Body Shop Loses Founder

Somehow the passing of Anita Roddick, the founder of Body Shop went without much notice in the progressive blogosphere. She was 64 and suffered from a brain hemorrhage a week ago, after discovering she had Hep C. She and her Body Shop were a modern version of Robert Owen in the age of globalization. She took campaigning for fair trade policies empowering farmers in the third world, to end animal testing, to support the Angola 3 in the U.S.

In fact she shared much in common with Owen.

Robert Owen (1771-1858), social and educational reformer, remains a controversial and enigmatic figure. Having profited enormously from enterprise in the early Industrial Revolution he set about trying to remedy its excesses through environmental, educational, factory and poor law reform. Synthesizing reformist ideas from the Age of Enlightenment and drawing on his own experience as an industrialist he constructed A New View of Society (1816), a rallying call for widespread social change, with education at its core. New Lanark, the test-bed for his ideas, became internationally famous.

She will be sadly missed. As they say success breeds success and her making Body Shop not just a business but a global effort to ameliorate the worst excesses of capitalism for this she will be remembered and her organization will continue to contribute to the betterment of humanity.

Those on the right who dis fair trade continue to miss the point that Anita and other Owenite capitalists have always made, capitalism is supposed to make life better for people. The right wing of course espouses this theory, a hand up instead of a hand out, but of course that is just a platitude to justify rapacious speculative casino capitalism.

Anita is one of many capitalists who used their business acumen to do just that to use their wealth to aid in social development and not just to make more money for its own sake. That was what made her wealthy, the good works she did, not the money in her bank account.

Dame Anita Roddick dies aged 64

Dame Anita brought ethically-sourced products to the High Street

Founder of ethical cosmetics firm Body Shop, Dame Anita Roddick, has died at the age of 64.

Her family said in a statement she suffered "a major brain haemorrhage" at 1830 BST at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex.

Her husband, Gordon, and daughters Sam and Justine were all with her.

Dame Anita set up the first Body Shop in Brighton in 1976. She pioneered cruelty-free beauty products and turned them into a highly profitable business.

In February she announced she had contracted Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion in 1971.

She had been taken to hospital on Sunday evening after she collapsed complaining of a headache.

The founder of the Body Shop, famous for her determination to combine social campaigning with business success, has a new mission. Facing her own battle against liver disease, she's determined to win this fight, too

Anita Roddick embarked on a new campaign last week - in an intensely personal fashion. Rather than watching the creator of the Body Shop talking aloe vera with Guatamalan tribes, we are now witnessing her as the campaign chief for hepatitis C. She was diagnosed with the disease three years ago, but decided to go public as her health worsened; she has cirrhosis of the liver and will need a transplant.

her new mission to rid the UK of its 'air of indifference' towards hepatitis has all the hallmarks of a classic Roddick campaign. For starters, she wants to know why the government spends £40m a year promoting the switch from analogue to digital television and just £2m on her disease. It's another example of Roddick turning personal questions into political activism.

The Body Shop was famously born out of pure necessity of supporting two children during Gordon's equine adventure. In 1975, Roddick began cooking up moisturisers from Bedouin recipes in her Brighton kitchen, opening her first shop in the Lanes in 1976.

She once said: 'How can you ennoble the spirit when you are selling something as inconsequential as a face cream?' But there was a certain inevitability that the young woman who blagged a £2,000 bank loan pitching up in a Bob Dylan T-shirt would end up retailing soap from her soapbox.

In 1985, Roddick used the shop windows of her by-now burgeoning Body Shop business to promote Greenpeace's Save the Whales campaign. It was the first explicit tie-in between products and causes. Mango butter, jojoba cleanser and brazil nut conditioner were to become inextricably entwined over the next decade with staving off destruction of the rainforest, preserving the Human Rights Act, resisting nuclear power, sticking two fingers up at corporate greed and promoting pacifism.

Roddick is routinely considered to be the originator of almost all the different facets of ethical consumption and business, but she was certainly an important pioneer of fair trade in the UK. Instead of buying ingredients such as brazil nuts for shampoo from commodity markets, she went straight to the source and set up development projects all over South America and Africa. The overriding message was that a business could be good and consumers could be a force for change. 'If Anita can whip up an empire, you can too,' ran a Body Shop slogan of the time.

More than three decades later, the company has around 2,000 stores in 50 countries; it was bought by France’s L’Oreal Group in March 2006. Roddick claims on the company’s Web site, “I haven’t a clue how we got here.”

The Body Shop’s success has stemmed from the growing numbers of middle-class, ethically conscious people who pine for organic food and Fair Trade products, along with a combination of first-mover advantage and consistency in branding and reputation.

There was some anger from Roddick’s admirers last year when the Body Shop was acquired by L’Oreal. Many feared the company’s standards would be compromised, and that the $204 million return for her and her husband’s 18% stake suggested Roddick was abandoning her by-then iconic business.

But she defended the decision, saying that “the campaigning, being a maverick, changing the rules of business. It's all there, protected. It's not going to change – that's part of our DNA." (See: “ Roddick Promises No 'Selling Out' In L'Oreal Sale”)

Earlier this year, she wrote in Newsweek that she had sold the Body Shop so that she could dedicate her time to radical causes; she also said that she regretted taking the company public in 1984 because it had led to a loss of some control.

After selling the business but staying on as an arms-length consultant, Roddick turned her back on the world of commerce and focused on giving away her more than $100 million fortune to charity – saying she didn’t want to die rich – and campaigning.

Up until Sept. 7, she regularly updated her blog, anitaroddick.com, focusing on developments in human rights and globalization, an area where she said the developing world had been grossly shortchanged.

Roddick viewed her illness with characteristic aplomb: “Many people have spoken of my ‘bravery’ in going public with my illness – pish. It shouldn’t take bravery to live life openly despite illness, although our developed world, with its deep fear and denial of mortality, often demands it.”

Aside from the frank expression of her beliefs, Roddick will be remembered for having helped reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable: commerce and social activism. Though the latter seemed to clearly be where her heart was, she still managed to cultivate a phenomenally successful business and become a millionaire, while reminding everyone that, “businesses have the power to do good.”

Comments on Anita and her impact are posted on her website.

