WORD OUT! The Blog to Build a New Society

(apologies to Jan Wong for "mixing" her book title with my headline!)

When I was in Vancouver last weekend, I had serious red mitten envy. Those fancy red mitts with the white maple leaf and Olympic rings were everywhere and on everyone! From the Prince of Wales to Oprah, those toasty little beacons of Canadian patriotism were fluttering everywhere I could see - except on the ends of my arms. I had black gloves, how boring.

Despite my envy though, I just didn't feel right buying the mittens. Obviously, the contract to produce this many mittens must have been with a developing country (they are made in China) and probably under doubtful conditions as these economies of scale always seem to benefit the developed country. $10 for a pair of mitts purchased at The Bay probably does not translate into a very good weekly wage for whoever put them together in China. Also, I don't need another pair of mitts, red and trendy not withstanding.

Just where have those mitts come from? What factories manufactured them? Google search results just let me know that most Canadians didn't realize Canada doesn't mass produce anything like 2 million red mitts and were shocked and disappointed to find their mitts not made in Canada. I guess most Canadians don't read their labels very often or understand the global manufacturing world. I tell my son that somewhere in China there must be cities dedicated to teddy bear making (and probably mitt making too now!). Has anyone found information on the source of this red woolly tide that is sweeping the nation?

But never fear, for those of you constrained by your ethical buying consciences, I have found a slightly more ethical source of red woolly Olympic mittens! The Canadian Red Mittens Shop! The Red Mittens Shop is a 100% Canadian website, designed and built by a Canadian family on Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada.

Here is how it all got started:

We watched on TV as millions of Canadians were disappointed to find that the fabulous red mitts, with the charming little white maple leaf surprisingly tucked into the palm, were NOT AVAILABLE. We decided to launch this friendly, helpful little 'hand knit' website to gather up all the mittens that were still for sale somewhere, so that people could get their mitts on a pair of those red mitts! So far, as of Feb 20, 2010, over 2000 people from ALL OVER THE WORLD have managed to find themselves a pair. We never expected to be hosting an international website, but it soon became apparent that the whole world was shopping for a pair of the Canada red mittens. It has been our greatest pleasure to have been contacted by mittens shoppers from every country, sometimes not in English or French. We have a great MAC computer that translates any language for us - that is really cool! It is opportunities like these, where a Canadian heart is warmed to a full blaze. How wonderful to 'meet', via the internet, every day citizens of planet earth and have the chance to say to them with a big 'web style' Canadian smile, ":-D "Sure thing! I'll can give you a hand with that!" :-D"

All advertising revenues from the site are going to support the Special Olympics Games on Vancouver Island.

If that still isn’t ethical enough for you (all these mittens were still made in China after all) for $5.00, you can download the knitting pattern by Canadian knitter Rachel Bearse, and make your own red (or perhaps purple) mitts, from homespun sheep wool dyed in beet juice!

In honour of the 2010 Olympics, the Royal Canadian Mint has been printing Olympic coins. There are seventeen coins in total - ten quarters honouring snow and ice sports from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, two quarters honouring ice sports from the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, two lucky loonies and three quarters celebrating Canada's favourite Olympic Winter Moments! The coins have been released according to a circulation program which began in February 2007.

There is one coin, or more correctly, a coin decal, that you won’t see on the Royal Canadian Mint website. The Dogwood Initiative of British Columbia is drawing attention to the very obvious lack of snow at the 2010 Winter Games and Canada’s inaction on climate change.

The Save Winter website says, “Team Polar Bear has traveled south on a mission to save their wintry home from the perils of Global Warming only to find that is is not only their home that is at risk. Canada’s great ski mountains are melting and during the 2010 Olympic Games there may be no snow for snow boarding.”

On the website , you can sign a petition and order your own removable decals that attach to the Canadian Twoonie coin.

This is not the first time that the Dogwood Initiative has used coin decals. In February 2009, they launched the “No Tankers” campaign. Black decals were applied to the one dollar coin which made the loon appear to be covered in oil. The Canadian mint was not impressed. They sent a letter to the Dogwood Initiative that accused them of trademark violations and contravening the Currency Act (Section 11) by using Canadian coins for purposes "Otherwise than as currency". The Dogwood Initiative was warned of possible summary convictions, fines and imprisonment.

After consulting legal experts including some of Canada's top constitutional lawyers, Dogwood Initiative sent a letter to the Mint rejecting its claim that its trademark had been violated and the decal was illegal.

"The Mint's assertion of trademark rights in all photos of the Loonie is overbroad and raises serious Freedom of Expression issues. And the Mint's brazen attempt to use a law intended to stop people from melting down coins is nothing but a heavy handed effort to silence our campaign," stated Charles Campbell. No fines or charges have been laid to date.

What do you think? Is there a link between Canada's tar sands, global warming and the lack of snow at the Winter Games? Is it an offense to use currency to further the objectives of an activist campaign? You can post your comments in the feedback section below.

This morning I rode my bike to work in brilliant sunshine, breathing crisp clean air and drinking in the beauty of sky, forest and water. On a day like today, when everything looks so fresh and new, it can be hard to remember how much damage we've done to our planet. But a day like today is also a perfect day to take a minute to remind ourselves of how much this planet is worth saving. Have a great weekend everyone!

