Official Olympic Restaurant Doesn't Pay Gold Medal Wages

McDonald's is a "world wide partner" of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Unfortunately, it seems that McDonald's is not much of a partner to their employees in the province of British Columbia (or anywhere else for that matter).

Under British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell's Liberal Party government, his province has the distinction of having the lowest provincial minimum wage in Canada at C$8.00 per hour. But, BC also has a so-called "training wage" of C$6.35 and that's what McDonald's is paying it's employees in BC's Lower Mainland according to the British Columbia Federation of Labour.

According to this Reuters News Agency article that appeared recently in the Financial Post, McDonald's fourth quarter profits rose from US$985.3 million last year to US$1.22 billion this past year.

Wages of six and change an hour equals over a billion in profits!

Looks like McDonald's is a serious contender for the gold medal in exploiting low wage workers.

Smash Window$ not windows

Much ink has been spilled and audio/video bits and bytes used over the actions of some anti-Olympics protesters who smashed store windows in Vancouver.

While I support the anti-Olympics movement, the actions of this particular group of protesters was just plain stupid in my opinion. When the mainstream media is filled with Winter Olympics hype and looking for any excuse to discredit dissent, why give them exactly what they're looking for?

I've got a much better idea.

The best way to deal with all of the corporate hucksters trying to cash in on the Olympics by being the "official Olympics toilet paper" or whatever is to hit them in the pocket books.

For instance, NBC has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the world's largest market...the USA. According to Wikipedia, MSNBC, a major NBC TV channel is 18% owned by monopoly software conglomerate Microsoft.

That's a corporation that's really easy to hit in the pocket books.

How?

Have an Olympic sized GNU/Linux install fest!

Invite geeks and freaks from all over the world to rid computers of Microsoft's operating system and install the free (as in freedom) GNU/Linux system instead.

It would be environmentally friendly!

Millions of computers annually are dumped into land fills sites. Why? Sometimes it's just because they're loaded with viruses and spyware. Other times it's just because the machine is too old to run Microsoft's latest and greatest resource hogging operating system.

Tons of computers could be brought back to life and made useful again!

It would have tremendous community value. The computers could be donated to poor and marginalized folks, under resourced community centres, schools, you name it!

Or, folks who are constantly "fixing" their computers could have machines that actually work.

You could award a gold medal to the person who gets the most GNU/Linux installs done in a 24 hour period. There could be bonus points for getting it to run on especially old or particularly flakey hardware.

All kinds of folks would discover that it isn't necessary to pay the "Microsoft Windows tax" on computing.

And most importantly, it would make Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer cry.

So don't smash windows. Smash Window$

Of cellphones and smartphones and things

About a month ago I lost my cellphone. Well it got lost and then someone found it and stole it! I've since picked up a new one though and am back connected with the world.

My old cellphone was definitely "old" technology by today's standards but sometimes I like old tech.

It was a Motorola V235 flip camera phone. The on board camera took crappy little photos and even crappier little videos.

One of the things that I really liked about it is that I could use the free (as in freedom) software "Moto4lin" with it. Moto4lin allowed my GNU/Linux based computers to "talk" to my phone without having to purchase Motorola's proprietary software.

Motorola's proprietary software only ran on the proprietary Microsoft Windows operating system and would require me to "pay the Microsoft tax" so that I would have a Windows license on one of my computers.

So, first pay Microsoft for an operating system license, then pay Motorola for their Windows-only software. My only other option was to pay data charges to my cellphone provider to e-mail my photos to myself.

The combination of GNU/Linux and Moto4lin meant that now I owned my crappy little photos and videos. My media files were no longer imprisoned by Motorola, Microsoft and my cellphone carrier.

I controlled them and not some monolithic corporation.

The other thing you can do with Moto4lin is manage your contacts and things like that. But all I really cared about was my photos.

Moto4lin is ever so slightly geeky. To fire it up you have to go to a command line (the equivalent of a DOS prompt for Windows users) and type a simple command to start up moto4lin. After that, the programme opens up in a window.

It installs in a matter of 30 seconds using your GNU/Linux package management software.

Now the other very cool thing I liked about this old Motorola V235 was that I could charge the battery using a standard "off-the-shelf" USB cable; the same type used by most digital cameras. It did not use some weird proprietary connector that would cost a small fortune to replace.

