Sunday, June 11, 2006

Witches Play Mullahs To A Draw

I found this interesting, Iran vs Mexican Witches The Iranians brought out the Koran and the Mullahs still......it came to a 1-1 draw....after the initial half Mexico won 3-1 I found out later in the day. Ha! Witches 1 Mullahs 0.

Black magic

Meanwhile, fans in Mexico have been praying for the success of their team as Mexico plays Iran in their first match of the World Cup.

As crowds follow the matches on giant screens in Mexico City's central square, Zocalo – the witchcraft master - has set up a shrine of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death.

The witchcraft master believes Santa Muerte will help Mexico to a win as a 12th player.

The sprit, representing death, is widely worshipped in Mexico, and has in the past received many unusual gifts, including shots of tequila and burning cigarettes.

Of course the Iranians should have been prepared for this since many African teams also use shamans and witch doctors in the course of their play.

“If you are a goalkeeper, maybe you put an elephant tooth in your boot to make you big and strong.”

Unfortunately Saudi Arabia is probably not anymore prepared for dealing with any pagan charms the Ukrainian Soccer team and their fans may use against them in the Group H playoffs at the World Cup.. In Saudi Arabia they kill witches.

Status of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia
Magic is widely believed in and sometimes practiced, often in the form of fortune-telling and swindles; however, under Shari’a, the practice of magic is regarded as the worst form of polytheism, an offense for which no repentance is accepted and which is punishable by death. There are an unknown number of detainees held in prison on the charge of "sorcery," including the practice of "black magic" or "witchcraft." In a few cases, self-proclaimed "miracle workers" have been executed for sorcery involving physical harm or apostasy.

If the Saudi soccer team hopes to win they might want to free their sorcerors to help out. Since the Iranian Mullahs could only make it a draw against the Mexican Sorcerors.

Of course no one believes in magic, ahem, until their favorite sports team makes the playoffs.


Guardian Unlimited | Weekend | Hostages to fortune

Science has taught us that superstition is just a load of mumbo jumbo. Even so, we carry on with an irrational array of rituals and practices to keep a step ahead of fate. Touch wood? Why bother when we know it makes no difference? By David Newnham.


And all sports are rituals and metaphors. The fans will their teams to win, using rabbits feet, face painting, favorite clothing, etc. This is the meaning of magick; the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will


Chapter 3: The Rendering of Meaning: Ritual, Magic, Myth and Humor

The compelling nature of football ritual is a result of a successful demonstration of the success model. But football not only provides a working demonstration of the traditional success model, it also provides the viewer with ways of monitoring the model. In the real world of the corporation, the actor, who cannot comprehend the structure of the business world, or even the company where he competes for success, cannot directly verify how the system works. In fact he is probably not as successful as he thinks he ought to be, and is confronted with experiences to suggest the system doesn't work. Football, on the other hand, resolves those doubts, and perhaps suggests to those not as successful as they think they should be, that they are not as dedicated, and hardworking as they ought to be. However in football, the accomplishments of individuals are carefully monitored and expressed in the statistics popular with newspaper writers and television commentators:

Football, like chess, laboratory experiments, and the Balinese cockfight, is a dramatic rendition of a metaphor or set of metaphors that represent one way Americans (or at least some Americans) give meaning to portions of their lives. And the ritual validates the truth of that meaning.

There is another aspect of ritual that is not as clear to us in our rituals as it may be when we look at rituals that appear strange to us. Rituals have results that confirm to the participants that the world of ritual and the "real" world are one. That is the rituals "work"; the rituals have real effects.

As I have said before sports is metaphor for war. Especially team sports like soccer, rugy, football (especially in the US where it influences the White House and Pentagon, how many Presidents played football...and generals) and hockey.
And magickal thinking is all about the 'will to win' and that is no more apparent than in sports.

If we Americans have “optimized” rugby according to our notions of progress, there are still things many team owners might like to import from Trobriand cricket. While in football, the home team wins most of the time, in the Trobriand Island sport the home team always wins. There is still consolation for the visitors though, since the home team throws a feast in their honor. Huge differences remain, however. While football, with its fighter plane flyovers and other militaristic trappings often seems to celebrate war, cricket was introduced to the Trobriands in 1903 to replace war. How primitive!The Anthropology of the Super Bowl

Also See:

Magick


Sports

Ukraine

Football



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Suicide A Terrorist Act

Thanks to Blastfurnace for this;

"We're learning tonight that three detainees at Gitmo have committed suicide. Naturally, a military official has already spun this saying it wasn't an act of desperation but an act of terrorism.

