Tesco is expected to announce record profits of over £2.2 billion tomorrow (Tuesday 25 April). But Friends of the Earth warned that Tesco's continuing success is partly based on trading practices that have serious consequences for suppliers, farmers, overseas workers, local shops and the environment [1].
Friends of the Earth Supermarkets Campaigner Sandra Bell said:
"Tesco's booming profits come at a cost with consumers, farmers and our environment paying the price. It is time to put the breaks on the Tesco juggernaut. The Government and competition authorities must recognise the value of small shops to local communities and create an environment that allows retail choice to flourish.
Tesco has grown unchecked by the competition authorities and aided by a planning system which has not been robust enough to stop it building new stores and extensions even where there is strong local opposition. In the last few years Tesco has:
*
Taken over convenience stores with no intervention from the competition authorities.
*
More than tripled the proportion of floorspace in its huge Tesco Extra hypermarkets (over the last five years).
*
Significantly extended existing stores without planning permission by inserting mezzanine floors [1].
*
Created `Tesco towns' where it has over 45 per cent of the market share.
Some consumers/communities are beginning to say enough is enough. More and more communities all over the country are fighting Tesco plans to open new stores [2].
Recent surveys suggest that customer loyalty is being shaken as people learn the truth about the companies bully tactics. Tesco's corporate image slipped on YouGov's brand-index, which measures consumer attitudes to brands on a day-by-day basis, after media coverage of anti-Tesco campaigners. And a study of consumer attitudes to the top supermarkets, by brand market research consultancy Millward Brown, found that while Tesco was still the most popular brand its brand loyalty rating had fallen sharply since 2003.
There is speculation that Tesco will announce funding for new environmental measures alongside its profits tomorrow. But Friends of the Earth said that Tesco would have to fundamentally change the way it does business to reduce its negative environmental impacts. This would include sourcing a lot more of its food from the UK instead of flying it across the world.
The environmental campaign group pointed out that local shops tend to be more energy efficient than huge supermarkets - per square foot supermarkets emit three times more carbon dioxide than greengrocers and it would take more than sixty greengrocers to match the carbon dioxide emissions from a single average superstore [3].
Friends of the Earth wants a rapid and thorough review of the grocery market by the Competition Commission, who have the power to break up the supermarket monopolies and a swift rewriting of the supermarket Code of Practice to protect their suppliers.
[1] Friends of the Earth survey 2006
[2] See www.tescopoly.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=213&Itemid=103
[3] Sheffield Hallam University (2002) Energy use in the United Kingdom non-domestic building stock
Monday, April 24, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
Maradona keen to lead Argentina
Diego Maradona believes he has a chance of coaching Argentina - if current boss Jose Pekerman does not lead them to World Cup success this summer.
Argentine legend Maradona, 45, said: "There is a willingness of Argentina Football Association boss Julio Grondona to have me work as a coach.
"If Pekerman wins the World Cup, I could work with the youth squads."
Asked about Argentina's 2006 chances, he added: "We must be cautious. We came back early from the last World Cup."
He stated: "The boys know that in Korea-Japan we made history. So that error will serve as an example for us to do things in a different way."
The former Argentina player made 91 apperances and scored 34 goals for the national side and helped them to World Cup glory in 1986.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
IRAQ: Breaking the Silence
A prominent former insider is criticizing the administration’s handling of Iraq’s reconstruction. And there’s more to come.
by Michael Hirsh, Newsweek
March 22nd, 2006
Andrew Natsios has taken a lot of flak over his role in Iraq. The longtime director of America's foreign-aid program has been pilloried for his April 2003 remark, in an ABC News interview, that the U.S. government would spend no more than $1.7 billion to rebuild Iraq. In the ensuing three years, Natsios, a lifelong Republican, has played the loyal soldier for the administration. He regularly defended the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq even as he was lumped with other errant prognosticators like Paul Wolfowitz (That's “wildly off the mark") and Dick Cheney ("We will be greeted as liberators"). After Natsios resigned in January to take a teaching post at Georgetown University, he maintained his silence about Iraq.
But this week, for the first time, Natsios publicly gave vent to his long-suppressed frustrations over the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq occupation. In an interview with NEWSWEEK on Tuesday, he harshly criticized the Coalition Provisional Authority led by L. Paul Bremer III for botching the reconstruction effort and allowing ill-qualified or corrupt contractors to dominate it. "They didn't have [monitoring] systems set up. They were very dismissive of these processes," he said. His U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was marginalized despite its expertise, and the CPA "didn't hire the best people," he said. "We were just watching it unfold. They [the CPA] were constantly hitting at our people, screaming at them. They were abusive."
Natsios's low-cost estimate from April 2003, he made clear, was not based on the kind of chaotic, top-heavy occupation that he says Bremer eventually installed in Iraq but on the more traditional, streamlined U.S. aid effort that Natsios had urged.
NATSIOSDan Senor, former spokesman for Bremer’s CPA, dismissed Natsios’s criticisms, saying the insurgency in Iraq made ordinary contracting procedures impossible. "I'm not familiar with the traditional USAID program that was recommended,” Senor told NEWSWEEK. “If it was traditional and conventional, it may have made sense for the reconstruction of Switzerland. But it sounds like it was completely irrelevant to the facts and conditions on the ground that we found in Iraq.” Senor added that the CPA had "recruited some of the top career Foreign Service officers from the State Department to serve in the CPA's management roles. We would have welcomed suggestions—from Andrew or anyone else—of who would have been better experienced.”
Natsios, who served as USAID director for nearly five years and was considered one of the top development and aid experts in Washington, says that his advice was largely ignored. Other administration officials, usually speaking anonymously, have backed Natsios's dim view of the CPA's competence level. The conventional wisdom today is that while most CPA officials were enthusiastic and brave, too many were inexperienced and second-rate.
Natsios’s criticisms mark another significant milestone in the great Republican crackup over Iraq—especially since they came on the same day that President Bush reiterated, at a news conference, that he would not ask any senior staff to resign in connection with the mess in Mesopotamia. The president’s refusal to consider replacing senior officials, especially Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has angered many Republicans, as well as Democrats, who say the administration needs to show a sense of accountability for its many mistakes in Iraq. At the very least, Natsios’s criticisms represent the latest effort by a Bush supporter to distance himself from America's new quagmire. Bremer himself, in his new book, "My Year in Iraq" (Simon and Schuster), blames Rumsfeld for many of his problems as viceroy, while other notable GOP stalwarts such as William F. Buckley have emerged as critics of the war.
And there is much more to come, especially on the little-noticed issue of contracting in Iraq, which the watchdog group Transparency International last year warned could become “the biggest corruption scandal in history." The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is expected to issue a harshly critical report in May concluding that the CPA did not have disciplined contracting procedures in place, according to several people involved in drafting the report. If the Democrats manage to get control of the House later this year, it's all going to come in an avalanche of subpoenas and new investigations. Not that the Republicans have been entirely sitting on their hands. When Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, agreed to subpoena records of funds transmitted to Iraq, his House Government Reform Subcommittee learned that nearly $12 billion in U.S. currency was shipped to Iraq from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, much of it with little accountability.
Shays is also conducting hearings on the administration's efforts to silence whistle-blowers who ferret out corruption and other problems. "The administration seems to have a deaf ear to this issue," Shays told NEWSWEEK. "I would like to hear a little outrage on the part of the administration. I don't hear that outrage. Because you don't hear that outrage you then feel the administration doesn't care about these issues … It needs to come from the secretary [of Defense]. When you have men and women dying on the battlefield and you have corruption, then you've got a problem."
But the Defense Department has avoided conceding this point, just as Rumsfeld himself has testily rejected responsibility for such critical errors as misreading the number of troops needed for the occupation and downplaying the insurgency.
The Pentagon has consistently declined to send a permanent auditing team to Iraq despite prodding from Congress. “We do not have auditors on the ground in Iraq,” acting Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble admitted in testimony late last year before Shays’s subcommittee. (“I don't understand why,” retorted Shays.) The Defense Department argued that its IG team was not needed because Congress had set up its own auditing arm for Iraq called the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction. But that congressionally authorized IG was only supposed to be looking at reconstruction contracts, not security, fuel or other Pentagon contracts. In his testimony last fall, Gimble said his office was acting in a support role from Washington to help the special inspector general, Stuart Bowen. But Special Inspector General spokesman Jim Mitchell told NEWSWEEK. “That wasn’t the case.”
In response to the criticism from such Republicans as Shays, Sen. Charles Grassley and others, the Pentagon IG finally opened an office in Qatar—earlier this month. IG spokesman Gary Comerford says Gimble made the move after he went to the region and talked with CENTCOM commander Gen. John Abizaid, among others. “They said primarily what we need down there are auditors, not only for Iraq, but Afghanistan and for DoD assets in Kuwait,” Comerford said. For many critics, the move came far too late. “Their answer to the criticism is to open an office within a thousand miles of Baghdad,” cracked one U.S. official involved in the auditing process who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At the same time critics of the contracting morass in Iraq—which former CPA advisor Franklin Willis once called a “free-fraud zone”—have raised serious issues about conflicts of interest in Iraq. These questions also have gone largely unanswered. Late last year, the Defense Department’s IG, Joseph Schmitz, resigned and took a senior position with Blackwater USA, one of the private companies contracted to handle security in Iraq. Because the CPA in Iraq fell under the Pentagon’s authority, a company like Blackwater would nominally be under the IG’s purview. In a series of articles last year, the Los Angeles Times suggested that Schmitz, a conservative Republican, had gone out of his way to protect John A. (Jack) Shaw, a deputy undersecretary of Defense involved in Iraq contracting who was later fired by the Pentagon. Another government department is conducting a separate investigation of Schmitz’s tenure as IG as well.
Asked to respond, IG spokesman Comerford noted that Schmitz had signed a letter recusing himself from Blackwater-related business while still at the Pentagon. Comerford also said the IG had done 33 audits during Schmitz’s tenure, and he noted that each of the military services has its own Inspector General’s office. Comerford told NEWSWEEK there were presently audits under way of two Iraq contractors connected with public relations in the global war on terror, the Lincoln Group and the Rendon Group.
