Recent Issues

The Big Ideas of 2009

Abdul — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:56:22 -0500

Big Ideas of 2009

Only in Canada

The trend in the Anglo-American world is to move beyond the conservatism of the Bush era and support progressive, environmentally-conscious governments. Canadians, however, have elected Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper for another term as prime minister, positioning Canada as an outcast among developed nations when it comes to taking action on climate change.

Big Idea: A Steady-State Economy

The growth economy is failing and we have to attempt a steady-state economy. The steady state answer is that the rich should reduce their throughput growth to free up resources and ecological space for use by the poor, while focusing their domestic efforts on development, technical and social improvements, that can be freely shared with poor countries.

Big in Japan

The sudden increase in popularity of Kanikosen (The Crab-Canning Ship), a bleak 20th century novel seething with proletarian despair, points to tectonic shifts taking place beneath the polished veneer of Japanese society.

Spiraling into Chaos

Less than a decade ago Mexico was considered the darling of Latin America. International analysts applauded the country as a beacon of democracy, justice and modernity. Today, violence and organized crime in Mexico are escalating, prompting writer Mónica López to wonder if the country is descending into a land of violence, lawlessness and chaos.

Seismic Shifts Down Under

The first months of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s term in office were full of positive action: he ratified Kyoto, promised to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq and publicly apologized to Indigenous Australians for years of mistreatment. But no honeymoon lasts forever, and as Rudd’s term unfolds his conservative side is coming to light.

The Freedom From Want

Trevor — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:34:57 -0500

Freedom From Want

Dame-Ren (No Good People)

As Japan embraced Western-style capitalism, it, in turn, started suffocating the Japanese. The corporation eclipsed every community in Japanese life, providing living spaces, arranging marriages and social engagements, and, most importantly, promising full-time jobs that would last a lifetime.

Enter Jamspace

Described as the dance of natural philosophy, Contact Improvisation, explores spontaneous movement by taking a point of contact with another body as its starting point for exploration through physical movement.

Cultivate Mindfulness

It might not be a typical classroom scene yet, but over the last four years mindfulness training has been introduced to classrooms in California, Pennsylvania, and British Columbia with marked success.

I Wanted to Paint Nothing

No matter what he actually saw in the soup cans, by elevating them to the level of art, Warhol managed to encapsulate the increasing emptiness of modern existence.

East and West

Abdul — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:31:36 -0500

East and West

Hipster: The Dead End of Civilization

We’ve reached a point in our civilization where counterculture has mutated into a self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum. So while hipsterdom is the end product of all prior countercultures, it’s been stripped of its subversion and originality, and is leaving a generation pointlessly obsessing over fashion, faux individuality, cultural capital and the commodities of style.

A Bill of Rights for Future Generations

We, the people of the future, like the multitudes who came before us, have the right to air that smells sweet, to water that tastes pure, and to land that is fertile, unsoiled and green.

The Temple of Heaven

Almost all visitors to Beijing make the pilgrimage to the Temple of Heaven, whose lantern-like profile rises like a spectre over the Chinese capital, offering its citizens an iconic glimpse of the afterlife.

Bolton Dodges War Crimes

They started a war with doctored evidence and without United Nations consent. They tortured prisoners, paraded them around naked and subjected them to waterboarding. They held suspects in prisons for years without ever charging them…

Media Democracy

Abdul — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:21:17 -0500

Media Democracy

America’s Slippery Slope

“We recognize the debasement of standards, we see the signs of intellectual decay. Yet we do nothing.” A look at what happens when we refuse to pay attention to what’s important.

The End of Childhood

Exposure to nature benefits kids in more than one way.

Val Plumwood’s Natural Death

A portrait of Australia’s pioneer environmentalist who battled a crocodile and called for the end of environmental abuse.

Thought Control in Economics

Are economics students, and everyone else for that matter, being cheated out of the truth?

Media Democracy

What it means to Dan Rather, Arianna Huffington, Amy Goodman and more.