Along the same lines, we are also considering the refinancing of most of our debt service to capture the benefit of lower interest rates. This is a sensible course to take. In doing so we could choose to lower our principle owed or we could capture the savings and realize more borrowing. The latter is the chosen course. The affect of this is the continuation of a large debt service to be paid back for many years to come. It has been suggested by at least one of my colleagues that perhaps we are unnecessarily mortgaging the future. I agree with this concern.

During the times in which we live, where there has been a great leap in technology impacting the levels of communication between people throughout the world, impacting social and economic interaction, people from many different cultures and economic backgrounds are more and more in contact with each other.  This objective reality impacts us every day.  And as with anything in life, we can struggle consciously with the reality of our differences or we can chose to deny our changing reality.  In either case the relationships that develop between people (economically, socially and even personally) are impacted and affected.  In fact, the political directions taken by governments – especially in relationship to and intimately tied with economic structures and policies – are reflective of this dynamic.

The development of policy on any level is hardly exempt from this dynamic.  However, the notion of a multi-cultural approach is not largely accepted or considered a legitimate requirement in the development of public policy.  Add the element of economic differences to the equation and suddenly you’re in very troubled waters.  This at least has been my experience.