I first heard the word - Atlantica a few weeks ago.
I really didn’t know the whole details about this issue until this evening.
Over the weekend, a good senior friend of mine mentioned the same word - Atlantica!!! 
So? If this well respected citizen is saying the same word - ATLANTICA???
She got my attention 100%!!!
I noticed many posters around the City announcing a meeting at the underground Café.
I showed up and I would say there were 25 people present.
I began taking pictures and one individual asked - Who’s the guy taking the pictures? 
I guess I’m not that very well known....lol....
They explain to the audience that I was a blogger. 
They reminded the audience that I was harmless. You know that’s just Charles!..lol..
Yes, Charles can be harmless but if the tides turns? Well..you know the rest of the story.
Ok..never mind that!!!
They showed a little documentary of
WTO Protest against the World Trade Organization in 1999.
Union leaders and youths gathered together voicing their concerns on different issues. The police and the Mayor really took their freedom to protest away.
It was a rough go....
Atlantica could very well turn out to be another Seattle but will it?
This is New Brunswick!
The citizens go on their daily lives to survive and there’s not a darn thing wrong with this.
My main point on this issue is this?
Will the media in New Brunswick promote only one side of Atlantica?
Will they only praise the large businesses?
Of course in New Brunswick we are unique because the Irvings owns all the newspapers!
WHERE’S THE FINAL REPORT FROM THE SENATE ON THE MONOPOLY OF THE IRVINGS NEWSPAPERS IN THIS PROVINCE????
Ok..never mind that....calm down Charlie....
I believe that I’ll go down to Saint John on June 8th for the protest and of course I’ll be there with my little camera.
I hope there’s no violence because this could be a opportunely of a life time for the Government?
Charles being shot by mistake??? Wrong place at the wrong time??
Case close!!!...no investigation...lol...not funny..
From what I heard at the meeting?
People are suppose to zero in on Saint John from all over the region.
Of course, this will be great way to protest the pipeline in Rockwood Park and of course the people could pass their petition against the pipeline in the huge crowd.
It should be very interesting but the question is this?
Will the media in New Brunswick promote both side before Atlantica gets started???
You can visit their website at- < JUST CLICK BELOW >
target="_blank">Charles
Blog
How about a lower Minimum Wage!?!
I DON’T THINK SO!
******protest******
*****************************************************
Reaching Atlantica: Business
without Boundaries
Conference in Saint John NB, June 8 – 10
Gather outside the Saint John Trade &
Convention Centre
Thurs. June 8th: People’s forum (time/place TBA)
Fri. June 9th: Demonstration 9 AM – 6 PM,
Sat. June 10th: Demonstration 8 AM – night
**********Come early, come late, or stay all day(s)**********
Conference and Atlantica details:
www.reachingatlantica.com, www.atlantica.org
***Protest details: http://www.stopatlantica.com/, www.maritimes.indymedia.org
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
ATLANTICA!!!! WILL THE MEDIA IN NEW BRUNSWICK COVER BOTH SIDES BEFORE JUNE 8TH????
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16 comments:
Go to atlantica.org and read all about it. You'll notice that the map includes the Gaspe of Quebec. In fact, earlier maps included most of Quebec and even southern and eastern Ontario and down to New York City. Who in Gaspe wants to sign up with the maritimes? As we see with labour and trade, they suck out virtually everything for dirt cheap, have access to government contracts while refusing them to NB'ers, why the hell would they want to join an organization that puts those things in doubt?
Trouble is, what people in most of those areas has any interest in becoming part of 'atlantica'? Free trade already gives them all kinds of access to everything in Canada, and economically, this is one of the most impoverished parts of North America.
This is simply a marketing tool used by Atlantic Institute of Market Studies. If you go to their website they are the ONLY organization talking about this. The only reason they talk about it is because our society is so corporate driven that they literally have nothing else to talk about, so they dream up this idea.
The only other group mentioned there is one economic development office in some dinky town in Maine.
Perhaps those protesting are trying to do like AIMS and get support by 'personalizing' their opposition, but apart from that, this is a waste of time and only serves to give them more press.
There are huge issues in New Brunswick, Atlantica sure ain't one of them. Big Business already runs the place, even they don't care about such things.
If Irving supports it, or.. sponsers it (as it does) then there must be something wrong with it. That's all the news I need.
Disappointing when the haves of the country turn their backs on the have nots; they still expect everyone to accept it and be happy with an existence of struggling and that is what is called a great life for the average people.
That's not true. Irving has the cleanest gas in Canada. There's nothing wrong with that.
There are plenty of things 'wrong' with Atlantica's proposals, but they are just crazy. They are meant to frame the debate. By being 'extreme' right wing and saying completely idiotic things like "get rid of minimum wage" they make it that much harder to lobby to increase minimum wage. New Brunswick has the lowest minimum wage in the country. It just raised it a little, and retail job hirings actually went up, showing that one has nothing to do with the other.
