More bits and pieces

Occasional series of essays linking to stories interesting in their own right but for which I don’t have time to devote individual essays…

-WESTERN CANADIAN GANGSTERS. In a couple of different places recently, I’ve heard/read about how organized crime has taken a chokehold on life in a most unlikely place: the western Canadian province of British Columbia. In fact, the marijuana trade already represents 5 percent of the province’s entire economy. The Canadian weekly Maclean’s has a long exposé on the influence of organized crime in BC.

-WELCOME TO THE 20TH CENTURY. NPR reports on a high school in Mississippi that held its first interracial prom… just a few months ago.

-SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HAREST WORD. After Australia’s example, Canada became the latest western country to apologize to its native people for that whole genocide thing. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently stood on the floor of the House of Commons and apologized for the past policies of ethnic cleansing against aboriginal people which "has caused great harm, and has no place in [his] country." Five aboriginal leaders also addressed Parliament. Will President Obama be next?

-THE OBSTRUCTIONIST. Albany is a very different place than it was only a year ago. Combative governor Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace. The equally feisty Joe Bruno resigned after 12 years in charge of the Senate’s rapidly shrinking Republican majority. The only person left from the infamous three men in a room is Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver. A recent piece in New York magazine wonders if Silver is ‘the master of passive-aggressive politics, or the guy who keeps bad things from happening to good people.’ The title of the piece is ‘The Obstructionist,’ so you can probably figure out the conclusion.

-THE WORLD’S MOST LIVABLE CITIES. The International Herald Tribune ran a list of the world’s most livable cities. Given America’s obsession with sprawl and the automobile, it’s not surprising that no city in the continental US made the top 20. Montreal, Vancouver and Honolulu were the only North American cities in the top 20. It also ran a useful piece on examples of good urban design, for the benefit of people that actually care about such things. Though apparently things are going in the right direction in San Diego.

-MASS TRANSIT ON THE UP? One of the things the livable cities have is good public transportation, which is why few North American cities rate highly. But as The New York Times reports, the relatively high price of gas in the US is pushing mayors to invest more in mass transit.

-OBAMA AND THE SCAM. Ethanol is now largely discredited. Especially since it takes more energy to produce than burning it releases. So it’s not a good harbinger of strong future energy policy based on renewable resources to learn that Sen. Barack Obama is closely linked with the scam that is ethanol.

-OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE. In case you’re not depressed enough, Alternet has a reminder of the ten worst moments of the Bush reign.

-WILL UNITED SPAIN REIGN? Fans of the Beautiful Game were overjoyed to see stylish Spain win the 2008 European Championship over more pedestrian and/or negative outfits like Italy, Germany and France. Quite often, success is soccer leads observers to wax eloquent about the sport’s power to bring people together. Multiethnic France’s win in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 and divided Côte d’Ivoire’s run to the 2006 African Nations Cup final and World Cup are examples. However, Victor de la Serna of The Guardian warns not to expect the Spanish national team’s victory to have too dramatic an effect on the regional separatism that’s long plagued the country.