mike soron . com

Increasingly, we’re realizing that helping women is the best first step in an array of issues. Data and experience demonstrate that dollars and effort invested in women return more good to the community than delivering to the state or to men. Women tend to reinvest in their families and communities before themselves and policy and action are adjusting.

Microfinance, as one very relevant example, is mostly now directed at women or groups of women: repayment rates and collateral positives are higher and it addresses systemic maldistribution and misallocation of power, resources and opportunity.

On this, and much else, is a wonderful interview over at WorldChanging with Kavita Ramdas, the CEO and President of the Global Fund for Women. Operating in over 160 countries it is the largest publicly funded, independent grant-making organization to advance women’s human rights. It is a striking story of incredible success and leaves me — ever the cynical pessimist — feeling absolutely effusively optimistic about the 21st century.

And while she discusses her success in addressing women’s human rights, Kativa reminds us we need to continue rethinking the role of women in human affairs.

I think that I’d encourage all our listeners to think about not using the term “women’s issues” anymore. I don’t believe there is any such thing. I don’t believe that 51% of the world’s population, which is what we are, doesn’t care about all the critical issues that affect us. I believe that women have the right to express an opinion on all issues, and I will strongly challenge us to speak out and speak up against the ghetto-ization of the few issues that somehow we are supposed to care about, and then the more serious ones, like the military and the economy and the war will somehow be left to those other people.

These are issues that should affect and concern all of us who care about free, open and democratic societies. Without the voices of 51% of the world’s population, our chances of making this world a better place for all of us are about zero.

Read the full interview…

Tags: activism + change + feminism + human rights + justice + microfinance + social justice + women

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Bush was naturalizing citizens in Monticello, today. AP reports:

Anti-war protesters shouted out calls for Bush’s impeachment on nine occasions during Bush’s brief remarks, and the president responded by saying he agrees that “we believe in free speech in the United States of America” [...]

The last six Fourth of July holidays have taken place amid continuing violence in Iraq. Bush’s addition of 28,000 U.S. troops last year in Iraq helped foster a measure of stability in what is now the sixth summer of the war.

The 150 or so demonstrators, from a variety of groups opposing Bush’s policies on the war in Iraq, also rallied along the path of the president’s motorcade to Monticello.

See footage below:

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The Onion offers this reinterpretation of the folksy independent Executive:

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Howard Zinn, one of humanity’s finest historians, has offered commentary on Independence Day in the past.

From 2006, “Patriotism and the Fourth of July“:

Mark Twain, having been called a “traitor” for criticizing the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, derided what he called “monarchical patriotism.” He said: “The gospel of the monarchical patriotism is: ‘The King can do no wrong.’ We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had — the individual’s right to oppose both flag and country when he believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.”

And from 2007, “Put away the flags“:

One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq [...]

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history [...] We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.

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Happy Independence Day, United States.

Tags: activism + america + antiwar + bush + free speech + howard zinn + media + power + usa + violence

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Once again, the Danes are named the happiest people on the planet.

Why is this? and what can we learn from their success?

Some folks say it’s the bikes. In Copenhagen, one third of commutes happen on bikes, one third on public transportation, one third in automobiles.

This clip from “Contested Streets” shows some of what makes the Danes so happy.

Jan Gehl, “livable streets guru,” provides this advice in the clip: “Try to take the people in the city seriously. Just as seriously as we’ve been used to taking the traffic of cars… When it comes to people in the city, most cities know nothing.”

(via StreetsBlog)

Tags: bicyling + cities + city + europe + green + happines + planning + public space + streets + transportation + urban

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SIGH — another report from a respected environmental institution lambasting Canada for its atrocious and morally/legally defiant climate performance. I tire of reading them, but find this one an especially good summary of our collective shame.

Leading up to next weeks’ G8 summit in Japan, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has released a report examining the status of the G8 countries action — or lack thereof — on their climate obligations.

Canada has a lot to be embarrassed about. We’re second last in the pack, followed only by our co-delinquent bosom-buddy the United States.

The report G8 Climate Scorecards 2008 [PDF] ranked the member countries — United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and Russia — on quantitative indicators and qualitatively evaluated the policy areas of efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon markets.

