A hit man like few others

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:15 AM - 0 Comments

If the allegations are true, Indian police have their hands on one of the most prolific hit men and gang leaders operating in the criminal underworld that thrives in the shadow of India’s economic boom. Jagghu Pehelwan is charged with 31 murders, but the inspector who arrested him believes he’s responsible for more than 150 (among his secondary charges are kidnapping, extortion and gun smuggling). His alleged victims include politicians, businessmen and gangsters—the same groups that are said to have paid him to kill.

Police say Pehelwan—a 285-lb., 28-year-old man from a poor village—first killed for cash as a teenager in 1998. By his early 20s, he was allegedly an accomplished car thief. In August, a special police operations unit tracked him down in the industrial city of Ghaziabad, where they arrested him after a brief gunfight. Since then, police say, Pehelwan has confessed to more than 100 killings. But Pehelwan maintains his innocence. He says police beat the confessions out of him—a charge the authorities deny. “I have never hurt anybody, let alone murdered someone,” Pehelwan told Britain’s Guardian newspaper in an interview from his prison cell. “I hope I will get out soon. I am praying for that.”

REVIEW: A Natural History of the Piano: The Instrument, the Music, the Musicians—from Mozarts to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:10 AM - 0 Comments

Which is more important, the piano or the pianist? In his study of the world’s most versatile and bulky musical instrument, Isacoff seems to come down on the side of the man (and occasionally, woman) who plays it. He notes that the piano caught on in the 18th century, obliterating the harpsichord, because of its usefulness as a piece of mechanical engineering: other keyboards “couldn’t simply respond to changing finger pressure, the way a piano does.” But what it really did was allow virtuoso players, from the classical to the jazz era, to create different types of sound. Isacoff divides pianists into categories depending on those sounds. “The Combustibles” are noted for extroverted noisy energy; “the Melodists” emphasize attractive tunes; “the Alchemists” are the ones who, like Claude Debussy or bebop players, conjure up unusual sound-worlds; and finally, “the Rhythmitizers” gave us ragtime, rock ’n’ roll, and international influences.

Isacoff includes quotes and mini-essays by many famous musicians, who sometimes confirm his idea that high and low music are connected: Billy Joel is quoted saying he can “discover secrets about music by what I call ‘breaking the Beethoven codes.’ ”

Inadvertently, the book seems to suggest that the great age of the piano is over. The author says that the creative range of the piano “is still expanding, as composers explore the instrument’s endless possibilities.” But many of the pianists he quotes seem to contradict this, with the classical pianists talking about yet another Tchaikovsky concerto performance and the jazzmen waxing nostalgic about older jazzmen. The one ray of hope, as often in music, is Asia; China has “mushrooming piano schools filled with millions of students,” who might go on to expand the international piano repertoire. Or, on the other hand, they might just play a lot of music written when the piano was still a new instrument.

The saviour of sales

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:10 AM - 0 Comments

After Steve Jobs lost his life to cancer last month, pundits praised him for his genius. He was likened to a savant, a saviour—even the Messiah. Based on the most recent sales numbers from the United States, there may actually be some validity to that extravagant comparison.

American consumers keep snapping up electronics and shopping online, despite living with declining personal savings in a volatile economic clime. In October, U.S. retail sales—which account for more than 70 per cent of economic activity—exceeded analysts’ expectations by climbing 0.5 per cent from September. According to Goldman Sachs, Apple is to thank for this unexpected bump. “The introduction of Apple’s latest iPhone likely accounted for much of the upside surprise in core sales,” the bank said in a statement. The iPhone 4S, Apple’s latest model, was released on Oct. 14. More than four million were sold over its first three days on the shelf. This helped electronics sales in the U.S. jump 3.5 per cent over levels in September.

It isn’t unprecedented for a single company to wield such influence in the American economy. In 1927, the U.S. went into a recession that has been attributed to Henry Ford’s decision to shut down production of the Model T car in order to make upgrades before his company started making its Model A.

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The value of a man on a rope is…

By Charlie Gillis - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:05 AM - 0 Comments

EPA/Thais Llorca/Keystone Press

High-wire artist Nik Wallenda made his case last week to perform a tightrope walk across Niagara Falls, saying it would bring $20.5 million worth of tourism spending to the region, plus a $122-million “legacy impact” over the next five years. But his appearance before the Niagara Parks Commission—which has control of the iconic gorge on the Canadian side—underlined the conundrum he now faces: how do you sell the commercial benefits of an event to people dedicated to fighting commercialization?

