Lunar Eclipse

The Lunar Eclipse that was a few weeks ago now got me thinking, when was the last time that I sat and looked up at the sky and wondered what it was all about. During the summer time it is easy to take time to look at the sky, it is warm. The Lunar Eclipse was a chance for all of us to look at the moon and realize that we are not the only things on this world. The world functioned long before we existed and will function, maybe not perfectly, after we are gone.
I know that I wrote about this before when there was a beautiful full moon a few months ago. At the same time am sure that it should be discusses more. Our culture does not respect what is around us and how best to live our lives in it. Every time that I look at the night sky, the sky would work but the sky during the day is sort of boring, I realize how small we are. How we are destroying everything, that though comes through in cities where the stars are hidden.
One of my favorite experiences from traveling to New Zealand was when we sat in a parking lot, with no unnatural light around. The sky was filled with more stars can thought was possible. There are so few places in the world where you can do that, and they are all getting destroyed.

New Gas Tax

The BC government has just announced their budget for 2008 and it has a surprise, at least to me. The government is putting in place a carbon tax, which will be placed on fuel or cars and heating. The price will increase over 4 years to be around 8 cents per liter of gas. I guess BC does care about the environment and will give California a run for its money.
I think the tax is a wonderful idea, it will hurt people who use too much gas while allow people who have less get a benefit. The Government will reduce overall income tax because of the carbon tax. I am sure that there are people who are going to be very against it, and I understand and agree with some of them. Taxi drivers and private transit companies are going to be hurt the most and these people should be exempt from the tax. They are reducing the carbon foot print of the nation because each person does not need travel by themselves. One side that will be against it that I do not think has a valid reason is truck drivers. There is many cases where truck could be replaced by other modes of transportation, such as rail. I know that our economy is not set-up for the use of rail any more, but I think it is time to start to change.

The City of London in England has also done a similar measure recently to increase taxes on polluting cars. Cars that enter the center part of London have to pay a congestion tax. As of October 2008 cars the are very fuel efficient will not have to pay the tax, while those that are not fuel efficient will have to pay double the tax.

Both these measures will add another reason to by more fuel efficient vehicles. That and the price of oil went above 100 dollars again today. I personally think that fuel efficiently is good enough reason for me, but what ever...

Elections in Pakistan

Pakistan voted in their parliamentary elections and it appears that the current president is under pressure to change his ways. Pakistan has many issues and most of them are no fault of their own but due to the colonization of the West. In the current election the two opposition leaders have both one over twice the amount of the President's party. This may give them enough political power to even impeach the president, a move I do not expect. The Question is did the death of Bhutto have any major affect on the election, beside not having her as a possible prime minister.

Pakistan, just like most of the countries in Africa, still is influenced by European colonization. The Country of Pakistan is not based on one ethnic group like countries in Europe but based on a common religion. But with in that common religion there are many different beliefs. The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is based on how much of Afghanistan the British could control before they had to give up. This causes the some areas to have beliefs more similar to the Middle East while other areas are closer to the Sub Continent of India.
The USA has also had their influence as well. Pakistan is one of the major allies on the 'War on Terror'. This means that the USA wants the current Pres. to stay in power so they are able to continue the world saving friendship. This has caused the US to over look issues that if they occurred in other countries they would be complaining about. This has happened in Azerbaijan, Morocco and Turkey as well.

I believe that the death of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has not had a big impact on the election. But I think this election is happening in a timewill be a turning point for Pakistan, the assassination also occurred in this time of change.

Castro Out, Castro In

Fidel Castro has retired after 50 years in office, sure he was a dictator but 50 years is still a long time to be in office. Many people view him as a only negative person but I believe that he has done many things that make him a positive figure. He has created a health care system and a education system that is unique in the Developing world. Fidel has also protected his countries culture from becoming to American, and when you travel to Cuba there are few Americans that is aways a plus. He will most likely be replaced by his brother Raul who has been in power for over a year now.
The education system that is put into place is going to affect all Cubans when the embargo ends, which will not be soon. Many of the citizens of Cuba have higher education and have supplied the developing world with doctors. Cuba trades doctors for oil and other supplies with Venezuela. When the borders to the USA become open the richer American Cubans will return, but they are less educated so they will not be able to live the lifestyle that they would like. The opening of the borders will cause the American Cubans to lose all of their political power as well. They will stop being political refugees and become unwanted (but needed) illegal immigrants, they will be grouped will all of the other Latinos.
There is not going to be major change in Cuba for awhile, and in turn the USA policies towards it. This means that the retirement of Fidel will be a major event in his life but not in the time line of Cuba. If we want to really change the way that Cubans live on a daily basis we need to change the way that we live and stop using up more resources that we really need. A change in leadership will not fix the larger problem of inequality in the world.

Serbia's Divorce

Today the divorce is starting to have the affects that will shape European foreign policy for years. The EU is divided, there are riots, the USA and Russia are disagreeing, the EU may falter and crumble. The UN could show once again how it does not have any teeth due to countries like the USA/Russia/China.
The EU is unable to create a common stance when dealing with the 'new' country of Kosovo. The was a meeting where the leaders of the EU came together to talk about what should be done. And there was no common strategy agreement and every country will choose if they will recognize the new country. This is a bad omen because there was the general agreement that this kind of strategy did not work in the 1990s when thousands of people lost their lives in ethnic conflicts. There is a EU force being put into place in 120 days but will it be able to stop all of the conflict.
There is a divide through out the EU, it is not one region against another. This is a good sign because it means that the EU not breaking into its regions. It make take a while but it will grow back together and be stronger, but it will lose some of it's image.
Russia and the USA are using trying to divide Europe like during the cold war. Taking different sides on an issues and fighting for them even though this destroys most of the solutions. They appear to not realize that they have reduced amount of control and influence in Europe. Since the end of the cold war Europe is becoming more able to solve their own problems. If Russia and the USA continue to fight about the solution and the EU can find a solution then they are truly have no power in Europe.
Any solution that could be found can all be vetoed by certain countries at the UN. The UN is not perfect in most ways but this is one of the issues that may never be solved. The USA will support Kosovo independence at almost all costs. Russia will not support it because Serbia is Slavic and it could cause Russia to fall apart. China is worried about it because of the implication on Tibet and Taiwan.

On a side note: Turkey is so for their independence but they refuse to support a Kurdish state in their own country.

Public Transport is Good For You

So I was reading the news and found a wonderful article about public transit. A women accepted a bet to kiss the next person who got on the bus for 40 dollars. So she did and the fell in love and got married recently.
So I would suggest anyone who would like to meet the love of their lifes they should go and take the nearest bus and kiss and attractive person on it. Just think you could reduce your carbon footprint and tie the knot all the same time.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/080216/K021604AU.html

Best Family Day Ever

Today was the best family day ever, yes it may be the best family day in the history of family day. It would be not that hard to be the best ever because it is the first, it is also the worst ever as well. This day has allowed me to think about the meaning of family, since I am not with my biological family. I think that some times family can go beyond just the biology, to close friends.

Thinking of my family outside of the regular box started when I went to New Zealand for 1 1/2 months. It was not the experience, but a tv show that made me think about it. They were talking about the average Kiwi (person from New Zealand) and that they viewed their close friends as family.
I personally think that your family is more than just biological, they are people who that are close to you. I have many people who I consider family are close to friends, but it think of them more that just friends. I am not saying this because I hate my own family, I love them with all of my heart, even if we do not agree on everything. It may be influenced by the distance that my family is from me. My closest relative in distance is in Iowa, it takes two days to drive there. So I did not see them as often as some people, people at my church have filled the void of not seeing them throughout the year.

Always Reporting the Worst

I have read and believed for a long time that newspapers and the media are constantly reporting all of the bad thing that happen. This issue was realized for me when I was reading the KW record yesterday. I was looking at what they said about the recent approval of a 1 dollar fee to support a refugee. They only had around one line about it, but they had a whole article about how the radio station lost their funding. This I find shocking, why not report the feel good story about how university students are going to support refugee students. The story about the radio station is second in my mind.
This issue also ties into the issue about always reporting about deaths, even if the families don't really want it. There was a recent school shooting and the story is once again spread through out the media. Why do we only care about the bad things in life, is it inherent or are we conditioned to only care about those issues.

