So Far From God, So Close to Wall St.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23109.htm
By Jeff Faux
July 21, 2009 "The Nation" -- This past winter both the outgoing director of the CIA and a separate Pentagon report declared political instability in Mexico to be on a par with Pakistan and Iran as top-ranking threats to US national security. It was an exaggeration; Mexico is not yet a "failed state." On the other hand, it is certainly drifting in that direction.
A vicious war among narco-trafficking cartels last year killed at least 6,000 people, including public officials, police and journalists. The country leads the world in kidnappings (Pakistan is second). And with the global crisis, the chronically anemic economy is hemorrhaging jobs, businesses and hope.
Not surprisingly, voters turned against President Felipe Calderón's right-wing National Action Party (PAN) in the July 5 midterm elections. But the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD)--which many believe was robbed of the presidency in the 2006 election--has ripped itself apart with factional infighting. So frustrated Mexicans gave their Congress back to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whose decades of corrupt authoritarian rule were supposed to have permanently ended in 2000. At least, thought many voters, the PRI knows how to keep order.
Mexicans are of course responsible for their own country. But geography has always forced them to play out their history in the shadow of their northern neighbor. "Poor Mexico," goes the saying. "So far from God, so close to the United States." Today, Mexico is a prime example of the socially destructive effects of the neoliberal economics promoted throughout the world by the US governing class.
The North American Free Trade Agreement--proposed by Ronald Reagan, negotiated by George Bush I and pushed through Congress by Bill Clinton in 1993--is both symbol and substance of neoliberalism. It was sold to the citizens of the United States, Mexico and Canada with the promise that free trade in goods and money would transform Mexico into a booming middle-class economy, dramatically reducing illegal immigration and creating a vast market for US and, to a lesser extent, Canadian exports.
Fifteen years later, Mexico is still unable to create enough jobs to employ its people. Out-migration has doubled, and on both sides of the US-Mexico border labor-market competition has kept wages down. At the top, income and wealth have ballooned. It is no accident that among NAFTA's prominent godfathers were former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (Democrat) and former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan (Republican), whose fingerprints are all over the current global financial disaster.
I was an opponent of NAFTA. Still, I thought the best case for it was that efficiencies from economic integration could at least make US and Mexican businesses more internationally competitive. But even that argument turned out to be worth no more than a share of Bernie Madoff's hedge fund.
Several years ago I gave a speech to a group of businesspeople in Mexico City. Those from the multinational banks and corporations thought NAFTA was a great success, but smaller Mexican businessmen saw it differently. You Americans, said one, promised that with your technology and our cheap labor, we'd be partners in competing with Asia. Then you opened up your markets to China and invested there instead. "Sure," he said. "We can make TV parts for half what it costs in the United States. But the Chinese can make them, and ship them, for a tenth. So instead of closing the gap between Mexico and the United States by raising wages, we have to narrow the gap between Mexico and China by lowering them."
When I mentioned the conversation to a New York investment banker who had lobbied for NAFTA, he conceded that his side may have talked vaguely about partnership with Mexico. But he shrugged and added, "Things changed"--that is, profit opportunities in China dwarfed anything Mexico had to offer.
The Wall Streeters had little interest in making Mexico more competitive. They also had little interest in making the United States more competitive. Their purpose was just the opposite: to disconnect themselves and their corporate partners from the fate of any particular country. The World Trade Organization, the opening of the US market to China and a parade of bilateral trade agreements followed in NAFTA's wake.
In Mexico, the political and financial elite were willing collaborators. For example, NAFTA opened up Mexican banks to foreign ownership: political insiders who had bought the giant Banamex from the government for $3.2 billion and gotten the government to provide it with permanent subsidies then sold the firm, with the subsidies, to Citigroup for $12.5 billion. Today roughly 90 percent of the banking system is owned by US and other foreign investors, who do not have to recycle Mexicans' deposits, or the Mexican government's money, back into Mexico but can invest them anyplace in the world.
The Banamex deal was negotiated by Rubin after he became Citigroup's $17 million-a-year executive committee chair. In the late 1980s, when he was at Goldman Sachs, Rubin had midwifed the privatization of Mexico's phone system to Carlos Slim, a politically connected Mexican businessman. Slim then used the monopoly profits from his high phone rates to invest all over the globe--including a substantial ownership stake in the New York Times. The latest Forbes rating says he's the world's third-richest man.
Still, as long as the US economy was blowing dot-com and subprime bubbles, the neoliberal model seemed stable. US investors got Mexican bank deposits and cheaper labor on both sides of the border. Through out-migration to the States, Mexico's oligarchs got rid of frustrated workers who might otherwise have been politically troublesome. The economy also benefited from hard-currency remittances migrants sent back home.
Another infusion of cash to the Mexican economy, unacknowledged in the official statistics, is the roughly $25 billion in illegal drug exports to the States. Today, with remittances, oil prices and tourism depressed, the narco trade is probably Mexico's largest single earner of hard currency.
