Percy Schmeiser

Percy Schmeiser is a Canadian canola farmer who has been sued by agricultural chemical and biotech giant Monsanto after some of Monsanto's genetically engineered Roundup Ready canola genes drifted onto his property from neighboring farms and contaminated his crop.
Mr. Schmeiser, who is now 70 years old, has traveled the world speaking to a wide variety of audiences about his experience.
Mr. Schmeiser received the Mahatma Gandhi award in October, 2000.
Percy Schmeiser speaking at the University of Texas at Austin - October 10, 2001:
I've been farming for 53 years, and 50 years of those I spent in developing a natural breeding of canola. I was known in Western Canada as a seed saver and a seed developer. Besides being a farmer, I've also spent 25 years in public life. I was a member of Parliament and I was also mayor of my community for that length of time. In those years of public life, I was on every agricultural committee you can imagine, both federally and provincially. I've always fought for farmers’ rights and farmers’ privileges, and regulations and laws that would benefit them.
Text on screen:
Rodney Nelson, along with his father and brothers, grows soybeans on their North Dakota farm. His family is also being sued by Monsanto, who accused them of saving and replanting their patented Roundup ready soybeans, a charge Mr. Nelson adamantly denies.
Rodney Nelson (seen speaking from his fields in a tractor - note: taped for this event):
Our family comes from a long line of share renters. Our farm has grown quite dramatically in size over the years because we have always been honest and fair with people. And I believe our landlords realize this. And that's why they come to us to rent us a farm. It has been heart wrenching for us to watch our reputations be destroyed in our own community over something we did not do. My family has been enduring a living hell since this began. I am sure this is what led to my father's recent heart attack a few weeks back. He has been physically and emotionally shattered since this began, as our whole family has been. more @ http://www.mindfully.org/GE/GE4/Heartbreak-In-The-Heartland21jul02.htm

The Fed's in a desperate race with spectre of collapse

We have not seen anything like it since the decade of the Great Depression. Melodramatic as that might sound, it is a fact but a fact that markets seem unwilling to accept. While the Fed is willing to slash rates and hope, and pump liquidity into the system, markets will remain optimistic. But it is a race to the bottom. The Fed hoping it reaches the finishing line first and restores confidence returns before a bank goes bust. But the spectre of a collapse is neck and neck with Bernanke and it’s still anyone’s guess which will win.

The Suspect Society

The Surveillance Society. The New Authoritarianism. The Age of Paranoid Politics. These are just a few of the ways writers and thinkers describe the age we're now living in. The signs of anxiety and fear in this post 9-11 era are all around us. School lock-downs are called the new fire-drill. Recently, many schools boards in Canada made rehearsing the lock-down mandatory. The number of security staff in schools is increasing every year. By 2010 for example, there will be more security guards than teachers in American schools. But, the uniforms aren't just being worn by security staff. More and more American public schools have adopted uniforms for students. Meanwhile the U.S. army is embedding itself in schools - targeting younger and younger students for recruitment. In Canada recruitment comes through video games that inform, entertain and seduce "action-focused males starting at 17 years old".

British Goverment poster outside a Metro station in London.

Military symbols and myths are gaining prominence in western societies. In Britain, a recent report recommended that military personnel continue to wear a uniform in their daily life as citizens to boost support for themselves. One of Canada's military boosters is Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In April, 2007, he told us that the Battle of Vimy Ridge is Canada's creation story. Military Heroics. Bunker politics. Us against Them. The world, indeed seems more dangerous than ever, in the most intimate of environments. In daycares within Canada, the US, Britain and Australia, there is now video surveillance of very young children, easing we're told, parental anxieties. Never mind cameras at intersections, in elevators. Cameras everywhere. In Baltimore, they've gone further. Based on an idea from Glasgow, Scotland, blue flashing lights have been installed around Baltimore - to signal: this is a high-crime neighbourhood.

A grant worth millions of dollars from the United States Department of Homeland Security has helped pay for Baltimore's video fortress. That video is streamed into the Baltimore Police Depatments "Watch Centre". In New York City and London, England similar surveillance is called, "The Ring of Steel".

Britain has 4 million cameras trained on it's citizens. The country's information commissioner has publicly stated the British are sleepwalking into a surveillance society. One study revealed a single person in London, going about their business would be filmed about 300 times in one day. But what are we to make of all of this? We know that video cameras can, in specific situations, help solve crimes but must everybody be watched all the time? And what's at stake?

IDEAS producer Mary O'Connell takes us inside the new authoritarianism – which, if we're paying attention, seems to be all around us.

Listen to The Suspect Society, Part 1
(runs: 54:00)

In Episode 2, Mary O'Connell explores violations of academic freedom and expression. Dr. Steven Kurtz is an arts professor at Suny - State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Kurtz has been the subject of an FBI investigation and his trial will begin in summer 2008. The second case involves the story of Religion and Philosophy professor Douglas Giles who was dismissed from his
job at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Listen to The Suspect Society, Part 2
(runs: 54:00)

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RESOURCES

Books
Against the New Authoritarianism, by Henry A. Giroux.
The University in Chains, by Henry A. Giroux.
Professor Henry Giroux is the Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University.
Paranoid Parenting, by Frank Furedi.
Frank Furedi is a sociologist at the University of Canterbury, England.
Witch Hunts from Salem to Guantanamo Bay, by Robert Rapley.
The Age of McCarthyism, by Ellen Schrecker.
Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America, by Ellen Schrecker.
Ellen Schrecker is a professor of American History at Yeshiva University, New York.
Suspect, Alphabet City, editor John Knechtel.

