Japanese Tapeworm Found in American Wild Salmon

This is an interesting point made on raw fish and possible danger in eating sushi. Something I had not thought about.

Buying Seafood

For those who like their salmon on the rare side, time to be more careful as that prime piece of wild Alaskan salmon may be infected by D. nihonkaiense, a member of a genus of tapeworms that can infect humans. This particular species, the Japanese broad tapeworm is the second leading cause of diphyllobothriasis (tapeworm infection) in humans. The tapeworm is usually transferred to human when they consume raw or under-cooked fish that contain the eggs or larvae.

Life cycle of diphyllobothrium tapeworms. Source: CDC

This has been a long-standing and probably under reported issue in Japan, and could be growing due to the popularity of sushi worldwide. Now the CDC has a report that states that this tapeworm species has been found in North American salmon for the first time. According to the report chum, masu, pink, and sockeye salmon are the species most likely to carry D…

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to clarify the record

Tags

#FakeNews, AK47, Alexandre Bisonnette, Canada., Fascism, FOX News, massacre, Quebec City, Sainte-Foy, Terrorism, Trudeau, Trump

 

I believe that I need to write this entry to clarify the record given that FOX News and other like minded news outlets in the USA including the White House are spreading #Fakenews on what actually happened in Quebec City last night at the Islamic Centre and Mosque.

It is important to set context in what actually happened last night. The City of Quebec is very old in terms of North American settlement, founded in 1608 and was the Capital of the French Empire in North America until 1763. It then became the Capital of British North America until we responsible government was established in 1867 in Canada and the new Capital became Ottawa.

Quebec City is a small town, a big village, every one knows everybody, its gossipy, it is also fairly conservative in terms of politics. There are the old families and the others, there is a divide between the Upper Town and Lower Town. My family lived in Quebec City in Sainte-Foy and then Sillery in the 1960’s I have a lot of relatives there since 1662 when my family first arrived in Canada.

Immigrants to Quebec City, they have been there since day one, nothing new. I remember when I was 6 years old that our family pharmacist was a Syrian Refugee that was in 1962, JFK was President then. Jews in Quebec City they go back to the French Colonial days of the 18th century, blacks also most came from France. Though Quebec or New France was suppose to be a Roman Catholic enclave of the French Colonial Empire, there were plenty of Protestants or Huguenots fleeing the wars of religion in Europe. There were also back then 10 men for each women, need I say more…

So the presence of a diverse population and a multiplicity of religions and culture is nothing new. In the last 50 years the Provincial Government of Quebec has recruited almost exclusively immigrants from French Speaking Arabic mostly Muslim countries, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and in Africa mostly from the former French Colonial Colonies, like Cote D’Ivoire, Sénégal, Cameroun, Benin etc…

So yes there are lots of Muslims in Quebec who happen to speak French and are usually well educated. Unfortunately and this is the very sad part, for the last 50 years we have had a lot of xenophobia and racism fostered by politicians on a nativist and populist line to gather votes and money, they will stoke fear of the other. The political line is about race, language and pure French ethnic stock not tainted by inter-marriage with none French ethnic background. Several commentators on the radio in Quebec City are also making a career by offering daily hateful diatribes against anyone who is not #purelaine. We also had a former Prime Minister Steven Harper who loved to single out Arabs and Muslims for his own hate filled speeches, trying to pass himself as the Canadian Donald Trump. Strangely enough he now jet-sets with the GOP in the USA giving the sort of lectures they love.

Alexandre Bisonnette 27 years old 

The events of last night at the Centre Islamique in Sainte-Foy was the work of a young man, a loner, demonstrating anti-social behaviour, who apparently according to neighbours had been bullied in school as a child, though his classmate describe him as a boor and an obnoxious twit, he has an identical twin who lives somewhere in Canada. His name is Alexandre Bisonnette, 27 years old, lived at his parents in the small village of Cap-Rouge near Quebec City. He liked hunting and had a gun collection, this element surprises me because fire arms are strictly controlled in Canada and I hope we will find out how he got his hands on an AK-47 to commit his crime, a weapon that is strictly controlled and impossible to get, unless you have links to criminal gangs. His family claim tonight that they do not understand what happened, such a nice boy. Did they not notice that he spouted alt-right opinions, that he was in love with Marie LePen of LeFront National in France, that he was trolling websites about refugees and women and that he was spewing pure hate for them.

