The Road Out of Mandalay

Canada welcomes 810 Burmese refugees

Accepting Myanmar refugees signals immigration shift

This still does not absolve the Government from turning a blind eye to business as usual with Burma/Myanmar by Canadian corporations.

Economic collapse imminent?

Friday, 14 August, 1998

The US government argues that Burma is close to economic collapse partly because of sanctions. It points to falling foreign exchange reserves, a declining exchange rate (350 kyats to the dollar on the informal market, as opposed to the official rate of six), and strict limits on the export of capital abroad.

Still waiting for the imminent demise of the Burmese economy. Yep just sitting here tappin my toe, waiting. Its only been eight years.

Ivanhoe Mines
Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company with very close links to the regime in Burma. As the largest foreign mining investor in Burma it operates the Monywa Copper mine in a joint venture with the regime. Rail and power infrastructure in the area of the mine was built using forced labour. The mine could be earning the regime over $40 million a year.

BURMA: As a part of their systematic campaign to pressure companies operating in Burma, the Canadian Labor Council (CLC) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) called for Canadian-based mining company Ivanhoe to withdraw from Burma. In a letter written to CEO of Ivanhoe, Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary said that Ivanhoe's relationship with the Burmese government in the Monywa copper mine helps supply, "funds for the coffers of a regime that has been irrefutably linked to forced labour and narcotics trafficking." ICEM is a trade union of twenty million people who work in mining all over the world. Ivanhoe said it would proceed with a US$280 million expansion of the Monywa mine. Also, the ICEM along with the US-based AFL-CIO spoke at a Shareholder's meeting of US-based Halliburton in June, to convince the company to pull out of Burma. Halliburton helped to construct the Yadana oil pipeline, which used forced labor and will provide the military dictatorship government of Burma with US$150 - US$400 million dollars for decades. Halliburton, who's former CEO is US Vice President Dick Cheney, has worked to oppose economic sanctions against Burma for its human rights violations. (Asiaweek, June 17, 2001, Press Release of CLC and ICEM, June 14 2001; Press Release, AFL-CIO and ICEM, May 15, 2001)

Two statements prior to the 2002 Ivanhoe Annual General Meeting on its position in Burma

Canadian Investment in Burma

Canadian Business and Burma

Stop Canadian Corporate Complicity with Burma's Military Regime




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House of Saud, House Of Cards

Guess who says this.....

“Passing over, for the present, all the evils and mischiefs which monarchy has occasioned in the world, nothing can more effectually prove its usefulness in a state of civil government than making it hereditary. Would we make any office hereditary that required wisdom and abilities to fill it? And where wisdom and abilities are not necessary, such an office, whatever it may be, is superfluous or insignificant.

Hereditary succession is a burlesque upon monarchy. It puts it in the most ridiculous light, by presenting it as an office which any child or idiot may fill. It requires some talent to be a common mechanic; but, to be a king, requires only the animal figure of man – a sort of breathing automaton”.

These are the words of Thomas Paine written in 1791. His logic and reasoning is as sound and pertinent now as it was then. But if Thomas Paine was alive and expressed similar sentiments in Saudi Arabia today, he would face imprisonment and torture. The very idea of republicanism which the founding fathers of United States so cherished is seen as subversive in Saudi Arabia, and is actively discouraged by the government.

When will the House of Saud feel safe?



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Tories Rally For Winnie

Not our Tories but British Tories, with a kick in the pants from Labour back benchers. Sorta like the current situation in the house over here, Tories do the right thing when kicked in the pants by the NDP.

British guards' bearskin hats may face ban
Conservative lawmaker Ann Widdecombe has now urged her party to support the motion aimed at replacing the bearskins with artificial substitutes. "Black bears, who are intelligent and curious animals, are slaughtered in Canada so that their skins may be used for ceremonial hats," Widdecombe wrote in a letter to her party colleagues on Thursday.

Now if only the Eeyores in the Harper government would remember that Winnie was short for Winnipeg the Bear. Perhaps we could save out endangered black bear population.

