In a story that even the most unthinking extreme right-winger would find hard to refute, The Star today reports that the world's lowest country is sinking under rising water levels. Entitled People forced to move as world’s lowest country sinks under rising seas, it describes how entire communities have had to be moved on some islands in the Maldives.
Climate change skeptics only have to look at his country, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and other sea-level nations to see its horrific effects on the environment, Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam said.
"In the past two to three decades, we have relocated entire populations from one island to the other simply because life wasn't sustainable in those islands," he told an Asian Development Bank conference on climate induced migration.
Something tells me, however, that given the recent record number and intensity of hurricanes and tornadoes that have caused great damage in North America without arousing any corporate or governmental interest in the abatement of emissions, the plight of people so far away will mean even less to the powers that be.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A Memo From Mohawk College On How To Become A Scab
All of my adult life, I have had nothing but absolute contempt for scabs, or, as these more sensitive times describe them, 'replacement workers'. Whether crossing a picket line to work inside an operation that has been struck in order to earn some extra cash, or deserting the union to return to work, the decision to become a scab bespeaks an indefensible exaltation of the self over the interests of the collective.
In the current college support workers' strike, Mohawk College is demonstrating its willingness to take on the role of scab encourager, as the following memo from Karen Pashleigh, Mohawk's Chief Human Resources & Organizational Development Officer, makes clear. The discerning reader will undoubtedly note the manipulative nature of the letter as the writer disguises her true purpose by feigning interest in the well-being of the worker:
Memorandum
To: All Full-time Support Staff Employees
From: Karen Pashleigh
Date: September 6, 2011
Re: Your right to work during a strike
During a work stoppage you are faced with choices. Whatever decision you make, whether it is to serve on the picket line, come into work or just stay at home, as your employer we fully respect that choice. You have the right to continue to work during a strike, provided the College has work available for you. The law specifically gives you that right.
Should you return to work, the wages and benefits applicable to such work will be as set out in the Collective Agreement which expired on August 31, 2011. When a new collective agreement is entered into, its terms will then begin to apply to the work being done by you at that time.
We have been informed that the Union has been threatening employees with fines and penalties if they choose to exercise their legal right to work. This is wrong. We have consulted our legal advisors and have been informed that such fines would be unenforceable. Threatening employees in an effort to prevent them from exercising their legal rights also amounts to an unfair labour practice under the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act.
In the event you choose to exercise your right to work and OPSEU attempts to impose a fine on you, the College will refuse to implement such a fine. If OPSEU attempts to recover this money from you through the Court system we will provide you with legal counsel for your defense at our expense. In the unlikely event that the Courts uphold these “fines” we will pay them. You have the right to continue to work and we are disappointed that OPSEU would try to impede these rights.
If you wish to exercise your right to return to work at any time during the strike, please contact the Human Resources Hotline at 905-575-2354. Please leave your name, position held, department worked, manager’s name and a telephone number where you can be reached. A representative from the Human Resources department will be in contact with you.
Again, whatever your choice, we will fully respect that decision.
Sincerely,
Karen Pashleigh
Chief Human Resources &
Organizational Development
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
In the current college support workers' strike, Mohawk College is demonstrating its willingness to take on the role of scab encourager, as the following memo from Karen Pashleigh, Mohawk's Chief Human Resources & Organizational Development Officer, makes clear. The discerning reader will undoubtedly note the manipulative nature of the letter as the writer disguises her true purpose by feigning interest in the well-being of the worker:
Memorandum
To: All Full-time Support Staff Employees
From: Karen Pashleigh
Date: September 6, 2011
Re: Your right to work during a strike
During a work stoppage you are faced with choices. Whatever decision you make, whether it is to serve on the picket line, come into work or just stay at home, as your employer we fully respect that choice. You have the right to continue to work during a strike, provided the College has work available for you. The law specifically gives you that right.
Should you return to work, the wages and benefits applicable to such work will be as set out in the Collective Agreement which expired on August 31, 2011. When a new collective agreement is entered into, its terms will then begin to apply to the work being done by you at that time.
We have been informed that the Union has been threatening employees with fines and penalties if they choose to exercise their legal right to work. This is wrong. We have consulted our legal advisors and have been informed that such fines would be unenforceable. Threatening employees in an effort to prevent them from exercising their legal rights also amounts to an unfair labour practice under the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act.
In the event you choose to exercise your right to work and OPSEU attempts to impose a fine on you, the College will refuse to implement such a fine. If OPSEU attempts to recover this money from you through the Court system we will provide you with legal counsel for your defense at our expense. In the unlikely event that the Courts uphold these “fines” we will pay them. You have the right to continue to work and we are disappointed that OPSEU would try to impede these rights.
If you wish to exercise your right to return to work at any time during the strike, please contact the Human Resources Hotline at 905-575-2354. Please leave your name, position held, department worked, manager’s name and a telephone number where you can be reached. A representative from the Human Resources department will be in contact with you.
