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Garbage everywhere
To the Editor of the Kanata Kourier-Standard This letter was published 23 April 2004
April 13, 2004
Dear Sir
Like the eloquent Sonia Rose Dancey, (letters, April 9) I too have noticed more garbage recently thrown down by passers-by. The days of street sweepers in Kanata are long gone, so we all have the responsibility now. History has shown that no amount of education will prevent some people from throwing garbage on the street.
On page 19 of the same issue is a partial solution. The annual “Spring clean the capital” campaign is about to happen. I have therefore registered “Kanata Klean-up” as a 30-strong group to get to work on Klean-up day on Saturday May 1 (rain day May 8).
This is a low-management project. All you have to do is to take a garbage bag and walk in your street and pick up garbage on that day, or any day therabouts. It’s easy, and even healthy for the body and the soul. And you’ll be one of the 30 people I said we had.
Go Garbs Go
Tony Copple
Visit the Kanata Page
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Don’t blame the music downloaders
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen
April 9, 2004
Dear Sir
In Business News, April 5, your columnist Andrew Mayeda reports on a recent study that exonerates music downloading from blame for falls in CD sales. So, if this isn’t the cause, what is?
In the golden age (60s, 70s), the baby boomer generation jump-started their favourites by buying their music in ever-increasing numbers, and radio stations gave freedom to DJs to play their own choices, allowing new music a look in. The baby boomers, being numerous, also included a huge forum of great potential talent who had relatively easy access to radio audiences – witness the Beatles at the BBC disk.
Today, nearly all commercial radio stations play established hits – either of the past or of today. This excludes new talent. Is there new talent out there? Of course – but you probably have never heard of them and certainly won’t on commercial radio. The radio stations are at the mercy of their advertisers, who demand “popular” and have no interest in “good but not established in the public’s mind”. There are hundreds of Canadian bands in this category. Several years ago I attended a focus group that measured audience reaction to music, and that (local) station only plays music pre-tested in this way. Naturally the focus group favoured the familiar. The only thing that matters to the station is that listeners don’t turn that dial. DJs play to a formula, and it’s pretty soporific.
In such an environment, Generation X with its limited size lacks the broad talent base of 35 years ago, and has resorted to recycling, witness the Grey Album, based on riffs from the Beatles’ White Album – only available by download. Rap and hip-hop major in social comment but hardly stir the emotions which are partly hired-wired to melody.
The malaise in CD sales is directly attributable to commercial radio’s failure to promote good new music, by giving DJs freedom to play it.
In Ottawa there is – thank goodness – one glorious exception, CKCU 93.1 FM. On CKCU’s music programs, station policy strongly discourages radio hosts from playing today’s hits, but encourages them to promote new artists and the best of the past. They play all genres and in many different languages. I am biased but a good example of what can be achieved is “Window of Opportunity” – Fridays, 3 – 4 pm, when my wife Laurie-Ann presents predominantly new folk and blues – including live in-studio performances, with occasional rock when I can persuade her. If you haven’t discovered CKCU, you have a treat in store: the music industry’s hope for the future, and Ottawa’s unsung gem of the airwaves.
Yours faithfully
Tony Copple
Proprietor, Ottawa Beatles Site: beatles.ncf.ca
61 Highmont Crt, Kanata, ON., K2T 1B2
613-591-3903
tonyc@ncf.ca
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Council Prayer: inappropriate or essential
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen This letter was published 7 April 2004
April 4, 2004
Dear Sir
Christian Bernard Gagnon (letters, 4 April) adds his name to the long list who believe that the separation of church and state implies the removal of God from public affairs. It merely disenfranchises the church from controlling affairs of state (as for example is the case in Iran).
Some folk believe the world is flat, but so far we don’t have rules harnessing geography teachers lest they upset members of the flat earth society. Neither should we be oversensitive to the concerns of atheists or Buddhists in a predominantly Christian country. The important factor is what God asks of us, and we ignore that at our peril. Many believe that lack of prayer in our society is a cause of the ills of the world today. If you aren't living like there's a living God, you had better be right. If Mr Gagnon were in Iran and made a similar suggestion, he’d get pretty short shrift.
As a voter and a Christian, I’ll choose a group - from city council to federal government - which openly loves God over any who think they can prevail on their own strength. Eventually everyone asks God for help.
Yours faithfully
Tony Copple
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To the Editor of The Economist
In response to their cover article: "The case for gay marriage", Feb 28, 2004
The case against gay marriage: it’s wrong.
In today’s world, even Economist columnists appear to have grown up without sufficient exposure to the major bastion of our culture – the Bible.
Thousands of years ago society devised a satisfactory system for companionship and fulfillment called marriage, designed for two from opposite sexes.
