aangirfan2

BEYOND ALL BELIEF by PETER LEMESURIER

2012-01-28T23:34:00.000-08:00

Peter Lemesurier

According to author Peter Lemesurier, in his book "Beyond All Belief":

1. "Your triumphs and disasters, the whole unrolling tapestry of your daily life turns out to be an educational programme devised by the deeper you.

"That is why the good things always happen together, and why some days turn out to be unreleived chains of disasters.

"It is also why, if you discover one example of a new word or concept, you discover dozens at once."

2. "Once attain the level of consciousness at which you, the patient and the whole of the universe are one, and the healing takes place of its own accord."

3. "There is only consciousness...

"Fully relax into the realisation, therefore, and ultimate bliss can ensue."

4. Unconditional love... has the curious property that, of all the opposites in our world of opposites, it alone can transcend the other pole of the argument."

~~

Nostradamus and the Arab Revolt

Nostradamus and the financial crisis

Worried about 2012?

CIA KILLING LATIN AMERICAN LEADERS?

2011-12-31T09:26:00.000-08:00

Fidel Castro and Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (above) both got cancer.

The following leftist leaders have all been diagnosed recently with cancer:

1. Venezuela's Chavez

2. Argentina's Fernandez

3. Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo

4. Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff

5. Former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Venezuela’s Chavez has asked : did the U.S. give Latin American leaders cancer?

Luli Fernandez

Megrahi, blamed for Lockerbie, got cancer. (aangirfan: Megrahi to be murdered?)

"Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents entitled: Biological Effects Of Electromagnetic Radiation (Radiowaves and Microwaves) Eurasian Communist Countries, show that microwave frequencies similar to those of the cellular phones can cause health problems." (MICROWAVE MIND CONTROL by Tim Rifat)

In the 1970s came news that "the Russians were microwaving the US embassy in Moscow. One third of the staff eventually died of cancer from this microwave irradiation."

The UK Ministry of Defence "was involved in the offensive microwaving of women protesters, the so called Greenham Common Women."

Victims can be subjected to "pulse modulated microwaves which carry different types of madness and behavioural aberrations, encoded as ELF excitation potentials. This makes the troublesome high profile person, display manic or insane behaviour that discredits them. Examples of this technique are allegedly: David Icke, Fergie, Princess Diana." (MICROWAVE MIND CONTROL by Tim Rifat)

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

2011-11-30T08:22:00.000-08:00

If EU states fulfil their stated plans:

The next ten years will see a 17-fold increase in offshore wind energy capacity in Europe.

And, solar energy and marine energy should produce similar growth rates.

That is the conclusion of a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA).

"Separate research on the dire economic environment faced by wind turbine manufacturers in particular may serve to cast some doubt on the agency's predicted build rates." (EU prepares for 80 per cent increase in renewables capacity )

The EU's goal is to produce 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

THE MAFIA IN LIBYA

2011-10-31T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Mafia comes along and wrecks your home.

And then the Mafia forces you to pay them to rebuild it, and guard it.

"Western security, construction and infrastructure companies that see profit-making opportunities receding in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned their sights on Libya...

"Entrepreneurs are abuzz about the business potential of a country with huge needs and the oil to pay for them...

"Now, after months of fighting, and with the security situation still fragile, there are huge new requirements, like rebuilding apartment complexes reduced to rubble by shelling, guarding oil installations as they restore or expand production, and training and equipping new armed forces."

Western Companies See Prospects for Business in Libya

MAATHAI VERSUS THE IMF AND WORLD BANK

2011-10-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

Professor Wangari Maathai (Nobel laureate and environment ‎alist) was born in the central highlands of Kenya in 1940.

Back in the 1940s, her small village had clean water, rich soils, rich forests and plenty of food.

"It was heaven. We wanted for nothing," she said.

"Now the forests have come down, the land has been turned to commercial farming, the tea plantations keep everyone poor, and the economic system does not allow people to appreciate the beauty of where they live."

Maathai was educated by Catholic nuns. (environment ‎)

Maathai said: "After my education by the nuns, I emerged as a person who believed that society is inherently good and that people generally act for the best."

Maathai won a scholarship to study in the US, as part of the 'Kennedy airlift' in which 300 Kenyans - including Barack Obama’s father - were chosen to study at American universities in 1960.

After further study in Germany, she returned to a newly independent Kenya in 1966.

Her early work as a vet took her to some of Kenya's poorest areas.

She saw first-hand the damage that was being done to the environment.

In 1977, she set up the Green Belt movement.

She became critical of politicians in Kenya, the World Bank, the IMF, Britain and other former colonial powers.

Before the 1990s, the Mau forest (above) was a protected area. "But then senior officials in President Daniel arap Moi's government grabbed large plots of the highly fertile land for themselves." Website for this image

What began as a few women planting trees became a network of 600 community groups.

They looked after 6,000 tree nurseries, which were often supervised by disabled and mentally ill people in the villages.

By 2004, more than 30 million trees had been planted, and the movement had branches in 30 countries.

In Kenya, the Green Belt movement has become an agricultural advice service, a community regeneration project and a job-creation plan.

In the early 1990s, Maathai set up Mazingira, the Kenyan Green Party.

Maathai became a junior environment minister between January 2003 and November 2005.

She died in September 2011. (Nobel laureate and environment ‎alist)

MILK AND MONSANTO

2011-09-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

CHILDREN FULL OF LIFE

2011-08-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

"In the award-winning documentary Children Full of Life, a fourth-grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo, learn lessons about compassion from their homeroom teacher, Toshiro Kanamori.

"He instructs each to write their true inner feelings in a letter, and read it aloud in front of the class.

"By sharing their lives, the children begin to realize the importance of caring for their classmates."

Thank you to Anonymous for the link.

Children Full of Life (2 of 5)‏ - YouTube

Children Full of Life (3 of 5)‏ - YouTube

Children Full of Life (5 of 5)‏ - YouTube

THE FAKE STORY THAT STARTED THE CIA COUP IN TUNISIA

2011-07-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

Bouazizi, whose story turns out to be fake.

The 'Syrian Gay Girl blogger' turned out to be an American fake. (Syrian Gay Girl Blog Revealed As Fake Had News Agencies Fooled)

On 17 June 2011 the BBC reported on further doubts about the story of Mohamed Bouazizi, the so called Tunisian martyr. (Perfect symbol?)

1. The media had told us that Mohamed Bouazizi, the poorly educated 'martyr', used the internet to complain about 'injustice' and 'unemployment' in Tunisia.

It now turns out that it was someone else, a college student calling himself Mohamed Bouazizi, who posted the so called Bouazizi poetry and revolutionary songs on the web.

2. The media had told us that Bouazizi had been slapped across the face by a state official, called Fedia Hamdi.

It turns out that this did not happen.

Fedia Hamdi has been completely exonerated.

3. The media told us that Bouazizi set himself alight in front of the local government offices and later died in hospital.

We have seen no evidence to support this.

4. The mother and stepfather of Mohamed Bouazizi, 'the martyr', are now rich.

They now live in a large house in the upmarket Tunis suburb of La Marsa.

5. Many Tunisians see the original story of Bouazizi as fake.

In Tunisia, some towns renamed streets and town squares after the martyr, Mohamed Bouazizi.

The new signs are often defaced or torn-down, even in his native town of Sidi Bouzid.

~~

MCKINNEY IN LIBYA

2011-06-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

Website for this image

Brian drew our attention to the post entitled "MCKINNEY LEADS DELEGATION OF INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS TO LIBYA."

The following comes from: Cynthia McKinney in Tripoli.

"Tripoli sustained 22 to 25 bombings last night, rattling and breaking windows and glass and shaking the foundation of my hotel.

"I left my room at the Rexis Al Nasr Hotel and walked outside the hotel and I could smell the exploded bombs.

"There were local people everywhere milling with foreign journalists from around the world.

"As we stood there more bombs struck around the city.

"The sky flashed red with explosions and more rockets from NATO jets cut through low cloud before exploding.

"I could taste the thick dust stirred up by the exploded bombs.

"I immediately thought about the depleted uranium munitions reportedly being used here--along with white phosphorus.

"If depleted uranium weapons were being used what affect on the local civilians?

"Women carrying young children ran out of the hotel. Others ran to wash the dust from their eyes.

"With sirens blaring, emergency vehicles made their way to the scene of the attack. Car alarms, set off by the repeated blasts, could be heard underneath the defiant chants of the people.

"Sporadic gunfire broke out and it seemed everywhere around me. Euronews showed video of nurses and doctors chanting even at the hospitals as they treated those injured from NATO's latest installation of shock and awe.

"Suddenly, the streets around my hotel became full of chanting people, car horns blowing, I could not tell how many were walking, how many were driving. Inside the hotel, one Libyan woman carrying a baby came to me and asked me why are they doing this to us?

"Whatever the military objectives of the attack (and I and many others question the military value of these attacks) the fact remains the air attack was launched a major city packed with hundreds of thousands of civilians.

"I did wonder too if the any of the politicians who had authorized this air attack had themselves ever been on the receiving end of laser guided depleted uranium munitions. Had they ever seen the awful damage that these weapons do a city and its population? Perhaps if they actually been in the city of air attack and felt the concussion from these bombs and saw the mayhem caused they just might not be so inclined to authorize an attack on a civilian population."

~~

FOODS TO PROTECT AGAINST RADIATION

2011-05-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

Simple foods provide protection against radiation exposure

"Sulfur-containing antioxidants found in ... broccoli, kale, cabbage, and garlic have been found to provide protection against radiation exposure through their detoxifying properties.

"Pectin in fruits has also been shown to reduce levels of the radioactive substance Cs-137...

"A study published in Russia ... used concentrates of dietary fiber from lemon peel and beet root among other plants and found that the fiber did have radioprotective properties. The authors concluded that concentrated dietary fiber can be used ... to accelerate the elimination of nuclides or radioactive elements."

"The Swedish Government monitored the radiation level of foods following the Chernobyl disaster. They found that most animal based foods including meat, dairy, and fish had higher levels of radioactive substances than fruits, vegetables, grains, and potatoes."

Various foods may help guard against radiation (ESSENCETIAL LIFE: RADIATION Protection Foods etc / Nuclear Radiation Protection with Nutrition The No Diet Blog)

Beetroot

Rosemary

If your body lacks calcium, potassium and other nutrients, it will more readily absorb the radioactive elements, so eat plenty of the following:

Bananas, sunflower seeds, pumpkins seeds, green leafy veg, black beans, apricots, avocados, brussel sprouts, dates, figs, potatoes, prunes, raisins, tomatoes, mint, dandelion, celery, carrots

Black Strap Molasses, Apple Cider Vinegar

Vitamin B3 (Niacin / Nicotinic Acid)

Seaweeds, shellfish, and butter (contain Iodine)

Green tea, eggs, tumeric, ginger.

AVOID taking too much of any of the above. Taking a lot of beetroot juice, for example, can make your urine turn red!

~~

JAPAN EARTHQUAKE

2011-04-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

A13 drew our attention to the article entitled:

"HAARP Magnetometer data shows the Japan earthquake was induced.":

The United States Air Force and Navy has provided a visual insight into what caused the 9.0 magnitude off of Japan on March 11, 2011 at 05:46:23 UTC.

The image above was downloaded from the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) website.

It is a time-frequency spectrogram, which shows the frequency content of signals recorded by the HAARP Induction Magnetometer.

This instrument, provided by the University of Tokyo, measures temporal variations in the geomagnetic field (Earth’s magnetosphere) in the ULF (ultra-low frequency) range of 0-5 Hz.

Notions have been added to the image to show you what was happening the day the Japan earthquake and tsunami struck.

By looking at the accompanying HAARP spectrum chart above you can see when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck – red line drawn vertically – and what was happening before and after the earthquake.

What you can also see is a constant ULF frequency of 2.5 Hz being recorded by the magnetometer.

The ULF 2.5 Hz frequency is evidence of an induced earthquake.

The chart recorded this constant before, during and after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck.

On March 11, 2011 the 2.5 Hz ULF frequency was being emitted and recorded from 0:00 hours to about 10:00 hours – or for 10 hours.

We know for a fact that the Japan earthquake lasted only a few minutes so why was the earthquake signature frequency (2.5 Hz) being recorded for 10 hours on the morning of March 11, 2011?

Because a HAARP phased array antenna system was broadcasting (transmitting) the 2.5Hz ULF frequency and it triggered the Japan earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

If you go to HAARP’s official website you can see for yourself that the 2.5 Hz ULF frequency wasn’t only being broadcated for 10 hours, it was constantly being broadcasted for 2 days prior to the earthquake.

Broadcasting began on March 8, 2011, just before midnight as you can see on HAARP’s website page – http://maestro.haarp.alaska.edu/cgi-bin/scmag/disp-scmag.cgi?20110308.

Click on the Next Day link to see that the earthquake inducing 2.5 Hz ULF frequency was being broadcasted for the entire days of March 9, 2011 and March 10, 2011.

Even though the signature frequency of an earthquake was shown throughout March 9 and March 10 there were no constant earthquakes occurring off the east coast of Japan.

What is the significance of a 2.5 Hz ULF broadcast?

The natural resonance of an earthquake is 2.5 Hz.

Scientists working for the United States military discovered this using the phased array antennas at the HAARP facility in Alaska.

HAARP’s own charts suggests that earthquakes occurred constantly for 3 days.

We know for a fact that they haven’t.

The HAARP magnetometer data provides proof that the Japan earthquake was not a naturally occurring quake – it was triggered.

This data shows us that a HAARP military installation was broadcasting the known earthquake signature frequency in order to trigger a major earthquake.

The broadcast was most likely being transmitted from a floating HAARP system like the floating Sea-Based X-Band Radar platform that can be moved anywhere in the Pacific or Atlantic ocean under the protection of a carrier strike group – like the USS Ronald Regan.

Where was the USS Ronald Reagan on the morning of March 11, 2011?

According to a Stars & Stripes March 9, 2011 report – Reagan carrier group steams toward South Korea to join exercise.

MORE HERE: HAARP Magnetometer data shows Japan earthquake was induced ...

AND HERE: I Understand and I wish to Continue: A Worm IN The Works..

EXPECT MORE POVERTY & CLASHES OF CIVILISATION?

2011-03-04T07:35:00.000-08:00

Paul Wolfowitz, US ambassador to Indonesia 1986-89.

Some of the media have been predicting that Egypt will be like Indonesia.

Both have links to terrorism.

Where did the idea of al Qaeda come from?

Back in the 1950s, the CIA and its friends began using Moslem militias to do their dirty work in Indonesia.

In 2003, Australian academic Dr Damien Kingsbury wrote about the Indonesian special forces regiment called Kopassus, which has friendly links to Mossad and the Pentagon.

"Kopassus... set up the Islamic organisation Komando Jihad that hijacked the plane in 1981 and which has since emerged as Jemaah Islamiah." (We must not get back in bed with Kopassus - theage.com.au)

Former Indonesian President Wahid was saying in 2005: "There is not a single Islamic group ... that is not controlled by (Indonesian) intelligence."

'Demcocracy' in Indonesia is a bit of a fiddle.

On 16 February 2011, the New York Times suggests that Indonesia's political landscape offers a path for Egypt

What happened in Indonesia after the CIA's 1998 coup against Suharto?

