Lake Victoria Unplugged

As reported here on Sunday Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile, is at all time lows. While the news story reported it was Global Warming that was the cause I found this article from February 2006 edition of New Scientist that reports something more sinister.

Lake Victoria is drying up because it is one giant hydro-electric dam.

However unlike the reporters who did the Sunday story I at least followed up when I found this story. They published theirs without refering to past stories.

And this story does not say Global Warming is not to blame for at least some of Lake Victoria's decline, but that it is not the only reason. And research says the Dams themselves may be contributing to the increae in Green House Gases.

EAST Africa's Lake Victoria, the world's second largest freshwater lake, is being secretly drained to keep the lights on in Uganda. A report published this week says Uganda is flouting a 50-year-old international agreement designed to protect the lake's waters.

Covering nearly 70,000 square kilometres, Lake Victoria takes a big bite out of surrounding Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. An estimated 30 million people depend on it for their livelihoods. Since 2003, however, the lake has lost 75 cubic kilometres of water, about 3 per cent of its volume, leaving international ferries stranded far from their jetties, fishing boats mired in mud, and towns running low on water.

The only outlet for Lake Victoria, which is ringed by mountains, is at Jinja in Uganda, where it forms the Victoria Nile. Until 1954, the lake emptied into the Nile over a natural rock weir, but that year British colonial engineers blasted out the weir and replaced it with the Owens Falls dam, now renamed the Nalubaale dam, which effectively transformed the lake into a giant hydroelectric reservoir.

In 2002, Uganda finished building a second hydropower complex close to the first one. Soon after its completion people began to notice the water level falling, and today the lake is at an 80-year low. In recent weeks, the operator of the two dams, the Uganda Electricity Generating Company, has blamed disruption of electricity supplies on low lake levels, ostensibly caused by the 10 to 15 per cent decline in rainfall across the lake's catchment area during the past two years.

However, it now seems that the dams themselves are as much to blame as the recent drought. Daniel Kull, a hydrologist with the UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction in Nairobi, Kenya, calculates that if the dams had been operated according to the agreed curve during the past two years, the drought would have caused only half the water loss actually seen. "Today's lake levels would be around 45 centimetres higher," he writes in a report released this week by the California-based environmental lobby group, International Rivers Network.

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Africa

Environment





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BQ Flip Flops

After attacking the NDP for the position they took on Afghanistan during their Convention in September suddenly the BQ has found conversion on the road to Damascus.

Duceppe threatens to topple Harper government over Afghanistan.

Of course its only a few days after the VanDoos left Quebec for their assignment in the killing fields of Afghanistan. Would that have anything to do with it?

What hypocrisy from Mssr. Duceppe since he and his party voted for the open ended extension in the first place, and then said the NDP were out of touch for calling for the withdrawl of Canadian troops from Souther Afghanistan.

Well I guess that was Canadian troops, now that the Nation of Quebec is sending troops the BQ is upset.

Back in August when Jack announced the NDP wanted to withdraw our troops I said that it could lead to a motion of non-confidence.

Also See:

Afghanistan

War

NDP

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Bev Oda Minister of Aboriginal Affairs

Yes I know that is Jim Prentices portfolio but I find it passing strange that every time the Minister in charge of cutting the Status of Women Bev Oda talks about funding women in need she leaps up in the House and says; We are funding aboriginal womens programs, aboriginal women in poverty programs, aboriginal womens marriage rights. Not that these are not laudible goals however......I thought that was Jims Department. But I guess like poverty programs, womens programs only will be funded if they are aboriginal. The Tories must be trying to make up for killing the Kelowna accord. Or else the only social problems they recognize that exist in Canada are aboriginal. Everyone else is doing fine.

39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION

EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 094

CONTENTS

Friday, December 8, 2006

Status of Women

[Table of Contents]

Ms. Yasmin Ratansi (Don Valley East, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, during the election, the Prime Minister promised to protect the rights of women. However, the Conservative government has done nothing but turn its back on Canadian women. The court challenges program has been slashed. All but two of the Status of Women regional offices have been closed. In my riding, the Association of Women of Indian Origin in Canada depends on federal funding to do its important work.

Could the minister guarantee this organization's funding will not be axed?

[Table of Contents]

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, we can guarantee that the $10.8 million for women's programs will continue to be there. It is there now and it will be there in the next fiscal year.

The good news is that all the money we found in streamlining the administration will be available in the next fiscal year, which is $5 million more to help the organizations that are actually making a difference in the lives of women in the community.

Ms. Yasmin Ratansi (Don Valley East, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, I asked a specific question about a specific program and all I received from the minister was a repeated blah, blah, blah. I say shame on the minister.

Why will she not have some spine and admit that the $5 million that she axed from the budget is a cut? She does not understand math. It is not a reinvestment.

We now hear that the National Association of Women and the Law is concerned about the future of its funding. Why will the minister not have some courage and admit that she signed off on these cuts and is trying to camouflage the facts?

[Table of Contents]

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report that we have had meetings with immigrant women organizations that are actually doing work for immigrant women. They have been in to see us and we have told them that $5 million in additional money will be available. They indicated that they were not told that by the opposition party. Once they knew the true facts, they said that it was good news.

