Not a word on the Super

Not a word on the Super NAFTA, the GATS, the SPP, the NAU and the Amero.

If these treaties are put into law, we can kiss not only global warming, but Canada, democracy and the whole damn globe goodbye.

Ed Deak.

Quote:immediately end

Tyee - if you have some time, please do some research on this. It would anger me if the oil patch is recieving subsidies - or avoidance of royalties. With oil and gas prices at record highs, good returns, there is no reason why these companies cannot operate without handouts.

I understand that the government needs to bribe the automakers from time to time, however this, if true (which I don't know that it is), is unacceptable.

Haha! A real commie this Layton is. Jack - nobody requires you to bank at certain banks. Each bank has varying fees structures. On my personal account, I have a $5 monthly fee - and I don't not pay anything on cash withdrawals, unless I use the ATM of another bank.

Virtual banks like ING don't charge any fees at all. In the USA, most banks do not charge any fees due to competition. There are enough financial service providers that competition will ultimately increase...

Jack my friend, this is why nobody votes for you. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Layton, a Sell Out?

Layton's in a precarious position: down in the polls, and Dion attracting enviro and left of center votes that might otherwise go to the NDP or Greens (who have a new high profile, popular leader in Elizabeth May).

Jack can stave off an election using the NDP's balance of power to support the Cons,potentially keeping Harper in power far longer than is necessary. This could give the NDP and Cons both, the chance to increase their popularity before the next election. If Harper can keep the election at bay long enough to raise his perceived environmental credibility - with the help of Jack, Harper's chances of gaining a majority next time will grow - thanks to Jack Layton! Thanks Jack.

If progressive minded Canadians start to view Jack as cynically propping up and strengthening the Harper Cons, simply to increase NDP seats, it could backfire badly on Layton.

He risks being tarred as being the NDP leader prepared to sell out Canada to a right wing, one man gov't which stands opposed to most of the values espoused by
Layton's own party.

In the end, it will be more beneficial to the NDP if Layton shows himself to be acting in the best interests of Canada, instead of acting to supposedly bolster short term interests of his own party, at any cost.

G West to Cappy

What do you think Income Trust treatment of Gas and Oil companies amounts to? In addition, its four year phase out period? That's where the whole scam - apart from REITs - got started. Have you checked the rates for drilling licence auctions in BC relative to those in AB lately? Even AB has revised some of those giveaway rates upwards.

Moreover, of course there's the accounting treatment for deferred taxes that favours extractive industry - to say nothing of the fact that the industry is, and has been, required to do virtually nothing about the way it treats the Athabasca River, the people whose health and livelihood depend upon it and the atmosphere itself.

You can get lots more information here: http://www.oilsandswatch.org/docs.php

What more evidence would you need?

As for Layton's point about banks, it is a miniscule quibble compared with what should be laid on the big five, not least their bribery of the political elites in this country for the past two generations.

Credentials

Jack Layton holds a PHd. The thesis of his PHd concerned globalizaton issues and national economics. He has taught at the major universities in Ontario. Kinda get the impression that what you speak of Ed is one of central issues within his political agenda.

As for the above subject line of "sellout", sounds more like personal punditry and the spreading oif some kind of unreferenced FUD (fear, uncertainty , doubt) to me.

The article, if one read it, is rather explicit. Layton and his party voted against the Conservatives on all 3 confidence motions - budget, combat troops within afganistan, and the softwood lumber vote.

Lets keep to the facts - and correct those if in error (including mine).

Getting better Gavin

While you raise some somewhat valid points, they still fall well short of subsidies. The 4 year phase-out period was necessary. Without it, many trusts would have been decimated more than they were. Their assets would have been snagged-up by a bunch of overzealous private equity firms South of the Border.

The companies would have been gutted, and Canada would have lost. This still may occur, but not like it would have. While I have benefitted personally from PE buyouts of a couple of companies I owned stock in - these firms are good for nothing.

They buy up an undervalued company, chew it up, spit it into pieces and sell of the company.

As far as the accounting treatment for tax deferrals - it is no different than what happens with construction companies.

Gavin - tax policy is way outside your reach.

PS - Gavin!

Thanks for getting me into Alcan. I dropped a whole bunch of money in after the little conversation we had.

In less than 5 days, I turned our conversation into a gain worth well over 10%! The easist $9K I've ever made!

God forbid, if we ever meet, i'll buy you a drink!

G West to Cappy

On Tax policy you know less than nothing. Awhile back you tried to make the point that PST and GST were 'income' taxes. The fact someone like you can get 'passive income' while being nothing but a parasite on the system is a good active demonstration of what's actually wrong with tax policy in this country.

I don't drink with people I don’t respect.

The Tar sands won't rot cappy.

Ouch.....

Gavin,

What is $9K x 50% x 43% = About $2,200 in tax revenue the government will receive. It would never have received this if I didn't put a large piece of capital at risk. I don't know when you are going to understand this.

Second - I never said sales tax was like income tax. In fact, I believe I was critical of Mr. Harper for cutting the GST as opposed to income tax. I said the sales tax is a form of taxation, which added to the income tax = one hell of a tax burden!

What I did say is that the GST and PST is progressive, in that the more you make, the more you pay! Because, the more you make, the more you buy!

One day Gavin, you'll understand where I'm coming from. I am not some evil guy who exploits my workers or the poor.

By cappy's reasoning con

By cappy's reasoning con artists shouldn't be prosecuted, because they're "free enterprise" and nobody's forced to fall for them.

It always amuses me when I see people crying their eyes out on TV when they've lost their life savings to some crook, because he promised them .5% more. Then they demand that the government should "do something", including paying their losses.

"No government is good government", in their eyes, until they get into trouble, then they scream for help the loudest.

Chris, I'm NDP. I wrote to Jack and asked him why they don't scream from the rooftops over the proposed sale of Canada. He replied that MP Julian asked a question in the House about it.

I suspect that his hands are tied by some invisible backroom strategists. The same for BC, forcing them to remain with side issues, while the numbers are dropping.

Remember, when NDP candidates were told to keep quiet on the FTA in 1988, by the Broadbent head office, and leave it to the Liberals, while concentrating on health an other side issues. We got the FTA with a 43% Mulroney majority and Canada's been going downhill ever since.

Including the environment and healthcare, which will be wiped out by the SPP and NAU "harmonizations" anyway.

Ed Deak.

Adios NDP?

Me thinks Layton and the rest of the NDP crowd have forgotten why people support them? They have sold out to special interest groups and only cater to a few insiders. In 2007, the NDP are nothing and the polls show this.

Jack, go back to basics, go back to the fundementals of the NDP abd start over.

Cappy from G West

I hope you don't think repeating the same lies four times makes them any less odious.

You did make those remarks about the GST and PST - it's some time ago now and it's not worth trying to hunt back and find them. The sales tax is a a consumption tax and has nothing to do with income.

I don't care if your marginal rate of tax is 43% - on Capital gains you are getting a 50% tax holiday and that's unjust and inequitable. In addition, that's only one of the many tax dodges people who think they are ‘masters of the universe use’. Then you have the poor manners to come here and pretend you're a hero. Spare me. You don't even understand how compromised the system you take advantage of actually is.

Until we have a government with the intestinal fortitude to tax all forms of income (even gambling) equitably it is a pretense to say this is a fair and decent country. Other nations do it and do it better and more equitably...and not on the shoulders of the poor and those who work for a living.

Go back to clipping coupons and throwing dice and quit trying to assuage your bad conscience by pretending you’re something other than a parasite.

In my opinion you, and people like you do exploit the poor and the people in this country who actually work for a living and behave productively. Anyone who gets a free ride and profits from doing nothing is, according to my definition. Maybe someday you'll understand that, but I doubt it.

Moreover, it has nothing to do with communism - it's simply a question of equity and fairness and community. And truth. I understand very clearly what you’re all about.

Please Clarify Gavin

Gavvy,

Do you understand what will happend to the equity markets, retirement savings, real estate values and the economy if we implement the type of stuff you are talking about?

Honeslty, I'd pack up and move to Texas and so would many people with any ambition. We employ a few dozen, hard working and happy individuals. We barely have anybody quit on us. We reward our employees with their hard work. If we left, they'd be without good jobs.

I have a vision for society, so do you. My people are not the boogey-man! I firmly believe that a capitalistic, enterprising society provides benefits that socialism could never match.

You always talk about Norway and Sweden. Well - Norway has the benefit of being a tiny country with massive off shore oil reserves. Sweden, too is a tiny country with a homogeneous population. They have the benefit of a few, very old, large employers that propel their economy.

Yet, you never talk about the Eastern Block, Cuba and what is happening down in Venezuela. Give it up Gavin!

Hypothetical situation "we want to take [Harper] down

Jack,

If you are unwilling to answer questions about hypothetical situations such as the one posed in this article, how can you expect me to support let alone vote for the NDP?

I've been NDP all my adult life but have let me my membership go because the NDP has stopped being a party of protest and become just another monetarist "liberal" party (a la Tony Blair's Labour Party) that seeks to get elected at any cost. The fact of the matter is, by spending so much time criticizing the federal grits, the federal NDP helped get the Tories elected. And there is a greater difference between the federal Liberals and the Tories than there is between the federal Liberals and the NDP now. We lost a national daycare program, Jack. I would love to support the federal NDP again, but right now my first concern is not splitting the vote in an effort to prevent a Tory re-election.

Actions and consequences matter, not posturing.

The NDP needs locate its integrity, move back to the left and stop obsessing about being a governing party.

G West to Cappy

And I'd wave g'bye with nary a tear in my eye cappy.

Why don't you do a little research into Denmark, Norway and Sweden and what they've managed to do since WWII. We could have done the same if we hadn't been sleeping with the Yankees since the mid 70s.

You are the boogey man. You're not propelling the economy, you're stealing from it because you don't carry your own weight.

