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During the past summer, I visited Truro, Nova Scotia,  and as always devoted a little time to one of my favourite hobbies- genealogy. I had one main goal namely to advance my research on the two goals in particular 1. Advance my research on the Clifford Wives namely Rebecca (Nelson) Clifford and Alice (Kennedy) Clifford.  My research produced the following:

1. Not withstanding that Rebecca’s Mum is recorded in the Onslow Town Records as Mary Hoar both in her marriage and the birth of all her children she went by either Agnes or Nancy in census durring her life. The following email from Jane (Currie) Wile comfirms my research:

Hi Jim - as I was researching Nancy last night I began to remember going through the same records a number of years ago…..

The Onslow Township book does record the wife of Robert John Nelson as being Mary Hoar and that they married January 9 1831 and also the marriage record of her son Samuel records his mothers first name as Mary. These are both believed to be transcription errors by myself and others who have researched this couple.

The Onslow Township book that exists today is a typed transcription prepared in the 1920’s - we have found a number of errors in this and there are also pages missing. Same thing for the marriage register we work from - the entries were completed by a clerk from the submitted marriage forms and mistakes were made.

The records that support the wife of Robert John Nelson as being Agnes/Nancy Hoar are: the marriage record of her son John, the death certificate of her daugther Rebecca, cemetery records, newspaper death notice of Nancy and the census records of 1871, 1881 & 1891. I was convinced at this point and did not search for any other evidence beyond these.

 

The second finding was a record of the marriage of John Clifford to Eleiha Kenedy contained in Heather Long, Marriages 1752-1848, The Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia which took place in Lady of Mount Carmel, PC on 20 Sep 1829. Previously I had John’s wife as Alice (Kennedy)Clifford, Death at age 85, date July 6 1888 and buried in : Robie St. Cemetary, Truro # : 94 Marker Number : M-2#20, Book Number : 88.16a.  Can any one uses this new information to advance the derivation of Alice Kennedy or Eleiha Kenedy.

The title of today’ s blog is taken from an article in the local paper the online verson of which newspaper may be found at kenoradailyminerandnews.com. It seems that Waren Buffett would have agreed with my last blog. The 80 year old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the 3rd richest men apparently has taken out the pages of the New York Times to tell Congress to raise the taxes for him and his “mega-rich” peers.

My friends and I have been coddled long enoughby a billionaire-friendly ongress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice”, he said.

What about the Canadian mega-rich. Have they too been coddled long enough by their Canadian counterpart?   Information taken from Armine Yalnizyan, http://www.policyalternatives.ca/Yalnizyan (December 2010) The Rise of Canada’s Richest 1%, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, gives the following 

Among the 24.6 million Canadian taxpayers in 2007, the richest 1% made more than $169,000 and had an average income of $404, 000. They took almost 32% of all growth in income in the fastest growing decade in this generation, 1997 to 2007 and by 2007 held 13.8 % of the income in Canada. The richest 0.1 made more than $621,000 and had an average of $1.49 million, The richest .01 made more than $1.85 million and had an average income of $3.83 million. In 1948, the top marginal tax rate was 80%, on taxable income over $250,000 which would be $2.37 million in 2010 dollars. The top rate in 2009 averaged across Canada was 42.9% above $126, 264.

Tax rates for the top earners hasn’t been so law since the 1920s.

In 2009, the financial research institute Investor Economics identifies 544,000 “high-net-worth” households in Canada as of December 31 2009 which they said represented 3.8% of all households. That 3.8% controlled 67% of the total financial wealth in Canada.  

Is Warren Buffett being generous in his voluntary comments. Perhaps, or maybe he simply recognizes that greater “shared sacrifices” forced on all the very, very rich, would serve the best interests of all Americans, rich and poor alike.

Seem strange? Not at all. Watch the Videos “The Enemy Between us” at http://retson.ca/equality.html or go to Equity Trust: www.equitytrust.org to get the fuller story.

Warren Buffett is to be recognized whether for his generousity, or his insight, or maybe a mixture of both.

Most every Canadian who followed the american debt chris listened in disbeleif to the news leading up to the settlement. The government, in a previous decade, approve a limit to the total amount of debt that the government could acquire.  On previous occasions, when, as a result of successive annual spending exceeded annual revenue artificial debt limit was reached, the government simply raised the articial debt limit.  This time around the Government was unsuccessful in getting both house to agree in the first instance to raise the amount without a gut wrenching delay followed by a settlement was reached without any raining of taxes.

Most economist agree that  raising taxes, in part, is key to solving the nation’s long-term problems.

Is there room for a tax rate increase - you bet there is. Despite many voters belief to the contrary, US is one of the least- taxed countries amoung developed countries. Among such countries only Chile and Mexico tax less.  The US is the only major country without a national value added tax and its sales taxes are the lowest OECD. Fuel and “sin” taxes are also near the bottom among developed countries. Corporate tax rates are high but special entities created by Congress drastically shrink the tax base raising 13% of  US GDP compared to 22% of Canadian GDP.  By refusing to raise Taxes the government have elected instead to force cuts - the final nature of which will await the end of the year.

