Majorityrights News > Category: World Affairs

Macleans, “China is buying Canada: Inside the new real estate frenzy”

How China’s affection for Canada’s real estate is reshaping the nation’s housing market well beyond Vancouver

Paul Shen can tick off the reasons Mainland Chinese people buy property in Canada as surely as any fast-talking B.C. realtor. Some long to escape the fouled earth and soupy air of their country’s teeming cities, he explains, while others are following relatives to enclaves so well-populated by other Chinese expats they hardly feel like foreigners.

The richest, of course, regard homes in the West as stable vessels for disposable cash, but Shen lays no claim to such affluence. Last spring, the 39-year-old left behind his middle-management advertising job in Shanghai to seek the dream of home ownership he and his wife couldn’t afford in their home city. “We just followed our hearts to begin a totally different life,” he tells Maclean’s, adding: “We can make the house dream come true in Canada.”

The starting point was one-half of a modest duplex near downtown Victoria, close to the university where his wife is seeking a master’s degree, and priced about right for their limited means. Selling points ranged from the quiet of the street—perfect for their six-year-old son—to the stunning Vancouver Island vistas all around. High on his list, though, was Victoria’s comfortable distance from the bustling Chinese communities of B.C.’s Lower Mainland. As Shen—betraying his limited knowledge of pre-settlement Canadian history—puts it: “We wanted a place that would allow us to live with the natives.”

It’s hard not to smile at his idealism. Substitute any one of two dozen nationalities, after all, and you have a chapter in Canada’s cherished narrative of migration, settlement and shared prosperity.

But as a Chinese newcomer with a buy-at-all-costs resolve, Shen also personifies a phenomenon dividing those “natives” he’d like to call his neighbours. In the past five years, the flow of money from mainland China into Canadian real estate has reached what many consider dangerous levels, contributing to a gold-rush atmosphere in the nation’s leading cities, while stirring anger among young, middle-class Canadians who feel shut out of their hometown markets.

Its impact on Vancouver’s gravity-defying boom is the best known—and most hotly debated—example, as eye-popping price gains leave behind such quaint indicators as average household income, or regional economic activity. “We’re bringing in people who just want to park their money here,” says Justin Fung, a software engineer and second-generation Chinese-Canadian who counts himself among those frustrated by Vancouver’s surreal housing market. “They’re driving up housing prices and simply treat this city as a resort.”  Full story at Macleans

Related story:

BCBusiness, “China, Foreign Ownership & B.C. Resources”

B.C.’s natural resources are being gobbled up by foreign entities at a record pace. Increasingly, those entities are controlled by governments, such as China’s, that may have motives beyond mere profits. (Return to B.C.‘s Top 100 of 2011.)

[...]

It’s that potential for conflict of interest that has a few people worried. Jock Finlayson, executive vice-president of the Business Council of B.C., appreciates the “investment renaissance” that B.C. is now experiencing, but recommends a cautious approach.


“Canada needs to look at this,” he says. “I don’t know what the right answer is, but I do agree that the private-sector rules don’t apply to state-owned organizations, and it’s not just the Chinese. It requires an explicit look. Do we hold them to a higher test? They are going to have to do it sooner rather than later.”


John Bruk, who 27 years ago co-founded and headed the Asia Pacific Foundation, pulls no punches on this topic. He sees a need for some concerted action before too many horses have fled the barn. Bruk has prepared a comprehensive analysis of the track record of the foundation; he believes the government-funded organization needs to be re-energized in part because of China’s growing economic influence, and believes it needs to do much more to help Canada address an unsustainable trade deficit with China. (Disclosure: I provided editing services for Bruk on this paper.)


“Is trading our ownership and control of core assets for more consumer goods, resulting in unsustainable trade deficits, good for Canada?” Bruk asks in his report. “Are we jeopardizing prosperity for our children and grandchildren while putting at risk our economic independence? In my view, this is exactly what is happening.”


Council of European Canadians, “Deadliest Birthrate Affecting All of Humanity, Part I: Africa”, 14 September 2016:

by Frosty Wooldridge, frostywooldridge.com

“Demography is destiny” - Auguste Comte

As immigration, both legal and illegal, continues flooding into the United States of America — it also pours into Canada, Australia and Europe. Note that all Western countries stabilized their populations since 1970 by averaging 2.0 children or less per female.

