ATTN KELOWNA: Challenge the new face of corporate power‏

I'd like to extend a special invitation to you to join me for a public discussion on "CETA, FIPA, TPP: The New Face of Corporate Power." This event will be part of an eight-city speaking tour in B.C. to build opposition to Canada's corporate trade agenda.

Event details:

Wednesday, May 22

7-9 p.m. 

French Cultural Centre, 702 Bernard Ave, Kelowna (map)

Hosted by the Kelowna Chapter of the Council of Canadians

For more information call: 250-769-1977 or email: kareneh@silk.net

The Government of Canada has signed, is negotiating and is hoping to ratify a variety of new corporate rights treaties that promote and lock in the rights of corporations to make a profit while undermining communities' abilities to make decisions in their own interest. Like NAFTA before them, these deals are not about trade. Every new agreement further entrenches a corporate vision of deregulation, resource exploitation and privatization. 

These "next generation" deals include the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations that Canada joined this past December, and countless investor rights pacts, like the one with China, called Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (FIPA / FIPPA).

Opposition to these deals is building. More than 80 municipalities have passed resolutions voicing their concerns or opposition to the CETA negotiations. Nearly 100,000 people signed a petition against the Canada-China FIPA, and the Hupacasath First Nation has launched a constitutional challenge to its ratification. Communities are beginning to organize and educate about the TPP in solidarity with global trade justice movements.

The Council of Canadians is hosting this speaking tour in B.C. to build collective opposition to all of these agreements. In the spirit of the anti-WTO Battle for Seattle and the Quebec City protest against the defeated Free Trade Area of the Americas, we hope to bring our vibrant movements back into the streets to derail Canada's corporate rights agenda and dismantle the treaties that lock it in.

 

I hope you can join me!

Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner

The Council of Canadians, 700-207 West Hastings St. Vancouver, BC, V6B 1H7

(604) 688-8846, 1-888-566-3888 | bc-yukon@canadians.org | www.canadians.org

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MUST READ: 'Syrian Sacrilege'

This is an eye opener . . .

What our media is showing/writing about a dangerously grave situation in Syria is all seems to be a copy paste type reporting from the western media. To date we don't have a single correspondent from India who ever had gone to such risky places for real time or online reporting, thanks to our policies which protect our nationals outside the country.

A freelance journalist Shri Uday K Chakraborty has reported on the basis of email replies from few ordinary Syrian co-workers of his past journeys to Syria; 

THIS IS HOW IT APPEARED IN PRESS (excerpts from 'Syrian Sacrilege')

Sunnis and Alawites in Syria have no communal hatred between them. The Government forces from Assad so far never have assaulted civilians, as is evident on interviewing the civilian victims. 

There are instances where terrorists have used civilians as their shield to fight government forces and thus the civilian casualties. These terrorist as western media calls them FSA (Free Syrian Army) are all foreign mercenaries as described by the victims as they don't talk in the familiar tongue.

Actually it is a time tested strategy of the war loving US, UK and the allies. You take rebels from a particular country add some corrupt politicians, anti-national elements to it take help of lawbreakers of the soil, group them. Give them chance to get their target i.e. allow the corrupt politician to achieve their wasted interests. Help anti law/social elements to get their hold on unlawful activities & in turn the war loving countries get their access to the vast natural resources . . . oil in this example.

They applied it successfully in Vietnam & Iraq. Now Syria has become victim for the same reason. Additionally this is a punishment to Syria as they supported Palestine against Israel.

There are footages of Syrian military personnel parading before western media. These actually are the detained soldiers of Syrian army who have no choice but to march quietly to support western theory.


GO THROUGH THESE FACTS AND DECIDE 

• BBC showed the clippings of Syrian hospitals where victims every time stated that they were attacked by unknown mob & not the Syrian army 
• Despite the attacks by these mercenaries Govt. forces have largely been able to repulse insurgents from major cities 
• Quite a few unarmed Syrian press persons have been killed by insurgents
• Horrific brutality & savagery of the insurgent forces are increasingly coming out in open where innocent postal people & ordinary citizens killed ….. in an attempt to eliminate the independent national thinking which may be inherited to the coming generations 
• Insurgents are getting material & weapons from Western countries & monarchies of Middle East like Saudi Arabs & Qatar 
• Typical issues like impose no fly zone, bogey of stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction MSD - chemical version this time." 