After all Winnie is as old as Queen Elizabeth. Winnie the Pooh turns 80

Christopher Robin and his "Winnie"	One of the original drawings by E.H. Shepard	Christopher and the real Winnie Ther Pooh
The bear was Christopher Robin's inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie. Winnie is typically a female name, but Christopher Robin insisted his bear was a boy. In the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne writes the following: When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say, "But I thought he was a boy?" "So did I," said Christopher Robin. "Then you can't call him Winnie?" "I don't." "But you said---" "He's Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don't you know what 'ther' means?" "Ah, yes, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you do too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get.

Also See: Bears



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Unlucky 13

Three Gaza children killed by Israeli air strike
AN Israeli air strike aimed at assassinating militants in the Gaza Strip has killed three children standing nearby, bringing to 13 the number of Palestinian civilians killed in attacks by Israeli helicopter gunships this month

No Comment. Just like the rest of the MSM.





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Hillary In Ottawa?

Did Hillary Clinton Attend Bilderberg Conference?

Did New York Senator and possible 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton attend this past weekend's Bilderberg meeting in Ottawa Canada? Our inside sources coupled with what witnesses saw at the Brookestreet Hotel strongly suggest this to be the case.

Nothing sinister in this she was probably just up in Ottawa to keep an eye on hubby and that blond Liberal hussy; Belinda Stronach.

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Libertarian Youth For Labour

Yes you read that right. Pardon the pun. No its not a shadowy Trotskyist fifth column infiltrating the Libertarian movement, that was Murray Bookchin. Nope this is the blog of two libertarian youth from the US of A. And they have an interesting post today.

Five Reasons Government is Bad for Labor

1. Historical precedent. Most of the time governments have intervened in labor disputes, it's been to the detriment of the workers. Governments have forced workers back to their jobs, condoned violent strikebreaking efforts and rescinding support when labor needs it most..

And it just gets better with the other four. Especially the attack on taxes, which I agree with, they correctly point out that taxes reduces the effectiveness of pay and benefit increases.

There you go Libertarian Youth defending da woiking class and its organizations. Now if only the Blogging Tories were as broad minded. Especially those claiming to be libertarians.

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Here Comes The Sun

Let the Sunshine In.

Hail Apollo!
Hail Our Sun,
Whom I am
the Son of.

It is the Summer Solstice the longest day of the year. And the official begining of summer.


Stonehenge revellers 'feel the solstice'
Toronto Star, Canada - 2 hours ago
STONEHENGE, England — Thousands of dancing and drumming spectators cheered the summer solstice at Stonehenge as an orange sliver of sun rose over the Heel ...
Druids and New Age revelers greet longest day
CNN International - 3 hours ago
STONEHENGE, England (AP) -- Druids, partygoers and New Age revelers flocked to this ancient monument Tuesday, preparing to greet the summer solstice amid the ...


Here comes the sun,
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun,
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

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Industrial Ecology

I have commented here before about industrial ecology .

Since the turn of last century technologists have looked at sustainable industry which often clashed with the management theories of the Fordist production model.

Recently a U of T professor spoke on this at a libertarian conference in Ontario; The Reading Room

His work was on how the market-place can be environmentally friendly through industrial ecology. It's an interesting paper well worth the read.

“Modern conditions make it almost impossible materially to cut production and
distribution of expense for the majority of commodities; hence one of the most
important opportunities for gaining competitive advantage, or even for enabling an industry or individual business to maintain its position in this new competition, is to reduce its manufacturing expense by creating new credits for products previously unmarketable...”

Can capitalism green itself. Of course. Simply look at WWII where rationing, recycling and reuse along with a command and control economic model was the method of production in North America.Which is why industrial ecology is only a solution within existing capitalism, for a real ecology of community and worker control we have to move beyond IE to Social Ecology.

But will it? Not likely. Because it takes a state capitalist political economy to enforce it. And with the current fiscal free fall in the market place, where more money being created is more important than long term production, it is not likely to happen soon enough.

A tip o' the blog to BBS for this.


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Soccer Inc.