Websites
The American Civil Liberties Union - Is the US Turning Into A Surveillance Society
Canadian Civil Liberties Association - CCLA In The Schools: The Right To Personal Privacy
Media Matters for America - Savage Nation
Alligator Online - Capital Bill Aims to Control Leftist
CBN.NEWS.com - The 101 Most Dangerous Professors in America
The Nation - Burning Cole
Critical Art Ensemble

American Historical Association - Scholars Become Targets of Patriot Act

The Human Behavior Experiments by Alex Gibney on CBC Television's The Passionate Eye - Watch an excerpt from the documentary

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Once upon a time ...

One hundred years ago American business leaders and politicians celebrated the free market. They praised the virtues of small government, competition, and laissez-faire capitalism. They said that with enough hard work anybody could make it to the top. Although free market rhetoric was plentiful in those days, free markets were hard to find. Almost every sector of the American economy was controlled by a handful of corporations whose executives met in secret, set prices, determined wages, and conspired to destroy labor unions. These interlocking corporate and financial monopolies had a pleasant, innocent- sounding name: trusts. There was a steel trust, a sugar trust, and a coal trust, among others. The markets weren’t free, but the trusts were—free to employ children in factories, free to make people work sixty or seventy hours a week, free to pollute rivers and streams, to hire private armies, to bribe state legislators and members of Congress, to sell what they wanted at whatever price they liked.

Activists demand a National Water Policy in over 40 communities across the country on World Water Day

On World Water Day, March 22, over 40 communities across Canada will be joining the Council of Canadians' call for a national water policy. The organization and its supporters are demanding federal legislation to address the rising threats of bulk water exports to the United States, the privatization of water services and increasing levels of water contamination in Canada.

The Council of Canadians is working with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Oxfam Canada and the Polaris Institute to raise awareness on the water crisis in Canada.

Who:

Susan Howatt is the national water campaigner at the Council of Canadians. She has spoken in communities across the country on Canada's water crisis and the need for a national water policy.

The Council of Canadians is Canada's largest citizens' advocacy organization with 76 chapters across Canada.

Please contact us to get in touch with someone from your community.

When:

March 18 -22

Where:

Communities across the country. Find World Water Day events in your community at: www.canadians.org/WorldWaterDay/events.html

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For more information, please contact:
Meera Karunananthan Media Officer: Tel.: (613) 233-4487, ext. 234; Cell: (613) 795-8685; meera@canadians.org; www.righttowater.ca.

The democratic inducement and regulation of world federalism.

Fascism in Canada:

Herb Dhaliwal, Minister of Natural Resources, recently expressed some concern that we in Canada are moving toward a "third world democracy", "where the people who are in control make sure they control it and don't let other people in". Jeffrey Simpson has written that we live in a "benign dictatorship" where our Prime Minister has an inordinate amount of power. I think we are moving toward what essentially amounts to fascism.

Just so we are clear about our definitions here, I should state that I take my definition of fascism from someone who should have known what it was. Benito Mussolini founded the fascista in 1919. While the jackboots and national fervor are gone from public view, what remains is the core of an idea that has taken root in this country, primarily among our more finely tailored. It is called corporatism. Mussolini said that Fascism should more correctly have been called "Corporatism" because as he put it, Fascism is a "merge" of corporate and government power. I take him at his word.

That corporate power in Canada is represented by a group of 150 Chief Executives who now call themselves the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. These executives represent the most powerful corporations in Canada. I mention this group because it is they who have been identified by Peter C. Newman as being the people who actually run Canada, and have since about 1998. According to Mr. Newman, in a CPAC interview recently aired, they have a meeting with government about once a year, they tell the government what they want, and they get it, period.

This group has recently embarked on a campaign to influence you and me on a new plan for Canada which is more in tune with their interests. An article published in the Globe and Mail on January 15th, 2004, section B, Page 3, outlined their new plan for Canada and a timetable for its implementation.

According to the article, this council wants to "reduce the Canada U.S. border to an internal checkpoint, bring together the resource industries of the two countries, reform the regulatory and standards environment and beef up the Canadian Military as part of a perimeter defense against terrorism," this will include "identity cards". They intend to "effect the changes over the next 3 to 4 years".

Canadians have always believed that the United States wants Canadian water, and we have always been assured that no such want exists or will be fed. I am suggesting that bringing "together the resource industries" is nothing more than double speak for give us your water, a demand that began to be heard in 1998 when the corporate sector began lobbying for the water market.

Two years later, multinational companies backed by the World Trade Organization successfully strong armed the U.N. into defining water as a human need as opposed to a human right. This human need in the United Sates, who's leaders, like Canadian leaders, feel that we don't need a national water conservation policy, is best represented by the Ogallala Aquifer.

The Ogallala Aquifer stretches from the Texas Panhandle to South Dakota, is mined by over 200,000 groundwater wells and is now being used at 14 times its natural replenishment rate. This aquifer is going to run out of water and when it does there will be strident demands to replace that water.