The commission was formed 126 years ago to curb the hucksterism and stunting that had come to sully the whole Niagara experience. Today, the board interprets its role as rigidly as when hawkers demanded five cents to view the falls through a peephole. “It’s sensationalism,” acting chair Janice Thomson told Maclean’s last summer of Wallenda’s proposal. “That’s not what the falls is supposed to be about.”

Wallenda, an heir to the Flying Wallendas circus dynasty, argues the spectacle will emphasize the falls’ natural beauty as much as his derring-do. Still, his pitch is, at bottom, one of financial benefit to a region buffeted by sagging U.S. tourism. He has submitted a study predicting 125,000 spectators would come to view the walk from the Canadian side, while a stunning 411 million would tune in on television—fully 320 million of them overseas. “What you’ve got is a prime-time event that will last two hours, with one of the wonders of the world as a backdrop,” says Michael Harker, senior partner of Enigma Research, the Toronto-based firm that did the study. “There are host venues around the world that would pay for something like this.” Commissioners responded coolly to the proposal, but have agreed to consider it over the next three weeks.

Lululemon goes Tea Party

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Prog rock and yoga pants don’t have much in common—not generally anyway. The latter is a millennial fad tied loosely to exercise but dedicated mostly to making butts look good. The former, a much-maligned musical form that peaked with the Electric Light Orchestra. But two prominent Canadians from the different fields do share one love: the philosophies of Ayn Rand.

Recently, Vancouver’s Lululemon, makers of arguably the most famous yoga pants in the world, began selling bags with the phrase “Who is John Galt?” emblazoned on the side. The line comes from Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a 1957 classic and Tea Party movement favourite that pushes the virtues of radical self-interest. On the Lululemon website, a staffer wrote that company founder Chip Wilson discovered Rand when he was 18. Her work eventually inspired Wilson’s company creed: “Elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness.”

Reaction to Wilson’s Galt love has been mixed. Some angry fans have suggested a philosophy of getting yours and screw the rest doesn’t exactly jibe with the yogic message Lululemon otherwise pushes. “Are you effing kidding me. This is the lamest thing I’ve ever heard,” one critic wrote on the company’s site. Others, though, have been more kind. “I just heard about this and because of it, I just may become a new customer,” another fan chipped in.

If Wilson begins to feel the backlash, he may want to consult Neil Peart. The Rush drummer and fellow Canadian is known for his devotion to all things Rand. (The 1976 Rush album 2112 was inspired by a Rand novella.) If all goes well, the two could even collaborate on a prog-rock yoga album or a line of Rush-themed exercise mats. The slogan writes itself: “Today’s Tom Sawyer, mean, mean thighs.”

Navy Appreciation Day on the Hill

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 7:50 AM - 0 Comments

NDP MP Randall Garrison (left).

Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence.

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A pardon for Thailand’s prodigal son?

By Jane Switzer - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 7:40 AM - 0 Comments

Kamran Jebreili/AP

To Thais, Thaksin Shinawatra is a lot of things: a businessman, a populist politician, and a controversial fugitive. But even from his refuge nearly 5,000 km away—the 62-year-old is currently living in Dubai to evade a two-year conflict-of-interest jail sentence—Thailand’s former prime minister has never strayed far from the country’s political hubbub. Now his spectre has again incensed Thailand’s opposition parties, following reports in the English-language Bangkok Post that he would be granted a pardon.

Royal pardons are granted annually in Thailand on Dec. 5, to celebrate King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birthday. If the king approves the decree, the Bangkok Post reported, Thaksin would be allowed to return home and forego the jail sentence handed to him in 2008. But the ex-prime minister remains a divisive figure. Born in the northern Chiang Mai province, Thaksin was educated in the U.S. before returning to Thailand in the 1980s to build the telecommunications conglomerate Shin Corp. He entered politics in 1994, leading the populist Thai Rak Thai party to a 2001 record majority win. In a country accustomed to coups and dictatorships, he was the first prime minister to head an elected government through a full term of office, and gained popularity amongst Thailand’s rural poor for his investments in infrastructure and universal health care.

But his tenure was marred by civil unrest and allegations of corruption, tax evasion and conflict of interest, and Thaksin was overthrown by the military in a 2006 coup. Although his Thai Rak Thai party was disbanded in 2009, he still wields authority in the governing Pheu Thai Party: his younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra was elected Thailand’s prime minister in July.

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What to do about Tehran’s push for nukes?