Yeah they were trying to make the Americans look bad by committing suicide.

This reminds me of the Rote Army Fraction in Germany in the Seventies,
aka Baader-Meinhof Group, an armed struggle group (terrorists) that were busted and then the leaders ended up mysteriously dead in jail. At the time the State ruled it was suicide, but it appeared to everyone else as murder.

When you are declared an Enemy of the State they lock you up and throw away the key. And then you die. If they don't execute you then you mysteriously commit 'suicide'.


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Carnival Of Socialism #4


Comrades;

Welcome to the Carnival of Socialism #4.

We seem to be well on a roll here with four full carnivals of wholesome socialism for the masses. And some interesting arguments as well.

For a blogsphere that appears at times to be full of self righteous right wingers, this is your chance to fling open the window's of your mind.

Take yourself by the hair and turn your self inside out to look at the world with fresh eyes.

Thanks to the insights provided by the following fine folks and their contributions.

Andrew Barttlet posted at the Sharpener, a collective blog of political discussion, the following;
Work ethics: efficiency.

He says; "
In the age of Homo economicus, of atomised economic units standing in the stead of thinking, civilised men and women, to be an efficient worker from the position and interests of the worker means to maximise the wages received while minimising the amount of labour input. As, in most employing organisations, wages are fixed according to rank, and as promotion hierarchies narrow as one rises through the ranks, the surest way that the majority of workers can maximise individual efficiency is to contribute as little labour as possible while remaining in employment. In other words, to skive and to slack."


The Red Baron tackles the current hot topic of Immigration, Migration and Amnesty from his outpost in the UK. Most folks in North America don't realize that this has been a major issue in Europe and the UK as long as it has in the USA.
A topic I have blogged on as well.

He challenges the contractions of the liberal/social democratic argument for letting some folks stay but restricting others from entering their countries.

"No-one doubts the need for immigration controls, but it would be immoral to deport those already here that our economy depends on" -Jack Dromey Deputy General Secretary T&GWU

The second point of order to Mr Drobey's comment is the economic premise that were there to be an amnesty (which is not going to happen but it is a point of debate) that the illegal workers currently employed within these borders would continue to be as much an asset to our economy as they currently are. This, I'm afraid is romantic idealism. The very reason illegal workers are employed here, just as there are so many Mexicans and other illegal aliens in the US is that these workers are not subject to the same legal protection offered to legitimate employees. They are not subject to the minimum wage standards nor national insurance or pension provision. This is clearly not the choice of the workers but that of the employers who can circumvent a great deal of red tape and save themselves a great deal of money both in the payment of paltry wages and the avoidance of insurance payments for every worker. Furthermore they are able to exploit worker productivity as workers can be sacked easily or threatened with being reported to the authorities if they do not tow the line.

Is there a connection between the current Imperialist agenda in Iraq and Genetically Modified foods (GMO's)? Red Aspire thinks so. In Two beads on a string RA compares the War in Iraq with the continuing efforts to impose GMO, the new Green Revolution, on the developing countries of the world. RA points out; "Aid agencies and NGOs across the globe have been reacting with horror to the
news that new legislation in Iraq was carefully put in place last year by the
United States that will effectively bring the whole of the country’s
agricultural sector under the control of trans-national corporations. This
spells disaster for the Iraqi government and the country’s farmers, paving the
way for companies like Monsanto and Syngenta to control the entire food chain
from planted seed to packaged food products."

Louis Proyect The Unrepentant Marxist takes issue with liberals and right wingers over the issue of Sweat Shop labour in the era of Imperialism. He correctly points out that American defenders of capitalism from the liberal and right wing, and the editorial board at the NYTimes, see no choice but sweat shop labour for Africa.

The opening sentence of Kristof's op-ed piece is meant to startle the reader:

"Africa desperately needs Western help in the form of schools, clinics and sweatshops."

The infatuation with sweatshops on the NY Times op-ed page even extends to Paul Krugman, the liberal icon who really differs little from Thomas Friedman when it comes to a belief in the benefits of low-wage coolie labor. Basically, Krugman wrote a column identical to Kristof's on April 22, 2001

But one wonders in light of Kristof's hymn to sweatshops whether there might be a connection to Friedman's more openly mercenary understanding of how the dollar and the bullet intersect. Could this insufferable moralizing prig be possibly be more interested in corporate profits than he is in missionary-style rescues?

For an answer to this, I'd recommend John Bellamy Foster's article in the current Monthly Review, which does a really good job of describing the emerging strategic interests of US imperialism in Africa–especially in regions that are the focus of Cruise Missile liberals like Kristof.

