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Revised 2009 October 20. | ||
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Non-book articles
In other words, below on this page are interesting articles which are copyright by me, but are not for this on-line book, Leap 4 Love. Contact me if you'd like to publish or discuss what's below: korkyday@yahoo.com.
Articles below on this page:
1. How to tell if bread is really whole grain (with brand-name examples).
2. Help me search for and create new Web services!
3. How to attract people to the e-mail you send.
4. How to call a talk show successfully.
5. Can you count to 4? The mathematics of political party bias. 6. Guaranteed jobs now! Articles coming:
A. Join AmoroPako computer programmers co-operative.
B. Join Musicians' Co-operative Television Channel.
C. Buy my song lyric so you can have a hit song.
Article # 1. How to tell if bread is really whole grain (with brand-name examples) Revised 2005 June 10.
Watch for these 3 government-created loop-holes in the ingredients lists on the bread labels:
1. Does the ingredients list include the words "wheat flour" not preceded by the word "whole"? Almost
certainly, then, that "wheat flour" is refined white flour made
from wheat. That wording is allowed in the fraud-excusing food
regulations in Canada, the USA, and elsewhere.
White flour is flour from which the dark parts of the wheat (the bran and the wheat germ) have been removed. That process is called refining. The result is a white flour which is a bit off-white, like cream. If they want it even whiter, they bleach it, too. The bleach is poisonous. Crazy, but they add it! However, even if it's labelled "organic" or "certified organic", it's still sickening refined white flour. Whether it is bleached or unbleached, it is still lacking the goodness of whole wheat. "Organic" is good. "Unbleached" is good. However, "organic" and "unbleached" do NOT mean unrefined.
So don't get fooled by the description "organic unbleached wheat flour" you often see on bread in the less ethical health food stores. Most bakers and grocers use that subterfuge, which makes them a good profit. Tell them you object. Someone should sue them and the governments. 2. Even if the bread has some whole wheat flour, it is not whole wheat bread if it also includes some white flour (see 1. above). The
government regulations allow and encourage fraud on this point
also. Only if the words "100% whole wheat" are used on the main
panel, to describe the entire loaf, does it mean, according to
the dishonest feds, that white flour is not added.
Bread can legally be labelled "whole wheat" if it has ANY "whole wheat" in it, no matter how little.
Furthermore, legally, it can be called "100% whole wheat", even if deriviatives of white flour (starch or gluten) have been added. Therefore, you have to search the ingredients list carefully. 3. Even if the bread is "100% whole wheat" according to the regulations, as above, usually it is not. Crazy, but true.
That's because there's a third government loop-hole saying that 95% whole wheat can be labelled "100% whole wheat". Yes, that's the law, believe it or not! Legalized bad math: 95=100. Legalized fraud. I read these loop-holes myself right in a government office. Perhaps someone will sue. How about you?
What
is 95% whole wheat? It's not whole wheat at all. It's
wheat with the wheat germ removed, which is the missing 5%. All
that's left is the endosperm (the white part, which is white flour) and
the bran. There's very little nutrition left. Bran is
good for roughage, but little else. Bran contains no vitamin E.
The result of that milling to remove the wheat germ is a brown-coloured flour, because it still contains the dark-coloured bran. But it lacks the most nutritious part of wheat, the wheat germ, which includes wheat germ oil, which is high in vitamin E. Why do they remove the wheat germ? Because if there is very little nutrition left, the flour and bread don't spoil very much. Bran doesn't spoil. There's little nutritious oil in wheat-germ-free flour to go rancid. So the moulds and bugs and rats don't survive as well on it. Neither do we. A much longer shelf life, though, means more profit. Well, all is not lost if you want to buy whole wheat bread. Even with dishonest grocers and bakers and those 3 scandalous fraudulent loop-holes above, there are still some good bakers, especially in health conscious neighbourhoods. They need your patronage in order to stay in business. So ask them if they use the loop-holes. Furthermore, to detect healthy bread, we customers still have our eyes, mouths, and hands. Use your own senses to determine the likely ingredients: A. COLOUR: Whole
wheat bread is a rich brown with overtones of red-brown (from the bran)
and yellow-brown (from the wheat germ). If it's too red-brown,
without the yellow tinge, most likely the germ is gone---fed to the
pigs! The bran, though, is left in to make it dark, so you
think it's healthy.
