Nitesh Kumar

“A penny saved is a penny earned”… or so the old proverb goes. Of course, the value of a penny has changed somewhat from the time when your mother offered her wisdom on the value of keeping what you earn. Today, you could save thousands of dollars by simply making the right mortgage decision. If you’re like most Canadian homeowners, your mortgage is a goldmine of potential savings.

In the past few articles, we’ve talked about the importance of your mortgage as one of your most significant financial decisions. We’ve explored the value of seeking the advice of a mortgage professional – whether you’re buying a home or renewing an existing mortgage. Today, let’s take a look at the bottom line: the savings you can enjoy by making the right mortgage decisions.

It is the primary role of a mortgage broker to find you the right product for your personal situation. A mortgage broker is a financial professional and – like your investment advisor – he or she will want to understand your personal situation and payment preferences. Your mortgage broker has access to a broad spectrum of lending institutions, so you can do some valuable comparison shopping for the right combination of features, rates and mortgage options.

All these choices offer you substantial opportunities to save money over the life of your mortgage.

If you are like most homeowners, you are focused – for good reason – on finding the best possible rate for your mortgage. Your mortgage broker can offer you the best range of rate options and terms. If a mortgage broker can get you one per cent off the posted rate, that could translate into more than $13,000 in interest per $100,000 borrowed over a 25-year amortization schedule. If, however, you believe that most mortgage rates are basically the same from one institution to the next, then consider the fact that even an eighth of a point difference in the rate can offer significant savings over the duration of your mortgage.

But it’s also important to look beyond the rate. There are other ways to find savings in your mortgage. Your mortgage broker is up-to-date on market trends and new opportunities… as well as some of the tried-and-true ways to save money in a mortgage.

Do you get an annual bonus in your job? You may want to use that bonus to pay down the principal of your mortgage. If you pursue this strategy consistently over the life of your mortgage, you could save thousands of dollars in interest by paying your mortgage off sooner.

Are you paid bi-weekly or bi-monthly? Consider a change from the usual monthly mortgage payment. Set up your mortgage payment schedule to coincide with your pay period. Again, you can shave years off your mortgage, and enjoy thousands of dollars in savings.

In the coming weeks, we’ll look at some of these savings opportunities in more detail. In the meantime, consider the old penny proverb again. How much is your time worth? Time savings is one of the key, unexpected benefits that clients say they have enjoyed when they choose to work with a mortgage broker. Above all, a mortgage broker is an expert in customer service, and that means that your broker looks after every detail of your mortgage research and negotiations on your behalf.

Nitesh Kumar is a Mortgage Broker (FSCO lic.M08001411) with Mortgage Intelligence (FSCO lic. 10428). He can be reached be at 416-419-2566.

GaganBatra

With the news of the Occupy movements dying down, people have time to focus their attention on issues that may be more relevant to their lives. SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act was a bill that originated in the United States. The goal of this bill is, in its name, to stop online piracy. Although SOPA has been denied and has not come into effect, the battle to keep our privacy and expression over the internet still continues. Since SOPA did not work out the way the governments expected it to, the worldwide version of it, ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has come onto the playing field. Like SOPA, this act is concerned with “protecting” copyrighted material on the internet and is aimed at preventing piracy. The major concern that I have with this bill is the same that others have been expressing; the censoring of the internet. In today’s day and age, people rely on the internet as their main source of information, news, entertainment and communication. ACTA will interfere with people’s ability to download music, movies, TV shows, e-books and other copyrighted forms of media. The bill will also impede on people’s rights to stream things online, similar to the threat that SOPA posed.

The main argument for this bill is that it will help to protect authors and artists from having their work plagiarized and essentially stolen. SOPA was being paired with PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act, to hinder people’s access to websites that are involved in copyright infringement. Included in the targets of SOPA and PIPA were any websites from which free downloads are made possible. However, the government does reserve the right to block any other websites that provide information on how to work around the censorship being put into place. Now that SOPA and PIPA are out of the picture, ACTA is taking their place as a worldwide bill that limits people’s accessibility to material on the internet.