Apparently he had wonderful parents, I strongly doubt that, if the two previous criminal cases in Canada are any proof of parents who are distant and not involved with their child until disaster strikes.

So our criminal terrorist was white, Roman Catholic, French Canadian, living in the suburbs of Quebec City. He came from a comfortable well to do family, never lacked for anything, went to good schools and was a University Student at Laval. Amongst his victims was a Professor from Laval University. Sorry White House, sorry Prez. Trump, sorry Fox News not an Arab, no Islamist here, just a plain white, christian suburbanite jerk.

Prime Minister Trudeau in the House of Commons today spoke on the events and he re-asserted that Canada remains steadfast as a diverse and multicultural country, welcoming to all and that such horrible events will not change our course as a Nation. It is just tremendously sad that this event comes just after the weekend of that Fascistic decree by the Donald, which is an assault on human dignity and decency.

Crowds on Parliament Hill in Ottawa tonight, a vigil for the victims, flags are flying at half-mast to honour them in Canada.

Things are unravelling

Tags

border, Canada., Decrees, mexico, NAFTA, Peace, refugees, Trump, UN, UNHCR, USA

We are Saturday night 28 January it is the Lunar New Year, one year ago tonight we were in Charlottetown with our friends looking for a place to eat, we went to the Delta Hotel and crashed the Chinese New Year Banquet Dinner, we then went to The Place Next Door because the Merchantman was full of diners and painters, it was a special evening of Art in the Dark. There we met Nathan and Katie who were moving out of what would become our home in Charlottetown on Water Street.

One year later, here we are with our friends at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery for the opening of the Winter show.

However all is not well, tonight because of the travel ban on 7 countries imposed by Trump, tens of thousands of Canadians can no longer go to the USA because they were born in one those 7 countries. Regardless of the fact that they are Canadians and hold Canadian passports, they are barred from entering the USA. The White House has not bothered to inform my government of this fact. Other Canadians who tried to enter the USA today have been checked to ensure that they do not hold hostile anti-Trump views, carrying an iPhone or a computer leads to verification of accounts, they are reviewed especially Facebook for any comment deemed anti-Trump. Many have been refused entry on the spot. This is what happens in totalitarian States not in the USA, but things have changed.

Our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has shown great courage and decency by upholding the Canadian Value of welcoming those who need our help. At this point we should be reminded that Canada was the founding nation of the United Nation High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR) and also of the UN Peace Keeping Corps, our former Prime Minister the late Lester B.Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for that initiative.

Though this week we heard a lot about Mexico and the wall, the fact that President Trump has said he now wants to renegotiate NAFTA, a treaty I worked on during the implementing phase all those years ago, without so much as giving a formal notification to Canada or Mexico and uses language that is condescending and patronizing as if we owed something to the USA, such language and attitude is totally unacceptable. The Government of Canada reminded the White House that 35 million American jobs depend on trade with Canada, we are your #1 Trading partner and Mexico is also equally important, trade imbalance not withstanding.

We will also remind the White House that the use of Torture is unacceptable to Canada and this policy of the Trump administration puts in jeopardy any military or intelligence operation.

When terrorists struck on September 11, 2001 all flights to the Atlantic seaboard of the USA were diverted to Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, we took care, fed and housed thousands of American passengers for several days, we did not have to do it but we did out of decency and in an act of friendship.

When in 1979 the revolution in Teheran cause the departure of the Shah and the US Embassy was overran, it was Canada who saved a group of American Diplomats and their families and sheltered them and eventually arranged secretly to have them leave Iran at great cost to us, I would also like to remind readers that the UK and France had refused to help those same Americans.