Always a great turn of phrase in Proyect's writings. I like that 'curise missle liberals'.


Lenins Tomb takes up the challenge of writing a lengthy, well documented essay on
Iraq: Nationalism, Communism and Islamism. Lenin has received over 198 comments on it. Showing that many are up to the challenge of reading this treatise. And this may be the reason why, he challenges and titlates his readers in his prologue;

"Someone told me once that if the United States had been serious about making the occupation of Iraq work on usable terms for the ruling class, they would have had to oblige every official to read Hanna Batatu's classic tome, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. That and a few other things besides. As it happens, those driving the policy - while by no means heterodox - went to radical lengths to avoid having to hear from people who knew what they were talking about. We who intend to occupy nowhere but our happy little ruts are faced with all the usual questions: why is the occupation in such trouble; how did Political Islam emerge as a serious force in Iraq; what was the role of the communists, and why have they colluded with the occupiers; how did the Ba'athists develop and come to power; what's the role of Iraqi and Arab nationalism? It seems to me that the main problem to start with is understanding Ba'athism - we're always propelled toward certain metaphors or proto-concepts in describing it. From the lexicon of totalitarianism, it is always either fascist or Stalinist or both, which is understandable in a sense if you're just concerned with certain superficial modes of state rule. I shall argue a fairly orthodox class-based approach. You can't understand what happened in Iraq - from its creation under British occupation to monarchy to Qasim's Free Officers to the Ba'athist dictatorship - without understanding how class structured social power, the state's hegemonic practises and eventually the methods of Ba'athist rule."


Larry Gambone at Porcupine Blog in his essay "The Myth Of Socialism As Statism". asks; "What did the original socialists envision as the owner and controller of the economy? Did they think it ought to be the state? Did they favor nationalization? Or did they want something else entirely? Let’s have a look, going right back to the late 18th Century." He then documents all the Great Socialist thinkers who said workers control and cooperation is the real aim of Socialism. Then he says;
Why The Confusion
The state did play a role in the Marxist parties of the Second International. But its role was not to nationalize industry and create a vast bureaucratic state socialist economy. Put simply, the workers parties were to be elected to the national government, and backed by the trade unions, cooperative movement and other popular organizations, would expropriate the big capitalist enterprises. Three things would then happen:
1. The expropriated enterprises handed over to the workers organizations, coops and municipalities. 2, The army and police disbanded and replaced by worker and municipal militias. 3. Political power decentralized to the cantonal and municipal level and direct democracy and federalism introduced. These three aspects are the famous “withering away of the state” that Marx and Engels talked about.

Ravenblade at Ravens Nest, which I think may be located in the river valley of fair Redmonton, takes on the humanitarian nature of the war in Afghanistan. Wait it's not a war according to the Minister of War.....err Minister of Defense.

Anyways Ravenblade was thumbing through the local papers and discovered some contradicitions.
Ignorance is bliss.

A few days later, I was reading a copy of the Edmonton SUN . Someone wrote the following article to the editorials section:

"Could all of the anti-war protesters try protesting in Iraq or Afghanistan where the war is actually going on? Or are you all too comfortable in your homes that were won throughout the hard work and effort of Canadian, American and British troops?- Al Boschman"
Edmonton Sun, March 23, 2006

What exactly does the unprovoked Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have to do with Canadians living in warm homes? In what war were these homes won, exactly? Certainly not Iraq and Afghanistan. Does this loud individual really believe that our troops are defending Canada by invading sovereign countries? Does he honestly believe that Afghanistan posed a military threat to Canada, or that Iraq posed a military threat to America?

Our final contributor is from the Green Left perspective. A local campaign blog to Save the Ribble. It's a campaign to save a river in the UK from city planners and their efforts barrage the river for increased housing and commercial development. It shows again the importance of Thinking Globally, Acting Locally.

Renowned Environmentalists Express Concerns about Barrage Proposals

One of the consequences of global warming and climate change is the likely rise in sea levels over the coming years and decades. Fragile ecosystems such as the Ribble are already vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and low lying flood plain areas will be at increased risk of flooding as sea levels rise. Building a barrage on the Ribble will exacerbate these risks at a time when we should be considering ways to protect our environment from the effects of global warming. The Environment Agency is also warning against building on floodplain as this puts ‘new development at risk from flooding or [is] likely to exacerbate flooding elsewhere’ which alone should prohibit the ‘Central Park’ housing and business building development proposal. In addition this so called ‘Central Park’ will result in the loss of a broad range of natural habitats which support diverse wildlife species. And once our Green Belt is developed and built on it will be lost forever.

