This blog is about one of our most precious resource food, although water is a more natural resource when people think of precious resources yet food energizes and stimulates us to do great things every day. This blog is about what companies put in our food and why they do it and the attempts by a brave few to stand up to thuggish corporations who prosecute these evil deeds. It is also a challenge to people to start living and investing in different choices in life on what we eat.
I will begin by going back seventy years to WWII not for the historical aspect but the visual aspect of what people use to look like and what we look like today. You look at those pictures or videos of 1945 and you saw starvation on the faces of almost everyone. Okay you could say it was war okay fast forward to the 1950's some five to ten years after the war, you still saw fit "skinny" people walking around, not muscle bound Arnolds but people who were fit, active and relatively healthy. Okay the you could say the boom is happening in the west and all that was was American and Soviet propaganda on the "great human being" in their respective societies okay. The sixties, seventies and into the mid nineties people in the world were relatively the same and then Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thactcher and Brian Mulrooney were elected and things changed for the worse.
That's about the time the new idea of Conservatism set in and changed the political climate for ever. It wasn't about balancing budgets and serving the way the old Conservatives did, this was a new harsh survive or die type of Conservatism that intoduced the Christian right into the equasion in the States and tough economic policies that allied themselves untill this day with the corporate elite which only care was about profit margins and sustainability of the markets instead of the well being of the individual.
This new idea spread to the food companies as well who now had the green light to test new chemicals in their food products. NAFTA in the late 1980's allowed Canadian and American food Corporations to dictate the level of production and distribution away from the farmers and processors. NAFTA was not the only agreement that set in stone the infection of fatening foods in our eating cycle. The European Union agreed in the early 1990's to give similar powers to food companies to control what went into our food. The agreement was not binding unlike the NAFTA disgrace and within a few years most nations in the EU opted out. Only England, Germany and France remained in the deal and I'm sure you know why the richest in Europe remained tied to the corporate agreement.
In one of those nations though France there has been protests and successful concessions from the puppets of the Corporate State. In the mid 1990's the French farmers decided to take action in their own hands. During nation wide protests a few of them took hostage food company executives in the rural north and demanded not only they be paid the full amount for their labours but that the chemicals stop being put into the food they were processing. After a two month standoff the state capitulated and the French assembly signed into to law in 1997 the clean food bill.
Here in North America our food continues to be contaminated not by lesteria as was the terrorizing fear a year ago but by chemicals that make our food ten times larger and much more addictive. The fatening of our society including yours truly is not without our own faults but the fact that the "healthy alternatives" are ten times more expensive doesn't help things either. A gym membership these days is more expensive let alone the HST here in Ontario that will be added to the expensive cost effective July 1st. Farmers market and other healthy food alternatives are also more expensive than that chemically filled garbage and in a time where peoples salaries go down and prices are going up peoples health is the loser in this battle.
I want to be healthy and live longer but I can't afford it, excuses shouldn't come into this but look at the facts of our society and you'll understand my view. I hope you take this blog to heart before the chemicals get to it first. Thank you and take care for now.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Greece: The Beginning Of The Demise Of The EU
Greece a land of culture, education and plenty of history that is both glorious and tragic at the same time. A history that is plagued in countless civil wars and blessed with brotherhood when it's perverbial back is against the wall. A nation that has both been an empire and has also brought down numerous empires as well, and now this issue with the European Union. Well if anything history has tought us that the Greeks are a people that when determined can change the course of history and my belief is that this crisis is the beginning of the end for the European Union as we know it.
Let's go back to ancient times when the biggest empire to that BC era the Persians decided that they would add Greece to it's collection. To that point the Persian empire has conquered all of western asia, parts of Africa as well as into modern day Afganistan. Nothing it seemed would be able to stop this mamoth of an empire except one little spot of land called Greece, except there was no unity Greece, it was little tribes with Kings or in Athens case a Democracy who's only tie to one another was that they spoke the same language.
