Saturday, October 31, 2009

Don't turn up the heat on the West

By making Western provinces pay for adventures in global warming policy we will be playing with Confederation.

An article on The Globe’s front page carrying the headline “Canada can meet its climate goals, but the West will write the cheques” raises, among many others, two very interesting points. The article is about a study, conducted by two ardent environmental advocacy groups – the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation – and was sponsored by the Toronto Dominion Bank.

The headline has the virtue of capturing the first point I want to underline. In our new green-genuflecting age any substantial, purely Canadian effort to curb greenhouse gases – any policy, economic or otherwise – will have a massive and negative impact on Alberta and Saskatchewan.

If there are taxes on oil development, if we introduce carbon penalties on industry, if there is a deliberate brake put on the oil sands, or an effort to shut them down altogether – this latter not an unthinkable proposition in certain quarters – whatever is done will, sooner or later, take revenues and jobs, take enterprise, out of Alberta in particular. For purely projected and speculative benefits to the world’s climate a century hence – and, despite the unctuous insistence of many to the contrary, speculative they remain – people are seriously considering policies that will penalize the West for its success as an energy producer now.

This is reckless. The oil industry of some Western provinces has been Canada’s dynamo these past few years. It has been our major shield during this recession. It has given the dignity of jobs to tens of thousands of Canadians. It is all that. But if “Central” Canada, as the political and economic axis of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal is still known in some quarters out West, now – under the impetus of the green craze – is seen to be setting limits, placing penalties, or bleeding disproportionate taxes, particularly in Alberta’s case, it will churn a backlash that will make regional hostilities set loose by the national energy program a few decades ago seem like warm-ups for a yoga class.

It will shape a whirlwind of political discontent, set the West against East, and far from incidentally have deep repercussions in the many other provinces that have their citizens working in one capacity or another in the oil patch. The fury over the national energy program may be spent, but its memory – pardon the word – is green. That fury, I reiterate, will be as nothing compared with the political fury of a second attempt to “stall the West.” Should some global warming action plan attempt to put the oil sands and Western energy development at significant disadvantage, or draw taxes out of the economies of the Western provinces to pay for adventures in global warming policy, we will be playing with Confederation.

That is a prediction it takes no computer modelling to make. If Alberta in particular, and the Western provinces more generally, come to be portrayed as villains in the global warming morality play, more than the climate a century hence is at stake.

Secondly, I would urge a caution to all people working in the oil sands in particular. The TD study – farmed out to the economic specialists of the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute – should be seen as a loud, low shot across the bow. The oil sands project, already castigated by every green-blooded organization on the planet, featured in a full-blown National Geographic hit-job some months back, is going to be the great emblem of a world “toxifying” itself, and paving the way for global warming Armageddon. It is now boilerplate in news stories as the “dirtiest project on the planet.” It photographs vividly – as National Geographic’s glossy toss-off demonstrates – because of its scale and makes for wonderful anti-energy posters. The oil sands are a target.

Environmentalists are very good at what they do. They play the news media better than Glenn Gould doing a Bach prelude. They know how to sell their point of view, how to build a villain, how to shortcut an argument. Big Green – and there is a Big Green as much as there is a Big Oil – knows the game. Find a symbol. Find one project that, superficially, can stand for all others. The oil sands, despite the hundreds or thousands of less scrupulous and governed energy projects all over the world, despite China’s spectacular use of coal, or the accelerated developments all over the Third World, will be the emblem of choice for the eco-warriors. The media-smart apostles of Al Gore, the Sierra Club and hundreds of other NGOs and eco-lobbies will turn the oil sands into the blight of our time.

It’s only a number of weeks ago, remember, that the great crisis in the auto industry called forth billions to rescue the great manufacturing base of Central Canada. The West will note the contradiction. Spend billions to save an industry that runs on petroleum – it’s here in Ontario – hit the source industry to “save the planet” – that’s in the West.

Pursue this course and things will get warm. And I’m not talking about the climate.

Rex Murphy, Globe and Mail

__________

Full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/dont-turn-up-the-heat-on-the-west/article1346161/

Election poem, Montreal, 1853

In honour of the municipal election which takes place in Montreal tomorrow I am presenting this poem published in 1853, describing the power of the voter.  Though the words are  a wee bit flowery they are actually quite apropos.  For those in Montreal- Vote!!!!

 

Montreal Witness, 12 January 1853, page 19

 

The poor voter on election day

 

The proudest now is but my peer,

The highest not more high;

To-day, of all the weary year,

A king of men am I!

To-day alike are great and small,

The nameless and the known;

My palace is the people’s hall

The ballot box my throne.

 

Who serves to-day upon the list

Beside the served shall stand;

Alike the brown and wrinkled fist,

The gloved and dainty hand.

The rich are level with the poor,

The weak are strong to-day;

And sleekest broad-cloth counts no more

Than homespun frock of gray.

 

To-day let pomp and vain pretence

My stubborn right abide;

I set a plain man’s common sense

Against the pedant’s pride!

To day shall simple manhood try

The strength of gold and land;

The wide world has not wealth to buy

The power in my right hand.

 

While there’s a grief to need redress,

Or balance to adjust,

Where weighs our loving manhood less,

Than Mammon’s vilest dust,

While there’s a right to claim my vote,

Or wrong to sweep away,

Up! Clouted knee and ragged coat!

A man’s a man to-day!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Canadian philanthropy gathering

I’m participating in the annual gathering of Canadian philanthropists in a Calgary hotel this week.  This is the third annual conference of Philanthropic Foundations Canada in its short 10-year history.  And it’s becoming quite a big deal.  Last night it was announced that PFC will surpass 100 members by the end of the year.  (A list of current members is found here.)  My friend Hulene from the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation demonstrated that Waterloo Region really is making the right moves (see link).

I’ve found the sessions and networking valuable.  Foundations need to get out of their boxes, learn to communicate, and be willing to change and grow.  Best thoughts yesterday: a workshop on “Drowning in Paperwork, Distracted from Purpose” where we discussed maintaining accountability on grants while streamlining processes and information flow with grantees.   Project Streamline researched processes and controls with foundations and grantees, and has come up with ten tips that will strengthen and smooth out relations between the two groups.  (Full report found here.)

Ravenwood Thursday #3 & #4

Start at Part One.

Part Three: cum grano salis

Mr. Flutterbom, my gardener, is an odd man, a walking paradox of sorts. It is whispered by the people in the village that he is a direct descendant of pirates and reputed to be the only man in five generations of his family that did not meet his end in the Royal Navy’s gallows by the age of 40. But what makes him truly bizarre is that, as a man, he thoroughly enjoys sneaking about, stalking, lurking, and covorting in a series of clandestine affairs. This in itself would not be too bizarre were it not for the fact that he could not sneak up on you if his life depended on it: he squeaks.

No matter what shoes, pants, or braces he chooses to wear, he always produces a squeak with every right step. Added to this conumdrum is the losing battle with flatulence he’s been waging since childhood. As a child, Master  Flutterbom, was  heckled by the local children who had named him “Mr. Fluter Bum.” The taunting never lasted long as Young Flutterbom would just tell the local urchins that the ghosts of his pirate ancestors would kill them in their sleep.

How he became a gardener is anybody’s guess. Some have posited that his flatulence works as a sort of natural defence against the insects that would normally ravage a garden. How he does it, I don’t know. My only concern is that my roses stay beautiful and he always sees that they do.

Part Four: varium et mutabile semper femina

This morning the Abbey is choked with a terrible fog, spreading its caress around every leaf, every post, and every corner of the manor. After relieving myself of Mr. Flutterbom’s presence, I opted to walk the grounds in search of an ideal spot to practice my aim. I put on my heavy coat, packed my pistol case under my arm, and headed out into the mist. Some would consider shooting in the thick fog a dangerous folly but this is my land, my manor, my peasants.

I wouldn’t have thought that it really mattered at all until a young man arose out of the fog, directly in my line of fire.

“You are trespassing young man!” I shouted to him.

“Excuse, monsieur,” he replied. It was misty indeed if  I could walk for an hour and find myself in France.

“Can be of assistance?” I asked, my pistol still levelled at his head.  He stood uncomfortably.

“J’ai un message pour vous,” he stammered.

“Eh anglais, s’il vous plait,” I ordered. “Unless you want me to ruin that splendid jacket of yours.”

“Monsieur,” he said softly, eyeing the barrel of my pistol with anxiety. “I carry a letter from Madame Empetrer.”

Ah, Charlotte!  Only she could convince some core sought to travel all the way from France to deliver a message.  But she did it with a wink of her eye.  This poor Bastard’s never even seen her petticoats, I’ll wager.

“Give it here son.” He approached silently, still watching might trigger finger intensely.  He handed me the letter and took two steps backward.

“What is your name son?” I inquired, genuinely curious. He looked puzzled. “Votre nom?” I asked again, less serious.

“Jean,” he answered, finally.

“It is a cold day today, jean.  Is it not?” I asked.

“Pardon?”

The smile fell from my face. 

“C’est froid? Non?” I asked again.

“Ah, oui monsieur, c’est froid.” He began to smile.

“Give me your jacket,” I demanded.  His smile disappeared. “Enlevez votre manteau!” I ordered, this time more forcefully.

He removed his jacket and handed it to me.  It was beautiful, in a gaudy kind of way, it was definitely French.  I dropped it into the mud of the pasture and grounded into the earth with the heel of my boot.  Then I shot it.

I walked away, grinning.  Yes, that ought to do quite nicely.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Choosing YOUR Foundation

Avon Foundation

Out of all the products you can apply to your face to enhance your own beauty, foundation has to be the hardest one to choose. First you have to know what your skin type is. Do you want light, medium or full coverage? Do you need a concealer and/or loose powder? Have you found the right colour to blend with your skin tone? Here is a hint for the last question. When you try foundations, do it along your jaw line. It has to blend in with the colour of your neck too. Unless you like walking around with a mask on. Or you are about to go on stage and perform for Cirque du Soleil. You get my point.

