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Stephanie Seneff on glyphosate-autism link

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Part 1 of the interview

Had a half hour long talk with US based scientist Stephanie Seneff on Aug 28, regarding possible link between glyphosate getting into our body and the apparent epidemic of autism that newborns and children are apparently experiencing these days, especially in North America.

Dr. Stephanie Seneff

According to Dr. Seneff, if glyphosate comes to us through food, it all usually starts at the gut. Directly and indirectly, glyphosate ends up disrupting the gut barrier, causing the leaky gut syndrome, where molecules that should not be able to get out of the gut intestine, does get out.

Next step is for them to cause various degree of harm depending on where these rogue molecules end up. In the brain, it can trigger the brain immune system to also disrupting the brain barrier, triggering damage to the insulation of the nerve system in the brain and impairing the communication system of the brain, and slowing it down. Many of the symptoms suffered by autistic children are common to gut related problems. What I write here is not exactly what Dr. Seneff said, but more in line with what I understood from her talks.

Dr. Stephanie Seneff is a Senior Research Scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. She has a BS degree from MIT in biology and MS, EE and PhD degrees from MIT in electrical engineering and computer science. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings.

Her recent interests have focused on the role of toxic chemicals and micronutrient deficiencies in health and disease, with a special emphasis on the pervasive herbicide, Roundup, and the mineral, sulfur.

She has authored over thirty peer-reviewed journal papers over the past few years on these topics, and has delivered numerous slide presentations around the world.

Of note are a series of six peer reviewed papers that Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff wrote about glyphosate being the pathway to various modern diseases, covered by me earlier on this blog.

The long talk was broken down into smaller segments. This particular blog covers the first part, showing link between glyphosate in the gut leading to to autism in the brain.

Other parts of the talk will cover glyphosate that can also come to us through vaccines, and in particular, the MMR vaccine.

Here is part 2 of the interview.

Samsel on Vaccines and Autism

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I was talking with scientist Anthony Samsel on some issues. Meanwhile, he has been checking on presence of glyphosate in vaccines and what all harm it can do to children and people that take those vaccines. Under focus was MMR vaccines, several batches of which has already been tested using ELISA method (chemical test) and now many more samples were being prepared for the more reliable HPLC-MSMS method.

Anthony stated that he had over $10,000 worth of vaccines ready to be used for larger doses for liquid chromatography (optical test of chromatograms) for detecting presence and strength of glyphosate.

He had a lot to say on how glyphosate in vaccines and food can end up causing various kinds of disease such as autism, as well as fertility and cancer related ailments. However, his work is not completed yet. Soon he’d like to speak with me to break the next level of findings on glyphosate and the harm it can cause to humans.

Above is a two minute video of our preliminary talk today.

Anthony Samsel on seed freedom

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There is a petition on AVAAZ.ORG from Europe, on the issue of seed freedom. Apparently there is a list prepared, of so called “Approved seeds” which mostly contains seeds patented and owned/controlled by a few agro-corporations. Idea is to pass a law that makes it illegal for anybody to grow any food from any seed that is not in this list.

This is geared to kill the heirloom seed industry, take away farmers seed freedom and oblige them only to buy corporate controlled seeds, and ensure people lose their food sovereignty, not to mention the resultant avalanche of ill health and tsunami of chemicals in food production.

This petition has 120,000 supports. I was sent the link by Wendy Bales. It is suspected that these kind of rules are also in the offing for Canada and USA down the line. Nobody on this planet will be allowed to grow or eat any food unless it is from within the “Approved list”.

I decided to write a letter to Lana Popham, the agriculture minister of British Columbia, asking if she knew about it, and what if anything did she have to say about it. I was going to copy that to the premier of BC as well as write similar letters separately to the federal minister of agriculture and copy that to my MP.

But I decided to also check views of Anthony Samsel, and create a blog, which I could refer to, to the BC Ag-Minister, and let the blog be available for anybody else.

The talk with US scientist Anthony Samsel was short – covering 2 minutes. We spoke about other issues that are not related to this petition, which will be covered in separate video and blogs.

Thats it for now.
Thanks for visiting. You are welcome to leave a comment.
What I’d really like is for people to write to their politicians and not only make them aware, in case they did not know, but also to start ensuring that this does not happen in Canada or in USA, ever.

