brad brace contemporary culture scrapbook

September 18, 2007

Plan for Sea Canal Puts Hindu Belief In Sharp Relief

Filed under: General,global islands,india,sri lanka — admin @ 5:24 am

ADAM’S BRIDGE, India — In the emerald waters separating India and Sri Lanka lies a long chain of sand-capped rocky formations. Devout Hindus believe the god Ram built the shoals before a battle with a demon king. Fishermen along India’s coast believe the shoals saved them from a tsunami three years ago. And environmentalists treasure them for their patch reefs, sea fans, sponges and pearl oysters.

Now, however, the shoals — which form what is known as Adam’s Bridge — are being threatened by the construction of a massive sea canal.

The Indian government began dredging the shallow ocean bed two years ago and is now poised to break apart Adam’s Bridge, whose demolition is necessary to allow ships to traverse a direct route between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. But the project has become entangled in a complex web of resistance from environmentalists, fishermen, political parties and Hindu activists.

Opposition to huge industrial projects is common in India, but the controversy over Adam’s Bridge, or Ram Sethu, marks one of the first times religion has become an obstacle to major development. Thousands of Hindu protesters have rallied in the streets since last week, blocking traffic and chanting, “We will save Ram Sethu, we will save Hindu heritage!”

“Millions of Hindus believe that Ram built that bridge across the sea. Our scriptures and epics mention it,” said Surendra Jain, a leader of the World Hindu Council, a hard-line Hindu group. “We will not let them destroy our religious heritage.”

An ambitious project with an estimated cost of more than $500 million, the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal was originally envisioned in 1860, and at least 14 proposals have been abandoned over the years because India lacked the financial resources to build it.

Ships coming from the Arabian Sea currently go around Sri Lanka to reach India’s east coast and Bangladesh. With the proposed channel, 13 yards deep and 328 yards wide, ships are expected to be able to pass straight through India’s territorial waters. That would mean more revenue for India’s ports.

“The ships will save about 30 hours in navigation time,” said Rakesh Srivastava, a senior official at the Shipping Ministry in New Delhi. “More than 3,000 ships will use this channel every year. This is a very prestigious project for India and would lead to the economic transformation of the ports and the coastal people.”

While many critics have petitioned the Supreme Court in a bid to have the project scrapped, the Hindu activists support the sea canal as long as it can be built in a way that would avoid damage to Adam’s Bridge. Some activists have proposed dredging to the west of the bridge to make way for a canal.

Government officials have said that approach would be misguided. And they contend the bridge isn’t important in Hinduism.

“People have mixed religion with reality,” Srivastava said. The shoals were formed from calcium deposits and natural sedimentation over millions of years.”

In court, the government contended that the Hindu god Ram was a mythical character, an argument that only further enraged Hindus opposed to the current project. The Hindu nationalist political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, called the statement a blasphemous insult, and the government hurriedly withdrew it.

Hindu opposition to the project is only the most recent hindrance to the canal’s completion. Naval experts have questioned assertions that the canal would save ships 30 hours in travel time, as well as the economic viability of the project. Fishermen’s unions have staged sit-ins, blocked rail traffic and petitioned the court.

Umayavel Tharakudiyan, a 55-year-old fisherman in the village of Ramakrishnapuram on the coast of Tamil Nadu state, said the dredging of sand has already reduced the number of fish he and others catch. He explained his fears by drawing a map of his village and the canal route in the sand.

“We will lose our freedom. For different kinds of fish, we go out at various times of the day. Once the ships start sailing, we will be assigned special times of the day for fishing. They will deny us entry with our boats and nets in some areas,” he said as he sat on the sandy ground outside his thatched-roof home.

His wife, Tamilarasi, said Adam’s Bridge has shielded the area during cyclones and other natural disasters. “The bridge protected us from the tsunami,” she said. “Once that goes, our villages may disappear in the next cyclone.”

Although the government has received formal environmental clearance for the canal, there are lingering concerns about the impact it would have on a marine biosphere reserve 12 miles west of the area to be dredged. A row of 21 islands rich in coral reefs, sea turtles, dolphins and sea cows, the reserve is one of the most biologically diverse areas in South Asia.

A recent government report said the canal could “drastically alter the dynamics of the ecosystems” in the biosphere.

“Sea animals communicate through waves, and the dredging work disturbs them. In the last six months, sea cows are losing their way and are seen closer to the shore,” said Rakesh Kumar Jagenia, the wildlife warden at the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve. “It will get worse once the ships start sailing, with the high noise levels and thermal pollution.”