Dame Anita Roddick, our founder, has died at the age of 64. She died at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex, where her husband, Gordon, and daughters Sam and Justine were all with her. "All of us in The Body Shop family are deeply shocked and saddened to hear the news about Anita's passing away. Anita was not only our Founder but she was also the heart and passion of The Body Shop and with her we achieved so much, whether on animal rights, human rights, Community Trade, or through the founding of organisations like Children on the Edge. It is no exaggeration to say that she changed the world of business with her campaigns for social and environmental responsibility. But for everyone who knew Anita, it was about much more than that: you couldn't help but be inspired by her love of life, her vision of the world and her passion for changing it. Anita leaves us with an enduring legacy which will long guide the affairs of The Body Shop. Our heartfelt condolences are with the Roddick family at this sad time." Adrian Bellamy Chairman, The Body Shop, Canada

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Mime Silenced

There is an eternal silence in the world of Theatre today.

Good night gentle clown.

Marcel Marceau, Famed French Mime, Dies

Marcel Mangel (March 22, 1923 – September 22, 2007), better known by his stage name Marcel Marceau, was a well-known mime, among the most popular representatives of this art form world-wide. He was said to be "single-handedly responsible for reviving the art of mime after World War II."

Mime originated out of the old folk pagan traditions of clowning and mummery, which are still alive in Newfoundland and once were practiced by the Ukrainian diaspora community in Western Canada.

The performance of pantomime originates at its earliest in ancient Greece; the name is taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimus evolved. It was , although performances were not necessarily silent. In Medieval Europe, early forms of mime such as mummer plays and later dumbshowsJean-Gaspard Deburau in early nineteenth century Paris who solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern times -- the silent figure in whiteface

Clowning around is joyful anarchy.


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DisInformation: Israel's Atttack On Syria

In an attempt to test its ability to attack its neighbours as the client state of the U.S. Israel engaged in a ground and air assault on Syria two weeks ago. When Syria complained it was dismissed as paranoia.

'Israeli air strike on Syria shrouded in secrecy'

Now all sorts of disinformation is leaking out, in particular some phony story about Syria receiving nuclear material from North Korea.

'Commandos captured nuclear materials before air raid in Syria'

Israel, US Shared Data On Suspected Nuclear Site

While this so called bastion of democracy in the middle east censors any information on the matter threatening to jail anyone who speaks of it, including journalists. And they are relying on an old colonial law to do it.

Israeli authorities have stopped local journalists reporting on the airstrike in Syria because of the country's subtle but binding code of censorship founded on a law dating from British colonial rule of Palestine.

Syria's air defences had fired at Israeli warplanes on 6 September, said an official announcement on Syrian state TV.

Subsequently, Israel imposed what correspondents described as the strictest censorship in recent times.

Israeli media have reported details of the raid, but only from foreign sources.


Some would even call this situation embarrassing. Something happened that could dramatically affect Israel, even leading to war, and the local media is silent. In and of itself, this silence only intensifies the journalists' dilemma, because it was clear that at some point the world media would begin publishing reports on this subject, and then the Israeli media could find itself facing two unflattering situations: not knowing what is happening at home, or knowing but, God forbid, collaborating with the government.

In fact some journalists not only in Israel but here in Canada pat themselves on the back over the fact that this attack was kept secret. That is that they failed to make this public, to do what they are supposed to do as journalists to be the eyes and ears of the public. Not to act in the interests of the state but of civil society.

It further follows, I think, that much of the war in the Middle East is going offstage, curiously in the interest of all parties. For what we've found in the West is that the "peace movement" only responds to what is presented in the mainstream media. It makes a certain amount of sense, today as during imperial frontier conflicts in the past, to keep as much as possible out of the news. Indeed, one of the mistakes of Vietnam, repeated in Iraq, was giving remarkably open access and full briefings to the media -- when for all practical purposes the reporting has been of assistance only to the enemy. (It is with some pain that I admit that, being a journalist myself.)

That there was a ground assault followed by an air incursion is a given. The other four W's have been gagged. So anything being said is 'leaked' and bound to be disinformation.

Israel's opposition leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, has given the first confirmation from his country of a mysterious air strike on an unknown target deep in Syria earlier this month - fuelling frenzied speculation about exactly what happened.

Meanwhile Syrian officials continue to scoff at the media speculation on the attack.

"All this rubbish is not true," said Syrian Cabinet minister Bouthaina Shaaban, speaking of North Korea's nuclear involvement with Syria.

"I don't know how the imagination has reached such creativity," she said, calling speculation of a North Korean shipment to Syria "fabricated stories that have no value and truth."

She said, "Regrettably, the international press is busy justifying an aggression on a sovereign state and the world should be busy condemning it instead of inventing reasons and aims of this aggression."

And just to further the Weapons of Mass Destruction conspiracy here are a couple of other items on the danger of Syria. You know the place that has millions of Iraqi refugees who cross the border daily to aid their relatives but are called foreign fighters by the Americans.

We spend two days on side-trips, visiting empty tourist attractions that in any other country would be crowded. Palmyra is nearly three hours' drive from Damascus. The Iraq border is just across the ridge, so we share the road with convoys of new, heavily laden Chevrolets, without number plates and filled to the brim with consumer goods and electronic gadgetry new in boxes. Smugglers, no doubt, and a booming trade.

Syria in particular has been repeatedly accused of sending suicide bombers to kill US troops in Iraq, supporting "terrorist groups" in Lebanon and Palestine and spoiling US plans for a "new Middle East". As a consequence, Syria was enlisted in President Bush's "axis of evil, alongside Iran and North Korea. The Syria Accountability Act was also passed by the US Congress and foreign investors were discouraged from working in Syria.

The claims came also after Gen. David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, accused Syria in his testimony before Congress of allowing foreign fighters to cross the borders with Iraq to "instill fear and violence".

Remember all those WMD's they didn't find in Iraq obviously went with the refugees to Syria, and Jordon. Uh oh I am having a case of Deja Vu.

Syrian Chemical Blast Preceded Israeli Strike

Speculation in the Israeli and the U.S. media has focused on a suspect shipment from North Korea, possibly of nuclear-related material - that arrived in Syria just days before the Israeli Air Force struck in the early morning hours of Sept. 6.

