CLIMATE CHANGE, DEMOCRACY,CRIME, U.S. POLITICS, GOOD NEWS

Posted: March 11, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: capitalism, civil liberties, climate change, Crime, democracy, electric cars, Greece, Iran, justice | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

For those of you who noticed I apologize for the passage of time since the last post. At times one just gets overwhelmed by the sheer volume of online and print information which needs to be reviewed to prepare each new post and all to often the overriding impact is a bit depressing. We indeed live in the best of times and the worst of times with our very futures hanging in the balance. Will we wake up to the urgency of climate change early enough to leave behind an habitable planet for the next generation? The jury is still out!  Will we wake up to the urgent need to tackle with resolve the growing inequality and poverty in our society. This is also an uncertain outcome. But the wide spread push back by the Canadian people to the deliberate undermining  of our democratic processes by the Harper government is a great sign and hopefully an indicator that we citizens are awakening to the fact that in a democracy it is our will which rules and not the questionable interests of  professional politicians. If we can keep this democratic momentum going then we have a chance to positively affect the outcomes of the challenges of climate change and growing poverty.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Joe Romm of Climate Progress has a hard hitting article here about the deliberate lack of attention being paid to climate change by the mainstream media and how this is affecting the general public’s awareness of the seriousness of this issue. We cannot allow the media’s  deliberate inattention to climate change to blind us to our responsibility to the next generation to view climate change as an urgent matter needing our active attention.

DEMOCRACY

Amy Goodman, the voice of Democracy Now, has an article here courtesy of Rabble.ca about how the truth and it’s messengers are facing suppression and punishment respectively in the United States.

David McNally, professor at York University in Toronto, has this interesting short article in an online publication called The Bullet about the unfolding battle in Greece, the birthplace of the democratic ideal, between the forces of democracy and international finance. Brings to mind the observations and lessons in Naomi Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine–The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

Bruce Cox of Greenpeace brings to the attention of Stephen Harper that the the right to dissent is an essential element of a thriving democracy in this article in the Toronto Globe and Mail.

It is amazing to me how George Monbiot can write with such clarity and purpose about complex matters as he does in this piece: Plutocracy-Pure and Simple. He exposes the machinations of uncontrolled and unregulated right wing so-called think tanks which are completely dedicated to protecting the interests of the corporate elite at the expense of general society.

The last word in this section of this post goes to Christine at 350 or bust who has an excellent article here about the sorry state of present day Canadian politics.

CRIME

On September 10th,2011 a female teenager was gang raped in a rural area outside of Vancouver. This young woman was not only raped  but the rape was also captured on a smart phone and shared on social media. An absolute horror for this young woman. The crime remains unsolved because according to the RCMP no witness will step forward to speak up. On Feb.26th,2012 the Toronto Globe and Mail published an editorial entitled ” The Code of Silence”  denouncing the cowardice of the witnesses for not stepping forward on behalf of the victim. The editorial goes on to sound the alarm that the lack of cooperation by the witnesses to not come forward calls into question our presumed loyalty to one of the most fundamental principles of a civilized and democratic society and that is the rule of law and our presumed agreement with each other to live by this norm. This was a horrific criminal act with many witnesses and those witnesses have a moral and legal obligation to speak up. If they do not  then we have a serious problem. The Globe and Mail editorial is here.

U.S. POLITICS

Chris Hedges is an American journalist and writer  who is so pissed off at Barack Obama that he is suing the U.S.President. He is doing so because the U.S. President has signed into law authority  for the U.S. Army to indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen they deem to be a bad guy. A severe blow to U.S. civil liberties. The website truthdig has this story here. P.S. –while you are on truthdig check out their story about Iran “10 Myths Driving the Push for War with Iran”.

GOOD NEWS

A pleasing story about exchanging polluting and harmful kerosene lamps for solar lights from the website grist–a real boon for children and their families living in poor circumstances.

A story from Environmental News Network indicates we maybe on the brink of a battery breakthrough for electric vehicles like the Leaf and Volt which will greatly expand their operating range making electric cars an affordable and smart choice for buyers and the environment. Don’t tell ESSO!

A Nation Of Sheep Begets a Government Of Wolves

Thank You for Reading

Barry Beaupre—-Reviewer and Editor

KLEIN, MONBIOT, HANSEN, SARAH VAN GELDER, GOOD NEWS

Posted: February 19, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: capitalism, climate change, democracy, drones | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

This post features four articles written by four very insightful individuals. The first piece is by Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, writing on the  interplay between capitalism and it’s guardians and our need to challenge the hegemony of presently structured capitalism if we are going to be able to muster the political will and power to meet the threat of climate change. The second is by George Monbiot, journalist with the Guardian newspaper, about something we don’t give much thought to and that is the growing use of drone technology to kill people. These machines are designed to kill anybody, anywhere, anytime and the trigger finger answers to no one. Brings to mind the drone kill scene in the 2005 movie Syriana.  The third article is by James Hansen of NASA chronicling the court battle to expose the financial backers of a major British climate change denier group/website. The last article of note is by Sarah Van Gelder, editor of YES!Magazine, reminding us that though things may look a tad bleak the forces of positive change are gathering strength and now is not the time to lessen our efforts. Who knows, maybe 2012 will become known as the North American and European Spring.

NAOMI KLEIN

Her piece is called Capitalism vs The Climate and was published in November 2011 in the publication, The Nation. Don’t be put off by the length of the article as there are a number of natural breaks to allow you to come and go without losing sense of the flow. As usual with Naomi Klein writings she has the skill to break down complex issues into manageable bites. The reward of reading this article is well worth the reading investment. Courtesy of The Nation here is Ms.Klein’s article.

GEORGE MONBIOT

Mr.Monbiot’s chilling article about the increasing development and use of killer drones is called Divine Injustice and appears on his website here. There certainly is a case to be made that these stealth killing machines operating with little or no accountability are essentially weapons of terror and oppression. Should they not be just as illegal as land mines and cluster bombs?

JAMES HANSEN

His article courtesy of climateprogress.org which is here  offers an insight into the politics of climate change and the battle to expose the financial backers of the anti climate change propaganda machine. A real eyeopener to the behind the scenes fight to develop a unity of purpose to tackle climate change.

SARAH VAN GELDER

Her article found here  on Huffingtonpost.com entitled Corporate Rule Is Not Inevitable  is an uplifting and hopeful message that there is plenty of evidence that corporate rule and the legal construct  that corporations are people are quickly losing credence with the general population in the U.S. (Canada to??). She points to a road ahead which will help get us to a place where human needs and values take precedence over the greed of corporations and the international wealthy class.

VERY GOOD NEWS FOR WHALES

Ecojustice, has won a significant if not landmark court case before the Federal Court of Appeal. The court ruled that the Federal Government has an absolute duty and responsibility to protect the habitat of the whale population off the coast of B.C. The court had harsh words for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Read about this wonderful victory in Ecojustice’s own words here.

WE HAVE NOT INHERITED THE EARTH FROM OUR PARENTS BUT RATHER WE ARE BORROWING IT FROM OUR CHILDREN

Thank you for reading,

Barry Beaupre, Editor