Gary Bannerman and many of the BANNERLINE associates have a foundation in journalism, print, radio and television. In the spirit of this legacy, here we present stories about communicators, and commentaries on matters of topical interest.

• Bears on the North Shore
  
  
  Click images to enlarge
  
  This bear casually wandered up to a garbage storage structure, broke in through the top, and then enjoyed a leisurely lunch before - just as calmly - sauntering back to the woods, indifferent to the human gallery that had assembled to view the proceedings. Patricia Bannerman photographed it all, climbing at one point on a stand to shoot down into the dumpster.
   
• Defending the Upgrade of Highway 1 - Gateway Project
  At dinner tonight the major topic of conversation turned to whether or not the Billion-$-plu$ budget for the twinning of the Port Mann bridge and widening of Highway 1 through to Vancouver was justified, or whether the money was better spent on some other means of transportation.

  Now I personally think that not only is it justified, but that it is over twenty years too late and probably not enough expansion to adequately deal with the problems we have here in the Vancouver Lower Mainland with traffic and congestion. But I found myself having to justify my opinion in light of the recent radical rise in gasoline costs; and that got me thinking that maybe others might be interested in why, since I've actually given this quite a bit of thought over the past few years.

  What it comes down to is that I believe that the personal automobile, at least here in North America, is not going to disappear, no matter how high the price of gasoline goes.
  
  read on for why Richard Pitt thinks this way...
   
• www.kerrywaghorn.com
  Kerry Waghorn's "Faces in the News" feature, founded by the San Francisco Chronicle subsidiary Chronicle Features in 1977, is still going strong, now represented by Kansas City based Universal Press Syndicate, the largest independent newspaper syndicator in the world. Kerry has published over 9,000 of his caricatures in more than 400 newspapers and he still going strong.
  
  We met Kerry in 2004 when he was retained to illustrate the book Squandering Billions, co-authored by Gary Bannerman and Dr. Don Nixdorf, a brutal expose of waste, mismanagement and tragedy in North American health care.
  
  A friendship evolved, built upon a passion for news. This eventually led to discussions about how to make Kerry's work more easily accessible to all for their enjoyment and a system through which copies can be obtained.
  
  BANNERLINE was proud to facilitate this evolution, another demonstration of both talent and skill; the work of our web design associate Doug Cook.
  
  What can been seen now at www.kerrywaghorn.com is just a taste of what is to come. We are confident that, in time, this will become the greatest inventory of contemporary news, entertainment and sports portraiture (caricature) that the world has ever known.
  
  "I normally wince at hyperbole such as world-best, international renown and so on, but to have Kerry Waghorn as an associate of our firm, along with John Batchelor of England, really tests the limitations of adjectives," Gary Bannerman said. "Batchelor is beyond doubt the pre-eminent technical illustrator in the world, with a library of books and works in prestigious collections behind him, and Kerry is in a league by himself in his field."
  
  
  Robert Genn (left) and Kerry Waghorn, Canadian artists who enjoy a global clientele,
  excelling in different genres, discuss multimedia communication with Gary Bannerman (right).
   
• ROBERT GENN - Love Letters to Art
  Genn's latest coffee table book is titled Love Letters to Art. Some of the text passages are excerpts from newsletters he has shared world-wide for years now, exchanging ideas on art topics. The prolific artist dispatches two newsletters each week and one of his web sites, The Painter's Keys  attracts millions of visitors each year.
  
  The artist's personal web site www.robertgenn.com is focused on his own work, his dealers and the legacy achieved in a lifetime of creative pursuits.
   
• United States Health Insurance - They Just Don't Get It!
  EDITOR'S NOTE: Gary Bannerman is a veteran Canadian journalist and co-author of the book Squandering Billions (with Dr. Don Nixdorf and illustrator Kerry Waghorn), analyzing Canada's national health care system, but also focusing extensively on American experience and research.

  It doesn't require a movie like Michael Moore's SICKO or the rhetoric of a Presidential campaign to comprehend the astonishing horror show of American health management. The U.S. spends vastly more per capita on health than whatever nation is in distant second place, yet the country's ranking among world nations in health statistics is within a cluster of third world countries, dead last among first world democracies.

