Open Letter to US Secretary of State - Destruction of life saving medical supplies for women

Dear Secretary of State Rubio

You recently made a decision to spend another $170,000 tax dollars to destroy between 9 and 12 million worth of medical supplies intended for women's health programs in low-income African nations paid for by American taxpayers, a large majority of whom support contraception, including many Roman Catholics, although your party is doing its best to make it more difficult for all woman to have affordable access. Alas for the planet, going forth and multiplying without question not sustainable. We've done that. We need to recalculate. My church has.

You will be accountable for the deaths and immiseration this cruel decision will cause. 

 According to the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition here is 

          THE TRUE COST OF DESTROYING LIFE-SAVING PRODUCTS

    Destroying $9.7M worth of contraceptives carries a human toll:

• 362K unintended pregnancies

• 161,000 unplanned births

• 110,000 unsafe abortions

• 718 preventable maternal deaths**

But the ripple effects within the supply chain are also devastating. When a woman’s first choice of contraceptive is missing, she may opt for a less-preferred product, which could lead to a stockout of that product if demand rises unexpectedly. When family planning stocks are compromised, the entire supply chain is at risk, requiring new funding, time, and coordination that cannot materialize at short notice. Saving $9.7M of contraceptives from being incinerated won’t solve the funding gap, but it can prevent further disaster.

This figure does not include the number of neonatal deaths where birth options are unsafe. I have a nurse friend who worked with women in Sierra Leone in her youth and dedicated the rest of her career to working for global improvements in women's health. In those days she was up against faith in witchcraft and ignorance of sterile conditions. Thanks to the efforts of fundamentalists of many flavours, I see the witches are returning.

According to a John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, worldwide use of contraception averted 272,000 maternal deaths, or 38 deaths per 100,000 women using contraception. The estimate is equivalent to a 44 percent reduction in maternal deaths worldwide. The decline in deaths for individual countries ranged from 7 percent to as high as 61 percent. The study authors further estimated that in the absence of contraceptive use the number of maternal deaths would be 1.8 times higher for the study period. I also note that they are currently engaged in studies on the effect of declining maternal healthcare in the USA.

The CEO of Doctors Without Borders in the U.S., called your plan a "reckless and harmful act against women and girls everywhere."

"Contraceptives are essential and lifesaving health products," she said in a press release. "[Our organization] has seen first-hand the positive health benefits when women and girls can freely make their own health decisions by choosing to prevent or delay pregnancy — and the dangerous consequences when they cannot."

I am a long time supporter of Doctors without Borders and the Stephen Lewis Foundation which lost USAID support for its programs for reducing AIDS in Africa and supporting families who care for children whose parents have died. I have increased my small donations but it grieves me to see what harm has been done and what little I can do. Stephen Lewis, a brilliant and caring Canadian, was our envoy to the UN and travelled extensively in Africa. His message: “I feel so strongly that the single most important issue on the planet is gender equality, nothing is more important  ...  until there is gender equality, all the other injustices of the world, most of which are outlined in the UN goals, will persist. He is right.

I stand with the Belgians. "Sexual and reproductive health must not be subject to ideological constraints." And the French: "The defence of sexual health and reproductive rights is a foreign policy priority for France." These countries are still civilized. I watch in horror as the current American government is steadily steering the US medical care toward some new kind of voodoo. Sooner or later, the harms we do in the world will come back to plague us one way or another. We are all connected.

 

Letter to Doug Ford on "Narrative Softening"

 

Dear Premier Ford

Here is a fine exemplar of "narrative softening" from the Grand Master

 

National park to remove photo of enslaved man’s scars:   The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/09/15/national-parks-slavery-information-removal/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

 

I hope you are not reading from his playbook with the John A statue.

Let us not turn to this corrosive example of how to undermine true history 

 

From Aniston to ICE – how my brain processes Vanity Fair

As each Vanity Fair arrives, the little imp on my shoulder scolds: "Why do you subscribe to this rag with its glossy ads for Rolex and celeb profiles that you pretend you don't want to read 🤥"? "Go away, humourless, überwoke imp!  Reading gossip in the tub is only a venial sin. 

