Tornado In Southern Alberta

CKUA is reporting that a Tornado has touched down in Crossfield, Alberta, and is moving east at 40 clicks per hour. We have severe weather warnings across the province and Tornado watches in the south; Wheatland, Ardrie, Rockyview, Strathmore, Vulcan, Drumheller, etc.

The Alberta Emergency Public Warning System was created following the 1987 Edmonton Tornado as a joint public alerting initiative with CKUA funded by the Alberta Government.

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Made In U.S.A. Food Recall

Reports in the media are saying that stores in the U.S. have still not removed all the Castlebury Chili and canned food products that have been tainted with botulism, from their shelves, despite last weeks recall by the company and warnings from the FDA and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The FDA is reporting that Castelbury has increased the products being recalled including both human food and pet food.

The source of botulism was poor product inspection due to the volunteer privatized food inspection process used in the U.S.

Chinese food products or additives were not identified as being involved as was the case in the recent pet food recall scandal.

And like the pet food scandal Castlebury is owned by an Income Trust.

Cans of chili contaminated with botulism could be in the homes of unwitting Canadian consumers despite a countrywide recall from Wal-Mart stores, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned yesterday.

Health officials are asking Canadians to scour their homes for two products - Great Value Original Chili With Beans and Great Value Hot Chili With Beans - after four people fell ill in the U.S.

Cans of recalled food are bursting, swollen with bacteria that cause botulism.

The bursting cans were among those being held by Castleberry's Food Co., which last week announced a massive recall that now includes more than 90 potentially contaminated products, including chili sauces and dog foods.

News about the bursting cans gives new urgency to warnings from federal health officials to get rid of the recalled cans from pantries and store shelves.

Spot checks by the Food and Drug Administration and state officials continue to turn up recalled products for sale in convenience stores, gas stations and family run groceries, from Florida to Alaska. The FDA alone has found them in roughly 250 of the more than 3,700 stores visited in nationwide checks, according to figures the agency provided to The Associated Press.

Yet food and other product recalls remain a voluntary process instigated by manufacturers. And there are no federal fines or penalties levied against companies whose products are subject to recall, said Amanda Eamich, spokesperson for the Food Safety and Inspection Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"There is no such thing as a mandatory recall," said Eamich. "However, no company has ever refused a recall for FSIS."

While federal oversight agencies cannot instigate a recall, they do have the legal authority to detain and seize products in order to protect the public from health problems or possible death. They also can enforce product safety requirements at the manufacturing plant, said Eamich.

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Pension Fraud Brings Down Japans Government

In a society that once had cradle to grave employment for its workers Japan for the past twenty years has been in an economic downward spiral. Each attempt to follow American recommendations to privatize their economy has exposed Japan's political establishment as incompetent if not downright criminal.

This weekends election exposed the weakness of such reforms in Japan as well as other existing capitalist economies as they rely on looting public pension funds for venture capital.

However, voters on Sunday were obviously far more concerned with bread-and-butter issues that directly affect their daily lives.

Key among those issues was concern about the state of the public pension system.

Even though the government passed legislation to reorganize the scandal-tainted Social Insurance Agency, the public was clearly not convinced that everything had been done to address their concerns about 50 million or so missing pension accounts or whether the new entity would operate in an efficient manner that would ease their fears about retirement.

Abe learned late last year about the pension debacle, but did nothing to deal with the matter until Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) raised this issue in the Diet, triggering a public uproar this spring.

Abe had no alternative but to come up with measures at the last minute to placate the public.

Abe promised to sort out every single pension account and notify individuals by next March at the latest about the status of their payments.

However, opinion surveys showed that the public had not yet forgiven the government for its handling of the problem.

In contrast, Minshuto focused on the pension issue by again proposing a minimum pension program. It also proposed other livelihood measures, such as steps to bridge the growing disparity in incomes as well as moves to help Japan's farmers and child-rearing families with direct subsidies.

Sunday's results left no doubt that Minshuto's policies resonated with voters. The major political question now is whether Abe will continue as prime minister.

SEE:

Japanese State Capitalism

Gambling On Your Future

Public Pensions Fund Private Partnerships

The Importance of Savings

Social Insecurity The Phony Pension Crisis

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The New Imperial Age

China's Imperialism. In Africa, the Ugly American has been replaced by the equally ugly Chinese trader.

The People's Republic has been so shameless in its wooing of other nations that it now receives the type of anti-imperialist criticisms once reserved for America. It stands accused of exploiting foreign populations for economic gain; of stacking the international political deck in its own favour; of ploughing forward with no regard for environmental sustainability.

As trade and diplomacy between China and other countries in the developing world has skyrocketed, America's relationship with poor countries has crumbled – nurtured by years of unpopular wars, military interventions and one-sided economic policies.

In East Asia, where many of China's new friends are located, the animosity toward the U.S. veers on cartoonish. In Seoul, roughly half of young people polled said their country should support North Korea in a nuclear war with America. Kurlantzick doesn't say this may have been a knee-jerk reaction to a fresh outrage – U.S. soldiers crushed two 14-year-old South Korean girls in an armoured vehicle – but the sentiment is widespread.

In Africa, a continent wooed intensely by Chinese officials, the U.S. has likewise soiled its reputation to China's benefit. America even threatened poor, famished Niger with sanctions when it tried to support the International Criminal Court, which the U.S. opposes.

As America rolls back from Africa, cutting aid, China has moved – straight into the worst neighbourhoods. China now controls about 40 per cent of Sudan's oil consortium and regularly courts mass murderers such as Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.

But China's support of African despots is well documented. Kurlantzick is valuable because he traces, first-hand, the cutthroat romp of Chinese industry all the way to Latin America.

Kurlantzick notes, though, that China's efforts haven't been seamless: There is anger at hollow trade deals; resentment at the huge trade deficits; protests by Africans upset by Chinese firms' preference for exported Chinese labour.

SEE:

China Burps Greenspan Farts Dow Hiccups

Neo-Liberal State Capitalism In Asia

China: The Triumph of State Capitalism

US vs China for Global Hegemony

China No Longer Red Nor In The Red

Free Trade Not Aid

Bureaucratic Collectivist Capitalism

Russian Oligarchy

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