Sometimes the right wing gets it, well right. Cheap shots about anti-globalization protestors in Nikes, aside....the world cup is highest level of capitalism as Lenin would say...it reflects the culture of imperialism. Heres John Hayden from the Washington Times take on the World Cup;

The World Cup is the perfect example of globalization.

Soccer's biggest party has all the ingredients to stir up a good, old anti-capitalist rant: Rich Western nations, stripping the best talent away from third-world countries, old, fat, white guys managing groups of African workers and Brazilians from ghettos traded across the globe to the highest bidders.
Welcome to the marketplace of modern soccer, where national barriers mean nothing in the pursuit of soccer talent and Brazilians are the biggest outsourcers on the planet.Protectionism has gone out of the window. Soccer players cross national boundaries with ease, and the big leagues in Europe are flooded with foreign talent.
Imagine the Redskins starting a game without a single American. John Riggins, wrapped in an American flag, would rip up the seats up at FedEx Field. Yet, Arsenal played for more than a month early this year without one English player in the starting lineup.

Of course not all that glitters is gold, and even soccer players are still wage slaves as the strike by the Trindad and Tobago team shows. Opps forgot about that did we John.

And he convienently left out the little fact that state capitalism and social democracy provides the most winning teams. Funny that.

HOW GOVERNMENTS NURTURE SOCCER.

Social democracy delivers more championships than the juntas--six in all. And even the worst social democratic teams--Belgium, Finland--win more consistently than their authoritarian peers. To understand this success, one must understand the essence of the social democratic economy. Social democracies take root in heavily industrialized societies, and this is a great blessing. No country has won the World Cup without having a substantial industrial base. This base supplies a vast urban proletariat, which in turn supplies players for a team. Industrial economies also produce great wealth, which funds competitive domestic leagues that improve social democratic players by subjecting them to day-to-day competition of the highest quality. And, while the junta mindset nicely transposes itself to the pitch, the social democratic ethos is a far neater match. Social democracy celebrates individualism, while relentlessly patting itself on the back for its sense of solidarity--a coherent team with room for stars.

Of course one has to be suspicious of anything Americans have to say about the beautiful game cause they well, they didn't invent it. And its about team work, collectivism, and well all those things that are well....you know....Un-American.

Hardin: Soccer a political futbol Americans won't trust
After 76 years of watching a game we did not invent, we've finally begun to figure out why soccer never has and never will be a part of our sporting calendar. It's un-American. Or not American.We've been hearing this since 1930, for so long it's no longer irritating: Soccer isn't going to make it here the way it has abroad until we have some serious changes. A military junta would be a good start, or possibly the emergence of a fascist dictatorship or maybe democratic socialism. Countries under those political conditions have won nine World Cups. Soccer is, first and foremost, political.

We know soccier represents the best that socialism has to offer. Which is why Americans get confused. Cause to them any form of collective endeavour is anathema.

Football: "war minus the shooting"

uploaded 20 Jun 2006




Joschka Fischer, former German foreign minister, recently declared that once the tournament of World Cup finals starts, "a football will become the symbol of our One World." This ideal of a world-at-peace encapsulated in a universal symbol seems at odds with the bloody reality of the world today. George Orwell described football as being "war minus the shooting". The English author and political commentator was not averse to hyperbole. However he is not alone when it comes to overstating the importance of game of football. The most dramatic dictum has to be that of Bill Shankly: ‘Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I can assure you it is much, much more important than that’. This may sound comical, on face value, but looking at the history of the game it is not clear whether or not he uttered these words in jest. Last week saw a series of distinctly Shanklyesk broadcast in the USA. Based on the morose manner of the addresses we can rest assured that it was not a joke. The American broadcaster ESPN, which shows most of the world cup games in the USA, is airing a series of adverts with members of the rock band U2. In one, Bono says that the World Cup "closes the schools, closes the shops, closes a city and stops a war." Another advert adds some more meat to the bones of Bono's thesis explaining that: "After three years of civil war, feuding factions talked for the first time in years, and the president called a truce. Because the Ivory Coast qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Because, as everyone knows, a country united makes for better cheerleaders than a country divided."

