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June 27, 2014

727 Home

Filed under: airlines,housing,usa — admin @ 2:59 pm

HILLSBORO, Ore., June 7 (Reuters) – Deep in the Oregon woods and rolling hills outside the Portland suburbs, where orchards dot the landscape, a Boeing 727 appears to have landed at the top of a steep dirt driveway encircled by towering pines. For Bruce Campbell, it is home. Complete with wings, and landing gear resting on pillars, it is where Campbell spends six months of the year. In 1999, the former electrical engineer had a vision: To save retired jetliners from becoming scrap metal by reusing them. Slightly built and with a charming smile, the 64-year-old Campbell sees the task as part of his goal in life. “Mine is to change humanity’s behavior in this little niche,” he said as he stood beside the plane, lamenting the need to power wash its exterior and trim the dense foliage. Campbell is one of a small number of people worldwide – from Texas to the Netherlands – who have transformed retired aircraft into a living space or other creative project, although a spokesman for the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association was unable to say precisely how many planes are re-used this way. AFRA, an organization made up of industry leaders including Boeing that focus on sustainable end-of-service practices for airframes and engines, estimates that 1,200 to 1,800 aircraft will be dismantled globally over the next three years, and 500 to 600 will be retired annually over the next two decades. “AFRA is happy to see aircraft fuselages re-purposed in a range of creative ways,” said AFRA spokesman Martin Todd. “We would want them to be recovered and be re-used in an environmentally sustainable fashion.” Campbell was in his early 20s when he paid around $23,000 for the 10 acres on which his plane rests. His original plan was to make a home from freight vans, but then he decided a plane would be better. A van still sits nearby, covered in growth. ORIGINAL FEATURES He purchased the 727 after hearing about a Mississippi hairdresser who had done it. Now, about $220,000, many years of work and several hard-learned lessons later, Campbell is ready to do it all over again, this time with a Boeing 747 he hopes to buy and move to Japan, where he also spends half of the year. Campbell is working to restore some of the plane’s original features, from the cockpit to flight stairs, a working lavatory, LED lighting and some of the seats. “For him to be running electricity and flashing beacons is kind of amazing,” said Katie Braun, a pilot and flight instructor who came to see the airplane home after learning about it in 2012. “It makes perfect sense that they use those airplanes for something,” she said. “It’s a fascinating concept. I think it could take traction if people were more environmental.” The transition wasn’t easy. While restoring the plane, Campbell spent years living in a mobile home. When that became infested with mice, he moved into the aircraft, despite lacking a building permit. On board, Campbell leads a modest life. He sleeps on a futon, bathes in a makeshift shower and cooks with a microwave or toaster, eating mostly canned food and cereal. A shoe rack with numerous pairs of slippers greets visitors, and he asks that everyone wear slippers or socks to avoid tracking in dirt. While Campbell has created a website with details on rebuilding planes, he’s not the only one with such a vision. Aircraft have been made into homes in Texas, Costa Rica and the Netherlands. And Florida has an airplane boat. “I think most people are nerds in their hearts in some measure,” Campbell said. “The point is to have fun.”

http://airplanehome.com/

April 7, 2014

The No-Fly List

Filed under: airlines,government,human rights,usa — admin @ 6:34 am

On September 10, 2001, there was no formal no-fly list. Among the many changes pressed on a scared population starting that September 12th were the creation of two such lists: the no-fly list and the selectee list for travelers who were to undergo additional scrutiny when they sought to fly. If you were on the no-fly list itself, as its name indicated, you could not board a flight within the U.S. or one heading out of or into the country. As a flight-ban plan, it would come to extend far beyond America’s borders, since the list was shared with 22 other countries. No one knows how many names are on it. According to one source, 21,000 people, including some 500 Americans, are blacklisted; another puts the figure at 44,000. The actual number is classified.

On January 2, 2005, unaware of her status as a threat to the United States, Ibrahim left Stanford for San Francisco International Airport to board a flight to Malaysia for an academic conference. A ticket agent saw her name flagged in the database and called the police.

Despite being wheelchair-bound due to complications from a medical procedure, Ibrahim was handcuffed, taken to a detention cell, and denied access to medication she had in hand. Without explanation, after extensive interrogation, she was allowed to board her flight. When she tried to return to America to resume her studies, however, she found herself banned as a terrorist.

Suing the United States

Stuck in Malaysia, though still in possession of a valid student visa, Ibrahim filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, asking to be removed from the no-fly list and allowed back into the country to continue her architectural studies.

Over almost nine years, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) employed an arsenal of dodges and post-9/11 tricks to impede her lawsuit, including invoking the “state secrets doctrine” to ensure that she would never have access to the records she needed. “State secrets” is not a law in the U.S., as it is, for example, in Great Britain, where the monarch also retains ” Crown Privilege,” the absolute right to refuse to share information with Parliament or the courts. Here, it is instead a kind of assumed privilege and the courts accept it as such. Based on it, the president can refuse to produce evidence in a court case on the grounds that its public disclosure might harm national security. The government has, in the past, successfully employed this “privilege” to withhold information and dead-end legal challenges. Once “state secrets” is in play, there is literally nothing left to talk about in court.

A related DOJ dodge was also brought to bear in an attempt to derail Ibrahim’s case: the use of made-up classification categories that dispatch even routine information into the black world of national security. Much of the information concerning her placement on the no-fly list, for instance, was labeled Security Sensitive Information (SSI) and so was unavailable to her. SSI is among hundreds of post-9/11 security categories created via memo by various federal agencies. These categories, too, have no true legal basis. Congress never passed a law establishing anything called SSI, nor is there any law prohibiting the disclosure of SSI information. The abuse of such pseudo-classifications has been common enough in the post-9/11 years and figured significantly in the ongoing case of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) whistleblower Robert MacLean.

Next in its end-run around Ibrahim’s lawsuit, the DOJ pulled “standing” out of its bag of tricks. Standing is a legal term that means a person filing a lawsuit has a right to do so. For example, in some states you must be a resident to sue. Seeking to have a case thrown out because the plaintiff does not have standing was a tactic used successfully by the government in other national security cases. The ACLU, for instance, sued the National Security Agency for Fourth Amendment violations in 2008. The Supreme Court rejected the case in 2013 for lack of standing, claiming that unless the ACLU could conclusively prove it had been spied upon, it could not sue. In the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations showing that the NSA indeed spied widely on American citizens, the ACLU has revived the suit. It claims that the new documents provide clear evidence of broad-based surveillance and so now give it standing.

Standing was also used by the DOJ in the case of American citizen and purported al-Qaeda member Anwar al-Awlaki, whom the U.S. murdered by drone in Yemen. Prior to his son’s death, attorneys for al-Awlaki’s father tried to persuade a U.S. District Court to issue an injunction preventing the government from killing him. A judge dismissed the case, ruling that the father did not have standing to sue. In Ibrahim’s no-fly case, the government argued that since she was not an American citizen, she had no standing to sue the government for its actions against her in the U.S. When all of those non-meritorious challenges failed to stop the case, the government invoked the very no-fly designation Ibrahim was challenging, and refused to allow her to travel to the United States to testify at her own trial.

Next, Ibrahim’s daughter, an American citizen traveling on a U.S. passport, was not allowed to board a flight from Malaysia to serve as a witness at her mother’s trial. She, too, was told she was on the no-fly list. After some legal tussling, however, she was finally allowed to fly to “the Homeland.” Why the American government changed its mind is classified and almost all of the trial transcript concerning the attempt to stop her from testifying was redacted from public disclosure.

In addition, by regularly claiming that classified information was going to be presented, the government effectively hid the ludicrous nature of the Ibrahim case from much public scrutiny. The trial was interrupted at least 10 times and the public, including journalists, were asked to leave the courtroom so that “classified evidence” could be presented.

A message of intimidation had been repeatedly delivered. It failed, however, and Ibrahim’s case went to trial, albeit without her present.

Ibrahim Wins

Despite years of effort by the DOJ, Ibrahim won her lawsuit. The U.S. District Court for Northern California ordered the removal of her name from the no-fly list. However, in our evolving post-Constitutional era, what that “victory” revealed should unnerve those who claim that if they are innocent, they have nothing to fear. Innocence is no longer a defense.

During the lawsuit, it was made clear that the FBI had never intended Ibrahim to be placed on the no-fly list. The FBI agent involved in the initial post-9/11 investigation of Ibrahim simply checked the wrong box on a paper form used to send people into travel limbo. It was a mistake, a slip up, the equivalent of a typo. There was no evidence that the agent intended harm or malice, nor it seems were there any checks, balances, or safeguards against such errors. One agent could, quite literally at the stroke of a pen, end someone’s education, job, and family visits, and there was essentially no recourse.

Throughout the nine years Ibrahim fought to return to the U.S., it appears that the government either knew all along that she was no threat and tried to cover up its mistake anyway, or fought her bitterly at great taxpayer expense without at any time checking whether the no-fly designation was ever valid. You pick which theory is most likely to disturb your sleep tonight.

Ibrahim Loses

Having won her case, Ibrahim went to the airport in Kuala Lumpur to fly back to Stanford and resume her studies. As she attempted to board the plane, however, she was pulled aside and informed that the U.S. embassy in Malaysia had without notice revoked her student visa. No visa meant, despite her court victory, she once again could not return to the United States.

At the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Ibrahim was handed a preprinted “explanation” for the visa revocation with the word “terrorist” hand-written next to the boilerplate text. Ibrahim was never informed of her right under U.S. law to apply for a waiver of the visa revocation.

Though it refused to re-issue the visa, the State Department finally had to admit in court that it had revoked the document based solely on a computer “hit” in its name-checking database, the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS.) That hit, in turn, appeared to be a straggler from the now defunct no-fly list entry made erroneously by the FBI.

The State Department and CLASS

As is well known, the State Department issued legal visas to all of the 9/11 terrorists. In part, this was because the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies failed to tell State what they knew about the hijackers, as all were suspected to be bad guys. Then and now, such information is passed on when intelligence and law enforcement agencies make electronic entries in State’s computerized lookout system. CLASS is part of the Consular Consolidated Database, one of the largestknown data warehouses in the world. As of December 2009, it contained over 100 million cases and 75 million photographs, and has a current growth rate of approximately 35,000 records per day. CLASS also collects the fingerprints of all foreigners issued visas.

Pre-9/11, various agencies in Washington were reluctant to share information. Now, they regularly dump enormous amounts of it into CLASS. The database has grown 400% since September 11, 2001.

The problem is that CLASS is a one-way street. Intelligence agencies can put data in, but can’t remove it because State keeps the database isolated from interactive data maintenance. In addition, the basic database it uses to screen out bad guys typically only has a subject’s name, nationality, and the most modest of identifying information, plus a numerical code indicating why a name was entered. One code, 3B, stands for “terrorist”; another, 2A, means “criminal”; and so forth through the long list of reasons the U.S. would not want to issue a visa. Some CLASS listings have just a partial name, and State Department visa-issuing officers regularly wallow through screen after screen of hits like: Muhammad, no last name, no date of birth, Egypt — all marked as “critical, Category One” but with no additional information.

Nor, when the information exists but was supplied by another agency, do U.S. embassies abroad have direct access to the files. Instead, when a State Department official gets a name “hit” overseas, she must send a “Security Advisory Opinion,” orSAO, back to Washington asking for more information. The recipient of that cable at Foggy Bottom must then sort out which intelligence agency entered the data in the first place and appeal to it for an explanation.

At that point, intelligence agencies commonly to refuse to share more, claiming that no one at State has the proper clearances and that department should just trust their decision to label someone a bad guy and refuse to issue, or pro-actively revoke, a visa. If, on the other hand, information is shared, it is often done on paper by courier. In other words, a guy shows up at State with a bundle of documents, waits while someone reviews them, and then spirits them back to the CIA, the FBI, or elsewhere. That way, the intelligence agencies, always distrustful of State, are assured that nothing will be leaked or inadvertently disclosed.

In cases where no more information is available, or what is available is inconclusive, the State Department might allow the visa application to pend indefinitely under the heading “administrative processing,” or simply “prudentially” revoke or not issue the visa. No one wants to risk approving a visa for the next 9/11 terrorist, even if it’s pretty obvious that the applicant is nothing of the sort.

This undoubtedly is what happened to Ibrahim. Though the details remain classified, State certainly didn’t possess super secret information on her unavailable to other law enforcement or intelligence outfits. Some official surely decided to take no chances and revoked her visa “prudentially” based on the outdated information still lodged in CLASS.

Not CLASS Alone

Ibrahim’s case also reveals just how many secret databases of various sorts exist in Washington. Here’s how a name (your name?) gets added to one of those databases, and how it then populates other lists around the world.

A name is nominated for the no-fly list by one of hundreds of thousands of government officials: an FBI agent, a CIA analyst, a State Department visa officer. Each nominating agency has its own criteria, standards, and approval processes, some — as with the FBI in Ibrahim’s case — apparently pretty sloppy.

The nominated name is then sent to the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) at a classified location in suburban Northern Virginia. TSC is a multi-agency outfit administered by the FBI and staffed by officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, and all of the Intelligence Community.

Once a name is approved by the TSC (the process is classified), it will automatically be entered into a number of databases, possibly including but not necessarily limited to:

*the Department of Homeland Security’s no-fly list;

*that same department’s selectee list that ensures chosen individuals will be subject to additional airport screening;

*the State Department’s Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS, including CLASS-Visa for foreigners and CLASS-Passport for U.S. Citizens);

*the Department of Homeland Security’s TECS (a successor to the Treasury Enforcement Communications System), which is used in part by customs officials, as well as its Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS), used by immigration officials;

*the Known and Suspected Terrorist File (KSTF, previously known as the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organizations File);

*TUSCAN, a database maintained by Canada;

*TACTICS, a database maintained by Australia;

*and finally, an unknown number of other law enforcement and intelligence agency databases, as well as those of other foreign intelligence services with which information may be shared.

As Ibrahim discovered, once a name is selected, it travels deep and far into both U.S. and foreign databases. If one clears one’s name from one database, there are many others out there waiting. Even a comprehensive victory in one nation’s courts may not affect the records of a third country. And absent frequent travel, a person may never even know which countries have him or her on their lists, thanks to the United States.

Once she learned that her student visa had been revoked in Malaysia, Ibrahim sued again, asking that the State Department reissue it. The government successfully blocked this suit, citing a long-established precedent that visa matters are essentially an administrative function and so not subject to judicial review.

A court did scold State for failing to notify Ibrahim of her right to seek a waiver, as it was required to do by law. To the extent that Ibrahim’s case has any life left in it, her next step would be to return to the Department of Justice’s bailiwick and apply for a waiver of the revocation the State Department made based on data given to it by the DOJ that both outfits know was struck down by a court. It’s that “simple.” Meanwhile, she cannot return to the U.S.

Nothing to Hide?

A common trope for those considering the way the National Security Agency spies on almost everyone everywhere all the time is that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. If your cell phone conversations are chit-chats with mom and your emails tend toward forwards of cute cat videos, why should you care if the NSA or anyone else is snooping?

Ask Rahinah Ibrahim about that. She did nothing wrong and so should have had nothing to fear. She even has a court decision declaring that she never was nor is a threat to the United States, yet she remains outside America’s borders. Her mistaken placement on the no-fly list plunged her head first into a nightmarish world that would have been all too recognizable to Franz Kafka. It is a world run by people willing to ignore reality to service their bureaucratic imperatives and whose multiplying lists are largely beyond the reach of the law.

Sad as it may be, the Ibrahim case is a fairly benign example of ordinary Washington practices in the post-9/11 era. Ibrahim is going about her life at peace in Malaysia. Her tangle with the United States seems to have been more a matter of bureaucratic screw-ups than anything else. No one sought to actively destroy her. She was not tortured in a CIA black site, nor left for years in a cage at Guantanamo. Her case is generally seen as, at worst, another ugly stain on the white wall we imagine we are as a nation.

But the watch lists are there. The tools are in place. And one thing is clear: no one is guarding the guards. You never know whose name just went on a list. Maybe yours?

Malaysia Airlines MH370

Filed under: airlines,disaster,malaysia — admin @ 5:53 am

Military radar-tracking evidence suggests the Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown across the Malay peninsula towards the Andaman Islands, sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters on Friday. Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation’s Director General Azharuddin Abdul Rahman briefs reporters on search and recovery efforts within existing and new areas for missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was Flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints – indicating it was being flown by someone with aviation training – when it was last plotted on military radar off the country’s northwest coast. The last plot on the military radar’s tracking suggested the plane was flying toward India’s Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, they said. Waypoints are geographic locations, worked out by calculating longitude and latitude, that help pilots navigate along established air corridors. A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing increasingly on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight, with 239 people on board, hundreds of miles off its intended course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. “What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards,” said that source, a senior Malaysian police official. All three sources declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the media and due to the sensitivity of the investigation.

Kuala Lumpur/Beijing: Multinational search operations for the Malaysian airliner that went missing March 8 continued Monday in the Indian Ocean but there is no trace of the aircraft.

Australian Defence Minister David Johnston said his country would do what it could to assist Malaysia to locate flight MH370 in whatever state it was in, Xinhua reported.

“We are now changing our focus to the central eastern Indian Ocean to try to solve this mystery,” he said.

Australia has provided two RAAF P-3C Orion aircraft to assist the Malaysian government in its search since March 9.

Malaysia Airlines MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur early March 8.

The Boeing 777-200ER was initially presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea.

The plane was due to land in Beijing at 6.30 a.m. the same day. The 227 passengers included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.

Contact with the plane was lost along with its radar signal at 1.40 a.m. March 8 when it was flying over the air traffic control area of Ho Chi Minh City.

Johnston confirmed Australian aircraft were being directed by the Royal Malaysian Air Force commander for the western region search area and information on the search would be directed to the Malaysian authorities.

One RAAF P-3C Orion started searching in the Indian Ocean to the north and west of the Cocos Islands and the other would continue to search west of Malaysia.

France, which experienced its own search for a missing plane when an Air France flight disappeared off the coast of Brazil in 2009, has also confirmed its assistance, with the assignment of four experts.

India has supported search operations in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal but this was suspended Sunday at the request of Kuala Lumpur.

The Indian defence ministry said the search would remain suspended until notice by Malaysia on which areas to search.

Malaysian authorities confirmed the pilot of the aircraft spoke to air traffic control after a signaling system was disabled on the jet, without referring to any trouble.

This comes as speculation grows about possible pilot complicity and a possible hijacking.

Malaysian Prime Minister Razak Sunday hinted at foul play, saying someone probably deliberately diverted the plane from its flight path from Kuala Lampur to Beijing.

“ALL right, good night,” were the last words heard by air-traffic controllers from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on March 8th. That makes them a rarity in the baffling story of the disappearance of a Boeing 777 carrying 239 passengers and crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing: an undisputed fact. In the days following, the Malaysian government provided information only in dribs and drabs, much of it confusing, even contradictory.

It seemed possible that the agonising wait for the passengers’ families might be nearing an end. On March 20th Australia’s prime minister, Tony Abbott, told parliament that satellite pictures showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean, some 2,500km southwest of Perth, in an area where the 777 might plausibly have crashed. At 20 metres or so, one object seemed the size of a wing or tail fin. Aircraft and ships were headed to the area to investigate further. If the plane’s wreckage is found, and especially if its “black box” flight recorder can be recovered, what happened to flight 370 should become clearer. What is already beyond doubt is that air-traffic communication protocols need to be updated to ensure that, however rare, such a disappearance cannot be repeated. The distressed relatives of the mostly Chinese passengers are not alone in their bewilderment that, in a world of pervasive electronic surveillance, a 200-tonne passenger plane can vanish. With little concrete information, speculation has run wild. Commentators of varying degrees of authority have attempted to fill the blank canvas with theories ranging from an accident to suicidal tendencies on the flight deck, and conspiracies of a complexity that would seem farfetched in a disaster film.

Hijacking seems unlikely: flight-deck doors are locked and sturdy. And investigations into the backgrounds of the crew and passengers have so far turned up no plausible motive. The first credible theory was that the plane had suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure and crashed, probably at sea. But a search along its flight path failed to turn up any sign of wreckage.

Then news emerged that Malaysian military radar had tracked the plane apparently turning west off its route shortly after the final radio message. Malaysian authorities added that its ACARS, an on-board system which transmits intermittent data about the performance of engines and other parts, appeared to have stopped functioning just before that, and that the transponder, another device that communicates a plane’s position to air-traffic control radars, appeared to have been switched off around the time of the turn. The fact that the pilots had not reported the switch-off led the authorities to infer foul play. On March 15th the Malaysian prime minister blamed “deliberate action”, with suspicion falling on the pilot or co-pilot. That the plane vanished between signing off with Malaysian air-traffic controllers and establishing contact with Vietnamese ones, and apparently continued flying for several hours under the control of a skilled aviator, lent credence to the assertion.

But this version of events was later revised by the Malaysian authorities. The ACARS, which sends messages intermittently, might have ceased functioning at exactly the same time as the transponder, it turned out. This makes the notion of an emergency more likely, perhaps a fire that incapacitated crew and passengers, leaving the plane to fly on ungoverned. The risk of an electrical fire is one reason why pilots are able to switch off on-board equipment, including that responsible for communications. But many are now calling for an automatic alert to be sent in such circumstances, so that ground authorities know that they should start tracking the plane with conventional radar.

The ACARS has at least provided information about the jet’s continued path, albeit wildly imprecise. Though it stopped transmitting data it continued to “ping” (send out a signal with no information other than that it was still operating) for six hours. That is about how long the plane’s fuel tanks would have taken to empty. But the pings were only picked up by one satellite, making triangulation to establish the plane’s path during that time impossible.

Malaysian military radar apparently lost contact with the plane as it flew over the Indian Ocean. (According to reports on March 19th, Thai military radar may also have tracked it turning off course.) That suggests it is somewhere on an arc hundreds of miles wide running from Kazakhstan almost to Antarctica (see map). Planes and ships from 26 countries have now joined the hunt. The northern part seems less plausible: it approaches land and passes through several countries with military radar primed to look for unidentified aircraft. But to the south, where the search is now focused, there is little coverage.

The information age is taking to the skies only slowly. Planes far out at sea keep in touch using VHF radio, and the newer ones send ACARS data continuously via satellite. Many are also equipped with ADS-B, another system that uses satellites and GPS to pinpoint their location when they are out of radar range. But flight 370’s ADS-B seems to have stopped transmitting about the time its transponder went off.

Clearer skies

Aircraft-tracking websites use several of these newer sources of data. They will eventually replace radar when their safety and reliability are beyond dispute, a long process in the plodding world of aviation regulation. And the next generation of communications technology, due in around a decade, will relay all flight information at once, acting like a real-time version of the black box that all planes now carry. Adding internet connectivity, as many airlines are doing, will provide another way to get a message to the ground.

Until parts of the plane are examined, how it came to grief will remain unknown. In the meantime, for the grieving relatives, there is little comfort to be taken from the fact that such mysteries should soon be a thing of the past.

While searching for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean, an Australian airplane crew says they have spotted two objects. The aviators reportedly saw an “orange rectangular object” and a “gray or green circular object.” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott also told the Malaysian government that a ship, the HMAS Success, is nearby and will be attempting to retrieve the objects either tonight or tomorrow morning. The objects are around 1,550 miles southwest of Perth, Australia.

An Australian plane has spotted an “orange rectangular object” and a “gray or green circular object” while searching for missing Flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean, officials said.

Hishamuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s acting transport minister, said that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had told his counterpart in Kuala Lumpur that the objects could be retrieved as soon as later Monday by a ship hunting the Boeing 777. It has come to our attention that the browser you are using is either not running javascript or out of date. Please enable javascript and/or update your browser if possible.

Britain’s Inmarsat used a wave phenomenon discovered in the 19th century to analyse the seven pings its satellite picked up from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to determine its final destination.

The new findings led Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to conclude on Monday that the Boeing 777, which disappeared more than two weeks ago, crashed thousands of miles away in the southern Indian Ocean, killing all 239 people on board.

The pings, automatically transmitted every hour from the aircraft after the rest of its communications systems had stopped, indicated it continued flying for hours after it disappeared from its flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

From the time the signals took to reach the satellite and the angle of elevation, Inmarsat was able to provide two arcs, one north and one south that the aircraft could have taken.

Inmarsat’s scientists then interrogated the faint pings using a technique based on the Doppler effect, which describes how a wave changes frequency relative to the movement of an observer, in this case the satellite, a spokesman said.

The Doppler effect is why the sound of a police car siren changes as it approaches and then overtakes an observer.

Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch was also involved in the analysis.

“We then took the data we had from the aircraft and plotted it against the two tracks, and it came out as following the southern track,” Jonathan Sinnatt, head of corporate communications at Inmarsat, said.

The company then compared its theoretical flight path with data received from Boeing 777s it knew had flown the same route, he said, and it matched exactly.

The findings were passed to another satellite company to check, he said, before being released to investigators on Monday.

The paucity of data – only faint pings received by a single satellite every hour or so – meant techniques like triangulation using a number of satellites or GPS (Global Positioning System) could not be used to determine the aircraft’s flight path.

Keeping track

Stephen Wood, CEO of All Source Analysis, a satellite analytic firm, said it seemed that the investigators had narrowed down the area substantially. “But it’s still a big area that they have to search,” he said.

The incident is likely to spur a review of aviation rules, especially related to communications equipment and the ability to turn off a plane’s transponder.

But it is too early to say what that would entail because it remains unknown what made the plane divert from its original course.

“This type of incident will cause everyone who flies airplanes commercially with passengers to be really pressed for a whole new line of ways to keep track of their precious cargo,” said Wood, a former U.S. intelligence officer who headed the analysis unit of DigitalGlobe Inc, a satellite imagery firm, until July 2013.

DigitalGlobe last week provided images that Malaysia’s government called a “credible lead” for the massive trans-national effort to locate the plane.

Shortly after the plane went missing on March 8, Inmarsat used the ping data to plot two broad areas where the plane likely flew after it vanished from radar. One path took it north over central Asia, the other south to the Indian Ocean.

As days passed, more images and data became available, helping focus the search. But piecing that information together is time consuming and requires synchronizing the clocks of the various data systems, sometimes to a fraction of a second, said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

“Every time they get additional information from an additional site, they’ve got to go back and revisit what they’ve already done,” Goglia said.

But the efforts are rewarded, he said, when all the sources of the data point to one spot at the same time.

The complexity of the work can take weeks, he added. “As difficult as this one was, I’m amazed that we’ve got some of what we’ve got so quickly,” he said.

Inmarsat said for a relatively low cost its satellites could keep tabs on flights and provide data exchanged between the air and the ground to help organise routes to save time and fuel.

Its systems, which are widely used in shipping, have been embedded into surveillance and communications technologies that allow air traffic controllers to build up a picture of where aircraft are, and to better manage routes.

“If you have that (…) capability you get a preferred routing at the right altitude that makes your aircraft more fuel efficient, but if you don’t have it you have to fly lower and get less priority in air-traffic control,” said David Coiley, Inmarsat’s vice-president for aeronautics.

The system is used in planes in the North Atlantic, Coiley told Reuters earlier this month, but it is not commonly used in all parts of the world.

Sinnatt said on Monday that such a facility would cost about $10 per flight. “It is something we have been pushing the industry to do because it significantly adds to safety,” he said. Other satellite providers are also developing tracking systems.

Authorities consider the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, missing for more than two weeks, to be lost “beyond any reasonable doubt” somewhere in the Indian Ocean, with all passengers and crew assumed to have perished.

The fate of the missing plane has captivated the world since March 8, when the Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200 vanished mysteriously from civilian radar screens, less than an hour after departing Kuala Lumpur.

Families of the 239 missing passengers received a text message from the airline with the information, according to a CNBC producer who saw a copy of the message.”We deeply regret that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that the MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board have survived,” the message read.

(The airline, facing a backlash over the use of text messaging, later clarified that families had also been contacted in person and by phone, and that texts had only been used to supplement that).

At a press conference on Monday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak delivered a terse statement. According to new information, the flight was most likely at the bottom of the sea, though the circumstances behind its disappearance were still unclear.

“It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” said Razak, delivering the news that grief stricken friends and relatives had been dreading for days. He said a new analysis of satellite data indicates the missing plane was lost in a remote area of the world’s third largest water body, which spans more than 28 million square miles. Play Video Sad ending for Malaysia MH 370 CNBC’s Eunice Yoon reports the family members of Malaysia MH 370 are grieving after the Malaysia Prime Minister says the flight ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.

No confirmed sighting of the plane has been made since its disappearance, though unconfirmed reports have claimed to have spotted debris.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement to the families that “our prayers go out to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and colleagues at this enormously painful time.”

“We know there are no words that we or anyone else can say which can ease your pain,” the airline said. “The ongoing multinational search operation will continue, as we seek answers to the questions which remain.”

Malaysian flight MH370 tragedy abused by Chinese hackers for Espionage attacks The Mysterious Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200 aircraft that has gone missing by the time it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The Malaysian Prime Minister had also confirmed that the Malaysia Airlines plane had crashed in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. Cyber Criminals are known to take advantage of major news stories or events where there is a high level of public interest and now Scammers are also targeting tragedy of MH370 to trap innocent Internet users. Just a few days before we warned you about a Facebook malware campaign claimed that the missing Malaysian Airlines ‘MH370 has been spotted in the Bermuda Triangle’ with its passengers still alive and invites users to click a link to view breaking news video footage. This week, Security researchers at FireEye have revealed about various ongoing spear phishing and malware attacks by some advanced persistent threat (APT) attackers. According to the researchers, the Chinese hacking group called ‘admin@338’, specialized in cyber espionage attacks had sent multiple MH370-themed spear phishing emails to the government officials in Asia-Pacific, with an attachment referring to the missing Malaysian flight MH370. Malaysian flight MH370 tragedy abused by Chinese hackers for Espionage attacks The attachment file was actually merged with Poison Ivy RAT (remote access tool) and WinHTTPHelper malware to hijack the computer systems of government officials. The Chinese Hacking Group also initiated another attack against the US based think tank on 14th March. A malicious attachment was dropped via spear phishing mails, contains “Malaysian Airlines MH370 5m Video.exe”. The malicious attachment pretended to be a Flash video related to the missing plane and attached a ‘Flash’ icon to the executable file. “In addition to the above activity attributed to the Admin@338 group, a number of other malicious documents abusing the missing Flight 370 story were also seen in the wild.” researchers said.

As the search for any wreckage for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight continues, insurance experts have warned of “divergent” compensation claims, with the families of U.S. passengers potentially receiving millions more than their Asian counterparts.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Monday that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 – missing for more than two weeks – was lost “beyond any reasonable doubt.” New satellite data indicated the plane was probably at the bottom of the southern Indian Ocean, Razak added.

All 239 of the people on the plane – 227 passengers and 12 crew – are assumed to have died.

The airline must pay the families of those on board around $176,000 under a multilateral treaty known as the Montreal Convention, and said it had already given relatives $5,000 per passenger in compensation.

But relatives can also sue for further damages – and it is these further pay-outs that experts warn could vary widely.

“Compensation for loss of life is vastly different between U.S. passengers and non-U.S. passengers,” Terry Rolfe, leader of the aviation practice at Integro Insurance Brokers, told CNBC.

“If the claim is brought in the U.S. courts, it’s of significantly more value than if it’s brought into any other court. And for U.S. citizens there is no problem getting into the U.S. courts.” Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, CEO of Malaysia Airlines, says the airline’s top priority remains taking care of families and relatives from the missing MH370 jet.

Numerous nationalities

There were passengers of 14 different nationalities on board the flight, Malaysia Airlines said, with the majority – 152 – Chinese. There were also 38 passengers from Malaysia, seven were Indonesian, six were from Australian and three Americans were on board, among other nationalities.

Rolfe estimated that an American court could pay out between $8-10 million on a per-passenger basis, but compensation would be a fraction of this outside of the U.S. In China, she estimated relatives would receive less than $1 million per passenger.

Allianz, the main reinsurer for the missing Malaysia Airlines yet, has already started pay out on claims relating to its disappearance, according to Reuters.

The German insurance giant would not comment on financial details, but The Telegraph reported that some $110 million had been placed in an escrow account and Allianz had agreed to make hardship payments to the relatives of those on the fight.

Where claims can be brought

The Montreal Convention dictates that a claim has to be brought in one of five places: where the carrier is domiciled; its main place of business; where the ticket was bought; the destination of the flight or the primary residence of the plaintiff.

“So for the majority of passengers on this flight, this is either China or Malaysia and these countries have very limited views of damages as opposed to America,” Illinois-based aviation crash attorney Floyd Wisner told CNBC.

“They could evaluate these cases and say a Chinese life is (of) less value than an American life. That’s unfair and that’s going to cause problems.”

Indeed, Wisner said disparate pay-outs could lead to international backlash – especially if the plights of the families continued to be highly publicized.

“I would be raising holy hell if I was a family member of a passenger from one country getting less than someone who happened to be sitting next to me from another country,” he said.

Another option open to the families is a class-action lawsuit, which would allow multiple relatives to sue over the same legal grounds.

In theory, a class action would give the families more clout – because they’re acting together rather than just as one person.

“But where there’s more clients, there’s more money to be made – so a class action lawsuit is of massive financial benefit to the lawyers.”

The airline and insurer will want to avoid this by being pro-active, he added, reassuring relatives that their individual claims will be managed swiftly and sensitively. The theory of someone in the crew taking over the airplane is the most likely explanation for why the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was diverted from its flight path.

One reason for the high compensation pay-outs in the U.S., according to New York-based Rolfe, was the sheer number of attorneys and litigators here willing to take on the cases.

“There are a significant numbers of lawyers here who take on these airline cases and they know how to use to court system. They’re used to doing it,” she said. “And there isn’t the same level of attorney or litigation or precedence in the rest of the world.”

Same amount per passenger?

Wisner said the airline could pay out between $500-750 million in total compensation to the families, and was likely to have liability insurance to value of around $1 billion.

But he added that the total amount paid out could be reduced by offering one amount per passenger – whatever their nationality.

“They could aim for one standard for all, ” he said. “It would be worth trying to avoid this disparate treatment and pay a flat-sum per passenger.”

Integro Insurance Brokers’ Terry Rolfe, however, said this was unlikely. “The families won’t sign off on it if they know they can get a higher pay-out in the U.S. courts,” she added.

Malaysian flight MH370 tragedy abused by Chinese hackers for Espionage attacks The Mysterious Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200 aircraft that has gone missing by the time it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The Malaysian Prime Minister had also confirmed that the Malaysia Airlines plane had crashed in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. Cyber Criminals are known to take advantage of major news stories or events where there is a high level of public interest and now Scammers are also targeting tragedy of MH370 to trap innocent Internet users. Just a few days before we warned you about a Facebook malware campaign claimed that the missing Malaysian Airlines ‘MH370 has been spotted in the Bermuda Triangle’ with its passengers still alive and invites users to click a link to view breaking news video footage. This week, Security researchers at FireEye have revealed about various ongoing spear phishing and malware attacks by some advanced persistent threat (APT) attackers. According to the researchers, the Chinese hacking group called ‘admin@338’, specialized in cyber espionage attacks had sent multiple MH370-themed spear phishing emails to the government officials in Asia-Pacific, with an attachment referring to the missing Malaysian flight MH370. Malaysian flight MH370 tragedy abused by Chinese hackers for Espionage attacks The attachment file was actually merged with Poison Ivy RAT (remote access tool) and WinHTTPHelper malware to hijack the computer systems of government officials. The Chinese Hacking Group also initiated another attack against the US based think tank on 14th March. A malicious attachment was dropped via spear phishing mails, contains “Malaysian Airlines MH370 5m Video.exe”. The malicious attachment pretended to be a Flash video related to the missing plane and attached a ‘Flash’ icon to the executable file. “In addition to the above activity attributed to the Admin@338 group, a number of other malicious documents abusing the missing Flight 370 story were also seen in the wild.” researchers said.

Anticipation has repeatedly turned into frustration in the search for signs of Flight 370 as objects spotted from planes in a new search area west of Australia have turned out to be garbage. It’s a time-wasting distraction for air and sea crews searching for debris from the Malaysia Airlines flight that vanished March 8.

It also points to wider problems in the world’s oceans.

“The ocean is like a plastic soup, bulked up with the croutons of these larger items,” said Los Angeles captain Charles Moore, an environmental advocate credited with bringing attention to an ocean gyre between Hawaii and California known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which by some accounts is about the size of Texas.

The world’s oceans have four more of these flotsam-collecting vortexes, Moore said, and the searchers, in an area about 1,150 miles west of Perth, have stumbled onto the eastern edge of a gyre in the Indian Ocean.

“It’s like a toilet bowl that swirls but doesn’t flush,” said Moore.

The garbage patches are nothing like a typical city dump. In fact, most of the trash can’t even be seen: it’s composed of tiny bits of plastic bobbing just below the surface.

The larger items also tend to be plastic and are often fishing-related, Moore said, although he has come across light bulbs, a toilet seat, and, bobbing off the California coast, a refrigerator, complete with defrosted orange juice.

Seattle oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been studying the phenomena of ocean debris for years. He said there are smaller collections of garbage within the gyres.

“If you go into a house you’ll find dust bunnies,” he said. “The ocean has a mass of dust bunnies, each moving about 10 miles a day.”

Ebbesmeyer said he’s fascinated by what happens to the trash that spews from the hundreds of shipping containers lost overboard from cargo ships each year. He said there’s one that keeps belching out Lego pieces onto the beaches of Cornwall, England. Another spilled 2,000 computer monitors. Another released thousands of pairs of Nike sneakers.

Sometimes, he said, the containers themselves can become hazards as they bob about for months, buoyed by plastic objects inside or the air trapped behind watertight doors.

Trash also gets into the ocean after being washed down rivers or swept up in tsunamis, Ebbesmeyer said.

Scientists are particularly worried about small and seemingly ubiquitous pieces of plastic that can be from shopping bags, plastic water bottles or other household items. Waves break the items up into smaller pieces. Wing Cmdr. Andy Scott, of New Zealand’s defense force, said the crew in a P-3 Orion scouring the ocean for Flight 370 on Saturday spotted about 70 objects in four hours.

Three were deemed worthy of further investigation, he said, but none turned out to be from the missing plane. One was probably a fishing line, he said, another was a suspected icebox lid and a third was some unidentified brown and orange material.

A cluster of orange-colored items spotted on Sunday from an Australian search plane and thought to be a promising lead also turned out to be fishing equipment.

With garbage complicating an already fraught effort to find flight wreckage, Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott — elected late last year — said on Monday that the search is nowhere near over.

“I’m certainly not putting a time limit on it,” Abbott told the press at RAAF Pearce, the Perth military base coordinating the operation, “We can keep searching for quite some time to come.”

—
MH370 Apparently Flown to Diego Garcia: Navy Intelligence’s Part in the Exposed False Flag Operation

Despite weak, questionable, and conflicting evidence, the general consensus in the MSM is that MH370 appears to have followed a primarily southerly route and crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean (over 1000 km SW of Perth, Australia) after running out of fuel. This theory is primarily based on the alleged satellite data of a British satellite telecommunications company named Inmarsat. There are significant questions about the reliability of Inmarsat’s findings, not the least of which is that no other satellite data has confirmed them and that the company has extensive military contracts. No evidence from any source has been found to confirm Inmarsat’s findings.

The investigation into MH370’s disappearance has been filled with incompetence, cover-ups, and disinformation. The scope of this paper is not to rebut the loads of questionable and conflicting evidence, but to show that the evidence suggests that the plane was probably flown to a strategic US naval and satellite communication facility in the central Indian Ocean. On a small island named Diego Garcia, 450 miles from the Maldives, there is a US naval base with a runway that can accommodate jumbo jets. There is nothing else on Diego Garcia except for the US Navy base and its satellite communications facility.

Around sunrise at 6:15 AM on March 8, 2014 (9:15 AM Malaysia time), several residents on the Maldives island of Huvadhoo reported seeing a very low-flying jumbo jet. The residents provided good detail and described the aircraft as white with red stripes, which is very similar to the colors of MH370. According to some residents, the plane was flying so low they could see the doors on the plane. The residents stated that they sometimes see small seaplanes around the island, but this was the first time they ever saw a jumbo jet. People were coming out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise. The eyewitnesses say that the airplane was traveling in a southeast direction toward Addu, the last and most southern island in the Maldives.[24]

There are several important facts and observations that need to be made at this point: * Huvadhoo residents would have been the first (the sighting happened around sunrise) and last to see the plane before it reached Diego Garcia, which is mainly south of Huvadhoo. Although there was one more Maldives island (Addu Island, about 50 miles straight south of Huvadhoo) before Diego Garcia, the plane was reportedly traveling in a southeast direction apparently in order to miss Addu Island. * If the plane was flying so low that some people could see the plane’s doors and it was very loud, then it was probably flying no more than 500 feet above sea level. At this flying height, the plane was flying low enough to avoid conventional radar. * The time the plane was spotted was about 8.5 hours from take-off and it had flown roughly 2,200 miles, averaging approximately 250 miles per hour. (From Kuala Lumpur to the original destination of Beijing was 2,700 miles.) Although the plane had more drag at the lower altitude and would have gotten worse fuel mileage, the much slower than normal speed would have compensated for the greater air resistance.[25] * From the point where the plane was spotted, there was another 500 miles to Diego Garcia, or approximately two hours at its then current speed.

The day after the sightings were reported in the Maldives media, the acting Malaysian transport minister stated that the Maldives reports were “not true,” based on a conversation between the heads of Malaysia’s and Maldives’ Defense Forces. Maldives National Defence Force stated there was no trace that MH370 had been picked up on their radar.[26] Of course not, the plane was apparently flying at around 500 feet and all other tracking devices have been intentionally turned off. The finding of the sightings being “not true” implies that the residents deliberately lied and no evidence or support was provided for this fact. Indeed, if the residents who spotted the plane were found to be intentionally lying in one of the most high profile international investigations in years, then it would likely be a crime and there’s no evidence they were charged with one. What would be the eyewitnesses motivation to tell such an alleged blatant lie?

As reported in the MSM, the head pilot of MH370, Capt. Zaharie Ahmed Shah, had a “sophisticated” self-built flight simulator in his house. Despite the FBI lying that they found nothing unusual on the simulator, several MSM organizations reported that Shah had Diego Garcia programmed into his simulator which suggests that he practiced flights to that remote island.[27] As a glance at Google Maps reveals, the closest easily-sighted amount of land to a direct path between the last-known location of MH370 and Diego Garcia is the Maldives, so it would make sense (especially if fuel was tight and navigation was uncertain) to aim for the Maldives en route to Diego Garcia.

A major Malaysian news organization reported that investigators found that Diego Garcia and its runway was among the top-five locations programmed in Shah’s simulator, along with Male, Maldives.[28] The only thing on Diego Garcia is the US Navy and commercial flights do not go to Diego Garcia. Given that Shah appears to have flown the plane at about 500 feet above sea level, practicing on a simulator would have been very helpful.

Diego Garcia is owned by the British government and is leased to the US government. US navy operations on the island include a large ship and submarine base, an air base, a communications and “space tracking” facility, and a logistics anchorage for regional operations, including for the Middle East. Diego Garcia was used as the launching pad for US bombers in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and as a logistics supply hub.

