Bacca Blues (original poem from Canada)

Bacca Blues

by Yuya Joe College

September has begun
There's a piper to pay
Change must be coming
Passing the flame

Love up your children
Give thanks to your teacher
Nobody knows what I've
Been thru but U

And U R just reading this now
Jesh and Selassie I light up the sky
Deep mystery and sparkling awe
Why R we here and where R we going?

Best get ready for the winter
Stay warm and healthy
Cut down on tobacco
Or leave it behnid

Green Party of Canada / NDP merger in the works?

Though it may take a year or two for the national parties to merge, it seems that if the New Democratic Party and the Green Party were to merge at the provincial level, that could be arranged in a matter of months.

PEI, would you like to found and revitalize a new Canada, again?

Quebec, would you care to inspire and foster a revolution?


Green Democratic Party of Canada movement website

Suburban Visions: Arcade Fire's " The Suburbs" versus Rush's Subdivisions

In an extraordinary alienation-off, here we pit Arcade Fire's 21st Century tune The Suburbs against Rush's 20th Century song Subdivisions. Vote for your fave by leaving a Comment below!


The Suburbs

by Arcade Fire

In the suburbs I
I learned to drive
And you told me we'd never survive
Grab your mother's keys we're leavin'

You always seemed so sure
That one day we'd be fighting
A suburban war
your part of town against mine
I saw you standing on the opposite shore

But by the time the first bombs fell
We were already bored
We were already, already bored

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling again

Kids wanna be so hard
But in my dreams we're still screamin' and runnin' through the yard
And all of the walls that they built in the seventies finally fall
And all of the houses they built in the seventies finally fall
Meant nothin' at all
Meant nothin' at all
It meant nothin

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling and into the night

So can you understand?
Why I want a daughter while I'm still young
I wanna hold her hand
And show her some beauty
Before this damage is done

But if it's too much to ask, it's too much to ask
Then send me a son

Under the overpass
In the parking lot we're still waiting
It's already passed
So move your feet from hot pavement and into the grass
Cause it's already passed
It's already, already passed!

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling again

I'm movin' past the feeling
I'm movin' past the feeling

In my dreams we're still screamin'
We're still screamin'
We're still screamin'



Subdivisions

by Rush

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone

Subdivisions --
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions --
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night

Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight

Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights...

Subdivisions --
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions --
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

White Riot, by UK's The Clash

Joe Strummer lives on in social justice movement

White Riot by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Black people gotta lot a problems
But they don't mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

An' everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
An' nobody wants
To go to jail!

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

All the power's in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it
While we walk the street
Too chicken to even try it

Everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
Nobody wants
To go to jail!

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

Fukushima disaster a "hot particles" nightmare

Radiation releases many times greater than reported

Here are some excerpts I've just read about Fukushima's nuclear meltdown / melt-through disaster:

The exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes. These are referred to as "hot particles".

"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," he said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."

Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

"These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, explained, "One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit pretty heavy in April."


"Largest industrial catastrophe in history" claims nuclear scientist

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen told Al Jazeera.

Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant.

Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.

"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."

TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water that has to be disposed of.

"The problem is how to keep it cool," says Gundersen. "They are pouring in water and the question is what are they going to do with the waste that comes out of that system, because it is going to contain plutonium and uranium. Where do you put the water?"

Even though the plant is now shut down, fission products such as uranium continue to generate heat, and therefore require cooling.

"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor," Gundersen added. "TEPCO announced they had a melt through. A melt down is when the fuel collapses to the bottom of the reactor, and a melt through means it has melted through some layers. That blob is incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive water."

Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are disconcerting.

"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl."


Radiation may be affecting newborns in USA Northwest

Japan's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters finally admitted earlier this month that reactors 1, 2, and 3 at the Fukushima plant experienced full meltdowns.

TEPCO announced that the accident probably released more radioactive material into the environment than Chernobyl, making it the worst nuclear accident on record.

Meanwhile, a nuclear waste advisor to the Japanese government reported that about 966 square kilometres near the power station - an area roughly 17 times the size of Manhattan - is now likely uninhabitable.

In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.

The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.

"There is and should be concern about younger people being exposed, and the Japanese government will be giving out radiation monitors to children," Dr MV Ramana, a physicist with the Programme on Science and Global Security at Princeton University who specialises in issues of nuclear safety, told Al Jazeera.

Dr Ramana explained that he believes the primary radiation threat continues to be mostly for residents living within 50km of the plant, but added: "There are going to be areas outside of the Japanese government's 20km mandatory evacuation zone where radiation is higher. So that could mean evacuation zones in those areas as well."

