Pythons on Long Island—never mind those in the Everglades?
Recent reports from Florida claim that pet-Burmese pythons have invaded Florida's Everglades. The common Burmese python is an easily purchased and inexpensive pet--when a yard-long youngster. But when it reaches full size--a length of twenty feet (or more) and weight of 200 pounds--it is too big and dangerous to keep. Then it is too-often released into the wild. See: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1028_051028_pythons.html (accessed June 18, 2009)
Florida Fish and Wildlife staff report that the first evidences of escaped Burmese pythons in Florida were made way back in 1979, when one was caught and removed from the park. Few were found after that, until 1995. Then, in the last couple of years (2001-2005) the species underwent a population explosion, with more than 200 of these big constrictors caught in the park, the largest one being 15 feet long. Recent reports have found that some of the smaller snakes collected in the 1.3 million acre reserve have "egg-scars", an indication that they were hatched in the wild and give further credence to the presence of a viable breeding population. Other reports indicate that these pythons..which can swim quite well--may be leaving the park's southern boundary and expanding their range south into the Florida Keys. Eight Burmese pythons were collected there as recently as March 2009. See: http://forums.ancientclan.com/showthread.php?t=8937.
The Burmese python is one of the largest snakes in the world. Females tend to be heavy bodied and may exceed fifteen feet in length. At sexual maturity they can lay a clutch of sixty eggs. In sixty days the eggs hatch into twenty inch long hungry hatchling's. This species is a common pet in Florida and elsewhere. Over six thousand were legally imported for the pet-trade and probably many thousand more were bred here in the US by snake fanciers.
The problem with this lovely, mottled dark brown and yellow snake native of Asia, Myanmar, and India, where it is represented by a subspecies found in restricted locations, is its growth. Well-fed it soon grows too big for its original owner to keep safely (See below July 1, 2009 story of a two-year old Florida child killed by a Burmese python.) Often the owner, with few options other than to euthanize the snake, may release the animal into the wild. Such actions have devastating consequences on native birds, mammals and reptiles. Particularly in the case of the Burmese since as an adult the Burmese python becomes an "apex predator" in the Everglades...since there are no species...not even the alligator--which it will not attack and attempt to eat.
These recent reports from Florida reminded me of an incident here on Long Island regarding an escaped exotic constrictor which occurred about a decade ago.
It wasn’t so very long ago, perhaps 1999, while I was working with a small archaeological field team in south-central LI in a thickly wooded, one-hundred acre site, south of the Country Road in the village of West Sayville. The islolated wooded parcel was surrounded by busy roads and suburban sprawl.
That day I was somewhere in the center of the parcel, using a transit to map several late-19th century and early 20th century building-ruins. The old structures, their ancient roofs collapsed onto their stone and brick foundations, were overgrown with mats of poison ivy, tangles of bittersweet and armored against human passage by viciously-barbed tangles of green brier. Using a brush hook, I cut away as much of the vegetation as was necessary to stand a survey rod up against the partly exposed foundation corner of a 19th century structure and then I walked back to the transit at the site master-stake to determine the location of it for the site map I was preparing.
Working in this manner I proceeded alone, taking transit-readings and moving my rod to various positions as I proceed along a narrow path which led toward the north end of the parcel. At one point I looked up from my field notebook, surprised to see a stout, middle aged woman walking toward me along the path. She wore a wide-brimmed hat pulled down over her light-colored hair and carried a split-wood basket on her arm.
“Hello there!” I called out, thinking to alert her to my presence.
Hearing my call, the woman stopped abruptly. She appeared startled. But seeing my red field-vest, my transit and the appurtenances of a surveyor, she seemed reassured, and slowly approached.
“We're conducting a field survey, on this property,”I called out to her reassuringly. “You may see two of my assistants down the path a-way. They’re digging test holes, down there.” I pointed south down the narrow path to where Bill Jensen and Toby Moore were working.
“Oh, I see. You do, the survey.” She spoke with a distinct, Slavic accent. Her clothes and appearance reminded me of the sturdy Polish and Ukrainian farm-wives I knew so well from my work in Riverhead Town.
“Yes”, I said, as I completed the last entry in my field book and stuffed it in the pocket of my field-vest. “And what are you doing way out here?” I asked.
“Oh, I search for—for ‘gryzbow' , the “fungee”. You English you say “mushrooms,” she added, with a smile that revealed a gold-capped tooth. As she spoke, she reached into her basket, and pulled back a damp cloth to reveal a colorful pile of local mushrooms. I peered in. Some were dark brown, others had white stems and red caps and some had some the brown caps with yellow, spongy-looking gills, while one, a large orange colored shelf fungus I recognized as Lyetiporus, the sulfur shelf or “chicken of the woods” mushroom. I knew that one was edible.
“So do you collect mushrooms here regularly?” I asked, as she carefully replaced the damp cloth.
“No, I come here to this place" she paused, seeming to search for the right words, "for my first time. I visit my sister, who lives near-by," she turned to point toward the South-Country-Road from which direction came the faint rumble of traffic through the woods.
“Ahh, well, good luck in your search,” I said, moving away to retrieve my transit-rod and place it at the opposite corner of another building-ruin.
“Vould you tell me someting?” she asked, as I passed by.
“Why yes, if I could.” I said, pausing and turning toward her.
“You know this place gut?”
“Well yes, I could say, I’ve lived in this Township for a good part of my life…and…and I know a bit about the local area too.”
“Are there ‘wezem’, I…I.. mean... snakes here?”
“Snakes?”
She nodded her head in the affirmative and raised a thick, soil-grimed finger to her chin seeming to eagerly anticipate my response.
Well yes…but there are none that are poisonous here,” I said, attempting to assure her.
She listened carefully as I spoke.
“There are a good many garter snakes and black snakes around here, they seem to like to hide out in the ruins…you know…the old buildings.”
Unt ‘jak duza’ ahh.. I mean, how big these snakes are?” she interrupted, as I pulled the survey rod from its position.
“Oh the “garters” are about so big,” I said, holding my hand in the middle of the meter mark on the end of my survey rod to designate the length, “and the some of the black snakes are about a meter long,” I added, running my hand down along the stick to the black, meter-mark on the rod.
“Oh,” she said, nodding her head and staring at the survey stick. As she looked at me carefully her eyes closed to slits. She seemed not to believe me.
“But don’t worry,” I added quickly, “they’re not dangerous, and also there are no poisonous snakes here on Long Island.” I reassured her, again, with a broad smile.
“Oh, I not vorried,” she said, pulling a long, rusty kitchen knife out of her basket. Her gold tooth flashed as she smiled.
“So why do you ask?” I continued, thinking perhaps someone had misinformed her about the snakes on Long Island.
“Vell, back dere, next to that long rock vall......”
“Ahh yes, yes the old barn foundation…”
“I vas finding many big boletus there...they are good for to dry. ” She turned to point up the path to the foundation I had mapped earlier in the day.
“I collect gut ones close to the rocks, but there vas roots unt vines, so I pulled them away and as I did it, I see two beady eyes. They belong to a big ‘waz’—a big snake— on the other side of the vall.”
“Oh?” I murmured, a little disappointed, that I had missed making this interesting observation.
“Den it rose up tall, to look at me straight in the eye. Its fork-ed tongue—dis big it vas”, here she stuck out her thick, soil-begrimed index finger and marked the length on it. She continued, excitedly, “it flicked the tongue at me. I thought, perhaps it does not want to share these nice mushrooms with me….and anyway—I say to mysel—“Olga, you have near a basket full. For me and Velda, she is my sister, how much could we eat?”
