Mid-Week Post

The median point of the work-week...


Justin Trudeau has gotten many things wrong since being handed assuming leadership of the federal Liberal party. He has made several embarrassing gaffes, he has projected American middle-class woes on the Canadian middle-class, he cannot define what is the middle-class, he assumes budgets balance themselves, he has taken soft stances on terrorism, he admires "the basic dictatorship" of China and he has no grasp on the situation in the Middle East and Canada's peripheral involvement in it.

Justin Trudeau has made it clear on a number of occasions how vaguely involved Canada should be in the fight against ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). In his haste to appeal to the vulgar millennial crowd, he forgot how much in aid Canada had given prior to committing very limited military aid which included CF-18s and military advisors.

It's not warm jackets but hey.

When this small armed contingent came under fire this week-end, both Trudeau and Thomas Muclair took the opportunity to attack Harper, accusing him of misstating Canada's mission abroad.

Apparently, it is too much to expect armed personnel to defend themselves against child-rapists and journalist-murderers. This firefight has since exploded into a full-on war and is perfect political hay for those who would see Canada once more take a backseat on the international stage.

Here is Justin Trudeau "bravely" facing the media:




With this kind of "courage", why worry about Putin?


This is the rotten state of the Union:

- the US debts stands at over $18 trillion dollars (as of this writing) which averages out to $56, 931 per person

-the actual unemployment rate is higher that the listed 5.6% due to seasonal factors and "discouraged workers" or those who have been unable to find any work, much of which is part-time


-Iran is STILL enriching uranium


Cambodia and social media:

Soaring use of Internet-connected smart phones has allowed Cambodians to sidestep government-controlled television, radio and newspapers.

In 2008, only about 70,000 people had access to the Internet, according to government statistics. Today, the figure is 3.8 million and most of them are young: about 70 percent of the country's 14 million people are under 30.

There are now more cellphones used in Cambodia - 20 million - than there are Cambodians.
Many government ministers have Facebook or Twitter accounts, and Everett said the Ministry of Interior planned to increase its use of social media.

Although a late adopter, Hun Sen's Facebook page has more than 640,000 "likes." The page of his arch-rival, the CNRP leader, Sam Rainsy, boasts over a million.

A gender imbalance? Really?

Chinese health authorities on Wednesday described the gender imbalance among newborns as "the most serious and prolonged" in the world, a direct ramification of the country's strict one-child policy.

The statement will add to growing calls for the government to scrap all family planning restrictions in the world's most populous nation, which many scholars say faces a demographic crisis.

Like most Asian nations, China has a traditional bias for sons. Many families abort female fetuses and abandon baby girls to ensure their one child is a son, so about 118 boys are born for every 100 girls, against a global average of 103 to 107.

"Our country has the most serious gender imbalance that is most prolonged and affecting the most number of people," the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a statement on its website.

The agency said it would step up supervision on fetal sex determination, which is banned in China. It acknowledged that women were transferring blood samples overseas to determine the genders of their babies as part of an "underground chain for profit".

"This has further exacerbated the gender imbalance in our country's birth structure," the agency said.
Researchers have warned that large sex-ratio imbalances could lead to instability as more men remain unmarried, raising the risks of anti-social and violent behavior.

Many analysts say the one-child policy has shrunk China's labor pool, hurting economic growth. The working age population fell again in 2013, the government said on Wednesday.

And now, crashing a North Korean wedding.