But now Janes Defense Weekly is reporting that a military accident that occurred on July 26 near Aleppo, in northern Syria, may be related to the Israeli strike.

Missile Test or Accident?

The incident was initially reported in the official Syrian news agency, SANA, on July 26.

The official report said an explosion occurred at an ordnance depot belonging to a Syrian military unit in Musalmiya, located about 7 miles from Aleppo, that killed at least 15 soldiers and wounded 50 others.

SANA claimed that outdoor temperatures of 113 degrees were responsible for the blast, even though it occurred at 4 AM, the coolest time of the day.

Janes now claims that the explosion occurred at a chemical weapons plant during tests to mate a chemical warhead to a SCUD C missile.

The SCUD C, initially sold to Syria by North Korea in 1991, has a range of 500 kilometers (300 miles), bringing all of Israel into reach. Its 700 kilogram warhead could accommodate a nuclear warhead.

Syria's Chemical Weapons Proliferation Hydra

The deadly effect of the chemical warfare agents produced at the el-Safir military complex near Haleb (Allepo) was demonstrated on the night of July 25, 2007, apparently by an accident, which happened while Syrian engineers working on a Scud C warhead. 15 syrians were reportedly killed in the explosion that, according to official Syrian sources, was caused by sympathetic explosion due to an uncommon summer heat wave (the event happened at night, when the temperature is relaively low). According to Janes Defense Weekly, the casualties also included Iranian experts that were present at the site. According to Jane's, sarin and VX agents were dispersed over a large area after the accidents, causing severe burns.



Syria's Strategic Weapons Programs

Syria has used its rocket and missile forces for strategic signaling as well as deterrence. During the Syrian missile crisis in April 1981 and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, Syria deployed several Scud-Bs to sites near Damascus -- where they could be observed by Israel -- as a warning not to attack. And in recent months, Syria reportedly deployed large numbers of long-range rockets opposite the Golan during several major Israeli military exercises there, apparently to deter what it saw as preparations for an attack.

Should deterrence fail, Syria's rocket and missile forces would likely play a major role in any confrontation with Israel, as a means of deterring further escalation or disrupting Israeli mobilization and military operations. Syria might also be tempted to attack Israeli population centers in order to undermine Israeli morale -- raising the possibility of further escalation and, in turn, the use of chemical weapons should the regime or Damascus be threatened. For all these reasons, although Israel's September 6 airstrike may have averted an unwanted nuclear development, it may also signify the onset of increasing tension and volatility between Israel and Syria.

The fact is that Syria did NOT use their missiles. They merely showed them off. Any speculation on their use of conventional missiles, let alone Chemical, biological or nuclear, is not justified by the facts. And thus it is speculation.
More spin.

Reminding us of Voltaire's dictum;

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

While this unprovoked attack garnered no outrage in the U.S.

US President George W. Bush emphatically refused to address reports of an Israeli attack on Syria despite persistent questioning during a White House press conference Thursday.

They were quick to blame Syria this week for the car bombing in Lebanon. With no evidence merely assertions

US leads world outrage at Beirut bombing

The whole point of this not so clever subterfuge of a nuke story is to send a warning to Iran.

'Was Israeli raid a dry run for attack on Iran?'

US Bush administration ponders when to launch nuclear war against Iran

Attack points to need to halt Iran’s nuclear aims

Which of course got the knee jerk response they expected from Iran. Getting them the media headlines they wanted, of reactionary sabre rattling.

Iran Displays Weapons At Annual Army Celebrations; Warns West Against Attack

While overlooking the fact that Iran has challenged the U.S. not to a war but that most democratic of political forms; the debate.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again proposed to US President George W. Bush to hold public debates within the framework of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly. Ahmadinejad made this statement on Iranian television on Sunday.

“I had suggested holding a debate. I am saying again that let us discuss global concerns at the (UN) General Assembly in front of representatives of other nations,” Ahmadinejad pointed out. He said he proposed to also discuss the situation in Iraq with the aim of its settlement. The Iranian president said let Bush express his attitude and he will express his own. After that the leaders of 200 states will be able to draw conclusions, Ahmadinejad added.

According to him, “I am ready to hold talks with Bush on important global issues at the assembly.” “Let us hold talks about Iraq and other issues. Then public opinion will judge ... We will offer our global solutions,” he said.

It is five years since President Bush came to the United Nations to warn of the “grave and gathering danger” posed by Saddam Hussein. The ensuing U.S. invasion of Iraq set off a debate that continues to this day over U.S. leadership and the organization’s role in global security. Now Bush takes the UN General Assembly podium with Washington stepping up warnings about another Middle Eastern threat—Iran. His chances for strengthening an international coalition appear at least as uncertain (CSMonitor) as they were prior to the Iraq war. Scheduled speeches by Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on September 25 come amid planned high-level diplomacy among the five permanent UN Security Council members over whether to expand sanctions a third time for Iran’s refusal to suspend its uranium-enrichment program.

Living in the past as all conservatives do, its their nature, the White House and their apocalyptic conservative cheerleaders have their Viet-Nam War now it wants to try its hand at its own Cuban Missile Crisis.

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preparing Syria to cover his flank, should war break out between Israel and Iran over Tehran's nuclear arsenal. Ahmadinejad is evidently gambling on Syria taking out Israel while Iran squares off against the United States. Were Iran and Israel to face each other head-to-head, one or the other would inevitably cease to exist. Israel would have no choice but to annihilate Iran before Iran annihilated Israel.

The reality is that Iran's leadership is divided on their approach to dealing with Europe and the International Atomic Energy Agency over their nuclear energy program. And let's not forget that so far that is all it is. And while Ahmadinejad is President he is not above being ruled out of order by the Iranian regime.

