…a 1.15 BILLION dollar fine for two Canadian tobacco companies (Rothmans and Canadian Imperial Tobacco) but here’s my question…

Uhm, so WHO IS GOING TO RECEIVE THIS 1.15 BILLION and what is it going to be used for?  Come on, then, let’s have it?

I asked several places included some news outlets when we, in Montreal, FINALLY paid off the Olympic Stadium, without its roof, that was built in 1976 (and for which there is the famous Aislan (spelling?) cartoon where, if memory serves, he had drawn the then-Mayor of the City, Mr. Drapeau, naked but for his diaper which was shaped like the Olympic symbol tried under his belly as he sported a very big beer belly or, uhm, a pregnancy and he is on the phone… He is saying ‘Hello, Morgentaler?’…. and, the caption reads his own quote, i.e., something like:  ‘The Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby’…

Anyway, all to say, that it took us just over 30 YEARS to pay it all off… millions upon millions upon MILLIONS… so when it was paid off, finally, in recent years, I wrote and called and wanted to know what was going to be done with these millions upon millions that we now had freed up since we were no longer paying for the Olympic Stadium…

It never occured to me that it would never be brought up again… I was expecting that they would not like my own proposal of fixing our roads up of our infamous potholes (because of weather mostly but also bad management in maintenance) by following what I once read about with regard to how the roads are made and maintained in Vermont, USA… I can’t remember the exact ingredients but there is some kind of rubber added to the mix of the asphalt and so it is far more resistent to weather changes and basic usage… It is, to be sure, far more expensive, but, hey, when you think of all the inconvenience, the lost hubcabs and broke rims, and all those city workers on coffee breaks, well, it is not all that expensive at ALL!

So I thought, well, hey, we have freed-up money, millions and millions apparently!, so, uhm, let’s settle the roads for one… then our water … we waste more fresh water from old burst pipes than we should be allowed to given how others in other parts of the world die from water not nearly as clean, if they can get any at all… and FIX those pipes once and for all… Hey, we live in a country that has long harsh winters, (well, except for this past one, it’s sort of been a walk in the part for the previous dozen years, but that’s beside the point… it is still wintry and cold….)….

and I was D*MNED sure we’d still have millions to spare if we planned this right and spread it over a five – 10 year period… with solid obtainable goals every 6-12 months… and that we could use the rest of it for decontaminating all those communal gardens, the poor, the homeless, etc.  H*ll, drop the etc. just leave it at the poor and the homeless and make that the 1976 Olympic legacy, i.e., that the monies were then used to help them out…

but nary a word…

and so

I am now wondering the same thing with regard to what will happen to this 1.15 BILLION dollars that will be collected …

never mind the crime they are accused of … to tax evade… shipping their own cigarettes out to the States and have it come back contraband…. whatever!  never mind that NO ONE IS BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE BECAUSE ALL THE HIGHER UPS IN THESE COMPANIES WERE COOPERATIVE.. yah! they got caught so they were cooperative… and they are getting away scott free!! who is going to pay for that 1.15 billion fine?  Well, we all know… and this time, not only the consumers, dwindling though they be so they’ll be paying through the nose and other places, but I think the shareholders too, no?  and, didn’t I just read somewhere that Rothmans, one of the last, if not THE last Canadian tobacco company, has just been sold to an AMERICAN tobacco company for 2 BILLION dollars… ?

Really, all this stuff boggles the mind… these companies were involved in the smuggling of their OWN products, all their higher ups knew about it, and they all get away scott free now that they’ve made their own monies, leaving it to the hapless ones, the innocent ones, to clean up…

GEEZ…

but, tell me, what is going to be done with the monies from the fines that will be collected?  we’re not talking a few million here… but 1.15 BILLION Canadian dollars…

what?

Mr. Pausch, I don’t know you… never met you… saw you in an interview on a news show and your spirit and enthusiasm moved me to search for and watch your youtube lecture which, I can understand, was meant for your kids… and for which I was just a lucky bystander/recipient to also have been able to take it in… Thank you for that. I appreciate YOUR appreciation of Life, your joy, your views (i.e., when you’re screwing up and noone is telling you, no matter how hard that is….as just one example…the brick walls, for another…wait long enough if people have disappointed you and give them time, more time, as yet another… ) , so many of which I share but I sometimes have forgotten to practice. In today’s world, especially, thank you also for reminding me again of all of that goodness so easily lost in the shuffle of makework, things to do, anger and other unimportant stupidities…

Rest in Peace.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/jul/25/randy-pausch-last-lecture-dies/

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/jul/25/randy-pausch-last-lecture-dies/

http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/

http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf

==

Just doing it all in reverse, I guess… having helped others with along the way with the realization of their dreams, I’m still at that stage of digging up and dusting off some of my own – even at this late stage… Thank you for your inspiration… Who said one person cannot change the flow… Thank you. RIP.