Airmen Honoured, A Step for Democracy-in the wrong direction & Most Money;Worst Company

Comerant Airmen Honoured
For any Canadians who read this blog, you're probably aware that a Coast Guard CH-149 Comerant crashed in Canso last week, killing three coast guardsmen. Sgt. Duane Brazil of Newfoundland, Master Sgt. Kirk Noel, and Cp. Trevor McDavid where all killed Thursday morning when there Coast Guard CH-149 Comerant Search and Rescue Helicopter crashed in Canso, Nova Scotia, a short distance from the Canso Causeway. The preliminary investigation has ruled pilot error and poor weather conditions played a role in the crash. Capt. Gabriel Ringuette, 41, Sgt. Martin Maloney, 49, Capt. Ronald Busch, 40, and Maj. Gordon Ireland, 42, survived the accident. The thing is, these helicopters are only 6 years old which is young by Military standards. They where purchased in 2000 for use in SAR (Search and Rescue) In comparison, the Navy's workhorse CH-124 Sea King helicopter which is approaching it's 43rd birthday. However the Comerants have had problems as well, with problems concerning cracked rotors and the like. However, I do not attribute the problem to one major problem. First the major problem that I see is improper repair work. Unless Augesta Westland is a company that is incompetent and doesn't care about craftsmanship or quality of product (which I seriously doubt) then it has to be a personel issue. Either the crews are improperly trained or they are too focused on the Sea Kings to fix problems properly. Either way this is a problem that has to be addressed and soon. If another valiant member of the CF dies because of a politician decides to sit on his butt and cancel the order for the Sea King replacements again I'm firing off a letter to my MP demanding that the government face a no confidence vote. The Comerant fleet has been suspended since Thursday, allowing for only essential flights, but the flight restrictions where lifted today allowing for all scheduled flights to continue.
Democracy in Afganistan takes a Step Backwards
Afganistan's government has reformed the controversial Ministry of Vice and Virtues. Under the Taliban regime it enforced strict Islamic law (known as Shariah) which bans everything from consumption of alcohol (a good law) to banning watching of television and listening to of radio, virtual slavery of women, as well as the complete absence of technology. At it's peak , the ministry employed 32,000 people to enforce Shariah. The ministry was dissolved when the U.S. invaded Afaganistan in 2001. Both religious and tribal leaders have been pushing for Afghan President Harmid Karzai to reform the ministry. Well it looks like he's bowed the to pressure, though, he says, the ministry will not be as expansive or as strict as the Taliban version. This is not the first time that the ministry has tried to have been resurrected. An attempt was made in 2002 by Hazmid Karzai, but it was short lived. Again, I think this attempt will be short lived. The Afghan people will not tolerate it, for it brings back to many memories of the horrific Taliban regime.
This brings up another topic:Shariah law in non-Islamic countries. Recently the Ontario government considered the idea of introducing a law that would allow for shariah proceedings for divorce and matters concerning inheritance. Under shariah when a couple is divorced, the man has the upper hand in what he is able to have (Custody rights, Property rights, Finacial rights etc.) while the women is put to a disadvantage. When a father dies the wife and daughters are put to a disadvantage over inherritence (the son recieves 2/3 while the daugher and/or mother recieve 1/3) Shariah also allows for beating of women, simply if the the husband or father does not deem the daughter or wife to be virgin. If the women is found to have committed adultry or unmarital sexual relations, death can be the result. This happens all to often in Palestine, Egypt, Iran, Iraq amoung others. However the proposed law was dropped after a massive outcry by human right's groups and the Canadian Muslim community.
Worst Company;Most Money
You'd think that if a company like Google or Apple, that's raking in billions of dollars a year in profits, the founders and CEO's would bet massive salaries right? Or the ranking tech companies executives would get low paychecks right? Wrong. According to Study published by DolmatConnell & Partners, some of the lowest ranked tech companies in the world are paying they're CEO's and other executives millions of dollars in compensation-even when profits are slipping and viceversa . Take for example IBM, which has been losing money for the last couple of years now as Apple abandoned them for the more powerful Intel processors and they sold they're PC buildingbusiness to Levano. It's stock has slipped 16% in the last year alone. Meanwhile CEO Sam Palmisano is one of the highest paid in the industry. He was paid $12.4 million- that includes a $5.2 million dollar bonus, according to regulatory figures. In contrast Adobe-which is in the top third of the list is not paying it's CEO's well by contrast.CEO of Adobe Bruce Chizen was paid amere $1.9 million-below the industry average. It gets worse. Presidents of Google Larry Page and Sergy Brin, along with CEO Eric Schmidt are being payed $1 a year, because of there considerable net worth. However they are offered stock options as compensation. The same goes for Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is worth an estimated $4.3 billion. He, like Schmidt,Page and Brin is payed $1 a year. However he has been therecipient of several "executive gifts" including stock options and a private jet . The fact is that salaries for these guys are not set for performance-they're set in accordance of what their peers are making. There is no consideration for performance. You wonder why everyone is getting rich for doing nothing.
Come back tomorrow night for more commentary,
Nathaniel