tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37669627439809790932024-03-14T01:28:19.567-04:00Dancing with (the) Plaos...Notable posts: <a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.com/2006/11/why-plaosmos.html">Why plaos...</a> ♦ <a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.com/2008/06/ics-essays.html">ICS Essays</a> ♦ <a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.com/2007/04/result-of-mixing-irigaray-caffeine-and.html">Poetry</a> ♦Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-3831331422241113902015-12-27T17:47:00.001-05:002015-12-27T17:47:52.893-05:00 #D12On “#D12” (Saturday 12/12/’15, the “overflow” day that became the last day of COP21) I headed down to the “Red Lines” rally near the Arc de Triomphe. According to 350.org and the various voices in the Coalition Climat this was meant to be a big day of civil disobedience to “have the last word” about the negotiations. So once the rally was sanctioned by the police and they cordoned off the road so we were out of sight of traffic in an approved “protester zone”, my heart sank as it appeared we had been out-maneuvered. A frustrated, fellow-minded friend described the scene as a “liberal clusterfuck” and I decided to follow him around in the hope that together we might manage to find something to salvage. I was slightly happier once we pushed past the police lines (which I think broke the “action agreement” we’d all previously agreed to) and started marching towards the Eiffel Tower. <br /><br /><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/7qxN6KnREIfHBoQr4GtSbGPzVf6kUIiHgZ-3S95eFl5XFgMAUP9rER6HTOp3E9NaW61AvsU1z5WQn83qnDM8H_2fE4t6kZbNt9wnRox_7ELMhKxt5BxnS3SD5Vp6lRBW6XZCmIjc" /><br /><br />Once we got close to the tower the inspirational <a href="http://climacts.org.au/">Climate Angels</a> took a “stand” by sitting down on a bridge and starting a sit-in. The police demanded the Angels move, yet they stayed and more and more people sat down. The plan was to sit there for as long as possible, but some of the NGO organizers took to the People’s Mic and tried to persuade people to abandon the sit-in and go a the pointless celebration under the Eiffel tower itself. An awkward struggle then ensued, with people on the mic sending alternating messages about whether to stay at the sit-in or whether to give up and go. Although people seemed reluctant to leave the bridge the manipulation was finally successful when someone claimed the “local French organizers” were asking us to leave the bridge, and it was sad to see an interesting action tactic get undermined by what appears to have been deception.<br /><br />As people wandered down to the feel-good party I followed the Angels around the side of the tower where we were blocked by dozens of plainclothes police with their threats of violence. Being a smaller group we retreated, eventually finding another way under the Eiffel tower. I felt disappointed by how many people seemed to be celebrating the pathetic “agreement” the negotiators had failed us with (“<a href="http://www.actvism.org/en/news/warum-das-pariser-klimagipfel-abkommen-kaum-das-papier-wert-ist-auf-dem-es-gedruckt-wurde/">worse than Copenhagen</a>”). But then I heard about an unsanctioned climate justice march near the Belleville metro station and my heart lifted a little.<br /><br />After racing across Paris I managed to emerge from the Metro just as the march was leaving. Around 500 people had taken to the streets and the atmosphere around this march felt more exciting—with the shop owners often cheering from their shops. These were the real grassroots local French organizers, and they were asserting the right to gather freely and march in the face of police oppression, since the French state had removed our rights with the phoney State of Emergency (the political agenda of crushing climate activism became clear when they allowed all the other mass-gatherings of people—sports, shopping, concerts—to continue).<br /><br />The police didn’t take kindly to this march, yet when they tried to trap us by blocking the road in front of and behind us, we managed to find an escape through the grounds of a hospital, making our way to the canal. We made a run for a footbridge, and around 100 people made it over before the police arrived with pepper spray. I’d made it to the top of the bridge and turned around to watch as two people who were already paralyzed with agony were repeatedly pepper sprayed for about 15 more seconds—the brutality and dehumanization of the police was disgusting. I got my camera out and “click click click”:<br /><br /><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/D5D-NWGDF0A-BgXio0ALICNc-jFcFzjaS2IqZL2Yd5HxiCDLeEG60MoZEYJpV7auKQ2gRwjqojiZvsP0cQLo6SgT2YdEZum4slqRstCdAUquaBlGWXcKm8Jr8h2jOCJvlKZQB68i" /><br /><br />As the police backed away I went down the bridge to help these two people—one of whom was obviously a journalist. After administering some water and helping them to the top of the bridge the police started to run up the steps towards us with a mean look in their eyes. Not wanting the same painful fate I fled, dodging some police on the other side and sprinting along the canal until I heard their pursuit fade away. I stopped to catch my breath, wash my eyes, and saw the police had surrounded around 150 people on the opposite bank. At that moment my buddy called me and so I started to tell her about my near-miss and the protesters being trapped. It was while I was on the phone that half a dozen police ran up to me and surprised me, forcing me down onto the ground and taking my phone and bag. They searched my possessions and questioned me, asking why I had run away from them. “Because the police were mercilessly pepper-spraying journalists and I didn’t want to experience needless pain,” I responded, and proceeded to ask them if they knew that the deal the governments had just signed at COP21 would lead to our extinction if people like us didn’t do anything about it. “I know,” said the policeman who was holding me captive. When I asked him why he’d grabbed me and why they were stopping us from getting this message out, he weakly dismissed my question saying “It’s just another night on the job.”<br /><br />After twenty minutes or so the police picked up my bag and told me to follow. I passed several hundred cops, to whom I waved cheekily with a big grin on my face. The police gave me my bag back as they shoved me into the “kettle” of the other 150 trapped people, who gave me an applause as I joined them. The police told us we could choose to leave and be ID’d, and that the rest of us would be arrested. No one left, instead chanting “We all go together”, and after another couple of minutes the police came back and announced that they weren’t actually gonna arrest anyone and would let us go in groups of ten. It felt good to be holding the hands of my friend (from the start of the day) as we were led up the street.<br /><br />In terms of how effective D12 was, I’m not actually sure that any of it did very much. Yes, the NGOs now have a new set of pretty pictures with which they can “build the movement” (I really hope some grassroots groups got to benefit from them too), and yes, the shopkeepers in the Belleville area may have gained a little hope. Yet what does the tactic of marching do? I’m not convinced it does much. Although there seems to be benefits gained when grassroots group collaborate, learn to work together, form alliances, and enact a “successful” project together, the D12 march didn’t appear to be organized by grassroots groups so I’m not convinced there was much benefit at all. <br /><br />Perhaps it’s useful for activists to have a feel-good party when there’s nothing to feel good about. Perhaps it’s psychologically helpful to get out some rage and express our desire to not live in a police-state, even though we had no plan to make their oppression cost them (in the mind of the general public) and I never saw any media coverage about the Belleville march. Perhaps the D12 march and all the optimistic “we did it” lies (by the Heads of State, dutiful corporate media and NGOs) will help activists to avoid the kind of post-Copenhagen depression we saw in 2009, yet I’m also worried that the “we gained something (small)” messages that NGOs have been pushing is a dangerous form of delusion.<br /><br />So what is effective? I believe there are many things, in many circumstances. Stay with me over the months ahead as I delve into some of the actions and communities in which I find hope, and find out with me what is working, why it’s working, and how we can make them spread...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-38479822213869048022015-12-27T16:24:00.001-05:002015-12-27T16:24:34.867-05:00The Spaces of ParisAfter the “excitement” of the <a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/tear-gas-taste-and-pepper-spray-pain.html">events at Place de la Republique on 29th November</a>, COP21 began and I enjoyed the privilege of another two weeks in Paris. I owe a big shout-out to the 4 wonderful Parisians who collectively housed me during this time, and to Sylvie for making those connections for me. Thank you! <br /><br />Here’s a few of the things that I spent my time doing.<br /><br />The place I went to the most was Jardin D’Alice, or “Garden of Alice” (as in, Alice in Wonderland). This beautiful space is an artist’s squat that became the primary place where art was made during the COP. In the first week I mainly helped with the shields that the Indigenous Environmental Network were creating that said “<a href="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dHX2D0jKxsU/maxresdefault.jpg">Defend Protect Renew</a>” (I didn’t get a pic but that’s the design). I also contributed to a bunch of other banners, including the 105 metre “It’s up to us to keep it in the ground” red line (below), as well as inflatables, arrows and several other creations.<br /><br /><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rNgFBA05l-W2r_qN1CaYn1nJTtUwameF-RwLLgRKBRt8GtAMfHLQ6Zzx6t551yoRcibByBW_cdAAdZClMm1dN6GAosnNh9ePxEPO4MQYy-7wGSN2AZROKaB47ERJRiffXlwOnYk" /><br /><br />Although making art was a big draw for me, the main reason I felt myself pulled back there was for the people. Each of the ten days I entered this space I discovered more and more fantastic, inspiring people. I met people from all over the world, each bringing their ideas and creativity. The space was rejuvenating and I felt at home there. I also attended several meetings there, largely of youth action planning meetings, and enjoyed many free/by donation vegan meals—big shoutout to the cooks who kept us fed!<br /><br />I only went to “Le Bourget” once. This is where the COP negotiations were being held, and although I wasn’t allowed into the negotiations area there was an area where the public was welcome. I mostly felt drained in this space, where the (false) Solutions COP corporations companies had greenwashing stands (including a “EU China Trade Company” that didn’t mention climate in any of their text) and the NGOs seemed to be competing to show how wonderful they are (some of them are pretty cool). I joined a quiet protest (loud chanting wasn’t allowed), a die-in, and I put a canceled sign up and <a href="https://twitter.com/thugsb/status/672415973392162816">tweeted (pic)</a> “I'm at the #COP21 right now and it looks like @SolutionsCOP21 is canceled?” The coolest thing I experienced there (and this was one of the coolest things I’ve seen all year) was a Peruvian indigenous woman who was telling a group of us about the work she’d been doing—how she’s using the celebration of the female orgasm as a tool to empower women and combat the sexist machismo culture that is rampant in Peru! I also received the colourful shawl from her that I’m wearing in this pic:<br /><br /><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/LEO2Mjd_D_Khw8M7YaOSiUfb6LjpkDNmXAQ6sZBPt5DOdFxdY3sBBN01am6qLzoBii4yyfurOTcm4INJtQv9L9zfGOJJuVbVMel9Sov8kwGeYjwlN4LUd3EByPq7gnUt0oI7UljE" /><br /><br />One night walking home I was mugged. Unexpected. But not wholly bad. Two guys grabbed my wallet, and as one took the money out the other tried to de-escalate, explaining that they would only take the money (€20 was all I had) and “weren’t normally this violent”. I used the opportunity to talk with them about how shit capitalist society is and the need to reject the system. After a police car drove by they asked me to walk with them, and although I accepted the cigarette they offered me as we walked I politely declined the crack pipe and took the opportunity to turn around and continue home.<br /><br />Another night I got to see Thom Yorke, Patti Smith, Flea, Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, and other artists and activists from around the world. It was good music and a good show. The next night I saw <a href="https://soundcloud.com/aku-matu/tracks">Aku Matu</a>, an indigenous artist who touched me deeply with her powerful and vulnerable lyrics, and the night then turned into an incredible anarchist rave, followed by a bunch of us wandering the streets into the small hours of the morning, singing and dancing to French music accompanied by an accordion.<br /><br />At Le Louvre art gallery there was an action to pressure the gallery to stop taking money from fossil fuel companies. There was a heavy police presence and they had set up a fence to search people as they got close. Somehow they detected that I might not be your average tourist and didn’t let me enter. So when those who had managed to get in put up their umbrellas that spelled out “Fossil Free Culture” I raised my umbrella in solidarity outside the fence. Instantly a dozen police surrounded me and physically forced my umbrella arm down, even as I tried to explain to them “but the (wintry) sun is so bright and my poor pale skin couldn’t take it. Please, the sun, it hurts, it hurts, I need shade.” They didn’t seem amused, yet wouldn’t tell me why I was surrounded and whether or not I was under arrest (for putting up an umbrella!). After letting me go they started harassing someone else so I started to film them. This forced accountability seemed to make them uncomfortable, so after stealing the person’s tiny penknife and letting that person go they again surrounded me and force-searched me in a pathetic attempt to intimidate me. They didn’t find my penknife. Losers.<br /><br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/KmZD8bhwtZ2hPrJ1mQoF3pYwGuNZrbdFX5u7K4EMLnYvzcFQqM2qojlgNe6R3H-EyMF5PQ4AUQYg5vOKWcxAztspkH6-pmMgg5CwLyWPI5Yhuu-BIEjYNz6i-wwWIU3qDsDSahTF" /><br /><br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/1B7637xRqiWs5_STci9M_A2rpiGYsulO3Zte0qxg8Fpcs85s9UzOiiDbtT7l7Dc5-A7oMs2OevBG5kvvwRB_U3Vau_sM5bQ2JogEHtVlVYo5YLpzpDYyEnvu8Qk2AIzCu7SbPRvj" /><br /><br />The final event I went to in Paris was the Climate Games awards ceremony, where we watched and cheered for our favourite creative and fun videos of direct actions people had done over the previous two weeks. Their website has built up a <a href="https://www.climategames.net/en/reports#list-tab">fantastic database of creative direct actions</a>, which I encourage people to use when they’re looking for ideas for their own actions. The night turned into another dance party, where the <a href="https://filastine.bandpage.com/">band Filastine</a> played and we danced the night away. <br /><br />Thank you, Paris, for the space to create, make connections and dance.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-84169246687383800862015-12-22T18:17:00.001-05:002015-12-22T18:17:13.945-05:00My Childhood Home is now on the Frontlines against FrackingI grew up in a sleepy town called Frodsham. This town of 10,000 people lies within the county of Cheshire, a beautiful rural county with rolling fields, biodiverse hedgerows, rich forests and a lot of joyful childhood memories. It’s also a pretty conservative place, with a lot of old wealth and posh people.<br /><br />So it came as a bit of a surprise to me to discover that Cheshire is now on the frontlines against fracking in the UK.<br /><br />The day after I returned to Britain I saw in the local paper that there was <a href="http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/upton-anti-fracking-demonstration-weekend-10597099">going to be a protest in Upton</a>, ten miles from my parent’s home, and so within 48 hours of being back in this country I found myself cycling out to join the protesters. Like many days in these dreary isles the sky was grey, dampening the area with a resilient drizzle. “Great,” I thought, “I’ll be shivering and soaked in no time.”<br /><br />Rolling up to the “busy” (for a suburb) road intersection where the protest was gathering I saw a 12-foot (4 metres) model fracking rig with tinsel on the top and was quickly greeted with tea and biscuits. Far from being cold, the constant input of hot liquid kept me going for the next few hours as I chatted with the protesters.<br /><br />These weren’t the kind of seasoned protesters I’d seen in Paris at COP21 just a week before. Most of the people I talked to said they hadn’t been an “activist” even one year ago, and had previously accepted that the government would watch out for them and do the right thing throughout their life. But then they started reading up on fracking. And they got upset very quickly. With the enormous threats to housing prices, farmland, and the rivers and canals in the area, the average, local people started to get upset. The outcome of a recent poll showed that 85% of Upton residents were against fracking, and the new Labour MP bucked the national trend (that was scared into voting Tory) by getting elected on a strong anti-fracking platform—the Greens stepped back and didn’t even run against him!<br /><br />It’s pretty clear the frackers don’t have any social license in Upton. We stood with our signs and cups of tea for a couple of hours, hailed by a constant honking of support from passing vehicles. Finally, we picked up the signs and “marched” along the road to the Upton Community Protection Camp. I say “marched”, although there were none of the normal activist chants and rallying cries. At one point someone mentioned some anti-fracking carols, yet people seemed more interested in chatting with their neighbours.<br /><br /><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6dpP2815VeiV12MYCVNrv0OPIOj5SFLS4OvWnt-R-CRGjPIVywZcY73yo96e4e1HYPrxxfhonmK9BgG-8Lu-wcDuHgXN1IWQ4dg55pdkUvgqjgw8rBoPZbPcJak-zshv6oLYBwb" /><br /><br />As we walked up to the camp I saw an <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPZWK_oS9bjsgr7xsaTs9Hl0CQbWCGZhpy0yLDaD7lbkKlHB453AAFbCjuA8Wh_ZQ/photo/AF1QipP_kms13y1l3VdX5-NohzlgbxG68J58CeqJ7sv-?key=bnEtMzFvOUdZSEdEQTJrTGVYUkZ1MzVqNGFadnRn">impressive structure of wooden palettes and scaffolding</a>, adorned with an array of signs. After being welcomed at the “guardhouse” an abundance of minced pies and tea appeared as we entered the “Solidari-Tea Hut”. Again, most of the residents were locals and talked with a fiery determination that the fracking simply would never happen. “We’ll make it so expensive for them that it’ll be impossible for them to drill,” said Phil, one of the long-term residents of the camp. <br /><br /><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6vR45Am7xltOU9MudMTI6B-lBnaH5-SjAD9znXZB-bPoFPy949cMghGN4uyY3IZH_5dF9elfpGkSfCY2wiZ0UCZtrUAhBF34BVyJJApTeuKjez_iW8o1URKYfH-LQnJ2bc9Rzb15" /><br /><br />In terms of defences several of the residents comfortably walked around wearing a harness with climbing equipment hanging from it, prepared on a moment’s notice to climb one of the many tripods, tree-houses and other structures that would make their removal from the land a tricky and prolonged process. They’d even built themselves a <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPZWK_oS9bjsgr7xsaTs9Hl0CQbWCGZhpy0yLDaD7lbkKlHB453AAFbCjuA8Wh_ZQ/photo/AF1QipOaUjged7yyh37QGVNUqHZOdMyDRI6eJQ-yE-1b?key=bnEtMzFvOUdZSEdEQTJrTGVYUkZ1MzVqNGFadnRn">moat</a>—not big enough to stop many people from jumping across, but deep enough to stop most trucks in their tracks. The moat had a <a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPZWK_oS9bjsgr7xsaTs9Hl0CQbWCGZhpy0yLDaD7lbkKlHB453AAFbCjuA8Wh_ZQ/photo/AF1QipPRfC7HEM3pjrjmPg7rI7dcje1LyILsSvMWX9dK?key=bnEtMzFvOUdZSEdEQTJrTGVYUkZ1MzVqNGFadnRn">floating ducky and sharks</a>. Finally, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UptonProtection/photos/pb.1474815306068412.-2207520000.1450805182./1689176407965633/?type=1&theater">the camp has released images</a> of an entrance to tunnels, although the tight security culture prevented me from seeing inside.<br /><br />The camp has done well to gain support from many of the local residents of Upton. Although they seem to be able to get articles into the local paper, <a href="https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=chester%20chronicle%20upton%20fracking%20site%3Awww.chesterchronicle.co.uk#q=upton+fracking+site:www.chesterchronicle.co.uk&hl=en&tbs=qdr:m">the Chester Chronicle</a>, their ability to make their own media seems to be lacking, and even after four days I’ve not managed to find a single image online from the protest (the protest expected people from the camp to join them, yet they never materialized). To their credit their facebook page is active with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UptonProtection/">photos and memes</a> added several times a week. From what I have observed at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/unistoten">Unist'ot'en</a>, producing <a href="http://www.submedia.tv/stimulator/2015/07/26/submedia-tv-update-unistoten-playlist/">video</a> is a critical part of getting the broader public on side for land defence projects such as this, yet no one could assure me that they had any plans to do so.