KoreasMilitary: Artillery fired: NorKor shells South Korean island

Early dispatches from Washington Post (Nov23,2k10) and MarketWatch (Nov23,2k10) report on the tragic attack by North Korea upon the island of Yeonpyeong which is situated just 75 miles off the NorKor shore, and also 75 some miles from South Korea's capital, Seoul.  The island has a population of just 1,200 or so, but presumably that doesn't count in the number of troops based there by the SoKor military.  The population had to scurry into 20 shelters scattered about the island. Yeonpyeong Island is central to 30 smaller islands, and is known for its crab fishing.


Michael Kitchen in his MW Market Pulse brief "North, South Korea trade artillery fire: reports" has an eye for the immediate economic impact of this latest deadly imbroglio:  

Los Angeles -- North and South Korea both reportedly fired artillery shells Tuesday at an island near the two nations' western border. Reports from the region said the North launched dozens of rounds at the island, identified by the Associated Press as South Korea's Yeonpyeong island. Several reports cited unnamed South Korean officials as saying Southern forces then fired back. The exchange follows claims by North Korea that it has opened an advanced uranium-enrichment facility. The news sent the Korean won falling against the U.S. dollar in forward trade, with the greenback rising to 1,155 won compared to Tuesday's spot close of 1,137 won, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

But the larger setting of this conflagration, to m+ m+nd, points to the stunning humiliation that North Korea must have experienced due to the  G20 Summit in Seoul and Tokyo. China was there, the USA was there in the person of its President, and so were all the leading countries of the Asian economic resurgence.  Something of which NorKor is not a part.


What North Korea has is weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and a crackerjack military that lives off the hunger of the NorKor population.  To counter the humiliation of the North's absence from the Summit, wh+l its ally China was h+ly active in the proceedings, NorKor has now stunned the world by revealing that it has a new nuclear facility which  is already "a h+ly sophisticated operation" with some "2000 completed centrifuges" necessary to creating nuclear weapons.  


Reporter Kwang-Tae Kim (AP via WaPo) writing from Seoul presents available details of the present conflict and the background in his article "NKorea fires artillery onto SKorean island, 1 dead."

 North Korea fired barrages of artillery onto a South Korean island near their disputed western border Tuesday, setting buildings ablaze and killing at least one marine after warning the South to halt military drills in the area, South Korean officials said.

The skirmish came amid high tension over North Korea's claim that it has a new uranium enrichment facility and just six weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il unveiled his youngest son Kim Jong Un as his heir apparent.

The North's artillery struck the small South Korean-held island of Yeonpyeong, which houses military installations and a small civilian population and which has been the focus of two previous deadly battles between the Koreas.

One South Korean marine was killed, three were seriously wounded and 10 slightly wounded, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. Island residents were escaping to about 20 shelters in the island while sporadic shelling continued, the JCS said.

The firing came amid South Korean military drills in the area. North Korea's military had sent a message to South Korea's armed forces early Tuesday to demand that the drills stop, but the South continued them, said an official at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

During the drills, South Korean marines on the island shot artillery toward southern waters, away from North Korea, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of military rules.
...
China, which is the North's economic and political benefactor while maintaining robust commercial ties with the South, called for calm.
...

Tensions between the two Koreas have remained high since the sinking in March of a South Korean warship in which 46 sailors died. Seoul blamed a North Korean torpedo, while Pyongyang has denied any responsibility.

The reporter continues in his presentation of the foreground and background of the tense situation in which l+vs have been lost.

PoliticsUSA: Civil R+ts: Religious r+ts of institutions other than secularist organizations, agencies, institions

An important heads-up arrived in m+ email today and sent me to the Faith and Organizations webs+te, which I had never encountered before.   A memorandum from the Faith and Organizations Project summarizes the wide range of differences among faith-based organizations (FBOs) that work with government, and somet+mz receive funds that woud be uncontested were said FBOs pronouncedly faithless and secularistic.