We have been very clear. As a result of savings in administration, this government is putting the money back into women, not into Liberal Party friends.

[Table of Contents]

Hon. Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government's shocking cuts to Status of Women have huge implications for aboriginal women and their children. The Native Women's Association, which is largely funded by Status of Women, was before committee this week to raise the alarm that its funding may be next on the chopping block.

Could the minister guarantee that the funding for this organization will not be cut?

[Table of Contents]

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, members of the opposition party, when they cut, they took the money and removed it from being accessible to women. This government found savings in government spending and the money will go to women. It is very simple. A cut is made when there is no money and an increase is when the savings go directly to women.

[Table of Contents]

Hon. Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, cancelling the Kelowna accord, cuts in the funding for aboriginal languages, cuts in the first nations stop smoking programs and $200 million in cuts to improve access to early learning and child care for first nations.

This Sunday marks International Human Rights Day. The theme is fighting poverty. Instead of cutting programs, why will the government not take real steps to address aboriginal poverty?

[Table of Contents]

Hon. Bev Oda (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I find it quite alarming that the member opposite would ask that question. The Liberals had 13 years to ensure that the rights of aboriginal women would be there. In fact, it is this government that introduced matrimonial rights for aboriginal women, a fundamental right that every Canadian woman, including aboriginal women, should have recognized.

* * *

Feminism

Status of Women

Bev Oda

Tory Cuts


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Women Are Not A Minority

Except in corporate board rooms, heads of public institutions, and of course as politicians.

While the fur flies in Parliament about the cuts to the Womens Programs by a Woman Minister,who is being directed by the social conservative lobby REAL Women the real question is being avoided.

Women are not a minority in Canada. They are the MAJORITY. 51% of Canadians are women.

So instead of talking about equality, or how political parties are going to attract more women candidates, so lacking in the house now, the question should be why the Majority does not rule in Canada.

Because it's still a mans world, since they have no child care responsibilites.

Feminism

Status of Women

Bev Oda

Tory Cuts


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What The Tories Really Think About Climate Change

This demonstrates the stupidity of the Conservatives who fail to understand that Global Warming does not mean that Alberta will become the tropics but that dramatic climate shifts, extreme weather patterns will continue to occur, going from deep cold snaps to extreme drought.

A November cold snap prompted Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to dismiss Al Gore's climate change crusade in a website article brimming with mockery. Day's letter to his constituents in the British Columbia riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla constituents last week opened with a shot at the former U.S. vice-president. Day wrote that a recent cold snap had him "begging for Big Al's Glacial Melt when the mercury hit -24.''

When asked about the blog after question period, Day walked away from reporters and refused to comment.

John Bennett, senior policy adviser at the Sierra Club of Canada, said Day's comments are symptomatic of the government's position on the environment.

"What the blog demonstrates is what the government of Canada really thinks about climate change, that it is something to joke about, not something to take seriously and the policies of the government reflect that,'' he said.

Stockwell Days Blog

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Environment

Ambrose



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Environment,

Business Drafts Tories Kyoto Policy

The National Post reports that business leaders in Canada share the Harper Governments skepticism about Kyoto. Well considering they were the only folks the Tories consulted extensively with before producing their Hot Air Act it makes sense that they are all singing from the same song sheet. As Led Zepplin said The Song Remains The Same.....

While executives surveyed for a Financial Post poll by COMPAS and BDO Dunwoody would support steps to curb environmental damage, politicians need to come up with a different solution, the leaders say.

The Kyoto agreement, signed by Canada, drew one of the heaviest responses from business executives in the history of the poll.

On the topic of climate change, the panel seems to regard Kyoto as a bad treaty on a good issue. The majority of panelists view the reduction of fossil-fuel use as positive, but see the Kyoto agreement as an "ill-conceived document."

Seventy-nine per cent of panelists agreed moderately to strongly that Canada should gradually cut the use of fossil fuels, but make the reduction of poisons in the air, water and food chain a much higher priority; 60% agreed strongly to moderately that whatever solution is reached should not involve the ill-conceived Kyoto accord.

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Environment

Ambrose



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Environment,

Ambrose Appears Contradicts Herself

Our very own groundhog of the Environment, Minister Rona Amborse finally appeared before the Environment Committee today having avoided meeting them twice last month. One would think that this was in an effort for her to actually brush up on her portfolio. But alas no such luck.

She announced she was calling for an audit of the Liberals Environmental programs, after they had been cut by her government.

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose promised Thursday new programs to encourage energy conservation -- and admitted her government axed popular Liberal programs immediately after taking office, without a comprehensive review.

Hmm whats that about shutting the barn door....shouldn't that audit have been called before they cut the programs?! Why of course.

But Auditor General Sheila Fraser said she hadn't heard from Ambrose on this. Hmmm.

Then Ambrose reveresed herself in mid sentence, after denoucning the buying of carbon credits from abroad, something the Tories said they would never do she then said the government is open to funding greenhouse emissions-cutting projects abroad if they produce verifiable environmental benefits.