<br /><br /><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/82qdI0kva4b_9N0FG0R4uIHMk1IZwJLntmwOxQw6frrBslAjVaHMqbpLhc-xcx6xTMaqJCKiX7d40Gi4I4-DgHL1YhvyR7LOG9uHjDKm0NffSuehL5cxNkUd8vg0NTJTUXRrtbwK" /><br /><br />Although some at the camp claimed they had plenty of coverage nationally, many of the protesters on the street didn’t think they (both the protesters and camp) were doing a good job and were worried they lacked national support. It seems to me that without such support the camp could be evicted without a national outcry. And given David Cameron has just removed the ability for local councils to determine their own fracking fate, it most certainly is a national issue. Fortunately, the intrusive company <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UptonProtection/photos/a.1474829986066944.1073741827.1474815306068412/1691210721095535/?type=3&theater">IGas has seen its share prices tumbling for months</a> to a third of their value since June 2015, so maybe they’ll collapse into bankruptcy before they order the bailiff to attack.<br /><br />Of course, this fight is only the beginning. David Cameron’s corporate masters want to poke holes all over my beloved Cheshire, which would likely result in the deaths of much of her livestock, farmland, rolling green hills and beautiful rivers and forests. A solid win against fracking in Upton would be major victory in beating back the violence of fracking across the nation, so my hope is that the success of Upton Community Protection Camp would scare off other potential frackers, and inspire many other communities to become land defenders to protect of their fragile, magnificent lands.<br /><br />See more photos of the camp here: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/TzY5tfZFf7UaWrUX9">https://goo.gl/photos/TzY5tfZFf7UaWrUX9</a> <br /><br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/zEr7gjG0DRrH3SeIgks0fL8JHsRLiaIh44GN5VxIFB1jFu0aODapjcHF14kT6IoqCz9INewc8GVerOqWCS3jxmsrZVBLCLGnUeUphZuBTsJYDAegxYZW-okat8cpl-B4CUBhZZbP" />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-26417395451197057482015-12-16T09:37:00.000-05:002015-12-16T09:37:11.568-05:00With two days left, Canada is still part of the problem in ParisPARIS — Although it’s been reported in the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/paris-climate-talks-progress-slow-1.3349527">Canadian media</a> that China and India are blocking progress at COP21, the biggest obstacle appears to be the unwillingness of the developed countries to talk about historical responsibility and reparations. Earlier this week, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/paris-climate-cop21-mckenna-wednesday-1.3356882">Canada was a co-winner of the Fossil of the Day award</a>, as climate activists expressed their dismay at this stance. Canadians are some of the worst climate polluters, per capita, in the world, and our current (and projected future) pollution through plundering the tar sands, means that we’re not getting any better.<br /><br />Canada industrialized early, and it has been emitting carbon pollution for well over a hundred years, giving it a significant “head start” over India, China, and other less developed nations. Yet the Canadian negotiators don’t want to acknowledge this, much less pay our debts.<br /><br />Admittedly, it’s not just Canadian negotiators who are trying to hide this great injustice. The U.S., along with many of the other countries that industrialized (and polluted) early have had a multi-year agenda to remove acknowledgement (and responsibility) of this injustice from the COP negotiations. They have largely been successful in doing so.<br /><br />The negotiators at COP are not on an equal footing. Many of the negotiators from the Global South are trying to avoid climate devastation in their countries and climate genocide of their peoples. On the other hand, the negotiators of developed nations are generally trying to keep a fossil-fueled power system in place, rather than consider other necessary options. Last week Canadian youth joined others from around the world to highlight this imbalance.<br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/sierrastudent/status/673121337062354944"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYubQ6MkcsaGNr8zp5joivDcWyF_xJCaFJGw_MnGRKIDuGaFB21XGjd701nYD6rQiQmYp7tSq7s5BPx42H1zXq_9WaMimCy4xcrb30kLRJitYNdafCu3-Lshd4EfRgbabbgx8lE71K41k/s1600/negotiating.png" /></a><div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo credit: Sierra Student Coalition</span><br /><br />Since pre-industrial times, the burning of fossil fuels has raised the global temperature by 1C. Even with this “modest” increase, we are seeing a rise in climate chaos around the world, with climate destruction like the floods currently devastating Chennai, India. We’re also seeing an increase in climate-spurred wars. The current war in Syria is set in a context of severe drought worsened by climate change: in one agriculture-dependant area of the country, <a href="http://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/2011/en/bgdocs/Erian_Katlan_&_Babah_2010.pdf">75 per cent</a> of farmers experienced total crop failure in 2007-2008. About 1.5 million people fled the starving countryside and crowded into the cities — imagine the populations of Brampton and Mississauga moving into Toronto, or everyone in Ottawa-Gatineau squeezing into Montreal. Subject to war and instability, this kind of desperation provides a breeding ground for climate-driven terrorism. The violence of climate change takes many forms.<br /><br />In order to avoid a dangerous climate breakdown, countries agreed in 2009 that we must avoid a 2C global rise in global temperatures. Even this is a significant planetary risk (and will result in the deaths of many millions of people) — the Canadian youth delegation, along with many scientists and the countries most affected by climate violence, are calling for “1.5 to stay alive.”<br /><br />But the political systems of the countries of the world are failing miserably at achieving this, putting emission reduction offers on the table that would result in temperature increases in the 2.7C to 3.5C range. Realistically, we can expect these political systems to fail to deliver on their promises, putting us back into the “unlivable for human life” 4C to 6C range.<br /><br />With such high stakes, you might expect the Canadian negotiators to be working hard to give us a healthy climate future. Sadly, our Canadian negotiators are not working to protect the health of Canadians and people around the world. Instead, they’re trying to ensure that big polluters, such as the tar sands extractors, can continue to pollute and cause ever more societal instability and fragility. Instead of trying to create a rapid transition to a fairer, richer Canada, they’re negotiating which decade we’ll go extinct.<br /><br />Although Trudeau has promised “real change,” it’s clear that we need far more change than he has delivered thus far. The real change required by science must include a freezing of the tar sands and a rapid, nationwide transition to renewables. Real change must include negotiating a path at COP21 towards a healthy future for all, with ambitious targets, binding commitments and payment of our climate debts. Real change must include actual change, yet so far Trudeau seems to be peddling words, not deeds.<br /><br />Keeping climate change below 1.5C means no more pipelines, and a freeze on tar sands expansion. Trudeau needs to make a choice between the oil industry and the planet, but thus far he seems to think he can be a climate hero while also continuing to build tar sands infrastructure.<br /><br />It’s time to pick a side.<br /><br /><a href="https://ricochet.media/en/814/with-two-days-left-canada-is-still-part-of-the-problem-in-paris">This was originally posted on Ricochet</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-71258005458670087412015-12-16T04:05:00.000-05:002015-12-16T04:12:21.126-05:00Tear Gas Taste and Pepper Spray PainI arrived in France on Nov 23rd and spent the first week visiting with some friends in Meaux, the home of Brie. It’s was a pretty chill week, adapting to jet lag (which I made soooo much worse by partying until 5am in Reykjavik), brushing up on French, and enjoying the company of my friends.<br />
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On Sunday Nov 29th I moved to my next ‘home’ in downtown Paris. I dropped off my stuff and shot out the door to join the now-illegal march at Place de la Republique. The march was illegal because the French state had used the “opportunity” of the murderous attacks on 13th Nov to institute a ban on political public gatherings of more than two people! Along with this ban came a host of fascist-like police powers, which the police quickly abused by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theguardian/videos/10153792106611323/">terrorizing the innocent Muslim community</a> with thousands of home invasions, as well as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/newint/videos/10153253015143461/">attacking dozens of climate activists</a>.<br />
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Instead of a 400,000-person climate march, NGO’s had retreated from this state repression (<a href="https://roarmag.org/essays/climate-movement-paris-attacks/">a tactical mistake</a>) and canceled the ‘official’ march, instead trying to give people alternative outlets on the 29th. I missed the “human chain”, and only saw the “march for me shoes”—a sad reminder of state oppression—as they were packed away. Over the next couple of hours I wandered round the public square, talked with a few people, made a sign (“Menace Climatique > Menace Police + Terrorisme”) and joined the short-lived, smaller “marches” that local organizers spurred into existence. These grew and grew, and shortly after 2pm the march was big enough for us to leave the square. We headed down Avenue de la Republique.<br />
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<img height="300" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/WmHn0DeAapEgplYFn8GX3wVijvhz8XDovqiCRQgPHWg-Yf4KakpSzHFrV_rokxtJKS6kObACr_4LxiAEKSA78HhFR7u4Eb5_veEIMpjgbaziMn-QVdwgmRSwWL_usubQJWXl-qMk" width="400" /><br />
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We didn’t make it far. A wall of police waited for us, armed to the teeth and itching to start pepper spraying us. I was close to the front (you can see how close in the picture above) and held up my sign to the police, so that they knew why I—and I suspect others—were marching. A few swells of courage and chanting from the protesters, and the police unleashed. It was in those moments that I first felt the pain of pepper spray, although I have not yet been sprayed directly.<br />
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After most of the crowd had retreated, a few of us remained. Some lay down, and a girl sang. I kneeled in front of the police with my sign, petrified that I’d receive a blow from behind at any moment, yet it never came. Once a hundred photos had been taken by dozens of the press, I stood back up and walked back into the public square.<br />
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<img height="300" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/UqbqNhE6mwPmCYlv1dRhRbeaFf47KZD5idRP-b_lKTPpXEERPd8-w6pnfetCa11LFbpUlITdVbuu0tUZPFonqp7Xq16ECH9-N4gEWy9rVsMgwyo7-RtttMwQpiIuaA3klx9zDdGp" width="400" /><br />
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It was a scene of chaos. Groups of people were around the square, and at the far end I saw dense clouds of tear gas. I hurried over, wanting to document what I was witnessing. As small groups of young people threw what little they had at heavily armoured police lines, police were attacking with overwhelming force. They shot cluster-bomb fireworks into the air, which split into half a dozen tear-gas-spewing canisters, turning huge areas of the public square into toxic zones of pain. People from many walks of life were caught in the debilitating gas—not just the protesters close to the police, but also tourists, children, and protesters who were trying to avoid police presence entirely.<br />
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<img height="300" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/HoHerzuG1SKy-fZmQ40GNcM3uvY2KbiHZB7vDHqSTsKi1gy5jCmxuY6sVti7yooCekG7H1ZPsiatYD2K18oTprZdedABY0J1DG0e2KhXFnAI0D_QYF15fna8woPQdZI2qGhZP-zs" width="400" /><br />
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Over the next couple of hours the police closed in (trampling on the flowers and candles that had been left for those killed on the 13th), eventually kettling (trapping) several hundred of us against a building, where they held us for three hours. I tried speaking with some of the protesters around me, but my limited French caused connection problems, and although they were nice, I felt pretty alone. In those moment I was very glad to have support of a friend who was outside the police lines, chatting away with me on my phone. There was also a bike trailer with a speaker, so we put some music on and had a rave in the street. Dancing helped to keep our spirits up.<br />
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<img height="300" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/D9oHe13aWPsCj0wvl8_vyrW9y4H9BENgmrcp51P9_DS6M9HRP_862I_ZbiFlqBmr76NI200HpRjVn7o6tkjAbARnADWFxWJDb0Ohji3H0rqBUPQDI8fUerd1Mid46-RogY870EmR" width="400" /><br />
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Eventually the police came for us. Batons in hand, they roughly grabbed us a few at a time and ripped us apart from our fellow protesters with whom we’d linked arms. Sometimes they failed to get any of us, sometimes they succeeded. A couple of times (that I witnessed) they came in with their batons swinging, and it would surprise me if no bones were broken that day. It was harrowing to see the glee with which the police attacked us, having already dehumanized us and justified their tyranny as “just doing my job”.<br />
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Eventually I too was taken. A single police officer led me out, though he instantly softened when I said I was Canadian. He wasn’t looking to arrest me, but many arrests did happen that day—likely French climate activist that they’d had their sights on for some time (quite why the police seem to overly target climate activists is another matter). He gave me the choice of getting on the police bus (a tempting offer, to stand in solidarity with those who were being arrested), but I chose the other option: to walk away and head home to sleep—a privilege I am lucky to have.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo credit: Stu Basden</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-32251018953449890062015-11-26T12:40:00.002-05:002015-11-26T12:49:27.025-05:00Connect the Refugee Climate DotsAbout three years ago, climate groups ran a campaign to help people connect-the-dots between climate change and extreme weather disasters.[1] At the time, this image became etched into my mind:<br />
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<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/4IUJccmF3eqYQ-sCcu1DG2e7ckndNppUmIjVb_hHvznbAQuE9YigTSRZqMg_fQTmEvto1p-nyDUYif3z7c-Sd-9miQrYV7T61G-k56J0X-z8VMz3JvxNop6qM-_MVzv1WJ6-Rt5Y" /><br />
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<span style="color: #999999; font-size: x-small;">High school Students connect the dots on climate change near Dallas, Texas in 2012. (Photo: 350.org)</span><br />
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Three years later, there is no question in people’s mind that the increasing devastation from extreme weather disasters are closely linked to our worsening climate. Today, there’s another set of dots that we need to connect: the dots between climate, racism, refugees and immigration.<br />
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I’m not the first to be saying this, by a long stretch. However, it hasn’t yet sunk in for many people the way the weather disasters have. Nevertheless, these dots are all connected.<br />
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Just as the Tahir Square uprising in Egypt was set against a backdrop of drought and high grain prices, the degenerative violence in Syria has a backdrop of a climate-change-fueled eight year drought, with 75% of farmers suffering total crop failure.[2] This drought forced many to flee the starving countryside to make for the cities, causing the pressure build up to bursting. The ensuring war is a result. The millions of refugees then followed.<br />
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These people are climate refugees.<br />
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We need to make these connections, understanding that caring about climate change means we also need to care for those who suffer from it now. Let’s review a few more dots...<br />
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In the past week I’ve seen a horrifying number of attacks on Muslim peoples (and people mistaken for being Muslim) in Toronto. There’s been at least 3 cases that made it into the media,[3] and likely many more that didn’t. Given Toronto is the most diverse country in the world, these attacks are even more chilling (tho <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://gu.com/p/4efat&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNEr_DkubQ20ola-NjauhWIEh0ughg">this story</a> warmed my heart a little). And this is just scratching the global dotty surface.<br />
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We’re seeing the rise of neo-Nazi groups across Europe, such as a Golden Dawn, who are increasingly attacking climate refugees and immigrants.[4] In Paris last weekend the police attacked protesters at a pro-refugee rally[5] and Turkey, Hungary, Austria, Germany and Sweden have recently closed their borders to refugees.[6] Canada, a country that used to be known as a refugee safehaven, is claiming it can’t even handle 25,000 refugees (<a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid%3D10156144666375618%26set%3Da.10150816391785618.726198.878900617%26type%3D3&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNH8KdVKoLFUfz4Yn5bquqB8ZIBHJA">I found this image particularly powerful</a>). See the dots?<br />
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At the same time, the BlackLivesMatter movement struggles against the horror of white supremacism in the US (and elsewhere), and we’re seeing presidential candidates spewing more and more disgusting racism.[7] It seems we’re weekly hearing about another unarmed black person shot dead by the police with impunity.[8] Indeed, 350.org activists are increasingly getting involved in race struggle, calling for us all to “get off the fence”.[9] A white ally at a recent protest that faced gunfire recently commented, “If you’ve ever wondered what you’d do if you were alive during the civil rights era, now’s the time to find out.” More dots.<br />
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It’s time for us to connect these dots. Just as we would look strangely at someone today who claimed there’s no connection between climate change and extreme weather, we need to gain a similar understanding of the connection between the climate’s breakdown and the increase of refugees, the rise of extremist racism, and the violent clamp-down of borders.<br />
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For further reading (if you’re not done yet!) I’d recommend this excellent article that was posted yesterday: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Why-Migration-Should-Be-Central-to-Paris-COP21-Climate-Talks-20151125-0011.html&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNEW9VbpmGR53nnLoQTst_nz15BqhQ">Why Migration Should Be Central to Paris COP21 Climate Talks</a>. I’d also encourage you to watch this fantastic video “<a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.submedia.tv/stimulator/2015/09/26/erase-borders/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNHm8hUmqtVtBLHgp1NsZkPJDPQMLA">Erase the Borders</a>” from Submedia, my favourite anarchist TV show.<br />
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Can you spot the difference between this pic and the one above?<br />
