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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