Despite these massive odds as well might I add every time the Persians invaded their army was at least six times bigger, but despite these odds the Greeks defeated the Persians in Greece and then invaded Persia led by the most famous Greek of all time Alexander the Great ended the Persian Empire threat and the Empire itself.
Several centuries later Greece fell under the yoke of Ottoman control. For nearly 400 years Greece was under slavery but the Empire that enslaved the Greeks would pay the ultimate price for doing so. Within fifty years of Greek independance won in the struggle of 1821 the Ottoman Empire was no more. The Turks tried to re establish that same empire by invading a hundred years later in the first Balkan war and was soundly defeated by yet again a united Greek army.
Fast forward to 1940-1941. The war in Europe has been raging on for a year and facist Italy asks the facist Greek government(It's a long story to explain how that happened) to let it pass through Greek territory pressumably to invade the Soviet Union, well something shocking happens the facist Greek Government says OXI! or no to the Axis forces. So Mussolini invades and is soundly defeated by united Greek forces, both royalist military and Greek Communist partizans united for the first time in their common struggle against foreign invaders.
In 1941 Hitler invades Greece to make up for his allies mistake and conquers Greece in a week. The Greeks do not give up their struggle taking out Germans and Italians delaying the invasion of the Soviet Union putting into place the destruction of the facist forces in the Soviet winter of 44. Within a few months the allies free Europe and the concentration camps thus ending the Second World War and ushering in the Cold War.
By the 1980's the Cold War is in full effect. Afganistan and other conflicts around the world have humanity on th brink of a possible nuclear war and in Europe the most crucial decision is up to Greece, end the Cold War by joining NATO or prolong it by being accepted into the Warsaw pact. Greece virtually ended the Cold War by joining Nato, Why because look at a map of Eurasia and you'll see what I mean. If Greec joins the Warsaw pact all of Eastern Europe and Western Asia is United under that same pact. Greece not only brings down the Warsaw Pact but the whole of the Soviet Unions economy down with it. Thus ending the Soviet Union.
In 1981 Greece joined the European Union. which is what brings me to more recent times. Greece had always been a loyal member of the EU but it was on January 1st 2000 when Greece joined the capitalist Euro currency everything started goin sour. A year after Greece's assention into the Eurozone Greece was given the Olympic games of 2004, yet even more problems were to follow. To explain this you have to know about the old currency of Greece and I mean really old currency.
The earliest know usage of the drachma goes back to 1100 BC and was made famous around the globe by Alexander the Great who took it to Asia when he conquered most of the known world around 330 BC. In fact today the term drachma is the origin for the Morrocan, UAE and Armenian currencies. In the two Arab speaking nations the term dirham is a pre Arabic term deriving from the drachma. The Armenian dram also has its roots in the term drachma as well.
Yet in 2000 the Greek PASOK government at the time threw away 2,900 years of history for what exactly? To be accepted in the community of nations? No Greece has not been on the losing side of any major conflict in the last 600 years. Economic independance? No in fact I would argue Greece lost it's entire independance on New Years day 2000 or even earlier when it joined in 1981. So what was really behind this because statisticians have proven that using the drachma in the 2004 Olympics would have saved Greece billions and since 2000 I would bet you Greece could have saved hundreds of trillions of dollars. So what then was behind it all?
Well plain and simply it's about money what? Yup pure unadulturated facist-capitalism. Let me direct you to a company called Siemens AG, you ever heard of it? Yeah I'm sure you have. Well lets talk about a little Siemens history shall we? The company was founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens he invented the needle telegraph and made a fortune in Europe. They became the seventh largest company in the German empire in 1907 and in the 1930's allied itself with the Nazi regime and made weapons for the German Wehrmart that murdered hundreds of millions. It even had factories around the famous concentration camps. The companies symbol is still visible above the gas chamber in the Buchenwald camp.
