Comments Off on Video – Capitalism vs The United Nations – The Story of Bangladesh
Jan092019
The failure of the United Nations model of aiding developing countries by doling out money to their governments has failed because it is a top-down model of wealth distribution not unlike the model used, with no success, by the former Soviet Union.
Bangladesh, once called a “basket case” by Henry Kissinger, suffered the same fate as every other country where the government received foreign aid. The aid never reached the people most in need of it.
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank has demonstrated that micro-lending directly to the people is the best way to break the cycle of poverty. His bottom-up model of capitalism is the success story that is modern Bangladesh.
Salim Mansur, Professor Emeritus of Western University tells the story of that once war-torn and poverty stricken country and how one man, Muhammad Yunus turned it into a prospering nation.
Comments Off on 583 – Globalism – A national crisis
Nov222018
Remembrance Day ceremonies in France this past November 11 turned out to be a sad reminder of much more than the 100-year-old tragedy that was WWI.
With French president Emmanuel Macron charging that “The old demons are rising again,” one is forced to conclude that he was looking in a mirror. Citing the dangers of ‘nationalism’ and the ‘collective good’ of ‘globalism,’ Macron demonstrated loud and clear that he is among the demons.
When he acknowledged that the “traces of this war never went away,” Macron was indeed ironic; socialism is still with us to this very day – and is on the rise, just as it was prior to the last two world wars. Thus, the key lesson that should have been learned from that history still remains undefined and continues to go unheeded.
In an inappropriate attempt to address U.S. president Donald Trump’s proud declaration that he is a ‘nationalist,’ Macron again ironically chose to use the Remembrance Day ceremonies as his opportunity to promote the very collectivism that the West was forced to fight during the last two world wars. Continue reading »
“Inconveniently Screwed” is the title of our guest Dave Plumb’s book about climate change – and about the litany of outright fear-mongering and shameless deception that defines the Left ‘s so-called ‘climate’ agenda.
Being ‘inconveniently screwed’ is also the perfect way to describe what will happen to voters in the four provinces (Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick) specifically targeted by Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday via his National Climate Plan.
Arbitrarily citing an “urgent need to put a price on pollution,” Trudeau announced nothing more than another socialist wealth redistribution scheme on Tuesday, glaringly self-evident as such. Using an argument that could only be taken seriously by those totally disconnected from reality, Trudeau outrageously promised that “Eight in ten Ontario families will get back more than they pay directly.” That of course means that two out of ten families have to give their money to the other eight out of ten. That’s a ‘climate’ plan?
“Starting next year, it will no longer be free to pollute,” announced Trudeau in referring to carbon dioxide, offering as blatant a display of ‘facts don’t matter’ as one could possibly conjure. The fact is that carbon dioxide is no pollutant and is actually beneficial to life on earth! To suggest otherwise is an outright lie!Continue reading »
Comments Off on The Danielle Metz Show – 029 – The ultimate conclusion
Sep232018
California is a state in crisis, mostly self-imposed. Given its government’s Leftist mindset, the crisis is bound to deepen.
As if oblivious to the human excrement on the streets, the needles littering every block, and much more, California has focused instead on legislating everything from ‘straw bans’ to passing laws about the kinds of beverages restaurants must offer their customers. Because water prices are regulated by the state, the state is now rationing water, with threats of $1000/day fines for those households exceeding water usage of 55 gallons per day.
To ‘fix’ the California state-burdened economy, the state legislature is forcing an increase in the number of female directors on state corporate boards, arguing that this will ‘boost’ the economy as well. The forced sexual discrimination is accompanied with all the usual threats of fines and imprisonment for those who do not comply.
With this kind of thinking going on in government, small wonder that many have become hopelessly cynical about California’s future. Podcaster Bill Whittle has proposed that “the way to fix California is to take the liberal’s positions to their ultimate conclusions.” Danielle and Robert describe those conclusions as a bullet – “the bullet at the end of the gun that is government.” Continue reading »
Comments Off on 573 – Guest: Salim Mansur – Political theatre from NAFTA to The New York Times
Sep132018
How Canada will fare in closing trade negotiations with the United States is among the big questions of the day. Actions like Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s impotent trade retaliations only serve to demonstrate Canada’s failure to understand the election of Donald Trump, a president who has vowed from the beginning that he would re-negotiate NAFTA.
So says Salim Mansur, who joins us for a discussion that illustrates ‘political theatre’ from NAFTA to the New York Times, where an admission of apparent criminal and unethical behavior on the part of an anonymous op-ed writer is being reported as reflecting poorly on Donald Trump! Thanks to the Trump Derangement Syndrome, when it comes to anything political, we don’t get news anymore. Instead we get political theatre masquerading as news.
Watching Leftist politicians/media on both sides of the Canada/US border signal the virtues of ‘free trade’ while standing firm on their protectionist policies is pure political theatre. It is political theatre watching them accuse Trump of being the villain opposed to free trade – when the only national leader on the world stage who has explicitly sought ‘zero’ tariffs and barriers in those very terms has been Donald Trump!
Fact is, certain economic interests often join forces with political interests willing to use the force of law to give them a trade advantage by placing barriers and tariffs on their competition. Or, an advantage can be secured by government subsidies or tax breaks unavailable to others. Given his ‘no tariffs no barriers’ trade philosophy, that’s why Donald Trump is their enemy and must be made to look the fool.
Free trade is not merely about economics, as most would like to believe. In arriving at a trade deal that is Just Right for everyone affected, it might be useful to remember that the ‘free’ in ‘free trade’ ultimately refers to the individuals engaged in it.
Banning plastic straws is among the latest environmental fads of the Left, and it’s impossible to resist pointing out just how much this one sucks.
While one jurisdiction has imposed penalties as high as six months in jail and a $1000 fine for serving a straw with a drink in a restaurant, another jurisdiction – San Francisco – is planning to ban straws, carry-out containers and wrappers. The utter futility of the gestures is dwarfed by their hypocrisy.
San Francisco has today become a city with conditions worse than that in many impoverished third-world nations. Human feces lies on every block of the city, drug addicts openly shoot up on the streets in public, and the city dispenses hundreds of thousands of free needles also littering the streets. Poverty and homelessness abounds. In the midst of all this, its new mayor apparently believes that ‘education’ will solve the problem.
As it undeservedly adopts a moral high ground in condemning ‘plastic refuse,’ the Left simultaneously celebrates and perpetuates the human refuse in its wake. Such is the plastic politics of pollution.Continue reading »
Comments Off on 568 – Guest: Salim Mansur – After NAFTA
Aug092018
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as we know it no longer exists. In an era of shifting trade winds precipitated by the free trade policies of Donald Trump (no tariffs, no barriers, no subsidies, etc), the threat of a global ‘trade war’ has now crossed the horizon.
That ‘war’ is being precipitated by the nations who most insist on maintaining their controls on free trade, while hypocritically pretending to be on the side of ‘free trade.’ To them, Donald Trump is the ‘bully.’ Bully for them. But crying ‘bully’ doesn’t make it so.
As Western University’s assistant professor of political science Salim Mansur illustrates, we are witnessing a shift in world trade – away from the destructive policies of ‘globalism’ and back to a world of sovereign nations, each determining its own destiny and interests against those imposed upon it by other nations.
The lesson to be learned is that every nation – whether under ‘globalism’ or ‘nationalism’ – will always act in its own interest. As soon as that interest in no longer served, old ‘alliances’ quickly fade while new ones are formed.
