Provocations

Canadian doctors encourage US citizens to go for real health care

A little truth to dilute the poisonous lies being spread in the US.

Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premier and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada. They tell Americans that Canadian universal health care works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal health care systems.

Paul Hawken puts the wonder into perspective

A quote for the season:

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

- Paul Hawken, to the Class of 2009, University of Portland

David Simon's 'The Wire' lays it bare

Still think there might be some value to "the war on drugs"? I challenge you to watch this video and still have some justification for that thought.

Think the war on drugs is BS but can't articulate very clearly why? Watch this video.

Wonder why inner-city stuff seems predictable and stuck? Wonder what's going on in the "world's most livable city" - Vancouver - where every few days a gang member is killed?  How will that end up?

Who really cares?

Sick of reading stats and hearing platitudes?

Watch this video. It's well-presented.

Then, you may well decide to watch the second half.

"When television history is written," one critic says, "Little else will rival 'The Wire.'"And when historians come to tell the story of America in our time, I'll wager they will not be able to ignore this remarkable and compelling portrayal of life in our cities.  - Bill Moyers.

OK. Enough said.

James Lovelock on planetary and human survival

Quote for our times:

For the first time in its 3.5 billion years of existence, the planet has an intelligent, communicating species that can consider the whole system and even do things about it. They are not yet bright enough, they have still to evolve quite a way, but they could become a very positive contributor to planetary welfare.

- James Lovelock

Full interview

Joe Bageant interview: US working class and the state of the nation

An interview with Joe Bageant, my favourite commentator on the US scene:

More from Joe:

• Joe Bageant thinks out loud "from the Cheap Beer Zone"
• Where young US liberals get their news
• Television has no effect?
• Joe's blog

Russia invades Georgia - a look behind the obvious

So, where do you stand on the Russian invasion of Georgia? The mainstream media have had no problem in telling us where they think we should stand and, on the face of it, framing the Russians as the baddies is a natural. However, if you'd like to take six minutes and look a little deeper, this talking head (Pablo Escobar) video does a pretty good job of adding a little depth and perspective.

Netroots: Is Obama's campaign representing or absorbing new thinking?

In US politics, fresh, new, movements tend to get sidelined or absorbed into one of the mainstream parties.  Barack Obama has used the new tools but is he representing the new thinking?

Diminishing role for airports because of growing effects of fuel prices and climate change

It's becoming very hard to avoid facing the fact that we are in an era of major and unavoidable change. Stuck ideas are shaking loose, even among those who relatively recently saw Climate Change and Peak Oil as speculative fantasies.  The ride is getting rougher and we'd better be thinking out of the box because the box is disappearing. One "small"(?) example, significant also because it's published in a fairly conservative mainstream newspaper:

Two factors mean the end of air travel as we know it
Published 17 Apr 2008 by the Vancouver Sun

The world is starting to be affected by the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil, but many involved in transportation planning are looking the other way. Richard Gilbert and Anthony Perl say that planning around airport development is folly for cities.
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Britain's Stockholm Institute at the University of York back in 2004 identified increased air travel as one of the most serious environmental threats facing the planet. It recommended travellers be required to use public transit to access airports and that they use rail for any journey under 400 miles.

Carl Honoré on his new book on parenting, Under Pressure

I heard an interview with Carl Honoré about his new book on contemporary parenting, Under Pressure".  It makes a natural follow-up to the consideration of the success of the Finnish school system.  Here's Carl introducing himself and his new book:

Amory Lovins: The Markets

A quote for investors and right-wing ideologues:

The markets make a good servant but a bad master, and a worse religion.  - Amory Lovins

(His clients include Anglo American, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Monsanto, Royal Dutch / Shell,  Wal-Mart, Westinghouse and Xerox)