Wisdom is the result of a happy marriage between intelligence and experience.
© Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective

BP broke U.S. laws, violated own internal procedures
Risks more massive catastrophes in Gulf of Mexico

By Jason Leopold
TruthOut.org

British Petroleum (BP) has broken federal laws and violated its own internal procedures by failing to maintain crucial safety and engineering documents related to one of the firms other deepwater production projects in the Gulf of Mexico, a former contractor who worked for the oil behemoth claimed in internal emails and other documents obtained by Truthout. — 2,545 words.
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Canadian banks to receive $2 billion in new corporate welfare

$200-billion in low-interest credit from Canadian citizens
Saw Canadian banks to $44 billion profits during Great Recession
Now Tories intend to cut their taxes by another $2 billion

By Jim Stanford
The Globe and Mail

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was in gunslinging mode last week, striding out to defend Canada's banks against the mandarins at the International Monetary Fund. They want G20 governments to impose a new bank tax to help pay for the bailouts and deficits that resulted from the global financial crisis. But Mr. Flaherty is having no part of it.

Before a supportive hometown crowd on Bay Street, he denounced the idea of "excessive, arbitrary, punitive" taxes on Canadian banks, which have weathered the financial storm with flying colours. (Of course, that $200-billion low-interest line of credit from Ottawa helped just a bit.) "We're not going to punish our banks for the fact that they have acted responsibly," he righteously thundered.

Mr. Flaherty has now become the leading international opponent of new bank taxes. Thanks in part to his strident opposition, the G20 postponed any decision on the matter until at least June.

Moreover, the Finance Minister's tough talk is providing useful cover for the fact that his government is actually cutting bank taxes — not increasing them. On Jan. 1, corporate taxes fell by a full percentage point; under Mr. Flaherty's plan, they will fall three more points by 2012. That will save Canada's über-profitable financial sector about $2-billion a year — 663 words.
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Editor's Notes

Friday, April 30, 2010
True North Perspective
Vol. 5, No. 21 (225)

There's nothing parochial about True North Perspective

As I wrote in our Mission Statement four years ago, True North Perspective is dedicated to bringing to our readers news and analysis from throughout the world. Especially that which is not covered by the mainstream media and when it is, it's all too often distorted. — 641 words.

"News is what (certain) people want to keep hidden. Everything else is just publicity."
PBS journalist Bill Moyers.

Your support makes it possible for True North to clear the fog of "publicity" and keep you informed on what's really happening in the world today. Please send your donation to:

Carl Dow, True North, Station E, P.O. Box 4814, Ottawa ON Canada K1S 5H9.

Letters to the Editor

Delightful brooder room

Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair's "The Brooder Room" is a delightful article! It's amazing the observations we can make about the behavior of animals in their natural settings. The pecking order carries over into all groups of living things but seems to be most vicious in these little chicks as they grow and lose their innocence. The bullying analogy among children is a good example. I enjoyed the warm memories you conjured up about your life on the farm and your grandfather. This brought back good memories for me as well.

Cheers!

— Roberta Dupont, Ottawa, Ontario
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Ignatieff dishes up a dollop of comfort food

By Alex Binkley
True North Perspective

One political weak spot for the federal Liberals is in rural and small town Canada. So Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is trying to fix that with his new National Food Policy. In part the policy is aimed at consumers and in part at farmers. It's well meaning but it suffers from an unfortunate reliance on feel-good ideas. A kind of political comfort food. — 822 words.
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Your tax dollars at work — for the Conservatives

Tory logo on cheques goes too far says ethics chief

Practice is legal but inappropriate, Commissioner finds

Conservative MP Gerald Keddy presents a ceremonial cheque that includes his Party's logo and his own signature. (Photo: Chesterns.ca.)

By Karina Roman
CBC News

The federal ethics commissioner says the use of Conservative Party logos on ceremonial funding cheques is inappropriate but not against the MPs' code of ethics or the Conflict of Interest Act.

Mary Dawson issued two reports Thursday — one on the code and one on the act — in response to dozens of complaints about the cheque logos last fall from opposition MPs and the public.

Conservative MPs and ministers were handing out large-sized ceremonial cheques with the Conservative Party logo on them, even though the money was from the government of Canada, the critics said.

Dawson determined that such props might help raise the profile of the people using them, but they do not further an MP's "private interests" as defined in the code or the act. — 319 words.
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Tougher prison sentences carry hefty price

Public safety minister acknowledges Tories' law-and-order agenda will cost Canadians billions

By Janice Tibbetts
The Vancouver Sun

The Harper government's prison-sentencing laws will cost Canadians billions of dollars, including an estimated $2 billion for one piece of legislation alone, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews acknowledged Wednesday.

