Earth Day in Canada and Kyoto Protocol

Canada Must Implement the Kyoto Protocol!
Humanize the Natural and Social Environment!

Web cast, The Democracy in Mexico, from Yale University, May 1st

WEB CAST desde la Universidad de Yale

"El estado de la democracia en México,

obstáculos para su consolidación"

http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/mexicosdemocracy/

Martes 1ero de Mayo (hora del Centro, Mx)

12:00 Mediodía:
"Certezas, dudas y lecciones de la eleccion"

John Ackerman, Sergio Aguayo, Jesús Orozco, Gustavo Vega. Moderadora
Susan Stokes.

2:00 PM
"Primer mes de Calderón y el futuro de la oposición"

Denisse Dresser, Hector Fix Fierro, Lorenzo Meyer, Irma Sandoval, Leo
Zuckermann. Moderadora Paulina Ochoa Espejo

4:00 PM
"El estado de la democracia en México"
Manuel Camacho Solís, John Coatsworth, Esteban Moctezuma, Demetrio
Sodi. Moderador Ian Shapiro.

More foreign workers hired for bridge project in BC!

Foreign workers hired for bridge project

Jennifer Moreau / read the Maple Ridge Times
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

MAPLE RIDGE - The company in charge of hiring for the Golden Ears bridge project has brought in 33 foreign workers despite criticism from the B.C. Federation of Labour that doing so is exploiting cheap labour.

TransLink owns the bridge but entered a public-private partnership with Bilfinger Berger BOT Inc., a subsidiary of a German-based construction firm.

"We have hired in total 33 foreign workers by the end of March," said Patti Schom-Moffatt, a representative for the project, adding there are 105 local employees not including those hired by subcontractors.

Schom-Moffatt said the foreign workers comprise 15 carpenters, 10 general highly skilled steelworkers and eight concrete finishers. She can't say where they are from, only that they are covered by a union contract and paid the same as local workers.

Schom-Moffatt said the move to bring in foreign labour was about skills, not money. The Golden Ears bridge is cable-stayed, requiring specially skilled workers, she said.

"It's an unusual structure. We have local people with general skills but not specific for cable bridges."

Building boom lures migrants
2,724 come from rest of Canada in last quarter of 2006

Frank Luba / Read The Province

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

B.C.'s construction boom is being credited for drawing an influx of migrants from other provinces for the first time in a decade.

According to B.C. Stats, an agency of the provincial government, the province received 2,724 more immigrants from other provinces than left the province in the last quarter of 2006.

Alberta attracted 11,813 from other provinces, while Sask-atchewan got 1,086.

Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen believes the reason for the inflow of people is the booming provincial econ- omy.

"It comes down to where the jobs are," Hansen said yesterday.

"It's the first time since the mid-1990s we've seen the inter-provincial migration significantly in B.C.'s favour," he said.

"In the last half of the 1990s we saw a significant out-migration, particularly of younger workers looking for jobs in other parts of Canada. Now it's the complete reverse." Hansen doesn't see the trend reversing any time soon.

More information for migrant nurses!

Government initiatives to increase number of nurses in B.C. should involve immigrant communities

Vancouver, B.C. – With last week’s announcement by the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Canada to invest $2.9 million from the federal government and British Columbia (B.C.) contributing $1.2 million to increase the number of nurses in the province, Filipino nurses in B.C. are critical of government-funded programs that have not benefited the community work they serve at a grassroots level.

“Systemically racist barriers and exclusionary policies within Canadian immigration and nursing regulatory bodies leave little option for Filipino nurses but to choose survival jobs that Canadians do not want to do,” stated Leah Diana of the Filipino Nurses Support Group.

The Filipino community is now the fourth largest visible minority group in Canada and third largest in B.C., and has for decades, faced obstacles in returning to practice their profession.

For nearly two decades, highly educated and skilled Philippine-trained nurses have been actively recruited through Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) to do the housekeeping, childrearing, and around-the-clock elderly care for families who can afford private live-in work.

“The LCP’s live-in requirement leaves nurses turned live-in caregivers vulnerable to poverty and terrible working conditions,” said Diana. Many earn as little as $2 per hour for 24 hours of work. The temporary immigrant status leaves them vulnerable to deportation because of oftentimes insurmountable, restrictions of the LCP.

Combined with immigration barriers, regulatory bodies’ policies add another element of further exclusion. A further requirement is Canadian nursing experience prior to obtaining nursing licensure, which makes nursing accreditation harder to reach for many Philippine-trained nurses.