Signs of a Possible Rift in the Iranian Leadership on the Nuclear Issue

In 2005 Khamenei responded to President Ahmadinejad's alleged remark that Israel should be "wiped off the map" by saying that "the Islamic Republic has never threatened and will never threaten any country." Moreover Khamenei`s main advisor in foreign policy, Ali Akbar Velayati, refused to take part in Holocaust conference. In contrast to Ahmadinejad`s remarks, Velayati said that Holocaust was a genocide and a historical reality.

in January 2007, Hossein Ali Montazeri harshly criticized Ahmadinejad and accused him of harming the country. Montazeri, 85, is a senior theologian of the Shia Muslim faith. Also Mohammad Moussavian, a former nuclear negotiator who is currently in prison for espionage, has accused Ahmadinejad of lying to the people about the grave consequences of the penalties voted for by the Security Council. "Our advice to the president is to speak about the nuclear issue only during important national occasions, stop provoking aggressive powers like the United States and concentrate more on the daily needs of the people, those who voted for you on your promises," wrote the Islamic Republic.

That Israel with the cooperation of the United States engaged in an illegal hostile military incursion into a sovereign state's territory, is a clear violation of International law. So to justify their preemptive strike policy they leak stories of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Weapons Of Mass Destruction: A deadly blast occurs at a Syrian missile site as an Israeli airstrike against a suspected nuclear cache catches Tehran's eye. In 1981, Israel thwarted a WMD threat. Is history repeating itself?

Iran has learned well the lessons of Osirak, hardening and dispersing its nuclear facilities, placing many of them underground, protecting them with state-of-the-art air defenses bought from Russia. But Israel's military capabilities also have advanced over the past quarter-century, as have ours.

In September 2004, Israel contracted to buy from the U.S. 500 one-ton BLU-109 "bunker buster" bombs capable of penetrating 30 feet of earth or concrete, capable of reaching the Iranian underground facilities at Natanz.

Iran's loony president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sent his nephew, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, to Syria to assess the strike damage. Perhaps he'll bring back the message that given the choice of an Iranian bomb or bombing Iran, Israel may already have chosen Plan B.

The silence of the Harper government over this violation of international law must mean they condone it as a Measured Response.

The world media and powers that be failed in their duty to take Syria seriously, and as information leaked out of Israel, with their need to gloat over their success, the war monger spin doctors beat them to it.

The Syrians are disappointed with the synchronised silence of the Arab world over the latest Israeli aerial invasion of Syria, which took place on 6 September. They complained to the UN Security Council on 11 September. The Syrians are equally disgusted with the stream of accusations -- all of which they insist are false -- that are coming out of the US media, claiming that the Syrian village of Tal Abyad was being used to host nuclear weapons from North Korea. Other US media reports say that the Israeli jets hit a shipment of arms bound from Iran to Hizbullah in South Lebanon. In an interview with CBS, President Bashar Al-Assad insisted that Hizbullah does not receive arms from the Syrians. The Syrians have long been saying that they are not interested in nuclear weapons, and never miss an opportunity to call for a nuclear-free Middle East that applies -- first and foremost -- to Israel.

The only countries to condemn the Israeli attack were (not surprisingly) Russia, Iran, Turkey -- and North Korea, which came out with a harsh statement at the Israeli aggression. All of America's allies in the region, however, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Lebanon responded with a chilly "no comment". There was no condemnation and no solidarity from the Arab front, unlike other similar cases of Israeli aggression in 2001 and 2003. Major Arab satellite channels and newspapers (all funded by or close to the Saudis) even adopted a stance one step short of holding the Syrians responsible for the Israeli act. The reasons are clear; increased Syrian-Saudi tension over the upcoming presidential race in Lebanon, the state of affairs in Iraq, and Syria's friendship with Iran. The Arab street, however, remains overwhelmingly supportive of Syria, especially when it comes to confrontation with Israel. This was made loud and clear by the Syrian media. The Arab League issued a strong yet powerless condemnation claiming that the Israeli intrusion was "unacceptable".

They went into Syria, with a target in mind, and either did not find it or found something completely different that made them look silly in the international community. States after all are bound by the UN Charter. They are not supposed to violate their neighbour's airspace unless they have very convincing evidence that they can display to the entire world, justifying their actions. The Israelis did not have that. When one intrudes into another country's airspace, with no valid reason, then this is considered an act of aggression.

SEE:

Postcard From Syria

Did They Or Didn't They

Israeli Rabbi Says Wipe Out Arabs

Weapons of Mass Deception

US War On Capitalism In Iran

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Crime Pays If You Are Rich

Capitalism originated in plunder, the primitive accumulation of wealth, its origin lay in the evolution of class of mercantile bankers who hired mercenaries to expand their markets. As Arrighi points out in the Long Twentieth Century, the transition from Catholic Feudalism to capitalism was the creation of free trade private navies with marines in the service of merchant capital who created the bourse; the modern stock exchange.

Today capitalism still engages in economic criminal activities which are socially sanctioned. It is called tax avoidance. Where the law or regulations are silent, or allow for a wide interpretation of what is allowed or not, the speculator, the CEO the venture capitalist, etc.etc. will take advantage to get around the law or regulation. Until they are caught or bankrupt the company. Then new laws are created by the state to level the playing field, and the whole process comes full circle.

The one thing criminal capitalists can count on is being welcomed back to the old boys club with open arms by their ruling class chums. Heck they are proud of their reputation as the black sheep. And their class applauds their valiant efforts.

Of the more than 1,200 wealthy individuals that have appeared on Forbes's annual list of the 400 richest Americans over the past quarter century at least 13 have been convicted of serious crimes or jailed.

They include some well-known names: Wall Street's, Ivan Boesky and Michael Milkin from the Gordon Gecko junk bond era, the silver-speculating Hunt brothers, media diva Martha Stewart and the late Leona Hemsley, the hotelier.

SEE


A Day in the Life of Corporate Criminals

It's the company you keep

Agribusiness Bad Boys

Criminal Capitalism-West-Jet

Money Laundering Canadian Style

India Is Now A Capitalist State

Too Greedy

White Collar Crime Reporter 1

Criminal Capitalism The Story of 2006

Hedge Funds, Junk Bonds, Ponzi Schemes

Bring Out Your Dead

Money Laundering Canadian Style

Criminal Capitalism Redux

Credit Card Fraud

Golden Parachutes

1666 The Creation Of The World

Dirty Laundry Business as Usual

Calgary Fraud Funds Dubai Boom

Casino Capitalism

Are Income Trusts Money Laundering

Unproductive Capital

More Criminal Capitalists

Income Trust Fraud

Criminal Capitalism: Office Romance

Yeltsin's Legacy

Contracting Out Is A Crime



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Socialist Alberta

As I posted here earlier one wag complaining about the idea of increasing oil royalties in Alberta, called the province socialist. Another referred to us as becoming like Venezuela, which is far more democratic, and one clever fellow called us Albertastan.