Both were also requested by Congress, the former by Sen. Ted Kennedy and the latter by yet another skeptical Republican, Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina. Despite those ongoing audits, the Pentagon has determined that the Lincoln Group did not violate policy in planting propaganda in Iraqi newspapers, The New York Times reported Wednesday. A Rendon Group official told NEWSWEEK: "As we understand it, the IG investigation was requested by Congress in response to media reports that wrongly characterized the Rendon Group as having a role in public-relations work in the leadup to the war in Iraq. We expect the IG report will clear up the confusion." Lincoln Group president Paige Craig initially told NEWSWEEK that he believed there was no audit, only a “special review.” Craig later called back to confirm that his firm was being audited.
On yet another front, the Justice Department continues to decline to join a whistle-blower case against a security contractor called Custer Battles, despite a March 9 jury verdict that found the company had defrauded the U.S. government out of millions of dollars in Iraq. In a statement issued after the verdict, Senator Grassley noted that “war profiteering is what led President Lincoln to support the original False Claims Act,” under which the Custer Battles case was pursued. Typically, the U.S. government will back the efforts of whistle-blowers—in this case two former executives of Custer Battles who were appalled by the fraud—but the Bush administration has maintained its silence. “I remain concerned as to why the Justice Department chose not to join this case,” Grassley said. Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson, asked to respond, said, “I don’t have anything immediately for you.”
It will take a long time for the contracting mess in Iraq to be sorted out, if it ever is. Natsios says he warned about what might happen if standard procedures, known as Federal Acquisition Regulations, were ignored. "I told Bremer and the CPA that we were following federal law and we were going to implement according to federal statutes so there weren't any scandals. And there weren't any with USAID. But we were criticized for following federal law." Regarding firms like Custer Battles, Natsios added: "The contractors they chose weren't the best people. I heard lots of stories. The staff would come in and say a group of retired officers has set up a business and they got this contract, and they didn't have any qualifications for it."
Jim Mitchell, the spokesman for the special Iraqi inspector general, says his office is currently looking at 57 possible cases of corruption and fraud, and he expects more arrests in coming days. But only four contractors and officials have been arrested so far. That's not a lot, considering the potential size of the Iraq corruption problem. Maybe it really is a free-fraud zone.
by Michael Hirsh, Newsweek
March 22nd, 2006
Andrew Natsios has taken a lot of flak over his role in Iraq. The longtime director of America's foreign-aid program has been pilloried for his April 2003 remark, in an ABC News interview, that the U.S. government would spend no more than $1.7 billion to rebuild Iraq. In the ensuing three years, Natsios, a lifelong Republican, has played the loyal soldier for the administration. He regularly defended the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq even as he was lumped with other errant prognosticators like Paul Wolfowitz (That's “wildly off the mark") and Dick Cheney ("We will be greeted as liberators"). After Natsios resigned in January to take a teaching post at Georgetown University, he maintained his silence about Iraq.
But this week, for the first time, Natsios publicly gave vent to his long-suppressed frustrations over the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq occupation. In an interview with NEWSWEEK on Tuesday, he harshly criticized the Coalition Provisional Authority led by L. Paul Bremer III for botching the reconstruction effort and allowing ill-qualified or corrupt contractors to dominate it. "They didn't have [monitoring] systems set up. They were very dismissive of these processes," he said. His U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was marginalized despite its expertise, and the CPA "didn't hire the best people," he said. "We were just watching it unfold. They [the CPA] were constantly hitting at our people, screaming at them. They were abusive."
Natsios's low-cost estimate from April 2003, he made clear, was not based on the kind of chaotic, top-heavy occupation that he says Bremer eventually installed in Iraq but on the more traditional, streamlined U.S. aid effort that Natsios had urged.
NATSIOSDan Senor, former spokesman for Bremer’s CPA, dismissed Natsios’s criticisms, saying the insurgency in Iraq made ordinary contracting procedures impossible. "I'm not familiar with the traditional USAID program that was recommended,” Senor told NEWSWEEK. “If it was traditional and conventional, it may have made sense for the reconstruction of Switzerland. But it sounds like it was completely irrelevant to the facts and conditions on the ground that we found in Iraq.” Senor added that the CPA had "recruited some of the top career Foreign Service officers from the State Department to serve in the CPA's management roles. We would have welcomed suggestions—from Andrew or anyone else—of who would have been better experienced.”
Natsios, who served as USAID director for nearly five years and was considered one of the top development and aid experts in Washington, says that his advice was largely ignored. Other administration officials, usually speaking anonymously, have backed Natsios's dim view of the CPA's competence level. The conventional wisdom today is that while most CPA officials were enthusiastic and brave, too many were inexperienced and second-rate.
Natsios’s criticisms mark another significant milestone in the great Republican crackup over Iraq—especially since they came on the same day that President Bush reiterated, at a news conference, that he would not ask any senior staff to resign in connection with the mess in Mesopotamia. The president’s refusal to consider replacing senior officials, especially Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has angered many Republicans, as well as Democrats, who say the administration needs to show a sense of accountability for its many mistakes in Iraq. At the very least, Natsios’s criticisms represent the latest effort by a Bush supporter to distance himself from America's new quagmire. Bremer himself, in his new book, "My Year in Iraq" (Simon and Schuster), blames Rumsfeld for many of his problems as viceroy, while other notable GOP stalwarts such as William F. Buckley have emerged as critics of the war.
And there is much more to come, especially on the little-noticed issue of contracting in Iraq, which the watchdog group Transparency International last year warned could become “the biggest corruption scandal in history." The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is expected to issue a harshly critical report in May concluding that the CPA did not have disciplined contracting procedures in place, according to several people involved in drafting the report. If the Democrats manage to get control of the House later this year, it's all going to come in an avalanche of subpoenas and new investigations. Not that the Republicans have been entirely sitting on their hands. When Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, agreed to subpoena records of funds transmitted to Iraq, his House Government Reform Subcommittee learned that nearly $12 billion in U.S. currency was shipped to Iraq from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, much of it with little accountability.
Shays is also conducting hearings on the administration's efforts to silence whistle-blowers who ferret out corruption and other problems. "The administration seems to have a deaf ear to this issue," Shays told NEWSWEEK. "I would like to hear a little outrage on the part of the administration. I don't hear that outrage. Because you don't hear that outrage you then feel the administration doesn't care about these issues … It needs to come from the secretary [of Defense]. When you have men and women dying on the battlefield and you have corruption, then you've got a problem."
But the Defense Department has avoided conceding this point, just as Rumsfeld himself has testily rejected responsibility for such critical errors as misreading the number of troops needed for the occupation and downplaying the insurgency.
The Pentagon has consistently declined to send a permanent auditing team to Iraq despite prodding from Congress. “We do not have auditors on the ground in Iraq,” acting Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble admitted in testimony late last year before Shays’s subcommittee. (“I don't understand why,” retorted Shays.) The Defense Department argued that its IG team was not needed because Congress had set up its own auditing arm for Iraq called the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction. But that congressionally authorized IG was only supposed to be looking at reconstruction contracts, not security, fuel or other Pentagon contracts. In his testimony last fall, Gimble said his office was acting in a support role from Washington to help the special inspector general, Stuart Bowen. But Special Inspector General spokesman Jim Mitchell told NEWSWEEK. “That wasn’t the case.”
In response to the criticism from such Republicans as Shays, Sen. Charles Grassley and others, the Pentagon IG finally opened an office in Qatar—earlier this month. IG spokesman Gary Comerford says Gimble made the move after he went to the region and talked with CENTCOM commander Gen. John Abizaid, among others. “They said primarily what we need down there are auditors, not only for Iraq, but Afghanistan and for DoD assets in Kuwait,” Comerford said. For many critics, the move came far too late. “Their answer to the criticism is to open an office within a thousand miles of Baghdad,” cracked one U.S. official involved in the auditing process who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At the same time critics of the contracting morass in Iraq—which former CPA advisor Franklin Willis once called a “free-fraud zone”—have raised serious issues about conflicts of interest in Iraq. These questions also have gone largely unanswered. Late last year, the Defense Department’s IG, Joseph Schmitz, resigned and took a senior position with Blackwater USA, one of the private companies contracted to handle security in Iraq. Because the CPA in Iraq fell under the Pentagon’s authority, a company like Blackwater would nominally be under the IG’s purview. In a series of articles last year, the Los Angeles Times suggested that Schmitz, a conservative Republican, had gone out of his way to protect John A. (Jack) Shaw, a deputy undersecretary of Defense involved in Iraq contracting who was later fired by the Pentagon. Another government department is conducting a separate investigation of Schmitz’s tenure as IG as well.
Asked to respond, IG spokesman Comerford noted that Schmitz had signed a letter recusing himself from Blackwater-related business while still at the Pentagon. Comerford also said the IG had done 33 audits during Schmitz’s tenure, and he noted that each of the military services has its own Inspector General’s office. Comerford told NEWSWEEK there were presently audits under way of two Iraq contractors connected with public relations in the global war on terror, the Lincoln Group and the Rendon Group.
Both were also requested by Congress, the former by Sen. Ted Kennedy and the latter by yet another skeptical Republican, Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina. Despite those ongoing audits, the Pentagon has determined that the Lincoln Group did not violate policy in planting propaganda in Iraqi newspapers, The New York Times reported Wednesday. A Rendon Group official told NEWSWEEK: "As we understand it, the IG investigation was requested by Congress in response to media reports that wrongly characterized the Rendon Group as having a role in public-relations work in the leadup to the war in Iraq. We expect the IG report will clear up the confusion." Lincoln Group president Paige Craig initially told NEWSWEEK that he believed there was no audit, only a “special review.” Craig later called back to confirm that his firm was being audited.
