Fighting Youth Voter Apathy

I thought that this was really funny and is a good way to encourage youth to vote.

Question of the Week

With the upcoming election, will people actually go out and vote? Voter turnout has been declining. Why is this? What can be done? I really hope that Canadian youth will really go out to the polls and vote, I think it's super important

20 Ridings...

This made me laugh. Voter turnout has been very low in previous years, what can people do to increase voter turnout and to combat voter apathy?

Question of the Week

It's really interesting to see how Ghadafi feels that the war is unjust looking at everything that has happened. It makes me wonder how people justify their actions and how people filter things in order to make decisions that are seen as being so terrible and stupid by others around them. This goes not only for Ghadafi but also our own governmental figures.

Gadhafi, in letter, asks Obama to end air strikes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20110406/us-us-libya/

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appealed directly to President Barack Obama on Wednesday to end what Gadhafi called "an unjust war." He also wished Obama good luck in his bid for re-election next year.

I think that it is very interesting that Gadhafi, after all of the terrible things that have been said about him would call this war "unjust". 

Nazi Saboteurs' Spectacular Failure Detailed In Newly Released Spy Files

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/pastorius-nazi-saboteurs-british-spy-files_n_844332.html

I have a huge interest in history so I thought that this article was interesting. It's interesting how things hidden away from what seems to be so long ago still resurface and are of interest. What would have happened if these plans would have worked?

Did the American Dream Emigrate to Europe?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-white/did-the-american-dream-im_b_845680.html

It seems that we've been talking about the American Dream a lot in most of my classes lately so the article title really caught my attention. The article ended up being about employment and the economies in Europe and the States, and how Europe is thriving in comparison to here.

I really enjoyed some of the comments, some people really thought that the article was very one sided and that the US is actually doing better than the states. I think I am going to do some more research on this topic.

Class Reflection

It was interesting skyping Kierra Ladner in class. Despite some technological issues at the beginning overall I think that it was very insightful.

Students welcome debt cap, slam other budget moves

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1237054.html

The article itself was interesting but I felt that the comments below were even moreso.

Comment 1...

Post-secondary education is a privilege and not a right. People seem to forget that... what happened to the days when you only buy what you can afford.
I am someone that went to university and graduated debt free. My parents did not help me. I worked through high-school to save up money. I worked through university and full time in the summers to pay for my school. I didn't qualify for loans but my parents weren't able to help me either.. so I did what I had to do! I took three courses in a semester that I could only afford three courses..
And let's face it. A tuition reduction doesn't make sense. We are below the national average, and if you compare our tuition fees to the States, well, there is no comparison. Not everyone needs a tuition reduction - there are plenty of rich people attending universities. Why would we save them money? What we need is exactly what was in this budget, student assistance.

Comment 2...

How in many European countries, post-secondary education IS a right for those that academically qualify, as are trade schools and technical colleges. It is considered part of the education system and is tuition-free. Countries such as France and Germany also pay a stipend to the students.
Now are France and Germany richer countries? (other than an educated populace)No. Do they have more natural resources? (other than an educated populace)No.
Well, what's the difference? They have an advanced, proportional social democracy that stresses the well-being of the citizens over the needs of a soulless multinational.
Strangely, we can always find an extra billion or two to let our Dear Leader's narcissism and fascist fantasies play out, or 100 billion + to support toys for big boys and the military-industrial complex, but for the people? No. We can build prisons to slake the mouthbreathers bloodlust, but think, THINK. I
If there was a fairer education system, maybe we wouldn't need the prisons. Maybe we wouldn't need more welfare, maybe our taxes would be lower, maybe we'd be a better country.

Comment 3...

I wish university students would quit complaining about funding..if you cant afford it ..DONT GO! Go to Community college..we need more trades people than lawyers anyway.Right now the only loans to ''forgive'' would be med students IF they go to rural areas to work it off.

I thought that these were all really interesting and different views and reactions to this article. With a lot of work and support from my family I was able to pay for my whole first year without requiring any student loans. 