NAFTA and the neoliberal ideology it represents are certainly not the root causes of narco-trafficking. But they have been major factors in its recent monstrous growth. For starters, the trade agreement created a two-way overland superhighway for contraband; the Mexican drug lords use the dollars they have earned from their exports to import guns, aircraft and sophisticated military equipment from the United States to fight their territorial wars. By wiping out small Mexican farms that could not compete with heavily subsidized US agribusiness, NAFTA also expanded the pool of unemployed young people that provides the narco-traffickers with recruits. And banking integration under NAFTA made money laundering much easier.
Perhaps most important, NAFTA has helped maintain the corrupt network of Mexican oligarchs. The 1988 presidential election--which the then-ruling PRI had to steal from the PRD to win--shocked the establishment on both sides of the border. By opening up Mexico to US money and influence, NAFTA was a way, as the US Trade Representative said to me at the time, "to keep the Mexican left out of power."
Until the 1980s, Mexican drug (mostly marijuana) smuggling to the north was modest in scale and generally tolerated by successive PRI governments. Their message was: we don't care what you sell to the gringos, but no rough stuff here, keep it away from our kids and of course share a little of the profit under the table. But the US-backed neoliberals who took over the PRI in the 1980s had closer ties with the Mexican cartels. The brother and father of president and NAFTA champion Carlos Salinas--hailed in Washington as a good-government reformer--were widely accused of being connected to the drug business. In Salinas's first year in office his national police chief was found with $2.4 million in drug money in the trunk of his car.
In the 1990s, as the geographically better-positioned Mexican cartels muscled out the Colombians as chief cocaine retailers to the US market, their profits and political influence grew. But so did the rivalry among them and their allied government factions for control of trade routes. Bullet-riddled bodies began showing up on the streets, making the public nervous.
Seeking legitimacy after his 2006 election was tainted by charges of fraud, President Felipe Calderón declared war on the narco-traffickers. It was a popular gesture, but given that the police, the military and the legal system are heavily infiltrated by the gangs, it backfired. The narcos reacted with horrific violence--assassinations, beheadings and mutilations of police and soldiers as well as thugs, brazenly displayed on YouTube. Losing control, Calderón appealed to George Bush II for help. The result: the Mérida Initiative, a $400 million-per-year program to provide aircraft, military equipment and training to the Mexican police and military.
After decades of keeping its distance from the United States, the Mexican military--like the armed forces of Colombia, Honduras and other Latin American countries--is becoming a Pentagon client. In turn, Mexican society is itself becoming militarized. Corrupt local police are being replaced by soldiers who may be slightly less corrupt but who are a greater threat to human rights and democracy. An April Human Rights Watch report identified seventeen specific cases of abuse by the Mexican military, including "killings, torture, rapes, and arbitrary detentions."
To his credit, Barack Obama has acknowledged what his predecessors failed to: that the US demand for drugs and its supplying of arms makes it an enabler in the rise of narco warlords. But he has also made it clear that neither issue is on his administration's agenda. Moreover, just as Bill Clinton carried the water for George Bush I's NAFTA, Barack Obama has endorsed Bush II's Mérida Initiative.
Given the unwillingness of US politicians to deal with the demand side of the market, the Mérida Initiative is not likely to be any more successful in eradicating the drug trade than the $6 billion Plan Colombia has been. The best one can hope for is some sort of market-sharing deal among the cartels that would be implicitly endorsed by the Mexican government while Washington tactfully averts its eyes. Given that in many areas, drug money is the chief source of campaign financing, a PRI-dominated Mexican Congress might be just the right forum for a cynical, but welcome, end to the killings.
Meanwhile, the drug violence has frightened away tourists and investors, making Mexico's recession even worse. Most forecasters expect the economy to contract some 6 percent this year--a huge hit to a country in which 45 percent live on $2 a day or less. Calderón's response is to tread water--rescuing big businesses that speculated on Wall Street derivatives and dribbling out a bit more public spending--while waiting for the United States to once again suck up Mexico's surplus labor.
But even when the US economy recovers, it is unlikely to re-create the credit boom that kept the NAFTA deal afloat. In the post-crash era, the United States will finally be forced to address its trade deficits and its massive foreign debt. Americans will have to slow down consumer spending, increase savings and sell more to--and buy less from--the rest of the world. If Mexico could not prosper during fifteen years of exporting goods and people to a bloated US consumer market, it is hard to believe it will be able to do so when that market has slimmed down.
The entire relationship must be rethought. In this regard, Obama's abandonment of his campaign pledge to renegotiate NAFTA was a missed opportunity. A renewed debate over the trade deal could have spurred public discussion of the failure of neoliberal economics, the "war on drugs" and an immigration policy that ignores conditions in Mexico that drive people across the border. It could have been a forum to think through the question of how continental integration can work for working people rather than just investors. For example, what kind of cooperative transportation, energy and green industrial policies would make the people of three nations--now bound together in one market--globally competitive?
Obama's Wall Street advisers have no more interest in this sort of change than did Bush's. And without a new economic direction, life for the average Mexican will surely worsen and social tensions rise. Some Mexican friends point out that the revolution against Spain erupted in 1810 and the one against the US-backed dictator Porfirio Díaz in 1910. And in 2010... ?
