May you live in interesting times - pt. 6

"Decades of extraordinary growth have catapulted China to the top of the world's economic charts, earning the admiration of much of the rest of the world. Indeed, China's continued economic rise has been one of the few certainties of the 21st century. Increasingly, however, the China story is not one of economic miracle but of environmental disaster."

Full article:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/10/27/what.matters.huai/index.html

May you live in interesting times - pt. 5

The God That Failed - The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult

"Beginning with Margaret Thatcher's election in 1979, government after government -- and party after party -- fell to the onslaught of an extremist faith: the narrow, blinkered fundamentalism of the "Chicago School." Epitomized by its patron saint, Milton Friedman, the rigid doctrine held that an unregulated market would always "correct" itself, because its workings are based on entirely rational and quantifiable principles."

Read the rest here: http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd10132008.html

"May you live in interesting times" - pt. 4

And further on the subject of living in "interesting times", this 4-page (screen?) article from the Atlantic:

The $1.4 Trillion Question - "The Chinese are subsidizing the American way of life. Are we playing them for suckers—or are they playing us?"

"May you live in interesting times" - pt.3

And another interesting article, this time on the growing backlash in the U.S. to the financial bailout:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/26/news/economy/easton_backlash.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008092810

(Note that this is a three page article.)

"May you live in interesting times" - pt. 2

I've been following the Peak Oil theory for a few years now. This very interesting article on Matt Simmons, whose 2005 book "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy", helped bring attention to the issue:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/economy/500dollaroil_okeefe.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008092216

An excerpt from the article:

He found it in the form of hundreds of technical papers submitted by Saudi oil geologists to the Society of Petroleum Engineers over the past 50 years. Simmons spent the month of August 2003 sitting on his porch in Maine and grinding his way through the minutiae of technical accounts of, for instance, reservoir pressure and water-cut percentages, trying to piece together the challenges that the Saudi geologists had encountered in managing their precious oilfields. In the end, his conclusion was clear. "I finished reading the last paper on a Sunday afternoon," says Simmons, "and I sat back and I thought, Holy crap, this is unbelievable. I've just discovered the biggest energy illusion ever in the world. We're in big trouble. I'm going to write a book."

(This is a two page article.)

"May you live in interesting times"

The title of this post quotes a (supposedly) old Chinese saying. With regards to what's going on in world financial markets these are certainly interesting times indeed.

Here's a sampling of various articles I've come across:

The first one is from Time, titled "How Financial Madness Overtook Wall Street". It takes six web pages but it's not a long read and well worth it.

Also from Time: "How We Became the United States of France"

Some eye-opening statements are being made, such as "the total cost to the US taxpayer is now close to $US2 trillion, and Congress is expected to pass legislation to increase the Federal debt limit to $US11.6 trillion. I believe current events will almost certainly signal the end of the global leadership for the US economy and the US dollar as the world's "reserve" currency. This is an historic event." From a lengthy but good article from Smart Company, "Australia's online magazine for entrepreneurs"

"Does anyone think it’s just a little weird to be stampeded into a $700 billion solution to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression by the very people who brought us the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?" From "A Second Opinion?" by the New York Times.

"The trillion-dollar question is where is the U.S. government going to get the funds to bail out the financial system? The Bush administration’s tax cuts and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned a $200 billion budget surplus into a $400 billion deficit, not counting the costs to rescue the financial system." From "Shock and Awe on Wall Street - Worst Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression" by Fight Back News.

And a quote from an unattributed source:

"The United States has touted free markets as the holy grail, and even liberal democracies have been excoriated by Washington for not wringing out their last vestiges of socialism. Today, however, much of the US economy is about to be run by the central government, which is supposed to be where socialism went wrong."

Interesting times indeed...

What a maroon... (to quote Bugs Bunny)

Our mayor continues on his path of dopiness, this time posting ill-advised comments about various City councilors on his blog. Read all about it at this Ottawa Citizen page.