Diego Garcia also happens to be the place where the US has several hundred “bunker-buster” bombs stored in event of a possible attack on Iran. The Scotland Herald reported in 2010 that a Florida-based shipping company (Superior Maritime Services) entered into a contract with the US government to ship 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.[29] Thus, Diego Garcia might well be a logical staging area for a false flag operation against Iran. Coincidentally, Superior Maritime Services does lots of military work and is located in the same Florida County (Broward) as GA Telesis.

With the bunker buster bombs stored at Diego Garcia, it’s probable that there is an Israeli presence there that is involved in the planning and preparation of a possible attack on Iran. It’s likely that there has been military coordination between the US and Israel and it would make sense that Diego Garcia would be used given its state of the art satellite systems (to identify Iran’s potential nuclear sites) and its probable use as a launch pad for possible bombing strikes against Iran.

Another significant unanswered question is why didn’t Diego Garcia’s sophisticated satellite systems pick up any data on MH370 given it allegedly flew within about one thousand miles of the base and allegedly crashed about 2,000 miles from Diego Garcia. There’s speculation that US military and intelligence did have the means to monitor MH370’s flight. Diego Garcia’s satellite systems would almost certainly have had the capability to pick up the same “pings” that Inmarsat’s satellite allegedly picked up.

The Feeble Framing of Iran and the Exposed “Plan A” of the Attempted False Flag Operation

For about the last decade, Israel and US neocon hawks have been trying to convince the world that Iran is six months away from producing a nuclear bomb, and the dire consequences if they’re not stopped. Israel’s cited source for this evidence is their vaunted intelligence services which have been proven wrong time and time again. Realizing that President Obama and the rest of the world is sick and tired of their “crying wolf,” Israel and certain neocon related elements within the US military and intelligence apparatus are clearly getting desperate for action which now appears to be in the form of a joint false flag operation to implicate Iran.

The Iranian connection to MH370 was established quickly when two Iranian men were found to have boarded the flight using stolen passports. Although many American MSM organizations have floated the theory that the Iranian men could have been party to a terrorism plot, most MSM organizations have not promoted it as likely theory. However, Fox News and its owner Rupert Murdoch have been aggressively promoting this theory along with the Israeli mainstream media. These false flag actors are clearly trying to set the stage that Iran is most likely behind MH370’s disappearance and that they are probably going to use the plane in some sort of terrorism attack.

One of the first signs that the fix was in on Iran, is when the UK Daily Mail noticed the obviously photoshopped picture of the two Iranian passengers on Flight MH370. The March 24, 2014, Daily Mail pointed out that both Iranian men had the exact same green pants, brown shoes, and leg positions in their photos.[30] In a very strange excuse, the Malaysian police said the image of one man had been accidently placed on top of the other when they were photocopied. MH370’s pilot’s apparent complicity in the diversion of the plane to Diego Garcia and the flagrant errors and cover-ups attempted by the Malaysian government may indicate certain individuals in Malaysia may have been recruited into the likely US/Israeli covert operation.

There are several different ways that a false flag attack involving two identical Malaysian Airlines 777’s could have been undertaken, but now that the plan has been exposed we will probably never know what was actually being planned. However, one possible scenario is that GAT’s Malaysian 777 in Tel Aviv was undergoing retrofitting for the operation that probably included such things as automated flight systems, Iranian/Russian parts, explosives, etc. The Malaysian Airlines name would be painted back on the plane and it would be used in another 9/11-type attack. MH370 would be disassembled at Diego Garcia and identifying parts would be placed at the crash site of the substitute plane suggesting that it was indeed MH370 and that the Iranians had retrofitted it for the operation.

Naval intelligence’s fingerprints are all over MH370’s disappearance, from it’s likely flight path to Diego Garcia to Abdol Moabery’s possible involvement in the Navy Intelligence. The fact that GAT had an identical Malaysian Airlines 777 sitting in a hangar in Tel Aviv is another long shot coincidence that is too hard to ignore. US and Israeli intelligence do not think inside the box and they were apparently up to some of their old tricks in the case of MH370. With hundreds of one-ton bunker buster bombs sitting in Diego Garcia dying to be used, the temptation of using them and attacking the second most significant oil rich country in the world was apparently too much for the US military and Israel to resist. Now that Plan A has been foiled, we’ll now have to wait awhile to see what Plan B has in store.

March 31, 2012

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March 8, 2011

RWANDA PIKININI GENOCIDE EXTRADITED ARMED SEX CHANGE CHILD-CANNIBAL BRIDES FROM JAPAN, UNLUCKY THAI TYPO DESERTIFICATION REBELS, SUPERBUG SMUGGLED STORM GENES, TOBAGO DEMON VACCINE STATUES, BHAGVAD GITA GREENHOUSE RECRUITED GAS EMISSIONS, LOST COCAINE-CLIMATE RAMPAGE MONEY, AND IVORY COAST EX-MANGA-COP KILL THREE BLOODY RIDGE GUINEA PIGS, WOUND 34 ROLL YOUR OWN INDIAN BILLIONAIRES, AS ARMOURED, ALLAHU AKBAR, PUBLIC DISSENT VEHICLE ROBBED AFTER TWO-MONTH PACIFIC EARTHQUAKE DOUBLE DRIFT PUPPET SATIRE TORMENTS FOOD CRISIS CORAL-DRUG GIANTS FROM SMOKED SOMALIA GOLD MINES OVER VENEZUELAN INDIGENOUS GANG RAPED MANAHUNE BORDER BRIDGES

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The Late Pleistocene (approximately 141,000 years ago) glacial period came to an end because of changes to the obliquity, or tilt, of the earth. This is a possible climate change hypothesis “because of the relatively large and persistent increases in summer energy reaching the high latitudes of both hemispheres during times of maximum Earth tilt”. The warming of oceans, exacerbated by melting glaciers that flow into them, is causing “horizontal mass redistribution” of the world’s seas. Essentially, the weight and position of the world’s oceans have shifted, and this has literally caused the earth to shift its position on its axis! Indeed, Inuit observations seem tied to the technical science of long-term climate change, specifically the theory of the Milankovitch Cycles, which seem to predict natural planetary warming and cooling periods based on the position of the earth and its axis in relationship to the sun.

An estimated two-thirds of Papua New Guinea’s six million people cannot read or write – but the “Buk Bilong Pikinini” movement hopes to make a positive difference. In pidgin, it means children’s book. Some branches of Papua New Guinea’s public library system do not even have books. Many education institutions and schools have no libraries, and children find it hard to learn to read and write.

In recent decades, coral reef ecosystems around the world have declined dramatically. One-fifth have died, and human activity directly threatens another 24 percent. As atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide increase, higher temperatures and ocean acidification could kill 70 percent of the world’s coral reefs by 2050. By century’s end, they could be gone entirely.

A traditional indigenous practice is being taken up by different communities to fight a food crisis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. Bengalis and other ethnic groups have adopted the practice of the Mro tribe, of creating a Rice Bank, in their own communities. They say the Rice Bank can give them the chance to prepare as rodents threaten another spell of destruction of crops including paddy in the coming season.

Violence has broken out all over the country of Nicaragua. Armed again, but this time organized by Sandinista thugs. Beatings and brutal physical attacks against intellectuals, journalists and civil rights group members are frequent here now. There is currently no legal opposition allowed in the country against the policies of the Nicaragua government (FSLN), controlled by the Sandinistas. It was illegal for any opposition to the Sandinistas to paint anything on poles or walls, which is what students have been doing for weeks to declare the elections stolen. During the early hours of the morning vehicles carrying armed gangs erase any opposition on walls in the country’s capital, Managua.

A look at some other pests that are benefiting or could benefit from global warming: Ticks that transmit Lyme disease are spreading northward into Sweden and Canada, once too cold for them.

The Trinidad and Tobago police have found pages of the Hindu holy book Bhagvad Gita soaked in millions of dollars worth of liquid cocaine in a laboratory in Couva, Central Trinidad. A Venezuelan national and four citizens of Trinidad and Tobago – two men and two women – were arrested and investigations are now on into this innovative way to traffic cocaine.

Thailand has issued rules making sex change surgery more difficult — including a requirement that potential candidates cross-dress for a year — over fears that some patients are rushing into the operation. Transsexuals and transgender men are a common sight in Thailand, appearing
on soap operas and working at all levels of Bangkok society, from
department store cosmetics counters and popular restaurants to corporate
offices and red-light districts. A national transgender beauty pageant
draws thousands to the beachside town of Pattaya every year. But over the past two years, a rash of castrations, especially among young
men, has alarmed the medical establishment and prompted the new rules.

Giant Humboldt squid have reached waters as far north as British Columbia,
threatening fisheries along much of the western North American coast.

Battling with one of the world’s highest murder rates, Venezuela crushed more than 30,000 guns seized from the streets during police raids this year. Policemen used blow-torches to chop up some of shotguns and pistols. They compacted weapons including home-made pistols into a 5 ton block.

A typo tragically sent Queens firefighters barreling to the wrong address – as three men died in a fire a mere three blocks away. As trapped residents desperately tried to escape an illegally converted boardinghouse on 65th Street in Woodside, the nearest fire companies found themselves on “a wild goose chase” on 62nd Street – because a 911 operator had mistakenly entered a 2 instead of a 5. Two crucial minutes were lost during the rerouting of Engine Co. 292 and Rescue Co. 4. They got to the scene four minutes and 55 seconds after the 911 call.

The African version of “Spitting Image” has delighted big audiences by ridiculing corrupt politicians. A rapping president describes himself as “a real bad dude”; a prime minister and vice-president fight over lavatories; and a set of parliamentarians suffer from a brain disease called “corruptophaelia”. Welcome to Kenya, as seen and portrayed by Africa’s version of Spitting Image, a daring puppet satire that is steadily pushing the boundaries of free expression and outraging the Nairobi elite. The XYZ Show, now preparing for its second series, proved a huge hit. Its well-aimed barbs delighted a devoted and growing audience, while scandalising the politicians who are the show’s main target.

Nicaragua’s navy seized 2,400 kilos (5,286 lbs.) of cocaine in Caribbean waters and arrested five people linked to the consignment.This has been a heavy blow against drug trafficking, The five Hondurans were carrying in their boat more than 2,400 kilos (5,286 lbs.) of drugs, as well as fuel; the five in custody are of Honduran nationality. They were arrested 45 miles east of Puerto Cabezas.

Numerous accounts of rapes show a similar pattern at the Porgera Joint
Venture (PJV) mine in Papua New Guinea, partly owned by Toronto-based
Barrick Gold Corp. The guards, usually in a group of five or more, find a woman while they are patrolling on or near mine property. They take turns threatening, beating and raping her. In a number of cases, women reported to me being forced to chew and swallow condoms used by guards during the rape.

Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are now found in South Korea, the Papua New
Guinea highlands, and other places previously not warm enough for them.

A British tourist in Thailand had been raped after being dragged off the
street by two men. She was taken  to a hotel where she was raped and then robbed of her belongings. The woman, aged 25, said the attack happened early morning in the Thai resort of Pattaya, twenty metres from a police sentry box. The attack happened after she had been separated from friends.

Seven Papua New Guineans adrift in the Pacific Ocean for more than two months have been rescued but two have since died. A helicopter from the US-based fishing vessel “Ocean Encounter” spotted a 22-foot boat drifting near Nauru in the central Pacific. Seven men were onboard, they left Tabar Island in the New Ireland area of Papua New Guinea  to return home to Lihir Island, a distance of about 50 kilometres (30 miles). But they ran out of fuel during what was expected to be a daytime trip and drifted to the northeast.

Unusually heavy rain fell during the period needed to dry the land before burning, says a Bidayuh from Sarawak, Malaysia. New weeds grew quickly over the farms, making it impossible to burn and threatened to ruin the year’s harvest. In response, a Bidayuh-Krokong village held Gawae Pinganga, an almost-forgotten ritual to ask the ‘Pinyanga’, the village’s spirit guardians, for a dry season. The last time such assistance had been asked of ‘Pinyanga’ was during World War II and the elders were uncertain as to the exact composition of the offering.

Organized citizen gangs, called the CPC or Consejo del Pueblo Ciudadana work closely with some of the most dangerous criminal delinquent gangs in the city and region, mostly young disenfranchised and uneducated men, to prevent any opposition to Daniel Ortega and his government policies, while rumors fly that Ortega flies to Cuba for blood transfusions.

The number of Indian billionaires has almost doubled, from 27 to 52 in the
last year, despite one of the worst global recessions in history, In the last year the Indian stock market has gained more than 75 per cent and the economy has grown by almost seven per cent. Yet 42 per cent of the population still live below the poverty line.

The meaning of the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar”, shouted by the Fort Hood killer Major Nidal Malik Hasan before he opened fire, is known as the takbir and is used by Muslims to express a wide range of emotions.

The number of tobacco smokers currently in Thailand has reached 14.3
million. Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry is considering a proposal to the Finance Ministry to increase the tax level on hand-rolled cigarette
products after finding over 7.4 million people smoke this style of
cigarette. The remainder smoke manufactured cigarettes.

Police in Uganda have arrested and extradited a man who is among the most wanted suspects from the Rwandan genocide. The 100-day killing rampage led to the loss of an estimated 10 percent of Rwanda’s population.

A corrupt former Philadelphia cop who used his badge to rob drug dealers
was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in a federal lockup. Malik Snell’s criminal acts had so tarnished the badge that he wore for 12 years that it would be removed from service and destroyed.

The Japan Meteorological Agency is planning to start monitoring levels of ‘’super’’ greenhouse gases, which have an enormous effect on global warming compared with carbon dioxide, at two observatories as part of efforts to combat global warming under the Kyoto Protocol.

Bark beetles reproducing more quickly in warming climates and expanding
their ranges have devastated forests across western North America. In
British Columbia they have laid waste to an area twice the size of Ireland.

Thailand’s main airport is to relocate 12 giant “demon statues” to boost the morale of staff who thought the figures brought bad luck. The statues at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport will move from the arrivals
area to the check-in zone at a cost of around 1.7 million baht (51,000
dollars.)

A gunman went on the rampage in the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific, killing at least four people and wounding six,
including five Korean tourists. An Asian gunman killed four local people, including two children aged four and three, and critically injured a four-year-old girl in an apparent random shooting spree at a local shooting range. The man then drove in a van to Last Command Post Park, a popular tourist destination and opened fire on a group of South Korean tourists.

Before any pill reaches the pharmacy shelf, it must first pass through a
gauntlet of human guinea pigs: the ‘clinical subjects’ paid to take trial
drugs so specialists can observe their symptoms. But like call centers and high-end hospitals, drug trials too are rapidly shifting to India and Asia with Thailand as the region’s favored frontrunner.

Tokyo has banned the sale and lease of anime films and manga comics
depicting rape, incest and other sex crimes to under-18s. A bill,
introduced by the metropolitan assembly, calls on the industry to self
regulate by toning down graphic comics and films on general release.
Publishers and retailers breaking rules face fines up to JPY 300,000. A
group of publishers, complaining of censorship, have threatened to boycott
Tokyo International Anime Fair.

Students are now putting together El Libro Negro, the black book that proves the elections of 2008 were stolen. With this in mind coupled with the increasing pressure on the Ortega government, after one week of peaceful opposition protest met by brutal Sandinista violence, Daniel Ortega finally admitted there had been fraud in the elections.

The recruits assembled by moonlight at a watering hole. Hundreds of boys and young Kenyan men were herded onto trucks, which were covered with heavy canvas and driven through the night. It was so hot inside they could hardly breathe. One recruit, said they banged the sides of the truck for water but got none. Some had to urinate where they stood. Their destination: a secluded training camp deep in the Kenyan bush.

Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast faced a battering by high winds and heavy rains Friday, as remnants of hurricane Ida wrecked homes and officials warned as many as 40,000 could be affected by the storm. Despite being downgraded to a tropical depression, heavy rains from Ida swelled rivers, destroying an estimated 530 houses and decimating remote communities in one of Central America’s poorest nations.

When it comes to American policy in Pakistan or, for that matter, Afghanistan. It’s just the norm on a planet on which it’s assumed that American civilian and military leaders can issue pronunciamentos about what other countries must do; publicly demand various actions of ruling groups; opt for specific leaders, and then, when they disappoint, attempt to replace them; and use what was once called “foreign aid,” now taxpayer dollars largely funneled through the Pentagon, to bribe those who are hard to convince.

An armoured vehicle travelling between Wewak and Maprik has been held up by robbers armed with two AR15 rifles, a pistol, a Winchester and an axe.  The thieves escaped with an undisclosed amount of money.

The thousands of refugees arriving in Liberia had fled violence perpetrated by rebels who support Ouattara. At least 14,000 people have fled the violence and political chaos in Ivory Coast, some walking for up to four days with little food to reach neighboring Liberia. At least one child drowned while trying to cross a river.

“I had parked next to the Japanese Memorial and two of us went down the hill to the Pigs Tails with the Barbwire to record a video promoting the Solomon Islands, and left a female at my vehicle. Whilst we were down there recording, a person of Local Features walked past the vehicle and eyed the vehicle to see if anybody else was around, and just as he disappeared over the hill, 4 Youths, WITH BUSH KNIVES, approximate age of 20-25, approached the vehicle and DEMANDED MONEY, when they were told that she had no money, they went into the vehicle and STOLE THE TWO BACKPACKS from out of the vehicle and then ran down the hill towards the accommodation areas near the Lunga River…”

In the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the Andean
neighbours. Soldiers destroyed the walkways because they were being used by illegal militia and drug traffickers. They are two foot bridges that paramilitary fighters used, where gasoline and drug precursors were smuggled, subversive groups entered. They are not considered in any international treaty.

“The Head Shaman called for the spirits to come and show us if and how they wanted us to conduct the ceremony to ‘bring them home’. Sure enough they came and showed us. Of course I could not see because I am not the ‘sighted one’, but Aturn saw everything in a flash and told us exactly what the altar and offerings should look like. The ceremony was then held. After the Chief Priest finished, we sat and waited for the response. Within a minute, there was a sound from the east like an old man crying. It was a bird circling the small altar and then above the main altar three times. It is supposed to be a night bird but now it was in broad daylight. It was simply amazing!!! The omen is interpreted as saying ‘We thought that you have forgotten us … but now you come … we are happy. How nice for you to come.’ The rains stopped for seven days within the week after the ceremony.”

A microscopic parasite is spreading a deadly disease among salmon in
Alaska and British Columbia. Researchers say rising water temperatures are
partly to blame.

Thousands of people, including children, are being secretly recruited and
trained inside Kenya to battle Islamic insurgents in neighboring Somalia,
according to deserters, local officials, families of recruits and
diplomats. Most recruits are Somalis living in crowded refugee camps and
Kenyan nationals who are ethnic Somalis living nearby.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan. A Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected. However, the Japanese Meteorological Agency has issued tsunami warnings for the Ogasawara Islands and a tsunami advisory for southern Japan. The quake, which occurred 3:19 a.m., is about 95 miles (155 km) from Chichi-shima, Ogasawara Islands. It is also 210 miles from Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, and 650 miles from Tokyo.

A Sri Lankan was arrested by the Solomon Islands police after he had
escaped from the airport where he was to be deported. The man, who had been illegally residing in the country, was allegedly at the departure lounge when a group of armed men had helped him escape the police. He had been arrested again while four others have been linked to the incident.

Gases such as sulfur hexafluoride and dinitrogen monoxide, which
respectively have 20,000 and 300 times more global warming effects than
CO2, will be monitored at the meteorological observatory in Minamitori
Island, Japan’s easternmost island, and the atmospheric environment
observatory in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture.

A little loop of genes that give bacteria the power to resist virtually all known antibiotics is spreading quickly and likely to cause doctors headaches for years to come. They come on the equivalent of a genetic memory stick – a string of genes called a transmissible genetic element. Bacteria, unlike higher forms of life, can swap these gene strings with other species and often do so with wild abandon.

IIdephonse Nizeyimana was picked up at a hotel in Rubaga, a suburb of the
capital, Kampala, by the National Central Bureau of Interpol. He was transferred to a U.N. detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania, where the tribunal is based. Top officials who allegedly took part in the genocide, such as army generals and politicians, are tried by the tribunal.

Kenya has long feared that the conflict in Somalia, which has been bloodied by civil war since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, will spill across the border into its own neglected northeastern region.The area is home to hundreds of thousands of ethnically Somali Kenyans.

Sixteen countries, home to more than half the world’s smokers and bearing
the highest tobacco use, were involved in the study: Bangladesh, Brazil,
China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland,
Russian Federation, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Vietnam.

Five armed men robbed the Big Rooster outlet in 4-Mile but three were captured by police as they tried to get away with an undisclosed amount of money. They were all armed with pistols as they entered the fast food outlet and held up the company employees, customers and security guards at about 9am. As they exited the building and made for their getaway vehicle, police closed in and captured three – two in front of Freeway Motors and one in front of Big Rooster while the other two managed to escape on foot.

Nizeyimana is one of the four top accused who are earmarked by the
prosecutor to be tried by the tribunal in Arusha after their arrest as part of the ICTR completion strategy. Of a list of 13 fugitives, he is the second to be arrested in less than two months.

Thousands of would-be fighters, some as young as 11, have been lured into the militia by promises of up to $600 a month, but many fled after they were not paid, were beaten or went hungry. Many recruits remain in the ranks and see the secret militia as their only way out of overcrowded refugee camps and the dusty, poor towns around them.

The U.S. government warns that such invasive plants as the common reed,
hyacinth and purple loosestrife are likely to spread to northern states.

Translated as “God is great”, it can be used to express delight and
euphoria or as a war cry during battles. It is also said during each stage of both obligatory prayers, which are supposed to be performed five times a day, and supererogatory prayers, which are said at will. The Muslim call to prayer, or adhan, and commence to the prayer, or iqama, also contains the phrase, which is heard in cities all over the Muslim world.

Directives have been given to homicide detectives to charge a man with the
murder of German national Peter Taut. The suspect is expected to appear before a Tobago magistrate tomorrow. Taut’s body was discovered on in a shallow grave at his Bacolet Crescent home where he lived. Taut, 56, an engineer, died as a result of asphyxia, an autopsy performed revealed.

For Western pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, Asia
offers a glut of people willing to accept less money for testing out trial
medicines. Softer regulation is another big draw, as are improvements in
Asian hospitals’ facilities and an increase in Western-educated doctors. Just eight years ago, only 6 percent of the world’s drug trial patients were tested in Asia and India. The figure is now 11 percent.

The gunman, believed to be aged in his late 30s to early 40s, apparently
killed himself following the shooting spree but his motive was unclear.
The injured South Korean tourists included a 39-year-old man critically
wounded when he was shot in the back, and two other men aged 38 who were
reported to be in a stable condition. Two Korean children aged eight and five were treated and released after receiving minor cuts during the rampage. After shooting the tourists, the gunman drove to the nearby Bonzai Cliffs area on the northern tip of Saipan island. Police found the gunman’s van with smoke pouring from it and three rifles inside. The body of the shooter was found nearby with a gunshot wound to the head and another rifle.

Since returning to the presidency in 2007, 17 years after being voted out
of office at the end of the Sandinista revolution in 1990, Ortega has
created a network of private businesses that operate under the auspices of
the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), an opaque cooperation
agreement of leftist countries bankrolled primarily by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Ortega’s “ALBA businesses” — known by an alphabet soup of acronyms, including ALBANISA, ALBALINISA, and ALBACARUNA — have cornered Nicaragua’s petroleum import and distribution markets, become the country’s leading energy supplier and cattle exporter, turned profits on the sale of donated Russian buses, and purchased a hotel in downtown Managua, among other lucrative investment moves.

It was unclear whether police had recovered the money and the firearms used in the robbery. They said that any information on this would have to come from their superiors. Cooperate Executive Guards’ Tom Vele was manning the door when the robbers burst in, beat him up and pointed their pistols at him. A shaken Vele, with blood on his head and face, said that he thought they were customers wanting to buy food but they were actually robbers trying to rob the company. They arrived in a blue Toyota RAV4 sports utility, believed to have been stolen. The robbery came two days after police superintendent of operations warned the public to be wary of criminals during the festive season as they were targeting owners of Honda CRV and Toyota RAV4 sports utility vehicles.

In the past the Nyando River basin experienced long rains from March to
June with very short rain spells in November. This trend has been rather irregular in recent years with floods occurring in August instead of April. Dry periods have increased in length and farm harvests are dwindling. The Wakesi community traditionally offers sacrifices to the gods for rain. These offerings are made under trees such as the Baobab, as they are associated with rain. The community revealed that they are increasingly offering sacrifices to the gods for rain. It appears climate change is catalyzing these practices.

Refugees are supposed to find safety in the camps, not a government that is trying to trick their sons into going back to fight in Somalia. The recruitment of children violates the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Kenya is a signatory. Kenya is eager to counter the influence of insurgents in Somalia who preach the spread of a pan-Islamic state into Kenya and Ethiopia, where many Somalis live due to borders drawn by former colonial powers. Somalia’s al-Shabab insurgents — some of whom have ties to al-Qaida –already cross into northern Kenya.

In the attacks that started in April 1994, Hutu militias and members of the general population sought out Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and went on a
100-day killing rampage. Civilians and children got incentives to take part in the atrocities, including promises of land belonging to their Tutsi neighbors.

Only six out of every 10 smokers said they planned or are thinking about
quitting, while five in 10 smokers had tried to quit in the last 12 months. The survey found that 3.3 million workers are exposed to tobacco smoke at the workplace and 20.5 million adults to tobacco smoke in their homes.

Fishermen are ruining Semporna’s rich heritage with fish bombing. During their 1,000 hours of diving, the scientists heard 15 fish bombs going off and came across four unexploded bombs. They have warned that conservation action is urgent because of high threats from overfishing, destructive fishing and pollution.

Two women who were walking along the road, after leaving their respective
vegetable gardens, were approached to enquire as to whether they had seen four youths running, and, they said that they had seen some youths running down the hill towards the river, but didn’t take any notice of what they were wearing. In the TV Crew Backpack was a 4 THOUSAND ENGLISH POUND (SBD$40,000), VIDEO CAMERA, and their HERITAGE PARK HOTEL ROOM KEY. And the immediate concern was for the Tens of Thousands of Dollars worth of Equipment in their room. So the chase had to be suspended to go to the Hotel and move rooms and to make sure nothing else was stolen.

40,000 people will be directly or indirectly affected by the hurricane in preliminary damage projections. Nineteen communities are expected to be affected by the storm, which was gusting at up to 35 miles (55 kilometers) per hour.

The shopkeepers are blaming the ‘demon statues’ for the problems they have faced at the airport, which was seized late last year by demonstrators and supporters of the People’s Alliance of Democracy” (PAD).The guardian spirit statues will be shifted from the inner zone of the passenger terminal to the check-in area to ‘improve morale’ of people working at the airport. The anti-government PAD seized two of the Thai capital’s airports in a crippling eight-day blockade late in 2008, which badly dented the kingdom’s tourist-friendly image.

Recruiters started openly operating in Kenyan towns and in nearby huts and tents of the refugee camps. Some recruiters even worked from a hotel fronting a heavily fortified U.N. Compound in the northern town of Dadaab, home to three overcrowded camps of about 275,000 refugees, most from Somalia. More than a dozen deserters said they were promised positions in the Kenyan or Somali armies or jobs with U.N. Security by men acting as recruiters. Some said they were told they would patrol the Kenya-Somalia border, but upon arrival at the training camp, they were told they were going to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, or Kismayo, a key southern city under Islamist control.

President Obama said of Pakistan: “We want to respect their sovereignty, but we also recognize that we have huge strategic interests, huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don’t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state.” When it comes to U.S. Respect for Pakistan’s sovereignty, this country has more important fish to fry. A look at the historical record indicates that Washington has, in fact, been frying those “fish” for at least the last four decades without particular regard for Pakistani sensibilities.

Residents of the Ogasawara Islands are urged to evacuate coastlines
immediately. Evacuate from the seashore immediately to the safe places
near the above coasts. Scores of villagers on a remote Japanese island chain in the Pacific scrambled for higher ground after a major 7.4-magnitude offshore quake sparked a tsunami alert.

It was one of the most brutal genocides in modern history. Some figures put the number of dead at 1 million — 10 percent of the population of the
central African nation. Millions more were raped and disfigured. A whole
generation of children lost their parents.

In the Islamic world, instead of applause, often someone will shout
“takbir” and the crowd will respond “Allahu Akbar” in chorus.
It can also be used as a protest. In the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian
presidential election many people shouted it for an hour between 10pm and
11pm every day for nine days to show their anger at the result.

Desertification and land degradation is the greatest environmental
challenge of our time and a threat to global wellbeing. People must be paid via global carbon markets for preserving the soil. The top 20cm of soil is all that stands between us and extinction. Conflicts and food price crises all stem from the degradation of land.

The Cook Islands Health Ministry has announced the first HIV infection in
the country. Nothing is known about the person who has been diagnosed for privacy reasons, but follow-ups will be made with their previous sexual partners, to ensure the virus has not spread. With the large number of
tourists who arrive in the country each year, it’s no surprise that this
has finally happened.

The survey found that 74.4 per cent of adults noticed anti-cigarette
smoking information on television. Only one in 10 adults were aware of
cigarette marketing in stores where cigarettes are sold; seven in 10
smokers considered quitting because of warning labels; and 98.6 per cent of adults believed smoking causes serious illness. Most people mistakenly believe smoking hand-rolled cigarettes is less dangerous than manufactured cigarettes.

Nizeyimana was a captain the Rwanda Armed Forces, he is
accused of exercising authority over soldiers and personnel through a chain of command, and allegedly sent a section of soldiers to execute of Rosalie Gicanda, a former queen of Rwanda who was a “symbolic figure for all Tutsis.

She said she was unable to resist the two men who, after raping her, took
her Natwest bank and credit cards and 60 pounds in cash and a bracelet
worth 100 pounds. Last night police in Pattaya charged two men with rape and theft. They were named as Krajon Senkam, 29, and Surasak Kovekasan, 20, who were described as local ‘maeng da’ a Thai expression, literally translating as cockroaches, describing men who live off the earnings of local prostitutes. The men were arrested quickly as they were known in the area.

We naturally grasp the extremity of the Taliban – those floggings, beheadings, school burnings, bans on music, the medieval attitude toward women’s role in the world – but our own extremity is in no way evident to us. So Obama’s statement on Pakistani sovereignty is reported as the height of sobriety, even when what lies behind it is an expanding “covert” air war and assassination campaign by unmanned aerial drones over the Pakistani tribal lands, which has reportedly killed hundreds of bystanders and helped unsettle the region.

One typical test, which measures the speed of blood stream absorption, can require volunteers to consume a pill and submit to more than 35 blood draws throughout a weekend. Two weekends of testing, in the United States, would pay approximately $1,000. Volunteers in Thailand would more likely receive less than $50. Other disease-specific trials test experimental drugs on patients over a series of weeks or months. The ‘payment’ in these studies typically isn’t cash but rather the promise of cutting-edge treatment.

More than a third of the world’s child brides are
from India, leaving children at an increased risk of exploitation despite
the Asian giant’s growing modernity and economic wealth.

The police was informed so if you see any of the following items up for
SALE, please ring me on +677 747 6372, after you have detained, or delayed
the person offering it to you. I will come as soon as you have rang and
then they will be handed over to the police to face the consequences.
The list of items that were stolen and what they were contained in was:
One (1) Dark Blue Backpack belonged to the Film Crew, Jamie & Kim,
contained the following: 1 x Very Expensive Digital Video Camera containing a Digital Tape for Recording, 1 x Room Key to Room
112 of the Heritage Park Hotel, and 1 x some other items that I can’t
remember at the time of writing this statement.

The average amount of sulfur hexafluoride, frequently used as an insulator
in electronic devices, found in the atmosphere is relatively small at 6 to
7 parts per million compared with 380 ppm of CO2, but the level has doubled from the 1990s, mostly due to man-made emissions.the National Institute for Environmental Studies has been taking
samples and analyzing them four times a year on Hateruma Island in Okinawa
Prefecture. The agency plans to start monitoring levels once a week at the
observatories in Minamitori Island and Iwate.

The deserters all said they were taken to Manyani, a training center for
the Kenya Wildlife Service outside the port of Mombasa. They said their
cell phones were confiscated upon arrival and Kenyan citizens had to
surrender their identity cards. Kenyans of Somali descent can easily pass for Somalis. They share with Somali nationals the Islamic religion, a common language, and a tall, slender appearance, looking distinct from members of other ethnic groups from farther south.

Uniformed men, apparently from the Venezuelan army, arrived in trucks on
the Venezuelan side at two pedestrian bridges that link communities on both sides and then proceeded to dynamite them. The row renewed tensions that have bubbled for weeks, with Venezuela’s
president, Hugo Chavez, recently telling his armed forces “to prepare for
war” with their neighbour in order to ensure peace. Colombia’s decades-long civil war has for years spilled across its 1,375-mile border with Venezuela in the form of leftist guerrillas, right-wing militias and drug traffickers, a nexus made even murkier by contraband and corrupt local authorities.

Seventy thousand H1N1 vaccines valued at US$675,000 will be here in time
for this country’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. And while the safety and the efficacy of the vaccine is still being questioned,these vaccines have
been used in over 20 countries over the past several weeks and have proven
to be very safe. While the vaccines are a welcomed move in light of the
215 confirmed swine flu cases and five related deaths, they hope the
ministry has a plan to deal with the chaos that can ensue.

A jury convicted Snell of conspiracy, attempted robbery and a
weapons offense in connection with a botched home-invasion robbery in
Pottstown. Snell, 37, was also convicted of taking $40,000 in cash from a South Philadelphia drug kingpin during a bogus police car stop

The seabed tremor struck at 2:19 am local time jolting people out of bed as loudspeakers blared across the Ogasawara islands and authorities warned of the risk of a two-metre (six-foot) high local tsunami. The tsunami alert was later downgraded and all warnings were lifted five hours after the quake hit near the islands, some 1,000 kilometres (600
miles) south of Tokyo. No injuries or damage were reported.

Nearly 25 million women in India were married in the year 2007 by the age
of 18; children in India, Nepal and Pakistan may be engaged or even married before they turned 10. Millions of children are also being forced to work in harmful conditions, or face violence and abuse at home and outside, suffering physical and psychological harm with wide-reaching, and sometimes irreparable effects.

The takbir is also included on the flags of many Arabic nations. It is
written on the centre of the flag of Iraq, 22 times along the borders of
the central white stripe on the flag of Iran, and beneath the Shahadah in
the 2004 draft constitution of Afghanistan in white script on the central
red background.

The Chinese government has abducted and unlawfully detained large number of Chinese citizens in illegal prisons. State-run hotels, nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals in Beijing are being used as so-called “black jails”.  Many people
detained in these illegal prisons are citizens from rural areas who travel to Beijing and other provincial capitals to file complaints for abuses such as illegal land grabs, government corruption and police torture. In these “black jails” they are subjected to physical violence, theft, extortion, threats, intimidation, and deprivation of food, sleep and medical care,

The other Backpack, belonged to myself, was a Columbia Brand Backpack,
being a unique Backpack within the Solomon Islands as it was given to me by Patricks Defence Logistics whilst I was employed with them and told that it was a Prototype Backpack, which had a main pouch, a zipped opening at the top near the handle and a smaller front semi-attached pouch at the front with a zip for the main pouch and a smaller zip for an internal pouch at the front, and, was of sentimental value as it was the only thing that I got out of Patricks that I have left.

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, many governments around
the world are forced to support their private economy in the face of weak
global demand. The combination of higher spending and lower revenues
results in the deterioration the government’s fiscal health. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has such concerns for several Pacific
Island countries.

Hand-rolled cigarettes also cause serious illness for smokers such
as oral cancer and cancer of the aesophagus. In India, about
100,000 died from smoking hand-rolled cigarettes each year.
Most cigarette manufacturers are now producing more smokeless
cigarettes after noting an increasing trend in smokeless tobacco use among
teenagers worldwide.

New Delhi metallobeta-lactamase 1 or NDM-1 for short, will cause more trouble in the coming years. What makes this enzyme so frightening is not only its intrinsic ability to destroy most known beta-lactam antibiotics but also the company it keeps. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are nothing new — virtually all strains of the common Staphylococcus bacteria are now resistant to penicillin. Almost as soon as penicillin was introduced in the 1940s, bacteria began to develop resistance to its effects, prompting researchers to develop many new generations of antibiotics.

Tiny rations of dirty food, beatings and failure to pay promised salaries
caused widespread desertion, recruits said. Some who tried to flee were
caught and beaten, but many managed to return home through Tsavo, a vast
national park filled with dangerous animals that surrounds the training
camp. At least one boy who fled at night with a group of nine others was attacked and killed by lions, another group of deserters was chased by elephants. Some recruits called their families on phones smuggled into the camp and whispered tearful pleas for help.

A society cannot thrive if its youngest members are forced into early
marriage, abused as sex workers or denied their basic rights. Despite rising literacy levels and a ban on child marriage, tradition and
religious practices are keeping the custom alive in India, as well as in
Nepal and Pakistan.

A spike in violence on the Venezuelan side, including the abduction and
murder of an amateur football team, and the drive-by shooting of two border guards, prompted authorities to reinforce the border. Destroying the bridges was a “necessary and sovereign act to curb border
infiltration and drug smuggling,” the economy minister said. Colombian media reported that villagers on their side of the border
remonstrated and threw stones at the Venezuelan troops in a vain
effort to save the walkways. They were sighted at two rural spots, Las Naves and Chicoral, near the Colombian municipality of Ragonvalia.

One cabinet minister denounced the programme as “weird”, while another
complained that villagers were mistaking the puppets for the real-life
equivalents. But to the relief of viewers, the government decided not to
order it off the air, even after a clip entitled “What if Kenya was
perfect?”, which depicted President Mwai Kibaki and the prime minister,
Raila Odinga, in jail in The Hague for crimes committed during last year’s
election violence.

The cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea’s Madang is still worsening with more than 300 people now being treated for the illness. Cholera is a diarrheal infection caused by ingesting bacteria in water or
food, and can kill healthy people within hours.

More than half the world’s child brides are in south Asia, which also
accounts for more than half the unregistered births, leaving children
beyond the reach and protection of state services and unable to attend
school or access basic healthcare.

Thailand’s people are largely healthy and eligible for testing thanks to a
90-cents-per-visit public healthcare scheme. Its hospitals are staffed by
English-speaking physicians and specialists educated abroad. There’s also no single Thai regulatory body responsible for approving
trials — both a convenience and source of frustration for pharmaceutical
firms. In a departure from Western standards, trial supervisors don’t have to report what the industry calls “Unexpected Suspected Adverse Drug
Reactions” — meaning worrisome side-effects of prototype drugs don’t have
to be documented.

Rains could produce flash floods and mudslides, as Nicaraguans waited for Ida to head north out to sea. One of the first areas affected were the Corn Islands, a tropical paradise popular with backpackers. Around 300 tourists were evacuated from the islands by civil defense forces.

But about 120 people temporarily evacuated to higher ground on Chichi-shima island and some 50 people on Haha-shima island overnight. “It was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt,” said Masae Nagai, a hotel
owner on Chichi-shima, part of the remote archipelago also called the Bonin islands, which has a population of about 2,300.

Only 6 percent of all births in Afghanistan and 10 percent in Bangladesh
were registered from 2000-08, compared to 41 percent in India and 73 percent in the tiny Maldives.

The contents of my backpack at the time were a follows: 1. In the Main Backpack Pouch: a) 1 x Yellow Coffee Table Insert Book with Coastwatchers Posters, Pricelist and other advertising material, including a Coastwatchers Memorial Information Sheet from the Coastwatcher Memorial Trust, and, other Coastwatchers Paperwork related to SCUBA Diving, approximate Value of SBD$1,500, and 2: In the Top Main Backpack Pouch near the Handle: a) A packet of Sinus Tablets, approximate Value of SBD$80. 3: In the Front Smaller Pouch: a) 1 x DC500 Sealife Underwater Camera with Land & Sea Underwater Program (unique and the only one (1) in the Solomon Islands) containing a 1 Gigabyte SD Memory Card in a Camera Case designed for the Camera approximate Value of AUD$1,500; b) 2 x DC500 Sealife Underwater Camera Batteries (unique to the camera) approximate Value of AUD$200; c) 1 x Solomon Islands Tourism Industry Association (SITIA) ANZ Cheque Book with either 20 or 40 Unsigned Blank Cheques in it, approximate value of SBD$10 or SBD$20; d) 1 x SITIA Receipt Book with approximately 70 blank receipts, approximate Value of SBD$12; e) 1 x Coastwatchers ANZ Cheque Book with 22 Unsigned Blank Cheques in it, approximate Value of SBD$11; f) 1 x Reading Glasses Case containing: i) Reading Glasses, approximate Value of AUD$250; ii) Writing Pen, approximate Value of SBD$5; iii) A laminated Honiara Recompression Chamber Contact Numbers Checklist, approximate Value of SBD$100. iv) 5 Coastwatchers Business Cards, approximate Value of SBD$100. v) 1 x Packet of Pall Mall Blue Cigarettes, approximate Value of SBD$22.

Land conflicts in Somalia, dust storms in Asia and the food price crises of recent years all stem from the degradation of land, due to overuse by humans and the impacts of global warming. Since the early 1980s, a quarter of the planet’s land has been despoiled and 1% a year continues to be lost.

“Ocean Encounter” was expected to arrive in Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands, to get medical treatment for the survivors, who are suffering from “overexposure and aggressive signs of
malnutrition.” After being picked up, crew spoon-fed small amounts of water and a rice-and-water mix to the survivors because “their systems could only accept small amounts under their condition.” It was not immediately known what the men had to eat or drink during their
two-month ordeal. The survivors said they saw several fishing
vessels during their two months at sea, but these “ignored their gestures
(calling for) assistance.”

Research on a “brain-eating tribe” may hold the key to understanding and
even treating mad cow disease: A genetic study of the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea has shown that certain members carry genetic mutations that protect them from a disease called kuru, which can be contracted by eating prion proteins in brain matter. The disease, which kills tribe members lacking the mutation, is similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), sometimes erroneously referred to as “mad cow disease.”

The better known issues of climate change and loss of biodiversity are both rooted in the global loss of fertile soil, as the soil
harbours a huge stock of carbon and the health of creatures living in the
soil underpins global food production and forest growth. The reason
desertification has not been a priority is because 90% of the 2.1 billion
people who live in drylands live in developing countries,

Also, about 44 million, or 13 percent of all children in south Asia, are
engaged in labour, with more than half in India.

Local authorities on the Ogasawara islands, near Iwo Jima, said they had
set up five shelters for residents but had closed them before sunrise in
the absence of damage reports. The jolts were relatively stronger than those we have felt in the past. But there was no panic as people acted in an orderly manner.

Children in the region have also been seriously affected by insurgency and
instability, as well as natural disasters. We were worried about our students as the jolt was quite strong and lasted very long. But we were relieved to confirm that none of our students were injured and no facilities were damaged. We were quite lucky, considering the size of the quake. The quake hit at a shallow depth of 14 kilometres, 153 kilometres (95 miles) east of Chichi-shima, and was followed by a series of aftershocks measuring between 5.3 and 5.6 which continued into the morning.

