Petrostates and Slavery

A long selection of quotes  is listed below:

Canada is losing ground in a key global measure of gender equality, sliding out of the world’s top 20 chiefly due to a lack of female representation in politics. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/canada-slips-in-gender-equality-rankings/article4634420/

The Liberals and NDP have been trying since 2010 to have the Tories release their cost breakdown for the planes and have been rebuked at every turn, until Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s bombshell report earlier this month.
“Ministers systematically, since 2010, gave this House information which has proven to be incorrect, inadequate, partial and, in some cases, untrue,”  http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1168971--hiding-f-35-fighter-jet-costs-shows-conservatives-in-contempt-says-rae
 

A top lawyer at the world's largest civil liberties organization warns that Canada's increasing participation in the so-called "War on Terror" has jeopardized democracy. http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Rights-Justice/2012/08/16/War-on-Terror-Democracy/

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative cabinet fairly erupted in indignation this past week as Canada took a knock from a United Nations envoy for turning a blind eye to the poverty, inequality and, yes, the hunger in our midst....These are not transient problems. They are deeply-rooted, systemic and point to “a broken social protection system and the failure of the state to meet its obligations to its people,”

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1181071--un-envoy-blasts-poverty-in-canada
 

Is there a connection?   You bet there is.

I just finished reading The Energy of Slaves by Andrew Nikiforuk (Greystone Books, 2012.) 
"All petrostates dusplay similar traits.  Oil booms engender not only spending mania but poor statecraft, ineffectual tax regimes, political extremism, and long periods of authoritarian rule.  "(page 182)    They are characterized by military spending, a concentration of power,  increased income inequality, and a reduction in gender equity.

Read the book - it's hugely interesting. And depressing.  And think about Canada ....

Easy Like Water - From Al Jazeera (Original Post Jan 19, 2010 )

Floating schools, alternate energy , solar power, access to healthcare, and the empowement of  women: watch this!  Yes, it is long - but worth it. 

Bangladesh is living with climate change right now and adapting with acumen and determination.  The developed world emitted the greenhouse gases that are causing Bangladeshi  land to disappear under the waters.  Therefore, is it not up to us in the developed world to do our part by reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

Haiti's Structural Problems

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/01/20101196265844450.html

...the present-day concentration of urban poverty in Haiti, which led to millions of people living in the ramshackle slums that literally disintegrated during the earthquake, owe their origins to policies of economic liberalisation and privatisation begun in the mid-1980s.....Ultimately, the policies of the last four US administrations have been successful in crushing most opposition to the reforms that laid the foundation for the disastrous consequences of the earthquake.

Just a lefty professor's views? Perhaps ...perhaps not. Mark Levine seems to be supported by an article in the Globe and Mail: a prominetnt Canadian business paper.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/haiti/a-tale-of-two-nations/article1437201/

His native country (the Dominican Republic,) by contrast, declared its independence from Haiti and was left with much more agriculturally viable land and a less densely populated nation. Infrastructure, political institutions and trade relations were able to develop without as much interference from foreign interests.

Haiti needs foreign aid desperately.  (Please donate to a NGO provideing disaster relief in Haiti.) It also needs, as does the rest of the world, liberation from neo -conservative ideology.  Surely, after the Great Recession of 2008, the idea that a free market completely  unfettered by ethics can solve our problems has been discredited?

Haiti - the Tragedy before the Earthquake

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/01/12/haiti-earthquake.html

The largest earthquake ever recorded in the area rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and damaging other buildings.

CBC Radio 1 news stated that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.   The newscaster did not discuss the causes of Haiti's pverty: it is directly related to, and caused by, environmental degradation .  And environmental degradation is in turn caused by a desperate search for energy by the desperately poor population of Haiti.
http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/05/10/haitis-poverty-is-directly-linked-to-deforestation-and-habitat-loss/

 With an electricity sector that only covered 10% of Haiti’s population in 2006, chronic energy shortages have contributed to Haitian’s search for alternative sources of energy. Unfortunately for Haiti’s natural environment, wood became and continues to be the principal energy source in Haiti, accounting for 70 percent of energy consumption in 2006. This resulted in the steady deforestation of Haiti.

The environmental destruction in Haiti  led to a corresponding social destruction.  The fuel wood shortage is exploited by the already wealthy  to exract huge profits from most of the population .... Earthquake or no earthquake, Haiti will not be stable socially until its environment is healed.   Perhaps Haiti is a heartbreaking and frightening reminder of the fact that the economy is a subset of the environment  - and not the other way around.