Loan Sharks

A B.C. court has finally charged a pay-day loan company for usury, charging interest over and above that allowed in Canada. In other words loan sharking.


Shark Attack

Senate Defends Working Poor-Challenges Loan Sharks

Loan Sharks by any other name

CathiefromCanada comments that this is due to banks failing to serve the poor. Good point. Of course the banks get away with gouging us legally, not only by paying us low interest but loading us with service charges. Perhaps it is time to nationalize the banks, or replace them with credit unions that are unionized and serve the poor.

Also See:

BANKS

PROUDHON

Hands In Your Pocket

Bank Theft

Greedy Banks

Credit Card Fraud

Tory Bankers

Service Charges

Money Money Money

Banks Cheer For Conservative Majority

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cANADA, LOANS, PAYDAYLOANS, BANKS, ECONOMICS, POVERTY,banking, ATM, Interac, Visa, Mastercard, Service-charges, Credit, Unions, Cassie, du, Populaire, ATB, Alberta, Canada, banking, finances

Right Wing Wet Dream

The wet dream of the right wing pundits and private media moguls in Canada is to reduce the CBC to a weak sister if not abolish it altogether. Key to the death of the CBC would be the end of Hockey Night in Canada.

Bell Globemedia bidding $1.4B for TV hockey rights
The Globe and Mail is reporting that Bell Globemedia, owners of CTV and TSN, are looking at offering $140million per year over a 10 year period to gain exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to NHL games. This would include Saturday night games effectively ending CBC's long running Hockey Night in Canada which they have aired since 1952. CBC's contract with the NHL expires after the 2007-08 season.

TV's Hockey Wars
Hockey telecasts remain one of very few money makers for the CBC, especially in the play-offs. It's believed the CBC rakes in more than $30 million a year in profit from Hockey broadcasts. Without that money, the CBC would be faced with a huge hole in its revenue.

Having already stolen sportscaster and Olympic commentator Brian Williams, now BellGlobal is trying to get its hands on Hockey Night in Canada. Creating a private sector monopoly to dominate the media market place leaving CBC to re-run Mr. Dressup. This is NOT competition, it is monopolization. CBC has historically facilitated competition in the radio/TV market place, like our national railway, post office and airline, they created and serviced markets that private capitalism would not take the risk on.

Also See:

Monopoly

Media


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Japan Moves into Canadian Beer Market

Like Japanese car manufacturers, Sapporo beer has figured out that if it can buy into the Canadian market it is the backdoor into the U.S.
Sleeman Breweries Ltd. sees new potential for its premium beer labels after a planned $400-million acquisition by Japan's Sapporo Breweries Ltd. On the international market, he said Sapporo is also looking to Sleeman's brands for expansion outside Canada. Sleeman's earnings have been hurt by stiff competition in Canada by makers of non-premium "buck-a-beer" brands.
This now means that the three biggest beer makers in Canada are foreign owned. Molsons/Coors (US) Labatts/Interbrew (Belgium) Sleemans/Sapporo (Japan). While demanding brand loyalty capitalists like Sleeman feel no need to reciprocate with loyalty to the country they operate in. Lets drink a toast to globalization.

New owner retaining all Sleeman operations and its CEO

Sleeman shares spurt to record high



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Alcan Proves Marx Right

Alcan is proving Dr. Marx right, again.

Alcan plans to expand Kitimat smelter

Job loss expected with technology $1.8 billion plan
Alcan Inc. said yesterday it will boost its annual global primary aluminum production by more than 4 per cent through a $1.8 billion modernization of its smelter in northern British Columbia.In its news release, the company said it plans to use "the latest evolution of smelting technology within the AP35 series," and said production costs would be in lowest quartile for the industry.While not immediately available for comment, CAW Local 2301 has previously described the expected expansion as a good news/bad news story."The good news is that bringing in new technology is a positive move to insure longevity in jobs for the future," the union said in a July bulletin on its website. "On the other hand, new technology brings with it a less labour-intensive process," which will hurt jobs, the union noted.

Machinery and surplus labour. Recapitulation of the doctrine of surplus value generally

The tendency of capital is, of course, to link up absolute with relative surplus value; hence greatest stretching of the working day with greatest number of simultaneous working days, together with reduction of necessary labour time to the minimum, on one side, and of the number of necessary workers to the minimum, on the other. This contradictory requirement, whose development will show itself in different forms as overproduction, over-population etc., asserts itself in the form of a process in which the contradictory aspects follow closely upon each other in time. A necessary consequence of them is the greatest possible diversification of the use value of labour—or of the branches of production—so that the production of capital constantly and necessarily creates, on one side, the development of the intensity of the productive power of labour, on the other side, the unlimited diversity of the branches of labour, i.e. thus the most universal wealth, in form and content, of production, bringing all sides of nature under its domination.