Bullied kids ‘reaching out for help,’ says longtime teacher

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1236912.html

Four Nova Scotia teens have committed suicide in the past 3 months due to bullying, especially online forms. At least that has been what has made the news. A girl in my own community where i grew up almost committed suicide two weeks ago for the same reasons, although this did not make the news.

I liked this article because it was of a different perspective than a lot of other bullying articles that have been in the news.

Teens Killers Kruse Wellwood, Cameron Moffat Sentenced as Adults, Get Life in Prison for Kimberly Proctor Murder

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Teen+killers+Kruse+Wellwood+Cameron+Moffat+sentenced+adults+life+prison+Kimberly+Proctor+murder/4556638/story.html?id=4556638

I thought that this whole case is rather disturbing. Since when are 16 and 17 year old boys aggressive sadist necrophiliacs? Ones that act on it?

I really agree with the decision that they get charged as adults, the crime that they committed is horrific and definitely deserves to be treated as such.

Canadian Bar Association

A few weeks ago we did a lobbyist simulation where people were assigned to act as lobbyists in order to effect change while the government is creating a budget.

Me and Laura chose to act as the Canadian Bar Association. The Canadian Bar Association is a group that represents over 37 000 people who work as lawyers, etc. They work towards procuring funds to ensure justice is fair and achievable for all who have to go through the court systems.

The thing that I spoke about was getting more funding so that legal aide is more accessible everywhere in Canada for everything. Laura spoke about a plan to get divorces and child custody battles to happen more rapidly and without jamming up the supreme courts. 

Class Reflection

I haven't really been keeping up with my blogging for this class, but I'm going to be completely caught up by Friday I hope. I've been busy writing term papers and was gone away for a sustainability symposium that I was on the planning committee for.

I really enjoyed Don Julian when he came to speak to the class. He is a really good speaker and I felt that he offered a lot of insight. He seems like he has had a lot of amazing experiences and like he is extremely knowledgeable on a variety of topics. I would have liked to be able to spend more time getting to learn from him.

I also really enjoyed last Tuesday's class on corporate agriculture, I've been doing a lot of research into it, it's an area of high interest for me. I really enjoyed people's reactions. I think that being in a major where things like that are common knowledge, I forget that the majority of people have no knowledge about origins of food and how terrible our current food system is.

Political Art

This made me laugh, I liked the logos of different corporations that were placed throughout the picture. I thought that it related to class because there are such strong ties between corporations and the government and Campbell talks about it in The China Study. He speaks about how actual knowledge about things like diet will never really be well known because there are too many ties between the medical association and drug corporations.

Question of the Week

How will the nuclear plant and radiation issues in Japan affect and influence choices regarding nuclear in other countries in the next coming while?

I like the idea of nuclear, it's a great concept, but I think that it has a LONG way to go before we should be constructing nuclear energy plants. Look at Chernobyl, look at Three Mile Island, or even the failure of Yucca Mountain. I think that nuclear has a long way before it can be considered safe enough to be in regular everyday use.

Canadian Reactions to the Federal Budget Cuts for Environmental Causes

https://350orbust.wordpress.com/

On this blog, 350 or bust, the first post was about how Harper is protecting oil companies while doing nothing for the environment. The post talked about how Canadian crime rates are actually dropping and our money is getting spent on new prisons while closing down rehabilitative farms.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/updates/canadas-military-spending-higher-now-any-time-wwii

On this website of Canadian policy alternatives, I discovered that Canadian military funding is now the highest it's been since the second world war. What is the Harper government doing and why is so much money being put into our military since it's not needed?

http://canadians.org/action/2011/env-can-cutbacks.html

This is an article from the Council of Canadians. It talks about how they cut funding from Environment Canada by 1/5 and moved the money into the military. The Council of Canadians feels that this is out of step with what most Canadians want and show how Harper is not on the same page as the general public.

http://www.ourclimate.ca/wordpress/

This is a website published by the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. Although I couldn't find anything specifically pertaining to the federal budget 2011, I found a lot on oil subsidies and how they need to be cut.