For me, I have oily to combination skin. So the best kind of foundation for me is a cream-to-powder. For those who have sensitive skin, mineral makeup is your best bet. Take a look at my Avon foundation guide. I’m sure it will help you make the right decision for yourself. If you have any questions or want to oder, contact me for information. http://interavon.ca/melanie.brereton

Avon Foundation Guide

http://www.ca.avon.com/REPSuite/static/images/my_training/foundation_e.pdf

HJ Leitch takes munitions post, Montreal/Ottawa, 1942

Montreal Daily Star, 24 February 1942, page 9

HJ Leitch Takes Munitions Post

Ottawa- Feb 24- (CP)- Munitions Minister Howe announced last night appointment of HJ Leitch of the Algoma Steel Corporation as assistant to the Director-General of the Shipbuilding Branch of the Munitions Department.

Born in Westmount, Que., he graduated as a civil engineer from McGill University.  He is on loan from his firm.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

What IS Multiculturalism?

 

Dan Murray

Let me tell you about a friend of mine.

For the sake of privacy, I’ll call her “Mary”. She is a recent immigrant to Canada from the Philippines. There, she was a librarian. A few years ago, she decided she needed a change in her life. After talking with friends who were emigrating to Canada, she decided to pay a visit to Canadian immigration officials to inquire about moving here.

“You’re just the kind of person Canada needs–skilled, well-educated,” she was told. “There are lots of jobs for you.” Mary was elated. Within a few months, she had resigned from her job and was on a plane to Vancouver. She found a place to live, and soon made lots of friends in the Filipino groups that she met. Next, she began her search for the job that she had been told would be so easy to find.

This is where Mary’s story turns sour. She did manage to find one short-term contract librarian position, but when that ended, she found herself looking all over again. In the last two years, she’s managed to find a few things very unrelated to her field, but she’s come to realize that the message she was given by Canadian immigration officials was very unrealistic and, to put it more accurately – fraudulent!

Recently, she’s been re-training so that she can make herself more qualified for non-librarian employment. I happened to be enrolled in one of the UBC (University of British Columbia) courses she was taking. One day, I gave her a ride to class and we started talking about our instructor, a University of Toronto professor who had grown up in (the Canadian Province of) New Brunswick. In talking to us one day, he mentioned that his background was Irish.

As we were driving, she commented on what the instructor had mentioned one day. “He said he was Irish,” Mary declared. When Mary said this, she really meant, “He’s like me. He’s an immigrant. Canada is a country of immigrants.” She had heard the latter statement many times and, like many new Canadians, had come to believe what she had heard.

When I told her that the instructor really meant that he came from Irish ancestry and that his ancestors, like those of many Canadians, had probably come to New Brunswick almost 200 years ago, and that a separate culture had developed in Canada in those intervening years, I could tell from the look on her face that she was shocked and deflated.

Not only had she believed the immigration official but she had believed the messages fanned by Canada’s multiculturalists that implied that Canada was like a blank slate – that it didn’t really have a history — that there really was no resident Canadian culture and that Canada was composed of many different ethnic groups—all just “recently arrived”—and that as a new arrival, she would fit in well and would be no different from the countryful of other “recent arrivals”.

I felt and continue to feel sympathy for “Mary”. Like tens of thousands of other immigrants who have arrived in Canada in the last 15 years, she is a victim of the short-term electoral aspirations of a number of people in the Liberal Party of Canada who feel they can use the immigrant vote to win a significant number of seats. But I feel more sympathy for Canadian job-seeking victims of Liberal immigration policies because Canadians are enduring and will continue to endure undetermined long-term employment losses precisely because of these policies.

What is the connection between “Mary’s” story and multiculturalism? As one observer of this subject has said, immigration is the oxygen that feeds the fires of multiculturalism. Without one another, the two would wither—an event that many Canadians would like to see occur soon. But at the moment, the two are in full flame. What have they achieved?

Well, all of us will concede that some spice has been added to Canada. But what has been the price? Mary’s case outlines the deceit that has been practised on skilled immigrants. But it also reveals the insult given to Canadians. The multiculturalists have rushed to the aid of people like Mary with affirmative action programmes, trying to get public and private employers to hire immigrants because these immigrants make up a significant percentage of our population now.

All Canadians have heard the following illogical statement from a number of public employers: “Well, we want to have our workforce reflect the ethnic composition of our community.” What this statement really means is that these employers want to move recent arrivals to the front of the employment line!

  Meanwhile, resident Canadians are supposed to go meekly to the back of this line!? What Canadians in their right minds would ever want this?

This brings us to the real issue. Most Canadians assume that their government should be serving its own people. It is very clear that Canada’s immigration policies are in conflict with the employment aspirations of its own citizens. So, the first definition of multiculturalism I would give is this: it is a flowery-sounding deceit of both the people who have come here and of the people of Canada.

A second definition follows from the first.

Multiculturalism is a euphemism for an attempt to intimidate the people of Canada into accepting people that it never really needed. It is non-Canadian-culturalism. It is an attempt to put itself above all other considerations, especially the informed interests of CANADIANS.

Not only does it thwart the job-seeking of Canadians, it crowds and degrades the living space of Canadians – who live in the three major immigrant-receiving areas of Canada: Toronto, Montreal andVancouver.

At a time when most Canadians are aware that the most basic science asserts that global population has to be stabilized and reduced, these three areas of Canada are growing at third-world rates. At a time when the effects of overuse of resources are appearing in the form of climate change here and all over the world, Canada is bringing in unprecedented numbers of people to consume more and more resources.

The government of Canada has never produced any rational evidence to justify its present immigration policies. What should Canada place first: irrational, ill-informed multiculturalist-immigration policies — or its precious living spaces? The multiculturalists have had considerable success in bullying Canadians into accepting the idea that multiculturalism should take precedence over the livability of living space. To any sane, informed Canadian — this does not make sense!

In addition to [the] deceit and intimidation, multiculturalism is resurrected colonialism. The two main source areas of immigrants to Canada are China and India (+ Pakistan). The populations of these countries make up well over a third of the world’s 6 billion people. Since the introduction of unprecedented 250,000+ annual immigration levels in the early 1990’s, these two groups have quickly become the majority, for example, in areas of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

There is virtually an unlimited number of people in these two countries to continue the flood. Prominent members of these groups have declared that they will do everything they can to make sure that the flood continues.

The multiculturalists defend what is happening by using the guilt card: they tell Canadians that we colonized Canada and displaced the aboriginal population, so what is wrong with two large ethnic groups doing the same to us? In other words, they tell Canadians that in order to make up for past guilt,Canadians must meekly accept this resurrected colonialism. Other groups have done the same thing here and in other parts of Canada.

The multiculturalists’ attitude, which implies that Canada is some partially-filled, acultural space waiting to be filled with infinite numbers of people, who will make infinite demands for equal ethnic treatment, has to be put into the nearest landfill where it belongs.The most direct way to achieve that goal is to return Canada’s immigration policy to the principle of economic and cultural absorptive capacity.

In other words, when Canada has an economic need for immigrants, it will look for them. When it needs very few–as is certainly the case now–it will not look for them.    

As for cultural absorptive capacity, the Canadian government should never permit the inflow of immigrants to overwhelm the culture of resident Canadians. In summary, Canada will continue to admit some immigrants…but those numbers have to be reduced dramatically.

In this way, common sense will be restored to Canada’s immigration policies, the frustrations of immigrants like Mary will be reduced dramatically, the ambitions of Canadian job-seekers will be a primary goal of Canada’s government, Canadian culture will regain its self-respect and the people of Canada will re-assert their sovereignty over their OWN country. >>SOURCE

Population of CHINA - 1,319,000,000 (Billion)

Population of INDIA –  1,136,000,000 (Billion)

Population of CANADA – 33,000,000  (million)

ALSO READ:

Racial Diversity – A CON Game

Multiculturalism – A Dividing Force

Importing Chinese Miners?

Hire Canadians First!

Labour Shortage MYTH

CANADIAN Border Madness

Immigration Reduces Income

WHITE People – An Endangered Species

Publisher’s Memo On Immigration

New Chinese Political Party In Canada

Participant profile: Peter Mohan

This morning it’s an early landing in Canada to meet Peter Mohan.

Peter Mohan

Peter Mohan is a highly accomplished writer and producer of more than 400 hours of dramatic programming for American and Canadian network television.  He is currently Co-Showrunner/Executive Producer on a new series for Showcase Television, Lost Girl.

Some of Mohan’s other recent television credits include serving as a Co-Executive Producer and writer on The Bridge, a one–hour police drama for CBS, as an Executive Producer/Writer on NBC’s The Listener and as Executive Producer/Showrunner on Blood Ties, a one-hour supernatural detective series based on Tanya Huff’s wildly successful Vicki Nelson novels.

Mohan’s long-form writing credits include the Television movies Lucky Day, Pretend You Don’t See Her and Loves Music, Loves to Dance, all based on Mary Higgins Clark’s best-selling mystery novels, and such varied titles as Mission to Mars, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World and Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad for which he was nominated for a Cable Ace Award for Best writing.

Mohan launched his television career as executive story editor of the acclaimed CBS series Night Heat.  He moved on to become executive story editor for the USA Network series Diamonds and Counterstrike, as well as the NBC prime-time drama Secret Service, before becoming producer of CBS’ Sweating Bullets.

In 1996, he became creative consultant/writer on the CBS dramedy Due South and the following year, served as executive producer of FOX’s Eerie, Indiana.  He went on to become executive producer/showrunner of the sci-fi adventure series Code Name: Eternity, and on the PBS young adult series, Mythquest. Mohan also served as Executive Producer/showrunner on Tribune Entertainment’s popular action/adventure sci-fi series, Mutant X.  During his years on Mutant X, it became the #1 syndicated series in America.

Mohan has also written numerous episodes for such popular series as Relic Hunter, La Femme Nikita, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Top Cops and Highlander, and has worked in diverse locations around the world, including Mexico, France and Israel. In addition, he has twice served as the Showrunner in Residence for Norman Jewison’s prestigious Canadian Film Centre.

Mohan was awarded the 2008 Writers Guild “Showrunner of the Year” award and is a winner and two-time nominee of the Canadian Gemini Award for “Best Writing in a Dramatic Series” as well as being nominated for the Cable Ace Award.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Etiquette on eating bananas and wedding cards, Montreal 1882

Montreal Daily Star, 21 January 1882, page 2

Etiquette

 

Will you please tell me, 1st, how do we eat bananas, at table, with a spoon or with a fork?  2nd.  How do we each peaches canned with stones in?

