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GAIA AND HOMOSAPIENS

***** The Richard Dimbleby Lecture by HRH Prince Charles, titled “Facing the Future”
St James’s Palace State Apartments, London, 7th July 2009 - An Exceptional In-Depth Holistic Call to Wake Up and Act Before It Is Too Late
- Video ^

NEW | US | Video Film on Climate Change / Global Warming - Surviving the Dust Bowl
It Happened Before, It Could Happen Again | This Is What It Was Like. - Your HS Editor's Experience of the Dust Bowl on the New Mexico Plains in the 1930s.
- THE AMERICAN 'SAHARA' - Click here and wait for the download.
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Imaging Life

Ireland | Irish church and police covered up child sex abuse, says report
Devastating report on abuse of children by clergy from 1975 to 2004 accuses church and Garda of colluding to cover up scandal.
The Guaedian - By Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent - Thursday, November 26, 2009
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US | Thanksgiving Day: The Pilgrims were a surprisingly worldly, tolerant lot
Christian Science Monitor - By Robert Marquand | Staff writer - November 25, 2009
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Leiden, The Netherlands - The Pilgrims of the first American Thanksgiving in 1621 were unusually devout – even by Puritan standards. They crossed the ocean on a conviction that "the Lord has more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word," as pastor John Robinson said before they sailed from the Netherlands.

Yet the Pilgrim band that braved the Mayflower and shared deer and turkey with native Americans were also some of the most cosmopolitan and tolerant among the Puritan groups willing to brave the wilds of a new world. Before going to Plymouth, the Mayflower group lived 11 years in the Dutch city of Leiden. Those years of exile in Leiden, where the Pilgrims worked, worshipped, and debated – amid hefty clashes of civilizations and belief in Europe – profoundly influenced their sensibilities in ways that have not been widely recognized.

The Leiden Pilgrims – unlike ihe British Puritans who wanted to turn Massachusetts into a theocracy – sharply advocated church-state separation. They heretically believed that women should be allowed to speak in church. They were far more tolerant of other faiths and open to the idea that their theology, like all human dogma, might contain errors.

Pilgrim experiences "in the cosmopolitan Netherlands are a reason they are less rigid or dogmatic in their views about what people must and must not do," argues Jeremy Bangs, curator of the American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden and author of "Strangers and Pilgrims, Travellers and Sojourners: Leiden and the Foundations of Plymouth Plantation," a 900-page reappraisal published this year on the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims' arrival in Leiden.

"The pilgrims didn't have witchcraft hysteria, they didn't kill Quakers. These are big differences!" notes Mr. Bangs, a former curator of Plimoth Plantation whose work draws heavily from untapped Dutch and New England archives. "Pilgrim leaders were less prone to persecute…. The possibility that others may be right and they may be wrong is something influenced by their time living in an extraordinary community of other exiles in Holland."

Breaking News Alert

Amazon rainforest summit fizzles
Al Jazeera - November 27. 2009
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Canada | Scientists target Canada over climate change policies
The Guardian - By Damian Carrington - Thursday, November 26, 2009
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Prominent campaigners, politicians and scientists have called for Canada to be suspended from the Commonwealth over its climate change policies.

The coalition's demand came before this weekend's Commonwealth heads of government summit in Trinidad and Tobago, at which global warming will top the agenda, and next month's UN climate conference in Copenhagen. Despite criticism of Canada's environmental policies, the prime minister, Stephen Harper, is to attend the Copenhagen summit. His spokesman said today: "We will be attending the Copenhagen meeting … a critical mass of world leaders will be attending."

Iran | Iranian authorities seize Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's medal
The Guardian - Associated Press in Oslo - Thursday, November 26, 2009
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Iranian authorities have confiscated Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's medal, the Norwegian government said today. It said Ebadi's medal was seized "within the last week or so" from a safe-deposit box in Iran along with other personal effects. Ebadi, a human rights lawyer, won the Nobel peace prize in 2003 for her efforts in promoting democracy. She has long faced harassment from the Iranian authorities for her activities – including a raid on her office last year in which files were confiscated.

