Referees Blow The Whistle On American Congress

Can’t express how much I love the way the whole Occupy movement is inspiring people to get a truly creative revolution going. This was organized by 350.org . I have always believed that protest should have an element of fun!

Today’s protest was to show how Big Oil has planted reps in the Congress, amongst some other facts about corruption in Washington.

Even the awesome Bernie Sanders was there.

To see the whole set of these photos by Josh Lopez go to 350.org.’s Facebook page.

2012 is surely shaping up as a year to remember!

Locally, you may want to book the  event, Occupy Theatre, for March 31!

 

 

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MTQ Does Not Have An Agreement With CN At Turcot Or Dorval Circle

You have two major infrastructure projects, on the same highway, that include moving railroad tracks. Before you start these projects, you work out a deal with the railroad, right?  Well, in yet another case of a no-brainer gone wrong it appears the Ministry of Transportation has not done that. Dorval Circle has been put on hold and Turcot will certainly not proceed for the time being.  Both projects going nowhere as costs keep rising. It is getting beyond embarrassing.

Here.

Liberals Vote To Legalize Marijuana

The Liberal Party of Canada voted to legalize marijuana at it’s convention this weekend. It is the most dramatic option chosen by any federal party in my lifetime and the ultimate rebuttal to Stephen Harper’s  devious Crime Bill.

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OTTAWA – Federal Liberals are taking some risky departures from the cautious political norm in a bid to put their once-mighty party back on the electoral map.

They overwhelmingly approved Sunday a resolution calling for the legalization and regulation of marijuana — a position immediately endorsed in principle by interim leader Bob Rae, although it remains to be seen how, or if, the resolution translates into a platform plank for the next election.

“Let’s face up to it, Canada, the war on drugs has been a complete bust,” Rae declared in a closing speech to a three-day Liberal renewal convention.” Full story here.

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Harper’s Crime Bill, which stubbornly and fanatically refuses to listen to the American failure of “Tough On Crime”,  would get even tougher on marijuana growers, users and dealers in what is probably the most outdated,  ultra expensive, and unnecessary legislation that any government in Canada has ever sent to it’s stacked Senate.

The Liberals have just completely changed the conversation.

 

Risking it All – Oil on our Coast

Enbridge’s plans for a pipeline & tankers through BC’s magnificent coast:
The north and central coast of British Columbia is one of last great wilderness areas that still support a vibrant & productive ecosystem. Home to thousands of runs of 5 species of salmon, as well as steelhead, grizzlies, wolves, orca, rare white bears, dolphins, porpoises and hundreds of other species, the coast is a natural spring of wealth & wonder. The plan to build the Enbridge pipeline and ensuing tankers threatens all of this- the coastal ecosystem, the coastal economies and a massive food source.
Besides the incredible array of species that lives here, the coast supports many economies through commercial activities such as commercial fishing, sport fishing, & tourism, as well as providing a massive natural food source that feeds thousands of people – serving up salmon, crab, halibut, clams, cockles, Oolichan, herring, sea cucumbers, urchins, rockfish, lingcod, geoduck, seaweed, and on and on…
The BC coast is a natural resource that just keeps giving its massively generous, life-supporting gifts, on one condition only- that we don’t destroy it.
Now plans are underway that will likely result in just this.
Risking it All- Oil on our Coast is a short film that outlines the plans for the pipeline and tanker route and what it means for our beautiful coast. Produced by Twyla Roscovich in association with Hartley Bay & Gitga’at Nation, Oil on our Coast is meant to inspire, empower and help fuel the battle to save what sustains us.

 

Ethical Oil or Idiot Oil?

Watch someone who supports  the oil pipelines avoid a fundamental question. It’s actually  quite shocking to see a young person behaving like a brainwashed 50′s reject from a casting call for Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.

Pieter Hugo

 

PERMANENT ERROR

For the past year Hugo has been photographing the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. The area, on the outskirts of a slum known as Agbogbloshie, is referred to by local inhabitants as Sodom and Gomorrah, a vivid acknowledgment of the profound inhumanity of the place. When Hugo asked the inhabitants what they called the pit where the burning takes place, they repeatedly responded: ‘For this place, we have no name’.

Their response is a reminder of the alien circumstances that are imposed on marginal communities of the world by the West’s obsession with consumption and obsolesce. This wasteland, where people and cattle live on mountains of motherboards, monitors and discarded hard drives, is far removed from the benefits accorded by the unrelenting advances of technology.

