Excellent documentary (in French) on what is behind the faceless figures of immigrants you read about in the news ...
They have two options: dying the slow death inflicted by chronic unemployment, hunger, disease and idleness or risking their lives trying to reach European soil on board a flimsy pirogue. These are no "economic migrants" ... For them it's Barcelona or death ...
According to the IPCC, 75-250 million people will be exposed to "increased water stress" (i.e. will have trouble accessing water) by 2020.
Alas, water stress is not a futuristic concept. It is probably at the root of one the ugliest, most tragic and longest-lasting conflicts in the world. Drying up Palestine is an eye-opening documentary by Rima Essa and Peter Snowdon (screened at last year's Festival des Images de la Mer in Brussels) that sheds light on the stresses and strains imposed on Palestinian society by Israel’s almost total control over access to water and sewage facilities in the Occupied Territories.
Click here to watch it and glean an insight into this climate-related problem that is bound to grow in frequency and intensity in the coming years.
Forty years after King's death, the ability of America to both mythologise the man and marginalise his meaning is all too cruelly apparent. His symbolic likeness is effortlessly incorporated into America's self-image as the land of relentless progress. Meanwhile, his legacy of struggling against poverty and imperialism is undermined with every passing day. Had he lived he would most certainly have been loathed. In order for America to love him, he first had to die.
Excellent article by one of my favourite journalists, Gary Younge. Read more here.
"If the majority of people were right, we'd be living in paradise. But we are not living in paradise, we are living in hell. What does it mean? That means the majority of people are wrong. So I never believed what people told me."
Interesting interview in the Guardian today with Marjane Satrapi, author of the eye-opening comics Persepolis. Read it here.
On 29 February I posted a few words on Marie-Monique Robin's attack on Monsanto. Her excellent documentary Le Monde Selon Monsanto (trailer in French and English) was screened on the Franco-German TV channel ARTE and was followed by a debate in which a certain Christian Vélot took part. Vélot teaches molecular genetics at the University of Paris Sud and leads a research team at the University's Orsay Insitute of Genetics and Microbiology. In the past four years he held several public conferences in which he fiercely criticised the use of GMOs for purposes not directly linked to laboratory research, highlighting the risks and dangers involved in releasing GMOs into the environment and using them in the food industry.
These are the views he bravely and intelligently defended during the TV debate. But scientific independence has a price and in Velot's case it turned out to be a high one. A few days after the TV show he received a letter informing him that the the Institut d'Orsay would no longer require his lab's services once the current term ended in 2010. Christian Vélot's name can now be added to the long list of scientists who were harassed, threatened and ultimately fired for being honest with the public on the GMO issue. You can read the full story (in French) here. And in comics form here.
Europe, the free continent? Europe the GMO-free continent? Yeah, right.
A petition (in French) in support of Christian Vélot and his lab can be signed here.
Cato Salsa Experience: So The Circus Is Back In Town
That summarises pretty well what I feel in the wake of last weekend's elections in Malta. Shame on you, my fellow citizens, for not having had the courage to vote for the change (or at least the hope thereof) a green MP would have embodied. Shame on you for voting for the status quo out of sheer partisan mass hysteria, pledging your allegiance to a party that has been in power for 20 years with hardly any consideration for the issues that should constitute any government's priorities: public health, the environment, education ... Vox populi vox dei. No worries, you will get a lot of what you voted for: a couple of brand new ecological disasters (e.g. the golf courses), a greater divide between the upper class that can afford to send its English-speaking kids to private institutions and the rest of the population that will have to make do with derelict public schools, an anti-abortion clause in the constitution, more birds falling out of the sky in the spring, possibly even privatised public healthcare! Isn't that lovely?! You will also get a lot of what you did not consciously vote for but should have expected: more corruption, more planning authority blunders, more pollution ... All I can say is that I am glad I will only witness the mess from afar. Good luck to you all, my fellow citizens. You will need it.
"E c'erano i ricordi. Dentro il sogno del presente sognava ora il passato. Vedeva Malta sul taglio dell'orizzonte marino, nella dorata nebbia del ricordo. Ed ecco che gli balzava nell'occhio come nel fuoco di un cannocchiale ... i campanili aguzzi come minareti, le basse case bianche, le altane ... Solo le cose della fantasia sono belle, ed è fantasia anche il ricordo ... Malta non è che una terra povera e amara, la gente barbara come quando vi approdòSan Paolo ... Solo che, nel mare, consente alla fantasia di affacciarsi alla favola del mondo ... " - Leonardo Sciascia, Il Consiglio d'Egitto.
A Maltese friend sent me this poem and I thought I might as well post it on this blog, just in case some random visitor from Malta was still finding it hard to make up his/her mind. I have no political axe to grind, but it seems to me that if we want to green our lifestyles and our planet, then we really cannot afford to go on voting for parties that do not even mention the environment in their electoral programmes!
Din id-darba Alternattiva
Din id-darba Alternattiva se nivvota kif nixtieq. Mhux lin-nies li ga bighuna li jaghtuna biss bis-sieq. Mhux se nitfa' l-vot fil-kaxxa biex igawdu l-ftit ta' gewwa. Se nivvota Alternattiva ghax kapaci w jghidu s-sewwa. Mhux se ntih lill-kuntratturi mhux se npaxxi l-kaccaturi mhux se ncedi 'l dawk li saqu qishom gaffa minn fuq rasi mhux se ntih 'il min ga staghna minn fuq dahar it-taxxi taghna mhux se ntih lic-caqnijiet biex nitmermer hawn fis-skiet.
Jien dad-dritt mhux se ncedih. Dan il-vot mhux se nahlih.
Ma nibzax minn popli ohra mit-twemmin u mill-kulur. Imma nibza' mir-razzizmu, mill-mibgheda, mit-terrur.