“Regulatory bodies justify their restrictive policies as protection of ‘public safety’, but the worsening of the nursing shortage creates a primary threat to the health and safety of the public,” continued Diana.

Since 1995, the Filipino Nurses Support Group, a community-based organization of over 700 nurses from the Philippines in B.C. has effectively advocated for and helped bridge Philippine trained nurses, particularly those under the LCP, to B.C.’s nursing profession devoid of any concrete help from the provincial government.

Adquiere Cemex similar empresa en Australia!

CEMEX - La gigante cementera mexicana acordó la adquisición de su similar australiana Rinker en US$15.300 millones.

La gigante cementera adquirió el paquete accionario de su similar australiana Rinker en US$15.300 millones, convirtiéndose en la mayor compra hecha por una empresa mexicana.

Con el acuerdo, Cemex será la mayor compañía cementera del mundo, dará empleo a cerca de 70.000 personas y conseguirá utilidades de US$23.000 millones anuales.

La empresa mexicana obtendrá el 90% de las acciones de Rinker, y recibió la autorización de compra por parte de las autoridades reguladoras de Estados Unidos y Australia.

El 85% de los ingresos de Rinker se concentran en EE.UU., y el resto de sus operaciones se sitúan en Australia y China.

Information for people who want to immigrate to Canada!

Indo-Canadians battle to win skilled jobs
Dr. Gian Singh Sangha has not been able to get a job in his field

Kim Bolan / Read this article at the Vancouver Sun

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

IMMIGRANT WORKERS CLAIM DISCRIMINATION: Dr. Gian Singh Sangha, an India-born scientist, was denied a job in the Northwest Territories after he was deemed to be overqualified. He won a human rights commission decision a year ago, but was not offered a job or compensation.

Scientists, doctors and other highly skilled immigrants are driving taxis and working security jobs because of discrimination against foreign-trained professionals, say Indo-Canadian community leaders.

And they want all levels of government to work to end discrimination against foreign credentials so that Canada can benefit from immigrants with advanced education.

Jarnail Singh Bhandal, of the Khalsa Diwan Society, joined more than a dozen leaders at Vancouver's Ross Street temple Tuesday to voice support for Dr. Gian Singh Sangha, an India-born scientist who was denied a job in the Northwest Territories after he was deemed to be over-qualified.

Sangha won a human rights commission decision a year ago saying he was discriminated against, but was not offered a job or compensation.

He is now taking his case to the Federal Court of Canada next week to seek a remedy in an action supported by Bhandal's society, as well as the Akali Singh and Guru Nanak Sikh temples.

"We realize that the talent of the people coming here are underutilized," Bhandal said. "Whoever comes here, their credentials should be recognized and there should not be any discrimination."

Sangha, who has not been able to get a job in his field, said many have been affected in a similar way in trying to gain employment in Canada.

"It does not make any sense that a PhD or an engineer or a medical doctor should drive a taxi or do a security job for $10 or $12," Sangha said.

His lawyer David Perry said Canada is operating under "false pretences," bringing in immigrants because of their qualifications and then making it hard for them to find work.

"We are desperately short of skilled labour. We are scouring the world looking for skilled labour. When they come we won't hire them."

Sangha, 58, is asking the federal court to award him back pay or employment in his field after he was turned down in 2001 for a job with the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board despite being top-rated for the position.

Indo-Canadians are not the only people affected by the problem, said Vancouver City Coun. George Chow, a professional engineer and an immigrant himself.

"I think our government has opened the doors to these qualified professionals to come to the country so to deny them the opportunity for employment, it is just not acceptable," Chow said.

"What about all the immigrant professionals who are driving trucks, taxis or being cooks or waiters in restaurants?"

There are several issues professional immigrants face -- some, like Sangha, say they are denied jobs because they are overqualified.

Others find their credentials are not accepted in Canada and therefore also lose work in their chosen careers.

Harkirat Singh, who holds several university degrees from Punjab said he has also lost good jobs because he was deemed overqualified.

"I am also a victim of this discrimination. Although we love Canada, still we have some problems in this country," Singh said.

"I have also applied for so many jobs and because I have too many university degrees from India, I have also suffered from this kind of racism."

What do you think about the TILMA?

Agreement good for British Columbians, insists minister

by Collen Dane

Mar 30, 2007

It’s an agreement that will make a real difference in the lives of ordinary British Columbians, Minister of Economic Development Colin Hansen said this week.

In an interview with the Record, Hansen explained some examples of the benefits of Canada’s most comprehensive internal trade agreement — TILMA, which comes into effect Sunday.