Policy Statement

Thinking about Partnerships among Faith Communities, Faith-Based Organizations and Government in a New Way: Observations from the Faith and Organizations Project

Religious communities and faith-based organizations play vital roles in the United States in education, health care, senior services, community development, and the provision of a wide range of social services. This prominent role long preceded the 1996 welfare reform law and the federal faith-based initiatives that have brought special attention to government partnerships with religious service organizations. Today, many faith-based organizations (FBOs) -- from nationally prominent groups like the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, and Jewish Vocational Services to lesser known grassroots organizations -- play vital roles in the social safety net. They are not all alike but vary in key ways between different religions in how the religious aspect shapes their identity and operations -- whether there are specific religious practices or less obvious religion-shaped decision-making styles or even a commitment to avoiding an overt religious identity. And, depending on the religion, they may have extensive ties to one or more congregations, be embedded in an extensive local religious infrastructure, or sit at the center of a network of individuals and congregations specifically recruited to be the support base.

Given such actual complexity and variability, private funders, governments, and other social actors seeking to effectively engage with and support faith-based organizations should actively seek to go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. However, constitutional requirements and operational realities may limit how adaptable government policy, in particular, can be.

Read the whole  Policy Statement - (4 pages, 60 KB)

The latest and back editions of Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance's eNews for Faith-Based Organizations can be reached with a click-up.  The latest edition (Nov16,2k10) carries an up-to-the-moment article "Congressional Hearings on Obama Faith-Based Initiative" issues an alert regarding Nov 18's meeting of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil R+ts and Civil Liberties of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary.  The hearing begins at 10:30 am EST.  Live video shoud be available at the committee's  work in these sessions of hearings.

-- Politicarp

Audvid: New documentary: WASTE LAND opens soon

WASTE LAND Official Trailer from Almega Projects on Vimeo.
Hat Tip: Igor Miguel

A way of  life,  an aesthetics, an alternative culture ...
The Waste Land of San Gramacho, Brazil
Thanks to Igor Miguel


-- posted with hopes of more text later, Owlb

EconomicsUSA: Construction: Indicators: volume of contracts and number of uneployed are pr+m indicators

It's one of my working rules of economic analysis of the nooz that the construction industry is a pr+m indicator of the overall economy's health (I'm thinking USA and Canada, but the rool seems to be the same also in UK).  Jim Puzzanghera, reporting for Los Angeles T+mz, gives us this boildown:

Government data released Thursday showed that economic output dropped 2.2% last year in California, one of 38 states that saw declines in its output as the nation's real gross domestic product fell 2.1%.

The drop in GDP nationwide was caused by downturns in construction and the manufacture of durable goods, according to a report by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. Real GDP by state, which generally tracks the nation's GDP, increased 0.1% in 2008. [Updated at 11:25 a.m.:An earlier version of this post incorrectly said that 2008's increase was 0.9%.]

Click the t+stamp to Read mpre ... 

EconomicsNorthAmerica: Food Commodities: Feeding the world, supporting family farms in USA, Canada

I'm very much in favour of the movement to ensure marginal farmers in need-to-develop-economically countries, ensure they get a fair pr+c for their food commodities (often just one from any given farm or marginal farming area, as in the showcase case of coffee).  This movement is spearheaded by FairFood, an organization partnering with the Interchurch organization for development cooperation (known by its Dutch acronym ICCO).  Which in turn is a member of ActAlliance (ACT = Action by Churches Together) which has just set up its first office, its international headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.  FoodFair:

Food Focus:  Wheat Woes



Fairfood’s latest sector report draws attention to the woes plaguing the world's wheat production sector. Amongst the many problems facing this sector, the most prominent ones concern environmental issues and agricultural subsidies handed out by the European and American governments. You could read more about this and other fairness issues in the food and beverage sector on our website.


Click on the t+mstamp below to Read more ....

Myanmar: Release of Daw Aung San: Investors prepare to move into Burma

Investors prepare to move into Burma

Albuquerque News.Net
Monday 15th November, 2010

The release of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has caused a flurry of interest in the country from world businesses. 


["Daw" is her Burmese title as an elderly honoured woman.]