Kenyan politicians are not the only people to have suffered ridicule. A
jug-eared, foul-mouthed Barack Obama was shown debating with Osama bin
Laden, who wore a Nike turban and drank Pepsi while pledging to end western civilisation. After the death of Michael Jackson, his puppet equivalent was questioned by God about why he changed his skin colour and about “those little boys”. “Because I’m bad,” Jackson replied.

The Japanese government plans to tighten management of its mineral resources by demanding exploration permits and overhauling the granting of
mining rights.

Especially in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, past or ongoing conflicts
have broken down most child protection systems, leaving children especially vulnerable.

As it turns out, reefs are quite valuable. Inferring from more than 80
studies, the economists found that, on average, 2.5 acres of coral reef
provide $130,000 worth of goods and services, and sometimes as much as $1.2 million. Here’s the monetary breakdown: Food, raw materials, ornamental resources: average, $1,100 (up to $6,000). Climate regulation, moderation of extreme events, waste treatment/water purification, biological control: average, $26,000 (up to $35,000). Cultural services (e.g., recreation/tourism): average, $88,700 (up to $1.1 million). Maintenance of genetic diversity: average, $13,500 (up to $57,000).

The vast bamboo growing areas, spreading over parts of India, Bangladesh
(taking in the hill tracts) and Myanmar, have been facing acute food
shortages since 2007 due to a rat plague, which occurs on regular basis
every 47 to 50 years. According to government, around 1.1 million people live in the hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban, with an area of over 13,000 square kilometres. Half belong to different indigenous groups and half are Bengalis who settled in the 1970s and 80s. Chakma, Bengali, Marma, Mro, Tenchunga, Pankho are the major communities. Mro farmers have traditionally deposited rice in a ‘bank’ during the
harvest period. Community members can take grain from it when necessary.
Non-farmers can also take food from the bank so the whole community
overcomes hunger together.

That’s why we see tanks full of bearded dragons at every shop (and not blue tongues) because bearded dragons have clutches and clutches of eggs many times during the year while the BTS only has 5-15 babies (on average) every 1-2 years. If you’re trying to make money in a reptile business or pet store, blue tongues are not the way to go! It’s much easier to snatch BTS out of the wild and sell them than wait on babies for months and years on end.

Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Tuvalu are maintaining their
government expenditures even as tax revenues have declined because of their weakened economies. The Cook Islands and Fiji Islands have expansionary fiscal policies because they are still subsidizing key industries, building their infrastructure, and trying to soften the impact of the global recession. The Samoan government has to cope with tsunami damages on top of the typical challenges that face Pacific Island countries.

About three hours after the quake, a 60 centimetre (two feet) wave was
monitored 700 kilometres away at Hachijo-jima, part of the Izu island chain that runs south of Tokyo. Waves of up to 20 centimetres also reached the southwestern Japanese main islands.

Full-scale war between Colombia and Venezuela was “unlikely” but there
remained the potential for a bloody border clash. Things are so tense it’s definitely possible. Alarm bells should
be ringing. Chavez, who says he is leading a socialist revolution against US hegemony, has protested against a deal that will extend US access to Colombian military bases. He accused Colombia’s conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, of being a Washington pawn. Venezuela has cut the $7bn annual bilateral trade between the two countries, sparking protests from businesses on both sides of the border.

Trafficking of children for labour, prostitution or domestic services is
widespread, especially within Bangladesh and India, and within the region,
as well as to Europe and the Middle East.

The world is driven by city dwellers: political leaders are setting agendas to satisfy people who live in the
cities, we therefore tend to perceive soil as just dust, or mud, or a
dumping place. But if we don’t preserve that first 20cm of soil, where will we get our food and water from? Half the world’s livestock are raised on drylands and a third of crops, especially wheat.

The impacts of climate change — rising temperatures and more erratic
rainfall — are here already from Latin America to the Sahel.
Adding to the pressure on land is rising global population, which is
expected to pass the 7 billion mark next year and reach 9 billion by 2050.
As well as the consequences for food and water, violent conflicts and
migration will also increase, affecting those living outside
drylands.

Last Command Post Park was the site where the Japanese military commanders
were based during the final advance of American troops during World War II. The nearby Bonzai Cliffs site is also popular with tourists and was where thousands of Japanese civilians living on the island threw themselves into the sea as the Japanese defeat loomed. The Northern Mariana Islands has a population of about 89,000 people, and
is a self governing commonwealth in union with the United States, lying
about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines.

Inequality is increasing and nothing has been done to curb “grotesque”
amounts of wealth building up in India. Mukesh Ambani, the head of Reliance Industries, remains the richest person in India with a net worth of 32 billion US dollars. India’s 100 richest people have a combined wealth of 270 billion US dollars.

Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at Fort
Hood military base in Texas have reported that gunman Major Nidal Malik
Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire. Islamic groups have prepared for a public backlash after it emerged that
Hasan was a Muslim and have expressed fears about inter-faith relations,
already strained by the September 11, 2001 attacks, and wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

Most infections that people get while in the hospital resist at least one
antibiotic. For example, half of all Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States are resistant to penicillin, methicillin, tetracycline and erythromycin. Methicillin-resistant staph aureus or MRSA killed an
estimated 19,000 people in the United States alone in 2005.

The Ogasawara chain, made up of more than 30 subtropical and tropical
islets some 240 kilometres north of Iwo Jima, were put under the control of the United States after World War II, and returned to Japan in 1968.
The remote islands have preserved their unique biological habitats and have been dubbed the Galapagos of the Orient. After sounding the
initial alert there was no threat of a destructive widespread tsunami and
no nearby islands were thought to be in the tsunami danger zone.

All villagers, irrespective of their livelihoods, would
get rice from the buffer stock during crisis periods. Rangamati inhabitants can cultivate rice during periods when the lake
waters recede from December to April. Their land goes under water during
the rainy season starting in May every year. They also depend on fishing, but for only eight to nine months a year as
the government bans fishing in Kaptai lake during the rainy season. Fishermen will be able to take rice from the bank provided that they give
more to the community stock when they earn more. About 300 villages throughout the hill tracts had accepted the Rice Bank concept.

Insufficient emphasis has been placed on protecting child victims of
trafficking and ensuring that any judicial proceedings brought against them are child sensitive.

According to 2009 data, Cook Islands and Fiji Islands had
their highest budget deficit as a percentage of GDP at 11.7 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively. The Cook Islands and Kiribati had the highest trade deficits at 92.7 percent.

Japan has abundant supplies of methane hydrate in deep-sea regions off its
coast. And sea floor hydrothermal deposits that contain copper, zinc, gold
and other metals are distributed off the coast of the Ogasawara Islands.

The situation is critical. Coral reefs are showing signs of stress from local pressures at the same time that climate change is starting to have a bigger and bigger impact on reefs. Overfishing has reduced the quality of many reefs. The people of Sabah should be very proud that they own such a top marine eco-system in the world. Semporna is not only a world-class diving spot. The expedition, encountered 844 species of fish,
including 756 species of reef fish, more than 90 coral shrimp species and
more than 100 algae species. The scientists also discovered some coral shrimp and gall crab species that were new to science and a rare mushroom coral species, the lithophyllon ranjithi.

Suspected insurgents killed three people, including a toddler,
and wounded at least 34 Tuesday in a grenade, gun and car bomb attack on
two restaurants and a hotel in Thailand’s south.

The two-family home had been converted to at least seven single-room units, according to the Department of Buildings, which yesterday issued three violations. The house had 10 residents, including the
owners and their two children. There were no smoke detectors in the
basement, and two elsewhere in the house had no batteries, fire inspectors
found. “I heard a huge bang; I heard screams, so I looked through the window and saw flames coming out of the basement. Blue, red – it was raging.”

4) In the Front Smaller Pouch Front Zippered Area: a) 1 x Bendigo Bank (Australia) Internet Banking Key Code Machine with “The
light is on but nobody is home” Neck Holder, approximate Value of AUD$50.
b) A plastic bag containing the following keys from my Laptop Keyboard
approximate Value of AUD$200: i) Shift Key, ii) Letter ‘A’ Key, iii) Letter ‘Z’ Key, and iv) Caps Lock key. c) Toe Nail Cutters attached by an Elastic (Rubber) Band to Finger Nail Cutters, approximate Value of AUD$25,
d) 1 x one (1) Gigabyte Memory Stick with World War II Photos on it (a
Folder name of “Extras for Jaime” on it, approximate Value of AUD$200, e)
2 x Parker Pen without ink sticks, approximate Value of AUD$12, f) 1 x
Nokia Phone Headphone Attachment, approximate Value of AUD$25, g) 1 x
Infra-red Mouse Pouch (with possible instruction sheet inside), approximate Value of AUD$15, h) Another battery for the Sealife Underwater Camera, approximate Value of AUD$100, 5) In one of the Mesh Side Pockets was the SITIA & Coastwatchers Post Office Box Keys on a series of Key Rings and Tags approximate Value of SBD$200.

The brutal violence brings the death toll over the past two days to four
and the number of casualties to more than 50 as a result of militant
attacks in the troubled Thai south, which is gripped by a bitter five-year
uprising.

Increased aridity is making the drylands the most conflict prone region of the world. If you really want to look at the root causes of the conflicts in Somalia and Darfur, and drylands of Asia, you will understand that people in their quest to have access to productive land and water for life, they end up in conflict. In nothern Nigeria, where increased aridity means lack of fodder is driving herders south into the areas farmed for corn. Conflict is almost inevitable.

With 13,000 murders in 2007, the last time figures were published, violent crime consistently registers as Venezuelans’ main concern in opinion polls.
Gun laws are lax in the South American oil exporter. The government estimates there are 6 million firearms circulating among the population of about 28 million. Venezuela’s murder rate is about 8 times that of the United States. Crime has risen under President Hugo Chavez, who has focused on poverty reduction to tackle violence in poor city neighborhoods.

But it warned in a bulletin shortly after the quake: Earthquakes of this
size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within 100 kilometres of the earthquake epicentre. When a massive 8.8-magnitude quake, one of the most powerful on record,
struck off Chile’s coast in February, Japan issued its top tsunami alert
and ordered more than half a million people to evacuate seaside areas. Authorities later apologised after a wave of 120 centimetres hit and caused no injuries.

After missing work for several days, Jose Emilio Galindo Robles, the
regional director for Radio Universidad de Guadalajara in Ciudad Guzmon,
was found dead inside his home. Authorities have given little information about the case but have confirmed that the journalist
was killed. A motive had not been confirmed. Galindo, 43, known as “Pepe Galindo,” had experience as a reporter and
researcher of environmental topics, especially environmental legislation.
He won the Second Biennial of Latin American Radio for a report about
political crimes in Mexico, El Informador adds. In 2004 he won first prize
in the Biennial of National Radio for a report about pollution of the
Santiago River caused by private companies.

The rebels, travelling by car and on three motorcycles, hurled a hand
grenade into a restaurant at lunchtime in Sungai Kolok, a border
town in Narathiwat province, wounding four people.

NDM-1 resists many different types of antibiotic. In at least one case, the only drug that affected it was colistin, a toxic older antibiotic.
Thus far, the majority of isolates in countries throughout the world can
be traced to subjects who have traveled to India to visit family or have
received medical care there. However, the ability of this genetic element to spread rapidly among Enterobacteriaceae means that there will almost certainly be numerous secondary cases throughout the world that are unrelated to travel to the Indian subcontinent.

They then opened fire on customers, shooting dead a Buddhist police officer and injuring another four people. A three-year-old boy who
suffered gunshot wounds later died at hospital. The gunmen then began shooting at another nearby restaurant, killing the owner, a 45-year-old Buddhist woman, and wounding four people. A car bomb exploded in front of one of the town’s hotels soon afterwards, wounding 23 people.

Around 20 percent of the world’s most powerful earthquakes strike Japan,
which sits on the “Ring of Fire” surrounding the Pacific Ocean. In 1995 a magnitude-7.2 quake in the port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people. But high building standards, regular drills and a sophisticated tsunami
warning system mean that casualties are often minimal.

“The most obscene thing I came across was a copy of the Bhagvad Gita,
the pages torn and soaked in liquid cocaine.” This oil-rich nation continues to be the transhipment point for cocaine coming from South America to the US and Canada. Special anti-drug officers have been trained both at home and abroad in the government’s fight against drugs. The accused are to appear in courts shortly. Trinidad and Tobago is home to a large Indian diaspora sourced from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar between 1845 and 1917. The immigrants were brought here during the British rule to work on the sugar and cocoa plantation.

The explosive weighed 30 to 50 kilograms and was hidden in a Honda Civic
with a fake licence plate, which had passed a screening by a bomb detection machine. The bomb was hidden in the passenger car and detonated by radio signal; two of the wounded were in a serious condition.

An explosive hidden in a motorcycle went off in Pattani
province close to where Buddhists were attending a festival, wounding 17 — five of them seriously.

Desertification and rising aridity were the ultimate cause of the food
price crisis of 2007-8, as it began with a drought in
Australia. This year’s price spike started with a drought in Russia.
Another example of desertification’s impact was the loss of land bordering
the Gobi desert leading to record dust storms that damage the health of
people in Seoul in South Korea, thousands of kilometres away. Combating
desertification and soil degradation requires better land management,
better equipment and new technology to manage water, drought resistant
seeds and payment to communities for preserving the soil.

Four gunmen on two motorcycles opened fire on a 34-year-old Muslim rubber worker as he travelled to work in Narathiwat province; he died at the scene. The bloody rebellion has claimed more than 3,900 lives since it erupted in Thailand’s Muslim-majority southern provinces, bordering Malaysia, in January 2004.

In the early morning the little broadcasting center of the community radio
station “Radyo Cagayano” was being burned
down completely. At about two in the morning, eight mummed soldiers
infiltrated the premises in the small town of Baggao in the Northern
Philippines, captivated and gagged the employees and ignited the entire
radio station with petrol. Radyo Cagayano had just started broadcasting a
few weeks ago and had especially stood up for the interests of local
farmers.

Experts have been warning for years that poor hospital practices and the
overuse of antibiotics spread dangerous bacteria, but practices are
changing only slowly. The fact that there is widespread nonprescription use of antibiotics in India, a country in which some areas have less than ideal sanitation and a high prevalence of diarrheal disease and crowding, sets the ideal stage for the development of such resistance.

The Tongan people were acquainted with the Manahune under the name Haa-Meneuli. but The Haa-Meneuli appear to be Tongans. The Mana’une people of Mangaia Island, Cook Group,are stated by Taniera, their chief, to have come originally to Mangaia from Rapa-nui or Easter Island, and that in appearance they resemble the people of the Tokerau Islands.

The shadowy rebels, who have never publicly stated their goals, target
Muslims and Buddhists alike and both civilians and members of the security
forces, usually with shootings and bombings. The attacks echoed a serious blast in August, which ripped through a restaurant in Narathiwat packed with government officials, wounding at least 42 people. Tensions have simmered since the region, formerly an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate, was annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand in 1902.

While biodiversity is extremely high, the downside is that the population is glaringly low due to over-exploitation. Coral reefs provide a haven for fish and other creatures, and larger fish tend to congregate around reefs because they are good places to feed. Bleaching — a whitening of corals that occurs when symbiotic algae living within coral tissues are expelled — is an indication of stress caused by environmental triggers such as fluctuations in ocean temperature. Depending on many factors, bleached coral may recover over time or die. Semporna is within the 5 million sq km of sea straddling the waters of Sabah, the Philippines, Indonesia, Timor Leste, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

Irian Jaya Blue Tongue Skinks are from Indonesia, and are often what you see in the pet stores for $199.99. They are snatched from the wild and sold to pet stores for about $25. Irian Jaya’s are truly terrific BTS that are capable of shades of orange, brown, and red. These babies 100% captive bred. Irian Jaya (and Indonesians) are the easiest type of BTS to find, but keep in mind, finding a truly captive bred bluey can prove to be very difficult. Nearly ALL pet store blue tongues are wild caught. Very, very rarely do you see Northerns in pet stores because it’s simply not cost-efficient for reptile businesses to breed them.

A cheque, for over K1 million belonging to the Telefomin people in West
Sepik, lost in a taxi by a politician, has been found. The cheque was
returned to Telefomin MP Peter Iwei’s parliament office following
widespread publicity and public appeal. Telefomin has a population of about 40,000 people who share a common border with Indonesia.

The idea is one of the ways of sharing poverty in the villages. Their spirit is: they will eat together and starve together. A cyclical plague of rats was likely to continue destroying crops in the region in the coming season. The hill tracts are experiencing a severe infestation of rats, which occurs every 50 years or so, as bamboo flowers produce seeds high in protein, and rats breed four times faster than normal during this time. The rats destroy the paddy and vegetable fields resulting in severe food crisis among the communities. The rat infestation grew over the last two years and may continue for another two to three years. The rodent plague is also affecting at least 25,000 people in six villages along the Indian state of Mizoram.

The Inuit believe our world has tilted on its axis and this contributes to climate change. The elders in  Pangnirtung, Iqaluit, Resolute Bay and Igloolik – all believe this phenomenon to be true. It’s been very interesting to see elders and hunters across Nunavut make the same observation about the world having shifted on its axis. Elders across Nunavut have noticed that the sun and stars have changed their position in the sky. The sun is now rising higher and staying longer than it used to. Importantly, in the far north, you must remember that the sun goes below the horizon for a large part of the year, and therefore Inuit are very familiar with its celestial pattern. Indeed, Inuit are telling stories about how in the old days, during the dark months, they would travel the land by dog team using stars as their navigational tools. So, when Inuit talk about the sun and stars, they do so with an intimate knowledge of these systems.

March 9, 2010

GRENADINES

Filed under: airlines,art,disaster,disease/health,General,global islands,grenadines,haiti,human rights,ideology,language,tourism,Uncategorized,weather — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 11:57 pm

I recall having to run for my connection to Miami because AA had trouble
getting the jet way to work. Didn’t head into the city to see the print
exhibit as the bus connections took too long and I was hesitant to leave
my bags with the storage operation in the airport (no lockers.) Grenada
Customs scrutinised my passport photo (I guess I have lost some weight)
but recognizing my haircut after I removed my 12hr cap seemed to clinch
it. Gave me 90 days no problem and were surprised I was going to be
staying on Petite Martinique for so long. Expensive cab ride from
airport ($20US I think) to Lazy Lagoon (where I had a reservation for
about $47US) but the bar was very loud and I was very tired so we went
over to the Tropicana Hotel where I was sure the girl said $35US but
later once the taxi had left, claimed the rate was $75US. I tried to get
it down to at least $50US to no avail. That _could be the actual rate as
the room was air conditioned and had a private balcony overlooking the
Carnage (natural harbour) but had seen better days. Made some good
recordings of some sort of cicadas and rain squalls through the night.
Had some fry chicken, rice, vegetables and beer from the adjoining
eatery. Watched the tourism TV channel in my room. Slept a little then
scrambled to get a morning taxi to the ferry dock. Very windy and
difficult to walk on board the Osprey. Some good pics of dramatic mist
rising from pockets of forest along the shore. Into Carriacou and PM
where E Clement from Palm Beach Restaurant came to meet me and take me
to my apartment. (a negotiated $400US/mo) A steep climb up the hill past
many goats and sheep. His web site implies that the apts are right on
the beach, but this was fine, a nicely equipped place with satellite TV
and with a great view across to Petite St Vincent, Carriacou and Union
Islands.

PM time line (from public school building):

1700s – Europeans settled on the island 1795 – Julien Fedoris Rebellion.
A Petite Martiniqian, Joachim Philip fought along side Fedon. 03-03-1795
– Joachim Philip led an attack on the Britisn settlement in Charlotte
Town (Gouyave) GND. 1850s – Church and School were established on the
island. 1897 – Father Joseph Aquart arrived on the island. 101 – A new
school building was completed. 1937 to the present – School building was
completed. 1941 – Alfred Hyacinth Roberts was appointed Principal of
this School. The first Petite Martiniquian to achieve such position.
1944 – The Old RC Church was destroyed. 1947 – The present RC Church
building was completed. 1953 – A Petite Martiniquian, the Hon Eva
Sylvester was elected to the Legislative Council. The first Grenadian
female to have achieved such position. 1955 – Hurrican Janet claimed the
lives of two Petite Martiniquians. 1961 – A serious drought affected the
island. 1970 – The first Post Office was opened 1972 – Michael Caesar
appointed a senator. The first Petite Martiniquian to achieve such. 1982
– Electricity was brought to the island. 1995 – The present post office
was completed. 1996 – A police station was established upstairs the
health centre. 1997 – Great controversy over the building of an American
sponsored Coast Guard Base. 1997 – The present police station completed.
1996 – Ministry of Carriacou and Petite Martinique Affairs, Petite
Martinique office opened. (compiled by Dwight Logan)

I feel asleep in the sun out in front of my place overlooking the
beautiful caribbean blue waters with a big glass of cold rum punch,
listening to a radio programme from SVG (St Vincent and the Grenadines.)
When I awoke, my earphones and the cord holding my sunglasses were
missing! I finally spotted them way over in the undergrowth — I can
only assume that the goats, who occasionally make their way up here to
eat the longer grass, from the house below, must have yanked them off! A
couple of days ago I sadly lost my nice gold Revo sunglasses in the
beach surf. I can usually wear them in shallow water with the cord
attached, but a big wave snuck up behind me and dragged them out to sea
— I still go back and scan the shoreline for whatever might remain of
them. That little stretch of beach has quite strong surf as I’m amazed
by how much sand, coral, conch shells and big stones has been
redistributed from one day to the next. You can hear — I made some
recordings — the round stones tumbling back into the water with each
receding wave. The mosquitos are very small and silent and seemingly
undeterred by deet — only a stiff breeze (plenty of that right now) or
electric fan keep them at bay. One night I grew tired of the fan-noise,
turned it off, and awoke the next morning with many itchy welts. I’ve
now also rigged up my mosquito net which seems to help.But if I continue
to get badly bitten I’ll have to consider getting off the island and see
if that helps. Apparently there is a small boat, Mystic, primarily for
school and mail, that goes to Carriacou at 7:30 am and returns in the
afternoon, so I may make that trip in any event, and see what options
are available there. I had previously made some accommodation inquiries
online and so have those contacts. PSV is a privately owned island that
I could also visit — I think this is where the smuggling activity
happens, as well as being an celebrity resort (Mic Jagger and others
whose names I’m not likely to recognize) E Clement (a common name on PM — I wonder if N, and I are related (?)scottish boat builder heritage.
Anyway, E is expecting some of his 10 siblings, wife and children for
christmas, and wanted to have a big screen tv for them, which he
‘ordered’ from PSV — but the coast guard caught and seized the boat
last night, along with the big TV! While I understand that Grenada duty
is not paid in these operations, I’d guess that duty and taxes must be
being paid somewhere, because I’m pretty sure these TVs aren’t
manufactured on PSV.but somehow there are some great savings to be
had…Fancy liquors seem pretty cheap and a big draw for the yachties
who come ashore. Despite the names of places here, no one except the
French yachties speaks the language or patois anymore. Other islands,
Petite Dominique, Moupin, Union, and the Tobago Keys can be reached from here for a price.

Yesterday (Sun Dec 13) the freighter MV Gemstar, left for its annual
passenger (party passage — think gigantic pounding speakers that you
can feel in your chest, in an otherwise empty metal cargo vessel ) trip
to St Vincent for only $40EC. I stepped aboard, looked around and took
some pictures and later made a little film of the ship leaving the dock
— a scruffy Caribbean Santa tended to the lines and waved from the
galley as the ship made its boozy passage on quite choppy seas. It was a
tempting offer but I’m sure I couldn’t have dealt with that much
‘volume’ overnight and then have to contend with a new reportedly
somewhat dangerous SV port in the early a.m. Made a good recording of a
big flock of birds with other intermittent sounds in a tree in front of
Melodies’ beachfront guesthouse at dusk — thinking I might do this on a
regular basis… The wind presents big difficulties, but I may try using
one of my mesh shirts to baffle more of the noise. Heard again that the
duty-free days may be coming to an end… an unpopular VAT tax and there
may be shortages in the shops — so I stocked-up on white rum and fruit
juice! Mailed more postcards, along with a matchbox to Ruud (a
Netherlands mail-artist) — forgot to watch if the stamps were actually
applied to the cards and matchbox… hope they are honest. Maybe I’ll
check on the matchbox today… just to give them a discrete idea of my
concern. Big, bright white yacht sliding past — apparently there are
many more and even bigger ones yet to come — February and January being
the most popular and driest months.

tyranny refuses you any societal existence… one by one everyone and
every institution turns against you

bought some “brail” nuts from an itinerant vendor down by the dock…
they had to boiled for 20 minutes… they’d be pretty good if they were
roasted instead (same deal with peanuts probably)… they taste vaguely
like brazil nuts, but a smaller rounded shape and are apparently from
the breadfruit tree — which I hope to find here as well

“I DON’T COUNT”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (transliterate the sounds of numbers one through
10)

example:

won you free your jive sex heaven hates mine then

enter to win; center two sin: all entries published (lulu, scribd, — be
sure to include your name/info with all posts to lists/bcc:
bbrace@eskimo.com.. best gets a limited Global Islands Project coin
edition: printed card with 6 (lowest common denomination) coins from the
last six islands visited!

Watched two turtles being butchered yesterday on the pier– one green
turtle and a hawksbill, while searching for a motorboat ride ($20EC) to
Carriacou. (Planned to attend a “phrang” event held the weekend before
Xmas but by the time we got there and then took a minibus into town,
there was only an hour or so before the big Osprey ferry did its usual
run back to PM. ($30EC) Felt badly for these ancient creatures,
upside-down on land with their throats slashed. Last week I spotted a
small ‘land turtle’ crawling along the road and took his picture which
only alerted the neighbourhood children to his presence. I fear he ended
up in someone’s cooking pot.Sounds as if there is harvesting limitation
however — probably during breeding-season.

Bought some colourful sweet potatoes and passionfruit, which I don’t
think I’ve ever tried. A lot of seeds to try and eliminate for very
little, slightly tart juice.
airport
The sweet potatoes were very good — even cold they are tasty and sweet
with some salt. E got his smuggled big_screen TV after all, but he
thinks he may have to pay duty which will more than double the price.
His sister arrives tomorrow and presumably will be pleased to see big_TV
programs. I said I wasn’t particularly interested i n Direct-TV service
($20/mo) but E gave it to me until there were other guests./The good
news is that the boat’s owner didn’ t lose his boat and but lost the
goods from Grenada. He owns the biggest grocery store in town so we’ll
see how that all plays out…

I caught a tiny yellowfin fish off the pier this morning with my new
miniature rod — it doesn’t seem to cast though… which seems strange.
I will have him for breakfast tomorrow. Saw a barracuda in the water but
not sure if my rod could bring him in or not… Last week I bought a
spotted red fish called Hine — would like to catch one of those as it
was very tasty. Only the locals are permitted to take fish with spears.
Bought some lentils. white and red beans, popcorn, vegetable oil, tiny
yellow mild peppers which I eat raw, dried cocoanut for my curry rice
and three brown eggs — I have one with grated cheese on toast for
breakfast on my eating days. There’s a lady up the road who does a
little BBQ on Saturdays but so far that’s been a non-eating day
unfortunately.

The neighboring outlying islands — PSV and Union actually seem to be
moving in closer.

Well, I finally remembered that the semi-circular bar has to go back
from the reel in order to cast. So that went pretty well this morning
except that the line got all snarled and I didn’t catch anything. Or, as
the fishermen, who seem surprised to see me there on the pier, say, “are
you holding anything?” Cecilia, who owns/owned a guesthouse way up on an impossible/near vertical incline, was on the pier selling salt-ham
sandwiches ($5EC) and apple-juice. She asked me if I wanted to ‘leave’
here — finally realized that she was saying ‘live here.’ I’ll have to
go and visit what’s left of her PM museum.

New guests next-door: not sure where they’re from, maybe the UK. What a
ruckus! For hours they loudly argued about having to climb this hill to
the Palm Beach apartments and whether they should stay. (Plus they run
their TV with the DirectTV box,’all night/day long. I’m left with one
horrid HBO-family channel. ) The website _is misleading, I too thought
the apartments were apart of the restaurant-complex on the beach. But
no, it’s not an insignificant climb up here; but the view of the water
is great and I’m getting used to it. And the goats merely stare at me
now rather than attempting to run… as far as their tethers permit.

There are blue-uniformed female workers who travel to PSV on a boat in
the morning and return at dusk as I’m recording the birds. They don’t
look very happy. There’s some chance that I could get a ride over there,
but would be restricted as to where I could go. There are prerequisite
‘rich & famous security issues’

PM apparently has one of the highest personal incomes in the Caribbean.
Don’t really see it, unless it’s the smuggling and maybe fish sales..
There are five guesthouses on the island.. There was a Christmas
‘serande’ last night that I had expressed an interest in but I guess
they saw that I was sleeping — I asked to be awakened next time.

Finally fixed my fishing rod — all the line was wrapped-up in the gear
complex somehow. Wound some of the untangled line back on the reel.
Should be good to go tomorrow morning. Also have a short ‘mooching rig’
set-up with ‘plastic pumpkin power slugs .” If I manage to catch a nice
fish I will share it with visitors (from a MN dairy-farm, on the lam for
several years) down below at the Millennium Guest house (next door to
the Matthew’s grocery shop.)

almost caught a fish this morning from the fuel dock — they don’t allow
fishing because I guess that dissuades the yachts from coming in; but I
was there at dawn before they were open. Getting better with the rod and
reel — it doesn’t really work all that well, but it was only$9 or so
from Big Five sporting goods in Portland. I’ll try for some fish again
tomorrow. Curiously I couldn’t find any nutmeg in town, despite this
being the Spice Islands. Apparently it’s good i rum punch. Had some BBQ
chicken from Mammy up the road last night. Pretty good. There were a
lot of people milling about, probably spilled-over from the ‘serenading’
that I could occasionally hear… a fiddle, guitar, something
percussive… all out of tune. Apparently you can join in and go house
to house; hopefully that might be possible at some point. Some drunken
local youths were slaughtering and butchering a cow and a pig on the
pier — it’s the Xmas season.

This little 20-yr old Sharp PDA is working pretty well, aside from
phreaking-out and opening all applications in quick succession when
plugged-i to 220V power. I usually just write names of things and ideas
for the GIP books in my Moleskin book because I typically can’t read my
ow writing and it’s too much trouble to transcribe it all. I should be
able to download this txt file to my computer at home.

Big Christmas “White Dance” at the RC public school. Typically loud for
the Caribbean but only went fro 10pm to 5am, only that long because the
band was late arriving. I went down to look around while they were
testing the sound system and realized it was going to be way too loud
for me. But noticed some interesting wall-paintings of Grenada political
personages and an outline of PM history which I photographed this
morning while on my way to buy some more sweet potatoes (black vine)
$5EC/lb (this time.) Still no White Jack overproof rum (140) at
Matthew’s store (or anywhere else), he offered something that no one was
willing to pronounce more than twice, “Jack-and-I” (?) in unmarked plain
bottles for $25EC which I purchased. No fish, not even a bite, this
morning. E told me I should use bait (instead of a lure, but that always
seems like cheating somehow) — apparently there are nighttime snails
that can be used, I may relent. There is some latent hostility towards
visitors which of course surfaces after imbibing… one silly f*ckers
got all upset because I didn’t want to help him carry his trash along
the beach this morning while I was o my way to fish. Another drunkard
decided to berate me for not wanting to talk with him while on my way
home. People here have that irritating

Not only can I not detect the tourist-promotional fragrance of nutmeg
and other spices in the air. there is none to be had in any of the
stores!

Caught one tiny fish this morning which I’ll use for bait, and one big
fish snapped my fishing line, taking my brass lure, swivel and sinker as
well!

Missed an outdoor karokee event last night : that,s what happens when
you go to bed too early. Should be some sort of musical Christmas day
celebration this afternoon at one at the “fisheries building.” >>
nothing there most of the day except recorded pop/reggae, but tagged
along with a Christmas “serenade band” that visited peoples’ houses in
exchange for libation. Pretty cool tradition: fiddle, guitars, drum,
rythum blocks, gourd and tincan shakers. Was called a “stupid white
f*cker… and what are you doing here…” yes, and merry christmas to
you too. There is hostility toward “foreigners” but then, unless you’re
a direct descendant of the Awark or Carib Indians, then you “don’t
belong here” either. Most islanders are quite polite but it’s a veiled
British kind of response that’s difficult to read. The usual reply,
which I heard in Belize and Nicaraugua too, is “ok” or “alright” as if
you had asked “how are you?” It may be more frustrating attempting to
understand someone is likely speaking patois English rather than an
entirely different language…not too many phrasebooks for this.
Strangely enough, Cousin N (and I) are likely related to Scottish
shipbuilding forbears of one of the oldest families (Clement) on the
island! Took a picture of Clement tombstones on my morning walk today.
Some mornings it’s a near-humourous cacophony from several households’
very loud stereos all playing at once, along with all the goats braying
(?)

There may be some maritime tradition about discharging last year’s
flares… anyway. that’s what’s been happening here the last two days…
hard to imagine that they’d be very useful in locating a v vessel in
distress as they veer way beyond, although impressively high, the
ignition point.

Never had so much trouble with mosquitos… I’m wearing $5 worth of DEET
but they still find some unprotected patch. Another red flare! Hear some
singing down below. Three more! If I lived here it would have to be way
up on the hillside but that’s a strenuous climb! Wonder why so few of
the rooftops are painted white or jus t left plain galvanized steel…
most are blue, red, or green. Some more music from further up on the
hill… must figure out how to get up there with out getting too
scratched-up. Can’t be more than two or three households and microwave
tower…Two more flares.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The imagery in the 12hr project can be seen to poetically emulate the
blank, indifference typical of conceptual art and its documentation.
Yet. at the same time it’s clearly a dangerous affront to the conducive
elite and corrupt Artworld — there’s no other explanation for its
exclusion from their increasingly exclusive institutional discourse. The
12hr project has achieved its own orbit and raison d’etre. Perhaps this
is intimidating or alienating but what other recourse/discourse can it
expect? Well, at least some marginal acknowledgement and some financial
support! But no, after 30 years, there’s nothing but refusal and
indifference… the project has returned and enhanced this response; I’m
seriously, repeatedly and deliberately threatened afterall. Eventually I
will return fire and achieve maximum damage as per the Western maxim;
why not, it would be a very responsible response. Maybe I suspected all
along that my work would continue to be denied and so developed this
possibly corrosive aesthetic to shelter my poetry. It could be
rationalized safely in this manner but deep down it’s really much more
pristine and positive and curiously sheltered. You may notice a rhythmic
reoccurrence of sorted subject matters while the incidental lyrical
shots sketch a story-line that very few follow. Your history-tale is
just a big pack of lies after all. Snoop Dog cartoons. Slow rap. No
deal. Literally tens of thousands of people all over the world follow
this project now but sadly very very few decide to pay for this artwork.
There’s institutional-art which pays someone else and the rest which
pays nothing. Eliminating the art-institutions can only help alleviate
this absurd corrupt complicity. Meanwhile the art-acolytes grin and
incredulously, are seemingly grateful for the rare dribble of
chump-change in return for their insipid obeisance and betrayal. There’s
no middle ground here, you need to step way back from the table and
fight the architects of this dismal atrocity. Burn these
upper-middleclass social clubs masquerading as art-galleries/schools,
below the ground but not before nailing the administrators to the walls.
Record their screams and the sounds of ecstatic, licking flames as
glorious anthems to a restored, honest purpose. Rebuild from these newly
freed grassroots… The 12hr project has a Zen-like approach to
depicting an essentially non-existent present. The posted, internet
scans are close approximations of the printed photographs (whose
exhibition/printed-publication will likely continue to be denied as
well): they serve as FPOs (a production printing term meaning For
Position Only.) It’s serial, ostensibly populist nature (initially as
ISBN-books and faxes), denies exclusive Artworld nonsensical-hierarchies
and adapts seamlessly with Internet listservs, newsgroups, ftp-sites and
their mirrors, mailing-lists, and later, blogs and social-media. The
“twelveth hour” of impending destruction is ever-present and
simultaneously non-existent. There’s just a rarefied, residual,
reconstituted, uniquely-mediated poetic identity remaining…

#mce_temp_url#

But because the project demands some continuous, though slight effort
from recipients, it’s presumably discarded only because it’s not
conveniently, submissively packaged as rapid, received ‘critical’
inside-fodder-dissemination for the Artworld acolytes. Well,Yes , I
insist that you at least begin to understand the work before you open
your mouths and develop your hideous institutional ‘careers.’

Somali pirates of the Caribbean. I really wasn’t sure if it was a cop or
a just-released prisoner who accosted me outside the police-station this
morning: he was wearing a Grenada do-rag and tank-top and shorts, and
said something-something-island? I stood my ground and said “excuse me” and made him come to me. Drunken locals, beer bottle-in-hand, wander-into the precinct to shoot the breeze, but “foreigners” are treated
somewhat differently. I plan o becoming increasingly discourteous as my
departure date arrives. Wouldn’t mind visiting Union island and taking a
tour of the Tobago Keys, but moving around these parts is expensive. The
helicopter is in the air. But here’s the thing, I usually have similar
feelings on every island to some degree. I have this 10-10 flexible,
exponential axiom: if it takes 10 days to be acknowledged, then it’ll
likely take 10 years to be accepted, so this is likely a 20 year island.
Yet I suspect that I’m drawn to islands to in some way determine why I’m
routinely excluded, or why societies are apparently always based on
exclusionary principles. This is institutional logic, where the
overarching pseudo-precept preempts everything else that even dares to
attempt self-definition. I’m not the least bit surprised or alarmed by
~terrorism,~ just another name for ~freedom fighters~ what the hey….
displace, essentially-prolong and hopefully disrupt more of the same
privileged pointlessness. If there’s actually a God, beside deserving a
swift kick in the ass, his name should be Oblivion — unfortunately He’s
really not around any time soon. Listened to an Irish pastor (who’s
lived in Kenya) preach about the Potato-famine without once implicating
the government-of-the-day for needlessly causing its citizens to
starve-to-death. Why does corruption continue to usurp commonsense?

Had a big brown with speckles fish, interested in my lure, had to drag
it by him several times before he snapped at it. Must review my
fish-hook tying technique… have now lost all my lures! And as this is
a community of fishermen, who don’t tease the fish… there won’t be any
available here. as E said, fishermen use what they know works – bait –
Now he wants to charge me extra for electricity because I apparently run
the fan a lot. It’s necessary to keep the mosquitos at bay. The
Caribbean is starting to feel more and more like a rip-off for this
little fish. The goats are usually tethered from front ankle to stake
driven in the ground. Inevitably, they wind the cord around and around
the stake until they’re on very short tether. The herd from the house
just below, is sometimes stacked-out but today they were everywhere…
down by the school and the harbour and up above the house here. Maybe
they need to be tied-in-place once in a while so they (or their owners)
know where home-is. They’re horizontal irises make them seem
otherworldly, but always skittish and agile. Hope to include little
posterized folios of their heads for the GIP book.

Batteries are always an issue… I suspect it has something to do with
the 220V power-supply. My rechargeable AA cells which I use for my SW
radio no longer seem to enough of a charge to power the radio — same
story for the gumstick batteries for the Minidisc recorders…. despite
manufacturers claims of no-memory effect, the retention capability just
dwindles to nothing. Fortunately, the add-on AA battery pack which I
load with lithium cells helps-out. The battery-problem used to be worse
with the Fuji camera (I’d have to carry a few sets of AA’s with me
everyday); this new Nikon Coolpix runs a very long time on 2 AA
lithiums.

They somehow blow conch shells to announce the selling of fish on the
pier. Only Jack fish (mackerel I think: not so tasty) yesterday, so I
passed but E presented me with one this morning probably to appease this
rent/power increase. Even deep-fried, these fish are mealy… I may just
go or threaten to go, to Union Island… but that would cost a couple of
hundred.

Surprising how often guesthouse owners will tell you that it’s quite
safe and unnecessary to lock windows and doors… but, when _they leave
for the day, you always hear the locks.

BB’s travel-tips: apply your DEET (I use Ben’s 100%) _after your
sunscreen… also provides an especially curious sheen to your skin.

Purchase an extended-shank bicycle lock to secure common wardrobe closet
doors. I also travel with a heavy cable and Brinks key-lock for securing
either a bicycle or room. Third-world locks are not reliable and
key-copies circulate, especially on islands, despite there being an
apparent absence of locksmiths (?) Usually the locks are pretty-much
insignificant anyway as other points of entry are facile. Freaky! Only
because the prospect of recovering a PP/greencard is hellish within the
visa constraints.

I use a large Otter-box with miniature padlock, in combination sometimes
with a Pack-safe cable-mesh enclosure locked to something substantial to
secure passport and cash and electronics.

Copy of passport/greencard online and on mp3 players.

Never tell anyone the exact day of your departure as this when robberies
are most likely to occur — when you don’t have time to report the
incident.

Bring a short extension cord, multi-tap receptor, lightbulb socket
adaptor, sink sealer, rubber doorstops, duct tape, and laundry line.
You,ll use at least one of these everytime!

Tourist offices are often a good source for free postcards — a
significant savings if you send many.

New Years Day

After much stress and anxiety I decided to leave the “bug house” on PM.
Also picked-up a nasty centipede bite below my right eye and on my ear.
Happened at night while asleep under my mosquito net. I awoke to see my
swollen face in the morning, never saw the long black bugs with many
ridges that routinely invades the house. E told me they didn’t bite. At
first I thought it was a rash of mosquito bites and although opinion
seems divided, E thought it was a centipede (there’s a local name for
them which I forget.) Looks infected and swollen; applied Neosporone and
cleaned with rubbing alcohol. Hired a speedboat to take me to Union
Island (100EC – a little expensive I think) Went to the medical clinic
where they gave a free shot of hydracorasone. May go back again to have
them reexamine. Also will try the pharmacy for some penicillin ointment.
Staying at an apartment in Big Sand. (1100 EC per month plus power – I
overpaid $440US, which I’ll have subtracted from the power bill or next
month’s rent. This is very different island, with a different accent and
more relaxed attitude, popular with many visiting yachties. About 5000
people – more than 5 times PM population. Feels very peaceful with big
green waves crashing on the beach. Not so many mosquitos and the
apartment has window screens but I,ve setup my net this morning after
spotting a couple of bites from last night.

Sandflies here in the morning too. Picked up many new welts while
chatting with the Rasta who lives across the way. He says that I can go
to St Vincent and then to Beguia by ferry and that his sister has a
guesthouse in SV which apparently has the largest botanical garden in
the western hemisphere, which I’d sure to visit. Bequia is a whaling
community. We talked about snow and other natural disasters.’There is a
volcano in SV that is set to go. He recommended the movie 2012. Pretty
much everyone here on this street seems to be related. A neighbour’s dog
took one of my shoes from the porch, but I found it. Walked into Aston
then back over to Clifton where I got some Fucidin H antibiotic from the
pharmacy for my inflamed facial centipede bite. The pharmacist said if
this doesn’t work I’ll to take an oral antibiotic.

I’m looking forward to my eating-day tomorrow. I cooked some rice and
beans with lentils and carried back some curry, hot sauce, box of
matches, tiny green peppers like I had in PM, tin of cocoanut milk,
sardines, three tomatoes. postcards, and a sitting shelf figurine made
in Haiti for V. I.ll probably spend much of the sitting in the sun and
drinking overproof PM rum, on the private pier out behind the apt.