UK | Gordon Brown backs US general's Afghanistan strategy
PM to speak in favour of 'McChrystalesque' military and political push, ahead of Commonwealth meeting.
The Guardian - By Nicholas Watt, chief political corrrespondent - Friday, November 27, 2009
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US | Barack Obama ready to offer target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions
Obama administration officials have been consulting international negotiators and key players on Capitol Hill about signing up to a provisional target in Copenhagen.
The Observer - By Suzanne Goldenberg, Washington - November 22, 2009
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The Afghanistani and Iraqi Quagmire

UK | Iraq inquiry - another whitewash?
Al Jazeera - By Jacqueline Head - November 25, 2009
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The opening of the official inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war began with a promise on Tuesday.Britain's most wide-ranging inquiry into the Iraq war is under way - but in a country where two previous inquiries were branded little more than "establishment whitewash" - is it likely the latest examination will satisfy the public?

John Chilcot, the former civil servant heading the investigation, pledged that his committee would be "thorough, impartial, objective and fair" in its examination of the six-year conflict. Along with four other panel members, he has been tasked with examining the reasons Britain entered the war, the equipment and training of forces in Iraq, and the foreign policy and military lessons that can be used by future governments. Chilcot has insisted that there will be no cover-up and institutions or individuals will face criticism if it is deserved.

But scepticism remains high among a public left disappointed by the two previous inquiries looking at aspects of the conflict.

Video | Hundreds 'deserting' Afghan Taliban
Al Jazeera- November 26, 2009
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International

Canada | Toronto Humane Society officials arrested, face animal-cruelty charges
The Globe and Mail - By Kate Hammer - November 27, 2009
Shelter's president, chief veterinarian and three others face criminal charges after Globe and Mail investigation uncovered widespread problems; board of directors also charged with provincial offence of cruelty to animals.
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Sri Lanka vows to free 130,000 Tamil refugees
Colombo government bows to international pressure to close internment camps that have held civilians since end of civil war with Tamil Tigers.
The Observer - By Gethin Chamberlain in Delhi - Sunday - November 22, 2009
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Turkey | Turkish Armenians hope for a new era
With news of growing rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey, one community that has been watching this process with a mixture of both hope and trepidation is the Armenian community of Istanbul.
Al Jazeera - November 26, 2009
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United States Government

Will heads roll in Pentagon probe of Fort Hood shootings?
The Pentagon review will recommend disciplinary action if it finds individuals failed to do their job in the run up to Fort Hood shootings, officials say.
The Christian Science Monitor - By Gordon Lubold, Staff writer - Novembwe 25, 2009
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The Citizens / Civil Organizations / Activism

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"All suffering is caused by an obstacle in the path of a force. See that you are not your own obstacle." - Elbert Hubbard

Topical Sections

The Arts and Culture

Leonard Cohen | "First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin" | Music Video
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UK | Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard valued at £3.3m
Proceeds of sale of 1,800 gold, silver and jewelled objects to be split between amateur metal detectorist and farmer.
The Guardian - By Maev Kennedy - Thursday, November 26, 2009
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The largest and arguably most beautiful hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found in Britain has been valued at nearly £3.3m by a panel of experts, a reward that will be shared between the amateur metal detectorist who found it and the Staffordshire farmer in whose pasture it lay hidden for 1,300 years.

Communities and Species

"Produce great people - the rest follows." - Epigram that graces the front door of the Roycroft Inn

Corporate "Crooks"

"The manner in which a man lies about a fact may be more interesting than the fact itself. - Elbert Hubbard

Corporate Crime and Government - The Linkage

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
--- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-Nov-21, in a letter to Colonel E. Mandell House

Economy and Finance

Bloomberg Economic News
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Bloomberg Current Worldwide Financial News
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Global | Fears of double-dip recession grow as Dubai crashes
Debt crisis in millionaires' playground could herald new phase in global financial meltdown.
The Guardian - By Larry Elliott and Heather Stewart - Thursday, November 26, 2009
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Energy

Designs for new UK nuclear reactors are unsafe, claims watchdog
Major setback for energy plans as report finds flaws in US and French models.
The Guardian - By Terry Macalister - Friday, November 27, 2009
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Environment and Sustainability

UK | Editorial | In praise of… planting trees
The Guardian - Friday, November 27, 2009
- LINK

