Jilin Chemical Catastrophe

The chemical plant explosion in Jilin that has loosed an 80km slick of carcinogenic benzyne into the Songhua river will soon reach the Amur river in Russia and result in the vast contamination of the rivers waters.
Russians are preparing for the emergency situation and to cut off the supply of drinking water as soon as the slick reaches them.


Only well water is potable at this stage and this seems to be largely accessible to corporate interests (McCains french fries need to keep the chinese KFC consumers happy) while the populations of tens of millions are scrambling to aquire adequate supplies of bottled water.




What I desperately want to know is this:



What's being done to clean up this spill and how has it already affected the ecosystem of the Amur and its tributaries???



Have any readers found any mention of the consequences of this spill (other than that of drinking water)?

Starved, tortured prisoners found in Iraqi cell

While the US is busy admitting to yesterday's news , today we hear of detainees who've had their skin peeled off.

The deputy interior minister was more explicit, saying he was stunned by the prisoners' treatment.


"I've never seen such a situation like this during the past two years in Baghdad; this is the worst," Hussein Kamal told CNN.


"I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralysed and some had their skin peeled off various parts of their bodies."

Depleted Uranium use = Nuclear War

A must read interview...



with Leuren Moret (a geoscientist whose credentials are listed at the top of the interview).





Here are just a few excerpts:

In April of 2003, the World Health Organization said they expect global cancer rates to increase 50 percent by the year 2020.

ICONOCLAST: What can soldiers expect when they come home?



MORET: If they were in Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they’re coming home with rectal cancer from sitting on ammunition boxes. The young women are reporting terrible problems with endometriosis. That’s the lining of the uterus malfunctioning, and they just bleed and bleed and bleed. Some of them have uterine cancer — 18 and 19 and 20 year olds.

ICONOCLAST: Does exposure to depleted uranium effect their psychological background when they come home?



MORET: Depleted uranium are these particles that form at very high temperatures. They are uranium oxides that are insoluble. They are at least 100 times smaller than a white blood cell, so when the soldiers breathe, they inhale them. The particles go through the nose, go through the olfactory and into the brain, and it messes up their cognitive abilities, thought processes.
It damages their mood-control mechanism in the brain. Four soldiers at Fort Bragg came back from Afghanistan, and within two months, those four had murdered their wives.

I could keep quoting, but it's really worth reading the entire interview.


Another bunch of information that the general public (including me!) would prefer to believe is not part of our present reality.



Sad news for the Planet.







Thanks to Blondsense where I picked this up.






Also posted at Pourquoi Pas.

Remembrance Day...for everyone...

Remembrance day will be upon us tomorrow and there is so much strife in our present day that I think many of us will find little time to give a moment's consideration to all those individuals who have fought for the rights of their people.


It is not only our organized military men and women serving in war-time (past & present) who deserve remembrance.


Many people around the world have made personal sacrifices and Ken Saro-Wiwa's story is but one of countless stories from around the world of the ultimate sacrifice being paid by non-violent protesters fighting against corporate and governmental sidelining of the interests of the people:



Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (October 10, 1941 - November 10, 1995) was a Nigerian author, television producer and environmental activist.

The Ogoni people of the Niger Delta are still as confident, proud and strong as Ken Saro-Wiwa left them 10 years ago but they have little to smile about on the anniversary of his tragic death.


Their youths roam idly about their peaceful oil-rich land with no hope of employment, and their schools and hospitals are but a shambles.


~ full article

In 1990, Saro-Wiwa founded MOSOP, to advocate for the rights of the Ogoni people. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, written by MOSOP, set out the movement's demands, including increased autonomy for the Ogoni people, a fair share of the proceeds of oil extraction, and remediation of environmental damage to Ogoni lands. In 1992, Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned for several months, without trial, by the Nigerian military government.


In January 1993, MOSOP organised peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people - more than half of the Ogoni population - through four Ogoni centres, drawing international attention to his people's plight. The same year, Shell ceased operations in the Ogoni region.


Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993, but was released after a month. In May 1994, he was arrested and accused of incitement to murder following the deaths of four Ogoni elders, believed to be sympathetic to the military. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal. The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations.


~Ken Saro-Wiwa

US used chemical weapons in Fallujah

This is the sort of behaviour that would justify outrage so otherwise misplaced and vainly held aloft as though a golden calf.


This is the sort of behaviour that people will be called to answer for.

This is unforgivable behaviour that has no valid excuse.


This is making enemies in the world.

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

Generosity of Spirit

A 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot in the head and chest this week by Israeli soldiers died of his wounds on Saturday, Palestinian officials said. His father said his family had decided to donate the boy's organs to Israeli children who needed them.

"We want to send a message of peace to Israeli society, to the Defense Ministry and the Israeli parliament," he said. Israeli forces "killed my son who was healthy and we want to give his organs to those who need them."

Americans & Canadians: please help TODAY

I'm sharing an email alert I received today (along with many others) and I'm asking humbly for your help:

Hello.


Sorry to bother you but times are desperate for the Refuge and if we can all send the information below to anyone we know in the U.S., plus other Canadians so they can send it to their contacts in the U.S. too, we could really help.


Also, please take the time to send a new letter through www.beingcaribou.com asking the PM to stand up to his strong statements to "pull out all the stops to ensure the integrity of the calving grounds".


The time may have come for him to figure out what those stops will be, and start pulling. Thanks for your help. We still believe that together we can stop this from happening, and that it's only over when the last person who cares, gives up. So please don't give up. We need your help.


Sincerely, Being Caribou Arctic Drilling Proposal on Senate Floor Drilling in the Arctic Refuge will be under debate today on the floor of the US Senate (Wednesday, November 2) while the Senate is debating the overall Budget Reconciliation bill. It is possible Arctic champion Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will again offer an amendment to remove the Arctic drilling provision from the budget reconciliation bill. Debate is expected to go all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday. Drilling in America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has no place in the federal budget reconciliation bill.


This proposal has nothing to do with lowering gas prices. According the Government’s own Department of Energy, drilling in the Refuge will lower gas prices by only a penny per gallon 20 years from now. This proposal has nothing to do with reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The Department of Energy estimates that even when the Arctic Refuge is at peak production, our country will still be importing 66% - a whopping two thirds of all of our oil.


Drilling in America’s Arctic Refuge has nothing to do with the budget – it is a backdoor effort to ram an unpopular proposal through the Senate, sidestepping the usual process of open debate. The American people have made it clear that they want the Arctic Refuge protected. There are some places that are too special to ruin with oil drilling, and America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of them. WE NEED AMERICANS TO CALL THEIR SENATOR NOW!!


Please take a moment and call your Senator – tell them to please protect America’s Arctic Refuge and vote against the budget reconciliation bill.


Every Senator is important, but it is critical that the following swing Senators hear from all U.S. residents:
Snowe (R-ME) • Collins (R-ME) • McCain (R-AZ) • Smith (R-OR) • Coleman (R-MN) • Dewine (R-OH) • Chafee (R-RI) Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121


To send an email, click here


If this bill passes the Senate, we will still have a chance to stop it in the House, and indications are looking better all the time that the House will not accept a budget with Arctic in it. But if we can stop it in the Senate, we don't have to worry about the House - please call your Senator today!


If you're not already a member, join the movement to protect Alaska's wild places. Visit www.alaskawild.org <http://www.alaskawild.org/> and click on the bear!


erica heuer publicist,
being caribou
p. 867.393.4440
seven cassino street whitehorse, yt

Lost & Forgotten?

The CIA's counting on it:

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.

Now the countries who are aggin it will have to force the outing of the countries who are fir it so they can take their lumps.

The reports all say eastern Europe but I'm suspicious of democracy inviting itself to stay in places like Kyrgystan where the public's never even heard of the place, let alone what they might be doing there.