Post office was closed today for inventory but while in Clifton I heard
the sound the sound of a conch shell being blown and knew there were
fresh fish being sold, Bought a nice yellow fin tuna (4 lbs @ 8EC per)
Carried it home and cleaned it on the beach then fried it on the propane
stove in my apt, I broke my fasting rule but only meant to have a small
sample taste, Oh, is it ever good! Still plenty left for a few more
meals. The dog who stole my shoe has become more friendly after
watching me with the fish, Put a few scraps of my fish on hooks dangling
from the pier. A lot of wave action and rocks but there were little
green and yellow striped fish nibbling at the bait so maybe some bigger
ones will show-up.

Union Island History (from a sign on the island):

The first European settlers to arrive on Union Island were Frenchmen.
Jean Augler and Antoine Regaud, who settled here as early at 1763 with
350 slaves. Twenty years later, following the Treaty of Versaillies in
1783, Union Island like the other Grenadines Islands was placed under
the control of England, with Samuel Span and his family becoming the
first owner of the island. To this day there remains a reminder of this
family, in the form of a family cemetery in Ashton. In 1850 the Spans
sold Union Island to Major Collins from St Vincent. He in turn leased
the island to a Scotsman, Charles Mulzac in 1863. The lease was 150
pounds per annum. Along with some of the other Grenadines, Union Island
produced an exceptionally fine strain of cotton, known as
“Marie-Galante.” On his father’s death in 1893, Charles Mulzac’s son
Richard took over the lease of Union Island. His tenure was short. In
1898 a hurricane, coupled with a poor cotton harvest, forced him to sell
his interest in Union Island to a Vincentian, Mr Richard. Twelve years
later in 1910 the British Crown bought the island in what was known as
“the Union Island settlement scheme.” They parceled out 2 acre and 4
acre plots for the local population at favourable credit rates. In 1969
colonial states yielded to “Associated statehood” and ten years later in
1979, St Vincent and the Grenadines became a sovereign independent
nation within the British Commonwealth.

Getting a little annoyed having to leap off the road every time a car
races past.

Went to the Tobago Cayes Marine Park office and Tourist Bureau and
picked up a big pile of brochures about SVG and conservation efforts, as
well as a weekly copy of the Vincentian newspaper (1EC) Headline for Dec
31 reads: “Eight Murders remain Unsolved.” Also some old copies of
Caribbean Compass monthly boating tabloid – very interesting to read
(boaters are being attacked and robbed at various Caribbean night
moorages) and reminded me to look around for Latitude 41 when I get
home, although maybe I should resubscribe to Freshwater News too.

Now the bottom of my right eye is red, don’t know whether some
antibiotic ointment travelled there or whether it’s an eyelash or
something wedged in.

Also had a look at the fancy yacht complex and airport runway next door.
Told Hazel, who runs a clothing shop next to the Clifton Beach
restaurant, that I had paid too much in rent (44EC or 76EC if you use
the 2.67 bankrate — I’ll be paying in EC next month) and that Y(?) her
sister (who runs the hotel I think and my apartment, that the excess
could be applied to my electricity bill. All the dogs are excited about
something outside but it’s usually very peaceful out here. And even i
town while you occasionally hear loud music, it’s nothing like the loud
cacophonies of PM.

Went into town this morning after a big breakfast of more tuna,
cocoanut-curry rice, and red and black-eyed peas with lentils along a
good wallop of hot sauce (sometimes I guess that peppery foods repel
mosquitos…], to mail postcards. ($1EC) While waiting for the TC
Marine Park office to open I purchased an expensive small glass of fruit
punch ($10EC) Apparently I can catch a ride with the park rangers if I
come to the office at 8 am tomorrow morning. There are fairly cool
T-shirts for sale down by the wharf, various colour combinations with
two sayings: Sail Fast/Live Slow or Sail More/Work Less — rather pricey
@45EC but if I get a free ride tomorrow I’ll get one. Likely blue on
orange. Not wanting to waste the 25 minute walk back home (although I
have found a dirt road shortcut), I purchased three boxes of juice (two
pineapple and one fruit punch) @ $9EC — much more expensive here than
PM, which implies that they really are avoiding taxes/duty or something.
This is very obvious with liquor prices. Also spotted a guy wearing a
Scaramouche crew T-shirt and asked about the traditional sailing
excursions to Maureaux, and I forget where else (200EC including lunch
for the day.) Saw a brief spiel about the ship on the TV tourist channel
but looking at it in the harbour from a difference she didn’t really
look all that special, assuming that I was looking at the correct boat,
she was flying a Canadian flag off the stern. The owner was sitting
astride a motorcycle next to the crew member and finally piped up to say
that they may or may not depart Thurs, Fri or Sat. Captain Yannis
cruises is another cheaper possibility but it’s just a big fiberglass
multihull. I’ll start with the rangers tomorrow. There’s a ship’s
chandlery shop in Clifton which I somehow associate with the owner on
motorcycle, that sells even more expensive and foreign groceries —
frequented by yachties in the morning for coffee and croissants; on
parle francais. Maybe one day. Very breezy this morning out on my
essentially private pier; big rolling green breakers. .. The dogs are
pretty bored (they like to chase the horny rooster that I hear every
morning), but they sit together and stare wistfully down the beach,
occasionally going for a brief dip in the sea. The old billy-goat is
tethered in the middle of the yard and will be under the picnic bench by
midday. I am beginning to discern the differences between goats and
sheep, at first I thought they were all goats on PM until Pam (along
with her partner Bill, originally from Minnesota then living in Be…for
five years until they were deported, informed me that there were sheep i
the mix. They look very similar, the goats a little more sinister.

The only edible tropical orchid, Vanilla planifolia (also known as
fragrans), which was originally cultivated around the Vera Cruz area of
Mexico, produces 99 percent of the world’s vanilla. Another genus,
Vanilla tahitensis, cultivated in Tahiti, produces beans with a stronger
aroma but weaker flavour. Vanilla pompona or Antilles Vanilla is
cultivated in the West Indies. Only saffron and cardamom are more
expensive spices than vanilla — the world’s most labour intensive crop.
Vanilla orchids are now grown in many tropical climates with
three-quarters of the world’s supply coming from Madagasgar. Because of
demand and expense, 97% of vanilla used is synthetic.

Well, I’m no longer interested in a Tobago Cayes T-shirt! The Marine
Park office repeatedly lied about the ride over with the rangers being
free. Turns out they want a “tip.” At first 80EC then finally 50EC and
they lied about taking me to a few islands and swimming with the
turtles. I just got dumped off on an island with rich tourists from
neighboring yachts willing to pay $120EC for a lobster dinner. Was
interesting to listen to the stoned ‘cooks’ carry-on amongst themselves
while playing dominos. I guess I was expecting a more pristine
environment, less trash, and something more than a yachters’ picnic
site. The water’s a nice colour. The ride was ridiculously ‘bumpy’,
slamming repeatedly down from wavecrests, really poor boat handling —
they probably wonder why their boat takes on so much water. Saw the
Cap’n Yannis catamaran over there and am no longer interested in that
dreadful tour either. I’ll just take it easy tomorrow, maybe visit the
fort in the morning or the next day. The parrot fish are brilliantly
coloured and have beak-like mouths; you can hear them too, They scrape
algae from the reef and pulverize the coral with their powerful jaws.
What they don’t need as nutrients passes through them as sand — an
adult parrot fish cam create a ton of sand every year.

Visited the fort today; quite a climb to see a pretty unremarkable
remains of a 16th C French fort. Why do we seemingly cherish contiguous
oppressive military refuse? Nice view though, I can now identify all the
islands within sight.

Basin Pond: (another sign)

This pond is part of the most extensive complex of 18th Century ruins on
Union Island. It was built between 1750 & 1763 by Jean Augler, one of
the island’s first French settlers. Basin, the largest of the island’s
ponds, stored and provided water for plantation slaves. It was entirely
paved with local stone, and cemented with heated coral and conch shell.
After emancipation in 1834, Basin Pond continued to be a main source of
water for local people. Up until the 1950s it was still used for washing
and watering animals.

Went down the road (none are named in these parts) to Gordon’s Bar and
Grill (there is no grill). actually a pretty spiffy green and yellow
place on a nice sandy beach with additional little cabanas and music by
Sam (who I’ve met but not heard yet) on Sundays. Other than that it
seems pretty much deserted, so I practised my snorkeling and made some
movies with my tiny, underwater ankle-cam, and collected dozens of
intriguing coral bits which I photographed back at the apartment. This
imagery may be intercut with the ankle-cam films and possibly outlined
and used as folios for my GIP book.

Then I went into Clifton to pick-up some more free postcards from the TC
Marine Park office — they visibly stiffened as I came in the door ;)
Was also looking to buy another fish and possibly record the conchshell
or pan music (Saturday’s probably a better bet for that), but instead,
made some fairly good, surreptitious recordings of domino games: lots of
slamming, shuffling and swearing in some patois I only partially
understand. No fish though, so instead I bought some bacon ($13EC, from
Wisconsin and frozen probably many years ago) at a little shop that’s
quite close to where I live — along with a big bottle of Mauby
concentrate, and a jar of SVG peanuts ($9EC). Her prices might be a
little better than in town where the rich yachties shop. Cooking the
bacon drove the dogs wild — especially when I poured-out the bacon
grease into the sand.

So for breakfast (my major meal), I had a fried egg, cheese, tomato
(very good here), bacon toasted sandwich followed by fruit-punch, my
rice and beans/lentils with hot sauce, and a nice cold glass of Mauby.

Had a little nap, maybe too much food all of a sudden and the rain this
morning.. Very dry here year-round; all the islands are really quite
arid — cactii are common. Thought to try and get a postcard to William
and Pam, originally from Wisconsin (did I cover this already?) who are
staying at the Millennium Guesthouse on PM. Will try to visit St Vincent
this month but I’m a little nervous about possible immigration nonsense,
even though it’s the same country. Sky has now brightened-up, typical
tropical downpour.

“ginger ales are 10c a glass if you don’t like that, you can kiss my
hairy ass”

went into town this afternoon and did some more domino recording…
gradually I’m being acknowledged there, but buying a couple of guiness
stout ($6EC) when hardly anyone buys anything, probably helps…
wandered back home and thanked the pharmacist for her help… people
don’t recognize me easily when they see my haircut instead of the Tilley
hat… it does keep me cool and doesn’t blow off (interesting design
that flexes with the wind, but somewhat squeakily…)’but it may be too
‘dorky.’unless I can batter it up a little, Another person I passed on
the road was surprised that I didn’t recognize him from PM , but with or
without my hat I’m bound to be more identifiable than local folks. I’m
also wearing my red mesh tanktop today (and all this week) which may be
significant. I see red flags flying at houses and hear of socialist
tendencies.

Different newspaper this week: Searchlight — purchased from the
taxi/minibus “Messenger.” Headline for Friday January 8 reads: Storm in
Bike Crash (Prime Minister’s Son undergoes emergency surgery in
Barbados) Will mail this big pile of postcards today. No music at
Gordon’s last night. The barkeep was asleep in a lounge chair. No
customers. The big white place with columns next door (Big Sand Hotel)
doesn’t seem to have any guests either.

Mailed the cards after waiting 20 minutes for the postmistress who
finally called to say she was at the clinic… and someone who was there
all along sold me the stamps. I guess civil ‘servants are the same
everywhere. The pharmacist passed through and said hello. They were
selling those little silver fish with the big eyes again. All you can
really do with them is deep-fry them whole — not especially tasty. Took
some pictures of the con/hshell blower and fish transactions and bought
some lettuce. 8 small tomatoes and a papaya ($19EC); vinegar from
Lambi’s ($6EC — there’s laid-back and then there’s arrogant
indifference that’s becoming too apparent there) Then back home stopping
at “J’s” for 3 boxes of pineapple juice (just $7.50EC there; and 3 eggs.
My hat frightened the little girl there I think. Made a simple salad
which I’m eating now.

(sign in Ashton):

You are now in Ashton, the second major town on Union Island. Union
Island (13.7 sq mi) is located 44 miles south of mainland St Vincent, It
is the second largest and most southerly of the Grenadine islands. Mount
Tabor, its highest peak, rises to 1000 ft. The island’s population of
approximately 2000 people is concentrated within the 2 main towns,
Clifton and Ashton. Union Island Island was settled as early as 5400 BC
by tribes from South America. However the present population is a
mixture of African and European descendants. The French were the first
Europeans, arriving before 1763. They were followed by the British, to
whom the French ceded the island in 1763. Slavery was abolished in 1834.
Thereafter some residents continued to cultivate the land, growing
mainly corn and peas. Many however, beccame seafarers. Today this
tradion continues and is supported by the island’s fishing and tourism
industries. Do enjoy your stay on our beautiful and friendly island.

Radio reception is poor here, even with the amplified antennae, which
I’m beginning to wonder about… of course, on PM I was way up on a
steep hill. Trying to listen to Radio Paradise 820 AM from St. Lucia.
Took another shot out my front door toward B’s (cute girl from St Lucia
and her aged US husband). On PM the repeated shot was toward Union
Island. Did I mention that the papaya was very good? Saved the seeds in
order to try and propagate at home.

The icecube tray shattered into a dozen pieces as I tried to extract the
cubes. The PM place had much better culinary tools but E was the cook at
his restaurant. I’ll head down to the pier and work on the watercolors
shortly. There’s no plausible reception point for any of my artwork so
it’s really an ongoing process, much like my 12hr-project. I’m starting
to overpaint (usually not a good idea for watercolours) the work from
Nicaragua. Some look pretty good; I’ll just keep going as much out of
spite… Had some sardines in tomato sauce and fed the remainders to the
little dog next door — surprised to see that the aggressive dog made no
moves, as he did with the bacon-grease. A=mazed at the sound this made
across the concrete deck… I’ll try to record something like it… A
coupe passed-by accompanied by the dog-chorus… no response but I was
wearing a miniscule swimming outfit.

Made some films of my pocket-kite flying off the pier. Wandered down to
J’s for a couple of Guinness Foreign Extras and seeing as they were out
of peanuts, I settled for some junkfood: cheeseballs and Pringles. This
morning (breezy and overcast: rain seems more likely in the early a.m.)
I made some more cocoanut-curry rice, this time I used canned c-milk but
had to add a little water at the end. Took a couple more pinholes from
the pier and one of B’s house (more seagrape foliage in the foreground
than house) before the sandflies drove me inside. Will look for some
more salad ingredients today. >> sudden brief tropical downpours >> the
girl in the Let Me Go bar and shop told me that the rainy months are
September and October and that the community library might open at 3
p.m. >> small bag of green beans (to add to my tossed salad), giant
papaya, small different kind of cantaloupe, onion (which I,ll use in an
omelette tomorrow), and cucumber (that I sliced-up and made into a
separate salad) = $21EC Y came by in a shared taxi and the driver
offered me a free ride the rest of the way home but I thanked him and
said I liked the walk, even though the one section of dirt road turned
out to be quite muddy. Went out to the pier and started to work on the
watercolours but quickly turned very windy and the rain started-up
again. Photographed some hummingbirds but stayed inside mostly listening to Radio Barbados and reading tourist info on St Vincent. Y loaned me a book on early Union Is entrepreneurs (augustus king mitchell… by
Gloria Stewart Morgan) and newspaper clippings. Apparently the
courthouse and historical records were set afire by two men awaiting
trial in 1979 — a small park in Clinton is on the site. Adjacent to it
is a semi-circle of brightly-painted vegetable stands. I’ve been buying
my produce from an older stand farther down the road, thinking it might
be cheaper there. I was surprised to learn that even here where the soil
is good, all the produce is imported from SV! The economy has been
Westernized I guess, as people used to grow most of their food.

Am wondering if my facial bug bite, which is nearly all healed was
caused by a scorpion. There’s a huge brown bug with long antennae that
lives behind the kitchen splashboard. He ‘sings’ a cricket-like song; at
first I thought it coming from outside or perhaps some squeaking part of
the refrigerator. Very sad news about the earthquake in Haiti. Being
Black and French I doubt much aid will materialize from the West.

Tried to exchange some money ($1000 US) at the only bank (big
flat-screen TV playing CNN ‘news’ about Haiti); they wanted ID and
didn’t accept a copy of my passport. I’m concerned they may notice
(perhaps needlessly) the absence of SVG visa-stamp, so maybe I’ll do
this in SV. I should probably carry that much cash anyway in case
something goes wrong, as it always does. Having waited in line for 40
minutes, I took my time putting away my ID and then tossed their
calendar back in the pile; did a good eye-roll and left. Why ask for ID?
I’d save about $70 on a grand with the bank rate. Saw Sam walking with
some white girl, he called me by name before I remembered who he was —
but I’m probably more distinctive than most here. (There are some pretty
inventive DIY haircuts here and sometimes they acknowledge mine.) In
tourist literature they say the locals have a good memory for faces,
maybe it’s true.

Put out the laundry for Shirley to pick-up. Exchanged money with no
problems. Called the MV Barracuda but it’s in the shipyard ’til maybe
next week. Will try to visit SV then. Happened upon a brief Big Drum
performance by primary and secondary students, intended for US PBS
travel programme. Shot some films and stills with the little Nikon. The
dance was performed for rain and courtships. Interesting to see how
pleased the locals were – some older folks were dancing off to one
side… PBS was so focused on their commentator they missed it. Topped
up my cellphone at the LIME office in Clifton.and got a SVG phone
directory. Bought some bread from the central market $3EC and some more
pineapple juice, Sunset Rum (84.5% alcohol). and three more eggs from
J’s ($32.50 EC) Looking forward to shopping in Kingstown; should be
much cheaper, Hope to buy some bootleg CDs of tinpan music, a pair of
locally fashionable, shinney white sunglasses with black lenses,
groceries and rum. Sat out on the pier again and worked on the
watercolours this afternoon. Walked into Ashton by way of Baddu (much
shorter) and bought popcorn, salt-fish ($12EC/lb), and onions. Inquired
about the BBQ but it’s not happening this week. Soaked some of the fish
for an omelette in the morning. Will take a shower now and make the bed,
then read more about Union Is entrepreneurs.

Followed the road and the a ‘track’ along Richmond Bay past a couple of
houses’ and a gated passageway toward the higher Zephyr hills. Saw some
probably abandoned, ransacked guesthouses and another mini-fortress with no apparent entrance that is only identified on one map as a ‘ruin.’ Got
tried of avoiding being scratched, scraped, and stuck in the overgrown
bush (‘burn bush’ and cactii) so didn’t proceed any farther — not
likely too much to see as the power poles didn’t continue either.
Wandered back home for rum punch and watercolours. Took some hour-long pinhole photos of the sky initially (too cloudy to see the circling
stars; another night) and the fanciful architecture across the way.
Watched a few installments of ‘Cash Cab’ on TV last night – still an
intriguing programme. The Rasta brother was chanting and rattling
outside. New Moon. Will attempt to see Mt Olympus and maybe the Chatham Estate today (a non-eating day: some Spice Black tea (with lime) that I packed.)) Next year I’d like to visit Netherland’s ABC islands (Aruba,
Bonaire, Curacao.)

Belmont Salt Pond sign:

This wetland has provided Union Island with salt since the times of its
earliest ancestors. During the 1700s, its “white gold” was also shipped
off to Europe by French & British colonizers. The island’s climate is
perfect for saltmaking — low rainfall, a warm breeze and lots of
sunshine for evaporation. High temperatures concentrate the sea water in
the wetland, forming layers of salt on its surface. Salt is usually
harvested from March to the beginning of the rainy season. In a good
year, thousands of pounds may be collected by hand. The wetland is a
nursery for many young fish and other sea creatures. It also provides an
important habitat for local and migrating birds, including herons and
ducks. Please help us to keep this wetland clean, and maintain its
centuries-old tradition.

Another Rasta from the same building has a big Isuzu truck and I asked
him if he could bring me a case of Guiness sometime but he says it will
cost nearly $100EC for 24 including deposit, so that’s about $4EC each.
Not a big savings over buying one at a bar for $6EC. Somehow I managed
to walk to Chatham Bay. The maps suggest this is not possible. It’s not
even mentioned in any guide book, even the local ones, but it’s easily
the most stunning locale that I’ve seen thus far on the island!
Beautiful beach and water with only a few beach bars, half a dozen boats
anchored close to shore, pelicans, and very quiet. At the far end of the
beach there’s this totally unexpected, very fancy, open-air
bar/restaurant complex that’s more than a little incongruous with
swimming pool and white pleather sofas! Amazing! I might go there
tomorrow for a BBQ and hear Sam’s music but it’s a fair, hour’s trek
over there and I’d have to head home before it gets dark. I doubt the
so-called dollar buses (a charter trip is $20EC) go there, you’d need a
four-wheel drive to make it down the rutted steep decline. There’s a
short cut through the bush following a dry watershed, but it’s pretty
arduous – going up at least. Thankfully I had my walking stick. Noticed
another road that might go to Bloody Bay, but someone told me that it
was “bushed over,” and accessible only by boat. Also a “track” that
might go to Mt Olympus. The island is quite bristling with 12hr imagery.
I’ll keep taking them but will likely wait for a few years before
processing them. I’ve already scanned over ten year’s worth and many of
the prints have still not been scanned even once. I can insert new
imagery with the “+” designation. Delaying processing will only decrease
contrast which is what I’m after anyway. There are gravel makers here
too, like in Thailand.

(another sign): Union Island, like its neighboring islands throughout
the Caribbean, has seen a succession of inhabitants in pre-colonial
times. The earliest evidence came from petroglyphic drawings found in
these areas (Grenada, St Vincent and Canouan), which indicate that the
Ciboney people were here as early as 5400 BC. They used primeval boats
of raft kind and made progress gradually into the Caribbean from the
South American coast lands. Their out-at-sea canoes exceeded 20 metres
in length. It is only much later, in the centuries preceding the
Christian era that other migrating waves of Amerindians, Arawaks and
Caribs followed in the path of the Ciboney people. The Caribs and
Arawaks originally came from the Orinoco Basin and traveled as far north
as Puerto Rico.

This bought vegetables from CJ’s stand in the square. Better prices I
think: several small tomatoes, cucumber, papaya, grapefruit, for $15.
And more Sunset Rum ($28EC this time), peanut butter (Marouks from T&T: $10), and crackers ( Crix also from TriniD $3.50)

Sitting on the porch ledge and suddenly bitten by some sand flies just
as a sudden shower started. Didn’t last 60 seconds. Earlier I layed in
the sun and had a swim in the third little beach down from me, but
washed all my Deet off. Brought the air mattress down but gave-up trying
to inflate it by mouth. The gasoline vendor in Clifton has a compressor,
so I’ll have to bring it over sometime. Made some ankle-cam films
including one of a little yellow crab with delicate white pincers. Not
at all like the bigger, crusty dark crabs that you see on the shore
rocks. (Not sure the camera is capable of focusing that close.) If you
sit very still they will eventually emerge from their sand burrows. This
one could walk forwards as well as sideways.

Another onion, tomato. cheese omelette with salt-fish. A little tired
this morning, maybe it’s all the food. Making another …

Spent the day working on the watercolors; using both sides of the paper
so they’ll be 100 when I’m done. Will scan their current state when I
get home and post an album to my websites and facebook. “Waters.” Many
people at and just down the road a bit from Gordon’s — it being Sunday
night. Making another Big Sand recording and will see how close I can
get to Bloody Bay (site of master/slave massacre), this morning, once
the threat of rain diminishes. Should try and pick up some groceries too
although I have plenty of cooked rice and beans, a still a little salt
fish and cucumber salad to eat tomorrow.

OK, I walked around Mt Olympus the other way (counterclockwise). past
Bloody Bay and Chatham Bay — up quite high so could see the rain coming
in finely veiled curtains across the water and hillsides. Saw Sam making
his way back from the Chatham beach bars, guitar slung over shoulder —
apparently he played for some people aboard a big white catamaran last
night and then slept on the fancy sofas in the big Italian bar. Spotted
a big land tortoise and walked part way down a track that might go to
Rapid Point (Sam says it’s a deadend at a quarry, but then he’s never
heard of Bloody Bay), before it turned overgrown. Walked and walked and
walked through Ashton and way out to the western end of the island along
an excellent concrete road, financed by the good ol’ Canadian gov’t,
that just suddenly ends. No one seems to live alongside it for some
reason — it is pretty windy — and other than an ancient French
plantation-era, unused pond/reservoir and the rusted remains of some
sort of quarry machinery, there were no other structures to be seen. The
tourist map indicates a Miss Irene bay or beach and a Miss Irene point.
I’ll have to ask Y who she was/is. So, back through Ashton where I
bought popcorn, kidney beans, fruit puch in a box, 4 eggs (they’re a
dollar each!), and a box of matches = $20EC

The Barracouda, MV Rita, MV Gem Star, Bequia Express, Admiral, Geronimo and Glenconner are mostly family-owned ships. I had just read an article about the Barracouda mailboat and its continual, reliable service for 15 years with only two mishaps, so I was disappointed to hear last week
that she was in the shipyard. Hopefully I’ll be able to take the 5 hour
trip this Friday morning (6:30 a.m.) I may walk around Kingstown and the
botanical gardens for a few hours and then catch another ferry to Bequia
(Carib: land of clouds) and stay there overnight, catching an early
morning ferry back to Kingstown in time to pick-up some groceries and
board the Barracouda to Union Is. Did some more w/c on the beach but the
fine, sticky sand is getting in my paints, and all over me as well.
Interesting to see the wind create turbulence across the surface of my
w/c water, just as it does across the sea.

“Cuba before 1959 was a land of plenty for a handful of people and
misery and extreme indigence for the vast majority. It was a playground
of the mafia.” – Gonsalves SVG PM

Watched ‘Rabbit-proof Fence” on IFC again while waiting for the skies to
clear a little. Went downtown in search of Callicou soup but ended up in
this little unnamed place off the main street for a “little lunch”
(EC$10 + 3 for a 500ml Sprite), quite good chicken plus salad, rice.
Inadvertently followed the owner to the jetty where I bought some
“dolphin” (bares little resemblance to what it is commonly called) and
a slice of *Kingfish” for $10EC. Only tourists apparently like tuna
(that would be me); the dolphin is much sweeter — we’ll see on
Thursday. Headlines from the last copy of the Vincentian this week:
Another Pit Bull Attack! – big purple letters: “Mr Raleigh Baptiste, a
welder of Gibson Corner, was in his yard picking tangerines…” Met
‘Sam’ but apparently that’s the bartenders’ name, really it’s Raphael
Socony Holder, and his CD which he now reluctantly sold me for $10EC
(and refused my GIP card) is called “Which Part Don’t You Understand?” I
have no way of listening to it now and really have no idea if it’s good
or not. He seemed so flippant about the transaction that it could mean
one thing or another… earlier I went into the Kash & Karry mart to buy
buy some more funny peanuts in the glass bottle and the decided to buy a
Guiness Foreign Extra Stout — gosh, it’s really tasty… that got me
chattering to the proprietor about Island history which was going pretty
well despite his recalcitrant nature, until I fumbled the name of the
most western point… Janet? N? ok, yes it’s haha Irene Point. Bye-bye
and thanks.

Will try and see if the libraries are open today and maybe record the
children at the primary school.

Memorial Plaque:

This plaque is erected to the memory of all the African Slaves that died
in Union Island during the time of slavery. This Plaque is also
dedicated specially to the 53 slaves who died during a period of months
(Sept 1737 – July 1738) as a result of the harsh living conditions amd
cruel slave drivers of that time. This was the same period wehn cotton
production increased one hundred and twenty percent and the time of
major infrastructural development. May they rest in peace.

Ended-up walking around the second higher tier.. almost to the top of
the radio-tower hill but was dissuaded by dogs whose barking echoed
ominously off the rocky cliff-face. Walked through the village of
Donalson and then back into Clifton past the government school where I
heard singing at about 9 a.m., so will bring the recorder one morning at
that time. Bought some fish seasoning and I have one lime left for my
meal tomorrow. Thought about buying a bottle of red Ju-C (Big 16 (oz)),
primarily to photograph, but didn’t want to carry it about. Will check
on the Barracouda tomorrow, if it’s running I’ll be able to buy
groceries economically in Kingstown Saturday. Sat in a few places
downtown and watched the goings-on; read the entire issue of January’s
Caribbean vegetable sellers has a great singing voice, so I’ll try to
record her one day as well. Tried to have a little nap as I was up late
watching some movie (an old Jack Nicholson I think and a young girl
returning to a little-known family homestead and unearthing the
reluctant past…) on IFC. Wandered down the road to the Big Sand Hotel
with this Zaurus device to see if there was free WIFI signal — but no.
Now sitting on the pier writing this, the dogs come-up hoping to be
petted but I learned my lesson in Thailand.

“Let our quietly attentive staff infuse your sojourn with seamless grace
and gentle discretion…” Canouan resort

I like how the Vincentian newspaper runs their headlines into adjoining
pictures, sometimes reversing or coloring the type in the image-space.
This style wouldn’t have been feasible in the pre-digital typesetting
days, as too much of the picture would have been obscured. The roosters
are ‘crowing.’ The dolphin was good; the kingfish unremarkable.
Finished-off the cocoanut-curry rice, will make some more once I hear
about the Barracouda today. New maximum price for gasoline is
$11.15EC/gal.

Walked over to Chatham Bay and at first sat on the comfy lounge chairs
waiting for the bar to open but soon the rich chartered yachties
clambered to shore and started yacking about their annuities. I left and
went down the beach to what I’d hoped were less expensive
establishments, and who knows, maybe they really were… but the
Sunshine Bar wanted $8EC for a beer. I bought two and declined their
offer of a ^not too expensive fishcake lunch” and headed home early.
When an employee has to look at the owner to see what to charge for a
beer, (and the price on the menu, which I’d looked at earlier, is less)
you know something’s up. Sometime’s I can’t be bothered arguing about
prices and instead decide to never return. I suppose it’s difficult to
constantly encounter all that offshore ostentation and not want to reap
a little of that indifferent wealth, but it would be difficult to assume
that I belong in that privileged swagger. The one brown chicken has
returned for more popcorn. There really are some beautiful ones here,
but now she seems to be particularly interested in my toes. I called J’s
GH in Bequia and reserved a $100EC room in Bequia. I’m thinking I’ll do
this trip repeatedly; next week is some Blues Festival so maybe I’ll
reserve from there tomorrow.

Rolled my luggage up to the gardens in about 20 minutes. Botanical
Gardens (founded in 1765 by a British army medic, it’s the oldest in the
western hemisphere) : brandy & coconut water, cinnamon leaf and ginger
tea; red snapper and avocado; mace from the nutmeg used as seasoning for
pasta. Eron was my very informative guide. Every guidebook recommends
hiring a guide ($20EC); explanations of the various trees and plants
were fascinating: teaks, mahogany, ironwood, cannonball, Australian
pine, travellers’ and king palms, Souffriere tree (national flower),
Bermuda Cedar, breadfruit (a descendent of Cap’n Bligh’s trees brought
as cheap food for British Caribbean slaves, mimosa family of plants that
contract revealing thorns when you touch them, Norfolk pine… Some are
extinct in their natural habitat and many are not indigenous but the
climate supports many species. And of course the beautiful, talkative,
nearly extinct, multi-colorful national bird. the Vincentian Parrots
(Amazona Guildingii), all busy munching away on fruit slices.

I was just about to ‘write’ something when I dropped the stylus and the
point broke off on this tile floor.. I was going to remark that one of
the gang of dogs has forgotten me in my absence — which sets all the
others off… Babylon! Can you believe these wicked boatmen? The
Barracouda had problems again and left me with problems in SVG after
returning from Bequia (really just another boutique island that just as
well might be another exclusive one). And there’s no steel pan music to
be had on the street anyway! I was prepared to make a major
investment/offer and buy about a dozen or more CDs, which seem to
usually go for $10EC — a little steep for bootleg copies. There were
banners about a SVG Customs compliance day this month. Compared with PM they’re already paying way too much. it would be interesting to visit
Martinique and Guadeloupe (where PM boatmen apparently pick up these
deals) but not sure how I might proceed from this point — I guess it
would have to be by water somehow and my return flight could get
complicated. There was this enormous cruiseship (bigger than any warship
I’ve seen, but maybe that was what it really was) docked in SVG just as
I returned from Bequia and sitting on a streetcurb eating a
fried-chicken sandwich and a bake (big fried blob of dough) — suddenly
the complexion of the place changes drastically as the passengers
disembark. It may as well be a VR experience. Curiously there doesn’t
seem to be resentment or hostility from the locals. There’s an
underlying joviality at times that can giveway to a sudden “running of
the mouth” such as I witnessed while waiting/hoping to get passage on
the Guidance, a little cargo boat that I had to take back to Union Is.
along with way too many passengers mixed with cargo that just kept
coming dockside and included just about everything except livestock, or
maybe that was us. Hard to tell if it’s fairly efficient or chaotically
ridiculous — the goods, each scrawled with a name and an island and
probably accompanied by a cellphone call, along with many distressed
senders and receivers coming on board and making demands, but it sort of
seems to pan-out. There’s a crowd on each dock waiting for Guidance as
well. Off to bed; very tired.

There was a very young, fragile and fair-complexioned, maybe Swedish
couple, maybe brother and sister on the Guidance who despite an umbrella
and applying sunscreen visibly reddened on their passage to Mayreau. A
couple of hours into the trip, the captain perhaps started thinking less
about his cargo and erected a tarpaulin shade over part of the main
deck. I think, in maritime law at least, the captain is responsible for
any passengers and crew. He had several mostly young boys who worked
quite hard slinging boxes and sacks into and out-of the hold and decks,
but they seemed pretty jovial. As on the ferries, they troll a very long
line for fish, and caught a small barracuda.

Made some cocoanut rice with shelled peas from the SV market ($7EC) this
morning, and got the beans and lentils soaking. Amazing assortment and
quality of produce there; also bought a small bag of small tomatoes
($1EC), “heap of big limes” ($2EC), bag of hot little peppers ($2EC),
pound of (unfortunately), unsalted roasted peanut ($6EC), bunch of
sweet little ripe bananas ($1.50EC green ones are cheaper), jar of
dry-roasted peanuts as a treat ($10EC), copy of T&T Newsday from
Thursday January 21 (headline: “2010 murder toll reaches 30: Fireman
Shot 18 Times”), and three litre bottles of Sunset rum, which filled-up
my little rolling bag. Imagine how stressed I was to get to the ferry
dock with all this heavy stuff and find that the Barracouda wasn’t
running! Prices were not as dramatically better than Union’s than I’d
guessed. The Barracouda as well as the four Bequia Express ferries were
made in Norway complete with Norwegian signage.

The downtown part of Bequia that I managed to see was a somewhat
disappointing loud, touristy zone with many chartered boats in the
harbour. Would have liked to visit the model boatbuilding museum but it
was closed. The Plantation (Guest) House was abandoned and overgrown and would have been a good place to stay in its day — yielded some 12hr
photos of the statuary dispersed on the grounds.

Did a quick listen and a few edits of the Barracouda and Bequia
recordings, some good stuff! Got all the various batteries recharging.
J’s still didn’t have the Pinehill pineapple juice that I like and the
little girl still cries when she sees me, even when I take my hat off.
Bought some more groceries in Clifton (mostly at Y’s store): pancake
mix, guava jelly, Jamaican cinnamon tea, dozen eggs ($10EC), cheese,
popcorn, Canadian split yellow peas (which I added to my beans and green
lentil soak) and popcorn($3EC), 1 litre Belgian soya oil (12.25 EC),
bottle of peanuts (to take with me to Gordon’s when I have a cold
Guiness), Ocean Spray 100% cranberry-pomegranate juice ($19.50EC to mix with the rum), and Crix crackers. Thinking of another omelette on toast
with those peppers tomorrow along with a very little rice and beans
(just to sample them.)

Talked with Y about the island uprising and her parents’ (as prominent
residents they were suspect and imprisoned but not beaten like the
rest), soda bottling business. Related my story about my similar idea
for unusual flavoured sodas along with reproduced photo-art on the
labels, and how I probably talked about it too much as Jones’ Soda Co in
Seattle did just that.

These entries remind me of Twittering a little. I can remember seeing
the Twitter offices in South Park across the street where I worked at
Wired in Frisco, and not fully understanding the implications and appeal
of an application that merely seemed a restrictive, abbreviated form of
email or listservs. Apparently Twitterers have currently donated $22 US
million to Haiti relief efforts by texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999. (I’ll have
to find out how this works.)

Just before heading out to the pier to work on the watercolours, I
heated-up the SV mkt peanuts with salt and curry. Have to try this with
green peanuts and maybe other spices… a marketing idea? Read some more
of a used book I lifted from one of the unattended Chatham beach bars :
Ian Rankin’s “Hide & Seek” a Scottish detective novel. But I’m mostly
interested in a Penguin classic tome at Ericka’s book exchange, although
it’s not too bad a beach-read. The beans are a-boiling but I need to
remember to add the lentils later as they get mushy by the time the
beans are done.

Wood from Brazil Tiles from Turkey Marble from Italy Wine from Chile
Linens from Egypt Crystal from Ireland Lighting from the UK Champagne
from France White Goods from China Furniture from Indonesia

— shipping container advertisement

Perhaps by buying all those groceries from Y’s store yesterday I
confirmed my intention to pay additional months’ rent and this helped
realize new repairs: (this also means some noise and I’ve learned that
leaving your curtains tied-back is an invitation for anyone to come-up
and speak with you, as one of the workers asked for a box of matches
while scanning the interior of my apt.) The roof of the residence and
former GH across the road is being replaced (a 12hr subject); perhaps my
rent is somehow helping to rehabilitate this fanciful building. More
great sounds too but I’m already running low on MDs. The new pre-amp
with three settings (zero, low, and high gain) is getting some getting
used to, and the battery gave-out when I first started recording from my
GH window, so I had to delete some attempts… The high setting causes
the recording to readily disintegrate with minor changes in volume, ie,
sudden wind gusts.

antimacassars Kick ’em Jenny volcano

Although situated farther south than the path of frequent tropical
storms (between August and October), the last hurricane, Janet in 1955
totally destroyed the island. Earlier recorded hurricanes occurred in
1898, 1831, 1817, 1780, 1768, 1675, and 1625. The temperature hardly
changes with an annual average of 27.5C.

The locals still complain that the gov’t doesn’t do anything for them.
They are a long way from SV and they feel closer ties with Grenada and
maybe T&T. Interesting to consider that Grenada’s and SVG’s most
‘outlying’ islands (PM and UI) are so close to each other — 30 minutes
by speedboat with no formal immigration checkpoints.)

The first five months of the year are typically the dry season, it
really is a dry island entirely dependent on that little rain for water.
This would explain the lack of crops and the early cotton plantations
which eventually depleted much of the soil. The Salt Pond is apparently
a good bird habitat, I need to find out how the salt is/was collected…

blind bit of difference all the hammering is getting to me so I’ll head
down the beach… Someone tore-out possibly the climatic 15 pages
toward the end of Hide & Seek. I’m usually suspicious of fiction’s
resolutions anyway. Might have made another UW film, a crab’s eye view
of the beach/sea, called Life is a Waste of Time. Hard to tell as the
tiny camera ‘froze’ and I have no way of viewing what may be recorded on
the SD card. One rooster, several hens and one adolescent chicken came
around for popcorn this evening. I called PSV to arrange a ‘tour’
tomorrow morning; they wanted to know if I wanted breakfast — like I
could afford anything on that private island (others: are as well or are
already headed in that direction).. well maybe a glass of water: it’s a
fasting day. Be curious to poke around though, not sure if they’ll
charge me for the boat ride or not. Laurie just called back to say that
Captain Maurice on the Zeus II will pick me up at 11 and return at 1, so
a brief visit perhaps. Y is flying to SV to attend an aunt’s funeral, so
won’t be back until Fri. The laundry can wait until then. As you might
expect, the cinnamon tea smells nice, although it’s probably pretty old,
but doesn’t have a lot of taste.

Decided at the last to cancel my tour of PSV just in case I need that
free trip to get to PM (and I’d prefer a little more time there),
although Maurice seemed to think a fee was in order for going to PM
because he would be “facilitating” me — can’t have that!

Exchanged my book for a collection of Italo Calvino short stories.
Borrowed “A Natural History Monograph of Union Island” by Jacques
Daudin, from the Clifton Community Library. It really was open at three,
but not a lot there; the young librarian had purple eyeshadow and will
allow me to borrow what little reference material they have. I recorded
ten minutes of school sounds and having asked a teacher about the
library she agreed to show me some photocopied material tomorrow
morning. Struck up a deal at the Rasta music shop (10 copied CDs for
100EC), mostly because they had a few steel pan CDs, along with Burning
Spear, Steel Pulse, Sizzla, Culture Mix, Reggae compilation, DJ
Loudmouth, and probably a spoken-word Angela Davis work entitled “The
Prison Industrial Complex.” The chickens spotted me coming back from
reading my Union Island book on the pier, so I fed them the leftover
popcorn and unpopped kernels from yesterday.

Serious rain this morning just as I finished my usual omelette with rice
and beans. Though I’d visit the schoolteacher and then walk around
towards Ashton and hang-out there for the day. There’s one track on the
map I’ve not been along that runs past places mentioned in the UI book:
Colin Campbell and Water Rock Reserve where there’s apparently old
growth forest. I’m taking fewer and fewer photos as the island typically
sort of ‘seals-over.’

“Bad weather for we today.” Still waiting for the sky to clear a little
more. My new radio either gobbles-up battery-power, it does have a lot
fancy features, or the AA’s are not fully charging as I can now rarely
have it play for even half a day. I’m trying the dual voltage cord from
the Zaurus to simultaneously charge and play the radio. The output
voltage is lower and the amperage is different but the plug fits and it
seems to be ok so far.

Watched Obama’s State of the Union address last night: very impressive
and I hope it all really happens. His picture is posted in many shops
and boats here.

Found the beginning of the track through Water Rock Reserve but I’ll
need long pants to get through the low-lying burn bushes; couldn’t see
Fort Irene… Bought some Pineapple-Passionfruit ($7.50EC) and Pineapple
($6.75EC) juice, and a bag of Lam’s Caribbean Style Chow Mein Noodles
($6.25EC) from Guyana.

Changed my mind about going to SV this morning. It is a little expensive
once you add it all up: a little over $100US and it’s an arduous trip
being tossed around on the water for five+ hours each way. I’d really
like to see the Montreal Gardens and I’d only have a couple of hours for
that and the Bequia Music festival… maybe later in February when the
memory of the last trip has faded. Made another onion, pepper, cheese,
tomato omelette along with rice and beans. Need to buy some more onions
and bread. Will put the laundry out this morning. D is in snowy Kentucky
headed for Florida.

Made a single pancake with guava jelly — a little undercooked. Watered
the palm plants outside. Read another Calvino war-story. Will head into
Ashton soon and check-out Uncle’s Recreation Centre and the Library and
buy some groceries.

Had a little nap then remembered the four little bags of peanuts I’d
purchased for my trip, and gobbled them-up accompanied by a
pineapple-rum drink and another short-story. Fed the chickens some more
popcorn; they now run to the porch if they see me. Took yet another 12hr
“establishing shot” of B’s house. Read two more stories.