The summary evaluation reads:

• Very high emission rates per capita compared to average of industrialized countries despite high share of hydropower.
• Strongly increasing emissions in most sectors; projections have recently been corrected upwards
• Expanding energy-intensive un-conventional oil development (tar sands); neither provincial nor planned federal regulation will reduce overall emissions
• No official/enforceable climate plan; proposed national plan does not even aim for compliance with Kyoto target

The energy efficiency section was particularly damning:

• Average energy efficiency very low in power, industry, households and transport
• No national, economy-wide commitment to energy efficiency improvement
• Buildings: codes, energy performance requirements not ambitious or lacking
• Transport: Weak national vehicle fuel efficiency standards; effectiveness of voluntary agreement unclear; some Provinces endorsing California car standards
• Power/industry: caps, fiscal instruments (energy pricing/taxes) and tradable permits not utilized; commitment of Ontario to shut 5 coal plants by 2014
• Expanding energy-intensive oil production from tar sands; planned intensity reduction measures will allow sectoral emissions to double or triple

Yikes. I enjoy the special shout-out to the tar sands; my government is spending a great deal of PR money to combat such ridiculous assertions of fact.

Yet, Canadians don’t want this state of affairs to continue and are increasingly supporting climate action.

Aside from being out of step with the desires of the Canadian public, our governments are now acting outside the desires of Parliament. The House of Commons has passed legislation requiring us to meet and actually exceed our treaty obligations with Bill C-377 — now passed second reading and stalled by the Government at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.

This government needs to get its act together and the Canadian people need to bring their outrage out from behind rolling national polls and into their MP’s offices and daily lives. Soon, Harper will be unable to joke about the consequences of climate action as the country begins to struggle with the consequences of climate change.

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G8 Climate Scorecards 2008 PDF

Tags: america + c-377 + canada + climate change + cpc + g8 + green + greenshift + greenwashing + media

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Drilling through my RSS feeds today I fell back in love with the Strange Maps blog. A wonderful collection of cartographical curiosities; I had forgotten how much I enjoyed reading it.

This particular selection details federal ownership of land across the United States. Private ownership-loving America holds about 30% of it’s total landmass in federal hands. Mostly, this land is weapons testing grounds, military bases, natural parks and reserves, and aboriginal reserves. In other cases, it is federally owned land leased to private companies for resource exploitation and profit-seeking activities.

Between the eastern states and the West there is a stark contrast in public ownership. Nevada, for instance is nearly 85% state owned whereas Connecticut and Rhode Island are just 0.4%.

State-level control isn’t considered in these numbers, so it would be interesting to see how that addition changes the final tally of public to private ownership.

For a government that seems to love public land they sure do resist public health care — actually most public activity or ownership that might help non-rich folks.

LINK

Tags: america + economics + land + ownership + power + usa

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Happy National Corvette Day!

From your USA Automotive Industry!

P.S. We are in shambles.

Why? Inability to see predict change? Inability to adjust to current change? Reliance on subservient and dedicated servants in Legislatures across the West?

With rumours of Chrysler’s imminent bankruptcy, GM worth what it was worth in 1955, crumbling domestic infrastructure, peak, and systemic change in transportation and the economy surely our leaders are doing something. Right?

Well, some jackass USA Congressmen, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), serves his constituents with the following:

H. Res. 970

In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

June 26, 2008.
Whereas the Chevrolet Corvette is America’s first sports car;

Whereas the first production Corvette rolled off a Flint, Michigan, assembly line on June 30, 1953;

Whereas the Corvette is now manufactured in Bowling Green, Kentucky;

Whereas the Corvette is the most widely respected production sports car in United States history;

Whereas the Corvette is truly a symbol of American pride;

Whereas General Motors is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2008; and

Whereas the 30th of June would be an appropriate day to designate as `National Corvette Day’: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the United States House of Representatives supports the designation of a `National Corvette Day’ to honor the Chevrolet Corvette.

Meanwhile, past the 49th — Iris Evans, Stephen Harper, Ed Stelmach, John Baird and all these morally and politically irresponsible servants of the petrocracy continue to live every day as if it were National Corvette Day in Canada. All this while the forward thinking — from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives to the award winning IPCC — say action is needed now. Not intensification of slightly less irresponsible economic activity disregarding the consequences — that being a kinder summary of the Tory plan than should be offered.

No single plan is a panacea for the challenges our society faces — whether economic, social or moral. Yet, servants of power at home and abroad see inaction and feigned ignorance as the political panacea to ensure their own short-term survival.

Like their economic strategies that is disastrously short-sighted.

