I invite you to view this visual poem of Fort McMurray, Fort Chip, and the Peace Region of northern Alberta. It is shot by long time McMurray resident, helicopter pilot, videographer, blogger and fireman, Tim Moen.
I met Tim Moen last September when Neil Young came to Fort McMurray to shoot a documentary in the region and to meet with First Nations people in the RMWB. Tim flew his helicopter for the shots for the video.
I came to McMurray to meet Neil Young and his crew to give some context on the social realities of people working in and around the oilsands. Lot of good my input did. Shortly afterwards Mr. Young did his over the top comparison of Fort McMurray to Hiroshima. Tim's video belies that comparison.
Tim's video shows places in the oil sands region you don't see from the highway but that makes up the majority of the landscapes of the region. With all the industrial development going on the oil sands region we still have about 97% of the regional biodiversity intact.
The Alberta Biodiveristy Monitoring Institute is a great source for information and context on how this is measured and monitored. Look it up if you are interested. If you are an Albertan, you are an owner of the oil sands, so you will be interested in learning more I am sure.
The human settlements in the boreal forest make this biodiversity an imperative ecological value we need to protect while we create economic value from the resources in responsible and sustainable ways.
We also have to ensure the human social divesity in places like Fort McMurray are also valued, protected and social inclusion and cohesion are promoted.
Speaking of social divdersity, of the 74,000 or so people living in the urban core of McMurray, they come from 127 differenct countries and speak over 69 languages. That is a Petri dish to grow a global model for a sustainable, inclusive, vibrant and diverse society, or the largest dysfunctional truck stop on the planet...if we mess it up.
Tim's obvious love for the land and strong sense of place in his home in the RMWB made me think about these things. He articulates these sentiments so well with these visuals that I call the video a poem. It is a relaxing 12 minutes so take the time to enjoy and let the mood wash over you.
Here is the link
Sunday, January 05, 2014
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
KEN CHAPMAN IS BACK and WILL POST AGAIN on A REGULAR BASIS
Hello neglected readers. This was a very popular blog site at one time. I went into a job based out of Fort McMurray with the oil sands industry that made this kind of blogging difficult. Anything I said could and would (but not should) be interpreted as speaking on behalf of certain oil sands companies. Not fair to them...or me! But such is life.
A New Job and a New Blog:
I have a new life now and a new position at Edmonton Economic Development and blogging is mandated there not discouraged. My mandate is to increase the collaboration between the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and the Edmonton Capital Region in areas of business, sustainability and community well-being.
Part of the EED mandate is going to be covered in another blog about the Edmonton area involvement in the oil sands using the triple bottom line and sustainability principles. Edmontonians are owners of the oil sands and need to know more on how we can take care ensure the oil sands are developed in a responsible sustainable and sensible way.
We need to take our citizenship obligations seriously and demand from government and industry that oil sands resource development be more sustainable. We need to expect optimizing oil sands be for the general well-being of people. We need to expect our oil sands deliver enhanced environmental stewardship. We deserve development that is less wasteful and more profitable for the posterity of future Albertans.
I have a new blog to serve that purpose and I hope you visit regularly at www.oilsandsken.com.
I have a hankering to re-engage in the Edmonton social media scene after an absence of way over 2 years. I have some catching up to do!
The Refocus of This Blog:
I hope this blog is a link between the communities and people of Edmonton and Fort McMurray. I have realized that there is a lot of myth and misinformation about life in McMurray within Edmonton.
I love both communities and want to help enhance the collaborative relationships and expand the appreciation and understanding of what great things the two regions can do together for mutual benefit and the greater good.
This blog is to become a focal point for that end. Of course I will be opinionated but I will also be informed and hopefully sufficiently authoritative to be worthy of your time and trust.
A New Job and a New Blog:
I have a new life now and a new position at Edmonton Economic Development and blogging is mandated there not discouraged. My mandate is to increase the collaboration between the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and the Edmonton Capital Region in areas of business, sustainability and community well-being.
Part of the EED mandate is going to be covered in another blog about the Edmonton area involvement in the oil sands using the triple bottom line and sustainability principles. Edmontonians are owners of the oil sands and need to know more on how we can take care ensure the oil sands are developed in a responsible sustainable and sensible way.
We need to take our citizenship obligations seriously and demand from government and industry that oil sands resource development be more sustainable. We need to expect optimizing oil sands be for the general well-being of people. We need to expect our oil sands deliver enhanced environmental stewardship. We deserve development that is less wasteful and more profitable for the posterity of future Albertans.
I have a new blog to serve that purpose and I hope you visit regularly at www.oilsandsken.com.
I have a hankering to re-engage in the Edmonton social media scene after an absence of way over 2 years. I have some catching up to do!
The Refocus of This Blog:
I hope this blog is a link between the communities and people of Edmonton and Fort McMurray. I have realized that there is a lot of myth and misinformation about life in McMurray within Edmonton.