Toews said the government has a good idea of the overall cost of its aggressive law-and-order agenda, but does not want to make the numbers public. — 503 words.
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From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor

Nova Scotia government offices to rely on tap water: Premier
It's news to me: Environment Minister

Photo-illustration by Geoffrey Dow.

By Jeffrey Simpson
TheChronicalHerald.ca

Premier Darrell Dexter announced Monday that his government intends to ban bottled water in all provincial buildings that have drinkable tap water.

Dexter told the public about the new environmental policy at the annual convention of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Sydney — before even mentioning it to Environment Minister Sterling Belliveau.

"Bottled water generates tonnes of plastic that go into the landfill," Dexter said later at Province House in Halifax. "We want to obviously stop doing that.

"We also want to support the well-run municipal water systems here in the province and make the point that you can get, for pennies a glass, some of the highest-quality and best-tasting water anywhere." — 537 words.
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From the Desk of Alex Binkley, Contributing Editor

Federal government undermining workplace safety: study

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

OTTAWA — On the eve of the National Day of Mourning for workers killed on the job, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is releasing two studies highlighting the need for improved health and safety enforcement and regulation. — 369 words.
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As Mother's Day approaches, Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair reflects on being a daughter, a mother, and a grandmother

The good mother survives through the ages

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.

When I told my sister-in-law I would write a piece for Mother's Day, she sent the following comment: "I believe mothers, without being aware, are the most influential presence in a child's life, no matter how long they live, until they are gone ... and even then, this influence lingers." — 1,453 words.
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Spirit Quest

'The spiritual life is not "other worldly" but profoundly of this world'

Price is no measure of worth

By The Rev. Dr. Hanns F. Skoutajan

"Psst," he whispered in my mother's ear as she sat in the crowded hall, "the Nazis are waiting for him at the front door and the commies are waiting for him at the back door. So listen, we are going to get Felix out through a basement window. You should meet him at the station. Go now, nobody here knows you." — 1,060 words.
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Health Watch

The drugging of a nation ...

Are Prozac and other psychiatric drugs causing the astonishing rise of mental illness in America?

An interview with investigative reporter Robert Whitaker, about the dramatic increase in mental illness disability and its surprising cause

By Bruce E. Levine
AlterNet.org

In 1987, prior to Prozac hitting the market and the current ubiquitous use of antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs, the U.S. mental illness disability rate was 1 in every 184 Americans, but by 2007 the mental illness disability rate had more than doubled to 1 in every 76 Americans. Robert Whitaker was curious as to what was causing this dramatic increase in mental illness disability. The answers are in his new book, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America (Crown Publishers, April 2010).

Whitaker's findings will create a problem for both Big Pharma and establishment psychiatry, but his credentials and his craftsmanship will make it difficult to marginalize him. Whitaker is the author of four books including Mad in America, about the mistreatment of the mentally ill. As a reporter for the Boston Globe, he won a George Polk Award for medical writing, a National Association of Science Writers Award for best magazine article, and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.

Bruce Levine: So mental illness disability rates have doubled since 1987 and increased six-fold since 1955. And at the same time, psychiatric drug use greatly increased in the 1950s and 1960s, then skyrocketed after 1988 when Prozac hit the market, so now antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs alone gross more than $25 billion annually in the U.S. But as you know, correlation isn't causation. What makes you feel that the increase in psychiatric drug use is a big part of the reason for the increase in mental illness? — 2,624 words.
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Israeli scientists say ultraviolet light
is better way to bacteria-free water

TerraDaily.com

Most water treatment plants use chlorine to keep water free of bacteria but Israeli scientists say ultraviolet light might be a better method. Tel Aviv University postdoctoral researcher Hadas Mamane, doctoral student Anat Lakretz, Professor Eliora Ron and their team said although chlorine keeps water free of micro-organisms, it also produces carcinogenic byproducts.

The scientists say they recently determined the optimal UV wavelength water treatment plants and large-scale desalination facilities could use to destroy health-threatening micro-organisms, as well as make the facilities more efficient. — 272 words.
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The virginity industry

It may be the 21st Century but the issue of virginity in Arab culture can still be a matter of life and death, especially for women like Sonia and Nada"

By Najlaa Abou Mehri and Linda Sills
BBC Radio 4

Young Arab women wait in an upmarket medical clinic for an operation that will not only change their lives, but quite possibly save it. Yet the operation is a matter of choice and not necessity. It costs about 2,000 euros (£1,700) and carries very little risk.