I'll post some economic data for you from Cuba one of these days and I'm all in favour of what's happening in Venezuela - as are the poor in the North East United States who are using cut-rate fuel oil from that country.

Leave, anytime. You'd be much happier in the US and this country would be better off without a freeloader like you. I hope you can afford the health insurance.

G West to Josephine

I thought Jack actually addressed that question pretty directly Josephine. I do agree that the NDP needs to be much more critical of the financial claptrap that the neoliberals and the neoconservatives serve up though. And I thought this

was pretty funny. I sure don't think Elizabeth May is a creature of the left.

The thing of it is that the best way to fight Harper is to work for a formal coalition between the parties who oppose him. A coalition based upon a written set of policies that the Liberals can't weasel out of as they always have in the past.

I think that's the only way there's a chance to beat Harper in 2007 and it has the potential to force the neocons out of the Liberal party - along with Marissen and Clark and the forces from the dark side here in BC.

Will it happen?

I doubt it. Guys like Cappy have too much power over the way we do politics in this country. Unless ordinary people start to organize and take to the streets Jack Layton, Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May are going to watch while pee wee takes over this country and completes its sale to the Americans in time for 2010.

I hear Doug Wall just pled guilty to fraud with respect to government contracts. Now that is interesting.

Gavin - you are scary!

I do give you credit. We all know where you stand.

I've been to Cuba. Trust me Gavin, you wouldn't want to live there. There are fences and armed men everywhere. There are no new cars. People drive the same Cars we used to drive in the 50s.

It literally feels like you have turned back the clock and are living in the 50s.

Not the place for me!

NDP

Would it be better if the NDP didn't criticize the Liberals when they steal from the public purse?

No there isn't. I don't see NDP members joining the Cons, nor do I see Libs joining the NDP. The Cons and Libs are so close ideologically that I don't understand why they don't merge.

Blaming Jack because the Libs won 3 majorities and didn't put in their long-promised daycare plan? Sure, right, blame that on the NDP.

Exactly, look at what the Libs actually do when they're in power, not what they promise. They're further to the right than Mulroney was.

G West to Cappy

Considering the fact that Cuba has done what it has in the face of direct opposition and trade embargo by the US it has done amazingly well. I loved it, cars and all.

When Richard Nixon slapped tariffs on Canadian exports in the early 70s you should have heard the Canadian Government squeal. Cuba has done very well, has a better educated population and a better health care system than either the US or Canada.

Here's a little more information about Cuba for you cappy:

I can provide you with a link to the whole report if you think you'd actually like to step out from under that cloud of ignorance over your head.

US health care

I think the US is eventually going to give up and adopt universal, single-payer healthcare. They know their system doesn't work.

Cap, you make money without

Cap, you make money without working. That's what it boils down to. Hardly any different from being on welfare. No offence.

If some guy cures cancer I think he should be paid a lot of money. As for the guy that says so and so cured cancer and I want to buy a piece of that action? I have trouble believing he should be paid anything at all.

Those of us who can, do, those of us who can't, invest.

NDP strategy

I think Jack should rename the NDP the "Nature and Social Justice Party".

Rename all his dogs "Climate Change" and then get Olivia to change her name to "Earth Mother".

People love that stuff. After all, you don't have to actually be "green" to call yourself the Green Party or be "liberal" to call yourself the Liberal Party.

Since Canadians want cute phrases and photo ops, not actions, I think Jack should give them what they want.

Doug Walls

A bit more news on Doug Walls at
http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/4574/1/walls+and+millard+plead+guilty?

Here is the story without comments from Opinion250.
Two Prince George men charged with defrauding the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce , have pleaded guilty to fraud over the sum of $5,000 dollars.
Doug Walls (shown at left) and Mike Millard pleaded guilty to the charge before Justice Patrick Dohm In Vancouver Supreme court this morning .
 Their trial was scheduled to begin next week in Prince George.
The charged came as a result of the failure of Fred Walls and Son’s, an auto dealership operating in the city.
The company collapsed in 1998 and the investigation began shortly after.
Walls was an executive with the Liberal Party and is related by marriage to Premier Gordon Campbell. Shortly after the failure,  Walls resurfaced , with a contract,  with the provincial government , he along with the Minister of Childrens and families, Gordon Hogg,  lost their positions in the matter.
The details on when and where the two men will be sentenced  have not been released.

Whose country is this anyway?

Actually, Capitalism, I agree with G, that Canada could learn a lot from Scandanavia:

The Cuban delegation, set to attend a travel fair in Oslo this month, planned to stay at the Scandic Edderkoppen Hotel in the city center, as they had on five previous visits.

However, the 140-hotel Scandic group was bought by Hilton in March, and the Cubans were informed in December that they would have to find another hotel due to the American boycott.

On Friday, the 300,000-member Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees announced that it was boycotting all Scandic hotels in Norway, joining a wave of protests that started when the ban on Cuban guest became news on Thursday.

"We are already looking for other hotels for planned conferences," said the union's deputy leader Anne Grethe Skaardal. "For us, it is unacceptable for the U.S. to dictate to the whole world. In addition, we strongly oppose to U.S. boycott of Cuba."

The Anti-Racist Center in Oslo filed a police complaint against the hotels, saying Norwegian law ensures that "no one can be denied access based on their citizenship or ethnic origin."

The Foreign Ministry said companies operating in Norway have to obey Norwegian law, regardless of their home base. It said other agencies would have to determine what laws apply in this case.

In a news release, Norway's most powerful labor union, the 830,000 member Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, demanded that "the government take steps so that companies like Scandic, which clearly abide by the United States' illegal boycott and blockade and not Norwegian law, are barred from doing business in Norway."

Cappy lies again

Where were you, Gitmo?

Oh there certainly are new cars. If you've been there you couldn't have avoided seeing them. Why do you bother to lie?

In the face of a total U.S. embargo Cuba has done remarkably well. Everyone wrote them off after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of their subsidized sugar market. What sort of circumstances would Canadians be living in if we faced a total U.S. embargo, and didn't have the natural resources we do, particularly in the energy sector?

G West to Frank

I can't remember which one of those terms is the right one. Is it climate change or global warming that's supposed to be less upsetting to folks - and less likely to encourage them to actually do something about it?

I think Global Warming is the label that the media manipulators say their minions, like the new minister of the environment, aren't supposed to use, isn't it?

Climate change seems benign, but Global Warming implies a threat and creates the impression that action is urgent and needed world wide.

What kind of dog should Jack get? Would a Doberman give the right message of threat and danger? Or would a constantly-shivering Chihuahua or a panting hot Newfoundland be a better choice?

Pick on Cappy

Unless of course, the money leaves the country...............90% of our manufacturing comes from away..........so what good does spending yet more for a 1% reduction do?

layton speaks in platitudes.

layton speaks in platitudes. sounds like a modern-day high school teacher. what, no questions about used-cars?

G West to Elliot

No el, the expert in used cars is LIBERAL doug walls and his relative Gordon Campbell.

I guess you'd forgotten where the Premier used to shop for vehicles eh? Provincial Government contracts, like Order in Council Appointments, can be such a nice thing for your friends and relatives El. You should look into it.

resources

For all you "free enterprisers" out there, the resources of a nation belong to the nation, and can never be owned by an individual. They may be leased to an individual, but this would be subject to continual review, and none of this 999 year BS. And if the owners don't make a profit, the lease is nullified. The real and sustained profits should come from value-added enterprises.

Pot calling water filter black

Elliot, you're the last guy that should complain about the depth of someone else's statements.

You've never used a period in 3 years because you never write more than one sentence.

NDP non-support for pay-as-you-drive/per-km auto insurance.

If Jack Layton really cared about both the environment and health care, he would pressure his provincial NDP buddies to support pay-as-you-drive/per-km auto insurance.

In jurisdictions where pay-as-your-drive insurance is available as an option, auto usage has declined by up to 30%, meaning 30% fewer auto emissions, 30% fewer auto collisions, 30% fewer deaths, 30% fewer injuries and 30% less traffic congestion. Car crash injuries place a massive burden on the health care system and other social programs. See http://thetyee.ca/Life/2007/01/09/StrangerDanger/#comment-100043

The NDP is always claiming their environmental policies are as good as the Green Party's policies. The BC Green Party already supports pay-as-you-drive/per-km auto insurance. When is the NDP going to catch up to the Greens in this area?

Jack's performance

When the game is softball even Jack can hit one out of the park once in awhile. What a lame interview......

G West to NoLeftNutter

Are you and elliot joined at the hip? You seem to use exactly the same sort of meaningless comments and almost always appear at the same time.

Funny that. Would it be too much to actually ask you to make an intelligent comment?

Even maestro can do that from time to time.

minority governments

We need to get used to the idea of minority governments!
The only way we can have any progress is if some coalitions occur, that means that parties need to trade a bit, give on some issues and gain on others!
It is not about being in bed with this or that party, but about getting something done instead of constant backstabbing.
Seems to me that Layton showed that he can get things done, maybe Martin regrets that he did not try harder? the electorate did not seem to agree with his stance!
Maybe Harpo is smart enough to realize that he does not have a majority?

NDP support of Ontario Corporate Welfare Bums.

...government needs to bribe the automakers from time to time

That's fine, as long as they're being bribed with their own money, not our money!

I'm generally not a big fan of unions, but at least Buzz Hargrove of the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) has this one figured out.

See: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061211.COBUZZ11/TPStory/Comment

Former NDP leader David Lewis had it right 35 years ago when he wrote a book deriding Corporate Welfare Bums. Nowadays, the NDP is falling all over themselves to give our tax money to Ontario corporate welfare bums in the auto industry while freely attacking Alberta corporate welfare bums. If the NDP thought they could elect MPs in Alberta as in Ontario, they'd be all in favour of givng tax money to Alberta corporate welfare bums too.

alive

Good post alive, agree completely. Work with the situation as it is instead of joining all the dreamers and waiting forever for the Liberals to move left and start keeping their promises.

