Is BP Intentionally Stalling for It’s Own Good?

This morning, British Petroleum (BP) said it’s latest scheme to end the oil slick gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the past 12-weeks is on hold, because of a leaking pipe.

If it isn’t one thing, it is another – for 12-weeks – that’s over three-months – since the April 20 explosion which killed 11 people on the BP oil rig, and has been unleashing a torrent of toxic oil into ecosystems stretching thousands of kilometres.

The latest efforts to repair the deep drilled oil well – so deep even military divers can’t get down there, only robots can handle the pressures at those depths – was supposed to be “the” fix to finally stop the oil.

Less than 12-hours after it began, this fool-proof fix made fools of us all.

Or did it?

Granted, BP’s stock price has ridden the ups and downs of this fiasco, the company has had to shell out billions of dollars, and even took a very public dressing down from the most powerful man in the world – American President Barack Obama.

However, as the old saying goes, any press, is good press.

Despite the negative comments hurled at BP for creating the world’s worst human-caused environmental disaster – even when compared to the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 – BP has been consistently in the press for the past three-months.

That’s not all bad, because the more your name is out there, the more valuable your business is. Sure it isn’t good news, but that hasn’t stopped BP from making money.

And that’s why the question has been raised, that maybe BP is intentionally stalling it’s clean up efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

What a horrible thing to say! To think that major, multinational company would intentionally do harm to the environment just to increase its value.

However it isn’t completely without basis, major multinational companies have gone to great lengths in the past to succeed, even when it means doing things not exactly kosher.

Just look at the Enron scandal, where the company intentionally mislead investors by over inflating it’s profits by $1 billion dollars in 2001. This lead to criminal convictions, suicides by executives, and the eventual failure of the company.

Or look at American Airlines, which has repeatedly delayed repairs ordered by the American government’s Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) regarding its fleet of aging MD-80 airliners. Some of these repairs could affect the lives of everyone on-board, as failing to repair cracks to pressure bulkheads could cause the cabin to depressurize, leading to the catastrophic loss of the plane.

Clearly, business ethics aren’t front and center in the hearts and minds of the world’s corporate elite.

So, is BP stalling to make the most of a bad situation?

Only the time will tell.

Meanwhile, the environment and those who live in the affected areas continue to suffer, due to BP’s continued negligence.

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Okay, Toronto Looks Like a War Zone – Remind Me Why?

Much of the world’s media focused on Toronto, Ontario, Canada the weekend just past. Images of police cars on fire, masked protesters throwing things, and running rampant among a wall of poorly prepared heavily armed police and military personal – oh and American President Barack Obama was there too.

My favourite image – one which perhaps captured the weekend’s activities best – was that of an innocent bystander, just coming out of a corner store with a jug of milk, suddenly surrounded by a dozen or more police in full riot gear, throwing the poor local resident down on the grown, handcuffing her, and then tossing her into the back of a passing mini van, which then took off to destinations unknown.

Later, the poor person – who had all the proper identifications on her person when the incident occurred – was released without being charged from a temporary jail the police had set up at a former movie studio.

All of this thanks to a semi-regular gathering of the world’s most powerful political leaders from twenty of the most economically and politically powerful nations on Earth – the G20 Summit.

The G20 Summit was held in Canada’s largest city this past weekend, and for as long as these meetings of minds has been held, they are always overshadowed by the ravaging throngs of protesters, violently and without any regard for anyone – even themselves – destroying everything and anything around them.

All because they want the world peace.

Funny, when the protest movement began from its grass roots in the 1960’s, they really were peaceful, chanting pretty much the same slogans they screamed this weekend.

“NO Justice NO Peace!”
But back in the 1960’s, even up until the late 1970’s, most of these protests were peaceful walks down the street, with the occasional person being hauled off by police.

According to the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) which coordinated the security for the G20 Summit, over 900 people were arrested, and five temporary courts have been created to deal with the enormous backlog of cases.