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<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/JTNIfPpLmtowxJvRZTQPzZPWQ31N6yBKrSiVA21LDzJRjKhtHa3MZukVuVqHy0Eej4AKzi1_nezlVCSGu6gpSFC-uZ0f8SXqzPqQV7YVoNtVlIZvSKNqZX53fOd0_QgR5Z6meNKH" /><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span id="goog_1300976437"></span>[1]<span id="goog_1300976438"></span> <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.climatedots.org/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNF12_Tb2d1QpEGT-uJqqKRG9tiWCA">http://www.climatedots.org/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[2] <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/2011/en/bgdocs/GAR-2011/GAR2011_Report_Chapter3.pdf&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNEnruLn-KzsRaFyI1UkScAbNsfjTQ">http://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/2011/en/bgdocs/GAR-2011/GAR2011_Report_Chapter3.pdf</a>, page 60.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[3] Picking up kids from school: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://globalnews.ca/news/2343508/muslim-woman-attacked-while-picking-up-children-from-toronto-school-police/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNFo-SPiPvfdrl1G0TrCK6kdeKFp5g">http://globalnews.ca/news/2343508/muslim-woman-attacked-while-picking-up-children-from-toronto-school-police/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">On the subway: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://globalnews.ca/news/2349876/2-women-wearing-hijabs-allegedly-verbally-physically-harrassed-on-toronto-subway/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNGb-d3K_fJy_D9fjZjJ3XZWwmUetg">http://globalnews.ca/news/2349876/2-women-wearing-hijabs-allegedly-verbally-physically-harrassed-on-toronto-subway/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Walking home, just 10 minutes walk from where I used to live: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.citynews.ca/2015/11/20/toronto-woman-assaulted-after-her-scarf-is-mistaken-for-hijab/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNEqJ462p91Y4y_zVAWI-aUWT7DHfQ">http://www.citynews.ca/2015/11/20/toronto-woman-assaulted-after-her-scarf-is-mistaken-for-hijab/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">There was also the women and children attacked in October: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/muslim-convert-attacked-while-wearing-niqab-in-toronto/article26646425/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNHZFTg_SFCJPVFmRgumT45VDz8-Rg">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/muslim-convert-attacked-while-wearing-niqab-in-toronto/article26646425/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[4] This video shows how terrifying this racist group has become: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2012/oct/26/golden-dawn-greece-police-video&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNETQULp2CeR9iU_8Cuhg58e1FIRtA">http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2012/oct/26/golden-dawn-greece-police-video</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[5] <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rt.com/news/323062-paris-clashes-refugee-protest/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNEQCmajpGOB_lk574arOWksHRMovQ">https://www.rt.com/news/323062-paris-clashes-refugee-protest/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[6] Look it up, there’s plenty of links: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl%3Den%26q%3Dsite%253Atheguardian.com%2520closes%2520borders%23q%3Dsite:theguardian.com%2Bcloses%2Bborders%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Dqdr:y&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNHfs3EpBMorFJgm8vAXobDdUfjPvg">https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Atheguardian.com%20closes%20borders#q=site:theguardian.com+closes+borders&hl=en&tbs=qdr:y</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[7] Video from a few days ago: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/nov/23/black-lives-matter-protester-donald-trump-alabama-video&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNE2NmcfS-WmD2yXt995YFxTFX4b3A">http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/nov/23/black-lives-matter-protester-donald-trump-alabama-video</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[8] It’s more like 3/day. Check out how many people in this picture are black: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://thefreethoughtproject.com/100-people-killed-police-month-2015-officers-killed-suspects/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNGNdQft6dN_Jq4ZbnSyRaX84RTXmg">http://thefreethoughtproject.com/100-people-killed-police-month-2015-officers-killed-suspects/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[9] <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://350.org/time-to-get-off-the-fence/&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNG77FTM53FFtitwAqDZY1M5XQUKEA">http://350.org/time-to-get-off-the-fence/</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-42721548842486140812013-03-17T13:53:00.000-04:002013-03-17T14:19:46.028-04:00How to Change the Future — and Why We Need To!<i>I was recently sent a message from an old high-school friend:</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I always see your posts and pictures, declaring war on capitalism, but what would the alternative be? Have you given it much thought? I understand your environmental concerns, but the point that I am making is: how would we continue to live the life which we are currently used to living, without capitalism? I am just uncertain as to your protestations. If there was one thing that you could change about the world, what would it be and how would you do it?</blockquote>
<i>My response:</i><br />
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That's a complex and important question, which I'll do my best to answer, although you'll probably have to do your own thinking and come up with your own answers too. For myself, I have thought long and hard about it.<br />
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The short answer is, no, we cannot continue to live the life we are currently living. But we can live a good life, and the sooner we change, the better that life can be.<br />
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The long answer.<br />
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We currently are consuming non-renewable resources on this planet at a rapid, and increasing rate. Those resources, being non-renewable, are by their nature limited, and so our current way of life is also limited. Some have suggested that we would need 3 planets, or 7 planets, or whatever, to maintain our way of life, but even that is missing the point—our current way of life is unsustainable, and so it cannot, and will not, last.<br />
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When I say resources, I'm not just talking about rare-earth metals and oil, although both of those are limited. I'm talking about everything that we are using up: pristine forests and lumber supplies, fresh water and river health, ocean ecosystems and pH, atmospheric stability and CO2 levels, soil fertility and agricultural reliability, democratic capital, social services, labour resilience, etc., etc. The list goes on.<br />
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Our current trajectory, "business-as-usual", is using up those resources at an alarming rate. If it isn't curbed, it will result in <i>at least</i> a 6ºC global temperature rise by 2100, possibly much sooner. Governments around the world, supported by the best scientific data (as calculated by the worlds' most powerful supercomputers), have recognized that a 2ºC rise in global temperatures is 'dangerous' and to be avoided. Some scientists think that even 2ºC is too generous to allow ourselves. We're currently only at 0.7ºC rise, and we're already seeing superstorms, megadroughts, massive wildfires, 400,000 climate-change-related deaths per year, and a global reduction in GDP by 1.6%. So 400,000 people each year argue with their lives that even 0.7ºC is too much!<br />
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Given the risks of a 2ºC rise, the risks of a 6ºC rise are completely unacceptable: certain collapse of the global food production systems, with a resultant collapse of civilization: resource wars, cities left abandoned, starvation in the billions, a massive die-off of human beings. When every person is desperately searching for their next drink of fresh water and next meal, the last thing anyone will be worrying about would be continuing to "live the life which we are currently used to living". On this trajectory, the survival of the human species is put into question, and some predictions even question the possibility of the survival of multi-cellular life. But this is where we're heading.<br />
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I'll say again: <i>this is where we are currently heading.</i><br />
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Obviously this is unacceptable. Therefore, we <i>have</i> to find another way of living on this planet that accepts the limitations of the world in which we live. We have to discover a way of living that respects and protects the systems that we rely on to survive.<br />
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Does this mean we should all retreat into peasant agriculture and indigenous forest-dwelling? No. I tried that myself, and I'm confident it won't work. Most of us have lost our ability to live in such a way, and most people would cling on to the current (suicidal) system before they give up their comforts anyway. So there has to be a different way. We have to face some difficult questions, and decide which of the current comforts we really want to protect, and which we'd be willing to give up.<br />
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An easy example of something we could give up is the waste usage of electricity that many applications use when they're not in use. Commonly called "vampire power", this accounts for ~10% of the electricity used in Western countries. To stop this, we simply need to make laws that prevent vampire power from being allowed. This would mean you would have to turn your TV manually, without the remote, but that's really not that bad. Electronics should also automatically turn off after a time (after a warning). This would prevent the TV-in-the-other-room being left on: it would automatically turn off after a certain amount of time, which could be stopped by a person actively telling it to stay on (this time, with the remote).<br />
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Another thing that will need to cease is the long-distance (un-walkable/cyclable) commute. I'm sure most people wouldn't miss it anyway, but stopping the commute requires a different kind of societal planning: integrated communities where people live close to where they work (and play), with electrified public transit for the exceptions. Every job that could be done from home online (probably 95% of office jobs) should be, and service companies that require a commute should have to pay dearly for it. All of this possible, it just requires some changes to laws and zoning, and more planning. Lots of planning.<br />
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People will need to eat less meat. They'll have to have less children. They'll have to repair things more, rather than replacing broken household objects. So things will have to be built so that they last, and so that they can be repaired. Currently, it benefits business to build things to become redundant, forcing us to buy a new phone/suit/car/TV every few years. Changing this will require legal changes, changes in resource-exploitation practices, and changes in the mentality of society. All of this is possible.<br />
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However, probably the most urgent switch we'll need to make is to change our energy (electricity) source away from carbon-releasing fossil-fuels (coal, oil, gas, fracking) to renewable and carbon-neutral sources (wind and solar seem to be the best options) as soon as possible. To avoid the 2ºC temperature rise, we can only emit 565 gigatonnes more CO2 (as of 2010). Between 2010-2012 we emitted 115Gt. At that rate we'll run out in just 12 years, or by 2025. The rate of consumption is still increasing. So in less than 12 years we'll have used up our entire quota of carbon dioxide emissions—if we continue on our current course. The sooner we change our electricity-production away from the outdated carbon-emission technology of burning fossil-fuels, the more leeway we'll have in other sectors, particularly agriculture and transportation. Those are the other two main contributors to carbon emissions. Transportation can be fairly easily be solved by switching to electrical, although doing so will require massive changes to our infrastructure (and legal structure). Due to emissions, biofuels/ethanol should be avoided, and new nuclear will take too long to come online (minimum 10 years), so these power sources are dead ends.<br />
<br />
Agriculture also needs to be moved away from the carbon-intensive, soil-depleting, unsustainable industrial mono-cropping that relies on large amounts of fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, and industrial machinery. Livestock is particularly bad for emissions, especially the horrific-yet-common practice of factory farming. Genetically-modified (GM) crops are also proving to be a dead-end, as they increase dependence on carbon-intensive practices like fertilizer and herbicide use. A lot more of us will need to become farmers.<br />
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A better world is possible, but we will need to have major societal change to get there. And we'll need to make it happen very, very soon. 12 years is very close. The sooner we start to make the changes, the better.<br />
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The world of de-regulated capitalism we live in today is not the only possible world, although the system would like you to believe that it is. But the fact is, we have created this system, decade-by-decade, removing regulation after regulation from polluters and abusers. The gross inequality in the world is no accident—it has been engineered by those seeking short-term profit. But just as we have built this system, we can—and must—unbuild it. We must re-regulate and equalize. We must reign in the abusers and stop the abuse. We must move away from the '1%ers' system of profit and inequality.<br />
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What is my one big wish? I want to see the <a href="http://eradicatingecocide.com/wish20/" target="_blank">end of ecocide</a>. "Ecocide is the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severely diminished." There is a growing movement to make ecocide illegal internationally by 2020. An international law against ecocide would prevent carbon-releasing projects like the Alberta Tar Sands (which contain 240gt of CO2—almost half of the total allowed, and by itself would result in a 1ºC rise!), as well as stopping the (ever-increasing) deforestation of the worlds carbon-sinks: forests. It would also impose a duty-of-care onto land-owners and corporations, which would trump the duty-to-profit, in the same way that today it is illegal to profit from genocide. It would turn "polluter pays (as little as they can get away with)" to "polluter doesn't pollute". In short, it would play a major part in changing the direction of our civilization, towards sustainability. But even this, world-changing though it may be, is just a piece of the puzzle. There are many, many other pieces that I have not mentioned here. This puzzle is the puzzle that <i>we must work on every single day</i>, not stopping until Mother Earth is at least able to tolerate us, and hopefully able to enjoy our species' existence once again.<br />
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I hope this helps. There are options, and we need to take them. And to do so, almost every single human being (yourself included) is going to have to become involved in making the change. Without you, we'll fail.<br />
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Cheers,<br />
Stu<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-39185864882281488872013-02-20T22:50:00.001-05:002013-02-21T20:28:28.878-05:00I quit the NDP<br />
Dear Mr. Mulcair,<br />
<br />
I'm writing today to let you know that I will no longer associate myself with the federal <a href="http://www.ndp.ca/" target="_blank">NDP</a>, until the party takes a clear stand to oppose the existence and expansion of the Athabasca Tar Sands industrial complex, along with all the pipelines that would act as enablers for it (including Northern Gateway, Keystone XL and Line 9).<br />
<br />
It will probably disappoint you to know that I was an NDP party activist, who dedicated his time to canvas heavily for the NDP during the previous federal (and Ontario provincial) elections, as well as additional volunteering. I would like to volunteer for the NDP again, but my conscious will not allow me to do so while the NDP party leader supports such a destructive project.<br />
<br />
I am exceedingly disappointed with your decision (and it is <i>your</i> decision) to ally yourself with the most damaging industrial project on the planet. As James Hansen famously stated, this project will result in <i>game over</i> for the climate.<br />
<br />
Many international agencies have been reporting on what this would mean, including (generally anti-environmental) economic and energy agencies such as the <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/roasted-toasted-fried-and-grilled-climate-change-talk-from-an-unlikely-source/article8077946/" target="_blank">IMF</a> and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/09/fossil-fuel-infrastructure-climate-change" target="_blank">IEA</a>. In case you haven't read the reports, I'll summarize them for you:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Game Over == The End of Civilization</span></div>
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Maybe it's worth pointing out the irony of the situation we're in: those who benefit the most from the status quo (the mega rich) are generally working to undermine it, whilst it's the environmentalists and indigenous peoples who are working the hardest to prevent the coming collapse. However, the coming collapse will be no laughing matter, as global food harvests would fail, resulting in famine on a scale that we've never seen before. It may have once been that environmentalists were seen to be idealists and those in business dealt with the 'real' world, but is now clear that it is the business world that is living in an idealism of limitless growth, and that it is environmentalists who are the ones with the strongest grip on reality. Indeed, with the consequences of climate change becoming clearer and more horrendous by the year, we cannot afford the dangerous fantasies of the business world any longer.<br />
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We have recently seen the coming to light of the <a href="http://griponclimate.org/2013/02/15/the-keystone-principle/" target="_blank">Keystone Principle</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">We must categorically cease making large, long-term capital investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure that “locks in” dangerous emission levels for many decades.</span></blockquote>
To support the Tar Sands in any way, including supporting pipeline construction (and reversal), is to actively work to destroy civilization as we know it.<br />
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Climate change is already responsible for <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/26/climate-change-damaging-global-economy" target="_blank">400,000 deaths each years and costs us $1.2tn/yr</a>. Both of these numbers are set to double in the short term and increase by an order of magnitude in the mid term (if business-as-usual, and the tar sands continue). Therefore supporting the tars sands makes you directly culpable for genocide at an international scale. There will come a time when <a href="http://www.thisisecocide.com/" target="_blank">ecocide</a> is considered to be an international crime against peace, and those who continue to support the tar sands would be taken to the ICC. I certainly hope you are not one of those people.<br />
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Not only are the tar sands environmentally suicidal, they are economically insane. They have already destroyed 500,000 (mainly NDP) jobs in manufacturing in Ontario, and are <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/economists-warn-of-canadas-bitumen-cliff/article8902840/" target="_blank">proving to be financially fragile and unstable</a>. The tar sands put Canada at great risk, with only temporary and insignificant benefits. It is now <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/australia-wind-power-already-cheaper-fossil-fuels-and-solar-right-behind-1360595750" target="_blank">cheaper</a> is several countries of the world to produce energy using wind and solar technology. This is the direction our country should be heading. While we continue to invest in the tar sands, we are losing out on billions of dollars we could be getting from these sustainable energy sources.<br />
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Innovative wind and solar technology would provide Canada with a secure and stable economy, both in the short and long terms, and would provide tens of thousands more jobs. It's probably worth pointing out that the Keystone XL pipeline is estimated to only provide <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2011/12/08/fox-still-pushing-discredited-keystone-xl-pipel/151455" target="_blank">50 permanent jobs</a> (after the initial two years of construction are over). The oil industry is heavily automated, so it brings very little to the job-debate: far less than the renewable alternatives.<br />
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The tar sands are a dead end, with the emphasis on 'dead'. I call on you to condemn the tar sands, and to categorically reject its expansion, along with all of the pipelines that threaten the future health of Canada.<br />
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Yours sincerely,<br />
