Text – Page 121 – Citizen Reporter

Paper Mills and Border Troubles

It’s always curious to hear about border disputes in South America where I tend to assume they’ve lived next to each other long enough to have nothing to fight over when it comes to borders. I had already heard about Peru and Chilé having issues. But today I’ve been reading up in both the Argentinian Clarín newspaper and on the BBC about the struggle between Argentina and Uruguay over the building of paper mills along the border.

Actually the conflict involves two more important actors: Greenpeace and a Finnish paper company. The company is building two paper mills along the river that separates the two countries. The Uruguayan government talks highly of the jobs and benefits, the Argentinian government says they will take them to the international court for violating treaties, while many people, including greenpeace, are against the building of the mills as they will pollute the river. (because paper mills are, in fact, well known polluters!)

Naturally being the activist and the lover of the earth that I am, I admire the Argentinians who are taking direct action, and peacefully blocking the roads, to prevent trucks from bringing building materials into the area. Meanwhile Greenpeace is doing what they are famous for and never ceases to impress me, putting themselves between the ships and the construction.

It will be interesting to see what happens, Greenpeace has had alot of success recently as they helped pressure the French government to recall their asbestos ship from being sent to be taken apart in India. With the support of the Argentinian government and international law, we may just see a little environmental justice on this one.

In the Streets of Bangkok

Now that late night TV no longer features the giant slalom, snowboarding downhill, curling, or any other winter olympics for that matter, I take in an extra dosage (to add to my already busting at the seems media diet) of BBC world in the evening. Last night I was quite taken by the images out of Thailand, of people in the streets of Bangkok, demanding that the prime minister step down.

It is a beautiful thing when people get together in the thousands in front of important buildings and collectively, peacefully, make their presence felt and demand action from representatives that no longer represent them. It reminds me of the Ukraine only a few years ago. Or when they chased the representatives out of parliament in Georgia not to long ago. Or what I think SHOULD have taken place in Baghdad without bombs and guns; people linked arm and arm marching in overwhelming numbers, despite the dangers.

I’m still researching to see if it’s a potential show topic and who the guest would be, but thus far, it is clear that multimillionaire prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra could certainly be involved in some very corrupt and illegal policy decisions that favor his own telecom companies. In some ways he reminds me of a certain Italian leader. But nevermind that, my eyes are fixed on Bangkok, in hopes that the corruption will be investigated and exposed, and a more competant and capable representative will be elected to take his place.

Philippine Landslides

As I write this the deathtoll is quite uncertain. BBC says 90 confirmed dead but that it may get as high as 1,000. An entire town swallowed up by a landslide.

I was browsing around the blogosphere for Philippine blogs and first hand testimony from the area, but oddly enough I couldn’t find much. The Asiapundit’s blog provided a good gateway to find Torn and Frayed in Manila. In a recent post addressing natural disasters and how the nation handles them, Torn and Frayed writes:

Where the Philippines and many other countries perform badly is in taking precautions before emergencies occur. Why are families living on Mayon in the first place? Or Guinsaugon? Presumably we will find out some of the answers to the Leyte tragedy in the next few days. Since the area had experienced more rainfall than for at any other time in the last 30 years —(read on)

My only other comment on this tragedy, for now, is that while watching the BBC news coverage I saw the US aircraft carrier and the Marines that were dispatched to help in the relief effort. All I kept thinking was — this is what the military should be used for, this is the kind of military initiative I support.

Dump the Jesus of Italian Politics

We all have our wishes for the world in 2006. Many of them won’t come true, especially that one about world peace, I’m betting. But one wish I have, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable, is that the self-proclaimed Jesus Christ of Italian politics would be voted out or just have mercy on his citizens, we europeans, and the rest of the world, and simply resign.

To begin with I’m inclined to ask an Italian or any close observer of the show down there, how could a prime minister this inept maintain one of the longest running governments in the history of the country? But then that question seems silly cause, well, they re-elected GW over in the new world.

Come April, it is time to vote this oligarch, who owns most of the countries television channels, newspapers, and publishers, not to mention AC Milan, OUT! And why not have Romano Prodi, world reknown and respected leader, with his fantastic coalition of left and progressive parties that includes my favorite named party – La Margherita (Mayor of Rome’s crazy party), take back the country. And then finally it might be time for Berlusconi to face up to his financial failures, dirty secrets, and corporate crimes.

It’s one of my simple wishes for 2-0-0-6.

Bloggers Go Dutch

Despite the fact that its Saturday night and we all know people don’t read as many blogs on the weekend since you’re not pretending to do work at work, as you normally are; I wanted to report about the big to-do here in Amsterdam.

Tomorrow we talk philippines A group of prominent US bloggers are in town on a Holland Tourism sanctioned trip, a few of which I read, a few of which I’ve heard of, and some of whom I may never read. And so when the democrats abroad organized a little seminar/informal chat this afternoon, naturally I turned up. Primarily because I wanted to meet she behind Majikthise in person, as I’ve sporadically read that blog for the past few years. I was also curious about the other guests some of which were very familiar names, if I started to name them now your eyes would start to burn and your mouse hand would cramp up.

Anyway not that you need to know the entire content of the discussion, but it was mostly about US politics and the democratic party versus the republican party. Or wait.. maybe it was the liberal versus the conservative blogosphere? Who knows… I normally get bored with all those bloggers who everyone refers to as the best. Plus I despise both the republican and the democratic party in general, my apologies to the 10% of democrats in congress that actually have a spine and some progressive ideas in their aging brains. I guess for that reason alone it was good for me to listen and not just dismiss everything as I normally do if left to my own devices. And in the end, people like Ezra Klein and Amanda of Pandagon had plenty of interesting things to say and defended their viewpoints well.

Mañana I’m leading a few bloggers around the Jordaan and Prinseneiland, it’s the bicyclemark reality tour… some of you may have taken it before. History as I remember it.

First World Garbage

Fighting off a fever, I’ve been researching what is rarely discussed yet a huge issue in the world. Where do all those first world ships; cruise liners, war ships, etc., where do they go when they’re too old?

Perhaps you’ve never thought about it. Maybe you’ve even sailed on one of those mickey mouse cruises, and while playing shuffle board the thought of one day having to dispose of this ship never crossed your mind. But it has to be done. And worst of all, lots of these ships leave a very dirty and dangerous legacy.

I’m still doing prelimenary research for my podcast on this subject, but one important place to start with is Alang, India. This is a place where breaking down ships is a big industry. And unfortanately as a side effect, workers have to endure some very dangerous factors, like asbestos or whatever chemicals they’re exposed to from these ships. And of course, not only are the workers in danger, but the environment and the community as well. But there you have it, that is their major industry, send your rust buckets from the first world, and they will break them down, with minimal questions.

But then there’s the Clemenceau, a former french warship filled with a uncertain quantity of asbestos. And there are treaties that say you can’t transport toxins from France to a developing nation. And the supreme court of India now wants some answers and so does greenpeace. Lots of interests collide on this one. No clear answers. My biggest question is – are we now building boats that won’t destroy the planet and it’s people when it comes time to break them down?