It seems that more than 200 years of good cooperation, trade and friendly relations are now forgotten in the blink of an eye because of the election of one man who is surrounded by a bunch of ignorant people, not to mention the Republican party who is silent and complicit. The actions and decrees of Mr Trump this week are a dark stain on the USA and the American people and a threat to World Peace, I am not exaggerating.

Prime Minister Trudeau showing great courage and decency in welcoming Syrian Refugees to Canada, the very threat President Trump denounces.  

 

Changing Nation

Tags

abortion, Canada., immigration, mexico, Muslims, NAFTA, Ottawa, refugee, Syria, Trudeau, Trump, USA

Contrary to what is happening in the USA and all the negative news this week coming from the White House which cause many to shudder and worry about the future of our little planet now that the Doomsday clock is 2.30 minutes from Midnight, loosing 30 seconds since last Friday. The reasons being lost opportunity to tackle climate change, pollution and nuclear proliferation, President Trump simply add to the toxic mix.

Today in Canada several articles gives Canadians hope, one being that the  Government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that they will set up a special fund and work with The Netherlands to offer support and services in reproductive rights to women who may loose out because of the Trump decision to cut funding on abortion. In Canada abortion is available under our Health Care system to all women from Sea to shining Sea and this for the last 35 years, in other words that battle has been over for a long time in our Dominion. This plan would extend aid to women in third world countries.

The other news also goes a long way to show how Canadians have governed themselves very differently if compared to the USA. In 1990 the Government of Canada at the time under a Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the author of NAFTA, decided to open the flood gates of Immigration to all. Canada has always been a country of immigration, in fact the very first government department to be created by the new Federal Government after Confederation in 1867 was the Department of Immigration. The Prime Minister at the time Sir John A. Macdonald believed that a country as vast as Canada had to increase its population which stood at a few million people. Most immigrant then came from Eastern and Southern Europe. Number of immigrants from Europe started to dwindle seriously in the 1970’s, so a solution had to be found. Today on any given year 40% of our immigrants come from the Philippine, China and India, the balance come from Africa, South America and some from Europe. Many senior Ministers in Provincial and Federal Governments are themselves immigrants, the current Minister of Immigration was a Muslim refugee from Somalia. Our Minister of National Defence is a soldier who served in Afghanistan and Sikh immigrant from the Punjab in India. Others are from Afghanistan, Iran, Chile, etc, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs etc. Quite the mix of population and the same applies to Mayors of major Canadian cities, Canadians don’t care about your background as long as you have that popular appeal. We can understand the alarm and disapproval in Canada when we see how Mexico is being treated, our NAFTA partner. Close to one million Canadians live permanently in Mexico and another million visit each Winter.

The latest statistics from the Federal Government shows that by 2036 in 19 years Canada will have a population mix of 50% brown and 50% white. One third of Canadians will have been born abroad, another 20% will have at least one parent who will be an immigrant. Every large city in Canada will have 33% of its population born abroad.

Canada is officially bilingual, French and English, however by 2036 only 18% will actually have French as a first language and around 53% will have English, the rest will have another language which is not French or English. Already it is fairly common in schools to have upwards of 40 languages being spoken by students.

Canada is losing its old-time religion. Ninety per cent of Canadians identified as Christians in 1970. Today, it’s 66%, and will be just over one 50% by 2036. Christianity is not being displaced by other religions – only 7 per cent, at most, will identify as Muslim by 2036 – but by no religion at all. A quarter of all Canadians today identify with no faith, and that number could reach 33% by 2036.  Religion simply does not play much in our Society and not at all in Politics.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcoming a group of Muslim women in Parliament

The fact that Canada has deliberately transformed the makeup of its population in a way no other country has managed, or even attempted, speaks to the tolerant, diverse society in which we live.