B. TASTE: Whole
wheat bread tastes full, rich, moist, nutty, and a bit oily.
That's because it includes the wheat germ, which has wheat germ
oil. If it tastes dry, it probably lacks wheat germ.
That's why almost everyone wants to put butter or margarine on
it. Of course, the grocers can then make more money selling you
the fatty spread, which you would not want if you had good (not dry and
bland) bread.
C. FEEL: Whole
wheat bread is solid and heavy. It crumbles much more than
it rips. Fold it and it will break, not bend. If,
instead, it's light and spongy and fluffy and full of little
bubble holes like white bread, then, guess what? It basically is white bread, except possibly for the bran.
Bread made with stone-ground flour is more likely to be true whole wheat bread. So is flour which is ground on the premises of the baker, not trucked in from some distant mill. Whole wheat flour starts to spoil as soon as it's milled, so the distant mills remove the wheat germ and use the loop-hole above (# 3). If your baker grinds it herself and makes the bread within a few minutes, then she can make good bread. Get to know your bakers and grocers personally. They might tell you the truth--if they know! But few bakers and fewer grocers know all this. You can make your own bread. But if you buy packaged flour, you don't think it was milled that same day, do you? Grind your own and taste the difference! Sprouted grain flour
Some bakers use sprouted grains. Those breads are quite different, so all of the above descriptions do not apply. The best tasting and most nutritious brands Of the
breads that I've eaten which are currently sold, the ones I
list below I think are the best. Even in most health
food stores, they'll sell you nearly white bread masquerading as health
bread. I complain, but they don't change much. (See
above.) Not even all of these below qualify as whole grain, but
they're close. Overall, they are better than 99.9% of
the bread eaten in the USA and Canada, most of which have
poisonous ingredients, taste like kindergarten glue, and are hardly
nourishing enough to keep alive one little mould plant.
No one bribed me to write this list. Underlined ingredients below are those of which I disapprove. The sweetening, even if natural, I would object to if it were in most non-bread recipes. However, in yeast and sourdough recipes, much or all of the sweetening is "eaten" by the yeast or culture, causing the dough to rise. Therefore, I don't think it's bad for us. COAST SALISH (HALKOMELEM) NATION (CANADA: BRITISH COLUMBIA)
New World
Natural Foods (Sweet Cherubim Natural Foods Bakery), ~1101
Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5L 1G8. Not being
baked at present. They might be looking to hire a baker.
"Kamut
Bread", INGREDIENTS: certified organic Kamut flour,
purified water, organic sweetcane (granulated sugar cane juice), non
GMO sunflower oil, yeast. 3.99 $, 730 g
"Kamut Loaf", INGREDIENTS: certified organic
Kamut flour, organic soy milk, purified water, baking powder, honey, non GMO sunflower oil, sea salt. Yeast-free. 4.49 $, 820 g "Date
Sesame Bread", INGREDIENTS: organic 100% whole
wheat flour, organic sprouted wheat, organic dates, organic seeds
(flax, sesame, sunflower), non-GMO sunflower oil, sweetener (franulated sugar cane juice), purified water, yeast, sea salt. ? $, 630 g
"Spelt Levain Bread", INGREDIENTS: organic spelt
flour, purified water, sea salt, spelt bacterial culture.