Ans- Bananas are eaten with a silver knife and fork, they should be peeled and then cut into small pieces.  Canned peaches, unstoned, may be eaten with a spoon and fork.

 

What would be the proper way of acknowledging the receipt of wedding cards from a distance where one would scarcely be expected to attend, on account of distance, but would like to show some recognition and appreciation of the invitation.  Would my visiting card be proper returned?

Ans- If the cards to which subscriber refers are written in the form of an invitation, of course the answer must be acknowledged in writing as nearly as possible in the same words.  If, however, the cards are simply such as used for visiting purpose, it is optional whether they are acknowledged or not.  In the case in question where a sincere regard appears to exist, it would be good taste to send a note of congratulation and kind wishes.  Do not, however, return, a visiting card.

 

Is it bad taste for a gentleman who is fond of dancing to dance through an entire waltz or may he take it for granted that if his partner is tired she will say so?

Ans- AM had better find out if his partner entertains his own ideas on the subject of dancing before proving himself so indefatigable.  It seems to be the practice of many dancers to commence with the music and to struggle on to the end of the dance; thus each to a certain extent spoils the enjoyment of the other.  If, however, the plan of the more considerate dancers were adopted and instead of a continual rush there might be a few moments devoted to rest and conversation, material benefit would be derived by all, not to mention the decided improvement that such a practice would make in the appearance of those dancing.

Vancouver '10

I XXI Giochi olimpici invernali si svolgeranno a Vancouver (Canada) dal 12 al 28 febbraio 2010. Nella stessa località si svolgeranno i X Giochi Paralimpici invernali dal 12 al 21 marzo 2010.

Si tratta della terza manifestazione olimpica a svolgersi in territorio canadese, dopo Montreal 1976 e Calgary 1988.

Seguendo la tradizione olimpica, l’allora sindaco di Vancouver, Sam Sullivan, ha ricevuto la bandiera olimpica alla conclusione della cerimonia di chiusura dei Giochi di Torino 2006. Questa bandiera venne issata il 28 febbraio 2006 in una speciale cerimonia. L’evento sarà ufficialmente aperto dal governatore generale Michaëlle Jean.

Questi sono gli impianti che saranno teatro delle gare:

  • General Motors Place – Hockey su ghiaccio
  • Hillcrest/Nat Bailey Stadium Park – Curling
  • Pacific Coliseum – Pattinaggio artistico, Short track
  • University of British Columbia Winter Sports Centre – Hockey su ghiaccio
  • Creekside, Whistler Mountain – Sci alpino
  • Nordic venue, Callaghan Valley – Biathlon, Sci di fondo, Combinata nordica, Salto con gli sci
  • Sliding Centre, Blackcomb Mountain – Bob, Slittino, Skeleton
  • Oval – Pattinaggio di velocità
  • Cypress Mountain – Freestyle, Snowboard

 

Sarà un’olimpiade nel segno del rispetto per l’ambiente:saranno installti pannelli solari sui tetti di tutti gli edifici che saranno costruiti per i Giochi Olimpici invernali del 2010 a Vancouver. Gli edifici rispetteranno gli standard LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) e avranno qualità Gold nella maggior parte dei casi (39 punti sui 70 massimi ottenibili da una costruzione) e Platinum nelle strutture centrali (52 punti su 70).

 

LE SPERANZE AZZURRE. Grandi responsabilità pesano sulle spalle di Armin Zoeggeler,chiamato a difendere il titolo conquistato nel 2006 a Torino. Nello sci di fondo Pietro Piller Cottrer e compagni sono chiamati a bissare il successo del 2006. Anche Enrico Fabris può ottenere un buon risultato, dopo aver conquistato un bronzo e due ori a Torino. Inoltre c’è Carolina Kostner nella delegazione azzurra. L’Italia può quindi ben sperare in questa manifestazione, che tutti aspettiamo con ansia.

 

Nespoli Stefano

Thursday, October 22, 2009

It's Worth a talk. The Ghoulish maple leaf

 Once More With Feeling… Joe Montana’s Right Arm

 I, Too, Always Head to the Mutton Cooling Room On My Vacation ~Postcards From The Dinner Table~  Blood on my hands (because no one else wants it) I’ll be waiting / with a gun and a pack of sandwiches.  Pumpkin Beer Ice Cream ModernDomestic  Holy Soda, Batman!! Tales of a (Recovering) Disordered Eater  Student Power Fuels School Buses On The Scene  Tenacious D: Mike Ness on 30 years of Social Distortion jeffvrabel.com  Full moon picnic at the Taal Monument Grains of Sand  Union Square Greenmarket: Your True Colors City Mitten Cleanin like my momma learning a new city

va-va-va-vancouver!

it’s been awhile!

my sister and i have went on two photowalks around the city of vancouver recently, so i thought i’d take the time to post some more photos. there are from the first day (which got cut very short due to rain):

diagon alley

black, black locks

doors and bricks, can’t go wrong

peekaboo! a photo of my sister

barbed silhouette

and here are the photos from the second photowalk, which dave also joined us for.

we found these lovely fishes and leaf bokeh at a downtown school

autumn is here!

some more leaf bokeh, tryin’ out my macro lens for a couple landscape shots

my sister was alllllways steppin’ in my way! this time, it worked!

a portrait of autumn joy!

tree depth

and last but not least, an mc escher painting, in an alley! this was a long exposure night shot, i desaturated the reds, oranges, and yellows to get this effect

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Protest goes indoors - Cornwall Standard-Freeholder

akwesasne building shelter to weather the elements: With winter on the way native elders still want to be able to gather By Michael Peeling

Volunteers from Akwesasne put up a building to help the community get through the coming winter on Cornwall Island as they continue to protest the arming of border services officers.

–> CORNWALL — With winter on the way, the Akwesasne people are taking their stand against the Canada Border Services Agency indoors. But first they need a place to call their own.

About one month ago, volunteers from the Mohawk community began building what looks like a small house on Cornwall Island beside the Akwesasne Peoples’ Fire and meeting tent, which have been there nearly six months to facilitate an ongoing protest of the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) policy to arm border officers.

Community member and former Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA) Chief Nona Benedict hopes the building will be ready to provide shelter and hold meetings by November.

“It’s going up because our elders can’t stay in the tent now. It’s getting too cold,” she said. “We can’t maintain our get-togethers all winter in a tent.”

On Monday three men were working on what looked like the finishing touches to the building’s exterior.

“It looks good, doesn’t it?” said one of the workers, then pointed to the Canada Customs and Immigration building abandoned under community protest on May 31, the eve of CBSA’s arming on Cornwall Island. “I think they go well together.”

All of the building materials have been bought by the community with no funding from the MCA, according to Benedict.

The money is being raised through community dinners, raffles and donations, while local tradespeople are donating their time to construct the building.

Benedict said local women are making sure the workers are well-fed. The community has had the idea in mind since May, when the protests began on the 110th anniversary of Jake Ice’s death. Ice was shot by the Dominion Police in 1899 during a show of civil disobedience over a federal government-run election in Akwesasne.

“We felt from day one this problem wasn’t going to get resolved quickly, so we wanted to be prepared for the winter,” Benedict said. “We’d like to see this over, but as we’ve been saying, we’re in it for the long haul.”

Although the building is meant to be temporary, the community could use it over over the long-term if necessary.

The building has heat and lights, but no indoor plumbing. There are portable toilets outside.

As for the possibility that the MCA could reopen the customs building next door with Mohawk Security officers and Akwesasne Mohawk police officers running it, Benedict says there are “some who kind of like” the idea, while others are against it.

MCA Grand Chief Mitchell and other Akwesasne leaders met with the Akwesasne police and Mohawk Security on Monday to get their input on the idea.

The grand chief said he is working under the assumption the CBSA won’t endorse whatever plan is put into action because the agency has suggested as much on several occasions.

“The CBSA may not support the plan, but we still have to worry about what comes across the border and the security of our people,” Mitchell said. “It would nice if they said, ‘We might not be there, but we’ll still help.’”

Mitchell said there has been concern expressed by MCA officials about drugs coming into the community, so there is consideration being given to beefing up enforcement for existing laws.

A Mohawk-run customs checkpoint would save Cornwall Island residents from waiting in long lines to report to the temporary customs plaza set up in Cornwall.

Many of the residents who haven’t checked in at customs after a U.S. visit have had their vehicles seized.

“Personally, I think that would be ideal, but I don’t think it’s going to fly,” Benedict said. “That won’t work unless the CBSA honours it.”

Benedict said she would rather deal with the customs lineups on the Seaway International Bridge than lose her rights as a citizen.

While Benedict acknowledged the meetings of Akwesasne leaders with different authorities to determine a plan to open customs on Cornwall Island, she said they don’t count for much if they don’t involve “decision makers.”

Mitchell said a recent meeting with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) went well, but officials want more information about the checkpoint plan before agreeing to it.

There has been some communication with the CBSA, according to Mitchell, and a meeting could occur in the near future.

In the meantime, Mitchell has been talking to lawyers, the MCA Justice Department and Research Department, among others, before opening the checkpoint.

www.akwesasnepeoplesfire.com

[Article originally published in the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder.]

Canada - Poland Youth Mobility Visas Now Available

The Canada-Poland Youth Mobility Programme is now open [http://geo.international.gc.ca/canada-europa/poland/youth_jeunes/menu-en.aspx ]. This program will allow 500 young Poles between the ages of 18 and 35 to come and live and work in Canada for up to 1 year.

This visa is broken into three parts:

Working Holiday [Open for any internship or work experience program]
Requirements: Aged 18-35
NB: No pre-placement required

Professional Development [Paid Professional Internships only]
Requirements: aged 18-35 ; open to young professionals for work in their field
NB: Pre-placement required

Internship Program [Paid Professional Internships only]
Requirements: aged 18-35; open to students currently enrolled in Polish post-secondary institution
NB: Pre-placement is required

Sunday, October 18, 2009

[Staff Intro] Erika

Annyeong fellow Canadian TVXQ fans!!~~ I’m Erika! ^^ (WARNING; a very LOONG story coming up XD)

I’m a Filipina fangirl and i’ve been living for 16 years so far XD . I live around the GTA area (in Ontario), so I still get CP24 on my tv LOL. I’m part of the Graphic Design team, so if you want anything (a set of icons, a banner, a wallpaper, a signature… etc) feel free to contact me and add me on MSN: toast3r@hotmail.com! I promise I won’t bite ^_^

I have to get into my story on how I found out about the guys, right? Heh, here goes nothing…

Once upon a time, 4 years ago, my best friend (now just a friend lol) used to be OBSESSED with TVXQ! She always tried persuading me to listen to them. The first song I heard from the boys was “Hug” on her sister’s website (because she had one of those little music players on the side). I wasn’t really paying attention then so… Yeah. When I was a MySpace addict, she had pimped her page with a TVXQ layout and she had “O. Jung. Ban. Hap” playing in her music player.

