Soul Sundays ...
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Friday, 22 February 2008
Food for thought
Talking Heads : Nothing but flowers
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.
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.
Monday, 18 February 2008
El orden criminal del mundo
Papageno: My child, what should we say now?
Pamina: The truth. That's what we will say.
Mozart - The Magic Flute
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Interesting exhibition at FOAM, Amsterdam
I highly recommend a visit to Amsterdam's Photography Museum to take a look at Taryn Simon's portfolio "An American Index of the Hidden and the Unfamiliar". (Above: One example of hidden, unfamiliar exhibits; but no worries, not all photos are as depressing as this one! Ooops!)Also on show at FOAM: a great collection of Weegee photos.
Maltese elections 2008
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.
Stop illegal hunting and trapping in Malta!
Today three cars belonging to BirdLife Malta volunteers were torched by unknown individuals. Since Malta joined the European Union in 2004, the government has continued to allow the infringement of EU law aimed at the conservation of wild birds and their habitat. The Maltese government has allowed the spring hunting and trapping of Turtle Dove and Quail in direct violation of the EU law and hunters have used this as a blanket to kill protected species.Spring hunting and trapping is expressly forbidden by the Birds Directive. Moreover, trapping is not allowed in the EU at any time of the year. Trapping using clap nets is banned throughout the EU due to the fact that it is a very effective trapping method (using live decoys) that can catch large quantities of birds. Malta does not meet the condition of Art.9 (1) c of “strictly supervised conditions” (i.e. there are no systems in place to limit and supervise the number of birds killed, as well as methods, time and place of the activity). Moreover there are a mere 24 ALE officers in Malta and 3 officers in Gozo to control the activities of more than 16,000 hunters and trappers. Nor does Malta meet the condition of Art.9 (1) c of “judicious use” (the hunted species – Turtle Dove and Quail - have declining or depleted populations and unfavourable conservation status).
In May 2007 Malta's largest afforestation project (Foresta 2000) site was vandalized. About 3,000 trees were destroyed, as well as a rubble wall built by the project partners (BirdLife and Din l-Art Helwa together with PARC, the afforestation department of the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment). The cost of this act of vandalism was estimated to be tens of thousands of Maltese Liri.
In October 2007, the European Commission sent Malta its final written warning, ‘a reasoned opinion’, calling on the Maltese government to address this anomaly. The Maltese government replied to the Commission in January, one month after the deadline. However, the reply was not deemed satisfactory by the Commission. As a result the Commission decided to take Malta before the European Court of Justice on January 31, 2008. A most welcome decision. But as election fever in Malta builds up, one cannot help but wonder whether anything will ever change in a country where the two-party system has rendered the political spectrum ideologically monochromatic.
Friday, 15 February 2008
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