Also See:

Work

Marx

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Pepsi & Coke Wars in India

It’s cola wars of a different kind in India

New Delhi - Every summer witnesses fierce battles in India between two cola giants - Coca-Cola and Pepsi - to capture the country’s $2 billion soft drinks market. But this year the rivals have joined hands to fight not between themselves but with state governments that have either banned or mulling similar steps after charges of high pesticide content in them levelled by an environment pressure group.

And as the implications the findings of the Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) are percolating among the consumers, the Made-in-India American drinks are going off the shelves in educational institutions, government offices and other places as five state governments have already banned their sale.

The street fight

Three years have passed since the day we released our first study on pesticides. The government reduced excise duty on soft drinks in this year’s budget. The market is looking up. But the standards recommended were blocked by powerful interests in the government. The CSE team presents the inside story

Move in India to Ban Coke and Pepsi Worries Industry

NEW DELHI: A day after US officials warned of adverse consequences of the cola controversy, Pepsi on Monday said its long-term investments in India will not be affected. While maintaining that the inputs that go into making a soft drink meet the stipulated norms for pesticide residue, PepsiCo India chief Rajiv Bakshi said, "PepsiCo's long-term plans of FDI in the country has not been affected."

In a clever move Pepsi has elected a new CEO who is a woman from India. So they of course are not worried about long term investment in India. Indian woman named new head of PepsiCo

And with a new President, will Pepsi win the Indian market it appears that way, as Coke has taken the brunt of the Pesticide campaign.

CSE rubbishes Coke's 'clean chit' claim

New Delhi, Aug 15. (UNI): The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Monday, came down heavily on Coca-Cola India for claiming that a London-based laboratory had given them a clean chit on pesticide residue in its beverage and said the companies contention was "patronising and borders on racism".

"The companies contention that only a foreign laboratory can test its products is patronising and borders on racism... The implication is that the CSE Pollution Monitoring Laboratory is not capable of testing its products and therefore, its results are wrong," CSE said.

And facing the need to expand or die, the basis of all capitalism, the Cola's won't give up on the Asian market. Despite the current pesticide scare.

Colas not to can investments
The two global soft drink giants, Pepsi and Coca Cola, today said their long-term investments plans in India remained unaffected by the pesticide controversy

The Ban Cola movement in India is all about the politics of globalization, the water wars and the entry of India into the world market as a newly industrialized capitalist economy.


“The Coke sign does not simply mean a refreshing drink: it means America got there first.” So says Humphrey McQueen in his book, “The Essence of Capitalism: The Origins of Our Future”



Activist group says cola row a waste of time

The Centre for Sanity and Balance in Public Life, launched by Kishore Asthana, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahemadabad, aims to discourage politicians, celebrities, companies and the media from wasting the country’s time and resources on issues which he says over-ride core issues bothering the country in the guise of public interest.

So what are the issues bothering this activist?

Asthana cites the Ayodhya temple issue, security in Hindu temples where stampedes kill people, the social evils of lotteries, and the use of text messages by television and mobile phone service companies to make money. Viewers taking part in SMS voting often pay six rupees per text message.

Asthana, who claims to have no love or hate for any cola company or the Centre for Science and Environment, which is waging a media battle over harmful substances in soft drinks, told Hindustan Times that he was only preaching against panic and pleading for sanity.

Eat To Live: Indians on wrong soda soapbox

We`ve seen those photos of students in India demanding the soda`s ban from school and university cafeterias, saying the India-made version contains a high level of pesticides.

We`ve read Coca-Cola`s largest plant in India has been accused of putting thousands of farmers out of work through draining off the water feeding their wells, and poisoning their land with waste sludge that Coca-Cola insists is simply fertilizer.

Accusations from India of pesticides in drinks aren`t new, and in this case are coming from states that are run by parties opposed to India`s ruling Congress party.

What is not disputed -- because it`s right out there on the label -- is the sugar content of Coca-Cola and sodas in general. The students would do better to protest against that.

Earlier this month, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition determined that slurping down an extra can of soda a day will add 15 pounds extra in weight in only one year.