John Michael Greer, author of The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age and The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World has found a new metaphor to help residents of the United States understand what is happening to their country. (This article originally appeared on John Michael Greer's blog, The Archdruid Report on February 10th and is reprinted by permission.)

In the course of writing last week’s Archdruid Report post, I belatedly realized that there’s a very simple way to talk about the scope of the brutal economic contraction now sweeping through American society – a way, furthermore, that might just be able to sidestep both the obsessive belief in progress and the equally obsessive fascination with apocalyptic fantasy that, between them, make up much of what passes for thinking about the future these days. It’s to point out that, over the next decade or so, the United States is going to finish the process of becoming a Third World country.

I say “finish the process,” because we are already most of the way there. What distinguishes the Third World from the privileged industrial minority of the world’s nations? Third World nations import most of their manufactured goods from abroad, while exporting mostly raw materials; that’s been true of the United States for decades now. Third World economies have inadequate domestic capital, and are dependent on loans from abroad; that’s been true of the United States for just about as long. Third World societies are economically burdened by severe problems with public health; the United States ranks dead last for life expectancy among industrial nations, and its rates of infant mortality are on a par with those in Indonesia, so that’s covered. Third World nation are very often governed by kleptocracies – well, let’s not even go there, shall we?

There are, in fact, precisely two things left that differentiate the United States from any other large, overpopulated, impoverished Third World nation. The first is that the average standard of living here, measured either in money or in terms of energy and resource consumption, stands well above Third World levels – in fact, it’s well above the levels of most industrial nations. The second is that the United States has the world’s most expensive and technologically complex military. Those two factors are closely related, and understanding their relationship is crucial in making sense of the end of the “American century” and the decline of the United States to Third World status.

Read more »

The Olympic torch is wending its rather convoluted way through Vancouver downtown today – complete with a detour caused by protesters who stopped it from crossing Commercial Drive. This famous section of East Vancouver was one of the areas impacted by evictions and street sweeps directed at homeless people leading up to the Games. Refusing to allow the torch to pass through this neighbourhood was a major victory for protesters. Read more on Rabble.ca

After a tumultuous lead up to the games, they are finally here and I personally am feeling a little conflicted about the whole event. Here’s why. As the marketer for Christopher Shaw’s Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games, I am only all too aware of the behind the scenes deals, the cost overruns and overall negative impact of the Games. Christopher Shaw is volunteering as a medic for protesters and recommends safety tips in this article at Straight.com. My neighbours produced this great music video, asking how the “best place on earth” can have the highest child poverty in Canada. And yet, this is my dirty secret - I have tickets to see women’s aerials and curling next weekend!

What! Why on earth would I choose to attend the Games? The expense is enormous, the security frightening and the restrictions on personal freedom ridiculous.

Well, there are a few reasons. I attended the Montreal Olympics when I was twelve and saw Nadia Comăneci. It was an experience I have never forgotten and still love to talk about. My son is now the same age and I want to share the same excitement and thrill with him of seeing world class athletes perform. I’m also an Australian citizen and by gosh, haven’t those determined Aussies managed to excel at aerial skiing. Lydia Lassila is the current World Cup champion. What a great thing to see her and our Canadian team competing together at Cypress. Curling, well, it was the next event that fit on the same weekend. But don’t think I won’t have a great time watching Team Bernard thrash the Americans.

I admit, I am a hopeless idealist. I still admire the original intent of the games before they succumbed to the pressures of commercialization and corporatization.

And will it be the greenest games ever? David Suzuki says, “Yes – if we’re talking about the abundance of greenery and lack of snow brought on by record high temperatures during one of the earliest spring seasons the city has experienced.”

The David Suzuki Foundation has created a score card for the 2010 Winter Olympics. "Climate change is a defining issue of our time, and the Winter Olympics are an opportunity to show leadership by reaching and inspiring billions of fans and spectators with solutions to global warming," says Paul Lingl of the David Suzuki Foundation. "Despite some missed opportunities, the positive steps taken by the 2010 Olympics demonstrate that climate solutions are doable, affordable and can have a lasting legacy."

Along with successes, the Foundation’s climate scorecard highlights several areas where the Vancouver Olympics fell short. "The Vancouver Olympics will leave the region with few long-term improvements in sustainable transportation," says Mr. Lingl. "As well, to date the 2010 Olympic organizers haven’t made the most of their opportunities to tell the story of their climate initiatives to Canadians and the world." In the end, the games received a bronze medal.

Despite its tarnished image and overwrought commercialism, I am off to the Olympics with blinkers on, seeing and seeking a memory from the past where the Olympics were about fun, international cooperation and athletic excellence.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. From Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

Planning on buying sweets for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day? Make sure that you choose an ethical treat by consulting The Better World Shopping Guide before you head to the shops. This handy guide helps you make sure that your dollars make a difference. It ranks a huge variety of products from "A" (companies created specifically to provide socially and environmentally responsible options for consumers or recognized as responsibility leaders in their industry) to "F" (reserved for companies that are actively participating in the rapid destruction of the planet and the exploitation of human beings - avoid their products at all costs).