Stuart Basden<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-51815931732078735282012-12-31T12:46:00.000-05:002012-12-31T12:48:29.338-05:00Canada gone Rogue<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Note: This article was written Dec 9th, before there had been a single #IdleNoMore protest or dance. I believe the ferocity with which the #IdleNoMore movement has taken off strongly supports my thesis.</span></span></b></blockquote>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9637767635285854" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Canadians need help to wake up and see what is happening to their country.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Canada has long been respected around the world for it's tolerance, democracy, open borders, and friendliness. However, in the year-and-a-half since our last Federal election, Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, has transformed the country into a rogue petro-state, reviled around the world, and exercising dictatorial control over Canada's people and laws.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is now recognized by countries around the globe. On November 29th, 2012 at the United Nations General Assembly MP John Baird, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, was introduced to take the stage. </span><a href="http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2012/12/best-net/canadas-ruined-reputation-no-applause-john-baird-un"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No welcoming applause was given</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/oZhfWv6Sds4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What follows is a reminder of some of the damage Harper has inflicted on Canada, bringing us up to date (to the beginnings of #IdleNoMore).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harper first became Prime Minister in February 2006, although he was not content with his minority government. He called another election in October 2008 to try to get a majority, and again failed to do so winning 37% of the vote. However, just six weeks later, Harper prorogued parliament (cut short the parliamentary session) to stop the opposition parties conducting a vote of no confidence. Proroguing is meant to be used to allow the government to refocus, but it was used in this case to stop a majority coalition (representing the majority of Canadians) from bringing down the minority government. Harper again prorogued parliament in 2009, this time to avoid ongoing investigations into </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Afghan_detainee_issue"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Afghan detainees affair</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Dr. Nelson Wiseman, Professor at the University of Toronto said at the time, "</span><a href="http://www.hilltimes.com/columns/2010/03/01/the-use-misuse-and-abuse-of-prorogation/23383"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">no Prime Minister has so abused the power to prorogue</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Abuse of power. That is something the Canadian people are now becoming used to.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In March 2011, Stephen Harper's government was found in contempt of parliament, which is without precedent in Canada or any other Commonwealth country. It clearly demonstrated "the Conservatives’ profound disdain toward the only democratic national institution we have" (</span><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/962022--walkom-yes-contempt-of-parliament-does-matter"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thomas Walkom</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In May 2011, Canada voted again and gave the Harper government a majority in parliament. What happens in Canada when a wannabe dictator shows disdain for democracy? We make him into an actual dictator!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Except that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> didn't. Some of us did. A minority. In fact, only around 38% of the popular vote went to Harper, although that somehow gave Harper 54% of the seats in parliament–a majority. That's a 16% difference. And 16% is over 5,000,000 people. The Conservative party has managed to rig the elections in such as way as to </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">steal the votes of five million people</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It's also worth stating that the 38% is of those who voted–only about 25% of the population who legally can vote, voted for Harper (roughly 8.5 million people).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But that wasn't enough for Harper. On election day, illegal robocalls were orchestrated by members of the Conservative party (of which Harper is the leader) as a voter suppression tactic to try to stop supporters of other parties from voting. The investigation continues, but there are currently around </span><a href="http://www.vancouverobserver.com/world/canada/2012/02/27/robogate-election-scandal-11-robo-call-ridings-linked-conservatives-11-seat"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">200 ridings</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">–two-thirds of the total–alleging that robocalls were made within their boundaries. Many of the ridings were won by tiny margins–as little as 18 votes. The closest 11 ridings all report voting irregularities of this nature, and in these ridings as little as 0.05% of the vote made the difference. Stephen </span><a href="http://rabble.ca/news/2012/12/lesson-free-prior-and-informed-consent-unistoten-evict-pipeline-surveyors"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harper is not the legitimate Prime Minister</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Canada, and should not control a majority parliament.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In June 2010, the G20 were to be held in Canada. Harper decided that the meeting should take place in downtown Toronto (</span><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/826614--menon-fortress-toronto-is-stephen-harper-s-dream-come-true"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harper hates Toronto</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), and proceeded to militarise the downtown core, spending over $1.1 billion–the most expensive weekend in Canadian history. Pittsburgh G20 a few years before had a budget of $18 million.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fortress walls were built, and police were brought in from other provinces. Peaceful protestors and passers-by were kettled–surrounded by police, beaten, and then arrested without cause. Over 1000 people were arrested–the largest mass-arrests in Canadian history–and peaceful protests were repeatedly dispersed using violent force. Ombudsman André Marin called it “the </span><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/945867--report-details-shocking-abuses-at-g20-summit"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">most massive compromise of civil liberties</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Canadian history.” Canada was left reeling from the violent blow done to its citizens.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In December 2011, Peter Kent, the Minister of the Environment in Canada, announced Canada's </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_and_the_Kyoto_Protocol"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">withdrawal from the Kyoto Accord</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Canada remains the only country to do so. Canada would have been fined $14 billion for failing to meet its emission cuts targets. To add to the insult, the announcement was made one day after countries around the world agreed to a treaty to limit carbon emissions in COP17 in Durban. The following year in COP18 (Doha), </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/26/canada-kyoto"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Canada was called a "pariah"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and there were questions raised as to whether Canada should have any stand at the table while negotiating a second Kyoto protocol.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rhetoric and language used by the Harper government has also become extremist. In February 2012 the government introduced </span><a href="http://openparliament.ca/bills/41-1/C-30/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bill C-30</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a bill that contained draconian internet spying and anti-privacy laws. It was </span><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/on-internet-privacy-im-with-the-child-pornographers/article547521/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">widely condemned</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in much the same way SOPA was condemned in the US. However, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews claimed the opposition “either [had to] stand with us, or with the </span><a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/14/online-surveillance-bill-critics-are-siding-with-child-pornographers-vic-toews/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">child pornographers</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” Really. That's what he said.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In line with Harper's narrow-sighted vision for an oily Canadian future, the Harper government also introduced an 'anti-terrorism' bill that labelled environmentalists as terrorists. John Bennett, executive director of </span><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawas-new-anti-terrorism-strategy-lists-eco-extremists-as-threats/article533522/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sierra Club Canada condemned the bill</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, saying "It’s an indirect suggestion that somehow environmentalism is attached to terrorism and that’s just wrong." Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, along with Harper himself, made the claim that foreign-funded, radical environmentalists were threatening Canada's economy–and by extension, Canada itself–by trying to stop oil pipelines from being built. NDP MP Megan Leslie stated, "I find it offensive that there is a list that puts people trying to protect the environment on the same list as white supremacists."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While Harper was the leader of the opposition he supported dissent, stating, "When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern." Now, it seems, he’s trying as hard as he can eliminate dissent completely, </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/09/canada-stephen-harper-revolt-scientists"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">silencing scientists</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and most recently </span><a href="http://elizabethmaymp.ca/news/blogs/2012/12/03/the-most-damaging-things-happening-to-canada-are-the-things-you-cannot-see/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bringing down vital firewalls</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> required for the country to remain democratic. There goes his moral authority.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another tactic the Harper government has used, which both damages Canadian democracy and highlights the governments extremist agenda, is to push through omnibus budget bills. A budget bill is effectively a vote of confidence, and so any Conservative MP that votes against it is effectively voting themselves out of office. In June 2012, </span><a href="http://openparliament.ca/bills/41-1/C-38/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bill C-38</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the laughably-named "Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act," was pushed through the House of Parliament unmodified after </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/06/10/bill-c-38_n_1584893.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tory MPs rejected thousands of proposed amendments</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The bill was 425 pages, and, amongst other things, removed nearly all environmental protection from Canadian water, soil and air–none of which had anything to do with implementing the budget. The environmental regulation was stripped to stop opposition to oil pipelines and expansion of the destructive Albertan tar sands. The bill also removed the need for Canada to protect its species that are threatened with extinction. Harper is willing to wipe out millions of years of evolutionary history in order to pursue his extremist, oil-based agenda.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, there is still a major legal force that can stop oil pipelines being built in Canada–the First Nations. In Canada, the First Nations are sovereign nations that hold control of their land, and the Federal government must seek their approval for projects like pipelines. Harper's second omnibus budget bill in 2012, </span><a href="http://openparliament.ca/bills/41-1/C-45/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bill C-45</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, is designed to strip as much power from the First Nations as possible. The bill has been described as </span><a href="http://workingeffectivelywithaboriginalpeoples.com/proposed-federal-legislation-is-unconstitutional-no-honour-by-the-canadian-government-by-the-way-of-the-crown"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unconstitutional</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and an </span><a href="http://elizabethmaymp.ca/news/publications/press-releases/2012/12/04/conservatives-bill-c-45-tactics-add-to-fears-re-state-of-democracy/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">abuse of power</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Again, Harper's government rejected all the proposed amendments and used its house majority to push it through. Many First Nations chiefs went to parliament to protest the bill's illegality, but were rebuffed by security.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harper is also tabling </span><a href="http://intercontinentalcry.org/harper-launches-major-first-nations-termination-plan-as-negotiating-tables-legitimize-canadas-colonialism/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">many other bills</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that are designed to strip the First Nations of power: Bills C-27, C-428, S-2, S-6, S-8, S-207 and S212. This includes the wonderfully-named bill, "Safe Drinking Water for First Nations," which would actually </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">remove</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> funding and responsibility for providing safe drinking water. Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Wallace Fox recently </span><a href="http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2012/12/06/true-warriors-dont-reveal-plans-to-enemies-says-chief-fox/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">described the Harper government as 'enemies'</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. On December 10th 2012, thousands of Canadians across the country came together for the </span><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=idlenomore"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#IdleNoMore</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> day of action. </span><a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/nora-loreto/2012/12/idle-no-more-non-indigenous-responsiby-act"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You should have been there</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It needs stating that this is not just a criticism of the Left towards the Right. The ~193 nations of the United Nations are politically very mixed, including extremes on both sides, as well as everything in-between. The silence that John Baird received at the UN last week is now echoing across the planet. John Baird was unique in receiving no welcome–both Israel and Palestine, as well as every other speaker from every other nation received a welcoming applause. Canada is the odd one out.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's also needs stating that Stephen Harper does not necessarily represent the Conservative party. Stephen Harper and his cabinet are extremists seeking a narrow future for Canada based on oil. They have hijacked the Conservative party and are enforcing their will on them, but there are many Tory MPs who resent the bullying, as well as many loyal members of the party who are disgusted by the tactics being used and the direction the country is going. Those Conservatives need to stand up and speak out for their country, just as much as members of every other party.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The politics of this country should no longer be measured on the Left-Right spectrum–our politics today needs to be measured on the Tyranny-Freedom scale. The longer Harper is allowed to retain power, the further Canada will devolve towards tyranny. How long will we–the majority–allow this to happen?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-13293002485492817102012-10-02T08:50:00.001-04:002012-10-04T19:05:02.162-04:00Public Letter to Richard UbbensDear Mr Rubbens,<br />
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I am writing today as a concerned citizen, having seen the damage that was done in your name to the city, people and community of Toronto. The destructions of the People's Peas Gardens is a shameful thing that cannot be undone, but its crime can be acknowledged and publicly apologized for.<br />
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I am not a member of Occupy, but as a thinking human being who values democracy, community and life, I certainly share many of its concerns. I am also not a member of Occupy Gardens, although I do recognize that we have an abundance of problems with our current food-production model of agribusiness. I am a full-time employed web developer, who deeply cares about Toronto, and tries to encourage healthy community projects wherever I see them.<br />
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The People's Peas Garden in Queens Park was one such project. It increased ten-fold in size over the summer, due to the excitement of the community to get involved and contribute to it. Although I was not a member of the community, and only enjoyed the garden as a passerby, I recognize that the community involved in it was strong and vibrant, giving people a fantastic reason to enjoy, and love, one of Toronto's great parks. This love is certainly something that you, as the Toronto Parks Director, should be excited about, and try to encourage at every opportunity. As a public servant, your job is to serve the community.<br />
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The People's Peas Garden was, admittedly, illegal. However, things that are illegal are not necessarily wrong (and vice versa) - sometimes the law needs to catch up to reality. The People's Peas Garden was a grassroots project by people who saw problems with the City as it is, and wished to be allowed to enact a dream of a better Toronto. The people of Toronto encounter many problems when they wish to do similar things: community garden waiting lists are long, Toronto schools are failing to teach food-growing to our children, and there are very few places that people are able to grow their own food. As the city (sadly) increasingly build more and more condos, this demand for public space will only increase. It is on you, as the Parks Director, to make sure that this need is met. To fail to do so will be a massive failing in your role.<br />
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However, the gravest shame in all of this was not the destruction of the garden - it was the manner in which the garden was destroyed. The Peas Garden was planted while police watched, back in May. The authorities were well aware of its existence all summer, yet did nothing about it. The Peas Garden had also been careful to erect a sign with contact information, so that the city could contact them - a sign which you publicly denied the existence of, even though there is footage of a Parks worker taking down that very sign. This can only be considered to be a brazen lie, which again, brings shame to your position. And finally, the garden was destroyed just two days before the scheduled harvest and Thanksgiving feast. It is clear to any outside observer, as I am sure it was clear in your mind, that this was an intentional, pre-meditated move to cause as much pain as possible to the community members who were involved in the garden, as well as to harm the City of Toronto as a whole in an attempt to crush its creative spirit and desire for a better city.<br />
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After knowingly waiting for five months to remove the so-called 'illegal' garden, you waited until it would cause the most damage, and inflict the most pain. It is for this cruelty that a public apology is demanded. I expect both this apology, and a direct response.<br />
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Yours sincerely,<br />
Stuart Basden<br />
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More info:<br />
<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/toronto-destroys-occupygardens-free-food-garden.html">http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/toronto-destroys-occupygardens-free-food-garden.html</a><br />
<a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/johnbon/2012/09/free-community-food-garden-removed-city-toronto-workers">http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/johnbon/2012/09/free-community-food-garden-removed-city-toronto-workers</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-81194068704555218962012-05-21T18:51:00.001-04:002012-05-21T18:51:18.131-04:00Common Space?The Commons are publicly owned 'space', set apart for the betterment of all. Village greens are a historical symbol of the Commons - a central place in rural communities where anyone could graze their livestock, as well a a place for community festivals and celebrations. While village greens used to be the centre of many communities, they are now a rare anachronistic occurrence, the prime real estate (as it is now seen) having been sold off by local councils to developers. Only a few remain as public parks.<div>
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The village green isn't the only loss to the commons, but it was one of the earliest losses. In the past century, and particularly in the past few decades, we've seen the Commons shrink is almost every way conceivable - indeed, the Commons have become such an easy target for public service cuts that "every way conceivable" may well be the extent of it. To take something out of the Commons, all that needs to happen is for it to become commodified. And the Commons are often lost through ideology, not necessity. Austerity is one such ideology.</div>
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Common Defence</h3>