  The 40-50 million uninsured Americans, along with likely an equal number of under-insured citizens, are the only people in the civilized democratic world who live in constant fear of an economic catastrophe related to health care.

  How is this so? A disproportionate number of the world's best and brightest in the health field, supported by the most advanced and expensive technology and institutions, work all across the country. The U.S. has the greatest health centres (Mayo, Johns Hopkins et al.), the greatest medical schools (Harvard, Stanford, Duke Chicago and dozens more) and some of the most advanced health care managers, leaders in the "wellness" mission, a recognition that keeping insured families well is more profitable than waiting for tragedy to strike: The "Blues," Kaiser Permanente, Humana and others.

  What seems so mystifying to the world is to listen to prominent American politicians make a very simple principle and obvious solution, sound so complex. The words of Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and so many others who went before them, resemble something from Mad Magazine. Read the whole article here
   

• THE BUCK STOPS NOWHERE
  Former Vancouver Police Chief, founding Chair of the Justice Institute of B.C. and past member of the National Parole Board, Bob Stewart, speaks out about what he sees as a dysfunctional structure for urban policing in B.C., remarks also relevant to the current national debate concerning the RCMP.
  
  Here is an excerpt:
  
  In recent months I have become increasingly embarrassed by and ashamed of the lack of professionalism, sound management or even simple common sense within the governance of police in this country.
  
  Like other nations, we have had police corruption scandals. Those stories were upsetting
  (often entertaining in a morbid sense) with an upside being that they focused public
  attention on solutions. Today's problems seem like a blitzkrieg of isolated incidents that are sometimes serious, but - at the executive level - mostly just plain dumb and pathetic.
  
  There is a rampant disease in this era and it starts at political levels. Lack of accountability
  is not the issue; there is so much accountability nobody is responsible for anything.
  Defensive "image-oriented" management by leadership, more commonly known as CYA,
  has become the police culture. See the whole article (pdf)
   
• July 25, 2005 Film vs Digital Mindset
  Digital cameras have revolutionized photography in many ways, but to my mind the least understood one has little to do with what you do with the resulting image. Instead it has to do with how you look at the act of taking the photos in the first place.
• June 5, 2004 In support of organized labour
  Gary Bannerman offers offers a contrary view to that of colleague Richard Pitt.
• May 3, 2004 Is it time to de-fang the unions?
  Richard Pitt takes a look at the questions surrounding unions and government on this day of planned wide-spread actions.
• April 30, 2004
  David Hancock is an internationally recognized authority on wild birds, frequently contracted by National Parks Services to assist with conservation and research initiatives. Hancock House 
  has published Bannerline books, and scores of books on various themes, but is world acclaimed as the publishers of some of most impressive and most expensive publications on bird life in 
  print. As a British Columbian, he is as distressed about the same kind of monumental government incompetence in his field of  science, that is now a matter of permanent record and Canada's 
  shame in Ontario's 2003 SARS tragedies.
• December 3, 2003
  Chaos... An accident scene today can resemble the evacuation of Dunkirk, or is it the evacuation of common sense? 
• October 21, 2003
  Of Social Contracts and Government Sell-outs - a look at the intellectual property section of the Free Trade Area of the Americas proposed Treaty
• September 27, 2003
  Symantec's dangerous gamble - Peter Norton, where are you?
• August 11, 2003
  Local Business Marketing in the Internet Age. Does it make sense to spend thousands of dollars on a fancy web site if all it is used for is finding your physical location so customers can come to your shop?
• August 1, 2003
  Internet Domains and Small Business - a look at the does and don'ts of internet names for business not directly selling via the 'Net.
• July 14, 2003
  Vancouver's Olympic Victory - why the emotion?
• June 16, 2003 editorial
  It's a lifeboat, but the ship is still sinking. The advent of slot machines at racetracks - finally now imminent in Vancouver - has had the salubrious effect of pumping cash into both purses and 
  operations, but there is little evidence to date that the new affluence is excising the malignancy killing the sport.
• April 30, 2003 editorial
  U.S. wins the war but may lose the peace...
• BANNERLINE on modern media
• BANNERLINE on crime and corrections

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