In the past ten years, as gays have got bolder, we are now proposing to throw out the system that has worked so well. Indeed, when other groups such as the Roman Empire, male-only schools, and prisons let gay behaviour develop unrestrained, those societies perished or slip into degradation.
I’ll vote for gays to be accepted, befriended, given appropriate benefits. Marriage - or blessings - in church or out - are for heterosexuals. Equality of treatment is not valid here, since men and women are different.
Yours faithfully
Tony Copple
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Accusative
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen
Letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
May 3, 2003
Dear Sir
Those of us who learned English grammar by first learning Latin will be left squirming by the sentence on your front page today: ...letter from famed explorer Sir John Franklin in which he describes he and his men playing the game on frozen Great Bear Lake in November 1825.
After all verbs, except the verb to be, comes the accusative case, not the nominative. That is: the object, not the subject. The bolded phrase above should be "he describes him and his men," or "he describes himself and his men."
This error (use of nominative instead of accusative) is infecting the English language like a virus. I hear it all the time and see it in print often. It's sad that it occurs on the same front page where the Citizen accepts accolades for winning three national awards. Let's bring Latin back into the curriculum, or failing that, require that teachers (and journalists) be aware of this most basic grammatical rule.
Yours faithfully
Tony Copple
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Look before you hire
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen
March 3, 2003
Dear Sir
I welcome and agree with Ray Turchansky's piece, March 2, recommending caution before selecting a financial planner. One of his suggestions was to visit the web site of the Financial Planning Standards Council and select a CFP in your vicinity. I wish people would - I'm in it.
Unfortunately, although selecting the wrong planner is a problem, a far greater issue is that almost none ever selects a financial planner. How I wish they would! Instead planners are forced to find their clients by a variety of methods from cold calling to advertising to (in extreme situations of inappropriateness) soliciting mothers of newborns for RESPs. It seems that most of the population, who desperately need financial planning advice, don't know this so don't seek out planners. After Turchansky's article they may do so even less. Only 4% of my clients sought me; the rest I found. I have never had a single contact from the CFP database. Most of my clients are referred by other clients.
Most people buy investments when they should sell, panic when normal market fluctuations occur, buy GICs when they should be buying stocks, and vice versa, think that their house is an asset, and fail to cover off basic risk with insurance. Until financial planning is taught in schools, and parents continue the education (read Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series), people will continue to make financial decisions that are simply wrong, and as a result 46% of the population will continue to be either dead or broke by retirement age, whereas, in Kiyosaki's vision, most could be rich. The financial planning profession attempts to correct this sorry state of affairs.
Tony Copple, CFP.
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Ethically empty
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen This letter was published
Published 27th July 2002
Assuming the facts as reported July 20th are true, the chief executive of Hydro One believes that she acted in good faith in boosting her massive income by fraudulent expenses. Could this be an early symptom of a generation starved of an understanding of the difference between right and wrong (which also caused the Enron collapse). Is it possible that in our rush to scap Christianity from education we overestimated the capability of parents to teach an understanding of good and evil, or worse, assumed that this was common sense?
There is hope. A growing trend for Christianity in the workplace (eg the executive Alpha course) may bring enlightenment to current business leaders.
Indeed, corporations are being started by committed Christians who have realized that for long term success, doing what's right is the only way that works. Maybe they'll be able to figure out how to end payoffs to executives who lose corporate millions so that they can live in the style to which they have become accustomed, while shareholders lose their retirement savings.
Tony Copple
Alpha Advisor
Ottawa
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Firing of Art Eggleton as Minister of Defence
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen
May 27, 2002 (before he was "fired")
Dear Sir:
Should it be newsworthy at all that the Ministry of Defence gave a $36,000 contract to a former friend of the minister?
In this case it appears the contract was recommended by staff unaware of the connection. But even if the minister had personally selected the consultancy through his knowledge of Ms Maier's expertise, we should not fault him.
In selecting contractors, knowledge of the quality of work done in the past is very helpful. People do business with people they know and people they like for this reason. Selecting a consultancy contract by tender to the least-cost compliant bidder is a lottery.
I congratulate the minister on his wide circle that includes someone personally qualified in the area of expertise he sought. I also congratulate him on the courage to go ahead, knowing that critics could kick up a fuss. I congratulate One World Communications Inc. in their skill in reducing the report of their detailed analysis to 14 pages.
I don't congratulate the Citizen on front-paging the item and I am disappointed that you decided to publicize the intimate nature of a personal relationship in your headline. I don't congratulate the opposition parties for seeking to smear the minister of defence, particularly at a time when we have soldiers at war.
It's time we better defined conflict of interest, and I if a contract is issued to do this, may it go to a company that is known personally by at least one wise member of the department that offers it.
Tony Copple
Kanata
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Egyptian customs
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen
January 13, 2001
Dear Sir:
I refer to today’s story from the Stuemers on their worldwide voyage, and their frustration with Egyptian customs.