NDP trade embargo against Canada.

NDP types always complain about damage done to Cuba by the U.S. trade embargo. Then they try to harm Canada with a self-imposed trade embargo in the form of corporate welfare protectionism of inefficient Ontario industries, which in the past has cost Western Canadian consumers hundreds of billions of dollars. There's a rational, balanced, middle ground between extreme left NDP corporate welfare protectionism and extreme right selling out of Canadian land and resources. See http://thetyee.ca/Books/2006/12/26/Chapters/#comment-98171 and http://thetyee.ca/Books/2006/12/26/Chapters/#comment-98517

G West to CC

I was responding to Capitalism's noxious remarks about Cuba. You may have heard a statement from the CAW today warning Jack Layton not to go too far with environmental requirements and caps of one kind or another directed at the Auto Industry. The NDP should certainly sever its links with labour - it's been a bad deal anyway because most working MEN don't vote NDP anyway.

Ontario and Eastern Canada saved the prairies from starving during the thirties. I'd rather have a healthy Ontario and a healthy west. And I'm sick and tired of people who suggest the only way to build the west if to tear down Ontario and forget the East Coast. It sounds too much like Harper and Martin too me.

As for the NDP, the people who attack them for all their mistakes always forget the NDP has never had a chance to make the mistakes the other parties have and, on balance, many of the 'good' things we do have came from that direction.

Not easy being Green

Not being a Green I have to ask how promoting industry and international trade is going to help the environment? If every province in Canada adopted a pay-as-you-go insurance scheme the benefits would be wiped out by even modest increases in trade and population.

May-be not

How is it Elizabeth May gets to be declared as being to the left of the NDP?

She was part of the Mulroney era and would welcome Garth Turner yet somehow she's being portrayed as left of the NDP? What gives?

NDP's role

Last night on "The Daily Show," Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas - Republican was interviewed. He wrote, "From Hope to Higher Ground." He said, and this is somewhat abridged, " We let politicians set the debate. We have horizontal politics. They want everything to be left or right. People think in vertical terms, are you going to lift us up or take us down? People will forgive politicians for their ideology if they have optimism and vision." He added and said that he is a conservative and is pro-life. he added that life doesn't end at birth and we (Politicians and society) have to be concerned with children's health, education and neighbourhood.
These are the ideas that Jack Layton has to embrace. He has to make a deal with the Conservatives if he wishes to make progress. It appears the Conservatives know this as well. Hence the rhetoric about "Global Warming" or "Climate Change." I prefer to call it "Environmental Alteration" because this expression includes the pollutants we are adding to our ecosystem.
Jack Layton has to meet with the Prime Minister and discuss what changes are to be made to the legislation concerning the environment. If the Conservatives are willing to move on the issues to make matters better (or much better) in Canada then Layton can work with the Conservatives. If the Conservatives don't move far enough, then it fails. The NDP has a chance to make some changes and the Conservatives have to play ball with them. If they don't, they go the way of the dodo bird (Paul Martian.) By the way Paul Martian didn't have a chance in the last election, Creatian made sure of that.

OH, Excusa mia

Oh, sorry.....sincere apologies,...

I thought the photo was of Mssr. Paul Newman, flogging a movie sequel ,ie " ROAD TO PERDITION II "

PERDITION : (definition)

" To lose , ruin ;
Complete and irreparable loss ;
The loss of the soul, damnation"

Hmm, Then again, Maybe that ACTUALLY is Jack Laytons' Nero-esque NDP photo- opp aka NDP epitaph.

PS Watch out for that iceberg Captain Jack...better turn sharp starboard ASAP (ie to the R-I-G-H-T )....or SOL.

Arrrhhh.

Left, Right - Up, Down?

She was part of the Mulroney era and would welcome Garth Turner yet somehow she's being portrayed as left of the NDP? What gives?

asks Frank.

This is part of the disintegration of the system. As 'poly-ticks' takes up ever more of our collective efforts (how much cash was handed out in brown paper bags by Darth Cretinous?) the line dividing left from right in the classical sense will become indistinguishable, as will the old line parties become impossible to tell apart from one another.

All that is lost is liberty.

As we move towards a singularity called 'the tyranny of the majority' (even if it is only 34%!!!).

Time to stop thinking in terms of left, right (as they are only marching us to a dictatorial doom).

We must look more at the liberty - subjugation scale (perhaps up-down?)

NDPers never die...the Human Pork Rind

After I saw Paul Newman/Jack Layton....

Yeah, out there driving around, minding my own business, contributing to global warming, err "Climate Change" (.... remember to close your eyes when its changing, its rude to pee'k )....and heard on the radio about Doug Wall.

Couldn't wait to get back on the TYEE to see the usual lather'd up TYEE crowd share the soap about that one .
BTW I think Wall once sold a HUMMER to Cuba's Castro.

How about that Human Pork Rind with a Pulse, Glennochio "Che" Clarkista , on the news last night for the Stanley Park telethon ?

The man(?) sure ain't suffering eh...wonder if Hahn gave him a lifetime B.C. Ferry pass. Now it looks like he's ready to sell a few cars for Master Jimmy.

Maybe he can ask Jimmy to give Jack Layton a job...BC er's love to buy used cars from ex- Easterners.

To North of Hope

Walls was the guy who was poised to head up Community Living BC (CLBC). CLBC was set up to oversee services to the mentally challenged,etc, which had previously been the jurisdiction of MCF.

After creating it, the government cut the budget and have underfunded it. Now CLBC is millions of dollars short of being able to do what it was set up to do. Doug was gonna' do alright, though.

The People

People are not as stupid as the leftist, liberal elite would have us think.
We have a lot of common sense. And are decent by nature.
I know that the Stephen Harper led govt. is what I admire. I also know that I am not alone.
It will be interesting to see how Dion will paint himself as Alberta's best friend tomorrow on Rutherford's show on CHED Radio 630 AM.
It's a hard sell for a liberal in Alberta, anytime.
Because Alberta is a conservative Province.
I will be listening on the internet tomorrow to see how he intends to pull this off.
Houdini couldn't escape this trick. trick you heard it. the word was "trick", because a cow cannot be substituted for a horse.

Road to Edmonton

maestro, watch it again, that was Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition.

Now what's this? You're defending the premier's corrupt family now?

Ron, Dion isn't going to take Alberta, nor does Alberta's votes matter since they're not what you'd call a swing province. Even the most die-hard leftists wrote south-of-Edmonton off 70 years ago.

G West to IAMC

You don't sound decent to me Ron.

Look at what you just posted:

Can you understand why no one pays any attention to what you say when your comments start out like this?

To be respected you have to treat people with respect; you aren't because you don't. In fact, you're actually quite a joke.

Alberta Frankly

Frank, try to dismiss Alberta as you may, it's not that simple.
Alberta is way more eclectic than anyone can imagine. This Province is a useful neighbor and between us we can create an economic union to benefit us all.

Alberta Bored

Ron, Alberta votes the same way every time, both provincially and federally. You might be the only guy in Canada that hasn't dismissed their political opinion. Alberta dismissed themselves.

for sale: one used federal

for sale: one used federal political party. lots of miles, can win only 20 seats maximum, comfortable interior suits antiquated dogmatic rhetoric suited to 1970's canada. very cheap or best offer.

Layton

Capitalism; Think a little more about what you said:

["I firmly believe that a capitalist, enterprising society provides benefits that socialism could never match"]

The big difference is that benefits provided by capitalism are privilege and can be pulled out from under, while benefits under socialism are rights you bargained for and keep.

Boring

You're not funny, El.

Stick to sports. You're not even trying effectively.

The NDP

Gavin,

With all due respect, the NDP is the labour party. Labour was a big part of their grassroots movement. It has since attracted the extreme urban left, where it tries to balance the interests of both - Layton coming from the latter.

If you look here in BC, the NDP is nothing with union support. I remember seeing somewhere that over 1/2 of votes given to the NDP in the past election, came from individuals with direct, or immediate family relations to, labour affiliation.

Without these ties, the NDP is pretty much the Green party - except it doesn't pretend it cares about the economy.

Alberta vs. the commies on this site

IAMC:

Look at the types of guys you are talking to here. You actually have some of them envying the Cuban society - and praising Hugo Chavez.

These people don't want growth. They don't care. In fact, they'd love to collapse all wealth in this country and distribute equally to every citizen. They'd wish to nationalize every industry from banks to telecom and power, control rates, control when we eat, sleep and drink.

You are chatting with the extreme left, some of whom (G West and Frank include), I believe are going insane.

All you can do is state your opinion and chuckle at their responses.

Frank: Rent the movie

Frank, Frank, Frank;

Re " Road to Perdition "

Did you see the whole movie?

Jack Laytons' doppleganger "Paul Newman" (or vice versa), was in it.

Time for Jack to sell his own salad dressing.

No one's defending corruption, simply creating " balance " . I wonder how many Hummer's Castro owns?

Elliot: Seek clarification ....SVP

Elliot:

Not quite sure which Federal Party you are referring to in your ad.

I'm "guessing" you are referring to the NDP.

However, the LIEberal party was not excluded, maybe just give them a few years. The body is rusted out from hanging around Eastern Canada too long...too many joy -rides by its "DUI of power" Leaders and cling-on MPs.

The 8 -track player is still intact,lots of K-Tel's "Greatest Liberal Promises" 8 track tapes, runs on knee-jerk power provided by special -interest groups.

Whats the minimum bid?....and can we call a charity to tow -it -away to Cuba due to lack of interest and get a "good- riddance" tax receipt?

What braindead economists

What braindead economists define as "growth" is nothing more than increased resource use though increased energy inputs, licenced by imaginary capital, created for the purpose of transferring the benefits into the pockets of a dwindling few.

Of course, the world has infinite amounts of both and can carry on merrily to stuff the pockets of the to 2%, while millions die of starvation.