Regardless of the numbers of protesters, the Canadian government estimates about a billion Canadian dollars have been spent on protecting the 20 world leaders and their support staffs for the weekend-long summit.

That dollar figure is expected to rise, as more police were called in than originally planned for, to handle the massive riots in Toronto’s downtown core – even retired cops were brought in to bring back the peace.

But that peace never came during the summit – all is quiet now that it is over. So one wonders just where that billion dollars went, because it certainly didn’t prevent one of the most peaceful cities in the world from becoming a war zone for two days.

Maybe that billion dollars will be used to clean up the mess which was left behind – storefronts were smashed, buildings spray painted, fences overturned, police cars burned.

Toronto Mayor David Miller obviously isn’t intending his city pay for the damage – today he told reporters that it’s unfair to expect anyone but the federal government to pay for the damage, as it was organized by the Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

And so another battle has begun – between Mayor and Prime Minister, as they hammer out the details of who takes responsibility for the mess left by the G20.

Hey, I’ve got an idea, wouldn’t it make more sense to have these G20 meetings virtually? What’s the worst that could happen if all the leaders participated in a virtual teleconference, or videoconference? The technology is very good – I’ve had videoconferences in the past and the quality is just like watching TV.

Then again, maybe the G20 leaders just like the attention, to fuel their egos.

“Look! Down there! It’s an Italian flag – they are fighting over me!”

“Non, non, that is obviously a French man, look at the cut of his bandanna.”

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American President Tries Hand at Mother Nature

Tonight at 8pm EST, American President Barack Obama will address his nation for the first time from the Oval Office.

Oval Office speeches are nothing new to American presidents. They have been used to give calming messages of action, during times of crisis.

American President Ronald Reagan was famous for his slick orations from the Oval Office. They even started the Jelly Bean Meter, where journalists joked that the bigger the crisis, the more Jelly Beans filled the jar which always sat on President Reagan’s Oval Office desk.

The speech tonight by President Obama is going to be mostly about the British Petroleum (BP) oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, sliming its way along America’s southern coastline. The oil has penetrated the shorelines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, since an explosion released it from the BP Deepwater drilling site on April 20.

The people that live and work along the coastal areas now submerged in dirty, black crude oil, are in a state of panic. Their lives are literally threatened, as drinking water tables are becoming contaminated. Their food stocks are threatened, as fish and wildlife die off from being buried in the thick black goo. Businesses are at risk, as outsiders aren’t venturing in, so tourism is at an all time low.

The BP oil leak, is the worst corporate-caused environmental disaster since another famed oil company released its liquid gold into the environment – the Exxon. Back in 1989, Exxon’s oil tanker the Valdez, ran aground dumping 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

According to the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there are approximately 98 m³ (26,000 gallons) of Valdez crude oil still in Alaska's sand and soil today.

But that’s not going to happen, because American President Barack Obama – the former Chicago Senator, turned President – is now tackling a new role – Mother Nature.

In tonight’s live address from the Oval Office, President Obama is going to lay out his plans for cleaning up the Gulf Coast.

Should be quite a show, seeing as Mother Nature herself is still struggling with the oil left in the Alaskan sands left over from the Exxon Valdez.

It will take billions and billions – if not trillions of dollars – to clear most of the crude oil. And it will take several years – decades – before the environment is completely recovered from BP’s leaking oil well.

President Obama should leave the recovery of the planet to Mother Nature, and use his political power as it was intended – politically. President Obama has the political power to force his citizens to adopt a lifestyle less dependent upon oil.

Crude Oil – a slimy, highly toxic substance, is formed as fossil remains from plants and animals are crushed between the layers of the Earth and sea over thousands of years.

We human beings consume about 30 billion barrels of crude oil year. Crude oil is the building block for almost everything – it forms the basis for toothpaste, plastics, and chewing gum. We use it to heat our homes, power our cars, and keep our world in order – most of the parts in a computer are made out of petroleum products.