I, like many others who have and are opposing SOPA, PIPA and ACTA alike, am not looking forward to the diminishing integrity of the internet. We have become so accustomed to a certain manner of streaming, downloading and uploading over the internet, that the threat of having our rights taken away seems too shocking to accept.

The question people are posing is that if the government can come up with a way to censor websites from which people download and stream media, how long until they interfere with other aspects of the internet? Censorship, in any manner of speaking, has a negative connotation. People are arguing that it is an infringement of their right to free speech and freedom of expression.

I am sure that people are aware of the blackouts that Wikipedia and other websites like Reddit participated in earlier this year. The whole point of these blackouts was to protest against SOPA and PIPA. Since then, the popular video streaming medium that we know and love, Megaupload, has been shut down. Many of my friends expressed dissatisfaction at the removal of the website and as a result find themselves angrier towards the government’s new policies. Following protests held by various websites, SOPA and PIPA had apparently lost many of their supporters. However, it can be argued that ACTA is a more extreme version of the initial bills, as it relates to all countries across the globe and establishes rules and regulations that are internationally recognized.

The censorship of websites includes those all over the internet. Megaupload itself was not based in the United States, but Hong Kong. It is not just Americans who must be concerned about the acts that are threatening the internet, but people all around the world. There is a provision to the Canadian copyright bill in the process of being made that gives the Canadian government the authority to block pirating websites in order to “protect the Canadian marketplace”.

In my opinion, SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and other forms of legislation alike, pose the risk of us losing the integrity of the internet, a source that we have become so dependent on. I do not think it is over. The blackout protests definitely raised awareness, but something more needs to be done to protect our online community. Today, there are websites all over the internet devoted to petitioning ACTA and urging their government to reconsider the passing of such legislation. Either way, governments are continually formulating new and improved laws around the protection of material on the internet. Even if ACTA do not pass, there is bound to be another plan in the making to limit people’s access to the internet.

Aabida Dhanji

Who is Dav-eh? Referred to as an urban desi sensation, he released a song called ‘Fly Away’ a few years ago. He has been working on a new album, which he plans to release later on this year. Luckily I had a chance to talk to this up and coming artist. Here’s what he had to say in a recent interview with Generation Next:

GN: What made you join the music industry?

Dav-eh: Well when I was a kid I began to have a passion for the industry. I’ve been doing just about everything. Dancing and singing when I was a little kid, eight or nine, I had a huge interest and then took things more serious, recording my own songs. Then I started recording with Sunny Brown who produced my song, Fly Away.

GN: How long have you been in this industry?

Dav-eh: I started writing when I was about 10 years old and recording when I was 14 years old.

GN: Who are your inspirations?

Dav-eh: I have many influences. Especially when growing up in modern and desi household. Bollywood music, Punjabi music, R&B, hip-hop; all of these are inspirations to me. I would have to say my Biggest inspiration has been Culture Shock; Baba Kahn, Sunny Brown and Lomaticc. I learned a lot from Sunny by working closely with him. I aim to be like him and usually take his example.  

GN:Which famous musicians do you admire? Why?

Dav-eh: Well there are a lot of artists that I like, but I am a big T-Pain fan. I feel like a lot of artists do the music for fame, but with T-Pain lots of people rant at him for the amount auto tune, effects, anything he uses on his voice but he makes amazing music. Lots of people don’t understand that you need to know how to use auto tune when you know how to sing, some people say using it means you can’t sing but it sounds amazing.

GN: Any performances that are coming up that we should know about?

Dav-eh: Hopefully DesiFest, last year was great, the crowd loved it.

GN: What inspires you to write your songs?

Dav-eh: Lots of real life situations that I go through. I never “b.s” about what other people go through or watch a movie then think about it and write a song based on that. All my music is solely based on my personal situations.

GN: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

Dav-eh: I can’t say exactly where because you don’t know where life takes you. But I do aim to be somewhere up in music as a singer for sure.

GN: Any big plans for the future?

Dav-eh: I’m looking into making more music, more albums. I like everything, Dj, Mc, Performing, Producing; all of it. I want to go to different aspects of the industry because I find it all fascinating.

GN: When is your new album coming out?

Dav-eh: Hopefully, by the end of this year or early next year.

GN: Anything you want to tell your fans?