Not only in Egypt are customs procedures the pits.
Eighteen months ago I was sent a 50-year old 78 RPM record of a private wedding ceremony by a lady in USA who wanted me
to transcribe it to cassette for her (there are almost no 78 RPM players still working in the USA). It arrived by
courier with a $100 customs COD bill. I was told by the post office that I had no option but to pay the bill and claim
back the money for this item of no commercial value. This began a year long battle with Canada Customs. The $100
was based on the insured value - value only to the owner of the disc. It turns out that Canada Customs practice is to slap on duty, GST and a handling charge of $6 on everything that comes in by courier, regardless of the contents, and then refund those where duty does not apply.
Contacting Canada Customs was a nightmare, which is why the Stuemer’s account reminds me of it. There is no local Ottawa office, and there was no toll free number to their Toronto office. All calls therefore cost a small fortune because it is almost impossible to find a live person.
When a refund application is sent in, no acknowledgment is sent out, yet the approval process may take 6 months, even for small amounts. During this time, they have no system to provide a status report. Reference "small amounts", even a GST bill of .01c attracts the full handling charge of $6. When a staff member does come on the phone, they are friendly and courteous but stymied by the inefficiency of their own computer systems.
Finally I found a customs lady who was not only friendly but prepared to do some work to resolve my problem. The complete amount was paid in full, only a year late.
It seems that maybe Canada Customs uses Egyptian software. By the way, my wife and I read the Stuemers’ story each week with great pleasure.
Yours faithfully
Tony and Laurie-Ann Copple
God and Politics
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen
January 16, 2000
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Dear Sir
For me a difference between the US and Canadian political scenes was illustrated by the two fine speeches December 13, 2000 by Al Gore and George Bush, and the Queen’s speech on Christmas day, compared with any speech I have heard in Canada by party leaders - with the exception of Stockwell Day.
The Queen’s bi-millennial address was almost entirely about Jesus.
Both Gore and Bush acknowledged the importance of God, and Bush even asked us all to pray for Gore. These men both know that any power they may influence will be given to them by God.
I suspect that Canadian leaders know it too, but they believe that for political advantage they must keep their religious beliefs private. Statistics report that around 48% of Americans regularly attend church, while the Canadian figure is less than half this.
I have heard an argument that goes along the lines of: "if we mention God we antagonize the non-Christian electorate." Can you imagine a Jewish or Muslim leader objecting to their God, who is our God, being given the glory? Should we be concerned that Hindus, or followers of other great world religions would have their noses put out of joint? In their own countries they would not forbear from religious references in deference to Christians, Jews and Muslims. Christians are being martyred in large numbers in some such countries. The concept of the separation of church and state is erroneously thought to veto the inclusion of God in any aspect of life. What it actually means is that those who control the temporal Church and those who control the State should be different people.
Should we be concerned about upsetting people with no religion? No more than we would be concerned about upsetting members of the flat earth society by discussing the curved horizon.
Eventually everyone asks God for help.
Maybe Stockwell Day will be able to change all this if he comes to power one day. I sincerely hope so. Otherwise, our politicians might as well be killing Christians, and crucifying Christ again. The attitude of some Liberal party workers towards the Alliance during the recent federal election suggests they would derive some satisfaction from a step in that direction.
Yours faithfully
Tony Copple
Telephone Surveys
To the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen
January 3, 2001
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Dear Sir:
I refer to your front page for January 2, 2001.
Your correspondent writes: "Canadians are overwhelmingly against cloning animals",
"According to a newly released study, Canadians appear to have only sketchy knowledge of biotechnology…", "The study was conducted for Health Canada. The study will be used to develop federal policy on such things as bioengineered human prescription drugs…"
It’s frightening that information given by people with "sketchy knowledge" of any subject should figure in any aspect of the development of federal policy. I am one of those who knows next to nothing about these subjects, so my view on cloning would be totally irrelevant.
Next thing we could hear is that there might be a referendum on the subject. God forbid!
My votes in the recent elections were intended to delegate the responsibility for decision-making on matters that I do not understand to those who have access to the best brains in the land. They won’t always get it right either, being mortal, but the statistical likelihood is higher. I would like to see governments take more notice of the opinions of their experts, and a lot less from random samples of the population. These are the people who get road rage and give guns to kids.
I was recently a recipient of a market survey by Bell on the subject of long distance competition. Some of the the questions were frankly moronic, and an embarrassment to my questioner as I became more and more annoyed by them. So much for market surveys and their potential for generating useful data. Market survey are approaching epidemic proportions.
Power to the people? Only the people who know what they are talking about, please. There are plenty of them, but you have to find them.
My views on this subject are of course highly subjective and suspect. But then, I’m not suggesting they form part of federal policy.
Yours faithfully
Tony Copple