“I think regular, ordinary people will find labour mobility easier,” said Hansen.

Where there are times that some are struggling to find employment in one place, the TILMA will ensure that their skills are recognized in the neighbouring province. There were 62 professions, said Hansen, that stood out as a challenge for people if they wanted to move between provinces.

For people not looking to move, Hansen suggested that their tax increases could be minimized as a result of TILMA — if governments have more choice in the provision of services, that will likely create a downward pressure on price, he said.

Those are a few examples, he said, of the benefits of an agreement that he insists is a good thing. The issue of inefficiencies in Canada’s internal trade agreement, he said, has been debated for a long time — the TILMA, said Hansen, is B.C. and Alberta deciding to address the problem themselves.

While the agreement was a sleeper in the public eye, Hansen said the two-year implementation period until April 1, 2009, when local governments will be included, will focus on ironing out details and continuing consultation.

They will address what he called wrong assumptions about the agreement. For example, local governments would not be punished for turning down a development proposal by an Alberta company — unless it was done simply because it was based in the other province.

They would not be fined for not allowing billboards by an Alberta firm, unless it was simply because it was Albertan, he said.

In a letter to the Union of B.C. Municipalities, he writes “TILMA is not intended to constrain local governments’ ability to establish or maintain bona fide, non-discriminatory measures such as zoning bylaws, height restrictions or rules applying to signage. Working with your full participation at the negotiators table, it is our intention to ensure the interests of local governments, their residents and the business communities.”

For more information on the TILMA, visit www.gov.bc.ca/ecdev.

Asociacion de Migrantes Chilangos!

ESTIMADOS CHILANGELINOS: Con el propósito de organizar una Asociación de Migrantes Chilangos en la zona de Los Ángeles, se les invita a registrarse en el Proyecto California-México (CMP), que con la sede de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México en Los Ángeles (UNAM-LA) esta colaborando con el Gobierno del Distrito Federal (GDF) para la creación de una Oficina de Atención para el Migrante del D. F. en Los Ángeles, y así poder ofrecerles servicios aquí y a sus familias en la Ciudad de México. Para mayor información favor de llamar al Prof. Armando Vázquez-Ramos, coordinador del Proyecto California-México (CMP) al teléfono 562-972-0986, o mandarle por e-mail su nombre, dirección, teléfonos y dirección de correo electrónico a: avazque4@csulb.edu.

Todos los interesados que se registren por e-mail recibirán su invitación para acudir a la primera reunión de la Asociación de Migrantes Chilangos, que se llevará acabo el sábado 31 de Marzo, coincidiendo con el festejo del “Día de Cesar Chávez”.

Some Mexicans prefer to live in Northvan!

Welcome to Mexico North
Prospect of work, safe streets lure wave of educated, wealthy immigrants

KATHARINE HAMER

Read this article at The Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER -- Luis Batiz is used to dealing with one or two work-permit applications a month from Mexicans wanting to relocate to Canada.

But by the end of March, the immigration lawyer is expecting at least 10 applications to have crossed his desk -- and other lawyers "are doing 20, 50," he said.

"This year, there's going to be a flood of people coming. There's a shortage of skilled workers," he said, adding that small companies that never thought about hiring foreign workers see their business friends doing it and are now also bringing in workers.

Driven by concerns about security in their home country, highly educated and well-to-do Mexicans are making a beeline for the Lower Mainland.

Among them are lawyers, doctors, accountants, architects and mining company bosses. Many have chosen to settle on the North Shore, which is perceived as the most desirable location in Greater Vancouver.

"Most people who come here are people who can afford it," said Mr. Batiz, who moved to Vancouver seven years ago. "They have education, businesses, they can afford to not work for a year when they come here. And they prefer to have a low-paying job here than to be in Mexico City, where they can be kidnapped at any time or be assaulted at any time. People with young families, too, they say, 'You know what? This is not getting better, so we'll go somewhere else for our children.' "

"The Mexicans who are coming to start a life here, yeah, you can see those guys more and more and more," said Miguel Bertello, president of the local Mexican Business Association, "and you can see also companies that are promoting that. In Mexico, they put ads in the newspaper. They say, 'I will arrange for you to come and live here -- as long as you have the money, I will take care of the legal side; I will tell you how to apply.'

"They're doing that and they're really successful. The focus for them is not just the poor guy, but the guy who is actually really wealthy and they're bringing wealthy people here."

That influx will mean a visible addition to Vancouver's Mexican expatriate community -- a community that, right now, you'd have to search pretty hard to find.

