Paul inquiry closes with questions left unanswered

VANCOUVER - The Frank Paul Inquiry closed Friday facing the possibility that it might never get to examine all the circumstances surrounding Paul's death, which has become a cause celebre for anti-poverty and aboriginal groups concerned with the treatment of the homeless and addicted by the Vancouver police.
Read more [The Vancouver Sun (West Coast News)]

Blog for Palestine Day

Blogger za3tar has organized Blog About Palestine Day on May 15, the anniversary of the Nakba and Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations. Bloggers around the world were invited to blog for Palestine, as noted by Global Voices here. Many bloggers chose to participate in the event; here is a selection.

za3tar, the organizer of the event, blogged about being Palestinian, sharing a story of his family and concluding:

For us Palestinians, only two things remained true during the past 60 years; First, life for ordinary people only gets worst every year. Second, from the minute you are born in Palestine, you are immediately a suspect, and you are continuously treated so for as long as you live. No one in the world can condone mass punishment of civilians, but punishing suspects is not a big deal.

We must be suspects, otherwise what explains 60 years of Israel’s direct violation of numerous UN resolutions without any consequences. We must be suspects, otherwise what explains our denial of basic human rights. For me and my family, the only crime that we are suspect of, is simply existing!

These stories are not unusual for Palestinians. As a matter of fact, i come from a blissed family, my parents were able provide us with food and shelter, and none of my relatives was killed. Unfortunately however, the stories of average Palestinians are much grimmer still.

Rebellious Arab Girl, a Canadian resident, also blogged about being Palestinian:

What do I represent?
I represent my self, a Palestenian with hot blood through my veins and a voice to speak about my existence. I am Palestenian. I will always be one. I was born as one, and will die as one.

It has been 60 years since my home was taken away, isn’t that too much?

I may be one person. I am not a celebrity or someone who is famous and well known. However, I have the right to speak out when I say, “we had enough!”

Vivirlatino blogged about the Palestinian population in Chile:

Last month about 40 Palestinian families, refugees from Iraq, were welcomed into Chile.

“We hope that suffering will be a thing of the past, and Chile the source of your new happiness,” Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said as he welcomed the 16 adults and 23 children who had spent months stranded at a desert camp on the Iraqi-Syrian border.

The rest of about 117 refugees from this specific camp arrived in the Santiago neighborhoods of La Calera y San Felipe this week. They were welcomed with flags, dancing, and music.

While these homes in Chile, which come with the support of the Chilean government and all of it's resources (including a monthly stipend and counseling services), do not replace or erase the need of Palestinians to have a home in their homeland, the right to return, historically it makes sense. So many people left Chile after the 1973 U.S. backed military coup. So many lives lost and disappeared through state sanctioned violence. The links are there. The connection is there.

And Far Away blogged about the changing face of both Palestine and Israel, sharing fascinating photographs:

It’s been 60 years since the Palestinian Nakbeh. That means around four generations of Palestinians.

Of course, in these past 60 years, life for Palestinians for those still living in Palestine and the ones living in exodus have changed drastically. Thanks to ethnic cleansing, injustice, barricading, lack-of-educational means, poverty, bad health care, constant pressure, among other racist and unjustifiable actions, life has changed.

Life for “Israelis” has also changed.

The wheels have turned…

Bruised Earth wondered about the false hope being given to Palestinians…

So on this day of of the Nakba, the catastrophe, all this site can ask and ‘hope’ to encourage is the ongoing search for the truth. Hope more people can wade through the politics and media that filter what we all need to know; what we all must confront. Everyone must find that for themselves.

…and encouraged readers to seek the truth from outside sources:

Read other Web sites - beyond Fox, CNN, BBC, and Reuters. Forget about the 30 minute news updates - and instead piece together 30 minutes of real news from other sources every day.

Read the facts. Find more facts. Find more truth.