The UN Environment Program has stated that Western countries produce around 50 million tons of digital waste every year. In Europe, only 25 percent of this type of waste is collected and effectively recycled. Much of the rest is piled in containers and shipped to developing countries, supposedly to reduce the digital divide, to create jobs and help people. In reality, the inhabitants of dumps like Agbogbloshie survive largely by burning the electronic devices to extract copper and other metals out of the plastic used in their manufacture. The electronic waste contaminates rivers and lagoons with consequences that are easily imaginable. In 2008 Green Peace took samples of the burnt soil in Agbogbloshie and found high concentrations of lead, mercury, thallium, hydrogen cyanide and PVC.

Notions of time and progress are collapsed in these photographs. There are elements in the images that fast-forward us to an apocalyptic end of the world as we know it, yet the alchemy on this site and the strolling cows recall a pastoral existence that rewinds our minds to a medieval setting. The cycles of history and the lifespan of our technology are both clearly apparent in this cemetery of artifacts from the industrialised world. We are also reminded of the fragility of the information and stories that were stored in the computers which are now just black smoke and melted plastic.

Here.

Edmonton’s Memorial For Homelessness

Photo by Paula E. Kirman

“The hope to end homelessness is set in stone with the dedication of a $40,000 memorial sculpture in downtown Edmonton.

Depicting a wretched figure huddling beneath a doorway, it’s there “to remind Edmontonians always about our shared responsibility to end homelessness,” says renowned local anti-poverty crusader Jim Gurnett, who spearheaded the project created by local sculptors Keith Turnbull and Ritchie Velthius. The piece was installed in the small park off 103A Avenue just North of City Hall.” Full story here.

For a look at the sculpture being made check out this page on the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness web site.

And for details check out this set on Flickr by Paula E. Kirman

Occupy Love

About The Film

Occupy Love will be a moving, transformative feature documentary that asks the question: how are the economic and ecological crises we are facing today a great love story? 

A profound shift is taking place all over the world. Humanity is  waking up to the fact  that the current system that dominates the planet is failing to provide us with health, happiness or meaning.  The dominant paradigm is based on separation, as exemplified by the financial system, and the corporate emphasis of profits before people.

Our headlong rush towards infinite growth is destroying our communities, our ecology, and threatening our very existence.  The climate crisis is hitting us with droughts, extreme weather, floods, sea level rise and more, yet corporate lobbyists block any attempts at mitigation.  Unemployment is at an all time high, and the gap between the wealthiest 1% and the remaining 99% is growing alarmingly.  People are losing their homes, and the quality of life for the many is plummeting, while the few are raking in absurd profits.  Wall Street is making dangerous bets, greed is running rampant, and entire economies are collapsing.  Governments have been bought by the corporations, and many of us had lost hope.  Until now.

Karaoke And Public Space

Can Karaoke Transform Public Space?

by Rachel Smith

Government agencies and marketing bureaus across the globe strive to find ways to get people into parks and using public spaces. Some spend millions with extravagant firework spectaculars, while others import international music acts or host an almost continuous string of farmer’s markets and craft fairs, many of which fail to deliver a certain je ne sais quoi.

But in a not-so-pristine park in Berlin, an Irish guy named Joe draws crowds of more than 3,000 people … with karaoke. Which got me thinking, can karaoke transform our public spaces? It seems an odd thing to say, but yes, I believe it probably can.

I first learned about Joe from my trusted Lonely Planet guidebook, which told me that Bearpit Karaoke was a ‘must see’ for a Sunday afternoon in Berlin I couldn’t resist investigating! I arrived at Mauerpark amazed at the activity. The Flea market was in full swing with hundreds of people buying and selling old bikes, vintage clothes and ‘maker movement’ crafts. People, young and old, relaxed on the unkempt grass surrounded by complimentary entertainment from skateboard tricksters, circus performers and wannabe rock stars. In the stone amphitheatre a contortionist was pleasing a small but happy audience. As I sat watching and waiting it was apparent that something big was going down. Within minutes the crowd of a hundred or so had swelled to at least a thousand; families, locals, students and tourists, and in less than half an hour it was standing room only. As the contortionist took her final bow, the crowd broke into rapturous applause as a scruffy looking guy in a checked shirt and baseball cap walked across the stage. This was it, Joe Hatchiban was here and my opinion of karaoke was about to be changed.