Asked Y if her family was Garifuna — hope I wasn’t offensive (there
probably aren’t many genealogical records) but apparently they have
higher cheekbones and flatter foreheads,,, this is consistent with G
people I met in Belize. I never quite know how much to say about my GIP
books,’sometimes it’s helpful other times it causes trouble and
suspicion.

Walked past a single gravel hammerer (need at least two for a good
recording) and through Ashton to the snackette next to the high school
where I had a marginally cool Guiness and asked about Uncle’s that’s
apparently open on Saturdays for bingo. So bought some groceries from
the little shop underneath the Seashell GH: Daisy Chicken Luncheon Meat
from Brazil in a tin with key ($3.50EC) to go with the Ghanian noodles,
big bag of onions ($5.50EC), another (probably the last on the island)
Pinehill pineapple juice, black-eyed peas ($5.50EC), wholewheat bread
($4.00EC), and three tiny bags of Jamaican almonds @ $3EC/ea.
Searchlight SV newspaper headline: “Robbery suspect gives cops chase
through Richmond Hill: COLLARED!” I inadvertently dropped my newspaper on the road and someone in a minivan stopped to alert me but despite being heavily laden with groceries, no one has ever offered me a ride; there aren’t that many roads/destinations… It’s a dramatically specific island whose 10 million year old volcanic profile is readily if still eerily recognizable. Y couldn’t tell me who Miss Irene was either. I told her that I was feeding the chickens in her absence and that they now ran to the porch when they saw me. If I had related this to Shirley in Belize, she would have been chuckling longer than the chickens.

Cooked some noodles with the Brazilian mystery-chicken: I’m still
getting thinner and probably need more of something.

Another windy day; the mosquitos and sandflies still swarmed around me
the minute I stood outside.

Almost everyone here has either lived in Canada, usually Toronto, or
knows someone who does… I think I said this already… Traded my
Calvino stories for “The Mermaid and the Drunks” -Ben Richards and
“Oryx and Crake” -Margaret Atwood. Learned that the MV Jasper leaves
from Ashton on Mon and Thurs at 6 or 6:30 a.m. So nay go back that way,
bypassing PM and saving some money, if there are no immigration
issues.Bought an eggplant, papaya and cucumber for $16EC; a big 2kg bag
of popcorn for $17EC at Kash & Karry and another Marouks peanut butter
at J’s for $9.95. Will attempt to steam the eggplant and then see if
there’s a bingo game to record in Ashton.

I plan to add the eggplant to my morning omelette. Bingo doesn’t start
until 10:30 p.m. — too late for me. Had a Hairoun Indian Quinine Tonic
Water. Found the track up to Mount Taboi but I was too tired and
carrying my recording gear and novel. Most stores close around noon or
so, and the one that sells refrigerated eggs didn’t reopen until six so
the walk over was unproductive. Fed the chickens and read my book in the
sun.

The other night I dreamt that I was laboriously spreading thin coatings
of honey across immense expanses of a church flagstone floor. I’m only
now beginning to feel like I’m living on this island – the days are
becoming longer, even languid – I suppose I’m always anxious about how
to get off the island in order to begin to get home (there are always
snags and setbacks) but then I eventually succumb a little to the
eventualities… but maybe that anxiety is part of the island
definition. I know all about being excluded, isolated and denied. Is
this a kind of revenge or appeasement? “…the sudden disturbance of
wings triggered by a faraway noise, the startled ricochet and truncated
flight of caged birds…

“In the hour of shipwreck and darkness, no one will save you…”

History is ours and it is made by the people. Do we really believe this
any longer? The great avenues will once more open through which free
people will pass to build a better society. Just sat around all day and
read. Despite the huge breakfast I just had two guava-jelly pancakes…
Really packed it away: later I had a bowl of the chicken chow mein
noodles, which maybe disrupted my sleep. As usual, I’m often trying to
get somewhere in my dreams. I remember purchasing a “yellow” economy
bullfighting ticket but then discovering that there weren’t many of
those colored-coded seats available. Sounding windy again this morning
despite being very still and warm last night. I’ve made some cinnamon
tea and reading “Oryx and Crake” while waiting for daylight and a walk
into town to pay Shirley my rent. Will make a note of the electric meter
reading and also ask at Erika’s about any customs/immigration procedures
and whether MV Jasper arrives at the main jetty in Carriacou that the
Osprey uses, (as I don’t want to have to lug these heavy bags around the
island via dollar-bus from the small pier.) Exit strategies. Finished
“Mermaid and the Drunks” yesterday– various kinds of exile, return and
self-discovery. Pretty good, with lent insight into Chile’s political
strife and culture. The island of Chiloe was mentioned so I’ll have to
research it assuming it’s not fictional. May bring along my walking
stick and venture some ways along the track to Mt Taboi.

dirtysockpuppets.com

Electricity (I asked the guard at the power station) costs about
$.90EC/kwh so by my calculations my bill for January should be around
$84EC. Ynonne’s sister’s name (who works i the clothing shop) is Marie
(not Shirley.) Anyway, I asked for Shirley and was told something bit
her foot on the beach and the swelling prevented her from coming into
work — so ended up giving $1100EC to Y in the supermarket for
February’s rent and then headed part way up the mountain before the
track got too overgrown. Still had some good views of PSV, PM,
Carriacou, Palm and Frigate islands. Bought eggs, more chow mein
noodles, cheese. peanuts, orange juice, and a tonic water on my way home
through Ashton. Soaking some black-eyed peas and kidney beans and the
yellow peas separately. Bought refrigerated eggs that came in about a
week ago, so we’ll see how they compare.

When the water’s moving faster than the boat, you can’t control a thing.
Another eggplant, onion, pepper. cheese and tomato omelette. The
chickens are calling. Still waiting for my rent receipt. I have learned
with frequent good reason, to mistrust nearly everyone, especially the
institutionalized, and when people sense this they feel especially
obligated/permitted to cheat, betray and steal. Self-fulfilling
dialectic in the absence of sufficient positive outcome. nothing I can
do. The beans are still simmering, then I’ll cook the lentils with the
rice and green peas. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus,
Species. Finished “Oryx and Crake” — a little pedantic at times and
laced with typical Canadian support prerequisites, but a good dystopian
SF tale occasionally sprinkled sparingly with cautious optimism.
oryxandcrake.com Will head into Clifton for more from the book exchange.

ingredients for "Brad's Rum Punch"

ingredients for “Global Islands Project Rum Punch”: lime juice, sorrel rum (for color), overproof white rum, fruit juice blend, ice, lime garnish, served in octagonal glass

Well, the MV Jasper isn’t going to work because the captain checks to see that you’ve checked-out of Union — I’ve not officially exited Grenada nor entered SVG, so I can’t begin to exit… so, I’m dependent on water-taxis (probably a lot more expensive from this side), or goodol’ (drunken/stoned) Mr Bones to get me back to PM in time to catch the Osprey to Carriacou/Grenada and the plane home. Y spotted me from the supermarket and gave me a rent receipt in an envelope. Was she planning on slipping it under my door? Maybe I ask too many questions or am objectionable in some other way. The little girl at J’s certainly thought so again — one look and her eyes widened and she started bawling. Perhaps I should bring a little treat for her next time. No tomatoes; should have bought them yesterday. Picked up a copy of “Vincy Carnival magazine 2009(EC10)” from the Determination Bar (I have a hard time understanding what’s he’s saying — actually I’d prefer another distinct language), he brought me a fresh copy… and three ‘new’ books from Ericka’s (can’t figure out: The Club Dumas (Arturo Perez-Reverte), Catapult (Jim Paul), and the Penguin tome, Clayhanger (Arnold Bennett.)

Every once in a while the saltpond glazes over and people come to gather
up the salt. I might get some, it’s probably zestier than the regular
stuff… Y had no idea… other than warning me that I might burn my
feet…. so how is that?

Sent another matchbox (full of spent matches) to Rudd Janssen. The
postal people thought it was quite funny but insisted that I wrap it in
paper, which they supplied along with scissors, pencil and tape
($1.35EC) A chair has materialized out of nowhere on the pier and I now
regularly sit there to peruse my exchanged novels but after again
realizing/reading the exclusive support mechanism, I’m not so keen.
Instead I took a chance and petted the dogs.

Walked down and around (got some good 12hr pics of boulders in a row)
past Fort Hill and out to the end of the airport runway and back into
town where I bought several tomatoes, a mango and a sporphina (? a pale
green lumpy vegetable that I’m steaming now for my omelette tomorrow) =
$16EC Out to the pier to read Catapult… it recounts the tribulations
of building a rock-throwing device as an artwork in San Francisco
(Headlands Center) amid much wryly anecdotal commentary and recounted
histories. The chickens followed me back from the pier and right up onto
the porch where they stare in the windows at me. I found a few popcorn
kernels beside the stove — that’s all I had and it clearly wasn’t
sufficient. I’ll have to make a bigger batch tomorrow. Thinking of maybe
visiting the Montreal Gardens for three days if I can find a cheap place
to stay nearby. I’d leave on the MV Gemstar Wednesday and come back on
the special Saturday Barracouda run that stops long enough to see a bit
of Canouan and Mayreau.

Dragonflies eat mosquito larvae who also ‘nest’ in land-crab burrows.
The rooster starts crowing about a quarter after four; I’m up, brushed,
flossed, Deeted and shaved and breakfasted by five. Finished the
Catapult.; enjoyed the references to the Bay area. Apparently just
shooting a film in SF or NYC pretty nuch guarantees a ROI from local
audiences alone. Made some popcorn for me and the chickens. Walked into
town and traded Catapult for Angle of Repose (Wallace Stegner) at
Erika’s. Maybe I should be cautious when going in there as they do
process Custom and Immigration clearances. Even more salt-gatherers at
The Pond — word has spread. The Club Dumas is a book about old books. I
called the Montreal Gardens to ask if there were any guesthouses to stay
either there or nearby but honestly couldn’t begin to understand what he
said. I unsuccessfully tried texting them also. I was maybe hoping that
as an artist and aspiring gardener I might help-out in exchange for a
simple place to stay. Next I phoned the SVG Tourist Office: I can’t
believe that there’s no where to stay near their primary tourist site.
Maybe it’s not all it’s cracked-up to be. I’m still mindful of the ten+
hour sea voyage there and back. I may try asking in-person in Clifton…
(but there are officious immigration people there.) The chickens came
right up on the porch again for popcorn. They really do seem to
recognize me. In the early mornings they seem to hang out in the cool
mangroves round the saltpond. New neighbours from B.C. in a house within the ‘coconut compound’ which includes the pier. This middle-aged couple often briskly walk back and forth along the short stretch of beach for
some pre-determined time (they glance at their watches before setting
off, and most of the dogs seem delighted to follow along.) I see that
“the Englishman” way up on the hill above the airport has a
(non-operating) wind-generator but it’s curious that there aren’t any
(that I’ve seen) alternative energy devices like solar-panels on an
island that gets a lot or sun and little rain.

MV BARRACOUDA rates:

Kingstown to Bequia $25; Kingstown to Canouan $40; Kingstown to Mayreau $45; Kingstown to Union $50; Bequia to Canouan $35; Bequia to Mayreau $40; Bequia to Union $45; Canouan to Union $40; Canouan to Mayreau $30; Mayreau to Union $30; Children (6-16yrs): $20

I wonder if there’s an early morning flight from Union to Grenada in
time to catch my flight home? My luggage would be overweight and there’s
still the visa issue, but I’d save on the cost of expensive
accommodation in Grenada and taxi fare to the airport and hotel and
ferry/water-taxi costs (this could add-up to say $270US or more); less
lugging of baggage and it would less stressful — fewer things could go
wrong. Would immigration insist that I return to Grenada to checkouts
and then return to SVG to check-in — only to checkout of SVG and
check-in and checkout of Grenada? similar to what E said his sister had
to do? It doesn’t seem that I can check-in or out of SVG because I
didn’t checkout of Grenada and in order to do that I can only return the
way I came or surreptitiously take a water-taxi to Carriacou and
checkout but having done either trip I may as well continue on to
Grenada. Or would SVG just scold me and not stamp my passport (?) and
would Grenada let me in without the SVG exit stamp? I may phone Erika’s
and ask somewhat-anonymously about all this. It may be too expensive
anyway or there may not be an early flight or the puddle-jumper may just
refuse my heavy bags… Cinnamon tea this morning. Hope someone
remembers to pick-up my laundry this morning. Oh, it’s suddenly gone
from the porch. There’s a tiny high-pitched mosquito in here; you open
the door for even a few seconds and in they come. I kill them by
clapping my hands together. The air pressure from opposite directions
may be immobilizing them.

Bought a nice ‘dolphin’ steak for tomorrow. Sat out from of Mitchell’s
hardware with cold tonic water reading the Vincentian (Landmark
Decision: Police Guilty) and watching the goings-on. Bought a bottle of
Sunset rum and box of orange juice from J’s. Almost finished read ing
The Club Dumas. I’ll have to read The Three Musketeers, around which it
is loosely based.. Recorded the rasta chanting with the new moon but one
of the channels all but dropped-out; I really like it so I’ll have to
see if I can re-balance it once home. I see there’s another lunar event
this Saturday so I’ll be listening.

The chickens are plucking around outside on the porch this morning
despite being only moderately interested in the popcorn yesterday; there
are too many mosquitos and flies right now to stand outside. Another
three-egg scramble (not really an omelette): will cook the dolphin steak
later in the day. Running low on bread, butter, juice, peppers and
cheese.

“You don’t have to go…” “Without finding out the answer?” “Without
undergoing the test. You have the answer within you.” “But the end
result is the same: damnation. You have to pay with the innocence of
your soul.”

As for the devil, he is no more than God’s pain; the wraith if a
dictator caught in his own trap, The story told by the winners.
Surprisingly, I consumed all of the two pounds of dolphin before one. I
did have a little nap and this may help me stay up a little later for
Clifton’s Saturday night. Finished The Club Dumais and just barely
beginning to understand what it may be like to live here in amongst the
remnants of a volcano and wicked colonial histories. Yah mon.

Trotted into town after eating all that food and a nap… peanuts from
J’s (always crawling with little children) and exchanged The Club Dunas
for “In the Cut” (Susanna Moore) and there’s only an early morning
flight to Grenada on Sunday at 7:30 a.m. not on Mondays, but it’s only
about 190EC… So that’s surprisingly cheap and now worth
considering….

Recorded the Saturday evening street sounds. A little random and not at
all like the sequestered murmurings on PM. Sucked back a few Guinesses
and one bad Danish Stout along with a small chicken and chips ($8EC.)
Came back via Maglite; never have felt even vaguely threatened here,
though I’m usually asleep by eight. Pretty sure I won’t feel at all
hungry tomorrow. It’s odd but I’m now becoming less and less interested
in eating/drinking. It rarely seems worth the effort. Many French
yachties here as well, they seem very enclosed within their
language/culture. One big catamaran parked over a local’s tiny
scuffed-up wooden outboard and of course he and onlookers were upset. It
probably wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things but in the
marine world there’s usually much more respect accorded to any boat and
its skipper. Just impolite and I’m afraid typically Francais.

walked through Aston (noticed another road cutting up and inland which
I’ll try another day) and around to Clifton where I bought butter, two
tomatoes, 3 sporphina, eggplant ($30 EC) and then to Y’s supermarket for
bread ($4EC Lambi’s and the little red bakery have bread too but it’s
lighter than air). Just finished steaming a couple of the vegetables for
my usual egg scramble tomorrow. Thinking I’ll try setting up the PSV
tour for the last Saturday and have E pick me up there for lunch at his
restaurant before the ferry leaves at 3. So my transport will be free
and I just pay for a nice lunch, perhaps some conch, which I don’t think
I’ve ever tried. I’ll arrange a ride to PM for Sunday with Bones as a
backup plan. Still on the lookout for callaloo soup, I,m asking too
early in the day. OTOH I’ve never seen E’s boat move in the month I was
there… Some guy was selling chicken foot soup from the back of his car
but it didn’t look like it was anything more than the feet in water, so
I passed. Fed the chickens, mopped the floor a little, turned the fridge
back on — I’ve been trying to minimize the electric bill, and will head
out to the pier to read In the Cut, perhaps walking into Clifton around
3 to check for fish.

No fish mongers around today. perhaps there’s no fishing on Sunday.
Nearly everything closes up by mid-day and some re-open in the evening.
Went into the Clifton Beach sports bar that my neighbour Jule and her
husband (from NY) lease and operate. Very breezy with a good view of
harbour activity. Bought a tonic water ($4EC) Told me that SVG visas are
only good for 30 days. Just as well that I don’t have one. Have begun
reading Angle of Repose.

Thinking about how ‘dead’ it was in Clifton on Sunday; perhaps I should
move my departure up a day, leaving for PSV on Fri with Bones as a
back-up Saturday. I’d like to chat a little more with J about how they
do business and residency in SVG. D texted me that he was enjoying his
Christmas book on newspaper columnists. I bought it from a little shop
(Post-Hip) in Multnomah Village last summer; the proprietor rattled-on
enthusiastically about the various older writers I knew little about.
The chickens are squawking for popcorn. Y has left for the store. The
dogs are alerted to some irregularity. The waves continue to break
on-shore. I read my book waiting for sunrise. Much as I like the hot and
dry climate it could be frustrating to live here without an easily
irrigated garden. Antimacassars: I need to again be angry but stay that
way, despising authority, effecting revenge, right the wrongs, stating
the truth and ending this nonsense. In addition to spontaneously singing
songs, islanders seemingly love to burn things. It can be a big pile of
brush or garbage but even a small pile of raked leaves invokes the
smoke. It’s also curious how people with sand in place of lawns are
obsessed with raking leaves (only to have them all blow back the next
day), unless it feeds the desire to burn… Papaya trees are fabled to
not be planted too close to bedroom windows as they cause bad dreams,
but that folklore seems to be largely disregarded here. I think I
finally categorically dislike the computerized voices in reggae songs.
While I understand how the practise eliminates the need for traditional
vocal skills (any wharbbling can be brought into tune/line), it also
excludes anything non-catagorizable or even ‘new.’ Ynonne spotted me
coming my usual way into town and asked me for the difference in a $80EC
power bill, a big portion of which is government taxes. And apparently
solar technology is not permitted! (The Englishman on the hilltop has a
wind turbine however.) Traded …Cut for Chuang-Tzu (A Classic of Tao)
… well, no one else would read it. I asked again about the fare to GND
but I’ve forgotten. Also about private boats going to Carriacou for
their Carnival, also at the Neptune Bar (Julia) but nothing solid.
Watched as the police searched passengers for ganja when disembarking
the Barracuda from SV. I was breaking up some ice and Y came around to
see what was going on; she saw me at the bar and thought I was still ‘in
Clifton… so that’s good.

Watched an interesting TV programme last night about the history of Soul
Train. Michael Jackson _didn’t invent the moon-walk, it was some of the
unpaid ST dancers. White PVC tubing is frequently used here in
ballistades, furniture, and filled with concrete for columns.You can see
stars in the daytime from deep in a well. Listened to Wire’s Below the
Radar and Somic Frequencies mp3s on my new little Cowan player while out this morning: Went for what turned out to be a very long walk. First
over and through Ashton and took the cutoff up and around and eventually
to Clifton where I was going to buy what I thought I remembered seeing
in Lambi’s: refrigerated eggs, but no. I did buy some little very hot
red peppers like I had from St Vincent. 3 for $1EC and 3 tiny bananas
(she called them ‘figs’, also 3 for $1EC.) so, I walked back to Ashton,
this time around the coast and bought my chilled eggs from Henderson’s
again. Then up to the shop underneath SeaShell? for some cheese, pancake
mix, kidney beans, rice, powdered cocoanut milk ($27EC) Then back
through Baddu and home. The clerk told me Salt Pond salt was all but
gone so I took an empty peanut butter jar down there and filled it with
some fairly clean flakes. Then over to J’s before she closes mid-day for
more rum and orange juice ($35.50EC) All set for tomorrow’s meal. The
days are long and all this shopping keeps me busy and active. Now about
to resume my book; chapter four of Angle of Repose which so far recounts
the lives of newly arrived New Englanders in frontier California late
19thC. It’s nice to see all the goats, sheep and cows wandering down the
roads, Several cows have now just begun grazing in the neighbour’s
yard, ignoring all the dogs’ objections.

A restless night with dreams of violent confrontations. The rooster
crowed a little after 5. Another 3-egg (one of which was quite old as
the yolk broke when landing in the pan), scramble. Reading ‘Repose’
again, into chapter 8; I may buy this book for D; I already have a much
better perspective on the Hudson River school of thought and painting
that really was _exported to the western ‘frontier.’Not sure what to do
today; I’ll probably walk over to Chatham Bay again tomorrow as it’s a
non-eating day sometimes needing some distraction. I must remember to
make some guave pancakes today; I have a lot of mix and jelly ‘to
eat-up’ (as M used to say.) Making some popcorn; best to get the pot and
oil very before adding the kernels. Looking forward to the cheap
overproof rums in PM, if that’s still possible after the new VAT this
month. You can get three times the amount of rum for less than a 750ml
bottle costs here. Apparently this stuff is so flammable that it’s
prohibited on most airlines. Or did I say that before…?

Was thinking yesterday while out on the pier reading Repose, that I
should make an ebook from all of M’s saved greeting cards. Maybe D could
scan them for me? I wonder if she saved the envelopes as well? Did the
Ashton-Cliford loop and bought some eggplant (3 short squat ones for
$8EC) All cooked and ready for tomorrow. Only 7 or 8 meals left here,
not sure I’ll get through all the food I have in the cupboards.

New Harmony, Fruitland, The Icarians, Amana, Homestead, The Mennonites, The Amish, The Hutterites, The Shakers, The United Order of Zion, The Oneida Colony…

Finished ‘Angle of Repose” — the angle at which rolling stones and dirt
come to rest, or death. Interesting NatGeo TV programme about the moon
and its stabilizing significance for the earth. It’s apparently slowly
moving away and will eventually cause the earth to wobble more on its
axis, leading to dramatic climatic changes such as another ice age. The
highest tides occur when the gravitational effects of earth, moon and
sun are aligned.

Up early: about 2:30 — maybe I was just hungry. The rooster (there’s
only one other that I can hear at some distance), first crowed at
quarter to four. (In small coastal villages i Belize they crowed at a
few specific and regular times each morning, locals used to mark time by
this phenomena, ie.,, “I’ll meet you at the second cock.” It’s two
o’cock? ;) Have begun ‘Clayhanger.’ and will return the library book and
do another book exchange at Erika’s. I should work on the watercolours
though and need to make a point of making more pinhole photos. Y is away
and so the laundry was done yesterday (Thursday).

No, she changed her mind and goes on Monday. ($280? EC) She and her
Rasta brother are always well dressed. Many chickens to greet my return
this afternoon. Tried to return my book to the library, next to the
primary school, but it was closed and a track ‘n’ field event was
happenin.’ Bought a chicken wing and peanuts ($2EC) and took a couple’of
snaps. Pretty exciting; again, those long tropic thighs make for good
runners. Three teams each wearing red, green or yellow T-shirts. Also
tried to mail some postcards but it seemed I was too late. Did manage to
exchange another book for “Kings in Grass Castles.” Something about
Australia, again in the mid 1800’s. Bought a couple of Guiness and
salted peanuts from the Kash ‘n’ Karry but noticed the old expiration
date. B and her old white partner were there as often, buying supplies
including water. I guess they don’t have a tank (?) Earlier I worked on
the w/c’s and read 60 odd pages about Victorian hardship. The coconut (I
bought one today $3EC), compound is getting quite spruced-up! New roof,
paint and yard work. Apparently tin rooves are cooler than shingle and
yield better rainwater runoff…. Also picked-up a copy of the February
Caribbean Compass — a cool little paper, maybe I could work there?
as-if. Articles on the San Blas Islands and Mt Taboi here on Union
Island. And, the Vincentian: 20 Years for Killing his M.

A Libyan (Islamic = no interest paid) bank is expected to be established
in St Kitts. It will support the new international airport and provide
college scholarships. The birds are chirping outside despite it being
nearly dark. Valentine’s Day (Monday) is apparently a big event here.

Sat out on the pier most of the day reading, watching the breakers and
painting. ‘Clayhanger’ concerns a Victorian printer and architect so
much more interesting than the apologetic, academic introduction would
have you believe. Got me thinking again of incorporating letterpress
elements in the red drawings; perhaps white photopolymer plates made
from the painted picture fragments (SSS.) Went downtown and bought a few
nice tomatoes and rum and (unfortunately, sweetened OJ) from J’s. Called
the Caribbean Cottage Club in Grenada about staying the last three days
in February. I’d like to visit the Grenada Chocolate factory there
(Portland entrepreneurs.) Waiting to record the Rasta as the sunsets…
(Guests moved-in below which may have dissuaded the performance.)

Yes, it’s the young white skateboarder, I’ve seen gliding around town,
with the blond Rasta locks, no doubt attracted by the occasional
moderate surfing swells.

38.15 LSB(?) is supposed to be the Caribbean Emergency and Weather
station at 6:30 a.m. but hear nothing but static, on my SSB radio. The
Internet has doomed many SW broadcasts. It was so cool to see people
clustered around SW radios in Bangladesh, and hearing some English
suddenly was strange. “Transformed … by something without a name in
the air which the mind breathes.”

I may have accidentally shut-off the water valve leading from the tanks
on the roof, so running the pump for an hour was probably unnecessary. Y
told me that the trees were trimmed back from the house so the possums
(which I’ve never seen), in their nighttime quest for the fowl nesting
in the trees, wouldn’t get up there and rattle around on the roof. It’s
apparently been unusually dry this year so I didn’t recognize the
spotted, spikey tree without leaves and now just a few buds, behind the
house as a frangipani. Erosion on the beach here is quite severe. I
could watch big chunks of beach sand being washed-out. In the short time
I’ve been here I guess the shoreline has receded about a foot. Kind of a
helpless feeling; I guess you can pay a lot of money to have boulders
dumped as a breakwater which helps a little. Y thinks it’s worse since a
little island was eliminated to the East when the airport was expanded.
The last batch of beans are furiously boiling. From the pier I can see
(from right/East to left/West) the Tobago Keys, Mayreau, Canouaon, and
the distant peaks of St Vincent. I think Bequia, which is East of SV, is
hidden behind Canouaon. In Ashton Harbour there is the abandoned,
sketchy, outline of an unpopular Italian marina development; quite a few
empty houses as well throughout the island. Once the beans are done I’ll
start the lentils and coconut rice then retire to the pier to read and
take some more pinhole photos once the sun climbs up. (I’m looking
forward to having a Papa Murphy Delite pizza once back in Portland.)
Later this afternoon I’ll attempt to return my library book and look for
fish, which goes fast as much of the minimal catch is pre-sold I think.
Much of my life has been an impending disaster, packed with trouble and
economic woe, so I’m getting a little anxious about getting back to
Grenada and home to see what has conspired in my absence, although D
wants me to stop-over in Florida for a few days. This would be costly
and I need to pay the rent on the ‘treehouse,’ which a showed Y a
picture of yesterday. I pretty much cooked the Canadian lentils, then
slowly added/stirred the coconut milk powder into the same water
followed by the rice being brought to a boil and cover and simmer for 10
minutes. I’ll have leftover uncooked rice which I’ll leave for Y or
someone. I’ll look down the beach in the other direction for my ‘popcorn
bowl’ that the dogs ran-off with yesterday. On page 267 of Clayhanger
with cinnamon tea on the side. Very breezy and very hot today. Made a
nice little film of what I think may be a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
stalking, catching and eventually swallowing-whole a big beach crab. He
looks like a heron but with a duck-like bill. I think I have enough food
here to last until my departure for PM. One more 3-egg scramble, then
pancakes, chow-mein noodles, tomatoes, rice & beans, and pasta with
tinned-mackerel should be enough for 5 more meals. On page 426 of
Clayhanger

Another hot one; walked into town mid-day to exchange Clayhanger for
something else but Erika’s wasn’t open. Bought 2 lbs of fresh fish that
turned out to be Kingfish and not Dolphin — buggers! — if I can’t see
the head it’s harder to tell. (Same price but Dolphin’s much better. I
thought it didn’t look very red but I guessed it was a younger fish or
something. What can you believe?) Sweat’s rolling down my back: out to
the pier. The chickens all followed me back and cheered me up. Started
to read “Chuang-Tzu, a Classic of Tao.” Wondering about Florida again.
(Interesting TV programme about the spreading Burmese/African python
invasion in the Everglades ~ released exotic pets that grew too
large/expensive.) Spotted a roadway up towards “the Englishman’s house”
which I think I’ll investigate this morning before it gets too hot.
Fewer mosquito (bites) this month (Feb), perhaps it’s the dry weather.

Well this is the first day that I didn’t go for a walk somewhere, partly
because I was waiting for my laundry to be picked-up (never happened; I
looked at the washing machine but it was disconnected for some reason)
and I was luxuriating in the 90F sun. Note to myself: buy dominoes and
perhaps a book of dominoes once in Grenada. Gobbled down the rest of the
fish and a big bowl of spicy chow-mein) the little Corgi-like dog was
vigorously wagging his tail while scrunching the scraps.

“Subtract the days and there is no year. What has nothing within it has
nothing without.”

Chuang-Tzu, inner chapter 25, 319BC

Well, the roadway just lead to the fort; I didn’t recognize the house
because the gate was closed last time I was up there. Walked around the
island through Ashton and Baddu, read on the pier, then texted and
called Bones: he says don’t worry he’ll pick me up on the 26th. So
that’s a relief. To celebrate I walked over to J’s where low and behold
she had pineapple juice for me!

“With the abandonment of fixed goals, the dissolution of rigid
categories, the focus of attention roams freely over the endlessly
changing panorama, and responses spring directly from the energies
inside.”

Killed _one of the big brown bugs; they’re very fast. Last of the eggs,
precooked vegetables; little cheese, bread, cooking oil, tomatoes,
peppers, limes remaining… lots of pancake mix, pasta and r&b still.
18th C treaties latitudinally divided the Grenadines between the British
and French. The area on Carriacou known as Gun Point and the headland on PM known as the Breeza apparently belong to St Vincent.

The true man casts away his knowledge to the ants, discovers how to
estimate from the fish, casts away his intentions to the sheep.

“Spillover saying” is named after a kind of vessel designed to tip and
right itself when filled too near the brim. Taoist speech characterized
by intelligent spontaneity – a fluid language which keeps its
equilibrium through changing meanings and viewpoints.

To ‘divide’ is to leave something undivided, to ‘discriminate between
alternatives’ is to leave something which is neither alternative.

Tomorrow I’ll extend the tin of mackerel in tomato sauce with tomatoes
and peppers and use it on the box of pasta and perhaps the chow mein
noodles. Lots of pancake mix to take me through next week.

Up at 3 so started some pinhole night photos of the sky. My FamoCoquillettes with tomato-mackerel sauce turned out pretty well. There’s enough for another meal. Need to get some popcorn for the chickens

(perhaps) and then cooking oil… so may be not. But I will get into
town to buy a paper. Plan to work on the watercolors again today. Took
some larger images of the water with the Xacti camera for use as a web
icon and a printed postcard advertising the advance sale of the entire
suite of Carib Waters paintings: 50 double-sided watercolours for
$30,000 until Sept 30; $700 each thereafter. I’ll scan them and put the
files up on my website and Facebook (http://bbrace.net/webgallerywc/wc.html)

Met some people originally from Martinique on the beach. The happy dogs
were all barking at them of course. Curiously the female German Shepard
is quite protective of me: she sat right at my elbow when the strangers
approached, and barks at the billy goat when he bumps-me, and tried to
lick my swollen facial centipede bite. Went for my walk (almost) around
the island this morning before it got hot. The GS and the Lab-mix
followed me all the way; I had to wait for them to cool-off in the
Jerome Village lagoon at one point. I didn’t realize there were so many
dogs in town until we walked by…. More w/c work; have a few mores days
to wrap-up the suite of 101 double-sided paintings. Will ask about a
day trip to Mayreau but I’m guessing it’s ridiculously expensive —
probably the affluent Tobago Keys effect. Do tourists cause local prices
to rise? Thought about having a GIP coin minted to accompany the
coin/card edition. Would also serve as a good standalone promo item that
could be left anywhere to circulate. Boiled-up the last of the chow mein
noodles with the orange spicy pepper sauce. Wonder if they’d nake a good
(fat-free) snack when dried. Read that seemingly spent lithium batteries
can be revived a little by leaving them in the sun — I’m trying this
out. (Also by hitting them with a rock.) The chickens are upset and
pacing outside the door.

The trouble with Tao is its claims to indifference (irresponsible
“disengagement”) and selective acceptance of oppressive policy/regimes
(which are the real cause of the root dissatisfactions), to “avoid
harm.” I understand the attraction of such a last-resort doctrine but
it’s really not much different than rich corporate robber-barons hiding
their money offshore and retreating to private islands. It’s nearly
(tribal political) election time in SVG where the sale of passports (why
does anyone care?), VAT (why increase taxes during a recession?) and
timid socialism (yes, comrades; thieves, murderers and crooks: beat
around de bush) seem to be the only visible issues. I’d like to know
what happened to St Lucia; it’s often mentioned as a political scenario
to be avoided. Radio stations are deliberately reactionary and
bi-partisan but aggressive lawsuits against media are astonishing. My
brotha!. Eventually biblical-scripture muddies the minimal useful
dialogue. The chickens are understandably upset again this evening.
False prophets. Not hopeful.

Signs (painted lyrics) at Pebbles Jazz Club in St George, Grenada:

I WENT DOWN TO THE CROSSROAD – FELL DOWN ON MY KNEES

THEY CALL IT STORMY MONDAY, BUT TUESDAYS JUST AS BAD

ON THE SEVENTH HOUR OF THE SEVENTH DAY ON THE SEVENTH MONTH, THE SEVEN DOCTORS SAY HE WAS BORN FOR GOOD LUCK

I GAVE YOU A BRAND NEW FORD BUT YOU SAID “I WANT A CADILLAC” I BOUGHT YOU A HUNDRED DOLLAR DINNER & YOU SAID “THANKS FOR THE SNACK” I LET YOU LIVE IN MY PENTHOUSE – YOU SAID “IT’S JUST A SHACK” I GAVE YOU SEVEN CHILDREN AND NOW YOU WANNA GIVE THEM BACK

Ate all the cold and spicy chow mein noodles last night — very good as
a snack (not good dried.) Have finished-up the watercolour suite. A good
sunbathing activity. The sun and wind quickly dry deliberately shaped
puddles of color-wash. There are a couple I could ‘noodle’ around with a
little more but it all feels finished somehow. Need to buy a good set of
travel brushes, half-pans, ox gall, compartment box, and more w/c books.
Will see if I can do my walk without attracting the notice of the bully
dogs.

Took the Angelo watertaxi to Mayreau ($150EC not too bad considering
that he had make four trips — and he had lifejackets!) It’s the
smallest inhabited Grenadine Island with only 200 inhabitants, mostly
fishermen – felt a little tense and expensive. Apparently cruise ships
dump their passengers here, which would account for the big stacks of
locked-up lounge chairs on the beach. Everyone lives in the middle of
the island: something to do with the government acquiring what was a
private island and re-settling people while “Canadians” and a group of
lawyers from SV bought the rest. Righteous Robert’s brightly painted
Rasta-urant and the Catholic stone church on the hilltop with a great
view of the Cayes, were interesting to see. Electricity was introduced
in 2003. There is an elementary school, post office, a few grocery
stores, bars and medical clinic. Big HIV/AIDS sign. Apparently the local
water is risky.

My neck is still stiff from being slammed around in that little boat
yesterday. Didn’t wake-up until 6.

Thursday Feb 25: packing day in preparation for the journey back to
Grenada tomorrow morning. Charge the batteries and gadgetry. Empty the
fridge. Clean-up a little. Estimate power bill and pay Y. Dispose of the
disposables. Hand wash shirt and shorts and hang to dry overnight.
Shower in the evening. Text Bones a reminder and ask for a lifejacket if
possible. I think I’ll try sitting backwards and farther back in the
boat this time. Don’t know if I’ll bother with PSV backup tour or not. I
can call Angelo if need be, but he charges $150EC to PM.

Well, Bones finally showed-up but he first picked-up a little ‘package’
at another dock. He is a skilled boatman — a very smooth passage. I was
surprised and delighted to learn that Richard & Pam had leased (perhaps
questionable, according to E, beachfront land ($100EC/mo) and were
industriously building a modest hexagonal house of their own design. The
local children call it the “coin house,” in reference to Grenada’s
multi-sided coinage. I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen and it’s all
built visually and by hand. Thrilled to see how it all transpires and
integrates into the community. PM is certainly a tenser place to live…
I’d been back there for a few hours and the cops were on me… ^how long
have you been here; you’ve been here before; why are you taking
pictures?… (all those stories about locals remembering faces are
true)…But in truth a modestly strong swimmer could get to PSV from
PM… it’s that close. I noticed that the new VAT has dramatically
increased the price of groceries that I saw at Matthew’s — a major
player on the island. Apparently he contributed to this impressive
sounding community center above the primary school that was supposed to
provide internet access and library/media facilities to one-and-all. The
old-timers sit on LIME mobile store steps by the wharf to chat with
friends waiting for the ferry to arrive. The Osprey arrives at the dock
around noon and then mysteriously goes back out into the bay and
apparently anchors for lunch, returning at 3 p.m.

Staying at K’s Caribbean Cottage Club ($170US $440EC for 3 nights –
ouch!); very nice 2 bdrm apartment with high pitched ceilings, lots of
wood and louvered windows and doors. Making recordings from the porch at night. You can glimpse the sea over the palm trees in front. Bought some
tasty BBQ chicken last night ($3.50EC) from a lady down the street. Rum
‘n’ coke and plantain chips. This morning walked down to Grand Anse Bay
and beach then back here with some groceries (big bottle of Coke, dry
roasted peanuts, tonic water, and souvenir spice collection which I
should have purchased from the market in St George where they’d likely
be fresher and cheaper. Also wandered around town: library and museum
closed, Pebbles Jazz club with attached art gallery (closed), Scare Dem
World music shop (Mighty Sparrow CD copy $15EC), vegetable, fish, and
meat markets. Made a nice little film of a big LCD billboard. Walked
around Ft George (closed) taking 12hr photos of the walls. Back to the
apt again where I read some tourist publications. Thought about taking a
Sunsation tour on Sunday but unfortunately they’re not offering any that
day. “Tutti Frutti” Tour ($80US) : St George Stadium, Picturesque West
Coast, Concord Waterfall, Gouyave Nutmeg Processing Station, Carib’s
Leap, River antoine Rum Distillery, Pearls Airport (which I think is a
raceway), Grenville, Rainforest at Grand Etang Crater Lake. I could ask
the Crabman taxi for a similar tour but I think Katrina said he charges
$200US which be ok split between a few people but no one of the
semi-permanent guests here would want to go. So I might just visit the
two botanical gardens instead. Reading a Frank Zappa biography that was
in the apt. Phoned to confirm my flight home on Monday.

Signs (painted lyrics) at Pebbles Jazz Club in St George, Grenada:

HEY EVERYBODY, LET’S HAVE SOME FUN, YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE AND WHEN YOU’RE DEAD, YOU’RE DONE

IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN’T GOT THAT SWING

BIRDS FLYING HIGH – YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL, SUN IN THE SKY – YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL, BREEZE DRIFTIN’ BY, YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL – I’M FEELING GOOD

WHEN SHE WALKS SHE’S LIKE A SAMBA THAT SWINGS SO COOL AND SWAYS SO GENTLE THAT WHEN SHE PASSES, EACH ONE SHE PASSES GOES “A-A-AH”

Nearly robbed – at least I can’t see anything missing – last night.
Someone used a length of stiff wire to try and hook things on a table
next to the window louvers. At first I thought they had stolen my PDA
case with wireless modem and SD card inside, but then I spotted where it
had dropped on the floor. (There appears to be wifi in the apt but I
haven’t the desire to try it out.) I actually considered such a remote
possibility before going to bed at 9, and considered moving my recording
equipment inside the locked bedroom, but finally just slid most
everything off to the far end of the table. There’s a locking gate and
barbed wire frost fence, some of the windows are barred and chained, or
nailed shut; there’s supposedly a watchman (big help), and a mastif-like
black dog. I wonder if it wasn’t the beatific smiling rasta kid (Tille)
that helps-out here — he came by to relay a message about the
Sunsations tour and furtively noticed my minidisc equipment set-up on
the balcony. I asked K about security/safety my first day and of
course she downplayed it, saying that once a guest had her handbag
grabbed but local people pounced on the thief. While trying
unsuccessfully lock a door, she told me that she was an Italian ex-pat
yoga instructor (with long blonde dreads), that wasn’t ‘very practical,’
so I’m thinking her employees may take advantage of their situation. The
former owner lived in this apartment, which would explain the security
fortifications. There are workers here as well adding some structures to
other buildings, but it must have been an inside job; no one else would
have had that specific intimate knowledge of building layout and have
likely previously crafted the wire-tool. Also other things outside:
books, laundry, cushions were not disturbed. The previous night I left a
lithium battery out to hold down some paper receipts. It was there as I
encountered the ‘maid’ hanging the laundry in the breezeway but gone
when I returned, the receipts had been ‘thoughtfully’ placed under a
book on another table. I’ll be leaving the lights and TV on all the time
today So not at all like Big Sand where you safely leave your screened
windows open all day/night. St George is quite Westernized and I imagine
is considered ‘progressive,’ attracting an affluent, comfort-seeking
tourist. Earthquake in Chlie, tsunami in Japan; alerts in Hawaii.

K talked me into going to some Grand Anse beach where we (her son and
young handsome boyfriend who seems to want to be a cop and surrogate
father), had an expensive and poor lunch. Left early for the airport
next morning where I repacked my slightly overweight luggage and the
security people tore apart my carry-on luggage, inspecting every item
and insisting that I go back_out and put some items (a bicycle-cable,
lock and 9V battery) in my checked-luggage. While I was out they stole
items from my carry-on bag!! I can’t recommend that anyone visit
Grenada; I’ll just say that Grenadinians are much different from
Vincentians. Finally flew home. Just click-on OK.