4.49 $, 725 g La Boulange Organic Breads Ltd., 692 Bennett Road, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada V9K 1?1. laboulange@shaw.ca; telephone (866) 752-0077. "Kamut/Spelt Multi-grain Organic Levain Bread" (no yeast; sourdough). INGREDIENTS (all organic): spelt/kamut flour, filtered water, cracked kamut, cracked spelt, hulled millet, flax, sea salt, spelt/kamut bacterial culture. Also sold in BC: Vancouver. 900 g Westview Bakery, #788 - 2601 Westview Drive, North Vancouver, BC V7N 4M2. Telephone 604-987-6937. In Westview Shopping Centre, at Highway 1 (freeway), northwest of intersection. Organic whole wheat yeast bread. Sold in their bakery. It tastes like they freshly grind the wheat. Though I've asked more than once, they refuse to distribute this variety to the Vancouver stores on their distribution route. INGREDIENTS (mostly organic): [look here later]. European Bakery, Broadway and McDonald Street (east of southeast corner), Vancouver, BC, Canada. They bake "Naam Bread", the "house" bread at the Naam Restaurant, which is near West 4th Avenue and McDonald Street (east of southeast corner). Sold to take out at the store and the restaurant. The restaurant is open 24 hours. Sold sliced or unsliced at the bakery, unsliced at the restaurant. About 4 $, large loaf (?600 or 800 g). Don't confuse with "naan" bread (different spelling). INGREDIENTS (some organic), the list from my memory: wheat, caraway seeds, yeast, etc. [look here later for complete list or ask them]. ?????????? Sourdough organic breads made by the company formerly named Crescent Beach Bakery and "Reuger's". Try the whole grain varieties--such as those without added gluten and without other flours which are not 100% whole grain. Uprising Breads, 1697 Venables Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5L 2H1; telephone (604) 254-5635; info@uprisingbreads.com. Formerly a co-op. "Finnish Whole Grain", INGREDIENTS: whole wheat flour, rye flour, rye meal, cracked wheat, blackstrap molasses, gluten, honey, yeast, canola oil, sea salt. I've lobbied them unsuccessfully to use organic ingredients. The last I checked, they didn't grind their own flour, so it's probably not really whole grain, if they still use the loop-hole. Nevertheless, it is better than the vast majority of bread eaten. 681 g U.S.A.: ARIZONA
Grass Roots Company, Box 77893, Tucson, AZ, 85703 USA.
"Sprouted Kamut Bread", INGREDIENTS: organic sprouted Kamut seed (wheat alternative), honey, canola oil, yeast, sea salt. Sold at Gentle Strength Food Co-op, Tempe, AZ, and (I presume) in Tucson, AZ. 3.89 $; 681 g Breads sold at Gentle
Strength Food Co-op, 345 West University Drive, Tempe, AZ, and (I
presume) in other cities, include Pacific Bakery bread (see California, below), Grass Roots (see paragraph above), and French Meadow (see USA: other, below). Safeway bread. See details in California, below. U.S.A.: CALIFORNIA Vital Vittles, Schwin Family Mill & Bakery, Berkeley, CA, www.vitalvittles.com, telephone (510) 644-2022. "Real Bread", INGREDIENTS: 100%
whole-wheat flour freshly stone-ground (daily) from organic hard red
winter wheat, filtered water, raw California honey, expeller-pressed
organic canola, corn safflower or sunflower oil, sea salt, yeast,
organic gluten. The tiny bit of added gluten makes the
loaf, as a whole, not quite 100% whole grain, but it's still one of the
best breads I've ever eaten. It has an informative label, but
parts are hard to read. 908 g
Pacific Bakery, P.O. Box 950, Oceanside, CA 92049; telephone (760) 757-6020. www.pacificbakery.com. They bake all their products without yeast. They grind their own whole grain flours. Sold at the Trader Joe's chain (see www.traderjoes.com). "100% Whole Wheat Bread", INGREDIENTS: Certified Organic Whole Grain Wheat, Filtered Water, Sea Salt. ~4.__ $; 680 g "Kamut Organic Bread", INGREDIENTS: Organically Grown Whole Grain Kamut, Filtered Water, Sea Salt. 5.09 $; 680 g "Brown Rice / Whole Wheat Organic Bread", INGREDIENTS: Organically Grown Whole Grains (whole wheat, brown rice), Filtered Water, Sea Salt. 4.49 $; 680 g "Spelt Organic Bread", INGREDIENTS: Organically Grown Whole Grain Spelt, Filtered Water, Sea Salt. 4.69 $; 680 g Safeway Select brand, Box 99, Pleasanton, CA, USA 94566-0009. "Stoneground
Whole Wheat Bread", INGREDIENTS: Organic stoneground whole
wheat flour, water, organic honey, organic nonfat [cow's] milk, organic soybean oil, (2% or less of each of these:) salt, gluten, yeast, cultured [cow's] whey, calcium sulfate. 680 g
Of the dozens of different breads Safeway sells, this is the only one I've found that I consider anywhere near "safe" to eat. So I call the stores "Unsafeway". This loaf is not as good as the others on this list, but might do in a pinch. Tastes good. It is sold in some, but not all, Safeway stores in the USA. I don't know about Canada. I've never seen a store which sells very many loaves of it. They only stock 2 or 3 loaves at a time. (That tells you something about their customers.) Sold in the Safeway store, ____________ , Tempe, AZ (n.e. corner of Rural and Broadway?). U.S.A.: OTHER French Meadow Bakery, Minneapolis, MN 55408 USA; telephone (612) 870-4740; www.organicbread.com; bread@frenchmeadow.com. "Spelt Organic Yeast-free Bread", INGREDIENTS: Stoneground organic spelt, filtered water, unrefined sea salt. 5.49 $; 680 g End of article "How to tell if bread is really whole grain". Article # 2. Help me search for and create new Web services!