Tags: america + canada + change + corporatism + evans + green + greenshift + petrocracy + recession + stelmach + usa

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Christie Blatchford had a bit of a run in with the security state last week. In her article in Saturdays Globe Blatchford recounts the excitement that began with a discussion of ongoing terrorism trials in Canada:

… I told Rosie about some evidence at the Khawaja trial, particularly the testimony of a key witness, himself a convicted al-Qaeda operative, about the loose connections between the Khawaja group and others who had succeeded – one was a London Tube bomber, and two unnamed others were described as completed a mission in Israel, presumably a suicide bombing.

It was at that point that the Air Canada clerk at Gate 27 approached me.

“Excuse me,” he said, “you can’t say those words. Those words are illegal.”

“What words?” I asked, bewildered, given that by then I’d said probably 2,000 words.

“Suicide bombing,” he whispered.

She insisted that, although the state has criminalized making jokes or threats in an airport, it is not illegal to recount public evidence or discuss one’s work. Eventually, she is confronted by security who agreed with her. The earlier clerk was unswayed:

When we boarded a little later, I asked for the ninny’s name. He refused and hissed, “If you make a scene, I’ll call the pilot and you won’t be flying tonight.”

I was so very tempted to tell him to go ahead, but I knew he probably would do it and I wanted badly to get home, so held my tongue. I was quietly praising myself for my steely calm when another passenger remarked, “I didn’t know you were an anarchist, Christie.”

None of this makes Canada safer. Nor does it make Ms. Blatchford an anarchist, which she is certainly not.

As Cory Doctorow writes, “If terrorists are a danger… then the only way to be safe is to talk about real threats and real countermeasures, to question the security around us and shut down the systems that don’t work.”

What benefit to Canada is gained by demarcating zones of where certain phrases are not to be uttered?

We are not well-served.

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The truth in a nutshell, or what I won’t read on vacation - Christie Blatchford

Tags: canada + censorship + democracy + doctorow + free speech + language + power + security + terrorism

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San Diego Country isn’t happy with the McCain family. Turns out, one of the many trusts that administers one of their seven homes hasn’t paid taxes in four years. McCain’s trust scrambled to pay nearly all of the outstanding debt to the county. $1,742 of a total $6,744.42 remains.

If that seems like an inconsequential number, recall that his gas tax holiday would have saved Americans $28 this spring. The better choice would have been to not pay taxes and reinvest the money in a disaster relief company. The McCain’s will be levied 1.5% interest per month on unpaid taxes.

You can see where they live one-seventh of the time below.

View Larger Map

Also, why is it that Sen. Clinton is held responsible for everything her husband does and Sen. McCain seems constantly unaware of the behaviour of his wife’s myriad trusts that manage her hundreds of millions? And why is the multimillionaire John McCain continuing to claim he understands the working poor without widespread criticism from the high courtiers in the corporate media?

The callous single-standard of the oligarchs is sickening.

In being unable to pay their taxes and under threat of seizure from the county they share more in common with Americans than we give them credit for.

Tags: america + class + corporatism + democracy + economics + election2008 + housing + mccain + media + oligarchy + power + wealth

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Yes, Bill C-61. Ashamedly, I feel I haven’t discussed it on here as much as I should. Luckily, Michael Geist has reorganized his entire blog for learning about and engaging the bill’s life ahead. Please check it out until I get something more thorough up here.

Here’s a new user rights video from OpenSourceCinema that summarizes some of the implications. Starring Canada’s own Cory Doctorow, now less.

Enjoy it while it lasts, this style of remix culture (Girl Talk, anyone?) will be over.

Tags: c61 + canada + CDMCA + doctorow + free culture + remix

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The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) made history today by overturning the US$2.5 billion in punitive damages granted to the victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster. It was, they determined, excessive — and therefore reduced to US$507 million. Remember, too, that the US$2.5 billion was about half of the US$ 4 billion that was settled on after nearly twenty years in various courts in 2004, having been reduced by the US Court of Appeal.

SCOTUS wrongfully got some props last week for the Gitmo ruling. Their decision requires kidnapped foreigners, charmingly called to have the right to challenge their detention in civil courts. It did not, however, suggest that the entire operation is illegitimate and criminal and must be immediately shut down.

Once again, SCOTUS reminds us whose rights they fight for.

Tags: exxonmobil + green + justice + law + media + scotus

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