In any event, Mexico's growing troubles will not stay conveniently on the other side of the Rio Grande. Build a ten-foot wall, and desperate people will find twelve-foot ladders. Free trade will, of course, continue to flourish; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano estimates that Mexican drug cartels are now operating in 230 US cities.
So, thanks to the people who brought you the subprime mortgage disaster, the credit freeze and the Great Recession, the next Mexican revolution may come closer to home than you think.
Jeff Faux was the founder of, and is now distinguished fellow at, the Economic Policy Institute. His latest book is The Global Class War (Wiley).
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Dr.G.D.Agarwal's fast to resume
It seems every place in the world is now determined to dam its rivers. We know that river dams do untold amounts of damage to the land and water. We aren't even running out of electricity and there are many safer ways to make it.
Dr.G.D.Agarwal to resume his fast-unto-death
Posted on July 8, 2009 | Filed Under Announcements, Dams, River Watch
Muzaffarnagar
07 July, 2009
Press Release
1.The state government of Uttarakhand promised immediate suspension of all works on the two projects Bhairoghati and Pala-Maneri in its letter of 19th June, 2008 and expressed its full commitment for conservation of River Bhagirathi in its natural form ‘from Gangotri to Uttarakashi’. However construction work on the projects (particularly on Pala Maneri project) leading to destroy Gangaji is going on in full swing. The above makes all assurances to us and to Maa Gangaji look as mere jokes.
Read More.........http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/2009/07/08/dr-gd-agarwals-fast-to-resume/
Dr.G.D.Agarwal to resume his fast-unto-death
Posted on July 8, 2009 | Filed Under Announcements, Dams, River Watch
Muzaffarnagar
07 July, 2009
Press Release
1.The state government of Uttarakhand promised immediate suspension of all works on the two projects Bhairoghati and Pala-Maneri in its letter of 19th June, 2008 and expressed its full commitment for conservation of River Bhagirathi in its natural form ‘from Gangotri to Uttarakashi’. However construction work on the projects (particularly on Pala Maneri project) leading to destroy Gangaji is going on in full swing. The above makes all assurances to us and to Maa Gangaji look as mere jokes.
Read More.........http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/2009/07/08/dr-gd-agarwals-fast-to-resume/
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Please Save Salmon!
Message from Alexandra Morton in Norway, disease and sea lice are not under control in Norwegian salmon farms and BC stands to lose all
I have been in Norway for 10 days because 92% of fish farming in British Columbia is Norwegian owned. I have met with many Norwegian scientists, members of the Mainstream and Marine Harvest boards, been to their AGMs, toured the area with fishermen, examined a closed-containment facility, met the Norwegians fighting for their fish and joined a scientific cruise.
I thought Norway had this industry handled and I expected to learn how marine salmon farming could work, but this has not been the case. My eyes have really been opened. This industry still has major issues that are growing and has no business expanding throughout the temperate coastlines of the world. The way they have been treating sea lice in Norway has caused high drug resistance. The only solution in sight is increasingly toxic chemicals. In the past two years (2007, 8) sea lice levels have actually increased on both the farm and wild fish. The scientists I met with are holding their breath to see if drug-resistant sea lice populations will explode and attack the last wild salmon and sea trout. The same treatment methods have been used in BC and we can expect this to occur as well.
I am not hearing how the industry can possibly safeguard British Columbia from contamination with their ISA virus. Infectious Salmon Anemia is a salmon virus that is spreading worldwide, wherever there are salmon farms. In Chile, the Norwegian strain of ISA has destroyed 60% of the industry, 17,000 jobs and unmeasured environmental damage. The industry is pushing into new territory. If this gets to BC no one can predict what it will do to the Pacific salmon and steelhead, it will be unleashed into new habitat and we know this is a very serious threat to life.
Professor Are Nylund head of the Fish Diseases Group at the University of Bergen, Norway, reports that, “based on 20 years of experience, I can guarantee that if British Columbia continues to import salmon eggs from the eastern Atlantic infectious salmon diseases, such as ISA, will arrive in Western Canada. Here in Hardangerfjord we have sacrificed our wild salmon stocks in exchange for farm salmon. With all your 5 species of wild salmon, BC is the last place you should have salmon farms.”
New diseases and parasites are being identified. The most serious is a sea lice parasite that attacks the salmon immune system. There is concern that this new parasite is responsible for accelerating wild salmon declines. The Norwegian scientists agree with many of us in BC. If you want wild salmon you must reduce the number of farm salmon. There are three options.
The future for salmon farming will have to include:
permanently reduction of not just the number of sea lice, but also the number of farm salmon per fjord,
removing farm salmon for periods of time to delouse the fjords and not restocking until after the out-migration of the wild salmon and sea trout.
But where wild salmon are considered essential they say the only certain measure is to remove the farms completely.