As for Canadian politicians who think they can exploit the Nativist trend like in the USA to get elected, this is very unlikely to work. There is no future courting the angry white vote in Canada. There just aren’t enough angry white voters.

Lastly on the Democracy index compiled by Economic Intelligence groups Canada ranks at #6 in the world in terms of the quality of its democracy and openness in governance. The other five countries ahead of us are the Scandinavians. The USA has dropped at #21 and is no longer considered a full democracy.

This news on the 150th Anniversary of our Confederation is great to hear and makes me happy as a Canadian. It is truly something to celebrate.

Canadians on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Canada Day!

Our neighbour

Tags

Charlottetown, City, coyote, Fox, life, PEI, Urban fox, wolf

Here in Charlottetown the urban Fox population is something to get use to, they are everywhere in either Silver or Red colours. They use to live in the countryside but the arrival of the Coyotes from the Mainland pushed them into town. The Coyotes came to PEI just about 15 years ago via the ice bridge on the Strait of Northumberland, it is estimated about 2000 couples now live on the Island. The coyotes are bigger than the usual coyotes you might encounter, they are half the size of a wolf, sort of a mix, they can be heard in the countryside at night, talking and howling, it can be unnerving but they do keep their distance from humans, though small pets can fall prey to them if you are careless and let your pet  wonder out of the garden.

The Fox on the other hand is a rather urbane and sophisticated animal, they know to be discreet and furtive. Though I have encountered them on the street often just a couple of feet away from me, which I always find startling. They can be nonchalant and pretend they don’t see you. My only concern is if I am out with Nora she instantly goes into hunting mode and gives her dachshund shriek in that furious tone.  From my window I see them running across the park or the street, they always seem to know when to cross and avoid cars. People slow down if they see one.

The silver fox is also quite beautiful and the fur looks like silk. We hear them bark which is distinctive from a dog bark, it cannot be mistaken.

Beautiful animals, I cannot imagine anyone harming them or hunting them. This link is all you need to know about the history of how the Fox came to be on the Island, No they did not like the Coyotes cross on ice floats from the mainland.

https://willyorwonthe.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/the-fox-on-the-tree/

Caroline L. Daly

Tags

Art Gallery, art., Canada., caroline louisa Daly, CCOA, Charlottetown, paintings, PEI, sketches

There will be a Vernissage at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery this Saturday 28 January at 7pm. Featuring the sketches and water colours of Caroline Louisa Daly (1832-1893)

She was the daughter of Sir Dominick Daly, Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward Island from 1854-1859. The family lived at Government House also known as Fanningbank in Charlottetown.

The Official Residence was built in 1834 and the first Lieutenant-Governor moved in and died promptly in 1835 of pneumonia,the house is on an expose piece of land facing the Strait of Northumberland, very windy and was not then well insulated.

When the Daly family moved in some 20 years later the conditions in the house had been improved. Caroline who was born in Montreal in 1832 when her father, an Irish native of Galway, was serving as Colonial Secretary in Lower-Canada. Sir Dominick would have a long career in the Imperial Service and the family would move all over the world as he was promoted from post to post.

Caroline documented where they lived and what she saw in her sketches and water colours. She left us a wonderful record of life on the Island between 1854-59. We have precious few artistic rendering and documented memories of Fanningbank and thanks to her and her father we have a link to the past. The curator of the exhibit Paige Matthie also did a wonderful job of clearing up a long standing mistake on attribution of those sketches. Many decades ago poorly done research had attributed the work to two fellows also named Daly who lived in Montreal. They had never visited the Island and there was no link between the artwork and them but for some unknown reason it was assumed they were the authors.

The Daly family has also given us more works by Caroline Louisa Daly and other documents related to Sir Dominick.

This is truly a beautiful exhibit and it is opening in a few days.

Fanningbank in Winter

If you look closely you will see on the right in the background the steeple of St-James Presbyterian and people skating on Government pond.

