'Prenzo' Bedroom Set fills your bedroom with the feeling of majestic spirit and outstanding fashionable style of royal dynasties. The traditional features used in the creation of this exceptional set allow it to form the composure and deliver the required comfort and relaxation to you. Carved and curved shapes and elaborate design features outline the character of this collection. Dark finish of solid hardwood constructions remarkably coexists creating a harmony between all the pieces of the Set. 'Prenzo' Set consists of a Queen size Panel Bed, Nightstand, Dresser and Mirror. Armoire and Chest are available as additional items.


text:
London's Screen Archives
LocalEyes
Southwark Archives
Works created by the London Borough of Southwark and its precedessors; films made by local action groups, schools, and other organisations; home movies.
About Search collection Visit website
Southwark Archives is the official archive for the records of the London Borough of Southwark, which we hold in trust for the people of Southwark and beyond. We are dedicated to caring for the irreplaceable historic records and other resources in our care, and to providing a service that meets the needs of our community, reflects its diversity, and supports a sense of belonging and positive identity. We offer a unique opportunity for people to learn and creatively interact with the stories of the diverse people, places, communities, and organisations that have shaped one of London's most historic boroughs.
211 Borough High Street
SE1 1JA
Contact: Lisa Soverall (Heritage Officer) or Patricia Dark (Archivist)
Website: www.southwark.gov.uk/libraries/southwark-archives
Email: archives@southwark.gov.uk
Access: Please email Southwark Archives for updated information on opening hours during Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and renovation works:
Monday and Thursday: 1000 to 1900
Tuesday and Friday: 1000 to 1700
Saturday: 1000 to 1500
Wednesday and Sunday: CLOSED
We can provide on-site viewing of DVDs and DVD copies of films and videos. Please book an appointment to view moving image material in advance, to ensure that viewing equipment is available. We can provide assistance with using viewing equipment, point you to other collection material that may give context or additional information, and may be able to provide information about the filmmaker, copyright, and other issues.
We are currently reviewing and revising our collection policy for moving image material. If you have material you are interested in donating to or depositing with us, please contact Southwark Archives.
Films in this collection
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© Film London. Registered charity 1163968
image bfi
image hlf

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There's no chance of getting bored in Newcastle Gateshead with so much for everyone to do including great free attractions and events the whole family can enjoy together.
Literally just around the corner from us is the Discovery Museum. Packed with interactive exhibitions exploring life on Tyneside including the area's maritime heritage, how the famous bridges were built and special displays for kids under 5 and 7 years.
The award-winning Life Science Centre is less than 5 minutes walk from our front door and packed with imaginative interactive displays and special events. The main exhibition explains the story of human life from our evolution to the current world and the challenges and opportunities in our future. Life also features the biggest planetarium in the north with a stunning, engrossing journey through the stars. At the Life Theatre live science shows are performed daily or take a trip on the Motion Ride simulator.
Incorporating a variety of collections kids will love the displays at the Great North Museum including the Living Planet area with aquariums, live reptiles and hands-on investigations or visit the interactive Hadrian's Hall, life sized T-Rex or mummies from Ancient Egypt.
Dedicated to children's books, it is said there are only 7 stories in the world but a thousand ways to tell them and Seven Stories is about those thousand ways. The main exhibition regularly changes, recent examples include "There's Nuffin Like a Puffin' charting 70 years of Puffin publishing and the work of John Burningham in 'Mr Grumpy and Other Outings'. Seven Stories is set under Byker Bridge, about 2km from us.
Located about 9km from the city centre is Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths & Museum (you can take the Metro from St James' to Wallsend, Segedunum is couple of minutes walk from Wallsend Station). Originally the eastern gateway to Hadrian's Wall and home to a garrison of 600 Roman Soldiers, Segedunum guarded the frontier for 300 years. The site has been excavated and now includes an enthralling museum on all things Roman.
In the Yellow Mall of the Metrocentre, Namco Funscape includes Ten Pin and Techno bowling, the fastest dodgem track in Europe, arcade with American Pool tables and Pacman Soft Play area for the little ones.


text:
Loveland resident collects more than 4,000…
Loveland resident collects more than 4,000 teddy bears
Ruth Porter is a long-time valentine stamper
Ruth Porter hold the first special teddy bear she received in her apartment at Sugar Valley Estates in Loveland on Monday. The teddy bear spurred Porter, a long-time Valentine stamper, to collect more than 4,000 teddy bears over the years. (Photo by Jenny Sparks/Staff Photographer)
By Pamela Johnson | johnsonp@reporter-herald.com | Loveland Reporter-Herald
Ruth Porter poses for a photo holding some of her teddy bears on Monday, May 13, 2019, in her apartment at Sugar Valley Estates in Loveland. Porter, a long-time Valentine stamper, has collected more than 4,000 teddy bears over the years. (Photo by Jenny Sparks/Staff Photographer)
Ruth Porter received her first teddy bear — a small, soft companion made of mink — when she was in the hospital in 1970 after suffering a heart attack.
"I got her with my life," said Porter, an 87-year-old Loveland resident who is as tough as she was in the 1940s when she was a roller derby queen and as sweet as the valentines she stamps every year as a volunteer with the Loveland Valentine Remailing Program.
Now, 49 years after she awoke in the hospital to find "Sweetie Pie" lying in her bed, Porter has collected more than 4,000 teddy bears. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Some are ceramic. Some are in ornate costumes. And most are just plain huggable.
Porter loves her teddy bear collection that she has grown and loved throughout her life.
Born in 1932, Porter has many tales to tell — from the time she almost died as a child when she was struck by lightning, to her win on the roller derby circuit to her whirlwind courtship that led to a 56-year marriage with Harold Porter, a veteran who passed away in 2008.
The couple spent a lifetime together, living in Virginia, Colorado and Florida, and raised eight children. Ruth boasts that she has 47 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren and 14 great-great grandchildren.
And she has more than 4,000 bears in her one-bedroom apartment.
Her favorite is still Sweetie Pie, the first, though she also cherishes a teddy bear coffee mug given to her by her beloved Harold. Some are the size of a small child, others would fit in the palm of your hand. They line shelves in her apartment, lay on the arm rests of her favorite chair, watch from the top of her curio cabinet.
But not all of her bears reside with Ruth. She offered up more than a dozen teddies to decorate the shuttle bus that Loveland resident Larry Seib drives for Sugar Valley Estates.
"We started with one little guy as a rider over the mirror," said Seib. "We decided we needed more."
They now decorate the walls near the ceiling on all four walls of the bus, now dubbed the "Teddy Bear Express."
Residents who ride the bus said they love the added touch of the teddy bears on rides to shopping centers, doctors' visits and other appointments. None on the bus recently could pick a favorite; they love them all.
As does Ruth, who admits she is still collecting them, though she has lost count.
"I just love them," said Ruth. "I love my bears. I love every one of my bears."
Loveland-Berthoud police activity for July 12-16, 2019
Pamela Johnson
Pamela Johnson is an award-winning journalist with two decades invested in the community of Loveland. She covers education, county government, environmental issues, outdoor recreation and whatever else she finds along the way.
Follow Pamela Johnson	@RHPamelaJ


A box with an initial speed of #6 m/s# is moving up a ramp. The ramp has a kinetic friction coefficient of #1/2 # and an incline of #(3 pi )/8 #. How far along the ramp will the box go?
#mgsin(5pi/8)# and #mgcos(5pi/8)# are the horizontal and vertical components of weight.