“Oh it was perhaps a black snake or a black coach-whip snake….”
“It vas with brown patches with yellow and white,” responded Olga, firmly, who now seemed relieved to have gotten her story off her chest---- and much less confident about my knowledge of local herpetology.
“Oh,I see,” I said as I scratched my head pushing my green ASI baseball cap back on my head. “Brown and yellow, huh?” I mentally flipped through my old and well thumbed copy of “Reptiles of New York, Field Guide”. There were not that many species here on Long Island. There were small green snakes and mottled snakes, but none were brown and yellow and white.
“So how big was this snake?” I asked finally.
Olga raised her thick forearm so the wicker mushroom basket slipped back to her elbow. She pursed her lips and wrapped her thick fingers around her forearm. She held the clasped forearm and hand upright and closed her fingers on her raised hand together to form the rough shape of the head of a big snake. I got the picture. The snakes head and "neck" were as big as her hefty forearm.
“The part that was above the vall, it vas bigger den my arm, und the head, it vas bigger than my hand.” She said, looking at her arm again and nodded her head in approval of her estimate.
“Oh,” I said, the bafflement apparent in my voice. From the size of Olga’s thick forearm and wrist, what she seemed to be describing was a large---perhaps very large python or boa constrictor. But how could such a snake live free here in the woods of West Sayville?
Then I thought about it. Not far away were several large housing developments. This isolated forest area would be just the place to release a pet python when it got too big.
After Olga left, I walked back to search around the old barn foundation. Unlike Olga, I carried my long-handled “Sears Best” long-handled shovel for protection. After carefully peering over the wall to reassure myself there were no large reptiles on the other side, I climbed over. Between the wall and collapsed roof, I found a narrow muddy path and in the damp soil, I observed distinct tracks--long, smooth drag-tracks that could have been those of a very large python, but I saw nothing of the actual snake itself.
I peered into the shadowy pile of fallen timbers, and under a section of moss-encrusted cedar-shingled roof. In there were plenty of places for a large snake to hide. Small critters, rodents and vermin were common in there and would supply a hungry python with plenty of prey. Soon afterward, I began to inquire about similar observations.
I put together the following brief file.
See: Snake escapes in Hauppauge, LI http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/python.snake.middle.2.238268.html
Man takes 14 foot python for a walk on LI gets arrested.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Curtis-Dewberry-Arrested-For-Taking-Python-For-A-Walk-In-Long-Island/Article/20080131300944?lpos=Home_Article_Related_Content_Region_6&lid=ARTICLE_1300944_Curtis_Dewberry_Arrested_For_Taking_Python_For_A_Walk_In_Long_Island
Baby found with California King snake in its crib on LI. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,364875,00.html
Abandoned python 2.5 feet found in Central Park NY City…
Recently: Burmese Python kills Florida child in crib:http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/world/article/254921--escaped-pet-python-strangles-two-year-old-girl-in-florida-home.
Get the picture?
rjk
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
GREEN BREAD
Green Bread?
Our daily bread too often comes to us in cellophane or plastic packages and often from a long distance away. The source for our daily bread is no longer the local bakery, the majority of consumers in the US get this critical part of their diet from the vast bread industry, a $40 billion dollar a year enterprise. See: http://www.just-food.com/store/product.aspx?id=73540
Bread, as anyone who has ever tasted the home-baked product knows...has a short of time in which it can be described as fresh. Home-baked bread will stay edible, at most, for only a day. After that, it will make a good doorstop, or it must be grated into bread crumbs or perhaps be soaked in milk and eggs and used in making bread pudding, or mixed with other ingredients to make Italian meatballs--as my mother did. In fact, I remember well her bread draw where she purposely saved stale bread for that purpose. But it was good eating bread only for a very short time.
Our daily bread too often comes to us in cellophane or plastic packages and often from a long distance away. The source for our daily bread is no longer the local bakery, the majority of consumers in the US get this critical part of their diet from the vast bread industry, a $40 billion dollar a year enterprise. See: http://www.just-food.com/store/product.aspx?id=73540
At the present time, many of us are concerned about how our personal choices and actions affect the environment. How much heat-trapping carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases) are we producing? Or what decisions are we making which may encourage their production? What can we do to ameliorate the global warming phenomenon? Each day we y we make decisions in this realm which may have considerable impact on the environment. Each of us consumes our required compliment of bread and grains, the largest component of the food pyramid, and we may ask are we making "green" choices in this realm? Can we choose to eat "green bread"?
Bread, as anyone who has ever tasted the home-baked product knows...has a short of time in which it can be described as fresh. Home-baked bread will stay edible, at most, for only a day. After that, it will make a good doorstop, or it must be grated into bread crumbs or perhaps be soaked in milk and eggs and used in making bread pudding, or mixed with other ingredients to make Italian meatballs--as my mother did. In fact, I remember well her bread draw where she purposely saved stale bread for that purpose. But it was good eating bread only for a very short time.
Since modern industrial bakers are often situated a very far way from their consumer base...in fact often hundreds of miles away--traditional breads would be stale a long time when it reached the shelves of stores and the consumer. As a result commercial bakers have modified and altered the ingredients and finish of their baked products to adapt their production to the relatively long transportation distance and elapsed time and to overcome the normal short shelf-life of this product has. These modifications, we will see below, have geatly altered bread products and have added to the overall impact of commercial bread baking on the environment.
To achieve their goal of presenting a "fresh looking" long-lasting product on the shelves modern bulk-produced bread is started as a frothy, wet dough and then baked incompletly to a soft, damp consistency rather than the hard-baked texture one would see in a home-baked loaf. (I remember Mom tapping the crust of one of her loaves with a wooden spoon to hear the "thump" of doneness.) Detractors describe the typical modern loaf as having a soft, "gummy" inner texture and a brown but mushy so-called "crust" (a misnomer..since this bread exteior is not "crusty" at all). The partial-baking leaves a soggy loaf which adds only to the shelf life not to its taste or desireable texture. Then too, bakers add chemicals to their soft doughs with the aim of lengthening shelf life. The most common is a chemical emulsifier known as monoglyceride (and diglyceride). Emulsifiers aid blending of the component oils and water in the dough and aid in its frothing action which increases loaf-volume (so each loaf has more air and less actual product) and the glycerides also act as a softener to generate a softer crust and thus retard rapid drying of the baked product.
Unfortunately for the industry, when this partially-cooked, soft, moist-style, monoglyceride-altered-and-fluffed warm bread leaves the oven and is rapildyb packaged in its plastic bag--we have generated the perfect conditions to grow all sorts of molds and bacteria! One type, Bacillus mesentericus or "rope" and other molds were a common bread contaminant and a great problem in the early days of wholesale bread production. To prevent the growth of bacteria and molds on bread a chemical preservative which will kill these organisms was added to the ingredients. You will see listed on the label of all baked goods the fungicide of choice for modern wholesale bakers known as calcium proprionate. This substance, the calcium salt of proprionic acid, is one of the most common preservative substances antifungals and antibactreials used in baked products. In low concentrations, calcium propionate is effective against bacteria and fungi and is only slightly toxic to humans and is probably overall completely harmless to adults who ingest it with their morning toast. But it has been linked to irritability, restlessness, inattention and sleep disturbance in children. Some studies have linked it to allergic reactions in bakery workers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_propionate.
