Tweet

More from @StephenPunwasi

Stephen Punwasi

@StephenPunwasi

19 Oct

Canadians perpetuate the idea Mounties are just friendly good guys in red suits from up north...

... Like they’re the Santa Claus of policing.

In reality, it’s an insane and insulting portrayal.

Here’s 3 things the RCMP is historically known for.

<thread> 👇

2/ The RCMP was founded as the NWMP in 1873, to ensure white Canadians could move West with “minimal” blood shed.

They originally enforced an apartheid-like system. They were to arrest First Nations people that didn’t stay on land designated by 🇨🇦.

3/ That brings us to our first stop, the pass system. By 1885, RCMP’s “Indian agents” would require First Nations to have documents stating they could leave the reserve.

No papers? You were arrested. Reserves were essentially turned into open air prisons.

Read 11 tweets

Stephen Punwasi

@StephenPunwasi

19 Oct

"Slashed in the face, beaten with a beer bottle, cuts up and down his arms, and cigarette burns."

No need to investigate, this was "heart failure."

Here's a quick thread on how a pathologist helped shape how I view investment data.

<thread> 🧵👇

2/ A while ago I made friends with a pathologist in a coroner's office, and he sent me down an interesting hole.

See, death statistics are reported differently in every country. Obviously.

However, I didn't understand how big an impact this has on data.

3/ He explained some countries lump it in with municipal funding. That means autopsy budgets compete with snow removal budgets. Underfunding can increase mistakes in cause of deaths.

Some countries allow the funeral home to determine death. Problematic for complicated deaths.

Read 11 tweets

Stephen Punwasi

@StephenPunwasi

17 Oct

Pretty sure most people that live in cities seeing condo towers don't know they have a lifespan.

After 40-50 years, the cost of maintenance becomes too burdensome, and the whole thing needs to be sold to be demolished and re-developed.

2/Okay, I feel like I need to unpack this, because people are getting defensive. After 40-50 years, buildings require lots of repairs. The board then hits the insurance company to cover them, and your maintenance fees rise.

Except this isn't a one off issue in Canada right now.

3/ One city that had a MASSIve building boom was Vancouver in the late 80s and 90s. That's about 40-50 years ago.

Guess what happened last year? Insurance companies said screw it, we don't want to be in the residential building insurance game.

Read 5 tweets

Stephen Punwasi

@StephenPunwasi

15 Oct

Cover of the newspaper? How the dairy cartel is hard struck.

Nova Scotia yesterday? First Nations fishery was ransacked, because the lobster industry doesn't want "competition."

🇨🇦 seems less racist than 🇺🇸 because Canadians just ignore it.

#cdnpoli

aptnnews.ca/national-news/…

2/ Okay, white people are filling my inbox with why First Nations are "wrong."

First, that doesn't justify intimidation used by fisherman. They ransacked their building, torched their van, then 200 fisherman engaged in intimidation with the RCMP watching.
thestar.com/news/canada/20…

3/ Second, the claims of "over fishing" are incorrect. The government has said the stocks are fine. They're using the term to falsely appeal to environmentalists.

What they're actually referencing though is the collapse of prices from increased competition. They left this out...

Read 6 tweets

Stephen Punwasi

@StephenPunwasi

14 Oct

Watching governments set the precedent they'll work to prevent recessionary downturns is an interesting development for wealth inequality.

It actually makes rich people *much* richer, and the gap even wider. It doesn't work for a long time though.

<thread 1/6>

2/ Recessions serve a very useful purpose in capitalism's boom bust cycle. Inefficient purchases, people that overpaid, lose that speculative premium.

They suffer losses, and people with lower income get the opportunity to buy into an asset at depressed values.

3/ If you backstop losses, it makes inefficient purchases no longer subject to purges. Instead, lower income people no longer have an opportunity to buy in at a "deal."

The price only goes up. They're doing it with tax dollars too, meaning everyone also pays for the gap.

Read 6 tweets

Stephen Punwasi

@StephenPunwasi

12 Oct

Paying 2 month’s salary for an engagement ring is dumb, and not a real tradition.

It’s one of the many successful strategies one single (predatory) company used to capture a series of suckers into inflating the price of diamonds.

Here’s how people got suckered.

<thread> 🧵👇

2/ First, the diamond trade is almost entirely controlled by one company - De Beers. They control two-thirds of the diamond trade, and since its founding the goal was to always to control the market.

It was founded by one of history’s greatest monsters - Cecil Rhodes.

3/ Yeah, the same Rhodes which the scholarship is named after.

This genocidal, white supremacist founded De Beers. He initially used prison labor. If you understand South Africa’s prison system at the time, you know this was just slavery.

Read 15 tweets

Share this page!

Stephen Punwasi

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @StephenPunwasi

Stephen Punwasi

Stephen Punwasi

Stephen Punwasi

Stephen Punwasi

Stephen Punwasi

Stephen Punwasi

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?