Hassan Ishtayeh runs a lively restaurant named Abu Razi's Shawarma in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. The 47-year-old is frequently greeted and hugged by his customers. Quite a few of them have something in common with him: they have been locked up in Israel's jails.
"I know a lot of people because I was arrested eight times since 1987," Ishtayeh — known to friends and family as Abu Razi — told The Electronic Intifada. He was targeted because of his activism with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a left-wing political party.
"At some points, hunger striking was the only weapon we had to fight administrative detention, the poor treatment or other injustices the [Israeli prison] authorities subjected us to," Ishtayeh said. He participated in group hunger strikes every time he was behind bars. Administrative detention involves holding a prisoner without charge or trial.
According to Addameer, a Ramallah-based prisoners rights group, more than 6,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails.
In January, Khader Adnan, a Palestinian activist repeatedly imprisoned by Israel, launched a one-week hunger strike in protest of having been put in administrative detention and held in solitary confinement. Adnan famously went on a hunger strike in December 2011 for 66 days in protest of his administrative detention, eliciting global solidarity actions.
Ishtayeh first participated in a hunger strike with other prisoners in November 1987. He had been arrested shortly before the first intifada erupted.
Ishtayeh said that it is "crucial to understand" the many different types of hunger strikes that Palestinian political prisoners use in Israeli jails. "There are protest strikes that are used to fight Israel's neglect of prisoners and as an attempt to improve the living conditions," he explained.
In 2004, while he was director of the Nablus Prisoners Committee, Ishtayeh was yet again arrested and sentenced to four and a half years in prison for charges related to his activism with the PFLP.
"During this period, we went on hunger strike inside the prisons a lot," he recalled, explaining that the second Palestinian intifada was still taking place outside the prisons.
Ishtayeh has been put in administrative detention on three occasions, most recently in 2012. He said he was held for a total of five years without charges.
In February, more than 460 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention, according to Addameer.
More than 2,000 prisoners joined the strike. The Israeli prison authorities eventually conceded to several of their demands. They included increasing family visits for prisoners from Gaza, improved healthcare and expanded access to education inside prisons.
Human rights groups have condemned Israel for taking punitive measures against hunger-striking prisoners.
When Samer al-Barq went on an open-ended hunger strike against his administrative detention during the summer of 2012, Addameer reported that the Israeli authorities tried to put pressure on the hunger strikers by surrounding them with people who would eat in front of them.
Other hunger-striking prisoners have been punished with verbal assault, physical beatings and by being held in solitary confinement.
Another mass hunger strike took place during the summer of 2014.
Dozens of prisoners refused food for 63 days in protest of administrative detention. According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, it was the longest mass hunger strike in Palestinian history.
As Israel launched a military offensive in the West Bank, the number of Palestinian detainees and administrative detentions skyrocketed. The prisoners eventually ended their hunger strike without an agreement by Israel to entirely cease the use of administrative detention.
One example of a victory occurred last December when a solidarity hunger strike launched by more than one hundred prisoners concluded with Israel ending the 570-day solitary confinement of Nahar al-Saadi.


text:
thegamerschallenge.com
Oddworld Soulstorm review – This Week In Video Games
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind Review — Don't Look Back
Published on 22 May 2021, 11:52 -06:00
Justin Harris
ODDworld Soulstorm is the upcoming fourth entry into the Oddworld universe, and is a remake of the original Oddworld game, Abe's Oddysee. If you've played the original game, or really any Oddworld game, you know that they aren't your usual video game fare. The story is darker than your average game plot, and it has a great sense of humor. If you're a fan of Oddworld, then check out the Soulstorm review for more.
Oddworld Soulstorm is an action-adventure video game developed by Oddworld Inhabitants. It is the third instalment of the Oddworld Quintology. The game is being developed for Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and OS X. It is currently scheduled for release in March 2014. The story takes place after the events of the original games, focusing on a new hero named Soulstorm.
The Oddworld series is a great example of a game that tries to do something different from the norm. Instead of the usual hack and slash action game that is constantly being flooded by clones, this series incorporates strategic and cerebral problem solving with some careful platforming. It has been long since the last Oddworld game was released, however, and it seemed like the series had finally bit the dust. But, it has been revived, and this is Oddworld Soulstorm.
Oddworld Soulstorm is a platformer and a return to Oddworld after several years of absence. Abe's Odyssey is a game I remember from its original release on PlayStation in 1997. So it's nice to go back to Oddworld and meet Abe and see how he's doing. I'll be honest at the beginning of this review: When I first saw this game on the PlayStation in the summer of 2020, I didn't think much of it. In fact, I was rather put off by the cinematic image of Abe's stitched lips. I reluctantly started the game and was pleasantly surprised with a platformer that reminds me of days gone by in terms of gameplay, but there are also some genuinely touching moments here that make me smile regularly. Oddworld Soulstorm is sort of a remake or reimagining of Abe's Exodus, the sequel that came out in 1998. We start the game by celebrating the Mudocons, except for one, with Abe sitting alone in his tent, sipping a drink. The Mudocons have been discovered, and Abe must once again save the day, this time for all his people. Throughout the levels and story, you must overcome a series of platforming challenges and puzzles and find your way to freedom. Oddworld Soulstorm involves a lot of killing and learning through repetition, it's definitely not an easy game. The regular checkpoints are a nice balance to the difficulty of the game. If you're playing Oddworld for the first time, you might find some of the mechanics a little confusing, though the first few hours of the game are filled with tutorials. Abe has some basic skills like running, jumping and skating. Abe can run and jump to get around, but he can also roll into small crevices. Rolls are also useful if you get burned (which happens more than once in the game). The platforming mechanics were pretty good, although they couldn't compete with the big names in platforming like Mario or Celeste. Other techniques involve throwing bottles of different liquids. Fire is a major theme in Soulstorm and can be used to your advantage, in some cases as a very powerful weapon. If there is a wall of fire in your path, throw a bottle of water on it to extinguish it and get through safely. You can also pick up liquor bottles and throw them into the fire to make firebombs. In addition to objects that can be thrown, Abe has special telekinesis that allows him to send out small projectiles that can interact with the environment, catch guards and force them to obey you. For example, many puzzles require you to use your skills to put guards to sleep, capture them and use them to take out another guard, or just throw them off a cliff in a suicide style to get them out of the way. You have to be careful with the abilities though, as the guards have devices that can block Abe's abilities, so he gets electrocuted instead. Soulstorm is based on Abe Exodus, but it expands on the original game and almost completely improves it. For example, Abe can loot caches for resources, which is especially useful for making ammunition. The visual design is also excellent: The game, which used to be a seesaw, now moves from one area to another in a mix of 2D platforming in a 3D world. I played this game on the PS5, and the graphics are often stunning. The crafting and locations in the game give the game a much needed modern touch, otherwise the game is mid-90s style. I don't mind, because I grew up in the 90s and remember the original and it makes me nostalgic. I don't know what modern players would think of this game, as it certainly belongs to its time. These days we have huge worlds, exciting battles, massive games with free-to-play and non-free-to-play launches – it's sometimes hard to know where Oddworld fits in. This two-dimensional puzzle-platformer game has gone a bit out of style, replaced by products like Sackboy, Astrobot and Super Mario 3D World.
Soulstorm has both humor and dark themes like slavery and torture. Like I said before, Abe's lips are sewn shut, and that was almost enough to take me out of the game completely. The scenes in the game are very well composed, great, and the dubbing is full of funny moments. A big part of the fun of playing Oddworld is laughing at your enemies. It's always fun to approach enemies and throw a bottle of alcohol on the fire next to them, or knock them out with Abe's skills and search their pockets while they sleep. You can also stun enemies with rocks and try to tiptoe around them, but they'll pull out their machine guns pretty quickly and shoot at you if you make any noise, so be nimble. The puzzles and platforming in the game are fun, and combined with the emotional scenes, everything moves at a decent pace. The game has a mix of stealth sections, chase scenes, and a sci-fi section that takes place in the dark in the middle of the game. As you progress through the later parts of the game, the platforming puzzles can get a little difficult, and I felt a little burned out because there's so much you can throw at the board and do the same thing over and over again. It doesn't have the finesse of a Mario game, and the repetition can get boring after a while. The Mukodons bring a much needed injection of fun and laughter to the game. In most levels you find them and then have to rescue them, which means you have to use their help to get them to safety through the many traps. This is the bread and butter of Oddworld games, and it's what Soulstorm really excels at. Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants, Sabotage Studio, Just Add Water, Frima Studio, Fat Kraken Studios Publisher: Oddworld Residents, Microids Availability: PC, PS4 and PS5Soulstorm is the latest addition to the Oddworld franchise, which started off as a 2D platformer back in 1997 with Abe's Oddysee. Soulstorm has a 3D look, but still retains its 2D perspective. Oddworld's games are always creative, and Soulstorm is no exception. The game is all about rescuing your friends from a life of slavery, and is very cinematic. With a great story, great gameplay, and great graphics Oddworld Soulstorm is a game to check out.. Read more about oddworld: soulstorm levels and let us know what you think.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Барух Дего (; род. 25 марта 1981, Эфиопия) — израильский футболист эфиопского происхождения, выступавший на позиции полузащитника.