The stupidity of Critical Mass

I've been wanting to post my thoughts on CM for a while now, but the Interwebz once again have saved me the typing so I can simply provide links to others that have already said it:

http://www.joeydevilla.com/2006/09/29/critical-massholes-or-why-i-no-longer-ride-with-critical-mass/

http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/06/01/critical-massholes-strike-again/

Disgusting

I continue to be glad I'm not an American. Their elected politicians disgust me, none moreso than Bush himself. Now he and his minions are trying to protect themselves from the war crimes of which they know they are guilty:

The Cost of the Iraq War

Larry Beinhart, author of "Wag the Dog" (on which the movie is based) and others, sums it all up quite succinctly at the Huffington Post.

Bikes to Africa

The re-Cycles Co-op is donating bikes and parts to an initiative called Bicycles For Humanity. We have about 40 or so bikes ready for them, and boxes of parts and a 6 foot stack of knobby mountain bike tires (which are kind of useless on our paved roads, but perfect for African rural areas). The big pick-up day is tomorrow, Saturday the 29th. Check the specific BfH page for details.

CBC TV interviewed me at the shop yesterday, and it should air this evening. They also have an article on their website.

Protest

I've taken part in quite a few protests in my time. And for these events I usually bring a drum along, and with other musicians get a beat going so people can dance and move and blow off some of the anxiety and stress that can be associated with public demonstrations. If there is a police barricade being approached I've never condoned the provocative or confrontational methods used by some like the Black Bloc, as I feel non-violent action is the only sane solution.

But one can get a bit frustrated when one watches what the police can get up to. Over the years I'd heard reports of them using "agent provocateur" tactics, and at the recent SPP protests in Montebello it looks like they did just that. Watch this video, and see a union president call them out on it. Brilliant stuff... (and thanks to HPVOoOer jlam for the link.)

UPDATE: And not too long after I posted this the CBC reported it on their Ottawa webpage.

UPDATE #2: As of midnight the updated CBC story shows a photo where one can see that the footwear of these bogus protesters matches those of the cops dealing with them.

UPDATE to the updated update! The CBC now reports that "Quebec police admit they went undercover at Montebello protest". And my, but what an absolutely bullsh*t spin the police put on it...

Stephen Harper's true colours (and none of them are Green)

Grr...

In the News, it has come to light that back in 2002 our current PM stated that "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations." While the accord may not be perfect, its goals are laudable, and the reasons for reaching them are undeniable.

Should I go and park my cargo trike on Parliament Hill and see if he and his party get the connection?

current events

Thought I'd share some fave cartoons and a photo. Click on each one for the larger, more legible version.

Two from recent events:





An old "Bloom County" strip from its pre-Opus early days, about twenty years ago! The caricature is brilliant, and still quite relevant given that in U.S. politics "Liberal" has become a dirty word:

Snoozing lizard, found on someone's blog (sorry, forgot who!). Note its tiny rear feet wrapped around second spoke:

9/11

This fifth anniversary of the attacks causes a remembrance for me. I have a connection to the World Trade Center, because the Jivewires played a show there. We were in the Windows On The World restaurant and bar on the 106 floor of the North Tower. The date was Saturday, October 21, 2000.

Previously, the band had played other clubs in NYC (and also the now-defunct Sunday Swing Dances at Irving Plaza), but when this gig came through it was a much bigger deal. Normally when we play in the States we try to get a few gigs lined up, say for three or four days in Boston, Albany, Washington DC, etc.. (One time we had two dates in NYC, and were able to stay in an apartment on 4th St. that rents out to travelling groups. It was cool to have the afternoon to explore the city a bit. I remember bassist Kurt and I going for a walk to the WTC, and looking straight up at the two towers. The next day sax player Brian and I later walked all the way to 50th St. and back, which is a pretty good hike [92 blocks round-trip]!) But the WTC gig came on short notice, and we did not want to say No, even though we did not have time to line up other gigs. So we did it as a one-nighter, driving the 7.5 hours there, playing 3 sets of music, then turning around and drive back that night. That's the glamourous side of the biz... :P