On yet another front, the Justice Department continues to decline to join a whistle-blower case against a security contractor called Custer Battles, despite a March 9 jury verdict that found the company had defrauded the U.S. government out of millions of dollars in Iraq. In a statement issued after the verdict, Senator Grassley noted that “war profiteering is what led President Lincoln to support the original False Claims Act,” under which the Custer Battles case was pursued. Typically, the U.S. government will back the efforts of whistle-blowers—in this case two former executives of Custer Battles who were appalled by the fraud—but the Bush administration has maintained its silence. “I remain concerned as to why the Justice Department chose not to join this case,” Grassley said. Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson, asked to respond, said, “I don’t have anything immediately for you.”
It will take a long time for the contracting mess in Iraq to be sorted out, if it ever is. Natsios says he warned about what might happen if standard procedures, known as Federal Acquisition Regulations, were ignored. "I told Bremer and the CPA that we were following federal law and we were going to implement according to federal statutes so there weren't any scandals. And there weren't any with USAID. But we were criticized for following federal law." Regarding firms like Custer Battles, Natsios added: "The contractors they chose weren't the best people. I heard lots of stories. The staff would come in and say a group of retired officers has set up a business and they got this contract, and they didn't have any qualifications for it."
Jim Mitchell, the spokesman for the special Iraqi inspector general, says his office is currently looking at 57 possible cases of corruption and fraud, and he expects more arrests in coming days. But only four contractors and officials have been arrested so far. That's not a lot, considering the potential size of the Iraq corruption problem. Maybe it really is a free-fraud zone.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Here they are again... (More Blood for us)
US sending agents to Triple Frontier
An undetermined number of agents from Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE, are due to arrive in Brazil within 60 days, and in neighbouring Argentina and Paraguay a few weeks later. (AP)
An undetermined number of agents from Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE, are due to arrive in Brazil within 60 days, and in neighbouring Argentina and Paraguay a few weeks later. (AP)
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
Bhopal survivors take a padayatra to the capital
Nityanand Jayaraman
26 February 2006
On February 23, 2006, Day 4 of the padayatra, we heard from the marchers. Sathyu Sarangi, one of the marchers, called from Pillukhedi, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, with breathtaking spreads of wheat fields, the gently flowing Parvati River, and smelly factories. Since they set off on February 20 on a padayatra (long march), survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster and their supporters have been out of coverage of cell-phone networks. Tired of broken promises, and lies and deceit, the Bhopalis have said enough is enough. About 150 of them set off on a march by foot from Bhopal to New Delhi, announcing beforehand that they would like to meet the prime minister and have him address all their demands.
Of the 150-odd people who started out, only 58 padayatris are currently on the road. They are in great spirits. The youngest participant is getting a ride the whole way. One-year-old Karuna, fondly known as Moti or ‘the plump one’, is the only child on the march. They start walking early in the morning, by about 4.30 am and go on until 10 or so. They start again after a long rest at about 4 pm and go on for another four hours. The going has been tough, though, especially for those with health problems. It is likely to remain so for the next few days, after which the starting pains will disappear as the rhythms of walking assert themselves. They don't have a doctor with them yet. But last night, Biju (the ayurved masseur and therapist), Dr Mrityunjay (an ayurved doctor) and Anand, a community health researcher -- all from Sambhavna Trust Clinic in Bhopal – visited and treated people.
Pillukhedi is the site of four big factories -- a spinning mill, the Vindhyachal Distilleries, a Coca Cola factory and a gelatine factory. "Very few people speak up against Coca Cola. Those that do say Coke and the other factories have spoilt the groundwater. One of the villagers who said he's a doctor -- I don't think he's really a doctor -- said that water samples from here showed high levels of fluoride. I think that is because of super-extraction -- when large quantities of water are sucked from the ground at a very high rate, it tends to erode the fluorides from the sub-surface rock formations," says Sarangi.
The Bhopalis are at home here, in a sinister way. All the handpumps in the village have signs put up by the district administration saying: Water Unfit for Consumption. The water here is like "donkey urine," concur the villagers. It is yellow and smelly. It's been this way for three years, they say. While there is little overt resistance to pollution, all villagers speak out derisively about the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board. "Everybody says the Pollution Control Board officials come, take money and go. They're all corrupt," says Sarangi. Just like Bhopal.
The distillery gives farmers the toxic sludge that remains after their effluents are treated to be used as fertiliser. Farmers say that it is okay for the first two years, but then the yield starts dropping.
The Bhopalis have been here since last evening. They are waiting for friends to arrive from Mehdiganj, near Varanasi, where villagers are waging a vociferous battle against a Coca Cola factory for sucking local aquifers dry. Last night, they screened Bhopal Expressin the village. They talked about Bhopal, and about how to begin addressing the local problems of pollution. "We also told them about the Right to Information Act and how to use it in the local context. But these places need a lot more attention. We should see how we can do that," Sarangi notes.
The villagers have given the padayatris vegetables and buttermilk. So last night there was Khaddi and Roti for dinner. The ex-sarpanch (village head) was also arranging for some milk, and if that comes, there will be kheer as well. The cooking is reportedly awesome. People take turns. The other day, Chotte Khan -- an imposing man with hennaed beard -- made the food, and it was excellent, they said. Chotte Khan is one of the long-distance runners in the justice struggle in Bhopal. In reminiscing during the mid-day breaks, he talked about how he was part of the massive demonstration against Union Carbide and Warren Anderson in December 1984, in the days after the disaster. His spirit is unflagging. Probably the reason why 21 years after the disaster, the struggle for justice and its supporter network worldwide is stronger than it ever was in the past.
Petitions, emails and faxes have begun flooding Indian embassies worldwide, and in New Delhi. Supporters of the survivors are outraged at the insensitivity of the Indian and Madhya Pradesh governments to the needs of the survivors of the world's worst disaster. "More than 20,000 people in Bhopal are forced to consume poisoned water. Medical facilities for survivors are virtually non-existent, and survivors have to beg and bribe to access healthcare. Unemployment and desperation are at an all-time high. Toxic wastes abandoned by Union Carbide continue to poison people, and create a new generation of victims," the letter to the prime minister reads.
Even more shocking two decades after the disaster is the realisation that the Indian government has decided to help Union Carbide and its owner Dow Chemical expand and consolidate its business in India. During the prime minister's September 2005 visit to New York, Dow CEO Andrew Liveris was one of the special invitees to a luncheon meeting. Within months of that meeting, a special cell was set up in the Planning Commission to facilitate the setting up of two petrochemical industrial estates in which Dow Chemicals and DuPont would invest substantially.
When the Bhopalis reach Delhi, they will decide whether to launch an indefinite fast depending on the response of the Indian government. "We have had enough. If all our demands are not met, we're not leaving New Delhi," said Champa Devi Shukla, a woman leader from the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh.
The march is being led by four Bhopal-based survivor and advocacy organisations: Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Group for Information and Action, and Bhopal ki Aawaaz. Lasting about 800 km, the marchers will cover about 30 km every day, and are completely dependent on local communities for food and shelter.
SOURCE: Infochange India News and Features
26 February 2006
On February 23, 2006, Day 4 of the padayatra, we heard from the marchers. Sathyu Sarangi, one of the marchers, called from Pillukhedi, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, with breathtaking spreads of wheat fields, the gently flowing Parvati River, and smelly factories. Since they set off on February 20 on a padayatra (long march), survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster and their supporters have been out of coverage of cell-phone networks. Tired of broken promises, and lies and deceit, the Bhopalis have said enough is enough. About 150 of them set off on a march by foot from Bhopal to New Delhi, announcing beforehand that they would like to meet the prime minister and have him address all their demands.
Of the 150-odd people who started out, only 58 padayatris are currently on the road. They are in great spirits. The youngest participant is getting a ride the whole way. One-year-old Karuna, fondly known as Moti or ‘the plump one’, is the only child on the march. They start walking early in the morning, by about 4.30 am and go on until 10 or so. They start again after a long rest at about 4 pm and go on for another four hours. The going has been tough, though, especially for those with health problems. It is likely to remain so for the next few days, after which the starting pains will disappear as the rhythms of walking assert themselves. They don't have a doctor with them yet. But last night, Biju (the ayurved masseur and therapist), Dr Mrityunjay (an ayurved doctor) and Anand, a community health researcher -- all from Sambhavna Trust Clinic in Bhopal – visited and treated people.
Pillukhedi is the site of four big factories -- a spinning mill, the Vindhyachal Distilleries, a Coca Cola factory and a gelatine factory. "Very few people speak up against Coca Cola. Those that do say Coke and the other factories have spoilt the groundwater. One of the villagers who said he's a doctor -- I don't think he's really a doctor -- said that water samples from here showed high levels of fluoride. I think that is because of super-extraction -- when large quantities of water are sucked from the ground at a very high rate, it tends to erode the fluorides from the sub-surface rock formations," says Sarangi.
The Bhopalis are at home here, in a sinister way. All the handpumps in the village have signs put up by the district administration saying: Water Unfit for Consumption. The water here is like "donkey urine," concur the villagers. It is yellow and smelly. It's been this way for three years, they say. While there is little overt resistance to pollution, all villagers speak out derisively about the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board. "Everybody says the Pollution Control Board officials come, take money and go. They're all corrupt," says Sarangi. Just like Bhopal.
The distillery gives farmers the toxic sludge that remains after their effluents are treated to be used as fertiliser. Farmers say that it is okay for the first two years, but then the yield starts dropping.
The Bhopalis have been here since last evening. They are waiting for friends to arrive from Mehdiganj, near Varanasi, where villagers are waging a vociferous battle against a Coca Cola factory for sucking local aquifers dry. Last night, they screened Bhopal Expressin the village. They talked about Bhopal, and about how to begin addressing the local problems of pollution. "We also told them about the Right to Information Act and how to use it in the local context. But these places need a lot more attention. We should see how we can do that," Sarangi notes.
The villagers have given the padayatris vegetables and buttermilk. So last night there was Khaddi and Roti for dinner. The ex-sarpanch (village head) was also arranging for some milk, and if that comes, there will be kheer as well. The cooking is reportedly awesome. People take turns. The other day, Chotte Khan -- an imposing man with hennaed beard -- made the food, and it was excellent, they said. Chotte Khan is one of the long-distance runners in the justice struggle in Bhopal. In reminiscing during the mid-day breaks, he talked about how he was part of the massive demonstration against Union Carbide and Warren Anderson in December 1984, in the days after the disaster. His spirit is unflagging. Probably the reason why 21 years after the disaster, the struggle for justice and its supporter network worldwide is stronger than it ever was in the past.