In closing ,while they did not ask for it, I would like to contribute my own recommendation; the Atlantic Canadian web site Left News.

While providing a blog of news about the peoples struggles against capitalism, imperialism and all the other oppresive isms from around the world, they too never forget that all issues are local issues. And they interact with their local community by announcing actions, protests, etc. and then reporting on them.

Labour March Concludes Days of Action Against Atlantica!



Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, comrades all, this is your Carnival of Socialism #4.


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Unproductive Capital


How not to run a business or is it? Turns out that Canadian business is cash rich but still increasingly in debt. That debt is in loans for investment in more short term ways to make cash.

Canadian business has failed to invest in technological upgrades to improve its productivity, instead relying on cheap labour to improve its productivity.



Canadian businesses hold about $372-billion in deposits, which represent about 12 per cent of their assets, compared with 8 per cent in 2002, said Earl Sweet, assistant chief economist with Bank of Montreal. During the past three years, business deposits have increased at an average annual rate of 15 per cent, which is twice the historical average, according to the bank. "With cash flow growing substantially faster than operating requirements, businesses have deployed excess funds to fixed-term deposits in order to improve overall profitability," he said.

The surplus cash has increased the importance of cash management strategies, according to the bank. Small and medium-size businesses with surplus cash tend to invest in short-term debt, variable rate guaranteed investment certificates and escalating rate GICs with terms up to three years, said Julie Sheen, vice-president and head of BMO term investments.

Although corporate debt issuance during 2006 increased to $36.5-billion, up from $22-billion during the same period a year ago, the growth has largely resulted from debt issued by banks and other financial institutions, the asset-backed securities market and foreign issuers of Canadian debt
And this despite the tax breaks they got from their friends in government. And despite the subsidies,corporate welfare, they get federally and provincially on top of that.

And despite their efforts to create tax free havens like Income Trusts for all that capital. Capital that continues to circulate as money instead of being invested in company assests (variable capital); labour and technology.


Wayne Hanley, National Director, United Food and Commercial Workers

Lower paying jobs:

"My concern there is that a lot of these jobs are at the lower end of the pay scale as it relates to manufacturing jobs that we're losing. Becoming a society of service workers that work in banks and financial institutions, my concern is that one day we're going to have an economy based on the exchange of money between Canadians and we're not going to see manufacturing, building and exporting."

The dollar:

"I don't think we've felt the full impact of the 90-cent dollar as it relates to manufacturing jobs. I think it's going to get worse. I think manufacturing jobs are being affected by the global market, products being produced elsewhere in the world at significantly less costs."


The corporate bosses still gripe about wages and benefits for workers, while taking home record breaking salaries and benefits, unsure of what to do with all that wealth.

Role of company boards is piece of puzzle as scandal over stock options widens

Put CEOs' pay in escrow, former SEC head urges

Sale by Chairman of the Board (CNW, 06-09-06)


But failure to invest that cash in wages and benefits is what is creating the current labour shortage.

Like housing it's a sellers market for labour.

Prosperity's hidden toll

Productivity sags as jobs go begging in red-hot marke

The Jobs Everywhere phenomenon is creating a curious scenario, especially in the McJob sector. The work ethic in this sector appears to be collapsing, particularly among 16- to 20-year-olds, says Todd Hirsch, a labour market-shortage expert for the Canada West Foundation.

"They don't think it's necessary to show up on time, or at all," says Hirsch. "They know they can walk across the mall and get another job, and maybe be paid more." Anecdotes abound as to how younger, part-time employees understand they're holding all the cards.

Recently, a local Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant was closed indefinitely because it couldn't find enough staff to operate, posting a sign on its door saying: "Due to unavailable staff, we are unable to open doors at this time."

With four or five job offers available to young people, the feeling is: "I don't really need to work that hard," says Hirsch.

He points to the catering industry, which experiences a slow season from January to March, when most low-skilled workers are usually laid off. Instead, they are being paid $10 to $12 an hour to do pretty much nothing but be around for the start of the high season in May.

If it sounds desperate, that's because it is.




And like housing, labour is an investment, which is productive but does not immediately translate into $$$ like investments in the stock market which is what income trusts and other business stratgems are all about.

Bell Aliant income fund approved

Canfor Shareholders Approve Pulp Income Trust
Despite real growth in productivity in our manufacturing sector thanks to just in time production methods, multi-tasking, longer shifts, forced overtime production all due to job cuts and the resulting speed up on the job.

