Issue 56 Vol III, January 31, 2008

T H I S  O U R  N O R T H  A M E R I C A

US in recession mode
Khushwant Toor

US and its ailing economy is in the news all over the world these days. US is in recession, odds of recession are high, US not yet in recession, recession eminent are such views  economists around the world have been predicting from sometime now for the U.S.

If not in recession as yet, certainly the recently introduced economy stimulus packages by the Bush government (distributing over $150 billion to the US households enough to buy one month’s groceries) along with the federal reserve bank slashing the interest rate cut by ¾ percentage points and the new proposed polices of so called free trade with some of the countries are the indicators that trouble lies ahead for at least the whole of 2008.

Fearing this recession, long ago smart investors such as the Jim Rogers (Jim Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire investor George Soros in the 1970s) as early as September 2007 started to switch out of the dollar and into yen, the yuan and the Swiss franc. Rogers last year said it made sense to desert the dollar and he favored investing into Chinese stock above all. It will at least take all of 2008 for such investors to return back to investing in the US dollar again.

Some analysts predict this recession to be similar to the great depression which the US went through in the 1930s. The common fear gripping the US residents are: Rising gasoline and other energy costs, Record number of home foreclosures and the tumbling of home prices, Stock markets crashing again and again fearing to wiping out retirement funds, Bankruptcies becoming all time high linked with massive layoffs at top companies, Bank failures and lost bank accounts, US dollar value an all time low.

So much so to take advantage of this fear hanging over the US residents, some authors have even started to publish books and articles such as “The insiders guide to avoid the Recession”, Learn what the Wall Street Insider’s don’t want you to know-- the “Perfect Economic Storm” is coming, etc. etc.

If this recession really grips US the worst worry is that, most of the other countries heavily dependent upon the US will also get effected. Canada has been long feeling the jitters of the situations worsening in the US due to its weekend exports to the US. However, the Canadian economy is predicted to self sustain due to its internal growth and strong housing market projections. Governments around the world are taking their own preventive measures so as to mitigate the risk which the US economy is posing right now.

In support of the US economy some prominent US economists such as former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan still dispute that the US is not in recession as yet. In a recent interview Mr. Greenspan said, “The US economy may not be growing at all, but it is not yet clear that it is falling into recession.” Mr Greenspan argued that the hallmark of a recession was discontinuity in the economic data. “You don’t gradually fall into recession, you jump,” he said.

However, Mr Greenspan said there was likely to be “some erosion in business capital investment” in the months ahead. “Profit margins, I believe, have peaked and the capital investment opportunities in the US are declining”.

Contrary to Mr. Greenspan’s views the Economists at the World Economic Forum at its Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland where some 2,500 people, including business and political leaders as well as heads of international organizations, are gathering at this famous Alpine ski resort for the five-day forum, on Jan. 23, 2008 concluded that The U.S. economy, troubled by the financial turmoil, is all but certain to fall into recession, which could spill over to the whole world.

Economists at the meeting said “the debate now was not whether the U.S. will fall into recession, but how severe it will be.”  Nouriel Roubini, professor and chairman of Roubini Global Economics of the United States told at the meeting that "The point is not about a soft or hard landing, but how hard the hard landing is going to be," "I believe we are going to have a severe (U.S.) recession lasting for four quarters." A major downturn in the U.S. will inevitably result in a severe slowdown in economic growth in the rest of the world, Roubini said, while ruling out an outright recession on the global scale.

If and when the US slips into recession, how will this superpower shape the economy of the world only time will tell or perhaps the recession may tech every other country in the world to decrease their dependency on the US and be more integrated themselves rather than US telling/deciding their futures.

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Canada: face of poverty
Gobind Thukral

Canada is a rich developed country with an enviable quality of life. It is much sought destination for the people from Asia and Africa, besides some from Europe. Yet an astonishing one in 10 Canadians, or 3.4 million people, already live in poverty. The Impending recession in the USA could make the situation worse.

According to latest statistics Ontario and Quebec together lost nearly 27,000 jobs and only Alberta led the nation with a gain of 21,000 jobs in December. As a result, Alberta's unemployment rate dropped from 3.6 per cent to 3.2 per cent, while Ontario's jumped from 6.2 per cent to 6.5 per cent. Quebec's unemployment rate held steady at 7 per cent as nearly 14,000 discouraged job seekers dropped out of the labour force. Significantly, Ontario and Quebec count for 62 per cent population of Canada.

The December job losses in Ontario and Quebec were in the manufacturing sector, the backbone of both provincial economies. Over the past year, manufacturing employment in Ontario fell by 64,000, while in Quebec the loss was 43,000 jobs. Ontario's unemployment rate last year surpassed the national unemployment rate for the first time ever.