Syrian blogger Maysaloon discussed the Nakba:

In many ways, how we choose to commemorate May the 15th says a lot about us in the Arab world. Those of us who remember it as something from the past and, to put it biblically, with much “wailing and gnashing of teeth”, miss the point. The Nakba did not happen and end in 1948, it has continued to this present day. You can see the Nakba in Gaza, in the refugee camps and, dare I say it, it has expanded to Iraq. However, from the Nakba we also saw the birth of resistance. From the heroism and selflessness of al Husseini and the resistance in 1948, to the battle of Karameh in ‘68, Beirut in ‘82, Iraq today and the South of Lebanon in 2006. The struggle against occupation continues, as it does against those who collaborate. May 15th reminds us of the tragedy which befell a people, our people but also strengthens our resolve to resist and to push on. Am I the last person to talk about resistance from the comfort of my home, in a country which was Israel's midwife? Perhaps, but just as a first person is necessary in a set, so is the last, and it is belonging to the set and playing your role in anyway possible which is what counts. The only thing, the easiest thing, for us to do is to forget, to count ourselves defeated or irrelevant. Each of us has a moral duty to resist zionism, empire and neo-colonialism in all aspects of our lives and it will be a poor excuse to say, one day, that you were only being realistic. The enemies of Palestine know that every person they kill or bomb they drop only creates more determination to fight them, that their time is running out. Sixty years on, the dream of ending Israel is that little bit closer. Sixty years on, the struggle continues.

Finally, My Home Away From Home, who lives in Canada, shared her desire to go to Palestine, the country of her ancestors:

Palestine…it is my home that I have never set foot in, it is the land I love without boundaries.

My heart cries for Palestine, I want to touch its soil even once in my life. My heart and soul are always with Palestine, it is a part of my prayer ritual. I pray that one day we get our freedom we get our right to return. I pray for the gruesome murders and unfairness to stop, for children to start living like they are supposed to without fear, for mothers to be able to sleep the night without worrying that tomorrow or the day after she may lose some or all of her children. I pray for families to live together all in one place without a brother, a son an uncle in the isreali prisons for life. I pray that children can go to school or out to play and come back home safely. I pray that wives and husbands are not widowed too soon, and children are not orphaned when they are still young. I pray for people to live in peace and harmony and for all of us Palestinians born all over the world to reunite and meet in our homeland, a land who’s love was born in our heart…

Anne Heche claims poverty despite owning $1.98m W. Van house

Hollywood actor Anne Heche claims to be too broke to pay child support -- even though she owns a multimillion-dollar house in West Vancouver.

Actress pleads poverty on child support

VANCOUVER -- Hollywood actress Anne Heche claims to be too broke to pay child support -- even though she owns a million-dollar house in West Vancouver.
Read more [Times Colonist News Feed]

New Orleans: America's Palestine

Once the catastrophe hit it was a long time before people started to understand what was really going on. By then, the world had abandoned the already marginalized communities, leaving them to fend for themselves while being largely displaced and devoid of rights.

Walking through the still devastated neighbourhoods, the poverty is simply striking. Abandoned, barely standing homes are interspersed with a few renovated ones here and there. International and national volunteers converge to pour their efforts into single projects, but what they leave behind is perhaps even more telling than what they've originally found.

As they scrape together the resources to rebuild, others see an opportunity in the devastation. A large evacuation, such as that of the 9th Ward of whose 17,000 original residents 14,000 remain displaced, produces quite a business opening. Cheap real estate has become the market of choice for opportunists as every abandoned plot boasts a "for sale" sign.

Effectively, an ethic cleansing is underway as the predominantly black population of such neighbourhoods as New Orleans East and the 9th Ward has disappeared. In the former, it is actively and aggressively being replaced by suburban, predominantly white residents. In the latter, the destruction is still too significant for a strong gentrification to take place. In the city's centre, public housing projects have decreased by 80 per cent largely thanks to home demolitions.

read more

Media Advisory - Minister To Make Youth Opportunities Announcement And Hold Poverty Reduction Consultation In Ottawa

OTTAWA, May 8 - Minister of Children and Youth Services, Deb Matthews, will be joined by Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi and a group of young people from high-needs neighbourhoods in Ottawa to make an announcement. Minister Matthews will also be available to the media following a poverty reduction consultation meeting. <<.....
Read more [Ontario Government News Feed]

The Ontario Liberals and 'Poverty Reduction'

Are they Trying or Lying?