One of the member corporations of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives is Bechtel, (an American Corporation,) which coincidentally happens to be, among other things, in the water business. If you are looking for other corporations who would benefit from and have the capacity to produce the machinery of war, of managing the business of reducing human rights, or of controlling and manipulating the mechanisms of a free press, they are all represented by this council, and they are not benign.

Carl Joudrie: January, 2004

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No Uranium Mine ! Shabot Obaajiwan will not back down !

By Helen Forsey

The story behind the draconian February 15th sentencing of a First Nation leader began in the spring of 2007 when the Ardoch and Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquin communities found out that their land was threatened by a proposed uranium mine. The Ontario government had given a permit to "Frontenac Ventures" corporation to drill for uranium on a 30,000 acre tract of wilderness in northern Frontenac County, 100 kms upstream from Ottawa. Some of the land staked is private property, but most is unceded Algonquin territory, claimed as "Crown land" by the provincial government.

Like the whole of the Ottawa River watershed, this "Frontenac Tract" is traditional Algonquin territory. It has never been ceded to the Crown, and since the early 1990s it has been the subject of Comprehensive Land Claim negotiations with Ontario and Canada. By issuing exploration permits on this disputed land, Ontario has made a mockery of its own negotiations and ignored Supreme Court rulings that require meaningful consultation with First Nations before allowing development in their territories.

Frontenac Ventures took advantage of this government travesty. In the spring of 2007 it set up a uranium exploration camp at Robertsville, 90 kms north of Kingston, and prepared to drill. Meanwhile, concern was building among local residents over the dangers uranium poses to human health and the environment. Meetings took place between Algonquins and their "settler" neighbours, research was done, letters written, questions raised. But as more alarming facts emerged about the risks of exploring and mining this radioactive mineral, it became clear that the company was going ahead regardless.

At the end of June, the Ardoch Algonquins and Shabot Obaadjiwan peacefully occupied the site at Robertsville, the only feasible entry point for the 30,000-acre tract. They were supported by hundreds of non-Algonquins from the local area and beyond, who brought food and supplies, raised money, and organized a communications and quick response network. The comprehensive website (http://www.ccamu.ca/) and email newsletter, "Uranium News" are the work of the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium.

From the start, the entire protest was determinedly non-violent. Mindful of the lessons from Ipperwash, the Ontario Provincial Police helped maintain good communications and prevent crises. The Algonquins, working from an office in a donated trailer behind the gate, continued to press the government for consultation. Frustrated, Frontenac Ventures launched a $77-million lawsuit against the protesters and got an interim injunction ordering everyone away from the Site.

In response, settler support mushroomed, and an entire tent village went up outside the gate. The Algonquins insisted they would only leave if true consultation began, with a guarantee of no drilling for the duration of the process. Apparently outraged by their stubborn determination, Judge Cunningham of the Ontario Superior Court issued a follow-up "interlocutory" injunction on September 27th, and charged the protesters with contempt of court for defying the earlier order. With evidence implicating at least 50 people, both settlers and Algonquins, lawyers negotiated the number down to eight, among them the five First Nations leaders who bravely volunteered to take the rap for everyone

Finally in October the government agreed to mediated talks, and the Algonquins moved their peaceful protest out from behind the gate to the road allowance nearby. As the cold set in, the protesters maintained a watchful presence in the relocated trailer and a cabin they built in three days. Donna Dillman's hunger strike was based there until she took it to Toronto at the end of November. Frontenac Ventures came and went, doing "non-intrusive" preparatory work under the terms of the mediation.

But tensions began to mount soon after New Years, as the end of the twelve-week mediation period approached. An innovative Algonquin proposal for a consultation "pilot project" was on the table when the Ontario government pulled the rug out from under the whole thing by insisting that drilling must go ahead no matter what. Ardoch and Shabot rejected that condition and resumed their non-violent protest. That was how things stood on February 12th when the trials on the contempt charges began, leading to the rigid conditions, massive fines and jail time imposed by Judge Cunningham.



Duty to consult information

Shabot people need your help!!!
Click here to help

Air Pollution

Air pollution is still a major concern, particularly with wood boilers. A 2006 report from the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, a nonprofit association of Northeast air quality agencies, found that average particulate emissions from one outdoor wood boiler equaled that of 22 wood stoves, 205 oil furnaces or as many as 8,000 natural gas furnaces.

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PRIMARUL A LUAT CALCULATOARELE DE LA CASA DE CULTURA

Zilele trecute un scandal monstru a avut loc la Casa de Cultura . Asta deoarece din dispozitia primarului s-au ridicat calculatoarele de la Casa de cultura . Printre cei afectati s-a aflat si insusi directorul d-na Cristina Crinteanu . Gurile rele spun ca aceasta masura a fost luata pentru ca angajatii acestei institutii sa nu mai poata citi si eventual sa-si exprime opinii pe forumul Ziarului de Calafat ....