As one of our former PC MPs, Lorne Greenaway, wrote once: "Children in Africa are starving, because their parents are not productive", while multinationals were expropriating their subsistence farms for pineapple plantations. As they have in Mexico, waiting for Alaskan and Canadian waters delivered to them by Harpro likes.

Climate change is the transferred cost of so called "GDP", "growth", "Productivity", and "cheap" anything.

There ain't no free lunch and future generations will pay very dearly for today's waste to satisfy the demands of freshly created funny money.

By the way, there ain't no political left, or right, either, except in the imagination of the faithful. But then what would they talk about within their limited brainpower ?

Like their hero said "If you're not with us, you're against us" .

Ed Deak.

Cuba

Cuba fans:

Link:

http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/cub-summary-eng

If the link fails, simply click on "Amnesty International" and check out CUBA.

Maybe the NDP should hold it's next leadership convention there. Maybe even get a ride in Fidel's Hummer.

I can't remember anybody

I can't remember anybody here praising Fidel's human rights record, or communism. Such idiocy only exists in the nearrow minds of the faithful, who can not understand anything without labels and the stamp of approval of Bush and Harper.

I've never been to Cuba, or ever intend to go there, have a 45 year record fighting communism and if they'd caught me it would have been the first cattlecar to Siberia. So they arrested my mother and tortured her instead. They paid for it darly !!!!

We also should look at the "righties" screams against Castro, while buying shares in corporations with factories in communist China. Even the guiding systems for US missiles are now manufactured there, but that's A-OK. When communist slave labour is profitable to the "investors" all is forgiven.

At the same time, I'm willing to learn from anybody, even the biggest crooks and mass murderers, before they get hung.

From what I've read and heard from friends and independent people who visited Cuba, their organic agriculture, forced on by the embargo, their health care and education systems are tops. While we have acute doctor shortages, they can export doctors. Their agriculture doesn't poison people and the environment with the most dangerous chemicals used here and in Europe, they don't have the pathetic homelessness and environmental filth and destruction of China and their kids have free education to the top.

Anybody who dismisses these great achievements and is unwilling to think and learn, how we could institute them in a democratic, co-operative way, indeed has some serious moral, or mental problems.

Of course, that would eliminate "windfall earnings on the stockmarkets" otherwise known as dailight robberies, but that would indeed be a very small price to pay.

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

The Economics of Capitalism

You are chatting with the extreme left, some of whom (G West and Frank include), I believe are going insane.

All you can do is state your opinion and chuckle at their responses.

This is the guy whose own total insanity ya gotta love. He is consistent in his totally delusional thinking though. You gotta give him that much credit.

He fails to see of course in his "money blindness", not un-akin to being snow blind, the finite limits to his capitalism's growth potential-, which is the practical habitable planet space we occupy, with its life sustaining air, water and varied resource systems. Arising out of the poverty, brutal classism, educational backwardness, and narrowness of vision that was a problem for the masses of people tied to working the feudal landed estates of the of the old "aristocratic system", no doubt a period of rapid socio-economic growth was needed, and I would argue even in defence of the historical role and raison d'etre for capitalism, that the socio-economic system of capitalism that arose to replace that system of the great landed feudal estates fulfilled that great function need of the time.

Now, this far after capitalism's great Industrial Revolution however, as transformed feudalism, and all the subsequent transformations of technology and market creations of its "greed functioning", which was even "useful", more or less, for a time, we, our human societies, and the planet and its life sustaining systems have now finally arrived at a place, where like earlier slavery and feudalism, we really need to leave the greed driven imperatives, and wealth assumptions of capitalism, to which Ed Deake refers, behind finally as well. And we need to do it and focus on more sustainable, egalitarian and co-operative systems because it is becoming increasingly clear that if we do not, the relative fragility of these natural global systems; their capacity to continue to supply this system's "greed demands" of them, and to take the endless quantitites of shitt in many forms that we dump back into it, are not finite. They have limits, up against which capitalism and its "Endless Growth" requirements have finally brought us.

To speak nothing here, in this context, of the new class war it is daily driving the recreation of within itself, or the global warfare in which it is engaged as well, to control the resources and lands of others of the world's people.

So it is not even so much a matter of one's attitude towards the old USSR, current Capitalist China, Cuba or even Venezuala that is of such great importance here to us. Nor need it be, I think. They are all societies at different stages of development and with different problem sets in many regards, socially, economically and politically than we are within relatively "advanced", one might even say neo-conservative "degenerative" capitalism in this country, that insists on looking backwards for its "ideal time" rather than forward. For it and its supporters even are beginning to sense that its best days are more behind it than ahead of it. And the increasing poverty, insecurity of the broad working class, collapse of its caring social structures, rising elitist privilege while this degeneration yet occurs and the system drifts toward its own totalitarianism, and increasing natural global systems collapse in the face of its never ending "growth demands" upon it, such as our enemy Capitalism here thinks a virtue,all confirm that your precious "capitalism" is finally hitting the wall of its potential usefulness, if not for its ruling class, whom I'm sure are fine and making money, still certainly for the great mass of us ordinary citizens.

Fux capitalism. It's time to move on from here.

The self destruction of ruling classes

Capitalism was tolerable, and even beneficial in certain ways, in the 50s and 60s, but now has gone that traditional, fatal, one step too far in their quest for unlimited exploitation, now called the new, heroic PR crap, "wealth creation"

All aristocracies and empires self destruct, as did nazism and communism in recent history. Now it is time for the self destruction of capitalism, before it destroys the world.

And they're doing a good job of it, as we can see in their desperate grabbings, and the growing opposition to their crimes, every day.

But then, this has happened in history only a few hundred times before, but people never seem to learn the laws of gravity applied to ideologies and politics.

As they say: "Faith conquers all!"

Yep, especially logic, human decency and rational thought.

Ed Deak.

G West to Cappy

Don't play the phony Cappy. You only 'respect' people who've bought the same deal you have.

Anyone who thinks for himself and doesn't buy your plutocratic elitist lies couldn't care less for your 'respect'.

You don't respect the truth either. And you didn't understand my reference to 'men' either, did you? It's time for the NDP to move away from an alliance with labour and begin to appeal to the broad range of citizens who know your pathology is killing them and their futures.

It's all lies Cappy and people are startintg to notice. That's why you come here in a worried sweat to try and defend the indefensible.

Thanks Ed

If Cappy had actually taken the time to read the material I'd posted about Cuba he might have seen that the points made there are exactly the ones you've underlined above.

Unfortunately, Mabellbc/Capitalism is just too impressed by the shiny new car in his driveway.

He, like corporate capitalists all over the world, are creatures of reaction and ignorance. They have to try to get others to buy their lies or the whole criminal system will collapse. And they won't go without a fight.

More people all the time are beginning to recognize their pathology but the struggle for fairness, equity and cooperation isn't won yet - by any means.

Keep shining that light Ed.

Jack-Wake Up And Smell The Coffee!

How nice the interview was held in The Four Seasons Hotel! Jack drinking decaf. What are you doing there Jack?....How about a cafe that serves Fair Traded organic on the eastside? How about meeting at Uprisngs Breads on Venables-a workers co-op?

Why was there not a visit to the destruction in Stanley Park to hightlight global warning? What about a tour of the Downtown Eastside to highlight homelessness? This could have been an opportunity to get some press. They would all have been photo ops but nope..not done. Unfortunately-photo ops are what are remembered first these days.

Gotta go and have a cup of Fair Traded organic Tea!

TO: Cuban Health Care fans

Re CUBA's "famous" Public Health care:

Check this link:

http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm

NOTE: TYEE Comrade Warning:
Advise to view this AFTER Lunch.

NDP Jack

I have been a member of the NDP since mid 70's but now I no longer belong. I was thinking Jack should rename the party A ho for a sniff of power. Jack resembles a small poodle sniffing the butts of the big dogs at the pound. Trying to decide which butt to follow. Its a sad statement of a party that for a long while I felt was the conscience of Canada

Cuban healthcare

....Maestro, you forgot to call me a commie pinko leftie! You guys are slipping and it will go on your records, even if you try to hide unde plum names!!!!!

The pictures from Cuba are disgusting. Almost as bad and patients stacked up in the hallways and broom closets in "wealthy" Canada.

When we moved here in 1979, the Williams Lake hospital could do anything under open heart surgeries. When my daughter in law broke her arm a few years back, my son had to drive her to Kamloops, a 3 1/2 hour drive, on Friday morning, but she wasn't operated on until Sat. night, with nothing to eat in the meantime, in case an opening came up.

The Cuban pictures should be an example of how much better we could do with the resources available here, as we used to, but now taken out of the country by the multinational mafia under various wealth creating and cost cutting, "free trade" treaties, ensuring the "free movement of capital, (otherwise known as imaginary money), and the free removal of profits, (otherwise known as our real capital)"

Accounted, of course, as Growth of the GDP and productivity.

Ed Deak.

Source: The

Source: The Province

Headline: Buzz emits a blast at NDP leader

"Car-exhaust controls sought by Layton could kill union jobs, says Hargrove."

The Cons will love this. Jack Layton and Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Autoworkers Union, at loggerheads over car-exhaust controls sought by Layton.

Hargrove's prior concern is clearly retaining jobs for his members at the expense of the environment. I suggest he give greater concern to the world we are leaving for his members and their children - and the rest of us.

Instead of witnessing his members' complicity against the environment in continuing to build muscle cars and other gas guzzlers, he and his members should be joining a campaign to switch to alternatives such as GM's proposed Volt electric vehicle.

If, and when, this vehicle becomes available, why would there not be a massive demand for it - particularly with gas prices being what they are?

Would this car, or others similar, not be built in Canada by his members? Get with the program, Buzz.