Bin Laden's ideology died before he did

Arab Awakening based on universal human value

Though Bin Laden's death marks the end of an era, the fact that it occurred on May 1st, 2011, means that the context is wholly unlike that of even one year ago. The man on the street in the Arab world is no longer afraid of anachronistic despots, and the world at large is no longer afraid of the Arab street. People everywhere feel a kinship with the North African and Middle East uprisings, and the global village has shrunk considerably. As the yearning for freedom stretches eastward, Syria is now in the grips of it, while Iran, Pakistan and China watch nervously.

Peace 2 All,

Yuya Joe


Wael Ghonim Egypt revolution leader

Gigi Ibrahim Egyptian journalist

Young Arab leaders of Middle East and North African revolutions

Stand By Me - Street singers globally, mixed together

Here's an innovative video featuring street singers from all over performing Stand By Me, expertly mixed together for your enjoyment and deep satisfaction:

Gaza Marathon an opportunity to illustrate peace in Palestine

Let us pray that the people of Gaza, Palestine are able and willing to come out in the tens if not hundreds of thousands to cheer on the runners in the first marathon to be run over the full 42 kilometre length of the Gaza Strip, Inshallah.

I believe that if the weather is nice it will be a beautiful site for people to see the men, women and children of Palestine encouraging the runners on.

May 5th to feature first ever full-length marathon in Palestine

According to the Edmonton Journal:

The race, organized by United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), will take place on May 5 with the aim of raising funding for the UN refugee agency's Summer Games programme which is held every year in the Hamas-run territory.

The route runs from the northern town of Beit Hanun and heads south along the coastal road until it ends in Rafah, a sprawling city on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, said Gemma Connell, an UNRWA employee who is organizing the event.

"Anyone that's ever worked in Gaza has thought about doing a marathon here because it is exactly 42.2 kilometres (26 miles) long," she told AFP.

Although only a handful of people are expected to run the full 26-mile route, more than a 1,000 local children and young people will take part at various stages along the way, running in a relay format, she said.

Palestinians waste weaponry and momentum with new barrage

Gaza militants launched over 100 missiles; Debka.com

It is really time for Palestinian Youth to take to the streets and reclaim their country from the self-destructive warlords currently in charge. While the whole world watches and huge swaths of the free, democratic areas are yearning for more democratic revolutions to support (admit it, Tunisia felt good and Egypt was a temporary nirvana), for some reason Palestinians want to go against the trend and incite violence and war.

I've written it before and I'll say it again: If a million Palestinian women, children and men walk into Jerusalem without a weapon among them, they will have their country within months, and a nation with such strong foundations will prosper and be long-lived.

Debka reports 110 rockets and mortar rounds were launched from Gaza on Friday and Saturday, while Jpost claims 70 were counted. Hamas missile attacks rarely achieve anything significant militarily (10 Israelis were injured the past two days, plus the usual property damage) and they damage the cause politically. It's time to make the IRA move and bury these obsolete, nation-destroying weapons, and fully embrace an open, transparent and fully democratic election process.

Towards a peaceful, loving and prosperous Palestine!

Inshallah


Debka.com story on Gaza missile attack on Israel

Jerusalem Post article on missile attack from Gaza

Aljazeera English-language news

Nuclear Power - Moratorium is fine; REAL answer is phasing out old plants

As my fellow greenies fight hard for moratoriums, I would ask the medical community to step forward and explain to politicians and the public the essence of the true solution, and that is rapidly phasing out the oldest, most dangerous atomic energy plants.

In the eastern GTA region of Ontario we have the Pickering plant, which was built in the 1960s using 50s technology, and we have Darlington, constructed in the 70s utilizing 60s technology. At the moment we are holding hearings on expanding Darlington, so tactically it is correct to fight for a moratorium at these hearings. If the government can place a moratorium on offshore wind due to primarily emotional concerns, then a clear mandate to postpone new nuclear plants should be within reach for the Liberals. It can be superbly argued on economic merits alone, as green energy creates far more jobs and export opportunities, and installs a more sustainable, equitable society.

Pickering was designed for 30 years of operation and I believe it's now been running for over 40 years, In the USA the situation is equally dire, as many plants are running at 110% of capacity, long after their shelf-life has expired.

In Ontario and significant areas of US northeast, we are faced with the opportunity to phase out BOTH coal and nuclear power, and by doing so assume a co-leadership position in the global green energy industry. States such as Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan could form a BIG FIVE Great Lakes Green Energy Initiative with Ontario, and co-ordinate a complete transformation of the area's grid, taking it off of coal and nuclear and onto wind, solar, biogas, geothermal and other renewable clean energy sources. Natural gas can be a valuable transitional fuel as we evolve an Infinite Energy-based Electro-Hydrogen Economy.