How right they were. But not for the reasons they think. In a series of articles this week in the Edmonton Journal they exposed the number of card carrying PC appartachiks who dominate government appointments to public boards.

This of course is a well known fact of the nudge, nudge, wink, wink variety.

The Conservatives have drawn criticism in the past over blatant patronage appointments, but The Journal probe, which analyzed the composition of 100 government agencies, boards and commissions, reveals just how far the party's influence reaches into the everyday lives of Albertans.

It shows that the province's most influential boards are loaded with Tories -- constituency executives, former candidates or key members of the party's powerful provincial executive.

Keith Brownsey, who teaches political science at Calgary's Mount Royal College, is not impressed.

"The party has become the province, and it's a real slap in the face of democracy. It demonstrates that if people want to be appointed to these boards they have to become a card-carrying Conservative," he says

The party has become the state and the state is the province. Hmm, I have heard that before, oh yeah Trotsky said something like that when he was a Menshivik criticizing the Bolsheviks. The party substitutes itself for the people and the leader substitutes himself for the party.

The most prescient critique of Lenin's style and methods was contained in Trotsky's 1904 pamphlet, "Our Political Tasks":

"Lenin's methods lead to this: the party organisation at first substitutes itself for the party as a whole; then the Central Committee substitutes itself for the organisation; and finally a single 'dictator' substitutes himself for the Central Committee."

Which is what of course happened in Alberta with the cult of the great leader. As I have said before the difference between Stalin and Klein was the mustache metaphorically speaking.

His current stand in Farmer Ed is attempting to pull a Gorbachev by claiming to create a more open state, perestroika Alberta style. Of course its all for show.

Of course Alberta isn't a police state, the state doesn't spy on its citizens who democratically protest its policies for being in bed with big oil interests.Nope that would never happen here.

And once having allowed democratic elections for health boards the state would not overturn those elections because the folks elected weren't Tories. Nope and they wouldn't then fire those elected officials to replace them with party hacks.

And of course unlike other one party states Alberta would never come up with a five year plan, even if it knew it was a failure. Nope no comparison with that and the provinces insistence on P3's.

And the party hacks and political commissars would never engage in historical revisionism claiming that the conservative party and its ideology was the natural ruling ideology of all the people in the province, anyone else who thinks or votes differently of course is not a real Albertan.

Nope none of those nasty aspects of the one party state happen here. Because of course this is a conservative one party state. Wait a minute there have been plenty of them too. Of course the right wing always calls them socialist too.

Here is a list of the the party apparatchiks in government. The Tories are the Government, and the government is the Party. Just like back in the good old USSR.

SOME PROMINENT TORIES WITH MULTIPLE APPOINTMENTS

- Audrey Luft, organizer of 2007 Alberta PC annual convention: Alberta Foundation for the Arts (chair), NAIT, Alberta Economic Development Authority

- Doug Goss, Edmonton co-chair of Tories' next election campaign: Capital Health, Alberta Economic Development Authority

- Wayne Jacques, former Conservative MLA: Peace Country Health Region, Transportation Safety Board, Law Enforcement Review Board

- Alf Savage, former PC president: Auto Insurance Rate Board (chair), Municipal Government Board

- Wendy Kinsella, losing Edmonton PC candidate in 2001: NorQuest College (chair), Capital Health (vice-chair)

- Marvin Moore, former PC campaign manager and cabinet minister: Peace Country Health (chair), Agriculture Marketing Products Council Appeal Tribunal

- Dale Johnson, president of Whitecourt-Ste. Anne PC association: Aspen Health, Credit Counselling Services of Alberta

- Robert Seidel, lawyer to former treasurer Stockwell Day: Grant MacEwan College, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research

- Skip McDonald, former president of Klein's PC constituency association: Calgary Health, ATB Financial

Some appointments provide an honorarium while others pay expenses. For health authorities, it's between $134 and $350 per day for members, based on hours worked, and up to $492 daily for chairs. On the Peace Country Health board, Moore earned $42,000 in 2005-06, while most others members earned around $15,000, including additional allowances and benefits. At Capital Health, chair Neil Wilkinson -- an admitted fan of former premier Ralph Klein, under whom he was first selected -- earned $79,000 for 2005-06, the last year for which figures are available.

SOURCE: Alberta Government

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A TORY TOP 40

The Journal has examined 100 Alberta agencies, boards and commissions and compared the names of the people appointed to serve on the boards to a recent membership list of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Association.

Here are the top 40 boards with the highest percentages of card-carrying Conservatives serving on them.

Health boards and regions

- Peace Country Health Region:

13 Tories / 13-member board

- East Central Health:

9 Tories / 12-member board

- Capital Health:

8 Tories / 14-member board

- Calgary Health:

7 Tories / 13-member board

- Aspen Health Region:

11 Tories / 14-member board

- David Thompson Health:

11 Tories / 15-member board

- Chinook Health:

7 Tories / 12-member board

- Northern Lights Health:

7 Tories / 12-member board

- Palliser Health Region:

7 Tories / 13-member board

- Alberta Cancer Board:

5 Tories / 10-member board

- Health Quality Council:

4 Tories / 8-member board

- Public Health Appeal Board:

2 Tories / 4-member board

- Health Facilities Review Board:

8 Tories / 12-member board

Post-secondary Institutions

- Northern Alberta Institute of Technology:

8 Tories / 12-member board

- Portage College:

5 Tories / 7-member board

- Lethbridge College:

4 Tories / 7-member board

- Athabasca University:

6 Tories / 11-member board

- Red Deer College:

3 Tories / 6-member board

- Mount Royal College:

5 Tories / 10-member board

financial

- ATB Financial:

9 Tories / 13-member board

- Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corp.:

4 Tories / 8-member board

addictions and disabilities

- Premier's Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities:

5 Tories / 8-member board

- Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission:

7 Tories / 10-member board

- Crystal Meth Task Force:

7 Tories / 12-member board

- Northwest Alberta Persons with Developmental Disabilities:

