Trade War

Trade War

Trump is giddy on a power rush through starting a global tariff war he feels is easy to win.  China, he feels is victimizing the American market and equilibrium must be re-established.  But before we blame China, point fingers, or buy more of Trump’s fake news, we should recognize that China did not steal jobs and clandestinely move American manufacturing to Asian shores.  Greedy American CEO’s, Boards and Companies made conscious, short term profit motivated decisions to off-shore production away from American sources.  America and others gave China the ability to be the factory of the world and to manufacture on a global scale, so we, as consumers, could buy cheap in North America.  When Trump finds this reality inconvenient it is easier to accuse then to rationally resolve and look at the greedy domestically based profit motive that created the mess in the first place.  The Chinese are only guilty of being eager recepients.

Marty Rempel

Demographics and logic

Demographics and Logic

I once asked my Chinese students a question having to do with population growth, comparing China to Canada.  The question was: If Canada and China have about the same modern-day birth rates/1000, why does China have a population so much greater than Canada’s. 

My students were truly baffled by the seemly conflicting data and could not answer the question.  I gave them further information on which to base their answer.  We had been studying demographics and Canadian history, so this question was actually in the context of the course.  I was just curious as to their reasoning and problem-solving skills as to what I thought was a relatively easy question.

Champlain a French explorer, I had explained, had established a fort where Quebec City now stands eventually earning him the title Father of New France for his many contributions in the New World.  At the Quebec, settlement (July 3, 1608) he came with 28 men, unfortunately that first winter was a hard one and 20 men died from scurvy and one was executed for treason leaving Champlain with a mere eight living loyal men by spring.  Therefore, in Canada the European population in 1608 was approximately 9.

As for the native population, anthropologists using pseudo-scientific number crunching statistical analysis put the number of natives in Canada, at about the same time as Champlain, at 500 000.  Of course, due to the introduction of European diseases such as mumps, tuberculosis, cholera, measles, influenza, pneumonic plagues, yellow fever, smallpox and malaria, oh yes and the added factors of warfare and genocide the native population went into rapid decline in inverse relation to the rapidly growing European populations.

At about the time of Champlain the population in China was about 60 000 000 people.  Again, I asked my students the same question.  Given similar modern-day birth rates why does China have more people than Canada.  No answer, not a clue.

Next, I showed the class a three-minute U Tube video on why China and India have such large populations.  In animation format it spoke to the river valleys, fertile soils and the abundance of food that allowed early populations to flourish thousands of years ago.  I compared the population dynamics between China and Canada to a race between athletes of equal ability, but one set of athletes had a significant head start in the race over the others.

 

I asked my class who would win such a race, hoping they would make the leap in logic to the China/Canada population question.  They didn’t.

In fact, because of China’s one child policy some of my students were getting over loaded, overwhelmed and frustrated with the question.  Eventually, dealing with my own frustration and thinking that I can lead them to water, but I can’t make them drink I decided to move on to easier topics not requiring so much thought, like defining Canadian nationalism.

University admission policies

Letter: High school grads coasting into the summer thanks to policies

OPINION Jun 10, 2018 Waterloo Region Record

It is extremely difficult to motivate some students, even under the best of circumstances. As teachers and students near the end of another high school year, students are distracted by the better weather, love is in the air and smartphones are in their hands.

For those students privileged to be going on to university next year, secure in their acceptance in various Ontario universities, they really have no further reason to work. They have their acceptance letters in hand and are now safe in the knowledge that if they even moderately drift to the finish line of graduation they are still going to university without any last-ditch effort required. Why work any more?

Thanks to universities and their admissions policies. which work well for them, they have basically undermined senior students' motivation to work at the end of the school year. Students for the most part gain acceptance through their March mid-term marks. Students' June marks are largely irrelevant. Many students therefore slow their effort, and reduce their attendance thanks to university intake policies.

