Hélène's blog

I recently woke up to the CBC radio news that, "One of the world's most vibrant economies is about to come to a standstill."  Wait for it!  What new financial calamity is upon us today?  Well, dear readers, the story was about....can you guess?  The story was that Brazil was in annual Carnival mode - five days of celebration.  No it was not a disaster, but then perhaps all this revelry means that people are not working.  On the other hand, things really aren't that dire for Brazil during Carnival given the revenues generated by tourism.  But the bigger question is why does the media continually frame events in economic terms?  Aren't there are 'values' that drive our lives and warm our souls?  Perhaps we could set a new compass guided by Monty Python's joyful dictum:  Always look on the bright side?

Los Angeles courtrooms are busy.  There's the media saturation case against Michael Jackson's doctor and there is one that has potentially some real health implications for Americans and Canadians.  Big sugar is suing big corn for using the term 'corn sugar'.   They contend that this is a tactic to regain market share for   now suspect high-fructose corn syrup.  So I guess the logic is let's just give it another name and consumers will feel better about consuming all that sugar.  Nice work but the American Medical Association and other expert groups say no matter what you call it both sugar-sugar and corn sugar are metabolized by the body in the same way.  So what's the problem, you may ask?  According to Statistics Canada every Canadian consumes the equivalent of 26, yes you read it correctly, 26 teaspoons of sugar each day.  This translates into 21.4 per cent of caloric intake.  While two thirds of it comes from the four food groups, one third is from items such as soft drinks, salad dressings, syrup and candy that provide no nutritional value. Call it what you want but either way isn't there just too much of that sweet stuff in our food?   

It's official now.  For decades those who follow population trends could see that the big bubble in the middle, the middle class, was consistently shrinking.  More people and families were slipping into lower income sectors.  The lucky few were capturing more of the wealth.  Yes, the fond target of mass marketers is no longer where there is growth.  It has shrunk to the point that big name brands such as Proctor & Gamble and H.J.Heinz are now focusing their product mix on high and low end products.  And Canada's adept and market smart Loblaw is keeping pace launching Black Label products that would usually be found in high end gourmet shops.  For the Toronto indepth picture of income polarization I recommend reading The 3 Cities within Toronto prepared by Prof. David Hulchanski, Cities Centre, University of Toronto.