tagged w/ Slavery
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CNN...
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THE CNN FREEDOM PROJECT ENDING MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
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January 19th, 2012
12:03 PM ET
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Child slavery and chocolate: All too easy to find
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In "Chocolate's Child Slaves," CNN's David McKenzie travels into the heart of the Ivory Coast to investigate children working in the cocoa fields.
(More information and air times on CNN International.)
By David McKenzie and Brent Swails, CNN
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CLICK ON CNN LINK (at top) TO VIEW THREE VIDEOS
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Daloa, Ivory Coast (CNN) - Chocolate’s billion-dollar industry starts with workers like Abdul. He squats with a gang of a dozen harvesters on an Ivory Coast farm.
Abdul holds the yellow cocoa pod lengthwise and gives it two quick cracks, snapping it open to reveal milky white cocoa beans. He dumps the beans on a growing pile.
Abdul is 10 years old, a three-year veteran of the job.
He has never tasted chocolate.
During the course of an investigation for CNN’s Freedom Project initiative - an investigation that went deep into the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast - a team of CNN journalists found that child labor, trafficking and slavery are rife in an industry that produces some of the world’s best-known brands.
It was not supposed to be this way.
After a series of news reports surfaced in 2001 about gross violations in the cocoa industry, lawmakers in the United States put immense pressure on the industry to change.
“We felt like the public ought to know about it, and we ought to take some action to try to stop it,” said Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who, together with Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, spearheaded the response. “How many people in America know that all this chocolate they are eating - candies and all of those wonderful chocolates - is being produced by terrible child labor?”
But after intense lobbying by the cocoa industry, lawmakers weren’t able to push through a law. What they got was a voluntary protocol, signed by the heads of the chocolate industry, to stop the worst forms of child labor “as a matter of urgency.” One of the key goals was to certify the cocoa trade as child-labor free.
“It was meant to achieve the end of child slave labor in cocoa fields,” Engel said.
It didn’t.
UNICEF estimates that nearly a half-million children work on farms across Ivory Coast, which produces nearly 40% of the world’s supply of cocoa. The agency says hundreds of thousands of children, many of them trafficked across borders, are engaged in the worst forms of child labor.
A recent study by Tulane University says the industry’s efforts to stop child labor are “uneven” and “incomplete” and that 97% of Ivory Coast’s farmers had not been reached. But the industry’s main representative in the country disagrees with the assessment.
“I think the situation has improved exponentially,” said Rabola Kagohi, country director for the International Cocoa Initiative, the chocolate industry’s answer to fighting child labor and trafficking. “Today, the message is physically getting through.”
Kagohi works out of a basement office with one other permanent employee.
“There are some results,” he said. “I wish that you had spoken to some planters.”
None of the farmers CNN spoke to in the heart of the cocoa production region said they had ever been reached by the International Cocoa Initiative, the government or chocolate companies about child trafficking.
Children such as Abdul don’t know anything about protocols or certification. All they know is work.
When Abdul’s mother died, a stranger brought him across the border to the farm. Abdul says all he’s given is a little food, the torn clothes on his back, and an occasional tip from the farmer. Abdul is a modern child slave.
And he is not the only youngster working in his group.
Yacou insisted he is 16, but his face looks far younger.
“My mother brought me from Burkina Faso when my father died,” he said.
Scars crisscross Yacou’s legs from a machete. He can’t clear grass in the cocoa fields without cutting himself. During harvest season, he works day after day hacking the cocoa pods.
The emotional scars run much deeper.
“I wish I could go to school. I want to read and write,” he said. But Yacou hasn’t spent a single day in school, and he has no idea how to leave the farm.
“It makes me angry,” Engel said. As far as he’s concerned, the chocolate companies haven't done enough.
“They are working with us, and we are glad that they are working with us. But they could do better.”
One of the major players in the Ivory Coast cocoa trade is, not surprisingly, the Ivorian government. Although the country has cornered a vast chunk of a lucrative market, it is considered one of the world’s poorest by any measure.
But the government leadership blames politics and war for the problems in the cocoa industry.
“Thirty years of political instability caused a lot of damage to our economy generally, and to the agricultural sector particularly, and more specifically to the cocoa industry,” said Ivory Coast’s minister of agriculture, Sangafowa Coulibaly. “Unfortunately, these years have been lost.”
After an attempted coup in 2002, the country was split in half and kept from all-out civil war by the United Nations. There was protracted violence after the last disputed presidential elections, when then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede.
With the new government of Alassane Ouattara in charge, the government says it can now put much-needed reforms in place.
