Partners In Health's Executive Director Ophelia Dahl and

Misadventures of the Most Favored Nations:

Clashing Egos, Inflated Ambitions, and the

Great Shambles of the World Trade System

by Paul Blustein - Public Affairs (Perseus Books)

New York, 2009
by Jim Miles

Since its arrival in public awareness - at least for the public that follows ideas related to international trade, not many in our star studded frivolous media world - I have been antagonistic to the WTO. Reading this work by Paul Blustein was a self appointed task to read the opposition’s own ideas and how they are formulated.

His most current writing in Foreign Policy [1] carries some very good news for those who, like myself, think of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a supra-national level of corporate governance that is neither democratic nor open and transparent. Blustein says,

"After eight painful years of standstill and failure, with each meeting just a shoveling of intractable problems forward to the next, the Doha talks might collapse once and for all in 2010, possibly taking the World Trade Organization (WTO) down in the process."

One can only hope that this comes to pass. Even if they do reach some kind of a ‘deal’, Blustein still thinks it might be the end,

"The round's initial goals -- making globalization work for the billions left behind by eliminating the farm subsidies and tariffs that adversely affect the world's poor -- have become so laughably implausible that completing what's left of an agreement will prompt a painful reckoning. The deal on the table has been so watered down by negotiations that it cannot be credibly said to work wonders for the poor, or even effect much change in how global trade takes place."

The Amazing Makeover of the

Campbell River Estuary

by The Nature Conservancy of Canada

 

 

 

The Business of Water: Privatizing An Essential Resource
by Stephen Lendman
In her 2002 book titled, "Water Wars," noted author, social activist, and ecologist Vandana Shiva called privatizing water:

-- ecological terrorism;

-- a global water crisis;

-- along with overuse, waste and pollution, it can cause "the most pervasive, most severe, and most invisible dimension of the ecological devastation of the earth;"

-- the road to "an ecological crisis with commercial causes but no market solutions; (they) destroy the earth and aggravate inequality; the solution to an ecological crisis is ecological, and the solution for injustice is democracy;" and

-- water rights are natural and "usufructuary....water can be used but not owned;" it belongs to everyone as part of the commons as an essential "basis of all life....under customary laws, the right to water has been accepted as a natural, social fact."

Calling All Rebels
by Chris Hedges
There are no constraints left to halt America’s slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair. The legal system has been corrupted to serve corporate interests. Popular institutions, from labor unions to political parties, have been destroyed or emasculated by corporate power. And any form of protest, no matter how tepid, is blocked by an internal security apparatus that is starting to rival that of the East German secret police.

 

Fraser Gravel Mining About Flood Protection?

by Damien Gillis

In just 5 minutes, Dr. Marvin Rosenau - former provincial biologist and current BCIT professor - lays out the evidence against the Campbell Government's official story that lucrative gravel mining in the Fraser River is all about flood protection.

 

Informed Consent
by William Blum
About half the states in the US require that a woman seeking an abortion be told certain things before she can obtain the medical procedure. In South Dakota, for example, until a few months ago, staff was required to tell women:

 

Unity March: Counter Nazi Rally

by VARN

Friends! On March 21st, in New Westminster, far right groups and Neo-Nazi's will march to show the world what total bone heads and loser they really are.  This being said, the far right still pose a serious threat, especially in hard economic times. 

 

There is also a large contingent of Neo-Nazi's in Nanaimo, Duncan and a smaller one in Langford.  It is my deep conviction that we must not wait for the bastards to come to us, and that we must be proactive in our fight against fascism.

In conjunction with the Victoria Anti-Racist Network we will be hosting a Anti-racist/Anti-Nazi rally at Noon, on March 21st, at Centennial Square. We will hear speakers, and , numbers pending, take to the streets.

Below are a few links i encourage you to explore.  Please visit the VARN website and facebook page.  Additionally, please explore the far right site known as 'Storm front'.  While you may be sickened to see such bile, it is critical that we are aware of what the little idiots are saying.  In particular, notice the Nazi gathering planned for Vancouver Island on the weekend of March 20-21st.  Also, please visit the anti-racist Canada site.

I ask that you support this call and turn up with your friends in tow.  I am putting myself in some small risk opposing these parasites, and I ask that you join me.