Ранние годы
В детстве Барух вместе с родителями и братом Мессеем переехал в Израиль — страну, которая воспитала его как футболиста. У Дего рано умер отец, его усыновил израильтянин по имени Давид Тшува. Первым клубом Баруха стал «Ирони Ашдод», который после слияния с местным «Хапоэлем» стал называться «Хапоэль Ирони».

Взрослая карьера

В 2000 году Дего перешёл в Тель-Авивский «Маккаби», в составе которого выиграл чемпионат и стал трёхкратным обладателем Кубка Израиля. А в 2004 году он вместе с клубом вышел в групповой этап Лиги чемпионов. Однако четыре мяча, забитые Барухом на групповом этапе не помогли израильскому клубу выйти в плей-офф.

В 2003 году из «Маккаби» ушёл капитан клуба и любимец болельщиков Ави Нимни. Причиной тому, по их мнению, стало вытеснение его набиравшим популярность Дего, которого в этом году признали футболистом года в стране. Нарастал скандал, масла в огонь подлили также высказывания приёмного отца Баруха о тель-авивском клубе. В итоге, доиграв сезон 2004/05, Дего перешёл в стан непримиримых соперников «Маккаби» — столичный «Хапоэль».

В составе нового клуба Дего выиграл кубок Израиля ещё дважды.

В 2008 году перебрался в «Маккаби» Нетания, которым в то время руководил Лотар Маттеус, но сыграв всего один матч, подписал контракт с «Ашдодом».

Достижения
 Чемпионат Израиля: 2002/03
 Обладатель Кубка Израиля (5): 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007

Ссылки
 Краткие сведения на footballtop.ru

Футболисты Израиля
Игроки сборной Израиля по футболу (до 21 года)
Игроки сборной Израиля по футболу
Игроки ФК «Маккаби Ирони»
Игроки ФК «Маккаби» Тель-Авив
Игроки ФК «Хапоэль» Тель-Авив
Игроки ФК «Неа Саламина»

