read more about it here

a great graph here

I hope you were spoilt for Xmas !

Up to a quarter of a million public sector workers have taken part in a national strike in the Republic of Ireland.

Civil servants, some medical staff and teachers are protesting at government plans to cut the public sector pay bill by 1.3bn euros next year.

They say they cannot take any more cuts in their wages after an emergency budget earlier this year.

Almost all public offices and schools were closed.

Hospital appointments for up to 16,000 patients were cancelled.

Thousands of people also faced delays in social security payments.

Irish police have said that no speeding fines will be issued because of the strike.

Trade unions said the government had refused to engage with them on ways of cutting the state pay and pensions bill by 1.3bn euros without cutting pay, pensions or services.

They said the government had forced the action by failing to negotiate a fair alternative to plans for a second huge pay cut this year.

However, a number of unions have deferred strike action in areas affected by recent floods.

The strike affected a wide range of the public sector:

• A majority of civil service employees took part;
• A limited customs service is running at ports and airports;
• Prison officers have been striking for an hour at different times – prisoners are being locked in their cells during the action;
• Emergency cover being provided by fire and water services;
• Most local authorities staff are on strike but staff at flood-hit areas are still working;
• Hospital staffing is at Christmas Day levels – only “genuine emergency” cases advised to show up at A&E departments, hospital appointments are being deferred and non-emergency procedures postponed, although strike exemptions were granted to key areas including palliative and intensive care;
• Police are forbidden by law to strike but members of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have been instructed not to make themselves available for overtime; and,
• More than 50,000 teachers are on strike.

taken from : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8375745.stm

They journeyed to the desert emirate of Dubai by the tens of thousands. Laborers from small towns on the Indian subcontinent and white-collar executives from the capitals of Europe. They came seeking fortune, and they built a modern city unlike any the world had ever seen: a city with the world’s largest tower, an indoor ski slope and a honeymoon suite with a live whale shark in the window.

A city where anything was possible. Sand too hot? Then build a beach with underground refrigeration.

“I call the story an improbable fairy tale,” Ms. Greenfield said. “Anything that could be fantasized could be built. It really was the land of opportunity. It’s more Las Vegas than Las Vegas.”

At first glance, Dubai might seem an odd place to find Ms. Greenfield. She is best known for powerful photographs and films that explore the corrosive effect of modern consumer culture on American teenage girls, and also for her disquieting images of women with eating disorders.

But Dubai offered Ms. Greenfield, 43, the opportunity to further explore wealth and the effects of unbridled materialism. So after several months of research, she spent two weeks photographing there.

“Dubai is a cautionary tale in the same way as the foreclosure crisis — which I photographed — was,” Ms. Greenfield said last weekend, as the financial crisis in Dubai unfolded. “Dubai was this miracle of development with minimal planning and no infrastructure.”

Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper, is still under construction, overlooking artificial islands shaped like palm trees. The tower is a useful symbol for considering Dubai. Is it the Tower of Babel? Is it Icarus, flying too close to the sun? It’s unclear whether this crisis will simply be a pause in Dubai’s ascent or whether Dubai’s story will itself become a cautionary tale of mythical dimensions.

taken from : http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/showcase-85/?hp

see pictures here

Buy Nothing Day is a great way of reminding yourself you don’t need to go shopping. In today’s world, most of us buy too much, too often. There is really no need for us to buy half the stuff we purchase. In fact, make that three-quarters, or even nine-tenths. Shopping has become an addiction  for many people. Companies are experts at making us buy stuff. TV and Internet ads can even make us buy things we don’t really want. There is a well-known bumper sticker that says: “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.” I would say only foolish people go shopping to reduce their stress. Anyway, Buy Nothing Day is a fantastic way to avoid crowded stores, save some money (for once) and spend time wisely.

Lots of ideas on how to spend this day are on the www.buynothingday.org website. Here, you learn that you actually help save our planet by not going shopping. You consume less and this means we use fewer of Earth’s resources. We easily run out of money when we go shopping, but we can also run out of our planet’s animals, forests, water and a lot more. The website suggests you lock your credit card away for the day and keep your cash under the bed. You will not be alone. The website says: “Buy Nothing Day is the biggest 24-hour [campaign] against consumerism. People around the world will make a pact to take a break from shopping as a personal experiment or public statement. And the best thing is, it’s free.”