To Maestro fro G West

I dunno Maestro, but when I checked on the guy who created that website I got the distinct feeling he had an axe to grind....I think I'll take the word of an impartial international agency as objective evidence rather than the word of someone who's trying to make light of what the Americans have been doing at Gitmo. And who was likely a big supporter of keeping Elian Gonzales away from his father. Not very credible stuff. Reminds me a lot of a Canadian website called : ProudtobeCanadian - you should check that out if you like stuff of that 'quality'.

Anyway, that's not the point. Cappy is the one who tried to slam me with references to Cuba and I responded. I think Scandinavia puts the lie to American and Canadian neocons far more persuasively than anything Cappy could come up with. So naturally, bereft of any logical case, he resorts to name calling and ad hominem attacks and guilt by association. It's what neocons DO.

You know the drill....

Fait Lux

Straight from G West on this board. You stand corrected.

Cuba

Gavin's idea of a great place, is the same place, those in droves leave! In fact, they are so desparate to leave that are willing to cross shark infested waters, full of coast guard boats and their own military. Even better, they are willing to try and paddle over in a tire that they pulled off their neighbours 1950 chevy.

Must be a great place that Cuba. Though, I'm glad guys like Gavin stick up for it. It demonstrates just his pathology and undermines these fools.

I do give Fait Lux a bit of credit. I often read his posts and understand some of his insight. These other clowns are good for us as capitalists.

Cappy....I know more about

Cappy....I know more about ideologies, including capitalism, than you can imagine, as I've lived them all, knew all the people, all their arguments and studied the subject for 60 years.

Just the other day I had a big argument with a very good, capitalist friend, who retired at 40 plus by playing the stocks, almost 30 years ago and still doing it every day.

He tried to tell me that the banks are loaning out peoples' savings!!!!!!!!!

And this guy is the biggest capitalist ever??????????

His argument was, as usual, used by all good ideologues: "You can't believe what you read in books, or on the NET"

So, if you know so much about capitalism, please explain to us, how the banks "create" and loan monies, when savings all over the world are at the minus levels ?

Ed Deak.

Cappy - from G West

I didn't expect you'd like Cuba Cappy...but I bet you'd have loved it before 1959: Sort of a Latin American version of Vegas.

Nevertheless, don't bother to read the information I actually posted about Cuba and above all, don't deal with the Scandinavian example. It'll drive you to distraction, just the way it did Milton Freidman.

The fact that Scandinavian nations, particularly Sweden, achieve and maintain very high levels of economic output despite high rates of taxation, an enormous public sector, and extensive wealth redistribution which has led to far greater economic equality than in Canada and the United States is something you, and Friedman, won't touch with a ten-foot pole.

You'd rather call people insane when they don't agree with you.

You're not worth my time.

To Cappy

That's Fiat Lux, Cappy.

I bet you don't even know what it means, do you? You could at least try to spell it correctly.

Ed/Fiat Lux: You will duly

Ed/Fiat Lux:

You will duly note that I have mentioned in the past, the present and likely the foreseable future my respect for you and your views. You combine a lot of original thought, homework, insight, etc. with your worldly experience.

On many issues I often find we are like peas in a pod....perhaps coming to the same basic views and philosophies albeit from different directions.

As perhaps a "Good ,Bad and the Ugly" a-political point, the Health Care In Canada has sufficient Watch Dogs to make sure we don't deteriorate to the level of Fidel's World Class Public Health Care System(oxymoron)...Watch Dogs such as a PUBLIC Nurses UNIONS and PRIVATE sector Doctors ....and other stakeholders...oh yeah..and last but not least Tyee comrade G. "Che" West. It's all umbrella'd under a Democracy.

CUBA is about 2-3 times the size of the Republic of Vancouver Island, which itself has a disproportional number of Lefties. I guess Islands surrounded by High -Salt- content /Tidal -influenced waters (ie Cuba and Vancouver Island) tend to spawn condescending know -it- all Lefties...the coincidence is amazing. This implies Mainlanders are inherently NON Left -of -Center..."Right" ???

However, When the "Leftie -Socialist Valhallas" around the world are brought into these types of discussion ie Cuba and certain Scandinavian countries, most of them could easily be parked in BC's area -footprint. ie they may work to some degree due to more concentrated area/economy -of -scale...and much homogeneity in various forms.

BTW Ed...we have been going to the Cariboo for 30+ years...very familiar with C-Mile and surrounding area...also had to take my spouse there for emergency once.

Mr. Deak

I've read your posts on this, and I don't want to go in this direction, because the discussion is ever-ending. I have a friend of mine that bought a little log cabin outside of Lilloet and invests every penny he has into gold. This debate borders on theory, philosophy and practicality.

I agree, as the baby boom inches closer to retirment, "fictional" wealth as we know it is going to burst. I am prepared for it. I have divested in real estate, gold and silver. I even hold gold in bullion. I don't even trust the certificates. I also own property. As long as there is law and order, there will be the right to own property.

Who knows how long this will support itself. I know everybody sits here and thinks I sit on the internet all day and flip stocks. I don't - I am a business owner, I own and manage property - and trade stocks as a hobby.

I've read some essays, I've read the stuff on kitco and I don't know what to believe.

G West re: CUBA

G West:

Now Now....

Like many a truly diligent TYEE contributor, one often follows the discussions with an open mind...

We've all heard the CUBA stories of the Socialist/Communist Valhalla, even yours truly.

Now I know, G West, you don't use the Internet much as a research tool , its all from memory or the other vast resources you have at your disposal....the rest of us mortals have to punch the keyboard and use the wonders of the Internet.

RE: My own research , in trying to keep an open mind, is I really couldn't find one damn thing really positive re: CUBA that makes it anywhere near "the People's Paradise" that some people idealize it as.
However, I'll try to keep an open mind...if you can, please find something and "link" us to it.

Advice...careful re: "axes -to- grind" when one is "stretching -a -bow" of inference...ie the Elian Gonzalez comment mentioned earlier. Axes can cut bow strings ...and stretched bows can fire off axes. Maybe the guy is a Batista relative...so ?

REGARDLESS ...Of course this person/s and their web-site has an axe -to -grind...he's inspired enough to provide a web-site with numerous photos... with a premise its a MYTH re: Cuba's World renowned Health Care. I also didn't note any photo -credits to George Lucas and his F/X company.

PS if that one photo in the link I provided earlier of " the -one -person- pushing -the- elderly- person- in -the- WHEELBARROW -to- access -CUBAN -World Renowned -Health- Care wasn't so pathetic, it would be amusing, and I truly hope it was simply "staged" for the sake of all concerned.

Taboos?

Taboos? Please say it isn't so.

It was very much on topic. It wasn't anti-union - pro-union, in fact, - in support of good jobs.

I refer to this (my post):

Source: The Province

Headline: Buzz emits a blast at NDP leader

"Car-exhaust controls sought by Layton could kill union jobs, says Hargrove."

cont. (a few posts back)

G West to maestro

You actually don't read very carefully, do you you my friend?

Have you looked back at the material I posted above here?

Did you see this?

In 2007, according to year-end figures supplied by the Havana government, Cuba will assign 22.6% of its GDP for public health and education, a figure that is four times the standard of the Latin American nations for those sectors. Spending for health, education, culture, sports, security and social assistance represent 69% of the 2007 budget.

Sustainable development, the WWF's 44-page report points out in its section on Human Development and Ecological Footprints, is a commitment to improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems.

You can look it up. That along with a few additional points from the same source is all - other then a meaningless personal account and a comparison with the Canadian reaction in the early 70s to an indication that the US might actually treat us as badly as it did (and does) other countries relative to trade restrictions and tariffs - I had to say on the subject.

Not that it stopped you and Cappy from stooping to the usual ad hominem mud-slinging and name calling - something you both mistake for actual debate and discussion. The paucity of your case is in direct proportion to the personal and disingenuous way you support it.

When you have nothing relevant to say you seldom let that stop you.

Skeptitool

I think, if you look back at the comments already posted here, you'll find Buzz's statement was noted yesterday in the conversation on this thread. You're a little late.

The name "Fiat lux" was

The name "Fiat lux" was given to my columns by my friend and editor Jerry White of the Gold River Record. The only paper that would dare to print what I write.

It is Latin and means "Let there be light"

Now, as far I can see this whole argument and name calling is divided on sectarian ideological grounds: Fidel is bad, because he exporpriated the US multinationals.

I could name a few more, far more important crimes he committed, but this would be the only one I would praise him for. Although, I would pay back the expropriated corporations every penny they actually brought into the country, across the borders. Nothing of what they borrowed in our banks, or what they've "earned" here.

On the other hand, in spite of the horrible human rights and environmental records of China, they're OK, because they permit "foreign investment" and the removal of profits and we should destroy all our industries, so that the middlemen, who extort both sides, can make unlimited profits. Like the $210. million paid to the Home Depot jerk, by the thankful "investors"

Yes, I was and am an investor, but only in my own businesses and worked 60-80 hour weeks to keep them alive, while paying my employees top wages.

Now, if any good "rightie" wants to read something realy shocking, the url for my 179 columns in the Record is at:

http://member.newsguy.com/~record/flux/index.htm

Ed Deak.

Quote:Are you and elliot

You as well Garffy, you as well........

Thanks, G. West

Going back 18 hours (at this writing) found this:

G. West

That's it?

Prior to this post, Cycling Commuter had a post supportive of Hargrove.

Given the importance of the issue that my quoted article and your comment referred to, one cannot say that discussion has raged.

G West: No, actually, take

G West:

No, actually, take a bow for inspiring me. I read your " QUOTE " , figured, OK let's research this a bit more...

Ed talked about economists earlier...me personally I won't be bamboozled by surficial numbers.

WorldWildLifeFund(WWF) audit of Cuba?....I guess I am supposed to read into that that Communism is THE MOST environmentally friendly form of Gov't . Solution: Keep people poor and oppressed ?

Sorry other "links" seem to indicate Cuba is a welfare - state bartering with its neighbours....though the potential of OIL reserves etc may assist it economically in the future.

