Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, May 24, 2013

Edmonton Police Video Sparks Review Of Alleged Brutality

The Edmonton Police Service has launched an internal investigation after a graphic YouTube video surfaced depicting an alleged violent take down of two men along Whyte Avenue over the long weekend.

The video catches what looks like the arrest of two men by several EPS members in the early morning hours of May 20, after one of the men allegedly threw a piece of pizza at a garbage can and missed.

Conservatives bring austerity to Newfoundland and Labrador

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has continued to decline in popularity over the past few months and its latest budget faces low approval, recent polling suggests.

A Harris Decima poll commissioned by the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE) found that 71 per cent of those surveyed opposed the budget, while at least two polls this year continued to show significantly lower levels of support for the governing Progressive Conservatives than those achieved in the 2011 election. Premier Kathy Dunderdale's personal popularity has also declined, primarily to the benefit of provincial NDP leader Lorraine Michael.

BC Minister's Son Beat Odds to Win Residency Spot

The son of a British Columbia cabinet minister and a senior Vancouver surgeon has landed a difficult to get training position in the department his father heads.

Kevin Lichtenstein went to medical school in Ireland, making him part of a group of Canadians who have studied medicine abroad that have complained loudly in recent years about how difficult it is to get residency positions to complete their training.

He has now, however, received a residency position in cardiac surgery at St. Paul's Hospital through the University of British Columbia, where his father Sam Lichtenstein is the head of the division of cardiovascular surgery. Sam Lichtenstein is also the director of CVT surgery at St. Paul's and the medical director for the regional cardiac science program at Providence Health Care and Vancouver Coastal Health.

Questions Remain in HD Mining Case

Earlier this week, a federal court justice dismissed an attempt by two British Columbia unions to have temporary foreign worker permits for 201 miners revoked.

The Construction and Specialized Workers Union and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 launched their case after it came to light the company, HD Mining, had advertised mining positions listing Mandarin as a job requirement.

Canada ranks 3rd last in paid vacations

Canada ranks third last among economically advanced countries in the amount of paid vacation time it guarantees its workers, a new U.S. study indicates.

The country, which for the most part mandates 10 vacation days annually, ranks ahead of only Japan and the United States, which is in last place.

Decriminalize Drugs: Canadian Drug Policy Coalition Report

Canada must decriminalize all drugs for personal use, says a report by the Simon Fraser University-based Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC).

The coalition issued a report Thursday titled "Getting To Tomorrow: A Report On Canadian Drug Policy" and it calls for the federal government to replace its National Anti-Drug Strategy by decriminalizing all drugs and creating a regulatory system for adult marijuana use.

Trudeau Raises Environmental Questions Over Pipeline

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says a proposed west-east pipeline project will not go forward unless it addresses key environmental concerns.

Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. is in the process of lining up potential producers who would use the proposed pipeline, which would run from Alberta to New Brunswick.

Michael Bellah Rapes Ex-Girlfriend After 911 Operator Tells Her There Are No Police Available To Help

A woman was raped and assaulted by her ex-boyfriend because there were no cops on duty to answer her 911 plea for help.

"I don't have anybody to send out there," the operator said. "You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away."

Minutes later, court documents obtained by NPR said, Michael Bellah broke into the woman's Josephine County, Ore., home and choked and sexually assaulted her.

Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills

WASHINGTON — Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.

One bill that sailed through the House Financial Services Committee this month — over the objections of the Treasury Department — was essentially Citigroup’s, according to e-mails reviewed by The New York Times. The bill would exempt broad swathes of trades from new regulation.

Japan the Model

A generation ago, Japan was widely admired — and feared — as an economic paragon. Business best sellers put samurai warriors on their covers, promising to teach you the secrets of Japanese management; thrillers by the likes of Michael Crichton portrayed Japanese corporations as unstoppable juggernauts rapidly consolidating their domination of world markets.

Then Japan fell into a seemingly endless slump, and most of the world lost interest. The main exceptions were a relative handful of economists, a group that happened to include Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and yours truly. These Japan-obsessed economists viewed the island nation’s economic troubles, not as a demonstration of Japanese incompetence, but as an omen for all of us. If one big, wealthy, politically stable country could stumble so badly, they wondered, couldn’t much the same thing happen to other such countries?