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 7:10 AM - 0 Comments

Reuters

War drums are beating again in Washington, nearly a decade after the push to invade Iraq over stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be non-existent. This time critics warn that time is running out for President Barack Obama to stop Iran’s alleged progress toward building a nuclear weapon. A growing chorus of hawkish voices say the United States—or Israel—must soon bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities or else accept a world in which the theocratic Islamist regime wields nukes, and then try to “contain” the threat.

The world’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, concluded in a report on Nov. 8 that Iran is closer than ever to obtaining nuclear weapons. Then, on Friday, Nov. 18, the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors, including representatives from China and Russia, voted to censure Iran. “The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device,” said the agency’s head, Yukiya Amano.”

The IAEA said Iran has been acquiring large quantities of enriched uranium, and that it was working toward perfecting an “implosion device” that would turn it into a weapon. “It is no longer within the bounds of credulity to claim that Iran’s nuclear activities are solely peaceful,” said Glyn Davies, the chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA.

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Qatar is rich in fat

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 7:00 AM - 0 Comments

Nadine Rupp/Getty Images

The people of the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar are the wealthiest in the world. The citizens of the small emirate enjoyed a per capita GDP of US$179,000 in 2010, the highest among nations by a considerable margin. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Qataris are also among the fattest people on the globe. Over 70 per cent of adults are overweight. That includes the nearly 40 per cent who are obese, according to recent studies. Both stats are expected to climb in coming years.

What isn’t news, likely, is that the two factors—wealth and obesity—are related. Qatar became very rich, very fast in recent decades. For many native Qataris, that has meant a new life with servants, rich foods and little manual labour. As a result, obesity and related issues, like hypertension and diabetes, have soared.“It’s a very, very serious problem facing the future of Qatar,” Sharoud Al-Jundi Matthis, from the Qatar Diabetes Association, told The Atlantic recently. Qataris aren’t the largest people on Earth. The Pacific Island nations remain the most obese for now. But if things don’t change, Qatar may soon compete for the crown.

“I want God to finish my life”

By Michael Friscolanti - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 12:24 AM - 0 Comments

Colin Perkel/Canadian Press

Michael Friscolanti is covering the honour killing trial for Maclean’s, filing regular reports from the Kingston, Ont. courtroom to Macleans.ca and weekly dispatches for the magazine. The reports will continue for the duration of the trial, which is expected to run into December.

Zainab Shafia was found in the front passenger seat, her fingernails painted a light shade of blue. She was 19 years old and had 10 cents in her pocket. Her younger sister, Sahar (purple fingernails; black toe nails), was in the seat directly behind her, a sleeveless top covering her pierced belly button. Thirteen-year-old Geeti, the youngest of the dead Shafia girls, was floating over the driver’s seat, dressed in knee-length jeans and a brown shirt. Like Sahar, the big sister she idolized, Geeti had a stud through her belly button. Continue…

Clouds gather over Romney in New Hampshire

By John Parisella - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 8:45 PM - 0 Comments

We’re about six weeks away from the New Hampshire primary and already the Republican race may be shaping up to surprise even the most astute observer. The Manchester Union Leader has endorsed Newt Gingrich over the frontrunner and part-time New Hampshire resident Mitt Romney. This is all the more surprising when you consider Gingrich’s campaign was on life support just a few weeks ago. Gingrich also leads in the latest poll out of Iowa, a state known for its social conservative bias.

I have been on the ground in New Hampshire for the last three primary seasons and for the 2004 presidential election. New Hampshire should not be taken lightly when the game is about performing against expectations. The expectation is that Romney must win big or else his campaign could lose the needed momentum for South Carolina and Florida, and therefore end up in serious trouble. Continue…

The House supports the curtailment of debate

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 7:20 PM - 0 Comments

With all Conservatives present voting nay, the NDP motion on time allocation has been defeated in the House by a count of 153 to 120.

The New Democrats, Liberals, Louis Plamondon of the Bloc and Elizabeth May voted in favour of the motion.

The Commons: Convictions without courage

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 6:04 PM - 0 Comments

Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press

The Scene.“Kyoto is in the past,” Peter Kent intoned today at an announcement about something else. Not that he was confirming his government’s intention to withdraw from it. But not that he was denying it either. “This isn’t the day,” he explained.

Doing stuff is easy. It’s justifying the doing that’s hard. And so Mr. Kent is not yet ready to say for sure that the government is willing to do something about what it now only implies. The correct day for that is apparently scheduled to be a month from now, just before Christmas. But then someone who knew as much went and told the evening news. Only now Mr. Kent is insisting on pretending that didn’t happen. ”I wonʼt comment on a speculative report,” he said this morning.

