Friday 12 April 2013

 

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04 April 2013 — While on his way from Durban in South Africa, where the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — announced they were forming a new development bank to challenge the IMF and World Bank, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin gave the go ahead for unscheduled war games in the Black Sea. By themselves the games mean little, but in a global context they mean a lot.

According to the Kremlin, the war games involved about 7,000 Russian servicemen; Russian Special Forces, Russian Marines, and airborne rapid deployment troops. All of Russia’s different services were involved and used the exercises to test their interoperability. Over thirty Russian warships based out of the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol in the Crimean Peninsula and the Russian port of Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai will be participating. The objective of the games are to show that Russia could mobilize for any event at a moments notice. (More)

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A sportswriter takes on the myth of Margaret Thatcher

'Dear Friend' of Chilean butcher General Augusto Pinochet

 

 

 

The Toronto Star
 

05 April 2013 — Opposition politics in Canada is a tricky business. The Liberals are trying to decide who will lead their federal party. The New Democrats are trying to decide who they are.

 

 

 

The degree of dishonesty at large throughout the world's mainstream media today is appalling. And that includes the so-called liberal media and writers like the late Christopher Hitchens.

 

On a visit to Venezuela Hitchens responded with the kind of shriek one would expect from someone who had just realized that his god had failed.

 

In one piece I read recently he sounded like he had been personally offended by Hugo Chavez when, in fact, Chavez had allowed Hitchens and two other foreign journalists to accompany him on a brief tour of Venezuela. (More)

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The Binkley Report

A lost opportunity by First Nations?

Nishiyuu Walkers left their homes at the mouth of the Great Whale River on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay and took a 1,600 km walk through bitter winter to defend treaty rights in Ottawa. But they didn't get their 15-minutes of fame.

 

08 April 2013 MAYFLOWER, Arkansas — The first "Tar Sands Oil Arkansas" (published April 7) discussed a number of questions raised by the ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline that burst in Mayflower, Arkansas, on March 29, pumping tar sands oil Ð technically Wabasca Heavy crude oil Ð into a residential neighborhood for almost an hour.

Among the questions touched on in that piece were protecting the pipeline from terrorists, residents suing ExxonMobil in federal court, the nature of Wabasca Heavy tar sands oil, some effects of the spill, and the "martial law" atmosphere described by reporters trying to look at the cleanup site.

As the second week of toxic air in Mayflower begins, here are more of the questions this disaster raises and some of the current answers, subject to future refinement. A reader writes:

What is the point of origin of the leak? In front of whose house? Why no image of the hole in the ground or in the pipe? Was it corrosion, a weld failure, sabotage by cutting or explosives, or WHAT? Do we have to wait for NTSB for answers? Are ExxonMobil and their execs too big to jail?

The point of origin appears to be in the woods, behind the houses, and underground. The absence of images is unexplained. (More)

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Geneviève Hone introduces herself and her new column with all due modesty

Where There Is A Family

Granny Witch has something to say

Bits and Bites of Everyday Life

Let it be Spring!

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. (Frank Lloyd Wright)

By Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair
True North Perspective

Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair is the author of The Neglected Garden and two French novels. Visit her website to learn more www.albertevilleneuve.ca.

12 April 2013 — Fed up with winter? I hear you! I came home from an eleven-day Barbados vacation in mid-February to delays in Toronto because of snow and -22C weather. The next day was a chilly -29C. I wanted to go back to Barbados’ sunny weather of 27 to 30C.

And I wasn’t the only one complaining! A Citizen’s March 23 article read: “Punxsutawney Phil indicted over spring forecast”. Amanda Lee Myers and Mark Scolforo suggested Phil, the Ohio groundhog, might want to go back into hibernation.

Spirit Quest

Self respect was the issue for the Nishiyuu Walkers

12 April 2013 — By now the Cree youths have arrived back home. This time not on foot over ice and snow and hard ground the way they came. I have not heard  but I surmise that they returned by more modern modes of transportation.

Did their winter odyssey change anything? Undoubtedly that question has been asked many times. Will the Journey of Nishiyuu (the Journey of the People) have accomplished anything at all? Will it have made a visible impact on Indian and non-Indian relations, on the way the government treats the First Nations and have done so from time immemorial. Doubtless their appearance in the various communities through which they passed made an enormous impact on the residents causing some to leave home and join their ranks. Their numbers had grown to hundreds. (More)

Spring in my neighbourhood

Frances Sedgwick is on a working holiday so here is a ParkTales classic

Friday 28 May 2010

It's been years now since my husband Paul had a stroke.