Dav-eh: I appreciate all my fans’ support and love from them. There is no better feeling than fan support, like when people tell you they love your music and that they appreciate your work it’s a feeling on its own!

Now that you know about Dav-eh, make sure that you check out his new album, “Asoka” once it releases later this year. Make sure to also follow Dav-eh on Twitter, Facebook and all other social networking sites to keep up to date with what he’s up to and what’s coming up next for him.

Website: www.dav-eh.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Dav_eh

Facebook: www.facebook.com/OfficialDav.eh

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/DavehTVExclusive

Tumblr: www.dav-eh.tumblr.com

The second innings of Sunny Leone, a South Asian pornographic star with dual citizenship of Canada and the U.S. almost resembles a fairy tale. Born into a Sikh family, she was the average kid, going to the temple every Sunday. Academics hadn’t been her forte in school, but entrepreneurship was as she sold candy and lemonade in school and shoveled snow with her brother for money. And the average course of her life continued into her teens as she enrolled into a nursing school at 19, with aspirations of being a model in California, where her parents had moved by then. This is when her life took a sharp turn and she became a porn star; with her first ever nude shoot for Penthouse magazine. There was no looking back.

Understandably, Leone’s decision came as a shock to her parents, but knowing her independent personality, they reconciled to it. In 2003 that she won the title of Penthouse Pet of the Year, winning her a cover shot on the magazine and to worldwide appearances. Her string of successes in the North American porn industry continued unabated over the following years.

In the fall of 2011, Leone joined Big Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother. This proved a major turnaround in her career. Although she didn’t divulge her porn background initially, her popularity with viewers soon made her name the number one celebrity search on Google in India, a position she retained for many months. Although she didn’t win the title of Big Boss, her entry into the contest launched her film career in Bollywood, with leading director, Mahesh Bhatt offered her a role in “Jism 2”, his next film.

Even as she finally becomes main stream from an adult-only actor, Leone has also become a symbol of changing mindsets in India. In a country where pornography is banned and the society is still governed by convention and tradition in a big way, she has become acceptable, if not to the older generation, then at least to the younger lot. She takes this in her stride and feels everyone has the right to do what they wish to, in the end. Even the head of India’s Press Council, Justice Markandey Katju, spoke in her defense when he said, “My opinion is that Sunny Leone was earning her livelihood in the U.S. in a manner acceptable in that country, though it is not acceptable in India. Hence, if she conducts herself in India in a manner which is socially acceptable in India and does not breach the social moral code in India, we should not treat her as a social outcast.”

Despite the ban, 80 per cent of the traffic on her website, and 60 per cent of her revenue come from India, Leone recently acknowledged in an interview to The Globe and Mail. Perhaps she sniffs a business opportunity there sometime in the future?

Angelique Manchanda-Peres

Oakville

The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb takes its fictional name from an actual group of idealistic communist writers and artists in Hanoi. In the early 1950s, this group wrote and spoke out against the excesses of Ho Chi Minh’s policies, in particular, the Land Reform Act in which hundreds of thousands of people (peasants mostly) accused of being landlords were executed or tortured and starved in prison.

Because they were vocal in their denouncement of this “land reform,” and also because they refused to act as a mouth-speaker for government propaganda, the artists and writers of the Beauty of Humanity Movement suffered a fate similar to the unfortunate peasantry. Sent to so-called re-education camps, they were tortured, indoctrinated, killed or maimed. Punishments meted out were cruel and usually specific to the occupation of the prisoner. Artists lost their hands, poets their tongues. 

 The pivotal character in this novel is Old Man Hung, who formerly owned a restaurant famous for its pho and frequented by some of the country’s leading poets and visual artists (this while the French were in power). After angering the newly-formed Communist regime (the French were defeated in the early ’50′s), who withheld a restaurant license from him he was forced to operate outside of the law, selling pho illegally from a cart he pushed around the city. He’d have to find a new spot almost every other day and yet the crowds would throng his stall, bringing their own bowls for a taste of his magnificent Pho. Among his customers were Binh and Tu, the son and grandson of his best friend, Dao, a poet and member of the artist group the Beauty of Humanity Movement who was killed by the Communists on his way to a re-education camp.