Cloned animals safe to eat, concludes FDA

15/01/2008 11:38:36 PM
Meat and milk from cloned animals is as safe as that from "normal" animals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has concluded in a 900-plus page safety report.
The FDA says the data show that the meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones "are as safe as food we eat every day."
"After years of detailed study and analysis, the Food and Drug Administration has concluded that meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine, and goats, and the offspring of clones from any species traditionally consumed as food, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals," the agency said in a statement Tuesday.
They noted that their report was limited to cows, pigs and goats; they didn't have enough data to comment on the safety of food from clones of other animal species, such as sheep.
U.S. producers agreed back in 2001 to not bring meat or milk from clones into the food supply, until the FDA could further evaluate the issue. With this report, the last U.S. regulatory hurdle to marketing cloned meat and milk products is now removed.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization applauded the FDA decision in a statement on their website. It says cloning "can effectively help livestock producers deliver what consumers want: high-quality, safe, abundant and nutritious foods in a consistent manner."
But it'll likely be years before consumers can find foods from cloned animals on store shelves. That's because the costs of cloning still make it economically unfeasible.
Nevertheless, the FDA is preparing for the day when manufacturers will want to market meat and milk from cloned animals. It says the first step will be to determine how to phase out the existing voluntary moratorium.
For now, the FDA is asking cloning companies, such as Viagen Inc. and Trans Ova Genetics, to continue the moratorium a little longer, to allow consumers to adjust to the concept.
Several large companies have said they have no plans to sell milk or meat from cloned animals because of consumer anxiety about the technology.
The FDA says that when the market is ready for cloned meat and dairy, it will not require special labeling or other additional measures, "because food derived from these sources is no different from food derived from conventionally bred animals."
It also notes that it is unlikely that the meat and milk from cloned animals will be available for sale in any significant amount; instead, it will likely come from the offspring of those animals. That's because clones would be used for breeding, while their sexually reproduced offspring would be used for producing meat and milk for the marketplace.
Clones would likely be used primarily as breeding animals to introduce desirable traits into herds more rapidly than would be possible using conventional breeding.
As for Canada, a spokesman for Health Canada said there are currently no foods from cloned animals approved for sale in Canada.

Glume de la Calafat

Ger năprasnic în ţara noastră


În majoritatea oraşelor din România, noaptea trecută s-au înregistrat temperaturi cu mult sub -10 grade Celsius, iar cea mai scăzută a fost la Miercurea-Ciuc, unde s-au atins aproape -26 de grade.
Specialiştii spun că valorile sunt de două ori mai mici decât cele normale pentru această perioadă.
Gerul va persista şi astăzi în majoritatea regiunilor ţării, iar meteorologii spun că vremea va începe să se încălzească abia de duminică.
În astfel de zile geroase, autorităţile sunt obligate să ia măsuri pentru protejarea populaţiei.
În primul rând, primăriile trebuie să se asigure că spitalele, staţiile de ambulanţă, instituţiile de învăţământ sau căminele de asistenţă socială au deblocate căile de acces.

extras din ziarul de Calafat

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'Right thing to do'

Fri, December 21, 2007
Ontario is returning the land of Ipperwash Provincial Park to the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation.
By JENNIFER O'BRIEN, SUN MEDIA


Ontario's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant stands between Sam George, left, and Tom Bressette, chief of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, at Kettle Point where the province said it's returning Ipperwash park land to the First Nation. George's brother Dudley died in a protest in the park in 1995. (DEREK RUTTAN, Sun Media)
KETTLE POINT -- Twelve years after native protester Dudley George was killed by police at Ipperwash Provincial Park, the province is returning the land to the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation.
While George's brother Sam said his death "sped up" the return of the disputed land, Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant said that's not how the province will resolve future land claims.
"Where there is conflict and violence and death, it does not provide for a more expeditious result," he said in Toronto.
"It leads to complete entrenchment and tragedy, bitterness on both sides that you have to see to believe. It's going to take a long time for these communities to heal."
Ipperwash Provincial Park was a "particularly special" case, Bryant said. The land may have "significant nostalgic value" to the surrounding community, but returning it to the First Nation is the right thing to do," he said.

A complete transfer of the park land could take years, but will begin immediately, Bryant said later at Kettle Point, near the park, where he also met with First Nations elders.

Octavian Paler

„Îmi iubesc ţara doar atunci când nu mă uit la televizor şi nu merg pe stradă!” Octavian Paler

The Myth of Endless Growth

'We cannot grow forever on a finite planet. If we continue to assume that endless growth and consumption is possible, and disregard the biosphere’s capacity to meet our greed, and if we continue to neglect social justice and fair and sustainable wealth distribution, we will reap a bitter harvest.'

Forest protection: Local and global

VIEWPOINT Frederick Sagisolo

Local communities living in the world's dwindling tropical forests bear the brunt of the insatiable demand for cheap timber, argues Frederick Sagisolo. In the Green Room, he recounts his experience of illegal logging, and explains why community forest management is the way forward.
Forests provide for most of the needs of the KnasaimosFor the Knasaimos people, living in the Indonesian province of Papua, we do not see nature as something to be destroyed.
The forests here provide for our needs. For building houses we take rattan, bamboo and other woods, for lighting fires we take damar, and for food we process sago taken from the forest in the traditional method.
The forests give us wood for fishing boats, gaharu trees for trade, and many fruits which we can sell.
The relationship between our people and their nature is important, and it's become our pride and part of our traditional wisdom. That's why we manage the land in a simple way.
The way we manage our land, however, has been disturbed by outsiders coming here to log trees.

