Storm

Here's one of my favorite poems of late by Tim Minchin. For the Audio of it read out go here. 

Storm  

Inner North London, top floor flat
All white walls, white carpet, white cat,
Rice Paper partitions
Modern art and ambition
The host’s a physician,
Lovely bloke, has his own practice
His girlfriend’s an actress
An old mate from home
And they’re always great fun.
So to dinner we’ve come.

The 5th guest is an unknown,
The hosts have just thrown
Us together for a favour
because this girl’s just arrived from Australia
And has moved to North London
And she’s the sister of someone
Or has some connection.

As we make introductions
I’m struck by her beauty
She’s irrefutably fair
With dark eyes and dark hair
But as she sits
I admit I’m a little bit wary
because I notice the tip of the wing of a fairy
Tattooed on that popular area
Just above the derrière
And when she says “I’m Sagittarien”
I confess a pigeonhole starts to form
And is immediately filled with pigeon
When she says her name is Storm.

Chatter is initially bright and light hearted
But it’s not long before Storm gets started:
“You can’t know anything,
Knowledge is merely opinion”
She opines, over her Cabernet Sauvignon
Vis a vis
Some unhippily
Empirical comment by me

“Not a good start” I think
We’re only on pre-dinner drinks
And across the room, my wife
Widens her eyes
Silently begs me, Be Nice
A matrimonial warning
Not worth ignoring
So I resist the urge to ask Storm
Whether knowledge is so loose-weave
Of a morning
When deciding whether to leave
Her apartment by the front door
Or a window on the second floor.

The food is delicious and Storm,
Whilst avoiding all meat
Happily sits and eats
While the good doctor, slightly pissedly
Holds court on some anachronistic aspect of medical history
When Storm suddenly she insists
“But the human body is a mystery!
Science just falls in a hole
When it tries to explain the the nature of the soul.”

My hostess throws me a glance
She, like my wife, knows there’s a chance
That I’ll be off on one of my rants
But my lips are sealed.
I just want to enjoy my meal
And although Storm is starting to get my goat
I have no intention of rocking the boat,
Although it’s becoming a bit of a wrestle
Because - like her meteorological namesake -
Storm has no such concerns for our vessel:

“Pharmaceutical companies are the enemy
They promote drug dependency
At the cost of the natural remedies
That are all our bodies need
They are immoral and driven by greed.
Why take drugs
When herbs can solve it?
Why use chemicals
When homeopathic solvents
Can resolve it?
It’s time we all return-to-live
With natural medical alternatives.”

And try as hard as I like,
A small crack appears
In my diplomacy-dike.
“By definition”, I begin
“Alternative Medicine”, I continue
“Has either not been proved to work,
Or been proved not to work.
You know what they call “alternative medicine”
That’s been proved to work?
Medicine.”

“So you don’t believe
In ANY Natural remedies?”

“On the contrary actually:
Before we came to tea,
I took a natural remedy
Derived from the bark of a willow tree
A painkiller that’s virtually side-effect free
It’s got a weird name,
Darling, what was it again?
Masprin?
Basprin?
Asprin!
Which I paid about a buck for
Down at my local drugstore.

The debate briefly abates
As our hosts collects plates
but as they return with desserts
Storm pertly asserts,

“Shakespeare said it first:
There are more things in heaven and earth
Than exist in your philosophy…
Science is just how we’re trained to look at reality,
It can’t explain love or spirituality.
How does science explain psychics?
Auras; the afterlife; the power of prayer?”

I’m becoming aware
That I’m staring,
I’m like a rabbit suddenly trapped
In the blinding headlights of vacuous crap.
Maybe it’s the Hamlet she just misquothed
Or the eighth glass of wine I just quaffed
But my diplomacy dike groans
And the arsehole held back by its stones
Can be held back no more:

“Look , Storm, I don’t mean to bore you
But there’s no such thing as an aura!
Reading Auras is like reading minds
Or star-signs or tea-leaves or meridian lines
These people aren’t plying a skill,
They are either lying or mentally ill.
Same goes for those who claim to hear God’s demands
And Spiritual healers who think they have magic hands.

By the way,
Why is it OK
For people to pretend they can talk to the dead?
Is it not totally fucked in the head
Lying to some crying woman whose child has died
And telling her you’re in touch with the other side?
That’s just fundamentally sick
Do we need to clarify that there’s no such thing as a psychic?
What, are we fucking 2?
Do we actually think that Horton Heard a Who?
Do we still think that Santa brings us gifts?
That Michael Jackson hasn’t had facelifts?
Are we still so stunned by circus tricks
That we think that the dead would
Wanna talk to pricks
Like John Edwards?