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Open "Membership"
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Surgeons, accompanied by a female nurse, in the operating theatre of a Casualty Clearing Station RAMC [© IWM (Q 26636)]
The lives of the Foundation Board's members spanned the years 1888 to 2008, and inevitably they were touched by the events of the 20th Century's two World Wars. These conflicts were perhaps the greatest man-made catastrophes of all time, but there is no doubt that 'anaesthesia' advanced as a specialty as a result of both. That advance is well illustrated by considering the specific involvements of the members of the first Board.
In 1914 the age of recruitment was 19, meaning that five of the Foundation Board's members were eligible to serve at the start of the war, and another five became so before its end. Of these ten, five had medical roles, and five were combatants.
Ivan Magill was the only one who had qualified before the war (in 1913), and he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) on its outbreak, becoming Medical Officer to the Irish Guards. Archibald Marston qualified in 1915 and then joined the Royal Navy, serving as a Temporary Surgeon Lieutenant. Stanley Rowbotham joined an infantry regiment initially, but was advised to complete his training; he qualified in 1915 and was commissioned into the RAMC. Langton Hewer qualified in 1918 and served in the RAMC towards the end of the war. Reginald Pleasance did not qualify until 1919, but interrupted his studies to become a Surgeon Probationer in the Royal Navy, in which role he practised medicine, including the administration of anaesthetics.
Of the five combatants, four were medical students in 1914, but they interrupted their studies to serve. John Challis was already a lieutenant in the Territorial Army (Royal Field Artillery) so was called up at the outbreak of the war and served throughout. Alexander Low was a Gunnery Officer who received the Military Cross. Frankis Evans signed up to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
John Gillies was called up into the Highland Light Infantry, spent seven months as a prisoner of war and was another recipient of the Military Cross. Robert Macintosh, a New Zealander, was one of those many young men from Commonwealth countries who came to Britain to volunteer. Commissioned in the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1915 he soon transferred to be a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. Shot down over France and taken prisoner, he made three escape attempts, and was mentioned in dispatches in 1917.
The legacy of World War One
Before the Great War there were few specialist anaesthetists in either civilian or military practice, with most anaesthetics performed by 'generalists' using very simple methods. General anaesthetic agents used were a mixture of ether, chloroform and ethylchloride administered via a Schimmelbusch mask and nitrous oxide. Spinal anaesthesia was another option using local anaesthetics such as stovaine, usually performed by the surgeon without the presence of an anaesthetist. One of the lasting legacies of the war was the recognition that the type of anaesthetic given should be tailored to the condition of the patient.
The Medical Research Committee Investigative Committee on Shock was beginning to uncover the difference between haemorrhagic shock, septic shock, primary and secondary shock and the role of acidosis, temperature and fluid replacement therapy. At the same time there were advances in the use of blood transfusions, with improved compatibility and the introduction of citrate stored blood. A physician and respiratory physiologist from Guys, called Geoffrey Marshall, developed the concept of anaesthetists as perioperative physicians. Using the understanding of the relevance of physiological observations, he developed recommendations for the choice of anaesthetic depending on the type of wound and the condition of the patient, for example patients with septic shock tolerated spinal anaesthesia because they were already vasodilated but those with haemorrhagic shock did not.
Before the war Gwathmey had developed a machine for administering nitrous oxide and oxygen, which included a device to measure the flow of gases. Marshall recognised that nitrous oxide was valuable as an anaesthetic agent in difficult cases and developed his own machine for administering the gas, adding bottles for the addition of ether and chloroform. Both of these machines were adapted post war by Captain Henry Boyle to create the Boyle's machine that is so familiar to present day anaesthetists.
By the end of the war the concept of a surgical team and a resuscitation team was well established with an anaesthetists being an important integral part of the team. Although the anaesthetic agents did not change much over the course of the war the training of anaesthetists, the development of equipment and the perioperative care of the patient improved exponentially. These rapid developments directly affected
the career choices of two of our subjects with Hewer developing an interest in anaesthesia through working in the RAMC with Torrance Thomson of Edinburgh who had an original continuous gas flow 'Gwathmey' anaesthetic machine. Pleasance took the expertise he had gained as an anaesthetist back to Sheffield and was even paid for his services while still a medical student.
However, the influence of the war continued after 1918 and perhaps the greatest legacy arose after two RAMC Officers, Magill and Rowbotham, were posted to Queen's Hospital for Facial & Jaw Injuries, Sidcup. Initially they did not have specific duties, but there was a need for anaesthetists to work with Major (later Sir) Harold Gillies to treat soldiers with complex maxillofacial injuries. They took up the almost contradictory challenges of allowing surgical access while maintaining and protecting the patient's airway. Thus started a career-long collaboration in the development of airway devices, breathing circuits, connectors and inhalational delivery systems. This work was the very foundation of modern anaesthetic equipment as we know it still today, and it is impossible to overestimate its importance.
After the first war the numbers of specialist anaesthetists in Britain started to grow slowly but surely as those doctors with the interest and expertise showed surgeons and patients the benefits that they could provide. The establishment of the Association of Anaesthetists in 1935 was both a marker of this growth and an indication of the determination of its existing practitioners to place the specialty on a proper footing. By 1939 all but two of the subsequent members of the first Board were fully established in anaesthetic practice, the exceptions being Ronald Woolmer, who was already a trainee, and Edgar Pask, who did not join the specialty until 1940. None served as combatants during this war, but all served in either civilian hospitals, under the banner of the Emergency Hospital Service (EHS), or in the medical branch of one of the three armed services.
Their numbers were divided equally between the two groups, with the younger ones under 40 predominating on active service, but with exceptions. As in all walks of life, health issues or the need to protect civilian services could prevent younger people joining up, and the need to provide specialist expertise would lead to recruitment from the older group. Marston, Magill, Langton Hewer, Low, Evans, Gillies, Katharine Lloyd-Williams, Bernard Murtagh, Alec Musgrove and Geoffrey Organe remained civilians throughout the war, usually leading the provision of anaesthetic services in their localities. In addition, Magill was appointed Anaesthetic Adviser to the EHS and Civilian Consultant to the Royal Navy, and Organe (exempt from war service because of recent surgery for colonic cancer) was an enthusiastic fire fighter, and served on major committees concerned with traumatic shock and with analgesia and anaesthesia in midwifery. Cecil Gray was accepted for military service in 1942 and posted to North Africa, but became critically ill with pneumonia and returned home to spend the rest of the war as a full-time anaesthetist in Liverpool.
The others spent most of the war in uniform. Woolmer joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as early as 1939. He reached the rank of Surgeon Commander and was awarded the Volunteer Reserve Decoration. Most of the rest worked for a time in the EHS before (or after) serving in the RAMC, Vernon Hall being the senior example. First posted to Horton Hospital, he was recalled to King's College Hospital at the start of the Blitz and then signed up for active service. Sent to the British Military Hospital in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to establish a training programme for anaesthetists for the Indian and Burmese campaigns, he was, at one point, posted to a tented hospital in the jungle to train American soldiers for an invasion of Burma that did not take place! Appointed Adviser in Anaesthetics to the Eastern Command (Burma and South East Asia), he eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier in overall charge of anaesthesia in India and the Eastern Sector. At the end of the European war, his hospital, where his services were badly needed, successfully applied for his early release back to civilian duties.
Field Surgical Units (FSU): Major J H Grace RAMC, of Hastings, giving a general anaesthetic to a patient suffering from gunshot wounds to the abdomen. In the background Major Swinney RAMC, of Newcastle, the surgeon is scrubbing up. The FSU is in a much bombed and shelled Italian prison, December 1943. The area which they are working is under enemy shellfire [© IWM (NA 10222)]
Four achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel: Pleasance was Adviser in Anaesthetics to the Southern India Command; George Edwards, having begun his war service with the EHS became Adviser in Anaesthetics to the British North African and Central Mediterranean forces, visiting anaesthetists throughout the zone; Henry Brennan became Adviser in Anaesthetics in the Middle East, based at the Scottish Hospital in Cairo; and Bernard Johnson served with distinction throughout the war, working in West Africa, the Middle East, Italy and Normandy, becoming Adviser in Anaesthetics to the Central Mediterranean Force, being mentioned in dispatches in 1944, and becoming civilian anaesthetist to the War Office after the war.
Surprisingly, given his seniority (in age, years of service and achievement) Rowbotham ended the war as a Major. Initially in charge of a surgical division, he was posted to the Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot where he led a School of Anaesthesia for Americans and received the US Bronze Star. After the Normandy landings he joined a maxillofacial unit in Belgium where his experience was invaluable, but his age led to immediate demobilisation with the end of the war in Europe. The most junior of the Board's members in the RAMC was John Challis who, as a Captain, was posted to a mobile cerebral surgery unit in France at an early stage of the war. Within 15 days the unit was overrun by German forces and he spent three and a half years as a prisoner of war, giving many anaesthetics in primitive conditions.
The other two members of the first Board served with the RAF, Macintosh as an Air Commodore, becoming Director of Anaesthetics Services for both RAF and Royal Navy, but continuing to run the Nuffield Department in Oxford. War-time projects included training courses for service anaesthetists, and research into methods of artificial ventilation, the provision of respirable atmosphere in submarines, the design of life jackets to keep an unconscious pilot's head above water, and the determination of the maximum altitude at which airmen could bail out without oxygen. Before the war he had spent time in Spain with plastic surgeons treating Civil War injuries and identified the need for a simple, portable vaporiser for use in conflict situations. This, with physicists Dr Kurt Mendelssohn and Dr Hans Georg Epstein, led to the development of the Oxford Vaporiser, produced at the Morris Motor works in Cowley, over 4,000 of which were delivered to military and civilian hospitals by the end of the war.
And finally there was Pask, who became a Junior Assistant in the Nuffield Department in 1940, and joined the RAF in 1941. Posted to the Physiological Laboratory (later the Institute of Aviation Medicine) at Farnborough he continued research he had started with Macintosh on life jacket design and hypoxia at altitude. Frequently he was the guinea pig for his own experiments, being anaesthetised and immersed in a swimming pool to test a design of life jacket or suffering acute hypoxia. He gained the reputation of the 'bravest man in the RAF who never flew an aircraft' and was awarded the OBE(Mil) in 1944 for his efforts. His one 'failure', probably fortuitous, was an attempt to develop an oxygen mask which would allow Sir Winston Churchill to smoke a cigar while being flown at altitude!
On board HMS Formidable, 1942
The Legacy of World War Two
At the end of the war specialists within each field of medicine and within each of the services were asked to reflect on the effect of the war on their specialty and provide a report, which was collated into a publication (see Note 2 below). Woolmer wrote the report on anaesthesia for the Royal Navy and Macintosh for the RAF. A common thread was that there had been a lack of commitment to anaesthesia between the wars and there were very few trained anaesthetists in post. Delegation of anaesthetic duties was the responsibility of the surgeons and even when doctors with anaesthetic experience were drafted in from the civilian population individual experience was often inadequate. Woolmer pointed out there was often only one medical officer on board ship, who would be a single handed operator and anaesthetist, relying on untrained assistants.
Consequently techniques used tended to be simple, with oxygen the only gas available and the use of regional techniques, especially spinal anaesthesia, varying considerably according to past experience. At the beginning of the war anaesthetists lacked the authority to order the equipment they needed and there was a tendency to send them obsolete, 'old' equipment such as a Clover's Inhaler.
The appointment of Macintosh as an anaesthetic advisor to the war office in 1941 brought about changes including training courses, the appointment of anaesthetic advisors throughout the fields of war and recognition that anaesthetists are specialists and skilled. An anaesthetist was allocated to every unit with a surgeon and were assisted by well trained orderlies.
All three services reported advances in anaesthetic techniques with intravenous pentothal highlighted as of immeasurable value despite the experience at Pearl Harbour. Other advances mentioned were the use of endotracheal intubation, closed circuit anaesthesia, the Oxford Vaporiser, cyclopropane and the introduction of trilene.
Research throughout the war was driven by the need to improve the outcome for the patient. Further understanding of the causes and management of shock and development of the blood transfusion service led to all combatants having their blood group on their ID disc and the appointment of transfusion officers. Methods of estimating blood loss were developed based on the size of the injury and the appearance of blood on clothing and bandages, in addition to clinical observations. The value of administering oxygen in shock was recognised.
A patient wounded in the leg is given a blood transfusion in the Operating Theatre of an Advanced Dressing Station while a plaster bandage is applied to his leg. One of a series of photographs showing the procedure when a casualty leaves the Regimental Aid Post. Field Transfusion Units working in conjunction with Advanced Dressing Stations saved many lives [© IWM (TR 2410]
The Legacy for the Board of Faculty Members
Although all of the board members had survived the war sadly not all escaped the consequences. Pask died from a myocardial infarction in 1966 at the age of 54. His death was thought to be related to an injury sustained during his wartime experiments on hypoxia. Challis' experience as a prisoner of war permanently undermined his health and he suffered increasing physical disability throughout his career, ultimately leading to his premature death from chronic lung disease in 1958.
The war had shown what academic anaesthesia could contribute in the way of teaching, training and research. Most of the future members of the board of the faculty remained or returned to pre-War appointments, albeit in senior positions. A number contributed to an expansion in academic departments. All of them were trained and experienced enough to be leaders of the new Faculty and take on more definitive roles within the new NHS. Together they had contributed much to the training of a large number of specialist anaesthetist for the Services who became available to fill consultant appointments in 1948.
Surgeons and staff at work in the operating theatre of No. 8 RAF General Hospital, Brussels [© IWM (CL 1872)]
Written by Dr E Anne Thornberry
Former RCoA Honorary Archivist and former Chair, Heritage Committee
1 War Surgery 1914–1918, Chapter 3, Anaesthesia, Shock and Resuscitation, E Ann Robertson.
2 History of the Second World War: Surgery; Zachary Cope; Chapter 5 Anaesthesia
Further history articles are available here
Churchill House
London WC1R 4SG
info@rcoa.ac.uk


