Magic Statistics

Chinese police have admitted that they stormed a Muslim terrorist training camp last week, killing 18 and capturing another 17.  The firefight took place in a remote mountainous area of northwestern China, about 120 miles east of Kyrgyzstan.

It was the first time that China had announced the discovery of such a camp in its territory. Officials said that they had uncovered links between the activists and international terrorist groups, hinting at connections to al-Qa'ida.

The clash in the Pamir mountains on Friday was one of the deadliest for years in the restive Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, where 8.5 million Muslims make up most of the population. One policeman was killed and a second wounded.

Police said that the camp, in Akto county, was run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (Etim). It is listed as a terrorist group by the US, at China's insistence, despite concerns among Beijing-based diplomats over lack of evidence.

A Chinese Muslim exile in the United States claimed to smell a rat and insisted that China hold an independent inquiry into the incident, based on her belief that ETIM no longer exists.

An exiled Chinese Muslim activist living in the U.S. urged China on Wednesday to allow an independent probe of an anti-terror raid that officials say killed 18 militants.
. . .
Rebiya Kadeer, a Chinese Muslim from Xinjiang now living in exile in the U.S., said in a statement that scholars and analysts believe ETIM "ceased to exist when its purported leader was killed in a skirmish with the Pakistani military in Pakistan in late 2003."

She said Beijing has failed to produce any evidence proving the suspects were terrorists or backing up its long-standing claim that ETIM has links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.

Given China’s track record of international co-operation on issues that directly affect other countries, e.g., bird flu, I’ll go out on a limb here and say there’s no chance of an impartial inquiry.

h/t: Big News Network.com - Breaking Religious News

Previous related post: The Great Firewall of China

In the 1972 federal election, New Democratic Party leader David Lewis famously made “corporate welfare bums” a campaign slogan. He was referring to the scandalously large grants, loans, loan guarantees, and subsidies Canadian governments were handing out to large and profitable corporations.  Mr Lewis may have passed away in 1981 but, as On the Dole, a new report from Canadian Taxpayers Federation, documents, the corporate welfare bums are still alive and prospering, thanks to the continued connivance of government.

Over the past 23 years, the federal Department of Industry doled out over $18 billion to businesses.  Of this, $7.1 billion was in the form of repayable loans; yet, only 17.6% ($1.25 billion) has actually been repaid.

Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC), which is Ottawa's flagship corporate welfare program, has authorized $3-billion since its inception in 1996 and recovered only $169-million. This is a repayment record of less than 6%. Taxpayers were originally told every TPC investment dollar would return $1.74 in repayments from businesses;

The Top 50 subsidy recipients have received a third of all money authorized or $5.9-billion;

The Top 3 recipients have secured $2.6-billion in federal handouts. They are Pratt & Whitney ($1.5-billion authorized plus another $350-milion announced in Dec. 2006 that is not included in this report), Bombardier ($745-million authorized plus another $350-million announced in Nov. 2006), and General Motors Canada ($360-million) . . .

Perhaps because of these generous business hand-outs, among industrialised countries, Canada ranks near the highest in average combined federal-provincial corporate income tax rates.  As well, Canada has a marginal tax rate on capital that is second only to China’s.

Canada could have much more competitive corporate tax rates if the excessively generous program of business subsidies and grants were scaled back.  Not only would Canada’s international competitiveness improve, we would have a simpler, fairer, and more transparent business tax regime.

The full 30-page report can be downloaded here (pdf).  An 809-page appendix listing every business subsidy given out by Industry Canada during the period under investigation, with date and amount, can be downloaded here (pdf).

Note that the report examines only Industry Canada assistance; hand-outs through federal regional development agencies are not included. The data were compiled through freedom of information requests to Industry Canada.

Previous related post: Why give tax breaks to the oil sands?

As a public service, Magic Statistics features the latest documentary in the "Hinterland Who's Who" series from Environment Canada Wildlife Services.

For the full story behind this video, click here.

In less than 25 years, over 20% of the US population will be aged 65 or over, imposing a tremendous burden on younger workers who are expected to pay for the retirees' medical care and Social Security benefits.  The system is unsustainable without huge increases in taxes and/or significant reduction in benefits, but no American politician is willing to deal with the issue.  That, in turn, is because boomers, unwilling to face reality, will exact electoral revenge if their high-priced entitlements are threatened.  Boomer Robert Samuelson tells it like it is.

Shame on us. We are trying to rob our children and grandchildren, putting the country's future at risk in the process. On one of the great issues of our time, the social and economic costs of our retirement, we have adopted a policy of selfish silence.

As Congress reconvenes, pledges of "fiscal responsibility" abound. Let me boldly predict: On retirement spending, this Congress will do nothing, just as previous Congresses have done nothing. Nancy Pelosi promises to "build a better future for all of America's children." If she were serious, she would back cuts in Social Security and Medicare. President Bush calls "entitlement spending" the central budget problem. If he were serious, he, too, would propose cuts in Social Security and Medicare.

They are not serious, because few Americans — particularly prospective baby-boom retirees — want them to be. There is a consensus against candor, because there is no constituency for candor.

Any talk about "fiscal responsibility" is empty rhetoric as long as everyone continues to ignore the elephant in the room.

When Washington instituted Social Security benefits for Americans aged 65 and over, life expectancy was only about 60.  Less than half the people were expected to live long enough to collect.  Today, however, life expectancy is over 77.  It should therefore surprise no one that the system cannot afford to fund retirement at present levels for everyone who makes it to 65.

What’s really surprising is that today’s boomers, who can expect to live almost to 80, think the system can remain essentially the same as it's been for over sixty years.  Not merely selfish, but blindly so.

Canada faces an even more extreme aging problem than does the United States, but the Canada Pension Plan pays less generous benefits than does the American Social Security system.  Nevertheless, Canada will soon have to deal with a similar disparity between revenue and expenditure in its old-age security program with the same stark alternatives: higher taxation or reduced benefits or both.

Previous related post: Boomers elevated individualism above common good

In a remarkable ruling, Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale last week said the federal government has the right to take legal action against company directors in order to recover the costs of cleaning up a closed Yukon mine site.  Ottawa is now preparing to sue directors of B.Y.G. Natural Resources in Ontario, where the company is registered.

B.Y.G. Natural Resources operated the Mount Nansen gold and silver mine, located about 180 kilometres north of Whitehorse, between 1996 and 1999.

It was forced to close because it did not comply with the conditions of its water licence.

It was found guilty of three counts of failing to comply with the licence by a Yukon court judge who said the company seemed intent on "raping and pillaging" the territory.

The federal government has already spent about $12 million to keep the abandoned mine from polluting the surrounding environment. The mine's cleanup is expected to cost about $23 million.

The mine was abandoned in 1999 when the company went into receivership, at which time the federal government assumed responsibility for managing the mine's remaining assets and cleaning up the site.

The judge who fined B.Y.G. $300,000 in 1999 for water-licence violations said the "inept, bumbling, amateurish and possibly negligent” company "demonstrate[d] an attitude consistent with 'raping and pillaging' the resources of the Yukon".

The fine was never paid, but company officers took the feds to court in an attempt to regain ownership of the most valuable asset they left behind: $1.3 million in shares in a nearby property.  Last week's ruling denied that application and empowered federal authorities to sue directors for the environmental mess the company created in Yukon.

The full decision is posted here (pdf).