“Things can only get better,” Coulibaly said. “The main reason is that today, the political crisis is behind us, the armed conflict is behind us.”
But many observers believe that a new government won’t make it a priority to stop slavery in the cocoa fields.
And with peace, traffickers are free to do their work again. U.N. officials told CNN that the Ivory Coast conflict actually helped slow down trafficking because people were too afraid to move across borders.
Contrary to the promises of action, CNN’s investigation could only find promises. And those promises are empty to children like Abdul and Yacou.
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Post by: CNN's Brent Swails, CNN's David McKenzie
.CNN...
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THE CNN FREEDOM PROJECT ENDING MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
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January 19th,... more
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Monsanto’s disregard for human health is evidenced by their hazardous GMO crops and herbicides, but a shocking new report has revealed the company’s illegal ‘slave-like’ working conditions.
Forcing slave workers to work the cornfields for 14 hours per day and buy their food (most likely GMO) at highly-inflated prices from the company store, Monsanto has been running these slave rings for an unknown number of years.
What’s more, is the company not only ‘hired’ all of the workers illegally, but prevented them from leaving the farm premises and withheld their salaries.
The information came to light following a raid by Argentina’s tax agency known as AFIP, where it was revealed that the farmhands were being forced to work almost twice as long as legally permissible and given no compensation. Amazingly, AFIP says that it will hold Monsanto responsible for the slave-like conditions.
Unsurprisingly, Monsanto failed to respond to the story.
Monsanto: A Corrupt History of Inhumane Abuse
This is not the first time Monsanto has abused workers, or even farmers dedicated to using the company’s GM seeds. In fact, Monsanto’s previous crimes against the human race are arguably even more despicable.
In 2008 it was revealed that thousands of farmers were committing suicide after using GMO crops. Due to failing harvests and inflated prices that bankrupt the poor farmers, they began to kill themselves, oftentimes drinking the very same insecticide that Monsanto supplied them with.
Monsanto conned the farmers into buying GM seeds, which were heavily overpriced and performed far worse than traditional seeds. Monsanto charged the struggling farmers £10 for 100 grams of GM seed, while they could have purchased 1,000 times more traditional seeds for the same amount. The result was career-ending harvests that led to mass suicide.
‘We are ruined now,’ said the dead man’s 38-year-old wife. ‘We bought 100 grams of BT Cotton. Our crop failed twice. My husband had become depressed. He went out to his field, lay down in the cotton and swallowed insecticide.’
Village after village, families were crushed by Monsanto’s tainted seeds. Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that these GMO crops are now consumed across the globe despite a review of 19 studies announcing that consumption of GMO corn or soybeans may lead to significant organ disruptions in rats and mice – particularly in the liver and kidneys. Of course GMO crops not only destroy human health, but devastate the environment.
Thanks to Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Roundup, farms across the world are experiencing the emergence of herbicide-resistant superweeds. The heavily resistant weeds have an immunity to glyphosate, an herbicide that Roundup contains. These resistant weeds currently cover over 4.5 million hectares in the United States alone, though experts estimate the world-wide land coverage to have reached at least 120 million hectares by 2010. The appearance of these superweeds is being increasingly documented in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Europe and South Africa, and are now creeping across Canada.
Following current trends, genetically modified food products will makeup the majority of the future food supply if a change is not made. Statistics show how GMO crops and ingredients have skyrocketed in even the past few years.
France, Hungary, and Peru are a few of the countries that have decided to take a stand against Monsanto. Hungary actually went as far as to destroy 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar. Peru has also taken a stand for health freedom, passing a monumental 10-year ban on genetically modified foods. Amazingly, Peru’s Plenary Session of the Congress made the decision despite previous governmental pushes for GM legalization. The known and unknown dangers of GMO crops seem to supersede even executive-level governmental directives.
Through spreading information and speaking out about Monsanto’s crimes against humanity, real change can occur. Even small amounts of activism can result in major geopolitical change.
www.activistpost.com/2012/01/busted-monsanto-abusing-illegal-workers.htmlMonsanto’s disregard for human health is evidenced by their hazardous GMO crops... more
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In yet another attempt to ‘ensure our liberties’, congress is currently debating Stop Online Piracy Act – aka SOPA. The very fact that their current laws are unenforceable due to a lack of personnel and funding, congress apparently feels that more laws are the answer…again. In their twisted heads, they seem to believe that by denying a dns (domain name service) entry onto the web via its ISP (Internet Service Provider), they can somehow save money. Just a few minor holes into this thing that I would like to shoot down right now.
