NDP and Gaza

I am terribly appalled at the attacks on Libby Davies. Clearly she was bushwacked, and if you watch the video (I think a lot of people who are criticizing are just reacting to press reports) she was doing her best to stick with party politics and policies, but was clear that her own opinions were a little different - I have written to Jack, Tom Mulcair and more. . . defending her - I think she is the greatest. . . and her openness and willingness to engage and talk to people is what is getting her into difficulty. She is being vilified for exactly what she she should be lauded for. . . Defending Libby Davies, Interestingly she has been particularly lambasted by the Liberals who suggest she should resign over calling Palestine "occupied", supporting the BDS movement and talking about "apartheid" in Israel. What's funny about that is here is a Guardian article from 2002 in which Ignatieff syas of his flight over the West bank:

I knew I was not looking down at a state or the beginnings of one, but at a Bantustan, one of those pseudo-states created in the dying years of apartheid to keep the African population under control.

____________________________________________________________________


And just after we signed a free trade agreement with Columbia:

More than 70 Colombian miners were feared dead on Thursday after they were trapped by an explosion that ripped through a coal mine in what could become one of the Andean country's worst mining disasters.

Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Dozens+feared+dead+mine+blast/3169630/story.html#ixzz0rIAtzqOH

Not to mention this little gem from Columbia, from an article in the huffpo:

BOGOTÁ, Colombia - The man most likely to become Colombia's next president this Sunday has played a previously undisclosed role as a corporate officer of the company hired to run the nation's elections over the last decade, while he was a political leader, business records obtained by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund show.

The role of Juan Manuel Santos - a former defense minister in the government of current president Alvaro Uribe and a scion of one of the nation's most powerful families - is not widely known in the South American country, where his family controls some of the leading news organizations and there are reports of voting irregularities.

___________________________________________________________________

And a study about preventing stroke with some interesting finds:

When it came to food groups, fish and fruits — components of a Mediterranean diet — appeared to have the most striking protective effect against stroke, but not vegetables.

Increased consumption of red meat, organ meats, eggs, fried foods, pizza or salty snacks, and cooking with lard were all associated with an increased risk of stroke.

The risk of stroke also increased the higher the person's waist-to-hip ratio, while regular physical activity — defined as four hours or more per week of moderate (such as walking, cycling or gardening) or strenuous (jogging, vigorous swimming) exercise — lowered the risk of all strokes by 30 per cent.

So I guess I'd better up my fruit consumption!
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Hypertension+tops+list+stroke+risk+factors/3169829/story.html#ixzz0rC6dzyEB

___________________________________________________________________
And happy news n the Swat Valley in Pakistan
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127909459&ft=1&f=1001

No longer banished from public view by the Taliban's strict social code, women are weaving new lives — literally, in some cases.

With the help of the Karachi-based Heritage Foundation, widows and single mothers are learning to master looms and earn a living for the first time. With help from UNESCO, the program is offering females — from teenage girls to women in their 70s — the chance to learn the cherished art of Swati embroidery and make a livelihood.

The article goes on to talk about teeming markets, and girls on the streets with heavy book bags - I was skeptical - maybe this is some kind of Pakistani propaganda (or U.S.) - "we drove the taliban out. . . " - so I checked and found many other stories about the same change - everyone is going back to Swat. . .

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/notes-from-taliban-heartland-part-2-1.641437
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8729099.stm
http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=106435&Itemid=2


___________________________________________________________________


Oh. . . come on. . .

The environmental showpiece of the G8 summit has lost some of its lustre.

World leaders will bask in the glow of only five solar-powered street lights instead of the planned 15 when they arrive in Ontario's cottage country later this month.

The solar lamps are the G8 summit's "signature environmental project." They were supposed to line the pathways of a resort near Huntsville, Ont., during the leaders' one-night stay.

___________________________________________________________________
And just in case you were rushing off to have some untested stem cell treatment -- keep in mind: (and beware bogus stem cell research)

The death of a woman after she was treated with stem cells at a private clinic in Thailand has reinforced warnings for desperate sick people to avoid "stem-cell tourism" – the gamble of undergoing untested stem-cell treatments in unlicensed private clinics abroad.

Post-mortem results reported this week reveal that the stem-cell treatment almost certainly killed the woman, who had been suffering from kidney disease. She developed strange lumps in the kidney, liver and adrenal gland.