Michel Ouellette JMD

Archive for the ‘Société / Society’ Category

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Making Money

In Économie/ Economy, Société / Society on June 19, 2013 at 7:50 pm

making-money

The one million dollars question

Why is it that the only thing people are interested in today is earning more money?

Because people have to plan for their future, the future of their children,  including sending them to college, planning for their retirement, purchasing a home, purchasing  a car and while doing it, being able to support their entire family and themselves with whatever they have left after having paid their taxes. Not to mention, the security that having some money saved provides should a disaster occur.

That was easy!

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

 

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Protesters clash with police across Brazil

In Anger, Austerity, Poverty Around The World, Société / Society on June 18, 2013 at 2:50 pm

Brazil Confed Cup Protests

Take this my friend: “We are here to make sure police don’t hurt these kids”

SAO PAULO – More than 100,000 people were in the streets Monday for largely peaceful protests in at least eight big cities.

In some of the biggest protests since the end of Brazil’s 1964-85 dictatorship, demonstrations have spread across this continent-sized country and united people from all walks of life behind frustrations over poor transportation, health services, education and security despite a heavy tax burden. They were in large part motivated by widespread images of Sao Paulo police last week beating demonstrators and firing rubber bullets into groups during a march that drew 5,000. They also railed against the matter that sparked the first protests last week: a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic hub, at least 65,000 protesters gathered in a Carnival atmosphere, as people chanted anti-corruption jingles and thousands of protesters in the capital, Brasilia, peacefully marched on Congress.

“This is a communal cry”; “We’re not satisfied”; “We’re massacred by the government’s taxes”; “We don’t have good schools for our kids”; “Our hospitals are in awful shape”; “Corruption is rife” “We cannot take it anymore”; “We will not take it anymore” were chanting the protesters in hope for their protests to make history and wake our politicians up to the fact that the Brazil population cannot and will not be taking it anymore!

A group of mothers received a rousing cheer when they arrived at the plaza where the march began, brandishing signs that read “Mothers Who Care Show Support.”

“We are here to make sure police don’t hurt these kids”; “We need better education, hospitals and security not billions spent on the World Cup” were saying the mothers.

Protest leaders went to pains to tell marchers that damaging public or private property would only hurt their cause. Some congressional windows were broken, but police did not use force to contain the damage. During the first hours of the march that continued into the night there was barely any perceptible police presence.

In Rio, police officers tear gas and rubber bullets when a group of protesters invaded the state legislative assembly and hurled rocks and flares at police. But most of the tens of thousands who protested in Rio did so peacefully, many of them dressed in white and brandishing placards and banners.

In Belo Horizonte, police estimated about 20,000 people took part in a peaceful protest. Earlier in the day, demonstrators had erected several barricades of burning tires on a nearby highway, disrupting traffic.

In a brief statement, President Dilma Rousseff, who faces re-election next year and whose popularity rating recently dipped acknowledged the protests, saying: “Peaceful demonstrations are legitimate and part of democracy. It is natural for young people to demonstrate.”

Protests also were reported in Curitiba, Belem and Salvador.

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

Read and see more:


http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/17/protesters-clash-with-police-across-brazil-as-civil-unrest-roils-across-country/

 

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Protest rallies held in Brazil’s major cities

In Austerity, Économie/ Economy, Société / Society on June 18, 2013 at 1:53 pm

Brazil Confed Cup Protests

More than 100,000 people took over the streets

BRAZIL – Demonstrations against rising costs of public transport and 2014 World Cup reflect anger over government policies.

Yesterday, Jun3 17th, over 100,000 young protesters have massed across Brazil to demonstrate against the rising costs of both public transport and the 2014 World Cup to be held in the country. Protesters gathered in at least seven cities on Monday in what they hoped would be their biggest demonstrations yet against the increase in transit rates.

The protest movement is mainly made up of the middle class and is critical of the government’s decision to increase transit rates by 10 cents, to $1.60. Police in Sao Paulo estimated that 30,000 people rallied in the city’s biggest demonstration yet. Up to 20,000 people marched in Rio de Janeiro and another 6,000 took part in protests in the capital Brasilia.

Brazilians have long accepted malfeasance as a cost of doing business, whether in business or receiving public services. The government loses more than $47bn each year to undeclared tax revenue, vanished public money and other widespread corruption, according to the Federation of Industries of Sao Paulo business group. But in the last decade, about 40 million Brazilians have moved into the middle class and they have begun to demand more from government.

While almost one-fifth of the population lives in poverty, many Brazilians are angry that billions of dollars in public funds are being spent to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics while few improvements are made elsewhere.

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

Read more:


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/06/201361721510894542.html

 

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Au Brésil, une manifestation monstre contre l’augmentation du coût de la vie

In Austérité, Économie/ Economy, Justice Sociale, Société / Society on June 18, 2013 at 12:56 pm

Brazil 130617-protest-hmed-10p.photoblog600

BRASILIA – Des milliers de jeunes se massent aux portes du Parlement après des heures de manifestation.

