Archive for July 2008

Nearly 100 years after the Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugene Bleuler recognised the signs of the mental illness schizophrenia, a team of international scientists have come one step closer to unlocking the mystery behind it.

The European team, including Danish experts from the Research Institute of Biology Psychiatry, found three distinct genetic markers that can lead to schizophrenia.

‘Schizophrenia has long been surrounded by many myths, such as it was a natural reaction to an ill society,’ team member Thomas Werge told TV2 news. ‘For 20 to 30 years we have known that schizophrenia was largely a genetic condition. However the myths continued and that’s why we are now relieved to finally have documented specific genetic changes that can indicate a greater risk for a person to develop schizophrenia.’

The study found that three different mutations can spontaneously occur, which damage large parts of chromosome 1 or 15. The different levels of schizophrenia can be attributed to the different levels of damage. The same mutations have previously been found in some people suffering from autism.

The results explain why schizophrenia can occur spontaneously occur in families that have no history of the illness and also those who inherit the disease. The mutations seem to occur during the foetal stages of a pregnancy.
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A report released in Washington this week by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) titled Homeward Bound: Recent Immigration Enforcement and the Decline in the Illegal Alien Population claims the undocumented population in the United States has declined significantly.

Using the Current Population Survey by the Census Bureau as the quantitative basis for their report, CIS notes that “since hitting a peak in the summer of 2007, the illegal population may have declined by 11 percent through May of 2008.”

This data leads them to conclude that “it seems that increased enforcement is at least partly responsible for this decline.”

However, Stephen Buckner, a spokesman for the US Census responded to this report by saying: “The Census Bureau does not produce estimates or counts of illegal immigrants living in the United States.”

Additionally, the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) took issue with the report. “The persuasiveness of CIS’ argument is undermined not only by an absence of hard data, but by the faulty logic and contradictory statements of the report itself” and added “the authors report confidently about a population that is nearly impossible to accurately measure.”
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Who in the Czech Republic 20 years ago could have imagined eating kangaroo steak, going to a Chinese restaurant or seeing a gyros stand on every other street corner? The country’s culinary progress since the fall of communism, however, has developed a darker side, as ethnic eating habits fail to find acceptance with the rest of society.

On July 20, police discovered an illegal Vietnamese slaughterhouse in an old barn in Chvoječná near Cheb, west Bohemia. Workers from a local animal shelter alerted authorities after they began to suspect one of their clients of selling the dogs she took home to a Vientamese man. At the site, police found several freezers full of meat. “There was also a dog collar that belonged to one of the shelter dogs,” said police spokeswoman Martina Hrušková.

After a further search, a plastic bag containing the heads of a cow and a dog was discovered. “There were animal remains everywhere, and the barn stank of rotten meat,” Hrušková said. According to the police report, the woman toured animal shelters in the area and brought dogs home that she would sell for 400 Kč ($27) to a Vietnamese accomplice.
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Anyone may look across the world landscape over the last 1,000 years to witness that racial conflict injects itself into every aspect of human life.

Such and such a group hates some other collection of people. Religious groups bomb other religious groups such as the Protestants and the Catholics in Ireland. Muslims hate the Jews in the Middle East with thousands of killings.

You never hear about racism in mono-ethnic societies like China or Japan. Why? Everyone enjoys a similar background of values and cultural cohesion.

In America, with hundreds of different ethnic groups, especially black, white, brown, red and yellow, we exist in a tenuous but tolerant dance guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

It’s not been easy with Jim Crow Laws, the KKK, Watts Riots, separate but equal, anger of Malcolm X, white flight to the suburbs, smoldering and seething ghettoes and Pastor Jeremiah Wright in Chicago with “God D*** America….”

In 1965, Senator Teddy Kennedy created an even more tense society by immigrating millions from incompatible cultures that now call America home: Muslims, Hmongs, Koreans, Somalians, Ethiopians, etc. Additionally, he created even greater racial tension from competing and growing cultures that fail to assimilate into America as Americans.
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Johannesburg - Anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak accused the ruling party on Wednesday evening of entrenching racial hatred instead of preaching tolerance.

“The ANC has succumbed to the subtle but pernicious temptations of ethnic thinking, has brought back the language of ethnicity into the speech of the movement and has, as government, brought back the hated system of racial categorisation,” Boesak told some 2 000 people at a memorial lecture in Cape Town.

