knife. Worse, because we in the computer department were sharing the air freely while working in open cubicles.

TCPL Resources took over our company Maligne Resources (a division of Dow Chemical) in 1983 . By fall I needed my first sinus surgery. Since the atmosphere inside TCPL Resources was such that we were not allowed to take out extended sick leave, I needed to go back to work soon after the surgery. My days were horror! My bleeding throat was almost choking me, while at the same time choking on others’ cigarette smoke. Of course, I commented on this situation, especially since already in all elevators in those Calgary, Alberta, high rise offices were notices posted on NO SMOKING. Result: By 1986, the new management (sent down from Toronto) started laying employees off in droves.

First to go were those (complaining about the smoking) and single mothers – like myself. The heavy smokers were kept.1986 was a bad year for finding any employment as a female systems professional (single mother with child). Not only did I loose my (almost vested) company pension benefits, but had to leave behind my home in Alberta and my son, go East (Ontario) and finally launch a job as a Systems (self-employed) contractor.

Years later, I found listed among others in relevant sources on companies and their social responsibility status, TCPL Resources (this arm may not exist anymore). Makes me really sick, when companies deliberately ‘kill’ their employees, than apply dirty business practices for layoff, then appear – newly born and re-invented – as socially responsible!

SMOKING CAN KILL – the Lung Association British Columbia : [ http://www.bc.lung.ca/ ] [ http://www.ilo.org/safework_bookshelf/english?content&nd=857170157

CONDOMINIUM OWNERSHIP

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(continued)

In all those years I am in Canada I have bought, owned and re-sold my homes. After the very first one duplex that we rented, me and my little son. But not for long. In Alberta, homes with land. Not in all those years have I made any profits on it. Typically, buildings depreciate, while land appreciates. But all depends on location and demand. More than often locations where infrastructure is being developed will appreciate faster. Unluckily, I had sold land before the great boom in land prices and before an area near that piece of land would be revitalized. Condo’s or Condominiums – share ownerships in a condo corporation – whereby shareholders own a portion of the building, the grounds and have their own little suite where they can live and renovate, improve, or more likely maintain and repair. Advice is only given here based on my own experienced. The market is not only dependent on supply and demand, but also on fluctuations in the overall financial markets. One of the real frustrating concepts in condo ownership is twofold: (a) loss of control over one’s investment; (b) cost sharing.

[referred to as: “mitgefangen, mitgehangen” – meaning, if a large repair is needed for a condo building, then all owners must share the cost]. For larger and especially older buildings this can become very costly. Moreover, if a property management company had been in control for years and either mismanaged funds or neglected the upkeep of the building, or both. Example: Of the four condominiums I had owned and re-sold three of them meanwhile, the last I still live in has been a disaster. My out of pocket cost I paid for my share has been let’s say $240,000 in an area where most condo’s go for much more usually. The last assessed value is pegged at $25,000 for the building – as per 2013. The major balance of assessed value is for the land.

The ‘new kid on the block’ that came along is the DEPRECIATION REPORT. That’s now standard for all older condominium buildings. At least here in BC, Canada. Pretty straight forward: Estimate the cost of all facilities and assets of the building, the improvements inside and out, and then look forward for the next 10 years or longer, what needs to be replaced. Prepared mostly by engineering firms who simply estimate all repairs, replacements and maintenance to all building systems and facilities in order to budget the cost for these, to be born by the owners of the condo building and lands. These predicted estimated cost fore casts can largely exceed the assessed value of the property. When only considering the building. At a certain benchmark – let’s say 5 years from preparing the Depreciation Report – when all predicted costs to keep the building ‘alive’ far exceed the assessed value of the building at that time, then the decision should be made to sell out to a developer, land value only.

If I were in a position of funds to permit myself NOT to live in a condo, I would run as fast as I can away from this unfortunate concept of ownership.

[http://homebuying.about.com/od/manufacturedhomes/bb/manufactured.htm]

BIG PHARMA

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Lack of transparency to the public about drugs is definitely the most significant reason why many prescription drugs turn out to become ‘diseases’ or are leading to death in patients. Who is to blame ? Governments working in conjunction with the pharmaceutical industries, the big corporations.

Governments: In many countries Governments ensure that clinical studies on new drugs in particular and by the pharmaceutical industry are made public. In order to approve pharmaceutical products, these studies are relied upon. This process is obligatory in most of the industrialized countries. These studies also permit independent researchers to offer their input into any new drugs. Often this is not done. The Big Pharma industries have become too powerful.

On the other end of this scale, the question is: how can patients protect themselves against adverse effects by prescription medications ? From my personal perspective, I can only say that, in all those years that I am in this particular city, in this particular country, I have discarded most prescriptions for questionable medications that were given to me by doctors. And with our current Medical Health Insurance system, most prescription drugs must be paid by the patients anyways, unless they are cheap and ineffective drugs. So, I might as well spend some time researching medical drugs data bases and reports on any drugs prescribed to me to ensure it is safe. And believe you me, no drug is safe. Prescription drugs mostly contain chemicals harmful to the body. To say the least, in the long run a patient may suffer from at least kidney failure, if not worse. Some interesting links follow:

Big Pharma

Author(s)

 Jacky Law

Country

 UK

Subject(s)

 Pharmaceutical industry

Genre(s)

 Science writing, medicine, investigative journalism

Publisher

 Constable (UK), Carroll & Graf (US)

Publication date

 16 January 2006

Pages

 256

ISBN

 ISBN 978-1845291396

Big Pharma: How the World’s Biggest Drug Companies Control Illness is a 2006 book by British journalist Jacky Law. The book examines how major pharmaceutical companies determine which health care problems are publicised and researched.[1]

Outlining the history of the pharmaceutical industry, Law identifies the failure of a regulatory framework that assumes pharmaceutical companies always produce worthwhile products that society will want.[1]

Law has written about health care for 25 years, seven of them as associate editor of Scrip Magazine, a monthly magazine for the drugs industry.[2]

Big Pharma industries relying on the fact that transparency = disclosure of relevant information to the public and ultimately the patients is not enforced by governments as it should be. Resulting in massive fines for inadequately tested drugs with wide-ranging side effects. [http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bigpharma].