The McGuinty Liberals have jumped onto the very overcrowded bandwagon of ‘Poverty Reduction’. They have set up a process of highly selective consultation to ‘define the problem’. Then, they tell us, they will ‘set targets’ to reduce poverty and implement a package of reforms to that effect. Implied in all this is an expectation that we should accept it as a good faith initiative. In fact, we are expected to play along and wait patiently for the eventual benefits that will, supposedly, flow from it.

read more

Egypt: the surreal painting, Tarek Osman

Egypt's current state resembles a surrealist painting. It is difficult to decipher its components, challenging to comprehend its meaning. At the centre of the painting there are dark, abrasive lines; most onlookers would see them depicting anger, frustration and occasionally menace. At the peripherals, there are softer lines, perhaps symbols of potential and promise.

The sharp lines are the result of three major social phenomena that shape Egypt's current experience: inequality, demographics, and culture.

The social chasm

The first phenomenon is suffocating inequality.Tarek Osman is an Egyptian investment banker covering the Gulf and United Kingdom markets

Also by Tarek Osman in openDemocracy:

"Egypt: who's on top?" (7 June 2005)

"Egypt's crawl from autocracy" (30 August 2005)

"Hosni Mubarak: what the Pharaoh is like" (16 January 2006)

"Can the Arabs love their land?" (22 May 2006)

"Egypt's phantom messiah" (12 July 2006)

"Mahfouz's grave, Arab liberalism's deathbed" (23 November 2006)

"Arab Christians: a lost modernity" (31 August 2007)

"Risk in the Arab world: enterprise vs politics" (9 November 2007)

"Nasser's complex legacy" (15 January 2008)

"Egypt's football triumph" (13 February 2008)

Egypt has always been characterised by severe inequality between its "upper crust" and those millions of people who struggle to survive. This was especially clear in the period before the 1952 coup; then, the privileged classes - the pashas and beks, the cotton and wheat millionaires, the colonial bourgeoisie, and most foreigners in the country enjoyed lives vastly different from the toil of the men and women in the villages of the Nile delta and the Saiid (upper Egypt), or in the rougher neighbourhoods of Cairo and Alexandria.

The sweeping promise of the early years of Gamal Abdel Nasser's era meant that the realities of material inequality were less evident, though in the late 1950s and the 1960s another dimension of inequality appeared: in the influence and access of ahl al theqa (the trusted elite, drawn from the military and intelligence corps), which allowed it to float untouchably over the rest of society (see "Nasser's complex legacy", 15 January 2008).

In the 1970s (the decade of Anwar Sadat) and the 1980s (under Hosni Mubarak, who became president after Sadat's assassination in October 1981), the ostentatious symbols of a new class of wealthy business people created a revived awareness of endemic social inequality on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. But the market-friendly policies of Sadat's mid-1970s infitah (open door) period also funnelled a degree of prosperity even to distant towns and villages. Even some of those on modest incomes became beneficiaries of the infitah and were able to buy French-made shirts and even cars, and to realise that watches had other uses than telling the time.

The landscape of inequality in this period was thus more subtle, offering a certain amelioration of the absolutes. The broad dispersal of Egypt's then 25 million-35 million people across the numerous cities, towns and villages of the country - allowed the "haves" and "have-nots" for a time to share the same world, to "see" each other - before they retreated, each to their own environs.

This interlude was brief. The late 1990s and the 2000s saw a complete change. An era of intense demographic concentration has resulted by 2008 in a population of around 81.7 million. The change is highlighted by Cairo's metamorphosis into a city of 18 million people, where neighbourhoods of vast wealth are a few minutes' walk from alleyways of crushing poverty. The rich and poor were forced to do more than peek at each other, interact briefly, then withdraw to their enclaves; now, they were living in such proximity that awareness of the other was constant and unavoidable. In Cairo, and to a lesser extent Alexandria, Egypt's urban citizens were crammed together - Zamalek's swanky night-spots next to decayed public housing; Mohandeseen's shiny boutiques next to the deprived Meit Okba area; a Porsche Cayenne cruising next to a minibus with twenty people packed together in Cairo's burning heat.

In principle, inequality could have been seen as a "natural" by-product of a growing economy where some social strata (typically because of privileged background or education) manage to exploit emerging opportunities, while other (far larger) lose out. This, as it were "academic", view had elements of the truth. But it could not disguise a stronger undercurrent of feeling among millions of Egyptians (indeed, probably a majority): that the elite, the upper crust, the wealthy, the "haves", do not deserve to be so.