Investors have been speculating that her release might lead to the lifting of the sanctions affecting this resource-rich state. 

Ms Aung San has already spoken to her lawyers about getting her party, the National League for Democracy, declared legal again. 

She has also met officials of her National League for Democracy party who have been keeping her political network alive during her years of incarceration. 

Western multinationals [corporations] have up to now been unable to break sanctions put in place by the United States, Australia and the European Union. 

Investors are sizing up the vast potential of the country of 50 million people in need of mining, gas, agribusiness, tourism, financial services and telecommunications expertise.

The foregoing report was picked up and reported by the webs+t  Business and Human R+ts Resource Centre (BHRR) which is devoted to "tracking the positive and negative impacts of over 5100 companies worldw+d.  It's a large and well-organized s+t (English, Spanish, French).  But f+nding up-to-date material can be daunting.  


-- EconoMix

SudanEnviro: South Sudan: Oil fields pour polutants into 'world's largest' swamp, unm+ndful of human and creaturely loss

Ecumenical News International (WCC) carries the following alert in regard to South of Sudan's oil exploitation companies:

German rights group pleads for 'world's largest' swamp

Nairobi (Nov16,2k10). A German church-backed human rights organization is pleading for action to save the Sudd, one of the world largest swamplands, located in southern Sudan, which the group says is threatened by oil extraction activities. Klaus Stieglitz, the vice chairperson of Sign of Hope, which is backed by Roman Catholic Church organizations, said his group had seen evidence of remarkable pollution by companies drilling for and extracting oil. Stieglitz asserts this has put the lives of thousands of people at risk. "The oil companies responsible are about to destroy the Sudd, the world's largest swampland, by discharging their waste practically untreated," Stieglitz told a press conference in Nairobi on 16 November, after a six-day visit by a Sign of Hope team to the Unity, Al Nar and Toma South oilfields in southern Sudan. "We strongly condemn these practices -- and urge the companies to change their environmental behaviour," Stieglitz said. [371 words, ENI-!10-0757]

Given the history of the World Council of Churches, it's difficult to trust its pure-brand social activism.  It spent decades stroking the Soviet puppet-churches and suppressing the cawz of the underground churches, for instance, in Lithuania, the land of m+ ancestors.  The USA govt also was qu+t cowardly in this regard.  The WCC supported Marxist violent revolutions in Africa, revolutions and govt's in part installed by them, which have since bitten the dust.  Given the ultra-r+twing proclivities of the other s+d in some of these disputed endorsements and fundraising, one has to ask whether the WCC considers itself omincompentent, l+k God Himself/Herself or the Roman Catholic Church, or whether the WCC has never heard of strategic neutrality when all the viable options are deeply immoral, unr+teous, lousy.

A similar swampland in Iraq was ecologically wrecked by Saddam Hussein in order to destroy the l+vlihood and way of l+f for dwellers there who opposed his régime.  Did WCC or Signs of Hope speak up on the behalf of these marsh people, or is it intervening now becawz of some partiality against the South of the Sudan (which will shortly vote for independence in a referendum) and its chief future  source of funds, the oil producers the Khartoum régime in the North introduced into the this area of the South?  We'd l+k to hear more how Signs of Hope understands partiality to the North and to cutting revenue from oil earned by the South, especially in the coming noo era there?  We need full disclosure from both the oil producers and Signs of of Hope, since Roman Catholicism and WCC are accepting their reports without the sl+test s+n of critical exploration of its claims.

The foregoing report was picked up and reported by the webs+t  Business and Human R+ts Resource Centre (BHRR) which is devoted to "tracking the positive and negative impacts of over 5100 companies worldw+d.  It's a large and well-organized s+t (English, Spanish, French).  But f+nding up-to-date material can be daunting.  Pursuing concerns raised in the immediately preceding blog-entry by refWrite's Politicarp re Sudan South and the leading complainant about oil producers that pollute the Sudd (a huge swampland that is inhabited, as already mentioned, by an adapted people who live and work for their l+vlihood there), I tried to trace Klaus Stieglitz's activities and involvements, and found a few dated references to him at the BHRR s+t, only old stuff.  


