fizz, pop, bubble

so, i'm in safeway the other night getting a few things and i shop the way i normally do - one aisle at a time, trying to remember what i wasn't supposed to foget to get

then it strikes me - something i've always known but this time it made me sad because it reveals my realistic attitude that we are doomed

it was the aisle - the one in every major supermarket - with pop down one side and chips down the other

i realized how absurd that is - the amount of materials and energy used to produce those products and bring them to the store, along with the gazillions spent on marketing them; yes, marketing empty calories and carcinogens

in western society, where obese people make up a quarter of the population, do we really need a whole aisle to sell coke and doritos?

imagine if just half the resources to produce these products were used to promote healthier options and organic production of food

anyways, the next step for me is to put my money where my mouth is and eventually eliminate my use of these products - much like quiting smoking, this could be a difficult task, especially when there isn't a patch...

as i get older

last thursday (october 4) i went to see a talk/interview with a maasai warrior whom was visiting north america for the first time mostly to raise awareness of the issues that his people were experiencing

one of the main things was their cows were going 'crazy' (BSE?) - cows are the lifeblood of the maasai people; the other issue was the deforestation of their lands as trees were used as fuel and building material

the maasai people had to go outside of their traditional boundaries to seek work and food; there was also a push to educate themselves so that they could learn how to interact with the outside world

learning swahili, a money economy, tree planting and other skills have allowed the maasai people to survive but there is a gradual erosion of their culture that is occurring

the false promise of a better life through technology is creeping into their world and i felt a bad for what is one of the few remaining cultures that exist more in tune with nature then the rest of us

the thing that affects me is the fear of loss and failure to remember; it was a concern of jane jacobs - the problem of forgetting what we have forgotten - an obliteration from our consciousness that something else actually existed

it reminds me of a scene from the movie 'knocked up' where two of the characters were quoting lines from 'back to the future' while the two women at the table had these big looks of 'huh?' on their faces; it made me scared to think that a reference to movies from the 80s are no longer relevant to people in their 20s

it seems that the younger generation spends more time focusing on the present and the gizmos of the present rather than learning about the past or even having a sense of curiosity of the past which constitutes the cultural memory of their parents/aunts/uncles/teachers

it may be the same old complaint but this text messaging/ipod/virtual world generation is losing touch with the real world with it rich texture and timelines

when the spice girls reunion is a big thing i have to wonder....

reading Orhan Pamuk

from his book the Black Book - Celal commenting on secret meanings

"Most people fail to see the inner essence of the things around them, simply because these things are right under their noses, while they pay great attention to the secondary properties of things that seem just beyond themk, simply because they find them in dark corners, on the edge of things, and therefore think them more obscure. This is why I never make open references to my true purpose in my columns. I mention it only in passing - hide it in a corner, as it were. But never in a particularly dark or secret corner; it's a game of hide-and-seek that any child could play. Whatever my readers happen to find in that corner they believe instantly - which is, after all, my ultimate aim. And this is the worst part: They pay no attention to the overt content of the piece, the things that are right under their noses; they ignore even the secret and accidental riddles it would take them only a little patience, an ounce of intellect, to solve - and as for the newspaper itself, it ends up gathering dust in a corner of its own."

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i found the first line interesting how people overlook the obvious and search for the secrets when perhaps the obvious has the power to provide more

by my calculation

if striking workers in vancouver are paid $50 per day they walk the picket line or $250 per week

newspapers indicate 5000 people are on strike

so, if %80 of them walk pickets each week that works out to 4000 people

4000 people x $250 per week x 6 weeks = 6 million dollars in strike pay OR a 1 million dollars a week

my question is how does CUPE accumulate this much money?

what is it about computers...

so, i've got this dell system that has a Pentium Celeron D 2.53 GHz processor with 512 MB RAM running XP Home that runs like a pig in drying mud

i haul out an old Pentium 3 700 MHz with 512 MB RAM running Windows 2000 and it performs better than the above system - less delay opening programs, playing video smoothly; unfortunately it isn't black but a bit of decorative play with colored sharpies should help

i just don't get how a system that is 5 years old runs better

my challenge now is to resist hucking out the new system - perhaps linux will run more smoothly

but it does go back to my feelings that computers shouldn't be discarded so quickly by people - just have to find a purpose for it

what people want

i started reading the audacity of hope by barack obama and in the prologue he talks about hitting the campaign trail for his run at senate and he writes about a common thread that noticed:

No blinding insights emerged from these months of conversation. If anything, what struck me was just how modest people's hopes were, and how much of what they believed seemed to hold constant across race, region, religion, and class. Most of them thought that anybody willing to work should be able to find a job that paid a living wage. They figured that people shouldn't have to file for bankruptcy because they got sick. They believed that every child should have a genuinely good education - that it shouldn't just be a bunch of talk - and that those same children should be able to go to college even if their parents weren't rich. They wanted to be safe, from criminals and from terrorists; they wanted clean air, clean water, and time with their kids. And when they got old, they wanted to be able to retire with some dignity and respect.

now these aren't unreasonable expectations - yet, somehow the richest nation in the world and the world's only superpower focuses on other priorities than keeping its citizens happy

why?

and if their government doesn't provide these things, why do they keep voting for them?

i don't have answers but questions like these make me continue to seek the answer and perhaps one day i'll understand politics and the true motivations of those in power - which undoubtedly involves having power and being able to influence the powerful - but until then, i'll just keep plugging away

misheard lyrics

so my son was listening to the mixed cd i had playing while going home

the song was van halen's why can't this be love

however, he heard it as why can't this be loud...

it puzzled him greatly why something couldn't be loud

methods of distraction

so, i take my son to visit my parents on the weekend so that i can get some time to wallow in misery as i suffer from my fever

my brother gets into a back and forth with my son

it's incredible how little children can bring someone down to their level, rather than adults making an effort to bring the children up to their level

just because children are little does not mean they are incapable of learning - actually, they're probably the best learning machines out there as they try so hard to understand the world around them and integrate themselves into the world of adults

or something like that

first death in war

was reading an article from Harper's and it gave insight into why the Bush administration is refusing to comment on the Pat Tillman death

his was the first death of a prominent figure in Bush's war in terror

this article indicates that the first death in a war is often used to gather support from the people to demonstrate how someone in the public eye would give his/her life to defend their country, the country they loved and for a cause they believed in

well, Tillman was critical of the Bush administration and was killed by friendly fire - not the best example to use as a first death

so, Bush and his cronies continue to tell their lies and Pat Tillman's death becomes a rallying point for those that see through the lies

transit thoughts

have been taking the bus lately and thinking about the approved bus fare hike in the lower mainland

as long as the money is used to improve transit than i accept the fare increase but if skytrains are still packed during rush hour then i'm not sure if it is worth it

this compounded by the total lack of a presence by transit/skytrain staff at skytrain stations and on the skytrain itself

i believe this presence is necessary for several reasons, including: to provide security presence, asking for directions, and as ambassadors for the region to tourists

i've witnessed several times people approaching the ticket machines with no clue on how to operate the machine or figure the whacked zone system

if you want to get more people on transit then it has to be made more friendly

and translink has to force the drivers' union to accept part time drivers

until these things happen, people will still sit in their cars, making traffic worse and harming the precious environmental conditions necessary for maintaining human existence at its current level

Pier Luigi Sacco - economics of identity

was listening to a podcast from cbc ideas about economics and social justice

one of the speakers was Pier Luigi Sacco who spoke of the economics of identity

after an individual's or society's basic economic needs of shelter, food supply, energy are provided there is an economic of identity that emerges

this works by applying the rules of scarcity that emerge in basic economics - supply and demand, etc. to basically luxury items - this emerges are branding, marketing...essentially the process of making non-needs needs

this is where social justice issues evolve? when more time and energy is put into obtaining these non-needs instead of focusing on needs for everyone


i'm not an economist and only listened to the podcast once but it has provided a branching off point for me to further investigate and perhaps further comment on in the future

why must we be rewarded

it is bike to work week in the lower mainland this week

some sponsors are providing incentives to people by setting up tents/booths to provide food and water

the irony for me is that much of this food and water (bottled) is trucked around in CO2 spewing SUVs

why can't people be happy doing the right thing and not get a big pat on the back? sure, children need positive reinforcement to learn that doing the right thing is rewarded but adults? adults should know what is right and good - doing what is right and good should be in itself the only reward

is climate change all there is to talk about?

so, should we be truly worried about climate change as much as we are led to believe?

i'm not saying climate change is not happening or that something shouldn't be done about greenhouse gases but perhaps other issues should be forgotten such as HIV/AIDs, women's rights, lack of nutrition for many around the world, totalitarian agriculture, the path of consumption, the depletion of oil, etc.