Revised 2006 April 11.
I don't know of Web
services like the ones described below. If you do, please tell
me. If not, would you help look for them? If none exist,
can you help to create them? --Korky, korkyday@yahoo.com.
Idea # 1. Enough People.
This Web service could simply list, briefly describe, and link to
various other efforts. Those efforts would be to enlist
enough people willing to do (or to refrain from) some specified
actions which need to recruit more people even to start.
Then, if enough people do sign up, they can do it. A great
help to the organizers!
For some effortss, www.meetup.org
[?] can be used already. I've heard it isn't free anymore.
I've also heard that some similar services are still free.
Can anybody recommend one to me?
Examples of efforts which could be organised with such a Web service:
a. Vote for Ralph Nader for president of the USA--or some other
candidate accused of being a "spoiler". (See also Article __ in
Part 4.)
b. Move to a place and form a community or movement.
(That's what Libertarians did, and now they're moving to New
Hampshire. See www.freestateproject.org.)
c. Rent a pool for nude swimming. (www.meetup.org [?] can be used for that already, but it won't be free anymore.)
d. General strike.
e. Other strike.
f. Boycott.
Idea # 2. Dialogues by computer.
I have written some
great specifications for a Web service to allow people to argue or
discuss any subject in a new way.
Please contact me if if you can help to programme it. --Korky
Idea # 3. Rate everything.
This huge Web publication would allow the public to rate everything in each of these categories and in any other categories we can think of:
products, politicians, companies, political
parties, Web publications, television shows, books, countries, food,
tunes, musicians, radio programmes, movies, actors, religions,
teachers, schools, resorts, beaches, games, unions, co-ops, television
channels
Simultaneously, each of those things would be rated by:
panels of experts, relatively neutral
organisations, relatively biased organisations, celebrities,
governments, academics, employees, etc.
Ratings would include scores in percent, reviews, warnings, etc.
Idea # 4. Refuse, use, re-use, repair, or recycle everything.
Our modern unsustainable throwaway economy pushes harmful, useless,
and/or shoddy products which are meant to break as soon as possible and
be replaced with new ones, not repaired. That really harms the
environment, harms the economy, cheats consumers, and creates danger
when something breaks.
We should never have allowed that situation to develop over the last
century. Business, media, and government have failed us.
This informative, comprehensive Web publication will enable each individual to take steps
in the right direction.
It will include:
1. Which products to refuse--and why. Includes brand names.
2. How to keep things in good condition.
3. Revised instruction manuals for normal use, so
things won't be broken as easily or thrown away because someone can't
figure out how to use them. (Many instruction manuals are lost or
in need of correction.)
4. A myriad of ways to re-use things.
5. Easy-to-follow directions for any moderately
handy person to repair anything. It first, it will concentrate on
the things which are useful, most numerous, and easiest to
repair. How to get parts.
6. How to recycle everything. What categories, where to take stuff, local laws, etc.
7. How to lobby for, vote for, and be an activist to change laws,
business practices, public attitudes, etc.
