Burma - Foctors can help

Apparently, Burma (Myanmar) is having some problems between dictators and hurricanes.


Hurricane videos

Burma's Hurricane Nargis disaster video
Uploaded by scmp888

Too tough for me to watch so I threw in some funny celeb PSAs...

Sarah Silverman's take...Foctor = Fake Dictator...Burma's rank of 190th out of 191 state health care systems.



Loads of celebrities



More information from Canadian Friends of Burma

Holy moly, it's a Unicorn!

I can't believe how cute this guy is. Will his unicorn tears cure poisonings?

The last Unicorn?

MARTA FALCONI

Associated Press

June 11, 2008 at 6:35 PM EDT

“This is fantasy becoming reality,” Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, told The Associated Press. “The unicorn has always been a mythological animal.”

The 1-year-old Roe Deer – nicknamed Unicorn – was born in captivity in the research center's park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence, Mr. Tozzi said.

Ladies love the Conchords!

Flight of the Conchords makes me want to be a better / funnier person!



Working on the fair trade music biz...

Blue Richard and the Apricots

Blue Richard and the Apricots are a western-canadian answer to Feist with more violas and accordions. Rocking the folk experimental edge of old style country...well anyways...stay tuned for clips. Here is a link to their sounds of falling string, drops of wood, squeezed air

Note: my brother plays the wash-tub-bass and occasionally unleashes his Robert Goulet like voice at their gigs. The bands stars are:

We are Anna Atkinson and Rachael Cardiello. We started pretty unintentionally, and mostly haphazardly sometime in 2006 as more of a split (pea) show, singing our individual songs.....and gradually we decided to get ourselves a band name, an accordian, and a set of finger cymbols. And from there it’s just been a log of fun.

Spring is here...and so is the organic future

How great is the sun and the days getting longer and the buds budding? Fan-freakin-tastic!

Along with Spring, the Green trade show wave seems to be crashing on to Toronto's shores. This weekend the Total Health Show presents organic and slow food ideas for consumers (good for all of us granola types).

April 25-27 will see a more main stream approach to Green Living at the Green Living Show, presented by Green Living Magazine.

Come and see Mountain Path and sample lots of great food and get great deals!

The show is at the Direct Energy Centre at the CNE. Hope to see lots of people there. Mention Fun, Green and Fair and get a free fondue sample at the Mt. Path booth!

Castro resigned

So he outlasted Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, most of Bush II. The ultimate survivor resigns.
AP's take on the resignation:

The United States was the first country to recognize Castro's government, but the countries soon clashed as Mr. Castro seized American property and invited Soviet aid.

On April 16, 1961, Mr. Castro declared his revolution to be socialist. A day later, he defeated the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. The United States squeezed Cuba's economy and the CIA plotted to kill Mr. Castro. Hostility reached its peak with the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Fabulous understatement from Castro:

“It was an uncomfortable situation for me vis-a-vis an adversary that had done everything possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply,” he said in a reference to the United States.

Perhaps, I have a warped perspective on Cuba from the 2 weeks I spent there on a development philosophy course back in 2001. Somehow, Cuba, and the revolution, were more of an inspiration than a threat. Much could be made of their medical school and athletic training programs for citizens of developing countries. But I will just share a personal story.

On a lovely day at the beach, I cut my foot on a piece of glass. The cut was pretty bad (hypochondriac remembering) but not life threatening. I hung in for a couple of hours waiting for the bus to come to take us back to Havana. On arrival, I took a cab with our guides to the hospital. Not the fancy tourist hospital, this was the empty, metal and brick, local hospital. The cab pulled me up to the front and I was immediately placed in a wheel chair, guided into a room and received stitches and anaesthetic. Although quite out of it, I was worried about the lack of medicine and conditions. I was delirious (at least delirious in a hypochondriac sort of way), but I was reassured by my friend who spoke a bit more Spanish. I didn't just have one doctor but I ended up having a team of doctors working to communicate and provide what care they could. Stitches and smiles later I went back to my hotel to enjoy VH1's behind the music

After returning to Toronto, Nurse Mom said that I probably wouldn't have even gotten stitches in Canada...I wouldn't have been able to see a doctor for a couple of hours as well.

The care that I got in the midst of an economic and medical supply embargo by the US was nothing short of incredible (good thing I wasn't a blue baby...no non-American source for those drugs). But the care wasn't just for me. As I left a family drove up with a sick woman and the scary looking police man carried her in his arms from the taxi into the hospital.