Citizen activism against herbicide attack

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Spent an evening at Richard Miller’s iconic home – a three story hillside home that once used to be a power plant and a railway station. Today, it borders a forested hill to the south where hummingbird families make nests, and agricultural flats to the north in Abbotsford.

Family of Robin Wesman of the East Kootenay had arrived to spend the night with them. I came with a pumpkin from my backyard. Richard would show me, another day, how to roast pumpkin seeds. But that was not the main reason we were there.

Richard spoke on the need of the hour, which might be to write multiple letters to the new Agriculture Minister of British Columbia. She is an NDP MLA and has a track record in the past for supporting organic farming and pushing back at industrial chemical dependent toxic farming. Now was the time to write to her, to encourage her in finding ways to push back at the use of glyphosate and reduce its presence in British Columbian agriculture. This was the time to show her the support – by the tens of thousands. His one minute talk on record was short, straight and direct.

Then it was Robin Wesman’s turn. He took two minutes to articulate his view, which is, to engage himself in a step by step process where the first step is to educate the people so they can see the picture about how our long term as well as short term health is affected by excess use of herbicides in our environment. The next step would be for the people to find ways to banish this practice of spraying herbicides in our environment. He covers his points in a two minute talk.

Lana Popham – mew Agriculture Minister of BC (AGR.Minister@gov.bc.ca)

 

Tony explained two things from his own perspective. The first was how science has been hijacked by the industry and we do not have balanced neutral science available to judge agri-industry, GMO or herbicides any more. Science has lost its objectivity and neutrality and stopped being an unbiased tool to assess glyphosate. The second point is – it is not so much the industry such as Monsanto that is at fault. The party that ensured our environment is turned toxic is our politicians that control our government. But the root cause is not just corrupt politicians – but complacency of us, the people of Canada that refuse to perform their main task as citizens. His talk took four minutes.

I forgot to mention, Richard and Tracie made some lovely dinner for us all, with roasted chicken with unbelievably good flavour, along with quinoa and salad, that went with a glass of red wine. I also had a banana.

Received an interesting feedback from a reader on youtube:

I Macey
No I disagree the only people who can change this are the occultists who are in power glyphosate is part of ongoing eugenics and the only reason the e.u haven’t relicensed is because glyphosate is starting to effect themselves . My opinion of course

That’s it for the day. By the time I hit the road heading back to my home, light had disappeared from the sky, and there was a traffic jam due to an accident that turned my hour long drive into a two hour one, reaching back home at 10:30 PM. My wife was fast asleep by then. All in all – a good way to pass quality time, and talk about what we the people aught to do beyond eating, drinking and making money for ourselves. Do we have a responsibility towards the future of the society and the land, or don’t we?

Letter to Mayor of Moncton

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In support of her effort to stop spraying of Glyphosate in eco-sensitive areas near her town in New Brunswick, Canada.

To: Ms Dawn Arnold, Mayor, Moncton, New Brunswick,

Date: Saturday, August 26, 2017

Subject: Your effort to stop spraying of glyphosate in eco-sensitive areas of Moncton.

Dear Ms Arnold,

I am a Canadian citizen that writes to you in support of your effort to get the provincial government to put a stop to the practice of spraying glyphosate near the Turtle Creek reservoir. I came to learn of this through news outlets on internet.

I am a resident of British Columbia and have been to your province some years ago along with scientist Thierry Vrain, talking to people about dangers of glyphosate. I had an influence in getting our government to test thousands of food samples collected in Canada for presence of glyphosate. I obtained a copy of the results from Health Canada and was shocked to find north American foods to be the most toxic in the world, with regard to glyphosate contamination. I published my analysis in a 400 page book on Amazon titled “Poison Foods of North America”.

Mayor Dawn Arnold

I write this not just to show my support in your endeavour get the government to put a stop to spraying glyphosate in areas where it can cause maximum damage, but also to seek ways to spread this message to the rest of Canada, since you are considered to be a role model that many other Mayors could learn from.

If you agree, I would like to give you a call over the phone, for say a five minute talk where you can speak in your own voice about the issue. I would like to record it and have it converted into a short video with still images related to the subject, and promote it through blogs and social media across Canada and the world. My blog gets around 2,000 hits a day and I have talks with scientists such as Anthony Samsel of Stephanie Seneff from the US that are investigating all the different ways glyphosate can hurt the living planet. One can key in “glyphosate” or “Samsel” in the search field of my blog and read the resulting entries including talks of the scientists themselves.