Yet in its natural unaltered state, crude oil is one of the most dangerous substances on the planet. It is highly flammable – even the slightest spark can – and has – cause disaster. Its viscous thick goo clogs the pores of living things, slowly suffocating them. If taken orally, it poisons the body, causing a slow and painful death, as your vital organs shut down one-by-one.

Processing this stuff is no safer. One of the side effects to its many uses are the many toxins produced when it is manipulated. Petro chemical by products toxic to any and all life such as benzene, chlorine, carbon dioxide and many others are by-products of oil production.

Our society has become too dependent on a highly toxic substance. If crude oil was directly administered to us, it would be no different than being addicted to cocaine.

Instead of trying to do the impossible, American President Barack Obama should do the possible – create laws, policies and procedures which move his country away from the dependency on crude oil.

If he can do that, he’ll really make a world of difference – America is the largest consumer of crude oil in the world, using 24 percent of those 30 billion barrels consumed annually. Canada on average uses about 16 percent of those 30 billion barrels of crude annually, while other countries trail far behind.

So if the largest consumer of crude oil – The United States of America – starts to wean off of our drug-like dependency, the rest of the world will follow.

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Want to Provide Security for a World Leader – No Experience Required

In Canada’s largest city, a security firm handling part of the protection services for the world’s most powerful leaders is hiring – no experience required!

After a background check by Canada’s federal police service – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and a mere ten days of training – you too can be wearing the dark sun glasses, while protecting the likes of American President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and 18 other world leaders, during the G8 and G20 Summits in late June.

WOW – sign me up for that job!

It even pays more than a typical security gig. Most security companies in the city pay on average from $10 to $15 per hour, and you’re lucky if you get full-time hours if you’re a rookie. Providing security to the G8 and G20, even the new kids on the block will earn $20 to $24 per hour, plus overtime for two-weeks.

And you may even get to take a bullet for someone!

Even the local Toronto Police Service is only getting a condensed special training session of ten days for the event. Many are used to catching speeders, investigating lost wallets, and handling the occasional domestic dispute – the additional training is to bring them up to speed on how to keep the world leaders from harm’s way.

Perhaps it is security by numbers instead of experience – over 2,000 police are expected to be on hand to protect 20 people for a two-day affair.

Granted, the RCMP – which are in charge for the most part – protect Canada’s Prime Minister all the time, and when was the last time we heard of anything going wrong?

Well, there was that time when the wife of a then-current Canadian Prime Minister was confronted by a home invader, at the Prime Minister’s official residence. Back in 1985, Aline Chretien came face-to-face with the intruder, who was armed with a knife. Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife locked themselves in their bedroom, until the RCMP came to take the man away – though if they were doing their job in the first place he should never have got that close to the Canadian leader in the first place.

Even with 2,000 law enforcement types in the area, with that kind of track record, I’d be skeptical whether or not I was safe if I were a world leader.

Though the areas where the world leaders will be – essentially most of the downtown core – will be shut down for the duration of the summits.

Still, a mere ten days of training, and no experience required?

So how come it is costing over a billion Canadian dollars to secure this thing anyway?

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There Just Aren’t Enough Days in the Year for Quit Facebook Day

Two Toronto, Canada men created a website to encourage the 400-million-plus users of the world’s largest social networking site to abandon it, because of privacy concerns.

Joseph Dee and Matthew Milan created the www.quitfacebookday.com website, calling for Facebook users to quit en mass today, because Facebook is too hard to use.

Oh boo hoo you.

Yes, there is a complex web of settings to go through, but all it takes is a little time and even a child could figure out how to set their settings just the way they want.

And Facebook has since resolved this issue – last week their CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes to make it easier to protect private information.

Having a day of protest for a website?

Speak of lazy protesting. Back in my day, you would have grabbed a placard, your running shoes and a megaphone, and walked a picket line.

That’s how you make a statement. Or rather did.

