Pennsylvania Judge making Waves

Well, a judge in the USA has decided to take interesting step in order to solve a problem. What would you do if you had three men who could not speak English and were charged with robbery. Well one judge in the USA has decided that he would give them each conditional sentences which they would need to learn English or they would have to go to jail. This is an interesting idea instead of just punishing them the judge is actually trying to improve their standing in their community. And hopefully fix any future wrongs that could occur.
This comes after the news that there is 1% of the American population in jail and that the Conservative government of Canada is trying to gage the support of putting more Canadians in Jail. I think what this judge is doing is wonderful, and could change the way that Americans think about new immigrants.

The Pine Beetle Epidemic is over in BC

The pine beetle is gone from BC, which is wonderful news, it means that the Pine Beetle is gone forever. NOT. This means that there is only going to be a decrease of pine beetle in BC but growth throughout the rest of the country. The decrease is also caused by the lack of food, yes it means that there are no more trees for these beetles to eat. So the battle is 'won' in BC but not in Canada. The Pine beetle will spread across Canada and could attack the Boreal Forest that stretches all across Canada, destroying all of the pine forests in Canada.
Even though the Pine Beetle will be leaving BC soon the effects of the Epidemic will last for generations, human generations not just beetle generations.

Comoros and France

The African Union did have the support and the power to take action in Comoros. And Yes France did support the AU force with transportation, but that does not mean that they completely support it. The leader that was removed from power, Bacar, escaped to a France controlled island. France now has a important decision ahead of them. Will they support the Comoros government and send Bacar back to face the courts, or will they keep him in there lands and protect him from the law.
France needs to make Bacar face the courts, but this does not mean that they have to send him back to Comoros, there are other options. The option that I would support would to bring Bacar in front of the ICC (international criminal court) in The Hague. This would be a compromise between the two options. It will allow Bacar to face the courts and make sure that he does not loose out to victors justice. It will also bring more importance and precedence to the ICC. France needs to make sure that it does not protect Bacar who is charged with crimes against humanity. If they do protect him it will be very similar to what happened in Rwanda.
France needs to show the world that they can actually be a world leader in the protection of human rights around the world. Not just a country that says that they do but their actions do not support it. If France wants to put pressure on China for their human rights record they need to take positive action in this conflict.

I Wish I Had the Diplomatic Skills of the Pope

I know that I do not agree on certain issues with the current pope, Benedict XVI, but that does not mean I cannot learn lessons from him. In this blog I am not going against the Catholic Church I am just pointing out how I would do things differently if I was pope. I will never be a pope because I am Mennonite and I do not think I would accept the power. The current Pope in my mind needs to learn some lessons about diplomacy, he has taken real steps to bring more understanding between Christians and Muslims. I find that each time that he does one of these actions he takes a few steps back as well.
An example is how the pope called for peace on Easter, calling for an end to the problems in Tibet, Iraq and the Holy Land. Those are all real issues that we should all be working towards, finding real peace in the world should be all of our goals. But the day before he baptized a controversial Muslim journalist, which can be viewed as a slap in the face for the Muslim community. That action appears to show that our Christian faith is better than yours, but we still want to have talks with you. The Pope did not have to do that ceremony, or if he wanted to he did not have to do it publicly and insult the people who he is trying to create peace with. I hope the Muslim world understands that the Pope does not have very good diplomatic skills and do not going into protests like what happened two years ago.

My Easter Family

Well My Easter Family was not your typical easter family. Sure there were inside jokes, singing songs, community, lots of food and a feeling of being at home. But on the other hand there were not of my relatives (close relatives that is). I had easter dinner with around 30 of my close friends, we where the people in res who did not go home for easter. I have to say that we made the most of it, and became like a family, at least in my mind. I have talked before about how if view my family as more than just biological.
I also realized that I will never cook easter dinner for this many people ever again (that is if I do not do it next year, so one more time). One of my friends and I where talking as we were cooking and realized we will never have families this large. I grew up in the states and all of my relatives live at least a days drive away, i doubt i would be cooking for them and they are not in that great numbers. So that leaves out getting all of my relatives to visit me and so I can cook for them. The other option would be to have a large family, no I am not going to have 30 kids. I could 5 kids, who each get married, and have 2 kids each, this seems normal in my mind. That would bring the total to 22 which is still less than I cooked for today.