Our current Minister of Industry insists on the need to drive wages down by announcing the need to create further free trade deals abroad which opens the door for more outsourcing of base manufacturing.

president, CAW Local 222, Oshawa, Ont. -- Perhaps International Trade Minister David Emerson can help the 15,000 members of Canadian Auto Workers Local 222 in Oshawa, Ont., reconcile two stories in yesterday's Report on Business.

The first (GM Plant Wins Laurels, No Promises) reports that the Oshawa No. 2 car assembly plant has once again won the J. D. Power award for the highest-quality output in the Western Hemisphere. Yet, General Motors wants to close the plant. Why? Because a one-way flood of offshore imports is destroying the market share of GM and other North American producers, leaving them with too much capacity.

Which brings us to the second story, where Mr. Emerson commits to accelerating free-trade talks with South Korea and other offshore markets (Canada Lags In Global Trade Race: Emerson). He writes off opposition from the auto industry and other crucial export sectors as special interests, and promises to help them become globally competitive. But the numbers prove it: We are already super-competitive. Yet, even with the best quality and productivity, our jobs will continue to disappear so long as countries such as Korea are allowed to treat trade as a one-way street: Korea bought only 400 Canadian vehicles last year, versus 130,000 Korean vehicles sold in Canada. Their products compete directly with what we build in Oshawa.

At the very moment when we are pulling out all the stops to save Canadian auto jobs, our own trade minister wants to give Korea's burgeoning auto exports to Canada an extra boost. This is a betrayal of Canada's economic interests.



Ironically what is dragging down our productivity is not the manufacturing sector it's in the banking and financial services sector. Which is NOT unionized.

So wages and benefits are not the problem here. Its again investment in technology and labour that is lacking as the banks take huge hits on criminal activity like the Enron Scandal.

Fix the financials: Productivity growth of Canadian financial services seriously lags manufacturing

Against that lacklustre backdrop, data released yesterday offer a few surprises, including an unpleasant one from the financial services sector. Manufacturing's productivity growth since 2004 has exceeded the overall economy's performance by a remarkable quarterly average of three percentage points. However, the broad financial services sector has underperformed the economy by more than one percentage point over the same period -- a huge difference in the productivity measurement world. And the gap is not transient. Labour productivity in manufacturing has grown by 25% since 1997, while the gain was only 10% for financial services.
Again the Chamber of Commerce and other voices of business demand more handouts for business while business rolls in the dollars. Productivity gains in Canada have been made at the expense of workers, not through tax cuts to business, or state subsidies.


Job cuts make productivity a harder sell

Study says losses are necessary to keep manufacturers competitive

Well of course when workers hear 'productivity' they know what that means.

The failure here is for business to invest in technology to compliment labour, rather they are hoarding their profits to make more money. That is unproductive use of capital.

Job cuts of course is the easy way out in the short term, in the long term Canada's productivity crisis is the failure of capitalists to invest their capital in their businesses. And Income Trusts are not their businesses.


Remember those who say that business should run the state well I think they already do by this track record. Producing surpluses for their shareholders but failing to invest in infracstructure of the company. Producing surpluses for taxpayers but failing to invest in infrastructure and social services.

Also See: Boom and Bust



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Bank Theft


Here is another case of bank theft which is legal of course. No one goes to jail for ripping off customers, us, while making profits off the stolen money. Of course not that's business as usual for banks.

BMO Bank of Montreal to Reimburse Customers for Mortgage Penalty Overpayments


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Boom and Bust


Yep that's the prediction being made by some chicken little economists.

The sixth commodity boom since 1972, it is about 60% longer in duration and more than double the amplitude the average of the last five booms.

Booms that peaked in 1981, 1990, 1997 and 2001 were each followed by large price reversals. In the last three booms, which had averaged 40 months, prices gave back 60% of their gains on average within just 16 months.

There was one major exception. Prices stabilized for a lengthy period after the peak in 1974, largely because the government controlled oil prices.

In four of the five cycles, the peak in commodity prices occurred within a few months of the peak in monetary conditions. The economy then experienced a recession or sharp slowdown.

Which leaves the Bank of Canada between a monetarist rock and a hard place. Raise interest rates and hasten a cooling off of the market prices? Or leave well enough alone. The latter of course is anathema to the interventionists at the bank, though common sense to the rest of us and the market. Dollar surges on jobless report


Canadian Labour Congress/Jobs: Labour to the Bank of Canada, 'Don't Slam the Brakes!'

