Charbonneau Commission: when transparency dies

            Writing this blog has been instructive. The ambient cynicism / political passivity has probably insulated me from the important role transparency plays in healthy political, social and economic systems. I am surprised to discover the degree to which democratic societies are hostage to the word. Who controls the word and how it is spun controls (in the short run, at least) the nature of the political game and the power relations among the various players.

            I have come to look for examples of what happens when transparency breaks down, when structures and political actors become opaque, when information does not flow freely, when news is distorted or "spun" to attribute a desired meaning or signification to an event..

             The province of Québec is a "small" society. Demographically and, especially, ethnolinguistically, it is a small island of francophonie in English speaking North America. This status, this mentality, has its advantages and its disadvantages. The relatively lowered mobility of our elites (the language issue) means that our big shots - nos gros légumes - know each other. They inhabit a small world, evolved from the ancestral farming village where you knew your neighbors and were probably related to them. "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" was a survival strategy before the invention of the modern State and insurance policies. Unfortuantely this philosophy, in modern societies, leads all too often to political corruption and the exploitation of unfair advantages: those with money purchase politicians and judges. Québec, as a small society, must therefore constantly be vigilant to eradicate corruption. The seeds of the disease must be extirpated before they have time to spread and infect the entire culture.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Charbonneau+Commission+Lino+Zambito+points+finger/7331677/story.html

                The Charbonneau Commission is investigating corruption in the provincial construction industry. Evidence is coming forth in Montréal that a cartel of ten favored contractors received the lion's share of contracts with the provincial or municipal governments.This favoritism was bought with kickbacks to politicians and "taxes" payed to the Mob (about 3% of project cost in the city of Montréal). Cartel members, in turn, inflated their costs in order to pay for this privilege. And of course, in the final analysis, it is the poor taxpayer who foots the bill. We pay about 30% more for provincial tenders than in the neighboring province of Ontario, for example. How much of that difference is due to political corruption in the construction industry? Perhaps the Charbonneau Commission will shed some light into dark corners. (I suspect a horror movie is coming..)

                 This is what the breakdown of transparency engenders in modern, nominally democratic, societies: public theft, gangsterism, public apathy and cynicism toward the political process. Our declining infrastructure - some shoddily constructed in the first place - has reached the point of posing a physical danger to the public.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2006/10/01/overpass-collapse.html 

Book Review: Chris Hedges, American Fascists

American Fascists, the Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges, Free Press, NY, 2006

       In this brave - even noble text - Chris Hedges delivers a cautionary tale of a tragically, perhaps terminally, flawed society brought low by the very forces which gave it dominion over all other nations.

       The Ancient Greeks recognized in hubris (excess) and hybris  (arrogance) tragic vices which, like alcohol, could take possession of a person's or a nation's soul and draw them toward self-inflicted destruction. Such a collective dementia, Hedges suggests, has seized - or is seizing - the American national consciousness with unknowable - but surely ominous - consequences.

       American Fascists is the best book I've yet read on the Authoritarian Personality. It is not easy reading except, perhaps, for inveterate, knee-jerk America bashers. Most readers, though, will find a cautionary tale, a warning: there, but for the grace of God (or simply a relative delay in our cultural trajectory relative to the US.), go we.. In reality, the disease Hedges describes is endemic and the "American case" is merely more acute, more advanced, more overtly virulent (everything there is oversized!)

       As Le Monde columnist Hervé Kempf has already shown - How the Rich are Destroying the Earth, Chelsea Green Publishing - our society of "emulative" hyperconsumption is unsustainable and thus, in the long run, a failure: nature operates on the long run, what counts is what survives - Darwin.

http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/how_the_rich_are_destroying_the_earth:paperback/foreword

      We are taught, as children, that those who possess much are "winners" and to emulate them, we, too, must consume big (even if that means consuming beyond our means and working ourselves sick to earn the prestige of being a big spender). Such a patently sick, constricted, vision of human life over-stimulates the economic sector (which, of course, is the "goal"). In reality, our economic system - advanced or Late Capitalism - requires such over-stimulation: investors demand future returns on present investment (profits). No profit to be made - no investment! But future return on present investment implies, logically speaking, infinite growth which is impossible in a "closed" - finite - physical world. Consider physical constraints: depletion of finite resources, the negative impacts of pollution in closed cycle systems, the obvious limits of physical space - territory - for human population growth.. In short, the "System" is screwed: it is now collapsing under the weight of its own internal contradictions. The hypocrisy - if not cynicism - and self-deception of those who profit from the "System" is boundless; that's one thing at least that's infinite! I recall my prof of Economics 101 pointing out that the economic "axion" of "infinite intersubstitutibility" of resources was, in all likelihood, BS. Yet he continued to teach it year after year.. In this case, it seems the blind do not WANT to see.

