Ghosts of the energy past continue to haunt us this Christmas
Breaking up with the bird app, trying a new approach with the newsletter
I think I may be breaking up with Twitter. Or at least cooling it and looking to try other sources of information.
After recently filling out a survey about the app, I realized just how dissatisfied I am with my newsfeed. It has become a jumbled mess of retweets that are old news, topics presenting “top” instead of latest tweets, the same old privileged few people (no matter how hard I try to unfollow and follow alternative voices) and a surprising number of cat photos.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love cat photos. #Caturday does bring comfort to many, but after the lounging and sleeping cats are viewed, there are still so many things that need to get done.
I don’t love seeing other people’s retweets. These should be optional, not the default. When following someone, I want to hear their voice primarily. If I want to also opt into their retweets that should be a choice. And even then, retweets should be presented in a separate tabbed feed (similar to the way tweets and replies are organized on our profile page already).
When I tried following topics, it didn’t take long to find out that once again, Twitter is configured to present top tweets instead of the latest tweets. That means the information is usually days old and already has hundreds of likes, etc. The latest developments aren’t featured. And there’s no way to change this configuration from top to latest tweets, which overrides your personal settings.
Then there’s the whiteness…oh, the whiteness. It seems no matter how many non-white people I follow, the white people just keep invading my feed. It’s the colonization of Twitter in plain sight. As a white person myself, I know this sounds like hypocrisy. The answer though isn’t for white people to leave the platform, it’s for the platform to get its algorithms right. Stop favouring engagement with individual tweets over everything else, for starters.
Of course, this is a carryover from traditional media where white people are more often quoted as sources, given the opportunity to write editorials and dominate the ranks of journalism. I know this complicates the effort but surely social media can give voices to others who wouldn’t normally break through the traditional barriers? This was part of the original promise of the Internet after all.
I’m not holding my breath expecting Twitter to change though. Instead, I’ll be seeking a new way of staying on top of the latest developments and trying to organize the content of this newsletter a little differently.
The UCP irrationality has actually gotten too big and out of control. I could write a post about it almost every day now and expect the incompetence of the UCP government to only ramp up in 2022 as we start the countdown to the next election.
Also, I’m no longer going to focus only on provincial politics. I’ll start covering federal politics more than I have in the past. I’ve been far too easy on some of the parties. I’ve belonged to three of the four main federal parties at one point in my life, but sadly, now feel estranged from all of them. They’ve let us all down in so many ways.
The only way to hold them to account is to speak out and not hold back because some are worse than others, which is what I’ve sometimes done previously.
So, I’ll be focusing weekly on some recurring themes and issues of personal importance – climate change, anti-racism, truth and reconciliation, wealth inequality, LGBTQ2S+ rights, harm reduction, democracy, education and the pandemic. Just a few of the lighter topics. :-)
Sadly, my vision of providing regular news about cycling has been a bit of a failure. For that I humbly apologize to my loyal subscribers. I assure you my problem is not that I don’t love bicycles any less. It’s just that a lot of things that don’t involve bicycles, make me angry enough to write about them instead.
The promise of bicycle news will continue to hover over this newsletter and I do not want to give up on it. I feel like giving up on bicycle news would be too devastating for my psyche!
For my paid subscribers, I’ll continue to provide insights into topics I’m researching and writing about for other venues, including my freelance work focused on energy and environmental news. I’ll also share more personal writing on history, politics in Canada and my past career working in the oil sands as a PR person (yes, regrets will figure prominently).
Update on the Wet’suwet’en crisis
There’s a backlash afoot in the NDP ranks as more than 800 NDP members, more than 20 riding associations, eight former federal candidates and other high profile Canadians have launched a campaign in support of the Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders.
Trains were delayed yesterday between Montreal and Quebec City yesterday (Dec. 4) as protestors in Saint-Lambert blocked the tracks. The protestors described themselves as “settler allies who stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples who are defending their territories from colonial violence and industrial destruction."
There’s talk of a return to blockades. Passenger and supply traffic was shut down for weeks in 2020 as blockades went up across the country in support of the Wet’sutwet’en people and their opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Meanwhile, NDP MLA Nathan Cullen is no longer welcome in Gitzsan territory. Members of the Git’luuhl’um’hexwit House traditional leadership are just the latest to sign an eviction notice posted on the Stikine MLA’s office in New Hazelton B.C.
After a video emerged of the violent arrest of two men near a railway line in the area, the hereditary chiefs asked to meet with the MLA and demanded accountability. The disturbing video shows four officers kneeling on a man while he screams “I can’t breathe.”
Cullen, who is BC’s Minister of State for Lands and Natural Resource Operations tweeted on Friday, Dec. 3 that he had a “good, frank and productive” meeting with the Gitxsan leaders. Cullen also posted a copy of the letter he had sent to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki asking her to personally review the actions of the RCMP during the arrests, as well as other actions.
The letter suggests undue force was used in the arrest and mentions other complaints he had received about “enforcement actions addressing civil disobedience.” That’s a lot of syllables but probably not the clear condemnation the #LandBack protestors were demanding.
Breaking: The world does not love Canadian oil and gas
Chief Howihkat (Freda Huson), Hereditary Chief of the Wet’suwet’en people, officially accepted her 2021 Right Livelihood Award on Dec. 1, with a televised feed connecting Stockholm, Sweden with an audience in Stony Plain, Alberta.
She is one of four recipients of the international award, sometimes known as the alternative Nobel prize. The cash prize is about CAD$145,000. The executive director of the awards, Ole von Uexkuiell told The Tyee this back in September:
“Canada is one of these big fossil fuel countries. It is also a country with a very bad colonial legacy of having stolen the land from the Indigenous people and having forced them to give up their culture. This land has never been ceded to the Canadian government, so the Indigenous people still have a claim on it.”
The Right Livelihood website says Chief Howihkat was awarded the honour “for her fearless dedication to reclaiming her people’s culture and defending their land against disastrous pipeline projects.”
“In the end, there will be those who learn to live with nature that will survive. Those who will try to control her will always lose the battle,” said Maxida Märak, Swedish-Sami artist who introduced Chief Howihkather at the ceremony. “No money in the world can save us from that.”
Cree and Métis actor Tantoo Cardinal, a member of the Order of Canada and winner of a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement, retweeted the ceremony video today with the words “Truth in Power.”
The original tweet came from Brandi Morin, an award-winning journalist who reports on the #LandBack movement, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, historical and current colonialism, as well as climate change. Give her a follow on Twitter for amazing content and reporting from the front lines of all of these battles.
So what is on the minds of the UCP government this week?
In kind of an ode to the ghosts of Christmases past, Energy Minister Sonya Savage is attending the World Petroleum Congress in Houston, Texas. From there, she’ll travel to New Orleans, Louisiana to speak at the Energy Council Conference.
“Being a secure and stable source of energy, Alberta has a key role in supplying affordable, responsible and reliable energy for North America and the world,” Savage said.
I expect the hobnobbing at both events to look something like the visual on the Energy Council website here.
The ghost of Christmases in the future (climate change version) has apparently not yet been able to pay Minister Savage a visit.
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Leaving you with this song by Ottawa musicians Halcyon Phase, featuring Frank Smith (of Sills & Smith fame) and why it’s important to continue holding people in power to account.