Here's a peek at the chocolate report card:

The guide also contains handy buying tips, inside industry information for each product or service, and profiles of corporate heros and corporate villains.

Better yet, wrap up a copy of the Better World Shopping Guide to accompany that organic, fair-traded chocolate!

Happy Friday! Looking for a simple yet satisfying seasonal supper this weekend? Enjoy this heartwarming, mouthwatering Portuguese Potato and Kale Soup, courtesy of the Hollyhock Centre on beautiful Cortes Island, and featured in the fabulous Hollyhock Cooks!

Portuguese Potato and Kale Soup

Potatoes come in a remarkable variety of shapes, sizes and colors. Ask your local grower for their favorite color and variety of this wonderful vegetable, brought to North America originally from the Andes Mountains. Kale thrives on Cortes Island all through the fall and the winter and it shows up in the most interesting dishes, like this delicious soup with its proud European overtones. Drizzle olive oil over the top.

Ingredients:

3 cups diced onions
2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp salt
8-10 cups water or vegetable stock
5 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 cups finely shredded kale leaves or packed collard greens
black pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, sauté the onions in the olive oil until soft, approximately 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute, stirring constantly. Add the salt, water or stock and diced potatoes. Bring the soup to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes fall apart.This will take about 1 hour. Mash any remaining large chunks of potato with a potato masher or a large spoon until you have a coarse purée.
3. Add the shredded kale and let it simmer for another 5 minutes or so, until the kale is tender but still bright green. Season with pepper to taste.

— Hanyu Wasyliw

For more excellent vegetarian and seafood-based recipes with a focus on eating healthily and sustainably, check out Hollyhock Cooks: Food to Nourish Body, Mind and Soil. Enjoy!

It's always great to know when people are paying attention. So I was thrilled to hear this morning that a blog entry I wrote a few weeks ago about the global swine flu vaccine surplus was mentioned on examiner.com. Laura Harrison McBride has written an extremely thoughtful article which delves deeper into the way that a combination of greed, media hype and irresponsible behaviour on the part of various government and intergovernmental agencies led directly to “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century”.

From Laura's conclusion:

We could call it greed. We could call it Jeremy for that matter. But if we call it anything except what it was - willful endangerment, for profit - we will be setting ourselves up for a fall, like the sheep farmer who excused the boy for his wolf-crying antics.

If we do anything except hold the authors of this bogus cry accountable, we are as unethical as they are. And a whole lot dumber.

For an excellent update on the situation, including coverage of the Council of Europe's hearing and the World Health Organization's response, check out Niko Kyriakou's article on the Huffington Post.

From the article:

Inquiries into WHO misdoing are likely to plunge deep into the statistical methods for data collection, however, it takes no expertise to see that health agencies' data about H1N1 was wildly misleading.

In addition to bad guesses about how many would die, a study released December 7 by the Harvard School of Public Health found that the WHO also estimated the deadliness of H1N1 to be 40 to 250 times higher than it was.

Proving the drug industry squeezed WHO into selling swine flu is very difficult to establish, but the string of clues which points to this corruption is not hard to follow.

The WHO is of course steadfastly denying any wrongdoing. And links between WHO officials and the pharmaceutical industry will be difficult to uncover. But it's critical to get to the bottom of this before the next "pandemic" comes around.

Three weeks ago, on the same day as Haiti experienced its devastating earthquake, I broke my wrist. Not a bad break, but painful, and enough to send me into town to get treated in Emergency. The injury caused enough of a disruption in my routine that I actually didn't hear of the Haitian disaster until much later. So while I sat waiting for treatment, my thoughts were not on the tragedy that had struck so many, but rather on my own selfish concerns - how inconvenienced I was, how much discomfort I was in, etc. Nothing but whining really, whining from my position of incredible privilege.

I spent a few hours in Emergency, and emerged with a cast, a prescription, and orders to arrange a follow-up visit with my family doctor. The care I received was compassionate, caring, and professional, and served to remind me of how lucky I am to live in a country with universal health care.

A couple of days ago while listening to the CBC, I heard a story about medical care in Haiti. The physician being interviewed was saying that since his arrival he had found that he was performing a heartbreaking number of amputations - many as a result of secondary infections and gangrene that would have been preventable in other circumstances. A child's broken bone that in Canada would have been relatively uncomplicated, in the context of the chaos in Haiti, could easily result in the loss of a limb for life.

And what kind of life will a Haitian amputee have? It's not an easy life in Haiti if you have two arms and two legs.

For me, this just serves to underscore the fact that it is critical not to forget what is happening in Haiti. With our global attention span measured in nanoseconds, how can we remain focused on the work that needs to be done there, not just in the coming weeks, but months and years? And how will we balance the needs of Haiti when the next disaster happens and massive aid is needed elsewhere.

I think the key is in remembering that we are a global village - in remembering that what happens to our neighbours could just as easily happen to us. My broken wrist - a minor inconvenience in Canada - could have been so much worse in another time or place. In taking care of Haiti, we must remember we are taking care of our own.