The point is illustrated by a scene in Tito, a smash-hit Egyptian film of 2005. In one scene, the leading young actor Ahmed El-Sakka waves his hands in protest about being labelled a thief and shouts - referring to the people around him at a plush golf resort, including elegantly dressed women, with luxury cars in the background - "but they are all thieves"! The cinema audiences erupted in clapping at the line.

The Egyptian poor have major a trust problem regarding the country's rich. A major ingredient in this is simple, decades-old, and cataclysmic: corruption. In Egypt, corruption is both about large-scale transactions (the use of privatisation deals to make illicit wealth, say) and small-scale (paying low-level government employees a few dollars to expedite bureaucratic procedures). But its main feature (as most Egyptians see it) is that it is an institutionalised phenomenon that pervades almost every aspect of Egypt's socio-economic life: from the "caller" who helps park cars to the teacher who pushes students to sign for private lessons, from the policeman whose very uniform exudes intimidation to the judicial employee with sensitive case information, from members of parliament buying votes to ministers selling favours - all the way down to the beggars and scam-artists on the Cairo and Alexandria streets.

The Kifaya protest movement played on corruption's protean influence in the title of its 2005 report on the subject: "The black cloud is still here". The "black cloud" usually refers to a horrendous smog that hovers over greater Cairo every year when the residuals of the rice crop in neighbouring governorates are burned. Corruption is as suffocating, and - as with the other black cloud - the authorities do not seem to capable of clearing it.

The social chasm, the trust problem and the corruption dimension all focus attention on the Egyptian government's failings. The people who joked in the 1970s and 1980s about the government's five-year economic plans were by the late 1990s and 2000s tired, economically exhausted, and emotionally drained by a continued deterioration in their living standards. The reasons included the increasing pressures of Cairo's teeming population, the evaporation of job opportunities, and the social distance of the privileged elite from the rest of the population. All this contributed to the gradual transformation of Egyptians' characteristically sarcastic patience into boiling anger, reflected in the wave of strikes and protests that has swept the country in 2007-08.

Even these high-profile and widely reported events, however, may be less significant than the deeper shift in the attitude of the everyday Egyptian, who no longer reacts to the news of Egypt's economic progress - the building of a smart urban area, the issuance of a new GSM mobile licence at a breakthrough valuation, the purchase of a venerable Egyptian state bank - with an amused, sceptical "let's see". He or she is now more likely to be furious, questioning where the billions of dollars are going, why even a kilo of meat or a new pair of shoes has become unaffordable, while "they" enjoy their villas, cars, fancy clothes, and affluent lifestyles.

There are other sources of anger: incidents such as the drowning of a ferry en route from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, the use of contaminated blood in a couple of public hospitals, the collapse of a tower in Cairo's Nasser City.

The very closeness that Cairo life has imposed on Egyptians of starkly different incomes and life-chances has exacerbated the perception of the social gap, and dangerously aggravated the trust problem. The suffocating experience of inequality reflects the broken social contract. Here is a sharp line at the centre of the Egyptian painting, surrounded by menacing orange dots that suggest to the onlooker anger and frustration.

The generational choice

The second phenomenon at the centre of the Egyptian painting is the country's demographic reality, more particularly the condition of Egypt's young people.

More than 40 million Egyptians are under 35 years old. In 2006, around 8 million Egyptians applied for the American green-card lottery. In 2007, more than twenty young Egyptians drowned on perilous journeys toward the southern shores of Italy and Greece. In 2007-08, hundreds of thousands have demonstrated and rioted in 2007 for various causes. The picture is clear: young people are angry, disillusioned, and increasingly aggressive and belligerent.

Yet, young Egyptians are also full of promise. Most of them - especially in the country's big cities - have access to a TV and radio; are literate; have some basic knowledge of English; are relatively comfortable with new technologies, including the internet; and are (from a distance) aware of what happening in the advanced world. The more sophisticated and educated among them - the product of the substantial Cairene and Alexandrian middle class - also have a decent command of some of the key skills required in today's modern economies. That is why a huge number of Egyptian engineers, doctors, accountants, lawyers and other professionals are employed in companies and institutions in the Gulf, as well as in the factories and offices of multinational companies in Egypt. The country has, by middle-eastern standards, an unrivalled base of talent and skills.

