So I bet you're wondering post-G20: Is this the impending end of the world -- or an opportunity for a cheap holiday in Greece next year? Even the experts can't say which way the global economy will go: If Greece quits the euro and returns to a devalued drachma, will Spain and Italy be forced to follow? Will Canada's "Little Toot" economy continue to chug along resiliently ahead of the U.S.'s sinking steamship? To help us make sense of all this, we welcomed aboard a new HuffPost contributor, EU expert Jeffrey Cimbalo. His latest post declares the G20 an abject failure. Hmm. Don't start googling discount Olympic Air tickets yet.
In other big international news, Canada and the U.S. jointly cut off funding to UNESCO, after the UN body approved full membership to the Palestinian Authority. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird noted that UNESCO's move was not in the best interests of peace in the Middle East; in today's blog rail, David Frum explains why.
On the home front, the new unilingual Auditor General Michael Ferguson has promised to learn French. This after a Liberal boycott of the vote of the Maritimer's appointment (note to the diminished Liberal party: your threats of boycotts these days are not, as Count Floyd might say, "really, really scary.") HuffPost blogger Keith Beardsley offered this take on why Ferguson's unilingualism should be regarded as pas de probleme.
This coming week, most of us will adhere to the Canadian (and British) tradition of pinning poppies to our coats and lapels in remembrance of the sacrifices of our soldiers. It's a tradition that sadly hasn't been exported to the U.S. -- when I wear my poppy down there I'm often asked where I got that "cool flower brooch." Some veterans are staging a new battle, this one against the federal government, to stop proposed cuts of $226 million to Veterans Affairs. Here at HuffPost, will we be publishing tributes to all of our veterans, living and dead, in honour of the sacrifices they have made for our freedoms and our country. Look for the special poppy symbol in the blog rail signifying a Remembrance Day post.
And if I may be allowed a boast: I'm proud to share the news that our site has just been nominated for a "Digi" award in the category of "Best in Digital News and Current Affairs Publishing."
We're only six months old, but already we're cutting our teeth. Oh yeah, baby.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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Extract from John Perkins Newsletter November 4, 2011:
"My job as an economic hit man during the 1970s was to enslave nations that had resources our corporations coveted by burdening them with debts they could never repay. We then demanded that they sell those resources cheap, without social or environmental regulations, to our corporations."