SHIT that REALLY Bugs Me!!!

Downer alert, this is the serious stuff:

1. Gulf of Mexico ecological calamity

2. Congo trouble in paradise

3. Darfur, Sudan, Islamic extremism

4. Gaza humanitarian crisis

5. Iraq sectarian divide

6. China without real democracy

7. Growing deserts

8. Not personally doing enough

9. Ethiopia stifling legitimate political opposition

Anybody want to add more shit to the list? Please do so in the comments below.

Now I'm not saying nothing can be done about these issues, just that these are some of the ones where I feel the pain. Add Native and justice issues here in Canada and we can go on and on, so let it out and let it fly.

Just Joe Itatron

UPDATE 12JUL10: Added to the above list would be

a) recovery in Haiti,

b) peace and good governance in Somalia

As the new cap on the oil spill may lead to shutting down the blowout within days, I am thinking of perhaps making a quarterly Scary Shit List, just to keep an eye on things that frighten and/or depress I and I.

Excerpt from Mama Jahna Tafari, by Yuya Joe College

It was the pot smokers who saved the world, the Rastas and hippies who gave peace a chance and stuck firm to ecological diversity. Strong women took up the challenge; Gaia beamed with glee and swelled up with pride, not the hurtful arrogant sort, but rather the healing pride, the belief in self-worth absent in male violence cultures.

Montreal became a sister to the Big Apple, and the World Parliament gradually assumed many of the duties and much of the budget previously allocated to the UN, however the dual structure was providing tremendous dividends, and humans globally appreciated the participatory democracy and regional representation the global parliament epitomized.

I bring the fire within and I capture the rain for the people; I harness Ra for the purification of the economic base. Herbal remedies entered my life at fourteen years of age, and the wonders of cannabis have facilitated decades of music making, writing, singing, playing and most wonderfully of all, making love. Let it be known that the most masculine trait a man can embrace is the love and protection of women and children, including respect as equals and a belief in full access to education for boys and girls. Conscious humans everywhere must strive to create a world that provides meaningful, sustainable employment for men and women alike.

Mama Jahna Tafari was reborn in twenty ten, her spirit soaring over the Atlantic and healing souls in the Big Smoke, elevating the dialogue and laying the foundation for an envisioned paradise rising from the Sahara sands. From Ghana to the Marley Lands, Khanada to Holy City Tafari Herself, Khanara to the New Flower, Africa is birthed anew as an icon for humanity. On earth as in ...

Joe College autobiography; 1968 and 1969

I've decided to break this down into 2-year chunks up until I turn sixteen, and then we'll go a year at a time after that. In 1968 I remember Pierre Elliott Trudeau coming to Central Park in Burlington, where thousands experienced Trudeaumania firsthand. My dad brought the reigning Miss Canada, Carol McKinnon from PEI, over to our fourplex on Prospect Avenue for dinner. My dad had great jobs and some pretty cool cars too.

The first car I remember was the Studebaker station wagon with the sliding sunroof; this was an awesome car for a kid, as me and my sister used to stand up in the back on nice days, sticking our heads, shoulders and arms up through the sunroof. Then he had a yellow 1964 Fairlane convertible with a black top. When we moved to Burlington he acquired a 1967 Galaxie 500, with an 8-track tape player in it. I remember the Everly Brothers and The Beatles getting high rotation in that car, and the radio was pretty awesome too. I think he had a Lincoln Continental after that, and it was one of the first cars my friends and I had seen that had a phone in it.

More to come...

Cleanup Time; ROCK AGAINST OCN promotes clean energy

Rock Against Oil Coal Nuclear Punk Protest set for 2010

I realize my ambitions are greater than most, but as my Yonge Street neighbor mentioned a couple of decades ago when he heard we were having triplets; That's Joe, he goes big or stays home!

So here are some ideas I feel we should be discussing to promote a strong economic future in Ontario:

1. Unity - It's ridiculous that progressive forces (humanists who believe in social justice and environmental integrity) are split among NDP, Green Party, Marijuana Party, Rhino Party etc when our nation needs us working together. If we can unite the Greens and the NDP and then invite fringe party members to join without asking them to disband their single issue groups, Canada will again have a strong 3rd party, perhaps stronger than ever before. We've been a fly in the ointment long enough; it's time for us to be the ointment, and Ontario is where the unification needs to begin.

2. Solarization - For both economic and environmental reasons, a move towards an infinite energy-based electro-hydrogen economy is a must. With a myriad of options such as offshore and land-based windpower, active and passive geothermal energy, flywheels / energy storage, fuel cells / hydrogen, conservation / energy efficiency, biodiesel / biofuels / biomass, silicon solar, thin film solar, concentrated solar and the list goes on, the timing is right for Ontario to lead Canada into the green powered 21st Century.

3. Culture of Contentment - The multi-decade swing to the right in the USA and resultant media brainwashing and shifting of the center has resulted in a schizophrenic political world south of our border that must be at all costs avoided here. The "greed is good" mentality that seeped from Wall St into Hollywoood and into American pop culture never really took hold here but the outlook has its advocates in the Reform Party wing of Harper's cabal. We need to maintain vigorous debate in Canada and quash doublespeak when it arises.

Galbraith wrote about the naval-gazing dangers of our modern insular world in his prophetic book The Culture of Contement, and we (those generally concerned about their fellow citizens and future generations) need to overcome this laziness and retake the reins of power for the people.


Rock Against OCN announcement on the Solar Intell Blog