Petitions, emails and faxes have begun flooding Indian embassies worldwide, and in New Delhi. Supporters of the survivors are outraged at the insensitivity of the Indian and Madhya Pradesh governments to the needs of the survivors of the world's worst disaster. "More than 20,000 people in Bhopal are forced to consume poisoned water. Medical facilities for survivors are virtually non-existent, and survivors have to beg and bribe to access healthcare. Unemployment and desperation are at an all-time high. Toxic wastes abandoned by Union Carbide continue to poison people, and create a new generation of victims," the letter to the prime minister reads.
Even more shocking two decades after the disaster is the realisation that the Indian government has decided to help Union Carbide and its owner Dow Chemical expand and consolidate its business in India. During the prime minister's September 2005 visit to New York, Dow CEO Andrew Liveris was one of the special invitees to a luncheon meeting. Within months of that meeting, a special cell was set up in the Planning Commission to facilitate the setting up of two petrochemical industrial estates in which Dow Chemicals and DuPont would invest substantially.
When the Bhopalis reach Delhi, they will decide whether to launch an indefinite fast depending on the response of the Indian government. "We have had enough. If all our demands are not met, we're not leaving New Delhi," said Champa Devi Shukla, a woman leader from the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh.
The march is being led by four Bhopal-based survivor and advocacy organisations: Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Group for Information and Action, and Bhopal ki Aawaaz. Lasting about 800 km, the marchers will cover about 30 km every day, and are completely dependent on local communities for food and shelter.
SOURCE: Infochange India News and Features
Friday, February 24, 2006
Global Wind Power Industry Spins Into High Gear
BRUSSELS, Belgium, February 23, 2006 (ENS) - Worldwide, the wind energy industry installed more than US$14 billion worth of new generating equipment last year, an increase of 25 percent over 2004, according to new figures released by the Global Wind Energy Council.
In terms of new installed capacity in 2005, the United States led the world with 2,431 megawatts (MW), roughly enough to power 680,700 average U.S. households per year.
Germany was next in the world with 1,808 MW of new installed capacity, Spain was third with 1,764 MW, India was fourth with 1,430 MW, Portugal was fifth with 500 MW, and China was sixth with 498 MW. This pattern of development shows that new players such as Portugal and China are gaining ground, the Council said.
The total installed wind power capacity now stands at 59,322 MW worldwide.
Ohio
Wind turbines in a rural area of Bowling Green, Ohio (Photo courtesy Ohio Office of Energy Efficiency)
Wind power development is set to boom in the near future due to the rising price of petroleum products and the need to limit emissions linked to global warming.
Norwegian development company Havsul said Tuesday it has filed for permission to build the world's largest wind park off the western coast of Norway, said Havsul CEO Harald Dirdal.
Havsul plans to bring the $2.4 billion 1500 MW wind park online in 2010-2011, but only if it wins concessions from the Norwegian government and a common green certificate market is established, Dirdal said.
Global Wind Energy Council Chairman Arthouros Zervos said, "The overall picture confirms that the right political framework is crucial to sustain the growth of wind power around the world and to open new markets."
Zervos explained that without political support wind energy is at a competitive disadvantage due to distortions in the world’s electricity markets created by decades of massive financial, political and structural support to conventional technologies.
"Some 48 governments have already introduced laws and regulations to support the development of renewable energies, but this effort needs to be increased if the benefits of wind energy are to be reaped around the world," he said.
The three countries with the highest total installed capacity are Germany with 18,428 MW, Spain with 10,027 MW, and the United States with 9,149 MW.
India with 4,430 MW has overtaken Denmark as the fourth largest wind market in the world. A number of other countries, including Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, China, Japan and Portugal have reached the 1,000 MW mark of installed capacity, a figure thought to be critical for sustained market growth.
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) says the United States was able to add so much capacity in 2005 due to the current three year window of stability in the federal incentive for wind energy, the production tax credit. Wind installations varied widely in previous years, depending on whether the tax credit had been renewed by Congress in time to create investor confidence in building new wind farms.
turbine
Two cranes lift the rotor to its mount on REpower's 5M wind turbine, the largest in the world. Located in Brunsbüttel, Germany, the hub of the turbine stands 120 meters off the ground, and the 120-ton rotor, featuring wind blades from LM Glasfiber A/S, has a diameter of 126 meters. It completed its first year of operation on February 2, 2006. (Photo courtesy LM Glasfiber A/S)
Europe is still leading the market with over 40,500 MW of installed capacity at the end of 2005, representing 69 percent of the global total.
In 2005, the European wind capacity grew by 18 percent, providing nearly three percent of the European Union’s electricity consumption in an average wind year.
"The European market has already reached the 2010 target set by the European Commission of 40,000 MW five years ahead of time," said Christian Kjaer, the European Wind Energy Association’s policy director.
"By 2010, wind energy alone will save enough greenhouse gas emissions to meet one third of the European Union's Kyoto obligation," Kjaer said.
Other regions are starting to catch up with Europe. The growth in the European market in 2005 only accounted for about half of the total new capacity, down from nearly three-quarters of new capacity in 2004.
Canada one region that is starting to catch up. In 2005, Canadian wind capacity increased by 53 percent.
"Canada’s wind energy industry is growing by leaps and bounds – and that’s great news for Canadians who research shows are strongly in favor of wind energy," said Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA). "2005 will be remembered as the year Canada first started to seriously exploit its massive wind energy potential."
Led by India, in 2005, Asia accounted for 20 percent of new wind power installations.
turbines
The largest wind park in Southeast Asia is at Bangui Bay near the northern tip of Luzon island in the Philippines. Here NorthWind Power Development Corp operates 15 wind turbines each generating 1.65 MW. (Photo courtesy NorthWind)
China installed nearly 500 MW of new capacity in 2005, more than double the 2004 figure in anticipation of the country’s new Renewable Energy Law, which entered into force on January 1, 2006.
"Thanks to the Renewable Energy law, the Chinese market has grown substantially in 2005, said Li Junfeng of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association.
According to China's list of approved projects and those under construction, 2,000 MW of wind capacity could be installed by the end of 2006. The goal for wind power in China by the end of 2010 is 5,000 MW," Li said.
The Australian market nearly doubled in 2005 with 328 MW of new installed capacity, bringing the total up to 708 MW.
"The 2007 implementation of a state based market mechanism and a commitment by state governments to establish an emissions trading scheme will provide financial incentives to continue this growth," said AusWind CEO Dominique Lafontaine.
Led by Egypt and Morocco, the young African market saw steady growth, with twice as much wind power installed last year as in 2004.
"Wind energy offers more that just power," Zervos said. "It has the potential to support economic development, improve the security of energy supply, mitigate hydrocarbon price volatility, create jobs, and contribute to substantial CO2 reductions."
Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is the most prevalent greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Emitted when fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas are burned, CO2 and other greenhouse gases blanket the Earth, trapping the Sun's heat close to the planet. Wind turbines generate electricity without the emission of greenhouse gases.
In terms of new installed capacity in 2005, the United States led the world with 2,431 megawatts (MW), roughly enough to power 680,700 average U.S. households per year.
Germany was next in the world with 1,808 MW of new installed capacity, Spain was third with 1,764 MW, India was fourth with 1,430 MW, Portugal was fifth with 500 MW, and China was sixth with 498 MW. This pattern of development shows that new players such as Portugal and China are gaining ground, the Council said.
The total installed wind power capacity now stands at 59,322 MW worldwide.
Ohio
Wind turbines in a rural area of Bowling Green, Ohio (Photo courtesy Ohio Office of Energy Efficiency)
Wind power development is set to boom in the near future due to the rising price of petroleum products and the need to limit emissions linked to global warming.
Norwegian development company Havsul said Tuesday it has filed for permission to build the world's largest wind park off the western coast of Norway, said Havsul CEO Harald Dirdal.
Havsul plans to bring the $2.4 billion 1500 MW wind park online in 2010-2011, but only if it wins concessions from the Norwegian government and a common green certificate market is established, Dirdal said.
Global Wind Energy Council Chairman Arthouros Zervos said, "The overall picture confirms that the right political framework is crucial to sustain the growth of wind power around the world and to open new markets."
Zervos explained that without political support wind energy is at a competitive disadvantage due to distortions in the world’s electricity markets created by decades of massive financial, political and structural support to conventional technologies.
"Some 48 governments have already introduced laws and regulations to support the development of renewable energies, but this effort needs to be increased if the benefits of wind energy are to be reaped around the world," he said.
The three countries with the highest total installed capacity are Germany with 18,428 MW, Spain with 10,027 MW, and the United States with 9,149 MW.
India with 4,430 MW has overtaken Denmark as the fourth largest wind market in the world. A number of other countries, including Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, China, Japan and Portugal have reached the 1,000 MW mark of installed capacity, a figure thought to be critical for sustained market growth.
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) says the United States was able to add so much capacity in 2005 due to the current three year window of stability in the federal incentive for wind energy, the production tax credit. Wind installations varied widely in previous years, depending on whether the tax credit had been renewed by Congress in time to create investor confidence in building new wind farms.
turbine
Two cranes lift the rotor to its mount on REpower's 5M wind turbine, the largest in the world. Located in Brunsbüttel, Germany, the hub of the turbine stands 120 meters off the ground, and the 120-ton rotor, featuring wind blades from LM Glasfiber A/S, has a diameter of 126 meters. It completed its first year of operation on February 2, 2006. (Photo courtesy LM Glasfiber A/S)
Europe is still leading the market with over 40,500 MW of installed capacity at the end of 2005, representing 69 percent of the global total.
In 2005, the European wind capacity grew by 18 percent, providing nearly three percent of the European Union’s electricity consumption in an average wind year.