and then the national post has an article about al gore's inconvenient truth and some of the errors within it and then retorts by mentioning the great global warming swindle movie which in itself is full of s**t

yet, i wonder why people challenge climate change - is it because of the bad science? i doubt that because so many peer reviewed journals publish scores of articles on the topic and its effects

the bottom line is $$$ - big oil, big pharma, big agriculture, and the sweat shop phenomenon depends profit and the myth of progress; without it the rich don't get richer

see, in my opinion, climate change isn't the problem - the culture we are all slowly being enveloped in, smothered in promotes and is dependent on growth

your RRSPs, your pension funds, your net worth is all dependent on growth - it is a futile pursuit because resources are limited

life will go on whether we address climate change or not - nature is resilient; now whether us humans will continue to thrive is a separate issue; and if we do, sure climate change should be addressed but fixing climate change won't feed 6, 7, 10, 20 billion people - only an attitude change and a realization that the world's population before the industrial revolution as maybe a billion which is what a non-oil culture is limited to +/- a few hundred million

people will die even if we reduce our greenhouse emissions, reduce our carbon footprint, turn off our lights, buy CFLs because there aren't enough energy sources and resources to keep the world's population at its current levels

growth will slow and things will change because nature will dictate change

only once people accept this will real change initiated by humans be seen

hopefully we don't act too late

it or us

so, what are we saving the earth for? life goes on, whether us humans are here or not...

is the concern for the environment simply a way of conserving conditions for human existence at its current population levels?

well, that won't work

so, what will?

i'm not sure but i think focusing on social justice issues such as narrowing the gap income, wealth and power - and i think this should be done by pulling down the roof, rather than raising the floor

inequality needs to be leveled out because those without harms everyone; health issues attack the impoverished more seriously because of their lack of sanitation, access to medical help and poor nutrition

by fighting these issues then the health of all will be improved giving everyone a chance at establishing authentic existence - something with meaning and hope

HIV/AIDS

i've been reading AIDS in the Twenty-First Century by Barnett and Whiteside and i've learnt a few things

- HIV only has 10 genes

- the aids pandemic is especially damaging because it affects the demographic that is economically important (15-50 year olds) unlike most diseases that affect the young, elderly or sick

- the delay between infection with HIV and full on AIDS that can range from 5 to 10 years; this allows a lot of time for the infected individual to infect others

yup, HIV/AIDS is a much bigger issue than i previously thought and should be a growing concern for everyone

my comments for this week

actually, i just had to put something here - my brain is mostly idling this week tossing ideas of AIDS, military industrial complex, cultural studies, pierre eliot trudeau, attacks on skytrain, trips to get groceries (with its consequent connections to consumption)

and why don't people bring their own shopping bags to the store?

ugh, this will continue at a better time at a later date

to shoot or not to shoot

so, one thought i've heard from a coworker is if people were allowed to carry guns at virginia tech, perhaps they could have intervened and shot Cho Seung-Hui

this makes a bit of sense as we don't have the ideal situation where no one has guns at all but gun control debates are something that won't go away anytime soon

perhaps the focus should be on acknowledging that some people are troubled and that they should not be excluded from society, instead they should somehow be included so that future incidents such as this are something we only see in history books

remembering the message

visited my sister in-law's on the weekend in deepest darkest maple ridge...

their family lives in a 3800 square foot home which is very nice and i can see the attraction to living in a large home with lots of space

i almost got sucked into "the dream" but some anchored portion of me said "hey, wait a minute"

home builders still don't use methods to reduce environmental impact on a large enough scale - passive heating, solar water heating, grid tied power supplies, heat pumps, triple glazed windows, and as little wasted space as possible

and how much room does a family of four need?

i find it sad that the whole message of less; simplicity; decluttering; respect just isn't working and it pushes me to thinking that things are going to get a lot worse before they even approach being better

LBJ and the vietnam war

Lyndon Johnson in a speech to the American Bar Association of New York City:

It is right that the strong should help the weak defend their freedom...

It is right that nations should be free from the coercion of others.

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this leads me to ponder what freedom is and the importance of nations

also, put into context of the present, does the current american administration believe in this credo or is there some other agenda

there is no easy answer but motives must always be questioned and hopefully the people of the united states that vote for their representatives and president get the necessary information to pick the lesser of two evils in 2008

my thoughts for this day

so, the books on my desk today include

Short History of Tibet by Richardson
The Pan-African Nation by Andrew Apter
Perspectives on Growth and Poverty - van der Hoeven
The Dragon in the Land of Snows - Tsering Shakya
The Status of Tibet - van Walt & van Praag

with respect to Nigeria and Africa in general part of my interests lay in the attempt by indigenous folk to reclaim their resources and the story of Ken Saro-Wiwa in particular

to that end there is a book by his son Ken Wiwa - In the Shadow of a Saint (2000)
[VPL 966.905 S24w]; another one for the list

till next time