In the years following Nazi Germany's defeat at the hands of the allies the company looked to put a new face and re-brand itself. It got involved in other sectors apart from communications and weapons making by adding healthcare and energy to the fold. Why do I bring this up because just before the economic crisis hit, news in Greece broke that Siemens top officials had made deals with Greek government officials(at the time New Democracy/ Conservatives) that dealt with security systems that would "protect" Greece during the 2004 Olympics. But the governing fake-socialist PASOK party has yet to try anyone because according to reports yet unnamed PASOK party officials possibly including current minister in cabinet were also involved in separate unrealated deals with Siemens AG.
Well folks I bet you Siemens wasn't the only ones who help put Greece in the position it is right now I bet other conglomerates out there have dabbled in Greece's affairs, thus bankrupting her to the core. Untill there is a party in Greece that is not named New Democracy or PASOK that comes to power then there won't be any changes. I do believe though that events have been set forward that cannot go back to the way it was before the current situation and so my prediction is by the year 2020 the EU and the Euro dollar will be but a distant memory. This corruption will be revealed in many nations involved inthe EU and the people will rise against this evil Union and destroy it in time. Untill then it will be interesting to watch its downfall.
I can only pray my ancestral homeland survives this demise and is stronger than ever. Something tells me from history that no matter what Greece will survive.
Take care folks untill next time. From Marco Zottas
Let's go back to ancient times when the biggest empire to that BC era the Persians decided that they would add Greece to it's collection. To that point the Persian empire has conquered all of western asia, parts of Africa as well as into modern day Afganistan. Nothing it seemed would be able to stop this mamoth of an empire except one little spot of land called Greece, except there was no unity Greece, it was little tribes with Kings or in Athens case a Democracy who's only tie to one another was that they spoke the same language.
Despite these massive odds as well might I add every time the Persians invaded their army was at least six times bigger, but despite these odds the Greeks defeated the Persians in Greece and then invaded Persia led by the most famous Greek of all time Alexander the Great ended the Persian Empire threat and the Empire itself.
Several centuries later Greece fell under the yoke of Ottoman control. For nearly 400 years Greece was under slavery but the Empire that enslaved the Greeks would pay the ultimate price for doing so. Within fifty years of Greek independance won in the struggle of 1821 the Ottoman Empire was no more. The Turks tried to re establish that same empire by invading a hundred years later in the first Balkan war and was soundly defeated by yet again a united Greek army.
Fast forward to 1940-1941. The war in Europe has been raging on for a year and facist Italy asks the facist Greek government(It's a long story to explain how that happened) to let it pass through Greek territory pressumably to invade the Soviet Union, well something shocking happens the facist Greek Government says OXI! or no to the Axis forces. So Mussolini invades and is soundly defeated by united Greek forces, both royalist military and Greek Communist partizans united for the first time in their common struggle against foreign invaders.
In 1941 Hitler invades Greece to make up for his allies mistake and conquers Greece in a week. The Greeks do not give up their struggle taking out Germans and Italians delaying the invasion of the Soviet Union putting into place the destruction of the facist forces in the Soviet winter of 44. Within a few months the allies free Europe and the concentration camps thus ending the Second World War and ushering in the Cold War.
By the 1980's the Cold War is in full effect. Afganistan and other conflicts around the world have humanity on th brink of a possible nuclear war and in Europe the most crucial decision is up to Greece, end the Cold War by joining NATO or prolong it by being accepted into the Warsaw pact. Greece virtually ended the Cold War by joining Nato, Why because look at a map of Eurasia and you'll see what I mean. If Greec joins the Warsaw pact all of Eastern Europe and Western Asia is United under that same pact. Greece not only brings down the Warsaw Pact but the whole of the Soviet Unions economy down with it. Thus ending the Soviet Union.
In 1981 Greece joined the European Union. which is what brings me to more recent times. Greece had always been a loyal member of the EU but it was on January 1st 2000 when Greece joined the capitalist Euro currency everything started goin sour. A year after Greece's assention into the Eurozone Greece was given the Olympic games of 2004, yet even more problems were to follow. To explain this you have to know about the old currency of Greece and I mean really old currency.