He will say that the previous Liberal government’s decision to commit to the protocol was “one of the biggest blunders they made.” And the Prime Minister did once dismiss the whole thing as a “socialist scheme.” And the Conservative platform in 2006 didn’t even mention it. And successive governments have now spent more than a decade successfully ignoring it. And the current government has said it won’t extend past next year its commitment to it. But let it not be said that the government is prepared to actually withdraw from it. At least not yet. At least not that Mr. Kent is willing to say.

Not that the government’s unwillingness to announce a decision stops the opposition from lamenting that decision. Continue…

No consequence, no accountability

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 2:42 PM - 0 Comments

The government’s crime bill will pass Parliament without an accounting of its cost.

Opposition politicians voted to find Prime Minister Harper and his government in contempt of Parliament last March – this was a historic first – for not giving up the full costs of its so-called tough on crime legislation. Now, it is poised to pass the bill and Canadians are still no wiser. “It is a travesty that the Conservatives have told neither the Canadian people nor the provinces what all this is going to cost – with the slowing economy and big financial pressures all ’round this is even more irresponsible,” Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae told The Globe Monday morning. “Both the jets and the jails put the lie to the Conservative line about being the party of ‘fiscal prudence.’ Ridiculous.”

The permanent campaign continues

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 12:43 PM - 0 Comments

The NDP buys billboard space to attack the elimination of the long-gun registry.

The NDP message will be reinforced with the barrel of a gun. The image of a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic, a “non-restricted” weapon which won’t have to be registered when the long-gun registry is scrapped, sits above the tag-line “No More Safeguards. Is that why you voted Conservative?” … The three cities chosen for the billboards are notable because they are all areas where the NDP made new inroads in the 2011 election. One of the key target audiences is Conservative ridings in Toronto, but it is intended to reach a broader spectrum – and two of the target cities are in Quebec, where the NDP have new-found strength, and where support for the registry is high.

Talking to Althia Raj, Brad Lavigne explains the NDP’s mindset.

Eurozone on the brink

By macleans.ca - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 12:03 PM - 0 Comments

The eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis is the biggest threat facing the global economy, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Reuters reports. The OECD also said that a collapse of the currency zone is now a possibility, and called on the European Central Bank to continue with its extraordinary measures, such as buying government bonds, to defuse the crisis. Separately, rumours emerged in the Italian press that the country was in talks with the International Monetary Fund to obtain $827 billion at a rate of between 4-5 per cent to refinance it debt for the next 18 months. An IMF spokesperson later denied that emergency aid negotiations were ongoing, according to Reuters. U.S. President Barack Obama also said he would put pressure on eurozone leaders to find a bold and comprehensive solution to the crisis, which is emerging as an important issue in the 2012 U.S. election.

Reuters

Reuters

Reuters

Washington scrambling over Pakistan crisis

By macleans.ca - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 11:38 AM - 0 Comments

Pakistan has closed its borders to NATO supplies, and gave the U.S. 15 days to vacate an air base used for drone strikes, after a NATO attack reportedly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Saturday, the Financial Times reports. U.S. officials profusely apologized for the accident, which they said was “highly likely” caused by a NATO aircraft. But the deaths of Pakistani troops, who may have been mistaken for Taliban militants along the ill-marked border, threw a new wedge between Washington and Islamabad at a time when the U.S. needs Pakistan’s cooperation to ensure an orderly withdraw from Afghanistan and to pressure the Taliban into negotiations. The diplomatic rift also gave China an opportunity to play up its strategic posturing as Pakistan’s ally, Reuters reports. “China believes that Pakistan’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected and the incident should be thoroughly investigated and be handled properly,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

The Financial Times

Reuters

At the prime minister’s whim

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 11:27 AM - 0 Comments

Amid speculation that the Prime Minister might prorogue Parliament, Lori Turnbull advocates for the reforms she, Mark Jarvis and Peter Aucoin laid out in Democratizing the Constitution.

The 2012 prorogation would be substantively different. First, there is no obvious political land mine to avoid. Second, the Conservatives have demonstrated how majority status confers an immunity of sorts from even the most scathing criticism from the opposition benches. These factors make a potential upcoming prorogation less necessary from a political standpoint, but the fact remains: We live in a country where a prime minister can shut down the House, the pre-eminent institution of our parliamentary democracy, on a whim, for no particular reason.

In our new book, Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government, we argue that prorogations should occur only with the consent of a two-thirds majority of the House. This would place the balance of power in the hands of elected representatives, where it belongs. The House would have to consent to turning the lights off. If we allow the prime minister to unilaterally decide whether and when the House can perform its scrutiny function, we reverse the basic logic of responsible government, which dictates that the government must be accountable to the House. The two-thirds majority threshold is high enough to nearly always necessitate multiparty support.