"At the end of 1999, the UNICEF Jakarta office stated that ... Indonesia will sustain a lost generation; a weak and feeble-minded generation resulting from malnutrition, lack of education, and unhealthiness." (Indonesia's foreign debt: imprisoning the people of ... )

How long before we get more clashes of civilisation in Indonesia?

The New York Times (a path for Egypt) reports on the 2010 national congress of Indonesia's Prosperous Justice Party, which is linked to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

The congress was held at the Ritz Carlton's ballroom in Jakarta.

Among the keynote speakers was Cameron Hume, then the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, who praised the party, known as the PKS.

According to the New York Times: "Following the 1998 overthrow of the dictator Suharto, Indonesia looked a lot like Egypt now."

Indonesia's Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) wants the Koran to form the basis of law.

The PKS in 2009 got less than 8% of the vote but got four seats in the cabinet of President Yudhoyono, a US trained general.

The PKS was a key force behind Indonesia's 2008 anti-pornography law.

C. Holland Taylor, the Jakarta-based chairman of LibForAll Foundation, which promotes moderate Islam worldwide, says the PKS has been a key factor in the rise of a more austere, intolerant form of Islam in Indonesia.

After two separate attacks in February 2011 by Muslim mobs, in which people were killed and churches torched, a number of PKS leaders said the attackers had been 'provoked' by acts of blasphemy.

aangirfan: FASCIST MOSLEMS BRING SHAME TO INDONESIA
aangirfan: AFTER THE PEOPLE POWER REVOLT
aangirfan: Aceh's Mad Islamists; the CIA.
aangirfan: The Muslim Brotherhood and the CIA in Indonesia; the ...

MUBARAK OPPOSED USA'S 'GREATER MIDDLE EAST'

2011-02-09T01:08:00.000-08:00

The USA wants military and economic control of the 'Greater Middle East' from Morocco to Kazakhstan.

Mubarak opposes the 'Greater Middle East' project.

On 7 February 2011, at Voltairenet, US analyst F. William Engdahl has written: Egypt’s Revolution: Creative Destruction for a 'Greater Middle East’

Among the points made:

1. This is a repeat of the US-orchestrated colour revolutions that hit the former Soviet countries.

The USA is using local opposition leaders coached by the NED (National Endowment for Democracy NED) and other such American organizations.

2. The USA is trying to orchestrate regime changes in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Jordan and beyond.

3. The process, sometimes called "creative destruction", has been developed by the Pentagon, US intelligence agencies and various think-tanks such as RAND Corporation over decades.

One example was the May 1968 destabilization of De Gaulle in France.

4. The broad outlines of a US strategy are clear.

Egypt’s Mubarak was a major obstacle to the larger US agenda.

Mubarak was opposed to Obama policies on:

A. Iran and how to deal with its nuclear program.

B. Obama policies towards the Persian Gulf states, to Syria, to Lebanon and to the Palestinians.

5. The day of the 'remarkably well-coordinated' demonstrations against Mubarak, key members of the Egyptian military were all in Washington as guests of the Pentagon.

That neutralized the Army.

Khaled Mohamed Saeed died under disputed circumstances in Alexandria in Egypt on June 6, 2010.[1] It was stated by family members that he was "tortured to death for possessing video material that implicates members of the police in a drug deal."[8]

6. The 'New Middle East' project is a strategy to break open the states from Morocco to Afghanistan.

7. In the Egypt revolt, the people involved include:

Twitter-savvy well-trained youth.

Mohammed ElBaradei

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose links to British and American intelligence and freemasonry are widely reported.

A Facebook-based organization calling itself the April 6 Movement.

The Kefaya Movement, the main force behind ElBaradei’s candidature.

8. Kefaya is at the heart of mobilizing the Egyptian protest demonstrations that back ElBaradei’s candidacy.

US defense establishment think-tank the RAND Corporation has conducted a detailed study of Kefaya.

The Kefaya was "sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community".

9. RAND has been perfecting techniques of regime change under the name "swarming," the method of deploying mass mobs of digitally-linked youth.

Washington NGOs are being used to advance the Pentagon agenda of global Full Spectrum Dominance.

Egypt by Samer M

10. In May 2009 Hillary Clinton hosted Egyptian activists in Washington under the auspices of Freedom House, another "human rights" Washington-based NGO with a long history of involvement in US-sponsored regime change.

Freedom House and US government-funded regime change NGO, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) are at the heart of the uprisings now sweeping across the Islamic world.

11. The USA's Greater Middle East Project aims to bring Islamic countries from Afghanistan to Morocco under the yoke of the dollar system and all that implies.

12. Washington’s NED (National Endowment for Democracy NED) has been preparing regime destabilizations across North Africa and the Middle East since the 2001-2003 US military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The NED website lists Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Sudan.

The NED is active from Tibet to Ukraine, from Venezuela to Tunisia, from Kuwait to Morocco in reshaping the world into a New World Order.

The architect and first head of the NED, Allen Weinstein, told the Washington Post in 1991 that, "a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA".

The NED Board of Directors includes or has included such people as Frank Carlucci and Wesley Clark.

Egypt by Eric Nicholas

13. The Greater Middle East is a blueprint to extend US military control to all of the region.

And to control the oil of the region.

And to control the economies of the region.

The G8 Map of Washington’s Greater Middle East extends right to the borders of China and Russia and West to Morocco.

14. An article in the French Le Monde Diplomatique in April 2004 noted, "besides the Arab countries, it covers Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and Israel."

15. Notably, in 2004 there was vehement opposition from Mubarak of Egypt and from the King of Saudi Arabia.

16. The idea is to have a Greater Middle East under firm US grip as a major control of the capital flows and energy flows of a future China, Russia and the European Union.

The Washington strategy of "creative destruction" is clearly causing sleepless nights not only in the Islamic world but also reportedly in Tel Aviv, and ultimately by now also in Beijing and Moscow and across Central Asia.

~~
From http://www.thesargeants.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=384:

"This is an alliance aimed at reshaping the entire region on the basis of freedom and equality, and in order to change and awaken societies that deserve a better life. What is wrong with presenting this message loud and clear?

"Yes, we are [the U.S.'s] allies, and this alliance grows with every crisis in the region. This alliance is based on principles which permit no-one to interfere with our affairs. It is our policy and our reform alone that leads us to join the policy lines of our strongest ally -politically, economically, and socially -for the sake of a society that is free in every sense of the word ...

"The lie Behind the Inciting Claims that the U.S. Is the Great Satan Must Be Exposed"

- Al-Ahram, Ahmad Naji Kamha, 2005

TUNISIA R.I.P. - THE CIA'S JASMINE REVOLUTION

2011-01-16T05:33:00.000-08:00

Mohamed Bouazizi. He "set himself on fire outside the governor’s office". ( Mohamed Bouazizi.) Or he "set fire to himself at the bus station." "He had apparently decided to go to Tunis and talk to the president... (he) arrived at the bus station." (Tunisian riot town stands firm in its fury) He had no money for the bus but he had money to buy a can of petrol?
Mohamed Bouazizi still alive? s

suki reminds us of what Christopher Hitchens wrote about Tunisia:

"In the 2006–7 World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, it was ranked No. 1 in Africa for economic competitiveness, even, incidentally, outpacing three European states (Italy, Greece, and Portugal).

"Home ownership is 80 percent.

"Life expectancy, the highest on the continent, is 72.

"Less than 4 percent of the population is below the poverty line, and the alleviation of misery by a 'solidarity fund' has been adopted by the United Nations as a model program.

"Nine out of 10 households are connected to electricity and clean water.

CIA slogan in Tunisia, January 1011

"Tunisia is the first African state to have been accepted as an associate member of the European Union.

"Its Code of Personal Status was the first in the Arab world to abolish polygamy, and the veil and the burka are never seen...

"More than 40 percent of the judges and lawyers are female...

"The combination of stylish females, excellent food, clean streets, smart-looking traffic cops, and cheap and efficient taxis made me feel I was in a place more upscale than many European recreational resorts and spas.

(http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/07/hitchens200707)

Tunisia's economy has been doing better than most!

So, who does not like Tunisia?

1985 - Israel launched an attack against the PLO headquarters near Tunis. There were casualties among Tunisian civilian bystanders.

"Bourguiba significantly downscaled relations with the United States.

1987 - Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali became president in a coup d'etat. He declared President Habib Bourguiba "impeached on medical grounds".

2000 - President Ben Ali broke all diplomatic ties with Israel

2009 - Tunisia signed an economic and technical cooperation pact with China

2009 - Sakhr El Materi, chairman of the Tunisia-US Parliamentary Friendship Group, met the US ambassador at Materi's home (Tunisia: Dinner With Sakher El Materi - TuniLeaks) "The Ambassador raised economic liberalization, noting the importance of opening up to franchising."

2010 - A report (Transformation: Tunisia) notes: "Despite the formal abolition of trade barriers for industrial goods with the European Union as of 1 January 2008, in practice, Tunisia has seen too little progress in terms of trade liberalization."

October 2010 - Sakhr El Materi, chairman of the Tunisia-US Parliamentary Friendship Group, had talks with top Americans in the Pentagon and the State Department.

November 2010 - A cable from the US embassy in Tunis released by wikileaks describes Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's family entourage as a "quasi Mafia" because of its "organized corruption".

Mohamed Bouazizi. He "set himself on fire outside the governor’s office". ( Mohamed Bouazizi.) Or he "set fire to himself at the bus station." "He had apparently decided to go to Tunis and talk to the president... (he) arrived at the bus station." (Tunisian riot town stands firm in its fury )

17 December - Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old university graduate, reportedly set himself alight in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid in a protest over unemployment.

He reportedly died on January 5 from burn wounds.

In Islam, suicide is considered a sin.

There have been rumours that Mohamed Bouazizi is still alive s

24 December 2010 - an important Washington think tank (Institute for Policy Studiesa) had an article about a possible change of regime in Tunisia (Foreign Policy In Focus.):

"It would do Tunisians, even (Tunisian President) Ben Ali, well to recall how many US allies different American administrations have discarded…"

7 January 2011 - the Council on Foreign Relations's Elliott Abrams (Elliott Abrams: Is Tunisia Next?) seems to suggest that the fall of Ben Ali would be a good thing.

"Tunisians are clearly sick of looking at all the giant photos and paintings of Ben Ali that appear on walls, posters, and billboards all over the country...

"If Tunisia can move toward democracy, Algerians and Egyptians and even Libyans will wonder why they cannot."

8-10 January - More people die in three days of rioting.

Mysterious rooftop snipers are at work.

13 January - The army withdraws from Tunis, which remains occupied by special forces.

The leaders of the North African branch of Al-Qaeda/the CIA call for the overthrow of Ben Ali.

14 January - Ben Ali leaves the country.

Think of the CIA's Operation Gladio

15 January - TUNISIA R.I.P.

"Ben Ali ... gave you security. Now that he's gone, look at the destruction," said Mohamed, a worker in a transport company as he surveyed a looted and burnt out appliances shop. (President's exile leaves security vacuum)

"The main train station in Tunis has been torched, while gunfire was heard as soldiers intervened in attempts to stop looting in the city...

"The Reuters news agency reported that squads of men in civilian clothes were driving through Tunis at high speed, shooting randomly at buildings and people." (Army on streets amid Tunisia unrest)

"In the capital of Tunis and other areas of the country, residents reported knife-wielding and balaclava-clad gangs attacking apartments and homes.

"Organised groups were said to be attacking shops, hospitals and factories.

"Many had piled into stolen hire cars and careered around the city and suburbs, stopping only to smash and burn." (Gang violence mars celebration of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution)

"The feel is very much that of a military takeover. It's hard to catch a whiff of what is being called the Jasmine Revolution." (Wedeman: Tunisia's military putting boot on 'Jasmine Revolution')

Michael Bloomberg

There is an argument that because the Ben Ali family are multi-millionaires they should be toppled

Here is a list of some politicians who are multi-millionaires:

Canadian Prime minister paul Martin Paul Martin - $225 million

UK prime minister David Cameron - $30 million.

New Zealand prime minister John Key - $37 million

Mayor of New York Michael R. Bloomberg - $18 billion

The President of South korea Lee Myung-bak - $23.6 million

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner - $12.92 million

Barack Obama - $10.1 million

Nicolas Sarkozy - $3 million

Singapore Premier Lee Hsien Loong has a salary of $2.05 million per year.

Thailand's King Bhumibol - US$30 billion.

The UK's Queen Elizabeth - $450 million.

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi - $6.5 billion

President of Chile Sebastián Piñera - $2.2 billion

Prime Minister of lebanon Saad Hariri - $1.9 billion

1 % of the world population own 40 % of the global assets. The richest 2 % of the world population own more than 51 % of the global assets, the richest 10 % own 85 % of the global assets.

SHARKS

2010-12-15T23:59:00.000-08:00

US Military scientists have been developing the use of sharks as weapons. (Pentagon develops brain implants to turn sharks into military ...)

The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) in Arlington, Virginia, has been researching the use of electronic implants to control the movement of sharks.

Boston University has developed brain implants that can influence the movements sharks by "steering" them using a phantom scent.

Electrodes are attached to the region of the shark brain associated with scent detection.

When the stimulus is to the right side of the olfactory centre the fish turn right, when it is left, the fish swim left.

According to New Scientist Magazine: "By remotely guiding sharks' movements, the military hopes to transform the animals into stealthspies, perhaps capable of following vessels without being spotted. The Pentagon hopes to exploit the ability of sharks to glide quietly through the water, sense delicate electrical gradients and follow chemical trails."

A shark has been at work in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt.

There is speculation that Mossad may have placed the shark in the area.

Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha, the regional governor, has claimed it is not "out of the question" that Israel planned the shark attacks on tourists to hurt the Egyptian economy.

He said: "What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark in the sea to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question. But it needs time to confirm."

Shark 'sent to Egypt by Mossad'

Speaking on the TV program "Egypt Today", "Captain Mustafa Ismail, a diver in Sharm El Sheikh," said that the sharks involved in the attack are ocean sharks and do not live in Egypt's waters.

When asked how the shark entered Sharm El Sheikh waters, he said "no, it's who let them in?"

Ismail said that he recently got a call from an Israeli diver in Eilat telling him that they captured a small shark with a GPS (Global Positioning System) planted in its back.

"Why would these sharks travel 4000 km and not have any accidents until they entered Sinai waters?" asked Ismail.

Mahmoud Hanafy, from the Suez Canal University, pointed out that actually there are oceanic white tips in Egyptian waters. (Mossad Behind Egyptian Shark Attacks?

"Some said sharks had been drawn to shallow waters after cattle being shipped in for last month’s Islamic feast of the sacrifice, or Eid al-Adha, had died and were thrown overboard." (Big Peace )

The Pentagon has been researching "a laser weapon sufficiently portable to be carried on the head of a shark." (DARPA in bid for shark-portable laser rayguns • The Register)

SENSIBLE GOVERNMENT

2010-11-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

John Swinney, Scotland's finance minister.

Imagine a government that increases the pay of the poorest government workers and curbs the pay of the richest government workers.

Imagine a government that freezes its main tax.

Imagine a government that increases the tax on out-of-town retail parks.

These are some of the measures which have been announced by the government in Scotland, a government which unfortunately still has limited powers.

The London government is collecting a lot of money from the revenues from Scottish oil.

But, the London government is to give the Scottish government a lot less money.

If Scotland was independent, it could keep all of the oil revenues.

At present Scotland has a Scottish National Party government (SNP).