Having Lake Ontario and Lake Erie governments declare clear timetables for closing down coal-fired and uranium-fueled electricity plants would create thousands of new companies and lead to hundreds of thousands of new jobs over the next 5 to 7 years, injecting life and stability into many hard-hit, financially depressed communities.

Telephone and email your local, regional and national representatives to let them know you support phasing out toxic plants in favor of green energy industries development.

Supermoons link Japan earthquake with Indonesia and Haiti

2011 Japanese earthquake / tsunami and Supermoon connection

On February 18, 2011, there was a SuperMoon. On March 19/20, 2011, an extreme SuperMoon will occur. A major earthquake (8.9) and tsunami occurred on the Japanese coast of on March 11, 2011.


2010 Haiti earthquake and proximity to Supermoons

On December 31, 2009 there was a SuperMoon and one month later, on January 30, 2010 there was an extreme SuperMoon. Right in the middle of these two Supermoons, there was a major earthquake, a 7.0 event in Haiti on January 12th, that the country is still recovering from.

Supermoon near 2004 Indonesian earthquake and tsunami

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake. The resulting tsunami is given various names, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Asian Tsunami, Indonesian Tsunami, and Boxing Day Tsunami.

AccuWeather Facebook fanpage member Daniel Vogler adds, "The last extreme super moon occurred on January 10th, 2005, right around the time of the 9.0 Indonesia earthquake. That extreme super moon was a new moon. So be forewarned. Something BIG could happen on or around this date. (+/- 3 Days is my guess)"

Understanding Supermoons and Extreme Supermoons

Super Moon - A new or full moon at 90% or greater of its closest perigee to Earth has been named a "SuperMoon" by astrologer Richard Nolle.

Extreme Super Moon - Occurs when a Super Moon when passing closest to Earth. Specifically, an extreme "SuperMoon" is when the moon is full or new as well as at its 100% greater mean perigee (closest) distance to earth. By this definition, last month's full moon, this month's and next month's will all be extreme "SuperMoons".

History of Supermoons and global flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis

Accuweather.com blogger Mark Paquette article on Supermoons

New solar atlas of Los Angeles a valuable energy planning resource

Photovoltaic solar power potential of Southern California

UCLA's Luskin Center has released a crucial new study focusing on the plentiful photovoltaic solar energy resouces available in the Los Angeles, California region. The atlas (linked below) is designed to help cities and electricity utilities understand their own solar rooftop potential so that they may be better stewards of these resources. Each map presents the geographical distribution of solar potential across neighborhoods and parcels. The maps are accompanied by a description of how the solar potential varies across single- and multi-family residences, commercial and industrial parcels, and non-profit and government parcels since the economic benefits and policy incentives may vary accordingly. Because cost-effectiveness increases with the size of a solar installation, the atlas also presents, for each jurisdiction, the number of potential solar projects by size as well as the total rooftop potential.

Los Angeles County has over 19,000 megawatts of rooftop solar PV potential, while the City of Los Angeles has over 5,500 megawatts.* These maps, which are based on aerial photography of the solarusable rooftop space,** should be viewed as providing long-run estimates of rooftop potential.

Solar Energy Capacity Statistics of the City of Los Angeles

Area 484.3 square miles
Population 4,003,500 (2009 estimate)
Total Potential Sites 464,325
Commercial & Industrial 8.2%
Multi-family 20.9%
Single Family 70.1%
Government or Non-profit 0.8%

Median Rooftop Availability 14.5%
Median Potential of Parcels 3.6 Kilowatts
Median Solar Density Index 8.2%
Total Rooftop Solar Potential 5,536 Megawatts

View online pdf of City of Los Angeles Solar Atlas

Online Guide to Green Energy Investing: Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs

Please bookmark this page in your Favorites, for easy access to ethical green mutual funds, clean energy technology, sustainable investing and alternative energy exchange traded funds.

Renewable Power Stocks, Clean Energy technology websites and blogs

Top Green Energy Company Stocks List

Best Ethical and Green Mutual Funds ETFs

Geothermal Power company stocks symbols

Wind Energy Stocks to Watch

Solar Energy and Renewable Power companies links

PV Intell - Photovoltaic publicly-traded pv solar stocks

21st Century Architecture - Sustainable Green Buildings

Wind Intell wind power investing blog

Rare Earth Strategic Metals investing website

Water Intell - Water purification, tidal energy, wave power technology

A Green Realtor Sustainable Development resources blog

Next stage for China: Secular Humanism

Chinese leadership put the lie to communism a long time ago, yet the word remains in the name of the nation's largest political party. China is neither communist nor capitalist, it is China-ist, which can be roughly translated as "socialist."

