Blog Archives

Chinese cheaters peddled 40 year old meat

29/6/2015

Open air dog flesh market Guangdong China

June 29, 2015-The PRC has had food scandals in the past, but this latest may be the all-time worst. Chinese officials have seized tons of beef, pork and chicken wings that have by-passed health and safety inspections. Some of the 800 tons of meat is believed to have dated back to the 1970’s.

The meat would have garnered about half a billion dollars (US) if the criminals could have sold it all. Some is believed to have gone to retail markets and some was being offered over the internet. Date labels on some of the meats were from the 1970s. It is a fairly common practise to change and update labels on old, questionable food to fool the consumer into believing it is fresh. It does make one wonder how long the smugglers have been selling the questionable meat.

When meat inspectors examined the seizure, they were shocked at the condition of the various meats. Some of it was clearly rotting as it thawed. The route that the smuggled meats are believed to have followed was from unidentified foreign countries to Hong Kong where it was then shipped to Vietnam and from there spirited across the Vietnam/China border, avoiding taxes and inspections.

On the distribution routes into China, much of the cargo was shipped via unrefrigerated trucks so the meats would have been thawed and refrozen numerous times.

“It was smelly and I nearly threw up when I opened the door,” said an official from Hunan province, where 800 tonnes were seized. The Guardian

No stranger to food scandals, the PRC poisoned thousands of children in 2008 with tainted milk, many dogs and cats in N. America were poisoned with melamine in their food, fake eggs and fruit are relatively common. Who could forget the sight of thousands of drowned pigs dumped into the water supply of the glittering, modern Shanghai?

China’s neighbour to the south, Vietnam, currently has a scandal of their own. They have intercepted a shipment from China of thousands of cats destined for restaurants where there is a demand for feline flesh. Thousands of cats in small cages were summarily buried. Some of the cats were still alive at the time.

Sources:
CNBC
The guardian
Market Watch

1 Comment

Freedom Flotilla III heads for Gaza blockade

28/6/2015

4 Comments

Unwilling participant in Israeli shelling of civilians 2014

Opinion

A small flotilla left a port in Sicily to try once again to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. The blockade has been declared illegal by the UN. Some have called it the world’s largest open air prison. Last summer destruction rained down on the population as Israel retaliated for rockets fired into their country.

Both sides have likely committed war crimes.

The blockade is in its ninth year.

The Freedom Flotilla carries people from 20 countries. A Canadian making a second attempt at breaking the blockade is Robert Lovelace, a former Algonquin FN chief. He drew parallels in how the settlers treated the aboriginal people in Canada and how Israel is treating the Palestinians trapped in the Gaza strip. Parallels to forcing the Canadian FN people onto reserves and seizing of land and the Israeli policy of containing about 1.8 million Palestinians in the narrow strip of land while gradually seizing land in the occupied West Bank have been made.

A surprise participant in this year’s flotilla is Dr. Basel Ghattas who is an elected member of the Israeli government. The Israeli foreign minister has condemned Dr. Ghattas’ action, stating that it is “serving the enemy”.

Someone who is not considered as aiding the enemy by Netanyahu is the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He has been open about his unconditional support of Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu has been effusive in his praise of the Canadian PM.

Calling Harper "a great friend of Israel and the Jewish people", Netanyahu praised him for "unabashedly" standing by Israel on issues including Iran's nuclear programme, and terrorism. Al Jazeera

Harper leads the Conservative Party in Canada. The religious following that he participates in is the Christian and Missionary Alliance. From Wikipedia, the summary of the base for the “born again” believers: A.B. Simpson articulated the Alliance's core theology as the Christological "Fourfold Gospel": Jesus Christ as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Soon Coming King. Critics of the PM have alleged that he has moved a slightly right of centre government to the religious right.

Five hours ago a post on the Freedom Flotilla Facebook page noted that aerial surveillance had taken place and they were being shadowed by unidentified ships.

Further Reading: Look up The King is Coming on the Net for numerous end of times predictions.

Freedom Flotilla tweet image-Israeli occupied forces intercepted Marianne. The boat is currently en route to Ashdod port #SOSFreedomFlotilla

June 29 update:
There are reports that the vessel the Marianne was intercepted by Israel's military around 100 nautical miles from Gaza's shore. There are no reports of injuries according to the Israeli military who boarded the vessel.

Petros Stergiou, a spokesperson for the flotilla, told Al Jazeera "What we learned is that the Israeli navy attacked the Marianne around 100 nautical miles from the shore of Gaza. "They said they could see three military boats approaching them that had identified themselves as being military. "Once again, the Israeli government and its military has acted like state pirates and attacked our boat in international waters."

On Twitter Peter Lerner said "After repeated appeals and following refusal to change course, the vessel is now being escorted to Ashdod Port."

The Marianne is one of four vessels forming the flotilla.

Sources:
Al Jazeera
Alahed

4 Comments

Cyber warfare hits Russian virus hunters

27/6/2015

2 Comments

A leading IT security company has revealed that it was a target of a highly sophisticated malware virus. The virus was believed imported into a computer via a seemingly innocent attachment and from there, went on to infect the system.

The Russian IT company labelled the malware as an Advanced Persistent Threat (APTs) based on an earlier version dubbed Duqu cyber weapon 2011. Small hints told the experts that the new virus was similar enough that they have labelled the new version Duqu 2.0

Duqu 2.0 also attacked the Iranian nuclear programme. Because it is so effective and so sophisticated, the spokesperson for Kaspersky Lab discounted the suspicion that cyber criminals were responsible.