Killing Wolves is not Bad

Today in class a person stated that 'killing wolves is not bad', which being an environmental studies course everybody viewed as completely wrong. It is true that our over harvesting of apex predators have caused extreme ecosystem damage around the world. This does not mean that it is wrong or bad to kill one of these animals. Each animal death needs to be looked into to find out if there really is environmental damage done. Many animals such as Siberian Tigers, Wolves in the USA, Bears in Europe and Lions or Cheetahs in Asia would have huge impacts on their ecosystems. There are areas in the world where there is enough animals that a sustainable harvest is possible, like wolves in Canada. Yes it is true that there are certain subspecies of wolves that need to be protected, red wolves in Ontario, but other places there are as many wolves as their needs to be. I am sure that people will state that killing one wolf in a pack could cause the pack to fall apart, but there are in many areas enough wolf packs to fill in the gap when one pack disappears.
I am not writing this to suggest that we should go out and kill wolves. I am trying to get across the point that their can be a sustainable harvest of all animals. In the past we have not been sustainable at all, causing the downfall of so many animals.

The AU has teeth afterall

I am sure that the current AU mission for intervention in Africa will be noticed by few. The AU is currently planning an invasion of one of the Islands of Comoros. These islands are off the coast of Africa on the way to Madagascar. They were a former colony of France, which still controls one of the islands. It is a complicated geopolitical issue, as well as a complicated government system in place.
The issue that the AU is presently going to deal with is the removal of a leader of one of the islands. He has a military that is just as strong and as large as the government of Comoros. This caused them to ask for the AU to use their power to over throw the leader. Which the AU has accepted and will do with out assistance from another regional group or the UN. France will be watching and supporting to a degree, but that is because it is happening near their colony. The odd part that I saw was that there will be Sudanese military presence, about a third of the troops present. This appears to be a little weird, they are supporting democracy and protecting people in other countries, but they do not protect their own people in their own territory.

News Media

I was talking to a friend who suggested that I should read Al Jazeera. I found that Al Jazeera is a wonderful news station and suggest that everyone should look at it. The news that we read in the western world is one that is biased in many ways. It is written by western people who are not in poverty. This means that there are many news stories that are biased that we do not realize because we have been reading them for many a years. There are also issues over the stories that are talked about in the media, western news only focuses on certain stories.

Al Jezeera is not perfect and neither is BBC News or CBC News. I find that each one of these news agencies have issues, some of them are getting to be so much that I will be going to them less and less over time. The CBC for an example is filled with ads, that I do not want to read, it also is looking less and less professional. The BBC is starting to put ads on its website but they do not appear to be as in your face as CBC. It also still has a very professional appearing website. And Al Jezeera has a very professional appearance and does not have any ads. These are both attributes that I enjoy when I read the news. On the other hand they do not put the author of the news article or the agency that they received the information from. From now on I will look at Al Jezeera and BBC News often and when I need Canadian news I will read CBC News, or the Globe and Mail.

Knitting outdoors

I was reading a news article about how people in the USA are going around an knitting random objects around towns. This is something I do not support at all. Yes I can knit a hat in 24 hours, yes I have knitted many scarfs, hats and yes trying a sweater. I do not agree with these actions. People all over the states are doing this, while homeless people are unable to keep themselves warm.
I have a better idea for what to do with their time why do they not pick a colour and knit as many things from the same colour. Every time that someone goes and asks them for money on they street they give the person a different knitted object. These objects can be as simple as scarfs or they could be hats, mitts, sweaters and blankets. This would help people who do not have enough to survive as well as giving us something productive to do with our time.
If a community does not have any 'homelessness' problems then they could sell the products they made to fund raise for other causes. Or look at their communities more closely and realize that there are people in need in their own community, and help them. I am not against knitting, I am against knitting for no reason.

We are Running out of Gas

I read some shocking news last night before I went to bed. There is a gas shortage in western Canada, yes there is a lack of gas in Western Canada. Imperial Oil has a refinery near Edmonton that has been taken off line. So the amount of fuel that they are producing has been reduced and they have started rationing their products, they are going to provide to communities where they are the only providers for first then the rest of us.

If western Canada is running out of oil this is not a good sign, that is where there should be a net exports of oil not imports. It may be just one company that does not have enough gas, but it will have implications through out the industry. There are also estimates that the price of gas will get as high as 1.40 this summer, before this issue became known. So we are running out of gas, does that mean that we have reached the peak oil, and the prices will just continue to increase. Or is it just a series of unfortunate events. With the increase in the price of gas, many things will become more expensive. All items will have a price increase, from food to products from China.

What a Week for the Conservatives

I am sure that the Federal Conservatives are not looking forward any talk of an election this week. This week news has come out about the Conservative party apparently offering bribes and leaking information that affects a foreign election. This is a classic case of what not to do, and what to do instead.

