» Archive: October 2003
Vancouver - Hunger Strike Against the FTAA Begins
VANCOUVER, BC Canada – Two local activists began a hunger strike today to protest plans to implement the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Two other activists are currently fasting in support.
The activists are currently maintaining a continuous vigil at the Peace Arch and have set up a small camp there. They plan on continuing the hunger strike over the weeks leading up to the FTAA’s Ministerial in Miami on November 20th and 21st.
The activists presented a series of principles that they would like the Federal government to take immediate action on (see below). They also asked Vancouver City Council to declare Vancouver an “FTAA-free zone.”
Misbehave!
"misbehaving.net is a weblog about women and technology. It's a celebration of women's contributions to computing; a place to spotlight women's contributions as well point out new opportunities and challenges for women in the computing field."
On a somewhat related note, I'm very interested to read Penny Gurstein's Wired to the World, Chained to the Home: Telework in Daily Life.
She analyzes the experiences of teleworkers including employees, independent contractors, and self-employed entrepreneurs, and presents significant findings regarding the workload, mobility, the distinct differences according to work status and gender, and the tensions in trying to combine work and domestic activities in the same setting. As organizational structures, technology, and family priorities continue to change, the often overlooked phenomenon of teleworkers has important implications on everything from employment policies to community planning and design.
Bigger Banks
Guardian: "Bank of America today agreed to buy FleetBoston Financial in a $47bn (£27.7bn) deal that will create one of the world's biggest banking companies."
Quote of the Week
"In my opinion, any man who can afford to buy a newspaper should not be allowed to own one."
--Ray Hattersley, as quoted in Tom Bower's Maxwell, the Outsider, 1991.
(from the Canadian Assoc. of Journalists list, I think)
Update: Stiff competition comes from this latest Bushism:
"The vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice."
Anti-Scab Legislation Off
Canadian Labour Congress: "Had Bill C-328 passed, it would have banned the use of scabs, during labour disputes in industries governed by the Canada Labour Code. Similar laws in place in British Columbia and Quebec have resulted in more tranquil labour relations, including a significant drop in the statistics for days of work lost due to strike or lock-out. The use of scabs prolongs disputes and has often provided the flash-point for violence or injury on picket lines."
I would link to a source that's less invested in the story than the CLC, but (at least according to google news) no papers covered it.
86 MPs voted for it, so I'd think it would be worthy of, say, a news brief or two. This is probably one of those cases where there's a sensible reason for a complete lack of coverage that I just don't know about.
Buy Nothing for Christmas
Christmas is one of the most stressful times of the year. An orgy of consumerism fueled by some unwritten, inexplicable obligation to spend money on 'things'. Christmas has devolved into an obligation, a competition.
This Christmas why not buy nothing?
Buying nothing is too radical a step for most but there are alternatives: make something; ask for one gift purchased with pooled money - a gift you actually want and will use; give a proxy gift by contributing to charity in the recipients name. Or, buy nothing.
Atlantic Monthly spends 18 pages glorifying torture
"It's not torture when Americans are doing it" (CityPages): "At several points in his prose, and often in an obsequious tone, Bowden describes the various methods of psychological 'coercion' carried out by the U.S. military. There is 'sleep deprivation, exposure to heat or cold, the use of drugs to cause confusion, rough treatment (slapping, shoving, or shaking), forcing a prisoner to stand for days at a time or sit in uncomfortable positions, and playing on his fear for himself and his family.'"