The reality is that as the North American market goes flat for the Cola's they are marketing their products to the new capitalist markets in Asia and Africa. And anwsering the demand for healthy products, in North America they are pushing non-cola product.

The cola market's gone flat

It's here that you see the freshest evidence of the changing face of North America's beverage business. The Sparkler has been on the market about a month, the newest component of Pepsi's transition into a "total beverage company" -- a strategy that has produced the likes of "fitness water" and soon, bottled milkshakes, in collaboration with Ben & Jerry's. Long-time industry leader Coke is likewise developing new products and partnerships, including a line of ready-to-drink lattes with Belgian chocolatier Godiva, and a new peach-flavoured green tea with Nestea. But it is Pepsi that leads on the frontier of "total beverage" marketing -- the Pepsi Challenge has a whole new meaning.



Also See

India

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Foreign Aid Or War Profiteering

Canada's reputation at home for being generous to the developing world is a myth. Under Chretien the Liberal Government adopted the motto of Body Shop Inc. ; "Trade Not Aid". And despite the high profile pronouncements of his successor; Paul Martin, we now have our aid directed towards helping the American Empire in the Middle East. The result is war profiteering not humanitarian aid.

Canada has a mediocre record on helping the world's poor, thanks in part to its weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and miserly foreign aid, says an exhaustive ranking released yesterday.This country stood 10th among the world's 21 richest nations, according to the assessment by the Centre for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine.In 2004, the latest year for which figures were available, Canada donated $72 million to Iraq — its largest support for any country. But Iraq and the other top recipient, Afghanistan, aren't even on the list of 25 most-needy priority countries designated by Ottawa.Canada failing world's poor, report says

Despite the photo ops of Bono and Paul our investments in Africa as trade or aid have decreased. And Canadian foreign aid was not enhanced by either the Liberals or the Harpocrites, it was in the NDP pre-election Budget. Which the Harpocrites kept in their budget.

DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
• Canada pledged to double development assistance to
Africa between 2003-4 and 2008-9. In 2003-4, Canadian
development assistance to Africa was $637m, which would
increase to $1.275b in 2008-9.
• Once multilateral payments are averaged over the two
years, between 2004 and 2005 Canadian development
assistance to Africa decreased by $10m, from $854m to
$844m.41 Canadian NGO’s are confident that data for
fiscal year 2005/06 will be stronger with aid to Africa
continuing on an upwards trend.
• In January 2006 Prime Minister Harper pledged to increase
development assistance overall to the OECD average GNI
percentage level which was 0.47% in 2005, but should be
significantly greater in 2010. Harper did not specify what
portion of that would go to Africa, but if he kept to the
approach adopted by the G8 since Kananaskis, which we
would encourage, then he would be making an increased
commitment to Africa over his predecessor Prime Minister
Martin. Harper also pledged support for the 0.7% goal
during 2005. We await timetabled plans to meet this goal
by 2015.
• Canada still ties 43% of its development assistance, which
severely reduces the efficiency of Canadian bilateral
development assistance flows.
• In order to stay on track with its commitment to double
development assistance to Africa, Canada must increase
ODA to Africa in 2006 by not less than $144m, to a total
of $988m.

Also See

AFRICA

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Who?

Bob Rae understands the golden rule, dem wit da gold rule; Laxer Wrong

And the rush towards his camp begins with those least known like this guy. Maurizio Who? Maurizio Bevilacqua dropped out of the Liberal leadership race Monday to throw his support behind former Ontario premier Bob Rae.

Also See:

Liberal Leadership Race


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Frigid Harper

Our homophobic PM would rather hide out in the north giving a, prdictable and not particularly timely, speech about Arctic Soverignty and act like a macho War-Monger in Chief, than attend the opening of the International AIDS Conference. Harper promises to defend Arctic sovereignty Of course if he can't have centre stage he would rather be somewhere else, and he probably knew he would be upstaged by these guys...The two Bills share centre stage


Also See

AIDS

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Xena Versus Pluto

Will the newly discovered planet like body called Xena displace Pluto....scientists gather to discuss this weighty matter.....Experts meet to decide Pluto fate

In fact they have no 'definition' of what a planet is..... New find further muddles definition of 'planet'


and Pluto was predicted to exist before it was found....sort of like what some folks call magick or presdigitation...

Planet Killers (August 24, 2005).