There was something about the people: struggling, surviving, dancing, eating rice beans and gnarly meat. The human side of the revolution is lost in the news, the stats and the politics. This was what Castro et al should be remembered for. Whether there will be a new relationship between Cuba and the USa, whether "Cuban exiles" will be able to reclaim their massive plantations and oil resources, whether package vacations get cheaper or not...Cuba will stand as an incredible memory and inspiration for me.

Oh yeah and BC has a carbon tax.

US on Canada's torture risk list....

Another time to bow our heads in shame and shed a single tear, as Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier apologizes for "wrongly" placing the USA and Israel on the list of countries where people risk facing torture.



Torture manual 'wrongly' lists allies: Bernier

DAVID LJUNGGREN Reuters - January 19, 2008 at 11:49 AM EST

It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten," Mr. Bernier said in a statement.
...
Under "definition of torture" the document lists U.S. interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners.

It also mentions the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where Canadian Omar Khadr has been held five years. He is accused of killing a U.S. soldier during a clash in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15.

Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

The foreign ministry launched the torture awareness course after Ottawa was rapped for the way it handled the case of Maher Arar, who was deported from the United States to Syria in 2002.

Contact or drop by and talk to the Minister!
The Honourable Maxime Bernier, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Parliament Hill:
Telephone: (613) 992-8053
Fax: (613) 995-0687

Department:
Foreign Affairs
Lester B. Pearson Building, Tower "A", 10th Floor
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0G2
Telephone: (613) 995-1851
Fax: (613) 996-3443
E-Mail:

Big Plans for buses and trains

Wouldn't it be nice to take a train? Clean up the air on the way!

B.C. unveils huge transit plan
- thanks to The Globe and Mail -

DARREN YOURK Globe and Mail Update January 14, 2008 at 2:48 PM EST

The agreement is highlighted by $10.3-billion investment in four new rapid transit lines in Metro Vancouver — the Evergreen Line, the UBC Line, the upgraded Expo Line and the Canada Line. Another $1.2-billion has been earmarked for a new energy-efficient, high-capacity RapidBus BC service along nine major routes in Kelowna, Victoria and Metro Vancouver.

The plan, scheduled for completion in 2020, also includes a $1.6-billion investment in 1,500 new, clean energy buses and related maintenance infrastructure to provide communities with improved bus service.

The only question is where is the other ten billion going to come from?

The province has committed $4.75-billion toward the project, with the remainder coming from partners including the federal government, TransLink and local governments.

Meanwhile Toronto and Ottawa can't get organized or sufficient funding to even build a light rapid transit line, let alone 4!

TTC: Crisis and hope
Ottawa is stuck with cars and sprawl - Conservatives didn't want the LRT & Progressives couldn't agree on routes.

Handy Manny

It will change your life. Design a toy for the ages.

http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/handymanny/activities/toyfactory/index.html

Visit me on a more serious note

Birth, Death

Welcome back to Jesus. Merry Christmas to all.

Remembering Oscar Peterson, Canadian, piano player...not louie Armstrong

Sublime is the word that comes to mind



They killed Benazir Bhutto. What a mess!

Pakistan's Bhutto assassinated

Who is this technorati person

Technorati Profile

World Economic Forum - Who? What?

This image summarizes the essence of the WEF: Famous rocker, President, UN Secretary General and some guy from Africa. Their hearts are in the right place, right:

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

But a forum of unelected leaders...getting together to shape agendas...no. Don't go all conspiracy theory Tim. Noooo!

Perhaps, the recent WEF call for video submissions by world citizens will lead to more transparency and more open dialog on contentious social, political and environmental issues.

Members

Members and Partners

Our members represent the world’s 1,000 leading companies. Partners are select member companies who are actively involved in the organization's activities and contribute their expertise and resources.


Membership
strategic partners includes: Coca Cola, Microsoft, Nestle and Unilever.

There are loads of women leaders too...

What would happen if an organization like the WEF actually embraced the Kyoto Protocol or Human Rights obligations and took action?

Davos, Secret Elites and Videos

Have your say on the Davos Question:

"What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"

By submitting a video at http://www.youtube.com/thedavosquestion

Brilliant cross marketing, promotion and green washing - or - way to promote global democracy through online activism?

You decide? Stay tuned for my answer to this question. I have a feeling it will combine fair trade and a call for recognition of collective universal human obligations.

Ripples on the pond...

Drop some pebbles on the internet and see if fair trade sweeps beyond activist ponds.