Canadians can not afford to be to be too complacent. Since the days of Finance Minister Martin Canadian spending has continued to outstrip revenues. While Canada has not self-imposed its own artificial debt limit, like all countries in the world sooner or latter it must get its house in order.  What will it’s government do. To a certain extent the answer will depend upon the leadership of the elected officials. To a certain extent the decision it will make will be based on the preference of the voting populous. Will Canadian’s electors and elected perform superior to the US. Time will tell

From Armine Yalnizyan, The Rise of Canada’s Richest 1%, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/rise-canadas-richest-1 , we learn that, among the 24.6 million Canadian taxpayers in 2007, the richest 1% made more than $169,000 and had an average income of $404, 000. They took almost 32% of all growth in income in the fastest growing decade in this generation, 1997 to 2007 and by 2007 held 13.8 % of the income in Canada. The richest 0.1 made more than $621,000 and had an average of $1.49 million, The richest .01 made more than $1.85 million and had an average income of $3.83 million. In 1948, the top marginal tax rate was 80%, on taxable income over $250,000 which would be $2.37 million in 2010 dollars. The top rate in 2009 averaged across Canada was 42.9% above $126, 264.

Every no and again I buy a book as much because of the Author or Title and subsequently finf that the content justifies the purchase.  Such is the book, the subject of the current blog.  The title got me first, and then looking to see if I recognized the author, I recognized a former book, Finding Your Religion was a book that I currently owmed by the same author and I had enjoyed this earlier book.

The author is a Dean of religious studies in a university , a former University Chaplain and an Unitarian Universalist Minister, not the credials that would necessary attrack a large fundamentalist crowd and I would not recommend this book to such a crowd. I would recommend this book to all who yearn for peaceful, caring, compassionate world where love makes a difference and all belong.  I would recommend it to any one working with the poor, the dispossed, the isolated, the dispossed, with minorities, and in the disability or human rights industry.

This book is first in a series that speaks to the habits of effective people and it probably goes with out saying that effective people make better managers. KACL has used this book for almost 20 years and also gives training courses based on its philosophy every few years. Key concepts include:

Personality ethic, character ethic, paradigms and paradigm shifts, principles, habits-the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire,maturity continuum, dependence, independence, interdependency, “P/P C Balance”, Private victory, public victory, Principles of personal vision, social mirror, proactivity, genetic determinism, psychic determinism, environmental determinism, “response-ability”, circle of concern, circle of influence, principles of personal leadership, personal mission statement, security, guidance, wisdom, power,roles and goals, time management matrix, emotional bank account, principles of interpersonal leadership, win/win paradigm, emphathic listening, synergy,

The seven habits:

Be Proactive

Begin with the ends in Mind

Put first things first.

Think Win/Win

Seek first to understand and then to be understood

Synergize

Sharpen the saw

For mor information see www.stephencovey.com

The Author in a video interview on this book indicates that trust is the number 1 competency of leadership and a learnable skill. He emphasizes that trust is not just a social issue but equally an economical or financial issue. Organizations that have a culture of high trust gain a “trust Dividend” in terms of decreased costs of operating and increased speed. Those who have a culture of low trust pay a “Trust tax” in terms of increased costs and decreasing speed.

The book covers what Covey describes as 4 Cores of Credibility and 13 Beaviours that create trust.

I would highly recommend this book to KACK staff, for mangers as a management tool and for frontline staff as a tool for increasing effectiveness with consumers and families

Goals

Goals or objectives are targets of achievements that you wish to reached at some point in the future.  According to the author you are reading either the words “Goals” or “Objectives” indicate the Broader intent and the other refers to more short term specific targets.  One school of thought holds that all goals should be smart Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Results-based or realistic and Time Bound. While much can be said in general for this direction in actual fact Goals should be set to the individual audience.  Some audiences stretch to reached impossible goals.  Some audience are demoralized by failure to reach set targets. Target setting is an art - not a science and the results you achieve are in the final analysis the reward for good artists.

Resource: Conzemius and O’Neil,  The Handbook for Smmart School Teams  

Task or Project Analysis

Task or project analsysi consist in attempting to beak down longer term projects in to short term steps or projects. Again there is an art to breaking down the project in to meaningful units and to link the shorter units to the larger target to be achieved.l  

Balanced Scorecard

What it is:

A mangement sytem that focuses on seting goals and tracking results in 4 areas Customer satisfaction, Financial, Critical to customer process requirements and Staff/Knowlefge Development

Rational for Goal setting and Tracking

If your’re not keeping score you’re just practicing.

Resources on Goals

Hannabarger, Buchman and Economy (2007) Balanced Score3card Strategy for Dummies

Kaplan and Norton (2001) The Strategy Focused Organization

Kim and Mauborgne (2005) Blue Ocean Strategy

Niven, Paul R (2008) Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Strp for Government and Nonprofit Agencies 2nd Edition

Rampersad, Dr Hubert K (2003) Total Performance Scorecard, Redfining Mangement to Achieve Performance with Integrity

Human needs might be classed as physical, mental, emotional, social or spiritual. Spiritual needs seem to be intertwined with all others. Spirituality can be linked to almost any ldream desire or deep aspiration. Spirituality is now used to refer to many different experiences and practices supportive of human well being. It has a particular close connection with the imagination, with human creativity, or with a transcendent reality.

Spirituality is often thought as a subset of religion but more and more the opposite is also considered the case. I myself see religion as a subset of spiriuality. One’s spiritual needs might be answered by religion but may as well be met outside a religious framework.

With the start of the new decade I have resolved to take a closer look at my common habits to determine if I can’t make better use of my time to achieve the things that I consider most dear. I am reminded by Antoine de Saint-Exupery that “it is the time …wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” To spend time with my “roses” I want to make sure that I identify them and gain habits that allow me to maximize my time with them.

I read a news item from the January 5th, Toronto Globe and Mail talking about a recent study foind in the journal Psychological Science.  The message from the study is “Don’t over estimate your self-control.   Those who do are more likly to expose themselves to their temptations and ultimately give into them.  So for example, for me If I want to reduce eating junk food I wiould do better not to buy it at all then to buy some with the idea that I can control how much I eat in a short span.