Davos, Israel and Turkey

Well Davos this year has not be normal; no celebrities, no parties, it has changed. Now the Turkish leader has stated that he will never return because of a argument with Israeli President Peres.
Well Davos has been the location where rich countries have decided what kind of policies will occur around the world. Traditionally it has been only for the rich and powerful, and developed country leaders. But over time new members were invited to join. If a world leader states that Davos is not a place to come, it will affect how other look at this forum.
Now the bigger issue is that the leader of Turkey was so upset at an Israeli leader that they publicly showed their anger. Israel has three friends in the Middle East, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey. If one of those three is not your friend anymore, that spells trouble. This argument was over the Gaza War, but no matter what stance you have on the Gaza War this means trouble.
Turkey was working with Israel to create a peace tready between Israel and Syria. Where is that process going now. Israel is going to paint themselves into a corner shortly and it will not be a good thing for anybody.

Reuters: Turkish PM storms out of heated Middle East debate

The Telegraph: I will never come back to Davos

BBC: Turkish PM storms off in Gaza row

Canadian Politics Might Never be the Same

Well, it looks like Steven Harper played chicken with the wrong people. He, well the finance minster, put forward a budget update. Which did nothing for the economy, and every thing was political. So what do the opposition parties do? Well they learn how to pull their own wieght.
They have decided that they will cause the current government to fall, and create their own. Yup, not a new election, but a new government. This could make Stephane Dion a legend, he will show that Canadian Politics have turned over a new leaf. This coalition will mark the change, if it happens, where we move from a single party rule to who ever has the most support in the house.
This is a wonderful change, if it happens.

Globe and Mail on the Coalition

A True Black Friday

This Friday was a true 'Black Friday'. Traditionally this day is when, the first time of the year, that store are finally in the black. Which means that they are no longer in the negatives when looking at their finances. But this Friday was different, three lives were lost during the shopping craze.
The first loss of life was at 6 am eastern time, less than one hour after the stores opened. At Walmart, of all places, a worker trying to open the door got trampled to death. He was trying to open it for the costumers waiting. Before he could get out of the way he was down. As other workers where trying to save him, the costumers continued to walk over him; not allowing them to get to his aid. When the store was closed due to the death, some of the costumers were upset because they had been waiting for a long period to get in.
Next event was in California, at Toys 'R' us, there was a shoot out between to costumers. Nobody knows how it exactly happened. Some say that two women started fighting and then 'their' men showed each other their guns. And before most people could react they had killed each other. Hopefully it was not over a product; but there is never a justified death.
What is the underlying issue with these events is the shocking nature at which the American Culture has gotten to. I can not say that I am not apart of it as I am American. People who say that the United States have changed due to the election of Obama, are lying to ourselves. There has been no earthshaking change, the USA is the same today as it was four years ago when we reelected our President.

Walmart Worker Dies, Trampled by Shoppers

My Vote for Pope

Bishop Claude Champagne should be pope some day. Currently Bishop Champagne is currently auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Halifax. His responses to Women in the church, Race relations in Canada, Evangelism and Age of member of the church were outstanding.
Bishop Champagne's stance on women in the Catholic Church is progressive, yet diplomatic. He stated that the church needed every help they could get, but understood that the climate had changed. Did not say that the current climate was anybody's fault. But did say that it needed to change in time when the church was ready.
A question was asked to Bishop Champagne about how immigrants keeping to their non-christian religions were causing Canada to not be such a great nation. Because of course Canada was built by Christians and that is what lead it to be great. Now this was a hard question but he was able to answer it by using the same ideas that the person asked with. The question was asked with a lot of religious references. The answer was based on religious references, papal documents and Mother Teresa. Talking about how the religion does not matter, that we should love everybody no matter what their faiths are. Most importantly he was able to state, through references, that they are doing nothing wrong. He was able to do all of that with out bluntly saying you are completely wrong and a racist.
Bishop Champagne's lecture was about evangelism and social justice, and how the Catholic Church should evangelize. Interesting topic as a non-Catholic some parts were hard to understand. He was asked the question what was his stance on Protestant Evangelism, convert at all costs mentality. He answered this in a way that made me feel catholic. We should help each other no matter what, people do not have to become christian to get help. If they received help they do not have to become christian. We should not judge our work by if we convert but show the love of God through our actions. This is a important point: our relief work, religious or not, should not have any strings attached; we should do it because we know it is the right thing to do. Your goal in christian relief work should be about 'saving' people, but about helping people.
Bishop Champagne showed his ability to speak with respect when people were wrong. Talk about issues at length from his heart. Showed great skill on how to communicate to people who are stuck in their own view on their level. He is a great speaker and thinker but he is also very down to earth, and that is why he should be Pope some day.