I love both communities and want to help enhance the collaborative relationships and expand the appreciation and understanding of what great things the two regions can do together for mutual benefit and the greater good.
This blog is to become a focal point for that end. Of course I will be opinionated but I will also be informed and hopefully sufficiently authoritative to be worthy of your time and trust.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Mr. Prime Minister: Promote Philanthropy - Stop Playing Politics
I just read Brett Wilson's National Post opinion piece on the HarperCons "boys in short pants in the PMO" manufactured manipulation over Justin Trudeau charging fees for speaking at charity events.
He deals with the substance of this issues of promoting philanthropy through speaking engagements. It is worth a read and reflection. I agree with him.
As for the politically motivations of our Prime Minister using this bullying as a deflection device is a feeble in effective attempt to divert attention from the moral corruption in his leadership. The permanent drop in his support amongst Canadians shows we have had enough of his affinity for US style dirty-trick politics.
It is time for political leadership in Canada that is dedicated to the greater good and not just committed to suppressing democracy to retain personal political power.
He deals with the substance of this issues of promoting philanthropy through speaking engagements. It is worth a read and reflection. I agree with him.
As for the politically motivations of our Prime Minister using this bullying as a deflection device is a feeble in effective attempt to divert attention from the moral corruption in his leadership. The permanent drop in his support amongst Canadians shows we have had enough of his affinity for US style dirty-trick politics.
It is time for political leadership in Canada that is dedicated to the greater good and not just committed to suppressing democracy to retain personal political power.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Robocall Fraud Coming Home to Roost on the Harper Government?
Looks like the boy the Conservative Party threw under the bus on the Guelph Robocall scandal is not going quietly into the night. Michael Sona spoke out recently in a very extensive interview with journalist Michael Harris. If convicted Sona goes to jail. His description of how controlling the Harper War Room was in the past election makes you wonder why anyone with self respect would volunteer for such abuse.
If you want a first person perspective on the Harper campaign machine and its machinations from someone who was there you want to read the Harris column in iPolitics.
Here is the money quote from Sona:
“I’ve learned three things from the Robocall Affair. Talking points aren’t always right; friends are fickle when you get in trouble; and I trusted the Conservative Party way too much. And one other thing. I’m ready to fight now and I’m ready to win.”
Expect as many tricks as there are in the CPC book of tricks on how to thwart justice by delaying the trial any way they can. Delay tactics is how they handled the original Robocall trial that found the Conservative Party lists were use for election fraud. The evidence was too sparse to prove who actually did it. One would think ethics and integrity would dictate that the Conservative Party would be working really hard to help find and expose the fraudster who misused their political lists.
So far there is not a peep from the Conservative Party to indicate they are engaged in any way to help the RCMP find the fraudster.
Not a good way for the Conservative Party to show citizens they want to help restore voter confidence in how they do politics. Even OJ said he would do everything in his power to find who really killed his wife.
If you want a first person perspective on the Harper campaign machine and its machinations from someone who was there you want to read the Harris column in iPolitics.
Here is the money quote from Sona:
“I’ve learned three things from the Robocall Affair. Talking points aren’t always right; friends are fickle when you get in trouble; and I trusted the Conservative Party way too much. And one other thing. I’m ready to fight now and I’m ready to win.”
Expect as many tricks as there are in the CPC book of tricks on how to thwart justice by delaying the trial any way they can. Delay tactics is how they handled the original Robocall trial that found the Conservative Party lists were use for election fraud. The evidence was too sparse to prove who actually did it. One would think ethics and integrity would dictate that the Conservative Party would be working really hard to help find and expose the fraudster who misused their political lists.
So far there is not a peep from the Conservative Party to indicate they are engaged in any way to help the RCMP find the fraudster.
Not a good way for the Conservative Party to show citizens they want to help restore voter confidence in how they do politics. Even OJ said he would do everything in his power to find who really killed his wife.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Edward Snowden, Freedom and the Media's Manufacture of Meaning
There is no doubt there is a need for fear, or at least anxiety, over our government's secret intrusion into our online personal lives. Yes the Government of Canada too, not just the United States, is doing this.
Reassurances from those perpetuating this travesty say that the surveillance is only on foreigners, not citizens is hardly reassuring nor very genuine. Those communications monitorings are ostensibly only on foreigners. But foreigners connecting with whom? American citizens is often as not the the answer. For Homeland security that is what the US spy system is mostly interested, I expect.
This makes the sincerity of the governments of the United States and Canada reassurances as to who is really being targeted by government invasion of privacy activities kind of, shall we say, "incredulous?" No wonder the USA is having trouble getting these "foreign" nations to cooperate with them in extraditing Snowden. A collaboration culture is hard to create with these "foreigner" nations, when their citizens and institutions are admittedly being spied on by the America government.