Unfortunately, as first world countries created stable and sustainable societies since 1970, their leaders chose unending immigration from overloaded third world countries. For the United States, the late Senator Teddy Kennedy created the 1965 Immigration Reform Act that added 100 million people to America by October of 2006. If continued, that same act expects to add another 100 million people within 34 years. Where do those immigrants originate? Answer: the third world that adds 80 million, net gain, annually.

Unknown to most countries and people living on this planet, an accelerating birthrate in Africa threatens all Western nations in the 21st century. At 1.1 billion in 2016, Africa screams toward 2.1 billion by 2050 and 4 billion by the end of this century.

As an example, the average Burundian woman births 6.3 children, double the international fertility rate. Burundians expect to jump from 10 million to 20 million in a few decades. Egypt, currently 85 million, expects to reach 105 million by 2030. Ethiopia, at 98 million, expects to double to 210 million by 2060.

Ironically, Egypt imports most of its food to feed its current population in 2016. As the human race adds 1 billion more people, net gain, every 12 years, Africa expects to quadruple its population within 85 years. Africans grow so fast; they cannot water, feed, house, educate or sustain the expected 4 billion people about to land on that continent.

What does it mean? It means that every living creature featuring feathers, hooves, claws, fins or fur that lives in Africa will become food for the human mob. It means relentless extinction of rhinos, lions, gazelles, wildebeest, giraffes and elephants — and, well, just about any creature that breathes.

Nonetheless, the Pope condemns birth control in Africa. Islam promotes as many children as possible as it expands across the globe by birthrate and/or violent jihad. World leaders see the carnage, poverty, disease and futility of Africa in 2016, but fail to call for a world conference to discuss what’s coming and what can be done to change course.

Therefore, those burgeoning populations flood into first world countries with no end to the line.

Question: what will humans do once the planet faces another added three billion people by 2050 — a scant 34 years from now? They will need to be watered, fed, housed, warmed and sustained in a finite world with finite resources? If you think the flood of 1,000,000 (million) refugees knocking on Europe’s door today spells disaster for the civilized West, what do you think any Western country faces in the next 84 years when Africa hits four billion desperate people?

Right now, America annually imports 1.2 million legal refugees from around the world. According to The Center for Immigration Studies with research by Dr. Steven Camarota, the illegal alien flow jumped back to 500,000 illegal alien border crossers in 2014-2015. In other words, the line never ends as Mexico remains on course to add another 20 to 30 million people by mid century.

       

Somali refugees in Minnesota: One of every five refugees resettled in Minnesota by the federal government tested positive for latent tuberculosis in 2014, according to the state’s Department of Health

One look at Minneapolis, Minnesota shows 105,000 African Somalian legal refugees now overwhelming welfare services across that city. And that is not all. Now, Somalia at 11.1 million in 2016, expects to reach 13.1 million within six years by 2020:

The country is rapidly expanding with almost 3% annual population growth and a high fertility rate of 6.26 children per woman, which is the 4th highest in the world.

The pressure by Somalis to enter the United States will only grow in the next few years. Question to ask yourself and your kids: what is the point of endless immigration from Somalia in 2016 when that country, along with the rest of Africa, refuses to solve its own birth rates? What’s the point of adding more of their people to our country so we become like their country?

How do you think your kids will survive the onslaught? What are you doing to raise a national-international discussion on human overpopulation? What kind of a civilization do you expect to bequeath your children? Answer: if we continue on this path, we will become a new third world country where everyone suffers and no one may lead anything like “quality of life” or a decent standard of living. Not to mention a degrading environment!

None of us will escape the growing consequences of Africa’s population bomb. Here is a video on how non-profit groups in the US are planning to bring thousands of Muslim refugees from the Africa, as well as the Middle East, almost completely funded by the US Government through grants and contracts:

Part 1, Africa, Part 2, India, Part 3, China, Part 4

READ MORE...

TNO, “81% of Americans Oppose “Aid” to Israel”, 22 September 2016:

Some 80.8 percent of Americans oppose the $38 billion in “aid” that the Jewish lobby-controlled U.S. Government last week pledged to Israel, an IRmep poll fielded by Google Consumer Surveys has found.

At the same time, the Jewish lobby will pour money into campaign funds of politicians who support this “aid” package, while the controlled media will demonize any candidate for office who dares to oppose it.

The poll found that the vast majority of Americans want the $38 billion “aid” pledge to be redirected toward other priorities, such as caring for vets, education, and lowering national debt.

The “aid” deal, signed last week in Washington D.C., is the single largest aid package ever given by the U.S.—even though Israel is a wealthy nation in its own right.

The majority of the spending is for “Foreign Military Financing” (FMF) to provide Israel with advanced and upgraded jet fighters, to continue developing Israel’s missile defense systems and to purchase weapons—even though Israel has a booming arms industry of its own and sold $5.7 billion of arms in 2015 alone.

More at TNO

Visigrad Post, Dubrovnik, Croatia – A two-day forum was attended by Croatia with heads of state and officials from twelve countries of Central and Eastern Europe, all members of the European Union, to discuss common challenges to strengthen economically and politically the area between the three seas – the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Sea. This was the Three Seas Initiative.

“The area between the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Sea is the lifeblood of Europe,” said the host of the forum, Croatian President Grabar-Kitarović. Thursday, August 25, a round table gathered in Dubrovnik, on the cost of the Adriatic Sea, the presidents of Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovenia, as well as ministers and deputy ministers of Austria, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Slovakia.

The region (BABS: Baltic – Adriatic – Black Sea) accounts for 28% of EU territory, 22% of its population but only for 10% of its GDP. Discussions about the economy have focused on the need to improve the infrastructure of the whole region and in particular energetic cooperation, mainly to promote the plurality of energy sources and reduce energy dependence. According to the Croatian President, 50 billion euros are needed to overcome the current shortcomings. However, she also drew attention to the major challenges of the region, namely the demographic decline and emigration.

Polish President Duda for his part stressed that cooperation should be extended to other areas to be sufficiently strong: culture and science as well as student exchanges must come to reinforce this cooperation. But the heart of this cooperation is the creation of a true north-south European axis, stressed the Polish president. In conclusion for his speech, Andrzej Duda announced that the next summit would be held in Poland in Wroclaw in June 2017.

Chinese and American speakers were also present. Chinese Ministerial Assistant for Foreign Affairs Liu Haixing in charge of Central and Eastern Europe region recalled that China was very interested in the development of the area. China believes it will serve her project of New Silk Road.

American General James L. Jones, president of Jones Group International and former adviser for the National Security of President Obama said that the development of the Three Seas Initiative must be an element not only for European development but also for security. General Jones stressed the use by Russia of her position as an energy supplier to increase her economic influence and to strengthen her geopolitical goals.

A major source of liberalism, but at 86, you have to wonder if the YKW aren’t willing to throw him under the bus and if he, in turn, wouldn’t be willing to take a fall.

DAILYKENN.com—2,500 files stolen from Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

One revealing document was published online this week.

Entitled “Extreme Polarization and Breakdown in Civil Discourse,” the document names renowned critics of Islam. Among those are stellar anti-Muslim crusader Pamela Geller. Frank Gaffney and Robert Spencer were also targets of the group, reports say.

According to The Daily Caller:

In the memo, Open Society Foundations (OSF) executives lamented that progressive groups and members of the Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian-American (AMEMSA) community lacked “high quality opposition research” to combat “anti-Muslim xenophobia and to promote tolerance.”

Some warn of an impending global government. It appears that government already exists and George Soros is its head of state, providing the government’s funding from his personal holdings.

Soros’ global government includes a CIA-like spy network, it appears.

I call it ‘Sorocracy;’ rule by George Soros. And this, my friends, is why globalism wants to control the Internet.

Soros is 86-years-old.

TNO, “UK: Massive Nonwhite Vote Fraud”, 14 August 2016:

There were at least 665 cases of electoral fraud in the UK last year, all of them among the Pakistani and Bangladeshi colonizers of Britain—and the authorities are too scared to do anything about it for fear of being called racist, a British government-commissioned report has said.

The report titled “Securing the ballot,” said that authorities are in a “state of denial” and are “turning a blind eye to election fraud in Muslim communities.”

Former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sir Eric Pickles MP, was asked by the UK government last year to consider what further changes were needed to make the electoral system more secure.