Atheists Like What They See In Pope Francis' New Openness

(RNS) Atheists and other nonbelievers largely welcomed Wednesday’s (May 22) remarks by Pope Francis that performing “good works” is not the exclusive domain of people of faith, but rather a place where they and atheists could and should meet.

In a private homily, Francis described doing good not as a matter of faith, but of “duty, it is an identity card that our Father has given to all of us, because he has made us in his image and likeness.”

Sequestration Poll Shows That Nearly 4 In 10 Americans Impacted By Cuts

Nearly 4 in 10 Americans have felt the pain of automatic spending cuts, according to a poll released Friday by ABC News and The Washington Post.

Most Americans across the political spectrum disapprove of the cuts. Fifty-nine percent of Democrats, 54 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of independents oppose sequestration.

Canada’s government is spending millions to get you to like the Keystone pipeline

Canada obviously has a huge stake in the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline. If President Obama fails to approve it — a decision he recently put off yet again – the Canadian oil industry will have a tough time getting its abundant tar-sands crude to seaside ports. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently came to the U.S. to make the case for the pipeline in person, as did Canada’s ministers of foreign affairs and natural resources and the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Pope Francis Says Atheists Who Do Good Are Redeemed, Not Just Catholics

Pope Francis rocked some religious and atheist minds today when he declared that everyone was redeemed through Jesus, including atheists.

During his homily at Wednesday Mass in Rome, Francis emphasized the importance of "doing good" as a principle that unites all humanity, and a "culture of encounter" to support peace.

Using scripture from the Gospel of Mark, Francis explained how upset Jesus' disciples were that someone outside their group was doing good, according to a report from Vatican Radio.

Senate asked Deloitte to broaden investigation into Sen. Pamela Wallin’s travel expenses

OTTAWA—The Senate asked external auditors examining the travel expenses of Sen. Pamela Wallin to broaden their investigation over concerns she was claiming refunds for activity unrelated to Senate business, the Star has learned.

The Senate subcommittee that had ordered external reviews of the expenses of four senators — Wallin, Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau — met on April 16 to hear an oral report from auditors at the forensic accounting firm Deloitte on what they had found.

Lines in the Sand

A lot of what’s known about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can be traced back to a chemist named Charles David Keeling, who, in 1958, persuaded the U.S. Weather Bureau to install a set of monitoring devices at its Mauna Loa observatory, on the island of Hawaii. By the nineteen-fifties, it was well understood that, thanks to the burning of fossil fuels, humans were adding vast amounts of carbon to the air. But the prevailing view was that this wouldn’t much matter, since the oceans would suck most of it out again. Keeling thought that it would be prudent to find out if that was, in fact, the case. The setup on Mauna Loa soon showed that it was not.

Carbon-dioxide levels have been monitored at the observatory ever since, and they’ve exhibited a pattern that started out as terrifying and may be now described as terrifyingly predictable. They have increased every year, and earlier this month they reached the milestone of four hundred parts per million. No one knows exactly when CO2 levels were last this high; the best guess is the mid-Pliocene, about three million years ago. At that point, summertime temperatures in the Arctic were fourteen degrees warmer than they are now and sea levels were some seventy-five feet higher.

Barbara Listing, Anti-Abortion Leader, Compares Rape And Incest To Car Accidents, Floods

The head of a pro-life group in Michigan made a controversial comparison on Wednesday, arguing that women in the state should be forced to pay extra for health insurance that covers abortions, even in cases of rape or incest.

"It's simply, like, nobody plans to have an accident in a car accident, nobody plans to have their homes flooded. You have to buy extra insurance for those," Barbara Listing, president of Right to Life of Michigan, told reporters on Wednesday when asked about the exceptions.

Elizabeth Warren Student Loans Bill Endorsed By Several Colleges, Organizations

A little more than two weeks after introducing her first bill, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is already seeing a wave of strong support.