What is interesting, because of her water colours and sketches of Fanningbank during renovations in the 1930’s and later, these art works were used as a reference for historians and architects.

The Ice Sugar Cone in front of Momontrency Falls near Quebec City

Countryside PEI

Art Night

Tags

Art after Dark, art., artists, Beach, chagall, Charlottetown, colour, Gaugin, winter

Many activities on the Island are organized in January to entertain people around a cultural or artistic activity. One of the craft Beer companies organized Art after Dark. So our friends DS and PS and C O’G organized a Art after Dark of our own and we went up the streets to our friends house to paint and have food and drinks. Will made a wonderful chicken meatloaf, it was quite good.

C O’G brought her artistic organizational skills and supplied the already primed canvas, we had tons of paint brushes, paint tubes etc and a glass of wine for inspiration.

Here are the results of this fun evening.

Homage à Gaugin on an Asian theme, Holly in a pot, domestic happiness

Homage à Marc Chagall or where is the fiddler on the roof.

Pot de fleur sur la nappe à carreau

Homage à Jack Bush or Brackley Point Beach at night.

There are about 10 other paintings but the artists took them away. 

 

Doomsday clock

Tags

Canada., mexico, nuclear war, potus, President, Trump

Today I read the speech of President Trump after his swearing in on Capitol Hill. I only saw some images of the inauguration because I was working at the Art Gallery and was busy with visitors. The tone of the speech and the phraseology was very war like, references to life and death struggle, using the word carnage and rousing the crowd in a manner reminiscent of populist dictators use.

I also looked that the White House website page and noticed profound changes, there is no longer any mention of Climate change or the Environment, Equal Rights and Women’s Rights have also disappeared. It is all replaced with a new policy on more police and more army and a new arms race. The first Executive order this evening before going off to the first ball, Trump signed an Executive order dismantling Obamacare, not waiting for Congress to act. Trade deals like NAFTA will be renegotiated or countries will be made to heel, in this case Mexico and Canada. This tough guy policy does not seem to take into account the integration of the economies of Canada and the USA, the complex economic links and the millions of jobs in the USA dependent on trade with Canada, the number 1 trade partner. I also find it interesting to see the tone of those first Foreign Policy statements, in the case of Britain and Brexit, Trump said that all will be great. Now he has turned the tables on Britain and offers to help them out trade wise only if it suits the USA.

It is all very condescending and imperialistic, language belonging to the World of 70 years ago.

So I then went to look at the time on the Doomsday Clock, yesterday because of the World situation the clock was moved up and now stands at 3 minutes to midnight. Even during the Cuban missile crisis when the possibility of a nuclear war between the then USSR and the USA was very real, the clock went from 12 minutes to 7 minutes to midnight. It only goes to show that it is far more dramatic now. The belligerent tone of Donald Trump is very dangerous for world peace.

With so many changes happening in the world, some are looking at 2017 as the year we finally see a nuclear war. A nuclear war would involve the deliberate use of a nuclear weapon against an enemy target. Such a use would necessarily result in thousands to millions of casualties, and possibly a retaliation. Could it be used to get rid of ISIS in one terrible blow, eliminating possibly ISIS but also killing millions of innocents at the same time?

The Doomsday Clock is a measurement of how close the world is to nuclear war. It is updated periodically as scientists from around the world assess the threats that could lead a nation to use a nuclear device.

Previously, the clock was at 5 minutes in 2012, and at 6 minutes in 2010, and 7 minutes in 2002. At the end of the Cold War in 1989, the clock was sent to 17 minutes.

The Doomsday Clock is merely an unscientific measurement, a tool used to convey the seriousness of the situation. Most Americans don’t even know what the Doomsday Clock is, or why it matters. Or more importantly, what’s causing it.

Rampant nationalism and the ambitions of politicians are pushing the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock closer to zero.

India, Pakistan, Iran, China, North Korea, Russia, and of course, the United States are all embarked on crash programs to develop or modernize their nuclear arsenals. President Trump is calling for a new arms race and mused about using nuclear weapons, what is the point of having them, to quote him.

