Did you miss Earth Day?

Earth Day happened this past week. But there didn't seem to be a heck of a lot of fanfare around it, despite the growing uncertainty over the health of our planet. In the Globe and Mail on Saturday, Ken Wiwa has a good column that talks about Earth Day, and what it's become. (You may or may not be able to read the column, depending on whether you have an "Insiders'" subscription.) Here's a bit of what he had to say:

The disturbing thing is that a day founded in the genuine desire to relocate the heart and spirit of the American dream to a more globally aware, environmentally sensitive place is being co-opted in a depressingly familiar tale of cynical manipulation, politics and commerce.

How do you swallow the optics of a U.S. president using the occasion of Earth Day to promote his militarized vision of global security? Or the rhetoric of U.S. Army Earth Day? Yes — U.S. Army Earth Day really does exist. Its slogan, "Sustaining the Environment for a Secure Future," adorns its 2005 Earth Day poster depicting a soldier, armed to the teeth, scoping the planet through his binoculars.

If that scares the bejesus out of you, then stay away from the U.S. Congress. It's currently debating President George Bush's controversial energy bill. On the eve of Earth Day, the House rejected a proposal, by a 254-177 vote, to increase the fuel efficiency of automobiles.

President Bush and his army may insist that rolling back green legislation is enhancing life on Earth. But I prefer to be scaremongered by studies such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a report funded by the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. The four-year study done in 95 countries by 1,300 scientists and experts recently concluded that humans are degrading 60 per cent of the Earth's ecosystem services, such as fresh water, and have had a hand in changing climates. The report concludes that these activities are releasing excess greenhouse gasses, draining underground aquifers, overharvesting forests and oceans, and continuing to dump pollution into them.

But as is usually the case with Wiwa, he ends with a bit of optimism.

He tells us that he was in the US this past week to attend the Goldman Prize, which is awarded annually to six grassroots environmentalists from six regions of the world:

If you're depressed that Earth Day appears, like everything else, to have been co-opted, then take the time to find out about the Goldman Award winners — people such as Kaisha Atakhanova, who is leading the campaign to reduce nuclear pollution in Kazakhstan; Stephanie Roth, for leading protests against a proposed gold and silver mine in Romania and Haitian agronomist Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, who faced death threats to teach his people sustainable agriculture. Their stories are the ones we should be celebrating on Earth Day every year.

Good advice. Go read the stories for yourself...and celebrate.

Election talk misses the real point

OK, I know that I should be commenting about our PM's special, six-minute TV address the other night. I'm sure that lots of people were interested. Heck, my wife thinks he put on a good show, but she's so dead-set against the Tories that she'll grab any excuse to keep them out of government. She even admitted she might consider voting Liberal, if that's what it takes (something she's never done before.)

I didn't see the PM's address live. I would have, but I had other things to do, something I suspect a great many people did as well. Although the whole point was to avoid the "media filter" that his remarks or comments are always shrouded by, I still didn't take advantage of the opportunity.

I'm waiting for some sanity to come to our federal politicians. I know I may wait in vain, but I am nothing if not optimistic. There is no way we should be heading to an election now. There are significant and serious issues facing Canadians right now, and choosing a new government is not one of them. Let's wait and see what Gomery has to say. If the Liberals are as corrupt and "done" as the Opposition parties say there are, then there is no way they will win another election, whenever it comes. If the charges are true, let's hear the process out, then elect a new majority government, not just another interim minority, of whatever stripe.

There. I don't want to say more. Well, maybe just another sentence or two...

I'm disappointed in what we're hearing about the morality of the Liberal party of Canada and the way that business has been done in Quebec, and I suspect elsewhere. There was (and perhaps still is) a group of morally suspect people running the Liberal party. The status quo is not acceptable. But I worry that the way politics is done is not just a "liberal" way. It's the way of politicians and it needs to be changed.

We need our politicians to rise above day-to-day opportunism and demand that accountability be installed at all levels. We need respect and honour to be re-established as virtues that are important, not something to be laughed at when someone shows some. If Paul Martin is to be believed, he called the Gomery inquiry because it was the right thing to do, not because it was politically opportunistic. In fact, the price he's paying now is perhaps the clearest indication that it was not a smart thing, politically, to have done.

Maybe, just maybe, he's right. Maybe we should wait and see what happens.

UPDATE - April 25 -- A couple of great items in the Globe today. One, by Jim Stanford, puts the cost of ADSCAM into perspective. The other, by John Gray, (his biographer) casts a harsh light on Paul Martin's leadership qualities.

Too much news can be numbing

I'm slipping into news overload these days. I can't help it. I'm starting to feel like there's just been too much...of everything, it seems.

Consider this past week...Gomery, etc. Talk of election. Death of Pope. Burial of Pope. Election of new Pope. More earthquakes in Indonesia. Giant waves in Florida. Abandoned buildings in Hamilton...OK, that last one maybe isn't big news for the rest of you...but you get my point.