So, if I forgot my charger (as I quite often did), I could walk into any computer store and for a few bucks buy a standard USB cable and charge it off the nearest computer.

On a GNU/Linux machine, you just had to plug it into the USB port and it would start charging. On a Windows computer, you had to plug it in, Windows would prompt you to connect to Windows Update, you'd download a driver and then you could charge it. A bit of a longer process with Windows. (People keep trying to tell me how "hard" GNU/Linux is).

So my trusty old V235 is gone and I had to get a new phone in a bit of a hurry. What did I do?

Well $60 got me a new Motorola W233.

I tried to buy one at the local Fido kiosk in a neighbourhood shopping mall, but they didn't have any in stock. Not only that, but the guy at the kiosk told me that they'd never ever had ANY in stock! This is really rather bizarre because the phone pictured in all of Fido's advertising materials is a Motorola W233!

I went to the little electronics discount store next to the mall to buy some batteries and what did I find? A whole bunch of Motorola W233's! So, I bought one!

Like my old Motorola V235, my W233 can be charged up with the same standard off-the-shelf USB cable. I plug my W233 into my GNU/Linux computers and it instantly charges up!

It's another story with Windows. Windows recognizes the model of cellphone and asks me to connect to Windows update to find a driver so that it can be charged. I let Windows grind away for a few minutes and I get a message saying that Windows hasn't found a driver.

So, I have to go to Motorola's website, and then download and install Motorola's "charging driver" for Windows. (Please tell me why Microsoft Windows is easier again?)

This cheapie little phone doesn't have a camera, so I've had to sacrifice that. But, it does play .mp3 files and so if I add a mini SD card, I can listen to my tunes on it.

For eco types, the case is apparently made from 25% recycled plastic. (Discarded water bottles).

The whole thing is an interim measure anyway until my contract with Fido runs out in the summer.

Then, I'm going to take a look around at other cellphone providers.

The other thing I'll be looking for is a "smartphone".

I'm using SMS text messaging much more often now and I'd like something with a QWERTY keyboard. It's a little hard doing SMS text messaging with a regular cellphone keypad.

Also, using tools like Twitter and identi.ca are only really practical if you have a smartphone.

But smartphones are no longer "just phones". They're now general purpose computers that you carry around in your pocket.

And just as you should be free to install any software you want on your desktop/laptop/netbook computer, you should be free to install whatever software you want on your smartphone. That's not the case with the two biggest selling smartphones; RIM's "Blackberry" and Apple's "iPhone". It's also not the case with a number of other smartphones.

On most smartphones you can only install the software that the vendor says you can. Also you have to go to their "app store" to get the software for your smartphone. If you want to install software from somewhere else, it's not allowed.

I do not want to be a tenant on any device that I buy.

An effort in this direction was the "Open Moko Freerunner", but the project was cancelled last April. The Open Moko ran on a GNU/Linux operating system and you could install whatever applications you wanted to install. The circuit board diagrams were published as well, so you could even hack the hardware if you wanted to!

So, the Open Moko folks are now concentrating on software for mobile phones instead of the hardware.

However, one of the good things to come out of this are other smartphones running on GNU/Linux operating systems. While none of them are anywhere near as "open" as the Open Moko, they're getting a bit more open.

While much is being made of Google's new "Nexus One" phone, it looks like software can only be installed from their app store "Android Market" from what I can see.

Some of Palm's new smartphones are running on the GNU/Linux based "WebOS". Palm's smartphones are looking a little more promising in the "open" department.

So I'm going to be watching and waiting to see what comes on the market over the next few months. My smartphone business will go to whatever manufacturer gives me the most freedom.

And being able to charge it with a standard USB cable would help too!

Back at it again!

Wow, life sure can get busy!

It's been over a year since I've posted anything here. It's about time I got back at it.

The funny thing is that in this country we again find ourselves with a prorogued Parliament...a "coup d'etat" in my humble opinion by the Harper Conservative government.

This time Parliament has been prorogued for even flimsier reasons than last year; namely the Harper government's refusal to answer opposition questions on the torture of Afghan detainees.

Back in 1852 Karl Marx wrote in "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte"

“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”

Harper's second proroguing of Parliament is definitely a farce!