After the bread is baked it must be packaged, boxed, transported and finally delivered to distant stores and then to the final consumer. All of these pakaging and transportation steps have envirnomental impact and consequences. As noted above to keep bread fresh it must be protected from dehydration. Air-restricted packaging of bread product is essential. Drying is to be avoided since that causes the bread to feel and appear stale--however old it actually is. Some companies wrap their loaves in two bags--an inner cellophane bag and outer polypropelene bag both of which become part of the solid waste stream and will likely become part of a landfill. Finally, the loaves are boxed for transportation. These cartons may be of plastic (often these are a hard-clear-plastics composed of polycarbonate which generally contain the hazardous BPA (bisphenol-A) or in cardboard boxes. Both of these have an impact on the environment. As to the actual cost of physical delivery i.e. to transport bread and bread products hundreds or even thousands of miles to its destination and finally to the consumer, their are obcious transportation costs, oil, gas, wear-and-tear on vihicles, and the carbon burden of these actions are added to that of the actual baking of the bread. See: http://baking-management.com/production_solutions/choose-environmentfriendly-packaging-0209/
Another recent development in the wholesale bakery industry is the delivery of partially baked or frozen bread and cakes to retailers who then bake the products locally. I suggest that this is simply one more additional envirnmentally deleterios step which adds additioanl envirnmental costs to the production of breadstuffs since the freezing, transportation-in-the- frozen state, storage at the retailer as a frozen product, then baking on premises only adds to the impact of bread products over those that are baked fully in some distant place. The additional costs to the environment (energy to cool, freeze and remain in the frozen state) are probably very significant.
The soft texture of these wholesale breads has led to another even more wasteful practice. Bread toasting! The process of toasting bread grew from an optional preparration in earlier times an essential element of home bread preparation when most available bread to consumers was designed the modern soft-textured variety. To make packaged bread palatable it must be toasted. I submit that almost all modern breads are baked with the tacit understanding that that the product will most probably be toasted before eating. The practice of toasting bread uses a great quantity of electrical energy. For example a modern toaster uses about 1000 watts of electical power an hour, while a laptop consumes about 75 watts an hour. Thus your one time per day, four-minute bread-toasting each morning may consume about as much electical energy as your a laptop uses in an hour.
Now lets consider the alternative.
After the bread is baked it must be packaged, boxed, transported and finally delivered to distant stores and then to the final consumer. All of these pakaging and transportation steps have envirnomental impact and consequences. As noted above to keep bread fresh it must be protected from dehydration. Air-restricted packaging of bread product is essential. Drying is to be avoided since that causes the bread to feel and appear stale--however old it actually is. Some companies wrap their loaves in two bags--an inner cellophane bag and outer polypropelene bag both of which become part of the solid waste stream and will likely become part of a landfill. Finally, the loaves are boxed for transportation. These cartons may be of plastic (often these are a hard-clear-plastics composed of polycarbonate which generally contain the hazardous BPA (bisphenol-A) or in cardboard boxes. Both of these have an impact on the environment. As to the actual cost of physical delivery i.e. to transport bread and bread products hundreds or even thousands of miles to its destination and finally to the consumer, their are obcious transportation costs, oil, gas, wear-and-tear on vihicles, and the carbon burden of these actions are added to that of the actual baking of the bread. See: http://baking-management.com/production_solutions/choose-environmentfriendly-packaging-0209/
Another recent development in the wholesale bakery industry is the delivery of partially baked or frozen bread and cakes to retailers who then bake the products locally. I suggest that this is simply one more additional envirnmentally deleterios step which adds additioanl envirnmental costs to the production of breadstuffs since the freezing, transportation-in-the- frozen state, storage at the retailer as a frozen product, then baking on premises only adds to the impact of bread products over those that are baked fully in some distant place. The additional costs to the environment (energy to cool, freeze and remain in the frozen state) are probably very significant.
The soft texture of these wholesale breads has led to another even more wasteful practice. Bread toasting! The process of toasting bread grew from an optional preparration in earlier times an essential element of home bread preparation when most available bread to consumers was designed the modern soft-textured variety. To make packaged bread palatable it must be toasted. I submit that almost all modern breads are baked with the tacit understanding that that the product will most probably be toasted before eating. The practice of toasting bread uses a great quantity of electrical energy. For example a modern toaster uses about 1000 watts of electical power an hour, while a laptop consumes about 75 watts an hour. Thus your one time per day, four-minute bread-toasting each morning may consume about as much electical energy as your a laptop uses in an hour.
Now lets consider the alternative.
When I was a young boy, I walked up to the corner of 18th Avenue and in 86th Street in Bensonhurst Brooklyn, where I had been sent to buy a loaf of crusty Italian bread from Sam Pastore our local baker. Inside the big smiling man with oven pinked cheeks and a bald head stood in front of his great coal-fired ovens and proudly handed you over the fruit of his early-morning labors. There was no list of ingredients on the package, since there was no package. If you asked Sam, he would proudly tell you that the bread's ingredients were only four: the best flour, fresh water, yeast, and sea salt, and if you counted them, the wonderful toasted sesame seeds on the outside (were another). He might admit, if you pressed him, that for some soft-style bread loaves, he might add a little olive oil. "But it is Extra Virgin Bertolli oil" he would add. And at certain times in the fall of the year, before Thanksgiving, he might make a special loaf with pork cracklings in it called "pane di ciccioli" or cicoli bread.
The crust of Sam's bread was its own packaging. It didn't need preservatives, since the inside was sterile (from those long minutes in the hot oven) and the outside was a real hard crust. Hard and dry! You could leave that bread out all day and no molds or bacteria would grow on that surface. However, it rarely lasted around the kitchen long enough to go moldy. So in those days there was no wasted pagaging. I recall seeing our neighbors Mrs Caruso and Mrs Tanzi and even Johnny Rico's mother come into Sam's and simply pick out a loaf, pay for it and put their bread in their own cloth shopping bags. But to protect that tasty loaf from a kid's dirty hands, Sam always pulled out a sheet of nice white from his big roll of "bakery paper" and wrapped mine up neatly, then tied it with a thin white string that dangled down from overhead. It didnt always get home all neatly wrapped that way. Hurrying home, I often could not resist the mouthwatering aroma of that hot, crusty bread and too often I would surreptitiously unfold the end of the wrapping and work my fingers inside to tear off a small piece of crust. At home, Mom would carefully unwrap the loaf and seeing the missing piece give me a scolding. "How can I put this loaf on the table when it looks like a rat's been gnawing on it?" A pathetic sad face and a whining, "I couldn't help it Ma, I was so hungry," generally got me out of trouble. My mother understood bread and she liked Sam's bread as much as I did.
Sam's paper and even the string were recycled. But we didn't call it that then, Mom "saved" the string by winding it onto a big ball that we kept in the kitchen cabinet. The white paper was "used again" being kept as a good piece of scrap for Mom to write her market lists on, or to wrap my school lunch in. The paper from the ciccolo bread presented a problem for writing on with its prominent oil stains, but it didn't go to waste. Dad used all kinds of paper to start the furnace with.
Finally that Italian bread did not need toasting. It remained crusty and tasty for breakfast the next day. But that was sure to be the last of it. On the way home from school, I have to pick up up next evening's loaf.
So to help our planet, begin to think of ways to reduce wasteful consumption. Green bread may be a place to start.
Wholesale manufactured bread is definately not "green". It was and remains designed to be stored for long times and for its long shelf and transportation life, not for its taste or wholesomeness. It is simply another example of how the vast food industry has attempted to modify our habits to suit their needs..not those of the consumer or the protection of the environment. If you are interested in making "green"choices in your food purchases...you might begin by begining at your local bakery--they still exist and havent changed much from my boyhood days--- and ther buy their locally made bread products.