Well if you want and election, and someone is not going to vote for an election that you want, by all means offer to pay them 1 million dollars. Well that is what some people have suggested the conservative party tried to do. So then you wonder why the have not said we did not offer the MP any money. The PM's office will not say that they did not offer the MP money even when prompted. It would be great if they did, or even say we offered him (fill in here) much to do (fill in here) with it. I am sure they would not just give him money just to vote, I am sure they would find another good reason for it.

Then with comments that all the NAFTA talk was just lies was a great idea. For their defense they went against both Hilary and Barack, yes they went after both sides. But those sides are just the Democrats. So yes he did take a side, the Republicans, something that nobody should do if they want to win a majority in Canada. I know that sounds bad but it is true, Canadians generally do not support republican party politics. I do not think there is a good way to get out of this position for the PMO, but I am sure there are ways not to do it. I hope that it does not become and international issue that makes Canada look bad.

These happened after the great Peterborough Train, and a Conservative senator complaining about how useless the senate is. It would help if the senator has actually showed up to say half of the votes, and say at least one committee meeting.

Super Tuesday 2.0

So I was hoping that the First Super Tuesday would be able to tell us who was going to represent the Democrats in the Presidential election. Well one month later we sill have no idea who is going to lead them. Yes I guess we do have an idea, Hilary or Barack, but there is not clear winner. Well we know who two people who are running are: Nader and McCain.

Hilary does not have a complete chance at winning the nomination because she will not be able to win all of the delegates needed to pull ahead of Barack's pledged delegates. This will mean that she will have to win over more super delegates, which she could. She could also gain momentum, being able to win so many of the large, powerful and 'important' states. She is also married to the Comeback Kid from the 1992 primary season, that is a positive point. She is also only 140 in pledged delegates behind Barack, only 100 total. That is less than 3% of the total votes that could be casted at the convention.

Barack has a much better chance at winning the nomination but he could slip and start to show weaknesses which could spell the end of his campaign. If what he said to the Canadian authorities did actually happen than he is no better than any other politician. It could end the honeymoon that he has had with the media, nobody really has taken shots at him. If that starts to happen and he is not able respond well or hold his own, he could loose his lead. There has been some talk about how he has not been a seasoned politician, I hope that does not affect him negatively.

Why are there two 'great' people running for this year to be president for the democrats while 4 years ago there was not really anyone who was good. I know that it was because they were going against a 'great' president. (some people think they are great, but I will let you decide). This has been a less interesting one that the ones of the 1960s and 1970s.

Walking in the Urban Environment

Well the news in New Zealand was interesting a few days ago. There was first a story about how Kids should walk to school, then a story about how Auckland is cutting funding to foot paths. These issues are tied, the affects of one will directly affect the other one, and cutting funding will cause both of them to fail.

It was interesting to read that not only in North America do we have issues of people driving their kids to school. In the last 15 years the number of people driving to school has increased by 66%. It has become such a problem in some areas that there are rush hour like issues of people traveling to the schools. According to the news article 40% of rush-hour traffic is educated related, but who know what educated related means. To get more kids to walk to work they are having famous sport stars and politicians walking with kids to school. That would be so much fun, who would not want to walk with your favorite politician to school.
Most of these ideas are interesting but the issue of the built form of the neighbourhoods would be a better way to address this issue. If a child can not safely walk to their school, why would they walk rather than drive.

At the same time as there are efforts to encourage people to walk more, Auckland is cutting back their footpath redevelopment plan. Auckland has most of the population and wealth of New Zealand, if you are wondering. The city government is also not looking at reducing funding to road improvements in the area. The government should fund both automobile and non-automobile projects at the same rates and force cuts on both of them. I do not know the jurisdictional issues around roads for Auckland so that may be the reason why they are not cutting back on roads.

Oh Stats Can

I was reading the news and came upon the best news article I think I have ever found: Canadian Workforce Greying: StatsCan

This is one of the reasons why I love StatsCan and the news media so much. How is this a news story, or an issue worth researching? Don't we already know that the babyboom is going to start retiring soon, we have know about it since they were born. I am not surprised about it becoming news, just amused.

2016 Olympics: Chicago Has No Chance

I was looking at the Olympic bid cities for 2016 and came to a realization, Chicago has no Chance at winning. Cities that are biding are: Chicago, Prague, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Baku, Doha and Madrid. I am personally betting on Doha or Rio de Janeiro, they are both in non developed countries that have never held the Olympics before and in regions that have never held them before as well. The Olympics should not go to Europe or North America, the previous 3 Olympics where held in those regions. It is true that the USA has not held the summer Olympics since 1996, but that does not matter, other countries have never held it.

