Fort McMurray: Boom, bust …burned, by Rod Nickel and Liz Hampton
A convoy of evacuees from the Canadian oil town of Fort McMurray drove through the heart of a massive wildfire guided by police and military helicopters as they sought to reach safety to the south of the burning city. “Our life is here. We will go back and rebuild,” vowed one. … read more
Fort McMurray: from “black pitch” and salt to oil sands. By Brian Brennan
The story of Fort McMurray is one of long hibernation followed by rapid growth. The oilsands developments turned it from a sleepy little northern frontier town into Alberta’s most explosive boom city. But it took almost two centuries for the development to happen. The boom had been foretold from the time fur trader Peter Pond explored the region in 1778 …read more
Sadiq Khan: British dream reality for London’s first Muslim mayor, by Parveen Akhtar
In Pakistan, the chances that the son of a bus or rickshaw driver could secure a high-ranking political position in the country’s capital city are minuscule. But now, the people of London have elected Sadiq Khan – the son of an immigrant Pakistani bus driver – to be their first Muslim mayor.
The Irreconcilable Narratives of America’s South, by Ruth Hopkins, Wits Justice Project
In Montgomery the narrative of a proud confederacy is visceral and dominant and is echoed in its street names, buildings, signs and statues. But the Equal Justice Initiative, instead of protesting the display of Southern pride and honour, has started an elaborate and ambitious remembrance project that not only includes the collection of soil from sites of lynchings to remember the victims. Alabama’s huge slave population and Montgomery’s central role in the confederacy are intimately connected. … read more
Commentary:
North Korea’s Kim rattles the bars of his cage
, by Jonathan Manthorpe, International Affairs columnist
A good rule of thumb is to always be deeply suspicious of optimistic projections for the future of North Korea. There have been some rose-tinted forecasts wafting from Pyongyang this week as the Workers’ Party of Korea holds its first congress since 1980. The congress was called to endorse the leadership of Kim Jong-un, 33, who took over after the death of his father Kim Jong-il at the end of 2011. … read more
Trump has made racism and violence “OK” in the US, by Tom Regan, Summoning Orenda columnist
Donald Trump is not the real problem in the rise of racism in the US . He is merely the catalyst. It’s his ham-handed ridiculous racism masquerading as “policy” or “outreach” that’s the problem. He has let the racist and bigoted genie out of the bottle and it won’t go back in peacefully. America needs to prepare for scenes of violence and hatred it may not have seen since the 60s in the South. … read more
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Elsewhere ….
On World Press Freedom Day, May 3, Reporters Sans Frontieres/Reporters Without Borders launched a campaign called “Great Year for Censorship.” Its aim is to draw attention to “a deep and worrying decline in the ability of journalists to operate freely and independently throughout the world,” and especially targets leaders in 12 countries who have “trampled on media freedom and gagged journalists in various spectacular ways.”
RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index, released in April, reveals “a climate of fear and tension combined with increasing control over newsrooms by governments and private-sector interests,” said the organization.
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