I think that’s what concerns me more than the 6,000 nuts that joined the Quit Facebook Day website – the lack of real social awareness thanks to technological advances like the Internet.

These days, it is all too easy to create some online site to badmouth whoever or whatever you want, without any real thought.

And what’s even worse, is millions of people can join into these causes, with just as little thought or effort as the causes creators.

SO what you end up with, are a bunch of people YELLING AND SCREAMING online for reasons which they themselves don’t fully comprehend.

All it takes is for someone with an understanding of the issues to cleverly manipulate these naive protesters, and you end up with a group of people, yelling and screaming online, for something they didn’t intend too.

Either way, it certainly raises concerns over grass roots democracies which formed the basis of our current governments, via real protests over real issues, with really intelligent, thoughtful and aware individuals that actually knew what they were protesting and why.

Many of our greatest leaders have risen from the protest movement of the 1960’s – former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau was known to cause a ruckus in his university days, even current American President Barack Obama was known to take a stand on controversial issues in his pre-political days – much as he does today. Just look President Obama’s healthcare and fiscal reforms – they are very clearly taken in part from his younger days of action.

But these days, protests are days of inaction – by asking anyone with half-a-brain to “sign” online petitions, mass email everyone they know, and even going so far as to quit using online sites.

Can’t get any more inactive than to quit.

Inaction leads to no action – it is a basic law of physics, which just so happens to work with policies and procedures just as well as it does an apple falling from a tree.

Does this mean the end of grass roots politics – and in turn – the end of real knowledge, power and good governance?

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Everyday Should Be Earth Day

Only two days to go until Earth Day – the spot on the calendar when the world recognizes the need to be more environmentally-friendly.

First held on April 22, 1970 by a group of hippies hip to the need to generate more interest in our home, planet Earth, it has since been celebrated in over 170 countries across the globe, by billions of people. Some consider Earth Day the birthday of the environmental movement, some use it to begin their own environmentally-friendly resolutions, and some just go on not knowing or caring.

Truth is Earth Day should be every day – well to a degree. While any excuse for a party is often said to be a good excuse, we shouldn’t need to party to think of the Earth.

When our homes are in need of cleaning or repair, we don’t think twice about it, we just do it. That should be the same sort of thought process for being environmentally-friendly – when we do things which affect our home, planet Earth, we shouldn’t need to think about it, we should naturally just do what is best for our home.

As advanced as space travel has come in over four decades, we still have nowhere to live but here on planet Earth. Missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond are still in their infancy – actually American President Barack Obama canceled the mission to the Moon just last week, during his re-tooling of the American Space Program and NASA’s funding.

So finding another planet to live on isn’t in the cards, at least not in our lifetimes, or even the lifetimes of our kid’s kids, and maybe not even then.

Over the course of this week, the media will sing and dance with stories about the environment. There is a story today on CNN.com about a man not only trying to sell electric cars, but trying to create changes in society to put in place the infrastructure to support those fully electric cars (by having charging stations at all work places, and even having robotic battery swapping stations to swap out discharged batteries for fully charged ones.)

Saw an advertisement the other day for a special Earth Day Brita Water Filtration Pitcher – nothing really different about it other than it is green in color. The ad didn’t specify if the company was donating any of the proceeds of the sales to an environmental cause.

Even locally here, recently there was a story about how the Mayor of Toronto, Canada, was holding his annual city clean-up, where the city supplies garbage bags free to residents volunteering to pick up litter.

All of these are great at getting our minds into the environmental framework – but in order for us to really achieve a liveable city, town, or village, our daily actions need to always be environmentally-friendly.

We need to constantly act in the best interests of ourselves, and our planet.
From simple every day purchases such as light bulbs, batteries, and dish washing soap, to the big ticket purchases such as cars, homes, and appliances, they all need to be products which are environmentally-friendly. Instead of letting the water run, leaving the lights on when no one is around, or even just leaving your battery chargers plugged into the wall when nothing is being charged, even the teeny-tiny things make a world of difference.

