The abandoned corpses, in white body bags with number tags tied to each toe, lie one above the other on steel racks inside a giant freezer in Detroit’s central mortuary, like discarded shoes in the back of a wardrobe.
Some have lain here for years, but in recent months the number of unclaimed bodies has reached a record high. For in this city that once symbolised the American Dream many cannot even afford to bury their dead.
“I have not seen this many unclaimed bodies in 13 years on the job,” said Albert Samuels, chief investigator at the mortuary. “It started happening when the economy went south last year. I have never seen this many people struggling to give people their last resting place.”
Unburied bodies piling up in the city mortuary — it reached 70 earlier this year — is the latest and perhaps most appalling indignity to be heaped on the people of Detroit. The motor city that once boasted the highest median income and home ownership rate in the US is today in the midst of a long and agonising death spiral.
{read full article at link]The abandoned corpses, in white body bags with number tags tied to each toe, lie one... more
The Obama administration has nominated a senior executive from the pesticide industry’s main trade association to be chief agricultural negotiator for the US Trade Representative. If confirmed, Isi Siddiqui will be responsible for, among other things, negotiating international agreements governing the use of pesticides.The Obama administration has nominated a senior executive from the pesticide... more
*We call on the population to demand that all produce we consume on a daily basis is GMO-free.
*We call on international agencies to condemn the Government of Mexico for violating peasant ancestral rights, as well as disrespecting biodiversity and food sovereignty, and ignoring the principle of precaution in the center of origin of basic crops that nowadays nourish the world.
*On 12 October, invite everyone to protest at the [nearest] Mexican Embassy against transgenic maize in Mexico!
Why this Call for Action on 12 October?
Monsanto has just lost 18 of 24 requests for experimental maize open-field testing in the northern regions of Mexico. These regions are Monsanto's most-wanted areas due to their commercial maize farming background: most of the everyday tortillas of the Mexican inhabitants come from there.
Therefore, the risk of having native varieties contaminated is huge and Monsanto is pressing the Government to have its requests attended [granted]. This has not happened yet, but might happen very soon.
In Mexico, October 12 is a national holiday known as Di-a de la Raza, or Day of the Race. It's a day to celebrate Mexican traditions and culture.
Besides this, in recent years, it has also been more and more used as a day for demonstrations, and to protest for social rights or defending indigenous culture. In the present context, the fragile position in which Mexican maize varieties are put, due to the menace of GM maize and GM companies, makes them a very important social and cultural value to be defended and protected.
Via Campesina in Mexico has started a campaign "Fuera Monsanto y No al Maiz Transgenico" in June. From 11 to 16 October they will protest in several regions of the country. The Network in Defense of Maize is supporting Via Campesina and will deliver the collected signatures to the Mexican Government on the 16th October. On that day some press conferences and actions might happen. So, if we do act on 12 October at our Mexican embassies, we should inform the Network in Defense of Maize, so that our international actions get to the Mexican press.
Right now, due to a climate of internal Mexican tension, our actions through Europe and worldwide increase the possibilities of resonance. By doing this, we are giving a great support to Mexico's anti-GMO struggle, and pressuring Mexican Government not to easily accept the requests of Monsanto.
**Act Now!**
Please send all press-releases, photos and other materials of every action you do at the Mexican embassy on 12 October, as well as other actions around that date, to the Network in Defense of Maize contacto@endefensadelmaiz.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so they can diffuse and promote them in Mexico. Thank you! Your support is precious!
The Defense of Maize Network is promoting a Declaration against the GMO maize, which already has about 6500 individual signatures and 1350 signatures from organizations of 74 countries by now. We would like to have your support as well.
International Government are statist in nature, they are against individual Liberty and anti-decentralized sovereignty. The United Nations has proposed legislation that would both limit free speech and threaten the 2nd amendment. Gordon Brown and Obama are now calling for a New World Order and a Global New Deal.
***This article has been chosen as a discussion topic on PFP Movement Radio, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pfpmovementradio Friday night at 6pm-8pm. Please Call In To The Show, 347-633-9636. COMMENTS will be included in the show so feel free to discuss or ask questions here on current.com as they will be addressed during the show. This article will also air on Freedom Hour Saturday at 9pm-10pm on Movement TV http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?page_id=36***International Government are statist in nature, they are against individual Liberty... more
Do you support:
Green Jobs?