Pho may just be a humble soup made from beef broth, but it is the blood that flows in the veins of the streets of Vietnam. Infact, Old Man Hung says that the history of Vietnam can be found in a bowl of Pho bac(the pho that Hanoi is famous for). The rice noodles it contains is symbolic of the thousand years of Chinese occupations and the beef is symbolic of the French occupation that came later (the taste for beef was introduced by the French who turned the people’s cows away from ploughs and into ‘bifteck” and pot-au-feu.) The clever Vietnamese took the best the occupiers had to offer and made something uniquely Vietnamese from it.

One day a Vietnamese-American curator, Maggie, visits Old Man Hung at one of his mobile stands. Maggie was five years old when she was rescued by the Americans at Saigon airport (after the fall of Saigon) . She wants to learn more about her artist father, who also disappeared during the war. She asks Hung if he can help her (after all when Hung had his Pho shop in the ’50′s it was the meeting place for a lot of radical artists and writers) . Hung’s memories are the perfect vehicle to take the reader through Vietnam’s past – from the intellectual age of the 1930′s when Hung was sent to the city to work in his uncle’s pho shop (he was an unwanted child…the ninth child…so unwanted his parents didn’t even give him a name, calling him simply, Nine), through to French colonization, Japanese occupation and, of course, the Vietnam War.      

While Hung provides a look back into Vietnam’s past, a 22-year-old tour guide named Tu offers readers a glimpse into the country’s current era of economic freedom and its entrepreneurial youth, so many of which were born after the war, so it’s not a direct memory in their lifetimes. Tu’ specializes in offering guilt-ridden American veterans “war tours” through his city, but he soon starts to realize their version of his country’s history is deeply flawed. There is an encounter with Tu’ and an American Vet at a Buddhist temple which is especially poignant. 

Camilla Gibb’s novels fall in the sub-genre of literary fiction that I like to call Anthropological fiction (her previous novel was “Sweetness in the Belly” which was set in Ethiopia.). These are novels set in different countries and whose readers relish learning about foreign cultures (their history, diet, traditions, rituals and so on) in a fictional setting.  Reading novels like these makes one realize how different and yet how similar we all are. No matter where the characters come from or are based, there are certain human traits that are universally recognizable and this is why these books resonate with us so much. 

Gibb’s writing is very clear, clean and precise. In this novel she explores both,present-day Vietnam and the forces that shaped it. Many novels on Vietnam focus mostly on the war and the aftermath but in doing so one neglects the vibrant, bustling Vietnam of today. I think Gibb’s novel gives the reader a very balanced and overall view of the country and I appreciate that.

To sum up, the book plunges the reader into the borderlands between opposing forces: youth and age, exclusion and privilege, war and peace.

Samuel Getachew

Inside the Glenn Gould studio, in downtown Toronto, the United Nations Women’s report titled – Progress of the World’s: In pursuit of Justice was recently released. Even though great strides have been achieved over the years, the report noted, the world has a great distance to cover before gender equality is achieved by all. In a prepared statement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper noted how UN Women Canada has taken the “first step in realizing the vision of empowering women and girls to achieve dreams, free of discrimination”. He continued how the UN Women Canada is a “new entity that recognizes the tremendous impact that gender equality can have on the world as spur to economic growth and improved development indicators, such as access to health care and education”.

The noon hour program began with an address by Almas Jiwani, President of the UN Women Canada National Committee. The noted businesswoman and humanitarian began her opening remarks with rare passion and outlined the objectives of the new group – UN Women Canada. The President and CEO of Frontier Canada Inc. outlined the mission of the year-old group that advocates for the “voiceless helping them acquire their rights at home and abroad”. MsJiwani, was recently on a state visit to Pakistan where she gave an inspiring speech in front of more than one million Pakistani women.

The dynamic speaker is an international human rights activist extraordinaire. She has traveled all over the world and has spoken on important and critical issues such as women’s empowerment and gender equality. At home and abroad, her expertise has been sought by many diverse interests, including the Government of Canada, United Sikhs Association as well as by the Pilot International Uganda. After her opening remarks, a panel of distinguished leaders followed. She has also addressed over 400 parliamentarians from 40 different countries on several occasions.