The 2nd paragraph of your quote...alludes to the figures supplied by the "Havana Gov't" . Gee a neutral body...the neutral "Havana Gov't" own independent audit of the separate arms length "Cuba"...maybe they could have done the audit of the B.C. Fast-ista Ferries-istas too ...did Fidel do ENRON and Bre-X personally ?

C,mon G West...I know you can do better than that,...it's better to have a TKO than a KO.

PS Not a total loss though, you mentioned sports in the quote ,.. the Cubans do provide some damn fine Baseball players. Apparently Fidel was quite a major -league prospect...what mighta been, eh ?

layton is yesterdays man

after watching layton the other night on the HOUR with george knobolopoulous,i came to the conclusion that he is losing ground faster than anyone thinks.

Ellie May on the other hand is a fresh scent on the breeze of the political
sh!tstorm that has ENVIRONMENTALISM at the eye of the storm.

while captain jack has a cool moustache,ellie may has got the backing of serious enviro freaks like me and mine...NO MORE SUCKING UP TO THE UNIONS AND BIG BUSINESS...like captain jack and his gnarly crew of misfits.

And as an aside,just havinh had a heart attack and tasted the service of BC's SUPPOSED BEST MEDICAL CARE.

I'LL TAKE CUBA...ANYDAY,i was once told jokingly by a friend down there(a doctor)that INCOMPETENTS were shot,too bad incompetent doctors up here don't get the bullseye pasted to their scrubs.

Ed I've read some of your

Ed I've read some of your great editorials but #179. Wow! I must say I thought I was informed before but now all I want to do is take the battle to them!
http://member.newsguy.com/~record/flux/flux179.htm
They are but a few fat greedy "oinks" and WE as a World People must come together as a Very Powerful Force against this "evil" as I can find no other word for them.
Look at South America and what they have accomplished in a few short years!
As MLK's famous speech "I Have A Dream"
I have a dream for mine and all children for a great future!
http://www.iwtnews.com/home

Maestro

Gavin the Goof - get backed into corners, because of his foolish musings - like how he would choose Cuba over Canada, and he likes Venezuela's direction...

Nearly every fight we've had, he's picked. Every time I post something, I come back and two posts later - Gavin is attacking me. He calls me a parasite, he refers to my ilk, my greed, etc. etc.

Then, he starts accusing us of calling him names.

It is rather humerous when he validates his comments with sites to blogs, the wwf and other special interest group pages.

Have a good weekend gavvy...

Ed/Fiat Lux: Red China,

Ed/Fiat Lux:

Red China, Jack Layton, Cuba, NDP...et al

Maybe they all tie - together like Einsteins' Unifying Theory.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Hitler was stupid enough to try and invade Russia, but , paradoxically "smart enough" to avoid China, as were many before him. China, historically, is a huge sleeping dragon in the global scheme of things best not even shaken, let alone not stirred nor aroused.

Bringing China in the context of Cuba is inevitably an Orders of Magnitude of difference. We discussed Thermodynamic Laws applied to politics and economics in past TYEE topics...and I think China ,no matter how large it is, cannot really stop what is globally inevitable...it is another part of a global "thermodynamic " transition. That direction is no longer old time communistic.

Cuba is more like a closed governance experiment,...a state -controlled entity and oft - promoted as some socialist/communist citizen "equality" Valhalla/Paradise. In my view, if it(state control) can't work there, in CUBA, it can't work anywhere,especially in larger societies, such as China. All indications are, to me at least, is that it is NOT working "as advertised".

Re Jack Layton and the NDP (and the Canadian NDP Valhalla???): It appears,Jack and the NDP are disappointing many people. The NDP has claimed to represent the working people etc. etc. ....well maybe "way back when" plus the old Tommy Douglas bonus days....but the NDP's irrelevancy is perhaps simply based on increasing exposure, I don't think its really even ever been what people actually thought it was..(much like Cuba). Why people cling onto the NDP myth on par with Cuba's myth is beyond me.

The NDP should take a note from the Japanese..either quasi- "Hari -Kari" and fold, or quasi- "Kamikaze" into the LIEberal party . Laws of Thermodynamics will fill the political void with something to create a counter -balance versus the ad- nauseum propping up this NDP carcass on life -support by some deluded Voters.

Mssr. Layton is simply grasping at straws with another typically ethereal NDP issue...running around with the " Kyoto religion " .

I think many intelligent
people are seeing through this idealogical NDP "smoke and mirrors" and no longer willing to subsidize it with something called a Vote, which is something these Socialist-types both (i)need yet (ii) when in power tend to ignore the public's best interests and make up their own mandates(ie Tax and Spend vs. Fix..) and cater to special interest groups while doing it, ...then wonder why they get turfed to the periphery again. Maybe no more Voter parole chances ?

Perhaps the Public is starting to realize a vote for the NDP is environmentally UNfriendly, and always was a waste. No sense pointing fingers outside the NDP ...that's even MORE of a waste.

Cap: Fuggedaboudit... "

Cap:

Fuggedaboudit...

" Name Calling " is a relative concept...As "The Brain" mentioned in another TYEE topic, one has to have a thick skin coming in or else develop one real soon.

I think it ultimately boils down to more like insulting one's intelligence with confusing it ....or trying to confuse it, ...with ideological rhetoric vs reasonable discussion/debate.

Those truly Pro Cuba are a prime example.
I didn't see much I liked about Fidels' Cuba that sells me that modern -day Cuba (versus a "modernized Cuba") is actually in the Cuban peoples' best interests, so why would I want to import it here ? All those "Pro Cuba types" are telling me is that they like almost 100% State Control over our daily lives and would very likely impose it if given 1/2 a chance...no guarantee as advertised...so I say NO Vote from me..., in fact go piss -off.

In my view, any political party and its supporters have to " state their case " or " advertise " to attract the Voter support aka convince us THEY( fill-in-the blank) are the best choice and worthy of O-U-R support at the Polls.

We are always shopping around and kicking the political tires...aren't we ??? Obviously some don't.

However, certain facets of the political spectrum oft- trot out the "Used Car Salesmen" analogy to describe their political opposition... when in fact their own political party has never ever delivered their ideological vehicle on time,... nor on budget , ...if at all, not so much as a steering wheel or a spare tire, yet still garner support ?

All they do is put OTHERS vehicles on blocks and start the "chop - shop" process aka Tax /Steal and Spend.
They try to sell it as Social Justice etc. ??? and other bogus - advertising that would make even Ralph Nader cringe.

WHO is scamming WHO ?

I've never been sold on the ideology, these idealogues have been given enough chances...(even here on the TYEE ),... time to call them on it ,and more importantly, time to move on.

The only way....

Maestr....This is cutting into my painting time in a big way and I'll also have to write another column tonight......

If you read my Fiat lux # 179, you'll see that I'm dead against so called "globalization", which is the fraudulent name for collectivization and colonization and the end of democracy, which can only exist in the national state.

At the same time, I'm all for cooperation between people and nations, the elimination of arms and armies to the greatest extent, etc.

I'm a WW2 vet from one of Hitler's satellite armies, so I know what war and being wounded are like, plus the hundred or so legs that have been amputated, while I was holding them, and I hate the guts of anybody who advocates, or even justifies war, except in self defence.

This includes "economic competition" which is just another name for war, also "mergers", a new name for Soviet style collectivization.

The only hope for the NDP is to get on the nationalistic wagon, shoutit from the rooftops and explain to people why the NAU, SPP, GATS, etc are nothing more than the destuction of democratic decision making powers and the establishment of corporate dictatorship.

While you're at it, look up my # 173, where I explain in detail, with names and organizations, how and what the crooks are trying to do.

I'm a strong environmentalist and human rights activist, but in view of the overall attack on the Earth by capitalism out of control, these are side issues.

When your house is burning you're not debating curtain colours with a decorator.

Now back to my painting of a female nude in dance movement. Then I have to think about what to write tonight, as I have no idea at this moment.

Cheers, Ed.

Another B 52

PS. Another goddamn B 52 just flew South, over our house, pulling a constripe.

What the hell are they doing here, time after time, every day, criss-crossing the sky over our heads, wasting precious fuel and polluting the air ?

For what ??????????

Ed Deak.

G West to Capitalism

I guess you CAN'T read can you? I never said I preferred Cuba to Canada. In fact it was you who brought Cuba up, remember?

And, since you can't actually discuss anything without resorting to calling people names or making comments about their sanity I'll simply ignore you in future.

Like neocon and IAMC/ Ron Erwin, you guys just aren't capable of rational thought and sensible argument. And neocon, you can check it out - I never do anything but respond to that kind of stuff - usually by just posting your own stuff right back at you. You want to raise the level of debate here? It's up to you....and Elliot and the others.

Maestro:
So we have to believe statistics from America but Cuban statistics are all lies?
Now I understand. That's a pretty good way to win an argument with yourself fella.

If you want to have a discussion with me you're going to have to do a lot better. And stop trying to put words in my mouth.

It's unsanitary.

maestros muddy musings

maestro, once again, what would be the point of the NDP folding? That's all I want to know, what would be the point?

Its not like NDPers move to the moon so what would be the point?

I've said before that I think the Cons should dismantle themselves and join the Libs. But here's why, because they're the same party and believe in the same things and have their MPs move back and forth across the floor without batting an eye or changing their mind. In BC you have a conservative party called the BC Liberals. You guys are one and the same.

The NDP on the other hand doesn't see its members crossing the floor nor do Cons and Libs cross the floor to it. The difference between the NDP and Libs is huge, the difference between the Libs and Cons is non-existent.

So again, what would be the point of the NDP dismantling themselves? Lack of seats? If that was the case the Cons would have dismantled themselves 13 years ago.

As for Hitler and China, the Axis DID attack China. Japan was Hitler's ally.

Instant insanity

Cap, you called me insane and I didn't call you anything (and never do). Hmm, I'll forgive you because I'm glad to see you're full of vinegar and willing to put up a fight.