6 Tories / 7-member board

Agriculture

- Alberta Grain Commission:

8 Tories / 11-member board

- Agriculture Products Marketing Council:

7 Tories / 11-member board

- Alberta Agriculture Research Institute:

4 Tories / 7-member board

Other

- Seniors Advisory Council:

8 Tories / 10-member board

- Northern Alberta Development Council:

9 Tories / 10-member board

- Worker's Compensation Board:

3 Tories / 4-member board

- Alberta Foundation of the Arts:

6 Tories / 10-member board

- Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission:

6 Tories / 7-member board

- Alberta Economic Development Authority:

29 Tories / 60-member board

- Alberta Order of Excellence Council:

6 Tories / 6-member board

- Social Care Facilities Review Commission:

7 Tories / 11-member board

- Alberta Science and Research Authority:

9 Tories / 19-member board

- Northeast PDD Board:

5 Tories / 7-member board

- Alberta Fatality Review Board:

3 Tories / 3-member board

- Rural Alberta's Development Fund:

6 Tories / 12-member board

For more on who runs Alberta

SEE:

Alberta Business Back PC Candidates

Vencap

Alberta State Capitalism

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King Ralph Shills For Big Oil

Well that didn't take long. King Ralph went from Premier to Oil Lobbyist in a blink of an eye. Faster than Lougheed and even Getty, his old big oil nemesis.

Klein slams Alberta royalty recommendation

And luckily he did it in Alberta, where weak tea lobbyist legislation was only just passed this spring. So it doesn't affect him. And he is doing it as they say; pro bono. Yep the Big Guy is out defending the Oil lobby and his own political decisions when it comes to selling out Albertans to the Calgary Oil Lobby.

Remember Ken Kowalski's 1994 appointment to chair the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board? It stirred up so much oilpatch opposition that then premier Ralph Klein had to rescind the post he gave the former deputy premier who'd been freshly bounced from cabinet.

Governments in Alberta and elsewhere have traditionally rewarded loyal supporters with plum appointments, often over the hue and cry of opposition parties and the general public.

The Kowalski appointment enraged a sector with considerably more clout: Big Oil. When it said the position required somebody more qualified and less political, Klein was forced to respond.

For a decade Albertans have been ripped off of profits from our resources, shoring up the oil industry with subsidies directly and indirectly, the latter being our penny on the dollar royalty rate for developing the tarsands. The result was the famous neo-con Klein Revolution, for which he annually collected gold medals from the Fraser Institute, which then went on to hire him once he retired as premier.

Should we be surprised he defends his regimes sell out of Alberta, native and Canadian resources? Of course not. He was after all the Premier the Party of Calgary picked. The Party of Calgary has become the bugaboo of Edmonton Sun columnist Neil Waugh, who describes them as the oil aristocracy.

Which, in a sentence, is Big Oil's strategy as the Stelmach Tories attempt to claw back $2 billion a year in energy revenues - largely from Calgary's oilsands aristocrats,who have been awarding themselves multimillion-dollar annual salaries while the owners of the resource get a penny on the dollar payout until the massive capital costs are recovered.

While Rick Bell his counterpart at the Calgary Sun gleefully pulls Big Oils beard in his column. Reminding us from his window view of Petro Plaza,

The outrage from the highest offices in the tallest towers is so loud it is being heard all over the provincial government.

Tory MLAs are being reminded of who runs the show, or who think they run the show, or who did the show until now.

On Tuesday, mere minutes after a report called for the province to hike oil and gas royalties and get a fair share for the resource Albertans own, the oil industry sent the provincial powers a simple one word e-mail.

It read: "Disaster."

Interesting the oilpatch isn't commenting on the fact, on natural gas alone, Albertans are out about $6 billion. That's $6 billion that could have gone to affordable housing, schools, health facilities, other public building projects, a tax break, savings to the Heritage Fund and on and on.

The reality is that the Hunt Report outright says that Albertans have been shortchanged for a decade when it comes to oil royalties.

Royalty review calls for massive jump in oilsands payouts

A panel reviewing the fairness of Alberta's royalty take from oil and gas development said today Albertans are not collecting a fair share and recommended a massive jump in royalties paid by oilsands projects.

The six-member panel headed by Bill Hunter recommended that the government's overall take from oilsands projects be raised to 64%, from 49% today. The panel recommends leaving the 1% pre-payout royalty unchanged, but that the post-pay out royalty be increased to 33%, from 25%.

"Albertans do not receive their fair share from energy development and they have not, in fact, been receiving their fair share for quite some time," Mr. Hunter said in a letter to Alberta Finance Minister Lyle Oberg. "Royalty rates and formulas have not kept pace with changes in the resource base, world energy markets and conditions in other energy rich jurisdictions. Albertans own the resource."

Billions of dollars have been pocketed by the private interests while Ralph declared debt and deficit hysteria, cut jobs, delayed infrastructure, destroyed the health care system by laying off nurses and reducing graduates for their jobs and those of doctors, contracting out services, etc. He told us we were broke, and had to tighten our belts, the debt and deficit crisis was described by King Ralph as the need to not renovate our house, but to demolish and rebuild.

One of his would be heir apparent's is our current provincial treasurer Lyle Oberg, a true believer, who says dark days are upon us. Of course he too opposes asking for what belongs to the people, a just royalty for our resources.

In that wonderfully twisted world of social conservatism the politics of giving unto Caesar has become the economics of giving unto Big Oil. The logic goes like this, if it weren't for big oil the PC party would be nothing, so it does it all it can for Big Oil. Now like all One Party States this logic is then transformed into what is good for Big Oil is good for Alberta.

The irony is that this royalty scam was not even created by Klein. Rather it was created after the collapse of the global oil market in 1984 by then Petro Premier Don Getty. Don being the oil boys insider for the moment, Klein was able to scape goat him for all of Alberta's economic problems which were a result of the market melt down, the recession of the eighties. So when the momentary debt and deficit crunch came world wide, Klein was ready to step in. Rather than end the tax and royalty holiday for Big Oil, he continued it and turned on the people of Alberta to pay for the deficit.