I also have a three year old running case through Access To Information application for the government to release all safety test documents based on which it approved the use of glyphosate. In my understanding of the law, it is illegal for the government to release a product while withholding its safety data. The government has indirectly agreed to my view and accepts that I have the right to see the documents and yet it drags its feet. It has been dragging its feet for 35 years now.

If  you agree to our talk, please revert a telephone number and a suitable date and time when I might call you.

Either way, please take this letter as a note of appreciation from a citizen activist that supports your efforts. It is our view that citizen activism is a critical component that enables the government to relate to views of the civil society, which in itself is a critical element for a functioning democracy.

Thanking you

Tony Mitra
10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7
Canada

Reference : “POISON FOODS OF NORTH AMERICA”

Reference : Talks with Scientist Anthony Samsel on my blog:

Response received:

This is a good example of citizens taking it upon themselves to lend mass support to a few politicians that are out there willing to fight back at this avalanche of chemical attack that we are subjected to. This entire blog is geared to encourage more people to do the same. Politicians need mass support for doing the right thing.

Labelling GMO – a letter to my MP

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To: Carla Qualtrough, Liberal MP, North Delta., carla.qualtrough@parl.gc.ca.
cc: Terry Beach, Liberal MP, Burnaby BC, terry.Beech@parl.gc.ca
Dated Sunday, August 20, 2017
Subject : Bill C-291 – regarding labelling of genetically modified food.

Honourable Ms Qualtrough,

I write to you with regard to bill C-291 which aimed to amend the Food and Drug Act and include a clause to mandate labelling of genetically modified foods in Canada. This bill got defeated in the parliament with 216 Nay votes and 67 Yea votes. You voted against it, as did virtually all of the conservatives and most of the liberal MPs. A handful of Liberal MPs voted in favour of labelling GMOs, Honourable liberal MP Terry Beach of Burnaby BC being one of them. This letter is copied to him since he is referred here.

Common sense tells me that GMO aught to have been labelled, irrespective of what science says about it, of if one prefers to eat or avoid genetically modified food. It is the right of the people, I feel, to know what they are eating, and GMO is one such information that aught to have been identified to consumers.

But I do not write this letter regarding what I feel aught to have been or what my idea of common sense is.

I write this letter for two specific reasons. These are

1) To inform you that in my view you have violated the duty you were to perform when you got elected to represent us, by making your own decision to vote against the bill instead of checking with your constituents first.

You have often held meetings in Delta to gather public opinion on various issues. I have received invitations from your office to attend such meetings and have attended a few and voiced my concerns there. I presume the reason you hold such meetings is to gauge the opinions and feelings of the constituents and to reflect them back in Ottawa.

However, you failed to invite us to express our opinion on this important issue of labelling GMOs which has great relevance to food safety and general health as well as food security, preservation of biodiversity and independence from corporate ownership of living organisms. How I know you avoided checking public opinion is that you failed to hold a meeting on this and I did not receive an invitation from your office to attend any such meeting.

2) Since in my view you may have violated the sacrosanct duty that you were constitutionally required to perform, I believe I may have a reason to question your suitability in performing the task of a public servant to protect our interest. I therefore might decide to perform my citizens duty, to alert voters that you may have assumed dictatorial powers and decided to make unilateral decisions on what the people of Delta should know about their food.

In my book, only two kinds of persons can make such unilateral decisions for the people. These two are – a dictator, or an emperor. I do not believe you are either, though I suspect you might have forgotten what your specific duty is.

I write this letter to you not expecting an answer per se. I know politicians are usually quite good at staying silent on questions that they would rather not answer.

I am nonetheless writing this to publicize and circulate it among voters within my capacity, and also to set an example for other citizens, in Delta and outside, to take a queue and question their own respective representatives about what authority they had in making decisions without checking with the people first.

While I do not expect any response, I shall be glad to receive one, to discuss how you voted against this bill. Either way, this letter is going to be public.

If I do not succeed in changing your behaviour with regard to voting on sensitive bills, I sure hope to change views of a few of the citizen voters with regard to their perception of their representatives in our parliament.

If you find this letter a bit harsh, you will forgive me, since I do not feel particularly amicable after seeing how you voted against this bill.