Corruption of the Willing
Christian Aid Report: "A staggering US$4 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country has disappeared into opaque bank accounts administered by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-controlled body that rules Iraq. By the end of the year, if nothing changes in the way this cash is accounted for, that figure will double. The financial black hole, uncovered by a Christian Aid investigation, is revealed as delegates gather for the donors' conference in Madrid. Before pledging money from their own countries' coffers to boost the reconstruction efforts, as requested by the US and UK governments, these delegates should first demand: 'What has happened to the missing billions?' "
Ancient History
Richard Reeves: "'America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people,' said President Bush (news - web sites) to a joint session of the Congress of the Philippines last week. 'Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule.' Unfortunately, we then killed more than 200,000 Filipinos. Almost all of the dead were civilians, killed in the two years after we liberated them from the Spanish in 1898. One of our generals there, a cranky Civil War veteran named Jacob Smith, told his men: 'I wish you to kill and burn ... I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States.'"
You can't make this [stuff] up
"...why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
Measured Response
Agence France-Press: "A right-wing Knesset member Tuesday accused high-profile Israeli leftists who drafted an unofficial peace plan with the Palestinians of 'treason' and demanded they be sentenced to death or life imprisonment. 'Those who initiated the Geneva agreement have perpetrated a crime of treason necessitating a death sentence or life imprisonement,' Shaul Yahalom, who heads the radical National Religious Party (NRP), wrote in a letter to Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein, according to a copy obtained by AFP."
New Military Response
What is Rumsfeld up to? I wonder what a "more agile security agency" means to him?
Any change to the largest military organization in the world needs careful scrutiny. It needs extra scrutiny when the proposals would include creating new organizations with more flexibility. Is flexibility achieved at the cost of controls? Does an increased speed of response mean fewer decision makers, fewer checks and balances. Does flexibility mean turning a blind eye to the consequences of actions - or perhaps it means the flexibility to ignore domestic laws as well as international laws.
There are good reasons for the bureaucratic controls on western militaries - it's meant to ensure the military is doing the citizens business and not doing citizens.
Rumsfeld is the Jedi-Master of bureaucratic manipulation. He set up a separate, 'agile' intelligence arm in the pentagon to get better results from the same raw intelligence that the CIA said was inconclusive; this lead to a war justified by half-truths and misrepresentations.
I would certainly agree that new responses are needed to battle terrorism. How about not supporting dictators, reducing poverty, reducing that hopelessness that induces testosterone fueled young men to join these organizations in the first place. There are many credible opportunities to be flexible without resorting the blunt instruments of military force.
I hope our friends south of the border wake up before the dark side independently controls all the levers of power!
"Liberal" being a misnomer...
It looks like Mike Harris is kinda sorta planning a run at the Conservative party leadership, starting with his speech in Halifax. (Local Halifax activists were on hand dressed as squeegee kids. From what I hear, Harris walked off the stage right after a reporter asked about Walkerton, but a media activist followed him, peppering him with questions about his record in Ontario until he was dragged away by security.)
In other news, I was reading about Paul Martin's policy positions the other day, and it looks like the right in Canada will soon be split again--this time between "Liberals" and "Conservatives" (both of which are misnomers at this point--what do they aim to conserve, exactly?).
In terms of making major gains, the next federal election is Jack Layton's to lose. But I'm not holding my breath.
Arundhati Roy (so it's worth reading)
Arundhati Roy: "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free"
Way back in 1988, on the 3rd of July, the U.S.S. Vincennes, a missile cruiser stationed in the Persian Gulf, accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner and killed 290 civilian passengers. George Bush the First, who was at the time on his presidential campaign, was asked to comment on the incident. He said quite subtly, "I will never apologize for the United States. I don't care what the facts are."
In Other News...
Observer: "Israeli and US officials have admitted collaborating to deploy US-supplied Harpoon cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads in Israel's fleet of Dolphin-class submarines, giving the Middle East's only nuclear power the ability to strike at any of its Arab neighbors."
International News (Pakistan): "The 'evangelical' belief of British Prime Minister Tony Blair that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction pushed the country into war for false reasons, Blair’s former foreign secretary revealed on Sunday."
