A lá Zimbabwe

 

Então EU, a não pagar – dá dinheiro?

 08/12/2008 10:42:41 Dream tonight: I am in a fishing trip. At the very strait and narrow channel I put on my cane a big deep to see if I catch near the bed of this row a fish. And I catch two fishes very quickly. One is relatively small pike. Which I grab with all force to he even don’t try to escape. Another one is huge, like a frying pan bream. At morning coffee, “voices” was divided between two camps. One was shouting that this is “Put in” with French President looking at the two fighting for breath, half-dead bankers from Basel II Agreement (brother). That famous and hugely announced visit of French President where this son of a bitch (Putin) start to have huge, unfathomable, money for him, only him and nobody else. And another, telling me that this is oil, gas and petrochemicals from Uzbekistan (?). Mean, serious, in right place, in right time and functional situation for Energy Map of our civilisation. What ever. Only to note was the BMW7 at my door with “Uzbek” inside. At the Danzig Corridor, after this, I saw two, you don’t believe me, blacks one from Africa, another from US…

Time after time still thinking: “How the hell, this news first time appears in an internet exactly when I finish my observations in “Economical mum”?” Some one tries to put strait me like that piggy tail? It’s simple to see that pork poisoning wasn’t just my, crazy talk (бред сумашедшего). See today jump in financial markets and all are clear again. In Expansion (Spanish economical site), only two indicators i.e. Barroso and Solana – are in red. Euribor Tax and Brent. The West Texas Indicator – is Ok. American Markets yet are closed, but for “B” group services, mean speculators in City it’s like a bread and butter. Prices are jumping too. But, the Eurobor Tax, and we know it, always where a reflection of a notable break in confidence and in the liquidity of financial system. To remember, that this taxes not just indexes in mortgage lending – they are, and this is very important, the indicator of interbank exchanges. The INTEREST covered between banks when they are lent the money one to another. During the fall in confidence between Financial Institutions and the disponibility of capitals to do the lending drop, the Financial Institutions (banks) begin take more high interests which make Eurobor Tax jump up. Now you see the difference between Celestial body and body of Celeste. Between Portland cement 450, my fees and Jorge Sampaio with poisonous swine from Brussels and Strasburg. I see now, how this huge financial crisis is passing for calmer phase. The Trishet for three times now cut the interest rate for Euro Zone. Since the 1946, never was this cuts such drastic. Which give us today this “wonderful” sign of cheap money a lá Zimbabwe.  

Click to rate:  Why could not they announce it to the public on 19 Nov? Especially if it does not really harm people? Off course, will cause the damage on farmers but need to give consumers the choice.

- Hanna, London, England, 08/12/2008 09:10

British shoppers 'may not be able to tell whether they have Irish poison pork in their fridge' Last updated at 10:04 AM on 08th December 2008 British consumers may not be able to tell whether to dump pork, ham, sausages and bacon in their fridges over fears it is part of the contaminated Irish consignment.  Much of the meat it is simply labelled 'produce of the EU'. Even ham and bacon marked 'Produced in Britain' could originate in Ireland under EU rules. Concern is growing after it was revealed that pig farms in Northern Ireland, as well as some in the Republic, used animal feed contaminated with cancer causing dioxins. British supermarkets have been told to remove all pork products from either the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland from their shelves. There were fears today that contaminated products could still be on sale across Britain. They have said they will give refunds to customers who return products. The Food Standards Agency will hold emergency talks with industry leaders today to identify which products must be destroyed. Last night there were conflicting claims about when the Irish government knew there was a problem. Officially, its food safety body first knew of it on November 19. But there is a suggestion that the Italian government alerted Dublin as long as three months ago although nothing was done. The Irish police have launched an investigation into the meat scare, which could cost the Irish economy £860 million. Pigs in Ireland were given a feed contaminated with high levels of dioxins, which are found in diesel oil and industrial pollutants. It is said to have been traced to a County Wexford company, Millstream Power Recycling Limited, which is owned by farmer and polo fanatic Robert Hogg. He was away last night but a spokesman for the company, which recycles bread and dough into pig swill, said officials were testing an industrial oil used in a machine that dries the feed. He insisted it had never been added as an ingredient. All production at the plant was stopped last Wednesday. Forty-seven farms in the south of Ireland and nine in the North are understood to have used the suspect feed. The contamination was first discovered during routing tests in Ireland. Pork samples sent to UK experts at the Central Science Laboratory in York were found to have contamination at up to 200 times the permitted level. Medical experts insist that human health is not at risk, as only long-term exposure to dioxins increases the risk of cancer and other harm. But food worth tens of millions will have to be dumped in an operation that will decimate the Irish food industry and could ruin many farmers. Tens of thousands of pigs will have to be slaughtered and either buried or burned. The Irish Farmers' Association has described the crisis as an 'absolute disaster', particularly in the run-up to the lucrative Christmas gammon market. Ireland exported 51,700 tonnes of pork meat to the UK in the year to the end of September and it is thought contaminated products have reached as many as 25 countries. The Irish company Kerry Foods will be among those hard hit. It is responsible for major brands including Richmond Irish Recipe sausages, Wall's sausages and bacon, Porkinson Bangers, Bowyers and Mattesons. Waitrose has withdrawn sausages made in Northern Ireland under the brand name of celebrity chef Paul Rankin while it checks the origin of the meat in them. Sainsbury's and Morrisons are checking the origin of own-label and big brand processed pork products on their shelves. Asda said: 'We can trace all our meat products back to the source they come from and we're currently investigating the situation with our suppliers across all our products.' 