If the Labour Party comes to power in Scotland, taxes could rise by £3000 for each Scottish family; Labour would allow 'council tax' to rise and that could mean the employment of more bureaucrats of the expensive kind.

On 17 November 2010, the Scotland's SNP government announced its budget.

The SNP is to freeze the 'Council Tax', yet again.

This help both families and small businesses

The SNP is in favour of helping small businesses.

The SNP budget protects the Small Business Bonus, protecting thousands of local jobs.

The SNP budget protects spending on the National Health Service.

The SNP budget will mean

1. Maintaining the freeze in the council tax in 2011-12;

2. Keeping 1,000 additional police officers on Scotland’s streets so
Scotland can keep its crime rate at its lowest level for 32 years;

3. Protecting teaching posts.

4. Continuing free care for the elderly

5. Continuing the policy of having no tuition fees at universities

6. Continuing infrastructure development, such as the Forth Road Bridge.

7. Continuing the development of Scotland's vast offshore renewable energy resource.

8. Delivering smaller and more efficient government.

9. In government, implementing a Living Wage of £7.15 per hour and providing a minimum annual increase of £250 for employees earning less than £21,000, while freezing pay forothers and cutting the pay bill of the highest earners.

10. Reducing the Government’s Administration budget by 10 per cent and reducing the costs of the Senior Civil Service in Scotland by 10 per cent in 2011-12 and by 25 per cent over the next four years.

The SNP is the only credible government for Scotland.

WE'RE USING UP RESOURCES TOO FAST

2010-10-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Website for this image

On 14 October 2010, we learn that we humans are 'using one and a half planets' worth of resources and will need two Earths by 2030'

Humans 'using one and a half planets' worth of resources.

The World Wildlife Fund, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network have produced a new report.

This claims that by 2030 we will need the resources of two earths.

In tropical countries, wildlife is under pressure, with populations of species falling by 60 per cent in three decades.

The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Denmark, Belgium and the US are the five worst countries for over-consumption of resources.

Unsustainable consumption in rich countries relies on depleting resources in poor countries.

Scarcity of resources and degraded natural systems will increase the price of food, raw materials and other commodities.

THE ENVIRONMENT AS A WEAPON

2010-09-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

General Zinni, 'the Godfather'.

Does the US military use the environment as a weapon?

Could the US military damage the environments of Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen or parts of Afghanistan?

General Anthony Zinni is a former chief of U.S. Central Command.

He has been talking to top people in Washington about how the degradation of the environment and declining natural resources affect security. (Environment key to U.S. security: Congress briefing)

According to Zini:

"We can't just send in the Army and the Marines and the Air Force and the Navy to resolve these problems, and they can't all be security problems...

"Whether it is climate change, whether it is disruption of the environment in other ways ... we're going to see more failed and incapable states."

Zinni referred to:

Depletion of fish stocks off Somalia,

The drop in water and oil resources in Yemen,

Droughts in Afghanistan

And scarce and polluted water in Pakistan.

Could some of these problems be man-made? (WEATHER WEAPONS - PAKISTAN, INDIA, VENEZUELA, RUSS...)

Lieutenant Colonel Shannon Beebe, an Africa analyst, compared the traditional threats to security with those posed by environmental and natural resource problems.

Beebe is quoted as saying: "You think we're going to continue to face state-based threats?

"Might I remind you of the two greatest attacks on the United States at the beginning of the 21st century, and neither of those was from a state-based threat: 911 and Hurricane Katrina... (Did Bush government break the levees?)

"When you talk to Africans ... ministers and chiefs of defense, they will talk to you in terms of security as food, as environmental degradation, natural disasters, environmental shocks."

~~

Remember Katrina?

Did the Bush government break the levees?

GDN01 writes that a good friend with much family in New Orleans said "I'll tell you the worst thing I've heard and I heard it from my mother."

She said she heard several blasts - big booms - right before the levees broke.

"Several blasts and then all the water came pouring in."

Several people have said this same thing.

This is the story going round from the people who were there.

~~

aangirfan: HAITI EARTHQUAKE CAUSED BY US MILITARY?

WEATHER WEAPONS - PAKISTAN, INDIA, VENEZUELA, RUSSIA & CHINA

2010-08-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

Lights seen before the 2008 earthquake in China.

According to Zbigniew Brzezinski: "Techniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm." (Washington's New World Order Weapons.)

The USA may be using weather weapons against Pakistan, India, Venezuela, Russia and China.

Canadian Professor Michel Chossudovsky wrote in 2000 "that in part the ongoing climate change could be triggered by the use of new-generation non-lethal weapons." (US To Blame for Burning Russia, Drowning Pakistan, Mudsliding ...)

Russian research scientist Dr. Andrey Areshev has stated that the fires in Russia may have been caused by American weather weapons. (Climate Weapons: More Than Just a Conspiracy Theory ... )

Reportedly, the USA wants to do to Pakistan what it has done to Iraq.

HAARP may be being used in Pakistan.

The HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is reported to be able to control the weather.

In 1997, the then U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen spoke of people who "can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves…"

In October 2008, there was an earthquake in Pakistan.

An eyewitness told the BBC (bbc.co.uk):

"When I came out, I saw very strange things. It was like there was lightning all around the city.

There was no electricity but still there was light in the sky."

"Air France, Flt 447 disappeared at 0600 GMT. The Ionograph posted on the HAARP website at that time shows a large spike." (image)

THE BP PLOT

2010-08-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

BP oil spill viewed from space.

The plot:

Exxon does not have enough oil fields.

(Is Exxon Mobil's future running dry? - MSN Money / Exxon Reserves - WSJ.com)

Reportedly, Exxon wants to take over BP.

Allegedly, sabotage takes place.

The BP share price drops and BP becomes a takeover target.

To further hurt BP, the US blames BP for the release of the innocent Megrahi.

Reportedly, the evidence in the Lockerbie trial was faked to cover up 'alleged' CIA drug smuggling involving Monzer al Kassar.

The drug smuggling was to have been revealed by Major Charles McKee and his team who were travelling on PanAm 103 with their evidence.

The oil spill story may have been exaggerated?

Around 750 boats drafted in to scoop up oil from the Gulf of Mexico are having 'trouble' finding any crude in the sea, a top US official has said.

"We are starting to have trouble finding oil," US pointman Admiral Thad Allen, who is in charge of handling the government's response, told reporters.

The boats are "really having to search for the oil in some cases" around the area of the capped well, he added. (AFP: Gulf boats having trouble finding any oil: US official)

(Thanks to Dublin Mick for the link)

The USA is angry that BP is to drill for oil off the coast of Libya. (BP to begin deep-water drilling off coast of Libya)

If Exxon takes over BP, Exxon gets more oil, including that off the coast of Libya.

In 1975, the CIA's Philip Agee testified that he had conducted personal name checks of employees for a subsidiary of what is now Exxon.

Exxon was "letting the CIA assist in employment decisions, and my guess is that those name checks...are continuing to this day." (Philip Agee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Halliburton bought an oil cleanup company days before BP explosion.

(Halliburton to Buy Boots & Coots for $232 Million - FOXBusiness.com)

A BP report refers to tampering with well sealing equipment. (False Flag )

Important people sold BP shares just before the explosion

The Obama regime may use the BP disaster to push for a Carbon Tax and to change the ownership of BP.

Does the US government hope that a US company can grab BP?

In December 2008 we read in The Telegraph that "The most startling takeover target of the year will be BP, which will attract interest from Exxon Mobil...

"BP will be historically cheap by most measures..." - After a year of shocks, prepare for more in 2009

The days when water was cleaner.

On 8 June 2010, Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones at Prisonplanet.com, wrote that evidence points to the BP oil spill being a False Flag

Among the points made:

1. On 12 April 2010, just over one week before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, Halliburton bought Boots & Coots, an oil well control company.

Halliburton is named in the majority of some two dozen lawsuits filed since the explosion by Gulf Coast people and businesses who claim that the company is to blame for the disaster.

Halliburton carried out a cementing operation on the Deepwater Horizon rig 20 hours before the accident.

The lawsuits claim that four Halliburton workers stationed on the rig improperly capped the well.

2. BP’s prepared testimony briefing notes that the Hydraulic Control System on equipment designed to automatically seal the well in an emergency was modified without their knowledge sometime before the explosion.

3. Goldman Sachs dumped 44% of its shares in BP Oil not long before the BP accident.

Other asset management firms also sold huge blocks of BP stock in the first quarter.

Before the accident, Wachovia, owned by Wells Fargo, sold 98% of its shares in BP and Swiss bank UBS sold 97% of its BP shares.

As reported by the London Telegraph on June 5th 2010, Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, sold £1.4 million of his shares in BP weeks before the spill.

4. The Obama administration is renewing talk of a carbon tax and has created the opportunity to reintroduce the idea of nationalizing oil, which the Democratic leadership has long sought.

Market Analyst: ‘BP’s Not Going to Last as a Company More Than a Matter of Months’

aangirfan: ECONOMIC WARFARE - BP SABOTAGED?

~~

BOTSWANA, BUSHMEN AND DE BEERS

2010-07-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Botswana by Guinnog.

Matt Ridley has written The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. (The Rational Optimist‎)

In one chapter Ridley refers to Africa.

He sees Africa suffering from a lack of good 'institutions'.

This he blames on:

1. The slave trade

2. Urban elites

3. Tribal strife

4. Trade barriers imposed by Europe and America...

BUT, Botswana is doing well.

William and Harry in Botswana.

Botswana has had a faster growth of gross domestic product per head than any other country in the world.

This, according to Ridley, is due to good institutions, including property rights.

Diamonds provide 76% of Botswana's export revenue

And, Botswana's diamond mines are run by De Beers. (Oppenheimers want to own our diamonds )

Debswana is the Botswana government's partnership with De Beers.

Botswana is a middle income country with a standard of living roughly comparable to Turkey or Mexico. (Botswana - Africa's diamond)

BUT, what about the Bushmen?

The Bushmen get in the way of De Beers.

The government of Botswana reportedly wants to drive the Bushmen off their land. (Thirsting Bushmen go back to court)

In October 2005 we read about the Bushman child and two adults shot by Botswana police.

(Bushman child and two adults shot by police -News from October 2005 - Survival International)

6 October 2005

• The Family walked for days across the desert to bring news to outside world.
• The Bushmen were told that the government does not care if they starve to death.

Three Bushmen, including one child, have been shot and wounded in recent days by Botswana police during incidents designed to intimidate the Bushmen still surviving inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and force them out once and for all.

Kekailwe (aged 7) was shot in the stomach as the police arrested his father when he refused to let them search his hut without a warrant.

In a separate incident, Kesodilo Ntwayamoga was shot from behind in each leg as he stood with both hands raised.

Witnesses confirmed that police were trying to force him to admit to hunting.

In the third incident, Mokgakalaga Gaoberekwe was shot in the jaw on 24 September as he and others attempted to enter the Game Reserve to take water and food to their families.

He is badly wounded and still recovering in hospital.

The Bushman party, including several babies and children, was attacked by heavily armed police and soldiers under the personal command of Sydney Pilane, the attorney acting for the government in the high court case in which the Bushmen are claiming rights to their ancestral land.

The police fired teargas and bullets at the unarmed Bushmen. Many were beaten and imprisoned for several days.

The group included the 2005 alternative Nobel prize-winner, Roy Sesana, who was unaware that he and his Bushman organization had won the award.

The Bushmen have now been charged with 'unlawful assembly'.

Police have been trying to prevent Bushmen returning to their reserve.

The Bushmen already in the reserve are forbidden to hunt and gather, have had their water supply cut off, and are now threatened with starvation after the government claimed their goats were diseased (a claim rubbished by a group of eminent international vets).

Officials forcibly removed all goats from the reserve earlier this week.

Today, a small group of Bushmen emerged after evading the police who had surrounded their huts and walking for three days through the drought-stricken desert.

Kangotla Kanyo said today, "The others and I came out of the reserve to tell the outside world that we are really suffering with thirst and hunger.

"The police are camped at our settlement and we are not allowed to gather or dig anything to eat.

"The policeman called Dibuile told us, 'If you die, the government doesn't care. This is the time to show you that you are nothing.'

"The police said that 'we have to suffer thirst and hunger so that we will leave the reserve.'"

Officials told the Bushmen in 2002 that they had to abandon their land because diamonds had been discovered there.

All Botswana's diamond mines are run by De Beers, which retains rights to a large deposit in the reserve.

Stephen Corry, Survival's director, said today, 'Botswana's President Mogae has drawn a veil across the great sand-face of the Kalahari so that his henchmen can bully the Bushmen in secrecy.

'But the veil has not muffled the shots which spilled the blood of a child and two unarmed men guilty of wanting to live in peace on their ancient land.

'These shots - ordered by a lawyer - have killed all pretence of a democratic Botswana.

'People who care about the Bushmen should not support this regime by buying De Beers's diamonds or by holidaying there. These diamonds are bought with the blood of the Bushmen.'

http://www.survival-international.org/news.php?id=1083

~~

INDONESIA 'TO PROTECT FORESTS'

2010-06-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

In May 2010, Indonesia's president Yudhoyono announced a two-year ban on turning virgin forests and peat lands into plantations. (Indonesia announces plan to protect forests, peatlands)

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg says Norway will give $1 billion to Indonesia to help with the effort to reduce deforestation.

In Indonesia there has been much deforestation and much destruction of peatlands.

This has meant:

1. The extinction of species

2. Desertification

3. Poor people losing their land.

Indonesia burns forests and peatlands to make way for palm oil plantations.

The resulting fires makes Indonesia one of the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases.

~

BIODIVERSITY AND CLEAN AIR

2010-05-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

US SABOTAGE OF BP?

2010-05-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

In April 2010 there was an explosion on Deepwater Horizon, the drilling rig being used by BP off the coast of the USA. The share price of BP has dropped dramatically.

1. Does the US government hope that a US company can grab BP?

In December 2008 we read in The Telegraph that "The most startling takeover target of the year will be BP, which will attract interest from Exxon Mobil...

"BP will be historically cheap by most measures..." - After a year of shocks, prepare for more in 2009

2. In 1982, President Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the Russian economy by supplying technology that contained hidden malfunctions.

This technology included software that triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a memoir by a Reagan White House official. (WashPost: CIA slipped bugs to Soviets - Washington Post- msnbc.com)

3. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon. (Halliburton May Be Culprit In Oil Rig Explosion )

Giant oil-services provider Halliburton may be a primary suspect in the investigation into the oil rig explosion that has devastated the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal reports.

~~

WHO WILL GET THE LOOT? - THE QUESTION OF THE SEABED

2010-04-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

Artwork illustrating four rotor TidalStream SST tidal turbine units in a typical application - TidalStream Partners

Scotland is expected to provide around a quarter of Europe's alternative energy.

This alternative energy includes tide, wave and wind power produced in Scottish waters, supposedly owned by 'the Crown'.

Many billions of pounds will be earned, either by the people of Scotland, or by 'the Crown'.

The Crown Estate Commissioners (CEC) manage the Crown property rights in Scotland.

The CEC, in evidence to the Commons Treasury Committee, admit they do not actually own anything.

Scotland owns the Scottish seabed

According to the Commons Treasury Committee, "Crown property rights in Scotland are defined and governed by Scots law, including Scotland's Crown rights in Scotland's territorial seabed and continental shelf area.

