Briarpatch articles from August 2008

Briarpatch archives from August 2008

Drinking deeply from a half-empty glass.(Editorial)
August 1, 2008... What happens when large numbers of people give up on the paradigm of "progress"--the idea that each generation will invariably live in greater material comfort and prosperity than the generation before? On a recent bus trip through the...

Settler Treaty Card.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... A FRIEND SENT ME A COPY OF THE Settler Treaty Card (June/July 2008) from your magazine. I want to thank you for getting it right. I just visited your website and you must be about the only media entity in North America that understands that...

Decolonizing the classroom.(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... I FOUND "LEARNING FROM THE LAND: Towards a pedagogy of the colonized" by Sylvia Smith and Evan Thornton (June/July 2008) very insightful and encouraging. I agree with them about the importance of challenging the present school curriculum taught...

The two Buddhas: karma-free dharma and its discontents.
August 1, 2008... A philosophical storm has been brewing (in its quiet, Buddhist way) in sanghas, meditation groups, magazine articles and monasteries across the continent. A friend once commented that I'd be a backslider in any religion. My recent dabbling...

"It's tremendous fun to fight back": an interview with Derrick Jensen.(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?... what we must have are those books which come upon us like ill fortune, and distress us deeply, like the...

Going Dutch: reflections on nation, race and privilege.(Essay)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] i. I stop at a roadside chip truck on a bright November afternoon. The chip truck worker is an older man leaning from an elevated window over a handful of customers. --A medium fries with mayo, please. --You...

Olympic profits: the 2010 games versus Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I'm watching things speed up in my own city, Vancouver, as legislators tighten the noose around society's most defenceless members. In the lead-up to 2010"s Olympic orgasm for developers, the city council has passed...

Fighting fire with fire: anti-racist organizing in Alberta.
August 1, 2008... JASON DEVINE AND HIS FIANCEE Bonnie Collins live with their four sons, ages three to nine, in a cluttered townhouse on a quiet side street in Calgary. Both Devine and Collins are active members of the Communist Party of Canada and Anti-Racist...

Stupid To The Last Drop How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon To Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care).
August 1, 2008... Stupid To The Last Drop How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon To Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care) By William Marsden Random House, 2007 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] William Marsden is a senior invesigative...

Canada's Deadly Secret Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System.
August 1, 2008... Canada's Deadly Secret Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System By Jim Harding Fernwood, 2007 The nuclear industry has seized upon rising energy prices and growing concerns about global warming as an opportunity...

Manufacturing a crisis; organized labour and the Canadian auto industry.(Parting Shots)
August 1, 2008... GENERAL MOTORS' RECENT DECISION to close its Oshawa Truck Plant employing 2,600 workers has highlighted the massive loss of manufacturing jobs in Ontario and much of the rest of Canada in recent months. In the wake of this closure decision, a...

Local-motive.(LUZ: Girl of The Knowing)(Cartoon)
August 1, 2008... Hey mom, where are we going on our road trip this summer? I think we should drive across the country, from coast to coast! Would'nt that be awesome? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ai no, el problema de gasolina... [ILLUSTRATION...