Direct Taxes on Pollution?
Localizing our agriculture?
Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Cutting the Pentagon Budget?
Taxing the Rich (who can afford it) instead of the middle class and poor?
Legalizing marijuana use and other victimless 'crimes'?
Single Payer health insurance?
Ending the WTO and NAFTA and returning to Bilateral trade agreements based on workers rights and environmental quality principals rather than a race to the bottom?
Then the Green Party is for you!
Want to keep up to day with Green Party goings on? Then join this group!Do you support:
Green Jobs?
Direct Taxes on Pollution?
Localizing our agriculture?... more
Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harder will try to build on that earlier cooperation to handle an expected new wave of cases during North America's upcoming flu season.
With issues of drug trafficking, human smuggling, unfair trade agreements, border violence and other matters. Is it worth sending the president for a summit on the flu? Shouldn't they be focusing on other issues? What do you think?Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harder... more
A Sunday evening discovery of two dead women originated from a Border Patrol encounter with a 16-year-old boy from Mexico City on the northern part of the reservation at about 4 p.m., said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
The boy told agents that his 64-year-old grandmother had been left behind. He said that he and his grandmother had been walking without food and water for three days, drinking only Red Bull energy drinks and taking pain pills, Scioli said.
Over 3,000 immigrants have dies since the inception of NAFTA in 1994.A Sunday evening discovery of two dead women originated from a Border Patrol encounter... more
According to ambassador William Brownfield in Bogota, any country has the right to re elect their president indefinitely. He was referring of course to the pre eminent referendum to re write the Colombian Constitution, to, of course re elect Alvaro Uribe to a third term and may be a fourth term. President Obama clearly and diplomatically pointed to his counterpart President Uribe that "in the US 8 years is usually enough for the people" But Mr Brownfield refuted that by saying that President Obama was only referring to the US. Really?
Also Mr Brownsfield in years past was a vociferous opponent to the Hugo Chavez government when he was an ambassador to Caracas.
Well well. I classic case of political ambivalence or blunder.
"Así lo dijo en entrevista con el diario 'El País', de Cali, al afirmar que "es una decisión soberana para cualquier pueblo del mundo decidir si quieren ofrecer un término, dos términos, tres términos o términos ilimitados".
El diplomático se refirió a las palabras que su Presidente, Barack Obama, le dijo al jefe de Estado colombiano, Álvaro Uribe (en la pasada reunión de junio), acerca de que en E.U. dos periodos son suficientes y que "después de ocho años usualmente el pueblo desea un cambio".According to ambassador William Brownfield in Bogota, any country has the right to re... more
Rohan Marley, son of the late Bob Marley, working with a partner, has acquired lands in Jamaica for coffee farming and launched Marley Coffee, marrying his father's famous name to another world-class brand, Blue Mountain.Rohan Marley, son of the late Bob Marley, working with a partner, has acquired lands... more
One week after declaring that the United States “cannot afford” the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq “financially or spiritually,” Ohio’s Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a staunch anti-war crusader, took aim at Congress for not taking a more active role in any of the war on terror fronts.
“We are destroying our nation’s moral and fiscal integrity with this war supplemental,” Kucinich argued on the House floor Tuesday. “Instead of ending wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan now by appropriating only enough money to bring our troops home, Congress abdicates its constitutional authority, defers to the president, and asks for a report. That’s right, all we are asking for is a report on when the president will end the war.”
Kucinich continued, “There is also money for the IMF, presumably to bail out private European banks. Billions for the IMF so they can force low and middle income nations to cut jobs, wages, health care and retirement security, just like corporate America does to our constituents. And there’s money to incentivize the purchase of more cars, not necessarily from U.S. manufacturers because a ‘Buy America’ mandate was not allowed.”
