A U.S. P-8A anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft flew over waters off China's Nansha Islands in May, receiving repeated Chinese warnings. Xinhua News
Overflights by US air force planes have also enraged the Chinese government. Not all bordering the S. China Sea are unhappy with the American transit of naval vessels. Vietnam has maintained an uneasy peace with its large neighbour while periodically breaking out in confrontations over fishing rights. In all, seven countries have claims of parts of the Sea. It isn’t just the fishing rights that are important. Many maritime resources are exploited to feed the growing number of people in SE Asia and the Philippines. In addition, there is good evidence that abundant petroleum existed under the relatively shallow sea. The small kingdom of Brunei depends almost entirely on oil exploitation to run its country. The importance of the trade routes in the area may ultimately become the most crucial element in the dispute. A lengthy report written in February 2012 titled Geopolitics of the South China Sea by Energy Intelligence predicted the action of an industrialized and increasingly robust China. Sources: Xinhua News Radio Free Asia Energy Intelligence
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Canadians went to the polls on Monday October 19 in a show of dissatisfaction with the ruling Conservative Party of Canada. In a wave that started in Newfoundland, Labrador the Liberal Party led by Justin Trudeau swept the country to garner a majority of the 338 electoral seats. At the end of the evening they had secured 184 seats, 14 more than needed for a majority government. The New Democrat Party(NDP) lost seats to the Liberals as well. The new face of the government will see the Conservatives as the loyal opposition with 99 MPs and the NDP holding 44 positions. The Bloc Quebecois lost seats as well and now falls below the number of MPs that constitute a federal party. Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, retained her seat but it is the only one now held by them. The reasons for the Liberal landslide are debatable. Pundits have had a field day expositing on them. In general terms there were many issues. The Conservative Party had taken a sharp veer to the right under the leadership of Stephen Harper. His refusal to answer any unscripted questions from the press set up some hostility. The economy of Canada currently depends on resource extraction and the price of metals and petroleum has pushed the economy into recession. Others would say the negative tone of the Conservative campaign turned off voters. The issue of a woman wearing a face veil at a citizenship ceremony failed to play in the Conservative’s favor in many quarters. When it was revealed that all security measures had been taken and that the woman would reveal her visage to another woman and had in fact done so and had obtained the supreme court ruling that she could claim citizenship, many began to wonder what the issue really was. Perhaps the gaff that struck me as a desperation move on the C’s part was the passing of a bill to disenfranchise citizens if they were convicted of terrorism. An attempt by the PM to explain dividing Canadian citizens into “new” and “old stock” citizens was fodder for many jokes at his expense. The Liberal Party has a reputation for occupying the centre of the political spectrum. Justin Trudeau is the son of Pierre Trudeau who was PM in the ‘70s. It may be that the younger Trudeau will bring a fresh new approach to the governing of the nation. This morning he greeted commuters in the Montreal subway, thanking them for their support and happily allowing them to take ‘selfies’. We can hope. Sources: The Globe and Mail CBC television CTV television
The PM’s office alerted the RCMP to the possible illegalities. But that was after the Aboriginal Peoples Network broke the story.
While this makes for some titillating reading, it does pose some important questions about how a person with a criminal record and disbarment from the Law Society of Upper Canada could become a senior advisor to the top politician in the country. Other current scandals that the Conservative campaigners are dealing with involve the senators who are alleged to have made inappropriate expense claims – Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau. Brazeau has recently pleaded guilty to simple assault and possession of cocaine. He is facing impaired operating of a vehicle. All three senators have had their pay reinstated during the federal campaign. Another insider, Dean Del Mastro, is facing jail time for election fraud. He is appealing his sentence. Sources: CBC Both sides in the war were quick to claim that further sanctions against them would damage the peace process.
The process has become more complex as one of the rebel generals has announced that he doesn’t agree with Machar trying to form a transitional government with Kiir. He is rumoured to have split from Machar and taken other rebel commanders with him. S. Sudan started with much promise. It is oil rich. Revenues from oil provide over 90% of its foreign money. It also has great potential in developing its agriculture. Large tracts of land have abundant water and could be developed. Meanwhile the country is dependent on the charity of foreign nations to help it feed and clothe the millions who have lost their homes and livelihoods. Sources: Sudan Tribune All Africa Human Rights Watch He has maintained his cool and smiling demeanor throughout. Duffy was a senior journalist with CTV and a long-time supporter of the Conservative Party.
If the PM’s office thought the buck stopped there, they were completely wrong. The first to be thrown under the bus was Nigel Wright who claimed that no one else knew of his $90 000 gift to the senator. The PM disavowed all knowledge of the transaction. Now that the trial is finally under full swing, the cross examination is revealing that a very tangled web was spun. The current chief of staff for the PM, Ray Novak, has been named in emails as having been appraised of the $90 000 ‘gift’ to Duffy. Now that numerous emails are surfacing, the dirty business of the PMO is being revealed. When Duffy declined to tell a reporter if he had paid back his wrongful claim, Wright wrote the following in an email. "We'll just unleash (Sen.) Tkachuk, who will call him a thief," Wright wrote after a Global News story aired, apparently fearing Duffy might be after more money. More importantly, why the "big lie" of trying to convince Canadians that Duffy paid back his own expenses, “ CBC News There is an email placed in evidence that was sent to both the current chief of staff and the PMO lawyer advising them that the cheque would be sent, yet as of yesterday Harper was maintaining that they had no knowledge of the transaction. He opined that they were too busy to read all their emails. The scandal has continued to dog the PM. The other political party leaders are making hay on the revelations. Mr. Mulcair(NDP) is maintaining that while Duffy is in the courtroom, that it is really Stephen Harper who is on trial. Justin Trudeau(Liberal) commented that the PM looks as if he would do anything to stay in power. In the end, it will be the Canadian public that decides the fate of the politicians in October when the federal election is slated to be held. Sources: CBC News |
Barbara McPherson
Blogger, gardener, farmer. Working toward food security and a 30 foot
diet. Addicted to reading. Love this planet, especially my little corner
on Vancouver Island, Canada Archives
October 2016
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