"The European market has already reached the 2010 target set by the European Commission of 40,000 MW five years ahead of time," said Christian Kjaer, the European Wind Energy Association’s policy director.
"By 2010, wind energy alone will save enough greenhouse gas emissions to meet one third of the European Union's Kyoto obligation," Kjaer said.
Other regions are starting to catch up with Europe. The growth in the European market in 2005 only accounted for about half of the total new capacity, down from nearly three-quarters of new capacity in 2004.
Canada one region that is starting to catch up. In 2005, Canadian wind capacity increased by 53 percent.
"Canada’s wind energy industry is growing by leaps and bounds – and that’s great news for Canadians who research shows are strongly in favor of wind energy," said Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA). "2005 will be remembered as the year Canada first started to seriously exploit its massive wind energy potential."
Led by India, in 2005, Asia accounted for 20 percent of new wind power installations.
turbines
The largest wind park in Southeast Asia is at Bangui Bay near the northern tip of Luzon island in the Philippines. Here NorthWind Power Development Corp operates 15 wind turbines each generating 1.65 MW. (Photo courtesy NorthWind)
China installed nearly 500 MW of new capacity in 2005, more than double the 2004 figure in anticipation of the country’s new Renewable Energy Law, which entered into force on January 1, 2006.
"Thanks to the Renewable Energy law, the Chinese market has grown substantially in 2005, said Li Junfeng of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association.
According to China's list of approved projects and those under construction, 2,000 MW of wind capacity could be installed by the end of 2006. The goal for wind power in China by the end of 2010 is 5,000 MW," Li said.
The Australian market nearly doubled in 2005 with 328 MW of new installed capacity, bringing the total up to 708 MW.
"The 2007 implementation of a state based market mechanism and a commitment by state governments to establish an emissions trading scheme will provide financial incentives to continue this growth," said AusWind CEO Dominique Lafontaine.
Led by Egypt and Morocco, the young African market saw steady growth, with twice as much wind power installed last year as in 2004.
"Wind energy offers more that just power," Zervos said. "It has the potential to support economic development, improve the security of energy supply, mitigate hydrocarbon price volatility, create jobs, and contribute to substantial CO2 reductions."
Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is the most prevalent greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Emitted when fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas are burned, CO2 and other greenhouse gases blanket the Earth, trapping the Sun's heat close to the planet. Wind turbines generate electricity without the emission of greenhouse gases.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
CHILE: Indigenous Children Torn Between Farm Work and Homework
SANTIAGO, Feb 21 (IPS) - They dream of becoming doctors, lawyers or reporters, but they are more likely to face a future of working as chauffeurs or domestics. Raised in poverty, Aymara and Mapuche indigenous children from the northern and southern regions of Chile tend to drop out of school to go to work.
Camilo Liempi Painecura, 14, lives with his family in a rural area of the region of AraucanÃa, 670 km south of Santiago. His dream is to study engineering. But he is sometimes discouraged by the exhaustion caused by attending school and keeping up with his chores on the small family farm, and the scarce free time left after his farm work is done.
His parents, Hipólito and Verónica, want him to go to the university. But they insist that he must continue working on the farm in order to preserve his Mapuche traditions and culture.
The couple told IPS that they are raising a mature, responsible young man with customs and habits that differ greatly from those of the "huincas" (non-indigenous people), something that can only be achieved by including children in the day-to-day chores from a very young age.
This story is common in Mapuche and Aymara communities in Chile.
According to the 2002 census, almost 700,000 Chileans, or 4.6 percent of the population, are members of indigenous ethnic groups. Of this total, Mapuche Indians account for a large majority, at 87.3 percent, followed by the Aymara, who make up seven percent of the country's indigenous population.
The Mapuche live in the southern region of AraucanÃa and the Aymara in the northernmost region of Tarapacá.
Mapuche boys usually take part in planting and harvesting the crops, as well as gathering the "piñón", the nut of the coniferous Araucaria or monkey puzzle tree, which is a staple of the Mapuche diet. Girls tend the barnyard fowl and other livestock, as well as the subsistence garden.
In the highlands 2,000 km north of Santiago, Aymara children herd llamas, alpacas and goats, sell products at the fair, and work loading and unloading trucks full of foodstuffs and livestock.
The young indigenous llama herders often suffer severely chapped skin and early rheumatic pain as a result of the arid highland climate and cold night-time temperatures.
In areas along the borders with Peru and Bolivia, indigenous children are also employed as drug smugglers, to carry small packages of drugs through the desert, by foot or by bus.
Girls, especially those over the age of 15, usually find work as domestics.
Indigenous groups defend child labour, arguing that it forms part of their culture and helps inculcate traditional values, besides the role it plays in meeting basic needs.
But the strong value placed on child labour makes indigenous minors more vulnerable to labour and economic exploitation and to dropping out of school.
These are some of the conclusions reached by the book "Child Labour and Indigenous Peoples in Chile", published by the Colegio de Profesores (teachers college) and based on a study carried out in 2004, with technical support from the subregional office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The study was conducted in the towns of Codpa, Colchane and Pisigachoque in the north and in CollimallÃn, Loncofilo, Trañi-Trañi and Puerto Saavedra in the south.
"What is interesting is that it shows the reality of child labour in indigenous communities, from the viewpoints of the children themselves, their families and their teachers," MarÃa Jesús Silva, national coordinator of the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, told IPS.
The study reveals that the task of rural teachers who work with indigenous children is especially complex, because they must constantly choose between expecting less from the students who work or demanding the same from them as from the other students, thus running the risk that they will drop out of school.
The children interviewed admitted that once they have finished their farm work and other chores, they are too tired to play or do homework. Some of them also exhibit behavioural problems, which affects school performance and can lead to repeating grades or dropping out.
In 1996, the Chilean government created the Bilingual Intercultural Education Programme to help promote greater learning in schools with a high degree of cultural and linguistic diversity. But 10 years later, this initiative has still not fully succeeded in achieving its goals.
"Teachers generally point to such problems as a lack of suitable materials, high technical and administrative demands and overly large class sizes as obstacles to undertaking more innovative programmes," the study notes. These problems are further exacerbated in schools with only one or two teachers.
In 2003, the Chilean Ministry of Labour and the National Service for Minors (SENAME), in conjunction with the ILO, carried out the country's first survey on child labour. It revealed that there were 196,000 children and teenagers between the ages of five and 17 working in Chile, and that most of them lived in rural areas.
Of that total, 107,676 were working in "unacceptable" conditions. In other words, they were either the victims of sexual exploitation, involved in illegal activities, or employed in dangerous occupations.
Given the scope of the problem, SENAME decided to establish a registry of children and teenagers facing situations like these, in order for their cases to be investigated by the police and the Department of Labour. There are currently a total of 1,700 minors on this list.
Angélica MarÃn, a psychologist at the SENAME Department for the Protection of Children's Rights, praised the new study because it gives greater visibility to a reality that is largely ignored by the general public, and can help promote debate on the conditions in which these children and teenagers work.
It is not a question of challenging the traditions of indigenous peoples, but rather of ensuring that children from these ethnic groups are not forced to carry out work that is dangerous or overly demanding, and which also obliges them to give up their studies, MarÃn commented to IPS.
"The research also sheds light on other difficulties that children in these regions must face, such as poverty, the fact that their parents are typically illiterate, and the isolation in which they work, which makes them more vulnerable to sexual abuse, for example," she said.
"The study will help to focus resources on key areas and develop a specific response to the problems of indigenous children. The challenge now is to coordinate the work done by the different bodies concerned with this issue throughout the country," she added. (END/2006)
Camilo Liempi Painecura, 14, lives with his family in a rural area of the region of AraucanÃa, 670 km south of Santiago. His dream is to study engineering. But he is sometimes discouraged by the exhaustion caused by attending school and keeping up with his chores on the small family farm, and the scarce free time left after his farm work is done.
His parents, Hipólito and Verónica, want him to go to the university. But they insist that he must continue working on the farm in order to preserve his Mapuche traditions and culture.
The couple told IPS that they are raising a mature, responsible young man with customs and habits that differ greatly from those of the "huincas" (non-indigenous people), something that can only be achieved by including children in the day-to-day chores from a very young age.
This story is common in Mapuche and Aymara communities in Chile.
According to the 2002 census, almost 700,000 Chileans, or 4.6 percent of the population, are members of indigenous ethnic groups. Of this total, Mapuche Indians account for a large majority, at 87.3 percent, followed by the Aymara, who make up seven percent of the country's indigenous population.
The Mapuche live in the southern region of AraucanÃa and the Aymara in the northernmost region of Tarapacá.
Mapuche boys usually take part in planting and harvesting the crops, as well as gathering the "piñón", the nut of the coniferous Araucaria or monkey puzzle tree, which is a staple of the Mapuche diet. Girls tend the barnyard fowl and other livestock, as well as the subsistence garden.
In the highlands 2,000 km north of Santiago, Aymara children herd llamas, alpacas and goats, sell products at the fair, and work loading and unloading trucks full of foodstuffs and livestock.
The young indigenous llama herders often suffer severely chapped skin and early rheumatic pain as a result of the arid highland climate and cold night-time temperatures.
In areas along the borders with Peru and Bolivia, indigenous children are also employed as drug smugglers, to carry small packages of drugs through the desert, by foot or by bus.
Girls, especially those over the age of 15, usually find work as domestics.
Indigenous groups defend child labour, arguing that it forms part of their culture and helps inculcate traditional values, besides the role it plays in meeting basic needs.
But the strong value placed on child labour makes indigenous minors more vulnerable to labour and economic exploitation and to dropping out of school.
These are some of the conclusions reached by the book "Child Labour and Indigenous Peoples in Chile", published by the Colegio de Profesores (teachers college) and based on a study carried out in 2004, with technical support from the subregional office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The study was conducted in the towns of Codpa, Colchane and Pisigachoque in the north and in CollimallÃn, Loncofilo, Trañi-Trañi and Puerto Saavedra in the south.
"What is interesting is that it shows the reality of child labour in indigenous communities, from the viewpoints of the children themselves, their families and their teachers," MarÃa Jesús Silva, national coordinator of the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, told IPS.