"We don't really have a place," said Elsa Gleeson, whose two food stores, La Mexicana, in North Vancouver, and El Comal, in Burnaby, are nonetheless like a home away from home for recent immigrants.

La Mexicana's interior is like a little slice of Mexico City; its burnished orange and blue-tiled walls lined with colour-co-ordinated cans of chipotle, packets of flan and guava soda. Ms. Gleeson is quick to offer a visitor a taste of her cooking: black beans, rice and homemade tortillas, warmed on her kitchen's cast-iron grills.

"I have a Mexican factory [in Burnaby that supplies the two stores], and 99.9 per cent of my customers are Mexican," she said. "All the people that come, they become not only your customer, but your friend. We are very friendly people -- we are very warm and passionate. We like music; we talk a lot. We're very noisy."

That raucousness is apparent at communal celebrations for Mexican Independence Day and for Cinco de Mayo, when the whole community gathers to eat, dance and listen to mariachi music. On Independence Day, "no matter where we are, if we go to Surrey and we are playing in a garage or a warehouse, we'll fill that place," said mariachi band leader Octavio Carillo. "They have to celebrate that evening. Even if they are in the North Pole, they will celebrate."

But in general, "I think that Mexicans, we are funny," Ms. Gleeson observed. "We miss Mexico a lot -- we miss a lot of things about our culture. But when we come here, we try right away to meld with the Canadian population -- we want to be part of the Canadian people, the community."

Mr. Carillo said that when he first moved here with his wife and two young children, "there were only about 500 Mexican families. And now, that number has really increased. In the 17 years that I have been here, that number has gone to the sky. I think it is more than four times [the number]. And there are 3,000 students coming here every six months. So this community comes and goes: One is leaving, one is coming."

He remembers vividly the way Vancouverites won his heart on his first visit in 1989.

"I was walking on the street," he recalled, "and people, without knowing me -- I wasn't wearing my charro [mariachi] costume, of course, because when I wear my costume, everybody goes 'Ahhh!' -- [but] they noticed that I wasn't Canadian immediately, and they said hello to me. And that was so nice, I fell in love with that, and I said, 'This is the city that I want to be in.' "

THE NUMBERS

According to statistics from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Mexico was the No. 1 source country for foreign workers coming to Canada last year. More than 10,000 Mexican workers came here, compared to 8,000 from the second-biggest source country, the United States. More foreign students -- many of them Mexican -- come to British Columbia than to any other province. Mexican immigration to the Vancouver area has been steadily increasing over the past three years. In 2003, 289 Mexicans applied for landed-immigrant status here; by the first quarter of 2006, the number was close to 350.

Immigrants upset over credentials process!

Immigrants upset over credentialing process
The lack of a new agency to assess skills is a broken promise, support groups say

ALEX DOBROTA

Read the full article at The Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper's government has abandoned its promise to create a federal agency to examine and recognize the work credentials of newcomers and will instead set up an office to direct immigrants to provincial bodies that assess their skills.

The reversal, outlined in Monday's federal budget, could hurt the Conservatives in immigrant communities, where the Tories hope to gain support in the next election.

"I am disappointed," said Joshua Thambiraj, president of the Association of International Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which represents more than 5,000 foreign-trained doctors in the province. "We find that there is a kind of dissonance between acknowledging the problem and finding a solution. That dissonance has manifested again."

Mr. Thambiraj, a native of Malaysia, has been trying for five years to get status as a pediatric surgeon in Canada. But while he passed all the exams required in Ontario, his credentials have yet to be recognized, he said.

During the last election campaign, Prime Minister Harper pledged to speed up that process for Mr. Thambiraj and the estimated 350,000 immigrants in similar situations. The Tories said they would create an agency to assess and to recognize credentials at the federal level. They enshrined that promise in the 2006 budget and buttressed it with a $18-million investment over two years.

But Monday's budget said that instead of assessing and recognizing, a new foreign-credential office will "provide immigrants with pathfinding and referral services to identify and connect with the appropriate assessment bodies."

The funding for the initiative for this year also fell from $12-million planned in 2006 to $6-million.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Diane Finley denied the government was breaking any promise, even as he acknowledged that foreign-credential assessment recognition is a provincial responsibility.

"Foreign-credential recognition is a complex system in this country," Mike Fraser said. "Our new office will provide newcomers with a clear path to where to get their credentials assessed."

Opposition critics lambasted the proposal.

"A campaign promise made is not a promise delivered," said Olivia Chow, the New Democratic Party immigration critic.