However, if New Brunswick were to follow some of their recommendations, such as having no corporate tax on small and medium corporations doing animation and game programming, then they might actually see some companies locate here.
Having the same 'low' corporate tax as Ontario doesn't give NB an 'edge' in finding new business. However, a ten year, or even five year 'no corporate tax' on companies locating here, tied to employment, can create more jobs.
They aren't interested in that though, all they want is to make sure nobody changes the status quo. Government already exists to hand the resources over to corporations, with almost no tax and few environmental regulations. The environmental regulations that exist pretty much let the corporations police themselves.
NB is the third world of Northern North America, it's performance is worse even than the southern US. There is more poverty here than anywhere north of Mexico (per capita, just cuz you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there, it just means 'loitering' and 'vagrancy' and 'panhandling' guarantees they'll have to stay invisible and resort to other crime).
But even here lobbying got them to raise the minimum wage-or more likely the sheer embarassment of being so much lower than Nova Scotia. So getting rid of it is not really going to sell politically-and they know it. They just want to make sure its as hard as hell to get anybody to raise it again. After all, at least keeping it the same isn't wiping it out altogether, or even lowering it, so therefore the 'compromise' is to simply leave it as it is.
Even talking about these lunatic ideas is simply giving them more lobbying power. Ignore them, or more appropriately, laugh at them, because they really are educated idiots who have no interest in the well being of people. However, if the intent is simply to try to raise the profile of those fighting for rights for people, that's something else entirely. Personally, as Charles says, they'd be better off at Rockwood, or joining the group protesting the Irving tax break, or with the conservationists against the forestry sellout.
I've never really liked this idea but if Mike's down to insulting those involved, maybe it deserves a second look. LOL.
Never write off an idea as lunatic. because you're right Mike you bring attention to it even by doing that. Better to debate the merits.
3rd world of N.A. Have you been to the southern U.S.? Even then to compare us to the third wold is innacurate and frankly dishonest.
Although there is a merit what you are saying, Spinks, but comparison with third world has its validity. I have done some travelling in so-called third world (even some parts of southern U.S.) and I can tell you there are some similarities. Corrupt and incompetent politicians like Bernard Lord and lot of poverty.
No dispute that we have problems and poverty. That is without question. However the poorest of our poor are far better off than the poor in the 3rd world. That certainly doesn't mean we don't stop trying. We need to come up with solutions that accurately deal with the issues.
The homeless in Fredericton is an excellent example. The perception is that these are people who have merely had some bad luck and it could happen to anyone. IN a few cases that is true. In reality the vast majority have mental illness problems so setting them up in their own apartment doesn't do any good. Medical treatment is needed first or they're doomed to fail.
My point is we need to be honest about situations and comparing NB to a third world country is...dishonest and inaccurate.
the government has to keep an eye on trouble makers.
the right to protest is over ever since 9/11.
Spinks as usual is completely wrong ,but that never stops him from voicing his 'opinion'. For one thing, just because you have a mental illness doesn't mean you can't live in an apartment...so, what, it's much better that you live in a tiny room.
Fully HALF of the people on welfare are those 'unfortunate' people who have hit bad luck. By all means simply go look it up. Or you can pretend that Spinks actually knows what he's talking about this time, even though he's been wrong on everything else.
As for the third world, a comparison can't be 'dishonest'. That makes no sense at all (surprise suprise). The 'poorest of the poor' is only one situation in any society.
However, let's take a look at those. As we've seen at this blog it has taken until now for boarding house tenants-who are easily the 'poorest of the poor' to even have basic housing rights. As we saw, a gentleman had to use the bathroom in a garbage bag because his bathroom door was locked. With that legislation we had to see specific resolutions to deal with 'slum landlords'.
So access to water, indoor plumbing, as well as basic human protections (not being thrown out into the street on the whim of the owner) are clearly problems that affect those in third world countries.
So, again, we can add the 'poorest of the poor' to other comparisons - high unemployment, low job security, large differentiation between rich and poor, environmental degradation, wholesale selling of natural resources, low manufacturing economcy, high illiteracy.
The province is kept on 'life support' from the federal government, without them there would be no question that the province was almost identical to any third world country. The only job creation has been in the public sector because the feds finally paid up more money. You don't HAVE to call that 'charity', but it does have similarities to the christian childrens fund and other charities.
The worst part is that none of those charities aid people in this province. Too bad. However, in Ethiopia, a typical third world country, they have not only free education, but free University Education for the population. NB, even Canada, is a LONG way from that.
So if somebody wants to point out how the province ISN"T in third world status feel free, otherwise, we can see where the term 'dishonest' really applies.
Feisty this morning aren't you Mike? I'm talking homeless not welfare recipients. That's a whole other issue. My point is that this is far more complicated than it looks. Pat Carlson at the Fredericotn Emergency Shelter has said many times the vast majority of the people there are mentally ill and/or on drugs/alcohol. Handing money to them on the street is no solution although it might make you feel warm and fuzzy for a minute that you helped someone. In reality, you probably haven't except giving someone what they want at that particular moment. A complicated issue calls for a multi-pronged solution.