The question posed to Egypt is whether the anger and frustration of its young will outweigh the potential of their talent and skill. A key variable in answering it will be how Egypt's socio-economic environment will develop. Will this environment embrace the rising generation's capabilities, facilitate and nurture them, or will it crush them? So far, the trends favour the latter. The tiny level of entrepreneurship, the ubiquitous corruption, the alienation of the best and brightest, the overarching sense of lost promise, the psychological "black cloud" - all these have been driving the talented to Europe, the United States, and the Gulf (see "Risk in the Arab world: enterprise vs politics", 9 November 2007).

Moreover, those in this category who choose or are obliged to stay in Egypt increasingly withdraw from the heart of the cities to a secluded life - they "belong" less and less to the life of their society. The well-paid telecoms engineer in his early 30s (and his friends - the IT consultant, the accountant at a leading local company, the sales executive in a multinational, the doctor) are increasingly drawn to the internet, to satellite dishes, and even the express-delivery service of Amazon UK. If his financial condition improves significantly, the immediate objective becomes a home in one of the new, rich and isolated suburbs of Cairo, from where he and his wife will send their small children to a new private school.

But most young people do not have these choices. Their domain - the crowded streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Al-Mahala, Tanta, and Asyuut or Egypt's smaller towns and villages - there is no private access to the internet or satellite dishes, no cultural exposure to the US or Britain, and no chance of finding decent work in the Gulf or Europe. Only a few can free themselves from the circumstances of limited promise and ascend even to the margins of comfortableness. The majority are in the quagmire.

Most of these young Egyptians are still in their teens or 20s. They are still finding their way in life; they are tomorrow's news; the wager is still on regarding how they will shape their future. They are both angry and ambitious; pugnacious and dreamy; rioters against oppression and singers of Mohamed Mounir's romantic songs; the lines of resentment swirling up in their sheisha smoke yet their fast walking pace revealing their hunger for life. Theirs too is a sharp line in Egypt's trajectory, leaving the onlooker to guess whether it can delineate peaceful progress or violence and chaos.

The cultural contest

The third phenomenon shaping Egypt's current experience is the country's cultural pulse. Much of Cairo and Alexandria, and even more most of the delta's cities, are conservative places of strict behaviour codes. Since the early 1980s, the Islamic movement has won major battles in the war over Egypt's cultural identity. Egyptian liberalism is a stranded, weak movement; Arab nationalism is no stronger. Western, Mediterranean, Europe-influenced trends are tiny social currents that penetrate negligible groups at the society's fringes (even if many of these groups' members wield considerable spending power).

Today, books on the pleasures a devout Muslim will find in heaven or on athab al-kabr (the punishment of the grave) far outsell those on other themes - apart from books with a strong sexual content. Yet religion, the veil, the conservatism, the strictness, the moral puritanism - these are not (yet) the cultural identity of Egypt. Amr Khaled, Egypt's leading modern Islamic preacher, has a massive following; and Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi's show on al-Jazeera is a must-see for millions. Yet the secular, liberal novelist Alaa al Aswani is Egypt's bestselling author among the country's middle class; and the weekly TV show of the ultra-liberal Mohamed Hassanein Heikal still commands a great following.

The rising Islamic trend in Egypt's last quarter-century is a complicated process. At its heart have been three factors: the emigration of millions of Egyptians to the Gulf, at a time when the Gulf was super-conservative; Anwar Sadat's strategic decision to hand momentum to political Islam and allow it to gain ground in Egyptian society (especially in the trade unions, syndicates and universities); and the decline of Arab nationalism, from the 1970s to its near-humiliation in the 1980s and 1990s.

Much has changed. Today, the Gulf, especially its more shining parts, is more liberal than Egypt; and its petro-dollars no longer actively promote conservative doctrines to anything like the same degree as before. The Egyptian government has been fighting the current of political Islam for at least two decades. As for Arab nationalism, it has been weakened to such a level that it is irrelevant to today's dynamics.

The growth of political (and "social") Islam makes it by far the most powerful trend in today's Egypt. But it is not yet the winner. An observer of the painting will see clear green circles as well as sharp line in the painting's centre, but the Islamic crescent do not yet adorn them.

The pinnacle and the pit

Egypt, a rich civilisation with an ancient heritage and numerous links to cultures and traditions, is too complicated to be dominated by one line or colour. Thus, at the periphery of the painting are various structures, lines, and colours. Two are especially eye-catching, at the top and bottom respectively.