Daily Star (opinion): "During congressional hearings held earlier this summer, a leading advocate of higher education was forced to deny that Edward Said’s influential work Orientalism (1978), is being regularly taught in American universities. In the climate of intimidation hanging over US academic institutions in the post-Sept. 11, 2001 era, many other academics will be forced to repeatedly disavow Said, and the cock has not crowed yet."
Black Commentator: "The previously unthinkable is now on the table. Russia, the world’s second largest oil exporter, is giving serious consideration to trading its black gold in euros, a switch that would surely set dominos in motion among other oil producing nations and, ultimately, knock the dollar off its global throne."
Oakland Tribune: "After sinking 40 years and billions of dollars into beam weapons, defense scientists are on the cusp of what could be a military revolution -- warfare at the speed of light."
UPI: "Makers of anti-terrorist technology are lining up to register under a new government scheme that provides them with immunity from lawsuits brought if their products malfunction or don't work during a terrorist attack."
NYTimes (op/ed): "There has been rioting in Bolivia for nearly four weeks now. News reports say that the riots have been over the construction of a pipeline to ship natural gas to the United States. That's true, but there's a deeper anger at work: anger toward the United States and its war against a traditional Bolivian crop, coca."
Canadian Actors Establish 'Movie Co-op'
Various movie artists, from Eugene Levy to Paul Gross, Mark McKinney, and George Bloomfield, have established a movie co-op for Canadian movies. The group has modelled itself after United Artists, in hopes of bringing more creative freedom to the film making process.
What to do about the WTO
The failure of the WTO negotiations in Cancun is tragic. In September of 2003 Fred McMahon of the Fraser Institute wrote:
For the sake of the world's most destitute, the World Trade Organization ... must act decisively to eliminate the greatest impediment to reducing world poverty -- agricultural barriers and subsidies imposed by the world's richest nations.The scope of the problem is huge and the impact is terrible.
The worlds richest nations have huge agricultural subsidies in place to prop up domestic agricultural production. In the US, 18% of all farm receipts are subsidies. In Canada, despite recent reductions, 20% of receipts are subsidies. This pales in comparison to the 36% in the EU. While half of the world lives on less than $2 a day the EU provides a subsidy of $2.50 to each and every cow every day.
Many people think this isn't right but feel that all the foreign aid we provide compensates for any losses caused by western subsidies. That is not the case. In fact, the rich nations provide about $50 billion per year in foreign aid and $300 billion per year in agricultural subsidies. These subsidies reduce the output of poor nations by about $60 billion per year. Rich nations would have to provide another $10 billion per year just to break even on paper. The number is likely much larger because only a portion of the aid actually reaches those who need it.
In the case of agriculture the claim by WTO protesters that current arrangements favor rich nations at the expense of the poor is true. The question is: what to do about it.
Most of the protests that I have seen or read take the position that the WTO is evil; that it should be dissolved; and when it is dissolved the world will be a better place. This kind of rhetoric does nothing to improve the situation of the worlds poor. In fact dissolving the only mechanism for negotiation will do great harm to those the protesters are trying to help.
Some NGOs and poor countries claimed that the collapse of the talks in Cancun was a great success. A great success for who? The poor remain poor and the subsidies remain in place.
In my view the rich nations bear the lions share of responsibility for the collapse of the talks. The bold statements made in the Doha round — "reduce trade distorting farm support, slash tariffs on farm goods, and eliminate agriculture-export subsidies" — were betrayed by the meagre actions that followed. According to the Economist, they are not the only contributors to the failure:
Egged on by a bevy of activists, too many third-world politicians got carried away by the thrill of saying no—ignoring the fact that poor countries actually have more to gain from lowering their own trade barriers than from persuading rich countries to lower theirs. According to the World Bank, over 70% of the benefits that poor countries might see from the Doha round would come from freeing trade with each other. By refusing to compromise, poor countries have come away with nothing.
The only path out of poverty is commerce. The collapse of the Cancun talks is not a cause to celebrate. Certainly it is an example of the poor countries and newly formed alliances flexing their muscle and that may engender some pride in a group that wins few battles. However, celebrating the failure, is celebrating an event that may well entrench the problem further.