On the webs+t AfricaNews.com, I did find a lengthier version of the report made by ENI/WCC.  It's by Alex Clarle, a free lance journalist working in Kenya "NGO raps oil companies over pollution".  His report gives me a different impression than does the ENI report.  He emphas+zes particularly "a six week research carried out in Southern Sudan's Thar Unity, Al Nar and Toma South wells, which are operated by the giant Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC)."  But these wells+te towns coud not account for the "550,00 humans who are living in Unity state at risk."  The state of Sudan South is not a well-town, and oil production is not a labour intensive activity.  So, we do not get the correlations we need to make a judgment regarding the veracity of Stieglitz's report, or even that of 'Channy' (the nickname of Alex Clarle).  And the 550,000 souls:  are they all in Unity state, but not at the Thar Unity well/s?  Are the total population of the Sudd (Sudan South's swamplands)?  ENI does not give us this detail, or any comparable figure either.  


In any case, we support the effort to hold GNPCC accountable, in regard to the people's drinking water which the international corporation seems to have poisoned, and other infractions of which they seem most capable.  Channy concludes his more detailed report:  "Klaus concluded by saying that his organisation [Sign of Hope] will continue highlighting the issue of ground water pollution by the oil companies operating in Southern Sudan until they change their ways, since most of them, particularly GNPOC is an international company that has taken advantage of the lax regulations in the Sudan to put its dollars ahead of the lives of local people.


To get behind Sign of Hope's information campaign we need more facts, and they shoud correlate in regard to the items we mentioned -- to establish verisimilitude and internal logical coherence in the reports we pass along to our readers.  

-- Politicarp

PoliticsUSA: Civil R+ts: Religious r+ts of institutions other than secularist organizations, agencies, institions

An important heads-up arrived in m+ email today and sent me to the Faith and Organizations webs+te, which I had never encountered before.   A memorandum from the Faith and Organizations Project summarizes the wide range of differences among faith-based organizations (FBOs) that work with government, and somet+mz receive funds that woud be uncontested were said FBOs pronouncedly faithless and secularistic.

Policy Statement

Thinking about Partnerships among Faith Communities, Faith-Based Organizations and Government in a New Way: Observations from the Faith and Organizations Project

Religious communities and faith-based organizations play vital roles in the United States in education, health care, senior services, community development, and the provision of a wide range of social services. This prominent role long preceded the 1996 welfare reform law and the federal faith-based initiatives that have brought special attention to government partnerships with religious service organizations. Today, many faith-based organizations (FBOs) -- from nationally prominent groups like the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, and Jewish Vocational Services to lesser known grassroots organizations -- play vital roles in the social safety net. They are not all alike but vary in key ways between different religions in how the religious aspect shapes their identity and operations -- whether there are specific religious practices or less obvious religion-shaped decision-making styles or even a commitment to avoiding an overt religious identity. And, depending on the religion, they may have extensive ties to one or more congregations, be embedded in an extensive local religious infrastructure, or sit at the center of a network of individuals and congregations specifically recruited to be the support base.

Given such actual complexity and variability, private funders, governments, and other social actors seeking to effectively engage with and support faith-based organizations should actively seek to go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. However, constitutional requirements and operational realities may limit how adaptable government policy, in particular, can be.

Read the whole  Policy Statement - (4 pages, 60 KB) 

The latest and back editions of Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance's eNews for Faith-Based Organizations can be reached with a click-up.  The latest edition (Nov16,2k10) carries an up-to-the-moment article "Congressional Hearings on Obama Faith-Based Initiative" in which is issued an alert regarding Nov 18's meeting of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil R+ts and Civil Liberties of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary.  The Nov 18 hearing begins at 10:30 am EST.  Live video shoud be available at the committee's webs+t.                  

-- Politicarp

PakistanFloods: Christian Relief: Anomalies of compassion in a world torn by religion and terrorism

I was struck to the heart when I happened upon Kristen deRoo VanderBerg's article below regarding international Christian diaconal work in Pakistan, a Moslem country where Christians are often persecuted.  VandenBerg is Communications officer for Christian Reformed World Relief Commission, a denominationally-mandated active arm of compassion in many Third World countries.  