Storm to her credit despite my derision
Keeps firing off clichés with startling precision
Like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition

“You’re so sure of your position
But you’re just closed-minded
I think you’ll find
Your faith in Science and Tests
Is just as blind
As the faith of any fundamentalist”

“Hm that’s a good point, let me think for a bit
Oh wait, my mistake, it’s absolute bullshit.
Science adjusts it’s beliefs based on what’s observed
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved.
If you show me
That, say, homeopathy works,
Then I will change my mind
I’ll spin on a fucking dime
I’ll be embarrassed as hell,
But I will run through the streets yelling
It’s a miracle! Take physics and bin it!
Water has memory!
And while it’s memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is Infinite
It somehow forgets all the poo it’s had in it!

You show me that it works and how it works
And when I’ve recovered from the shock
I will take a compass and carve Fancy That on the side of my cock.”

Everyones just staring at me now,
But I’m pretty pissed and I’ve dug this far down,
So I figure, in for penny, in for a pound:

“Life is full of mysteries, yeah
But there are answers out there
And they won’t be found
By people sitting around
Looking serious
And saying isn’t life mysterious?
Let’s sit here and hope
Let’s call up the fucking Pope
Let’s go watch Oprah
Interview Deepak Chopra

If you’re going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo.
That show was so cool
because every time there’s a church with a ghoul
Or a ghost in a school
They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The fucking janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide.
Throughout history
Every mystery
EVER solved has turned out to be
Not Magic.

Does the idea that there might be truth
Frighten you?
Does the idea that one afternoon
On Wiki-fucking-pedia might enlighten you
Frighten you?
Does the notion that there may not be a supernatural
So blow your hippy noodle
That you would rather just stand in the fog
Of your inability to Google?

Isn’t this enough?
Just this world?
Just this beautiful, complex
Wonderfully unfathomable world?
How does it so fail to hold our attention
That we have to diminish it with the invention
Of cheap, man-made Myths and Monsters?
If you’re so into Shakespeare
Lend me your ear:
“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw perfume on the violet… is just fucking silly”
Or something like that.
Or what about Satchmo?!
I see trees of Green,
Red roses too,
And fine, if you wish to
Glorify Krishna and Vishnu
In a post-colonial, condescending
Bottled-up and labeled kind of way
That’s ok.
But here’s what gives me a hard-on:
I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant lump of carbon.
I have one life, and it is short
And unimportant…
But thanks to recent scientific advances
I get to live twice as long as my great great great great uncles and auntses.
Twice as long to live this life of mine
Twice as long to love this wife of mine
Twice as many years of friends and wine
Of sharing curries and getting shitty
With good-looking hippies
With fairies on their spines
And butterflies on their titties.

And if perchance I have offended
Think but this and all is mended:
We’d as well be 10 minutes back in time,
For all the chance you’ll change your mind.

Students Challenge Moldova's election results

I don't have a lot of time these days but I thought this was an interesting story in Moldavia where the communist government won majority in the parliament. The video is of the students rushing the parliament building, they also attacked the presidential palace. 

Financial Fools Day

Today in London the leaders of the G20 nations have joined together to fix the financial system but many saw this was a perpetuation of the current global financial system so they took to the streets. The following is a video of today's events outside of the Bank of England on what thousands of activists have called Financial Fools Day. There have been several clashes with police and as I am writing this post the protests have continued. This is a expected to be a smaller rally then the ones we can expect tomorrow and the next day when the leaders all sit together to hatch out a solution. French President Nicholas Sarkozy has mentioned that he may walk out of the meetings if stricter financial regulations are not adopted. From what I have heard, London and the UK is a hot bed of anger and activism as the island nation has lost much prestige and wealth in the past years and decades. 

Hypocrisy Alert

I was just announced that George Galloway, an outspoken peace activist and British MP, will not be allowed into Canada because of his ties with a terrorist organization. This organization being Hamas. However, it has been noted throughout the blogging world of bit of hypocrisy that Jason Kenney, minister of immigration and the person in charge of Galloway's denied access, has been involved with since it was he who addressed a anti-Iranian government group, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a year after it was declared a terrorist organization by the Canadian government. 

I first heard of the piece a few days ago on a progressive blog by an American by birth, Canadian by choice. 

Thousands March in London to welcome the G20

Books not Bombs!