October 19, 2009

ONE-THIRD OF DENGUE CALIFORNIA COFFEE CHILD BRIDES AND MASSIVE MADAGASCAR IVORY TEA FARMER COPS KILL SEVEN NEW GLOWING ‘FORCED ACQUISITION’ EARTHQUAKES, MONKEYS, MOSQUITOES, MUSHROOMS, TOBAGO MURDERS, SOUTH PACIFIC MALARIA, SECRETIVE RITUALS AND DERAILED PASSENGER TRAINS WITH BURMESE MIGRANT WORKERS HARASSED BY GANGS, PREFER HILTON HOTEL HORROR, ILLEGAL XINHUA FISHING, MALAYSIAN MALARIA MAYHEM, OVER BANGLADESH BORDER FENCING, POACHER BOATS, AND ALARMING NICARAGUAN CLIMATE CHANGE FOOD CRISIS AS RWANDA GENOCIDE’S GREENLIGHT RADIO STOCK EXCHANGE SURGES KILL THREE, WOUND 34 — HUNDREDS OF VENEZUELAN FOLK CORPSES TRAPPED FOR 100 YEARS IN KERMADEC, EASTER ISLANDS PONZI PRISON RAT-KILLING, ADMINISTRATIVE BUNGLED THAILAND TSUNAMI UNDERPANTS THIEF’S $60 MILLION PNG PATROL LOCK-UP

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Kenyan authorities have seized almost 700kg of ivory worth millions of
dollars in a night-time raid at the country’s main airport. The Kenya
Wildlife Service says a similar amount was intercepted in the Ethiopian
capital, Addis Ababa. Both consignments – with a potential value of more
than $1.5m (£938,000) – were reportedly headed for Thailand. Poaching is on
the increase mostly owing to high demand for ivory in Asia. It is not yet
clear whether the ivory, recovered at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport, had
been trafficked from other parts of the continent or was from East Africa.
Twenty years ago the world’s elephant population was plummeting and the
trade in ivory was banned. But over the past decade the ban has been
periodically relaxed and occasional supervised ivory auctions have been
allowed.

A powerful earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck the remote
Kermadec Islands region. The quake occurred at a depth of 62 km and its
epicentre was about 260 km north east of Raoul Island. There were no
immediate reports of any damage or injuries. No tsunami warning was issued
following the quake. The islands, which are often hit by severe quakes,
have no permanent population except a small New Zealand Department of
Conservation team on Raoul Island.

Madagascar’s rival political parties have agreed on key posts in a
transitional government. Andry Rajoelina, who led a military coup that
ousted President Marc Ravalomanana, will remain as president. However, Mr
Rajoelina will not be allowed to run for the post in Madagascar’s next
elections, which must be held by November 2010 under the deal. The newly
appointed prime minister is Eugene Mangalaza, who is a member of the same
political party as another former president, Didier Ratsiraka, who was
ousted himself by Mr Ravalomanana in 2002. The deal is expected to end the
political crisis that has enveloped Madagascar since Rajoelina took power.
The political struggle has led to the deaths of more than 100 people and
hampered the island’s tourism industry.

The disasters this week show people on Pacific shores still lack basic
protection from tsunamis The official responses to this week’s double
disaster – first, the Samoan tsunami, and then the Sumatran earthquakes –
again reveal worrying flaws in the early warning systems that are the
first, and usually only, lines of defence against the natural hazards that
regularly afflict the world’s most seismically unstable regions. When the
8.3 magnitude undersea earthquake struck, 190km south of the Samoan
islands, it was registered instantly at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre
on Ewa Beach, Oahu, which then issued tsunami warnings to a number of
Pacific island groups, including New Zealand and Samoa.

The fencing project of India – Bangladesh border is expected to complete by
March 2010. The development of fence had been put off due to issues like
harsh topography and pending land acquisition case, cites a home ministry
statement. The other factors which delayed the fencing of the India –
Bangladesh border include need for realignment of fencing, presence of
human life within 150 yards of border, objections from Bangladesh Rifles
for the development of fences within 150 yards etc. The working season
available for the construction of the fence was also a very restricted one.
Approximately 2,649.74 km of the total 3,436.56 km have been fenced till
now. The project is now expected to reach completion by March, 2010, it
said. About 3,326.82 km of border roads of the sanctioned 4,326.24 km have
also been constructed. The 2,840 km India – Bangladesh border will be
floodlighted, which is expected to cost about Rs.1,327 crore. This is
expected to get over by 2011-2012. The work is being carried out by CPWD,
NBCC and NPCC.

With no outside help in sight, villagers used their bare hands to dig out
rotting corpses, four days after landslides triggered by a huge earthquake
obliterated four hamlets in western Indonesia. At least 644 people were
buried and presumed dead in the hillside villages in Padang Pariaman
district on the western coast of Sumatra island. If confirmed it would
raise the death toll in the 7.6-magnitude earthquake to more than 1,300,
with about 3,000 missing. The extent of the disaster in remote villages was
only now becoming clear. So far, aid and rescue efforts have been
concentrated in the region’s capital, Padang, a city of 900,000 people
where several tall buildings collapsed. But the quake was equally
devastating in the hills of Pariaman, where entire hillsides were shaken
loose, sending a cascade of mud, rocks and trees through at least four
villages. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said there was little hope of finding
anyone alive. “We can be sure that they are dead. So now we are waiting for
burials.”

Police in Uganda have arrested and extradited a man who is among the most
wanted suspects from the Rwandan genocide. The 100-day killing rampage led
to the loss of an estimated 10 percent of Rwanda’s population. The 100-day
killing rampage led to the loss of an estimated 10 percent of Rwanda’s
population. IIdephonse Nizeyimana was picked up at a hotel in Rubaga, a
suburb of the capital, Kampala, by the National Central Bureau of Interpol.
He was transferred to a U.N. detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania, where
the tribunal is based. Top officials who allegedly took part in the
genocide, such as army generals and politicians, are tried by the tribunal.
Nizeyimana is one of the four top accused who are earmarked by the
prosecutor to be tried by the tribunal in Arusha after their arrest as part
of the ICTR completion strategy. Of a list of 13 fugitives, he is the
second to be arrested in less than two months.

Three major earthquakes struck within an hour and 10 minutes near Vanuatu
in the South Pacific, prompting a tsunami warning that was quickly lifted.
The quakes struck near Vanuatu in the South Pacific. They were part of
series of nine moderate-to-major quakes that rattled the region in just
over four hours. The first quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck at 9:03
a.m. at a depth of 35 km (22 miles) and an epicenter 295 km (180 miles)
north-northwest of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. A second quake,
with a magnitude of 7.7, struck 15 minutes later at the same depth and an
epicenter of 340 km (210 miles) north-northwest of Luganville. The third
quake, with a magnitude of 7.1, struck at 10:13 a.m. at about the same
depth and an epicenter of 280 km (175 miles) north-northwest of Luganville.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued and then quickly lifted a
regional tsunami warning and watch for parts of the Pacific near the first
earthquake’s epicenter. The first data from a buoy at Luganville on Vanuatu
detected a tsunami wave of 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) at Luganville on
Vanuatu.

One of the suspects in the killing of two Tobago teenagers was shot dead by
police officers in Moruga. Gary Mohammed was killed around 10.15 p.m. A
party of police officers approached a wooden structure in a forested area
in St Mary’s, Moruga, and were fired upon, officers said. In returning
fire, Mohammed was shot several times and died at the scene. The
32-year-old, of Ste Madeleine, San Fernando, last lived in Tobago. The
search continues for a second suspect, who was also shot. The battered
bodies of Kolen Salandy, 16, and Rondell Thomas, 15, were found in French
Fort, Scarborough, Tobago. Their bodies bore marks of violence to the neck
and throat, and both were found with their underpants and trousers pulled
down to their knees. Autopsies revealed the teens died as a result of
broken necks. A manhunt was launched for the suspects after they were
spotted in Princes Town. The men fled to Trinidad by boat after the
teenagers’ bodies were found, investigators said. They believed the men
were seeking assistance to leave the island by sea. As officers search for
the second suspect, medical institutions have been informed to be on the
alert for anyone needing attention for gunshot wounds.

Stepping off the plane, tourists are welcomed to Easter Island with a
garland of flowers. They find themselves on a tiny dot in the Pacific
Ocean, 3,700km west of Chile, to which the island belongs, and 2,000km east
of Pitcairn Island. All around are the white-flecked waves of the Pacific.
“What perfect peace,” exclaimed Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer and
author when he arrived in the mid-1950s. He might not say so today. Some
70,000 visitors now arrive each year, up from just 14,000 in the mid-1990s.
Apart from the island’s utter remoteness, what attracts the tourists are
the moai, the mysterious giant stone statues erected by the ancestors of
the indigenous Rapa Nui people. They are testament to a complex society of
up to 20,000 people which later shrank to a shadow as a result of
calamitous environmental stress and deforestation, a cautionary tale
narrated in “Collapse”, a book by Jared Diamond, a polymath at the
University of California, Los Angeles. Today Easter Island once again faces
environmental threats. Food comes from Chile, either by ship or on the
seven weekly flights from Santiago (there are also two from Tahiti). The
visitors “all pull the chain,” Luz Zasso, the mayoress, notes acidly. The
absence of a sewage system is threatening the cleanliness of the island’s
underground water sources. But it would be hard to install one without
damaging archaeological sites. Electricity comes from diesel-powered
generators. Power cuts are frequent. Rubbish is piling up. Many Easter
Islanders are worried. Tourists should be limited to 50,000 a year and be
preferably well-heeled, argues Marcelo Pont, the vice-president of the
Council of Elders, an advisory body. Visitors from the Chilean mainland
attract particular resentment. “They’re interested in sun, sand and
swimming pools, not the island,” says Edgard Herevi of the local chamber of
tourism. Tourism has brought migrants from the mainland, too. The
population is now 5,000, up from 3,300 in 2002, of whom only half are now
of Rapa Nui descent. Locals complain that the incomers are competing in the
handicrafts trade, carving wooden moai and selling shell necklaces.

Thousands of Venezuelans congregated for candlelit rituals on a remote
mountainside where adherents make an annual pilgrimage to pay homage to an
indigenous goddess known as Maria Lionza. Along with Santeria, Venezuela is
home to other folk religions, such as the sect surrounding the Indian
goddess Maria Lionza, an indigenous woman who according to tradition was
born on Sorte Mountain and whose cult has spread to Colombia, Panama,
Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Central America.

The Global Hunger Index placed Kenya among the world’s most food deficient
countries. The report by International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI), Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe ranks countries on a
100-point scale with 0 being the best score, but Kenya had only 20.1 per
cent. In ranking the country is placed 29th in the world among the
countries with poor food security. Kenya is a hotspot on hunger
vulnerability because of the perennial droughts and insecurity. The world
has been dealing with the food security since 1976. But today close to 900
million people are still food insecure and Kenya is placed among the dark
section of the report. Democratic Republic of Congo was ranked the worst
followed by Burundi, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Chad and Ethiopia. Egypt,
Tunisia, Algeria and Libya were identified as the countries in Africa that
have shown consistency in food security.

In “Law Abiding Citizen,” a sociopath goes on a rampage, killing major
officials in Philadelphia and holding the entire city hostage. He
essentially is a character elevated out of the ranks of horror films who
instead of killing teenagers reacting to hormones or other socio-biological
imperatives destroys adults reacting to career dictates. As the title
insists, this is a law-abiding citizen who is irate with a justice “system”
that allowed one of the killers of his wife and daughter to get off with a
light sentence. Does a social message lurk within the context of rapes,
dismemberment, bomb explosions and political assassinations? No, of course
not. That’s just the cover for filmmakers F. Gary Gray and writer Kurt
Wimmer to indulge in calculated genre mischief that mixes horror elements
with a suspense thriller. The script does create sufficient tension and
intrigue to hook viewers, along with a photogenic, hard-working cast, so
“Citizen,” should stir some mid-October box-office action. Gerard Butler
(who also is a producer) plays a supposedly average guy who witnesses the
slaughter of his wife and daughter by home-invasion robbers. Curiously,
this pair seems more interested in being outrageously sadistic than in
grabbing anything worth fencing, but that’s so an audience will understand
these really are bad people who deserve to die. Jamie Foxx plays a Philly
assistant D.A. without much hard evidence who plea-bargains an agreement
with one sleaze ball to testify against the other to win at least a death
verdict against one and a murder plea from the other.

Incidents of Thai gangs harassing and robbing Burmese migrant workers in
Southern Thailand are on the rise, claim several migrant workers. A Mon
migrant worker, employed at a rural rubber plantation in Hat Yai district
in Trang Province in Southern Thailand, said that he and his wife were
robbed of by a gang of three Thai teenagers. The gang stole 440 baht and a
cell phone. Nai Myint Aung, aged 30, said that he and eight of his friends
are already paying 50 baht per month to a different Thai gang, and have
been doing so for the past eight months. Nai Myint Aung said that if he or
his friends fail to pay the monthly extortion fee, the gang follows them
back to their homes and harasses their families. Nai Myint Aung also said
that he left his boss’s home, where he had received his paycheck of 7000
baht, and entered the local market. The gang of Thai teenagers followed him
from the marketplace to his neighborhood. Nai Myint Aung claimed that the
gang stopped his motorbike and seized his wife who accompanied him,
threatening the pair with a knife. The gang then searched his wife’s body
and stole 440 baht and her cellular phone. A Thai neighbor of the pair,
a-35 year-old man, saw the Nai Myint Aung and his wife being attacked, and
phoned the police, causing the gang to scatter. Nai Myint Aung said that
his wife had luckily had the foresight to stow his paycheck in her
brassiere, and thus the pair managed to escape the attack without losing
the 7000 baht he’d just received.

Officials say the sales have fuelled demand for ivory in Asian countries,
especially China, contributing to a sharp increase in elephant poaching. So
far this year poachers in Kenya have killed 128 elephants for their ivory;
last year 98 were killed. In July, Kenyan authorities intercepted 16
elephant tusks and two rhinoceros horns being illegally exported to Laos
from Mozambique. Some wildlife experts have attributed the increase in
elephant poaching to the presence of Chinese workers in Africa. With demand
for ivory products increasing back home, some Chinese workers on low
salaries in Kenya are reported to have become middlemen in the ivory trade.
And because of the high demand for ivory across Asia, the price of ivory
has shot up and can fetch more than $1,000 a kilo.

A magnitude-5.8 earthquake struck central Italy, causing buildings to
collapse in the historic centre of L’Aquila and raising fears of
fatalities. Rome, Abruzzo and other parts of central Italy were hit by the
quake, whose epicentre was in the area of Abruzzo’s capital, L’Aquila, at a
five-km depth. L’Aquila residents were shaken from sleep and ran out in
panic onto the city’s streets. Emergency services authorities said the
quake struck at 3.32 a.m. with a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale. The
US Geological Survey initially reported the strength of the quake at 6.7
before lowering it to 6.3. In the hours before the earthquake, two tremors
had occurred with magnitudes of 3.5 and 3.9.

Once such warnings are received, it is up to local authorities to pass them
on to their coastal inhabitants by whatever methods have been agreed, with
instant automated text messaging among the most widely used techniques.
Text messaging is of particular value in the event of locally generated
tsunamis, when the window of warning is usually a matter of minutes, rather
than hours. But those Samoans who felt the tremor and waited for the text
that would tell them whether to head inland waited in vain, for no message
was sent out. And had anyone turned down the radio or television so as not
to miss the incoming text alert, they would have missed the islands’ only
warning – given out on local radio just as the first of two giant waves
began battering the islands’ southern shores. On New Zealand’s North
Island, meanwhile, several hundred people received their “instant” text
alert some three hours late, by which time the tsunami warning had already
been cancelled. The messaging service has now been suspended, and an
inquiry is already under way. But technological failure is not the only
factor that contributed to the death toll, which currently stands at 169.
Many of those killed were caught by the morning’s second wave as they
headed to the beaches to pick up the fish that had been washed ashore by
the first wave. Given that tsunamis usually take the form of a series of
powerful waves, sometimes even hours apart, such a fatal lack of awareness
speaks of a wider failure to pass on even basic tsunami knowledge and
preparedness to the islands’ coastal inhabitants. Education remains the
only truly effective means of reversing the effects of disaster amnesia,
but the last island-wide safety drill took place in October 2007, in
response to a tsunami earlier that year that killed 22 people on the nearby
Solomon Islands. Ironically, a similar tsunami safety drill had been
scheduled for American Samoa but the real thing arrived unannounced
instead.

Where the villages once stood, there was only mud and broken palm trees —
the mountainsides appeared gouged bare as if by a gigantic backhoe. The
villages “were sucked 30 meters deep into the earth. Even the mosque’s
minaret, taller than 20 meters disappeared. In Jumanak village, some 200 to
300 wedding guests at a restaurant were buried alive, including the bride.
Ichi, 19, had come back to the village for her wedding. “When the landslide
came, the party had just finished. I heard a big boom of the avalanche. I
ran outside and saw the trees fall down,” said Iseh, who like many
Indonesians uses only one name. “I tried to get in front of the house with
my brothers. We were so afraid. Landslides started coming from all
directions. I just ran and then I waited,” he said. Iseh says he knows of
only 10 people from the village who survived. He doesn’t know the fate of
his parents or brothers. The adjacent villages of Pulau Aiya, Lubuk Lawe
and Limo Koto Timur were also swept away. Survivors in the area said no
government aid or search teams had arrived, even four days after the quake.
Only about 20 local policemen had come with a power shovel and body bags.
“My relatives were all killed, washed away by the landslide,” said Dola
Jambak, a 48-year-old trader, picking through the rubble of his house. “I
lost seven relatives. Now all I can do is wait for the search teams. But
they don’t come.” The landslides cut off all roads, and the villages were
accessible only by foot. Jumanak is reached after walking about four miles
(six kilometers) for 1 1/2 hours.

In the attacks that started in April 1994, Hutu militias and members of the
general population sought out Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and went on a
100-day killing rampage. Civilians and children got incentives to take part
in the atrocities, including promises of land belonging to their Tutsi
neighbors. It was one of the most brutal genocides in modern history. Some
figures put the number of dead at 1 million — 10 percent of the population
of the central African nation. Millions more were raped and disfigured. A
whole generation of children lost their parents. Nizeyimana was a captain
the Rwanda Armed Forces. He is accused of exercising authority over
soldiers and personnel through a chain of command, and allegedly sent a
section of soldiers to execute of Rosalie Gicanda, a former queen of Rwanda
who was a “symbolic figure for all Tutsis.” This marks the second time
Uganda has cooperated to make an arrest. The tribunal has commended the
Interpol and the Ugandan authorities for their close cooperation.”

Malaria in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu has been dramatically reduced
through an effective control strategy. There were 50,000 fewer cases of
Malaria in the Solomon Islands in 2008 compared with 2003. An effective
prevention and control strategy comprising of long lasting insecticide
treated bednet distribution, focal point indoor residual spraying, early
diagnosis and treatment and active case detection has had dramatic impact
on the annual incidence rate of malaria in both the Solomon Islands and
Vanuatu. The annual incidence rate (which is a measure of number of
confirmed cases of malaria per 1,000 population) has been reduced from 198
/1,000 to 84/1,000 in the Solomon Islands over the five year period ending
December 2008, while in Vanuatu it has decreased from 74/1,000 to 14 /
1,000 in the same period. Both countries had now been able to move from
control to pilot elimination as a result of the success of the Global Fund
financed programs. The capacity of both countries to scale up interventions
has further been improved as a result of AusAID’s support to the national
malaria strategies, particularly in the area of elimination and treatment.
The measures in place resulted in a significant decrease in the number of
confirmed malaria cases in the Solomon Islands compared to 2003, easing the
burden on the national health systems and budget, and reducing production
time lost due to malaria, which is a contributing factor that constrains
economic growth. A particular emphasis will be on strengthening health
systems in Pacific Islands countries and territories (PICTs).

A second pulse of the wave was 10 centimeters. It looked like a very small
wave. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The two major
quakes that followed the first one were aftershocks. When there’s a big
quake, the pattern they follow is after the first quake, a second and then
a third. Those are obviously related. At the Hotel Le Paris in Noumea, the
capital of New Caledonia, the manager said that she felt the shake but had
not seen any damage. On Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu, dive-shop owner
Rehan Syed said he was aware of no reports of damages or injuries. “We have
the sun out and winds are pretty normal. Pretty cloudy skies but nothing
more than that.” “We felt the quake (my chair and my keyboard moved) but
did not take too much notice as we live with shakes every week,” said John
Nicholls of Vanuatu Hotels in an e-mail. At the New Caledonia Hotel, guests
were evacuated to higher ground, General Manager Torani George said, adding
that he had felt “nothing, nothing at all.”

Greenpeace today called for the arrest of the captain of the Japanese ship
Koyu Maru 3, which Greenpeace caught fishing illegally in the Exclusive
Economic Zone of the Cook Islands. “The Koyu Maru 3 and other pirate
fishing vessels are stealing fish for their own profit, depriving the
people of the Cook Islands of a vital source of income,” said Josua
Turaganivalu, Oceans Campaigner of Greenpeace Australia Pacific on board
the Esperanza. “These pirates of the Pacific must be stopped from
plundering ocean life and robbing local communities.” The Greenpeace ship
Esperanza, campaigning to end the destruction of the world’s oceans,
encountered the Koyu Maru 3 hauling in its longline and catching tuna
within Cook Islands waters, where they have no license to fish. Greenpeace
provided the Cook Islands Ministry of Marine Resources and the Fisheries
Agency of Japan with photographic evidence of the illegal activity.
Greenpeace demands the Japanese government order Koyu Maru 3, which is
owned by Tokyo-based World Tuna Co Ltd, to stop its illegal fishing
activities and sailto the nearest port for further investigation. Globally,
more than US $9 billion dollars is lost each year to pirate fishing fleets.
Pirate fishers, who reap their profits in European, American and Asian
markets, are threatening fish stocks as well as depriving Pacific
communities of much-needed income. Pirate fishing in the Pacific accounted
for an average of 36% of its total fisheries, much higher than the global
average of 19%. “The government of Japan must show leadership in tackling
illegal fishing by its vessels in the Pacific. Japan must also take the
lead among major fishing nations and support efforts by Pacific countries
to reduce fishing activities in the region by half and close all four
pockets of international waters to fishing to allow tuna stocks to
recover,” added Wakao Hanaoka, Oceans Campaigner of Greenpeace Japan.
Long-liners like the Koyu Maru 3 mainly target bigeye, yellowfin and
albacore tuna, destined for sashimi markets in Japan and other countries
where this food has become popular. Some Pacific tuna stocks, such as
bigeye and yellowfin tuna, are being fished beyond their limits.

There is almost no unemployment, and thanks to tourist revenues and
government spending, living standards are similar to those on the mainland.
But locals worry about the future. In response, Chile’s government is
proposing laws that would beef up the island’s government, give the Rapa
Nui more say in it and allow them to control immigration. It also plans to
raise the entrance fee to the Rapa Nui National Park, where most of the
main sights are, from $10 to $60 for foreigners. The Rapa Nui Parliament, a
radical group that split from the Council of Elders, is calling for
independence. Its supporters blocked the airport’s runway for two days in
August. It wants to expel Chileans, even those who have lived much of their
life on the island, unless they have a longstanding relationship with a
Rapa Nui or are the parent of a child with Rapa Nui blood. The group also
dreams of ditching Chile’s peso and forming a Polynesian currency union,
including Australia and New Zealand. Such claims are merely a sign of
economic frustration, argues Sergio Rapu, an archaeologist and former
governor of the island. Perhaps. But the question they raise is whether
greater autonomy to run their own affairs would help the Rapa Nui to avoid
a repeat of the ecological collapse they failed to prevent centuries ago.
Sometimes one has to take drastic steps in Chile (or elsewhere) to get
noticed. The protest entirely is about the Islanders wishing to control who
arrives and who does not, and their model is the Galapagos control, also
for eco reasons. The Interior Minister pushed through an on arrival
registration system after the protest, but the Supreme Court disallowed
that as unconstitutional. The problem is the number of Chileans from
poverty stricken – yes, very poor – Chile who see Rapanui as a place with
lots of money to be made. And it is. So, go to Rapanui, take up with a
local girl, produce a child and stay until things don’t work out and, then,
abandon the island, partner and child. Why would a local girl be interested
in a “roto chileno”, Chilean slang for any-old-common-bastard (rough
translation)? Simple: older islanders make it very difficult for Rapanui to
marry Rapanui since all are “related”, even if people really are not sure
what that kinship might be, which is when I get the odd pleading email for
advice. Not very nice what the Chileans do and you can see why the Rapanui
don’t like those “weeds”, as such Chileans are called. Normal tourists from
anywhere are fine, budget or rich: there is accommodation for all types.

Many smoked cigars in purification rituals, while others closed their eyes
lying face-up surrounded by candles and elaborate designs drawn on the
ground with white powder. Some calling themselves the “Vikings” pricked
their tongues with razor blades, drawing blood that ran down their chins
and chests. They said they could not reveal the esoteric secrets that
govern their traditions. The rituals are held every year in the name of the
indigenous goddess Maria Lionza, who according to legend came from the
mountain at Sorte, near the northwestern town of Chivacoa. Some repeated
the word “strength” while dancing atop flaming embers in a ceremony
honoring the goddess at the start of the annual rituals. Many camped in
tents while dedicating several days to the spiritual ceremonies. The
traditions centered on Maria Lionza are hundreds of years old and draw on
elements of the Afro-Caribbean religion Santeria and indigenous rituals, as
well as Catholicism. Believers often ask for spiritual healing or
protection from witchcraft, or thank the goddess for curing an illness.
Venezuela is predominantly Roman Catholic. The church disapproves of the
folk religion but has long since abandoned its attempts to suppress it. A
statue on a Caracas highway divider honors Maria Lionza, depicting her
naked and sitting astride a wild tapir. Followers of the sect regularly
leave offerings of flowers, liquor, coins or fruit at shrines honoring the
goddess or other folk saints.

Conflicts, climate change and poor policies are blamed for the hunger in
countries with food insecurity. The index ranks countries based on child
malnutrition, child death rates and calorie deficient population. High
rates of hunger are strongly linked to gender inequalities, especially in
terms of literacy and access to education. In Kenya, the report gives
special mention of the rural residents and the urban poor in the slums. Two
groups need nutritional interventions because of droughts and the global
financial crisis. There is no term to describe the water scarcity in Kenya
although it receives sufficient rains. Only four per cent of rainwater is
used while 96 per cent is left to flow to the ocean. The Government needs
to do much more to correct this. In Korogocho, about 150,000 people live in
an area of 1.5km2, making it one of the most densely populated slums in the
city. As a result, 3.5 per cent of children suffer from acute malnutrition
and 37.9 per cent from chronic malnutrition. Gender inequality In addition
to inadequate access to affordable foods, a poor health environment, and
low coverage of health services, the survey showed poor childcare practices
were underlying cause of malnutrition in the slum. Hunger is also related
to gender inequality. In rural Kenya, 75 per cent of women are doing much
work but with the ongoing drought, they have been weakened from looking for
water. Furthermore, men are able to move to towns leaving their wives
behind making them vulnerable. Women were encouraged to acquire education
and look for work to earn their own income. This would increase their
influence in making decisions about buying of food, health care, and other
essential needs for their children. The silent hunger crisis — affecting
one sixth of all of humanity — poses a serious risk for world peace and
security.

The audience is not allowed to understand much about the legal case — the
evidence or the pretrial rulings. Nor does one know much about either key
character, the attorney who agrees to the deal or the father and husband
who feels that justice is not served. But because the audience does witness
selected parts of the murder scene, they will understand that the greater
villain eventually will walk free. Tellingly, no judge, lawyer nor anyone
else — not even the husband who blacked out — has this God-like
perspective. Ten years roll by, and Butler’s revenge-minded victim is ready
for action. Oh, by the way, Butler is not an average guy, after all. He
actually is a secret weapon — no, better than that, he is a “Brain,” whom
U.S. spy agencies employ to kill people anywhere around the globe in a
ghostlike fashion. He’s going after anybody connected with the decade-old
case, which more or less means anybody who happened to be living in Philly
at the time. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen everything you need to
know about the murderous havoc this man rains down on the city. No attempt
is made to make either combatant credible. Foxx’s character goes along with
SWAT teams as they hunt bad guys. And Butler’s nut job couldn’t care less
about his dead wife and child. He’s having too much fun killing people. The
film is smoothly produced, though Brian Tyler’s score is too much like an
excitable cheerleader. Jonathan Sela’s photography and Alex Hajdu’s design
sustain a noirish Philadelphia that works well with the criminal mayhem.

Nai Myint Aung claimed that he fears that the gang will continue to cause
problems for his family, as the group likely remembers his motorbike
number. His Thai neighbor, who came to his rescue the day of his attack,
allegedly urged him to report the incident to the police, but Nai Mynit
Aung says he fears that reporting the gang to the Thai police will only
result in more violence. Reportedly, his fellow workers at the rubber
plantation where he is employed have heard rumors of a Thai gang killing a
family in the area who reported them to the authorities, and he does not
want his family to meet a similar fate. Mi Hlaing, Nai Myint Aung’s wife,
said, “The Thai gangs know that most of the Mon migrant workers go to the
market [once a week] to buy goods. That’s why the gangs perform a robbery
every week on the way [to the market].” Mi Hlaing added that she and her
family previously lived in Thailand’s Phanga Province, but that after an
incident 2 months ago where a 50-year-old Thai man attempted to rape her,
she and her husband decided to move to the Hat Yai area. A Mon worker named
Mi Mee, from Pattaya, also in Southern Thailand, claims that during the
last ten days, Thai gangs have stolen a gold necklace, 2000 baht, and three
mobile phones from migrant workers in the Pattya area; the rape of a
migrant woman in the area has also been attributed to gang activity. Mi Mee
explained that migrant workers in Southern Thailand feel that they must
face the abuse of Thai gangs in the area with patience, because the Burmese
workers need their jobs in Thailand too much to cause trouble.

Bangladesh rewarded a farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats, and the
government launched a nationwide campaign to kill millions more in an
effort to reduce destruction by the rodents and thus cut food imports.
Mokhairul Islam, 40, won first prize of a 14-inch color television for
killing 83,450 rats in the past nine months in the Gazipur district near
Dhaka, the capital. Islam said he used mainly poison to kill the rats at
his poultry farm, collecting their tails for proof. “This is an exciting
moment,” he said. “I will continue to kill them.” Bangladesh imports 3
million tons of food annually, and the Ministry of Agriculture estimates
that rodents destroy 1.5 million to 2 million tons of food annually. The
import of food can be cut by at least half if this year’s campaign is
successful.

Geoscientists have said that the 2007 Solomon Island earthquake may point
to previously unknown increased earthquake and tsunami risks because of the
unusual tectonic plate geography and the sudden change in direction of the
earthquake. On April 1, 2007, a tsunami-generating earthquake of magnitude
8.1 occurred East of Papua New Guinea off the coast of the Solomon Islands.
The subsequent tsunami killed about 52 people, destroyed much property and
was larger than expected. This area has some of the fastest moving plates
on Earth. It also has some of the youngest oceanic crust subducting
anywhere. Subduction occurs when one tectonic plate moves beneath another
plate. In this area, there are actually three plates involved, two of them
subducting beneath the third while sliding past each other. The Australia
Plate and the Solomon Sea/Woodlark Basin Plate are both moving beneath the
Pacific Plate. At the same time, the Australia and Solomon Sea/Woodlark
Basin Plates are sliding past each other. The Australia Plate moves beneath
the Pacific Plate at about 4 inches a year and the Solomon Sea Plate moves
beneath the Pacific Plate at about 5.5 inches per year. As if this were not
complicated enough, the Australia and Solomon Sea plates are also moving in
slightly different directions. The earthquake crossed from one plate
boundary – the Australia-Pacific boundary – into another – the
Solomon/Woodlark-Pacific boundary. The event began in the Australia Plate
and moved across into the Solomon Sea Plate and had two centers of energy
separated by lower energy areas. Normally we think earthquakes should stop
at the plate boundaries. Seismologists do not expect young sections of the
Earths crust to be locations of major earthquakes, so the Solomon Island
earthquake was unusual from the beginning. Other places along subduction
zones had this type of geography in the past and might show up
geologically. At present, there are locations along the margins of Central
America and southern South America that could potentially host similar
earthquakes. A better understanding of earthquakes zones like the Solomon
Islands may help residents along other complex plate boundaries to better
prepare for localized regions of unusually large uplift and tsunami
hazards.

More than a third of the world’s child brides are from India, leaving
children at an increased risk of exploitation despite the Asian giant’s
growing modernity and economic wealth. Nearly 25 million women in India
were married in the year 2007 by the age of 18. Children in India, Nepal
and Pakistan may be engaged or even married before they turned 10. Millions
of children are also being forced to work in harmful conditions, or face
violence and abuse at home and outside, suffering physical and
psychological harm with wide-reaching, and sometimes irreparable effects,
the report said. A society cannot thrive if its youngest members are forced
into early marriage, abused as sex workers or denied their basic rights.
Despite rising literacy levels and a ban on child marriage, tradition and
religious practices are keeping the custom alive in India, as well as in
Nepal and Pakistan. More than half the world’s child brides are in south
Asia, which also accounts for more than half the unregistered births,
leaving children beyond the reach and protection of state services and
unable to attend school or access basic healthcare. Only 6 percent of all
births in Afghanistan and 10 percent in Bangladesh were registered from
2000-08, compared to 41 percent in India and 73 percent in the tiny
Maldives. Also, about 44 million, or 13 percent of all children in south
Asia, are engaged in labour, with more than half in India. Children in the
region have also been seriously affected by insurgency and instability, as
well as natural disasters. Especially in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal,
past or ongoing conflicts have broken down most child protection systems,
leaving children especially vulnerable. Trafficking of children for labour,
prostitution or domestic services is widespread, especially within
Bangladesh and India, and within the region, as well as to Europe and the
Middle East. Insufficient emphasis has been placed on protecting child
victims of trafficking and ensuring that any judicial proceedings brought
against them are child sensitive.

The situation in Indonesia is just as bad. Although neither of this week’s
Sumatran earthquakes proved tsunami–genic, the authorities have to work on
the assumption that any powerful undersea earthquake is liable to generate
tsunamis (the epicentre of the 7.6 magnitude quake was around 50km offshore
from the city of Padang). This is, after all, the same faultline that
caused 2004’s Boxing Day disaster, and produces regular local tsunamis
every year. But there are only 22 detection buoys to monitor all 6,000
inhabited islands in the Indonesian archipelago, and none of those cover
northern Sumatra, Indonesia’s most vulnerable region and the scene of the
highest loss of life in 2004, where the death toll in Aceh province alone
exceeded 130,000. And even where there is detection equipment in place,
there are no guarantees it will stay there. In July 2006 a local tsunami
off the Javanese coast killed nearly 700 people; it later transpired that
the two detection buoys that monitor that stretch of coast had been removed
from the sea some months before, and were awaiting repairs in a dockside
warehouse. Given that these buoys cost about $250,000 each, and require at
least $125,000 worth of annual maintenance per unit, tsunami preparedness
is proving a costly undertaking for developing nations such as Indonesia.
This week’s earthquakes were severe enough – the official death toll is
715, though estimates put it closer to 1,100 – but had either been
tsunamigenic, the city of Padang would have been as unprotected as it was
in December 2004, despite the $30m that has been spent in developing the
region’s interim warning system. Sumatra will have to wait until 2010 for
its own detection buoys to be installed, but as the pantomime across the
far wealthier south Pacific demonstrated, installing the equipment is one
thing; getting it to do its job is quite another.

In what is believed to be the longest sentence ever handed down in a
white-collar case in this district, the mastermind of a Riverside-based
Ponzi scheme that collected well over $60 million from hundreds of
investors—and caused more than $39 million in losses—was sentenced to 100
years in federal prison. Richard Monroe Harkless, 65, who lived in
Riverside when he ran the scheme through a company he called MX Factors
from 2000 until late 2003, was sentenced by United States District Judge
Virginia A. Phillips in federal court in Riverside. During today´s hearing,
Judge Phillips said that Harkless caused “every kind of grief and loss
imaginable” and that the defendant demonstrated that he “would commit his
crimes all over again if given the chance.” In addition the prison term,
Judge Phillips ordered Harkless to pay $35,479,310 in restitution to the
approximately 600 victims who lost money as a result of the scam. Harkless
was sentenced after being convicted in July of three counts of mail fraud,
three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Harkless and
a team of salespeople at MX Factors raised funds by telling potential
investors that MX Factors provided short-term loans to commercial
construction companies that had guaranteed, government-backed contracts.
Harkless created the company, controlled its bank accounts, hired and paid
agents to solicit investors and created MX Factors promotional literature.
Investors were promised returns of up to 14 percent every two or three
months, at which time investors could either receive their investments back
or roll over their investments into the next investment period. The vast
majority of MX Factors investors were “reloaded,” meaning that they were
convinced to invest money more than once. At trial, several victims
testified that Harkless and his co-conspirators encouraged potential
investors to try out the MX Factors program, investing in one 60- or 90-day
cycle and then withdrawing their money to see if it worked. Once victims
felt more comfortable with the program, Harkless and his co-conspirators
encouraged them to invest even more and to get their families and friends
to invest as well.

Villagers gathered as men used their bare hands to slowly and cautiously
pull corpses from a tangle of roots and grit. The bodies were bloated and
mutilated, some unrecognizable. One man’s body was found because his hand
was sticking out of the mud. Women wept silently as bodies were placed in
bright yellow bags. Aid also had not reached Agam district, which is much
closer to Padang. Laila, a villager in Agam district, said she and hundreds
of others had no food, clothes and clean water. “Our house is gone …
everything is gone,” she sobbed. She said a helicopter dropped some instant
noodle packets. “But we need clean water to cook it,” said Laila, who also
uses one name. She said the local river had become dirty as people were
using it to wash. In Padang, rescuers have all but given up hope of finding
any survivors in the rubble of the 140-room, Dutch-colonial style Ambacang
Hotel. Some 200 people were in the hotel when it collapsed. Search teams
have found 29 bodies so far, and no one alive. “After four days … to find
survivors is almost impossible,” said Lt. Col. Harris, the chief of the
50-member rescue team, which comprises military, police and Red Cross
personnel. “The smell of decomposing bodies is very strong,” said Harris,
who uses one name. According to the National Disaster Management Agency,
83,712 houses, 200 public buildings and 285 schools were destroyed. Another
100,000 buildings and 20 miles of road were badly damaged, and five bridges
had collapsed. Meanwhile, hundreds of doctors, nurses, search and rescue
experts and cleanup crews arrived Saturday at the Padang airport from
around the world with tons of food, tents, medicine, clean water,
generators and a field hospital. But with no electricity, fuel shortages
and telecommunication outages, the massive operation was chaotic.

Suspected insurgents killed three people, including a toddler, and wounded
at least 34 in a grenade, gun and car bomb attack on two restaurants and a
hotel in Thailand’s south. The brutal violence brings the death toll over
the past two days to four and the number of casualties to more than 50 as a
result of militant attacks in the troubled Thai south, which is gripped by
a bitter five-year uprising. The rebels, travelling by car and on three
motorcycles, hurled a hand grenade into a restaurant at lunchtime in Sungai
Kolok, a border town in Narathiwat province, wounding four people. They
then opened fire on customers, shooting dead a Buddhist police officer and
injuring another four people. A three-year-old boy who suffered gunshot
wounds later died at hospital. The gunmen then began shooting at another
nearby restaurant, killing the owner, a 45-year-old Buddhist woman, and
wounding four people. A car bomb exploded in front of one of the town’s
hotels soon afterwards, wounding 23 people.

Rates of sexually transmitted infections in the Pacific remain as high as
they were in 2004. A programme to prevent mother to child transmission had
substantially reduced the risk of an unborn child being infected with HIV
from his/her mother during delivery. The SPC public health team had
responded to the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 in partnership with the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), and played a critical role in providing technical advice, services
and capacity building to Pacific Islands countries and territories (PICTs).
It was also involved in the response to the recent cholera outbreak in PNG.
TB control supported PICT’s in implementing the regional Stop TB strategy
in close collaboration with WHO and CDC. The HIV and STI section was
responsible for coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the
Pacific Regional strategy on HIV and STI’s in close collaboration with
multiple other agencies and countries. The very high prevalence of
noncommunicable disease risk conditions – diabetes, high blood pressure and
obesity – is amongst the highest in the world. Hypertension is the most
common condition leading up to cardiac arrest which is the leading cause of
death in the Pacific. The risk factors of smoking, alcohol, low levels of
physical activity and consumption of fruits and vegetables were the perfect
recipe for NCDs.

Climate change is already wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of small-scale
tea and coffee farmers in some of the world’s poorest countries. Research
across four countries – Kenya, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua – showed that
growers are already being forced uphill to higher altitudes, at a rate of
three to four metres a year on average, as temperatures rise. A huge number
of growers are now experiencing increased instances of pestilence and
disease from rises in temperature. They are also facing prolonged drought
and changing weather patterns. The priority for developed countries should
be helping the world’s poor to protect themselves against climate change.
What’s crucial is that there’s an option of sustainable adaptation to
safeguard the supply chain. Climate change is affecting those least able to
deal with it. We can’t underestimate that. Smaller producers, who are
reliant on a single crop and often cannot afford to install costly
irrigation equipment as temperatures rise, are worst affected. Some farmers
could see their incomes fall by up to 90% in the next fifteen years;
worldwide 30 million farmers will be affected.

Lying injured in Vaiola Hospital, 65-year-old Sulifa Losalu mourns the loss
of her beloved husband Heneli Losalu (69) who died helping her to escape
the September 30 tsunami wave they saw rushing toward their Hihifo,
Niuatoputapu, home engulfing everything in its path. The mother of eight
children said the couple had just returned to their home after attending an
early morning church service when the earthquake struck around 6:00 am.
Sulifa heard her husband yelling for her to get out and she hurried out of
the house, but then remembered her little statue of Mary, the mother of
Jesus, and she ran back inside to get it with her handbag. Sulifa vividly
remembered she then heard a strong roaring sound “like a machine” and
Heneli shouting from outside to “run, there is a huge wave coming!” “My
husband waited for me and as I ran out I saw the wave, which was above the
coconut trees coming towards us. It was a horrifying sight and I ran, and
my husband kept yelling for me to run fast. As I looked back at him that
was the last I saw of him as the wave struck him, then me. “I was
underwater swallowing water and was thrown around like a thin stick,
hitting debris, trees that came in my way. I just remembered praying to
Mary to please help me.” Sulifa said she was then flung onto a rooftop and
held tightly onto it and managed to get up from below the surging wave to
breathe. “I felt the wave subsiding and I remained there until my son
‘Osika, who was in the bush when the tsunami hit, rescued me. “He carried
me down and the ocean was still up to our waist but the waves had subsided.
It was not until 4:00 pm that my husband was found dead, kneeling down, at
another area. I was shattered,” she said. “I feel this aching hole in my
heart after loosing my husband because I know he could have made it but he
waited for me to come out of the house before running. I love him so much
and being apart from him is devastating.” The village children later found
Sulifa’s statue of Mary and her handbag and returned them to her.

The primary objective of the people is to stage a peaceful sit in at the
Mataveri International Airport on Easter Island. No airplanes will be
allowed to depart or arrive to Rapa Nui until discussions are held and
resolutions are made. The parliament of Rapa Nui is asking for the
following: 1. To regulate the entrance of all Chilean persons from the
mainland as well as foreigners to the territory of Rapa Nui. 2. For Rapa
Nui to become an independent nation. The Rapa Nui people are asking for
these regulations due to a recent surge of immigration to the island
resulting in depletion of resources, weakening of the infrastructure and
rapid destruction of one of the world’s most treasured archeological sites.
The island is part of Chile’s national territory belonging to the
Valparaiso region which is over 3,500km away. Chile annexed the Polenesian
island in 1888 by way of some treaty at a time when a newly independent
Chile joined the fashion of having its own overseas colony. At this stage
there were very few Rapa Nui natives left, only a little over 100 as
between 1862 and 1871 some 97 per cent were either killed through smallpox,
TB and slavery or were moved off the island by Christian missionaries. Just
as well because that meant more room for sheep and so the remaining
survivors were herded into Hanga Roa, the only town on the island while the
Williamson-Balfour sheep company ran the show until 1953. (The Chileans
graciously allowed the natives walk their own island in the 1960s.)
According to Pamela Hucke, a native doctor, as late as the 1950s the
Chilean authorities actively discouraged contact with the outside world by
claiming the island was a leper colony, making this claim credible by
injecting some natives with the disease. This has never been reported in
the Chilean press as far as she knows. Locals also point out that the
airport was built by the US government while it was a Japanese firm which
resurrected the moais on the island which had been toppled. Perhaps as a
result of the general economic downturn or some other reasons, more
Chileans are coming to live on the island which is now only 60 percent
native. Islanders point to the increase in crime such as burglaries which
never happened before and the increase in hard drugs being smuggled on to
the island. Locals place full blame on the Chilean immigrants and they want
this regulated. Of course they stress that they have nothing against
tourists, Chilean or otherwise, who are welcome to stay temporarily and
enjoy the “open air museum” that the island is.