Au moment où le Brésil connaît un ralentissement économique, des dizaines de milliers de Brésiliens descendent dans la rue pour protester contre l’augmentation du coût de la vie et la facture astronomique de la prochaine Coupe du Monde. La principale manifestation s’est tenue lundi à Rio de Janeiro où 100 000 personnes se sont rassemblées, alors que 65 000 se rassemblaient à Sao Paulo, la capitale économique du pays.

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

 

Pour en savoir plus:


http://bigbrowser.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/06/18/changebrazil-suivre-les-manifestations-au-bresil-en-ligne/

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Stealing from the poor

In Société / Society on June 8, 2013 at 10:06 am

world food large

Wasting food is like stealing from the poor, says pope

ROME – Pope Francis denounces what he calls a “culture of waste” in an increasingly consumerist world: “Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry.” 

Around 1.43 billion tons of food, or one third of what is produced for human consumption, gets lost or wasted every year. In the industrialized world the majority of waste is by consumers, often because they buy too much and have to throw away what they do not manage to eat. Better storage and reducing over-sized portions would sharply reduce the vast amount of food going to waste. 

Francis said the “culture of waste” is especially deplorable given the prevalence of hunger in the world. Hunger affects some 870 million people, while 2 billion suffer from at least one nutritional deficiency. 

The pontiff warned that too much focus on money and materialism meant financial market dips were viewed as tragedies while human suffering had become normal and ignored. ”In this way people are discarded as if they were garbage,” he says.

Who can argue with that?

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

Read More:


http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/05/18780415-wasting-food-is-like-stealing-from-the-poor-says-pope?lite


http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/10/27/189731_ntnews.html

 

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Our survival may well be in jeopardy

In Prédictions / Predictions, Save the planet, Société / Society on June 3, 2013 at 5:29 pm

chaiten-volcano

Mankind is now engaging in the biggest battle ever seen

ALJAZEERA – Climate change and poor planning are worsening the toll in lives and money that natural disasters wreak worldwide.

We are in a really delicate situation now where even our survival may be in jeopardy. The list of problems facing our planet is growing everyday. Natural disasters are increasing around the world claiming lives and costing billions of dollars in damage. The UN has estimated the direct economic cost of disasters since 2000 is roughly $1.4tn, cautioning that the total price tag on people’s livelihoods and the wider economy are never fully counted.

Japan’s earthquake and tsunami of 2011 was probably the most costly natural disaster in history, causing losses of hundreds of billions of dollars. Last October’s Superstorm Sandy cost the United States more than $50bn, while also devastating Cuba, Haiti, and other Caribbean nations. Record wildfires last year in Russia and the US burned through millions of acres, following another unprecedented Russian summer in 2010 when heat waves claimed 55,000 lives.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported last year that droughts and heat waves are growing harsher and longer in many regions, causing deaths, fires and crop failure. When rain does come, it is often more intense, causing flooding and landslides. Meanwhile, rising sea levels increase the height and damage potential of storm surges in coastal areas.

In 2005, the Hyogo Framework for Action was adopted to encourage countries to become more resilient in the face of natural disasters. But the Global Assessment Report reveals that efforts have had limited success so far. 121 countries have passed legislation for reducing disaster risks since 2005, and more than half of the governments have made substantial progress in assessing and monitoring the risks their people face. But this has had no discernible affect on disaster losses, which continue to stack up around the world.

So far, each step towards a global framework for addressing disasters has been framed by massive natural events. The Hyogo Framework was established in Kobe, Japan, as bodies were still being recovered from the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The recent disasters casting shadows on this year’s event brought greater attention to the likelihood that climate change is worsening the intensity of weather events. Other than climate change, reckless urban development, the exploitation of groundwater, and deforestation are increasing the likelihood of disasters large and small, and weaken the resilience of communities to withstand them. The Global Assessment Report highlighted that many people suffering the worst effects of climate disasters are not the ones contributing to them.

And this is only the beginning.

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

Read More:


http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/20135278951818557.html

 

 

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World’s cost of living 2013

In Société / Society on May 30, 2013 at 9:45 am

tokyo-japan

Tokyo, the most expensive city of the world

TOKYO – After currency swings pushed Zurich to the top of the ranking last year, Tokyo has resumed its place as the world’s most expensive city.

Despite Japanese deflation, a weaker yen and rising prices throughout the world, Tokyo has resumed its position as the world’s most expensive city. Tokyo took over Zurich, which dropped to seventh. A strong local currency powered Sydney in third place and Melbourne in equal fourth place while Singapore rose to sixth.

Asian cities now make up 11 of the world’s 20 most expensive cities in the world. Caracas now makes it in ninth place, making it the most expensive city across the Americas while Vancouver is still he most expensive location in North America at position 21. Los Angeles and New York City tie at 27th as the most expensive U.S. cities.

South Asian locations dominated the cheapest cities to live in.

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

Read More:


https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=Wcol2013

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The Minimum Wage: Does It Matter?

In Société / Society on May 29, 2013 at 6:50 pm

Minimum-Wage

Increase in minimum wage

WORLD – Since minimum wages are not indexed to inflation, they do not systematically increase in proportion to changes in the costs of living. 