Marty Rempel

Waterloo, Ontario

Universities Sabotage Student Achievement and Motivation

It is extremely difficult to motivate some students even under the best of circumstances.  As teachers and students near the end of another high school year students are distracted by the better weather, love is in the air, and smart phones are in their hands.

 For those students privileged to be going on to university next year secure in their acceptance in various Ontario universities, they really have no further reason to work.  They have their acceptance letters in hand and are now safe in the knowledge that if they even moderately drift to the finish line of graduation they are still going to university without any last-ditch effort required. Why work any more?

 Thanks to universities, like our own Laurier and University of Waterloo, and their admissions policies which work well for them, they have basically undermined senior students’ motivation to work at the end of the school year.  Students for the most part gain acceptance through their March midterm marks.  Students’ June marks are largely irrelevant.  Many students therefore slow their effort, and reduce their attendance thanks to university intake policies. 

Students and teachers collectively can give thanks to the universities for selfishly under mining the system serving both secondary and post secondary institutions through their early admissions policies which serve to weaken motivation and achievement.

Marty Rempel

Car washing from an OCD perspective

Errant Drop

“Would you like a beer?  I just have to finish washing my Beamer.  I find that if I angle park it in the garage like this I can get just the optimum position and I’m able to wash it in here year-round.  Generally, I wash it three times a week,” Dave said proudly.

Holy shit, I nearly choked, thinking, with a tinge of guilt, I never wash my car unless I do a drive through at the car wash and, “Yes, I’d love a beer.”

Dave, knowing my likes pulled out a Corona from the orderly fridge in the garage.  He then vigorously attacked the side of his car with a lint free rag in meticulous clockwise circular movements the radius of his forearm travelling the width of the side of the car from back to front in measured paces.

A few errant drops of water appeared under the front passenger door handle, over coming surface tension and yielding to gravity they began their tenuous, but extremely dangerous descent down the side of Dave's black BMW sedan.

Like an eagle spotting a deer mouse while gliding a mile in the sky, Dave, through his peripheral vision saw the first of the drops even before they became a stream.  He sprang to the rear of the garage where with his left hand, for he was ambidextrous, especially under crisis mode, and as the adrenaline was coursing though his blood stream he deftly snatched up his super high volume electric drier in a flash, had it plugged into the safety default receptacle above the work bench before anyone could say “Jack the Bear.”  Almost running to the side of the car, turning the switch to high with only his sense of touch, Dave expertly directed the intense heat to the errant drops all before they had descended no more than 7.3 cm from the door handle floorward.

 All this, to my amazement, happened before I could get my beer to my mouth for one swallow. Dave had in fact marshaled the forces of good against the evils of side-door- water- drip-stain.  I swallowed in absolute awe, and had my hands been free I would have applauded his super human efforts.

Dave finished up.  Gently replacing the power drier to its original box next to the set of folded instructions it had come with, then in sequence he hung his rags, and chamees on a towel rack attached to the wall next to his neatly arranged garden equipment, power washer, lawnmower, fertilizer spreader, air compressor and a meticulous arrangement of hand and power tools on a geometrically perfect peg board. 

 A gleaming drip free Beamer sat serenely in the center of the garage, clean and shining.  Dave stood and stared for a long moment sweeping his gaze in a arc going east to west covering a 130 degrees under the precisely placed non-glare florescent lights. It was clearly a proud moment.  Together, we walked slowly from the garage as the double door glided shut on their well lubricated runners. Our quiet footsteps led into the perfect moonlit evening. 

“Damn,” Dave said as he approached his front door, “look at that smudge on the side of Karen’s car.”