Earth Day is a great excuse for a party, so let’s celebrate. But don’t leave behind your environmentally-friendly thinking cap.

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American Health Reforms Slightly Better, But Long Way to Go

Healthcare American-style – you still have to pay for it out-of-pocket, but at least you can’t be turned down so quickly.

That’s the gist of the newest social reform for the United States of America in several decades, and it’s all part of American President Barack Obama’s call for universal healthcare across his country.

Here in Canada, we’ve had free, basic, universal healthcare since the founder of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Tommy Douglas in made it so in 1962 – Medicare began in his home province of Saskatchewan and was later adapted across Canada by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in 1965.

However, the word “free” never seems to apply to Americans and healthcare. Although American President Obama has done something many past presidents have publicly wanted too, it still is a long way from ensuring all Americans have healthcare.

Quite the contrary – in many instances this new healthcare reform may actually cause more harm, than good.

President Obama’s healthcare reform ensures that companies which provide health insurance – in the States they are commonly called Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) – can no longer turn down people because they or their family members have extensive health-related issues. It isn’t uncommon for HMO’s to turn down applicants for health insurance, due to past or present illnesses and diseases.

This is good news for someone who couldn’t get health insurance before, now they can, and they can finally have some or all of their medical costs covered.

However, this new law mandates that all Americans must have health insurance. So those who didn’t have health insurance simply because they couldn’t afford it, now must fork over the money to purchase it, else they can be fined between $700 to $1,000 USD.

This is a very different concept from the Canadian healthcare system. Upon becoming a Canadian citizen, automatically you qualify for government-run health insurance, which covers most basic costs, such as ambulatory care, check-ups and routine tests and procedures.

In fact, President Obama’s healthcare reforms don’t really guarantee universal healthcare – all they do is establish fines for HMOs if they fail to cover someone, and fines for American citizens for failing to buy healthcare insurance.

Real universal healthcare must be provided by the state – anything else just – pardon the pun – passes the buck.

Instead of ensuring Americans have universal healthcare, the new rules penalize the poor who can’t afford health insurance.

What President Obama should have put forward – although he had enough trouble getting his current reforms passed – was a truly universal Medicare system. One where it doesn’t matter what you have – or don’t have – in your wallet, you know if you break your leg, you’re covered.

The way it stands in the States now – if you break your leg and you don’t have either money or health insurance, you might as well just hop home – no doctor will even consider looking at you.

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President’s State of the Union Wasn’t Very Stately

American President Barack Obama says his citizens aren’t suffering from a deficit of dollars, but also one in terms of confidence in government.

This stems from the U.S. leader’s annual State of the Union Address, televised across the States and around the world on Wednesday night. The annual speech is a long running tradition in American politics, where the president provides some insights into what he and his ruling government hope to accomplish in the coming year.

Ranking high on that priority list, as per previous leader’s addresses: the economy and healthcare.

In fact, for a world leader who just a year ago was so high atop a pedestal he had a rock star-like Obamamania following, there wasn’t really anything all that rock shattering in this President’s plans for his people.

Last year, on the weeks and days leading up to his inauguration ceremony, there was a distinct buzz around the world, as the United States of America – the most powerful nation on the planet – was about to swear in their first non-White president.

Millions of people from all over the world filled planes, trains and buses, overbooking hotels, and flooded America’s capital city, all for the chance to just be where history was to be made. Most had high hopes that it wasn’t just his skin color that got him the job, but his innovative ideas, his unique vision of where he could lead the United States of America.

President Obama has put forward reforms which are controversial, including his economic and healthcare plans. He even has done something no other world leader has done in less than a year in power – taking home the great honor of winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

But what exactly has the American leader done which really stands out? What has President Obama actually done to the betterment of humankind?

Since the invention of the soapbox, there have been many people taking the opportunity to stand on said soapbox, screaming at the top of their lungs about the horrid state of the world, and what they can do to make things right. But few have actually taken the time to step off that soapbox, and act on those thoughts making a real difference.