There are many people here like me. I met a man who has devoted his life to the science of restoring the Voss River, where the largest Atlantic salmon in the world, a national treasure, have vanished due to sea lice from salmon farms. Interestingly he is using the method I was not allowed to use last spring... Towing the fish past the farms out to sea. Another man is working with scientists and communities to keep the sea trout of the Hardangerfjord alive. There are so many tragic stories familiar to British Columbia.
The corporate fish farmers are unrelenting in their push to expand. With Chile so highly contaminated with the Norwegian strain of ISA all fish farmed coasts including Norway are threatened with expansion. I made the best case I could to Mainstream and Marine Harvest for removing the salmon feedlots from our wild salmon migration routes, but they will not accept that they are harming wild salmon. They say they want to improve, but they don’t say how. Norway has different social policies which include encouraging people to populate the remote areas and so fish farming seemed a good opportunity to these people. BC has the opposite policy, but the line that fish farms are good for small coastal communities has been used in BC anyway. I have not seen any evidence that it has even replaced the jobs it has impacted in wild fisheries and tourism.
It is becoming increasingly clear to protect wild Pacific salmon from the virus ISA the BC border absolutely has to be closed to importation of salmon eggs immediately and salmon farms MUST be removed from the Fraser River migration routes and any other narrow waterways where wild salmon are considered valuable.
Our letter asking government that the Fisheries Act, which is the law in Canada be applied to protect our salmon from fish farms has been signed by 14,000 people to date at www.adopt-a-fry.org has still not been answered.
Please forward this letter and encourage more people to sign our letter to government as it is building a community of concerned people word wide and we will prevail as there is really no rock for this industry to hide under and longer.
Alexandra Morton
Saturday, May 23, 2009
The Road Ahead by Patrick Brown
The Road Ahead, as copied from Island Tides May 21st, 2009 edition.
----- Original Message -----
From: Rita Dawson
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 4:17 PM
Subject: The Road Ahead
Comment prior to article: Jessica McDonald, Deputy Minister to the Premier and Cabinet Secretary, should definitely be sent this one by everyone since she is the person who handles Campbell's correspondence. She seems a person of character after refusing the last Campbell proposed 43% pay increase. Source Reference at the following link:
http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=e7677a8a-18f6-4e44-a68e-e94e3bed8ceb
Perhaps she would take the contents of this article to heart and give Campbell a nudge. One never knows. She receives all of his mail and can be reached at
Email Address
premier@gov.bc.ca
Rita
The road ahead—New Ideas For BC Government
Patrick Brown
Yes, the makeup of the legislature will look remarkably similar to what it was before the election. Yes, Gordon Campbell will once again be premier. Yes, you could call it a mandate, a signal ofpublic approval.
But voter participation was the lowest ever; and the BC Liberal share of the vote did not increase over the 2005 election. A lukewarm endorsement at best. And, on returning to Victoria, the government will find that none of the many problems and issues that it faced before the election have gone away. In fact, the election may have highlighted just how intractable they are.
Island Tides applaud the government’s affirmation of its openness to new ideas. We’re happy to take up the invitation; what follows is first a list of general principles that this mature third-term government should consider. The second is a list of key issues and how they might be addressed.
Governing Principles
1) The role of the government: A successful government process is characterized by thoroughness, responsibility, fairness, justice, transparency, and, above all, integrity. Its success is measured as much by its style as by its accomplishments.
2) The natural resources and environment of the province, and the corporate assets of the government, are not the property of the government to sell, rent, destroy or dispose of in any way that government pleases. They are, instead, to be held by the government in trust for the citizens of the province, of Canada, and of the world, and for generations to come.
3) The Premier is not the Chief Executive Officer of the Province, nor is he the decision maker. Rather, he carries the responsibility of managing the process of government. The process is one which having taken all factors and all interests into account, arrives at decisions by consensus and reconciliation.
4) The Ministers of the government, and the Cabinet, should prefer transparency to secrecy, and public information and debate to cabinet solidarity.
5) The separation of government and the private sector: government is not a business, and the business of business is not government. The objective of any business enterprise is to make as much profit as it can within its chosen lifecycle. The objectives of government are the health and happiness of its citizens and of humanity in general, now and in the future.
6) The government’s ability to carry out its responsibilities in the future (eg pensions) must not be endangered though involvement in private sector investments.
7) Private enterprise must not be allowed to profit from the use of the taxation or monopoly powers of the government.
8) The necessity of planning: It is not sufficient to govern on a case-by-case basis, or only in response to specific proposals. It is necessary to develop and follow specific plans for land use, energy, government finance, transportation, housing, and industries. Government policies should flow from these plans, which provide vision, predictability, and confirm government leadership.
9) Legislation and legislators: the legislature is the proper place for debate, and legislators are the proper conduits for their constituents’ information and opinions. It follows that government action that limits the function of the legislature invites disrespect for the government, its actions, its laws, and the legislators themselves.
10) Legislation by itself is not evidence of accomplishment. Enabling legislation must be accompanied by clear provisions for accountability. Proscriptive legislation must be accompanied by enforcement. Licensing involves a responsibility to supervise.