EU: Divorce and Rekindling Love

The European Union is going to be tested and hopefully come out stronger due to the issues of Divorce and Rekindling relationships this year. Yes, I am talking about Kosovo and Cyprus. Kosovo and Serbia have continued their divorce, some would say started. Cyprus on the other hand could be ending their separation that has been around since the 1970s.

Kosovo recently unilaterally declared their independence from Serbia. This act was not a surprise, since there has been no real control from the Serbian government since the 1990s. Serbia is the last part of the Former Yugoslavia, everything else has left. Their country has gotten smaller by 25% in the last 2 years. This would not seem to be a big lost but there is more than just the land. Montenegro was the last part of the former Yugoslavia connected to Serbia, which left in 2006. This meant that the nation for the Slavs in the Balkans was over and there was nothing left of the former nation. When Kosovo declared independence went much deeper, it is the historical homeland of the Serbian People. Their most important historical event happened in a land that has now declared their independence.
This is an important issue of the EU because it is happening in the 'backyard'. I would suggest the term in the living room/kitchen would be more appropriate. Serbia is almost surrounded on all sides by the EU, and will be completely surrounded with in 20 years. The EU is also putting in a fairly large peacekeeping group into Kosovo. They have also suggested that they would give advanced membership to Serbia because of all of the land that it has lost. The EU-Russian relationship is also going to be strained over the actions that they do. There are also countries with in the EU that do not want other countries to separate because then they could fall apart as well (Spain is an example).

The Rekindling Love of Cyprus, the Greek South and the Turkish North, could be a great story for 2008. In past decades it has been the North that have been holding back, then it was the Greeks in the 2000s but now it could be neither. The Greek Cypriots are holding a presidential election where all of the leaders are in agreement that there should be reunification of Cyprus. The current president who was the hard liner among the three front runners is now out of the race. This is a election that will go down in the history books as an exciting one, 3 candidates each getting 1/3 of the vote. The winner got 33.51 %, second place got 33.29 % and the third place got 31.79%, why do we not have election that good in Canada.
In the runoff both of the presidential candidates are compromising on the issue of reunification. This would be a positive note in Europe if reunification could occur, ending one of the longest peacekeeping missions the UN has ever been on. There is still the issue in my mind of the UK's military bases, but that is a whole other story.

Infrastructure

The Federal Liberal leader recently suggested that the surplus of money that that federal government has should be spent on issues rather than used for tax rebates. I think this is a wonderful idea, it was also suggested that the money would be going to infrastructure and the debt. Which is even better, why have then not done this already.

If the government had put all of the money that they gave to tax cuts in the last year to reducing the debt, there would be a significantly reduced. I wonder why the current conservative government has not done that, it would be a great way to show the liberals how they are better at managing money.
There are many layers of infrastructure, which all need to be improved. The issues about infrastructure that I think needs to resolved is if public transit or private car use will be the most important. I believe that the time of private car use being the most important way to travel is coming to an end. The lifestyle of using a car all the time has a huge price on infrastructure.
Many of the subdivisions that we live in are draining public money away from other projects, such as bridges and major roads. This is because of the increased roads that are put into place and managed in suburbia. There is also an increase in distance of utilities that have to be put in for each of these houses.

Pictures of Movies

I was watching the Astronaut Farmer, and I was taken aback by the beautiful images. I would have to say that those images of the beautiful landscape made the movie. With out them I would have not enjoyed the movie as much. I think that movies should focus on the beauty that is here on earth rather than making fake scenery. Our western culture is becoming to fake, when was the last time that you stopped while on the way to some where and just looked that the world around you.
If really enjoy movies where that plot line and the dialog become part of the background and the scenery and the cinematography takes your mind off of every thing else. A few movies have done this to me, the Astronaut Farmer for the wonderful landscape scenes. The director made a point of making some of the scene more beautiful than other films.
Lord of the rings, Narnia and Harry Potter have given me that experience too but it was different. For those movies it was not when they were made up scenes but just the natural beauty of the area. I am sure that they could have edited it but it still took me away. The scenes were also not the ones where they focused on showing off the scenery. Harry Potter it was when you saw the scenery that was around not of the school. Lord of the Rings it was not the lighting of the post through the mountains. Narnia it was not when they were in the snow looking out over the whole world. The moments where when plot was happening in front of the true beauty of the film and that the beauty is just the background.

Polarization of Society

When was the last time that you saw someone support a mix use development, or affordable housing. We are starting to not care about each other, we only care about ourselves. I know that I say starting but it is not starting it has been happening for a long time. Why do we not go back to the days that when we see someone in need we go and help them to the best of our abilities. I find that we are not even really helping our friends the extent that we should. I know that I do this too and I am part of the solution, and the problem.

I was reading a paper for one of my classes that stated that since we did not see people with different socio-economic levels we did not respect them for who they were. This was one of the reasons why the Left does better in downtown areas, support for the left was at every income level. There is an increase in population in the downtown core but they are in gated communities that do not really interact with the rest of the society. Will we become more like the USA where we are segregated by our income and social values, or will we follow the example of Northern Europe where they try to break the segregation.

Favorite Books

Well I have two favorite books, and one that comes in book form. These are not all of my favorite books, but they are still important books. They are the Giving Tree, the Lorax and Calvin and Hobbes. As usual they all come into mind because of a common theme. These all have a theme about the environment, yes even Calvin and Hobbes.

The Lorax if you have not read it is about a man who warns the world that they are destroying it. But nobody pays attention to him and they destroy the forest they need to use to survive. The very last seed goes to a little child who then has the responsibility to rebuild the forest.

The Giving Tree is completely different. It is a great story about unconditional love, but the tree dies by giving everything to the child and gets nothing back. I like to rewrite the story that the boy only takes a what he needs and the tree survives.

Yes Calvin and Hobbes has many environmental issues that are talked about in it. Garbage in Nature, how cold a building is, that feet are only present to use a gas pedal. These are all issues that are brought up in a funny manner. They are all issues that we have to deal with as well.

I would suggest that each and everyone of you read these stories, they should be in ever good library around the world

Being White, Rich and Male

I am a rich white male, I have so much privilege and don’t ever use it for good, or really acknowledge. I go through out my life never having to explain why I would want or do something. I do not have to worry about people being racist or having opportunities. I have so many options that I do not realize on a daily basis and that many people in the world around me will never be able to do.
I did not choose to be white or male, but that is how I was born. I know I do not make sense to some of my friends. As a white person I never have to worry about racism. I will never have some one not hire me because of my race. I will not be rejected as an applicant or an apartment because of the colour of my skin. I also will not feel scared in many situations that other will feel. I am a talk male who could fend of an attack that others would not be able to. I do not feel fear when I walk through a park or on a street by myself.
I am not rich by North American Standards; I would be apart of the middle class. In world standards I am wealthy beyond wealthy. I have the luxury to travel to BC to visit my sister, without having to really having to give something up to save for the trip. I am able to go to university, and not worry about my financial situation. I was able to get most of the things that I wanted as a child (not toy guns). I never had to really worry about having food on the table, not having enough to eat. The hungriest I have ever gotten was doing 40 hour famine, that would be a walk in the park for some people in Canada, not to mention the world.
I do not go around my life looking at all the ways in which I am privileged, I do some times…

Where I Want to go in the World

Well I want to go everywhere in the World, quite literally, but I know that a person could not do that and that there would be huge environmental impacts of that kind of travel. And there would also be mega costs involved. So I will describe three places where I would like to travel. The mud volcano near Sidoarjo Indonesia, Centralia and Palmerston Pennsylvania. If you do a quick search for these three things you will find a common characteristic. They were all 'natural' disasters that where created by us humans.

The mud volcano was created when an oil company was drilling for oil and made a little mistake. Well there was no oil but water and the pipe was not casted in steel the whole way down. This caused the water to mix with the mudstone and explode to the surface. This little volcano has destroyed an area the size of Central Park. And you can see it using Google Maps, although it is not quite up to date. This volcano has enough water that some say it will be going for quite a while. There have been no engineering solutions either.

Centralia used to be a community but now it is down to just a few. Most of them have gone away because the ground is literally on fire. Yup the ground is on fire. Centralia is located in an area where the ground is filled with coal, which caught fire and continues to burn. The ground is falling away because there is no longer the coal to support the ground. The fire has been going on for 45 years, and it will keep on going. Both of these incidents are because our society needs so many fossil fuels to keep it alive.