Everything was flawlessly spotless for the international television audience tuning into President Obama and his Sate of the Union Address. The American people have been holding these things for so long, they had better be able to produce them without a hitch.

What wasn’t so flawless was the message underlying all the spit and shine on the surface. That message was one of commonality, sameness, blandness, and perhaps worse of all, lacking on any real ways to make things right.

President Obama talked about increasing confidence in government, claiming there is a serious lack of common sense in the way things are run.

Well done, fist identify a big stinky issue, such as the public’s continued loss of faith in their governmental leaders, and then admit that common sense just doesn’t exist in government. Why don’t you just toss your hands in the air exclaiming “I give up?”

That’s what it sounds like the President was doing – because he certainly didn’t mention any realistically achievable solutions to bringing common sense, order, and other respectable work practices to his publicly failing administration.

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Wasn’t There Any Real News?

Image via Wikipedia

Today, the Canadian media declared Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the newsmaker of the year. This isn’t the first time for the Canadian leader, as he was awarded the journalistic title last year.

Granted, Harper managed to quash many political fires, saving citizens from yet another federal election – it seems we have two seasons in Canada – winter and election season. However, Harper really didn’t excel as a Canadian leader, so why did a group of journalists take the easy way out and just hand it to the same guy from last year?

Maybe that’s exactly what they did: “who should be our newsmaker of the year? Duh, I dunno, let’s just give it to the dude who won it last year, what was his name again?”

Being granted newsmaker of the year should come with some hefty reasons – I mean we’re talking newsmaker for the majority of 365-days, not just for a month, a week or a day – it’s the whole year.

Prime Minister Harper didn’t solve the hole in the ozone layer, bring about world peace, or cure cancer – but then who has? But he didn’t do what many other potential newsmakers have done, and really stand out from the crowd.

Sure he met U.S. President Barack Obama, but so did Governor General Michaelle Jean – and she actually received a personal invitation from the American president to come to his house in an unofficial capacity. Though she did alienate many when she ate a seal’s heart during a visit up in our Arctic.

What about Canadian Defence Minister Peter Mackay? Many can’t get the image of the buff politician in a skin-tight wet suit doing donuts on his ski boat out of their minds – the image is both entertaining and disturbing. He’s responsible for finally ending our part in the American invasion of Afghanistan, as he declared this year that all Canadian troops would be out of the war-torn region by 2011.


Though if we’re going to name Canada’s newsmaker based on entertainment value alone, then this year it would have to be Garth Drabinski. He’s the former Canadian theatre mogul who was fined and sentenced to prison time, for ripping us off through his Live Entertainment Corp. – also called Livent. He even received the Order of Canada back in 1995 for producing Canadian-made movies, television and theatre events. But he’s currently a jailbird after being convicted on fraud and forgery charges. Maybe in seven-years when he’s out of the slammer?

I can see just how hard it must have been for Canada’s media to find an honest, hard-working Canadian to be the newsmaker of the year.

Not many choices so far – a blood soaked Governor General with seal guts oozing from her smiling face, a Defence Minister that looks more like a surfer dude, and a convicted criminal.

Surely there must be someone deserving of the title Canadian Newsmaker of the Year?

I know!

Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) funny man Rick Mercer. Rick Mercer probably won’t cure cancer, and he’s not a likely candidate to solve global warming, or bring about world peace.

But he brings out the best in Canadians by showing us who we really are in his silly skits and television comedy shows. Even better, he gets our neighbours to the south in the States to think about us every so often – which is something they rarely do.

Mercer was the first Canadian television personality to venture to the States, and ask Americans what they knew about Canada. The piece was hilarious, showing us how little they really do know, but also in a way, educating Americans a bit about us Canucks.

Comic relief may be the best way to solve many world problems. If we could all laugh at ourselves a little more, than perhaps we’d have fewer wars, and a more efficient and effective society?