I always made fun of her for listening to “music that she doesn’t even understand”, and for liking “guys that look like girls”. But meh, she didn’t care. She kept telling me to watch their Banjun Dramas since she knew I liked watching Korean/Japanese dramas so I agreed to do so.

The first Banjun Drama I watched was Dangerous Love, I think. It’s been so long (ROFL JAECHUN PUN NOT INTENDED), I can’t even remember -_- . But yeah, their acting made an impression on me and I decided to watch the rest of their dramas, including the ones from Vacation. I was really surprised by Junsu’s singing in Dangerous Love and I thought “Wow, he sings pretty good…”

Hi Ya Ya was the first PV I saw and OMG. I had that on repeat for SO long. When I downloaded the song onto my mp3 player, I kept listening to it over and over just listening to Jaejoong’s voice and trying to pick out the rest of the members, since I didn’t recognize them. The same goes for Balloons. Yes, Jaejoong was my favourite member at first. XD

I always thought Jaejoong was the best looking member out of the 5, and Yoochun the ugliest…. Heh… ANYWAYS MOVING ON.

My friend moved away that same year she introduced me to them so I forgot about the boys and started listening to J-pop again (ARASHI <3). Two years ago, I moved to a new town, and I met a girl who listened to TVXQ as well. One day in late January she invited me over to her house and she showed me a video on YouTube from one of their Purple Line performances and then the PV itself. I always poked fun at the literal purple line flashing across the screen..

I told her how I listened to them before and that I watched their dramas too. So she showed me Jaejoong’s solo performance of Maze at the T Premium Live Concert and I was blown away. My love for TVXQ grew since then.

When I got home, I did research on them, and watching/listening to more of their music. Then, I found Yoochun. I convinced myself that I would have more of a chance of getting together with him because he lived in America for a bit and knew how to speak English so he became my new favourite member. IRONIC, HUH? XD ..And YoochunandIlivedhappilyeverafter. The end.

…Thanks for reading~ Or skimming. Lmao. Hope to talk to you soon <3

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The Jingle Dance of North America

North American Indian tribes have all of the time had a custom of dance as component of their civilization. A concerning account comes up from the Chippewa clan and Anishnabe in expanses of northern Minnesota and Ontario, Canada. The jingle dance constitutes a traditional dance and is still applied nowadays. The jingle apparels are so called for the hundreds of “bells” fondly and painstakingly attached to article of clothing that cause the distinguishing sound ringing the dancer.

There are differences between the original dance and contemporary interpretations, but the meanings and symbolism remain the same.

Variously known as a prayer, singing, medicine or healing dress, the jingle dress is a formidable work of art. Jingle dresses are intended for both physical and spiritual healing purposes. The jingle dress and dance is also to pray for and commemorate loved ones who have already passed from this world.

Tradition holds that the inspiration for such a dress must come from a dream, wherein the dreamer is instructed to make the dress so that someone who is ill may be cured. Only through a dream is the wearer entitled to make, or have made such a dress and perform the traditional healing or prayer dance. Jingle dresses, by virtue of these conditions, hold spiritual and medicinal powers.

The legends and traditions of jingle dresses have been passed down from generation to generation. There are many stories, uncannily similar in nature, whereby the dreamer has a vision resulting in one or more dresses to be made and the jingle dance performed with the subsequent healing of the afflicted person.

The traditional materials used for jingle dresses include cotton prints and broadcloth, in times past very valuable trade items. The fabric used takes second place in importance to the actual jingles. The jingles consist of the lids from snuff cans, which are collected or received as gifts, and number in the hundreds for each dress. The lids of the snuff cans are rolled tightly into a cone shape and suspended with a ribbon. The finished cone is then sewn to the dress by the ribbon, carefully arranged in a artful scalloped or geometric shape. The jingles must be sewn closely together, so that they strike each other during the movements of the dance. Jewelry, leggings and ankle moccasins are worn to complete the outfit.

The original jingle dance is accompanied by drums, but did not include fans, feathers or plumes as are sometimes used today. The jingle dance is a stunning performance and the jingles are the starring element. The sound produced by the hundreds of jingles chiming can be described as the sound of rain hitting tin, a sweet musical sound like no other.

If you have the opportunity to see the magical performance of the jingle dance, it’s highly recommended.

Read more

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Perspective

There was a going away party last week, which I did not attend, for a friend of a friend whos unit is headed off to Afghanistan. There is one coming up, which I will attend, for my extremely loveable friends Nick and Andrew. Nick is Russian, was on the wrestling team with me and loves wrestling. Andrew is tall, gawky, with ginger hair and an awkward demeanor. He was responsible for some of the best times I had in Drama. I write this because here in Canada, we recently reached 131 soldiers killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.
The latest was Jonathan Coutourier from the VanDoos. That’s all I can tell you about him. He was un Québécois. From the thumbnail, I can tell you he had blue eyes, brown hair, and an innocent and surprised look on his face. I can’t tell you if he joked around in the back of the van. I can’t tell you if he always holds the door open for people and buys the entire sports team coffee. I can’t tell you if his hair stands up straight on end, that his nickname was Saskwatch, or that he liked to spend his entire drama class lying under the table.
One hundred and thirty-one
That’s the most of any NATO country (in Afghanistan), mostly because until recently, the American and British troops were highly concentrated in Iraq, with only a few deployed to Afghanistan, and other countries are deployed mostly in the much safer north, around the capital city of Kabul. We claim we’re going to change our mission next year, form combat to ‘peacekeeping’, whatever that means. How you can keep peace when there is no peace to keep is a question worth asking. Even doing nice things like building roads and wells, providing education and medical care isn’t a safe business in a country riddled with landmines and in the midst of a guerilla war. People will still die. Or perhaps we will be so afraid of the loss of life in the service of the mission that we will simply become accountants, witnesses of the horrors wreaked on innocents. I’m not a diplomat, nor am I a soldier. But I would like to tell you about a flag that stands on the wall of my history classroom. It is the only flag you will see that has poppies on it. Why? Because my teacher, a former military man, puts a poppy on the flag for every life lost in the service of the Afghan mission. He takes them off every Remembrance Day, and starts again. There are over thirty poppies on that flag now, and with the recent spike in violence it is hard not to see that number growing. And yet, as a country, we have become hardened to the loss of so many young lives. For other countries, who have lost 10 soldiers, or 20, the shock is still fresh, the national outpouring of grief still raw. Here, it has gotten so that the death of a soldier is no longer always front-page news, and the maiming almost never is. Soldiers fight and soldiers die. It’s what they do, what they have always done, and, until mankind figures out a better way to deal with it’s conflicts then throwing the blood of the young at it, it’s how it always will be. They fight for different reasons- for some, like Nick, it is because they are truly, intensely patriotic- some because it seemed like the natural route. Very few fight and die for King and Country, or to please a far off politician. We’ll never know what Pte. Coutourier fought for- what he believed or cared enough about to lay down his life. We can make a guess, and say it probably wasn’t the politician who lives to 100, or the general who dies in bed.
Rest in peace. Rester en paix.
First name Last name Rank Province Date of Death
Jonathan Couturier Private Quebec September 17, 2009
Patrick Lormand Private Quebec September 13, 2009
Jean-François Drouin Corporal Quebec September 6, 2009
Yannick Pépin Major Quebec September 6, 2009
Mathieu Allard Sapper Quebec August 1, 2009
Christian Bobbitt Corporal Quebec August 1, 2009
Sébastien Courcy Private Quebec July 16, 2009
Patrice Audet Master corportalQuebec July 6, 2009
Martin Joannette Corporal Quebec July 6, 2009
Nick Bulger Corporal Alberta July 3, 2009
Charles-Philippe Michaud New Brunswick June 23, 2009
Martin Dubé Corporal Quebec June 14, 2009
Alexandre Péloquin Private Quebec June 8, 2009
Michelle Mendes Major Ontario April 23, 2009
Karine Blais Trooper Quebec April 13, 2009
Jack Bouthillier Trooper Ontario March 20, 2009
Tyler Crooks Corporal Ontario March 20, 2009
Corey Hayes Trooper runswick March 20, 2009
Scott Vernelli Master corporal Ontario March 20, 2009
Marc Diab Trooper Quebec March 8, 2009
Dennis Brown Warrant officer Ontario March 3, 2009
Dany Fortin Corporal Quebec March 3, 2009
Kenneth O’Quinn Corporal Newfoundland and Labrador March 3, 2009
Sean Greenfield Sapper Manitoba January 31, 2009
Brian Good Trooper Ontario January 7, 2009
Gregory Kruse Sergeant Ontario December 27, 2008
Gaetan Roberge Warrant officer Ontario December 27, 2008
Michael Freeman Private Ontario December 26, 2008
John Curwin Private Nova Scotia December 13, 2008
Thomas Hamilton Corporal Nova Scotia December 13, 2008
Justin Jones Private Newfoundland and Labrador December 13, 2008
Demetrios Diplaros Private December 5, 2008
Mark McLaren Corporal Ontario December 5, 2008
Robert Wilson Warrant officer Ontario December 5, 2008
Prescott Shipway Sergeant Saskatchewan September 7, 2008
Andrew Grenon Corporal Ontario September 3, 2008
Chad Horn Private Alberta September 3, 2008
Mike Seggie Corporal Manitoba September 3, 2008
Shawn Eades Sergeant Ontario August 20, 2008
Stephan Stock Sapper British Columbia August 20, 2008
Dustin Wasden Corporal Saskatchewan August 20, 2008
Erin Doyle Master corporal British Columbia August 11, 2008
Josh Roberts Master corporal Saskatchewan August 9, 2008
James Arnal Corporal Manitoba July 18, 2008
Colin Wilmot Private Alberta July 6, 2008
Brendan Downey Corporal Saskatchewan July 4, 2008
Jonathan Snyder Captain British Columbia June 7, 2008
Richard Leary Captain Ontario June 3, 2008
Michael Starker Alberta May 6, 2008
Terry Street Private Quebec April 4, 2008
Jason Boyes Sergeant Manitoba March 16, 2008
Jérémie Ouellet Bombardier 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Quebec March 11, 2008
Michael Hayakaze Trooper Alberta March 2, 2008
Étienne Gonthier Corporal Quebec January 23, 2008
Richard Renaud Trooper Quebec January 15, 2008
Eric Labbé Corporal Quebec January 6, 2008
Hani Massouh Warrant officer Quebec January 6, 2008
Jonathan Dion Gunner Quebec December 30, 2007
Nicolas Beauchamp Corporal Quebec November 17, 2007
Michel Lévesque Private Quebec November 17, 2007
Nathan Hornburg Corporal Alberta September 24, 2007
Raymond Ruckpaul Major Ontario August 29, 2007
Christian Duchesne Master corporal Quebec August 22, 2007
Mario Mercier Master warrant officer Quebec August 22, 2007
Simon Longtin Private Quebec August 19, 2007
Jordan Anderson Corporal 3Nunavut July 4, 2007
Cole Bartsch Corporal Alberta July 4, 2007
Colin Bason Master corporal British Columbia July 4, 2007
Matthew Dawe Captain Ontario July 4, 2007
Jefferson Francis Captain New Brunswick July 4, 2007
Lane Watkins Private Manitoba July 4, 2007
Stephen Bouzane Corporal Newfoundland and Labrador June 20, 2007
Christos Karigiannis Sergeant 3Quebec June 20, 2007
Joel Wiebe Private Alberta June 20, 2007
Darryl Caswell Trooper June 11, 2007
Darrell Priede Master corporal Ontario May 30, 2007
Matthew McCully Corporal Ontario May 25, 2007
Anthony Klumpenhouwer Master corporal Ontario April 18, 2007
Patrick Pentland Trooper April 11, 2007
Allan Stewart Master corporal Brunswick April 11, 2007
David Greenslade Private New Brunswick April 8, 2007
Kevin Kennedy Private Newfoundland and Labrador April 8, 2007
Donald Lucas Sergeant Newfoundland and Labrador April 8, 2007
Brent Poland Corporal Ontario April 8, 2007
Christopher Stannix Corporal Nova Scotia April 8, 2007
Aaron Williams Corporal New Brunswick April 8, 2007
Kevin Megeney Corporal Nova Scotia March 6, 2007
Robert Girouard Chief warrant officerNew Brunswick November 27, 2006
Albert Storm Corporal Ontario November 27, 2006
Darcy Tedford Sergeant October 14, 2006
Blake Williamson Private Ontario October 14, 2006
Mark Wilson Trooper October 7, 2006
Craig Gillam Sergeant Newfoundland and Labrador October 3, 2006
Robert Mitchell Corporal October 3, 2006
Josh Klukie Private Ontario September 29, 2006
Glen Arnold Corporal Ontario September 18, 2006
David Byers Private Ontario September 18, 2006
Shane Keating Corporal Saskatchewan September 18, 2006
Keith Morley Corporal Manitoba September 18, 2006
Mark Graham Private Ontario September 4, 2006
William Cushley Private Ontario September 3, 2006
Frank Mellish Warrant officer Nova Scotia September 3, 2006
Richard Nolan Newfoundland and Labrador September 3, 2006
Shane Stachnik Sergeant Alberta September 3, 2006
David Braun Corporal Saskatchewan August 22, 2006
Andrew Eykelenboom Corporal British Columbia August 11, 2006
Jeffrey Walsh Master corporal Saskatchewan August 9, 2006
Raymond Arndt Master Corporal Alberta August 5, 2006
Kevin Dallaire Private Alberta August 3, 2006
Vaughan Ingram Sergeant Newfoundland and Labrador August 3, 2006
Bryce Keller Corporal Saskatchewan August 3, 2006
Christopher Reid Corporal Nova Scotia August 3, 2006
Francisco Gomez Corporal Alberta July 22, 2006
Jason Warren Corporal Quebec July 22, 2006
Anthony Boneca Corporal Ontario July 9, 2006
Nichola Goddard Captain Alberta May 17, 2006
Matthew Dinning Corporal April 22, 2006
Myles Mansell Bombardier British Columbia April 22, 2006
Randy Payne Corporal Ontario April 22, 2006
William Turner Lieutenant Ontario April 22, 2006
Robert Costall Private Ontario March 29, 2006
Paul Davis Corporal Nova Scotia March 2, 2006
Timothy Wilson Master corporal Alberta March 2, 2006
Glyn Berry Diplomat Wales January 15, 2006
Braun Woodfield Private Nova Scotia November 24, 2005
Jamie Murphy Corporal Newfoundland and Labrador January 27, 2004
Robbie Beerenfenger Corporal Ontario October 2, 2003
Robert Short Sergeant New Brunswick October 2, 2003
Ainsworth Dyer Corporal Quebec April 18, 2002
Richard Green Private Nova Scotia April 18, 2002
Marc Léger Sergeant Ontario April 18, 2002
Nathan Smith Private Nova Scotia April 18, 2002