In Pakistan,  CRWRC is a lead respondent to the terrible massive floods that have devastated parts of the country.  It's been all too sadly interesting to me that rich Pakistanis of the wealthy landlord variety (with tenant farmers totally dependent on their landholding masters) apparently do nothing to mobilize their resources to be of assistance to their poor and displaced.  

On the one hand, there are the Taliban-type terrorists and their sympathizers, on the other hand there are the wealthy who finance the mainstream political parties.  The broad generality of the  people are cawt between these rending forces.  That my favourite Christian relief org can function in such a milieu and get the aid to the people in the maelstrom is another miracle, altho I can't think of the NT text that m+t best function analogously to that of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes by our Lord Jesus.  Yes, He's done it again!

Pakistan: A Modern Miracle of Multiplication

CRWRC Newsroom | November 9, 2010

CRWRC's volunteer International Relief Manager Jacob Kramer was in Pakistan in October to assist with the response.

CRWRC has seen miracles at work as it took on the challenge of respond-ing to floods in Paki-stan.  Perhaps the greatest of these miracles has been the multiplication of funds.

CRWRC originally put forward $105,000 of its existing funds for its Pakistan flood response.  With this initial contribution, CRWRC worked through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) - a partnership of Canadian churches and church-based agencies working to end hunger - and was able to deliver $2,515,000 in food assistance to the devastated Nowshera and Charsadda districts of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and to the Rahim Yar Khan district of Southern Punjab.  This was carried out in collaboration with CRWRC’s Christian partner organization in Pakistan, the Interfaith League Against Poverty (ILAP). 

["Interfaith" in Pakistan means Muslims and Christians are cooperating. Now that's good news!]


-- Politicarp


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EconomyGlobal: Fair Trade: Noo 8 minute movie explains how to normativize your coffee drinking

Says Mobius Live, the film & animation producer:  "Fair Trade is about helping small family farmers in developing countries get organized and develop their business skills in order to tap into the world market directly."


Video:  eq.tv


yUT2ube for refWr+t's collection of audvids.  Sorry, but the YouTube clickup below will put the channel page of an interloper from Poland on AG's proprietary YouTube page.  I'm waiting for YouTube to repair this annoying  _astardy.

-- EconoMix

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EconomicsUSA: Dodd-Frank Law: Prof Bainbridge on Edward Kane's call for regulating the regulators of the economy

ProfessorBainbridge.com blog has a long quote that I'm requoting from Edward Kane.  Stepen Bainbridge himself gets in on the topic, and sets out his gu+dl+inz on the matter:



Regulating Regulators: 
The Missing Element in Dodd-Frank

I really liked this post by Edward Kane on the flaw in Dodd-Frank:

The Act purports to reduce systemic risk by expanding and reallocating regulatory authority. But officials’ way of thinking about systemic risk neglects the pivotal role that political pressure and their own incentive structure play in generating it. During the pre-crisis housing bubble, regulatory and supervisory entities misdiagnosed and mishandled the buildup of systemic risk in part to transfer subsidies to financial institutions, homeowners, and builders. When the bubble burst, regulators billed taxpayers for financial-institution losses without weighing rescue costs against those of alternative programs and without documenting how their program would distribute benefits and costs across the populace. Along with the policy of near-zero interest rates (which also help to recapitalize insolvent institutions), the rescue policies chosen inflicted substantial losses on depositors, on future taxpayers, on pension plans, and on persons living on interest income. ...

The Act’s treatment plan presumes that the current crisis was caused by “defective” risk management at private institutions. This narrow theory of blame is inadequate in four ways. First, it excuses safety-net officials for caving to political pressure to expand the safety net during the bubble and subsequent crisis. Second, without addressing ongoing weaknesses in their incentive structures, it calls upon government agencies that failed society during the buildup (such as the SEC) to devise and enforce rules tough enough to prevent their clienteles from engendering future crisis. Third, by accepting this assignment without protest, agency leaders have set their staffs up to be scapegoated for future crisis. Fourth, the theory accepts the unlikely hypothesis that the interest-rate and default risk inherent in long-term nonrecourse mortgage instruments can be fairly and efficiently financed for years on end by short-term debt protected by the safety-net guarantees.

