The Real Death match

[donk]

SARS vs Mad Cow


RANT
Yesterday was the giant concert in Toronto to benefit healthcare and hospitality workers, at least that is how it was billed. I find it pretty offensive that we are supposed to feel sorry for Dr's and nurses who have to work hard, doing the job that they are paid well to do, when cattle farmers and ranchers across the country are being hurt by a single case of mad cow disease and receiving little compensation/aid. ( Hell, they put fishplant workers here on special EI after they burnt down their own plant, killing their own jobs)

I do have sympathy for the hospitality workers though, they are not well paid, ussually immigant women with little education and are the "least emploable" members of society.

Who deserves the sympathy SARS workers or Ranchers (Mad Cow)?

BTW, only about $0.7 per ticket is going to help people, the rest is going to the gov't and the bands.

 

[michaelskis]

Where is the Planners Emotional Fund. We have to deal with developers, go into sections of town that the rats are afraid of, we have to think out side of the box and look at new ideas all the time, oh, and the big one, we are out to make our communities better, BUT we have to deal with the political bull every day.

Bring on SARS, I will show you an angry developer because he can not get a street vacated to build a plastic belt factory.

You know that beer, hot wings, and cheese steaks are not cheep.

 

[Chet]

I voted Monkey Pox.

Everything is funnier with a monkey.

 

[SGB]

And let's not forget about the salmon fish farmers, either.

A prelimanary report was just released indicated that farm raised salmon have higher (and potentially dangerous) levels of PCBs.

The sound you hear is of salmon sales plummeting.......

 

[DecaturHawk]

( Hell, they put fishplant workers here on special EI after they burnt down their own plant, killing their own jobs)

Excuse my American ignorance here, but what's "special EI"?

 

[Tranplanner]

Re: Re: The Real Death match

Excuse my American ignorance here, but what's "special EI"?

EI = Employment Insurance. Formerly called UI (unemployment insurance), guess that was considered too "negative".

There's no real "special EI" per se, but the government did provide extended benefits, training, etc. to fisheries workers. Didn't hear about burning down there own plant though...

 

[donk]

Pogie = EI = employment insurance, it used to be called UI (unemployment insurance)

In the peninsula region of my province you only need to work 13 weeks to get EI for 40 weeks, until the next fishing season.

"Special EI" is when the gov't puts make work projects and training seminars on so people can get their 13 weeks.

 

[donk]

Didn't hear about burning down there own plant though...

The workers or the fishers burnt one of the plants that was processing the crab that was being fished by the natives and inshore fishermen. They also burnt a few boats.

The good old CBC provides coverage

http://nb.cbc.ca/features/crabcrisis/index.html

 

[Tranplanner]

Although the proceeds are supposed to help healthcare and hospitality workers affected by the SARS outbreak, I think the real purpsose of the concert was to show the world that Toronto and Canada are safe to visit. Of course, I don't think anyone outside of Canada has paid the least bit of attention to the event - supposedly only 1/3 of the tickets available for purchase in the States were sold.

Even though the concert was billed as a "charity" event - you can be pretty damn sure that a bunch of people made a hell of a lot of money off of this thing. The government more than recouped its money just from the tax on the tickets...

They tried to tie in the mad-cow thing - they had a huge BBQ with Canadian beef, and the three prairie Premiers were there, doling it out.

 

[El Feo]

Like Chet, I vote Monkey pox. The t-shirts would be better.

 

[Downtown]

I voted Mad Cow - but what especially pisses me off about Mad Cow is the revised Red Cross standards on blood donation - you can't donate if you spent more than a total of 6 months in most any of the European countries at any point in the last 23 years, and 3 months in the U.K. Which knocked out any donor who's ever done study abroad.

 

[Tranplanner]

I voted Mad Cow - but what especially pisses me off about Mad Cow is the revised Red Cross standards on blood donation - you can't donate if you spent more than a total of 6 months in most any of the European countries at any point in the last 23 years, and 3 months in the U.K. Which knocked out any donor who's ever done study abroad.

My mum was a regular blood donor, and is rather pissed that she can't give anymore. I'm also disqualified (2 months in Oxford, and numerous family visists), but am secretly relieved as, although I think blood donation is one of the best things a person can do, I really, really hate needles.

 

[donk]

I think the real purpsose of the concert was to show the world that Toronto and Canada are safe to visit.

If that was the gov't's intention they could have given Hamilton's Road World Championships a lot more money then they have. Hamilton is expecting 40-50000 europeans to come, 25-50000 americans and 50-100000 canadians.

this event will be watched on TV by 700 million - 1 billion people in europe and around the world.

What bugs me most about this is the somewhat 2 faced way that it was promoted and spoken about in the media. Global ripped teh event pretty hard last night on the late news as they were unwilling to pay the cover charge to cover the event.

 

[BKM]

One COULD argue that it is partly the farmers' own fault-aggravated by the hysteria of the mass media. We have known for years that "cattle cannibalism" is not a good idea. But, they bleat, we cannot afford other feed sources. I'm not an agricultural expert, but I really wonder about the whole industry sometimes.

This is completely off-topic (if mods want to create a new topic, I think this would be a good one), but I wonder about the future of factory farming. In the paper this morning was a feature about how factory-farmed salmon concentrates PCBs.

Maybe meat SHOULD be a luxury-and that trying to make it a common, everyday staple of our diet is a big mistake-from a health standpoint, from the standpoint of animal cruelty, and from an environmental standpoint. We are seeing proposals in my county now for 6000 cow mega-dairies. They are confined feedlot operations, and all waste is shipped off site like an industrial byproduct.

 

[donk]

In Canada, it is illegal to feed ruminent(sp?) by products to ruminents (ie cows and sheep can not be fed cows and sheep) and all feed bags that contain ruminent by products must be labeled.

They (Health and Ag Dept's) figure that this is either a "evolutionary" case or the cow came from the States. They are really scared if it is the "evolutionary" type as that does put the entire cattle industry in jeopardy.

 

[Duke Of Dystopia]

Maybe meat SHOULD be a luxury-and that trying to make it a common, everyday staple of our diet is a big mistake-from a health standpoint

Blasphemor! If were not supposed to eat other animals why are they made out of MEAT!

 

[SGB]

We are seeing proposals in my county now for 6000 cow mega-dairies. They are confined feedlot operations, and all waste is shipped off site like an industrial byproduct.

What a (pardon the pun) waste! Just think of the methane cogeneration potential............

 

[michaelskis]

Hmmmm Steak and potatos for dinner tonight.

 

[BKM]

Blasphemor! If were not supposed to eat other animals why are they made out of MEAT

Hey, don't get me wrong. No pale, thin anemic here (sorry, veggies). But, factory farming does bug me-a little bit (not enough to overcome my cheapness or laziness).

Evolutionary Mad Cow-that IS scary.

 

[Cardinal]

Hmmmm Steak and potatos for dinner tonight.

Steak last night, cooked on the charcoal grill with some onions and a couple slices of bacon. I don't think there is any better all-around topping for meat than bacon.

Unfortunately, I also cleaned out the freezer. There was one hamburger patty in there with a date of 1999.

 

[donk]

michael stumpf cleaned out his freezer and

There was one hamburger patty in there with a date of 1999.

I'll trade you my blueberries from 2000

 

[Tranplanner]

Anybody want some circa 1998 soba noodles?