Club 54 Burlington 100 Shots, Cool Drinks - Ben Guyatt

ben guyatt stage comedy club 54 burlington ontario canada

Ben Guyatt wasn’t kidding when he said it was like the Titanic in there last night. Usually there are about 3 or 4 acts.

The last act was the one that we saw. The poor guy wasn’t very funny and his sex jokes were kind of lame. The audience did not respond to them. The guy was sweating buckets (I came in mid show, didn’t get buddy’s name). I thought he was comical enough but a little slow on delivering his punch lines.

However he did some cool voice impressions of celebrities and pretended they were doing the jokes. He seems to have a thing with poopy, anal sex jokes?

Both topics not really appreciated in a classy crowd from Burlington, and Toronto. The are more into sports, politics and relationship jokes.

I guess Ben didn’t warn them, instead he pokes fun at the guy and the audience.

comedy club 54 harvester rd burlington ontario canada ben guyatt

The 50/50 draw and door prizes are pretty expensive. The drinks, are high priced but different then what you get elsewhere.
So I’d say it’s like going to a gourmet bar.

Around 11:30 pm there is a Free Buffet (every Fri and Sun nite) served and its fresh buns, coldcuts, veggies, dip, chips, doritos and salsa, nachos. A light lunch but very tasty.

I only had two drinks and I was a happy drunk from them. A good buzz, I had sex on the beach (the drink) and some kind of fruity sour raspberry drink. The bar tender was awesome in suggesting a good fruity martini (huge list of those as well).

So we had fun, I danced for a bit, but not like last time. I was kind of out of shape this time due to not working out.

I’ve been spending many an hour writing, revising my novels and websites.

My back is killing me and my legs feel like Jello, it’s painful to walk.

Just so you know, there is no cover charge before 10 pm and the Stand up Comedy starts around 7:30 or 8:00 p.m.

I think chickies are free on certain nights (take a look at the website).

For more info click on link below.

Halloween Bash will be on Sat & Sun, Oct 31 and Nov 1st. Prizes for best costume, there might be a $10 cover charge but not sure about that?

I spent the last few days cleaning the house, doing laundry, washing windows, vacuuming up spider webs, nasty buggers hiding between the windows that I never look at and more.

My cousin’s coming for a visit and I had to make my house sparkly and clean.

It’s been a disaster area since I’ve started writing. My dust bunnies have been chasing each other around the house.

One good thing out of all this, I’m not sneezing 50,000 times today.

Wow, I did while I was cleaning, and believe you me mine are powerful explosions of Achoo achoo ACHOO!

Everyone walking down the street can hear me for miles, at least thats what my boyfriend said one day when he walked in the house.
I still don’t know if he was joking though.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

"Fly At Your Own Risk" is excellent journalism

Earlier this week, I came across a very compelling story out of Canada.  The headline: “Fly At Your Own Risk: Why is Transport Canada moving toward self-regulation for the country’s airlines?”

I find that my mind keeps going back to reporter Carol Shaben’s story, featured in The Walrus magazine.  So, I’ve decided to write a bit about it here, not just because the topic itself is worthwhile.  But also because the reporting really shines.

This is journalism that matters.  And it’s done the good ol’ fashioned way; with lots of digging and relevant interviews.  To top it all off, Shaben is an excellent writer.

Perhaps you think you don’t care about some aviation story out of Canada.  And maybe you really don’t.  Still, here’s my little challenge for you:  Read the first few paragraphs of Shaben’s story.  And see if you really want to stop reading.

The beginning of Shaben’s story begins below, followed by a link to the rest of the story.

***

Fly At Your Own Risk
Why is Transport Canada moving toward self-regulation for the country’s airlines?
by Carol Shaben
photographs by Eamon Mac Mahon

THE WIDOW

in a small ballroom at the Best Western Hotel near Vancouver’s airport, Kirsten Stevens, a tattooed single mother of three, rises to take the podium, her hands trembling. Dressed casually in black cords and an emerald green shirt, the forty-two-year-old resident of Campbell River, BC, known as the Widow to many in attendance, stands out from the suit-clad presenters who preceded her. Petite — just five feet three and 115 pounds — with a barely tamed bob of cinnamon-coloured hair and brown eyes, she surveys the audience from behind stylish cat’s-eye glasses.

“This is going to be my first time telling this story,” she says, clearing her throat and glancing at the sheets clutched in her hands. “Four years ago, I could not have conceived of speaking at an aviation leadership forum. Four years ago, I was a housewife with two children and a newborn baby. In just under two weeks, it will be the fourth anniversary of the day I became a widow — the day the picket fence blew down.”

On February 28, 2005, Stevens’ husband, Dave, a professional logger, and four others were en route from Campbell River to a camp near Knight Inlet on BC’s rugged west coast when their De Havilland dhc-2 Beaver float plane plunged into the water just six minutes after takeoff. Two days later, Dave’s body, buoyed by the survival jacket Kirsten had bought him years before, washed up on Quadra Island, five kilometres from where the plane had taken off. His was the only body ever recovered. The autopsy showed that he had escaped the aircraft largely unharmed, only to succumb to severe hypothermia and drown while awaiting a rescue that never came. A resident of Quadra Island heard cries for help but couldn’t see their source. It had taken four hours for the office of the air carrier (which has since shut down) to alert search and rescue teams, even though staff knew the plane was missing within twenty minutes of takeoff.