Laura Turquet, author of the UN Women’s Progress Report; Kirstine Stewart, Vice President for CBC English Services; Mike Layton, Ward 19 Councillor; and Dr. TanjinaMirza, VP, International Programs, PLAN Canada were included. Councillor Mike Layton, spoke of the plight of janitors in the city of Toronto and the “misguided” plan to privatize their services for cheaper costs. “Most of these people are women from new immigrant’s background”, remarked the young politician.

“I am of a traditional Bengali background whose husband was chosen for me”, remarked Dr.TanjinaMirza, however “I am also the very lucky one to see my relationship flourish,” she said. “When women’s rights in a country advances, the country advances,” said added. As someone who has traveled well over 20 countries in Asia, Africa as well as Latin America, she recounted the many customs as well as the international progress and developments when it comes to rights. “International development is not just a job for me; it is a commitment to a great passion.”  

Laura Turquet listed statistics, compared the legal status of women in the world in her presentation. The report that is touted as a “comprehensive survey of women’s access to justice across the globe” and according to the author, the world has many barriers when it comes to “women, especially the poorest, face in negotiating justice systems and explores the ways in which women are reconciling guarantees of their rights with the realities of living with plural legal systems”. UN Women Canada has noble objectives that include supporting countries in advancing gender equality in line with national priorities and also advocating for action on gender equality throughout the United Nations development cooperation system. It works by way of cooperation, accountability, integrity, creativity and respect for each other and one’s work.

Rose Cathy Handy of H.E.R. Consulting & Services, sponsor of the event, recounted her experiences of being pregnant and homeless.“I am the exception and we have much to go before we live in a world of equal,” she remarked as her proud daughter looked on from the audience. “Today, not only do I own my own business, but my daughter whom I was pregnant while I lived in a homeless shelter is a gifted high school student.”

One brave woman recounted how she was a raped at a young age. The visibly emotional woman continued, “This is the first time I am telling my story because I have been empowered by all of you as well as today’s event.” “I hope this event was a reminder that we can all do something about gender equality around the world,” said CBC’s Lang. “These are not remote issues, and we actually do have a lot more power than we think. Just look at Almas Jiwani, she is a force of nature and evidence of how much power one individual can have,” she added.

Actress Lisa Ray closed the well-attended event by asking that “all women push boundaries in order to achieve gender equality.” Artist Belinda Brady also performed passionate tunes of the late Whitney Houston and Bob Marley. In closing, United Nations Gender Equality & Empowerment of Women Canada National Executive Advisory, members of Board of directors and the audience paid Tribute/Hommage with standing ovation to Almas Jiwani for her never ending achievements and plight for gender equality.

“I am beyond elated at the success of today’s event,” said Ms. Jiwani. “UN Women Canada’s National Committee is barely a year old and I have brought together influential Canadian leaders to discuss tangible solutions to gender inequality and to raise awareness for women’s rights globally.”

Chocolate lovers need not feel shameful or guilty any more. The findings of a new study seem to upturn the notion that regular consumption of chocolate makes people gain weight. On the contrary, the study, conducted in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego claims the reverse might be true. Published online in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the study hypothesizes that modest, regular chocolate consumption might be calorie-neutral, which means that the metabolic benefits of eating modest amounts of chocolate might lead to reduced fat deposition per calorie and approximately offset the added calories (thus rendering frequent, though modest, chocolate consumption neutral with regard to weight). To assess this theory, the researchers examined dietary and other information provided by approximately 1,000 adult men and women from San Diego, for whom weight and height had been measured. Their findings were even more favorable than the researchers had predicted. They found that adults who ate chocolate on more days a week were actually thinner — i.e. had a lower body mass index — than those who ate chocolate less often. The size of the effect was modest but the effect was “significant” -larger than could be explained by chance.

According to estimates, 10 million Canadians live with diabetes or pre-diabetes, making the condition almost epidemic in the country. In particular, the South Asian community is at higher risk of being afflicted with diabetes. Besides genetic factors, poor lifestyle choices and unhealthy eating habits contribute to this. As the amount of sugar consumed has a clear connection to a person’s risk of contracting diabetes, zero-calorie artificial sweeteners are often the choice of many. However, most of these sweeteners come with mild to serious side-effects, and are thus not fully risk-free. But what if one had access to a sweetener made from natural sources and having no calories?