Deficits are not permanent, they are a year by year accounting phenomena. A debt on the other hand exists and transfers from year to year. A debt is what you owe someone else. You cannot have a debt to yourself. But in the wonderful Wizard of Oz Topsy turvy world of neo-con logic, government financed and owned infrastructure was seen as a business cost rather than as an asset.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth from the industry lobbyists, including Klein, and those in the investment business is predictable if somewhat disingenuous. After all this is Alberta, not Saskatchewan or Manitoba. This is a Tory run one party state at the beck and call of the Petroleum Club in Calgary. And the panel doing the review well it was stacked with capitalists.

The report was written by a six-member, blue-ribbon panel named by the government. The members included two economics professors, a chief economist for an Calgary-based energy research firm, a businessman, a forestry executive and a former senior executive with an oil company.

If anything, the panel was seen as too pro-business. In fact, the appointment of Sam Spanglet to the panel caused a stir back in February when news broke that the former oil executive still had "a couple of million" dollars worth of stock options with Shell Canada.

As if to bolster the opposition's accusation, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers was reportedly pleased with the panel's members and their credibility.

It seemed just about everyone was predicting the panel would deliver an industry-friendly conclusion.

One of the funniest comments comes from an one of those dime a dozen investment newsletters;

"Do they really wish to kill this golden goose with one fell swing of the tax axe?" said economist Dennis Gartman, editor of the Gartman Letter, an influential investment newsletter based in Virginia, who was "shedding tears" about Alberta going "socialist" and wondering whether the provincial government has "gone mad."

Socialist, well gee where has he been. Let's see Alberta is dominated by one party, a party that has been in power so long it naturally thinks it is the government. One that has subsidized the oil industry at the cost of the owners fair share. That spells socialism to me....well state capitalism actually, but for the rabid right they are the same. As ex- King Ralph pointed out;

"It was a regime created by industry and government. Those kinds of rules don't change on a whim. Companies are nervous."

And then there are those who, like our Treasurer Lyle Oberg, are doom and gloom proponents who claim that the sky is falling and once again are declaring impending debt and deficits. The reality is that it was the royalty holiday that Getty gave the industry that led to the deficit crisis of 93-95 that gave Klein an excuse to implement the Fraser Institutes neo-con revolution in Alberta.

On page 23, for example, the report points out "The panel was constantly told by companies and by energy industry trade groups that Alberta ranked very high in Government Take." However, those companies and groups were citing from an outdated 1997 report by an international expert. The review panel commissioned the same international expert who compiled new data and concluded "the very opposite is now unequivocally true."

In this case its also the oil and gas industries who are claiming a crisis in their industry and again have their hands out asking for more state subsidies.

Yet, because of public expectations, it's unlikely the panel will recommend what's needed at this time: a reduction in royalties to salvage what's left of this vital part of the sector. Indeed, there are indications the slump is not just another cycle, but a structural change that will require new thinking from everyone -- industry, government and labour -- to reduce costs so it can compete with the cheap imports of liquefied natural gas invading the U.S. market, once dominated by Alberta producers.

Oh you didn't know there was a slump in the oil and gas business? It didn't appear that there was according to the markets this week.

Oil prices hit record highs

Oil dips, but gas prices set to rise

Taking Cues From Fed, Speculators Bid Up Oil

More oil firms hike fuel prices

Crude oil sails over $80 buoyed by bullish mkt

Oil near new high amid tight supplies

Well there is. It's called peak oil and the industry is panicking over its potential impact. Alberta's conventional oil and gas reserves will peak in 2020 and begin to decline, as will provincial revenues. And so the oil business in Alberta is focused on developing the tarsands output, regardless of costs to the public or the environment, by then.

A litany of Canadian investment banks also pulled no punches in their assessment of the proposals in the Our Fair Share report.

FirstEnergy Capital Corp. warned the proposed measures, in a report entitled "Albertastan? Misguided Intentions and the Fair Share Option," would be "negative if adopted, and will slow down the development of oilsands."

Well frankly that's a good thing since the boom is artificial and has caused untold problems in Alberta. We need a planned economy from our 'socialist' government, since the oil sands development has gotten out of control.

Since Prince Eddies government refuses to adopt such a plan, then if the royalty regime forces a slow down all the better. Alberta is an overheated economy. One that is sure to bust big, because no boom is sustainable. And woe betide Albertans if that happens. The boom of the seventies and early eighties was followed by a quarter century recession in the province. One that was used as an excuse to rack up surpluses at the expense of public services and infrastructure expenditures.

Stelmach says he'd stand up to big oil

Be still my beating heart. Anyone who thinks Farmer Ed is going to accept this report in whole, has missed the fact he has not accepted the recommendations of any public reports that he called for upon his appointment as Alberta's CEO. He has adopted the minimum to make him look good sometimes that has meant rejecting the public reports and making a big deal out of the fact he asked for them.

We need only remember the Alberta Housing Report, which called for rent controls. He rejected this outright. He has rejected the public commission calling for controlled growth and a slow down in oil sands development as well.

A columnist at the U of C student newspaper the Gauntlet sums it up well.

Furthermore, even if the provincial government does go for the whole 20 per cent increase, Alberta’s royalty rates will still be some of the lowest in the world. And don’t try to tell me that all the oil companies will uproot and flee the country the second people start talking about increasing royalties. As a fellow editor commented to me recently, “They’re in the oil business. They’ll go where the oil is.” The oil companies have invested too much money and stand to make far too much money for them to vanish in a cloud of carbon monoxide like the conservatives are arguing.

Anybody who has studied the provincial Conservatives in even the shallowest capacity knows that Premier Ed “Steady Eddy” Stelmach will likely not raise royalties at all come Oct. when he makes the decision. If royalties are increased, it will likely be by just enough for Stelmach to seem like a populist without putting even the slightest dent in Big Oil’s beer budget. This isn’t necessarily is bad thing; the quality of life in Alberta will continue to improve at the same rate it always has if nothing is done. There’s no immediate negative consequence in deferring to the oil companies on this one, and that’s likely why nothing will be done: nobody wants to rock the boat. However, it’s worth considering the possibilities of even a slight increase.

And those who are in the known when it comes to economics agree. Big Oil will stomp their feet and wail but all is for naught. They will go where the oil is and if they don't well there are the Chinese, and Japanese, and....