While the US wages a war with Islamic terrorists along the Pakistani Border, American ex-pats are waging a more important campaign. A campaign of education and information. Education is the only thing that can save the world from humans and save humans from other humans. Women's literacy is the single most important criteria to know how "developed" a nation is. Education is also critical for the consolidation of democracy. Educated women are also far more likely to have fewer children to aid in our over population crisis. The importance of education and information should not be over estimated.  Education is Liberation!

Little Bill O'reilly

Free Documentaries

I am a big fan of documentaries so here is a short list of a few websites that offer free streaming documentaries. 

Documentary24

Freedocumentaries.org

Freedocumentaries.net

Surfthechannel.com

Enjoy!

Terrorizing Dissent

A four part series of documentary films were introduced to me last fall that covered the protests at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul Minnesota last August. The footage is quite shocking as police proceed to make mass arrests and use whatever means necessary to disperse the crowds. Over 30 journalists were arrested during raids and mass arrests including Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! The footage has very little commentary but very shocking footage and I highly recommend it if you love direct action the way I do. Follow the link here. 

Break Dancing in Phnom Penh

Since this "blog" is for my Globalization class I thought this video was the perfect of example of globalization. It is a video about a youth center in the capital of Cambodia. This youth group teaches break dancing but also life and social skills.

Japanese Whaling

I've been strongly supportive of animal rights for as long as I can remember and here is an article I wrote in the Meliorist in Fall 2008 regarding the Japanese Whaling efforts and the defense of these creatures by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, of the most entertaining direct action groups out there. 

Whaling

On November 17th, 2008, the Japanese whaling fleet set sail to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to conduct “research,” which involves the industrial slaughter of 1 000 whales.

The whaling industry has had a long and dark history, which dates back almost six thousand years. However, with the invention of new technology, the industry has grown in size and destructive capacity, hunting many species into near extinction and some populations into complete extinction. In 1946, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was created to conserve whale stocks and make it possible for the whaling industry to continue to hunt “sustainably.” Initially, the IWC was dominated by whaling nations and took an “anything goes” approach.

By the 1970s, the number of whales had been reduced drastically to the point where only a handful of species remained off the threatened or endangered species list. In response, the global anti-whaling movement persuaded the majority of nations involved in the IWC to press for a complete moratorium on commercial whaling by 1986. This meant that no whales could be hunted commercially anywhere in the world. However, the moratorium had some very large loopholes. Whaling could be conducted if it was for “scientific research” or “aboriginal subsistence programs.” This allowed nations who wished to continue whaling to do so under the pretext of conducting ‘research.’

Nations that have continued whaling under the banner of research (or just completely rejected the IWC moratorium) include Japan, Norway, Faroe Islands and Iceland, as well as some small aboriginal communities in Russia and the Caribbean. International pressure has forced some of these nations to halt operations temporarily, but the Japanese continue to be the largest and most vocal opponents to the ban.

The Japanese whaling fleet is operated by the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which is a privately owned, non-profit organization. Once the “research” is completed, the whale carcass is given to Kyodo Senpaku, a for-profit government subsidized company that processes the whale meat for global markets. Kyodo Senpaku sells $60 million worth of whale meat every year. One of the provisions of the IWC moratorium requires that any whale killed for research must not be wasted, which is very convenient for those wishing to make a quick buck off the industry.

The Japanese plan to catch 1 000 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary off Antarctica this year with their industrialized fleet. The fleet includes several spotter boats, two “killing” boats and a large factory ship to process and package the whale meat. The fleet left the Japanese port city of Hiroshima amid tight security. A Kyodo Senpaku spokesperson has said that it cannot disclose any information regarding its departure out of consideration for the safety of the crew.

Ironically, the “research” being conducted this year is to determine the natural mortality rate and age of the whales. This is the only research needed by the IWC that requires the death of the whale; the only way to tell definitively how old a whale is is to examine a part of the inner ear. This is a piece small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and its extraction requires the death of the animal.

These actions by the Japanese fleet are not going unopposed. Australia and New Zealand, which both claim territorial rights to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, are both strongly opposed but have done little to stop the hunt. Strong opposition has also come from the United States and the European Union, but since most of the whale meat is sold within Japan, few economic actions can be taken to punish those engaging in the hunt. However, pressure on the Japanese government has grown over the years and has forced the whale industry to cut its quota in the last year.

