Examine the cult of the individual
Craig Mazerolle - NB Media Coop
October 7, 2009
While spending my second night in a row at the Chalmers’ Hospital in Fredericton, a visit that was marked by yet another slew of tests and long waits, I was marched down a long series of hallways to the hospital’s Radiology Department.
Two consecutive, seven-hour ER trips has a way of tempering one’s appetite towards hospitals, and so I must admit that the prospect of laying on a cold, sterile table while X-Rays were shot through my lower abdomen was a less than appealing prospect at that moment. So, as I nervously waited outside in the Radiology Department’s waiting room, my eyes fell to the coffee table beside me in the hope that something might be there to take my mind off what was to soon transpire.
There were only two things on the table: a worn and battered copy of TIME magazine (that was opened to an all too appealing article titled, “Malaria”), and a copy of the NB Media Co-op’s August Edition of The Brief.
Even though I have poured over that little gem from the NB Media Co-op countless times before, I could not help but glance over the articles. And so, as I was let into the examination room, the fresh rage stemming from Dave Steele’s article about Downtown Fredericton, Inc.’s removal of posters acted as a strange comfort as countless X-Rays were fired all over.
We are often told in today’s world that we must always be thinking of ourselves. Be it neoliberalism or New Age, the message of our times is to always be working to improve ourselves, and – in doing so – we are also led to believe that the problems of the world will all somehow fall into place.
Be it justifying acts of charity by calling it “resume-building”, self-help books that talk of positive thinking as the cure for all, or conceptions of discrimination and oppression that ignore systemic causes in light of “individual intolerance”, we are constantly surrounded by such a pervasive individualism that some have gone as far to say that North America has become a “cult of the individual”.
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Taliban Jack points our Führer Harper's Economic Inconsistencies
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HST tax grab must be stopped: Layton & Horwath
NDP.ca
September 24th, 2009
OTTAWA – The new HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) will hurt thousands of Ontarians already paying more than their fair share of taxes, according to both Federal New Democrat Leader Jack Layton and Provincial New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath. Both Leaders were in London today calling on their respective governments to stop their plan to implement the HST.
"Dalton McGuinty's HST means 8 per cent more on the basics like home heating, gasoline, and the morning coffee. Instead of helping to create jobs in hard hit communities, McGuinty is making life less affordable, and that will hurt London families," said Horwath.
The HST will mean an 8% increase on gas, hydro and everyday purchases like coffee and newspapers. This will hurt the pocketbooks of Ontario families and the economic recovery. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has reported that the HST will slow job growth by up to 40,000 jobs per year.
New Democrats, both federally and provincially have unwaveringly opposed the HST.
“Stephen Harper has bribed McGuinty’s government to agree to shift the tax burden onto hard-working Canadians. They must be stopped,” said Layton. “Dalton McGuinty and Michael Ignatieff are in support of this tax grab. Well, I’m proud to stand here with Andrea to tell Stephen Harper’s government, and the Liberals, that they face strong opposition from New Democrats. We will oppose your tax grab at every level.” said Layton.
Press Release Source
Swine Flu Vaccine - Order out of Chaos
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Novartis begins shipment of swine flu vaccine to US
Business News
October 6, 2009
Geneva - Swiss drugmaker Novartis said Tuesday it has started shipping vaccines against the A(H1N1) virus, better known as swine flu, to the United States.
The company began sending doses last week from a production seed strain provided by the World Health Organization. This strain had a low yield, but Novartis said it has switched to a higher yielding one to allow for larger production volumes.
The Basel-based pharmaceutical giant also shipped 27 million doses of its seasonal flu vaccine ahead of schedule, in what it said was anticipation of 'demand for earlier vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine created by the current global A(H1N1) influenza pandemic.'
The shipment was its largest ever to the US.
Article Source
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11 DESCRIPTION
Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine is a sub-unit (purified surface antigen) influenza virus vaccine prepared from virus propagated in the allantoic cavity of embryonated hens’ eggs inoculated with a specific type of influenza virus suspension containing neomycin and polymyxin. The influenza virus strain is harvested and clarified by centrifugation and filtration prior to inactivation with betapropiolactone. The inactivated virus is concentrated and purified by zonal centrifugation. The surface antigens, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, are obtained from the influenza virus particle by further centrifugation in the presence of nonylphenol ethoxylate, a process which removes most of the internal proteins. The nonylphenol ethoxylate is removed from the surface antigen preparation.
Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine is a homogenized, sterile, slightly opalescent suspension in a phosphate buffered saline. Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine is formulated to contain 15 mcg hemagglutinin (HA) per 0.5-mL dose of the following virus strain: A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)v-like virus.
The 0.5-mL prefilled syringe presentation is formulated without preservative. Thimerosal, a mercury derivative used during manufacturing, is removed by subsequent purification steps to a trace amount (≤ 1 mcg mercury per 0.5-mL dose). The 5-mL multidose vial formulation contains thimerosal, a mercury derivative, added as a preservative. Each 0.5-mL dose from the multidose vial contains 25 mcg mercury.
Each dose from the multidose vial or from the prefilled syringe may also contain residual amounts of egg proteins (≤ 1 mcg ovalbumin), polymyxin (≤ 3.75 mcg), neomycin (≤ 2.5 mcg), betapropiolactone (not more than 0.5 mcg) and nonylphenol ethoxylate (not more than 0.015% w/v).
Content Source
Ireland votes on European Union
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Ireland votes on Lisbon treaty
Aljazeera - October 8th, 2009
Polling has begun in Ireland's second referendum on the European Union's Lisbon treaty - a vote that may usher in planned reforms or keep the 27-member bloc without a constitution.
Irish voters rejected the treaty in an earlier referendum in June 2008, by a margin of almost seven per cent.
But opinion polls on Friday suggest the yes-vote will win this time.
Dublin has received assurances from EU partners that its sovereignty on issues like taxation, military neutrality and abortion will not be affected by adopting the Treaty of Lisbon.
The result is expected on Saturday afternoon.
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Führer Harper denies Kanadian Holocaust at G20
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At least he's not a history teacher: Harper on colonialism
By Harsha Walia - Rabble News
September 29, 2009
"We also have no history of colonialism..." - Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
On the heels of a massive exercise of U.S. police repression against G20 protestors, including use of a wartime sonic acoustic weapon also being utilized in Iraq, Stephen Harper made the above declaration during a press conference in Pittsburgh where it was announced that Canada would be hosting the next G20 meeting in 2010. (See the text of the remarks here.)
Unsurprisingly, no world leaders walked out as he said this, nor was he subsequently denounced, for Indigenous Holocaust denial.
Or perhaps Harper and I are not on the same page -- is colonialism not defined as the practice and processes of domination, control, and forced subjugation of one people to another? As most bluntly stated by Duncan Campbell Scott, Head of the Department of Indian Affairs in the 1920's: "Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question."
I expect Harper has read the federal government's own report on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which explicitly lays out Canada's imposition of a colonial relationship (indeed, that is the heading of one of the chapters) on Indigenous people. Measures employed include the Indian Act, residential schools, forcible relocation including to reservations, the imposed Band Council system, institution of a pass system (which was subsequently borrowed by apartheid South Africa), germ warfare, outlawing of ceremonies such as the potlatch and traditional activities such as fishing, failed treaty processes, and other forced assimilation polices including the Act for the Gradual Assimilation of Indian Peoples.
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