"They have just decided to create a storefront to pass the buck," echoed her counterpart in the Liberal Party, Omar Alghabra.

The Conference Board of Canada estimates as many as 350,000 immigrants have taken jobs below their qualifications, which is costing the economy between $3-billion and $5-billion a year.

Not only Australia, also USA, Germany and Canada!

Why we need more migrants: author Philippe Legrain at Sydney Ideas

20 February 2007

Australia needs more migrants, not less: Philippe Legrain.

Controversial UK-based author, media commentator and economist Philippe Legrain will voice a rarely heard view in the immigration debate at the first Sydney Ideas event of the year next Tuesday, 27 February, 2007.

In his lecture titled "Globalisation and why your country needs immigrants", Legrain will argue for an increase in international migration. According to Legrain, governments should not only free up their borders for trade, but should also make the movement of people easier in order to improve the global economy and the livelihoods of people world-wide.

The author of the recently released Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them (Little, Brown) and 2002's critically acclaimed Open World: The Truth About Globalisation (Abacus) will explore whether or not migration is a burden on developed countries, the hidden costs of immigration controls and the growing necessity in developed countries to increase the non-skilled labour force to do what he describes as "the jobs that people in rich countries no longer want to do."

In this timely Sydney Ideas lecture, co-presented by Gleebooks, Legrain promises to shed new light on the immigration debate, exploring how immigration can bring huge cultural and economic benefits to both rich and poor countries at a time when the Federal Government is set to introduce "citizenship tests" for new immigrants. Legrain, who takes a close look at the Australian experience in Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, will argue that rather than turning immigrants away, we should embrace them.

Philippe Legrain is a contributing editor to Prospect magazine and a freelance writer for TheFinancial Times, The Guardian, The New Republic and Foreign Policy. He blogs at www.philippelegrain.com and is a frequent media commentator on the BBC and Fox News. He is a former trade and economics correspondent for The Economist and a one-time special adviser to the World Trade Organisation director-general.

Philippe Legrain will be introduced to the Sydney Ideas stage by Dr Stuart Rosewarne, senior lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Economics and Business.

Masacre de delfines en Japon, horrendo!

LA MASACRE DE DELFINES EN JAPON !

Si puedes mira este video (ponte comodo, es absolutamente insostenible, horrendo, aterrador), protesta y deja tus comentarios, aunque no sea en ingles, no tiene importancia, lo que importa es que esta peticion de la vuelta al mundo.

Gracias a todos!

Video: Almas sensibles abstenerse no lo vean (de verdad): este es un video, muy duro........!

http://www.glumbert.com/media/dolphin

Community protest

National Immigrant Solidarity Network
webpage: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
e-mail: info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org

May Day 2007 National Day of Immigrant Rights! http://www.MayDay2007.org

*to join the immigrant Solidarity Network daily news litserv, send e-mail to: isn-subscribe@lists.riseup.net or visit: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/isn

3/10 San Rafael, CA: ICE Arrest Immigrants, Community Protest

Immigrant Detention News: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/detention.html

(March 9: community to protest ICE raid at San Rafael, CA)

At the dawn of Tuesday, March 6, federal immigration officers swept into the Canal neighborhood in San Rafael, CA and arrested 30 immigrants at early Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. More arrests were made in Novato.

"They went right into buildings and pulled people from their homes," said Edgar Hernandez of the sweep, which began about 5 a.m. and lasted until 8:30 a.m. "These are just working people, not criminals. Everyone in the Canal is now afraid."

Caught up in the sweep was 7-year-old Kevin Reyes, an American citizen, who was with his family in an apartment on Belvedere Street when officers made the arrests, according to his uncle, Rey Reyes.

Immigrant activities accuse THE HEAVYHANDED tactics used by federal immigration agents in Marin this week simply were not appropriate.

Local activists have expressed outrage at what they viewed as unacceptably harsh tactics.

They have reason to be angry. The immigration raids have created a climate of fear in the Canal neighborhood. This is wrong. Even worse, some of the undocumented immigrants arrested in San Rafael and Novato this week may have been deported the same day.

On September 9, about 75 community members and clergy leaders clogged San Rafael's Canal district sidewalks at dawn Friday to offer solidarity for the community - with plans to continue morning protests until the immigration raids which began this week are stopped.

3/7 San Rafael, CA: 30 immigrants targeted in Canal neighborhood raid

Armed with 30 arrest warrants, federal immigration officers swept into the Canal neighborhood in San Rafael at dawn Tuesday and arrested immigrants....

The Meatrix reload!