Back on May 8, Warren announced her plans to set student loan interest rates at the same level big banks receive from the Federal Reserve. Come July 1, some student loan rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, prompting Warren to push for legislation that reduces the level to 0.75 percent.

Who profits from blasting away water resources and valuable ecosystems?

Another true horror story for water and the environment: open cast mineral sand mining. In very basic terms, this form of mining uses huge water cannons to send highly pressurized water to convert the soil to a slurry. This is then sent to a processing plant to separate valuable minerals, with waste going to pit refill, slimes dam sites and the recycle system at the plant. Alongside the valuable minerals, the process produces a sterilized mining area and abhorrent slimes dams.

Sequester Guts Wildfire Prevention, Sets Up Bigger Blazes

"Tree coming down!"

Skyler Lofgren shouts above a din of buzzing chainsaws, leans into his own, and with a final heave topples another 40-foot Ponderosa pine. Lofgren, 27, a forest firefighting crew boss with Flagstaff, Arizona's fire department, felled a dozen trees on Monday, overseeing an outdoor classroom for a new crop of seasonal recruits who will spend the summer patrolling the Coconino National Forest with three-foot chainsaws at the ready. The crew will fight wildfires when they come, but the vast majority of their time will be spent on prevention or, as Lofgren puts it, "working ourselves out of a job."

EI Recipients Canada: More People Applying, Fewer Seeing Any Money

StatsCan’s latest data on Employment Insurance recipients indicates Canada’s federal government is growing stingier with EI benefits.

There were 6,800 more applications for EI in March than there were in February, but the number of people receiving benefits fell by 5,200, StatsCan data shows.

“As a result, only 38 per cent of unemployed Canadians received EI benefits,” reports economist Erin Weir, who works for the Canadian branch of the United Steelworkers.

Canadian politicians fail to learn lessons from Richard Nixon

We are getting close to the 41st anniversary of the June 1972 Watergate break-in that eventually led to president Richard Nixon’s resignation. Forty-one years of a political lesson every politician on Earth should have learned, but seemingly to no avail. It wasn’t the illegal snooping on Nixon’s enemies by Republican-hired thugs that claimed Nixon, it was the coverup, stupid. Months and months of lies, the mother of all cover-ups back then and we witness today breathtaking political amnesia of major proportions.

Forget federal and provincial politics; the action is local

Municipal Canada is in shambles. Toronto’s Rob Ford may the most egregious example, but there are many others. From Montreal and Quebec City to Winnipeg and Mississauga, mayors across the country are as dysfunctional a bunch as you could find.

Whether we’re talking allegations of corruption, conflict of interest or a video that appears to show crack-smoking, chief magistrates across the land are suddenly the object of national if not international attention.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s ‘apology’ for Senate mess a day late, a dollar short

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, despite being off in sunny Peru addressing vital affairs of state, took time out of his hectic schedule to say he’s “sorry,” “frustrated, “and “extremely angry” about the Senate expense scandal that has broadsided his government and vaporized what remained of its spring agenda.

This show of contrition Wednesday, together with the PM’s first explicit denial of any knowledge of the infamous $90,172 payment to former Conservative Senator Mike Duffy by former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright, was the exculpatory statement many had been waiting for. But was it enough?

Wildrose deftly defuses robo-call crisis while federal Cons suffer Scotch verdict

You don't have to agree with Alberta’s right-wing Wildrose Party to admire the skill with which it stick-handled yesterday's revelation it had been fined $90,000 by the federal broadcast regulator for a series of improperly identified robo-calls made to voters during the 2012 election campaign.

Compared to the federal Conservative Party's blundering response to its various recent troubles, it seems mildly astonishing the two parties are essentially the provincial and federal branches of the same organization.

Slapped with the significant fine by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Wildrose Party officials responded deftly.

Harper abandons his underlings to the heat on the Hill

When you ride into town to clean up Dodge and open a bordello instead, someone eventually needs to ask for your badge.

If the Conservatives don’t get that message, their time in power will soon end. And if they maintain their silence, they will complete their time in office as living proof of Bryce MacKasey’s theory about the best working girls.