Employment is at the highest level since 1974. Commodity prices are at the highest level since 1974. Inflation is lower than in 1974

In 1972 the Arab Oil embargo led to increased oil prices and increased employment and wages. 1974 the markets crashed and led to the long recession of ten years and increasing interest rates and declining employment. Wage and Price controls were introduced followed in the eighties with the high interest rate policies of the Tories. All for naught. Things got worse until oil and the markets were regulated.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation: Strong Labour Market Fuels Housing Sector

Canadian economy booms with gains in consumer spending

With current worker productivity (surplus value) increased three times higher than wages, despite the failure of Canadian capitalists to invest in productive technology, the market boom is being driven not by production or manufacturing by by consumer growth in the housing and extended credit card debt.

Soaring dollar helps fuel record jobs boom

Canada's shopping, hiring spree sends unemployment rate to 31-year low


The high dollar has also kept inflation under wraps, letting interest rates stay lower in Canada than in the United States, economists noted. And lower interest rates have led to a building bonanza across the country -- meaning lots of jobs in construction, real estate, financing and home-related services. "We would expect services to do well with the higher dollar, and concomitant with that, lower interest rates," said Philip Cross, chief of economic analysis at Statscan.

Economy employment surge 'off the charts'

96,700 new jobs in May: Central bank could feel pressure to raise ratesStatistics Canada said the jump drove unemployment down 0.3 percentage points lower to 6.1%, the lowest level since 1974.

After cooling earlier in the year, wages increased 3.8% in the month from 3.1% in April, driven by a scorching 7.3% rise in Alberta.

The Canadian dollar, hammered in recent days by the plunge in commodity prices, staged its biggest one-day bounce on the report in nearly two years. It rose 1.6% to US90.45 cents.

"I feel kinda whiplashed," said David Wolf, Canadian economist at Merrill Lynch. "On the face of it, it's gargantuan. It's off the charts."

"Arguably for the Bank of Canada what's really important here is the unemployment rate at 6.1% and the fact the wage measure popped right back up to almost it's cycle high,

The breakdown of job creation matches up with what has been happening in the economy.

The largest gains were in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing -- industries which have been feeding off the real estate boom and previously soaring stock markets.


CANADIAN COMPETITIVENESS:
A Decade after the Crossroads

The growth of the Canadian economy in the last ten years has been fuelled primarily by a higher proportion of employed persons in the workforce and longer working hours, especially in the second half of the decade. In contrast, capital investment experienced a declining growth rate, and multifactor productivity growth was strikingly low.

In the traded goods sector, the decline in relative productivity[10] combined with the fall in worldwide commodity prices during the 1990’s precipitated the dramatic fall in the Canadian dollar. It traded at 87 cents US at the release of Canada at the Crossroads, but fell by mid-1998 to a trading range of 63-69 cents US.[11] The fall in the exchange rate eroded the living-standard of Canadians further.

While some laud the lower Canadian dollar as enhancing competitiveness by decreasing the relative prices of our exports, the true effect is exactly the opposite. A low Canadian dollar dulls the incentive for upgrading and competing on any basis other than lower price. In addition, in the Canadian context, the low dollar makes investment in upgrading more expensive. Approximately 70% of Canada’s installed machinery and equipment is imported.[12] Consequently, the low dollar during the 1990’s made machinery and equipment imports dramatically more expensive, which is likely to have contributed to a fall in the growth rate of capital stock per worker, thus making labour productivity growth still more difficult to achieve.



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Saturday, June 10, 2006

State Capitalism Quebec Style

Quebec contributes to $630M CAE plan for new flight simulators

Corporate Welfare rules in Canada.

State Capitalism is alive and well in Quebec despite Charest's neo-liberals being in power. Here is another example of public capital being used for private profit (P3's). Whether it is a loan, an investment or a subsidy the problem is that it profers neither ownership nor workers control.

Nothing new here really, whether it is the PQ or the Liberals. Whether it is Bombardier or CAE, Quebec subsidizes and protects its industries, while asking Ottawa for funding to bouy up its manufacturing base.

The irony is that all parties in Quebec including the BQ support NAFTA. They aren't worried about soverignty as much as marketing into the protectionist market south of us, dominated by the State Capitalist Military Industrial Complex of the US.

Also See:

A History of Canadian Wealth, 1914.

Origins of the Captialist State In Canada

Canada's State Capitalist Success

Corruption, nationalism and capitalism




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Cod Damn It

Here is a clear cut case of ignoring science for the sake of Harprocrite politics; get votes. Gee just like they do with Kyoto.

NL fishermen get a year to test health of inshore cod stocks
"[This] is not based on science. If you're going to operate a test fishery, you're not going to find anything new in terms of the status of the stock. That's well understood," said Myers, who worked for years as a federal fisheries scientist in Newfoundland.



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Shot To The Head?

Zarqawi was still alive when troops arrived, military says
So should we check for bullets in his body?
Given the CIA speciality of two taps to the head.


Also See: They Bombed Zarqawi Like Saddam


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Secret Society Not So Secret


The most infamous of the secret societies of the ruling class the Bilderberg Group is meeting in Ottawa this weekend.

This is the ultimate global old boys club.

And they are getting well deserved attention from the blogs and the MSM.

Not so secret anymore, eh boys.

Ok not all of them are boys.

Ontario: World's elite meet
Global luminaries such as Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands began arriving in Ottawa yesterday for the annual gathering of the ultra-secretive Bilderberg Group. Over the next three days, they and political and business leaders from North America and Europe will discuss issues such as the security threat posed by Iran and the oil markets.
And the dummies managed to get more publicity by using their government connections to ban one of the alternate press reporters, who has been documenting them for years, from coming into Canada. Opps dumb move.
Police State or Overzealous Border Patrol? Alex Jones Incident

Alex Jones Detained On Orders Of Bilderberg Group
15 hours of hell at the hands of immigration who knew they were coming


DETAINED ON ORDERS OF BILDERBERG
Free Market News Network, FL - 18 hours ago
Alex Jones and his team were detained by Canadian immigration on orders of the Bilderberg Group for a 15 hour nightmare of interrogation, accusations and ...

TERROR PLOT DIVERSION FROM BILDERBERG? Free Market News Network

Bilderberg-bound filmmaker held at airport Ottawa Citizen
Filmmaker says Immigration agents detained him Ottawa Citizen
all 5 related »


Call this my Carnival of the Bilderberger

BLOGS

Bilderberg Coverage Starts Rolling In

"Ottawa: Bilderbergs at Brookstreet Report"

azerbic - Antonia Zerbisias - Toronto Star Blog: If You Can Read This I Still Have A Job

Grandinite » Bilderberg In Ottawa

Bilderburger

Bilderberg is coming to Ottawa?

FSME: Bilderberg Conference 2006

International Forecaster June, 2006 (#1) - Gold, Silver, Economy + ...

Bilderberg Masters of destiny - Gold & Silver Forum

root.cellar

IT-Analysis.com - Robin Bloor - Microsoft Agonistes

David Corn

The Bilderbergers - Masters of Our Destiny? - Share The Wealth

HipHopCanada.com :: View topic - Bilderberg Group Meeting: Ottawa

The Randi Rhodes Show -> Bilderberg Annual Meeting

indoctriNATION » Blog Archive » The Bilderberg Comes To Canada

Loco Locass :: Voir le sujet - Les Bilderberg à Ottawa!!!

TURMEL: Social Credit Matriarch at 3rd Bilderberg picket

Home - YayaCanada.com



You won't find any Bilderberg stories here, though.


ALT MEDIA

Debating World Domination: Bilderberg Meets in Canada's Capital

Bilderberg 2006 and the Killers of Freedom

Bilderberg to discuss destruction of Americas Free Trade Agreement ...

Bilderbergers meet secretly today in Ottawa

Bilderberg mafia comes under scrutiny of Canadian media

SPECIAL REPORT: BILDERBERG SECRET MEETING * BROOK STREET RESORT * OTTAWA, CANADA JUNE 8-11, 2006

Infowars Coverage of Bilderberg Conference

Bilderberg 2006: Bilderberg to Meet in Canada

HARPER NEW BILDERBERG BOY by James P. Tucker Jr.

Ottawa Independent Media Center

Neocon Prince of Darkness Sighted at Bilderberg Meeting

The New World Order, it's their party! (Part 3)

Bilderberg In Ottawa In 2006

Bilderberg à Ottawa!! - CMAQ -

GNN Should Cover Bilderberg

Bilderbergers Coming to Ottawa? | Mostly Water

HOW DO THEY KNOW THEY’RE INVITED?

A Deeper Look at the Bank for International Settlements

MSM

Kanata hotel hosts high-level power group

Shadowy group meets amid secrecy in Ottawa

VIPs' arrivals marked by a discreet 'B'

US Sen. John Edwards at Bilderberg - (United Press International)

The New Brunswick connection

MuchMusic Message Board: Bilderberg Group Meeting: Ottawa, June 8 ...

