“This workers’ culture,” he says, “to organise themselves, to struggle, to declare one’s solidarity, is one further element that has shaped my life – just like the moral, spiritual or also human reference points of people such as Che Guevara, the Zapatistas, Mahatma Gandhi and Christ, although I am not a Christian.”
Olivera is a workers’ leader in Cochabamba and led a notable citizens’ campaign to defend their water supply from World Bank-sponsored privatisation that would have resulted in a 200 per cent price rise.
The first large-scale study of the risks that countries face from dependence on water, energy and land resources has found that globalisation may be decreasing, rather than increasing, the security of global supply chains: here.
Tonight, there was a discussion on Dutch TV program NOVA on the new coalition government, to be formed after the November 2006 elections.
There is no new government, with new ministers, yet.
However, there is a draft coalition program, between two parties (CDA of outgoing Prime Minister Balkenende, and PvdA (Labour)) who lost in the elections, plus a small party, the Christian Union, who won three seats.
This program does not include an investigation into Balkenende’s decision to support George W Bush’s Iraq war.
In its election campaign, the PvdA has asked for such an investigation.
Dutch Labour politician Jan Pronk said in NOVA: “there should be an Iraq war investigation.
My party, the PvdA, makes a mistake by not insisting on that.
Balkenende himself should not have opposed that investigation.
As he now will keep having a reputation of lying to join a war” based on lies.
LONDON: Prime Minister Tony Blair‘s tenuous position has been made weaker by news that three people are likely to face criminal charges arising from the police investigation into claims Downing Street improperly offered honours in return for donations.
Lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service have received files from the police indicating that charges should be brought against three people, although the inquiry is continuing.
“I would be very surprised if they are not charged,” said a prosecution source, adding that Mr Blair was likely to be interviewed by the police for a third time because he had yet to answer certain questions.
The three whose position is most serious are those who have already been arrested during the inquiry.
Lord Levy, the chief Labour fundraiser and Mr Blair‘s envoy to the Middle East, was arrested twice: in July last year, in connection with the misuse of honours, and again last week, over allegations of perverting the course of justice.
Ruth Turner, Mr Blair’s director of government relations, was arrested last month when police called at her home and questioned her for four hours, again on suspicion of perverting the course of justice as well as the alleged misuse of honours.
Christopher Evans, the founder of Merlin Biosciences, who secretly lent Labour pound stg. 1 million before the 2005 general election, was arrested last September.
Sir Christopher is the only Labour donor to have been held by the police during the investigation.
An archaeological site on Jeju Island is being called Korea’s version of Pompeii after the ancient Roman city which was preserved by volcanic debris.
Discovered in 2006, a human settlement at the Hamori 105 formation in Daejung-eup, Seogwipo City was confirmed to have been smothered by a volcanic eruption more than 5,000 years ago.
The Jeju Culture & Art Foundation collected volcanic materials that covered Hamori and sent it to an American research institute.
The Foundation said Sunday that the U.S. researchers determined the debris to have come from an eruption at nearby Songak Mountain over 5,200 years ago.
Local scientists have discovered beneath the volcanic residue ancient footprints and archaeological items like pottery shards and shellfish fragments that show how the early human inhabitants of the area lived.
“This is the first time that we’ve found relics beneath volcanic residue like Pompeii,” said Lee Chung-kyu, a professor of Archaeology at Youngnam University.
“If we investigate a larger area, we may discover further evidence from Neolithic civilizations here, such as a housing site.”
The researchers discovered that the early people of Hamori made soup from various kinds of shellfish and enjoyed fish such as black porgy and red sea-bream.
The scientists will reveal more information in an upcoming report on the finds.
A French-led marine expedition has discovered thousands of new species of crustaceans and mollusks in waters around the central Philippines, officials and scientists announced Monday.
The discovery was made by the Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project, which has been conducting “an intensive inventory” of the complex coastal ecosystem off Panglao island for the past two years.
Some 80 scientists, students and volunteers from 19 countries took part in the ground-breaking research.
“Numerous species were observed and photographed alive, many for the first time,” the scientists, led by Philippe Bouchet, of the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in France, said in a statement.
“It is estimated that 150-250 of the crustaceans and 1,500-2,500 of the mollusks are new species,” the statement said.
“To put it in perspective, the whole decapod crustacean (shrimp or prawn) fauna of Japan barely exceeds 1,600 species.
“The Mediterranean (300 million hectares) has 340 species of decapods and 2,024 species of mollusks,” the statement said.
Some 50 species were presented to the Philippine National Museum on Monday.