Wholesale manufactured bread is definately not "green". It was and remains designed to be stored for long times and for its long shelf and transportation life, not for its taste or wholesomeness. It is simply another example of how the vast food industry has attempted to modify our habits to suit their needs..not those of the consumer or the protection of the environment. If you are interested in making "green"choices in your food purchases...you might begin by begining at your local bakery--they still exist and havent changed much from my boyhood days--- and ther buy their locally made bread products.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Castro Speaks on Torture--USA's Cowardly and Shameful Acts
Castro califica las torturas de EEUU como 'actos cobardes y vergonzosos'
Una partidaria de Fidel Castro. | Reuters
Fidel Castro critica a Cheney por justificar torturas
Dpa | La Habana
Actualizado jueves 28/05/2009 03:12 horasDisminuye el tamaño del texto Aumenta el tamaño del texto
El ex presidente cubano Fidel Castro criticó como un "acto cobarde y vergonzoso" el empleo de la tortura por parte de las autoridades de seguridad estadounidenses en interrogatorios contra sospechosos de terrorismo, y aseguró que Cuba jamás ha recurrido a métodos similares.
"Por dolorosas que fuesen las acciones contra el pueblo de Estados Unidos el 11 de septiembre de 2001, que todo el mundo condenó con energía, la tortura es un acto cobarde y vergonzoso que no puede ser jamás justificado", afirmó Castro, de 82 años, en una nueva 'Reflexión' publicada en medios de comunicación cubanos.
"En nuestro país, a pesar de los gravísimos peligros que durante decenas de años nos han amenazado, jamás se torturó a nadie para obtener información", señaló.
A cuentas del discurso de Cheney
En su artículo, el líder cubano cita ampliamente el discurso pronunciado el jueves de la semana pasada por el ex vicepresidente estadounidense Dick Cheney, minutos después de que el actual mandatario, Barack Obama, insistiera en cerrar la cárcel de la base naval de Guantánamo, erigida sobre suelo cubano.
En el discurso, el que fuera vicepresidente durante la administración de George W. Bush, defiende las acciones de seguridad emprendidas por el anterior gobierno en respuesta a los atentados del 11-S, como las invasiones de Afganistán e Irak, y el empleo de métodos de tortura para conseguir información.
Castro consideró que "independientemente de los miles de jóvenes norteamericanos muertos, mutilados y heridos en la guerra de Irak y los fabulosos fondos invertidos allí, cientos de miles de vidas de niños, jóvenes y ancianos, hombres y mujeres que no tuvieron culpa alguna del ataque a las torres gemelas han muerto en ese país después de la invasión ordenada por Bush".
Sospechas sobre el 11-S
Además, el ex jefe de Estado afirmó que Cheney no explicó por qué los atentados del 11 de septiembre pudieron organizarse "de forma relativamente fácil, qué noticias previas de la inteligencia poseía Bush, qué pudo hacerse para evitarlos. Bush llevaba ya casi ocho meses en la Presidencia. Se sabía que trabajaba poco y descansaba mucho. Constantemente se marchaba para su rancho de Texas".
Castro cita pasajes en los que Cheney relata cómo vivió el 11-S desde un búnker de mando, y considera al respecto: "La narración de Cheney evidencia que nadie había previsto aquella situación y le presta un flaco servicio al orgullo de los norteamericanos al suponer que alguien encerrado en una cueva, a 15 ó 20 mil kilómetros de distancia, podía obligar al presidente de Estados Unidos a ocupar su puesto de mando en el sótano de la Casa Blanca".
En su 'Reflexión', el primer secretario del gobernante Partido Comunista de Cuba afirma que Estados Unidos posee entre 5.000 y 10.000 cabezas nucleares, además de armas químicas, biológicas, electromagnéticas, y considera que "esas armas están en manos de quienes reclaman el derecho a utilizar la tortura".
Castro acusa además a Estados Unidos de haber recurrido al terrorismo contra Cuba, ya desde el mandato de Dwight Eisenhower. "No se trató de un grupo de acciones sangrientas contra nuestro pueblo, sino de decenas de hechos desde el propio año de 1959, que se incrementaron después a cientos de actos terroristas cada año".
"Miles de personas fueron afectadas, y la economía, cuyo objetivo es sostener la alimentación, la salud y los servicios más elementales del pueblo ha sido sometida a un implacable bloqueo que se aplica extraterritorialmente", añadió, en relación al embargo impuesto por Estados Unidos a la isla desde los años 60.
From elmund0.es May 29, 2009
Una partidaria de Fidel Castro. | Reuters
Fidel Castro critica a Cheney por justificar torturas
Dpa | La Habana
Actualizado jueves 28/05/2009 03:12 horasDisminuye el tamaño del texto Aumenta el tamaño del texto
El ex presidente cubano Fidel Castro criticó como un "acto cobarde y vergonzoso" el empleo de la tortura por parte de las autoridades de seguridad estadounidenses en interrogatorios contra sospechosos de terrorismo, y aseguró que Cuba jamás ha recurrido a métodos similares.
"Por dolorosas que fuesen las acciones contra el pueblo de Estados Unidos el 11 de septiembre de 2001, que todo el mundo condenó con energía, la tortura es un acto cobarde y vergonzoso que no puede ser jamás justificado", afirmó Castro, de 82 años, en una nueva 'Reflexión' publicada en medios de comunicación cubanos.
"En nuestro país, a pesar de los gravísimos peligros que durante decenas de años nos han amenazado, jamás se torturó a nadie para obtener información", señaló.
A cuentas del discurso de Cheney
En su artículo, el líder cubano cita ampliamente el discurso pronunciado el jueves de la semana pasada por el ex vicepresidente estadounidense Dick Cheney, minutos después de que el actual mandatario, Barack Obama, insistiera en cerrar la cárcel de la base naval de Guantánamo, erigida sobre suelo cubano.
En el discurso, el que fuera vicepresidente durante la administración de George W. Bush, defiende las acciones de seguridad emprendidas por el anterior gobierno en respuesta a los atentados del 11-S, como las invasiones de Afganistán e Irak, y el empleo de métodos de tortura para conseguir información.
Castro consideró que "independientemente de los miles de jóvenes norteamericanos muertos, mutilados y heridos en la guerra de Irak y los fabulosos fondos invertidos allí, cientos de miles de vidas de niños, jóvenes y ancianos, hombres y mujeres que no tuvieron culpa alguna del ataque a las torres gemelas han muerto en ese país después de la invasión ordenada por Bush".
Sospechas sobre el 11-S
Además, el ex jefe de Estado afirmó que Cheney no explicó por qué los atentados del 11 de septiembre pudieron organizarse "de forma relativamente fácil, qué noticias previas de la inteligencia poseía Bush, qué pudo hacerse para evitarlos. Bush llevaba ya casi ocho meses en la Presidencia. Se sabía que trabajaba poco y descansaba mucho. Constantemente se marchaba para su rancho de Texas".
Castro cita pasajes en los que Cheney relata cómo vivió el 11-S desde un búnker de mando, y considera al respecto: "La narración de Cheney evidencia que nadie había previsto aquella situación y le presta un flaco servicio al orgullo de los norteamericanos al suponer que alguien encerrado en una cueva, a 15 ó 20 mil kilómetros de distancia, podía obligar al presidente de Estados Unidos a ocupar su puesto de mando en el sótano de la Casa Blanca".