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This Week @CPUSA: The rise and fall of the coup plotters
Home > Party Voices > This Week @CPUSA: The rise and fall of the coup plotters
BY: Communist Party USA| January 8, 2021
The history-making Georgia election, aftermath of the attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol, the growing Covid-19 crisis in Los Angeles, the new Senate, and more.
Image: Blink O'fanaye (CC BY-NC 2.0).
The Communist Party USA is a working class organization founded in 1919 in Chicago, IL.
The Communist Party stands for the interests of the American working class and the American people. It stands for our interests in both the present and the future. Solidarity with workers of other countries is also part of our work. We work in coalition with the labor movement, the peace movement, the student movement, organizations fighting for equality and social justice, the environmental movement, immigrants rights groups and the health care for all campaign.
But to win a better life for working families, we believe that we must go further. We believe that the American people can replace capitalism with a system that puts people before profit — socialism.
We are rooted in our country's revolutionary history and its struggles for democracy. We call for "Bill of Rights" socialism, guaranteeing full individual freedoms.
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Chinese real estate investors are reshaping the market
China is buying Canada: Inside the new real estate frenzy
How China's affection for Canada's real estate is reshaping the nation's housing market well beyond Vancouver
by Charlie Gillis, Chris Sorensen and Nancy Macdonald
Paul Shen can tick off the reasons Mainland Chinese people buy property in Canada as surely as any fast-talking B.C. realtor. Some long to escape the fouled earth and soupy air of their country's teeming cities, he explains, while others are following relatives to enclaves so well-populated by other Chinese expats they hardly feel like foreigners.
The richest, of course, regard homes in the West as stable vessels for disposable cash, but Shen lays no claim to such affluence. Last spring, the 39-year-old left behind his middle-management advertising job in Shanghai to seek the dream of home ownership he and his wife couldn't afford in their home city. "We just followed our hearts to begin a totally different life," he tells Maclean's, adding: "We can make the house dream come true in Canada."
The starting point was one-half of a modest duplex near downtown Victoria, close to the university where his wife is seeking a master's degree, and priced about right for their limited means. Selling points ranged from the quiet of the street—perfect for their six-year-old son—to the stunning Vancouver Island vistas all around. High on his list, though, was Victoria's comfortable distance from the bustling Chinese communities of B.C.'s Lower Mainland. As Shen—betraying his limited knowledge of pre-settlement Canadian history—puts it: "We wanted a place that would allow us to live with the natives."
It's hard not to smile at his idealism. Substitute any one of two dozen nationalities, after all, and you have a chapter in Canada's cherished narrative of migration, settlement and shared prosperity.
But as a Chinese newcomer with a buy-at-all-costs resolve, Shen also personifies a phenomenon dividing those "natives" he'd like to call his neighbours. In the past five years, the flow of money from mainland China into Canadian real estate has reached what many consider dangerous levels, contributing to a gold-rush atmosphere in the nation's leading cities, while stirring anger among young, middle-class Canadians who feel shut out of their hometown markets.
Its impact on Vancouver's gravity-defying boom is the best known—and most hotly debated—example, as eye-popping price gains leave behind such quaint indicators as average household income, or regional economic activity. "We're bringing in people who just want to park their money here," says Justin Fung, a software engineer and second-generation Chinese-Canadian who counts himself among those frustrated by Vancouver's surreal housing market. "They're driving up housing prices and simply treat this city as a resort."
Yet the amphetamine rush of Chinese cash has been felt far beyond the disappearing pastures of the Fraser Valley—especially in the last couple of years. Fully 10 per cent of new condominiums being built in central Toronto are now going to foreign buyers, according to a survey released in April by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC); veterans of the city's rough-and-tumble real estate market believe the vast majority are mainland Chinese. On Juwai.com, an online listing service where Chinese buyers can look for international real estate, inquiries about specific properties in Ontario rose 143 per cent in 2015, with the total value of those homes hitting $11.2 billion. Quebec saw its numbers more than triple, while Alberta's numbers rose 70 per cent.
Meanwhile, Chinese developers have made buys in locations that have left analysts scratching their heads, including Nova Scotia's remote Eastern Shore and an abandoned mining town in the B.C. Interior. The stated reasons for such purchases don't entirely compute (neither seems the likely site, as owners and local officials suggest, for a full-service, self-contained vacation community).
But the broader incentives are easy to see. Next to China's own volatile real estate markets, property almost anywhere in the Western world can seem an island of financial sanity, says Matthew Moore, president of Juwai's North American operations. "The year-on-year property increase in Shenzhen, one of China's tier-one cities, was close to 60 per cent," he observes. "This is about wealth preservation." Adding to that sense of urgency: even the most privileged Chinese mainlanders have for decades been shut out of buying property, which Moore describes as the "favourite asset class" of Chinese dating back to its pre-Revolution days. This is on top of profound worries many Chinese have about their country's overbearing political system, the lack of transparent rule of law and rampant corruption.
All of which has landed Canada in an economic paradox. In Vancouver, and increasingly Toronto, fear abounds that Chinese money has helped inflate a property balloon of Hindenburg proportions, driving house values out of reach for even well-off professionals, while raising the risk of a crash at the first sign of adverse conditions. Yet the self-same conditions are adding handsomely to the net worth of millions of homeowners, and supporting a constellation of housing-related industries, from real estate sales to interior decoration. They could be considered the main engine of Canada's stop-and-go economy, and for those along for the ride—builders, property lawyers, revenue-hungry local politicians—the question isn't so much what Chinese buyers are doing to the Canadian property market. It's what might happen without them.
A house for sale in Vancouver, B.C. on May 2, 2016. Photo by Jimmy Jeong
How far we've travelled down this bejewelled highway is only starting to come clear. The CMHC's latest condo numbers tracking the ownership of condos were part of a concerted effort on the part of the Crown corporation to measure the phenomenon, based on its mandate to gather data on housing, and to foster market stability. (The agency has been roundly criticized in the past for Canada's dearth of dependable real estate statistics.) By breaking down the numbers according to the age of the building in question, it provided the first reliable indicator of accelerated foreign buying. In Vancouver, for instance, foreign ownership of condos built before 1990 stands at just two per cent. For structures completed since 2010, that number climbs to six per cent.
CMHC's plan now is to produce a more comprehensive report by the fourth quarter of this year, says chief economist Bob Dugan, capturing not just condominiums but all forms of residential property. But that won't be easy. Gathering the data requires co-operation on the part of everyone from provincial property registries to local realtors—not all of whom are eager to shed light on their lucrative sources of new-found income.
Related: Just how safe is the 'safe' world of syndicated mortgages?
It might also require a better understanding of who constitutes a "foreign owner." The CMHC's current definition—an owner who does not reside in Canada—excludes all kinds of domestic arrangements under which foreigners purchase homes abroad, suggesting the recent condo numbers understate the influx of outside buyers. It's common for foreign-based buyers to send their children and spouses here while remaining in their home country. Should such buyers be lumped in with overseas owners of income properties? Or with Chinese Canadians who spend part of the year outside the country?
Yet even the crudest measurements suggest a breathtaking upsurge in interest that would rate Canada's big cities on par with London and New York in the eyes of Chinese buyers. National Bank of Canada economist Peter Routledge has "hypothesized" that Chinese buyers last year shelled out nearly $12 billion on real estate in Vancouver, accounting for 33 per cent of the city's sales. For Toronto, he pegged the number at $8.4 billion, representing 14 per cent of sales.
Other analysts have dismissed the estimate, which Routledge produced by combining U.S. foreign investment figures with a survey of property ownership among 77 affluent Chinese people. But the numbers seemed to support an earlier, more controversial, study of home sales in three of Vancouver's most expensive neighbourhoods, showing that 66 per cent of houses sold during a six-month period starting in September 2014 went to Chinese people with non-anglicized names. The author of that report, an urban planning professor named Andy Yan, interpreted that to mean the buyers were new arrivals. That assumption was enough to draw accusations of racism, but Yan was undaunted, telling CBC, "It's about the message, not one messenger."
Related: What's the point of Vancouver?
At least part of the message is beyond dispute: the cash flowing out of China into assets around the world has hit tsunami proportions, driven by fears of a slowing economy and a declining currency. Estimates peg the amount Chinese investors and companies moved out of the country last year at nearly $1 trillion, up more than sevenfold from 2014. Much of that money is being spent by Chinese companies looking to snap up Western assets, such as ChemChina's US$43-billion bid to take over Swiss seed company Syngenta, or to pay down U.S. dollar-denominated debts. But a sizable portion was directed into overseas real estate.
With diversification as the new mantra, China's newly rich—as of 2014 there were 3.6 million millionaires in the country—are desperately seeking safer places to park their money. Most put foreign real estate at the top of their list. That's partly due to its stability, says Jim Zhang, an RBC private banker in Toronto, whose client list includes many so-called "high-net worth" Chinese investors; it's also born of instinctive suspicion toward their own government. "In Canada, everything in my bank account is mine, as long as I pay tax," a client recently told him. "In China, even if the government's name is not on my account, whenever they want my money, they'll have my money."
Chinese investors visit a Canadian property investment company at an international property exhibition in Beijing on May 17, 2014. (Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty)
Fortunately for those millionaires, a thriving industry has formed to facilitate their wishes to move their money abroad—and they need not even board a plane. In mid-April, more than 40,000 people crammed into the Beijing International Property & Investment Expo, a four-day mixer of buyers eager to snag deals and sellers eager to snag deep-pocketed investors. Representatives from 31 countries attended, but many of the land-shoppers veered toward the booths covered in Maple Leaf flags. The three Canadian exhibitors barely had time to sit.
Related: The insane expectations driving the Canadian housing market
Alex Majdpour, president of Sans Souci Executive Realty, hired two additional translators to keep up with the flood of potential buyers, and came away with 100 leads. "We thought, why not take the real estate to them?" says Majdpour, whose Toronto-based company sells properties across Canada. "Why not go straight to the source?" Prospective buyers talked to the Canadian exhibitors about making purchases in cash, and expressed the greatest interest in properties located around Vancouver and Toronto. The sellers fielded repeat questions about immigration and payments, particularly how to get money out of the country. (China limits foreign purchases of currency to $50,000 per year, and has been tightening controls to keep money from flowing elsewhere. This has left lingering questions about how so many mainland Chinese have been able to afford expensive houses abroad.)
There was another factor surely lurking in the minds of prospective buyers at the expo: Canada, with its weakened currency, is on sale. The yuan is fixed to the U.S. dollar, and as the loonie fell against the greenback over the last two years, it raised the buying power of Chinese real estate buyers. "If they're thinking of buying property in Canada now," says Zhang, the RBC banker, "they're getting a 25 or 30 per cent discount."
While experts try to determine how much money is flowing out of China, there's no question a good deal of it has come to rest in leafy Vancouver neighbourhoods, sparking anxiety and deep divides in the community. So decoupled have local house prices become from economic fundamentals that it now requires a mind-boggling 109 per cent of the average household's disposable income to service the costs—like mortgage payments and insurance—needed to own the average home in the city, according to research by the Royal Bank of Canada. There's no sign things are about to slow down. A recent report by real estate firm Re/Max found prices surged by 24 per cent in the city during the first quarter compared to the same time last year, and pegged the average price of a single family home at $2 million. The real estate firm noted the emergence of a vicious cycle, as intense competition for houses caused would-be sellers to hold off on listing their homes (for fear they won't be able to afford a new one) thereby limiting the available inventory and driving prices even further into the stratosphere.
The frenzy has taken a visible toll on one of the world's "most livable cities," resulting in hollowed-out neighbourhoods, absentee investors, and vacant, decrepit homes as huge numbers of investment properties simply sit unoccupied. What statisticians have been slow to chart has been ruefully documented in popular blogs like Vancouver Vanishes and Beautiful Empty Homes of Vancouver, which tracks empty, multi-million-dollar character and heritage houses.
Frustration has hit a boil, and it's been on full display at a series of "emergency" housing town halls, headlined by the front bench of the Opposition NDP. Hundreds have turned out to sit in church basements to voice their concerns, and their anger. At one held last week at St. Paul's Church in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, a new advocacy group with a darkly intimidating acronym HALT—Housing Action for Local Taxpayers—turned up with picket signs.
Related: Can families still afford Vancouver?