The clinic is not in Dubai or Cairo, but in Paris. And the surgery they are waiting for is to restore their virginity. Whether in Asia or the Arab world, an unknown number of women face an agonising problem having broken a deep taboo. They've had sex outside marriage and if found out, risk being ostracised by their communities, or even murdered. — 980 words.

In case you missed it ... and always worth repeating

Winston Churchill: Give us the tools and we'll finish the job

Let's say that news throughout human time has been free. Take that time when Ugh Wayne went over to the cave of Mugh Payne with news that the chief of his group had broken a leg while chasing his laughing wife around the fire. That news was given freely and received as such with much knowing smiles and smirks to say nothing of grunts of approval or disapproval. — 688 words.

Report from Obama's America ...

A timely American hero

Arizona sheriff won't enforce law that's 'stupid and racist'

By David Edwards
RawStory.com

At least one Arizona sheriff disagrees with a new immigration law that critics say could lead to civil rights violations.

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is promising not to enforce a law believes is "racist and stupid."

The law directs enforcement to use a "reasonable suspicion" standard to decide which persons need to be stopped. People without documentation proving they are legal residents can be imprisoned for up to six months. Governor Jan Brewer signed the legislation into law Friday.

Dupnik is becoming one of the most vocal opponents of the law. The Pima County Sheriff told KGUN that the legislation was "disgusting" and "unnecessary."

"I think the law, as I have said is unwise. It's stupid and racist," said Dupnik. — 468 words
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Venezuela and Brazil sign 22 agreements in Brasilia

'Bi-national pact will support women migrants in situations of violence'

By Michael Fox
Venezuelanalysis.com

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva in Brasilia on Wednesday, where they signed 22 agreements in the areas of energy, housing, agriculture, culture, tourism and more. This was the first meeting between the two countries since the Brazilian Senate approved Venezuela's entry into the Mercosur trade bloc on December 15, 2009. — 1,300 words.
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Cubans elected 12,986 municipal leaders on Sunday
Runoffs on May 2 will select remaining 2,107

By Susana Lee
Granma

HAVANA — According to the final figures on last Sunday's elections, 12,986 delegates were elected, 86% of the 15,093 seats to be covered in the 169 Municipal Assemblies of People's Power. — 396 words.
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Don Blankenship keeps making excuses for miners' deaths
But when employers lie, people die

By Leo W. Gerard
AlterNet.org

Leo W. Gerard is the International President of the United Steelworkers (USW).

Don Blankenship, the man ultimately in charge of Massey Energy's West Virginia mine where 29 workers died in an explosion April 5, assured financial analysts last week that safety is paramount in his operation. Massey, the country's fourth largest mining company, issued a statement that same day asserting that a review of conditions in the Upper Big Branch mine uncovered no problems shortly before the blast that killed more workers than any other mine disaster in nearly four decades. — 1,247 words.
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The image Microsoft doesn't want you to see:
Too tired to stay awake, the Chinese workers earning just 34p an hour

By Liz Hull and Lee Sorrell
Daily Mail, 18 April 2010

Showing Chinese sweatshop workers slumped over their desks with exhaustion, it is an image that Microsoft won't want the world to see.

Employed for gruelling 15-hour shifts, in appalling conditions and 86f heat, many fall asleep on their stations during their meagre ten-minute breaks.

For as little as 34p an hour, the men and women work six or seven days a week, making computer mice and web cams for the American multinational computer company.

This photo and others like it were smuggled out of the KYE Systems factory at Dongguan, China, as part of a three-year investigation by the National Labour Committee, a human rights organisation which campaigns for workers across the globe.

The mostly female workers, aged 18 to 25, work from 7.45am to 10.55pm, sometimes with 1,000 workers crammed into one 105ft by 105ft room. — 651 words.
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Interview: 'Abu Najim'

'We were 120 fighters in Fallujah. Only a few are still alive ... I had more than 60 engagements with the Americans while I was with al-Qaeda. I did not go out on a mission unless it was to fight them. I feel very lucky to have survived all of these operations. Perhaps it was God's will that allowed me to survive and tell my story.'