The idea that you can't understand the financial crisis and that you can't fix it without regulating the regulators themselves strikes me as absolutely right.

I don't think I agree with his solution to the problem, however:

... the US and other countries would be well advised to make regulatory careers more prestigious by establishing the equivalent of a publicly funded academy (i.e., a nonmilitary West Point) for financial regulators and welcome cadets from anywhere in the world.

I'm not sure a system of mandarins would be all that much of an improvement. Indeed, the French system of Écoles normales supérieures, which produces most French governmental and regulatory elites, has come under increasing criticism both for lacking true meritocracy and for producing like-minded graduates lacking true creativity.

Indeed, I am reminded of something Walter Bagehot wrote:

A bureaucracy is sure to think that its duty is to augment official power, official business, or official members, rather than to leave free the energies of mankind; it overdoes the quantity of government, as well as impairs its quality.   

Or, I would add, the art of government.

Imposing some form of market discipline on regulators strikes me as a far preferable solution.

-- EconoMix

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EconomicsUSA: SEC Investigation: Ins+der trading rings on Wall Street

I was pleasantly surpr+zd that Securities Law Prof blog carried an item "SEC charges additional defendants in Ins+der trading rings" (Nov13,2k10).  It's the term "rings" that the Securities Exchange Commission is said to have uncovered, and ind+ted!  It seems that someone at Moody's tipped off Thomas Hardin ....

In a complaint related to SEC v. Galleon, the SEC today charged Thomas Hardin, a former managing director at a New York-based hedge fund investment adviser, Lanexa Management LLC, for insider trading in connection with two corporate takeovers and a quarterly earnings announcement. The illicit profits at Lanexa resulting from Hardin's conduct alleged in this filing exceed $950,000. 

It's comforting, shall I say, to note that the SEC is diligently pursuing its task. It's pro-actively investigating with a fine-toothed comb the inner machinations of the Machiavell's on Wall Street.  Definitely, the hedge funds and the coprorate powers-that-be need to be regulated "with a rod of iron," since they cast the world into a desperate crisis.  Harry Reid says he defeated the trend to a world depression.  I don't know about that, but a least there's strong enuff regulation now to round-up the perpetrators at Lanexa and Schottenfeld Group LC.  Hardin also used ins+der info regarding the 3Com acquisition, implicating attorneys Svi Goffer and Gautham Shankar thru their work at law firm Ropes & Gray LLP.

This item gives readers a glimpse at how these wh+t-collar criminal rings function, passing out profitable info in exchange for kickbacks when a killing is made of ill-gotten gains.

-- EconoMix with Lawt

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PoliticsMyanmar: Opposition: The Burmese leader of the opposition Aung San Suu Kyi released

Associated Press via Washington Post (Nov 13,2k10) carries pr+m nooz from Burma, as the country was called before the junta tried to rename it Myanmar. The great human r+ts leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been released.

Burma democracy leader 

Aung San Suu Kyi released

YANGON, Myanmar -- Pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi walked free Saturday after more than seven years under house arrest, welcomed by thousands of cheering supporters outside the decaying lakefront villa that has been her prison.

Aung is another of the world's great non-violent opposition leaders working for major structural change of the polity of her soc+ety.   The Myanmar junta released her becawz internationally the country was sanctioned by an extremely bad reputation, a fate bitterly annoying to the handful of generals with real power in Burma.

Aung is correctly caled the pro-democracy leader.  "If we work in unity, we will achieve our goal."

-- Politicarp

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Haiti: Cholera & Flood: Developments from the threatening hurricane Tomas to the post-flood situation

The BBC's Caribbean coverage has produced some of the best understanding by readers of Haiti's continued sufferings, and the problems posed to govt and nongovt policy.

