Random Thoughts For The RETHINK Alberta Campaign Friday July 16, 2010

Last week I posted a letter I caught in the Washington Post regarding the Oil Sands project in Alberta. While I thought it was a nice little letter from my beloved home to a couple of homesick Albertans in D.C., the release of the RETHINK:Alberta project by the ironically named Corporate Ethics consortium, has reveled that there was some method to this madness.

For some reason, this campaign has got my knickers in an uncomortable twist.

Let’s not kid ourselves here though, work needs to be done in regards to the Oil Sands, but something about this has ticked me off. I’m not sure it’s the misinformed and misleading campaign or it’s the fact the entire campaign glosses over the entire mandatory reclamation industry in Alberta... Or maybe, just maybe I’m not a fan of someone getting in my proverbial hometown kitchen making spaghetti and criticizing our pasta sauce when they don’t know the difference between macaroni and angle hair pasta.

Or maybe I just feel that a misinformed and sensationalist drive-by attack campaign aimed at the wrong industry, isn’t a positive method to promote change.

Or maybe I’m just a wee bit homesick.

First – A sneak peak of Mr. Alanis Morrisette Scarlett Johanson as The Green Lantern. Me thinks this will be another Ironman type hit. (via. mikesbloggity)

Second – World War Two…. reviewed and written as it were another serial T.V. show like Babylon 5, Lost or even Greek.

I wouldn’t even mind the lack of originality if they weren’t so heavy-handed about it. Apparently we’re supposed to believe that in the middle of the war the Germans attacked their allies the Russians, starting an unwinnable conflict on two fronts, just to show how sneaky and untrustworthy they could be? And that they diverted all their resources to use in making ever bigger and scarier death camps, even in the middle of a huge war? Real people just aren’t that evil. And that’s not even counting the part where as soon as the plot requires it, they instantly forget about all the racism nonsense and become best buddies with the definitely non-Aryan Japanese.

This post has to be one of the top ten posts, I’ve ever read.

Three – Don’t worry kids. I maybe pretty busy, but I’ve still got my musical radar out for you guys…

The Hood Internet x Mishka – TRILLWAVE by hoodinternet

Well I personally don’t, but The HoodInternet sure does.

Fourth – The Golden State Warriors have unveiled a new branding/team logo.

The best part about this news, is that I bet 60% of you didn’t even know there was a basketaball team in San Fransisco/Oakland! Ha… Well I shouldn’t talk, I didn’t even know that the Warriors were NBA Champions in the 70s.

Fifth – A nice little article from poploser.org on how Canada is on the verge of drastically improving it’s Soccer development and could one day make the World Cup.

Sixth – No seriously, I thought this nhlcupcakes thing on Twitter was a joke. I had no idea the Islanders are actually selling official Islander Cupcakes at all of their home games.

I’m gonna demand a cut of the profits, but Crave Cupcakes & The Flames make… it… happen.

Seventh – Now for a bit of House Cleaning and a quick update of things.

First, my amazing wife has launched her second blog. It’s called nonresidentalien.ca. After spending the last 6 months toiling as a non-resident graduate student, we created this little site for her to blog about daily life retain some semblance of sanity.

nonresidentalien.ca

Eighth – I’ve updated the c.t.overdrive RSS feed , so make sure you pull the new link.

Ninth – If you haven’t been paying attention, yycApps.com is growing like a weed. We’ve added 29 apps to our list and we continue to get more and more locally developed apps by the day.

But more importantly, if you want to get on board with the project and help me write reviews, you need to get in contact with me. I’m swamped at the moment and need a hand from some kickass Calgarians.

Please… Pretty please… There might even be some Washington swag available for people who give me a hand writing reviews.

Tenth – This could be my new favorite magazine – The Impossible Projects Polaroid Magazine – Tickl

Categories: , , The ArtWorld, The Blogosphere, The Canada Vibe, The D.C. vibe, The NBA, The Personnal, The Pop-Culture, The Site, The Southern Neighbours

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Wait… the WESTERN fucking STANDARD wants to bitch about censorship, and DEFEND REGULATION?

My Irony-Meter just spiked at 11, buddy.

Yes, I understand the reaction to this ad campaign.

No, there isn’t a jurisdiction on earth that would look at the oil sands and say, “nah, let’s NOT use this resource”.

But come on… appealing to the ‘innocent bystanders’ in Alberta baffles me. Yeah, some mom-and-pop small business in Lethbridge is going to disappear, because some mean bully (insane leftist, according to the Western Standard) made a video on Teh Internetz?

My issue with the oilsands has always been this: Albertans themselves have been so goddam apathetic about them.
Mandatory reclamation? Sure. Does this exist because Albertans got together and said “clean this shit up if you want to work here in our home” ? No.
Does Alberta make enough money off the oilsands to fund major projects and develop a growth fund? Fuck no. Norway figured that out. Goddam Newfoundland figured that out.
But as a province, Alberta decided that the Industry, and the Government, would figure out what’s best.
No outrage. No involvement. No political repercussions for whoring their own home province out.
THAT’s what bugs me. So if anyone comes along and says that any problems with the oil sands are “Alberta’s Problem”, I’m inclined to agree. (Meaning… any positive gains, environmental protection, should also be “Alberta’s Success”, rather than a ‘mandatory’ after-thought)

Ok. Removing sand from my crotch. Rant over.
:)

Jamie · Jul 16, 10:46 AM · #permalink

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