Who’s going to pay for an ethical chocolate bar?

New EU rules seek to ensure that chocolate is free from deforestation and child labor. Exporters say that can only happen if cocoa farmers earn more money.

Europe, the world’s biggest consumer of chocolate, and West Africa, the leading grower of the cocoa beans used to make it, share a common goal to make the sector sustainable.

But they have opposing views on how to put an end to the social, economic and environmental harms caused by satisfying Europe’s sweet tooth, heralding a showdown over who will bear the costs of complying: Big Chocolate or cocoa farmers.

Say goodbye to chocolate.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inGreen-Scam

Saving energy: People in Germany shiver at work

The German government has decreed that office temperatures should be limited to a maximum of 19 degrees C. But was this overhasty? It’s already clear that many employers and office workers need to turn the heating up.

In the southwestern German city of Ludwigsburg, the thermometer has recently been registering just 6 C (42.8 F) in the morning. But it isn’t a whole lot warmer inside the local branch of the savings bank.

Here, in this town of 90,000 just north of Stuttgart, the bank clerks are serving customers in a room heated to a bracing 19 C (66.2 F), the temperature that, for several weeks now, has defined German working life.

Since September 1, the whole country has been turning down the heating to save energy. Measures will remain in place until February 28, and people are getting creative in order not to freeze. This Ludwigsburg bank equipped its 500 employees with gray fleece jackets; black woolen gloves complete the look for the well-swaddled bank cashiers at the counter … Welcome to Germany’s new winter reality.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Energy Matters", "Ukraine - Russia"

“The Kafirs [Unbelievers] Should Be Killed, All of Them”: The Persecution of Christians, October 2022

“I heard them. They were shouting in Arabic and Swahili, saying that the kafirs [unbelievers] should be killed, all of them, and make Congo an Islamic state. Shoot all of them. Kill all of them, and burn their houses, these notorious Christians.” — International Christian Concern, October 10, 2022, Democratic Republic of Congo.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islam's Persecution Of Christians

So Biden’s letting Venezuela, but not the U.S., pump oil…

Energy prices, even though they have come down a bit, are still sky-high, whether it’s heating fuel, gas-powered appliances, electricity, diesel, or the price for a fill-up at the pump. Over here in San Diego, I saw gas at one station going for $4.99 a gallon, and everyone marveled at how “low” that price was. We had been paying $5, $6, and $7 in the last six months.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA, Venezuela, WTF?

My week on Israel’s borders, which the West fails to fathom

“The border in Israel is everywhere,” Aaron, our bus driver, a Jew of Uzbek origin, father of four, who speaks little but conveys an aura of security, tells me. His parents came to Israel in 1972, a year before the Yom Kippur War, from a country that many of us know only from hearing about Samarkand and the Silk Road.

They built a neighborhood of poor and very religious Jews in Jerusalem, giving it the name of the “Bukhara neighborhood”, after the sacred Uzbek city. “My parents were repeating ‘next year in Jerusalem’ and so they came here from the Soviet Union,” says Aaron. “I served in Gaza in the 1990s. One day we stopped a woman. She carried a kitchen knife half a meter long. Today is the era of Islam, the Turkish empire, the Chinese empire and the Russian empire. The West no longer exists”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIsrael

Trudeau: I Had to Use Martial Law to Suppress Freedom Convoy Because “What If Someone Had Gotten Hurt”?

Seven police officers were injured after BLM riots in Toronto.

A totalitarian clown doesn’t stop being a clown just because he’s also a totalitarian.

As the investigation delves into Trudeau’s illegal decision to ruthlessly suppress the Freedom Convoy protests, the investigation turned up extraordinary coordination and pressure from the Biden administration.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent"

Barbara Kay: As this B.C. teacher found out, even speaking the truth in class is enough to get an educator cancelled

Who’d be a high school teacher in these woke times? Not me. It’s a “feelings” minefield in classrooms: all too easy for a student to take offence where none was intended, and all too easy to act on it at a teacher’s expense.

A hostile student — uncommitted, grudge-nurturing, frequently expecting higher marks than he or she gets — may allege that a teacher said terrible things in class: say, that he wished his cancer-stricken wife would die so he could find a new one; or that he described Paul Bernardo’s sex crimes in detail. Chances are good such charges will be taken at the student’s word, not the teacher’s.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Peak F*cked Up", "Peak Woke"

Germany loses patience with climate extremists

Protestors’ radical tactics are failing to win over the masses

“A red line has been crossed,” one member of the German parliament said, when it emerged that climate activists managed to break into Berlin Airport on Thursday and disrupt flight traffic for around 90 minutes.

While previous coverage of such incidents included supportive voices, this time the radicals have lost just about all sympathy, even in a country as keen to be green as Germany. Politicians from across the spectrum, climate experts and even the Green Party itself have now distanced themselves from the protests.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inGermany, Green-Scam

Balenciaga and the rise of paedo chic

The fashion world is not especially known for its morals. And yet even by fashion’s standards, this week’s BDSM bear controversy has been a weird one.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Peak F*cked Up", "Peak Weimar", "Peak Woke"

Could the convoy come back?

In late January, as convoys of flag-bedecked tractor-trailers, RVs and pickup trucks streamed toward the capital from practically every corner of Canada, Charles Bordeleau watched with professional interest but not much concern.

As its former chief, Bordeleau knew the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) was deeply experienced — perhaps more experienced than any other law enforcement agency in the country — at managing protests of all shapes and sizes.

As well, police had ample warning about what was heading their way. They could literally watch the western convoy coming from 4,000 kilometres away, and were receiving regular intelligence updates as it approached the city.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent"

Canada wants to welcome 500,000 more immigrants in 2025. Can our country keep up?

… Consider that over the past year, fewer than 200,000 housing units were completed. There were 3.6 new residents for every home added, the highest ratio since at least 1991. Affordability is deteriorating in most places. There is a fundamental mismatch between home supply and demand – and the population boom is contributing to the divide.

At the same time, Canadian governments are struggling to deliver basic services. Surgeries are getting cancelled in crammed hospitals. Canadians can’t find family doctors, let alone newcomers trying to navigate an ailing health care system. Cash-strapped cities can’t refurbish their infrastructure as fast as it’s falling into disrepair.

Do we need mass immigration? No. The Corporate class wants slaves.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Mass Immigration - Follow the money", Canada's Corporate Welfare Class, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class

Star attempts to deflect how crappy Canada is under Junior: “Pierre Poilievre is in touch with his feelings, and they’re angry”

“Everything feels broken in the lives of ordinary Canadians.” It has become Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s mantra. He won the leadership of his party by promising to make Canada the freest nation on earth. Now he’s running to form the next government by promising to fix what he and his followers feel is broken.

Strong brands focus on and consistently reinforce a message that taps into the hopes, dreams and aspirations of their target market. They insert themselves in the conversation of the moment by aligning their narrative with the zeitgeist. But capturing hearts and minds can’t always be about sunshine, rainbows and lollipops — some are competing with the leading brand, or they’re in the opposition. So they tap into a different set of feelings: fear, anger and frustration.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inConservative Party, The F$CKING Toronto Star