"As a result of the Scotland Act 1998, the Scottish Parliament can legislate over the extent and nature of Crown property rights in Scotland, legislate to regulate the use of land and property rights and issue guidance on standards of good management."

Andy Wightman, a leading authority on public rights to land in Scotland, says the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood definitely can abolish the Crown rights to the seabed, in order to let Scottish ministers hold them instead.

~

60% INCREASE IN ESTIMATES OF UNTAPPED OIL AND GAS IN SCOTLAND

2010-03-12T08:37:00.000-08:00

Image from http://www.oilofscotland.org/index.html

Scotland has much more oil and gas than previously thought, but the London government continues to neglect Scotland.

The London government's tax regime punishes Scotland's oil industry.

Meanwhile, PetroChina Co., China's biggest energy producer, hopes to take over Scotland's only oil-processing plant, which is at Grangemouth. (PetroChina Takes First Steps to Acquire Scotland's Oil Refinery)

In February 2010, a new survey shows that Scotland has more oil and gas under its waters than previously calculated. (BBC News - February 2010 - Scottish Oil and gas reserves higher than thought)

The past two years has seen a 60% increase in estimates of untapped reserves.

Reportedly, at least 30 billion barrels of oil remain to be won from Scottish waters. (Oil and gas to flourish for decades say bosses - Energy)

The oil industry believes it could still be providing millions of barrels a day in 2020. (Scottish Oil and gas reserves higher than thought)

Mike Tholen, economics director of Oil and Gas UK, said the industry has decades yet to flourish.

Malcolm Webb, the organisation's chief executive, said government should lower production tax and reduce the burden of regulation.

"The UK's oil and gas industry can help secure energy supplies for decades to come," he said.

The UK Union costs every Scottish resident £2300 a year.

North Sea Oil will last for another 100 years according to industry analysts. (North Sea oil will last for 100 years' - Telegraph)

Oil is the UK's Largest Industry landing, 700,000 barrels of oil per day .

A new oil and gas field in West Shetland is now to drilled for 176 million barrels. (http://www.oilofscotland.org/index.html)

1. Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund is the biggest such fund in the world.

2. Over the past 30 years Scotland has produced more oil than Dubai and Abu Dhabi combined.

3. Scotland has produced almost as much oil per capita as Saudi Arabia over the same period.

North Sea legacy could have rivalled Abu Dhabi's and Saudi Arabia's and Dubai’s.

~~

aangirfan: OIL OWNERSHIP WOULD BOOST INCOME BY 30%

ISRAELIS IN HAITI FOR ORGAN HARVESTING AND CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING?

2010-02-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

Jorge Puello, who has recently been in Haiti, is the Jewish gentleman who allegedly leads a child sex abuse network that recruited children for prostitution in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador. (Jorge Anibal Torres Puello) 'He served in the U.S. Army in a military intelligence unit. He worked undercover with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.' (Legal adviser for Americans in Haiti facing his own charges)

How did the Israelis get to Haiti so quickly?

In the days befor the Haiti quake, the Israelis, in Tel Aviv, were carrying out a conference and drill about 'emergencies and disasters'

(First Emergency Response Conference opens in Israel 11-Jan-2010 / Drill Draws International Crowd / Twelfth Bough: the annals of logistical achievements)

Are the Israelis in Haiti to harvest the organs of children?

In November 2009, Alison Weir had an article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs headlined, "Israeli Organ Trafficking and Theft: From Moldova to Palestine."

She stated: "....Israeli organ harvesting - sometimes with Israeli governmental funding and the participation of high Israeli officials, prominent Israeli physicians, and Israeli ministries - have been documented for many years." (Focus on Israel: Harvesting Haitian Organs AfterDowningStreet.org)

Clegg on the right

The UK's Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, has sacked Jenny Tonge, his health spokeswoman in the House of Lords, after comments she made about alleged organ trafficking in Haiti.

Jenny Tonge told the Jewish Chronicle there should be an inquiry into claims that Israeli troops sent there after the earthquake were trafficking organs.

Jenny Tonge, of the UK Liberal Democrat party, has been fired over her organ harvesting remark

DO NOT VOTE FOR THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS IN THE UK.

They are a Zionist party. (Spot the MI6 candidate or candidates?)

According to this article, The rise and fall of Baroness Jenny Tonge A True Friend of Palestine,

The Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel seek:

1. To rebut attacks on Israel in the media, Parliament and the Party.

2. To liaise with Israeli politicians and Government.

http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/ has been investigating Haiti (what a gal / the annals of logistical achievements ) and so we learn:

Israeli Flying Aid (IFA) has been 'helping' Haiti.

IFA works mostly below the radar. They work undercover.

In mid January 2010, Israel just happened to be holding, in Tel Aviv, its first international conference on 'preparedness and response of health care systems to disasters and emergencies'.

Benjamin Netanyahu, immediately after the Haiti quake, had top military people in Haiti.

On 15 February 2010, http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/ reported on Puello's amazing but unconfirmed history

Jorge Puello is the Jewish gentleman who was acting as lawyer for ten Americans who were trying to take kids out of Haiti.

Jorge Puello 'is wanted for sex trafficking'.

A wanted poster released by Interpol 'includes crimes against children as one of the offences that Torres Puello is being sought for'.

'He's wanted in the US for smuggling people between Canada and the US'.

'He served a year in jail in 1998 for handling drug trafficking money'.

'He served in the U.S. Army in a military intelligence unit.'

'He worked undercover with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.'

'He sounds a lot like David Coleman Headley'.

David Headley's father worked for Voice of America, which is used by the CIA. (Pak PM's PRO admits he is Headley's half-brother.)

David Headley was in the US military. He worked for the Drugs Enforcement Administration.

And he is accused of being the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

David Headley's mother, allegedly, was an American Jewish lady. (according to a comment here:Cached ) David Headley visited various Jewish sites in India. He claimed to be Jewish when he reportedly stayed at the Chabad centre in Mumbai in July 2008. The American FBI found a book in his bag in Chicago entitled 'To Pray as a Jew'. (Cached )

Algerian kids falling prey to Jewish 'organ harvest'

GENERAL KEEN IN HAITI WHEN QUAKE STRUCK; SEISMIC WEAPONS

2010-01-23T13:02:00.001-08:00

General Keen

Lieutenant General P. K. (Ken) Keen serves as the Military Deputy Commander of U.S. Southern Command, Miami, Florida.

The USA's General P K Keen was in Haiti when the earthquake struck. (Haiti task force commander notes progress)

On 11 January 2010, the day before the earthquake, people at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami were preparing for a scenario that involved providing relief to Haiti in the event of some disaster. (A Haiti Disaster Relief Scenario Was Envisaged by the US Military One Day Before the Earthquake )

Was General Keen part of a conspiracy to cause an earthquake?

Keen's experience includes assignments as a Special Forces Officer in the Republic of Panama (1977-1980); Military Group Training Officer in Honduras (1980); Commander of U.S. Military Group in Colombia (2001-2003); and Commander of U.S. Army South (2005-2007). (Deputy Commander's Biography - U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM)

Reportedly, former US Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, in April 1997, spoke of people who can "set off earthquakes or volcanos remotely, through the use of electromagnetic waves." (ORBIT SPECIAL: TECTONIC WEAPONS)

Hugo Chavez told Spanish newspaper ABC that a 'tectonic weapon' launched by the U.S. Navy was capable of triggering a powerful earthquake off the coast of Haiti.

"Chavez told the newspaper that this time it was only a test and the ultimate target is Iran." (Hugo Chavez: Haiti Earthquake Caused by US Tectonic Weapon Test )

According to Russia Today, Venezuelan President Chávez said it was possible that the USA is behind the series of earthquakes that struck the Caribbean in January 2010.

According to Vive Tv, the allegation originated with the Russian armed forces.

Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have asked the UN Security Council to hold an emergency session to examine the allegation.

On 22 January 2010, voltairenet.org/en asks "Was the earthquate in Haiti caused by the United States?"

The following article was written and published by ViveTv, a Venezuelan public channel.

A report from the Russian Northern Fleet [transmitted to the Government of Venezuela] would seem to indicate that the earthquate that devastated Haiti was the "clear result of a seismic weapons test recently conducted by the US Navy".

The Northern Fleet has been monitoring the movements and U.S. naval activities in the Caribbean since 2008 when the Americans announced their intention to re-establish the Fourth Fleet which had been dissolved in 1950, to which Russia responded a year later with a Russian fleet headed by the nuclear cruiser Peter the Great, thus kicking off its first exercise in this region since the end of the Cold War.

Since the late 1970s, the U.S. have made tremendous progress in their seismic weapons research and, according to these Russian sources, currently employ devices based on Pulse, Plasma, Electromagnetic and Sonic technology combined with shock wave bombs.

The report also compares two analogous tests carried out by the U.S. Navy last week: a 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit the area around the town of Eureka, California, without causing any casualties, and the one in the Caribbean that caused the death of at least 140 thousand innocent people.

As indicated in the report, it is "more than likely" that the U.S. Navy had "full knowledge" of the catastrophic damage that this test would potentially inflict on Haiti, which would explain why Lieutenant General P. K., Military Deputy Commander of U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) had been pre-positioned on the island to oversee the anticipated relief efforts.

([1] Officially, the US forces were pre-positioned around Haiti within the framework of a military exercise simulating ... a humanitarian intervention in Haiti. Cf. Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts, by Bob Brewin, Govexec.com, January 15, 2010.)

The report further indicates that the ultimate goal of these tests is related to plans which foresee the destruction of Iran through a series of earthquakes designed to neutralize the current Islamic regime.

According to the report, the system being tested by the United States (HAARP, for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is also capable of creating weather anomalies which cause floods, droughts and hurricanes.

According to a previous report, the available data coincides with the one associated with the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Sichuan (China) on 12 May 2008, and which was also caused by electromagnetic waves emitted by HAARP.

One can observe a correlation between seismic activities and the ionosphere, which is a HAARP feature:

1. Earthquakes identical in depth and linearly on the same fault are caused by induced frequency linear projection.

2. A coordinated satellite configuration can generate concentrated frequency projections targeting specific points (hippocampus).

3. A diagram shows that earthquakes considered to be artificial propagate linearly at the same depth.

Location ............ Date ............Depth
Venezuela 8 January 2010 10 km
Honduras 11 January 2010 10 km
Haïti ........12 January 2010 10 km

A depth of 10 kms was also observed in the case of other replicas.

Following the earthquake, the Pentagon announced that the hospital ship USNS Comfort, which was anchored in Baltimore, summoned its crew and sailed to Haiti, despite the fact that several days would elapse before its arrival. Nevertheless, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that the U.S. armed forces were preparing an urgent response to the catastrophe.

General Douglas Fraser, Commander-in-Chief of USSOUTHCOM, indicated that Coast Guard and Navy vessels had been dispatched to Haiti, despite their limited cargo of helicopters and material. The super carrier USS Carl Vinson was sent from Virginia with a complete consignment of planes and helicopters. It arrived in Haiti on January 14 in the afternoon, as specified by Fraser who also remarked that additional helicopter groups would be joining the Carl Vinson.

USAID was already on the spot before the earthquake.

President Obama was informed about the earthquake on January 12 at 17h52 and ordered emergency services to be provided to the staff of his Embassy and humanitarian assistance to the population.

According to the Russian report, the State Department, USAID and the U.S. Southern Command launched their humanitarian invasion by deploying 10000 soldiers and contractors, in lieu of the United Nations, to take control of Haitian territory following the "devastating experimental earthquake.

DOES THE CIA MUCK ABOUT WITH OUR WEATHER AND ENVIRONMENT?

2009-12-29T00:02:00.001-08:00

Seeding the clouds

Does the CIA muck about with our weather?

On 5 December 2009, Spencer Weart, at Global Research, wrote: Environmental Warfare: Climate Modification Schemes

According to Spencer Weart:

1. In 1945, at Princeton, in the USA, John von Neumann and other scientists discussed the idea of modifying weather.

Soviet harvests, for example, could be ruined by creating a drought.

2. The US military involved itself in research into climate and environmental warfare.

The US military spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam

3. Irving Langmuir and his team at General Electric had the idea of seeding clouds with particles, that would make raindrops. Langmuir had the support of the military.

4. The US military Military researced other ways of injecting materials into the atmosphere to alter weather.

5. In a 1955 Fortune magazine article, von Neumann explained that "Microscopic layers of coloured matter spread on an icy surface, or in the atmosphere above one, could inhibit the reflection-radiation process, melt the ice, and change the local climate."

He thought this might force humanity to take a new, global approach to its political problems.

6. In the early 1970s, the U.S. government spent more than twenty million dollars a year on weather modification research.

7. Beginning around 1961, Russian scientists speculated about altering the global climate by strewing dark dust or soot across the Arctic snow and ice. The soot would lessen reflection of sunlight and the air would get warmer.

In 1971 a group of American experts said that "deliberate measures to induce arctic sea ice melting might prove successful and might prove difficult to reverse should they have undesirable side effects."

8. A 1972 U.S. government rain-making operation in South Dakota was followed by a disastrous flood.

Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange

9. The US military used cloud-seeding over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, hoping to increase rainfall and bog down the North Vietnamese Army's supply line in mud.

10. For a few years in the early 1970s, new evidence and arguments led many scientists to suspect that a new ice age was approaching.

HAARP - is being used to create tsunamis and carry out mind control?

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).[1]

Reportedly, its purpose is to investigate the ionosphere and establish whether some of its properties can be used for communication or surveillance purposes.[2]

Started in 1993, the project is proposed to last for a period of twenty years. (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program - Wikipedia.)

According to www.worldnetdaily.com.:

"Months before the end of World War II, an American intelligence agency launched a top-secret project aimed at devising ways to trigger massive earthquakes and tsunamis that would wreak havoc among enemy civilian populations, recently uncovered documents reveal."

According to http://www.nzherald.co.nz/:

"Top-secret wartime experiments were conducted off the coast of Auckland to perfect a tidal wave bomb, declassified files reveal.

"An Auckland University professor seconded to the Army set off a series of underwater explosions triggering mini-tidal waves at Whangaparaoa in 1944 and 1945."

IS THERE A PROJECT TO TRIGGER EARTHQUAKES?

CLIMATE: CUBA, SCOTLAND, ETHIOPIA, INDONESIA...

2009-12-08T00:17:00.000-08:00

1. Climate Change?

"Climate change is now blamed for just about everything...

"Famines and drought have a long history in Ethiopia and development experts have traditionally blamed poor governance and the state’s exclusive, and inefficient, hold on farmland for that.

"But, with the possibility of another famine looming, Meles Zenawi, the country’s prime minister for the past 18 years, has preferred to blame climate change for his country’s woes." - The Economics and Politics of Climate Change

2. Trees?

"85 % of Sumatra's forests are gone." - Rainforests turned into smoldering ruins

3. Big corporations?

"Most rainforests are cleared ... for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations, even by world giants like Mitsubishi Corporation, Georgia Pacific, Texaco and Unocal."

"Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber.

"The latest statistics show that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the land owner $60 per acre and if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre.

"However, if these renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the land owner $2,400 per acre." Rainforest Facts

4. Who to copy?

There is a dispute about global warming.

But, most people agree about the need to look after the environment.

Too many trees are being cut down, too much air is polluted and too many creatures are dying out.

A new report from the charity Oxfam says the world should copy Scotland in environmental policy.

One of Obama’s top advisers says the world must follow Scotland's lead in environmental policy.