The last place I want to visit is Palmerston, Pennsylvania. It sounds like a wonderful community, but some areas of the hill will not grow anything at all. You can see it on Google Maps, it is just a grey area to the south-east. This was created with the pollution from a Zinc Plant. There has been many government funds given to the area to fix the after math but it is still present. There are two sides fighting over what they should do for the town; one says it is just fine the, other side says that the ground should be replaced. To make it more interesting people are moving there because it is a cheep location close to major markets.

Yes I know that these places do not make the beauty of the natural world, or mark how great humans can be. But we should always remind ourselves that we can destroy the world with out even really realizing it. Also we have destroyed certain areas so we can not even use them any more. National Geographic and A Walk in the Wood by Bill Bryson inspired me to write about this.

First Nations

The situation of the first nations in Canada needs to be addressed. I know that any idea that I put forward for a solution would be wrong, why because I am white. I know this is hard for white people to understand, but being white has many privileges and we do not recognize them ever. Every day we are put in a place of privilege because of the way that we look
Even though I can’t give unbiased solutions to the issue of how first nations fit into Canadian society, I will still give some ideas. Should we take all of the money that we spend on them away, keep the status quo or change drastically?
We should not take the money that we given them away, how would they survive on nothing. Yes we do give them money, but where would they find jobs with out help. They are unable to really raise funds because many reserves they do not own their land. This means that they cannot sell there house or use it as collateral.
Should we keep the status quo, no this is a terrible idea but it appears that is what our governments are doing. Not doing anything is making everybody mad, the first nations and others as well. How many protests does it have to take before the government takes action.
So that leaves the option take action on the first nations issue. There are many solutions out there which works for both everybody. Sure they are not perfect, can you ever really have a perfect world? But I am sure that if we put in place agreements with the first nations we will go a long way to helping our cultures to coexist peacefully.

First Nation Self Government

Of course these are my Western White ideas. Because I am not an overt racist but none of us can be completely void of any biases. The first nations need new agreements all across the country, there have been some positive ones occurring. The Tswwassen and Maa-nulth final agreements have all happened in the last year. There is also the Nisga’a agreement, Nunavut and ones in Labrador. These have all created controversy, mostly from people who do not understand the situation fully.
One of the examples that I believe should be spread through out Canada, is self government. This would create first nation governments through out Canada. They would have a few more powers than the local municipalities, they would enfranchise them and give them self determination. There would be controversy because only first nations would be able to vote in elections for these governments. If you would let everybody who wanted to vote for the government it would not be a government that would truly represent the local first nations.
I think this is the way that all future agreements should go. The first nations should be able to have control over a wide range of issues that they deal with locally. Health care, environment, schooling, culture, language are all examples. The first nations should also not get all of these powers at once; this would allow a smooth transition, allowing all of the governments phase into the new order.

First Nation Representation in Federal Government

As most of you know the only representation that first nations is through regular MPs or MPPs who represent a whole riding that they are apart of. This means that they do not have people to represent their issues. It is true that they have more representation in a democratic society, but it is still not a large amount of control. I am not focusing on local government representation because I have talked about that elsewhere. I think Canada needs to follow the example of New Zealand, which has Maori MPs in government. Maori vote in the election of local candidates as well as Maori seats which only they can vote for.
I know this goes against many peoples belief that we are all have the same amount of voice in what direction the country goes. I feel that the first nations need a large voice because they are one of the founding nations of Canada. The French already have lots of input into the direction of Canada because they have many seats in Parliament.
If Canada gets around to fixing the senate, why not add some seat for the first nations. If you follow the basic frame work of the attempted changes in the 1990s each of the provinces would have 10 seat and the territories could have 3 each. The first nations could have three senate seats where they could only vote for. There could be one for each of the different ‘groups’; Inuit, First Nations and Métis. Some would say that three seats would not do a whole lot, but I would contradict. If there was a common first nations party which would win each of those seats, and won at least one in each of the territories. This would allow them to have 6 votes out of 112 votes in the house, over 5% of the vote.
This would not drastically change the political landscape; the part would vote on issues as a bloc and would work with whatever party was in power. It would allow them to have a great voice in the country that they helped create.

Looking Up

When was the last time that you looked up at the sky and wondered where our place in the world is? For me it was the second week of class and I was walking to my night class. It was a beautiful night, not completely clear but almost; the bright yellow moon was rising full through the trees. The snow on the ground glowed and the clouds left in the sky looked white.
Nights like that make me wonder what is our purpose in the universe. I know on this planet we are the ones ‘in charge’. What is out in the beautiful universe, will it some day change our mind, our own lives that are so small.

Stave Churches, My Heritage

Well I have gotten a comment from a close friend who said that my posts where too long and used too much brain power to read. I told her that I did not really care but I will try to put posts that don't make you think too much from time.
This post is about my heritage, my family is from Norway and Northern Europe. My relatives that are from Norway are from Hallingdal, which is near Olso. There traditions still are alive in the generations of my family even though we have been in North America for many years.
Taking one of my classes I learned that I was homesick, or nostalgic, for Norway. The class is wonderful and I learn a lot about myself each week. That week we were talking about our place in the world, and I realized that being Norwegian was an important part of who I am. One of my other friends said that you should always have a place where you want to go but never get there. I understand what she meant by that. If I went to Norway I do not think I would feel the same when I got back.
Stave Churches are very Norwegian and Hallingdal has some excellent examples of them. The Torpo and Gol stave churches. These churches are not build large out of stone but smaller out of wood. They are the cathedrals of the Nordic Nations, but they are not massive but beautifully small (in my view).

New Energy From Body Heat

There are two new and exciting sources of energy I think you would like to know about. Both of the new sources of energy deal with energy that humans create. The first one is using the heat from one building to heat another. While the other one can recharge your cell phones as you walk. I am really excited to see both of them in the real world if they get there.

The heating of another building is being put into place right now in Sweden, they are cutting edge on the environment. The central train station in Stockholm is too hot in the winter time and they have to cool the building in order to make the travelers comfortable. They have enough left over heat to heat 15% of a new office building next to the station. If it works it will be the first building in the world that heats another building. I think that this is a very interesting idea, it expands on the idea of having many buildings being heated by one central plant. If all of the building in Stockholm could be built sharing there heat they could reduce their costs.
Sweden also has trains running on cow manure, a subdivision that collects urine for farm fertilizers and apparently has a fairly good planning policy for 'suburban' growth.

The other interesting idea was created by Canadians what powers electronics from walking. (the team is 1/3 or less Canadian, cbc skews the facts). The device attaches to your knee and when you walk to moves back and forth to create energy. The process transfers 100% of the energy put in to the device into what ever is charging. The part that they do not mention is that it is really heavy and that it take a lot of energy to walk with it anywhere. This is a product that will most likely not be but into the market place for a really long time.
This product does not appear to help make our lifestyle more sustainable. How much energy is being put into making each of these products and is more that energy being kept into the grid because the person does not have to charge their phone the normal way. Sometimes I feel that people just look at the end product and what it can do but not what it takes to make that end product. I remember having discussions with somebody about building a new building with recycled materials and make it have a zero carbon foot print. Then we went on talking and we figured out that there was already a building nearby that did all of the uses that they wanted the new building to do. We realized to reduce the carbon impacts of the activities they should not build the new building but just use the original one.
Building sustainable is always an interesting thought, if you build a new building on a greenfield (nothing has been there before), than you are causing urban spreading (sprawl is uncontrolled). On the other hand if you tear down a building to make a sustainable building, then you are destroying a building that you could use. This makes it hard to figure out how to actually develop in the most environmentally friendly way.

I like the idea of new ways to produce power that is not based on oil and gas but at the same time we have to look at these new systems and think what use of them really are?? I also found out that the University of Waterloo has an institute for sustainable energy.