Thanking you
Tony Mitra
10891 Cherry Lane Delta BC.

A response received from the office of Ms Carla Qualtrough. This is a good omen. Among all the letters I have sent to various MPs, MLAs and Mayors and councillors in Canada,very few will come back with a response.

However, this is an example that, if one tries hard enough, one might get a few responses time to time. More importantly, perhaps this is a sign that if enough folks approach their representatives, there will be a collective pressure that might translate into positive movements in our government to represent issue of vital importance for our people.

Reference:

List of who voted which way on C-291

Another video on the same issue I made two months ago

Preservation of BC forests eco-system

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To: Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
doug.donaldson.mla@leg.bc.ca

cc: Tim Sheldan, Deputy Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, also chair of Forestry Innovation Investment, with branch offices in Vancouver, China and India.
tim.Sheldan@gov.bc.ca

cc: Andrew Weaver, MLA, Green Party
andrew.weaver.mla@leg.bc.ca

cc: Ravi Kahlon, MLA from Delta North (my constituency)
ravi.kahlon.MLA@leg.bc.ca

cc: Lana Popham, Minister of Agriculture
lana.popham.mla@leg.bc.ca, AGR.Minister@gov.bc.ca

Subject: Preservation of BC forests eco-system.

Honourable Mr. Donaldson, Mr. Sheldan, Mr. Weaver, Mr. Kahlon, Ms Popham,

I start this letter by congratulating in being able to jointly form a government replacing the last Liberal Government. I hope this partnership survives full term and produces tangible results towards long term betterment of the province.

I write this letter out of serious concern regarding the future of BC forests, as well as survivability of our biodiversity as well as general health.

Doug Donaldson

I know currently we are having a serious wildfire across much of the state and the cumulative dust particles in the air is making the sun a hazy orange blob in late evening sky. But my concern goes further than the immediate fire.

Tim Sheldan

I draw you attention to the fact that aerial spray of glyphosate (Roundup Herbicide) over our forests, has been approved by the provincial government and usually administered by private logging corporations for many years going into decades without proof that the practice is safe. Further, I draw your attention to the fact that there is absence of evidence that sufficient research has been done and observed by the BC Government on any long term effect of it on our environment, forest health, biodiversity, or trickle down effect on human health.

Andrew Weaver

I have in the past tried to get information from the BC ministry any proof that it has seen evidence that glyphosate has no adverse effect on forests before approving its use. Sadly, I have not been shown any evidence of it by the previous BC ministry. I have reason to believe the BC Government has never seen any proof that glyphosate spraying on our forest is at all safe, and yet has been approving it out of a continued bad habit, year upon year.

Further, I have, through freedom of information act of the BC government, requested for data on the actual quantity of glyphosate used over BC forests, year upon year, from the first year of application till date. Regretfully, I have not gotten what I asked for, but got only a very small part of the answer comprising of a few localized hand application of glyphosate over small bushes. The reason I did not get the larger use data of aerial application is, I was told, the BC government does not know how much has been used, and may need to contact logging corporations to find the answer, hoping they keep the record.

Ravi Kahlon

I was asked if I would be willing to cough up a thousand odd dollars to pay for the man hour costs of the previous BC Government that would be needed to try to collect the information from the private corporations. I declined to pay that money and have been thoroughly disappointed in the shabby manner in which our ministry takes care of forest health.

I believe it is quite possible that forests that are weakened by excess use of herbicides can get vulnerable to not just to fire damage, but also many other maladies leading to continuous decline. I believe we may be converting our diverse forests into mono-culture plantation for the purpose of profit making by selling wood, rather than ensuring that a healthy forest remains to support a healthy environment and what biodiversity still remains in Canada.

Lana Popham

I believe the government may need to seriously start looking into long term health of the entire British Columbian eco-system, and separate that from short term money making schemes and false projection of economic boom or job creation that seems to concentrate on simply exploiting natural resources till what is left is neither natural nor resourceful.

I also draw your attention to the fact that Canada has overtaken Brazil as the fastest destroyer of forests and eliminator of the earth’s carbon sink on this planet. I have a serious question for all of you – what are you prepared to do about it?

I am copying Mr. Weaver since I expect the green party to be more aware on environment protection and hope to hear his views on this.