      To his credit, Chris hedges stresses the psychological effects of such a perverse culture. U.S. blue collar - and many white collar - jobs were exported to the 3rd world during the "globalization" mania. Why? To maximize profits for international megacorporations, their high living CEOs and shareholders by exploiting cheaper overseas labor. U.S. workers got screwed of course which made them even more paranoid then they were after 45 years of Cold War. And 9-11 didn't help..

       Into this menacing climate of economic, ecological, geopolitical, existential and cultural insecurity stepped the "dominionists" and "apocalyptics" of the radical "christian" Right. Dominionists believe that America has a duty to God to impose a "christian" vision on the rest of the world and to turn the U.S. into an Iranian style "theocracy".

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/151046/the_creepy_christian_dogma_pushed_by_religious_schools_that_are_supported_by_your_tax_dollars/?page=entire

       Dominionists also reject established science and support the absurd, suicidal agenda of the fossil fuel industry: God, they claim, gave man "dominion over" nature (Book of Genesis) and this goes as far as suspending the laws of physics, materializing resources out of thin air!

       "God is not capricious. He's given us a creation that is dynamically stable. We are not going to run out of anything."

http://www.minnpost.com/donshelby/2011/02/15/25784/picking_science_that_fits_politics_rep_mike_beard_on_climate_change

       So you've god God's permission: consume! consume! consume!

       Alternatively, although potentially equally dangerous from a geopolitical perspective, are the apocalyptics who, at least, grasp that the world is, in fact, going to hell in a handbasket. They, however, in a massively intellectually and morally dishonest move, attempt to shift the responsibility for the state of the world onto God's broad shoulders. Ecological crises are "re-framed", re-contextualized and re-interpreted to support the fossil fuel industry agenda: they are not the results of human greed and stupidity but manifestations of "God's plan". Ecological crises are nothing less than "signs" of the "End Days", of the Second Coming of Christ, when the world we will be destoyed in a universal conflagration. Only a "remnant" of humanity will be deemed "worthy" to ascend into a paradise of eternal bliss. The rest of us will be condemned to eternal torture, even well-meaning people who have the misfortune of worshipping the wrong - or no - God! (This is a "God of love"??) In the apocalyptics' delusional system, greens "oppose God's will" by trying to save the world from human greed and stupidity. They are, in fact, knowingly or not, "Satan's agents" in their opposition to God's will for humanity. This is heady stuff! Think of the witch hunts of the early modern era which killed, probably, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly women. Think also fo the rise of fascism in Europe in the first half of the 20th century..

       Hedges, chippily enough, concludes his book on a positive note (why I'm not sure!) He believes in the common sense and the basic decency of the American people. He also believes that by returning to traditional American values, "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity", America can regenerate itself, heal and progress. He understands, rightly, that this will require rebuilding a sense of community in grassrooots America, of rediscovering a common sense of purpose and shared values - not in unending passive consumption. Community can only be rediscovered / rebuilt by working together with neighbors on common projects. Remember! For hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years our neurological circuits, our genetics, were programmed / molded by a hunter-gatherer existence. We still ARE hunter gatherers! Our nature, despite neoconservative propaganda, is to live and cooperate together in communities on communal projects. This is how our species evolved, survived and prospered for millennia..

       We must relearn, somehow, to rediscover - or create - the sense of meaning of life in our social existences. The ancient Greeks, who already understood that hubris and hybris are tragic vices, also understood that wo/man is wo/man ONLY within a webwork of mutual / reciprocal familial / social / economic / cultural / spiritual relations. The economic is but one dimension of human life and, perhaps in a healthy socieity, one of the lesser ones.

       For some insight into the incursion of neocon style propaganda and tactics onto the field of Canadian federal politics:

http://transparencycanada.blogspot.com/2011/04/transparency-abortion-issue-tip-of-ice.html

       If you consider youself a green activist or a social activist and you only have time for one book on the authoritarian personality, its origins, its nature, its objectives and strategies, let this be the book!

       I can conclude no better than citing Chris Hedges himself, American Fascists, page 33:

"If this mass movement [ the "Christian" Right] succeeds, it will do so not simply because of its ruthlessness and mendacity, its callous manipulation of the people it lures into its arms, many of whom live on the margins of American society. It will succeed because of the moral failure of those, including Christians, who understand the intent of the radicals yet fail to confront them, those who treat this mass movement as if it were another legitimate player in an open society. The leading American institutions tasked with defending tolerance and liberty  - from the mainstream churches to the great research universities, to the Democratic Party and the media - have failed the country. This is the awful paradox of tolerance. There arise moments when those who would destroy the tolerance that makes an open society possible should no longer be tolerated. They must be held accountable by institutions that maintain the free exhange of ideas and liberty. The radical Christian Right must be forced to include other points of view to counter their hate talk in their own broadcasts, watched by tens of millions of Americans. The must be denied the right to demonize whole segments of American society, saying they are manipulated by Satan and worth only of conversion or eradication. They must be made to treat their opponents with respect and acknlowledge the right of a fair hearing even as they exercise their own freedom to disagree with their opponents. Passivity in the face of the rise of the Christian Right threatens the democratic state."