Canadian and American Federal Budgets 2011

This is an article I found on the Canadian federal budget 2011 cut to the environment:

ACTION ALERT: Budget cuts to Environment Canada are unacceptable March 2, 2011 News agencies are reporting that the Harper government is planning a $222-million or 20% reduction in spending at Environment Canada. This includes a $141 million cut to climate change and clean air initiatives, as well as a $19.5-million cut to a federal action plan dealing with contaminated federal sites, and about $3-million in reductions for compliance promotion and enforcement for wildlife and pollution. Meanwhile, in 2010 to 2011, Environment Canada’s program activities amount to just over one billion dollars while National Defence spending is over twenty billion. This is further evidence that the Harper government is out of step with the views of Canadians. According to recent Environics poll, seventy-one percent of Canadians strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, "money spent on wars and the military would all be better spent on efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impacts of climate change.”

This is what I found about the American federal budget 2011 in regards to the environment:

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed sweeping legislation early today that would cut $61 billion from hundreds of federal programs—including many cuts that threaten environmental protections and public health and safety—while shielding oil companies, coal companies, and major polluters from government regulation and oversight. 

H.R. 1 cuts the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by almost a third and hamstrings the EPA's ability to protect the environment and Americans' health. For example, the measure prevents the EPA from protecting communities from mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic air pollution from cement plants, leaving thousands of children exposed and at risk of asthma, slowed brain development and other neurological disorders. The EPA safeguard that the measure blocks would have reduced mercury pollution by more than 90 percent and saved 2,500 lives each year. 

I feel that both of these cuts are completely unacceptable.  The environment is such an important part of everyone's lives. It provides resources, a place for us to live, clean air for us to breathe, food, etc. We've abused it so badly and these cuts to me show that neither government cares about the environment nor do they recognize its' importance to everyday life. 

http://canadians.org/action/2011/env-can-cutbacks.html
http://environment.about.com/od/environmentallawpolicy/a/House-Budget-Cuts-Threaten-Environment-And-Public-Safety.htm

Political Art

This is a picture of the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Haiti is the brown barren side, while the Dominican Republic is the forest-filled side. I think that this is an interesting picture because I recently learned of tree-thieving of the Haitians of the Dominican trees is very common and is a huge issue. I think this illustrates the issue of what are countries going to do internationally once resource deletion is finally done?

Question of the Week

During the mock question period in class, some questions arose in my mind that I hadn't really given too much thought. How can people in power, such as Stephen Harper, make such bad decisions when there seems to be a perfectly logical one right though or if it's not what Canadians want? What goes on behind closed doors that actually influences people to make these decisions?

Class Reflection

The mock question period was just awesome. I think it's been the most enjoyable thing that we've done all semester in this class.

On Tuesday Ali taught the class and gave a small presentation on political parties then we split into our seminar groups and each were assigned a political party of Canada to be. We looked up policies on environment and health and prepared questions and information to ask the other groups.



My group was assigned the Liberal Party of Canada. The Liberal Party is considered to be the natural reigning party of Canada, having produced great Prime Ministers such as Lyon MacKenzie-King and Lester B. Person. What we discovered about their health and environment policies is that they were actually really interesting, especially their health care idea.

On their health care policy ideas, they had one that was an idea on having a plan so that people with a gravely ill family member can take 6 months paid work to take care of them if the need is there. I thought that was a really interesting idea, and could think of people I know that could have helped in the past.

For their environmental policy ideas, they claimed to want to re-establish Canada as an environmental leader in the world. They wanted to put a cap and trade carbon policy in place, and quadruple Canada's renewable energy sources. They also wanted to preserve 50% of all boreal forests in Canada.

During the mock event, there was a lot of laughter and it was just really funny. It was interesting to see what people thought of things or how they tried to play the roles, such as the Bloc Quebecois. I really really enjoyed the activity.