11 November 2010 Last updated at 17:34 ET

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Haiti cholera death toll

rises sharply

Cholera has now spread to six of 10 regions in Haiti

Continue reading the main story

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Cholera is spreading quickly in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, as the death toll rises across the quake-hit country.

More than 80 people have died in the last 24 hours across the country, according to the health ministry, taking the death toll to 724.

Three people have already died of the disease in Port-au-Prince, after it was confirmed in the city early this week.













Officials say six out of 10 regions are now reporting infections.

More than 11,000 people have been infected in total since the outbreak began in October. There have been about 1,000 new cases recorded each day this week, with the death toll rising steeply as the days pass.

Aid agencies are battling to contain it in Port-au-Prince, amid fears that it will spread through tented camps which house 1.1m earthquake survivors.

"We greatly fear a flare-up in the capital which would be serious given the conditions in the camps," Claude Surena, president of the Haitian Medical Association, told AFP. ,,,

Cholera causes diarrhoea and vomiting, leading to severe dehydration. It can kill quickly but is treated easily through rehydration and antibiotics.Before the Hurricane Tomas hit the Island, cholera had already surfaced  in some remote locations.  The prevailing problem was that of getting better housing for the more than 1 million people in tent camps.  Before the hit by Tomas, unused ideas put forward by SOS were translated under their sponsorship (orders to the manufacturer) into prefab plastic small-house-style.  Each houselet had a large surrounding pad set directly on the ground; this woud keep the house up out of the mud that woud come with the then-approacing rainy system, with its hurricanes.  But before SOS coud place more than a couple hundred houses at most, the rain and the rainstorms descended. I'm wondering how that housing endeavour is getting along now,  After the flood.

Here's an umbrella organization for cooperating aid and relief agencies functioning in Haiti after the storm.

-- Politicarp

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Media: Journaletics & Journos: Maddow interprets Olbermann's f+ring by MSNBC

Huffington Post, "Maddow: Keith Olbermann proves difference between MSNBC and Fox News" (Nov11,2k10) Rachel Maddow

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow closed her program Friday night with a segment about the suspension of her "colleague and friend Keith Olbermann," arguing that the suspension underscores the difference between MSNBC and Fox News.

Maddow ran down a list of Fox News hosts' and contributors' political donations and fundraising activities, ranging from Sean Hannity's political donations to Glenn Beck's on-air fundraising to Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin's political careers.

Maddow argued that MSNBC's suspension of Olbermann in light of his political donations (without prior network approval) showed that it is a real news organization, as opposed to Fox News, which allows its hosts to engage in political activity without consequence.

"Let this incident lay to rest forever the facile, never-true-anyway, bull-pucky, lazy conflation of Fox News and what the rest of us do for a living," she said. "I know everybody likes to say, 'Oh, that's cable news, it's all the same. Fox and MSNBC, mirror images of each other.' Let this lay that to rest forever. Hosts on Fox News raise money for Republican candidates. They endorse them explicitly, they use their Fox News profile to headline fundraisers. Heck, there are multiple people being paid by Fox News now to essentially run for office as Republican candidates....They can do that because there's no rule against that at Fox. They run as a political operation; we're not."

Maddow continued by saying, though she and Olbermann are avowed liberals and others at MSNBC make their political beliefs known, MSNBC is "not a political operation," while Fox News is.

"We are a news operation and the rules around here are part of how you know that," she said.

Maddow also praised Olbermann, saying he took on the Bush administration "before it was politically safe to do it," and that he was "the one who brought to light Fox News' water-carrying-role for the Bush administration."

"Now, weirdly, it is Keith who is illustrating the difference between what he does on TV, what we do here at MSNBC, and what goes on across the street" at Fox News.

Maddow did acknowledge that Olbermann broke an NBC News rule, adding, "I understand this rule, I understand what it means to break this rule. I believe everybody should face the same treatment under this rule."

But she called on her MSNBC bosses to end the suspension, saying that the point had been made.

"I also personally believe that the point has been made and we should have Keith back hosting 'Countdown,'" she said.