Dave’s death opened a chasm of what-ifs for Stevens. “What if the aircraft was perfectly maintained?” she asks her audience. “What if aircraft were always tracked? What if there had been no delay in notifying authorities of the missing aircraft? Could the accident have been prevented? Could all five men have been rescued? Could they have rescued the only man wearing a life jacket — my husband? Could we have celebrated a successful emergency water landing like the one on the Hudson River, instead of mourning the losses of five families? Ten children left without their fathers?”

After a three-day search failed to turn up any trace of the downed plane or the victims, government authorities handed the matter over to the rcmp, which classified it as a missing persons case. A month later, all official searches were completely shut down. Stevens expected that a government agency would investigate the deaths of her husband and the four others as workplace fatalities, but none did. Pooling their meagre resources, the families recovered the wreckage and, later, the plane’s engine. Stevens also appealed in vain to a wide and varied list of authorities: the federal minister of transport, infrastructure, and communities; BC’s minister of transportation and infrastructure; Canada’s Transportation Safety Board; the federal minister of labour; the provincial ministry of labour and citizens’ services; the provincial ombudsman of justice; her provincial mla; her federal MP; several BC senators; the standing committee on transport and communications; and BC’s Workers’ Compensation Board. Eventually, the families hired a private investigative firm, which found that the plane’s floats were “leakers” long overdue for reskinning, that there were non-conforming parts on the aircraft, and that the plane was due for a major overhaul. The firm also speculated that the airline had not carried out mandatory 100-hour inspections of the plane’s engine.

The only official report Stevens received came from BC’s chief coroner’s office — more than four years after the crash. The account, she says, was riddled with inaccuracies and omissions and failed to provide her or the other victims’ families with any sense of closure. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada — the independent agency mandated to investigate crashes for cause and contributing factors — did not follow up, claiming there was nothing new to be learned. (Nor, says Stevens, is there any reference to the accident on the tsb’s website, which lists only two passenger deaths by air taxi in 2005, the year of her husband’s crash.) In a discussion with the coroner, Stevens learned that Bill Yearwood, the board’s Pacific Region manager for aviation, had submitted a preliminary report on the accident, which she obtained by submitting an access to information request. In Yearwood’s account, the tsb’s inspection showed no evidence of problems with the aircraft’s engine, performance, or maintenance. Instead, it indicated that poor weather and the pilot’s qualifications and experience may have been factors — an outcome Stevens refers to as “blaming the dead guy.”

When she realized her husband’s death might have been prevented, Stevens began reading everything she could about the aviation industry: Canadian aeronautics regulations, the Aeronautics Act, crash investigation reports, civil aviation studies and recommendations, and books with titles like Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents; Black Box: Why Air Safety Is No Accident; and Flying Blind, Flying Safe. She also joined AvCanada, Canada’s busiest aviation employment website and discussion forum, where she discovered that many aviation professionals shared her concerns about the lack of oversight of Canada’s commercial air carriers.

Then she got vocal. Fuelled by coffee and menthol cigarettes, she worked six hours a day out of a dimly lit den at the back of her three-storey house, not far from where her husband died. She wrote letters to unions and government officials, and launched QuestForJustice.ca and a blog called dhc2 Widow’s Space, both dedicated to aviation safety. She initiated a petition to Stephen Harper’s office, asking for a public inquiry into her husband’s accident and the air taxi industry in Canada. Slowly, others in the air safety community started paying attention.

Her mission has since… (read full story here)

One Shot - Balene canadesi

Balene canadesi

Un viaggio in Canada non può non comprendere una giornata alla ricerca delle balene, un’esperienza unica in stile National Geographic. Domenico le ha fotografate nella penisola di Gaspé in Quebec.

La Penisola Gaspé, o la Gaspésie (nome ufficiale), o Gaspé è una penisola del Sud-Est del Quebec, Canada. La penisola è delimitata a nord dal fiume San Lorenzo (nel suo tratto finale) ed è circondata dal Golfo di San Lorenzo a Est e dalla Baia dei Colori a Sud che la separa dal New Brunswick, fa parte del Parco Nazionale Forillon.

Il nome deriva della parola Gespeg che in lingua Micmac significa “la fine della terra”.

Il nostro snaper ha utilizzato una Nikon D200 e D70 con ottiche Nikon e Sigma, successivamente lavorata con Photoshop.

[ One Shot #7 - Balene canadesi ]

Le foto sono di proprietà dell’autore, non ne è permesso in alcun modo l’utilizzo commerciale o la riproduzione non autorizzata. Per ricevere gli originali ad alta qualità e per ogni utilizzo diverso dalla semplice visione siete invitati a richiederne l’autorizzazione tramite email.

All photos are owned by the author, any use of them is not allowed without prior express permission from the author himself. To obtain the high resolution original copy and for any use different from the simple visualization, please ask for the authorization by mail.

Gaspé

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Wildrose Alliance basks in spotlight - Danielle Smith

Wildrose Alliance basks in spotlight; leadership vote nears – Upstart party to pick leader saturday - Calgary Herald

If I were a betting man, I would put my money on Danielle Smith winning in this saturday Wildrose Alliance leadership vote.

As I wrote in a previous post, Alberta politics is not boring anymore. And if Smith wins, the Progressive Conservatives, Liberals, and NDPs better act fast. I suspect all these parties are already in discussion on how and what to do with the rising of Wildrose Alliance. How smart will their strategies be, only time will tell. In a sense, if rise of Wlidrose Alliance brings politicians from all parties closer and more in tune to Albertans’ wishes, I think it is a good thing.

At the end of the day, what matters is the welfare of all Albertans, regardless of their political affiliations. So good luck to all Albertans.

In Memory of Norman Bethune

The following is a short essay on the late Norman Bethune of Gravenhurst, Ontario.

The original document can be found here.

Mao Tse-tung IN MEMORY OF NORMAN BETHUNE

From the
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,
Foreign Languages Press
Peking 1967

First Edition 1965
Second Printing 1967

Vol. II, pp. 337-38.

Prepared © for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo, djr@marx2mao.org (October 1999)

    page 337

    IN MEMORY OF NORMAN BETHUNE December 21, 1939

    Comrade Norman Bethune,[1] a member of the Communist Party of Canada, was around fifty when he was sent by the Communist Parties of Canada and the United States to China; he made light of travelling thousands of miles to help us in our War of Resistance Against Japan. He arrived in Yenan in the spring of last year, went to work in the Wutai Mountains, and to our great sorrow died a martyr at his post. What kind of spirit is this that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people’s liberation as his own? It is the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism, from which every Chinese Communist must learn. Leninism teaches that the world revolution can only succeed if the proletariat of the capitalist countries supports the struggle for liberation of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples and if the proletariat of the colonies and semi-colonies supports that of the proletariat of the capitalist countries.[2] Comrade Bethune put this Leninist line into practice. We Chinese Communists must also follow this line in our practice. We must unite with the proletariat of all the capitalist countries, with the proletariat of Japan, Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy and all other capitalist countries, for this is the only way to overthrow imperialism, to liberate our nation and people and to liberate the other nations and peoples of the world. This is our internationalism, the internationalism with which we oppose both narrow nationalism and narrow patriotism.

    Comrade Bethune’s spirit, his utter devotion to others without any thought of self, was shown in his great sense of responsibility in his work and his great warm-heartedness towards all comrades and the people. Every Communist must learn from him. There are not a few people who are irresponsible in their work, preferring the light and shirking the heavy, passing the burdensome tasks on to others and choosing the easy ones for themselves. At every turn they think of themselves before others. When they make some small contribution,

    page 338

    they swell with pride and brag about it for fear that others will not know. They feel no warmth towards comrades and the people but are cold, indifferent and apathetic. In truth such people are not Communists, or at least cannot be counted as devoted Communists. No one who returned from the front failed to express admiration for Bethune whenever his name was mentioned, and none remained unmoved by his spirit. In the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area, no soldier or civilian was unmoved who had been treated by Dr. Bethune or had seen how he worked. Every Communist must learn this true communist spirit from Comrade Bethune.

    Comrade Bethune was a doctor, the art of healing was his profession and he was constantly perfecting his skill, which stood very high in the Eighth Route Army’s medical service. His example is an excellent lesson for those people who wish to change their work the moment they see something different and for those who despise technical work as of no consequence or as promising no future.

    Comrade Bethune and I met only once. Afterwards he wrote me many letters. But I was busy, and I wrote him only one letter and do not even know if he ever received it. I am deeply grieved over his death. Now we are all commemorating him, which shows how profoundly his spirit inspires everyone. We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very useful to the people. A man’s ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people.

    NOTES

    [1] The distinguished surgeon Norman Bethune was a member of the Canadian Communist Party. In 1936 when the German and Italian fascist bandits invaded Spain, he went to the front and worked for the anti-fascist Spanish people. In order to help the Chinese people in their War of Resistance Against Japan, he came to China at the head of a medical team and arrived in Yenan in the spring of 1938. Soon after he went to the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area. Imbued with ardent internationalism and the great communist spirit, he served the army and the people of the Liberated Areas for nearly two years. He contracted blood poisoning while operating on wounded soldiers and died in Tanghsien, Hopei, on November 12, 1939.    [p. 337]

    [2] See J. V. Stalin, “The Foundations of Leninism“, Problems of Leninism, Eng. ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1954, pp. 70-79.    [p. 337]

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Mural Controversy - ie the little grassroots campaign that could

The snow has chased me out of Saskatchewan (actually, I was leaving anyway) but a trip to my hometown of Saskatoon would not be complete without mentioning the mural controversy.

In the 50’s, my father, artist William Perehudoff, painted some frescoes in the executive suite of the old Intercontinental Packers building. (As an aside, my mother, artist Dorothy Knowles, who was extremely pregnant with my oldest sister, Rebecca, at the time, was there handing him the paints.) The building is going to be torn down for a freeway and the murals were going to be demolished.