Critical report about the challenges and risks of fair trade as a production and trade approach:

Fair to the Last Drop:
The Corporate Challenges to Fair Trade Coffee

-By Eric Holt-Giménez, Ian Bailey, and Devon Sampson of Food First - Institute of Food and Development Policy

download PDF

...At this year's United Students for Fair Trade (USFT) convergence in Boston, Massachusetts, students asked, "How will the involvement of large corporations change fair trade standards?" and "How do you get the scale and keep the values?" The activists who have been pushing Fairtrade products into their campus dining halls and cafés are now asking: how fair is Fairtrade?

Many ethical consumers and Fairtrade activists are also uncomfortable selling Fairtrade products through multinational corporations with unfair labor practices and monopolistic market power. Is Fairtrade providing a public relations cover for globalization's race to the bottom?

Well I hope fair trade is helping in Argentina, Sri Lanka, and in Dominican Republic, Peru, Paraguay and Costa Rica.

An example of a green site pushing for hope, delicious fair trade change and a greener world.

Refugees seek a different port if you've visited the USA - Canada's Closed

If a refugee claimant passes through the US on the way to Canada they may be denied a right to apply for refugee status in Canada. This is because the USA is considered a "Safe third country", a country with high human rights standards that affords approximately equal protection for those fleeing persecution. But what happens if the third country is not as safe as it used to be? What if it becomes a sender of refugees?

This is a concern raised in today's Globe and Mail:

The safe-country dilemma: why offering asylum is an obligation

JANET DENCH and KAREN HAMILTON AND ALEX NEVE

Special to Globe and Mail Update

December 6, 2007 at 12:33 AM EST

Last week, Mr. Justice Michael Phelan of the Federal Court of Canada ruled that, when all of the evidence is considered, it is not reasonably possible to conclude that the United States is a safe country for refugees. As a result, he found that Canada is wrong to force refugee claimants back to the U.S. without giving them a hearing in this country. It was bound to be an unpopular decision, for all the reasons that make refugees among the most vulnerable and abused people in the world.

The Globe and Mail editorial Moving To Reject The Refugee Pact (Dec. 1) illustrates what refugee claimants are up against — in Canada and in other countries. Refugees are seen as an inconvenience: a challenge to border control and immigration management. They are also faceless non-citizens, making it easy to minimize the harsh realities of persecution they face if we disregard their right to asylum. They are frequently presented as nothing more than numbers: the numbers of claimants at the border, the numbers of claimants in the backlog.

But refugees are not just numbers: They are human beings.

Judge Phelan's decision is also doomed to be unpopular because it faces the reality that the U.S. violates human rights. Refugees often find themselves victims of the unwillingness of governments to imply criticism of other countries by acknowledging the shortcomings in their human-rights records or their refugee protection systems. This is particularly the case when the other country is large, powerful and very close by. As noted in the decision, the federal cabinet has failed to review the status of the U.S. as a safe third country, as required by law, despite significant developments, including important changes to the U.S. asylum law that cried out for review. Perhaps the cabinet held off because it knew that only one conclusion could be reached following such a review, and it didn't have the courage to declare the U.S. in violation of its human-rights obligations.

Janet Dench is executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees. Karen Hamilton is general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches. Alex Neve is secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada. The three organizations, along with John Doe, launched the legal action that resulted in Judge Phelan's decision.

Multi-Lingual Canada

Having lived for almost three years in Ottawa, I was getting used to signs and websites being in French and English. On return to Toronto, the city seems bigger and better than ever with more and more languages and communities represented.
Education that can adapt to these multi-lingual capabilities of Canadians could make us an economic power house. The question is whether we can come up with a more palatable way to teach Hindi and Mandarin than the way I was taught French in elementary school.


Canada's tenuous French connection

BRODIE FENLON

Globe and Mail Update

December 4, 2007 at 11:04 AM EST
...
• One in five Canadians – 19.8 per cent of the total population – was born outside the country, a rate not matched since 1931, when the percentage of foreign-born citizens peaked at 22.2 per cent. Only Australia has more foreign-born residents.

• More than 60 per cent of immigrants live in the large urban centres of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver; only about 5 per cent live in rural parts of Canada.

• Most of the recent newcomers to Canada are from Asia – 58 per cent when those from the Middle East are included. Europeans, the dominant immigrant group for most of the 20th century, represented only 16 per cent of those who moved to Canada between 2001 and 2006.