1 – Smaller ISP’s are to be more impacted by this than the larger ones – small wonder as to why the big dogs in the major Companies support this nonsense (for a list of supporting companies, go t......
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/6151/12-reasons-why-sopa-is-worse-than-you-think/In yet another attempt to ‘ensure our liberties’, congress is currently... more
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Some 300 Chinese Foxconn employees who manufacture X-box 360 machines said they would throw themselves from their Wuhan, China, plant if demands for lost wages were not met.
China Jasmine Revolution, an activist revolutionary organization with a name borrowed from the Tunisian revolt that set off the Middle East unrest, reported that employees made their demands for a wage increase for 100 employees on Jan. 2.
Management at Foxconn — the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and a crucial link in the supply chains of Apple, Dell, Nintendo and Song — responded with an ultimatum. Employees could quit with one month’s compensation awarded for each year with the plant or go back to working.
Many employees quit, but Foxconn allegedly dishonored the agreement and awarded former employees nothing.
Around 300 workers returned to the plant in an uproar, and staged their protest on the plant’s roof on Jan. 3.
Wuhan’s mayor intervened through hours of negotiations, walking them back from the roof’s edge until 9 p.m. when workers agreed to return to work, according to China.com.
Calls to Foxconn were not immediately returned.
A Microsoft spokesperson wrote CBS Seattle a statement saying, “Microsoft takes working conditions in the factories that manufacture its products very seriously, and we are currently investigating this issue. We have a stringent Vendor Code of Conduct that spells out our expectations, and we monitor working conditions closely on an ongoing basis and address issues as they emerge. Microsoft is committed to the fair treatment and safety of workers employed by our vendors, and to ensuring conformance with Microsoft policy.”
Foxconn came under fire in 2010 when workers successfully committed suicide in a plant that manufactured components for Apple. Then, Foxconn told media that it considered every worker’s life to be valuable while some plants required workers to sign contracts stating that they wouldn’t kill themselves.
Wired magazine was granted access to the factories, which installed nets that would catch anyone attempting to jump.
Touring the Longhua plant in 2011, Terry Gou, the chairman of Foxconn parent Hon Hai Precision, said suicide rates among workers in his plants were smaller compared to the country’s and added a country’s suicide rate typically climbs when its GDP does, Forbes reported.
http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2012/01/10/hundreds-threaten-suicide-at-microsoft-supplier-plant-in-china/Some 300 Chinese Foxconn employees who manufacture X-box 360 machines said they would... more
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Parents in Norcross, Georgia blasted school officials at Beaver Ridge Elementary School after teachers gave third graders a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in word problems. Following the uproar, district officials said the school’s principal will work with teachers to come up with more appropriate lessons, but that didn’t go far enough for parents who called for an apology and diversity training for teachers at Beaver Ridge, where a majority of the students are minorities.
Examples on the worksheet included “Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?” Officials said teachers were trying to incorporate history into the math lesson as part of a cross-curricular activity based on a book the students had read about abolitionist Frederick Douglass. “Clearly, they did not do as good of a job as they should have done,” district spokeswoman Sloan Roach told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Roach said the school’s principal, Jose DeJesus, was collecting the assignments so they wouldn’t be circulated. She said the teachers were not intentionally trying to offend the students with the questions.
“It was just a poorly written question,” Roach said.
Under district policy, the worksheet should have been reviewed before being handed out to students, but that process was not followed in this situation. District officials said they would work with math teachers to come up with more appropriate questions. [...]
Parents told Channel 2 Action News, a reporting partner of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that they were shocked that the assignment was dispersed to their children.
“It kind of blew me away,” Christopher Braxton, the father of a Beaver Ridge student, told Channel 2. “I was furious. … Something like this shouldn’t be embedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade.”
More at the linkParents in Norcross, Georgia blasted school officials at Beaver Ridge Elementary... more
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Now, a new report published by Identity, a gay magazine in Kenya, reveals that gay Kenyan men are being trafficked into the Gulf as sex slaves for the wealthy.
The report alleges that gay and bisexual men are lured from university campuses – particularly from Kenyatta University – with promises of high-paying jobs and then transported to labor as sex workers for men in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
According to the magazine, due to Kenya’s soaring unemployment rate, the men are easily fooled into this trap.
The publication interviewed one Kenyan victim who was promised a job in Qatar but ended up suffering sexual abuse.
Qatar specifically, has no laws against human trafficking, which has made cracking down on the practice nearly impossible.