Cases of both hemorrhagic dengue and classic dengue have been on the rise
in Nicaragua. A total of 1,706 cases of classic dengue and 46 of the
hemorrhagic variety have been registered in the Central American nation.
The figures were up sharply from the 1,480 classic dengue cases and 25
hemorrhagic dengue cases detailed in an earlier report. Eight people have
died in Nicaragua from dengue so far this year. Dengue is a serious viral
disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that is characterized by
high fever, intense headaches, muscle pain, gastro-intestinal problems and
rashes. Hemorrhagic dengue, in addition to having symptoms associated with
classic dengue, like fever, headaches and joint pain, can also produce
internal bleeding. Children between the ages of 5 and 14 have been the
group most affected by the disease, with the outbreak being especially bad
in Boaco, Leon, Managua, Masaya and Rio San Juan provinces. Public health
officials are working to prevent the mosquitoes that spread the disease
from breeding. A door-to-door dengue prevention campaign is being conducted
in Nicaragua’s 153 municipalities.

Another ship, the Alakrana, was recently captured in the Indian Ocean.
Somali pirates have seized a Singapore-flagged container ship in the Indian
Ocean. The MV Kota Wajar was headed to the Kenyan port of Mombasa when it
was commandeered 300 nautical miles north of Seychelles. Twenty one crew
are on board the 24,637-tonne container ship. At least five vessels are now
in the hands of Somali pirates. Pirate attacks around the world more than
doubled to 240 during the first six months of 2009 compared with the same
period in 2008. The rise in overall maritime hijacking is largely due to
the increase in Somali pirate activity.

A ground breaking ceremony to redevelop the Anuha Island resort in the
Central Province is being scheduled as well as announcing a tender for the
design and construction of a four star resort. “The island is a jewel of
the pacific and we want to build a resort that does Anuha and the Solomon
Islands justice,” the SITC said while working with local authorities,
international partners and key stakeholders to develop a resort that drives
tourism development and also takes into account local needs. As part of the
development, the runway on the island will shortly be cleared as the first
part of the early construction works process. Following on from the success
to date with developing a world class resort on Anuha Island, Solomon
Islands Tourism Company is now seeking an additional land site for its next
development in the Solomon Islands. Anuha Island is located 54 kilometers
or 12 minutes flying north-east of the international airport at Honiara.

The House of Representatives passed the fishery bill into law, effectively
allowing marine patrol boats to shoot at vessels poaching in Indonesian
waters. The ministry required the harsh law to legitimize a “shoot and
sink” policy against poachers to deter any future poaching. “*Shoot and
sink’ can now be ordered under certain conditions, and we will immediately
draw up standard operation procedures to enforce the measure,” said Aji,
who also chaired the government’s working committee for the fishery bill.
However, for human rights reasons, Marine patrols would only be allowed to
shoot at ships, not sailors, he said. Indonesian waters in North Sulawesi,
Maluku, Papua and West Papua have been prone to illegal fishing by foreign
fishing ships. “The implementation of the ruling should not breach human
rights or international laws,” Aji said at a press conference on the newly
endorsed law. The policy was needed to protect Indonesia’s sovereignty, he
said. Poaching has been a chronic problem for Indonesia, which loses an
estimated Rp 30 trillion (US$3.26 billion) to poaching each year. In the
past five years, Indonesia has seized more than 700 vessels, most of them
from Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, with a few from
further afield, including Taiwan and China.

At least 1000 people were killed and hundreds were trapped under collapsed
buildings after a powerful earthquake struck Indonesia’s West Sumatra
province. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the mayor of Padang, the capital
of West Samatra, told him that the quake left at least 75 people dead. “The
number may increase because many are still trapped in buildings and
hotels,” Kalla said. Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Health Ministry’s
disaster centre, said hundreds of people were trapped under rubble in
Padang, where a hospital among other structures had also collapsed. The
state-run Antara news agency reported that hundreds of people were believed
to have been trapped in collapsed buildings and shops in Padang’s business
district and Chinatown. A hospital official in nearby Pariaman district
said that eight people in the district had been killed and hundreds more
hospitalized with serious injuries. The quake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter
scale, struck off the western coast of Sumatra at about 1016 GMT. A 6.2
magnitude aftershock followed about 22 minutes later. A medical team was
being dispatched to West Sumatra, the region worst-hit by the quake.
Telephone communications to Padang and nearby Pariaman district were cut
off following the quake.

As the scheme began to collapse, Harkless diverted millions of dollars of
investor money to Belize and Mexico. In the final months of the scheme,
once Harkless knew that he was under investigation by various state
regulators, he accelerated his fundraising and accelerated the transfer of
funds to his own accounts in Belize. During the scheme, the bulk of the
money raised from investors was used to pay off earlier investors, to pay
agent commissions, to fund Harkless´ crabbing business in Ensenada, Mexico
and to pay for various personal expenses. Over the course of the scheme,
approximately 600 victims invested and lost money with MX Factors. Harkless
fled to Mexico shortly after the Ponzi scheme collapsed and federal
authorities executed search warrants in February 2004. Harkless was
arrested by special agents with IRS-Criminal Investigation two years ago
when he traveled to Phoenix. At this summer´s trial, Harkless represented
himself in court. Three of Harkless´ sales agents—Daniel Berardi, Thomas
Hawkesworth, and Randall Harding—pleaded guilty and received sentences of
up to six years in federal prison. The investigation into MX Factors was
conducted by IRS-Criminal Investigation, the United States Postal
Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Deliveries came on C-130 cargo planes from the United States, Russia and
Australia. Japanese, Swiss, South Korean and Malaysian search and rescue
teams scoured the debris. Tens of millions of dollars in donations came
from more than a dozen countries to supplement $400 million the Indonesian
government said it would spend over the next two months. The U.N. said
there are sufficient fuel stocks in the area for four days, but with the
road to a major depot cut off by landslides, gasoline prices had jumped
six-fold. Areas with “huge levels of damage to infrastructure were in need
of basic food and tents for temporary shelter,” it said. The quake
originated on the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that
killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations. A 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook
the eastern province of West Papua. There were no reports of casualties.
The quake’s epicenter was 128 kilometers northwest of the provincial
capital of Manokawar, the only major center of inhabitation. The region is
about 3,500 kilometers from Sumatra.

The explosive weighed 30 to 50 kilograms and was hidden in a Honda Civic
with a fake licence plate, which had passed a screening by a bomb detection
machine. The bomb was hidden in the passenger car and detonated by radio
signal. Two of the wounded were in a serious condition. An explosive hidden
in a motorcycle went off in Pattani province close to where Buddhists were
attending a festival, wounding 17 — five of them seriously. Earlier in the
day, four gunmen on two motorcycles opened fire on a 34-year-old Muslim
rubber worker as he travelled to work in Narathiwat province. He died at
the scene. The bloody rebellion has claimed more than 3,900 lives since it
erupted in Thailand’s Muslim-majority southern provinces, bordering
Malaysia, in January 2004. The shadowy rebels, who have never publicly
stated their goals, target Muslims and Buddhists alike and both civilians
and members of the security forces, usually with shootings and bombings.
Recent attacks echoed a serious blast in August, which ripped through a
restaurant in Narathiwat packed with government officials, wounding at
least 42 people. Tensions have simmered since the region, formerly an
autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate, was annexed by predominantly Buddhist
Thailand in 1902.

The Healthy Pacific Lifestyle (HPL) section at SPC provides an integrated
approach in the promotion of tobacco and alcohol control, physical activity
and good nutrition. The SPC-WHO joint 2-1-22 (two organisations, one
programme, 22 countries) approach funded by AusAID and NZAID was being
implemented under the Pacific Framework for the prevention and control of
NCDs. In January to June 2009, grants amounting to 23 million CPF
(approximately US$270,000) were provided to three PICT’s in support of NCDs
national strategy implementation. It will feed into a high-level,
multi-sectoral regional food security summit in early 2010. Meanwhile,
relatively neglected diseases in the Pacific were dengue and other vector
borne diseases like leptospirosis (except malaria), rheumatic heart
disease, mental health and environmental health. There were also funding
gaps for secondary prevention for noncommunicable diseases such as
diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure. Gaps were also emerging in
maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, on the
consequences for health of climate change, urbanisation and poor housing,
and on infant diarrhoea, water and sanitation.

Small-scale growers in Peru have seen yields fall by 40% since last year,
compared to 30% across the country as a whole; small producers in Mexico
have seen yields halve, against a national decline of 7%. Tea and coffee
are on the climate change front line because they only grow in a relatively
narrow temperature range. All four of the countries involved would see the
quantity and quality of their crops decline sharply over the coming years.
In Kenya, growers diversify into new crops such as passion fruits; in Peru,
farmers were able to use their land to sell carbon credits; and elsewhere
they planted native tree species to help bind the soil and prevent
mudslides. The government said that it will donate £12m to the Fairtrade
Foundation, with the hope of doubling the number of developing country
farmers who are awarded the Fairtrade mark. Fairtrade products pay a
premium to relatively small-scale growers, helping to protect them from the
vicissitudes of global commodity markets and the buying power of vast
multinationals. The Fairtrade mark is celebrating its 15th birthday, and
now covers a wide range of products, from bananas to chocolate. Sales of
Fairtrade products were up by 43% in 2008. The Fairtrade market as a whole
is expected to treble, to £9bn, by 2013. In the current economic climate,
it’s the poorest communities who are hit the hardest, and so positive
business models like Fairtrade, which deliver increased development
benefits from trade, are more important than ever.

Sulifa was one of the first four patients that were first flown down to
Nuku’alofa for urgent treatment. “Most of my children live here in
Tongatapu and some overseas, they are all here now and we are having a
memorial for my husband tonight in Puke where my son lives.” The mother
said when she gets better she is going back to Niuatoputapu. “Although
there is nothing there with no house left, I want to be with my husband who
is buried there,” she said. Sulifa is doing very well in the hospital and
can manage to sit up and stand up on her own for a few minutes. But she
mainly uses the wheelchair to get around while her knees are healing.

Greenlight Radio is a pirate radio station that has been broadcasting in
Boulder for just over a year. G-Girl arrives at the interview. She looks
tiny with her arms so full: a laptop, a hand mic, a notepad and pen. She
leans over the keyboard and begins pecking the keys, her cell phone stuck
to her ear. She speaks with a relaxed, almost surfer-girl accent. She
doesn’t look like a criminal. And she’s not, as far as she’s concerned;
she’s one of the last free American radio journalists. But as far as the
Federal Communications Commission is concerned, she’s an airwave thief.
Unregulated and against the law. A pirate. “Connected,” G-Girl announces to
a mysterious voice on the other line. It’s a bit “Charlie’s Angels;” we’ll
never know who this voice is. We won’t know G-Girl’s real name either, or
the names of the other KGIR radio personality “Helix” interviews Ian Nissen
about unlicensed radio at Bart’s CD Cellar. They hope they don’t have to
hide forever. After all, they say the ultimate goal of their illegal
Boulder radio station is to connect the community, and that’s hard to do
when you’re a shadow. But for now, they hide. Greenlight is still young.
This month marks its first birthday. Boulder’s airwaves aren’t new to
poaching. Boulder Free Radio, KBFR, has been stirring up the scene since
2000, in between the FCC occasionally shutting down the signal. KBFR,
started by a notably more antagonistic voice known as Monk, touted “B.S.
Free Radio,” with unedited, uncensored — and uncommercialized — music and
opinions. KBFR’s radio waves are once again static. But Boulder Free
Radio’s ship hasn’t sunk. The station has a live stream at
boulderfreeradio.com, and active Myspace, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Greenlight Radio isn’t associated with KBFR — or Boulder’s third
occasional techno-music pirate who pops up occasionally on 103.9 FM.
Greenlight is also not connected with a Fort Collins-based religious pirate
— who sometimes steals Greenlight’s stolen airwaves during the day.

Tired of not being listened to, they occupied the airport runway to grab
the attention of Santiago, causing all flights between the mainland and
Tahiti to be postponed for two days. During the protest there were many red
and white Rapa Nui flags visible, symbolising their desire of independence
for the island. Whether the island could actually survive full independence
with a population of under 4,000 is open to debate. Listening to the
locals’ concerns but also seeing the standard of life on the island we are,
however, reminded of the Monty Python satirical comedy Life of Brian where
the character Reg, urging resistance against the Roman occupation, admits:
“All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine,
public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health,
what have the Romans ever done for us?” For a start the Rapa Nuis don’t pay
tax – so don’t expect a receipt for anything you buy. They also get
generous grants to study on the mainland at any university of their
choosing. The island also does not know poverty and the gap between rich
and poor is minimal. In part this is because almost all of them own land
(Chileans are not allowed buy land here), while the state provides a large
number of administrative jobs and wages are high. For example a Chilean
teacher said that she could make almost three times as much on the island
as in Santiago. But on the cultural front, they probably do have to worry a
little more. Their own language Rapa Nui is spoken about 50 50 alongside
Spanish and while most can speak the native tongue there are some younger
people who can not. Many of these people too prefer the sights and sound of
the mainland and prefer the new to the old. The island is also not immune
to the effect of globalisation which may be more of a threat than the
Chilean State in the long run. Plastered all along the main street is Coca
Cola’s image of the moais as part of its marketing strategy for the island
or the sight of Jennifer Tuku, a cultural ambassador for the island
sporting two mobile phones around her neck. Agriculture and fishing remain
strong on the island, although tourism provides some 80 percent of the
local economy and the sheer numbers of tourists arriving every day has
ensured that the modern world is firmly entrenched in Rapa Nui.

The Papua New Guinea stock exchange again surged, this time by huge 11 per
cent, as two big firms – probably responsible for the rise in confidence –
had big wins. Papua New Guinea’s biggest gold company, Lihir Gold, is
suggesting the precious metal could rise to $US1,500. And the Bank of South
Pacific took over Fiji’s 130-year-old Colonial National Bank and associated
firms.

The central bank of Bangladesh has relaxed its rules and allowed money
changers to sell a maximum US$350 to a Hajj pilgrim this year. Under the
existing regulations, each pilgrim, who will go to perform Hajj through
both public and private agencies, can take a maximum US$350 or equivalent
of other foreign currencies, if he wants. “The money changers, for the
first time, are allowed to sell the foreign currencies to pilgrims that
will help achieve their annual transactions limit, fixed by the central
bank earlier. The central bank re-fixed yearly transaction limit to
US$350,000 from $500,000 earlier for the money changers, which are
operating business across the country, excluding Dhaka and Chittagong
metropolitan areas. However, the annual transactions limit of money
changers, located in two metropolitan areas, remain unchanged at $500,000.
The money changers license will not be renewed for the next tenure if they
fail to fulfill the yearly transactions limit. Currently, 240 money
changers are operating across the country.

The fisheries ministry has been working with the Navy and the National
Police to keep poachers out of Indonesian waters. The ministry had long
sought legal endorsement for the “shoot and sink” policy, saying poachers
had shown a clear disdain for Indonesia’s outnumbered and poorly equipped
marine patrol boats. Aji added that shooting and sinking poachers’ vessels
while at sea would be more feasible than seizing their boats and towing
them to land. “Can you imagine these small, plastic patrol boats dragging
large fishing vessels to shore?” he said. “Sometimes the vessels are made
of wood and are in very poor condition, bringing with them diseases; the
locals protest against having them near their beaches.” The newly revised
law also authorizes the ministry’s civilian patrols to investigate alleged
poaching in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone. That task previously fell
under the Navy’s authority. The need for fishing vessels to secure
operating permits before sailing is another new aspect of the law. While
lawmakers had previously rejected the policy fearing illegal fees, the
government had managed to convince them that the ruling was necessary to
control fishing activities in Indonesia’s sea waters, which were suffering
from declining fish stocks as are other parts of the globe. The law
provided clearer time limitations for investigation, prosecution and trial
processes for poaching cases, and allowed the ministry to make use of
confiscated vessels.

Fires also broke out in Padang. Padang’s Minangkabau airport was ordered
closed because roofs were damaged. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
issued an Indian Ocean tsunami alert after the quake, but later cancelled
it. The quake was also felt strongly in North Sumatra, Riau in eastern
Sumatra as well as Bengkulu province in southern Sumatra, residents.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, sits on the so-called Pacific
‘Ring of Fire’, the edge of a tectonic plate prone to seismic upheaval. A
major earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck in December 2004, leaving
more than 170,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia’s Aceh province and
half a million people homeless. This quake occurred along the same fault
line. Geologists have said that Padang, a low-lying city of 900,000 people,
risks being swallowed by a tsunami in the event of an earthquake similar in
size to the one that triggered the giant waves of 2004.

In a case of “serious administrative error”, an Australian resident was
locked up in a detention facility for three years. An egregious error
highlights the need for a revamping of federal laws, which have unlawfully
deprived this man of his liberty. Wrongful detention for over three years
is a matter of grave concern, and it is equally a matter of concern that
the legal framework does not confer powers necessary to address problems
and disadvantage of this kind. In 1989, Vietnamese-born Van Phuc Nguyen was
granted refugee status as an 18 year old, after fleeing Vietnam and
spending four years in a refugee camp in the Philippines. Sydney airport
immigration officials failed to recognize his visa in 2002. As a result,
he was detained from November 2002 to February 2006 in Villawood
Immigration Detention Centre. Nguyen’s residency was inadvertently
cancelled upon his return to Australia from a trip to Vietnam in 1995, when
an immigration official issued him a one month visa. Located in the suburbs
of Sydney, Villawood serves mainly as a facility for any individual who has
over-stayed his visa, failed to comply with his visa, or has been denied
entry to Australia. It has been at the center of controversy over human
rights abuses over the last several years. The Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission found the Centre’s conditions deplorable and
“inhospitable” and recommended that it be closed immediately.

Malaria in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu has been dramatically reduced
through an effective control strategy. There were 50,000 fewer cases of
Malaria in the Solomon Islands in 2008 compared with 2003. An effective
prevention and control strategy comprising of long lasting insecticide
treated bednet distribution, focal point indoor residual spraying, early
diagnosis and treatment and active case detection has had dramatic impact
on the annual incidence rate of malaria in both the Solomon Islands and
Vanuatu. The annual incidence rate (which is a measure of number of
confirmed cases of malaria per 1,000 population) has been reduced from 198
/1,000 to 84/1,000 in the Solomon Islands over the five year period ending
December 2008, while in Vanuatu it has decreased from 74/1,000 to 14 /
1,000 in the same period. Parr said both countries had now been able to
move from control to pilot elimination as a result of the success of the
Global Fund financed programs implemented co-jointly by both countries’
national vector borne disease control programs, WHO and SPC. The capacity
of both countries to scale up interventions has further been improved as a
result of AusAID’s support to the national malaria strategies, particularly
in the area of elimination and treatment. The measures in place resulted in
a significant decrease in the number of confirmed malaria cases in the
Solomon Islands compared to 2003, easing the burden on the national health
systems and budget, and reducing production time lost due to malaria, which
is a contributing factor that constrains economic growth.

Greenlight started as Internet radio, which is not regulated. The two
Boulder brothers who founded it eventually built their own transmitter and
figured out how to poach one of the few unoccupied frequencies in the area.
Their belief: The broadcast spectrum belongs to the public — not
corporations and media conglomerates shaped by strangers who know nothing
about Boulder. By nature, radio waves are only strong enough to span a
small geographic community. So the station founders said that it only seems
logical that each community has control over what appears on its waves.
They’re not talking about anarchy, or even about the desire to spout curse
words on the radio without being bleeped out. They’re talking about
“relocalization.” “Bringing resource and regulation control back to the
local community,” says one DJ and Boulder native who goes by the on-air
name Rocky Flats. He says a community radio compliments the trend of
increasingly more people growing their own food, shopping at local farmer’s
markets and co-ops and setting up online blogs and personal Web pages. “The
world is going through a huge shift right now. Boulder is doing well in
this recession because we localize a lot,” Rocky Flats says. “Localization
is the key to survival.” Rocky Flats thinks it’s also the key to overcoming
what he calls the current “media crisis,” where Paris Hilton gets
precedence over political turmoil in Pakistan, and a handful of
corporations control the news and views that Americans are fed. Rocky Flats
says he’s passionate about politics, as well as music and information. When
he’s not volunteering at Greenlight — none of the 30 DJs and members are
paid — he works in a customer service job. Rocky Flats looks clean-cut and
well put-together, and his tone is focused and professional. “Our direction
is for the community to believe the airwaves are a local resource,” he
says. “We try to provide an example of that. Eventually through enough
actions, we can take the airwaves completely back.”

Oceanic Airlines is the fictional airline that operated Flight 815 which
crashed on the Island. According to Oceanic Airlines’ website, the company
was founded in 1979 and served other destinations such as Costa Rica,
London, and Seoul. After the events of Flight 815, it ceased operations due
financial difficulties. But the company was returning to the airways. It
was established that Oceanic Airlines had cancelled all flights whilst
conducting an investigation into Flight 815’s disappearance. After failing
to find anything, the company was pushed to close the case so that they
could resume flights and recover from loss of business. This decision to
conclude all passengers dead with no solid proof resulted in opposition
from individuals such as Sam Thomas, the main protagonist in the second
Lost alternate reality game that focused specifically on Oceanic Airlines,
Find 815. A video advertisement aired at Comic-Con 2009 ostensibly stated
that Oceanic Airlines had been running since 1979 with a 30 year perfect
safety record. The canonical status of this video, and how it contradicts
all previously established fact, is presently unclear.

President Hugo Chavez’s government has begun taking over management of a
Hilton-run hotel on Venezuela’s Margarita Island. A 20-year concession
granted to the company had expired and the government “has taken legitimate
control of an asset that belongs to all the people of Venezuela”. Mr Chavez
issued a decree last week ordering the “forced acquisition” of the
Margarita Hilton & Suites and its marina. A Hilton Worldwide spokeswoman
said the company was analysing the move to determine how its interest in
the hotel would be affected.

It now seems that passengers flying in and out of Papua New Guinea are
being terrorized by an underpants thief. Women travelers who are flying
with the national carrier Air Niugini are fed up with one or more baggage
handlers taking their underwear. Four women, who do wish to remain nameless
due to the nature of the event, said that some of their best undergarments
have been stolen from their luggage while traveling on domestic flights
when leaving the capital Port Moresby. It may come at no surprise that some
reports point out that only “attractive” women have been hit by this so
called thief, and the ones that are hit only have their sexier
undergarments stolen. Another tourist that was on a brief stay in Papua New
Guinea said that her bag has a lock on it; however, when she got it back
the lock bad been broken. The only items that she found missing from her
bag were her lace hipster briefs and her g-strings. She went on to say that
she just could not believe it. She noted that she has traveled all over the
world, and this is the very first time something like this has ever
happened. In a different case, a woman that was visiting her mother in
Papua New Guinea was shocked to find that her favorite pair of pink panties
were missing. She went on to say that what is so weird about the whole
thing is that she had much more valuable items in her bag besides her
underpants, and those remained untouched. Despite all of this, Air Nigugini
said that they will get to the bottom of the women’s undergarments thief.
One spokesperson said that they were unaware that such particular items
were being targeted.

Travelers to Southeast Asia beware: there’s a new strain of malaria in
town. Researchers have recently figured out that the Plasmodium knowlesi
strain of malaria, which used to be confined to Malaysian macaque monkeys,
can kill humans too. The especially nasty part about this new human strain
of malaria is that doctors have a hard time recognizing it. Symptoms and
disease progression look scarily similar to other less serious forms of
malaria, so you might end up dead before the doctors realize they should’ve
done something differently. You can pick up this malaria from mosquito
bites across the region, but especially in Borneo and Malaysia. You should
be extra sure to use mosquito repellent in these areas to prevent bites,
and head straight to the doc if you get fever and body aches and pains.

The world’s eighth largest economy is still finding its feet after
suffering multiple economic shocks, including a housing slump, mortgage
crisis and recession. Employers in California, the most populous US state,
are expected to keep cutting staff in 2010 as the wider US jobs market
recovers. As industries in other US states prepare to rehire on signs of
recovery, firms in California are still waiting for their economy to
rebound. The state has 12.2 percent unemployment, above the national US
level of 9.8 percent, and at odds with California’s image as an oasis of
opportunity in hard times. California’s economic engines – Silicon Valley,
Hollywood and gateway ports to Asia – remain the envy of other US regions
but seem incapable of reducing Rust Belt-like unemployment rates. That is
largely because of the Golden State’s housing and home building crisis. In
the 12 months through August, California’s construction industry shed
142,000 jobs, or 18.5 percent of its work force, marking the largest
decline on a percentage basis over the period of surveyed industry groups.
Those workers are struggling to find new jobs in construction or other
trades, according to analysts. House prices soared higher in California
than in most other US states earlier this decade and have crashed harder
amid the credit crunch. Developers are trying to unload unsold new homes
and real estate agents are relying on selling foreclosures for a large
share of business. Tight credit and steep job losses have slimmed ranks of
prospective home buyers, with many waiting for prices to drop further. At
the same time, a number of other states are beginning to see home prices
stabilize.

Featuring old Papua New Guinea necklaces of human teeth and ivory
nose-rings as well as the extravagant designer suits paraded in poor Congo
by today’s “sapeur” movement, a show opening in Paris revisits men’s finery
through the ages. In Brazzaville and Kinshasa, as well as in the slums of
Paris and Brussels, men who barely eke out a living have been forking out
their savings since the 80s on the most luxurious, elegant and expensive
menswear on the market. The craze known as “Le Sape” was introduced by pop
star Papa Wemba’s throwback at the time to a look of 1930s elegance —
tapered trousers, brogues, trimmed hair and tweed hats worn at a rakish
angle — but in a wider brighter range of colours.

Nguyen’s is the longest case of wrongful detention in recent history. This
“bureaucratic bungle” caused Nguyen to suffer unnecessarily, as he is now
burdened with severe mental health issues. He witnessed many traumatic
events, from stabbings and suicide attempts to widespread drug abuse, while
inside Villawood. The situation was a “very bad event, a serious
administrative error and a terrible circumstance”. In its settlement
discussions, the government has offered Nguyen’s $70,000, a sum which would
be reduced to $58,000 once the Government’s legal fees are taken out. This
amount breaks down to less than $50 a day for each day that Nguyen spent in
Villawood. A attorney for this Sydney resident, has rejected the
Commonwealth’s offer as inadequate. The Government admits only that
officials made a mistake with respect to 108 of the 1137 total days that
Nguyen spent in detention.

Responding to the needs of Pacific Islands countries and territories and
recognising that there are wide social determinants in health, SPC’s health
division is modifying its strategy from a disease-based approach to a
whole-of-health approach. A particular emphasis will be on strengthening
health systems in Pacific Islands countries and territories (PICTs). Rates
of sexually transmitted infections in the Pacific remain as high as they
were in 2004 and a comprehensive review of the strategies was being
commissioned. A programme to prevent mother to child transmission had
substantially reduced the risk of an unborn child being infected with HIV
from his/her mother during delivery. The SPC public health team had
responded to the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 in partnership with the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), and played a critical role in providing technical advice, services
and capacity building to Pacific Islands countries and territories (PICTs).
It was also involved in the response to the recent cholera outbreak in PNG.
TB control supported PICT’s in implementing the regional Stop TB strategy
in close collaboration with WHO and CDC. There is a very high prevalence of
noncommunicable disease risk conditions – diabetes, high blood pressure and
obesity – being among the highest in the world.

Pirating unregistered radio waves is surprisingly simple. All DJs need is a
microphone, Internet connection and computer. They broadcast their reports
and stream their tunes online, to greenlightradio.com, according to another
DJ, who goes by an especially pirate-y name, Treeson Bloodbeard. “Anyone
can do Internet radio. Anyone can listen to Internet radio,” he says. “In
our case, a separate computer is also listening, with a headphones jack
plugged into the transmitter.” Of course, he can’t disclose where this
transmitter is stationed. Rumor was that Boulder Free Radio used to
broadcast out of a van, but Treeson says that’s unlikely because the signal
would fluctuate too much. “We have a hot air balloon,” he says with a
smirk. Treason, who has lived in Boulder for eight years, calls himself a
“techno-shaman, actively trying to bring spirituality to the new punk,
now-apathetic generation.” Greenlight typically broadcasts FM 4 p.m.-4 a.m.
weekdays and wall-to-wall weekends, with no commercials. When the station
isn’t shut down, that is. In its first year, the FCC has already canned
Greenlight three times. When the FCC triangulates Greenlight’s signal, the
FCC leaves a warning saying Greenlight must shut down because it’s not
registered. But the DJs aren’t hostile about it. They say it’s part of the
game. “We don’t hate the FCC,” Treeson says. “The laws they’re going by are
just outdated, and they need help changing them. The FCC was created in
1934.” Treeson believes there should instead be a modern Boulder
Communications Commission, to distribute and protect the airwaves. DJ Rocky
Flats agrees there is a need for a radio regulation commission; the FCC
finds out what is wrong with signals and helps stations clean up. In fact,
the FCC has helped Greenlight improve its signal each time before shutting
it down. “Instead of fighting fire with fire (like Boulder Free Radio),”
Rocky Flats says, “when the FCC pushes, we pull and redirect their energy
where we want it to go.”

Photos and video clips of rival sapeurs doing battle, flashing labels and
stripping down to their silks socks and underwear, are on view at the show
at Paris’ Dapper museum, titled “The Art of Being A Man, Africa, Oceania.”
The sapeurs underline contemporary man’s taste for finery. They revisit the
western suit through African eyes. One non-sapeur fashionista visitor, a
tall poney-tailed African in a red tartan skirt carrying a helmet, was
stunned by an old Dinka corset from Sudan, a torso-sized piece made of red
beads, metal and fibre. “It just shows,” he said. “Men’s corsets are now
coming back in fashion yet existed long ago.” From corsets to penis sheafs
from the Pacific, as well as pendants, ear-rings, nose-rings and bracelets,
the exhibition brings together some 150 pieces from specialist museums from
across the world. These objects help show how men develop their male
identity. Some were used in sexual and social rituals or to provide
protection, others were worn to show a man’s status, or underline his
position through finery. The porcupine hat from Cameroon accessorises a
porcupine tunic, highlighting the sacred impact of different animals or
materials in different societies. Other show-stopper head-pieces include
hats in cat-teeth, tiny antelope horns or scaly anteater and leopard-skin.
Hair-cuts too vary from place to place as does body art practised to
accompany mutilation and circumcision rites.

In another instance of wrongful detention, the Commonwealth paid
German-born Australian Cornelia Rau $2.6 million. She was locked up in 2004
for 10 months. Even more recently, the Supreme Court of the Australian
Capital Territory last month awarded $55,000 to a man who was wrongfully
detained for 29 days. Nguyen’s situation has prompted officials to consider
an overhaul of the system, acknowledging there are major deficiencies with
current legislation. The Migration Act lacks a “safety net provision”.
Accordingly, the Department of Immigration lacks the express power to
remedy earlier decisions. In Nguyen’s case, the Department engaged in heavy
legal debate, thus causing significant delay in resolving the matter.

Hypertension is the most common condition leading up to cardiac arrest
which is the leading cause of death in the Pacific. The risk factors of
smoking, alcohol, low levels of physical activity and consumption of fruits
and vegetables were the perfect recipe for NCDs. The SPC-WHO joint 2-1-22
(two organisations, one programme, 22 countries) approach funded by AusAID
and NZAID was being implemented under the Pacific Framework for the
prevention and control of NCDs. Grants amounting to 23 million CPF
(approximately US$270,000) were provided to three PICT’s in support of NCDs
national strategy implementation. Meanwhile, relatively neglected diseases
in the Pacific were dengue and other vector borne diseases like
leptospirosis (except malaria), rheumatic heart disease, mental health and
environmental health. There were also funding gaps for secondary prevention
for noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and high blood
pressure. Gaps were also emerging in maternal and child health, sexual and
reproductive health, on the consequences for health of climate change,
urbanisation and poor housing, and on infant diarrhoea, water and
sanitation.

The Greenlight DJs make great effort to present themselves in a
non-confrontational light. So why break the rules at all? Why not just be a
donor-funded community radio station, like Boulder’s KGNU, 88.5 FM? Beyond
simply the principle belief that the FCC needs reshaped, DJ Treason says a
station like Greenlight is even more independent than KGNU. A donor-funded
station can’t upset too many listeners, because the station needs their
donations. “They do a necessary part of the battle by playing by the rules,
so they can do things we can’t do because we don’t have money or
licensing,” Treason says. “But we are doing our part of the battle by not
playing by the rules, and there are things we can do because we don’t rely
on donors.” Like Greenlight’s newest show, “Reefer Madness,” all about the
positive aspects of pot. Plus, as another DJ who goes by The Hair puts it:
“There’s too much going on out there to not need multiple stations.” The
Hair gets his name because he has long blond hair. He says Greenlight has
its own unique music tastes and opinions. “And we’re pirates, so we have to
speak like sailors,” The Hair says with a laugh. It’s true, DJ Treeson
admits. Greenlight is “raunchier” than KGNU. “But there is a distinction
between free speech and responsible speech. Responsibility comes with the
consequences,” he says. And he accepts that. “There’s a level of danger in
what we do,” Treason says. “But no American has ever been sent to jail for
this.” The real crime is turning on the transmitter, he says. When the FCC
shut down Boulder Free Radio, the warning was shut down or be punished by
up to $11,000 per day and one year in jail. Greenlight has never been
fined. So Treason says he refuses to be clouded by fear. “Fear distracts
you from your ultimate goal,” he says. “If you define yourself in
opposition to something, you’re not defining yourself, period.” Yet still,
he hides.

Another home invasion, this time in Belize City. It is getting apparent
that burglars are getting more abrasive and their new trend is to invade
while the victims are still inside. There were home invasions in San Pedro
and another in Hattieville where an elderly Canadian woman was also raped.
Two African men living in Belize City were the next victims to experience
the terrifying ordeal. Twenty-six year old Samuel Benguna and twenty-four
year old Ismail Conteh, both of Nigeria, were at their apartment on the
Northern Highway when they were surprised by three men with rags covering
their faces. These two African gentlemen were at home when they heard a
knock on their door and they were accosted by three men who robbed them at
gunpoint. Stolen from them were computer accessories and cell phones and an
amount of cash in both US and Belize currency. There are no suspects yet as
police investigations continue into this matter. With the increasing number
of Aggravated Burglaries that we are witnessing is concerning and the
police will be delivering pamphlets shortly advising residents on measures
to protect themselves. The ultimate protection is the neighbourhood watches
and the community policing that the police department is trying to promote.
The cash stolen from the men totaled four thousand, two hundred dollars.

A passenger train bound for Bangkok derailed in Thailand’s Hua Hin coastal
resort district in heavy rain, killing at least five people and injuring up
to 50. About six of the train’s 16 cars went off the tracks and some people
were believed trapped.

Seven new glowing mushroom species have been discovered in Belize, Brazil,
Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico. Four of the
species are completely new to scientists, and three previously known
species were discovered to be luminescent. All seven species, as well as
the majority of the 64 previously known species of luminescent mushrooms,
are from the Mycena family. Within Mycena, the luminescent species come
from 16 different lineages, which suggests that luminescence evolved at a
single point and some species later lost the ability to glow. The new
discoveries might help scientists understand when, how and why mushrooms
evolved the ability to glow. Luminescence might attract nocturnal animals,
which would then help the mushrooms spread their spores. Mycena
silvaelucens (forest light) was collected in the grounds of an Orangutan
Rehabilitation Center in Borneo, Malaysia and was found on the bark of a
standing tree. The mushrooms are tiny with each cap measuring less than 18
millimeters in diameter. Mycena luxaeterna (light eternal) was collected in
Sao Paulo, Brazil and was found on sticks in an Atlantic forest habitat.
These mushrooms are tiny with each cap measuring less than 8 millimeters in
diameter and their stems have a jelly-like texture. The species’ name was
inspired by Mozart’s Requiem. Mycena luxarboricola (light tree dweller) was
collected in Paraná, Brazil and was found on the bark of a living tree in
old growth Atlantic forest. These mushrooms are tiny with each cap
measuring less than 5 millimeters in diameter.

The Solomon Islands police chief and his wife have been robbed in a
frightening home invasion by 12 young men in the capital Honiara, where a
spate of similar burglaries has occurred recently. New Zealander Peter
Marshall, the Solomon Islands police commissioner, and his wife Pamela
barricaded themselves in their bedroom after being woken by the thieves at
1am. They were not targeted for political reasons. “It was pretty
frightening,” he said. “We barricaded ourselves into the bedroom with a
cupboard and wardrobe against the door. There was a fair bit of commotion
and kicking against the door,” he said. “There has been four similar
robberies like this in the last six weeks,” he said. Laptops, cash, a
digital camera and other personal effects were taken but most of the goods
had been returned. “The suspects were arrested shortly afterwards and are
now in police custody.” The attack is part of a growing trend among
unemployed youth in the lead up to Christmas. “We’ve identified who it is,
there is a trend of robberies by the same unemployed youths who live in
squatter settlements.” Honiara mayor Andrew Mua said he feared rising crime
and unemployment was a threat to peace and security in the city. But
Marshall rejected those claims, adding that crime rates had dropped 12 per
cent during 2009 and most crime in the Solomons was petty. “We’ve had no
firearm incidents in two and a half years, we’ve had a scattering of
burglaries,” he said. The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomons Islands
(RAMSI) is made up of Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Islands police,
troops and public officials, who arrived in 2003 to restore law and order
and good governance following years of ethnic unrest.

August 18, 2009

AMID CHINA AIRPORT RIOTS 8,000 TONNES RED BANGKOK SCAM BLASTS 140 FISHING LENTILS KIDNAPPING 79 VENEZUELAN ONE-WAY HOMELESS TICKETS FOR SWINE FLU MOB ON RAMPAGE FROM INDIGENOUS POVERTY AS NEPALESE REFUGEES ARRESTED; SIX ISLANDS BECOME SEVEN WOUNDS KILLING 50 KENYANS IN HEAVY NICARAGUAN RAINFALL WITH BRITISH SIM CARDS FROM 828 TULELE PEISA TOBAGO MACHETES

Filed under: airlines,bangladesh,belize,capitalism,china,cook islands,disease/health,global islands,government,human rights,india,intra-national,kenya,nicaragua,png,police,rampage,seychelles,solomon islands,thailand,tourism,trinidad tobago,venezuela,weather — admin @ 7:03 pm

A mob set ablaze eight buses and several shops after a schoolgirl was run
over by a bus at an unauthorized bus stand near Domjur police station. The
death of Riya Das, a Class-VII student of a local school, triggered mob
fury as locals alleged that the unauthorized bus stand was creating traffic
problems in the area and started setting ablaze buses and shops. Rapid
Action Force (RAF) had to be called in to control the situation.

Violent street battles killed at least 140 people and injured 828 others in
the deadliest ethnic unrest to hit China’s western Xinjiang region in
decades, and officials said the death toll was expected to rise. Police
sealed off streets in parts of the provincial capital, Urumqi, after
discord between ethnic Muslim Uighur people and China’s Han majority
erupted into riots. Witnesses reported a new protest in a second city,
Kashgar.

Venezuelan authorities found the bullet-ridden bodies of three Canadian
boys who had been kidnapped in the South American country, the justice
minister said. The bodies of 17-year-old John Faddoul, along with his
brothers Kevin, 13, and Jason, 12, were found near an electrical tower in
Yare, about 30 miles west of Caracas, Justice Minister Jesse Chacon said.
The body of the boy’s driver, 30-year-old Miguel Ribas, also was found with
them.

A total of 816 people died of swine flu worldwide, with most of the deaths
occurring in South America, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. So
far, 707 people have died in the Americas, 44 in South-East Asia, 34 in
Europe, 30 in the Western Pacific region and one in the Eastern
Mediterranean region.

Many Strong Voices (MSV), unites indigenous peoples from the Arctic with
those from the tiny coral isles sprinkled throughout the globe’s oceans,
known in the parlance of climate change policy as Small Island Developing
States, or SIDS. MSV was spawned on the heels of a 2005 United Nations
climate policy meeting in Montreal and met for the first time in Belize two
years later. The grounds its constituents call home are as diverse as the
planet has to offer, but as the planet warms they share the same
catastrophe.

On many nights at sea off this Pacific port, Aaron Medina drops bombs that
cause dozens of fish to soar into the air. The 23-year-old fisherman
rubbernecks to ensure no police are around before pulling a 1-pound bomb
from his pocket. It’s an old sardine can wrapped in a cement bag filled
with gunpowder, sugar and sulfur. It is lit with a waterproof wick. “It’s
the only way to survive in fishing today,” said Medina, who has been
fishing with explosives off Corinto, Nicaragua’s largest port, since he was
12 years old.

Already poverty kills 50 children each day in the Pacific, Papua New Guinea
and Timor-Leste – a figure likely to rise as the global financial crisis
hits. Many countries in the Pacific are yet to suffer the full impact of
the global financial crisis but it is about to hit the region with all the
devastation and suffering of a tsunami. There is a critical ‘window of
opportunity’ to act in preparation for its impact but it is an opportunity
that is steadily slipping away. The central lesson learned from every
previous economic crisis is that the poorest people in developing countries
suffer the most and that not enough is done to help them.

Travelers to Thailand have braved a variety of hazards in recent years but
foreign governments are now warning about a new and different one:
duty-free shopping at the airport. Several European tourists say they were
falsely accused of shoplifting at the Thai capital’s main airport and some
recount being taken to seedy motels where they were shaken down for
thousands of dollars by a shady middleman. A British couple paid the
equivalent of $11,000 to secure their release five days after being accused
of stealing a Givenchy wallet that was never found, say police, who along
with airport authorities deny any wrongdoing.

A violent crowd went on the rampage at Jyoti Chowk in Kondhwa damaging
shops and vehicles which forced many shops and commercial establishments to
down their shutters. According to Kondhwa police, around 25 to 30 people,
carrying saffron flags assembled at Jyoti Chowk; first they asked all shops
to close down and started pelting at shops and hotels that were open. Four
two-wheelers, a few cars, a Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited bus
and an ATM centre were damaged in the incident. As the situation grew
tense, commercial establishments in the area closed down for an hour. Soon,
the Kondhwa police reached the spot. “We summoned two strike force to bring
the crowd under control,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Jalinder
Supekar.