The Meatrix, una película animada que dura cuatro minutos y parodia a los films de The Matrix, protagonizada por una vaca, un cerdo y un pollo. The Meatrix ha ganado muchos premios, ha sido vista por millones de personas y ha sido aclamada en críticas tanto de la prensa como de los espectadores.

Mírala en http://www.themeatrix.com/intl/spain/dub/

Y si ya has visto The Meatrix, revisa nuestra información actualizada en http://www.themeatrix.com/intl/spain/

¡Gracias!

El equipo de The Meatrix

Power to the People!

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2296848.ece
25 February 2007 11:18
Consumers' revolt: Power to the people
Consumer militancy erupts as individuals join forces on the internet
to fight back against the state and big business

Published: 23 February 2007


Banks

A mass revolt has left the high street banks facing thousands of
claims from customers seeking to claw back some of the £4.75bn levied
annually on charges for overdrafts and bounced cheques. More than one
million forms demanding refunds have been downloaded from a number of
consumer websites. The banks are settling out of court, often paying
£1,000 a time.

Utilities

While average gas and electricity bills approached £1,000 last year,
a record 4 million householders have dumped their supplier after an
internet-led consumer campaign. British Gas admitted yesterday it
lost 1.1m customers in just 12 months, and two weeks ago slashed gas
bills by 17 per cent and electricity bills by 11 per cent. Other big
suppliers, Powergen and npower, are expected to follow suit.

Road pricing

Plans for road pricing have faced massive public opposition
spearheaded by an internet campaign. In just three months 1.8 million
people have signed an online petition, linked to a new section of the
Downing Street website, launched by a disgruntled motorist from Telford.

Supermarkets

From Devon to Inverness, planning applications for superstores are
being thwarted by residents' campaigns orchestrated on the internet.
Tesco scrapped a superstore plan in Darlington last year following
opposition and this week residents sank a Tesco plan for a £130m
retail development in Tolworth, Surrey. Friends of the Earth is co-
ordinating the protests across the country.

Air travel

"Green" travellers are boycotting air travel because of climate
change. Campaigners have staged sit-ins at airports while hundreds of
people have signed up to an online pledge set up by a veteran
environmental campaigner. An estimated 3 per cent of people have
stopped flying to help the environment, while 10 per cent are cutting
back on flights.

Packaging

A campaign launched by The Independent urging supermarkets to reduce
excessive packaging has prompted a remarkable response. Supermarkets
have had to defend their practices after thousands of readers emailed
examples of environmentally damaging packaging. The campaign gained
widespread public support - a day of action is planned later this
year - and has been backed in an early day motion in the House of
Commons.

Football tickets

Football fans fed up with paying £50 a time to watch games have
joined forces online to put pressure on clubs to slash prices.
Manchester City fans led a boycott of the club's match at Wigan in
protest at the cost of tickets. Chelsea have announced a freeze on
most ticket prices next year and Bolton promised a 10 per cent cut.

Post Offices

Government proposals to axe 2,500 post offices has prompted an
organised revolt from pensioners and consumer groups across Britain.
The Federation of Subpostmasters and a number of other organisations
have launched online petitions opposing the plan, and a rally was
staged in London on Tuesday to increase the pressure on the
Government to save the post offices from closure.

Apoya el boicot - Support the boycot!

Convocatoria a todos los resistentes:


Se convoca a todos los resistentes a promover un boicot por la visita del traidor a la Democracia, Vicente Fox a las ciudades de Vancouver y Ottawa, en Canada.

Chente Fox y Marthita S., estan programados para la ciudad de Vancouver el dia 8 de Marzo, de 8:30 a 5:30 pm. En la ciudad de Ottawa, se presentaran el dia 6 de Marzo, en el Ottawa Congress Centre.

Tiene planeado impartir una charla sobre liderazgo, el 8 de Marzo, Dia Internacional de la Mujer, que burla para las mujeres en resistencia de Vancouver!!!!

Solicitamos que cada uno de ustedes promueva esta iniciativa en sus blogs y llame y escriba ( una vez por semana y en forma aleatoria), a los siguientes sponsors del evento, potestando por la burla al pueblo de Mexico, por el fraude instrumentado a la voluntad popular, las violaciones a los derechos humanos de los trabajadores mineros de Sicartsa, las mujeres violadas en Atenco, los maltratos, represion, muerte, y detenciones arbitrarias de hombres y mujeres de las comunidades indigenas de Oaxaca.

Justicia para la familia de Brad Will y demas personas asesinadas en Oaxaca!!!