Secretive set converges on Ottawa

Elite firm to guard top-secret meeting in Kanata

Bilderberg lands in Ottawa

Elite are ever elusive

World's elite gather to brainstorm in secret

'These guys love secrecy'

Bilderberg holds secretive meeting

Secretive, powerful Bilderberg group meets near Ottawa

Secretive meeting of powerful society a conspiracy theorist's Woodstock

Secret meetings set?

Bilderbergers head for Canada

A conspiracy with no limits

Secretive power brokers meeting coming to Ottawa?

Ottawa braces for Bilderberg fever

Halifax Live - Powerful Men Who Meet Secretly and Plan

Cyprus represented for first time at secret Bilderberg meeting


Older Bilderberg Research


(I have attempted to exclude the wildest of the conspiracy theorist fringe from these links)

Steven Harper and the Bilderbergers Secret Meeting : Thunderbay IMC

Daniel Estulin: Infiltrating Bilderberg 2005

The world in the palm of their hands: Bilderberg 2005

Bilderberg strikes again

Bilderberg 2005 attendees - Webmaster Forum

2005 Bilderberg Guest List

Bilderberg's Secret Agenda 2005. May 12, 2005

FREE PRESS INTERNATIONAL: The Bilderberg Group 2005

Canadian Politicians in League with the Bilderbergers

Hidden masters of the world

Lord Black the Canadian Bilderberger

Vive le Canada - Unification the real Canadian Bilderberg agenda

CNN admits the existence of the Bilderberg Group.

New York Times: Edwards passed Bilderberg muster

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory

BBC NEWS | Americas | Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group

Guardian Unlimited | Today's issues | The Bilderberg group


Counterbias: Open Letter to the Bilderberg Steering Committee

Where is the media at Bilderberg?

Bilderberg media blackout

Media Blackout on Trilaterals

Media Moguls who attended Bilderberg meeting in 2005

Intelligence: 52nd Bilderberg Meeting

SchNEWS: The Bilderberg Papers

The Bilderberg Group: Planning the World's Future Behind Closed Door

Bilderberg - SourceWatch

Bilderberg Group

2003 Bilderberg Meeting: Information From Answers.com


The Bilderberg Group@Everything2.com

danieldrezner.com :: Daniel W. Drezner :: I'm off to join another secret cabal

The masters of the universe

TRANSNATIONAL PROGRESSIVISM (2)

Ming the Mechanic: Bilderbergers

WorldNetDaily: Bilderberg group meeting near DC

Bilderberg group wants vigorous Atlantic alliance

TrueFacts.co.uk -

A-Infos (en) Bilderberg-group meeting in Stenungsund, Sweden.

National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger Remarks to the Bilderberg Conference 1999

Bilderberg Meeting 1999

SAMUEL R. BERGER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
REMARKS TO THE BILDERBERG STEERING COMMITTEE November 4, 1999
House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 4 Jul 2000 (pt 1)

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 7 May 1999 (pt 2)

Bilderberg Propaganda Rules the Planet

Enigma Issue 16: An investigation into the Bilderberg Group

Bilderberg 1996: A close call for thwarting a scheme to partition Canada

SECRET TORONTO BILDERBERG MEETING 1996


PMag v12n4p06 -- An Elite Pow Wow

Bilderberg Group
Whos Who

The Bilderberg Group- Wikipedia

Bilderberg Group - Demopedia

Bilderberg Origins - The Biggest Secret Forum

Browse Subjects: B -> Bilderberg Meetings

Secretive Bilderberg Founder Dies

Bilderberg Conferences Collection

Bilderberg Club

Bilderberg and the West

by Peter Thompson
excerpted from the book
Trilateralism
edited Holly Sklar
South End Press, 1980

Mary Rawson / The Trilateral Commission

THE BILDERBERG FILE
Read the actual Bilderberg meeting report of the 1973 Conference. The report comprises approximately 70 pages and includes the Introduction by H R H Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson, reviewed by Michael Walker.

news | jonronson.com

The Secret Rulers of the World - Entire Chapter about Big Jim Tucker and the Bilderberg Group from Them: Adventures with Extremists. (46 page .pdf)

Guardian Unlimited Books - Who Pulls the Strings? Extract from Them: Adventures with Extremists

Them: Adventures With Extremists

Sec. 1, Anti-masonry Frequently Asked Questions

Bilderberg Part One - bilderberg-history-channel.rm @ ZippyVideos

Bilderberg Part Two - bilderberg-p2.rm @ ZippyVideos.com

Bilderberg Hotels

The Bilderberg Group






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