While the battle in Cancun was primarily between rich and poor nations only 30% of the benefits of Doha are realized by removing rich nation tariffs. 70% of poor nations' benefits are realized by reducing tariffs between poor countries.Flushed down the drain along with rich nation tariffs were other Singapore issues equally important to relieving poverty through trade. One of these was trade facilitation. On average the cost of transporting goods from African nations is five times higher than tariffs on those goods. Corrupt and inefficient customs procedures are a large part of that burden.
Negotiators are meeting in Geneva to try and put humpty together again. Lets hope they can keep the cart on the path. If they fail - it will be no cause to celebrate!
In Jenin
On the main street, coffee vendors and vegetable carts have begun to reappear and people are emerging from their homes to get food and medicine, drink coffee, and just sit on the sidewalks and talk. Shops are opening one fold of their steel doors to allow a slim entrance, and a small market has even established itself less than twenty feet from the central site of the stone throwing and machine gunning.
In response, the tanks are now enforcing the curfew steadily all day, circling the city, passing up and down the main street firing their machine guns, tearing up the boulevards and spraying the sidewalks and homes with a thick diesel smokescreen that leaves the midday sunshine looking like the densest of maritime fog, taking several minutes to clear.
Before the tanks reach the main street, someone will come running up the road yelling "they're coming!" and the shopkeepers quickly seal their steel doors, the adults scurry down the alleys leaving their coffee cups where they were, the photographers get in position and the children prepare their stones.
The tanks pass, shooting hundreds of rounds and spraying clouds of smoke as the children heave their stones - while some play a terrifying game where they mount the back of the tank and ride the enormous death machine in a way that leaves them oddly untouchable since the mounted gun cannot shoot down at itself.
"The Soviet Republic of Texas "
Washington Post Editorial: "You might think that America's rigged system of congressional elections couldn't get much worse. Self-serving redistricting schemes nationwide already have left an overwhelming number of seats in the House of Representatives so uncompetitive that election results are practically as preordained as in the old Soviet Union. In the last election, for example, 98 percent of incumbents were reelected, and the average winning candidate got more than 70 percent of the vote. More candidates ran without any major-party opposition than won by a margin of less than 20 percent. Yet even given this record, the just-completed Texas congressional redistricting plan represents a new low."
Shi'ites in Iraq
Juan Cole in the Boston Review: The Iraqi Shiites: On the history of America's would-be allies
The ambitious aim of the American war in Iraq—articulated by Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and other neoconservative defense intellectuals—was to effect a fundamental transformation in Middle East politics. The war was not—or not principally—about finding weapons of mass destruction, or preventing alliances with al Qaeda, or protecting the Iraqi population from Saddam’s terror. For U.S. policy makers the importance of such a transformation was brought home by the events of September 11, which challenged U.S. strategy in the region by compromising the longstanding U.S. alliance with Saudi Wahhabis. In response to this challenge, the Bush administration saw the possibility of creating a new pillar for U.S. policy in the region: a post-Baathist Iraq, dominated by Iraqi Shiites, which would spark a wave of democratization across the Middle East.Juan Cole is a history prof, and apparently knows how to research beyond the usual sources. As a result, his account of the history of US involvement in Iraq is well worth a read.
Rumsfeld's $9 Billion Slush Fund
Slate:"For all the debate over President Bush's $87 billion supplemental request for military operations and economic reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq, no one seems to have noticed that the sum includes a slush fund of at least $9.3 billion, which Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld can spend pretty much as he pleases."