Exigimos justicia, y libertad para todos los prisioneros politicos!!!

Libertad a Flavio Sosa y demas detenidos politicos de las comunidades indigenas de Oaxaca!!!

Fuera y juicio politico a Ulises Ruiz, gobernador de Oaxaca!!!

No mas violaciones a los derechos humanos de los indigenas de Oaxaca, Chiapas y Atenco!!!


Call to: (Llamar por telefono a … )


The Power Within, fundacion de Anthony Robbins,
tel. 1-866-994-2555


The Investors Group, sponsor
tel. 1-866-746-6344


Shared Vision Magazine, sponsor
tel. 1-800-929-0991


BC Business Magazine, sponsor
tel. 1-800-663-0518


The Globe and Mail, sponsor
tel. 1-866-36Globe



Write a letter in English -Enviar cartas en ingles a :



CGA - Certified General Accountants

Taylore Ashile, director Media Relations Enquires, tashile@cga-canada.org

Barbara Cameron, vipresident, Public Affairs, bcameron@cga-canada.org


Shared Vision (magazine)

Ron Williams, editor letters@shared-vision.com


BC Business Magazine

Peter Legge, president publisher plegge@canadawide.com


The Globe and Mail (newspaper)

letters@globeandmail.com

Angus Frame, editor aframe@globeandmail.com

Jeffrey Simpson, journalist jsimpson@globeandmail.com

Edward Greenspan, editor
egreenspan@globeandmail.com


The Vancouver Courier

Mick Maloney, editor
editor@vancouver.com


The Georgia Straight

letters@straight.com
contact@straight.com

Video IV Republica

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=divpNQwY0qs

PSEUDOELECCIONES 2006

PSEUDOELECCIONES 2006

Breaking the media barriers!

Radio Conciencia

Audience of low-power station in Immokalee gets music, news from back home — and help with labor issues when they need it

By Jennifer Sutcliffe

Friday, November 17, 2006

Francisca Cortes takes a phone call from a man who identifies himself as “The Mexican.”

“Good morning, this is Consciousness Radio,” Cortes says in Spanish. She wears a worn headset and speaks into a microphone rigged up with masking tape.

The man on the other end requests that she play a song by Los Alegres de La Sierra. She’s just started her 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. radio show and already two other callers have called in with requests.

Cortes puts the song in the queue and continues reading news from the Mexican newspaper La Jornada on the air.

The low-power, 100-watt station of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers transmits politics and culture from the homelands of Immokalee residents. Radio Conciencia — its name in Spanish — reaches 15 miles from its location in the heart of the city. One part entertainment and two parts information, it’s like a foreign-language top-40 political platform.

The deejays on Radio Conciencia weren’t trained professionally in radio broadcast. In one sweep, a grassroots group in favor of community radio — called the Prometheus Project — set them up in December 2003. Volunteers assembled donated equipment and showed them the basics of monitoring a sound switchboard before handing them the mic.

“We were all very nervous when we started,” Cortes says.

After three years of practice, she flips switches and creates playlists like a pro. She calmly reads news feeds from Oaxaca, Mexico, where she’s from, and earnestly informs farmworkers about their labor rights.

Through all of this, she gains the trust of her listeners. New people are joining the ranks of the town’s immigrant farmers every day, and the more workers who support the coalition, the merrier the worklife of Immokalee, she says.

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Behind the coalition’s headquarters, the trailer temporarily housing WCTI (107.9 on the FM dial) is quiet except for the voice of a soft-spoken deejay.

The scene is a microcosm of the city, a place that appears undisturbed throughout much of the day while farmworkers are laboring in the fields.

Most of the radio shows are in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Zapotec and Quiche. The programs provide a rare service to non-Spanish speakers.

“Even though we’re a mainly Hispanic community, some farmworkers don’t speak Spanish very well,” Cortes says. “We want to reach them, too.”

On the station, the jokes aren’t offensive. The airwaves are ad-free. And every call gets answered. Cortes and many of the other 13 deejays approach the job like they’re on a mission.

Some of the radio hosts are staff workers with the coalition, but most are volunteers. All are farmworkers who spend part of the year picking fruits and vegetables, and part of the year working with the coalition.

Cortes, 24, was one of the station’s first deejays. Her daily lunchtime shift mixes horoscopes with hard news licensed by foreign news outlets.

Immigrants who miss home are always wondering what’s happening in their countries, she says. “It helps them, which is why we have to do this,” Cortes says.

