Recently the media has focused extensively on Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford’s proposed cuts to the student nutrition programs. At the time of writing, it seems as if Ford has been forced to back off owing to the howl of outrage this proposal produced. A ten per cent cut would mean 58 of its 669 programs would be closed, affecting about fourteen thousand children. The city is considering cutting $380 000 from its annul $3.8 million contribution to nutrition programs which cost a total of $12 million to run, the rest coming from the province and donations. To put it...
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As anyone can clearly see, the world is heading closer to the brink of environmental and financial disaster brought about by the rapacious and ruthless nature of capitalism. In such disturbing times, it is refreshing to see two movements appear that are saying, in effect, “wait a minute, there is a way out”. I refer to Democracy Now and the Occupy Movements. Both have spread rapidly and globally, particularly the Occupy Movement, and both are unlike anything else yet seen under capitalism, apart from socialism. They cannot be compared to the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s,...
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With Ireland’s government’s recent announcement of its programme of spending cuts we should note that almost a quarter of all Irish households were in arrears on at least one bill or loan last year and 60 per cent said they had difficulty making ends meet. Gross and disposable household incomes fell in 2009 ( down 6.7 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively). The survey shows the deprivation rate rose to 17.3 per cent last year, up from 13.8 per cent in 2008. The two items people reported being most deprived of were the replacement of worn-out furniture and being...
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The Toronto Star (6/March/2010) asks “Who will be tomorrow’s Builders?” It goes on to list the famous men (no women!) who have “built” the great concert halls, university colleges and other public and private buildings of Toronto. Maybe I have missed something here. I thought builders wore jeans and hard hats and poured the foundations, and framed the buildings and plumbed, wired, and finished them. The former group only wear suits and sit on their backsides. Do we really have to wait around for these useless idlers to get anything done? Many people have lost their homes in this...
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Under Capitalism When the lead smelters came to Jiyhuan, China, the workers rejoiced for the new jobs, the infrastructure upgrades, the new cultural hall, and the new basketball stadium. The lead smelters also brought lead poisoning. Jiyhuan’s blue skies have gone, its fruits and vegetables are stunted, its children and workers poisoned. The story details the medical troubles of worker, Li Yingfu who had half of his stomach removed. The follow-up story reported that he had died. In India, ten-year-old Muna gets up at dawn to go to the field to collect melon-size rocks to take to the crushing...
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On the poverty front, Ontario brought down its budget this week. In a preview, the Toronto Star editorial (20/March 2010) called keeping the special dietary allowance for those on welfare with medical conditions a test of the government’s much publicized fight to reduce poverty (25% in 5 years). Well, the government failed the test and cancelled the program. Why? Because of abuse of the program. Apparently, doctors were too keen to sign applicants on to the program. There was no word about the abuse of NOT keeping the program and withholding food from the needy! The supplement ranged from...
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For some years the city of Mississauga, Ontario, has been held up as an example of how efficiently a city can be run, inferring that it is the incompetence of other jurisdictions that prevent them being run prosperously. While its next-door neighbour, Toronto, has had its financial woes for twenty years, Mississauga went without a single tax increase between 1991 and 2001 and, in fact, Mississauga has not borrowed money since 1978. A low business tax encouraged companies to relocate from Toronto, and new developments were constantly being built, bringing in more revenue. Now, however, things are not so...
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On the environmental front, the Canadian government, like the US, has announced that carbon emissions will be reduced 17% over the next ten years. Unfortunately, as environmentalists were quick to point out, this will increase emissions by 2.5% over the 2006 targets already announced. It’s like the pas de deux, two steps forward, two steps back, two steps forward, three steps back, and round and round we go. This bunch of lying sycophants, managing the capitalist system in the interest of the capitalists, had the gall to state, “ Throughout the Copenhagen negotiations, we maintained that our clear policy...
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The Copenhagen Conference on climate change is over and done, the fourteenth in the last two decades since Kyoto. What did this latest one accomplish? Fifteen thousand delegates from one hundred and ninety-three UN members attended. It was generally agreed that the earth’s average temperature rise be kept at no more than two degrees. To achieve that goal, there were many promises – US promised 17% reductions of carbon emissions from 2005 levels, China promised a 45% cut in energy emissions (not from economic output), India 20-25% reductions, and Europe 30% reductions from 1990 levels – but there was...
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Everyday taxicab rides may appear to be lacklustre experiences that are quickly forgotten. However, this might not always be the case. Sometimes our views of events may become clouded and we cannot see things for what they really are. However, after taking many cab-rides in an urban city, I began to see things in a different way. On one of my jaunts in a taxicab I decided to investigate what it is that made people come to developed capitalist countries from less developed parts of the world. In speaking to a cab driver, who left Ethiopia to come to...
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