Computerized Voting in the US: Scary
It is still unclear exactly how results from these missing cards were tabulated, or if they were counted at all. And we will probably never know, for a highly disturbing reason. The vote count was not conducted by state elections officials, but by the private company that sold Georgia the voting machines in the first place, under a strict trade-secrecy contract that made it not only difficult but actually illegal - on pain of stiff criminal penalties - for the state to touch the equipment or examine the proprietary software to ensure the machines worked properly. There was not even a paper trail to follow up. The machines were fitted with thermal printing devices that could theoretically provide a written record of voters' choices, but these were not activated. Consequently, recounts were impossible. Had Diebold Inc, the manufacturer, been asked to review the votes, all it could have done was programme the computers to spit out the same data as before, flawed or not.
No More Squeeze For The Squeegee Kids
The creation of a squeegee council in Vancouver seemed to make a bit of noise, if we consider the number of journalists asking us for interviews...It seemed like nobody ever saw street people organizing. We decided to organize to fight the collection of tickets and court dates, and to create a power that will free us from police beatings and jailing. We unite as squeegee workers, but fight as a class, because we know they want us all, one by one. We know that washing windows has nothing to do with our repression, that the real reason is because we show the capitalist failure: poverty.
The Effects of Water Privatization in India
India's common resources, such as water, are being appropriated by the government and given to private corporations at the behest of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization. This is a report that details the effects on the people of India.
"The people were protesting Coca Cola's takeover of common water resources of the village for its water bottling plant. The company has been drawing 15 lakh liters of water per day, which has dried the aquifers within 2 years and has polluted the water."
"the Upper Ganga Canal is being lined to prevent seepage into the neighboring fields (an important source of moisture for farming) and recharge of ground water, and farmers are being prevented from digging wells even as they are reeling under severe drought."
"Private Public Partnership is the buzzword in the water privatization."
"Ganga's waters, the lifeline of northern India and India's food security, are being handed over to Suez to quench the thirst of Delhi's elite even as a hundred thousand people are forcefully and violently removed from their homes in Tehri for the Tehri Dam."
Counterpunch has more on US and EU post-Cancun privatization plans and effects in Central America.
Booker Goes to a Rogue
DBC Pierre has won this years Man Booker Prize for his first novel, Vernon God Little. It is the story of a fifteen year old boy who is accused of a high school massacre. DBC Pierre is a nom de plume which means "Dirty But Clean" Pierre, based on the Australian cartoon character, Dirty Pierre. The author's real name is Peter Finlay. He was born in Australia, grew up in Mexico and now lives in Ireland. The author has a colorful past:
"In his 42 years he has managed to get himself shot by a neighbor
in Mexico City, work up debts of hundreds of thousands of dollars,
cultivate drug and gambling addictions and leave behind a trail of
wronged woman, despite having to have his face reconstructed by
surgeons after a horrific car crash. In between, he has managed
unsuccessful careers as a filmmaker, treasure hunter, smuggler
and graphic artist."
Finlay said the 50,000 pound cheque would go chiefly to the 75-year-old painter, Robert Lenton, who Finlay swindled out of his home.
A deep sense of irony
Vladimir Putin, according to the NY Times,
avoided a direct question about the growing influence of the security officials known as siloviki by saying he had simply restructured law enforcement agencies the way the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security. "To talk about a return to the Soviet times in connection with would be like talking about the times of McCarthy, referring to the ministry of homeland security in the United States," he said. "This is rubbish that has nothing to do with reality."
2003 Nobel Peace Prize
Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights lawyer and activist, has won this years Nobel Peace Prize. This makes her the first Iranian to win the peace prize. Ebadi was Iran's first female judge but was forced to resign by the Islamic Revolution of 1979. She has crusaded for the rights of dissidents, women, refugees and child labourers and has even been jailed for her efforts. Ebadi was awarded the prize amongst 165 other candidates including Pope John Paul II and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.
Ebadi said:"This prize doesn't belong to me only. It belongs to all
people who work for human rights and democracy in
Iran."
Ebadi will be awarded the $1.3 million prize on December 10, 2003, in Oslo.
Georgia Straight Targeted?