“Qatar is a transit and destination country for men and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and, to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution,” the US State Department stated in a recent report.
“Men and women from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Sudan, Thailand, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and China voluntarily travel to Qatar as laborers and domestic servants, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude. These conditions include threats of serious physical or financial harm; job switching; the withholding of pay; charging workers for benefits for which the employer is responsible; restrictions on freedom of movement, including the confiscation of passports and travel documents and the withholding of exit permits; arbitrary detention; threats of legal action and deportation; false charges; and physical, mental, and sexual abuse.”
http://tinyurl.com/boc9ozmNow, a new report published by Identity, a gay magazine in Kenya, reveals that gay... more
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LOrion
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1 month ago
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President Obama on Thursday will unveil a summer-jobs initiative that the White House says is already on track to create 180,000 “work opportunities” in the private sector in 2012.
That is the number of opportunities, which includes mentoring and unpaid internships, that companies have told the administration they are willing to create. Some 70,000 jobs are paid, the White House says.
The initiative was hatched after Congress failed to approve a $1.5 billion summer-jobs fund that President Obama had been seeking as part of the American Jobs Act. Read the original article at The Hill
http://times247.com/articles/obama-s-new-jobs-plan-includes-110-000-unpaid-positionsPresident Obama on Thursday will unveil a summer-jobs initiative that the White House... more
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Animal Equality...
International Organization for the Abolition of Animal Slavery
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31 December 2011
Make it your New Year's resolution to Help Animals!
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Each year Animal Equality carries out many vegan outreach activities and investigations in defence of animals. With this work we aim to touch peoples’ hearts, in the hope that they will discover a lost empathy towards non-human animals. We aim to show them that it is easy to create a world without animal exploitation.
Much impassioned work was carried out during 2011, and it would not have been possible without the dedication of new volunteers and supporters just like you.
Read ahead to see how we carried out activism for animal rights in the UK and elsewhere in Europe throughout the year.
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2011: a year growing up!
We believe that human education is the first step to equality, and a truly kind world. During 2011, we carried out dozens of events and info-stalls in the UK.
Here are some examples of our work:
• In the UK alone, during our Demonstrations promoting veganism and free vegan food giveaways, we handed out 12,000 vegan leaflets.
• We launched a brand new website called ChooseVeganism.org, Thanks to the website’s new video, 'A message of respect', we received more than 11,000 visitors in a few days.
• Hundreds of vegan outreach events were carried out in Spain, Poland, UK and Venezuela, more four undercover investigations.
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Our dedication did not stop in these countries; in India we started to work to convince the Indian Government to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks.
Another important event during 2011, was the creation of a new branch of Animal Equality in Italy, based in Rome!
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International Animal Rights Day 2011:
A fantastic celebration of the International Animal Rights Day 2011, marked this year as being such a success in terms of recruiting new activists and achieving excellent worldwide media coverage on our activities. A brief summary of our events to mark this important day are as follows:
• LONDON (UK): Crime scenes featuring the outlines of the victims of the speciesism calling on passers-by to adopt a vegan lifestyle.
Photo gallery: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxhi5Na
• MADRID (Spain): 400 activists gathered to show 400 corpses of dead animals, and demand justice for the billions of animals who continue to die each year as victims of speciesism.
Photo gallery: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxgLviM
• ROME (Italy): For six hours, the Pincio's square was covered with 100 crosses, each one accompanied by a photo of an animal who had been exploited and/or killed for human consumption.
Photo gallery: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxhWfTD
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Investigations:
Behind the closed doors of the animal exploitation centers, Animal Equality's Investigation Team with hidden cameras exposed the reality and misery of animals' lives. With our investigation work, we aim to change society into one that respects animals by promoting a vegan lifestyle.
Some examples of our investigation work are as follows:
• We recording of the brutal killing of minks on one of the biggest fur farms in Spain.
• We carried out a unique and intensive undercover investigation into the most important zoos in Spain.
- Visit the website: Spanishzoos.org
• We infiltrated Tordesillas, one of the biggest bullfighting traditions in Spain.
• We documented the gruesome ritual slaughter of 6.000 lambs for the ‘Feast of Sacrifice’ in Melilla, Spain.
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.Animal Equality...
