crows to burnaby

TILMA, or the British Columbia-Alberta Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement, comes up in news articles sometimes as something vaguely evil that the two provincial governments are doing somewhat underhandedly that could be really bad for people, but nobody's quite clear on how.

Here's the capsule summary for you: corporations' rights override governments' rights. And it's already been enacted - surprise! A quick quote from stoptilma.com:

"The TILMA Agreement, if implemented, will effectively strip governments, at all levels, from making public policy on behalf of its citizens if those policies are deemed to be restrictive to private business making a profit."

That's bad. You don't even have to have seen The Corporation to figure that out.

But you can stop it from affecting Vancouver quite as much if you act NOW, because there's a council meeting TOMORROW, Tuesday June 26th at 2:00pm. If you can't go, send a quick email to council - it'll take you two minutes and it'll be worth it, I swear. (I even got a nice response from a councillor, right after I posted this message.)

More details on the meeting and letter-writing campaign here. Go read more about TILMA here. And hurry. This is important.

Here's my September 11 story.

In 2001, I was living on Long Island, NY, and working in Syosset, about thirty miles from New York City. On September 10 I had had a disagreement with my boss that I needed to talk to her about the next day. (I felt that having had insomnia so bad I didn't dare drive should count as a sick day; she thought it should be considered a vacation day.) She'd said we'd talk about it on Tuesday. I had about a twenty minute drive to work, and I got there a bit before nine, a bit anxious and ready for a tense conversation.

When I came in, the office manager asked if I'd heard about the plane hitting the World Trade Center, and since I hadn't listened to the radio on the way, I hadn't. We thought, or hoped, that it was some little private plane that had somehow strayed off course. She was nervous because her son was a courier who worked in that area. I wanted it to be some minor fluke, but had a sinking feeling it wasn't. I tried to get more information from CNN.com... or NBC.com... or ... well, anywhere. The net was choked. We ended up getting our updates from Ananova, in the UK. It was pretty obviously something bigger than we had hoped.

We read that the second plane hit.

My boss and I agreed to put off our discussion until later. It didn't seem to be worth getting into right then.

Our building had a conference theatre with a big screen and a projector, so somebody put up CNN and gradually the room filled with everyone from all the different offices. There we watched events unfold with the rest of the country.

Phone lines were completely clogged, but most of us with friends in the city (or with worried friends outside the area) were able to get in touch through IM.

I remember wondering how they were going to put the fire out, in a building up that high.

I went back to the theatre and the screen was a mass of smoke and dust. I didn't realize the first tower had fallen. When the second one collapsed, I started sobbing. It hadn't occurred to me that that could even happen. Someone asked me if I'd lost someone in the tower. I said no, it was just the idea of it. I guess I'd just assumed most people would get out, up until then.

We waited around, stunned. We heard about the other planes.

Eventually my boss called everyone into the office, around 11:15.

He said he understood that we were all in shock.

He said he was going to give us the rest of the day off, but we would have to pull ourselves together and carry on with our work, because otherwise if everyone just stopped, it would affect the economy and the terrorists would have won.

He said a lot of things. I don't remember them all, but I remember some of us were angry afterwards - not at the attacks, but at him. Our office manager still hadn't heard from her son. One of our coworkers would later find out he'd lost a friend. At that time, we still thought the death toll from those towers, thirty miles away, could be upwards of ten thousand. But we were being given a pep talk on how we were needed to do our good work for this company.

Oddly enough, work didn't seem like the most important thing at the time.

I went home and Greg and I watched the news together, expecting more attacks, not sure what to expect. There was a scare that night involving the Empire State Building, and I remember saying no no, not that too, please no.

It's not fear, specifically, that I remember. I remember us both feeling completely and totally numb for days; there seemed to be no point in doing anything at all, because nothing we could do could possibly be as important as what had just happened. It was all about the uncertainty, the horrible sinking realization that everything was going to change, that everything had already changed.

The next day, we could smell the smoke. In the weeks that came, we saw the smoke pouring from the rubble; we saw the desperate "Missing" signs posted all over the city; we drove through a military checkpoint at Houston Street and saw soldiers with assault rifles patrolling Penn Station.

I remember saying that if one good thing comes out of this, maybe the United States will finally wake up and realize that there is more to the world than just the USA, that they need to consider how they interact with their neighbours. Maybe America will learn some humility, take a kinder approach in dealing with other nations, and learn how to get along with everyone.

That didn't happen.