I would venture to claim that China is already moving into secular humanism, and their foresight shown by the rapid expansion of green energy technologies will benefit both their image and economy. Previously I have xpounded on a plan for peaceful democratic evolution in China, and I continue to believe the leaders and people will both benefit more from channelling the democratic energy, rather than fighting it.

It is time for China to officially move beyond the outdated tenets of communism, and join the progressive forces on the planet, the secular humanists.

China needs to let Bob Dylan sing

Bob Dylan with the recently deceased Suze Rotolo

Dylan tour dates in Shanghai and Beijing under review

Last year Bob Dylan cancelled his entire Asian tour after the Chinese Government denied his application to perform in the country. Ya gotta admire Zimmy's fortitude, as he is right back at it and trying to play in China next month, April 2011.

Robert Allan Zimmerman (Dylan's birth name) is the greatest songwriter of the 20th Century, and of the modern era. China is a major world power, and this crucial artist's tour will be another indication of whether China as an emerging dominant nation is truly ready for the big leagues. Fifty years after the writing of Blowin' in the Wind, it's high time for Dylan to be allowed to sing in front of his Chinese fans.

7-point plan for peaceful democratic evolution in China

Canada suspends diplomatic relations with Libya, closes Tripoli embassy

PM Harper expected to announce Canadian sanctions on Libya

Six embassy officials plus eighteen other Canadians were among the forty-six people spirited out of Libya overnight, as Ottawa is suspends diplomatic presence in a country now mostly controlled by the democracy protesters, yet whose government clings to power utilizing foreign mercenaries.

The two dozen Canadians were part of a group of British and Australian nationals flown to Malta aboard a C17 overnight Friday.

A song for Revolution 2.0: Ready to Start, by Arcade Fire

Ready To Start

Lyrics by Win Butler

If the businessmen drink my blood
Like the kids in art school said they would
Then I guess I'll just begin again
You say we can still be friends

If I was scared... I would
And if I was bored... you know I would
And if I was yours... but I'm not

All the kids have always known
That the emperor wears no clothes
But they bow to down to him anyway
It's better than being alone

If I was scared... I would
And if I was bored... you know I would
And if I was yours... but I'm not

Now you're knocking at my door
Saying please come out with us tonight
But I would rather be alone
Than pretend I feel alright

If the businessmen drink my blood
Like the kids in art school said they would
Then I guess I'll just begin again
You say we can still be friends

If I was scared... I would
And if I was pure... you know I would
And if I was yours... but I'm not

Now I'm ready to start

If I was scared... I would
And if I was pure... you know I would
And if I was yours... but I'm not

Now I'm ready to start

Now I'm ready to start
I would rather be wrong
Than live in the shadows of your song
My mind is open wide
And now I'm ready to start

Now I'm ready to start
My mind is open wide
And now I'm ready to start
And I'm sure you opened the door
To step out into the dark

Now I'm ready

Revolution, lyrics by John Lennon

Beatles lyrics, Lennon-McCartney songs, john lennon lyrics

Revolution

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out?

Don't you know it's gonna be
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?

You say you've got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We are doing what we can
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is, brother, you'll have to wait

Don't you know it's gonna be
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow

Don't you know it's gonna be
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?

Credited to Lennon-McCartney, Revolution was written and sung by John Lennon.

Middle East News and Global Intelligence Websites

Here are some useful websites for following events in the Mideast:

Al-Ahram Weekly Cairo Egypt newspaper

Al Jazeera English-language website

ArabNews.com Middle Eastern and Global News Reports

BBC News International

BusinessMonitor.com Middle East Business Intelligence

CBC World News from Canada

CIA World Factbook Middle East

Debka.com Israli intelligence website

Gulf-Times.com Persian Gulf, Middle East and World News

Haaretz.com News from Israel

Jerusalem Post Israel and Middle East News

MEED.com Middle Eastern Business Intelligence

Stratfor.com Global Intelligence website

Webcams and live video feeds from Egypt, Israel, Tunisia, Lebanon, Middle East

Wikipedia.org Middle East Forum

New Era in Mideast means renewed hope for Palestinians

One can only imagine that the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people have been revitalized in recent days as the status quo in the Middle East experiences such upheaval.

The power of nonviolent protest must be increasingly evident to the leaders and common folk of Palestine. Ideally this opportunity will lead to a new Israel-Palestine peace plan.