Wow talk about confusion. She was so confused her deputy minister had to take the mike and contradict Ambrose, telling the committee she had in fact given them the wrong information.

Maybe being a prop at the PM's announcements is actually the best place for her, because clearly when she opens her mouth she shows she doesn't know what she is talking about.

Which is just one more reason for her to resign.

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Environment

Ambrose



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Environment,

Arctic Melts Before Tories Clean Air Act

Study: Most Arctic sea ice could disappear as early as 2040

Why that's ten years before the Conservatives Hot Air Act deals with green house gases!

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Ambrose

Envrionment

Climate Change

Arctic

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Productivity Myth

- Labour productivity in Canadian businesses fell by 0.1 per cent between July and September, slightly less than the 0.3 per cent decline posted in the second quarter.

Productivity -- the ratio of gross domestic product to the number of hours worked -- posted an average quarterly growth of 0.5 per cent in the United States in the first three quarters of 2006, while Canada’s average growth remained at zero.

In the last two quarters, production advanced at exactly the same pace (0.4 per cent), while the number of hours worked grew at a more robust rate than production, increasing by 0.7 per cent in the second quarter and 0.6 per cent in the third quarter.

Productivity is actually profit. It has nothing to do with real productivity. In fact it is the measurement of how much surplus value is produced by increasing the effort of workers, the time spent producing that surplus value (it has nothing to do with any other product or actual physical object). It's known as speed up when it is applied on the shop floor. When applied in reality its called running on the spot.

There is no way that workers can ever catch up with the profit needs of their bosses. Even with increased production and time spent on the job. So while the workers are productive, their time inceasing to produce, the companies they work for are not.

They divest themselves of the wealth produced by the workers and invest it in other ventures. As prices decline for products, the workers have to increase their time to produce more cheap goods to make up for the declining rate of profit made by the boss.

So why did Canadian workers work harder and longer yet productivity/profitability declined. Because Canadian Capitalists failed to reinvest their profits in technology, more workers, or capital upgrades to their facilities.

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Productivity

Basket Case Economy

Marx

Capitalism



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Free Market Is Not Capitalism

Says Nobel Prize winner and father of Microcredit Muhammad Yunus sounding like my pal Kevin Carson.

And his critique of One Dimensional Human Beings resulting from Globalization harkens us back to Herbert Marcuses One Dimensional Man.

Pool photo by Bjoern Sigurdsoen, via Reuters

Muhammad Yunus, left, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Mosammat Taslima Begum, representing Mr. Yunus’s Grameen Bank, arriving for the award ceremony at Oslo Town Hall today.

Nobel Winner Warns of Dangers of Globalization New York Times

By WALTER GIBBS

Published: December 10, 2006

OSLO, Dec. 10 — The Bangladeshi banker Muhammad Yunus, who invented the practice of making small, unsecured loans to the poor, warned today that the globalized economy was becoming a dangerous “free-for-all highway.”

“Its lanes will be taken over by the giant trucks from powerful economies,” Dr. Yunus said during a lavish ceremony at which he was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. “Bangladeshi rickshaws will be thrown off the highway.”

While international companies motivated by profit may be crucial in addressing global poverty, he said, nations must also cultivate grassroots enterprises and the human impulse to do good.

Challenging economic theories that he learned as a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville in the 1970s, he said glorification of the entrepreneurial spirit has led to “one-dimensional human beings” motivated only by profit.

Dr. Yunus, 66, then took a direct jibe at the United States for its war on terror, telling about 1,000 dignitaries at Oslo’s City Hall that recent American military campaigns in Iraq and elsewhere had diverted global resources and attention from a more pressing project: halving worldwide poverty by 2015, as envisaged by the United Nations six years ago.

“Never in human history had such a bold goal been adopted by the entire world in one voice, one that specified time and size,” he said. “But then came Sept. 11 and the Iraq war, and suddenly the world became derailed from the pursuit of this dream.”

He said terrorism cannot be defeated militarily and the concept of peace requires broadening. “Peace should be understood in a human way, in a broad social, political and economic way,” Dr. Yunus said.

He called for legal recognition of a new category of corporation that would be neither profit-maximizing nor nonprofit. It would be a “social business,” like Grameen Bank, the Dhaka-based microcredit institution he started 30 years ago. The bank has lent nearly $6 billion to help some of the poorest people on earth to start businesses, build shelters and go to school.

Grameen Bank — with which Dr. Yunus shared the prize today — is an interest-charging, profit-making business with more than 2,200 branches. But it is owned primarily by its poor clients and run for their benefit. Similarly structured institutions, he said, could bring health care, information technology, education and energy to the poor without requiring infusions of aid.

“By defining ‘entrepreneur’ in a broader way, we can change the character of capitalism radically and solve many of the unresolved social and economic problems within the scope of the free market,” he said.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Will Urge Banks to Lend to the Poor (December 10, 2006)

Out to Maximize Social Gains, Not Profit (December 9, 2006)

See:

Free Market

Microcredit

Africa

Capitalism

Globalization


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