Lebanon for Dummies

PHOTO: Women at evening prayer before the free weekly Suffi Qawaal concert. Nizamuddin's Tomb and Shrine are
considered sacred by both Muslims and Hindus. New Delhi (Oct 2005). Obviously this photo is not representative of all Muslims!! Use your brain!










Watch John Stewart interview Dr. Alon Ben-Mier (make sure to watch part I and II) for some very accessible information on the current situation in Lebanon, with concise discussions on

• Shiite vs Sunni Islamic movements
• Who are Hezbollah vs Hamas
• understanding Syria vs Lebanon vs the rest of the Middle East
• situating Israel and the Americans

This is a great backgrounder for those who don't know some of the larger politics of the region.

An excellent. up-to-date report from Lebanon by Robert Frisk can be found at the Democracy Now website- watch, listen and/or read the transcripts.

A sea of garbage the size of TEXAS!

Left: Tim Harvey and Erden Eruc
rowing off Cascais, Portugal.
Below: Cycling Portugal (Oct 2005)









According bringyourown.org, “a garbage patch the size of Texas is floating in the North Pacific Ocean”, and worldwide, “ocean surface waters contain six times more plastic than plankton.”

THAT IS COMPLETELY DISGUSTING!!

My friend Tim Harvey raises this issue on his vancouvertovancouver.com website. He's travelling aroung world SANS CO2... that's right, emissions free. Follow the last leg of his journey on his website dispatches and view his photo collection.

He's on his way home to Vancouver by bike from Oaxaca in Mexico. That's after he

• Cycled to the Yukon from Vancouver
  
• Canoed to the Bearing Straight
• Rowed the Bearing Sea
• Hiked into Siberia
• Cycled in the snow to Moscow and onwards to Portugal
• Rowed to the Canary Islands
• Sailed to Venezuala
• Cycled to Columbia
• Bush wacked, canoed and rafted through the famed Darien Gap to Panama
• Has been cycling ever since!!

Now pepper in arrests, forest fires, malaria, guns and endless encounters with helpful, honest and good natured people (okay and bad people too, that's where the guns come in!) and you've got a lifetime of stories. He even got chased by a donkey! How many of you can claim that, eh?! Didn't think so!!

Tim is filming his expeditiom, has been publishing articles in the Vancouver Sun, The Marmott and other publications and can be periodically heard on CBC radio one!

LINKS:
Tim's Website: Vancouvertovancouver.com
Erden Eruc is on his own journey: Around-n-over! that's around the world and over six major peaks.

out of the box?

Photo: This is me and my dog, Tron. As you can see, Motion is renovating this house.










I'm angry at who ever created the horrible cliche "think outside the box" because for a while I used it and thought it was a great idea- that it was calling for radical thought and action. But really there is no such thing as "outside" the box. This place or space does not exist.

There is no way of stepping outside the sets of relations, the processes and structures, in our world; we can't untangle ourselves from this mess. Yes we can come up with critical analysis, resistances and change social, economic and political relations in subtle and signifcant ways, but no matter what I do I still live in a racialized, gendered, heteronormative world constructed along lines of first vs third, or educated vs ignorant or right vs wrong and am often responsible for (re)performing/(re)producing these unequal ways of knowing and being.

I'm not discouraged by this acceptance of 'things beyond my control' but happy to recognize the many things I do get to do and am able to think critically about (the 'free will' side) as part of these "regulatory fictions" (see Butler, 1990) or frameworks.

In the end, we have the ability to recognize the ways in which the world is produced both for and by us all.

desmoging the climate change 'debate'

PHOTO: ahhh, the sweet smell of progress, New Delhi (2005)










In case you've been unsure, it's about time you know that there is no climate change debate. In fact, within the peer-reviewed, scientific community there is consensus that global warming is happening and that humans are in part responsible.

Naomi Oreskes conducted a 2004 study of approximately 1000 peer-reviewed journals to discover this... and then published her findings in Science, a peer-reviewed journal.

Al Gore cites Oreskes' study in his recent documentary "An Inconvenient Truth"

Check out Vancouver's very own debunking machine: DeSmogBlog.com

"the DeSmogBlog's mission is to debunk the climate change deniers who use suspect science and a host of public relations trickery to confuse and mislead the public on this critical issue."

PHOTO: Tsuglag Khang Temple, the Dalai Lama's Temple in Dharamsala, India (2004).









Find out what the hell is going on in Lebanon:

**Harper's Unmeasured Support for Israel: Why Canada is wrong to fan the flames

**Informed Consent (Juan Cole's Blog):
scroll down to Sunday, July 23, 2006 posts:
War on Lebanon Planned for at least a Year
The Bush Administration's Grand Strategy and the Birth Pangs of Terror

**Isreali Military is being refortified by the US- precision, laser guided bombs

**Al-Jazeera reporters say the Israeli authorities are targeting them and obstructing their coverage of the Middle East crisis. Israel says the channel is biased.

**The Guardian - up-to-date ongoing coverage

lyre lyre pants on fire

Bird watching can be really cool (okay, I am a geek, I've come to terms with it!). This is the coolest bird in the world! It's Australian of course!

Watch the video:
Sir David Attenborough and the Lyre Bird Video!
(3 mins 35 secs)

You probably know this famous naturalist from BBC's Life on Earth and The Living Planet. He's the younger brother of Richard Attenborough of Jurassic Park fame.

PHOTO: duffy lake road, bc

Extreme Hammocking

Check it out! One man, one hammock and a dream: Extreme Hammock.

Okay so I don't have any extreme shots (yet!) but this one of Motion and Tron is pretty darn cute!

