Tag Archives: UK

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important buildings and collectively, peacefully, make their presence felt and demand action from representatives that no longer represent them.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.

bm106 WTO Force Feeds Europe

With the recent announcement by the World Trade Organization which finds the Europe Union at fault for stopping Genetically Modified Food from entering its markets, what will happen now? Who benefits if things continue this way and who is at risk? Where do national laws and policies fit in against the backdrop of WTO conclusions?

AudioCommunique #106 (mp3)

Discussed:

The forthcoming ruling on GMOs
The reasons for the EU strategy
Governments and Biotech of US, Canada, and Argentina rejoice
Consumer opinions within the EU
Growth and Demand of Organic
Guardian Article
Quotes from notable people
Future for GMO’s and governmental shift to the right.
Brief comment on the Ports Issue

Music:

G.Love – Milk and Cereal
Ben Folds 5 – Prison Food
Merle Haggard – Farmers Daughter
Dead Kennedys – Soup is Good Food
Feist – Let it Die

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.

Old Media Habits Die Hard

Like many of you, I have my podcast listening habits. They include probably about 30 podcasts that Im subscribed to, 4-5 of which are essential for how I get my news and commentary about what is happenning in the world. Naturally I hope the topics they cover will be diverse, interesting, in-depth, etc. Often they are. But when something is all over the news, they usually all get into it at the same time.

M goesSo in the last 2 weeks, with the story of the prophet mohammed comics (praise be to goddess), my core of podcasts has been all over it. Which is fine. But what occurred to me, as I listened to the 4th interview in 4 days with the Angry Arab Newservice blogger, is that these programs use a similar pack mentality as the mainstream does. What I mean is; they rely on the same sources, even when it comes to blogs!

This is disturbing to me as a journalist, blogger, and podcaster. One of the key differences between the blogosphere and the monoculture mainstream is that on the internet we have a plurality of voices and resources. Unfortunately this is still a relatively new concept, and many of those working in media were raised with the old pack mentality, and they still fall back on it. That’s how we get A-List bloggers who dominate the discussions online, or so we think. That’s why when I say Daily Kos, Instapundit, or HuffingtonPost, you know who Im talking about. It is these people that have been magically granted legitimacy from traditional media, they get the interview requests and the quotes in the washingtonpost. And as I mentioned, when this happens, they are unknowingly or knowingly trying to limit the amount of voices that can be heard, and putting the traditional limits on who can be part of the conversation.

I say it’s a mistake. Especially from programs that I respect very much and will never stop listening to, like Radio Open Source, On the Media, or DemocracyNow. I will personally call them on it when I see them comitting this error. and to the rest of the blogosphere, I urge you to break down the A-B-C lists, look beyond what you’re told is a big name, seek out what interests you and what captures your attention, regardless of how big or small they might be.

and for the love of allah, interview someone besides hoder or the angry arab, the man deserves a break, and there are plenty of good middle east based bloggers you can contact, like Miss Mubarak, Sabbah, or Beirut Spring.