Occupy The Rose Parade

The 2012 Tournament of Roses brought its flowery floats and strutting bands to a worldwide audience Monday under clear blue skies, and in its wake came a scruffier parade — hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters.

The 123rd annual New Year’s Day event, with the theme “Just Imagine,” flowed along downtown Pasadena to the cheers of hundreds of thousands of sidewalk spectators.

An estimated 40 million people viewed this year’s procession of 44 floats, 16 marching bands and 22 equestrian troupes on U.S. television.

[The Tournament of Roses Parade, better known as the Rose Parade, is "America's New Year Celebration" held in Pasadena, California, a festival of flower-covered floats, marching bands, equestrians and the Rose Bowl college football game on New Year's Day (but moved to Monday if New Year's Day falls on a Sunday), produced by the non-profit Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association. LA Times]

There were 10 arrests overnight, including four felonies, as thousands of spectators staked out viewing places along the route but that figure was down from the previous year, police said.

“Everything went very, very well. We’re very pleased,” police Lt. Phlunte Riddle said.

On the heels of the two-hour parade came several thousand anti-Wall Street protesters in a pre-arranged demonstration.

The thunder of the retreating marching bands mingled in the air with chants of “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” as the Occupy the Rose Parade demonstrators retraced about 1.5 miles of the 5.5-mile parade route before veering off for a rally near City Hall.

They carried a 250-foot-long banner that said “We the People” to represent the U.S. Constitution. Some also held a 70-foot-long octopus made from recycle plastic bags that represented the tentacles of perceived corporate greed.

“This is about getting money out of politics,” said Greg Stevens, a 38-year-old public health lecturer at the University of Southern California. “I support everything this movement is about.”

Behind the protesters came three truckloads of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in riot gear but no arrests were immediately made and the protest was noisy but peaceful.

Police did not release an official count but Occupy the Rose Parade organizer Pete Thottam estimated the crowd of protesters at 5,000.

Police, parade and city officials held numerous meetings with the protest organizers to ensure that they did not disrupt the parade.

Police also stepped up measures after 9/11 and the Y2K threat, and have regularly dealt with protests through the years ranging from anti-Vietnam war demonstrators to Native Americans incensed at the choice of a descendant of Christopher Columbus as grand marshal.

This year’s parade featured Iraq war veteran J.R. Martinez as grand marshal, the children and grandchildren of Roy Rogers on a float commemorating cowboys, and the parents of Christina-Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl killed in the mass shooting that injured U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords last year, on the Donate Life float honoring organ donors. The Greens donated their daughter’s corneas. AP

From the Facebook page

Occupy, Some Street Art, A Grim Reality

Occupy Wall Street has not gone away as you see from this New Year’s Eve activity   and this video shows some Occupiers spending Christmas doing some caroling.

You can keep up to date on the site main site but there are also hundreds of groups worldwide with blogs, Facebook accounts, You Tube channels, Twitter, and so on.

It’s an election year in the US and that means that the ideology of the 1% and the usual false promises and gargantuan stretches of reality will be set to “Overkill”. Going to be an interesting year.

 

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One site has posted what it considers to be 100 of the best examples of street art for 2011. Here are a couple I like.

You can visit the page here.

 

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What did the war in Iraq actually accomplish? Most theories include getting rid of terrorists and evil dictators (foreign ones anyway), securing oil for western markets, and so on. But the price? War has never been easy for anyone but it is much easier to find out what it must be like on the battlefields today. Thanks to Wikileaks and others we are able too see exactly what those missions involve, what the average soldier on the ground can expect to experience. One thing that they didn’t see in the recruitment brochures was soldier suicide rates.http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/1-more-us-soldiers-committed-suicide-than-died-in-combat/.

Nor did returning war veterans get much information about avoiding homelessness, after all, it’s America, rugged individualism will take care of everything.

Vacant houses in America outnumber homeless people

 

Occupy The Future

2012 is yours, it always was.

Madrid Rio

Awesome reclamation project in Madrid, Spain, shows us once again how Turcot is shaping up as a totally blown opportunity. As cities around the world tear down elevated freeways, eliminate congested roadways, here in Quebec we have decided that the ideal thing to replace a freeway with is (drumroll) another freeway!

The video below also mentions how the Madrid project placed an emphasis on opening views of the old city. Here, the Griffintown development is going to block some of the most wonderful views of downtown available. There is a 1% get to live there 99% get their views taken away mentality with that Griffintown project and it’s usually called elitism.

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Happy Holidays