Doha has a better chance at winning the summer Olympics than most people realize. It is the first bid from the Arab world that has a real chance, that helps a lot. It is also in a location that has never help the games, that should have a large impact. The city has also gained the support from its neighbours, which does not seem that large but will help in the voting process. They have also taken out their possible bids for the games as well. The city has held major regional athletic events in the past few years. And the city and region has a lot of Oil wealth that will not hurt the bid at all.

Rio de Janeiro has a good chance as well. They held the pan-american games and put it together and ran it, it was to be even better than the games in Winnipeg. It is also in a region that has never held the games, though there have been previous attempts.

It is time for the IOC to stop being dominated by Western powers and choose a location by what it can do for the world. I am sure that having the games in a developing world would do more to spread the spirit of the games than if the games were held in a western country. North America has held the games 5 time, Europe has held them 15 times. The games have only been in other areas 5 times. IOC let the rest of the world have the games, just once.

Near War in Latin America

Ahh yes I am commenting on one of the less pleasant aspects of our world. I understand that I am doing what I do not want the media to do.

So Columbia tried to stop FARC from continuing their actions in Ecuador this week, and of course this meant going beyond their borders and attacking FARC in Ecuador. This event has been viewed as a bad idea, and most governments stated that it was not a good idea. I say most because the USA supports their action. The incursion caused Ecuador and Venezuela to cut all diplomatic ties with the Columbia. They have in the past said that Columbia is a pawn of the USA, hence why the USA did the wrong thing again. Why did the USA not support Columbia so much, causing their insults to become more true.

FARC: I find that this organization has lost almost all of their support for the actions that they do. I think the that USA has too much power in Latin America but I do not support kidnapping people and selling drugs. It will be really hard for them to stop their actions but I feel they should rebuild and be reborn as another more peaceful organization.

Peterborough Train

The train to Peterborough from Toronto is one of the best public transportation decisions that the federal government has done in years, NOT. Come to think about it, it may be true. What has this federal government done for public transit, next to nothing. So if they are willing to put money into public transit then it would be a good change of heart. But the choice, could they be more wrong.

To begin with the train that went to Peterborough would not even fit with most people's standards of trains. They were cars that were self propelled, yes the train was around 3 cars long max. This means that only a few people were taking it when it was still in place, and VIA does not even really use that type of train anymore, it is not worth the investment. Along with that GO transit looked into if they should run trains, or even buses, to Peterborough. The study showed that they would not even make the money back if they only used buses. Did the federal government even look at the reasons why there were no trains going to Peterborough.

That gets me to my next point: it was political decision, nothing else. The minister of Finance just happens to live and run in one of the ridings that the train would go through. Why would the minister not support the local community by wasting tons of money. As well destroy people's positive view of public transit. This reminds me of the O-Train, another minister destroyed a real, viable public transit development because the minister did not like the local politicians. Why will the federal government stop interfering in the lives of the cities and instead help them, by funding and support.

Translink

While studying a started to look into the planning decisions of Vancouver. It was not a subject that would be tested on but it would have been knowledge that would be helpful in making informed answers. There were two issues that took me by surprise: Translink's Evergreen line and BC governments control issues.

To begin with Translink is the company that runs the public transportation system in the greater Vancouver area. It is in charge of the buses, seabus and the skytrain. They are currently in the stages of rapid growth, which is not completely under their control. The skytrain system is currently being expanded to the Vancouver Airport (Canada Line), mostly because of the Olympics. This is a needed improvement because over 500,000 people take that route daily. The Evergreen line is going to be a new skytrain route that goes to the Port Moody area. This route was going to be part of an earlier expansion but was too expensive, and was not done. Then recently there was talk of creating a LRT line, like street cars, to the area instead of expensive skytrain development. This was approved but then the provincial government decided to step in and change the plans. The route will now be skytrain and will start to be built after the Canada line is finished, this moves back the opening day by years. It causes the route to be in competition with the West Coast Express, commuter rail.

The provincial government is trying to control translink a little bit to much. If the company has gone through studies and realize that one way is going to work best, let them do it. The province of BC is trying to be a little too green and not realize that development should take time. They are also suggesting a skytrain that will go to UBC, currently only buses go through out much of that area. Translink is also going to have street cars that go through downtown Vancouver, which will be a interesting idea. Instead of that why not make a new link to the north shore that is only for public transit, it will make a bigger difference I am sure.

Don't get me wrong I like investment in Public transportation, money and development that is thought out. I think that some of these decisions will be looked back as a mistake. Costs will increase, prices will have to go up, ridership will go down, the system will suffer.