Stevia is one such plant-based product, now popular in different parts of the world. In Canada, Greeniche Natural is one company, which sells its own Stevia product. IrfanSattar, the company’s vice president recently spoke to Generation Next. He has been associated with pharmaceutical and healthcare industries for the last 18 years, in Pakistan and Canada. Since 2005, his focus has been on natural health products.

Excerpts from the interview:

GN: Take us through your journey with Greeniche. Why was the company formed?

IS: Greeniche Natural Health came into being in October 2010, when a group of professionals from the healthcare industry came together to form an organization focused on bringing the most modern natural healthcare concepts to people in Canada and abroad. The company plans to introduce a portfolio comprising natural healthcare products, including vitamins, minerals, herbal remedies, health supplements, and consumer healthcare products.

Our vision is to create a leading health and personal-care products marketing company in Canada, and a competitive and successful player in the global market place. A company recognized for marketing excellence, futuristic approach, and acknowledged for being a responsible corporate citizen.

GN: Tell us about your product Stevia.

IS: Stevia is the world’s first all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener – a perfect alternative to sugar and artificial, chemical based sweeteners. Stevia is rapidly becoming the most preferred sweeteners by millions of consumers worldwide. Besides bearing zero calories, it is also free of carbohydrates and has a zero glycemic index, which makes it the perfect sweetener for people suffering from diabetes, or who care for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Stevia Rebaudiana is a specie of herbs belonging to the Asteraceae (sunflower) family, native to subtropical and tropical South America and Central America. The species are found in the wild in semi-arid habitats ranging from grassland to mountain terrain. Stevia’s sweetening properties are imparted by two components: Stevioside and Rebaudioside (Reb A) which is the best tasting part of the Stevia leaf. The concentration of this component determines the overall sweetness, taste, and aftertaste of the end-product.

Originally introduced to Japan in 1970 by a consortium of food-product manufacturers, stevioside and other stevia products quickly caught on.

Today Stevia is consumed by millions of people from its native origins of Paraguay & Brazil to Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, USA, Canada, Russia, & many other countries.

The competing products like those made with Aspartame, Sucralose and Saccharine have established side-effects and consumers are actively seeking safer alternatives and Stevia fits the bill perfectly.
GN: Are there any side effects (however minimal) of Stevia?       

IS: What makes Stevia so intriguing besides excellent sweetening capability and no reported side-effects are the following attributes:

• Zero glycemic index, making it perfect in diabetes
• Zero calories, zero carbs and fat, and it’s terrific for people who are trying to lose weight
• Studies have shown that it also minimizes hunger sensations and actually reduces cravings for sweets and fatty foods. Many people enjoy Stevia simply to avoid sugar and help prevent obesity. A completely natural way to lose weight!
• Studies have shown that Stevia lowers high blood pressure without affecting normal blood pressure

GN: What is the cost of GreenicheStevia. Do you have a plan to reduce thecost so that it is affordable for more people?          

IS: Stevia doesn’t cost much considering the major health benefits and safety it offers. For some drinking 3 cups of tea/coffee a day with 2 sugars each, a pack of Stevia sachets would last for more than a month, translating into a daily cost of less than 40 cents a day, which, you may agree, isn’t much considering the advantages. Having said that, as the market expands and volumes grow, the price may come down in long-run.

GN: What other products do you have in the pipeline?      

IS: We have a strong products pipeline, comprising very interesting concepts. We have recently introduced a zero-sodium salt, perfect for hypertensive patients who are advised to avoid common salt (sodium chloride). It tastes just like common salt and is completely free of sodium.

We are currently in the process of manufacturing a range of 100% vegetarian formulas of vitamins and supplements, which should be in the market sometime during the month of April, 2012.
GN: As part of your marketing efforts, is there a strategy to target theSouth Asian community in particular? If yes, how do you do this?       