So yes Virginia soccer is where politics meets the pitch. Unlike of course unpolitical American sports like oh say NASCAR.


But all is not light and joy for the beautiful game.


There are the soccer scandals and of course the rascist nature of some Euro sports fans, err hooligans.Who’s to blame for racism in soccer?

And there are those sweatshops and child labour making FIFA balls and uniforms, opps . Nasty that. Something that Mr. Hayden forgot to mention in his Washington Times article. Though he did get it right about wondering with such high profile sweat shop companies like Nike and Adidas present at the World Cup why there were no protests.

Meanwhile not all eyes are on the world cup. Nope the ruling class in Germany is back in the counting house complaining.

German Industry Irked by Slow Pace of Reforms
While most of the country is swept up in World Cup fever, that's not the case for German business leaders. They've been eyeing up Chancellor Merkel's progress on economic reforms and wonder what she's waiting for. Angela Merkel may be enjoying the highest popularity ratings of any post-war German chancellor, but she is fast losing favor among the country's business leaders and economic experts.

Gawd what a bunch of whiners. Global competiveness this, global competiveness that, sheesh shut up already and watch the game. That's real global competitiveness in action.

And youse guys on the right say the left doesn't know how to have fun. Gimme a break. And don't just say its because they are German capitalists, capitalists just are no fun. Period. Take Steve Forbes....please. drum roll. clash of cymbols.

A socialist’s guide to the World Cup

Simon Black

As World Cup fever grips the globe, many progressives will be sighing at the prospect of another sporting spectacle distracting the “masses” from the pressing issues of the day — the classic “bread and circuses” argument.

There is a tendency on the North American left to disdain sport: its competitive nature, the corporatisation of its grand events, its inherent masculinities and cultures of exclusion. Some of this critique is grounded in good sociology; some of it bears an irrational disdain for that in which one does not participate or enjoy.

In many sports, but especially in “the beautiful game”, politics and the game have a symbiotic relationship. Politics can influence and be influenced by what happens on the field of play. The World Cup is no exception.

My parents immigrated to Canada from Liverpool in the 1960s: growing up, soccer and socialism were the main topics of discussion in the Black household. Conversations at the dinner table moved seamlessly between football and politics, England’s chances in the World Cup and the New Democratic Party’s chances in the upcoming election.

I only committed my life to socialism after being rejected as a professional soccer player (a brief stint with the English premier league’s Watford FC is my footballing claim to fame).

In many countries, soccer is a terrain of political and ideological struggle like the media or the education system. Teams in Europe often have decidedly partisan political followings. Lazio of Rome was the club of Mussolini and retains a large fascist following today. Italian club AS Livorno has long been associated with communism and banners of Che Guevara can be seen waving in the stands at the team’s home games. Clashes between Livorno’s supporters and the fans of right-wing teams can dominate match day in this picturesque Tuscany town.

World Cup quotes of the week



Also See:

Soccer

Sports



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Your Global Ruling Class

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, here is your global ruling class......

Globally, the number of people falling into the $1 million or more category grew by 6.5 per cent, with more and more individuals from the emerging markets of China, India and Russia boosting the total. Altogether, the estimated 8.7 million individuals worldwide in this wealth bracket have net total assets of $33.3 trillion, an increase of 8.5 per cent on 2004’s figure.

The super-rich, those with $30 million or more, grew at an even faster pace in 2005 — 10.2 per cent. There are 85,400 of them worldwide. Britons lead world in race to be rich

Race to be rich, more like s*** floats.

The rich and the super rich, remain a minority of parasites living off the backs of millions.

This is the trickle down economy, lifting all boats as they say. Except that the majority of us are in overcrowded life boats while these folks are on the cruise ship.

Rich get even richer in third world

Dubai, the capitalist dream on steroids

How many of us were there again oh yeah 6 billion.

So why are these guys still in charge? Because we haven't organized!

Graphic from Hugo Gellert: Karl Marx' 'Capital' in Lithographs





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