The study reveals that the task of rural teachers who work with indigenous children is especially complex, because they must constantly choose between expecting less from the students who work or demanding the same from them as from the other students, thus running the risk that they will drop out of school.
The children interviewed admitted that once they have finished their farm work and other chores, they are too tired to play or do homework. Some of them also exhibit behavioural problems, which affects school performance and can lead to repeating grades or dropping out.
In 1996, the Chilean government created the Bilingual Intercultural Education Programme to help promote greater learning in schools with a high degree of cultural and linguistic diversity. But 10 years later, this initiative has still not fully succeeded in achieving its goals.
"Teachers generally point to such problems as a lack of suitable materials, high technical and administrative demands and overly large class sizes as obstacles to undertaking more innovative programmes," the study notes. These problems are further exacerbated in schools with only one or two teachers.
In 2003, the Chilean Ministry of Labour and the National Service for Minors (SENAME), in conjunction with the ILO, carried out the country's first survey on child labour. It revealed that there were 196,000 children and teenagers between the ages of five and 17 working in Chile, and that most of them lived in rural areas.
Of that total, 107,676 were working in "unacceptable" conditions. In other words, they were either the victims of sexual exploitation, involved in illegal activities, or employed in dangerous occupations.
Given the scope of the problem, SENAME decided to establish a registry of children and teenagers facing situations like these, in order for their cases to be investigated by the police and the Department of Labour. There are currently a total of 1,700 minors on this list.
Angélica MarÃn, a psychologist at the SENAME Department for the Protection of Children's Rights, praised the new study because it gives greater visibility to a reality that is largely ignored by the general public, and can help promote debate on the conditions in which these children and teenagers work.
It is not a question of challenging the traditions of indigenous peoples, but rather of ensuring that children from these ethnic groups are not forced to carry out work that is dangerous or overly demanding, and which also obliges them to give up their studies, MarÃn commented to IPS.
"The research also sheds light on other difficulties that children in these regions must face, such as poverty, the fact that their parents are typically illiterate, and the isolation in which they work, which makes them more vulnerable to sexual abuse, for example," she said.
"The study will help to focus resources on key areas and develop a specific response to the problems of indigenous children. The challenge now is to coordinate the work done by the different bodies concerned with this issue throughout the country," she added. (END/2006)
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Energy Efficiency Could Prevent Gas Supply Problems
The Government must prioritise reducing electricity consumption
and making homes and offices more energy efficient in response to
concerns about the security of our future gas supply, Friends of
the Earth said today (Wednesday 4th January). Housing could be
made at least 60 per cent more efficient, the group said, reducing
domestic energy bills and crucially cutting greenhouse gas
emissions, a major cause of climate change.
The impacts of climate change are already being felt with the Met
Office revealing last month that the northern hemisphere was
experiencing its warmest ever year in 2005. The 10 warmest years
on record have all occurred in the last 11 years [1].
The environmental campaign group said that much of the UK's
electricity and heat could come from clean and safe renewable
sources, combined with more efficient use of scarce fossil fuels.
The group highlighted three key steps which could reduce the UK's
long-term dependence on fossil fuels:
Saving electricity by switching all new light bulbs to energy
efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and in future to the new
LED bulbs; reducing "stand-by" losses on appliances and promoting
a switch to more energy efficient motors in industry could cut
electricity demand by almost 10 per cent over the next 10-15 years
. These measures combined could save roughly the equivalent
output of 5 nuclear power stations (lightbulbs only = 1 nuclear
power station) [2].
Better insulation in the home and in work places could save
massive amounts of energy. New buildings should be built to
higher energy efficiency standards and more investment should be
made in home energy efficiency programmes. The Environmental
Change Institute at Oxford University has suggested that the UK's
housing stock could be made 60 per cent more efficient while
according to the Carbon Trust, UK business wastes £1 billion a
year in lost energy [3].
Generating electricity and heat from renewable energy sources,
including micro-generation in houses and offices, tidal lagoons,
wave and tidal power, on-shore and off-shore wind power, and the
use of biomass could contribute 30 per cent of our electricity by
2020.
In addition, using more efficient gas-fired combined heat and
power plants could be 40-50 per cent more efficient than
conventional power plants.
The campaign group added that current supply problems must not be
used as an excuse to justify uneconomic and polluting nuclear
power.
Friends of the Earth's Senior Energy Expert Germana Canzi said:
"The UK wastes a terrible amount of energy. Dwindling supplies of
fossil fuels and the urgent need to tackle climate change mean
that we must change our wasteful ways. If the Government is
serious about fighting climate change and ensuring energy security
then it must urgently prioritise saving energy and generating
electricity and heat from clean and safe renewable sources. It is
time for a shift to the modern energy age"
Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to commit to
cutting carbon dioxide emissions - the main greenhouse gas - by
around three per cent every year. It is backing a Climate Change
Bill with The Big Ask Campaign (www.thebigask.com[1]). Despite
the growing evidence of the impacts of climate change, UK
emissions of carbon dioxide have increased since 1997 and rising
gas prices this winter may lead to a further increase in emissions
as more coal is burnt.
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2005/pr20051
215.html[2]
[2] See:
www.eurocopper.org/eci/archives/docs/PK%20EN%20Motor%20Challen
ge122003.pdf[3]
[3] See Environmental Change Institute:
http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/pdfdownload/energy/40house/chapter04.p
df[4]
and making homes and offices more energy efficient in response to
concerns about the security of our future gas supply, Friends of
the Earth said today (Wednesday 4th January). Housing could be
made at least 60 per cent more efficient, the group said, reducing
domestic energy bills and crucially cutting greenhouse gas
emissions, a major cause of climate change.
The impacts of climate change are already being felt with the Met
Office revealing last month that the northern hemisphere was
experiencing its warmest ever year in 2005. The 10 warmest years
on record have all occurred in the last 11 years [1].
The environmental campaign group said that much of the UK's
electricity and heat could come from clean and safe renewable
sources, combined with more efficient use of scarce fossil fuels.
The group highlighted three key steps which could reduce the UK's
long-term dependence on fossil fuels:
Saving electricity by switching all new light bulbs to energy
efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and in future to the new
LED bulbs; reducing "stand-by" losses on appliances and promoting
a switch to more energy efficient motors in industry could cut
electricity demand by almost 10 per cent over the next 10-15 years
. These measures combined could save roughly the equivalent
output of 5 nuclear power stations (lightbulbs only = 1 nuclear
power station) [2].
Better insulation in the home and in work places could save
massive amounts of energy. New buildings should be built to
higher energy efficiency standards and more investment should be
made in home energy efficiency programmes. The Environmental
Change Institute at Oxford University has suggested that the UK's
housing stock could be made 60 per cent more efficient while
according to the Carbon Trust, UK business wastes £1 billion a
year in lost energy [3].
Generating electricity and heat from renewable energy sources,
including micro-generation in houses and offices, tidal lagoons,
wave and tidal power, on-shore and off-shore wind power, and the
use of biomass could contribute 30 per cent of our electricity by
2020.
In addition, using more efficient gas-fired combined heat and
power plants could be 40-50 per cent more efficient than
conventional power plants.
The campaign group added that current supply problems must not be
used as an excuse to justify uneconomic and polluting nuclear
power.
Friends of the Earth's Senior Energy Expert Germana Canzi said:
"The UK wastes a terrible amount of energy. Dwindling supplies of
fossil fuels and the urgent need to tackle climate change mean
that we must change our wasteful ways. If the Government is
serious about fighting climate change and ensuring energy security
then it must urgently prioritise saving energy and generating
electricity and heat from clean and safe renewable sources. It is
time for a shift to the modern energy age"
Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to commit to
cutting carbon dioxide emissions - the main greenhouse gas - by
around three per cent every year. It is backing a Climate Change
Bill with The Big Ask Campaign (www.thebigask.com[1]). Despite
the growing evidence of the impacts of climate change, UK
emissions of carbon dioxide have increased since 1997 and rising
gas prices this winter may lead to a further increase in emissions
as more coal is burnt.
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2005/pr20051
215.html[2]
[2] See:
www.eurocopper.org/eci/archives/docs/PK%20EN%20Motor%20Challen
ge122003.pdf[3]
[3] See Environmental Change Institute:
http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/pdfdownload/energy/40house/chapter04.p
df[4]
Friday, October 21, 2005
Deforestation in Salta
The fire you see behing me is not special effects. There is no photoshop´s trick. It´s real fire in a deforestation zone in Salta, north part of Argentina after bulldozers have destroyed native forest.
It´s only a picture that all stuff like that is happending in all Argentina.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Are Water Wars a Fantasy, or a Future Reality?
DEVELOPMENT:
Are Water Wars a Fantasy, or a Future Reality?
Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM, Aug 29 (IPS) - The Middle East, one of the world's perennial war zones, has traditionally been blessed with a surfeit of oil and cursed by a scarcity of water.
The irony, says one Arab diplomat half-jokingly, is that whenever energy-rich Gulf states dig for water, they invariably strike oil.
The longstanding speculation among some political experts is that the world's future wars will be fought over water, not oil.
Asked whether she subscribes to this view, Sunita Narain, the winner of the 2005 Stockholm Water Prize, said: "Water wars are not invevitable. It lies in our hands -- and in our minds."
The award, including 150,000 dollars in cash and a crystal sculpture, was presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at a formal ceremony in Stockholm last week.
Narain, director of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi and publisher of the widely-acclaimed environmental magazine Down to Earth, said water is very different from oil.
"Water is a replenishable commodity. The question is society's relationship to live with water. The management of water is critical. Water wars or water peace is in our hands," Narain told IPS.
She admits that "water stress" leads to tension and conflicts -- as evidenced by a recent police shooting of farmers in Rajasthan, India. The farmers were protesting the release of water from their lands to neighbouring cities.
"It was a very violent agitation," said Narain, recounting two other incidents of violence over water that resulted in the deaths of Indian farmers. Narain believes that water "is one thing that is crippling India's growth".