My Life as an insurgent — and why I quit

A former Iraqi member of al-Qaeda in Anbar province discusses why he chose to fight the U.S. occupation and why he eventually left

By Anonymous
AlterNet.org

I never thought of fighting the Americans because I didn't regard the United States as a colonizing country. I thought it was a civilized state. Unfortunately, after the invasion, the opposite proved true. President Bush didn't send doctors and engineers, or construction and democracy specialists, or experts from NASA and Google. Instead, he sent uneducated gangsters who didn't know anything about Arabic and Iraqi traditions. This was one of the main issues that triggered the resistance. — 2,115 words.
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A tale of carriers

The United States Navy is a Vienna-sausage military at filet-mignon prices

By Fred Reed
LewRockwell.com

I wonder whether Americans realize that they have a Vienna-sausage military at filet-mignon prices. The sorry performance in recent wars is just one example of the ongoing rot, but the whole enterprise has become unbalanced, aimed at fighting the kinds of enemies we don't have instead of the ones we have recently chosen to make.

The Navy is a fine example. The carrier battle group, the heart of the Navy, is a hugely expensive way to get relatively few combat aircraft to a remote place. It is a relic of World War II, for which it was well suited. Since it was then fighting similar battle groups, the strengths and weaknesses were more or less matched.

But the Navy has not fought a war for sixty years, certainly not one it needed to win, and it shows. Today's battle groups, CVBGs as we say, are almost indistinguishable from those of 1945, except for the upgrading of weapons. Instead of five-inch-thirty-eights, we have Standard missiles. Instead of F4F Hellcats, the F-18 Hornet. Yet the carrier is still the Mother Ship, protected by screens of cruisers and destroyers, with interceptors flying CAP. The problem is that the enemy has changed. — 1,163 words.
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2008 Sichuan earthquake disaster taught China hard lessons in rapid response
now applied to the 7.1 earth shudder in the high mountain country of Qinghai

By Fu Jing and Yan Jie
TerraDaily.com

YUSHU, China — Qinghai terrain poses serious challenge to rescue operations after deadly earthquake, report Fu Jing and Yan Jie in Yushu, and Hu Yinan and Cao Li in Beijing. — 1,457 words.
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Science

No sign that ‘Boobquake' caused earthquakes

An estimated 200,000 women took part in the 'Boobquake' experiment April 26, 2010. Their provocative attire did not cause more earthquakes. (Photo: Blaghag.com.)

By Debra black
The Toronto Star

No surprise to most of us, it seems that flaunting cleavage doesn't increase the number of earthquakes.

So says blogger Jennifer McCreight, who called on women around the world Monday to test the premise of an Iranian cleric who suggested women dressing immodestly triggers and increases earthquakes.

An estimated 200,000 woman took part in the 24-hour experiment dubbed "Boobquake," including some who posted pictures of their breasts on Facebook and Twitter.

Others chose to wear low cut tank tops; a few went bare-breasted on the street.

Demonstrations took place in Vancouver, Washington and West Lafayette, Indiana, where McCreight is a student at Purdue University. — 437 words.
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Cold snaps don't mean that global warming is cooling
They just mean global warming causes extreme weather

By Wan Qian
China Daily

BEIJING — China is experiencing its coldest April in nearly 50 years due to abnormal atmospheric circulation and a moving Arctic cold air mass, meteorological experts said on Wednesday. The average temperature across the country in April hit its lowest mark since 1961, reaching 8.7 C, about 1.3 C below usual, according to the latest figures from the China Meteorological Administration. — 381 words.
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From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor

Boy Scouts of America introduce video game merit badge

By Matt Hartley
The National Post

So much for camping, canoeing and building fires, the latest merit badge to be created by the Boy Scouts of America has more to do with Halo 3 than hiking.

That's right, Boy Scouts in the United States can now earn badges for playing video games.

However, the new video game awards — Scouts can now earn either a video game "belt loop" or "academic pin" — have more to do with teaching others to play and understanding the Electronic Software Rating Board rating systems than they do with Gamerscores or achievement trophies.

Scouts Canada already has two computer-related badges: one at the Cub level (boys and girls aged 8-10) which requires kids to have basic understanding of computers, and another at the Scout level (11-14) where the requirements include an understanding of computer ethics and online safety. Still, there's no plans to launch a video game-specific badge, according to Scouts Canada spokeswoman Susie Mackie. — 600 words.
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Return to the 1980s?

The new Honduras, same as the old Honduras

Right-wing death-squads roam freely again as the new regime is assassinating union leaders, teachers and journalists — all with Washington's blessings

By Kari Lydersen
AlterNet.org

Things are back to normal in Honduras.

At least that's the message of right-wing president Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa and much of the international community. Several U.S. and international agencies are in the process of restoring aid to Honduras. U.S. biofuels, mining and other businesses are ramping up for increased investment in the impoverished Central American country. The massive repression of public protests, curfews and censorship that followed last summer's coup d'etat have abated.

