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Creative Tree Pruning

Creative Tree Pruning
Originally uploaded by martyloo.

Why cut down a tree if you don't have to?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

world cup diplomacy

My patience for totalitarian, authoritarian or theocratic regimes, while it was never really there, is at an all time low. My patience is in general at an all time low. That's why a dubious report about religious labeling made me nod in agreement as our Prime Minister "blasted" the Iranian government.

The fact remains that the international community is too tolerant to regimes like Ahmadinejad's. Regimes that are simply stupid: those governments continue to deny their citizens anything but a marginal future despite existing in a global community that isn't fooled by antics and childish propaganda. Unfortunately, they tend to ruin things for everyone else. Party-pooper is Ahmadinejad's middle name.

There's one diplomatic card that no one wants to deal in the Iran Nuclear stand-off for reasons that are probably not valid, given that the alternatives are surely worse for all parties if Iran continues to drive down the fascist road at full speed. (I don't care if the clothing labeling report was false, Iran's is still a fascist regime.)

It was suggested that Iran be banned from the FIFA World Cup. I think this is an excellent idea. It's a diplomatic measure, largely without humanitarian or economic costs, but it's embarassing. Embarassment is the least that idiotic governments deserve. And football is just a game ...

V-Dub in da haus

My blog makes me look like a serious, frustrated person. I am these, but I also like to laugh.

Check out this.

I have to watch these commercials at least once a day to hold down my sanity tip.

Also (indirectly about Deutschland), the FIFA world cup is coming in 36 days. If you like football/soccer, this is not news, and you're getting more excited by the minute. However even for you non-footballers out there, nike soccer has a bunch of videos that are absolutely insane.

The dorky French promoter guy in the clips is Eric Cantona of 1990s Manchester United fame.

"scream" for Darfur

On Sunday I went to an anti-genocide protest called "Scream for Darfur" held at Queen's Park in downtown T.O. The turnout was rather pathetic contrary to the organisers' insistence on it being fantastic. More importantly, you would think the monumental humanitarian disaster that is occurring in Darfur (400000 people dead and counting, 2 million people displaced) would mobilize more citizens. It's been all over the news and recently George Clooney jumped on the bandwagon and proclaimed his outrage (though he didn't scream into the microphone, like Jack Layton did). There has to be at least as many diehard Clooney fans in Toronto as there were demonstrators.

I don't think the Clooney crowd showed up. The folks assembled were mostly of the "Kumbaya" left: the love-not-war, white-peeps-with-dreads crowd. I was mostly annoyed by them, but in fairness, they did show up (the event was kickstarted by highschoolers) even though it seemed most people didn't really understand the depravity of the issue. Also, at every opportunity, the organisers insisted on asking if we were having a good time, telling us what a good time they were having, what a nice afternoon it was, and urging us to relax and party, which seemed highly inappropriate considering we were there to protest a genocide, and a clearcut failure of the international community. The local Darfuris (Darfurians?) stood by stoically, perplexed by this display of vacuous freedom. A band consisting of a rapper, a guitarist and a congo player, droned on endlessly before the speakers lined up to talk. The lyrics (delivered with an Eminem Detroit accent) were mostly about how we should stop oppressing all organisms of the earth. The guy insisted on using the term "organisms" over and over. It would be nice if we first stopped oppressing homo sapiens.

You can get pictures and an accurate summary here.