It started in 1999 with meranti wood being taken, and once that was finished in 2002 they started to cut merbau trees.
This created problems for our community. Before, there was a sense of working together, a feeling of togetherness.
Then, when some people are attracted to the wood company they refuse to work on the sago any more. They think that because the company promises money, they don't want to do the traditional work in the forest any more.
New values appear, like wanting to have more than your neighbour and putting a price on everything, instead of valuing what we already have.
Rich wood
The merbau logging was carried out by one company, supported by foreign investors.

Companies from outside only think about money and leave us with tears
We never invited this company here and it did not have proper permission to log.
I am the head of the tribal council, but the company never talked to me. Instead it did an illegal deal with one individual from our community, and this created many problems for us.
But the company was backed by a local military officer, so what could we do?
Soon after it first arrived the company was cutting our trees in four areas, destroying the land with heavy equipment. Yet when people here see the military person involved, then cannot sit down together and discuss things. Impossible.
I was really worried by this company. Our land is not that large, and with the logging after a few years we would have had no trees left, only grass.
This would mean disaster for us. It is our mission to treat the land as something entrusted to us for our grandchildren and so we must not destroy it.
Self-determination
If we are left alone we manage the forest well as it is part of our life.
But companies from outside only think about money and leave us with tears. While the company was here there was no improvement for local people - just problems.
We plan to develop a system where we, the Knasaimos, as the guardians of this land, manage it ourselves and gain benefits to help the lives of our people
We know our rights, but got no help from the local government. They just came here with a map we had never seen before - some kind of imaginary map.
Under this some of our sacred places would be destroyed. We asked "why did you do this?" and the company said it was allowed because of the map.
We know that this map was illegal and it is clear that money talked. We asked the government to stop this company, but nothing happened.
Then finally, in 2005, Papua was the target for a big action by the government against illegal logging. The military officer left, and the company operations stopped.
We felt we were once more in control of our lands and set about healing the wounds created by the company.
Community awareness
In early 2007 I was contacted by people from two environment groups, Telapak and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

Frederick shares his community's story with officials in Brussels
These groups had come to Seremuk in 2003 and filmed our way of life and the problems we were having with the logging company.
These people explained to me that they were organising a meeting in Belgium to tell European Union officials about the bad impacts of illegal logging and wanted me to speak. I agreed, believing this could benefit our community.
I came across so many interesting stories on the trip.
I found out how timber stolen from Seremuk and other "remote" areas eventually goes to places like Europe and is worth a lot of money. It seemed strange to me that the people who live in the forests are still poor, while the timber taken from them is worth so much when it is sold in Europe.
On the trip, I saw how in Europe NGOs work together with their governments, while in Indonesia they are seen as the enemy of the government.
This made us realise how the Knasaimos people have to develop strong institutions to press the government to have a more open mind, and allow us to manage our land free of interference.

Frederick's story
(Courtesy of Handcrafted Films and the UK's Department for International Development)
Now, in Seremuk, I'm working to use the lessons of the trip to help improve the situation for the Knasaimos.
At a recent big gathering of our people it was agreed that no member of our community would sell trees to outsiders.
Instead we plan to develop a system where we, the Knasaimos, as the guardians of this land, manage it ourselves and gain benefits to help the lives of our people through better education and health.
We have suffered from illegal logging and now we want to build a co-operative to carry out small-scale community logging.
This is our vision as to how we can live together with nature and improve the lives of our people.
Frederick Sagisolo is traditional chief of the Knasaimos people living in the western region of Papua, Indonesia
The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Do you agree with Frederick Sagisolo? Is community involvement the key to managing natural resources such as forests? Do western governments and western consumers have a role to play in helping peoples such as the Knasaimos?

Marele artist al mediei calafetene, Daniel Girtoi

mai copile, daca cu numai citeva ore in urma luai apararea directorulu de la Termo, iata ca ceea ce primarul si cei pe care ar trebui sa-i respecti tu si gasca ta de ignoranti, au prezis s-a adevarat. Incompetenta si minciuna iese la suprafata cum a iesit acum din rezervorul cu pricina pacura care n-a vrut sa fie arsa. N-a vrut sa fie arsi banii cetateanului care nu are nici un amestec in jocurile voastre politice. Daca tu crezi ca furnizarea energiei unui oras intreg este lasata an de an in voia sortii, la cheremul celor ce stiu sa linga mai mult usile guvernatilor atunci poti sa te duci sa scrii articole in Nigeria, pe noi scuteste-ne de istetimea ta. Politia si pompierii au ajuns foarte repede ???!! Pai cum ai fi vrut ma' lingaule sa ajunga? Nu crezi ca era de datoria lor? De ce nu scrii de echipa de interventie, de planurile de urgenta? Nu aveti din astea ca nu sint bani? Atunci cind a-ti pasit pe drumul luminos al civilizatiei occidentale nu v-ati gandit decit la distractii? Ei poate e timpul sa va treziti si sa vedeti ca odata cu "mall-ul" cu preturi accesibile vin si multe alte care inaintasii vostrii fie comunisti sau tarani sau doar simplu oameni le-au refuzat. Dar voi aveti tot timpul inainte! Sa curatati mizeria facuta de altii. Nu v-a picat fisa inca ???