IS: The first and foremost effort is to promote awareness about the disease, which we do by participating in all relevant events, where we can share the information and provide guidance to the community. Our website and our Facebook page actively disseminate accurate and relevant information. We seek opportunities to stay in touch with the medical community to exchange information and ensure that we do whatever we can to make information available and accessible for everyone. We are working on a project to increase awareness amongst school going children about diabetes, and how to prevent it.

GN: What distinguishes Greeniche Stevia from other similar products?   
           

IS: Greeniche Stevia is:

1. The only brand of Stevia with 97% pure Reb-A making it the best tasting Stevia on the market
2. The only formulation without Maltodextrin and Inulin
3. The only formulation with rapid dissolution tablets

These facts make Greeniche Stevia absolutely top-of-the-line brand on the market delivering best value for consumers’ money.

By : Rubina Ahmed-Haq
Toronto

Summer is only a few months away and many of you might be planning on taking a holiday to get some much needed R & R. But before you press “buy” on that expensive European holiday you have to decide if you can afford it. Here are some simple ways to figure out how much you spend this year. 
The 4% rule 

If you’re carrying a mortgage, line of credit or any other low interest loan I recommend spending 4% of your after tax income on vacations. Why? Unless you have no debt anymore, than any more spent on vacations will be eroding into your long-term savings. If you’re carrying ANY high interest debt like a credit card or store card loans, you must pay this off before you hit the road (or the beach) on a holiday.

Cash in the bank

Always pay cash for your holiday. NEVER charge your holiday on credit unless you have the money already in the bank. Remember following the 4% rule, if your household income is $50,000 your holiday budget is $2,000 annually. Want to spend more? Save longer. Make one year a staycation to afford a luxury holiday the following year.

Taking a break doesn’t need to cost you a fortune

It’s important to take a break and have some time to recharge. But if your bills are piling up, this is the year to use some of your vacation money to get out of debt. You can take a break without spending to much money. Road trip, previously mentioned staycation, visiting family and friends.

Stretch your holiday dollars

Booking a holiday out of country the prices are usually best around six weeks in advance. Check rates on line and call competing agents to see if they can beat it. Traveling midweek is cheaper for flights. Look for all-inclusive roulette holidays; these are ten preselected hotels at a certain star rating offered at a discounted price. Recently I stayed at a 4 star plus for $1054 taxes in. I would have paid twice that if I booked individually. The catch is you find out your hotel name 3 days prior. You pick the general area, i.e. Mayan, Cancun or Punta Cana.

Look at costs from all angles

It’s always wise to do through research before you go. Online review sites like tripadvisor.ca have made it easier to plan and prepare. Pay attention to details like, is the airport transfer included? Is there departure tax? What’s the average cost of eating out? For example I priced out a villa in St. Barts once at a reasonable rate, but later learned, through research, that the cost of groceries, transport to the island, restaurants was much higher than anywhere else in the Caribbean. Staying there was reasonable but everything else was too expensive.

When can you not afford to take a vacation?

By taking a close look at your finances you can decide if you can afford to get away this year. Generally your after tax income should be divided as follows.

• Housing 30%
• Savings 15% (10% pay yourself- 5% short term)
• Other Living Expenses 30%
• Debt servicing 10%
• Transportation 15%

Break this down and your mortgage and taxes should not cost more than 30% of your after tax income, transportation shouldn’t exceed 15% If you’re spending more than this amount, you might want to look at tackling your household debt before you spend money on getting away. That said you should still look at ways of taking a break from work, staying at home, visiting family or a short weekend away, all of this will make you feel good and not drain your finances.