Availability New Species

I have been wanting to talk about all of the New Species that are found, but I found that I had enough other stuff to talk about. Maybe to much stuff to talk about. There have been few new species that have been found recently even though I thought that most have been found, or there are no new ones. The two that made new this week where about an Elephant Shrew and a Warbler.
The Elephant shrew was found in Eastern Africa, and is about the size of a cat. Elephant shrews are not really shrew, they are more closely related to elephant but look like shrews. So I guess the name actually fits. Eastern Africa is not a unique place to find new animals last year there was a new genus of primate discovered in the region. This is also a region where there is land that has not been looked by scientific eyes, which means that science may never know about them. I am sure that people have seen them, even if the world never knows about them. There is major threats to the natural spaces in this area of Africa, oddly enough wars can actually protect these places. When there was talk about peace in DRC there was fears that the wilderness areas may become developed, sadly enough there has been a war there for many years.
The warbler the was found has a different story. It was found in Nepal inside of a already conserved location. It is the missing link between two other subspecies of warbler, these to other ones were on opposite sides of India. The new Warbler is geographically in between these two other populations. It was found in an already protected location which gives the possibility that the new species will not be destroyed by us. Protected areas around the world do not have the same standards. It is no fault to many developing countries if they are not able to truly protect their parks. Why would a country be able to protect game animals when it can not feed their own population. It is very unlikely that people will purposely go out and kill these birds, but they may destroy the environment that they rely on.
This issue of developing countries having to protect our environment reminded me when I was looking at charities one day. The charity is called African Conservation Foundation, which is raising money to help conservation in Africa. It was commended by the Dalai Lama in 2002 for the work that they have done. I do not think that this is a bad idea, but I am afraid that people will say that they are helping nature in Africa and they can destroy it over here.
They also have products that you can buy which the money will go to the charity. And I really like this painting, too bad it costs a little more that I can afford at this time. The painting is of an elephant and all the money goes to elephant causes. One of the programs is actually mitigation of the damages that elephants can cause on rural communities.

http://www.africanconservation.org/component/option,com_ezcatalog/task,detail/id,6/Itemid,4/

Oh How I Hope Airbus is Wrong

Airbus recently came out with their predictions over what the air industry will be like in the next 20 years. They are projecting a 5% growth in the industry each and every year from now until ever (maybe not). This growth in my view is not going to happen due to a few issues. These issues are climate change, end of cheap oil, airbus being optimistic (because they want people to by their planes).

Yes Climate Change is happening, I use the term climate change because global warming does not make sense as a term. The world is not just getting on average warmer, there are also changes in the weather and seasons. This means the impacts go beyond just warming up. It also should be noted that Europe will get colder due to climate change. The world climate is changing not necessarily just warming up.
So how climate change will affect the air industry is through peoples knowledge about how bad it is to fly. I know that flying is a great way to visit people and travel to places you have never been, I do it too. I think that the culture will change that we do not have the right to fly but the luxury to travel around the world when ever we would like. I can also see countries putting restrictions on travel, I have mention the European ones. If people, including myself, start to change the way they live because of new respect of the environment then all of these predictions will be thrown out the window. It is true that the planes that they are making are more efficient than the average car. But cars to not travel across oceans.

The good old end of cheap oil, if you have not heard of this term it will become more important as time goes on. This idea is that oil is in a finite amount and that we are using it to fast so supply will go down and prices will go through the roof. This would have a huge impact on the airline and most other industries. How could the airline industries continue to fly around the world in the price of oil is very high. They can pass it on to the customer, but they will already be paying higher prices for heating, food and most other products. There are questions about when the end of cheap oil will occur. Will it happen in the next few years, has it already happen?? I thought the end of cheap oil had occurred when the price of oil when over 100 dollars but then it went right back down (well not all the way). There also are not alternatives that are viable, ethonal is a joke. The produce of the alternatives usually take about the same amount of energy going into it as you get out of it.
When the price of oil goes up only certain people while be able to fly, maybe the person who bought an A380 for personal use. Don't worry he also has a 747 as a backup. I feel that the airbus report is view the world through the eyes that it will stay the same, not that oil will go up.

The airbus report is optimistic, I think this is because they are the ones who are making the planes. I would doubt that they would say that the airline industry is going to die next year and we are not going to make any money and go bankrupt (this is not going to happen, an example).

There is also the issue of urban area extending their airport facilities, Queenstown NZ is expanding their airport. This is to bring it up to international standards, that is for large planes. They can already take smaller planes at that location but they want to expand it, it will take two years to move all of the supplies that they need for it. For background Queenstown is a tourist town that needs many tourists to survive, also one of the tourist traps in NZ. They should be looking at alternatives if the price of flying is to increase.
They could put the AGV in place, it would only take 1 hour from Dunedin, and take 2 hours from Christchurch. I am sure this is not going to happen but it would be good to increase the rail service in NZ.

I hope that Airbus is wrong because then our western lifestyles would have changed and the rest of the world would have not gone down our path. Our lifestyle is one of selfcenteredness, wanting everything we can get at the expense of other. The good old 'tragedy of the commons'.

Spain and International Law

Well Spain is doing it again, trying to make their court system to enforce international law. Spain in the past has charged former dictators from other countries, Pinochet is an example. Pinochet was never put on trial for the crimes that were done during his time in power, the British decided that he was too old and sick to be put on trial. This time the Spanish government is putting some of the current Rwandan government officials on trial, over their actions after the genocide had occurred.
I find it interesting that they will charge the people who stopped the genocide and not as well charge the people who did the genocide. It appears like they only care when the actions go against their citizens. Also the Spanish were not even in Rwanda during the civil war and genocide, this begs the question could people in Rwanda sue the Spanish government over their lack of action in Rwanda. Or even better a western country charge them with crimes, just like what they are doing now.
This whole issue could be diluted if there was an international court of justice. Which would be able to look at these conflicts without one government charging another one. It would hopefully try to take the politics out of the situation. This court of course was undermined by the Lovely government of George 'W' Bush. One of the many good legacies of that administration.

Super Tuesday and other American Stuff: Part Two

Well my grand plan was to talk about the results of Super Tuesday on the primary season, but not all of the information that I want has been released. I will talk about Super Tuesday when it does come out. Hopefully by the end of the week.
I have been looking at some of the exit polling for the primary and have found some things interesting, I will only mention them now and talk about them at length at a later time. Hilary appears to have support of the poorer, less educated and people who are struggling. Obama has the support of the more Conservative voters. Both of these are important groups that they seem to be splitting. It also looks like the Republicans are going to be voting in McCain. I know that it is not set in stone but it looks like he might be able to do it.

There were also huge storms in the American South that caused many loss of life and damage. I know I have talked about the crazy weather that has happened this winter before. The tornadoes happening in February is quite shocking. This is not tornado season at all, which i was always scared of a child. Does that mean that the tornado season has expanded into the winter, is this a one time thing or is it going to happen from now on??

Public Transit (oh what fun)

Well I found out some fun and exciting news in the past few days, both about public transportation. Both are positive in my view, but one is not positive to public transportation. The first is about the new expansion of the Grand River Transit into the countryside. The other is about the O-train that was stopped and now the blame is going around. There is also a possible transit strike as well.

So the positive story is about the proposed expansion of bus service in the Waterloo Region. This expansion will affect the whole region. Grand River Transit will be having a trial bus service to Elmira this fall. This will of course be a trail program which would only run during the rush hours, going from Conestoga Mall to Elmira with a stop in St. Jacobs. This is truly new idea for the Region of Waterloo to have bus service to the outer communities. This bus may not make a lot of money and have the ridership to keep it in service. On the other hand the GRT is pushing the envelope of public transit. There has been the idea floated around that the new Rapid transit system would be extended to along the same route at some time. This could be a way for the GRT to build up ridership so when it goes into place there is already ridership. That is what is happening with the Ixpress, increase ridership along the route with out putting in a lot of capital of a whole system. The Region is currently looking into their options for a rapid transit system. They are looking at the routes and the type of technology, I do not know too much about the route but they should go with LRT. I hope by the end of this year they will announce what their final decision will be.