Article is complete here
There is hope that next month's Copenhagen climate conference will reach agreement on deforestation, slowing the chainsaw massacre of the rainforests. But the issue is not just one for the developing world. The fact that Britain cut down most of its woodland centuries ago is a reason for more action here, not less. A scientific study for the Forestry Commission, published on Wednesday, called for the mass planting of trees as a reliable and cheap way of soaking up carbon dioxide. If Britain planted 23,200 hectares of woodland a year for the next 40 years, this country's forests could soak up 10% of predicted emissions. That might sound like a lot of trees, but even at this rate woodland would cover only 16% of the land, far below the European average. The way this is done matters: no one wants to see a repeat of the endless dark lines of Sitka spruce which harmed the spirit of Ennerdale, in the Lake District, or drained the life from the peat soil of the Flow Country in Caithness. The model is the National Forest, which has led to the planting of a million trees in the east Midlands, encouraging small patches of new woodland, and joining up surviving stands of trees. Yesterday's report suggests climate change would allow different species to grow: the Pyrenean oak, with its dark evergreen leaves, the loblolly pine, which grows in the American south, or the drooping Lebanon cedar. There is room for the oak, the ash and the alder too. One answer to climate change sits under the greenwood tree.

Honduras | Miracle in the Mangrove Forest
IPS News - By Thelma Mejía* - November 27, 2009
The beating sun in southern Honduras doesn't stop a group of women from throwing themselves into the task of protecting and recuperating a mangrove forest on the Pacific coast.
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GUAPINOL, Honduras - The area around the village of Guapinol, located in Marcovia municipality in the southern department of Choluteca, naturally serves as refuge for birds and many marine and coastal species. It is located in the stretch of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor that runs through Honduras, part of a chain of ecosystems that extends from southern Mexico through the seven countries of Central America.

Guapinol's biodiversity is why it is a protected site inside the 69,711 hectares that make up the Honduran portion of the Gulf of Fonseca, a marine border shared with Nicaragua and El Salvador. The wetlands system of southern Honduras is included in the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (signed in 1971, in force since 1975), and in it, several species of mangrove are predominant.

But these wetlands are in danger due to the deterioration of the mangrove forests and the chemical waste from sugarcane and shrimp farming. This has prompted the impoverished residents of Guapinol to try to save the mangroves and preserve the marine resources on which local residents have long depended for a living. With other organised groups from Guapinol, Saavedra participated in a clean-up and recycling effort along a 15 km stretch of the coast.

"We want to show people that we can't live surrounded by garbage. We are promoting environmental training because if we don't take care of our resources and our homes, the sea is going to eat up the community with its big waves," said a concerned Isabel Quiroz, promoter of the women's group El Jordán. The 22 women ages 19 to 45 in El Jordán serve as an example of determination and dignity. Two years ago they began to work with their own hands to recuperate 15 hectares of mangroves.

"We have reforested and recovered species like the titi shrimp, and we cultivated the black ark mollusc and the mangrove mussel," Wendy Reyes, 22, the new president of El Jordán, told Tierramérica.

The women of El Jordán and the residents of Brisas del Sur and El Venado, two Guapinol neighbourhoods, have the support of the Small Grants Programme (SGP) of the Global Environment Facility, coordinated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). "Before, when we used to swim across to clean up the mangrove forest, the people said, 'There go the madwomen of El Jordán!' But now that the SGP donated a motorboat and helped us build an office for our cooperative, people see us and say, 'Look at those women, how they have excelled'," says Reyes with pride.

Global warming and Climate Change at Community Level - Fighting Back

Global | Angry Greenhouse Gas Victims Demand Action
IPS News - By Paul Virgo - November 28, 2009
- LINK ^

VITERBO, Italy - ‘Angry’ is not the adjective that comes to mind when you first meet Nelly Damaris Chepkoskei. The immaculately dressed 53-year-old Kenyan is generous with her time and with the smiles that light up her beautiful face and never misses a chance to crack a joke before punctuating it with hearty chuckles.

But the rage wells up when she speaks about how her life as a farmer in the Kericho District of Western Kenya has changed over the last 20 years.

She is angry because deficient rainfall has slashed the yields of her once-plentiful crops. She is angry because she is struggling to provide for her family. And, above all, she is angry because she believes that her troubles are due to climate change caused by rich nations burning carbon to fuel lifestyles that, in relation to hers, are lavish. "It used to be a high yield area. There used to be rain throughout the year. But now the rains can fail up until November. Food production is down by three-quarters," she told IPS at the ‘Greenaccord’ conference in the Italian city of Viterbo, near Rome.