Awakening the Dead: denouncing false values

 "We want the final answer. We want that in religion, in affluence, in life savings accounts, in relationships, in military power, in our work, in our identity politics, in the racism that has again reared its ugly head, and in our endless consumption of things, the manufacturing and marketing of which becomes the only thing we can think of to put people to work so that they can be the good consumers such a world needs them to be. And then we want all that to reach some point of stability that makes the future safe and secure."

           Herein revealed the roots or reactionary thinking.. seeking false security in a world of flux which no longers promises even the illusion of stability..

http://milwaukeereflections.blogspot.ca/2012/09/opening-gates.html

A question of priorities.. what do we value most?

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/price+tags+West+Coast+paradise/7262401/story.html

Harper flips (? flops ?) on asbestos

            In a surprise move, Christian Paradis, Minister of industry, announced that the federal government will no longer oppose asbestos being listed as a hazardous substance under the Rotterdam Convention. Such inclusion would effectively restrict exportation and limit revenues. Minister Paradis explicitly linked his government's decision to September 4, 2012 election of Parti Québécois chief, Pauline Marois. The mercantile / populist logic couldn't have been laid more clearly open! 
  
            In effect, Madame Marois has promised to cut a provincial loan required to open the Jefferey Mine. Up until now the Harper government could pretend to "defend Canadian jobs" by opposing the listing of asbestos on the Rotterdam list of hazardous (and controlled) substances. In reality, Harper lacks a base in Québec, so any opportunity to make a populist show of solidarity with Monsieur / Madame Toutlemonde is welcome. So what if third world workers in India, etc get lung cancer from the exported asbestos? The Market is God, after all (a Moloch man has created to enslave himself..)

             But now, with the election of the PQ, the plug has been pulled on the asbestos industry. No government start up loan for the Jefferey Mine, no asbestos industry. Simple as that. Time then to switch to Plan B..

              Plan B: Marois and her PQ are going to kill the asbestos industry anyway, so why not opportunistically pick up a few freebie votes from disaffected Liberals or left-leaning Tories with social consciousnesses? Otherwise, Harper and his gang wouldn't have given a s--t about Indian workers' lung cancers..

http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/rotterdam-convention/

internal blog link:

http://transparencycanada.blogspot.ca/2011/06/crysotile-asbestos-transparency-or-lack.html

flying pigs and other impossibilities

             It is hard to comment on a piece like this. To what literary genre does it belong? Journalism (of a curious sort)? Satire - conscious? unconscious? Fantasy?

             Stephen Harper feted as a "champion of democracy" in New York. What are they putting in the water..

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1255830--stephen-harper-s-democracy-award-a-sad-joke-on-canadians#.UFI-2Ng2-so.facebook

Book review: M Swedish, a spirituality of hope

Margaret Swedish, Living beyond the 'End of the World', a Spirituality of Hope
published by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2008 

          This tight, concise, well written essay on the state of the earth and its future can be divided in two sections with varying appeals to different readerships.

           The first two thirds provide an admirable synthesis. This part is recommended to young people who want to get their feet wet on environmental / social justice issues and their interactions. Activists who work with the young would be well advised to check it out too.

           The last third, the core of the text, moves into territory where academics and most greens fail - or fear? - to tread, the "philosophical" (existential / ethical) dimension of our relation to the earth and Nature. Teckies and geeks might see "emergent complexity" here; the artist and mystic will think in terms of the "metaphysical" or "transcendental"; the religious will recognize the "spiritual" or "religious" dimensions of the text..

            Semantics aside, the author is boldly - "prophetically" - claiming a redefinition of the place of wo/man on the earth and in the cosmos, a vision that simultaneously respects emerging scientific cosmology AND the integrity of planet's life support systems. For salvation - if there is salvation for our civilization - will only come through the interaction of the two: science must become the servitor of life, otherwise it too will die with the planet it destroys..

            The false, addictive - ultimately suicidal - "values" of the Consumer Society will be layed aside as cheap fossil energy sources deplete: the Consumer Society is founded upon access to cheap energy . The natural resilience, autonomy and conviviality of human communities must be rebuilt, beginning with the one we live in. All this must be done in as equitable, just fashion as possible for never before in history was the solidarity of the human race(s) required as it today!

            We must, in effect, simultaneously convert the non-renewable energetic and material resource bases of our economies to renewable bases while raising per capita consumption in the poorest regions of the world. Never before was need for cooperation greater..

            This great transformation of society - the "Great Turning" - will be lived in constant crisis, this is simply the nature of the age we live in , it's "karma" if you wish..