But this image ignores a new reality in Honduras: the emergence of what many are calling death squads carrying out targeted assassinations, brutal attacks and threats. They have created an extreme climate of fear for the campesinos (peasants), teachers, union members, journalists and other community leaders involved in the resistance movement that continues to oppose the coup and Lobo's election. — 2,516 words.
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Reality Check

American standard of living collapsing
Studies reveal growing insecurity and growing anger

By Hiram Lee
GlobalResearch.ca

A series of recent studies conducted by the Pew Research Center shed new light on the scope of the economic crisis in the US and the level of hostility the majority of the American population holds for the US government.

Released in March, before the passage of the Obama administration's health care legislation, a survey entitled "Health Care Reform — Can't Live With It, or Without It" indicates that 92 percent of Americans give the national economy a negative rating.

No fewer than 70 percent of the respondents report having suffered job-related and financial problems in the past year, an increase from 59 percent the year before. Fifty-four percent report someone in their home has been without a job and looking for work in the past year, up from 39 percent in 2009.

The poll saw an aggravation of conditions in every area of economic life studied the year before. Increasing numbers of people are reporting difficulty receiving or affording medical care (26 percent) or paying their rent or mortgage payments (24 percent).

More Americans faced problems with collections and credit agencies (21 percent), or had mortgages, loans or credit card applications denied (19 percent). — 1,017 words.
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Annals of military intelligence

Ex-MI6 officer attacks America's torture policy

US response to al-Qaida exaggerated and counterproductive says former assistant MI6 chief

Nigel Inkster (Photo: RawStory.com)

By Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian

A former senior MI6 officer has criticised the torture and abuse of terror suspects and says the US response to the threat posed by al-Qaida has been exaggerated and counterproductive.

Stinging criticism of the US is made in the Guardian by Nigel Inkster, assistant chief of MI6 until 2006.

In the article, which appeared originally in the International Institute for Strategic Studies journal Survival, Inkster and co-author Alexander Nicoll write: "It is surely not inspiring for radicalised people with the potential for violent action to see terrorists tried in ordinary criminal courts and sentenced to long prison terms."

The authors, both senior IISS members, add: "But it surely is inspiring to them to see terrorists treated as a special class of prisoners to be held by the military, imprisoned without trial and tortured..." — 426 words.
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Money and Markets

Test case:

British Columbia's tax cuts failed to work

Jobs and investment were supposed to flow, but didn't.
Biggest loser: our wrecked forest economy

By Kim Pollock
TheTyee.ca

For a decade now, we have been told over and over that cutting corporate taxes will stimulate investment and create jobs.

In B.C., Gordon Campbell's government has steadfastly maintained that if you simply reduce corporate taxes, companies will respond by performing in the interests of British Columbians. "Under a BC Liberal government," Campbell said, announcing his sweeping 2001 tax cuts just days after being elected, "British Columbia is once again going to be the destination province where people and businesses want to move and invest."

Similarly, that was Campbell's line last year when he sprang his unwelcome surprise plan to harmonize B.C.'s sales tax with the federal goods and services tax. The HST shifts $1.9 billion in taxes away from corporations on to the shoulders of average families. Said Campbell in a July 23, 2009 news release: "This is the single biggest thing we can do to improve B.C.'s economy. This is an essential step to make our businesses more competitive, encourage billions of dollars in new investment, lower costs on productivity and reduce administrative costs to B.C. taxpayers and businesses. Most importantly, this will create jobs and generate long-term economic growth that will in turn generate more revenue to sustain and improve crucial public services." — 2,973 words.
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Free trade: Not free and certainly not inevitable

By Ian Fletcher
TruthOut.org

There is a myth in wide circulation that the superiority of free trade is simply a settled question on which all serious economists agree. The flip side of this myth, of course, is that anyone who criticizes free trade must either be ignorant of economics, or the spokesman of some special interest which hopes to benefit from trade restrictions. Such critics are not only wrong, the story continues with admittedly impeccable logic, but profoundly worthy of public contempt, as they are necessarily either dumb or corrupt. — 1,192 words.
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From the Desk of Mike (The Hammer) Garvin

Cartoon by Signe Wilkinson, Comics.com, 30 April 2010.

The Reading Room

Missiles over Tskhinvali

A Little War that Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West
by Ronald D. Asmus (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 272 pp., $27.00.

A review by Thomas de Waal
NationalInterest.org

Thomas de Waal is a senior associate for the Caucasus with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His book, The Caucasus: An Introduction, will be published this summer by Oxford University Press.

In The Begining was The Word — now it's poetry

'They balk endeavor and baffle reform,
In the sacred name of law'

Hem and haw