The request for the report came in the aftermath of a 2015 court judgment which ruled that the completely nonwhite colonized local authority of Tower Hamlets in London had been the scene of extensive fraud.

In that case, the court ordered the disqualification of the elected mayor, Pakistan-born Lutfur Rahman, for being “personally guilty” of “corrupt or illegal practices, or both” under the Representation of the People Act 1983.

There have been a very large number of similar cases all across the UK going back many years, and as the nonwhite population grows in size, so have the number of these incidents increased.

Election fraud “has been allowed to take place” among the nonwhites in Britain because of “political correctness.”

The report said that that there is evidence of voter fraud “especially in communities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi background” but that the cases have been ignored because of “over-sensitivities about ethnicity and religion.”

It warned that there are “challenging issues” over community cohesion but they should never be an “excuse” for failing to “uphold the rule of law and protect British liberties.”

The report, submitted to the British Prime Minister’s office, says that voters should be compelled to produce identification when voting, and that there should be “police cordons around polling stations to prevent intimidation.”

Complete story at TNO

                “Tim Kaine Will Be the Jewiest Vice President”

Forward, “5 Reasons Tim Kaine Will Be the Jewiest Vice President Pick for Hillary Clinton,” 22 July 2016:

Tim Kaine is Hillary Clinton’s pick for Vice President, somewhat to the chagrin of the Democratic Party’s left wing and the — somewhat premature — excitement of Wikipedia. He has one of the longest records of service in politics among the people on Clinton’s shortlist, going back to his 1997 election as the mayor of Richmond, Virginia.

Kaine has also been a friend to the Jewish community for about as long as he’s been in public service. During his various campaigns, Kaine has repeatedly reached out to the Jewish community, conducted interviews with Jewish leaders and spoken about America’s relationship with Israel.

“He made himself very available to the Jewish community,” said Ron Halber, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. “He took the Jewish community very seriously as a constituency,” even though it only represented a small portion of the Virginia electorate.

But Kaine is connected to the Jewish community in several other ways, as well. Here are five facts about Tim Kaine’s relationship to Judaism and Israel.

1. He supports a two-state solution even when others don’t.

Kaine is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East, Central Asia and terrorism, and held the chairmanship of the committee for two years. In March, he signed a letter, along with twenty-six other senators, urging President Obama to continue his support for the two-state solution. His predecessor as chairman of the subcommittee on the Middle East and terrorism, Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, didn’t sign the letter.

Kaine’s decision to skip Bibi Netanyahu’s speech in Congress in March 2015 was also widely noticed throughout Washington. It was a clear message: Kaine did not agree with the timing of the talk, and Netanyahu’s perceived political motivations for delivering it before the Israeli elections.

“I’m not dumb, I knew not going to the speech might make some folks mad with me — there would be a political price, but I felt so strongly as a matter of principle that this was done in an entirely inappropriate way,” Kaine told the Forward.

Ron Halber, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said that it would be “a foolish mistake” to interpret Kaine’s move as being in any way unsupportive of Israel.

“He is keenly aware of the security challenges” in the region, Halber said.

2. He’s a religious Catholic, so he understands the imperatives, and difficulties, of observance.

Kaine is a dedicated, practicing Catholic who represents the Democratic party at the Senate’s weekly prayer breakfast on Wednesdays. He is also a member of a “reflection group,” along with six other senators, that holds faith-centered discussions. Though he does not personally agree with abortion, he sees a woman’s right to make decisions about her body as an important right, and does not support anti-abortion legislation. As a Catholic he’s used to being viewed as an outsider by white Protestants.

When Kaine found himself living in D.C., away from his wife, he decided to write a bible commentary on weeknights.

“He could’ve chosen to find other ways to address his loneliness that were either chemical or social in nature,” said Rabbi Jack Moline, the executive director of the Interfaith Alliance. “But he spotted the opportunity for deeper social reflection into a piece of scripture that particularly spoke to him.”

3. He brought hummus to Virginia.

During his time as the governor of Virginia, Sabra built the what is reportedly the world’s largest hummus factory outside Richmond, capable of producing 8,000 tons of hummus a month. Kaine was apparently directly involved.

“He’s the man who brought Sabra hummus to Virginia,” said Rabbi Jack Moline, the Executive Director of Interfaith Alliance. According to Moline, Kaine “wooed” the company to set up shop in his state.