From the Georgia Straight's own explanation:
QUESTION: Why does the Straight have to pay $1 million in provincial sales taxes on its printing costs?
ANSWER: This is a good question, because the Social Service Tax Act says that newspapers do not have to pay sales tax on printing costs. The B.C. Liberal government recently claimed that the Straight is not a newspaper, which is why the revenue ministry imposed a $1-million penalty.
Publisher Dan McLeod says this re-interpretation of the rules is a politically motivated attempt to silence a persistent critic.
"We're the only paper that is consistently critical of the government in our editorials week after week, and we're the only paper that's being fined a million dollars," he says. "So I put two and two together."
Flames And Poisons
The Georgia Straight (Vancouver) uncovered the fact that an ingredient in the forest fire retardant chemical Firetrol, when mixed with water and UV light, is highly toxic.
"Millions Of Litres Of Fire Retardant Fell On B.C. Forests in 2003...In addition to B.C., Firetrol is used to fight forest fires in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, the Yukon, and Northwest Territories."
First Inuk in the NHL
Tomorrow night Jordon Tootoo, a 21 year old from Rankin Inlet Nunavut, will step on to the ice with the Nashville Predators..... by doing so he becomes the first Inuk to play professional hockey in the NHL.
A poster promoting the Inuk hockey star as a role model for children in Nunavut was unveiled in Iqaluit on Tuesday, the poster poster is designed to encourage Inuit students to stay in school and set goals.
2003 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences
Robert F. Engle, of New York University, and Clive W.J. Granger, of the University of California, have won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. They were awarded the prize for their work in statistical methods for economic time series. Their research can be used for chronological observations of gross domestic product, prices, interest rates and stock prices.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Dr. Peter Agre, of the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Dr. Roderick Mackinnon, of Rockefeller University, have won the 2003 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Agre and Mackinnon did work on channels that water molecules and electrically charged atoms, or ions, pass through in and out of cells. The proper functioning of such channels are responsible for making the heart beat, the brain function, the kidneys work and the limbs move. Channel malfunction can cause cystic fibrosis, irregular heart beat, high blood pressure, paralysis and disorders of the kidney and muscle.
Agre said:"It's not the kind of problem that can be solved by straight-ahead thinking."
Mackinnon felt he was "looking at something beautiful in nature."
The two scientists will share the $1.3 million prize.
Lies, more or less
WorldNetDaily: "By telling Americans that Saddam could "on any given day" slip unconventional weapons to al-Qaida if America didn't disarm him, the president misrepresented the conclusions of his own secret intelligence report, which warned that Saddam wouldn't even try to reach out to al-Qaida unless he were attacked and had nothing to lose – and might even find that hard to do since he had no history of conducting joint terrorist operations with al-Qaida, and certainly none against the U.S."
We are addicted to this happy rags-to-riches myth in this country. People in other industrialised democracies are content to make a good enough living to pay their bills and raise their families. Few have a cutthroat desire to strike it rich. They live in reality, where there are only going to be a few rich people, and you are not going to be one of them. So get used to it.
Of course, rich people in those countries are very careful not to upset the balance. Even though there are greedy bastards among them, they do have some limits placed on them. In the manufacturing sector, for example, British CEOs make 24 times as much as their average workers - the widest gap in Europe. German CEOs only make 15 times more than their employees, while Swedish CEOs get 13 times as much. But here in the US, the average CEO makes 411 times the salaries of their blue-collar workers. Wealthy Europeans pay up to 65% in taxes, and they know better than to bitch too loud about it or the people will make them fork over even more.
US Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner (ret.): "And, I think, maybe, probably the best way to summarise all that was they became victims of their own marketing campaign."
IfAmericansKnew.org: "Americans have an enormous, often little known, connection to the ongoing and dangerous tragedy that is Israel and Palestine. As lives of the young and old are increasingly lost and devastated, due in part to short-sighted US policies, it is inevitable that these policies will endanger American lives as well. American citizens have the power to end this carnage."