I am copying this also to Mr. Kahlon, my constitutional representative, since I have had a pre-election talk with him on glyphosate and its excessive presence in our food system, which makes Canadian food to be about the most toxic on earth, as explained in the e-book I authored named “Poison Foods of North America”.

I am copying this also to Ms Lana Popham, minister of Agriculture, who I have met long ago when she was an opposition MLA, because she is currently the minister of Agriculture, and I intend to send her a note about the need to focus on the most prevalent biocide in our food (glyphosate), the fact that Canadian food is the most toxic on earth, and the need to reverse the total silence this issue gets from all levels of Government in our country.

Apart from being the author of the book already mentioned, I am am an activist that tries to raise awareness, I have multiple levels of contact and communication, appeal, petition, and other efforts ongoing with different levels of our government, and will likely use this letter too, to influence and encourage others to join hands at a grassroots level to apply pressure to our newly formed government everywhere in Canada and North America, to pay more attention to saving our forests , environment and food system, rather than focus on how fast to exploit and degrade it.

I am curious why the Deputy Minister of Forest Management, Mr. Tim Sheldan, is also a chair of Forestry Innovation Investment group with apparent partnership with China and India, and if that is geared to find ways to attract foreign funds to help destroy our forests even faster and sell what is left to those countries, or if there is another reason for his involvement in that organization.

In summary, I ask the following

1) Show the people what evidence the government has, that application of glyphosate is not harmful to the total forest eco-system.

2) If the Government has not seen any such evidence, then immediately restrict the use of glyphosate, or any other kind of biocide, till a complete, and thorough investigation can be undertaken by entities that cannot be influenced by either politicians, governments or industry and will be unbiased and neutral. Share all information with the public.

3) Canada overtaking Brazil as the worlds worst de-forester – what are you prepared to do about it?

4) Explain why the Deputy Minster of Forest is the chair of Forestry Innovation Investment and what is the purpose of this groups existence and what involvement China or India has in it.

Please take this letter as a public interest issue that will be shared with the public, including any response I get, or do not get, from our new BC Government.

I have another, less serious request to the government – that we stop the practice of addressing elected government officials as “honourable”. It gives the impression that if one is not elected or not in politics, one is not honourable enough.

In my book, elected officials are public servants, not overlords. Therefore, elected officials should represent humility, not arrogance of power. Anyhow, this is a minor observation, not related to the main issue of glyphosate over forests and our real plan for preservation of forest eco-system.

Should you require, I shall be more than pleased to see any of you face to face about this.

Thanking you
Tony Mitra
10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada

https://www.amazon.com/POISON-FOODS-NORTH-AMERICA-navigating-ebook/dp/B06XS4Y6H2/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=

 

 

 

 

 

Note:

Is there anyone willing to get himself/herself videographer reading this out?
I already have myself talking into a camera enough times, and kind of tired of see my same-old face challenging our government.

We need more voices, more faces, more humans.
Anybody interested, let me know. Interested parties write to tony.mitra@gmail.com

Pesticides in Potato

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There has been talks about possible presence of glyphosate and other pesticides in tubers such as potato.

I was informed by some that potato being grown some places in Canada might be desiccated by glyphosate prior to harvesting. But according to data received from CFIA, potato were not tested for glyphosate, and the word potato comes up sparingly in the items tested which were processed meals that contained potato. Potato might not have been the main ingredient in those products and the presence of glyphosate was not noted to be high or consistent. So I would say that the CFIA results were not conclusive that potato posed a serious threat to glyphosate poisoning to people.

Anyhow, I asked Anthony Samsel. This is what he said:

Tony,
Glyphosate causes DAMAGE to potato tubers…It is generally only used pre-plant and low levels do get into the tubers.. and cause reduced quality and yield.  The herbicides used pre-harvest to desiccate the vines are generally GLUFOSINATE, DIQUAT (Reglone) …..  
These are necrotic lesions caused by glyphosate in the soil…

necrotic lesions

(Above pictures, as well as the rest, are new to me. I have not seen such potato either in the store or in my backyard. I guess such items are removed before potatoes reach the store shelves. I might not have them because I do not use glyphosate or any industrial pesticide in my residence or garden.)

This is crippled shoot (at left) formation from the potato eyes called Cauliflower formation and is a telltale sign of glyphosate application to the field …

This is tuber cracking (at right) caused by glyphosate exposure from spray drift.