"We have tea as a cash crop, maize for food and sometimes sell the surplus, (as well as) beans and vegetables. We used to have so many heads of cattle but now the grass has dried up and so we can only keep two or three for good milk production. "These days we have to go a very long distance for water. The little streams have dried up completely. It’s becoming almost impossible to maintain families. I can no longer even maintain my mother. I can no longer maintain my in-laws. I can only afford to feed my eight children. If I fall sick I cannot afford to go to hospital. Yes, it makes us angry."

Nelly is among 10 people the WWF environmental organisation has brought to Greenaccord from countries like Australia, Guatemala, Mongolia and India to testify how climate change is devastating their lives and call on world leaders to take action at next month’s United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen.

US | 72 percent of Americans say it’s real, poll finds
Amid all the controversy about the hacked e-mails of climate scientists comes an ABC-Washington Post poll that says a majority of Americans believe that global warming is happening and that a cap on greenhouse gases should be imposed nationally.
Christian Science Monitor - By Judy Lowe - November 25, 2009
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Canada | Grassroots Activism | Town Council targets green house gas emissions
Nelson, BC - Co-Host Community of Homosapins.ki shows up national leaders.
Nelson Star - By Sam van Sochie - November 25, 2009
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Fiona Galbraith, a contractor hired by the city to produce Nelson’s Carbon Action Plan, presented the details of the plan to council at a public meeting on Nov. 23. She said by following the plan the city would be able to reduce its carbon emissions by 20 per cent and could buy carbon offsets for the remaining 80 per cent to meet its commitment of being carbon neutral by 2012. “Many municipalities who signed on to be carbon neutral will just buy offsets because it’s cheaper than actually reducing emissions, but that’s not really the intent of the Climate Action Charter,” said Galbraith.

She said the goal to reduce emissions by 20 per cent in the next three years was quite ambitious. Indeed, its the same amount that Quebec is committing to cut province-wide by 2020 — an announcement that made national news this week. “The fact we’re doing this in a little place like Nelson is going to make us an example for the country to model,” said Galbraith.

Canada | Nelson, BC | Wildfires - Meeting targets risk reduction in face of climate change
Nelson Star - By Sam Van Schie - September 30, 2009
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As another wildfire season comes to a close, Nelson can count itself lucky for avoiding any serious incidents in the interface zone of forests surrounding the city. But Nelson Fire Chief Simon Grypma would like to see the city relying on more than just luck. “We’re essentially an island sitting at the bottom of this sea of forests,” said Grypma.

Canada | East Kootenay, BC | New education program targeting local invasive plants
The East Kootenay Invasive Plant Council (EKIPC) is announces the creation of an Invasive Plant Education Program.
Invermere Valley Echo - November 3, 2009
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Invasive plants are typically non-native plant species that have been introduced to British Columbia. Since these plants are introduced, there are no insect predators or plant diseases to keep them under control, and so these invasive plants are outcompeting the native plants of B.C. Invasive plants negatively affect wildlife habitats, water systems, range and farm land as well as your own backyard. Introduced species are the second biggest threat to biodiversity worldwide (after habitat loss), and the longer we hesitate to control them the more expensive it will be to eradicate them. The first step is to learn which species are invasive in your area.

Humor in Humorless Political Times

"The man who says, " Money isn't everything," is probably in arrears to his landlady. - Elnert Hubbard

"Lovers: Unconscious comedians. - Elbert Hubbard

Kenya | TV puppet satire torments Kenyan elite
African version of "Spitting Image" has delighted big audiences by ridiculing corrupt politicians.
The Observer - by Xan Rice in Nairobi - Sunday, November 22, 2009
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A rapping president describes himself as "a real bad dude"; a prime minister and vice-president fight over lavatories; and a set of parliamentarians suffer from a brain disease called "corruptophaelia".

Welcome to Kenya, as seen and portrayed by Africa's version of Spitting Image, a daring puppet satire that is steadily pushing the boundaries of free expression and outraging the Nairobi elite. The XYZ Show, now preparing for its second series, proved a huge hit when it was launched in May. Its well-aimed barbs delighted a devoted and growing audience, while scandalising the politicians who are the show's main target.