I know we're all saying that the United States needs to be more sensitive to other nations, but this is ridiculous:

http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=24262

It's hardly an assault, but it is staggeringly disrespectful. Being the leader of the world's most powerful nation doesn't give you a free license to maul the other leaders. Yes, Bush, EVEN if they're female.

While I've been rambling about unpopular bakery products, a few fairly important debates have been wrapping up in the States. They're both issues that I feel strongly about yet at the same time can hardly bear to think about, because the fact that there's even need for a debate says some sad things about human nature.

• "Intelligent" design: A federal judge came to the conclusion that intelligent design may not be taught in the science curriculum as it advocates Christianity and thus violates the U.S. Constitution. Given that I am married to an evolutionary biologist, I don't think you need me to explain my personal views on this; I'll just say it's a relief to see, once in a while, that there's someone in charge with some common sense. (There's not much we can do about Kansas.) If you'd like to learn more about evolution in general, wander over to talk.origins and dig in. Or if you've already got the basics covered and want to get into it with a creationist, prepare yourself with Scientific American's "15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense".
• Environmental damage temporarily averted: The Senate has narrowly blocked a measure to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. This debate has been going on for some time, despite evidence that suggests the yield would fail to significantly reduce American dependence on foreign oil. Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed a provision to allow the drilling by piggybacking it on a defense bill, which passed. Although the Senate has stopped it for now, the issue will probably come up again, and I'm not sure how long the Refuge will be able to hold everyone off.

  Canada has asked the United States not to drill in the Refuge, due to concerns about the impact on the local environment and culture. To me, it's unthinkable that anyone should even consider wreaking such havoc on one of the last and largest wild spaces in the States. But hey! I'm not an oil magnate with Hummers to feed, so what do I know?

This latter issue leads me to a little year-end angst: I'm increasingly disturbed by the looming reality of global warming. What bothers me the most is how little impact I feel I have as an individual. Sure, I can take the bus instead of the car. Sure, I can use energy-efficient lightbulbs and turn things off when I'm not using them. But how do you reach the millions accustomed to taking as much as they want, when the marketing tells them that's what they deserve? How do you force the US government to do what it should, when it is in the hands of people whose fortunes depend on inefficient energy use?

I'm optimistic about 2006 - but only on a personal level. Other than that, it seems inevitable that we'll see more hurricanes, more melted icecaps, more species at risk and more demands to plunder what little has been left untouched. I've signed up at Stop Global Warming as it seems to be gaining critical mass faster than any of the other groups. Maybe if there's enough momentum the damage can at least be slowed before it gets too bad.

And now, three news items about the educational world, in increasing order of controversy.

• Through Incsub, I found this excellent post about the online classroom environment and how the current LMS system doesn't meet the needs of students throughout their life on campus. The content and community of each course suddenly disappears at the end of the semester, with no way for you to go back and review your discussions and materials. This is something I've been giving some thought to myself lately - how the curtain drops on each course once you're done with it. I'd like to see the online equivalent of the post-movie cafe, where you can sit and chat with people about what you saw over a nice cup of tea or coffee.
• Here's the account of a guy who got a random IM from a college student asking him to write a paper on Hinduism for her for $75. He decided he'd teach her a lesson by writing a paper "so obviously plagiarised that she'd be guaranteed to get caught"... and, well, she did. Read his other blog posts for followups when you're done with the first one.
• And via Plastic, here's a discussion on a potential Florida bill called "Student & Faculty Academic Freedom". Much of the bill sounds reasonable at first glance, but begins to sound rather disturbing once you get the greater context.
  

  Students have a right to expect that their academic freedom and the quality of their education will not be infringed upon by instructors who persistently introduce controversial matter into the classroom or coursework that has no relation to the subject of study and serves no legitimate pedagogical purpose.

  The bill itself was proposed by Dennis Baxley, who says conservatives are "targets of persecution" on campus. From the Independent Florida Alligator:

  “Some professors say, ‘Evolution is a fact. I don’t want to hear about Intelligent Design (a creationist theory), and if you don’t like it, there’s the door,’” Baxley said, citing one example when he thought a student should sue....
  In an interview before the meeting, Baxley said “arrogant, elitist academics are swarming” to oppose the bill, and media reports misrepresented his intentions.

  You see where he's going with this, of course. Don't like being told you're wrong in front of the whole class? Need a platform for your Flat-Earther views? Don't be afraid to speak up - if the professor tries to debate you, you can just sue them!

  Here's some more details & discussion. The bill has to pass through two more committees before it can be considered by the House. Of course, this is Florida we're talking about, so anything can happen.