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Originally Posted by Softhearted
As long as the Western World will depend on oil, these type of interventions will occur... Of course the West is protecting its assets and oil, there is no doubt about it. This mission is not based on "humanitarian" reasons...
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Yes, it is very obvious but there is far too much talk around here about "humanitarian reasonings" behind French/British/American intervention that's a bit scary and reminding of the last holy geostrategic war. I think its important to recognise that this has nothing to do with humanitarianism, we shouldn't have any illusions about western motives. It's quite dangerous to have such illusions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Softhearted
But how are we going to break the cycle of this oil dependency? Are you willing to buy an hybrid car? Use more public transportation? Avoid buying SUVs? Pay more for an alternative energy?
Just some thoughts...
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Good questions. For myself I can answer that I don't own a car to begin with, and my only methods of transportation are public transit, my bicycle and my own two feet. I'm also very supportive of expanding public transit, but unfortunately we don't have the best mayor in power here in T.O. He is not particularly pro-TTC or pro-bike paths.
As far as alternative energies, I think it's not so difficult to power a home with alternative energy as some make it sound. Especially if you have a few people with even a small amount of income sharing a living space. Of course, there are still many complications, but it's good to see some nations like Germany and Holland (sometimes I wonder why the hell I ever moved back to North America lol) slowly advancing as far as solar energy and wind power.
As for transportation, the Central/Northern European model is very admirable again. I never saw as massive bike racks as I did in Utrecht or Nijmegen. The Dutch are completely enamoured with bikes, as are the Germans but I don't think I ever saw a literally parking-lot sized group of bike racks like I did in Holland. Though public transit is a prefered method of transporation, they aren't as obsessed with large trucks/SUVs as North America is. Car owners mostly own small cars, not huge gas guzzlers. That would be a good trend to see in NA.
Still, obviously there is oil dependency, but it's good to see some nations moving away from it and it gives me some hope. Too bad we can't jump ahead 50 years, cause I've no doubt things will be different then as far as this oil dependency in Europe. Who knows which way North America will go. The only thing that worries me is that France was talking about setting up solar pannels in the middle east and Africa, running to Western Europe via Turkey which has its own political issues with it. Bah. We'll see.
Anyways, all this to say that I think the population, at least in Europe, is becoming increasingly open to alternative forms of energy and public transit and bicycles have always been fairly popular there (thanks to a wide network of bike paths and very efficient public transit). There is a bit of this in Canada and the United States as well, and hopefully that will grow as well. What worries me in Canada is our current PM and the coming elections that may put us in a worse situation in the future, including environmentally. But hopefully popular opinions on alternative energy and alternative methods of transportation will continue to change.
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Originally Posted by AtLastHome
It is very important to check sources, especially internet blogs about these kinds of actions. There are not many sources I trust much any more. I'm tired of both left and right propaganda. There are agendas in both.
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Well, evidently everyone has an agenda. Even humanitarianism is technically an agenda. Even then I am against foreign intervention. It reeks far too much of policing. Post-WWII this kind of militarism has never ended well...ever. In the long term it is no good for the country being assaulted by western powers, nor the nations doing the assaulting.
As far as sources, of course nothing can be seen as 100%, but right now I'm more confident in sources like Al Jazeera, BBC, The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star than blogs and such. Also there are some interesting facebook feeds on the situation in places like Tunisia and elsewhere.
Anyways, in other news some interesting turn of events in Egypt:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme...lk/9441935.stm
I was really hoping Egypt would not swing that way. There seemed some hope in their revolution, but like I think I was saying in another topic, there's always been that behind the scenes presence of the Muslim Brotherhood as the most organised of those rebeling.
And more of Gaddafi's men are defecting:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/af...103411544.html