Environmental activists and fishermen complain that despite their long struggle, it is the religious claim to Adam’s Bridge that has provoked the most public interest and drawn a reaction from the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, ecologists and fishermen’s groups are reluctant to build alliances with the Hindu nationalist organizations.

“People are debating nonissues,” said T.S.S. Mani, an activist fisherman opposed to the canal. “This is a battle for environment, people’s lives and livelihoods, but unfortunately it has acquired a religious branding.”

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 5:12 am

Wind, solar power sources provided free to remote areas

Filed under: General,global islands,nicaragua — admin @ 4:56 am

Bluefields, Nicaragua — As dark clouds approached, Guillaume Craig packed up his tools, climbed into a rickety boat and sped off from a small fishing village, hoping to make the three-hour commute downriver before nightfall. The boat wasn’t quite fast enough, so the former Oakland resident used a flashlight to guide his way back through endless miles of tropical forest.

“That was actually our easiest site to reach,” said Craig, whose San Francisco-based Blue Energy foundation is delivering renewable energy to hundreds of residents along Nicaragua’s remote Caribbean coast.

Craig, 31, his brother, Mathias, 33, and a small crew of volunteers have been traversing the muddy backwaters, installing solar panels and windmills for free and bringing renewable energy to villages, schools and health clinics where none existed before.

“It could make a huge difference in rural areas,” said Mathias Craig, who says he has always been fascinated with wind power. “You can’t even reach a lot of these places with power lines.”

The San Francisco nonprofit has attracted the attention of the government of President Daniel Ortega, who has expressed interest in alternative technology to help alleviate the country’s energy crunch. Within the next six months, the Craigs say, Blue Energy wind turbines will be tested at a UC Berkeley field station in Richmond. If they pass international standards, the Ortega government will consider using them countrywide.

Since June, many regions across the nation have experienced four- to eight-hour-a-day blackouts, prompting even Pacific Coast resort developers to knock on Blue Energy’s doors. For now, the brothers say, the tourist areas will have to take a backseat to underserved rural communities. “We are a nonprofit,” said Guillaume Craig.

Nearly 80 percent of Nicaragua’s electricity is powered by oil. In July, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez financed the construction of a 150,000-barrel-a-day, $2.5 billion refinery – the largest in Central America – as part of his oil-funded battle against U.S. influence in Latin America. Chavez has also sent generators to help offset the rolling blackouts.

Mathias Craig, who studied civil engineering at UC Berkeley, says Blue Energy began as a graduate project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before being incorporated in 2003. The next year, the Craigs arrived in Nicaragua – the only country where they are currently operating – at the behest of their mother. Colette Grinevald is a linguistics professor who specializes in indigenous languages along the Caribbean coast.

Blue Energy works mainly with Rama and Miskito Indians, who form part of an autonomous zone of 650,000 inhabitants with greater independence from the national government than the rest of the country. Since it began operations in Nicaragua, Blue Energy has provided electricity to five villages and 1,400 residents. To date, the foundation’s most remote site is Punta de Aguila, a 51/2-hour trip south of Bluefields over choppy waters.

While Hurricane Dean nearly destroyed several turbines earlier in the summer, this month’s Hurricane Felix missed Blue Energy’s area of operation.

The Craigs are convinced that wind and solar power are the most practical ways to bring energy to isolated indigenous villages far removed from any power grid. Currently, the only option for most coastal dwellers is diesel-powered generators.

“Our community has always lived in darkness,” said Edgar Swartz, 32, standing in the shadow of an 80-foot Blue Energy wind turbine that powers the village of Kakabila, home to 700 people. “We think plenty about electricity.”

Separated by geography and culture, the region is among the poorest in a nation that has the dubious distinction of being the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere, with Haiti being the poorest. On the Caribbean coast, basic health services are spotty, illiteracy is 65 percent in rural areas, and an estimated 80 percent go without regular electricity.

Blue Energy operates on an annual shoestring budget of about $120,000 in grants from the government of Finland and contributions from mainly American and French donors. The Craigs hope to eventually turn a profit that will sustain their nonprofit work.

The foundation currently churns out one new wind turbine a week from the rustic port town of Bluefields, the region’s largest city with 50,000 people. Following a common design to harness wind power, the turbines are hand built and shipped in pieces in 15-foot wooden boats with outboard motors.

Blue Energy also buys solar panels from local distributors to keep communities powered during hot, nonwindy days. The full wind and solar package costs $12,000 for 1 kilowatt of power. In contrast, a small diesel generator costs about $500 and is typically affordable only for those operating local businesses.

The foundation pays for installation for entire communities, but those who want power for private use, such as charging cell phones and hooking up television sets, must purchase a special $300 battery and pay roughly $4 a month for recharging fees.