Obama's climate adviser praises Scotland

Professor Diana Liverman, the Oxford scientist and presidential adviser, backs the Oxfam report that singles out Scotland as an example for the rest of the world to follow.

Malcolm Fleming, Oxfam's Scottish campaigns manager, said: "Scotland is already leading the world ... with targets guided by science rather than political expediency."

The Oxfam report states 375m people will likely be affected by climate-related disasters by 2015, and that 200m people may need to migrate each year by 2050 because of hunger, environmental degradation and loss of land.

Scotland is expected to provide around 25% of Europe's ALTERNATIVE energy.

Scotland's SNP government is OPPOSED to nuclear energy.

Cuba by Henryk Kotowski

5. We should copy Cuba?

A study of 93 nations has found that only one nation - Cuba - is developing sustainably.

"The wholesale plunder of the planet’s natural resources has brought into sharp focus the necessity for some kind of global (and globally enforceable) regulation of what’s left of the planet’s precious cargo of life.

"But can capitalism undertake such a task?...

"There is a certain irony in the fact that Cuba, through force of circumstance, has had to embark on the construction of a sustainable economy." - Marx, the First Real Globalist

What is the problem with regard to Population and Growth?

There appears to be a problem of over-population - Once it Starts ....

There appears to be an ecological crisis - It's Over

We need to think about over-population - The Crisis of Overpopulation

Photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenmapsystem/649445907/

Image:CO2 responsibility 1950-2000.svg

Why must we all copy Cuba?

Cubans have high life expectancy and literacy. Cubans do not use much oil.

A study of 93 nations has found that only one nation - Cuba - is developing sustainably.

Cuba is the only nation which:

(1) provides a decent standard of living for its people and

(2) does not consume more than its fair share of the world's resources.

New Scientist (World failing on sustainable development - earth - 03 October 2007 ... / Cuba Flies Lone Flag for Sustainability - Indymedia Ireland) provides the details:

"An international team led by Mathis Wackernagel of the Global Footprint Network looked at how the living conditions and ecological footprints of 93 nations have changed in the last 30 years.

"They used the ecological footprint (EF) index, a tool devised in 1993 by Wackernagel and William Rees, his PhD supervisor at the University of British Columbia, Canada. EF quantifies the area of land required to provide the infrastructure used by a person or a nation, the food and goods they consume, and to reabsorb the waste they produce, using available technology."

We should not copy the poorest countries in Africa because, although they do not consume more than their fair share of resources, they do not have a decent standard of living for all their people.

Under no circumstances should we copy the USA or the United Arab Emirates, because they consume much more than their fair share of resources.

http://aangirfan2.blogspot.com/

PAKISTAN ACCUSES THE CIA

Circumcision

RUSSIA ANNOYS ISRAEL; RUSSIA GETS HIT

COPENHAGEN PSYOP?

2009-12-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

In Bhopal, in India, a Union Carbide plant, which manufactured pesticides, leaked deadly methyl isocyanate gas during the night of 3 December, 1984. 20,000 people are reported to have died.

There is horrid air pollution in the Mediterranean.

Too many trees are being cut down in Indonesia.

Fish stocks are at risk.

Big US corporations are damaging the planet.

The Pentagon is damaging the planet.

There is to be a summit in Copenhagen.

isiria.wordpress.com/.../

Michel Chossudovsky, at Global Research, on 30 November 2009 wrote an article entitled: Global Warming: "Fixing the Climate Data around the Policy"

Among the points made:

1. Prior to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, key decisions have already been made at the World Business Summit on Climate Change (WBSCC) held in May 2009.

A summary report has been produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, on behalf the corporate bosses.

This report has very little to do with environmental protection.

It's about making money.

2. The Copenhagen Summit will not mention the US-NATO led wars and their environmental consequences.

3. The Copenhagen Summit will not mention "weather warfare" or "environmental modification techniques" and climatic warfare.

4. The Copenhagen Summit will divert attention away from the devastation caused by big corporations and by the Pentagon.

5. The carbon trading system is a multibillion money-making operation aimed at helping the money-men.

6. There are indications that the ideas and figures on temperature and greenhouse gas emissions including CO2 have been adjusted and shaped to fit the agenda of the UN Panel on Climate Change.

CLIMATE CHANGE FRAUD

2009-11-23T23:55:00.000-08:00

Ghana, China, India: Dumping Grounds for Electronics Waste

2009-11-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

Ghana has become a dumping ground for electronics waste.

According to Greenpeace, “The latest place where we have discovered high tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution in Ghana. Our analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals.” - (http://politicalsnapshots.wordpress.c...)

"The southern Chinese city of Guiyu has been completely built around the e-waste trade. Miles and miles of nothing but old electronics."

"All these old mother boards and other types of circuit boards are being cooked day in and day out, mostly by women, sitting there, breathing the lead tin solders."

WORLD HUNGER

2009-10-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

Child labour

We still have the feudal system.

Bangladeshis making cheap clothes for supermarkets are paid as little as 3p an hour.

(Stunning Photos: ZORIAH - PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG.)

The book World Hunger: Twelve Myths (12 Myths About Hunger.) tells us the following:

1. The world produces enough food.

But low incomes prevent many people from getting enough to eat.

The elite (A) prevent the poor from owning land (B) pay starvation wages.

2. Climate is a factor.

In America many homeless people die from the cold every winter.

3. Birth rates are falling rapidly worldwide.

In countries like Nigeria, Brazil and Bolivia, lots of food is grown but many people are too poor to buy a decent meal.

The Netherlands has little land per person but manages to feed its people and export food.

Countries like Cuba and Sri lanka have managed to greatly reduce population growth rates.

They have done this by improving the lives of the poor, especially poor women.

4. Efforts to feed the hungry are not causing the environmental crisis.

Large corporations are mainly responsible for deforestation.

Most pesticides are applied to export crops.

Cuba overcame a food crisis through self-reliance and sustainable, virtually pesticide-free agriculture.

5. We must fight the prospect of a ‘New Green Revolution' based on biotechnology, which threatens to further accentuate inequality.

6. Large landowners often leave much land idle.

A World Bank study of northeast Brazil estimates that redistributing farmland into smaller holdings would raise output an astonishing 80 percent.

7. The market only works efficiently when everyone has a decent income.

8. As a result of 'Free Trade', Brazil exports soybean to feed Japanese and European livestock.

Export crop production squeezes out basic food production.

Since NAFTA there has been a net loss of jobs in the USDA and Mexico.

9. Poor people, such as the Zapatistas in Chiapas, seek change.

We should remove the obstacles often created by large corporations, U.S. government, World Bank and IMF policies.

10. Most U.S. aid works directly against the hungry.

US aid is used to keep repressive governments in power.

11. Low wages in the Third World may mean cheaper bananas, shirts, computers and fast food for Americans and Europeans.

But the system leads to greater poverty for the majority.

Corporations seek cheaper and cheaper labour.

12. The 'right to unlimited accumulation of wealth' is in conflict with 'ending hunger'.

~~

Devastating Indonesian earthquake 'still to come'

2009-10-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Padang

According to an article at New Scientist, the earthquake which hit Padang in Sumatra, Indonesia, in September 2009, killing more than 1100 people, "may have been only a hint of worse to come."

(Devastating Indonesian earthquake 'still to come')

Since 2004, geologists have been predicting a far nastier earthquake in the region – "a shallow tremor that will rip the sea floor apart, trigger a devastating tsunami and kill far more people."

John McCloskey, a seismologist at the Environmental Sciences Research Institute at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, predicts a bigger quake will hit Padang.

Over 100,000 people – a seventh of the city's population – are blocked from escaping to higher ground by the barbed wire-laced, 10-metre-high walls of a huge military airport.

"Padang needs to build a tunnel under that airport, because if they don't these poor people will have to run parallel to the coast for several hundred metres while the tsunami is coming at them," says McCloskey.

So far, no steps have been taken to build such an exit route. "Sometimes you despair," he says. (Devastating Indonesian earthquake 'still to come')

GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS

2009-09-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

What is GNH?

Mirka Knaster tells us (Greater Good Magazine Bhutan at a Crossroads By Mirkan Knaster):

Bhutan's Gross National Happiness is measured by:

1. How well the natural environment is supporting the people.

2. The extent to which communities and families are intact and thriving, not just financially but also culturally.

3. Its citizens' reports on their own levels of happiness.

"The Bhutanese, as well as many outside observers, argue that the secret of their happiness lies in the security of their community, kinship, and family relationships, and in a self-sufficient lifestyle.

"And their Buddhist spiritual tradition, which considers craving the root cause of unhappiness, guides their daily life.

"Its commitment to priorities beyond the almighty dollar is often cited as a main reason why happiness is so pervasive in Bhutan—and it is why the country has been celebrated by commentators around the world."

Photo of Bhutan by Stephen Shephard

Journalist Eric Weiner, in his 2008 book, The Geography of Bliss, explains:

"They do things that don't make economic sense. In Bhutan, what's on the inside is often more impressive than what's on the outside."

According to Weiner (Be like Bhutan - Los Angeles Times):

"What do the following have in common?

"The war in Iraq. Sales of cigarettes...

"The answer: They all contribute to our nation's gross domestic product, or GDP, and therefore are all considered 'good,' at least in the dismal eyes of economists...

"Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan nation, has invented a radically new metric: Gross National Happiness...

"While other developing countries have sold off their natural resources to the highest bidder, Bhutan has hardly touched its timber and minerals...

"Many Bhutanese are willing to forsake money for happiness; for a slower, more human pace of life. The vast majority of Bhutanese who study abroad, for instance, return to their homeland, where they earn a fraction of what they could earn in the West."

~~

Drought in India

2009-08-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

On 18 August 2009, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that "Climate change is threatening our fragile ecosystems.

"We are staring at the prospect of an impending drought.

"Water scarcity is becoming a way of life.

"Pollution is a growing threat to our health and habitats.

"There should be no doubt in anybody's mind that we fully recognize not just how important this issue is to our country's future but also our own obligation to address it."

(India's environmental crises alarming, says prime minister)

According to a government report, India contributes 5 per cent of global emissions, about a fourth of that of China and one-twentieth of the United States.

In 2009, more than a quarter of India's districts have been affected by drought.

(BBC NEWS South Asia Drought hits many India districts / BBC News SOUTH ASIA In pictures: India's drought)

BURNING UP INDONESIA

2009-07-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

Image from: www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/press/releases/u...

What do the following have in common:

Cadbury's Dairy Milk,

Some Biodiesel,

Flora Margarine,

Mars Bars,

Kellogs Special K,

Goodfella's Pizza

And Pot Noodles?

Reportedly, they contain palm oil.

Palm oil is one of the few vegetable oils relatively high in saturated fats.

Many health authorities state that palm oil promotes heart disease, citing research and studies that go back to 1970.[24]

In Indonesia, over the last 20 years, millions of hectares of forest have been destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations.

Palm Oil

Thanks to palm oil there are a lot more greenhouse gas emissions and the orang utan is losing its habitat.

Clearing forests and draining and burning peatlands to grow palm oil will release more carbon emissions than burning fossil fuels.

Much of the oil palm expansion in Indonesia is taking place on forested peatlands.

Peat locks up huge amounts of carbon.

Burning peatlands releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases.

Indonesia's burning peatlands are responsible for 4 per cent of global emissions of greenhouse gases every year.

Palm oil Greenpeace UK

Animal Agriculture Destroys The Planet

2009-06-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

MICHAEL JACKSON MURDERED BY THE CIA?

2009-06-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Reportedly it was the CIA which killed Michael Jackson.

It was reported by the Times that a 'secret billionaire club' met in New York in May 2009.

This was attended by David Rockefeller, Bill Gates and Ted Turner. (The Population Reduction Agenda For Dummies)

The meeting concentrated on ways to reduce the size of the world's population.

Ted Turner has publicly advocated population reduction programs that would reduce the human population by 95%.

As is documented in Alex Jones' film Endgame, Rockefeller's father, John D. Rockefeller, supported eugenics and bankrolled the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute which became linked to Hitler and the Nazis.

National Security Study Memorandum 200 was a 1974 strategy document, prepared by Henry Kissinger, "which targeted thirteen countries for massive population reduction by means of creating food scarcity, sterilization and war."

During a speech to the Texas Academy of Science in March 2006, Dr Erik Pianka advocated the need to exterminate 90% of the world's population through the airborne ebola virus.

In 2002, The Melbourne Age reported on newly uncovered documents detailing Nobel Peace Prize winning microbiologist Sir Macfarlane Burnet's plan to help the Australian government develop biological weapons for use against Indonesia and other "overpopulated" countries of South-East Asia.

Journalist Jane Burgermeister has filed charges against the WHO and the UN.

"Using the 'swine flu' as a pretext, the defendants have preplanned the mass murder of the U.S. population by means of forced vaccination.

"They have installed an extensive network of FEMA concentration camps and identified mass grave sites."

Reportedly, Michael Jackson had become a supporter of the Austrian investigative journalist, Jane Burgermeister, who is warning the world of mass genocide.

(Russia's FSB Reports Pop Icon Michael Jackson Assassinated By CIA .)

Reportedly, Michael Jackson was to allow his sold-out United Kingdom concerts to be a 'platform' for warning the World of a soon to occur mass genocide event.

Reportedly, Russia's President Medvedev was told that Michael Jackson was assassinated by the CIA.

Reportedly Michael Jackson was killed by a CIA Microwave weapon.

Child Leukemia Rates Increase Near U.S. Nuclear Power Plants

Declassified Documents Reveal Saddam Wanted Alliance With U.S.

Child behaviour - ODD Facts

Iran ambassador suggests CIA could have killed Neda Soltan

Iranian Interior Minister: Western Intelligence Behind Riots And Unrest

Author Naomi Klein Calls for Boycott of Israel

Google's real youtube strategy

Should whales and dolphins be considered 'people'

Are we more closely related to orang utans than chimps?

U.S. Air Force now trains more pilots for unmanned drones than normal planes

SOLVING THE WORLD'S FOOD AND POPULATION PROBLEM

2009-06-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hunger in Indonesia during World War II (forum.axishistory.)

In 1800, the population of Java was around five million.

Now it is over 100 million.

Wardi lives in a very crowded part of Java.

He has a small field and a small shop.

Using compost instead of artificial fertilizer increases organic matter in the soil and holds moisture.

Wardi does have a little education and does have a reasonable income.

He has only two children and plans no more.

His mother had eight children. She never went to school and had a very low income.

Wardi uses animal manure on his field. Fertiliser made from fossil fuels has become rather expensive.

Indonesians

Wardi's neighbour Aziz has not been to school and he has a very small income.

Aziz has six children.

There is some evidence that levels of education and income are important when it comes to dealing with problems of population and food supply.

Better educated, better paid people are more likely to choose to have small families, particularly in areas where food supplies are limited.

Some people get more than their fair share of the world's resources.

Not so far from where Wardi and Aziz live, a large quantity of farm land has been taken over for the building of a golf course, a shopping mall and luxury houses.

In the USA, people tend to consume more than their fair share of the world's food.

Very large quantities of grain are used to produce expensive US beef and used to produce biofuels for cars.

Increasing demand for cattle feed and biofuels has caused deforestation in the tropics.

Reportedly, there is a problem with climate change.

Himalayan glaciers that provide water for hundreds of millions of people in China and India could vanish by 2035.

In southern Africa, the corn harvest could drop by 30 percent, due to lack of water.