Cost of water shortage: civil unrest, mass migration and economic collapse

Analysts see widespread conflicts by 2015 but pin hopes on technology and better management John Vidal, environment editor, Thursday August 17, 2006 The Guardian

A woman carries buckets to collect water near Tahoua, northen Niger. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty

Cholera may return to London, the mass migration of Africans could cause civil unrest in Europe and China's economy could crash by 2015 as the supply of fresh water becomes critical to the global economy. That was the bleak assessment yesterday by forecasters from some of the world's leading corporate users of fresh water, 200 of the largest food, oil, water and chemical companies.
Analysts working for Shell, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Cargill and other companies which depend heavily on secure water supplies, yesterday suggested the next 20 years would be critical as countries became richer, making heavier demands on scarce water supplies.

In three future scenarios, the businesses foresee growing civil unrest, boom and bust economic cycles in Asia and mass migrations to Europe. But they also say scarcity will encourage the development of new water-saving technologies and better management of water by business.
The study of future water availability, which the corporations have taken three years to compile, suggests water conflicts are likely to become common in many countries, according to the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, which brought the industrial groups together.
Lloyd Timberlake, spokesman for the council, said: "The growing demand for water in China can potentially lead to over-exploitation and a decline in availability for domestic, agricultural, industry and energy production use. This inevitably leads to loss of production, both industrial and agricultural, and can also affect public health - all of which in turn will ultimately lead to an economic downturn. The question is how can business address these challenges and still make a profit."
The corporations were yesterday joined by the conservation group WWF and the International Water Management Institute, the world's leading body on fresh water management, which said water scarcity was increasing faster than expected. In China, authorities had begun trucking in water to millions of people after wells and rivers ran dry in the east of the country.
"Globally, water usage has increased by six times in the past 100 years and will double again by 2050, driven mainly by irrigation and demands of agriculture. Some countries have already run out of water to produce their own food. Without improvements ... the consequences will be even more widespread water scarcity and rapidly increasing water prices," said Frank Rijsberman, director of the institute.
The institute, funded by government research organisations, will report next week that a third of the world's population, more than 2 billion people, is living in places where water is overused - leading to falling underground water levels and drying rivers - or cannot be accessed.
Mr Rijsberman said rising living standards in India and China could lead to increased demand for better food, which would in turn need more water to produce. He expected the price of water to increase everywhere to meet an expected 50% increase in the amount of food the world will need in the next 20 years.
According to the institute's assessment, Egypt imports more than half of its food because it does not have enough water to grow it domestically and Australia is faced with water scarcity in the Murray-Darling Basin as a result of diverting large quantities of water for use in agriculture. The Aral Sea in central Asia is another example of massive diversion of water for agriculture in the Soviet era causing widespread water scarcity, and one of the world's worst environmental disasters.
Researchers say it is possible to reduce water scarcity, feed people and address poverty, but the key trade-off is with the environment. "People and their governments will face some tough decisions on how to allocate and manage water," says the institute's report.
In a further paper, WWF said yesterday that water crises, long seen as a problem of only the poorest, are affecting the wealthiest nations. "In Europe, countries along the Atlantic are suffering recurring droughts, while water-intensive tourism and irrigated agriculture are endangering water resources in the Mediterranean. In Australia, salinity is a major threat to a large proportion of its key agricultural areas", said Jamie Pittock, director of WWF's freshwater programme.
In the United States, Mr Pittock said, large areas are already using substantially more water than can be naturally replenished. "This situation will only be exacerbated as climate change is predicted to bring lower rainfall, increased evaporation and changed patterns of snow melting."
Three visions of the future
1. Misery and shortages in the megacities and drought in Africa
By 2010, 22 megacities with populations larger than 10 million face major water and sewerage problems. The situation is gravest in China, where 550 of the country's 600 largest cities are running short. Growing demand for water by industry leads to serious over-exploitaion with less and less water available for consumers and farmers. This leads to a fall in Chinese food production, which in turn leads to more imports and impacts on other countries. Friction and unrest grow worldwide as the middle classes struggle to pay bills. Businesses are exposed to charges of moral culpability and litigation over water use. Waves of immigrants flood in to Europe from increasingly drought-torn Africa
2. China leads recycling rush as world moves to a new hydro economy
By 2010, the water shortage in many developing countries is recognised as one of the most serious political and social issues of the time. Lack of water is stopping development and in many countries the rural poor suffer as their water and other needs take second place to those of swelling cities and industry. Local government worldwide is increasingly distrusted over water allocation, and historical divides between rich and poor are exacerbated by water shortages. However, by 2025 a worldwide hydro economy is developing, led by China. Vast new investments are made in recycling water and the cost of desalination is greatly reduced. Innovative small-scale water treatment processes become the norm
3. Water is the means of social control as floods and disease devastate world
Water becomes a key symbol of protest around the world and is seen as the most serious social and political issue of the generation. By 2015, multinational companies are accused regularly of taking too much water in developing countries, cholera breaks out in London, and governments start to use water as a form of social control, subsidising some sectors and rationing it to others. Great floods follow each other in quick succession. Deforestation leads to massive mudslides in Asia and increasing flooding affects Europe, damaging industry. A second New Orleans flood destroys the city again. Global focus grows on the "export" of water via crops such as wheat or fruit