David Eby, the NDP candidate running against B.C. Premier and Liberal Leader Christy Clark in the Vancouver-Point Grey riding, attends a provincial election campaign stop with leader Adrian Dix at Kitsilano Beach Park in Vancouver, B.C., on Saturday May 4, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Among the day's speakers was David Eby. The Vancouver MLA, a lawyer touted as a future NDP leader, is among those priced out of the local market. Eby and his wife, a nurse currently in medical school, recently sold their 530-sq.-ft., one-bedroom condo in Kitsilano, which was too cramped for the two of them and their 19-month-old toddler. "A two-bedroom condo in my constituency starts at $600,000—a non-starter for us," he says. So they're renting a $2,700-a-month two-bedroom condo at UBC. It is, to put it mildly, a sobering thought: the man many believe could one day lead B.C. might soon be priced out of the province's foremost city.
Eby bristles at the Boomer notion this is all just a bunch of Millennial whining. "The expectation that young people have is not as advertised—it's not a detached home they're after. It's: 'Can I have a separate bedroom for my kids?' If you spend 10 minutes talking to any of the Millennials who are just holding on in this city by their fingernails, you'll realize very quickly these people are anything but entitled," he says. "They're living in substandard rental accommodation just for the privilege of being in Vancouver, and contributing to the economy here—and they won't do that forever. They're going to vote with their feet."
Last November, the 38-year-old lawyer and former head of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association helped Andy Yan, acting director of SFU's City Program, with his headline-grabbing study on home buying in Eby's West Side riding. In addition to the incendiary data involving Chinese names, the study revealed that 36 per cent of owners on homes worth an average of $3.05 million listed their occupations as housewives or students with little or no income. Fully 18 per cent of the 172 homes purchased were not mortgaged by banks. That means on Vancouver's West Side alone over a six-month period last year, roughly $100 million in cash came pouring into Canada, almost all of it from China. Yet the homeowners would in all likelihood pay little or no income tax. The total value of all homes sold in the study period topped a half-billion dollars.
Predictably, when Yan's study was published, a chorus of voices, including former developer Bob Ransford, jumped to criticize Yan: "The danger is intolerance, racism, singling out certain groups of people saying they're to blame for this," said Ransford. But such labels have failed to muffle the debate, particularly as more and more Chinese-Canadian voices have begun calling out white developers and academics for making the claim. Fung, the software engineer, says he's among those "deeply pissed off" by what he considers a slur: "The only people claiming racism are white Anglo-Saxon males—that's it. These are the same guys trying to label Andy Yan—whose grandparents paid the head tax—a racist? It's absurd."
Related: In B.C, a real-estate rage gets real
That sentiment is shared by Ian Young, the South China Morning Post's Vancouver correspondent and author of the popular Hongcouver blog. Young, who is ethnically Chinese and was raised in Australia and Hong Kong, says the issue is one of money, not of race. "What defines those people in terms of their behaviour here in Vancouver, and in terms of their impact on affordability, is not their 'Chineseness,' it's their 'millionaireness,' " he says. "The idea that there is commonality to be found in the Chineseness—I find that kind of insulting. Why would you think that someone was better defined by the colour of their skin than the colour of their money?"
This is why Fung believes it is so vitally important for Chinese-Canadian voices to encourage a debate over the impact of foreign investment on the local market. "Chinese people have a tendency to be a little quiet, we tend to want to not create ripples—culturally it's something we're not comfortable with."
1550 W 29 Street, Vancouver home with signs of exterior problems. It was on sale for 7.4 million. (Photo by Jimmy Jeong)
One oft-cited culprit for the barrage of offshore money are government programs aimed at bringing wealthy foreigners to this country—namely Canada's now-infamous Immigrant Investor Program. Created in 1986 by the Mulroney government, it granted permanent residency to any foreign citizen willing to fork over $800,000, repayable without interest after five years. In effect, Canada had a nearly two-decade run of selling passports—on the cheap. (The U.S. demanded its investor-class immigrants create at least 10 jobs each, and Australia charged twice what Canada did.)
In recent years, it became increasingly common for investor-class immigrants to set their children up in Canada to study, while the family's main breadwinner continued to work and pay income taxes elsewhere. One federal study unearthed by Young showed that even after five years in Canada more than 60 per cent of investor-class immigrants reported no annual income earnings at all. And those who did reported earnings of just $21,000—less than that of refugees.
Related: An extended Q&A with Ian Young
When the program was finally suspended in 2012, and subsequently cancelled altogether two years later, there was a backlog of some 65,000 applicants. Quebec, meanwhile, is still running its own, identical version. But very few of its investor-class immigrants actually remain in the province. Data collected by Vancouver lawyer Richard Kurland shows that 94 per cent of those who arrived in Quebec in 2008 left shortly thereafter—most bound for metro Vancouver.
David Duff, a professor at the University of British Columbia's Peter A. Allard School of Law, calls such schemes "bizarre" since they do nothing to prevent wealthy newcomers from dodging Canadian income taxes, providing they spend less than 183 days per year in the country and maintain a residence and business overseas. "Others wonder why these folks get to be treated that way while the rest of us get taxed on our worldwide income," says Duff, "And the consequence, as we've all seen, is the bidding up of house prices in Vancouver." He's seen it first-hand: Duff recently sold his own tony West Side home to an offshore buyer.
The old roof of the 4453 W 14 Street home in Vancouver, BC. This home sold for 2.4 million. (Photo by Jimmy Jeong)
There's another side to the story, however. Yuen Pau Woo, the former president of the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, doesn't dispute the impact of so-called "millionaire migrants" on Vancouver's affordability crisis. But he takes issue with the notion Canada isn't receiving anything in return. Eventually, Woo says, many wealthy Chinese who used the program to gain access to Canada seek to "align" their personal lives in Canada with their business interests overseas—if for no other reason than to minimize the stress of living apart from their families for six months of the year. As evidence, he points to the half-dozen Chinese firms, including Poly Culture Group, a division of a massive Chinese conglomerate, that he's helped convince to set up shop in the Lower Mainland through a venture called HQ Vancouver. "Every single one has a Vancouver connection," he says—usually a CEO or chairman who already owns a house in the city or sends his children to school there. "How many more of these kinds of opportunities are out there waiting for us to activate them?"
The silent, happy majority in all this, of course, is the thousands of Canadian homeowners who have sold their homes for an enormous profit, and the millions more watching their home values climb into the stratosphere—more than 70 per cent of Canadian households own their own home, and many are watching their property values soar with an eye to their retirement. In Richmond Hill, Ont., a Toronto suburb favoured by many Chinese investors, standard four-bedroom homes are now typically priced around $1.3 million, and routinely sell for $300,000 over asking. For now, this is a distinctly uptown economic problem.
With so much cash sloshing about, people outside Canada's urban hot zones are understandably keen to join the merriment. Last spring, politicians and economic development officials in Nova Scotia welcomed with fanfare the purchase of a series of properties by DongDu International Group, a Shanghai-based development company touting plans for two full-service vacation resorts catering to wealthy, young Chinese professionals. It was hoped the developments would bring much-needed economic activity to the stagnant region of Guysborough County, northeast of Halifax. An additional pair of properties DongDu bought in the capital were supposed to be the beachhead for a centre of excellence for the film industry.
Draped in a souvenir tartan scarf, and accompanied by local dignitaries, the company's founder, Li Hailin, traipsed through the grass in Guysborough last May for a groundbreaking. Since then, however, nary a shovel has touched the 1,300 hectares of land on the Eastern Shore, leaving many to wonder whether the development plans are for real. Michael Mosher, warden of the district of St. Mary's, says his council has not yet seen a formal proposal, or a definite timeline. "Because of the state of the global economy," he said, "they want to make sure when they launch the project, they've got the right timing." A spokeswoman for the Halifax Partnership says the city's economic development agency is no longer working directly with DongDu, noting that a memorandum of co-operation it signed with the firm expires next month. A request for an interview left with DongDu's offices in Halifax went unanswered.
Still, even if Chinese investors are disproportionately focused on Toronto and Vancouver, there can be little doubt they're playing a role in keeping the country's decade-long housing boom from collapsing under its own weight. It's difficult to overstate just how important real estate has been for the Canadian economy in recent years. A report a few years ago by Altus Group, a Toronto-based property consulting firm, estimated that home renovations alone contributed as much as four per cent of Canada's GDP in 2014, or about $64 billion. Add in new home construction, realtors, lawyers and other associated industries and the residential housing industry is responsible for as much as 20 per cent of Canada's economy. That's to say nothing of the cottage industry in reality TV the country has spawned over the past decade—everything from Love It or List It and Property Brothers to the ubiquitous Mike Holmes.
With Canadians already owing $1.65 on average for every dollar of disposable income they earn, there were ready signs that domestic buyers were tapped out. The sudden influx of Chinese money over the past couple of years was akin to throwing gasoline onto a slowly dying fire. Which is why no politician in their right mind is likely to take a hard stance against foreign buyers. Says Duff, the UBC law professor, "Nobody wants to shut it down, because it's like a drug. We always need another fix."
The multi-trillion-dollar question for Canada's vulnerable housing market, and the economy that increasingly depends on it, is whether China's interest in buying Canada is a simply a passing fancy or a stabilizing long-term play. It's one of the concerns the CMHC hopes to address by charting the behaviour of foreign buyers over time. "If investors are primarily in the market to make a quick buck—to buy a unit, make a capital gain over six months to a year, flip the unit and get out—that can be problematic behaviour," says Dugan, the chief economist. "We would want to be able to measure to what extent that's going on."
Those who have studied the Chinese appetite for buying foreign properties sketch a less dramatic picture, albeit one that's still less than reassuring. A survey of 150 agents in China by Investorist, an Australian company that markets international properties online, found the vast majority of would-be Chinese purchasers, nearly 90 per cent, have a budget between $500,000 and $1 million—not unlike many Canadians who are seeking to buy a home in Vancouver or Toronto these days. "The majority of Chinese buyers are families that can afford an investment property and possibly a second one," says Jon Ellis, the company's founder. "These are mom-and-pop investors who might own a car dealership or a bakery." Moreover, the report found that most Chinese seeking to buy overseas "wish to use leverage where possible," which may also have something to do with the need to circumvent Beijing's $50,000-per-year limit on foreign transactions.
It all points to a group of foreign buyers that, while large and motivated, remain financially mortal, and can therefore be expected to panic alongside everyone else if Canada's housing market begins to falter. And, as foreign money continues to flood both Toronto and Vancouver, there's plenty of evidence of ultra-sketchy, speculative behavior that's not limited to offshore buyers: bidding wars, properties purchased unseen and without conditions, so-called "shadow flipping" by realtors, the creation of shell corporations allowing buyers to avoid being named in transaction documents, accusations of money laundering, and unfair tax avoidance. The list goes on.
The risks for Canada don't end there. While the turbulent Chinese economy has so far prompted China's elite to move their money to locales perceived as safer, a full-blown crisis in the Middle Kingdom could well have the opposite effect. If offshore investors suddenly believe their livelihoods are at risk, they may have no choice but to quickly offload overseas houses and other assets in order to pay back creditors. In other words, instead of simply fretting about overzealous Canadians sparking a major housing crash, now we need to worry about a made-in-China crisis, too.
Can anything be done? In B.C., a group of economists is proposing a two per cent anti-speculation tax, which would penalize buyers who let homes sit empty. The idea is to generate a little revenue ($90 million is anticipated in the first year), but more important, to track activity: How many units are owned by people who don't pay any tax in British Columbia? How many condo units are owned by people who don't rent them out, and leave them vacant? How is this money entering Canada? At this point, the government doesn't have a clue.
"If the flow starts in a clandestine way there is no way to regulate it at the other end," says David Mulroney, former Canadian ambassador to China, adding that every time he spoke to university students in China he was asked whether it was true Canada is a haven for Chinese fraudsters. "We have no idea where the money is coming from, how it was sourced—all of it contributes to an alarming lack of awareness in the local real estate markets," says Mulroney, current president of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto.
Others point to countries like Australia, which requires foreign purchases to be vetted by its foreign investment review board and approved only if they contribute to the creation of new housing stock. A similar approach has been proposed for the U.K. Ellis, however, says the policy hasn't done much to rein in house prices Down Under, since there are many ways for determined offshore investors to circumvent the rules.
In any case, it's not exactly Canada as the country imagines itself—cowering from foreigners willing to pay for a taste of our order and civility; wondering if the next big purchase will nudge us into social dislocation, or corruption requiring aggressive government intervention. If for no one else, you'd hope we might get ahead of the problem for the sake of Paul Shen, who's settling into his new home in Victoria. Should such dark forebodings come to pass, the life he followed his heart to find will look eerily similar to the one he left behind.
—with files from Jessica Meyers in Beijing