En su 'Reflexión', el primer secretario del gobernante Partido Comunista de Cuba afirma que Estados Unidos posee entre 5.000 y 10.000 cabezas nucleares, además de armas químicas, biológicas, electromagnéticas, y considera que "esas armas están en manos de quienes reclaman el derecho a utilizar la tortura".
Castro acusa además a Estados Unidos de haber recurrido al terrorismo contra Cuba, ya desde el mandato de Dwight Eisenhower. "No se trató de un grupo de acciones sangrientas contra nuestro pueblo, sino de decenas de hechos desde el propio año de 1959, que se incrementaron después a cientos de actos terroristas cada año".
"Miles de personas fueron afectadas, y la economía, cuyo objetivo es sostener la alimentación, la salud y los servicios más elementales del pueblo ha sido sometida a un implacable bloqueo que se aplica extraterritorialmente", añadió, en relación al embargo impuesto por Estados Unidos a la isla desde los años 60.
From elmund0.es May 29, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
MORE ON THE DEMISE OF THE CELTIC TIGER
All about Ireland's boom times: Read it all at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/10/ireland-financial-crisis-emigration
Here are some interesting snippets:
There are plenty of astonishing figures in this boom. There were 6,507 racehorses in training in Ireland in 1992, yet by 2008 some 12,119 thoroughbreds were kicking up the gallops. From four private aircraft, the numbers of helicopters and jets rose to an estimated 80, with more being bought in Ireland than in any other EU country. Where once there were only a few thousand people who could afford to follow Munster's rugby players abroad, an estimated 65,000 arrived in Cardiff in 2006 to watch them become European champions.
And now? Well, in the 2006 census there were 200,000 empty homes, a figure that will now have significantly worsened. Horses are being offered to trainers by hard-up owners, or being left by the side of the road, or even shot. "All those planes and helicopters are for sale," I am told by one businessman.
Still, for many, the good times had been grand. In the late 1980s, economists close to Fianna Fáil, the broadly centrist political party that has clung to power like few others in Europe, had slashed taxes, regulations and corporate rates in order to make Ireland third only to Hong Kong and Singapore as the world's most free-market country. The move, satirised by journalists as the "Doheny & Nesbitt School of Economics", after the pub they claim had given birth to it, would see 40 per cent of all American money invested in Europe wash up on Ireland's shores.
Ireland had two booms, explains Fintan O'Toole, commentator, critic and historian. The first came in the 1990s. Foreign investment offered work and opportunities to the well-educated, English-speaking workforce. The whole country rose on the tide, and many of those who emigrated in the 1980s came home. As the millennium turned, however, a parasite embedded itself in the economy. Recessionary interest rates set by the European Central Bank allowed Irish bank executives to borrow huge sums, which they lent to their chums in the property business (and sometimes to themselves). When Anglo Irish Bank, the worst offender, called in the government in December 2008, it had lent 15 people more than €500m each.
This money fuelled an explosive burst of confidence. A series of spectacular new buildings appeared downstream from those starving figures on the banks of the Liffey. The "Builders", as the big property developers are called, sold land to each other at spiralling prices. These men - they were all men - whose fathers might have ended up working on English construction sites, were commissioning skyscrapers not just in Ireland, but in New York, Chicago and London, arrowing around the globe on Falcon jets. They set an example that every Irishman who had ever put mortar to brick followed.
The Builders became glamour figures. In 1999, one of the most notorious bought a plot, perhaps a quarter of an acre, in Shrewsbury Road for Ir£3m, and then promptly sued the neighbour who had sold it to him in a boundary dispute. As he built his house, Sean Dunne, 54, compact, likeable, with neatly groomed grey hair and small, terrifying blue eyes, must have sensed he was where he wanted to be, a long way from his childhood in County Carlow, in southeast Ireland, where, as he once put it, "If me or my siblings needed a bath we went for a swim in the River Slaney."
Much of the country was going crazy. The German ambassador caused a diplomatic incident when he complained that Irish life had become coarse. The church, so long a moral force, was silent, muzzled by a succession of scandals involving paedophilia and the abuse of children in care.
According to O'Toole, "People bought into the idea that this wasn't just an economic boom - it was a national vindication, a healing, the sense that our bad past was gone, and gone for ever." But he warns against confusing a sense of humiliation with an understanding of the past: "One of the most ridiculous clichés about the Irish is that we are obsessed with history. In recent decades it's been the opposite; we have been living in a continual present, in the sense that now is the only place that ever existed."
So who is to blame for all this? The Builders? Well, only a fool would have mistaken them for angels. The banks? Certainly, Sean FitzPatrick, Anglo Irish's ex-chairman, makes Sir Fred Goodwin look prudent. But as O'Toole argues, such conjecture is to let the guilty go free: "To place all the blame with the banks is a cop-out. This was crony capitalism, a political problem. We've had two prime ministers in the past 20 years who were on the take - Ahern and Haughey. Which is a lot, considering we've only had five."
................. Beyond such glamour, the collapse of the property bubble has seen unemployment rise past 11 per cent, banks nationalised, the economy forecast to shrink by 8.3 per cent, negative equity engulf great swathes of the population, the nation's international credit rating downgraded, economists warn of national bankruptcy, and taxes rising by €4,000 for the average family. As Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, recently wrote, "As far as responding to the recession goes, Ireland appears to be really, truly without options."
I take a train out of Dublin to Adamstown, and step out into a weird semi-wilderness. The station is like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, manned by a lone ticket collector almost mad with boredom. Outside, a single building stands in a churned-up field, the centrepiece of a new town once heralded as the model of Irish development. I follow the deserted road east, beside a plyboard fence announcing a yet to be built swimming pool - "Come in, the water's great" - until I come to two primary schools and a few apartments. It is playtime and all the children are clearly from elsewhere. Which, I confess, comes as a shock.
Mena Baskarasubramanian is from the south of India. Until three years ago, she was living in England, but her husband's job in the IT department of a bank ("I know," she cries. "I know,") had been reassigned to Dublin. "When we arrived I heard about Adamstown and so I came to look for a house," she tells me. "It was 2006 and you wouldn't believe it, people were queueing all night." She secured a two-bed apartment for her family for €300,000.
Now chairwoman of the local primary school, Mena explains that 95 per cent of the students are from non-Irish backgrounds, with 26 nationalities. With an open face and wonderful optimism, she talks of the connections she is making, the beginnings of a very Irish network of Croats and Kazaks, Brazilians and Somalis, and Indians, and, more importantly, her fears for it. "Because of the recession, people are going back to their countries. The Polish workers are going. Doctors are moving to the Middle East. I don't want to lose this beautiful structure we have at the moment."
The value of Mena's flat has fallen by €50,000, and many of the cranes over Adamstown are no longer moving. "Some of the units have been stopped. The retail spaces were supposed to be open last year." I ask if her small boy will take up hurling. "Probably. My daughter is becoming Irish, she loves Irish dancing. The other day, two children arrived not speaking a word of English, but after four days they were singing Irish songs, thanks to our four language-support teachers." Again, the enthusiasm falters. "Due to the cutbacks it's been reduced to two. We don't know what we'll do next year."