The Coming Economic Collapse

By Bruce Porteous Is there a coming economic collapse? When will this happen? How will this affect us? Many wonder what the future is for the global economy. Over the last few years economists have been expressing increasing concerns about the direction the global economy is going in, and the possibility of a worldwide depression. They have been warning about the growing global imbalances in the world economy, and the consequences if not corrected. Yet we live in a time where the global economy is booming, especially in the Anglo-Saxon and Asian economies. Consumer spending is up. House prices around the world have risen dramatically. Unemployment remains low. The global economy has experienced the longest period of sustained economic growth in recent history. The US$ continues to remain stable. Why has the global economy experienced such strong growth? Will this growth continue? What does the future hold? Interestingly, some of the stimulus for the growth the global economy has recently experienced is a result of decisions made following Sept 11th. Already, prior to Sept 11th the US Federal Reserve was maintaining a loose fiscal policy in an effort to stimulate economic growth in the US economy, which had slowed down following years of strong growth during the Clinton administration. Then along came Sept 11th, which threatened to destabilize the American banking system. To prevent this happening, the Fed injected billions into the banking system to provide sufficient liquidity to prevent a run on the dollar and the banks. Meanwhile, Japan since the late Eighties had been wrestling with a stagnant economy, deflation, and a rising currency. The Bank of Japan was already printing money prior to Sept 11th to support its own debt-ridden banks and to stimulate the domestic economy, and has continued with this policy ever since: printing yen to purchase American dollars. Japan has been able avoid inflation through having high domestic savings, and by investing heavily outside the country. This has kept the Yen from appreciating against the dollar, enabled Japan's export sector to remain competitive, and kept interest rates at near zero. As much of Japan's external investments have been in the USA, it has resulted in Japan holding assets worth trillions of US dollars, many of which are invested in US Treasury Bonds and Mutual Funds. Printing money to solve a nation's economic problem can never be sustained. Eventually, it will lead to the debasing of a nations currency and run-away inflation. Yet for a short period, it can create an artificial prosperity, deluding the masses into believing this new prosperity can be sustained. The long-term consequences of inflating their money supply will spell disaster for America and Japan, and have dire consequences for the global economy. The rapid increase in the money supply of US dollars is the number one reason America's wealth has shifted from the US to Asia and Europe. In particular, China has benefited enormously from the inflow of dollars which has financed the rapid growth of its economy, providing the capital to develop their competitive export sector. The Asian economies high rates of personal savings have financed their domestic growth as well as finance the US deficits. This has continued to allow the USA to maintain its privileged position of retaining the $US dollar as the world's reserve currency; and allowing it to retain its global military and political dominance. It has become popular by American politicians to blame China for the decline in America's production base. This is totally unfair, and shows both their ignorance and a failure to accept responsibility by the American leadership. Actually, it is through China being able to supply America with cheap consumer goods, and lend the capital to purchase these goods which has allowed the US to contain inflation, benefiting the American consumer. Germany, which is now the world's number one export nation and which has a wage structure higher than the US, has had to cope with a rising currency, but has still been able to expand its exports between 10-20% per annum, and continues to have an expanding large trade and current account surpluses. German manufactures also have to compete with their Asian competitors just as those from America, yet have a 160.5 billion trade surplus. The reason why America has such large trade and current deficits is because of the expansion of its money supply, without the corresponding expansion of its productive capacity to produce the wealth to sustain the increase in money in circulation. The lack of domestic savings to provide the investment capital into new manufacturing capacity is also a contributing factor. The cost of maintaining a large military establishment and the decline in the social fabric of society are also significant contributing factors, both of which consume resources that should be invested in the manufacturing sector for a nation to remain internationally competitive. So it would appear in the short-term, the loose monetary policies of America and Japan appear to have benefited everyone. Expanding the money supply has provided the capital to support the growth of the expanding Asian economies, especially those of India and China. Inflation (if you exclude property) has been contained (normally a consequences of a loose money policy) because of China and India being able to produce consumer goods and services cheaply for the global markets, preventing manufactures in the Anglo-Saxon economies from raising their prices. The increase in the supply of US dollars has been able to finance the growth in global trade. It has also provided the liquidity to finance the trade in oil, even as its price continues to escalate. But what are the long-term consequences of such fiscal policies? 1 The rise in property prices. The value of property is one of the first commodities to rise in value when the supply of money increases rapidly. In the short-term this makes property owners believe they have suddenly struck it rich, but in reality it is the decline in the value of their money. It also places an increased financial burden upon the population, who end up paying an increased percentage of their income on housing, unless their incomes also rise. The burden of servicing this new mortgage debt is riskier today, as much of the capital to finance the growth in mortgage debt has come from short-term borrowings through the banking system from Asian investors, with the interest being remitted back to these lenders, rather than retained in the local economy. The real danger is that if the Asian investors withdraw their capital from the Anglo-Saxon nations, it would cause a collapse of the property sector and threaten the survival of their banking system. 