CASARA

Did I mention that Motion and I are now trained spotter volunteers with the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, or CASARA? That means we get to fly around the Prince George area in little cessna-type planes like the one above and view the endless forests of red, dead pine-beetle kill!!

Actually, it's pretty cool now that I've gotten over the nausea of flying in a tin can. So far we've only been on training flights, but now could be called to help in a search and rescue operation-- such as finding a plane crash site, lost hiker, floating body etc.

Unfortunately, because you are supposed to be either in training or actively searching, we could only bring our camera on our first flight. This means no more air photography, which sucks because we've just got a new digital camera that kicks ass!

The PG CASARA unit is run by a man called John who sold Motion his house. I'm a little conflicted about flying around in planes as it is yet another way to burn fossil fuels but if they call me to find a lost person, I won't say no! I think I thought of joining the ground crew but that will probably involve driving trucks along logging roads!!! I guess I'll just move back to the city where I can ride my bike around!!

"An Inconvenient Truth"

You'd better start heading for higher ground. According to Al Gore, if the earth continues to warm, ice caps will melt and sea levels will rise by at least 20 feet (that's 6.10 meters). I recommend you all go see his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." It raises some great questions, provides excellent facts in an accessible format and is generally well-produced.

The last 10-15 minutes, however, faltered. We are told that the US brought freedom to the Americas... how insulting! Social change is presented as a series of events- a simplistic notion. And of course, the old stickler that gets under my skin: that population growth is one of three main causes of impending environmental crisis. Never mind consumption patters and the distribution of power and exchange relations around the world.... nope, it's about those pesky third world types having too many babies! PSSHTTT!!! I'll leave it at that. Enjoy the film!

If you'd like to read up on climate change, the CBC website provides some info on Global Warming and of course, organizations like the David Suzuki Foundation in Vancouver and the International institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), out of Winnipeg, have excellent resources.

Now there has been a ton of backlash in the media against the idea of climate change, despite the fact that every single scientist, in every single peer reviewed journal, unequivocally supports the notion of global warming caused by human induced CO2 emissions increases!! And, while it's good to have skeptics out there, and some may deny that the end of civilization is nigh, nobody can tell me that the sickening haze that surrounds every major city in the world is good for us and the increase of CO2 in our atmosphere is not related to the rise in respiratory diseases globally.

SOME FACTS: the WHO estimates that "Urban air pollution- of which a significant proportion is generated by vehicles, as well as industry and energy production-– is estimated to kill some 800,000 people annually." According to our Minister for the Environment, Rona Ambrose, "In 2004, British Columbia's Provincial Officer for Health reported that premature deaths resulting from air pollution in the province are between 140 and 400 per year. He also said that air pollution may be responsible for between 700 to 2,100 hospital stays and between 900 and 2,700 emergency room visits each year."

You know those huge sweeping shots of cities in movies and TV shows? The ones taken from helicopters on the rare sunny day when the morning wind has managed to make the city look clear? clean? pollution free? Maybe producers should stop using those images and start showing their audience what these smoggy places actually look like most of the time.

PHOTO: the view of Vancouver from Dog Mountain, Seymour Provincial Park- click the picture to enlarge it.

The Mirror Project

Check out the mirrorproject.com. As the name suggests, it's a website full of mirrors, or more precisely, of photos of reflections in all things mirror-like.

The site is user-driven and reflects a range of creativity. Photos of people and pets and protests reflected in glass, spoons, irises etc. give us a glimpse into people's lives and thoughts. My friend Carmen first pointed it out to me and while there is the occasional borring photo, most are brought to life with short captions.

Here are two photos to post, both from Australia:

My first time scuba diving, Great Barrier Reef. The fash some how created the bizzare reflection above me (2004).

Cape Tribulation Beach, Northern Queensland, reflected in my shades (2004).

Motion Activated

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems." Mahatma Gandhi


Mr Motion MacIvor:

These photos were taken at a wicked BBQ restaurant in Mount Currie, BC, at the bottom of the Duffy Lake Road, June 29, 2006.

Bush Sings Videos

Some reworked videos of Bush speaches set to famous songs. I love that people take the time to do this sort of thing!!

Imagine This: The Video (Bush vs Lenon's "Imagine")
George Bush singing U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday"

Me, Tron and my cousin Emma at the lookout over Deep Cover/Indian Arm
July 3, 2006

Serendipitous

I've just discovered the coolest thing: a wonderful link that connects me back to my grandfather, my father's father. I made a great friend in India last year. I was doing my MA field work and she was in Delhi working as an intern for some NGO that promotes corporate social responsibility. We met serendipitously and hung out together for several months.

Two weeks ago Suraiya sent me an email... She's coming to Vancouver and by the way, our grandfathers knew each other well. Basically my granddad, a Canadian living in Vancouver, and her granddad, a Filipino living in Manila, worked for the same company. When her granddad decided to immigrate to Canada, my granddad helped them out and suggested they live in his house as he was going traveling. Later, two of Suraiya's aunts lived with my granddad when they were students. And this is why Suraiya calls my granddad lolo Paynter... that's Tagalog for grandfather Paynter!!

We had lunch last week and remembered his pineapple-carrot cake, scotch mints, loving humour and the old granddaddy clock on the mantle that chimed on the quarter, half and full hour.

How amazing that we are long lost cousins!

My granddad name was Laurie Paynter. He was a wonderful father and grandfather and definitely did not deserve to be one day, unexpectedly left with three children by his wife who eloped to the Gold Coast (present day Ghana). Born in small town Saskatchewan, he worked hard, was always honest and spent his retirement traveling around the world mostly on a shoestring, always smiling.

serendipity (serendipitous)- se rEn dI pih ti DEFINITION

PHOTO: Suraiya, Ankita and me at a restaurant in New Delhi.