Toban Black

[via Bouphonia]
(Click to enlarge)

That image…
is a metaphor for the divisions that separate the ‘First’ ‘World’ from the ‘Third’ ‘World’
and
it captures the ultimate dream of people who seek to profit without accountability for the consequences of their enterprises

Surbordination and exploitation are the lowest common denominators there.

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‘Get a car;
don’t take the bus’

Isn’t that message implicit here? –
given how an advertisement about “great cars” was displayed on a bus in that way

At a more implicit level, that auto industry funded advertising also suggests that cars are a superior form of transportation

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The photo was taken here in London, Ontario, Canada.  I since have noticed a different car advertisement on the back of a local bus, and yet another car advertisement on the side of a local bus.

In the past, I also have noticed car advertising in a Toronto area “GO Transit” station.

Parts of an e-mail that I received earlier this month -

—

Hello,

I’m writing to you to know if by any chance you would be interested in doing an unbiased review of our site on your blog http://tobanblack.net/blog/

Here is some information about the site -
[Then there were about 5 sentences, which basically promoted the site.]

If you agree we will send you a payment for the review.

More information about the site would be sent to you along with the payment.

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[via Stuffed and Starved]

“IF THE BANKS FALL WE STILL HAVE EACH OTHER”

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(Photo by Lois Stavsky)

“IT’S ONLY PAPER”

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Andy Rowell - “Oil Price ‘May Hit $200 A Barrel’“

“Do you remember the days when oil was only $100? Although there has been speculation in recent days concerning the oil price, one of the most authoritative predictions so far has the price of crude oil at $200 within as little as six months.

The prediction by Goldman Sachs was made as benchmark US light crude passed the $123 mark for the first time. Surging demand was increasingly likely to create a “super-spike” past $200 in six months-to-two years’ time, said Goldman Sachs.

Oil prices have now risen by 25% in the last four months and 400% since 2001. Soaring global demand for oil is being led by China’s continuing economic boom and, to a lesser extent, by India’s rapid economic expansion.

Both are now increasingly competing with the US, the European Union and Japan for the lion’s share of global oil production.”

Gwyn Morgan in the Globe and Mail - “Confessing your carbon sins”

Exerpts -

“A special investigative report by London’s Financial Times revealed that, ‘Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on carbon credit projects that yield few, if any, environmental benefits. Some organizations are paying for emissions reductions that don’t take place. Others are making big profits from carbon trading … for cleanups that would have happened anyway.’

The findings included murky brokers selling carbon offsets for fictitious or highly questionable projects, industrial corporations being paid for Third World cleanup projects they were required to do and ‘carbon cowboy’ brokers selling the same credits several times over. Examples include unverifiable tree planting projects in the remotest corners of the world and a solar power project in South Africa that was never built.”

[Read more →]