Again, whatever your choice, we will fully respect that decision.
Sincerely,
Karen Pashleigh
Chief Human Resources &
Organizational Development
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
What We Can Accomplish When We Work Together
While the gospel of the right-wing extols selfish individualism in which we worry only about our own well-being, this video of a dramatic rescue by a group of ordinary citizens shows up what we can accomplish together:
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Christopher Hume On Ignorance
As usual, The Toronto Star seems replete with thought-provoking articles and ideas. In a column by Christopher Hume entitled, If ignorance is no excuse, how do leaders manage to get elected? published yesterday, Hume reflects on the current crop of politicians for whom ignorance of facts and disdain for expert analysis is endemic.
He observes that Rick Perry, a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination "responded to devastating forest fires in his state by asking everyone to pray."
In a similar vein Michelle Bachmann muses "about whether America’s recent spate of natural disasters wasn’t really a sign from God of His great displeasure."
No matter what your view may be on the power of petitionary prayer, one does hope for something a little more from politicians than an infantile view of God as either a cosmic Santa Claus or a cosmic smiter.
Hume's piece, well-worth reading in its entirety, does not spare our Prime Minister from his withering analysis, describing him as one who "has made great strides pushing aside the facts to pander to Canadians’ lowest instincts and greatest fears." Hence the elimination of the mandatory long-form census with its hard data, the commitment to spend billions on prisons we don't need, and the gutting of environmental oversight when it is most needed.
Both Tim Hudak (he "won the race to the bottom long ago")and the Mayor of Toronto and his brother("Toronto’s great contribution to political vacuity") also come under Hume's scrutiny.
I hope people will find the time to read the entire column.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
He observes that Rick Perry, a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination "responded to devastating forest fires in his state by asking everyone to pray."
In a similar vein Michelle Bachmann muses "about whether America’s recent spate of natural disasters wasn’t really a sign from God of His great displeasure."
No matter what your view may be on the power of petitionary prayer, one does hope for something a little more from politicians than an infantile view of God as either a cosmic Santa Claus or a cosmic smiter.
Hume's piece, well-worth reading in its entirety, does not spare our Prime Minister from his withering analysis, describing him as one who "has made great strides pushing aside the facts to pander to Canadians’ lowest instincts and greatest fears." Hence the elimination of the mandatory long-form census with its hard data, the commitment to spend billions on prisons we don't need, and the gutting of environmental oversight when it is most needed.
Both Tim Hudak (he "won the race to the bottom long ago")and the Mayor of Toronto and his brother("Toronto’s great contribution to political vacuity") also come under Hume's scrutiny.
I hope people will find the time to read the entire column.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Time For A War On Error
Although I rarely reprint items from the newspaper in their entirety on this blog, occasionally someone says something so succinct and insightful that I can't resist. Roman Haluszka from Newmarket has the lead letter in today's Star that underscores the crucial role of critical thinking skills in today's world. Here it is:
Time for a War on Error
What we desperately need is a War on Error. We face these errors today economically, scientifically, historically, and socially.
Our economic errors are centered around budgetary issues as we spend far too much in providing subsidies to industries that don’t need them, from computer game makers to the oil and gas industry to agro-conglomerates and, of course, our wealthy elites (who pay far too little in taxes).
To pay for these errors we have been over-taxing the middle class, and are now engaged in dismanteling the “social safety net” that mainly benefits the middle class and the poor.
In the scientific realms we have allowed fundamentalist religious cranks the freedom to claim that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is false, and substitute the utter nonsense of Creationism in its place.
We also allow (mainly conservative cranks tied to the oil and gas corporatocracy) to challenge climate change and the impact of human-caused pollution on it.
History is constantly being revised in Orwellian ways to justify invasions of other countries, territorial grabs from subjugated peoples; and the careful omission of facts is used to misplace focus on one group of people for all acts of terrorism, despite that group having ties to only 3 per cent of all terrorist acts around the globe.
Socially, we have allowed error to lead too many people to misjudgment of others, from Mike Harris claiming unemployed single mothers would spend welfare cheques on beer, and that teachers only work 4.25 hours per day, to Stephen Harper’s claim that Canada’s biggest terrorist threat is Islamicism.
Society is becoming more racist in its views, thanks to these politicians and the likes of Fox News and Sun TV.
An attack on error is not only overdue, it is essential to our well-being as a society.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Time for a War on Error
What we desperately need is a War on Error. We face these errors today economically, scientifically, historically, and socially.
Our economic errors are centered around budgetary issues as we spend far too much in providing subsidies to industries that don’t need them, from computer game makers to the oil and gas industry to agro-conglomerates and, of course, our wealthy elites (who pay far too little in taxes).