International Organization for the Abolition of Animal Slavery... more
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If the Geico Gecko says “15 minutes can save you 15%”, StreetLight USA has a better deal for you. How about $10,000 for ten seconds of your time to help in the restoration of girls who have been enslaved in forced prostitution?If the Geico Gecko says “15 minutes can save you 15%”, StreetLight USA has... more
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Money is Slavery by Proxy
Over 90% of all human effort is wasted because of greed, money, and profits. When we eliminate money, it will only take a mere fraction of that wasted effort to establish a wise and cooperative civilization, easily able to provide for the welfare of all people. The current system is designed to cause poverty and suffering to keep the other slaves fearful and productive. Greed, money, and profit are the root cause of the destruction of nature and the impending collapse of human civilization. Money is also the most important fuel for war.
Prepare yourselves. The global financial system is about to crash horribly. The corporate media outlets are hiding what is also about to happen to the derivatives, which are valued many times more than all the money and value in the world. The global debts that are about to come due are too big to be repaid.
Money is about to die, so now is the time to plan a system no longer controlled (or conceived) by those that caused these problems. We can be proactive or foolishly suffer through the chaos and then accept a new draconian system imposed by the rich.
Money is a man-made system, not a natural law. When any system fails and causes such horrendous consequences, it is a moral imperative to fix it or scrap it and stop the suffering and struggle of billions and the destruction of the natural world. Our civilization and species is near collapse because of people's ignorance about the true nature and purpose of money.
http://forgingnewparadigms.blogspot.com/Money is Slavery by Proxy
Over 90% of all human effort is wasted because of greed,... more
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When people cannot for some reason govern themselves – they turn to a small group of people to do it for them. They lack the belief in their own abilities to fix something, so they turn to an outside force to level the playing field. The irony here is that the playing field itself was never tilted to begin with. As such, it is the idea that everyon
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5785/the-plight-of-mariestown/When people cannot for some reason govern themselves – they turn to a small... more
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Anarchist Artist Victor Pross takes on a few common objections to the idea of a stateless society, philosophical anarchism. Those objections remain the same, forever spinning out on a hamster wheel, repeatedly and persistently: “What about the roads? What about the poor? What about violent crimes? What about theft?”
Listen to this video for a different perspective to the nature of the issue.
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5782/objections-to-the-freedom-movement/Anarchist Artist Victor Pross takes on a few common objections to the idea of a... more
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The hyphenated anarchists can be a combative bunch. I’ve done my share of arguing from an Ancap perspective, against sects of the movement I believe wish to achieve freedom- so long as it is done their way. Tired and stale as the news on it may be, the Occupy Movement lends itself well to unification behind a few vital, strategy-related principles for pushing back the state. Libertarian and anarchist circles have reacted to the Movement in a number of ways, ranging from complete dismissal to complete embrace. The implications of the current Movement, which has now spread to Europe, are too large not to take advantage of, but in a measured way. Because the Movement presents an opportuni.......
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5749/ows-an-anti-state-perspective/The hyphenated anarchists can be a combative bunch. I’ve done my share of... more
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President Obama broke his campaign promises in backing Bush-era trade pacts that repeat mistakes of NAFTA
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With President Obama’s backing, Congress yesterday passed trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama that are based on the flawed model of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, had the following statement in response:
“President Obama broke his campaign promise by championing these unjust trade deals. The pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama will empower big multinational corporations and Wall Street investors to pursue quick profits at the expense of environmental protections, human rights and shared economic prosperity.
“The investment chapters of the three trade deals, which open the door to corporate attacks on environmental protections, are especially alarming. If, for instance, a South Korean uranium mining company thought a U.S. environmental law impinged on its ‘right’ to make profits, it could sue our government through a biased international tribunal, bypassing U.S. courts and threatening to override decisions made through our democratic institutions.
“The passage of the Colombia deal is downright shameful. This deal promises to fuel ongoing armed conflict in Colombia, including intimidation and murder of local activists and union leaders. The deal will also encourage foreign investments in destructive palm oil plantations, mines, oil drilling and other projects designed to exploit Colombia’s natural resources and export the profits overseas. Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples are at particular risk of displacement.
“As polls demonstrate, Americans understand that current U.S. trade policies are not working in the public interest. As protesters on Wall Street and in other cities across the country challenge the deepening poverty, unemployment and inequality in our country, President Obama has led us toward more of the same.
“President Obama must change course as he negotiates the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, and its investment chapter in particular, must not be based on the same failed and unjust model.”
More at the linkPresident Obama broke his campaign promises in backing Bush-era trade pacts that... more
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Employees of luxury goods manufacturer Gucci were subject to "torture", being made to stand for 14 hours a day, pay for goods stolen by customers and being forced to ask for toilet breaks.