From Occupied Palestine
Jon Elmer is in Jenin, on the West Bank, and has filed two new updates:
A note from under curfew in Jenin
We are writing from behind the locked green steel doors of an internet cafe in Jenin, a city under 24-hour curfew since the bombing in Haifa three days ago that was carried out by a 27-year old women who was a lawyer in this city. The roar of tanks is consistent, and gunshots crackle in the distance (and closer) at regular intervals. House demolitions have been a nightly affair, some 17 in the past four days, including the homes of the entire extended family of the bomber.
Human Rights: B'Tselem interview
Jessica Montell, B'Tselem - Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories: Over the past three years we have seen an increase in violence against both Israelis and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. It seems that as part of this intifada, people on both sides are taking the law into their own hands and committing acts of violence against the other community.
From a human rights perspective, we are more concerned with the response of the Israeli authorities, and the responsibility of Israel to enforce the law and to punish people who violate the law. The Israeli authorities are, on the whole, much more lenient toward Jews who break the law - including acts of violence - than they are toward Palestinians.
The intensive investigations, arrests, interrogations, and prosecutions in the case [of the settlers from Bat Ayin], stand in stark contrast to what we see as very lax law enforcement against the routine violence by settlers toward Palestinians.
Where'd the money go?
Reuters: "Even if oil prices are favourable, stability is achieved and debts are largely written off, Iraq's economy will not reach even half the size it was in the 1970s, the US-based Institute of International Finance (IIF) said in a document sent to its members and quoted by Reuters."
Arab News: "Al-Jazeera bowed to pressure from the United States government last month by immediately pulling two cartoons deemed “inflammatory” by Washington from its websites, a senior source in the news organization has told Arab News. The two cartoons were pulled 'without any hesitation' from both the Arabic and English language websites after a US government official complained about them, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity."
iFeminists.com: "The modern two-income family is no better off than the one-income family from decades ago. Indeed, family finances are edging ever closer to disaster. So say Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi in their controversial book, 'The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.'"
2003 Nobel Prize for Medicine
Paul Lauterbur, of the University of Illinois, and Sir Peter Mansfield, of the University of Nottingham, have won the 2003 Nobel Prize for medicine for work done independently leading to the development of MRI, the body scanning technique that displays the internal organs in 3-D detail. The technique, that became widely available in the 1980's, allows doctors to see a tumour in the abdomen, or cartilage and ligaments in the knee without exploratory surgery.
Lauterbur said: "I think the work has been helpful to many people, and
I'm happy that it has been acknowledged by the Swedish
academy."
Mansfield said: "I'm still working in research, but I'd given up all hopes
and ideas of receiving anything in the way of an
accolade of this type."
The recipient(s) of the Nobel Prize in medicine are awarded with a cheque equivalent to $1.74 million Cdn.
You got the wrong impression, mister
2003 Nobel Prize for Literature
J.M. Coetzee has been awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for literature. This makes him Africa's third Nobel laureate for literature, after Wole Soyinka of Nigeria in 1986 and Nadine Gordimer of South Africa in 1991. The academy spoke of his "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance." Mr. Coetzee was the first writer to win the Booker Prize twice.
This year's other Nobel prizes will be announced next week.
No to Voting System Referendum
Yesterday the NDP tabled a motion
That this House call upon the government to hold a referendum within one year to determine whether Canadians wish to replace the current electoral system with a system of proportional representation and, if so, to appoint a commission to consult Canadians on the preferred model of proportional representation and the process of implementation, with an implementation date no later than July 1, 2006.
The motion was defeated with 76 Yeas and 144 Nays. Predictably the NDP and Alliance voted Yea and the Liberals voted en-block Nay. No big surprise there. A move towards proportional representation would take seats from the Liberals and allocate them to the smaller parties.