Though more expensive than generators, alternative energy will pay for itself in the long run, the brothers argue. Using nothing but wind and sun, the Blue Energy installation pumps out roughly 3,500 watt-hours of electricity each day – enough to power five homes using a small radio and refrigerator over a 24-hour period.

The Craigs estimate that it takes three windmills to sufficiently power small communities of up to 700 people with basic energy needs. They hope alternative energy will allow these villages to open night schools and improve refrigeration for the main industry along the coast – seafood.

Mathias Craig, however, said his heart sank when he saw the first installation three years ago in Punta de Aguila being used to power television sets tuned to Spanish-language soap operas.

“We don’t promote using television,” he said. “But they get to pick.”

In the meantime, the Craigs hope to train Nicaraguans in solar and wind power that will one day rival the nation’s largest privately owned electrical companies.

That makes perfect sense to Poochy Newton, 48, a Miskito fisherman who is selling his diesel generator to become the first nonbusiness user of alternative energy in Set Net Point, a four-hour boat ride north of Bluefields. Newton calculates that he will save about $30 a month by not using diesel fuel, which is shipped in, for his generator.

“Diesel is very expensive,” Newton said. “The wind is going to work out much better.”

The San Francisco-based Blue Energy foundation is delivering renewable energy to hundreds of residents along Nicaragua’s remote Caribbean coast. Guillaume Craig, 31, his brother, Mathias, 33, and a small crew of volunteers have been traversing the muddy backwaters, installing solar panels and windmills for free and bringing renewable energy to villages, schools and health clinics where none existed before… Blue Energy works mainly with Rama and Miskito Indians, who form part of an autonomous zone of 650,000 inhabitants with greater independence from the national government than the rest of the country. Since it began operations in Nicaragua, Blue Energy has provided electricity to five villages and 1,400 residents… Separated by geography and culture, the region is among the poorest in a nation that has the dubious distinction of being the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere, with Haiti being the poorest. On the Caribbean coast, basic health services are spotty, illiteracy is 65 percent in rural areas, and an estimated 80 percent go without regular electricity. Blue Energy operates on an annual shoestring budget of about $120,000 in grants from the government of Finland and contributions from mainly American and French donors. The Craigs hope to eventually turn a profit that will sustain their nonprofit work. The foundation currently churns out one new wind turbine a week from the rustic port town of Bluefields, the region’s largest city with 50,000 people. Following a common design to harness wind power, the turbines are hand built and shipped in pieces in 15-foot wooden boats with outboard motors. Blue Energy also buys solar panels from local distributors to keep communities powered during hot, non-windy days.

September 16, 2007

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 5:35 am

Weeding out crime in Belize

Filed under: belize,General,global islands — admin @ 5:34 am

For years, Belize City has had an unsavoury reputation for drug-running, money-laundering and muggings.

With tourism now in mind, the government is working hard to improve its image.

Straddling a creek on Central America’s Caribbean coast, Belize City feels more West Indian than Latin.

That is not just because a majority of the population of 50,000 plus is black, and speaks English.

The town is said to be built on foundations made of ship’s ballast and empty rum bottles, left by 18th Century British traders, who came to extract timber from the forests upriver.

You can still see the sleeping quarters underneath the grander gingerbread houses, where African slaves used to be chained up for the night.

The town’s main drag, south of the swing-bridge that is Belize City’s major point of reference, is called Regent Street, though it could be a million miles from the smart London thoroughfare after which it was named.

Makeover – Old Warnings

“Do not wander off the main streets.”

“Always take a taxi from the bus station.”

“Carry some dollars in an easily accessible place, so you can just hand them over if someone pulls a gun on you.”

Belize was the last British colony to survive on the American mainland.

Over the years, I had been given so many dire warnings about Belize City that I had studiously avoided it on earlier travels round Central America.

But then more recently I had heard that the government was cleaning the place up, in an effort to boost Belize’s tourist trade.

A visitor stands out a mile in Belize City, as the humidity and the temperatures are so high that you are a dripping wreck before you have walked 200 yards.

The locals, in contrast, saunter or cycle by in immaculately dry and ironed shirts, even the cheeky schoolboys who regularly stop to try and beg a dollar.

You quickly learn to walk on the shady side of the street. And you make regular pit-stops at cooler buildings, such as St. John’s Cathedral, at the bottom of Albert Street. The cathedral is made out of curious grey bricks that were, like the city’s foundations, brought here as ship’s ballast.

Painted on a board outside, there is an earnest exhortation in Spanish: “Hoy, no manana” – today, not tomorrow.