Alberta premier walks into lion‘s den with business leaders over royalty review

Many of the business leaders attending the event said whether Stelmach chooses in the coming weeks to adopt the report‘s recommendations or not will be his most important decision, not just for now but for generations to come.

“My view is that the province should just out of hand reject this report because ... the decisions that they made are totally out of touch with the economy and what‘s happening around the world right now,‘‘ said Doug Mitchell, co-chairman of the forum.

“I don‘t see any credibility whatsoever in the report.‘‘

But one energy specialist said regardless of what Stelmach decides, the oilsands are too rich and vast for industry to ignore.

Ken Moors, a managing partner of Risk Management Associates in Pittsburgh, Pa., said he has brokered royalty deals around the globe and he believes Stelmach has been smart to make this dispute a public one.

“This is a rare opportunity for a democracy to do things in the open,‘‘ he said.

“But you must remember that every other time these royalty situations have been advanced in other countries, they‘ve been advanced in a market in which the expectation was that supply was going down. This is the only example I‘ve ever seen where these are being introduced in a market where the supply is bound to go up.‘‘

He said the province will still be very competitive with other countries.

"It is not going to take place . . . this is the only major supply side push left in the international oil market, so people either invest here or they see their profit margins dwindling in the future -- there is no other alternative," he said.

That is rich, There Is No Alternative. TINA. The famous neo-con excuse for selling off government services to embrace the Market. And now the shoe is on the other foot for Big Oil. TINA. LOL.

Amongst the sturm and drang of capitalist outrage in columns in the National and Financial Post comes a whiff of wisdom if not prudent observation.

Royalty review just good business

Diane Francis, Financial Post

Published: Saturday, September 22, 2007

It's important to note that what is being discussed is not taxation but the royalty paid to Albertans who own the lion's share of subsurface mineral rights in the province. And they are not getting as much revenue from their resources as competing jurisdictions are, according to the report. Industry spokesmen dispute the numbers and say Alberta's take is already high enough, and any higher will drive away investment.

For instance, conventional oil and gas royalties and taxes in the U.S. average 67% while they are 50% in Alberta, said the report.

Non-conventional oil production -- offshore and heavy oil -- is another interesting story. Heavy oil royalties in Cold Lake are 60% compared with Nor-way's offshore royalties of 76%, California's heavy-oil royalties (and taxes) of 67.5% and Venezuela's 72%.

To me, both the markets and media have been hysterical about nothing. Stelmach is not some fiscal confiscator. He's the CEO of the most valuable jurisdiction in the Western hemisphere and his review of royalties is simply prudent business practice.

Just like Danny Williams is doing in Newfoundland except in order to get his folks the best deal he didn't sell the goose, just a part of the golden egg. Funny thing the same folks whining over the Alberta Royalty report said this about Danny's provincial version of Petro-Can;

Paul Barnes, the St. John's-based spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said state equity stakes are common throughout the world beyond North America and Europe. He said his members are prepared to negotiate exact figures for specific deals. "It's not overly concerning to our members that equity participation is on the table here because we experience it on worldwide basis."

Gee you don't hear that from the CAPP when it comes to Alberta's Royalty Revue.

"At first blush," gulped Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers spokesman Greg "Sky is Falling" Stringham, "this is far worse than anticipated."

So what is all the fuss about, why the chicken little exercise in outrage? What does this dastardly commie socialist pinko report say. Well it is damning of years of incompetence by an entrenched and debouched Tory party of Calgary Oil insiders.

A tired old party that instead of collecting what is owed to Albertans by Big Oil for the past decade, forget just the last few years of booming oil prices, gave them a royalty holiday paid for by Albertans. We paid in increased user fees, privatization, contracting out, wage freezes in the public sector, caps on AISH payments and claw backs,kicking the poor off welfare, selling off the ALCB at fire sale prices, systemic mistreatment of seniors in seniors homes, the Health Care premium which is a tax grab, failure to invest in infrastructure, firing of nurses and doctors, capping of nursing and doctor graduates in Alberta universities, not only closing but blowing up hospitals, lack of vocational and technical education that has led to current labour shortages, etc. etc.

The government makes more money off gambling then it does off either royalties or taxes on conventional oil and gas and the tarsands.

And no matter what Stelmach does, he cannot make up for being part of a government that at best was asleep at the wheel for two decades, at worst was implementing harsh cuts and reconstructing the state according to a neo-con agenda that was never for the benefit of the people of Alberta but to please the Fraser Institute and its pals.

Stelmach will never, ever, ask for the billions Big Oil owes the people of Alberta who had to pay for Ralph Klein's renovation of the province for their and the Fraser Institutes benefit.

The Conservative regime has forgotten that natural resources belong to Albertans and not developers, says the report from the royalty review panel appointed by the same government.

And the Alberta Energy ministry is bracing for another unsparing probe next month of how it handles royalties from Auditor General Fred Dunn.

His office has chided the government in past years for being unable to effectively track what companies owe in royalties, and suggested the problem was costing hundreds of millions of dollars in royalty losses.

But the royalty review panel took the criticisms much further, recommending a new oversight body and far better reporting to the public.

"During our review we discovered an absence of accountability from the government to Albertans, the owners of resources," panel chairman Bill Hunter told reporters this week. "We encountered significant difficulty in accessing information -- to have even simple questions answered."

"How the administration or public leaders make informed decisions in this vital arena is an open question," says the review report, made public Tuesday.

"In the case of Alberta's multibillion-dollar energy reserves, seen as an enterprise, the onus on government to inform the public should actually be orders of magnitude higher," the report said. "Stated politely, this standard of disclosure is not presently being met.

"The panel is of the opinion that the government has not built up sufficient expertise and capacity to administer and manage this complexity."

It also identified a specific problem of missing money, or "what preliminarily seems like a pattern of material deferral of payments that is not in the interests of Albertans."

Once again the real Alberta Deficit is revealed, the democratic deficit. So the next time some Alberta Conservative MLA or MP, they are after all joined at the hip, talks about accountability, transparency, honest government, usually pointing fingers at Liberals in Ottawa, just ask them if they know where the missing billions from Big Oil are squirreled away.


Read it for yourself.

Royalty Review Panel final report

SEE:

Transparency Alberta Style

Closing The Barn Door

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