The Celtic tiger is dying, and nobody knows what will be left. Mena's fears - about jobs, about negative equity, about the community drifting away - are every woman's fears in Ireland. Some people tell me that this time it won't be like the 1980s, that with the whole world in recession there is nowhere for the young to go.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/10/ireland-financial-crisis-emigration
Here are some interesting snippets:
There are plenty of astonishing figures in this boom. There were 6,507 racehorses in training in Ireland in 1992, yet by 2008 some 12,119 thoroughbreds were kicking up the gallops. From four private aircraft, the numbers of helicopters and jets rose to an estimated 80, with more being bought in Ireland than in any other EU country. Where once there were only a few thousand people who could afford to follow Munster's rugby players abroad, an estimated 65,000 arrived in Cardiff in 2006 to watch them become European champions.
And now? Well, in the 2006 census there were 200,000 empty homes, a figure that will now have significantly worsened. Horses are being offered to trainers by hard-up owners, or being left by the side of the road, or even shot. "All those planes and helicopters are for sale," I am told by one businessman.
Still, for many, the good times had been grand. In the late 1980s, economists close to Fianna Fáil, the broadly centrist political party that has clung to power like few others in Europe, had slashed taxes, regulations and corporate rates in order to make Ireland third only to Hong Kong and Singapore as the world's most free-market country. The move, satirised by journalists as the "Doheny & Nesbitt School of Economics", after the pub they claim had given birth to it, would see 40 per cent of all American money invested in Europe wash up on Ireland's shores.
Ireland had two booms, explains Fintan O'Toole, commentator, critic and historian. The first came in the 1990s. Foreign investment offered work and opportunities to the well-educated, English-speaking workforce. The whole country rose on the tide, and many of those who emigrated in the 1980s came home. As the millennium turned, however, a parasite embedded itself in the economy. Recessionary interest rates set by the European Central Bank allowed Irish bank executives to borrow huge sums, which they lent to their chums in the property business (and sometimes to themselves). When Anglo Irish Bank, the worst offender, called in the government in December 2008, it had lent 15 people more than €500m each.
This money fuelled an explosive burst of confidence. A series of spectacular new buildings appeared downstream from those starving figures on the banks of the Liffey. The "Builders", as the big property developers are called, sold land to each other at spiralling prices. These men - they were all men - whose fathers might have ended up working on English construction sites, were commissioning skyscrapers not just in Ireland, but in New York, Chicago and London, arrowing around the globe on Falcon jets. They set an example that every Irishman who had ever put mortar to brick followed.
The Builders became glamour figures. In 1999, one of the most notorious bought a plot, perhaps a quarter of an acre, in Shrewsbury Road for Ir£3m, and then promptly sued the neighbour who had sold it to him in a boundary dispute. As he built his house, Sean Dunne, 54, compact, likeable, with neatly groomed grey hair and small, terrifying blue eyes, must have sensed he was where he wanted to be, a long way from his childhood in County Carlow, in southeast Ireland, where, as he once put it, "If me or my siblings needed a bath we went for a swim in the River Slaney."
Much of the country was going crazy. The German ambassador caused a diplomatic incident when he complained that Irish life had become coarse. The church, so long a moral force, was silent, muzzled by a succession of scandals involving paedophilia and the abuse of children in care.
According to O'Toole, "People bought into the idea that this wasn't just an economic boom - it was a national vindication, a healing, the sense that our bad past was gone, and gone for ever." But he warns against confusing a sense of humiliation with an understanding of the past: "One of the most ridiculous clichés about the Irish is that we are obsessed with history. In recent decades it's been the opposite; we have been living in a continual present, in the sense that now is the only place that ever existed."
So who is to blame for all this? The Builders? Well, only a fool would have mistaken them for angels. The banks? Certainly, Sean FitzPatrick, Anglo Irish's ex-chairman, makes Sir Fred Goodwin look prudent. But as O'Toole argues, such conjecture is to let the guilty go free: "To place all the blame with the banks is a cop-out. This was crony capitalism, a political problem. We've had two prime ministers in the past 20 years who were on the take - Ahern and Haughey. Which is a lot, considering we've only had five."
................. Beyond such glamour, the collapse of the property bubble has seen unemployment rise past 11 per cent, banks nationalised, the economy forecast to shrink by 8.3 per cent, negative equity engulf great swathes of the population, the nation's international credit rating downgraded, economists warn of national bankruptcy, and taxes rising by €4,000 for the average family. As Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, recently wrote, "As far as responding to the recession goes, Ireland appears to be really, truly without options."
I take a train out of Dublin to Adamstown, and step out into a weird semi-wilderness. The station is like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, manned by a lone ticket collector almost mad with boredom. Outside, a single building stands in a churned-up field, the centrepiece of a new town once heralded as the model of Irish development. I follow the deserted road east, beside a plyboard fence announcing a yet to be built swimming pool - "Come in, the water's great" - until I come to two primary schools and a few apartments. It is playtime and all the children are clearly from elsewhere. Which, I confess, comes as a shock.
Mena Baskarasubramanian is from the south of India. Until three years ago, she was living in England, but her husband's job in the IT department of a bank ("I know," she cries. "I know,") had been reassigned to Dublin. "When we arrived I heard about Adamstown and so I came to look for a house," she tells me. "It was 2006 and you wouldn't believe it, people were queueing all night." She secured a two-bed apartment for her family for €300,000.
Now chairwoman of the local primary school, Mena explains that 95 per cent of the students are from non-Irish backgrounds, with 26 nationalities. With an open face and wonderful optimism, she talks of the connections she is making, the beginnings of a very Irish network of Croats and Kazaks, Brazilians and Somalis, and Indians, and, more importantly, her fears for it. "Because of the recession, people are going back to their countries. The Polish workers are going. Doctors are moving to the Middle East. I don't want to lose this beautiful structure we have at the moment."
The value of Mena's flat has fallen by €50,000, and many of the cranes over Adamstown are no longer moving. "Some of the units have been stopped. The retail spaces were supposed to be open last year." I ask if her small boy will take up hurling. "Probably. My daughter is becoming Irish, she loves Irish dancing. The other day, two children arrived not speaking a word of English, but after four days they were singing Irish songs, thanks to our four language-support teachers." Again, the enthusiasm falters. "Due to the cutbacks it's been reduced to two. We don't know what we'll do next year."
The Celtic tiger is dying, and nobody knows what will be left. Mena's fears - about jobs, about negative equity, about the community drifting away - are every woman's fears in Ireland. Some people tell me that this time it won't be like the 1980s, that with the whole world in recession there is nowhere for the young to go.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
STORIES WE DO NOT READ IN THE US PRESS
FRENCH ROQUEFORT CHEESE AND AMERICAN BEEF
Gripped by an economic-crisis-induced fit of purchasing madness, I recently bought a nice square of that elegant blue French cheese--Roquefort..the lovely creamy, piquant cheese which is made of ewe's (sheep) milk and which is aged in cool limestone caves in southern France where it has been made since ancient times. Even the ancients knew and enjoyed this famous product of Gaul. The Roman historian and natural scientist Pliny the Elder (who died in the August 25, 79AD eruption of Vesuvius) wrote glowingly about the cheese in his "Natural History". It was very expensive!. A little triangle was over ten dollars! The price in the local market was much more than one would pay in France itself. Perhaps three times more....Why?
The answer: Our so wise, US government has had a 100% entry tax on this fine product since 1999. They were planning to raise the tax to 300%. That would make it simple out of reach for all except the Wall Street hedge fund managers to buy. Simply a way to punish the rest of us and the French? Yes indeed!
But the part of the story which disturbs me is why we have imposed this big import tax.
Since 1980 the EU block has put an embargo on American beef --our beef laden with hormones-- since the EU considers that American beef treated with hormones was detrimental to the health of the consumer it has prevented this beef from entering its markets. The US imposed import tax on French Roquefort cheese, Italian mineral water, Belgian chocolates, EU meats, grains and other foods were simply a reaction and a threat (a tit for tat) for the EU action.
