How would you like a little coal tar dye in your tea? How about some cyanide in your bottled water? Unwary consumers in India may find that tea and bottled water comes with those additives. North Americans generally believe that food sold at farmers’ markets and in super-markets are safe to eat. If vegetables and fruit look good, look fresh, they must be. Shoppers in India do not have that assurance as unscrupulous farmers and vendors may have adulterated the produce. People in India spend about half of their income on food purchases so they are usually looking for the ‘best deal’ and price point is important. If food is cheap and looks good it could help to stretch the household budget. There is money to be made making tired, stale produce look good. Often it is done with dangerous chemicals. Vegetables like squash can be jolted into ‘bulking up’ by injecting their stems with oxytocin. A farmer boasting about his techniques seemed little concerned that the powerful hormone acts on the human body directly. Formalin, a mixture of formaldehyde and alcohol, has been found mixed into milk to mask spoiling. It has also been injected in fish to keep them from spoiling. The list of adulterated foodstuffs goes on and on. India has extensive regulations with regard to additives and contaminants in the food supply. Unfortunately, the enforcement of those regulations often falls short. It has been blamed on both a shortage of qualified people to conduct testing of samples as well as a shortage of up to date lab facilities. India exports many food and cosmetic products. A quick glance through the Alibaba site shows a wide range of food and cosmetic additives ranging from animal feeds to turmeric powder. Currently India is not on the list of countries that are permitted to ship meat and meat products to Canada. Further reading: India today Food Safety and Standards Authority of India Canada Food Inspection Agency
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Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found a link between body movement and aggression. A small study, 29 people, were fitted with devices to track their movement while walking normally on a treadmill. They postulated that those who had the most exaggerated walk were more likely to be aggressive. Both men and women were fitted with the motion trackers. Later they had the participants self-report on a personality test. Based on the answers, the researchers made judgements about how aggressive the participants were. They then correlated that information with the motion tracking and found a close fit. While many of us knew intuitively that swagger and aggression or overconfidence go hand in hand, this was a first in attempting to scientifically find a link. The 1977 movie, Saturday Night Fever, is a great illustration of this link where the young John Travolta playing the part of Tony Manero opens the film with Stayin’ Alive – “you can tell by the way I use my walk….” This research is not frivolous. It may be the start of more detailed work to identify personality traits by observation. As the world’s cities become ever more surveilled, people might become suspects based on their gait. There is a whole industry in book publishing and counsellors helping people understand and sometimes overcoming their and other’s unconscious body movements. For instance, gamblers may give away information with small unconscious movements called tells. Smiling, hand gestures, eye contact or lack of it all give another person non-verbal information. Of course the flip side of reading unconscious body movements is the knowledge of how to overcome them and give a different impression to watchers. Further reading: Science Daily University of Portsmouth Journal of Non Verbal Behavior CNBC Villagers in the south east Chinese town of Wukan have been protesting in the streets. They have been met with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas. Villagers have been reported to be throwing stones. Wukan is the capital of Hubei Province and has become a symbol for many of democracy in action. In 2011 residents banded together to thwart illegal land grabs and to elect their own mayor. On September 9th authorities arrested and jailed the mayor, Lin Zulian, for what many say are trumped up charges and forcible confession. He has been sentenced to three years in prison and a $30 000 fine. In pre-dawn raids Tuesday, another 13 people were taken into custody charged with illegal assembly. In the Byzantine law enforcement in the PRC, that could mean what the authorities say it is. The arrests set off the people of Wukan and they took to the streets. But they were overwhelmed by the well armed police. Large teams of riot police move in formation: shields above their heads; shields to the front. They are met with a hail of bricks and retreat. BBC Wukan has been sealed off from people entering or leaving and loudspeakers are exhorting those named as suspects in helping to organize protests to give themselves up. The state owned Global Times China, has reported on the incident stating that all of the illegally seized land has been returned. The 572hectares that the villagers have been demanding be returned has clear ownership papers. Opinion The hopes for many in the PRC for a softening of the central government’s control have been dashed again. One of the problems facing the central government is maintaining control over the population. Democracy can be an unruly form of government. The blossoming of democracy in the late 80s was brutally crushed with many killed and imprisoned. Chinese people do not refer to that incident as the Tiannamen Square massacre but as “Six Four Nine”. In 1990 when I first visited that country Tiannamen Square was not to be talked about and 6-4-9 was whispered. https://twitter.com/hashtag/wukan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Further reading: Al Jazeera .html BBC News Global Times China North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has labelled the UN Security Council’s move to apply sanctions as “laughable”. He supervised another nuclear weapons test on Friday. This latest test explosion has been measured as yielding an explosion between 10 and 30 kilotonnes. It is extremely difficult for outsiders to get reliable information from the isolationist country. The fifth nuclear explosion comes hard on the heels of a successful missile launch from a submarine. Tensions in the area are high. Japan had objected to the submarine launching of missiles which had landed within their sphere of influence. S. Korea has made noises about destroying Pyongyang if the N. Korean leader shows signs of using a nuclear weapon against the south. “Every Pyongyang district, particularly where the North Korean leadership is possibly hidden, will be completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosive shells as soon as the North shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon,” a military source in Seoul, whose name has not been disclosed, said on Sunday, “ RT The Russian foreign minister has urged calm. US President Obama has stated that they will not accept a N. Korean nuclear power. The reclusive country’s closest ally and supporter, China, has had a high ranking official visit the N. Korean embassy in Beijing to warn that the continued testing of nuclear devices is ramping up tensions in the area. The US and S.Korea are currently in the planning stages of a high altitude anti-missile defense system. The system is being justified by the increasingly bellicose attitude of Kim Jong Un. The system once established would also have the ability to peek at much of the PRC. China has not supported the proposition to block all food aid and fuel because of the fear that the population would become desperate and flood across the Chinese border. Further Reading Reuters RT South China Morning Post Oil and natural gas pipelines have long had priority over land rights in many areas of N. America. The continent is cris-crossed by them and land owners who object to the digging up and installing of high pressure conduits have little rights in dealing with what is generally agreed that the movement of resources is for the common good. A proposed pipeline in North Dakota, the North Dakota Access Pipeline is facing stiff opposition from the Lakota Sioux have taken a stand against the pipeline crossing their lands at Standing Rock. They have established a village encampment since April to protest the digging up of their land. The proposed route would cross the Missouri River upstream from the reserve. Residents are concerned that a leak would pollute the main source of their drinking water. The ecologically fragile area is also the site of numerous important spiritual locations including burial plots. The Lakota received bad news this week shortly after being attacked by private security agents who allowed dogs to bite peaceful demonstrators. A judge in Washington DC ruled that the temporary injunction would be set aside and that the pipeline would proceed. The CBC carried disturbing videos of large dogs attacking people on horseback and in the crowds. Friday the federal government announced that pipeline construction would not proceed on federal lands near Lake Oahe and requested that the pipeline company not work on construction within 20 miles of the lake. In the past few months about 40 people have been arrested including presidential candidate for the Green Party, Dr. Jill Stein. She has been charged with criminal trespass and criminal mischief. She has been accused of spray painting a bulldozer with the words “I approve of this message”. People have been gathering from various areas to support the Standing Rock Sioux. National Guard members as well as many state law enforcement personnel have gathered in the area as well. The pipeline, if approved, would transport N. Dakota oil to Illinois and has been justified by some as helping the USA reduce its dependence on foreign oil. That same argument has been used for the transport of natural gas, but much of that product has been shipped offshore. Further Reading: Warrior Publications Christian Science Monitor Duluth News Tribune |
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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