statism watch

DPA, EarthTimes.com
November 15, 2008

Washington – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Saturday said leaders of the world’s top 20 economies took a significant step toward resolving the global financial crisis but cautioned that critical reforms in governance were needed for there to be any lasting impact. Leaders of the Group of 20 nations – a mix of wealthy and developing countries – met for the first time ever at an emergency summit in Washington in a nod to the increasing clout of emerging economies like China, India and Brazil.

Today’s summit was significant because of the people present. A new world economic order is developing that is more dynamic and more inclusive than any we have yet seen,” said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s managing director.

Strauss-Kahn also noted the leaders’ commitment to adopt broad government spending plans to boost demand in their economies. The IMF has forecast a global recession for 2009, but government actions could still pull them out of the downturn. [Ed. Note: It's amazing that people still believe this in this day and age]

(more…)

Robert Cribb, Toronto Star
November 15, 2008

As we become more and more mobile, tech firms are dialing into new ways to make sure there’s no place we can hide

We live hyperactively.

The way we work, eat and play has become defined by a level of constant motion that would dizzy our ancestors.

It’s a contemporary condition that has spawned an industry catering to mobility, from drive-thru restaurants and banks to wireless phones and music players to audio books and countless personal devices engineered to follow where we go. Lightweight, compact and mobile design features are no longer novel selling points. They are necessities that have mothered the kinds of invention that now drive the technology industry.

The uber gadget of our time, the cellphone, is only growing in utility as the central repository of our digital selves. Already serving as our telephones, email, text messengers, calendars, Web screens, cameras and video players, cellphones are about to also become our new debit cards. By early next year, you will be able to pay for your groceries, or any number of other things, by simply swiping your cellphone at the check out. A chip inside your phone will automatically deduct the amount from an account you set up.

(more…)

Jeff Gray, Globe and Mail
November 15, 2008

The new federal Transport Minister, John Baird, says there will be no discussion in his department of road tolls or London-style “congestion charges” for drivers, even though his ministry sponsored a Toronto conference this week featuring European and U.S. officials involved in such schemes.

(more…)

Bill Schiller, Toronto Star
November 15, 2008

Defiant Beijing peasants are gearing up for a battle to stay on their land

BEIJING–One man stands at the entrance to the alleyway tugging on a cigarette, glancing right and left.

Suddenly, a woman appears out of nowhere and leads you down – beneath the watchful gaze of another spotter on the roof – to an open door and then deep into a back room. The security isn’t for you. It’s for them: they’re scared witless.

They’re peasants clinging to their land – trying to defy big business and big government – desperately seeking to halt a major real estate development on the outskirts of Beijing.

Friends of theirs who tried have already been beaten.

(more…)

Kristin Rushowy, Paola Loriggio, Toronto Star
November 15, 2008

Schools are in desperate need of more social workers and counsellors as one way to help combat youth violence, lawyer Julian Falconer said in a speech yesterday.

Falconer, who headed a panel looking into the safety of the public high schools in the city that reported to the Toronto board last January, said children come to school with a lot of “baggage” and can’t learn. Teachers and administrators are already run off their feet, Falconer told a Rotary Club luncheon at the Royal York Hotel.

(more…)