Dear Vancity,

When I worked for your subsidiary, there was much, and worthy, soul-searching going on:   Who were we and How would we show up in the marketplace?

If ever there was a time to stake your ground, surely it’s now!

It’s now, when a handful of your gutsy neighbours (who may even bank with you?) walked straight into the heart of your turf, the financial powerbrokers on Wall Street, and raised their 200 or so fists defying what financial institutions have become. And sparked a movement.

It’s now, when thousands  - millions?? – of Spaniards (oh!  those Spaniards!) spilled into the streets for 15O, indignant ones, speaking against the savage consequences of capitalist structures unchecked (uncheckable?) by political will (euphemistically speaking)

It’s now, when thousands of Oakland folks have tasted tear gas (including this woman in a wheelchair) for insisting that people come first:

It’s now, when this kid PWNS Fox News (for once, thank god, for once):

and when a Pulitzer Prize winner PWND Kevin O’Leary, Canada’s own lame-ass apologist for the worst of capitalism:

and when young mid-riff baring, cardboard placard bearing girls are corralled into red netting and then peppersprayed

So. In light of corralled girls and teargassed wheel-chair bound women and articulate youth and the hashtag #occupy showing up here, there, everywhere, does Vancity have something to offer? Yes, this vid gives a glimpse of a better way. It’s inspiring.

But it’s not a manifesto, and if ever a ballsy manifesto (nothing pretty, please! and no slick marketing!) was needed from a financial institution, one whose DNA is still gritty and radical even if tamed over the years, it’s needed now. Is a credit union something more than a kinder, gentler bank? I’m listening. And I hope about 99% of Canadian citizens are too.

Photo Credit: Net_efekt

Easily $2000 those malevolent moths have stolen.

Cashmere robe, $300, multiple holes.

Persian carpet, $3000+, devalued by at least $1K (actually discovered this last winter and fixed, but I guess they migrated! grrrrr)

Favourite and only truly vintage sweater acquired on The Drive, $50 (but value much higher), a chunk taken right out of it.

Cashmere scarf, $150 on 50% off sale, riddled with holes.

Pashmina, a gift, likely $250, pretty much destroyed.

You get the idea!  Yes, there’s more.

NASTY, VICIOUS, WOOL-EATING BUGS! They’re not even the pretty moths.  They’re ugly.

It’s my own fault:  I noticed them in the summer and was too preoccupied to deal with it.   But the 0C weather has arrived and suddenly the full scope of the damage is painfully apparent.

I’ve read the options online for natural moth extinction (lavender, cedar etc.) but if anyone has real-world success stories, I’m listening.

Bummed out in Yellowknife,

Nancy

Photo Credit: Cyanocorax

Work with me here.

Here’s the situation. Based on a true story.

You run a well established bank – let’s say, a Canadian bank called CanadaBank.

You borrow $Millions from Canadians by issuing Citizens Savings Bonds and offer them decent interest.

You take that money you’ve raised and lend it out at higher rate to another country, ’cause that’s what bankers do, and you’re a banker.  Let’s call it the country of Perezo.

Perezo.  Oh, Perezo.  Perezo is run by a Military General (MG) who keeps law and order, true, but at dear cost to the citizens.

Western Democracy it’s not.

You hear rumours that MG, who promised he’d use the money to build infrastructure for water and transportation, instead siphons off most of it to his relatives and friends and also uses a lot of it to bribe judges. But it’s not really any of your business and  you are getting the loan payments back on time, with interest, which you then give back to your Cdn. citizen Bond holders, keeping the profit.

But then the citizens of Perezo revolt successfully.

Overnight, MG is gone. In his place is a revolutionary, beloved by the people, named Juan. He pledges to end corruption, fire the bribed judges, and free the people MG had imprisoned. He is also contemplating kicking out all foreign businesses.

Your phone rings.  It’s Juan. He wants a meeting with you.  In Perezo. You fly down to meet him, keenly aware that Juan could give a rats ass about you or your bank.

The meeting goes worse than you anticipated. Juan notes how your bank’s money had enabled MG to purchase the guns that had mowed down citizens in the streets. How it paid off judges who imprisoned some of the country’s best thinkers who had dared speak out against MG and his henchmen. And he shrugs off your rebuttals that you had lent it to be used to build infrastructure, asking you, “where is it? Do you see water towers? Do you see good streets?”.

You develop a cold sweat because you realize you may well not see a penny of that money back. And your bank owes it to the people of Canada.

Readers – over to you. Dig deep into that inner armchair economist in you. What would you say to Juan to convince him to honour MG’s commitment to repay the loan?

ps – This is a real situation faced by a top banker. I have a book he recently wrote about his banking adventures, called “Banker to the World“. Chapter One describes how he handled it.  You get the book (maybe) if you take a shot at responding in the comments!  (one book to give away.  if more than one brave soul answers, it will be by random draw)

Photo Credit: UberZombie

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
I’m not sure the best things in life are free, but a lot sure is. These are the trees in my yard (make that garden for my English friends).

A Vagabond Song – Bliss Carman
THERE is something in the autumn that is native to my blood—
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of flame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.