The other Public transit issue is with O-train, one of my favorite topics ever. What a terrible example of what you should do with public transit, ie it is bad, really bad. The whole process is being controlled by the politicians who are trying to one up each other, and that's not a good thing. So the new news about the issues is that the current environmental minister is under an probe about how he could have influenced the municipal election.
To give some background on the issue the O-train is LRT located in the Nations capital. It was a pilot program that did go from nowhere to nowhere, but there were more riders than they expected. So the former city council voted in favour of putting the system in place with expanded route and service. They signed a contract and were going to start it but then the municipal election occurred. This is when Mr. Baird comes in, he was asked by one of the people running in the election to with hold the money the federal government was going to spend on the system. This caused the candidate that was for the system to lose the election, which caused the system to loose a vote after the election.
If you thought it was that simple you are wrong, it is fairly complicated. Mr. Baird had no legal write to do the actions that he did, and some believe he did to get back at the former mayor who ran against Mr. Baird many times. The city had already signed a contract so they are now facing lawsuits from the companies that have signed the contracts, they want their money. The LRT was voted on twice after the election, it passed once then lost the second. The first vote was conducted when one of the members of council was on vacation, so it was done again after the person came back. Also the city of Ottawa was the only city that had their money with held, there was 10 other projects in place that did not have their money with held or reviewed. Only Ottawa had this happen to them.
The positive point of the story is that the federal government is getting in trouble for not supporting a transit program. I hope this will cause the government to support even more programs. It will also hurt the governments environmental message, because they destroyed a major advancement for the Ottawa transit system. That will hopefully change their attitude and do more for the environment.

There is also a threat of a strike in the Waterloo Region by the transit workers. If you were planning on taking your significant other to some where on Valentines day by bus, be careful the buses may not be running. So yes even though there are good situations in the public transit they can all be over shadowed by politicians who only look out for themselves.

Canadians View of Themselves on the World Stage

This post will tie in some of my thoughts from different posts. These thoughts might have not be stated, but I was thinking about them while writing. I personally think that Canada, and western countries can do a whole lot more to change the world for the better. I feel that currently we are sitting on our hands to scared to make real change or put pressure on others to do so.

I was reading the Globe and Mail and found a very interesting article. It was about a poll about how Canadians view themselves in the world. I think we have a two rosy view about how we influence the world. Yes we are more positive that our southern neighbour but we are not the same as some European Nations. The poll also said that we think that we have grown stronger on the political stage in the last 20 years, something that I disagree with. But I do agree with the almost 90% that says we can do more to strengthen our position.

To say that we are a positive influence on the world would be correct but to say that we are the best people like this I would disagree. When was the last time that our forces went on UN peacekeeping missions. We gave up the easiest one in Cyprus being replaced by other nations, this has been stated by some as one of the safest peacekeeping jobs. Look at our stance at the recent climate change conference, not matter what side you are on the Canada stance did not help. The Canadian government did not try to make a final decision possible, was just on the side that we all have to agree. That is very helpful. The European Union will pass us as the most positive influence in the world, if they have not already. There are many nations in the EU which give more money as aid to developing countries that we do. Some have even met the .7% of GDP goal that the UN had put forward many years ago.

Over the last 20 years we have had some positive and negative actions accounted to our position in the world. The positives in our view out way the negatives which makes us feel great on the inside, when we should look closer at them.

One of the major positive things we do is Peacekeeping, it is also one of the negatives as well. Many people have heard of Rwanda where we had a few peacekeepers who would not leave during the civil war there. but when you look at the situation, why was there only a few people there? Why did we not as a country rise up and say that we are going to send more troops to protect the people, even replace the Belgian troops when the left. To be honest it was a few good Canadians, not us as a whole. There was also Bosnia where we were leading the UN peacekeepers, and did we try to protect the Bosnians, to a certain extent. The UN troops did not go out of their way to try to bring peace to the situation. Then their is Somalia where Canadian troops did inappropriate things, the peacekeeping mission did leave before the conflict was solved as well. Yes we have in the past put a lot of peacekeepers around the world, but we should not think that we are special because of that.

Another issue that I think has destroyed Canada's stance over the last 20 years is when the world gets together to talk what does Canada do. These talks include climate change, free trade, AIDS. Canada to my knowledge does not take a non western point of view at any of these conferences. We do not have the will to say well this is our point of view how about we try to find a broader common good. We look at just our own good a lot of the time. Have we forgiven the debt of any country recently, with out any strings attached? Have we sponsored any major vaccines with any of the major diseases? Have we stated that this is what we believe but lets negotiate to find a solution that we all can agree with.

This poll was done to get Canadians talking about our position in the world. 88% of the people polled believe that Canada can strengthen our influence around the world. I think we should get on that write away. We could do it through the political process, or giving with our own money. I ask myself these questions all the time. When was the last time that I have gave money to a charity?? How often do I look past each of those donation boxes at stores when I have spare change. Do I donate money because I can, or because I feel like I have to. My goal at the moment is to donate any of my spare change that is not a Loonie or a Quarter because I need those to do wash when ever I see one of those boxes.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080205.wworldpoll05/BNStory/National/home

AGV (What A Name)

Well as most of you have guessed I am talking about the AGV for my last post of the day. The AGV in my view is going to change Europe on the long term and I hope that the change will even spread to North America. It could go from Vancouver to Halifax in less than 24 hours. This would shock the most Canadians and they would have no idea what to make of it. I am sure it would also collapse some industries in Canada as well. If you are still wondering what AGV then you should read the BBC News more. Or just look it up on wikipedia (joke wikipedia does not have much about it). So you are still wondering what it is?? Well it is a new train that is going to go 360 km/h along the high speed tracks in Europe. I decided to start my blog in a different way this evening, I will not do it again.

Well I was looking at the how this will change the rail travel around Europe, and as usual I hope it will come to Canada. I will not really look into the specs of the train, because honestly I do not know them, or understand, so I can not have an opinion on an issue I do not understand. So I will be looking at how the trains can speed up the system in Europe, what would new rail routes go and what they would mean (just my thoughts). In Canada routes would look like (my opinion), what it would mean for travel times.

European travel would change with this new train, it will start to challenge the plane for the fastest times in travel. The AGV when in service will travel 1000 km in 3 hours, which is fairly impressive. I know that planes travel at much greater speeds but in Europe the travel distances are not that great. Lets consider if you are traveling from Paris to Berlin and compare the travel time, I cannot compare costs because I do not want to spend the time (do not know the true costs of the travel). The plane will take an hour and 45 mins to travel between the two cities. The train will take 3 hours I know that is not the best example, but security at the airport could extend the travel time. It is fairly close to the time of the plane but if you are pressed for time the plane would win.
The next flight am looking into is from Paris to Amsterdam, which I am using as a rough estimate of the distance to cities like the Rhineland of Germany, Brussels, Frankfurt and Bern. They are all around the same distance, I am leaving out London because of the channel tunnel, I do not want to make generalization when there is a body of water in the way. The plane time along this route would be 1 hour and 15 mins, the train on the other hand would be 1 hour and 30 mins. This makes the train very competitive, fifteen mins is not that large of a difference.
For an example of a place in England that could have highspeed rail lets compare flying and taking the train to Manchester from London. Well you can not fly between them so this will not be an example. And I was totally looking forward to it, the train would have taken less than an hour to get there. To drive it would have taken over 3 hours, I think the train would win over driving any day.

I have thought about new routes that could be put into place to increase ridership every now and then. The areas that I feel need to have improved highspeed trains are not the core countries. France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy have good systems in place. Spain on the other hand has a wonderful system being put in that would have almost everybody with in a short trip of highspeed rail, which would be amazing. I think the new areas for highspeed rail are in the new EU countries, such as Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. These countries can form important links with in the European rail chain.
In the atlases that I have looked at recently there are no major rail links between Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia which do not go through a non EU country. I am not saying these countries are going to destroy trains that go through their lands, but travelers will have to go through some sort of customs. If a highspeed link when from Warsaw to Tallinn, stopping at Riga and Kaunas. This would open the Baltic nations to the rail system of the rest of Europe (I use Baltic roughly because Estonia is Scandinavian). The route would take 3 hours to travel along compared to the 13 hours and 30 mins it currently takes by car. A plane along that route would take 2 hours, which is shorter, and Warsaw would most likely not be the final destination for these travelers.
The other route that I was thinking about would be a connection between Vienna and Athens, also connecting with Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia. This route could be used by many tourist who travel to Greece, as well as help development in Romania and Bulgaria. This route would be fairly long and would not compete with air travel unless incentives were introduced. To drive the route it would take 30 hours to drive, taking a train would be 7 hours, short in comparison. Planes on the other hand would make the trip in only 2 hours and 15 mins, so unless you want to take the train for a specific reason flying is much faster.

These comparisons are not done looking at possible train routes, I am assuming that the trains would travel along the same route as the roads. These have just been rough estimates. The highspeed rail network in Europe is becoming more integrated by creating Railteam, which is like airline alliances. The only issue with them is that the European Commission still what them to compete on prices. I think the trains are competing the airlines and do not have to compete amongst themselves. But I bias to trains...