Ultimately, it's all about people having the right ideas.

We need to persuade people that they do not need to produce lots of children, especially if they live in an area where there is a food and population crisis.

Chief famine areas in red and orange.

The world does have a food and population crisis, according to National Geographic (nationalgeographic/) (Feature Article)

Among the points made by National Geographic:

1. Between 2005 and the summer of 2008, the price of rice rose fivefold.

2. According to Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, "Agricultural productivity growth is only one to two percent a year. This is too low to meet population growth and increased demand."

3. Hotter growing seasons and increasing water scarcity are likely to reduce future harvests in much of the world.

4. Many scientists believe we need another green revolution.

Preferably a green revolution that does not damage soils and water supplies.

5. Thomas Malthus believed that human population increases at a geometric rate, doubling about every 25 years if unchecked, while agricultural production increases arithmetically—much more slowly.

6. In 1943 around four million people died in the Bengal Famine.

Then came the green revolution.

7. The green revolution involved industrial farming:

large fields growing just one crop, high-yielding varieties of grain, plenty of irrigation and plenty of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

8. The green revolution has led to problems:

Over-irrigation has led to steep drops in the water table.

Thousands of hectares of productive land have been lost to salinization and waterlogged soils.

The artificial pesticides and fertilizers appear to have poisoned drinking water and led to high rates of cancer.

Researchers have found pesticides in Punjabi farmers' blood, their water table, their vegetables, even their wives' breast milk.

The high cost of fertilizers and pesticides has got many farmers into debt.

One study found more than 1,400 cases of farmer suicides in 93 villages between 1988 and 2006.

9. Monsanto believes biotech will make it possible to double yields of Monsanto's core crops of corn, cotton, and soybeans by 2030.

However, so far, genetic breakthroughs that would free green revolution crops from their heavy dependence on irrigation and fertilizer have proved elusive.

10. Africa has not seen much of the green revolution, partly due to lack of infrastructure, corruption, and inaccessible markets.

Agricultural production per capita declined in sub-Saharan Africa between 1970 and 2000.

11. In Malawi they grow corn and most people live on less than two dollars a day.

In 2005 the rains failed.

Malawi decided to try the green revolution.

Since 2006 the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have raised nearly half a billion dollars to fund the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

There has been investment in 80 small villages clustered into about a dozen "Millennium Villages" throughout Africa.

Irrigation in Malawi

12. In 2008, a study called the "International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development" concluded that the production increases brought about by science and technology in the past 30 years have failed to improve food access for many of the world's poor.

The six-year study, initiated by the World Bank and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, called for a shift in agriculture toward more sustainable and ecologically friendly practices that would benefit the world's 900 million small farmers, not just agribusiness.

13. University of California, Berkeley, professor Michael Pollan says:

"The only way you can have one farmer feed 140 Americans is with monocultures.

"And monocultures need lots of fossil-fuel-based fertilizers and lots of fossil-fuel-based pesticides.

"That only works in an era of cheap fossil fuels, and that era is coming to an end. Moving anyone to a dependence on fossil fuels seems the height of irresponsibility."

14. A shift has begun to small, underfunded, sustainable projects in Africa and Asia.

Amish

15. Vandana Shiva, an agroecologist, argues that small-scale, biologically diverse farms can produce more food with fewer petroleum-based fertilisers and pesticides.

Her research shows that using compost instead of artificial fertilizer increases organic matter in the soil and holds moisture.

16. In northern Malawi, in the village of Ekwendeni, they produce good food much more cheaply than the Millennium Villages.

The Soils, Food and Healthy Communities (SFHC) project gives out seeds and advice for growing nutritious crops like peanuts, pigeon peas, and soybeans, which enrich the soil by fixing nitrogen.

Canadian researchers found that the children involved in the project showed significant weight increases.

Malawi by Joachim Huber

17. The project's research coordinator, Rachel Bezner Kerr, opposes the big-money foundations that are pushing for a new green revolution in Africa.

She says:

"I find it deeply disturbing.

"It's getting farmers to rely on expensive inputs produced from afar that are making money for big companies rather than on agroecological methods for using local resources and skills. I don't think that's the solution."

~~

Food Price Crisis

2009-05-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Photo by Walter Siegmund

On 15 May 2009, the BBC World Service index of retail food prices showed that basic food prices worldwide have gone up 8% in the last 10 months. (Food prices vary but crisis remains)

The index is based on eight cities, including Washington, Nairobi and Buenos Aires.

In Nairobi, in Kenya, where many people earn only one US dollar a day, there was a rise of almost 50% in the price of food in the last 10 months.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation index shows food prices nearly 50% higher than in 2003. The price of cereals is up 80% since 2003.

ActionAid International predicts that about 17 million people in Kenya are now in danger of starvation.

"Agricultural yields in Africa have... fallen in some cases by up to 50 per cent as a result of invasive pests, land degradation, erosion, drought and climate change, according to the report, released .... by the UN Environment Programme...

"Reversing environmental degradation and 'investing in ... forests, soils and water bodies is one part of the ... solution...The other key is managing them and the food chain in far more efficient ways.'

"Over half of food produced worldwide is lost, wasted or discarded as a result of inefficiency..."

Reform Vital To Avert Looming African Food Crisis

www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/32_7728.htm

Ocean Acidification Risks Mass Extinction of Sea Life

2009-04-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

The oceans are becoming more acid.

This is due to rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

There is therefore a major threat to aquatic life.

Carol Turley of Plymouth Marine Laboratory says: "I am very worried for ocean ecosystems which are currently productive and diverse.

"I believe we may be heading for a mass extinction, as the [current] rate of change in the oceans hasn't been seen since the dinosaurs. It may have a major impact on food security. It really is imperative that we cut emissions of CO2."

50 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted by the burning of fossil fuels or other substances is absorbed by the ocean.

Carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid.

This has led to a lowering of the ocean's pH by 0.1 since the Industrial Revolution - a 30 percent increase in acidity.

Ocean Acidification Risks Mass Extinction of Sea Life

G2 and CLIMATE CHANGE

2009-04-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

Air pollution over Los Angeles - source

"The draft G20 communique leaked at the weekend makes only the smallest reference to climate change, and appears to be vague on the subject of how green the $2tn (£1.4tn) stimulus package agreed by world leaders should be.

"This provoked the eminent climatologist James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, to tell the Guardian: 'If this is the best they can do, then their 'planet in peril' rhetoric is probably just that - empty rhetoric.'"

Climate change experts call on G20 members to commit to action

Heathrow, Yachtgate, Mandelson, Rothschild, Adonis, Peston ...

2009-03-04T01:25:00.000-08:00

Heathrow by Arpingstone.

The Mail, 29 February 2009, has a news story entitled: Mandelson in new 'favours' row: The minister, his PR pal and six meetings before Heathrow go-ahead

The Mail makes a link between 'Yachtgate' and the decision by Lord Mandelson, UK Trade Secretary, to expand London's Heathrow airport.

Airport operator BAA (owned by Spain's Ferrovial) is to get yet another runway at Heathrow, in the South East of the UK.

People in parts of the North and West of the UK feel that they never get things like airport runways.

Rudd

Public relations man Roland Rudd represents airport operator BAA.

Rudd, or his company Finsbury Ltd, "met with ministers at least five times in ten days in the run-up to Labour's unpopular decision to go ahead with plans for a third runway, and once a few months earlier."

Rudd, who is alleged to be worth £50million, "has had a long friendship with Lord Mandelson, who is godfather to his son."

The UK's international airports

Rudd was 'involved' in the 2008 ' Yachtgate' affair, in Corfu. (Mandelson in new 'favours' row.)

Lord Mandelson, George Osborne (Conservative Party) and Nat Rothschild were guests on the yacht of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

Deripaska is a client of Rudd through Basic Elements, the holding group for his investments.

Nat Rothschild is a client of Rudd.

Allegedly, Osborne revealed what Mandelson thought about Gordon Brown.

Reportedly, Nat Rothschild, on the advice of Rudd, launched a media offensive against Osborne.

The Mail, 28 Feb 2009, shows the links involving Roland Rudd, Lord Adonis the UK Transport Minister, Robert Peston the BBC Business Editor, and Lord Mandelson.

Peter Mandelson's friends: How the twice disgraced peer is once again at the centre of a tangled web of intrigue.

BAA's UK airports

~~~

THE ANSWER TO THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM

2009-02-17T12:51:00.000-08:00

In shopping malls in Indonesia, just over 70% 0f visitors don't actually buy anything.

(Culture Shock Jakarta by Derek Bacon and Terry Collins - 2007)

The majority of the population of Indonesia earn very little.

The elite are fabulously rich.

It's not so different from the USA and parts of Europe.

In Indonesia the military is all powerful, and it is they who keep down wages and who preserve the feudal system.

In the USA, it is the Pentagon and the CIA who pull the strings and who make sure that the ordinary citizens work hard for relatively low wages.

If wages rise, the shopping malls sell more goods and the factories prosper.

Indonesia, like the USA and EU, has a large internal market.

So, the recipe for improving the economy is:

1. Close down the military.

2. Raise the minimum wage.

3. Make sure the rich pay their taxes.

4. Spend more on infrastructure.

Video: Rich and Poor in Indonesia

On 29 January 2009, we read An anatomy of Asian economic woes: Troubled tigers; from The Economist

In Asia wage incomes have fallen relative to GDP.

In China the share of wages dropped from 53% in 1998 to 40% in 2007.

According to The Economist, "a raft of government policies will have to change to lift households’ share of national income."

In Asia, a lack of free medical care and lack of free schooling means that people have to save a high proportion of their income.

"Higher public spending on health, education and welfare support could encourage households to save less and spend more."

In the USA, the same applies.

"The recent news that China plans to spend 850 billion yuan ($125 billion) over the next three years to provide basic health care for at least 90% of the population by 2011 is therefore welcome."

Bush and Blair brought poverty to their own countries.

And to the world.

The secret policy of certain western governments is:

1. Help the super-rich to get richer.

2. Keep down the wages of the poor.

THE USA

With George W Bush as president, the number of Americans living in severe poverty has increased dramatically.

Nearly 16 million Americans now live on an individual income of less than $5,000 (£2,500) a year or a family income of less than $10,000 (£5,000). (news.independent.co.uk)

The number of Americans living in extreme poverty has grown by 26% since 2000.

In the USA, poverty as a whole has worsened and the number of severe poor is growing 56% faster than the overall segment of the population characterised as poor - about 37 million people. (news.independent.co.uk)

BRITAIN

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ( Wealth inequality 'at 40-year high' ) :

1. Britain is becoming a segregated society.

2. The gap between rich and poor has reached its highest level for more than 40 years.

3. During the past 15 years there has been an increase in the number of households living below the poverty line.

4. Households below the poverty line now account for more than half of all families in parts of some cities.

5. In parts of some cities more than half of all households are now "breadline poor" - enough to live on but no access to opportunities enjoyed by the rest of society.

6. Households in already wealthy areas have tended to become disproportionately wealthier.

7. Many rich people now live in areas segregated from the rest of society.

In the Calton district of Glasgow, male life expectancy is 53.9 years, almost ten years fewer than in Bangladesh.

However, life in Bangladesh can be worse than in Britain.

BANGLADESH

Large western companies like Tesco like to get cheap clothing from Bangladesh.

Tesco's chief executive Terry Leahy is a special adviser to the British government on business matters.

The Guardian (High price paid for cheap UK clothes ) explained on 15 July 2007:

1. Workers at factories supplying clothes to Asda (Walmart), Tesco and Primark told the Guardian that they were paid well below the £22 a month considered by experts to be the minimum living wage.

2. Mahbubur, 20, a machine operator, earns £16 a month, but he said apprentices or helpers in his factory earn only £9. His basic hours are 8am to 8pm, six days a week, but overtime, sometimes through the night, is compulsory.

What are we to think of Tesco, Walmart and similar companies?

Paul Collins, of War on Want, said: "These companies are driving down prices and pushing up profits and their workers are paying the real price in terrible pay and conditions." ( Brown is urged to act over 4p-an-hour sweatshop pay )

HAITI

The following comes from Babylon :

"Wal-Mart?"

"Most baseballs are made in Haiti by American companies. The factory girls get about $1.40 a day. They get injured arms and eyes."

"Is it only baseballs?"

"The Americans control the bauxite, sugar and sisal. It's like Cuba before Castro."

"Is it always slave wages?"

"You know Walt Disney?"

"Fun people."

"They have contractors here who make Micky Mouse clothes. The factory girls get 8 pence an hour. You can't live on that. Then Wal-mart sells the Pocahontas pyjamas for $11-97."

"The Americans supported Baby Doc? But didn't he get thrown out?"

"And replaced by military dictatorship," said Jean, smiling.

"What about the radical priest Aristide? Didn't he win an election?"

"Very popular man among the poor! But 9 months after he came to power he was toppled."

"By whom?"

"The army chief, Cedras, took over. These generals had been trained in the USA and were in the pay of the CIA."

"Then later Aristide was allowed back into Haiti."

"Yes. But FRAPH, a group financed by the CIA, started a lot of violence to destabilise Aristide."

"FRAPH?"

"They were mainly made up of Tonton Macoutes. The Macoutes have always given Aristide a hard time. In 1988 Macoutes hacked to death scores of people in a church, while trying to kill Aristide."

"And the Macoutes have ensured that there is chaos in Haiti. What are the Americans up to?"

"The super rich, of whom there are many in Haiti, want a return to dictatorship. That might suit the fascists who run America. A socialist priest might try to make Walt Disney's people pay higher wages."

"Don't the Americans care about poverty?"

"Did the Americans care about the children they murdered in Indo China? America is run by billionaire fascists pretending to be Christians and democrats. The Haitian death squads in 1991, after Aristide had been kicked out, were led by Toto Constant. Now Constant, who lives in New York, claims he worked for the CIA."

~~

What YOU can do to stop the USA burning babies.

2009-01-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

Photo from Gaza by Fady Awan, Gaza City January 8 2009

Campaigns Urge Boycott of US Firms over Gaza Massacre

There is a campaign to boycott:

McDonald's

Starbucks

Pizza Hut

Coca Cola

Marlboro

In Lebanon, protesters angry at Israel's attack on Gaza forced the closure of a Starbucks coffee shop in Beirut.

Mad Cow disease

McDonald's may not give you Mad Cow disease or make you fat, but they taste of cardboard.

Coffee worker (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/jun/22/)

Starbucks is over-priced.

The $3 people you pay for a Starbucks is equivalent to the daily wage of a Central American coffee picker.

(http://www.geocities.com/youth4sa/starbucks.html)

I've visited some rather dirty Pizza Huts.

(BBC NEWS UK England West Yorkshire Pizza Hut fined for ...)

And the pizzas from Pizza Hut are nothing like real Italian pizzas.

Coca Cola contains phosphoric acid and too much of this is very bad for your health

(The Health Hazards of Drinking Coca-Cola and other Soft Drinks)

Photo by Marlith

Two of the Marlboro men died of lung cancer.

Gaza villages Wiped off the map

~~

Study questions climate change

2009-01-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

SHEFFIELD University experts have discovered that the intensity of wind storms around the British Isles has not increased due to global warming.

The research contradicts some climate model predictions by showing little sign of overall increased storminess since the mid-to-late 19th century. - Study questions climate change

~~

Climate change: EU leaders reach compromise deal

2008-12-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

12 December 2008

Climate change: EU leaders reach compromise deal

The EU's 27 members will cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020.

Environmental groups condemned the agreement as a "failure".

They said the deal allowed around two thirds of the emissions reductions to be "offset" by paying for projects outside Europe rather than making cuts at home.

The manufacturing sector has largely been exempted from the requirement to buy the permits it needs to cover its carbon emissions, while the power sector has also won concessions over having to pay for its carbon allowances.

~~

Bin Laden links to Indonesia, Jersey, Sudan, Geneva...

2008-11-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

According to diplomats, the Saudi Binladin Group, founded by Osama bin laden's father, is planning an investment in Indonesia to grow basmati rice. (Rich countries launch great land grab)

The Binladin group is planning to invest some Rp14 trillion ($1.53 billion) in Southeast Sulawesi.

Prof. Dr. La Ode Masihu Kamaluddin, chief adviser to the regional governor on investment and trade, said that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed by the regional government and Bin Laden Group in Jakarta on August 14 2008.

Bin Laden Group was represented by head of the Middle East Foodstuff Consortium, Hasan Mohammad Bin Laden (a brother of Osama bin Laden).

The signing took place at the office of the chief adviser for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for Middle East issues, Alwi Shihab. ( Saudi Arabia’s Bin Laden Group)

The Saudi Binladin (or Binladen) Group is a multinational construction conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the bin Laden family, headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Jersey is one of the Channel islands.

According to Inter Press Service (5 April 2007)

BCCI was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which the CIA used "to run guns to Hussein, finance Osama bin Laden, move money in the illegal Iran-Contra operation and carry out other 'agency' black ops." Khalid bin Mahfouz was on the board of BCCI.

In 1992, Khalid bin Mahfouz established the Muwafaq ('Blessed Relief') Foundation in the Channel Islands.

The U.S. Treasury Department called it “an al Qaeda front that receives funding from wealthy Saudi businessmen.”

Reportedly, millions of dollars were transferred to Osama bin Laden through Blessed Relief.

An audit of the Defendant National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia in the mid-1990s, which was then run by Khalid bin Salim bin Mahfouz, "reveals the transfer of $3 million for Osama bin Laden that traveled from the accounts of wealthy Saudi businessmen to Blessed Relief." (Yassin Al-Kadi - 9/11 Encyclopedia)

The bin Laden family and the Bush family have had investments in the Carlyle Group. (http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Bush1-Carlyle-BinLaden-Ties.shtml)

Carlyle holds its stake in defence firm QinetiQ through various special-purpose vehicles registered in the Channel Islands. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1579753,00.htm)

Sudanese

On 21 August 2005, Wayne Madsen reported (U.S. BUSINESS AND BUSH FAMILY TIES TO OSAMA BIN LADEN REVEALED) :

"European intelligence provided to WMR confirms that Osama bin Laden has been a major kingpin in drug shipments to Europe and North America since 1991, when he established a major drug smuggling network in Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

"WMR can also confirm that the Bush administration's cozying up to the Sudanese government (which once provided Osama Bin Laden safe haven) is another indication that the Bush family continues to engage in joint financial activities with Osama Bin Laden.

"It is likely that Sudan's southern Christian rebel leader John Garang was encouraged to enter into a peace agreement with Khartoum in a ploy for him to let down his guard. Just days after Garang became Sudan's Vice President, he was killed in a suspicious helicopter crash along the Ugandan-Sudanese border, an area where Pentagon Special Operations forces are present. As Vice President, Garang was in a position to discover Bin Laden's past and present activities in Sudan, including those that involve Bush family interests.

"While Sudan claims it no longer has any relations with Osama Bin Laden, it can now be revealed that Osama Bin Laden continues to operate the Al Shamal Islamic Bank in Sudan that was identified by the State Department in 1996 as being linked to Al Qaeda and Bin Laden.

"The 'Al Qaeda' leader invested $50 million in the bank. The bank was used in 1993 to transfer $210,000 to a bank in Tucson, Arizona to finance the purchase of a plane to fly Stinger missiles from Pakistan to Sudan. The plane was flown to Khartoum. (According to the French intelligence report, Bin Laden was still under U.S. and British intelligence control at the time of the plane purchase and in 1993 Sudan was on the State Department's state sponsors of terrorism list).

"It is significant that Al Shamal's assets were never frozen by the United States nor was it designated a terrorist-related organization. The Sudanese claim that Al Shamal is no longer in operation and the Bush administration has not countered these claims."

Wayne Madsen also wrote (U.S. BUSINESS AND BUSH FAMILY TIES TO OSAMA BIN LADEN REVEALED) :

"The Bin Laden drug network also intersects with Geneva-based financial entities established by George H. W. Bush while he was CIA director and Vice President and President of the United States.

"Bin Laden and Bush money are held in some of the same financial tranches in Switzerland, the Isle of Man, and the Bahamas."