The earliest know usage of the drachma goes back to 1100 BC and was made famous around the globe by Alexander the Great who took it to Asia when he conquered most of the known world around 330 BC. In fact today the term drachma is the origin for the Morrocan, UAE and Armenian currencies. In the two Arab speaking nations the term dirham is a pre Arabic term deriving from the drachma. The Armenian dram also has its roots in the term drachma as well.
Yet in 2000 the Greek PASOK government at the time threw away 2,900 years of history for what exactly? To be accepted in the community of nations? No Greece has not been on the losing side of any major conflict in the last 600 years. Economic independance? No in fact I would argue Greece lost it's entire independance on New Years day 2000 or even earlier when it joined in 1981. So what was really behind this because statisticians have proven that using the drachma in the 2004 Olympics would have saved Greece billions and since 2000 I would bet you Greece could have saved hundreds of trillions of dollars. So what then was behind it all?
Well plain and simply it's about money what? Yup pure unadulturated facist-capitalism. Let me direct you to a company called Siemens AG, you ever heard of it? Yeah I'm sure you have. Well lets talk about a little Siemens history shall we? The company was founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens he invented the needle telegraph and made a fortune in Europe. They became the seventh largest company in the German empire in 1907 and in the 1930's allied itself with the Nazi regime and made weapons for the German Wehrmart that murdered hundreds of millions. It even had factories around the famous concentration camps. The companies symbol is still visible above the gas chamber in the Buchenwald camp.
In the years following Nazi Germany's defeat at the hands of the allies the company looked to put a new face and re-brand itself. It got involved in other sectors apart from communications and weapons making by adding healthcare and energy to the fold. Why do I bring this up because just before the economic crisis hit, news in Greece broke that Siemens top officials had made deals with Greek government officials(at the time New Democracy/ Conservatives) that dealt with security systems that would "protect" Greece during the 2004 Olympics. But the governing fake-socialist PASOK party has yet to try anyone because according to reports yet unnamed PASOK party officials possibly including current minister in cabinet were also involved in separate unrealated deals with Siemens AG.
Well folks I bet you Siemens wasn't the only ones who help put Greece in the position it is right now I bet other conglomerates out there have dabbled in Greece's affairs, thus bankrupting her to the core. Untill there is a party in Greece that is not named New Democracy or PASOK that comes to power then there won't be any changes. I do believe though that events have been set forward that cannot go back to the way it was before the current situation and so my prediction is by the year 2020 the EU and the Euro dollar will be but a distant memory. This corruption will be revealed in many nations involved inthe EU and the people will rise against this evil Union and destroy it in time. Untill then it will be interesting to watch its downfall.
I can only pray my ancestral homeland survives this demise and is stronger than ever. Something tells me from history that no matter what Greece will survive.
Take care folks untill next time. From Marco Zottas
Friday, February 26, 2010
What! Public Funds for Private Clinics?
Well folks this one is a head scratcher of a revalation but bare with me a little while so I can tell about the waste that goes on in Liberal and Conservative Federal Governments. I know that's not a surprising statement but it's the truth. I hope whoever reads this is sitting down while I reveal this disgusting waste of taxpayer money. It ties in with the future of our health system and the ability to sustain it through the tough times to come when our system gets overflowed with seniors from the babyboomer generation.
The truth is public funds do go into private clinics, yup your hard earned tax dollars go into giving free healthcare to rich people. That's what it really boils down to. The Government says there is no two tier healthcare yet your money goes into rich people basically getting free healthcare. Money that could be going into our public hospitals creating more spaces, doctors and nurses is being spent at big fancy clinics where the vast majority if not all of its patients are well off or just stinkin rich.
Now I am the first to speak out against two tier healthcare, we've seen the consequences all too often in the Unites States but if this is fact in our private clinics then I would support a system where rich people pay their own way, and not take money meant for the public hospitals. You could see a system where private companies fund these clinics, such as Microsoft or McDonalds or any other big company but not our tax dollars that are meant to go into the public system. The big bad word in the 2000 election was that Canada was becoming a two tier system, well my friends it's about time we do that two tier thang.