Mexico-native Gerardo Reyes-Chávez, 29, is a migrant farmworker with a watermelon cooperative in northern Florida. He returns home to Immokalee this time of year, to help out farmworkers with concerns about their rights as workers.

“I’m their cheerleader,” he says.

His weekly show covers everything from local government to policy. Last Friday, he discussed housing options for migrant farmers who have recently arrived.

Reyes-Chávez says he wants to bring more guests and experts on his show. Right now, though, few people get the chance to sit in the old school desk placed in front of the radio switchboard. That’s where guests sit in during interviews.

But the space is just not conducive to a proper one-on-one. The guest microphone, which now sits in a holder made of a tape dispenser, doesn’t always work. Right now, the station doesn’t look as professional as the deejays would like.

Improvements won’t happen until the non-profit coalition can raise funds for new equipment — taller microphones and a fully-functioning console, for example — and their community center is renovated.

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The drive to Immokalee takes about an hour down Immokalee Road in Naples. Not far outside the city, WCTI comes in and out of tune.

But walk into any of the businesses near the coalition — like the zapateria (shoe store), La Fiesta #3 grocery or the city’s largest store, Winn Dixie — and 107.9 FM is probably on the dial.

Three years after its initiation, Consciousness Radio is the primary source of news and community information for residents of Immokalee.

The early, long and late hours of migrant farmworkers make it difficult for them to catch up with the day’s events, Cortes says. And word about the coalition doesn’t always spread fast enough.

“Most of us (Immokalee residents) don’t have time to sit down and read the newspaper, a lot of us don’t have access to the Internet, and some don’t even have televisions,” Cortes says.

But everyone owns a radio, she says. Even winter farmerworkers can get their news while on the job, saving the evenings for much-needed rest.

Juan Pedro, a.k.a. “The Mexican,” listens on a portable radio while he works on a nearby citrus farm. “I’m always listening,” Pedro says in Spanish. “I carry this radio with me to keep up with what’s going on.”

On his breaks, Pedro gathers with other workers to call in song requests. These account for most of the calls hosts receive during their shifts.

Reyes-Chávez says farmworkers can be “a bit shy” about talking on the air about anything related to their jobs. They feel more comfortable when their identities are not being broadcast to the entire city.

But they do call in. Off the air, hosts help them problems with their jobs, or their employers — much like they would if they had walked into the coalition office.

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During harvest times of the year, Immokalee has about 15,000 to 20,000 residents working on the farms. If their ears are open, they’ll hear about their labor rights on WCTI. It’s been around long enough that word has spread.

“Everyone in the farmworker community at least knows about the station,” Reyes-Chávez says.

By the response the coalition receives from announcing events and demonstrations, he knows a large percentage of that group is listening regularly. “We’ll get thousands of people attending (coalition events) — much larger numbers than when we didn’t have the station,” he says.

He says the radio station was instrumental in their wage war against Taco Bell, which ended in a coalition victory in 2005. And the station plays an important part in the group’s mission — to reclaim the rights of farmworkers, Reyes-Chávez says.

“It’s accessible to the whole community,” he says. “It’s like having a meeting with the entire city.”

After Hurricane Wilma in 2005, for example, the coalition received several calls about a farming cooperative that had not paid its workers in several weeks because of crop damage.

Without naming the company, one of the deejays announced to farmworkers that if they hadn’t been paid, they should come to the coalition headquarters.

“That was around 4 p.m.,” Reyes-Chávez says. “By 6 p.m., hundreds of people were lined up outside.”

The coalition then confronted the owner of the cooperative over the phone, and he admitted he was wrong. He agreed to meet with coalition workers to sort out the issue.

In Immokalee, radio is the wave of the future.

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Mexicans are traditionally a friendly and peace loving people. Relations between Mexicans and the hundreds of thousands of US retirees who reside in Mexico have, in the past, been courteous and respectful. There are signs today, however, that these relations are getting strained due to the rising tide of anti-Mexicanism in the USA. The numerous hate crimes against and murders of undocumented Mexicans north of the border are now becoming common knowledge all across Mexico and some members of Mexican society are beginning to retaliate. The recent burning of the Mexican flag in front of the Mexican consulate in Tucson by hate filled racists became known throughout the Republic of Mexico and has greatly aggravated the situation. Things could get a lot worse.

Mexicans have great kinship with their brethren north of the border. A large percentage of the Mexican population have relatives in Aztlan and elsewhere across the US/Mexico border. There is immense solidarity in Mexico with Mexican immigrants on this side as was demonstrated by the recent "nada gringo" action in support of the May 1st pro-immigrant boycott in the USA.

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