2 The shift of the productive manufacturing base from the Anglo-Saxon nations to low-cost Asian economies. The outflow of printed dollars from the USA to Asia has provided the capital to allow these countries to rapidly expand their manufacturing sector, and under-cut the higher cost Anglo-Saxon producers. Yet the increase of the money supply has allowed the Anglo-Saxon consumer to still have retained their ability to purchase consumer goods manufactured from Asia, often financed through borrowing from the same Asians, even as their income from the productive sector declines. 3 The increase in the money supply has resulted in the rapid growth in consummation of non-renewable resources in newly emerging economies in both the Anglo-Saxon countries and especially China and India. This growth in demand for these essential commodities can not be sustained. Without the supply of cheap energy our standard of living will not be maintained. Eventually the availability of energy will become limited to only those nations with currencies strong enough to purchase them. 4 Damage to the global environment ­ the increase of the money supply has stimulated economic growth to where the planet can no longer cope with the damage done to the environment. For the sake of short-term prosperity, we are destroying the ability of the planet to sustain life. 5 It has enabled the American, Japanese and UK Governments to finance their enormous budget deficits though borrowing the money they have printed. In the case of America and Britain is that they are also borrowing increasingly from nations that were their former enemies. In all these countries the national debt has grown to such an extent, that a tightening of the money supply resulting in higher interest rates, could increase their budget deficits to such an extent it would bankrupt them. 6 Funding of wars ­ America has been able to finance its wars in the Middle East on borrowed money ­ printed money now controlled from Asia. This has left the American economy extremely vulnerable and open to collapse if this money is with-drawn for geo-political reasons. Amazingly, the US does not even include the war in Iraq or Afghanistan in its budget. 7 Increasing the money supply to the extent that has happened, will eventually lead to the erosion in the value of the purchasing power of the currency, and a lack of confidence in its value. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ But what of the long-term consequences for the world if there is a collapse of existing economic system? What will be the future to the global economy of the loose money policies of the last few years? Does economic disaster now loom over the horizon? What will trigger off a lack of confidence by America's creditors in continuing to invest in the USA and support the $US? There could be any-one of a number of factors that would lead to international confidence in the American economy and the US dollar such as: 1 Switch from accepting payment in oil from dollars to Euro by OPEC. 2 A major national disaster, such as an earthquake in Tokyo, a cyclone in America, a terrorist attack. 3 A military defeat in Iraq. 4 A further blow-out in the US twin deficits. 5 Rising interest rates in other parts of the world. 6 Lack of confidence in America's ability to service its debts. 7 Major economic calamities in the US, such as run on the banking system, fall in the share-market, or a collapse of major corporations. 8 A major disease epidemic, such as bird flu. The world has experienced some of the greatest shift of wealth in recent history, from the Anglo-Saxon nations who have dominated the global economy for the last 200 years, to Asia and Continental Europe. This shift in wealth will shortly result in the economic collapse of the Anglo-Saxon nations ­ their money will become worthless, and their economies will disintegrate into anarchy and poverty. This collapse will also have disastrous consequences to the Asian economies, which have become depended on exporting to the North American market to support their domestic growth. While the Asian economies will be severely affected from the collapse of the Anglo-Saxon economies, they will survive and recover. The region in the world which will fill the vacuum from the coming collapse of the $US will be the Eurozone. The Euro will replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency, propelling the Eurozone nations into the most influential global economic power. To support filling the monetary vacuum following the collapse of the dollar, Europeans will have to resolve their constitutional differences and form a political union. Those nations that accept the EU Constitution will form a United States of Europe, but it is unlikely that all existing EU members will agree to be a part of such a political union. The future for the Anglo-Saxon people looks bleak. The sudden withdrawal of overseas investment will see their economies go into free-fall. Their currencies will become worthless. Property prices will collapse. Businesses will fail. Disease will become wide-spread, made worse without the drugs to control that many that is now depended upon. Farmers without the money to purchase fuel and chemicals will no longer have the ability to mass produce food. Starvation and anarchy will prevail. There will be little governments can do to save their people from death and destruction. Meanwhile, America's over-stretched military will no longer have the financial resources to continue its futile Middle East wars, and to sustain its bases that circumnavigate the globe, will be forced to with-draw back to the USA. Few can comprehend of the fate that lies ahead for the Anglo-Saxon group of nations. It will be a time of human suffering greater than ever experienced. Two thirds will die ­ those who survive will be taken into slavery. After 200 years of global dominance, their defeat will result in some of the most dreadful suffering mankind has experienced. Yet all this could be avoided if they had not rejected the Law of God. It is only by returning to following God's Law and the teachings of Jesus Christ that this looming disaster can be avoided.

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What's Wrong With The Bees?

Genetically modified (GM) crops may also be having an adverse effect on the honeybees. Numerous scientists including many at the FDA have expressed concern about the possible adverse impacts of GM foods on human health and other animals. In addition to their potential to produce hard-to-detect allergies and nutritional problems, the scientists say that the plants could produce unexpected high concentrations of plant toxins. According to http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=1418 and http://www.donabee.com/health/gmo.htm minimal safety tests that have been conducted with disturbing results and lab animals fed GM diets show damage to virtually every system studied. They say farmers have reported thousands of sick, sterile and dead animals due to GM feed.

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Dalai Lama says: think globally

"Destruction of a part of the world is the destruction of yourself," the Dalai Lama told thousands of people gathered Sunday at the Ottawa Civic Centre.

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