For some time now, Carteret Islanders have made eye-catching headlines:
“Going, going… Papua New Guinea atoll sinking fast”. Academics have dubbed
us amongst the world’s first “environmental refugees” and journalists put
us on the “frontline of climate change.” So perhaps you have heard how we
build sea walls and plant mangroves, only to see our land and homes washed
away by storm surges and high tides. Maybe you can even recognise the
tragic irony in the fact that the Carterets people have lived simply
(without cars or electricity) — subsisting mainly on fish, bananas and
vegetables — and have therefore not had much of a “carbon footprint”.

Columns of paramilitary police in green camouflage uniforms and flak vests
marched around Urumqi’s main bazaar — a largely Uighur neighborhood —
carrying batons, long bamboo poles and slingshots. Mobile phone service was
blocked, and Internet links were also cut or slowed down. Rioters
overturned barricades, attacking vehicles and houses, and clashed violently
with police in Urumqi, according to media and witness accounts. State
television aired footage showing protesters attacking and kicking people on
the ground. Other people, who appeared to be Han Chinese, sat dazed with
blood pouring down their faces.

“We lament, despite the efforts that were made 24 hours a day since this
started, we have not been able to prevent this abominable homicide,” Chacon
said. “The three boys were identified by a relative.” Police have said that
the brothers were abducted when unidentified men dressed as police stopped
their car at a roadside checkpoint in Caracas as the boys were on their way
to school. Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the
kidnappers could in fact be police officers.

In addition, more than 20 countries such as Afghanistan, Belize, Bhutan,
Botswana, Haiti, Namibia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Solomon Islands, among
others, have confirmed swine flu cases. A total of 134,503 people worldwide
have been affected by the influenza A(H1N1) virus, also called swine flu,
so far. The actual figure may be much higher, as countries are no longer
required to report swine flu cases.

“We want to tell the world that the Inuit hunter falling through the ice
and the Pacific Islander fishing on rising seas are connected.” Four years
ago the United States was indicted in front of the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights for producing the greenhouse gas emissions that
were warming the Arctic homeland at rates twice as fast as elsewhere on the
planet. The warming hasn’t stopped but the network has increased, and the
world they inhabit has become even more tenuous. “This is the start of the
dying of a civilization” warned an economic advisor to the president of the
Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean just north of Madagascar.

Medina is part of the nation’s booming blast fishing industry, which is
quickly spreading across Central America’s Pacific coast. The practice is
also common in El Salvador and Honduras. Blast fishing is an illegal but
lucrative practice in which fishermen throw small homemade bombs into the
marine habitat, killing entire schools of fish and wiping out everything
else within the blast zone – including coral reef habitats – thus depleting
fisheries. “In a few years, blast fishing will be everywhere if it
continues like this,” said Reinaldo Bermuti of Nicaragua’s Fisheries
Institute in the capital, Managua. Other authorities fear the practice is
fueling a black market for increasingly potent explosives that could fall
into the hands of gangs or terrorist groups. “That’s why we’re constantly
working on intelligence,” said police investigator Lester Gomez.

Beneath the current financial crisis lies a development emergency with
catastrophic implications if we fail to respond effectively. And those in
the teeth of this economic storm are women and children. The Pacific
Islands countries are already burdened by poverty. One in four households
and almost one in three of the population are below the respective national
poverty lines. One in 10 Pacific Island children are underweight. Almost
one in five children do not enrol in primary school and of those who do
enrol, one in 10 do not complete their primary level schooling. Of course
the biggest sign of how well government action is protecting children is
the death rate of under-five-year-olds. If we add Papua New Guinea and
Timor-Leste, 18,000 Pacific Island children under five die each year – 50
children per day. Yet forecasts based on the impact of the global financial
crisis estimate the number of child deaths could rise by a further 800 each
year.

The Thai government has vowed a crackdown at Bangkok’s scandal-plagued
Suvarnabhumi Airport, which has barely recovered from its public relations
disaster when anti-government protesters shut it for a week and stranded
300,000 visitors. The airport opened in 2006 and has been dogged by
corruption allegations, taxi touts with “broken meters” and baggage thefts
— prompting a recent order for luggage handlers to wear uniforms without
pockets. But the allegations of extortion take things to another level. “We
are quite concerned about this,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Vimon Kidchob
said. “The government of Thailand is doing everything we can to ensure the
safety of tourists.”

Apparently, the incident occurred after some miscreants showed disrespect
to Shivaji Maharaj. The police have so far arrested five people in
connection with the incident and booked them for rioting and damaging
public property. The police are looking of Amar Dhawane, Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena vice president, Hadapsar Unit, and around 20 unidentified
people involved in the incident. Shrikant Surve (21), Nitin Kakde (23),
Ramesh Patlelu (24) of Wanwadi, Sunil Patil (21) of Kondhwa and Amol Kad
(23) of Katraj are the five arrested

You might know that encroaching salt water has contaminated our fresh water
wells and turned our vegetable plots into swampy breeding grounds for
malaria-carrying mosquitos. Taro, the staple food crop, no longer grows on
the atoll. Carterets Islanders now face severe food shortages, with
government aid coming by boat two or three times a year. However, the story
you have not likely read is the one of government failure and the strategy
we developed in response, so as to engineer our own exile from a drowning
traditional homeland. Carterets people are facing, and will continue to
face, many challenges as we relocate from our ancestral grounds. However,
our plan is one in which we remain as independent and self-sufficient as
possible. We wish to maintain our cultural identity and live sustainably
wherever we are.

Riya was returning home in Domjur’s Uttar Japardah locality and had barely
stepped down a private bus on route 63 when the driver accelerated the
vehicle to park it at the bus stand. At this, she fell and was crushed
under the rear wheels. Angry locals gathered at the spot within moments and
set the bus ablaze. The mob then targeted three other buses on route 63
parked at the bus stand. Then, the mob went on the rampage, setting fire to
five mini buses on the Domjur-Howrah route. The crowd also targeted all the
roadside shops, stalls and shade where bus drivers and conductors rest,
setting these ablaze.

There was little immediate explanation for how so many people died. The
government accused a Uighur businesswoman living in the U.S. of inciting
the riots through phone calls and “propaganda” spread on Web sites. Exile
groups said the violence started only after police began violently cracking
down on a peaceful protest complaining about a fight between Uighur and Han
factory workers in another part of China. The unrest is another troubling
sign for Beijing at how rapid economic development has failed to stem — and
even has exacerbated — resentment among ethnic minorities, who say they are
being marginalized in their homelands as Chinese migrants pour in.

“We really do not have words to express our pain to the Faddoul Diab family
and the Ribas Guerra family for the abominable and lamentable event today,”
Chacon said. Officials have not revealed exactly how much in ransom the
kidnappers demanded, but they have said it was more than $4.5 million — a
figure circulated in the Venezuelan media. A lawyer for the boys’ family,
Santiago Georges, said recently that the family was not in a position to
pay the sum. The boys’ parents were both born in Lebanon, and their father,
John Faddoul, is a naturalized Canadian who has been a businessman in
Venezuela for more than 20 years.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended a city program to send homeless
families out of New York on planes, trains and buses, saying it “saves the
taxpayers of New York City an enormous amount of money.” Speaking in the
Blue Room in City Hall to announce a new finance commissioner, Mr.
Bloomberg was asked if the program simply shifts the homelessness program
to a different place, as some critics of the program have suggested. “I
don’t know, when they get to the other places, whether they find jobs,” Mr.
Bloomberg said. “It may be an easier place for them. If we don’t — we
either have two choices. We can do this program or pay an enormous amount
of money daily to provide housing.”

Some islands in his homeland are composed of granite with spires that rise
into the clouds while others rest on a porous coral platform barely visible
above the ever-lapping waves. Should sea level rise just several feet, as
reports predict, these islands will be inundated. “Who will be prepared to
chuck away a 1,000 year-old album with the history of all their ancestors
overnight?” The near-term goal of MSV is to garner support for the greatest
emissions reductions possible at the UN Climate Conference.

Unlike many of Nicaragua’s coastal areas, Corinto’s rocky shoreline hasn’t
attracted international surfers or real estate investors. But over the past
decade, blast fishing has grown because poverty is rampant, homemade bombs
are increasingly available and law enforcement is lax. Local authorities
estimate fishermen drop 40,000 homemade bombs into the sea every week.
Often working undercover, police confiscated about 1,000 bombs last year,
most of which were seized at highway checkpoints. In 2007, Corinto police
confiscated 650 bombs from a clandestine bomb factory. The Nicaraguan navy
often cruises Pacific waters at night with no lights, hoping to catch
fishermen red-handed. Last year, naval officials say they caught five boats
blast fishing, and seized about 400 bombs. Navy Capt. Francisco Gutierrez
concedes that’s just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of bombs used
each year.

This tragic ‘headline figure’ would coincide with increased poverty in the
region, falling school attendance, higher malnutrition and deteriorating
access to healthcare. Yet the fact that the full impact of the global
financial crisis has not yet hit the Pacific means there is an opportunity
to brace for its impact. There is time for governments to readjust fiscal
and monetary policy to create a social protection (a safety net) for the
most vulnerable. Investing in children and women is not just a moral
imperative, it is smart economics. Irrefutable evidence has now accumulated
to show the societal benefits of investing in children in good times, as
well as in bad times such as the current global economic downturn.

It’s hardly the image the self-proclaimed “Land of Smiles” wants to
project, particularly as Thailand’s vital tourism industry faces its worst
crisis in years after political instability, the global financial crisis
and swine flu scares. The scandal has spawned lengthy chatter on travel
blogs about other scams to watch for in Thailand and a string of overseas
travel advisories on the perils of duty-free shopping in Bangkok. Ireland
is warning its nationals to “be extremely careful” when browsing at
Suvarnabhumi (pronounced “sue-WANNA-poom”).

Seventy-nine undocumented migrants from Asia and Africa were arrested in a
Nicaraguan port off the Caribbean Sea, local police said. The migrants from
Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Nepal said they had arrived by boat at the
eastern port of Bluefields, where their handlers led them to a hotel,
telling them to wait there for a train. But there are no trains in
Nicaragua.

While we call on the Papua New Guinea government to develop policy, we are
not sitting by. Instead, we now want to see the media headlines translate
into practical assistance for our relocation program. And we hope our
carefully designed and community-led action plan can serve as a model for
communities elsewhere that will be affected by climate change in the
future. Situated 86 km Northeast of Bougainville, the main island in the
autonomous region of which the Carterets form part, our atoll is only 1.2
meters above sea level. They say evacuation of the islands was inevitable
as for many, many years erosion has been doing its work. “King tides”, or
particularly high tides, are now doing worse. Originally the Carterets were
six islands, but Huene was split in half by the sea and so now there are
seven. In 1995 a wave ate away most of the shorelines of Piul and Huene
islands. Han island, has suffered from complete inundation.

The mob resisted fire brigade officials and chased them away. Flames spread
as oil tanks of the buses began exploding. Though the bus stand lies along
the boundary wall of Domjur police station, policemen were also prevented
from coming out to quell the mob. The crowd blocked the police station’s
entrance. Fire engines could be sent to the spot only after the RAF lathi
charged the crowd.

Thousands of people took part in the disturbance, unlike recent sporadic
separatist violence carried out by small groups in Xinjiang. The clashes
echoed the violent protest that rocked Tibet last year and left many
Tibetan communities living under clamped-down security ever since. Tensions
between Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese are never far from the surface
in Xinjiang, a sprawling region rich in minerals and oil that borders eight
Central Asian nations. Many Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) yearn for
independence and some militants have waged a sporadic, violent separatist
campaign.

The victims were found with gunshot wounds in the head and neck area, and
it appeared they had been shot to death at least two days before their
bodies were found, judicial police chief Marco Chavez said on state
television. “We’re certain that the evidence and the advancements already
made in the investigation will allow us to conclude this investigation,”
Chacon said. Relatives, friends and classmates of three boys had held
vigils and demonstrations in the streets to call for their release.

It costs the city about $36,000 a year to provide shelter for a homeless
family. The average stay in shelter is about nine months. But Mr. Bloomberg
appeared sensitive to the image of flying homeless families to far-flung
places, as the program is set up to do. In the past two years, families
have been provided one-way tickets to Haiti, Peru, Mexico City, St. Croix,
Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Santo Domingo and Casablanca. (The most
popular destinations are Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.)

It was a theme echoed by many MSV participants. Paul Crowley, of the
Climate Law and Policy Project, was nearly moved to tears as he relayed
news that President Obama has said he is willing to work towards a
successful outcome in Copenhagen. But for groups like the Inuits of Alaska,
even a miracle in Copenhagen can’t reverse the damage already done.
Patricia Cochran, an Inupiat Eskimo born and raised in Alaska and current
chair of the ICC, presented a harrowing slideshow of her homeland. In
Shishmaref, homes hug cliffs crumbling because of melting permafrost into
seas more likely to be beset by storm as rising temperatures reduce sea
ice. The media has publicized this town’s problems, but there are half a
dozen other villages just like Shishmaref, noted Cochran. Ice that hunters
have relied on for centuries is melting earlier and shifting in ways locals
don’t understand. Last year a convoy of more than 200 snow mobiles had to
be rescued by helicopter after sea ice unexpectedly broke up, said Cochran.
“There is not one of us without a friend who has taken their snow machine
out and not come back home again,” she said. “That’s what we face every
day. These, in my opinion, are climate related incidents.”

Blast fishing is considered an environmental crime under Nicaraguan law,
punishable by up to four years in prison. Prosecutors can increase jail
time by tacking on illegal weapons possession charges. But prosecuting
cases is difficult because evidence is easily destroyed at sea. Gutierrez
said five fishermen are currently being processed for alleged blast
fishing, but he couldn’t recall the last time anyone went to jail. “They
have a system. It’s almost impossible to arrest them. When they see us
coming, they just sink the bombs in the sea with rocks,” Gutierrez said.
Widespread corruption among local police officers hinders enforcement
efforts, police investigator Gomez said. Many fishermen say police officers
routinely take bribes from bomb manufacturers and their distributors.

Global research by UNICEF, the World Bank and UNESCO has shown we could not
only save a young child from death but we could also help him or her
complete basic education by the age of 13 by investing altogether no more
than $US2,200 per child. Likewise providing micronutrients for the world’s
children who lack essential vitamins and minerals would cost just $US60
million per year and yield annual benefits of more than $1 billion –
implying a 1,500 per cent rate of return. For Pacific leaders this
illustration of the high returns – both in human lives and economic
productivity – for relatively low financial outlays presents a strong case
for paying particular attention to children in economic policy and fiscal
budgets.

“We have received reports that innocent shoppers have been the subject of
allegations of suspected theft and threatened that their cases will not be
heard for several months unless they plead guilty and pay substantial
fines,” says an Irish government travel advisory. It tells shoppers to keep
receipts to avoid “great distress.” The advice was posted after a
41-year-old Irish scientist, who was visiting for an international genetics
symposium, was accused of stealing Bobbi Brown eyeliner. The embassy
declined to discuss details of her case. Britain and Denmark have updated
their online travel advice to warn that Suvarnabhumi’s sprawling duty-free
zone has hard-to-detect demarcation lines between shops and patrons should
not carry unpaid merchandise between them.

“We suppose they were brought from Colombia to the island of San Andres”
and were then transferred to Bluefields, Nicaragua’s main Caribbean port,
“from which they had hoped to continue their journey to the United States
to pursue the American dream,” Deputy Commissioner Rolando Coulson told
reporters. The Colombian island of San Andres, located off Nicaragua’s
Caribbean coast, is used as a transit point for undocumented migrants
headed toward the United States, but many are cheated of their money and
abandoned in Nicaragua, officials say. One of the undocumented migrants,
Lexman Khaatri Chhetri, told the authorities he had spent much of his
savings to reach the American continent.

What climate change’s exact role is, even experts are hard put to answer.
Debate has raged over whether the islands are sinking, if tectonic plates
play a role, and whether sea levels are in fact rising. We do not know much
about science, but we watch helplessly as the tides wash away our shores
year in and year out. We also know that we are losing our cultural heritage
just as the sea relentlessly wipes out our food gardens. To relieve the
land shortage caused by eroding shorelines, in 1984 the government
resettled 10 families from the Carterets to Bougainville, but they returned
to the atoll in 1989 in flight from what began as a protest by landowners
against a mining company and escalated into civil war. Since that time, and
despite many promises, very little has been done by the Bougainville or PNG
government to assist Islanders’ relocation efforts. Tired of empty
promises, the Carterets Council of Elders formed a non-profit association
in late 2006 to organise the voluntary relocation of most of the Carterets’
population of 3,300.

Locals have demanded the removal of the unauthorised bus stand repeatedly.
They say rows of buses are parked on either side of the road — one of the
main thoroughfares of Domjur. This, along with rows of unauthorised shops
and stalls have reduced the road’s width to that of a narrow lane. Locals
allege that in spite of repeated complaints, Domjur police have allowed the
menace to thrive right under its nose.

Uighurs make up the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, but not in the
capital of Urumqi, which has attracted large numbers of Han Chinese
migrants. The city of 2.3 million is now about overwhelmingly Chinese — a
source of frustration for native Uighurs who say they are being squeezed
out. About 1,000 to 3,000 Uighur demonstrators had gathered in the regional
capital for a protest that apparently spun out of control. Accounts
differed over what happened, but the violence seemed to have started when
the crowd of protesters refused to disperse. The official Xinhua News
Agency reported hundreds of people were arrested and checkpoints ringed the
city to prevent rioters from escaping. Mobile phone service provided by at
least one company was cut to stop people from organizing further action in
Xinjiang. Internet access was blocked or unusually slow in Urumqi. Videos
and text updates about the riots were removed from China-based social
networking sites such as Youku, a YouTube-like video service, and Fanfou, a
Chinese micro-blogging Web site similar to Twitter. A Fanfou search for
posts with the key word Urumqi turned up zero results while Twitter, which
is hosted overseas, yielded hundreds of comments in Chinese and English.
Major Chinese portals such as Sina.com, Sohu.com and 163.com relied solely
on Xinhua for news of the event and turned off the comment function at the
bottom of the stories so people could not publicly react.

The killings come just days after a prominent Italian-born businessman,
74-year-old Filippo Sindoni, was abducted and killed. That case prompted
Italy’s foreign minister to ask Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s
government to do everything possible to end the kidnappings of Italians in
the country. Officials in Italy said an Italian businesswoman and her
3-year-old son were freed two months after being abducted in Venezuela.
Four men were arrested for their roles in the crime, officials said.
Violent robberies, kidnappings and murders are frequent in Venezuela. There
were 9,402 homicides reported in 2005, slightly down from 2004, according
to government statistics.

“The average cost is trivial,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “Most go by bus. Very
few go overseas, very few go long distances. Bus is the normal ways we pay
for transportation, rather than air.” In fact, the most common mode of
travel for families in the program is air, not bus. Forty-eight percent
travel by airplane; 37 percent by bus; and 15 percent by train, according
to city data.

“We will not assume the role of powerless victims, we will do everything we
can to ensure our people who have been here for centuries will be here for
centuries more.” Nick Illauq, deputy mayor of the remote Baffin Island
community of Clyde River, in Nunavut, an autonomous Inuit territory at the
top of Canada, voiced concerns about another type of visitor. “We know the
Earth is changing,” said Illauq, “everyone is rushing to the Arctic to get
our resources. To me, that’s my biggest fear. We are very poor, we ask for
money and we don’t get it. We know we are destroying [the Earth] and yet we
rush to find resources. It’s not just the Inuit anymore, it’s not just the
caribou, it’s the baby being born anywhere right now that is going to have
to face all this crap in the future. Imagine what they are going to have to
face! And it’s our fault.”

But Gutierrez is hopeful that a one-year program to educate fishermen about
the pitfalls of the practice is finally paying off. One month, for the
first time, fishermen turned in more than 311 bombs. “We’ve been trying to
persuade them in meetings,” Gutierrez said. But Medina believes blast
fishing is more widespread than authorities suspect. He says virtually
every fisherman he knows has traded in traditional nets, lines and hooks
for explosives. And the handful of clandestine bombmakers who sell
explosives for about $2 apiece are making more powerful explosives, he
adds. Most recently, Nicaraguan police caught two fishermen with 10-pound
bombs wrapped in cement bags – more destructive and risky than the usual
sardine-can-size bombs. Medina says even 15-pound bombs are now available
on the black market. Injuries and deaths Medina also says some bombs have
exploded while being handled by colleagues, causing loss of life and limbs.
In the past three years, Corinto authorities have reported two deaths, nine
cases of lost limbs and two men who were blinded by explosions.

Governments in the Pacific must not stray from their commitments to
children and women at this time of crisis. They must take all necessary
measures to enhance the role of women as economic agents and to protect
social sector budgets, especially to maintain and, if warranted, expand
essential social services for children and women. There are already
alarming signs that budget cuts have been made or are on their way. Budget
cuts are not necessarily bad, if there is greater efficiency and if the cut
does not impact on social protection measures, it can produce a benefit.
But social protection budgets are all too often a victim of the budget
razor.

British couple Stephen Ingram, 49, and Xi Lin, 45, technology experts from
Cambridge, took the alleged scam public. Their ordeal was pieced together
based on accounts from police, airport and embassy officials and an
interview the couple gave to British media. The couple was approached by
airport security before boarding a flight to London and told that security
cameras showed they had taken a Givenchy wallet. King Power, the company
that owns the duty-free store, has posted CCTV footage on its Web site that
appears to show Lin putting her hand in her bag while browsing a wallet
display. The security guards found nothing, but turned the couple over to
police, said Sombat Dechapanichkul, managing director of King Power Duty
Free Co. “We are not aware of what happened next. It was then the job of
the police to proceed with the case,” said Sombat. Ingram told The Sunday
Times of London that they were questioned at an airport police office and
then transferred to a nearby police station where their passports were
confiscated and they spent the night in jail. The next morning they were
introduced to a translator — a Sri Lankan named Tony — who said he could
arrange bail and get their case dropped, warning it could otherwise drag on
for months. Tony took them to a nearby motel, called the Valentine Resort,
Ingram said. The couple managed a visit to the British Embassy but then
returned to the hotel fearing Tony, who had warned they would be watched,
Ingram said.

The association was named Tulele Peisa, which means “sailing the waves on
our own”. This name choice reflects the elders’ desire to see Carteret
Islanders remain strong and self-reliant, not becoming dependent on food
handouts for their survival. After much hard work, the first five fathers
moved to Tinputz, onto land donated by the Catholic Church. These fathers
are already building gardens so that their wives and children can join them
later when there is food. “I have volunteered to relocate as I would like
my family to be able to plant food crops like taro, banana, casava, yams
and other vegetables that we cannot grow on the island,” said Charles
Tsibi. “I also want my family to grow some cash crops like cocoa to sustain
our future life here in Marau, Tinputz.” According to a recent Tulele Peisa
survey, 80 other families would like to move immediately and 50 wish to
move later on. Twenty families have already relocated on their own. Thirty
families remain unsure about relocating.

State-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has issued an
international tender to import 8,000 tonnes of whole, husked red lentils.
The tendered cargo should include 3,000 tonnes of category A and 5,000
tonnes of category B whole, husked red lentils. TCB classified lentil
grains measuring 1.50-3.00 mm commonly known as Nepali/Indian variety and
3.50-4.50 mm Turkish variety as category A and category B respectively. A
tenderer may offer for both or either of the two items to supply the cargo,
to Chittagong port. Most of Bangladesh’s population of nearly 150 million
eat lentils along with the country’s staple food, rice, every day. It is
now sold at 110 taka ($1.60) per kg. Commerce ministry officials said more
essential commodities would be imported to keep prices stable especially
during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. ($1=69.06 taka)

The demonstrators were demanding justice for two Uighurs killed last month
during a fight with Han Chinese co-workers at a factory in southern China.
Uighur activists and exiles say the millions of Han Chinese who have
settled here in recent years are gradually squeezing the Turkic people out
of their homeland. But many Chinese believe the Uighurs are backward and
ungrateful for the economic development the Chinese have brought to the
poor region. Wu Nong, director of the news office of the Xinjiang
provincial government, said more than 260 vehicles were attacked or set on
fire and 203 shops were damaged. She said 140 people were killed and 828
injured in the violence. She did not say how many of the victims were Han
or Uighurs.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported that it had seized 36 bales of cocaine valued
at $55 million off Venezuela’s coast during a routine Caribbean patrol. The
crew of a go-fast boat threw the drugs into the sea when they spotted the
Coast Guard personnel on board the British frigate HMS Iron Duke. The
British and U.S. forces had detected the boat some 40 kilometers (25 miles)
west of Curacao, an island north of Venezuela. The Coast Guardsmen managed
to recover the drug packets from the water and, after boarding and
inspecting the go-fast boat, arrested four men, according to a communique.
“This is an outstanding example of the partnership between the U.S. and our
regional and NATO colleagues to stem the flow of illegal narcotics to
Europe and North America,” said Capt. Steven A. Banks, the head of Law
Enforcement for District Seven.

Kenya will register SIM cards to fight crime. The problem of criminals
using unregistered numbers became apparent last year during post-election
violence. After several months of battling criminals who have been using
untraceable mobile-phone numbers, the Kenyan government has given a
six-month ultimatum to mobile service operators to streamline registration
of SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards. The challenge of criminals using
unregistered numbers became apparent last year during post-election
problems when people used SMS (Short Message Service) messages to instigate
violence. The police had no way of identifying the culprits because there
was no registration information linked to the phones used.

The heaviest rainfall in 53 years left at least 10 people dead and
thousands stranded in floods across Bangladesh’s capital. Dhaka residents
were still escaping the rain while traffic ground to a halt with 80 percent
of roads underwater. The national weather office said more than 33cm of
rain fell in the city within 12 hours – the most in a single day since
1956. Thousands in low-lying areas of the city were isolated, while 10
people were electrocuted by broken power lines in their homes. Some
residents are frustrated at the situation. [Shakina Begum, Resident]: “We
are now stuck in rain water. The whole area is flooded. We are facing a
serious shortage of drinking water, our children can’t go to school, and we
can’t go shopping. We are facing a serious problem and can’t go anywhere.”
Forecasts are for more rain in the next few days. Flooding caused by
monsoon rains is common in Bangladesh, a delta nation of 150 million
people.

Medina only works at night, where he and his colleagues stick a flashlight
into the water to attract fish – usually sardines – before dropping bombs
anchored by rocks. The explosion, which kills everything within a 10-foot
radius, sends a few dozen sardines into the boat that are later used as
bait to attract larger fish such as snapper. Fishermen jump in with snorkel
masks to net remaining fish that float around the boat. Bigger explosives
cause an even greater radius of dead or stunned fish and require scuba gear
to dive deep into the ocean. “They go out to sea with one bomb and bring in
400 kilos (880 pounds) of fish,” Medina said of fishermen who use larger
bombs. As the resource is depleted by blast fishing, fishermen are now
lucky to bring in 100 kilos of fish on a given trip instead of 400 kilos a
decade ago, Medina says. While Medina and other local fishermen claim they
have little choice but to use explosives, Helen Fox of the World Wildlife
Foundation says they are motivated by making a quick buck. “It’s a case of
greed rather than need,” said Fox. But Medina says he has little recourse
in a nation with the second-lowest annual per capita income in the Western
Hemisphere at $3,000. “We’re deteriorating the fauna,” he said. “But
there’s no other way to bring money home.”

Of course the budget of many Pacific countries lack the reserves to respond
fully to such an economic crisis. It is therefore important that donors
maintain their aid commitments to the Pacific and ensure investments
benefit those most in need. To the Australian Government’s credit it has
maintained, even slightly increased, its aid budget. It is now hoped
Australia – as host of this year’s Pacific Island Forum – can also
facilitate a policy response across the Pacific that is going to shield the
most vulnerable – children and women – from the ravages of this economic
crisis.

An investigation found that the couple transferred into Tony’s bank account
400,000 baht ($11,800) — half for bail and the other half for Tony’s
“fees,” said police Col. Teeradej Panurak, who oversaw the case. “Tony came
in to translate for us. We can’t control what the accused agree to with a
translator,” said Teeradej. He said the couple was released because there
was not enough evidence to press charges. A visiting British government
official recently raised the case with Thai authorities, and the British
Embassy was consulting other embassies about the alleged scam.

Turning to crime, home invasions: it’s the term for armed attacks on
families in the confines of their homes. And these types of crimes seem to
be getting more frequent throughout the country. There was the most recent
invasion upstairs of Tow Tow Grocery on Fairweather Street in Belize City.
The victims were elderly mother and her daughter – both Belizean Americans
vacationing from Los Angeles. The incident happened quite early in the
night, while seventy-two year old Olive Arnold was in her bed watching the
local news. Her daughter, Rose Holland, was on the front porch with a
cousin while the thieves entered through the back door. The mother and
daughter just arrived in town and have been returning to Belize every year
since 1985. Holland feels the culprits had been planning to pounce since
the day they arrived and the experience has shaken them up so much that
they are not coming back home in a hurry.

Tulele Peisa’s plan is for Carteret Islanders to be voluntarily relocated
to three locations on Bougainville (Tinputz, Tearouki and Mabiri) over the
next 10 years. Our immediate need is for funding so that we can accomplish
the initial 3-year phase of our Carterets Integrated Relocation Programme.
The list of objectives is long and challenging but our plan is holistic so
we have faith it will succeed. Firstly, the three host towns have a
population of 10,000 and we are cognisant of the many complexities involved
in integrating the Carteret people into existing communities that are
geographically, culturally, politically and socially different. Therefore
exchange programs involving chiefs, women and youth from host communities
and the Carterets are in progress for establishing relationships and
understanding. While this is going well, the next urgent steps include
securing more land and surveying and pegging site boundaries. Next comes
constructing housing and infrastructure for 120 families. With the help of
the Catholic Church in Bougainville, the relocation programme aims to
provide design and carpentry services and local materials for basic housing
for these families. We also need to get on with implementing agricultural
and income generation projects (like the rehabilitation of cocoa and
coconut blocks), as well as education, health and community development
training programmes.

Xinhua said several hundred people had been arrested in connection with the
riot and police were searching for about 90 other “key suspects.” It also
quoted a local police chief as saying the death toll was expected to rise.
Uighur exiles condemned the crackdown. “We are extremely saddened by the
heavy-handed use of force by the Chinese security forces against the
peaceful demonstrators,” said Alim Seytoff, vice president of the
Washington, D.C.-based Uyghur American Association. “We ask the
international community to condemn China’s killing of innocent Uighurs.
This is a very dark day in the history of the Uighur people,” he said. The
association, led by a former prominent Xinjiang businesswoman now living in
America, Rebiya Kadeer, estimated that 1,000 to 3,000 people took part in
the protest. Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri said in a televised address early
Monday that Uighur exiles led by Kadeer of caused the violence, saying,
“Rebiya had phone conversations with people in China in order to incite,
and Web sites such as Uighurbiz.cn and Diyarim.com were used to orchestrate
the incitement and spread propaganda.” A government statement quoted by
Xinhua said the violence was “a pre-empted, organized violent crime. It is
instigated and directed from abroad and carried out by outlaws in the
country.”

Later, the government also admitted defeat in an SMS scam believed to be
perpetrated by death-row inmates. The scheme tricked unsuspecting
subscribers into thinking they had won prizes and were required to send
money through the mobile M-Pesa service in order to collect the winnings.
The police recovered phones believed to be used in the scam in a
maximum-security prison, but could not pin down who the owners were due to
a lack of registration information. “To guard against these tendencies, I
am directing the Ministry of Information and Communication to put in place
an elaborate databank that will ensure all mobile telephone subscribers are
registered,” said Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka. Mobile service providers
Zain and Safaricom embraced the idea but noted that registration is not a
panacea to fighting crime. “The issue of subscriber registration has been
oversimplified by the political class and, in itself, it is not a panacea
for addressing rising incidents of crime,” said Michael Joseph, Safaricom
CEO.

Blast or dynamite fishing stuns or kills fish for easy gathering. This
illegal practice indiscriminately kills large numbers of fish and other
marine organisms and can damage or destroy surrounding ecosystems such as
coral reefs. Although outlawed, the practice remains widespread in some 40
nations in Central America, Southeast Asia, the Aegean Sea and Africa,
environmental groups say. In the Philippines, blast fishing dates to before
World War I. During World War II, dynamite-wielding Japanese troops
popularized the practice in Indonesia. Nicaraguan fishermen say the
practice was introduced by bomb-wielding rebels of El Salvador’s Farabundo
Marti Liberation Front seeking a new livelihood after a 12-year civil war
in that country ended in 1992. Fishermen typically use commercial dynamite
or homemade bombs with glass bottles or cans layered with powdered
potassium nitrate and pebbles or ammonium nitrate and a kerosene mixture.

But one lawyer has taken issue with the directive, arguing that the
government’s approach is wrong because registration of subscribers is all
about capturing personal information, which is one of the most vexing legal
issues in the information technology sector. “What we need is very clear
law governing the collection and use of personal information. We failed to
include such a law in the Kenya Communications Amendment Act, and now we
want to patch it up with a presidential directive,” said Michael Murungi, a
Nairobi lawyer. Murungi says there is need to identify the subscribers of
mobile phones in order to deter phone-aided crime, but there is an even
more compelling need for a clear legal framework for the collection, use of
and management of personal information.

A husband and wife from Britain were seriously wounded in a machete attack
in Tobago, police said, comparing the home invasion to a similar one last
year that killed a Swedish couple on the Caribbean island. Authorities
identified the victims as Peter Greene, 65, and his wife, Marion, 59, but
declined to provide details about them or the attack on an island that has
been considered the safer part of the twin-island nation of Trinidad and
Tobago. “It’s a matter of serious concern, this is another serious attack
on tourists,” police superintendent Nadir Khan said. The couple were
airlifted to a regional medical center in Trinidad, but authorities did not
release details about their condition.

Olive Arnold, Victim of Home Invasion “This person come over me and tell me
be quiet. Now I’m not going to be quiet, then he go like – I couldn’t see
his face, he have on a brown cap and a brown shirt and ih gun. And ih tell
me be quiet and I tell him I’m not going to be quiet and I scream. I holler
for them out there and by the time they come to the door, one in a white
t-shirt follow the other one and they all run downstairs.” Rose Holland,
Victim of Home Invasion “I heard my mom screaming so I thought maybe she
fall so I ran in here and when me and Ms. Carol get to the door the guy
standing here and point the gun so we took off back. And they ran behind us
and start chasing us. All three of us fall down on the ground and they jump
on me and say give me everything you got. They tried to pull my bracelet
off and they scratched my hand. When they couldn’t get this off they popped
my Rolex chain off my neck. And they tackled my girlfriend. And she tell
them do you guys know who I am. I’m the mother of so and so. And they say
they don’t care and they popped her chain off too. And then they hopped the
fence back and they left.” Olive Arnold “First, I was gonna come back home
and live, now I tell them no I cannot because the younger generation them
is scandalous. I cannot come back home to live. They take guns like you’re
birds in the air – pop, you know, I’m scared for my life. I’m not coming
back in a hurry right now but I have to come back, but not to live.”

“The plan is slow to achieve but covers all areas dealing with human
relations and has adaptation alternatives, such as small cash income
activities for relocated families,” said elder Tony Tologina, chief of the
Naboin clan. On the long term, we want to build the capacity of Tulele
Peisa to be certain it can carry out its objectives and also develop it as
a resource agency for the Carterets and host communities on Bougainville.
“Tulele Peisa is our own initiative and will continue to co-ordinate and
facilitate the relocation of our island people. After the relocation, TP
will continue to provide monitoring and evaluation skills and further focus
on development options available to our people,” said Rufina Moi, woman
chief. An important part of the programme is that it will also set up a
Conservation and Marine Management Area that will let Carteret Islanders
make sustainable use of our ancestral marine resources. To keep the links
between the relocated Carterets people and their home island, sea resources
and any remaining clan members (who are not yet relocated), the plan
includes developing an equitable sea transport service for freight and
passengers. “In the future, we will keep coming to these reefs and manage
them as our fishing ground,” explained community youth leader Nicholas
Hakata. “When our children come back, they will have a connection to their
heritage.”

Ilham Tohti, a Uighur economics professor at Central Nationalities
University in Beijing and founder of Uighurbiz.cn — one of the implicated
Web sites — said “the relevant authorities” were questioning him about his
Web site. His site has become a lively forum for many issues about Chinese
rule in Xinjiang. Xinjiang’s top Communist Party official, Wang Lequan,
called the incident “a profound lesson learned in blood” and said
authorities “must take the most resolute and strongest measures to deal
with the enemies’ latest attempt at sabotage.” “We also must expose Rebiya
and those like her … we must tear away Rebiya’s mask and let the world see
her true nature.” Seytoff dimissed the accusations against Kadeer. “It’s
common practice for the Chinese government to accuse Ms. Kadeer for any
unrest” in Xinjiang, he said.

Trinidad & Tobago’s Newsday reported that Marion Greene was in serious but
stable condition and that her husband was in critical condition after being
placed in a medically induced coma to treat severe head injuries. Deputy
British Commissioner Jeff Patton described the attack as a “horrible crime”
but declined to discuss it further. Originally from Reading, England, the
couple had been living in the town of Bacolet along Tobago’s southern coast
off-and-on for 10 years. Khan told reporters that robbery has not been
ruled out as a motive and said it was similar to the unsolved killing in
October of Anna Sundsval, 62, and Oke Olsoon, 73, at their home in the Bon
Accord area of Tobago, about 7 miles (10 kilometers) from where the latest
incident occurred. Authorities detained a suspect in that case but released
him for lack of evidence. Khan said his department is “working assiduously”
on the case, but complained of a lack of leads.

Rose Holland “I came in and I guess when they saw me came in, they saw my
car and saw my jewelry and stuff cause I usually wear a lot of jewelry when
I come to Belize. But for one time this year I decided only to wear a few.
And one of my neighbours told me be careful because they are watching you,
be careful. She told me that the morning, which was yesterday morning. Then
in the night, that’s what made me went on the porch, they called me again,
be careful because I guess they hear the plot of what’s going on, so
they’re advising me. How could they have the audacity to just walk in a
person’s home with a gun and look and an ageable lady, be quiet. That is
wrong.”

“We have fully documented our process since beginning our plan and will
continue to, for the sake of developing a model relocation programme,” said
Thomas Bikta, a chief from Piul Island. “At the same time, we are
developing and formulating a Carterets relocation policy that we will
advocate to the Autonomous Bougainville Government and the rest of the
world,” Bikta added. We also intend to build an alliance of vulnerable
Pacific communities impacted by climate change who can lobby and advocate
for justice and policies that recognise and support those affected. We
think the Papua New Guinea government must set an example of such policies
by re-developing the Atolls Integrated Development policy and beginning a
recognized financing mechanism similar to REDD (Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries). The
committee or board of which must include all relevant stakeholders,
including community representation and other expertise, not just government
officials.

The clashes in Urumqi echoed last year’s unrest in Tibet, when a peaceful
demonstration by monks in the capital of Lhasa erupted into riots that
spread to surrounding areas, leaving at least 22 dead. The Chinese
government accused Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of
orchestrating the violence — a charge he denied. Seytoff said he had heard
from two sources that at least two dozen people had been killed by gunfire
or crushed by armored police vehicles just outside Xinjiang University.
Mamet, a 36-year-old restaurant worker, said he saw People’s Armed Police
attack students outside Xinjiang University. “First they fired tear gas at
the students. Then they started beating them and shooting them with
bullets. Big trucks arrived, and students were rounded up and arrested,”
Mamet said. Wang Kui, an official with the Foreign Affairs Department at
the university, said she aware of no such incident. She said no students
from the university were among those killed or injured. “We are not
allowing students to come and go because the situation is chaotic at the
moment,” Wang said. “All the students are at school, and we are taking care
of them. But we are not clear about what’s been going on outside.”

A renowned Scottish gemstone expert was brutally murdered in Kenya by a mob
armed with machetes, clubs, spears — even bows and arrows — in what police
believe was the final fight in a years-long mining dispute. A group of at
least 30 men attacked Campbell Bridges, 71, his son Bruce, and four Kenyan
employees near the Tsavo National Park, a popular tourist site in the
Kenyan bush known for its lions. “My men were cut to ribbons and I took a
panga [machete] to the neck. It was an ambush.” said Bruce Bridges. The
murder was the bloody culmination of a three-year battle between squatters
and Bridges — a senior jewel consultant with Tiffany and Company in New
York. The squatters have reportedly stolen rare tsavorite gems from
Bridges’ team in the past. Bridges’ son charges the local miners with
illegally digging for gems on the family’s 600-hectare property. He also
adds that the Bridges family has received repeated death threats, the most
recent one coming just two weeks ago. “As we drove towards our mining camp
we found huge thorn trees blocking the road. Eight men with machetes,
spears, clubs, knives, bows and arrows appeared shouting ‘We’re going to
kill you all!’ Then more people came down the mountain like ants, 20 or 30
of them,” Bridges said. According to his son, Campbell Bridges was attacked
by two men and was stabbed in the side.

Four Uighur detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba were
recently released and relocated to Bermuda despite Beijing’s objections
because U.S. officials have said they fear the men would be executed if
they returned to China. Officials have also been trying to transfer 13
others to the Pacific nation of Palau. The men were captured in Afghanistan
and Pakistan in 2001, but the U.S. later determined they were not “enemy
combatants.” Previous mass protests in Xinjiang that were quelled by armed
forces became signal events for the separatist movement. In 1990, about 200
Uighurs shouting for holy war protested through Baren, a town near the
Afghan border, resulting in violence that left at least two dozen people
dead. In 1997, amid a wave of bombings and assassinations, a protest by
several hundred Uighurs in the city of Yining against religious
restrictions turned into an anti-Chinese uprising that left at least 10
dead. In both cases pro-independence groups said the death tolls were
several times higher, and the government never conducted a public
investigation into the events.

The women say they don’t know who their attackers were but they feel they
were held up by two men in their twenties who live in the same area.
Holland said the thieves also stole her cell phone which was in her bedroom
near the back door. While police have not yet retrieved any of the stolen
items, they have detained four suspects. Police believe that while only two
committed the robbery, it was planned by the four suspects. And while they
are in custody now, they are concerned that there will be retaliation
because the other victim who was visiting the home at the time is the
mother of a notorious George Street character.

September 26, 2007

GIANT ADS SET FOR WORLD’S BUSIEST RUNWAYS

Filed under: airlines,General,media — admin @ 5:53 am

Advertisers aiming to reach high-flyers with no alternative distraction will soon
have a new method: adverts the size of three football pitches seen by plane
passengers coming in to land. UK-based Ad-Air launched its new service in London on
Tuesday, offering brands the chance to place huge adverts near the runways of some
of the world’s busiest runways. Ad-Air, backed by GBP 5m (EUR 7m) of private equity
finance, said it had spent five years securing sites around the world’s busiest
airports including London Heathrow, Paris, Geneva, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Tokyo and
Abu Dhabi. The first advert will appear in Dubai next month. Paul Jenkins, managing
director of Ad-Air, said the adverts would appear in ‚”clutter-free environments
and moments free of any other commercial messages.” Operations Director Haakon
Dewing said that the adverts could develop to produce a moving image that starts
each time a plane comes into sight. The adverts, which are low to the ground and
20,000 square meters in size, will only be illuminated where local legislation
allows.

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