The Progressive Coalition...Canada's "Obama Campaign"

For starters I'm going to strike Governor-General Michaelle Jean off my Christmas card list.

Her Excellency made a rather unexcellent decision. Steven Harper's government has been spared the axe till January. So I'll keep polishing my barbeque fork and leave the champagne on ice.

I'm no constitutional lawyer, but I can read. I'm also reasonably knowledgeable about history. The GG's stay of execution flies in the face of the precedent set in the "King-Byng" affair of 1926.

Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's minority Liberal government was about to be defeated after a customs scandal. King went to Governor-General Byng and asked for the dissolution of the house and for another election to be called (there'd been an election in 1925).

Byng refused and called in Conservative leader Arthur Meighan to form a government. True, Meighan's government didn't last long and a few months later Canada was back into another election campaign. But nevertheless, the precedent has been set.

There is a "government in waiting", but Governor General Jean paid no attention to this and let Prime Minister Harper have his way. Our elected representatives have been defacto locked out of Parliament.

But there's a bright spot to all this believe it or not. I have an LP in my collection (yes I still have quite a bit of vinyl lying around) called "Precious Friend". It's a recording of Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie's concert tour back in the 1980's.

In an intro to a little rant about "the neutron bomb", (a big issue at the time), Arlo said that "You can't have a light...without a dark... to stick it in!". In other words he explained "You can't have one thing...without the other thing".

We certainly have a dark...namely the "Chicago Boy" policies of Harper's government...and the extreme vindictive nastiness of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. To use very unparliamentary language, these dudes are a couple of pricks.

Pretty much every other government on earth has at least to some degree abandoned Friedmanite policies in the face of the crisis. But the Harper government simply saw the crisis as an opportunity to starve opposition parties of funds, beat up on public sector workers, and strip equality rights for women workers. The unemployed and the about to be unemployed were hung out to dry.

But we have a light too. A few short weeks ago, who'd have thought that the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois would have been capable of setting aside their differences to build a coalition based on activist government and expansionist economic policies.

When I first heard about it, I was knocking back margaritas with a good friend. I'd been busy and so not paying a whole lot of attention to the news. I was dismissive and didn't believe it at first.

But then I saw the announcement on the TV behind the bar. Holy Shit! It was happening! We had a government in waiting that was willing to take the country in a much more positive direction.

I'm face to face with unemployed manufacturing workers every day of the week. They're scared about what lies ahead. The coalition doesn't offer them miracles, but it at least gives them a little bit of hope. And that, as Martha Stewart would say is a good thing!

The other "light" in this situation is the social and political movement that this coalition has spawned. Within a matter of days, rallies have been organized in just about every major city in Canada.

I've lost count of the number of online campaign sites, petitions, blogs, Facebook groups, Youtube videos etc. that have been created. Everyday there seems to be a new one popping up somewhere.

Barrack Obama's presidential campaign mobilized millions of people who hadn't been mobilized before around the idea of "change" from the corruption, cronyism and warmongering of the Bush II administration.

Our election campaign seemed rather unexciting compared to what happened south of the border.

The campaign to support the "Progressive Coalition" or whatever you want to call it is our very own "Obama Campaign".

This is an historic opportunity to change the face of politics in this country. It's a chance to bring some relief to the victims of the economic crisis. It's also an historic opportunity to do something positive about the growing environmental crisis.

People around the world are increasingly coming around to seeing that these two issues are bound together...everyone except Harper and the neo-cons.

Harper must go!

So we'll see you at the meetings, rallies, on the picket line and if it's cold outside...in cyberspace!

CLC weighs in on the coalition with new ad!

Stick a fork in them. They're done!

This weekend, watch for Harper & Co. to unleash a barrage of propaganda ads in a last ditch effort to cling to power. Gotta do something with that leftover campaign cash!

He'll try to get the GG to prorogue Parliament till January or else plunge the country into another election. Lotsa luck Stevie!

His minions have also developed a new hobby... eavesdropping on their opponents parliamentary caucus conference calls. Who else had that hobby? Wasn't it that guy who was nicknamed "Tricky Dick"?

The right-wing talk radio dudes will be in full foaming at the mouth mode...if they're not there already.