"I am not here as a pessimist saying that India is doomed and that water wars are going to happen, and we are going to destroy ourselves. I am saying very clearly that if India continues to go in this route, yes there will be water wars and there will be water conflicts. And we will be more and more crippled in our growth," she warned.
Narain noted that India has political leaders who are listening to this message. "They are recognising the need for a new paradigm. But this new paradigm unfortunately demands good politics, because it demands decentralisation of power, and it demands the involvement of people."
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), which bestows the water prize every year, points out that most parts of the Middle East are already facing severe water scarcities and stress, making future prospects for food security bleak.
"The availability of water resources to secure sufficient food production for growing populations is one of the biggest challenges faced by water and agricultural managers," SIWI said.
In a newly-released publication titled "Liquid Assets: An Economic Approach for Water Management and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East and Beyond", Franklin Fisher and Annette Huber-Lee argue that the common view of water as an inevitable cause of future wars is neither rational nor necessary.
"Typically, two or more parties with claim to the same water sources are thought to play a zero-sum game, with each side placing a high emotional and political value on the ownership of the water," they point out.
However, say the authors, when disputes in ownership are expressed as disputes about money values, in most cases, the benefits of ownership will be surprisingly small.
"By assigning an economic value to water and treating it as a tradable source, parties see that the gains from cooperation exceed the costs, resulting from the change in ownership. A zero-sum game becomes a win-win situation," they add.
In a paper about the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which flow through Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and even northern Saudi Arabia, Prof. Olcay Unver of the Ohio-based Kent State University says that despite the political volatility of the issue, shared water resource management between Turkey, Syria and Iraq may promote international cooperation, as opposed to interstate conflict, in the coming decade.
In a recent presentation to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Unver said that during a time of great upheaval and transformation in the Middle East, the Tigris and Euphrates river basins "could bring about a unique rebuttal to worries over 'water wars' in one of the most conflicted regions on earth".
With the change of regime in Iraq -- and the potential opening of Syria -- now may be an appropriate time to focus on cross-border water issues as a catalyst for regional cooperation and economic development, he argues.
The sharing of water is also an ongoing dispute between Israel and Palestinians living in occupied territories. At least two factors may help alleviate the current tension: construction of major desalination plants and establishment of waste water treatment plants in occupied territories.
Gourisankar Ghosh, executive director of the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), is equally positive.
"I am not that pessimistic that there will be wars over water. But there will definitely be tension when water is not properly managed," he added.
"I believe there will be tension between urban and rural areas. We have seen riots over water. But I don't think there will be wars over water. I look at it in a very positive way," Ghosh told IPS.
On the other hand, he believes that water can be a major instrument that can help bring people and governments together, cutting across political boundaries.
"I think this brings up a basic issue -- that of nation states and political boundaries," he said. In the future, however, there will be more partnerships according to economic zones rather than geographical zones.
In his own home country, Ghosh said, the whole eastern Indian subcontinent (which includes parts of Burma, Nepal, and Bangladesh) now constitutes an economic zone.
And as a result, he said, there will be a need for the concept of shared water as part of the planning for a subregional economic zone rather than separate planning for different countries.
This is the positive side of globalisaton, because it is breaking down geographical boundaries, Ghosh said. (END/2005)
Are Water Wars a Fantasy, or a Future Reality?
Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM, Aug 29 (IPS) - The Middle East, one of the world's perennial war zones, has traditionally been blessed with a surfeit of oil and cursed by a scarcity of water.
The irony, says one Arab diplomat half-jokingly, is that whenever energy-rich Gulf states dig for water, they invariably strike oil.
The longstanding speculation among some political experts is that the world's future wars will be fought over water, not oil.
Asked whether she subscribes to this view, Sunita Narain, the winner of the 2005 Stockholm Water Prize, said: "Water wars are not invevitable. It lies in our hands -- and in our minds."
The award, including 150,000 dollars in cash and a crystal sculpture, was presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at a formal ceremony in Stockholm last week.
Narain, director of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi and publisher of the widely-acclaimed environmental magazine Down to Earth, said water is very different from oil.
"Water is a replenishable commodity. The question is society's relationship to live with water. The management of water is critical. Water wars or water peace is in our hands," Narain told IPS.
She admits that "water stress" leads to tension and conflicts -- as evidenced by a recent police shooting of farmers in Rajasthan, India. The farmers were protesting the release of water from their lands to neighbouring cities.
"It was a very violent agitation," said Narain, recounting two other incidents of violence over water that resulted in the deaths of Indian farmers. Narain believes that water "is one thing that is crippling India's growth".
"I am not here as a pessimist saying that India is doomed and that water wars are going to happen, and we are going to destroy ourselves. I am saying very clearly that if India continues to go in this route, yes there will be water wars and there will be water conflicts. And we will be more and more crippled in our growth," she warned.
Narain noted that India has political leaders who are listening to this message. "They are recognising the need for a new paradigm. But this new paradigm unfortunately demands good politics, because it demands decentralisation of power, and it demands the involvement of people."
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), which bestows the water prize every year, points out that most parts of the Middle East are already facing severe water scarcities and stress, making future prospects for food security bleak.
"The availability of water resources to secure sufficient food production for growing populations is one of the biggest challenges faced by water and agricultural managers," SIWI said.
In a newly-released publication titled "Liquid Assets: An Economic Approach for Water Management and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East and Beyond", Franklin Fisher and Annette Huber-Lee argue that the common view of water as an inevitable cause of future wars is neither rational nor necessary.
"Typically, two or more parties with claim to the same water sources are thought to play a zero-sum game, with each side placing a high emotional and political value on the ownership of the water," they point out.
However, say the authors, when disputes in ownership are expressed as disputes about money values, in most cases, the benefits of ownership will be surprisingly small.
"By assigning an economic value to water and treating it as a tradable source, parties see that the gains from cooperation exceed the costs, resulting from the change in ownership. A zero-sum game becomes a win-win situation," they add.
In a paper about the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which flow through Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and even northern Saudi Arabia, Prof. Olcay Unver of the Ohio-based Kent State University says that despite the political volatility of the issue, shared water resource management between Turkey, Syria and Iraq may promote international cooperation, as opposed to interstate conflict, in the coming decade.
In a recent presentation to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Unver said that during a time of great upheaval and transformation in the Middle East, the Tigris and Euphrates river basins "could bring about a unique rebuttal to worries over 'water wars' in one of the most conflicted regions on earth".
With the change of regime in Iraq -- and the potential opening of Syria -- now may be an appropriate time to focus on cross-border water issues as a catalyst for regional cooperation and economic development, he argues.
The sharing of water is also an ongoing dispute between Israel and Palestinians living in occupied territories. At least two factors may help alleviate the current tension: construction of major desalination plants and establishment of waste water treatment plants in occupied territories.
Gourisankar Ghosh, executive director of the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), is equally positive.
"I am not that pessimistic that there will be wars over water. But there will definitely be tension when water is not properly managed," he added.
"I believe there will be tension between urban and rural areas. We have seen riots over water. But I don't think there will be wars over water. I look at it in a very positive way," Ghosh told IPS.
On the other hand, he believes that water can be a major instrument that can help bring people and governments together, cutting across political boundaries.
"I think this brings up a basic issue -- that of nation states and political boundaries," he said. In the future, however, there will be more partnerships according to economic zones rather than geographical zones.
In his own home country, Ghosh said, the whole eastern Indian subcontinent (which includes parts of Burma, Nepal, and Bangladesh) now constitutes an economic zone.
And as a result, he said, there will be a need for the concept of shared water as part of the planning for a subregional economic zone rather than separate planning for different countries.
This is the positive side of globalisaton, because it is breaking down geographical boundaries, Ghosh said. (END/2005)
Friday, August 26, 2005
British Retailers Call for Tough Stand on GM Soya
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is calling on the Brazilian soya industry to "resist further growth of GM planting" because "it will be enormously difficult to maintain trust in the food chain should Brazil's supply of non-GM soybean dry up." The call has been welcomed by an alliance of leading UK organisations [1] which are urging supermarkets and other food companies to take immediate action to safeguard GM-free food.
The BRC statement [2], released to the alliance this week, comes as crucial decisions are being made by Brazilian farmers about whether to plant GM or non-GM soya for next season's crop. It represents a strong re-affirmation that the UK retail industry wants to continue to provide GM-free products to UK consumers.
The statement also underlines the importance of Brazilian soya production in ensuring a future for GM-free food in the UK. The BRC says it is "essential that Brazil remains a continued source of non-GM soybean and halts the progression at the current level of 35% GM"
The BRC position is backed by reference to public attitudes in the UK [3]: 79% would not knowingly buy food containing GM ingredients."
Although all the major UK food companies continue to shun GM ingredients in their food, vast quantifies of GM soya for animal feed are still being imported. Animal products, like milk, meat and eggs, are not subject to GM labelling regulations. The alliance has written to food companies demanding urgent action to ensure that all soya used in animal feed should be GM-free [4].
The call follows a series of meetings in 2004/05 between the alliance and food industry representatives.
If companies fail to place firm orders for non-GM soya for animal feed, this could lead to other GM-free ingredients, such as soya oil and lecithin, becoming scarce. These ingredients are a by-product of the soya beans crushed for animal feed and are found in a host of processed foods from chocolate and biscuits to processed ready meals.
The letter from the alliance sets out the need for urgent action:
"Food retailers and manufacturers need to inform their suppliers that they are specifying non-GM animal feed as soon as possible, and before the beginning of the soya planting season in October 2005. In our view, failure to do so will have a rapid and direct negative impact on the availability of non-GM derivatives in future".
In addition, the letter calls upon the UK food industry to proactively seek alternatives to soya for feeding animals because it "is not environmentally or socially sustainable".
Commenting on behalf of the alliance, Pete Riley of GM Freeze said:
We warmly welcome this re-affirmation of GM free policy from British retailers. It comes at a crucial time when Brazilian farmers are considering whether to grow GM or non-GM soya beans next year. It is important that the BRC ensures that its message is heard loud and clear in Brazil - by farmers and other players along the soya supply chain.