Now to talk about if the AGV was put into Canada what kind of impacts would it have on Canadians and where it would go. I am sure that this will not happen, not after the wonderful Turbo experiment of the 1970s have destroyed any attempts of high speed rail for many years to come. The future could be changed if the price of oil continues to increase to record levels that cause drive to become to expensive for us to drive to other cities.
Canadian routes would not span all across Canada, but just in certain areas that have high density of urban centers. By this I mean that there would be no reason to create a cross Canada rail system, even though that is what is needed in the long term. The areas where I think this train would be beneficial would be between Windsor and Quebec, Edmonton and Calgary. There could be future expansion from Calgary to Vancouver and from Quebec out east to Halifax. Those expansion would only occur after a long time and a large increase in the price of oil.
Looking at the Quebec-Windsor Corridor it would be the best place currently for a highspeed rail. The major urban centers that are located in this route would be: Quebec , Trois-Rivieres, Sherbrooke, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Oshawa, Peterborough, Toronto, Kitchener, Hamilton, St. Catharines, London, Sarina and Windsor (just to name a few). These cities would not be on one line but a few lines that have spurs going to other urban areas. I am sure I left a few from my list, it is not complete by any means and I am sorry if you feel offended because I left you out. Over 1 million people travel between Toronto and Montreal which could all be transfered to rail if the service was developed enough (don't know the actual number, could be over 4 million). The length of time on a plane would be 1 hour and 30 mins of travel, while a train would take around 1 hour and 30 mins of travel. When you consider how connected both of the airports are to public transportation the rail option becomes better and better.
The other route is the Alberta corridor, Edmonton to Lethbridge, same with the other corridor most of the travel would be going between two cities. These cities are Edmonton and Calgary, which would take less than an hour by the new trains in Europe which would be the same as the travel time between them on the train. I do not know as much about this corridor but it is experiencing unprecedented growth, and the Albertan government has money. This could be the right mix for creating a highspeed link.
For interest sake it would take a while by train to travel across Canada would still take too long. It would take 7 hours to travel across Canada by plane, while train it would take 18 hours. If you where able to take a night train and sleeping on it for 8 hours I guess you could manage it, currently it is around 5 days I think.

I am sorry how long it is, I should put this effort into writing papers and I would be done them all already. I also have too many topics to blog about, maybe I should just blog all day (I will talk about the primaries tomorrow).

The Isotope Issue

How does a reactor shutting down in Canada cause a world wide crisis?? If you do not know about the issue a reactor that creates medical isotopes going off line because it was viewed as unsafe. This reduced the number of medical isotopes in the whole world, causing the government to over ride the decision that it was unsafe and bring it back online. This caused controversy over should it be turned back on and why was the government reaction the way it was.
Yes there were a lot of issues around the reactor, I was reading today that it could have been a non issue. If the Canadian organization would have cooperated with the other manufactures of the medical isotope then they could have increased their supplies to reduce the effect of the Canadian reactor. All of the Canadian companies involved are blaming each other for the miscommunication about the reactor information, and telling the other people involved. I would think that the companies would realize that they are the ones to blame and make the right decision and tell everybody that they made a mistake. I know that saying that they made a mistake does have legal issues surrounding it. They could be sued because they are admitting guilt, our culture needs to change about guilt. A sorry can go a long way.
The reactor if you are wondering is back up and running, and even better it is now up to code. So that means if an earthquake hits the region where the reactor is located no nuclear accident will occur. Yup that is why the reactor was taking off line the fear of a Natural Hazard.

My Love For Lightning

Last night when I was about ready to go to bed, the room light up with a flash, then I heard the thunder. I love lightning, to be it is a sign of summer, a large storm is happening, when the storm is over the world will look, feel, smell different. Last night was not one of those wonderful storms. It was in the middle of winter and it was raining, should have been snowing but it was raining. This has been the story of this winter, at least to me.
The first time I saw lightning in winter was my last winter in highschool. That was 3 years ago, 2005 I believe. It was I think the second week in January and I was in London, On. It was snowing, unlike the rain of yesterday, and when I was falling asleep the lightning happened. I thought at that time I would only see that once and made a mental note about it (I guess my mental note worked). Now on the other hand I think it is kind of Normal to have thunder and lightning during the winter time. I know that it is not normal and we have to be worried about it but I have seen it happen many winters since the first time. I have become accustomed to the lightning, what will the climate have to do in order to shock us into realizing that something is not right.
I have found this winter one of many extremes. Snow to no snow, cold to warm. This year it felt like winter was never going to come. Then when it did it came like crazy, snowing where i was up to a foot or more. Something I have not seen at that location ever. But with in a week the weather had removed most of the snow, the temperature rose and it rained, causing most of the wonderful snow to be gone my Christmas. It snowed again and I hoped that the snow would stay for good, I love snow, the first week back at school was wonderfully warm causing all of the snow to melt, even large piles which I thought would not melt till spring. Then recently their was so much snow in my location that we had a snow day, I think we could have actually had a day of school but I do not mind missing school. Then last night less than a week later it was raining and we had lightning.
I hope that our winter will be a 'normal' one where it snows and the snow stays until spring when it melts and floods everything. The weather appears to be going up and down for the next while so the cycle my continue. There has even been snow in Palestine and Iraq, too bad snow does not bring peace.

If you want to see more where the lighting has occurred here is a wonderful website: http://www.theweathernetwork.com/lightning

Super Tuesday and other American Stuff: Part One

I am really interested in the US political process, which is becoming very interesting tomorrow (Super Tuesday). I have been watching the US primaries with interest and I do not know who is going to win and I can not wait for the results, even if it does not come out until august. I read two articles that dealt with the US today: How many Canadians would want to vote in the US elections http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/02/01/poll-cbc.html,
and the next one is about how much money the US is spending in their budget http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/080204/K020404AU.html.

As a dual citizen I have the lucky ability to choose which election I am able to vote in. Some thing 15% of Canadians would also like to part take in as well. On the other hand 8% thought that who won did not matter to Canadians at all. This may be a hopeful wish, if a terrible president gets in it will not affect us. I believe that any world leader no matter how small the country can cause major chance throughout the world. Another issue that came up in the survey that 50% of Canadians thought that the USA stood out as a negative force in the world. We as Canadians we need to look at that issue closely. We are tied to the United States in many of our policies and in Geography.
Are we going to stay closely tied to the US or are we going to branch out of North America and become more closely connected to another group of nations. There are many differences between Canada and US, but at the same time we are more and more alike. What is the other group of nations that we would be connected to??

One of the ways that we are alike, to be perfectly honest, is our multicultural policies. I know as many Canadians we think that our policies are much better. They are in name only, once you start looking at the affects and goals they are almost the same. We also have major discrimination based on colour, which we refuse to admit. There was a case in Quebec where the non-white workers had to eat in a different lunch room which did not have any heating. They also did not have access to a proper washroom facility either. This case did not happen in the 1960s or even the 1970s; it occurred after 2000. This is a fact that I found shocking. There is also the issue of reasonable accommodation; which is presently occurring in Quebec as well, I am not trying to pick on Quebec (Quebec should have special rights [another blog again]). This is happening in areas where there are not an immigrant problem, if there can ever be one....
Another issue that is close to my heart, is the environment. Both of our current governments are terrible with the environment. It is true that we are not going completely against the rest of the world when it comes to the issue of climate change. But we are also saying that we cannot go forward without the US, which means that we will have to agree to everything that they want in order to do anything productive. Why can we not be unafraid to stand up to the US, and I know that the current government does not agree with the rest of the world. So nothing is really going to happen anyways.
There are also other issues where we are different: birth rates, urban governments, government power, religious stances.