Cheap Vacations Ideas

1.   Book a night or weekend at a nearby hotel.

2.   Check out local festivals.

3.   Hit up the museums for a dose of culture.

4.   Spend some time with the great outdoors.

5.   Hit the beach with a pile of books to read.

6.   Have a proper Girls or Boys night out on the town.

7.   Live in the city? Get out of town to a local trail for an all day hike.

8.   Visit social coupon sites to stack up on great deals to use during your staycation.

9.   Take dance lessons.

10. Get a one-week pass at an ultra high-end gym.

Courtesy: http://www.alwayssavemoney.ca/

By Mehdi Rizvi
“All the women in Pakistan working for change, don’t give up on your dreams,” said SharmeenObaid-Chinoy. “This is for you,” she said, as she and her co-director Daniel Junge accepted the Oscar for best documentary in the short-film category. Saving Face, about acid attacks on women’s faces became the first Oscar won by a Pakistani (a Canadian-Pakistani), in that country’s sixty-four year history.
Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, SharmeenObaid went on to earn two Masters Degrees from Stanford University. She came to Canada in 2004, and now divides her time between Karachi and Toronto. Her films focus on the hybridization of cultures, changing moral parameters and evolving social values across continents.
News from Pakistan usually involves landmine blasts, terrorist attacks, or sectarian killings. Chinoy’s Oscar win caused a wave of happiness and pride through Pakistani communities at home and abroad. Her award, and particularly her acceptance speech at the awards ceremony, has raised the volume on the cries of suppressed women around the world.
Every year, Pakistani police deal with more than 100 women and girls who are disfigured in acid attacks. Many more cases go unreported. Men throw acid in women’s faces for reasons like turning down a marriage proposal, or as a way to settle family feuds and property disputes.
Based on the life of a Pakistani woman whose husband burned her face in an acid attack, Saving Face showcases social activists working to overturn this revolting custom. Viewers meet Pakistani-British plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad, who returned to his homeland and donated his time to heal victims of acid burns, the courageous Pakistani female lawyer who fought the burned woman’s case, and the determined female Parliamentarians, who got the Acid Crime Bill, passed through Parliament, under which the victim’s husband was sentenced to life imprisonment.
As one victim said, “It took one second to destroy my life.” Permanent disfigurement is a high price to pay for somebody else’s personal grudge. But the issue was buried or ignored for generations, until female parliamentarians stood up against the tyranny in Federal Parliament.
“The women who decided to be a part of the documentary did so because they wanted to make their voices heard and wanted to bring attention to this form of assault,” Obaid told GEO TV (Pakistan), in an interview conducted before she won the Oscar.
A 13-year-old girl in the documentary describes how she was burned after rejecting the advances of her teacher. Another woman featured in the film is 25-year-old Rukhsana, whose husband threw acid on her face. Then her sister-in-law doused her in gasoline, and her mother-in-law lit a match and set her on fire.
“It is a story of hope with a powerful message for the Pakistani audience. I felt this would be a great way to show how Pakistanis can help other Pakistanis overcome their problems,” Obaid said.
“The main attraction is that the film is based on true stories, it’s not a written script,” said Javed Jabbar, a veteran Pakistani filmmaker.
Obaid’s films have won international acclaim. She has made over a dozen multi-award winning films in more than 10 countries, and is the first non-American to receive a Livingston Award for international reporting. In 2004, she won a Banff TV Rockie Award at the Banff TV festival, for her film Reinventing the Taliban.
Her documentary, Pakistan’s Taliban Generation? won an International Emmy Award in 2010. In addition, her films have won The Overseas Press Club Award, The American Women in Radio and TV Award, The Cine Eagle golden Award and the Banff Rockie Award.
Sherman Obaid-Chinoy closely observed the cultural and ideological intrusion in Pakistan and was inspired by her natural talent to write, direct and produce films based on the great tragedy of cultural evils and religious fanaticism. Socially sensitive and painful issues feature prominently in her work, bringing them to open discussion, drawing the world’s attention to the miserable state of the suppressed segments of society. She tries to find respectable solutions to the tragedies faced by the victims of social injustice, military adventures and religious madness.
Like many educated and skilled immigrants, Obaid came to Canada, not to earn money, but to learn and polish the skills she had already attained. Her contributions are not limited to any particular culture or country but are for a universal noble cause.
About Pakistani society she says, “With self-respect and cooperation we can resolve all issues. I have always worked on issues nobody notices. I want to highlight those issues, and we can’t make progress unless we discuss our challenges and resolve them.”
As she told the BBC in an interview, “I want to build an academy for the new generation as a teacher and as a guide to them. I moved from print media to film making in an attempt to make my voice more vocal and visual — to let the world know we [Pakistanis] are a civilized and cultured nation, and know how to move forward in a competitive world.”