When I was looking after him at home I used to take him for walks in the neighbourhood and we would end up sitting on a bench in front of Parkdale Collegiate, and enjoy watching and talking with the children.

Many students remembered Paul as the man who had helped save their school.

As I walk by the schoolyard now, I see the basketball players have returned. In this case mostly Tibetan. There is a large community from Tibet in Parkdale.

One young man from Tibet gave me a refresher course in driving and much to his dismay, and to my delight, I failed both tests.

Such a gentle young man. He would tell me his problems while I was driving.

"You know Fran, what should I do? My girlfriend used my cell phone to phone Tibet!!"

I looked at him, thinking that in my day we sure never had problems like that. We didn't even have a phone let alone a cell phone. I smiled and said the obvious, "Don't let her use it."

On this walk, as I looked at Parkdale Collegiate, I thought to myself, this school may not have been here but for the will of the people in the community.

I recalled attending a meeting to save the school. There had been government cutbacks and they were trying to save money by closing schools. I remember the principal saying that there were over 127 nationalities represented at the school and 57 different languages spoken.

I marvelled at this at the time and still do, as I look at the school today seeing the sign "Registration Starts May 1." (More)

Beating the Drum

Friday 27 July 2012 -

It was a week of interesting articles in First Nations country this week. Justin Bieber lead the way by announcing in a Rolling Stone article that he believes that he has Indian or Inuit heritage and apparently it is enough to get him free gas. This of course sparked outrage among some First Nations and called for a public apology. (More)

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Cross Town with Carl Dow

I reiterate that there must be full emphasis on quality words

no matter in what way, shape or form that they may appear

Being fundamentally conservative, and I'm not talking politics here, although John Diefenbaker will always be one of my favourite politicians, I'm talking of resisting change simply for the sake of change.

This time it's about words. One time, while working my way through a 40-pounder of brandy, I remember thinking, words are so beautiful, if they didn't exist I'd invent them. So I take offense when they are abused

In my early days in journalism my attention was often caught by politicians who would declare that they would support or oppose something in any way, shape or form. It took a great deal of restraint to not challenge the speaker to explain what was the difference in meaning between the words shape and form? There is no difference. They mean the same thing. But the speaker would use the phrase as if he was making profound use of the English language.

Speaking profoundly, another politician would say at this point in time. I would think, what's the matter with the word now? (More)

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From the Desk of Darren Jerome

 

Spring 2013 Golf Quiz

By Mark Kearney and Randy Ray

Mark Kearney of London, Ont. and Randy Ray of Ottawa are the authors of nine books about Canada, with best-seller sales of more than 50,000. Their Web site is: www.triviaguys.com

Get in the swing to make the cut

April is here and with it thoughts of hitting the links and attempting to shave a few strokes off our scores once we haul the clubs out of the basement.

To get you into the spirit of a fresh season of golf, we’ve teed up a quiz to test your knowledge of Canadian golf history. As some of the world’s greats begin rattling off birdies and eagles at this weekend’s Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia, take a swing at some of these puzzlers and see if you can score well enough to make the cut.

1. John H. Oke captured the first Canadian Open in 1904.  How much did he win?

a)  no money, just a trophy b) $20 and pocket watch  c) $60   d) $100

2. Sherri Turner is one of only two LPGA players with two career double-eagles.  The other is a Canadian. Is it:

a) Lorie Kane  b) Dawn Coe-Jones  c) Gail Graham  d) Sandra Post

3. True or false.  Pat Fletcher, who on the Canadian Open in 1954 at the Vancouver Point Grey Golf Club, was the last Canadian-born player to win the championship.

4.  In 1932, Sandy Somerville of London, Ont. became the first Canadian to win the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship.  But he was also the first golfer to do this at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia.

a)  score a hole in one   b) complete 18 holes at the first Masters  c)  be disqualified  d) play a round without a caddy

5.  George S. Lyon of Toronto is the only man to ever win a gold medal in golf at the Olympics.  True or false.

6.  In 1977, the Glen Abbey Golf Club, designed by Jack Nicklaus, hosted the Canadian Open for the first time.  Who won the tournament that year?

a)  Lee Trevino  b) Tom Watson c) Tom Weiskopf  d) Lanny Wadkins

7.  Name at least one of the two Canadian golfers who teamed up to win the World Cup of Golf in Rome in 1968 – the first time Canadians ever won the event.

