Little Myanmar in Delhi
5 Aug 2007, 0342 hrs IST,Meenakshi Kumar,TNN

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In a Punjabi-dominated neighbourhood, their pale Mongoloid looks set them apart. Yet the refugees from Myanmar have been living here for close to two decades now. The labyrinthine lanes and unauthorised colonies in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri house the 1,800-odd refugees, most of whom live in dingy one-room tenements. Work is irregular and the money they earn is a pittance. It’s a nightmarish existence.

BETTER FUTURE?
The future for some, however, may soon change. With many of them packing their bags to resettle in Australia, life suddenly seems better. Aung San Lin is one such refugee who can now hope for a better future for his children. One of the early settlers who came here in ’88, immediately after the army crackdown on students associated with the August 8, 1988 democracy uprising in Myanmar, Lin is looking forward to his new home in Australia. Of course, he has no idea how life will eventually turn out. But he is optimistic. "At least, my children will get a decent education and we will have access to medical facilities. Also, I hope to get a job. It had become difficult to eke out a living after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stopped the subsistence allowance," he says. Lin worked as a chef in an institution till last year but was cheated of his money. Since then he has been doing odd jobs, none of which ensure a steady flow of income. The uncertainty of the future scares him.

The North Pole is Ours, Not Russia's
By Cliff Kincaid | August 4, 2007

Rather than rely on U.S. military might, including Navy and Coast Guard ships, in order to safeguard U.S. rights in the Arctic, the State Department wants to depend on a 21-member U.N. commission dominated by countries who cannot be counted on to defend our interests.

The sensational headlines say, “Russian Arctic Team Reaches North Pole.” But the U.S. was there first―back in the early 1900s. America, not Russia, has a valid claim to the North Pole.

The controversy is not about a block of ice. Because arctic sea ice is melting, opening up new passageways for ships, there is an opportunity to explore for natural resources absolutely vital to the U.S. economy. Exploiting the seabed for oil and gas and other resources could help free us from dependence on foreign nations.

House Approves Foreign Wiretap Bill
By: CHARLES BABINGTON (Sun, Aug/05/2007)

WASHINGTON - The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States.

The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate's approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature.

Late Saturday, Bush said, "The Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, has assured me that this bill gives him what he needs to continue to protect the country, and therefore I will sign this legislation as soon as it gets to my desk."

Stocks tumbled yesterday on fears that the worsening ills in the mortgage and debt markets could soon take a significant toll on consumers, businesses and the overall economy.

The latest decline capped a volatile two weeks on Wall Street in which the stock market has swung wildly from day to day, reflecting rising uncertainty about the outlook for markets and the risks plaguing the economy. The biggest moves lately have often occurred shortly before trading closed.

Indeed, the market dropped particularly sharply yesterday afternoon after investors were rattled by remarks by executives at Bear Stearns, the investment bank that has been heavily involved in mortgage securities. The firm’s assurances about its own financial position were overshadowed by bleak comments by its chief financial officer about the credit markets.

Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday approved $16 billion US in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and conservation efforts.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/08/04/energy-bill.html

A one-sentence provision buried in the Senate’s recently passed energy bill, inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, could make builders of new nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/washington/31nuclear.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Does this signal the waning power of the O&G industry? Or catering to Dick Cheney's notion of building some 400 nu-u-lar reactors (seeing as atomic energy is now "green")?

BC Mary at her best!
Saturday, July 28, 2007

How the transformed B.C. Rail began pouring oil into Burrard Inlet and how now-Kinder Morgan didn't know exactly where the old B.C. Gas pipeline was
.
Please scroll back to 4/5/07 on this web-site for a different slant on the disaster occurring on the shores of Burrard Inlet. Look for:
B.C. RAIL'S NEW 40-YEAR LEASE AGREEMENT WITH KINDER MORGAN.

Here's a quote: Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. is one of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America. KMP owns an interest in or operates approximately 26,000 miles of pipelines and approximately 150 terminals. Its pipelines transport more than two million barrels/day of gasoline and other petroleum products and up to seven billion cubic feet/day of natural gas, and its terminals handle over 90 million tons of coal and other bulk materials annually and have a liquids storage capacity of about 70 million barrels for petroleum products and chemicals. KMP is also the leading provider of CO(2) for enhanced oil recovery projects in North America.

Brent Jessop - Knowledge Driven Revolution.com August 1, 2007

Global warming activists, some dressed as scientists, have pretty much blamed every imaginable situation on carbon dioxide. From extreme cold to melting ice caps, from more droughts to more malaria, and ultimately the total destruction of life on earth, or should I say Earth.

Now there is no shortage of disconnects in logic, but it is always amusing when they really stretch a positive effect of more atmospheric carbon dioxide into something scary and bad.

From the CBC article In Depth: Poison Ivy:

The Geopolitics Of Global Warming: Russia, The North Pole And Peak Oil

The Coming Arctic Oil Rush Is Only One Way Global Climate Change Is Changing Global Power

Dan Shapley / News Editor

So Russia planted a titanium flag in the sea floor at the North Pole. Its citizens celebrated, spurred on by propaganda on state-owned media. Canada scoffed at its Arctic neighbor’s “15th Century” land grab tactics. It made front-page news around the world.

The Evil Empire overtones are unmistakable here in the states, with our old enemy using nuclear submarines in a race to the top of the world to make an early claim to supposed oil wealth buried there.

But the spectacle is only part of this story. The other part is dead serious.

By Rand Clifford

8/2/07

Prohibition of cannabis hemp was a mugging, a twisted and diabolical assault on the rights, health and well-being of Americans unparalleled in our history for sheer scope of lasting impact. Never has brazen self interest cost so many people so much for so long. And the number of entrenched industries with profits threatened by hemp have greatly multiplied in number, and political influence.

You might say the assault was officially set in motion by BULLETIN No. 404, released by the United States Department of Agriculture on October 14, 1916, announcing the superiority of using hemp hurds for making paper of highest quality—and cheaply, once mechanization reduced the labor intensity of hemp harvesting. William Randolph Hearst knew the machinery might be at least 10 years away, knew that’s how much time he had to make sure hemp paper did not crush his paper-making empire. He got right to work.

The common historical roots of propaganda and psychology illustrate the use of social psychology to manipulate perception and sell the concept of vulnerability - not to mention, the need for Continental Integration (!) - to the people. As Lex Luthor put it in the movie Superman IV, “The more fear you make, the more loot you take.”

Tearing the Veil: Mass Media Misdirection, Manipulation, and Mythology - Part Two

http://tehowe.blogspot.com/2007/08/tearing-veil-mass-media-misdirection.html