DUSHANBE – As someone who is presently working in an impoverished, post-communist state (and, believe me, communism casts a very, very long shadow over everything in this country), I find Jack Layton’s ideological idiocy to be very, very sad. Canada is not well served by political leaders who react to every piece of news in […]
DUSHANBE — I was pleased to see the Conservative government cut the federat GST to 5 per cent, as promised, even if a score of economists was not.
Don Drummond, Chief Economist at TD Financial, prompted me to laugh out loud when he said in the Globe and Mail “The only way I can benefit from […]
KABUL — I have seen only a tiny slice of Afghanistan in the past two days, but I remember that, within hours of crossing the border, there grew within me a strong sense that this country was colorful, vibrant, its people strong and remarkably self-reliant and, on the whole, entirely deserving of a life illuminated […]
KABUL — The guesthouse was very comfortable. A simple single bedroom with ensuite bathroom that looks and smells like something you’d find in your grandfather’s original lakeside cabin.
Dinner with the team in the dining room was tasty, although for the life of me I cannot remember, now the day after, what it was. Yesterday was […]
The spirit of free enterprise is alive and well in northern Afghanistan where small shops line the street in every small village.
KABUL — We set out from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, this morning at 6:00 AM on the road to Afghanistan in a packet of two Toyota 4×4 vehicles. The interpreter and staff driver in the lead […]
DUSHANBE – I arrived in Dushanbe at 3:20 AM on Monday, October 8 by Turkish Airlines which was, I must say, a very comfortable flight. The only seat available for me on this very busy (once weekly) route was in business class, so I suffered through. Unfortunately, for me, the difference between business class and […]
DUSHANBE — The Canadian government’s proposed Investment Canada Act which provides a control mechanism to limit or prevent the takeover of Canadian corporations by foreign government-controlled entities is exactly the type of protection Canada needs.
Canada should not be preventing foreign direct investment in Canadian corporations, nor should Canadians fear that the country is being “hollowed […]
DUSHANBE — Just a quick post to say that, after arriving in Tajikistan and plugging in at the UNDP office here, my Vonage Softphone is working well. My guess is that either the firewall at the London hotel in which I was staying, or a lack of bandwidth there, was the root of my problems […]
LONDON — I won’t even charge you a penny® for this thought. Why the registered trademark symbol behind the word penny? Read on…
The City of Toronto is engaged in a pithy, almost reasonable, doomed to failure advocacy campaign to shame the federal government into coughing up one cent of the goods and services tax (which currently […]
ISTANBUL – I left London this morning at 11:25 AM after the most glorious turbulence between the analog and digital ages.
Arriving at the departures area of Heathrow’s Terminal 3, I dutifully lined up at the Turkish Airlines counter to check in and begin my journey. As entirely expected, my bags were grossly overweight and, following some […]