text:
John Wagener
Buyers embark on Indian Summers ahead of UK TX
A raft of international broadcasters have picked up big-budget UK drama Indian Summers ahead of its launch on Channel 4 in the UK this weekend. All3Media-backed New Pictures made the series for UK free-to-air broadcaster Channel 4 and US pubcaster PBS. It debuts on Channel 4 this Sunday in a 9pm slot. All3Media International is […]
Stephanie Hartog out, Neil Bailey in as All3Media rejigs international
All3Media is reorganising its international division in a series of changes that see formats sales boss Stephanie Hartog leaving the company and Neil Bailey appointed to the new role of commercial director, TBI has learned. The company confirmed the changes are taking place and said that it will be increasing its sales team under the […]


Grab your copy of the Hand Reading Workbook!
Ready to work on your hand reading skills?
You already know hand reading is important, but what are you doing to hand read better? Most players struggle to study hand reading due to the complexity and lack of material dedicated to it. This is the very reason I created this workbook. Complete with 40 exercises to guide you through understanding your own ranges, assigning better ranges for your opponents, and exploring range vs range situations - this workbook will keep you busy for a LONG time.
This subsection of the forum is dedicated to students who are dedicated to hand reading. Feel free to share your answers from the workbook in this forum and chime in on other player's ranges. There is no answer key in the book because it would be impossible for an answer key to stay relevant and be personal to your own assumptions - so consider this forum your own answer key.
You can pick up your copy of the workbook here, or find a thread about the exercise you want to discuss in the forum and jump in the conversation.
Good luck & happy grinding!
SplitSuit -- LOVE the workbook. Just finished hand 1.
Wish there were FlopZilla for Mac though!!!!
When I was using a Mac I used VMWare and put a partition of Windows 7 on there. That way I could use software like Flopzilla on the Mac.
I'm interested in getting this book and look forward to hearing what others think about it.
Will hard copies be available on RCP? Or only on amazon?
I'm a MAC user as well and just decided to go out and buy a cheap laptop (got an HP for $200) and just use exclusively to run Equilab, Flopzilla, and PokerSnowie. Has worked out great.
I bought the book in both versions - I'm really looking forward to getting the physical book. It is supposed to be delivered on Tuesday!!!
I have flopzilla installed on my office PC and use Logmein to remote from my mac or iPad. It works great. Flopzilla on an iPad. Can you believe it?
Thanks for sharing - I would've never figured this out by myself!
Logmein! Never heard of it! Must look it up.
hand #2 done..anyone have any comments yet.
I've completed it and will post it tomorrow. I had a little trouble with the "super spewy"
concept. I assume he will be 3B fairly wide 99+, AJ, KQ. I'm not sure how much he will donk bet OOP vs check call too loose. My impression of a Spewy player is that they raise with value hands but call down way too much. This leaves me with only value hands on the River. BTW I prefer potting turn and river with value if he is going to call.
So far I have Villain raising with his Two Pair+ hands which leaves him w MP at best on the river. My thought was not to bet with hands that can't beat MP on the river.
River 3s: Bet $140 into $210 pot with what?
super spewy in Hand 2 means that he chases draws and will peel on the Flop with overcards.
So when the draws missed by the River, my betting range narrowed to 1% because there is not much he will call with (or certainly check-raise) that I beat.
Usually super spewy fish like to slowplay as well. So I gave villain a J even though he only check called the Turn.
I've been working on the hand reading lab and now James new book.
I have to say, nothing I've read or done recently has challenged me as much as these two products. It certainly not easy though.
When you have to sit and question your own ranges, it not always easy. Your mistakes, sometimes, but become so obvious. It's humbling.
I'm glad I have both to challenge myself and to help find leaks. These are leaks can be plugged on the fly.
Any who, hope to see you guys in the mastermind workshop, it's something I'd hoped we'd do with the lab, I think it will be the best part of the new book.
For Mac you could use Crossover and install Flopzilla on it. It works perfectly like it would be a mac app!
So I am continuously working on hand range stuff. James (or anyone who has the book already. Do you start off with basics of building hand ranges and figuring out #of combos or is that something that is assumed a reader already has a decent grip on and the workbook give you scenarios to make you stronger. Either way I will be purchasing the hard copy, but feel like I need a little extra help at first until I completely understand a concept then I can take off with it.
That is something that is assumed the reader already knows - but you would do this work along-side software like Flopzilla and software gives you the combo count (and with enough reps you gain an innate feel for combo count).
I'm a recreational player who is fairly new to NL hold 'em and needed a lot of help with hand reading skills. I'm halfway through this book and have gotten a lot out of it. Great product.
Discussion Grab your copy of the Hand Reading Workbook!


