Obama and Biden promise but others deliver

Obama and Biden are promising that they "will embrace the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty and hunger around the world in half by 2015, and they will double our foreign assistance to achieve that goal. This will help the world's weakest states build healthy and educated communities, reduce poverty, develop markets, and generate wealth."
So what will that mean?
An increase in foreign aid as a percentage of US Gross National Product from around 22% of one per cent to 44% of one per cent?
With most of it targeted to flow into Iraq or Afghanistan and out again in the pockets of American corporations?
Well whoopee.......the US might just retain its position as second last within DAC for this statistic.

Think we Aussies with a population of only about 21 million do a bit better than that in percentage terms.
According to the OECD:
"Australia has made substantial, positive changes to its aid programme since 2004, reinforcing its focus on reducing poverty, on promoting the MDGs, and completely untying its aid programme. Its aid volume was USD 2.67 billion in 2007, representing 0.32% of its gross national income (GNI). Australia has committed to contributing 0.5% of its GNI to official development assistance (ODA) by 2015/16."

Of course the sheer size of the American economy up to 2007 has meant that the US was at, or near, the top of the table for total of actual dollars contributed when you include its debt forgiveness to countries it unlawfully invaded, politically destabilised etc., and its low-interest loans.

Aid at a Glance charts for all donor countries are found here.

Vatican says, Pill pollutes. Scientists say, Rubbish!

Vatican says: the pill is polluting the environment & is responsible for male infertility. Scientists say: Rubbish!

Holy hectors! Reports are pouring out of the Vatican that the contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility.

CathNews reports that the Vatican newspaperL'Osservatore Romano is carrying an article that says:

The pill has "had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature," Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, says.

"We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill," Mr Castellvi said in a L'Osservatore Romano article.

"We are faced with a clear anti-environmental effect which demands more explanation on the part of the manufacturers," Mr Castellvi said.

But the article was promptly dismissed by several organisations.

"Once metabolised, the hormones contained in oral contraceptives no longer have any of the characteristic effects of feminine hormones," said Gianbenedetto Melis, vice-president of a contraceptive research association, quoted by the ANSA news agency.

The hormones contained in the pill such as oestrogen "are present everywhere... in plastic, in disinfectants, in meat that we eat," said Flavia Franconi, of the Society of Italian Pharmacology.

The Gaza fight enters cyberspace

Click to enlarge

I suppose it had to happen - Palestinian supporters are hacking in protest at the situation in Gaza.
Arabia Mirror tracks some of these hacks.

This North Coast Voices post will probably not be possible if the Rudd-Conroy plan to impose national mandatory ISP-level filtering on the Australian Internet is implemented.

Way to go, mums!

According to GlobeLife on 31 December 2008:

They called it a "virtual nurse-in."

Earlier this week, 11,000 mothers who use Facebook changed their profile pictures to photos of themselves breastfeeding children to protest against the social networking site's decency standards.

It's the latest blow in a continuing battle between Facebook and some of its users since it began removing photos that show breastfeeding.

The single-day protest, known as the Mothers International Lactation Campaign, was organized by Stephanie Muir, an Ottawa woman and mother of five who is one of more than 87,000 members of the group "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!"

The group is pushing Facebook to change its policies regarding breastfeeding pictures and its regulations surrounding how much of a woman's breast can appear in photos posted on the site.

"This societal attitude that women's breasts are lewd, sexually explicit or pornographic in their very nature serves only as a detriment to breastfeeding," Ms. Muir said.

Make 2009 the year of the green purchase

We all know how to recycle household paper, aluminium and glass, and to avoid purchasing goods with triple wrapping, but what about those other things we buy?

The Green Pages is a great online place to start looking for things in its BeGreen range such as nifty pens made from recycled material, ethically manufactured underwear and beer that swears it is green.

Every little bit counts in a country whose government is still playing catch-up on climate change mitigation measures.

It's the start of the first full working week of 2009

I could say just be thankful that you have a job - but I know that wouldn't help the situation right now as everyone gears up for another 12 months of working for that dollar.

2009 on the NSW North Coast: time to brace ourselves for price hikes

Well the festive season is virtually over and there is only Australia Day left to mark the end of most people's December holiday break.

So what have we to look forward to on the NSW North Coast?

The cost of prescription medication under the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme went up this month by $1.60 to $32.90.
Pensioners will have to pay $5.30, up from $5, and will also have to pay for 62 scripts before they qualify for the safety net provision.
Of course, as it was getting harder to find prescribed medication being dispensed for $5 this will come as no surprise to many pensioners.
There is also no indication that Centrelink's pharmaceutical allowance will be increased to cover more than the current one script per fortnight.

The New South Wales retail price of electricity supplied to residential customers is likely to be fully deregulated sometime this year, coupled with the latest decision by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal to allow a 26 per cent increase in electricity prices within the next two years.
The first price change is likely to be on 1 June this year.

Residential and business water charges will go up again this year, by around a 7.6 per cent annual increase if the North Coast Water timeline is any indication.

The Rees Government appears to be endorsing the IPART recommended 8.5 per cent increase of the maximum cap on regional bus fares.
As Sydney metropolitan and outer-metropolitan rail and bus fare increases have already been announced, expect to see local bus companies increase fares soon after any government announcement.
Further fare rises can also be expected over the next four years., but for the first time all-day pensioner excursion tickets will be available on the North Coast.