To pay for these errors we have been over-taxing the middle class, and are now engaged in dismanteling the “social safety net” that mainly benefits the middle class and the poor.
In the scientific realms we have allowed fundamentalist religious cranks the freedom to claim that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is false, and substitute the utter nonsense of Creationism in its place.
We also allow (mainly conservative cranks tied to the oil and gas corporatocracy) to challenge climate change and the impact of human-caused pollution on it.
History is constantly being revised in Orwellian ways to justify invasions of other countries, territorial grabs from subjugated peoples; and the careful omission of facts is used to misplace focus on one group of people for all acts of terrorism, despite that group having ties to only 3 per cent of all terrorist acts around the globe.
Socially, we have allowed error to lead too many people to misjudgment of others, from Mike Harris claiming unemployed single mothers would spend welfare cheques on beer, and that teachers only work 4.25 hours per day, to Stephen Harper’s claim that Canada’s biggest terrorist threat is Islamicism.
Society is becoming more racist in its views, thanks to these politicians and the likes of Fox News and Sun TV.
An attack on error is not only overdue, it is essential to our well-being as a society.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
The Timidity Of The Ontario NDP
I wrote earlier this month about the growing call from certain monied sectors for an increase in their personal taxation rates, arguing that they are not paying their fair share to support the country in which they grew and prospered. That plea, as noted earlier, is being egregiously ignored by all political parties, including Ontario's NDP, led by Andrea Horwath, a politician who is becoming increasing difficult to distinguish from the leaders of the other parties.
My observation, and I don't think it is a particularly startling or perceptive one, is that slowly and inevitably, the party, both at the federal and provincial levels, is becoming very 'mainstream' as the prospects for increasing their electoral success improve.
Take, for example, Ms. Horwath's position on corporate taxation. As reported last May in The Toronto Star, the NDP would raise corporate taxes by a mere 2%, to 14% from the current 12%. As well, as reported in today's Star, the party would cancel the entertainment tax breaks enjoyed by corporations, such as being able to write off some of the costs of a corporate box at the Air Canada Centre.
While I do not dispute that these would be useful measures that would hardly send corporations fleeing to other jurisdictions, they also strike me as extraordinarily timid, a kind of nipping around the edges of fiscal policy. I do realize there is an argument to be made for proceeding slowly in a compromised economy, but I worry that the stated policy direction suggests that should they ever regain power, the NDP would once again make the same kinds of mistakes that were made during the disastrous Bob Rae years, when the now interim federal Liberal Leader bent over backwards to placate business at the expense of party policy and principles.
Until I hear someone talk about raising the personal income tax rate on the ultra-wealthy, I shall remain dubious of the integrity of NDP principles.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
My observation, and I don't think it is a particularly startling or perceptive one, is that slowly and inevitably, the party, both at the federal and provincial levels, is becoming very 'mainstream' as the prospects for increasing their electoral success improve.
Take, for example, Ms. Horwath's position on corporate taxation. As reported last May in The Toronto Star, the NDP would raise corporate taxes by a mere 2%, to 14% from the current 12%. As well, as reported in today's Star, the party would cancel the entertainment tax breaks enjoyed by corporations, such as being able to write off some of the costs of a corporate box at the Air Canada Centre.
While I do not dispute that these would be useful measures that would hardly send corporations fleeing to other jurisdictions, they also strike me as extraordinarily timid, a kind of nipping around the edges of fiscal policy. I do realize there is an argument to be made for proceeding slowly in a compromised economy, but I worry that the stated policy direction suggests that should they ever regain power, the NDP would once again make the same kinds of mistakes that were made during the disastrous Bob Rae years, when the now interim federal Liberal Leader bent over backwards to placate business at the expense of party policy and principles.
Until I hear someone talk about raising the personal income tax rate on the ultra-wealthy, I shall remain dubious of the integrity of NDP principles.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Chris Hedges on the Aftermath of 9/11
I refused to watch any of yesterday's ceremonies honouring those who were killed 10 years ago in New York. I refused, not out of disrespect for those who lost their lives and for all who still suffer tremendously as a result of that horrible attack. I did not watch because of how those senseless deaths and that tremendous suffering have been used over the years as an excuse to kill hundreds of thousands of others, sacrifice some of our best young people, and impose unspeakable suffering on untold others.
Things could have been so much different. To get a sense of how different, I encourage you to read an essay by one of my favorite critical thinkers, the iconoclastic Chris Hedges. The piece, entitled A Decade After 9/11: We Are What We Loathe, offers some insights that rarely make their way into the mainstream press.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Things could have been so much different. To get a sense of how different, I encourage you to read an essay by one of my favorite critical thinkers, the iconoclastic Chris Hedges. The piece, entitled A Decade After 9/11: We Are What We Loathe, offers some insights that rarely make their way into the mainstream press.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
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