Experts say that from an Alberta perspective, the economy is well positioned to withstand the downturn in the U.S. But from the standpoint of Central Canada, a U.S. recession could have a devastating impact. It would upset any gains from Alberta.

This the time ass prime minister of all of Canada, Stephan Harper needs to shed his Alberta blinkers and work with the premiers of the most vulnerable regions to craft a plan to cope with the fallout from the U.S. downturn. As majority of the Canadians live in Ontario and Quebec, they can hardly be ignored. The December job numbers underscore the urgent need for a significant and rapid response by Ottawa to the spillover of recessionary forces from the U.S. into Canada, the Conservative government was till now not responsive to the premiers' pleas for a strategy to fend off as much of the damage as possible that is clearly coming.

 Most observers feel that poverty should top of the list of political concerns.  Employment Insurance (EI), apparently designed to protect workers who are laid off in bad economic times, is no longer of much help. Due to rule changes implemented by the Chrétien government, EI now covers only 40 per cent of unemployed workers across the country, half of the proportion covered in 1990. Here in Toronto, the situation is even worse, with just 22 per cent of unemployed workers covered by EI.

So if workers are laid off due to a recession, many of them will have no recourse but to turn to welfare for support. And welfare benefits are below the poverty line. Fighting poverty is not simply about the poor. It is about the well-being of the entire country. That is why politicians in past decades created the social safety net that now apparently needs updating.

Yet in Ottawa, there is little talk of helping the poorest. Harper is trying instead to woo middle-class voters in an election expected this year with another cut in the GST. He has already slashed corporate taxes.

For his part, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has promised to make poverty reduction a central theme of his election platform. He has committed his party to reducing overall poverty by 30 per cent and child poverty by 50 per cent in five years. That would mean 1 million fewer Canadians would fall below Statistic's Canada's low-income cut-off line and the number of poor children would be cut from the current level of 778,000 to about 390,000.

There is an urgent need  to develop a Canadian definition of poverty, which many see as an important first step that would allow  fight the menace. Yet Ken Dryden, chair of the Liberal caucus's social development committee, says the Liberals have no plans to develop a new poverty definition and further details of their program will not be released until their election platform is revealed.

NDP Leader Jack Layton has promised he would raise the child tax benefit, restart a national housing program, and provide more help for new immigrants. But he has not outlined an overall poverty reduction strategy with well definable targets.

Clearly, all three parties need to make poverty a higher priority in the coming parliamentary session ands later during elections They should also commit to work with the provinces, which have responsibility for programmess like housing and child care but lack the resources to fund them fully.

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Canadian jails: Conducive catering
Canada’s prison system goes great lengths to ensure religious faith matches food behind bars. Housing a diverse population of inmates, penitentiaries must cater to special religious diets ranging from lacto-vegetarian Rastafarians to Hare Krishnas and Buddhist vegans.

“It can be challenging, because you’re preparing menus for the general population, then you have all these special diets that you have to create as well,” said Donna Townsend, CSC’s director of food services. “But it’s just a matter of organisation on the part of the kitchen.”

Barb Hill, director of policy development for the John Howard Society says, “We’re a multicultural society. Just like there are lots of people on the outside who come from different religious and ethnic groups, the same happens in prison and we have to respect their religions.”

For Aboriginals significant traditional spiritual/cultural/social events such as sweat lodge ceremony, pow-wow or round dance have a traditional feast as part of the ceremony; they may require sacred foods such as strawberries, deer meat, bannock, game or certain types of fish.

Whereas Christians follow Canada’s Food Guide. There are no dietary restrictions and fasting and abstinence are voluntary as are optional spiritual practices. For some Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent, including Good Friday, are occasions when they may limit or alter food consumption.

Food eaten by Hare Krishna devotees must be Prasadam (spiritualized) and must be prepared with the utmost cleanliness. Utensils must not have been used to cook foods like meat, poultry, eggs and fish. A lacto-vegetarian diet prohibits foods made from slaughtered animal byproducts including lard, yogurt, sour cream, cheese and breads containing lard. In an ideal situation, a Hare Krishna devotee would prepare his own meals but if this is not possible due to security concerns in the penitentiary meals will come from the kitchen.

Inmates following Rastafarianism are primarily lacto-vegetarians who eat certain fish. For special feast days items such as yams, dasheen, green bananas and plantains, coco and callalio are provided.

For Jewish inmates kosher meat, poultry and fish are prepared. For major festivals kosher wine (in an emergency, kosher grape juice) is made available. During Passover, leavened products such as bread, cake, cereal, macaroni and spaghetti is avoided and legumes are forbidden. Each Jewish inmate is provided with five pounds of salami, two pounds of matzoh biscuits, one pound of kosher cookies and four pounds of kosher chickens.

Baptized Sikhs normally do their own cooking in institutions if security and space requirements allow it. Festival and holiday foods include special pudding and ghee.