Who else would we join is a very interesting issue that I have thought about numerous times. Would we even have another group to join, I do not think there is another group that Canada could associate with. There is the EU, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, and the Commonwealth.
The EU is the region that has the most similarities, but we would never be able to join. To Join the EU we must prove that we are European, which we are not in the slightest way. I know that we are based on a European system and were once a colony of Europe. But we are not European, if Morocco can not join we have no chance at all.
Latin America could be an option, going right over the US to their southern neighbours. But there is the issue of geography, how could a system be put into place that has a huge barrier, the US, in the way. I know that technology based world this is becoming less of an issue. There is also the issue of the common good, what would be the point of the organization. The Latin American Countries have many different pressing issues that they have to deal with. I know this sounds bad but Canada is too developed to be in a block with the Latin American countries. The Canada government would destroy it with their policies.
The next group that I though of is Australia and New Zealand. These are both former colonies with similar issues and problems that need to be dealt with. We all have indigenous peoples who have been mistreated for many years. Both have the issue with immigration and how to include them in our collective culture. This is an issue of geography, how would a block that goes all the way across the world function. We are too spread out.
The last grouping is the Commonwealth. This has many issues involved with it. We are a member of the commonwealth, which is not completely just former British Colonies. This does have the of geography and social inequalities. The Commonwealth is spread all over the world ranging from rich countries to very poor how would be create a common good that would span all of our interests.
We as Canada have no other viable alternative to the US so we have to deal with it and remain connected to them. Through the good times and the bad.

The other article deals with the amount of money being spent on by the US government 3 trillion dollars. This sounds like a heck of a lot, well it is, but it is only a 1/3 of their debt. Yes the US debt is 9 trillion dollars, which is massive. Like the US the Canadian government does not really seem to care about the debt that we have created over these many years. The recent tax cuts that the government put forward could have reduced our debt by 10%, which would have been impressive. Then the Conservatives could have said they are different in a positive way. The worst part of the US spending is that an idea to reduce the deficit, which is 400 billion, is to cut back spending for social programs. I think the real way to solve the issue of the US is to increase money on social programs, reduce the money going to the military and finally end the ridiculous idea that everyone can own a home of their own.

I know that this does not really have to do with Super Tuesday, but I am sure these would not have been as large of issues if Super Tuesday was not around the corner.

Chad-Darfur-Sudan

Well as many of you should know there is political issues in Chad, Sudan and Darfur, maybe even spreading into the Central African Republic (CAR). Sudan is a country whose borders are based on the political unit that the British Empire put into place a long time ago. The way it was created means there is not common nation for this country. This has caused civil wars which have occurred in the south, east and west. The current civil war is in the west of the country and is spreading to Chad and CAR.
The Chad government is currently under attack from rebel forces, which are now fighting in the capital. The Chad government says that the rebels are being funded by Sudan who does not want the EU peacekeeping force to be put into place. This brings up some issues in my mind (as usual). What is the world going to do about Darfur, what is the reaction to the fighting in Chad.

I will start off with the reaction to the current situation in Chad. France currently has forces in the Capital of Chad, N'Djamena, and they are going to stay neutral. Their job at the moment is to protect foreign nations before they can be taken away to safety in Gabon. This in my view is fairly similar to what happened in Rwanda. After the bloodshed began many western nations sent troops to protect their citizens but would not help protect the people who were being attacked. This is something that should never happen. Even if a army is trying to stay neutral, they still have the moral responsibility to protect human lives. I know involvement in a civil war could look bad for the French government, they are currently viewed as supporting the government. I feel that a government should protect human life, what are is the French army there for anyways??
I also find it upsetting that the EU forces are not moving into eastern Chad during this time of conflict to protect the refugees from Darfur. I am sure that those peoples situation is not improving, most likely becoming worse now that there is turmoil in the country that they are seeking support in. Aren't peacekeepers suppose to go into a troubled region to create peace??

On the other hand what should the world do about Darfur, if they follow the example of what we did in the south there will be no positive outcome. What we did in the south was next to nothing. I do not think that anything positive will happen in Darfur for the next year or so. But I hope that I am wrong, because that will mean the world does actually care. When was the last time that peacekeeping mission went to somewhere it really mattered. And if they were present when did it actually have the desired affect?? Well I do not know about each and ever event that the UN has been apart of, but many major conflicts have been over looked by the UN.
The UN is by far not perfect but I am sure that it is not the only reason why peacekeeping does not work properly. I would place most of the blame on Western countries that have the resources but do not act. It is really necessary for our western nations to have huge militaries which do not use their knowledge to a large extent. I believe that the western world should create a Military branch that would go on peacekeeping missions through out the world. I know this would be a hard political sell to the people in many nations.

This brings into mind the song by John Mayer, waiting for the world to change. We are waiting or the world to change so that we can make a real difference. I know waiting may not be the best thing to do but that is what I feel like we are doing at the moment

End of Inefficiency

I have found a new person who I would like to meet, the list has grown quite long (one day I will write it down for all of you to see). He's name is Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the name makes him sound like a English Noble, but I do not think he is. He has worked in the upper rings of power in Shell, HSBC and other companies. He is also the Chair of the Foundation of the Global Compact, which is a fairly progressive idea. These are not the reasons why I decided that I would love to meet him some day in the future. He is an environmentalist, and gave an interesting idea to BBC which they reported.
Sir Moody-Stuart stated that the EU should ban all inefficient cars. His idea is that you could buy any new car but it had to meet a minimum standard, which was suggested as 60 mpg. His ban would be focused on the car makers, not the consumers. Under his suggested system old cars would not be banded from being sold again. If the ban included cars already built any positive effects would be replaced by price of destroying all of the cars that currently do not follow the standards. Most of all I am impressed because he is not the standard 'environmentalist' if he even considers himself one. This article got me thinking about a few issues: what affects would this have on the car industry and would this really affect a change.

One of the major issues that I keep on reading and being force feed to pay attention to is how hard it is for car companies to make a profit. Have you ever wondered if the age of cars is over and some of them should just go under, I think this a lot. I am not against cars, I believe that many of our basic trips could be done using other modes of transportation (that is another whole blog). I think that the car companies would be able to set up to the task of making more fuel efficient vehicles. Sure it may hurt their profits, but it would hurt even harder when the price of oil becomes so expensive that people can not drive their inefficient cars. (the end of cheap oil is also another blog).
The need of the government to bail out car companies in North America, this happens in Ontario and people generally support it. Bailing out includes low development taxes and
government loans to build new plants. I know that many people are losing their jobs and that their livelihoods are being taken away. I do not believe the future of manufacturing in North America is based on building cars. The cars being build and bought today will not be in just in around 20 years because the cost is just too much.
The government should take all of the money that they are spending on car manufacturing and spend it on public transportation. There are many areas of North America that need their public transportation systems to be rebuilt. This would create jobs, not the same as a car manufacture, that would help certain areas survive and would be a more sustainable solution. If you look at the major cities of Canada none of them really has a good public transportation system, none of the major four have their airports connected by rail to the center city (Vancouver is changing). Airlines is another issue that I will talk about at some time.

Will banning inefficiency really affect change in the people's lifestyles. I think that this would have an impact in Europe rather than in Canada and the USA. Our lifestyle here is to decentralized and dispersed to make any other option other than driving valid. We as North Americans like our world spread out and will only take public transit if we want to. I have even seen this in some of my close friends who believe that we need to change our lifestyles to help fight climate change. The belief is we can travel by car to go everywhere when ever we want, I am going to make a effort to not drive anywhere (if I can). If people offer me a ride somewhere and I except it, I am no better than the person who drives every where. If I drive when I can then I am just a person who only takes the bus when I am unable to drive. I will break this rule if I am traveling with a group of people who all want to take a car (I do not want to be rude, I may not even go).
If you look at the other items that have been banned, light bulbs and CFCs are examples, the world kept on going and the economy did not collapse. I think that government is too scared not to take action on issues that may cause their country to have negative outcomes, in the short term.
I see in planning that many people only look at short term goals and forget about long term costs. A rapid transit system will not bring change in 5 or even 10 years, the change will occur over a long time as lifestyles change. An example of looking at short term gain and long term losses is the Shepard Subway Line in Toronto. The line was build for political reasons, in the wrong place. But it is built and the people of Toronto has to deal with it. Some people want to close it down because it does not have enough people traveling on it (the subway was a bad move). But to take it away you will never be able to change the lifestyles of the people who are living in the area. In time, 20 years, there will be higher density around the route and more people will take it. On the other hand they could change it to a Light Rail Transit system that takes less people and can be moved above ground for a longer route. I know that that does not directly deal with banning things.
An urban planning issues that is similar to banning is the taxes for driving in Downtown London. Most vehicles that go into the downtown area of London are highly taxed. This has greatly affected the use of cars in the downtown core, which was the goal. It has also raised funds for the local government. It has caused an increase in public transit use but the local government has been able to spend the money on new capital project, or they have not been completed yet. Yes that is tax and not an all out ban on cars.

