Saturday 23 January 2010

Royal Bank Of Scotland: Not In Our Name!

Seems the Royal Bank of Scotland has not only been squandering taxpayer money on bonuses. They've also been using it on destroying the environment!

It's time we took over the banks and break them up!

Monday 18 January 2010

Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.



After Sea Shepherd's "Ady Gil" disappeared beneath the waves following a collision with a Japanese whaler, one might think that environmentalists at sea had been delivered a decisive blow. Alas, for the nasty old whalers and other defilers of the ocean, there is more where that came from on the way.



Greenpeace has broken with tradition and commissioned a totally brand new ship to take over from it's flagship Rainbow Warrior II.

German and Polish shipyards will shortly start work on Greenpeace's £14m flagship, a mega-yacht that will become the third Rainbow Warrior next year. It will be one of the biggest yachts to have been commissioned in the last decade with, say the designers, a massive 1,300 sq metres of sail supported on two A-frame masts.



Back at Sea Shepherd a new ship, the Bob Barker, has already been launched to defend the whales (ironically it's a former whaling ship), and moves are afoot to raise more money for a bigger and better ship which will hopefully now replace the Ady Gil.

And another environmental ocean going group, Oceana, has plans to lease a third ocean going vessel.

All in all it's a bad day for illegal fishing, whaling and other assorted environmental crimes.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Their Last Chance Of Survival Is Our Last Chance Of Redemption


In our post Cold War world it is often difficult to imagine ways of life outside our own Western capitalist structure. Whilst many will point to cultural differences the world over, it is hard to find any modern nation which does not conform to our way of life to a greater or lesser extent (North Korea, I'll admit is one of the aberrations).

But there are still a few places on this planet whose exposure to our lifestyles is limited or, in some cases, non-existent. They still continue the traditions of their    (and our!) ancestors in tribal societies. You may think you've seen them on television, those plume feathered covered aborigines of various countries. But they are often tourist/television friendly versions of their uncontacted and isolated cousins.


Uncontacted tribe photographed on Brazil-Peru border



Our culture has destroyed, over the last few hundreds years, thousands of such societies through "missionary" work, spreading our diseases, and through plain and simple slaughter. And it is this slaughter that is still ongoing.

In the Americas, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea commercial interests on both corporate and individual not only threaten the places these tribes live but also their very lives as loggers, miners and farmers massacre tribes with near impunity.

We in the Western world have blood on our hands. We began this process many years ago and it's time we stood up and said "No more". It is time we accepted that, whilst it is too idealistic, and perhaps morally suspect, to isolate these tribal societies clinically and completely, we have a duty to protect them from others and allow them the freedom to choose whether they wish to participate in the modern world or live by their own ways. We owe it to them and we owe it to our collective conscience.

I'm planning on sending out some letters this coming week to various countries, as suggested by Survival International. Take a look at their website and see what you could do to help these people.

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist