Canada and Cuba

Before the revolution that brought Castro to power in 1959, the U.S. accounted for 85% of all tourists into Cuba--and for two-thirds of all trade with the island nation.

Today the majority of tourists are from Canada, which also dominates the hotel industry in Cuba. Too bad so sad about the American embargo. Good for us though which is why Harper will NOT change policy on Canada Cuba relations.

Air Canada currently runs 10 flights a week to Cuba, including to the island of Cayo Coco and the resort town of Varadero. During Cuba's busy winter season, Air Canada ups that to 28 weekly flights, including daily service from Toronto to Havana.

"Cuba has always been a favored destination for Canadians seeking the sun," said spokesman John Reber. Canada is Cuba's largest travel market, followed Italy and France.

In the late 1990s, some Canadian tour operators steered customers to Cuba instead of South Florida as new resorts opened on the island, Grossman said. She said the trend was short-lived but that Cuba remains a significant worry. Cuba's tourism industry could emerge as major competitor

Oh yeah and Cuba has discovered oil and gas thanks to Canadians.

Meanwhile Cuba "is exploring in its half of the 90-mile-wide Straits of Florida within the internationally recognized boundary as well as in deep-water areas of the Gulf of Mexico,” the Washington Times reports.

Two Canadian companies are presently pumping more than 19,000 barrels of crude oil each day from fields in the straits about 90 miles from Key West, and a Spanish company has announced an oil strike in deep-water areas of the same region, according to the National Ocean Industries Association.Cuba Drills for Oil 60 Miles Off US Coast

Trudeaus policy of friendly relations with Cuba have resulted in improved conditions for the Cuban people due to limited market reforms created in Post-Soviet Cuba.

Also See:

Cuba


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, Cuba, Castgro, tourism

A Zionist Speaks of the Death of Zionism

The Zionist revolution has always rested on two pillars: a just path and an ethical leadership. Neither of these is operative any longer. The Israeli nation today rests on a scaffolding of corruption, and on foundations of oppression and injustice. As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep. There is a real chance that ours will be the last Zionist generation. There may yet be a Jewish state here, but it will be a different sort, strange and ugly. Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated.

A Failed Israeli Society is Collapsing by Avraham Burg, 2003

Avraham Burg was speaker of Israel's Knesset from 1999 to 2003 and is a former chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. He is currently a Labor Party Knesset member. This essay is adapted by the author from an article that appeared in Yediot Aharonot.

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

Zionism


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Zionism, Zionist, Avraham, Burg, Knesset,
Harprer, Canda, government, PM, PMO, politics, war, UN, ceasefire, Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah
Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestine, Lebanon, Arab-League, Israel, US, Bush, Rice, war, Syria, Canada, Pearson, Harper, Mckay, ForeignAffairs, dipolmacy, Afghanistan, MiddleEast, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Axeworthy

Canada War Profiteers

The Dominion has an excellent report on Canada's war profiteering from the current Middle East Conflict. Canada produces military equipment used in attacks on Lebanon, Palestine

Even domestic businesses like Bombadier are part of the war profiteering by their business partners.

Meanwhile the radio news is reporting the Harpocrite Government is using the National Security Act to allow them to give away lucrative military contracts to their pals without having to tender the contracts.

Open, transparent accountable government I think not. But one that is driven to expand Canada's role as a war profiteer.


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Harper, Conservatives, war, profiteering, military, Canada,

Simplistic Harper

Mr. Harper has said demanding a ceasefire is too simplistic. "Conditions have to be put in place to make a ceasefire possible and make it stable," he said last week in Cornwall, Ont. "Obviously that isn't going to be the case as long as we have a terrorist organization that is initiating violence and won't cease its attacks."

Oh does he mean this terrorist organization that is initiating and continuing its violence and won't cease its attacks?

Deadly bombs strike near heart of Beirut

As more Israeli tanks prepare to cross the country's northern border Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said his security cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss the possible expansion of military operations in Lebanon. However he said he has not yet been presented with plans to do that. Inside southern Lebanon fierce fighting continues between around 10,000 Israeli soldiers and Hizbollah guerillas. Earlier Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the army is poised to occupy more areas of southern Lebanon.Israeli leaders to discuss expanding operations in Lebanon

I guess not, that would be too simplistic like this apologiy for Israels aggression.

Measured response or war crime?