In 1930 the discovery of Pluto was regarded as a great achievement, for the effort to find Pluto was spurred by theoretical predictions of a ninth planet. But Pluto is embarrassingly small, too small to be the predicted ninth planet. Now we are finding more and more Pluto-sized objects beyond the orbit of Neptune. We should take the hint, remove Pluto from the list of planets in the Solar System, and simply consider it as one of the largest planetoids in the Kuiper Belt.

Brian Marsden
It's time we admitted that accepting Pluto as the ninth planet was a big mistake. The announcement from the Lowell observatory in 1930 that a distant new planet had been found in accordance with the prediction by the observatory's founder was a brilliant exercise in public relations. Little heed was paid to critics who soon pointed out that the object was much smaller than Percival Lowell had claimed and that there was no way he could have made a meaningful prediction.

But Velikovsky predicted a tenth planet and it has been speculated about since the 1980's. Apollonius.Net - Speculations On "Planet X"

'Real' scientists like Lowell dismissed Velikovsky's theories about Venus and Pluto and its origins and about a tenth planet. Yet Lowell's own predictions were also flawed. Something Velikovsky sceptics overlook.

When Velikovsky published Worlds in Collision, he became the victim of most vehement and scurrilous persecution. To all of us plebes who tread streets of concrete, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference how the Solar System came to be in the shape it is in during our mayfly lives. One story is as good as another as long as it stops the kids from asking `How come?' when you want to put them to bed.

Academic Freedom, Free Speech, and Harlow Shapley (February 23, 2005).

Harlow Shapley was one of the leading astronomers of the early 20th century. In 1950, he was at the center of astronomy's most infamous episodes, when he and the astronomy community attempted to suppress the publication of Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision. This episode is a nice illustration of the restrictiveness of academic freedom as compared to free speech, and it is a warning on how not to engage the public over bad science.

Velikovsky's contributions were cosmic catastrophism as well as the heresy that the universe was electro-magnetic, that plasma and electro-magnetic energy was as important, if not more important, than mass and gravity. It was a theory that open minded scientists took seriously, such as my physics prof at the University of Lethbridge. Velikovsky was given an honorary degree from the U of L. Which itself elicited more controversy.

The controversy has had many striking facets. One has been the large participation of the public. It continues to increase. Velikovsky has managed to talk to people about mythology, archaeology, astronomy, and geology, without doing injustice to those disciplines, in an amazing and unprecedented manner. Socrates, Aristotle, Galileo, Freud, and Einstein - to name a few thinkers who were implicated in 'crowd phenomena' - were not public figures in the sense here taken. His public - a well-behaved, educated, well-intentioned and diversified aggregate - has supported Velikovsky on every possible occasion. That he was a foreigner with a Russian accent, a psychiatrist, unequivocably a Jew, denounced by some of the most respected scientists of America and Britain, unbending in his person and in his allegiance to science and in refusing every opening for support from demagogic or religious quarters: these facts hardly disturbed the favourable reception granted him by a large public.
THE VELIKOVSKY AFFAIR
SCIENTISM VERSUS SCIENCE
Alfred de Grazia
January 1978

These pictures of the surface of the planet Pluto were released by NASA March 7. The pictures, taken from the Hubble Space Telescope with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera, were made in June and July of 1994 and show that Pluto is an unusually complex object with more large-scale contrast than any other planet except Earth. The two smaller inset pictures at top are actual images from Hubble. (REUTERS/Handout)


Also See:

Horus Set

Lagrange 5

Desert Moon

Climate Change...On Jupiter

Is God A Cosmonaut

Wow

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress

Icky Icke

Science or Tourism

The New Space Race for the Red Planet

Mysterious Explosion

The Morning Star

You Are Here

Happy Birthday Mom

Mutualist Economics of SETI

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Gates On AIDS

Give women power to fight AIDS, Gates says
In a swipe at controversial U.S. AIDS-funding policies that encourage abstinence and discourage drug use and prostitution, they said prevention requires distributing more condoms, working with sex-trade workers and giving addicts clean needles. "We need tools that will allow women to protect themselves," Mr. Gates said in a speech to some of the 24,000 delegates to the International AIDS Conference."This is true whether the woman is a faithful mother of small children or a sex worker trying to scrape out a living in a slum. No matter where she lives, who she is or what she does, a woman should never need her partner's permission to save her own life."

This is why the PM did not attend the conference it would have been used against him by his social conservative religious base. Who don't believe in womens rights gay rights, workers right to form unions, or come to think of it human rights period. Since they are man made and not given to us by God.

Also See

AIDS


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