Me and inukshuks

Do you know inukshuks? I guess the answer is YES!, if you are Canadian. An NO!, when you are not.

Inukshuks are simply few rocks, erected to resemble a person (the true inukshuk more resembles just a cross, person-like statues with two legs are colled inunnguaq, but more familiar name for both is just inukshuk). The word inuksuk means “something which acts for or performs the function of a person”. These statues served as landmarks for old tribes of used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America, showing them danger, deep snow, spring of water, or just simply the right direction.

That’s why we in Real estate Toronto have chosen Inukshusks (or “inuksuit”) as our symbol. It represents a good symbol for a northern planner. It comes from the land and remains part of the land. The purpose is clear, to show direction and guide the way. And we are “guiding you home”. If we prepare good plans built on a solid foundation of scientific and local knowledge, common goals can be achieved. In simple terms the “inukshuk” reflects the philosophy of the company principals.

We are not alone – in Canada you can see more companies or institutions having inukshuk as a symbol. Morover, you can see inukshuks erected on our gardens…

And yes, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games logo is a inukshuk too!

Should we trust canadian banks?

For months now we hear about banks going bankrupt, government bailouts, financial help from central banks…USA, United Kingdom, Iceland, Hungary – more and more countries is being hit by the financial crisis.
Since I am realtor in Toronto neighbourhoods, my business very closely realted to banks. Who’s buying a property without the help of mortgage? Almost nobody, so I am watching news very closely – any turmoil in Canadian banking system can heavily hit realtors and their clients.

Luckily, world believes in soundness of our banks. the world believes it even so much, that it placed our banking system on the first place of all countries! More than 10000 business professionals took part in World Economic Forum’s survey The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, which contains dozens of various rankings. One of them is called “Soundness of the banks” and Canada placed first!

We received 6.8 points on average (1 means bankrupted bank, 7 means excellent condition), leaving all other 133 countries behind. The USA, Germany and United Kingdom all placed arounde the 40th place, reaching score hardly over 6 points. Another big economy, Russia, placed on a very poor 107th position, with score 4.86 points. Worst result was reached by Algeria (3.9).

Of course, this doesn’t mean we can pay no attention to financial crisis. Even the strongest bank is not able to survive a bank run. But confidence is extremely important and these result show, world has confidence in our banks!