The latest evidence that Canada’s prime minister is an amoral political narcissist rather than a leader — or a conservative — is his craven handling of the Mike and Nigel Affair.

Heritage Minister James Moore defends creation of new history museum

OTTAWA — The proposed name and mandate change of the Canadian Museum of Civilization will give museums across the country access to the Gatineau institution’s 3.5 million artifacts, 90 per cent of which are now in storage, says Heritage Minister James Moore.

During a House of Commons debate on the bill establishing the rebranded Canadian Museum of History, Moore also repeated assurances that curators will have full independence to decide on the museum’s content.

Things that exist actually don’t, and things that don’t exist do, says government

To hear the Conservatives tell it, some things that exist actually don’t, and others that don’t actually do. Confused? I’ll explain.

During question period Thursday, New Democrat Murray Rankin rose on a question unrelated to the ongoing scandal surrounding Mike Duffy and the $90,000 payment from Nigel Wright, and harkened back to earlier times, when we were all still talking about the budget.

Francophones slam NDP plan to abolish Senate

OTTAWA — Could the NDP’s “roll-up-the-red-carpet” campaign to abolish the Senate come back to haunt the party?

A day after leader Tom Mulcair launched his campaign to convince Canadians to ditch the red chamber — which is now under intense fire over the spending habits of some members — the Federation des communautes francophones et acadienne (FCFA) du Canada issued a press release slamming the move.

Harper downplays ‘agreement’ between Duffy and former chief of staff

CALI, COLOMBIA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has downplayed suggestions there was more to the secret deal between his former chief of staff and Sen. Mike Duffy than meets the eye.

Appearing on the sidelines of a major Latin American trade summit here on Thursday, Harper was asked the terms of the agreement between Duffy and Nigel Wright, which saw Wright cut a $90,000 personal cheque so the senator could repay expenses he shouldn’t have claimed.

Federal Court won't remove MPs over election robocalls

The Federal Court says it won't throw six MPs out of their seats over allegations of widespread vote suppression through automated robocalls in the 2011 federal election.

A group of voters, backed by the Council of Canadians, challenged the MPs based on what the voters said was a pattern of voter harassment and misleading phone calls that sent some people to the wrong polling stations.

Rob Ford fired chief of staff for telling mayor to 'get help'

Mark Towhey was fired as Mayor Rob Ford's chief of staff because he told Ford to "go away and get help," a source close to the mayor's office has told CBC News.

Towhey was unceremoniously dumped from his job Thursday in the midst of a scandal that has shaken Toronto municipal politics — with the city's colourful mayor caught in the midst of allegations that he was recorded smoking crack cocaine.

Rob Ford crack scandal: Could it contaminate the right?

Not long ago, Mayor Rob Ford was the toast of the town among conservatives across the country.

His annual barbecue attracted a who’s who of the right wing in Canada. Longtime family friend and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty attends every year. Provincial Tory leader Tim Hudak has made an appearance and even Prime Minister Stephen Harper showed up, musing publicly about completing a conservative hat trick in municipal, provincial and federal governments.

Rob Ford throws gasoline on the fire at city hall

At a time when he most needs trusted advice and the steady hand of a chief of staff familiar with his peculiarities, Mayor Rob Ford fired his office boss Thursday, apparently in a fit of anger.

Go figure.

While city councillors pleaded for stability and calm assurance from the chief magistrate, Ford tossed the city another grenade — the unprecedented spectacle of security staff escorting the mayor’s top political aide from city hall, cameras rolling, reporters in tow.

Federal court finds fraud in six ridings in last election

OTTAWA — Electoral fraud occurred during the last federal election, a federal court judge ruled on Thursday, but there is no proof that it affected the outcomes in six ridings at issue so the elections will not be overturned.

The court challenge was brought by the Council of Canadians, which sought to overturn the election of six Conservative MPs who won close ridings where there was evidence that someone tried to affect the results by calling opposition supporters and telling them their polling stations had moved.

