http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/30/week.at.the.airport/index.html?hpt=C1
Wow! This is interesting :-) One of my favourite things to do is people watching and one of my favourite venues for this besides the Byward Market in Ottawa is at airports. I know, I know, he loves airports??? Seriously I do...I love the feeling of all that coming and going, people coming and departing for the far corners of the earth, tears of joy and frowns of sadness, faces lost in thought, people wondering the what now? what next?, etc. Ther is so much activity and so many socioperspectives one may witness in a airport. What a brilliant idea to be a writer-in-residence at an airport....there's so much I would ask him :-)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Our Suffering Oceans
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/11/30/mass-extinction-dead-zone.html?ref=rss
Seriously people what are we doing to our oceans? I know most of you read about this or seen it on some news program and all of you shook your heads, tsked, tsked, maybe even muttered what is the world coming to and then switched the channel to some reality tv program or Glee because after all this entertainment is what life is all about right? The apathy of humanity has to be one of our greatest faults as a collective. How we are becoming more and more immune to fresh news of tragedy, apocalypse, and environmental damage is perhaps one of the most frightening things of all. How we've come so far yet totally deny our biological connection, the fact that we too are mammals, is completely beyond me. We look at rising cancer rates around the world and yet we assure ourselves it's because we now have the power to detect them yet the weird and unheard of cancers are on a dramatic rise since WW2 (funny how that coincides with a massive injection of chemicals and plastics into our world), we have known for the last hundred years how to identify cancers in autopsies and other symptoms so prior to WW2 we have known about cancer...it's not detection rates people. It's those Glade air freshners, processed foods, chemical ferilizers, plastic everything that's bringing us and our children to our knees. We are basically orchestrating our own demise.
So back to the oceans? Can we live with out sea food, large sea mammals, and all the ingredients that come from the seas into our lives? All you vegetarians and vegans are probably thinking well I don't have to worry about dead oceans but how do dead oceans (inability to absorb carbon dioxide/emit oxygen) affect weather patterns? Impossible to cultivate veggies in extreme droughts and flash floods.
I'm seriously beginning to wonder if we really deserve a place on this planet...it seems that we are an invasive species intent upon choking out all other life. Maybe it's best we bring about our own demise sooner rather than later...we're going to leave nothing for the future generation and perhaps some species will remain after we have gone to evolve into new species over the next 100 million years.
Seriously people what are we doing to our oceans? I know most of you read about this or seen it on some news program and all of you shook your heads, tsked, tsked, maybe even muttered what is the world coming to and then switched the channel to some reality tv program or Glee because after all this entertainment is what life is all about right? The apathy of humanity has to be one of our greatest faults as a collective. How we are becoming more and more immune to fresh news of tragedy, apocalypse, and environmental damage is perhaps one of the most frightening things of all. How we've come so far yet totally deny our biological connection, the fact that we too are mammals, is completely beyond me. We look at rising cancer rates around the world and yet we assure ourselves it's because we now have the power to detect them yet the weird and unheard of cancers are on a dramatic rise since WW2 (funny how that coincides with a massive injection of chemicals and plastics into our world), we have known for the last hundred years how to identify cancers in autopsies and other symptoms so prior to WW2 we have known about cancer...it's not detection rates people. It's those Glade air freshners, processed foods, chemical ferilizers, plastic everything that's bringing us and our children to our knees. We are basically orchestrating our own demise.
So back to the oceans? Can we live with out sea food, large sea mammals, and all the ingredients that come from the seas into our lives? All you vegetarians and vegans are probably thinking well I don't have to worry about dead oceans but how do dead oceans (inability to absorb carbon dioxide/emit oxygen) affect weather patterns? Impossible to cultivate veggies in extreme droughts and flash floods.
I'm seriously beginning to wonder if we really deserve a place on this planet...it seems that we are an invasive species intent upon choking out all other life. Maybe it's best we bring about our own demise sooner rather than later...we're going to leave nothing for the future generation and perhaps some species will remain after we have gone to evolve into new species over the next 100 million years.