He also said affirmative action had in some cases “taken on new forms of racial exclusion, ruthlessly and thoughtlessly throwing overboard the solidarity forged through years of struggle”, the Cape Times reported on Thursday.
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The number of workers being brought into Alberta under the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program continues to spiral upward, according to figures quietly posted on the federal government’s Citizenship and Immigration website late last week.

In 2006, Alberta became the first province in Canada to bring more workers into the country under the TFW program than under the mainline immigration program. In 2007, that troubling trend accelerated with the number of TFWs growing to nearly double the number of new immigrants coming to the province.

Official figures show that, as of Dec. 1, 2007, there were 37,257 temporary foreign workers in Alberta. That’s up from 22,105 in 2006,15,836 in 2005 and a mere 7,288 in 1997.

To put it another way: There are now more than twice as many TFWs in Alberta today than there were two years ago and more than five times as many as a decade ago. While Ontario and B.C. are still home to more TFWs (82,873 and 43,375 in 2007 respectively), no other province has experienced as dramatic an increase as Alberta.
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Authors of the report forecast that during the next few decades the structure of the Poland’s population will radically change. The number of population will be declining steadily. Poland will also face significant ageing as indicated by a rising old-age dependency-ratio. According to the report there is a probability of 50 % that in 2050 the population will number between 27 and 35 millions compared to 38.2 in 2004 and that there will be at least 63 persons aged 65+ per 100 persons aged 19-64.

The same report predicts that Poles will continue leaving the country to work abroad and that more migrants will be coming to live in Poland. There are likely to be twice as many foreigners living in Poland in 2035 than today. According to the report, most are to come from the former Soviet Union, Asia and Africa.

Just a couple blocks away from the front door to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office in Hamilton sits a thriving corner market with a sign outside that reads “Super Mercado y Carniciera.”

On any given day, numerous Hispanic men, women and children enter and leave the ramshackle little store in a tired-looking and dilapidated working-class neighborhood, taking a quick break to stop for groceries, soft drinks or cigarettes as they go about their daily routines.

Drive further into Hamilton or nearby Fairfield, and motorists will see a different and more ominous sign: large billboards featuring the image of Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones under the stern warning, “Hire an illegal, BREAK THE LAW!”

The signs reveal the changing face of Butler County as it struggles with the stresses and opportunities of assimilating an influx of Hispanic residents during the past decade. Between 2000 and 2006, the county’s Latino community grew by 72 percent — up to 8,197 residents from less than 4,800 just a few years ago, according to U.S. Census statistics.
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Immigration has topped the list of factors most likely to influence how people will vote in the next UK general election.

Thirty per cent of people rank immigration as their priority election issue – beating concerns over crime, health and education. And despite the gloomy economic outlook, personal tax still ranks far behind immigration as a voting priority – with just 20 per cent ranking it number one.

But the issue falling behind all others polled is the environment. Whilst the Government continues to promote the green agenda, the majority of voters now see this as their lowest priority. Just one in 12 people (8 per cent) puts the environment at the top of the list of factors which will sway their vote – suggesting Britain has a long way to go if it hopes to convince people to act against global warming.

The results, from a TNS study of 13,000 consumers, highlight the gulf between the Government’s perceptions and the reality of what issues are really concerning Britain.
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Al Sharpton is making headlines again, but it’s not for one of his crusades. Instead, Sharpton, his National Action Network (NAN), and several major corporations that have donated to NAN have been subpoenaed in recent months by federal investigators.

While Sharpton’s attorneys reported Tuesday that the criminal probe over millions allegedly owed in taxes by Sharpton and NAN has been dropped in lieu of civil action by the IRS, federal authorities remain tight-lipped over the status of any investigations.

Critics have long accused Sharpton of obtaining corporate contributions by threatening racial boycotts.

Sharpton denies this, saying “That’s the old shakedown theory that the anti-civil-rights forces have used against us forever.”

But there’s plenty to wonder about. In November 2003, according to the New York Post, Sharpton picketed a DaimlerChrysler air show, threatening a boycott. After the company began sponsoring NAN’s annual conference in 2004, however, Sharpton bestowed an award on it for corporate excellence. General Motors and American Honda also began giving to the group after similar threats.
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