Burma's cyclone troubles

In a recent cyclone which hit the south east Asian nation of Burma/Myanmar, it has been reported that there could be up to 25,000 dead already and one million left homeless. The military junta which has been in power since the 60's has stalled relief efforts which could drastically increase the death rate. This military junta is the same government who murdered pro-democratic and peaceful buddist monks last fall. The main supporter of this regime is it's north-easterly neighbor and olympic hosts China. What else is needed to be said?

who needs environment?

I have seriously loved the past week since the ducks died, which was a disgusting and appalling for sure, because the government and oil corporations have pretended to care. They really don't care which is obvious but the huge media spotlight has made them look like jackasses, which is funny to me. They given heartfelt apologies but no real action is going to be taken. I hope the new "independent" (hopefully more independent then the PC chosen members of elections Alberta) commission so that we can really see the impact of the "bituminous sands" on our beloved environment.


When all is said an done, and communities have sky rocketing cancer rates...i bet syncrude is going to be a tough company to find and the Alberta tax payers are going to have to pay a hefty sum to clean up these tar ponds. (look at Sydney nova soctia's tar ponds as evidence)

Alberta's Ducks

Well it was recently discovered that 500 ducks had died in a Syncrude trialling pond that is part of the tar sands development projects. The birds were coated with oil and thus couldn't fly either drowning or being rescued quickly only to die later on. This is a appalling, not that the ducks died which is awful, but the fact that our oil comes at a cost such as this, trailing ponds which cover vast areas which are a disgusting mix of water oil and other chemicals.

Trailing ponds are the result of the massive oil sands projects which pull water from the Athabasca river at a ratio of 5 barrels of water for every one barrel of oil produced. The water which helps separate the oil from the sand then is discharged into these ponds to become stagnant but often mixing with ground water or being mixed in with fresh water resources.

The environmental impact has been devastating but luckily the projects are far from urban centers so the population and voters don't see the problems. This is how the oil companies and the Alberta government has gotten away with massive developments unchallenged.

I heard the question "Are companies like Syncrude doing enough to protect the environment?", this is such a silly question. Why would they care about tar ponds created from their development? They are a publicly held company with responsibilities only to their stockholders and stockholders enter the stock market to make money, not to advance an environmental agenda. If Syncrudes stockholders have a problem with 500 ducks dieing, they would have pulled out long ago, they would have read about the environmental devastation of northern Alberta and sold shares quickly, but obviously there are still tons of stockholders remaining so they won't have a problem with a few dead birds as long as they can sell higher then what the bought the stock at. So as long as our corporate structure is centered largely about profits and money, then environmental devastation will be the result, its the same story told over again.

So while a "democratically" elected government allows oil companies to do as they please, little will be done to improve Alberta's and the worlds environmental situation.

Why high gas prices are good...

Gas prices in North America have hit post-Katrina levels. Many people are now calling out for an ease at the pumps but this may be a blessing in disguise.

As much as I would love to stick it to large corporations and companies that pillage the earth of non-renewable resources, I have to look at the bigger picture. Right now the world is on the tipping point of the global climate change crisis, immediate action needs to be taken now. In a nation like Canada where the government has relatively little power or motivation to enact the proper legislation to reverse the global climate trend. This means that any really change needs to come from the private citizens and from capitalism, our preferred economic system.

Right now the supply of gas is meeting demand so that it is relatively cheap to buy gas four our internal fuel combustion, carbon dioxide emitting, gas guzzling engines. But if prices rise ever higher then the demand for alternative energy will rise higher. In a capitalist system, it does not take long for entrepreneurs to see a opportunity to make a quick buck so private citizens will then attempt to meet the demand for alternative energy, thus reducing our impact on global climate change and reducing our dependence on fuel sources from dangerous parts of the world.

So as long as the prices rise at a pace that does not plunge our economic system in to ruin, maybe we can indeed save the planet from all the awful things we continually do to it.

"And all that the Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks, with one word..."UNLESS."

Greenpeace drops in...

On Friday during a Progressive Conservative Party fundraiser while Premier Ed Stelmach spoke, two greenpeace activists dropped from the cat walk in the conference room of the event and unfurled a banner.

The banner read...

"$telmach: the best Premier money can buy"

What a great day for Alberta, I woke up to my alarm clock which was tuned to the news and this was the first thing I heard. It made my day and my day had been but 30 seconds old.

The event comes as deputy premier Ron Stevens is in Washington D.C. on a five day mission to market Alberta and the oil sands to American investors. Greenpeace has been against the tarsands oil brand because of its devastating environmental impact. For every barrel of sludge that comes from the ground it takes 4 barrels of water to transform that barrel of sludge into a barrel of oil. This water is often discharged in side ponds filled with residual chemicals which will later be washed into streams and rivers, like the Athabasca. Tarsands oil is the most environmentally devastating type of oil extraction and has found many opponents but none inside the Stelmach government.

I would expect to see much more of this activity, with hopefully myself involved, in the near future as Alberta's "democratic" system continually pushes people to the fringes where they feel that they can no longer have a meaningful impact in traditional politics. This is the danger of a political system which has had the same party in power for the past 40 years and through political maneuvering, they have been able to marginalize any opposition which is required for a healthy democracy.

How long before we get the Earth Liberation Front out here, blowing up SUV's?

Chinese Citizens boycott Western Media bias ....

"Chinese citizens boycott western Media bias .... " says Chinese state media.

Does anybody else see anything wrong with that? Bias is inevitable but tightly controlled state media is going to be far more biased then any major western media news source and the great thing about having freedom of the press is that if people think that there is a obvious bias, they can simply go read another account of the issue. China, according to reporters with out borders, is one of the strict countries when it comes to freedom of the press.

