 Bird’s-Eye View: G as in Good H as in Happy points us to a remarkable video of an eagle’s flight, taken from ultra-lightweight camera on the eagle’s wing. BC Manure Disposal a Disaster Waiting to Happen: The legendary Georgia Strait has an excellent investigative report by Ben Parfitt on the negligence of the right-wing BC government in the face of illegal and dangerous manure disposal by BC’s farmers. The BC government has slashed regulatory budgets and manpower and fired inspectors who try to do their jobs, and it’s going to lead to massive death by e coli infection, just as it did under the former right-wing government in Ontario. Thanks to Pollenatrix for the link. The Perils of Illegal Immigrants in America: Two NYT editorials, by Luis Alberto Urrea and Ruben Martinez, picked up by Truthout, describe the growing danger that Latin Americans face trying to make their way to the US, the incredible struggle they face even if they succeed in making the crossing safely, and the increasingly unwelcome greeting they get from US citizens. No room at the inn. Suggest and Rate Progressive Ideas: Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s fame has a site called True Majority that features a database of interesting ideas that you can rate. The site also monitors peace, justice and sustainability developments and allows you to instantly fax a message to your elected representatives (which the site looks up for you). Only US residents can register, but anyone can browse and evaluate the database ideas. Ice Scraping: Bruce Downs at Outhouse Rag has a hilarious commercial from Europe about the challenges of being a driver in the Great White North. Innovation Treasure Chest: Chuck Frey at The Innovation Weblog reviews the year in innovation. Also check out Chuck’s excellent Resource Centers and related discussion forums. |
Thanks for the link to the NYT editorial regarding the illegal immigrants–always a topic that registers brightly on my radar. The author wasn’t kidding when he said that Mexican immigrants are resented. Though I hear mumblings now and then in my small Minnesota town (with its growing Hispanic population), most people are still too politically correct to say much out loud–at least to me. (I was a foreign exchange student to South America, have taught Spanish and, as a private citizen, generally help out the immigrants as much as I can.) But now I know the full extent as to what some of them are thinking, via a revolting website called “American Renaissance”.I don’t patronize Wal-Mart much, but not for any of the reasons mentioned in this fellow’s rant: http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2004/12/walmarts_crysta.phpI guess I was naive. I thought this sort of thinking was on the wane; has it surged recently or have I just been living in la-la land?
Thanks, Leah. That racist site really is frightening — the degree to which people will go to rationalize hate-mongering and intolerance. The ignorance of history and culture is staggering. But I’m confident this thinking represents only a small minority of the population, except perhaps in the deep South. The problem is that segregation produces fear and paranoia, and the US political and economic system entrenches that segregation — people who simply have no contact at all with people from other cultures, except for the rare visit to Walmart, our modern ghetto. In Toronto ‘visible minorities’ are now a majority, and the city is a dynamic and vibrant and tolerant society by virtue of the constant cultural intermixing. Yes the city has a few suburbs that are predominantly white (many suburbs are as cosmopolitan as the city) but even in the whitest suburbs there are very few pockets of racism and intolerance — it’s just socially unacceptable. Eventually, by sheer numbers, the rest of North America, except for a few wingnut outposts, will achieve similar cosmopolitanism. In this area, at least, time is on our side.