text:
(-) 6 Mar 2015 Astronomy in Namibia - (Scott Marley)
March 6th. Subject: Astronomy in Namibia. Speaker: Scott Marley Scott Marley worked as as the resident astronomer at the Sossusvlei Desert Lodge in Namibia. On arrival his first task was to repair the telescope which he achieved (despite the lack of tools and spare parts in a location 500km from the nearest Post Office), after having a replacement optical encoder flown in by charter plane (and using the Sun, via the finder 'scope, as an impromptu soldering-iron) ! Of course, having got the telescope (a 12" Meade LX200) fixed, his own camera stopped working - so although he had a number of wildlife shots (include a few of the scorpions and snakes that try to kill you out there) he had very few astro-photos of his own (but he did show us a fantastic wide-field shot of the Milky Way (5 exposures of 30s, stacked)). So he treated us to a trip across the southern sky, aided by 'Celestia', which turns out to be extremely good at 'planetarium' display, being a lot more 'colourful' than Stellarium, especially when 'travelling to the Planets' and viewing Titan (and Saturn) - although at the Sossusvlei camp it's Stellarium that is used to 'predict' which stars would be visible (and when) each night, especially after Scott generated a 'terrain file' for Stellarium which accurately matched the landscape around the site. He explained how the angles and distances to some of the 150 or so Globular Clusters (containing up to 2 million stars) around our galaxy were used by Harlow Shapley (in 1920) to work out the position of the Solar System within the Milky Way - in particular 47 Tucanae (the second most brightest) which was easily visible from Sossusvlei. Returning to Celestia, he took us on a tour of NGC253 (Sculptor Galaxy), the Tarantula Nebula, the Ring Nebula (M57), NGC 3372 (Carina Nebula) (his favourite), and then back to the Solar System with a view of the volcanoes and the ice plumes on Io (photos from New Horizons probe). He ended his talk with a simulation of the Earth at the Suns 'end of life' Red Giant phase and then with a black hole simulation using 'plug ins' from the 'Cestia Motherload' web site. 'Second half' Tim H. showed us a 'raw' AVI of Jupiter he had taken, and then the Registax result (taking the 'best' 500 of the 1500 frames) = which was a real 'eye-opener' !
Next he mentioned the DAWN mission, now entering orbit around Ceres, the largest of the objects in the Asteroid belt (and first to be found (in 1801) after prediction of 'a planet between Mars and Jupiter' by Bodes Law).
The first images returned revealed a number of unexpectedly bright 'spots' (see animation, left), associated with craters, possibly the result of impacts uncovering material below the surface)
Ceres animation credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA (see more DAWN images from JPL)
Robin O. displayed the huge (double A2 sized) card created by the (Brownies ?) as a 'thank you' for one of our recent Outreach efforts ! He followed this with a 'Whats in the Sky this month', especially Jupiter (which is almost due south and very easy to spot right now, half-way between the Moon (on the left) and Orion (on the right) and Leo (with a focus on the multiple double stars to be found in Leo, and the 'Leo Triplet' and M95/96/105 NGC3384 group) Venus is also quite high in the early evening sky (along with Mars), to the west. Finally, comet Lovejoy can still be seen in binoculars (just), and is now moving through Cassiopeia (so is easy to find) Saturn will be rising at about 4am this month, so will soon be a viable 'target' for late night observing !
This note last modified: 7th Mar 2015 23:29.