11) Legislators are accountable to and responsible for all their constituents, not just those with whom they agree. Legislators integrity must be unquestionable.
12) The needs of citizens: the needs of citizens vary throughout their lifetimes, and it is the responsibility of government to ensure that those needs are provided. Services such as health care, education, personal security, the care of children and the elderly, and the provision of physical infrastructure, must be planned, adequately provided, and guaranteed.
13) Local government: government must recognize and respect the regions, cities, towns and communities of the province, and must encourage a high degree of local autonomy and responsibility in all aspects of government. Few government functions are amenable to a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
14) Local autonomy must be accompanied by local democracy, and encourage participation by all citizens in the government of their community. This extends particularly to land use, economic development and regulation, social justice, and support for the underprivileged and handicapped.
15) Non-government organizations: non-governmental and volunteer organizations must be recognized as an essential element of the fabric of society and the community, and their activities and sustainability encouraged.
16) The rights of citizens: The rights of citizens, as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights, are fundamental to the successful function of all levels of government. These rights are accompanied by citizens’ responsibilities to contribute to the government process, and to express their concerns when these principles appear to be neglected or ignored.
Issues That Must Be Addressed
The Carbon Tax – Project into the future, set a rate that will actually affect the consumption of fossil fuels, decide what to do with the proceeds, decide how to mitigate or compensate sensitive groups or sectors and include flaring and fugitive pipeline emissions.
Fish Farms – The government has licensed, but does not supervise, open water net pen fish farms. They should be phased out and only closed containment allowed.
Seniors’ Care Homes – A clear distinction should be made between ‘assisted living’ and ‘residential care facilities,’ communities should be involved in establishing sufficient of eachtype to meet local needs.
Run-of-river Hydro-electric Power – Environmental review should be broadened and include cumulative effects. The future effect on BC Hydro’s finances by contracts to purchase power must be studied.
Energy Planning – An overall energy plan must be developed for the province, and for exports and imports. BC Hydro’s role in that plan must be clarified.
Greenhouse Gases – Plans and targets for GHG limitation must be developed.
Carbon Offsets For Provincial And Local Governments– Abandon this idea and simply charge carbon tax.
Cap & Trade – Apply accordin to the Western Climate Initiative to non-fossil fuel GHG sources.
First Nations – A highly inclusive province-wide discussion of the ‘new relationship’ proposals must be planned and started immediately.
Local government – A revision of local government roles and policies is needed, in particular, Bill 30. The Significant Projects Streamlining Act and TILMA must be discussed.
‘Gateway’ Projects and Tanker Traffic – The Lower Mainland gateway needs more public debate. The Kitimat pipeline and coastal tanker traffic need reconsideration.
Vancouver Area Transportation – The role of a new Port Mann bridge needs to be compared with alternatives, such as rail transit up the Fraser Valley. Effect of such corridors on urban and suburban development must be planned. Translink must have effective local government representation.
BC Ferries – should once more become a Crown corporation, and financed as part of the highway system, resulting in reduced fares.
Industrial Development – The province should once more give preferential treatment to local industry.
Resource Development – Tax or royalty preferential treatment should be limited to early development phases. Include gas and oil exploitation.
Hospital Cleanliness – Cleaning staff should be identified as health care workers and cleanliness targets designed and enforced.
Private Forest Lands – should be regulated as forest lands under provincial regulations, like other forest lands.
Land Use Planning – Reinstate regional land use plans, process, and enforcement to provide control and predictability. Delay environmental review on new projects until this is done.
Executive Salaries – Establish salary levels for provincial government appointed officials and crown corporations, and have them debated and approved as part of the budget in the legislature.
Education Funding – Funding to school boards must be restored; post-secondary funding must be increased, fees should be frozen; student grants and loans improved.
Government Outsourcing – Provincial Auditor should review major contracts to Maximus and Accenture and consider returning the work to provincial civil service.
Public-Private Partnerships – Provincial Auditor should review all these and all proposed public private partnerships (P3s). Fold P3 office into Provincial Auditor office.
Freedom Of Information – Increase staff for FOI requests and set response targets, with penalties if not met.
Legislative Sessions – Schedule these for at least 125 days per year, with fixed dates.
Legislative Committees – Schedule and ensure complete hearings on all legislation.
Ministry of Environment – Re-staff enforcement and research staff, park wardens and reconstitute review process.
BC Rail – Halt transfer of railway lands to CN; reconstitute northern development fund.
Lobbying Legislation – Strengthen and make enforceable in court.
Ambulance Services – Settle contract; provide clear career path for new paramedics.
Provincial Budget – Needs immediate revision since assumptions on which it was based have not turned out to be accurate, or even close.
Child Care – Review number of cases and staffing, implement recommendations of various enquiries.
Homelessness – Plan and execute program and involve local governments throughout the province.
Provincial Pension Plan – Needs public discussion.