At the top, the decision-making process is shrouded in mystery. President Mubarak, in charge since October 1981, remains an absolute ruler. There is no doubt about his authority, ability to pull all strings, crush all challengers, and rule supreme. Yet a new power-elite headed by the president's son, Gamal Mubarak, has emerged since 2003; composed of a select group of business, economic, finance and media professionals, it has introduced a certain complexity into the high-level processes of state (see "Egypt's phantom messiah", 12 July 2006).

For example, the old guard that has long surrounded the Mubarak (who turned 80 on 4 May 2008) has seemed increasingly detached from economic policy over the past five years; the new power elite looks more influential here. This is important, for economics is no longer "just" that; when global trends are increasingly economic rather than political or military, when countries' progress is measured in GDP per capita, when a worldwide food crisis has hit Egypt hard - then economic policy becomes central to both national security and political stability.

True, the state's security apparatus appears to continue to play a leading role in securing Egypt against any potential chaos internally, as well as operating in the country's traditional spheres of influence: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sudan, Lebanon, and the horn of Africa. Yet there is doubt over how far it is now integrated into the new power-elite.

Such a trend may be part of a wider dysfunction in the administrative and institutional order. Decision-making in Egypt has always been top-down, but traditionally, the pinnacle was clear - one man with absolute authority and clear lines of power beneath him. Today, the supreme power looks more diffuse, its movement less orchestrated.

The structure at the bottom of the painting is clearer. Some parts of Egyptian society are falling away, crushed underfoot or secreted now dark and miserable corners. The atfal al-shawari (children of the streets) is a prime example: thousands of young children without any kind of education, role-model, or future. They are not alone in their sadness. Many villagers, especially in upper Egypt, live in atrocious conditions; as do thousands of families in Cairo's and Alexandria's haphazard new neighbourhoods on the cities' al- ashwa'yat (margin).

The conditions of poorer urban-dwellers - overcrowded, with broken infrastructure, a lack of personal or emotional space, full of unwelcome intimacy and aggression - crush the souls of millions of Egyptians (see "Egypt: a diagnosis", 28 June 2007).

Egypt's lowest, forgotten social strata have missed the beat of the era. This is not unusual if they are compared to the same groups of people in sub-Saharan Africa or India or China. Yet this compounds the sadness, for Egypt has already had - and missed - many chances to pull up the millions left behind; and unlike India or China, Egypt's overall progress is not impressive enough in any way to make the picture of the lowest levels fade in the brilliance of the brightest.

All the lines and spots and colours of the Egyptian painting are linked, though it is still hard to discern a precise shape. The severe inequality; the promise and peril of the millions of young Egyptian men and women; the religious and cultural struggle for the country's soul; the opaqueness of power, authority and decision - all this means that the Egyptian surrealist painting is open to interpretation. From certain angles, it looks hopeful; from others, bleak. The canvas is open.

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Poverty Causes Disease – But Why?

FROM: www.ruthlesscriticism.com

[Translated from GegenStandpunkt 1-08]

In the cold autumn of 2007, not only party congresses, statisticians and talk shows concern themselves with poverty, but also medical science in a “joint publication show of strength by 234 international specialist journals” and the October 23, 2007 Süddeutsche Zeitung devote themselves to this ”enduring scandal.”

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THE ONTARIO LIBERALS AND ‘POVERTY REDUCTION’

Are they Trying or Lying?

By the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

The McGuinty Liberals have jumped onto the very overcrowded bandwagon of ‘Poverty Reduction’. They have set up a process of highly selective consultation to ‘define the problem’. Then, they tell us, they will ‘set targets’ to reduce poverty and implement a package of reforms to that effect. Implied in all this is an expectation that we should accept it as a good faith initiative. In fact, we are expected to play along and wait patiently for the eventual benefits that will,
supposedly, flow from it.

The first thing that needs to be said is that an uncritical acceptance
of this undertaking would be an act of extraordinary naiveté. This is
the second term for the Liberals and everything they have done to date consolidates the Harris Common Sense Revolution while smoothing over social divisions with token gestures.

Perhaps we should just take a glimpse at how the Liberals have dealt
with the poor over the last few years. They campaigned the first time
they were elected on a platform that included repealing the Safe
Streets Act that Harris used to set the cops on the homeless. To-day,
that law is still in effect, being used on a scale far greater than
when the Tories held power. In Toronto, over the last three years,

read more

The Ontario Liberals and 'Poverty Reduction'

Are they Trying or Lying?

