100th Investiture of the Order of Canada
The Governor General presents the insignia to Hector Jacques.
Excerpts from: http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=5205

OTTAWA—Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, presided over an investiture ceremony at Rideau Hall, on Friday October 26, 2007. The Order of Canada, our country’s highest civilian honour, was awarded for the first time in 1967. Over the years, more than 5 000 people have been invested into the Order of Canada. This ceremony is the 100th investiture of the Order of Canada.

Hector J. Jacques, O.C. of Dartmouth, N.S. was made an Officer of the Order.

In 1972, Hector Jacques co-founded Jacques Whitford, an environmental consulting firm that has since become a world leader in earth sciences engineering. Now chair of Jacques Whitford, he is a visionary entrepreneur who has built a reputation for excellence, notably in environmental impact assessments and geotechnical engineering. A champion of economic development in Atlantic Canada, he has nurtured young engineers and business leaders by establishing a mentoring program at his firm. Also active in his community, he has served as a director on the Nova Scotia Voluntary Planning Board and on the Black Business Initiative Board.

Pope Benedict XVI Names 23 New Cardinals

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI named 23 new cardinals at the end of his weekly general audience Oct. 17 and said he would formally install the cardinals during a special consistory at the Vatican Nov. 24.

The new cardinals represent 15 countries on five continents. Eight of the new cardinals are current or retired Vatican officials, 13 are current or retired heads of archdioceses around the world and two are former rectors of the main pontifical universities in Rome.

Notable among the 23 are:
• Indian Archbishop Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, 62.
• Kenyan Archbishop John Njue of Nairobi, 63.

Archbishop Oswald Gracias of Mumbai
Most Rev. Gracias -- a native of Orlim -- is the fourth Cardinal of Goan origin, after Cardinal Valerian Gracias of Bombay, Cardinal Joseph Cordeiro of Karachi and Cardinal Ivan Dias of Bombay. Archbishop Gracias and 22 other prelates from different parts of the world, who were appointed Cardinals by Pope Benedict, will be created cardinals in a consistory on November 24, the eve of the Feast of Christ the King.

Following the November 24 consistory, the College of Cardinals will number 202 members of whom 121, under the age of 80, will be electors. Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman has rejoiced in the appointment of Archbishop Gracias as a Cardinal of the Universal Church. “We offer him warm felicitations as well as to the Church in Bombay, which he so ably leads. This Archdiocese wishes the fourth Son of Goa to enter the College of Cardinals God’s special blessings to carry out his outstanding service to the Church in India and worldwide,” stated a press note issued by Fr J Loiola Pereira, Director of the Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media.

Archbishop Gracias was born on December 24, 1944 and was ordained a priest on December 20, 1970. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Bombay on June 28, 1997, before being elevated as Archbishop of Agra on September 7, 2000. He was then appointed as archbishop of Bombay on October 14, 2006, succeeding Cardinal Ivan Dias, who was named in May 2006 as president of the Vatican Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith

Archbishop John Njue of Nairobi

Njue is the second cardinal in Kenya’s history, after the late Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga who was elevated to that rank by Pope Paul VI in 1973. Otunga died in 2003.

Njue will join the Sacred College of Cardinals, which assists the Holy Father in governing the universal Church. Cardinals below the age of 80 elect a new Pope.

According to a report by the Catholic News Agency, currently there are 105 cardinals under the age of 80 in the Sacred College of Cardinals, which leaves 15 vacancies to reach the normal total of 120.

This month the former Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano and American Cardinal Edmund Szoka will both turn 80, bringing the total number of open spots to 17.

Archbishop Njue was appointed head of Nairobi on October 6. Until then, he was Coadjutor Archbishop of Nyeri and chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference (KEC). He was also Apostolic Administrator of Murang'a Diocese.

Njue will be installed at the Holy Family Basilica on Thursday, November 1

Quebec Pension Fund Plans to Invest in India
http://www.thestar.com/default
October 23, 2007

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, Canada's biggest pension-fund manager, plans to invest in Indian real estate for the first time and may spend up to $1.6 billion there in the next five years.
SITQ, the Caisse office-building unit that owns about $10.6 billion worth of property, may have as much as 15 per cent of its assets in India by 2012, chief executive Paul Campbell said. SITQ currently has no investments in the country.
The fund manager is moving into the world's second-most populous nation to boost returns as rising borrowing costs make U.S. assets less attractive. Real estate development in the country is forecast to increase to $90 billion (U.S.) by 2015 from $12 billion in 2005, Moody's Investors Service said in a June report.
"We are really focused on India right now," Campbell said in an interview at Caisse headquarters in Montreal. "This is the future, this is where the growth is going to be. We have no choice but to be there, or our returns over the next 20 years are going to lag."
Campbell, who plans to travel to India later this month, said SITQ would probably focus on cities such as Mumbai and Hyderabad. The company will work with local partners since Indian law limits foreign control of real estate.

Son of Indian immigrants pledges to change Louisiana's reputation for corruption
The Associated PressPublished: October 21, 2007

KENNER, Louisiana: Louisiana's new governor-elect, the son of Indian immigrants, wants to strike at the heart of the state's reputation for cronyism and corruption.

A day after Bobby Jindal's historic win, the Republican congressman pressed ahead with his campaign pledge to clean up the state's image. He said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday that one of his first acts will be to call a special legislative session to reform ethics laws.

"I think we're setting the bar too low when we say, 'Look, isn't it great that we haven't had a statewide elected official go to jail recently?'" Jindal said.

"The reality is there are a lot of practices that are accepted ways of doing business in Baton Rouge that are considered unethical in other parts of the country, that are considered illegal in other parts of the country," Jindal said.

The son of immigrants on Saturday won more than 50 percent of the vote in a primary election to make him Louisiana's first non-white governor since the 1970s and the United States' first Indian-American chief executive. That tally averted the need for a November runoff election.

His two predecessors, Democrat Kathleen Blanco and Republican Mike Foster, governed with no allegations of cronyism, but the state has a well-earned reputation for shady politics.

Four-term Democratic Gov. Edwin Edwards is serving prison time in a bribery and extortion case involving the awarding of riverboat casino licenses. In the past decade, Louisiana has had an insurance commissioner and elections commissioner serve time in jail, and a litany of corruption cases are pending in New Orleans.

Jindal wants legislators to create new state laws requiring themselves to disclose their sources of income and their assets — a bill that failed to pass in the most recent legislative session — and to bar their family members from doing business with the state. Louisiana's ethics laws lag too far behind other states' requirements, he said.

And while he acknowledges that some of the concerns are more about perception than reality, he said they can still can harm the state's ability to attract businesses and its requests for aid to recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which struck in 2005.

Jindal said that he will resign from Congress shortly before his January inauguration and that, after he takes office, will announce a date to fill his congressional seat representing suburban New Orleans.

The governor's race four years ago was Jindal's first attempt at elected office. He quickly rebounded from the loss, running for Congress a year later and capturing his seat easily. He had only token opposition when he ran for re-election last year.

Just 32 during his first gubernatorial run, the Oxford University-education Jindal by then already had served as Louisiana's health care secretary, president of one of its university systems and as an assistant health secretary under President George W. Bush.

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