Minimum Wage - Raise to $10.
http://www.islandtides.com/assets/IslandTides.pdf
----- Original Message -----
From: Rita Dawson
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 4:17 PM
Subject: The Road Ahead
Comment prior to article: Jessica McDonald, Deputy Minister to the Premier and Cabinet Secretary, should definitely be sent this one by everyone since she is the person who handles Campbell's correspondence. She seems a person of character after refusing the last Campbell proposed 43% pay increase. Source Reference at the following link:
http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=e7677a8a-18f6-4e44-a68e-e94e3bed8ceb
Perhaps she would take the contents of this article to heart and give Campbell a nudge. One never knows. She receives all of his mail and can be reached at
Email Address
premier@gov.bc.ca
Rita
The road ahead—New Ideas For BC Government
Patrick Brown
Yes, the makeup of the legislature will look remarkably similar to what it was before the election. Yes, Gordon Campbell will once again be premier. Yes, you could call it a mandate, a signal ofpublic approval.
But voter participation was the lowest ever; and the BC Liberal share of the vote did not increase over the 2005 election. A lukewarm endorsement at best. And, on returning to Victoria, the government will find that none of the many problems and issues that it faced before the election have gone away. In fact, the election may have highlighted just how intractable they are.
Island Tides applaud the government’s affirmation of its openness to new ideas. We’re happy to take up the invitation; what follows is first a list of general principles that this mature third-term government should consider. The second is a list of key issues and how they might be addressed.
Governing Principles
1) The role of the government: A successful government process is characterized by thoroughness, responsibility, fairness, justice, transparency, and, above all, integrity. Its success is measured as much by its style as by its accomplishments.
2) The natural resources and environment of the province, and the corporate assets of the government, are not the property of the government to sell, rent, destroy or dispose of in any way that government pleases. They are, instead, to be held by the government in trust for the citizens of the province, of Canada, and of the world, and for generations to come.
3) The Premier is not the Chief Executive Officer of the Province, nor is he the decision maker. Rather, he carries the responsibility of managing the process of government. The process is one which having taken all factors and all interests into account, arrives at decisions by consensus and reconciliation.
4) The Ministers of the government, and the Cabinet, should prefer transparency to secrecy, and public information and debate to cabinet solidarity.
5) The separation of government and the private sector: government is not a business, and the business of business is not government. The objective of any business enterprise is to make as much profit as it can within its chosen lifecycle. The objectives of government are the health and happiness of its citizens and of humanity in general, now and in the future.
6) The government’s ability to carry out its responsibilities in the future (eg pensions) must not be endangered though involvement in private sector investments.
7) Private enterprise must not be allowed to profit from the use of the taxation or monopoly powers of the government.
8) The necessity of planning: It is not sufficient to govern on a case-by-case basis, or only in response to specific proposals. It is necessary to develop and follow specific plans for land use, energy, government finance, transportation, housing, and industries. Government policies should flow from these plans, which provide vision, predictability, and confirm government leadership.
9) Legislation and legislators: the legislature is the proper place for debate, and legislators are the proper conduits for their constituents’ information and opinions. It follows that government action that limits the function of the legislature invites disrespect for the government, its actions, its laws, and the legislators themselves.
10) Legislation by itself is not evidence of accomplishment. Enabling legislation must be accompanied by clear provisions for accountability. Proscriptive legislation must be accompanied by enforcement. Licensing involves a responsibility to supervise.
11) Legislators are accountable to and responsible for all their constituents, not just those with whom they agree. Legislators integrity must be unquestionable.
12) The needs of citizens: the needs of citizens vary throughout their lifetimes, and it is the responsibility of government to ensure that those needs are provided. Services such as health care, education, personal security, the care of children and the elderly, and the provision of physical infrastructure, must be planned, adequately provided, and guaranteed.
13) Local government: government must recognize and respect the regions, cities, towns and communities of the province, and must encourage a high degree of local autonomy and responsibility in all aspects of government. Few government functions are amenable to a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
14) Local autonomy must be accompanied by local democracy, and encourage participation by all citizens in the government of their community. This extends particularly to land use, economic development and regulation, social justice, and support for the underprivileged and handicapped.
15) Non-government organizations: non-governmental and volunteer organizations must be recognized as an essential element of the fabric of society and the community, and their activities and sustainability encouraged.
16) The rights of citizens: The rights of citizens, as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights, are fundamental to the successful function of all levels of government. These rights are accompanied by citizens’ responsibilities to contribute to the government process, and to express their concerns when these principles appear to be neglected or ignored.
Issues That Must Be Addressed
The Carbon Tax – Project into the future, set a rate that will actually affect the consumption of fossil fuels, decide what to do with the proceeds, decide how to mitigate or compensate sensitive groups or sectors and include flaring and fugitive pipeline emissions.
Fish Farms – The government has licensed, but does not supervise, open water net pen fish farms. They should be phased out and only closed containment allowed.
Seniors’ Care Homes – A clear distinction should be made between ‘assisted living’ and ‘residential care facilities,’ communities should be involved in establishing sufficient of eachtype to meet local needs.
Run-of-river Hydro-electric Power – Environmental review should be broadened and include cumulative effects. The future effect on BC Hydro’s finances by contracts to purchase power must be studied.
