from Youtube
Itzhak Perlman joins four klezmer groups: Brave New World, The Klezmatics, Andy Statman and the Klezmer Conservatory Band for a joyous get-together with unforgettable Klezmer melodies. As he says of the experience, "I caught the bug!"
Itzhak Perlman plays klezmer music.
Want to see it all? Available from Angel Records, on CD and now DVD.
from l'Humanite
In France, a 0.5 percent fall in household purchasing power in 2012 is predicted in the latest bulletin on the economic situation published by the French statistical bureau Insee.
This prediction follows a series of damning results which all converge: French society is undergoing an unprecedented decline in the conditions of social existence. A rise in poverty had already been pointed out by studies that Insee published in 2010 and 2011. In one of them, it noted that in 2009, compared to 2008, “10.1 percent of the active population over 18 were poor, that is, a 0.6 percent increase.” In another, it signaled the growing inequality in property ownership: between 2004 and 2010, “the relationship between the average total property of the top 10 percent of households and that of the poorest 50 percent of households” “increased by nearly 10 percent.”
The same situation exists in Europe. Eurostat, the European statistical institute, notes that in practically every country in Western Europe there has been an increase in the percentage of the total population receiving less than 60 percent of the median national available income, after social transfers, a population that consequently runs the risk of poverty and marginalization.
The percentage rose from 18.9 percent to 19.3 percent in France between 2005 and 2011, and from 18.4 percent to 19.9 percent in Germany. In Spain and in Ireland, which are subject to draconian austerity programs, it jumped respectively by 3.6 percent, from 23.4 percent to 27 percent, and by 5 percent, from 30 percent to 35 percent of the total population. The Scandinavian countries have not been spared. In Denmark, the rate increased from 17.2 percent to 18.9 percent; and in Sweden from 14.4 percent to 16.1 percent.
The same trend holds for inequality in the distribution of income. In the France of Nicolas Sarkozy, the relationship between the share of total income enjoyed by the top 20 percent of the population and that received by the bottom 20 percent of the population rose from 3.9 in 2007 to 4.6 in 2011. In Ireland it went from 4.8 to 5.3, and in Spain it went from 5.3 to 6.8.
For over two decades the countries of Western Europe stood out thanks to a rather continual increase in their standard of living and a certain decrease in inequality. The seizure of power by finance capitalism has put an end to that trend, essentially because it has led to a massive increase in joblessness. As Insee has noted, in a deceptively pedestrian style, in one of the afore-mentioned studies:
“The increase in the number of poor people can be compared with the increase in unemployment caused by the economic crisis.”
from APTN National News
OTTAWA — Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence stood at the steps leading up to the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill Monday and said she was “willing to die” if the federal government ignored her call for a meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Queen Elizabeth II and First Nations leaders.
Spence plans to begin her hunger strike Tuesday morning after a sunrise ceremony on Victoria Island, just up the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill.
“I am willing to die for my people, the pain is too much,” said Spence. “Somebody asked me if I was afraid to die. No, I am not afraid to die, it’s a journey we have to go on and I will go and I am looking forward to it.”
Spence told reporters who had gathered for her small press conference that the Canadian government was ignoring the treaties and that the Crown, in whose name the treaties were signed, is ignoring the breakdown of the relationship. She wants the prime minister, the Queen, or a representative, to sit down with First Nations leaders and reestablish the treaty relationship…
by Wendell Ferguson
Toe-tapping picking pokes fun at forced merriment.
from MP Charlie Angus' office
MP discusses First Nations, government accountability on reserves.
from Playing for Change
by Yann Frisch
Stay put, darn it!
from Aunt Chippy
by David Macdonald, from behindthenumbers.ca
Interest in Canadian “Social impact Bonds” has spiked following HRSDC Minster Finley's announcement that the federal government is investigating them for use in Canada. I’ve already commented on the story in The Toronto Star and on The Current (min 16) but I wanted to write my thoughts up in a fuller blog post for readers.
from Canadian Union of Public Employees
The attempted public-private partnership to expand and renovate North America's oldest hospital Quebec City's Hôtel-Dieu stands as a perfect example of the problems and pitfalls of turning to a P3 model — and what CUPE members can do to stop these risky schemes.
This documentary highlights the work of CUPE local 1108 and allies to keep the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec (CHUQ)'s Hôtel-Dieu a public hospital.
The pitfalls of the P3 model