           "Religion", "spirituality" - in their non-perverted forms - provide the self with a greater context within which its actions are to be evaluated, within which to discover meaning, purpose, value and self-expression. They are, we feel, also capable of providing an expanded frame of reference from which to judge the trajectory the world is now following and the probable consequences of following that path for future generations and for all life.

            At the end of my reading, I caught myself wondering, "what is truth?". Fundamentalists of all stripes, religious and secular, often speak of truth in absolute terms, with capital "T's": The Truth or, even - arrogantly - God's Word, God's Truth. Yet these inevitably prove to be either fools and madmen, at best, or vilains, at worst. (There are indeed true sages, wise ones, but such persons are rare and their words and works are soon seized upon by the fools, madmen and vilains, and perverted to their ends.) 

          The fanatic is caught in a web of delusion: in many / most cases he gives the impression of a man fleeing a reality too painful or fearful to face. Because ecological crises are fearful (they strike at our deepest instincts of self-preservation, individual and collective), the fanatic denies they exist without fairly examining and weighing the evidence. Ecological crises are rapidly converted into "signs of the End Times" ordained by God. They are no longer the product of the all-too-human vices of stupidity,  greed,  folly and hubris. There are immense false 'truths' spoken today by madmen and vilains and there are many willing dupes to take up arms in their names. Today, September 11, is the 11th anniversity of the terrorist attacks on New York city's Twin Towers and the Pentagon..

           At root, author Swedish is correct in demanding that people must "own up" and take responsibility for the state our world is in. WE made the world what it has become, not God! (Do the fools not see the blasphemy of making God responsible for humanity's folly?) Even if we admit that mass media exert corrupting influences on public opinion, values and aspirations (Noam Chomsky et al.), we find ourselves obliged to re-affirm that, in democratic regimes, the people are the rulers. We must take back our democracy! We can't have our cake and eat it too. Either  (1) the people assume their rule or (2) they reneg, quit the field, leave the game (democracy). 

           "Taking back our democracy" will be a very painful process, I suspect. It will require admitting that we let ourselves ourselves be duped by conmen (neoconservatives, conservative "christians", Free Marketeers, hate filled mullahs..) Such admissions, if honest, are always terribly painful. We have, collectively and individually, let madmen, psychopaths and fools call forth all that is venal and animalistic in man. Worse, we supported them in their work. 

           We did all this to the detriment of the health and stunning natural beauty of our world. We denied future generations the opportunities we enjoyed and we leave them a diminished world. These are painful searing admissions once we let them rise to consciousness. Passing through this painful point is a necessary step in our healing, though..

Ship Alberta crude to China - safe bet or suicide?

            Former federal environment minister Anderson slams Enbridge's safety record and challenges the wisdom of west coast oil shipments:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-former-environment-minister-slams-enbridge-pipeline-plan/article4450302/?from=4449911

             Greed is good? British Columbia premier Christy Clark seems to think so. In a surprise move, she wants a more generous share of the proceeds from the proposed Enbridge pipeline which would deliver Alberta crude to BC ports for shipment to China.

            Aside from environmental concerns (greenhouse gas emissions, oil spills) and the question of sharing the spoils, there is also the question of shipping jobs to China. China wants crude, not refined oil. Thus, in bowing to Chinese wishes, Canada is effectively shipping thousands of jobs out of the country. The Chinese benefit from the oil and avoid the environmental damage of extraction while gaining thousands of jobs. A sweet deal.

            Meanwhile, the oil companies make money from the sales to China while avoiding having to pay highly paid Canadian refinery workers. Another sweet deal.

            Canada's land is scrapped, jobs are shipped to China with the crude. And, of course, money that could have been invested in building a New - post cheap fossil energy - Economy is flushed down the toilet of the dying Old, fossil fuel based, Economy. Everyone gains, it seems, but the land and people of Canada. Defintely not a sweet deal on this front!
 
            When does this silliness stop? Why do we let ourselves be run over by the steam roller of big business serviced by a servile and co-opted State? Why are we such damn patsies..

             Meanwhile, Harper's followers are mesmerized by the mantra: economy - economy - economy.. and either do not see, or do not want to see, the long term damage that is being done to our land, our way of life and our planet. Wake up Earth!

             For a more nuanced, in depth analysis, consult the four part investigative series which appeared in the Vancouver Sun:

 http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Canada+fish+face+upstream+battle/6737525/story.html

              Talk about "Orwellian" bullshit: even the Chinese under Mao couldn't beat this one - unbelievable!

               "An Environment Canada website states: "A society that lives and develops as a part of nature, values the diversity of life, takes no more than can be replenished and leaves to future generations a nurturing and dynamic world, rich in its biodiversity.""

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Canada+fish+face+upstream+battle/6737525/story.html#ixzz25jCKx6Se