Today Le Monde reports that some deal has been struck. The Obama government will not jump the tax to 300%---in return, the French and the rest of the EU will import American beef of the non-hormone-treated variety to the tune of 20,000 tons during the first three years and raising to 45,000 tons on the fourth year.
That's great for the EU farmer and consumer. Their beef should be cheaper and their farm products will have an expanded market---but what about the US consumer? Our government is too much under the influence of the beef lobby to label meat accordingly so we continue to have to eat growth-hormone treated beef. And perhaps now that the EU's markets are opened to the non-hormone treated variety, that scarce product on American shelves will be now even more difficult to find and more expensive.
We should all demand that our government label our meats, and demand hormone-free beef and other products from our producers.
To read the whole Le Monde piece see:http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2009/05/06/b-uf-contre-roquefort-l-ue-et-les-etats-unis-passent-l-eponge_1189829_3214.html
On a related topic, a recent study, spanning the past decade, evaluated the food preference of more than one-half million 50-71 year-olds and the effects of their preferences on their mortality. It found that men and women eating the most meat were one-third more likely to die of a variety of causes over those who ate the least red meat. To read the facts about hormone treated American beef and how it decreases your life span read :http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_82019.html
rjk speaks
Gripped by an economic-crisis-induced fit of purchasing madness, I recently bought a nice square of that elegant blue French cheese--Roquefort..the lovely creamy, piquant cheese which is made of ewe's (sheep) milk and which is aged in cool limestone caves in southern France where it has been made since ancient times. Even the ancients knew and enjoyed this famous product of Gaul. The Roman historian and natural scientist Pliny the Elder (who died in the August 25, 79AD eruption of Vesuvius) wrote glowingly about the cheese in his "Natural History". It was very expensive!. A little triangle was over ten dollars! The price in the local market was much more than one would pay in France itself. Perhaps three times more....Why?
The answer: Our so wise, US government has had a 100% entry tax on this fine product since 1999. They were planning to raise the tax to 300%. That would make it simple out of reach for all except the Wall Street hedge fund managers to buy. Simply a way to punish the rest of us and the French? Yes indeed!
But the part of the story which disturbs me is why we have imposed this big import tax.
Since 1980 the EU block has put an embargo on American beef --our beef laden with hormones-- since the EU considers that American beef treated with hormones was detrimental to the health of the consumer it has prevented this beef from entering its markets. The US imposed import tax on French Roquefort cheese, Italian mineral water, Belgian chocolates, EU meats, grains and other foods were simply a reaction and a threat (a tit for tat) for the EU action.
Today Le Monde reports that some deal has been struck. The Obama government will not jump the tax to 300%---in return, the French and the rest of the EU will import American beef of the non-hormone-treated variety to the tune of 20,000 tons during the first three years and raising to 45,000 tons on the fourth year.
That's great for the EU farmer and consumer. Their beef should be cheaper and their farm products will have an expanded market---but what about the US consumer? Our government is too much under the influence of the beef lobby to label meat accordingly so we continue to have to eat growth-hormone treated beef. And perhaps now that the EU's markets are opened to the non-hormone treated variety, that scarce product on American shelves will be now even more difficult to find and more expensive.
We should all demand that our government label our meats, and demand hormone-free beef and other products from our producers.
To read the whole Le Monde piece see:http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2009/05/06/b-uf-contre-roquefort-l-ue-et-les-etats-unis-passent-l-eponge_1189829_3214.html
On a related topic, a recent study, spanning the past decade, evaluated the food preference of more than one-half million 50-71 year-olds and the effects of their preferences on their mortality. It found that men and women eating the most meat were one-third more likely to die of a variety of causes over those who ate the least red meat. To read the facts about hormone treated American beef and how it decreases your life span read :http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_82019.html
rjk speaks
Sunday, May 3, 2009
LE GRIPPE PORCINE- THE FRENCH VIEW
From Le Monde, Paris (May 2, 2009)
What news about “Le Grippe Porcine” in Paris"
http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2009/05/02/grippe-le-mexique-se-veut-rassurant-l-oms-dans-le-flou_1188223_3244.html#ens_id=1185166
The French paper Le Monde reports that “More than a week after the appearance in Mexico of the swine flu, the risks of a world pandemic and the gravity of the disease remain blurry (“flou demeure”)."
What news about “Le Grippe Porcine” in Paris"
http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2009/05/02/grippe-le-mexique-se-veut-rassurant-l-oms-dans-le-flou_1188223_3244.html#ens_id=1185166
The French paper Le Monde reports that “More than a week after the appearance in Mexico of the swine flu, the risks of a world pandemic and the gravity of the disease remain blurry (“flou demeure”)."
"The virus (A H1N1) has caused twenty deaths –nineteen in Mexico and one in the USA—and it has been reported from nineteen countries.” This international journal of record adds however, an interesting new twist on the way the germ may be transmitted.
In Canada
On Saturday, in Ottawa, (Canada) officials have announced that for the first time in the epidemic, the swine flu virus--H1V1—the human swine flu--has gone the other way--by infecting previously healthy porkers in a Canadian facility---while the source of the infection was probably an agricultural worker who arrived from Mexico. The officials add that both the man and all the hogs have been or are in the process of being cured. After analysis the experts confirmed that the pigs caught the human virus, adding that the sanitary and health authorities have stated that “the risque that these hogs can transmit the virus (back) to people is very slight."
"This announcement could have overall repercussion on the commerce of about fifteen countries," states the Le Monde article, "of which China and Russia, have large hog markets, and have interdicted or restrained the importation of pork and pork products derived from Canada, the US and Mexico. These three countries have appealed Saturday in a common declaration “ to avoid adding to the fear of the porcine flu by uselessly limiting commerce”.
"This announcement could have overall repercussion on the commerce of about fifteen countries," states the Le Monde article, "of which China and Russia, have large hog markets, and have interdicted or restrained the importation of pork and pork products derived from Canada, the US and Mexico. These three countries have appealed Saturday in a common declaration “ to avoid adding to the fear of the porcine flu by uselessly limiting commerce”.
In Egypt.
"According to World Health Organization (WHO), Egypt has begun to cull about 250,000 pigs raised on its territory, while that organization reports there is no evidence of any one person contaminated by swine flu in that country. While at the UN, in this regard, the FAO (the organisation united for food and agriculture stated in a communique that pork meats are not a source of infection when they are prepared according to the standard rules of hygiene.”
In Mexico.
In Mexico.
"Saturday, the Mexican authorities have determined that the virus seems to be in a “phase of stabilization”, but they judge at the same time, it is premature to announce a decline of the epidemic. After examining more than 1300 analyses the Minister of Health, Jose Angel Cordova has announced that each day we observe a diminution of the occurrence of grave cases, and mortality has diminished. In another sign of hope, the last confirmed deaths were announced on the 28th of April.
The balance sheet on the swine flu in Mexico, considered the source (“le foyer”) of the A H1N1 flu, is reported as 454 confirmed cases, or 57 more than in most-recent accounts, but only three new deaths have been tabulated. The (government) activities continue the process of “continuing the a slow down” having maintained as of Wednesday, the closing of restaurants, bars, cinemas, and tourist sites.
"In addition, some of these actions for health and sanitation have been (also) initiated in the subway (metro) where at present only a single main line remains in operation to avoid transportation chaos."