NO cell phones in English class

NO Cell phones in English Class

No electronics,

No translators, in fact,

No technology,

Today I taught them

Flash Fiction in a jiff

Then for the millionth time

On to the subtilties of

Hyperbole like folding

A road map they never

Get it right, students listening

Like rising action in the dramatic

Arc leading to my pedagogical

climax to the lesson of the day,

 their personal, pathetic, pathos

Like alliteration as a literary device

used

To achieve a lasting impression

 though by now

sarcastic tone, or pedantic,

As they text to oblivion

Below my line of sight,

Active fingers,

A parody of the attentive student

A metaphor of success in the

Global village, sensing a theme,

Or a topic for a potential editorial

 I narrate my own plot line

I brace myself for a question

Perhaps potential conflict between

 protagonist and antagonist

From the back row, knowing there

 is fact in my fictional world and knowing

 poetry is more expressing than prose

identifying the character in my own

drama,

the student asks,

“Can |I have my cell phone back

At the end of the class?”

Canada is...

Canada is:

Amazing not because the UN tells me it is in the top five quality or happy places in the world in which to live, or because it has the longest undefended border with our strange neighbours to the South who we both love and hate and try to define our identity by distancing ourselves from their identity, for example we don’t carry guns in public places,  regularly shoot students in high schools, in parks, theaters and other public places, nor do our policemen brutally act on racist notions to beat minorities, we are not a perfect nation nor do we profess to be but our elections are run with a minimal of mud slinging and at budgets that would shock the monied American system, we are more caring of our needy and offer universal health care and tuitions that students can more afford making us the most educated country in the world with still much to strive for as we treated our natives badly and still do and must improve, always improve on how we treat the weakest and most vulnerable in our society, we allow abortions, religious freedom, freedom of the press, even from our leaders, we can express ourselves and bitch about everything even though relatively speaking we have it so good and have come so far, we don’t wrap ourselves in flags and repeat patriotic platitudes to mask horrific deeds in other lands, we honestly try to get it right, yet frequently fall short of our goals, we are not perfect, we have politicians and lawyers and such with a legal system that doesn’t always get it right, there is a gap between rich and poor and that must too be addressed, we will not be bullied by our southern neighbours even when they no longer act like friends or neighbours, we retain our sense of humour, we have our sports and diversions, our pride and integrity and our incredible geography, space and environment, we are diversified, learning and ever growing, we are Canada with an imperfect past and a general will to make it right…eh

life

Comparing life to a map in an epic poetic analogy

Life, like folding a map,

I never get it right.

m.r.

Trump on Greatness

A Tale of Greatness

He admired himself in the mirror,

 a master piece of fitness and health,

or so the court doctor kept saying,

 but more the master of his own fate.

 Every hair of his elaborate comb-back

 in place.

A man who had it all, money, power,

 women,

Many women, some stormy,

His own wife a super model,

Though he could not touch her

He commanded the respect of his

Motley, loyal core, they gave him

Courage and mandate to move

Mountains, bring down rogue nations,

Cripple the rocket man and bolster trade

Through tariff wars easily won

In the end when all the sin was done

He was perfectly in his rights to pardon

himself

Even though he had done no wrong

But just in case

You never know

Politics such a slippery mistress

he had so many.

888 millibars

888 Millibars

should I wish to anticipate

your every move

first, I must trace your steps

 backwards

and see how we began as Lovers,

in a desert storm,

a tropical depression,

 a hurricane

 with your name

feeding on the moisture

of my tears only to die

over dry land and dead

emotions.

Time Mirage

Time Mirage

The truth is out there,

just

Don’t look to the heavens.

Infinity?

Don’t think so…

4000 visible stars,

Their light touching your retina

Departed universe stage left

Millions of light years past

Representing events from

Before the dinosaurs,

Long gone,

A time mirage.

characteristics of chinese students from a canadian perspective

China’s Might and Trudeau Did Right

Recently, (May 25, 2018), the president of China and his government were upset with our Prime Minister and his cabinet for disallowing the sale of the giant construction firm Aecon Group, one of Canada’s largest construction companies, to the Chinese government.  The blocked sale was based on the grounds that it would breach Canadian national security on many different levels that have not even been disclosed to the Canadian public.  I do admire Trudeau for blocking the sale.