Tesco said: 'Our stores in the north and south of Ireland have been removing products from shelves. 'Our absolute priority is customer safety and we will be removing those products identified as being sourced in southern Ireland.' But the Daily Mail was able to buy ham from Ireland at a Tesco store yesterday and tens of thousands of other products will still be on sale across the country.  Much of the Irish pork will have gone to the restaurant and catering trade, for things like pizza toppings, cocktail sausages, sausage rolls and sandwiches. The FSA said last night: 'We are advising consumers not to eat pork or pork products, such as sausages, bacon, salami and ham, which are labelled as being from the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland. 'Dioxins are chemicals that can get into food from the environment and are associated with a range of health effects when there is long term exposure to them at relatively high levels' The problem for shoppers is that EU rules allow food to be labelled as a product of the last country where it was processed, even if that just means slicing it. Microbiologist and food safety expert Professor Hugh Pennington, of Aberdeen University, said: 'I don't think anyone needs to worry that they are going to fall ill.' But he said there would be major damage to the image of mass-produced food. Professor Pennington said: 'This has echoes of big scandal in Belgium at the end of the 1990s when a similar kind of contamination in chicken, but also some pork, had a serious impact on consumer confidence.' The professor was critical of the fact that the feed had been contaminated in the first place, which suggested a serious breakdown in safeguards. Questions will focus on whether a pressure to produce cheap food has led feed manufacturers to cut corners. Professor Alan Boobis, a toxicologist at Imperial College, London, and a government adviser said consumers should not be alarmed. He said: 'These compounds take a long time to accumulate in the body, so a relatively short exposure would have little impact. One would have to be exposed to high levels for a long time before there would be a health risk. Chris Elliott, Professor of Food Safety at Queen's University, Belfast, said: 'Monitoring for dioxins and other chemicals in foods is a difficult and expensive task. 'However more thought must be given to try and identify such problems before food reaches the supermarket shelves.'Could beef be affected as well? Tests are under way to establish whether beef products have been affected. Cattle at up to 38 non-dairy farms in the Irish Republic are known to have been exposed to the dioxin-contaminated feed. Initial tests have suggested that there was no risk to beef products, although the affected farms have been isolated pending further investigation. Irish beef is renowned for its quality and cattle farmers fear a food scare could be a blow to an industry which is one of the country's main export earners. Experts said the negative results for beef products were not surprising, as dioxins are stored in fat cells. Pigs have a lot more fatty tissue than cattle and also eat more man-made feed.  The risk of beef contamination is said to be low as cattle graze for most of the year on grass. A European Commission spokesman said: 'The use of this contaminated feed in a cattle diet is much more limited than in a pig diet. 

'But as a precautionary measure, the affected cattle farms are blocked and investigations are ongoing to determine if the bovine meat is contaminated at unacceptable levels'.  A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said last night: 'At this stage the European rapid alert relates only to pork products.  'We are not aware of any action over beef at the moment.'  The pig farmer with his own polo pitch For an Irish pig farmer he leads an unusually glamorous lifestyle, rubbing shoulders with royalty and millionaires at polo matches. Robert Hogg, 42, moved hundreds of pigs off two of his fields to make way for his own polo pitch, where he entertains Ireland's rich. After discovering a passion for the game in 2001 the farmer created a club in Clohmahon, Co Wexford, with his fiancee Margaret O'Leary . While it fails to rival the All Ireland Polo Club in Dublin's Phoenix Park, Mr Hogg's lavish barbecues on the pig farm have become something of an event on the social calendar.  But the modest businessman insists: 'It's not posh  -  definitely not on my farm.'  It remains unclear how Mr Hogg circumvented the Irish Republic's planning laws to rezone his land from agricultural to recreational use and build a clubhouse. 'I only took it up because I couldn't go hunting,' Mr Hogg revealed in an interview last year.  The farmer, who plays with his teenage son Charlie, is a member of Wexford's Island Hunt.  He added: 'There was an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at the time so the hunt had to be called off. I love horses and really missed the hunt, so I thought I'd try out polo.  'I've played a lot of sports but I had never done anything like that. It's just a great sport.'  After that, he took more lessons from international coach Major Hugh Dawnay, who runs a polo school at his home, Whitfield Court in Waterford.  Mr Hogg assembled a team of his close friends and travelled the country, playing small tournaments, before settling in his own grounds.  'I wanted to play it in my own backyard. We had no club in Wexford so I just gave it a go,' he added. They have matches three days a week, 35 adult playing members  -  and ten players aged 12 to 21.  Mr Hogg says the game is just as thrilling down on his farm as it is in the most exclusive polo clubs: 'We're not playing at the same level but if you just want a bit of excitement, it's great.'