The September cover features Jennifer Aniston and her elegant bottom.  Not mentioned is her new contract with Coca Cola shilling Smart Water. I minds the first time I saw her promoting this non-essential and polluting product in 2007. I try to avoid bottled water. Where I cannot, I buy the stupidest brand available and re-use the bottles for few months. Spinal issues make carrying heavy bottles unpleasant. In a world where universities make big bucks by signing "exclusive pouring rights," with Coke or Pepsi and you find yourself parched by the vending machine, three floors from the water fountain at midnight, or in Morocco where you cannot drink the water, choices are limited. My bottled water of choice is Earth Water a Canadian product bottled in light weight reusable aluminum bottles. I’ve kept some for two years.

Aniston has done well for her elegant bottom line flogging Aveeno products, manufactured by a multinational company whose corporate transparency has been subject to criticism on occasion: “No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson" by Gardiner Harrison. I boycott all products flogged by spokesmodels. No product will give me an elegant bottom. No tears for Ms. Aniston. Bless her, she seems a good soul who supports worthy causes, pays her income tax and is offended by VPOTUS as much as I am.

Also useful reading:  investigative stories about obnoxious rich people like Bernie Madoff, or Canadian fashion mogul, Peter Nygård. When they published The Battle of Lyford Cay by Eric Konigsberg in 2016 about Nygård’s "ruining the neighbourhood,” he was not yet under investigation for longtime sex offences, for which he was recently imprisoned. I boycotted his shops after the article. Thank you, VF. You know a sleveen* when you see one.  

 * sleveen -  a delicious Newfoundland word for an untrustworthy or cunning person

The person narratives are usually interesting.  Some may recall, with horror - or applause depending upon their gullibility - the abduction of Rümeysa Öztürk, Tufts University PhD student in March by masked ICE operatives. Her crime:  she co-authored with three other student, an op-ed piece in the Tufts Daily March 26, 2024, calling on the University President to apologize for remarks he made about the current Israeli-Gaza situation  and labelling all Palestinians as terrorists, without acknowledging the 75 year persecution of those who chose not to “self-deport” in 1948. There were about 700,000 or 85% who left.  The Hamas’ attack was horrible – and stupidly suicidal - - but it did not spring from a vacuum. Israel’s vengeance springs from longer lasting horrific experiences. The Hammurabi code is alive and well and on steroids.

Öztürk, upon release, was quoted in the NY Times: “America is the greatest democracy in the world. I have faith in the American system of justice.” Coming to the US from Erdogan’s Turkey before the current regime, that might have had some credence. I feared she might have been tortured. What would it take for such words to escape my lips?  As they say in Newfoundland “..she’s gone b’y, she’s gone.”

Öztürk ‘s VF article "Even God Cannot Hear Us Here” What I Witnessed Inside an ICE Women’s Prison"  is a shorter version of a longer piece that appeared in the Tufts Daily in July.  I read thoughtful words by young woman with admirable life goals, who suddenly found herself in an incomprensible  situation, and made it life-affirming by bonding with the women with whom she was imprisoned. May she finish her dissertation quickly and bring experience and wisdom to the wider world. I remember a book by a younger woman, with so much to offer, who wanted a career as a writer, and didn’t get that chance.

The stealthy abduction was observed. There was public outcry. The ACLU took the case. Thousands are not as fortunate. ACLU needs all help it can get right now. I have supported our Canadian equivalent for years. We are not immune to injustice.

The brutality Öztürk describes makes clear that the statement issued to Vanity Fair by GEO, the private company contracted by ICE for detention purposes is rubbish. GEO claims its “support services are monitored by ICE, including by on-site agency personnel, and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure strict compliance with ICE detention standards.” If so, one suspects that ICE standards have taken a chapter from the SS.  GEO's website is enough to make one vomit.