That’s what friends are for: Conservative senator stands up for Mike Duffy

OTTAWA- Conservative Sen. Don Plett has been walking in and out of the Senate with Mike Duffy for four years.

And even a raging controversy over Sen. Duffy’s expenses, the resignation of the prime minister’s chief of staff, and accusations of a Senate cover-up aren’t enough to change that.

“Sen. Duffy is still a friend of mine. Nothing has changed in that regard,” Plett said in an interview.

PM’s statement on when he knew about Duffy payment conflicts with timeline

PARLIAMENT HILL—A statement Prime Minister Stephen Harper made on Wednesday about when he first learned his former chief of staff gave Senator Mike Duffy $90,000 to repay expenses, under scrutiny at the time by a Senate investigation, conflicts with a timeline of responses from his office to a reporter’s inquiries about the payment.

Prime Minister Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) was reacting to several questions from reporters about CTV reports last week disclosing first, on Tuesday May 14, that then chief of staff Nigel Wright had secretly intervened to help Sen. Duffy repay the money, and then on Wednesday May 15 that the Prime Minister’s Office had confirmed Mr. Wright gave $90,000 from his personal bank account to Sen. Duffy to repay the expenses.

Federal judge confirms election fraud in 2011 vote

Electoral fraud occurred during the last federal election, a federal court judge ruled on Thursday, but there is no proof that it affected the outcomes in six ridings at issue, so the elections will not be overturned.

The court challenge was brought by the Council of Canadians, which sought to overturn the election of six Conservative MPs who won close ridings where there was evidence that someone tried to affect the results by calling opposition supporters and telling them their polling stations had moved.

Harper: Wright Resignation Should Have Been Accepted Sooner

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged for the first time Thursday that "perhaps" he could have responded more quickly to the news that his trusted chief of staff had footed the $90,000 bill for Sen. Mike Duffy's disallowed housing expenses.

Harper conceded that he could have accepted the resignation of former right-hand man Nigel Wright earlier than he ultimately did — four days after Harper and the rest of Canada learned the stunning news about the personal cheque Wright wrote the senator.

Jason Kenney Slams Justin Trudeau After London Attack

A senior Harper cabinet minister is throwing jabs at Justin Trudeau in the wake of a brutal attack in London.

On Wednesday, British soldier Lee Rigby was reportedly beheaded near the Royal Artillery Barracks by men believed to have been Islamist extremists.

KKK Memphis Rally Profiled In VICE Documentary 'Triple Hate'

In March 2013, a gathering of Ku Klux Klan members rallied in Memphis to protest the renaming of the renaming of Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, Jefferson Davis Park and Confederate Park.

The Memphis City Council received backlash after voting to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, originally named for a man who was the first Grand Wizard of the KKK, a Confederate general in the Civil War and a slave trader.

What the hell happened here?

Furious David Christopherson stood and invoked original sin.

“Mr. Speaker, on February 17, the Prime Minister answered in the House that: ‘All senators conform to the residency requirements,’ ” the NDP deputy recalled.

Mr. Christopherson would seem to have the date wrong, but otherwise the Prime Minister does seem to have said this.

Student Loan Bill Tying Rates To Market Passes House

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - The Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to switch federal student loan interest rates to a market-based system.

Republicans say their plan is a long-term solution that will take politicians out of the business of setting student loan rates and using them as a bargaining chip.

It is unclear, however, how much support the bill will get in the Democratic-led Senate, which is pushing to maintain the current interest rates of 3.4 percent for another two years.

Widening cracks

AS FAMILIES fired up their barbecues to celebrate the Victoria Day long weekend from May 18th-20th, a double helping of juicy political scandal was served along with the burgers and steaks. First came an extraordinary story in Toronto, where Rob Ford, the mayor, faced unproven allegations that he had been caught on video smoking crack cocaine. Next a long-simmering tale of senators fiddling their expenses boiled over unexpectedly into the office of Stephen Harper, the prime minister; on Sunday it forced the resignation of his chief of staff.

