In a world where labour is plentiful, cheap and increasingly skilled, moving overseas to cut costs is a no-brainer for Canadian companies, wrote the National Post June 28. One reason US wages have been restrained in recent years is that the massive supply of labour in China, India and other developing countries is becoming ever more easy to access. "It's a realignment in terms of what companies in North America need to do in order to be competitive worldwide," said Ronald Burke, professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University. "In the short run, it's not going to be easy for a lot of people, managers as well."
Work here and abroad nets students Millennium awards
Three local students won 2006 Millennium Scholarship Entrance Awards for their leadership skills and creative projects in both the local and global community, as well as for their academic achievement in high school, reported the Brantford Expositor June 28. One of them, 18-year-old Alicia Elliott of Ohsweken, Ont. who wrote a play about multiculturalism and diversity which was performed at local schools, will be attending York University for English in the fall. "It feels great to be recognized," she said. "You don't really realize how much you've done until you put it down on paper."
Mott delivers ‘walloping gutbucket riff’ on new jazz album
Drummer Jerry Granelli's Sandhills Reunion band, which performs today at the Ottawa jazz festival, is no record executive's project, wrote a reviewer for The Ottawa Citizen June 28. Thorny and cinematic, both musically and lyrically, the work brings together leading improvisers and the dynamic vocalist, poet and performance artist Rinde Eckert. A 12-part story set on the plains of Nebraska and South Dakota, the piece has its roots two decades ago when Eckert used to sit in with Granelli in Seattle. There is loss, and rich memory – none richer than that of a man who recounts a trip with his father to a strip club where the band is composed of veterans of Chicago's blues scene. The latter part of this story is delivered over a walloping gutbucket riff composed by baritone saxophonist David Mott. "When we wrote those pieces, each one of us was thinking of a literary mood," says Mott, a Chicago native who lives south of Ottawa and teaches at York’s Department of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts. "What Rinde does to it is magical, though."
On air
- Susan Mullin