The locals do not exactly give the impression of having taken this message to heart.

New money

North of the swing-bridge, past a smart but anonymous shopping centre that is designed to cater for the burgeoning cruise ship trade, there is a part of town more open to sea-breezes.

The huge hotel lobby has 500 slot machines on one side, leading into a casino.

There one can see some of the urban planning that has been taking shape in the authorities’ efforts to give Belize City a new image.

Landfill is enabling them to build a sweeping promenade, and some of the old buildings – battered by the hurricanes that come blowing in from time to time – have been beautifully restored.

Even if many of the local people are unemployed or poor, there is obviously a lot of money around as well.

Outside the Princess Hotel – the city’s finest – 4×4s and top-of-the-range limousines are lined up, while inside, the elite can enjoy the air-conditioned facilities.

Bizarrely, the huge hotel lobby has 500 slot machines on one side, leading into a casino. On the other, there is a cinema showing The Passion of the Christ… four times a day.

Talk about God and Mammon. I watch as a large American lady tourist pauses indecisively as she ponders these two alternatives, then heads off into the bar where they are selling pina coladas, two for the price of one.

On patrol

Back on the street, beaming smiles, tourist police on bicycles stop to wish one good-day.

Still a comparatively recent phenomenon, these police are largely credited with the marked fall in assaults on foreign visitors.

Their eagerness seems designed to extract the confession that one has not been mugged, or even felt remotely threatened.

September 14, 2007

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 4:50 am

UN General Assembly backs indigenous peoples’ rights

Filed under: General,global islands — admin @ 4:49 am

UNITED NATIONS — The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a non-binding declaration upholding the human, land and resources rights of the world’s 370 million indigenous people, brushing off opposition from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

The vote in the assembly was 143 in favor and four against. Eleven countries, including Russia and Colombia, abstained.

The declaration, capping more than 20 years of debate at the United Nations, also recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination and sets global human rights standards for them.

It states that native peoples have the right “to the recognition, observance and enforcement of treaties” concluded with states or their successors.

Indigenous peoples say their lands and territories are endangered by such threats as mineral extraction, logging, environmental contamination, privatization and development projects, classification of lands as protected areas or game reserves amd use of genetically modified seeds and technology.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the Philippine chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, joined UN chief Ban Ki-moon in hailing the vote.

“It marks a major victory for Indigenous peoples,” said Tauli-Corpuz, adding that the document “sets the minimum international standards for the protection and promotion of the rights” of native peoples.

But Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, countries with sizable indigenous populations, expressed disappointment with the text.

Australia on Friday defended its decision to oppose the declaration, saying the document was “outside what we as Australians believe to be fair.”

“We haven’t wiped our hands of it, but as it currently stands at the moment, it would provide rights to a group of people which would be to the exclusion of others,” Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said.

But Australia’s top rights group, which welcomed the declaration, said it was “a matter of great regret” that it was opposed by Canberra.

The declaration, which recognises the right to self-determination, was “a milestone for the world’s indigenous peoples,” Tom Calma, of Australia’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, said.

“It also acknowledges that without recognising the collective rights of indigenous peoples and ensuring protection of our cultures, indigenous people can never truly be free and equal,” he said.

The New Zealand government said Friday it voted against the UN declaration on indigenous rights because it disadvantaged non-indigenous people and conflicts with the country’s laws.

Parekura Horomia, the New Zealand minister responsible for policy on the native Maori people, said his government was committed to protecting the rights of indigenous people.

But Horomia, himself a Maori, said the UN declaration on the human, land and resource rights of indigenous people was incompatible with New Zealand law.

“These articles imply different classes of citizenship where indigenous people have a right of veto that other groups or individuals do not have,” Horomia told Radio New Zealand.

New Zealand was far ahead of other countries in promoting the rights of indigenous people, he said.

“Unfortunately, the provisions in the Declaration on lands, territories and resources are overly broad, unclear, and capable of a wide variety of interpretations, discounting the need to recognize a range of rights over land and possibly putting into question matters that have been settled by treaty,” Canada’s UN Ambassador John McNee told the assembly.

Among contentious issues was one article saying “states shall give legal recognition and protection” to lands, territories and resources traditionally “owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired” by indigenous peoples.

Another bone of contention was an article upholding native peoples’ right to “redress by means that can include restitution or when not possible just, fair and equitable compensation, for their lands and resources “which have been confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior ad informed consent”.

Opponents also objected to one provision requiring states “to consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples …to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.”

Indigenous advocates note that most of the world’s remaining natural resources — minerals, freshwater, potential energy sources — are found within indigenous peoples’ territories.

