Olds

China: The Impact of Reform & Development

In 1998, the Yangtze River flooded killing more than 3000, demolishing five million homes and inundating 52 million acres of land. The economic losses have been estimated to be greater than $20 billion. There are two reasons for this catastrophe. The first and most obvious – two decades of unconstrained logging combined with destruction of wetlands. Without the basic ecological infrastructure required to manage the annual hydrological cycle, three thousand lives and more than $20 billion was lost overnight. The other reason, elusive in contemporary economic and political discourse, is the awareness of ecological systems as organs within a composite biosphere - a biosphere that possesses both the potential to preserve and expand wealth, as well as the capacity to annihilate it in seconds. Not only is this rather self evident truth marginalized generally, within China, total disregard for such considerations had been institutionalized as we will discover in the final pages of this essay.

Francis of Atlantica

The realities facing the future of New Brunswick and the larger Atlantic Provinces are stark: young people leave for opportunity elsewhere, mills are closing, resource depletion and an environment that is getting more and more loaded with pollutants. All of these trends call for action. The region and it's people have to reverse this course if we are to offer a decent life for future generations.

Liberals engage in political double-speak to sell private health care to New Brunswickers.

Once again we see that the current NB Liberal Government does not understand the word 'democracy', nor does it understand that it is expected to govern in the interests of the people, not private business.

Capital Rules!

The economy has radically changed since the era when Adam Smith championed the 'upstart' businessmen who dared to challenge the merchant monopolies that dominated the economy of his day. For Smith, the government created monopoly distorted the market, and granted unfair privilege and power to one sector of the population. In his view, this privilege could not be justified. It is highly unlikely Smith could have foreseen the day when private power would become so great that it would be possible for mega-corporations to sue governments for damages, and win! For reasons Similar to Smith's, I view NAFTA as a means by which Canada institutionalizes its subordination to American corporations.

Come Clean On Blood Coal

On March 22nd, 2008, Adolfo Gonzalez Montes, was murdered. He was a worker at the Cerrejon Coal Mine in Colombia, and also a union leader with the National Union of Coal Mine Workers. He left behind a wife and four children.

American Gangster in Montreal: The True Story of Hal C. Banks