Well that is some of my thoughts about cars in relation to Sir Moody-Stuart's thoughts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7225451.stm

Politics of Winning

In the recent past two people have won elections to stay in office, one a positive advance in politics while the other one could be a major step back. I am looking at particular the elections of Tadic and Kibaki.

I found the election in Kenya that lead to the re-election of Kibaki as president. This has lead to major violence that has been compared to the ethnic violence in Rwanda, which was never to have happened again. The violence if you do not know is between ethnic groups in the Rift Valley in Kenya, those that are in support of the current government and those that are in opposition. What I find the most shocking is how the 'western' 'civilized' world does not care or seem to care about what is happening. We say that will never again, but it has happened again and continue to happen in many places around the world.
The western world is prepared to go and invade a country that is not in the possible brink of civil war. But we are not prepared to stop governments who are attacking their own people. I know that I am pulling an example from Africa, when there are many other areas of the world that have issues and we should not just be picking on Africa. I will provide a list at some point of the countries that we in the west have forgotten about, who are going through major issues that cause people pain.
I do not know too much about how the issue of Kenya because I feel that we do not get a balanced view of the situation, and I have not been looking into the geopolitical dynamics of the region for many years.

The election of Tadic may have a completely different perspective. To my knowledge there has not be widespread dismay with his re-election as President of Serbia. He was running against a component that some people had feared would be a new Milosevic and would cause the Balkan region to be filled with war once again. The Balkans have been one of the bloodiest places in Europe, but not the world, and as caused the European community to look at who they are going to be. The major issue with the Serbian election was the issue of the response if (when) Kosovo would declare independence; which is expected shortly.
I feel that the EU is not doing enough in the Balkan region, if the European peoples are not able to support peace projects in their own back yards, how will we be able to support peace around the world. The EU I know is having issues over its own identity, but I think that the USA is have an affect on their 'nation' building. From stopping the EU from having a unified military, having many US troops there, and dividing the block with crazy ideas (missile shield). I use the world nation in the way that most people would consider it. A country is a nation, not a particular ethnic group or common history. It is true that most of Europe has a common history and ethnic group, but if Europe stays focused on this then they will never be able to adapt and change to remain strong in the future.
One of my highschool teachers thought me that empires and nations need remain open to new ideas other wise they will fall. The examples the teacher gave were Spain, France and Rome. I fear this is where the USA is heading, working by itself and spending too much time on small issues. Should the national government really care if people are doing drugs while being sports heroes??

The election of Tadic could create a new age in Europe when Europe can come together as a whole community and work together to solve the common issue of Kosovo. The election of Kibaki on the other hand could cause more political issues in a region of the world that has had too much violence. This region I am talking about is not Africa, I am talking about the Great Lakes region. The conflicts that have happened in that region have been major but in my view over looked, and they did just get hit by an earthquake. Both of these issues will test the western worlds response and hopefully create a peaceful world, I know I am an optimist

Yes I know I did a lot of posts in one day but this will be how many I will do a day. If I do not do this many a day I will forget about it and it will disappear into history.

Being Too Loud

Well, today just like most fun and exciting days I went to cheer on the hockey teams from my residence. Which I can cheer fairly loudly. I call myself coach of the team, I do not coach as much as motivate and cheer them on. I guess some people would consider this coaching, and I have a great time being on the bench. (I have also at times fixed some equipment in some sweet ways) So today was like any other day, I was cheering really loud and supporting my team.
That is when the scorekeeper told be I was being annoying and should stop. I could yell but not as much as I was currently doing. I am sure that the score keeper did not mean to insult me but I found this very upsetting. The scorekeeper also did not appear to really care about the game that was happening either, never paying attention so I did not feel like the person did not have any vested interest in the game.
I wanted to continue to support and cheer on my team but I did not want to make anybody mad. So I mad sure that I would still cheer but do a lesser degree, which maybe good because then I will not loose my voice. So I guess the whole situation could be positive in that I will not over do it from now on. But I would have wished to have had a more productive or constructive conversation with the scorekeeper.
This is not a big issue in the grand scheme things but I found it important enough to get off of my chest

Flying Like Crazy

Well I have been taking some classes about tourism, they have been two of the greatest classes ever, mostly for the people that have been in the class with me over the actual content of the courses. This story I found really interesting and hope that I can tie it into my course if at all possible.
The article was about the new airline that is starting which allows people when flying to take off all of their clothes. It is like a nudest resort in the air, it is operating in Germany which is a very nudest friendly location. This airline brought up a few issues for me, who rules the rules of air travel and what are the costs to the airline to have this airline.

I first thought of the issue of who controls air travel when a few years back there was an airline that was going to offer flights that would allow people to smoke on the planes. I wonder is this legal and why other airlines have stopped allowing people to smoke on the planes. I know the basic issue of how bad second hand smoking is and that it has been banded in most places (in progressive countries at least). What were the legal basis for the government to ban smoking on planes?? Also why are the bans on smoking extended to the Airports as well. The ban on smoking in an airport does not seem to make sense if the rest of the region where the airport is in does not have any bans on it.
To get back on the nudest flights, are there any legal reasons why this would not be able to happen. Also why, if there is such a demand for this service, this airline has not started sooner. I will not make any judgments about the people who would use this service, I am sure they are 'normal' people.

The other issue I was interested in is how much is it going to cost the airline to put this service in place. They are going to cover each of the chairs with towels that after each use will be washed. I have learned in my tourism classes that airlines can save a lot of money by reduce the amount of weight of the planes. I am sure that the weight of the towels will be but I am sure that they could affect fuel costs of the air line. I looked for the information I learned in class but I appeared to have lost it.
This airline is also just going to be traveling within Europe, which means the flights are not going to be 'long hall' ones. The use of traveling by plane in Europe is a terrible use of resources because Europe, unlike North America, has a sophisticated rail system. This means that the people, in my view, should not be flying, who cares what they are wearing (or not). Europeans do travel a lot within Europe, which should be only on the rails and not in the skies.

These are some of my thoughts when I read the story yesterday. The article can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7223733.stm

What I Found in the News this early morning

Well, I read the news very often, when ever I have nothing else to do (and now i will be posting a lot as well). So if found two interesting articles today, one on a happy note, another on a sad note.
So the happy note is the new Northern Busway that has been built in Auckland New Zealand. (I look at New Zealand news every once and awhile to see what is happening over there). This is one of the new public transportation system or policies that is being put into place in Auckland. This Busway is a system that is similar to the Ottawa Transit ways and the public transportation system in Bogota. These systems are in my point of view just a step to more advanced system. I personally like LRT (light rail transit) over BRT (bus rapid transit). The new Northern Busway does have the possibility of becoming a LRT line in the future, even though this may be in a while. Many LRT have BRT lines in place first so they build up ridership, Calgary, Edmonton are just some examples. I did spend a long time looking into this plan and the region of Auckland's growth management plans. This was a great way to procrastinate and educate your self as well.
Later this evening I decided to look at the news again, and found a very sad story. About how a family's lives where destroyed because the father took the lives of his family. What is worse, and I am doing it as well, is that their personal pain is spread all over the media. Why do we care about peoples personal issues, and have to know about them. I do understand that we should support them with our thoughts and prayers, but should know everything about it. Should we really care about these issues.
Well I am sure that you will be reading a heck of a lot more of my input about social issues, public transit, and random news articles

My first post

Well my friend named Tim, who will name his first child Bowser, told be about Dunbar's number. This theory is based on the number of people who can be your friend at any time. This number is around 150 people, my goal in life is now to break this number and to have more friends than that number for an extended period of time. But since I am very bad at remembering basic things, such as names, this will take me many many years of work to accomplish.
The number also relates the number of people that can stay in a group that full of community. Once the group became larger than around 150 it would no longer be sustainable. This is shocking because I am apart of a community that is becoming larger than the magic number. This means that my community that I love so much could become less and less close. This also becomes a major issue when dealing with Planning the urban environment, which my major and I love so dear. (if you know me in real life you will know this well). How can you get a community of over 100,000 people to join together on a specific issue and find a common good. That also brings up issue of what is the common good for a community, and who decides what the common good is.