End of Article 2, "Search for and create Web services!"
Article # 3: How to attract people to the e-mail you you send
Revised 2006 April 11. If you ever send e-mail, it helps to understand the power of headlines. For e-mail, the "Subject" line is like a newspaper headline. The recipient of the e-letter reads the "Subject" box and then decides whether or not to "open" and read the rest of the e-letter. Importantly, the headline helps them decide WHEN to read it. If there's something scheduled for a certain date mentioned in the "Subject" line, such as a picnic, they are more likely to read it before that date. Therefore, for events, the "Subject" line best includes the date of the event, not just "next Tuesday" or "today," etc. That will make it very obvious how soon they should read it. Furthermore, the "Subject" line of an e-announcement should be interesting and different each time, not a vague "Something of interest," "My opinion," "Urgent meeting," or "Monthly update." People are busy and skeptical, so tell them what it is about, who in particular is affected, why it's urgent, etc. Basically, imagine you are reading a newspaper. If you saw a headline such as the one you're using as a "Subject" line, honestly: would YOU read the article? End of article # 3. Article # 4: How to call a talk show successfully.
Revised 2006 April 11.
Here is what I've
learned from a few decades of calling in to radio and television talk
shows.
For
example, once I called in identifying myself as a warresister and
criticized USA president Bill Clinton. At that, host Ray
Taliaferro got so riled up that he threatened to physically
assault me! I never heard him do that to anyone else. I
usually like what he says! Taliaferro is a Democrat (like
Clinton) and a veteran host at KGO 810 AM in San Francisco
from 1 to 5 a.m. Pacific Time. Their signal is strong and
can be heard hundreds of kilometres away, especially at night.
Twenty Tips:
1. Use a good telephone and a land line--not cordless, if possible. Avoid
noise. If driving, stop the vehicle.
2. Listen for the program's call-in telephone number or look it
up. If you're lucky it will be a toll-free line, but some are
not. You might be forced to wait on the line for up to an hour
before getting your chance, which is not guaranteed.
3. Be prepared to
re-dial. 4. Before you call, write a few concise
notes about what you want to say, preferably no more than 100 words. Be
specific, whenever possible. Humor is good. Personal experience is good. Emotion is
good.
5. Practice your lines. If you can read them and sound like you're NOT reading them, then you could read
them on the air. If you're not that expert, you should still practice your
lines, but don't read them on the air. Instead, say what you remember and
improvise the rest. Look at your notes if you forget something. If the host
suspects that you are reading, they will usually stop you or interrupt you. Maybe they'll allow you to read
a short, funny poem, if you're
lucky.
6. Immediately after dialing, when you hear the station's
phone ringing, if not before, mute your radio or television. Soon
you'll be able to hear the program through your telephone. If
that's unworkable, make sure you can turn off the volume instantly as
soon as the screener or the host comes on the line. Otherwise you
get squealing electronic feedback, which everyone hates.
7. If they don't put you straight onto the
air, you'll often have to talk first to a "screener". That person is an
assistant who screens out the callers who the host wouldn't want to put on the
program. You should impress the screener, if any, with how quickly you can get
to your point–and make it clearly and politely. If you mislead the
screener, the host will probably be told–and you'll likely get
dumped. 8. When you get your chance to speak on the air, if the host doesn't tell the
audience who you are, say, "Hello, my name is __________ ," (unless you want to be
anonymous). 9. Then
launch directly into your strongest
point. Since you might get cut off right away, make every word count. This is
not a chat over the back
fence.
10. Don't
bother saying it's your first time calling. Don't thank the host for letting
you onto her program. That's all common, but still boring and
annoying!
11. Avoid
saying, "I have 3 points to make," or "May I make 3 points?", etc. That just
says to the host that you're long-winded, pushy, and probably amateurish. They
probably won't let you make all your points,
anyway.