~~~

Plans to evacuate 11 million people out of Australia if the drought persists.

2008-11-03T04:59:00.000-08:00

AUSTRALIA

KENYA

~

Great Apes

2008-10-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

SCOTTISH POWER!

2008-09-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

Tidal electricity generator awaiting installation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

Scotland should become the richest country in the world, if it is independent.

The Sunday Times in Scotland,( Huge tidal power plan for Scotland - Times Online), 28 September 2008, tells us:

1. Enough TIDAL POWER could be generated off Scotland's north coast to produce 25 gigawatts of energy.

2. That is FOUR TIMES what Scotland uses at present.

3. Surplus power could be sold to England and Europe.

4. The Pentland Firth, between Scotland and Orkney, is a perfect site for what could be the world's biggest tidal energy 'farm'.

5. Scotland could produce 25% of Europe’s tidal power and 10% of its wave power.

Scotland has oil (at least half the oil is still to come) and it has wind and wave power.

And, more than 1000 new hydro-electric power stations may be built in Scotland in the next few years years according to Scottish Government advisers. ( Scotland may have a thousand more hydro sites)

Above Loch Ness, the £150m Glendoe hydro-electric scheme is nearing completion.

Scottish and Southern Energy's Glendoe project will be capable of generating 100mw of power, enough to power Glasgow.

Glendoe will be the second largest hydro scheme out of the 80 already in Scotland.

Most were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The Scottish Government aims to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

~~

Scotland - a thousand more hydro-electric sites may be built

2008-09-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Scotland has oil (at least half the oil is still to come) and it has wind and wave power.

And, more than 1000 new hydro-electric power stations may be built in Scotland in the next few years years according to Scottish Government advisers. ( Scotland may have a thousand more hydro sites)

Above Loch Ness, the £150m Glendoe hydro-electric scheme is nearing completion.

Scottish and Southern Energy's Glendoe project will be capable of generating 100mw of power, enough to power Glasgow.

Glendoe will be the second largest hydro scheme out of the 80 already in Scotland.

Most were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The Scottish Government aims to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

~~

Australia and Brazil - climate

2008-08-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

"Brazil’s soya exports could slump by more than a quarter over the next 12 years as a result of climate change, according to a study to be presented at an agribusiness conference opening in São Paulo on Monday.

"The study will add to concern over worsening food shortages around the world. It shows that even moderate rises in temperatures would cause significant damage to a range of agricultural produce in Brazil, which has emerged over the past decade as one of the world’s biggest suppliers of food crops..." - Climate change threat to Brazil’s food crop exports

~~

Nuclear Indonesia and French nuclear accidents

2008-07-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

Chernobyl victims photo from: http://members.greenpeace.org/gpblog.../chernobyl.jpg

The excellent Jakartass reports the following:

On 17 July 2008, Indonesia and France signed an agreement on cooperation in nuclear power plant research...

Indonesia's State Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman said:

"There have been no reports of problems with Frances nuclear power plant technology, which is extraordinary."

Jakartass lists the following events in France:

1967 November 7: Release of radioactivity at Grenoble nuclear power plant
1968 October 2: Leakage at La Hague reprocessing plant
1969 October 17: Fuel elements melt at St Laurent des Eaux nuclear power plant
1980 September 22: Pump failure causes release of radioactive water at La Hague reprocessing plant
1981 January 6: Accident at La Hague reprocessing plant
1983 October 1: Technical failure and human error cause accident at Blayas nuclear power plant
1986 August 19: Flooding at the Cattenom nuclear power plant
1988 April 28: Release of 5000 Curies of tritium gas from the Bruyere le Chatel military nuclear complex
1988 November 23: Two control rods jammed at Blayais nuclear power plant
1989 April 1: Control rod failure at Gravelines nuclear power plant

1990 January 28: Pump failure during a shut-down at Gravelines nuclear power plant
1990 May 26: During refuelling, five cubic meters of radioactive water spilled at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant
1990 September 16: Superphenix Fast Breeder Reactor is closed down due to technical failures
1990 November 4: 2 workers irradiated during refuelling at Blayais nuclear power plant
1991 June1: Failure of core cooling system at Belleville nuclear power plant
1992 July 22: Two workers contaminated at Dampierre nuclear power plant
1992 July 22: Temperature rise in storage pool at Gravelines nuclear power plant
1992 August 28: Fire in electro-generator at St.Alban nuclear power plant
1993 January 20: Technical failure at Paluel causes subcooling accident
1993 October 22: Instrumentation and Control failure at Saint Alban nuclear power plant

etc.

2008 July 7 and 8 July, at the Tricastin plant in Bollene, 40km from Avignon, in the heart of the Côte du Rhone wine-producing region, a plant malfunction. Some 30,000 litres of a solution containing 12% enriched uranium overflowed from a reservoir into the nearby Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers. A spokesperson for France’s nuclear safety agency, Evangelia Petit, admitted that the concentration of uranium in the two rivers was 1,000 times higher than normal after the spill. Enriched uranium is highly carcinogenic and a potential source of radiation poisoning.

Jakartass

Australian droughts

2008-07-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

"A new report by Australia's top scientists predicts that the country will be hit by a 10-fold increase in heatwaves and that droughts will almost double in frequency and become more widespread because of climate change." - Climate change report like a disaster novel, says Australian minister

~

Time to boycott Tesco?

2008-06-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Tesco_mielec.jpg

1. Tesco is the world's fourth largest retailer.

In 2006, Inverness, in the UK, was branded as "Tescotown", [12][13] because well over 50p in every £1 spent on food is believed to be spent in its three Tesco stores. [14]

2. Jack Cohen founded Tesco in 1909 when he began to sell surplus groceries from a stall in the East End of London. (Tesco - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Shirley, Lady Porter DBE is the daughter and heir of Jack Cohen.

In a review of the biography of Mrs Porter by Andrew Hosken, Nicholas Lezard in The Guardian described her as "...the most corrupt British political figure in living memory, with the possible exception of Robert Maxwell". [1] She retired to Israel in 1993.

3. How fresh is Tesco food?

Audrey Brown, of BBC News, (BBC NEWS Business Out-of-date food in UK supermarkets) reported:

"I saw food past its sell-by date on the fresh food counters... and it was regularly being sold.

"At Tesco, it was re-packaged and re-labelled with a new date and reduced in price, sometimes days after it should have been sold or removed from the shelves.

"A lot of the time, the counter staff treated the meat and fish we were selling with indifference and, worryingly, there were times at Tesco when they had no idea what the real sell-by date was as they had altered it so many times.

"Sometimes it was not until the food smelled bad that it was eventually thrown away."

In a programme for BBC1's Whistleblower, "counter staff at... Tesco falsify food temperature records and flout basic rules of food hygiene such as using different knives for fish, raw meat and cooked meat to prevent cross-contamination of bacteria.

"Undercover footage shows the factory floor of a major supplier of ready meals to Tesco cross-contaminated with urine and faecal matter from employees' boots, and a farm which supplies chickens to Sainsbury's where a bin of dead birds crawling with hundreds of maggots is alongside the area for live birds being reared for sale." - TV film claims Tesco and Sainsbury's stores flout hygiene rules ...

3. According to The Guardian, 31 May 2008:

The magazine Private Eye (May 2008) "identified what it said was a Tesco tax avoidance operation involving a complex web of offshore operations centred on the Swiss canton of Zug.

"These arrangements involved an English limited liability partnership (LLP) called Cheshunt Overseas.

"Cheshunt is the name of the Hertfordshire town where Tesco has its headquarters.

"The Cheshunt Overseas accounts provide grounds for believing that the structure may so far have assisted the international retailer in sheltering more than £66m in profit from UK tax." (Tesco: new claims of tax avoidance)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Hradec_Kr%C3%A1lov%C3%A9_-_Tesco.jpg

4. According to Wikipedia (Tesco - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):

In May 2007 it was revealed that Tesco had moved the head office of its online operations to the tax haven of Switzerland.

In February 2008 a six month investigation by The Guardian revealed that Tesco has developed a complex taxation structure involving offshore bank accounts in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands.[31]

Tesco is in the process of selling its UK stores, worth an estimated £6 billion, to Cayman Island based companies set up by Tesco. These companies then lease the stores back to Tesco.

This arrangement enables Tesco to avoid an estimated £1 billion tax on profits from the property sales, and also to avoid paying any tax on continuing operation of the stores, as the rate of corporation tax in the Cayman Islands is zero.

5. In Thailand, Tesco has been criticised for aggressively pursuing critics of the company. Writer and former MP Jit Siratranont is facing up to two years in jail and a £16.4m libel damages claim for saying that Tesco was expanding aggressively at the expense of small local retailers.

Tesco served him with writs for criminal defamation and civil libel.[90]

6. Criticism of Tesco includes allegations of stifling competition due to its undeveloped "land bank",[91] pugilistically aggressive new store development without real consideration of the wishes, needs and consequences to local communities,[92] using cheap and/or child labour,[93][94] opposition to its move into the convenience sector[95] and breaching planning laws.[96]

7. It's time to close down the big supermarkets because they do more harm than good.

Walmart and Tesco are examples of big supermarkets.

"Wal-Mart may drive prices down, but it drags the quality of life for millions of people down with it.

"With hundreds of employees dependent on public assistance to meet their basic needs, American taxpayers subsidize Wal-Mart's low prices at the rate of roughly $420,750 a year for every 200-employee store by paying for low-income services...

"Wal-Mart hurts U.S. communities by undercutting local merchants and increasing urban sprawl, and its suppliers have been cited for labor and human rights violations." - Responsible Shopper Profile: Wal-Mart:

8. "I've had a big notice in my shop window for a few weeks "the shop that Tesco cannot close" along with photos of the 50 empty shops in our town.

"There's a huge Tesco here, and the town centre is in a bad way.

"I think that small scale retail is just about dead ..." -clearwood.co.uk (Comment is free: Tesco the superweed)

Tesco is to open a third store in the town of Dumfries.

"Tesco would take about 60% of all money being spent in the town." Traders fear third Tesco's impact

9. In 2006, Felicity Lawrence wrote in the Guardian (Comment is free: Tesco the superweed):

"The trouble with weeds is that left unchecked they become invasive and strangle everything else. Tesco has spread uncontrolled with frightening speed. In some parts of the country it has 45% of the grocery market...

"Tesco... subverts the democratic process as it forces through planning permissions against community wishes; it added 2m sq ft of sales space last year alone...

"It suffocates independent shops and markets; it uses its power to squeeze its suppliers...

"The supermarket sector, with its just-in-time ordering that requires casual labour to be turned on and off like a tap, and its new packhouse industries, has been one of the most prolific creators of demand for trafficked labour."