Why would you protest media distortion but not state media or a government who decided to create a giant firewall to block access to the internet and key words like "human rights"?...the hypocrisy is everywhere and its killing me...

Earth Day!

Today is earth day, enjoy the planet and all it has to offer you with out destroying it please. I'm glad to see the "green revolution" becoming popular but I fear that people are not willing to take the neccesary steps to lead an eco-friendly life. But awareness is better then ignorance.
Happy Earth Day!

darfur death toll higher....

Today it was reported in the BBC that the Darfur Genocide may have killed 300,000 people which is a 50% increase from the previous figure gathered in 2006. This figure accounts for those killed in fighting as well as those killed by disease and malnutrition, which are direct consequences of the fighting. After 6 years of little international effort to resolve this crisis the UN said that a peace keeping force will not be in full strength before the end of the year.

On a side note the Chinese government has said that it may withdraw a shipment of weapons to Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, so we know that the Chinese government is willing to take a humanitarian stance but just chooses not to in the Sudan.

On the note of "leftists" in Latin America, here is a picture of ex-Cuban presidente Fidel Castro laying a wreath and the Lincoln Monument in Washington D.C in 1959.

Oh how the times have changed...

Latin America's further turn to the Left

Yesterday, Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez more commonly known as Fernando Lugo was elected president of Paraguay, this is the first time that the Colorado Party has lost an election in 61 years.

Lugo is one of twelve Latin American presidents to have a "leftist" rhetoric as the South American continent becomes a continually "leftist" region. Lugo is often referred to the "bishop of the poor" but has attempted to distance himself from the radical Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who in the past decade has stirred up anti-American, anti-imperialist, and anti-globalization fervor among the populations of Latin America.

Other Latin American "leftist" leaders include...

• Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua
• Evo Morales in Bolivia
• Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina
• Rafael Correa in Ecuador
• Lula da Silva in Brazil
• Raul Castro in Cuba
• Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay
• Michelle Bachelet in Chile
• Alan Garcia in Peru

This surely poses a least a minor threat to American and international economic interests in the region but few have aligned themselves with Chavez's more extreme message. Perhaps the people of Latin America are standing opposed to the neo-liberal economic policies enforced by the IMF/WTO during the 1990's which saw economic growth but further socio-economic inequality among the regions poor. Maybe we shouldn't be living a consumer driven lifestyle which requires millions of people to live in abject poverty so that we can wear $49 dollar running shoes...just a thought....

Boycott the Beijing 2008 Olympics?

I have recently been engaged in online debates through the "Beijing Olympics 2008" facebook group about whether or not the international community should punish the Chinese government through an Olympic boycott because of their human rights record both within China and around the world.

Here are a few reasons why the international community should punish the Chinese government.

1. Sudan and Darfur - China is the main obstacle to resolving the Darfur crisis and has threatened to veto any UN security council resolution that would result in sanctions or an action which would prevent further oil exports. China also supplies the genocidal regime in Khartoum with tanks, guns and fighter jets which they have used (by proxy through the Janjaweed militia) to kill 100,000 people by a conservative estimate not to mention the 2.5 million displaced persons living in horrendous conditions in refugee camps in Chad and other neighboring nations.
2. Burma - China continues to support one of the worst regimes in the world which last fall cracked down violently on protests by buddist monks and other democratic hopefuls. The Chinese government's continued support is what has prevented any international action (short of military intervention) against the Burmese regime.
3. The Authoritarian government of China - Mao came to power in 1949 following a revolution and China "fell" to the reds. Since then the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has ruled China with an iron fist arresting and detaining dissidents at will with no respect for the rule of law. Freedom of speech, religon, organization, movement and freedom of the media are non-existant. Although there human rights track record has improved ever so slightly since the student protests in 1989, the CCP government continues to hold on to power and has shown that it is willing to eliminate any other pillars of power in Chinese society.
4. Tibet - Although the west seems to want to highlight the Tibet issue, it is truly a complicated issue. Now whether or not they should be "free" or not, the CCP government has aggressively violated human rights and attempted to destroy the Tibetan culture repeatedly. The desire to relay the Olympics torch through the Tibetan capital Lhasa is an insult and will only provoke further tensions which will likely be responded to in the same way they were last month.

"But it isn't fair to the Athletes"

Well I bet this isn't fair either. What is more important, the fact that an individual athlete has trained for four years to prove to the international community that they can run, jump or swim faster then anyone else, or the fact that currently 2.5 million people are dieing in refugee camps because the olympics hosts have "released" any international pressure that has been put on the genocidal Khartoum regime.

The athletes have a tremendous oppurtunity to show the world that they are capable of more then just athletic feats and will take a moral stance on a worthy issue, human rights.

There is an arguement to be made about why sports should be mixed with olympics but it seems that the CCP government has already made that decision through strategic media events which included CCP party only members and the Olympic torch in front of CCTV state media. These acts seek to only further legitimize the authoritarian regime.

Welcome to my Revolución

Welcome to Matt Dow's blog,

This will be a political blog focusing closely on all interesting aspects of politics (public administration is not interesting) such as international relations, Alberta politics, Canadian politics, American politics, Latin American politics and anything else.

I am a political science student at the University of Lethbridge focusing on Canadian politics, International relations and compartitive politics. I also enjoy philosophy, theoretical physics and Anthropology.

I especially enjoy learning about issues on the fringe like Eco-terrorism, covert operations, money laundernig and everything between.

I hope this is great journey for both me and everyone else.

Take care,