We arrived around 7:00pm, and loaded our gear into the building. We fortunately did not have to find and use the loading dock and freight elevator, but came in right off the street. The restaurant had its own elevator, which was quite large (about 12'x8'), and we just rolled our stuff in first, then some customers got on. I think that elevator rose about as fast as it could without making you sick, and the floor number display kicked in around 90 and flew by, slowing down around 103. Upon exiting we got our gear into the bar, with the stage being in the SE corner of the building. After setting things up I had to check out the view.

Looking out the north windows, you had an unobstructed view of downtown Manhattan, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building (my fave) and so on. Say what we want about skyscrapers, Big Business, etc., it was an impressive sight. I also thought of all the great music that happens in that city, and how it is (and has been) THE place for great jazz. Thinking of the Swing Era, with Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington and their great bands (they both played at the above-mentioned Irving Plaza), and later on people like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, etc. all coming there to prove themselves and help take the music to new places. Moving to the west windows, looking out over the Hudson River, with New Jersey on the other side. Towards the SW corner, and looking down at the harbour and the Statue Of Liberty. Then moving to the south windows and woah! - there's the South tower! At that height you don't expect to see another building right beside you, even though you know it exists. I could see folks on the top floor observation deck, and looking down the towers were close enough to each other that they seemed to meet at the base.

My reverie was broken by the manager saying we could get some food in the employee cafeteria, one flight up. So he led us out a set of doors into the stairwells. We all paused for a moment, looking down the steps. I think we all shuddered a bit, imagining what it would be like to have to get down 106 floors if the elevators were broken. Comments were made along the lines of "wouldn't want to have to run down those in a hurry" etc. Then we walked upstairs and ate our free food. The gig was a lot of fun, and as we sped back home through the dark night we hoped we would get to play there again.

And we almost did. A booking for the following Spring did not materialize, and another for August 11 had to cancelled due to U.S. Immigration screwing up our work visas. So another date was set for October 20, then came 9/11. As I watched the events unfold on TV I thought of that top floor, with the staff and patrons most likely trapped, because I could not see how they could make their way down those stairs given the amount of damage.

We still had the other U.S. dates to do that October, so that weekend we played Boston, then drove across Manhattan to head south along the New Jersey Turnpike to Washington. And as we drove we realized we would pass the site with only the Hudson River separating us, and when someone asked where the WTC site was I pointed "over there", where you can see the smoke still rising". It was a rather sombre and reflective trip to our next destination...

Oil Safari

A good, multi-part article in the Chicago Tribune.

" What does it take to quench America’s mighty thirst for gasoline? Pulitzer-winning correspondent Paul Salopek traced gas pumped at a suburban Chicago station to the fuel’s sources around the globe. In doing so, he reveals how our oil addiction binds us to some of the most hostile corners of the planet—and to a petroleum economy edging toward crisis."

Thanks to fellow HPVOoOer Brian M. for the link!

Politics

This past week I breathed a sigh of relief.

My niece Marianne, who is 17, left a few weeks ago to visit family in, you guessed it, Lebanon. Many of her Mom's family still live there, and while Marianne has visited quite a few times over the years this was her first solo trip. I remember Jon (her Dad, my bro) telling me that she had left the previous weekend, and the next night after his call was when the stupidity began.

The village she was staying in is about an hour north of Beirut, and bombs even fell up there. She was able to get out safely with some other family members, making their way back to Montreal via the boat to Cyprus, and then the plane home. While we are very happy that she made it, we're all of course are concerned about the fate of those who must remain because it is their Home.

The perpetual Middle East turmoil makes me think of the Bush Administration's demented thought processes, and this linked commentary sums it up nicely for me:

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/7/29/7026/75241

There's a lot of political blather going around these days, and I don't wish to add to it, but the stuff happening right really makes my blood boil...