The McGuinty Liberals have jumped onto the very overcrowded bandwagon of ‘Poverty Reduction’. They have set up a process of highly selective consultation to ‘define the problem’. Then, they tell us, they will ‘set targets’ to reduce poverty and implement a package of reforms to that effect. Implied in all this is an expectation that we should accept it as a good faith initiative. In fact, we are expected to play along and wait patiently for the eventual benefits that will, supposedly, flow from it.

Ontario needs new green, union-friendly job strategy: report

A new provincial job strategy focused on green industries and unionization of low-wage jobs could play a major role in replacing Ontario's disappearing manufacturing jobs, says a new report by local anti-poverty and labour groups.
Read more [CBC - Toronto]

Ontario needs new green, union-friendly job strategy: report

A new provincial job strategy focused on green industries and unionization of low-wage jobs could play a major role in replacing Ontario's disappearing manufacturing jobs, says a new report by local anti-poverty and labour groups.
Read more [CBC - Ottawa]

'Green' fix urged for Ontario's job blues

Turning Ontario's vanishing blue-collar manufacturing jobs into stable, well-paying "green-collar" employment in the emerging green economy should be central to poverty-proofing the province, says a new report.
Read more [The Star (Top News)]

St. Vincent’s Pleads Poverty to Evade Landmark Law

The hospital is seeking to reverse a decision denying the demolition of an old building in the Greenwich Village Historic District.


Read more [New York Times]

Free from Nigerian Military Custody, "Sweet Crude" Director Sandy Cioffi on Oil Politics in the Niger Delta

The Nigerian government, along with foreign oil companies, have reaped enormous profits over the years from the sale of oil and gas reserves, while the residents of the Niger Delta live in abject poverty. We speak to Sandy Cioffi, director of the the upcoming documentary Sweet Crude. She was recently arrested by the Nigerian military and held for a week before being released following international pressure. [includes rush transcript]

Fraser Institute defines poverty out of existence...

There are two ways to reduce poverty:

The best way is to get money into the hands of low-income people and adopt other practical and effective measures, such as affordable housing, education and training and so on. The other way is to define poverty out of existence by statistical sleight of hand: Tell the poor, and everyone else, that the poor aren’t really poor, and hope that they just go away.

The Fraser Institute, the private-market-obsessed policy institute, opted for numerical dexterity as it published its latest research paper on poverty in Canada. Author Christopher Sarlo makes the astonishing claim that poverty in Canada has shrunk to a statistically tiny level in recent years.

Talkin' poverty with Minister Matthews...

The Ontario government launched its public consultation on its proposed Poverty Reduction Strategy with a few bumps this week. Closed-door, invitation-only meetings are not the best way to engage the people of Ontario, including those who have a direct experience of poverty.

There is real expertise and a great deal of wisdom from the "ground up" about practical solutions to poverty in Ontario - that's been the experience of the Wellesley Institute over the past 10 years as we have been the leader in funding community-based research. And that was the first message that we delivered to Ontario Minister Deb Matthews, who is chairing the Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction, during a four-hour session in Ottawa that included representatives from across the province.

Tackling Poverty By Expanding Opportunity

Poverty Reduction Plan Will Give Families The Tools To Get Ahead TORONTO, May 2 - NEWS Ontario is at its best when all of us are able to work, build and contribute to a strong economy together. That's the message behind the new www.ontario.ca/growingstronger website - launched today to provide a forum for people.....
Read more [Ontario Government News Feed]

Sean Bell Protesters Stop Traffic, 216 Arrested; Border Patrol Wants Immigrants Leaving Country, Too

Idaho Teacher Trashes Mexican Flag
"A high school student says he may file a lawsuit against a physical education teacher who took a Mexican flag he had brought for Cinco de Mayo and put it in the garbage." Associated Press.

Over 200 Arrested in Protest of the Sean Bell Verdict
More that one thousand people gathered at six different sites across the city to protest the acquittal of the three detectives who killed Sean Bell. Blocking traffic to major New York thoroughfares, 216 people were arrested by NYPD for praying in the street. New York Times.

FBI Investigates Indiana Cross Burning
An interracial couple found a cross burning on their lawn early Friday morning. The Southern Poverty Law Center sees the crime as intimidation, but the FBI investigation continues. Indianapolis Star.