Green Revolution
I find it fascinating that our Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper and the Republicans of the United States are so vehemently opposed to the idea of transforming their economies into green ones. Often both parties site a horrific loss of jobs and basically a collapse of our society. Therefore I found it interesting upon hearing the business report on CBC radio this morning, that Germany, even after the huge expense of reunification and a giant world recession unlike anything we've witnessed since the 1930's, is experiencing an expansion of it's economy and a decline in unemployment numbers. Very interesting because they've been at the forefront of the green revolution for awhile now and look at how their economy is faring? Having been to Europe this summer I was amazed as the plane was coming in for a landing at Munich all the windmills and solar panels in every community. Yet...on the same business report Alberta is ever expanding it's tar sands when supposedly we're supposed to be weaning ourselves from oil. As well it profits Canadians little in the long run as we insist upon giving away all our oil profits and royalties to large multi-national oil companies...whereas a country like Norway believed in a national oil program that retained the majority of oil profits in their country so now they will never have to worry about funding any of their numerous social programs for literally eternity. How intelligent is that? And...Canada continues to fall further behind....along with it's neighbour to the south because...in North America, ideology is everything, even if it trumps common sense and logic.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Religion: A force of evil in our world?
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/11/26/religion-good-evil-poll-hitchens-blair.html
As you follow my blog you will come to understand just how strongly I feel about this topic and how absolutely imperative I feel it is to separate Church and State. Having studied world history both in an Honours B.A. and a M.A. I could attribute almost every major negative event in our history as having some link, somewhere, to religion. I therefore couldn't agree more with: The avowed atheist has written that organized religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children." and I like this too "Hitchens, who is battling esophageal cancer, added that if "religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world."
I may be a tad dramatic for throwing this out there but isn't it almost child abuse to force religious beliefs upon children before they reach a rational age where they are able to make informed decisions for themselves?? Really, if religion is a wonderful source of redemption, healing, and strength wouldn't all of humanity be naturally drawn to it? Why does it have to be legislated, indoctrinated into society and youth, and forced upon those who have made an informed and reasoned decision not to follow it?
I always find it ironic that the Conservative Party of Canada and the Republican Party in the U.S. consistently preach about having less intrusive government in our lives, rid our society of big government, but anything remotely connected to religion suddenly they're all for legislating it into our private lives. Anyone else see the hypocrisy of this?
As you follow my blog you will come to understand just how strongly I feel about this topic and how absolutely imperative I feel it is to separate Church and State. Having studied world history both in an Honours B.A. and a M.A. I could attribute almost every major negative event in our history as having some link, somewhere, to religion. I therefore couldn't agree more with: The avowed atheist has written that organized religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children." and I like this too "Hitchens, who is battling esophageal cancer, added that if "religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world."
I may be a tad dramatic for throwing this out there but isn't it almost child abuse to force religious beliefs upon children before they reach a rational age where they are able to make informed decisions for themselves?? Really, if religion is a wonderful source of redemption, healing, and strength wouldn't all of humanity be naturally drawn to it? Why does it have to be legislated, indoctrinated into society and youth, and forced upon those who have made an informed and reasoned decision not to follow it?
I always find it ironic that the Conservative Party of Canada and the Republican Party in the U.S. consistently preach about having less intrusive government in our lives, rid our society of big government, but anything remotely connected to religion suddenly they're all for legislating it into our private lives. Anyone else see the hypocrisy of this?
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Why are we fighting for Democracy in Afghanistan when our own government is unwilling to uphold the fundamental principles of our own democracy?
http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/892053--climate-bill-commons-crushed-in-one-blow
Remind me why we're in Afghanistan again? To bring democracy to them? Pity all those soldiers died in vain because they're own government has repeatedly stamped on the democratic principles in their own country. Harper has secret cabinet meetings, refuses to release information to the press, shuts down parliamentary c...ommittees, and then uses the Senate which he has repeatedly criticized for doing something so undemocratic that it hasn't been done in 70 years. Now we are the only nation attending the worldwide conference in Mexico with nothing to show about climate change. So much for being the once world leader with both initiatives and democracy. As friends of mine who immigrated from dictatorships say, Harper is looking more like the governments they left behind. All Canadians should be ashamed of this government and the image it now presents to the world. I'm glad that I've made the decision to retire in Europe. It was embarrassing in Europe seeing the caricatures of Harper in their media prior to the G8/G20 summit. I fear that Canadians have become so wrapped up in themselves that they are unable to step outside their borders and see how the world now perceives us. Remember the good old days when the world once looked upon us for leadership and innovation? Now we follow our neighbours to the south, an empire crumbling in on itself...what will democracy look like for our children?
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