[BLOG] Some Friday links

Enceladean oceans, US Civil War graves, economic insecurity, language conflict, the death of Toronto's ash trees, and more!

• Centauri Dreams suggests that the discovery of salt-like ice grains ejected from Saturn's moon Enceladus is another clue suggesting that moon has a water ocean.


• Far Outliers quotes from This Republic of Suffering, a book at least partly about memorials to dead soldiers in the US Civil War, describing how Southerners took care to desecrate the graves of Union soldiers.


• The Global Sociology describes sociologist Zygmunt Bauman's argument that the capitalists of a century ago have a mobility of capital that allows them to make a proletariat a fragmented "precariat".


• Joe. My. God notes that Jamaican music star Buju Banton, infamous for his murder music, has been sentenced in the United States to ten years in federal prison for his involvement in cocaine trafficking.


• Language Hat makes the interesting argument (1, 2) suggests that the success of Irish literary modernism has much to do with the turbulence related to the clash between the Irish and English languages, and also comments on the paradoxes in the Buddha's statements that could be interpreted either a a call for vernacular translations or as a call for the maintenance of his own language as the only language.


• Nissology PEI notes the success of Fiji in branding mahogany, and wonders what Prince Edward Island is doing.


• Slap Upside the Head observes that while British Columbia schools are adopting anti-homophobia education, the Toronto Catholic School Board is doing the reverse.


• Torontoist notes that the emerald ash borer, universally lethal to ash trees, has penetrated Toronto.


• Torontoist also notes that Ricardo Morrison, a man charged with numerous assaults on mentally ill men in the neighbourhood of Parkdale, has been charged with murder in the connection to the death of one of them, George Wass.


• Towleroad picks up on Toronto mayor Rob Ford's plan to miss Toronto's upcoming pride celebration.

[LINK] "MPs slam Tories for blocking asbestos listing"

Part of the reason for the Canadian government's support of asbestos exports lies in electoral politics, specifically the desire by whichever party Canadian federal and Québec provincial governments to keep votes in the area.This is a national shame

Canada is blocking a move to add chrysotile asbestos to an international list of potentially hazardous chemicals.

Opposition MPs slammed the Harper government Thursday over Canada's opposition to putting chrysotile asbestos on an international list of hazardous chemicals.

The opposition side of the House of Commons lined up several MPs to demand why Canada refuses to let the chemical be listed in the Rotterdam Convention's Annex III.

The listing would allow countries like India, where companies import the lung cancer-causing material for construction, to deny it entry if officials don't think they can properly handle it.

"Asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known. More people die from asbestos than all industrial causes combined, yet Canada continues to be one of the largest producers and exporters in the world. We are exporting human misery on a monumental scale," said NDP MP Pat Martin. "Our position is morally and ethically reprehensible."

Liberal MP Marc Garneau says despite Industry Minister Christian Paradis' insistence that asbestos can be used safely, he should know that's not the case in developing countries.

"This minister knows full well that it's very difficult to use chrysotile in the proper working conditions. The procedures, the training, the complex equipment to use it in a safe way so that fibres aren't accidentally breathed in," Garneau said.

"He cannot assure us that this is not being used improperly in countries that import it, Third World countries ... This is willful blindness."

But Paradis returned to the response he and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver have been offering since the Rotterdam Convention meetings started in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this week.

"We know that recent studies show that chrysotile can be used in a safe and controlled manner," Paradis said. "This is risk management, so we know that chrysotile can be used safely in a controlled environment."

[LINK] "Brazilians Buy Miami Condos at a Discount as Real Climbs 45%"

Last week I noted that the strong Canadian dollar was encouraging Canadians to buy real estate in--among others--the California community of Palm Springs. Today Bloomberg BusinessWeek observes that the strong Brazilian real is encouraging Brazilians to buy condos in Miami.

Frederico Azevedo went to Florida looking for a second home. He left with three, paying $300,000 and $500,000 for condos in two Miami towers, and $1 million for a unit at the Trump International resort in nearby Sunny Isles.

“I bought one to use as a vacation home and the other two as investments,” Azevedo, 39, president of Construtora Altana Ltda, a housing-development company, said in a telephone interview from his office in Sao Paulo. “It’s actually very cheap in Miami compared to here.”

Surging real estate prices in Brazil and the currency’s 45 percent gain against the U.S. dollar since 2008 are sending Brazilians to South Florida in search of bargain vacation homes and property investments. That’s helping bolster Miami’s condo market, with total sales increasing 79 percent in the first five months of 2011 from a year earlier, according to data from the Florida Association of Realtors released today.

In the Miami area, Brazilians bought 9 percent of homes and apartments sold to international buyers in the 12 months through March 2010, behind only Canadians and Venezuelans, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Since then, “anecdotal evidence certainly points to a significant increase,” said Lynda Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the group. In May, international clients bought about 60 percent of existing houses and condos and 90 percent of newly built homes, the association reported today.