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In the past year the Mayor of Toronto (a right-wing businessman who inherited his wealth) <a href="http://ourpubliclibrary.to/2011/09/20/mayor-fords-no-closures-library-promise-rings-hollow-says-toronto-public-library-workers-union-10-cut-in-budget-will-ensure-closures/">attempted to close a third of Toronto libraries</a>, claiming it was necessary to balance the budget. Libraries are one of the oldest institutions of the Commons, and the public outcry was fortunately strong enough to stop Mayor Rob Ford's plan. A few months later, the city actually discovered it had a <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1170608--toronto-budget-windfall-surfaces">$300 million surplus</a>, revealing Ford's flawed ideology as being out-of-touch with reality.</div>
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Another failed attempt to sell off the Commons occurred last year in the UK, when the Austerity-driven <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/24/forests-government-heritage-private-developers">Tory party attempted to sell off woodlands</a> to international developers and power companies. It would have been the largest change of land ownership since the Second World War, and would have resulted in the loss of over <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/27/england-forest-sell-off-activism">250,000 hectares</a> (an area the size of Luxembourg). Again, <a href="http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2011/02/17/victory-government-to-scrap-plans-to-sell-our-forests/">the public outcry</a> was enough to stop it.</div>
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Common Sales</h3>
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However, not all the Commons have been successfully defended. In many countries, the water infrastructure is still part of the Commons, water being a necessity for (human) life. Privatization of water is often met with mass protests, as people (rightly) fear for their very survival. Until 1989, only 4 countries in the world had privatized their water, but after Margaret Thatcher (another right-winger) privatized water in the UK, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization#Prevalence_of_public-private_partnerships">27 more countries have have also seen their water privatized</a>. Against this, Bolivia saw historic protests in 2000 as water prices seared to 30% of income. Greece and Italy also saw anti-water-privatization protests in 2011, and much of the Americas are in long-term battles against it, often deadly.</div>
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The Internet is another area of the Commons, which is now under continuous attacks from bills such as SOPA, CISPA and Canada's Bill C-11. Health-care (particularly elder-care) has also seen massive moves into the private sector, often resulting in elder abuse and 'flying visits', where care staff hours are so stretched they only have time for the bare minimum of 'care'. Art has also seen the attack, as public funding is cut and art projects are increasingly forced to look for private money (often resulting in certain 'restrictions').</div>
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Common Losses</h3>
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Another major concession of the Commons has been research. Research used to be done primarily by publicly-funded universities, and the discoveries would be kept in the Commons, available for all. This allowed for a diverse and creative era of progress, resulting in many useful inventions. It also allowed researchers to take chances, combining fields of study, and making leaps in human thought. However, as public funding for universities has been continually reduced, researchers have been forced to look for private grants to continue their research.</div>
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For example, Monsanto and other <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/05/14/monsantos_college_strangehold/">private interests now contribute more towards agricultural research than public funds</a> in the US (which includes the USDA's notoriously pro-corporate public money). This has resulted in biased research, leaving policy makers unable to make unbiased policies. It has also captured the imagination of scientists and researchers, forcing research to continue in an areas like <a href="http://gmwatch.org/10-reasons-why-we-dont-need-gm-foods">GMOs</a> that have been shown to reduce yields and contribute to food scarcity and environmental decline. Finally, the research done (even in <i>public</i> universities) are kept out of the Commons by privately-constructed, draconian intellectual property laws and patents, which are enforced by heavily funded teams of lawyers, as well as legal threats and private security companies. Once something leaves the Commons, it not given back.</div>
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Un-Common Extremes</h3>
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Lawmakers have allowed <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1013_051013_gene_patent.html">human DNA to be privatized</a>, which is surely about as 'common' as anything we share.</div>
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The atmosphere too, is being negotiated away through international cap-and-trade schemes - the commodification of the air we breathe.</div>
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As these attempts to commodify (and thus eradicate) the Commons continue, we are finding that nothing is to be spared. Indeed, while we used to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station">fund ventures into space</a> from the Commons, asteroid mining is now being contemplated, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/30/us-space-asteroid-mining-idUKBRE83N06U20120430">bankrolled by billionaires</a>. And although <a href="http://quezi.com/11818">we'll probably never make much of our time in space</a>, how long will it be before even space is commodified, divided, and sold off?</div>
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But this loss of the Commons needn't be the case. This is not the only possible future for humanity. It can be reversed, and it should be.</div>
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Common Revival</h3>
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Although touted as such, Austerity is <i>not</i> a way to balance the budget. Not only are we finding <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-cohen/double-dip-recession-in-uk_b_1474354.html">austerity is ineffective</a> at what it claims to do, Austerity is actually an attempt to sell off the Commons as quickly as possible. It is driven by the interests of private finance, and associated with a domineering mindset of oligarchical control. It is, quite simply, elitism, paid for by us all.</div>
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Fortunately, people are beginning to fight back. Greece is currently working out how to scrap austerity, France voted in Hollande for his anti-austerity promises, and Germany's largest state just <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/9263181/Angela-Merkel-setback-as-austerity-agenda-rejected-in-Germanys-biggest-state.html">rejected Merkel's austerity</a>. Popular grass-roots movements like Occupy and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/14/blockupy-frankfurt-austerity-protest">Blockupy</a> continue to grow, exposing austerity's Commons-crippling agenda. And as awareness grows, anger grows, meaning action grows.</div>
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The tide is turning - the Commons will grow again!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-81129304735010103792011-12-10T11:18:00.001-05:002011-12-21T08:08:05.585-05:00Economic Life Support<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"A politician and a naturalist were discussing the future of Thjórsárver. Thjórsárver is a world heritage site. The river Thjórsá flows from the glacier and runs through a dip in the highlands, creating a unique area of mountain wetlands, a sudden oasis of green in the bleak black desert of central Iceland. These wetlands are the most important nesting site in the world for the pink-footed goose. There were plans to build a dam and submerge a large part of the area to generate electricity for a new aluminium plant in Hvalfjörđur.<br />
"The naturalist was saying how important this area was for Iceland, and for the world, and for the future of one of the world's most attractive species of geese. To which the politician countered with the 'need to ensure economic growth'. The naturalist tried to enter an objection: '...but do we absolutely need economic growth?' And with that his case was lost, and the politician smiled avuncularly. The politician was being 'realistic': his views were founded on logic and broad perspective. The naturalist was being 'unrealistic', blinded by romanticism and the narrow self-interest of his particular field.</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
-- <a href="http://www.andrimagnason.com/books/dreamland/">Andri Snœr Magnason, Dreamland</a>, 2006, p71.</div>
<br />
Economic growth.<br />
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The economy in the world today is based on growth. The globalized capitalist system relies on economic growth to continue. Trade, progress, markets, industry, mining, politics, consumption, cities, food—everything today relies upon it. When economic growth slows we get a recession. When it stagnates we get a depression, "with all the desperation and hardship that these words imply". <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/164497/capitalism-vs-climate">Naomi Klein</a>, "Capitalism vs. the Climate", <a href="http://www.thenation.com/">The Nation</a>, Nov 2011)</span><br />
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The fear of a depression is crippling to society. On hearing that word, people retreat from the things they most care about, in order to focus on the 'more important' problem. After all, who wants to be against job creation in times of unemployment? Who is for spiralling debt, whether personal or national?<br />
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We've seen the effect of this. In 2007 'being green' was in the news, 'eco' was hip, and global action was seen to be urgently needed. Celebrities attending the Academy Awards arrived in hybrids and even politicians dared to engage green issues. But that all changed. With the economic collapse of 2008, all focus was lost. The environment has barely been in the news since, except to cover the failure of Copenhagen in 2009. People aren't interested any more. The coverage of climate change in the media is barely 20% of what it was.<br />
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Instead, we are daily bombarded by financial news. The markets have taken the focus from every other issue. And it's not surprising. The markets have unprecedented power in the world, and they are in massive trouble. Their foundational ideology is being questioned as they collide with a sharp rocks of reality. And the reality is, economics based on continual growth doesn't work—the world is finite, and it won't indefinitely supply new markets to expand into.<br />
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The idea of economic growth is a metaphor, taken from the living world around us. Trees grow. People grow. Plants, insects and animals grow. They all start small, add to their size by consuming nutrients and resources found in the world around them, and hopefully, they eventually become healthy, adult living beings. But then they do something that our economy refuses to do:<br />
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Stop growing.<br />
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Once a living creature reaches adulthood, its size doesn't increase. It's growth period is over, and the majority of its life is still ahead of it. At this point, it's reached a relatively-sustainable size. If trees continue to grow past a certain point, they might receive more sunlight for a short period of time, but when the storms come, it will be these over-sized trees that crack in the wind, unable to support their own weight. It's the biggest trees that come crashing down.<br />
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Our economic system is more than a tree—it's an entire forest. Nearly everything that can be exploited for growth has been exploited. There are no more significant resources in the world that will be found to keep it growing. And those that are left—agricultural land, oceanic life, biodiversity, and a stable climate—are quickly being used up, breaking down, and reaching their limits.<br />
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The economic system has reached the point that it is being artificially kept alive. The massive bailouts of public money that have been donated to private coffers are nothing more than economic life support. They're the last steroid that we can give, the final stimulus that can be used to keep the aged cell walls from collapsing. The era of economic growth is over. It is time for this economic paradigm to pass away, and for a new economic paradigm to take its place.<br />
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So where does that leave us? Not communism—that system has already repeatedly failed, and its exploitation of the natural world was at times worse than capitalism. And not libertarianism, civilizational collapse, or anarchy—these just leave the rich and powerful free to prey on the weak.<br />
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Instead, we need a new set of policies, laws, methods of economic calculation, and governmental systems that take account of, and respect, nature. We need, as <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/164497/capitalism-vs-climate">Naomi Klein</a> argues, "an alternative worldview to rival the one at the heart of the ecological crisis—this time, embedded in interdependence rather than hyper-individualism, reciprocity rather than dominance and cooperation rather than hierarchy." "The way out is to embrace a managed transition to another economic paradigm, using all the tools of planning discussed above. Growth would be reserved for parts of the world still pulling themselves out of poverty."<br />
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This kind of change of worldview is not easy, but it's also not impossible. We live in an emergent world, a world where the present is an ongoing process, and where history is crafted by the choices we make—when combined with our visions of the future.<br />
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So what do we need to achieve this? The problem may seem insurmountable, but when broken down into parts, it starts to fit inside our collective imaginations, and so allow us to move away from the grim future promised by deregulated capitalism.<br />
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For example, we need to take the money out of politics. We need to re-regulate the markets, and make the markets work for the public good. We need more planning. We need more accountability in governments, and we need to give governments more power. We need to not only increase taxes on the rich (globally, so they have no tax-havens to run to), we also need to make it clear that those billionaires who hold the capital will be the ones who pay for many of the changes that need to be made. We'll allow them to become philanthropists.<br />
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But these changes won't just happen—quite the contrary; they'll be strongly opposed (violently at times) by many in the 1%—and those in the 99% they've convinced to do their work for them. The necessary changes require action from you. They'll need you to start writing to your local elected officials—at least twice monthly. They'll need you to switch your bank accounts (and your company's if you have the chance) away from the worst offenders—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, etc. They will require social movements like Occupy Wall St—and at times they'll need you to leave your day job to go down and join them. And if you really feel incapable of doing nothing else at the moment, at least sign up to several clicktivist sites: <a href="http://www.avaaz.org/">Avaaz</a>, <a href="http://www.38degrees.org.uk/">38degrees</a>, <a href="http://350.org/">350.org</a>, <a href="https://www.change.org/join">change.org</a> (but know that <a href="http://www.clicktivism.org/">clicktivism is only a start<span style="color: black;">—</span>it'll never be enough</a>).<br />
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Our future doesn't need to be the grim future of economic and planetary death promised by capitalism. Indeed, de-regulated capitalism is on its death-bed, and the obituary of business-as-usual will soon be written. It's up to you to start preparing for the economics of decline, and to start moving towards a future of interdependence and sustainability. Begin today!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-88032238237704843022011-11-10T19:19:00.001-05:002011-11-13T17:11:41.907-05:00Your device is temporaryElectronics are temporary. The device you're using to read this blog is a short-term passenger that has joined you for a few years (at best) on your journey through life. It will not last. It will soon die.<br />
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Look at your life. How many of the electronics in your life are less than a year old? How many of those replaced previous versions of similar electronics? And how many electronics do you own that are older than five years? Ten years? Probably not many.<br />
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I suspect your fridge might be over ten years old. And maybe your electric cooker. But other than that? You computer is almost certainly under ten years, and probably under five (an exception being my father, whose '92 Amiga is almost 20). The lightbulbs in your house will be less than ten, unless you're lucky enough to have gotten energy-saving bulbs early. Then, there's just a chance they'll be ten - but they'll be dying soon. If you have a ten-year-old TV in the house, it's probably in the attic. The TV(s) in use are flat-screen, bought in the last three years. If you're like many Torontonians, you put your old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_ray_tube#The_future_of_CRT_technology">CRT</a> out on the street, a piece of worthless junk. And your phone is probably under two years old. A four-year-old phone is almost a museum piece!<br />
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All this demonstrates the temporary nature of electronics. Humans have been around for 2 million years. <i>Homo sapians</i> for 200,000. Agricultural society has been around for 10,000 years, and writing has existed for around 5,000. Electricity has been generated by human-made machines for 150 years. Assuming environmental degradation doesn't wipe out humanity in the next few centuries, humanity could well survive for many more years - maybe millions, possibly hundreds of millions. But how long will our electronics last?<br />
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Most of our modern-day electronic gadgets require a multitude of rare elements. Although not all that rare, they are still limited. Natural reserves will run out. But when? According to the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/26/rare-earth-metals-us">Guardian</a>, global demand is around 200,000 tonnes/year, and we have 100 million tonnes economically viable and accessible on the planet. That would mean we have 500 years of supply left (if we foolishly assume demand is steady). I've been unable to determine how much of this is economically viable to extract.<br />
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However, things don't stop when the total supply is spent. Some things become impossible when the first few critical elements becomes unavailable. That could be by the end of the decade, as Hafnium, Indium and <a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-03-16/earths-limits-why-growth-wont-return-metals-and-other-minerals">Gallium run out</a>. Furthermore, things will run into problems when China stops exporting. It's likely to do so in 2012, and it currently controls 97% of the worlds rare earth mining (a lot comes from Mongolia - sometimes called Minegolia!). We could see a major price hike in electronics in the next couple of years.<br />
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Aside from disappointing human greed, this may not be a bad thing. It will hopefully encourage people to look for longer-lasting electronics, and will encourage increased recycling of electronics. E-waste sites are responsible for polluting large areas of land, and <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0909-moukaddem_ewaste.html">expose the poorest humans</a> to life-destroying toxins. We must press our officials for recycling and waste regulations that take the health of people and the environment into account. Once some of the larger deposits of rare earths are stripped, it is likely to become more economically viable (not to mention more efficient) to create an almost-closed recycling loop. However, this will require laws that force products to be made with recycling in mind. Not impossible, but certainly something that will require widespread public support.<br />
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But the biggest problem involved in the temporary nature of electronics is the mining that supports their existence. Mining today is probably the best example of a closed and uncaring mentality that rips apart some of the most valuable parts of the planet. To 'mine' is to 'use up' the planet. Earth is seen to be disposable. The local people, a nuisance. Ecosystems, inconvenient.<br />