Energy Planning – An overall energy plan must be developed for the province, and for exports and imports. BC Hydro’s role in that plan must be clarified.
Greenhouse Gases – Plans and targets for GHG limitation must be developed.
Carbon Offsets For Provincial And Local Governments– Abandon this idea and simply charge carbon tax.
Cap & Trade – Apply accordin to the Western Climate Initiative to non-fossil fuel GHG sources.
First Nations – A highly inclusive province-wide discussion of the ‘new relationship’ proposals must be planned and started immediately.
Local government – A revision of local government roles and policies is needed, in particular, Bill 30. The Significant Projects Streamlining Act and TILMA must be discussed.
‘Gateway’ Projects and Tanker Traffic – The Lower Mainland gateway needs more public debate. The Kitimat pipeline and coastal tanker traffic need reconsideration.
Vancouver Area Transportation – The role of a new Port Mann bridge needs to be compared with alternatives, such as rail transit up the Fraser Valley. Effect of such corridors on urban and suburban development must be planned. Translink must have effective local government representation.
BC Ferries – should once more become a Crown corporation, and financed as part of the highway system, resulting in reduced fares.
Industrial Development – The province should once more give preferential treatment to local industry.
Resource Development – Tax or royalty preferential treatment should be limited to early development phases. Include gas and oil exploitation.
Hospital Cleanliness – Cleaning staff should be identified as health care workers and cleanliness targets designed and enforced.
Private Forest Lands – should be regulated as forest lands under provincial regulations, like other forest lands.
Land Use Planning – Reinstate regional land use plans, process, and enforcement to provide control and predictability. Delay environmental review on new projects until this is done.
Executive Salaries – Establish salary levels for provincial government appointed officials and crown corporations, and have them debated and approved as part of the budget in the legislature.
Education Funding – Funding to school boards must be restored; post-secondary funding must be increased, fees should be frozen; student grants and loans improved.
Government Outsourcing – Provincial Auditor should review major contracts to Maximus and Accenture and consider returning the work to provincial civil service.
Public-Private Partnerships – Provincial Auditor should review all these and all proposed public private partnerships (P3s). Fold P3 office into Provincial Auditor office.
Freedom Of Information – Increase staff for FOI requests and set response targets, with penalties if not met.
Legislative Sessions – Schedule these for at least 125 days per year, with fixed dates.
Legislative Committees – Schedule and ensure complete hearings on all legislation.
Ministry of Environment – Re-staff enforcement and research staff, park wardens and reconstitute review process.
BC Rail – Halt transfer of railway lands to CN; reconstitute northern development fund.
Lobbying Legislation – Strengthen and make enforceable in court.
Ambulance Services – Settle contract; provide clear career path for new paramedics.
Provincial Budget – Needs immediate revision since assumptions on which it was based have not turned out to be accurate, or even close.
Child Care – Review number of cases and staffing, implement recommendations of various enquiries.
Homelessness – Plan and execute program and involve local governments throughout the province.
Provincial Pension Plan – Needs public discussion.
Minimum Wage - Raise to $10.
http://www.islandtides.com/assets/IslandTides.pdf
Close by Martina Cole
Hey All,
I was reading this book called Close by Martina Cole while thinking about the election and came across these interesting paragraphs.
In the first quote, the writer is musing on the character of the crime boss Lenny and his sort of step son Lance:
“Lenny bit on his bottom lip; his fat face was red and bloated and he looked like he wasn't capable of anything that could be construed as even remotely out of order. Lance, like most people who got to know Lenny well, knew that was his strength. As the years had gone on though and no one had stepped in to challenge his authority, Lenny had stopped pretending he was a nice guy. In fact, he was making the mistake a lot of men made when they finally reached the top of their professions; he had stopped caring what people thought about him. He thought he was above everyone around him and that he could disregard the opinion and the goodwill of the people who actually made it possible for him to pursue his ideals. Or, in Lenny's case, earn his daily crust.” p. 324
In this part the Lenny’s ex-mistress and mother of his several children speaks to Jambo the father of her last child, then he thinks about the situation of women.
“’Just give the child the time of day, not every minute of your time. I know that you can’t do that. But just for once in my life, I want one of my kids to feel that someone other than their mother cares for them. That is all I want. No more than that, Jambo. Just a visit occasionally to let them see your face and know who you are.’
“Jambo nodded and he felt so sorry for her then. He knew how hard Lil’s life had been, knew how much her family meant to her and had even guessed how much she resented them at times as well. That was real life, though most people wouldn’t admit that. Women were so unlucky; they were left in charge of a human being, sometimes a crowd of human beings, and they had to be seen as doing the best they could. They had to make sure that all of these people were taken care of in every way.
“No one ever allowed for them to be tired out, to feel abandoned or just be plain pissed off with what had befallen them and just because they had allowed a man to get too close. Because they had just followed their natural inclinations and produced as nature intended them to. Then they were left on their own, and the man leaving them was in the same condition he had arrived in, physically and mentally. The women they left behind though, were now the grand owners of stretch marks and a screaming baby and their lives would never be the same again.” p. 383 Close by Martina Cole 2006
I was reading this book called Close by Martina Cole while thinking about the election and came across these interesting paragraphs.