In 2004 Jack Layton first run at being Prime Minister, he brought this issue up and was quickly attacked by all sides for using the Shouldice clinic, a perfectly fine co-op facility that used both private donations and public monies. Jack paid his own way and got the hernia treatment he needed. The fact that Jack had just taken over a party that at that point wasn't even an official party in the Canadian Parliament and was being attacked about his private life at a point when he was bringing up this shocking statistic. Well that tells me that the two establishment parties want to keep the status quo and that's just not good enough.
I am writing this in conjunction with S&F magazine a Young New Democrat publication and I hope the readers of the magazine and yourselves who are reading this on my blog contact their members of Parliament and demand an end to this outrageous practice. Just the thought of this happening at a time when an elderly lady just passed away because she couldn't be attended to and died on a stretcher in the hallway of a public hospital near the exit makes me want to break the head of whoever is responsible. Yet on the otherhand people like that poor lady and others who have died in similar circumstances deserve justice by putting an end to this horrible act of inequality.
At a time when the vast majority of our babyboomers are going to be dependant on our public healthcare system, our doctors and our nurses can we really afford to keep funding private clinics with public money? I think not! So create facebook groups, join them write in your local or school newspaper and even get on the streets because this issue will become more of a glaring problem the more we ignore it and the country will not look all that different from that of Greece, on the verge of bankruptcy and at the mercy of other nations. I don't want to see that happen to my country and neither do you. So get involved and make a difference.
Thank you for reading. Take care and good luck. Blog posting and S&F article by Marco Zottas
The truth is public funds do go into private clinics, yup your hard earned tax dollars go into giving free healthcare to rich people. That's what it really boils down to. The Government says there is no two tier healthcare yet your money goes into rich people basically getting free healthcare. Money that could be going into our public hospitals creating more spaces, doctors and nurses is being spent at big fancy clinics where the vast majority if not all of its patients are well off or just stinkin rich.
Now I am the first to speak out against two tier healthcare, we've seen the consequences all too often in the Unites States but if this is fact in our private clinics then I would support a system where rich people pay their own way, and not take money meant for the public hospitals. You could see a system where private companies fund these clinics, such as Microsoft or McDonalds or any other big company but not our tax dollars that are meant to go into the public system. The big bad word in the 2000 election was that Canada was becoming a two tier system, well my friends it's about time we do that two tier thang.
In 2004 Jack Layton first run at being Prime Minister, he brought this issue up and was quickly attacked by all sides for using the Shouldice clinic, a perfectly fine co-op facility that used both private donations and public monies. Jack paid his own way and got the hernia treatment he needed. The fact that Jack had just taken over a party that at that point wasn't even an official party in the Canadian Parliament and was being attacked about his private life at a point when he was bringing up this shocking statistic. Well that tells me that the two establishment parties want to keep the status quo and that's just not good enough.
I am writing this in conjunction with S&F magazine a Young New Democrat publication and I hope the readers of the magazine and yourselves who are reading this on my blog contact their members of Parliament and demand an end to this outrageous practice. Just the thought of this happening at a time when an elderly lady just passed away because she couldn't be attended to and died on a stretcher in the hallway of a public hospital near the exit makes me want to break the head of whoever is responsible. Yet on the otherhand people like that poor lady and others who have died in similar circumstances deserve justice by putting an end to this horrible act of inequality.
At a time when the vast majority of our babyboomers are going to be dependant on our public healthcare system, our doctors and our nurses can we really afford to keep funding private clinics with public money? I think not! So create facebook groups, join them write in your local or school newspaper and even get on the streets because this issue will become more of a glaring problem the more we ignore it and the country will not look all that different from that of Greece, on the verge of bankruptcy and at the mercy of other nations. I don't want to see that happen to my country and neither do you. So get involved and make a difference.
Thank you for reading. Take care and good luck. Blog posting and S&F article by Marco Zottas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