Greenpeace have also been vocal and aggressive critics of the slaughter of whales ever since the organization was founded in 1971. They have used non-violent direct action to try and interrupt the whaling fleet by recording the killing and sending the videos to world media sources, as well as using small boats to drive between the kill ships and the whales to prevent the ships from firing their harpoons.

Another (and much more controversial) group called the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been very active in the anti-whaling campaign. The group is led by Paul Watson, who was a co-founder of Greenpeace, but was kicked out for being too radical. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have been labeled as pirates and terrorists. They have a long history in direct conflict with whaling, including the sinking of nine whaling vessels around the world. The most notable was the scuttling of half the Icelandic whaling fleet in the 1980s by two Sea Shepherds with monkey wrenches.

The group caught worldwide attention last year when they tossed bottles of Butyric Acid (rancid butter) on the decks of the Japanese factory ship, making the deck unworkable because of the horrendous smell. They also had two activists climb aboard the Japanese ship and attach themselves to the ship while delivering a handwritten message to the captain. These actions were heavily condemned in the international community, but also celebrated by many global citizens. In the conflict, Paul Watson was shot in the chest by an unknown gunman. Fortunately for Watson, he was wearing a Kevlar vest (which he always wears) because the Ecuadorian Mafia has a contract out for his death. The incident was caught on tape and relayed around the world. The Sea Shepherds are currently docked in Melbourne, Australia, and are ready to deploy and interfere with the whaling operations. They also currently have a series on Animal Planet called “Whale Wars,” which has highlighted last year’s campaign.

The combined efforts of Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherds resulted in a disappointing catch season for the Japanese fleet in 2007-2008. The fleet missed its quota by almost half, citing environmental groups as the main reason.

This year’s whale hunt is sure to bring action to the high seas as the two opposing sides come head to head once again. While international pressure is mounting and many young Japanese have disapproved of the hunt, the slaughter will continue in the name of “research.”

Melirorism V. 2.0

I found out how to post articles so I will post my articles here but if you want to see the official web version follow the links below. 

Democracy Lost While we Watched

Once again, the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta has been successful in eroding democracy without provoking even ripples of concern among the vast majority of the Albertan population.

The March 2008 election was the most chaotic and ill-managed election in recent Canadian history. Up to twenty-five percent of the voting population were left off voting lists and had to be sworn in at the ballot stations. The Elections Alberta website also crashed on voting day so that those who did not receive voting cards had to search their neighbourhood to find their ballot station, often to find it was the wrong one. This fiasco resulted in a dismal 41 per cent voter turnout among registered voters, meaning that it is possible that as few as 30 per cent of eligible Albertans granted the Ed Stelmach government an “overwhelming” mandate to govern.

As a result of the election fiasco, Lorne Gibson, Alberta’s chief electoral officer, put forward numerous suggestions of how to improve Alberta’s creaky electoral system. Suggestions included having returning officers, people who oversee elections, be selected on a non-partisan basis and not from within the membership of the Progressive Conservative Party. Another suggestion was to give the chief electoral officer the power to prosecute offences of the Election Act such as violations of campaign finance. Currently, the power to prosecute rests with the Alberta department of justice, which is headed by Allison Redford, a PC MLA. This is important because nineteen campaign finance violations were reported in the 2008 election and the Alberta Department of Justice has failed to act on even one.

These suggestions where by no means “radical” and would be expected in any liberal democracy; it’s important to note that not one of Gibson’s one hundred recommendations has been acted upon.

However, Gibson, for his work was essentially fired last week when an “all-parties” committee decided not to renew his contract by an eight to three vote. I have placed “all-parties” in quotations because while the committee contains members of all the parties represented in the Alberta legislature, the eight votes not to renew Gibson’s contract came from the eight PC members on the committee while the three dissenting votes came from the opposition members.

The Progressive Conservatives have claimed that Gibson’s contract was due to expire and he was not offered a new one because of the calamity of the March 2008 election. However, while Gibson was responsible for the election, he claims he duties were restricted because he required returning officers to conduct proper enumeration. As mentioned above, these returning officers are appointed by within the structure of the PC party. These returning officers were not appointed in time for Gibson’s office to do the work, which led to the disorganized election.

Gibson claims his dismissal was politically motivated, and it’s tough to argue against such a claim, since it was only weeks ago that he released his critical report on the election. But this act sends deep chills into the spines of Albertans who care about democracy and care about keeping the “government” separate from the party that governs. Many positions in our government are independent positions and act on behalf of democracy and Albertans as a whole. This is to prevent the kind of situations found in dictatorial regimes where the governing party does as they wish without any barriers. Gibson’s position held one of those positions and this action sends a dangerous message to other independent legislative officials such as the auditor general, ethics commissioner and ombudsmen, who may hesitate next time they have something critical to say of the government.