Legal and Constitutional Issues

Bloomberg Index of Current Legal News
- LINK ^

Life Style

"Do not dump your woes upon people - keep the sad story of your life to yourself. Troubles grow by recounting them. - By Elbert Hubbard

"Fear not that your life should come to an end, but rather fear that it may never have a beginning. - Elbert Hubbard

"Don't be a passenger - get busy helping this craft along! - Elbert Hubbard

Journalism and Media\

"Who's making all that dam noise - Elbert Hubbard

A Voiceless world?
Al Jazeera - By Hamish Macdonald - November 26, 2009
- LINK ^

World news is covered by a very small number of news organisations and those organisations choose to only cover a small portion of the world's news. The 'Hum News' posting considers what it calls the "Geographic Gap" of the contemporary news environment. That is, world news is covered by a very small number of news organisations and those organisations choose to only cover a small portion of the world's news. I know it sounds like a riddle, but it is the reality of international news.

Although there is now a proliferation of news outlets, particularly online, there are in fact fewer reliable, independent organisations actually gathering the information and delivering it in a balanced fashion. Hum News points out that while there are 237 countries or territories in the world, the four biggest news organisations only report from 121 countries. This means there are 116 countries not covered. By Hum's calculations that is: "almost half the world, and 4 billion people".

Of course, it would be foolish for us to expect that news organisations cover every single thing that happens everywhere in the world. But just how important are the 116 countries not covered by the big news organisations? Well, according to Hum, 63 of these territories are among the G77 group of nations, the list of the world's poorest, or "developing" nations. So this begs the question, who is giving a voice to the world's voiceless?

Religion and Philosophies - The Crash with State

"Churches, like Department Stores, carry the wares that are asked for." - Elbert Hubbard

US | Celebrities lead charge against Scientology
Hollywood figures quit 'rip-off' church as Australian prime minister threatens parliamentary nquiry into its activities.
The Observer - By Peter Beaumont in London, Toni O'Loughlin in Sydney, and Paul Harris in New York - Sunday, November 22, 2009
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Rights and Freedom

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians."
--- Angelica Grimke - (1805-1879) Source: Anti-Slavery Examiner, September 1836

"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction."
--- Thomas Jefferson - (1743-1826), Source: in a letter to John Adams as quoted in John A. Stormer, None Dare Call it Treason (Florissant, MO: Liberty Bell Press, 1964)

Women's Rights - Bolivia | Women Clamour for Right to Land
IPS News - By Franz Chávez - November 27, 2009
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LA PAZ - Despite major advances in land distribution in Bolivia, single, widowed and undocumented women in this South American country have little chances of owning rural lands due to the patriarchal traditions and customary practices of indigenous peoples, in violation of international instruments and conventions protecting women’s rights.

The struggle of Bolivian women to own productive land is only just beginning, representatives from such diverse geographical areas as the Andean highlands, the Amazon jungle and the dry Chaco lowlands said to IPS at a women’s movement meeting in La Paz earlier this month.

The National Meeting on Women's Access to Land, organised by the non-governmental women’s group Coordinadora de la Mujer, brought together representatives of women peasant farmer movements to examine the legal framework that regulates land ownership and access, and demanded that the government eliminate the discriminating practices and red tape that stand in the way of women’s access to land titles.

Women’s access to land has long been recognised as a right by international instruments, and women’s equal access to property is specifically protected under Article 14 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted three decades ago this Dec. 18.

CEDAW is considered the most important and comprehensive international treaty on the human rights of women. Currently ratified by 185 countries, it is often referred to as the bill of rights for women.

Science & Technology

Bloomberg Index of Current Science News
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Social Issues

US | Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America
In the Midwestern heartland, police are encountering a new social evil: trafficking, often involving women and children who are forced to work as prostitutes or unpaid labour; and the outcomes can be brutal.
The Observe - By Paul Harris in Dayton, Ohio - Sunday, - November 22, 2009
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Violence - Civil and Governmental

German army chief quits over raid
General Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Germany's highest-ranking officer, has resigned after accusations that the army withheld information about an air raid in Afghanistan in which dozens of civilians died. In the days after the Afghan strike Germany denied there had been any civilian victims [EPA]
Al Jazeera - November 27, 2009
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Sound and Fury

Photography - US | Photos from the Book, Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America
- Slide Show / Audio

Hip Hop | Maestro Fresh Wes - Drop The Needle
- Video

Bouncing barefoot on the sidewalk
- Video

A Song for the Times - Bing Crosby (1932) “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime”
- Audio

The History of A Great Depression-Era Anthem For Our Time
- Audio/Text

Yip Harburg (1970)
- Audio

The Internet Press Room

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Music Video | Leonard Cohen | "Democracy Is Coming to the USA"
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