Bouchet said data was collected using both academic and traditional methods such as dredging and trawling, diving and deep-water nets which Panglao fishermen traditionally use.
Bouchet said the international science expedition in Panglao is the most comprehensive coral reef mollusk survey ever undertaken worldwide.
To push the research forward, the French embassy has announced a five-year programme to explore the deep-water fauna of the Philippines titled “Census of Philippines Deep-Sea Biodiversity.”
The embassy said that, with a total of 80 participants from the Philippines, other ASEAN countries, Europe and the United States, the Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project was the most comprehensive survey of deep-sea invertebrates ever conducted anywhere in the tropics.
The physorg page where this AFP article used to be, also had “sponsored link” ads by Google.
The University of Dundee Botanic Garden, described on its website as “the Jewel in the Crown of the University” is under threat as the University looks to cut spending in its new budget.
The Garden is a centre for public enjoyment in addition to its principal function of supplying plant material for teaching and research within the University of Dundee.
A university spokesman has said, “We are looking at potential savings in our gardens and grounds departments, and as part of that we will give consideration to the place of the botanic garden in the university.
“We will prioritise services which are relevant to the university’s teaching and research needs.”
There is a possible withdrawal of £250,000 funding.
Six jobs could also be lost if the popular community asset was starved of the cash as part of a university-wide cost-cutting exercise.
Former curator Leslie Bisset, who retired in 2000, said the garden was a great asset to Dundee and added, “I would hate to see anything happen to it.”
The garden, which occupies 9.5 hectares of land between Riverside Drive and Perth Road, has been open to the public since its foundation in 1971 and is regarded as one of the city’s key visitor attractions.
A local campaign group has now formed to fight the proposed cuts in funding and will be meeting Dundee University principal Sir Alan Langlands to discuss the problem.
The Save The Botanic Garden organisation was created after a public meeting at which concerned people gathered to voice displeasure at the shock news of the potential closure.
The Save The Botanic Garden group intends to fight the potential withdrawal of funding by lobbying local politicians and university court members, and through public events.
Riverside ward councillor Neil Powrie says he has been inundated with requests for information from residents in the ward about the threat to the garden.
Local councillor Fraser McPherson has said on his blog “I have written to the Secretary of the University of Dundee expressing concern about the future of the Botanic Gardens.
Having previously lived next door to the Gardens (at Vernonholme), I am only too well aware that they are a great asset, not just to the West End, but to the City as a whole.
It would be a massive loss if they were threatened.”
Members of the public heard from Friends chairman Andrew Morrison that the court of the university is due to meet on February 19 to decide the fate of the garden.
A spokesman for Dundee University said, “We’ll be meeting with the group to discuss ways in which we can become partners in finding a way forward for the garden.”
This threat to this botanical garden should not be seen in isolation, as just the work of some anonymous university bureaucrat.
It should be seen in the context of the Blair government in Britain cutting back on about everything.
Except, of course, on wars; like the Iraq war, which already cost (just the US government) over a trillion US $, and counting.
Legendary folk guitarist Richard Thompson records anti-war song from viewpoint of ‘grunt’
Ron Brynaert
Published: Sunday February 4, 2007
Legendary folk guitarist Richard Thompson recorded an anti-war song which is told from the viewpoint of a US soldier who fears being killed in Iraq.
The British musician, who formed the band Fairport Convention in 1967, is best known to music fans for the album Shoot Out the Lights, which he began recording in the early eighties with his folksinger wife, Linda Thompson, as they experienced marital problems. …
At the online news magazine Slate, Bonnie Goldstein reported on Thompson’s new anti-war song.
“Lately at concerts he’s been singing a song in protest against the Iraq war titled ‘Dad’s Gonna Kill Me,'” Goldstein writes.
“‘Dad,’ Thompson explains to audiences, is grunt-speak for ‘Baghdad,’ much as ”Nam’ once meant ‘Vietnam.'”
Goldstein printed some lyrics from Thompson’s song along with his “lyric cheat sheet.”
In the song, Thompson sings, “‘Dad’s in a bad mood, ‘Dad’s got the blues; It’s someone else’s mess that I didn’t choose; At least we’re winning on the Fox evening news; ‘Dad’s Gonna Kill Me.”
An mp3 of the song can be heard at Thompson’s website, and it will be on his next CD, “Sweet Warrior,” slated for release in May.
However, the US president and his Downing Street bag-carrier treat the international rule of law as either an empty slogan or a flag of convenience that they can adopt or cast aside at will.
Far from this being an effective means of dealing with terrorism and so-called rogue states, such wanton lawlessness gives rise to terrorism and serves as a pretext for it.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 