10. "In Bangladesh young women are working for as little as 5p an hour to make clothes for Asda and Tesco while working up to 14 hours a day for weeks on end... Tesco reported annual profits of more than £2.5bn last week" - 6p a T-shirt. 30p an hour for shelling cashews. Supermarkets accused of exploiting women

Epidemic of Extinctions

2008-05-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

The Living Planet Index, produced by WWF, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network, says:

1. land species have declined by 25 per cent,

2. marine life by 28 per cent,

3. freshwater species by 29 per cent.

(See: An Epidemic of Extinctions: Decimation of Life on Earth ...)

The causes are reported to be:

1. climate change,

2. pollution,

3. the destruction of animals' natural habitat,

4. the spread of invasive species,

5. the overexploitation of species.

Jonathan Loh, editor of the report, said the sharp fall was "completely unprecedented in terms of human history. You'd have to go back to the extinction of the dinosaurs to see a decline as rapid as this."

Scientists say the current extinction rate is now up to 10,000 times faster than what has historically been recorded as normal.

According to James Leape, director general of WWF:

"Reduced biodiversity means millions of people face a future where food supplies are more vulnerable to pests and disease and where water is in irregular or short supply.

"No one can escape the impact of biodiversity loss because reduced global diversity translates quite clearly into fewer new medicines, greater vulnerability to natural disasters and greater effects from global warming. The industrialised world needs to be supporting the global effort to achieve these targets, not just in their own territories where a lot of biodiversity has already been lost, but also globally."

~~

North Pole could be ice free in 2008

2008-04-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

Carbon Dioxide, Solar Activity and Climate Change

2008-04-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

"Scientists have shown that in the earth’s geological past, concentrations of carbon dioxide have been up to 20 times higher than they are at present and temperatures have been considerably warmer. The two most recent warming periods occurred during Roman Times from 200BC to 600 AD and Medieval Times from 900AD to 1300AD, when Greenland was green and grapes grew in England. The Little Ice Age followed.

"Current temperature trends show a warm period between 1920 and 1940, followed by a cooling phase. There was a sudden warming surge from 1976 to 1978 and another in 1998. Since then the weather has been cooler. The year 1934 has emerged as the warmest of the 20th century. This, along with the evidence of those historical warm periods, confirms that man-made greenhouse gas emissions cannot possibly be the cause of the earth’s warming.

"The very latest scientific research shows that the climate operates on a 1,500-year cycle and is driven by a complex interaction of solar activity including sunspots and cosmic rays, winds, deep ocean currents, as well as cloud and precipitation cycles..." - Unstoppable Climate Change

"Scientists have produced further compelling evidence showing that modern-day climate change is not caused by changes in the Sun's activity.

"The research contradicts a favoured theory of climate "sceptics", that changes in cosmic rays coming to Earth determine cloudiness and temperature.

"The idea is that variations in solar activity affect cosmic ray intensity.

But Lancaster University scientists found there has been no significant link between them in the last 20 years." - 'No Sun link' to climate change

~~

Climate change due to solar radiation and human emissions

2008-03-22T10:47:00.001-07:00

When we look at climate change we have to look at changes in

(1) solar radiation

(2) human emissions of CO2.

Professor Peter Cox, a climate expert at the UK's University of Exeter, has studied the Little Ice Age, 400 years ago (Geographical Research letters Vol 33; New Scientist 22 March 2008). (Rising temperatures bring their own CO2 / Grains of Sand)

Cox has noted that:

This Little Ice Age began with reduced solar radiation due to a variation in sunspots.

When it gets colder, the oceans, and eventually the land, absorb more CO2.

So CO2 levels went down after the Little Ice Age began.

Cox notes that when temperatures rise, due to increased solar radiation, there is eventually a rise in CO2 levels.

The oceans and the land absorb less CO2

The temperature rise comes first, and is followed by the rise in CO2.

Cox believes that what we have now, in the present time, is both a rise in CO2 levels due to increased solar radiation and an increase due to human-made emissions.

Things are worse than we thought, argues Cox.

According to Cox (Rising temperatures bring their own CO2):

"There seems to be a change of about 40 parts per million (ppm) in CO2 levels for every 1 °C change in temperature.

"Since further global warming is inevitable in the near future, it means we're heading for big natural increases in CO2 on top of human-made emissions.

"This extra increase will boost global warming in the coming century to about 50 per cent above mainstream climate projections, says Cox, because they only include the effect of CO2 on temperature, and not temperature's effect on CO2.

"The system turns out to be more sensitive than we thought. If we get 4 °C of warming in the coming century, that by itself will raise CO2 levels by an extra 160 ppm."

Pre-industrial levels of CO 2 were 270 ppm

Current levels of CO2 are 380 ppm

Many scientists believe there will be a devastating global climate at 450 ppm.

Stem Rust could cause mass starvation

2008-03-20T01:37:00.000-07:00

In the past, scientists were able to develop strains of wheat that were resistant to a fungus called stem rust.

But, stem rust has now appeared in a new form.

Ug99, a strain of black stem rust fungus, could destroy most of the world's wheat crops.

It has already spread from Africa to Iran. (Fears over wheat prices after disease spreads)

Ug99 stem rust began in Uganda in 1999.

It has already destroyed harvests in Kenya (2001) and Ethiopia (2003).

Stem rust spores have blown across the Red Sea into the Arabian peninsula and infected wheat fields in Yemen (2007) and Iran (2008). Spores have also blown northwards into Sudan.

Experts believe Egypt, Turkey, the Middle East, India and Pakistan could be affected.

Millions of people could face starvation. (Millions face famine as crop disease rages Science The Observer)

Global warming in China

2008-03-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

Stop

2008-02-13T13:52:00.001-08:00

Islands at Risk: Genetic Engineering in Hawaii

2008-02-12T11:28:00.001-08:00

Destruction

2008-01-25T08:37:00.000-08:00

Satellite images show widespread destruction of Amazon rainforest

Environment and development How green is their growth

Cuba and Peak Oil

2008-01-10T04:16:00.001-08:00

Sir David Attenborough: The Truth About Climate Change

2008-01-05T09:19:00.000-08:00

Evidence of climate change?

2007-12-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Global_Warming_Predictions.png‎

According to The Canadian Press -Weather extremes: records broken in heat waves in North America ... :

"'Across North America, severe to extreme drought was present across large parts of the western U.S. and Upper Midwest, including southern Ontario, Canada, for much of 2007,' the World Meteorological Organization said...

"Major U.S. lakes shrank; Atlanta had to worry about its drinking water supply...

"In November, Atlanta's main water source, Lake Lanier, shrank to an all-time low. Lake Okeechobee, crucial to south Florida, hit its lowest level in recorded history in May, exposing muck and debris not seen for decades. Lake Superior, the biggest and deepest of the Great Lakes, dropped to its lowest August and September levels in history.

"Los Angeles hit its driest year on record. Lakes fed by the Colorado River and which help supply water for more than 20 million westerners, were only half full.

"Australia, already a dry continent, suffered its worst drought in a century, making global warming an election issue."

Destruction of Forests

2007-12-11T05:03:00.001-08:00

Category: Photographs by Graham Bould

"Sumatra has lost a staggering 80 per cent of its old growth forest in an orgy of logging, both legal and illegal, over the past 30 years, putting it in a league occupied only by Kalimantan - Indonesian Borneo - and the eastern Amazon...

"A failure of officialdom to enforce the rules in logging concessions means too much timber is taken out.

"A similar failure to enforce land rights, despite the fact that the government owns all forest land, often the result of corruption at all levels, means illegal loggers move in, often in collusion with illegal squatters." - Indonesia destroys forests as Bali looks for solution

"When the trees are gone, the ground temperature increases to as high as 70 degrees" Celsius, said Indonesian forestry worker Jonotoro...

"Because of the destruction of the forests Indonesia has become the third-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activity, behind the US and China.

Indonesia, host of the world climate conference now under way on the resort island of Bali, plans to make protection of tropical forests an important topic during the meeting. In particular, Jakarta wants to be financially compensated for taking steps to protect the forests...

The problem is that while the central government in Jakarta has passed a number of laws to protect the forest, local officials can be bribed to ignore them. - Demand for palm oil sets off wave of deforestation

"In South America, the loss of 4.3 million hectares a year is driven in part by meat consumption that encourages conversion of forests to pasture lands throughout the region. In Ecuador, road building has been a major cause of deforestation.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, fuelwood extraction and charcoal production are factors behind the continent's loss of 4 million hectares a year...

"Since forest property rights are often very unclear, payment for carbon services could end up providing incentives for corrupt officials or local elites to appropriate this new forest value from local communities." - Scientists warn forest carbon payment schemes could increase poverty

~~~

Bali climate change talks

2007-12-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

Climate change talks are taking place in Bali, Indonesia, December 2007.

A fifth of Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, may be permanently flooded by 2050, Indonesian officials believe. (Jakarta faces perils of warming, inaction)

Jakarta's international airport may soon be surrounded by water and accessible only by boat.

Many of Jakarta's slums and luxury housing developments will be submerged, said Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia's environment minister.

One of the problems in Indonesia has been the cutting down of vast numbers of trees.

Some people believe that China has overtaken the U.S. as the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

But China questions the fairness of binding cuts when its per capita emissions are about one-sixth of America's.

China says it has only been pumping pollutants into the atmosphere for a few decades, whereas the West has done so for hundreds of years. (China Says West Should Deal With Warming)

The USA has not yet signed up to the Kyoto agreement.

The USA opposes Kyoto because it does not include major polluters like China and India.

~~

Australia's drought

2007-11-24T08:53:00.000-08:00

"The leading scientific body in Australia - the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation - this week predicted that rainfall in parts of eastern Australia could drop by 40% by 2070, along with a 7C rise in temperature." - Australia suffers worst drought in 1000 years Special reports ...

"One of the biggest changes will be in Australia's approach to climate change. Rudd has nominated the issue as his top priority, and promises to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions. When he does so, the United States will stand alone as the only industrialised country not to have signed the pact." - Howard's reign in Australia ends

~~

Survival

2007-11-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Survival of the Fittest - Galapagos Islands

Sell Off - Surinam

Wave of Change - Maldives

~~

Scientists and climate change

2007-10-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

Why you should read the New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/home.ns

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed - earth - 16 May 2007 ...

Can we trust the science?
• Chaotic systems are not predictable
• We can't trust computer models of climate
• Many leading scientists question climate change
• It's all a conspiracy
• They predicted global cooling in the 1970s
Is the sun to blame?
• Global warming is down to the Sun, not humans
• It’s all down to cosmic rays
Does CO2 cause warming?
• Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter
• CO2 isn't the most important greenhouse gas
• Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises, disproving the link to global warming
• Ice cores show CO2 rising as temperatures fell
• The cooling after 1940 shows CO2 does not cause warming
What happened in the past?
• The 'hockey stick' graph has been proven wrong
• It's been far warmer in the past, what's the big deal?
• It was warmer during the Medieval period, with vineyards in England
• We are simply recovering from the Little Ice Age
What is happening now?
• Mars and Pluto are warming too
• Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer, disproving global warming
• Polar bear numbers are increasing
• The lower atmosphere is cooling, not warming
• The oceans are cooling
What is going to happen?
• Warming will cause an ice age in Europe
• Higher CO2 levels will boost plant growth and food production
• Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming
Why should I worry?
• It's too cold where I live - warming will be great
• We can't do anything about climate change
We also published a blog to accompany this special, looking at the history of climate science

~~

Climate change disaster is upon us, warns UN

2007-10-06T01:09:00.000-07:00

A record number of floods, droughts and storms around the world this year amount to a climate change "mega disaster", the United Nation's emergency relief coordinator, Sir John Holmes, has warned.
Climate change disaster is upon us, warns UN

Staying cheerful without drugs; natural remedies

2007-09-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Laughter_2_by_David_Shankbone.jpg

A Natural Cure for Depression : Potatoes for Breakfast, Then a Vigorous Very Early Morning Walk in the Sunshine - The McDougall Newsletter March 2004 - A Natural Cure for Depression

"A single night of total or partial sleep deprivation, called 'wake therapy,' induces rapid and dramatic improvement of mood in about 60% of all depressed patients, independent of the kind of depression the person suffers."

"Get more sunlight exposure by spending more daylight hours outside."

"High carbohydrate intakes have been found to improve the moods of people." (Not sugar - ingestion of sugar provides transient relief, followed by an exacerbation of symptoms several hours later - Natural Remedies for Depression)

"Exercise was found to be equally as effective as medications in reducing depression among those suffering from major depressive disorders."

~~~

Natural Remedies for Depression

"Supplementation with the amino acids L-tyrosine and D, L-phenylalanine can in many cases be used as an alternative to antidepressant drugs. Another particularly effective treatment is the amino acid L-tryptophan."

(Eating quality food is the most common way to get amino acids into the diet, especially high protein foods like lean meats and nonfat dairy products.)

"Studies indicate vitamin B6 supplementation is valuable for a subset of depressed patients... folic acid deficiency may be a contributing factor in some cases of depression... Vitamin B12 deficiency can also manifest as depression."

"Vitamin C may be valuable for patients with depression."

"Magnesium deficiency may be a factor in some cases of depression.

"St. John's wort ... is licensed in Germany and other European countries as a treatment for mild to moderate depression."

(The Medicines Control Agency issued a warning on March 1st 2000 that patients who are on a long list of drugs should stop taking St John's wort until they have consulted their GP or pharmacist. Medications for asthma, epilepsy, depression, migraine and heart problems are all implicated. St John's wort - a natural remedy for depression? )

"Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) extract... In addition to the significant improvement in symptoms of depression for the ginkgo group, there was also a noted improvement in overall cognitive function."

(Consult your doctor first if you are taking anti-coagulants e.g. aspirin and warfarin, monoamine oxidase inhibitors MAOI or are pregnant or breast-feeding. Ginkgo Biloba - Gingko Biloba Tablets)

Climate Change

2007-08-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Ten-year climate model unveiled

BBC - Climate Change - from the BBC Weather Centre

Sun

2007-07-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

'Sun not behind global warming'

Climate Change - More Heat than Light in discussion on solar magnetic flux and temperature record

INDONESIA: Forest clearing to accelerate

Emissions

2007-06-16T01:49:00.000-07:00

The truth about the USA and Greenhouse gas emissions - "Over the entire period from 1990 to 2004, the difference is stark.1 During those 15 years, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions grew more than 15% while emissions from the 15 countries of the European Union (the EU-15) declined by around 1%.2 Moreover, calculating the index of emissions for any set of years between 1990 and 2004 other than 2000-2004, European greenhouse gas emissions either grew more slowly than U.S. emissions or actually declined.3 " Cached

Indonesia threatened by global warming, rising sea levels

Lab experiments on animals don't work? "Scientists seem to think that as long as animals are kept in roughly comparable conditions, experiments on them will produce meaningful results. In fact evidence is mounting that the standard lab conditions are stressful enough to affect the animals' physiology, and enough so to swamp the effects of an experimental perturbation or drug." - Ignoring stress in lab animals could mar research - opinion - 02 ...

Bush and Global Warming

2007-05-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Asian haze; Asian brown cloud

A kid doing a funny scene of Bush on Global Warming

Climate Change

2007-05-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

Climate study: Eastern US 'going to get a lot hotter'

Climate of change gives Murdoch a new face

Climate Change threatens Caribbean Tourism

Global Forest Watch: Indonesia