At the same time Mr Trump has indicated he wants to flex the US military muscle, building or planning on exerting more force overseas than ever before, he has already made threats against China. This is a recipe for war.

All of this is to say nothing of terrorist efforts to create international chaos, like they have in Iraq, Syria, and parts of Africa.

The world has entered a dangerous time and it is very possible that 2017 could be the year we see a nuclear war.

What will the war look like? Fortunately, few people think it will look like it could have during the Cold War (1946-1989), with both the United States and the Soviet Union vomiting their entire arsenal around the globe. Such a war would have extinguished all life on Earth.

More likely, the conflict will be more limited, with a city or several cities reduced to ashes in a flash. It will still have worldwide consequences for the weather and health of billions of people. The losses will be staggering. And worst of all, it may not resolve anything.

 

 

Third anniversary

Tags

Anniversary, blogger, blogging

WordPress.com informs me that this is my third year with this site. I have been blogging since 2006 but I was on Blogspot.com

So much has happened in this time frame, so many blog entry. I now have over 150 followers and on average 500 readers per week depending on the topic I write about.

I do enjoy this blog and happy to see so many visitors and your comments.

 

 

Not for me to say

Tags

Canada., China, Inauguration, Nuclear weapon, Russia, Trump, USA, war

Well tomorrow the USA will have a new President, gloom and doom, much apprehension and despair. Fear of war and economic collapse that is what is in the news. No one knows what will happen and in my life I have seen quite a few swearing in of new Presidents starting with JFK but I do not remember anything like this in the past. There was drama as when Lyndon Johnson became President after the assassination of JFK in Dallas, Nixon’s second term, though unpopular there was no hysteria. Many were no happy with George W. Bush there was ridicule but again life went on. This time something is clearly unhinged, I deliberately did not watch or listen to much about Trump until a few days ago. It is not my country, I did not vote in this election and could not anyway, the USA is another political culture very different from ours, we have our own problems in Canada and things to worry about here. Our Prime Minister is currently on a tour of Canada stopping in many small towns to meet people here and there, people are invited to ask him questions on the spot, he has made some mistakes and maybe he is tired but twice he showed poor judgement in the way he answered questions and the Press pounced at once. He then went on do to a bizarre thing in Sherbrooke, where a women asked him a question in English and he replied in French, that did not go down well. The Conservative Party now has 15 leadership candidates, all more stupid than the next, men and women, three of them would like to be Donald Trump, no seriously, just weird.

What struck me this week, I listened briefly to the confirmation hearings, some of the questions were loaded and the candidate had to be careful not to endorse a point of view. Most answers given were not answers and the candidate showed they had an agenda. Rick Perry discovered that the Energy Dept is about nuclear matter and not oil and gas. Tillerson gave the impression that he would like a war with China, a nuclear power. DeVos though well spoken is clueless. Wilbur Ross the Commerce Secretary nominee appears ready to do a lot of harm to trade on NAFTA, which will harm many American workers whose job exist because of the Free Trade Agreement. What will happen in Canada, our economy is very well integrated with the American economy, so Ross has to be careful and I wonder if causing a lot of economic pain in Mexico is a good idea, given the number of Americans who go there on vacation or own homes.

It is all pretty sad and I have the impression that we are entering the age of Ignorance and greed something we should worry about a lot. I also worry about all those Americans, millions of them, who are likely to loose medical insurance under ACA. How can any elected official take away from Citizens something as vital as Health Care, I do not understand. Is Trump the Manchurian Candidate, is he Russia’s man. I cannot  imagine in all the movie thriller scenarios, such a plot where the American President would be the puppet of Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy would be stunned.  Well we will have to wait and see. But I will not pass judgement or give out an opinion on what is happening South of the border, it is not for me to say.

  The Embassy of Canada entrance 501 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C. the inaugural parade will pass in front of our Embassy.