A leader of Canada’s native community, Phil Fontaine, slammed his government’s stance.

“We’re very disappointed with Canada’s opposition to the declaration on indigenous peoples,” said Fontaine, leader of Assembly of First Nations, who came to New York to lobby for adoption of the text.

Canada’s indigenous population is about 1.3 million people, out of a total population of 32.7 million.

Adoption of the declaration by the assembly had been deferred late last year at the behest of African countries led by Namibia, which raised objections about language on self-determination and the definition of “indigenous” people.

The Africans were won over after co-sponsors amended an article to read that “nothing in the declaration may be …construed as authorizing or encouraging any action which would dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent states.”

The declaration was endorsed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council last year.

September 13, 2007

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 7:20 am

Kenyan MPs torpedo graft probes

Filed under: General,global islands,kenya — admin @ 7:19 am

Kenyan MPs have passed a law which may make it impossible to prosecute corrupt politicians implicated in big scandals.

The law limits Kenya’s Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate alleged crimes committed only after 2003.

Two notorious cases predate this – the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing scams when huge sums were diverted from the Kenyan exchequer into officials’ back pockets.

President Mwai Kibaki won polls in 2002 on an anti-graft platform he has yet to fulfil. He faces re-election this year.

Observers say the move may have been timed to ensure no politicians face damaging legal proceedings ahead of the polls.

After a heated debate, opposition MPs surprised the government by winning a vote on the controversial amendment, which deletes key sections of the 2003 Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.

Justice Minister Martha Karua argued against the change, saying the sections were the core of the Act and their deletion would strip the KACC of powers essential to carrying out its remit.

Speaking in parliament she said: “Past economic crimes have not been successfully investigated and this amendment would give the KACC a deadly blow.”

The head of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, Maina Kiai, has described the law as an affront to the people of Kenya.

“The politicians are spitting in our faces,” he said.

Mrs Karua told parliament that the architect of the amendment, Paul Muite had an interest in sabotaging the KACC investigation.

“Hon Muite’s interest is obvious and this amendment is mischievous”, she said.

Back in 2003 when the KACC was set up, Mr Muite told Kenya’s Daily Nation he was looking forward to “defending himself against allegations that he received 20 million Kenyan shillings” from a businessman implicated in the Goldenberg scandal.

The big scams

Under former President Daniel arap Moi’s administration, the government devised a scheme to persuade exporters to repatriate hard currency earnings, promising a 20% premium on foreign currency deposited in Kenya’s Central Bank.

It is alleged that a company called Goldenberg International colluded with government officials to make a claim for a 35% compensation for the export of minerals, in spite of Kenya having no diamond reserves and producing little gold of its own.

At least $80m was paid in export compensation, but some estimates suggest that Kenya’s overall losses amounted to around $600m – the equivalent of more than 10% of the country’s annual GDP.

Then under President Kibaki, officials sought to order a replacement for Kenya’s passport printing system.

It involved buying sophisticated equipment – originally quoted at 6m euros ($8.3m) from Francois Charles Oberthur of Paris, a leading credit card supplier.

Without a proper competitive tender, the contract was instead awarded for five times the price to a company registered in the UK, the Anglo-Leasing and Finance Company Limited, whose plan was to sub-contract Oberthur to do the work.

It was subsequently revealed that Anglo Leasing’s agent was a Liverpool-based firm, Saagar Associates.

The company records showed Saagar Associates was owned by Mrs Sudhan Ruparell, a daughter of Chamanlal Kamani, the 72-year-old multi-millionaire patriarch of a business family which enjoyed close links with senior officials in the Moi regime.

No graft convictions

The former anti-graft adviser, John Githongo, fled to the UK in 2005 after saying he had been threatened because of his investigations into corruption.

His successor, Aaron Ringera. recommended that two former finance ministers, an ex-transport minister and a former security minister should be prosecuted, along with eight top civil servants.

Three senior ministers stood down following their implication in corruption in February 2006, but in January 2007 the Attorney General deemed there was not enough evidence against them to proceed with a prosecution.

So far, for all the investigations and charges, not a single businessman, official or politician has been brought to trial.

The international corruption watchdog, Transparency International, ranks Kenya among the 20 most corrupt countries in the world.

Kenya’s MPs have already provoked a public outcry in recent days when they voted just last week to award themselves a $22,000 bonus each at the end of their five-year term in December.

The bill also legalised huge perks received by ministers.

Kenya’s 222 MPs already earn more than $10,000 a month in salaries and expenses, much of which is tax-free, in a country where most people live on less than $1 a day.

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 6:20 am

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