I stand by my comments on the third world comparison. Folks can say that if they like but I find it hard to believe that anyone truly believes it. That's a scare tactic that is...dishonest.
The media has an obligation to the people to help good things come to pass. Covering the nay sayers would be bad for the region.
Call it what you want, nobody really cares Spinks. All the criteria are listed above. Anybody who has ever been to a third world country already knows these things. We have many foster children in those countries and I've visited them on several occasions. The ones in Ethiopia, as mentioned, get free university. Our three children there have parents who both work, ironically they are 'working poor' (sound familiar?)
Our money helps them out, but I did notice that they OWN their own home and have animals as well. Our money will help them build a small farm, something easily done in most third world countries-self sufficiency.
Here in the 'first world' you can't even do that, in fact you can't even walk onto the street and beg for money. In fact, I suspect that if Christian Childrens' fund ever went onto a reserve they would be more effective than our federal government has been.
I don't know what kind of 'homeless' criteria Spinks has in mind, I guess he thinks they secretly have a little magic kingdom with a secret stash of food. Third world countries have food banks if that's what you are thinking. In fact, the homeless here are FAR worse off because eight months of the year are very cold.
Keep in mind I'm not saying all things are identical. Go to Calcutta and you will see far worse things than in NB, primarily because f health care, but mostly because there are simply more people. If you multiplied the poor per capita, NB would look very much like the city. There are a LOT more poor there, because there are a lot more people.
So readers can simply run down the criteria I listed in the above post and type it in their search engine and compare the numbers. Spinks is talking pure propaganda, he doesn't want people to even mention such things because if its discovered that ANY of the criteria are close then it puts a whole new spin on how they look at their society. In fact the only statistic that stands out to separate New Brunswick from the third world would be a very common economic indicator-GDP per person. So on paper New Brunswick looks very good on that score, until you remember that, first, NB has a very small population, and secondly, the ONLY increase in GDP has been the rapid increase due to the oil refinery's output. The government gets very little money from that however, so again, the statistics belie the reality.
You can say we have better healthcare, which is 'sort of' true, although it is getting worse and private healthcare, the same as exists in the third world, is making a comeback. A person can get surgery not available in a third world country, that's true, however, as a society we are not better off. Our 'healthcare' is departmentalized to only deal with when we are sick, it ignores us WHILE we get sick. So we have rampant obesity, diabetes, and many other disorders related to our diets. Some people will call this 'freedom' to eat what we want, but its an odd measure of society to say we have freedom to engage in activities that shorten our lives.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, the Indian company running Nackawic and Campbellton came here because India has extremely rigorous environmental standards. Mechanization is prohibited, and elephants are used. This keeps the indian elephant off the endangered species list, and it provides jobs.
They come here and ship the resource back to india for refinement. In other words, as far as forestry is concerned, New Brunswick is India's 'third world' where they can get cheap resources. Here in NB, they are moving the other way, adopting the Finnish model of 'efficiency'. The one thing they DON"T talk about is the fact that since Finland began its forestry program its workforce dropped by 90%. So the forestry practises are KNOWN to result in massive job losses. In NB there are no other industries to pick up those workers-something else common in third world countries.
His remarks above are right, there is lots of mental illness. We already know how to deal with that. Methadone is an effective treatment, and putting money into support programs is about the only way proven to work. People who say 'this is complicated' but then don't even bother to address it are simply trying to get people to not talk about it.
Go to most of europe and they have cheap hostels and 'free zones' all over the place. These are very small buildings with just a bed and bathroom for those who need them. People with mental illnesses often d not want to stay around other people and want to be alone, that's why shelters do not address their needs. Of course in NB they don't do this simply because they know they couldn't provide enough of such places, and that those living with slum landlords would flock there as well. Not to mention the cost involved and taxpayers generally do not support programs to alleviate poverty when other issues exist.
It takes money to do these things, there is no point pretending that 'doing nothing' and calling things complicated will ever accomplish anything. Anybody that wants to actual take the blinders off their eyes and look into any of the above criteria and debate it, feel welcome. Other than that, debating evidence with 'thats scare tactics' is simply engaged in propaganda (there's nothing to be 'scared' of in a debate)
this looks like a subversive group to me. I hope the powers to be, keep an eye on them
I agree with 11:01 AM. Good discussion. Even India comes here to do what is not permitted in India and that is how backward we are. Bernard Lord is putting finishing touches to it.
As far as mentally ill are concerned they should be given proper treatment and not put in rooming houses. People like Charles Leblanc need proper treatment. In the long run such people can do harm to themselves and others.
Great BLOG!
Charles, this blog seems to attract such shmucks!
I'm down with Atlantica protesting - why not protest them all while they are in one solid location.
I have a new found respect for you Mr. LeBlanc, for always standing your ground in the face of such, (dare I call them), adversaries.
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