[. . .]

U.S. housing prices have fallen to 2003 levels as foreclosures depress values and unemployment hovers around 9 percent. Miami-area homes are selling for 51 percent less than their December 2006 peak, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Only Las Vegas and Phoenix had bigger price declines.

In Rio’s exclusive Leblon enclave, near the city’s Ipanema district of bossa nova fame, apartments sell for an average $1,058 a square foot ($11,388 a square meter), according to Sindicato da Habitacao do Rio de Janeiro, or Secovi, the city’s real estate association. In Miami’s South Beach, the average condominium price was $354 a square foot during this year’s first quarter, said Condo Vultures LLC, a Bal Harbour, Florida, real estate brokerage and consulting firm.

“Five years ago, it was the other way around,” Studnicky said in a phone interview. “Miami was trading for $500 to $1,000 a foot. Rio was trading for $300 to $500. It has absolutely switched.”

[URBAN NOTE] "Why won’t Rob Ford go to gay events?"

Mayor Rob Ford is continuing to face criticism for his refusal to take part in Toronto's pride festivities.

Why the mayor seems to be shunning occasions involving homosexuals is being debated in many corners of Toronto’s gay community as the huge signature Pride festival gets underway.

Rob Ford’s office flatly denies that’s the case. But his decision to head to his cottage rather than the July 3 Pride parade — with no explanation for the festival’s nine other days — coupled with years of brow-raising comments and council votes, has many jumping to conclusions.

“He’s the mayor of a huge metropolis with a big gay community,” said Casey Oraa, chair of the Political Action Committee of Queer Ontario.

“His campaign was all about respect for taxpayers. Where’s his respect for us?”

[. . .]

Asked if he will attend any Pride events, the mayor said: “I’ll take it one day at a time. My family comes first.” Asked if he is homophobic, Ford looked away and mumbled something unintelligible under his breath.

Ford’s Pride decision follows his rebuffing of a half-dozen other similar overtures since last fall. His singular engagement with the gay community — signing the Pride Week proclamation — was done privately, with nobody from Pride present.

“Clearly it’s an ideological position,” Oraa said. “I’d respect him more if he would own up to his homophobia — say ‘This is what I believe.’”

Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, called that accusation insulting “nonsense.”

[. . .]

Mel Lastman was once in Ford’s shoes. The former mayor at first resisted going to Pride, afraid of news footage of leather and nudity and the prospect of being jeered, but relented in 1998.

“I didn’t know how I’d be treated. But everybody was so receptive, everybody was having a good time and here were people proud of what you are,” Lastman said. “I told a kid: ‘Who’s better than you? No-o-o-body! You’ve got to feel that way about yourself. That’s what Canada’s about.’ That’s pride.”

He urged Ford to get past his gut and go, saying he was convinced by his son Dale telling him: “You’re the mayor of all the people.”

[LINK] "What can Game of Thrones tell us about our world's politics?"

Known for his analysis of zombies in international relations, it was probably only a short time before Daniel Drezner turned his attention to Game of Thrones.

Set in a fictional medieval-type world (that looks juuuuust a bit like England) with a wisp of fantasy, there's a lot for culture vultures and international relations geeks to like. Based on a series of novels by George R.R. Martin, the first season on HBO just ended on a ratings high. Essentially, Game of Thrones consists of a lot of palace intrigue, a healthy dollop of transgressive sex, and a whiff of zombies. So you can see the attraction to your humble blogger.

Having finally caught up with the entire first season, however, I'm still puzzling out the show's applicability to current world politics. I think there are a few, but there's a bias in the show that does suggest some serious constraints [WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD].

On the one hand, Game of Thrones' best feature has been demonstrating the importance of strategic acumen in politics. The first season's protagonist, Ned Stark, is a stalwart friend, accomplished soldier, and dogged bureaucrat. He was also a strategic moron of the first order, which was why I didn't bewail his beheading in the season's climactic moment. Yes, it's a shame that the good man died. The thing is, he had so many, many opportunities to avoid that end, had he only demonstrated a bit more ability to think about how his rivals would react to his actions. Important survival trip: don't reveal all of your plans and information to your rival until you have engaged in some rudimentary contingency planning. Or, to put it more plainly:

On the other hand, I'm just not sure how much the world of Westeros translates into modern world politics. Realists would disagree, of course. Cersei Lannister makes the show's motto clear enough: "in the game of thrones, you win or you die." That's about as zero-sum a calculation as one can offer. In this kind of harsh relative gains world, realpolitik should be the expected pattern of behavior.

Which is also part of the problem with Game of Thrones. World politics is about the pursuit of power, yes, but it's not only about that. What do people want to do with the power they obtain? Social purpose matters in international affairs as well, and there's precious little of that in Game of Thrones. Sure, there are debates about dynastic succession, but there are no fundamental differences in regime type, rule of law, or economic organization among the myriad power centers in this world. I hope this changes in Season Two.