Super Tuesday

Well, for some this last Presidential term has lasted an absolute eternity, but today, Super Tuesday, we come that much closer to finding out who the next President of the United States of America will be. Although a smattering of states have already had their Presidential Primaries today's the big day with 24 states all holding their votes to determine the respective incumbents.

At this point there are two Republican front-runners. John McCain and Mitt Romney. McCain's campaign has been gaining momentum and most recently he has gained the enorsements of both the Governator and Rudy Giuliani. McCain plans to win the war on terrorism, reform healthcare for all Americans, and reform government.

Romney, who courts the Religious Right, seems to want to address every issue in America ("Good Luck") including keeping Americans safe at home, combating nuclear terrorism, fighting radical Jihad, ending the dependance on foreign oil, ending the tide of illegal immigrants, reducing healthcare costs, raising the education bar and more. Sounds like a good plan... just fix it all.

And if you want to stay with the right but don't like either of those candidates you can vote for the only true fiscal conservative who "fights for freedom", Ron Paul. Who?! Yeah... that's what I said.

Now for the other side of the aisle, the Democrats. This is where the real fun begins. A major departure from history, the two front runners are a female and an African-American, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Hussein Obama. Good thinking for both of them to drop their middle names for the campaign. Heck, Mrs. Clinton has dropped it all... just "Vote for Hillary!" Again it appears that these two candidates are trying to be everything to everyone. Hillary touts her experience, while Obama champions his fresh thinking.

As for who will win big today? I certainly don't know for sure and haven't done any personal exit polls but I suspect that McCain and Obama will have strong showings this Super Tuesday.

Who do you think will win big today?!

Can Analysts Be Trusted?!

Much like the very first analyst / therapist, aka analrapist, Dr. Tobias Funke cannot be trusted maybe financial analysts should be treated with a similar skepticism.

Today Moody's put out a press release on SIVs and failed to remove some of the draft editorial bits. Of course this isn't new, companies often mistakenly put out unfinished press releases in error. What is interesting in this case is that the report's unredacted version is much more to the point. The version that was supposed to go out seems more sugarcoated and potentially a little misleading.

Indeed, all (The entire SIV business model is) SIVs are affected by the recent price decline of fixed income assets and all SIV managers have been actively adapting the structure of their vehicles to this stressed environment, (now widely acknowledged to be unsustainable without restructuring)” says Paul Mazataud, Group Managing Director of Moody’s International Derivatives team and co-author of these reports.

-- Bolded text in parentheses shows what was supposed to be deleted before the final draft was disseminated.

Maybe that glass wall is a little too transparent?! Bricks and mortar anyone?!

More from the Financial Times blog.

Great Canadians

Canada.com is the easy online source I use for most of my daily Canada-related news. They had a little more credibility a few years ago but lately have been a little more tabloidy, but every once in a while they redeem themselves.

Right now they have a special feature section on Great Canadians. The great thing about this article is that it's not just highlighting the John A. MacDonald's and Terry Fox's of the world, although they were great. The feature highlights all sorts of great Canadians including some regular people who are doing great things.

Some highlights include the Asian business tycoon, Allan Zeman, affectionately known as the Mouse Killer, Alan Bean, a pastor working in Jena, LA., and Laura Louie who refuses to stand by and instead rolls up her sleeves in Mae On, Thailand where she started a clinic that is now self-sustaining.

Sierra Leone :: Part 2 :: The Reason

So why the heck did I go to Sierra Leone?! And why didn't many people know anything about the trip?

Well, it was a bit of a quickly planned trip, actually there was barely enough time to get the necessary shots. As for why, it was a visioning trip to help determine the needs of a children's home. My travel partner was Nolan Watson of Nation's Cry. I acted as the second pair of eyes as we attempted to determine the needs of International D.O.V.E. on behalf of Nation's Cry.

D.O.V.E. has been operating in Sierra Leone for nearly 20 years enduring the entire period including the various wars and coups that the country experienced. D.O.V.E.'s initial operations consisted of a foster program "Up Country" Sierra Leone. Working with the S.L. Ministry of Social Welfare D.O.V.E. cares for 44 children who have been placed with foster parents and those with the greatest need have been brought to the Village of Hope. D.O.V.E.'s Village of Hope is situated near the town of Regent on the outskirts of Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown. The village is situated on a 12 acre plot of land which includes numerous fruits and vegatables. The village currently houses 23 children and as increased funding permits that number may grow.