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Mines are nearly all operated by large multinational companies. Many of these corporations have proven track records of environmental and human-rights abuses. Rio Tinto, DeBeers and AngloGold (to name a few) have all be nominated as the most evil corporations in the world. They repeatedly strip areas of their resources, and in doing so they destroy the local environment, <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/stop-mining-and-refinery-projects-devastating-communities-india">dig up ancient sacred sites</a>, wipe of local peoples and native culture, <a href="http://www.spiritual-endeavors.org/m-earth/how/Navajo.htm">support and conduct genocide</a>, walk over worker's rights, practice slavery (including <a href="http://stopchildslavery.com/2008/12/04/child-slavery-coltan-and-the-congo/">child slavery</a>), heavily contribute to climate emissions, poison rivers, steal water, cause species to become extinct, finance violent factions, bribe officials, encourage political instability, and murder activists who try to oppose them. I'd link them all, but you can google each of them pretty easily.<br />
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Mining is a major problem in the world today. It is barely regulated, and where it is, the regulations are frequently ignored. It's a problem that isn't going away. You should expect to see the abuses of the mining corporations for the rest of your life. You should look into strategies to stop them. You should get involved whenever you can to stop these corporations from conducting mining, both locally and abroad.<br />
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Of course, an important way to reduce the abuses of mining will be to reduce the need for it. The next time you're thinking about buying an electronic product, reconsider. Do you need it? Will it last? Is it worth it? Because every electronic product you buy is almost certainly, in some way, tied to many of the abuses mentioned above. Can you really justify the purchase? And if you can, look for electronics that will last. Look into their production. Look into the supply-chain that brought them in front of you. Be informed, and purchase as ethically as you can.<br />
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Reduce, reuse, recycle.<br />
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Hopefully it won't be long before we have <a href="http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/06/01/fair-trade-electronics-why-we-need-it-and-who-will-give-it-to-us/">fair trade electronics</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-25749851639233435392011-10-23T13:49:00.001-04:002011-10-24T17:59:52.183-04:00Occupy the Future!Those who confuse the Arab Spring with the Occupation movement are making a big mistake.<br />
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The Arab Spring is a collection of revolts against dictators and totalitarian regimes that have been exploiting and abusing their citizens for many decades. As I write this, the people of Tunisia are voting for their first time. Ever.<br />
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The so-called American Fall is a very different thing. It is not the continuance of the same kind of revolutions we've seen in the Arab Spring. It's a different kind of movement. It's not a revolution. It's bigger: it's <i>the brewing of many revolutions to come</i>.<br />
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For a long time, the majority of people on this planet have been living in poverty. The vast majority of the people on this planet are in the lower economic class. They have been for a long time. They're use to being exploited. They're used to being bullied by multi-national corporations, and they used to the devastation caused by <a href="http://www.wikisummaries.org/Confessions_of_an_economic_hitman">economic hitmen</a>. In short, they're used to being <a href="http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=665">plundered</a>.<br />
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The Occupations are the beginnings of the coming middle class revolution. It is not the revolution. It's only in the past decade that the elite became so desperate that they
really started plundering the middle class. Now that the middle class are
being stolen from, they're starting to get annoyed. We (in the West) are not ready to go to war. Most of us still have too much to lose. A small minority might be ready, but not the majority. Certainly not the 99%. Not even the 9%.<br />
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But that number is growing. The flaws in the system that created the economic crash of 2008 haven't been fixed. Indeed, things have just gotten worse. The risks have simply been transferred from financial institutions to sovereign states. And the financial institutions have merged together to create gigantic monoliths - not only are they <i>Too Big to Fail</i>, companies like Morgan Stanley are now <a href="http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=629"><i>Too Big to Save</i></a>. They <i>can't</i> be saved. Next time they collapse, major Western economies will crash with them. And we're not talking Greece or Iceland. <a href="http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20110421.htm">We're talking Germany, Canada and/or the US</a>.<br />
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The Occupy movement isn't going to utterly destroy the system, but it is
the brewing of larger changes to come. And it is important. The Occupy movement is massive. According to the Guardian, the movement has had around <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/17/occupy-protests-world-list-map?intcmp=239">1.7 million participants</a> worldwide. It's proudly boasting the involvement of people in 83 countries and 1500 cities. The tent city in Toronto has over-doubled in size in a week, and the protest at City Hall we saw yesterday was bigger than the week before.<br />
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Furthermore, the Occupation is a much-needed <a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/the-optimism-of-uncertainty-by-howard-zinn">creative breeding ground</a>. Like-minded people are coming together, networking, debating, and coming up with new ideas. It's a long time since Toronto has seen daily protest marches, and the number of NGO's and other social-advocacy groups getting involved is growing. They're also reviving some of the ideas from previous social revolutions. The Suffragettes. The Civil Rights movement. I suspect we are going to be seeing some big successes, resulting in some amazing changes.<br />
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However, very few of us want to collapse into either anarchy or primitivism. We value society. But not only that, there's great fear about the results that would come if society did collapse. And that fear is well grounded. <a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.com/2010/03/moderation-not-freedom.html">Freedom is a double-edged sword</a>. <i>When there's too much freedom, the strong are free to prey on the weak</i>. <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=ignatieff%20the%20wrong%20lessons&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.reuters.com%2Fgreat-debate%2F2011%2F09%2F11%2Flearning-the-wrong-lessons-from-911%2F&ei=sD6kTpSBD4Lq0gGR_ti_BA&usg=AFQjCNF5XX-IbXeGeWiauR2eaQdW5F1BBQ&sig2=8P2dPUDOkSW5vj9sa8PMiw&cad=rja">Sovereign States are meant to protect</a> us from those kinds of predators (Ignatieff may not be a good politician, but he is a good political commentator). And given the abundance of multinational, predatory corporations, we need protection. Governments should be protecting us against this kind of
self-bankruptcy, because individuals simply can't compete with (or keep
up with) the economic attacks of the financial sector. It is the
job of government to protects us from that, and yet most sovereign
states have failed to do so. There's safety in numbers. But only if the numbers are aware of the attacks, and so able to defend against them.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Timing the Revolution </span><br />
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A big question I've been confronted with recently has been the <b>timing</b> of the coming collapses that we can expect. There's so many ways our current civilisation will collapse. <b>Environmental degradation</b> and massive climate change will be the biggest of these, and will result in the death of billions of people, drastically reducing human population from 9bn+ down to around 2bn or less. It will also result in the <i>permanent </i>extinction (extinction is <i>always</i> permanent) of over 75% of the species on the planet. Climate change scientists predict this will take place in <b>40-90 years</b>, although to-date many effects of climate change have been occurring faster than the most pessimistic predictions <br />
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<b>Fresh-water shortages </b>will be felt more and more. There's already
been conflicts in some parts of the world over water, and water has
caused many previous civilizations to become extinct. The effects of this will simply increase with time. In Canada, we'll feel the effects of this once the US march across the border and take our water from us. I suspect that won't happen for another <b>20+ years</b>.<br />
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Another major source of collapse will be <b>oil shortage</b>. Western society is built on cheap oil. The suburbs exist because of it. Our agri-business-based food production rely on it. Transportation depends on it. Given the ex-President of Shell has predicted the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/27/5-gas-in-2010-ex-shell-pr_n_801739.html">gas will be US$5/gallon by the <b>end of 2012</b></a>, the end of the age of cheap oil could be very close. Once oil is that expensive, a lot of our society will crumble. <a href="http://kunstlercast.com/shows/KunstlerCast_177_Preservationists.html">Mega-cities won't be able to cope</a> with, among other things, the pressures of suburb migration. Plastic will largely stop being produced. Rail- and water-based transit will come back as the main way to travel. We'll need a lot of farmers, <i>quickly</i> - yet farming takes years to learn.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Edit: My math was wrong. $5/gallon is not that bad. I was thinking it was saying $5/litre. $5/litre would have massive society consequences.</span><br />
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However, people have also been predicting the end of cheap oil since the 1970's. We may still have <b>20-30 years</b> left of it. Furthermore, we'll likely subsidize oil before it's $5/litre - i.e. we'll permanently lose societal capital (to the 1%) to pay for it. Many addicts bankrupt themselves to get another hit. This is an example of something the Occupation could stop.<br />
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But one of the other effects of expensive oil is the transfer of capital from the consumers to the drillers. This will exacerbate the <b>economic crisis</b>. The suburbs are so addicted to oil that they will keep paying for it as long as they can - meaning until they lose their homes (foreclosure takes <b>1-2 years</b>), and until they're increasingly struggling to buy food (again, another <b>1-2 harvests</b>). At that point, the Occupation will gain major support from the suburbs. But that will be too late to save many victims.<br />
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However, I have recently been around a lot of people who are expecting imminent collapse and revolution. I know that this biases my view. I also know there are a lot of people out there who are dedicated to keeping the current system going. More than 1%. Maybe as many as 20% of people in Western societies. These are people who own their house, and people who <i>feel</i> they are still increasing their capital (they just need to feel it to support the status quo). And those might be enough to keep the system going for longer. What do you think? How long do you give it? Is the Mayan calendar a correct (if self-fulfilling) prophecy?<br />
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Or am I just hoping for a non-existent apocalypse?<br />
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Please comment on my <a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.com/">blog</a>, not on facebook (though you're welcome to Like it there ;).Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-10192819267505701002010-11-16T16:56:00.004-05:002010-11-16T19:03:39.986-05:00The Age of FantasyAlmost a decade ago when I was attending the extremist Moody Bible Institute, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.moody.edu/edu_FacultyProfile.aspx?id=4566">Tim Sigler</a> mentioned how the Age of Enlightenment would have been better named the Age of Endarkenment. At the time I wondered how he could say such a thing about the rise of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Western_philosophy#Modern_philosophy">systematic empiricism</a> and reason, but now I'm coming to see that his position is increasingly common. Not only are the fundamentalist Christians giving up on reality, it is becoming increasingly obvious that humanity globally is entering the Age of Fantasy.<br /><br />On of the ways humanity is giving up on reality is the increasing abandonment of faith in academia. Even intelligent people looking into subjects outside their speciality are often only able to find a terrain of conflicting 'expert opinions'. This leads people into a chaos of confusion, not knowing who they can trust about some of the most basic facts of life. Very quickly the falsities pile up, leading to frequent arguments based on ignorance (I'm sure you've encountered some). Only the very best of our kind will stop an argument to agree that neither of them know enough, and so return to research more.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/09/21/evolving-madness/">George Monbiot</a> recently posited the question: "Why does a crazy set of beliefs in one field seem to migrate into unrelated subjects?" He concludes his thought with the following:<br /><blockquote>To dismiss an entire canon of science on the basis of either no evidence or evidence that has already been debunked is to evince an astonishing level of self-belief. It suggests that, by instinct or by birth, you know more about this subject (even if you show no sign of ever having studied it) than the thousands of intelligent people who have spent their lives working on it. Once you have have taken that leap of self-belief, once you have arrogated to yourself the authority otherwise vested in science, any faith is then possible. Your own views (and those of the small coterie who share them) become your sole reference points, and are therefore unchallengeable and immutable.<br /></blockquote>Indeed, it is this leap into self-belief that so many have now taken. Adrift in the postmodern Sea of Uncertainty, people increasing settle for escapism and don't even try to find reality. And our world certainly does offer an array of fantastic escape routes - supernatural or virtual, temporary or ongoing. "Anything is possible in Second Life" claims the popular <a href="http://secondlife.com/">online game</a>. Primitivist <a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=Xi-ePQopZAgC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q&f=false">John Zerzan</a> writes, "Immersive and interactive, [virtual reality] provides the space so unlike the reality its customers reject. ... It is 'less lonely and less predictable' than the life we have now. This inversion of reality is the consolation of the supernatural of many religions, and serves a similar substitutive function." As humanity looks to the extremes of religion and technology, the world around us gradually loses its existence.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.johndominiccrossan.com/God%20&%20Empire.htm">John Dominic Crossan</a> claims, "since the Age of Enlightenment has been replaced by the Age of Entertainment, the future clash would not be between science and religion but between both of them and fantasy." He continues, "In 1999 I never imagined, even as prophetic nightmare, the speed with which faith-based thinking would morph into fantasy-based dreaming to infiltrate medicine, education, domestic program, foreign policy, and even news reporting." That was in 2007. The shift to the fantastic has hardly slowed down since.<br /><br />We're in a newly emerging age. This is an Age where fantasy seeps into every area of our lives. This is an Age in which every US <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/14/republican-hopefuls-deny-global-warming">Republican Senator denies human-caused climate change</a>. This is an Age where people prefer to escape reality than face it. This is an Age of increasing confusion, increasing blindness, increasing non-existence. This is the Age of Fantasy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-70027516474394336792010-09-26T10:51:00.003-04:002010-09-26T11:19:50.360-04:00GM Salmon Poisons our FutureUnfortunately the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/26/gm-food-battle-salmon?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments">FDA is considering approving Genetically Modified Salmon</a>. They're almost there, and if they approve it we could see GM salmon on supermarket shelves in 3 years. In many countries of the world (including the US and Canada), GM products are not required to be labelled, so the GM fish will stealth their way onto your table without you knowing. But there are significant dangers associated with GM technologies.<br /><br />For example, the herbicide used on most GM crops (typically rice, soy and corn), <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12504:gm-roundup-readyr-soy-linked-to-birth-defects-and-environmental-damage">RoundUp, causes birth defects</a> if mothers are exposed to it during pregnancy, and the 'safe' levels are often found to be exceeded 10 times over. And that's just one well-documented example. GM life has been linked to cancer and other life-threatening diseases. But that's just the risks to you.<br /><br />GM crops have never significantly improved yield (as promised), have not reduced the use of chemicals (as promised), have enslaved farmers economically and dramatically increased farmer suicide rates, have given rise to superweeds that are immune to common/safe herbicides, and have spread into the wild to pollute and damage natural habitats.<br /><br />GM producers have narrow vision. They have repeatedly proven that profit is their God, and they will stop at nothing (including intimidation and even murder) to make money. They encourage mono-cropping (decreasing biodiversity and increasing habitat fragility) and deforestation, and their 'recommended' farming practices lead to desertification. They are destroying the fertility of the soils, and so are <span style="font-style: italic;">reducing</span> the worlds' potential agricultural yields.<br /><br />GM animals and fish will fall down in all the same areas. They are bad for humanity, bad for the planet, bad for life, bad for everything. Unfortunately<a href="http://www.documentary-log.com/you-are-watching-food-inc/"> the FDA is run/controlled by pro-GM lobbyists</a>. They have no concern for the environment or human health. If GM salmon is allowed, we all get one step sicker.<br /><br />The FDA don't even have a suitable process to determining the GM salmon's safety. They are using the <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12457:fda-releases-incomplete-data-on-gm-salmon">animal drug safety procedure</a> to approve this fish - now doesn't that make you feel safe!<br /><br />One final warning: The approval of GM salmon will open the flood gates for more GM animals. We are witnessing the destruction of agriculture itself, and with it, the possibility of sustainable food production on this planet.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-53363431717600220502010-03-12T12:50:00.003-05:002010-03-12T13:13:18.054-05:00Moderation, not Freedom<blockquote>"Freedom without limit ends up enslaving, because the strong are free to prey on the weak."</blockquote><div><br /></div><div>But surely you can't limit freedom, otherwise the freedom isn't real? Not true. Freedom is not an all-or-nothing, but you can discern levels of freedom spread throughout human experience. And when we cheer for total freedom, we end up moving towards totalitarianism, because the strong will abuse their freedom in order to enslave.</div><div><br /></div><div>The cry of the Left today has to be for moderation, not freedom, because all too easily the cries for Total Freedom can lure us towards dictatorship, giving us a similar fascism to the political and social result of the Right.</div><div><br /></div><div>We do need freedom, and freedom should be encouraged, but it should be encouraged at the communal and (carefully) the individual level. But freedom should be restricted, and at times quite heavily restricted, at the corporate the governmental level. Just as we should not allow our government to fall into fascism, we also must stop abuses of power that the biggest corporations and most influential people now wield. We must stop our enslavement through advertisements and (parts of) the media. We must restrict their freedom, so that we have the freedom to live meaningful, healthy and free lives.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://richmedia.lse.ac.uk/publicLecturesAndEvents/20100128_1830_newEconomics.mp3">This excellent lecture (mp3)</a> by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/andrewsimms">Andrew Simms</a> at <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/publicLecturesAndEvents.htm">LSE</a> details changes we need to make to the global economic system and ways that we could make them. It is well worth the 90min listen (although a little slow to get started, but don't be put off) - highly recommended!