12. Speak
very clearly, and not too fast or too
slowly. 13. If you don't want to get cut off right away, try to give the host what they
want. If they like logic and facts, supply them. If they like to give advice,
ask them for it. If they like angry confrontation, give it to them. If they
like everyone to agree with them, try to agree with something they've
said--before asking them in a friendly way to justify some position you
don't
like. 14. Most
program hosts really love to talk a lot. They think very highly of themselves,
sometimes with justification! They can barely tolerate letting you talk at all,
except to give them someone to humiliate. So, even if you're praising them, do
it
briefly.
15. Ask
them questions instead of just making statements. That reassures them that you
don't want to hog the program. For instance, instead of, "Bush should pull out
of Iraq immediately because . . . ", you might ask, "How would you advise Bush
to shorten the Iraq war?" Try to make it a back-and-forth conversation, with
YOUR comments short. Pick holes in what they say instead of trying to give a
long
speech.
16. If the
host interrupts you, just let them! They often have electronic equipment to
drown out your voice, anyway. Be patient and then try to respond intelligently
to what they say. Don't just ignore what they've said and continue reading your
script.
17. Avoid
interrupting the host, even if they have interrupted you. Otherwise you risk
getting cut off. Fairness is not part of this
game!
18. Instead
of interrupting, sometimes you might, however, prudently interject.
That means to say quickly a word or 2 in the middle of their speech,
especially while they're taking a breath. For instance:
"Why?" or "No!" In other words, you can throw
them off guard a bit--as
long as you immediately resume listening quietly. Then they'll usually let you
stay
on.
19. Don't
use coarse language, blasphemy, cursing, overt racism, name-calling, slander,
threats, etc. It will usually be censored with an electronic delay device, if
not an immediate hang-up. You won't impress many listeners and probably won't
get to speak much more, if it
all. 20. Rarely will you be allowed
on the air twice in one program. On busy programs consider yourself lucky to
survive 30 seconds before they hang up on you. Enjoy!
End of Article # 4, "How to call a talk show successfully".
Article # 5. Can you count to 4?
The mathematics of political party bias. Revised 2006 April 11. Let's bury that horrid USAmericanism "third
parties." That term is confused and innumerate (pertaining to
inability to count). It causes unfair bias. How can there be more than one "third party"? Was there an election somewhere and the candidates from 27 different political parties all tied for third place?! The rest of the world doesn't use the term. In many sentences, speakers should simply name the specific parties they mean instead of calling them by the name of a category. If you must do the latter, how about "parties challenging the duopoly," "rising small parties," "parties other than Republican and Democratic," etc. (Other suggestions are welcome.) I don't even use the term in the singular: "third party". It, too, is confused. Usually it means one of the whole category of so-called "third parties." But even if it meant that there is only one third party, how would that be defined? Third in registrations? Third in votes? Third in elected officials? Third in history? It is better to word things in this way: "By registrations, I think the Green Party is the 3rd largest party in the USA." Unfortunately, many otherwise-fair sources use the term "third parties" and other marginalizing categories--and so they favor some parties. One example of an otherwise good source is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States#Current_third_parties End of Article # 12, "Can you count to 4?" Article 6 Guaranteed jobs now! Each country should provide jobs to all who need them! by Korky Day 2009 September 17 and October 20. korkyday@yahoo.com www.korky.ca Just because the USSR guaranteed everyone jobs does not mean that it is a bad idea! In that respect, they were ahead of countries like the USA and Canada. That was not a cause of their downfall, so let's all try it! Think of all the myriads of problems that would solve! Despite whining about "socialism", most so-called capitalist countries have many popular socialistic programmes, including pensions, schools, buses, roads, universal or limited health care, fire fighting, libraries, creating money, disaster aid, standard measures, farm aid, weather prediction, hospitals, science research, medical research, etc. Unemployment insurance schemes pay people who are out of work, which is a better programme than nothing, but then the country gets no benefit from work those workers could be doing. They should be offered a new kind of public service job called a "guaranteed job" (GJ). GJs would pay around 80 or 90% of the going rate for each type of job, and at least minimum wage. Workers would be guaranteed up to 40 hours per week for as long as they want. For most, though, these jobs would be a temporary solution until they could get other jobs. Most of them would be people who have no trouble getting a job--if there