Senior Tory senator earned over $290,000 in corporate fees in 2012

OTTAWA — A wealthy Conservative party fundraiser named to the Senate by Stephen Harper collected more than $290,000 in directors fees on top of his Senate salary while attending dozens of corporate board meetings in 2012.

Corporate filings show that Irving Gerstein, the former official agent of the Conservative Party, was listed as in attendance for at least 48 board meetings last year.

Gerstein, 72, chairs the board of Atlantic Power Corp., a Boston-based energy company. He is also a director on the boards of Medical Facilities Corp., owner of surgical centres in the U.S., and Student Transportation Inc., which operates school buses in Canada and the U.S.

Michigan state Senate says Ontario nuclear waste site ‘raises serious concerns’

State senators in Michigan say that a planned nuclear waste disposal site near Kincardine, Ont., “raises serious concerns.”

The concern is expressed in a resolution passed Tuesday by the Senate.

The senate also proposes that the public comment period on the proposal, which wraps up Friday, should be extended.

Big retailers pull out of $7B credit card fee settlement

Some of the country's largest retailers, including Target Corp. and Macy's Inc., on Thursday filed a lawsuit against MasterCard and Visa, rejecting a settlement reached last year over alleged fee-fixing.

A larger group of 19 trade associations and retail companies originally filed suit against the card processing companies in 2005, claiming that they conspired to fix the fees they charge stores for handling payments made with credit cards.

Duffy says he's won't quit Senate in first public comments since expense scandal

OTTAWA - Mike Duffy is blowing off any talk of his voluntary resignation from the Senate amid an expense scandal that has reached all the way to the Prime Minister's Office.

Duffy spoke out Thursday, his first public comments since resigning last week after it was revealed he had made inappropriate expense claims and then paid them off with a $90,000 "gift" from Stephen Harper's chief of staff.

Dishes of olive oil to be banned from restaurants? The EU's gone mad

Those first minutes in a restaurant, the mulling over of the menu, clinking of drinks, collective breaking of bread and enthusiastic dunking into little bowls of olive oil – they are some of the most enjoyable.

Alas, one aspect of that ceremony may soon be no longer thanks to the latest absurd piece of European gastronomic interference: banning jugs and dishes of olive oil in restaurants. From January next year, dishes of oil are to be replaced by bottles, which must be presented, claret-like, at the table with a tamper-proof nozzle and EU-approved labelling.

Ontario power plant cancellations: Liberals knew of $900 million ‘worst-case scenario’

The Liberal government was privately bracing for a $900 million tab to scrap power plants in Oakville and Mississauga while publicly maintaining the cost was $230 million, Progressive Conservatives charged Thursday.

The $900 million was in Treasury Board documents while negotiations were taking place with the builders of the two plants on moving them to new locations, Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli told MPPs.

Rob Ford crack scandal: Toronto Mayor’s chief of staff fired

Mayor Rob Ford will enter the second week of a crack cocaine scandal without the counsel of his top aide, whom he fired without explanation on Thursday before leaving city hall in silence out a back door.

Mark Towhey, Ford’s chief of staff since August and his top policy adviser since the 2010 election campaign, would not explain why Ford dismissed him. And he would not say what Ford told him about the scandal, nor what he told Ford.

BBC report on South Africa's white poverty 'a half-arsed, skewed view of reality'

The BBC's esteemed World Affairs editor, John Simpson, ignited a bush fire in South Africa this week, with a piece entitled "Do white people have a future in South Africa?"

Mr. Simpson discovered, apparently during a recent trip, that there are white people in the country who are poor.

And so he produced a report that used white poverty as one of its central pillars and wrote a piece for the BBC’s website highlighting white poverty -- to the exclusion of black poverty, which still remains the central fact of the South African experience.

‘They don’t want to integrate’: Fifth night of youth rioting rocks Stockholm

Youth gang riots in the Swedish capital Stockholm have entered fifth straight night. Hundreds of mostly immigrant teenagers tore through the suburbs, smashing windows and burning cars in the country’s worst outbreak of violence in years.

At least six vehicles were torched throughout the city late on Thursday while the police called for reinforcements from other Swedish cities bracing for further unrest.