In the first quote, the writer is musing on the character of the crime boss Lenny and his sort of step son Lance:
“Lenny bit on his bottom lip; his fat face was red and bloated and he looked like he wasn't capable of anything that could be construed as even remotely out of order. Lance, like most people who got to know Lenny well, knew that was his strength. As the years had gone on though and no one had stepped in to challenge his authority, Lenny had stopped pretending he was a nice guy. In fact, he was making the mistake a lot of men made when they finally reached the top of their professions; he had stopped caring what people thought about him. He thought he was above everyone around him and that he could disregard the opinion and the goodwill of the people who actually made it possible for him to pursue his ideals. Or, in Lenny's case, earn his daily crust.” p. 324
In this part the Lenny’s ex-mistress and mother of his several children speaks to Jambo the father of her last child, then he thinks about the situation of women.
“’Just give the child the time of day, not every minute of your time. I know that you can’t do that. But just for once in my life, I want one of my kids to feel that someone other than their mother cares for them. That is all I want. No more than that, Jambo. Just a visit occasionally to let them see your face and know who you are.’
“Jambo nodded and he felt so sorry for her then. He knew how hard Lil’s life had been, knew how much her family meant to her and had even guessed how much she resented them at times as well. That was real life, though most people wouldn’t admit that. Women were so unlucky; they were left in charge of a human being, sometimes a crowd of human beings, and they had to be seen as doing the best they could. They had to make sure that all of these people were taken care of in every way.
“No one ever allowed for them to be tired out, to feel abandoned or just be plain pissed off with what had befallen them and just because they had allowed a man to get too close. Because they had just followed their natural inclinations and produced as nature intended them to. Then they were left on their own, and the man leaving them was in the same condition he had arrived in, physically and mentally. The women they left behind though, were now the grand owners of stretch marks and a screaming baby and their lives would never be the same again.” p. 383 Close by Martina Cole 2006
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Salmon Letter: please copy and sign, email to the two listed at the top...
...as well as all your friends and contacts! THANKS!
To: The Fisheries Minister The Honourable Gail Shea
Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
and Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia
premier@gov.bc.ca
Wild salmon are the backbone of the BC Coast. On February 9, 2009, the BC Supreme Court ruled that salmon farms are a fishery and a federal responsibility. The science is in.
The feedlot fishery is damaging wild salmon stocks worldwide (Ford and Myers 2008). Fraser sockeye and all southcoast BC salmon and steelhead are now at risk as a result of the Provincial policy of allowing the feedlot fishery to use Canada's most valuable wild salmon habitat.
We the undersigned demand that Fisheries and Oceans Canada apply the Fisheries Act to this industry and immediately:
Place observers during feedlot salmon harvest to assess unlawful by-catch;
Examine feedlot salmon as they are cleaned for presence of wild fish in their digestive tract;
Licence vessels transporting aquaculture salmon like all other commercial fishing vessels;
As per Pacific Fishery Regulation "Prohibited Fishing Methods" ban grow lights on fish feedlots to end wild prey species attraction into the pens;
Remove the marine feedlot industry from wild salmon migration routes.
The landmark BC Supreme Court decision states, “The inclusion of fisheries in s.91(12) of the Constitution Act, 1867 was a recognition that fisheries, as a national resource, require uniformity of the legislation”.
We insist that the Fisheries Act be applied to the salmon feedlot fishery immediately.
Standing by,
LZ
Haleakala 08r fractal image by JMJ
To: The Fisheries Minister The Honourable Gail Shea
Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
and Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia
premier@gov.bc.ca
Wild salmon are the backbone of the BC Coast. On February 9, 2009, the BC Supreme Court ruled that salmon farms are a fishery and a federal responsibility. The science is in.
The feedlot fishery is damaging wild salmon stocks worldwide (Ford and Myers 2008). Fraser sockeye and all southcoast BC salmon and steelhead are now at risk as a result of the Provincial policy of allowing the feedlot fishery to use Canada's most valuable wild salmon habitat.
We the undersigned demand that Fisheries and Oceans Canada apply the Fisheries Act to this industry and immediately:
Place observers during feedlot salmon harvest to assess unlawful by-catch;
Examine feedlot salmon as they are cleaned for presence of wild fish in their digestive tract;
Licence vessels transporting aquaculture salmon like all other commercial fishing vessels;
As per Pacific Fishery Regulation "Prohibited Fishing Methods" ban grow lights on fish feedlots to end wild prey species attraction into the pens;
Remove the marine feedlot industry from wild salmon migration routes.
The landmark BC Supreme Court decision states, “The inclusion of fisheries in s.91(12) of the Constitution Act, 1867 was a recognition that fisheries, as a national resource, require uniformity of the legislation”.
We insist that the Fisheries Act be applied to the salmon feedlot fishery immediately.
Standing by,
LZ
Haleakala 08r fractal image by JMJ
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