At D.O.V.E.'s Village of Hope the children "have these things provided for them: Food, clothing, medicine, education, and all their practical needs. The goal is to provide them with a warm, loving home and family so that they become well educated, well adjusted young adults who can further their education and eventually become an asset to their own country by using their skills and training to bring better living conditions for their own people. We know that not all the children will return to help their country but DOVE's goal is to give each of them a chance at life that they would not have had otherwise."

Despite these noble goals, D.O.V.E. International has remained quite underfunded. This is especially surprising given the fact that Nolan Watson, CA, CFA, has gone through every Canadian Charity registered with the CRA to determine which had the least amount of administrative waste. D.O.V.E. was that charity.

SL Update :: Part 1

Sierra Leone :: Part 1 :: The Country

Sierra Leone is on the Western horn of Africa an area often referred to as the Rice Coast. The country is thoroughly marred by it passed as over a span of nearly 40 years the country so near constant political instability, coups, and civil war.

Sierra Leone was first known to Westerners through the slave trade. The island's illicit activities were started in 1670 and the fortress became the largest slave passage on the West Coast of Africa up until it was shutdown by British Parliament in 1808. The slaves that came through Bunce were prized for their rice growing skills and techniques and were highly sought after for the southern coast of the United States. The 1997 movie Amistad is a story about slaves from Bunce Island.

In the late 1800's the capital of Freetown became a British Crown colony and the rest of the country a British Protectorate. At this time the country began to be re-settled by many former slaves, many from various tribes and areas. This melding of cultures, tribes, and languages has created a unique kaleidescope in Sierra Leone and helped to create the Creo (or Kreole) language that is spoken in the Freetown area.

In 1961 Sierra Leone gained its independance and became a full member of the British Commonwealth. Unfortunately since that time there has been few periods of peace and political stability. The country has been mired in coup after military coup, civil war, war, and more. The various instabilities got to their worst in the late 90's. Stories of child soldiers high on drugs and forced to slaughter thousands of innocent people are far to clear in recent history. Fortunately early in the 2000's a UN lead peace keeping force came to the country.

2002 saw the war officially announced to be over and May brought peaceful elections were the most recent president from before the war got to its' worst re-elected with a 70% majority. The years following that election saw much stability return to the region and in fact a second peaceful and democratic election was recently held, in September, and a new president, Ernest Bai Koroma, was elected on a platform of reigning in corruption.
Time will tell where Sierra Leone goes from here but there are several encouraging things to watch. A large electric plant is currently under construction and is anticipated to be completed in the near time. Foreign investment which for 2006 was approximately $5M USD is growing rapidly and there is news of a $500M beach & golf resort being built near Freetown! The stamping out of corruption will also be something that will have to be watched closely...

SL Update :: Part 2

The Front Lines

Whether you agree with the foreign policy decisions that eventually led to the current wars in Afghanistan & Iraq the fact is that the wars were started, power vaccuums created and now peace keeping and simply completion of the initial missions is crucial as to not create complete and utter chaos in the region.

That being said most, if not all, Western reporting on the subject is viewed from a negative viewpoint and rarely is anything other than the latest fatality reported.

Michael Yon is a self-funded, independent journalist who has been embedded with several units from both the United States and British forces within the region. Michael has been with several units during ambushes and fire fights with unwanted results. To get a new perspective check out Michael's website. (Unfortunately he hasn't yet embedded himself with the Canadian Forces... I imagine there's not enough donations from our little country to support his projects.)

I really enjoyed the Death or Glory series: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV.

World Travels

Ever wanted to have a great big map that charted your world travels? It's definately something I've always wanted as I really enjoy travelling and it's always nice to know where you've been, especially when charting where you're going to go next.


Well, wait no longer, you don't even need to go out and make a big purchase. You can just use this great little mapping tool I found on the ol' interweb.



Here's the places I've now been, all 33 of them. It looks like I need to do quite a bit more travelling, especially in Eastern Europe & Asia, South America, Africa, and the South Pacific.

So, where to next?