Lesson here

The unemployment rate in the U.S. jumped to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983, casting a pall over the prospects for a sustained recovery and risking further erosion of President Barack Obama’s popularity.

Payrolls fell by 190,000 last month, more than forecast by economists, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The jobless rate rose from 9.8 percent in September. Factory payrolls dropped by the most in four months, and the average workweek held at a record low.

Treasury two-year notes rose on bets the Federal Reserve is more likely to maintain its pledge to keep interest rates near zero. The figures prompted Obama, who signed a bill today extending jobless benefits, to promise fresh measures to help put some of the 15.7 million unemployed Americans back to work.

Payrolls were forecast to drop 175,000 after an initially reported 263,000 decline for September, according to the median estimate of 84 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The jobless rate was projected to rise to 9.9 percent.

Obama signed into law a measure extending a tax credit of up to $8,000 for homebuyers and benefits for unemployed workers, and he promised to pursue further measures to create jobs.

“My economic team is looking at ideas such as additional investments in our aging roads and bridges, incentives to encourage families and business to make buildings more energy efficient,” additional tax cuts, and more steps to ease the flow of credit to small business and promote exports, he said today at the White House.

read the whole article here

Kraft Foods wants to gobble up Cadbury. An alliance of Nestlé and Hershey is rumoured to be considering a rival bid. Shareholders slather like children in the sweetie shop. Should we care that an iconic British company, maker of Dairy Milk, Crunchie, Flake and that budget stick of sweetness, the Fudge bar, looks set to fall into foreign hands?

When gourmets speak of food culture the image is of artisans and rural crafts, of home-baking and unpasteurised cheeses. But Britain’s food culture — like it or not — has long been industrialised and our living heritage includes our classic chocolate bars. Every childhood has pocket-money memories of Flakes stuck in ice-creams and hoarded squares of Dairy Milk. Many an adult has a secret treat in the corner shop. It’s an energy boost with a certain comforting nostalgia.

So the news of a foreign takeover gives me a surge of chocolate patriotism. For while Kraft gave the world the dubious delights of the processed cheese slice, we Brits became world leaders in chocolate bars.The great chocolate-lover Roald Dahl saw the invention in the Thirties of all the confectionary classics, including Crunchie. That decade was, he said, the equivalent of the Italian Renaissance or the golden age of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. As a schoolboy at Repton, Dahl was part of a tasting panel for a Cadbury’s factory. The excitement of unwrapping the foil for unknown treasure is said to be part of the inspiration for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The Great British chocolate bar can also claim some eco-cred. One of Cadbury’s brands, Green & Blacks, has made organic chocolate widely available. Last month the company put Fairtrade cocoa and sugar in Dairy Milk. More obscurely they have committed to using free-range eggs in Creme Eggs. Cadbury’s origins, like those of other chocolate companies such as Fry’s and Rowntree, go back to Quakers who were excluded from professions and went into industry. Their empires were built on the good treatment of their workforce and supplying delight at an affordable price.

Tastes change, and some sneer at “chavvy chocolate” such as Cadbury’s Milk Tray. The classic chocolate bar and chocolate box is not the same sort of taste as a posh bar of 70 per cent cocoa solids or truffles from Fortnum’s. But national tastes remain deep rooted. So as my eye sweeps across a counter of colourfully wrapped chocolate, it hurts to imagine their ownership going to a country that produces the likes of the oily Hershey bar.

taken from The Times online edition.

video from the BBC here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8242008.stm (not to difficult ton understand)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7990080.stm –> une vidéo très sympa sur les chocolats de Pâques chez Cadbury. Cela me rappelle un peu “Charlie Et La Chocolaterie”.

more about it here

je vous invite à aller voir ce diaporama  interactif  réalisé par l’agence Reuters à l’occasion de cette première année passée dans la crise (à la suite, je vous le rappelle, de la faillite de la Banque Lehman Brothers)

Vous y trouverez la chronologie de la crise (Timeline).

Bonne visite !

More about it here