Charlie Sheen’s Conspiracy Theory

Photo “September 11th” by hankplank / Flickr

Charlie Sheen has been on the offensive lately, demanding answers to questions surrounding the events of September 11th, 2001. Careful to distance himself from being just another “deluded Hollywood liberal”, Sheen simply wants answers from the government and is demanding a “truly independent congressional investigation into 9/11 and its aftermath”.

Sheen is using his celebrity to attempt to garner the attention of President Obama. However Sheen lost any credibility he had when his “partner-in-crime”, Inforwars.com’s Alex Jones posted a fake 20-minute interview between Charlie Sheen and President Obama.

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Second-Hand Secret to Sustainability?

Photo “Harlem Trash” by loan Sameli / Flickr

The Urban Country explores whether purchasing second-hand products can help save ourselves, our society, and the world as we know it.

In a speech yesterday to a special summit on climate change at the United Nations, President Obama claimed that fighting climate change is more difficult during the recession: “We seek sweeping but necessary change in the midst of a global recession, where every nation's most immediate priority is reviving their economy and putting their people back to work”.

I respectfully disagree with the President. The recession provides an opportunity for us as consumers to assess our needs and look at ways to reduce our consumption – if for no other reason than to cut down our expenses in difficult economic times.

It’s no coincidence that the world’s wealthiest nations have the largest ecological footprints and consume the most resources from the earth. If you take away some of that wealth (recession), the natural result would be less consumption.

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The Environmental Cost of Tickets

(Photo “Return Ticket to Hell” by aslakr / Flickr )

A friend and fellow contributor to The Urban Country made an interesting comment the other day. Nariman feels that anything that requires a ticket is outrageous. Be it driving, airplanes, concerts, sports, musicals, cruises, opera, etc.

This may seem an extreme stance, but the idea does have some merit – many activities that require a ticket can be viewed as unnecessary indulgences that more often than not have a substantial impact on the environment.

U2 has been recently criticized for their impact on the environment with their extravagant production on their 360 tour.

Last year we profiled a band called the Ginger Ninjas who travelled 5000 miles on bicycles, generating electricity for their concert as they pedaled.This obviously could never work for a large band like U2, who paid $40 million dollars to construct the stage for their tour. But being conscious of the impact is the first step and U2 is actively looking for ways that they can cut down on the footprint caused by their tour.

I believe that human survival depends on us simplifying our lives and reducing the wasteful consumerism that has plagued us over the last several decades.

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Bicycles and Sidewalks Can Get Along

Bicycles and sidewalks can (and do) get along well together. All it takes is a little bit of common sense, etiquette and mutual respect.

Two very unfortunate incidents in Toronto have provoked additional tension between drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. Two months ago I would have thought it absurd that tensions could escalate in a city where many drivers already have contempt for anyone who straddles a bicycle seat.

The first incident happened on August 6th. A woman in Toronto was struck by a 15-year-old cyclist (on a sidewalk) and died from her head injuries. The second incident happened on August 31st. A bicycle courier named Darcy Allan Sheppard had an altercation with the former Ontario Attorney-General Michael Bryant. Witnesses saw Sheppard hanging from the driver’s side door while Bryant drove erratically apparently trying to knock Sheppard off his car. Sheppard was eventually knocked off the car and left for dead before Bryant pulled into a parking lot a block away and called 911.

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Keeping my God, Guns and Healthcare

Today’s rally at Capitol Hill in Washington DC brought together a passionate group of “patriots” who are fed up with their leader. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to America’s capital for the last stop in the Tea Party Express – an anti-tax, conservative movement that toured across the country over the last 16 days.

The common theme at the rally seemed to be Obama’s controversial healthcare plan. Everyone I encountered at the rally were staunchly opposed to any form of government-provided healthcare.

Other protesters were rallying to abolish taxes, impeach Obama and some even went as far as to allude to an assassination being the answer to this country’s problems.

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09.09.09: Dubai grows up and gets a Metro

Dubai Metro on the first day. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Yesterday, on the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year of this century at 9:09 pm Dubai matured from a city to metropolis by running its first metro train. The Dubai Metro consists of one partially-functioning Red Line, four under-construction future lines and a network of feeder buses. Once the Red and Green lines are completed they will give Dubai’s Metro the distinction of being the world’s longest driverless rail network. The stations are posh and futuristic looking and the trains are sleek with a maximum speed of 90 km/hr.

This is a major step forward for Dubai to establish itself as a legitimate city and touristic spot. This network was dreamt up when Dubai was on top of the world, being hailed as the Las Vegas of the East and shocking the world with its larger-than-life real estate projects like the man-made palm-shaped islands and the world’s tallest tower, Burj Dubai. However, Dubai is now in the midst of an economic downturn. Hundreds (sometimes thousands) of lower and middle class expatriate families are leaving Dubai each month after either losing their jobs or seeing disheartening losses in business.

The metro does offer hope of making this city more commutable. At the moment Dubai has massive congestion problems due to the sheer volume of cars travelling from the city to the Jabel Ali Free Zone (the main industrial area), a less-than-desirable network of buses and terribly planned infrastructure. Dubai is infamous for creating spectacular malls and buildings and leaving the actual transport infrastructure to connect the various parts of the city as a mere afterthought. I have always imagined someone in their meetings saying ‘Hmmmm, so how will someone get to Burj Dubai?’.

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The Urban Country Sustainability Survey

Eco-Living Tip: Automobile Idling Myths

The year is 1969. Yasser Arafat is appointed the leader of the PLO, Apollo 11 lands on the moon, the Concorde jet breaks the sound barrier and 500,000 hippies congregate on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in New York.

While all of this was happening, a father somewhere was teaching his son how to drive:

“Now listen here son. I reckon some day you’re going to be the best damn driver this town has ever seen - just like your pops. Now if there’s something you should know about driving, it’s this. Don’t turn your car off if you don’t need to. It takes more gas to start the car than to let it idle. So next time you’re at the store buying your old pops a pack of Camels, just let the car idle instead of shutting it off. You got that now son?”

Fast-forward 40 years. It’s 2009 and somehow the flawed logic that perhaps applied 40 years ago still persists even to this day. People still believe that they need to idle their car for 2, 5 and sometimes 10 minutes at a time – I still see it every day.

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Operation Imani – Ideas for Sustainable African Development

Between 2005 and 2007, Greg John had a life changing experience. He lived in Tanzania while working on a CIDA internship to help the impoverished African country develop its infrastructure.

Coming from a cushy life in Canada, living in one of the top 10 poorest countries in the world was an eye opener for the activist, author, teacher and independent filmmaker:

“In resource-limited countries there is a huge number of people that no matter how hard they work or how clever they are, they will still never get the chance to lift themselves out of poverty - simply because there is so little opportunity available (be it spaces in high schools/universities, or financial loans).”

Each year, billions of dollars in foreign aid is sent to Africa. Although this money brings short-term benefits to those who need it, it often doesn’t have the longer-term effect of lifting them out of poverty.

At a time when people are questioning whether foreign aid in Africa should be scrapped, Greg John’s film proposes a better solution.

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