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!

Here.

“

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.

~~~~~

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of “Tough On Crime”,  would get even tougher on marijuana growers, users and dealers in what is probably the most outdated,  ultra expensive, and unnecessary legislation that any government in Canada has ever sent to it’s stacked Senate.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

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.

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.

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

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.

This crisis has become the catalyst for a profound transformation:  millions of people are deciding that enough is enough –  the time has come to create a new world, a world that works for all life.  We have experienced an extraordinary year of change, from the Arab Spring, to the European Summer, and now, erupting into North America: the Occupy Movement.

This is a revolution rooted in compassion,  direct democracy, and shared power, as opposed to the “power over” model of the corporate world view.  The new story is one of Inter-dependence.  Love is the movement.  As the Occupy cry goes: “We are unstoppable. Another world is possible!”

We have been filming at Occupy Wall Street since the first day, and have filmed the historical General Strike at Occupy Oakland,  and have filmed at Occupy Canada.  Currently we are tracing the evolution of the movement in Europe. We will be exploring the solutions to the problems we are facing, and zeroing in on the “heart” of this global evolution.

The film will feature an incredible cast of visionaries, both the well known, and the everyday heroes who are emerging in this fledgling movement.  So far we have interviewed: Naomi Klein, Charles Eisenstein, Marina Sitrin, Judy Rebick, The Yes Men, Angaanaq, Clayton Thomas Muller, Tom Goldtooth, Bill McKibben, Malik from Occupy the Hood, Rebecca Solnit, Drew Dellinger, Don Tapscott, Jeremy Rifkin, Asmaa Mahfouz, Penny Livingston Stark, Rob Hopkins, and more.

The video of Charles Eisenstein above gives you a good idea of the philosophy behind this film.  More videos can be found at http://www.occupylove.org

Our Story

Im Velcrow Ripper, the director of OCCUPY LOVE.  I’ve been making award winning documentaries for over twenty years. I consider myself a media activist, committed to making the world a better place through the power of cinema.

Our team includes co-producers Ian MacKenzie and Gregg Hill. We are bringing our hearts and minds together to create a film that can reflect and catalyze the heart of this global movement of movements. OCCUPY LOVE is the culmination of the Fierce Love Project. which began the award wining feature doc, Scared Sacred, about my journey to the Ground Zeros of the world, searching for stories of hope in the face of crisis, followed by  the acclaimed Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action.

Two years ago I asked writer Naomi Klein, how could the crisis we are facing on the planet become a love story?  She laughed, and said that we do the opposite – she points out how bad things are and I look for the love.  Last week I saw her at an action and she gave me a big hug and said, history has re-arranged itself to prove your thesis.

We are in love with this time of incredible possibility and hope, and are deeply committed to creating a film that can be of service.

The Impact

OCCUPY LOVE is intended to both reflect and catalyze this global awakening to a world that works for all life, a world of economic and ecological justice.  Anyone who has been following our blogs, our videos, and the previous films, will agree that this film will be of great service to the planet, and humanity.

We need to do everything we can to nurture this evolving movement, our ever evolving global society, and keep it moving always in the direction of love, in the direction of life. The film will be seen widely, in movie theatres, on television, on-line, and in grass roots community screenings around the world.

OCCUPY LOVE will become a great tool for anyone interested in helping to change the world. 

We are so excited to put the amazing footage we have gathered together into a  transformative cinematic experience. Help us make this happen!

What We Need & What You Get

We need to create a film that can compete theatrically, if it is to have a significant impact, and that means being technically high quality.  Well need a proper dolby digital 5.1 sound mix, a proper colour correction,  as well as funds to keep us shooting for another few months.

Well need hard drives, money to pay for an editor, and money for marketing materials.   While $50,000 might seem like a lot to those who arent familiar with film budgets, its actually very little. Well use this money very sparingly and not a drop will be wasted.

Things are happening fast, and we want to get this film out fast. The amount we are asking for is actually much less than we really need.  Double that would still be a tight squeeze – soplease give what you can, and ask your friends and relatives to give what they can.

Our dream is that this campaign actually exceeds its goal, and we raise the $100,000.00 we really need. Weve set the amount lower than that just to be safe.