…. most potatoes have residues of herbicides and fungicides such as the fungicide Chlorothalonil… which never should have been allowed into the food supply.  This fungicide causes mammalian embryo fatalities and reductions in live fetuses…  Animal studies show that Chlorothalonil is a probable carcinogen…..
Anthony

The images and the text in blue are from scientist Anthony Samsel of USA. I have never seen such potato either but can understand why or how this might happen.

Meanwhile I did check the issue of Chlorthalonil in potato, among items tested by CFIA. There are more than 2,500 samples of potato tested by CFIA from 2008 till 2016 for presence of Chlorothalonil. Out of them all, only four samples had any chlorothalonil.

The above table shows some of the details available from the only samples that contained Chlorothalonil. For some reason, just one sample, the one on top, representing fresh potato from from the US contained over 3,700 ppb of Chlorothalonil and was in violation. The others contained less than 3 ppb, the last one was declared as organic.

The table is also the link to the full downloadable file of over 2,500 tests done on potato to find Chlorothalonil, by CFIA, between 2008 and 2016.

This is also included in the book Poison Foods of North America.

 

Glyphosate over forests

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Glyphosate over forests

I got a question from Kevin Proteau of BC, in relation to spraying of glyphosate over forests. I decided to tell my story directly into a Camera, for record.

BC has been using glyphosate over its forests for decades. I had made a freedom of information request to the BC government to let me know how much (by weight) glyphosate had been sprayed over BC forests by logging corporations from the beginning till date.

I learned that:

1) Glyphosate is routinely used, for many years

2) The details are neither completely held by ministry of forest management, nor the ministry of environment, but in bits and pieces here and there. As a result they could not give me any year upon year total (which I had asked) of amount of glyphosate sprayed over BC Forests.

3) The BC Government asked me if I was prepared to dole out several hundred dollars extra for the information since the request needs more man-hours than stipulated and would require the government to write to all the logging contractors, who might have better records, to furnish the information, to be tallied and tabulated by the Government, and then given to me.

I refused to pay several hundred dollars, but settled to get a small portion of the information that the BC Government had, sketchy and in a rather incomplete list for only a few years, for around $100.

And so, the answer is – two fold:

A) Yes, glyphosate is routinely sprayed over BC forests

B) Nobody knows how much of it has been sprayed. The Government is not keeping tab on it.

On a separate request to the BC Government, I asked to be shown what document it had seen that glyphosate was safe to be used over BC forests, from the point of view of forest ecosystem and wildlife. I got only a vague answer that the product was approved by Health Canada.

This answer indicates, to me that

C) Nobody in the BC Government has seen any evidence that glyphosate is safe to be sprayed over our forests.

D) Since Health Canada, far as I know, has never conducted nor sighted any test on effect of glyphosate on environment, and has only presumably seen tests of glyphosate in mammalian food, which it refuses to disclose to the people – that there has not been any tests seen by anybody in Canada, and as far as I can tell, anybody else anywhere else either, that glyphosate is at all safe to be sprayed over our forests, for sustainability of our biological diversity, our flora and fauna, our wildlife or out environment.

Thank you
Tony Mitra

A book about Mother Teresa

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One of the books I intend to read shortly, from Christopher Hitchens. This provides a counter argument to the theory of service in the name of God and about how good or questionable might have Mother Teresa of Kolkata been.

I will not buy it from Amazon, nor buy a paperback or kindle version.
I shall instead buy an audible version and “listen” to it while working on something else.
Audio books are the preferred format for me, on non-fiction issues of social significance.

Chis Hitchens is one of the original thinkers of our time, and so his opinion might be worth checking. But there is more.

I don’t completely believe this is sensationalism or pushing fake news. I come from the same town she worked all her life in – Kolkata.
My mother personally met her. That is not to say she was against Mother Teresa, but rather, was ambivalent. I have met a few nuns that worked in her organization both in India and in the US. I found them rather earthly and interested in earthly issues, not unlike you and me. I am keeping an open mind here and intend to read the book first, before passing opinion.

Also, strictly speaking – this is not so much news per se, as it is a book of opinion, by Chris Hitchens.

Lastly, I have another instinctive, and somewhat knee-jerk, opinion that missionaries, of any religion, do more harm than good in poor countries. This is a feeling that will not go away easily, because of the weight of evidence across the globe, going several centuries and perhaps even millennia.