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-5932785046635931522010-01-09T08:49:00.007-05:002010-01-09T09:55:59.536-05:00Red Wine Carpet Stains<a href="http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/11/02/death-denial/">George Monbiot</a> recently declared "We're losing." He was talking about those who are concerned for life on planet earth, and we are losing to those who wish to continue with the status-quo, regardless of cost. He also <a href="http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/12/14/this-is-about-us/">recently</a> wrote,<br /><blockquote>Humanity is no longer split between conservatives and liberals, reactionaries and progressives, though both sides are informed by the older politics. <span style="font-style: italic;">Today the battlelines are drawn between expanders and restrainers</span>; those who believe that there should be no impediments, and those who believe that we must live within limits. The vicious battles we have seen so far between greens and climate change deniers, road safety campaigners and speed freaks, real grassroots groups and corporate-sponsored astroturfers are just the beginning. This war will become much uglier as people kick against the limits that decency demands. <span style="font-size:85%;">(my emphasis)</span><br /></blockquote><br />This split, combined with the fact that we're losing, paints a truly daunting picture of the future. It's not that those concerned with life on earth will eventually win, and that we're just getting there slowly; it's that our arguments and policy proposals are failing, pollution is opened up more than it is being restricted, countries (even formerly nice countries like <a href="http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/12/01/the-urgent-threat-to-world-peace-is-%E2%80%A6-canada/">Canada</a>) are breaking rules without feeling any consequences, bad infrastructure is increasingly built (like coal-fired power station), and wherever you look, <span style="font-style: italic;">we are losing ground</span>.<br /><br />Not only that, but we're losing time too - climate change is only going to speed up as Greenland's trapped carbon is released, along with other 'tippers' around the globe. We're not going to avoid a 2C rise. I doubt we'll avoid a 4C rise. There's too much power held by the expanders, too much momentum in their favour, too many ways to make profit from climate change.<br /><br />For our future is one of violence and death. As fertile land turns to desert, whether through drought, vast temperature increases, GM crops or lack of healthy agriculture (e.g. soil being killed by reliance on petro-chemical fertilisers), the healthy land will increasingly struggle to support the (still) increasing human population. And starvation will ensue. But not only starvation. With starvation comes desperation. And desperation in a world with industrial military power (where there's lots of profit to be made) leads to war.<br /><br />Of course, war will also come because the expanders want to gain increasing control over dwindling world resources - capital that can be mined and used once, and is then gone forever. But the expanders don't care - as long as they profit.<br /><br />The human population is climbing close to 7 billion people. It is predicted to increase to 9bn. But the world cannot sustain us - it can't even <span style="font-style: italic;">sustain</span> the current 7bn for long, and the rate at which we are expending and destroying global environmental capital (non-renewable resource use, soil-health decrease, fresh-water supply depletion, etc.) means that in the future we will be able to support even less. And by the future, we're talking the next 50 years.<br /><br />My prediction, based upon all the evidence (from climate scientists, sociologists, global politics, even from seeing the (increasing) power of the climate sceptics), is that 7 billion humans will die by 2060. That could well be within my lifetime, and quite possibly be within yours. Of course, we may be some of the 7bn that die, and so never see it all, but that won't stop so many from dying.<br /><br />The horror of our future is only starting to be realised, but horror it truly is. Now is the time to lay to rest your belief in an always-improving society, to challenge people's belief in the 'stability' of status-quo, and to start preparing for the worst of it. Now is the time to realise that red stains in the carpet are really not that important, and that although the future may contain wine (for there's always money to be made from alcohol/ism), carpets will become rare and expensive - a valued resource that you can't afford to replace. And so you will need to know that removing red wine from a carpet is really quite easy: dampen the carpet with a wet cloth, pour salt onto it, leave for a few minutes, rinse and repeat.<br /><br />If you survive the future you won't be able to afford replacements. Reduce, Re-use, Repair, Recycle, <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">Replace</span> Make do!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-78899898364863336902009-09-20T14:50:00.002-04:002009-09-20T14:53:15.702-04:00Genetic engineering: The world's greatest scam?Get informed!<br /><br /><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1H9WZGKQeYg&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1H9WZGKQeYg&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-656553169253250242009-09-02T16:24:00.004-04:002009-09-02T17:06:24.241-04:00World GovernmentChances are, you oppose world government. After all, world government would provide a centralized structure that would allow those who would abuse such power to focus their attack in one location. Indeed, centralizing power in a world government could produce truly horrendous results when that power is abused. And history has certainly taught us that power will be abused, and that concentrating power only allows for greater abuse and more tragic results.<br /><br />And so you sit content, knowing that there is no world government (yet) and although people have talked about it here and there, it most definitely seems a long way off - something to worry about a few decades from now, or even further in the future.<br /><br />However, I propose that a world government is already in place. This is not a democracy, a republic, a monarchy, reptilian overlords, or even a plutocracy. The world government that is currently in place is best described as a corporatocracy (or corpocracy). And this is not a conspiracy theory. It is well documented by one of their own, John Perkins, in his book <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nJFFrLX-924C&q=corporatocracy#v=snippet&q=corporatocracy&f=false">Confessions of an Economic Hitman</a>.<br /><br />Multinational corporations and banks have far more power today than governments (indeed, they control some of them). Governments have lost control of their reigns, and the corporations are running free. Their lobbyists exert more influence over the politicians than do the voters, so even democracy is trumped. And when there is danger that some of the largest of these will fail, governments scramble to globally hand over £trillions to stop their demise. They have worked for decades to put themselves in positions of power so that governments depend on them, meaning they can stop government imposed restrictions they dislike, and pressure governments into passing laws that benefit them.<br /><br />Have you noticed that as people in the world generally seem to want to go to the left politically, much of the world is being steered to the right. Even left-wing politicians are abandoning their positions and becoming right-wing. So who is steering the world this way? Certainly not the voters. What other answer can we give than those who have most to gain from it: the multinational corporations and banks!<br /><br />Just to spell it out: <span style="font-style: italic;">This is a bad thing</span>. The <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/who-really-rules-our-planet">Corporatocracy</a> has repeatedly demonstrated that it is <span style="font-style: italic;">predatory </span>in nature, and will prey on the poor, the helpless, and the uneducated. And when it comes to their methods, we're all uneducated (or probably innocent). They <a href="http://defendingwaterinmaine.org/media/?p=109">murder</a> <a href="http://apf.org.za/spip.php?breve12">activists</a>, they <a href="http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=0407">starve populations</a>, they <a href="http://www.greenleft.org.au/2005/640/33907">ferment wars</a>, they <a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Let+them+drink+Coke%21+Fizzy+drinks+company+drains+wells+in+South...-a0100462803">steal water</a>, they <a href="http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/palm-oil-destroy-rainforest.html">destroy the planet</a>. <span style="font-style: italic;">They must be stopped!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-1149216116809716242009-08-20T12:16:00.010-04:002009-08-20T13:06:13.372-04:00Worst Events Travelling in Europe Last Winter<div>The pictures can be better viewed <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/thugsb/EuropeWorstEvents#">here</a>.</div><br /><ol><li>Staying in the yurt in Wales. It rained every day, and the yurt leaked. Everywhere. Including on us as we slept. Oh, and there were plenty of big slugs – we lined the inside of the yurt with salt to avoid them crawling on us in our sleep. It looked like a weird, demonic summoning circle.</li><br /><li>Breakfast in Newport, UK. Greasey, tasteless, crap food, and expensive for what we got. Ick!</li><br /><li>Our day trip from Edinburgh to Innerleithen. We paid over £20 for the bus, and then realised we’d been sold the wrong ticket, meaning we couldn’t get on and off the bus as we wanted to, even though the correct ticket would have only costs us £0.42 more. There was an icy wind that day, and the temperature was around -15C. We bought an ice-cream anyway (Innerleithen ice-cream is famous), walked a little, froze, and miserably returned home. And the bus conductors weren’t at all helpful or nice. We really ended up paying £30 for ice-creams and a miserable bus ride. Oh, and we’d been saving up our money for the trip out that day, hoping for a nice day out. Oh well.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4k0bzj5juiTuxzEodHmXeztoYP6eNKlm-vlaxBNYfT5QaqSLtVlVy1VhCVdG_zDLia4NkzFug7_hE93GYRNIcnH7rVo8PoW7_UXZAd9QZyyrA1uHYx-jYHdNOmx-Es6hTO1hKzLddvY/s1600-h/travelling+100.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4k0bzj5juiTuxzEodHmXeztoYP6eNKlm-vlaxBNYfT5QaqSLtVlVy1VhCVdG_zDLia4NkzFug7_hE93GYRNIcnH7rVo8PoW7_UXZAd9QZyyrA1uHYx-jYHdNOmx-Es6hTO1hKzLddvY/s200/travelling+100.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082433485592098" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYDmfTL0sJ5H8PPOUU5XHN71I_jN9DKizW-VJU3yeXsktiPn_fe41UXvI5O0hm3_PDGwXCEsPtxCraqUo6VFtDGwcTxtsMrumdGJmBY4-ehSiqHdL5uWsOZwMhrZYzrBJwibvLi-_BW9Q/s1600-h/travelling+098.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYDmfTL0sJ5H8PPOUU5XHN71I_jN9DKizW-VJU3yeXsktiPn_fe41UXvI5O0hm3_PDGwXCEsPtxCraqUo6VFtDGwcTxtsMrumdGJmBY4-ehSiqHdL5uWsOZwMhrZYzrBJwibvLi-_BW9Q/s200/travelling+098.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082423680370962" /></a>Hitching from Toulouse to Tabby’s. And hitting our all-time-low: going McDick’s out of desperation. See the “<a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.com/2009/05/our-series-of-unfortunate-events.html">Unfortunate Events</a>” post.</li><br /><li><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGLhfjjRUuLZAL46PALpCcpBCGMNVFRzbi6FYFpC0RduavWx7pSazICtnJTMkcysIuYlaqh8CSCAhHsj7LQBsyWLFlMlfh2Bd_xGTjJ9YPkE8PIGIMu-4uhyphenhypheneSxpwW79Qlt5wiBug_PQ/s1600-h/travelling+163.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGLhfjjRUuLZAL46PALpCcpBCGMNVFRzbi6FYFpC0RduavWx7pSazICtnJTMkcysIuYlaqh8CSCAhHsj7LQBsyWLFlMlfh2Bd_xGTjJ9YPkE8PIGIMu-4uhyphenhypheneSxpwW79Qlt5wiBug_PQ/s200/travelling+163.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082453494276018" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZEQ57MLzOlRoZiHsZTQ1dp9SQpj8H8G-Jm3eMPtEisCi2N3WYjKfkTeKrn9dkjrSu_eR3z7vtEmHwPMMS5IlaHbNCqNtZkTCDnIEpIlwTaPT8JKfoA-Fl90kd8ZE-0mzDX8xwcU09e2g/s1600-h/travelling+158.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZEQ57MLzOlRoZiHsZTQ1dp9SQpj8H8G-Jm3eMPtEisCi2N3WYjKfkTeKrn9dkjrSu_eR3z7vtEmHwPMMS5IlaHbNCqNtZkTCDnIEpIlwTaPT8JKfoA-Fl90kd8ZE-0mzDX8xwcU09e2g/s200/travelling+158.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082449095384914" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmr7XzxZ876IS2X_tO3znZPb5I2O9zsKDgpmB8QSmvsf4Xc3FM_SzMYRNto4eh7udRaXQJnzm0fqZgNgL4C0elVzeFJQ7CVe1juRmdvMzoA_kkIUXU2qa8wm03fnOJ5JrRxHUhNy27Hxo/s1600-h/travelling+120.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmr7XzxZ876IS2X_tO3znZPb5I2O9zsKDgpmB8QSmvsf4Xc3FM_SzMYRNto4eh7udRaXQJnzm0fqZgNgL4C0elVzeFJQ7CVe1juRmdvMzoA_kkIUXU2qa8wm03fnOJ5JrRxHUhNy27Hxo/s200/travelling+120.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082443126748738" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsmNbMp8MYRzu3Yw8VPZroW_0dYYmSXDbz3_db3x59izgzocxWqGXd_YxrhiLRRLnN0Iz5zOcbxBxp77ceA7dWuYeE_re8XRElwHBfudaDKzbBUFryxAxDywkAZSrQOn9IJfiWlOpU_E/s1600-h/travelling+404.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsmNbMp8MYRzu3Yw8VPZroW_0dYYmSXDbz3_db3x59izgzocxWqGXd_YxrhiLRRLnN0Iz5zOcbxBxp77ceA7dWuYeE_re8XRElwHBfudaDKzbBUFryxAxDywkAZSrQOn9IJfiWlOpU_E/s200/travelling+404.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082775627928530" /></a><br />Laura’s allergic reaction. See the “<a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.com/2009/05/our-series-of-unfortunate-events.html">Unfortunate Events</a>” post.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBTjU7KMpH65cZZICHI4GH7JA5CCG5QXNvV3wRBSYMj6AVTId2MV-yQnJezStY4kVcSRtnoi4L8HQEK9TjuZSb0zoMZO5RD9X1ny2xoofK3IJ77lfhFRdaJINzq_Gvwb9Yi0qk6aWATQ/s1600-h/travelling+289.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBTjU7KMpH65cZZICHI4GH7JA5CCG5QXNvV3wRBSYMj6AVTId2MV-yQnJezStY4kVcSRtnoi4L8HQEK9TjuZSb0zoMZO5RD9X1ny2xoofK3IJ77lfhFRdaJINzq_Gvwb9Yi0qk6aWATQ/s200/travelling+289.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082771770629218" /></a>Laura’s root canal surgery and general dental problems (we went the dentist 5 times in 3 months for the same tooth). It sucked. And it’s still hurting. (The pictures is of the snow we had to dig our way out of in order to get to the dentists, up a steep icy slope!)</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi2M1VZr2gOuQtErY5wBUzFkPlgr9Zg-MUwj_fUXgPrEo_fP2PRNzB2JRV0YmOEkqmQjHJOmH0gs7z96FTAEAspuBDo5g2fjDd4g_mL4hYquXzB2a5WT47SeosQa3AOz_cAXFoWW8bX8Q/s1600-h/travelling+426.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi2M1VZr2gOuQtErY5wBUzFkPlgr9Zg-MUwj_fUXgPrEo_fP2PRNzB2JRV0YmOEkqmQjHJOmH0gs7z96FTAEAspuBDo5g2fjDd4g_mL4hYquXzB2a5WT47SeosQa3AOz_cAXFoWW8bX8Q/s200/travelling+426.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083047770530978" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Fy88oWRmtydWQ_9b0B7L0h-usD20IdRHeKupKGh0aV9Wq5wKD-8CZ05C3_OdbwSRJyNZ1e8xOPi9lzviN-2jUyymHAGS3uk3aJ2g7eF8976sAbTVDZNQBDz00UUaw1PcB908Hm9EvFY/s1600-h/travelling+418.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Fy88oWRmtydWQ_9b0B7L0h-usD20IdRHeKupKGh0aV9Wq5wKD-8CZ05C3_OdbwSRJyNZ1e8xOPi9lzviN-2jUyymHAGS3uk3aJ2g7eF8976sAbTVDZNQBDz00UUaw1PcB908Hm9EvFY/s200/travelling+418.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082795530852594" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNEHITDnzKuC4WtS_dsIXiIbGNYmC7IOyQjdx5nqLgj9maZ4W_xyHAUaMwWokRRrilILPt__PkN8EjmtNxtod0ExJT3ygL35c9gnB5J4WRSR-aDT6OpKK-bZHkNYkhN81CWtnvrEGsNE4/s1600-h/travelling+415.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNEHITDnzKuC4WtS_dsIXiIbGNYmC7IOyQjdx5nqLgj9maZ4W_xyHAUaMwWokRRrilILPt__PkN8EjmtNxtod0ExJT3ygL35c9gnB5J4WRSR-aDT6OpKK-bZHkNYkhN81CWtnvrEGsNE4/s200/travelling+415.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082787444910610" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyPEJnezRzZVDSMHzLtWYuvIb-ASBA-pTYf0RwkOu8N7KG9NboikBTU5V2UHD26rUtxHj1hmJbR3425DLbiVToSmoB_7SMirUK86VNBZw1lZC9Ql4fEISORDSNit3zHj2CzlDGuOY9m8/s1600-h/travelling+412.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyPEJnezRzZVDSMHzLtWYuvIb-ASBA-pTYf0RwkOu8N7KG9NboikBTU5V2UHD26rUtxHj1hmJbR3425DLbiVToSmoB_7SMirUK86VNBZw1lZC9Ql4fEISORDSNit3zHj2CzlDGuOY9m8/s200/travelling+412.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082785543216338" /></a>Zamora. Getting dropped off at 3am, finding a crappy and not-so-cheap hostel, walking for miles the next morning, only to find a bad hitching point and waiting ages. And finally giving up and taking a bus. Hitching in W Spain sucks.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPSa809X75y37voUH7zatmzdVr9xamhPzywklkHU-APKm0a3M3rRu3xD4KV1j4u-WDuThZpVDnr2A6r_6yVin5yrh_xomg0JDzb26hadHzchQQssiPsrUQiImSEpndvGla2PEePN05wbk/s1600-h/travelling+547.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPSa809X75y37voUH7zatmzdVr9xamhPzywklkHU-APKm0a3M3rRu3xD4KV1j4u-WDuThZpVDnr2A6r_6yVin5yrh_xomg0JDzb26hadHzchQQssiPsrUQiImSEpndvGla2PEePN05wbk/s200/travelling+547.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083420732026274" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKkY6dx1HzrQx-L6dcMPBTDqK7g5Lf_Puor6mp_p0nz5rc_QQfvegWnaJEm2bTvCT-NjU3ErvNQABTWt_YEjBFJtGQotWapE_bO20b1zfOJ3APyP9EmqrGGXVHVTFoUsXYW9PfV2C5vXk/s1600-h/travelling+538.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKkY6dx1HzrQx-L6dcMPBTDqK7g5Lf_Puor6mp_p0nz5rc_QQfvegWnaJEm2bTvCT-NjU3ErvNQABTWt_YEjBFJtGQotWapE_bO20b1zfOJ3APyP9EmqrGGXVHVTFoUsXYW9PfV2C5vXk/s200/travelling+538.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083068671726562" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk2Z_msvJpFr7DAuJVzJlDTqfVHNUri2dz1dQQmiRH61CIH0ips1FicD_C3xrSW13g2YCgbxZGcuF2ie14A6ssSZQldx6FVR37g_hYAkhUqAseXOA3BsbeIqbphcAuycq6FiKLWZchMMM/s1600-h/travelling+471.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk2Z_msvJpFr7DAuJVzJlDTqfVHNUri2dz1dQQmiRH61CIH0ips1FicD_C3xrSW13g2YCgbxZGcuF2ie14A6ssSZQldx6FVR37g_hYAkhUqAseXOA3BsbeIqbphcAuycq6FiKLWZchMMM/s200/travelling+471.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083062292732322" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVeLZUlFPu0fJHWj_ffoOJzplL6izlb6AvTVisx_3h5dFpRYkX3d14gje1qKVgqafbnVGqXHgfhjhL6PxqrEoxy8OMhpwliJ4jjZGO5OgR4YJOs8GXAuzFbKNue3sw4qxwj2KM7bX3Ik8/s1600-h/travelling+458.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVeLZUlFPu0fJHWj_ffoOJzplL6izlb6AvTVisx_3h5dFpRYkX3d14gje1qKVgqafbnVGqXHgfhjhL6PxqrEoxy8OMhpwliJ4jjZGO5OgR4YJOs8GXAuzFbKNue3sw4qxwj2KM7bX3Ik8/s200/travelling+458.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083055508929906" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGsnzULLV7nVTo2jzifkQfT-Cva9f-H2rHt7lMAfW5J-VCp7V_SpHG7QvjjPK4j_9gZA9FnaacUlt53gtSqeqEhcFM9dae3y5STXShUW1EsBEivP0rAySTC_v0X3SVEVWc_pMgUOErgQ/s1600-h/travelling+456.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGsnzULLV7nVTo2jzifkQfT-Cva9f-H2rHt7lMAfW5J-VCp7V_SpHG7QvjjPK4j_9gZA9FnaacUlt53gtSqeqEhcFM9dae3y5STXShUW1EsBEivP0rAySTC_v0X3SVEVWc_pMgUOErgQ/s200/travelling+456.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083052428254738" /></a>Andy, our English host in Santa Ana La Real, Spain. He was a complete dick. We worked 7hrs/day for two weeks and only got 1 day off. And he still complained that we weren’t working hard enough, even though we consistently did extra work.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnVvqqlOuzAuNdoQUHRRPYZU-pc2y2khQgCMma3fHj6JPG-hqg-3TU48Yul-yMgL8cSYL1QulaNkIvW3UUrZxu_IcQC074NOGbRY6dKucSbzqF4z0YngccOVgpUiuUlErf_EjMdfvN8c/s1600-h/travelling+772.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnVvqqlOuzAuNdoQUHRRPYZU-pc2y2khQgCMma3fHj6JPG-hqg-3TU48Yul-yMgL8cSYL1QulaNkIvW3UUrZxu_IcQC074NOGbRY6dKucSbzqF4z0YngccOVgpUiuUlErf_EjMdfvN8c/s200/travelling+772.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083810380648850" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBixpeK0y18Iw0WLtgqaTJMO-PYRyCEfscTkZolzTmdDCnm_C9czULnxCJIihhPa1Sm9xHFvnJJiU8F0sb_i8P3oe_f-ReWSX4UXAenSjCm-imGO0V9PXjtAlexehnBNiq953dzhXNWs/s1600-h/travelling+718.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBixpeK0y18Iw0WLtgqaTJMO-PYRyCEfscTkZolzTmdDCnm_C9czULnxCJIihhPa1Sm9xHFvnJJiU8F0sb_i8P3oe_f-ReWSX4UXAenSjCm-imGO0V9PXjtAlexehnBNiq953dzhXNWs/s200/travelling+718.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083807109830658" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgucsFTsTP04x0deJd7iNkTeL9cK00DODV85SrLVCv3AbsB9MPu0II1MjrPXYBXuqjGZl5qPJW6Bb_I4qWjTRFA7hGGvHjXjphLDlK8MJ1M4DgIYjvv6GjjzWR_1s1u6bDbw5bg5juDqNY/s1600-h/travelling+717.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgucsFTsTP04x0deJd7iNkTeL9cK00DODV85SrLVCv3AbsB9MPu0II1MjrPXYBXuqjGZl5qPJW6Bb_I4qWjTRFA7hGGvHjXjphLDlK8MJ1M4DgIYjvv6GjjzWR_1s1u6bDbw5bg5juDqNY/s200/travelling+717.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083706124564562" /></a>The caravan at Carrapateira – cramped, dirty, there was a broken window so it was cold, and we had to sleep separately. Also, the caravan in Santa Ana La Real wasn’t much better.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSpPCuu_XbscE1jPZ4US_PiYwACCKbv-VW8iKPvBG1LSxx7ps2kHH0ISc20-mb2C-5kzp9nG1hsqP8CRkhf6DCcJ3-Kntl4-0lxbQ0y2cRLdQaQPDhEHHRcJHyB3BLkNy0zJccPS__7E/s1600-h/travelling+612.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSpPCuu_XbscE1jPZ4US_PiYwACCKbv-VW8iKPvBG1LSxx7ps2kHH0ISc20-mb2C-5kzp9nG1hsqP8CRkhf6DCcJ3-Kntl4-0lxbQ0y2cRLdQaQPDhEHHRcJHyB3BLkNy0zJccPS__7E/s200/travelling+612.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083689787836290" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC2MohkExmGZHOwfkpi3DRWm5VwakX72dkZ3GvPsdM0fKZhYNiA8Nr2DzyindARjvRTMVYPPZi_uOc0GgeIDYpoT3ZSET2dLNScS33fQbGFKMsRCW0Ism9Y7T2BgdzfNY_dwmLjkbPUys/s1600-h/travelling+598.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC2MohkExmGZHOwfkpi3DRWm5VwakX72dkZ3GvPsdM0fKZhYNiA8Nr2DzyindARjvRTMVYPPZi_uOc0GgeIDYpoT3ZSET2dLNScS33fQbGFKMsRCW0Ism9Y7T2BgdzfNY_dwmLjkbPUys/s200/travelling+598.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083687526766594" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio2eK4aQl2xQOTO7o8b-YwR7-PefU3LQ70C_8AbXXvB-GcMnm_-q-eyFu-mSqjZuOP1NeIaCzOTunrWPA49bdrVWbnjZt2_HB3onSOG79iYrPAoiW6d0erc41bQzUowF9RKtagdXdbH3s/s1600-h/travelling+588.