As for emigration from Cuba to the US, there's more emigration from Canada to the US.

Ode to May

haroldkann,

There's a difference between Layton and May. Government under May would look like the last gov't she was part of, Mulroney's. Somehow I think Jack would do better.

Hugo Capitalism

By the way Cap and Maestro, what do you dislike exactly about Chavez in Venezuela?

Oil revenue going to non-whites or US leaders being called names in the same manner they call everyone else names?

We had 2 more B52s over our

We had 2 more B52s over our heads since I wrote the last time.

They're not practicing to spread goodwill and bombers are not "defensive weapons".

Calling names is one thing, dropping bombs is another.

We call them "idiot planes", because the fools who fly them must believe they're doing something good.

Some outfit to join, if our admirable Harpo has his way.

Ed Deak.

Hoisting the maestro

So does this mean you think Campbell showed really really bad judgment hiring his brother-in-law?

Since your "Che Clark" is innocent and yet you hate him even being on the news I assume your teeth must really be grinding thinking of the drunk premier hiring his legally challenged brother-in-law to screw us?

B52s sounds Orwellion some

B52s sounds Orwellion some scary sh-- going on Ed.

The People of BC United Will

The People of BC United Will Never Be Defeated let's speak with

Quote:
Once more let me remind you what fascism is. It need not wear a brown shirt or a green shirt - it may even wear a dress shirt. Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing that people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.

The great T.C.Douglas

Quote:By the way Cap and

Oil revenue going to non-whites or US leaders being called names in the same manner they call everyone else names?

Cute, Frank. :-) Very funny.

They do like to dish it out. They just can't take it without whining is all. :-)

Capitalism = what ?

says Capitalism/Mabellbc

parasite: A person who lives at the expense of another person or of society; [from my point of view, especially with respect to the tax system in this country, that's a perfect description of the capitalist - a name you chose for yourself, remember]

ilk: a family, a sort, a class, a kind;

greed: intense or inordinate longing for wealth or food;

I'd say the words I've used to describe you and your 'philosophy' don't amount to calling you names mabellbc, I'd say they're covered by the defence of truth and fair comment and standard usage.

I don't consider that to be name calling. Would you like me to post some of the things you've written about me?

Stupidity Example

Question “So Mr. Layton; what would you do if you were the Prime Minister ?”

Answer “I make a practice of not answering hypothetical situations”

There is a real vote getting Q&A Policy.

switek

That's unfair. Layton's situation is, given our undemocratic election procedures, a difficult one. If you hang around here very long you'll soon recognize that were the NDP to suggest it might form the government that every neocon Neanderthal from here to eternity would jump on him like a dog on a bone.

He's voted against the government several times since the election last January. You can check it out...and not just on Afghanistan. As the 4th party in the House, that's about all he can do.

That and hope that Canadians will come to their senses. Don't hold your breath. The chance of that happening is REALLY hypothetical.

The biggest reason I think

The biggest reason I think that Canadians haven't come to their senses is that there aren't any msm putting out the REAL NEWS!
Canadians would be out in the streets and up in arms if They knew the real truth.
CanWest on conspiracy charges against all citizens, Gordon Campbell sellout of BC OUR future, Harper should be brought up on Treason against all Canadians for his roll in Bush's NWO.
Are WE Canadians going to sit back while OUR country is so called integrated into the UasSofAholes

Big business, the

Big business, the deregulated banks, the foreign carpetbagger mafia, given citizenship rights by the NAFTA and WTO, would never permit an NDP, or any other patriotic, government interested in the promotion of true private enterprise and the general welfare of society.

To prevent it, the US would invade us, on the request of neocon stooges, to "save democracy", and hasten the "unification process", otherwise known as globalized, corporate dictatorship.

Therefore, any talk of the subject is truly hypothetical.
'
Ed Deak,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EWnO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EWnOK48nUk&mode=related&search=
Is this OUR Future/Now?

There will be many unreported missing persons and slave labour which is here in BC already, RAV, BC's 2010 WO, highway construction etc.
We the public will have to take up the call of "The New People's Revolution"
against this cancer called NWO!
NWO means we become slaves for the super rich as they have all but destroyed the middle class, but in the end it will fail like all others through history.

US invasion!

"the US would invade us, on the request of neocon stooges, to "save democracy", and hasten the "unification process", otherwise known as globalized, corporate dictatorship."
Right on Ed!
Just check back to see how many times the USA has interfered in South America, and still do for that matter!
We are only maintaining our soverignty as long as we are good little boys and only make token demonstrations (that the police can hide).

'To prevent it, the US would

'To prevent it, the US would invade us, on the request of neocon stooges, to "save democracy", and hasten the "unification process", otherwise known as globalized, corporate dictatorship.'
now THAT is some good old leftie-freak blather. well done ed, you're one heck of a leader.

Elliot the sportsman

Still nothing. Just road signs pointing out how bankrupt your 'ideas' actually are El.

And I thought there was hope. I guess the consensus has it.

Sad.

like i said before gman; why

like i said before gman; why would anyone offer IDEAS to people that would tout such ridiculous nonsense. think about it. there's nothing constructive or pragmatic about anything these guys say. ed deak sounds like a great guy, and i'd love to sit around the campfire and have a few beers with him, or maybe go x-country skiing in his beautiful cariboo country, but give me a break with all this conspiracy armegeddon nonsense. it's tedious.

To Elliot

That's an excuse Elliot, and you know it. A simple device for avoiding the eventual necessity of admitting you're not really an honest man.

Honest men play all sports by the rules; the rules mean, essentially, put up or shut up.

In your case, the rest of us put up with you but we wish you'd just shut up. And all you do is pretend you've actually thought about what's really happening around you. You clearly haven't, although the people who have are more than willing to try and teach you something. It requires some effort on your part.

You have to be willing to listen. And you have to open your mind to some very uncomfortable facts about the direction we're headed: Either that or be nothing more than an advertisement for what's wrong with the world.

The choice is yours my friend. You're the one transmitting the white noise, I'm just trying to get you to see what it sounds like when it's played back.

By the way, El

That's Armageddon (Greek αρμαγεδδων).

THAT is some good old leftie-freak blather.

Elliot:
do you have trouble reading?
or are you unaware of what is happening in the world (on this continent in fact)?
Why not ask a few people who fled Chile, for instance?
Do you think that USA would have more scruples invading Canada with troops if their yes-boys in Ottawa fail to toe the line?
These days battles are often about controlling the media and guess who controls ours already?

conspiracy armegeddon nonsense

http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html
It's a helluva list, Elliot..........about 180 or so "interventions".

The Rich Stand Accused

The Rich Stand Accused
By Louis-Gilles Francoeur
Le Devoir

Saturday 06 January and Sunday 07 January 2007

Capitalism is the source of social and environmental crises.

What do global warming, pollution of the atmosphere, streams, rivers and oceans, the exhaustion of natural resources, the accelerated extinctions of species, deforestation, the liberation of GMO into the environment, and - coming soon - the infinitely small and practically undetectable pollution of nano-materials have in common? Capitalism and the oligarchy that profits from it, as first cause, answers Hervé Kempf in a bombshell book published in Paris by éditions du Seuil.

A journalist who specializes in the environment for Le Monde, Hervé Kempf has taken his work to the four corners of the planet and frequented - as is the privilege of an environmental chronicler - the cream of the scientific community, "people who tend to be rather calm and steady." Yet, from these contacts and the issues patiently compiled for the newspaper where he works, he retains two observations, he writes at the outset of Comment les riches détruisent la planète [How the Rich Destroy the Planet], which will be available in Québec February 6th.

First, he explained in a telephone interview yesterday, the planet's ecological situation is worsening at a rate that neutralizes all the efforts of millions of citizens and ecological militants, to the point that the planet is in danger of crossing a threshold of irreversibility "within the next 10 years," he believes, on the basis of the speed at which negative outcomes are piling up.

The second observation of this attempt to provide a veritably comprehensive explanation of the environmental crisis is that "the social system that presently governs human society - capitalism - blindly, doggedly rejects the changes necessary if we want to preserve the dignity and promise of human existence."

In the same way that the different aspects of the global environmental crisis react with more and more synergy - warming accelerates the rate of species extinction, as use of fossil fuel gives rise to pollution, and consumption to the exhaustion of resources - the planetary ecological and social crises are two mutually bound-up facets of the same problem.

"We cannot understand the simultaneity of the ecological and social crises if we do not analyze them as two facets of the same disaster. This disaster derives from a system piloted by a dominant social stratum that today has no drive but greed, no ideal but conservatism, no dream but technology. This predatory oligarchy is the principal agent of the global crisis," writes Kempf. "The present form of capitalism," he adds in an interview, "has lost its former historic ends, that is to say the creation of wealth and innovation, because it has become a financial capitalism, disparaged even by capitalist economists. This capitalism, which destroys jobs by rationalizations, new technologies and globalizations, overall and everywhere increases the disparities between rich and poor within each country and between different countries," the journalist observes.

This oligarchy he targets is not satisfied with blindly consuming and wasting the planet's material resources with its big cars, its airplane trips, its unbridled consumption of living products, its uselessly vast houses, its unrestrained energy wastage. It has also, adds Hervé Kempf, spawned a model of hyper-consumption that the lower and especially the middle classes now attempt to imitate, just as developing countries try to imitate Western countries - even though, whether instinctively or rationally, everyone clearly knows that "this ideology of waste" and its drain on planetary resources will inevitably come to an abrupt end.

This course places before the human species the unprecedented fact that it has reached or soon will reach the planet's limits, which could, through feedback effects, threaten the species' own existence. But this course is all the more difficult to arrest, Hervé Kempf deems, because it depends on a semi-authoritarian regime ever more institutionalized at the planetary level. It even depends, he says, on crises like that of September 11 in order to appreciably reduce those human rights that had been acquired through elevated struggle and to neutralize, even cause to disappear, those democratic mechanisms that allow free public debate on the choice of plans, the social choices that the workings of the economy repeatedly raise.

