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Newsletter Vol. # 20 That's how I see it!

Hello and welcome to this week's newsletter

What you'll find in this weeks newsletter: the problem with Gambling; some stuff about Wellness; 99 Stupid Things... the dark side of E-mail Overload; Dr. Joyce Brothers from her book Widowed; who is Andre Aubin? Reader Response.


I'll bet you don't know how much money government rakes in from gambling in this country? An article written by Tamsin McMahon will shed some light on that.
Gambling now generates an astonishing 14 billion a year in revenues for provincial governments, up from just 2.7 billion 20 years ago. Alberta, BC, Ontario and Québec each now taking more in gambling revenues than Nevada. Provincial governments now get about 2.3% of the total revenue from gambling. Today the country is home to more than 70 casinos, 30,000 lottery ticket outlets and nearly 100,000 slot machines and video lottery terminals.

Governments collected nearly $550 in gambling revenues for every Canadian adult in 2011. In fact, Canada has among the highest per capita gambling revenues in the Western world. Canadian governments reaped roughly $105 per person from the VLT's and slot machines outside of casinos compared to just $13 in the US. This massive build-up of government's role in the gambling industry has come squarely on the back of problem gamblers-with roughly half of all gambling dollars coming from those with some degree of gambling addiction. For the estimated 1 million people who have developed a gambling problem, the consequences can be dire. Canadian safety Council estimates that there are nearly 200 suicides every year because of gambling addiction. In a study released in May, 2013 it was found that nearly half the money governments raised from gambling comes from players who have gambling problems. Monies that come from slot machine make up close to 60% of all provincial gambling revenues-and nearly 2/3 of that money comes from gambling addicts.

Despite the disproportionate share of revenues that comes from addicts, provinces dedicated just $82 million of their $7 billion in profits in 2011 towards problem gambling - research and treatment.

I realize gambling has been around forever and we will never eradicate tendency to play games of chance. I do believe that government has preyed on that human weakness - people want to get something for nothing (don't have to earn it, just win it) and made it far too easy for people to find a casino slot machine in their neighbourhood.

If I was in charge, and there are good reasons why I am not, I would close down all casinos within city limits and have them only on aboriginal land. What this would mean is we would have to drive to the casino, on purpose, for an evening of fun. Yes, gambling can be fun! However, people who spend all their days and or evenings, or who drop in daily after work, often become addicted to this way of life (the sounds, the lights, the occasional easy win) and they aren't having fun. They are addicted to the idea that they can win back what they have lost, win back their mortgage, or last month's retirement check, and government is only too happy to take their money.

Why on aboriginal land? Job creation, and freedom from federal government programs (independence) are just two reasons for all casinos to be placed on aboriginal land. The trade off however is no special status for all those folks living on and reaping the benefits of the casino, and they would all have to pay taxes just like any other Canadian person or business.

Anyway that's how I see it!


Wellness: Did you know

In the USA between 1996 and 2000, the number who are overweight and obese increased 10% to 27% obese and 61% overweight, and medical costs rose from 1 to 1.5 trillion (there is no reason to believe that these percentages and costs have not risen significantly in the last 14 years). So that was 77 million Americans clinically obese and 184 million overweight and unhealthy because they lacked the resources, information and motivation to take care of their most precious asset-their wellness.

Interestingly the 39% of not-overweight Americans are eating healthier than they ever have. This group quietly embraced the new revolution, to diet, to exercise, to take vitamins and nutritional supplements, to use medical care appropriately and to limit the effects of aging.

Canadians are not far behind.

99 Stupid Things Your Government Did With Your Money!

Maybe he's born with it: Not one to be caught without his game face on, it was revealed the office of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty expensed $130 worth of cosmetics for an apparent beauty emergency ahead of a televised budget announcement. Flaherty's staff scrambled to purchase concealer, blush, loose powder and shaving supplies to do the minister's makeup after a cosmetician cancelled at the last minute. For anyone wanting to replicate the look, Flaherty wears a combination of Maybelline, CoverGirl and Smashbox.

Funny money: The Bank of Canada spent nearly $40,000 to promote its new $20 bill. The spending included $35,832 to a company to design and install seven-storey images of the new polymer note on the bank's head- quarters in downtown Ottawa in May. In total, spending to promote the new bill equalled 1,942 of the new $20 notes.


Over-planned: The recession may have ended a while ago, but that hasn't stopped Stephen Harper's government from spending millions on advertisements featuring its Economic Action Plan stimulus slogan. The government spent $16 million in three months on feel-good commercials about Canada's economic prosperity.

Top gun: Despite getting a mock jet for free from manufacturer Lock- heed Martin, Defence Minister Peter MacKay still managed to spend $47,000 on a 2010 press conference where he posed with the fake plane.

Centless spending: Eliminating. The penny was supposed to save the government, but not without a final splurge. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stamped the last Canadian penny in a photo op that cost $56,000.


Meanwhile: Jason Kenney's department spent almost $750,000 monitoring what ethnic media were saying about the immigration minister and his ministry while denying the exercise was politically motivated; B.C. Premier Christy Clark's office spent $64 million on ad campaigns, twice that of her predecessor; the City of Ottawa spent $3,500 on, a consultant to teach firefighters how to talk to the media, despite having a communications staff of 44, many of whom were capable of doing it themselves; the Town of Innisfil, Ont., spent four years and $42,000 on outside consultants to design a new logo, even though a local graphic designer offered them a logo she designed for free.

E-mail Overload

That email traffic around the world clocks in at 141 billion messages a day, up from 5.1 billion five years ago.

The typical business worker is interrupted 6 to 8 times a day, or about 28% of the workers day. At an average cost of $21 an hour the cost to US business is 588 billion. Only recently have we started to look at the dark side of email. There are many problems cropping up due to email use. How frequent are the interruptions? How much time is wasted when an email comes in and disrupts a user? It's much more than most people think.

Five Tips For Eliminating E-mail Overload

1. Realizing that you are going to have to take time for your e-mail, set aside a period when you are going to work on it.
2. Don't get behind in looking through your messages
3. If you notice something important, respond to it as quickly as you can
4. Forward those messages that others need as soon as you can read them.
5. Give yourself a deadline by saying that you will not work on it for over a set amount of time

Dr. Joyce Brothers husband  (Milt) in her book, " Widowed" stated,

I believe that even in death, people remain a part of their family. I believe that children carry with them a part of their parents souls and consciousness I believe that husbands and wives remain part of each other. I'm not sure what his soul is but for sure parents and partners remain in their children and each other's consciousness. We are aware of how each other thinks feels to develop our values and our beliefs from our parents and part. Yes, they may be gone but we can be assured not forgotten.

Andre Aubin--famous for playing the RCMP officer in the film Canadian Bacon.

1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
2 - Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back.
3 - Half the people you know are below average.

Reader Response

The jobs are not what they were in days gone by.  Tradespersons are no longer wanted because most things are imported or pre-boxed at the cost of jobs.   With no jobs or poor paying part time jobs, both parents have to work and, as a result, spend less time with family.   Fear of the future creates bad situations in what used to be solid households.  We have lost our direction to the demand for that almighty profit and high paying jobs.  It seems that we have to buy houses with 4 bedrooms, multi bathrooms, huge homes that we can't afford. We live for retirement and hope we will be comfortable in our old age. Our lifestyle has pushed us into paying the bank for the rest of our lives. So welcome to the new and definitely not better life of the new century where material things are the standard----and we pay a price!


August-wasn't it just yesterday we were waiting for May and spring?
Welcome to the new readers of the That's how I see it newsletter.
Have a great week-after all you're in charge of it!