Maddow also referenced "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough's political donation to a Republican friend in 2006, though she did not reference Scarborough by name.

"You can [donate] if you ask in advance and management tells you OK. That's what I understand happened with our morning show host's political donations in 2006, under previous management," she said.


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EconomyUSA: Shortage: Skilled manual trades -- electricians, carpenters/joiners and welders

America's Most Wanted: Skilled Workers 

Gerald Shankel, President and CEO, Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International, writes about the key unmet need of the American manutfacturing sector today.

Consider a manufacturing career amid media reports of shuttered factories, job losses and the worst economy since the Depression? Although certainly counter-intuitive, the answer to that question is a resounding yes! Despite the shaky economy, scores of American manufacturers are reporting a dire need for skilled labor. 

Industry surveys reinforce this claim. According to the 2009 Manpower Talent Shortage Survey, among the most difficult jobs to fill in North America are those of the skilled manual trades, with electricians, carpenters/joiners and welders as the most in-demand employees.

A new interest has stirred up some movement toward these vocations, perhaps becawz many young adults are turning from careers planned tertiary h+er education (college and university) to more bodily-expressive labour, while at the same t+m engaging the brain of these skilled trades people, men and women.

-- EconoMix


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PoliticsCanada: Crown Office: The Prime Minister has appointed a new Governer General, David Johnston

Yes, it's been some months since the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, announced the appointment of a new Governor General, representing her Dominion of Canada's Queen, Elizabeth II.  Here Governor General Johnston reviews the trooops, all festooned with poppies in remembrance of the fallen of the World Wars. And subsequent armed struggles -- up to the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan wars today.  Canadians have veterans of all these conflicts, where some gave their last great all in sacrifice of their lives to the struggle for freedom thru-out the world.

-- Politicarp

Journaletics and Journos: Keith Olbermann: F+ring a matter of payola

Here's an ensemble of nooz items I found on the Net over the peak-week of this story:

NBC suspends Keith Olbermann indefinitely for contributing to Democratic campaigns

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann suspended for contributing to 3 Democratic candidates">MNSBC's Keith Olbermann suspended for contributing to 3 Democratic candidates

Keith Olbermann suspended by MSNBC:  Flashback to July Feud with Tucler Carlson

Keith Olbermann suspension criticized by reporters, conservative pudits

Olbermann doesn't answer to 'NBC standards

Biden asked Olbermann for anger advice: NYT

200,000 sign petiton for Olbermann

Keith, how we knew ye

Time to stop hiding

This last item raises some of the moral issues in the Olbermann case.  However, the formulation of the moral problem here is decidedly rather non-analytic as to what goes on in some venues when hosts/journos donate to persons or cawzes that benefit the journo directly and remuneratively in the long run.  This is rather different from the way FoxNooz hosts operate.  They try consistently to be "fair and balanced" in regard to the interviewees they inv+t to their studios and their cameras.  Then, when they give to their favourite cawzes, their personal contributions are made a matter of public record.  And there's not much room for the purchase of interviewees holding public office.

But liberal (yes, liberal) news organizations -- MSNBC and NPR, not to mention the New York Times and others -- have gotten this all bolloxed up lately, continuing to separate their journalists and commentators -- Juan Williams and now everyone at NPR else out of fear -- from their communities. They all refused to let their journalists attend the Rally to Restore Sanity, which turned out not to be a political event at all but a repudiation of media -- including most of Fox News plus Olbermann himself... a lesson all their journalists should have heard.

They do this because they want to stand above Fox News as objective. What they do instead is stand apart from their communities as -- what? -- sterile, gutless, distant. Fox News comes off as caring to its audience ("Fox News speaks for us," say the tea drinkers. "Fox News understands"). MSNBC comes off as... what? Don't we liberals deserve our Fox News, but with intelligence, sanity, openness? That was its promise. But like NPR, it is now a place where opinions and action are verboten.

M+ theory is that MSNBC realized that Keith Olbermann's political donations of money to the Democrats was actuarally a poyal program to grease the supply from Dems of prominents on KO's TV show, on a minute's notice when needed.