First Aid Goes to Myanmar
In Myanmar, the ruling military junta has given the US permission to fly in relief supplies to the survivors of cyclone Nargis. Officials from Thailand mediated between the US and the junta, which mistrusts American intentions. Euronews.

Border Patrol Arrests Leaving Immigrants
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don't have proper documentation." Los Angeles Times.

WEB EXTRA: Manitoba losing rep as child poverty capital

MANITOBA is slowly shedding its place as the child poverty capital of Canada, according to Statistics Canada and the Doer government. Family Services and Housing Minister Gord Mackintosh said Tuesday Manitobans living in poverty, including the number of children living in poorer families, has dropped in Manitoba, according to the latest report by Statistics Canada on income trends in Canada.
Read more [Winnipeg Free Press]

Anti-Poverty Committee Responds to Anti-Olympic Activist Scare

...[T]he [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] has warned that...actions will increase in violence; of course it’s not violent when they taser someone to death. The APC scoffs at the allegations of violence and repeats, 'the disruption targeting the preparations for the Olympic Games will definitely intensify'.

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Minister Greeted By Angry Anti-Poverty Activists

By NICOLE RIVA, Examiner Staff Writer

The public was locked out of a meeting between public officials, including the mayor, a councillor, an MPP, a public task force and a provincial minister, on an issue of public concern — poverty.

The meeting between Ontario’s Minister of Children and Youth Services and the Mayor’s Action Committee on Poverty yesterday at the Evinrude Centre — a public building — was by invitation only, excluding angry anti-poverty activists, the media and the NDP’s poverty critic.
The meeting lasted three hours and was designed to give the minister, Deb Matthews, some insight into Peterborough’s poverty strategies.
The meeting was attended by Mayor Paul Ayotte, Coun. Doug Peacock, Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal and the deputy reeve of Cavan-Monaghan Brian Fallis.

The lack of public access resulted in shouts of anger by members of the public, some of whom say they were pushed from the building by security, including former MPP Jenny Carter.

Protesters greeted Matthews with shouts of “shame” and “we want 40 per cent” upon her arrival.

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Empty Wallet? Not to Worry -- Poor Is the New Rich!

As waves of poverty wash over the once-affluent, it's nice to know that you can share the pain.
Read more [AlterNet.org]

CSIS names extreme First Nations, anti-poverty groups as Oly threats

Canada's spy agency has monitored anti-Olympic activities for more than a year and found the strongest opposition among "the more extreme elements" of First Nations, in alliance with anti-poverty groups, according to an internal government document.
Read more [The Province]

First nations extremists oppose Olympics the most: spy agency

Canada's spy agency has been monitoring anti-Olympic activities for more than a year and found the strongest opposition to the athletic event to be among "the more extreme elements" of first nations groups, particularly in alliance with anti-poverty groups, according to an internal government document obtained by Canwest News Service.

Spy agency watching Olympics protesters: documents

Canada's spy agency has been monitoring anti-Olympic activities for more than a year and found the strongest opposition to the athletic event to be among "the more extreme elements" of First Nations groups, particularly in alliance with anti-poverty groups, according to an internal government document obtained by Canwest News Service.
Read more [Times Colonist News Feed]

Ontario: Poor Shut Out of Anti-Poverty Session

Read more [Infoshop News2]

Big win at TO Exec Committee on panhandling...

Toronto City Council's powerful Executive Committee has unanimously adopted a detailed panhandling strategy that bucks the terrible trend throughout North America to criminalize activities associated with homelessness, housing insecurity and poverty. The plan recognizes that there are socio-economic and health issues that drive people to beg for change on the city's streets and, therefore, the best response is not to arrest and ticket panhandlers, but to ensure that they have access to housing, supports and income.

It was particularly heartening to see representatives from Toronto's business, tourism and entertainment all stand in support of this plan - along with the Wellesley Institute. Even Toronto Police Services spoke against criminalizing panhandling and in favour of the approach that tackles the fundamental concerns. Just one year ago, many business groups and others were clamouring for a police-led crackdown on panhandling.

Dubious company

Comment is free: John Hilary: Ending poverty and winning human rights can't be left to voluntary initiatives of corporations
Read more [The Guardian (International + UK)]