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Harprer, Canda, government, PM, PMO, politics, war, UN, ceasefire, Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah
Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestine, Lebanon, Arab-League, Israel, US, Bush, Rice, war, Syria, Canada, Pearson, Harper, Mckay, ForeignAffairs, dipolmacy, Afghanistan, MiddleEast, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Axeworthy

Harpers Real Opposition

The opposition parties who have opposed the governments adventurist efforts in Afghanistan, the NDP and BQ, should use blow up photographs of each Canadian killed in Afghanistan and place them promintely in chairs facing the Harper government benches to remind them of the victims of their ill planned foreign adventurism in Afghanistan. This is the face of the real opposition.

In all, 24 Canadian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of Canada's military presence in Afghanistan in March 2002.

A list of the Canadians killed in Afghanistan since 2002

Also See:

Afghanistan



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Harper, Conservatives, Parliament, Opposition, NDP, Liberals, BQ, politics, Afghanistan, war, dead, soldiers, Canadians,

Capitalism Destroys Civilization

In order to reduce competition capitalism in its 'creative destructive' logic needs to destroy civilization (the metropole) in developing countries in order to reduce them to primitive tribalist cultures dependant on Imperialist largese for their existence. This has occured in the cases of Beirut( the Paris of the Middle East) during the internecine war of the Eighties, the destruction of Zagreb and Bosnia Herzogovina, and now with Baghdad.

Then and now: Requiem for Baghdad
Baghdad was never the prettiest of places. But in the 1970s it sure had life. People flocked to its cafés and markets. The wide boulevards teemed with traffic. Books and paintings proclaimed the wealth of Iraq's cultural heritage. Patrick Cockburn, who witnessed it all, remembers the city that seduced him - and wonders if the great metropolis on the banks of the Tigris can ever rise again

Also See:

Iraq




Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Imperialism, capitalism, metropole, Baghdad, Iraq, Zagreb, Beirut, development, under-devolpment, colonialism, Marx

Gone Fishing

It's the long weekend in Alberta, though federal workers don't get the day off. So I am gone, but not forgotten. Won't be blogging this weekend. See ya Tuesday. Besides there is enough fun stuff here to read....catch up on some of my older pieces, while you wait for my pithy comments on the world as it is, as it was and as it should be.

Terrorist Government

Comments made on my article Hezbollah Are Not Terorrists claim that no government or state would allow a political organization to be armed and independent of the state. Of course that is true, however the Lebanese Government recognizes Hezbollah as its National Resistance.

And of course there is another state in the neighbourhood that has a history of arising from terrorism.

Lessons From History

On July 22, 1946, the King David Hotel was blown up by Jewish terrorists killing 91 and injuring 45 - mostly British and Arabs. The attack was ordered by the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary terrorist organization which was the precursor to the IDF. The actual attack was caried out by the group Irgun under the leadership of Menachem Begin, later the Prime Minister of Isreal.


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Haganah, Menachem, Begin, Isreale, Hezbollah, Lebanon, terrorism, terrorist, government, politics, war, middle-east

Lets Get Our Facts Straight

There is a myth being perpetuated by Pro-Israel commentators and pundits that Hezbollah has been using rocket attacks on Israel before the current Lebanon conflict. Untrue.

Of course that doesn't stop Israeli apologists like Warren Kinsella from lying in print.

"What media admonitions are now being levelled Hezbollah, which Canada still considers a terrorist organization – and which fired hundreds of rockets at Israelis for months, and continues to do so? Nary a peep."

The fact is that it was Hamas that has been attaking Israel with rockets for months, not Hezbollah who only began their rocket attacks after Israel attacked southern Lebanon.

Of course Hezbollah has been accused of rocket attacks before, which turned out not to be true. And that was in 2005.

No rocket attacks were conducted prior to the raid into Israel in July when Hezbollah captured the Israel soldiers.

That clearly exposes Kinsella's 'big lie' though he is not the only one to make this false claim. And of course he does so because he equates Hezbollah to the Nazi's as does the National Post.

So we are clear let me repeat this 'fact'; Hezbollah launched its 'counter offensive' only after Israel launched its attack on Southern Lebanon, NOT before.

Nor were Hezbollah attacks made against civilians in the past two years, they were on Israel Defense Forces on the Lebanese border. Hezbollah, which fought a guerrilla war against Israel's 18-year occupation of Lebanon's southern border, frequently targets Israeli troops in the disputed Shebaa farms area.

Thats the facts.

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
War, rockets, Hamas, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Israel, Hezbollah, terror, terrorism, terrorist, IDF, Kinsella, media, rockets

The Tyrant

Accusations of dictator and tyrant abound in the press these days.

Of course they are refering to this guy;















Of course those same accusations could apply to this guy too;
















Also See:

Cuba

One Party State

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Cuba, Castro, Alberta, Klein, Tyrant, dictatorship, tyranny, democratic-deficit