Rick Mercer makes us see just how silly and trivial many things we take far too seriously are – mainly how too seriously we take ourselves.

And for those reasons, Rick Mercer should be Canada’s Newsmaker of 2009.

America’s Second Vietnam Continues

Last night American President Barack Obama addressed his country live, on television, to justify sending more of his citizens into another American-made Vietnam.

Image via Wikipedia

Vietnam was the anti-communist war which America entered in 1950, to support South Vietnam against the communistic North. In April 1975, the communists won, when North Vietnam captured Saigon, ending the war. Over four million Vietnamese on both sides died during the war, and 58,159 American soldiers lost their lives.

Despite the massive number of fatalities, the North and South were reunified a year after the war’s end. Many politicians took enormous flack over the Vietnam War, because it of itself did little more than end many lives, disrupt many families, destroy numerous natural habitats, and cost millions of dollars.

Now President Obama is risking the same blame leveled on former American Presidents, diplomats, and other politicians, for a war which may prove just as pointless, and even more deadly.

Originally known as Operation Enduring Freedom, then-American President George W. Bush, along with support from then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, launched an all out air strike in Afghanistan in October 2001 in retaliation against the bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
The initial goal was to get Osama Bin Laden, then thought of as the key person responsible for the terrorist attacks in the States.

Originally against the American-led attacks, the United Nations eventually had to lend support, as the American-led invasions had ruined the infrastructure, leading to looting, rioting, and complete lawlessness and chaos in the already war-torn country – wars have been the one constant in Afghanistan’s history.

The United Nations created the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and began peace policing in December 2001. By July, 2009, ISAF’s numbers were at an all-time high, with over 64,500 soldiers from 42 UN countries, including a number of Canadians, Americans, and British troops.

Lawlessness and chaos still run rampant in Afghanistan, and the original mission has never been accomplished – to get Bin Laden.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers have died in Afghanistan, yet the country remains in ruins, the body bags keep piling up, and the costs to keep fighting a never-ending battle keep rising – at last count the American’s bill for the war in Afghanistan was in the trillions of dollars.

Despite all of this, current American President Barack Obama wants to continue pumping dollars and lives into this pointless, and very deadly war.

With the failure to capture Bin Laden, and terrorist attacks still taking place around the world, many already know the real reason behind America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – black gold.

Afghanistan and Iraq are home to the most oil-rich producing regions of the world, and just as in the board game Monopoly, the player who controls utilities, usually wins.

Rather than taking the money spent on destroying other nations under the guise of The War on Terror, and spending it on finding alternatives to oil, America drags her allies into a war which is really designed to bolster American’s control over the black liquid.

Ironic, because many times President Obama has spoken about reducing America’s dependence on foreign-produced oil, and talked at length of investing and supporting more environmentally-friendly American-made alternatives.

But just as politicians in the past have said one thing but done another, U.S. President Barack Obama has said he will invest in American green initiatives, while really investing in foreign-produced oil by pumping more dollars into the American-made wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However there is one stark difference between Vietnam and America’s War on Terror. Unlike Vietnam, which managed to reconcile its differences as soon as the American’s left and the war ended with the taking of Saigon, both Afghanistan and Iraq have been so badly damaged by the American-made war, neither country is likely to mend itself after all the troops have left.

So in a sense, Afghanistan is worse than Vietnam – and much of the blame will be laid at President Obama for failing to do the right thing.

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Canada’s Swine Flu Fiasco

What’s wrong with healthcare these days?

The news media – seriously!

No wonder American’s against U.S. President Barack Obama’s creation of a publicly accessible, universal, government-run healthcare system point to Canada when they make their outrageous claims.

With all the hype in the Canadian news media (and probably the American and other international news outfits), people are rushing free H1N1 Swine Flu shot clinics, as well as the regular flu clinics. At some clinics in Ontario, which just opened yesterday, the line-ups are estimated to

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

be over four-hours long! Some people even camped out hours before the healthcare workers arrived to open the clinic.

