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dbricker

Listed below are comments made by dbricker between Sunday, 31st August 2008 and Tuesday, 4th November 2008.

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What victory would mean 2:10pm on 04 Nov 2008 Brits (and anyone else) are kidding themselves if they think most Americans are not at least passively racist. I have lived in London, Vienna and now Switzerland for 20 years; there are just as many racists here as there are in the u.s., but with the passing of Joerg Haider, at least there is one less Nazi on the planet. However, the u.s. has millions of racists, who may only come to that awareness when they hesitate to vote for Obama even though they're Democrats.

I grew up in Ohio (growing up we were proud of being a Northern state); and all my relatives are from western Pennsylvania, also a northern state. I know from experience that in both states you have an amazing amount of mistrust of anyone of non-Anglo descent (black, hispanic whatever). Evangelical Christians will heavily favour McCain, without probing deeply into his voting record or personal beliefs.

Obama is inspiring, full stop. He has tried to stay away from simple negative slogans; McCain has only gained points with Americans who read little, and assume TV is the only real source of information.

I hope Obama does manage to keep his promises. The kind of closed mindedness that Bush has inspired has failed, even though many Americans are not the least bit interested in the environment, or justice in other parts of the world; they are his core supporters, as they are McCain's. McCain is a throw back, Obama seems to be a breath of fresh air.
Back to plastic? 5:23pm on 31 Aug 2008 Having lived in london for 9 years, Vienna for 5 and Switzerland now for 8, it is somewhat depressing to see how far behind the UK is with personal responsibility to recycle. I'll never forget the scene at our west-London dumping spot; no sorting, no control of dumped items, one huge area of dirt, wood, building materials, bikes, etc. Embarrasing.

Here in Switzerland you can easily get yoghurt in glasses, but nearly all (98 plus %) food plastic is made of special "PET" plastic, designed to be reused in countless ways. All Supermarkets and recycling points take it back. Our local recycling point is well organised, simple to sort everything in huge skips or bins. Glass, carton, clothes, corks, newspaper, green items, old oil, machines (pc's, printers etc.) and building materials. The community even compostes the green stuff, and resells it with ease.

vienna was almost easier. 30 yards away from our flat, large, clean containers were stationed for all the usual stuff (glass etc.) plus oil, plastic bags and old metal. It was simple, and the containers were emptied weekly.

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