Here is a thought on sustainable development from the north side of Lake Superior: Saturday morning as I perused Macleans (Canada's weekly news magazine), I read two letters to the editor on responding to a column in August about a shipload of Tamil refuges that had arrived to the coast of B.C. Obviously poor people (we call them "boat people") looking desperately for a better future. One writer writes "Give me your huddled masses. They'd probably be better house guests than the entitled Canadians I meet." The other writes "I am continually confused by the media, government and legal system, who seem to think we owe everybody everything." Now which message is closer to the goals of sustainable development? Will we ever meet those goals to the extent that the "debate" fueled by such letters will go away forever? That "boat people" will be a thing of the past. Put that way, I personally think the goals of sustainable development are unattainable.
I am also a bit embarrassed to have thrown out the term "Manifest Destiny" on Friday. Wikipedia suggests modern usage is pejorative. Sifting through Wikipedia a bit, I see that the correct term for what we were discussing is actually "American monetary hegemony." I hadn't seen the word hegemony in some time - may actually have been my MTU days when discussing world events with RTC students. I look forward to more comments!
Hello, my name is Arturo Salazar Martinez, Exchange student of 4th year undergad program of Chemical engineering from Universidad de Sonora to Lakehead University. I want to be listed as participant.
You are right about blog problems. It took me five minutes to find my own posts. I have no idea what I am doing. I just signed up to Buzz and haven't a clue what that does for me!
Here is a thought on sustainable development from the north side of Lake Superior:
ReplyDeleteSaturday morning as I perused Macleans (Canada's weekly news magazine), I read two letters to the editor on responding to a column in August about a shipload of Tamil refuges that had arrived to the coast of B.C. Obviously poor people (we call them "boat people") looking desperately for a better future. One writer writes "Give me your huddled masses. They'd probably be better house guests than the entitled Canadians I meet." The other writes "I am continually confused by the media, government and legal system, who seem to think we owe everybody everything." Now which message is closer to the goals of sustainable development? Will we ever meet those goals to the extent that the "debate" fueled by such letters will go away forever? That "boat people" will be a thing of the past. Put that way, I personally think the goals of sustainable development are unattainable.
I am also a bit embarrassed to have thrown out the term "Manifest Destiny" on Friday. Wikipedia suggests modern usage is pejorative. Sifting through Wikipedia a bit, I see that the correct term for what we were discussing is actually "American monetary hegemony." I hadn't seen the word hegemony in some time - may actually have been my MTU days when discussing world events with RTC students. I look forward to more comments!
ReplyDeleteHello, my name is Arturo Salazar Martinez, Exchange student of 4th year undergad program of Chemical engineering from Universidad de Sonora to Lakehead University. I want to be listed as participant.
ReplyDeleteartsalazar89@gmail.com
Hi Arturo,
ReplyDeleteYou are right about blog problems. It took me five minutes to find my own posts. I have no idea what I am doing. I just signed up to Buzz and haven't a clue what that does for me!
Brian