At this point, I have reached the wall of my credit limit – Ive put every last ounce of my credit on the line for this film. Ironically for a film that addresses economic injustice, I am deeply in debt and really do need this support to keep going.  We have chosen to go with Indie GoGo because it allows us to withdraw funds on an ongoing basis, so we can keep the production happening.

Why Support This Film

By supporting this film, you are becoming a community film producer.  Crowdfunding is a beautiful reflection of the collective spirit of this film.   Many of you have already kicked into the initial start up phase of this project, under the title Evolve Love, and all the rewards will be moving over to this project, and will still be delivered.  If you can come on board again for these completion funds, that would be amazing, but it thats too much, no worries, there are many other ways to help.

Any amount, no matter how small, will help enormously.  Large amounts will help even more

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.

Since the winter of 2009 Joe has been using portable, battery-powered speakers on a ‘hacked’ cargo bike to help people unleash their inner Rampensau. Weather permitting, Joe fetches up around 3pm and invites anybody who so wishes to take the stage for a few minutes to show those gathered there what they can do with a backing track and a microphone. Joe has shown that with no budget, a very large serve of motivation, Facebook and people’s desire to ‘get involved’ you really can transform a public space.

Bottom-up approaches are changing patterns of activity in our cities. The Australian Government’s new Urban Design Protocol for Australian cities “Creating places for people’ aimed at professionals and the general public, opens with this poignant quote from Danish architect Jan Gehl “First life, then spaces, then buildings: the other way around never works”.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Ottery St Mary, a chocolate box village in rural Devon, England, puts life first. Each year on Guy Fawkes Night – a celebration commemorating the rescue of King James I from a murderous plot – locals run through the narrow streets brandishing burning barrels. Those who have visited Ottery on November 5 know that perpetuating a tradition is the objective, and commercial considerations take second place. As the Ottery Tar Barrels website says “if you attend it, don’t try and change it, just stand back and enjoy.”

I admit, when you’re there, in the crowd, with 20,000 others and a very large ball of fire is coming right toward you it’s hard to understand what motivates men, women and children into carrying a full sized lighted tar barrel on their shoulders and then run down the street. But, what I do know is that these brave folks are accepting complete strangers into their public space to enjoy an exhilarating and risky spectacle. Of course it’s deemed dangerous, but good organisation, cooperation between the various agencies involved and people using good old-fashioned common sense manages the risk.

In my hometown of Brisbane, Australia, I co-founded Lazy Sunday Cycle, a weekly all-comers fun bicycle ride. My co-founder, Amy Saunders, is passionate about encouraging interactions between people of different generations, as well as cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Amy founded Games Night @ King George Square to help break down barriers in society. On the last Thursday of every month, in a public square in Brisbane CBD, board games can be played by anyone and with anyone.

Like Joe Hatchiban, Amy doesn’t have a big budget but what she does have is proven knowledge that people crave interaction and a desire to be part of something fun. I guess that’s why, with the help of social media, more than 300 people attend each and every event.

These stories demonstrate that low-cost activities in the public realm can help to support diverse and resilient communities with positive benefits for individuals. If we really want public spaces to be “places,” and central parts of our towns and cities, we need to learn from people like Joe, Amy, and the Ottery barrel rollers — but most of all we need to embrace the new movement of “bottom-up self-organization.”

The real reason that people turn up every week for Bearpit Karaoke, isn’t because they don’t have access to iTunes. It’s because they want the buzz of being part of something fun, the supportive applause that comes from peer-to-peer performances, the serendipitous connections with people they wouldn’t normally meet. I guess that’s why karaoke really has the potential to transform our public realm.

Rachel Smith is a Principal transport Planner with AECOM in Brisbane. Rachel is the founder of Cycling Super Highways, co-founder of Lazy Sunday Cycle and part of the BMW Guggenheim Lab (Berlin Lab Team). Images courtesy of waxorian and nachtbus on flickr.

From here.

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

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.

***—***

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.

***—***

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

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.

Website

Article