Allegations of the demeaning treatment at a Gucci outlet in Shenzhen have led to two managers being replaced.
In an open letter, workers at the Gucci outlet said the cruel behaviour extended to pregnant employees not being allowed food or water during their shifts.
"It was a kind of torture for us to stand for more than 14 hours a day," the letter detailed. "No short rest, water or food was allowed even for a pregnant employee."
The abuse was so severe it was claimed some workers suffered miscarriages as a result.
Gucci, owned by giant French group Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, said it had engaged external experts to conduct a review of what had happened. The Chinese city of Shenzhen is also understood to be investigating what had occurred.
The allegations against Gucci included staff having overtime pay withheld. The five signatories of the letter, all of whom have left the company, claimed they were owed thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. They said their managers, both of whom have left the company, refused to pay overtime despite keeping them in the store until 2am some nights to undertake stock controls.
When items were stolen from the store the staff had to pay out for their replacements despite the thefts being covered by insurance, the letter claimed.
A spokesman for Gucci said: "Gucci has proactively engaged external consultants to conduct a comprehensive review to support ongoing actions that can enhance our organisational structure, the welfare and training of our people, talent recruitment and retention and other business practices in China."
The allegations against Gucci come against a backdrop of workplace abuse and poor working conditions. Foxconn, the technology group that makes components for Apple's iPhone, suffered a string of suicides among workers thought to be related to working conditions.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8827975/Gucci-workers-tortured-during-shifts.htmlEmployees of luxury goods manufacturer Gucci were subject to "torture",... more
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After breaking $4 a gallon for a short time in may, the steady decline in gas prices over the last five months has come as a breath of fresh air to commuters and consumers everywhere. The current average is hovering around $3.46 a gallon.
In such times it is far too easy to look at the current price and gain false hope in a recovering market. For example in July 2008, gas prices were pushing $4.12 a gallon. In a highly unusual dip the prices fell to nearly $1.60 a gallon in less than 6 months – something that has never happened in at least over 7 years.
Why? Well, the price of light crude on the WTI at the time was at an all time high in July, and made a very sudden decline from $133/barrel monthly average to $41/barrel monthly average in less than 5 months – right before elections. While it was noticeable at the time, it was hardly used then as a political stateme
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5738/on-oil-and-gas/After breaking $4 a gallon for a short time in may, the steady decline in gas prices... more
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Presidential Proclamation -- Columbus Day, 2011
COLUMBUS DAY, 2011
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crewmembers sighted land after an ambitious voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The ideals that guided them to this land -- courage, determination, and a thirst for discovery -- have inspired countless Americans and led to some of our Nation's proudest accomplishments. Today, we renew our commitment to fostering the same spirit of innovation and exploration that will help future generations reach new horizons.
Ten weeks before his arrival in the Americas, Columbus and his crewmembers set sail from Spain in search of a westward route to Asia. Though their journey was daring, it did not yield the trade route they sought. Instead, it illuminated a continent then unknown to Europe, and established an unbreakable bond between two distant lands.
These explorers, and countless others that followed them, encountered indigenous peoples that had lived in the Western hemisphere for tens of thousands of years. On this day, we also remember the tragic hardships these communities endured. We honor their countless and ongoing contributions to our Nation, and we recommit to strengthening the tribal communities that continue to enrich the fabric of American life.
Columbus returned to the Americas three more times after his first historic voyage, and his journey has been followed by millions of immigrants, including our Nation's earliest settlers and Founders. Born in Genoa, Italy, Christopher Columbus was the first in a proud tradition of Italians to cross the Atlantic to our shores. Today, we recognize their indelible influence on our country and celebrate the remarkable ways Italian-Americans have shaped the American experience.
The excitement Christopher Columbus and his crewmembers experienced that October morning is felt every day by today's pioneers: entrepreneurs and inventors, researchers and engineers. On the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage, we celebrate the pursuit of discovery as an essential element of the American character. Embracing this heritage and inspiring young people to set their own sails, our Nation will reach the shores of an ever brighter tomorrow.
In commemoration of Christopher Columbus's historic voyage 519 years ago, the Congress, by joint resolution of April 30, 1934, and modified in 1968 (36 U.S.C. 107), as amended, has requested the President proclaim the second Monday of October of each year as "Columbus Day."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 10, 2011, as Columbus Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also direct that the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in honor of our diverse history and all who have contributed to shaping this Nation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.
BARACK OBAMAPresidential Proclamation -- Columbus Day, 2011
COLUMBUS DAY, 2011
BY THE... more
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