Category Archives: Blog

Racism in Calgary

Yes it still happens, frustrating and more.

Update: Commenting has been turned off for this post. Amazingly this post has gotten an intense amount of ridiculous racist comments on it by anonymous commenters. It amazes me that people would take any time to post such things an random blogs on the internet, but they do nonetheless.

Huh, I might write more on that latter.

A brief update of things past and things to come

Sorry, for the brief hiatus with no warning. As you might have figured out, I’m off spending time with family and haven’t been at a computer much to type, read, or otherwise. I’m in Minnesota for the week, with limited internet access, which means I might throw up a couple post, but don’t expect much.

I arrived in Minnesota just in time to wish my beautiful baby niece a happy 2.5 hour birthday! Take a moment and give a happy birth greeting to baby Taya.

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas greetings to everyone, sorry I haven’t written much about these holidays and their meanings, but hopefully you’ve been too busy enjoying them to miss anything.

I’ll try and do a brief year in review next week as I have time. For now, enjoy your time with family, friends, and the final days of 2006.

Quit making Hummer’s Mr. Rick Wagoner

I don’t know Rick Wagoner, but I wish I did.

If I knew him I’d ask him to stop making Hummers. You see sometimes there are products whose negative impact outweigh their positive impact. There are plenty of other products to pick on, but Hummer’s just seemed like an easy target at the moment.
I’ve been listening to Corporate Watchdog Radio recently, and I’ve found it pretty interesting. The episode I listened to recently was talking about companies “social footprint” and their role in creating a sustainable world.
One part of the conversation that was interesting was the dilemma of how to consider the impact that the consumers of a companies products have on the environment. Are automobile manufacturers responsible for the impact their cars have when their customers drive it? I would argue they definitly have some responsibility. We as consumers are absolutely responsible for lifestyle choices and purchases, but the companies producing those products are responsible too. We hold crack dealers responsible for the products they bring to the street, tobacco companies are responsible for their products, and automobile companies should be responsible for theirs. Anyone disagree?

But, my point is not to talk about who is responsible, rather it’s to just imagine for a moment. What if Rick Wagoner, the CEO of GM came to the epiphany, that environmental sustainability is important and they actually stopped making Hummers. Could you imagine?
Thousand’s of people have recognized the impact their lifestyle has on the environment and they’ve made changes and advocated for change that is within their power to make. Thousand’s of others have realized the injustice of sweatshops and have made efforts to purchase fair trade clothing and other items. I guess I just wonder, when is a CEO or two going to come around? Is the strangle-hold of wealth that strong?
Imagine if the CEO of GM decided to completely change the company to have environmental sustainability is the bottom line, rather then profits. Imagine if the CEO of Nike decided social justice and fair trade where more important than brand and dollars.

Wow, can you imagine that world?

Impacting Documentaries. Learn. Live.

I’m hoping to get a movie series going at our house that will encourage us and other’s onward toward action about important issues we might not currently know about.
I really hope the movie series will be endorsed by Mosaic where I attend on Sunday’s as well as getting the word out a few other places, but we’ll see what happens.

For now, I’m trying to pick some movies. Here’s a long list of ones I’m interested in showing. I’d like to just pick ten so I can do it on a every other week basis for about 20 weeks.

  1. An Inconvenient Truth
  2. Crash (Widescreen Edition)
  3. Sometimes In April
  4. Hotel Rwanda
  5. Tough Guise
  6. The Corporation
  7. The Boys of Baraka
  8. Born into Brothels
  9. North Country (Widescreen Edition)
  10. Killing Us Softly
  11. Life And Debt
  12. POV: Lost Boys of Sudan
  13. 30 Days - Season 1
  14. Bowling for Columbine
  15. Why We Fight
  16. Fahrenheit 9/11
  17. Another World Is Possible: Volume 2 - Poverty
  18. Another World Is Possible: Volume 1 - War
  19. Another World Is Possible: Volume 3 - Creation
  20. Murderball
  21. Fast Food Nation
  22. Chavez: Inside the Coup
  23. Super Size Me
  24. Color of Fear
  25. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

What would be your ten from that list? Or do you have other suggestions?