Those in favor of increasing the minimum wage will argue that such an increase would lift people out of poverty, helps low-income families make ends meet and narrows the gap between the rich and poor. But forget about all of this. That last argument is underscored by the exorbitant salaries earned by CEOs and other corporate titans, which are also the same people generally arguing against an increase in the minimum wage.

Instead of cutting down on their salaries, which, by the way, is paid by the business and the income that you generate being paid generating revenue at minimum wage to pay their extravagant salaries that they earn sitting ion their office or at the private club, their argument is that allowing you to have a decent wage thus, a decent life, would hurt small businesses, squeeze profit margins, lead to inflation, encourages employers to downsize their staff and increases the cost of goods to the end consumer. What a bunch of baloney I say!

For some others, economically speaking, the theory of supply and demand suggests that the imposition of an artificial value on wages that is higher than the value that would be dictated in a free-market system creates an inefficient market and leads to unemployment. According to this theory, the inefficiency occurs when there are a greater number of workers that want the higher paying jobs than there are employers willing to pay the higher wages. What a bunch of baloney I say!

Keep in mind that earning more than minimum wage does not necessary mean that one is not living in poverty. According to estimates, some 37 millions people lives in poverty in the United States only. What about Canada? What about Spain? Greece? France… What about the world? Unless we all collectively take charge of our life and destiny now and decide to empower ourselves, nothing is going to happen. No matter how high is the minimum wage, too many will still be unemployed or living in poverty.

And this, my friends, is no baloney!

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

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One quarter of world’s children struggling to learn because of malnutrition

In Société / Society on May 28, 2013 at 10:08 am

hungry_kids

Three hungry kids – One in every four in the world!

The Food for Thought report by Save the Children – One in every four children in the world is suffering from chronic malnutrition that is affecting their ability to learn, according The Food for Thought report by Save the Children. The study also revealed that undernourished children were an average of 20 percent less literate than those who had a “nutritious diet.” It is said that that malnutrition could affect global economic growth by $125 billion.

“A quarter of the world’s children are suffering the effects of chronic malnutrition. Poor nutrition in the early years is driving a literacy and numeracy crisis in developing countries and is also a huge barrier to further progress in tackling child deaths. Improving the nutritional status of children and women in the crucial 1,000 day window, from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until her child’s second birthday, could greatly increase a children’s ability to learn and to earn,” says Carolyn Miles, president and chief executive of Save the Children.

The report found that malnourished children: scored 7 percent lower in math tests and were 19 percent less likely to be able to read at the age of 8; were 13 percent less likely to be in the appropriate school grade for their age; were likely to earn at least 20 percent as adults. It says that extrapolating a 20-percent reduction in earnings to a global level would mean childhood malnutrition could potentially cost the global economy some $125 billion in 2030.

The report was based on studies of thousands of children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam and noted there had been “huge progress” in helping children over the last two decades. Between 1990 and 2011, the number of children who died before the age of 5 fell from 12 million to 6.9 million, faster than ever before. And since 1999, the number of kids in elementary school had gone up by more than 40 million. However, malnutrition threatens to undermine these impressive advances.

In spite of the reduction in children dying, the global crisis of child mortality remains unsolved, 19,000 children continue to die each day from preventable causes. Meanwhile, a global crisis in education means 130 million children are in school but failing to learn even the basics. They are left without the core skills and abilities they need to fulfill their potential and to lead fulfilling, productive lives. Child malnutrition is a key factor underlying both these crises. Malnutrition is an underlying cause of 2.3 million children’s deaths a year and, for millions more children, contributes to failures in cognitive and educational development. As a result, the life chances of millions of children around the world are devastated.

The potential cost to the global economy runs to billions of dollars.

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

Read More:


http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/28/18550564-one-quarter-of-worlds-children-struggling-to-learn-because-of-malnutrition-study?lite

 

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New U.N. “Low” Population Projection for 2050

In Prédictions / Predictions, Société / Society on May 25, 2013 at 5:38 pm

un-black

United Nations Population Division

UNITED NATIONS – In a report released a few weeks ago, the United Nations Population Division slightly increased the projection usually used to forecast the size of the human population, predicting a world with 9.2 billion people by mid-century, up from nearly 6.8 billion today.

According to the report, in its low population estimate, nearly 8 billion people are to be expected on Earth by 2050. The high projection, however, foresees some 10.5 billion people; the medium projection being 9.2 billion people, all the growth coming from developing countries, developed countries having now largely painted themselves into a corner. In the near future, however, families in wealthier countries may decide to prolong or reconsider having children due to the economic recession.

According to the United Nations Population Division, for the next forty years, the overall world’s population growth is inevitable. As a result, natural resources such as fossil fuels, timber, minerals, and water will likely be severely depleted in many regions. According to the United Nations World Water Development Report, feeding the world’s expanding population will increase water demand by 70 to 90 percent in 2050. Population growth will also compounds global challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss.

Wake up everyone, this is less than forty years from now.

It is now, time to act!

JMD

 jmdlive@lefuturistedailynews.com

Read More:


http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6038