Americans see these long line-ups, and hear the horror stories about the goofballs turned away from the flu shot clinic – the free flu shot clinic was for high-risk senior citizens only, and the man turned away on the news clearly wasn’t over 65 – judging from his behavior he may have a long way to go before hitting puberty!

No wonder Americans think the Canadian healthcare system is worse than their system – even though America is the only industrialized nation on the

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

planet that does NOT have some form of universal healthcare for its citizens.

Although the Canadian healthcare system is far from perfect – it is far better than most. The biggest problem with our Canadian healthcare system isn’t the nurses, doctors and other practitioners working long hours – some as long as 12-hour shifts – the problem is government mismanagement from the earliest stages of a project.

The reason the line-ups for the H1N1 Swine Flu are so long and why they have limited the regular flu shot to just those in high risk groups is because they were slow to get off their over-paid butts and plan ahead.

Canada is one of the last of the industrialized nations to begin a vaccination program for the H1N1 Swine Flu, and the regular flu shot.

Ever since I can remember – at least the past decade – I’ve always got my free flu shot in late September, usually the last week of September to be exact.

This year, the regular flu vaccine wasn’t available until this week and we’re almost into November. Rumors were circulating about the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine not being available here until November 2 – they opened up some clinics ahead of schedule.

The H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine has been available for almost a month in most of Europe – so how come Canada took so long?

Even in the only country on the planet without a government-run universal healthcare system – The States, the H1N1 Vaccine has been out well ahead of Canada’s inoculation campaign.

The federal government in Canada dropped the ball big time on this one. Yes, they did their due diligence to make sure it was safe for public consumption, but they jeopardized that public’s health and well being, by not having planned for the implementation of these vaccines.

Because of these delays, people are becoming infected with H1N1 Swine Flu, and in some instances ending up in the hospital for severe illness.

School boards in Ontario are reporting as many as 10 percent of their pupils absent due to the flu – which flu that is, and whether or not they are legitimately sick hasn’t been verified.

Though the media hype is focusing on the few teenagers who have died from the illness, which is understandable, as it is rare for healthy kids to die from the flu.
Last week, a 15-year-old passed away from complications from H1N1 Swine Flu, and this week a 13-year-old has died from the virus.

As the news media focuses on these deaths, and interview teary-eyed parents mourning the passing of their kids, parents scramble with their kids in tow. The country’s largest children’s hospital, The Hospital for Sick Children in To

ronto had to call nurses in from other floors and some who were not scheduled to work, just to handle the flood of parents and children storming their hospital, hoping to get their kids vaccinated. The children’s hospital in the nation’s capital, Ottawa, also reportedly had to call in reinforcements to deal with an onslaught of parents and their kids.

The problem medical experts are telling us, is that children haven’t fought off as many flu attacks as older people, so they don’t have as strong anti-bodies as those of us who have gone through the flu several times.

This is also a case to encourage parents to stop giving into antibiotics for every cold their kids get – sure they get better faster, but they don’t have the opportunity to develop their own resistance and their immune systems do not develop their full potential.

When the media isn’t focusing on young people dying from the H1N1 Swine Flu, they swamp us with stories about gigantic crowds of people, waiting hours for their free H1N1 Swine Flu shot, making those of us who haven’t yet had time to take off work to go and get the shot, wonder if we will even be able to get it?
Who can take off four-hours from work?

At one H1N1 Swine Flu vaccination clinic, people were lined up around the outside of the building and for several blocks, some claiming to have been in line for over four-hours.

There are always line-ups at flu shot clinics – but these excessively long ones need not have happened in the first place.

Thank your federal government Canada, for mismanaging the seasonal and H1N1 flu clinics to the point of disarray.

There is no reason why one of the most prosperous industrialized nations, with one of the best healthcare systems on Earth has people lining the streets for hours, waiting for a flu shot.

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