"Cyber criminals are not behind this. We are probably dealing with nation-state attackers." Der Spiegel

The IT security firm has pointed out that the virus was detected spying on negotiators dealing with the Iranian nuclear push. The talks were meant to be secret. The P5+1 talks took place in various European cities.

For those of us who operate computers but don’t program or code, the cyber world can be very confusing. Kaspersky Lab has found the weakness to be in Windows called “zero day exploits”. Microsoft has since patched the weakness.

Suspicions currently point to the state of Israel for these intrusions. While they deny the allegations, there were several small clues that pointed to Israel’s involvement.

The Stuxnet virus that badly damaged the Iranian nuclear programme has generally been accepted as an Israeli/USA effort.

The past few decades have seen the world turn more and more into a connected grid of information sharing. Much of our infrastructure is now controlled by computers connected to the Internet. The system originally developed by the military to facilitate communications has morphed into another creature altogether. The very convenience of the Net is also its weakness.

Intrusions in the early days of the net were often laughed off as the over enthusiastic work of amateur hackers. Criminals quickly learned to exploit the system to skim off money and redirect electronic deposits. Those individuals working on home computers now need sophisticated security programs to ensure that worms, viruses and other unwelcome iterations are repelled.

Nations are now sponsors of cybercrime. Some use the electronic highway to spy on their citizens, others use it to spy on other countries’ citizens.

Cyber attacks have been made against economic targets. The well-publicized Sony hack and the Target credit card hack were given lots of press. The electrical grid is largely controlled by computers. Cities’ water and sewage treatment plants are under electronic directions for the most part.

Thirty years ago cyberwarfare was a thing predicted in science fiction novels. Today it is a reality. Some countries are taking the threats seriously. To this end, RAND Corp., has testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Strategies for Defending U.S. Government Networks in Cyberspace which is available to read online.

Sources:
Spiegel Online International
Secure List
Rand Corporation

2 Comments

Cholera outbreak adds to S. Sudan woes

26/6/2015

1 Comment

1865 New York cholera poster

The world’s youngest country has added a cholera outbreak in Juba to its lengthy list of woes. Since late May, 18 people have died from the disease. There have been 171 confirmed cases.

The initial cases were from people who were staying in a UN camp leading to the suspicion that the disease was brought to S. Sudan by a UN worker. An outbreak in Haiti was traced to UN workers whose latrines contaminated water in a stream that some people were using for drinking water.

In the developed countries, cholera is a rare disease. It is caused by a bacterium, Vibrio cholera, that is spread easily in contaminated water sources. S. Sudan has been fighting a civil war for over a year resulting in overcrowded UN camps and decaying infrastructure. Costs for fuel have increased and many of the poor in the urban area can no longer afford to purchase clean water and have turned to open sources, many of which are of dubious safety.

UNICEF is warning that 5 000 children are at serious risk of dying from the disease if action is not taken quickly. They will be administering 30 000 doses of Oral Cholera Vaccine at their Juba camp as well as reviewing basic hygiene such as hand washing and safe food handling.

This is the second cholera outbreak since the president and his vice-president started a civil war in December 2013. The conflict quickly devolved into brutal ethnic conflicts causing many civilians to become displaced and forced to live in crowded and unsanitary conditions. May 2014 saw an outbreak of cholera which claimed 167 lives.

UN aid has been flowing to the country, but is always in short supply. Currently the humanitarian aid there is at 41% of what is needed to support the people.

Cholera is a disease that may produce no symptoms or may be life threatening. It strikes small children particularly hard producing a watery diarrhea which leads to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Swift treatment can prevent many deaths.

Sources:
Relief Web
All Africa
UNICEF
Wikepedia

1 Comment

Pakistan death toll climbs as heat continues

25/6/2015

2 Comments

Slum in Karachi

A pre-monsoon heat wave in Pakistan has claimed upwards of 700 lives. Wednesday almost 800 people are dead and the death toll continues to rise.

Most of the dead are in Karachi, a city of 20 million. Temperatures have remained in the forty degree Celsius for the past few days, sending thousands to hospitals and clinics.

The poor and elderly are the hardest hit, dying of heat stroke and dehydration.

The situation has been made worse as the electrical grid in Karachi collapsed under the demand which in turn prevented air conditioning to work. Running water has been cut in many areas and ice is hard to find.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has shut government offices and declared a general holiday in an attempt to ease electrical demands. Heat stroke centres are being set up by the Army.

Temperatures in the 40s are hard on anyone, but the elderly usually less efficient in cooling their bodies. Poor, manual labourers working in the sun are also endangered but the situation is made much worse because the majority of Pakistanis follow Islam and are in the midst of Ramadan.

During Ramadan eating and drinking, including water, is forbidden after sunrise and before sunset.

Local imams have announced that in order to prevent illness, people may drink water during the day.

In May, extreme heat was responsible for nearly 2000 deaths in India.

The body keeps its internal temperature within a narrow range normally. When the ability to maintain a normal range of 37 to 38 degrees Celsius is lost, serious health problems start. A two degree rise will send information to the brain to slow down and fatigue is a symptom. Between 40 and 41 degrees heat exhaustion will causes vomiting, cramps and headaches. If measures are not taken immediately to cool the body, sweating ceases and organ shut down starts with the real possibility of death occurring.

2 Comments

<<Previous

Chinese cheaters peddled 40 year old meat

Freedom Flotilla III heads for Gaza blockade

Cyber warfare hits Russian virus hunters

Cholera outbreak adds to S. Sudan woes

Pakistan death toll climbs as heat continues

Barbara McPherson

Archives

Categories