Ma nibzax mid-differenzi il-bnedmin hekk maghmulin. Ahna kollha lwien f'qawsalla li jixeghlu lil xulxin.
Jien did-darba rrid il-bidla mhux politka tat-tpacpic mhux min jiflah tih ha jhawwel go dar-renju tat-tghaffig.
Dal-vot tieghi, xejn hlief tieghi, u se naghmel bih li rrid. Tghid mhux se naghtih lill-klikka li staghniet ghax tal-partit?! Tista' toqghod hemm titbissem, Tista' tidhaq, int, kemm trid... Se nivvota Alternattiva biex ghal darba nghid li rrid.
Jien irrid partit li jahdem biex dal-bini ma jkomplix biex din l-arja tkun nadifa biex l-iskart ma jordomnix. Biex inharsu dil-kampanja biex fis-sema nara t-tajr biex il-bahar ma jkunx mandra...
Din id-darba Alternattiva: Tghid li trid it-Times li ghandna. Jghid li jrid xi Fr. Peter, hawn eluf li xebghu bhalna.
Mhux se nahli l-vot did-darba fuq xi kiesah b'mohh ta' bott fuq xi hadd li bena Malta fuq xi pampalun korrott fuq mudell ta' l-arroganza fuq min ligi mhemmx ghalih fuq min jhedded u jitpastaz - jien dal-vot mhux se nahlih Din id-darba Alternattiva ghazla bhalhom zgur li mhemmx. Din id-darba Alternattiva forsi fl-ahhar titla' x-xemx.
On Friday morning, as on every working day, I dragged myself to the metro station and sipped my coffee while a metallic voice thanked me for using public transport and for encouraging friends and family to do so, in the face of the "unusual, alarming and dangerous" pollution levels the city was experiencing. I could not help but wonder how much longer the authorities would go on making fools of themselves by using words like unusual to describe a situation they warn us about every second day.
This reminded me of an interesting article I read last week, in which Guardian environment editor John Vidal addressed the issue of contradictory government policies in Britain.
"Supermarkets are not solely to blame for an increase in unhealthy and unsustainable eating practices - the real problem lies in a lack of political leadership and a tangled web of policy, according to an independent government watchdog", he reports in last week's Guardian Weekly. He goes on to point out a series of contradictory statements/guidelines issued by government departments in the UK, echoed in the rest of Europe, that contribute to confusing consumers at large.
Health Ministries tell people to eat more fish while Environment Ministries try to preserve diminishing fish stocks. Local food is strongly promoted by Environment Ministries while Ministries of Foreign Affairs and/or Development encourage people to eat produce from developing countries. Governments allow car lobbies to brainwash citizens into buying 4x4s, then issue please-use-public-transport warnings about alarming pollution levels that are primarily due to fine particles (invisible soot) from cars. We are all encouraged to consume-consume-consume because it's good for the economy, yet our governments are supposed to have read the latest IPCC report setting out the disastrous scenario that awaits the planet if we do not change our ways. German scientists divulge statistics proving that children living close to nuclear power stations are 5 times as likely to develop leukaemia, and in the same fortnight the UK announces its intention to invest in expanding its nuclear fleet against scientific advice.
Are we ever going to understand that our economic growth objectives are incompatible with the feel-good environmental goals our leaders like to green their image with?
We can all do our bit of course, and some of us do. But all too many people still do absolutely nothing. And among these "too many" are some of this world's major polluters. It is evident that what we need, at least in this planet's most developed countries, are clearer, more sensible and more stringent environmental guidelines and laws. For indeed, which excuse will we invoke the day we realise the damage cannot be reversed or mitigated?
Our governments have the information. They also have the technology - German climate expert Professor Latif is holds that installing solar panels across 200 km by 200 km in the Sahara would be enough to supply the entire planet with clean energy, for instance. So what is stopping them from taking action? Something as base as greed, as artificial as money?
Then we are indeed living another Dark Age, aren't we? We will be remembered by future generations as the Evil Ones, those who had the intelligence to foretell catastrophe and the instruments to avert it, but who deliberately - out of pure selfishness - chose to go on with business as usual.
It may sound a bit far-fetched to compare my home country, Malta, to Femi Kuti's, Nigeria, when it comes to politics and corruption. Yet corruption has wormed its way into practically every aspect of life on the isle of honey. This earned us a 33rd-place ranking on the 2007 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
“Tuve por primera vez la intuición falaz de que el pasado no es un lugar estable sino cambiante, permanentement alterado por el futuro, y de que por tanto nada de lo acontecido es irreversible.” - Javier Cercas, La Velocidad de la luz
Bienvenue!
I must admit that until today I had always resisted the idea of having a blog, mostly because I tended to see blogs as virtual 'diaries', which was something I could not picture myself having. However, I gradually realised that I did enjoy reading both friends' and strangers' blogs, whether it was to check out what my kiwi friends down under were up to or learn more about a specific topic, skim through photos or discover new comic strips by burgeoning artists. I also realised that I had started compiling press reviews and sending out articles to friends who shared my interests and concerns, spontaneously and at times invasively, I suppose. So it eventually dawned on me that rather than go on littering my already-cluttered flat with newspaper clippings and your inboxes with spam, I might as well gather all the news items, articles and photos that capture my attention into one virtual bundle and leave it up to you to read me or ignore me as you please. It's just ... tidier! I do not quite know what form this blog is going to take, or whether it will take any form at all for that matter, but I guess that like most things in life, it will depend on curiosity. Mine and yours.
“You androids,” Rick said, “don't exactly cover for each other in times of stress.” Garland snapped, “I think you're right; it would seem we lack a specific talent you humans possess. I believe it's called empathy.” - Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