“Another $106 billion dollars and all we get is a lousy war,” Kucinich said. “Pretty soon that is going to be about the only thing made in America – war.”One week after declaring that the United States “cannot afford” the wars in... more
As a primary candidate, Barack Obama presented himself as representing the fair trade wing of the Democratic party. But as soon as Hillary Clinton was out of the picture he told Fortune magazine that his anti-NAFTA rhetoric was "overheated and amplified." In an administration peopled with former Clinton staffers does fair trade stand a chance? Lori Wallach, Executive Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, Jose Schiffino, Chair of the Fair Trade Committee of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), Ana Maria Quispe, a human rights activist from Peru, and Christy Thornton, Executive Director of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) on Obama and free trade.As a primary candidate, Barack Obama presented himself as representing the fair trade... more
This is an incredible story of intimidation, deception, and corporate espionage, and that description is not going too far. The story at this link is long and involved, but I ask you to read it from beginning to end. It describes the lengths Monsanto and their minions went to in order to silence the author of a study that showed that GM DNA was infecting the traditional corn vareties of Mexico and that the DNA was not even stable. We wonder where viruses like Swine flu originate. I am beginning to wonder if viruses are spread by the GM BT transgenic corn DNA blowing in the wind.
Also, in this article you will read about the deceptive and destructive PR Internet campaign Monsanto is waging in order to discredit those who criticize GMOS. If you were not convinced that GMOs are harmful to our environment and that their release into our environment was for profit alone and perhaps even criminal, this may change yoru mind. This needs to be seen and people need to know that in no uncertain terms GMOs must be pulled from our shelves.This is an incredible story of intimidation, deception, and corporate espionage, and... more
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an attempt to expand the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to every country in Central America, South America and the Caribbean, except Cuba. Negotiations began right after the completion of NAFTA in 1994 and were supposed to have been completed by January 1, 2005.
But an exciting thing happened: the FTAA was not signed on January 1st. Led by strong social movements across the hemisphere, countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil have said NO to a model that has increased poverty across the globe, and are instead searching for a better model of regional integration.
Add your support to the thousands of people who are organizing to show that NAFTA should not be expanded but should be replaced with an international system of cooperation that fosters social equality, human rights, cultural diversity, environmental sustainability, and community well being. We've stopped the FTAA - for now. And now we MUST STOP CAFTA!!
Groups around the hemisphere have also been working together on an alternative agreement that will offer a workable vision of what a fair trade agreement would look like (see www.asc-hsa.org).The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an attempt to expand the failed North... more
As it quietly turns into official policy, the “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America” (SPP) agreement mixes the neoliberalism of NAFTA with the repression of homeland security. Harsha Walia and Cynthia Oka outline the main features of this emerging framework and its consequences for people in the region.
*article at link*
Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist in a range of social movements. Cynthia Oka is a no-border activist and a Political Science student. They are both members of No One Is Illegal – Vancouver, Coast Salish territories.As it quietly turns into official policy, the “Security and Prosperity Partnership... more
1. Hamthrax
2. NAFTA Flu
3. Super Pork Pandemic
4. Flatulent Toxic Ass Amonia
5. COKECANUCK
6. T.R.E.A.S.O.N.
7. Gabriel Teodros
8. Political Boxes
9. What is Anarchy?
these articles and more at the link aboveA.C.R.O.N.Y.M.
*profanity warning*
1. Hamthrax
2. NAFTA Flu
3. Super Pork... more
As the US reports its first known death from the global swine flu, the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic threat level. Several countries around the world have banned the import of US and Mexican pork products. We speak to professor and author Robert Wallace, who says the swine flu is partly the outcome of neoliberal policies that forced poorer countries to open their markets to poorly regulated Western agribusiness giants.
[Full interview at link]As the US reports its first known death from the global swine flu, the World Health... more
WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. trade official said it isn't necessary to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite a campaign promise by President Barack Obama to strengthen the pact's labor and environmental provisions.
"The president has said we will look at all options, but I think they can be addressed without having to reopen the agreement," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told reporters Monday in a conference call.
Since taking office, Mr. Obama has struck a more positive tone on free trade than he often did during his presidential campaign, with both the president and his aides speaking out against protectionism. Mr. Kirk's statement was the latest indication that Mr. Obama wouldn't press for a full-fledged renegotiation of the 15-year-old Nafta.
During his campaign, Mr. Obama had promised to add "enforceable" labor and environmental provisions to the core of the agreement among Mexico, Canada and the U.S. and to change investment provisions that critics say give business too much leeway to flout government regulations.