8.  When Bob Panasiuk of Windsor, Ont. played the Canadian Open in 1957, he became the youngest player ever to make the cut at a PGA event.  How old was he?

a)  12  b) 15  c) 17  d) 19

9.  The Links O’Tay Golf & Country Club is the oldest golf course on a permanent site in Canada. Where is it located?

a)  Windsor, N.S.  b)  Fredericton, N.B  c) Pointe Claire, Que.  d) Perth, Ont.

10. When Canada’s Mike Weir won the Masters, he was the first left-hander to win a major tournament.  True or false?

Answers:

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10 April 2013 PARIS France — The shape of a man's face can help predict his sporting acumen, according to a study on Wednesday that found Japanese baseball players whose faces were relatively broad rather than long were most likely to hit a home run.

University of London psychologists measured the facial width-to-height ratio, or fWHR, of 104 batters in Japan's professional Central League Pennant who played in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

In both seasons, the players who scored the most home runs had the highest fWHR, said the study in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. (More)

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11 April 2013 LONDON England — A country whose citizens collectively succeeded in losing weight and increasing their level of physical activity saw their health improve and early-death rates plunge.

In a unique natural experiment, externally imposed, researchers have observed how a nation lost an average of 5kg per head over five years, contributing to a halving of the death rate from diabetes and a one third reduction in deaths from heart disease.

The natural experiment occurred in Cuba which was plunged into crisis in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Its experience demonstrates what could be achieved elsewhere if the same changes could be brought about, without an economic crisis. (More)

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Tunisia Now Exporting 'Jihadis' to Syria

By Giuliana Sgrena

 

06 April 2013 TUNIS — Tunisian families have begun to dread knocks on their doors, or late-night phone calls, fearing that the messenger will bear the news that their son has been smuggled out of the country to join the 'jihad' in Syria.

 

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02 April 2013 — Because it was marked "confidential" on each page, the oil industry stooge couldn't believe the US State Department had given me a complete copy of their secret plans for the oil fields of Iraq. Actually, the State Department had done no such thing. But my line had been so well-practiced and the set-up on my mark had so thoroughly established my fake identity, that I almost began to believe my own lies.

I closed in. I said I wanted to make sure she and I were working from the same State Department draft. Could she tell me the official name, date and number of pages? She did.

Bingo! I'd just beaten the Military-Petroleum Complex in a lying contest, so I had a right to be stoked.

After phoning numbers from California to Kazakhstan to trick my mark, my next calls were to the State Department and Pentagon. Now that I had the specs on the scheme for Iraq's oil — that State and Defense Department swore, in writing, did not exist — I told them I'd appreciate their handing over a copy (no expurgations, please) or there would be a very embarrassing story on BBC Newsnight. (More)

 

 

10 April 2013 — The Obama administration hasn’t been forthright about who it kills with drones, according to classified intelligence reports obtained by McClatchy.

Contradicting previous rhetoric claiming the U.S.’s targeted killing program only targets “specific senior operational leaders of al-Qaida and associated forces,” the documents corroborate existing reports that hundreds of “other” Pakistanis and Afghans have died at the hands of the Obama administration’s drone attacks. McClatchy’s analysis goes into numbers and details: (More)

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If you want to get ahead, be a night owl
 

 

02 April 2012 LONDON England —  “There is a romance,” said Robert Louis Stevenson, “about all those who are abroad in the black hours.”

 

Now research on teenagers suggests that night owls, far from being lazy, indisciplined slug-a-beds who can't get up in the morning, may indeed be brighter than the much better-regarded early risers.

 

In scientific tests, evening types showed more of the kind of intelligence that has been linked to prestigious jobs and higher incomes. Larks or morning types, however, tend to get better school grades, possibly because lessons were at the wrong time of the day for night owls. (More)

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By Padraic Halpin and John O'Donnell

 

11 April 2013 DUBLIN Ireland — Under fire for its banking secrecy, Austria hit back at Britain and the United States on Thursday, urging them to crack down on money laundering and tax havens in their own backyards, as EU ministers prepared to debate the issue in Dublin.

Friction emerged before the Dublin meeting as France's budget minister warned Austria it could be blacklisted if it refused to share information on EU citizens' bank accounts, a threat Vienna dismissed as an “improper diversionary tactic”.

Isolated in the European Union following Luxembourg's move this week to share foreigners' bank data to foil tax cheats, Austria's finance minister said she might discuss a change of tack, but insisted it could not be a “one-way street” and accused London and Washington of failing to close international tax loopholes in the likes of Delaware and the Channel Islands. (More)

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