One of those "hot spots" that continues to simmer (but without the intense media scrutiny it once had), is Iraq. This week, we've heard that hundreds of people have been taken hostage, but the story is still confused as to whether they've been killed or not. Details are sketchy. And to be honest, most of the time, I don't really care anymore. It doesn't seem "fixable."

Catching glimpses of stories like this, through the lens of a media that's become overloaded with "major" events can be frustrating. If you have time to sit down and work your way through the Internet news sites and various blogs, you can usually find out what's happening but it's not something I can always find the energy for.

But on Tuesday, a story about Iraq in the Globe and Mail caught my eye. "My friend died helping Iraqi civilians" screamed the headline. That got my attention. It was written by Mark MacKinnon, The Globe's mid-east correspondent.

Mark tells us the sad story of his friend, Marla Ruzicka, who was killed on the weekend by a bomb in Baghdad. Hers is a remarkable story and the personal nature of the story brings home the sadness of her death and the impact it will have on a host of people. She sounds like an amazing person. You should read it for yourself.

Stories like this reinforce my faith in journalists and the power of the written word. Stories are the lifeblood of our society and we depend on our media to tell many of them. From time to time, we all suffer from the media's obsession with this or that story, and we like to think we can safely ignore the media because "they" are all off on some crusade or another. But these people are just working like you and me and they're doing what they think needs to be done. And from time to time they let us know just how much they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Should you shop at Wal Mart?

It's an interesting question...one made more interesting after reading this story about Wal-Mart's attempts to refurbish its ailing public image.

Now, this is a company that has never been particularly concerned about what people thought about it -- as long as they kept shopping there. And they have. The statistics cited by Kelly Hearn of Alternet are truly astounding:

A report co-authored by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and citing statistics by Deutsche Bank Securities, shows superstores' chunk of the general merchandise market went from 16 percent in 1992 to 50 percent in 2004. From 1991 to 2004, retail ad growth at newspapers shrunk from 4 percent to 1 percent.

So there's a certain irony in Wal-Mart wanting to get local newspaper support to help it restore it's image.

But what I find interesting about this story is that it challenges me (at least) to wonder about whether I let issues like this influence my buying decisions. Does it matter to me what kind of labour record a company has, or whether they are driving small, locally-owned companies out of business? Apparently not, if I can buy a discounted DVD for a few bucks less. Or pick up a pair of pefectly good jeans for less than I can anywhere else. Certainly, the rate of growth for Wal-Mart, and similar "big-box superstores" shows no signs of abating. Perhaps it won't.

But there's this part of me that keeps wondering whether I should be more concerned. Should I consider larger issues when I spend my hard-earned dollars? Does the fact that I might save a few justify the hardships that, by extension, are exerted on others because of Wal-Mart's success? On the other hand, what about the people that work at Wal-Mart? They seem happy enough with the company they work for. In fact, Wal-Mart ranked #8 on this year's Top 50 Employers in Canada by the Report on Business.

At the end of the day, where you shop and why is a personal decision. But increasingly, there are a lot of factors to take into consideration. For a long time, I think most of us simply watched and listened to stories about corporate activities without letting it become personal. But recent events, like the ethical and accounting scandals on Wall St. and Bay St. and at companies like Enron, combined with revelations at home like the Gomery Inquiry into Adscam are making people re-evaluate their personal stake in what's going on around them.

As Bell Canada explains it, "We are all connected."

You know you're getting old when...

NewDriver_04
Originally uploaded by Dave Traynor.

Well, it's happened. My "baby" has got her driver's license. Yes, Kelly obtained that milestone last week, on her first attempt, no less! So now, she's ready to break free of the parental bonds that tie her, assuming of course, that those same parents keep giving her money, loan her a car and supply the gas, insurance, etc. It's nice to be a kid, isn't it?

Last week was a good week for Kelly. She got her driver's license, and her new boat came in (she's renting a singles scull this year) and her uncle and aunt in Toronto decided to give us their old van, rather than trade it in on a new car. They got the car, and Kelly now has a vehicle to drive all her friends to rowing with! Life is good.

Publication Bans and the Internet

I've always had a problem with the concept of publication bans imposed on legal proceedings. Because they imply a hierarchy of access that is inappropriate and they're doomed to fail. We all know that some people in the courtroom are hearing the evidence, and deciding how to act because of it, but those who depend on the media for information are denied that same right. It's an articifical distinction that isn't appropriate.

So the decision to ban publication of what's been happening at the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal within the Liberal party is wrong, in my view. And in today's world, with the Internet and blogs like this one, etc., it didn't take long for the sheer folly of that ban to become evident.

On Friday, after the latest testimony in Montreal, the buzz started in Ottawa that what was being said was so sensational that we might see a snap federal election because of it. That's pretty sensational, but what made it even sexier (in theory, at least) was the fact that no one could actually talk about what was really said.