"But some UK food companies have clearly been resting on their laurels and have failed to phase out GM animal feed with any great urgency. It is high time that they backed the BRC statement with firm orders for GM-free soya for animal feed across their whole range. This would provide customers with milk, meat and eggs from animals that are not fed on GM feed. If food companies act now, the costs of such action can be kept to a minimum and they will help guarantee GM-free food for the future.
The BRC statement [2], released to the alliance this week, comes as crucial decisions are being made by Brazilian farmers about whether to plant GM or non-GM soya for next season's crop. It represents a strong re-affirmation that the UK retail industry wants to continue to provide GM-free products to UK consumers.
The statement also underlines the importance of Brazilian soya production in ensuring a future for GM-free food in the UK. The BRC says it is "essential that Brazil remains a continued source of non-GM soybean and halts the progression at the current level of 35% GM"
The BRC position is backed by reference to public attitudes in the UK [3]: 79% would not knowingly buy food containing GM ingredients."
Although all the major UK food companies continue to shun GM ingredients in their food, vast quantifies of GM soya for animal feed are still being imported. Animal products, like milk, meat and eggs, are not subject to GM labelling regulations. The alliance has written to food companies demanding urgent action to ensure that all soya used in animal feed should be GM-free [4].
The call follows a series of meetings in 2004/05 between the alliance and food industry representatives.
If companies fail to place firm orders for non-GM soya for animal feed, this could lead to other GM-free ingredients, such as soya oil and lecithin, becoming scarce. These ingredients are a by-product of the soya beans crushed for animal feed and are found in a host of processed foods from chocolate and biscuits to processed ready meals.
The letter from the alliance sets out the need for urgent action:
"Food retailers and manufacturers need to inform their suppliers that they are specifying non-GM animal feed as soon as possible, and before the beginning of the soya planting season in October 2005. In our view, failure to do so will have a rapid and direct negative impact on the availability of non-GM derivatives in future".
In addition, the letter calls upon the UK food industry to proactively seek alternatives to soya for feeding animals because it "is not environmentally or socially sustainable".
Commenting on behalf of the alliance, Pete Riley of GM Freeze said:
We warmly welcome this re-affirmation of GM free policy from British retailers. It comes at a crucial time when Brazilian farmers are considering whether to grow GM or non-GM soya beans next year. It is important that the BRC ensures that its message is heard loud and clear in Brazil - by farmers and other players along the soya supply chain.
"But some UK food companies have clearly been resting on their laurels and have failed to phase out GM animal feed with any great urgency. It is high time that they backed the BRC statement with firm orders for GM-free soya for animal feed across their whole range. This would provide customers with milk, meat and eggs from animals that are not fed on GM feed. If food companies act now, the costs of such action can be kept to a minimum and they will help guarantee GM-free food for the future.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Sun shines on solar car team
Sun shines on solar car team
MIT vehicle takes 3rd place in 2,500-mile race
The MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team's car placed third in the North American Solar Challenge, completing the 2,500-mile course along U.S. Route 75 and Trans-Canada Highway 1 from Austin, Texas, to Alberta, Calgary, in just over 56 hours.
The world's longest solar car race, NASC 2005 began on July 17 and ended July 27. The University of Michigan's car, Momentum, took first place, making the arduous 10-day trip in just under 54 hours. The University of Minnesota's Borealis III placed second.
MIT's 375-pound, single-seat vehicle, called Tesseract, was one in a field of 20 sleek, low-slung solar cars that drove through city traffic, open highways and pounding Kansas rain using only the energy of the sun. (When the sun's not out, the cars run on batteries charged with solar energy.)
Tesseract's start was not sunny: MIT was in ninth place on the morning of July 17, but pulled into third place by day's end and held that position for much of the NASC event.
Other U.S. universities that competed included Missouri (fourth and eighth place), Western Michigan (sixth) and Stanford University (ninth). To qualify for NASC, each solar car had to prove it could drive 120 miles at a minimum speed of 25 mph.
The NASC course-known as a "rayce" among solar power enthusiasts-followed a straight line from south to north, with a sharp westward turn at Winnipeg, Manitoba. En route to the University of Calgary's Olympic Oval, the solar cars passed through checkpoints in Weatherford, Texas; Broken Arrow, Okla.; Topeka, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Fargo, N.D.; Brandon, Manitoba; Regina, Saskatchewan; and Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Before the race, each NASC vehicle underwent a rigorous inspection process, known as scrutineering, in Austin, followed by a qualifying test at Texas World Speedway.
Despite its extraordinary shape, Tesseract is composed of ordinary parts, including 512 lithium-ion batteries, the same type found in most laptop computers. A 6-horsepower motor attached to the hub of the rear wheel provides power; there is no transmission.
The driver controls the car with center-mounted handlebars, much like a bicycle; the car uses four mountain-bike brakes connected to go-kart master cylinders and pedal to stop.
Tesseract's Batmobile-like sheen comes from its solar array-2,732 solar cells, the same cells used on NASA satellites-covering a Kevlar and epoxy resin body. A chromoly steel space frame holds Tesseract together. The suspension is a car-mountain bike hybrid.
The car's name has interdisciplinary significance. In geometry, a tesseract, or hypercube, is a 4-dimensional analog of a cube. In literature, science fiction author Madeleine L'Engle used "tesseract" both as a noun-a type of "wrinkle" in space and time-and as a verb, as in tessering, or travel in the fifth dimension, in her novel, "A Wrinkle in Time."
In September 2005, Tesseract will compete in the World Solar Challenge, traversing Australia from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south, a distance of about 1,860 miles.
The NASC 2005 contest was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Natural Resources Canada, DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, TransAlta, University of Calgary, CSI Wireless, AMD and Manitoba Transportation and Government Services.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
UK Government Makes "Clear Cut" Decision on Timber
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth slam Government's decision on sustainable timber
(London, 11th August 2005) A coalition of leading environmental NGOs, today, attacked the UK Government's decision to water down its standards for sustainable timber, by allowing government departments to buy wood from forest certification schemes that approve destructive logging practices.
In a joint statement, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace said the changes were a major set-back in the Government's efforts to only purchase timber from legal and well-managed forests.
The Government has decided to allow timber produced under the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) schemes to qualify for sustainable timber procurement.
Evidence shows the two schemes allow large scale, unsustainable logging in ancient forest areas, the destruction of endangered species habitat and the abuse of indigenous peoples' rights. The Government's acceptance of the PEFC scheme is conditional on the adoption of international criteria by all national schemes, and this will be reviewed in six months. But campaigners say that the scheme should not be accepted because even if they achieve this, their international criteria are still too weak.
Approval of the SFI is only applicable to a percentage based labelling scheme that is not yet in use. Nathan Argent, Greenpeace Forest Campaigner said, " This decision by the Government will rubber-stamp destructive logging practices that threaten the environment and do not take into consideration indigenous peoples' rights.
We urge both the public and private sector to clearly specify FSC on all contracts in order to guarantee that the timber they are using is from legal and sustainable sources ." Ed Matthew, Friends of the Earth's Forest Campaigner said, " The Government has come up with an ingenious method for persuading its critics that it only buys sustainable timber. They are officially recognising destructive logging as sustainable logging. Hey presto, all that horrible destructive timber that they buy has disappeared."
The announcement follows DEFRA's Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET) re-assessment of the two schemes. Environmental groups have challenged the Government's conclusions and say the schemes cannot provide consumers with a credible assurance that the timber they buy comes from well-managed forests.
The assessment was strictly paper-based, did not address on the ground practices and does not include social criteria meant to address the rights of forest peoples. Previously only certification by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Canadian Standards Association was considered as proof of legal and sustainable sourcing by the UK government. The only scheme that is generally accepted by all stakeholders, including environment groups, as ensuring environmentally and socially responsible timber sourcing is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Amsterdam
I don´t know why. But I`m missing Amsterdam.
I`ve never lived there but I went twice and I love that city.
I wanna came back soon...
I know "Amsterdam" song from "Coldplay" is not what I remember. The title is unrelated to the lyrics. Yes, Chris Martin simply wrote this song while in Amsterdam.
But I like the song too..
Amsterdam
Come on, oh my star is fading
I swerve out of control
If I'd, if I'd only waited
I'd not be stuck here in this hole.
Come here, oh my star is fading
and I swerve out of control
And I swear I waited and waited
I've got to get out of this hole.
But time is on your side, it's on your side now
I'm pushing you down and all around
It's no cause for concern
Come on, oh my star is fading
And I see no chance of release
And I know I'm dead on the surface
But I'm screaming underneath
And time is on your side, it's on your side now
I'm pushing you down and all around
It's no cause for concern
Stuck on the end of this ball and chain
And I'm on my way back down again
Stood on a bridge, tied to the noose
Sick to the stomach
You can say what you mean
but it won't change a sin
I'm sick of the secrets
Stood on the edge
tied to the noose
She came along and she cut me loose
You came along and you cut me loose
You came along and you cut me loose
I`ve never lived there but I went twice and I love that city.
I wanna came back soon...
I know "Amsterdam" song from "Coldplay" is not what I remember. The title is unrelated to the lyrics. Yes, Chris Martin simply wrote this song while in Amsterdam.
But I like the song too..
Amsterdam
Come on, oh my star is fading
I swerve out of control
If I'd, if I'd only waited
I'd not be stuck here in this hole.
Come here, oh my star is fading
and I swerve out of control
And I swear I waited and waited
I've got to get out of this hole.
But time is on your side, it's on your side now
I'm pushing you down and all around
It's no cause for concern
Come on, oh my star is fading
And I see no chance of release
And I know I'm dead on the surface
But I'm screaming underneath
And time is on your side, it's on your side now
I'm pushing you down and all around
It's no cause for concern
Stuck on the end of this ball and chain
And I'm on my way back down again
Stood on a bridge, tied to the noose
Sick to the stomach
You can say what you mean
but it won't change a sin
I'm sick of the secrets
Stood on the edge
tied to the noose
She came along and she cut me loose
You came along and you cut me loose
You came along and you cut me loose
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