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio2eK4aQl2xQOTO7o8b-YwR7-PefU3LQ70C_8AbXXvB-GcMnm_-q-eyFu-mSqjZuOP1NeIaCzOTunrWPA49bdrVWbnjZt2_HB3onSOG79iYrPAoiW6d0erc41bQzUowF9RKtagdXdbH3s/s200/travelling+588.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083676501127698" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhiSrNC8v8YWOBYOPYsIhyphenhyphenKawuvy-bnud1sEZlVNihz0McI-ziIr7Y_A59Xsi4QjrwGNDKn-JSGitERLyfP1jDTfCjbF6b_L1Uy_5P0yNrTI8Y_-sKGEbquxfyqDruvckeHxxPhTObsJw/s1600-h/travelling+586.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhiSrNC8v8YWOBYOPYsIhyphenhyphenKawuvy-bnud1sEZlVNihz0McI-ziIr7Y_A59Xsi4QjrwGNDKn-JSGitERLyfP1jDTfCjbF6b_L1Uy_5P0yNrTI8Y_-sKGEbquxfyqDruvckeHxxPhTObsJw/s200/travelling+586.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083448003074450" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJL5BYI0mKfQ-9x0hfHa2tBInlZ9mbcb5J7pAP2u9Mn6h-YG4jsXI1WuwGO6112RBXQh78cHXYdTE7qvV4LiL7UqDZ9U5jB-Kt2c7jeWCsxkxSdeQGirEf1sIgTfB7H4Iv-l46gMPT6lk/s1600-h/travelling+584.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJL5BYI0mKfQ-9x0hfHa2tBInlZ9mbcb5J7pAP2u9Mn6h-YG4jsXI1WuwGO6112RBXQh78cHXYdTE7qvV4LiL7UqDZ9U5jB-Kt2c7jeWCsxkxSdeQGirEf1sIgTfB7H4Iv-l46gMPT6lk/s200/travelling+584.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083435477478178" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTT9ifypLAze69reUAhGp12Fzi_lpIIbnI6VG7t1_SzZ1RNYtM6z-7oB_TOIBwPWP8voi2vrqGqZ1kOSSTx4cxLzBRsmIJfTWHZsIRwqyUwcHnSjr2CAxWRkfVpekdQtNcW65EAmjw6-c/s1600-h/travelling+574.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTT9ifypLAze69reUAhGp12Fzi_lpIIbnI6VG7t1_SzZ1RNYtM6z-7oB_TOIBwPWP8voi2vrqGqZ1kOSSTx4cxLzBRsmIJfTWHZsIRwqyUwcHnSjr2CAxWRkfVpekdQtNcW65EAmjw6-c/s200/travelling+574.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083434687303346" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1WyHNx3HXCy1A4TjMB0C7u2TIzdGLYXzekmGrmz3Ndo2lFQUiY9s326JCPPe3fKs7gtAiGwavHgm-LqKxXsmarnz5wgg549LlZvj9ne6Z9FkdgvJEWyU_vkJt8-hoa7y6skOEKGseJI4/s1600-h/travelling+573.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1WyHNx3HXCy1A4TjMB0C7u2TIzdGLYXzekmGrmz3Ndo2lFQUiY9s326JCPPe3fKs7gtAiGwavHgm-LqKxXsmarnz5wgg549LlZvj9ne6Z9FkdgvJEWyU_vkJt8-hoa7y6skOEKGseJI4/s200/travelling+573.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083429957216898" /></a>The tasteless soup at Carrapateira that was recooked and served for 5 consecutive meals (the pics are of the time I 'fell' into the river, and the huge waves by the local cliffs. Nothing to do with soup really, but good pics!).</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMZ33aUcILGW1rMt45k86a5Lv8DtIel3uD2mSW1Dv8ZKcZmi9RsbkATa6awTDR91cxdQ11cR21Euog4T2QMnbjALpWCC9Wl4oLbetAqKLM56xCsnrBI4NRoY8qUtBllxKk5V2NGAevx0/s1600-h/travelling+681.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMZ33aUcILGW1rMt45k86a5Lv8DtIel3uD2mSW1Dv8ZKcZmi9RsbkATa6awTDR91cxdQ11cR21Euog4T2QMnbjALpWCC9Wl4oLbetAqKLM56xCsnrBI4NRoY8qUtBllxKk5V2NGAevx0/s200/travelling+681.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372083697632862882" /></a>Laura also managed to eat a slug that was in the salad at Carrapateira (the picture is of another bug there, not the slug).</li><br /><li>Hitching in the Barcelona suburbs on my way home to Britain (alone). It was at a motorway-motorway junction, cars were fast, people were snobby, and there was nowhere else to go. It was hot, and I was low on water. I eventually made a sign that said “Socorro”, apparently Spanish for “Help.”</li></ol>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-84828026669761963482009-08-01T10:19:00.003-04:002009-08-01T10:32:53.246-04:00Random Fun PoetryI was randomly invited into a creative writing group in Manchester a few days ago. We did a few words games, were introduced to Ranga, and several of us wrote poems. Here's the poem I wrote (for which I was given the first two words of each line as a framework), along with a few interesting Q&A from the 'icebreaker':<br /><blockquote>The earth is our only home,<br />The earth is atomically fractalic.<br />The sea brings life and death,<br />The sea - relentless chaos.<br />The air flutters around us, yet<br />The air, our air, is polluted by <span style="font-style: italic;">them</span>.<br />The stars are hidden from cities, so<br />The stars withdraw into nostalgic mystery.<br />The sun, in response, grows hotter year by year.<br />The sun - symbol of patriarchy, symbol of death.<br /><br />The dreams, they die a scorched death,<br />The dreams, our dreams, are even now alive.<br />Wake up, sense this planet is your home.<br />Step up, step up, make your dreams live.</blockquote>The following questions and answers were written separately as lists of each (some true, some untrue). They were then put together randomly, giving some rather interesting results. Some may require a little thought:<br /><blockquote>What is the experience of a cat?<br />Truth is a process within linguistic subjectivity.<br /><br />Why does the universe favour the creation of diversity?<br />There is a colourful bus outside.<br /><br />What doesn't ever evolve?<br />There are absolute truths that are relevant.<br /><br />Will you leave the room please?<br />Theology is a process that must continue.<br /><br />Furthermore, is there truth at all?<br />I breathe a lot more each day than a rock does.</blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-8698009306794308802009-07-29T13:22:00.003-04:002009-07-29T15:32:18.229-04:00We're Just Animals<span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 30px;font-size:78%;" >We’re just animals like all the others;</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 150px;font-size:78%;" >diverse, yes,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 60px;font-size:78%;" >and different from them, but still, one of them,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 90px;font-size:78%;" >one of them bound to this planet, this earth, this soil and rock and</span><br /><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0px;font-size:78%;" >growing plants,</span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 120px;font-size:78%;" >and so tied to its fate, to the pollution we</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 240px;font-size:78%;" >make, to the way it changes.</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 30px;font-size:78%;" >Changes in a way that will probably kill us, and we’ll see it in our lifetimes,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 60px;font-size:78%;" >our children dying around us in a starving and dying world.</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0px;font-size:78%;" >And so much will go, even if we entertain the idea that humans will survive these climate changes,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 60px;font-size:78%;" >so much will be lost,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 90px;font-size:78%;" >so many species will become extinct,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 120px;font-size:78%;" >so much diversity will die,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 150px;font-size:78%;" >so many things that will cease to be</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 240px;font-size:78%;" >in a will-never-happen-again way</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 180px;font-size:78%;" >in an always-impoverished way.</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 30px;font-size:78%;" >And the rich won’t escape,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 60px;font-size:78%;" >because they still need people and power to move all these people around</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 180px;font-size:78%;" >and all these goods around</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 330px;font-size:78%;" >for them.</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 60px;font-size:78%;" >They may prolong their life,</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 90px;font-size:78%;" >but that will just mean they see more death around them</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 150px;font-size:78%;" >and so have an impoverished life</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 270px;font-size:78%;" >full of death!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-83490279279452633322009-07-08T10:37:00.013-04:002009-07-08T11:24:25.779-04:00Weirdest 12 Events in Europe This Winter<ol><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcnhJHelsGyWF1OW-oczfTjQGuW52iN-CToLiwuV1xZqZ44yZ9DY9xIUE4NGzJRp8em-p85rBzXSRmIm_HyQ7sPz8u3hxBSWAfx2xZGzSjlKQjyGZ3gQbyu9ffFMp1lZhuf9KTNiD8HRw/s1600-h/P1010062.JPG"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcnhJHelsGyWF1OW-oczfTjQGuW52iN-CToLiwuV1xZqZ44yZ9DY9xIUE4NGzJRp8em-p85rBzXSRmIm_HyQ7sPz8u3hxBSWAfx2xZGzSjlKQjyGZ3gQbyu9ffFMp1lZhuf9KTNiD8HRw/s200/P1010062.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356110409294761426" border="0" /></a>Going “Fairy Dancing” in Pembrokshire, Wales. That involved doing strange circle dances on the side of a wet hill, with bare feet, treading in sheep shit, to the music of the harp, accordion, flute, and sheep horn.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhUWSj5Xn2gjG9pl2RyO3BWBkXVkS5ZzuUqyLt9ami5EnyeaDvTvx1qvgTJCdbXu4x7ne4otAdXXetVg4Hsf7TZKPL4_OWX9S2ISLdmzWevhMXCLrW109rsAO5wOAikHF3lcIJjOgpujg/s1600-h/travelling+018.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhUWSj5Xn2gjG9pl2RyO3BWBkXVkS5ZzuUqyLt9ami5EnyeaDvTvx1qvgTJCdbXu4x7ne4otAdXXetVg4Hsf7TZKPL4_OWX9S2ISLdmzWevhMXCLrW109rsAO5wOAikHF3lcIJjOgpujg/s200/travelling+018.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356100520421560802" border="0" /></a>The drunk trucker who picked us up E of Paris. Drunk, and still drinking. And coming down off cocaine. And high. And convinced that he could drive at the same time as looking at a map and explaining where he would drop us off. And swerving wildly. I guess it was more scary than weird.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIHiE_8PCPWt8-o8R-Kd1tTv3GZMArfBV_yOOk7BpOVd4CqA1Bs9TvnyhyJsglmKMW0MhhC80pE7Whhc8TDO1-5tep53SgQHfgVGkwcZsKWn3HUJu-GOPd1cVqvHpvYtU8iX1IgBlAYtc/s1600-h/travelling+021.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIHiE_8PCPWt8-o8R-Kd1tTv3GZMArfBV_yOOk7BpOVd4CqA1Bs9TvnyhyJsglmKMW0MhhC80pE7Whhc8TDO1-5tep53SgQHfgVGkwcZsKWn3HUJu-GOPd1cVqvHpvYtU8iX1IgBlAYtc/s200/travelling+021.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356101302143930946" border="0" /></a>Laura spent her time at Isidore’s farm massaging the arses of cows. OK, it was really their backs, just above their arses. But she had to stand behind them in wellies, hardly able to walk because of the shit on the floor and rub them, “so they would get used to humans touching them.”</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUW5i-UR_f6arrEq29coPBCSUmPMW2G7H7pNN6oGQaCMpIg_fPKr-q0hkpqGvTnrbPSzprgL1JE-HSyQccJu-A2irIUZ9d6uKvod7xqdBaysQFyAZyNppVq3UZvTu_6NcArDcmP6f7L8w/s1600-h/travelling+033.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUW5i-UR_f6arrEq29coPBCSUmPMW2G7H7pNN6oGQaCMpIg_fPKr-q0hkpqGvTnrbPSzprgL1JE-HSyQccJu-A2irIUZ9d6uKvod7xqdBaysQFyAZyNppVq3UZvTu_6NcArDcmP6f7L8w/s200/travelling+033.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356102028624270050" border="0" /></a>Playing “Sport” with Isidore’s daughter in Rupt Devant St. Mihiel. This involved jumping over an elastic cord, and then hooking the cord around your nose, stretching it, and jumping free from it. Truly weird. Sadly Isidore himself died in an accident after we left. RIP, you were a great man.</li><br /><li>Travelling to and arriving at Tabby’s. See the “<a href="http://plaosmos.blogspot.com/2009/05/our-series-of-unfortunate-events.html">Unfortunate Events</a>” post.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhYE1qGYh65Lw2RcaSw2mkyVgFpxVWdeHK9w3hiuehMCgCtVT4lOsb_U2f-fB8IQOgoT-EBWeqqWPLJS4224ycEWqebpG88EexyAlNbf_-P8K455IykZzN_Csz3fh8IX51QWLXJ7f2GBE/s1600-h/travelling+178.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhYE1qGYh65Lw2RcaSw2mkyVgFpxVWdeHK9w3hiuehMCgCtVT4lOsb_U2f-fB8IQOgoT-EBWeqqWPLJS4224ycEWqebpG88EexyAlNbf_-P8K455IykZzN_Csz3fh8IX51QWLXJ7f2GBE/s200/travelling+178.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356103178784040146" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGQwqQTgspGzgEVcLcDCHRg4kv4CZf2Mt9xjHvU0cSOrsg0mCkJYsaPetGRyTw_bqKWkUS1xeuLPWYl1dgRiGX38Ejw_IIMiIZEYMmV9BMP6B0o5aru4cVBKtxQde-rjLo0r5ikEZyS8/s1600-h/travelling+172.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGQwqQTgspGzgEVcLcDCHRg4kv4CZf2Mt9xjHvU0cSOrsg0mCkJYsaPetGRyTw_bqKWkUS1xeuLPWYl1dgRiGX38Ejw_IIMiIZEYMmV9BMP6B0o5aru4cVBKtxQde-rjLo0r5ikEZyS8/s200/travelling+172.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356102798665848098" border="0" /></a>The New Years Eve party in France – getting lost on the way (while other people who were lost were following us!), the weird rave tent (with children running between everyone’s legs), the old man who tried to kiss and molest the girls, and the pyro/firework dancer.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7CQSk6JhT0DgBWoJ3eJjLVFD0V9vy7TcWtXYVq4dEyfFfudb7UpvE3S8Y9ZYq9NRZt07asmU1mDQzflDcIbsTUoHmxHotY2C8HRFn6pSxNz8lX7xG9y35Kb7DLGhqZK3y3Q74zkqQEnk/s1600-h/travelling+204.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7CQSk6JhT0DgBWoJ3eJjLVFD0V9vy7TcWtXYVq4dEyfFfudb7UpvE3S8Y9ZYq9NRZt07asmU1mDQzflDcIbsTUoHmxHotY2C8HRFn6pSxNz8lX7xG9y35Kb7DLGhqZK3y3Q74zkqQEnk/s200/travelling+204.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356104754114318482" border="0" /></a>Night of the wigs. Again, at Tabby's. With Jean-Baptiste!</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvr35tlv-lg01pQ91JHffQgBpktWF_tdBs3zTEeFyFzWPV634XO-vkVIkOXlbDatM52AP9GFCVMZGrVG-XHSa3UzkioyUADGrC-gSEAgTuXZw3aQaa5toKUvalJGD4m0pXSp0fPX4HKtA/s1600-h/travelling+389.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvr35tlv-lg01pQ91JHffQgBpktWF_tdBs3zTEeFyFzWPV634XO-vkVIkOXlbDatM52AP9GFCVMZGrVG-XHSa3UzkioyUADGrC-gSEAgTuXZw3aQaa5toKUvalJGD4m0pXSp0fPX4HKtA/s200/travelling+389.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356104407430695826" border="0" /></a>The little goat at Tabby’s. I’m pretty sure it was tripping on something, the way it jumped and frolicked, tried to head butt the ground with its horns, and kept falling into the narrow trench we were digging. Weird Animal.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-zLWBuxjtx8y12QzwwnxvIQ6GmRs7gtlHUO42Yn9U1Q_8TlsHYMlTmmzqPQ8nslv4Y6LSLDkBZeV93HkN48x8f9pcDCZIwKVEZWvnAzQlAEH5LfTA1wRXvmG3uCQt1Q9tjBDNS510i8g/s1600-h/travelling+244.jpg"><img style="width: 60px; height: 80px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-zLWBuxjtx8y12QzwwnxvIQ6GmRs7gtlHUO42Yn9U1Q_8TlsHYMlTmmzqPQ8nslv4Y6LSLDkBZeV93HkN48x8f9pcDCZIwKVEZWvnAzQlAEH5LfTA1wRXvmG3uCQt1Q9tjBDNS510i8g/s200/travelling+244.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356106703811535154" border="0" /></a>The devil with right-handed cramp. Rennes-les-Château.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9yLULC0q5p7HzXYYKKB5bCNIfsoF4O0oycM89s5FTZQWbPNbrK7CMKsvQ4fcf9AQUtGMICmcZopkLGMXJQDP8xRyNrWiROfi7zHzTxZQ3tN2V5kCB4tTmNNPOTBTJhjYxL22e2Mo4wM/s1600-h/travelling+331.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9yLULC0q5p7HzXYYKKB5bCNIfsoF4O0oycM89s5FTZQWbPNbrK7CMKsvQ4fcf9AQUtGMICmcZopkLGMXJQDP8xRyNrWiROfi7zHzTxZQ3tN2V5kCB4tTmNNPOTBTJhjYxL22e2Mo4wM/s200/travelling+331.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356106712993034002" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Kgl_cAE_ggP-N89jEHMurFZa2EkmaTLUcaI1qfjXIl_KMPLY-RE0UC5P-4nrldQ7eUrvGD4P30DoVIKuHNoLWYwiQHnGiGs6v7y50fkoNbMt7PTD14s2jQ6hR2tNffFFIeRJfyRcH_0/s1600-h/travelling+325.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Kgl_cAE_ggP-N89jEHMurFZa2EkmaTLUcaI1qfjXIl_KMPLY-RE0UC5P-4nrldQ7eUrvGD4P30DoVIKuHNoLWYwiQHnGiGs6v7y50fkoNbMt7PTD14s2jQ6hR2tNffFFIeRJfyRcH_0/s200/travelling+325.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356106708118458114" border="0" /></a>The day trip to Andorra. This was meant to be a nice day out to visit and explore the country. Instead, we broke down and overheated the car, packed the engine with snow and ice to cool it, stopped quickly to buy tobacco in Andorra, and then rushed home to meet the new WWOOFer, Geoffrey. Again, with Tabby.</li><br /><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigg7aKizwsJ9_a4cTVOtg-sGULrbF9kMcxBKdwJKH4v0M7AbZKv6L9Z8KmAh1V9Z6o1hOlezQA_-iqw1yrwKu1vtgOFJyHZLm11rxitv4tTDau4SYq-uLPx0N7BSlLBZ1yvMtp1MP9KL4/s1600-h/travelling+557.jpg"><img style="width: 80px; height: 60px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigg7aKizwsJ9_a4cTVOtg-sGULrbF9kMcxBKdwJKH4v0M7AbZKv6L9Z8KmAh1V9Z6o1hOlezQA_-iqw1yrwKu1vtgOFJyHZLm11rxitv4tTDau4SYq-uLPx0N7BSlLBZ1yvMtp1MP9KL4/s200/travelling+557.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356106718250973250" border="0" /></a>Being taken to Portugal, while hitching, by someone who went out his way for us, took us out for coffee, and yet didn’t understand a word we were saying. And we didn’t understand a word he spoke either (except “Café”, which when we heard it, we were so relieved to hear a word we understood we responded “yes, yes (si, si),” even though we didn’t really have time to stop). We did make it to our destination that night though, so all’s good.</li><br /><li>Being picked up hitching by a family of Romanian gypsies. 10 of us packed into the vehicle, with two of the teens on the bed in the back and the baby on a lap. The teens tried to get money and weed out of us to pay for the lift, while the father/driver insisted the lift was free and nothing was asked of us. They were very kind though, and fed us crisps and sweets, dropping us in the South suburbs of Sevilla. Close to midnight in the rain. Which sucked!<br /></li></ol>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3766962743980979093.post-12980679643783176012009-06-16T12:13:00.002-04:002009-06-16T13:03:58.184-04:00On the Mystery: Quotations from the PrologueThese quotations are taken from <a href="http://users.drew.edu/ckeller/">Catherine Keller</a>'s 2008 book <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=L2q_eSa_ss8C&dq=catherine+keller+on+the+mystery&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=GKtUcdHrVA&sig=Pf9Cl_IjClJl4qzap6287xIRqso&hl=en&ei=Ocs3SoGHBOKGmQe0-82SDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1">On the Mystery</a>.<br /><br />"Theists and atheists more often than not share the same smug concept of God. For example, they presume that what we call God is omnipotent and good, that He proved his love by sending His only Son to die for us...<br />Can we stop right there?<br />Do you see how loaded with presuppositions just that little sentence is: it presumes that love and dominance work smoothly together, and that nothing that happens to us, however horrible, happens apart from the will of God. It presumes that divinity should be addressed as 'He'. It presumes a Christian monopoly on the truth. Moreover, most folk will assume that these presuppositions are simple 'biblical'. Yet there is, for example, no biblical term for 'omnipotence'. The closest notion, 'the Almighty', is actually a mistranslation of <span style="font-style: italic;">El Shaddai</span>, 'God of the Mountain' - literally in Hebrew 'the Breasted One'!"<br /><br />"Revelation is not the dictation of some unquestionable piece of knowledge. Rather, it resists knowledge in that sense, the top-down knowledge that masters its objects, that confers power on those who possess it: what the cultural critic Michel Foucault calls 'knowledge/power'. How ironic that Christian theology would become the ideology of the rules. Even now."<br /><br />"Theology is not better or truer than other disciplines of thought. Indeed, it has over its complex and conflictual history legitimated more violence than any other <span style="font-style: italic;">-ology</span>.<br />Those who involve themselves in theological questions seek <span class="text_exposed_hide"><span class="text_exposed_link"><a onclick="'CSS.addClass($("></a></span></span><span class="text_exposed_show">wisdom only as we relinquish any pretense of innocence. Wisdom has always already outgrown innocence. The biblical prototype - the divine Sophia - precedes all creation, after all (Prov. 8:22-23)."<br /><br />"Often what is called 'mystery' (as in 'Don't ask questions, it is a holy mystery') is mere mystification, used to camouflage the power drives of those who don't want to be questioned."<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">Process</span>... means <span style="font-style: italic;">becoming</span>: it signifies the intuition that the universe itself is not most fundamentally a static being or the product of a static Being - but an immeasurable becoming. Indeed the word <span style="font-style: italic;">genesis</span> in Greek means 'becoming'."<br /><br />"The traditional unchangeables of God may prove to be points of theological fixation rather than fixities of a divine nature. They may be the false fronts of our cultural immobilities: 'God as Unchangeable Absolute' functions as 'Sanctioner of the Status Quo' - even if that status quo is unjust and unsustainable."<br /><br />"Putting theology in process means freeing it from a deadly mirror game I will call the binary of the <span style="font-style: italic;">absolute</span> and the <span style="font-style: italic;">dissolute</span>. In this polarization, the desire for absolute certainty reacts against the fear of a nihilistic dissolution, a relativism indifferent to meaning and morality."<br /><br />"This book proposes a way for theology to avoid the garish neon light of absolute truth-claims, which wash out our vital differences. Yet this way will just as firmly elude the opaque darkness of the casual nihilism that pervades our culture - the 'whatever' of indifference."<br /><br />"Mystery is not a stagnant pool but a flowing infinity."<br /><br />And that's just the prologue! This book is truly an ocean of treasures!<br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663634101252672135noreply@blogger.com0