Hervé Kempf rejects all accusations of attempting to take the planetary ecological debate from green to red.

"I am no Marxist," he says, "and have never been, because that ideology does not respect human rights. But the Marxists do not have a monopoly over the social debate and we cannot, all the same, close our eyes to the documented, measured phenomena right in front of us. I note the existence of two crises, one ecological, the other social. And I observe that they act in synergy. I observe that a minority of people benefit from them. And I draw conclusions from these observations."

But he also observes that a large part of the European Left has not seen the depth of the links between the two problems, just as many ecologists - who restrict themselves to an environmental approach - miss half the problem, if not its first cause.

"If you want to be an ecologist," he writes, condemningly, "you have to stop being half-witted," for "the social given remains ecology's blind spot" as long as no one dares analyze it from the angle of power, domination and wealth relationships.

"We must," he writes, "get past this hiatus. Understand that the ecological crisis and social crisis are two facets of the same disaster. And that this disaster is set in motion by a system of power that has no other end than the maintenance of the ruling classes' privileges."

Although he does not address the impact of unchecked demography on the decline of the planet's "biological services" in his essay, Hervé Kempf immediately acknowledges that this factor certainly has an impact that is greater overall than any hyper-consumption by this oligarchy, composed of several hundred thousand millionaires and billionaires who control the bulk of income and of financial capital. However, he explains, it's this oligarchy that creates an unsustainable model for the planet, the indirect impact of which on other social groups exceeds its direct consumption. "And," he says dryly, "not all humans have the same impact on the planet at birth: a Westerner carries more weight in the planet's fate than a baby from Niger or from India."

It's to put an end to this ostentatious consumption that he advocates radical control of wealth through "a ceiling on maximum salaries and on the accumulation of wealth," a sort of matching piece for the minimum wage, but on the upper side.

"Everyone," Kempf comments, "knows that China will never be able to reach a level of consumption per inhabitant comparable to that of the Americans, with two cars per family, three televisions, four computers and cell phones, a house three times too big for its inhabitants, which generates energy consumption that would be sufficient to the needs of ten, even twenty people on other continents." The environmental chronicler proposes that a reduction of its consumption be imposed on this oligarchy that has globalized poverty, so that it no longer feeds this unsustainable dream, which numbs the critical faculties of the entire planet to the point that it closes its eyes to the wall into which it is careening full speed ahead.

And the reporter, known for his rigor and level-headedness, nevertheless concludes: "It is still necessary for ecological concerns to be based on a radical political analysis of present relationships of domination. We will not be able to reduce global material consumption if the powerful are not brought down and if inequality is not combated. To the ecological principle so useful at the dawning of awareness - "Think globally, act locally" - we must add the principle that the present situation imposes: "Consume less, share better."

Ecologists, he adds, have not often conducted an inquiry into the "ecological misery" that parks the poor next to industrial neighborhoods, polluted and at risk, next to highways or noisy activities, in the most insalubrious houses and in sectors generally the least well-served by public services, including public transportation. It is wrong, he says, to act as though the economic system must grow more to bring these people out of poverty or to allow more poor people to attain greater wealth. The economic system works in the other direction, by monopolizing wealth and power at the expense of those who have the least, and of the middle classes that dream - ever more vainly - of hoisting themselves into the cocoon of the present financial oligarchy, Kempf maintains.

That's why, he says, we must "bring down the rich" rather than pull up the poor, in order to begin to respect the thresholds of irreversible deterioration of the planet's resources.

He takes aim, moreover, at the concept of sustainable development and the alibi it now constitutes for governments and companies that use it to justify other drains on resources in the name of this new rationale that is supposedly harmless for the planet. Sustainable development, he writes, has become "a semantic weapon to remove the dirty word, 'ecology.' Moreover, is there any need to still develop France, Germany, or the United States? The concept has meaning, he concluded in an interview yesterday, but only in developing countries, because it can help them to avoid a development as brutal and lawless as the one we have effected in the West. But in the West, he says, the first of our environmental responsibilities "consists of reducing our consumption of material goods" to attain a level of well-being based rather on values, knowledge, in sum on immaterial, but nonetheless very real, riches.

--------

More information about H. Kempf's work is available at www.reporterre.net.

'It's a helluva list,

'It's a helluva list, Elliot..........about 180 or so "interventions".
what a joke! did you read that shite? this is exactly the kind of thing you lefty freaks fall for. my god what garbage.

Elliot and his compromises with truth

writes Elliot, still refusing to grow up and act like an adult. Nice advert for your prejudices my friend

A bit of humour/truth, enjoy

A bit of humour/truth, enjoy
http://www.bcfiberals.com/

more info from Cuba - I told you I'd be back

Here's some more info on Cuba for you Capitalism:

From AxisofLogic.com

Education
Cuba teaches the world to read
By Cheryl LaBash
Jan 8, 2007, 11:25

In just 45 years a socialist revolution transformed Cuba from an impoverished U.S. colony to an international educational powerhouse. In 1961, Cuban rural illiteracy was 42 percent. In 2006, UNESCO awarded Cuba for its international literacy program.

On Dec. 22, 1961, the Cuban Revolution marked the successful end of the initial phase of the National Literacy Campaign that brought basics of reading and writing to nearly a million Cubans, many in isolated rural areas. In less than a year’s time an army of 268,420 teachers, new graduates and high and middle school student volunteers laid the foundation for the doctors, clinics and medical schools Cuba shares with the world today. Women comprised more than half of the brigadistas and youth aged 10 to 19 numbered 100,000.

Fidel Castro explained the long range importance of the national campaign that reduced the 42 percent illiteracy rate to

4 percent: “This literacy campaign will give opportunities to those who were denied an education for economic and social reasons. ... They must be helped; they must be persuaded that they can study. Some people at first had bad

eyesight and they got eye examinations and free glasses. There can and must not be any obstacle. ...

“The literacy campaign directly benefits the poor. This is the great injustice which the revolution is correcting. At the same time, it is of vital importance for the country. There can be no progress without education. It is necessary if we are to carry out the great projects in science and the economy, which the revolution plans. If we are to eradicate poverty and raise our living standard, this is necessary.”

In 2006, UNESCO awarded Cuba the King Sejong Literacy Prize for “working through an innovative literacy method with more than 15 countries to use literacy to advance individual and social potential.” Although several other countries were awarded for their internal literacy work, the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical University of the Republic of Cuba (IPLAC) received the only award for assisting other countries.

The Cuban “Yo sí puedo” (Yes I can) method combined with the political will of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela recently ended illiteracy there, teaching 1.5 million people to read in two years. In Ecuador several Indigenous mayors adopted the method.

Cuba “implemented the literacy programmes in different social and cultural contexts covering all levels of society including indigenous peoples, those in rural and urban areas, those serving prison sentences, people with special educational needs, migrants, ethnic minorities, at the same time paying special attention to women’s education.” (UNESCO)

Bolivia aims to end illiteracy by 2008 with the support of Cuba and Venezuela. In both rural and urban areas the Aymara and Quechua Indigenous people are learning to read and write in their own languages.

A report to the 14th Summit of the Non Aligned Movement revealed that 2.3 million people in 15 countries, including Mexico and New Zealand, are presently studying under the program. Currently there are requests from Gambia, Nigeria, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and from the city of Seville in Spain for Cuba to send advisors to start the method.

Although the mass mobilization for the National Literacy Campaign started on April 15, 1961, preparation began earlier. On Jan. 5, 1961, Conrado Benítez García, a young Black man who was one of the early volunteer teachers, and peasant Eliodoro Rodríguez Linares were murdered and mutilated near Trinidad on the south coast of Cuba’s Sancti Spíritus province. The youth brigades named in honor of Conrado Benítez mobilized just days before the direct CIA invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (Playa Girón), an invasion originally planned for the Trinidad area.

The 1961 Cuban school year ended early; it did not resume in the fall until the national literacy campaign was completed in December. Through the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC) 30,000 workers were mobilized to help the campaign without hurting production.

In 1961 Fidel Castro told CTC members in Havana province, “Imperialism offers educational plans to be carried out in 10 years, they claim; but they will not be fulfilled. The Cuban revolution will show that it can be done in one year.”

Some 45 years later, in a country that spends billions to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, Fidel’s words ring true. As school districts across the United States struggle with unfunded mandates for the “No Child Left Behind” program, Detroit has an illiteracy rate of 47 percent. A Dec. 15 U.S. Department of Education press release stated, “The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), released today by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), found little change between 1992 and 2003 in adults’ ability to read and understand sentences and paragraphs or to understand documents such as job applications.”

The National Adult Literacy Survey found a total of 21 to 23 percent or 40 to 44 million U.S. adults, 16 years and older, are at the lowest literacy level; 21 million of those cannot read at all.

http://www.workers.org/2007/world/cuba-0111/

that's why so many risk

that's why so many risk their lives every year to get the hell out of there. more shite from gwest. get a life guy.

Elliot still grasping at straws

Still incapable of actually coming to grips with ideas and concepts - what's your view of the Canucks new successful image?

Perhaps you can handle that. Interesting that the great American monolith has lower literacy rates than Cuba.

What's your explanation for that El? Maybe our education system isn't much better than the Yanks after all.

elliot every time you post

elliot every time you post you only confirm your stupidity
This blog seems to run but it all ties together.
I don't trust s dion
This is why Canadians are in the dark about OUR COUNTRY and all the treasonous acts being committed by the BC Libs Fed Libs and Fed Cons
I wonder what came out of the CRTC committee that was looking into CanWests strangle hold on the media especially in BC?
This is yanky but holds true in BC and Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCpGiNVw0zQ&mode=related&search=

Oops wrong

Oops wrong site
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCpGiNVw0zQ&mode=related&search=

damn wrong site again

damn wrong site again