• Canada's foreign-born population increased by 13.6 per cent, four times greater than the growth rate of 3.3 per cent for the Canadian-born population.

...
For the first time, allophones – those who speak neither English nor French as their first language – represent fully one-fifth of the population. The numbers jumped to 20.1 per cent from 18 per cent in the last census, driven primarily by immigration. Conversely, the proportion of francophones and anglophones decreased slightly after population growth is taken into account.

S.A. Miners on strike ... dance...

Costs of safety? What a surprise...but what about the benefits of safety?

Rockin out as a dancer. Yes I often find myself saying, "I think I can Dance"

Buy Nothing Day

Ironically, now that I am selling food, I find myself on the wrong side of this fantastic movement. I want to sell you stuff. I want people to eat fair trade, organic food. But, perhaps, buy nothing day can mean more than just hesitating to shop one day a year. Perhaps, on a day when the specials are so exciting, we can try to think about the gift of giving not just to our immediate friends but to our collective futures, and the futures of our great grand childen, whose voices are keeping Drew Dellinger awake at night...

But hey...buy some fair trade books?

Death Penalty for Canadians

Great article by a MARLYS EDWARDH AND LORNE WALDMAN.

Canadians have a right to expect that their government will intervene on their behalf in a forceful manner whenever they are at risk of cruel and inhumane treatment. But the conduct of this government suggests that it is more concerned about politics. Devaluing the citizenship of unpopular Canadians in difficulty abroad cheapens it for everyone.

Fair Trade Toronto?

Canada the wise, liberal, nation of public healthcare and pride in Lester B. Pearson's role in creating UN Peacekeeping forces...but what have we done lately? Have we fallen behind the US in areas as easy to keep up with as Fair Trade? In an era of municipal councilors struggling to pass a budget that will only slightly cut services, it may seem unrealistic to talk about Toronto becoming a fair trade city. But if Toronto could take a long term view, embracing fair trade, we could blaze a trail for the city and for the rest of the world. Toronto the "good" could add "fair" to its claims to fame.

How would a Fair Trade Toronto look?

Fair Trade is all about improving conditions of exchange so that producers get paid a just wage. Standard setting, certifying and monitoring organizations work hard to ensure that the money paid by consumers gets back to producers. Fair trade substitutes are not available for every product so don't throw out all of your possessions. However, there will be some changes...

More fair trade options at lower prices

If Toronto banned or taxed non-fair trade products, such as coffee and chocolate, then the volumes of fair trade products sold would go up and the prices for these products would likely fall and would reflect realistic-humane-just wages. New products could also enter the market knowing that there was shelf space available for fair trade [Full disclosure, this author works with Interrupcion Fair Trade, a fair trade food company]. Expect to see fair trade olive oil, olive spreads, pasta and chimichurri vegetable and steak sauce at a store near you soon...end of plug.

Less Guilt

Parents, families, companies, churches, mosques, NGOs, unions, friends, and you will be able to buy products knowing that they are made in healthy work environments by free labour (not child or slave labour). Let's face it, you were going to have that snack or give a gift, why not make the fair trade choice?

Better Labour and Socio-Economic Conditions "Over there" and "Here"

The companies that make our food and other consumer goods will follow the money. Whether responding to consumer pressure or government incentives through taxes, if fair trade products are demanded, existing and new companies will provide fair trade.

For a more in depth analysis and some inspiration on "Fair Trade Towns" see this article by Alicia Erickson:

Fair Trade Towns USA is "a campaign organized by local and national Fair Trade advocates whose aim is to encourage and support the Fair Trade Movement

in the U.S. Following the example of the Fair Trade movement in Europe, the campaign strives to support local, grassroots groups by offering tools and resources to become a Fair Trade town or city through successful local campaigns."

This campaign makes it even easier for your town to become a Fair Trade town, following in the footsteps of Media, PA and Brattleboro, VT. This campaign has developed guidelines on how to achieve the five goals required to become one:

1. The formation of a steering committee that meets regularly.
2. Availability in local stores, cafes, and other venues of a range of Fair Trade products that are either certified by TransFair USA or sold by retailers that are members of Fair Trade Federation.
3. The use of Fair Trade products by a number of local organizations, such as places of worship, schools, hospitals and offices.
4. Attraction of media attention and visible public support of the local campaign.
5. Passage of a resolution supporting Fair Trade by the town or city council/governing body and a commitment to serve Fair
Trade products at meetings.

And just for web etiquette here is the trackback link