Enter the bloggers. Almost immediately, a U.S.-based blog started publishing the details and it didn't take long for a lot of people to start reading about it, throwing the whole question about the relevancy of the original ban into question, as this story in the Globe and Mail points out.

As a confirmed news junkie, I wanted to know what that testimony was and it didn't take me long to find out, or at least to find some comments about it. However, I'm mindful of the ban on coverage, so I hesitate to provide a direct link to what I've found. But I will tell you that I went to Feedster, typed in Gomery Ban in the search button and clicked on the first result. I found what I was looking for right away. You might want to do the same.

But the end result is interesting, because while the testimony does seem sensational, it's posted on a blog that's obviously not a fan of the Liberal party, so you have to ask yourself whether the reports are as accurate as they should be. But until Canadian journalists are allowed to write about what happened, we won't really know whether what we're hearing now is accurate or not.

But it sure is interesting.

Helpful lists to get you through your days

Who says there's nothing helpful on the Internet? Well, no one that I know of. But I like to start posts with a question.

One site that I read faily regularly is called 43 Folders. It's a collection of useful stuff, mostly highlighting programs for the Mac and productivity tips. He's pretty taken with GTD and if you don't know what that stands for, go here.

This past week (the first of the month, actually), it had a helpful list of "hacks" that you could follow to improve your productivity. For example:

1 -- Pencils are a great way to write things down.
2 -- Sharpen new pencils soon after you’ve bought them, so you can use them to write things down more easily.
3 -- Make sure you put gas in your car, or it won’t run very far after you’ve bought it, and then you’ll have trouble getting to work.

There's a lot more on the list. See for yourself.

The Boat Race (Need We Say More?)

Most of you probably know that rowing has become a big part of my life since my two daughters have become involved with the sport here in Hamilton. And now Jaime is rowing for the University of Victoria on the West Coast.

I didn't know much about the sport, but I've become hooked, to put it mildly. So I thought I'd let you know about one of the biggest events of the year, The Boat Race, which is running Easter Sunday at about 2 pm, London time (10 am EST).

It's the annual challenge race between the crews from Oxford and Cambridge that's been going on for 150 years each spring in London. This is a big event in London, with major newspaper, TV and radio coverage in the days leading up to the race itself. Over 250,000 people will line the banks of the Thames River in the centre of London to watch, and you can even listen live if you want, over the Internet.

I had hoped that it might be on TV here in Canada, but while TSN has the rights to show the race, I can't find any mention of it in their schedule. Nor can I find anyone who's offering a live video feed over the Internet.

The BBC has been the official media sponsor of the race in past years (view the 2004 race here if you have a Real Audio player) but this year, ITV has been given the rights.

There's also a nice Canadian angle to this year's race, as reported here in today's Globe and Mail.

Even if you're not much into rowing, you'll have fun checking out all the stuff about the race on the various websites. It's a big deal for a lot of us.

UPDATE -- Oxford beat Cambridge on Sunday.

First, there was this wierd light...

...then I woke up, curled up in the fetal position, in a cornfield in Saskatchewan.

Yes, I was abducted by aliens a few weeks ago. How else to explain my lengthy absence from the world of Daily Upload?

No? Not buying that? All right. I guess I can't really blame you.

But the part about Saskatchewan, if not the corn field, is kind of true. I have spent some time out there in the last couple of weeks. I was there for my Mom's 83rd birthday. We had a great party for her and she seemed to have a really good time. I was glad that I had made the effort to fly out there. All the more so since the next day, she had another stroke.

Unfortunately, the stroke seems to have affected her memory more than some of the previous ones (she has a history of these TIA's or mini-strokes.) Right now, a week later, she remembers that she had fun on her birthday, but she doesn't remember that I was there. Sigh. We'll just wait and see.

On a somewhat related note, I don't know about you, but I'm having a lot of trouble with this whole circus around the Terri Schiavo.

The "wrongness" of what politicians are doing in the US is overwhelming. I don't know what the right answer is in that case, but I do know that it is not something that should be played out in public like this. It's an intensely private, personal tragedy and there's no way we should be participating.

Two articles today grabbed my attention as insightful pieces on this controversy, although they come at it from different perspectives.

The first, from Salon.com is a first-person account of another family's story about their decision to end their brain-damaged son's life and the angst it caused them.

The second is a superb analysis from Rick Salutin in today's GlobeandMail. I'm not sure whether this is available on-line without a subscription. If it isn't, and you want to read it, drop me a line and I'll e-mail you a copy.

Death is a part of life. But that simple logic is hard to accept when the real thing faces us directly. And sometimes media events like Terri Schiavo's sad situation force us to confront our own feelings. I know that it's made me that much more likely to draft my own living will, so that my family never has to go through anything like that.

The ACLU wants you to know

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has put together a funny Shockwave movie about some poor guy who wants to order a pizza. The problem is that the One Big Database (a dream of American homeland security enthusiasts) has made it a tough call. Check out the movie and form your own conclusion. It's an interesting use of the power of the Web to warn about the power of the Web.