Other inmates like followers of Zoroastrianism follow a semi-vegetarian diet without beef, pork or poultry. For an inmate who follows the doctrine of the Worldwide Church of God, Pork and shellfish are not allowed.

Information from the Correctional Service of Canada
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2008/01/21/4784427-sun.html

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Indian man in Vancouver kills baby daughter

AN Indo-Canadian man has been charged with killing his two-and-half-year-old daughter in the Vancouver suburb of Delta because he did not want a third girl child.

Lakhvinder Singh Kahlon, 47, reportedly slit the throat of his baby Ravinder on Friday morning, at their home, when his wife Manjit was away to drop their two older daughters at school.

When Manjit returned home around 8.45 a.m., she found the baby dead. Screaming, she ran out for help. Neighbours called the police, who came and surrounded the house immediately and arrested Kahlon.

A construction worker, Kahlon was reportedly unhappy since Ravinder’s birth and didn’t go to work.

“Those who knew Kahlon told us that he was a changed person after the birth of Ravinder. She was his third daughter. Probably, he wanted a boy. He looked unstable and was often found doing bizarre things,” Jasdip Wahla, an anchor with Channel M in Vancouver, said.

Although the police didn’t say how exactly Kahlon killed his daughter, the neighbours said his distraught wife told them that he had slit her throat. They said he was very cold towards the youngest daughter and often treated her rudely.

The body could be removed from the crime scene only on Friday night as the police looked for clues and awaited formal warrants for Kahlon. He was formally charged with first degree murder on Saturday.

“This is a terrible tragedy. The family and community are devastated. The family members are safe and under the care of extended family and friends,” the police said in a statement.

The Kahlon family immigrated to Canada from Punjab many years ago. Their other two daughters, nine and 12, were born here. Delta, like neighbouring Surrey, has a huge Indian-origin population. — IANS

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Mona Lisa: Mystery Revealed
Khushwant Toor writes from Toronto

FOR centuries the true identity of the world famous painting, painted by the famous Leonardo da Vinci in the sixteenth century of as some call it a “smiling woman” and still as others call it as “sad women” had been a mystery around the world. Only recently was the mystery woman’s identity confirmed by officials of a library in German based upon a note found in margin of a book lying in the library.

This finding of the mystery woman has created another mystery about when was this note discovered in the library. The discovery was highlighted on January 11, 2008 by a German radio stating that the researchers at the Heidelberg University library have uncovered the true identity of Mona Lisa. Confirming the radio report the experts at Heidelberg University library said that a manuscript revealing the identity of Mona Lisa was unearthed two years ago by Dr. Armin Schlechter, a manuscript expert at the library and his findings were even printed in a university library catalogue then. The manuscript revealed that she was Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Florentine merchant Franceso del Giocondo.

Dr. Armin Schlechter found a book in the library archive that once belonged to Agostino Vespuccui a friend of da Vinci. In October of 1503 Agostino Vespuccui wrote a note in the margins of one page, saying that his friend was working on three paintings, one of them a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. The note, scribbled into a collection of letters by the Roman orator Cicero, further compares da Vinci to the ancient Greek artist Apelles.

For years many theories around the world floated about who Mona Lisa was. Some speculated that, Mona Lisa is not a portrait of one woman, but an artful composite of many, Leonardo's idealization of all womanhood. Others suggest it may have been one of Da Vinci's young male models in drag. Some even believe that the Mona Lisa is not a portrait at all, but instead what is known as a "finzione," an invention of Leonardo's extraordinary imagination. Still some believed it to be a self-portrait in drag, to a picture of da Vinci's mother or even his lover.

Mona Lisa got its name from the biography of Leonardo da Vinci written by Giorgio Vasari in the mid-sixteen (1550) century. In his biography Vasari mentioned it to be a painting of Madam Lisa Giocondo, wife of a wealthy Florentine. However, Vasari named it as Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda in Italian or La Joconde in French. Writing of Vasari were not relied upon by the Historians until now as firstly he wrote the biography after 31 years of da Vinci’s death and secondly as he (Vasari) was known to fill in fact with fragments of fantasy.

Before Vasari, the painting had been referred to as "a certain Florentine lady" and later, in the collection at Fontainebleau, as "a courtesan in a gauze veil." There have been many other suggested names about who the sitter in the painting might have been. But the painting is unsigned and undated, and although most portraits of the time included something to indicate the sitter's family name or social status, no such insignia can be found in the painting of Mona Lisa. Nor is there any record of a commission for the portrait among Leonardo's papers.

It is believed that Leonardo worked and reworked the painting for over four years, carrying it with him during his travels and parting with it only at his death. If in fact it was commissioned, why was it not delivered to the patron who had commissioned it? – These are mysteries still surround Mona Lisa.

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