Nader Stealing Missouri From Obama

Well the third party did it again, costing the democrats electoral college votes. But not really, the third party did it all over the states, for and against the democrats. North Carolina and Indiana went for Obama, while Missouri went for McCain; mostly due to third party votes.
North Carolina should have gone to McCain if Barr did not steal 25,000 votes away from him. This creates a small lead over Obama, thus McCain should have won North Carolina. The difference in NC was only 14,000 votes, McCain should have had a lead of 11,000.

Indiana also should have gone for McCain, the difference was also less than what Barr was able to get. Barr received 29,000 votes, the difference between the two big ones was just under 29,000. Indiana should have been the next Florida; making us stay up till dawn wondering who had won it.
Now to Missouri where Obama lost by less than 4 thousand votes, Nader won 17,000. So by simple math Obama won. But that is not looking at the bigger realization, the third party is here to stay and will make very small impacts. They may be small but they can change the electoral college.

Fireworks In Dubai

Well it looks like Dubai knows how to through a party. A new hotel opened in Dubai and its opening party was massive, 20 million dollars. The opening was also for the giant Palm island in Dubai. The project cost over 1.5 billion dollars, so 20 million is not that much more. It was a major celebrity event. The links that are provided gives a background on what happened and many different views of the event.

There were reportedly over 100,000 different fireworks that went off, over less than ten minutes. So if we assume that it was 10 minutes long that would be over 10,000 a minute. Over 150 per second. These are huge amounts of fireworks, so much that the clear air that the fireworks started in was filled with smoke.
What about the environmental damages created by the fire works? Well the fireworks' smoke will most likely be able to be track for quite some distance. But compared to the negative affects of the Palm development it is near to nothing. They double the length of the shore line for Dubai, they created a whole new ecosystem on the shore. Not to mention that it is a tourist attraction, so people will be flying there from around the world. Yes they will create many more airborne contaminates then the fire works ever created.
What about the current financial crisis? This fireworks display was not purchased in the last few month; it was purchased before any of the stock markets began to fall. The whole project actually started during the last major downturn in the economy. These fire works only cost 20 million dollars, while a single resort on the palm cost 1.5 billion dollars. That does not even include the costs to build the Island. So this even was a drop in the bucket.
This is just the first of three palms being created in Dubai, and there is a map of the world as well. The next opening is going to be even larger, so that means more fireworks or something else crazy and new. Don't worry the palms are good planning; they have many initiatives that are good planning.

BBC News Video of Dubai Fireworks

CNN Pictures of Dubai Hotel Opening
CNN News Article about Dubai Fireworks

MSNBC Pictures of Dubai Hotel Opening

Youtube Video of the Event
8 Min Youtube Video - homemade

Onion News

While reading numerous news articles from numerous news agencies, there was a feeling that the whole news was not being told to me. This search lead to Onion News, which is one of the best news networks out there. This is not a real news site but it does provide an important second look at some of the issues present in our society. Four videos that have interesting points of view will be focused on here, but there are many other good ones (and bad ones) on the site.

The growing gap between rich and super-rich is play on the classic conversation about the polarization in our society. Many of the points that people bring up about poor and rich in our society are brought up. Though they do show how our opinions and stances on the rich-poor gap are baseless. We really need to adjust how we think of this gap; this video helps the viewer critically examine the situation.

The next video is Eye on Autumn is the classic media hype around an everyday issue. This video examines the effects of a regular autumn week like it is a major news event. The news networks do hype many of the issues that they cover. This one is funny, with the dire predictions of children playing touch football and an increase of squirrel activities.

Should Animals be doing more to Fight for Their Rights is a group panel talking about the animal rights movement, PETA, in a way that is similar to the civil rights movement. This video shows that people say they are against and issue because they don't like one aspect. The part that should be making you think is; are you against and issue because of some small issue or are you against the whole thing and small issues is your excuse. One of the panelists is against water buffalo but for the rights movement, this is an example of using a small reason to be against a bigger idea.

The last video is a examination of the terrible fires that happen each and every year. This video puts a spin on it saying it is an annual tradition that everybody loves and enjoys. The is false, but ever land owner in that area knows the risk of them being there. They are rich and yet buy land that going to be destroyed. Why does the Californian government help these people out, if the problem when into areas that it was not expected that would be another story. These houses were built in an ecosystem that regularly has fire, and thus wild fires will occur.
Though Onion News is not a real news source it does allow the reader to take a second look at the issues present. None of the facts are true but some of the statements will allow the reader to create more realistic opinions on topics.

The Growing Gap between Rich and Super-Rich

Eye on Autumn

Should Animals be doing more to fight for their Rights?

Californians Gather to Celebrate Annual Wildfire Tradition