Kaine authorized $350,000 from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to help bring the project to fruition, beating out two other states for the privilege of being at the heart of American hummus production.

4. He’s hosted a Passover Seder — multiple times.

In 2006, during his first year as governor of Virginia, he hosted the first ever Passover Seder in the governor’s mansion. He is apparently part of a group of friends that rotates hosting the Seder each year, and that year it happened to be his turn. It also wasn’t his first time hosting — his home had been a slot in the rotating group for several years before his election.

5. He played “Yente,” matchmaking for Rabbi Jack Moline’s daughter.

Moline’s daughter and son-in-law met while working on Kaine’s campaign for governor of Virginia in 2005.

“If he hadn’t run for governor, I wouldn’t be a grandfather,” said Moline.

Forward, “Tim Kaine, Pro-Israel Centrist From Virginia, Hillary Clinton’s Vice President Pick”, 22 July 2016:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced her vice-presidential running mate by text to supporters today. She will unveil U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, formally tomorrow.

Virginia’s Kaine is a centrist pro-Israel choice who should please moderate Jewish voters as Hillary’s No. 2.

“He’s not going to appeal to the Bernie Sanders voters. He’s a centrist,” Ron Halber, executive director of the Greater Washington JCRC, told the Forward. Halber has forged a relationship with Kaine both as governor and as senator.

Kaine might offer some ammunition to Israel hawks as an early endorser of the Iranian nuclear deal, and like her he chose to skip Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.

5 Questions for Tim Kaine on Israel

But as a middle-of-the-road-Democrat and a co-sponsor of Iran-related legislation, Kaine made choices that, when it came to the nuclear deal, drew attention in the pro-Israel community.

“I’m not dumb, I knew not going to the speech might make some folks mad with me — there would be a political price,” Kaine told the Forward shortly after. “But I felt so strongly as a matter of principle that this was done in an entirely inappropriate way.”

Kaine, who has also served as head of the Democratic National Committee, has visited Israel several times and has supported the funding of Iron Dome systems and the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act. Halber noted that he was a “very good friend” of the U.S.-Israel partnership, but he added that if chosen as vice president, he may want to see movement on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. “His social background and his sympathy to the oppressed will likely make him want to see a solution,” he said, “but he will also support defending Israel in the U.N. and expanding the relationship.”

Kaine is a member of a small group of senators who participate in a biweekly reflection group organized by the Faith and Politics Institute.

“I had many, many personal deep conversations with him, and he is genuinely a friend of Israel,” said Rabbi Jack Moline, one of the group’s moderators. Moline believes that much of Kaine’s worldview was shaped during his work as a Jesuit missionary in Honduras. “It had an immense influence on his understanding of the need to make the world a better place.”

In Virginia, Kaine hosted the first Passover Seder in the governor’s mansion.

Before entering the U.S. Senate the well-liked Kaine had been the mayor of Richmond, governor of Virginia and chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Kaine, 58, is a fluent Spanish speaker after serving as a missionary in Honduras, and his presence on the ticket could help Clinton in Virginia, a heavily contested swing state.

Another senator, Cory Booker of New Jersey, along with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack were among the final contenders.

The announcement had been expected. The Wall Street Journal, citing Democrats familiar with the search, had said she was likely to make the announcement on Friday and Kaine was believed to be the pick.

Clinton, a former secretary of state, will be formally nominated as the party’s presidential candidate at next week’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Her choice of Kaine as running mate could provide an early signal about her plan of battle against Trump.

Picking Kaine, a veteran mainstay of the Democratic establishment with plenty of governing experience, emphasizes her message that Democrats will offer a serious, steady alternative to the unpredictable Trump after the chaotic Republican convention that closed on Thursday.

Booker, a charismatic rising star in the party, would have given her candidacy a jolt of energy as Clinton enters the three-month grind of the general election. Booker, 47, would have been the first black vice president and his help might still be vital to boost turnout among young and African-American voters.

Other potential contenders on Clinton’s short list included U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a liberal favorite, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and Hispanic Cabinet members Julian Castro and Thomas Perez.—With Reuters

This article was updated at 8pm EST to reflect Hillary Clinton’s announcement of her running mate.