is one to get. A country's production and economy thus would not suffer as much as they do now. Recessions and depressions would be ameliorated and shortened. Thus, everyone benefits. Now the poor suffer much more than the rich from depressed economies. This plan would help them for a change, instead of just bailing out the bankers. Hiring offices would be in every city and town. In very sexist countries like the USA and Canada, women's position is kept way down, especially if they want to raise children. For them, this programme would not be a cure-all, but would raise the "floor" somewhat. It would accept mothers and guarantee them either work at home or work where they can bring their children to be breastfed and carried on the job, etc. Many could be employed in child care itself, so that other families could work more. Jobs would be guaranteed to those from age 19 to 65, plus those younger with high school diplomas. Applicants over 65 would be given jobs, when possible, but not guaranteed. GJs would be given even to the hard-to-employ, including the hard-core homeless. Thus the worker can get cleaned up, sobered up, sheltered, eat, and have pride in contributing to society. They would feel less like committing crime or wasting their life just scraping by. Released prisoners, too, would be eligible for GJs. The public would benefit from many fewer new crimes being committed by ex-cons. Also eligible would be disabled people and people with emotional and mental problems, so that many of them would be less of a burden to governments, charities, and hospital emergency rooms. They and the ex-cons would not be given jobs where they would be a risk to others or to themselves. All GJ would have adequate supervision. This plan is not just another ploy to bust unions. Provisions would be negotiated with the union movement to actually raise the proportion of unionised workers to at least 50%. Each town, city, and state must hire a certain percentage of their popultion as regular workers, all unionised. Then, in addition, they could get as many GJs as they want and are available. Let the GJ workers join unions, too, if they want, without penalty. The poorest areas would have more jobless, so they need more GJs to improve their communities. Pay all the GJs with federal money raised by plugging the loop-holes for the rich to avoid taxes and by more green taxes. (Ask also for my article "Green taxes".) Both to help the environment and to provide more jobs, government should de-mechanise and de-toxify some jobs. Example jobs: a. Sweeping streets with brooms and push-spin-sweepers instead of power sweepers. Ban leaf-blowers completely. b. Digging and cutting weeds with hand tools or maybe with electric clippers. Instead of poisoning unwanted brush (as they do along railroad tracks), let workers cut it. Other jobs: a. Composting brush and yard clippings and food scraps from homes and restaurants. b. Sorting recycling and re-usable items. c. Riding public transportation, watching for crime and helping passengers. If your government has not guaranteed full employment already, why not? Because they are serving the greedy ruling class, not the rest of us. The ruling class, which controls most of the media, spreads the ridiculous lie that socialistic programmes like this would not work. Of course it would. It did for 70 years in the USSR. They are really suffering there now without it, as we are. Other features of GJ 1. GJ offices also would help people get other jobs, both permanent and temporary. (That is already done by, for example, Tar Heel Temps, a state agency in North Carolina. They get people jobs, but not guaranteed.) 2. Skilled or very distasteful work might pay better, as in the private sector. Wages would not, though, be so high that workers would be lured from other employers. 3. As a separate question, a country could decide if they want to give GJs to illegal immigrants. (There's another scandal which helps the rich!) 4. Persons with part-time jobs could get GJs to work the extra hours up to 40 per week. 5. If GJ cannot find work for someone within 2 days, they would be paid anyway (at minimum wage full-time). That should be seldom, since the mission of GJ is to find jobs quickly. 6. Except for some working in their homes, no one would ever work alone, but in teams of 2 or more. Reasons: safety, sanity, sobriety, supervision, and to employ more people. 7. No smoking on the job. Also, no smoking indoors or near doors, even on breaks. No intoxicants for anyone until their workday is over. Violators would be sent home and will be paid only for the time worked sober. The Soviet system failed in that respect, a big reason for the collapse of the USSR. 8. Workers could participate in other programmes, too, such as job search help and training. They should also get free counselling and help with quitting all psycho-active drugs. Those programmes either could be combined with this scheme or could supplement it. End See also the coming articles A, B, and C described at the top of this page. | ||
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to 2009 by "Korky" Kirk Norman Day in Canada, in the
USA, and in all countries.
End of the page called "Non-book articles" of www.korky.ca. | ||