The murals are one of the last remaining examples of purist art in Canada (my dad studied with Amedee Ozenfant in New York, co-founder, along with Le Corbusier, of the Purist School), so it was goodbye to a small piece of history – until a group of devoted save-the-muralists campaigned to stop the destruction and the crazy thing is … it seems to have worked.

The murals will be saved!

Hooray for the little people.

So, from the Perehudoff family to the campaigners … thanks.

(To read more about the murals, the Mendel Art Gallery has a blog about it.)

Blow Your Nose If You Like the Music

Canada’s, Art, Entertain, Interior Provincial Exhibition in British Columbia is renowned for its prize-winning pigs, 10-gallon hats and cowboys being flung from the backs of snorting bulls.
Did I mention classical violin music?
In 2001 the IPE hosted the Festival of the Arts, an all classical, jazz and theatre venue in the heart of the fairgrounds. I’d honestly never been out to the fair before but was hired to emcee and play violin in the new event.
From the moment I pulled into the dusty parking lot full of pickups and horse trailers I knew I was in for an interesting five days. Dressed in a formal satin gown I entered Armstrong’s Centennial Hall as farmers and cowboys watched with curiosity and suspicion. Imagine a decked-out, Art, Entertain, diva playing Mozart in the “Tumbleweed Saloon” and you get the picture. Though the carnies teased me that I’d “gotten lost on the way to the opera house” I smiled coyly: I had an ace up my sleeve.
In the past I’d gotten myself into all sorts of embarrassing gigs where the music did not suit the venue. As a relatively shy and inexperienced performer I was hired to play classical violin at the formal (and final) Royal Canadian Mounted Police Regimental Ball in Trail, BC in 1997, Art, Entertain, . The evening consisted of over 100 less-than-sober Mounties and dignitaries, Art, Entertain, who incessantly requested “Achy, Art, Entertain, Breakie Heart,” a song I was certainly, Art, Entertain, not prepared to play that night.
I was obligated by my contract to play all classical repetoire and it was with much effort I was able to sustain it to the end of my set., Art, Entertain, Just before packing up I surrendered to play a few fiddle tunes. The crowd went wild and I was thrown from background music to front and center entertainer, a place I was far to shy to want to be.
I left the party just as some resourceful officers at the nearest table discovered their wide-brim hats could also function as frisbees. I couldn’t, Art, Entertain, have felt more, Art, Entertain, out of place!
To keep everyone, Art, Entertain, feeling comfortable in, Art, Entertain, the concert hall each style of music has developed a distinct set of audience protocols.
For example, Jazz modus operandi requires we clap after the solos, whereas proper classical etiquette insists the audience hold applause until all the movements are completed. Folk and country music’s tradition has us clapping with the beat.
By stark contrast there was no clapping permitted in Baroque concerts held in churches during the 1600’s. Always looking for a way around the formality, Antonio Vivaldi’s inventive fans adapted a way of, Art, Entertain, showing their appreciation for the, Art, Entertain, music by shuffling their feet, coughing and blowing their noses loudly.
If stuffy clergy could bring themselves to blow their schnozzes in appreciation, I could modify my performance to make my classical music suit the audience. Along came a considerable challenge: I was invited to play British Columbia’s wacky “Streetfest” alongside fire-swallowers, stilt-walkers and sultry female impersonators.
I couldn’t,, Art, Entertain, Art, Entertain, be shy at this gig so I carefully developed a “circle show” that helped me fit into the zany, Art, Entertain, antics while still doing what came naturally to me. Clad in an extravagant red sequined gown and combat boots I played the overstated role of “Virtuoso Violinist,” a direct poke at classical music’s stuffiness.
Keeping it simple I performed the same set of music I always played, but this time on my 5-string Zeta electric violin, and amused the audience with hilarious true stories about classical, Art, Entertain, composers.
The result was an entertaining educational show that made classical music and it’s history accessible to people of all ages and music preferences. Analogous to protein-rich chocolate-coated, Art, Entertain, ants, it was a sneaky way of making classical music more palatable! Disasters such as the infamous “Mountie, Art, Entertain, Incident” would hopefully never happen again.
Though they squirmed in their seats at first,, Art, Entertain, the farmers and cowboys at the IPE were pleasantly surprised to discover a hidden appreciation for classical music in each of my and other groups’ performances. One such ensemble, the “Stoney String Quartet,” earned the audiences’ admiration and respect for their musicality, Art, Entertain,, Art, Entertain, and familiar backround.
The group of siblings played superb classical music in addition to working on their parents’ farm, Art, Entertain, building barns, haying and processing poultry. It was amusing to imagine the nimble fingers that plucked out delightful melodies under the bright lights of the stage also plucked chickens back on the family farm.
Thanks to receptive audiences the IPE had a Jazz, Art, Entertain, and Classical festival that year where showing appreciation for a great saxophone solo, a magnificent Shakespeare sonnet or a Mozart masterpiece meant yelling “YEE HA” at the top of your lungs!
It sure beat blowing your nose for five days.
**Rhiannon Schmitt (nee Nachbaur) is a professional violinist and music teacher who has enjoyed creative writing for years, Art, Entertain, .
She currently writes columns for two Canadian publications and has been featured in Australia’s “Music Teacher Magazine.” Writing allows her to teach people that the world of music is as, Art, Entertain, fun as you spin it to be!
Rhiannon’s business, Fiddleheads Violin School & Shop, has won several distinguished young entrepreneur business awards for her commitment to excellence. Her shop offers beginner to professional level instruments,, Art, Entertain, accessories and supplies for very reasonable prices: Visit http://www.fiddleheads.ca
Rhiannon is also Founding President of the Shuswap Violin Society which promotes violin & fiddle music and helps young musicians in need: http://www.violinsociety.ca

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Weekly Poll Tracker: Close To The Elusive Majority

Last October during the election, Eric and I did a daily poll tracker that followed the aggregate numbers of support across many different polling companies. It was a moderate success. The poll tracker predicted the Conservatives would win with 34.9% support of the vote, followed by the Liberals with 26.9%, the NDP with 19.3%, the Green Party with 8.6%, and the Bloc Quebecois with 9.7%. The actual election results were fairly close to that prediction. The Conservatives finished with 37.6%, the Liberals with 26.2%, the NDP with 18.2%, the Green Party with 6.8%, and the Bloc Quebecois with 10%.

Two polls took place between October 3-10. First the Strategic Counsel polled Quebec, Ontario, the Western provinces, and the Rest of Canada [ROC] in a sample of 1,000 adults between October 2-4. The results:

In Quebec, the Liberals lead the Conservatives by a substantial margin of 33% to 15%, with the Bloc retaining 40% of the vote. In Ontario, however, the Conservatives now command 46% of the vote, 16 points ahead of the Liberals. Western Canada is a stronghold for the Conservatives, with 58% supporting them, and just 18% and 15% for the Liberals and NDP, respectively. The ROC is also showing strong Conservative support with 48% to just 26% for the Liberals. This means that only Quebec is holding back the Conservatives from really securing a majority government in polling numbers.

The gender gap is also closing. Where female candidates had traditionally supported the Liberals, now 36% would vote Conservative, and just 28% Liberal. Only among females aged 18-35 would not support the current government, with 33% voting Liberal to 28% for the Conservatives. The Conservatives also enjoy support across all education lines, and almost all income levels, with those who make less than $50,000 a year supporting the Liberals marginally more than the Conservatives at 37% to 33%.

The second poll took place between September 29-October 6, with 3,333 respondents from Ekos:

In the Ekos poll, Conservatives lead across the entire spectrum of Canada, except in Quebec where the Bloc command as usual, although they lead the Liberals by a percentage point there as well. Both males and females now support the Conservatives across all age groups, except for women under the age of 25, and they lead across all education lines. Perhaps most surprisingly, the Conservatives led a small sample size of 307 residents of Toronto with 44.8% to 35.6% over the Liberals.

Based on these two polls, and polls calculated in previous weeks going back to September 15, the following estimate is made on where the parties stand:

Saturday, October 10, 2009:

Oct 10 2008 Oct 3 Sept 26 Sept 19 CPC 40.0 37.6 36.3 37.0 35.5 LIB 26.2 26.2 29.0 29.6 29.8 NDP 14.9 18.2 14.7 14.5 14.3 GRN 9.5 6.8 9.3 9.5 9.1 BQ 9.5 10.0 10.1 9.1 9.5

Thursday, October 8, 2009

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Pro-choice fascism strikes again; or, a lecture you can't refuse

Pro-choice activism is now officially the new kindergarten.

On Tuesday night, pro-choice activists at McGill University unveiled their new campaign for abortion rights in Canada. It goes something like this:

Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on this farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O
With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there
Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O

See for yourself:

Yes, this is exactly as irritating as it sounds, so I’m not going to post subsequent installations. In part 2, the videographer notes that he’s filming fascism in progress, as the “protesters” move from bad songs to bad jokes, then actually have the temerity to start complaining that they did not give permission to be filmed. (It apparently never occurs to them that no one was filming them outside.) The videographer does not give in - there are close to 20 installments, if you have the stomach for it.

There is, of course, not even a token attempt to reason with Jojo Ruba - who, despite their false assertions that he had no right to be there, was as usual an invited guest of a campus club at a sanctioned event. The purpose was to run out Jojo’s clock, nothing more.

Arguably the most iconic scene of the novel and movie The Godfather occurs when Corleone family lawyer Tom Hagen flies to Hollywood to reason with studio owner Jack Woltz, to persuade him to cast Don Corleone’s godson, singer Johnny Fontane, in a movie. Woltz refuses; he has a personal grudge over a girl that Fontane seduced away from him. The next morning, he wakes up and finds himself sharing his bed with the severed head of his prize race-horse.

In the past, Jojo and like-minded pro-life advocates have been able to air their views, whether via lecture or debate, without being drowned out. But as more and more pro-choicers find themselves on the losing end of effective arguments for life, they have abandoned any semblance of reason (Choose Life McGill tried to find a debating opponent for Jojo, but were unable) and gone instead for more direct action: what free-speech advocate Nat Hentoff has termed the “mob veto.”

