What this blog is not

There has been some discussion in the Northern Rivers recently about blogs versus mainstream media and, it is obvious that many people have contradictory expectations of regional blogs.

So this is what North Coast Voices both is and is not.

It is not a newspaper or a news aggregate website.

It is a group site which offers local opinion on issues usually relating to government, international affairs, society or the environment.

Its authors are all older residents of the NSW North Coast and they openly lobby for causes which are dear to their hearts or are matters of  concern.

North Coast Voices also seeks to inform and that is why its posts frequently contain links to publicly available primary sources and documents.

It employs no-one, has no journalists on its contributor list and has no money in the kitty for expensive research. Since early October 2007 it has posted seven days a week without fail – except between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  

This blog was created at a time when Australian regional blogs were rare and those commenting on society and politics were even rarer still. It was meant to fill a perceived need for local voices to be heard on the Internet.

We here at North Coast Voices believe we have succeeded in this aim.

And banks wonder why their reputations are in the basement of world opinion

The Independent 1^st September 2012:

“Barclays has made as much as half a billion pounds in two years from speculating on food staples such as wheat and soya, prompting allegations that banks are profiting handsomely from the global food crisis.

Barclays is the UK bank with the greatest involvement in food commodity trading and is one of the three biggest global players, along with the US banking giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, research from the World Development Movement points out.

Last week the trading giant Glencore was attacked for describing the global food crisis and price rises as a "good" business opportunity.

The extent of Barclays' involvement in food speculation comes to light as new figures from the World Bank show that global food prices hit an all-time high in July, with poor harvests in the US and Russia pushing up the average worldwide cost of staples by an unprecedented 10 per cent in a month.

The extent of just one bank's involvement in agricultural markets will add to concerns that food speculation could help push basic prices so high that they trigger a wave of riots in the world's poorest countries, as staples drift out of their populations' reach……”

Source: International Monetary Fund at index mundi

Today is Equal Pay Day in Australia

Australian Government:

ABS statistics released in August 2012 show that across Australia, women's average full-time weekly earnings are now 17.5% less than men's earnings

The Age September 2, 2012:

Equal Pay Day is today - the 64th day of the financial year. It is held on the day women catch up to men's earnings of the previous year. This year, it took women 64 days, while in the previous two years it was 63.

Clarence Valley Review launches revamped website

http://cvreview.com.au/

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