Mr. Kirk didn't shut the door to a formal renegotiation, but said the three nations should be able to find other ways "to strengthen the agreement." He also announced plans to immediately start reviewing U.S. free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama to resolve issues outstanding, before they are submitted to Congress for approval.WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. trade official said it isn't necessary to renegotiate the... more
Water sampled in stretches of the river with the fewest males revealed spikes in a new class of pollutant, endocrine disruptors, which are found in everything from pesticides to nail polish, flame retardants to contraceptives, and in human and animal pharmaceuticals. Often mimicking estrogen, endocrine disruptors scramble the chemical signals used by vertebrates from reptiles to humans to regulate a wide range of functions, including sexual development. The Canadian data were only the latest to implicate endocrine disruption in genital abnormalities and the disappearance of males.
For researcher Leland Jackson, whose tap water comes from the Bow River, the data were "alarming. The water I use to make my kids' orange juice is the same water those fish are living in."
The scientists reported their findings as other Canadian events were grabbing headlines and generating heat among environmentalists. Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Dow Chemical, one of the world's five largest chemical companies, confirmed it would sue Canada under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canada's trade crime? One Canadian province, Quebec, had placed 2,4-D — a widely used, nonproprietary herbicide and proven endocrine disruptor —on a list of garden pesticides prohibited for cosmetic use in urban areas. The measure was overwhelmingly popular with Quebecers.
Other reports have associated endocrine disruptors with gender-bending effects from China to Scandinavia. Sentinel species sounding an alarm run from feminized cane toads in Florida and frogs in Connecticut to Alaskan deer with undescended testicles and hermaphrodite polar bears with penises and vaginas. Lab experiments and field studies have linked endocrine-disrupting chemicals with delayed pregnancy and spontaneous abortions among rats and humans. The faux hormones are lead suspects in a decades-long worldwide decline in human sperm counts, more frequent male genital birth defects and local instances of a sharp human sex-ratio imbalance. By one estimate, a quarter of a million boys may be "missing" globally: the difference between historic sex ratios and the plummeting male birth rates of the last 30 years.Water sampled in stretches of the river with the fewest males revealed spikes in a new... more
I wonder, did Tom Vilsack of this Dept. Of Agriculture meet with their agriculture secretary?Monsanto is licking its chops to get into Mexico because they are being frozen out of Europe. Don't wonder now why Obama won't bother reworking NAFTA. This is one reason why. The only good thing about this is that individual Mexican states can still ban it, and based on the rightful opposition to it and its threat to the biodiversity of the corn varieties there I hope that happens.
_____
From the article:
NOTE: For what's really happening in Mexico, see the video of the interview with Silvia Ribeiro
*Agriculture secretary says genetically-modified varieties of this ubiquitous crop may be used in experiments.
Mexico has revised its biosafety law to reverse a nationwide ban on genetically-modified corn, the country's most important crop and the centerpiece of the Mexican diet, and allow the varieties to be used in experiments.
In a press conference, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, said that the government would fight any illicit planting of genetically-modified corn, of which Mexico is the birthplace.
Elvira Quesada added that the changes to Biosafety and Genetically-Modified Organisms would not prohibit individual states from instating bans on transgenic corn, and under those circumstances, experiments would not be an excuse.
Mexico's agriculture secretary said there are 25 requests to plant experimental transgenic corn in the country.
Genetically-modified corn has been a contentious issue in Mexico, where there are some 200 native varieties of the staple crop.
In February, a study by scientists from the Mexico, the Netherlands and the United States found that genetically-modified corn strains did contaminate native corn varieties in southern Mexico.
The study, led by Elena Alvarez-Buylla of the National Autonomous University in Mexico, backed findings a contentious 2001 study published in the journal Nature that said the genetically-engineered corn had been detected in some of these varieties, sparking a heated debate over the study´s research methods and findings.
On Feb. 25, Mexico City's government issued a declaration that seeks to protect native corn varieties and promote ecologically-friendly and organic agriculture.
The decision was lauded by Greenpeace Mexico as a sign of commitment to protecting "Mexicans' most important grain." - Latinamerica Press.I wonder, did Tom Vilsack of this Dept. Of Agriculture meet with their agriculture... more