To follow the myriad abuses of the United States Private Prison system:
The Marshall Project
Propublica.  
NPR

Tax the Rich! Guaranteed Annual Income - Open Letter Pierre Poilievre

 

Mr. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Opposition

 

It isn't Rocket Science; it isn't radical; it isn't communism or any other ism; it's common sense, lost somewhere in the empty jingoism and hate-speech that is the curse of our times - and many other times. The idea has been around for a long time. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., is credited with saying, "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society." This perspective suggests that taxes are a necessary and positive investment in the public goods and services that create a functional and advanced society, rather than an involuntary burden. There is a perception, hard to deny, that civilization is breaking down. 

Right now the onus is still on the middle class. I remember a year when I discovered that I had, as a young public librarian, paid more taxes than a certain member of one of Canada's very wealthy families. With the cooperation of their political operatives, they can hide much of their wealth. Those fortunes have been created, not only by inheritance, but also by availing of goods, services and infrastructure for which we ordinary folks all pay. Our civilization is not advancing. Artificial Intelligence designed to eliminate human workers and private space tourism are not my idea of advances in civilization.

I see the results of our failure in the streets of my country every day. It makes me angry. I donate to charities. I give money to people on the streets. I talk to them. I see them. It isn't enough. Our system is responsible. Our culture promotes blaming victims. I shall complain and will continue to do until saner, more compassionate, leaders enact a guaranteed annual income. Nominal tax cuts for the middle class only decrease the revenue streams we need to provide all goods and services, and pay down interest on the national debt.

There is already a substantial study published by the CPPA  in 2009 discussing ways and means by which a more uniform and efficient system could be attained.  Punishing and judging people for being on the margins is not the way I want our country to operate. We all benefit when our most vulnerable people are helped.  

Opinion by Chuck Collins for CNN Business Perspectives  - an American perspective but applicable enough

According to a new report published by Fight Inequality Alliance, the Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam and Patriotic Millionaires, a small, annual wealth tax on the world’s wealthiest billionaires and multi-millionaires could raise over $2.5 trillion each year. (That’s based on a graduated rate structure of a 2% tax on wealth over $5 million, 3% on wealth over $50 million, and 5% on wealth over $1 billion.)

This is enough revenue to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, vaccinate the entire world, and deliver universal health care and social protection for all citizens of low and lower-middle-income countries — an estimated 3.6 billion people.

In the United States, a tax like that could raise nearly $930 billion a year. And with a more progressive rate structure — say, a 10% rate on wealth over $1 billion — it could raise over $1 trillion. Numbers like that could put us on the path to universal health care, a decarbonized economy, and much more.

It is probably more efficient and consistent to do this at the national level probably through restructuring our current bureaucracies, whose workers are currently overworked and stressed and need some relief. The "frauds" that might result from some people scamming the system pale beside the tax dodges of the very wealthy. 

My father was a war veteran and a Conservative Party supporter until Stephen Harper became leader, especially because of environmental issues and Harper's cracking down on scientific research and muzzling researchers. He would be horrified now, as am I, by the crowd to the south, whose philosophies and actions are poisoning the entire world.  Neither the vapid sloganism and opponent bashing, nor the people you seem to admire, indicate that you and your party have the qualities to provide the leadership we need right now.

Private Stadium Serpent raises its head again

 

Letter sent to Halifax Regional Municipal Council, Mayor Fillmore and Premier Houston

 

I understand the Private Stadium Serpent is once again raising its ugly head from the Dark Depths, floating yet another scam attempt.  

 

Three options have been proposed for plans for the Wanderers' Block 
All include building a private stadium on public land using public dollars.

1) Total estimated cost $116million.The Lancers can expand. There will be no conservatory for the Public Gardens. The stadium will cost taxpayers between $84million and $92million.  

2) Total estimated cost $120million. No new building for Lancers. Botanical Conservatory. Bigger stadium.

3) Total estimated cost $122million. Less space for Lancers. Botanical Conservatory. An even bigger stadium.