(via Somesh Sitoke)

Tarpon - Feeding the Giants

We were just hanging out at the marina in Key West when we had our first tarpon encounter!! Amazingly fast and strong! So of course we headed to the nearest bait shop to give them a little treat. :)

catching jellyfish in Key West

I wanted to just cross the road from our hotel & do some snorkeling while staying in Key West. A little exploration first & I discovered this little bay was full of jellyfish. Not so good for snorkeling. lol

Turtle Museum ~ Key West, FLORIDA

I LOVED Key West, Florida.

It was about was about 36C with humidity that made it feel over 40C. But, who cares! It was so amazing there. We wondered around on the piers this day and I stumbled into the Turtle Museum.

Great curator, lots of history and entertainment with tunes played on dulcimers! There's just no place that compares to the feeling in Key West.

Stephen Harper has sold out Canada and Canadians

. . . and continues to do so.

Free trade and globalization works to the benefit of China and China has a take no prisoner attitude in trade. 

When I was young one of the signs that Christmas was approaching was the arrival of Japanese mandarin oranges. Our family would buy boxes and boxes. Today we still buy mandarins at Christmas, but the mandarin oranges are now from China. China came, they saw and they conquered. 

China marches forward

One industry after another has collapsed as the Chinese economy marches forward. The willing capitalists - who embrace the short term opportunity of making cash - will find themselves the victims of long lasting enslavement.

When markets are surrendered to China they are at the mercy of China. Things in politics are not complex if there's an ounce of intelligence in politicians, along with the determination to do the right thing, rather than the short term goal of fattening their corporate overlords. Remember how many business leaders Harper took to China?

Could relations with China be a threat to National Security?

The US is now in the process of selling out it's food source for short term gains to China. We should have already learned about this kind of one dimensional trade from the sale of apples to China. 

First China bought our apples, then they grew the trees on a scale we cannot match and now juice and other apple products are imported from China.

Harper wants Canada in the Pacific Rim Trading Agreement. Without doubt, our agriculture is going to be impacted, and in the long term Canada will take a hit on being food independent.

China's pursuit - 

Innovation and efficiency: 

China will import a technology or create a joint-venture; learn the best practices, apply those practices at a lower cost than overseas rivals and emerge as an aggressive competitor in the global market.

China's solution:
To super-size its supply by snapping up millions of live animals raised by U.S. farmers as breeding stock - capitalizing on decades of cutting edge agricultural research in America.

"By taking this step, say breeders and exporters, China will move from small-scale backyard farms, to the Westernized tradition of large consolidated operations to keep up with demand." 

Opinion by Joe C Vass

JCVdude

Read more: 

Insight: U.S. barnyards help China super-size food production

Benjamin Netanyahu - Most Dangerous Man in the World - YouTube

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, described the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as a "liar" in a private exchange with Barack Obama at last week's G20 summit in Cannes that was inadvertently broadcast to journalists.

"I cannot stand him. He's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama. The US president responded by saying: "You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day."

Israel could attack Iran as early as April: Panetta
Panetta report fuels concerns that Israel will attack Iran‎
Brent steady above $112 on Iran tension
Israel sees narrowing window for attack on Iran‎
US Foreign Policy: War, war and more war‎
ran helping al Qaeda? War "hysteria" builds‎

The world has changed, USA is no longer the king of the castle or the sole super power, Russia and China are now starting to assert their power and influence - Russia signaled a clear intention to prevent any "regime change" intervention in Syria; but Russia's deployment of its flagship aircraft carrier and escorts to Syria's port of Tarsus this month drew a starker than usual line in the sand.
Beijing views Tehran as a useful tool to divert US military force from Southeast Asia. India, too, looks reluctant to play along with the wider western strategy of attempting to strangle Tehran economically to push it from its nuclear program and is also seen as a rising regional player.

War is not an option...