In spite of the declarations coming from Mexico, the WHO has indicated Saturday, that not knowing “when the pandemic is serious or benign--- we can not critique the Mexican government which must face a very complicated situation and which has been exceptionally cooperative when we have demanded information. This statement was made by Dr Michael Ryan, director of WHO research on world-alert-and-actions-in-the-case-of-an-epidemic". According to those in charge, the evolution of the situation “in the coming days in Europe will permit us to determine at which point the mutant virus is propagated, and if necessary the conditions for raising the pandemic alert to the maximum of level 6. The WHO had declared Wednesday the level to phase 5 or an “imminent” pandemic alert.
In spite of the declarations coming from Mexico, the WHO has indicated Saturday, that not knowing “when the pandemic is serious or benign--- we can not critique the Mexican government which must face a very complicated situation and which has been exceptionally cooperative when we have demanded information. This statement was made by Dr Michael Ryan, director of WHO research on world-alert-and-actions-in-the-case-of-an-epidemic". According to those in charge, the evolution of the situation “in the coming days in Europe will permit us to determine at which point the mutant virus is propagated, and if necessary the conditions for raising the pandemic alert to the maximum of level 6. The WHO had declared Wednesday the level to phase 5 or an “imminent” pandemic alert.
In France.
In France, 22 cases of possible flu are already under evaluation, while, two cases have been confirmed Friday night. Seven persons who have returned from Mexico and constitute “probable” cases have been hospitalized in the Paris region, and in Aquitane. And as well, the inter-ministerial group (Paris) has decided to advise against school trips to destinations in Mexico, New York, or those trips planned to pass through New York.
In the US.
In France, 22 cases of possible flu are already under evaluation, while, two cases have been confirmed Friday night. Seven persons who have returned from Mexico and constitute “probable” cases have been hospitalized in the Paris region, and in Aquitane. And as well, the inter-ministerial group (Paris) has decided to advise against school trips to destinations in Mexico, New York, or those trips planned to pass through New York.
In the US.
"On their side, the US has counted 160 confirmed cases (against 143 previously reported) in 21 states, but for the most part these are not serious cases. One death was reported in Texas. Faced with the unknown swine flu, President Barak Obama has explained that he would prefer to take too much precautions too early rather than not enough. The American health authorities do not exclude the possibility that the initial source of the virus (A H1N1) was found in the USA."
In China
In China, about fifty Mexican have been placed in isolation, the authorities having ordered these measures of quarantine after having identified on their soil the discovery of the Mexican disease—this reported on Sunday according to a diplomatic Mexican source in China. Mexico has reproached Peking, who previously suspended flights with Mexico, “of having isolated in an unjustified manner, Mexicans who have presented no symptoms.” In reprisal, Mexico has recommended to its traveling nationals to” avoid travel to China.”
In China
In China, about fifty Mexican have been placed in isolation, the authorities having ordered these measures of quarantine after having identified on their soil the discovery of the Mexican disease—this reported on Sunday according to a diplomatic Mexican source in China. Mexico has reproached Peking, who previously suspended flights with Mexico, “of having isolated in an unjustified manner, Mexicans who have presented no symptoms.” In reprisal, Mexico has recommended to its traveling nationals to” avoid travel to China.”
Saturday, May 2, 2009
WORLD RECESSION--THE VIEW FROM PARIS
From: Le Monde.
Recession--the Financial Cirsis.
Recession--the Financial Cirsis.
http://www.lemonde.fr/la-crise-financiere/article/2009/04/23/recession_1184430_1101386.html#ens_id=1172969.
What do we hear in these last months? The birds of bad news, the media, have pressed the characteristics, nourished the uncertainty, fed the collective psychosis, and for a few, invented a world crisis which (of course) butters their bread. In brief, the press is so much used to hearing reproach of its interest in catastrophism that one is almost relieved by the (actual) news from the economic front.
God knows if they are wrong. In London, the government of Gordon Brown has presented this Wednesday, 22 of April, a “war budget": a massive injection of public money to sustain the economy. It is an historic public deficit in peace time (12.4 % of the PIB , to be doubled in one year), an explosion of British debt in three years to come and put vigorous fiscal pressure to re-enforce the high revenue. This a “return of class warfare” blared the Daily Telegraph. To say the least, it is the end of the love affair over the last fifteen years between the workers and the City. To the point where it raises the specter of an intervention of international monetary funds (FMI) plan for London as in 1976.
In Washington, the news of the previsions (specter) of the FMI had the effect of a cold shower. Again in January the Fund banked on a light progress of 0.5% world growth. The prediction however for 2009 showed (rather) a decline of 1.3%. (Though) the Chinese growth was +6.5% and India’s at +4.5% but these did not compensate for the decline in the other countries, and particularly compared to the USA at -2.8%. The perspectives are particularly somber in Europe with a decline in growth of 4.2% in the Euro-zone, and nearly -5.6% in Germany.
In Paris, finally, the economic minister, Christine Legarde sees “positive signals” in the automobile and real estate industries, while the Budget Minister Eirc Woerth, estimates that “the slope of the graph has started to level off”, while the Prime Minister Francois Fillon, seems closer to reality when he predicted a “strong recession” this year: and a fall of FMI growth of 3%, and unemployment which may pass the bar of 10% of the active population.
Without doubt this black scenario goes (well) to re-launch the debate on the economic choices of the government in the days ahead of the mobilization of May Day. The relative orthodox budget to which it is not taken to be contested, as in the majority, by all those who press for the adoption , by income tax and public dispensing, these measure re-launch more vigorously. And thus we are.
What do we hear in these last months? The birds of bad news, the media, have pressed the characteristics, nourished the uncertainty, fed the collective psychosis, and for a few, invented a world crisis which (of course) butters their bread. In brief, the press is so much used to hearing reproach of its interest in catastrophism that one is almost relieved by the (actual) news from the economic front.
God knows if they are wrong. In London, the government of Gordon Brown has presented this Wednesday, 22 of April, a “war budget": a massive injection of public money to sustain the economy. It is an historic public deficit in peace time (12.4 % of the PIB , to be doubled in one year), an explosion of British debt in three years to come and put vigorous fiscal pressure to re-enforce the high revenue. This a “return of class warfare” blared the Daily Telegraph. To say the least, it is the end of the love affair over the last fifteen years between the workers and the City. To the point where it raises the specter of an intervention of international monetary funds (FMI) plan for London as in 1976.
In Washington, the news of the previsions (specter) of the FMI had the effect of a cold shower. Again in January the Fund banked on a light progress of 0.5% world growth. The prediction however for 2009 showed (rather) a decline of 1.3%. (Though) the Chinese growth was +6.5% and India’s at +4.5% but these did not compensate for the decline in the other countries, and particularly compared to the USA at -2.8%. The perspectives are particularly somber in Europe with a decline in growth of 4.2% in the Euro-zone, and nearly -5.6% in Germany.
In Paris, finally, the economic minister, Christine Legarde sees “positive signals” in the automobile and real estate industries, while the Budget Minister Eirc Woerth, estimates that “the slope of the graph has started to level off”, while the Prime Minister Francois Fillon, seems closer to reality when he predicted a “strong recession” this year: and a fall of FMI growth of 3%, and unemployment which may pass the bar of 10% of the active population.
Without doubt this black scenario goes (well) to re-launch the debate on the economic choices of the government in the days ahead of the mobilization of May Day. The relative orthodox budget to which it is not taken to be contested, as in the majority, by all those who press for the adoption , by income tax and public dispensing, these measure re-launch more vigorously. And thus we are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)