The debates were reasonable. Singing “Old MacDonald” to shut a public speaker up is the horse head in the bed. And we’re going to see a lot more of it. Fortunately it will have the unintended consequence of showing how intellectal fascism has taken over the next generation of pro-choicers. This is what our universities are grooming, people.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Développement Humain - La France gagne 3 places - Rapport de la PNUD

La France vient de gagner trois places au détriment du Luxembourg et se situe ainsi à la huitième place dans le plus récent classement de l’indice de développement humain (IDH) compilé par le Programme des Nations unies pour le développement (PNUD)cliquez sur cette source de ce post dont vidéo en interne). Le pays est devancé par la Norvège, qui conserve la première position, l’Australie, l’Islande (qui devra s’accrocher l’an prochain suite à la crise) le Canada, l’Irlande, les Pays-Bas et la Suède.

lire bio sur indice de D.H.

Le rapport du PNUD est établi à partir d’une formule tenant compte à la fois d’indicateurs sociaux (espérance de vie, alphabétisation, taux de diplomation, etc.) et d’indicateurs économiques, comme le produit intérieur brut et le taux de croissance. Il prend en compte des données compilées en 2007, soit tout juste avant la crise financière mondiale.

L’IDH est considéré comme très élevé dans 38 pays, élevé dans les 45 pays suivants, moyen pour quelque 75 autres et faible pour les 23 pays, presque tous africains, qui suivent la marche. Le Niger est le dernier pays du classement, devant l’Afghanistan et la Sierra Leone, la République centrafricaine et le Mali.

Rapport mondial sur le développement humain 2009 (cliquez l’image source ONU) Ce rapport est très complet, consultable en format pdf

Le classement permet de mesurer les importantes disparités entre les pays de la planète. Ainsi, note le rapport, un travailleur norvégien gagne 85 $ pour chaque dollar gagné par un Nigérien. Le premier peut incidemment espérer vivre environ 30 ans de plus que le second, des disparités qui s’appliquent pour d’autres pays.

Plaidoyer en faveur de l’immigration

Dans son rapport, le PNUD plaide que la migration peut améliorer le développement humain pour les personnes migrantes, pour les communautés d’accueil et celles de départ. En moyenne, souligne l’agence, les travailleurs émigrés gagnent quinze fois plus que chez eux.

Se faisant, ils offfrent non seulement une réponse à la pénurie de main-d’oeuvre dans leur pays d’accueil, mais ils aident aussi leur communauté d’origine en y envoyant de l’argent. Ces sommes contribuent à doubler le taux de scolarisation des enfants dans les pays pauvres et à réduire significativement la mortalité infantile.

Chaque année depuis 1990, le Programme des Nations Unies pour le développement (PNUD) jette un coup de projecteur sur d’importants défis en matière de développement humain à travers un rapport mondial, véritable référence en la matière. Les migrations, à la fois à l’intérieur et au-delà des frontières, sont le thème central de l’étude 2009 présentée, lundi 5 octobre à Bangkok. Objectif : encourager le débat et la discussion autour de cet enjeu clé du XXIe siècle. Selon l’étude qui est dévoilée, les migrations peuvent développer de nouvelles possibilités, par exemple du point de vue des revenus ou de l’accès aux services, mais peuvent aussi être pénalisantes suivant les régions du monde. Les opportunités qui s’ouvrent aux personnes varient entre celles qui sont les mieux loties et celles dont les compétences et les atouts sont limités. Ces inégalités sous-jacentes, qui peuvent être aggravées par les distorsions entre les politiques publiques, sont l’un des thèmes forts du rapport qui explore comment une démarche axée sur le développement humain pourrait aider à corriger certaines inégalités qui viennent éroder les bienfaits que peut apporter la mobilité.

Un rôle bénéfique

Le nouveau rapport mondial met en avant plusieurs point déterminants. Il confirme avant tout le rôle bénéfique de la migration qui aurait le potentiel d’améliorer le développement humain tout en bénéficiant, en même temps, à la communauté d’origine et à la communauté de destination. Pour le PNUD, les gouvernements concernés peuvent et doivent prendre les mesures nécessaires pour garantir l’intégration réussie des migrants dans la société d’accueil. Car, la politique et autres obstacles restreignent encore la circulation des personnes conduisant à des disparités dans les gains et les coûts liés à la migration. « Le rapport explique que, si nombre de ces réformes sont plus réalisables qu’on ne le pense, elles nécessitent néanmoins un certain courage politique », commente an avant-propos Helen Clark, administrateur du Programme des Nations Unies pour le développement. « La capacité des gouvernements à modifier rapidement leurs politiques peut également se trouver limitée si la récession dure. (…) En plaçant la mobilité au cœur de l’agenda du développement humain, le PNUD espère que les réflexions qui suivent ajouteront de la valeur au discours actuel sur la migration et influenceront le travail des professionnels du développement et des responsables politiques du monde entier ».

Un monde inégal

L’enjeu s’illustre parfaitement par deux exemples. Celui de Juan, Mexicain né dans une famille pauvre : parti à 18 ans au Canada avec son oncle, en quête de meilleurs salaires et de plus grandes opportunités, il décroche un permis de travail temporaire par le biais d’un processus de sélection, puis un droit de séjour permanent et fini par créer une entreprise qui emploie des Canadiens de souche. Autre cas de figure : Bhagyawati, issue d’une caste inférieure indienne. La jeune femme va passer chaque année avec ses enfants six mois à Bangalore, ville prospère du sud de l’Inde, afin de travailler sur des chantiers de construction pour 60 roupies (1,20 USD) par jour. Pendant ce temps, ses enfants ne vont pas à l’école, celle-ci étant trop éloignée du chantier et les enfants ne parlant pas la langue locale. Bhagyawati n’a droit ni aux produits alimentaires, ni aux soins médicaux subventionnés, et ne peut pas non plus voter parce qu’elle est inscrite dans un autre district. Comme des millions de migrants internes, l’un des seuls moyens dont elle dispose pour améliorer son quotidien est de partir dans une autre ville à la recherche de meilleures opportunités. « Notre monde est très inégal, commente les auteurs de l’étude. Les énormes différences de développement humain d’un pays à l’autre et à l’intérieur même des pays constituent l’un des thèmes récurrents du Rapport mondial sur le développement humain (RMDH) depuis sa première publication en 1990 ».

Le vieillissement de la population dans les pays développés au cours des quatre prochaines décennies est un autre facteur contribuant à une demande d’une main-d’oeuvre immigrée, précise le rapport.


L’exercice permet aussi de mesurer la progression du niveau de vie dans plusieurs pays. La Chine, par exemple, est le pays qui a fait le bond le plus important, en passant de la 99e à la 92e place au classement en raison d’améliorations dans le domaine de l’éducation, d’une espérance de vie à la hausse et d’une progression des revenus des travailleurs.

Trois pays d’Amérique latine suivent dans l’ordre, soit le Pérou et la Colombie, qui ont grimpé de cinq places chacun, et le Venezuela du controversé président Hugo Chavez, qui progresse de quatre échelons.

Parmi les pays qui se retrouvent au haut du classement, la France a grimpé de trois places pour se retrouver 8e, tandis que le Luxembourg a fait le chemin inverse et se retrouve 11e. Le pays qui a le plus reculé est la Jamaïque, qui perd huit places et se retrouve centième.

« Malgré des améliorations significatives avec le temps, les progrès ont été inégaux », indique le PNUD dans un communiqué. « Beaucoup de pays ont connu des reculs ces dernières années, du fait des difficultés économiques, des crises liées à des conflits et de l’épidémie de VIH/Sida, et ce, avant même de ressentir les effets de la crise économique internationale. »

La crise financière mondiale pourrait modifier l’ordre du classement l’an prochain. L’Islande, notamment, a subi d’importants contrecoups, son système bancaire ayant été très exposé à des actifs adossés à des prêts hypothécaires à haut risque aux États-Unis.

Par ailleurs dans le souci d’alternative toujours possible, de neutralité, cliquez sur l’image ci-dessous afin d’avoir une vue vue sur un autre indicateur allié plus à la notion du bonheur par :

Andry Rakotomavo

“Canada targets nuclear smugglers, maintains hard line against Iran”

“Canada targets nuclear smugglers, maintains hard line against Iran”
September 30-October 2, 2009
     Stewart Bell reports on the Canada Border Service Agency’s efforts to prevent the smuggling of potential nuclear and missile technologies to Iran. George Webb, head of the agency’s Counter Proliferation Section, cites Canada’s close proximity and free trade of military goods with the US as one of the main reasons why smugglers are shipping dual-use and military technologies to Iran, North Korea, Syria and China through Canada. Webb estimates that roughly 10% of strategic and dual-use exports are illegitimate and that half of those are organized by state-sponsored procurers working through dummy corporations, adding that arrests are rare because suspects are difficult to track (National Post).
     Writing before last week’s P5+1-Iran talks, Campbell Clark comments that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been one of Iran’s “harshest critics.” Houchang Hassan-Yari states that Ottawa is less restricted by diplomatic considerations than Washington and argues that criticism from Canada is a “sign of moral isolation” for Iran (Globe and Mail).
National Post | Globe and Mail

Related posts:
“A smuggler’s procurement of nuclear dual-use pressure transducers for Iran”

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Glaxo Kline Smith H1N1 Vax produced for Canada

Below info from Atomic News Review

What are the contents of the H1N1 Vaccine that will be used in Canada ?

Well , here is What we know for now ( it will get updated  as info comes in and final vaccine is released ) A multi strand vaccine could be released for the final version :

A/California/7/2009 -   3.75ug
Thiomersal - 5 mg
AS03 is the adjuvant system - 0.5 ml

AS03 contains:
Polysorbate 80 also known as tween - 80 4.86 mg
Squalene - 10.69 mg
Tocopherol - 11.86 mg

There is a second run of vaccinea for pregnant women that does not have the adjuvants, however as we heard in these conversations thiomersal is not considered an adjuvant, it is considered a preservative, so it remains to be seen if pregnant women will be exposed to mercury in the H1N1 vaccine.

Here’s one study that looked at the impact of Polysorbate 80 (also known as tween 80) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/ent…
Short answer; polysorbate 80 injected can sterilize rats.

Tocopherol has a wiki page here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocopherol and a reseach paper on how this may impact reproduction here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16…

Short answer; tocopherol may cause low birth weight in human babies.

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00980850?term=glaxosmithkline&rank=7

http://www.swineflutrial.org/

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