As Canadians we must be cautious as China stands accused of stealing intellectual property, counterfeiting famous commercial brands, pilfering trade secrets and offering companies a slice of the Chinese market if they share their technology.  The Chinese do have a bit of reputation in these matters and we have some interests to protect.  There is a pattern.

China is of course a major world power and will eventually become even more powerful. It is a juggernaut on the move and given the laws of motion, an object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless opposed by an equal an opposite force.

Perhaps one day more of us, in the next generation of English speakers, will be learning Mandarin as the universal language of business as the Chinese influence continues to evolve in ever larger circles.  The students I have taught in both Jinhua, China and now here in Canada will likely be some part of the vanguard of future Chinese dominance as they and tens of thousands like them take up positions of influence in government and industry and steer their country, with added western insights, to China’s Manifest Destiny.  But I have accelerated the process and made a few quantum leaps; so let me back track.

First, let me examine the stereotype of the Chinese student in this equation of world power.  As with any stereotype it is based on a small truth and then extrapolated to an entire population.  For those of us living in a university city like Waterloo or Toronto where one can see literally thousands of intelligent, industrious Chinese students who are high achievers, and often studying maths, sciences, engineering and business, while avoiding liberal arts.  They frequently out perform Canadian born students and shame us at our own game, education.  Considering Canada is the most highly educated country in the world with over half of its population holding a university or college degree or diploma. We as outside observers conclude that these and therefore all Chinese students are excellent, diligent, hard working, productive academic machines of logic and precision.

We would of course be totally wrong in this conclusion as this small student sample measured against the total 1.3 billion Chinese population is not even statistically significant and may not even yield a worth while correlation.  In terms of statistics the bell curve describing intelligence is cross cultural which more than implies, it screams out, when applied to the entire Chinese population, that they would have a wide spectrum of special needs students in numbers greater than the total Canadian population. 

Yes, Victoria, there are Chinese with learning disabilities by the millions.  The issue is we will never see them here at any Canadian universities, nor will they ever be recognized or helped to any degree in their home country.  The point is, if we saw only the other end of the Chinese population we would hold a different stereotype of their abilities. In fact we should look at them as a balanced population of which we have an off balanced perception.

Not all Chinese are rocket scientists.  Even with all their great strides forward and backward there are still about a billion Chinese living gruelling lives at a peasant existence who are good worthy people.  Parents who sacrifice to make sure their own child gets a better education.  They hope and dream no different than we do in Canada.  But in their country their education system does not cater to all their needs, teach in progressive ways, or deal equally with the rich and the poor.

 In the school where I served as principal, in China, I had never before seen so many high end German cars in one parking lot as on those days when parents came to visit their children on campus. These parents had paid large sums, including bribes, within the Chinese administration, to get their children into one of the best schools in the province.  I don’t think there were any scholarships for the peasant class, at least not at our school.  These students were the elite and many of them did graduate and went on to American and Canadian universities.  Since the 70’s the total number of Chinese students studying overseas is now in the millions.  It is also a lucrative business for western educational institutions.

As bright and as hard working as these students are, graduating with both a Chinese and Canadian high school diploma, their Chinese educational roots based on rote learning and  repetition, bred a type of student almost totally lacking in creativity, problem solving and discussion skills more common in the Canadian system of education.

I have found that Chinese students lack the basic problem solving skills along with the basic ability to think outside of the box when they are not aware of the perimeter of the box.  This is a profound limitation to invention, leadership and the development of new ideas.  Theirs is a mentality that generally shies away from innovation while it excels at cloning the ideas of others.  I believe that until Chinese students become free thinkers they will never be the world’s inventors, innovators or the movers and shakers of a new world order. 

When Trudeau blocked the sale of a strategic company to slow the seepage of technology to China he did the right thing, but it is only his finger in the dyke.  China will eventually prevail by sheer volume and force by cloning, stealing and copying any technology they can get their hands on and by any means possible.  As long as they stick to their one party rule with an educational system void of creativity and inventiveness, they will only borrow their world prominence, they will never earn it, but that may make very little difference in the end game.