Lori and the Globe make the common error of actually shortchanging Mr. Harper in this regard: as noted earlier this year, he has prorogued Parliament three times already, not twice.

Planning a better mid-life crisis

By Scott Feschuk - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Stephen Gregory

So I’m having my mid-life crisis now—and so far it consists of struggling to decide what to do for my mid-life crisis. Who knew that choosing the physical manifestation of my crippling self-doubt and fleeting mortality would be so stressful?

In my 20s, I always assumed I’d wake up one morning, slap on a hairpiece and embrace a fun new hobby like curling or alcoholism. But the truth is, people judge you on the originality and quality of your crisis. It’s like a science fair for middle-aged people: you don’t want to be the guy struggling to hook up a potato battery while the genius next to you breeds an advanced race of atomic supermen.

That’s why I decided right from the start to rule out all the clichéd mid-life crises for men. Among them:

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Support the minister

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:48 AM - 0 Comments

The Department of National Defence didn’t want Parliament to know how much it was going to spend building itself a new headquarters.

On the Nortel file, the documents show DND officials were worried last year about how the renovation costs would be perceived. “Media, parliamentarians and Canadians will be focused on the cost to taxpayers for the acquisition of the Campus and the subsequent retro-fit costs,” noted a DND strategy document.

Such concerns were solved when Deputy Minister Robert Fonberg stepped in. Fonberg’s assistant wrote that the deputy minister was concerned about telling the public about the cost. According to an email, Fonberg asked, “Why are we using the $623m(illion) fit up cost? It is without context and will be a lightning rod!” The cost was removed from public documents about the Nortel purchase.

Egypt holds historic elections

By macleans.ca - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:43 AM - 0 Comments

Millions of Egyptians flocked to the polls on Monday in the first elections since former president Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February, the Financial Times reports. Many others chose to boycott the vote to protest the military’s refusal to let civilians manage the country’s path towards democracy and its violent crackdown of demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last week that left 42 people dead. The recent protests, however, didn’t seem to hold back voters, who were queueing around the block on Monday morning in Cairo. They stand to choose among 50 parties and over 5,000 candidates who are competing to elect a constitutional assembly. Voting will continue for six weeks; results will be announced only after all ballots have been cast.

The Financial Times

Canada to withdraw from Kyoto Protocol

By macleans.ca - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:24 AM - 0 Comments

Canada will formally pull out of the Kyoto Protocol a few days before Christmas, CTV’s Roger Smith reported on Sunday. The development comes as countries gather in Durban, South Africa on Monday for a climate conference expected to pave the way a new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires on Dec. 31 2012. Environment Minister Peter Kent criticized the Protocol for setting unrealistic emission targets and excluding major emitters in the developing world, such as China, India and Brazil. The Conservatives’ move amounted to “a very damaging act of sabotage,” according to Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

CTV News

Defence hides high costs–again

By macleans.ca - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:03 AM - 0 Comments

Senior officials at the Department of National Defence made sure references to the $600-million-plus cost of renovating a former Nortel research complex were removed from public statements and documents, apparently fearful of what the public and MPs might think if they knew the cost of adapting the former high-tech company’s Ottawa campus to the department’s needs. It’s not the first time Defence has seemed shockingly willing to keep true costs secret. Recently, Parliament was not informed in advance about the department’s plans to spend $477 million on a U.S. military satellite. And last fall the federal auditor general’s office slammed the department for understating the complexities of buying new helicopters, in order to obscure the likelihood of major cost overruns to outfit the Cyclone and Chinook choppers for the Canadian military. In the latest incident, according to an email obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, an assistant to Robert Fonberg, the department’s deputy minister, wrote that Fonberg was concerned about telling the public about the cost, asking: “Why are we using the $623m(illion) fit up cost? It is without context and will be a lightning rod!” That cost estimate was later removed from public documents about the purchase of the old Nortel real estate.

Ottawa Citizen

House of irrelevance

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

Amy Minsky looks at the state of the House.

Now, Canadians are left with a House of Commons where a vast majority of the members have been emasculated, eroded to the point where they often feel they can’t vote with their conscience, Cameron said. “Of course, parliamentarians do more work than sit in Question Period, or stand to vote, but that work is done in committees and caucus meetings, which is less visible to the public,” he said. “So we’ve weakened Parliament, and with it, a pillar of accountability in the system.” 

As a consequence, a certain degree of disengagement, disenchantment and disillusionment with politics has spread among the public.