This is just one many cases where the PCs have been successful at eroding democracy. With a party that has governed the province for over forty years, it is becoming increasingly difficult to view the difference between the Progressive Conservative Party and the government as a whole. Yet stories like this barely make a wave among Albertans and these incremental steps at eroding democracy fail to make the majority of the Albertan populace to even reflect on the state of democracy in this province. Perhaps this will just become another sad story in Alberta’s history of apathy and political disengagement.

Downstream streaming online.

Here is the link to the film "Downstream" which looks at the effect of the Alberta Tar Sands on the communities (generally aboriginal communities like Fort Chipewyan). The film has caused quite a stir and was short listed for an Academy Award. The film was also the target of the Alberta minister for arts who called for a closer inspection of what types of projects got provincial funding because this film was very critical of the government. Which makes it sound like the minister of arts wants to only fund pro-government films and thats propaganda ...or "P.R."

Melirorism V. 1.0

The following is an article by myself in The Meliorist, the University of Lethbridge's student newspaper. This article appear in late september or early october. 

.... however, for some reason I cannot paste the article to here so here is the link. (I'm not sure if it's a problem with my computer or a strategy to avoid plagerism)

And this is a link to my other articles and letters to the editor. 

Letter to the Lethbridge Herald

Here is a recent letter in the Lethbridge Herald regarding the creationist/evolution debate. 

Academics favour evolution for good reason

Written by Alex Massé

Tuesday, 20 January 2009

In his letter (“Evolution debate is a battle of belief systems,” Jan. 15), H. Richard Friesen notes his belief system, which “includes a Creator God who designed every living thing around us,” is losing ground in “the lecture halls of academia.” Friesen’s explanation for this trend is a refusal among “unbelievers” to accept the consequences meted out by God in the afterlife. Friesen’s argument presupposes that academia is full of unbelievers in the first place. His failure to explain this hidden premise renders his argument rather self-defeating.     Why is it, then, that academics, the most educated career group in our society, tend disproportionately toward atheism and agnosticism? The explanation is quite simple. A belief system that includes evolution corresponds much more closely to observable reality than a belief system that relies on a mysterious floating sky-monster. Academics, whose job it is to engage in lifelong study of the best available evidence and come to the most reasonable conclusions based on that evidence, have tended, over time, to converge upon evolution as an explanation for life. The amount of evidence that has been provided in support of the theory of natural selection is staggering. Evolution has been more adequately accounted for than many theories to which theists regularly subscribe, including the theory of gravity. Friesen’s strongest argument against evolution stems from his own incredulity. He is awed by the stunning beauty and complexity of nature, and rightly so. However, I would think it much more likely that such beauty arose through several billion years of tediously slow progress than through a spontaneous six-day frenzy of magic followed by a nap. Alex Massé Lethbridge

Arson at former Syncrude Execs. House

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

This is what I "blogged" about eight months ago. I said that the result of marginalization of environmental and social groups is that these groups will continually seek further extreme measures to achieve their goals. This is exactly what happened this week when someone tossed molotov cocktails into the empty house of recently retired Syncrude president Jim Carter. The house cost a little less then one million dollars and is now a complete write off. Carter had been a target of vandalism before, in the summer of 2008 Carter's escalade had its windows shattered. 

The ability of the PC to turn Alberta into a corpocracy has forced someone to burn down a house. This is what happens when people are excluded from the democratic process. The Alberta government has been in bed with big oil for along time now despite the warnings of the danger of the tarsands and its unsightly byproducts and people have now "taken to arms". Now my suspicion is that the people who perpetuated this are in someway related to the fort chipewan band because they have no doubt been the worst affect by the tar-sands development but I don't suspect the person will be found because these activities are usually done with some foresight into an escape plan and are done in anonymity. 

Pipelines have also been attacked in northern alberta and british columbia which belong to Encana but these are suspected to be the result of local opposition to development as opposed to the widespread opposition to oil infrastructure development which is the reason why someone burned down carter's house. Now I don't condone these actions but I saw it coming and Alberta has it coming. 

Resist 2010

Blog for Class

As part of a University of Lethbridge course titled Money, Culture and Globalization this blog will be devoted to the class project to create a blog. While I haven't written on it in over six months, the topics will remain similar and i'll pretend people are actually reading it.