If Snowden is right, and I've seen no official rebuttal yet, those nameless anonymous government operatives who are doing the online surveillance searches of email, cellphone calls etc., they only need a personal confidence rating of 51% that they are not dealing with an American citizen in order to proceed. That puts a very low bar on standards of reasonable doubt don't you think? Since we don't know what metrics are actually being used to test what is involved in the 51% "confidence" (sic) level, it all seems to be so much manipulative Orwellian double speak. It make the integrity of surveillance process entirely ridiculous, especially when it to making claims that only foreigners are the targets of this official invasion of privacy practice.
Yes the world is still a dangerous complex place and American soil is not sacrosanct from invasion, even by their own fundamentalists citizens as it turns out. So more than a decade after 9-11 we are still seeing our governments use fear over reason, secrecy over solutions, and, dare I say, fascism over democracy to justify further denial and erosion of personal freedoms.
Freedom! That great American concept that motivated the G.W Bush government to take aggressive measures and to use freedom as justification for invading Iraq and Afghanistan. He wanted to give those poor folks the gift of American freedom...through invasion. It would appear that the great American concept of freedom is what drove Snowden to choose to jeopardize his personal freedom. He exercised personal freedom and came to a personal judgement, as a matter of democratic principle, when he decided to expose the US government secret abuses of freedom. He also created a space for that very necessary conversation to take place about the place of personal privacy and freedom for American citizens. That conversation needs to be open, candid and public, especially so when it has to consider their government's role to protect personal freedoms,....or ignore personal freedoms....or worse yet, abuse them.
The American government is clearly flummoxed about what to do since being "caught" in this secret underhanded system of what appears to be an unprecedented invasions of domestic and foreign personal privacy. They find the facts are against them. The law, while not strictly against them, is in serious disrepute. And so they revert to calling Snowden names like traitor and pathetic gestures like canceling his Passport.
And where is the media in all of this? Well the Guardian in the UK is doing the job. Check out their coverage. But where is the American media? I hope this video clip of David Gregory's alamaring questioning Glen Greenwald of the Guardian on Meet the Press is not a representative sample of where mainstream American media is positioning itself in all of this. If so then freedom of the press in the USA is also as good as gone, at least so far as its independent role of being the public's eyes, ears, and sense-makers and narrative makers is concerned.
Reassurances from those perpetuating this travesty say that the surveillance is only on foreigners, not citizens is hardly reassuring nor very genuine. Those communications monitorings are ostensibly only on foreigners. But foreigners connecting with whom? American citizens is often as not the the answer. For Homeland security that is what the US spy system is mostly interested, I expect.
This makes the sincerity of the governments of the United States and Canada reassurances as to who is really being targeted by government invasion of privacy activities kind of, shall we say, "incredulous?" No wonder the USA is having trouble getting these "foreign" nations to cooperate with them in extraditing Snowden. A collaboration culture is hard to create with these "foreigner" nations, when their citizens and institutions are admittedly being spied on by the America government.
If Snowden is right, and I've seen no official rebuttal yet, those nameless anonymous government operatives who are doing the online surveillance searches of email, cellphone calls etc., they only need a personal confidence rating of 51% that they are not dealing with an American citizen in order to proceed. That puts a very low bar on standards of reasonable doubt don't you think? Since we don't know what metrics are actually being used to test what is involved in the 51% "confidence" (sic) level, it all seems to be so much manipulative Orwellian double speak. It make the integrity of surveillance process entirely ridiculous, especially when it to making claims that only foreigners are the targets of this official invasion of privacy practice.
Yes the world is still a dangerous complex place and American soil is not sacrosanct from invasion, even by their own fundamentalists citizens as it turns out. So more than a decade after 9-11 we are still seeing our governments use fear over reason, secrecy over solutions, and, dare I say, fascism over democracy to justify further denial and erosion of personal freedoms.
Freedom! That great American concept that motivated the G.W Bush government to take aggressive measures and to use freedom as justification for invading Iraq and Afghanistan. He wanted to give those poor folks the gift of American freedom...through invasion. It would appear that the great American concept of freedom is what drove Snowden to choose to jeopardize his personal freedom. He exercised personal freedom and came to a personal judgement, as a matter of democratic principle, when he decided to expose the US government secret abuses of freedom. He also created a space for that very necessary conversation to take place about the place of personal privacy and freedom for American citizens. That conversation needs to be open, candid and public, especially so when it has to consider their government's role to protect personal freedoms,....or ignore personal freedoms....or worse yet, abuse them.
The American government is clearly flummoxed about what to do since being "caught" in this secret underhanded system of what appears to be an unprecedented invasions of domestic and foreign personal privacy. They find the facts are against them. The law, while not strictly against them, is in serious disrepute. And so they revert to calling Snowden names like traitor and pathetic gestures like canceling his Passport.
And where is the media in all of this? Well the Guardian in the UK is doing the job. Check out their coverage. But where is the American media? I hope this video clip of David Gregory's alamaring questioning Glen Greenwald of the Guardian on Meet the Press is not a representative sample of where mainstream American media is positioning itself in all of this. If so then freedom of the press in the USA is also as good as gone, at least so far as its independent role of being the public's eyes, ears, and sense-makers and narrative makers is concerned.
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