They may even try to organize a few rallies. Honestly, who'd be crazy enough to freeze their ass off on a cold Canadian December day to stand up for...Harper!

Mind you I think that lots of folks will turn out to Steve's retirement party.

Rallies are being organized in St. John's, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Regina, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Ottawa on Thursday, December 4th.

There will be rallies at noon on Saturday, December 6th in both Montreal and Toronto.

If you're in this part of the world, hope to see you at Nathan Phillips Square.

You'll find full details on the "coalition rallies" here.

If you're city isn't listed, maybe you can organize your own!

By the way, Green Party leader Elizabeth Maye has also come out in favour of the coalition.

The Greens didn't win any seats last October, but if they had, they would have joined in the fun. You can read her comments on rabble.ca here.

Welcome aboard Liz!

Don't give in to anti-Bloc paranoia!

Was listening to Rex Murphy today on the CBC's "Cross Country Checkup" and on more than one occasion he made reference to a Liberal/NDP coalition requiring the support from a party that "plans to breakup the country". He seemed to actively encourage that kind of talk from callers.

Frankly I'm sick of hearing about the separatist bogeyman.

Hello! I've got news for everyone!

Canada is not the only country in the world with a "separatist" party in its parliament.

I just so happened to be in Barcelona, Spain last March during their election campaign.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government was re-elected. It's a minority government and guess who's support they rely on? THE SEPARATISTS!

Only thing is Spain doesn't just have one separatist party in the Cortes (Parliament), they have a whole bunch of separatist parties. They have Catalan separatists, Basque separatists, Galician separatists and even Canary Island separatists.

And the separatists themselves don't have just one party. The main Catalan separatist party "Convergencia i Union" (CiU) is itself a coalition of two Catalan separatist parties. (The party banners you see in this street scene photo of Barcelona are from the CiU) Then of course there's the "ERC"...the "Republican Left of Catalonia".

On top of that there are a whole bunch of separatist and regional parties that didn't manage to get anyone elected.

Yet, Spain hasn't fallen apart.

Even in the UK there are separatist and regional parties...like the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists), and from Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionists, Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic & Labour Party.

Life goes on! Governments implement their policies.

Even if the Parti Quebecois wins every seat in the upcoming provincial election, holds a referendum and gets a 99.9% vote in favour of sovereignty-association, Quebec is still going to be on the other side of the Ottawa River.

Hell, the federal government does so little these days that quite frankly, there isn't much to "separate from".

The reformatories are also playing the "western alienation" card.

In two of the four western provinces, the majority of folks didn't vote for Harper's party. Less than half of British Columbians voted reformatory (44.5%). Only 48.8% of Manitobans voted reformatory.

In Alberta, the 35% of the electorate who didn't vote reformatory are represented by a single NDP MP. In Saskatchewan, the 46% of the electorate who didn't vote reformatory are represented by a single Liberal MP.

So not all western Canadians are reformatories! They're simply being drowned out in the mainstream media by right-wingers.

So who's trying to "break up the country"? Harper and his minions as they desperately cling to power. But it looks like it ain't gonna work this time. Bye bye Stevie!

Harper...going...going...almost gone!

Even though the Harper government has backed down on most of the provisions in their "Economic Statement", the opposition parties are sticking to their guns...the Liberals have developed a spine...or at least a temporary one.

A new organization has emerged online called "Canadians for a Progressive Coalition". Sounds like a good idea to me!

Here's their "Youtube" video:

A Holiday Gift from the Opposition MP's?

Well, it looks like Canadian politics is about to get interesting.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is using his latest "economic statement" in the midst of what's looking like the biggest economic meltdown since the 1930's depression to push through some very right-wing policies.

According to the latest from the CBC, negotiations are underway between former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and former NDP leader Ed Broadbent around the possibility of defeating the government and forming a Liberal/NDP coalition with the tacit support of the Bloc Quebecois.

It's very clear that in order to avoid a major economic disaster, we need a government that's willing to bring in some expansionist "New Deal" type economic policies.

Harper and Flaherty have made it clear that a "New Deal" isn't on.

Putting Harper and Flaherty out of business would be the best gift the opposition parties could give Canadians this holiday season! Afterall, in the last election 62% of Canadians didn't vote for these folks.