WHO is making these proposals? Even more interesting: Who are their friends on Council?  Inquiring minds want to know. Feasibility studies cost money.  Why are these proposals even going to be considered?   Who said bike lanes on Morris Street would make it hard for ER vehicles? Can you imagine the traffic snarls if a stadium is built right next door, and there is an event at the Scotia Centre at the same time? 

Just say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Nova Scotia is burning like Rome. We do not need circuses. We need public housing, transit improvement, and planning to mitigate climate damage and find more ways to help our fellow citizens who are finding it hard to cope with complexities of 21st century life. We do NOT need a private stadium whose owners will keep coming to us with hands out over and over again. The last time this came up I searched. Every project like this around the continent ends up costing municipalities so much more than they promise - over and over again.  I remember one in Newfoundland, built for Canada Games and dumped first on the municipality, then on to the university who had to sell some of its soul cheap to Pepsi and became a Giant White Elephant.

 

Elinor Benjamin  

9 Elliot Street

Dartmouth, NS   B2Y 2X6

Open Letter to Premier Doug Ford - moving on with Sir John A

 

Dear Premier Ford

An excerpt From Broadview Magazine:

"After years hidden from view, the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald at Queen’s Park in Toronto is back on full display beneath a giant Canadian flag. 

In early July, workers at the Ontario legislature quietly took down his wooden casing, but the symbolism rang loud. John A MacDonald was back. Gone were the tiny children’s shoes that mourners once placed on the steps of the statue to honour lives lost in residential schools. In their place, a new, polished plaque offered a softer narrative: “Though we cannot change the history we have inherited, we can shape the history we wish to leave behind.”  Speaking to reporters that day, Ontario Premier Doug Ford put it differently: “We have to move on. Stop worrying about the past.”

“Though we cannot change the history we have inherited, we can shape the history we wish to leave behind.”    

That phrase is somewhat ambiguous. There is a wee whiff of Stalin’s efforts on behalf of “history” or that fellow to the south who is currently busy “shaping” history.

How about:  …we must shape our present to make our own legacy better.”

I am not a big fan of monumental statuary or softer narratives. Put the statue back, if you must, but add some bronze shoes and the story of why they were put there in the present. Add the Survivors Flag which flies only periodically on Capital Hill in Ottawa. The Indian Act and the Building of the Railway were accomplished under MacDonald at great harm to our First Nations people and the Chinese Labourers, essentially slaves, at considerable profit to the rich and powerful who influenced him, possibly while he, himself, was under the influence. Plus ça change. His life was sad; he was not heroic. Few are. 

As for "the past," we are witnessing around the world today dreadful ramifications coming from it. 

Only those of us who have lived comfortably with little trauma can enjoy the luxury to stop worrying about the past when it has such an impact on the present of so many people.  It is seriously condescending to ask others to do so. Everything is connected.

Sincerely yours, comfortable enough, but watching ... 

Elinor Benjamin

Fossil fuel enablers, Carbon Emissions and Air Quality

Email sent to Premiers Tim Houston, Doug Ford and Danielle Smith and Mayor Andy Fillmore

Dear Fossil Fuel Enabling Leaders  

When Paris set out to reduce its carbon emissions successfully, there was a lot of push back but now they are enjoying the benefits of cleaner air, and a better quality of life and the population is on side. Health has improved, ie less pressure on the health care system. Hello!!!  They are continuing the work.

 

When are you going to wake up?  We need stronger leadership - not the "strong" kind you are pushing to support the fossil fuel industry and increase profits for the rich, but strong for the country and the world. They started twenty years ago. We seem to be going backwards. Look at the Air Quality figures lately in Toronto. People are trying to shelter from heat waves and poor air and the fires. Some of them are dying. 

https://unfccc.int/climate-action/un-global-climate-action-awards/climate-leaders/city-of-paris

https://www.env-health.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Paris-city-report-Healthy-Air-Healthier-Children_EN.pdf